Sasuma, Orchids & Drumsticks Days
My Sasuma (an endearment for mother in law) lives in Chennai. Her lawn & backyard garden have several Gifts from God. For four decades of her life time here, she has tended or as they say, extra tended them every day. Amma (as I call her) loves the two mango trees, the two papaya trees, the six coconut trees and the two muringa trees. They all return her love by their bountiful yields year after year. Apart from these, the water lilies, lotus, shoe flowers, orchids, tulsi, crotons, chethi , sankhupushpam and at least a dozen more of different species of flowers in the lawn/garden testify to the affair /oneness between them & Amma. All of them are on permanent bloom. No green fingers stories. Monsters go green seeing their steadfast two way love. I vouch for that - I have been around here visiting for a few days every year as a dutiful son in law for 38 years now.
Rekha and I relocated temporarily to Chennai in early July to be here as Amma’s (95) care givers. Caregiving is team work first & last. It’s a challenge that we are learning to be skilled at. Rekha is front ending it now and I realize that in relation to her, my role as a pressure release valve needs dedicated attention. We now look at our the stay at Chennai as a blessing. The greenery around home here has knocked away the fear of Covid. That the water front at Thiruvanmiyoor beach is three minutes walk helps big time. The new ambience has made a huge difference to the dullness that had taken over for over 4 months. Living in our apartment at Mumbai by ourselves complying to the stricter Covid-19 protocols for Sr Citizens was quite a fatigue.
Sasuma, Orchids and Drumstick Days are our new reality.
It’s been indeed a while since Amma stepped into the lawn / garden. She prefers to be on the cane chair in the sit out in the comfort of communion with the greenery of her lawn & the numerous multi colored friends - mynahs, parrots, squirrels, sparrows, crows & other birds that I can’t even name. Their cacophony & happy abandon through the day are the stuff that makes for bliss for Sasuma. She recalls with incredible ease & accuracy the details about who had brought which sapling from where & when and the events surrounding the planting too.
As we get to know them all, here are a few pics that tell it all better than a few hundred words:
But as part of aging, Sasuma too has huge challenges with the memory of events of later on in her life. Names of spouses of children, grand children, where on the planet they are, whether Nagamma has come back after routine shopping trips, whether garage doors are closed, front door is bolted and whether pension is credited etc are a few of the issues she confounds herself with several times a day. Patience with her is the only virtue that she requires from us. The best part of life is that she routinely cracks jokes -fit & apt for the occasion. These lighter moments in life bring so much of cheer in the household. We have stayed with Sasuma & Orchids for a while now.
Let’s move on. For a starter take a quiz question. (no supporting baritone voice though) . Name the king of vegetables-
Clue 1 Good for Sambar, Avial & Erisseri
Clue 2. Green, Slender, Long and Fleshy
Clue 3. Good for soup with a garnish of fried onions
Clue 4. All four above.
The correct answer is Muringakka. (To the uninitiated dummies, Muringakka is drum stick.)
With Nagamma, our Sr kitchen superintendent, just about any Muringakka dish is possible if she is in a mood for it. Well, the story of the reality is here. A minimum of four days a week for the last 16 weeks, drumstick dishes illumine our dining table. A crass cribber like me should have hit the ceiling at the start of week no 2. But that’s not how things are turning out.
Rekha suspects that it has something to do with the yoga cum meditation kavach that I have taken to wearing since mid May (thanks to Covid). I think she is way off from the truth. It’s more like, I enjoy the dishes. I ask her, how come we don’t see King Muringakka too many times on the dining table at Mumbai. The answer is the neighbourhood vendor sells healthy looking muringakka for about ₹ 30/ (+/-₹1) a piece and that at that price point it didn’t appeal to her sensibilities to be very generous with those dishes. I sense that the argument is a double edged sword which can be used by either of us anytime and so concede it as a fair point.
At this juncture, let me serve you a plateful more about Muringakka (the only caveat is that I am not a doctor and so I am sure you would take what I say with at least a pinch if not indeed a ton of salt). Generally known features are that apart from being a high grade antioxidant, Muringakka is an astute fighter against anemia, arthritis, asthma, constipation, diabetes, diarrhoea, headache, high blood pressure, kidney stones etc etc. There are more beneficial properties, but at my age let me be modest about it. There are a few more perilous ailments for which Muringakka is considered a credible fighter. There is Google for research on that and more.
Hope my readers would be enthused to seek out fun with Muringakkas. It’s been great Drumstick Days for us with Orchids & Sasuma
Tail piece.
2020 - the year of Covid-19 has been difficult & different. Complying with protocols are a defining feature of the times. As of now, we are are 122,000 less Indians alright ; but the brighter side is 7.7 million of us have kicked the virus out of our system.. the Covid survivors & Covid warriors are our happy stories. .Seven & a half months after that fateful March evening, today as I sit to write this with Diwali this weekend, the message is that COVID 19 hasn’t gone away, it’s very much there and now Sarkar wants you to take good care of yourself. God bless us all.