The Mystery Box

The Mystery Box

There was a storage room near the back door of the main house. The door to the storage room was almost always closed. No one except my grandmother, mother, and little mother entered the storage room. Right on the right side of the storage room was a big box. When I was about five years old, that box was very mysterious. At that time, I was not tall enough to look inside the box.

I don't remember saying, 'Please lift me up and show me what's inside this big, huge box.'

So when the lid of that box was opened, I had to be patient until I was tall enough to look inside.

After a while, I was able to peek through the lid of the box and see for myself what the mystery was.

Only an adult could open that lid. It was such a heavy lid. The smell that had been lingering inside the box, impatient to get out, suddenly came out and spread throughout the entire storage room as soon as the lid was opened. That smell crept up to our noses and what a smell it was. It made us wonder how so much smell was in this big box. So we didn't think to look inside the box, we just looked.

This was like a great treasure. At that time, the most valuable things in the house were piled up in that box. That's what I thought at the time.

Believe me, that big big box was filled with all kinds of big glass bottles. Brown paper bags tied with sack ropes, and boxes of various sizes of food.

Those big glass bottles were filled with all kinds of food. Dried plantain strips were covered with sugar, rice prepared for making aggala, various types of dosi like potato dosi, ginger dosi, and some pickles were in those glass bottles. Sweets like sweets and other delicacies were in the bread boxes. There were three or five varieties in brown paper bags. A few jaggery roots and a few bottles of milk were staying inside the box for a few days. Bread flour, sugar, lentils, and green beans were kept separately in big glass bottles.

Why are so many delicious foods hidden in this box?

That problem was also solved after some time.

Actually, only the three or five varieties in those paper bags were brought from the mill in the town and kept for about a week, put in small bottles and kept in the kitchen, and the rest was kept in the box.

The flour and sugar in the glass bottles are used by the little mother to make cakes and the delicious puddings she learned from her cookery class in Galle.

And the sweets in the pan boxes? What happens to the delicious dosi varieties in those glass bottles?

In those days, relatives would not come to the house without prior notice. When they got a chance. Either for an urgent funeral, a charity event, when they came to visit a sick person, or because it was school holidays.

Some of the relatives who came would stay at the main house for days. So, the main house would have food ready for anyone who came to eat at any time. There were sweets and dosi varieties for morning tea and evening tea.

Any guest who came to the main house would receive a royal meal prepared by the grandmother herself. Sometimes, when they arrived, the family would have finished cooking. Then the grandmother would get together with the little ones and cook the food again, very excited and very happy.

Until the food is ready, we drink tea with the sweets in the mysterious box and sit by the kitchen and talk to the guests. Details of the journey. The sound of laughter spreads from the main house to the yard and spreads even further from the flower trees in the yard. The little children who come with the guests play with us in the yard. I don't even remember the fatigue of the journey. The sound of the children's laughter goes far from the main house yard and hits the big trees in the garden and scatters. When the house is full of people, it is really Syria. The sound of laughter, the jokes that don't sleep at night, and the little ones who run around the garden during the day, not only the main house but also the flower trees in the yard are transformed.

After staying for a few days, laughing and talking, walking here and there in the village, walking along the railway, and going to the beach two or three times, the relatives are leaving again.

Those relatives never left empty-handed. Grandma would give them the candy wrappers in the bottles and boxes of bread in the boxes and take them away.

When they left, they would say, 'We were supposed to leave a day earlier. What's the hurry?' 'Come back soon.'

No matter how many people come, no matter how many days they stay, there's always food in the boxes!