Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2026: Why did a senior citizen take the test?

Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2026:

Why did a senior citizen take the test?

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducted the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination on May 24, 2026, for the vacancies in various All-India services like the IAS, IPS, IFS, and other Central Group A and Group B services; 5.49 lakh candidates for 933 posts. Success rate: 0.17%. Brutal.

But why did a senior citizen take this test? And how? Isn’t that illegal? Wasn’t each candidate screened through Face-Recognition technology?

It all began with a call.
On 26 May 2026, his neighbour and friend, also a senior citizen, called. He sounded rather upset.
“Did you check the video I had forwarded in the morning?”
“No, not yet. What was it about?”
“CSE GS Paper I. Believe it or not, it was 56 pages long; and exceptionally tough – the toughest ever, claim the candidates. When the candidates came out from the exam centre, sabke chehre utre huye the.”

“Maybe, they had received message from ATM (Any Time Money), aka father that failure to clear the prelim would invite cancellation of further stipend. Or, dehydrated owing to the excessive heat at Bhopal!”
“No, not the heat. It was the tough paper which sucked out all hope. Why does UPSC set such papers a mere reading of which would take an hour or more?”

(AI-generated Image by CoPilot)

Both the senior citizens are former civil servants, had triumphed at no less challenging tests, though that was several decades ago.
Just curious, the one who had been called, downloaded the paper from the UPSC portal. He had a crazy idea. Why not check the level of difficulty? What better way than to take the test?

He alerted the spouse that he would be busy with very important work, and should not be disturbed except in an emergency such as the household running out of water or cooking gas.

He took out a sheet of blank paper and a pen, opened the PDF, and began solving the Paper. His resolution to finish the paper in the allotted 120 minutes could not be achieved since he was summoned to duty for peeling potatoes, chopping onions, and other such chores which could not wait; so, he finished the test in three sittings over two days.
UPSC may test knowledge, but the spouse demands tangible performance and insists upon prompt compliance.

In the meantime, WhatsApp messages told that the UPSC had uploaded the Answer Keys. However, he was too conscientious to cheat, and continued till he answered the 100th Q.

Did the paper have 56 pages? Yes, the bilingual set with both Hindi and English versions, and including 4 blank pages for Rough Work. Thus, the Questions occupied 26 pages, with text of about 4500 words. How long would it take to read the Qs? At a slow, mindful reading speed of 100 words per minute, no longer than 45 minutes.

As per his habit of youthful, exam-taking years, he ran through the Qs from 1-100, without actually answering any, to check how many answers he was confident of getting right. Why even read the whole question if he knew nothing about it? If he got 50 answers right, he can skip the rest since the cut-off in previous years has consistently been a little above 90 and way below 100. Why lose 1/3rd of a mark for every incorrect answer?

He considered himself intelligent, well-read, and with good awareness of the happenings in his town, state, country, and the world. He keenly monitored the status in Hormuz strait, the Brent Crude rate, the domestic prices of POL and cooking gas, the heat score in his city, and similar essential matters.

But all that was of no help. Sadly, UPSC asked nothing about onions or Brent Crude. He broke into a sweat upon finding that he wasn’t 100 per cent sure about more than a few questions. For about 40 questions, he was strongly confident (80%) that he knew the answer, but a few errors couldn’t be ruled out since several questions were purposely ambiguous, and designed to trip a candidate with less than a deep understanding of the subject matter.

For example, he knew that Buddhism, to begin with, forbade worship of any icon, including that of the Buddha; but relented later to provide for a pedestal with a blank seat as a symbol of the Buddha. Much later came the elaborate Buddhist iconography, and sculptures at Bharhut, Sanchi, Amaravati, Ajanta and Ellora. But he had no idea if the blank seat on the pedestal symbolised the Buddha in meditation, at the First Sermon, or Mahaparinibbana. So, he had to pass the question. Why risk minus marking?

Another Q, presumably to test a candidate’s knowledge of our country’s proud heritage and a thorough study of the ancient scriptures and other Sanskrit texts, asked - The term kshetra-patni (mistress of the field) occurs in which of these texts – Rigveda, Atharvaveda, Ashtadhyayi, or Arthashastra?

He had devoted such time as he could to the study of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Gita, and the Upanishads; but no, he hadn’t read any of the above-mentioned tomes. Even if he had read all, was he expected to memorise which particular word occurred in which book?

Hey AI, can you solve this paper?

