Aiyah’s lunchbox musings with an assortment of sandwiches
A few weeks ago, an ardent fan and colleague of Aiyah’s wrote in to ask me to do a post on his time at the TTK group and his rather meager working lunch. As I sat down to write that post in readiness for Aiyah’s 91st birthday, I realised that apart from that sparse lunch box and even sparser breakfast and the Ayudha Pooja celebrations at this impressive factory in Pallavaram / Chromepet, the darling daughters knew very little of the journalist who successfully ran India’s leading cartography company for many, many years. So, who better to tell those stories than his colleagues? And so, I invited Bhaskaran Shivaraman and Sashi Nair to do the honours.
To accompany the stories from these gentlemen, we bring to you the recipes for the assorted sandwiches he carried in his lunchbox, along with a tetrapack of apple juice and a fruit. The sandwiches ranged from coriander or mint chutney sandwiches one day to his favourite egg salad sandwiches another day to just plain cheese sandwiches that had to be made with grated Amul cheese. Whatever the filling, the bread had to be white as can be (no new-fangled wholemeal or multigrain bread for him), with the crusts completely sliced off – fussy much? The fruit was either grapes or peeled and sliced apples or pears (washed in salt water to stop them from oxidizing) or painstakingly peeled mandarin orange segments with not a whisper of the white membrane or skin. There could be nothing messy in that lunchbox (which reminded me of a plastic suitcase) because for him, it was a working lunch to be had at his desk along with black coffee, his choice of drink back then. Incidentally, the chutney and cheese sandwiches were also his choice of breakfast for the road trips to Chettinad, the egg salad sandwich, specially made his way, his selection for Book Club breakfasts at the Madras Club.
Now on to Aiyah’s story… Aiyah’s first love, as I’ve mentioned before, was Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), a country of many firsts for him - his first school, his first job and his first girlfriend amongst them. However, what the country did not give him was citizenship (since he had not been born there), and therefore editorship of the Times of Ceylon, the paper at which he’d been second-in-command for many years. Tired of being the bridesmaid, he left the country, a disillusioned man and an aging bachelor, and returned to his roots in Tamil Nadu. It was at this time that his parents played a big role in keeping him in Madras, closer to home and hopefully a bride, rather than sending him to the other metropolitan cities where there may have been better opportunities in the journalistic world. What this meant was that he had to forgo a career as a senior journalist, but he was fortunate enough to come in contact with the TTK group, at a time when the company was planning on launching a Maps division. In today’s lingo, the Group appreciated his transferrable skills, and hired him despite his lack of credentials as a cartographer. He and a young T T Jagannathan, today Chairman of the group, managed to do wonders with the division. From a business perspective, one of the smartest things the two of them did was to use the printing machine’s idle time to print brochures and guidebooks and so a map making company become a profitable printing business, with Aiyah (of course!) writing the text for the guidebooks. It was the writing of these guidebooks that made him fall in love with the city and led to him becoming the chronicler of Madras, and the keeper of its modern history.
Bhaskaran worked with Aiyah at TTK Maps (the now defunct map publishing arm of the TTK group, better known for its Prestige pressure cookers). After many decades leading the division, Aiyah retired from Maps and took over the running of the group’s public relations and inhouse magazine, ably assisted by Sashi, one of his protégés whom he had personally trained through the Bhavan’s School of Journalism.
Both Shashi and Bhaskaran recall that Aiyah was the ultimate people manager. According to Shashi, “Most of the employees at Maps had been recruited by him at some point. In later years, he would often talk about how some of the best workers at Maps he had handpicked from beneath the tamarind tree outside the Maps facility at Chromepet.” Bhaskaran has a annecdote about Aiyah and a young newly recruited lithographer, Babu Rao. Aiyah, who had a keen eye for spotting supplementary skills in in his staff, requested Babu, a talented artist, to draw a vintage picture of Madras. Little did the young man know that the picture he drew would make it as the cover of Tales of Old and New Madras, with an acknowledgment in the book as well. The overawed Babu Rao rushed to Aiyah’s cabin and prostrated at his feet to express his thanks rather emotionally. Aiyah, who deplored the Indian tradition of touching the elders’ feet to get their blessings (since he believed that honour was only deserved by higher powers than human beings), said nothing to Babu, but lectured Bhaskaran – “Bhaskar, please tell people not to fall at my feet!”. Bhaskaran’s response was that “no one could control the emotions of a young boy who never expected his drawing to make it to the front cover of the respected author’s book.” Aiyah lost that battle, but never failed to vehemently object when someone wanted to venerate him.
