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Jeth Ji Sesa~AlifBe~12

Alka Keswani — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 15:31:45 +0000

The 12th consonant in Sindhi Alif Be is ڄ, a unique one, because it is used in very few languages, one of it being Sindhi (Saraiki is another language where this is used). In Roman Sindhi it is written as J^ and as ॼ in Devanagari. ڄ is a Voiced (vocal chords vibrate when you utter this) Palatal (middle of the tongue touches hard palate) Implosive ( you breathe in instead of breathing out while uttering this). You can check this link to know how ڄ is pronounced! There are limited number of Sindhi words starting with this alphabet. Some examples are j^aari (the net), j^ibh (tongue) and j^ethu. J^ethu is the third month in Lunar calendar, also known as Jeth or Jyeshtha. There are barely any Sindhi dishes that start with the letter ڄ. So I thought to share a food ritual related to a lesser known festival of Sindhis, called J^eth Ji Sesa ! Sesa festival is observed on J^eth ji Ummas i.e Amavasya (No moon day) in Jyeshtha month as per lunar calendar . The festival is known as J^eth Ji Ummas or Khumbh or simply Sesa! Some Sindhis do observe it on the next day of Ummas which is a New moon day (Chand)! Some festivals or rituals stay close to your heart and you derive from it a certain warmth, some comfort and a feeling of being loved and cared for. Scientifically this ritual may not have any valid point but if you believe that faith can move mountains and calm the wild seas then you do believe in rituals like Sesa too. The festival reminds me of my school days, when the new academic year would start around this festival and so would rains, mostly! The thrill of reuniting with school friends after summer vacations, the pre monsoon showers bringing temporary respite from sultry summer heat and the feeling of happiness in the chaos of festivities were some of the things that would make the Sesa a special day, then, and the memories of those lovely moments still warm the cockles of my heart! Khumbh or Sesa or J^ethu Umaas/J^eth Puja, is, kind of, a patriarchal ritual followed by (generally) Sindhi ladies for the well being of male family members, in olden days. Now the ritual is either not observed at all or many Sindhis do observe it even for the girl child in the family. In olden days the male clan would often travel overseas for business purposes and the family would be worried about their safety, particularly if they happen to travel during the times when the turbulence in sea or rivers would pose a threat to the human lives. At the beginning of J^eth month a vow was taken to offer a sweet dish to the Sea/river and prayers were done for the safety of the family member/s and on the Amavasya of the J^eth month Sesa ritual was done. Elderly ladies in the family would dedicate a sweet dish to each male member and that same sweet was/is to be added to Sesa every year. I find it amusing as how our feelings and thought processes change with time. While as a kid I loved the Sesa ritual, as a headstrong teenager I disliked the aura of patriarchy this festival was surrounded by! Years later we started including sweets or dryfruits/ nuts for girl child too and that’s when I started observing it again! I remember how my mother would get busy since early morning to make the feast for J^eth Pooja and then we would accompany her for the pooja rituals in the neighbourhood. Ladies would gather and chit chat while preparing for the rituals and kids would anxiously wait to hog on the puris and pakora, mangoes and sweets. Lunch on this day, in most of the Sindhi homes would be Chola chaanwar. After reserving some boiled chole for prasad, the rest of it would be cooked in an onion tomato gravy and was had with turmeric laced rice…such a bliss! In the Thali : Whole wheatflour Puri, shallow fried potatoes, Gulabjamun (home made), Seyun, B^aat Jo seero (Broken wheat halwa), mangoes and turmeric laced rice. Ps: Updating the blog posts with fresh pics from J^eth Ji Sesa – 2021 We generally add Mesu (Mysore Pak) too but couldn’t find it in the shops around. A Sesa i.e a prasad/offering of boiled kabuli chola ( Garbanzo beans) and peela chaanwra ( Turmeric laced rice) along with seyun (sweetened vermicelli), fried potatoes or pakora, Puri, Mesu (Mysore pak), Gulab Jamun and dedicated sweets, is plated in a Thali. The ladies gather at the water bodies. Though traditionally the ritual was done near a river or sea, nowadays the urban ladies perform the ritual around taps in the home or a temple and then the food offerings are either fed to birds/cows or collected by volunteers and immersed in a lake/pond or river nearby. Sesa or J^eth ji Ummas’ Ritual: Some grass is collected and mounds are prepared of grass and some Puri, shallow fried potatoes, pakora, seyun ( sweet vermicelli) along with the respective dedicated sweet/s, coconut etc are taken from Thali and are placed on the mound . A portion of the mound is then taken and tapped with other had and a small prayer is recited: “Aamra Leemra ( aamro leemro) khayi bharyosein paet, Jiyan muhinja Putra, potra, dhotra, jin rakhaayo J^ethu. J^eth seyun khaaraye, J^eth mesu khaaraye…( Include all the names of sweets offered).. J^eth maal khaaraye ” Roughly translates as: (had) Mangoes/ lemons (or does it mean ‘lim’ i.e neem?) and filled our tummies, Long live my sons and grandsons who made me observe J^ethu rituals. J^eth feeds seyun (sweet vermicelli), J^eth feeds Mesu (a sweet), J^eth feeds us a feast. Please note: I may have erred while translating this so if you know it better, please leave a comment on this post and I will rectify! The mounds are then collected and fed to birds/cows or as done in olden days, immersed into a water body. The rest of the food brought by ladies is collected, mixed and then distributed or shared with neighbours. Another Sesa Thali, with Mesu (Mysore Pak)! At our home we pray for all the family members and particularly for Sesa ritual a sweet/dry fruits/nuts are dedicated for children irrespective of gender. Please check the following links if you seek the recipe! Seyun and Patata Gulabjamun B^aat Jo seero Atta Puri Ps: Adding this small video that I made on Sesa (2021)! And finally check this video to known or learn the formation of Sindhi letter ڄ!

