As the headlines should go: After a prolonged hiatus, the venerable Pettai Maami returns back to Blogosphere amidst much crying and pleading of her co-bloggers. Yes sirs and ma’ams…she’s back..and not alone this time, I’m afraid. Somewhere around the turn of 2009, Her Highness tied the infamous knot with an equally crazy Maama and has stepped into the next level of insanity. She has been busy shifting gears and trying out various forms and shapes a roti would come out and hence you can imagine the apathy of her fellow human beings
This post is dedicated to the brave heart, the guy with a golden heart, the mard of Hyderabad…Pettai Maama..
Considering my lack of culinary skills have already flourishingly been advertised all the blog, let me come straight to the point.
Day 1: I should probably name this as “Day 11” as I had conspicuously been avoiding the initial ten days by not going inside the kitchen with P.Maama and have been running rations on maggi, subway, swathi tiffins etc. P.Maama’s pleading voice finally reached and I had to enter the terrifying world of cooking. Not that he knew it any better than me, but as he had already said yes to a couple of other household chores that I couldn’t do either, I wasn’t left with anymore options. “Just take care of cooking, I’ll do all the rest” said he. I thought I was getting the better end of the bargain and well….. So, day 1 was making a list of the much needed items that were meant for survival.
Day 2: I go inside the kitchen and look around. Come out of the kitchen. Call my Mom and say “ Um…Hai Amma, so how do you make rice..no no..i need the exact measurements…. You are referring to the white colored rice right?? And dal?? Oh…is that how you make sambhar?? Um…which one are you referring to?? I’ve got like a 5 different types…should I use normal water or mineral water… and by 1 spoon..do you mean 6 pieces of the dal??....wait wait..tell it again from the start..i didn’t note it down.” and so went the conversation for 4 hours. Lunch time came and went and it was finally 5 pm when we had sat down to eat. The dal/sambhar (whatever you want to call it as) turned out in a murky brown color and the rice…well..lets just say that the sambhar kanji was made well.
Day 3: This time, I started cooking from early morning and added a new item to the menu- Karimidhu/ Sabji. Due to the earlier day’s debacle, P.Maama had gotten hold of the phone number of a mess nearby, just in case if there is a need of a back up plan. The karimidhu ended up not seeing the daylight and was given a very hushed up funeral.
And so flew away the days of experimental breeding…oops…cooking. About a month after we had moved to Hyderabad, I got a call from the miss.bengaluru and her better half saying that they would be visiting soon. Aha…Guests at last..of course I wouldn’t make them leave without trying out my yummy food..would I?? so, the conspiracy started, and Me and P.Maama decided to make Gulab Jamuns :D, thinking its never too late to try out something new!!! I was thoughtful enough to not to mention it to the visiting sirs and ma’ams.
So, we opened the gulab jamun packet and it said that we had to mix ‘so and so’ gms of the powder with ‘so and so’ gms of water. Well..the dough we were supposed to be making ended up being too gooey and so P.Maama had to run to the store again to get another packet of it! We finally managed to making a huge boulder of the dough, inspite of the fact that my little and thumb finger weren’t budging out of it. The same story happened to the jeera again and it ended up being too much for what was being required. We were already running out of time and we still had to make small golas out the dough. We had no idea what size it was to be made. So, it was decided to make it to the size of what was given on the cover of the powder packet.
Finally we started to fry these golas, only to find them bubbling up even huger and ending up to the size of cricket balls!!!!!!! We realized that it was never too late and started reducing the size and frying them again. I didn’t even bother to notice the huge hairline fractures or discoloration from red to black or the smell of the oil burning. I just wanted the whole fiasco to get over and dumped all the fried jamuns in the sugar syrup and ran away from the area.
