AMMA TALKIES

 The fact that our mother was crazy about movies would be an understatement; in fact, she was mad about them. Her younger sister Subhadra went one step further.This movie-madness gripped her entire family.

As children, we used to spend our summer holidays in our mother’s family home. Our life was centered around the village temple, pujas and festivals. Besides,we also spent time swimming in the village pond, walking along the paddy fields, climbing trees, attending local melas and the like. When we were getting a bit bored with our daily routine, comes the welcome announcement that Subhadra aunty (Subhadra Cheriyamma for us) was coming on a short visit. The whole household was suddenly filled with excitement and expectation.

Subhadra Aunty lived in Chennai (formerly Madras). Her husband was a prosperous auditor (still alive), auditing the accounts of movie stars and the like. Like all wives of prosperous businessmen, her time was spent on buying and trading gold, jewelry, sarees etc. with friends and relatives, besides, of course, watching movies. She made all of us laugh with her wit and humor, and entertained everyone with her fun-filled stories. Unlike the other women in the house-hold she hardly did any work---all of us were only too eager to please her and do everything on her behalf. The secret was her craze for movies.

Cinema shows in our Village

Our village at that time didn’t have any movie theatre. Since they were known as ‘talkies’ their owners purposely gave them attractive female names like Uma, Menaka, Urvasi etc!

One had to walk about three miles to reach a cinema theatre. Come evening, barring the old and the ill, rest of the members of our joint family -men, women and children-got ready, dressed in their fineries, and taking an early dinner start walking along the paddy fields in a long procession, purposefully towards the talkies. Soon the dusk would fall and darkness thickened. The leader in the front walked with a torch of burning dried-up sticks. Our loud talking and laughter and the noise we made perhaps led the local inhabitants to believe that we were an invading army!

After a long walk we finally reached the ‘talkies’, which was nothing but a shed, thatched with coconut leaves. There were no chairs or benches, but only soft white sand as flooring. The movies were projected on the screen with the help of a rickety projector, which used to stop from time to time. When the ads were shown with the face of popular actor MGR, the audience in the front stood up, clapped and whistled, adding to the excitement of the movie show. The entire audience laughed or wept loudly along with the hero and heroine, in unison. If the movie was boring, people, especially children fell asleep, lying on the soft sands, cooled by gentle breeze. The women chatted non- stop, animatedly discussing the other women who were absent, and complaints about their husbands, or exchanging juicy gossips.

By the time aunty left, we would have seen all the movies shown in the neighbourhood.

 

Indian Movies Movie- going was then a new trend. Movie-making started in India in the early twentieth century. The ones initially produced were silent movies.  The silent Malayalam movie Vigathakumaran (1928, J. C. Daniel Nadar) was the first Indian social drama film. The first sound-film in India was produced in 1931. Thereafter, ‘Talkies’ dominated the scene between 1930s and mid- 1940s.The period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s is regarded by film historians as the Golden Age of Indian cinema. Some of the greatest Indian movies were produced during that period. This was followed by the release of many memorable movies, both in Hindi as well as the regional languages.

In Trivandrum While we were staying in Trivandrum a trunk call used to come from Madras (No STD calls or cell phones at that time) to our mother conveying that Subhadra aunty was reachingby morning flight the next day, and that all movie shows on that day ought to be booked for her and our mother. Trivandrum at that time had a few movie theatres.

As soon as aunt’s car came to our gate, mother rushed towards it, carrying a vessel full of porridge and milk, for their lunch. Aunty never alighted from the car fearing that they would be late for the movies. The sisters re-surfaced late at night, with a contented look on their faces, after watching all four shows. Next day, early morning, aunty went back. It seemed she came all the way just to watch four movies in a row!

Unlike our mother, our father generally showed little inclination towards movies. He was of view that they were cheap emotional stuff which could adversely affect our minds. He preferred to watch dance-dramas, kathakali and the like or attend classical music sessions. I recall watching only two movies with him-Rama Bhaktha Hanuman and Sita, both being mythological films. Father being busy till late night in his research lab, we had ample opportunities for watching movies!

