Sher Nadi- Tiger River

It is few kms away from Lakhnadon of Seoni District in Madhya Pradesh

This morning ...

This morning was reminded of a poem composed by me in November 2004 while on a visit to the Red Sea at Berbera, Somaliland.

Sea & Life 

A Sea full of life

And

A life full of sea

Joined in a warm embrace

Sea,

Calmness of stride,

purity of soul,

warmth of touch

is the life within you.

Life,

Depths of feelings,

Waves of thoughts,

tides of emotions

is the sea within you.

Who gained more and

Who gained less ?

That the life was blessed,

for it, the

universe was the witness.

when the balmy touch

of the waves

took away the pain,

reached for the brimming eyes

the salt mingled with the tears

obliterated their existence.

Aye… Sea

But what about you ?

fathomless that you are

Which depths do you take all the sorrows to,

Or stuff them to the life in you

weather it through the seasons

And come out with a shiny pearl ?

I did Bake !

The oven arrived as we had planned with my parents who visited me last week. I was off to Madurai and did not get the time to have a test bake when they were around. They left last Saturday. I had promised Tejas that I will bake a cake for him on a holiday. Today was one so he made sure that I kept my promise.

This was a simple cake. No raisins, nuts or cherries. I didn’t even have any essence or flavour. What I did was  :

Beat eggs well, added a cup of refined sunflower oil and beat it again. Powdered a cup of sugar in the dry grinding jar of the mixie and added it to the beaten eggs and oil. Sifted a cup of Maida with a spoon of baking powder and added it to the mixture. Added 2 pinches of cardmom powder( for lack of any flavouring agent) too and after thoroughly mixing it all, poured the thick batter into a baking dish. Preheated the oven for a minute and placed the dish into it. Covered the oven and sat back with satisfaction that the cake was going to be ready in a while.

A minute later there was  a slight crackling noise within the oven and as I peeped in, a spark went off and so was the oven. The glow went off from the faces of the kids too. Now, had to quickly come up with an alternative to complete the baking.

Took my 5 litre pressure cooker, removed the gasket and the whistle, dried it completely. Kept an inverted lid on the base of the pressure cooker, set the cake dish with the mixture on top of it. Closed the lid and put the pressure cooker on low heat for about an hour. When the aroma that filled the room turned from a sweet baked smell to slightly burnt one, put off the fire and opened the lid.

The cake was ready. Took it out, cooled it a bit, cut into pieces. The kids had their first bites and the expression said it all. Not bad ! 

I am relieved! I thought I had forgotten to bake and might not be able to do it well anymore. The conking of the oven at the right time was another dampener. But ultimately, thanks to the saving grace of the pressure cooker, a savoury cake was ready.  So, bake, I did.

On the lighter :-) side of matters...

I always wondered how language evolved around the neighbouring states. To an outsider Tamil and Malayalam sounded similar and many people who lived in the boarders of Tamil Nadu and Kerala also easily switched from one language to another while conversing. As a malayalee who spoke kottayam Malayalam at home always, I was amused by certain Tamil words. Malayalam and Tamil do share a lot of words in common but what would seem a simple word in Tamil could be a high sounding extreme one in Malayalam. 

Few words and their usages in the two languages which I noticed

Mudinju:

Tamil : Completed/ finished. It could refer to a task completed.

Malayalam: Destroyed/ Finished: Would mean something which was finished due to destruction.

Vilayattam :

Tamil : Play.

Malayalam: Play (with a negative connotation). For example a mom who’s really upset with her child who’s been playing for long could scold the child saying “It’s high time you stop your vilayattam and come home”. A catty action could be referred to as a “Vilayattam”

Thungal

Tamil : Sleeping

Malayalam : Hanging

Thaandi :

Tamil: Crossed. Could be used as “ I just crossed the check gate”

Malayalam: Giant leaps.

Parishuddha Aavi (Christian Concept)

Tamil : The Holy Spirit

Malayalam: Holy steam

Pudichu

Tamil : Liked

Malayalam: Obsessed

Finally during this recent TN visit and while administering questionnaires to the community (people always spoke in Tamil which was either translated for me or sometimes I just understood) I almost always observed that the response to the question “do you the know the modes of HIV transmission” would start with “Udal Uravu, …., …., etc”. The interpreter would go “sex, …, …., etc.” I couldn’t stop smiling each time it was said. Obviously “Udal Uravu” meant “Sex” in Tamil and guess what it means in  Malayalam. It means “rubbing of bodies”. Imagine what can cause AIDS ! :-) :-)