One day he stopped breathing, just like that. It was a gray morning, dark clouds hovered around the village as if they had come together to pay their obeisance.

The old woman who came daily to clean the house, discovered his lifeless body under the neatly tucked mosquito net. There was a smile on his face, as if he was in deep slumber and seeing a vivid dream. His day clothes were folded and kept on a pile on the chair next to him. The house was in order and nothing seemed amiss. The woman not knowing what to do, who to call or whether to raise an alarm, quietly went about the house doing her duties one last time. As she washed the verandah, one last time, she realized the dark clouds were about to burst in the seams. After doing her duties, she lit a lamp and quietly left the house, giving it one last look.

On the thirteenth day, from a giant black tin box under her bed, she took out a dusty dairy. As she leafed through the dairy, she came across the recipe of toor daal, that she was looking for. This preparation was the man’s favourite. The recipe went like this:

1. Cooked toor dal (roughly two cups dal pressure cooked with enough water on high heat with a teaspoon of oil and turmeric powder for the first whistle and simmered thereafter for about 20-25 mins).

2. Mash the cooked dal along with a coarsely chopped tomato and a dollop of tamarind paste.

3. In a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, add oil. When hot, add few red chilies (to taste), a teaspoon each of mustard seeds, urad dal and a few curry leaves along with the dal mixture.

4. Coarsely ground few cloves of fat garlic, a teaspoon each of cumin and peppercorn in a mortar pestle and add it to the dal mixture, along with some salt.

5. Stir well and add asafoetida powder and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring well. Then reduce heat and let it simmer for a few minutes. Sprinkle with fresh coriander before serving.

She decided to cook it in his remembrance and serve it at the temple, hoping that he would be smiling from behind the clouds.