The much awaited title:)

VISHU SADHYA was my 300th post.

When I posted that, I did not realize that I had completed 300 posts. This 300th  mark should have come quite some time ago, but for my health condition which prevented me from using my hands for a long time. What started as a mild pain at the base of my thumb in my left hand soon became very acute and I thought I may have strained my hands while doing a particularly difficult knitting pattern. We were planning a visit to our elder son at Jallandhar so I postponed any doctor's visit till then. As soon as we arrived in Jallandhar and I explained my problem to my son, he arranged for an MRI scan and diagnosed the condition as Tenosynovitis.

I was asked to restrict the use of my hands and hence my long absence from the blog. Though I started to write in between, I had to discontinue due to the pain. I am much better now and my son says I can use my hands for short periods.  There are a few posts which I started last year, which I thought I must complete. Since  I am continuing from where I left off,  I had difficulty in bringing back my thought process of that time. The following post is from February 2012.

Back in Jalandhar and am still settling down and getting acclimatised. It is still quite chill here and  temperatures are quite low even during the day. Added to that is the advice of my son to restrict the use of my hands by wearing splints. Easier said than done. What all activities can I restrict? Even though hubby dear takes care of all the kitchen work, still there are so many activities in my day to day life, where I have to necessarily use my hands. Anyway, I am trying to restrict as much as possible.

Good opportunity to reflect on all the years gone by, actually they zoom past me fast. Well why this sudden looking back? Not without reason. For it is only recently that I became a certified senior citizen, which gives me a lot of privileges officially and otherwise.

For the starters I became a real patti in the last year and all these years in our house patti denoted my children's patti and now when my son tells his son, "look at patti", I am naturally turning back to see where the patti is and only later do I realise that he is referring to me. There are other privileges or the long awaited privileges as per hubby dear. In the last few years he had been telling our children very often, "another couple of years and amma can travel at 50% concession in the Indian Railways". And as I was nearing the magic date, here comes our hon. rly minister with an announcement that women are eligible for senior citizen concession from age 58. All the years of eagerness put to rest.

The year is very special in our family because, it is not only me, but 3 of my cousins are also attaining the magical age. I am trying to visualise 4 children all under the age of 1 year in our ancestral home 60 years ago, yours truly being the senior most among them. It must have been a lovely year back home with the bawling of 4 children and the young mothers  tending them and comparing their activities. Mind you, 3 of us grew up in the same house till the age of 10 and two of us till age 15, until I went to college. When I say this to the youngsters today, they just cannot believe that 4 sets of parents with children could live in the same house for so long. Well that is history now. Today,  the youngest of my cousins has come to live in the same city as I live and we meet quite often reminiscing.

                                                 

What is special about attaining the age of 60? It is special because  the Hindu Calendar consists of  a cycle of 60 calendar years, each having a different name starting with Prabhava. When person attains the age of 60, it means he or she has completed one full cycle of the 60 years. In the days gone by, with limited availability of healthcare and nutrition, very few people completed one full cycle of 60 years. Hence there was a big celebration, which was actually a big thanksgiving for having been blessed with long life. The celebration with vedic rituals is known as "Shashtiabdapoorthi Shanthi", during which again, the person asks for forgiveness for any sin committed knowingly or unknowingly during this long journey of life. He actually retires from active life and spends time in spiritual activities. This was also the time to hand over the responsibilities of running the household to the next heir. Symbolically, the children celebrated the shashtiabdapoorthy of the parents, thus commencing on their taking over.

However with better healthcare and other facilities, these days the average life expectancy has increased, and many people live to much older age and their responsibilities never end. In fact on attaining the age of 60 and taking retirement from one's services, today's senior citizens have to be more active taking care of the grandchildren and the households. The children are just waiting for their parents to retire from their professional fields so that they can have them to come over and share their responsibilities of taking care of their children and running the household.

On Cloud nine (pun definitely intended)

One of the problems I faced towards the end of 2011 was my inability to use my computer to my full satisfaction; my Mac Mini crashed. Our elder son, who is a doctor (but knows a lot about computers technically) reported to his younger brother (the software engineer) who is in the USA. In typical NRI style he said, "the computer is very old, throw it and buy a new one". Doctor that he is, whose mission it is to revive everyone or thing, whatever condition they or it may be in, going to any extent, our elder son tried his best to revive the computer in the two days that he had before he went back. He was not able to install all the software, yet he managed to make it functional enough for my basic needs. My younger one gave me an ipad recently, which I use for mail, chatting and browsing the net. Yet I feel comfortable writing my blog on my desktop computer. However, in its revived avatar, it wouldn't perform many of the functions the way it used to; it felt different. We could not install iPhoto, which meant I could not download photos from my camera and upload to my photo album online. Each time I encountered a problem with the computer, our elder son would give me directions as to what to do over long distance phone and I would execute it; but the one thing which never happened was uploading photos from my desktop to the site. I did everything that our son said, but the computer would not obey my command. The never say die attitude in me made me sit at the computer every day, and  finally, I was able to upload photo from my computer this morning.

Yay!

Holiday

I am still not able to get over my hangover from the month long holiday and Diwali celebrations that we had. Yes, we had a great Diwali this year with both our handsome and charming sons, daughter in law and our ever so adorable and perfect grandson with us. We had lots and lots of fun and loads and loads of good food.
We had paruppu pradhaman, kozhukkattai, elai adai, sevai, puran poli, vadai, neyyapam, morappam, malabar paratha, stuffed parathas of various types, varieties of pulav, pathrode, cakes, semiya payasam, pal adai pradhaman, jangiri (jahangir), badusha, boondi laddu, mullumurukku, omapodi, ribbon pakoda, mixture, and samosas, to name a few.

Our sons, daughter in law and grandson arrived in Bangalore by navarathri end. We had a grand saraswathi pooja and vijayadasami followed by happy times in the company of our little bundle of joy. We had a great time like never before. In between we managed a trip to Puthucode and Guruvayoor.

Diwali was grand with boondi laddu, badusha, ribbon pakora and mixture. We bought crackers for diwali, something we had not done for 25 years. Our grand son thoroughly enjoyed the sparklers and flower pots and the chakras. He even enjoyed the exploding crackers that the neighbors set off.

We also celebrated the little one's first birthday, actually twice. First, according to Hindu calendar on his star birthday with Ayushya homam. We also did the jathakaranam, namakaranam and annaprasanam and we also had the varadhanam.

We had a cake cutting celebration followed by a lunch with our friends and extended family on his date of birth. The little one thoroughly enjoyed all the attention he received. We also enjoyed every moment we spent with him. He is such a wonderful kid, always cheerful and full of energy.
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Our son, daughter-in-law and grandson have since returned to US and our elder son is spending the last few days of his leave with us. I am reminded of the times we used to leave our parental home enmasse after family get-togethers for various functions. Distinct is the memory of the day all us, including the newly married couple, left Puthucode after our youngest brother's marriage leaving only our parents behind at Puthucode. The party also included some family friends who had come to attend the wedding from Bangalore. One of them said, "Next time onwards please book your return tickets on different days so that your parents will not be left alone all of a sudden". I am also reminded of the proverb my dear mother in law used to repeat at various occasions,"alandalanda nazhi ozhinjozhinju varum" which when translated means, history repeats itself. One understands the implications of the various actions we undertake because of our various commitments only when one is at the receiving end. When one is busy with the family, one has no time to think of the effects of our routine actions.

Navarathri Neyvedyam / Recipe:- Puttu

Puttu is the favoured neyvedyam on a Navarathri friday. I had been making "Aval Puttu" for Navarathri all these past years. Sometime back, one of the readers had asked me the recipe for Therandukuli  puttu. Thats when I decided to prepare rice puttu. On an experimental basis I prepared this puttu earlier with fantastic results.

