Dance forms like salsa and ballet as hooping routine

Eshna Kutty’s luggage is a large round cloth bag. It’s filled with hoops of psychedelic hues — neon pink and orange, fluorescent yellow, bright green — in different sizes. “I can spin around 10 hoops at the same time, if they are of the same size,” says the hula hooper from Delhi, in town to host workshops this weekend at Surf Turf (Kovalam and Mahabalipuram). She spins a few around her neck and torso and does a dance step with the grace of a ballerina. Interestingly, it was “a case of two left feet” that got her into hooping.

“When I was 16, I saw a video of a lady hooping on YouTube. Intrigued, I practised waist hooping for a year. I didn’t know you could do more with it,” says Eshna. After stumbling across a few more videos, she realised that this is a completely new art field. “It comes under flow art, which also comprises others forms like juggling and poetry.” She enrolled herself in dance classes: hip hop, a bit of contemporary, free style, locking, salsa. “I learnt ballet because I had this sudden urge to join a circus school in France,” she laughs.

All these dance forms are now incorporated into her hooping routine. Aesthetically, she says, it’s a lot harder to incorporate hip hop moves into hooping. At Covelong, Eshna is currrently getting acquainted with the surf board and the sea. Hooping while stand-up paddling may just be part of her upcoming plan.

The 23-year-old self-taught hooper travels around the country conducting workshops. “Spinning hoops around the waist is most challenging. But that’s what I start my classes with. And when students get frustrated, I change things and teach them hand hooping, which is a lot easier,” she laughs. People assume that they need to rotate their trunk to keep the hoop airborne, but it’s actually just back and forth movement. Not only does it help improve hand-eye coordination, hooping also tones muscles and if you use weighted hula hoops you can burn fat, she adds.

It took Eshna a couple of weeks to get the rhythm right. But she’s happy that some of her students pick it up in 10 minutes. “I also like the fact that a lot of guys attend my class. Hooping is for everyone.” She thoughtfully adds, “It’s interactive. Sometimes the hoop feels like a naughty dog who is not listening to you.” For workshop details, call 9958923235.

Unearthing green lessons

A range of courses on hydroponics at the Women’s Christian College is teaching women to be entrepreneurs and eco-warriors simultaneously

The humidity of the city is nothing compared to the environment inside the one-room hut tucked away under the trees of the Women’s Christian College campus. The walls are lined with burlap sacks; the floor caked with sand. All means to retain moisture and lower temperature, for the sake of what grows in 170 straw-filled plastic bags suspended by 170 ropes from the ceiling. The plastics gleam, the walls ooze, the floor crackles: it could be a scene from a horror show. But the things growing inside the bag are tools — of economic empowerment and ecological education.

They are oyster mushrooms, grown by the students. What looks like a mix of straw, spawn and mulch on the inside, results in the blooming of flawlessly snow-white little caps that gush out through the flimsy plastic barrier, as if asking to be plucked and cooked.

Mushroom House is a part of the college’s one-semester-long, mushroom cultivation course. It is part of WCC’s Green Box initiative, which includes a trifecta of ecology projects — including the Shadow House and a five-tier hydroponics unit — that helps departments in the college generate their own revenue, besides showing students how to earn an income and understand the business side of things. The mushrooms, for instance, are edible ones that are sold on campus. “There is a quite a demand for them. The investment is small — you just need some straw and spawn. The yield is good, and it definitely tasted better than the button mushroom that is common in the markets,” says Pauline Deborah, associate professor, Department of Plant Biology.

Students dedicate about a semester to mastering this craft. The course is compulsory for Botany students, elective for those pursuing other subjects. “Our students do it for 75 hours, elective students do it for 30.” The latter is less theoretical and more hands-on: how to prepare the spawn, how to maintain and harvest, analyse and test.

Mushroom House is the result of Central Government funds given to the college a couple of years ago.

“The star college fund from the Department of Biotechnology: we used it to develop a shade house. In a place like Chennai, we can create a space with controlled temperature to grow plants that we would otherwise see only in hill stations. We have ferns and other shade-loving plants,” she says, leading me to it. As we stroll, we go from one part of the green campus to another, passing by decades-old trees (there are about 105 species in all).

