We witness dwindling symbols of 'culture' and 'tradition' in today's Chennai. I'm a part of it. And so are most of the girls I know. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about anything big, or anything of great consequence or damage to our saastrams and sampradayams! A few observations, amusing ones, drive me to write this post.
How many times have you walked down a street and seen a foreigner, in very indian clothes, smile at poo-kaairs (flower girls/women) and kariga kaarans (Vegetable sellers), who return a knowing smile? Hell, even if I saw them everyday, they probably wouldn't smile at me, in all my Indian-ness and Chennai-ness! I believe that foreigners are way more polite than we indians are. But would I get the same treatment if I were as polite? No. And why? This woman, this (as the pookaris and kariga karans might put it) Vellaikaari, took to those 'articles' of 'culture' and 'tradition' that tamizh-penns these days seem to have shed blissfully :) And what might those be, you ask? First, the round red (or whatever colour!) mark on the forehead. The Pottu. Trying to coax us 'learned' tamizh girls into getting back to the pottu mode, dear paatis and ammas and maamis told us how that particular point on the forehead has a divine connection to the pineal gland, and thus, how we must not refrain from 'the act'. But what did we say? We said, we could just touch the particular point once a day, if it were so significant, and forget about walking around with a pottu. They obviously gave up on us, and our reasoning, probably with a "indha kaalathu ponngal laam yenga namba sonna pechu ketkardhugal?" line! We laughed it off!
Second, maligapoo. Jasmine flowers. Even today, thousands of tamizh women adorn their hair with neatly tied up maligapoo every evening, and thousands of pookaris are still in business, selling moonu mozham pathu rooba (It would be weird to translate that!), or actually, less than moonu mozham these days! The flowers that I loved pinning up to my tightly plaited, coconut-oil-oiled hair when I was younger, and less 'learned', now touch my hair only during kalyanams, or festivals, or poojas (despite the fact that i DO know that some guys STILL fancy the smell!), and that too, ten times smaller in size, and for a much shorter time period! In a few minutes, I'd be answering the question "thalaila poo vechukaleya di?" with "yengayo vizhundhurthu, vidungo parava illai!". Gone are the days when I'd wake up to crunchy, brown, dried flowers on my bed, with half-white fading, dying, flowers revealing a white string, pinned up across the back of my head, one plait to the other! I was very Kenyan-tamizh then! ;) Coming back to India, changed it all :) But of course, we always have enough things to blame!
Third. Golusu. Anklets. As a child, i wore these extrememely heavy, ridiculously noisy silver ankelts, loaded with a million small chalangu (the collisions of which cause the sound to emanate), which i would carefully take off before playing hide and seek, for the fear of being given away by the oh-so-tinky noise! I loved them depsite the fact that they scratched me more than i'd have liked! I still remember the jeweller asking me if i was learning Bharathnatyam! I wasn't. I still bought them! I don't know when i finally stopped wearing them, and when i took to buying beaded, noiseless, SINGLE 'anklets' (and NOT golusu), from besant nagar beach! Well, there still arent any anklets on my feet!
So here we have this foreign woman, a decently sized maroon circle posing in between her eyebrows, her BLONDE hair neatly pulled back in a long plait (perhaps the hair was oiled too!) and adorned with atleast one mozham of malligapoo, wearing a purple/pink salwar kameez, like she was born in it (!!), BOTH her ankles circled by velli golusu (silver anklets), with not as many chalangu as my childhood noise-makers, but enough to be heard, and a genuine, belonging smile on her face, riding a bicycle in the crowded streets of Mylapore Tank. Was she more Tamizh than me? She was Tamizh enough to earn the smiles of those who wouldn't really care too much with others. And what do we do? We complain about the crowded streets of mylapore tank, and the cows in the middle of the road, and consequently, their shaani (!) and avoid going there unless we HAVE to buy Kolu Bommai, or eat in Saravanabhavan! :)
Well, not all foreign women give me this feeling of lost heritage. There was once I had to walk out of Naidu Hall, in Tnagar, for the fear of laughing out loud at a bunch of american women, and their Indian chaperone, dressed in spagetti strap tops, and skirts, their pony tails circled with endless concentric circles of maligapoo, their feet lost in a sea of green Pothys polythene covers, deep in conversation with the saleswoman, with momentary interruptions from the indian chaperone, about what colour petticoat would best suit each saree they had bought, as 2 very exhausted looking american men, dressed in shorts, carrying huge bag-packs, sulked behind them! My mother was decent enough to smile, and continue her shopping :)
Amma and I sat down opposite another Maami and her daughter, at the aforementioned, eternally crowded, Saravanabhavan today. The next table, had a bunch of foreigners, with a very weirdly accented english, deep in conversation in their native language. The Tamizh waiter took their order, and the conversation sounded something like this -
(M - foreigner man, W- Waiter)
W - Orrder sir?
M - Yus. I want an Eppel Zuice (apple juice).
