Bournvita Ice-cream..

I'm a nocturnal person, probably to do with being born at midnight :) But what can I say.. I saw a nice comment by my brother Vinod on my blog, and that got me thinking... hmmm...

This post is dedicated to him, Veena and most of all my Periamma (Vinod and Veena's mom), who's no more with us... but left us with many sweet memories.. to cherish and love...

Right, now that the mushy stuff is over, let's get on with the story, shall we? You might wonder what is Bournvita ice-cream. I mean, everyone in India knows Bournvita .. the health drink with that nice song "tan ki shakti, man ki shakti bournvitaa!!" but ice-cream from Bournvita?? Well, this was the brainwave that struck Veena, Shilpu and me at Ghatkopar one day. So we decided to experiment, with help from Vinod of course. Now, I'm going the Project Management way to show you what all happened....

Project: To make professional quality ice-cream from Bournvita and milk.

Resources: Vinod, Veena, Shilpu and Me, a large steel pataram (vessel), spoon, rusty old egg beater.

Ingriedients: Milk, Bournvita powder, Sugar and Ice.

Technology: Refrigerator (not frost free)

Sprint 1 : We mix Bournvita powder (4 tbsps - it's a wonder we didn't get pasted for this), 2 cups milk, 5 tbps sugar and blend all this nicely in that steel vessel. We put it in the fridge to set. Hours later, no effect, its cold but not set. The bulb blinks on, someone realises it sets in the freezer not the lower part of the fridge, so we put it in the fridge.

We get up at 3am in the morning to check our ice-cream (if our parents used the same motivation for us to study, we would be NASA scientists today), it sets, but like well, ice.. impossible to take out or eat.

Sprint 2: we defrost sprint 1 and decide to put it in ice tray instead (I know, I know.. how the hell is that going to make a difference, but to be fair, we were only 8 then). Bad result, plus a fair amount of questioning from Periamma as to what exactly we were doing poking our heads into the fridge so many times. We decide to do this another day and dump the stuff before someone finds out the wasted milk and Bournvita.

Sprint 3: Introduction of new resource, Sriram (Vinod and Veena's cousin). He gets the bright idea to mix salt with the Milk-Bournvita-Sugar concoction so that it sets like ice-cream. Now that I think of it, good idea, but bad proportions. We mix salt, nobody has a clue how much so the measurement is random. Result is good setting, it does resemble ice-cream but one spoon in the mouth and everyone goes.... BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! It's salty ice-cream!!!!!!!

That did it, we abandoned attempts to do any ice-cream business then and decided that the 5 buck ice-cream at Tequila bar was better than all the effort to actually make one.

I can tell so many other things at Ghatkopar, the best part was that Periamma was the coolest parent I ever knew. She was fun, strict, but had a nice way of being strict, and basically let us make messes and well be kids...

Life is complicated now, but Bournvita Ice-cream always brings a smile to my face.. :))

P.S:- Veensey, we missed doing that dance the last time you were here... ;-)

Wedding - Shedding, Shaadi-Vaadi

I had been to a wedding today with Tani and my friend, Arpana and her son Aditya. Watching the two kiddos reminded me of all the weddings we went to when we were kids.. and so here I am!!!

Anybody who has been even remotely associated with a Pattar family will know the importance of a "Kalyanam" (wedding in Iyer lingo). It's the mother of all affairs, more important than electing the country's PM or surviving a tsunami. Parents get their children dressed, themselves dressed and the hours spent discussing what sari to wear will probably make Gandhiji turn in his grave (not that he has one, but you get the point :)). Women take the frontseat here, bustling about, picking out clothes for their hapless husbands who follow merely because there won't be any food cooked at home on that day... besides the "booffaayy" chaapaadu is worth it!

For us kids, luckily, we had a whole battalion of weddings to attend thanks to so many mamas and chittis getting married one after the other (yes, they were planned that way!). Sandy, Shilpu and me got to attend a lot of them, our whole focus was on dressing up... this was the one time you got to wear nailpolishes, "leefteeks", jewellery and look cool...! Mahalaxmi Mami (Sandy's mom) was our default lipstick person, she had the best shades in her handbag. We would get to wear them after ALL dressing and eating was done, before going to the hall. Post the lipstick application, we wouldn't let the upper lip and lower lip touch each other even while swallowing SALIVA!!! This is because the lipstick would run off otherwise... LOL!!

