Veranda Tales-Biryani belly
Storytelling has been an integral part of my life since childhood. I grew up listening to stories during the hot summer evenings and nights with my cousins. Mothers and grandmothers would gather all of us children for story time. It was usually pitch dark except for a very faint light coming from the flickering candle. Power cuts were as frequent as the hot and humid summer days. We all spread out on a cool concrete floor or bamboo mats on the veranda intently listening to fascinating stories about kings, queens, princes, princesses, and peasants alike. Stories about love, life, families, and people entertained and taught us life skills. These stories transported us to distant worlds, strange yet familiar. Often the same story told by two people sounded different as storytellers added new twists and turns adding their personal style and flair to the stories.
Storytelling wasn’t limited to summer evenings and bedtime. I was surrounded by adults who didn’t pass up an opportunity to share their wisdom using the art of storytelling. These rich vibrant oral traditions include songs, poems, stories, and సామెతలు (Sametalu are proverbs in Telugu). Men and women sing songs as they work in the fields, grinding grains and spices and doing other daily chores at their homes. Stories are often used to teach important life lessons, interpersonal skills, and survival skills. These stories and the time spent listening to them made our lives richer leaving an impression on me. This series is all about reliving those memories as I share these stories.
అజీర్ణానికి లంఖణం మందు (ajeirnaniki lankhanam mandu)
A visit to India requires a lot of planning. I am not talking about booking a flight to get to one of the major airports in India and then figuring out how to get to where your family lives. I am talking about the precautions to take before you go there and while you are there. My planning starts at least 3 months prior to my planned visit to make sure my immunizations are up to date. I get my flu and covid shots once a year. I am on top of the Tetanus vaccine. Going to India means I have to get Typhoid vaccination in pill form or an injection.
After making sure I have all my vaccinations updated, I start planning for the precautions to take during my stay. I am armed with water purification tablets to purify large quantities of water, a water purification bottle with a filter I can sip from, and a large supply of Bismuth subsalicylate tablets to see me through every single main meal plus a few more for snacks and sweets in between main meals. This could be about five to six tablets a day staying well below the maximum of 16 per day limit. After I land in India, I don’t drink water unless it comes out of my filter bottle until I board the flight back to leave. I use filtered water for brushing my teeth the whole time I am there. These precautions help me enjoy every single delicious meal, sweet and savory snacks I can get my hands on without worrying about getting sick. I simply take a Bismuth subsalicylate tablet before eating and sipping water through my filter bottle to stay out of trouble.
On my recent visit to India, అమ్మ (Ammma is mother in Telugu) asked me to bring biryani from a local restaurant for lunch. On a previous visit our taxi driver had recommended a small restaurant that specializes in just biryani and the menu has several delicious biryani dishes made with goat, chicken, and shrimp. We picked Mughalai biryani out of this large menu for a carryout. Mughlai cuisine originated in the early-modern Indo-Persian cultural centers of the Mughal Empire. Biryani is among one of the most popular in Andhra Pradesh. We had to wait for the biryani to be ready and it was fresh off the stove. For just Rs. 250 (less than 3 US dollars), we came back with a large serving of biryani that fed 3 to 4 people.
అమ్మ (Ammma) loved the biryani which was a surprise to all of us. She is usually concerned about the quality of restaurant food. She used to discourage us from eating at restaurants when we were growing up. She would tell us stories about how when they grind batter for dosa and idli at restaurants, the sweat from the person grinding the urad dal would fall into batter. That was her way of describing to us how unhygienic the food prepared at restaurants could be. It didn’t stop me from eating out when I left home to go to college.
నాన్న (Nanna is father in Telugu) was fond of trying different cuisines at restaurants. He would take me to restaurants when he took me for college interviews. He would say “Let’s get some biryani!”. I remember sitting down at a restaurant across from him as we both enjoyed goat biryani sharing halved boiled egg pieces they garnished the biryani with. Whenever he came to visit me when I was in college in India, he would find the best biryani place to take me and my friends for lunch. నాన్న (Nanna) was adventurous when it came to food and tried everything once. I offered juicy summer strawberries when he was visiting us in the USA. He said he didn’t like strawberries making an excuse with a smile that he didn’t trust fruits with seeds on the outside. My younger one shares this trait with his grandfather in not trusting strawberries
అమ్మ (Ammma) is very picky when it comes food. When we took her to a Vietnamese restaurant, the only thing we could find for her was vegetable spring rolls and she performed surgery on them before she ate them very gingerly. అమ్మ (Ammma) and నాన్న (Nanna) stayed happily married for 50+ years and this stark difference in their attitudes towards food didn’t make a difference.
అమ్మ (Ammma) could easily send someone from her senior care place to bring biryani from this place anytime she wants. But she waits for either me or my uncle to visit her to enjoy biryani with us. I suspect biryani tastes better with our scintillating company as she encourages us to take a second and third serving while she pecks at her small serving.
She wanted to recreate the magic of enjoying biryani with me. One delay after another led to us sitting down for lunch to eat our delicious biryani way past our usual lunch time. I thoroughly enjoyed every single bite of the Mughalai biryani absentmindedly squeezing a lime wedge packaged with biryani over it. I usually avoid eating lime or lemon unless I am eating at home. I realized the mistake I made and ignored my inner voice, relying on my Bismuth subsalicylate armor.
Within just a couple hours I was in serious trouble suffering from a mild Delhi Belly which I call “biryani belly”. I was losing fluid very fast from both ends of my body. అమ్మ (Ammma) was upset blaming herself for suggesting biryani lunch. This biryani that brought me down to my knees did nothing to her. I was worried if she would get sick. She recovered from a serious bout of stomach illness just a year ago. I was happy to find her looking for dinner just a couple of hours later. It was a huge relief that she was fine. My cousin started teasing my American stomach. My stomach wasn’t great even back when I lived in India and it is much worse now. Whenever I visit India, I get tempted by street food places, but I don’t think I can handle them.
After an eventful and sleep interrupted night, I was still miserable the next morning. I went into the mode of total fasting and drinking just water until I felt better. After a whole day of fasting and sleeping I was back on my feet repeating to myself, “అజీర్ణానికి లంఖణం మందు (ajeirnaniki lankhanam mandu)” sameta.
అజీర్ణానికి లంఖణం మందు (ajeirnaniki lankhanam mandu) means, “Fasting is a medicine for indigestion”. అజీర్ణం (ajeirnam) means indigestion and లంఖణం (lankhanam) means fasting in Telugu. I can vouch for the ancient wisdom to combat indigestion.