The serendipity of Jackfruit chips

I know not if I am more grateful for the jackfruit chips or my mother making the chips. The waft of coconut oil drowning tiny yellow specks of jackfruit is more nostalgic than aromatic to the ‘Mallu’ in me. It takes me back to the days of innocence and vacations where ‘chipmaking’ was a family festival.

Jackfruit chipmaking is perhaps a unique duo of art tangoing with supreme skill - from identifying the right jackfruit from the garden to the laborious task of slicing and plucking the right ‘chola’ leading up to the grand finale of frying and spreading! And all of us swarming around in the little kitchen to enjoy the puffy yellow chips right off the steam….

Its not about the jackfruit really but the whole exercise and bustle that brought all the inmates together – while I stood averse to the white gooey milk that oozed from the jackfruit, I was delighted to munch and crunch those heavenly chips as it still dripped with fresh coconut oil.

Closer to recent times, it was also a reminder of home and the spoils from the garden of familiarity – the prickly fruits that burst in full display from the window, the  coziness of sitting in one’s kitchen as you pop fresh chips while chatting with your mother – things we took for granted but now realize the serendipity of it all..

Grateful for the jackfruits in my new ‘urban’ apartment garden, for the comfort of a mother and the chips laced with memories and rootedness – it isn’t really about the jackfruit after all?

Finding the silver lining

It is strange how we have evolved so quickly into a ‘lockdown’ society and stranger that we have so beautifully succumbed to the ‘lockdown societal expectations’ with the same pace as the virus.

It is ironic that our lockdown problems also are as divided and as inequal as the world before Corona. So while some of us are trying to perfect our Dolgano coffee and busy getting the froth and foam right, some of us are struggling to find a place that we can call home. The haves are busy burning their flab while the have nots are scurrying for their daily grain. The need for health care and the lack of it dangles over us like a detonator ready to explode on one side. And we are sweating over our ‘lockdown lifestyle’ changes on the other. It is but one global cyclone that takes us with it – some of us spinning within its cloud, some trying to break free and some sitting by the wall watching the show unfold.

The economy, starvation, job loss and the little ‘lockdown paunch’ all worry us in varying degrees but truth be told, we are all worried. And as if the virus and its sticky nature wasn’t bad enough, we have the new lockdown norms and deluge of social media posts pulverizing our little space of confidence and calm. From new good habits to creative outbursts to fitness postures and not to forget the Dolgano – I am now worried about which one of these achievements can I call my own – performance pressure never leaves you does it -  even in the familiar territory called home?

But I am trying to look further to find my own silver lining – counting and bundling up the good things one by one…the honourable Time that we had shut the door on but who came home this Corona season – not its usual evasive self today but more the lazy idler at home. The ‘familyness’ that I have never experienced with such proximity since I left home since schooldays – when was the last time we all had our meals together without looking at the clock? The daily chores and housekeeping find me appreciative of the efforts of the help that came and we took for granted in our BAU lives. And that we all have the amazing will to brew up our own storms within the four walls  of our homes…

So in my isolation, I find my bonding and in my social distancing, I am drawn closer to my friends and family. A time and a place to be your own and be with your own – life does offer you a small rainbow each time and I did find my favourite blue after all!