Once we were at the hall, there would be a mad dash to sit next to the poor bride and groom so that we would come in the "video". Not complying with this rule would lead to cold stares and tight pinches from our mothers who thought that coming in the video was "visible proof" that we have attended the wedding (Honestly, I really don't think the bride and groom could care less, but their parents would for some weird reason). There would also be a competition of sorts between kids from the girl's side and boy's side. This not only applied to videos but also to playing outside & eating.

When there's a wedding in the family, then what fun!! We kids got first preference when it came to clothes. Sandy, Shilpa and I were always "band baajaa" (same clothes, in different colors). I remember Virmani Mama's wedding, the "pavadais"... the material came from Madras (now Chennai). I got a peacock blue one with a dark blue border (temple style), Sandy got the parrot green one with identical color border, Shilpu got a rose colored one with same border. But there was a problem. Sandy's and mine had golden "buttas", Shilpus' did not!!! Big issue...!! Shilpu was weeping, mine is not same as theirs, you are leaving me out, I am the odd one... and so on. My parents were in a fix, trying to tell her its ok, Sandy and I being the bad ones were smirking, while trying to look sympathetic. Well, my grandma had her way and sent the material back with a neighbor to Chennai and got another rose colored one with the same buttas and border for Shilpu!!!! Can ya beat that??

Now, there's the food thing.. Shilps and Sandy hated curds, I loved it! When the "thayiru pachadi" guy would come, they would say no, put their hands over their elais while I would ask that mama to put thayiru pachadi for those two, which would get them really upset! Once, I fooled Shilpu by saying that the Mango Kadi (Mambaya Morkootan) was actually payasam and she allowed the Mama to put it in her elai... then threw up and I got into a whole lotta trouble with my grandma for that. He He He...! I would like to add some stuff here about people's eating habits we would observe.. but will refrain (Sandy, Shilpu, Vidya will know what I am talking about).

The best part is those memories you form. As a child, you are least bothered about fashion, dress sense, the heat, the good food, the bad food... etc. You really aren't bothered about the bride and groom either. All you care about is meeting other kids and having a blast, playing cricket with laddoos and stuffing as many flowers as you can in your hair.

We still have those pavadais (south indian ghaghra cholis), the dresses that we got for Mina Akka's wedding (hey, Gokul atim actually called us "models"... we were in cloud nine after that!!) and Virmani Mama's wedding are still around somewhere. They were priceless for us, probably because that was the only other time we got new outfits (apart from Diwali and birthdays).

And probably, because a wedding to us, was a party to attend... a child's innocence.... an adult's misconception....

Break-ups & make-ups are what siblings are made of..

Sibling rivalry! No parent likes it, all families go through it, kind of like a ritual.. Growing up, we all experienced sibling rivalries. My sister and I had the worst fights, with all the seasonings thrown in - kicking, scratching, throwing stuff at each other, name-calling.. well, you get the picture. My cousins had similar kinds of fights but the intensities would vary. Soon, the adults would group together and start a comparison of sorts - (???!!!!... what can I say, comparing runs in an Iyer family's blood) - my kids fight is worse than your kids (when secretly they would hope that their kids fight was either not as bad or feel proud that their kids were feistier than the others... he he he). Anyways, some fights are memorable, some are downright bad, but most of them make us laugh at how silly we were then. So let me list out some of them...

1. The Towel becomes a Lasso, a deadly weapon! 

This fight happened at Sahakaar between Sandhya and Vidya. Now, they were both really spunky kids and the spirit and motivation to keep a fight going was well matched to both parties. I'm hazy as to what actually started the argument, but somewhere down the line, the damp towels (thorttamundu) became a cross between a lasso and a whip. If anyone has ever been crazy enough to hit himself or herself with a damp thorttamundu, he/she would know that it is kind of getting whiplashed (plus the fact that you would need psychiatric help). Our family servant Savitri bai was there and she raised a huge ruckus. My grandmother was asleep I think in the other room, Savitri bai went to hysterics that these two "porgis" would kill each other. My grandma went into even more hysterics, called my uncle and aunt.. and the rest as you know is history! This fight took Sandy and Vids to dizzying heights of popularity in the family circles.

