Tarangini Feb 2010

Tarangini A Keralaiyers E-Magazine for the changing times

February 2010

Vanishing Grandmas

An inspiring grandma story. Will

present day grandmas switch off

their TVs to meet the expectations

of their grandchildren?

In the Spotlight Mumbai based artist Rajan

Ramakrishnan on his works

of Ganesha

Also in this Issue :

From the Adukulai Nombu Adais - Sweet and Salty

for the occasion of Karadayan

Nombu

Nurani Shasthapreethi A Special Report on Shastha-

preethi Festival at Nurani

Gramam, Palakkad

Visit us at http://sites.google.com/site/taranginiki/

Karadayan Nombu

A story behind the festival, based

on the legend of Satyavan and

Savitri

http://sites.google.com/site/taranginiki/

toons. The new addi-

tions include the

monthly calendar and

visheshangal, a few arti-

cles contributed by our

readers and an article

about the festival com-

ing up in that month.

Hope you all enjoy

reading this issue, we

welcome all types of

feedback and sugges-

tions. E-mail us at:

[email protected]

- Hridya & Navneet

Hello folks! We are

back with the second

issue of Tarangini. Well,

we were really happy to

receive the overwhelm-

ing responses and feed-

back from all the people

who read the first issue

of the e-magazine. The

editorial team wishes to

thank each and every-

one from the bottom of

their hearts and look

forward to your contin-

ued support and co-

operation in serving the

purpose of bringing out

the magazine.

We are looking to in-

corporate new topics,

sections in Tarangini

and in the run up to

this, we start off with

the introduction of a

couple of sections in

this month’s issue. We

look forward to more

and more contributions

from all of you.

In this issue, we contin-

ue some sections like

Kakkai Raman’s tales,

From the Adukulai with

yet another yummy rec-

ipe and humour car-

Editorial

February 15th, 2010

Tarangini Inside this issue:

Monthly

Visheshangal

3

Stories behind the

monthly festivi-

ties: Karadayan

Nombu

4

Nurani

Saasthapreethi

6

Think about it! 12

Vanishing

Grandmas

13

Kakkai Raman

Anecdotes

16

Humour 18

Current Affairs:

Heartbreak Crime

Humanity in 2010

20

In the Spotlight:

Rajan Ramakrishnan 22

From the Adukulai 24

28th Feb—Aatukal Pongala at

Trivandrum

12th Mar-On Sravana or Thiruvo-

nam nakshatra special ab-

hishekam and pujas are held for

Lord Vishnu in all temples. It is

the nakshtra of Lord Venka-

teswara in Tirumala, Tirupati.

Devotees fast on this auspicious

day. On Sravana Purnima, Srini-

vasa Kalyanam is held in all Ven-

kateshwara temples. In Op-

pilliappan temple special deepam

is lit and special pujas are held.

The Onam festival, celebrated in

Kerala, comes in this nakshatra.

13th Mar—Sani pradosham

14 thMar—Meenaravai Sankara-

manam at 09.33 PM KARADAYAN

NOMBU

Starting this month, we will be publishing the various visheshangals in the Malayala month in which the maga-

zine is released, from Panchangams, this month being Kumbham beginning Feb 13 and ending on March 14th.

Monthly calender of "Visheshangals" from Panchangams and their significance

Tarangini

February 2010 (Kumbham/Masi)

SUN MO TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Amavasya

14 15 16 17 18 Shukla

Chathurthi Vratham

19 20 Shukla

Shashti Vratham

21 22 23 24

Smaartha Ekadasi

25 Vaishnava Ekadasi

26 Maha- pradosham

27 Holi

28 Masi Makham

March 2010 (Kumbham/Masi)

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3 Sankathara Chaturti

4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11

Sarva Ekadasi

12

Sravana Vratham

13 Maha pradosham

14 K. Nombu

15 Meenam

16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

Compiled by :-

-K V Ananthanarayanan

Karadayan Nombu or Vratam is an important fast observed by Kerala Iyer women. It is based on the leg-end of Satyavan and Savitri. Based on this myth each region in India observes an Upvaas in different time of the year. In Tamil Nadu, it is observed during the transition of Tamil Month Maasi and Panguni (Kumbham and Meenam). The sto-ry of Satyavan and Savitri is a sub plot in the Mahabharata.

King Ashtapati had a beautiful and intelligent daughter named Savitri. The King gave her the permission to choose her husband. One day, Savitri met a young man in the for-est who was carrying his blind par-ents in two baskets balanced on either side of a stick. The young man was Satyavan.

Impressed by Satyavan’s devotion towards his blind parents, Savitri decides to marry him. On enquiry, the King found out from Sage Nara-da that Satyavan was the son of a deposed king and that he was des-tined to die in a year.

King first refused to the marriage but Savitri was adamant. Finally, the King relented and the marriage was conducted and the couple left for the forest. They led a happy life

and soon a year passed and Savitri realized that Satyavan would die any moment. So she kept fast and always followed him. She cooked a special adai and served it to her family and gave some as offering served it to her family and gave some as offering to the Gods.

Next day, she followed Satyavan to the forest. While cutting woods, he fell down and fainted. Soon, Savitri realized that Satyavan is dying. Sud-denly she felt the presence of Yama, the god of death. She saw him carry-ing the soul of Satyavan and she fol-lowed Yama. Yama first ignored Savit-ri thinking that she will soon return back to her husband’s body. But she persisted and kept on following him. Yama tried few tricks to persuade her but nothing worked. Then Yama said that it is impossible for him to give back the dead as it is against the na-ture’s law. Instead, he will give her three boons. Savitri agreed with the first boon she asked for a son for her father. With the second boon she asked that her in-laws be reinstated in their kingdom with full glory. Final-ly, for the third boon she asked ‘I would like to have children.’

