Ride on Time

Chapter 66

Mitsuo gulped and clasped his hands together when Shree parked in the porch of a terrace house.
"Let's go," Shree said, turning to Mitsuo. The latter just looked at her with wide eyes. "Come on, you wanna see what we do on Pongal, right?"
Mitsuo nodded and unfastened his seat belt before opening the door. "Yes, I wanna see."
Shree chuckled and stopped the engine. "Let me introduce you to my family first."
Mitsuo groaned inwardly but got out of the car. He fiddled with his manji for a moment before following Shree into the opened grille doorway.
The living room was unique, the furnitures set along the walls instead of the usual living room setups he had seen. A white marble coffee table sat between two teak armchairs while the rest of the walls were lined with furniture. The television rested in a corner, easily viewed from every inch of the living room. The walls were a crisp white while the floor was a nice white and black terrazzo, with specks of orange and yellow, with a large yellow rug covering half of it.
There were two women waiting, a middle-aged woman and an elderly one. Mitsuo assumed that they were Shree and Vasu's mother and grandmother and gave them a deep bow of respect.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Mitsuo greeted. "Thank you for inviting me to witness this celebration."
The two women exchanged glances and nodded at him.
"Aww, the pleasure is ours," Chandrika smiled.
Shree chuckled and stepped beside him. "Mitsuo, this is my mom, and this is my grandma."
'So she's the one who came up with that theory...' Mitsuo nodded to himself but smiled at Devi. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Obaasan. You seem like a very wise person."
Devi smiled proudly and invited him to sit down. Mitsuo had no idea what to do with the bag of snacks he was holding and just handed it to Shree.
"Aww, you didn't have to..." Shree said but accepted it, setting the bag down on the white marble coffee table.
"Eat already?" Devi asked.
Mitsuo shook his head. "Came here as soon as I got up."
"Aiyo..." Devi sympathetically said and turned to her granddaughter. "Nika, give him something lah."
Mitsuo quickly shook his head. "No, no. That would not be necessary. I'll eat later at the hotel buffet."
Devi frowned thoughtfully. "You wanna stay for Pongasorru or not?"
"Uh..." Mitsuo uttered, not understanding.
"She's asking you if you wanna eat the Pongal rice," Shree chuckled.
Mitsuo understood and nodded. "Sure! That sounds good. I'd love that."
Devi smirked. "Nika, come with me to the kitchen." She turned to Mitsuo. "You want to come also?"
Mitsuo got up from the maroon settee and followed the two women to the kitchen. He passed through a dining hall, past a few rooms, and finally came to the kitchen.
The first thing to be seen was a fridge, magnets lining the entire top door, a large wooden table with more than four chairs around it right beside the fridge. The flooring was a light blue mosaic and the front counter was lime green. There was a pathway behind the blue flooring, one that was separated by a very large archway, that led to a sink. The counters in this section was all blue.
It was the strangest kitchen he has ever seen, with a beauty of its own.
"Yes, I've never seen a kitchen this big in other houses too," Shree chuckled. "This side is the dry kitchen, and we call the back 'wet kitchen'. It's actually the scullery."
Mitsuo nodded understandingly. "So... we'll begin the Pongal stuff now?"
"Yes," Devi said. "Nika, take the milk out from the fridge."
Shree nodded and opened the fridge, pulling out a large bottle of fresh milk.
"Only the bottle one can use, cannot use the box one," Devi said. "Full cream, low fat, all cannot."
"That's because the box one isn't pasteurised," Shree explained. "This only works if the milk is fresh and pasteurised. We used full cream once, and it didn't... boil over at all. Never pongeran"
"It's supposed to boil over," Devi chimed in again. "If not, not good."
"Okay..." Mitsuo nodded and listed everything down on his little notebook. "It's a bad sign if the milk does not boil over."
"Yes and only pasteurised milk must be used," Shree added. "The boxed milk can't be used because it's UHT, not pasteurised."
Mitsuo nodded and jotted everything down. "Okay, what next?"
"We boil the milk," Devi said, turning to her granddaughter.
The young woman nodded and unscrewed the bottle cap. A metal pot was already placed on the stovetop and Shree just poured the milk into it and turned the fire on.
"Now must wait for it to boil," Devi said.
Mitsuo nodded and wrote it down.
"Sit first lah," Devi insisted, pulling a chair at the table for him.
"It's fine," Mitsuo graciously said. "You should sit, Obaasan."
The older woman smirked at Shree and sat down instead.
Chandrika suddenly bustled in, carrying brass cups. She went straight to the scullery and filled them up with water before returning to the living room.
"She's taking water for the prayers," Shree explained, noticing Mitsuo's confused face. "Mom would do the prayers when we're done with the rice."
Mitsuo nodded and waited for the Pongal to begin.