2. Too much Salt is not good for you...

Gautam, my paternal aunt's son was the proverbial spoilt brat. When he was younger, he was a terror in the right sense of the word. Now it so happened that in Chennai, at Sudha Akka's place, he had some kind of argument with her. As Sudha was bigger and stronger, he couldn't do much. Plus, the thought of getting pasted by Girish (Sudha's younger brother, a good 10 years senior to Gautam) was not very appealing. So, Gautam decided to get devious. Sudha's friends were due in the evening, all college crowd girls. When they came over, Gautam like a good boy, decided to "help" out and got them a plateful of mixture, with spoons stuck in them. Well, the poor girls did not know what was awaiting them when they stuck spoonfuls into their mouths. Only the upper layer was mixture, the lower was all SALT!!!!! Talk about a devious genius!!!

3. Salt and water?

This was between me and my sis. We had one of our arguments (she was reading my diary I think) and I had kind of forgotten about it later. Most of the day we barely saw each other, but finally we did come face to face in the evening. I asked for a glass of water, which she gladly obliged (should have smelt a rat then!). I took a large gulp and whoa!!! It was like drinking Dead Sea water!! Salt galore!!! Knew my sister was a genius and horribly clever ;-) and I was well, taken for a ride...

4. Tennis balls bounce on walls...

This happened between Sandy, Shilps, Vinu and Myself. We were at Blossom, Marol, my aunt was asleep and Vinu being Vinu was being a pest and bouncing a tennis ball on the walls and well, all of us in turns. We were older, but no amount of asking to stop worked (he was kind of our favorite and the youngest, so understandably pampered). We threw the ball out, but the darned watchman gave it back. Finally, we got mad and began getting physical. Vinu was strong, so we did a kind of round-up, grabbed the ball and also gave him a nice pinch on the ear. That's it! Vinu got mad, said "katti" and stomped off to the bedroom. Later, my aunt came and said he wanted us to tell him sorry. Shilpa said sorry, Sandy and I refused, the fight threatened to blow up... but as they say, all's well that ends well. Some tv, games and ice-creams did the trick ;-)

5. Cycle chains and doors.

Vasuki building, I think Veena and I can never forget this one. Gautam as usual was bugging us, we told him we wanted to go our homes right away. He came after us with a bicycle chain, we ran for our lives, locked ourselves in. My aunt luckily came back from the market shortly and smoothed things over with some bhelpuris, ice-cream and I think a trip to the movies. Anyway, his stack of comic books was worth the fight.

5. Too many to remember...

I dedicate this section to the fight masters ...

a) Archana and Vinu.  

b) Suraj and Krishna. 

There are just too many to put down on paper here, so I ask them to fill this out in their comments for me. If  you guys read this, please give me an account of what you think is your most memorable fight. 

6. Too less to remember...

This section is dedicated to Vinod and Veena, who according to the entire family were model siblings and never fought ever!! Unlike us, who were labelled junglees and had the capacity to probably kill each other someday, these two were the quintessal hindi/tamil film siblings. Now, I don't know if they really did fight, if they did, please do fill this in. 

The weird thing is that today, we all miss seeing each other so much, these fights have now become pleasant memories.  Also, Vinu, Suraj, Krishna and Gautam are proof that the kids who fight the most, eventually grow up to be perfect gentlemen! 

Shilps, Sandy, Vids, Veena, Vinu, Vinod.. I need your comments here. 

Chowpatty Beach & Panthers...

