It was one of the strangest sights I’ve ever seen. No, not a politician paying his electricity bill, or a traffic cop refusing a bribe—though those would rank quite high on the “Miracles List.” This was something simpler. I was down South for a wedding. A grand affair. The kind where even the flower arrangements looked like they were waiting to burst into song.
The food, of course, was a spectacle by itself. A full gastronomical parade from every part of India—Biryani that could make a Nawab weep, Chole Bhature that defied gravity, Appam and stew that flirted with your diet, and a dessert table that looked like it had just walked out of a dream sequence from a Bollywood movie.
But in the middle of this United Nations of food, there it stood. The Masala Dosa stall. And around it? A crowd so thick, it looked like Virat Koli had decided to hand out autographs while flipping dosas.
“But… but they must have eaten the same dosa in the morning!” I said, my voice trembling with the innocence of someone who clearly didn’t know better.
“Not the same,” said my friend, eyes twinkling. “This is fantastic.”
And that, dear reader, was my moment of revelation.
We often live under the illusion that new is always better. That exotic must be more exciting. That if you serve something from halfway across the globe, people will fall at your feet in gratitude and gluten intolerance. So we stretch ourselves—adding pineapple to biryani, chocolate to samosas, and sugar to our relationships.
But the truth is something else entirely.
It’s not about being new. It’s about being good. Even great. It’s about making the same thing better.
You know what people crave? A masala dosa that’s crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, with potato filling that whispers secrets of turmeric and mustard seeds, and chutney that makes your taste buds do the bhangra.
Choirs do it too. They sing the same carols every Christmas. Yet people show up year after year, not because the songs have changed, but because the harmony has deepened, the voices have matured, and the feeling hits home harder than ever before.
So why are we trying so hard to be different?
In our homes, in our jobs, in our attempts to do “something for the world,” maybe it’s not always about inventing the next big thing. Maybe it’s about loving better, listening harder, and showing up more. Maybe it’s about doing the same things—but with more sincerity, more joy, more spice.
Like that dosa.
Not just another masala dosa. But the best one they’d had all day.
So here’s to doing the same old thing, but better. And to making people queue up—not because it’s new, but because it’s right…!