When you ask Kalpana what is her most favourite dish, the first thing that comes to her mind are "
rasgollas". Then she remembers
Mohanlal''s wedding as a nightmare. Mohanlal reminds her of
rasgollas and rasgollas remind her of Mohanlal and the two are connected with the wedding.Mohanlal''s wedding day. Kalpana, her sister Urvasi and her father''s younger brother had all got invitations. They were all dressed and ready to go when Kalpana got this urgent craving to eat rasgollas. "I want rasgollas"she began to cry. Her uncle looked shamefully at his niece who was of the age to be married off. His policy was to fast from the previous day of a
marriage function to have a good meal the next day. "Shut up and let us go" he ordered. But Kalpana was not the one to let go. She wouldn''t put a step forward till she got what she had asked for. Finally her uncle bought a tin of rasgollas and handed it to her. "Here eat and finish it" he told her. Kalpana was happy.
She whispered to Urvasi sitting next to her." Do you want some?" "No, have it all yourself" came Urvasi''s reply.She ate all the rasgollas and the three boarded the train from Chennai to Thiruvanthapuram. That is when the problem started. She began to feel dizzy and one by one began to vomit the rasgollas she had eaten. All the way from Chennai to Thiruvanathapuram she threw up rasgollas and she was exhausted and sick by the time she reached for the function. From that day she has never touched a rasgolla and she began to have nightmares of the same.However she can never resist the delicious "Ambalapuzha pal payasam" and there are no limits to the quantity she intakes.
Kalpana was always fussy about food. For onam she always wanted food to be served for her first even before it was served for the legendary "Vaikkathappan". Before her marriage she was a pure vegetarian and would make fun of the other members of her family calling them ogres and cannibals. But after marriage she began to eat chicken and eats some selected varieties of fish too.She has always been fond of sweets and sugar. She even adds sugar to "sambar". Butter chicken and fried rice are other favourite dishes. She never touches fruits and hates pickles, pappad and curd.She boasts of how she loves to cook and how interesting it is but in fact the only dish she knows how to prepare is the "rasam".
Once under Kalpana''s leadership, all five children began to fast. Their need was that their mother should prepare "ladoos" and "mysore pav" at home. They were serious and none of them had anything to eat. Finally their mother decided to give it a try. She made ladoos. They were okay only they got powdered up and resembled "uppuma". Then she actually tried out the "mysore pav" too. That too was prepared but unfortunately it was so sticky that it wouldn''t come off the pan. Finally the whole thing was given to the crows and the five were forced to break their fast with "pazhamkanji".