Besides Malayalam, our mother watched Hindi and Tamil movies too. She didn’t understand a word of Hindi, but she could follow the stories well. Films Ganga-Jamna, Sujatha, Do Ankhen Bara Haath, Do Bigha Zamin, Bandhni made a lasting impression on her.  She had Chitthi, our elderly neighbour, as her companion. Sometimes, we, children accompanied her. Along with her we watched Tamil films like KalyanaParisu and NenchilOruAlayam (Dil Ek Mandir).

Mother’sFriendstoo were equally crazy about movies. Mrs. X who visited us frequently had filmi-connection. She and her daughters watched movies for a different reason --to learn about the latest fashion trends in clothes and jewellery! I remember her asking us once” Did you notice the ear-studs the heroine wore in that scene?” Another was a lady doctor gifted with great story-telling ability. She narrated the stories of hit movies we couldn’t see, line by line, choked with emotion, so much so that we didn’t have to watch those movies in the theatre! Suneeta our family friend, was mother’s constant companion.

Mix-up

Once she prompted us to watch a movie in which actress Sheela was supposed to have acted as a District Collector.Ofcourse, she didn’t remember the name of the movie,but said it was the matinee show.My sisters and myself went for the show. As soon as the movie began, we started looking for the Collector, but she was nowhere to be seen. We consoled ourselves that she might make an appearance after the interval. No way. Finally, the movie ended without the Collector making an appearance at all. We went home and angrily asked mother how she could send us to watch that terrible movie, to which she said apologetically that the Collector episode was in the morning show, and she got simply mixed up, as she went for all three shows the day before!

All aloneYears rolled by. Our father passed away.Chithi sold her house and went to live with her children. Suneeta was caught up in her busy office work. I thought our mother would stop watching movies after all, but she continuedher movie-going, that too with a vengeance. It was for her an escape from daily trifles. While alone in real life, she had the heroines and their entire brood as company, at least for a few hours.

Changing sceneSince our home needed extensive repairs, we moved to another area within the city. To my mother’s great delight, there was a triplex theatre near-by, showing three movie shows at the same time! Every week the movies changed- a wonderful harvest for her! To her delight our helper Sarojini too was crazy about movies. She used to cook our dinner early, and then the duo disappeared. Sarojini, although literate, never spent any time reading or writing. The only time I saw reading a newspaper was when she would search for ads on new movies.

Soon we moved back to our old home, after it was repaired. Sarojini got married and left us. But mother didn’t abandon the movies. She used to stand near the gate of our home to find someone willing to accompany her for the movies. Sarojini sometimes happily accompanied her, leaving her howling children with her sulking mother-in-law! (What an escape!). Slowly, mother started going alone without looking for any company.

The fellows at the theatre welcomed her- she being a dedicated customer. They kept a special chair for her in some of the theatres! The obliging boys at the theatres used to hold her hands help her climb the steps, and lead her to the hall, or bring tea or coffee to her at the intervals. Trivandrum at that time was a safe place for women, allowing women like mother go even for second-shows, unaccompanied!

Changing Technology    During all those years movie-going changed profoundly. From rickety, thatched theatres they became pucca structures.Fromair-cooled, they became air-conditioned; from single they became multiplexes. Now they are mostly located in malls to attract the wandering youth. In modern era one can watch technically superior movies comfortably at home, over OTT platforms. Movie-technology also underwent vast changes- from silent to motion pictures to talkies, from black and white to techni-colour to digital.

The coming of the TV, especially the colour TV, created a revolution in our daily lives. By that time mother’s health started deteriorating fast. My brother Unni bought her a colour TV which would churn out movies all the time. Although very convenient, mother missed the exhilarating autorickshaw ride through lanes and by-lanes of the city; the kindness of the staff of the movie theatres, chatting with friends and acquaintances whom she accidently met at movie houses. The TV shows went on for sometime till her death in 1989. She passed away peacefully, perhaps dreaming of some happy-ending movie in her last moments! Subhadra aunty also passed away soon. They didn’t just go away like that, but left behind in us too a craze for movies!

 Mother made valiant attempts to keep herself happy, by focussing on joyful things in life, instead of wallowing in self-pity. We miss her presence in our lives, but is consoled by the feeling that she may be watching movies (hiding from our father of course!) without breaks in heaven, in the company of her sisters, especially Subhadra Aunty and friends like Chithi and Mrs X. Life was indeed a technicolour movie for her, although occasionally it turned black & white!

