A few pieces of mundiri

I was making a dish using mundiri paruppu (cashews) recently when I thought of my grandmother.

Well, I guess I should actually start off this post by saying I associate any sort of good cooking with my grandmother (Patti), especially the traditional south Indian food. Even if she had to use fairly pedestrian ingredients sometimes, she had a certain something in her hand that made her dishes the best I have ever had. Call it perfectionism. Or care. Or love.

But I digress...coming back to the mundiri, I looked at my pantry, housing this large jar of cashews. And remembered how, when I was younger, a scrawny ten-year-old, whiling away the hot summer holidays in Madras by squabbling with my brother and doing other mostly useless things (we didn’t have a TV at home then), Patti (maybe in an attempt to get me to do something half useful) would get me to run some errands for her. My mum, the sole breadwinner, would be at work and so it was just me, my brother, thatha and patti at home. (My dad wasn’t alive then).

Patti used to get me to go to the edhir kadai (shop opposite). Although the shop was no longer opposite our house, as the one ancestral house had been partitioned into many, each with its own entrance and our entrance was now on the next street to the shop. But still, we called the shop edhir kadai. “Go and get me mundiri for one rupee from edhir kadai,” she would say. “Take the money from the Karaikudi dabba.” This was a set of cuboid-shaped metal containers that she had in various sizes, the smallest of which was used to store loose change.

My first feeling would be joy. Buying mundiri meant only one thing. That she was making something sweet, like payasam or kesari. That meant the cashews would be roasted in ghee. Yummy. Then, I would demur. “But Patti, mundiri for one rupee will be so few. Why can’t we get for two rupees.”

She would think for a minute. That was the affection for grandchildren, warring with the prudence born of years of saving paise that enabled her and my grandfather to get 5 daughters married and 3 sons educated and married on the one single accountant’s income. Then, she would smile and say, “Sari, take two rupees and make sure you ask the kadaikaran to put in a couple of extra mundiris.” I would rush off, happy that Patti hadn’t spotted my deviousness. The more the mundiris, the more the chances of me and my brother getting some fried ones to eat by themselves, instead of picking them out from the sweet dish. And not surprisingly, at that age, if I could bully my brother (who is two-and-a-half years younger than me) into giving me some of his, I would certainly do so.

I would take the change from the dabba and then cross the road (mostly carefully) and arrive at the shop, with the change clutched in my sweaty palm. (Madras summer, so I was mostly sweaty!). The shop was dark and dingy and was stocked with things from floor to ceiling. It had a really high counter and almost always had many people waiting to buy things. I could barely reach the top of it to put down my money when my turn finally came. “Rendu rubaiku mundiri,” (mundiri for two rupees) I would say. The shopkeeper, a stocky, well-built dark individual, would tear off a bit from various newspapers he had stocked all around the shop, and toss a handful of mundiri into the paper.

At this stage, I would force myself to say to him (he used to be a bit scary), “innum konjam pondunga” (put some more please). With an expressionless face, he would throw in another half-a-mundiri. And then, for the grand finale, he would deftly twist and fold the paper so that it made a safe parcel with the mundiri in the middle. Bigger items like a kilo of idli rice etc got a different treatment in wrapping from him, but that deserves another post all to itself.

Bearing the mundiri triumphantly, I would rush back home. And from then on, every few minutes, me and my brother (egged on by me), would take turns to ask Patti, is it finished yet, can we have mundiri now? She would say, no not yet, perumalukku amsaye pannitu thaan (only after it has been offered to God as prasadam).

Then finally, it would be done. It would be lunchtime and sometimes we wouldn’t even wait that long. As soon as the puja was finished, Patti would serve us payasam (kheer) first and make sure she picked out more pieces of mundiri from the payasam and deposited it in our portion. Even then, me and my brother used to rush back to Patti to make sure that the amounts got equalised if one of us got more mundiri pieces that the other.

And towards evening, after her post-lunch work was finished and she was busy only with coffee etc, Patti would summon us and give us the special pieces of fried mundiri that she had saved without tossing them into the payasam. Always, always, there was some mundiri left over for us. So much for my deviousness!!

I use a lot of mundiri nowadays in my cooking, never mind the cost and am quite liberal with the ghee I use to fry it too. But somehow, it never tastes the same as those two pieces of snack-time mundiri that she used to make…

Maybe one day, my grandkids will say the same things about my cooking. But I somehow doubt it. Those were simple pleasures from a past generation. They can’t be replicated exactly in this age of mobile devices and busyness.

Burma to India – one long walk: Pg 6

(contd from previous page)

After a few days I was discharged from the hospital. Then I went to Trichinopoly and stayed with Pacha* for about ten days. Then I went to Kodaikanal and stayed with my brother-in-law Mr. Soundararaja Iyengar. Here I stayed for about 20 days. In Kodaikanal I enjoyed the stay. I used to go to the Boat Club for which he ws the Secretary. I used to go with him in the boat which he used to row in the lake.

After about a month, I came to Sevilimedu and stayed there. In July, 1942 I was called to Allahabad to join office. I proceeded to Allahabad. After a few months, I was transferred to Kolhapur. I stayed at Kolhapur for a few months.

Iti samaaptam

*Pacha was another of my grandfather's brothers.

