Harvests (BH:D 242)

April 2, 2012

Any semblance of a Spring season had quickly given away to sweltering heat that is receiving some respite these days with short, heavy, afternoon and evening showers. Nevertheless the senselessly long, elaborate and showy temple festivals that were once upon a time associated with harvests and flowering and fruiting trees around keep reminding one about the season. Since it has been 7 months since we had planted the tapioca in the backyard, we decided to harvest one of them on a beta testing basis.

The conventional oral wisdom states that the best time to look for the rooted glory in tapioca is after the shoots show rudimentary flowers. But that wisdom was verbalized before hybrid varieties became popular. Nowadays, it is better to go by the calendar. This was a fully organic backyard cultivation. Only dried leaves and ash were used to enhance the soil. Timely heaping of soil around the root was done 3 months after planting.

Amma's initially attempts to shake the plant off the ground failed miserably. Achan and a spade had to be pressed into duty. Still not much budging. Watery lubrication technique was applied. Achan and Amma get on their knees and start removing the fresh mud like kids. I pretend to have an MBA and simply direct the operation with my tongue being the only active muscle. Formidable origins of the fleshy roots appear. Major delightful anticipation. The handiwork gathers pace. An abandoned shard of glass promptly cuts Achan's right hand middle finger. Brief break from work. Not a serious injury. Back to the uprooting. Mutual congratulations given for successful elimination of the rodent threat. Though it is the festival season and devotional songs from a couple of distant temples waft through the air, no divine thanks are offered. 

Finally, success at the end of the 15 minutes. Impressive 4 kg haul. The tapioca skins easily and boils to a mush pretty quickly. "Singapore varietya aliya!" declares my second youngest uncle who was home to "officially" visit my sister. I wonder what connection a variety of tapioca can have with Singapore! Did it get to Kerala through the Portuguese via Singapore...as in they forgot to drop it off here on their way which would have been the natural, easy thing to do during a trip from Portugal to Singapore? Or was it a hybrid developed in Singapore and brought to Kerala? Whatever it be, it had great taste on top of that special taste which anything grown in your own backyard is invariably blessed with.

The "official" visits of relatives to see my sister follows the tradition of bringing her 7 varieties of food stuff. While some nuts and fruits came with the uncle, my older cousin, Kala chechi brought freshly harvested banana and jackfruit from her village. I look forward to her visits like how literature and media stereotype Malayalees looking forward to relatives returning from abroad. "Abroad" used to be the gulf countries till ten years ago, now it is mostly Europe and America. 

Seeing the golden jackfruit segments and shiny thin-skinned bananas, my first thought was "jackfruit puttu for dinner and regular puttu with banan for breakfast tomorrow!" Ah..the shameless indulgence. But anyone who has had jackfruit puttu will agree that it is something worth craving!

Despite the unexpected quick downpour after 5pm, we stuck to our plan to visit Parakovil shrine on top a large rock near Thirumala around 4 km from home. Achan and uncle had been frequent visitors there years ago. The successful walk up to Edakkal caves has restored uncle's expedition confidence. The 120 steps that lead up the rock are cake walk compared to Edakkal. 

In the afternoon, I had seen on youtube the songs of an upcoming Malayalam movie set in Bangalore. There were some striking terrace top shots of the incredible concrete jungle that Bangalore has become. The lush green view of Thiruvananthapuram from top of Parakovil was an immense relief. Thiruvananthapuram is several decades away, if ever, from Bangalore's fate. When one looks towards the west, the sea, there are a handful of buildings that rise up above the hardly punctured green, predominantly coconut, treeline signature of the city. 

Towards the east, the view is even more magnificent. The southern tip of the Western Ghats look like mild folds as they ripple towards Tamil Nadu. The green carpet, unbroken, stretches over it. 

The shrine on top of the rock is cylindrical with a very low conical roof. There are very few such circular temples in this part of Kerala. The temple has now been taken over by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Outside this walled shrine, there are three rocks placed in an interesting manner, like an oversized old style kitchen grinding stone with a roughly cylindrical grinder and a flat surface. On top of this flat slab a small cushion type stone is placed. This is "Vana-Sasthavu", the guardian of the forest. A symbolic hibiscus and basil "forest", 4ft wide, grows behind the Vana-Sasthavu. Still in the Edakkal caves hangover, I am sure I could see fading engravings, perhaps script, on the flat slab! 

There is a Madhavaswamy Ashram at the bottom of the rock. Bhajan was in full swing by the time we came down. The shrine and the ashram are known for their free food service, a donation ritual called "Annadanam" that is the latest fad in Kerala. Every single temple provides free lunch and dinner to hundreds of people. The tragedy is that it is the rich, well off devout who flock to these free meals. The destitute and homeless are kept away because certainly the wealthier devotees don't want their ugly presence anywhere near this purifying consumption! 

A quote from some Sanskrit text was on a hoarding near the temple which states how donating food is more valuable that donating 10 million cows, thousand horses, hundred elephants, conducting five hundred marriages etc. I wish the quote had specified that such donation should be to the poor and the unfortunate, not the filthy rich, clad in gold and silk, flitting from temple to temple in their chauffeur driven Mercedes!