Thoughts and images of my mother keep popping up in my mind every day in one way or other, and I am sure we all share this experience about people whom we love or loved very much. Many a time I have imaginary conversations with my mother, my father and other people whom I really love as though they were right there in front of me.
Being bombarded by the print media, electronic media, social media by the myriad advertisements about Mother's day, I feel sad as nowadays I don't have much to write about my mother. It is not that there is really nothing to write, but still I could not think of writing / sharing anything about her here in my blogs. It has been 3 years to the day since I last wrote about her on Mother's day.
I was cooking as usual, making Rasam (a watery soup like dish), and some potato curry to go along with it. The aroma of tamarind, the rasam powder, the tomatoes along with curry leaves boiling started wafting throughout the house, which is not unusual. But today the aroma was a little different and special : it was the same aroma that I used to get whenever my mother made Rasam in our home !
I have been making Rasams for so many years, and it would always taste good. But only on rare occasions did I manage to replicate the aroma brought out by my mother's magical Rasam. At that moment, I would get so excited and shout out to the whole family that " today the Rasam smells just like Patti's (grandma's) Rasam and also tastes just like hers". I would dramatise it so much, that my children in the innocence of the very young would really believe that they were indeed tasting the best Rasam made especially for them by their grandma.
My mother would also invariably make an accompaniment for her heavenly Rasam - boiled potatoes coated with thinly sliced, finely chopped onions fried together so that the potatoes get a coat of the brown, self caramelised onions.
With no deliberate intent and by sheer coincidence, I made this type of Potato curry and Rasam today on Mother's day! And not just that : today my mother seemed to be by my side throughout, guiding me, tutoring me to create the utterly heavenly, delicious tasting Rasam and Potato curry.
"Magic exists. Who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wild flowers, the music of winds and the silence of the stars?
Anyone who has loved has been touched by magic.
It is such a simple yet an extraordinary part of the lives we live".
I find no words in my dictionary to describe the aroma or the taste of the Rasam and potato curry that my mother (my mother's soul) and I made today.
Thank you Amma, for being with me even when you are no longer here in this world : a magic that only mothers can accomplish!
Let there be some magic in your day too!
Happy Mother's Day Everyone!
