Angamah's chutney.

Angamah’s chutney.

Before the rooster crows Angamah was already on her feet to prepare her unique ingredients for her cooking on that day. Even though the thousand lines on her face indicated her old age, Angamah never failed to show her cooking skills to her loyal customers. She has never paid any importance to her old age and her round back. She never thought of the lump that she carries on her back as a burden. Her fingers began to harden and difficult to bend as most probably they were affected by arthritis. Her movements began to slow down as her legs started to stiffen. She lost one of her visions in her eyes to cataract three years ago. She refused to operate her eyes as she thought she could healed her cataracts by using her own traditional medicines but nothing could be done now as she had lost her sight and now she is slowly losing her second vision too but her mind still refuses to go for the right treatment. Angamah never had any faith on the modern medicines after she lost her husband to a cancer ten years ago. Angamah still has the fresh memories of Raman and how they met. She could still throw a crinkled smile when she remembers Raman and how love bloomed between them as it was the first sight love. Raman was a tall man with dark skin. He was working for Mr Tong, a rich man in the village. Mr Tong had hundreds of servants in his rubber estate, factory and his house too. Raman worked as his liege in Mr Tong’s house since he was a young boy. Mr Tong considered Raman as one of his children and trusted him as Raman was the only one servant who could enter into Mr Tong’s bedroom when he was not there. Raman’s smile has always been an antidote to Mr Tong’s wounded and lonely heart after his wife death.

“Patti! Patti! A sudden loud cracking voice woke her up from her dreams. She tried her best to focus at the place the voice was coming. It was Kutti Mani, with his torn, pale t-shirt and a pair of torn short pants. He was holding a pair of village chickens tied in rope in his right hand and the other one trying to grab his torn and lose short pants from falling off his hip. He quickly handed over the chickens to Angamah and started to fix his pants. He tied his pants tightly around his hip and started to sit down beside Angamah after he was sure his pants would never fall off his hip again at least on that particular day. Angamah was happy to see Kutti Mani. She asked him to drink his black tea and ate the rice pancake she made for him. Kutti Mani was with Angamah since he was 5 years old. Angamah discovered him while she was on her way back from the farmer’s market. She took him home after she was sure that no one would claim him. Kutti Mani has been with Angamah for 10 years already and till now no one ever claim him. Kutti Mani and Angamah have been through the thin and thick of life together after Angamah lost her only love of her life, Raman to a deadly disease, lung cancer. Angamah tried her best to get the best treatment for her dying husband but destiny took away Raman from her. Angamah lost her only world and tried her best to live her life with Raman’s sweet memories until Kutti Mani entered her life and gave meaning to her life again. Sometimes, Angamah wondered whether Kutti Mani was sent by God to her to give purpose to her empty colourless world. She smiled as she saw Kutti Mani was enjoying his favourite rice pancake and the special green chutney made by Angamah.

Angamah started to prepare the ingredients for her cooking on that day while waiting Kutti Mani to finish his breakfast. A dark tall figured entered their wooden house and greeted. It was Kaliappan’s voice. He has been Angamah’s neighbour for 15 years and her loyal customer too. Every morning he would come to Angamah’s place to have his breakfast. His favourite dishes would be raggi pancake and the special green chutney. For everyone’s surprise he never tried other dishes made by Angamah even though Angamah and Kutti Mani had offered other dishes to him to try. Angamah always wondered what made him to stay loyal to his favourite dishes, the raggi pancake and the green chutney. Once, Kali asked Angamah about the ingredients that she was using to make the chutney. Angamah said they were only usual ingredients like fresh coconut, green chilies and garlic. Kali had asked his wife to cook the chutney for him but it never turned out to be as what Angamah was making and he was sure that Angamah was hiding her secret recipe from everyone as it would effect her business. And it was very clear that Angamah always did her cooking alone until Kutti Mani appeared in her life. Angamah never allowed anyone into her kitchen except Kutti Mani where she would leave all her properties to him included her secret recipe after her demised. Kutti Mani would inherit all from her.