Yama immediately said ‘granted.’ But soon Yama realized that he had been tricked by Savitri. Yama remained si-

The Story of Tamil Karadayan Nombu

*Based on the legend of Satyavan Savitri

“Then Yama said

that it is

impossible for

him to give back

the dead as it is

against the

nature’s law.”

Tarangini

- KV Ananthanarayanan

http://www.hindu-blog.com/2008/03/story-of-tamil-karadayan-nombu-based-on.html


lent for a minute and then smiled and said ‘I appreciate your persistence. But what I liked more was your readiness to marry a man whom you loved even though you knew that he would only live for a year. Go back to your husband he will soon wake up.’ Very soon, as promised by Yama, Savitri and Satyavan were reunited.

To commemorate this great event, women celebrate this festival of Karadayan Nombu. The delicacy for the main func-tion is Nombu adai. All women including Kanyakas and mar-ried women wear the charade on the muhurtam of the birth of Meena masam. One charadu is tied to Thulasi at home as well.

The Story of Tamil Karadayan Nombu

*Based on the legend of Satyavan Savitri continued

“All women

including

Kanyakas and

married women

wear the

charadu at

the muhurtam

of the birth

of Meena

masam. “

Tarangini

I am K V Ananthanarayanan, a senior officer in the Indian Revenue Service, a post-

graduate in applied Physics with Industrial Electronics as specialization. The culture

and divine nature of our country is more dear to me than my own life...I had for-

mal education in Sanskrit, and some parts of Vedas and can use Malayalam, Tamil

and a little Telugu in addition to English and Hindi. Posted as joint Commissioner

in Incometax at Trivandrum, an upper middle manager in the service of India. I am

an old man at 55, and slightly eccentric. perhaps.

About the Author



Swami Saranam!!

Come December and all you hear is “Swami Saranam” and about

“Saasthapreethis” everywhere. Sasthapreethi these days is celebrated all over India with various names Ayyappan Vilakku, Ayyappan Paattu,

Sastha Paattu etc.. But we Pattars can take credit to the name

Sasthapreethi. Every village all over Kerala celebrates Sasthapreethi during the end of mandalam season and organizes Annadaanaprabhu

Ayyappan‟s famous feasts!

It is believed that Nurani, one of the famous agraharams of Palakkad, is the origin of Sastha Cult. All over South India, the songs of Nurani

Chellappillai is quite famous. It is said that, Nurani Sasthapreethi is at least a 300 years old!

Sasthapreethi festival is not just a 2 day or a week festival as is often

misunderstood. Once the Mandalam season (Vrischikam or Karthikai 1/

November mid) starts the festival preparations start in Nurani. Right from the day 1, Mandala Abhishekam, Vaaram and Saastha Paatu and

Kanakku (Neivedyam) is religiously conducted till the end of the Manda-lam (41 days together).

A typical day during this season starts with Mandalabhishekam, Mahan-

yasa Japam and Rudrabhishekam by chanting Shri Rudram 11 times at Sastha Sannidhi and Abhishekam to MahaVishnu by chanting Purushas-

uktam 16 times followed by Upanishad Parayanam. In the evening, after Sayam Sandhya Deeparadhana, Yajur Veda Parayanam is conducted,

which is commonly called as Vaaram by learned Vaidhikas. After that there will be a sumptuous meal served for Vaidhikas. Often, instead of

the meal for just the Vaidhikas, some families/group of people offer to

serve the feast to the whole village. This is called Periya Vaarams. And these days, out of 44 days of Vaaram, we had a 30 Periya Vaarams- i.e,

around 30 days of feast in temple, for the entire village. Many from the neighbouring villages too attend these feasts.

NURANI SAASTHAPREETHI

Come December

and all you hear

is “Swami

Saranam” and

about

“Saasthapreethi”

everywhere.

Tarangini

- Vivek Subburaman

After this, at night around 9 PM, when the temple bell is rung, village men of all age

groups assemble in the temple to sing the famous Sastha Pattu and for the Ardhaya-

ma puja. This paatu has a sampradayam that is associated only to Nurani. Changala-vatta (oil lamp) is lit after breaking the coconut in Sastha Sannidhi and three pra-

dakshinams with the accompaniment of Nadaswaram, all devotees sit in two opposite lines facing each other at the Sannidhi. Destined Bhagavathar with the permission of

elders commences the song as per the padhadi giving more importance to Saastha paatu. These songs are a precious collection either written or gathered from all over

South India over the years. (Most of these songs are at least 3 centuries old). It is to be noted that these songs use the Tamil-Malayalam mixed slang and these have

many terms that we don‟t find in the Saastha songs of modern days! Great Manu Bha-

gavatar, Ayya Bhagavatar, Mahadeva Bhagavatar, Nurani Parameshwara Bhagavatar etc. have written many of these and also have travelled across various places to col-

lect some of these gems. It is to be noted that, these songs are still sung for many a Saasthapreethi function all over Kerala. Cymbals are not used for this paatu. Instead,

chembakkalam, which is 10 inches in diameter, ½ inch thick round bell metal plate is used on which a thick wooden stick is struck to make the thalam sound. Every day,

after this Mandalam song deeparadhanai and Asheervadam, Kanakku/Neivedyam (neyyappam or laadu boondhi or Jilebi) is distributed to all those who attend the

paatu.

In general, the Mandalam Paattu is scheduled for 42 days (41 days of

mandalam and the 42nd day as a

start for the next Mandalam) and 44 days of Vaara Japam. After the com-

mencement of Thulam (Marghazhi) maasam, Usha Pooja is performed at

the temple every day at 4:30 AM. Al-so during Wednesday and Saturday,

special songs called Avesha Paattu and special Keerthanams follows.