Pauline points out the ones that have stories to tell. She unlocks gates to mini gardens, desert gardens and miniature fields, pointing out vegetables sown by students and trees gifted by prominent friends of the college. “Last year we got a very good harvest of brinjal and lady’s finger. This year, it was lady’s finger and turnip,” she says.

‘College with potential for excellence’ is another grant — of about one crore rupees — that was given in 2016 to a few city colleges. It was with that, that WCC got its hydroponics unit. It is an interesting structure, like a broad, white stepladder made of hollow pipes through which water is pumped constantly, passing along micronutrients to nourish the soil-bereft greens. “In the beginning, we would only grow different kinds of basil: Thai, sweet, peppermint, purple, lime... But now I have asked my students to try new plants.”

A few tiers of the unit are dedicated to these experiments, which, she says, are coming out well: micro greens, spinach and tomatoes are a few of them. Pauline gently plucks a little tufted plant from its seat, to point out the rounded tangle of roots beneath. “They have almost grown too big for their space; it’s time for harvest,” she mutters, before placing it back and retreating so that her students can figure it out for themselves. The basils, however, still dominate the unit, and also make their way to the college market — especially to the Home Science Department’s kitchens.

What sell like hot cakes, though, are the mushroooms. “They’re easy to cook into a tomato-based gravy. Or else, just fry them with some butter,” suggests Pauline.

Chennai’s Dawoodi Bohras parrys corner

Take a walk along the history-laden streets of George Town to hear the story of this community that has made Chennai home

Syedna Dr Mufaddal Saifuddin said that we must free women from the kitchen. So this kitchen makes lunch for the entire Dawoodi Bohra community across Chennai, everyday. This rule is applied across every city and every country.”

The menu varies from rice, dal, vegetables and meat, to Chinese or even pani puri. “People send their tiffin carriers and each one is numbered. Once the Tiffin’s are delivered, people pick their carrier and replace it with an empty one for the next day. It’s all well organised.”

The community in Chennai is 8,000-member strong, consisting of approximately 1,800 families, says Tasneem.

Flavours in a Nutshell

1. Alambardar: Started in 1974, this is one of the oldest kulfi brands in this area. They are known for their falooda and fresh fruit kulfis. We bite into fresh mango kulfi and refreshing rose falooda, all hand-made. They sell nearly 300 glassesof falooda per day.

2. Sweet n De-lite: A comforting fragrance of ghee embraces you as you reach this bakery. Abbas mithaiwala and his younger brother Hasan, have been making traditionalBohri goodies for 20 years now. Try their khalja ( puff pastry filled with mawa), beda na mesub (diamond-shaped egg sweet), milk hawla and coconut pak.

3. Guru ni Chicken: Mohammad guru grandly sits on his chair by a wall, as his cook deftly fries meat cutlets and puts kebabs is an open grill. The chicken cream tikka (fried coated in egg and rava) is a speciality and this stall sells about 40 pieces in a day

No one can eat just one Sri Karpagambal Kabali Sweets Stall, Mylapore

Cout your blessings if you manage to find parking. Then, consider yourselves doubly lucky if you can snag some medu pakodas. A local favourite for 45 years, this stall begins frying the pakodas at noon and by 2.30 pm, it’s all sold out. Two or three batches if 200 pieces each are fried everyday. We position ourselves outside the stall as the cook starts mixing ingredients, elbow-deep in batter. A determined crowd of regulars gather. Some buy onion pakodas for the wait. An elderly couple helps themselves to a handful  of garlic sev while waiting for their tea-time snacks is  undr way.as soon as it is on a tray, three staffers begin counting pakodas (Rs.2.50) and dividing them into paper bags, before handing them into the out-stretched hands of eagers customers. Crisp on the outside and fluffy inside, these deftly made snacks are addictive

Amma in the kitchen Shree Konar Vilas, Besant Nagar

“We will try just a few of their specialies,” says Harish. Fifteen minutes later, the table is covered with food – creamy brain masala, fluffy mutton kari dosai and their special kudal (intestine) tava fry. There are also the crowd pleasers: mutton chukka, bum parotta, veechu parotta, and pepper chicken 65. And of course, a pot of fregnant mutton biryani.

 

“We are known for home-style Madurai food. The recipes  are all by the owner’s mother, who still cooks in the central kitchen,” sats the beaming manager. Harish is a fan of the restaurant, which opened as a cramped space in purusaiwalkam in 2018. They recently launched this Besant Nagar branch.