Today (13th April 2021) is Cheti Chand and we, the Sindhis, celebrate it as our New year, with great enthusiasm. Why do Sindhis Celebrate Cheti Chand? The legend says that people in Sindh (Now in Pakistan) were tortured by an arrogant ruler named Mirikshah who tried to force Hindu Sindhis to accept Islam. Sindhis being followers of Varun Devta, Lord of Waters, gathered on the banks of holy Sindhu (Indus) River and prayed for some miracle to save them. After fasting and praying for many days there was an akashvani that the Lord Vishnu will soon take birth in an…
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In olden days, a wedding in a Sindhi home would mean a buzzing neighbourhood. The male clan would deal with the logistics of a wedding, distributing wedding cards, booking tickets for relatives traveling from far and wide, making arrangements for their stay, booking Maharaj or cook/s to cater to family/relatives, friends etc. The female clan (from the family as well as from the neighborhood) on the other hand would take charge of stocking spices, grains, pulses etc. Almost a fortnight before marriage eve, ladies in the family and around would wind up the daily chores and come together to make…
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We are now at the 13th letter of Sindhi alphabet, the AlifBe and the consonant is جهہ as in Jhelum or Jhansi. It is written as ‘Jh‘ in Roman and as झ in Devanagari. Points to note: Some of you who are learning AlifBe with me have asked why the letters appear to be different when used in words as compare to when written individually. Please note that many Sindhi letters are formed differently depending upon their individual position in a word. For instance, just check how جهہ is written varyingly depending on its position in any word. Since this…
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The 7th Consonant in AlifBe i.e the Sindhi script (Sindhi ‘Alphabet’) is ٿ which is थ in Devanagari while in Roman Sindhi it is written as Th~ i.e by using a Tilde (~) as suffix as we don’t have a corresponding letter in English. It is pronounced as Th~ as in Thailand,Theory, Thaw, Theatre etc. In Sindhi it is taught as ٿ for Thumbo/Thambo i.e a Pillar! And a dish starting with Th~ is a special one! It is something that I often crave for when I am under weather or when I miss my mother and Aunt K…
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We are on the 4th letter of the Sindhi Alphabet which is پ or P as in Roman Sindhi! Different books/ websites or articles related to Persio Arabic script will show varying results if you search for this letter. I am going with the Balbharti book of Sindhi (Maharashtra) as it is the source I am referring to, for Alif Be series. You can find the scanned copy of this book here! Not only you will find the consonants and vowels in this book but also some rhymes and lessons covering the basics like letter, vowels, word formation etc. To…
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#Alif Be of Sindhi Food~2 The second letter of Sindhi is ب as B in Baby!As mentioned in the previous post, the Sindhi ‘Alphabet’ is divisible into 16 basic shape groups. In the first shape group we have just one letter ا i.e ‘A’! In the second shape group there are 9 letters with similar basic shapes, followed by two more letters that are similar to some extent. And yet each letter is unique because of the position and number of dot/s in each letter. So the 1st letter of this group, which is the second letter of Alifbe is…
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Towards the end of the year 2007, I was toying with an idea to start an online journal to share my mom’s recipes since there was absolutely no presence of Sindhi cuisine across the World Wide Web and slowly but gradually with the help of my techie hubby I was able to start the blog ‘SindhiRasoi.com’ and managed to publish the first post on 29 th January 2008. The rest, as they say, is the history! This baby is now a teenager! Looking back, I am amused how one thing led to another and my life changed with every baby…





