tapioca, lime and chilies

Faithfully following my brother to the terrace to fly our kites...

Kites we fashioned from old newspapers, home-made maida-paste (a sort of glue that works well on paper), pliable 'sticks' snatched from a handy broom made of coconut frond ribs, twine gathered by unwrapping groceries brought home over the last few months and rolled meticulously into manageable balls...

Lugging them all up to the terrace, eager to impress and out-do the neighboring kids...

The terrace, of course, was not easily maneuverable, thanks to the zillion little 'vadaam' drying out on plastic sheets weighted down by bricks at the four corners - vadaam made out of tapioca, lime and chilies.

I can almost smell this delicious starchy concoction now, drying out in the blazing sun, to be sorted and stored in large airtight cans so as to last until next summer, when a fresh batch of vadaam can be made all over again.

Dodging her visual range lest mom ask for some help spreading spoonfuls of the porridgy batter onto the plastic sheets, shifting stolen spoonfuls of the piping hot porridge between palms to cool off before devouring greedily, whining noisily when asked to double as a scarecrow to safeguard these precious little treasures...

Was that really me?

I have been getting these flashes of memory from my early childhood that seems disconnected somehow, as if it happened to my earlier incarnation and i am hanging on to it unwittingly...

Incredibly Sweet Memories. Absolutely Irreplaceable.