Learning Telugu

Telugu is the lingua franca in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh or AP.  Rather what was the former AP has now split into two states in the union that is India.  One retains the Andhra moniker and the other is called Telangana.  Water and economic rights are at the root of the split by some account but I am no expert in the goings on over there.

That said Telugu as a language is foreign to me but am being driven to learn some words for the sake of the most basic of needs to be met.  Food.  As the readership is aware food is more than nourishment to me.  It is one of my primary reasons to exist.  To sample and if it suits me to consume in large quantities the dishes of a region.  Daily staples aka dinner is always a question mark for the best half since she manages that operation for the sake of the family.  If she has the time and energy we eat well since she cranks out a variety of Indian curry based meals.   But in the absence of the 'time' commodity we like our ancestors before us are left to hunt for food.

That brings us to an intersection of technology and the natives that populate the region we live in.  Enter Whatsapp and Andhraites.  Many of this region now ex-pats residing in the bay have figured out a tax free incentive for the female member of the species to occupy themselves with.  Home based kitchens satiating the hunger and food demands of the neighborhood.

As it happens our palate (our family traces its roots to central Indian city of Bombay and a region not known for chilli based recipes) cannot handle most of the heat dominant in southern Indian cooking esp. Andhra style.  So we are limited in our choices.  Still we persist.  Latest entrant is a lady from Andhra who markets and advertises using word of mouth and Whatsapp to communicate with her customers.  The catch - you should be well versed in Telugu.

Now admittedly she has enough of a native customer base that she does not bother to or has not expanded her envelope to think through the implication of primarily advertising her evening meals in Telugu.  I had to Google / ask fellow Andhraites at work to learn what I was about to buy.

Some words I learned-

• Gongura Pappu -  A sour leafy vegetable used in curries and daal (the latter, a lentil preparation known as Pappu).  So the dish is essentially a thick soup with red sorrel leaves for flavor.  For a Bombayite Pappu meant a kid on the street.  I was not sure what she was selling.  What was funnier is that one post had an update for the fans - since today I cannot get Thotakura I am making Gongura Pappu.  Whoa...  Thota who?  Turns out that is yet another vitamin packed green leaf which turns out was in short supply

• Perugu Garelu - Sounds exotic.  Not from the Andes.  Not on a train station.  So what is it.  Commonly referred to as dahi vada for a Bombay wala like me it is a fried fritter soaked in yogurt.  The latter is spicy and not sweet as the Bombay version would have you believe.

• Bisibelebath - not a warm hot tub of the kind you might think but a spicy and savory kind.  This is essentially a vegetable curry mixed in rice cooked long and slow and liberally doused with clarified butter or ghee (if made right).