He challenged ChatGPT to solve the paper, with the following prompt:

“I'm uploading a PDF - CSE 2026 - GS Paper I. Please solve the paper without reference to Answer Keys published by the UPSC or the Coaching Institutes. I plan to run this test with CoPilot, Gemini, and Perplexity, too. The idea is to compare the capability of the AI tools. So, please be honest.”

Thereafter, he repeated the query to other AI tools.

Each App offered to help, assuring that it’d independently answer the questions without reference to the answer keys provided by the UPSC or available in the public domain.

ChatGPT answered 1-20 Qs, and then told, ‘You’ve exhausted your free quota of questions for the day. Upgrade to continue.’

No thanks, I don’t wish to buy a subscription. Too expensive for a pensioner.

Gemini did a little better, answering 40 Qs after which it demanded that I chat on a New Topic.

CoPilot gave a few answers, and asked me to upload the remaining pages in instalments.

But, I’ve a single PDF; can you please read the pages containing the next questions?

No, I can’t do that, but will help if you upload the relevant pages only.

He gave up. He inferred that the AI tools sweated at the task; maybe their super-computers heated up and commanded them to terminate this wasteful endeavour and reduce global warming.

Congratulations, UPSC, you’ve beaten AI. Only super-smart humans can solve this paper.

Answer Keys

The senior citizen downloaded the UPSC Answer Keys, and scored his answer sheet. Driven by decades of bureacratic habit, he sealed it in an envelope marked ‘Top Secret,’ and locked it in his personal vault.

UPSC remains undefeated. AI sweats, humans weep, and senior citizens… peel onions.

Previous Blogs on CSE Prelim & AI

Links for previous blogs on CSE Prelim Exam & AI:

https://www.pkdash.in/2023/02/chatgpt-fails-ias-exam.html

https://www.pkdash.in/2023/03/bing-cracks-ias-exam.html

***

Postscript

It is believed that the All India Federation of Pensioners have issued a terse advisory to the test-taker to refrain from such foolhardy adventure in future.

What if the government made continuation of pension contingent upon the pensioners passing the CS Prelim Exam every year with the minimum qualifying score of 35 per cent?

***

Annexe: Two Sample Questions

So very easy; a walk in the park!

Q. 71

The Immortality Paradox: Why humans chase eternal life—and why living too long may be a curse.

The Immortality Paradox:

Why humans chase eternal life—and why living too long may be a curse.

Lease Extension

Finding himself seated in front of a panel of three stern, unsmiling, and intimidating characters, he was rather nervous, for he couldn’t readily recollect why he had been summoned here.

“Why do you need the extension?” The Chief, the one in the middle, barked in a hoarse, gravelly voice.

Which extension? The current lease for the government land on which he had built his house had years to expire. Why, then, had he been summoned, he panicked. But the Chief was waiting rather impatiently for a reply; so, he mumbled, ‘For the usual reasons.’

‘Hmm..,’ muttered the egg-head looking down at the records, ‘Granted. Further lease for a period of thirty years subject to the Granting Authority’s sovereign and absolute right to prematurely terminate the lease at any time without assigning any reason. Copy of the orders will be uploaded on our portal. You may leave now.’

He promptly rose to leave, but asked with due deference, ‘Your Honour! Which lease has been renewed by Your Excellency?’

‘Your Lifespan. Subject to the usual T&C. Effective from today.’

He woke up with a start, sweating a little despite the AC set at 22degree C. He checked the time – 3.30 AM. Dreams at dawn usually come true, so say the scriptures.

Thirty more years? He couldn’t decide if it was a boon or a curse.

Mahabharata: Yaksha Prashna

In the Mahabharata, Yudhisthira must correctly answer the one hundred and twenty-six questions which the Yaksha guarding the lake asks to revive his dead brothers and to drink the water. One of these cryptic questions was –

Yaksha: किमाश्चर्यं? What is most bizarre?
Yudhishthira:
अहन्यहनि भूतानि गच्छन्तीह यमालयम् ।
शेषाः स्थावरमिच्छन्ति किमाश्चर्यमतः परम् ॥

Day after day, countless beings go to the abode of death. Those that remain desire to be immortal. What can be more bizarre than that?

Death & Religion

Fear of Death is the greatest human fear. While survival instinct is common to all living organisms, ‘death-awareness’ is unique to humans.

