There is a certain food that symbolises certain things in different places. It might not be fancy, or even popular, but it is so ingrained into the cultural consciousness of that place, that to exist without it would be like eradicating your identity.
In Karnataka, ever evolving and welcoming of different cultures, change in the land’s foodscape is constant. In most homes today, in urban areas at least, it is easier to get a chapatti rather than an akki rotti, and dal rather than the drumstick curry that was once considered a luxury.
However, none of these foods can have as much meaning in the Kannadiga’s subconscious as the ragi mudde. Rife with nutrients and as hearty a meal as can ever be, this is the best option for those whose stomachs are not easily filled. It is not chewed but swallowed in tiny bits after dipping it in a curry, nibbling on onion or chillies on the side.
If the mudde is real good, and done the propah way, there is no question of feeling hungry after swallowing one entire mudde. In fact, in days of old, or according to my grandmother, the ability to swallow more than one mudde was considered the mark of a strength, and one’s capacity to eat.
One of the simplest forms of sustenance from times gone by, it is the standard fare of the hard-working farmer, needing strength to toil in the fields. There is a classic scene in almost any Kannada movie set in the countryside involving a man who makes an honest living from the soil. He comes back home, or his wife carries a “butthi” or basket to the farm, and he is served the ragi mudde, and if he is a more prosperous farmer he also gets a curry made from greens.
The mudde is also the food of the hardworking migrants and the poor in the city. It is common to see working men gathered around push-carts, heartily swallowing bits of mudde. Small military hotels serve them with chicken or mutton gravy, while a few vegetarian darshinis serve them sometimes with the popular avarekai curry.
And, while it is nowhere near the fame and popularity that the Mysore Pak or the akki rotti can boast in restaurants offering authentic Karnataka cuisine, it did get its 15-minutes a few years ago. Remember former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda? He did more for this humble lump than anyone else. Hailing from Hassan district, which among many other things has a strong tradition of ragi mudde - he talked about it quite a lot. The fact that he wanted ragi mudde while living in New Delhi actually made it to the papers, which in turn made it important enough to feature in the menus of some fancy five-star and speciality hotels as the “Prime Minister’s delight”.
