Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Hallo Idli!

I was cutting a whole bunch of veggies (well kovakai - I think it is called Ivy gourd in English) this morning and while doing that I was thinking about how in Indian weddings, quite commonly some 500-1000 people attend and the cooking team manages to cut the vegetables and put together a grand meal all ready before lunch time (this after a breakfast meal in the morning). The team doesn't look like a large team on the face of it. Quite amazing how they manage to pull it all off. The head chef in these teams usually sports an air of cool authority and doesn't look tense about having to prepare such large quantities and *well* since food is very important in Indian weddings and will be talked about during the post analysis sessions. I find some of the scenes in the dining area very cute and funny...children struggling to eat in a huge banana leaf trying to hold the watery rasam in place by holding the leaf with their left hand...while the mom wants to chat on with her neighbor but has to keep an eye on the little toddler next to her...some poor soul in one of the corner tables needing a little extra of something waiting around amidst the buzz of chatter amongst everyone there hoping the server will notice him/her on the return route...and finally when the bride and groom and their immediate relatives all come to the dining area to have their meal there is a sense of urgency and there is always one tall male relative who ushers the men who are serving to hurry and bring this or that and serve more and more...and if the bride or someone in that group mutters "Idli", then there will be a loud call across the hall to the server who himself now gets christened as "Idli" - "Hallo Idli, come here, come here, serve some more idli's for the bride"....Indian weddings in spite of the chaos and loudness have their own charm...this is the dining area charm. What happens upstairs in the main wedding hall is yet another story...with its own special charm.

7 comments:

molarbear's posts said...

lovely, evocative post! Btw, I am deponti of LJ, I don't blog here but use this id to comment on others' posts!

Keep writing, I am going to enjoy this!

Molarbear because for one whole year my molar gave trouble and the resulting root canal made me irritable as a bear! I spent 17 thousand on it in Chennai, it was botched and re-done twice...and then, in Blr, I got it re-done perfectly, the third time for Rs.750 rupees at R V Dental College last month!

Ram said...

u already seem to be in the thick of things. i mean, the spammer above ;)

very well written post by the way. reminds me that i haven't been to an indian wedding in over 3 years now :(

Ram said...

my apologies to molarbear's posts! :)

Kumpi said...

Yumm !! Makes my mouth water thinking of the delicacies they serve at Indian weddings. It's been a long time I attended a wedding myself (not including mine of course) ! Inga oru plate idali saaaambaaar pleeje !!

Kumpi said...

Hallooo....waiting for the next idali.. oops I mean blog ! :D

Anonymous said...

You forgot to mention the giant pedestal fan right next to you which keeps threatening to blow the banana leaf and its contents away!

nice post. :)

noon said...

Thanks Anjali. You have a blog site as well?