W - Aapil juice ah sir?
M - Yus yus. And a Tho-maa-tho Zuice? (Tomato juice)
W - One to-mae-to juice, ok...
Blah. The rest of the order was drowned in the din. A few minutes later, the foreigners at the next table were happily eating what we call "meals", with rice, and sambar, and the things that actually taste good at saravanabhavan. I smiled. I looked across the table, and realised that the tamizh girl sitting infront of me had ordered a Pizza! and her maami-mother, some Chaat item! Why? AND, she dropped a fork, and made all the foreigners look her way! Aah, i continued to savour my sambar vadai! :)
And thus, we girls become what college guys today call Peter (with stress on the r. More like Petrr). Also, Scene, or better, Vethu scene. Shed your pottu, maligapoo, golusu, and the likes, and speak english, and you have a direct ticket into peter-land! All are welcome ;) Sometimes, the criteria differ, thus, for further information on peters and their characterisitics, feel free to intreact with my dear cousin,visu, who presently likes to call himself Vishwa, for mysterious reasons! Peter, perhaps? :D
Of course i have to add that it is the Tamizh Ratham, and mentality that counts more than all the articles of show! ;) I don't need articles to yell out my tamizhness, do I? Sheesh, Captain Vijaykanth would be proud of me!
Yours "Tamizho Tamizh"ly,
Signing off!
Nothing is ever so insignificant as to be unimportant. Everything in life matters and ultimately has a place, an impact and a meaning. --Laurens Van Der Post
Showing posts with label Maami-ism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maami-ism. Show all posts
Friday, June 20, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
P-i-e-r-c-e-d
This blog has witnessed a myriad of descriptions of the the people we call Maamis, over here in Iyer land - The matchmakers, the grapevine controllers, and participants, the pattu-podavai-gold-jewellery fancying women, the "oru paatu paadu ma, kathukara illaiyo?" dialogue throwers,and the likes! With this post, I bring in one more aspect, and one that has been overlooked till date, but not purposely. The Mookuthi (Mooku kuthi,Nose-stud). They come in different sizes - sizes directly proportional, usually, to the age of the person on whose nose the jewel sits - and shapes, but always having to do with the 'round' shape, and never anything longish, or more importantly, never a ring, for apparently, a ring removes all 'decency' from the woman's face! But this unwritten rule, exists only in South india. Amazing, how all (or almost all) South Indian women share that opinion. In the North, on the other hand, the ring is fancied quite a bit, and if not the whole ring, atleast half of it is! Of course, younger generations just find the ring more 'hep' and stylish, so we're seeing more of it here too! Now that we're at differences, I might as well mention that South Indian women prefer their piercing to be on the right hand side of their nose, whereas north indian women, prefer the left. Whew!
Coming to the point - I got my nose pierced. I am now more a maami than i ever was! Why, you ask? Because, I not only love gossip and have quite commendable knowledge when it comes to Pattu podavais, and other podavais too, not only because I'm liking carnatic music more, and finding myself increasingly at ease having my hair in a kondai (Bun), not only because I'm able to have lively conversations with different paatis, and realised recently that I'm not bad at imitating people/speaking like others, but ALSO because, now, when I look at my face in the mirror (probably with a pottu on my forehead), i DO look very maami-ish! VERY. You have no idea!
I walked quite confidently into a small, stuffy room on the top most floor of a huge jewellery store, after very strongly dismissing my mother's suggestion of getting a diamond nose stud. The whole piercing experience was quite a pain, though I'm sure it couldn't have lasted more than 15-20 seconds. Seemed like an era of pain (despite the hideous red-coloured numbing cream, which evidently did NOT work!), like I could visualise the entire length of the gold penetrating every layer of my skin picometre by picometre! I couldn't scream obviously, or push away the pierce-r's hand either, for the love of the rest of my nose! So the silence proudly showed itself off as fat drops of tears at the edge of my right eye! And when i looked into the mirror, I was looking more at my eye than my nose :)The pain eventually did die down, within 5 minutes actually, and we continued commenting on random jewellery like the whole instance hadn't happened at all!
The past few days have been a series of mixed comments -
You look older.
You look like a villager.
You look outlandish.
*Says hi casually* *Notices something is different* *Opens mouth and eyes wide* *Silence* *Snaps back to so-wats-up?*
You look weird.
Your face has lost its Innocence!
And occassionally, You look nice! / You look cute / It suits you!
But the one's i'll put on the "made me laugh the most" list were -
Amma's comment - Maarvaadi madri iruke di ippo! (you look like a maarvaadi!)
Paati's comment - (after staring at it for a whole minute probably!)Romba nalla irukku ma! Ponnu kuthindadhu laam nyabagam eh illai, pethiya paathaa sandhoshama irukku (Its very nice, I don't remember the times my daughters got their noses pierced, but i'm happy that my grand daughter's got it done!).