This puttu prepared using roasted rice flour, jaggery, cardomom and coconut was traditionally made when girls attained puberty. There used to be celebrations on a grand scale and puttu  was prepared using large quantities of rice. Rice flour was roasted in big urulis. During the days when girls were married before attaining puberty, tradition demanded that huge quantities of puttu be sent to the in-laws house.

Since I have very little time , I shall stop my story telling and proceed with the recipe.


Ingredients:

Raw Rice: 1 cup
Jaggery: 3/4 cup
Grated Coconut: 2 tbsps.
Cardomom powder: 1tsp.
Ghee: 1 tbsp.
Cashew nuts: 1 tbsp.
raisins: 1 tbsp.
Salt a pinch
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp.
Warm water : 1/2 cup

Method:
Wash and soak the rice for 2 hours. Drain and grind to make a fine powder. Roast the rice flour to a light pink color. Allow to cool a little. Add a pinch of salt and turmeric powder to the rice flour. Mix well. Sprinkle warm water little by little to the rice flour mixture and mix gently, until it attains a bread crumbs consistency. Try to make a ball using the rice flour, with the fist. It should form a ball in the fist and crumble when the fist is open. That is the right consistency. Do not add more water. Transfer the rice flour to a clean, cloth and make a bundle.

Keep the cloth bundle on a steamer and steam for 20 minutes. Remove and spread on a clean plate. There should not be any lumps after steaming. If there are any lumps, run the rice flour in the mixer for a few seconds.

Meanwhile, prepare a hard syrup with jaggery(kallu pakam). Add the grated coconut and cardomom powder . Remove from heat and add the steamed rice flour little by little,stirring constantly. Add 1/2 tbsp. ghee and stir again. Stir until all the rice flour gets coated with jaggery and the puttu turns out like sand grains. It should not turn to a sticky mass(this means the syrup is not the right consistency).

Heat the remaining ghee and fry the raisins and cashew nuts to a golden brown color and pour over the puttu.

Offer to Devi and distribute to all guests. You will win accolades.

Happy Navarathri!

Sweet Tidings (Gulab Jamun recipe)

In India, it is traditional to break all happy news along with sweets. I understand that in North India the type of sweets distributed changes with the gender of the new born baby. Thus people will easily know it is a boy if laddus are distributed (I frankly do not know what sweet is distributed if it is a girl or perhaps they don't distribute any sweets at all if it is a girl). In the south, the saying, "Vayile sakkarai podanum," (put sugar in the mouth) was literally followed until couple of decades ago. So when a baby is born, it was customary to distribute a small packet of sugar and one banana along with one measure of paddy and a coin to all. The ritual is known as varadanam. The idea here was to request  the blessings of everyone for the well being and long life of the new born baby. (We children promptly exchanged the paddy for aval from "aval Krishnan"). With no fast communications systems like today's global network, the news of the new addition to the family was communicated to the paternal grandparents personally along with a tray of sugar and banana (sometimes it took 2 or 3 days as the news had to be communicated on an auspicious day only). This ritual is known as "Shobhanam Chollal." Varadanam was performed in the paternal grandparents' home as well. Also when the friends and relatives arrived to visit the new born, they brought along some sugar and put a pinch of sugar in the little one's mouth. These customs have become obsolete these days. Feeding the new borns with sugar is not allowed for more reasons than one.

When my own grandson arrived, I prepared Gulab jamuns, as it was also Deepavali in a few days. Deviating from the practice of using the readily available Gulab Jamun mix, I prepared it the traditional way, using khoya and the result was yummilicious!

Here is the recipe  for all of you to relish this yumy sweet.

Ingredients:

Unsweetened Khoya : 200gms
Maida:                        1 tbsp.
Soda-bi-carb               1 pinch(strictly)
fresh curds: 1 tbsp.
Raisins/blanched almonds : 1 tbsp. (optional)
Oil for deep frying
Sugar                            : 500gms
Rose essence: 1 tsp.
Cardamom powder: 1 tsp.

Heat sugar and 500ml. water in a wide mouthed pan and boil until the syrup is thickened to a sticky consistency. Add cardamom powder and rose essence. Keep aside.


Crumble the khoya. Add maida and soda-bi-carb. Mix lightly with finger tips. Add curds if necessary and make a soft dough. Make small marble shaped balls of the dough and stuff a raisin or almond in each of them. Heat the oil in a pan. Dont allow it to smoke. When the oil is heated, lower the heat and fry the jamuns few at a time. When they swell and are fried to a deep brown color, remove, drain the oil and put in the hot sugar syrup. Allow the jamuns to soak for 10-12 hours.

nJOY!

Long Long Vacation (Hibernation)

Well, it has been a long time since my last post and have I been busy! Nothing special, just the usual - a bit of travel, a lot of knitting and sewing and cooking and visiting, along with my already busy routine work. Many a time I almost started my post and couldn't.

Sometime back my sister-in-law asked me, "Why haven't I seen any new posts, Akka?"  "Ever since R was born I have been busy," I replied. She had a hearty laugh and said, "But they are in the US and you are in India." "I am simulating having a new born baby at home," I said. Jokes apart, until few years ago it indeed was a busy time to have a new born baby at Indian homes. It is not very different in these days except that most women prefer to stay back at their homes and ask their mother or mother-in-law to go ever and help them.

Then, the whole house would be bursting with activity with so many people to help around. Activities begin from the time the news arrives that the daughter is pregnant. Discussions are held as to who should be asked to come and stay for those few months when the baby is born and the new born and mother are confined (the delivery is known as confinement in most places). There are always aunts or grandmothers who are free to come and spend a few months to be of help in the family. When the daughter is brought home during her 6th or 8th month of pregnancy, every care is taken to see that she is comfortable and eats well and exercises lightly. (Expectant mothers of today have no such luxuries, what with having to work almost until the date of delivery so that they could have all the leave available after the baby arrives). The maid is given special instructions to make herself available at all times.

"How will I contact you if my daughter goes into labour late in the night?"  my mother asked our maid  one evening, when I was expecting my baby at my maternal home. I burst out laughing and my mother said, "why are you laughing?" I said, "if I go into labour you should be calling the midwife and not the maid." "Don't worry about what she says Amma, what does she know. You just come to your backyard and shout my name, I will come," said the maid. She lived about a kilometre away and we could see her house from our backyard across paddy fields and a canal. Sure enough the maid was the first one to be informed as the lady went into labour. She is the one who would make all arrangements for the lady's comfortable delivery and keep things ready for the midwife and take over from the midwife after the baby arrives. She would sit with the new mother and baby and give them all the nursing care and also take care of bathing the baby and the mother . The aunt who had arrived for help would be coordinating between the new mother and the main household and taking care of the food and medicines of the new mother and the baby. The house would be in a perpetual state of activity like buying the herbs for the medicines and preparing the medicines as per tradition and boiling the bathing water for the new mother with herbs and preparing the massage oil, etc. And of course there were festivities when the baby arrived. On the 7th day the paternal aunt and grandparents would arrive with bangles and anklets for the newborn baby. This function is known as Kappu. Naming ceremony on the 11th day follows if the father of the baby is present. The baby is put in the cradle for the first time on the 28th day. The festivities would go on and on.

I was reminiscing on all these when my own adorable and perfect grandchild arrived though he was halfway across the globe. And yet my handsome and charming son made sure that we did not miss out on any excitement by calling us each minute and giving us the status report from the very minute the gynecologist advised my daughter-in-law to get admitted in the hospital for delivery. He even made me listen to the  first cry of the baby. Our days were spent here in India wondering if the baby slept well, fed well, how the new mother was, how were they managing, etc. So every evening and morning we would be sitting in front of our PC chatting with our son and asking questions about the happenings there and he in turn would patiently answer all our queries. Though it is not a tradition there, my son's mother-in-law graciously agreed to come and spend one month with them to be of help to them with the new baby.

