Devi was a gentleman. His ardent love for sweets, particularly Gulab Jamun, was legendary, a well-known facet of his dynamism that we teasingly called his greatest "sin." Which it wasn't really. His sweet tooth, as big as his heart, was remarkable, as expansive as the compassion he showed to everyone around him.
That's one reason why, as I think back to that golden period of our work and friendship at Satyam now, Mandeep gave him the moniker: "Sexy." I can't help but feel delightfully amused as I write down my thoughts on this blog that possibly eating Gulab Jamuns might have contributed to Devi's confirmed sexiness!
Sweets, often associated with indulgence, were something he loved to spoil himself with, as he frequently indulged in substantial servings of Gulab Jamuns alongside an array of sweet dishes he could lay his hands (read fangs!) on. After all, sweets and indulgence often go hand in hand. And each one of us was a culprit in some way or the other!
Charming Indulgence: The Temptation of Sweets in Devi's Life
While we all loved sweets—myself included, as I certainly still do—Devi's relationship with them was extraordinarily obsessive.
As a true connoisseur who embraced the joy of feasting sweetmeats like no one else in Satyam Computers, he had an undeniable love for Gulab Jamun that stood out like a lighthouse on a moonless bay. (Although I feel tempted to say it stood out like a boil on a bum—though I jest, it was certainly not a boil (that too on the bum! God forbid)—Devi's unwavering love for Gulab Jamuns, which he indulged in without fail every other day, was a testament to his obsession with the sweet delicacy.) That's more like it.
He was a sabre-toothed, no...! Oops! A sweet-toothed enthusiast who loved sweets like crazy, relishing them not in ones or twos but in overloading abundance. Suresh, Mandeep, and I would often playfully tease him for being the Laughing Stock, no...! Oops! Buddha of our hearts — undoubtedly, our division’s lucky charm, and he would respond with the same lively spirit. After work, you'll find him chanting his favourite emotional mantra — Eat, Pray, Love sweets, joyfully driving his white Maruti Omni back home while celebrating in the car everything sugary sweet that life could give to a hearty man like him. Devi was unique: a gentleman of reliable honour and goodwill.
Let this be said: Sexy Devi has a longstanding weakness for cakes, sweets, candy, desserts, and every national and international sweet item. From soufflé and mousses to chocolate chip cookies, pies, doughnuts, jams, tarts, and even bare open raw molasses that you get from jute sacks at your local kirana store, Devi savoured them all.
Like him, Renju, Mandeep, and I have a perfectly ensconced sweet tooth kicking in for any event or occasion, never mind serotonin! (Though I love Rossogolla (or Rasgulla) the most, homemade Gulab Jamun, too, is an utmost necessity in life.) For Devi, however, and by extension all of us, barring Suresh maybe, living with one without the others is unthinkable, even practically impossible.
Devi's Dessert Diaries
Being a great foodie, Devi—grew up to be a proud plump person: a well-dressed and handsome cherry bomb with natural gradient lips rounded in shape, almost pouting like a small fish, hair cropped in short and curly fibrils, laugh lines under his possum eyes of an ever-alert financial expert, having a soft heart (in a hard world); cherubic is the word to describe this glossy doughboy of Satyam Computers—disengaged himself from us momentarily and took up a corner in the dining hall, his possum eyes became big with delicious anticipation of sinking his teeth into those roly-poly balls of pure enchantment, even as he began helping himself to devour a decent number of those supple, juicy, scrumptiously spongy dough balls of magic, all single-handedly!
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Devi’s gourmet taste was, of course, the stuff of legends. No one can take that away from him. Rasgulla, Ras Malai, and golu molu Gulab Jamun were his all-time favourite Indian desserts he never failed to wax eloquent of. Hurray! Nothing compares to these versatile, sweet bombs of happiness! Devi was the First Citizen of the Gulab Jamun country. A Gulab Jamun champion, hands down. The truth is, we all were in the same league in some way or the other, but Devi's case was something of a lovely fetish.
He once remarked, albeit jocosely, that whenever he receives an invitation to weddings, festive holidays, or family get-togethers, he cannot help but deem his excitement skyrocketing—prompted by the indulgent thought of a delectable Indian dessert: the great brown globs of Gulab Jamun that he expects to get at the party! Soaked in sugary syrup and handcrafted to divine perfection, these heavenly sweets are a must-have at any celebration he visits; otherwise, he cries out something along these lines — Stop celebrating! Pointless in toasting without Gulab Jamuns in the end. Please refrain from hosting social gatherings if Gulab Jamuns don't make an impression as traditional sweets. Point noted, milord! So, you can see why he considers Gulab Jamuns a highlight of any celebration known to man on planet Earth!? Like Jockey, it's Gulab Jamun or nothing!
When at a party, whether at home or elsewhere, if Devi finds that Gulab Jamun is missing or insufficiently served, or if he feels deprived of his fair/Lion's share of the delightful dessert due to the server behind the counter who might become stingy in serving ample pieces of these spongy milky balls soaked in warm sugar syrup, Devi, by this time breathing plumes of fire, is most likely to storm out in a huff (not before giving an earful to the much-harried waitperson or the host!), only to end up (during those days, very frequently!) at a nearby sweet sweeter sweetest sweetshop: the best mithai bhandaar that East (not West!) Marredpally could accommodate in its surroundings, gorging on Gulab Jamuns to satisfy his insatiably inquisitive and omnivorously acquisitive craving, thus solidifying his reputation as the undisputed Gulab Jamun monarch our generation has ever known!
It's Gulab Jamun all the way.
(To be continued…)
By Arindam Moulick
Also published on Medium.