Rooted Folks....

My young friend, Nanki Nath, from Jaipur, studied at the the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and is currently a doctoral student at the Industrial Design Centre, at the Indian Institute of Technology, Powai (Mumbai). She is also a blogger, and blogs at , what else, Nankinath  

The campus where she studies  (and where I live) , is 400 acres of virgin land on the shores of the Powai lake, where parts have been landscaped and organized amidst structures dedicated to educating  the country's young.

Wooded areas, mowed lawns, folks with laptops and wires in ears, cattle moving around thinking of safety in numbers, shorts, tees, heads covered with saree palloos, kids on bicycles, walking to school kicking pebbles and sticks around, we have them all.  Sometimes with a leopard thrown in for variety.

And it just came to mind, that this capture of a tree, from her office, really tells it like it is .....

(photo by Nanki Nath of IDC)

Designer trees
one of a kind,
posing
standing,
all pervading
amidst a
straggly lawn
shying away
to the edges,
starved of resources,
hogged by this
unique leafless entity,
looking down in wonder
at its shadow roots
just below the surface.....

It takes
an old mother tree,
aging graciously,
remembering its life,
a tree resplendent in leaves
crowded and green,
communicating ,
holding in its womb,
birds,
nests,
and squirrels,
to grow roots so deep,
that they spread
deep inside the earth,
nudging
a rock here,
a spring there,
chatting by a water table,
telling everyone
about those
who sat in its shade....

And a 1st year M Des***,
nudges a 2nd yearite,
and asks,
"Should we move those benches elsewhere now ?"


*** M Des : Master of Design,  the first degree offered in Design, a  2 year course.

Adai's with Grace

My friend Magiceye not only enjoys the various varieties of south Indian Crepe/dosa varieties, he has the patience to actually click deliciously focussed pictures , before getting mobilized to devour the stuff.

Adai's are  a special variety of high protein crepes or dosas, not as thin as the standard dosas that are even stiff at times.   Three types of lentils, and rice, soaked for several hours and then ground together with seasonings. Very filling, very traditional and very yum with some terrific chutneys.

A golden happening. And it seems quite possible that the adais got their nomenclature from an urdu word !

Dosabhai,
fresh from worldwide appreciation
tended to forget
his origins
particularly
in the company
of a puffed up Idlibai.

He hadn't counted
on the granddames
of Dosa Society,
who held firm views
on the flibbertigibbet paper dosas,
who always behaved stiffly
and unfriendly,
breaking into pieces
at the slightest movement.

And so arhar amma,
udad amma, and chana amma,
immersed themselves
seriously in the proceedings
and  nicely soaked,
got minutely
crushingly involved,
really mixing well
with
scintillating item numbers
like
salt
red chillies,
bright turmeric,
green curry leaves
and asoefoitida .

A good stir with the ladle,
and its like the
conservative ammas
take a palloo over the other shoulder
maturely leading the way
on to a hot oiled gridle,
to create a
great "adai."

Perhaps
so called
because
it has to do with the
delicate "adaa"'s
displayed
by the ammas.....

Ready to eat ?

My blogger friend from Kerala, Shail Mohan, first posted a wonderful closeup of Avial, the famous Kerala vegetable preparation, and then she followed it up with this wonderful capture of a plantain leaf, just right for picking. These were posted as part of the 365Project.org series , where she is participating.

Plantain leaves are  used for serving traditional meals on special occasions, and grown in gardens , since so many parts of the tree, like the fruits, the leaves, the flowers,  and even the stems  have great culinary value and utility.  Plantain trees kind of grow in groups , and you often see many new younger trees  around the older fruit laden mature ones.

Kind of gave me an  idea......

 (photo by Shail Mohan)

So many
crowded into a grove
in the garden.

Some mature ones with
a gaggle of kids hanging on.

Some younger
shorter ones,
growing alongside,
learning from the wet soil,
looking up
trying to emulate the elder sisters.

And some,
freshly unfurled
into adulthood,
bathed in an incessant rain,
shrugging off the drops,
faces scrubbed clean
and shining,
looking up to the Sun,
hoping
that the warmth
and the Gold
will attract
someone
who will come
and take her home
for a lovely meal of Avial and payasam.....

Slurp, Spice and Burp

To be able to keep away from something as mouth watering, hot and spicy, on a cold winter day and take photographs while someone else demolishes stuff, is something my friend G obviously does with great elan......

Read her post about it here.

(photograph by Gunjan)

Like old ageless
traditional
gold
permanently
enhanced by
soft wrinkled
vibhuti and haldikumkum
habituated skin.

Its now the turn
of
a mature rice
and an obedient
udad dal,
ground and waiting
in a warm peace....

A hot gridlle,
a quick
threadbare spread,
and the two
create some crackling magic,
attracting
the likes of
spicy mashed potato;
dripping
with
a comfort chutney
and
sambhar joy,
on a bed of green...

And the old
ageless
golden
crinkly eyes,
indulgently watch,
and nod
at the plantain leaf,
as he
wipes it clean
with the last dosa piece....