As I said, the first few months after the baby arrives are very busy and critical especially in the case of the first baby as the mother is not experienced in taking care of the baby. This is especially true in the nuclear family set up, as the children do not get to see other babies growing up. Whereas in the olden days, there were always some little children in all the families and also in the neighborhood. And like I said, there was always help available to take care of all the needs. The first thing my mother asked me after my grandchild was born was, "who is giving bath to the baby?". It was a big question. I asked the same question to my son even before the baby was born. "We will take care ma," he said. Though my mother has 7 children and more than a dozen grandchildren and great grandchildren my mother does not know to give bath to a baby. We always had a maid to do that. My son sent me a movie of him bathing his son.

Today's youngsters are very very accomplished I should say. My daughter-in-law is managing the baby and home all alone and has no complaints. My son is able to manage his busy schedule at workplace and come home and take care of the new born baby and other requirements and also keeps us informed of all the happenings there on a day to day basis.

We all wish them a healthy and happy and long life.

Down Memory Lane

On his routine phone call, our younger son  (handsome and charming) mentioned the fast approaching  Halloween festival and how the whole neighborhood was getting ready for the festival. This brought back memories of our US visit during Halloween years ago. The whole place was filled with varieties of pumpkins and pumpkin festivals were being held all over the place. We had been to a few such festivals to see the pumpkin carvings.

This also brought to my mind that it was around this time that I started this blog in October 2005. I cannot just believe that this blog has been going on for the past 5 years. What started as just a pastime has become a demanding obsession now.  Our son casually told me one day,"Why don't you start a blog,  Ma?". I actually was not very conversant with the term blog, then. Although I had been using the Internet since the later 90s when our son went to the US for his higher studies to send him emails, chat with him and later to browse topics of my interest (read knitting, embroidery, hobby ideas etc), I had not been browsing any blogs till then. Our son explained to me what a blog was and I was still not sure what I would write there time and again. He said,"write whatever you want to write." After much deliberations and prompting by hubby dear, I said that I would try to write about all things happening around us today and how different they are from what they were when I was growing up. Or to put it in other words, how my astute and blessed mother-in-law would have commented on current affairs had she been around. That's how we decided on the name of the blog "Ammupatti's thoughts."

Ammu was the name of my beloved, alas late, mother-in-law in whose honor I have named my blog. Originally I intended to write my observation of everything around through her eyes (what she would have said were she to be around) for she was a keen observer and a lateral thinker. I learnt a lot about people's  body language and the actual meaning of their words from her. She had this wonderful ability to make friends with everyone, and engage in long conversations with them, be they little kids, teenagers, older people, college goers, anybody. She did not think any one was unreachable. And she had this "never say die" attitude, which I am still  learning. There was never a dull moment when she was around. She could go on talking to people of all ages and cultures. She would even talk to my friend Veena, who spoke no other language other than Kannada and my mother-in-law did not speak any Kannada. "What are you saying to Veena, Amma?" I would ask her, "She doesnt know our language." "She can perfectly follow what I say," she would reply.

And what started as just thoughts, soon metamorphosed into a food blog, owing to the continuous requests from my readers. I never knew today's youngsters would be so interested in learning cooking the traditional style. So I keep writing, though not as much as I would like to, due to my various other preoccupations.

Initially, not many people knew about my blog except close family members. Soon, other relatives around the world started noticing someone named Ammupatti writing about Puthucode and also observed some family photographs. They could not recognise who the author was, as there was no Ammupatti in my family. One asked the other and the chain continued until it reached one of my siblings who explained who the author was. Other Puthucodians also started noticing this blog about Puthucode. Soon enough I had many readers from all over the globe, some of whom have become very close friends and even visited me at my home in Bangalore and it is a nice feeling.

My brother told me this interesting incident that happened during this past Navarathri, which as I have said many times, is a very big festival in Puthucode. One lady who was visiting Puthucode along with some friends asked my mother (taking her to be just another Puthucodian),  which village she belonged to. My mother said she belonged to South village. (We have four main streets in our village which run due south, east, north and west). This lady then asked my mother, if she knew one Ammupatti from South village. My mother said that there was no Ammupatti in south village. The lady insisted that there was one. Then my mother asked her what her connection with Ammupatti was and the lady said that she just wanted to meet this grand old lady from South village who keeps a blog by the name of  Ammupatti's thoughts. My mother had a hearty laugh and said, "Oh that is my daughter." My brother insists this lady was pretty disappointed. "She was expecting to meet an octogenarian," he says.

This journey would not have been possible at all without the continuous support from my hubby dear and our beloved, handsome and charming sons, who patiently read all my drafts and gave me suggestions to improve and also helped me with the photographs. And of course, all of you readers, without whose inspiring comments, I would not have continued writing. Thanks to all of you.

I miss my dear mother-in-law and beloved appa, who would have been very happy to see that I was maintaining a blog with such good readership. These two were the people who were most proud of whatever I did. I actually may have inherited this writing bug from my appa, whose letters and diaries were always very interesting to read. My mother-in-law also used to write exhaustive letters, which give us a lot of merry moments even today.

Thank you my readers, once again and best wishes

Durgashtami, Mahanavami and Vijayadashami

We are already into the 8th day of Navarathri. Durgashtami, Mahanavami and Vijayadashami are the 3 most important days of Navarathri. Durgashtami is specially celebrated in Kerala as “Pooja vaipu”(keeping for the pooja). On the evening of Durgashtami, after cleaning the Pooja room, children keep all their books on a decorated stool for pooja. All the holy books like Ramayana, Mahabharatha and other books of religious importance are arranged. The books are then covered with a red silk cloth.

On Mahanavami day, Saraswathi pooja is performed to the collection of books. All family members including the children perform the pooja. The neivedyam on Saraswathi pooja includes palpayasam, vella payar and vada. Arati and neivedyam are done in the evening also. On the next day, i.e., Vijaya dashami day, punarpooja is done to the collection of books. The neivedyam on Vijayadashami day includes neyyappam and payasam.  After the pooja and arathi,  the books are distributed to the respective owners. All the members sit facing east and after writing the alphabet (Vidhyarambham or initiation to studies) in rice, start reading the books.Children are sent to school only after Vidhyarambham.

Vidhyarambham or Aksharabhyasam (initiating to the alphabets) is done on Vijayadashami day for children above the age of 2 who are not yet initiated to letters. After the pooja, children sitting on the laps of their parent, are made to write “Om Maha Ganapathaye Namah” followed by all the alphabets on rice filled in a tray. From now on they can start reading and writing.

In Kerala Vidhyarambham as a community festival is conducted in many places, the more famous one being Thunjan Parambu. Thunjath Ramanujan Ezhuthassan was a very famous poet of Kerala and he is considered as the father of Malayalam language. The place (in Malappuram district of Kerala) where he lived has been converted into a memorial and huge function of initiating children to Vidhyarambham takes place here. It is believed that children who are introduced to learning here will attain great scholastic skills.

Many temples in and outside Kerala also have Vidhyarambham function on Vijayadashami day. Temples like Mookambika in Kollur (Karnataka) have Vidhyarambham function on all days of the year.

Saraswati pooja is also known as “Adachu pooja” (closed pooja) as the books are kept covered and not touched for two days. One is not supposed to read or write on these two days. When we were children, we would be so happy to keep the school books covered for two days. And yet, we did not miss out on any story books, for which we were promptly admonished. But these are not our school books, we used to say.