Few hours later, our friends arrived and I just couldn’t help but thrust them a bowl of blackened gulab jamuns and praying that both of them would forgive me for making them eat it. The evening went on smoothly with neither of them commenting on the jamuns until it was their time to leave. Sir PV nicely asked “so, hows the cooking going??” P.Maama obediently said “ Man, shes just the best. Makes amazing food in the whole world!!!” AM smiles indulgently and compliments me on the same. PV couldn’t help himself and asked me “Am sure… You do make yummy non spherical Gulab jamuns!”. What followed was me vehemently defending my lovely jamuns and ended up pelting PV with the golas which neatly bounced off his face!! AM quietly dragged him away murmuring something about a train to catch and P.Maama helped me clear up the rest of the jamuns. After the debacle, neither did AM return for a visit nor did I even try to touch the jamuns which are now safely stored in the fridge
Aside this fact, all you guys are invited anytime to our house, and I assure you, you will be served P.Maami's trademark Gulab Jamuns ejjactly like the ones she first made. :D :D
Thursday, October 22
Sunday, December 28
Yeh hai Junoon......
I still remember the day where the whole family used to huddle together near the idiot box at 9.30 PM in the evenings to watch one show which used to come in DD, which itself was dubbed from Hindi to Tamil, and goes by the name “Pidivatham”- for the less educated people- I am referring to one the earliest inventions by mankind, the legendary, “Junoon”. I still love to render the title track and couple of its infamous dialogues. What was so special, one might wonder, what with the dialogues mismatched, without any grammar above all (if you had watched the tamil version of Titanic, you will understand!). I still remember the times when my PaaTi used to wait for ‘Adikaari Brothers’ to devise some plot or my mom fawning over Kitu Gidwani’s hairdo. Then there was Swabhimaan, Hum Log, Ajnabi, Samay and etc wherein the dubbing would be even worse than Junoon. I sometimes think that these dubbing artists used to have amazing creative skills, in terms of dialogues delivery. Oooh..how can I forget the nail biter Chandrakanta or the vicious Kroor Singh (I used to wonder how they constructed his costume- still wondering!!).
Amidst the pleas of my mom to not sit in front of the TV, Sunday mornings used to start with ‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharata’. I used to keep count of the number of times the songs used to get repeated in the sagas and wonder when the outlined yogi with the planets circling around used to float in air was gonna drop down. It’s the best feeling I tell you… getting up late in the morning…having those weekly oil baths..with sambrani scents in the air… with your PaTTi asking you to increase the volume in the already loud TV…along with your mom’s laments to help her out in the kitchen.. J…Golden times…
Most of all, I miss watching Dekh Bhai Dekh (the insane family show), Zabaan Sambhal ke (though I am quite pleased with the original English version, ‘Mind your Language’), Chitrahaar (Man…the whole family used to wait for it), Superhit Muqabula (where I used to get confused between Manisha Koirala and Madhuri Dixit.. :P ) ….Surabi (the number of times, I used to fill in the postcards to get a free trip to Singapore..Sigh!), Turning point(I remember vaguely only…who hosted the show???), Nonstop Nonsense (aww… who didn’t used to love that bumbling german detective…)
The show I sorely miss even till date, the show which I am praying to God for a repeat telecast, the one am searching for wildly for an online version -Telematch. The Pogo show, Takeshi’s Castle reminds me badly of my childhood!! For all the kind hearted souls, who think they would want to help out a helpless hag, please..please…do guide her…As a thank you..that lucky kozhande will get yummy homemade vatha-kozhambu… :D..Endapa…cheri thaana???
Sunday, October 12
Maami..Golu...
So, the Navarathri season just got over, I really thought I should give you guys a taste of Pettai Golu. So, here goes the looong list…
Golu PaDi Setting: This is one of the starting jobs my dad and mum were supposed to do- Done with a lot of fits and grumbling, they used to set it up anyway. I usually ended up as the one who had to sort out the nails and screws for the paDi joints; my sis and granny would carry it further by covering up the wooden parts with dad’s old veshTis.
Golu Bommai Setting: Cleaning up the loft and the carton boxes which are stuffed with the bommais of I dunno which era; this was one work, me and sister used to love to do. Dad used to get the boxes down, me and sis used to remove the cloth covered bommais as if there were some ancient treasure, commenting non-stop on what should go where- though I should admit that paTTi’s word was always final. My favorite bommais included the Dasavartharam set and the Chettiar-Chettichi set.
