Alu Parata and Saag Panneer

Talking about G 63/5 has had me think more and more of Sarala athai related memories. In the last blog I had mentioned one of her friends' names was Sarala (that is true and she had 3 sons also but she did not live in our block). The aunty that lived in our block was Sarasamma aunty or Sarasakka like Athai called her.

Well coming to this post. For those of you that have lived in HVF Estate Avadi or have been there to visit, you know there is only one bus from the Estate to the outside world. No guesses for what it is - it was Route 65-B from Ambattur Industrial Estate to Poonamallee. So if you need to go to Ambattur and from there to Anna Nagar or other places in the City or if you needed to go the other direction to downtown Avadi, this was the only mode of transportation. I am talking the bicycle or scooter days - so if you had to go somewhere outside of the Estate, you had to wait out for the bus. I believe the frquency was every 40 minutes or so. I remember so many days waiting for the bus in front of the Vijayantha Nursery School.Later 61-A would sometimes make a detour via these areas. However if you lived close to the HVF Hospital, you had a further choice of about 3 buses of the 61 series. These came from ICF or Parrys Corner(also known as Broadway) and went up to IAF or Ayapakkam or Pattabiram. There is a reason for all this and a connection to the topic :-) Give me a minute (or ten) to get to that.

Those were also the days where eating out was a exception rather the norm it is today. Most families cooked fresh meals and ate at home almost all the time. If there was visiting family or you had to go into the "city" you had an opportunity to eat out. Even that for a tambram family like ours meant idli,dosa,vada,pongal, poori etc. And to top it all there was NO hotel(that is how we used to refer to restaurants) in HVF Estate. There was one near the pan shop left to the Township office (near the Vijayantha Auditorium), but was mostly closed or changing ownership and did not even have much of a menu. There was this tea shop near the Vijanatha Institute that sold some fried stuff like bajji, bonda, those little samosas you could buy for 15 paise..but that was it. Of course you could get a variety of snacks in the Bakery(run by Kushia Begum's family - Kushia was my mother's student) or these other 2 places I mentioned. So really I had not heard of things like Alu Parata or Saag Panneer until Sarala Athai got married and went to New Delhi and started coming back home during summer.

She used to make Samosas, Alu Tikki, Bhel Chaat, Alu Chaat, Chana masala, Alu parata, Panneer dishes and a wide variety of "North Indian" cuisine that put Vijay and me in seventh heaven. Those were also the days that you could not just stop at a super market(there was none) and buy panneer. All these dishes took days of planning and Sarala Athai made a grand production of the entire event - planning to cooking to consuming it. I do not know which impressed me more - her ability to turn this mundane task into a grand event or her culinary skills. Both I guess. I still remember watching her make the Alu Parata. Do you think I am a foodie - well who isn't?

And those days I was so addicted to potato chips and "mixture". So she would give me 1 Rupees and 10 paise to buy 50 grams of Potato Chips almost daily and a "biscuit" that had cream filling in the center and was pink from Kushia Begum's bakery whenever she came to visit.

When she came from New Delhi she would pack pooris and tomato chutney and this Karela dish (that I am still trying to master) for her 36 hour journey in GT (Grand Trunk) express or TamilNadu express. She always made enough so she will have leftovers for Vijay and me when she landed. It is hard to describe how tasty this day old food was. Again I do not know if it is the food or the love that Sarala Athai showered on us. She even came to the New Delhi airport with this exact same menu in 1998 when Mani and I were enroute to the US. And I remember we ate it in France and I was telling Mani how it tasted exactly the same.

She would buy us gifts - pencils that did not have to be sharpened, school bags, shoes, litle trinket - we felt like kings and queens for days after that. So why am I making a big deal of all this is what you are wondering right? After all uncles and aunts spoil their nieces and nephews. What is the big deal is that she did not have enough to have luxuries in her life. She had to sew and sell arts and crafts to supplement her family's income. She toiled for hours on her sewing machine so she could earn extra so they can have a better lifestyle. But what little she had, she made sure Vijay and I had our share of it. Even as little children we had an awareness of it and that is why all this was so special. That is why Sarala Athai is so special. And she will always be...

Remember in the last blog, I said I used to cry whenever she left for New Delhi after spending a few weeks of summer with us. And how she teases me that I do not do that anymore since I am an adult. I think this time when she leaves I am going to cry. I am going to cry for a loonng time - in fact the tears and the pain of separation has already started for me. Because this time when she leaves, I am afraid I will never see her again. She will forever live in my memories and now for eternity in the world wide web.

Yes, regretfully my dear Sarala Athai is suffering from liver cancer and it is terminal and she has a few months to go before bidding her final adieu. Knowing her, it will be in style. It will be a dramatic grand finale. I have 5 athais, I love them all, but I am not beyond saying I love you the most Sarala Athai(Sampoornam was her real name). Everytime somebody says "Athai" anywhere in the world, it is your name and your face that comes to my memory. I remember your lullaby to me and Vijay when I was 3 - Athai madi methai adi...I cry everytime I hear that song. It is always a tune that is playing in my head....God Speed and hope you are feeling well now Athai.