These days, Komarams (or Velichap-

paadu) who are also called as Nartha-kas, dance around the temple to the

tune of the songs add gaiety to the occasion. Senior Komaram is given sword and big rings and adorned by „Koorai‟ (a red

silk cloth worn in warrior style). Care is taken that, the songs sung during this time are never altered and are always sung in the same style with the same taalam with-

out altering the ragas in order that the tradition is maintained.

After 44 days of vaaram, if the first Saturday, if oil bath is allowed (not ammavasai or pournami or any other non-oil-bathable day) that day will be Saasthapreethi. And the

Friday before is planned as Thulasiyamman Pooja. Preceding week will always have one or the other poojas daily followed by grand feasts. Sastha Savarna Sahasranaama

Tarangini

Laksharchanai, Mahavishnu 1008 Shankabhishekam, Poorna Pushkalamba Kalyanotsavam, Mahavishnu

Laksharchanai, Saastha Moola Mantra Japam, Maharudram etc. Maharudram is conducted over a period of 11 days with 11 ritwiks and on the final day, Vasordharai, Dhampathi

Poojai etc.. are also performed.

On the last Wednesday before Sasthapreethi, during the Saasthapaattu, Swami Kalpanai is said to convey the villagers that they should not go out of the village (THekku Vadakku Ki-

zhakku Merku Pogamal) till Sasthapreethi they should be in and around the sanctum sancto-

rum and serve the lord. On the Thursday, the temple is cleaned and swami vigrahams and

naagar is washed and is decorated for the next two day finale! It is to be noted that all the vil-

lage youngsters make it a point that they are a

part of this routine.. While the girls will be busy cleaning and putting Rangoli/Kolam all around

the Kovil, boys will be washing the moorthis or decorating the deities or tying the “thoranams”.

By the time the whole temple is decorated it will be early morning 4 AM of Friday. It is implied

that most don‟t sleep this night and they take a break to take bath and come back to the temple

to attend the Thulasiyamman Poojai right from the first function of Prathyaksha Ganapathi

Homam (in the presence of the elephant representing Ganapathi)

After Ganapathi Homam, Usha pooja follows. By this time, many of the devotees including

the female community of the village arrive in the temple and start scraping the coconut for

the Mahanevidyam – ChathaShathayam. As 1000s of litres of Payasam will be made, as many as 20-30 people scrap the coconuts for a period of 6 hours at least. Thulasiyamman

Pooja also called as Vrinda Lakshmi Pooja, gives more importance to Thulasiyamman (as the name suggests) and Mahavishnu. The abhishekams at the sanctum sanctorum of Thu-

lasiyamman starts at around 6:30. Also in some time, Poornabhishekam at Mahavishnu na-dai and Ayyappar Nadai starts with Purushasuktam and Mahanyasa japams respectively. By

9:00 AM, the Sastha Aveshappattu starts from Ayyappar Nadai. The Sword and armour (here big metal rings), the Silver Snake and the Koorai are taken out from Swami nadai

and is handed over to the singers to be taken around the village. From Ayyappar Nadai, the

procession starts by singing Avesham Songs and followed by Nambinen and other songs. Each of these songs are sung one para at a time followed by the same paragraph recited in

Nadaswarams. The Representation of Swami (sword,armour,koorai and serpant) is taken around in capronised elephants. Chenda melam, followed by the singers and the nadaswa-

ram and the elephants form the procession. Along with this there will be a whole group of villagers who just come to listen to the beautiful renditions. This procession then goes in

and around the village singing all the special songs to reach back the temple by 1:30 PM.

Meanwhile, in the temple, when the 11 rudrams finish in the Saastha nadai, the prepara-tions for the deeparadhanai start. In the Thulasiyamman nadai, 2 huge Charakku (huge

Tarangini

brass containers with a diameter of around 2.5 meters) would be placed to be filled with the Mahanivedyam Chathashathayam. Once the procession arrives, firstly, the nevidyam is done

at Thulasiyamman Nadai for these Paysams and then the deeparadhanai at Mahavishnu Na-dai follows. After this, finally Ayyappar Nadai Deeparadhanai happens. After the Deepara-

dhanai, the payasam is distributed to all the villagers from Thulasiyamman Nadai. Normally, this day, all the villagers prefer to have food at their homes along with their relatives and

their extended families together. At the same time, food is served in the temple for the out-siders and people who have come from far-off places.

After the samaradhanai, the temple is cleaned

and huge pumpkins for the next day‟s function are broken in front of the Swami Sannidhis. At

around 3:30 PM, when the temple is all clean, the sheeveli with panchavadyam and elephants

starts from the other side of the village. This

happens to be the most exciting day in the vil-lage! The temple is decorated with flowers and

lamps (niramala) and Mahavishnu being Ayyap-pa‟s mother, is adorned the avatharam of Mohi-

ni. This is the only day when one gets to see Mahavishnu in his most mesmerising incarna-

tion. The temple during this time looks fresh and the best! By around 10:00 PM, the sheeveli

reaches the temple for the grand finale of the

panchavadhyam followed by the display of the fireworks. After the concert that night, the Sastha paatu is sung in Sastha Nadai and Chathashathayam for the next day is planned.

The temple now adorns a new look for the Saastha preethi day. With the whole Saastha na-dai decorated with Virupakshi bananas and arecanuts and coconuts, and plantains. By the

time the function of the night is over, it would be a good 3:30 AM. That is in another 1 hour, Saasthapreethi day‟s function would start!

If one sees, the time starting from Thursday evening, the villagers don‟t sleep till the end of

Sasthapreethi day!! So also the archakars, and all the other people involved! No one would want to miss any opportunity to spend every single minute with Ayyappa!

