Foreword by my children

Memories of Hotel Kalyan

My association with cooking goes way back to the early days of my childhood in the town of Chitoor, Andhra Pradesh in the 1950's. We were a family of 6 children, three boys and three girls. I was the third child in line with two brothers above me. My paternal grandmother lived with us.

My father Subramaniam owned a hotel in Chitoor town called Hotel Kalyan, a south Indian vegetarian restaurant. He inherited this hotel from his sister's husband (Athimbere). It was right at the main bus stop always bustling with people. Hotel Kalyan was very popular in its days. My father also owned a lodge called Shanti Vihar and a shop that sells Coffee for a few years.

My father worked very hard to run the hotel. He had his nephew Padmanabhan's help to run the restaurant. They worked in shifts to ensure that the hotel stayed open from the wee hours of 4.30am in the morning to late at night. I remember workers working the huge grinding stones to grind batter for idlis and dosas. There were two to three people solely in charge of chopping vegetables. One person dedicated to make dosas. A "charak-master" who exclusively made sweets.

Breakfast for us kids always got delivered at home from the hotel. Most of the time it was Idlis. Evenings we were allowed to go to the hotel and eat any snack that we fancied. There was Vadai, Bonda, Oothapams and several other options to choose from. My grandmother primarily did all the cooking at our house with my mother's help. Though I never cooked until I got married, I was surrounded with the activities, sounds and smells involved with the hotel.

Hotel Kanyan closed down in 1970 after my father felt that it was too much for him to run it by himself. My brothers were not interested and choose other careers.

About Me

I am Vasanthi Viswanathan. I live in Toronto, Canada with my older son. My younger son lives in California. I am a grandmother of 2 little kids whom I adore. Here is a picture of my family.

Before moving to North America, I have lived in several places and traveled all over India. I was born in Chitoor, Andhra Pradesh. I have lived in Vizag, Ernakulam, Delhi and Chennai.