Aniyammavan....

Aniyammavan knew he was handsome..that is why he would sing almost every day when he see me,  “Aniyammavante kaarunyasheelante kamaneeyangante………” He was ammavan to many……everyone younger to him called him Aniyammavan….He was the favourite brother to all his sisters…

He was my best friend, we fought, he made me cry by saying I was an adopted child, by calling me Mandoos and Bhudhoos…..Ammoomma and Aniyammavan were the people I was very much attached to, in my childhood….

Malathi valiamma was so attached to him that she died of heart attack just as Aniyammavan was under going a major surgery..She couldn’t wait for her favorite brother to return..She couldn’t bear to see him suffering.. Kumari valliamma silently followed her.. I still remember Aniyammavan’s blank face as he sat near Kumari valiamma’s body for many hours....He had no words and no tears for her..It was just a suffering when he lost his two sisters in a few months’ time..

He was brave and ever smiling..He tried to frighten the children with his Meesa but never succeeded as he had a cute and handsome face.. We lost him before we could accept the fact that he was ill..When I last met him, he was very ill, he held my hand and I felt all the affection he had for me when I was a child..I cried that night, but not when he left us..

It was the day when he passed away that I felt most angry with God..The main reason was that Ammoomma was at Bharathi chitta’s house with a fractured leg and couldn’t see her son for the last time..She didn’t cry, may be she got used to deaths…one by one, of her children..

Amma’s final diagnosis showed to have a malignant pancrease.. She was so cool when she listened to doctors explaining that there was  no hope of recovery..She smiled and said “I knew I would die of cancer, because my Aniyan too had the same disease..

Bharathi chitta was the silent sufferer among all…..She cried with no sound.. Shankarankutty ammavan showed a fake tough look as he was the big brother and not expected to cry..

I don’t know what it was which made him so lovable…. His sense of humor, his caring nature or his love for us, children….We were not lucky to have him for long…..

Aniyammavan was very lucky, as he was loved by anyone who knew him.

The forgotten Bharatheeya samskaram

There was an old custom which my amma & ammoomma followed, but I somehow didn’t. There was a particular day, don’t remember which, when they prepared food for rats and ants. Rice was fried along with coconut scrapings and jiggery was added to it. This mixture was put on vazhaila pieces and kept in all corners of the house. This was done at sandhya and kept till next morning. A small thiri dipped in oil and lighted from the ‘Nilavilakku’ was kept in each leaf. We children were very excited in doing this. Ammoomma said it was for the rats & ants. If they were fed once a year like this, they won’t trouble us.

From such a Bharatheeya samskaram where we reached now….We have different “Hits’ to kill each insect….

In a shopping mall.......

Today when I went around the shopping mall, I realized that I was enjoying the shopping. There was not much to buy so I watched others filling their trollies. Then I remembered my first shopping experiences.

I'm amazed at the way my life has changed with time..

In my childhood as other girls of those days, I too never went to any shops. Our clothes were bought by mother and her sisters. We all had enough gold jewellery, that too was selected by them. I remember the enthusiasm they had in shopping clothes and jewellery. It was a celebration for them .

No women in the family went to provision store or vegetable market. During weddings, shopping was a grand event. Only on those days married girls and the bride to be, were taken to shops. I too went to the textile shop and the jewellery shop just before before my wedding.

After marriage, I was taken to a place unknown and unheard…father bought a map of India to find out the place….and he cried when I left on the 15th day after marriage, to such a far off unfamiliar place.

The place was Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh. We had to travel by train, K K Express, 3 days to reach Itarsi. Then another train to Burhanpur. It was a very small town and the only vehicle that went through the roads were the “Two wheeled Horse-drawn vehicle” called “Tonga” in Hindi and “Kuthira vandi” in Malayalam. There were also Bullock carts and human pulled carts and some bicycles.

My husband had a room in a Palacial house of Bohra Muslims…He was giving Rs.10 as rent..There was a Dargah or place of worship of the Muslims. Double storied building with many rooms. Rooms had large stained glass windows in vibrant colors and Italian tiled flooring. The wooden carved doors had brass handles and curtain rods were in beautifully designed brass. The building was hundreds of years old and the land lady had no money for maintenance. So she kept many tenants.

My husband took me along the roads of the small shopping area of the town. The crowd, the dust filled and dirty roads were nowhere near my dreams to have any liking for shopping. Many varieties of food were cooked in the open and people eating the hot snacks on the road itself, was an amazing sight for me. The restaurant like shops were adjacent to each other and the air was filled with flavors of different sweets, unknown to me. Gradually I too relished on Gulab jamoons and Paani puris and kachoris.

The shopping for vegetables and provisions I disliked mainly because of the dust and foul smell of the market. Water was a rare commodity for the people of Burhanpur. Rain was something very rare. People collect water when ever the Municipality was kind enough to send water through common taps on the roads. The taps inside the houses produced sounds, but no water came out of it.

I lost all enthusiasm in shopping…….I didn’t even know the price of anything, rice, oil or sugar. So my husband took over the job of providing the commodities and I was happy to remain home and cook. Today when I saw the different varieties of green chillies neatly displayed in the vegetable section in the shopping mall, I remembered the Burhanpur market ..33 years might have brought drastic changes to Burhanpur too…..But I have yet to look back and find when I got this passion for shopping……

Chakka varattiyathu

Today Shari, my cousin wrote on Facebook about her first attempt to make Chakka varattiyathu and it took me back many years to the flavours and mouth watering palaharams our elder generations made.

Malathi valliamma was an expert in cooking. Her Palaharams were famous among the family. She made Boli, Chakka varattiyathu and Ila Ada in a way no one else in the family could make. It was her Kaipunniam in making all that she touched, delicious. Whoever goes to her house would get a taste of her culinary expertise and would go back home with something packed for their kids.

For many years Valliamma and Valliachan lived in Ettumanoor, and we children spent many holidays with her. Valliachan was very religious and followed all Hindu rituals and taught them to us through stories and keerthanams. He wrote many songs or keerthanams.

Malathi Valliamma spent most of her time in kitchen. The bharanis were always full with Chakka Varuthathu, Varattiyathu, Upperi, Sharkara varatti, Avaloose podi, chammanthi podi, murukku, and what not……She could make everything..If we were lucky, we would land there when Ada and Boli were made. As that cannot be stored long, only the lucky ones got their hands on them.

My mother too made use of all chakka and mango available in the house and would keep them stored and wait for her children to visit from other states. Kumari valliamm's speciality was the laddus made of rice, jaggery and coconut, what we call 'Mavunda'. It would just melt in the mouth.

The last time I visited she gave us those freshly made laddus. Me & children ate them all, little knowing that it was her last, and she would leave us forever after 2 days.....The soft spoken, loving Kumari valliamma who loved us all as her own children is still fresh in our memories....Now Amma, Valliamma, chitta and all others are all gone . Bharathi chitta was the last to go and her daughter Sharadakutty is trying to keep the tradition of chakka varatti alive..If Chitta succeeded in making the mouth water with the smell of Chakka varattiyathu, Shari published it in Facebook to make some mouths water….Anyway I’ll try the taste of her 5 hour long Bhageeratha Prayathnam and give a comment on that family special dish…..Till then............