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Fun unplugged Parties have changed their character over the years. The old world ‘format’ has given place to raucous soirees

Now, this refers to no wedding or festival celebration but a general entertainment of a crowd that ranged anywhere from 50 to 200 people! So, what was it like, in the good ole days as many put it?

“Oh, oodles of fun!” said one. “There was plenty to eat and much to drink. The topics of conversation could range from a new store (mind you, around 30 years ago, there were very few of them) to the new brand of Scotch that had arrived on a ship from Europe,” recalls Patricia, a retired school teacher from Fort Kochi. “Or even the new recipe the hostess had tried out for the short cut pastry that had worked out so much better than the laborious one that was served the last time” she giggles. Another recalls how her party had to be cancelled because Thankappan, the only one who supplied chairs, “green, steel ones if I remember right,” was away at Guruvayoor. “Where would I seat my guests?” she asks as if it was just the other day. But that is the thing with the parties of yesteryears; everything was planned with passion and excitement. It was an event in the family, something like the smaller wedding parties at homes today, when everyone had a role to play. The men too, K. B. Prakash recalls, “It was not just the women who planned things, but most of the time men got actively involved with them as well.” He recalls parties in the sixties and seventies at his home in Fort Kochi, they were Christmas celebrations largely , where his mother extended the kitchen to an outdoor shamiana, “where vegetables and meats were cut and prepared. Cooks who had worked for Europeans were called in and supervised by her. I had to look into the purchases at times, making sure the ingredients were bought well in advance. These were mainly from Mattancherry: Gopal Rao and Sons for vegetables and Spencer’s for sauces and other condiments. The cutlery and crockery for the large number of guests, 150 to 200 (visitors brought friends along sometimes just on short notice!)

were always hired from Kohinoor Bakery on Old Railway Station Road in Ernakulam.” Prakash remembers not just the great bread they baked, but also the supplied crockery and, “if I remember right, they were the only ones at the time. Then there were the dishes: an array of salads, vegetarian and meats of every kind. A platter of cold cuts was a must and desserts would be crème brule and a fresh fruit salad served in orange jackets carved like a basket!

But the most popular was the coffee ice-cream that was made over crushed ice and salt churned by hand and later an imported hand operated machine.” He adds that his brother was left with the job of decorating the lawn where the parties were held. “Mind you, there were no professionals in those days, and a day’s job it was. Like the time we created a gigantic star with bamboo, paper and home made rice glue that was then suspended from above to cover the entire area. It was magnificent when lit,” he explains.

“But that was not all,” explains, Sumatra, a grandmother and one-time party hostess, “The attire was important as well. Often we had theme parties, but a formal one meant the best silk saris and hair-styles that required substantial effort and time. At one time the Sharmila Tagore style was in such vogue, that everyone turned up with a similar hairdo.” And at another instance, a ‘party-ier’ explains the effort that was put in days in advance in stitching a dress to suit the event, “a red outfit on Christmas Day for example.”

Then again parties were because important people visited homes, as Anamma Chakola explains of those for business associates and other eminent guests. “So dinner would either be sit-down, each course following the other or a more lavish buffet.” She continues that dishes would vary each time, “I used to improvise those that I would taste at other dinners and they were always varied with a choice of north Indian, continental and local Kerala cuisine.”

When asked if she would host them once again today, she says “It is just is too tough – we don’t get that kind of assistants and cooks today. Nor bearers who are well equipped to serve.” For, it was not just an event of elaborate cooking alone, but where every detail was carefully considered, like the colour shade of flowers in every vase too, for a dedicatedly planned evening of frolic.

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