Aiyah was a stickler for perfection; despite that, Bhaskaran recollects that Aiyah didn’t care whether you read or listened to the radio while working, as long as the work was done. However, he carefully observed what you were interested in and shelved the knowledge away for another day. He realised that Bhaskaran was a fellow cricket enthusiast who managed to find ways to listen to non-broadcasted matches even if it meant tapping into the opposition network. One such instance was the Rothman’s Cup in 1985. The matches, for some reason, were not covered by India, but the ingenious Bhaskaran managed to tap into Radio Pakistan to follow the commentary. He says, “As usual, Sir spent the afternoon session in the cartography department. Around 6 pm he sent someone to find out what was happening at Sharjah and was told that there was no commentary. He said he knew that, but Bhaskar can go and find out. And of course, I did inform him of the final thrilling win under Kapil.”
Apparently the rather diligent manager that he was, Aiyah spent his afternoons on the factory floor checking on printing and cartography jobs personally. Bhaskaran recounts an incident where a printer working on a Hamada offset machine was struggling to get the print colour just right. “Some passing remarks by Sir on the combination of colours helped the printer resolve the issue”, says Bhaskaran who was amazed that a man who was not a professional cartographer or a printer, could know the intricate details of achieving the best output from the machines.
Aside from these, Shashi and Bhaskaran have many more recollections as they join the family in wishing Aiyah a very Happy Birthday, wherever he is. Their recollections will be continued – watch this space for more next week. And if you have any memories of Aiyah or Ayah, please do drop us a note – leave us a comment below, or share it with us on our Facebook page. In the meanwhile, we hope Aiyah’s simple sandwiches make it to your lunchbox too.
Notes:
1. You can use any bread for the sandwiches and leave the crusts on. However, Aiyah was rather spoilt and insisted only on bread that was white as snow, with crusts removed.
2. Of course, any brand of butter can be used in the recipe, but Ayah believed that Amul butter made it better.
3. Although coriander chutney sandwich was Aiyah's favourite, the coriander leaves can be replaced with the same quantity of mint leaves to make a mint chutney sandwich.
4. A number of green chutney recipes use garlic and onion - this recipe does not.
5. For the egg salad, you can add finely chopped red onions and / or celery to give it a bit of texture / crunch. Aiyah specifically asked for these not to be added in his sandwich.
6. Aiyah also enjoyed cheese sandwiches, which essentially consisted of grated Amul cheese sandwiched between two slices of buttered bread.
Ingredients:
8 slices of fresh bread, crusts removed
Butter to spread on the bread
For the Green Chutney:
1 cup coriander leaves, washed well
2 green chillies, cut roughly
½ teaspoon tamarind paste (or thick extract of tamarind)
2 tablespoons of grated coconut
~ 2-3 tablespoons water
Salt ~ ½ tsp
For the Egg Salad:
2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped roughly
1 ½ tablespoons of mayonnaise (bottled is ok)
Salt to taste ~ ½ teaspoon
Pepper to taste ~ ½ teaspoon
Optional: ¼ teaspoon of mustard (bottled is ok)
Method:
1. Leave the butter at room temperature for about 5 minutes to make it spreadable. Slice the bread crusts off (you can leave them on, if you prefer, but remember you will not be true to the recipe!).
8 slices of fresh bread, crusts removed
Butter to spread on the bread
2. Make the chutney - blend all the chutney ingredients to a fine paste. Add more water / salt if needed. Remove from blender, transfer to a small bowl and set aside.
1 cup coriander leaves, washed well
2 green chillies, cut roughly
½ teaspoon tamarind paste (or thick extract of tamarind)
2 tablespoons of grated coconut
~ 2-3 tablespoons water
Salt ~ ½ tsp
3. Make the egg salad - mix all the egg salad ingredients in a bowl. Adjust seasoning as required.
2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped roughly
1 ½ tablespoons of mayonnaise (bottled is ok)
Salt to taste ~ ½ teaspoon
Pepper to taste ~ ½ teaspoon
Optional: ¼ teaspoon of mustard (bottled is ok)
4. To assemble one sandwich:
Spread the butter evenly on two slices of bread
Take one of the buttered slices and spread about a tablespoon of the prepared chutney or egg salad. Stop spreading ¼ inch from the edges of the bread as the filling will spread and overflow when sandwiched with the other slice.
Sandwich the two slices of bread.
Cut into bite-sized triangles or squares as required. When cutting make sure you have a sharp knife and don’t use too much of pressure while holding down the sandwich to cut.
3. Repeat until all the required sandwiches are made. For larger quantities, for parties, you can set up an assembly line.
4. If you’re not serving it immediately, wrap the sandwiches in a damp thin muslin cloth (make sure its damp, not wet – all the water must be squeezed out) and store in an air tight box until ready to serve. This is essential to make sure the sandwich doesn’t dry out.
Serves: Makes ~4 chutney sandwiches and 2 egg salad sandwiches
Apprentice Rating: The apprentice hasn’t tried this, but the recipe is as Easy as can be
Note: If you have any left over chutney, temper it with a bit of oil, a few mustard seeds and urad dal and mix it with steaming hot white rice to make malli saadam (coriander rice), a favourite of Ayah's.
Recent Posts:
