A real mean curry is the way to an Indian's heart. And what if that Indian is a Malayali? Alter a letter and make them a meen curry (Fish curry). Now if you don't know how to make it, the Malayali folks at IISc, Bangalore will help you out.
A couple of weeks back, a group of students and alumni came up with a song called Fish Folk, where they would teach you how to make a Kerala-style fish curry, through a music video. Like most collaborative videos that have come out during the COVID pandemic, all the singers and creators here are in different parts of the world. The only similarity between all of them is that they are all Keralites who studied in IISc at some point in their lives.
"The annual fest of the IISc Malayali Association is held in March every year. But this year, we had to cancel it owing to the pandemic. So, we thought of doing something online," says Aravind Babs, a singer. An alumnus based in Illinois, he tells the reason why they chose to sing out the recipe. "For most Malayalis like me, Fish curry is something special. We would eat it with anything, from rice to parotta," he says. Fun fact: A lot of them who worked on the song, including the lyricist and composer are vegetarians, who have never eaten fish in their lives.
"The idea came about in March and then it took us a few months to actually make the song," says Aravind. "We made everyone sing and perform the entire song and took snippets from each video," he adds. Aravind tells us that the group's initial plan was to create a prayer song to get through these tough times. "But then, we decided to go ahead with a fun song that everyone will enjoy. Looks like that worked," he says.