Kelaakai - long forgotten

They say that the taste and a name brings on long forgotten memories.

It was a long time ago, on the kolikadai street, adjacent

to the Dhoduswamy' s ancestral home in gugai, there was a small petti kadai , a lady selling u won't believe, strings of this kelaAkai all soaked in salt and chilli powder, coiled  on a saucer.

The other thing that lady sold was the ajii paangu mittai, that one could chew and chew and go on chewing till the taste lingers and the sweet melts in the mouth.

The elantha vadai was another of the fruit made into a paste with tamarind that could go great for an interval period between two classes.

The memories go long, and it got kindled last morning at the local market, when i enquired what it was, just hearing the name brought on all this and more.

I don't know the English term for it, or may be our men hid it from the English folks, as a reason to kick them out soon, lest they get hooked to this fruit, and stay for any reason to keep us in slavery.

The green ones are the original and the other colors are the breeds i guess for a change.