A Space to Pause

Let me help spell it. It is "கம்மங்கூழ்"-"Kammang" + "Cool", but the "L" here should be pronounced by folding the tongue inwards to touch the palate as far as you can. It is a tongue twister that adds beauty to "Tamizh" and "Malayalam" languages. Kambu (  in  Tamil)   is called "Pearl Millet" in English and Bajri in Hindi. I cherished eating kambu  as a child for breakfast, and this continued after coming to the US too. I replaced cornmeals and oatmeals for breakfast, and kambu  took an irreplaceable place in my breakfast menu during summer. This dish captures those unforgettable moments of my childhood. Where do I get this? I get it shipped from India. I usually get 5-7 Kgs shipped per summer, and since it is only me who consumes this for breakfast, it lasts the whole summer. As a child, I drank quite a good quantity of this thick drink for breakfast accompanied with mild pickle or shallots. It is believed to coo...

Happened to watch the movie "2 States"..... I read the book a few years ago, but not until I watched the movie recently, I felt how close and special those bygone moments are. I gave a glimpse of how I married a North-Indian in an earlier post. This time, for a change, I got reminded of the days we spent together in Bangalore. I recently happened to speak with a dear friend of mine after many years. We took a plunge into those student days, revisiting the fun, the frivolous attitude, silly pranks and mindless chatterings. It was then I decided to come up with a post, pondering over those memories, etched deep into my heart. I had to dust them hard to bring them to light. It was Summer of 2004. As always, we, as a group of scholarly to-be-PhDs, decided to set off for a crazy expedition. We decided to go for a trek to Ramnagar, a rural area, close to Bangalore where a few scenes of the movie Sholay were shot. I thank Kavitha Siva, the craziest of all, for organizing and...