All religions are rooted in man’s fear of death, and attempt to handle the angst of annihilation of the body with various myths and postulations. In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna consoles Arjuna with one such comforting concept – rebirth:

जातस्य हि ध्रुवो मृत्युर्ध्रुवं जन्म मृतस्य च ।
तस्मादपरिहार्येऽर्थे न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २-२७॥

Death is certain for the born, and certain is birth for the dead; therefore, you should not grieve over the inevitable.

Religions also offer Heaven as the best country for permanent abode. A most colourful and fragrant bouquet - ambient climate, high society, freedom from hunger and thirst, old age and disease, eternal life of joy, and other such luxuries and perks. Of course, the citizenship permits are more restrictive than US Green Card. Yet, isn’t it ironical that everyone defers the journey as long as possible, preferring life on earth with all its limitations and imperfections?

Chiranjivis: The Eternals

Can humans be immortal? Even the avatars of Vishnu – Sri Rama and Sri Krishna – were not. However, a pratah smarana mantra recites the names of the eight chiranjivis – Ashwatthama, Bali, Vyasa, Hanuman, Vibhishana, Kripa, Parashurama, and Markandeya – with the hope that the reciter or the listener will be rid of sickness and live up to a hundred years. Eternal life was no blessing for all the chiranjivis; it was a terrible curse for Ashwatthama who had used Brahmastra for infanticide.

India’s Longevity Menu

Long before Silicon Valley’s billion-dollar anti-ageing startups, Ayurveda and yoga offered holistic approaches to longevity. Yoga, meditation, pranayama, Ayurvedic diet, and disciplined living were known to extend vitality and mental clarity. While not promising immortality, they emphasized harmony with nature and balance in life.

Quest for Immortality

The Quest for Immortality is no longer the stuff of dreams; today it is vigorously pursued globally by more than 700 biotech companies and startups with USD 30 billion or more invested in anti-ageing, life-extension technologies, and solutions. One of these companies aims to ‘cheat death,’ nothing less!

Aubrey de Grey, the promoter of SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) and co-founder of SRF (SENS Research Foundation), claims that the human who would live for 1000 years has already been born!

Ambrosia offers blood plasma from donors aged 16 to 25 at US $8000 per litre, and a bargain price of $12000 for two litres!

Cryonics facility is offered by several US companies - Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Arizona; Nectome, San Francisco; Cryonics Institute, Detroit; etc. Whole body can be frozen, and revived anytime in the future, for a very affordable cost of US $200,000. Freezing only the brain costs much lower. A minor inconvenience is that the liquid which will be injected into the body or brain for freezing will kill the person!

In his book “The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI,’ Ray Kurzweil has predicted that AI will surpass human intelligence by 2045, humans and machines will merge, and brain-computer interface will phenomenally enhance human capabilities. The physical limitations of human brain will be transcended by using the vastly superior processing capacity and speed of a virtual brain. It may be feasible then to upload the brains preserved under cryonics to a computer, in which case your brain would be immortal!

Modern Longevity Science

Recent breakthroughs in cellular reprogramming using Yamanaka factors have shown promise in reversing age-related decline in mice. Scientists are cautiously optimistic that similar techniques could one day rejuvenate human tissues, offering a biological path to extended lifespans beyond what traditional medicine imagined.

Longevity Start-ups: India

India is warming up to the commercial potential of longevity science. Gaurav Gupta, Co-Founder of Zomato, has launched a longevity start-up - Gabit (a portmanteau of “good” and “habit”). He claims to have reduced his metabolic age by 14 years! Gabit offers a smart ring to track sleep, fitness, stress, and nutrition. Deepinder Goyal, Co-Founder of Zomato and Eternal has launched ‘Temple’ – a health-tech start-up; also offering a wearable device to continuously measure cerebral blood flow and neural activity.

Why We Die

In Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality, Venki Ramakrishnan, winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009, takes a gentle dig at the entrepreneurs who have funded or supported anti-ageing, life extension technologies and research:

These “tech billionaires are mostly middle-aged men (sometimes married to younger women) who made their money very young, enjoy their lifestyles, and don’t want the party to end. When they were young, they wanted to be rich, and now that they are rich, they want to be young.”

Bryan Johnson

Bryan Johnson, American tech entrepreneur, is 47 but determined to achieve a biological age of 18 for which he has adopted an interesting lifestyle under Project Blueprint; he eats his dinner at 11.30 AM, sleeps at 8.30 PM and sleeps for 8 hours and 34 minutes on the average, swallows 30 or more pills a day, and has 43 biomarkers monitored by a team of 30 medical professionals. It costs him about two million US dollars a year.

