As a malayali from Bangalore I grew up thinking that sambar belonged to malayalis. I remember the taste of that watery sambar that my mom made for my brother, dad and I. Though the variety of huge blocks of vegitables in it made us all mad at times, now I understand the importance of vegetables. I still crave for her sambar.

My perception about sambar was about to change. As I grew up to be a teenager and started going to my Kannada friends house, I realized that there is yet another version of sambar out there. The yummy Kannada sambar knocked me off my feet. It was love at first taste. However, I had this sad feeling lingering in my heart in some corner about the fact that sambar was not a mallu proprietary dish. I loved the new version of sambar in my life. I never missed a single opportunity to taste that yummy sambar with all those curry leaves and thadka.

Then one day I happened to eat sambar from my tamil friends house. That is one sambar that gave me the feeling that it must be the mother of all sambars. It was awesome. As I was devouring the sambar with idli on the side, I felt a little guilty. I felt that I am betraying the Kannada and mallu sambar. “I am a man with a big heart” I justified to myself, “I can love more than one sambar”.

Yet another incident in my life made it more complicated. I got married to a Telugu girl. She makes all kinds of sambar. She calls some as pappu chaaru, some as pappu pulusu and some as sambar. I am totally confused. I call them all sambar. When she serves them with all that love and devotion, I react with love and great fullness by saying "Thanks babe, love you". I could see the smile on her face. Then I go " Babe, the sambar is great". Now her face is filled with anger "That is not sambar. it is pappu chaaru...go man...you don't even care about what I am make for you".  I call her as my "pappu girl" with love...........for the sambar she makes.