The Botchu Party

When one thinks of Vizag, one thinks of beaches...perhaps even of fish ...or maybe even friends but no one absolutely no one thinks of a Botchu. A botchu (pronounced as (BHO-CHUE) sounds like a romantic hairy stuff grown around some body parts. A Botchu is a traditional Vizag dish like Vanjaram Pulusu. For those of you, who haven't heard of vanjaram pulusu, I can’t help you.

Anyway like I said, Botchu is a traditional Vizag dish which has become practically synonymous with all traditional vizag dishes. And Botchu is like any other fish and I always wondered why it is called that way. 

I was invited to this Botchu party by a Saikorian, a long lost Saikorian friend of mine. Who happened to be in Vizag after a long stint in the U S of A. I found him a totally changed man. He is now an actuary. Actuaries are not really known to be party animals. Their idea of a really wild night is cooking Maggi Noodles in less than one minute. They are known to be introverted people who don't even talk to themselves because they are not sure whether the other party would be interested. I was invited along with 2 other Saikorians. One was nicknamed Gurram in school. Gurram is a General Manager dealing with Molasses, who is a true amphibian. He can survive on land as well as in alcohol. Despite this tendency for booze, he has the physical profile of a Zapak warrior. Life indeed can be unfair. The other guy was nick named Chekku. In case you are wondering what ethnicity is he, Chekku is a Vizayanagarian who has a Zimbabian and Ethiopian passports but is working in Vizag on denial of entry there. We call him D & S because

a) He speaks 5 languages. No one listens to him in any of them, anyway.
b) He is the treasurer of our Vizag chapter.

Chekku is not exactly an actuary. He is a man of many words. Normally when such a group comprising of an actuary, Gurram, DS and I meet, their meetings could be had either in libraries or in Stock exchanges.

So this motley crowd was the audience for a Botchu party. The Botchu basically consists of 3 main ingredients i.e. Fish, Masala and more Masala. One needs a heated pot in which one adds the fish then while stirring, one must add in the masala and as a finale toss in more masala. While the fish is simmering in the pot and your neighbours are thinking of calling the Homicide department because of the smell, add in the dark Rum. If you don't add in the dark Rum in time it can have disastrous consequences e.g. it can be gulped down by Gurram. This mixture of Rum and fish keeps the masala from sticking to the sides of the pot and saves you a lot of four lettered words the next morning when you try to clean the pot. This forms a dense sticky mixture that looks a bit like the stuff in which the villains fall, in the Indiana Jones movies. To lend some additional taste, add some spices which have long interesting Aurvedic names and also Garlic.

There is a way to eat the Botchu. You can't just slurp it up like Sambar. I say it because I am reminded of the same Saikorian from the US of A. I once took him out to a Chinese restaurant that served what is called as "Teppanyaki" cuisine. Teppanyaki basically consists of meat cooked on a hotplate and is accompanied by a spicy sauce. Halfway through this Chinese meal, I asked him, what he thought of the meal. His immortal answer, which I should have tattooed on my back, was

"Deento mana School Sambar unte Mazhaa Vastundi"

But Botchu is different from Sambar. Eating this much of fish with rum can make you thirsty and not to forget, can also make you fat enough to cause solar eclipses on your own. As a measure to prevent this, you are supposed to imbibe any sour beverage like orange juice, apple juice or sugarcane juice gone bad. This apparently balances the effect of the fish and the rum.

The Botchu party lasted for about 3 hours during which we achieved increasing degrees of immobility. Eventually, we called for some forklift trucks to tow us back home. Well, just shows that not all actuaries like my friend are good hosts. Some of them are good at Botchus too.