This is my newsletter #35: Sangeetha Menon | The Moody Marshmallow

Dear Reader,

Welcome to this week’s edition of This is my newsletter. My name is Sangeetha (she / her) and I’ll be your curator for this issue.

A little bit about me: I’m a 20 something - year - old urban Malayali girl based in Chennai, India. I’m currently a writer and I have to say that I’m quite enjoying it! I wish I could tell you that I was one of those people who’ve been writing since they were a kid, but honestly, I found…or rather writing found me in 2020. Crazy! Right?

Well, the truth of the matter is that I’ve been a sporadic writer. I started a blog called ‘The Moody Marshmallow’ in 2017 where I’d occasionally post some poetry. A few opportunities later and here I am!

2020 has been quite an absurd year to say the least. And, I know that most people, if not everyone had similar feelings of disappointment and frustration regarding it. But, among all the idiosyncrasies of the year that was, I think I’ve been fortunate to have a lot to be grateful for: a home, food on the table, my family and an incredible support system of friends (and a fairly stable Wi-Fi connection).

I found a lot of comfort in writing, cooking and music during the lockdown. So, keeping these three in mind, I’d like to share some resources, which I found rather intriguing and fun.

Writing

NaPoWriMo.Net:

This website by Maureen Thorson is one of the pioneers of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) prompts. Maureen started these poetry prompts for the month of April in 2003. As NaPoWriMo garnered a lot mot more attention over the years, she started this website as a way to chronicle participants’ entries and create a more central system for sharing prompts. Personally, I only started participating in NaPoWriMo in 2020. But, I’m so glad that I started with this website. You’ll find exercises like ‘Twenty Little Poetry Projects’, basing poems on tweets from Twitter poetry bots, writing poetry based on a ‘Personal Universe Deck’ and a lot more!  If you’re a beginner or even just curious, I highly recommend this website since it’s like a month long self-study on poetry with some amazing resources!

Bound

Bound is a literary services agency or better defined as a company that helps people and brands tell their stories. They offer a variety of classes for writers: editing, fiction writing, screenwriting, graphic novel workshops and more! Since I had the time, I was fortunate enough to take three of their courses: Indian fiction appreciation, editing & publishing and their advanced poetry workshops. As someone who was fairly new to the world of words, these classes really helped me open my mind and introduced me to new concepts. They occasionally have some interesting Instagram live sessions and informative articles on their blog. They also have two pretty cool literary podcasts: Books & Beyond with Bound and The Book People.  Again, I’d definitely recommend checking their website if you’re a writer looking to learn.

Champaca’s Book Subscription

If we’re talking about writing, then reading can’t be far behind. I got introduced to this Bangalore-based independent bookstore (Champaca) through one of the classes I took at Bound. Reading is something I’ve had a bit of a complicated relationship with. After having fallen out of the habit for a while, I figured it was time for me to get back to books. And what better way to get back than a book club? Interestingly, Chamapca had just started a book subscription model half way through 2020 and there was the option of choosing to be part of their monthly virtual book club. What reeled me in more was the fact that they were reading and discussing translations! And as someone, who was developing an interest in Indian literature, I decided to dive right in! (Though they also do international language translations) Good news: I have not been disappointed. Champaca really takes the effort to curate some unique literature for their readers. I got to read books like Motherwit by Urmila Pawar, The Enlightenment Of The Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar and Singarevva And The Palace by Chandrashekhara Kambar.

Cooking

I think I’ve stepped into the kitchen a lot more during the lockdown than ever before. Usually, I enjoy baking but I think I did way more than that this time. Surprisingly, I did not bake banana bread. But I did try some variations of Dalgona coffee inspired desserts. Here’s one of them:

Black Velvet Naked Cake with a Dalgona Coffee Glaze

I think this cake came out better than I expected and it was pretty darn delicious if I may say so. You can find the recipe of the cake on Tastemade.

For the Dalgona coffee glaze – Take two tablespoons of coffee powder, two tablespoons of water, two-three tablespoons of sugar and an optional dollop of butter. Mix all of this in a bowl till you get a paste / semi - liquid consistency. You can just top your cake with it.

Fun idea: Make cake pops and coat them with the glaze or use the glaze as a dip!

On another note, the Dalgona glaze makes a great ice-cream topping and also a tasty spread for toast! (Talk about breakfast on the go!)

