There is a special bond amongst cousins. We’ve known each other since we were kids and we continue to keep in touch as we get older. Someone gets married, someone has a baby, someone dies. Every few years the gang gets back together and after whatever ceremony or tradition has been completed, we lounge on sofas or lie on the floor, sipping chai and talking for hours. Sometimes we talk about politics, sometimes philosophy and religion, often music and movies, but the topic we bond over most is when we talk about bodily excrement in all states of matter, solid, liquid and gas, especially gas. One of my cousins, who is one of the nicest persons I know and a really smart and respected physician, likes to tell this story about how she was once standing in line at a grocery store along with another one of my cousins who used to be overweight. Quite suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, she let out a silent but deadly fart. When she saw others in the line gasping and struggling to breathe as the toxic fumes engulfed them, she turned to my other cousin and said loudly, Buzz, what the hell, how could you? One of the others then dramatically enacts how she had to very skillfully balance around the figure of eight Indian toilet holes and then hold on to the walls to avoid falling in. Then there is the story about going to a village that didn’t have any toilets and walking through a farm to take a dump under a tree only to be scared off by a water buffalo that had ambled by. Not to be outdone one of the more adventurous types recalls how he had seen his stool sizzle through a mound of snow as he had to make an emergency deposit while on a hike in the Canadian Rockies. And then someone lets one rip loudly and proudly and everyone runs to the nearest window laughing hysterically. What did you eat today, someone shouts. Taco Bell someone responds. No, no, I know that smell someone else says, Ghoday kay chaney. Translated literally that means Horse’s Chickpeas, which are these small black chickpeas that apparently horses love to eat. You can buy these at most Indian grocery stores. Since they are quite hard and dry they need to be soaked for several hours, preferably overnight. Pressure cook them the next day for about 20 minutes. Then heat up some oil, brown some chopped onions and add a little ginger garlic paste. The masala my mom uses for this is very simple, mainly cumin powder and a bit of turmeric and cayenne pepper and salt. Once the oil separates from the masala add the boiled chickpeas, some chopped tomatoes and green chillies. Let it simmer for about fifteen to twenty minutes and to enhance the flavor add a teaspoon of tamarind paste. My mom serves this with a yoghurt based tempered kaddi and rice. One of my favorite foods to eat. And the farts that follow a few hours later would make all my cousins beam with pride.