It seems lately every time I go back home it is for a prays or Hindu puja in which a Hindu priest comes to the house and performs a ceremony and you have to cook a lot of vegetarian food and feed people.
In the day prior to the prays there is a lot of work that has to be done. Like change curtains, and you gotta paint the whole house, you have to wipe the walls and clean the windows. Luckily for me by the time I get home my mama has already done all this. I swear my moms favorite past time is doing laundry! That lady does laundry like 4 times for the week!
In addition to the house work, you have to prepare all the food ahead of time. The actual cooking process takes place the day of the actual prays. The food is cooked in these huge giant pots, on little burner stoves. There are like 3 or 4 pots usually going at the same time.
One the menu is usually Curried Channa and alloo (chickpeas and potato), chataigne, pumpkin, mango anchar, roti, rice, currhe (sp), a spicy dish called mother-in-law and all this is served on a big banana like leaf. And everthing is eaten with your hands.
There are also more stuff usually made, but I would be here all day listing those out. There are no caterers or professional people coming to cook all this food. Its the village people that does all the cooking and sharing of the food. This is what I miss about home. Its the neighbors. These neighbors all come together to help, they chop all those pumpkins, about 5-6 huge pumpkins, they peel and clean all the vegetables, the prepare all the seasonings and they come early the morning of the prays and cook all this food and after the prays they help serve the food.
All while these ladies and men too are helping there is constant chatter about the happenings in the village and who died, who is sick, what is the cost of potatoes, how nice the pumpkin looks and how good it is going to cook, and the cost of that hot pepper! I kid you not. I love it! I miss that home feeling so much.
Below are some random pictures from the Prays.