Saasthapreethi day‟s function also starts with Mahanyasam and Rudram at Ayyappa Nadai

and Purushasuktam and Upanishad at Mahavishnu nadai. Also this day, thulabharam, Sha-yana pradakshinam, Kai nirayai kaashu et al functions happen during the time of 6:30 to

9:00 AM infront of Saastha Sannidhi. By 9:00 AM the procession like the previous day starts

from Saastha sannidhi. On Saastha preethi day, five different paaysams are made – Chathashathayam, Paalpaayasam, Ada Pradhaman, Paruppu Payasam and Chakkarap-

pongal. (2 charakkus full of chathashathayam and one big charakku full of Paalppaysam and remaining paayasams in smaller charakkus). These paaysams are brought in to Saastha na-

dai for nivedyam this day. Before the procession reaches, and after the abhishekam, Krama parayanam is done in Saastha nadai. Once the procession reaches the temple, mahavishnu

deeparadhanai is done. After this, vella nevidyam for Ilayabhagavathi is done. – this is the nivedyam with cooked rice, coconut and jaggery done for the Ilayabhagavathi, who resides

in the north western part outside the village. After this the nevidyam of the payasams are

done to be followed by the Mahadeeparaadhana, the most important one of the year! During this time, one can see the Sacred White Eagle fly over the temple!!

Tarangini

After the deeparadhanai, the biggest feast of the year starts in the temple! With 5 paaysams, 5 different curries, 5 different up-

peris, 5 different pickles and different varieties of bananas and Rasakaalan, Rasam, Pappadams and curds. The feast starts at

around 3:00 PM to end most of the years at around 6:30 PM!! For this sadhyai alone, mud vessels are used to serve! Almost

all the children and young men of the village participate in the serving. Also you can spot many an old men participating with

equal enthusiasm in helping their guests.

Samaradhanai is followed by the feast for the poor. The temple is cleaned after this and the children involved in the same apply

charcoal on their faces and bodies and dress up themselves like movie hero heroines and go in a procession through the village

dancing for movie songs. This fun event gets over by 10 PM.

The temple opens to the arrival of 1000s of coconuts as offering. (every year, the number of coconuts arrive for being broken in-

creases. The last year it was around a lakh!) Devotees give 108 or 1008 coconuts to break in their names to the temple. Krama-

parayanam happens in the temple. After this the Aashirvadam by the archakar follows. After this Saastha paatu is sung again

and the komrams arrive faster than normal days. They give the basmam to the people who want to break the coconut and starts

breaking the coconut in all the corners of the temple. The break-

ing of coconuts is done by 100s of young men simultaneously for around 2.5 hours inside the temple! This time the temple is

generally jam packed with so many male-female-kid onlookers.

Once all the coconuts are broken, the arrangements are made for the meeting of Ilayabhagavathi and Saastha. With the ac-

companiment of Naadaswaram and Singers, a procession starts from the temple towards the kovil kolam – where the represen-

tation of Ilayabhagavathi arrives. After checking whether the Ilayabhagavathi team is satisfied with the nevidhyams given by

the temple, Aarpo is called by both the groups and the Ilayabha-gavathi temple gives their gift of long kathir. After this, the pro-

cession and the people go back to the temple. This happens at

around 3:30 AM in the morning of the Sunday. All the females and the children leave the temple after this function. Songs are

sung for Mahavishnu with the utsava vigrahams in the Saastha nadai and then mangalam is sung. After this, all the people in-

side the temple (men) towards the left side of the Saastha na-dai. Nadaswara vidhwans play some songs, Oonjal, Kappal and

Harivarasanam and Mangalam and leave the temple.

Tarangini

The most secretive and sacred ceremony of the Pirivuthengai then follows. After switching off all the lamps, after checking

that no one is inside the temple apart from the left side of the nadai and keeping just one petromax lamp and changalavattai

lamp, a coconut is broken at a sacred joint in the Southern side of the Saasthanadai. This coconut is broken to invite

Saastha‟s accompaniying Boothaganams. It is believed that after this coconut is broken, they arrive with so much of hap-

piness to play and have their meal with Dharmasaastha. In order that no one disturbs them, all the people present at this

time, aren‟t allowed to speak, not to turn back, not to keep

their legs backward. Men walk out of the temple in a pra-dakshinam and the last person who comes out of the temple

closes the door! There ends the longest day of Saasthapreethi! (at around 5:30 AM in the morning)

The next day, auctions are called for the left over items like

chips, pickles etc.. All the items go for unbelievable rates, thanks to the enthusiasm people show in donating to temple.

In the evening, after vethakkozhambu feast, Vanjippattu is sung along with the accompaniment of Nadaswaram. Young-

sters and kids dress up like fishermen and dance to these tunes around the temple. This function is for the belief that,

after Sasthapreethi, Ayyappar has to be sent back to Sha-

barimalai for MakaraJyothi.

After this, as a start for the next year, the whole Saasthapaat-

tu procedure is sung and then the Archakars are dropped back

home in a procession with the naadaswaram and all the peo-ple present. The Archakars organise small pujas at home and

distribute sweets. The ornaments of Ayyappar and Mahavish-nu are kept for puja at these Archakar‟s place and later are

sent back to the place they are kept every year. Thus the 2 month long festival ends with a happy note and a longing for

the next year‟s event to arrive soon!!!

Tarangini

I am Vivek Subburaman, owner of Palakkad Iyers group in

Orkut. I hail from Nurani Village, Palakkad and I am currently

employed in Infosys, Bangalore.

About the Author

Men walk

out of the

temple in a

pradakshinam

and the last

person who

comes out of the

temple closes

the door!

When was the last time you ever slept like a baby? When was the last time you even slept maybe? Why is this world In this mad rat race? Everybody's lost in This money-making phase! Nobody has the time To smile at one another Nobody has the time to smell a wayside flower! People want to earn for food, clothes and shelter. This makes them run Constantly helter skelter! People want to earn for more comfort and luxury, But do they have the time to enjoy these in their hurry? All that people want is more and more money The world is losing all its peace and harmony! Its time to stop and think Its time we opened our eyes Money is not everything,

Its time we realize(d)!

