Midday Musings

Holud (in Bengali), an essential ingredient in Indian cooking is better known to the world as turmeric. Indian cooking can't be done without turmeric. It gives that distinct yellow color to foods -- curries, fries, anything. Every savory food you can think of has turmeric in it, even if it is just a hint.

But as a kid I was not too fond of the yellow color food. Maybe because it was the norm, it was what we had every day that I wanted something different. One thing which I craved for was the alu bhaja (fried potatoes) without turmeric. I don't know what it was that enthralled me about this dish being cooked without turmeric. The first time I saw those non yellow potato fries was in a friend's lunch box. Probably that was the source of the fascination. At age eight or nine it is what others have that is always much more interesting and better than what you have. It was also escalated by the fact that my mom never cooked without turmeric. Primarily because my dad didn't like food which looked pale. He always ate with his eyes first, as do most of us. So food which didn't have turmeric didn't appeal to him and it automatically lost its taste.

And then one day my dream came true. My dad was away on an office trip and mom made the alu bhaja without turmeric. It is a very simple dish where the potatoes are seasoned with salt and turmeric and then shallow fried with some sliced onions and green chili. Dinner that day consisted of bhaat (rice), daal (lentils) and alu bhaja without turmeric. To this day it remains my favorite dish, my ultimate comfort food and whenever I don't feel like cooking I always boil some rice and lentils and make some potato fries, though surprisingly I do add turmeric now. That craze about eating pale colored foods has left me, probably for good as turmeric is said to have many medicinal properties and known to treat digestive and liver problems.

One other source of my rebellion against the turmeric could be the fact that during fall every year, I was forced to eat an inch of raw turmeric root with some gur (a sort of molasses). The raw root has a very bitter taste and it leaves a strong aftertaste in the mouth. In India, fall is a fleeting season with a nip in the air, and a time when people are caught unawares by the change in season. Everywhere you look, you can see people coughing and sneezing and blowing their nose. The purpose of the turmeric was to make the immune system stronger, to help the body stay healthy and sound. The days when dad gave it (sometimes mom would give it with a generous helping of molasses) was bad because he was very stingy with the molasses. He practically preferred to give just the raw root. But when he saw that it was impossible to make me eat without the molasses he would just brush it lightly with the molasses. And the worst part was I had to sit in front of him and chew and swallow the entire thing right before his eyes. So there was no way of escaping. And all the time I chewed, I would grumble about how my teeth would look yellow and how my friends would tease me, and my dad would go on about how this was good for health because it was a blood purifier, and how it has been used since ancient times and so on. Much as I hated it at that time I do miss the routine now, though I don't miss the bitter taste. And it did help in preventing sickness during the change of seasons.

Though my parents always talked about the medicinal aspects of turmeric I didn't quite believe in it until I sprained my leg. I was in high school then and I slipped down the stairs and sprained my right ankle. Within seconds I saw my ankle swell up to the size of a soft ball. "Great!" I thought. "Now I can miss my Shakespeare test tomorrow." But that happy feeling didn't last long as turmeric played spoilsport. My mom heated up some turmeric paste, combined it with some quicklime, applied the mixture to the swollen area and tightly wrapped it up with a piece of cloth. Within a few hours the swelling had decreased considerably and I had to concentrate on Shakespeare once again. The next day I limped to school and took the test.

Turmeric also plays a major role in the cultural life of Bengalis. Any auspicious occasion like a puja (worshipping God) or a wedding can never take place without turmeric. In a wedding the use of turmeric starts right away at the invitations being sent out. When invitations are sent, a corner of the envelope is first smeared with turmeric. This signifies good luck. Mostly the younger people in the family do this job and I remember doing it, along with a bunch of other cousins, for my uncle's and my cousin's wedding. Both the weddings took place when I was in school. It was fun as well as tedious. Fun because we could skip studies and tedious because there would be two to three hundred cards per wedding, sometimes even more. I did the same during my marriage too. Usually we would take a card, smear it with turmeric on the top left hand corner and then move it aside. Then one of my cousins devised a method. He laid out 15-20 cards, each overlapping the other in a way that their top left hand corners were exposed. Then he took the turmeric and just smeared it through in a straight line thus covering twenty cards at one go. And it was more fun to do it this way. After it was smeared with turmeric we had to write the address, attach stamps and seal the envelopes. In other words, make it ready to be posted. And for all this we were treated to something. For my uncle's wedding I negotiated a quarter for every invitation that we processed, to which my dad, who was the organizer, agreed. And for my cousin's wedding I got treated to loads of ice cream.

The beginning of a Bengali wedding is marked by the drawing of the Hindu symbol of swastika on a wall with a paste of turmeric and vermilion. It is supposed to bring good luck to the new bride and groom. And then there is an entire ceremony which consists solely of turmeric. It is called gaye holud (applying turmeric to the body). This is a fun and elaborate ceremony. In this ritual, turmeric roots are ground to a paste, mixed with mustard oil, applied to the groom's body and then the same paste is sent over to the bride's house to be applied on the bride's body. I had lots of fun at numerous weddings of friends and cousins smearing them with turmeric paste. All the turmeric I had smeared on numerous cousins, relatives and friends' at their weddings came to haunt me as my friends and family made it their mission to turn me into a yellow ghost with success. And after they were finished with me they suddenly turned upon each other, each attacking the other with turmeric paste until suddenly the place was filled with shouts and squeals and laughter, and everyone looked yellowish and like creatures from a different planet and then there was no mistaking the fact that there was a wedding in the house.