Written By Vedant Maheshwari (Grade 11)
Newark High School 2004:
Jeh and Daksh were aspiring seniors who had an inseparable bond. Part of the reason was they were the only Indian-American students there and happened to live in the same neighbourhood. Unfortunately one day Jeh meets with a car accident and gets hospitalized for two weeks. The two weeks of being bedridden seemed like the longest and most boring weeks of Jeh’s life, the only part he was happy about was how every day Daksh would visit him and bring coconut laddoos for him. There was something special about those laddoos because they weren’t like any other coconut laddoo he’d ever eaten. However the last day before Jeh was about to open the gates to freedom it was immediately locked in the form of bad news from his friend Daksh.
Daksh: Do you wanna know the story behind these laddoos I’ve been bringing for you?
Jeh: Absolutely, they were the one good thing in these horrible weeks.
Daksh: You see after the partition my Grandmother had to flee with her baby (my mother), to India since it was dangerous for her to live there. All she had with her was the recipe for these laddoos given by her aunt. She decided to sell laddoos and it was a hit! Those laddoos were the reason she and my mother were able to live a good life.
Jeh: No way dude! That’s amazing! Why the long face though?
Daksh: My family and I need to back to India because my parents have a visa problem, I don’t know when I’ll be back. I want you to have the recipe so that you have something to remember me by. Goodbye Jeh!
Jeh was in a state of shock for a while. Years pass by and both of them move on with their lives.
New York City 2023:
A middle-aged man is roaming around the streets of New York when he comes across a cafe, he smiles at the name and decides to enter for a cup of coffee.
Unknown man: Hi, I would like an espresso.
Barista: Anything to go with that?
Unknown man: What would you recommend?
Barista: Our round coconut cookies are pretty good.
Unknown man: Okay, I’ll take that.
*After eating the cookies*
Unknown man to the barista: Hi there, who makes these cookies.
Barista: The owner does, is there a problem?
Unknown man: No, I just want to speak to him about these cookies.
Barista: Alright, he’ll be here in half an hour, also a tip, don’t ask him for the recipe, he doesn’t like talking about it.
*30 minutes later*
Owner: Hey! What can I help you with?
Unknown man (jokingly): You see there’s this old friend of mine who I’d given this recipe to all the way back in 2004, it seems that he opened a cafe with my name and doesn’t seem to recognize me!
Owner: Daksh? NO FREAKING WAY!
After a long session of catching up the two friends embrace each other.
Jeh: Do you see the magic of the coconut laddoos? If not for them I don’t know if we’d meet again!
Daksh: I know!
Jeh: Now come to think of it, I feel I appreciated the thought behind the laddoos more than the laddoos themselves.
Daksh: Well there’s definitely something special about that generational recipe of mine!
Featured Image Courtesy – Spice Cravings
