It’s 100 not out for Pudding Aunty
Updated on: 03 August,2025 08:12 AM IST | Mumbai
Meher Marfatia
Celebrating the culinary legacy and amazing grace of Lila Karunan, who has scored a century with extraordinary pluck and pride
On her 100th birthday in February this year, with sons Darryl, Denzil, Douglas and Desmond
When life gives you lemons, think chilled lime cordial with a dash of mint.” Trust Lila Karunan to chart the culinary route out of challenges. Greeting adversity with equanimity, tackling tough luck with can-do optimism, this brave woman recently celebrated her hundredth birthday in style in February.
Rechristened Pudding Aunty by a godchild, Aunty Lila, as most know her, ran popular cookery classes in the 1960s and 1970s. She nourished. They cherished. Students still treasure her hand-written recipes for the Thali sweet and other East Indian community delights, both sugary and savoury.
“The expertise with which Mum portioned ingredients produced bestsellers,” says her son Desmond D’Souza. “When her five sisters came to our D’Monte Street home to help prepare the legendary ‘bottle masala’ (laboriously concocted, this potent base for East Indian dishes manually pounds together 25 to 60 spices with mortar and pestle), the entire lane shut for eight hours of their roasting and grinding.
Lila raising her glass at a family function
Not even a bicycle could go through — to minimise dust contamination from vehicular traffic. And her homemade mustard was so brilliant in quality and taste, people said it beat the fancy French ‘pommery moutarde de meaux’, voted top worldwide.”
Not to quote filial devotion alone, here is Lalitha Fernandes writing in Jottings, the newsletter of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA): “With easy-to-follow recipes turning out excellent each time, her dishes were classic, creative and delicious. She threw herself into everything with determination and full focus, couched in a sense of humour. Cheers to a woman who continues to be classy, sassy and adored.”
I’m privileged to meet everybody’s beloved centenarian on a rainy Saturday morning in the Malad apartment of her eldest son Darryl. Sitting up slowly for a midday meal, she joins wizened hands in a silent prayer of Grace, facing a beautiful Madonna and Child portrait on the opposite wall.
Framed below are photographs from the 100th birthday celebrations at Country Club, Andheri. Lila basking in the joy of four sons standing behind her. Lila exuding verve in an elegant dress and elaborate hat tilted at a jaunty angle. Lila beaming gratitude for the blessings of nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Blessing goddaughter Lucia on her wedding day
She smiles, hearing that I too schooled at St Joseph’s Convent. In contrast with her simple lunch bowl, we sit surrounded by a sea of snacks Darryl and Desmond D’Souza ply me with — which I try resisting to focus on the story of their wonderful mother.
Born into the Gomes household on Boran Road, Bandra, she married Esmond D’Souza, an office executive, and brought up four sons — Darryl, Denzil, Douglas and Desmond — at 465 D’Monte Street, off Hill Road. One floor down from them lived the family of Maurice Concessio, the band leader, on whose green van trundling through leafy lanes was painted the tagline “Music grows where Maurice goes”.
Esmond’s death in a road accident in 1965 left Lila solo at 40, but a picture of courage. That she was a mother of four scarcely deterred Peter Karunan, a bachelor working as a Bata factory and store manager, some years later. When she expressed some reluctance at his interest, he approached her in-laws and she remarried.
An ordinary housewife with no formal training, Lila found and flourished in her niche out of necessity. Providing for a family of six was proving extremely hard. Armed with resolution and recipes from her mother Mary’s kitchen, she donned an apron, spread pans and ladles on her foldout dining table and started Lila’s Cooking Classes in 1971. Investing modest personal savings in a gas range, utensils and stools for students, she fixed Sunday sessions from 2 to 4 pm.
With a sensitive understanding of family life, she welcomed students’ children home. French teacher Blanche Dias says, “I had nowhere to leave my two on a Sunday afternoon. Lila let me bring them to class. She bought them toys to play with in a corner, supervised by her gentle husband Peter. And always packed a box of munchies for them.”
