Home is where the heart is..ode to my Fav fruit

Its amazing how biting into something is capable of transporting you across time and distance!!

While rummaging through my pantry today I came across a forgotten can of jack fruit (chakka) .I eagerly opened it and ate its contends slowly biting into the yellow flesh and enjoying every bit of it. My mind flew back to some 25 years ago to a scene in my grandparents home in Mallussery a small green village near Angamaly where I spend 2 month of summer vacation every year. Our Tharavadu,ancestral home was almost 100 years old when it was demolished 3 years ago and was surrounded by trees of all kinds,with abundance of fruits every year . Favorites among them were Jackfruit ,cocoa and guava to eat the fruits off and Coffee and cashew trees to climb and play on.


Next to my grandma's kitchen is a sort of work area which comes with traditional mortar and pestal that have been instrumental in many a delicious chutneys and curries and an wood burning stove mainly used to boil water.There were steps that led to a small vegetable garden area set up next to a big well. The area in between all this structures was where we cousins and uncles ,aunties gathered with the chakka ready to cut into. Some days we had varieties of jackfruits all equally tasty. Big knives would dig into the flesh of the jackfruit, exposing the yellow interiors with a sticky white sap.This white stuff needed to be removed using something rough like a husk of a coconut or back of hard coconut shell. Then the halves were sectored and elders shared to extract indivudal fruit from its loose encasement of white fibers. The seeds were collected in a seperate bowl to be dried and used in curries. As little kids we would jump at the fruit bowl and the big Jackfruit will be gone in minutes. The last clean up ritual was using cocnut oil to remove any sticky residue that got to our fingers.
After this almost daily mid afternoon snack we would be back playing outside,only to return whenit got too dark to play outside,and grandma and aunties run back to kitchen to work on dinner.

Today when I went back to that scene, I smiled that I atleast have some fond memories of my childhood which was so devoid of processed food or stress of day to day activities as I do now that unfortunatley is rubbing on my kids as well.No ipads,playstation,day camps,cellphones,texts..life just was beautifull.


Felt so nostalgic thiinking of years gone by and what I would not give to go back to one more day at my Grandparents home with beautiful courtyard(nadu mittam) that drained in rain water, a tiny dark room to house brined mango and pickles ,smokey black kitchen, rooms all around that were bedrooms for all of us,a water tank on the roof that we kids would wait to get filled and get drenched before someone ran to turn off the motor and so manymany things that summers so special.

Oh I miss home