Recipe for dhideer puliyogere

Recipe for 'Dhideer Puliyogere'

Ingredients:

Tamarind - a lemon size

Red Chillies - 5

Jaggery(powdered) - one spoon

Salt to taste

Gram dal - 1 table spoon

Udin dal - 1 tea spoon

Pepper - 1 tea spoon

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Ground nuts - 1 table spoon

Gingilly Oin - 2 table spoon

Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Curry leaves for seasoning.

Method:

In a thick bottomed pan roast half of the gram dal, udin dal, pepper, fenugreek seeds, pepper without oil. Remove the ingredients. In the same pan dry roast tamarind and salt. Remove the ingredients and keep separately. Now roast 2 red chillies in little oil. Allow all the prepared ingredients to cool. In a mixer bowl first powder the tamarind and salt, then add the other roasted ingredients along with jaggery and make a coarse powder. Now in the pan heat the gingilly oil for seasoning. Add mustard, then add gram dal and groundnuts, asafoetida and finally curry leaves. Allow the seasoning to cool and then add the powdered ingredients and blend all the ingredients together. Mix this puliyogere powder with cooked rice to make puliyogere rice.

The Hindu : Cities / Bangalore : Metro payback

The Hindu : Cities / Bangalore : Metro payback

Chapter - 7

It was study time for the children and both Adu and Ajju were learning new words. Grandpa had bought new erasers for them and the children were fighting over the same eraser for both liked its colour. Grandpa tried to bring in some semblance of order but the siblings were not in good mood to listen. Hence grandpa dangled the carrot in the form of a story and the children who were waiting to evade studies settled near their grandpa for the story.

Grandpa began thus: This story happened many thousands of years back. It's about great grandfather of SriRama. His name was Raghu , and he was a great king ruling over a vast region. Raghu was highly respected and loved by his citizens. He was also very virtuous and simple. He adhered to all the rules laid down in the dharma Shastras and ruled for a long period. Rama is also called Raghavan after his great grandfather Raghu. Raghu's fame lived that long and that is the reason Rama's rule was compared to that of his great Grandfather's.

A poor brahmin in Raghu's kingdom wanted to perform a vedic ritual called Soma Yagyam. It was a fire sacrifice ritual which demanded lots of money. The Brahmin approached a Rishi (so called since they possessed special powers) for help and the Rishi advised him to meet Raghu, since only a king is wealthy enough to spend on such rituals. The Brahmin had heard about Raghu - his mightiness and his benevolent nature. He set forth to the capital city of Raghu's kingdom. After reaching the capital the Brahmin went to the palace and sought audience with the king. The guards standing outside the palace directed the brahmin to the edge of the city. The brahmin was taken by surprise for he did'nt expect a king of that stature to be living outside the city.

After reaching the outskirts of the city he found a lone hut and a man standing outside filling a mud pot with water. The Brahmin went near and inquired the man about the whereabouts of the king. The man with the mud pot queried the brahmin as to why he was looking for the king. When the brahmin told him about the reason of his visit the man revealed that he was indeed the king and that he would help the brahmin. On hearing this the Brahmin was sceptical about the king's claim. The king had just performed a huge sacrificial ritual called Rajasuya Yagam in which he had given away all his wealth to the citizens of his kingdom and was now living in the hut. He asked the Brahmin to hold out his hand , poured water from the pot, and said, "I hereby sacrifice all the credits I've earned by doing good deeds. Please God accept my sacrifice and bless this Brahmin with money". The next instant gold coins rained down. The King requested the Brahmin to take all the gold. The speechless Brahmin with tears in his eyes prayed to the king, " Oh Raghu great king! Not knowing what a great soul you are I suspected your ability to help me. Please forgive me. I have no use for so much gold. I need only hundred coins for the ritual". The king said, "Neither have I any use for this money. I anyway requested money to help you and so please take all the gold".

Grandpa said, " See, children, how honest and simple were people of those bygone days. A king used to kingly lifestyle sacrificed all his comforts and lived a life of a commoner and a poor man refused to accept money beyond his need. So stop fighting , next time before buying anything for you I'll find out your preferences, okay?" and the children said, " It's alright Gramps we are happy with what ever you got and we'll exchange stuff whenever we wanted a particular thing."

Chapter-6

The boys after listening to the story about Auvai clamoured for a story about a 'strong boy' also. The ever ready grandpa this time wanted respite and so sent the children to grandma. The children woke grandma from her siesta with their vociferous demand for the story. Grandma sat up, pulled the kids to her side and started her story.

