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Every time we land in Coimbatore, our hometown, one of the first things we do is seek out a bakery and eat a thenga bun (coconut bun). Now, you should not be conflating this with the dil khush or the dil pasand – this is a creation far greater than these two can ever aspire to be. It is light and fluffy (where the two dils are harder and denser) with a filling that is a nod to the millions of coconut trees 🌴 scattered about the local landscape, so much so that the generic term ‘grove’ in the local language automatically means a coconut grove. This sweetened coconut-filled confection is available in Coimbatore, and maybe in a 50-km radius. Beyond that radius unimaginable tortures are inflicted upon it – it’s desecerated with tutti frutti or cinnamon or jam or cream or whatever else struck some dimwit of a baker sometime in the distant past.
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No – the real coconut bun is available only in Coimbatore and its environs, and we always enjoy a slice of it when we visit. Like real pizza, it comes in a large circle and is best enjoyed in long thin slices 🍕.
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No doubt every one of us has some irrationally strong attachment to the delicacies of our childhoods. Many times, the longing for them is a culinary hiraeth – because they no longer exist in the forms we enjoyed them. Some other delicacies transcend such narrow geographic boundaries – like the Phantom cigarette sweets. Other childhood treats include the honey sweet, the orange sweet, the Vicks sweet, the kamarkat and the elandha vadai – I’m not going to describe them beyond saying that when we were kids, any of these could be obtained for a single coin of the lowest denomination in circulation, and delivered satisfaction far beyond what they cost.
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As with anything that evokes nostalgia, capitalism is there to deliver. On the biggest ever shopping website that we all love to hate so much, there are enough purveyors of each of these childhood delicacies – albeit in packages of several dozens, if not hundreds, and costing several hundred rupees in the bargain. Most of these are just trading on the selling power of nostalgia and trick you into buying something labelled after what you enjoyed as a child, but is actually something that is almost, but not quite what you expected.
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A reminder: To ensure you don't miss any of our newsletters, move this email to your inbox. We always send all our newsletters from happystuff@sigamany.in – add it to your contacts so that you always get it in your inbox.
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Here's a Photo
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...instead of a thousand words
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Vidya looking at Monet’s Water Lilies at the Museum of Modern Art, New York | 2011
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Interesting Stuff
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Fun things we'd turn around and share with you if we were in the same room as you
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Since so many of you enjoyed Maru, here’s Mauri the Cucumber cat for your enjoyment. A handsome little fellow, 😺 he lives in Helsinki and is crazy about cucumbers 🥒! Vidya cannot get over his cute videos. Watch the video that made him famous:
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One of the unsolved mysteries of New Zealand is the Tamil Bell 🔔. Unearthed sometime in the 1830s, the inscription on it was deciphered much later to be in Tamil and proclaimed that it was a bell from a ship 🚢 that belonged to a Tamil merchant called Muhayideen Baksh. Modern metallurgy reveals it is from the 1600s or 1700s. How did a Tamil Bell end up in New Zealand? No one knows, though there are plenty of theories. Read all about it here and here.
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One of the most majestic and magical phenomena you can witness while being out and about in nature is a murmuration of starlings. There’s not much one can say that can match its sheer visual impact. Watch this video of a massive murmuration.
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Fun Poll!
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What's a newsletter without a survey!
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The last poll clearly showed that there are a few Cylons among us. I’m looking at you – the 14.3% of us who like spending time with a machine ironing your clothes!
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This time we want to know what you think about podcasts 🎙️. Do you love listening to them or do they put you to sleep 😴?
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Nostalgia Kick
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Rasna is the drink 🥤 of our collective childhoods. Soft drinks were more or less verboten, mostly because of their cost. Rasna neatly filled the gap, as it could be made at home at a fraction of the price of bottled drinks. The bright orange colour was clearly attractive to all of us kids. Here’s an ad for Rasna in a 1986 children’s comic book.
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What We're Watching
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Because there’s no such thing as too much TV!
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We’re currently watching the second season of My Life is Murder.
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Before that we finished the delightful Darby and Joan. While they looked like advertisements for life Down Under, both these murder mysteries (Acorn TV) kept us hooked. Madame Blanc, again on Acorn TV, was a really fun cosy murder mystery. Then we returned to Iceland and the adventures of police detectives Hinrika and Andri with Entrapped (Netflix).
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We also completely loved season 2 of Masaba Masaba and guiltily binged on Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives.
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Other recent Acorn TV favourites were Foyle’s War and Inspector George Gently.
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That's it for this issue, folks! Feel free to write to us at happystuff@sigamany.in or just fill out the form here with your thoughts, ideas and good wishes :)
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See you in the next issue!
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Disclaimer: We have no affiliation, commercial or otherwise, with any products and services we mention in the newsletter.
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