Mamievolution

Mamis of yore specialized in culinary ventures and were reknown for their samarthiyam¹ in everything under home-management. Be it, cooking, cleaning, accounting, home-remedies, health-care, child-rearing etc. they were the ultimate masters of the game. 

With the passing ages, gen-next mamis have notched up the game. 
Sungudi cottons have given way to linens, thirukurral classes have taken on the online mantle, lunch virundhu² has morphed to sumptuous brunch, kashayam has transfigured to herbal tea, vambu³ sessions have shifted venue to online video-chats, ekadashi vratham has morphed to detox plan....and so on.

Armed with the cultural background and a strong foundation of values handed down through generations of venerated senior mamis, these new generation ladies are in addition, professionally qualified, tech-savvy, street smart and globally well-informed! They are, mind it, even more evolved forces than their older avatars. 

I refer to a generation born between 1960-1980 and I guess I am going to be rather infamous for even referring to this elite force as "mamis" despite the prefix of gen-next! So how about a "Yo-mami"?

While older mamis relied on age-old, tried and tested formulas and solutions from their ammas⁴ and paatis⁵ for all their domestic, health and other queries, mamis of today have the power of Google! With Whatsapp forwards and Facebook pages doing the rounds, containing everything from tips to strengthen the knee, gut, liver, pancreas, to relationship management, to parenting, to coping with old age, to staying positive, to leading a happy life on Mars, yo-mamis are a terribly knowledge-enabled lot!

It is a Sunday morning and not a very uncommon sight to observe our yo-mami, slipping on her transition bifocals first thing as she wakes up. She takes stock of the previous night's and early morning forwards (owing to time differences) from her multiple family and friend groups spread across the globe. Her trained eye misses nothing, dismissing old forwards, she scouts for new, fresh ones to forward that will surely elicit thumbs-ups and smileys. Of course, she also monitors her forwarding exercise, not too many, keeping  a strict tab on repeat forwards, that is a serious faux-pas of newbies! The daily panchangam app keeps her abreast of any forthcoming pandigais⁶, pirandanaals⁷ and what nots.

Phew, a major chore done, she heads to the kitchen, sighing approvingly at the waft of her favorite lemongrass green tea that she has trained her husband - mama to brew. 

A word here on mamas. They are a species that...how do I put it...haven't really evolved, hardly changed from their older versions. Hence, they do not get upgraded to Yo-mama status. The clothing sense may have changed a tad, they are also tech-savvy but reluctantly so. At heart, lies the quintessential overgrown mamma's boy who loves his non-happening weekends devoted to leisurely loo-time, endless news reading and watching, lots of thumb twiddling, a traditional heavy lunch followed by a good siesta and of course, the company of limitless tumblers of hot kaapi all through.

Mama glugs his  second cup of strong filter kaapi while reading the e-news on his new I-Pad that the son has got him on his last visit. Mama misses leafing through the good ol' newspapers during his "morning ritual". But of course, yo-mami is right, no point in sacrificing trees to get your bowels moving.

Soaking green grams to sprout for tomorrow's lunch, yo-mami whisks a smoothie of spinach, beetroot and almond milk with a tiny scoop of brown sugar for her breakfast. Mama of course gets the same sans the sugar, to account for his bulging midriff. 

Stoically he gulps the concoction while hoping this health-spree passes away just as quickly as it did in their past 'post-US trip' phase.

Yo-mami in the meanwhile browses through her favorites menus on youtube, to decide what to make for lunch today. While she has fresh quinoa in stock, she knows mama is craving for something spicy. Ah, burrito it would be today! Of course a no-onion-garlic version for the m-i-l.

Mama let's out a loud belch as he sets down his smoothie glass which sets yo-mami off to google...home remedies for flatulence and bloating.

Enter, mami senior, mama's mom. "Yennacchu pa? Yeyppa chattam naalu veedu talli kekaradu!" (What happened son? Burping noise can be heard four houses afar!)

"So disgusting no amma? I am just googling a remedy for that." 

While mama looks on in panic, yo-mami hands him a glass,"Here drink this apple cider vinegar with water, you should be okay in no time."

