A quick stroll in the early mornings, on the roads of various cities of Tamilnadu, can give you a wonderful sight of the paradigmatic idli under mass production in the road side Tiffin centres. The white steam emanating out of the ellipsoidical fermented dough of de-husked black lentils which are steamed in the shallow parabolic molds, serves as the staple tiffin the southern parts of ‘United States of India’.
The wolfram mathematics community proudly affirms the universal fact that idli and ellipsoid has fundamental Cartesian relationship with each other than any other shapes in the world of mathematics. The morning hunger can never be satisfied by any other shapes like stuffed semi spheres (Burgers) or even cylinders (Kola Puttu, No offence meant as we already have water issues with them!) which can have adverse effects on our bowel systems. The magnanimity of such oral daintiness is its cheap and easy availability and you never need a management graduate from IIM A or even a B, to come up with JIT management systems or Lean manufacturing techniques. An over-production in the idli, never ends up as a waste. It can always be re-engineered and value added to invent a new item called ‘Idli Uppuma’ or it can also be cut into pieces and can be sautéed to be christened as ‘Fried Idlis’ which can be served with same set of condiments.
I scribble here! 