I wouldn't want to forget this episode. It has been recorded! :)
Now, to an equally important part of the post... This post, I dedicate, to Mr. Nikhil Harikrishnan. Because
1) It's part of my punishment for missing the deadline (for my picture to reach his inbox) and sending the picture (by mistake!) to some random fellow who will probably now send me a thousand 'Franship' requests.
2) He has been one of the oldest and more vocal supporters of the campaign to get my piercing.
Credits for the above - An email sent to me by the aforementioned gentleman ;)
3) He asked for it!!!! :D
But more importantly, because i didn't see why i shouldn't! And, he said i look cute with the piercing! ;) Of course one can never be too sure if he just made that up :D
Nik, I'm well into the 48 hour deadline to put this up! I couldn't imagine what punishment i would get if this TOO was late ;)you better comment!
Yours "as my worthy friend seshan here said, 3 holes in my nose..."ly
Signing off....
Coming to the point - I got my nose pierced. I am now more a maami than i ever was! Why, you ask? Because, I not only love gossip and have quite commendable knowledge when it comes to Pattu podavais, and other podavais too, not only because I'm liking carnatic music more, and finding myself increasingly at ease having my hair in a kondai (Bun), not only because I'm able to have lively conversations with different paatis, and realised recently that I'm not bad at imitating people/speaking like others, but ALSO because, now, when I look at my face in the mirror (probably with a pottu on my forehead), i DO look very maami-ish! VERY. You have no idea!
I walked quite confidently into a small, stuffy room on the top most floor of a huge jewellery store, after very strongly dismissing my mother's suggestion of getting a diamond nose stud. The whole piercing experience was quite a pain, though I'm sure it couldn't have lasted more than 15-20 seconds. Seemed like an era of pain (despite the hideous red-coloured numbing cream, which evidently did NOT work!), like I could visualise the entire length of the gold penetrating every layer of my skin picometre by picometre! I couldn't scream obviously, or push away the pierce-r's hand either, for the love of the rest of my nose! So the silence proudly showed itself off as fat drops of tears at the edge of my right eye! And when i looked into the mirror, I was looking more at my eye than my nose :)The pain eventually did die down, within 5 minutes actually, and we continued commenting on random jewellery like the whole instance hadn't happened at all!
The past few days have been a series of mixed comments -
You look older.
You look like a villager.
You look outlandish.
*Says hi casually* *Notices something is different* *Opens mouth and eyes wide* *Silence* *Snaps back to so-wats-up?*
You look weird.
Your face has lost its Innocence!
And occassionally, You look nice! / You look cute / It suits you!
But the one's i'll put on the "made me laugh the most" list were -
Amma's comment - Maarvaadi madri iruke di ippo! (you look like a maarvaadi!)
Paati's comment - (after staring at it for a whole minute probably!)Romba nalla irukku ma! Ponnu kuthindadhu laam nyabagam eh illai, pethiya paathaa sandhoshama irukku (Its very nice, I don't remember the times my daughters got their noses pierced, but i'm happy that my grand daughter's got it done!).
I wouldn't want to forget this episode. It has been recorded! :)
Now, to an equally important part of the post... This post, I dedicate, to Mr. Nikhil Harikrishnan. Because
1) It's part of my punishment for missing the deadline (for my picture to reach his inbox) and sending the picture (by mistake!) to some random fellow who will probably now send me a thousand 'Franship' requests.
2) He has been one of the oldest and more vocal supporters of the campaign to get my piercing.
Credits for the above - An email sent to me by the aforementioned gentleman ;)
3) He asked for it!!!! :D
But more importantly, because i didn't see why i shouldn't! And, he said i look cute with the piercing! ;) Of course one can never be too sure if he just made that up :D
Nik, I'm well into the 48 hour deadline to put this up! I couldn't imagine what punishment i would get if this TOO was late ;)you better comment!
Yours "as my worthy friend seshan here said, 3 holes in my nose..."ly
Signing off....
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Growing up. Growing Old.
This post shall show evidence to the stated title with 3 examples.(My exams got over a month back. Why do i still sound like a textbook?)
I'll take this in the order in which these 3 events happen every day, or almost.
Driving lessons. My mother said "you're 21, high time you learn how to drive!". I had quite a fair argument, stating that it won't serve the purpose, because i do not have a car to practice on, and hence, shall promptly forget the finer details once the license with my ugliest photo ever, reaches my hand! As it turns out, i DID lose my case. And here i am, rising with the sun (or slightly later!), with eyes that burn, and refuse to open at the unearthly hour of the morning that i NEVER see during holidays! And i sit in a Santro, with a thatha who tells me all sorts of stories to get me to learn how to concentrate on the road when people in the car talk, honking more than i've honked in the entire 4 years of my bike-riding put together, hoping desperately for the longest 20 minutes of the day to fly away like they would if i were asleep! And somehow, it makes me feel very old to be learning how to drive!
