Roasted | Inktober Day 3

It was the first time. On a gloomy, rainy afternoon. The sky was blue, but not the bright blue like that crayon you chose to fill up the colour of sky on a drawing book. The kind of blue that threw you into an unknown realm of glum and sadness. The kind of blue which you learned was the colour of depression, when you grew up. Grey, dirty blue with measly clouds stud here and there in the great episode above. Rune looked up at the sky from the pond she was by, with all her relatives. There was a small, empty plot by the pond where tomatoes and tulsi grew and a battered old hut with a straw roof. Rune was 9 and she loved tomatoes. She loved all vegetables that grew in several other ponds that their family owned. Fresh produce was a festivity at their household. Sacks of potatoes, a sari full of drying chillies up on the roof, juicy carrots that she’d sometimes steal from her grandma’s kitchen, Rune had had them all. But that day, the house smelled different. And so did the pond. A fire rose right beside the waters, on the flat land. Her father sat in front of it. Surrounded by relatives all clad in white. Eyes puffy, lips pursed, the opposite of an otherwise festive gathering of near and dear ones. The priest was mouthing mantras out loud and he was the only one unaffected by the proceedings. Mechanically, he summoned her father to the bed of wooden logs that was stacked beside the ceremonial fire. At that exact moment, her mum tugged at Rune’s arm, grabbed her and hid her in an embrace which was more like shield. Face buried in her mother’s soft, suta sari, Rune smelled something. She knew it was thakuma they had come to bid the final farewell too. She knew she was supposed to be sad, but she couldn’t help it. As the heat emanated from nearby, and she realised what was happening, there arose an unfamiliar yet enticing smell.

Many years later as she visited Monami’s house for dinner, she recognised that smell again. The familiar richness of something being cooked to perfection.

Roasted, kakima had smiled as she served a generous portion of the mutton on to her plate.