Tomato Saar in the time of Sant Kabir....

Very  few people today remember things like chutney stones, embedded stone paddy threshers in house floors, and the winnowing "soop" (सूप)) used in our time for separating the grain and the chaff.  Fewer folks today, even know how to use these, and so it was with particular joy that I read this post by by my friend Shruti Nargundkar from Melbourne.

Please read her post,  to learn what folks of my generation learned before blenders and processors drove all the fun out of it.  ( I still have an inherited chutney stone, and winnowing fan)

  Only she could have woven in  the winnowing "soop",  with the "soup" ,  and a recipe for a  robust tomato desi soup or saar , with the Dohas of Sant Kabir ringing in the background.

“Saadhu aisa chahiye, jaisa soop subhay

Saar saar ko gahi rahe, thotha de udaay”

or  

" साधू ऐसा चाहिए , जैसा सूप सुभाय !
सार-सार को गहि रहे , थोथ देइ उडाय!!

Aah. I always knew there was something spiritual about soup.   In Marathi and English too ....

काही द्वाड खेळकर उपद्व्यापी थंडीने गाल लाल झालेली पसारा करणारी मुलं, विनव्ण्याकरून दमलेली तेलात क्षणभर विश्रांती घेणारी कांदे आई , तडकून डोळे वटारणारे तिखट रागात गाणारे मिरची बाबा , आणि मंद दरवळत सोनेरी स्वप्न एकिकडे बघणारी लसूण आत्या; सगळी गडबड ऐकून धावत येणारी शेजारची जिरी आणि मिरी , आणि ह्या सर्वाना आयुष्याच्या सुपात घालून तरग्णार्या सर्व शंका बुडबुडे काढून हवेत उडवणारी जादू व्हायची वाट बघणार्या आपले अनेक शुभाशिर्वाद त्यात कौतुकाने ओतणार्या नारळीदूध आजी . बरोबर कबिरांचे दोहे आणि श्रुतीचे पोहे . साधु ऐसा चाहिए , जो सिखाये सबको सुविचार , मूंग दाल खिचड़ी , पोहा पापड और टोमेटो का सार।

Tough games in the cold and cheeks reddened, shoving each other to the side, an Onion Mater, all gone to pieces and taking a breather, resigned and simmering in hot oil, a sharp and hot tempered Mirchi Dad, bursting in anger, and his sister, the aunt, Lasoni Tai Garliki, exhaling quietly in golden tadka fragrance. The The Cumin Peppera Madames rushing to be part of it all, and a wise Grandma, full of the Milk of Coconut Kindness, waiting to allow all kinds of unwanted agitating boiling debris foam to resolve things, before pouring her heart into it all. A side offering of Sant Kabir ke Dohe, and Shruti's Pohe... "A Holy man should be like a winnowing fan, keeping the good grain, and shoving the chaff afar; Very clearly, it is time for Moong Dal Khichdi, Poha Papad, and Tomato Saar".