If there’s anything that comes close to the delights of a wedding feast, it has to be the thindi, savoury and sweet snacks, that are served as light refreshments between the main events at a wedding.
Nothing said “family wedding” like the arrival, at my grandparents’ home, of tins, trays, bags, baskets and boxes of thindi.
Typically, there would be the traditional sweet favourites like kodli kajjaya, also known as baduva or kann kajjaya, (deep fried doughnut shaped fritters made from rice flour, wheat flour and jaggery), chicle undé (balls of ground puffed rice, coconut, jaggery, and sesame, encased in a crisp batter), and chirotis.
To balance all that sweetness, would be chakkulis (deep fried savoury crisps made from a rice and lentil dough), spicy cashew nuts, potato and banana chips, and large quantities of chow-chow (a mixture made up of of crisp chickpea batter drops and threads, mixed with peanuts, curry leaves and split, fried chickpeas).
That was just the beginning. Then would come the homemade goodies from relatives and friends. Cousins, aunts, great- aunts and school friends churned up a sweet tsunami of cakes, biscuits, burfis, halvas, macaroons, chocolate truffles and peppermints. Pink and white coconut toffee and marshmallows, and jujubes in the prettiest shades of red, green and yellow.