My story of panchamritham......

Sivaratri is a big celebration back where i grew up..it still is. Only, i haven't been around during the celebrations for over a decade.

The sights, the sounds , the smells...oh ! the smells!

Sneaking into the granary to check if all the ingredients for 'panchamritam' have arrived, waking up on sivarathri mornings to the sounds over all the containers available being washed, mashing the bananas with sugar cane, wearing new dresses, arrival of all relatives.....the pooja, prasad on banana leaves, the fireworks after that.....and the sugar induced coma that sets in post lunch.

I now live with memories!

It was always the one festival that bought the entire extended family tree to our ancestral home...the house , the courtyard would be teeming with people, maybe a hundred relatives, and even more villagers....

The kids always got the messier tasks, collecting flowers, peeling bananas, mashing them, but participate we did. In between running around and sneaking off to play.

The men had the more serious tasks...arranging for the 'poojari', getting the pachamritam ready before the start of thew pooja, making sure the "kathina vedi"- barrel crackers , and planted safe and away from the crowd, while amma and ammamma made sure these were enough vessels to give away panchamritham to each house hold..of course after giving them a mouthful on not bringing their on containers:-)

We were free to do what we wanted and usually caught up on where we left of the day before, or the week before....playing, running around- till the pooja starts.
Then there is impatience, for the pooja to get over, and get the prasad..." pachamritam" on banana leaves, running in all directions.I always played safe and took one spoon on the leaf..then went and got myself a small bowl and took extra helpings in that...some advantages on being the girl of the house, and of staying in the 'tharavadu'.

Then we would all find a safe spot from the scorching sun stand and watch/ listen to the fireworks...it was always the youngest uncle who used to be in charge- i think he got a kick out of getting louder and scarier crackers every year....

My mom hated what came after this. The panchamritam, sittting in a huge vessle, had to divided between the various households as per their contribution, and number of members at home.
Logistical nightmare...and a very bad house keeping nightmare come true.
Pachamritham, is one tricky matter...like a mixture of custard and honey- sticky in parts, runny in some, stains like crazy and ants love it.

After all that is over, there would still be about 20 ltrs of the stuff left, that goes to the immediate family, and gets stored , to be sent away to....chez moi now, TB's house, Our BIL's house maybe this year..all relatives, who may come visiting in the next two months, or who may get visited in the same time span.
That leaves about 10 ltrs, which we ate in bulk...and passed out in sugar induced coma..for the remainder of the day.

oops! no sleep...there was still the whole night movie at the temple compound. All stories of god played out on the makeshift screen, while the entire village stayed awake with Lord Shiva. At some stage in life, we out grew this and stuck to watching the same stuff, but staying at home.

Sivarathri now, is another day ay office, trying to figure out how to keep V busy at home, missing the celebrations and calling up home to maybe catch some long distance sounds of the celebrations. And of course reminding amma to bring us( TB) a large horlicks bottle full of panchamritam on her next trip.

Life is all about living in anticipation , right? and my expectations are pretty simple. A bottle of home made panchamritam, make me delirously happy!

Missing baby Jesus

...and the Nativity scene. I have not seen one in Mumbai yet.

What ever happened to the nativity scene??How could Christmas be complete without that.

I studied in a Convent school, like most of kerala does, and the best memories of christmas was milling around the nativity scene that used to be put up on the first floor landing. Half yearly exams were just before christmas holidays, and one of the days we come in for exams, it would suddenly appear in the same spot, every year,in all splendour. I must have spend hours milling around it, admiring baby jesus,Joseph and Mary, the shepherds, the three kings, the lambs. Awwww..it was just soo cute. Even better was sneaking into the convent where the nativity scene would be in the open, with real hay and grass.

After sunset....Just the christmas stars and nativity scenes with lights on it. It has an almost magical quality to the season. And then there is always the Plum cakes and home made wines...