The milk started boiling over and the whole family gathered around the pot, cheering. Mitsuo wasn't sure what it was but he cheered on too. Devi turned to Shree and told her something in Tamil. The girl nodded and cheered on before making her way towards the table, lifting up the green cloche to pull out a large bowl of washed uncooked rice, then went back to the milk pot. She poured the rice inside, together with a few other things that looked like nuts and spices.
"What we're you guys cheering again?" Mitsuo asked Shree when she was putting the bowl away.
"Pongal o Pongal," Shree said.
Mitsuo nodded and jotted it down. "Right, right. This is a completely new experience. And valuable information for a new book."
Shree chuckled. "You and your book."
Mitsuo frowned and went back to his notebook, reading whatever he just wrote.
"Oh come on, I was just teasing," Shree chuckled.
"How do you guys carry out the prayers?" Mitsuo asked, pushing the joke aside.
"Ah, for that you have to go to the hall," Shree said. "My mother is taking care of that."
"What about your brother?" Mitsuo asked, puzzled.
"Oh, he has to get the banana leaves and sugarcane," Shree said. She spotted him and tapped his shoulder. "Eh, come we go and take banana leaf."
Vasu nodded and opened the drawer under the countertop. He pulled out a large knife and smirked at Mitsuo, holding the cleaver as if stabbing.
"You want to come with us?" Vasu asked.
Mitsuo nodded, ignoring the threatening gesture. "Sure."
Shree went to the backdoor and unlocked it before stepping out onto the backyard patio. She made a beeline to the left, where a portion of land was left unpaved with a few generations of banana trees. A few had fruit, but not mature enough to be harvested.
"That leaf looks good," Shree said, pointing to a clean untorn leaf. Vasu cut off half of it and handed it to her. "Okay, now cut karumbu."
"What's that?" Mitsuo asked, puzzled.
"Sugarcane," Shree answered. "It's a tradition to tie these by the altar."
"Okay..." Mitsuo jotted down again.
"Now can start the prayers," Vasu said after cutting out two long stems of sugarcane.

Mitsuo watched as Chandrika performed the prayers, the Pongal rice now was now served onto a piece of banana leaf and laid in front of the deities, and the sugarcane tied to the sides of the altar shelf. Mitsuo found that it looked a little similar to Buddhist rituals but different all the same.
It was all a unique experience.
Finally, the prayers was done and they all sat together on the ground to eat the sweet rice. Mitsuo joined in too.
"You don't mind sitting on the ground, right?" Shree asked.
Mitsuo shrugged. "We do that too, just that we sit on cushions."
"We don't, and we all sit cross-legged like this," Shree patted her folded knees. "And no one would say anything even when seeing a woman sitting like this."
"Good to sit like this for pregnant ladies also," Devi piped up, serving Mitsuo some of the rice.
Mitsuo nodded. "Fascinating. This explains why everyone sits on the ground in Tamil movies."
They looked at him in silence.
"You watch Tamil movies?" Shree asked.
"Yes?" Mitsuo said, not sure where this was going.
"You know any actors?" Vasu asked. "Like Rajinikanth?"
"Of course, I do! I love him. He's my favourite actor!" Mitsuo excitedly said. "I almost forgot that this is an Indian household. What movies do you guys like?"
So they started talking about movies over their dish of sweet Pongal rice.

In Malaysia, a terrace house doesn't mean a house with a balcony. It means row house and they don't necessarily have a terrace. Yeah. It just means row house lol.
-pongeran is just... Anglicising the word Pongal. So the root word is pongam, which means to boil over. So any Tamil word that's used in English sentences usually has the -ran at the back for some reason lol.