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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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Jwar Ji Tikki~AlifBe~11

Alka Keswani — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 21:04:31 +0000

The 11 th letter/consonant of AlifBe series is ج which is J in Roman Sindhi and ज in Devanagari. J as in Jowar, Japan, Java etc. This consonant belongs to third basic shape group. To know more about the 1st and second shape groups you can check this recap post! My hunt for a Sindhi dish starting with Alphabet J led me to Johar/Jwar Ji tikki and when I was discussing it with Ma and Papa (MIL and FIL) I realised that it is indeed very unique. Not sure about the Zen X generation but Millennial Sindhi kids may nod in affirmative that the peppermint candy was one of those delicious, breath freshening, carminative, herbal candies that was actually fed by mothers and grandmothers to young and old. The Jwar ji tikki also known as Phudney ji tikki was a ‘must have’ in every home back then. It is a part of the first chaato (a sweet fine powder mix ) that a newborn is given or the Faqi, a post natal powder mix given to the new mother. Everyone from kids to elderly loved this mint candy and some people even confessed to me that when they were kids they would fake stomach ache just to eat this. So What is Jwar/Johar ji tikki? What it is made of? What does the word Johar means? Is it a candy or medicine? I had so many questions on my mind and though we (me, MIL, FIL and hubby dear) couldn’t find any answers then but that discussion made Papa (FIL) very nostalgic about few things associated with Jwar Ji tikki which gradually led me to many valuable discoveries that I am surely going to share with you all in my upcoming posts, on Instagram and even on Facebook. So do join me there, if you haven’t, yet. I need to thank my extended family who helped me in finding answers to many queries regarding Jwar ji tikki. Thank you Prakash Uncle for connecting me with Dilip Uncle (of Kaka’s Jwar tikki fame) who explained the process of making Jwar tikki. Thank you Renu Di and Varsha, for being so patient and for sharing so many details along with lovely memories of the forgotten delicacies (that I must share in upcoming posts) and of course thanks to my better half for helping me in my culinary and literary research and for everything else. So what is Jwar Ji Tikki? Jwar Ji tikki is basically a sweet menthol flavored hard sugar candy/ tablet, also known as peppermint Lozenges. It has nothing to do with jowar (sorghum) tikki 😉 Jwar Ji Tikki is made by boiling sugar to which glucose syrup and mint oil are added but there are many variations of the candy and hence varying ingredients like gelatin (derived from plants or animal collagen) fats /oil and even Magnesium Stearate may be present in different kinds of Mint candies. Apart from sugar and Glucose (syrup) an important ingredient used in Jwar Ji tikki is Mentha. Mentha: Mentha (plant) is a genus of perennial herbs belonging to family Lamiaceae and there are around 25 species of these aromatic herbs and one of it is Peppermint. Mentha oil is derived from Mentha foliage i.e leaves, stems or even flowers of Peppermint (even spearmint/mint). The foliage is collected and dumped in large tanks and the mix is compressed thoroughly. Steam is allowed to pass through the compressed foliage which drives along with it the oily fumes of mentha. This steam is then allowed to pass through a cooling chamber where it gets converted into liquid (water) form, carrying mentha, forming an emulsion which is collected in a container. The mentha oil floats on the surface of the liquid and is then collected and stocked. The mentha or Menthol (organic compound made from mint oil) are then used in various medicine preparations, vapo rubs, toothpastes and mouth fresheners etc. Some Interesting facts about Menthol: * In ancient Greece, Menthol was used as room freshener. It was spread on the floor or in corners of rooms for that cool, fresh fragrance in the air. * While in ancient era cloves were chewed to freshen the breath, in Medieval era, people started using mint as mouth fresheners. * Mint candies were used not only as breath fresheners but also for its carminative properties. Altoids, the mint candies, similar to Jwar Ji tikki were first created by a confectioner named William Smith, in London in l8th century. Those were originally made from a mix of Sugar, gum arabic, gelatin, glucose syrup and peppermint oil. However after a century (almost 100 years) Altoids became more popular in America than in Europe. Coming to Jwar Ji tikki, this desi peppermint candy was and still is, a favorite of Sindhis. Dilip Uncle told me that now mostly Menthol crystals are used to make Jwar Ji Tikki, instead of mint oil. The crystals used, could be natural or synthetic. Natural Menthol crystals are made by freezing the essential oil extracted from mint plants. Upon freezing, the menthol crystals are separated from dementholized oil with the help of a centrifuge machine and are finally dried for a day or so. These Menthol crystals (previously known as peppermint camphor) are then used in candies or in products for Oral hygiene etc. Synthetic Menthol crystals are produced by hydrogenation of thymol. Why the name Jwar Ji Tikki ? Ideally it should be pronounced as Johar or Jowhar Ji Tikki. Johar in Sindhi means essence/arq/essential oil etc. Menthol is known as Phudney Jo Johar (Phudna= mint in Sindhi). For such interesting translations you can refer the dictionary of Sindhyat.com A detailed recipe (trade secret) of this Jwar Ji tikki is promised by few sources and if I do get it, I will share it with you all. And as usual, I am sharing here a small video for those who wish to learn how to write in Arabic Sindhi script.

