DELECTABLE DAHI BATH

DELECTABLE DAHI BATH ( THAYIR SADAM OR CURD RICE)

       

Thayir sadam presides over the lunches and dinners of brahminical homes for ages.  Thayir sadam is identified with Brahmins so much so that brahmincal youths often become the butt end of wit by being referred to endearingly as ‘thayir sadam’.  

In the south, no lunch or dinner is complete without thayir sadam at the end. While we travel to the remotest corners of the globe, when we sight even half a plateful thayir sadam, we feel as excited, as Archimedes was, when he shouted “Eureka, Eureka”.

Thayir sadam essentially consists of cooked rice mixed with curd and salted a little to appeal to our palate. Many dress it up with finely cut pieces of green chillies, ginger (or rather its dried variety sukku ), slightly fried  mustard. During travel, to enhance its shelf life more and to prevent it from turning sour, a little milk is also added. In those days, for train journeys, a dubba full of molagapodi spread idlies, packed thayir sadam ensured to be free from becoming sour, a kooja full of hot coffee supplemented by a flask full and tickets (card tickets and no E ticket)  in that order were essential requisites.

Simplicity thy name is thayir sadam. When we have butterflies in our stomach or when we have absolutely no appetite, thayir sadam would act as a palliative. Don’t go to bed, without having atleast a mouthful of thayir sadam, our anxious grandmothers would admonish us. If one cannot afford a three course lunch or dinner, a mouthful of thayir sadam, two times a day, would sustain us.  

By nature, thayir sadam is gregarious. It cannot suffer loneliness.  Pickles, particularly aavakkai, mavadu or vadu  mangai ( kaduku mangai)and thayir sadam are made for each other. A spoonful of manga kari ( raw finely cut mangoes, mixed with salt and chilly powder), when fresh (not more than 2 days old) adds Thayir sadam an extra taste incomparable to any sensuous pleasure in the world. Thayir sadam also gets along well with narthangai, nellikkai and limbu. Those whose Cholesterol level is normal can also go for fried moremilagai, chundakkai and marthankali or thamaraikizhanku. I know people who take thayir sadam along with sediments of rasam. Light heartedly, one could say that if thayir sadam had been available during lunch at Lords, a Srikant would have crossed the boundaries more often or a Venkat Raghavan, turned his off- spinners a little more sharp at Oval. It is quality thayir sadam that has added to the assertiveness if not arrogance, of some of the cricket officials.   

During marriage eve dinners, when the contractors provide North Indian or Western dishes along with chat and Chinese items, thayir sadam finds a pride of place among  strangers. Would any one need a proof of its popularity?

The solid version of thayir sadam is reverentially addressed as ‘daddhi annam’ by the Vaishnavaites whereas its diluted form bears the name baghala bath’. A well dressed thayhir sadam charm us and lead us like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Thayir sadam is also distributed as prasadam in Vishnu temples. Once when we were at Govindapuram ( near Kumbakonam) a little later than

Lunch hour and as lunch had been exhausted we were served thayir sadam with lime pickles instead. What a Divine Grace! Gavasdkar’s glorious Century at Old Trafford, Jim Laker’s 19 for 90 again at Old Trafford, Maradona’s dribblings with  the ball, all pale into insignificance before that Thayir sadam.  

Those unfamiliar with their kitchen or young daughter-in –laws fresh from colleges, untrained by their mothers in culinary art, find solace and satiety in thayir sadam.

Even though an essential part of lunches and dinners or serving as a standard alone item, thayir sadam is asked to stand out from our breakfast tables. To have taken thayir sadam for breakfast means one has committed an unforgivable sin and is beyond redemption.

All the efforts in preparing thayir sadam remain unappreciated. I could pack only thayir sadam today in my child’s lunch box, a young mother would say with a tone full of sin. Her preparation of even thayir sadam is a curse, a mother in law would lament about her daughter in law’s inadequacies. Ambi, modalla thayir sadam panna padichukko, appuram adupu kitta wa, a senior cook would admonish the young recruit who struggles with stirring the sambar.        

North Indians take dahi aplenty without making thayir sadam out of it. Even among communities in our own Kerala, other than Brahmins do not have much fancy for dahi bath. However, in Tamil Nadu, all communities comfortably settle for thayir sadam. In western countries, Yoghurt, as curd is called, takes shape in different flavours and serves as a desert. In fact, some of the Airlines serve flavoured yoghurt in cups.

Thayir sadam has therapeutic value. Endowed with bacteria that fight the ones causing us diseases, thayir sadam helps us in digestion, cleanses our colons and ensures smooth disposal of wastages from our system. A handful of thayir sadam three times a day is equivalent to eight grandmas around us, an unmarried youth, surviving on thayir sadam alone, in a remote corner in Europe, sings its glory.

Though virtues galore, thayir sadam suffers from a serious set back. One has to be free from thayir sadam, when one is suffering from a high temperature or has a running nose. On such occasions, milagu rasam ( pepper rasam) is prescribed instead. If during their dating days, one of the duo   indicates his/her preference for thayir sadam, would run the risk of ruining the relationship.  

It is not merely IITs and other engineering colleges that have contributed towards the development of Silicon Valley. Thayir Sadam that sustained software engineers in Indian Soil, if not in San Francisco, has also contributed in equal measure in the mission. Like Intel Inside, if an indication that “Thayir Sadam Inside”, is available, that would announce to the world that best of operations is at hand.