I was to leave to Singapore that evening and examined the things to be packed before I left. Among my clothes and other sundry items lay seventeen cylindrical PET jars, each weighing approximately half a kilo. These bottles had varying contents ranging from mild beige coloured powders to rich red pastes. To those who have not been through the ritual of coming home once in six months, the beige powder might look like beach sand and you may wonder what it is. The contents of these little jars are my lifeline for six months. It is these Podi's and Paste's that connect my gustatory receptors to home and make me feel less homesick.
These bottles consume about half of my luggage allowance and it is a real headache to seal them with cling-wrap and polyethene sheets. These bottles need to be nestled among my clothes and god forbid them from leaking. Lugging 8.5kgs of bottles from the airport is no mean task. Despite the difficulty, several conterparts of mine and I undergo this semi-annual ritual willingly as it saves us several hours of time and energy.
My room-mate refers to my stacked store of bottles as 'Magic potion collection', but I prefer to call them Bottled Blessings as these powders and pastes were lovingly made by my grandmothers and mom. My maternal grandmother makes my daily cooking much simpler by grinding all the dry ingredients required in any south indian dish into a powder. Her simple methodology is boil the vegetables, add some podi and add some water and Viola!! One Kozambu is ready!!! As I eat the moar-kozambu rice prepared using my grandmom's podi,Nostalgia envelops me and I feel the taste of the food that she lovingly fed me while I was back home.
On the other hand, my paternal grandmother makes Idly Podi, Thengai podi and other standalone podi's that require no additional work to be done and can be eaten with Idly's and other dry food items. This again takes me thousands of miles away back to Chennai as I reminisce the crispy vadais and idly's that she prepared for me.
When I tell people that I am a vegetarian, they usually assume that I have a bland diet comprising vegetables and rice, not realizing that my mom has provided me with a mind boggling melange of meat free food encompassing countries from India to Italy. My mom knows very well that south-indian food alone can never satisfy her little girl. Hence she prepares and buys spice mixtures which include the very Indian garam masala, the not so Indian cinnamon mix and the not at all indian pasta herb mix.
Everyday as I prepare my food, I recite the sloka 'Annapoornae Sada Poornae..', then I invariably open one of these seventeen blessings and thank Annapoorna in the form of my three deities in disguise for endowing me and blessing me with these podi's. These podi's give me good health and prosperity by ensuring that I eat properly.
These bottles consume about half of my luggage allowance and it is a real headache to seal them with cling-wrap and polyethene sheets. These bottles need to be nestled among my clothes and god forbid them from leaking. Lugging 8.5kgs of bottles from the airport is no mean task. Despite the difficulty, several conterparts of mine and I undergo this semi-annual ritual willingly as it saves us several hours of time and energy.
My room-mate refers to my stacked store of bottles as 'Magic potion collection', but I prefer to call them Bottled Blessings as these powders and pastes were lovingly made by my grandmothers and mom. My maternal grandmother makes my daily cooking much simpler by grinding all the dry ingredients required in any south indian dish into a powder. Her simple methodology is boil the vegetables, add some podi and add some water and Viola!! One Kozambu is ready!!! As I eat the moar-kozambu rice prepared using my grandmom's podi,Nostalgia envelops me and I feel the taste of the food that she lovingly fed me while I was back home.
On the other hand, my paternal grandmother makes Idly Podi, Thengai podi and other standalone podi's that require no additional work to be done and can be eaten with Idly's and other dry food items. This again takes me thousands of miles away back to Chennai as I reminisce the crispy vadais and idly's that she prepared for me.
When I tell people that I am a vegetarian, they usually assume that I have a bland diet comprising vegetables and rice, not realizing that my mom has provided me with a mind boggling melange of meat free food encompassing countries from India to Italy. My mom knows very well that south-indian food alone can never satisfy her little girl. Hence she prepares and buys spice mixtures which include the very Indian garam masala, the not so Indian cinnamon mix and the not at all indian pasta herb mix.
Everyday as I prepare my food, I recite the sloka 'Annapoornae Sada Poornae..', then I invariably open one of these seventeen blessings and thank Annapoorna in the form of my three deities in disguise for endowing me and blessing me with these podi's. These podi's give me good health and prosperity by ensuring that I eat properly.
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