Most
of us like to remember the past glory and then we get into the nostalgic trip..We
like to recollect and share with our friends, the glorious past, when we meet
them. Everyone has many experiences and we all vouch that, the past was better
and much happier. This is true in most cases as we are all running towards
seeking and have forgotten to live and feel. Without going into more rigmarole,
let me narrate an experience, a recollection and a good nostalgia.
Just
few days ago, precisely on 22nd May, in the morning at around 8.30
am, i was coming back after dropping my nephew to take his college bus. I saw a
cycle with 4 Jaadi’s. I couldn’t believe my eyes.. Jaadi’s and selling at door
step? Jaadi’s are the jars in which pickles are stored with white clothes
tightly tied. The sight took me back to 35 years down the memory lane. We were
a big joint family with 9 kids and 9 adults residing in kanda swamy lane ,
sultan bazaar. We had a quite huge home and summer was spent all at home with
no television, no ipad/ipod, games, PC, mobiles etc. But it was all fun and
happiness, right from playing with tamarind seeds in the afternoon to looking
at stars for long and sleeping in the open terrace in the night with transistor
playing hindi film songs on vividh bharathi after hawa mahal.
Of
many things that excited in summer was the making of pickles. One month was
spent in this. Firstly, the discussions among adults on various aspects of it
to planning to getting each thing done at home to budgeting and all that was
lots of excitement. There were 4 types of pickes and one sweet murabba made in
huge quantities. The mirchi powder, the cumin seeds powder and methi powder
weren’t brought straight from the market. They were brought as raw material and
powdered at home manually in those special big stony structures. The spicy
flavour would engulf the home and then the actual next day of pickles making,
was when the kids could participate. The mangoes were cut into pieces by a
muscular guy hired in advance and who was in great demand and his precision of
cutting them rhythmically and also in fast speed would often baffle me. He used
to be very efficient and did it with alacrity. After that, wiping each piece
and removing the layer from the seedy portion was kid’s job. We would all sit
and do it in great joy and competition.
Then
the ladies including grandmothers would all make a huge plan and discussion and
get into the long laborious process for more than half a day and put pickles.
That night the dinner was usually only the rasam and curd rice as the women would
get dog tired. There was no thought or the option of eating out at all. Then we
would wait for the third day after pickles were made , when the senior lady of
home would have early bath and remove those lovely divine jaadi’s and mix them
and take out little quantity in smaller jars. I couldn’t wait for long and used
to revel very quickly. Bathing also seemed long to wait to eat that ummmm
pickles. The entire week from then was freaking out on pickles with just about
everything.. be it rice, chappati, upma, poha or whatever..
The
jaadi’s seemed to have had real life and they were properly protected and taken
care of. They were huge and bulky and were an important part of our life. No
knowledge of calories nor apprehension or pretension and just pure joy and indulgence
of eating them to the heartfelt. Subsequently the use of those big jars..
Jaadi’s came down and so is the eating of pickles. This is, in a way, unfortunate.
These days , People buy pickles straight
from the market and they even don’t need
to store. I wonder who would have bought those jaadi’s on 22nd may??
or was he over ambitious.
But
i decided not to compromise and i have been eating maagaya, tokku and avakaya
in good doses and have increased my walking speed and added little of jogging and
in summer, anyway the calorie burning is faster. No wonder pickles are made in
summer and hats off to all the native wisdom which is so full of scientific
approach. Its better to eat these pickles than eating junk food which is not of
Indian origin. And eating pickles also cures of many alimentary canal related
problems if taken in right doses. One should know how to burn what we eat
rather than get panicky and not eat. Wow jaadi’s and wow pickles. What is life
after all without some native indulgence???
The
disintegration of joint families have eroded jaadi culture and how i wish now
that i had stopped that guy and bought them and spoke to him just to
encourage... How many empathize with me? Or remember, like and know these full
of life jaadi’s...
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