DELICIOUS [ loving food and living - part 4 ]
In my previous two parts upto the midday meals were finished , and a nap can be taken , if and when convenient. Ok, so if at all we take a nap we may dream about a food we like that comes by itself. In the meanwhile you dream, I tell about a few eatables , few petty things. When we roamed in the mountains during our childhood in The Nilgiris, used to get many fruits, vegetables, succulents, mushroom and even leaves for eating . Those were not available in the shops except plums, peaches, pears, oranges, apples, and local guava.
In this post I tell about a few fruits and edibles which we as children went and collected, mostly picked up directly from the plants. In this category I will tell about vikki fruit, rasp berry, unni fruit and a leaf called as kuruvi veththalai (meaning betel leaves of sparrow). Vikkip palam is a fruis that grows in a tree. Now- a days, this fruit is available freely in the market. During our childhood days these were not being packeted and sold. If trying to recollect, might be the old lady sitting near elementary school sold them.
Once during elementary school period, the area boys told that a vikki fruit tree fell off in an anglo Indian's house - near bedford I think, quite a distance, we all went with cloth bags to collect the fruits. Eventhough a small girl, I collected a cotton bag ( called as Manjap pai in our language Tamil ) full of vikki fruits. At that time, after collecting, a dog came running, chasing us. We all started running and I remember crossing over the fallen tree branches and twigs with their leaves. Now, when I recall back, we never knew what were underneath the twigs and leaves. We would have stamped on a snake ,if there was one. In Tamil there is one phrase meaning the age when one stamps on a running snake (odara paambai midhikkira vayasu). Thus we ran and ran, down the road we ran, but I brought the bag full of vikki fruits safely to home.
While we were roaming , playing and walking in the Upper church road from the Ayyappan temple, there used to be raspberry bushes . At times the bigger boys used to pick the berries and eat them. Watching this we also picked and ate. Those were not fully ripened, little sour and nicely juicy. Thinking about those now make my mouth watering!
We used to eat unnip palam ( unni fruit meaning a small fruit ) or lantana berries, that used to grow abundantly. While going down the unusually wide, mud made, edged with long rectangular stone steps there used be lantana bushes on either side of the steps, and at places slightly closing in. The big black berries just near the hand would be inviting. My sister told me that she ate a lot and her tongue had gotten stained almost black. Not only we ate that, used to have battle with unripe berries. The children of upper line versus the children of lower line and upper single house (oththai veedu) do the battle with collected small small strong berries in open boxes etc. Must throw at the opposite group. It will pain. The group that throws the berries with good speed and strength will make the other group retreat and wins.
Apart from the ones we picked or plucked with our hands, we used to get some other fruits and carrots either freely or by buying, from friends, relatives and local vendors. We get thavuttup palam , tree or korangu tomato, korangu (monkey) palam, oosi kala, thaatboot, peaches, chatti baeri (pear), vaal baeri, orange, local gauva, plums etc.
I hope this writing has given you a tasty fruity experience. Now is the time to eat a fruit or a piece of fruit which is available near you.
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