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Bheendi Pickle For AlifBe~5

Alka Keswani — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 13:54:17 +0000

The next letter in AlifBe for Sindhi food series is ڀ i.e Bh or भ as in Bharat or Bhutan. Please Note: If you don’t wish to read further but want to directly move to the recipe of Bheendi Pickle, then kindly click here! Else, do read on…… If you remember previous posts then you nay have noticed that except first alphabet ا (A), rest three alphabets covered so far ; ب (B), ٻ (B^), پ (P) have same basic shape while the number of dots vary! The fifth alphabet is formed using the same basic shape having 4 dots below the horizontal line. And a Sindhi dish starting with the alphabet ڀ i.e Bh or भ is Bheendi! No it is not an Okra dish! It is a classic Sindhi Pickle made from raw mangoes! The Sindhi Community is famous for its Pickles and Papad and Shikarpuri pickles were and still are the most famous pickles. Shikarpur, a city and capital of Shikarpur district in Sindh, was a well known hub for gold and spice trade along with cotton, brass etc. It was the city known for its schools and was the first city to have and intermediate college. Shikarpur was also popular for its distinct pickles and the credit would always go to the underground water of Shikarpur which used to be so sweet that the vegetables grown there would have peculiar flavors that would reflect in the flavors of Shikarpuri Pickles and hence pickles from Shikarpur would be toothsome and many a times even, exquisite, like the Bheendi pickle! Bheendi pickle is made from grated raw mangoes mixed with popular pickling spices like fenugreek seeds, kalonji, fennel seeds etc. but what makes this pickle unique is the way it is pickled. Spoonful of the pickle mix is tied in a potli of muslin cloth and the process is repeated for rest of the mix.All the potlis are then left to mature in the water+vinegar+mustard oil bath! I know many of you might be wondering about the name Bheendi and trust me, you are not alone! They say “It takes a village to raise a child” and this project ‘AlifBe of Sindhi food’ also takes a village to exist, thrive and prosper! Only those who got involved with me in my hunt of the traditional dishes, the proper pronunciations and the ‘nomenclature’ of the dishes, would know how exhausting this research and the project could get! I was always intrigued by the word Bheendi used for this pickle considering Bheendi was the term used for Okra but all I could gather was that it is called so because the pickle looks like a dot or bindhi. I was not convinced at all but since Spoken Sindhi is not as standardised as written Sindhi I assumed that maybe Bheendi is a corrupted word for Bindhi and my life moved on peacefully until the moment I reached for the alphabet BH in this AlifBe for Sindhi food series! As usual I first turned towards my better half to help me find some references in Sindhi Dictionary. Nothing helpful was found in the one we had. Then began the unending discussions with Barkha Khushalani Di (the one who is generously helping me out in this project since the day it was conceptualised) and for several days the brain storming went on and on but we were unable to conclude something assuring. I was getting restless but got some hope from the Kutchi connection; the Bandhani process (Tie and dye process) where tiny portions of fabric are tied using nylon threads (called Bheendi in local language) in specific patterns and dyed to make the popular Bandhani style clothes. Bandhani tie and dye process is known from Indus Valley civilisation era (As early as 4000 BC) and this dyeing process was introduced and popularised by Khatri community. I had a