ORU NAZHI ARIKKUVENDI FOR ONE MEASURE OF RICE Dear Friends,
There issaying in Malayalam, we all work for a measure of rice, as told above. Localmodifications may be there for the same in different states. If the stomach is not there telling us tofeed it at every 4th hour (or at definite intervals) and it has tobe complied immediately, the word work would not have been there for humans. Itis not my words, I readit elsewhere. This posting isa thinking about rice in general. Sincerely, GopalaKrishnan 28-4-2021 1 Importance of food All othercomforts are NOTHING before satisfaction of food. We can satisfy a person only with food. Nobody wouldsay anything else other than food is sufficient, I don’t want more. That is why we say Andaman Maha danam. KunjanNambiar has sung” Pattukettakkal Aarkku Soukyam Pattiiniyai Kitakkumumbol” (Musicwould not be relishing when one is hungry). It is toldin olden days Brahmins have come to Trivandrum from Tiruneveli since one time food was surefrom Anantha pureeswaran. 2 Temples offering food I am notsure what brought the change, in almost all major temples in Kerala arestarting has been made offering food to public after afternoon Pooja for thelast few years. Mainly it is aimed at devotees and surely 90% devotees partake.Some temples keep a figure they can afford with a token system. Recently I have partaken in such an offeringin Ambalappuzha temple. Sometemples have the food arrangements in larger scale like Vaikam, Guruvayur and Sabarimalain Kerala. Large scalefood arrangements are there in Mookambika, Dharmasthala in Karnataka. 3 Free ration InTamilnadu ration card holders are given FREE rice and wheat. In Kerala a smallcharging is there. This is a great thing done by the government. It ensuresfamily is not starved on account of food. A few days back there was an announcement byour Prime minister that each individual would be given 5 kg rice/wheat free. Whentalking about the price rice in normal shops one of my colleague, one Daniel oftelegraph side told me- Sir, it is not high. If we are having little salt onecan enjoy porridge with rice. One can fill the stomach. 4 Food offering to crows Annam isrice cooked. I read elsewhere firstoffering of rice to crow need not be started as a simple or just feeding to bird. There can be other aspects like testing the preparedrice for its safety earlier and later changed to recalling as daily pithrubhojanam. Howeverin no Brahmin home we partake food without offering to crow even today. Aguilty conscious is created if done in the minds of everybody. Crows eat rice nowadays, if they are toohungry. In many areas like Tutucorin, sasthrikals used to ask the bhokthas to getup after offering pinda to crow. It may rarely make appearance other than insea side there. 5 Importance of rice A person can take rice alone if it is semiliquid especially when he is hungrier. Dishes are only secondary. For a hungry man Liquefied rice itself issufficient. When a person is not well it is suggested to take liquefied ricecalled Kanji. RecentlyI am taking wheat rice. I find it is tasty to eat without side dishes. Manytimes I eat half the rice without side dishes. 6. Karkitaka kanji in Kerala So whatcome to my mind when talk of Kanji is Karkitaka Kanji of Kerala. It is prepared addingmedicinal ingredients and would be available in all Ayurvdeic outlets inTrivandrum during the month of Karkitakam. Similarly in other places. There will be big Queues and bookings for it atVasudeva Vilasam Nursing home at Trivandrum. It rejuvenate thebody. Rather than normal expectation,the price is more (about Rs 75-00 to 100-00 in 2004.) 7. Kanji kappa in sabarimala route Another thing coming to my mind is Kanji and Kappa (tapiocacurry) supplied in the Sabari mala route. I havegone to Sabarimala more than 25 times. I was always for Kanji and kappa thanrice. For climbing the hill, kanji is more comfortable. 8 Morning Prathal and night food as porridge InNampoothiri families the morning food used to be Kanji with dish earlier. Theyused to call it prathal. A fewyears ago I was listening to an interview of Travancore Maharaja. They stillhave morning food as Prathal My aunt’slate son by name Ramanatha Iyer, who was headmaster in Pandalam NSS High schoolfor long time and next to my home used to say “Chutta parpadavum Kanjiyum- Athanu sukam rathriyail.”(Dry roasted on oven papad (and Kanji are best for night. (He had the honour of first Graduatefrom my home.) 9 School noon meal scheme On thosedays Payar (cereals) and Kanji were served in schools free, and milk prepared frommilk powder supplied from the US to India. Later these things stopped or lost importance in Kerala. Later period itwas Uppuma (salt mangotree!!!) 10 Importance of porridge/rice When aperson is unwell normally doctor advice to take light food like Kanji or bread. Probablyour first preparation could be rice as Kanji and later it got modified toPadachhor (Served in temples where raw rice is used and water is not dried outafter rice got prepared.) There would be about be 25-50 Padas in a/n pooja andafter Neivedyam, it will be divided among Potti, Elayathu, warier, marar,thoopu and all. On thosedays in all these families only some dishes used to be prepared to consume thePadachor. On those days we too could offer Padachor as Neivedyam andcollect. Now Padachor is limited to one Pada in most temples. I havenot touched Tamilnadu temples since I am not very sure of the practices exceptin Nanganallur Anjaneyar temple where with a pleasing face the purohits ask everyone not to miss thevenponkal and thair sadam. In ourlocal Sudarsan Nagar temple which functions on co-operation of localpeople offering, every day afternoon, Thayirsadam, Puliyodarai, Kesari etc. areserved to all who are there for Darsan. The serving of food in the temple would have been practicegenerations before to indicate all importance ofAnnadanam. Only raw rice is given in temples. In Siva temples and Krishnatemples paddy is offered after harvest by many. This is prevalent in manyplaces. In fact the origin of Ambalappuzha Palpayasam is based on apaddy issue. 11 First agricultural produce-Rice So in allprobabilities, the first agricultural product and food prepared would have beenpaddy by the humans. This is because in almost allcountries Rice is produced and still continues to be the prime food.If the homosapiens have origin in Africa, African rice is there. If furthersettlement was towards Egypt, still rice is produced along Nile river delta. Ifit was later in India, at Saraswathy riverbank was fertile for rice production. Probably paddy would have been grown on its own accordand finding it is good for consumption,cultivation would have started observing new plant coming up from left outseeds. There aremany varieties of rice sometimes make us wonder. A lot of research is done fromthe very beginning on rice with cultural development in later centauries. The first research centre came to my notice was at Philippines.Cultivation methods have changed. Varieties found to give better taste havespecial preference in star hotels. Many such varieties and their cultivationareas are specific. So veryearly in the civilisation, we started producing paddy and methods of hulling itas rice. We found different varieties had different tastes. 12. Rice varieties InAlleppy we have Kuttanad rice different from Nanchinad rice of Trivandrumareas. When I came to job in Chennai inhotels they used to serve raw rice telling it is Nellore rice from Andhra. This rice tasted variesdifferent from the raw rice we used to get in Kerala and was of better quality. When Ihad my posting I had a new name there for the rice called Arcot Kichili at Ranipet. There they startedserving a new variety called Semi boiled kichili. The paddy will be half boiled. It was still more tasty and yellowish as if asmall quantity of turmeric powder is added. Now inChennai there are rice shops, sell only rice of different varieties with varyingprice. From Rs. 50-00 to 150-00 per kg or more. While I was in Dubai I wasgetting Egyptian rice in packets of 2-4 Kgs. We wereserved Basmati rice while I was in Delhi for trainings. Now in supermarkets weget all types of rice either packed or in large bags. We have to select the onewe like. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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