Ammai and panchbhuthams

Earth

Whenever I see a strange plant or a flower with a different color and smell I think of my mother. I want to take it to her and see her face blooming with appreciation. Yes, plants were her weakness if I may say so. She had an intuitive sense to make out even the minutest nuances of plant life. She could decipher even a slight change in the tint or hue of flowers-especially of her favourite chemparuthys- ‘these petals are a little darker, or these leaves are slightly lighter than our native variety ‘ were the kind of remarks she would make. All through the seasons whether rains or sun she will bring home new varieties of plants and groom it-every now and then she’ll go and see if new sprouts are coming, if there is a green podippu seen in the brown stems and she will be the happiest person if the plant shows signs of life. She groomed gardens even when we were living in rented houses which we shifted once in 3 or 4 years due to father’s transfer, knowing well that we’ll leave the place in a short time. She never thought-oh, we will leave this place so no need to plant anything and never regretted having to leave her results of sweat. I think that was a trait of our older generations who always did things for those after them. Those who occupied these houses after us had the fortune to inherit a good garden. First thing she used to do after we settle down in the new house was to prepare the yard for planting the saplings which she carried from our old garden. Within no time the yard became greener! The element of gandha is associated with the panchabhootha earth. And I associate my mother with earth in which plants- her love and smell of flowers sustain.

Akasa

Thoughts about mother take me to another memory- that of festivals- The spirit with which she celebrated all the festivals. We, being tamilians settled in Keralam, used to celebrate both malayali as well as tamil festivals. Come the month of Thi ie January preparations to celebrate pongal starts. She will clean every part of the house including the front yard where huge kolams are put using rice flour and kavi. Usually this is done the previous night and I remember sitting in the outer veranda and watching her doing with Cool winter breeze giving me goosebumps all over. Being the harvest festival rice will be prepared in different forms like venpongal, chakkarapongal etc. We- me and my two sisters along with mother will keep these preparations on pieces of plantain leaves in the yard and invite crows to come and eat. I never believed in these rituals and had interest only in consuming these tasty delicacies. Then comes the month of Kumbham – The month of Feb- preparations start to celebrate Sivarathri. Dried balls of cowdung are placed over burnt rice husk (umi) over cowdung smeared floor in the backyard on a makeshift refractory made of burnt bricks and slowburned. Thus we get vibhoothi which is an excellent medicine for itching due to kambilipoochi or other skin allergies. In the night of sivarathri, Ammai prepares parippupayasam which is so delicious that we all have its taste still on our tounges.On Sivarathri day I also remember of going to the Sreekandeswaram temple, 6km away. Almost all the times I was the one to accompany her. She would skip the afternoon siesta, finish the evening tea early and get ready for the darshan.

