Veranda Tales-Somayya’s bread basket

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.

రొట్టెలోడి కంటే ముక్కలోడి పని హాయి అన్నట్లు (rottelodi kante mukkalodi pani hayi annatlu)

We are a foodie family and adventurous when it comes to trying out new foods and restaurants. We love trying out new foods from different cuisines while we are in our neck of woods or traveling. We research and create a long list of restaurants and foods to try when we go on vacations. When we come across news about the top 50 or top 100 restaurants in the USA, we immediately add it to our “Want to go list”.

I don’t like to decide where we are eating ahead of time when we are traveling. I like to walk around to find a restaurant. My better half wants to have a plan ahead and set a route to the restaurant. Sometimes we decide ahead of time, on other occasions we walk around to find a place. Walking around can be tricky. Especially when we are hungry everything looks good and there are so many places to choose from. On our recent trip to Seoul, we started walking around Ikseon-Dong Hanok village. This area is full of restaurants housed in Korean style houses. We were very hungry searching for a place to eat. We kept walking by one restaurant after another not being able to decide which one to choose from. The ones I liked didn’t pass muster with my younger one. The ones he liked didn’t look appealing to me. My better half was trying hard to keep his cool as he kept walking with us as we aimlessly looped back to the same streets we checked out. At last we agreed on a Tteokbokki restaurant. We cooked our Tteokbokki on a stove on our table as that’s how it's done at Korean restaurants and thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the food.

On occasion, I am not in the mood to order a large meal and order a small appetizer. After our food comes in, I take bites from all other plates. This happens with dessert orders as well. Once in a while I get a glare from my younger one especially when he is enjoying what he ordered and doesn’t want me to steal bites from his plate. I would make a begging face which usually does the trick. Over the years, this routine has grown into a fun game between the two of us when we eat out or when he makes himself a bowl of Korean noodles. When we are trying out a new restaurant we order different items so we get to taste a few items.

రొట్టెలోడి కంటే ముక్కలోడి పని హాయి అన్నట్లు (rottelodi kante mukkalodi pani hayi annatlu) sameta comes to my mind. This sameta means, “Someone who has several pieces of bread is better off than one who has a full loaf of bread”.

Once upon a time, a wealthy family in a village was celebrating the birth of their new born baby. They invited the entire village to come celebrate with them. They baked large quantities of  loaves of bread to distribute to everybody that came to bless their new born baby. The kitchen fires burned day and night as everybody in the family worked hard to bake the loaves of bread. The sweet aroma of freshly baked bread reached many noses in the village. Everybody in the village was excited and looking forward to meeting the newborn and offering their blessings. The conversations at the village wells, temples, farms, dhobi ghats at the river, and stores, and river were lively talking about what they know about the celebration and the newborn baby.

It is a common practice to distribute sweets and hold feasts to commemorate special occasions such as this one and to honor ancestors. అమ్మ (Amma is mother in Telugu) donates money to provide meals for everybody at her senior care place to mark her parents’ and parents-in laws’ birthdays and death anniversaries. She does the same for నాన్న (Nanna is father Telugu)’s birthday and death anniversary. She distributes sweets or fruits whenever she receives good news about her grandchildrens’ achievements.

The news about the celebration spread far and wide. When the day finally arrived, people from neighboring villages came to join the party. The new parents dressed in their finest stood in their courtyard receiving guests who came to offer blessings. The newborn slept through the whole time, occasionally opening eyes having no clue what all this hoopla was all about.

Villagers dressed in their finest lined up to offer blessings. Parents received the blessings and handed out special bread made for this occasion to well wishers. Loaves of bread were going fast and finally the last bread was handed out. సోమయ్య (Somayya) was eagerly waiting for his turn to get to the front of the line to offer blessings. When he finally did there was no bread left for him. People noticed empty handed సోమయ్య (Somayya). People broke a small piece of bread from their full loaf to share with సోమయ్య (Somayya). As each person shared a small piece, సోమయ్య (Somayya)’s basket was now full of small pieces of bread. He ended up with more than others who received full loaves of bread.

This sameta is also used to describe when someone makes more money doing several odd jobs than people who hold one single job. When I see news about someone saying, “I am making so much doing side hustles”), this sameta comes to my mind.