Vijaya Dashami is also celebrated as Aayudha Pooja. People keep all their tools and house hold knives etc., and do pooja to them. Vehicles are also decorated and pooja is done to them.My friend Veena, to whom Vidhyarambham was a new word when I introduced her to our custom, always asks me, "Why are you not keeping your household implements like knife, scissors etc., on pooja”? She would herself answer, "For you, books and pen are your tools”.

Happy Saraswathi pooja and Vidhyarambham!

Deepavali

Deepavali represents the victory of light over darkness, goodness over wickedness.

Hope every one had a nice Deepavali (yes, that's how it is known in the southern states of India). As is my practice I go back to my childhood days on each festival day and the things I remember are being woken up very early in the morning and given an oil bath and given pakoda and ukkarai to eat at that unearthly hour. Deepavali was not a big festival in rural Kerala in those days. Only the Tamil speaking Iyers or Iyengars celebrated Deepavali in Kerala in those days. They also did not have a big celebration unlike people from other states. Especially for Puthucodians, coming as it does after the greatest festival of the year, Navarathri, Deepavali was a low key affair.There were no fire crackers or new clothes. We also did not light diyas for Deepavali, we would do that for Karthikai. Kerala had fire crackers for Vishu and new dresses for Onam. So what did we have for Deepavali?

There of course was a special snack preparation for Deepavali in all the houses and invariably all the houses had Pakoda and Ukkarai for Deepavali. Then on the eve of Deepavali, all the households stored water in big utensils called Anda and Arkkinchatti, emptying the water from the wells. The firewood stove in the bathroom was also kept ready for heating up the bath water early next morning. Though usually we all went to the nearby stream for our bath, on Deepavali day everyone took bath in hot water at home.There would invariably be the story telling session by our Echiyamma and on the eve of Deepavali it was the story of Narakasura vadha. (I narrate the story as told by our echiyamma). Our echiyamma would wake us all up at 3 am. While our mother got busy with lighting the big stove in the bathroom for heating the water, our athai would make a small kolam and place a wooden palakai (a small stool) on the kolam. We all would sit on the palakai one by one and our echiyamma would pour one spoon of oil on top of our head symbolically. Our athai would take over from there and oil our hair and body thoroughly and get us all ready for our bath. Our athai and mother would give us all a hot water bath rubbing our hair with soapnut powder and body with greengram dal powder. Our athanga (athai's eldest daughter) would dry our hair and comb and plait them. Then came the most important ritual. We all would put on our best dress (not brand new) and say our prayers in the pooja room. Then we were given the ribbon pakoda and ukkarai to eat. Sankaran, the man who milked our cows and buffaloes would not have come at that early hour and hence we would have to wait for our coffee until he came. We would all crib for coffee. When we had had our snacks and our mother, athai and echiyamma had gone for their bath (they went to the stream for their bath), we all would fall asleep one by one where we sat (We were not allowed to sleep in bed after the bath). When Sankaran finally came and milked the cows and coffee was made, we would all be woken up for the second time. By now the sun would have risen and we would go out and meet our friends and eat some pakoda or ukkarai from their homes as well, come back home and have a breakfast of Idli and Chutney.

In the evening the children (under 20) of all villages took out a procession of a decorated chariot or car (ther in tamil) to the accompaniment of Nadaswaram. The children made their own collection of funds for this and this was a good entertainment for all of us.

After a few years, some households started making sugar based sweets, like Thengaiburfi and diamond biscuits and it is only recently that people have started making mysore pak and laddus for Deepavali in Kerala.

So after my marriage when I came to live in Bangalore, we always made sugar based sweets like Badusha, rava laddu, Mysore-pak, Boondi laddu, Gulab jamun etc., and never tried Ukkarai. So this Deepavali I prepared Ukkarai. I also prepared Methi Para, thenkuzhal and Mysore-pak for Deepavali.

An Ode to Puthucode (Now With Pictures)

Unfortunately I didn't have all my pictures ready when I posted about Puthucode Bhagavathy. Now I have them ready and here they are. The picture at the top is of course the Bhagavathy Herself.
First the Temple Entrance:

Next the Outer Prakaaram

Third, the Mahaganapathy Sannidhi

Next, the Namaskara Mandapam

Finally, the Naga Prathishta

An Ode to Puthucode

I realize that I have just completed 200 posts. I am dedicating this 201st at the lotus feet of Puthucode Bhagavathy, Sri Annapoorneswari, whose blessings have guided me in all my endeavours and who showers Her blessings to one and all by her enchanting smile. A while ago, at the request of a fellow Puthucodean, I had written up a piece about our Bhagavathy. Parts of this have been published earlier at Hindupedia as well as here. I am now republishing it here.

Puthucode is a small picturesque village lying at the westernmost border of Palghat Dt and bordering Trichur Dt. It is approximately 40kms away from both Palghat and Trichur towns. The nearest railway stations are Palghat and Trichur. The nearest airports are Coimbatore and Cochin. The village is located 6 km west of Vadakkencherry on the Palakkad-Thrissur stretch of National Highway 47. There are regular bus services from Trichur and Palghat to Puthucode.

Puthucode agraharam has four streets with row houses and was exclusively inhabited by Brahmins until a few decades ago. Where the four streets meet is the famous Annapoorneswari temple. It would be apt to say the four agraharams radiate from the central Annapoorneswari temple. The temple occupies a vast ground with a large outer prakaaram and an inner prakaaram. The main entrance to the temple faces the east and as you enter the temple there is a deepastambham beyond which is the entrance to the inner prakaaram of the temple. The inner prakaaram is also very large with wide halls known as vathil madams on the four sides where discourses and concerts used to take place. The madapalli or the cook house is also situated here. As you go inside is the Mahaganapathy Sannidhi facing east. Going around Mahaganapathy Sannidhi you reach the main temple of Annapoorneswari. The Deity faces west. The Deity is also known as Santha Durga and is a very powerful Devi bestowing her benevolent blessings to all her devotees. The idol of Devi is almost 4 feet tall with four hands. She is always dressed in a pattu pavadai. To see the Devi in her full chandanakappu after the deeparadhana in the evening is at once electrifying. It gives one such joy, peace and real happiness. One just cannot take the eyes off Devi when she is adorned in full chandanakappu.
It is said that Sage Parasurama installed 108 Durga temples in many parts of Kerala and this is one among them. Currently it comes under Naduvil madom Devaswam. The daily poojas are performed by Tamil Brahmins except during Navarathri festival when they are performed by thantris affiliated to Naduvil Madom Devaswam.

In front of the garba griham or sanctum is the namaskara mandapam, where veda parayanams and other daily recitals of Devi Mahatmyam and Shyamala Danadakam are done by devotees.
When you come around the namaskara mandapam, there is the prathishta for Naga devata, Dharmasastha and Palliyarkkal Bhagavathy on the north west corner of the main temple. A unique offering (vazhipadu) of azhil is conducted in front of this sannidhi. A new cloth (a set of four thorthus) dipped in gingelly oil is hung on the pole in between the two stone pillars. After doing a special pooja the archaka lights the cloth dipped in oil and allows it to burn down to ashes. This ash is used as prasadam and smeared on the forehead. It is believed that this offering will relieve one of all types of obstacles and misfortunes in life.

The other important offerings (vazhipadu) in the temple are kalabhabhishekam, niramala, chuttuvilakku, archanas, etc.

On the outer prakaaram, is the west nada, which is also known as aanapandhi which has the gold plated dwajasthambam. This is where the thayambaka and keli take place during navarathri celebrations.

Along the northern compound wall of the temple is the agrisala, where cooking and dining take place during the annadhanam of navarathri.

