Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Mobile Indian Community celebrates Mother’s Day

By Pawan Agrawal

May 7 has arrived, the sun is out and up and the Indian community in Mobile is waking up to the celebration of Mother’s day at Five Rivers Park in Mobile, Alabama.

The fathers are going to cook for the mothers as a tribute to the mothers and to give them a break but more so to prove that we can cook toooooo. We had ventured to cook Pav-Bhaji, Pakodas with chutney, Grilled Vegetable Sandwich with sauce, Moore (South Indian Butter milk) and Chai.

So the menu was set and the preparation started a day earlier; we had gathered (five of us) at one of the member’s house the previous evening, boiled the cauliflower and potatoes, and cut the vegetables. The preparation started at 6pm and ended at 12pm. The member who had hosted the preparation event had apparently forgotten to inform his wife and when she returned from a hard day of teaching at USA, saw a bunch of us at the house was surprised. However, she was sport for the event and in fact was pleasantly surprised. We headed to the back yard, did the preparations, packed the boiled and cut vegetables in zip lock bags and loaded them in few cars. We were enjoying ourselves as we were cutting the vegetables, talking about all the problems in the world and sipping on Singapore sling and Samosas as we went along. As you can see, the fun had already started. Ya… fun it was, although back breaking fun, but yes it was on.

May 7 was bright and sunny. The location was right next to the vast expanse of water body with Mobile bay in the background. There were two open pavilions at an elevation of about 12 feet and there was cool breeze blowing. It was an excellent day for the cook out, it was textbook perfect setting, and it cannot get any better. One of the committee members of IAGM was the first person to arrive at the venue punctually at 8:30 AM and started the setting up of the Volley Ball net and pole (as usual the other support team was behind time); slowly the other committee members started arriving. The clock was now showing 9.10 AM, the gas cylinders and the cooking utensils were off loaded from the cars. There were about six cars, each carrying some items for the event, some had the vegetables, some sports gear, some had the disposables and some the drinks etc. It was really a team effort.

The fire was lit under the big pot and oil poured in and this was going to be the start of the BHAJI of the PAV BHAJI, so now at-least one item of the menu was on the start hoping it will end up tasting good. The next thing of our adventurous menu was the sandwich station; bread was stacked up and pre-boiled potatoes were cut into slices. Onion, tomatoes, chutney, chat masala, and salt was packed between two slices of bread and grilled in various grills. As the sandwich was being grilled, we poured the butter Milk, added water, salt, chat masala and Tadka of green chilies, mustard seed, curry leaves, and special ingredients that made the Moore (south Indian buttermilk).

As the members arrived, they were treated to sandwich and cooling-soothing “Moore”. The pavilion was being filled with members young and old.  There was a special treat in store for the Mother’s, they were pampered to a manicure from a local professional and the daughters/sons got to do the final touch up of the manicure by applying nail polish to their mothers. You should see the faces of the mothers brimming with pride. The BHAJI was about 50% done; most of the ingredients were in the pot and cooking. On another stove, the oil for the Pakodas was warming up, the batter was mixed and ready to go, just guess the type of Pakodas we made, Gongura (Special Andhra leaf), onion, potato, green chili, jalapeño and banana. Hot pakodas were a hit, even before we could take them out of the frying pan; people were already taking them piece by piece and enjoying it. Somebody had cut the watermelon and that was being relished as per the mood of the individual. Everything was free flowing.

One of the key event that day was the applying the bindi by the men, blindfolded on the picture of a lady. It was great fun, you should see all the places that the bindi was applied on the lady, you could not have even guessed in your wildest dream, hope the ladies do not get any ideas and then the innovative location becomes a fashion trend and I will leave it at that.

There were other events like guessing the number of beads in a jar, needle and thread etc ... As all this was going on there was one member who was getting individual families together and snapping pictures, we have still not got her print out but I believe that it is going to be something like a portrait picture that will be given out later.

The Bhaji was now ready, and the pav was toasted with fresh butter and served hot.  Everybody relished the Pav& Bhaji with onion and cut lemon. It was feeling like we were in India enjoying the thela-wala.

It was now my turn to take the mike and I started off by calling all the people scattered around to gather in the cozy pavilion to have more fun. The winner of the Bindi contest was announced, the person who was closest to the centre of the forehead was the winner, not as somebody suggested the one with the most innovative location. The next was the winner of the beads contest and one of the members was just off by two beads from the actual count. We also had a lucky draw and a couple from Gulfport was the lucky winner. The next on schedule was that one by one the kids came up and presented a rose and a box of sweets to their mom’s and to add some ting to this they were to say one thing they “liked” and one thing they “did not like” about their mom. “Did not like” does not necessarily mean that it is a bad thing.  There were about 50 kids, and each had their own take, some of the “do not like” quotes were “my mother scolds me, she yells at me etc.” and some of the “like” quotes were “she cooks for me, she helps me in my studies, she is always there for me…”

This was the final event of the day, but the fun was not over, the music was on and people were back again strolling around, the time was now about 1:30 PM. Slowly people started to make the way out; by about 2:30pm we started winding down and by 3.30pm I had restored the stuff into the warehouse and was headed back home. So this was the fun filled and packed weekend of Mother’s day in Mobile. I hope that the readers of Pravasi Herald would be thinking that Mobile is a fun place to be, there is no doubt about that, especially the Indian crowd of mobile.

Taking leave, Pawan Agrawal, President IAGM Mobile.

 

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