[This letter is to my doddamma because I have told the same news to my mother. My parents lived in their home in this place called Puttur for almost thirty years. In 2015 when my father took ill, my elder brother asked them to shift to his place. But that home and place, almost two acres is still my mothers. It is looked after by the couple living in the small house near the main house. My mother gives a salary to Mamatha as she takes care of the place. We had been there on Sunday . My mother was happy to hear all the news. She has happy memories of her home and she misses it but she prefers to stay my brother and with me. I am editing a few lines before posting in Slice of Life because it would be difficult to understand without knowing the details. I am also adding links to certain topics of interest.]
1-05-18
Dear Doddamma,
I hope you liked the photos I had sent of Advaith and Kavya.
You have not been able to come to our house so I feel like describing it to you. We have a mango tree in our backyard. It is the Bennet Alphonso variety. It was planted some time in the seventies by Shri Kalmadi Rama Rao, his son owned this land. We bought it from him in 2002. He had also planted ten coconut trees and three jackfruit trees. But we had to cut down two jackfruit trees when we started building our house. This year there are more mangoes than there were last year. They are very tasty.
On Sunday we had been to Puttur (the town where my parents used to live till October 2016) to attend the engagement function of Meghana with Swasthik. Meghana is the daughter of Shama and Mamatha who live in the small house next to my parents’ house. They have been there for almost ten years. Shama sells books. Both he and his wife are very hardworking. My parents encouraged them a lot and also helped them financially to educate their children. The children have also taken an education loan from their bank to complete their studies. Meghana will complete MTech in July and her younger brother, Karthik his BTech this year. The engagement was held in the premises of a temple near my parents’ home. It is the temple of Panchamukhi Gayatri ( one of the forms of Mother Goddess) After lunch we came to my parents’ home. The house is being well looked after by Mamatha and Shama. They are very happy and always say that everything in their life became better after coming there.
( my parents’ home)
(the house on the right where Mamatha and family live, some guests had parked their vehicles there)
On the 26th morning Kuvara went to Maikuri (where my father-in-law lives) and returned on the 27th morning. Three of us go on alternate Sundays and Kuvara goes on weekdays twice a month. My father-in-law likes these visits. He is 93 now. Aravind and I went to Endpoint for a walk. End Point road starts from one end of the college campus. We have to park our car there and walk till the end. By the hill sides there are many fruit bearing shrubs like kuntala hannu, Karande, kepla. Kuntala hannu plants ( wild berries) are full of flowers now.
( Kuntala fruit, it is purple in colour)
There is another wild fruit which has and orange covering, we have to peel the skin and eat the fruit. It is tasty. I don’t know its name. Every year I pluck Kodagasana flowers too. I have dried them in the sun and stored them. I make thambli.
( Kodagasana flowers)
Yesterday Aravind was busy with his colleague preparing question papers for the German certificate course exams, which will be held next week. The next batch will start in August. By end of May BA and MA classes will get over for this semester and he will have a month vacations from June 12th. Last week there was some event organised by the students of the medical college. Many events take place in a year organised by students of different colleges. Aravind was a judge in a debate competition. I dropped him at the venue and went to Asare (Home for the mentally challenged). I go there thrice a week in the afternoons. On Saturday there was entrance exam and viva for students who wanted to join MA course. Aravind and two of his colleagues were busy with that. Aravind said there was a gentleman who must have been about seventy. He wanted to do MA. He was in Mumbai for fifty years and has now settled here. He has studied some other course too. Aravind was reminded of doddappa (my father’s elder brother. He passed away in 2014 at the age of 91.In his late seventies he completed his PhD.)
We are all fine here. Today evening we went to Endpoint for a walk. The trees on both sides of the road are growing. We always see cows grazing and always we see the white birds near them. They look very nice.
We had taken three small jackfruits to give to our three friends. They like jackfruits. We gave them on our way back. One of them had given us drumsticks grown in their garden. We have a plant in our backyard, this year we got two drumsticks. The sapling had been given to us by our neighbour.
With lots of love,
Lakshmi
(In our language there are certain terms which are used to call relatives. Doddappa can be father’s elder brother or mother’s elder sister’s husband.)
Thambuli recipes | Thambli recipes | Tambli recipes | Karnataka …
vegrecipesofkarnataka.com/thambli-recipes-tambli-recipes-thambuli…
Thambli or tambli or thambuli recipes are explained here. These are all Karnataka style Thambli or tambli recipes. These type of thamblis are prepared across Karavali and Malnad region of Karnataka.
Letter from Home-15 (Slice of Life)