On a recent visit to our village, came evening, our cousins Chandrika and Kala, by instinct or on an impulse, happily led me to a movie theatre (no more called ‘talkies’), proving that our mothers’ genes for movie- going stayed safely within us ------------------

 

 

 

JACK THE GREAT

Jack fruit (Artocarpus Heterophyllus- Katahal in Hindi) is in the news these days. I have recently come across several pieces of writing on jack fruit in newspapers as well as in the internet. Why this sudden interest in a fruit which normally people do not care about?

Come summer, the food markets in South India are flooded with mangoes and jackfruits. While the mango is the king of fruits and has captured the imagination of gardeners and poets alike, the poor jack is far behind, in the shadows. Nevertheless, nothing expresses nature’s bounty more aptly than a jack tree-- its whole trunk bulging with hundreds of fruits, big and small, hanging in pale yellow or deep green beauty. One cannot escape the bright yellow colour and a sharp smellof jack fruit cut into large pieces, while taking a walk in the market.

MyTree ConnectionI have both happy and sad memories about the jack tree. There used to be a jack tree standing on the border between our home and that of our neighbour, which used to provide our full quota of ripe jackfruit, every season. Unfortunately, our neighbour fell from the tree, broke his back, and lay confined in bed for 14 long years, before finally passing away.

I have already narrated the story of my old aunty standing on a fragile branch of a tree near the compound wall of her house, merrily chatting with her neighbour, when she suddenly fell from the tree and was taken to the hospital after breaking her leg. The story created great merriment among the doctor and the nurses attending her.

I am glad to say that there is one jack tree planted right in front of our home. Although the plant is still lean and small, to our great joy and amazement, it has started producing 5-10 big jackfruits, every year, each about 10 kg in weight.

Culinary experienceLong ago when we were children, mangoes and jackfruit were a part of the staple diet of Malayalis, especially during summer. In most Kerala homes rice was eaten along with ripe mango Pulissery (cooked with curd and coconuts- a type of kadhi) and Chakka Mezhukkuperatti (boiled jack pieces, sauted in little oil). I distinctly remember women in our family-home sitting around in a circle, cutting, cleaning and segregating the ripe florets, while exchanging juicy gossips, and we children hovering around to snatch a piece or two.

The imaginative Malayali  invented a variety of preparations from this home- grown fruit- ---savoury items like Chakka Ada (ripe flesh ground along with coconut, jaggery and cardamom spread like a paste on banana leaves and steamed), ChakkaPayasam(Kheer or pudding), Chakka Varatti (Jam) and vegetable preparations like Puzzukku(cooked with coconut and spices), Erisseri (cooked in dal and coconut paste added, Thoran (cut into fine pieces and cooked), Theeyalcooked with paste of fried coconut, coriander and spices). Jack can also be cooked like meat, with the same masalas added, for, raw jack has the same texture as meat. The crisp jack chips are still sought after by many. The seeds are roasted in fire, boiled or fried in oil. The seeds  when roasted, have the flavour comparable to chestnuts or Brazil nuts. In modern times a soup is made out of boiled seeds.

Katahalis available in North India too, especially from places like the Jharkhand. Katahal is cooked with gravy and lot of oil and Masalas in UP and Bihar. I remember the tasty katahal pickle which my mother-in-law used to make.

Jackfruit, either raw or ripe, is consumed in other cultures too. Jack is used in Custards, Cakes, Cutlets, Chops, Candies, Halo-halo (Philippines), sweet desert called Che in Vietnam, Es teler (like Ice cream) in Indonesia. In many cultures raw fruit is cooked in coconut milk and taken with rice. Raw fruit is also used in many types of curries. In Africa it is consumed with smoked pork. Jack pulp is canned and exported from Southeast Asian countries to USA and Europe.

Times have changed now. With ‘English vegetables’ like beans, carrot, cabbage, cauli-flower and the like flooding the market, people, especially in the urban areas, generally avoid cooking jack fruit, as native vegetables like the jack need time and effort to cut, clean and cook. Of course, on special occasions like weddings, jack dishes, especially thoran and payasam in Kerala and Kaathal ki subji and katahal pickle in North Indiado find a place in the sumptuous feasts.

