Veranda Tales-Eating porridge is hard work
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 on 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 which were 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 that didn’t pass up an opportunity to share their wisdom using the art of storytelling. The rich and 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, grind grains and spices and 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.
అంబలి తాగేవాడికి మీసాలొత్తేవాడొకడు
If you are like me, you probably watch British classics where servants wait on their masters hand and foot. Servants help their masters with drawing a bath, waiting with a robe as they get out of the bath and helping them get dressed. When it comes to women, servants help them put on the girdles and corsets, cinch their waists with all their might to get into their fancy gowns as they get dressed for dinners or balls.
Whenever I watch one of these shows, a sametha, that summarizes this sentiment comes to my mind. నానమ్మా (Nanamma is paternal grandmother in Telugu) would say అంబలి తాగేవాడికి మీసాలొత్తేవాడొకడు when someone in the family was acting lazy asking for help with something they could take care of themselves. When they want help fetching a glass of water from మట్టి కుండ (earthen pot in Telugu, Matki or Matka) or రాగి కుండ (Copper pot) or getting out of the chair to turn ceiling fan on or off.
Those were the days before widespread use of refrigerators and the invention of remote controlled ceiling fans. The story could be updated to modern times to being too lazy to get water from the refrigerator or reach for the remote to turn the ceiling fan on or off. You might have noticed I didn’t mention TV. It was the time before the proliferation of TVs with one in every room including kid’s bedrooms. I grew up without a single TV in the house.
If you are wondering about getting water from an earthen pot, drinking water was stored in earthen pots or copper pots. Earthen pots are Evaporative coolers. They keep water cool as they breathe through their pores in hot summer weather. Copper pots are used for drinking water as they are considered good for health. The water absorbs minerals from clay and develops an earthy smell. When I was growing up, the start of summer rituals included bringing a new earthen pot from the market and seasoning it for storing water. For whatever reason, black earthen pot was preferred over a red one. Could it be that black clay is better for Evaporative cooling?
Seasoning the earthen pot involved scrubbing the earthen pot with a clean wad of కొబ్బరి పీచు (coconut jute) and drying it, doing this process for two days in a row. Nanamma oversaw the seasoning, directing servant maids. She was particular about using the కొబ్బరి పీచు (coconut jute) from the coconut used for పూజ (puja) in the morning. I don’t think there was any special reason to use coconut jute from పూజ (puja) other than it would be very clean.
Copper pots were used during winter months. They were cleaned thoroughly with tamarind before storing water in them. Both earthen and Copper pots were placed on a ring made out of reed and covered with either stainless steel or clay lid with a stainless steel glass or a ladle sitting on top for serving. We would get water out of the pot with the serving glass or ladle and pour it into another glass for drinking to maintain good hygiene. Earthen pots have been modernized with a fitted tap to make it easier to use.
అంబలి తాగేవాడికి మీసాలొత్తేవాడొకడు means “man wants somebody to wipe his mustache while eating porridge”. Whenever someone in the house acted lazy, Nanamma had to simply say “అంబలి తాగేవాడికి మీసాలొత్తేవాడొకడు” to get people to do whatever they were supposed to do with sheepish looks and smiles.
When I hear somebody say “అంబలి తాగేవాడికి మీసాలొత్తేవాడొకడు”, the image of a man with a handlebar mustache dressed in తెల్లపంచ (White Dhovathi in Telugu) and తెల్లలాల్చి (Lalchi is a long shirt worn over a Dhovathi) sitting on the floor eating porridge while another man keeps wiping the porridge off his mustache comes to mind. I find this image hilarious.