Tarangini

I am Mrs. Nithya Raghunath. I‟ve done my PGDBM in HR and Marketing. Used to work for

an HR consultancy. But now I am at home writing its and bits now and then online. I‟ve pub-

lished a few of my work on www.8hop.com.

I also have published a tiny work of fiction online. I love writing a lot and I am truly glad to

have Tarangini as a platform where I can share my ideas and thoughts.

About the Author

Think about it - Nithya Raghunath

http://www.8hop.com

The night was calm and cool; perfect for a sound

sleep. But my son was disturbed and complaining,

“not feeling sleepy”. I was so tired after the day‟s

work, so patted him and once again doomed into

deep sleep.

As if in a dream, I could hear someone weeping.

That brought me back to senses. My son was stand-

ing near the window and crying. I rushed to him to

find, what went wrong. He was staring at the stars

and tears flooding down his cheeks.

Brushing his hair I asked, “Why dear, standing here

and looking at the sky?”

His answer really amazed me and made me thought-

ful.

“Amma, once you told me, your grandma is now

with the stars. I am searching for her amongst them,

so that I can ask her to come back”.

I could recollect, what I told him few days back.

When ever we kids felt sleepless or fearful at night,

our grandma used to keep us close, told us stories

and sang poems to make us doze. So now he wants

that grandma to come back to soothe him, to cuddle

him. In my tiredness, I forgot what he needed. I

took him to bed and held him close and lulled him

to sleep. But those thoughts of that seven year old

boy, left me pondering. The flowery memories of

my grandma made my eyes wet.

No more could I sleep now and so, I went to take

my marriage album out to have a glance of my

grandma. The best snap of the lot is ; where she

leads me to my groom, myself holding her so tight.

I wished for her touch, to be with her, so took off

that snap and stretched on the bed with it pasted on

my bosom. In many occasions in life we too be-

come childlike. The best thing she had ever done to

me and my siblings is that , she gave birth to such

an elegant man as our father and found a real

“Streerethnam” as his wife

Not that she was extra ordinary or unearthly, but

just that she was unique in many ways. We all lived

together, my parents, my two brothers and two sis-

ters, our grandparents and chithappas and athais .

Days were very happy with all the ingredients of a

smooth sailing joint family. Mutual love, care, mon-

ey and laughter all were there in plenty- needless to

say we were our neighbor‟s envy.

As I remember, our grandma was the anchor of the

family. Though we had lot of servants, she never let

us remain idle. Even from the age of nine or ten we

were taught to do our own works, washing, cleaning

etc, the first lessons of self sufficiency and hard

work.

Once the lamp was lit at 6.30 pm we kids were to

assemble in the Pooja room. She gave the lead and

we all recited the slokas. Not that we understood the

meaning, but we learn the art of „by hearting‟ even

difficult lines and lyrics. But once we finished them,

she used to explain the essence of it. Thus the var-

ied deities of our religion and the purpose of their

being expounded to us.

Never were we late for our dinner, as it was our sto-

ry time. No dining tables in those days, so we

formed a circle, Grandma seated at the center. She

used to feed us, still I wonder what made that food

so tastier. She was a treasure house of all kind of

stories- Epics, Vedas, Puranas, Fantasies, none she

left untouched. Characters were enlivened, episodes

were pictured in such a way that we got a feel of

living with them. It was when I was fifteen, I read

Ramayana and Mahabharatha for the first time, but

there, nothing was new to me, with all scenes and

characters as familiar as next our door uncle .

Tarangini

Vanishing Grandmas

- Santhi Krishnan

Tarangini

She was not educated at all, might have gone to school for two, three years. But her flaw less usage

of language was simply superb. She knew when

and where to greet with “thank you”, “best of

luck” etc. She was very popular amongst our

friends. She with her abundance of knowledge and

correct updating of it always made us proud. While

our grandpa was reserved and made us shiver on

many occasions, she was just an incarnation of

love and affection. But they were perfect couple,

may be due to this contradictory combination.

She was a strict disciplinarian and never failed to

punish us if we did something wrong. One day, I

was entering the home back after school. To my

horror, I saw that she had tied my elder brother

with a pillar and all were standing there spell-

bound. She had some green paste in her hand. She

opened his eyes and applied that paste. Poor guy,

he was shouting and groaning with pain, as it was

the green chilly paste. I was really terrified and

was not even bold to ask what made her so cruel.

Later came to know that my brother had stolen

some money to give to his friends. He was caught

and was being punished. But a most truthful and

trustworthy man was being formed there through

this action. He can be called the Harishchandra of

our family.

Still I remember those two days when we, her chil-

dren, grandchildren all gathered together to cele-

brate my grandpa‟s 80th birthday. She was so busy

arranging things and hosting the arriving guests.

Myself, my hubby and son, all went there one day

prior to the proceedings, as these are priceless mo-

ments not to be missed. We were all assembled in

a big hall, for lunch, a real hubbub everywhere. As

we were meeting after a long time, there were

many stories to hear and share. My stomach was

slightly upset and I was not gulping food as usual.

Even I was not aware of that.

“Santhi,” it was my grandma‟s call, “ Why are you

not eating as usual, are you not well?” Wow, I was

surprised, about 50 to 60 persons seated there and

amidst that she could notice that I am not normal.

In no time she was back with a glass of drink for

me. “Gulp it, you will be alright”, so confident she

was. Needless to say by dinner time my stomach

was perfect. May be a silly episode, but the care

she had and shown was her sweetness. She was our

family doctor too.

In olden days, vast farms with different kinds of

trees and vegetables were a common feature of big

houses in Kerala. Cows and dogs added to the pop-

ulation. She and my mother woke up early, even

before sun showed up. Mother would be busy in

the kitchen and grandma would make a visit to her

garden, and just a casual “ hello, hello” with her

pet animals, thus started her days. She was an ex-

pert in milking the cows and could even be a mid

wife for their delivery during emergencies. My

elder sister had inherited these knacks from her .

