The Big Breakfast

Breakfast is a meal introduced to me a few years ago. All through my 2 decades as a journalist, my first meal of the day would be around 6pm after my first story would be edited and telecast.

But as health took priority, I started discovering the joy of eating early. Not always healthy, but always sumptuous. So some of the best breakfasts that I have ever devoured are...

The Keventer's breakfast at Darjeeling is a carnivorous' delight. The platter comes loaded with sunny side up double eggs, ham, bacon, salami, thick slices of bread, warmly toasted, with gooey butter and home made marmalade. Wash it down with cold coffee and pls give a healthy burp.

As a journalist, one tends to visit many places. Once while

shooting for a film called Aazaan in Bangkok. We reached location at 5 am. The breakfast served was sticky rice and pork fry with veggies. As I attacked the food with a gusto alongwith my Thai co-workers , my Indian colleagues could be heard saying, "sick", "disgusting". A full belly later, I was the only one energetic enough to shoot an action sequence from a 90 storeyed building...

After a long outdoor schedule, all I ask for is home food. And it is customary for me to have my favourite paratha and alu bhaji with the chilli pickle on the morrow of my return. No one asks me how many parathas, I am served hot ones until I am exhausted. A finger bowl is brought, and I curl up on the bed and promptly fall asleep. That is my way of recuperating.

I shall save the finest for the last.  The IHOP breakfast at

6am, post an all night shoot of IIFA in Tampa, Florida, last month. James and Olga, my friends, took me for a diner experience, which served, thick slabs of southern fried steaks ( these steaks are actually beef cutlets, smothered in cornflour and some cornflake crunchy stuff and deep fried), two fried eggs, grits, biscuits and gravy and endless cups of black coffee. 

Exhaustion attacked in all fronts... tired teeth sitting drunkenly  in a disjointed mouth, a stomach that has just realised the momentous task ahead of it to digest the food and noodly legs trying to hoist my body slumped on the booth... Oh heavens, how far is the bed, asked my satiated soul? 

Breakfast in my house is a grand meal, and comes in courses, unlike any other meal.. Fruits and nuts follow a glass of warm water, honey and tulsi leaves. Then the stuffed Roti ( cabbage or radish or potato) with a mint chutney and tea. An hour later, it's a chilled glass of buttermilk.   

Next time, anyone is in Mumbai, please drop over for breakfast. An open invitation to all who believe that eat breakfast like a Maharaja.