Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Tiffin Time at home


Yes !! that's me , glasses pushed up on my messy hair , sunken eyes with bags under them , hollow cheeks and drooping brows and a desk load of unfinished paper work .

Sounds familair ? I bet it does !! Am sure most of us are in this state ; of course not looking as awful as I do for sure - I must learn the art of looking glamorous when over worked and over wrought !! and over weight !

Today a problem with my car saw to it that I worked from home and having saved a few hours of commute I find I did have some time to check out on random stuff . Realised I haven't blogged for ages and felt I had to do somehting worth while with those precious hours saved .

At four thirty I got up from my perch , moved aside the laptop and the phones and the other paraphernelia one tends to surround oneself with when in work mode and decided to treat my self and hubby to hot tiffin. Coming back home as I do most evenings (read nights) well past dinner time "Tiffin" in our household is somehting as rare as a tiger is becoming in Ranthambore so the expectant gleam of joy in husband's face was understandable .

It is a delight to be home at this time of the early evening . The sunshine is filtered through the transluscent green leaves of the trees outside leaving delicate traceries on the kitchen counter and dusts everything with duffused gold .

As the oil sizzles on the pan and the mustard seeds explode the whole atmosphere takes me back to my mother's kitchen when this was THE magical moment of the day when she would be dishing out the daily delicacy that was our reward after a diligent afternoon consumed by homework. Dosai , Adai or Vadai , Upma or Puri Aaloo and if a Friday a Semia Kesari or that treat from the UNI canteen , succulent Jangri . No Delhi summer heat or winter chills would deter Ma from doling out these thrills .

Here's to you Maiji and all those lovely afternoons . The only thing misisng today was Madhur Geetham of Vividh Bharti belting out fifteen minutes each of Tamil, Telugu . Malayalm and Kannada film songs . Tiffin time was never complete without the strains of those melodious numbers like Kallellam Manicka and Kadilakkara ....

No pictures not even clip art types for nothing can be better than the mind pictures these memories conjure up .

9 comments:

RAJI MUTHUKRISHNAN said...

Nice one - and oh the memories of tiffin time!

Gowri Mohanakrishnan said...

Viji - you made me so happy.

Gowri Mohanakrishnan said...

Wonder what Viji made that day. Was it her inimitable sabudana khichdi? Or her poha? What a glutton she made of me the last time we went to stay with her!!

Meenakshi said...

Brought back sweet memories of tiffin delicacies dished out by my mother too durng school and college days and even much later.

Radhika Viswanathan said...

lovely piece! So visual that no pics were needed to be transported to those times. I remember the 15 minute slot of regional songs at Vividh Bharathi too....

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed more than my fair share of those tiffins as well. Thanks for the memories and a big Thanks to Maiji as well.

Sekar

Viji said...

hey everyone so happy to read comments : )
Gowri I made the humble but incomparable upma ( ah Anupama = incomparable )
some of our best memories are of the simplest of joys

Amitabh said...

Palindrome writing about another plaindrome...:-) Loved this piece.

Unknown said...

This is exactly how I feel about those evenings of Madhur-geetham except that I was in Matunga Mumbai those days in the magical 70s and early 80s..

This Mallu number from 1983 by P Jeyachandran is PURE GOLD.
Remembering those evenings in Matunga Mumbai when Madhurgeetham program on Vividh Bhaarathi Radio used to play this melody.. The Madhurgeetham program was always broadcast, late afternoon from 3 to 5 PM... Tiffin time...yummy dosas and idlis by Amma when these melodies were crooning on the radio... and of course that Kaapi....and once that all finished, it was play-time.. building underarm cricket with my friends... VOW!!!!
Ps C

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbfoA8XO__Q