The Cholesterol Season

The Cholesterol Season

The season after the rains is the season for feasts, the season to watch your weight. For nearly two months the South West monsoon rains lash the land, bringing relief and joy to farmers. The onset of monsoon ushers in the month of Aashada or Aadi when everything grinds to a halt. No new projects are undertaken, nothing new is started; it is considered an inauspicious month. There are no holidays and nothing to celebrate.

The month following Aashada is Shravana, which heralds the coming of the festivals. There are, of course, the festivals of Naga Panchami and Bheemana Amavasya but Varamahalakshmi is considered the major Hindu festival to open the season. This is a pooja traditionally performed by the women of the house. Thankfully, the men are allowed to partake of the grand feast that typically consists of payasam (a sweet dish made by boiling rice or broken wheat or vermicelli or just milk with sugar till it thickens to half its consistency, adding cashews, raisins, pistachios, almonds, etc. and flavouring with saffron and cardamom), aamvade (though in my house, traditionally, we make a steamed version), a beans curry and/or a raw banana curry, kosumari (a salad made from soaked green gram dal and diced cucumber or raw mango, spiked with chopped green chillies, garnished with curry leaves and coriander leaves and tempered with a pinch of hing and mustard seeds heated in oil till they sputter), yellow dal, plain rice to be had with sambar, rasam (tili saaru) and curds. The list makes your mouth water, doesn’t it?

Around the same time, the people of Kerala rejoice in the celebration of Onam, the harvest festival to commemorate the Vamana Avataram of Lord Vishnu and the annual homecoming of King Mahabali. Onam is characterized by the Ona Pookalam, a colourful arrangement of the petals of different flowers on the ground, a kind of floral “rangoli” carpet. The festival is not complete without the Onam sadya, a feast fit for kings, with more than twenty five dishes like thoran, kaalan, avial, sambar and others, topped by pal payasam (payasam made from milk) as the grand finale.

The next major festival is Krishna Janmashtami. This is a favourite with kids, for this is when they get to eat murukku (or chakli, hand-made spirals of rice flour, tempered with salt and jeera and deep fried), uppu seedai (similar to chaklis but shaped into small marbles) and vella seedai (here the salt and jeera are replaced by jaggery and elaichi and the marbles are larger). Sufficient quantities are prepared to last a week or more and children get to have them every day. Of course, the elders tuck in, too!

If Janmashtami tickles the taste buds, the next major festival has the juices flowing. Ganesha Chaturthi is celebrated typically with some delicious preparations like modaka (or kozhukattai), medu vade, vellappam and the ubiquitous payasam.

There is a bit of a gap after this, and the festival season moves into top gear with Dassara. Aha! Homes are decked up for the ten day festival characterised by the display of dolls, the womenfolk visit the homes of their neighbours, relatives and friends to view the displays and the whole country is in a holiday mood.  Saraswathi Pooja and Ayudha Pooja are celebrated on the ninth day of Dassara by worshipping books, musical instruments, machines, tools, tackles and instruments which are then allowed to remain at rest for at least one day. All work comes to a standstill. The feasting, however, goes on regardless because Dassara also stands for ten days of gastronomic delights that leave one gasping for breath! Payasam (of course), kosumari, vade, and a different sundal every day.

The next major festival and perhaps the biggest of them all, Deepavali, sees the gastronome shifting into overdrive. Kilos, nay, tonnes of sweets are made, sold and consumed in those three days. Deepavali traditionally is the time for bonus payments and the sudden abundance of the moolah, albeit for a fleeting while, obscures the penury and brings out the generosity and bonhomie in everyone. And what better way to show it than by exchanging sweets? Milk sweets are the favourites, though among the wealthier classes, badam, pista and kaju sweets take preference. And a description of the food is best avoided here, for it would need many many words to do justice to it!

And then comes Sankranthi-Pongal when you can have sweet pongal, made from rice, jaggery and dollops of ghee. You get only a brief breathing space before it is time to celebrate Ugadi habba with holige and vade!

All these festivals tend to fatten one up and send the cholesterol levels up North. It is time to put on your walking shoes, don your gym wear, go forth and burn away the calories, for this is the Cholesterol Season!