My cousin Veensey called yesterday, she's come down from Delhi and wanted us to have a picnic. It instantly took me back to the numerous picnics we used to have as kids. You see, we were a large family and spread out all over India. Once a year, usually in summers, the whole clan would gather at my grandparent's place for a reunion. This was usually spread out over a month long period and was spersed with a whole bunch of picnics. Most were impromptu, we would all pile up in my uncle's car (a Duker Fiat, blue one), you know where the doors open "the other way" and go off to Chowpatty beach (default picnic destination). It's a small car, but had an amazing capacity inside to take in 8 adults and 5 kids (on the adults laps)..!! Throughout, we would be yelling "Chowpatty jayenge toh bhelpuri khaayenge..." (it's an old hindi song). It's weird how everyone has a concept of space now, we never gave a thought to it back then.
Now, this reunion was from my paternal side, my maternal side had its own reunion in winter. Here too, the picnic used to come to fore... but this time it was in scooters. Ours had a "side car", my uncles had the single scooters. So in the sidecar would be 4 kids, plus one sitting between 2 adults. I still r emember the one from Marol to Powaii via Aarey Colony.... Man!! That was some ride!!! Sandy, Shilps and me kept telling stories about the Panthers in Aarey Colony (there used to be, there still are) and how they can just jump into the scooter and take small children away...
Vidya was terrified then (she was probably around 4-5 yrs old) and Archie, well being Archie said what only Archie could say.. "Anndaa panther kuda naan kusti pannuven" (I'll wrestle with the panther). Of course, we got a nice rap from the adults for scaring Vids, later.

Nowadays, we never seem to get time for picnics. Sometimes, I think our parents had it better then. Life was more simple, more uncomplicated. We complicate our lives unnecessarily. Always want more and more, but it's never enough. Looking back, we had much less than what we have today, but we were happy, truly happy.

I'm going to hold Veensey upto the Sealink drive next week and Vids to another drive from Marol to Powai.

It's time we had those picnics again, it's time we made life simple again....

Tequilas and Pav bhajis..

If you ever pass by the highway in Sion, right after Kings Circle station, is a yellowing building called "Narottam Nivas". We used to live there once upon a time.. my dad grew up there most of his life anyway. One would think what can a kid find in a building that faces the highway, has absolutely no ground space for kids to play, no gardens, no greenery, just flat concrete backyard and you step right out into the footpath on the main road. But you see, that's the beauty of being a kid... you never think about these things. Somehow, you find a way to make your surroundings interesting too. And we did have interesting things to do here. 

Tequila Bar in the building next door, had the best orange and mango stick ice-creams ever. Still remember the owner, a short, plump, unsmiling lady (I think she was Iranian descent, they used to call her Iraani lady anyway). Then there was the pub right below my place, which quickly turned into Shawn's Snack Bar (the owner's decided it was a better thing to do since they lost 3 members to booze over there). The most interesting guy was the poor paanwalla.. his stall was right below our balcony, and the target of our countless pebbles, water balloons, paper bits and other things we thought was amusing enough to dump on him. Fortunately, our aims were pretty bad, so most of the stuff missed the guy. Except for one Holi, when the water balloon did land on his chuna pot... 

Pav bhaajii!! Ahhh!! I can never forget the Tiffany's one... at Santacruz. It was Sandy, Shilps and I.. and I'm quite sure nobody has finished 2 plates of Pav Bhaaji in this speed before!! We were sooo hungry.. !! We also ended up taking a rupee "udhaar" for a candy (was to be given to Vidya, who did not come along then..). 

I still go there, but the Pav Bhaaji doesn't taste the same anymore... for that matter, neither do Orange stick ice-creams.....

Sahakar, Sahakar!!

Hey, we're back! Now, with memoirs of my most favorite place in the world... C-7 SAHAKAR, 5TH ROAD SANTACRUZ (EAST), MUMBAI (never remember the pincode). This is the world's best place! No seriously, I am reminded of a saying by some Persian guy (no offense, can't remember the name and all), "If there is heaven on earth, this is it, this is it, this is it". For us, as kids, c-7 sahakar was heaven indeed. My maternal grandparents lived there, my mom and uncles grew up there and it was our vacation haunt (basically we were dumped by our frazzled parents during those long summer hols) for the longest time ever. But we loved it!!! 

Ah! The smell of my grandmom (Manni, as I will refer to her)'s cooking and Thatha waking us up in the morning with pop music (works better than carnatic as we tended to sleep more with that kind of sound). My cousin, my sister and I used to have loads of fun here. Later, we were joined by the younger set of 3 cousins. Actually, by the time our brother arrived, we 5 girls (panchakanyas, as we were refered to) already had our fair share of fun and adventure. 

