Nostalgia: The romance of India/Indian Coffee House

What’s the difference between India Coffee House and Indian Coffee House? I shall come to that shortly. What is important is that both together have been serving Indian coffee with the same aroma and taste for seven decades. And three generations have enjoyed it.

In the post Some memories of WW II, Cochin and the 1940s., I mentioned India Coffee House on Broadway, Cochin. My maternal grandfather (KC Abraham, Kallivayalil-Konduparambil) took four of us siblings there when we were children. It was a great experience which we enjoyed thoroughly. We had coffee and glucose biscuits. I don’t think they served stuff like masala dosa those days.

Again I mentioned India Coffee House in the post Bangalore memories. That was a place I loved during college days in the early 1950s. The laid back atmosphere, spending hours over a cup of real coffee, small talk which one forgets even before leaving the place, diverse people – students, journalists, elders. Something that belonged to another era.

Or so I thought, till I came across an article ‘Coffee, tea and memories’ by Priyanka Haldipur in the Deccan Herald. She says: ‘Walk into the place for a feel of what Bangalore would have seemed like almost five decades ago. Nothing has changed in this humble coffee place... not the style, and certainly not the coffee.’

Another Coffee House I remember from my school days is the one at Trivandrum, opposite to the present AG’s Office. They used to serve excellent masala dosa as well. But we mostly patronized Connemara Café, next to Sridharan’s General Store (started by his father Kesavan) and owned by the same people. The favorite there was cutlets with a salad of curry cucumber and a cold, non-aerated orange drink.

These places (other than Connemara) were ‘India Coffee Houses’ to start with. The first was opened in Bombay in 1935 by the Indian Coffee Cess Committee. The objective was to promote the consumption of coffee. Subsequently, Indian Coffee Board took over and built up a chain of 72 coffee houses. But in the 1950s the Board closed down most of these cafes and sacked the workers.

Enter AK Gopalan, the famous Communist leader from Kerala. He organized a worker’s cooperative by the former employees of the Coffee Board and started the first Indian Coffee House at Trichur, Kerala in 1958. It has now grown into a chain of nearly 400 outlets all over India. I believe that Coffee Board still runs about a dozen India Coffee Houses.

This is written over a big cup (a birthday present from my grandson Adithya) of strong black coffee. Good. The coffee, I mean. Whether the article too deserves that comment is for you to judge!

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Photo credits: Coffee beans - BackgroundBoy, Cup of coffee – PDPhoto.org

Note: The cup shown in the photo is not the one I use

Mushrooms, fungi: Useful information

Fungi, the more visible being mushrooms, are interesting living organisms. Here are some details about them:

Strictly speaking, mushrooms are not plants; they have more resemblance to the animal kingdom.

There are over 100,000 different types of mushrooms and fungi. They are crucial to sustaining life on earth. Fungi provide micro-nutrients to the ecosystem by breaking down sand and dead organic materials and making them reusable.

Mushrooms and fungi have, depending on the species, great curative properties (penicillin and other antibiotic for instance) and at the same time can cause health problems that are difficult to treat. They can attack plants, animals and humans.

For centuries fungi has been used in traditional medicine.

Some mushrooms have psychedelic effect. Many countries have banned the sale of such species. Research is going on to use them in the treatment of mental illness.

Some mushrooms glow in the dark. They are known as ‘bioluminescen.

Fungi are used for leavening bread (yeast) and also for providing bubbles in champagne and beer.

Mushrooms are commercially grown in controlled conditions for culinary purpose.

For studies in genetics and molecular biology fungi are used as model organisms.

Several species of fungi are poisonous. Therefore, never eat a mushroom from unknown sources, like those that grow wild.

Now a question: is mushroom vegetarian food or non-vegetarian? Well, they do not belong to the animal kingdom but have a realm of their own – fungi. The five kingdoms of organisms are Monera (bacteria), Protista (unicellular organisms), Plantae, Animalia and Fungi.

Some photos of fungi are given below:

Photos by KO Isaac. Copyright Reserved. Click on the images for enlarged view.

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Also see: Photos: Leaves by Isaac

Syrian Christians (Nazranis) of Kerala: Some interesting customs

Imagine judging whether a girl is married or not, by looking at her hairdo! Well, among the Nazranis of Kerala this was possible till a few decades back. An unmarried girl had to wear her hair down plaited or tied. Only married women would normally have their hair tied above the shoulders. But all women had to cover their head at a place of worship.