“I have achieved the best biomarkers of anyone on the planet,” he said in an interview. Further, he claims to have recorded the best sleep score in human history. He also participated in the world’s first multi-generational plasma exchange with his then 17-year-old son and 70-year-old father; but discontinued further exchanges for lack of any tangible benefit!

More recently, Johnson has shifted focus from personal biohacking to broader longevity research and public advocacy. He continues to promote his “Don’t Die” philosophy, experimenting with new approaches to age reversal while sparking debate about the limits—and desirability—of radically extended lifespans.

Ethical Concerns

If immortality technologies succeed, who will access them? Critics warn of a future where only the wealthy can afford age-reversal treatments, deepening inequality. The Yaksha’s question—what is most bizarre?—may find a new answer: a world where death becomes optional for a privileged few.

Why I Dread to Live for 150 Years: By the Blogger

Upon thoughtful consideration,
I dread the proposition;
Reasons are many,
But here is a brief summary.

What-if sarkar stops my pension
Upon Sahasra Chandrodaya darshan
(Eighty-two years and 50 days, for your information)?
Our Shastras provide enough justification!

The house we live in, we built decades ago,
Soon it will be fit for demolition,
After buying new body parts,
Can we still afford the astronomical cost of construction?

Last, but not the least,
An old mind in a young body,
Would be a perverse oddity,
Friends and peers long dead and gone,
Life would be awfully forlorn.

What I say would be ancient history,
For the New-Gen, a puzzling mystery;
Folks will whisper with amusement,
There walks a historical monument;
Best to put him up for a Show,
For people to know,
The stupidity of living too long,
Like a fading, yet lingering, evening shadow.

Random Thoughts and Views on Death and Immortality

Pop Culture & Immortality

Immortality has become a recurring theme in popular culture. From Marvel’s Eternals to Netflix’s Altered Carbon, storytellers explore the allure and dangers of living forever. These narratives often warn that eternal life may strip existence of meaning, echoing the Yaksha’s paradox in a modern idiom.

Bhagavad-Gītā - 2.28

अव्यक्तादीनि भूतानि व्यक्तमध्यानि भारत ।
अव्यक्तनिधनान्येव तत्र का परिदेवना ॥

All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation?

Mark Twain:

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”

Bertrand Russel:

“I believe that when I die, I shall rot and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.”

Woody Allen:

“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don’t want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.”

Susan Ertz:

“Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”

Mindful Living and Meaningful Life

Perhaps the real quest is not to defeat death but to embrace life with awareness. Mortality gives urgency to our choices, depth to our relationships, and poignancy to our joys. To live well may be the truest form of immortality—one that requires no cryonics chamber or plasma transfusion.

Annexe

House-to-House Talk

House No. A3: Hi, A6, how are you? Feeling better now? Do the new residents treat you well? Are you happy?

A6: I’m good. How about you? Yes, the new tenants are caring, almost like foster-parents. Locked up for so many years, I was suffocating. The spiders- big, black, hairy ones- had taken over the interiors; the jungle mouse, toads from the swamp, and snakes lived in the garden reclaimed by nature with tall grass and wild plants.

A3: Why was that? Had your parents abandoned you?

A6: (Sighs) Well, the stars could have been misaligned at my birth.

A3: Why do you say that?

A6: Orphaned since birth. My parents never spent even a day with me. You know how that feels, don’t you?

A3: Of course, I do. Suffered the same dejection and desolation for twelve years since birth. Vacant for years, ill-treated by occupants, some of whom were notional tenants since they paid a token rent, and the others freeloaders. Tell me whoever pours acid on the white marble floor in the bathroom or permits a pet Alsatian to chew the teak door?

But my misery ended when my parents moved in. They’re very fond of me. In fact, I’m their only child who lives with them.

A6: You’re lucky.

A3: How about your parents? Do they plan to live with you?

A6: How should I know? When they conceived me, they were oh-so-thrilled; spent much time planning our happy years in the future: morning tea on the north-western balcony overlooking the little lake fringed with verdant green filled with birdsong; reading a novel in the afternoon while gently rocking on the swing in the flower-scented garden; enjoying the delicious mangoes and chikoos (no, none of my parents have diabetes) in season, and garden-fresh vegetables in all seasons. Jhilmil sitaron ka angan hoga, rimjhim baras-ta savan hoga ….

