Chekuthante Santhathikal

“Nina I am hungry”. Liza climbed on my bed and sat next to me.
“Why don’t you go and eat bread. There is pineapple jam in the fridge”
“I don’t like to eat bread Nina. I am sick and tired of eating bread everyday”
I started to laugh.
“Why are you laughing Nina?” Sally asked me
“Do you remember the first time Amma bought Pineapple jam? How mad Amma was, when she found out we finished the jam?
“Oh yes, it was the day after Akkachi left. Amma had bought a big tin of pineapple jam, when she came back from work. Right?” Sally asked
“Right. And we ate only bread and jam for breakfast, lunch and dinner and by the time Amma came back from work, the family sized tin of jam was finished”
“That was because Amma never bought jam before. Even in Malaysia we never had jam!” Sally justified
“Well, we used to have kaya(coconut jam) when we were in Malaysia.”
I remembered walking with my father to go to the morning market and how both of us would eat breakfast at the Chinese shop. Appa liked to eat half boiled egg with kicap (soy sauce)and pepper and I liked toasted bread with kaya. “Do you remember the the Chinese shop?” I asked Sally
“No”She shook her head. “One day when we go back, I will take you there”. I promised Sally
“Nina, will you cook something for me?”
“What do you want to eat?”
“Fried rice, like the one Tante Ida used to make”
“Oh, Sally I don’t know how to make fried rice”
“You will know Nina, come to the kitchen and see” Sally got up and started to pull my hand
I held her hand and we walked to the kitchen. Liza was sitting at the dining table and colouring
“Do you want to eat something?” Sally asked her
“What are you going to make?”
“I asked Nina to make fried rice”
“Really? Like Tante ida’s?”
“Yes” Sally nodded her head excitedly
“Guys, hold on. I don’t know how to make the fried rice.” I replied
“It is simple Nina, you just fry the rice to get fried rice” Liza replied
“When exactly do you fry? Before cooking the rice or after cooking the rice?”
“I think it is before cooking the rice” replied Liza
“I think it is after cooking the rice”
aiyaa, now what do we do? I don’t know how to make fried rice. Akkachi taught me how to make curd rice. I will make that for you”
“No. We want fried rice”
I looked inside the rice cooker. There was cooked rice inside. “tell you what, we will try frying the cooked rice. Go get me some eggs” I ordered Liza
“How many eggs do you need?”
I didn’t know. “I guess one each per person”
“What did Tante Ida put in her fried rice?” I asked my sisters.
babi (pork) and vege lah” Replied Liza
“Shhh don’t use ‘lah’.. Amma will kill you” I scolded Liza
“Ok, ok ok. Sorry I forgot”
I placed the big wok on fire. Gently I poured some oil in to the wok.
“How much of oil should I add?” I asked my sisters
“Add little more Nina, we have to fry the rice” Liza suggested
I added little more. When the oil was really hot, I broke the first egg inside and immediately it turned brownish black.
aiyyo the fire is too hot” I quickly tried to reduce the flame. There was egg on my hand and now there was egg on the knob as well. I will clean it later. I thought
I quickly broke the other 2 eggs s well and started to stir. There were egg shells in the wok and I tried to remove it using my fingers.
“Ouch” I screamed.
“Are you ok, Nina” Sally took my hand and started to blow on my fingers.
“Don’t worry, I am fine” I pulled my hand out of her grasp and stirred. When the egg was cooked I added 3 cups of rice, one cup for each of us. There was too much rice in the wok and I couldn’t stir.
“Go get me a plate” I ordered Sally.
I removed some of the rice from the wok in to the plate.
“Do we have any vege?” Liza asked me
“We have potatoes, but we don’t add potatoes to fried rice”. Then I remembered Akkachi showing me dried green peas and teaching me the malayalam name for that.
“We have green peas”. I shouted happily.
“Here, you stir the rice”. I gave the spatula to Liza. “Be careful. Don’t burn your hand”. Liza stood on the small stool and started to stir the rice. I quickly went and got the dried green peas. I added a handful of green peas in to the wok.
“Give me the spatula”. I ordered Liza.
I stirred and stirred. The green peas in Tante ida’s fired rice was a nice beautiful green. Mine still looked almost white with hardly any green colour on it.
May be the Malaysian green peas is different.
“Bring me your plates” The chef ordered
“Me first, me first” My sisters were stoving and pushing each other.
Aiyya what is this? there is enough fried rice for all of us. Remember always..Patience is a virtue” Spoke the chef again
I served my sisters and took some rice for myself. We marched to the dining room. We were all eager to eat.
As soon as the first mouth that went in all of us looked at each other. We took the rock hard green peas from our mouth. Sally was laughing, Liza too started to laugh. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry. As I just cooked my first fried rice with dried green peas and no salt.
“I can’t eat this Nina”. Liza spoke
“me too”
“We will throw it before Amma see it”
The same moment I heard the main gate opening.
“Long life. We just said her name and there she is”
I quickly tried to throw the rice in to the bin
“What are you all eating?” Amma asked
“Nina tried to make fried rice. She didn’t put any salt Amma” My sisters told her
Amma came in to the kitchen and saw the mess
“Who asked you to cook Nina? Look at the oil. You finished half of it. How dare you? That oil was enough to last till the end of this month and you finished it!.”
Amma looked inside the rice cooker. “You finished the rice too? I cooked enough rice for lunch and dinner before I went to work. Get out of the kitchen all of you. No dinner for anyone. Nina, if you ever enter the kitchen and cook food, I will kill you.”
I quickly walked out of the kitchen. I could hear my mother muttering
oru panikku ayiram pani undakkum. Chekuthante santhathikal…