But I was always a spectator.

Wow, and how could I forget one special thing

about her? She was the “Carroms champion” of

our home In amazing speed she would pocket all

the coins, and would sit and watch as if she knows

nothing. Sleeping was never her hobby as she

spent her leisure time with reading and making

beautiful pieces of handicrafts and my mom was

her best companion .

I was not able to be with her during her last days.

She was there in whatever we did, be it cooking,

talking, writing and even our thoughts reflect her

mostly. To be precise, we all have “her personali-

ty” in us. So much was her influence as a moulder

and mender. She was eighty when she left us all to

join the celestial horizon, and also the day I cried

the most. May be I was unlucky, I was not in time

to see her mortal remaining. In a way it is good, as

you see, even now she is alive in my mind as that

most active lady I had ever met in my life. I cannot

even imagine her lying lifeless.

Now almost 8 years have flown by and she has not

been with us, but still she lingers in our thoughts as

sweet as ever. Many times she does me the favour

of coming in my dreams, no wonder I miss her a

lot. I woke up slowly to realize that I was

dreaming of her, with her snap still glued

to my chest.

I tell my kids that we are really blessed to

have the kinship of such great souls. I am

not finding fault with today‟s grandmas

or mothers but wish if only we realize

what our kids miss now.

Old customs, methods or norms of life

will change according to the time and

needs. But there are some valuable rela-

tions and feelings in our day to day lives,

which we should allow our children to

have and enjoy. All of us are in a hurry to

do advance booking to far off places dur-

ing vacation time. But why not we think

of taking our kids to those places where

our parents live, or bring them to live

with us? Are we not obliged to give our

kids the pleasure and bliss of having the

warmth of these loving hearts at least for

a while? While we provide them with all

modern luxuries, why deny these most

priceless moments? Education starts from

home, are they not the expert teachers?

Let our kids hear their stories and share

their experiences; they are a hundred

times more worthy than reading story

books.

Being Sunday I woke up late, but with

a clean picture of this vacation, I knelt

down to kiss my son and whispered to him, “We will take you to your grand-

ma”.

But a disturbing thought crept in - Will

today‟s grandmas and grandfathers

switch off their daily serials to meet

with this kid‟s expectations ..Anyway

let us take a chance. I smiled to myself,

with the satisfaction of having made a

right decision.

Tarangini

I am Santhi Krishnan, wife of Sri L. Muthukrishnan

(Tirunelveli) and daughter of Sri Pala Ramachandran and

Rajee. I hail from Pala, Kottayam. I am a freelance writer

and a poet. I have two sons, Koushik and Goutham. We

are living at Tirunelveli now. I maintain a website called

www.poeticfeast.com

About the Author

http://www.poeticfeast.com

Kakka Rama Iyer had a very close friend by name Ananthakrishna Iyer. Some say that An-anthakrishna Iyer had been in Ceylon for sometime and there was another school of thought that he was a peon in a British com-pany which did busi-ness in slaughtering animals and exporting the flesh. Whatever be the case, the man had become very pious when he landed up in our agraharam, but he had no place to live. So Rama Iyer gracefully volunteered to offer him the privilege of oc-cupying the open thin-nai of Kakkai’s house as a dwelling place. Anan-thakrishna Iyer sported a very huge oordhwa-pundram (naammam) and the manner in which he applied his “make up” was a sight to see. The village ur-chins would crowd

around him while he deftly pasted the namakkatti on his palm and drew a big “U” on his broad forehead, fol-lowed by a long red line in the internal bisecting area using thirumman-nu. And once the makeup was done, he looked just like Ma-havishnu and hence the village people always called him Vishnu Pattar when he was not present within earshot. Kakkai and Vishnu were a professional pair. They always went to-gether for partaking in Sraadhams or getting Dakshina or dhaanam on good or bad occa-sions. One day they went for Sraadham in Pallipuram village. It was almost five miles from our vil-lage. You must remem-ber that this incident took place almost 45 years ago and there were not many buses

and our Laurel and Har-dy here could not afford to pay the bus fare also. They had to cross an open railway line near Palakkad town railway statio. They successfully nego-tiated that Lakshman Rekha in the morning during their onward Journey. But while re-turning after sraadham, while crossing the rail-way line , they were accosted by a railway policeman. The inno-cent Brahmins did not know that crossing the railway track and mak-ing the railway premis-es as a thoroughfare was a punishable offence. Had they told the policeman that they did not know the law and apologized, he would have left them to go. However in their innocent haughtiness, they told him to mind his business and that they were not afraid of

Kakkai Raman Anecdotes

Kakkai Raman and Vishnu Pattar break the law !!!

- K V Ananthanarayanan

“They had to

cross an open

railway line near

Palakkad town

railway station “

Tarangini

Caption describing

picture or graphic.

any police, especially the railway police. The enraged policeman booked a case against them for trespassing and gave a summon directing them to attend the sub-magistrates court one week later and let them go. The poor Brahmins could have given some wrong names and addresses and gotten away with it but they were too guileless even for that. On the day of the great trial, the duo, clad in soman and uthareeyam, Vishnu Pattar sporting naamam and Kakkai Raman filling his fore-head with three broad white lines of Viboothy, presented themselves in the Court very early in the morning. The magistrate arrived in due course and seeing two Brahmins standing in the courtyard (the magistrate was also an Iyer), said that there was no sraadham or tarpanam being con-ducted in the court. The Brahmins said they

had been booked by railway police and there was a case against them. Finally the case was called, and R and V presented themselves in the dock. The magistrate asked them whether they had committed any offence, for which they stated in unison that they had done nothing but had only crossed the rail-way line. Even at this stage, they were not aware that this was an offence. The magis-trate could have let them free had they sought pardon. But they would not do it because they could not dream of any crime be-ing committed by them. Ultimately the Magistrate reluctantly fined them eight annas each.