Nearly 2500 years back, in a village called Kaladi in Kerala lived a couple Shivaguru and his wife Aryamba. They were very rich, well respected, had hordes of relatives, yet were sad for they were childless. They prayed to Shiva, the presiding deity in Thrissur for a child. Shiva appeared in their dreams and asked " Do you want 100 idiots as children who will live long or one brilliant intelligent son who will live for eight years only?". The couple chose the intelligent son. With God's blessing Aryamba gave birth to a child after ten months and they named their son Shankara. Shivaguru passed away when Shankara was a mere toddler.

When Shankara turned five upanayan ceremony was done before he was sent for studies. Shankara was a brilliant student and learned one lesson per day(hence he is called 'ekasandagrahi' which means one who can grasp and understand at the first instance itself), thus completing his studies in just two years which would normally take ten years.

He came back home to be with his ageing mother. One day Aryamba was not well and was too tired to walk up to the river for bath. Noticing this Shankara prayed for the river to change its course and flow in the backyard of his house. Aryamba was surprised to see the river flowing near her house. Shankara helped his mother to reach the water for her bath. After her bath, shankara entered the water for his bath. The little shankara was playing in the water with his mother supervising him from the bank. Suddenly she heard Shankara shouting for help and noticed that a crocodile had caught hold of little Shankara's leg. Their relatives and friends rushed to the river on hearing her cry for help, but no one dared to enter the water as each feared for his life. As time passed by, people started leaving as lunch time was nearing. Shankara told his mother" Mother you trusted that relatives would help. But now you see no one is left by your side. Pray to God for He alone never leaves us". Aryamba cried" Oh God, as you promised have you come now to take away my child as he is eight now? Please spare him". On hearing this Shankara inquired his mother about God's promise and was told by his mother about the dream she and his father had before his birth. Shankara then told his mother" If that is so, as per fate an eight year old Brahmachari has to die now. Suppose I leave this Ashrama and become a sanyasi then there is a chance that I might survive. I can become a sanyasi only with your permission mother. Think carefully before giving your consent for I can not continue to live in our house once I become a Sanyasi". His mother gave her consent for she would prefer him to be alive rather than lose him totally. In a small ceremony, by chanting certain vedic mantras Shankara removed his sacred thread, took a ceremonial bath and embraced sanyasa ashrama. The crocodile left his leg and disappeared and Shankara came out of the river. Everything happened as though a drama was being enacted. Aryamba rushed to him, embraced her child and then took his hand in hers, pulled him towards home. But Shankara resisted, gently reminded his mother that he could no longer live in their home. With a promise to his mother that he'd be by her side during her last moments, this brave little boy of eight years walked out of his house into the big world outside.

He later met his Guru and was given proper sanyasa ashrama by his Guru. During Shankara's period more than seventy two non-vedic religions were being practised in India and most of them were misguiding people. Shankara wanted to reform and re-establish vedic religion. He travelled all over India from Kanyakumari to Kashmir by foot not once but four times to establish Advaita philosophy.

As promised, he reached Kaladi just in time to be by the side of his mother during her last moments. Shankara lived only for thirty-two years, but his accomplishment in reforming religion in our country is immense and his guidelines are still followed by hindus in India.

Adu and Ajju were speechless after listening to the story of the brave intelligent little boy , who from eight years of age lived outside under sun and moon , embraced the whole world as his home, entire humanity as his kin.

chapter-5

chapter-5

Adu and Ajju soon after coming back from school went in search of grandpa wanting to share their day at school. It was an exciting day for Ajju for the little girls and boys in his class had wrestling time to establish superiority over each other. Ajju told grandpa with a glee that the girls lost to the boys , since according to him boys are stronger than girls. Grandpa helped the children to change from their uniforms and took them to the dining table for their evening snacks. While eating he started telling them a story.

"Boys, strong boys, do you want to hear about a little strong girl who lived long ago" asked gramps.