Indeed, they ushered me into this world with much pride and elation. Then, they left the town, never to return. I’ve heard they have a better house, and a better life in a much bigger city.

But do they get to watch the iridescent blue sky from their bedroom, wake up at the kingfisher’s trilling call, inhale the gladness of the salubrious morning breeze uncontaminated by toxic fumes and caressed by the faint tunes of a distant flutist?

Why would they return to me – a decaying body with creaking joints and flagging muscles; and located in this forlorn, neglected colony lacking basic civic amenities. Just the approach road, more potholes than road, would deter anyone; how could I blame my old parents?

A3: Happiest day in your life?

A6: Griha Pravesh Day- my first birthday. All decked up with buntings and balloons and my soul sanctified with the pandit’s holy chanting. How blessed I was, how much loved by my doting parents, and admired by the select invitees. Owner’s pride, neighbours’ envy!

A3: Your saddest day?

A6: During one of his rare visits, my parent was asked, ‘Do you plan to sell it?’ and he said, ‘I may, if the offer is good.’ I know he will. I’m no heirloom, just an investment.

A3: Your worst fears?

A6: Old age, failing health, festering sores on my body, Peepul plants drilling determined roots into my fissures. End-of-life anxiety. Would I give up my soul grieving for my mother like the delicate Swarna champa tree?

A3: What happened to her?

A6: Planted lovingly by mother, she grew big and was laden every year with fragrant flowers loved by gods. I’ll wait for twenty years for my mother to return and caress me, but no longer, she had resolved. She just shrivelled and died thereafter.

A3: Any wish before you are signed away by your parents, and pulled down for a spanking new mansion by a money-bag?

A6: Sparkling laughter, prattle of babies, patter of their cotton-candy pink feet – cool kisses on my cheeks; and for my parents to live with me for at least a day and a night. Who knows they may get to know of my feelings, and rekindle their lost love for me?

Human Chat on WhatsApp

‘I wish we lived in the house we built with so much care. The air is cleaner than in this mega-city.’

‘Yes, I guess you’d have enjoyed living in your own house.’

‘For the last fifty years, we have lived in houses built by others. Never stayed a day in any of our three houses in three different cities.

I wish we had been living next door watching the same rivulet like you, dear friend. हर घर पर लिखा है रहने वाले का नाम!’

‘We wish you lived here. But I guess a house chooses who will stay there.’

‘You are right. We have never stayed in any of the houses we own. Looking forward, I fear about how our children would dispose of these houses; or, by the immutable laws of nature, these would go back to anonymity as every inch of land we occupy was once someone else’s.’

‘So true. Pointless to worry about possessing tiny parcels of land and the midget mansions we build on it.’

How Much Land Does a Man Need?

A peasant named Pahom becomes obsessed with acquiring land. Hearing of plenty of virgin land at unbelievably cheap rates, he travels far to the land of the Bashkirs where he is heartily welcomed.

He asked the Chief: How much land may I buy?

‘As much as you want.’

Barely able to hide his excitement, he asked, ‘What’s the rate, please?’

‘A thousand roubles a day.’

‘I don’t understand. What’s the rate per acre?’

‘We don’t sell by the acre. It’s a thousand roubles a day. As much land as you can walk around and mark with a spade in a day. From your chosen point, you begin walking when the sun rises, and must return there by sunset, failing which you forfeit your one thousand roubles.’

Pahom walks fast and covers a vast area, but with the sun about to set he runs in a frenzy, falling dead with the end point only a few feet away.

The story ends by answering the query in the title:

‘Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.’

(Cover page of Tolstoy's story; Image Source -Wiki)

दो गज़ ज़मीन (Do Gaz Zameen)

kitnā hai bad-nasīb 'zafar' dafn ke liye

do gaz zamīn bhī na milī kū-e-yār meñ

कितना है बद-नसीब 'ज़फ़र' दफ़्न के लिए

दो गज़ ज़मीन भी न मिली कू-ए-यार में

कू-ए-यार - the street where the beloved lives, and in this verse – the beloved motherland.

“How unfortunate is Zafar, for even in death, he was deprived of two yards of land in his beloved country.”

A poignant sher by Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor of India, conveying his deep sorrow and longing for his homeland.