And once the fine was ordered, the two poor Brahmins could leave the court only after paying the fine and eight annas each was far beyond their capacity to pay. They were pleading with everybody requesting that they be allowed to go. Nothing worked. Finally the magistrate came to know of it and he did a very wonderful thing. He took a one rupee coin from his own pocket and asked the court clerk to issue the receipt for the fine to Kakkai Raman and Vishnu Pattar. Lucky as they both were on that day, may be Vishnu rode the Kakkai va-hanam on that day.

Kakkai Raman and Vishnu Pattar break the law!!

continued

The magistrate

asked them

whether they had

committed any

offence, for which

they stated in

unison that they

had done nothing

but had only

crossed the

railway line.

Tarangini

Humour

Tarangini

Humour

Tarangini

I am Navneet T. Narayan, a structural engineer by pro-

fession. My hometown is Thrissur and I currently live

in Los Angeles, California. I also happen to be in the

editorial team of Tarangini.

About

The legs and limbs of a policeman, R Vetrivel age 44, in Tamil Nadu

were chopped off with a chopper, a butcher‟s instrument of bestiality,

by the hardcore gangsters in broad daylight on the busy highway in a

prominent city in Tamilnadu. The brutally wounded policeman lying in

a pool of blood on the road cried begging for help till the end of his

life. Nobody came to his rescue to

take the wounded inspector to hos-pital. The choppertool drenched

with his blood , is also thrown near him as warning of the consequences

to anyone who dares to come to his call.

A government convoy of two TN

State-Ministers M. R. K. Pan-neerselvam and Thiru T. P. M.

Mohideen Khan holding the health and sports portfolios respectively

did not even come near the gory

scene of the site. Neither of the ministers nor the Collector and

health secretary stepped out of their cars as they did not want to

get their cars soiled with the blood of the amputated cop. After a dead-

ly lapse of 10 minutes, the collector got out of the car and phoned for

ambulance and the ambulance after

further lapse of 20 minutes arrived and removed the scrap heap re-

mains of the victim.

The TN Government report says "We did our best possible in that

situation. It just took twenty minutes for ambulance to

come...Police did a good job, there's nothing wrong with

what transpired, but the victim is

pronounced dead while enroute to the hospital. "

Hello India ! Did you all hear ? The

Government is fully controlling the situation! All is fine ! What about

those around the scene of site – The Public, The State Ministers, The

Collector, The Health Secretary - who remained dumb and refused to

help the wounded person right away?

Are we living in a society of canni-bals? How deeper could we fall off

from humanity? Is human life so

cheap?

No, above is not a script for any Tamil or Hindi Film but a gruesome

crime reality incident that occurred daringly in broad daylight at a busy

highway in a prominent city in Ta-

milnadu!

If a Police Inspector‟s life itself so unsafe in the hands of the hardened

criminals in Tamilnadu, what safety

and security worth the name can be expected for the life of the general

public.

If the arrogant gangsters can con-duct such daring fatal ambush on

the police personnel at a place where state ministers, collec-

tor, secretary, security convoy are on site, the crime incident very

clearly exposes the volatile law and order situation that prevails in the

state of Tamilnadu. Also it sounds

emphatically sending nation-wide-

Current Affairs

“Nobody

came to his

rescue to

take the

wounded

inspector to

hospital…”

Tarangini

HEARTBREAK CRIME HUMANITY in 2010

- Chandrasekharan

Tarangini

alarm of distress signal that not only any one can be butchered mercilessly anytime

and anywhere, but also the hardcore crimi-nals after completing their intended cruel

task make good their escape unscathed!

We become shamefully totally unfit to do

anything better worth to boast ourselves a true citizen! Because we are habitual to

vote the illicit persons who give us fringe benefits like free colortv, saree & dhothi,

gas-connection, electricity, non-veg briyani packets with cash underneath, patta for

Porambok encroachments etc etc despite

being fully well aware of their evil trail of corrupt & criminal records and background.

So, the nation is now enduring ever unsafe and vulnerable to disasters as the spon-

sored intimidating uncontrolled terrorism from within and outside that time and

again infuse big tolls on the blood of the

people and the nation.

It is time that the Rulers and the Ruled

must clearly understand by conscience that

there are only 2 things in the whole globe – Right or Wrong, True or False – noth-

ing else in between other than these two. You can not do something wrong today and

protest to present it as true. Sure, It will not stand for long because you will have to

pay very dearly sooner or later for the mis-deed you did, and On the day of Judgment,

your voice will be choked and suppressed

to silence by the cane of God Justice! Yes, for sure, the Justice will be delivered with-

out fail!

The mute spectators

Tell us a little bit about your family

and background.

I am Rajan Ramakrishnan, aged 41 present-

ly working in a private firm in Mumbai. My

father was working for a private company

in Chennai and is now retired. He is from

Nellepally (Palakkad) and my mother is

from old Kalpathy. I have 2 sisters, both

married and settled. I am married and my

wife’s name is Jyothi; we have a son named

Akhilesh studying in Class 5 here in Mum-

bai. Till Class 10, I studied in Hyderabad

since my father was working there and

later moved to Chennai and so half of my

education was done in Hyderabad and

rest in Chennai. I have done BSc Maths

from Madras University (Swami Vivekanan-

da College, Mylapore). We used to go regularly visit Palakkad

during our vacations and also during func-

tions. After my degree I worked as a Medi-

cal Representative in Chennai and then

moved to Mumbai in the year 2000. There

I joined a private firm and work in the HR

department. Presently I stay in Dombivli

West in Mumbai.

When did you first start sketching

and what/who was your inspiration?

