Navarathri Kondaattam

And you thought you had heard the last of me !

Navarathri begins today.  I am tempted to write a long and winding post on Navarathri like I always do, but kitchen beckons a very reluctant LG for some Navarathri goodies.

As a kid, I would wear pattu paavadai, kunjalam, rakodi and the works and with a yellow cloth bag for "collection" visit all the houses in the neighbourhood. This was before the era when you need to call and warn people of your impending visit.  With the tambulam, I would be given a different kind of sundal in each house.  I'd dump them all in the bag and back home, eat the assorted mixture of sundals.  My mother would get ballistic about the fact that I would not touch a single sundal made at home !

Sundal continues to reign supreme during Navarathri now. Only, people are more creative and health conscious.  Instead of the usual coconut garnish, now we have a variety - coriander powder, pepper powder, fried onion (although somehow, adding onion to a religious dish doesn't agree with me, but that's entirely personal), even chat masala and crushed potato chips.  It seems people are getting more and more enviornmentally conscious as well seeing that leaf dhonnais and paper cups are making a comeback.

This is a gentle reminder to Gayathri to start posting recipes of sundals.  What?  You really didn't think I would post recipes, did you ?

Happy Navarathri folks.  May Goddess Anna Poorani and Sagambari bless you with healthy, tasty food daily on your table.

Gokulashtami

"Hinduism" was a word coined by the Western invaders, to the collective practices of people living beyond the Indus river.  In due course, it came to represent an entire religion, known as much for its diversity as its commonness. Hinduism encompasses a wide range of practices, rituals, beliefs and Gods.  The Murugan of the South is as much a Hindu God, however unknown He is in the North, as is Santhoshi Ma, in reverse.  Beyond and above the diversity of the religion, two deities stand common - Lord Rama and Lord Krishna.

Lord Krishna, is the more colourful of the two.  He is perceived in various, sometimes contradictory, forms.  A baby, a mischievous child,  a handsome lover, a steadfast friend, the ultimate Guru, a just king and of course, God Almighty.  While Rama's birthday is celebrated with simple, cooling food, Krishna's ("Janmashtami", "Gokulashtami", "Sri Jayanthi", "Krishna Jayanthi") is associated with rich, delicious, goodies.  The origin of the association is not clear, for, in religious literature, Krishna is seen with only three food items, none of which involve complicated recipes - Butter, which He stole in plenty as a kid, the lone spinach leaf from Draupati's Akshayapatram that filled His stomach, and therefore that of the entire Universe, and the handful of poha given to Him with love by his childhood friend, Kusela, in return for which He granted Kusela the wealth of the three worlds.

The essence of life

What chicken soup does to the Western soul, rasam does to the typical TamBram.  Rasam is a single dish that unifies the entire population of South India.  Yet, there is no single standard recipe that characterizes this dish, and each family, even individual, leaves his own special mark in this versatile, yet distinct fare. Like God with many names, Rasam has its own naamavali.  Some call it rasam, some saathumadhu, a few more, pulsu, and as you travel up North, it merges seamlessly with the thicker and richer dal, and has even been exported to the West as Mulligatawny (Etymological origin: Tamil “milagu thanni” meaning, pepper water) and the modern Lentil soup.

Tango with Mango

Summer means many things to many people.  To some, it is vacation. To some, travel. Others warmth. Heat, humidity, cousins visit, festivals, story books....

But if you were born and bred in the South of India, summer is synonymous to Mango.  Every house (rapidly being replaced by multistorey apartment complexes with names such as "Green grove" with not a single potted shrub in sight) in Tamil Nadu, would necessarily have three trees in its courtyard - neem, coconut and mango. Any festival at home is marked by a garland of mango leaves at the main door.  

Over a cup of coffee

"காபி சாப்பிடறேளா"  ("Want coffee?")

This is perhaps the most important hospitality question you would face as you enter a TamBram household.  Thirty years back, it was insulting to even ask.  As you sat on the "thinnai" of your host, the lady would send through her daughter, a "gooja" full of frothing,steaming coffee, no matter what time of the day it was. There was no question of you NOT being a coffee drinker - every TamBram was a confirmed coffee drinker, and even if you weren't you'd soon be, thanks to the aroma of the "degree kaapi" that would permeate the entire house. A tambram child was said to have stepped into adulthood with his/her first cup of coffee (usually mixed with Bournvita) in his./her sixth standard.

Yogi or Rogi? The Choice is yours.

