M for More Than One Topic :P

This blog post is part of the A to Z Challenge. This challenge involves writing a blog post on any topic/theme in the order of the alphabets from A-Z. The blog posts have to be written each day through the entire month of April, excluding Sundays. 

My chosen theme is the city of Chennai - sights, sounds, tastes, its happenings, events, and my memories and experiences connected with this place.

M for Music. Oh, how boring you might think. But of course, there’s a twist. And how…Agam is a South Indian band that fuses rock rhythms & traditional Carnatic music with local vocals. They have songs in Tamil and English with great guitar riffs.

They sing bhajans in metal & rock style…can you beat that? With music being one of the first creative arts to go fusion eons ago, this combination is spot on. Hearing them live in an open-air concert recently blew my mind. Power and peace to them! Rock on, Southie headbangers!!

The above sudden change of topic was inspired by fellow Chennai blogger, Deepak Raghuraman. Do check out his inspiring blog here: Get Inspired! Thanks Deepak, for pulling me outta the slump and back on the A-Z challenge. Deepak sent me Agam songs, joked around and got me back up and running. I owe you one, Deepak, we shall start off with what's coming below! What say you? :-) Read on...

My original M post was to be about Maanga. No, not the Jap comic. ‘Maanga’ in Tamil refers to the king of fruits – the mango. Not the ripe one, but the green fresh-off-the-tree variety. Many a childhood summer vacation was spent indulging in a snack (many such plates in one day) of diced green mangoes doused in coconut oil and spiced with red chilli powder. This is the ultimate ‘hot’ finger food during the peak of summer in India. Kids and even adults climb trees to pick the best firm and juicy mangoes off backyard gardens, wash them, and the snack is ready in a minute, giving Maggi noodles a run for its money.

My grandmother’s only job all day with 10 kids in the house was to cut the mangoes we collected and spice it up. The mantle was eventually passed to my mother. We would have this before, after and in between all meals, even at midnight. Such was our fascination and addiction.

A common sight at the beach, the mango is of a local variety called ‘Killimookku’ which means ‘parrot’s beak’ due to its shape. A mango of a slightly longer shape and size, it is slit lengthwise, and each slice is further cut to resemble a cockatoo’s crest of feathers. These are then doused with the spicy oil, salt and chilli powder mix.

This combination of spice and tang is known as “chatpata” in Hindi. Fresh mangoes in summer - an any-age, any-time snack.