Tapestry

As I mentioned before, I host a tea party once a week for my elderly women neighbours. It started purely as a selfish motive from my part. I needed the presence of a mother figure in my life and a grandmother for my children. It started off with two and now grown to 18.

Last weekend, I met Edna ( not her real name). She stays 4 blocks away from my place and heard about the Sarah’s Mad hatters party ( Thelma named it ) and decided to come and check it out.

To be frank, I have never met a person like Edna. To start with, she is 91 years old and visits Australia every year to stay with her son. She grew up in a farm in South Africa and only studied till 9th standard and reads medical journals for fun. She  survived 4 major cancers, the first of which was breast cancer in 1957 and underwent radical mastectomy. ( Surgery has advanced so much since then and they don’t mutilate a woman’s body like they did in 1957)

It was not her medical history that fascinated me the most. While we were talking, she mentioned losing the family farm that has been in her family for 6 generations to the black people few years ago. She talked about how the new owners chopped all the fruit trees that her grand parents and great grand parents planted for firewood. What surprised me the most was there was not a tinge of bitterness in her voice.

I asked her how did she cope with seeing the destruction of her family farm and she replied, “you can’t stop tides of change, but you can learn to live with it”

When my father cut the jackfruit tree my grandmother planted years ago for  timber, I felt murderous. I still do. Perhaps Edna was right,  I really can’t stop the tides of change and I should stop fretting and accept the change.

It is the rich tapestry of life, all these women weave that makes my life beautiful.

Long weekend..3 more sleeps before I can open the bottle of vodka. See you all on Tuesday.

Quick question. Does any one know how to make pezhaha appam? My great grandmother used to make it every Pezhaha. It was unleavened, steamed and had cashews and raisins on top.

9 thoughts on “Tapestry

  1. Simply google the recipe. You’ll find umpteen foodie blog sites that have posted the recipe.
    Actually, I’m rather surprised you haven’t already !

    • Perin: Sorry, I was rushing and wasn’t specific. I did Google before I asked for help. My great grandmother is from the Pathriarkese fraction of Suriani Christiani and made a lot of region specific food during religious holidays. The recipes I found on the net has Urad dhal, which she couldn’t have used. There were a lot of restrictions for cooking during the last few days of passion week and if I am not mistaken after the pezhaha appam, she didn’t use the stove for cooking until sunday morning. Friday Morning no breakfast, lunch from Church and dinner was Pazhamkanji which is repeated again on Saturday. . Not a single recipe on the net shows the addition of cashews and raisins.

  2. Sarah chechi , you can make it the same way as you make vattayappam but skip the yeast. . What make the appam batter ferment is the addition of pavu or kappi, and use coconut water instead of normal water . It take a more time to ferment .

    • MS: Athey, oru complaint file cheeyan undu.. evidarunnu ithrem naalu? Pedichu poyi.
      As for the elderly folks, they are a crazy bunch..I love them to bits..

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