At first, locals trickled in. As word spread, students flocked around. Blanche says, “I came to Andheri from Colaba in 1979 newly married, with stars in my eyes and no culinary skills. After the honeymoon period, my husband’s look at carefully crafted burnt offerings gradually changed from adoration to dismay. Enter my saviour, Aunty Lila. My cooking got better and I made a lot of friends for life.”
Close-up of a recipe for Sweetheart Pudding, with heart doodle by Lila
From nervous brides to chefs in training, men keen to floor the women of their dreams with unexpected domestic skills to mixed marriage partners looking to learn a different cuisine, she taught hundreds of eager students over 20 years. For a monthly fee of Rs 30, with another Rs 10 covering costs of typed copies and a sample of the delicacy of the day
“Aunty Lila is a star. Her resilience and zest for life are outstanding,” says her goddaughter Lucia D’lima-Kandhari. “Though a no-nonsense person, she’s never without a kind word and hearty laughter. You leave her home with a goody bag and the warm, fuzzy feeling of mother’s love. At gatherings, her rainbow sandwiches as well as mini cheese and sausage cocktail hors d’oeuvres were huge hits. The East Indian community’s famous Thali sweet is among the most relished and not only at Christmas.”
It must have been no easy task bringing up four demanding boys, Darryl remarks, voice thick with emotion. “Yet, with abundant generosity, ours was one big open house. Especially during feasts. In the Bandra Fair week, on the first Sunday after September 8, Mum made lunch for a minimum of 60 people. She called out to passersby who dropped in for her perfect fugias, sausage fry, pig roast, sorpotel and vindaloo.”
Vinita Bahl Crasto, whose mother Rama assisted Lila, says, “Aunty Lila taught with the patience of a mother and flair of a master chef. With 75-odd ladies frequenting the premises four times a month, a story or two was a given. Women found alliances for young men in their families, many became best friends. Sunshine personified, she took her girls to movies and picnics, and made it a point to attend their weddings and birthdays.
With cookery class assistant and friend Rama Bahl
“Years after, familiar faces would come up to her, asking, ‘Aunty Lila, remember you taught me to cook?’ She said, ‘That sentence gives me the best feeling in the world, no matter how many times I hear it.’ I used to believe she had a secret pair of hands saved for her dinner parties, serving great food and wine, topped with mouth-watering desserts — all matched with perfect cutlery and glassware. We imbibed the fine art of entertaining from her.”
Lila had initially worked in a clerical capacity with the RAF’s women’s administrative services office. Once her domestic situation altered, when not stirring up a storm of weekend delectables, she gave cookery lectures at the SNDT Women’s University and YWCA. As area chairperson of the Andheri branch of YWCA, she worked for the hostel committee and in fund-raising, besides being called to judge numerous cooking competitions across the city. She also taught at St Catherine’s Home, Andheri.
“Reaching 100 is extraordinary. More remarkable is how she’s lived each of those years: with purpose, dignity and heart. Hers is a century defined by quiet strength and tireless sacrifice,” writes Lila’s son Douglas from Canada. “As a boy, I watched her juggle the weight of the world with grace, raising us, supporting my father, not once complaining. Her goals were to put food on the table and ensure our education. Despite the hardships, financial strain and physical toll of long work hours, she never lost her sense of self. Her self-esteem was rock-solid. Holding her head high, she taught me to do the same. Her presence made people feel safe, seen and supported. Happy 100th, Mom. Your life is a lesson in love.”
Lila Lingo
Warmth and wit from Lila Karunan
>> “All sons officers by rank, but bugger all in the bank”
>> “Be happy, majja karo. Stay independent and do your own thing, God will bless you.
>> “You can’t get to heaven on roller skates” (her favourite song)
Author-publisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay. You can reach her at meher.marfatia@mid-day.com/www.meher marfatia.com
