THE one and only - அஞ்சு சுத்து முறுக்கு

Guess what, I love surprises, duh. And luckily enough, touchwood, I've been getting a number of gifts recently in the past month or so. And more often than not, even the smallest of surprise gifts move me to tears. Especially if it's from home.

So what now? A few days back and again now, I got this anju suthu murukku (அஞ்சு சுத்து முறுக்கு) from Amma - parcel. The first time, I got it along with a 'disaster' (verbatim, from Amma) maida cake' as she attempted her creativity by putting some Boost in the maida cake!! (If you know a bit of TamBrahm cuisine, this maida cake is one of the most lowly regarded sweets - and if it is not supplemented by pineapple, vanilla or god-knows-what flavor, it's blasphemy)! And needless to say, it tasted divine to my taste-deprived Gustatory cortex.

And now, to the hero of the story - the murukku. It's one of the very few left Tamizhachiness in me I guess. Murukku is something that's inherent to Tamilnadu alone, I believe or so do I want to believe. And the classic anju suthu murukku is as important as the bride and the groom in any TamBrahm wedding. And my allllllll-time favorite. Even if my kalyana saapadu had only murukkus I would still live as happily as I am now!

In fact, when I went to India, I even learnt to suthufy murukku. My paatti says "murukku suthardhu ellarukkum varuma? Kuduthu vechirukanum. Kayila valam venum" And of course, like a good grandma she said I am better at murukku suthing than my mom. Ah, there you go, ma! Proof: Look at pictures - 90% of them there are murukkus that I suthufied!

Recently friend had gone to India to his sister's wedding and brought back a bunch of goodies from Grand Sweets, the kalyana seer murukku and a small (on strict instructions about the weight) packet of murukku from Amma. Of course the home made murukku packet comes with rendu suthu, with one special anju suthu like my paatti always does.

Now that you know how big a meaning this wriggly little thing holds in my life, you wouldn't be surprised... (Taking a bit of murukku and getting distracted) Aaah, the pleasure of eating a murukku suthu by suthu. Please, stop frowning, let me live. This is what I want from life, the joy it gives and the smile it brings :)

That said, it is probably history that the neuroscientist in me thinks the strongest connection from the senses is that of olfaction to the hippocampus, or all the memory machinery there is. And now I feel a close second would be from the gustatory system to memory. I bit an adhirasam, amidst all this elation, a tear popped from my eye - thinking of how elaborate with 16 different neivedhyams last krishna jayanthi I spent at home on my sudden trip was - in 2011 - how that would be the last time thatha would eat all the batshanams, as it turned out. Oh no, please, please, give me a time machine! Actually, give him a time machine from heaven - let whim revisit the street in Sukkur district, Pakistan where he was born.

So since I don't want to end this on a sad note - why all this murukku adhirasam nostalgia now? Today was a not-so-unproductive and in fact an unusually cheerful Saturday. And I gave in to my biggest addiction - my blissful afternoon sleep. And here I am with cardamom tea and a plate full of murukku adhirasam and laddu. And a lump in my throat. And a bittersweet feeling in my head, tending more towards sweet. And an yearning, thinking of when it would happen next. And a little anger on myself on why I didn't enjoy many moments of tea with murukku in India a little bit more.

So the next time you see or eat a murukku, remember there's much more to life than just the twists and turns, there's a pleasure hidden in each twist and turn! More murukku to you! (And to me too, please!)(Oh just to clarify - I don't mean the twists of life, _just_ murukku)