Sambar In The Newly Acquired Kallchatti

Yesterday, as pre-planned, mom and I went around the stalls at the crafts bazar in Valluvar Kottam.

Many stalls displayed handwoven cane pieces, block printed textiles, beads' jewellery. Wooden toys, metal objects were also there.

My mom walked slowly and she got a bit disappointed that her kallchatti stall never came into visibility until towards the end of the tour.
And there I was taking my own time and checking out some things I was interested in like the ink art on special paper from Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa.
In fact I had asked my niece from Orissa to get me some small tribal artwork from Bhubaneshwar where she stays. There are 3 or 4 types and they are called the tribal art, tussar art, the patta chitra.
I like the tussar art for its simplicity and creativity. These depict life in the tribal regions. They resemble what I once had the chance to see on the Discovry Channel which was showcasing some tribal Australian art work long back.
I wish I could upload some pictures of what I picked up from this crafts bazar yesterday. Let me try it out with the camera that my niece, Muthu from Chicago sent me sometime back.

Then when we thought we had come to the end of the stalls, there it was! How my mom's face brightened at seeing those chattis. I din't want to appear too enthusiastic as the shop fellows could hike up rates to an all time high. I found many bargaining for stuff at almost all the stalls. I could not but compare it to the haggling of auto fares with auto drivers in Chennai!

These are all the things I bought:
* Two beautiful tussar art from the Orissa stall,
* One West Bengal tribal art depicting a peacock, fishes and lotus. The artists were mentioning how auspicious fish was considered in Bengal to which I could not but tell them that is why perhaps fish were eaten even by the Bengali Brahmins too!
* Two beautifully sounding small Gujarathi Copper alloy gongs secured on key chains,
* Found two very bright and interesting glass pendants. The art work with lovely peacock feather colors were indeed a steal at Rs.125/- for both,
* Got two very thin steel chains with tiny pendants for my nieces Muthu and Nandita who I hope will like to wear them whenever I gift it to them!

The main item for which we went (the kalchatty),a medium size which can hold 1.75 lt of sambar or rasam was bought for Rs.260/-. My mom was too shocked to know that it cost that much. She may have thought it could come for as cheap as 50 or 60!!
I got talking to the kallchatti maker. Upon enquiring, I found that these were carved at Salem. That explained everything! My mom belongs to Salem, Erode areas and in her childhood she has seen her mom cooking in these kallchatties.

Somehow or the other we are always in search of our roots all the time.

As is usual, there were stalls selling snacks and savories like bhel, pani puri, samosa, cutlet, tikki, chana, kulfi from Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu stall selling kuzhi paniyaram, sweet and kara poli, nescafe coffee, Ooty stall selling their famed warki, dry fruits, spices and vadams besides pizzas, hot dogs, american sweet corn, etc.

Today I asked amma to inaugurate the new kallchatti. She made a very tasty rasam and sambar while I hovered around helping her with this and that.
May she live long, cook and enjoy life.

Mahalakshmi

Kall Chatti (Stone Vessel)

The kall chatti is a vessel made of stone.
Its also called kacchatti in Tamil.
In fact kall means stone and chatti means vessel in Tamil.

We used to have various sizes of such kacchattis at home. I am talking about 40 years back when I remember my mom making the sambars and rasams in it. The aroma was too good and literally pulled us like magnets to the kitchen.

Mom saw an advertisement in the local papers about sale of kacchattis in an exhibition in Valluvar Kottam beginning today.
She has been very keen to possess one at home since we had perhaps discarded our old ones long time back with so much of shifting and relocating to 3 or 4 different places in these 40 years.

The kacchatti is made of a soft stone but retains the heat very well. When preparations like the sambar or the rasam are heated in it, it gives out a special aroma and taste to it.

There are some disadvantages of using kacchattis in modern times. Those were days of charcoal or wood fire to cook meals which is also called 'slow cooking'. These are days of turning on the knob and cooking in double-quick time with so much ease and literally no pollution whatsoever. The kacchatti would be kept on low embers and the dish allowed to simmer for long. Vatha kozhambu would be another favourite dish which was made in a kacchatti.

If mishandled there are chances of its breaking, as the stone is really delicate. Likewise a crack or break somewhere can render it useless. So only a cloth is used to bring down the hot kacchatti from the fire down to the serving area.

Mom has made up her mind to buy one today, so it would be my pleasure to take her around as this is a wonderful opportunity to keep her happy at her ripe age of 84. While on that we also intend to catch up on the newly painted dolls of gods, goddesses and many other things.
Mylapore and Kurulagam in Parry's Corner are the two best places to go around for window shopping of the dolls.

Its the baby's day out today! :-)

Cheers.
Mahalakshmi.

Its Dasera

Dasera is a 10 day festival which starts from tomorrow - (8th Oct.,2010)
Its happy Dasera.

Its Hindu tradition, a festival, a celebration of the many forms of the Goddess mother.

The celebrations begin when the Planets Sun and Moon meet (around the same degrees -this is the new moon day)in the zodiac of Virgo or Kanya/Kanni each year. It is called the Mahamalaya amavasya. The next 10 days' period marks the beginning of this festival called Dasera.

In the South, especially among South Indians, dolls of all kinds, shapes, colors and sizes are brought out and displayed. Some dolls are passed down through generations and are precious treasures of the past.
Steps are readied and covered with silks and dolls arranged on each step. The steps are always odd in number, like 5, 7, 9 and so on. A lamp is lit and a colorful chalk powder decoration of a beautiful pattern known as Rangoli is drawn which occupies a special place on the floor just below the first step.
One could say this is predominantly a ladies' function. It offers all ladies an opportunity to display their silks (sarees, etc) and jewellery when they visit the houses they are invited to during the entire 10 day period. Usually the host requests the guests to sing a song and it is a devotional one in praise of the Goddess mother.
The Dasera's 9 days are divided into 3 parts in which each of HER form is worshipped and celebrated. Those 3 forms are Mahalakshmi, Saraswati and Durga whose main attributes are wealth, knowledge and courage, respectively. Each Goddess is invoked for 3 days.
The 10th and final day is called as Dasami aka Vijaya dasami.