The sarat navarathri during the months of September and October is the biggest festival in the temple. All the Devi’s devotees who are far from home assemble at Puthucode for these nine days. The dwajarohanam for the festival is on the prathama after Mahalaya Amavasya and the aarattu on vijayadashami day or the tenth day from the dwajarohanam. There are processions with caparisoned elephants twice a day for the first four days inside the temple around the outer praakaram and on the following four days the procession of caparisoned elephants with accompanying panchavadyam and chendamelam is taken to the four villages on successive days, starting with the South Village on the sixth day. The utsavamoorthy of the deity is taken atop the caparisoned elephant to all the villages for Her to see Her subjects. There is a pallivetta on the ninth night followed by aarattu on the tenth day. During navarathri the utsavamoorthy is taken atop the elephant to the nearby stream every morning where the deity is given a bath and after due alankarams taken back to the temple.

Offerings of measures of paddy and rice, puffed rice, flowers, etc known as parayeduppu are made to Bhagavathy during the procession of elephants to the respective villages. The parayeduppu for the south village is on the aarattu day when the deity returns to the temple after her holy bath in the stream.

After aarattu the elephant has to touch the dwajasthambham which marks the end of the festival for that year.
In 2003, a tusker pushed the kodimaram instead of touching and it came off at the root. Devotees took this as a signal from the Goddess and installed a new one covered with full gold at an expense of over Rs. 50 lakhs.

True to Her name there is annadhanam on all the nine days of navarathri for all devotees. Puthucode pulinkari which is served with rice and olan is unique to this navarathri sadhya. (There is a famous saying among the Palghat Brahmins which goes like this – Puthocode vitta gramamum illai, pulinkariye vitta koottanum illai – which can be translated to “Puthucode is the ultimate in agraharams and pulinkari is the ultimate in vegetable curry") The sadasadaya payasam (Idichu pizhinja payasam) offered to Bhagavathy during these days is also very famous.

In the past the Navarathri Sadhya was conducted from the annuities offered by various people to the temple. However with the enactment of land reform bills in the early 70s all the annuities to the temple were stopped and for sometime there was not enough funds even to conduct the daily poojas of the temple. With the cooperation and effort of the villagers a trust called SAPCO (Sri Annapoorneswari Pooja Coordinators) was formed and the poojas and other daily rituals have been reinstated with increased vigour. The Devi has blessed all Her children with wealth, health and great careers and they in turn pay their respects to Her by donating to the temple funds.

The temple is open from 5.30am to 10.00am and 4.30pm to 9.00pm daily for worship. The deeparadhana in the evening is at 6.30 pm.

At the end of North Village is a Siva temple. The temple is situated at a lower level than the surrounding village. There is a large tank known as ayyankulam in front of the Siva temple. The presiding deity faces east. There are also sannidhis of Mahaganapathy and Dharmasastha inside the temple. The annual festival in the Siva temple starts on the Thiruvathira day of the Malayalam month of Dhanu and the aarattu is on the eighth day. Mahasivarathri is also celebrated in a grand manner with Maharudram, Abhishekam etc. Annabhishekam on the Pournami day of the Malayalam month of Thulam is very famous.

The temple is open for worship at 5.30am to 10.30 am and again at 4.30pm to 9.00pm.

Just outside the Siva temple there is a newly constructed SivaMahal in North Village, which can be used for functions like weddings, upanayanams etc.

Mango Mania

This is the first time I spent all the summer months in Hyderabad and what an experience it has been. For a person who has lived in Bangalore for 35 years where the maximum temperature never exceeded 34 deg C, the day temperatures of 45 deg C for a continuous period of almost 3 months is an experience. We just got roasted. Not used to this high temperature and losing essential minerals and salts by perspiration one always felt exhausted and tired with muscle cramps and summer boils. However, I learnt to beat the heat by drinking juices with added salt, and having kanji with added salt for dinner. At last the monsoon rain reached Hyderabad yesterday evening. We had a heavy down pour for about 20 minutes yesterday and we have been having sustained showers since the afternoon. I hope the temperatures come down.

The best thing about summer is the surfeit of mangoes. We had plenty of mangoes this year and we really enjoyed them. For a true Keralite no amount of mangoes is too much. There is a saying in malayalam, “Aaru maasam chakkayum mangayum, Aaru maasam anganeyum inganeyum,” which means Keralites live by jackfruits and mangoes for 6 months in a year and somehow manage the remaining 6 months. The saying was of course true only in the olden days when, as I have always said, people lived by the seasonal fruits and vegetables of that particular region. Especially in remote places like my maternal grandparents’ home, where we used to spend all our summer holidays during our childhood, we actually had only mangoes and jackfruits curries and preparations on all days. It was either manga koottan or chakka kari or chakka kootan and manga pachadi. Did we ever get tired of eating so many mangoes and jackfruits? Never. These days with all types of vegetables and fruits available all through the year, people don’t have to depend on chakkayum, mangayum. And yet, give me a manga pulissery or chakka kari any day and I would enjoy it immensely. Even the younger kids of our family, though they don’t like most of the traditional dishes prepared at home, devour manga kootans.

When we were growing up we had large mango orchards both at our paternal and maternal grandparents’ homes. In our maternal grandparents’ home where the house stood amidst acres and acres of greenery, wherever you turned you could see mango trees and jack fruits trees laden with fruit. Just one breeze and the court yard would be full of mangoes. When you stepped out of the house you could collect any number of mangoes. Any one who came home, from guests to beggars would be sent back with a big bag of mangoes. In our paternal grandparents’ home where we grew up, the orchards were far from home and only baskets and baskets of mangoes arrived as headloads. The mangoes were spread on hay in a room upstairs and we ate mangoes as and when we pleased. That was also the time all the cousins who were living outside the state would come home for summer holidays and our Kalathappa (our grandfather was called Kalathappa by all) was beside himself with joy seeing all his grandchildren enjoying the fruits of his labour. “Thinuungo, Thinnungo, Thinnin, Thinnin” (eat as much as you want), he would say.

Mangoes and Jackfruits in all forms are used by Keralites . From this size for kadugumanga

to this size for manga koottans, pachadis, aavakaya, manga curry, manga chammandi, pachakadugumanga.

And fruits as well. We also make special dishes with the mango fruit.

Similarly with jackfruit.
Idichakka

Big jackfruits.

Amman Amman Ooracha

Sometime back my younger sister-in-law asked me, "Akka what is this kakkai kalile letter your brother has been saying?" When I asked my brother what it was, he said “I was telling her even if akka sends a letter tied to the leg of a crow, anna would visit her”. He was referring to my immediate younger brother who lives in the same city as I do and whenever I need him I just have to call him and he will come immediately. This is in reference to a story we were told as children.

However, whenever this kakkai kal (crow's leg) letter is referred to, I am always reminded of the close relationship shared by my grandmother (Echiyamma) and her brother (whom we used to affectionately address as Amman). My grandmother had three brothers, of whom two lived in the same village as she (Puthucode). Amman was the eldest of the three and my Echiyamma and Amman shared a special bond. She just had to think of him and he would be there. He was a great Yajurveda scholar (His name was Anantharaman but was more popularly known as Chami Vadhyar) and as such was always busy with various poojas and yagnas and often was outside Puthucode. Whenever he was in Puthucode he would definitely visit her at least once a day. Echiyamma never took a big decision until she had consulted with Amman.

I can, to this day, visualize him sitting opposite our Echiyamma in the tharamelthara (this is a raised platform in the living room where people would sit) or on the floor next to her easy chair where she would be reclining. The children would be gathered around listening to them as they had some interesting tales to share. He would narrate all that happened on his tours and she would bring him up to date with all that happened at home.