Cooking. Realisation of some big mistakes i made when i was younger, and less wise! Since paati would make the best rasam, sambar, mor kuzhambu, vethal kuzhambu, and the likes, i decided to learn all the north indian stuff, and the pasta and the other simpler stuff, so that i could make all those when my mom wasn't around. Big mistake. It dawns upon one that sambar, rasam are the essentials, and that thus, one doesn't know how to cook at all! So one dips her right hand into the luke-warm water with pulli (tamarind) in it, and spends so much time squeezing the life out of it (because its fun!) and gets laughed at by amma and paati, the at-this-pace-you-wil-never-finish-cooking-on-time laugh! One's chappathis still resemble various maps of different countries, and one still feels like adding lots of salt to anything! but one believes that she will get there ;) Atleast, right in time before one gets married! But since one invariably has to rush for paatu class, no single dish has been mastered! I should really work on the timings! Only old people cook :(
The mornings are busy. The afternoons are lazy, that being the reason they're totally loved.Oh and there's another reason. There's the afternoon iced-tea ritual!aah. Sweet! The evenings though, are a blur! A blur of a million different combinations of colours of kancheepurams, and silk-cottons and banaras-silks and the endless other varieties of sarees. A wedding is no small affair, and what's any south-indian wedding without having to visit as many saree shops as possible, and buy as many sarees as possible, and make sure they're perfect, irrespective of who they're going to be given away to? My eyes are now unfotunately trained to distinguish the right combination of border+body, the pure/tested zari, the jataang (our slang for gaudy), and the not-so-jataang sarees/zaris/borders/pallus, judging which maami would prefer a jataang saree to a sober, elegant one, which colour is 'new' and 'young' as opposed to 'traditional' and 'paati-like', and many many other things, which has made my brother a little scared. He has pronounced me a typical 'maami', and i must say, seems quite terrified at the prospect of having to introduce me to people as his sister! What still challanges me, though, is distinguishing sarees by name. Saamundrika pattu, jodi pattu, vasthrakalaa pattu, amrithavarshini sarees, parampara pattu, kalakshetra sarees, subhamangala pattu, very very innovative don't you think? ;) Mind boggling! God, this does make me feel like a maami! OLD!
To top it off, the saree shop salesman asked my mother if i am her sister today. And sadly, i recognised it to be a genuine question, and not a trade trick! How much worse does it get? So much for chauffering her around, and indulging her very admirable habit of pulling almost every saree out of the rack and buying nothing at the end of 3 hours! ;)Mothers and sarees...they go together like the mad gleam in my eyes and football/capt.jack sparrow! For my part, i spent 5 minutes buying one saree, and 10 minutes buying the other, and extracted a "yen ma jarigai ivalov chinnadha irukku" dialogue from paati, which i must say, left me very smug! Very very proud of it!
So yeah, you realise that you're doing things that only old people do, and you don't feel good! You don't. Somehow, i'm still very happy :D
Yours " div the oldie, use your dentures" ly
Signing offf....
I'll take this in the order in which these 3 events happen every day, or almost.
Driving lessons. My mother said "you're 21, high time you learn how to drive!". I had quite a fair argument, stating that it won't serve the purpose, because i do not have a car to practice on, and hence, shall promptly forget the finer details once the license with my ugliest photo ever, reaches my hand! As it turns out, i DID lose my case. And here i am, rising with the sun (or slightly later!), with eyes that burn, and refuse to open at the unearthly hour of the morning that i NEVER see during holidays! And i sit in a Santro, with a thatha who tells me all sorts of stories to get me to learn how to concentrate on the road when people in the car talk, honking more than i've honked in the entire 4 years of my bike-riding put together, hoping desperately for the longest 20 minutes of the day to fly away like they would if i were asleep! And somehow, it makes me feel very old to be learning how to drive!
Cooking. Realisation of some big mistakes i made when i was younger, and less wise! Since paati would make the best rasam, sambar, mor kuzhambu, vethal kuzhambu, and the likes, i decided to learn all the north indian stuff, and the pasta and the other simpler stuff, so that i could make all those when my mom wasn't around. Big mistake. It dawns upon one that sambar, rasam are the essentials, and that thus, one doesn't know how to cook at all! So one dips her right hand into the luke-warm water with pulli (tamarind) in it, and spends so much time squeezing the life out of it (because its fun!) and gets laughed at by amma and paati, the at-this-pace-you-wil-never-finish-cooking-on-time laugh! One's chappathis still resemble various maps of different countries, and one still feels like adding lots of salt to anything! but one believes that she will get there ;) Atleast, right in time before one gets married! But since one invariably has to rush for paatu class, no single dish has been mastered! I should really work on the timings! Only old people cook :(
The mornings are busy. The afternoons are lazy, that being the reason they're totally loved.Oh and there's another reason. There's the afternoon iced-tea ritual!aah. Sweet! The evenings though, are a blur! A blur of a million different combinations of colours of kancheepurams, and silk-cottons and banaras-silks and the endless other varieties of sarees. A wedding is no small affair, and what's any south-indian wedding without having to visit as many saree shops as possible, and buy as many sarees as possible, and make sure they're perfect, irrespective of who they're going to be given away to? My eyes are now unfotunately trained to distinguish the right combination of border+body, the pure/tested zari, the jataang (our slang for gaudy), and the not-so-jataang sarees/zaris/borders/pallus, judging which maami would prefer a jataang saree to a sober, elegant one, which colour is 'new' and 'young' as opposed to 'traditional' and 'paati-like', and many many other things, which has made my brother a little scared. He has pronounced me a typical 'maami', and i must say, seems quite terrified at the prospect of having to introduce me to people as his sister! What still challanges me, though, is distinguishing sarees by name. Saamundrika pattu, jodi pattu, vasthrakalaa pattu, amrithavarshini sarees, parampara pattu, kalakshetra sarees, subhamangala pattu, very very innovative don't you think? ;) Mind boggling! God, this does make me feel like a maami! OLD!
