Biriyani Tales

We, as a family, are foodies. Gathering around a table full of good food or just talking about good food, is one of our favorite things to do. As for my girls and me, looking up food videos in Instagram or drooling over the ones in Buzzfeed can keep us busy for hours. When we are bored or feeling down, we look at food. Comfort food doesn’t even have to be eaten. What I am trying to say is that, we, as a family, bond plenty over food.

Ever since our trip to India last summer, we find ourselves reminiscing about the biriyani we had a couple of days before we came back.

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Pallankuzhi – Seethakkali or Seethayattam – A Game for the Times

Manjadikkurus in pallankuzhi

According to legend, when Seetha was imprisoned in the Ashokavana by Ravana, she was allowed just one form of entertainment – a Pallankuzhi. A game with a wooden/metal board with shallow dips and red seeds. And on the Pallankuzhi, there are several two player games you can play; but either because none of the rakshasis (demonesses) guarding her wanted to have anything to do with her or because Seetha didn’t want anything to do with her scary guard detail, she played only a single player game. And this was a game that would never end. She just went on and on with her endless game, all year till Rama and his ragtag army of monkeys built that bridge to Lanka, slayed the demon king Ravana and his army, routed his magnificent city, and set her free.

Chromosome Chronicles: The Appointment

Another conversation with the lone Y chromosome at home.

XX: Did you make the appointment?

XY: What appointment?

Amma

“Take my saris,” you plead,

“I no longer wear these.”

But I always refuse.

I Promise You This is Not Sentimental

Yesterday at the dinner table.

It’s September 21^st. It’s already the 22^nd back home. I am reminiscing about that terrible night 19 years ago. The night since when a phone call from India always made me assume the worst. Because that night a phone call did convey the worst. My father was no more.