The casualties of the first wave of Covid-19 were merely numbers for most of us until it struck a second time. Suddenly, these numbers turned into names, the names into acquaintances, and acquaintances into family members. That is when the reality of this pandemic hit us hard.
I come from an adventure sports background and have been successful in turning my passion into a profession. For me, the past few years have been about organising iconic adventure sports events such as the Arunachal Festival of Speed, Orange 4x4 Fury, Indian National Rally Championship, and the recently concluded Trans Arunachal Drive. These events take a lot of time, right from planning to coming up with proposals for the government and corporate sponsors and trying to convince them that they should contribute towards such events that truly should be deemed as nation-building. So, in essence, I have spent the better part of my life in Itanagar—the state capital—and its outdoors, for recce and execution of adventure projects. Because of this, I have spent less time with my family, which stay in a village called Dirang, located about eight-and-half-hours away from Itanagar.
Just before the lockdown was announced in our state, I was out on a recce for a winter sports project in the farthest corner of Arunachal Pradesh beyond Tawang. But in no time, I was caught by the sudden call to confinement. In hindsight, I thank God for this time since it helped me pause. Now that I look back, it was a time for deep introspection and family bonding.
Perhaps, it was the first time in years that I went into my kitchen. I realised I had almost lost touch with reality. What I often thought of as insignificant became an integral part of my life. Even the concept of being a provider for my family, which I believed in, was put in place. How much my family, my wife, and my children needed me to be near them became very clear.
So, there I was, entering my kitchen after ages. I belong to the Monpa tribe, one of the communities in Arunachal Pradesh, and we have a rich culinary repertoire. Our delicacies are known to die for. I was keen to try my hands at a few of the dishes I had not tasted in a while. Our obsession with food is best understood when you see us discussing the next spread while we are yet to digest our first meal. A good Monpa housewife will be able to whip out an entire menu of a small restaurant. Exotic food like buckwheat noodles, local red rice, eye-watering chili curry made with fermented Yak cheese and butter are all a part of our daily menu. Simplicity is the real hallmark of our cooking. In our traditional kitchen, once the dish is cooking over a fire, all I had to do was keep stirring the pot. Meanwhile, my wife would yell at the children to fetch ingredients from the main house to the traditional kitchen. And thank God that all the shops in the vicinity remained shut. It allowed us to try traditional food made of fresh ingredients straight from our garden.
My children—a daughter and a son in Class 10 and Class 12 respectively—are preparing for their board exams. Since I am home, I have been able to monitor their online classes and their study schedules. Now that they’ve grown up to be teenagers, the experience is different from the last few years I spent with them. I suddenly realise how times have changed. I am sure most parents will agree that everything teenagers speak about these days is different from the past generations. That makes it quite clear when I can that tearing up the mountain roads in my rally ATV as a semi-professional rally driver is a lot easier compared to trying and understanding Gen Z teenagers.
But the silver lining is that I am getting to spend time with them, which would never have been possible for me due to the nature of my work. Apart from their studies, a lot of time is devoted to trying and teaching them to master their mother tongue, customs, and traditions, even though both of them are comfortable with the Monpa dialect from childhood. A lot of time passes playing interactive games, which entails gathering every family member in a single room. Believe me when I say that I have not had this opportunity, pleasure, and happiness in a long time.
Soon, the news about friends and extended family succumbing to the Coronavirus made the situation grim. The worse part was not being able to mourn with family members of the deceased or help them lighten their grief and encourage them to carry on with life. It was also a struggle as we couldn’t give the deceased a farewell with funeral rituals. But I also take it that this is a sign from God telling us to slow down as he has been doing at regular intervals for the last four centuries. Look at how nature has rejuvenated since the start of the pandemic.
Thankfully, because of the online classes that take up a lot of their time in the day, the children have not brought the house down yet. But in all honesty, I long for my outdoor, adventurous life. Looking at the trophy wall, I wonder whether our life will ever be the same again. To feel the natural outdoors, to be on the seat of a rally ATV hurtling down the tracks at breakneck speed with an adrenaline rush that will make you feel like your heart will explode any moment. But till then, we are in lockdown, and I thank God that we are alive to see another day. I am proud of my fellow villagers who have been following the lockdown SOPs in letter and spirit because, at the end of it all, we are to blame for Covid’s second wave; not anyone else.
Cut the smoked pork into chunks. And boil in a pressure cooked with water enough to drown the meat. Add fermented soya bean, chilies and schewan pepper. Put it off after three whistles. When the pressure cools, open and keep aside. Now, in a wok, add yak butter and before it melts, add the cooked pork with whatever gravy into the wok. Over a sim, stir slowly to let yak butter to melt and allow the smoked pork to slowly absorb the butter. Cover and let it simmer till it thicken abit. The red chilies lend a nice red tinge. And Schezwan pepper is a critical ingredient for this dish.
Serve with steamed rice – ideally, local red rice from the wet rice cultivation fields of Chug valley in Dirang.
Throw in lock herbs as salad.
Take fresh organic buckwheat and ground or milled in local water-driven mills. It should not have contact with any form of metal as it loses its taste due to friction while grinding. Mix the pounded buckwheat with water to make a dough. Once the small dough is prepared, put them aside in a cowl so it can rest for 10-15 minutes to cool. After your dough has rested, pinch out a piece the size of a palm ready to put into your wooden mold. Run the dough through the mold and once noodles come out in batches put them on a tray. Cook the noodles in boiling water for around four minutes. Each time when the water is boiling in your pot, add around 1/4 cup of cold water, wait for it to boil again. Repeat the process once.
Noodles can be consumed with any boiled curry. It is best served with pork curry or beef cooked in a similar fashion as pork.
Lhakpa Tsering is an adventure tourism professional from Arunachal Pradesh and President of the Motorsports Club of Arunachal Pradesh and, winner of numerous cross-country rallies like Raid de Himalaya and Desert Storm
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