Our Amman had a great sense of humor and was very affectionate towards all of us. He would enthrall us with all the stories he had heard. He would bring back whatever was special from the places he visited. I remember once he brought a few carrots and a lemon and gave to my Athai (my paternal aunt) and told her, “grate the carrot and cut a green chilly into small bits. Mix them, sprinkle some salt and squeeze the lemon over it. It will taste delicious.” This was one of the dishes served to him at the function that he had last attended. We had not heard of carrots in Puthucode those days. Such was his affection towards his sister and her children.

As usual, I started with the story but wandered into rambling about our Amman. I will continue with more rambling about Amman at a later date perhaps. I am also reminded of this story when someone wants to say, "Chumma irukkayo, swarupathe kattattumo" (Will you shut up or do you want to see my true form?). The full story is posted on Kathai Kathaiyam Karanamam.

Important festivals in May 2009

Someone rightly pointed out there aren't any important festivals that we celebrate in the month of May. That is if you do not count Chithra Pournami as a festival celebrated at home. Chithra Pournami is the full moon day in the month of Chithirai (April-May) and is celebrated as the birthday of Chitragupta. This year Chithra Pournami is on the 9th May.

Chitragupta is the accounts keeper of Lord Yama. He keeps the accounts of the good and bad deeds committed by the humans and advises Lord Yama of the appropriate place for them in heaven or hell at the end of their lives. There are various stories about the birth of Chitragupta. Yama found it very difficult to keep track of the good and bad deeds committed by the humans and pleads with Lord Brahma to give him an assistant who can keep track of this. Lord Brahma goes into deep meditation and at the end of his meditation finds a young man in front of him with a pen in his hand and names him as Chitragupta and assigns him as the deputy of Yama.

In another story Chitragupta is depicted as being given life by Lord Shiva to a portrait drawn by Devi Parvathi. Since he emerged from a Chithiram (portrait) he was named Chitragupta.

It is also said that Indrani, Lord Indra's consort, wanted to have a child and prayed to Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva asks Chitragupta to be born as the son of Indrani. So meticulous is he in keeping the accounts of everybody's destiny that Chitragupta refuses to be born from the womb of Indrani as Indrani is not destined to have children. Lord Shiva then sends Kamadhenu, the celestial cow, to Indra's abode and asks Chitragupta to be born from the womb of Kamadhenu.

Chitrapournami is celebrated as a big festival in many temples. The Chitrapournami festival in Madurai is especaially famous.

Our Echiyamma (my beloved grandmother) used to celebrate (or perhaps appease Chitragupa) Chitrapournami by gifting a bamboo tray (Muram in tamil and malayalam) filled with fruits, idli, payasam and an iron ezhuthani (a metallic scriber with which inscriptions were made on palm leaves in the olden days) to a brahmachari (bachelor). She would tell the brahmachari to return the ezhuthani later and would pay him four annas in lieu. The ezhuthani would be kept safe for use for the coming year. So for us Chitrapournami was also a festival at home since we got a feast on that day.

Though there are not any festivals during this month, in Tamil Nadu and Kerala this is the time for the festivals in various temples. In Kerala, the festival season starts by February at the end of the harvest season and goes on till the end of May or upto mid June. Of these the Thrissur Pooram festival is the biggest event of all and is a treat to eyes and ears.

Vishu Ramblings

I had a whirlwind trip to Bangalore over Vishu and as has been happening ever since I started spending more time in Hyderabad, this trip was also very hectic with too much fitted into each day. At the end I was able to finish most of the errands, chores and visits on my schedule and shelved the rest for the next time. More importantly, I was able to meet some old friends (literally) who were living alone and who were really pleased to meet me. I cannot forget what Mrs. Thomas told me when she saw me at her door.”Nobody visits me anymore and hence I was surprised to hear the door bell ringing. I just spend my days all alone moving from one room to another. I am not able to do any cooking also. I get everything from outside” she said. I was glad I made it to meet her.

What was special for Vishu? Well, we had the Kani. For the first time in all these years, I did not cook a Vishu lunch. My brother had invited us for lunch at his place along with my other siblings as he was turning 50 on that day. So I prepared Paladai Pradhaman (Recipe soon) and took it along. We had a sumptuous lunch of Manga Koottan, Erissery, Thoran, Koottu, Pappadam and a simply yummy Palpayasam. I enjoy these rare occasions when I get to eat a lunch I have not cooked. The reason – very simple - As I have not been inhaling the flavor of the various dishes being prepared at the preparation stage, my palate is still fresh to devour the dishes being served and believe me, they taste superb. Especially so when the food is cooked by my mother. In my brother’s house, the lunch was prepared by my mother and my sisters-in-law, who all follow my mother’s method of preparation.

On my return to Hyderabad I had to attend the engagement ceremony of my nephew where I got to meet many of my cousins whom I had not met for a long time. The engagement ceremony or Nischayathamboolam in tambram lingua was a small affair in the olden days. It was only a small function attended by the elders from the bride’s and groom’s family in the presence of village elders. The function was usually conducted in the groom’s house and the bride did not attend this function. The bride went to the groom’s house only after the marriage. The bride and groom had no part to play in the function. This was called vangnischayam or oral commitment by exchanging thamboolam (fruits, mostly the yellow plantain fruit, coconuts, betel leaves and nuts) and was like an assurance by both the families to go on with the other preparations for the marriage. The actual Nischayathamboolam (vedic ritual) is performed on the eve of marriage. These days of course the nischayathamboolam itself is performed in a grand manner with both the bride and groom present in the function with exchange of rings and gifts and followed by a grand dinner or lunch.

In the olden days, once the vangnischayam was over there was no deviation from the promises made by both the parents unless there was a major problem. These days cancellation of engagements is very common. While we were at the function there were stories of cancelled engagements which could have been avoided and the innocent party spared the pain of ignominy associated with it. It would be better for the youngsters to come clean with their parents at the time of agreeing for marriages (even today most marriages are arranged by parents) and to keep up their promise after giving their consent. How does one explain the incidence when the groom withdraws his consent for the marriage the morning after engagement or the bride calling up the groom and saying “I have no intention of living with you after marriage and have agreed with my parents only because of their threat,” and so on? The parents as well as the groom and bride should be very frank when it comes to marriage as it involves another family and set of people who are no party to the other people’s hang-ups and reservations. The parents would do well to have a one to one talk with their children and get their whole hearted consent before agreeing to a marriage with a person of their parents’ choice. The youngsters also should be able to convince their parents of their approval or disapproval of the bride or groom of their parents’ choice and should be bold enough to stand up to their decision so that nobody would get hurt. I really wish parents and children do not put any pressure on each other when it comes to marriage. We'll all be better for it.

Recipe: Karuvadam

While vadams may be made in the morning or evening and need only a few hours of drying in the sun, karuvadam can be made only in the morning and needs at least 3 days of drying in the sun. It would be good if the sun is very hot on the first day so the heat can penetrate the insides of the karuvadam and dry it evenly. Otherwise the outside of the karuvadam forms a crust and the insides do not dry uniformly and when fried will not deliver the crunchy crispness that we desire. So it is better to make karuvadams at the height of the summer season when the days are fiercely hot. It is a tricky matter in places like Bangalore especially for office goers as they have only weekends to make karuvadams. You prepare the dough and the sun might choose to remain behind clouds; it has happened to me many times. I would just have to leave the dough inside the fridge and manage to press the karuvadams the next day. The process to make karuvadams is much easier than for vadams except in cooking the dough.

