The last week of last year was spent in Shimoga
as a sort of very short vacation … my brother calls our house there as a resort
… not during summer, of course, but during monsoon and winter, it is really
pleasant at home … whenever we go there half the time is spent on the verandah,
generally looking at the world go by … or reading newspapers … or chewing the
air … or in mathu-kathe … the verandah
watch begins right after breakfast and goes on till lunch time … sometimes the makkaLa party has their breakfast on the
verandah itself … cutting vegetables, shelling peas, shelling avarekai, putting out the washing, tea
and snacks, all sorts of arguments, decisions – all happen on the verandah from
time to time and sometimes simultaneously … from our verandah we can see the community
park and the park is ringed by all sorts of trees … and throughout the day we
can hear the chirping of birds, the scurrying of squirrels and sometimes
chameleons, the gentle sway of falling leaves, the rustle of leaves as birds
and squirrels hurry and dash … not to say the scooters and cars … and when
schools are open, the chatter of young and older kids, as they pass by …
and
the cows are always there looking for green patches, just a call away … Appa
and Amma give them bananas and other fruit and vegetables, and sometimes rice,
and rice water and whatever is generally available and if nothing is, then a generous
piece of jaggery would do nicely too … and if you’ve forgotten to latch the
gate, they just walk in to the house … and Mamoon witnessed one such uninvited
bovine entry around three years back … she was stunned but had wits enough to
run inside shouting “mamma, gomata eshe
gache …!!”
Just opposite the park is the Ganapati
temple … in the mornings and evenings the temple is busy with people going in
and out and pealing bells and sounds of sloka and bhajane … and when there are
special pooje-s during specific auspicious days like sankashti and festivals …
and satyanarayana pooje, ganapati homa … then the activity increases,
especially in the evenings … and at the end, the delicious prasada … always a
delight …
it all reads very romantic, no? … yes and no, actually … sometimes it
does get a tad bit boring … and that’s when you go out of the house and see if
Hema Condiments is open … if it is open, then it is open season for mandakki
(Teju’s favourite), menasu bajji, etc. … then there is also Nyamti mandakki …
not to forget the dustilicious 'gobi manchuri' (Mamoon suddenly wanted Shimoga-wala 'gobi
manchuri' in Hyderabad after we came back!!) and massal poori … ummmm mouth is
watering only …
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