Then comes Summer- when Ammai is busy with varied activities like deseeding and drying tamarind, making brooms from coconut leaves, preparing karudams, storing all sorts of powders like mallippodi, milakaippodi dosappodi etc. ( powdering of pulses and spices is done using thirikallu, an extinct equipment and Karthiyayani our domestic help is made to stay at home for two or three nights to do this special work.) We children are entrusted with guarding these sundrying things against crows. Another activity that is vivid in my memory is picklemaking which Ammai does with clinical accuracy and cleanliness. She choose kannilangas of equal size, wash and dry them and put them into sundried porcelain bharanis. After so many processing it is kept in the store room and taking these mangoes out for use also is done very religiously. We children fan with visaries when the lid is opened so as to avoid flies entering the bharni.The pickle thus taken out is heavenly combination with curd rice. Medamasam is the malayali new year when Ammai along with Appa prepare kani for us. On Chithrapournami day Ammai prepares palppayasam and offers it to the fullmoon placing the pot in the frontyard bathed in the milky moonlight. April and May are Utsva season in Keralam. The Utsavam in our own koodalmanickyam temple is one of the maha utsavams in the state-Temple premises are lively with ten days round the clock activities and artforms some of them like padakam kuzhalpattu so rare that we get to see them only in that temple. Ammai never missed a day of utsavam. She will finish preparing meals enough to feed our family and all the guest families who come from chalakudy, her native place. There will atleast some 25-30 people to lunch. She never grumbled about the extra work for that rather took it as a pleasure to feed them all. That were the days when there were no mixies, no grinders, no washing machines, no gas ovens and not even water taps existed. Water we had to pull out from wells, cook on traditional firewood ovens, grind on ammies and attukaluls , wash the clothes manually. All these Ammai managed without bitterness- quiet contrary to what happens these days when guest are cause for alarm and worry-of how to feed them how to entertain them etc. After finishing her works Ammai would go to temple to watch seeveli, pay darsan to lord Bharatha and then only she would take lunch. After noons around 3’oclock traditional artforms like ottan, seethankan or parayan thullal take place in the temple premises. After serving the evening tea and snacks to all , Ammai would rush to watch them especially when Chalakkudi Ammai-our grandmother came to stay with us. After finishing the night chores once again she would pay a visit to the temple for mathrukku darshan and some days for the vilakku and kathkali that extends late into night to the wee hours. I remember once accompanying her to a kathakali performance that took place as part of a demonstration for foreigners. In the midnight we walked and walked past the templeyard, crossing parambus through paddy fields and reached the house where the kali took place. We retuned in the early hours. I’m sure I would’ve slept till 10 o’ clock whereas Ammai would’ve started her morning chores as usual at 5 o’clock in the morn. For each occasion she would make pastries and snacks prescribed for the occasion- Appampori for Karthigai, uppucheedai and vellacheedai for AshtamiRohini , mysorepakku,thenkozcal and manoharam for Deepavali etc That was the spirit with which she celebrated all festivals. whether it be Onam, Thiruvathira or navarathri (Days before Navarathri she would takeout the marappachies and other artefacts from the big iron trunk box, clean them and arrange them on makeshift steps decorated with gilt papers and colorful clothes. All nine days different delicacies prepared and offered to invited women- all single-handedly. We all had some excuse or the other like exam, mood offs etc not to help her) No mood offs, No tiredness, No depression-Ever ready to enjoy and appreciate things. That I think is the Akasa (Ether) element in her. One other memory connected to utsavam is that of purchasing kalchattis during utsavaseason. I used to accompany her to the huge tents that some remote villagers erect to sell kachattis. Every year it was a ritual to go and purchase 4 or 5 kachattis including that for her sisters settled in B’lore and Madras. To make ready these kachattis for use is an art in itself which is called mayakkal. She would wash the chatti then boil some kanji in it twice or thrice and slowly start cooking koottan in it which is very very tasty especially the keerai molakoottal and vettal kuzhambu. Yet another memory comes rushing to my mind- The state school youth festival conducted in Irinjalakda. how she loved the group dance, thiruvathirakkali etc. She took pains to finish the cooking business early and would rush to the Boys school to watch the programmes. Recently state YF was celebrated in Kozhikode with great pomp and splendour in which tens of thousands of children from all over the state participated. Just to refresh the old memories I went to the various stages though I was tired and disinterested after the day’s hectic field work.

Water

Just as she loved flowers, Mother loved water too-still, flowing, deep or shallow. She insisted on taking a dip in the chalakudy river every morning or in kuttankulam while in Irinjalakuda. It was something that she wouldn’t compromise under any pressure. May be that was her source of energy for the daylong hard work she put in to perform the monotonous (for us) domestic chores. She enjoyed river bath to such an extent that even while on journeys she would find some pond, river or lake to take a dip in. I remember her narrating the stories of the crystal clear thamraparni river which she enjoyed when we lived in Madurai.( Palunku mathiri ozhukum ). She often told how a group of women used to cook variety chathams (lemon chatham, pulichatham, thengai chatham etc etc), take it to the Thamraparni river, wash the granite rocks, sit on them and share and eat them on Adi perukku day ie on 18^th day of Adi(karkidakamasam) when the river receives fresh water from the hilly catchments and flows glasslike. This affinity to water- I associate with the water element in her.

