Peanut Ladu – a primitive recipe

Bhatukali is a game played by children where they run a house, mostly kitchen, of their own using toy versions of the utensils and other kitchen equipments. In some ways it is similar to playing with a Doll’s House. They cook, clean and do various other activities that they see their parents doing around the house.
Cooking is a major part of playing Bhatukali. Many a times they cook virtual meals and enjoy with other playmates. We get many kitchen toy utensils and equipments in the market for playing this game. We used to have mostly metal ones. Now a days, we get more and more plastic made things. I grew up playing this game a lot. My son likes it too. I have been observing him playing this game with his friends quite a lot. And I was surprised to see a few new additions to the game. Once they decided not to cook for that day and visit a restaurant instead. We never did this simply because we never saw our parents doing this. One day they were arranging a birthday party. And all of them were busy talking on their toy mobile phones. They were consulting each other on phone about the menu and the gifts. Then they gave instructing, again on phone, each other about how to reach the venue. I was amazed by the way things have changed.
When we used to play the person coming in the house used to ring a bell by saying “Ding-Dong” now they give miss-calls.
Yesterday my son, aged two and a half, was playing all alone in the house. All his friends were busy. So he invited me to join in. I happily obliged. We decided to play Bhatukali. He was constantly giving me instructions about what to do. He was enjoying bossing me around. Then he asked for some “Khau”. Khau is a term difficult to describe, but I shall try. It can be anything, a sweetmeat or a fruit or any edible item given to children. The word khau has lots of meaning associated with it. Khau is given by elders, as a sign of love, to younger ones. My grandmother still sends me Khau. We used to get peanuts and jaggery. I gave my son the same thing yesterday. He was puzzled by this combination and asked me what to do with it. Eating peanuts and jaggery together is such a pleasure. I wanted him to know that. So I taught him a recipe which was our favorite Bhatukali recipe.
It will hardly qualify as a recipe. But still I told him step by step. Take a peanut divide it in two equal parts, it can be easily done. Then take a small amount of jaggery put it in between the two parts and that’s it. Your ladus are ready to eat. He liked them so much. I remembered Indira Sant’s poem साधासुधा माझा हात, बाळजीभ अमृताची …