Sunday, June 8, 2014

In the land of Tulu tribes - II

Mangaluru
1. The roads are still lined with open gutters on either side. It feels like driving on the edge. I suppose life in Mangalore is always on the edge. It's just that either you fall into a gutter or manoeuvre yourself away from one.

2. I was surprised to see dominance of non-localites ran eateries on a beach side. I mean the quality of food was horribly bad and the localites do have a reputation for serving better quality food. Why then not many competing with them? I could find many smaller 'charamuri(charamburi)', a snack made of puffed rice, stalls run by Tuluvas. So, it's not that the small scale of these joints isn't favoured by them. I'm kind of a person who gets irritated by sun, sand and sea. It's only the eateries around make me feel rejuvenated. And the beach was a big disappointment.

3. Mangalore has been in the news for moral policing. I had a first hand observation of this phenomenon. I overheard a woman on the beach loudly shouting in Tulu, "Shameless creatures! Didn't they even get a towel to wrap around their waist? Just look at them roaming around in this state." When I looked around I found couple of men walking by wearing only soakingly wet panties.

4. It appears grandmothers of Tulu region no longer liked to be addressed as 'grandmother' in local lingo. In Tulu, it's either 'dodda' or 'ajji'. However, in it's place they are making their grandchildren to call them 'ammamma'. This is the exact northern Malayali term for grandmother. Maybe common origin is expressing itself after few generations.

5. This year also I continued my unscientific survey of popularity of different Ice-cream flavours. The last year survey results were:
 gudbud : 15
 dilkush : 5
 parfait: 12
 others: negligible
This year:
gudbud: 6
dilkush: 5
parfait: 15
others: 27

others: Other big ones, not counting single scoops and slices.

It appears Parfait popularity is still strong. I must say, two decades ago it was mostly Gudbud and Dilkush. I think Gudbud is losing its popularity and Dilkush is continuing its low stagnant state. But to my surprise other flavours are gaining ground. Unfortunately, I'm still into those three flavours, I couldn't recognize them. Somehow, I feel Tiramisu is gaining over others.

It could be also that, a decade or two ago, eating Ice-cream was a rare phenomenon, hence, eating the popular ones every time could have been a renewed feeling. But nowadays, eating Ice-cream might have become a regular ritual and thus other flavours are being experimented with.