tangy taste of school days

It occurred to me the other day that no matter how much we like to deny it Bengalaru is very much there in Bangalore as the other way round. Along with the dosa-darshini’s and kapi’s another greater unifier is the mavina kayi.  sliced raw mangoes and beside kadale the salted and boiled peanuts.


Dashing through the Mantri Mall at Bangalore my live daughter came to a halt right were the sliced Totapuri Mangoes coated with salt and chilli she had to have it. Her point is ammamma used to eat it too. Ammamma by the way is my mother

School days seems synonymous with the tangy taste, particularly among the pre-teens and early teens.

Another great favourite was the roasted tamarind seeds; these have gone out thanks to the tamarind pastes and extinct wood or coal stoves.

Amy the youngest sister in Louise Alcott’s Little Women gets into trouble over pickled lime. Then there is the Indian favourite chigli made of tamarind jaggery salt and chilli. There seems something so addictive about these particularly to school girls.

I remember jumping the compound to Dr.T.M.A.Pai’s house to pick raw mangoes and Bimbulli. I don’t know what bimbulli is called in English but it is a country cousin of the gooseberry.