GI Tag: Even sweet Mysuru Pak becomes bitter to Kannadigas!

Union Finance Minister Ms Nirmala Sitharaman elected to the Rajya Sabha from the state Assembly is again in news for not so good reasons to the Kannadigas.Recently she had attracted severe criticism from the Janata Dal-Secular(JD-S) and Indian National Congress(INC) leaders including former chief ministers and leaders of pro-Kannada organizations for failing to keep up her promise of conducting Banking examinations in Kannada along with Hindi and English.

She had assured several delegations of elected representatives from the state that henceforth banking examinations for recruitment of clerks in nationalized banks would be held in Kannada as well.But for failing to adhere to her self imposed norm she was under attack following which she again had to clarify that henceforth the banking examinations will be held in Kannada as well.

This time she is once again at the receiving end as one Anand Ranganathan, a columnist of Tamil Nadu has claimed that Tamil Nadu is all set to get GI tag for the popular sweet dish Mysuru Pak.
He has tweeted posting Ms Nirmala Sitharaman's snap and has announced: The desks are now clear to accord GI status tag to Tamil Nadu for having introduced Mysuru Pak to the outside world!

He has also attached a letter purported to have been written by Lord Macaulay which claims: ...My good friend Lord Crinklybottom, who is presently stationed in Bangalore, has confirmed that this magnificent Mysorepauk is indeed Tamilian in nature, and its secrete recipe was smuggled out of Madras 74 years ago by a courtier of the Mysore palace, who ran barefoot all the way to Mysore with it and died moments after he handed the Maharaja, the recipe, who cunningly, and unfairly, gave it the name Mysorepauk.I propose that if we want to dominate India, the first thing we need to do is to learn how to make Mysorepauk...

Whether this letter is authentic or cooked up one, no one knows but one thing is candidly clear that it lacks minimum common sense. The letter which was allegedly written by Lord Macaulay claims that secrete recipe was smuggled out of Madras 74 years ago by a courtier of the Mysore palace, who ran barefoot all the way to Mysore...

Mysuru is 428.1 kilometres from Chennai and even a fancy thought of anyone running such a distance and that too on barefoot can only be dubbed as height of foolishness.

On the other hand Wikipedia proclaims:

Mysore pak was first prepared in the kitchens of the Mysore Palace during the regime of Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, by a palace cook named Kakasura Madappa.Madappa made a concoction of gram flour, ghee and sugar. He came up with the name when he was asked its name, Madappa had nothing in mind, simply called it the Mysuru paka. Pak (or paka, more precisely) in Kannada means 'sweet'. It is traditionally served in weddings and other festivals of southern India, and is very popular in baby showers as well.

Paaka shastra (short paka) in Kannada means 'cooking procedure' or 'cooking techniques'. Also paka in Kannada refers to sticky sugar syrup obtained by simmering sugar with equal amount of water; specifically for Mysore pak, the simple syrup is heated to the soft ball stage. The syrup is used as the primary sweetening agent in various Indian sweet dishes like Jalebi, Badam puri, Mysore pak and others. The syrup is flavored with various spice essences like cardamom, rose, honey etc. Paka syrup preparation is a skilled art mastered by few cooks, some of whom keep their methods secret...

But Ms Nirmala Sitharaman hasn't officially declared her official stance yet but the damage has already been done.

-Manohar Yadavatti

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