A brownie can't be a prasad, not now nor ever

Last week, one small report tucked in a corner of a newspaper caught my eye. This was about brownies replacing laddoos in a mandir.

On offer at the Jaya Durga Peetham in Padappal, Chennai were brownies, burgers and salads sold as prasad for a price.

There was a birthday cake prasad available too for those celebrating their special day at the mandir (temple).

This prasad came from an automated kitchen with a "best before" date printed. Apparently there were lots of takers.

Now I have no way of verifying the news as I did not see all this my-self, nor did I get to taste this unusual (to say the least) prasad.

But the news piqued my interest.

I shared it on social media, and as it always is on social media, some people did not like the very idea, while others seemed to agree with it, citing the reasoning that evolution is the only way forward.

"As long as prasad is nutritious and without any artificial colourings, it is acceptable. The brownies look neatly packed and seem to have longer shelf life, are possibly made in more hygienic conditions too than handmade mithai..." someone wrote on the thread.

Point taken. But then what/who’s stopping anyone from making lad-doos and pedas and other traditional prasad with the same diktats?

What’s a "prasad" anyway? For me prasad is not just food, any food.

To pick up that (food) we go to a shop or a grocery store or a take away joint, don’t we?

Prasad is well... prasad. It signifies an intimate part of our being, our beliefs, our culture, our traditions.

It showcases, or is meant to showcase who we are, have been and should continue to be.

It keeps us connected to our roots, of which food is an important part.

And laddoos, barfis, pedas, panjiri and boondi are our traditional mithai, not brownies and burgers.

Some things are sacred, I feel. Prasad is definitely one of them. That’s why no one says no to prasad. Ever.

But even if you are inclined to discount all the above mentioned ra-tionale as just an emotional rant we can/must dispense with in order to stay in tune with the "times ", there’s another motivation I feel we must consider seriously.

We rarely make them at home, and if we edge out traditional foods from the festivals, which is already happening during Diwali (choco-lates instead of mithai) and mandirs too, they will be lost to the next generation.

Is that a risk we are willing to take? Imagine foods like sweet malai ladoo, modak, kalakand forever lost to our people!

For this reason alone, I say it is important to not let brownies and the like take over our mandir prasadalayas.

Healthy Indian prasad

No, this is not a misnomer. Who says our Indian traditional mithai and prasad cannot be healthy or nutritious. In fact, made the right way, they are a good food to partake in.

Take the famous laddoo of the Tirupati temple (Sri Venkateshwara Temple). It is made of besan, cashew nuts, cardamom, ghee, raisin — all good stuff in this recipe believed to be more than 300 years old.

Mata Vaishno Devi’s prasad is a mixture of moori (puffed rice), shred-ded coconut, sugar balls, and pieces of dried apple; again a healthy lot.

Lots of temples down south serve a simple rice pudding or payasam as a prasad.

Now I haven’t been to Sammed Shikharji Temple in Jharkhand, which one can reach after a climb of 21km, no less, but I am told that a re-freshing drink of jaggery, water, honey and spices called kadha is of-fered to the tired pilgrims so that they can regain their energy. Sensi-ble prasad that!

Similarly, research tells me that Dhandayuthapani Swami Temple, Tamil Nadu doles out a prasad made of five fruits, sugar candy and jaggery. 

Considered the oldest form of jam, earlier it was handmade but is now entirely machine-made.

Now this is the kind of progress and evolution I can understand and accept.

Also if doing something out of the box is the name of the game, then we could probably take a cue from Azhagar Kovil near Madurai that serves as prasadam crispy dosas, made from grains such as rice and pulses that locals bring as offerings to the temple.

How’s that for a change?

There’s nutrition there

Well, there are lots of Indian sweets that are not just delicious, but made with good for us ingredients too.

For example modak, a Ganesh Chaturthi special is made up of strained yogurt; puran poli has a lentil and jaggery filling; besan lad-doos and motichoor laddoos are both made from roasted chickpea flour balls; sandesh, rasagolla, kheer and kalakand made with dairy products are all good protein and calcium sources; and coconut buffi, pumpkin halwa, and gajar halwa are a good way of eating super healthy ingredients such as coconut, pumpkin and carrots respec-tively.

With these desserts, at least the basics are right, meaning the base ingredients are healthy, unlike say a brownie — usually made from nutritionally empty refined flour.

So I don’t really get the point.

Plus, can you feel any reverence, or a sense of connect and completion at the temple unless you eat a traditional prasad?

And isn’t that part of what we go to the temple for: to seek what and who we actually are? Think about it. Why rob the next generation of that emotion?

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