I think that this practice prevailed among the Latin Christians as well. In both communities, inside a church the men used to occupy the front portion and the women had to be at the back. Now the women stay on the left side and the men on the right. Why this pattern? I don’t know. An afterthought – the good thief was crucified on the right side of Jesus Christ. No offence meant to women. It is men who make the rules in the church.

Reverting to the hairdo – initially I thought that the custom might have been connected with Jewish traditions. On checking I find that among Orthodox Jews unmarried women do not have to cover their hair. But the Sephardic (Spanish & Portuguese Jews) custom requires that even unmarried girls should put up their hair.

However, Semitic influence can be seen in some aspects of Syrian Christian life. I have described one instance, about names, in the post Jewish names among Syrian Christians. That, however, has a Biblical angle. Till recently, in some old Syrian Christian families pork and fish that has no scale were taboo to eat. This obviously is a Jewish custom.

Talking about food, in the post Sadhya - a sumptuous Kerala meal I explained why the Nazranis are supposed to fold in the left end of the banana leaf from which they eat a meal. This is a royal privilege that many modern Syrian Christians don’t even know.

Would you believe that there was a time when Syrian Catholics were not allowed to read the Bible? The reason given for this was that laymen who were not trained may end up attributing wrong interpretations to the statements in the Holy Book. Now, al Catholic families are supposed to have a Bible and read it everyday. Here one must acknowledge the contribution of Joseph Pulikunnel (Hosana) in providing Bibles at low cost to the households.

In well-to-do Syrian Catholic families children were tutored at home in the 19c. The curriculum included Malayalam, Tamil, Sanskrit, other subjects and Carnatic music. English was frowned upon because it was the language of the Protestants! Learning of Carnatic music was also discouraged or banned by the Church because the songs invoked Hindu gods!

I have written this from the little knowledge that I have. It would be a great service if those who have more information on this subject come forward with their comments.

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Also see:

History of conversions to Christianity in Kerala – an overview

Vedas, Syrian Christians

Kerala architecture: Verandas, corridors of a nalukettu house

Images from Thekkanattu Parayil Tharakans' heritage home at Olavipe.

Gatehouse corridor. Photo: KO Isaac

Eastern veranda downstairs. Photo: AT.

Western veranda downstairs. Photo: AT

Eastern veranda upstairs: Photo: TP

Corridor to the nalukettu. Photo: AT

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Also see:

Kerala architecture: Mansion of the Marquises

Kerala Architecture: Interiors

Kerala Architecture: Exterior of a heritage home

Kerala Architecture - Olavipe Heritage Home

Quo Vadis, Kerala?

My post Onward, Kerala on June 3 was about the book Kerala’s Economy: Crouching Tiger, Sacred Cows, which was a compilation of the papers presented by eminent friends of the State at conference at Trivandrum in 2005. Since that meeting, not much water has flowed down the Nila (Kerala’s historic river Bharathapuzha) because it is a dying river now. But many changes have taken place in Kerala during that period.

On the heels of the State Chief Minister’s attack on the judiciary (In the news today) came the media coverage of a woman leader of the CPI slapping a lady police constable in public at the Capital, Trivandrum, during a demonstration. This happened on the 20^th. She was arrested and taken to the Police Station. Policemen are very clannish when it comes to assaulting a member of the Force.

But this script is different. The State Secretary of the CPI arrived at the Station. Two ministers and a member of the legislature followed him. They pressurized the Sub Inspector and made him release the culprit. Two days later the Chief Minister says he does not know the details! But he tries to justify the action of the politicians! One can imagine what effect this has on the morale of the Police Force.

It appears that no case has been registered against the offender. The Indian Lawyers Congress has appealed to the Governor to remove the two ministers involved. A private petition has been filed in the court. The Nationalist Lawyers Congress has sent a notice to the Director General of Police.

Another interesting news today is that the former Communist leader KR Gowri has sold her paddy fields. She was one of the moving forces behind the land limitation legislation that fragmented large holdings. You know, ‘land to the tillers’ economics. In reality it resulted in drastic drop in rice production in the State. Now a new bill on land is on the anvil and may cause further damage to the economy. It is something like trying to correct one mistake with another mistake.

Gowri’s reported reason for the sale: non-availability and prohibitive cost of labor. Un-ploughed lies my land !