To top it off, the saree shop salesman asked my mother if i am her sister today. And sadly, i recognised it to be a genuine question, and not a trade trick! How much worse does it get? So much for chauffering her around, and indulging her very admirable habit of pulling almost every saree out of the rack and buying nothing at the end of 3 hours! ;)Mothers and sarees...they go together like the mad gleam in my eyes and football/capt.jack sparrow! For my part, i spent 5 minutes buying one saree, and 10 minutes buying the other, and extracted a "yen ma jarigai ivalov chinnadha irukku" dialogue from paati, which i must say, left me very smug! Very very proud of it!
So yeah, you realise that you're doing things that only old people do, and you don't feel good! You don't. Somehow, i'm still very happy :D
Yours " div the oldie, use your dentures" ly
Signing offf....
Thursday, October 26, 2006
More to 'tying the knot' than you think!
They say...marriages are made in heaven. True. But lets just rephrase that a little to read,not marriages, just the 'couples' are ,made in heaven. Now i can suddenly visualise our dear God sitting and making 'poruthams' between a girl and a guy, something that josiars do again, just incase ;-). Now that we're settled on just 'couples' are made in heaven, shall we discuss where marriages are made? Marriages...are made in huge, noisy, decorated,over-crowded kalyana mandapams, or marriage halls should we say, where one can easily get lost, or easily get caught in the claws of some good ol' maami who wants to know your age for some devious reason! And point to be noted - the maami will always hold your wrist! Maybe because she knows you're waiting to run away in the first OPPORTUNE MOMENT (now do you know where i got that from!) hmmm, wicked! Oh just ignore me! I have attended 2 marriages, 2 days in a row! One was a family friend's, and i knew i had to go, but the second...believe it or not, was my grand-dad's sister's son's wife's elder sister's daughter's marriage! I am definitely not kidding you! Let me be truthful, i go there for the food! And imagine my plight when both kalyanams had the SAME Goddam menu! SAME STUFF! How unfortunate? I was starting to hope i had paati's rasam sadam for dinner! Only the dessert was different, and well, dessert is never my area, so *sad*! There are some things that i just HAVE to point out about these weddings... aah, am loving this! A typical tamil, brahmin marriage (reception) will have the following features, without fail :
1.A loooong queue waiting to congratulate the bride and groom. SO long that you would prefer the queue at sathyam cinemas because there, atleast you get to watch a movie after the queue! Here, you'll go and say congratulations, and neither the bride nor the groom will recognise you, but they'll be all super sweet and say thanks so much for making it, and then we, the extremely glad people, will have a teeth show for the flashes!Point to be noted - the mamas and maamis standing infront of you in the queue will invariably HUG their gifts like someone's waiting to grab it and present it as their gift! And i always feel like saying "Maami, pattu podavai kasangida pordhu, paathu!"(your silk saree is going to get ruffled up!)
2.Music. Or thats what its called most of the time. It generally means having this famous, or not-so-famous carnatic vocalist singing her/his throat off, when she/he is nothing but IGNORED. All you have is a few thathas or mamas sitting in the first row and pretending to listen, but promptly clapping after every song gets over. WHY do they have to put themselves through this? OR you have something called a LIGHT music 'orchestra' that makes such heavy music that the vibration seems to penetrate right to your stomach and make you feel like you could do with a puke! Their base gets inside you! Its just too loud for the hall...oh damn. It doesn't matter if you are sitting 100 miles from the speaker, it just reverberates! And it feels like you're walking into a one way street called deafness!