" Yes , Yes, " chorussed the boys. " Very very long ago, nearly 1800 years back lived a little girl by name Auvai , pronounced as 'au' as in audio and 'vai' as in vain. Auvai's parents were very proud of their beautiful little girl as she was very intelligent and showed interest in learning. The girls were allowed access to education in those days under the supervision of their parents. When Auvai turned thirteen or so her parents started looking for a groom for her, as it was a custom in those days to marry young. Auvai did not want to marry and lead life like everyone else. She wanted to learn more and wanted to tour and meet the uneducated and poor. She wanted to spread awareness about education amongst people. Her parents opposed her proposal for women were not allowed to remain unmarried. They told her that it was not safe for young beautiful woman to stay single. Auvai tried to convince them but then her parents were horrified at the very thought of Auvai's idea of travelling for women did'nt travel much in those days. Friends and neighbours advised Auvai not to go against her parents' wishes and they literally called her a fool after hearing about her proposals. As for Auvai all her efforts in convincing her parents went in vain. The little girl was also very religious and she sought help of her favourite God Ganesha. She prayed fervently to Him seeking His guidance and help. In her prayer she also requested Him to remove her youth and beauty as she felt that with an aged look no one would want to marry her. And the next moment her skin started drying up , her hair turned white and she even lost stability needing the support of a stick to stand and walk. Ganesha had heeded to her prayers. Auvai's parents understood her determination and supported her in her mission. From that day Auvai's mission was to travel widely all over south India which was ruled by Chera, Chola, Pandia kings. Even though the three kings were rivals she was welcome in all the three kings' courts. She was held in high esteem by those kings and she used that influence to help the poor people by creating employment opportunities. She enjoyed the status of a intellectual friendship with the kings. She lived amongst the poorest of poor bringing in awareness about basic ethics, cleanliness, lifestyle, education and so on. To her, Kings' courts and homes of poor peasants were same. She loved children and was of strong view that good values should be taught when young. Hence she composed many poems for children through which she taught them good values and ethics. Singing is part of any culture, you'd find farmers ,weavers, potters, priests of yore good at composing and singing while going about their routine jobs. Children also followed suit, they were also good at composing songs spontaneously while playing . Some of those compositions have survived till today. She was and is lovingly called 'Auvai Patti' , meaning grandma. If she had married as her parents had proposed she'd have got only a small family to call her own, but now you see she is patti to millions and she will remain patti for centuries to come.

Now what do you have to say about this little strong girl" asked grandpa.

" Amazing grandpa, girls are stronger" said the kids.

chapter-4

chapter-4

It was TV viewing time at home and there was the usual scuffle for the remote between the two kids. While Dittu wanted to watch wolverine Ajju wanted some other cartoon channel. Grandpa tried to forge some peace but understandably failed. As a distraction grandpa announced that he was ready with a story for any willing listeners. Both the kids raced to reach grandpa throwing TV remote somewhere along the way.

Chapter-4

Grandpa begun thus: In Tamilnadu during fifth/sixth century B.C there lived a Saiva saint called Manickavachagar. He was a devotee of Shiva and has sung in praise of Shiva many hymns. But before he turned a total ascetic he was a minister in the king's court. A valiant minister was he , had led armies on many wars and have won almost most of them. He was well appreciated and respected by one and all and the King also held him in high esteem. Though he was a valiant soldier he was deeply devotional and would spend all his free time in visiting temples and other religious places. He was slowly being drawn towards an ascetic way of life and was spending lots of money on renovating temples. Sometimes he would divert even taxes that he collected from chieftains of villages. The other ministers who were jealous of manickavachagar's close proximity to the king took this opportunity to alert the king about the tax diversions. The king ignored these complaints as the amount involved was small and since the king himself was also religious manickavachagar's diverting money for religious purposes did not anger him much.

Once since the army was in need of good breed of horses the king told manickavachagar to personally go and procure good breed of horses. Manickavachagar set out with a small army for he was carrying lots of money to buy horses. On the way he saw a temple in a very dilapidated condition and stopped there to enquire about the temple. It was a shiva temple and the locals said that they were not getting any financial help from the king to maintain the temple hence the poor maintenance of the temple. Manickavachagar halted there and started renovation work of the temple with the money that he was caryying. His change of plan reached the ears of the king and he got furious for this time a huge sum of money was being spent without his approval. He sent for manickavachagar and sought his explanation for spending money on some other purpose other than what it was meant for. manickavachagar told the king that he had ordered for horses to be delivered and they would arrive next day. The king did not believe him and ordered for his imprisonment. The minister went to jail without any remorse and spent his time in prison singing hymns on shiva.

The next day a very handsome young man came to the palace and sought audience with the king. The king met him and the young man informed that he had come to deliver the horses that manickavachagar had ordered and paid fully for. The king was taken by surprise and came out to inspect the neatly turned out herd of horses. They were all of highly excellent breed and the king was extremely happy , ordered for release of manickavachagar. The young man left immediately after delivering the horses. When night set in , everyone were fast asleep in the kingdom and suddenly people started hearing howling of pack of foxes. Everyone in the place woke up and the soldiers went in search of the source of the howling and to their horror found that the horses that were delivered that day had all turned into foxes in the stables. They ran to the king's chamber and informed him. The furious king sought explanation from manickavachagar and the minister told the king that he had lied about the horses and he also informed the king that he had indeed diverted money meant for buying horses for the renovation work of a temple . He also told that he had not paid money to anybody for delivering horses.