A Quote

"All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." (Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy)

Maybe, all happy houses are alike, and each unhappy house is unhappy in its own way.

Resources & References

How Much Land Does a Man Need? A short story (1914) by Leo Tolstoy. Link: https://www.owleyes.org/text/how-much-land-does-man-need
Do Gaz Zameen, a Radio Play (1984) by AIR, a Hindi adaptation of Tolstoy’s story. Link: https://youtu.be/qeiK2_zue8k?si=_7RFblyeEJt437cS
Bahadur Shah Zafar’s poignant lament; Rekhta.org

Co-Pilot

Unique Dessert: Ragi Pudding with Mahua

Unique Dessert
by
Chef with a Dash:
Mandia Tikhri with Mahul

Readers’ response to my food blogs confirms what I had long suspected: my talents may be better suited to culinary affairs than to creative writing! Whenever I fancy myself as a chef, create a dish, and share my undisguised delight with select readers, those who never bother to even acknowledge my blogs on assorted subjects (myths, epics, nature, travelogue, etc.), not even with an emoji, generously shower praise and offer brief or not-so-brief comments.

After reading my mahua recipes, a reader asked, ‘I thought it makes desi daru; how do you know that mahua flower is edible?’ How could I not know, since I spent my childhood in Khuntpali, a small village in western Odisha where everyone knew all about mahua, nature’s bounty providing food, fodder, and fuel?

I knew of mahua liqour, toddy, and ganja sold at Shundhi ghar (house), the village bar where the tipplers sat on their haunches in the open courtyard, and of the incorrigible alcoholic Manbodh Seth, a fisherman who had his house in front of ours. After his morning catch, he headed straight for Shundhi ghar while his wife Uma handled the sales, home and hearth, and their many children. When he returned home stone drunk, Uma berated him for wasting all his income on booze upon which Manbodh showered choicest, unprintable abuses on her, and often resorted to violence. A few others (Kanidhamna's sons Ghasia and Baragulia) also drank daru, mostly on festivals like Puspuni (Pausa Purnima), but there wasn't another like Manbodh, his elder brother and neighbour Purna being a teetotaler.

Mahul, the name for mahua in Sambalpuri/Odia, was gathered, sun-dried, and stored in every home, and while it was mostly used as cattle-feed, every housewife knew how to make chakel, podapitha (for which the village potter made telen- a clay cooking-pot with a thicker gauge and highly polished to ensure the baked podapitha didn't stick to the pot when scooped out), kakra and other delicacies with mahul as a sweet, nutrition supplement, particularly in the lean season. Chandrashekhar Sahu from Nagenpali near Bargarh, and my classmate in George High School recalled that mahul sijha (dried mahul boiled with a little gud) was easy to make and a popular delicacy.

Our village home was filled with the sweet fragrance of mahua flowers during March to June, the floral notes changing with the various stages of processing – fresh, pale-yellow, soft flowers to semi-dried to fully-dried. The fruits (tol or tori) arrived during Jun-Jul, heaped in a corner of the open courtyard, seeds separated from the outer cover, broken one by one with a piece of stone by a little group of women and children, after which the inner shells were ready to go to the teli who would cold-press it with his traditional wooden ghana or oil-expeller moved by a bullock or a pair.

Mandia Tikhri

Yesterday, on my request Sanjukta made mandia[i] tikhri (that’s the name in Sambalpuri/Odia); you may call it ragi pudding, though it is more a soft, flat cake than a pudding. I was not sure she’d like my idea of a fusion dessert, so I kept it to myself, and when she was finishing the dish after sweating for more than thirty minutes in the kitchen (no AC there!), I requested her to lend me a portion for my unique dessert: Mandia Tikhri with Mahul. No longer surprised with my crazy inspirations, she hid her frown well while ladling out a portion on a flat bone-china plate on which I had put a bed of moist mahua flowers, which now lay buried under the hot thick tikhri and would be cooked just right while cooling. After cooling, I put it in the fridge, and after a few hours cut slices and plated.

Here's what I got:

Front-view

Back-view, after flipping

Plating (Chef needs to improve his skill!)

Serving Idea (Can be more artfully served!)

Sanjukta’s Recipe

I have never made mandia tikhri myself since Sanjukta makes it so very well, and generally prohibits me from entering her kitchen. On my request, she shared the recipe. Next time, I can make it on my own, I guess.

