NRI Mom-Daughter Duo From Hyderabad Takes Authentic South Indian Podi Flavours to Atlanta |
Originally reported and written in May 2023, this story has been republished aspart of our archival content.‘Comfort drizzled onto a dish’ is how most people would describe their beloved podis. The semi-coarse dry powders have graced many a table, particularly in South India, where it is something of a hero for its sheer simplicity yet ingenuity that it lends to every dish.
Alak Nanda, an engineer who is now 35, says she was one of the many fans of the humble podi. And growing up in Hyderabad, it was a constant on the dining table. Even when the family moved to the United States when Alak Nanda was 12, the podi continued to be a stalwart in their lives, and her mother Vasavi (59) would concoct different recipes.
So, it is no surprise that the mother-daughter duo decided to form a brand out of this mutual love for podis, years later. Podi Life, as the brand name goes, is an ode to the South Asian diaspora and includes a range of podis which have been created by Vasavi and Alak Nanda.
Even as Alak Nanda reveals to The Better India the journey of Podi Life, she says the initiative is after all a reflection of the love that she and her family have towards this seasoning.
“My dad comes from an agricultural background, and we would get a magazine every week while we were in India. Titled ‘Annadatta’, the magazine was all about how things grew. And my dad, being passionate about this, would immerse himself in it. My mom on the other hand would garden. Understanding where our food came from was an integral part of who I was.”
It is interesting how it started.
A lockdown, a chat, and an idea
In 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic that was wreaking havoc throughout the world, Alak Nanda found herself in India as part of a job assignment with a solar company in Hyderabad. “I found myself in the same apartment where I had grown up, and my mother was here too. It’s strange because the last time I was here, I was a rebellious teenager. It brought back a lot of memories.”
She shares how the conversation they ended up having was majorly food-centric. While Vasavi would share her attachments to food and her mother’s specialities that she had grown up loving, Alak Nanda........