Karadayar Nombu

Today we observed Karadayar Nombu. For those who are not familiar with this - it is a puja done by married women for their husband (and unmarried women for their future husbands). We make a special type of food called nombu adai (and we need to make two varieties of it - sweet and salty one) which is generally made only for the nombu.

This was my first nombu away from home. Till last year my mother used to make it and I used to eat it happily. Since it's usually done only once a year we crave it a lot and the adais taste more delicious. So now here I was faced with the enormous task of making both types of adai. As u must have guessed I got a few pointers from my mom and m-i-l about what to do for the nombu.

To top the confusion I was told by a few people in US that the nombu was a day before. After much deliberation we decided to go ahead with the initial date itself. So we set the alarm and even tested it to see if it rang and went to sleep.

As fate would have it the alarm didn't ring in the morning. I woke up at only 7:30 instead of the scheduled 6:00. The catch was that everything had to be done by 8:30. Thankfully I had done some preparation last night. So there I was... Got up, had a quick shower and was there in the kitchen at lightning speed. I started my meticulous yet hurried preparation of the offering. Almost by luck I got the first batch done by 8:30... My deadline was met. Phew mission accomplished.

For those who are wondering if it turned out properly, the result is displayed now. I'd say it turned out to be pretty decent if not very good :) Better result next time...