3.FOOD. THE issue! People like my thatha always aim for the 1st 'pandhi' and wont leave without drinking 2 payasams! And he's very proud of it :D But well, the trend seems to be changing. Receptions no longer have "yellai sapadu" (on banana leaves) , with the traditional rice with one karandi of ghee, and the payasam and vadai. Thats just for lunch! Receptions have what they call BUFFET (read:painful system where you don't know whether to concentrate on putting the food into your mouth without embarassing yourself, or holding the plate without pouring its contents onto the pattu saree of the aunty almost sticking to you in the crowd!"!) With north indian cuisine, chaat, bandha dessert. Yesterday for instance, the dessert was grand. There was ras malai, srikhand, carrot halwa, and vanilla icecream with chocolate sauce optional! What the hell is one expected to eat! I settled for the first and the last :D And you'll definitely have the famous line - "Shaaptela mama?"!caution - if there's ever a paneer sabzi on the menu, please be satisfied with eating the gravy, because the paneer cubes, tempting though they may look, are either never cooked, or too hard to bite and so unfair on my braced teeth! Am i a foodie or what! sapaduraami!
I could go on forever...with the pattu podavais and jewellery and the 'Oh nee avarodu ponna, ivaroda pethiyaa's and the 'divya vaa idhu? ipdi valandhutaale!"s and meeting up with some distant people you've never heard of, and mind you, it will never ever be some smart looking chap that you can have a time pass conversation with! The latest trends in weddings - youngsters who are forced to attend - Laugh at the cellphone, message till their fingers fall out, seem BUSY! Maybe i shouldn't be talking about that? I was doing exactly that! No other choice you see! and trend 2 is with the brides... don't know what happened to doing some cool hairstyles...Its just hair let lose, falling down. And its almost always artificially straightened. Come on brides! Do something different ;-) And... my paati's sly questions when one is getting dressed for the ocassion are not to be missed...what fuss she makes on jewellery! The more the fuss, the more i feel like not wearing the stuff...lol. Her line - "oru kalyanathuku pona, naalu per varuva ma, idhalaam potukanom!" My line -"Paati, yenaka kalyanam?" She - "Solardhu kelu ma!" So much for being a girl!!
Now this doesn't mean that when you invite me for your wedding, i will whine like this before coming. NO. Attending weddings of people you know personally is a very nice experience...it makes me happy. It makes me so happy, i can never explain. When one of my relatives got married, i almost cried when the thaali was being tied...its such a moment u know...:) and suddenly, i understood why mothers and fathers cry after that moment. Its such a bittersweet moment. Its lovely.
So i'd like to end by saying, am looking forward to having a good time at your wedding ;-)and i'll definitely do a post on it! :D
PS: for those of you who had a prob with the tamil lines, pl ask! Just din have the patience to translate, am sorry... :) (i think thats only for nik!)
Yours "why don't one of you just get married?"ly
Signing off...
1.A loooong queue waiting to congratulate the bride and groom. SO long that you would prefer the queue at sathyam cinemas because there, atleast you get to watch a movie after the queue! Here, you'll go and say congratulations, and neither the bride nor the groom will recognise you, but they'll be all super sweet and say thanks so much for making it, and then we, the extremely glad people, will have a teeth show for the flashes!Point to be noted - the mamas and maamis standing infront of you in the queue will invariably HUG their gifts like someone's waiting to grab it and present it as their gift! And i always feel like saying "Maami, pattu podavai kasangida pordhu, paathu!"(your silk saree is going to get ruffled up!)
2.Music. Or thats what its called most of the time. It generally means having this famous, or not-so-famous carnatic vocalist singing her/his throat off, when she/he is nothing but IGNORED. All you have is a few thathas or mamas sitting in the first row and pretending to listen, but promptly clapping after every song gets over. WHY do they have to put themselves through this? OR you have something called a LIGHT music 'orchestra' that makes such heavy music that the vibration seems to penetrate right to your stomach and make you feel like you could do with a puke! Their base gets inside you! Its just too loud for the hall...oh damn. It doesn't matter if you are sitting 100 miles from the speaker, it just reverberates! And it feels like you're walking into a one way street called deafness!
3.FOOD. THE issue! People like my thatha always aim for the 1st 'pandhi' and wont leave without drinking 2 payasams! And he's very proud of it :D But well, the trend seems to be changing. Receptions no longer have "yellai sapadu" (on banana leaves) , with the traditional rice with one karandi of ghee, and the payasam and vadai. Thats just for lunch! Receptions have what they call BUFFET (read:painful system where you don't know whether to concentrate on putting the food into your mouth without embarassing yourself, or holding the plate without pouring its contents onto the pattu saree of the aunty almost sticking to you in the crowd!"!) With north indian cuisine, chaat, bandha dessert. Yesterday for instance, the dessert was grand. There was ras malai, srikhand, carrot halwa, and vanilla icecream with chocolate sauce optional! What the hell is one expected to eat! I settled for the first and the last :D And you'll definitely have the famous line - "Shaaptela mama?"!caution - if there's ever a paneer sabzi on the menu, please be satisfied with eating the gravy, because the paneer cubes, tempting though they may look, are either never cooked, or too hard to bite and so unfair on my braced teeth! Am i a foodie or what! sapaduraami!
