Topic started by ministhy (@ 202.9.166.60) on Tue Jun 5 14:48:26 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Hi all,

I am creating a collection of traditional (Indian) children's stories related to food.
For eg-in Kerala we have the story of the Appam tree having a delicious pot pourri of witches and appams and little adventurers.

It will be just great if I get a mix of traditional stories from across India.
Some from Tamilnadu, Some from Karnataka..what say?

You just need to give me a brief outline of that almost forgotten grandma tale (even one line would do)-please do mention the food item in it-like rasgullahs or puli inji:)-coz thats the crux-and pls mention the state.



Lets recreate the yummy talesfor our children!
And yes, I shall acknowledge the help:)

Warm Regards,
Happy cooking up tales,
Ministhy

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Ram (@ 149.123.119.175) on: Tue Jun 12 09:10:06
  
  Ria
  
  I read your story after a long time. You never get tired of these folk tales. It has still the same charm, it doesn't matter whether you are young or old. I have been laughing since.
  
  Thanks for bringing out such nice stories to bring happiness in people's lives.
  
  Ram
  
  
• From: Gruesome SToryteller (@ access-isdn1-24.gv.psu.edu) on: Thu Jun 14 19:51:36
  
  And then there is the story of Paramananda Guru, his five idiot disciples, and the horse's egg.
  
  Paramananda Guru sent his idiot disciples to twon to buy food, and suddenly they stopped on their way, shocked.
  
  Look! said one, pointing - Horses' eggs! There are those six beautiful horses, and near them their eggs. He was looking at horses grazing in a field of pumpkins.
  
  ALong came a crafty passer-by, who toeld them "ahh yes, my horses are faster than the wins, and the Sultan oF Arabia will be by in three days to buy those eggs."
  
  Oh my God, said the disciple. I wish I had as muh money as the SUltan. But I only have three gold pieces.
  
  By great luck, said the passer-by, I have a small horse egg that is exactly that price. You loko like holy men. I will give you that egg for three gold pieces and a blessing. And having got the two, he went to the field, and got them a pumpkin. And went on his merry way.
  
  The idiot disciples excitedly made their way back to the gfuru carrying their horse's egg. Ah, silly man.. he did not know that we had two more gold pieces. And look, when this egg hatches, we will sell the horse for many more gold pieces..
  
  As he walked along, the mildly less dumb of the disciples was struck by a thought - who would sit on the egg to hatch it? And he asked his fellows that question. Struck by the magnitude of the problem, they stopped, suddenly - and the last pushed into the first, and the egg carrier, caught in the middle stumbled, and with a cry, lost his balance - and the horses' egg, that flew into a wayside bush.
  
  Ahh.. he cried, getting up just in time to see a startled rabbit run from under the bus. There goes the horse-hatchlling - what long ears it has, even if it is so small! Look what you made me do, idiots!
  
  They went sheepishly back to their Guru, who kindly consoled them. Never mind, my boys - I am old and my bones are brittle - I could never ride that thing with long ears and if it ran fast, who would catch it ?
  
  
• From: Rajagopalan (@ 192-63-248131.unisys.com) on: Tue Jun 19 15:53:46
  
  Isnt there a story involving Avvaiyar and the Nelli-kani (amla fruit)? I forget the details, excepting that it is supposed to give immortality to the eater. Does anyone remember this story?
  
  
• From: Nagarajan (@ dkf-gw.dkf.de) on: Thu Jun 21 03:37:14
  
  Some temples have food stories associated with them. For example, in Uppiliyappan temple, the prasadam is served without food. some people say that it is because "oppila appan" became "upp-iliyappan". Also in a Hanuman temple, people put big garlands of vadai.
  
  
• From: sumathi sudhakar (@ ) on: Tue Oct 23 23:44:22
  
  hi, i read all those wonderful tales with food in them. here's one more. it is a little silly, but i loved it as a child. There was this poor boy called Mookkan,which means bignose in Tamil. he had a huge nose with baggy pouches in them. he had only an old grandma who looked after him. one day his friends at play mentioned the laddu and poor mookkan had never had any. so he asked his grandma to prepare laddus for him but his granny said that it would be a costly affair and all she had was a grimy 4 anna coin. mookkan said he would get her all that she needed to to make theladdus. so she said first get me besan(gram flour) and he took the coin to the market and asked the shopkeeper for besan as much as his coin would fetch. the shopkeeper said the coin would not fetch him much but feeling sorry for the boy he measured otu soem besan for him mookkan filled the pouches of his nose with the besan nad hands over the coin to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper returns the cpin saying it was of no good to anyone. mookkan brings the besan home. in the same way, mookkan gathered the rest fot he ingrediants for the recipe with just one grimy 4 anna coin, one by one. then grandma makes him teh wonderful laddus and he enjoys them.
  is that ok?
  regards
  sumathi
  
  
• From: Sneha (@ px2ar.ed.shawcable.net) on: Sun Nov 25 20:05:11
  
  Hi mini
  This is a story about why we cry when we cut onions.
  
