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 that we call paruppu pidi kozhukattai), 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 Pookkalam, 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 of the meal.
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 Pookkalam, 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 of the meal.
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-twisted 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 of the uppu seedai are replaced by jaggery and elaichi and the "marbles" are slightly larger in size). 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 single 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 or your yoga toga, go forth and burn away the calories, for this
is the Cholesterol Season!