More About Jack FruitJack fruit belongs to Moraceae plant family, which also includes fig, mulberry and breadfruit.

Why does a fruit endemic to South India is known by an English name? I read that Portuguese when they landed in Kerala in 1499 were awe-struck by the sights of the Jack tree laden with many fruits. They called it Jaca, a corruption of the word Chakka in Malayalam. Jaca subsequently came to be known as Jack fruit in English.

Archaeological findings show that jackfruit was cultivated in India 3000 to 6000 years ago. The tree is widely cultivated throughout tropical regions of the world,including India, Bangladesh, SriLanka, and the rain forests of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Australia. It is also found in African and south American continents.

There are two main varieties of jack fruit-Varikka with stiff florets and Sindoor (Kuzha in Malayalam) with soft pulp.

Usefulness We call Coconut tree the Kalpavriksha, because it fulfils every wish of yours-every part of the tree is useful. Same could be said about the jack tree. Its fruits, bark and leaves are traditionally used to treat several types of infections. Jack wood is used in furniture-making and house construction. Fruits and seeds are edible.The cattle are fed the spiky outer cover of the fruit.The leaves can be stitched into a kind of spoon, to eat watery foods like gruel. The fallen leaves could be made into excellent mulch for gardens.

 

 

 

Nutritional value

Jackfruit has a spiky outer skin and is green or yellow in colour.The jackfruit is a multiple fruit made of many individual florets, and the fleshy petals of the unripe and ripe fruit are eaten. 

Nutritionists say that Jackfruit offers about 155 calories in a one-cup serving. The edible pulp is 74% water, 23% carbohydrates (primarily sugars), 2% protein, and 1% fat, and is a source of dietary fibre. It is a rich source  of vitamin B_6, and also contains moderate levels of vitamin C and potassium. Jackfruit has a low glycaemic index and provides fibre, protein and antioxidants, that may help better blood sugar management, can help boost immunity,improves skin-health and reduce the risk of heart disease due to its content of potassium, fibre and antioxidants. 

Food security

The jackfruit has played a significant role in Indian agriculture for centuries. In 2017, India produced 1.4 million tonnes of jackfruit, followed by Bangladesh, Thailand, and Indonesia.According to Wikipedia, the jack tree bears the largest fruit of all trees, reaching as much as 55 kg (120 pounds) in weight, 90 cm (35 inches) in length, and 50 cm (20 inches) in diameter. A mature jackfruit tree produces some 200 fruits per year, with older trees bearing up to 500 fruits in a year! More important fact is that the tree doesn’t need any special care that the other fruit trees demand. It grows wild in forest areas and even in dry areas.

The jack fruit is food not only for humans, but also for birds and wild animals like elephants. The wild elephants eat jackfruits from trees grown in populated areas near the hills. There was recently a funny video of a caparisoned elephant dutifully carrying the image of a goddess on its back in a temple procession suddenly stopping on the way to pluck a jackfruit and cooly carrying on after relishing it!

The humble jack can play a major role in food security. Our tree plantation programs should focus on growing trees like Jack fruits, instead of planting trees of little value. It can, this way, ease the man-animal tension in hilly and forest areas. Land sharks/ house owners should be motivated to spare old jack trees or leave a bit of space for planting new ones during construction.

Honouring Jack Fruit

Recently, the Government of Kerala declared the tree as the State Tree and is popularizing it, keeping in view its food and nutritional value.Exhibitions are conducted featuring the multiple use of the plant and to encourage its cultivation throughout the state. It is heartening to note that several start-ups process the fruit and produce multiple products which are today available online (including Jack atta, specially targeting diabetic patients) to consumers globally. It provides employment to people, especially to women. Several Jack enthusiasts cultivate many varieties of jack, including exotic varieties. Transformation of this humble inhabitant of our backyards to a valued item today is indeed amazing. It has a valuable lesson for all of us- one need not ignore good traditions and cuisines. Some traditions can be carried forward, with changes, to suit the modern tastes.              

                                                           Long live our dear Jack!

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