My mother and I also rummaged through my grandmother’s recipe books during this period and tried a few of her dishes. One of our absolute favourite comfort dishes is the classic Mutta (Egg) Roast. It’s something that’s made in a lot of Malayali households. This recipe is what’s native to my grandmother’s family:

Mutta (Egg) Roast

Ingredients :

·  1 tbsp - Coriander powder

·  1tsp - Chilli powder

·  A pinch of turmeric powder

·  A pinch of pepper powder

·  Handful of small onions (Sliced. Could need more)

·  1 Savala onion (Also sliced. This is the big onion)

·  4 eggs (Hard boiled)

Method :

1. Take the coriander powder, chilli powder, turmeric and pepper and grind it to a paste form.

2. Then add the chopped small onions and the finely chopped Savala to the paste and add a little water.

3. Put it in the kadai / pan and heat on a low flame. Keep stirring it till the water evaporates and reaches a dark brown colour. This step stakes about 45 minutes since you essentially want a dryish reduction of sorts. (In a way, you’re essentially caramelizing it.) You can also add in curry leaves.

4. After this, add the eggs to the reduction and fry it a little more till they’re well coated with the masala.

5. Your egg roast is now ready. Transfer it to your desired dish and dig in!

I shared this recipe for a friend’s birthday recipe book too, and thankfully, it seems to have been a hit! But I really hope you enjoy this one, especially since it comes from my ancestry :)

Also, here’s a fun way to remember the recipe for egg roast in general – Kerala Egg Roast Recipe Song.

Music

Music has always been a huge part of my life (I mean, just look at my name). But seriously, I feel like music is the one thing that’s been such a constant for me, be it during good or not so great times. And I’ve been fortunate to be exposed to a range of music! Be it my father’s conditioning of listening to Rock, Blues, Carnatic and old school Malayalam music or my mother’s humming of R.D. Burman, Michael Jackson and Colonial Cousins, to my own discovery of contemporary artists; I seem to have developed a rather eclectic taste of tunes. But I think 2020 was the year I found comfort in nostalgia with a bit of fusion. Here’s a list of music shows and artists that gave me some of that comfort:

Coke Studio 2020

I am a huge fan of this show! So, my excitement knew no bounds when I discovered they were having a new season in spite of the lockdown. The one and only Rohail Hyatt produced this season! You should definitely check out previous seasons of the show to know what I mean. My favourite songs from this season have been Gal Sunn and Na Tutteya Ve to name a few. You can find the episodes on YouTube and the audio on Spotify.

Velo Sound Station

Another great music show! Strings (who sadly disbanded in March) produced this season. Focusing on pop music, there are some incredible vocalists like Meesha Shafi, Aima Baig, Atif Aslam, Shamoon Ismail and more! Recommendations: Boom Boom, Mere Dil Ne Kaha and Pyar Ka Rog. Again, you can find the episodes on YouTube and the audio on Spotify.

The Remix

This show came out in 2018 but I only discovered it last year. It follows an interesting concept of pairing a singer with a DJ and they’re required to remix Hindi songs based on the themes given in each episode. Amit Trivedi, Sunidhi Chauhan and Nucleya judged this season. I wasn’t sure what to expect but this was a really fun show to watch! Not to mention, some pretty good music. Here are some of my recommendations: Ambarsariya, Masakali (this version was actually good), Uff Teri Adaa and Hawa Hawai. You can find this show on Amazon Prime Video and the audio on Spotify.

Su Lee

So a friend of mine introduced me to this artist last year and I absolutely love her work! Su Lee is from South Korea and she does song covers as well as original compositions in English and Korean. My all time favourite song from her discography till now is I’ll Just Dance. Do check out her YouTube channel and Spotify page.

Dot.

I got introduced to Dot. in 2017 and I’ve always looked forward to new music from her! Her songs have a feeling of nostalgia and comfort and I always find myself going back to her music. Recommendations: Asymmetrical, Everybody Dances To Techno, Rhythm Of Small Talk and Lillian. You can find her music on YouTube and SoundCloud.

And with that, we have now come to the end of this week’s newsletter. Thanks for reading!

I’ll admit I was a bit nervous to do this but I’ve honestly enjoyed writing and curating this issue and I really hope you enjoyed reading it. Shout-out to Rohini and The Alipore Post for this wonderful opportunity! I’m so happy that I could be a part of this.

If you liked what I had to say, you can even subscribe to my monthly newsletter – The Moody Mail where I chronicle all kinds of experiences and content. Think of it as digital snail mail from a friend :) (sounds a bit ironic, I know.)

Till next time!

Love & Light,
Sangeetha a.k.a. The Moody Marshmallow

P.S. – You can find all my social media handles here: The Moody Marshmallow