Ingredients:
Raw Rice : 2 cups
Red chillies: 3 or 4 or
Green chillies 3 or 4
Hing (Asafoetida): a small piece
Salt to taste

Method:
Wash and soak the rice in water with chillies and hing. Grind to a smooth batter with salt. Allow it to ferment for 8-10 hours. The next morning boil 10 cups of water in a wide mouthed pan. Dilute the ground batter with 2 cups of water and pour into the boiling water. Keep stirring constantly until the batter is well cooked. The cooked batter will have a shiny surface when done. If the dough gets very thick add more water and cook for some more time. Spread a plastic sheet or clean cloth on a flat surface where there is good sunlight and press the cooked batter through a Muthucharam press. It is better to press the dough when it is still lukewarm so that the batter flows easily.

Allow to dry till sunset. Remove the karuvadams from the sheet; sprinkling a little water over them eases the process. Dry them again for 2 more days until they are well dried. Store in a cool dry box. To serve, deep fry the karuvadams and enjoy!

Recipe: Vadam

It was good that I got into vadam making in full swing the last couple of weeks. Last weekend, the clouds suddenly started to gather and the temperature came down. We started getting light drizzles towards the evenings and the days were not fiercely hot any more. Typical Bangalore weather had arrived in Hyderabad. It remains cool till date. We also made a trip to Golconda fort in the fine drizzle and enjoyed the first rainbow of the year from atop the Golconda Fort. Here it is.

Now to the recipes. We shall start with elai vadam. Elai vadam as I said earlier is so named because it used to be made on the leaves of Palasha leaves. These days, we have this contraption.


Making elai vadam was a big project in our childhood days; it is so even today for different reasons. The day was usually fixed for a weekend so that all the children would be home to lend a helping hand, and Manian the cowherd was asked to bring the leaves, the maid was ordered to pound the rice in the stone mortar and pestle. And how much rice did we need each time? As much as 3 to 4 kgs. Yes, that was the quantity of vadams that were made at each sitting (not each season). We would repeat this vadam making process some 3-4 times. Remember that during the summer vacation, our house would be bursting with the children and grandchildren of our grandparents and there would be days when we may have to fry not less than 100 vadams only for the members of the family. That meant that we had to have a great many vadams dried and ready in time for summer. The rice was mixed with water into a thick batter and kept in a cool place. Vadam batter should not get fermented. A day before, Echiyamma would inform Singari mami or Chelli mami or Ponnu that we were planning to make vadam on the next day. The leaves would be washed and dried with a cloth and kept under some weights to keep them straight. The next morning, my echiyamma would wake up earlier than usual say at 4 am and wake up her daughters-in-law also, so that all other kitchen activities would be finished by 7.30am (including preparation of lunch). Now we would all sit at the allocated places in the assembly line. This was a project that could take in as many as were available on hand. The whole process had to follow a streamlined program to achieve optimum result.
Accordingly 2 people would be wiping the leaves with a cloth dipped in a mixture of oil and water, the next people on the line would spread the batter on the leaves (writing the vadam it was called), the next would arrange them on the idli plate and hand them over to the person sitting near the large fire wood stove with a huge steamer (this would be a large utensil called arikanchatti on which huge idli plates would be kept). The arikanchatti would be half filled with water and some hay would be put in the water so that the idli plate would sit tight on the water. The whole thing was covered with a huge lid with the idli plate inside the steamer. After the vadams were cooked by steaming, they were taken out and the next batch would go in for steaming. Now another set of people would peel off the cooked vadams from the leaves and spread them on the back of a new bamboo sieve. Up to this point, the job needs skilled labour. Now comes the turn of little children, who would take the bamboo sieves with vadams to the next room and transfer these vadams onto mats. The leaves from which vadams were removed would again go to the first set of people to be cleaned and then written in and then steamed. After an hour or so the vadams would to go to courtyard to be dried in the sun. More people needed now to mind the crows as well. Of course we would always have children from the neighbourhood to help around. This process would go on for 3 -4 hours. At the end came the most interesting part. The last batch would be thickly written vadams which would be eaten raw with a smearing of raw coconut oil on them. This was a delicacy nobody wanted to miss. Even when Singari mami or Chelli mami made vadams, they would keep the thick raw vadams for us to eat. And my friend Subbammal's mother, Kanakam mami would always keep raw vadams for me to eat on my way to school.

As I said, these days the process has been simplified by the vadam stand. Yet you need at least two persons to make vadam. One to stand near the stove and write on the plate and steam and another to remove the steamed vadams and transfer them to a cloth or plastic sheet.

We usually make vadams in the evenings these days and allow them to dry under the fan in the night and in the sun the next day to avoid running between the kitchen and terrace. By morning they will have dried to a level of not sticking to each other and it is easier to carry them to the sunny part of the house.

Now, on to the actual recipe.

Though many people get the rice powdered in the flour mill, I prefer to grind the rice in the mixer or grinder to get the right taste and color.

Ingredients:

Raw rice: 1 cup
Gingelly seeds: 2 tsp.
Gingelly oil 2 tsp.
Salt to taste

Method

Wash and soak the rice in water for 3 hours. Grind with enough salt to form a thick batter. This batter needs to be refrigerated if the vadams are to be made the next day. The tin plates are to be wiped with a cloth dipped in a mixture of gingelly oil and water; just a few drops of oil in a cup of water. This is to lubricate the surface so that the vadams would peel off easily after steaming. The batter is thinned with enough water to a consistency that allows it to be spread evenly and not flow off the plate. Add the gingelly seeds and gingelly oil to the batter and mix thoroughly. Ladle a small spoonful of batter on to the plate and spread it evenly. Arrange the plates on the stand and steam for 2-3 minutes. Remove and spread on a clean cloth. Repeat the process.

This quantity of rice makes 20-30 vadams, depending on the size.

Dry the vadams in the sun for a day. They will be ready to be fried in the evening. These vadams will keep good upto 2 years.

Tips

Wipe the plates with the oil-water mixture every now and then.
Add ¼ cup of water to the steamer each time a new batch is put in.
If possible have the stove at a level where you can comfortably sit and work if making large quantity.

Turn the vadams after 1 or 2 hrs initially so that they do not stick to the cloth

Cut and Dried

Well it has been a long time since my last post, once again with good reason. Most of the time in the past fortnight was spent remembering Manni in each and every small thing I did. Every time I did something, I was reminded of similar occasions during the time spent with Manni and tell my husband about that. It is really surprising how we remember somebody more when they are no longer with us. I definitely did not reminisce about Manni everyday in the past so many years.

As I said, after Sivarathri the winter goes away chanting Siva Siva. This also means that it is time to start making all the sun dried vadams and vattals (wafers and dried vegetables), pickles, etc. It is the time of the year when women get busy replenishing their inventory of vadams for the whole year and the children were made busy helping their mothers. Now many people are happy buying these things at stores and children may not even know they can be home made. When we were children, March was the month of hectic activity making vadams, pickles, processing tamarind and toor dal, etc in addition to our annual exams at school. The vadam making had to be over before Vishu (14th April) when the premonsoon showers begin. Vadam making was a big festival then. All the households were engaged in these activities and would help each other in the process of making vadams. Children had the double responsibility of helping in the kitchen as well as minding the vadams when they were put out in the sun for drying. There were crows and stray dogs, besides passers by and children (whom we referred to us human crows), who would grab the vadams by 3s and 4s. We used to take turns minding the crows. I remember my brother coming into the house crying once and when asked why he was crying, he said, "I was made to sit there for 2 hours minding the crows and not a single crow came."

There were different varieties of vadams. Elai vadams, karuvadams, javvvarisi (sagopalm) karuvadams , vazhathandu (banana stem) karuvadams and perandai (Vitis Quadrangularis). In our house we made only elai vadams and karuvadams which were easier than the other vadams or so our Echiyamma thought.

