Memory & Story

This story is about how the endings in South India are always with a betel leaf.

An intimate journey of how rivers shape the way we cook and eat.

From bustling morning auctions at Bunder to quiet monsoon days along the estuary, Mangaluru’s food culture is inseparable from its waters. A sensory journey through the dishes, people, and rhythms that define coastal Dakshina Kannada.

"Taste of Bathukamma", a nine-day festival where each day's offering of a simple, seasonal dish represents a different phase of life. The food mirrors the rhythm of the land—from uncooked rice flour on Day 1 to a feast of five rice dishes on Day 9. Offerings symbolize core values like strength, sharing, care, patience, effort, and rest. The cycle culminates on Saddula Bathukamma with a communal meal, representing harvest, gratitude, and the full spectrum of life's flavors.

A nostalgic reflection recalls Deepthi’s journey from playful childhood flower hunts to a mature understanding of the Telangana festival’s deeper meaning. Once a joyful dance of colours and songs, Bathukamma becomes a prayer for life’s renewal — celebrating women, nature, and harmony between people and the earth.

How a young chef composed a degustation menu that reimagines the south indian monsoons.

In a country ripe with diversity, live a people who have long favoured sameness — rituals, language, caste, and class. Especially when it comes to marriage, we are advised to seek out love that feels like us. In India, endogamy is not just treated as a tradition, but as common sense. At the heart of this careful preservation lies an often-unspoken fear: that love across difference will demand compromise. We’re warned that marrying outside our community means learning to eat u

A personal history of pickling