Image Courtesy: Sify

Men (and women) go in search of different things. Dangerous errands and ambitious quests. Mine was an adventurous one too: To find a place that will sell Jaangri that’ll match the ones sold by Adyar (and Anna Nagar) Grand Sweets and Snacks.

Jaangris are NOT Jalebis. They do not have that silly sweet-sour taste like some citrus drink. Also, it is in the nature of a Jaangri to be juicy and succulent, and when you eat it hot, cliched though it’ll sound, it’ll melt in your mouth, leaving you with that hot-sweet taste. It was during those moments that I realized the Meaning of Life and was glad that I was born.

Shop after shop I stopped, anxiously looking inside the glasscase at those orange curled Jaangris stacked neatly. At those places where they’d let you try, I’d shamelessly ask for one. One anxious bite. No, no, not right at all. Freshly prepared ones will be dripping with sugar syrup (folks at my home call it jeera, I don’t know what its vernacular name is), and most of them weren’t. And then the odour. Either they were too liberal with “Rose Essence” (Or Rose Water) that made it taste like theertham (sacred water) offered in temples, or they were too parsimonious which left them flavourless, odourless, lifeless.

If you finally found a place where they sold Jaangris dripping with sugar syrup and containing the right amount of Rose water flavouring, it’d be rock solid, giving the jaws a hard days work. Before the excitement of having found one settles, you will be faced with the ugly fact that a Jaangri that is not succulent is not qualified to be called Jaangri at all. Having tried it at several places around the city, there weren’t even close matches. The quest was a failure. I returned to 11th Main Road in Anna Nagar to grab somemore Jaangris. And I lived happily ever after.