GRAND MOTHER’S REMEDIES
CASTOR OIL
My grandmother was a stickler for following certain
practices to maintain good health and well being. One of these was what was commonly
known as the Castor Oil Service, akin to the 3 MONTHS / 5000KM SERVICE we get
done for our cars.
We kids (my sisters and I; my brother escaped by not
being born then) would be woken up early in the morning on a Sunday chosen by our
grandmother, based on auspicious signs from the almanac. Instead of coffee with
milk and sugar, we would be given small tumblers of coffee decoction mixed with
sugar and a spoon of Castor Oil cunningly added. The coffee and sugar were
meant to mask the smell and taste of the good old oil but failed miserably. The
instructions : clasp fingers of left hand tightly over nose, pick up tumbler
with right hand, gulp down contents. Glug glug glug. No gagging ... Go and sit
in a corner and await your turn. No breakfast, no nothing. Straight lunch, to
be served after the system was serviced.
Several turns later, we would be totally exhausted in
every sense of the word and our systems would be declared clean as a whistle,
and we would be packed off one by one for a quick bath. This would be followed
by a frugal lunch, consisting of overcooked rice with a thin watery pepper
rasam without any chillies or dal in it. Known as “milagu rasam” in Tamil, a much
milder form of this captured the imagination of the British and they took to it
with gusto, and after minor alterations to suit their bland tongues, rechristened
it “mulligatawny”, the name derived from “milagu thanni” or “pepper water”,
which it is, literally.
Tired after the morning’s exertions, we would forsake
going out to play but rest awhile.
The evening would be spent in prayer. Bhajans would
be sung, led by grandma. She had a bhajan book from which she would choose the
bhajans for the day. Thanksgiving done, we would busy ourselves with our
homework, while she would rustle up a quick dal rasam and occasionally a simple
vegetable as a side. Rasam rice followed by curd rice. Dinner done.
Next oil change and service after three months or
5000 km, whichever comes first.
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© Shiva Kumar
24 Feb 2018
For a hungry stomach in a little body, nothing tastes more delicious than palmfuls of rasam rice, occasionally interspersed with swigs of the liquid, and licks of the lemon pickle.
ReplyDeleteGrandmother recipes deserve to be preserved in this manner, laced with a dash of nostalgia of simpler days sans the kind of hi-tech distractions these days!
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