Yo-mami's face is scrunched over her phone as she browses light-on-the-stomach recipes for lunch.

Mami Sr drones,"Ido paru, pesama innikku chuda, chuda zeera rasam pannu. Adu kudda perungayum potta mor sadam, ellam seria poyidum." (Look here, today simply make piping hot cumin rasam with asaefoetida doused buttermilk and rice, everything will be alright) 

Mama's face lights up and yo-mami concedes, "Seri⁸ amma, that is a good idea. But first, he needs to get off the sofa and start moving around, half the gas problem is because of his sedentary lifestyle," she declares quoting one of the helpful forwards she read just today morning.

"Okay ma...I'll go to the xerox shop with the pen drive to take printouts of the ticket bookings of our upcoming Ladakh trip," says mama as he reluctantly vacates the couch.

"Aiyyo! Who takes printouts? Just save them as pdf's on your phone."

"But now come here first, amma you too...I am video-calling our little one."

The chat begins with the customary enquiries about the time difference, temperature and lamenting how underfed their darling looks. The two women, alternately offer advice and tips to the novice daughter studying overseas (obvi east coast US!). She receives tips on OPOS cooking from amma, taking oil bath twice a week from paati and checking bank balance regularly from appa.

Yo-mami ends the chat, looks at the time, quickly calculates the time difference and starts off on the next chat to the son working in the west coast (you know where) while making lunch. She makes subtle enquiries to inveigle any nuggets of information on his future plans viz. wedding plans, that yield nothing better than, “Amma for the n^th time, there is no news! Now stop bothering me and tell me how to make vatta-koyumbu from this Grand Sweets mix you sent.”

Next on her agenda is a weekend Madhubani workshop. Draped in her raw silk saree with ikkat blouse, large bindi, chunky jewelry, glares on the head and a branded tote on her arm, she drives to her class, ensuring the bluetooth-feature is enabled for hands-free calls.

Yo-mami's back home in time for lunch. Post lunch it is time to order groceries, gifts and what-nots online. Also it's the time to catch up on all the scores of messages on FB and Whatsaapp. Twitter is her new frontier and Instagram her bestie. Snapchat is something looming on the horizon that she hasn’t made up her mind about, besides her 64 GB phone data space is running a little tight. 

A ping from the food delivery app informs her of a one-day-only pizza BOGO offer. Great! So that sorts out her dinner and next day’s lunch while mama could have some light soup tonight. On the other hand, it nullifies her mindful-eating regimen, hmm, she must remember to mindfully savor each bite of the pizza.

It’s evening. Yo-mami dons her tasteful pastel pallazo-kurta, ready to attend the screening of Hamlet at the theater. Mama is dragged out as well, with offers of unmissable cold-coffee and multigrain cucumber and cheese sandwiches at the theater, which he despises. Oh well, at least it would be dark and the A.C would be pleasant, mama concedes.

They are back home and mami sr is setting up the table with the pizza box and a large casserole of creamy thayir sadam⁹  tempered with mustard seeds, finely chopped green chillies, ginger, curry leaves and garnished with pomegranate - something which even yo-mami cannot resist. Especially along with her special olive oil aavakaya pickle! 

The sandwiches at the theatre are sitting heavily in yo-mami’s tummy. Just a scoopful, she promises herself after her third scoop, relegating the pizza to the refrigerator.

Ahh, nothing like thayir sadam, is there?
Maybe, all this is like old wine....ahem...arishtham in a new bottle!

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Glossary of Tamil words used:

mami: a respectful address used for any Tamilian lady (typically TamBrahm) acquaintance, something like the ubiquitous Auntyji though it literally translates to mother's bro's (mama's) wife, mami.

1 samarthiyam – capability, efficiency

2 virundhu - feast
3 vambu - gossip
4 amma - mother
5 paati - grandmother
6 pandigai - festival
7 pirandanal - star (nakshatram) birthday
8 seri - alright, okay
9 thayir sadam - curd rice
arishtam - Ayurvedic health tonic (may or may not contain alcohol) Fermentation of herbs in order to release active ingredients, generates alcohol in these preparations.

Read more from,

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