The Aappa Story

t was early morning on Saturday. Kumdu stretched while letting a long, loud and lazy yawn out. Her little sister kicked her on the right. “aiyooo! (Oh no!)” Kumudu whispered irritated. Iresha was small but her bony kicks hurt. Kumudu got off the bed quick because she didn’t want Iresha waking up at this early hour. If she did, it would be a nuisance. Babysitting Iresha was the most pathetic task and Kumudu hated it. So getting off the bed in haste, she covered up Iresha with the stripy bed sheet and walked to the broken mirror glass that was hanging by a nail by the bed. Wiping off the fog with her palm, she quickly fixed her hair in two pleats and rushed to the kitchen which was in the other room. In fact, the only other room in the house.

Amma (Mother) was already busy in the kitchen, baking the aappa (hoppers). The woodchip stove was blistering on the left corner and a pan on that was baking the 15th hopper of the morning. “Amma… How many aappa today?” Kumudu asked her mother, through another lazy yawn. Ignoring her question, her mother continued to stir the mixture in the aluminum pan. “Today also hundred and fifty aappa, amma?” Kumudu tried again. Her mother was acting deaf to Kumudu’s annoyance. Usually, their early morning exchanges consisted of details about hoppers, the hopper dealers and their customers. Eager to wake herself up from the sleepy daze, Kumudu leaned on the wall and went on. “Yesterday, I saw teacher. You know teacher no? She asked me if I could make aappa on my own” not knowing whether her mother was listening or not, she continued blabbering “when I said I don’t, she was surprised. She said ‘shame shame’ shaking her head. I was so embarrassed amma” she stopped to take a breath. “So I thought during this Aurudu holiday, you can teach me how to make aappa on my own. Not only aappa amma, I want to learn how to make Kawum (oil cakes)…ummm ummm…. You make Kawum so tasty no amma? Will you teach me? My friend Chathu said she knows how to make………..”

“Here, Kumudu, scrape that coconut near the stove, hiramane (coconut scraper) is behind the door” her mother interrupted her. “ane (please) Amma, you were not listening!” Kumudu frowned. “You talk so much child. Can’t understand what you are saying even!” her mother said with a blank expression across her face. Confused and wondering if they had lost yet another customer, like they had during the past few days, Kumudu decided to remain silent. The last thing she wanted was to get her mother angry before the break of dawn. So she sat down on the narrow hiramane and started scraping the fresh coconut. Sitting by the door, Kumudu remembered her Appachchi (father). He was shot dead on the very same spot she was sitting. Appachchi had failed to pay the debt he took for his bicycle from the Mudalaali (owner of a shop). Mudalaali had threatened him several times, before turning up at their door step one night with his riffle and shooting appachchi. Amma was dragged off and she came back looking aghast the next morning. Mudalaali was a crazy man, that is what everyone said. Kumudu didn’t miss Appachchi that much because she was very small when he died. Iresha was just a baby.

After several hours, the sun started to rise. The birds were chirping outside. Kumudu loved this time of the day. All she wanted to do was run along the gravel path on bare feet and sing with the birds. She was no singer, but she didn’t mind. She had a song in her mind about flowers and rainbows and flags waving in the wind. But her daydream trance was broken when her mother handed her the two large baskets filled with hot hoppers and sambol (a popular food item in Sri Lanka which is paired with almost anything from bread to string hoppers made of coconut mixed with chilli, onions, lime and salt). “Give this to the Udaha Kade (Upper shop - Location of the shop) aiya (brother) and tell him we need money today ok?” “Don’t come without the money child”. Iresha was now crying in the other room. Maybe she was cold or mosquitoes were biting her poor little toes.

With the baskets in either arm, Kumudu set out to the Kade (shop). “Maybe Kade Aiya will give me a toffee today”, she smiled broadly at the little squirrel that was perched on a dead tree. “Maybe today’s toffee will be coffee flavor…. maybe caramel. Who knows, he may even have an apple taste toffee… maybe if I am lucky, he would have an extra Kandos (a popular brand of Sri Lankan chocolate) chocolate from yesterday…………maybe if I drop a piece of chocolate in the right spot on the ground, it will become a chocolate fountain!!! I will call it my mother’s name! All the children can come and fill buckets of chocolate. And near that I will plant toffee trees, red one on the right……………”

(Adapted from a true story)

Easy recipe fro Aappa - http://www.infolanka.com/recipes/mess1/35.html