An exotic Indonesian- Thai lunch with two dynamic women, divas in their own right, who spunk up energy that kindles your grey cells….What more can one ask for, says Manju Ramanan.

Wit, wisdom, the atrs, activism, two dynamic women for company – eating-out couldn’t have been better for a ‘conversation-starved’ journo like me, even if it meant waiting for over ten days for danseuse and activist Mallika Sarabhai to return home from a tour. Or stealing time off writer and columnist Esther David’s schedule that included her lectures, her next novel in the offing and a guest editorship with a newspaper’s anniversary issue, this meal was worth every morsel. A warm hug and a cheery “Kem Che,” (How are you?) between Mallika and Esther set the tone of the afternoon at Hotel Pride’s Bandhani restaurant. The name inspired from the resplendent bandhni – the tie and dye fabric that is popular in Gujarat and Rajasthan. The vibrant fabric occurs in the designer menu card as well as thematically through its diffused multi- coloured lights. Our table for three was set up in a quiet corner by the polite staff and once seated, the conversation between the Ahmedabad -bred women flowed eloquently in Gujarati and occasionally in English. Like old friends catching up, (the two had met years ago and Esther’s father, the late Reuben David found a great admirer in Mallika’s older brother Kartikeya Sarabhai), both women, in animated conversation recollected the last time they met. “Both of us are so busy with our lives and our interests that we hardly get time to chat up,” explains Mallika, turning to me. And now that they did, the table had more fun and excited conversation than it had food. The menu arrives and Mallika agrees to sample the luscious Maharani subz platter, an assortment of kababs, and loves the Til­e-sabz, Esther prefers the Tohfa-e-zameen (potato

kabab). She also relishes the Courgette Fritters with sweet corn cheese soup. For the main course, Executive Chef, Dibyendu Ghosh serves Esther the Saur Thumis – an assortment of winter vegetables, cherry tomatoes, American corn, mushroom with spices and cashewnuts while Mallika settles for the exotic sounding – Nam Phvik Kaeng Khow Wan Khai, the Red Thai curry with rice. Mallika is not too bothered about a full course meal unlike Esther who calls herself a ’sit­down-dinner’ person, who feels very uncomfortable if food ethics are disrespected. “I don’t like it if people start picking up the dishes when someone is already eating. I love to savour food over conversation and make it very special,” she says. Sharing a common angst at the Punjabification of the Gujarati thali and the generous dose of ‘gud’ to all cuisine served in Gujarat, the conversation wafts around food and cooking. Be it on ‘Crotikkas’ – as Esther calls them, actually soup crotouns, christened so by the Gujarati wedding food counters, or the ‘pijos’­roadside pizzas, she finds the chutneyfication of food and their reflections in regional language and English very interesting. “Where else would you see a Mercedes Benz parked on a roadside and people gorging on roadside eats,” she says. Mallika on the other hand prefers non- Gujarati food. “I love Kerala food as I love coconut and because each vegetable tastes different there. And if you are spoilt by amma’s kitchen that dishes out delectable South Indian varieties, you’d rather not eat out,” she says stating her partiality to Indonesian, Thai and South Indian food. But food’s not just fact but fiction too for Esther. “My forthcoming novel ‘Book of Rachel’ has a lot of Bene Israeli recipes that are no longer cooked these days. During the course of my research, I travelled to Konkan and discovered that many of these recipes were either dying,” she says voicing out her concern for dying arts including cooking. Mallika talks of a similar concern that she felt while documenting ikat weaves, some of which are dying, since the next generation is not keen to carry it further. “There has to be an initiative at the national or state level to protect rare dying arts,” she adds. Breaking into Gujarati, they also expressed concern about the Gujarati language. “Gujarati medium schools don’t mind teaching inferior Gujarati to their children. As a result the standard of the language is going down,” says Esther. The reason Mallika states this is because, even today in municipal schools, girl children (she has filmed it) cut vegetables for their teachers, and at times even mop floors in their homes instead of attending full class. “Women today must be cleansed off the guilt they carryon from one generation to another, if they don’t perform certain duties, stay away from their homes, their children,” says Mallika. For Esther who always called herself a sculptor, gender exists in its own sphere. “If you see the women in the slums, you know that they do much more work, be it raising kids, earning money or running homes, and all that needs to be respected,” she says. Mallika is off for another appointment and skips dessert. The Mango Darsan and the Omali arrive. While the latter is a Thai steamed coconut pudding that Esther loves, the former is a Chinese delicacy – a flat noodle deep fried and tossed in mango syrup served with vanilla ice cream. The drive to work after a sumptuous meal isn’t always pleasant. But if you have company of someone like Esther – a true empress of words and Mallika – the queen of performances, your grey cells are charged. Flashes of conversation race through my mind ­images of Mallika, when she said she doesn’t cook and that all the men in her life including her late father Vikram Sarabhai were very good cooks. Or Esther, who made us all laugh when she cited an incident of a friend who wanted to name her child ‘Hennie’ since it sounded very