samosas with Shanmugam

I caught the Trichy express from Cochin that saturday night at 9pm as I had been regularly doing every fortnight to travel to Vellore CMC as my wife was there with my child for her training .( this was some 14 years back )

I would get down in the wee hours at 3 am in Erode and wait there till 7 am to catch the West coast express to get down Katpadi and then on to vellore .

All this so I could finish my clinic on saturday evening which I would miss if I travelled by cochin Express which left at 4.30pm .

I would spend my time in Erode chatting to the cofee shop vendors in Erode platform and I became a familiar figure to them .

That day also I caught the west coast Express from Erode and got into an empty sleeper coach and got a berth ,slept for some time and woke up at Salem ,there was some commotion in the platform and I saw a rotund dhoti clad figure getting into my compartment ,he seemed to be an important man as a retinue of servants followed him with some big bags full of vessels .

He ordered some of them to get back and told his driver

" Thambi vandiyya nera viddu ,madrasla pakkalam enna "

strange I thought .".(.which meant go straight to madras I will meet you there ),

then why cant he too go in that ,shortly I had the answer for this question as he plonked right opposite me even though the whole compartment was empty .

His man friday came along and arranged the luggage and sat on a corner .

I stepped out before the train left and bought some samosas as nothing else was availabe and I was feeling hungry ,and came back and sat in time for the train to chug out of the platform .

Dhoti looked at me and the packet in my hand ," enna thambi sappadu ivilo thana ? "( is this ur lunch ?)

"well what to do nothing else here "I answered

he laughed heartily

" ayyo enna pa nee ,nariya irukku namma sapidalam va ,"

(I have lots lets eat )

and looking at his side kick he bellowed

"dey elaya poduda !!!"

that meant put the leaf for serving food ,

I was riled "oh no please have your food ,iam happy with this ,"

"ha ha thambi naan yaru theriyuma ?

( do u know who i am ? )

such questions are difficult to answer if one didnt now the answer !

i just smiled

"naan than shanmugam ( name changed of course )

" kali paal theriyuma kaali paal ? "

( name changed again ,yes I knew it was a famous brand of milk whcih was competing with the state owned one called AAvin ,I knew it came from Salem too ,o this was the owner .ok .)

" hmm theriyum "I murmured .

"ama adhe shanmugam salem shanmugam ,"that sounded like Rajinikanth

"thambi en wife nallla cook ,

neriya samaipaa ,

neriya irukku nammaku sappadlam vaa

antha samosa thuki eri "

( my wife cooks well throw away those samosa and eat with me )

"vendanka " I told

"summa iru nee "

( keep quite )

he also told me he was suffering from a spinal problem and he couldnt travel in a car for a long distance and so he would go in a train while his car drove to madras !

my luck !

"Salem vandha vitukku vaa ,periya panna ,elaam newzealand maddu nanne vanginathu ."

( when in salem come to my house I have all new zealand cows bought by myself from there )

"Salem erangina udene kali shanmugam apiidinu sholu ,onne thukittu varuvanga " ( tell my name and they will carry you home )

God save me !

"dey ennada paathukeite nikkira thambikku pasikkudu da '

( hey you idiot what are u waiting for serve the food ,this to his servant )

And so the servant cleaned the seat in front of me kept a neat paper and spread a green plantain leaf

He put portions of so many items like in a marriage feast in both our leafs ,and for the grand finale took the big vessel which I presumed was for the rice .

I was right there but I was wrong too as no rice came and the servant blinked hard ,

" iyya ,iyya ,manichunga iyya ,amma shoru vekka maranthutanga polirukku "

( sorry sir i think mistress forgot to keep rice )

disaster indeed !!!!

Shanmugam went into an apoplexy of rage ,

"ennmanatha vangitye daa thambi enna ninakkum "

( my honour is lost what will this boy think of me now ? )

that was vintage Sivaji here

"paravallanga " ( it is ok i said )

"phone podren paa adutha stationle "

( i will phone next station )

this was the pre mobile era ,

"dont worry "I said ,

"I have an idea let us crush the samosas and eat it with all these side dishes ",

"appidiya ok "said shanmugam by now having lost his demanour .

and so we had a delicious samosa mixed lunch and strangely shanmugam relished it

"nallathanmpa irukku ! '

( it is good indeed )

thus ended my samosa with Shanmugam