MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH VERY HOT CHILLI PEPPERS AT KOVURU
For a village boy of about 8 years, I was thin and frail looking contraption.Two sticks struck on a torso were my hands and two twigs stuck under served as by legs.Coming to face, I was like ol'man/boy Benjamin Button and was known as "Budhho" meaning old man.
Even though my grandfather was known to down a spoon or two of hot chilli powder with lentils, all of us, the rest of the family comprising of my widowed aunt, another widowed lady and three of us brothers, were medium hot food eaters.
It was in 1957 summer, that we went to Rajahmundry which falls in Hottest region (chilli pepper growing and consumption wise)of India. World's biggest chilli pepper market is not much far from there in Guntur.My uncle who was elder to my father , lived plumb on Godavari river opposite of Godavari station.
We would spend hours looking at sail boats slowly crossing the river and coming back from Kovur on opposite bank. Kovur was a very small village then. My elder brother Dilip bhai was the most naughty of my siblings and had an adventurous streak .
Since we had never sailed in a boat, he asked and got permission from my uncle to cross the river in a boat.The charges to cross the river were 2 paise per head. It roughly translates into 0.0004 USD.Actually, he was not interested in sailing across the river but he wanted to eat Idly Dosai in road side eatery in Kovur. He had about 4 annas in his pocket that would have bought us two days of food for all the three of us.
We set sail on a roughly two mile trip to Kovur. After about 45 minutes, we reached the opposite bank at Kovur.The boatman informed us that we would be sailing back immediately as a lot of people were waiting to be ferried back.My elder brother ran to the nearest Idly vendor lady who was dishing out steaming puffed rice-lentil steamed cakes with fresh coconut chutney.The smell was heavenly and we were hungry.
Each of us took two huge idlies and a big dollop of Coconut chutney in Banana Leaf and scurried back to the boat.No sooner the boat sailed back, we opened our steaming packets and started the first hottest encounter of our very young lives.I took a huge bite of steaming hot idly first and was pleasantly shocked to taste its warm loving taste.Next I took a piece and liberally spread the coconut chutney on it and put the heavenly smelling piece in my mouth.I felt a bit hot but enjoyed the first encounter.I took another in less than five seconds when the searing heat hit me like a flame of volcano.I was neither able to spit out nor able to swallow.My face went red and I could almost see my smoking ears through my tears filled eyes.With great difficulty, I ate just 1 idly. Condition of my brothers were not much different.My younger brother started howling. We threw the remaining Idlies in river Godavari for fish to have a feast.There was no water with us and our hands could not reach the sweet water running beneath us and around us.The boatman and his helpers started laughing . He took pity on us and gave us tumblerful water each , fresh from the river.
By the time we reached the home shore , we were all on fire and crying. My elder brother had warned that we should not say anything about eating Idlies because we belong to priest class and we were not supposed to eat road side food.On reaching home, our faces and crying eyes told the story to everyone that something was wrong.My brother reeled off a story that we were mortally afraid that we would sink in the river and were afraid so we were crying.
Since people were not interested in children due to a religious event that was to be held the other day, we were not grilled to get at the truth.
The heat subsided after about three hours but again raised its head the next day when we went to the loo.
Since that time, I came to know that Andhra people make coconut chutney with just two ingredients. Hot green Sannam peppers and same amount of Coconut by weight.
I still remember my plight after 52 years.
NJA
For a village boy of about 8 years, I was thin and frail looking contraption.Two sticks struck on a torso were my hands and two twigs stuck under served as by legs.Coming to face, I was like ol'man/boy Benjamin Button and was known as "Budhho" meaning old man.
Even though my grandfather was known to down a spoon or two of hot chilli powder with lentils, all of us, the rest of the family comprising of my widowed aunt, another widowed lady and three of us brothers, were medium hot food eaters.
It was in 1957 summer, that we went to Rajahmundry which falls in Hottest region (chilli pepper growing and consumption wise)of India. World's biggest chilli pepper market is not much far from there in Guntur.My uncle who was elder to my father , lived plumb on Godavari river opposite of Godavari station.
We would spend hours looking at sail boats slowly crossing the river and coming back from Kovur on opposite bank. Kovur was a very small village then. My elder brother Dilip bhai was the most naughty of my siblings and had an adventurous streak .
Since we had never sailed in a boat, he asked and got permission from my uncle to cross the river in a boat.The charges to cross the river were 2 paise per head. It roughly translates into 0.0004 USD.Actually, he was not interested in sailing across the river but he wanted to eat Idly Dosai in road side eatery in Kovur. He had about 4 annas in his pocket that would have bought us two days of food for all the three of us.
We set sail on a roughly two mile trip to Kovur. After about 45 minutes, we reached the opposite bank at Kovur.The boatman informed us that we would be sailing back immediately as a lot of people were waiting to be ferried back.My elder brother ran to the nearest Idly vendor lady who was dishing out steaming puffed rice-lentil steamed cakes with fresh coconut chutney.The smell was heavenly and we were hungry.
Each of us took two huge idlies and a big dollop of Coconut chutney in Banana Leaf and scurried back to the boat.No sooner the boat sailed back, we opened our steaming packets and started the first hottest encounter of our very young lives.I took a huge bite of steaming hot idly first and was pleasantly shocked to taste its warm loving taste.Next I took a piece and liberally spread the coconut chutney on it and put the heavenly smelling piece in my mouth.I felt a bit hot but enjoyed the first encounter.I took another in less than five seconds when the searing heat hit me like a flame of volcano.I was neither able to spit out nor able to swallow.My face went red and I could almost see my smoking ears through my tears filled eyes.With great difficulty, I ate just 1 idly. Condition of my brothers were not much different.My younger brother started howling. We threw the remaining Idlies in river Godavari for fish to have a feast.There was no water with us and our hands could not reach the sweet water running beneath us and around us.The boatman and his helpers started laughing . He took pity on us and gave us tumblerful water each , fresh from the river.
By the time we reached the home shore , we were all on fire and crying. My elder brother had warned that we should not say anything about eating Idlies because we belong to priest class and we were not supposed to eat road side food.On reaching home, our faces and crying eyes told the story to everyone that something was wrong.My brother reeled off a story that we were mortally afraid that we would sink in the river and were afraid so we were crying.
Since people were not interested in children due to a religious event that was to be held the other day, we were not grilled to get at the truth.
The heat subsided after about three hours but again raised its head the next day when we went to the loo.
Since that time, I came to know that Andhra people make coconut chutney with just two ingredients. Hot green Sannam peppers and same amount of Coconut by weight.
I still remember my plight after 52 years.
NJA