The last christmas i enjoyed was with a couple close to us, at their family home, with their entire clan in presence. We ate like there was no tomorrow, talked like it was the last day of our lives, and drank home made wine till we passed out. We also officiated V , by giving him his first glass of wine, which he loved and came around for more.

As of yesterday, our complex has one visible christmas star,which is on our balcony!!! What ever happened to the christmas spirit?

Christmas here, now seems to be more about SantaClaus and the Christmas tree( "X mas tree mama"- as V says it now). Actually more about christ- massy decorations and discounts. And no, i have not even heard one carol till today.

Can i please have the old fashioned christmas festivities please?? It does not feel like christmas at all....Waaahh!

..........so dang bad, it is not even cold, even at night.

Saturday , Sunday & Monday

Saturday

is the day V and me with his friend and mom watched Madagascar 2. BIG cinemas ran out of caramel popcorn for the day after that. After-effects of movie include a hidesign bag still holding remnants of caramel popcorn and a big dent in bank balance. Snack counters should be banned in movie theatres. Period.

Sunday

is the day V got himself a 101 Dalmations bedcover set. He also lovingly offered me the cheeseless garlic bread from Pizza Hut after eating off the cheese in one large bite.He also managed to get his butt frozen staying in the swimming pool with TB.I had to towel his butt his back into shape!

Monday

is the day Santa bought gift for V from Crosswords. Santa aka Mom aka Me, bought the red car with remote in anaticipation of wrangling out best behaviour for the next three days.Now plotting action plan to get the best out of " Santa will bring your gift if....."* wicked smile*

Off i go....on a broom

My pookkalams

Some pictures of my floral creations..

This is the pookkalam i made on Onam today.

Please note the very demure and coy looking son sitting next to it. I am not so sure what to make out of that expression. I am definitely not liking the 'demure and coy' look.


C'mon buddy, snap out!



This is what i made last year. It lasted exactly 3/4 th of the day till the housekeeper decided to clean it up thinking it was some kids prank.

The subsequent tongue lashing and neck wringing is still very clear in his mind. This year, he's not even stepping on this side of the floor, leave alone clean it. He better not. I am very stuck up about grudges. I take them very personally. Especially when it comes to pookkalams.


Happy Onam!!!!Just ignore me and my grudges.

Off non-veg

I turn vegetarian tomorrow....no, not forever. For 30 days, till the month of "karkkidakam" gets over. While there are traditional and religious reasons for this, and most of Kerala follows suit, i did not follow this till about a few years ago.

The tradition must have started for varied reasons, i'd like to believe that one of them is health as monsoon is not really the best time to indulge in non vegetarian food. Also, this is considered a time when food was scarce( this is the age before preserved foods came into picture) , and hence the order of month was eating frugally, resting your body and rejuvenating for the harvest months ahead and spending the remaining of the day in prayers.

My best memories of Karkkidakam are the day before the month, which is today...The house used to get scrubbed, dusted and polished. And in the evening, the dust collected , along with cobwebs, a broken earthern vessel, an old broom on a tattered woven basket was taken out of the house by our servant, who used to go far away from the house and throw away all the dirt for the year..and we used to chant for the " Goddess of dirt to go far away, and the Gooddess of cleanliness and goodness to come home". And for the next 30 days we worshipped the goddess of goodness inside the house.

Karkkidakam is also " Ramayana Masam" , where the epic is read at every house throughout the month. For us, that mean two readings,my ammamma used to read ramayana everyday, all through the year. Her reading ramayan was our signal for the end of the day; lights used to be switched off immediately after she finished. So in karkkidakam, there was one reading in the morning and one at night.

I wish i could read the ramayana - to myself and V. Considering the firefighting that we go through every day, that seems a remote possibility. I will still try..though i need a refersher from mom on where all i can start from and where i can stop during reading( those who do not know- you can't just open a page and read..there are rules to reading ramayan).

And go off non veg, for that is the closest i can get to eating frugally. So i am going to do exactly that. Last year TB volunteered to stay off non veg and managed that for exactly 72 hours...This year, he has volunteered again, and i am counting in hours.