hunch that the way this pickle is tied in muslin cloth the name Bheendi might have a connection with bheendi in Bandhani. But I am yet to find if that is the real reason for the pickle being named Bheendi. I tried contacting with some people from Cloth (retail)/ dyeing/ weaving industries but am yet to get some relevant information about the connection between Bandhani Bheendi and Bheendi pickle. And just when I was about to give up, I received this message from Surrayya Kapri “Bheendi refers to tying your head with a cloth. Bheendi is tied using a cloth around your head to secure the rao (dupatta). In Sindh, older ladies tie a bheendi round their heads.” Phew!!! I finally got some relevant answers! BTW Surrayya Kapri from New Jersey, is a fan of Sindhi language, culture and food (cooking included). Her ancestral town is Kunri in Umarkot, Sindh, which is a big market for red chilies. She often shares with me the lesser known recipes/dishes/ jewellery/attire/fabrics/traditions of Sindh and Sindhis from bygone as well as modern era and we both often crib about the way our culture is losing its sheen. So now that we know why Bheendi pickle is named so, let us focus on how this pickle is made! Some make this pickle using tender raw mangoes (Kairi) while others use Rajapuri raw mangoes (not the kairi but the raw mangoes) You can find the recipe of the Bheendi khatti using raw mangoes, here! This pickle is also known as Kadhukash/Kadhukas/Kadukas/potli/gathri/gathiri pickle and the recipe varies across the community. Some do add whole spices like Kamaal Patt (Tej Patta), nutmeg, cinnamon etc along with the regular pickling spices while others avoid whole garam masala. And now comes a little twist! It ain’t a mango pickling season yet, in Mumbai but a fortnight ago I found some tender raw mangoes in the local market. We generally don’t get tender mangoes in January/Feb in markets around. Felt skeptical enough to not buy in bulk but couldn’t resist the temptation of buying a few since I had a recipe to try out. For those who are connected with me via Instagram might remember a post shared by me, about some traditional Bengali ingredients that I purchased from Amar Khammar, an online portal and one of the ingredients was Panchphoron, a typical spice mix used generously in Bengali cuisine. The Panchphoron is a mix of five spices; Fennel seeds, Mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, Kalonji (nigella seeds) and fenugreek seeds. I was curious to try a variant of Bheendi pickle using Panchphoron mix, since fennel, fenugreek and Nigella seeds are used in Bheendi pickle. I wanted to check how the pickle flavors vary if cumin and mustard seeds are added along with other spices and how different the pickle would taste considering that the proportion of each of the spices used in Sindhi style may be different from the proportion of each spice used in Panchphoron mix. So I pickled two mangoes using the panchphoron mix and I must say it works fairly good! So what I did was that I grated 2 mangoes (tender raw mangoes, but sadly the texture of mangoes after grating was not good enough) and to it I added salt, 3 tsp of Panchphoron mix, some turmeric, around 10 garlic cloves, 1 tsp red chilli powder, 2 tsp of crushed patali gur (Date palm Jaggery, courtesy Mr Arun Kumar Pandey), a dash of asafoetida and mixed 5 tbsp of mustard oil that was heated to smoking point and cooled before using. Rest of the process was same as that of Sindhi Style Bheendi pickle. So can you think of other Sindhi dishes starting with ‘Bh’? Do share pictures/recipes of Sindhi dishes cooked by you and I will publish selected few on this blog, with due credits!

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