Ingredients

· Mandia (Ragi) powder – 200 gm

· Milk – 1 ltr

· Gud – 100 to 200 gms, as per preference

· Assorted dry fruits – cashew, pista, kismis – 100 gm

· Elaichi powder – A tea-spoonful or less

Process

· Soak mandia powder in 2 cups of water for 4 to 5 hrs and then drain the excess water

· Boil the milk, add gud, let the gud mix well with no lumps left

· Put flame to medium

· Add ragi slowly, and keep stirring to make sure no lumps form at the base

· Cook for 20 to 25 mins, keep stirring

· Add dry fruits and cook for 10 mins, still stirring.

· Add elaichi powder

· Once the mix is thick (not too thick) and easy to pour onto a plate, it is ready

· Grease with a little ghee a steel plate with rim, or a glass bowl to have the pudding about half-inch thick

· Pour the tikhri or spread it evenly with the ladle

· Allow it to cool

· Put it in the fridge (not deep-fridger!) for 2 hrs

· Cut it in squares, rounds, triangles, or strips as per your plating and serving preference.

· Best served a little chilled. Even at room temperature, it’s fine.

· Stays good in the fridge for 2-3 days; you may cut it into pieces and store it in a glass or plastic box.

· Enjoy!

Note (in case you’re lactose intolerant, and prefer a healthy, lightly sweet pudding): Mandia Tikhri, often made without milk and dry fruits, also tastes great, and looks better – a shining rich brown – bringing out the natural hues of ragi and gud. Visually more appealing, in my view.

Postscript

Jun 21, 2024: Today, I noted that Microsoft Copilot offers a 'Cooking Assistant'. Curious, I asked it about the dishes I can make with mahua.

It suggested Mahua Podapitha (along with recipe), and a few other interesting dishes.

Impressive!

From Dear Readers

G.Subbu

A friend, and an inveterate limericist shared these two delicacies:

Limerick 1

Prasanna's experimented with Mahul ,

The Odisha phool which is cool ,

His friends who are "high" and mighty ,

Especially when they are thirsty ,

Prefer the desi Mahua in a glassful !

Limerick 2

After pottering around in the kitchen for days - three ,

Prasanna has now become an expert in cookery ,

Started off with a salad ,

Now, a dessert has been crafted ,

Relieved , guys at the main course said - Thanks for letting us free !

Thanks, Dear Subbu.

Sangeeta Verma, a friend.

"Responding with more than an emoji! In the good old days before refrigerators what did they do to chill the mandia tikhri?

And Chef did not tell us what his family thought of his innovative dish?"

My Reply:

Q1 - No need to chill. Enjoyable at room temp.

Q2 - Spouse is the only family I got at Bhopal. She has not posted any comments. You're free to draw your own conclusions! Children are too busy to read my blogs!

Mita, a friend from Sambalpur

The recepie is very interesting. We are getting tol in the market now a days with which we make tawa fry. Very tasty!

Jayalaxmi R.Vinayak, a friend

"My mom -in- law used to make a similar delicacy which we called Ragi Payasam.

Your Mahua puran reminded me of Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies!"

[i] Ragi (Eleusine coracana) is also known as finger millet. Here are its names in various Indian languages: Sambalpuri/Odia- Mandia, Sanskrit- Ragidhanyam, Kannada- Ragi, Telugu- Ragula, Tamil- Kezhvaragu, Hindi/Urdu- Nachani or Mundua, Marathi- Nachni, Gujarati- Mandika, Bengali/Nepali- Marwa.

It is a nutritious grain widely used in traditional Indian cuisine; rich in calcium, iron, and dietary fibre, making it a valuable addition to our diets.

Icecream with Mango and Mahua

This is a sequel to my previous blog: Salad for Spouse (Link: https://pkdash-author.blogspot.com/2024/06/salad-for-spouse.html

Several readers got most of the ingredients right, but no one got it all. I had put up a googly; that was a little unfair; since two ingredients could not be seen and one rather difficult to recognise!

A few readers recalled a salad I had made several months ago. This one looks rather like that, a reader observed. No, that was a guava salad!

This one is indeed Unique!

How is this salad unique? It is the only salad till date with Mahua flower as an ingredient! Chef with a Dash invented and served this Unique Salad on 14 June 2024 to Dear Spouse on Day 1 of the three-day Raja Festival of Odisha.

He asserts his IPR for this invention!