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Also see: Savage Kerala

Britain strikes back at the Empire

Recently there was an interesting news item. The British retail chain Marks & Spencer is planning to sell curry in India through franchise shops. Soon Indians can taste 'British' curry without visiting the Curry Houses of that country.

The word curry is said to have evolved from kari in Tamil. In Malayalam also the same name is used. It means different types of culinary products in different parts of the world. But basically curry is a side dish or secondary dish eaten with rice. It could be made with meat, sea food, eggs or vegetables, the common factor being spices.

During the Raj, the British became enamored with curry and rice and took it to their country where it gained great popularity. Whether the sahibs got on to the curry habit from the Anglo Indians (AI) or vice versa is not clear. Without doubt, the AI cuisine is excellent.

The best AI chicken curry I tasted was in Delhi in January 1954. To remember it after half a century is sufficient testimony for its excellence. I was traveling to Ludhiana as a member of the Mysore University hockey team to play the All India Inter University finals against Punjab. We had a two day break in Delhi.

My hostel friend Eric Perriera had insisted that I should visit his parents. His father was a civilian officer in the Defense Department at the capital. Eric’s mother gave me a lunch of chicken curry and rice. It was superb. I lost touch with this good friend of mine. Some one told me later that he had migrated to UK and joined the RAF. I would be grateful for any lead about him.

Talking about Delhi and food reminds of an ‘Indian’ dinner we gave a General Tires (Akron, Ohio) delegation at Ashoka Hotel. This was in 1972, after signing an MOU with them for technical collaboration for Apollo Tyres. The Americans were keen to try Indian food. Many foreigners do not know that India has so many different cuisines. The meal served that night consisted of mulligatawny soup, tandoori scampi, butter chicken masala with roties, and kulfi.

Mulligatawny soup, as far as I know, is an AI adaptation of the South Indian rasam (sometimes wrongly called ‘pepper water’). It is normally served hot. But when The Taj (Bombay) opened Tanjore Reastaurant in the 1970s they used to serve chilled rasam as appetizer. It used to be excellent.

To conclude, here is a Raj story I read somewhere. A sahib traveling by train was having lunch at a railway station restaurant. As he was relishing the chicken curry and rice, the train left. On realizing that the passenger was still at lunch, the upset station master rushed to him and said, ‘Not to worry sahib, take your time. I’ll call the train back.” He did.

Ah, the Raj days!

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Also see: Bangalore memories

Kerala architecture – ‘Ara’ in heritage homes

Ara means an enclosed storage area, often used for threshed grain – paddy in the Kerala context. Landlords who owned and cultivated large areas would have such storehouses near the fields and also an in-house granary to stock un-husked rice for home consumption.

In many old houses the ara faces the entrance as you can see form the photo from our ancestral home shown below. (The decorations are because the picture was taken during the engagement ceremony of my niece Tanya)

This shot by KO Isaac is from the eastern gatehouse. The door of the gatehouse, the entrance to the main building and the door to the ara (in the background) are all in one line. It has something to do with thachusastram (vasthu which means the traditional science of architecture.)

The door opens to what we call aravathukkal pura, but more commonly known as arappura in Kerala. It is a corridor which has doors to the left and the right leading to the other parts of the house and the entrance to the ara (see photo by me below). It is again in line with the front door.

Our ara has two compartments. The smaller one is for nurukkari or table rice and the other for nediyari or coarse rice for the house staff. Now both are empty and we buy rice! Ten years back I stopped paddy cultivation which we were doing regularly, because the Communists imported some outsiders to plant red flags in our fields. They did this alleging that we were leaving our fields fallow!

There is a true anecdote to this. The party men who came in a truck and started a procession called our workers who were transplanting rice saplings in another field to join them. One woman stood up and answered, "Comrades, flags don’t produce rice.” Remarkable, I must say.

Coming back to ara, the entire structure including the floor is in wood. The reason for this is that paddy might spoil if it gets into contact with lime or cement. The ara is about three feet above the floor level of the rest of the house. I suppose this is to prevent permeation of moisture.

Traditionally, ara was taboo to women. They could stand in the arappura and carry away the grain measured out by men, but never step inside the ara!

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Also see: Un-ploughed lies my land

Kerala architecture: More on nalukettu

Kerala Architecture - Olavipe Heritage Home

Interiors