She simply rocks the grandma image. At 83, she bagged two gold medals this year. One in the Veteran’s Athletics championship in Chennai where she sprinted 100 metres like a breeze in a sari, and, the other at the Abdul Kalam Memorial Marathon in Palayamkottai where she aced three kms effortlessly.
“August was eventful. I fell down at Chennai airport and hurt myself but still went for the marathon without informing anybody in my family because they would have discouraged me. I called them up only after winning the medal,” she says with childish mischief. And she reveals the next shocker that she has six screws fitted in her right ankle joint and shin following an accident in 1995. “I am prone to injuries but you cannot pin me down.”
EFFERVESCENT: Cynthia Anandadoss
It is not difficult to sense this granny is an inspiration. She runs, drives, bakes, prays, designs and stitches clothes, does charity, loves to eat ice creams and chocolates and is stronger than many half her age!
“I have no sugar, no BP, only slight elevation in cholesterol now,” says Cynthia Anandadoss when I meet her in her house in Palayamkottai in the middle of her counting boxes of plum cakes. “This is the first time in the last four decades that I have ordered 35 kilos of Christmas cake,” she rues but soon bounces back adding, “but you see it is my recipe.” She points to the labels on the boxes and there opens a cute little story!
An Economics and History graduate from the first batch of Lady Doak College-Madurai in 1953, Cynthia’s early marriage with a public health engineer the same year took her to Delhi, Libya and Kabul. It was during their five years stay in Kabul from 1973, that Cynthia’s husband, Abraham, collected the plum cake recipe from an American couple who would bake the tasty cake for the weekend parties.
“From 1978, I and my husband started experimenting with the plum cake recipe, modifying it with various ingredients and baking it year after year for family and friends,” says Cynthia.
EFFERVESCENT: Cynthia Anandadoss
“The main thing that drove both of us was to have fun while making it and eating it,” she says. After her husband passed away in 1992, Cynthia continued with the practice of baking plum cakes at home. And being old school she loved to do everything herself with her hands. “That is the reason when grannies bake you can smell it blocks away,” she smiles.
“I would stand for hours whipping the maida with butter, sugar, caramel, cocoa and coffee powder and beat the egg separately with brandy and essence and then add it little by little to the maida batter while continuously stirring,” she says.
There was never any count of how many kilos of cake she baked single-handedly every year. Sometimes it was 50 kg and sometimes 80kg or more and much of it she would distribute among the poor and abandoned and inmates of various orphanages and old age homes. The rest would go to family and friends. She even sold to them and whatever money she earned, she donated it to various Christian ministries she supported.
Till two years ago, her house was a mini baking factory. But when her oven conked out last year, she bundled up all the ingredients and went to her granddaughter, Vichitra Rajasingh’s bakery unit in Sivakasi.
“With all kind of old age pain here and there, I drove 100 km. But by the time I reached my daughter’s house, the car got all heated up and I felt totally exhausted. Everybody got scared and while returning my daughter asked her driver to drop me back home with the warning that if he gave into my demands and allowed me to drive then he would be dismissed!” recalls Cynthia of her adventures and escapades. “I had done it in the past asking the drivers to get off the car somewhere midway and take a bus back to Sivakasi while I would happily self-drive to Palayamkottai.”
This year owing to her injury, she chose to buy the cake from Vichitra, who is the CEO of Bell Hotels and has been translating her grandma’s cake recipe for Christmas into business since 2014.
There are so many cake recipes available, and then there are those cake recipes that your grandma passes down to you. “When I started my own bakery -- Puppy’s Bakery -- the first, last and the only choice for the season was grandma’s traditional plum cake recipe,” she says. She launched the grandma label under her brand and has been marketing the plum cake in sizes of 250gm, 500 gm and one kilo in creatively designed colourful boxes.
“My grandmother is always active and positive with an unbelievable determination to do things,” says the granddaughter fondly. Active I saw for she just wouldn’t rest in one place during the interview session. With much excitement, she kept drawing out and showing her numerous medals and certificates she won in different sports tournaments from college days to her marathon running, the innumerable things she has stitched and embroidered, and her little garden blooming with bougainvillea. “I am hooked on doing things and being on the move because it keeps my head clear and helps me to take better decisions,” she says even as I see her feet swollen.
God leads her to safety, she believes. The proceeds from the sale of her plum cake still go fully to various organisations that she supports and are close to her heart. In 1992, she started by selling her plum cakes for Rs.50 a kg. Today one kg of the same cake goes for Rs.540.
“So what is the secret behind her super tasty plum cake?” I finally dare to ask. “I do not mix any dry fruits. I only add fruits including cherries, kismis, tutti-fruitti, orange peels and just wet them in Rum in July. The cake masala contains powdered cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon in equal quantity. The measure of all the ingredients is important while baking a delicious cake,” she says. And above all, it is the love for doing something for others that matters the most, she adds.
Indeed, there is a loving energy she carries and imparts. “When you get older things get slower and little harder. No matter how stressful life is, to do your own things is the best therapy instead of complaining,” she says in her sweetly spirited style. Three months short of her 84th birthday she is excitedly planning a newyear get together with her three daughters, six grandchildren and four great grandchildren. A consistent champion she is!