Oh and of course, the “Park” setting- getting soil from chitti’s garden, placing it on paper and sprinkling mustard seeds on it. It normally was sis’s job to keep make sure it grew during the 9 days and also clean the small little pond we made by thermocol dabbas.
Visitors and Visiting: Aah..the number of maamis visiting the house, their tales of how-grand-their-marumagal’s-golu and then its comparison with their neighbor’s was the main routine of entertainment!! Also, the goody bags along with the Vethala Paakus were always a point that was bragged about. “Ooh, you know for Golu this time, I bought some make up set; thought it would be nice to give it to the young girls who would come home”- the costlier, the fancier; the fancier, the better to brag about. Anyways, the worst part of this visiting business would be when you have to sing in front of the Golu setup. I and sis would be under pressure to practice songs taught by our paaTu maami, and re-render it in front of the hawk-eyed maamis- you see, feedbacks are usually sent to our paaTi, so we HAD to do the perfect impression of the Briha when we sang Brova-Bharama. Songs couldn’t be repeated for neighboring houses, so we had to do a preliminary shortlist which our paaTi would give a go-ahead for.
When we were younger, we were usually dressed up in costumes and sent off to get Vethala Paakus- Lord Krishna, Japanese lady, Madisaar Maami- the whole package used to so colorful. We used to gear up for these costume parties…well, all we wanted was that packet of sundal Rama maami made. :D
All said and done, I do miss these crazy aspects of Golu; Sitting here, in some corner of India, I really would love a visit, grab a potlam of sunDal and spend time with sis and home. Though, I did catch up with Ram-Leela, I do really miss home. Can’t wait for Diwali…Chennai..here I come!!!
Golu PaDi Setting: This is one of the starting jobs my dad and mum were supposed to do- Done with a lot of fits and grumbling, they used to set it up anyway. I usually ended up as the one who had to sort out the nails and screws for the paDi joints; my sis and granny would carry it further by covering up the wooden parts with dad’s old veshTis.
Golu Bommai Setting: Cleaning up the loft and the carton boxes which are stuffed with the bommais of I dunno which era; this was one work, me and sister used to love to do. Dad used to get the boxes down, me and sis used to remove the cloth covered bommais as if there were some ancient treasure, commenting non-stop on what should go where- though I should admit that paTTi’s word was always final. My favorite bommais included the Dasavartharam set and the Chettiar-Chettichi set.
Oh and of course, the “Park” setting- getting soil from chitti’s garden, placing it on paper and sprinkling mustard seeds on it. It normally was sis’s job to keep make sure it grew during the 9 days and also clean the small little pond we made by thermocol dabbas.
Visitors and Visiting: Aah..the number of maamis visiting the house, their tales of how-grand-their-marumagal’s-golu and then its comparison with their neighbor’s was the main routine of entertainment!! Also, the goody bags along with the Vethala Paakus were always a point that was bragged about. “Ooh, you know for Golu this time, I bought some make up set; thought it would be nice to give it to the young girls who would come home”- the costlier, the fancier; the fancier, the better to brag about. Anyways, the worst part of this visiting business would be when you have to sing in front of the Golu setup. I and sis would be under pressure to practice songs taught by our paaTu maami, and re-render it in front of the hawk-eyed maamis- you see, feedbacks are usually sent to our paaTi, so we HAD to do the perfect impression of the Briha when we sang Brova-Bharama. Songs couldn’t be repeated for neighboring houses, so we had to do a preliminary shortlist which our paaTi would give a go-ahead for.
When we were younger, we were usually dressed up in costumes and sent off to get Vethala Paakus- Lord Krishna, Japanese lady, Madisaar Maami- the whole package used to so colorful. We used to gear up for these costume parties…well, all we wanted was that packet of sundal Rama maami made. :D
All said and done, I do miss these crazy aspects of Golu; Sitting here, in some corner of India, I really would love a visit, grab a potlam of sunDal and spend time with sis and home. Though, I did catch up with Ram-Leela, I do really miss home. Can’t wait for Diwali…Chennai..here I come!!!
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