LFC Kochi and
Bhubaneswar | October 2026
LFC Kochi
Preeti: For me, it has to be my mother’s chakka varatti and my mother-in-law’s homemade pickles. They carry a piece of home with them, especially when shared with friends. Some foods are really memories in a jar!
Asha: Puleenji is my favourite sadhya touching. I received some from an aunt just two days ago.
Anu: We never leave empty-handed after a visit to my mother-in-law’s. Such as a piece of elavan (ash gourd), papaya from the garden, and pickle or a special dish made that day. My mama (mother’s brother) stocks us with mangoes, thaal (colacasia stem), kovakkai (ivy gourd) and drumsticks from their garden. No trip is complete without half their kitchen landing in my home. Food from one kitchen to another is a way of showing love.
Nithin: While one aunt sent me pineapple upside-down cake, another gifted us orange upside-down cake.
Saira: When I travel back to Bangalore from home, amma packs ela appam for me. I have it for breakfast, and its shorter shelf life makes it even tastier.
Pragati: I’ve taken lots of meen chattis and appam pans for relatives and friends outside of Kerala and in Malaysia.
Sreeja: Guruvayur pappadam and homemade atta halwa for my sister. But mostly, I’m the receiver of food gifts.
Suman: Chukappam with beef is a family favourite, as well as kutchi rava laddoos. Earlier we used to make them at home but not anymore. There are a few ladies who make and sell them.
LFC Bhubaneswar
Jinnie: Biscuits and brownies that my sister Rini bakes for me, whenever she is home. For context, she lives in another state.
Sayani: My house is full of dabbas sent by my mom. Every time I go to Kolkata, she sends me back with several dabbas of my favourite foods. I have inherited this habit of hers—I too enjoy sending dabbas to my friends.
Debanshi: When I went back to my hostel, my mother always packed a dabba full of nimki. It was my favourite back then, and I used to share them with friends.
Sayani: A couple of years ago when I was sick and couldn’t cook, my friend Bhavya came over to my place with a meal in dabbas.
Manisha: Almost two years ago, my friend’s mother packed food for us to carry on our train journey. She packed everything from fresh cucumbers and sabji to snacks. Needless to say, the care was so evident, my heart and stomach were full and content!
Jinnie: Growing up, during train journeys, whenever we crossed a station where a relative lived, they would bring us home-cooked food. My uncle and aunt from Telangana and Uttar Pradesh would cook their regional favourites, and pack them creatively with cutlery to enjoy during a journey. They usually brought us lemon rice, puri sabzi, curd rice, chocolates, snacks, chicken, roti sabji, salad, achar, paratha, and a lot more These days, the convenience of food getting delivered to our seats, makes the memory of homemade food parcelled to us all the more heart-tugging. It makes me appreciate the love, thought, and effort that goes into making us something from scratch, and bringing it to us at the station.
Read this heart warming piece by Bhavika, an LFC member, on Love as Cake. She asks, how does food carry connection and memory between the gifter and receiver?