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Home is where the art is
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Why sweat in the kitchen when you can buy obbattus off the counter for Ganesha festival? MALA KUMAR meets some heroic souls who believe that tradition is worth the effort that goes into preserving it
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`The recipes of these traditional goodies seem so complicated and time-consuming that none of us in my circle even try to make them at home. To me, puja days are joyous days to be celebrated with friends'
Photo: N. Bhaskaran
ALL FOR THE LOVEABLE DEITY There are those who believe is keeping the flag of tradition flying high and others who'd rather spend quality time with the family
In the good present days, I'm happy to inform, we still make kozhakattais and obbattus and murukku and chaklis. So what if specialists make them and others buy them, Lord Ganesha still gets his quota of goodies, doesn't he?
"I know it must be Ganesh Chaturthi when we get a couriered package of homemade pooran polis from my Maharashtrian father-in-law in Vellore," says a busy career woman who herself turns out neat cakes, flans, and soufflés. "The recipes of these traditional goodies seem so complicated and time-consuming that none of us in my circle even try to make them at home. To me, puja days are joyous days to be celebrated with friends."
Good old days
Back when we were kids, Appa made the Ganesha out of clay that we sourced from all around our colony. While he concentrated on the more challenging form, we zealously made tiny mud balls that were loaded on a little mud plate and on to one of Ganeshji's four hands. My grandmother and mother, meanwhile, laboured in the kitchen churning out 101 madi kozhakattais, and various other items to be offered to Vinayaka.
Today? Oh well, times certainly have changed. Caterers in different parts of the city supply to specific tastes and styles of cooking. And though it is considered a booming industry, there are many who do it for altruistic reasons. Says Revathi Santhanam, a caterer who hadn't entered the kitchen for several years because of indifferent health: "I was a non-believer in Sai Baba, but two years back an incident made me believe in him, and I started making food for his birthday celebrations. Today, we have a busy kitchen and I cater food to old age homes and individuals. The profit, though not much, goes to charity. In spite of several ailments, I think I'm able to continue with this work because of divine help," says the patron of Maruthi Bhavan at Padmanabhanagar.
"Why sweat in the kitchen when everything is available in the market?" asks Shobha, a bank employee. "On special occasions, the extended family and friends gather at one house, we order food and lots of traditional savouries, and after a simple puja, we spend the entire day together, happily and without getting on each other's nerves. What more could God have asked from us?" questions this god-fearing mother of two.
On the other side of the divide is young Meena Ananth, a special teacher who continues to follow festivals as close to tradition as possible. "Catered food can never smell as good as food made fresh at home. We have all the gadgets in the kitchen, we are definitely more affluent than our parents, and so why should we not try to continue with this wonderful Indian culture? When I make things at home, the kids get curious, they learn why we do what we do as part of tradition, they understand rituals better, and they too are inspired to help in decorating the puja room, or helping in the kitchen. I don't think the values and skills they learn like this can be learnt any other way."
The same fervour
The enthusiasm and fervour with which senior citizen Vasantha Swaminathan prepares for any puja is astonishing. Along with knitting for the family, cooking and running her house, the lady shifts to top gear during festivals. "Earlier we used to start making special gajje vastras a month ahead. But now I make a couple of them at home and buy the rest," she says. "The devotion with which my mother-in-law made preparations inspires me even now."
The aroma of caramelising jaggery, that little waft of asafoetida and zeera being roasted for chaklis, the messy adventure of making modaks, the questions of little ones about the snake around Ganesha's ample tummy — these are worth savouring. And in the hectic lifestyle, are these possible? Well, I do know of a busy school and college principal who makes all the traditional goodies at home.
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