• A to Z Of Sindhi Food

    When I started working on my project about documenting ancient, traditional as well as lost recipes from Sindhi cuisine, a few years ago, the biggest challenge I faced was the lack of accessible information  about the same. The limited documents that I could access, were in Sindhi, a script that I never could learn, despite of trying umpteen number of times, since my childhood. I felt stuck up. So the only way to move forward was to learn the Sindhi script and to make sure that I don’t give up this time, I took up a challenge; The AlifBe of…

  • Raanh/Chauran ~AlifBe~24

    As mentioned many times in the AlifBe series, the 52 letters of Sindhi Alphabet are divisible into 16 shape groups and so far four shape groups are done and dusted! For the recap of the letters covered so far, please check this list! In the 5th shape group there are three letters and the first one in this group isر  in Sindhi, र in Devanagari, while in Roman Sindhi it is R as in Ratnagiri/Rajasthan etc. And the corresponding Sindhi dish is Raanh, also called Chauran and Chawli for AlifBe of Sindhi Food #24 Raanh or Black eyed beans are…

  • Jeth Ji Sesa~AlifBe~12

    The 12th consonant in Sindhi Alif Be is ڄ, a unique one, because it is used in very few languages, one of it being Sindhi (Saraiki is another language where this is used). In Roman Sindhi it is written as J^ and as ॼ in Devanagari. ڄ is a Voiced (vocal chords vibrate when you utter this) Palatal (middle of the tongue touches hard palate) Implosive ( you breathe in instead of breathing out while uttering this). You can check this link to know how ڄ is pronounced! There are limited number of Sindhi words starting with this letter. Some…

  • Bheendi Pickle For AlifBe~5

    The next letter in AlifBe for Sindhi food series is ڀ   i.e Bh or भ as in Bharat or Bhutan. Please Note: If you don’t wish to read further but want to directly move to the recipe of Bheendi Pickle, then kindly click here! Else, do read on…… If you remember previous posts then you nay have noticed that except first letter ا (A), rest three letters covered so far ; ب (B), ٻ (B^), پ (P) have same basic shape while the number of dots vary! The fifth letter is formed using the same basic shape having 4 dots…

  • Pali For AlifBe ~4

    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…

  • Besan Ji Aani For Alif Be~2

    #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…

  • AlifBe Of SindhiFood~1

    So here I am, as promised, trying to bridge the gap between Sindhi Language and cuisine, with a series of posts, sharing a letter from, Sindhi script and a corresponding Sindhi dish!Firstly some interesting facts about Sindhi Script:To begin with, there is no consensus about the origin of Sindhi language. While some authorities believe that the language may have its roots in Pre Sanskrit era, in one of the most ancient civilizations known to us, the Indus Valley Civilization, others believe it to be originating from Prakrit. The carved stone seals excavated from Mohen Jo Daro (the place and era that…