A favourite childhood memory of mine is me coming home from school to a mound of steaming rice topped with a ladle of thick pappu (boiled mashed green gram) and a generous helping of homemade ghee surrounded by a moat of tangy chinta charu (tamarind rasam). It was my first tryst with nostalgia. The first bite would transport me back to simpler times when the school days and my trousers were both half in measure. I’ve always maintained that my ammi, my late grandmother, invented the dish. One of the most unfortunate outcomes of her passing was the loss of the recipe. You might think I’m being inconsiderate, but the dish is to die for. And my mother’s version just doesn’t taste like what ammi used to make. I’d been on the hunt for this elusive dish for years. I’ve scrounged around the annals of the internet long enough to know that it isn’t familiar, let alone popular. So, I took it upon myself to recreate the dish, from memory. It took me years to perfect it. The pappu was easy enough
The journey to brighten the lives of girl students began in 2014, but that would be too far back, so let's just start from last weekend. 7 of us left from Majestic on Sunday evening and after a shaky ride, arrive at Athani in the morning. The good folks from Aviratha who travelled with us landed in an IB and we set up shop at a friend-of-a-friend’s place. Mr. Udaya Kumar Gunda was a great host and his family welcomed us warmly into their house and their dining tables. After quickly washing off the soreness of travel and a fantastic breakfast at their house, we headed towards JA College auditorium, where we were to felicitate the beneficiaries of the proceedings from Keli Katheya - the Kannada audio book. The 16 girl students who has scored 125/125 in Kannada at their SSLC exams were yet to arrive and we got to work setting up the auditorium. The college staff were very accommodating and went out of their way to ensure that our event was successful. From helping us change the venu