The elai vadams as the name says were made on the leaves of Palasha tree (flame of the forest, Buteamonosperma). Preparing the leaves for making the vadams was itself a big process. The village cowherd would bring the leaves to all the houses from the forest. We had to select big round leaves without any holes, wash them and stack them in 10s or 20s and keep a weight on them to straighten them. This had to be done the previous evening. The next day we had to wipe the leaves with a cloth dipped in a mixture of oil and water and then start preparing the vadams. This was how it was done until I was in my teens. Then came a new way of making them by completely eliminating the use of leaves and our drudgery. There was this new contraption somebody's daughter brought from Bombay which consisted of a stand with racks for 6 plates made of tin. Our jack of all trades Muthu immediately got into the business of making dozens and dozens of them for all those who wanted. We just had to give him a used oil tin or something and he will make the vadam plates and stand. It revolutionised vadam making. To this day, we use this contraption.

Karuvadams were made by pressing the cooked rice flour and drying them.

This also is the season of preparing kadugumanga or vadumanga (Tamil) which again is a time consuming process. This is also the time when tamarind is processed. This takes days and days. The tamarind had to be shelled and dried and the seeds removed and the dried tamarind preserved in earthenware pots or ceramic jars with a sprinkling of salt.

Toor pods were shelled and the seeds were soaked in a mixture of clay and water for a couple of days until the grams sprouted. They were then sun dried when the mud sticking to the grams would dry and fall off and the grams were lighly pounded to remove the husk and toor dal for the whole year was made and stored.

Well, I did many of the above jobs in the last few days besides celebrating Karadayan Nonbu and my first born's birthday. More importantly I filmed all the above so that I can share with you all my recipes for the above. Fully justified in not blogging, don't you think?

In Memory of Manni

I have been planning to write this piece for the past four days, ever since my periamma (wife of my father’s elder brother), whom we affectionately called manni, passed away. She was one of the women I admire most. She was a big presence in our family and it will take many days and many many words to write everything that has been rushing through my mind ever since I heard about her sad demise. Manni was how all of us, including her own children addressed her. Manni means wife of elder brother (Bhabhi) in Tambram lingua. She was the eldest daughter in law of my grandparents; eldest manni for their the younger five children. She also fit the role the best.
Being married into a large family as the eldest daughter in law at the age of ten or twelve, life could not have been very easy, especially some 70 years ago. She had to shoulder many responsibilities: many of her husband’s younger siblings were her own age and, as custom demanded then, she had to take on the role of their mother.
Manni had a strong opinion on everything. She was passionate about everything around her, whether it was expressing affection towards her children or expressing her disapproval of the events around her. Everything about her was BIG; we also lovingly referred to her as BM (big manni or big mother). She was very frank and forthright in her opinions. She did not mince words in expressing her approval or disapproval to anyone. Not even to her in-laws. All said and done everyone looked up to her for guidance in all matters. She commanded great respect.
In those days when expressing affection towards one’s own children was not the accepted norm, she always explicitly showered affection on her children. She herself had only received a primary school education but when it came to her daughters she sent them to an English medium convent and was very proud of her daughters chattering in English.
She lived in a city that had a large teaching hospital, which meant that anybody in the state who had to undergo a major procedure would come there. Of course, she would visit them all and take good care of them as much as she could. But on these many occasions, she would never stop admiring the young doctors with a white coat and stethoscope around their necks on their rounds. It was her dream to have one of her children sent to medical school. Unfortunately for her, although they all became prominent experts in different fields, none of them went to medical school. As a result, she was very proud of my handsome and charming son when he became the first one from the extended family to become a doctor.
I remember the first time she met my son after he had achieved the oh-so-desirable-title. We had gone to Delhi to attend the wedding of my niece. At the time, Manni was staying in Delhi with one of her sons. As instructed by my astute and blessed mother in law, my husband and I went to invite Manni personally and she, of course, right away asked me about my sons. I told her they were yet to arrive in Delhi and that I would send them over to her as soon as they arrived. They went to meet her upon arrival and promptly hit it off very well. My sons came back and said, “Wow, your periamma is very cool.” She came for the marriage reception next day and was sitting with my mother in law. My son was serving snacks to my mother in law who could not walk up to the dining hall. Manni called me and said, in my son’s presence, “Your mother in law must have done great punya to have been blessed with such doting grandsons.” To which my son promptly replied, “It is we who are blessed, to have a patti like this. What sacrifices she has done to take care of us when we were young. Nothing will compensate her sacrifice.” Manni was still happier to see such young boys admiring their grandmother. She would repeat this incident to me every time I met her since. “You are really lucky to have such wonderful sons,” she told me. She couldn’t stop at that. “And yet I like your elder boy more,” she told me, “You know why? Because he is a doctor.” Her dream of seeing a child of hers as a doctor was fulfilled in seeing a grandchild of the family becoming one.
Manni loved and lived life to its fullest. She loved good food, good jewellery, expensive sarees, loved to attend social functions and would have her presence felt in any event she attended. She had a very commanding presence. She liked all her children (when I say children, it included all the children in the extended family especially us as we all grew up in the same house) to dress up in good clothes and good jewellery. It was her constant complaint against me that I would not dress up in the latest trends. She could never understand why I wouldn’t buy expensive silk sarees or diamonds or dye my hair as per the latest trends. She never tired of asking me, “Why are you not dyeing your hair? All your sisters in law are dyeing theirs”. “Why don’t you buy some diamonds? See, your sister in law has bought a diamond necklace”. The last time I met her she even asked my husband, “Mapile (son-in-law), why don’t you buy her a diamond set?” To which my husband replied, “I have never said no to her. She is free to buy whatever she wants.” Such was her passion for good things in life and also affection towards her children.
In the last two years of her life she became immobile due to a fracture from which she never fully recovered. We had gone to meet her at this time when she was staying with her eldest son. We were all discussing how she must put in more effort and try to do the exercises prescribed by the physiotherapist and start walking. She said that try as she might, she was unable to even stand. She asked my son, the doctor, when he would be getting married to which he replied, “As soon as you start walking, I shall get married.” After about six months, when my mother and brother went to meet her, she had my brother call me on his mobile and said, “Adiye (hey girl), tell your son that I have started walking. Now he must keep his word and get married. If you perform the marriage in Madras, I will attend the marriage even if I have to walk with the help of a walking stick. Tell him.” Such was her affection even towards her brother-in-law’s grandson.
She had strong will power and great presence of mind. When my Periappa (her husband) had a stroke at the age of 80 she was all alone, her children being at different cities and a couple of them outside the country also. His brother and family living in the same city had also gone out of town to attend a family function. My periappa died within two days, by which time one of her sons had reached home. My brother and I went from Bangalore for the funeral and stayed back until the other family members like my parents and uncle arrived so that she would have company. Her other children arrived in the following days. I asked her then, how she managed the situation when periappa had a stroke and she was all alone. She said, “I called your periappa’s cousin, and told her, ‘Vijayam, your athan (cousin) is very unwell and needs hospitalisation. I am all alone. Come and help me take him to the hospital.’ She immediately came with her husband and helped me take him to the hospital and also informed my son who had already left and was sitting in the train. The message was flashed to him to get out of the train and fly. He got here in the evening. We were all getting ready to leave the hospital the next day, when your periappa had another attack from which he did not recover. I always tell myself in my prayers, ‘it is not because our children don’t want to be with us to take care of us in our old age; it is for their livelihood that they are in different places. Please give them a good life.’” I just couldn’t imagine how she could act so wisely and with such clear presence of mind in her situation. Immediately after the funeral she got herself busy preparing the house for the other rituals to be performed, keeping aside her grief and loss.
It was fitting that she passed away on International Women’s day. She never waited for anyone to grant her empowerment; she took it for herself as a matter of right. If she were to be born a few decades later, she would definitely have become somebody of much greater acclaim.

MAY HER SOUL BE IN PEACE.