LIFE SAVIOUR

God forbid if there is ever a bandh in Bombay( Mumbai )!Life practically goes out of the gear during a bandh.Its a dreadful thing.If there is anything that I fear most in Bombay,then its the 'Bandh'.Thankfully Bombay is too money minded to be observing bandhs like other states do frequently!Bandhs are not good for the economy with loss of crores in a single day.However,few months back it did declare a bandh.And hell it was!I came to know one day in advance that there would be a bandh the following day.Bandh for me usually means to starve,forced starving by the State infact as I live all alone ( poor me! )!

Being totally ( almost helplessly+pathetically ) dependent ( lazy me!) on the lunch-home to deliver my daily food,a bandh would mean an abrupt halt in the regular comfort food supply.A bandh would mean that the lunch home or any other eateries,restaurants would remain closed too.Oh!How I dreaded a bandh.But bandh it was going to be so I would better prepare for the same!Thus,I armed myself for the D-day.Maggie,Bread,Biscuits,Potato Chips and Popcorn,all ready I was prepared to face the monster called 'Bandh'.

Alas,I hated cooking to the core so maggie was the only thing I was prepared to cook.But,Oh!Damn,for first time I forgot to buy the other vegetables ( potato,tomato,cucumber,beet,capsicum ) required for a veg-sandwich.It was the bandh day already and it was getting quite frustrating now.How on earth did I forget the most important ingredients?I didnot want to borrow from my neighbour and look more foolish than I already felt.The maggie was already done by then.What remained though was pieces of bread!What to do with them?Aargh!I couldnot eat the maggie whole day or simply the bread butter.I had to do something,fast!

Then an idea suddenly struck me.I picked up the pieces of bread and buttered them both on the sides,sprinkled pepper on it and spread some tomato sauce over it.Then I took the maggie and began stuffing the bread with it.I covered it with the other pieces of bread and headed for the toaster to toast them.Once toased presto they were my maggie sandwiches!I made around six more such stuffed sandwiches.When I tasted them they tasted so 'maggish' ( if I can use that term ).Anyhow,those maggie sandwiches were my lunch and dinner for that whole day.And what a day it was!

Craziest bandh I ever had.Though I learnt a very important lesson that day,that necessity can make a person try and invent anything.Maggie sandwiches do not taste great,and it is not something I would ever recommend but they can be life saviours on a trying day such as a bandh.They were my life saviours!