Burma to India – one long walk: Pg 5

(contd from previous page)

There were a lot of passengers waiting at the station to go to different places. There was one Gentleman Mr. Rangaswamy who was looking to arrangements for evacuees to go to their native places. There were associations who arranged for our free travel to Madras and gave each about 2 rupees for expenses.

After getting the ticket I sent a telegram to father at Sevilimedu that I had reached Calcutta, and that I will be coming to Sevilimedu village (near Kanchipuram) shortly.

I reached Madras and came to 30 Salai Street*. There Payya alone was living. All others had gone to the village. The whole of Madras was practically evacuated as some days before Japanese planes came to Madras and bombed the harbour. Then myself and Payya went to Sevilimedu village to see parents. I remained there for a week. Afterwards, I had to go to Shimla, where a small portion of our office was functioning.

A few days before I could start for Madras (to go to Shimla) I had an attack of fever. For this one Doctor Rajamanickam LMP treated me. He could not diagnose the fever properly. So Payya** was asked to come to the Village. When he came he said that this fever could not be treated here and that we should go to Madras General Hospital.

So we went by train from Conjeevaram (Kanchipuram) to Madras Beach Station. As I could not walk I was taken in a stretcher to the taxi stand. From the taxi stand we went to General Hospital. Afterwards the Doctor checked me up and said that I was suffering from Malaria fever without shivering. This is peculiar. All people who came from Burma by walking suffered like this.

The Doctor in charge of my room was Kalyanasundaram. I enquired if Dr. K.S.Sanjivi was in this hospital. He confirmed that he was working there. I told him to inform Dr. Sanjivi that I was here and that I wanted to see him. On hearing this, Dr.Sanjivi came to my room and saw me and told Kalyanasundaram that we were classmates. He told him to take special care of me while in hospital.

Contd…p6…

* This was my grandfather's ancestral home in Mylapore, Madras.

** My grandfather's brother, who was a doctor.

Next: Burma to India – one long walk: Pg 6

Burma to India – one long walk: Pg 4

(contd from previous page)

there is a God who will always help whenever we need help. This shows clearly that there is God who will always come forward to help us.

We reached a hilly region where we had to walk on level ground, climb up in the hilly tract and then go lower down. This hilly region was about 15 to 20 miles. This route leads us to Imphal state. At about 4 pm, in the evening it will be very cold and chill. For getting drinking water we had to go down about 200 to 300 feet by narrow pedestrian track. From 4 pm to night and early morning there will be the howling noise of jackals and other wild animals. While going through hilly tract, the route was slippery as previously there was rain. During our journey also there was light drizzling. So to avoid falling down, we had strong sticks, plucked from the forest. This stick was used, as we had to rest on the stick and walk like old men.

We passed through Imphal State and reached Dunapur railway station. There we purchased Ist class railway ticket hoping to have a comfortable railway journey. After we got into the compartment (1st. class) many passengers without tickets rushed into our compartment. There was heavy crowd in the compartment. At Dunapur railway station we purchased peas for our journey. This journey was to Na Pandu railway station. There was no bridge, we had to walk on the sands of the river and reach the other side to take the train to Sealdah railway station. We reached Sealdah railway station on 18th May, 1942.

About 4 of us joined and took a taxi and asked the taxi driver to take us to a Madrasi hotel in Calcutta. There we took Masala dosai, poori, good coffee etc. as we did not have good food or coffee etc for about 20 days. We then enquired and went to a hair cutting saloon. As we had grown lot of hair on our head and beard, we had a crop, and then took a room in the hotel. We took rest for the night. Next day we went to Howrah railway station to find out if we can go conveniently by train to Madras.

Contd…p5…
Next: Burma to India – one long walk: Pg 5

Burma to India – one long walk: Pg 3

(contd from previous page)

We took rest in the afternoon and again started walking at 3 PM and stopped at dusk near a camp at about 6.30PM. We were given at the camp rice and dhal out of which we prepared pongal. First, we were a group of 20 with a cook to prepare our food. As the cook could not walk and do service to us, we split into groups of four and did cooking. Our kit consisted of stove, coffee powder, sugar, kerosene, etc.

Our personal belongings consisted of a pair of shirts, a pair of dhoties, small jamakalam, a rug and a hand bag to stuff our things. In the nights, we had to sleep on the floor. On the way, the local people distributed peas etc, pitying us. Thus, we trekked for about 18 days. Nearly about 5000 people, old and young and children were marching.

One day we had to go through a forest early morning. As we entered the forest there was the roar of a tiger. Children were crying. When the tiger smells human movements, they will come near to us. But our colleague Aaru, said he will imitate the voice of a tiger and did it. However, by God’s grace, no harm was done to us and we escaped. This instance also shows that God will protect us during our trying times.

One day we were resting near some paddy field. All of a sudden there was heavy rain. So we took shelter under a banyan tree. After sunrise, we enquired if there were people nearby. We were told that there were Gurkhas near by with cows and buffaloes. So we went to them and purchased good milk and ghee. We prepared good good coffee and enjoyed the same. As the Gurkhas there did not know to prepare good coffee, we gave coffee to them also.

Next day we were at the next camp and prepared food out of rice and ate. Then our rice stock was exhausted. Then I remarked our rice stock was over and that if God gives us rice only, we can proceed further. Immediately a man appeared before us with a big basket of rice. We purchased the rice. Then I said “We see

Contd…p4

Next: Burma to India – one long walk: Pg 4