Achan's food....yummmmmmmm. I can bet that our achan was the most creative cook. I am sure many women in our family were in awe of his culinary skills. And the best thing was he was quick, creative and passionate about it. His favourite passtime was to try new recipes in the late afternoons between lunch and evenings before he went to the shop. He was soooo good that till today my school and college friends tell me about the bajjis and pakodas they ate at my place. My cousin is ashamed that I did not learn to make biryani from achan. His recipes with leftovers were a winner among the three of us. He would just taste a curry and list out the ingredients that went into it. He taught me how to cut veggies without hurting my fingers, to make yummy dosas and many other things. Most of all he created this love for the art of cooking in all of us.
We never had the money to shop on MG Road or commercial street, in fact achan used to say I can't take you there cause people who go there have gunny bags filled with money. But whatever we wore, our friends and relatives always admired and praised. Achan would buy the dress material, design and get it tailored. Some of them were so popular among my cousins that they insisted they wanted the same outfit. Can you imagine kids of different age groups all wearing the same attire in different colours? ummm yuh yes, we have done that. My favourite was a denim skirt and checked shirt.
When we built our house, although we had a contractor, it was achan who planned the layout and took care of every single detail including the furnishing and paint. No experience whatsoever, he single handedly got everything done. We had our first duplex house in 1990. It was a great achievement considering our humble background. It was one of achan's proudest moments.
Craft work at school was always the most exciting and terrifying experience. We would be given this long list of unique things to buy and make. And our life saver was achan. He was so good at craft work and creative stuff. He would bring all the stuff we needed after closing the shop at 10 in the night, and stay awake till late in the night completing it to ensure we meet our deadlines. Mostly it was me who used to throw tantrums if things didn't get sorted, I would cry and go to sleep. In the morning when I woke up I would see my craft beautifully done and kept ready. Achan, our fairy would ask - is it good enough? - still smiling. I remember once i had to take 100 ice candy sticks to school and achan took me to this ice cream shop late in the night and the store person who was achan's friend gave it to us for free- and i thought wow achan has such great friends.
At another instance I had to dress like a coorgi bride groom for a fancy dress competition in LKG, it was achan who dressed me up. I just can't forget the pains he took to make the costumes and find out the coorgi translation of the script i had to read out....all in one evening. Those days there was no google to type in and click search.
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