17 thoughts on “Chekuthante Santhathikal

  1. Me first..want to taste some of the fried rice you made. I admire this quality in you, always willing and taking the risk to try something you had never done before and knowing that your amma is going to get you for it. I wish i was like you, I am always scared to take a risk because scared of the consequences. I think if I was there I would have been your best friend, must have been a lot of fun.

  2. Hi Nina,
    Where r ur sisters now? And what about ur mom?Does she accept u as a good cook now?
    I cant imagine what you have gone through in your childhood..How can parents treat their children differently.. they should all be treated the same.. Kashtam..
    Anyway wishing you all happiness in the future.. May your kids bring all the happiness and bliss that you lost in your childhood.
    Looking forward to ur future entries..

    Asha

  3. Hi,

    I have been following the writeups but first time commenting. It is really heart-wrenching to read what you had to go through. You are quite brave to have undergone this boldly and I’m sure by sharing things your heart will become lighter. For some reason I could never understand why your mom was behaving the way that she did to you. Is she regretting what she did? Also, your Ammachi turning cold after your father left, was there any other reason for that?

    Seema

  4. Hey, that was quite a culinary venture! And now you are a great cook!! I have tried some of your recipes.
    I think it was sweet of Sally to blow on your finger. Where is she now? Which of your sisters is closest to you now?

  5. Starry: I never had time to think abt consequences.. I wish I had!
    Yes, we would have made good friends..we have so much in common

    Thanu: U know I hvn’t eaten pineapple jam for so long.. I wish i could eat some now

    Quills: Welcome back.. Missed your presence in blogosphere

    Shankari: Unfortunately.. I hd to cook..mother left my sisters under my care..

    Silverine: I was naive!. Always do things and then think why didn’t I ever think before doing something

    Rock sea: Chiricho…othiri chirikkumbol kuthira vattathunnu alu varum

    Asha: Mother has her usual complaints..
    I don’t think she picked on me for any particular reason.. She was going through her menopause, I was there to take the brunt of it all.. Besides She had notions abt how a child/daughter should be..and I never fit in to tht mould.

    Neihal: I had my moments of absolute blunders!!!

    Seema: My mother and Ammachi never got along from the beginning. For Ammachi, her life revolved around her house. Her house her rules.. Amma was never willing to accept that rules. She wants things in her way and Ammachi told her that can only be done in Amma’s house, not at Chengannur house.

    Rose: OVer the years when ever Amma came after me.. I used to tell her.. “Don’t blame me.. blame chekutthan”.. and she used to get so livid!!

    Techno: I am not in contact with any of my family. My world revolves around my kids and my life.. It is a lot better this way!

  6. Hi,

    Thanks for the reply. So you are not in touch any of the sisters? Are they all in Malasya? Is your Ammachi still there at Chengannur and what happened to chengannur house? Also, just curious you said you and your babies live in Canada. Is your husband back working in Malasya?
    Sorry for too many questions. Just came up when I was going through the posts.

    Seema

  7. hi again nina!!

    really really, when are you going to go and show this to a publisher!! definitly a book here somewhere, i am sorry to hear, about you not in touch with your familly, mine is almost the same, with mum and brother we are like strangers only with my dad, i have a bond.

    well..we can’t change others have to live life how it is!!
    hat’s off to you.

  8. Seema:!

    Jac: I know.. I always had the ability to invite trouble..

    Ronnie: When we started, there were 6 of us. Appa, Amma and the 4 of us.. Now there is still 6 of us, I, Me Myself and my three kids!!!

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