Last night, in a small restaurant, in a tiny alley in a corner of the old Jaisalmer Fort I decided to have a banana lassi with my meal. You know, this sweet, thick and smooth drink made with curd.
It took some time for it to arrive and when it finally did I was getting quite thirsty. Thirsty like you keep on thinking “Maybe they’ve forgotten my order”.
So I eagerly put the long straw in my mouth and …. what had been a good day filled with golden light and long shadows suddenly turned sour.
The straw wasn’t made for liquid the viscosity of Lassi. Before I could taste anything the sucking force was creating a vacuum and the walls of my straw, clearly not reinforced, collapsed altogether, making it impossible for even the tiniest of drops to pass through.
The funny thing was, it took some time for me to figure out how to solve this. At first I tried to use even greater inhaling force, to no avail of course. Then I tried a subtler approach, with minimum force and hail, it worked. I had found the balance where my force was just strong enough to suck up the liquid yet not too strong to implode the straw.
It seems that if you really want something, you shouldn’t try too hard.
Not Here Anymore Not Quite There Yet.
© Hans Kemp 2008