Agni

It was the times when there were no electric kitchen gadgets like mixi, grinder, fridge,oven etc. LPG came to our lives only in the late seventies when five of us had finished our schools and colleges. During my childhood I’ve seen mother cooking only in traditional Adupps. Normally there would be two kitchens, one in which you can cook in standing position and the other in sitting position. After morning cooking is over, one kitchen is cleaned . During night Ammai puts kolam on the aduppu after giving a cowdung coat. (chanam mezhukal). This kitchen would be used only in the next morning. Kitchen in which we can sit and cook is used for preparing evening tiffin ( I remember the appetizing smell of dosais and chappathis Ammai cooked at 4’o clock when we returned from school ) and night cooking. After many years pump stove appeared in our kitchen which required constant pampering like de-dusting the burner with a pin, pumping the valve in the correct pressure so as to get blue flame etc. Appa and Akka were experts in these techniques. Later on Amma’s sister brought Nutan stove from Madras which was of great help to us. One other special aduppu of those times was Arakkappodi aduppu. It is an iron cylinder with a hole below. 2 wooden rods are kept one at center and other in the hole and arakkappodi ( timber powder which we get from saw mills where timber scantlings are sawn ) is filled slowly so as to get correct compaction. If it is too tight, powder won’t burn for want of air and if loose the powder would cave in. The sandhyas are vivid in my memory when ammai would fill the aduppu in the backyard bathed in the twilight of sinking sun. Sandhya was a busy time for Ammai when she would take in the cloths and other sun dried things, Clean herself and light lamp. All of us get in from playing, clean ourselves and pray. Then we will study as there was no TV to distract us. ( The valve radio was the only means of entertainment which used to cough and puff in rainy season . Balu and Akka were experts in tuning the radio. Balu used to listen even to the wimbledon matches and BBC those days. Akka would tune to radio ceylone which broadcast rare songs. )Kummatti was yet another type of aduppu which is an iron bowl with grill wherein coke ( I happened to visit the coke factory some twenty years later in Neyveli where I worked for 10 years) is put and burned. The redhot Kanal thus formed was a perfect fuel for slow cooking of koozhu, kanji etc. You don’t have to monitor it constantly. Ammai would keep something in these adupps and take a round in her favourite garden and see whether new sprouts, shoots, blooms have come. By the time she is back, the food would’ve cooked to the correct softness. Amma’s constant strive to light up various adupps was the Agni element in her.

As I said earlier, LPG oven came to our kitchen much later when 5 of us had finished studies and mom didn’t have to rush up madly in the morn hours. I remember Jayachithi saying: “ Whenever my house is in chaos with vessels spread in the kitchen , books strewn all over the drawing room and clothes lay waiting to be washed I just sit down, close my eyes and think of Thankom. That gives me strength to carry on.” Yes that is true even these times when I find it difficult to manage the household works with all the modern gadgets around me. I sometimes wonder how my mother managed all the works alone and also deal with the sickness and tantrums of six of us.

Ammai had an intuitive knowledge about Anatomy. When any of us was stuck with a fever, cold or upset stomach she never got panicky ( as we do these days ). She used to handle the situation peacefully- No running to doctors, No antibiotics, No painkillers- Just starve and wait for three days which according to her is the cycle of common diseases-start, peak, and subsides the third day. We are brought back to routine with light food like kanji, kachina moru etc. If one of us showed loss of appetite or tiredness she would diagnose the problem and do the needful immediately. Never once had her diagnosis gone wrong. Once in 4 or 5 months Ammai would give kadukkamoru to all of us which is a natural laxative. Crushed Kadukkai ( the bitterest of all seeds ) is put in butter milk the previous night and we children are made to drink that moru the next day in empty stomach. Its consumption and the consequences thereafter are experience beyond expressions, in other words your face gives an expression which nobody would have experienced! Usually kadukkamoru or veppilaaranhathu is served to us after summer vacation so that our stomachs are made clear of the hitherto dushtu which we would have consumed during holidays and thus are made ready for the hectic academic year ahead.

Air

Though she doesn’t goes out much, Ammai knew all our friends and also how we spent time outside the house. Ammai had an excellent sense of humour. Once while watching a movie in TV, the first scene was that of heroine changing sari and she commented “why don’t they finish all this business before starting?” Another time when our Appa got angry about something Ammai told “ Jayanthi, Appakku chatham podu”. Ammai had her own ways of engaging herself. She had her own hobbies and activities and never once had we heard her saying “it’s boring”. She never depended on father or anybody else for entertainment or enjoyment. Enjoyment never lied outside but was inherent in her. She used to admire us even for our small achievements. She appreciated good things be it a sari, flower, song , kolam or even a fresh vegetable. She always listened to our school and college stories in great interest. May be it was because of these qualities that she was happy and content in my brother’s house at TVM where celebrities from various fields like film, literature, music, painting and sculpture etc visited. She enjoyed their presence and had a special way of communicating with them. This air about her, I consider is the vayu factor in her.

Now that she is no more, I console myself saying that she has gone back to the five elements that belonged to her.

This is a small tribute to a great mother with versatile interests in life. For me it was a journey to the past- sometimes pleasant and sometimes painful.