In the meantime the foxes freed themselves from the stables and started running on to the streets. The soldiers chased them and to their chagrin saw them all disappearing into a shiva temple. On hearing this king and all the ministers entered the temple and to their dismay did not find even a single fox there. Instead they heard a voice from the sanctorum addressing the king. The voice said thus" King, manickavachagar is an ardent devotee of mine and I played this drama to bring him fully into asceticism. Maintaining places of worship is also duty of the king during peace time and you failed in that duty. Hence this drama was also for teaching a valuable lesson to you". The king and the others realised the saintly nature of manickavachagar and sought his pardon. Manickavachagar renounced his wealth and status to turn an ascetic and his hymns on shiva are sung even today in all the shiva temples.

" Children, this story is called "pariya nariyakina kathai"- Pari means horse, nari means fox, hence this story is about horses turning into foxes, somewhat like the wolverine story, is'nt it?" asked grandpa. "yes, grandpa, but this one is more thrilling", chorussed the kids.

chapter-3

chapter-3

Grandpa was taking the children to the park in the evening. The children were almost dragging him for they wanted to reach early so that they wanted to beat other kids to the the swings in the park. On the way they saw an elderly person trying in vain to croos the road as the traffic was quite heavy. Grandpa told the children to wait on the pavement and then helped the person in crossing the road. When grandpa came back the children chorusly complained to him about the delay in reaching the park. As expected, the swings were ocupied by the time they reached the park. Grandpa's attempt to comfort them went in vain. At last grandpa told the children that he'd tell them a short story to lift their mood. Some of the friends of Dittu and Ajju also joined and formed a small group around grandpa. His story went thus -

In tamilnadu there is a town called Madurai which is famous for beautiful Meenakshi temple and a big river called Vaigai. Once during monsoon Vaigai was in spate and there was danger of water flooding the town. The king ordained that one person from each household should volunteer to work in building a bund at the banks of the river. Bund is a term for raised bank and it is built using sand/ stone. There lived a old lady in this town all by herself and she had no one else in her house. Hence she had to come as a volunteer as otherwise she would have to face the wrath of the king. She was pretty old and frail and she was not able to do the hard work of carrying loads of sand. The supervisor sent by the king was very strict and he was shouting at her for being slow. The old lady prayed to Lord Shiva for help.

A handsome young man was walking by and he approached the lady and told her" Patti (Grandma) shall I carry this load for you?" and she replied saying" No young man. I've to carry this as the king has ordered that one person per household has to volunteer. Since you are not a member of my household I can not allow you to do this job". "See how honest people were those days " said grandpa.

The young man told patti " Al right, in that case you employ me and I'll work for you. You pay me whatever you feel like". Patti said" I am a poor lady and I can not afford to employ you". The youg man said "Patti, what have you brought for lunch? Give half of that as wages to me. That's enough". Old lady agreed. Since the young man said he was hungry and he'd eat first and then work, Patti gave half of her lunch which was just puttu. Puttu is a steamed rice powder mixed with jaggery and coconut. After eating he asked the old lady to sit and rest and that he'd take care of her share of work. He went near the site of work found a nice shade under a tree and lied down to rest. The supervisor spotted him and came near him and then shouted abusively at him for taking rest. But the young man continued with his siesta unperturbed. The supervisor got furious and took out his whip and lashed at the young man. Lo for every lash that he attempted on the young man five lashings were felt by all around including the king in the palace excepting the old lady. People started to run helter skelter in pain while the young man watched with a smirkish smile on his face. The king rushed to the work site and learnt from the supervisor about the reson behind lashes. The young man and the old lady were brought before the king. The supervisor accused the young man of indulging in black magic. When the king enquired the young man said" Your majesty, this is no black magic. I wanted you to understand that as a king you should be sensitive and sensible before issuing any order. There are a few like this old lady who is not fit for hard work and by your order such people have been put to hardship. I also wanted all the citizens of this town to undergo punishment for nobody came forward to help this old lady. When there are many able bodied men sitting at home because of your one person per household rule some like this old lady have been put to hardship" , so saying the young man disappeared from there. The old lady cried out saying that Shive Himself had come in the form of young man to help her. The King and the others realised their folly and begged her pardon and also that of God.

" Now do you realise, if nobody comes for help, God Himself comes down to help those in need" said grandpa. Dittu replied" In that case you should'nt have helped that person on the way. At least then we could have seen God for He'd have come to help". Grandpa replied smiling "that's true, but we also have to face His wrath. Are we prepared for that? Anyway all of you run and play".