With the support, network and brainstorming of the team at Neighbour Gallery and Terrace, I conducted Gather & Ground—a three-part workshop designed to explore and preserve food histories through oral storytelling. Bringing together people interested in food, memory, and culture, the workshop invited participants to reflect on how food traditions shape identity and community.

We began by learning oral history methods and techniques, followed by a period where participants conducted their own interviews with family members to document personal food stories. The workshop culminated in a warm and lively community potluck, where everyone brought a dish connected to their story and shared it during an evening of storytelling.

Conducted primarily in English, with support in Malayalam, Gather & Ground was part of my ongoing PhD research on food histories and transitions in Kerala. Participants also had the opportunity to contribute their recordings—anonymized—to a growing community archive.

As part of workshops, I gave participants two drawing exercises:

Here you can find some examples of those drawings with descriptions: 

The taste which i remember from my childhood (1990-2000), which i missed is of the sea turtle olive ridley, it was a tradition in our village to catch the turtles during the month of november & december, the sea will be more calmer..and early mornings..during low tide time, turtles comes to shore for laying eggs, which end up being a treat for local fisher folks.

my grandfather used to be the chief, as he is so experienced and have special knifes and axes to cut the turtle and make share for the friends and families around the area. the most unique taste is of the eggs of the turtle, which will be cooked with a spicy masala by my grandmother.

I can recollect the taste..it’s more of a thick cheese ( I never had tasted cheese that time.)

Later part, declining populations of olive ridley..it becomes illegal to kill these turtles, and the taste vanished from the costal communities.

This drawing represents three significant places and phases in my life. At the center is Mumbai, my birthplace, marked with the pin code 400063. I attempted to capture the city in a drawing—though imperfect, it symbolizes the beginning of my journey. I was born into a privileged Brahmin family, and I depicted myself with a traditional Brahmin hairstyle, reflecting the stereotypical prescriptive and sometimes rigid mindset associated with my upbringing. 

The stern expression on the figure's face conveys the restrictive, often angry nature of that early phase in my life. Over time, my life expanded beyond that rigidity. A friend group I formed is shown bringing a sense of joy, symbolized through my smile, and it marks a turning point. With them, I began exploring cultures within my state, Maharashtra, expanding my horizons socially and culturally. 

Food plays a central role in this story. In my Brahmin household, only vegetarian food was allowed, but through these friendships and new experiences, I began exploring non-vegetarian food like fish and meat. This was not just a dietary shift, but a form of personal and social transformation. 

Later, I moved to Kerala, where I embraced even more change—growing a beard, changing my hairstyle, and getting a piercing. These physical changes represent a break from my past and the emergence of a freer, happier version of myself. While the drawing started as a food story, it ultimately expresses the broader social and symbolic meanings of food in my life. It reflects a kind of metaphorical mobility: not just moving physically, but expanding mentally, culturally, and emotionally beyond the boundaries of my upbringing.

This is the drawing I made, that day.

It's a memory from when I was 3-4 years old, and was living in Thodupuzha, Idukki.

I would sit in a tiny chair infront of the tv, around 7am in the morning, when my mom would get ready to attend college.

On the left is a bowl of laddoos, with raisins that I'd pick out and save for mom.

I always liked balancing contrasting flavours, so I would take a few bites of a laddoo, then I'd switch to eating from the jar on the right, containing cut spicy mango pickle.

Yeah, I drew this specifically because it's a very vivid memory in my mind, and trying to alternate between different flavours during the same meal or snacktime is a practice I still carry on.

As I grew older, I started having a wide variety of flavours and dishes on my plate for lunch everyday.

So, I actually came to this workshop because I wanted to learn how to document. And there were some things I don't know. I want to know more than just a recipe. What more I can do in that. 

So, this one, this is my drawing. It's more like this is my home. So, in my home, my mom and dad are there... So, that was a home. 

So, my mother's family has this tradition that her father was a cook. So, he used to cook for a lot of people in marriages and everything. So, in her home, her mother cooks, right? So, she already knows some kind of a skill. She has some recipes. And that recipe comes to her home. And from her, it comes to my home, right? 

And I took this good tradition of going to many homes. So, I tried to learn cooking because right now I stay at the hostel and I have to cook. So, when I think like that, I notice something like the X's... This is something that has been gotten from my grandmother. And why is something that is in our home. 

And it is something if I get married, she will get some recipes. So, this great thing will come to my home. And if I learn something out of all these things, like anything different, then that also will come to this home. 

And some of it will pass on to my sister when we get married. She will give that to her. So, that is something for this one. 

I think for what I cook, recipes will come to me. That's what I think.

M=Mallory
H: Haffis

M: Can you walk me through it?

H: Sure.

M: Okay, go ahead.

H: So when I was little, the only way I used to eat rice was, my parents would have this holy trifecta combination of beetroot thoran, which is beetroot and it's super red, all of that stuff, and rasam, and tenga meengari, which is, meengari with a lot, which is, the base is heavily tenga, so it's very labor intensive. So the funny thing is, this whole thing happened because of beetroot thoran, where when I was little, apparently, this is the only thing that I would eat, which is beetroot just mixed with rice, it's the only thing I used to eat.

 And then eventually, when I was around, I'm guessing, six to seven, is when this trifecta used to happen, and lunch was sorted for every day. My parents were super happy with this. Eventually, making a tenga meengari and a beetroot thoran became really difficult to do in their time schedules, because it's very labor intensive.

 But rasam, not so much. So they tried to transition me into a rice and rasam thing, which I found super bland, and eventually my dislike for rasam started happening from there. But even now, I'm fine with rice.

 My hatred for rice hasn't started yet. And then parallelly, this thing is happening, where occasionally they would combine beetroot thoran and then tenga meengari and rice, and we'd do all of that stuff. So, again, this, they eventually stopped caring about because of how labor intensive it was.

 And then they kind of weaned away from all of that, and they stopped caring, because by now, I'm in my 9th grade and all that, and they're like, go eat your own stuff. So that is how the pipeline was coming. And to combine with this, my slow hatred for rice is coming in because of rasam.

 So this connected all the way back here, and now whenever anything rice-related came up, it was a general dislike. This is entirely fine, and I begrudgingly lived through it until last year, where it reaches this point. So at one point, it's like, rice is bland, it's horrible, whatever, why am I eating this? And then out of nowhere, I started calorie counting.

 Then I'm like, rice, carbs, chapati, carbs, I shouldn't be eating this, right? So it comes from both sides, and then I was like, that's it. Full rejection of rice, except for biryani. And a creative way to eat it.

 So this whole thing happened, I was just thinking about it now, and I'm like, damn, that is so much fun. How did that happen?

M: That is so funny.

H: Yeah, but that's how this happened.