This post is dedicated to the memory of my paternal grandmother, Smt Savitri (Lund) Belai (nee Lakhi Kalro). Fondly called mamma by all of us.
This picture of hers is the only one we have and was taken when she spent a year in Karachi with her husband Naraindas (Lund) Belai. She told my aunt, her youngest born that it was the happiest year of her life. She never spoke of life in undivided India although I was almost 18 when she passed. I think it pained her to remember the good times and life as a married woman.
My grandfather passed on in 1952, after a hard few years of trying to rescue assets and money under a make believe passport as a Balouchi Pathan. We are told he died of shock or heartbreak, or both. They lived in a beautifully appointed kothi several floors tall in Hathidar (elephant gate), Shikarpur, Undivided India. Each of the brothers had a floor to themselves and they were five of them. They first moved to Pune, in the upper floor of a tile roofed house in Kasba Peth. From a floor to each they had to huddle in a three room tenement. Twenty plus of them. Part of the family moved to Coimbatore and continues to live there.
It is Kartiki Ekadashi today. Also celebrated as Tulsi vivah. In our family though, it was a day of remembrance as it was on this day that my grandfather passed.
The entire family - grown to almost 40 odd of us as all kids were married and had kids of their own would gather and feast on this gyaarsi khaado ( grain free and spice free meal observed on the eleventh day of the lunar cycle).
I have fond memories of this austere but delicious meal and have tried to recreate the exact menu today. The recipes are straightforward and require little technique but need a great deal of patience. It was not half as good as what mamma would make ... my couple of tries are nowhere compared to her making this every year for 40 years. I hope to practice some more.
The flavours are derived from slow roasting and cooking with love and focus. The only spices used are cumin, green chillies, raw mango powder, himalyan salt and some pepper.
Menu in comments
#kitchentraditions #sindhiyat #ekadashi
#gyaras #undividedindia #partition 
