Undikkaya (Marbles), Chundakkai and Vatthal Kuzhambu

With remarkable accuracy, the marble found its mark, again and again.  I winced in pain and tried to keep a brave face, but could not avoid that drop of tear from falling from the corner of my left eye.   I was kneeling down with my fist on the ground at the edge of a small (2 inches diameter) and shallow semi-spherical hole, and, from a similar shallow hole about six feet away, another kid was taking careful and deliberate aim at the broadside of my fist to finger-shoot one more time with a marble.  And it struck again unerringly and with bullet force.  You could hear the thud of the impact from afar and the stinging pain radiated from under my knuckles throughout my entire body.  And I bit my lower lip harder in a failed attempt to suppress a whimper or gasp.  Once done, the other kid picked up his marble and walked away saying we will meet again the next day.

 No, I was not being subjected to bullying or any form of torture.  We had just played a game of undikkaya (marble, goli or gotti) and, as usual, I had lost miserably.   The loser faced a painful situation where the winner got to shoot marbles at the losers fist a certain number of times.  These were the times when I perfected my prayers, praying that the marble would miss my already throbbing fist.  And, again, it was these times that made me lose faith in that superior power to which I prayed since the marble always found its mark, accurately and with deadly force.

Check this out:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUE-jhh4tdY

It was a simple marble game with simple rules, played by at least two people each with a marble and three shallow holes, 3 feet apart, in a straight line in clean and flat ground.  We have to finger shoot and drop the marble from one hole to another to another, like 2-3, 4-5, 6-7 and 8-9.  The opponent is prevented from achieving the objective by shooting his marble away from the next hole.  Also, at the 9th hole, the opponent can prevent a scoring by leaving his marble close to the hole.  The marble has to be shot out before the 9th hole can be scored.  After the 9th hole, the next step is to shoot out the other's marble to win.  The loser gets a punitive reward where the winner will do marble shoots from the hole at one end at the other's fist kept on the base of the other end hole.   While there was always the prospect of  a painful ending, the undikkaya (marble/gotti/goli) game was one of  our favorites as kids.  And I played it with such relish and I was always at the painful receiving end, with absolutely no memory of my ever winning over anyone in this game.  It was as if my sore fists were the favorite marble-shoot target practice mark for all the kids in the village.

The glass marbles came in different colors, designs and sizes.  We all had a favorite marble and the meanest of players would roughen up the surface of the marble by grinding the surface on stone.  The rough surface provides better grip and makes the marble stronger.  They could easily break other marbles when used to strike with adequate force.  And, finally, the shoots at the fists of the losers with these ground marbles stung very severely.  

Those days, life was simple and we could spend hours playing marbles.  Of course, I developed blisters and calluses on my fist under the knuckles.  We put the marbles in our trouser pockets and they made clacking noise when we walked or ran.  And due to the weight, our trouser pockets developed holes much faster and many a things like keys, coins, sweets, marbles, etc., slipped through these holes without our knowledge.

Turkey Berry Plant

Rhyming with undikkaya is chundakkai /sundakkai (turkey berry or pea egg plant), a small round vegetable similar to marbles in shape.  This berry grows wildly in the villages and we would gather them and bring them home.  The turkey berry plant is similar to the egg plant, but with smaller leaves and occasionally thorny.  Even the flower is a smaller scale replica of the egg plant flower, but the berry itself, which grows in clusters, is as small or smaller than normal marble.  I had assumed that the chundakkai is a South Indian vegetable and was surprised to learn that the berry is native to Central America, and more specifically,  South Florida.

The berry has a bitter taste, but is claimed to have wonderful health benefits.  Mother would make delicious poricha-kuzhambu with the green raw berries during the season.  (The recipe for poricha-kuzhambu is same as parikkai pitlai which I had given in one of my earlier posts.  Use raw turkey berries instead of bitter gourd.)  She would also make chundakkai vatthal by soaking slit berries in salted butter milk and drying in sun.  These are deep fried and used as fried side dish with rice and sour dish (sambar, morukootan, etc.) or curd-rice.  The dry vatthal stores for a long time and a very common and popular delicacy that is made with this is the inimitable Vatthal Kuzhambu.  This tamarind based dish is very common across Tamil Nadu and with Palakkad Iyers.  There are also different delicious versions based on different places.  We happened to have lunch in a bus-stand 'hotel'  outside Madurai back in 1989 and we still have mouth-watering memories of the Vatthal Kuzhambu that was served for the meal. 

Sundakkai Vatthal

 The vatthal kuzhambu is generally served in most of the South Indian restaurants with a leaning towards Tamil cuisine. 

Simple Chundakkai/Sundakkai Vatthal Kuzhambu:

Sundakkai Vatthal Kuzhambu

1.  Make the paste -

-  Dry roast  Methi (Fenugreek) - 2 tsp and grind to fine powder

-  In a pan, add a little oil and dry roast Tuar Dal (2 spoons), Urad Dal (2 Spoons), Coriander Seeds (2 spoons) and Peppercorns (1 spoon) and put away in a plate.

-  Roast one spoon of raw rice and a few dry red chillies (based on heat tolerance)

-  Grind all these together in a blender adding just enough water.

2.  Preparation

- Heat up a saucepan with 2 spoons of gingelly oil.  Fry a handful of chundakka vathal in this and remove the fried vathal. 

-  Add a spoon of mustard seeds to the hot oil and let it crackle.  Add half a spoon each of Chana Dal (Bengal Gram) and roast till brown.

-  Add two sprigs of curry leaves and fry.

-  Add the methi (fenugreek) powder and a little bit of hing (asafetida) to this and mix well.

-  Add back the fried chundakkai and enough salt and a bit of turmeric powder.  Mix well.

-  Add a spoon or two of tamarind paste mixed with a cup of water.  Let it boil and get thick in consistency.

-  Add the ground paste, mix well and let it boil. 

-  When it is boiling, add a small piece of jaggery and mix. 

-  As it cooks, the oil should float up.  If needed add some more gingelly oil.

Serve with hot rice and pappadams and mezhukkupuratti.

You can also make the vatthal kuzhambu with Manathakkali (Black Nightshade) Vatthal instead of Chundakkai Vathal.

Manathakkali Plant

Manathakkali Berries

Manathakkali Vatthal

My wife loves this dish and, of course, she has her own recipe.  You may want to try vathal kuzhambu with curd-rice.  The combination is a treat to the palate.

(Chundakkai/Sundakkai Vatthal is available in most of the Indian grocery stores.)