11-09-18
Dear Doddamma,
I am just recovering from a bout of fever and cough. The weather has changed and it may also be due to sitting in AC hall from morning to evening, I am not used to it . On the 6th, 7th and 8th Aravinda and I attended a literary festival called Manipal International Literature and Arts Platform ( m.i.l.a.p) . It was organized by Aravinda’s department, Department of European studies. I had registered for the event, Aravinda and I attended almost all the sessions. I used to cook for amma and Kuvara before leaving for the programme. Kuvara attended one session about the Journey of the Harmonium. It was very interesting.
Two harmonium players, Chaitanya Kunte from Maharashtra, and Ravindra Katoti from Bangalore had come. They talked about the harmonium and also played it. They said the harmonium came to India from outside and in the early years it was not accepted by musicians. But over the years it has become an integral part of any music concert. Kuvara did not come for other sessions because we did not want to leave amma alone the whole day.
All the sessions were very interesting. Writers from Tibet, Bhutan, and from our north eastern states had come. We came to know so much from them. The session with the Bhutanese writer, Kunzang Choden and the Tibetan writer Tenzin Tsundue was moderated by Aravinda’s friend, Chintan. Aravinda and Chintan studied MA and MPhil at the same time in EFLU, Hyderabad. On the 9th, Chintan stayed with us. He returned to Bombay on the 10th morning. He and his parents live in Malad.
Sushama Deshpande spoke about Tamasha and Lavani, it was very enlightening. There is a Hindi Literary society called Goonj in Manipal. Its members mainly students who are studying in engineering college. Their poetry recital was very good. Aravind and I met them later and told them we really appreciated their recitation. It was nice to listen to people whom I had not even heard of.
(The Tibetan writer, Tenzin Tsundue, my son Aravinda, he is Assistant professor in the Department of European studies and his friend Chintan who moderated the session)
The literature meet took place in the third floor, There was a theatre workshop , Children’s events, art exhibition, photography exhibition and a book fair. We bought some books. In the evenings there were plays and Yakshagana too, but we did not attend them. I enjoyed listening to the different people but by the end of the day I used to feel very tired.
Yesterday my friend from Asare sent some photos of the Teacher’s Day celebration in a special school Spandana. Teachers in Asare had been practising a song and a folk dance. She told me it went of well. Every year Teacher’s Day is celebrated in different special schools and there are cultural events. Teachers from Asare always take part with great enthusiasm.
Aravinda did not have to take German classes during m.i.l.a.p but now he will have to take classes on Saturdays too. Yesterday evening after leaving him in his college, we went to the Syndicate bank training college grounds for a walk. Amma walked one round. Our friend, Mrs Sudha Rao was there, she walked only one round and said she was feeling very tired. She is 80 plus. Sometime she feels sad that she is not able to walk as much as she used to. We sat there for some time watching the changing colours of the sky as the sun was setting. It looks so beautiful.
After returning from there, I made ‘pathrode’ for tomorrow’s breakfast. My neighbour, Rekha gave me the ‘kesavina soppu’ (colocasia leaves). I will make ‘oggarane’ tomorrow. We all like it and Aravinda likes it very much. It is now 8.15, Aravinda will be back home at 8.45 from his German classes.
With love,
Lakshmi
Patrode Oggarane Recipe – Udupi Recipes
udupi-recipes.com/2014/09/patrode-oggarane-recipe.html
09-09-2014 · Ever since I started this space on web called udupi-recipes, it was my dream to post detailed recipe on patrode which is a unique dish from Udupi …
Lavani – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavani
Lavani (Marathi: लावणी) is a genre of music popular in Maharashtra. Lavani is a combination of traditional song and dance, which particularly performed to the beats of Dholki, a percussion instrument.
Typical instruments: Dholak
Cultural origins: 17th century
(I have been writing mails to my father’s elder brother’s wife since last October. Doddamma literally means elder mother. She is 87. She is not able to hear properly on the telephone, my cousin or his wife read my mails to her or they take a printout. She enjoys my slice of life. 😊 )
Mukhamani 
Comments are welcome :)