About this Blog

 

            This blog has been created with the purpose of preserving and sharing recipes, that were perfected with many trials and errors over many decades, by four sisters. They were born in the Ghatate family, in Narkhed, which is in the state of Maharashtra in India. Upon marriage, each one settled in a different part of India, but their bonds of love remained strong for a lifetime. They were:

·       Mrs. Laxmi Kathalay (1920-1984), a.k.a. Lila mavshi - settled in Nagpur, Maharashtra, India

·       Mrs. Sushila Kasture (1922-1996), a.k.a. Sushila mavshi - settled in Chindwada, Madhya Pradesh, India

·       Mrs. Saraswati Kathalay (1936-present), a.k.a. Sindhu mavshi - settled in New Delhi, India

·       Mrs. Kalpana Kane (1948-present), a.k.a. Shakun mavshi - settled in Indore, M.P., India

Above: (From left to right) Lila mavashi, Sindhu mavashi & Sushila mavashi

(Picture taken in 1950s)

Above: Shakun mavashi

(A recent picture)

            From four sisters came 18 children, many grandchildren and great grandchildren. The idea for this recipe blog came about quite accidently. For the longest time I had requested my mother, Aai, i.e. Saraswati Kathalay to write a book/ memoir/ autobiography so that her grandchildren and the future generations would learn about life in her era. In her youth she had been fond of writing, so I thought she would like this idea. But she wasn’t willing to write now. She was humble enough to say that she had not accomplished anything worth writing about.

            It is said that Grahastha ashram is the only ashram in which a woman can develop all the facets of her potential. My mother has many facets and cooking is only one of them! Now close to 85, Aai has worn many hats in her life, gone through many transitions and steered the family through three different eras, namely in the era of her father-in-law (my grand father), her husband (my father) and her son (my brother). She has raised and molded five children, taken active interest in shaping 8 grandchildren, been a partner to my father in the family business, held leadership roles at many levels at Vanita Samaj etc. But above all she created a heaven in our home, specially for us, her children to grow, learn and evolve. Now in her vanaprastha ashram, she has been giving lectures in the local community, based on holy scriptures in Hinduism, for over thirty years. To make a long story short, her life has touched many lives and there is enough material in her life, to write a book about each aspect of her potential!

            In the spring of 2021, my cousin sister, Sandhya Ekbote, posted a photo of matar kachoris on our family’s WhatsApp group. She said they were delicious and made with Sindhu mavashi’s recipe. So I suggested to her that she should ask her mavashi to write a book of recipes. Sandhya said that mavashi was old now and may be we should put together all her recipes. With that great idea, the wheels were in motion and it eventually took the form of this blog. Aai’s (i.e. my mother/ Sandhya's mavashi) recipes were scattered among many cousin sisters and I had quite a few myself, some in Aai’s handwriting! All we had to do was bring them together, translate them from Marathi into English and polish them with details of procedure, that we had learnt through practical training and feeding our families over decades now. Cooking is a very useful skill, that is best learnt by working in the kitchen with your mother. It is practical knowledge that you imbibe by observing an expert and then trying with your own hands.

            What you see in this blog is a compilation of over 40 recipes by these four sisters. This is a team effort with many volunteers within the family, who took the time and effort to cook them, taste them and took pictures of the same for this blog. The volunteers are Aai’s nieces, grand-nieces, grand daughters-in-law and two of her daughters including myself. Due credit has been given to each volunteer in each post.

            As for the four sisters, two passed away decades back. Now Aai and Shakun mavashi are the only ones from that era. Since Aai is the older one, I requested her to write a few words about the culinary aspect of her potential. Happy to say that she gladly agreed to do so and using her sharp memory and the brevity of her writing skills, put forth a lovely write up in Marathi, that recreates that era. You can read it in the page titled 'Heritage from Aai'.

            In her book, ‘Composing a Further Life’ the author, Mary Catherine Bateson says:

“Every cultural tradition includes a theory of how what has been treasured in the past is transmitted to the next generation, and this depends upon having an understanding of how human lives unfold, how the transitions are made from one stage to the next, often through rituals or ordeals, and how the torch is passed from generation to generation.”

            The four sisters passed the torch to my generation by actually teaching us i.e. each mother to her children. Now my generation is passing the torch to the next generation with the means of this blog, where these recipes shall remain well preserved and we hope that they shall be read, tried and shared with many more generations.

            Please bear in mind that these recipes belong to an era of late 1930s to late 1980s. In this era these four sisters nurtured large and multi-generational families. Cooking was done on a large scale as a team with help from family members and maids. It was seasonal, freshly made on a daily basis with locally grown produce. Extended family was always welcome and it was normal to have live-in guests through out the year! Festivals were celebrated with pujas and rituals, naivedhya was shown daily and the sweets that were specific to each festival were made on a large scale at home. It was a different era.

            Now most families are nuclear and we are spread out in three continents! Many are empty nesters with children living in different towns where there jobs are. In spite of all these changes, we can cook from these recipes with good planning for time management. This modern era has also brought many efficient kitchen appliances e.g. microwave ovens, deep freeze section in a fridge, dish-washers etc. These also reduce our reliance on maids for help. With the current pandemic, cooking has once again come to the fore front and it has become an essential skill to have, to ensure the survival of the fittest. If you are financially independent and you can cook then you can thrive and prosper in any part of the world! So use these recipes, eat healthy and live long!

R.D. (1964-present)

Massachusetts, U.S.A.

June.1.2021