The kitchen
Pots from a potter's family near Nalgonda. 
Vegetables from the rythu bazaar, before nine. 
Mustard and curry leaves in hot oil. 
Padma keeps the flame low. 
The long table, laid on banana leaves. 
Poured at the table from the pot.
I learnt to cook in my mother's kitchen in Guntur, where the pappu sat in clay all morning.
Clay takes heat slowly and gives it back slowly. Nothing burns, nothing dries, and the pot comes to your table.
Kandula Padma