In the villages in Telangana, I observed that Jonna Ambali or sorghum gruel was the favourite drink to beat the heat, especially in the summers. It is sipped while munching the raw onions or licking fresh mango pickle occasionally. Pachhi-Pulusu is a raw tamarind soup prepared and taken with rice or roti. Sometimes we drank it like soup. It is easy to make the dish; the main ingredient is the liquid extracted from tamarind pods. The tamarind pods are soaked in water and squeezed. Some freshly cut onions and green-chilly pieces are added in it along with some salt. This gave a lot of coolness to the body when taken. Shega that is the burnt sensation while passing urine, was very common when we spent time outdoors in the summer. To beat shega we used to drink lots of water.

Rice was the principal food, eaten along with a vegetable curry, Rasam, Pachi-Pulusu (raw tamarind juice + onion + green chilly pieces) and Sambar (Yellow dal +tamarind juice + variety of vegetable pieces), additionally had pickle and curd. Pappu Charu (prepared like Sambar but without any vegetables) was very common at home. Upma (cooked with coarse wheat flour) was the traditional tiffin (snack between meals).

The thokku a traditional pickle is prepared with pieces of green mangos added with mustard powder, red chilly powder, crystal salt and with or without oil. It is so hot and would last for one year easily. The thokku is also similarly prepared with green tamarind pods, Lemons, Tomatoes, Cucumber, etc. Pickles add good taste when eaten with Sorghum roti’s. Whenever I am in a village, I would request one of those pickles.

Avisha podi (Flax seeds powder) prepared with sugar and chilli-powder is grounded on a stone is also good and tasty to eat with hot roti’s.

The taste of the food cooked on the biomass cookstoves was delicious when compared to the food cooked on a kerosene or LPG stove that I ate.

In the villages buying snacks was rare that is about 40 years back. The favourite snack was eating together freshly fried peanuts and pieces of jaggery (made from sugarcane juice).

Food didn’t have a great variety, but it was tasty and yet it was never less sumptuous. Maybe it was the mother’s cooking that had the magic or the expectations were within the means.

Sorghum roti and Chickpea dal one of the simplest food