19 May 2012, Amritapuri

After the bhajan ended Amma marched straight down the ramp with a determined look. It was FRY day. In front of her were set up 8 dosa grills and 3 large vats for frying French fries. Amma immediately started cutting, herself, the 10 kilos of potatoes before her. She cut the potatoes as if this were her profession, finishing it off in a matter of minutes, before throwing them into the boiling oil. Adding some salt water to the oil for the finishing touch Amma started off a magical night. As soon as her batch was finished the ashramites continued making the rest of the fries and dosas to feed the capacity crowd in the hall. An hour later everyone would have their food, but the story had begun weeks ago.

Some weeks back while helping to move bricks from a construction site{news}, in the wee hours of the night, Amma had mentioned that she wanted to give French fries to the residents. This set off countless rumors on how and when it would be done. Finally the day before Amma was to leave for her Japan – America Yatra, the ashram was in full action for the night’s festivities.

How to make enough fries to feed the whole ashram and its visitors and have them piping hot on their plate? It’s started before sun up that day with the washing of 100s of kilos of potatoes. Then continued with more than a 200 ashramites participating in chopping them small enough to be cooked fast. And then hours of pre-frying so as not to take forever to cook while Amma was serving. And then when the work was done, it could easily be seen that we had not made enough. And everything started again to make double what we had already made. The washing, the cutting, the lifting, the running, everything was nonstop action on this day. And no bad moods could be found. Everyone was in a joyous and festive mood. And when all was said and done, we had just enough to feed everyone. And everyone was satisfied.

And, to end the party, Amma sang Bandallo, and everyone cried out, Victory to the Mother!

– Sreejith