It was a cold morning as it was raining all day long. But Angamah’s loyal customer would never failed to visit her stall. Angamah and Kutti Mani were busy to entertain them. Kali was there for his favourite breakfast. The stall was set up in front of Angamah’s wooden house with a few long benches and a few square wooden tables. Every morning, the place would be crowded with people to buy Angamah’s food. Kali always has a suspicion on his mind about the secret ingredients and he even had tried to be close with Kutti Mani to know the secret. He even promised to make Kutti Mani as his son in law in the future if Mani revealed the secret ingredients in Angamah’s cooking. But Kutti Mani never said a word to Kali about the secret ingredients as he himself had no single idea about them. Kutti Mani wondered why Kali wanted to know about the ingredients in Angamah’s cooking as Kali has never been serious about earnings in his life and only Kali’s wife worked in the rubber estate as a rubber tapper to make their ends meet. Kali always spent his whole day sitting under a big tree in the village and gossiped about the villagers. Kutti Mani had never remembered Kali went for any work in the village.

It was time for Angamah and Kutti Mani to close down their business on that day. After a busy day, Angamah sat in the middle of her house and called Kutti Mani. Kutti Mani went to Angamah and asked if she needed anything. Angamah asked Kutti Mani to sit beside her. She asked Mani to open an old iron box ad take the documents in it. Mani did as what Angamah said. Angamah handed the documents to Kutti Mani. She even gave him some amount of money and jewellery belongs to her. She told him that the documents were her house grant which they are living in. And the other documents are the land grant that she had saved for 15 years. Kutti Mani was speechless after he received the wealth from Angamah. He did not refused them but took them gratefully. He knew Angamah has no one else except him. He promised to Angamah he would take good care of her properties and continue her business. Angamah smiled proudly and contended with her decision. She knew she did the right thing. It was time to hand over everything to her foster son. She realized as her age reaching 76 in this year, and with her failing health condition she should give Kutti Mani what he deserved. Angamah revealed her secret ingredients to Kutti Mani that made her stall crowded with customers since she opened her stall 15 years ago. Kutti Mani listened to Angamah carefully when Angamah started to talk. He made sure that he never missed any details. He was surprised when he heard all the ingredients in Angamah’s dishes were all ordinary ones and there was nothing special about them. He learned that food served with simplicity and love would gain a lot customers. He learned that cooking should be done from heart and never ever use any ingredients like artificial flavours to make the cooking delicious. And never compromised with the ingredients but use them generously in the cooking and never ever think off getting the profits only. She even told Kutti Mani to trust his own taste bud and use his bare hands to measure the amount of ingredients. She even reminded Kutti Mani about the cleanliness of himself and the culinary tools while preparing his cooking. She even reminded Mani to buy the ingredients from the same shops as she said they were the ones who had helped her in those dark days by giving her loans to buy the ingredients and allowed her to pay whenever she had the enough cash. A few of the shopkeepers are now her loyal customers too. She reminded Mani that it is important to remember people’s kindness and be grateful to them. Mani listened to Angamah with a great patience. He asked Angamah to go to bed as she looked tired and sleepy. Angamah nodded her head and walked slowly to her room. She looked at her husband’s photo against the wooden wall and smiled. There was a light feeling in her heart as she felt she has lowered her load.

It was dawn, and the rooster began to crow but Angamah was no where to be seen. Kutti Mani called her many times but there was no response. He went into her room and he was shocked to find her motionless body on her bed. Mani knew at that moment Angamah had left him alone. He went beside her and whispered into her left ear that how much he loved her and how grateful he was to meet her in his life. Kutti Mani went out to summon all his neighbours. He with his heavy heart revealed Angamah’s death to the people around. Even though all of them knew that this day would come but they still couldn’t hold their tears and were heart broken with the news. Kali whispered to himself, ‘Oh dear Angamah, you left me clueless of the ingredients that you use in your cooking. If I would have known about them, I would have sold the secret recipe to Palani who owns a restaurant in the town and I would have become rich. Emm…now I have lost the chance”. He smiled sarcastically as his eyes were focusing on Kutti Mani.