Soul Bites

2021 – The Year of Momos with a Spicy Dip

Bhawna Shroff January 9, 2022 2 Comments

What

With 2021 behind us and we are already a few days into 2022, the year gone by still deserves an ode from us. Those of you who follow my blog, might remember that I had called 2020 as a year of Waffle(you can read why I called it so here). So 2021 also deserved a name, and I was wondering which culinary dish could capture the essence of 2021 aptly. Because 2021 came with a hope, that with vaccines we might be able to put an end to Covid, come out of the solitude and fear of pandemic.

As we started breathing the aroma of positivity of 2021, the foul smell of the second wave started to creep in. It rattled our lives for few months with the horror of crippling health services, people lost their near and dear ones and we getting confined in our homes out of fear and anxiety. Then as the second wave cooled we chugged back to some sort of normalcy and within couple of months most of us basically raced to pre-covid era of mobility, social interaction and leisure activities. And by year end we ensured that the spice of unpredictability in our life still remains in the mix with the new avatar of covid called omicron.

The year 2021 should also be remembered as the year we started to learn to live with pandemic and started shaping a new definition of normalcy which factored in the covid appropriate behaviour. And if we reflect in an unbiased fashion, our resolve to get on with our lives while still understanding and adjusting to the norms of pandemic was probably the biggest learning and takeaway. While the restlessness to resume and participate in social and leisure activities which unleashed the second wave of covid upon us and the onset of the third has probably taught us the lesson of patience and a vital one of why we should bite only enough that we can chew.

Why

If you now relate this with Momos which goes along well with the spicy dip it probably becomes clear to you why I call this, a year of “Momos with a Spicy dip”. No worries, if you still do not get it, I will unpack it for you. Momos are steamed dumplings with vegetable filling inside. Normally it would be non-spicy or bland in taste and chewy enough to keep your jaws engaged. Just like our normal lives in 2021.

But that’s when these sinful taste buds of ours, start craving for some variety in taste, and we dip the normal looking bland momos into a spicy sauce/dip to make things interesting. Sometimes we may end up having the spicy sauce way more than what we have taste for and end up with burning sensation instead of a pleasant taste. This is similar to our craving for participating and organising in social engagements and gatherings, travelling etc that led to second and probably the third wave.

The Year Ahead

While we look with hope and prayers to finally end pandemic in 2022 and get back our lives that existed pre-covid era, we should remember the important lesson of “patience is a virtue” which 2021 has taught us while still build further on our attitude to move on with our lives adapting to the new normal.