A Hot Dare

My father dared me to eat raw green chilli and my mother encouraged me. I playfully took a bite. It wasn’t bad but then, my tongue began to tingle. Ignoring it, I consumed it whole to find my mouth burning by the hotness of the ironically named chill-i. Hiccups followed. I ran to the kitchen to find something sweet to balance the act while at the same time, I kept on gasping for more and more air to soothe the tongue that was painfully revolting against my senses at the time. I eventually found some jaggery and thrust it into my mouth, hurriedly melting it by the combined efforts of my saliva and teeth so that the sweetness could rush forth to procure the territory taken away by the sharp and hostile madness that had made me do what I did.

bit into the veins

ordeals caused by chilli

relieved by sweet gur*

~

playful dare

chilli eaten whole-

a hi-cc-cc-up

.

*Gud or gur: Punjabi word for jaggery. It also reminds me of a Punjabi saying, “mar jawan gur kha ke”, which is said when some one comes to know of a grand event/happening, meaning to say that the person is willing to die by eating something as trivial as jaggery(he/she will die off eating jaggery). The jaggery may well be representative of happiness. I will confirm it from my mother.

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