It is indeed a very colorful festival.

I and my younger sister used to have a whale of a time planning for Dasera days ahead. We used to hunt for rare dolls, we would learn new devotional songs on the Goddess, stay up late nights to decorate the steps in unique ways. The best would be to draw portraits of Gods and Goddesses which my youngest sister is very good at. Many people used to flock to see the colorful rangoli at our house. They would be lifelike figures. I still remember the Radha-Krishna, a beautiful dancing girl, Mahavishnu-Mahalakshmi...
A huge portion in the room would be set aside to draw the rangoli and fill. Then we would decorate it with stardust or chamki which is available at Hyderabad easily.

There was so much merry making in singing songs in unison, receiving relatives and friends, serving home made fruit juices, preparing the famed 'sundal' made of steamed lentils of different kinds of on different days, in selecting the best saree with matching blouse to wear each and every day. Ah! Those were the golden days.
We separated because she had to settle down in Ottawa after marriage. She continues to arrange dolls every year and invite a minimum of 100 ladies to her house for Dasera.
Another sister who lives in Chicago also celebrates it the same way by arranging dolls and inviting not less than a 150 guests.
My eldest sister and I do not keep dolls but we celebrate it with the same devotion.
After my marriage I discontinued keeping the dolls on show. I celebrate Dasera by singing a few chosen songs for the occassion alongwith the regular recitation of the Lalitha Sahasranamam.

May the mother goddess bless us with knowledge, courage and wealth of all kinds. May we all succeed in whatever we are attempting to do.

Mahalakshmi.

'Temper Is Precious, Don't Lose It'

Each one of us is sensitive to sounds that we hear day in and day out.
Most of us can't tolerate high decibels in others.

If people living in houses seldom make loud noises it means they live in a peaceful state of mind. More than that they respect each other very much to take care not to bang doors or make big noises deliberately.

We find much banging of doors, the fridge door, the dropping of vessels and plates from a height to make loud noises. It is like sending out a very nasty message to those living in that house that this person is angry with someone or something. If these occur every now and then it indicates a serious ailment of the mind. If it is done deliberately everyday then someone needs to accompany that person for an urgent check-up.

What does one convey or want to convey through such loud noises?
That they don't like living in that house?
Or they don't like the house?
Or they don't like the others living with them in that house?
By the time they find the reason behind their anger or malady the house would need change of doors, etc., many times over.

This type of behaviour gets to everyone around and in no time all of them will be banging on doors, etc., if only to prove the 'law of action and reaction being equal and opposite' to be 100% right always. So it becomes a habit for everyone at home to bang things and they feel its ok behaviour too. I notice very young kids too indulge in this kind of behaviour.
If one should let out anger then its best to close the door, get hold of two sticks and a pillow to beat upon. Or a punching bag?
The danger is in carrying such behaviour outside one's home, say in the school, college or workplace where such things may not be always tolerated. Its not ok to make loud noises inside and outside homes.

May God give such people enough sense to control their tempers, disappointments and frustrations in a better way. What if all of us did this kind of thing to vent out our anger on each other? We need to be civil to each other. We need to control ourselves. We need to live in a society and among people.
Gandhiji once wrote, 'Temper is precious, don't lose it'.

Cheers!
Mahalakshmi.

Enthiran - The Robot

Almost all Chennai theatres are running to full houses screening this biggest budget Indian film so far.

The mania is seen to be believed.
Women are shown carrying pots of milk to pour over their hero's cut-outs.
The prints or is it DVD, are being royally carried in special carriages. I saw this being done some years back when the ever-green and greatest of all movies, Moghul-E-Azam which was converted to color by Adlabs. The prints arrived on an elephant back to the sound of drums and shehnai. I thought that was a gala re-opening.
This Endhiran takes the entire bakery.

The movie may be good.
The script also may be good.
The hype about the main lead stars also is quite ok.
The marketing hype planned by Kalanidhi Maran of Sun Pictures is very ingeneous and a smart way to collect as much money on the opening few days itself than wait for weeks together to achieve the set target collections.
He is supposed to have spent Rs.150 crores.
The target collection is set at Rs.600 crores according to media reports.
The prints released everywhere at once all over the globe is a pure marketing strategy which has netted the producer already most of the Rs.600 crore, even though its just 3 days old now.
Its like the restless and curious public going to the theatre and not getting a ticket to see a latest release in theatres. Since all theatres are running the same movie, one is bound to get a ticket and the public does get to see it within days of its release. Thats the strategy employed here. Its a really clever one. Kalanidhi Maran could be a genius to even think of such a thing.

Now all movies will follow suit and make their money more quickly.

Someone commented that Rajini is a true philosopher. He would not even have shaved his beard and would be home on the opening of the biggest budget ever movie of his.
Of course, he is humility personified when he does all this.

We at home can take credit and share the title with Rajini for being philosophical in a way!
We were cool and we stayed home, we dint go to any theatre to see Enthiran. We were as unaffected by its release as the super star and hero of the movie!!
We enjoyed a peaceful Gandhi Jayanti and the Sunday following it.

I did hear a colleague raving and ranting about the movie. She was praising it to the skies. It's the novelty plus the curiosity to watch the costliest Indian movie ever made by the public that makes Kalanidhi Maran laugh all the way to the bank.

Cheers!
Mahalakshmi