Dosa is a kind of pancake made from a fermented batter. Its main ingredients are rice and urad beans. Dosa is part and parcel of the South Indian diet and popular all over the Indian subcontinent. Traditionally, Dosa is served hot along with sambar and chutney. It can be consumed with idli podi as well.

I like a masala omelette

They’re a good way to start the day

But I fancied trying a dosa

Breakfast the Indian way.

So we got up early that morning

Slipping out the hotel

And went to a nearby eatery

To give the dosa a try.

I don’t know what possessed us

Why we got one so big

But we went for a family dosa

When it came it was four foot long.

I started slowly from my end

My wife started slowly from hers

We hoped we’d meet in the middle

But it really looked quite a task.

Daunting but breakfast is breakfast

We could only do our best

I picked slowly from my end 

And my wife picked slowly from hers.

We could feel the stares of the locals

Feel them stealing a look

But one of them came to our rescue

By ordering one of his own.

But he didn’t begin as we had

Nibbling away from the end

With a deft blow of his hand to its middle

He broke the dosa in two

And as the truth of our error now struck us

He proceeded to break it all up.

We smilingly did as he’d done

And the locals all smiled at us!