  Once a tomato,an onion,and potato were friends.
  they are so worried about what happens if they die.Tomato said when one of us die ,the rest of us should cry for the died one.one day they were having a walk on the road side.A truck smashed the potato .so tomato and onion cried.Another day
  a man smashed the tomato with his boots.so onion cried.onion is so worried about who will cry if he die.so he went to a temple and asked God "who will cry if i die".God is very much touched by onions sad story and said "dont worry everyone who killed u will cry for u".Thats why we all cry when we kill...sorry..cut onion.Hope u like the story.
  
  
• From: pradheep Chhalliyil (@ agent.lisco.com) on: Fri Mar 22 22:04:30
  
  STORY OF CITRUS FRUITS In Hindu Mythology
  
  People suffered from all sort of diseases and so once they decided to seek the advice of Rishi’s (the Seers). They asked the Rishi’s to help them with the wisdom of healing diseases and probably preventing diseases. Rishi’s meditated on the God’s and finally Lord Brahma, the Lord of Creation appeared before them and asked what they wanted. The Rishi’s asked Brahma to give solace to suffering Humanity from diseases. Lord Brahma created citrus fruits and asked the Rishi’s to grow them in earth, and eating them would be panacea for all diseases. The Rishi’s handed over them to the people and told that if they eat Citrus fruits regularly they wound be immune from diseases.
  
  Lord Brahma’s son Narada condemned his Dad’s act of creating a fruit family that would free mankind from diseases. He cautioned that that would cause imbalance in Lord Shiva’s job of (destruction) bringing death. But Lord Brahma smiled cleverly saying that he had kept an anti-dote in the fruit which would neutralize the good effects of the fruit. The anti-dote is the seed which is small and slimy and would always slip into one’s mouth and hence lose the benefits of the fruit.
  
  This is a piece of information found in Brahma purana (I believe). This purana (mythological story) conveys a lot of scientific information. Citrus fruits are rich in vitamin C and vitamin C is known to be the panacea for all diseases. It has a role in combating a wide range of diseases both chronic (long periods) and acute (short and intense) like infections. Vitamin C is a natural anti-biotic and also helps the body to strengthen its immunity. It helps in collagen formation the support of all body structure. One can list its benefits in the body with no limits.
  
  Understanding this fact our ancestors have conveyed the message in a puranic story to high light preventive measures to be taken in food. Hence citrus in form of lemon is an unavoidable fruit in all rituals. They were included so that in the name of rituals, mankind would benefit from eating the fruit.
  
  For long time I did not understand why seeds were to be avoided until I stumbled upon natural cancer preventing agents. It is a compound called Laterile (also called Amygdalin) which is present in trace amounts in many seeds. This was shown to be an effective anticancer agent (I understand that some politics behind accepting this fact in doctor’s community). Any way, the interesting fact with the above purana and laterile is that the only seeds on Earth that lacks this cancer preventive compound are citrus fruits.
  
  I am amazed by this fact and keeps me wondering whether this fruit not only lacks latertile in it, might also have anti-laterile compounds in it, which if found true might answer why Brahma told Narada that one would not get the benefit of citrus if seeds are ingested. I also speculate that the seed might contains chemicals that prevent our stomach from absorbing many nutrients like vitamin C.
  
  There are many more puranic stories that reveal many scientific secrets. Any way next time take care to avoid seeds while eating citrus fruits like oranges, lemons and grapefruits.
  
  
• From: Ministhy Dileep (@ c-24-99-47-32.atl.client2.attbi.com) on: Thu Aug 7 13:26:48
  
  Hi friends,
  
  These are simply delightful:)Haven't you heard the one about the neyappam and the tiger? It is also a way of teaching children to count!
  Well this old man and his woman decide to cook neyappams and the old guy goes to the forest to pick firewood. And ofcourse, he meets the grrring tiger there:)
  ' well if you cook ten neyappams for me, I will let you go", says the tiger smacking his lips( and ofcourse planning to eat up both the old people after the neyappams).
  
  The neyappams are cooked -around twelve . Both grandma and pa eats one each and then the plate is covered up.
  Old man lifts the lid after some time and steals two-he is so greedy for the food you see.Old ma repeats the act. Finally they have an empty plate for the tiger.
  Then an owl starts hooting:
  In mallu it goes like this:
  " Onnam malkkapuram oru puliachan etthunnu-ellarum urangiyoooo?"
  ( Across the first hill, the tiger is coming-has everyone fallen asleep as yet?"
  ( Imagine the child's excited screeches as the song progresses:)
  After some time, it becomes.." Randam mala..." meaning across the seconf hill...Finally the song ends in ten. But the wily old couple plans a way to outwit the tiger-by chilly powder and it all ends very well. Incase the kid isn't asleep as yet-you can start the hills all over again:):)
  
  Regards,
  Ministhy
  ( The collection is growing...)
  
  

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