Nurungukal....contd....

       I went to Ponani to spend a day or two with my mother. The visit was also to celebrate my 29^th birth day.  As usual she had prepared a very tasty feast. She was an expert cook. The kurukku kalan prepared in a kalachatti was one of her best items. Similarly she used to prepare an item we call as karimkalan[not an item in a feast], which I think is one which is prevalent only in our area [ Malapuram district]. Although its name ends in kalan, the recipe is different. Now my sister prepares a version of it almost similar to the old one. My mother used to say that the mizhuku paratti uperi which is another exclusive item of then central Malabar is prepared by just smearing a little coconut oil by hand on the  pre-cooked plantain pieces which was usually stored in earthen pots hung in one corner of the kitchen in an uri. She had her traditional method of serving the food on a birth day. The birth day boy or girl would be seated facing east in thekkini of our nalukettu house. On the right a lighted nilavilakku and the feast items served in a plantain leaf and also a nazhi  filled with rice would be arranged. The plantain leaf of the birth day person would be supported by two additional pieces. I do not know even now why it is so. May be to give an importance to the person.Father usually sits on the opposite side. After serving all the items in the order of their positions [ my father was very particular about this practise] mother would stand behind the birth day person and she would bless by placing rice and thulasi on the knees,shoulder and top of the head. She was very particular that the birth day person should not say ‘enough’ when the food is served and what ever is left behind will be offered to the fish in our pond which is adjacent to the sacred grove. She would herself would serve all the items, even at her old age and her touch adds the taste which even now linger in us.After a sumptuous feast we will assemble in the poomokham and it is time to hear her childhood story, while she goes on chewing betel leaves, accompanied by her intermittent loud laughter. It reverberates in my ear on and off........contd