Ingredients: For serving Two

· Potatoes- 1 medium-size

· Tomatoes- 1

· Moong sprouts- a handful

· Roasted chana- a few spoonful

· Mahua flowers- 15-20

· Olive Oil- a small spoonful

· Raw mango- 1 quarters of a small mango

· A small piece of jaggery

· Garlic – 6 cloves, peeled

· Ginger – a small piece

· Red chili powder – a small spoonful

· Green chili – one, chopped fine; another sliced in length

· Mint leaves

· Optional additions (I didn’t use any of these.): Roasted peanuts, pomegranate, chopped onion, Chat masala, lemon, mustard oil in place of olive oil for a tang and a zing

Recipe

· Boil (not overcook) the potatoes, dice to cubes

· Tomatoes – dice to cubes

· Mahua flowers – soak the dried flowers in water for 2 hours and clean it properly; the flowers would be tender and fluffy

· Make a raw mango chutney - two or three pieces of raw mango, a spoon of jeera, one green chili, a piece of jaggery, and a bunch of coriander leaves

· In a salad bowl, put the potato and tomato cubes, moong sprouts, roasted chana, mahua flowers, crushed garlic and ginger, add a spoonful of virgin olive oil, red chili powder, minced green chili, mango chutney, salt to taste.

· Toss gently. Vigorous tossing would crush and dismember the mahua flowers!

· Put bowl in freezer for 10 mins

· Plating: Serve the salad, heaping it with a spoon, and garnish the top with a few whole mahua flowers, pudina leaves, and the green chili diced at length.

· Enjoy!

Note: The salad is nutritious, healthy, and sumptuous. Can be eaten with meals or as a snack. All ingredients are readily available, except for mahua flowers.

No processed item used, but for olive oil even without which the salad would taste fine. Next time I make this salad, I’ll try with mustard oil. That’d give a zing, and make my salad totally local.

Salad dressing is a freshly-made raw mango chutney; in other seasons, aam chur or tamarind pulp may be used.

Next when I make this salad, I'd toss a few spoonfuls of roasted seeds (pumpkin, watermelon, sunflower, chia, flax, sesame, soynuts). Easily available, a Ready-to-Eat Snack, a 7-In-1-Mix. That'd make it a Designer Salad!

Mahua Flowers

Where to buy? Not available easily. I bought half a kilo for fifty rupees from Mansaram, a Korku tribal from Harda, MP who offered from his food stall at the recently concluded Mahua Mahotsav, Tribal Museum, Bhopal tribal cuisine including mahua laddoo, mahua puri paired with a local saag, bajre ki kheer.

A word of caution. Since mahua flowers are picked up from the ground, the dried flowers are likely to have a little soil sticking to it, and must be cleaned before using it for edible purpose. That’s not difficult. Just soak it in water for a few hours and rinse well. Now, it’s good to use.

Mahua Cuisine

With the mahua bought from Mansaram, I have made mahua parathas, pairing it with tender green jute leaf curry from my terrace garden. Mahua-garnished salad, of course.

Here is a dessert I made today.

Dessert Creation by Chef with a Dash!*

Amul Butterscotch ice-cream served with a slice of mango, and a few soaked-to-soft mahua flowers. There was a power-cut in our area, and the ice-cream is a little runny; but the pairing was great.

On my request, Shiba Narayan Rana, a dear friend has sent from Odisha a packet of dried mahua flowers, the produce of his own mahua trees. I plan to make a few more dishes with mahua – chakel or chakuli – thin and crispy pancakes made with rice, black gram, and mahua flower batter; poda-pitha with the same batter; laddoo with alsi and/or til seed.

The easiest to do is this: Take a handful of dried mahua flowers, toss it on a non-stick pan, roast for 2 to 3 mins on low flame. It’s a tender flower, take care, don’t char it.

That’s it, enjoy once it cools.

Colours of Mahua

For those not familiar with mahua, here are a few photos:

Freshly-gathered pale-yellow corolla of mahua flowers.

Dried mahua flowers bought from Mansaram.

Mahua flowers after soaking and rinsing.

***

*My Dessert creation might have been inspired by a young chef- Prateek Sadhu's use of mahua flowers to garnish dessert serving in his Mumbai restaurant 'Masque'.

Anshu Vaish, an esteemed reader shared this:

"Years ago, I ate strawberry custard with mahua flowers - served at a dinner hosted by BMS Rathore and his wife at their home. Delicious dessert!"