We owe the Bard so much for his generosity and ingenuity in giving us some of the greatest one-liners, which we can twist, turn and convolute to suit our mood and purpose. I pay my humble respect to Mr. William and beg pardon for having adapted his iconic phrase to twist an adage that has bothered me time and again:”To Do or Die”.

The dictionary of English proverbs assures me that this saying means a determined and sometimes reckless effort to succeed or die fighting putting death before glory honour and the like. However, I have always associated this particular proverb with cowardice and escapism. You die doing, now why on earth would you do that? I would like to taste and feel what I have done and not die doing it. God forbid that I should kick the bucket then let me declare here and now that it is not because I died, doing whatever it was but because of reasons extraneous and totally unrelated to the act. There are just two choices (if you can call it that, maybe option would be a better word). You do or you don’t, simple! In my case, more often than not the latter takes precedence, not because of a lack of motivation, inspiration or intention (believe me, I am surrounded and consumed by all three). It is a 100-headed hydra called laziness that grips me, and the single-most important factor that stops me from penning the myriad ideas that constantly run all over my not so svelte frame before being relegated or even elevated to the domain of cerebral posterity.

Getting back to the original proverb, I feel it is a very limited way to look at a purpose. It is universal knowledge that everything has one end but the Germans differ here. They have a saying that goes, “Everything has one end only the (Wurst) Sausage has two”. Now that is a thought indeed. Funny isn’t it how you never think of life that way? Life too has two ends:  the long-end and the short-end, and it is totally upto us how to use them.

Now that brings me to typing out what I call my DEFINITELY DO SAUSAGE CURRY AND POTATO SALAD. For the Sausage Curry you can substitute the Sausage with Sheek Kebabs, both taste just as good. To start, thaw 4-5 sausages/kebabs and cut into one-inch pieces. Thinly slice a large onion, make a paste of cayenne pepper and powdered carom seeds, blanch three juicy red tomatoes take off the peel and purée. In a heavy- bottomed pan heat oil, lightly sauté the sliced onions (don’t brown) and kip the sausage in it and sauté for a while. Add the cayenne and carom paste and continue to sauté. Add the tomato purée and season with white pepper powder and salt to taste. Cover and let it cook for 3 minutes. You can add a spoon of tomato paste if you want and about a quarter cup of tepid water. The gravy should look thick and a luscious red with the sausage pieces bobbing out tantalizingly and the aroma of carom and cayenne swirling in the air, now that is something to LIVE for surely.

The Potato Salad another German invention has infinite variations depending on the genre of the potato (yes it is so!) region, season and the revered Oma (Grandmother), Mutti (Mother), Gross Tante Gretchen, (Great Aunt Gretchen), and all other relatives and non-relatives as well. The one here is a mixture of all the above and my touch. I make it with big to medium-sized new potatoes, the ones that are yellowish after peeling. Boil them in salt water but please take care not to make a mush. Cool and cut any which way you want but in a chunky style. Now dice two shalots into miniscule squares and a couple of spring onions too. Take about 12-14 gherkins and do the same deed to them. In a bowl, layer the potatoes and the shalots, the chopped bulbs of the spring onions and gherkins. Sprinkle very little salt, some pepper powder and gherkins juice on the potatoes and leave the bowl covered for a while. What I do is, hang some good quality curd (commercial if you please and not home-made, it is too watery) for a short while just to take out the excess whey and mix it with a generous amount of mayonnaise. Add a little powdered sugar and nicely whip it up. Add this to the potato and mix with a loving and gentle hand holding a wooden spoon! The wooden spoon does the trick. All the while keep tasting the seasoning. Keep it in the fridge for a while but remember to take it out 30 minutes before serving,this salad should not be served chilled. Oh and yes sprinkle the green part of the spring onions on top for that LOOK!!!

And, folks if you don’t DIE from gorging on all this, then you must surely be DOING it RIGHT.

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