Of Ghee roast , sada roast and Heat transfers

The sappadu ramargal's annual meeting was convened at this year at the famed age old Karpagam Mess in Mylapore. There was Venkatadri sitting adjacent to the president carefully recording the minutes of the meeting. All the members were present. The club does not tolerate anybody missing the meeting, they had decided it was sacrilege to the venue. So there was the usual talk about passing of motions by various people. All was fine it seemed. Then it was time for the gala event, hogging of food, for this was all the club is all about. Eating.

Ambhi was immediately called for. Ambhi appeared in his immaculate dress for the occasion. The owner of the mess was an ex-member of the club and had to quit due gastronomical reasons, he was very particular about the treatment. So there was Ambhi with his 100 holed yellow brownish sleeveless shirt (aka banniyan), the dhoti was, in true with the great traditions, was folded in the box way (dabba kattu), on seeing the amount of oil used to perfectly comb his hair every member of the club was satisfied that it was going to be a fat treat. Ambi stood there in rapt attention with the Gandhian pencil out of its usual position behind his ear now in his hand. Ambhi was ready for the fight. "Sambhar Vada da, Ambhi, then Adai Avial for desert get me that superb degree coffee, you know venkatadri these days I dont drink that much coffee, in my youth..........." , then there was "Ambhi oru ghee roast da, then i will have one bonda and then kesari, i cant have the basanthi you see my wife told me not to have so much fat" , "Ambhi nekku oru keera vada da, you know when the British was there in India they rated the Kapragam mess's keerai vada as the best, I have nominated it to be featured on the Food channel then I will have on special dosai da, make sure you make the dosa immediately after the ghee roast I am on diet you see" and it went on. Ambhi's pencil was moving at the speed of light jotting everything. Then with a smile the pencil went back to its high perch.

Every one was rubbing their banana leaves with glee. The food arrived. The ghee roast of Vasudeva Iyengar was in true style folded like a maharaja's crown and the special dosai of Swaminathan was folded neatly, with the creases sharp enough to cut fingers. This would have delighted all the members of the club. But today was not any normal day. Vasudeva Iyengar's son who had just entered IIT had taught his father the art and mysticism of heat transfer and he was raring to show off his newly obtained skill.

Vasudeva Iyengar, " Oi Swaminathar ummakku theriyumma oi umma dosai is losing heat faster. Ambhi you should stop serving dosas like this. Based on the laws of convection conduction and confusion his dosa is losing heat fast. And the taste of the dosa is in the heat. Enna sollrel oi ?"

Ambhi stood there totally confused about what was going on.

Swamintahan, "Oi umma payyan IIT porannu romba than pithikkrere. Sappdum oi"

V, "Athu illa oi sappadu nanna irukkanam ollyo athu than"

The discussion was just heating up or rather cooling down (i cant make up my mind)

There on the side was Parthasarathy a new engineer. He wanted to get in.

P, " Mama athu neengo sollrathu serriya varathu mama"

V, "Ennada appa nee yaaru ?"

P," Naan Parthasarathy namma _______ payyan amma athulla illa athu than sappda vanthen"

V, " Athu enn serriya varuthu acoding to cond..."

P," Illa mama actually onga dosai than most thermodynamically inefficient, since it is like a maharaja;s crown it is fully exposed to the ambient air and not only that there is the fact that air can move to the inside of the dosa making it lose heat faster. On the other hand mama's dosa is folded neatly and its layered since most of the dosa is not exposed to air it retains heat faster"

At this time Ambhi saw that V's mouth was fully open. He thought this would be the perfect time to pour the piping hot sambhar and the mediumly warm chutney.

P," Mama now that the sambhar is poured on the dosa it changes everything, now the thermal properties would be...."

S who had not had fun like this since the days of Sunil Gavaskar;s cricket thought it was enough and he piped in

S, " Dai Pachu pothum da. Irrukkattam. Oi Vasudeva intha heat transfer problemukku ennoda thoppannar oru sooper idea vechirunthar ya. Ennannu kekkariya 'vayamudindu sapdum oi'"

Every body smiled and started attacking the food with vigour. All was well at the sappadu ramar club.