The rustic hands which served thousands of people with tasty ethnic tea at a village makani at Panangangara near Perinthalmanna have stopped moving. Rabia, 70, will not serve any moretea either for the local people or the passersby.

Rabia passed away on Saturday, leaving behind a legacy of serving people with tea for over half a century. In fact, she served tea for generations.

The tea shop she managed on the veranda of her house on the Palakkad-Kozhikode highway at Panangangara had long become a talk of the village largely because of the unique taste of the tea she mixedand her simple behaviour. She was helped by her sisters Fatimakutty and Sulaikha.

Many a traveller, including foreigners, has had the taste of Rabia’s tea. Started 60 years ago by her late father T.K. Saithali, Rabia and her sisters insisted on carrying forward the Makani tradition that existed in Malabar. Although Makani does not mean anything more than a shop, the very mention of it in the villages of Malappuram brings memories of ethnic culture, language and food.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala / by Abdul Latheef Naha / Malappuram – July 26th, 2015