ETA: I am not sure if its called thutham or theertham in Iyengar dialect. May be I heard it as thutham when the uncle actually said theertham. Again, pardon my ignorance on this dialect. My knowledge is very limited to this. Thanks Maya for correcting me.
Thanks Maya for the fodder. Your mention about Satramudhu rekindled my childhood memories and first experience with Satramudhu..
**tortoise coil remember the flash back scenes in Movies. Now, we are back to 1993**
My elder cousin sister was in college and one day during summer vacation she took me along to her friend’s house. As we entered the house, the friend’s uncle greeted us and kept repeating “avaala ulla kuttitu poi first-tu thutham* kudu di” (take them inside and give thutham)
Please pardon my ignorance with Iyengar dialect. I thought “thutham” was some kind of special juice and was eagerly waiting for it after that walk under hot sun. They gave us water, I drank, still my heart was looking for the “thutham” which they never gave!
After this, we had lunch and the same uncle was again repeating “avaalukku sathamudhu kudu di” (give them satramudhu**). Again, I thought it was some kind of special sweet but all I got was rasam and then curd to savor the next round of rice, much to my dismay.
I was in middle school by then and was so confused as why that aunty was not giving anything that the uncle wanted to offer. I seriously thought she was angry with us for some reason.
Once, we got out of the house, I vented it out to my elder cousin sister only for her to literally roll on the street laughing out loud.
I don’t know if my cousins remember this incident now but needless to say, I was the comedy piece for them for rest of the summer.
Later I came to know that in Iyengar’s dialect
* thutham means water and
** satramudhu means rasam which the aunty duly served to us..
This incident always flashes on my mind whenever I hear the words “thutham” or “satramudhu”..
Between my littles and me 