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Thumaro For AlifBe~7

Alka Keswani — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 16:37:49 +0000

The 7th Consonant in AlifBe i.e the Perso-Arabic Sindhi script (Alphabet) is ٿ which is थ in Devanagari while in Roman Sindhi it is written as Th~ i.e by using a Tilde (~) as suffix as we don’t have a corresponding alphabet in English. It is pronounced as Th~ as in Thailand,Theory, Thaw, Theatre etc. In Sindhi it is taught as ٿ for Thumbo/Thambo i.e a Pillar! And a dish starting with Th~ is a special one! It is something that I often crave for when I am under weather or when I miss my mother and Aunt K (the favorite aunt of the whole neighborhood I was born and brought up, in). The reason being that Aunt K would often make this for my mother to pep her appetite that she would often lose due to her health issues. Aunt K, a very energetic lady full of enthusiasm and love, was the centre of all the action that ever happened in our humble neighborhood; be it Sarvajanik Ganesh utsav or Tulsi Vivah, Lohri festivities or even the marriage of dolls that the kids would eagerly participate in! Right from planning to execution, she was the one who would be in charge. Never saw her sitting idle even for a moment. She was the Agony aunt , was very protective and also brutally honest when asked for any opinions. She left us too soon!! Unlike in present scenario, life was way different in our old neighborhood. People were not hesitant to borrow a cup of sugar or little of milk, culture for curds (Jaaman) or even utensils/cutlery when there would be some guests at home. Refrigerator was a luxury then and so were the landline phones and hence people would often drop in to ask for some ice in summers (to make sherbet) or even would request to keep their tubs of ice creams/Kulfi in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator of the kind neighbor, a proud owner of those luxuries. A house with a landline connection would often have neighbors dropping in to receive a long distance call from extended family. Neighbors were more like a family then and they would be there for you in your happiness and sorrows, in your mourning and celebrations. No doubt there would be ugly fights sometimes but then the issues were resolved and life would move on! Aunt K was a a fabulous cook and even in the era when there were no cookery shows, no youtube/Facebook videos or blogs, she was the one who would experiment a lot and would cook different dishes from various regional cuisines. She was the one who taught my mom how to make fryums/chips at home, Idli, Dhokla, Upma and many Chhapru style Sindhi dishes too. Yes, Aunt K was a Chhapru Sindhi! The word Chhapru is a short word for Chhappar waara which means the people from mountains! So basically Chhaprus are people who came from mountains to settle around ports/plains/coastal regions. Chhapru Script and the dialect, both are little different from the other Sindhi Scripts/dialects and so are their rituals and customs. Their way of cooking differs slightly and their cuisine has some unique dishes that are lesser known to other Sindhis. One such dish in Thoom Jo Ras, also known as Aur Jo ras or Thumaro, where Thoom/Thum stands for garlic, Aur means Mustard seeds and ras means juice or extract! This garlicky soupy kadhi is made in various ways across the community and the variations are way too many! I am yet to confirm if Thumaro and Aur jo Ras (have already share its recipe on the blog) are variations of one dish or whether these two are different dishes cooked across the different sub castes! So while Aunt K would not add any flour to the Kadhi, Thumaro at many homes is cooked with a base of some flour added to the kadhi. It could be Jowar or Besan, could be sautéed in the beginning or could be added as a paste in the simmering kadhi. The idea is to thicken the kadhi, to add some more nutrition and boost the flavors. The choice of vegetables added to Thumaro varies from home to home but then certain ingredients like garlic, mustard seeds, potatoes, radish etc are mandatory. Raw dough balls flavored with garlic, chili powder and salt are most savored in this kadhi and while Aunt K would use Besan to make dough dalls, one can use Jowar flour too. The souring agents could be tamarind pulp, amchoor, dried raw mango slices or even tomatoes or combination of any two of the above mentioned! Print Thumaro Rating 5.0 from 2 reviews Thumaro is a garlic based kadhi Ingredients Garlic -1 whole pod Fresh green garlic (4-5 stalks with bulbs) Green chillies 2-3 Mustard seeds 2 tsp Tamarind pulp 2-3 tsp (more or less as per your taste) Sliced or cubed vegetables like Radish and Potato (I used 2 potatoes and one small Radish) Jowar flour 1tbsp Gram flour- 1 cup Red chilly powder ½ tsp Oil 2 tsp Water, a litre or more Coriander leaves for garnishing Method Pound peeled garlic cloves and fresh garlic. Save 2-3 tsp for besan dumplings/rolls and use the rest of pounded garlic (including fresh garlic) in kadhi. In a bowl take 1 tbsp of Jowar flour and gradually add some water, mixing it well to assure no lumps are formed. In a pan or a sipri, heat around 2 tsp of oil and add mustard seeds and allow to crackle. Add pounded garlic and saute till aromatic. Do not let the garlic burn. Add sliced radish and potato chunks and add the jowar flour paste, turmeric, chopped chillies and about a litre of water Add tamarind pulp, salt and let it boil for few minutes on high flame. Lower the flame and let the kadhi simmer. Meanwhile add some salt, some crushed garlic that you have set aside for besan dumplings and some red chilly powder to the gram flour and knead a stiff dough using little water. You can use jowar flour instead but I prefer besan here. Make small oblong rolls of this dough (yields 6-7 rolls) and drop them in the simmering kadhi. Cook until potato and besan rolls are cooked from the center (anywhere between 20-30 minutes Add water if required! This kadhi is of dilute consistency. Adjust the seasoning. Garnish with some chopped coriander leaves and enjoy it as a soup to warm yourself or pour it over some Khichdi or rice and have a hearty meal 3.5.3251 To understand and learn the formation of Sindhi alphabets, kindly refer the video shared! While I was making Thumaro I was reminded of another favorite of mine that Aunt K would cook whenever green garlic was in season. Honestly speaking I couldn’t remember the name of the dish but suddenly when someone mentioned and described the dish, all the memories came gushing in and I couldn’t help but recreate the dish! Do let me know if you are hungry for another Chhapru style dish made using green garlic as a star ingredient, and I will share the recipe. Else I will move to the next alphabet! Do comment and share your views/suggestions/recipes and food pics! I shall wait for your inputs!

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