Recounting my Tamilian side

May 15 2008

With my grandparents gone, my interaction with the Tamilian ways are almost extinct. The other day we went to buy coffee at one of those shops that make coffee and the smell of freshly ground coffee brought it all back to me. The extremely superb coffee my grandpa would make and then insist that it be drunk hot. It would be served in a tumbler and davra. Whenever anyone to this day says, “Wake up and smell the coffee” I remember the innumerable mornings that I would keep smelling the coffee made by my grandpa. And he would do it every morning of his 88 years without fail.

I would let you onto a small secret. Whenever I go to restaurants and eat South Indian food, I never touch the sambar. Somehow sambar to me has always meant my grandmom’s speciality and so I still never taste the sambar served in the hotel. I would eat it with curd rice and it tasted the best.

As a kid, I recall picking up cowdung from the roads for my grandmom’s plants at home. And there was no feeling of shame or yuckiness. It was a perfectly normal act which I would do with great sense of achievement because it made me feel useful for my grandma. We would put the dung in her rose plants and whenever the roses bloomed, she would proudly tell everyone that I had helped her and never have I felt more proud :)

Their home would smell of vivudhi and agarbatti and childhood smells stay with you forever. I also remember stealing some Yardley talcum powder and dress up as an actress with my face so white that it could scare any ghost. In my grandmom’s balcony, I reigned supreme. I blew kisses to imagined fans standing below and displayed my histrionics elegantly. Of course during one of such displays, I fell off the chair and almost killed myself but that’s another story.

I remember drying many items for her in our terrace. And whenever I was given the duty to ward off crows and pigeons from eating the drying items, I would sit in scorching sun and do my duty without complaining. Because I knew what those items meant to my grandmom (plus I would always get something sweet to eat in return ). I owe my sweet teeth (I have lost too many teeth to sweets) to my grandmom. Like her, I love sweets and everything from chocolates to mysore pak is relished.

With them gone, all of these smells and tastes remain with me and I relish reliving them time and again.