The ocean of milk that yielded the elixir of immortality also produced the halahala.  While food can be medicine, it can also be a scourge to the human body.  Bad eating practices can make the body and mind vulnerable to a wide range of diseases - as a tamil song goes - eating one meal makes you a yogi (saint), two makes you a bhogi (connoisseur), three meals make you a rogi (diseased) and four meals make you a drogi (wastrel).

Food in Mythology

Hinduism is built on mythology. It is, also, as we already saw, in cahoots with food. Think of any Hindu festival, and you think of some special food item. Is it little wonder that many of our mythological stories have a gastronomic twist to them?

Let us begin, as custom demands, with Pillayar (Aka Ganesh, Vinayak etc.). Down South, we tell our kids this endearing story of Pillayar and his brother Murugan fighting over a Mango. Unable to handle sibling squabble, the Father, sets up a race to circumnavigate the world, the winner being awarded the "Gnana Pazam". While Murugan mounts his peacock for his version of Around the World in Eighty Days or less, the older brother chooses to circumnavigate (!) his parents, the personification of the entire Universe, and thus wins the fruit, much to the chagrin of the younger one. Murugan retires to a hillock in a huff, with nothing but a loin cloth on him, and is pacified by Auvayar paati - a story popularized by K.B. Sundaramabal with her bronze voiced "Pazam Neeyappa", in the 1965 blockbuster - Thiruvilayadal. (Image Source)

Lord Ganesha is associated with another food story. Kubera, lord of wealth, arrogant of his riches, offers to feed Lord Ganesha - what is one meal to a small boy to the richest person in the universe? But the little elephant headed boy eats and eats until there is no food left, and threatens to eat Kubera who runs to Lord Shiva for protection. Ganesha's hunger is finally appeased by a handfull of roasted grains, given with love.

Science in a Food Blog

I wonder, very often, if the only thing (other than gravity of course) that binds us (Indians, in particular) to mother Earth is food ! Just compare an average Indian festival menu to the food that you would get if you were flying in, say, the space shuttle, in a futuristic scenario, to a faraway planet, or even to near-earth orbit as is often done these days. It seems that Steve Lindsey had, for breakfast, during flight day 2 on mission STS-104 in 2001, the following yummy goodies:

Implements of yore

The era of microwave ovens and induction stoves has eased the act of cooking, but some of us who have experienced food cooked using strenuous instruments in the distant past cannot forget the lingering taste that is tinged with nostalgic memories of grandmother's nine yards and agraharathu thinnai. Most of these cooking aids/instruments have disappeared from service, having been replaced by mixers, grinders and whatnots; some of them continue to live in the few old-fashioned houses that have barely managed to survive in the era of vertical growth, unused, nevertheless, existing as an heirloom given to the nonagenarian surviving grandmother as a dowri when she was nine. Places like Dakshinchitra exhibit these implements, more to preserve the history than educating the youth, who would much rather watch Aish dancing in Machu Pichu, but then, that would be digression.

Aushadam ucchyate sarvam*

*Food is the ultimate medicine

The Indian lifestyle is built around food. Not only does food sustain life, it heals and cures as well. Indeed, Ayurvedha, the ancient Indian system of medicine pivots around food. Ayurvedha classfies, subclassifies, organizes food into Rajsik, thamasik and sathvik groups and goes into great detail on food group combinations and effects.

Annad Bhavanti Bhutani

Bhagavad Gita: 3:14

annad bhavanti bhutani
parjanyad anna-sambhavah
yajnad bhavati parjanyo
yajnah karma-samudbhavah

Food sustains life. Rains sustain food. Yajna sustains rains and yajna is born of prescribed duties.

It is doubtful if any other culture in the world has given this much importance to food as the Indian and if there are as many deities solely dedicated to food in any religion other than Hinduism. If you combine the two ultimate truths of Hinduism -"Aham Brahmasmi" ("I am Supreme"), with "Annam Brahmaswaroopam" ("Food is Supreme"), after cancelling the "Brahmam" on the LHS and RHS of the equation and ignoring the pronoun "asmi", you end up with "Aham Annaswaroopam", that translates roughly to "I am what I eat", rather a slap on the face to Decartes. We have Annapoorani, the Goddess of food, DhanyaLakshmi (Goddess of grains), Sagambari (Goddess of crops) - come to think of it- there seem no male divinity associated with food , except as consumers - think Krishna and his butter, Ganesha and his modhak etc.