I could go on forever...with the pattu podavais and jewellery and the 'Oh nee avarodu ponna, ivaroda pethiyaa's and the 'divya vaa idhu? ipdi valandhutaale!"s and meeting up with some distant people you've never heard of, and mind you, it will never ever be some smart looking chap that you can have a time pass conversation with! The latest trends in weddings - youngsters who are forced to attend - Laugh at the cellphone, message till their fingers fall out, seem BUSY! Maybe i shouldn't be talking about that? I was doing exactly that! No other choice you see! and trend 2 is with the brides... don't know what happened to doing some cool hairstyles...Its just hair let lose, falling down. And its almost always artificially straightened. Come on brides! Do something different ;-) And... my paati's sly questions when one is getting dressed for the ocassion are not to be missed...what fuss she makes on jewellery! The more the fuss, the more i feel like not wearing the stuff...lol. Her line - "oru kalyanathuku pona, naalu per varuva ma, idhalaam potukanom!" My line -"Paati, yenaka kalyanam?" She - "Solardhu kelu ma!" So much for being a girl!!
Now this doesn't mean that when you invite me for your wedding, i will whine like this before coming. NO. Attending weddings of people you know personally is a very nice experience...it makes me happy. It makes me so happy, i can never explain. When one of my relatives got married, i almost cried when the thaali was being tied...its such a moment u know...:) and suddenly, i understood why mothers and fathers cry after that moment. Its such a bittersweet moment. Its lovely.
So i'd like to end by saying, am looking forward to having a good time at your wedding ;-)and i'll definitely do a post on it! :D
PS: for those of you who had a prob with the tamil lines, pl ask! Just din have the patience to translate, am sorry... :) (i think thats only for nik!)
Yours "why don't one of you just get married?"ly
Signing off...
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Navarathri, and the things it stands for
Every evening is as colourful as that rainbow that hardly appears these days...sparkling with jewellery, mild or gaudy, light or heavy...bright with the shades wrapped around each one, kancheepurams, pink and blue, with and without zari... loud with comments coming out of each one's mouth, remarks on one's way of dressing, or just next door gossip...lively, with the dolls and the lights, and i daresay...the songs :D Navratri in chennai - You see it all, hear it all, and experience the chennai-ness!
Its not like i have a problem with any of the factors mentioned above, i just marvel at them, and amuse myself. As per tradition, atleast one new bommai (doll) should be bought every year for kolu... If you've lived in chennai, you must know the Mylapore tank...of kabhaleeshwar kovil fame,And something more... a place where you can't walk without getting pushed around by maamis during this time of the year. And even if you do manage to walk without getting pushed, there are always the sacred cows which will conviniently walk right infront of you, such that you see nothing but the tail, and traces of whatever's come out from below even if you wish to see something else, or there'll be the cars and the auto-rikshwas that try to make way for themselves in that already crowded street when they could have conviniently zoomed off on the main road. Sigh...Kolu bommai shopping can be tedious indeed. You get to learn how to bargain from maamis who'll ridiculously by a 400 rs doll for 50rs,leaving the shop keeper stunned as to how he allowed such a sale...and its also a good training session on weight lifting! The dolls dont get heavier,i hope!
And then you come back home, and have a big argument with your mother or grandmother, or anyone else who wants to argue with you, about where which doll should be placed, on which step, at which position, and next to which other doll! And when all that is set, you try fixing the flashing lights, which refuse to work because your grandfather bought them 4 years back and refused to use them! So u manage with some other lights, and everything is set. Then your mother starts calling up each maami/aunty and saying "yenga Aathle kolu vechurkom, vandrungo. Ponnaiyum kutindu vaango maami...aam naanum varen, divya um varuvaa'...Did she have to say that last line? There, stuck!
Aah, then the rounds...It starts with the teeth show and the exchange of greetings. And you're taken inside the house to where the kolu stands, all colourful and beautiful. There's not a single kolu that has failed to impress me...and some are so cool, so huge, and have such nice themes. Yeah, so once you reach 'the spot' you're asked to sit. And mind you, you wont be alone...there'll already be some maamis who reached earlier than you, whose eyes will notoriously follow each movement of yours, pentrating stares! And then the doomed moment arrives... 'yaraadu paatu padungole...'(somoene, sing!) aaah, now's the time i usually start coughing, and sounding like i have the worst cold that's ever hit me...blow my nose, make it sound like a trumpet, try making it look like my throat is so sore that i'm not even able to talk...sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it just doesn't! Everybody's pretty convinced that one should sing just for one's satisfaction of having sang infront of someone's kolu, and impart the same satisfaction unto the host, who will also rejoice on her kolu being honoured! So the cold, really doesn't matter after all! And just as i give up...and say, ok i'll sing, they place a plate of yummy vadais infront of me...which i can savour only if i sing. I'm a great lover of food...so, i allow them the honour of listening to my voice, so that next time, they wont dare to ask me to sing the lord's praises! But there's something worse that happens... when you start singing, some maami or the other definitely knows the song, and hums along, or in the worst case, sings along! And this is a very stressful moment for it makes one forget the lines in the song...and one has to take extra effort to block out any other voice but one's own (which i assure you, is very very difficult!)...huffffff, when its finally over, everyone takes great pleasure in passing comments on how one has to practice more often, or how beautiful the lyrics are, how one's grand daughter also learns music and sings that particular song so very well, or in very
very rare cases, how well one sang! *sigh*
But its fun. Navratri rocks...the festive mood lifts your spirits, you get to meet alot of people, some who you meet only year after year during navaratri! Even though i might have sounded like i just whined, or made fun of things that go on around here, i enjoy this period, and will definitely miss it if i leave this place...Namma chennai ma!!!!!
