লক্ষণের শক্তিশেল

প্রথম দৃশ্য । রামের শিবির

রাম: কাল রাত্তিরে আমি একটা চমৎকার স্বপ্ন দেখেছি । দেখলুম কি, রাবণ ব্যাটা একটা লম্বা তালগাছে চড়ছে। চড়তে চড়তে হঠাৎ পা পিছলে একেবারে - পপাত চ, মমার চ !

জাম্বুবান: তবে হয়ত রাবণ ব্যাটা সত্যি সত্যিই মরেছে - রাজস্বপ্ন মিথ্যা হয় না।

সকলে: হয় না, হবে না - হতে পারে না।

রাম: আমি হনুমানকে বললুম, "যা ব্যাটাকে সমুদ্রে ফেলে দিয়ে আয়।" হনুমান এসে বললে কি, "ফেলবারও দরকার হল না - সে এক্কেবারে মরে গেছে।"

সকলে: বা বা ! - একদম মরে গেছে - ব্যস। আর চাই কি, খুব ফূর্তি কর !

[বাইরে গোলমাল]

ঐ দেখ রাবণের রথ দেখা যাচ্ছে - দেখেছিস ? ঐটা রাবণ, ঐ যে লাঠি কাঁধে --

সকলে: সে কি ! রাবণ ব্যাটা তবু মরেনি - ব্যাটার জান্ তো খুব কড়াৎ !

জাম্বুবান: এই হনুমান ব্যাটাই তো মাটি কললে - তখন রাবণকে সমুদ্রে ফেলে দিলেই গোল চুকে যেত - না, ব্যাটা আবার বিদ্যে জাহির করতে গেছে - "এক্কেবারে মরে গেছে"

বিভীষণ: চোর পালালে বুদ্ধি বাড়ে -

The initial and somewhat evident problem with a Bengali going to eat at a Bengali restaurant is that the chances of being surprised are considerably less. Rice-n-Curry, Flavors of Bengal which is located opposite Ruby Hall, a bit ahead of Vohuman Cafe, is a Bengali food joint. It doesn't fall into the pretentious chic and put on suaveness of Oh ! Calcutta. More like the no nonsense, good food at a reasonable price kind of joint. There was a time when South Calcutta used to be dotted with these kind of no-frills eat-outs. No more though. Sadly. There are two kinds of Bengali restaurants - the fancy kind where you get all sorts of food that takes time and patience to cook. And, then there's the kind where you get food that you have, at some point, eaten at home because someone had cooked it. Rice-n-Curry is the second kind.

We visited the place on Saturday at around 1200 hours. We were practically the first folks in. And, the usual discussion of "if this is the scene at this time during the weekend, will this place work out" ensued. The place has a bit of fun - there's a single person who attends to the orders, gets them from the kitchen and also attends to the phone (the place seems to do a brisk business of taking orders over the phone - that's interesting !)

We started off with Fish Orly. Those who fancy the same thing from Bijoligrill would be disappointed. The batter was a bit too inconsistent. But heh ! I hadn't had a decent Orly in a while and this got some good marks. Standard fare of luchi and chholar dal followed. The dal was a bit too sweet for me but Runa says that my argument of the chholar dal to require a bit of kick is unwarranted and plain wrong. The luchi was good enough to go with the Goalanda Mutton Curry (which comes with a large slice of potato for those who love their curries that way). Runa had Doi Maach (with a good portion of fish) along with some plain/steamed rice. In between there was a Mochaa Paaturi (which was eventually shared by Ramakrishna too). We ordered for a portion of the Paayesh, which was pretty decently made. Top marks there too.

When we had placed the orders for the starters, we woke up Ramakrishna to tear him away from the serious duties of the InPyCon CfP and he joined in to have a 'set meal' - the Murgi Bhoj. That had eggplant fried in batter, a curry, a dal, rice, the chicken and, aloo bhaja (that thinly shredded one). The meal is rounded off by chutney. By all means it looked to be a well arranged one with portions reasonable for a single person.

The test that remains is to check how they do Koshaa Maangsho. That's where things are going to be in the finicky zone.