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My Grandma A Walking Encylopedia Of Medicine

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by sunkan, Jul 18, 2007.

  1. sunkan

    sunkan Gold IL'ite

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    My grandmother a walking encyclopedia of medicine:
    Most of my summer holidays had been in devadi street mylapore madras, as we had no other place to plan, with a meager salary of my father Krishnamurthy, who had been an accountant.

    Her cooking were all in kachitti the stone vessels and amurtham is the only word applicable here, at that age that is she was into 60 and so slim fair and very very meticulous about her cooking keeping all things right. The tender kathrikkai used to take a different turn in her hand, the koottu now priya makes exactly like her mama says.
    She was a law unto herself, she knew how every thing could be tackled from family issues to medical, whenever we said, Patti this one sided headache unable to bear, she would come up with so many herbs to be put together and heat and then use that oil for a good oil bath and stay away from sour stuff and so on just within 4 weeks u would be relieved completely of it.

    A great writer in her own right, she used to compose a lot of songs on thirupathi perumal and Krishna and muruga and so on whatever fancied her, after having some 10 children. Heard that she had come with head to toe decorated with jewellary and a beauty to hold that, married a school teacher who definitely could not help keeping such a big family, grandma used to say we never had contraceptive other wise I could had saved my children from starvation, but all were beautiful and handsome I must say, and each one studied only upto the 10<SUP>th</SUP> only one aunt muthulakshmi did her BSc.in scholarship, as they could afford only that and went to work in Chennai as they were living in Tirunelveli at that time and had a wonderful house with a very big tulasi plant to which she used to put pichi haaram whenever possible. After thatha’s demise they moved on to Chennai and each child went to school and from there to work and so on, when my mother got married my father being a very dark man, my mama used to console and pati used to say, think u r going to a better home and not the color of the man. Too practical in life it is a sight to hold when she is crossed leg on a chair and reading the news paper.

    Any child of aunt and uncle will be bathed so well u love watching it, with all the herbs ready to be ground on the sandal paste grinding stone to be mixed with mother’s milk and fed into the babies mouth in paladai, and giving sambrani to the child’s head. My mother used to also follow all these with our children, so I also joined the crowd of elders to bathe them, my “entrancing challenge” brings out that act in me there…
    If any child cried a lot get some vasambu grind it on the medicine stone and rub it around the navel and the child eases out by peeing and bliss. If ever a child had problem with stools she used to stuff some small bit of soap in the great rear to ease out and a good shouting for the mother to be careful about what she eats, no molagapodi, pickles, and other spicy items while breastfeeding the babes. The early morning pillai petha marundu was even more great, with boiled garlic handful and some jaggery along with some powders which were home made and two tablespoon of ghee all made into leghiyam fresh and hot being put in ur palm and asked to take, then some paan to go back to sleep as this is served at around 5 in the morning.
    It was 1975 I was on my way to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1:place>Bangalore</st1:place></st1:City> for delivery of my first child and crossing Chennai with just an hour in the station. Some time later I find my grand mother with mama walking slim and straight with her own grace with a small tiffin carrier and a banana leaf and a chombu of water. She came in the compartment, spread the leaf and put all she had cooked there, nice arachu vitta sambhar, beans kari, famous kathrika koottu, and her never to beat tongue tickling rasam paruppu thogayal and so on, the gesture is something I hold too dear in my heart, , yenna patiye paarkamaley poidarada, oru va yengathule saaptutu pogalamey, nee varale adan naane vanduten [WHY COULDNT U HAD STOPPED AT MY PLACE FOR SOME MEALS, AS U DID NOT COME I HAVE COME HERE WITH LUNCH FOR U] she herself served me and then sitting next to me had some betel leaf and pakku and sunnambu and all, asked me to take it, said all garbinis should always have this to help in digestion, and a warning not to go back without showing her great grand child to her, so again while returning I made a stop though traveling alone is tough but made it a point to show her priya the baby and then on my way to kolkata. Regards sunkan
     
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  2. abhatv

    abhatv Senior IL'ite

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    Hai Sunkan,

    That post was lovely. Your grandmother is so loving and so much considerate. You must be missing her.......

    Regards,

    Abha.
     
  3. Abha

    Abha Bronze IL'ite

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    Hey Sunkan

    I really liked ths post... it has this old world charm to it... thos days when our nanis and dadis were alive they were so active... we are not even half of that at this young age... always working and running around the house and side by side taking care of the kids too...

    It is a great heritage, but i'm afraid if we'll be able to pass it on to our children... the way you were able to write this post here today... would the coming generation have something like this to say to others ????

    ~Abha
     
  4. sunkan

    sunkan Gold IL'ite

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    DEAR abha,
    be what u want to be from now, and love when given with sincerity never fails, u reap what u sow, right all the best...sunkan
     
  5. roopadadia

    roopadadia Silver IL'ite

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    Hey Sunkan,

    You are lucky to have such a loving & caring grandma.

    The home remedies that they have are so helpful and with no side effects. Do post some of them in a separate thread.

    Warm regards
    Roopa.
     
  6. Nivedi

    Nivedi New IL'ite

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    Dear Sunkan,

    What a lovely account of life with your grandma. I enjoyed reading it.

    Rgrds,
    Nivedi
     
  7. sunkan

    sunkan Gold IL'ite

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    dear roopa,
    sathya has become an exponent in the home remedies, ask her and she will tell u all, her name is also that of my grandmother sathyabhama, and she has a lot of similarities in interest of herbs and medicines...regards sunkan
     
  8. mtkm

    mtkm New IL'ite

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    Sunkan ma'am

    yr lovely post reminded me the bitterseet memories of my beloved grandma and great grandma.They were fabulous people to know and love .....once again thanks..

    regards
    latha
     
  9. latamurali

    latamurali Gold IL'ite

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    Dearmost sunkan mam

    Very nice post......and i too started getting memories of my patti ( both sides0......and mainly my father's mother....she is lovely lady ..............she will hav handy medicines for all........and my mom.she blidnly folllowed her elders for my post pregnancy.........as ui said i too get all those royal treatment at that time.......... inc.....sambrani, vethali etc etc........each and everytime my mom used to remind me about her mother's care while my mom delivered me........even now mam..for all ailmetns.we first use to have KAIVAIDHYAM then only we will go to doctor if it is really necessary.........

    Sad part is i too lost my both patti's........THEY SHOWERED THEIR UNCONDITONAL LOVE NOT ONLY ON ME BUT ALSO WTIH MY KID..........poor kids.they didnt get enough time to be with them.........
     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2008
  10. sunkan

    sunkan Gold IL'ite

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    yes latha,
    it is sad anytime to think of people who have left a very deep impression and it carries on ..sunkan
     

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