No risk, no gain

Pongal is a celebration of nature's bounty. It's an expression of gratitude for the fruits of labour in the life cycle of the farmer. The celebration is rife with symbollism like all other agriculture-related celebrations worldwide.
One of these is the boiling of the rice pudding called 'pongal' which comprises rice, milk and jaggery and garnished with  sugar candy, nuts and raisins. In short, it symbolizes nourishment that is rich and sweet to the palate. The 'pongal' is to be cooked in a new claypot and the concoction must boil over to signify that the year ahead will be blessed with overflowing joy and prosperity. And while the sweet and rich contents of the pot boil over, one is supposed to cry out in joy 'pongala pongala' that literally means 'boil over, boil over'.
 Although I rejoice in celebrating these traditional events, I usually resort to short cuts. So yesterday being Pongal  Day in Tamil Nadu, I decided to substitute the rice pudding for my daily quota of milk and decided to standby and wait for it to boil over. Now, nine times out of ten the milk boils over when I am absent minded and get involved with some other household chore. But on this pongal morning under my watchful eye, the milk just refused to boil over. As the level rose, I kept coaxing it to boil over with feverish chants of 'pongala pongala'; it rose into a huge bubble and stayed delicately poised over the brim of the vessel, but it refused to boil over. So, I said to myself, "Well, I shall have enough of the good things in life this year, but not a surfeit. So I should be contended." But that brainwashing was not satisfactory. I felt the need to see that the milk boiled over so I could be assured of overflowing goodness all year round.

I had to use some strategy. I shut the window of the kitchen in a bid to dissuade the gentle breeze from keeping the milk level down. But this didn't work. Now, a different analogy began to play in my mind.This is like the sensex, it is trying to gain the 20,000 mark but keeps sliding back and forth while the speculators are watching with bated breath. The need of the hour was a change in strategy. So I changed the stove placement and placed the vessel on a higher intensity flame and 'voila' the milk promply boiled over. But in my excitement, I forgot to cry out 'pongala pongala' at that strategic moment.

As I cleaned up the stove, I realized the lesson to be learned from this incident. Sometimes one needs to take greater risks in life to strike greater rewards. Well, that is the story of the stock market! The higher the risk, the greater the gain. So while I had placed the pot on a lower intensity flame, the milk just rose but didn't boil over; but when a higher flame was used, the results were fantastic!

My mother's words came back to me. 'No risk, no gain'.