Anyway, back to our adventures, we always used the back of the building there as a hideout. There were 3 buildings (well the 3rd was actually one wide building with 3 entrances) . Simple naming conventions A, B, C. We always thought C was the best (kind of ironic eh? in school you are always taught that A is the best).  There was a huge ground in the center full of mud and stones and the back of the buildings were always full of stories of "bhoots" and "snakes".

Our favorite games were always in the afternoons when the womenfolk are done with their chores and it is all quiet for sometime. We loved playing "saas-bahu" or "daddy-mummy" in the back balcony, usually damaging some of my gran's precious pattu sarees. But the ultimate fave game was "gol-gol" where you basically just spin round and round and round, till you feel dizzy!!!

Lunches and dinners were sumptuous affairs, my gran made the yummiest food ever and I loved torturing my sisters over "dahi" (they hated it, i loved it). There was an endless supply and she would fuss over us specially for this. She's the best grandma ever!! Thatha was more stern, but man! was he dapper looking!!! He could pass off for 40 when he was 60 (he's crossed 80 now and I swear he doesn't look a day over 60 to me). 

Evenings were fun with my Mama, he was the one who introduced us to western music and we were huge 80s fans thanks to him. All of us still dig "Hey Mickey" and "Cheerikara paattu" even today. 

My older mama, was really cool too, a bit hot-tempered but very cool. Always smoking, but we were kind of afraid of his temper. His wife, my mami was the best, introduced us to the world of make-up!!! I loved checking out her "lifteeks" (lipsticks), she had a great collection. 

Now, I think I must list out the characters and then start the narration. So, the next episode is going to be a brief intro to all the characters in my family and a little something about them.

Then we'll have the real flashbacks!!!

Yeeaaaaaaa!! I love those!!!

See you all soon..bye!

A typical Tam Brahm Family

Mine is a typical Tam Brahm family. For those who aren't familiar with the lingo, "Tam Brahm" is short for a "Tamil Brahmin". Those who fall into this bracket are either from Thanjavur, or Palakkad, both to the South of India. The slang is used more for those who are settled out of their native land, either in the great city of "Bammbaai" or now, in various parts of the "Ameerikaa" or "YouYesAai". 

Yes, I come from a Tam Brahm family, which settled in "Matunga" the heaven of all Tam Brahm's in Mumbai (Bammbaai). All my life, I considered Matunga to be my "native place". My father was also born and brought up there, my mother was partial to "Santacruz" though (Sandaakruzz). Oh, those annoying bracket words are the way my grandmother would pronunce any word in English.. I get a kick of out it, so I'm going to keep putting them here. 

We (my sister and I) grew up in the "center" of all Tam Brahm activities in the city. My grandparents were very active socially, did all the standard Tam Brahm grandparent stuff. Staying bang opposite Shanmukhananda Hall was a huge plus point for them. Not so much for us kids, who had to tag along for all the concerts and plays (Tamil ones), even though that cut into our prime playtime outside. But then again, Shanmukhananda's bhajjis and bondas were yum! 

The most fond memories are of all of us cousins gathering in summer vacations, taking picnics together, parents packing "thayir chaadam" and "masala poories" for long-distance train journeys and picnics. Thayir chaadam is a must and even now, meals feel incomplete without the same.  Summer was usually spent 100% outdoors, end of the day, we would start getting taunts about treating the house like a hotel and of course, the ultimate one "Girls will get dark by playing outside all day!!!". 

Wonder why we are obsessed with fair skin, when 99% of the Tam Brahm population is dark skinned and should really be happy about it. Anyway, my grandmother was the most obsessed one and as her only "fair skinned" grandchild, I got the brunt of "do not let her play outside" funda. Now, my gran was some woman, believe me, you had to take a trip with her to the Matunga market to see her in action. When she got started , she could sell a chicken to a Buddhist. 

I loved the trips with her, it was always fun and she always got those plastic rings with various Gods pics from outside Asthika Samaj temple. And she had the most quaint collection of jewellery boxes and piggy banks. One of my favorite things to do was to prowl through her "beero" and listen to stories at night. Muniyandi stories were the best. 

Ah... muniyandi..... now, I'd like to think for a while as I have to put a Muniyandi story here.....