Vashi Yatra....एका केळीच्या पानाची वाशी यात्रा

My friend Anjali Koli, writes a wonderful blog called AnnaParabramha  .

She recently visited the Mejwani Maharashtrian Thali Festival at Four Points by Sheraton at Vashi Navi Mumbai, , curated by Saee Koranne-Khandekar, and posted a detailed review on her blog. Go read it !

In the early days of the Mejwani festival  I had posted a poem called Mejwani Times , describing the food.

The festival gets over today, the 15th of September 2015.

Perhaps, it is in the fitness of things, to post a poem on what the plantain leaf must be thinking after having come on this amazing Vashi Yatra. 

Like the "Kashi" variety, something aspired to by  everyone, and attempted with great reverence , and sometimes, a sense of gentle foreboding....

अनेक धान्यांच्या सानिध्यात धन्य होउन, बटाटे वालाच्या पालकत्वात अखंड रमून, सारात अभ्यंगस्नान करून, कोवळ्या शेवग्याच्या शेंगांच्या बाल लीला बघून , भरभरून नट्टा पट्टा करून भोजन्नाट्कातला मसालेदार प्रवेश सादर करून, टाळ्या घेणार्या वांग्यांची स्वाक्षरी घेउन, जणु काही मध्यंतरात चवी चवीने शेलाट्या कोशिंबीर व हीरो भज्ज्यांबरोबर चर्चा करून, गव्ह्ल्याची अमृती मधुर खीर, चमच्या चमच्यांनी चाखून, शेवटी गटकन पिते , आणि मसाले भाताशी झालेला कौतुकाचा स्पर्श आठवत वाशी यात्रेला आलेले केळीचे पान , एक दीर्घ सुस्कारा टाकून म्हणते "तृपतोस्मी ! आता मी जायला मोकळी .... आयुष्याचा शेवट किती गोड असतो ना…."

Totally smitten in brilliant grainy company, steeped in the sibling care of the Potato and Waal guardians, she immerses herself in imaginary tubs of fragrant Tomato saar. A never ending entertainment of teen Drumsticks playing peekaboo in the daal, and some hefty brinjals, with amazing masala makeup, making an spicy entry and giving her a licking smart autograph A short interval, cracking conversations with crisp koshimbir girls, and golden bhajjiya lads, and then a final sip and spooning of the Nectar of Ghavle down a parched spicy throat. She gulps it down, licking the last milk of human kindness, as the Masale Bhat awaits a final getting together with a farewell touch. The plantain leaf has just enjoyed  a successful Vashi Yatra. She remembers it all, satiated, and sighs deeply, resigning herself to a dignified end of life saying, "Only the lucky go away, with such a sweet satisfying end to their life ....!"