So i continue...singing my 'Koovi azhaithaal kural kodupan's and 'Kurai ondrum illai's and 'yena thavam seidhanai's in the hope that these words will be heard and taken heed of!
2 thumbs up to navratri!
Yours "Do come home for Kolu if u're not too busy"ly
Signing off....
Its not like i have a problem with any of the factors mentioned above, i just marvel at them, and amuse myself. As per tradition, atleast one new bommai (doll) should be bought every year for kolu... If you've lived in chennai, you must know the Mylapore tank...of kabhaleeshwar kovil fame,And something more... a place where you can't walk without getting pushed around by maamis during this time of the year. And even if you do manage to walk without getting pushed, there are always the sacred cows which will conviniently walk right infront of you, such that you see nothing but the tail, and traces of whatever's come out from below even if you wish to see something else, or there'll be the cars and the auto-rikshwas that try to make way for themselves in that already crowded street when they could have conviniently zoomed off on the main road. Sigh...Kolu bommai shopping can be tedious indeed. You get to learn how to bargain from maamis who'll ridiculously by a 400 rs doll for 50rs,leaving the shop keeper stunned as to how he allowed such a sale...and its also a good training session on weight lifting! The dolls dont get heavier,i hope!
And then you come back home, and have a big argument with your mother or grandmother, or anyone else who wants to argue with you, about where which doll should be placed, on which step, at which position, and next to which other doll! And when all that is set, you try fixing the flashing lights, which refuse to work because your grandfather bought them 4 years back and refused to use them! So u manage with some other lights, and everything is set. Then your mother starts calling up each maami/aunty and saying "yenga Aathle kolu vechurkom, vandrungo. Ponnaiyum kutindu vaango maami...aam naanum varen, divya um varuvaa'...Did she have to say that last line? There, stuck!
Aah, then the rounds...It starts with the teeth show and the exchange of greetings. And you're taken inside the house to where the kolu stands, all colourful and beautiful. There's not a single kolu that has failed to impress me...and some are so cool, so huge, and have such nice themes. Yeah, so once you reach 'the spot' you're asked to sit. And mind you, you wont be alone...there'll already be some maamis who reached earlier than you, whose eyes will notoriously follow each movement of yours, pentrating stares! And then the doomed moment arrives... 'yaraadu paatu padungole...'(somoene, sing!) aaah, now's the time i usually start coughing, and sounding like i have the worst cold that's ever hit me...blow my nose, make it sound like a trumpet, try making it look like my throat is so sore that i'm not even able to talk...sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it just doesn't! Everybody's pretty convinced that one should sing just for one's satisfaction of having sang infront of someone's kolu, and impart the same satisfaction unto the host, who will also rejoice on her kolu being honoured! So the cold, really doesn't matter after all! And just as i give up...and say, ok i'll sing, they place a plate of yummy vadais infront of me...which i can savour only if i sing. I'm a great lover of food...so, i allow them the honour of listening to my voice, so that next time, they wont dare to ask me to sing the lord's praises! But there's something worse that happens... when you start singing, some maami or the other definitely knows the song, and hums along, or in the worst case, sings along! And this is a very stressful moment for it makes one forget the lines in the song...and one has to take extra effort to block out any other voice but one's own (which i assure you, is very very difficult!)...huffffff, when its finally over, everyone takes great pleasure in passing comments on how one has to practice more often, or how beautiful the lyrics are, how one's grand daughter also learns music and sings that particular song so very well, or in very
very rare cases, how well one sang! *sigh*
But its fun. Navratri rocks...the festive mood lifts your spirits, you get to meet alot of people, some who you meet only year after year during navaratri! Even though i might have sounded like i just whined, or made fun of things that go on around here, i enjoy this period, and will definitely miss it if i leave this place...Namma chennai ma!!!!!
So i continue...singing my 'Koovi azhaithaal kural kodupan's and 'Kurai ondrum illai's and 'yena thavam seidhanai's in the hope that these words will be heard and taken heed of!
2 thumbs up to navratri!
Yours "Do come home for Kolu if u're not too busy"ly
Signing off....
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