COIMBATORE: At a time when some parents are glad to observe their children, as they playfully imitate their favourite film stars and cricketers, it is so easy for a multi-national company to market its hazardous food products by making such celebrities as their brand ambassadors. In a state, where certain parents even christen their wards after such ‘icons’, it is no wonder that they blindly believe what the celebrities endorse. Nevertheless, following the government’s recent ban on Maggi Noodles, it is high time Coimbatoreans realised that only their traditional food will be the secret of their energy!
Mothers of yesteryear Coimbatore would not have even pronounced alien names of foods and cosmetics, as they led peaceful, pure, traditional lives.
It is interesting to recall that a new generation kid burst into laughter, as her grandmother, who didn’t know English, pronounced shampoo as ‘Saembu’. On one occasion, the Kongu woman confused a shopkeeper after her grandchild sent her to buy a packet of jam. After a while, he understood that what she was asking for as she said to him “Give me that Rottikku Podara Pasai” describing jam as the ‘gum’ applied on bread!
Another Kongu woman invoked peals of laughter at her grandson’s school by calling the little boy’s classmate as Maang Komuri, mispronouncing his Christian name Montgomery! What’s more, she also asked her grandson why his classmate, the boy, was called a girl, since the Kongu Tamil expression Komuri meant a young girl! (Kumari)
When Coimbatore had few hotels, bakeries and sweet stalls in the bygone era, people led disease-free lives, as they cooked and ate nutritious traditional dishes. In the rural pockets of the then Coimbatore, the breakfast would usually be the Palayasoru or remnant of the rice, which the people had for dinner the previous night. They would have it immersed in curd with a side dish of the last night- made Kuzhambu (curry) after condensing it by rewarming in the Sundaachatti (a small earthen pot exclusively meant for condensing the last night’s kuzuhambu in the Kongu region)
While the present generation hesitates even to pronounce the Tamil names of food items as Soru and Saaru and prefers to call them ‘fashionably’ in Sanskrit as Saadham and Rasam respectively, yesteryear Coimbatoreans mentioned the so-called ‘Rasam’ as Molasaaru, which was a corruption of Milaku Saaru (pepper water). Similarly, Idli, which is the name of the favourite dish of Tamils, is from Ittu Avi which stands for its meaning ‘To put and cook by steaming’
With even parents being unaware of the traditional food system today, their children, who like to have Kurkure and Lays, blink at the names of Coimbatore’s traditional snacks like Ellurundai , Kadalai Urundai and Opputtu!
Compiled by: B Meenakshi Sundaram
Source: Kongu Kalanjiyam - Volume 1