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Indian Library
32 Literary Review
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
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What we like
Coffee with Kaldi YOYO-NAMA | GOURI DANGE
An imperial chronicle in the vein of Shahnama, Baburnama and
Akbarnama, detailing the reign of a “foundling-turned-
dictator”, who is Gouri Dange’s own beloved terrier, Yoyo.
The infusion that keeps you wideeyed and Dotted with photographs of Yoyo and his family, the book is
full of anecdotes that will touch the hearts of pet parents.
tickles the little grey cells of the brain
RAHUL VERMA
GETTY IMAGES/ ISTOCK
have been binging on Netflix, and
one series in particular — Castle —
has me glued to the television set. I
Iadmire the investigators, I like the
murder mysteries, I laugh at their
jokes: and I am gripped by excitement
every time I see the characters move
towards a corner of their office. For
that is where they keep their coffee
machine. And every now and then,
they pour themselves a cup.
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I was never much of a coffee lover.
In my salad days, I was more fond of
coffee houses than of the beverage. A
coffee house was where we sat and The coffee plant moved from
dreamt of revolutions. The coffee was Ethiopia to Yemen and then to the rest Thrilling
thin, like our pockets, but the pumpkin of the world. “Coffee seeds were Scanned images
sauce that came with the samosas we brought to India by Arab traders from from the books,
ordered was nice and thick. And we Middle Eastern ports for use by the Chunoputi (The
could sit over a cup of coffee and the gentry,” food historian K.T. Achaya tells Insignificant) and
sauce for hours. us in A Historical Dictionary of Indian Bachharer Kiba
Food. Mane (What Does
Seven seeds Recently, when there was an the Year Mean, After
But that was then. Now I enjoy a strong agitation in parts of Karnataka over a All?). SOVIETBOOKSIN
cup of coffee as much as I like my temple in the Budangiri Hills, I was BENGALI.BLOGSPOT.COM
#70929
Darjeeling. And I love the way coffee reminded of the region’s coffee
pops up in TV series and detective plantations and the legacy of Baba
books. That, I suppose, is the reason I Budan. He was an 18th century holy POSTSCRIPT
have been reading up on coffee. man who went on a pilgrimage to CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
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There was one story about the Mecca and returned to India carrying
origin of coffee that I enjoyed reading. seven coffee seeds with him. He
In the ancient forests on the Ethiopian planted the seeds outside his cave in A ticket to
plateau lived a shepherd called Kaldi, the Chikmagalur Hills in Karnataka.
says a slim booklet called Following the And the coffee plants flourished.
Coffee Bean Trail by WelcomeZest, an But among all the coffee tales that I
ITC publication. Kaldi noticed that his have been reading about, what I like samovar country
goats became rather energetic when the most is this advertisement that,
they grazed on a bush with red berries. Tannahill tells us, appeared in the
Kaldi shared this story with an abbot of London Publick Adviser on May 19, 1657.
a local monastery. And the abbot Coffee is “a very wholesome and A generation grew up reading Russian books
created a drink with the berries and physical drink”, the ad said.
found that it kept him wideeyed. “The Why? Because it “closes the orifice in Bengali. The books live again in this blog
word spread, making the beverage of the stomack, fortifies the heat
popular,” the booklet says. within, helpeth digestion, quickeneth ANUSUA MUKHERJEE cage, and the irate rooster. Sleep
Coffee, researchers tell us, the spirits, maketh the heart lightsome, Aloyonoushka, the story will begin
originated in Ethiopia. The word is good against eyesores, coughs, or ne of Aloyonoushka’s eyes right now.” (Stories of Aloyonoushka by
‘coffee’ comes from the Turkish colds, rheumes, consumption, head sleeps, the other stares; one D. Mamin Sibiriyak, translated into
kahveh, which in turn is from the ach, dropsie, gout, scurvy, king’s evil ear sleeps, the other listens. Bengali by Noni Bhowmik, English
Arabic qahwah. Reay Tannahill writes and many others.” OSleep, pretty Aloyonoushka, translation mine).
in Food in History that the first wild And, going by the way Castle and sleep. Papa will tell you stories, and it
plantation can be traced back to the his team solve all those mysterious seems everyone is present — the Back in the woods
6th century. “[But]... it was only in the deaths, it irrigates the brain, too. Siberian cat Vaska, the shaggy It is one of the quirks of history that
13th century, when the beans were ............................................................................... bumpkin doggo Postyoko, Mouse Aunt most Bengali children of the Leftist
cleaned and roasted before infusing, The writer likes reading and writing who lives in the hole, the household decades of the 70s and 80s had their
that modern coffee was invented,” about food as much as he does cooking cricket from that side of the hearth, the imaginative world made up of Russians
Tannahill writes. and eating it. Well, almost. polyphonous polkadotted birdie in the plodding through snow in parkas and
BOOKMARK
Grand merger Award for translation
One of Inndia’s oldest publishing houses, The EBRD Literature Prize 2019 will be awarded to
Rajkamal Prakashan Group, has acquired four the year’s best work of literary fiction translated
Hindi publishing houses, of which one belongs into English and originally written in any language
to the pre-Independence era. They are Sahitya of the EBRD’s 38 countries, covering parts of
Bhawan Private Limited, Purvoday Prakashan, Europe, Asia, the Mediterraneans and Africa. The
Saransh Prakashan and Remadhav Prakashan. prize recognises both author and translator.
