The legend of Thengaachoru

SAHALA THASNI

For my grandmother, whom I call “ummamma,” thengachoru (coconut rice) is not just a dish; it’s an emotion. She can go on talking about its greatness forever. And a legendary story exists about how she made thengaachoru for the first time in her life. Anyone who has ever tasted my grandmother’s thengachoru would have surely heard this tale—it’s a family lore.

Long, long ago, on an Eid after her marriage, the seventeen-year-old Grandma was challenged by her sisters-in-law to cook thengachoru. The women had gone to the nearby pond to wash clothes after issuing the ‘order.’ And the elder men in the house were expected to return soon from the mosque. Grandma describes her emotions at that time like this:

“aduppilu viraku kathunnenekaal ookilu nte nenju kathi” (the fire in my heart blazed much stronger than that in the hearth)

Just then, to set the perfect romantic scene, Grandpa came in!

Without waiting for the elders,  he came running all the way home from the mosque to talk to Grandma alone. The moment Grandma saw him, tears welled up in her eyes.

“I… I don’t know how to cook thengaachoru,” she stammered between sobs.

“You cook, girl. Nothing will go wrong. Just don’t burn your hands and spoil your mylanchi (henna), okay?”

You should see Grandma’s face when she tells that part. Beneath those wrinkles, you can still spot the glow of a seventeen-year-old girl.

 So she called upon the Almighty, vowed everything that could be vowed, and washed the rice. The pot caught on fire. The thengaachoru is cooked. The elders returned; her sisters-in-law returned. The first verdict came:

“Ahh… assal! (Perfect!)”

From the farthest corner of the verandah, Grandpa reportedly gave her a secret wink.

This is history.

These are some of my childhood memories, wrapped around my grandmother and my ancestral home.

Even today, whenever I visit her, I pester her to retell those stories.

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Sahala Thasni is a research scholar and a mother whose days move between books and lullabies.

She loves travelling and writing poems. She lives in Ayikkarapady, Malappuram, Kerala

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Illustration done by Annabel Fathima.