The Blogging Bug - first bite ever

I’ve been bitten by the blogging bug a few times. The inspiration is high while all the other perspiration means that this becomes low priority.


The blog was called ‘Trivandrum Tidbits’ and was meant to capture little insights about living in Trivandrum. As you can see the post was by Shuffles and Ripples. So it was a joint venture and Ripples and was to play the blog photographer’s role and I was to be Shuffles ( a nickname by an old friend Nandan from college days) to rhyme with Ripples. Ripples moved on to writing her own blog soon. But this was the first blog post ever.

April 16, 2007
Wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year!

We have just celebrated "Vishu" the regional New Year here and the festive atmosphere is still lingering. I thought it was a nice day to start and here goes...

It was one of those enlightening moments (perhaps the effect of local homemade grape wine) which all of us have - "Well, I should put up this blog and here it is".

Frances Mayes and Peter Mayle have this impact on you where one wants to run to the sunny south and buy a house and spend hours renovating it; but then I am from the middle middle-class and can't afford holidays abroad - forget buying property; but then I am already in the sunny south and have been here for some time now. It was not an easy journey with a new language, a different culture and of course a sultry climate where you pull out your woolens from their bags once a year to air them, where it rains at all odd times of the year and one often wonders at the dust that accumulates on everything around. And yes, when I think about it, definitely an adventure. I would love to share with all my friends, my experiences, the good and a few bad and share with you all a lot of things that I have learnt along the way. The cultural differences, the recipes, the architecture...I am actually talking about Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala state in India. It is only about 90 kms away from Kanyakumari, the southernmost point of the country and hardly any distance from the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border. As of today, the sun is blazing hot and the temperature here is at an all time high. The trees have a droopy look though the whole place is ablaze with the yellow "kanni konna" flowers. So bienvenue and join me in this adventure..

(http://trivandrumtidbits.blogspot.com/2007/04/happy-new-year.html)

One of the first things that I learnt to say after coming to Trivandrum was ‘ Naal ki’ or tomorrow. This started with the local laundry. Having dumped a load to wash there I went to collect the stuff on the third day as indicated on the receipt, The laundryman looked at me and moved his hand vigorously saying naal ki, naal ki. Another customer standing there said in heavily accented Hindi, kal milega. I thanked him and came the next day and the next, When I told my neighbour she said , he must be from the border. In Trivandrum Malyalam we say naaley. Atray ullu. (Naaley. That's all)) As you can imagine, that kind of set the pace!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Librarian Mama - carrying the world of books on a cycle!

Image
It was the early 2000s and away on the East Coast Road in Chennai, by the bay, there wasn't a library nearby to borrow magazines. We missed our regular quota of Reader's Digest, Chandamama, Champak, Outlook, The Week and other reads. New to the area, I went around asking everyone if they knew of a library nearby, where did they get their books from? I discovered that there was a librarian who visited homes and delivered books. You could keep them for a fortnight and then on his next visit, he would collect those back and leave new ones for you. He charged a nominal sum that we could easily afford to pay and was a very tiny fraction of what it would cost to buy the magazines. The first time we met Mama ( maternal Uncle - it is the usual form of addressing gentlemen much older than you) we realised that he cycled around delivering books and magazines. The cycle was a trusted big, black hero cycle and he carried the books in colourful bags made of thick plastic, that would hand fr...
Read more

Holi and purnachi poli

Image
I am writing about Puran poli in the context of Holi because of the popular chant –  Holi re holi, purnachi poli ... Pooran poli is otherwise very important as well. As an offering to the Gods during other festivals and because my Aji made really amazing puranpolis according to everyone! As a kid, I didn’t like them at all. I'm not sure but it must have something to do with grinding all that pooran though I did like eating the puran and while one was grinding it, eating bits of it was totally prohibited. But thinking back and now having developed a liking for them I do prefer the soft ones, stuffed with a lot of pooran  like she made them. And then drizzled with ghee! The soft flavour of nutmeg playing hide and seek with the tastebuds as one took a morsel.  Amongst the festivals purannpoli was made at were Gudi Padva, Navratri – first day and ninth day and just a little bit of pooran on the eight day as well for the aarti. Then we had it for Holi and Gudi Padva and in bet...
Read more

Virtual travel - Discovering chicory and fava

Image
Discovering Chicory and Fava Virtual travelling during the pandemic, I kept making lists of what to see and what to do and what to taste on the next real trip. Researching Puglia, looking at various top 10 suggestions, what caught my attention was  ‘chicory and fava.’ A puree of fava beans soaked overnight and chicory leaves. It sounded wholesome and comforting but I had never heard of chicory leaves being eaten before. Chicory! My association with chicory is it's presence in coffee and endless debates about whether coffee is better with it or without it. My grandmother, dressed in her voile saree, sipping from a steaming cup of coffee, standing under the arched doorway that separated the dining room from the kitchen and strongly advocating chicory in coffee in her warm, cultured Maharashtrian manner. Grandmother refused to have coffee that did not contain chicory as according to her it was the chicory that brought out the flavours  of coffee.  The way she said it chi- ko...
Read more