At the age of 4 or 5, I drew a sketch of

Lord Ganesha by seeing the photo in our

pooja room and showed it to my father

and mother. Slowly I got interested in

drawing and started doing more sketches

not only of Lord Ganesha but other gods

too. Till the time I was in school, I would

draw and paint but I never kept them for

myself instead I used to give the sketches

away to my friends and relatives, During

my college days I used to participate in the

exhibitions and some cultural programs as

well. Encouragement has mainly come

from my parents and my relatives.

Tell us about your exhibitions

Like I said, I used to not only draw Lord

Ganesha but other gods too. My interest

in sketching Lord Ganesha grew more and

more and I started sketching more of Lord

Ganesha in different and forms and thus

the number of sketches made increased

and I had them all at home. At a point,

some people from Ganesh Festival organi-

zation came for collecting money for the

programmes; they saw my sketches and

asked me to display them in the pandal

during Ganesh festival. Then I started lami-

nating all my sketches and made them

ready in order to show them to the peo-

ple. This was my first Exhibition, I started

off with 108 sketches of Lord Ganesha in

my place at Dombivli, slowly people from

different places started calling me to dis-

play my work at their place. This way my

display and exhibitions grew and the num-

ber of sketches also increased manifold. So

far I have done around 650 sketches. I

have done my display shows not only dur-

ing Ganesh Festival but also during any religious func-

tion or cultural programme. I felt very

happy when I went to Palakkad old kalpa-

thy during the Kalpathy theru period and

showed some of my best sketches. I have

even displayed in Bangalore as well in

Shankara mutt in the Dec 2009.

Like this my interest grew and I started

making sketches in colour and I even start-

ed to make Glass paintings. I have not used

the eraser at all in any of my sketches be it

colour or the glass painting or plain sketch.

Which is your favourite Ganesha –

dancing Ganesha or instrument play-

ing Ganesha or…?

My favourite Ganesha is the Kite-flying

Ganesha; I also like the Ganesha playing

instruments

In the Spotlight: Rajan Ramakrishnan

Tarangini

Tarangini interviews Mumbai based artist Rajan Ramakrishnan

about Keralaiyer roots and his unique art: sketching Ganesha.

Ganesha flying a kite

Tarangini

How do you manage work and sketching - Who

do you think has been your pillar of support in

your journey so far?

Daily my travel time from home to office and back is

around 4 hrs in the train, so normally I would carry

some paper and pencils so whenever I get ideas in my

mind, I immediately take the paper and do some

rough sketches, and when I come home after work I

make the sketches even if it is late night. I use to dedi-

cate 1hr in the morning and mostly an entire Sunday

would go away in finishing the colouring. Now a days

whatever I see, looks like Lord Ganesha himself. My

family and my friends and my office people give me a

lot of encouragement. My office has provided a notice

board so that I can put up sketches of Ganeshji. They

suggested that I start a blog or web site so that people

around the world can see Lord Ganesha, so I made

one - www.rajandraws.wordpress.com in Jan 2009 put

some of my sketches there. During Ganesha Festival,

newspapers like Times of India and Hindustan Times

came up with a small article about me and about

Ganesha.

What are your other hobbies? My other hobbies include travelling to different places

in India, and attending religious programmes as well.

What are your plans for the future? You have

achieved so much, what else do you intend to

do?

I want to make more and more of Lord Ganesha

sketches, I have taken him as my teammate. As I men-

tioned earlier, I have done around 650 sketches so far,

may be I will make 1008 Sketches. I wish to show

them to different people and different places. I used to

upload every month some of my sketches in my blog

and wherever I get chance to display my sketches.

More of Rajan Ramakrishnan’s work can be

seen at http://rajandraws.wordpress.com

Ganeshas singing and playing instruments

http://rajandraws.wordpress.com

Tarangini

For the sweet adai

Ingredients:

Rice flour—1 cup

Jaggery—1 cup Coconut (fresh and chopped finely) - 1/2 cup

Jaggery—1 cup (you can add more if u want it to be

sweeter!)

Boiled Karamani (black-eyed beans) - 1/4 to 1/2 cup Elaichi powder—1 tsp (as required)

Water– 1 1/2 cup

Method: Roast rice flour for 5-10 min. Melt the jaggery in wa-

ter and remove sediments. (heat it once again). Add

elaichi powder and bring to a boil. Add the boiled

beans and coconut, stir well. Turn the heat down and

slowly add the roasted rice flour and mix it into the

liquid without letting it form any lumps and take it off

the heat once it becomes a whole mixture with the

consistency of chappati dough.

Cool the dough, and then make small adais with small

hole in it. Steam the adais in idli plates for 10mins.

Serve hot with butter.

For the salt adai

Ingredients:

Rice flour—1 cup

Green chillies (chopped)- 1-2

Coconut (fresh and finely chopped)-1/2 cup

Boiled Karamani (black eyed beans) - 1/4-1/2 cup

Salt—as per taste For seasoning:

Coconut Oil—1 tbsp

Mustard seeds—1 tsp

Curry leaves— 4-5

Water—11/2 cup

Method: Use roasted rice flour as for Sweet Adai. In a pan,

heat the oil and splutter mustard seeds. Now add

chillies and chopped curry leaves and fry for a min.

Then add the water and let it boil. Add salt, boiled

beans and coconut to the boiling water. Simmer and

add roasted rice flour, mix it well without letting it

form any lumps and take it off heat once it takes the

consistency of chapathi dough. Cool the dough and

make small adais with a small hole in the middle.

Steam the adais in idli plates for 10 mins and serve

hot with butter.

From the Adukulai - Nombu Adai

The festival for this Malayala month is Karadayan Nombu and why not try making some yummy Nombu adais!!

Bhagavat Gita for Modern Era

Inspiring stories: Another Kakka Raman episode

From the Adukulai - another mouth-watering recipe

Humour and other interesting tales

And loads of other things...

Celebrity Interview: [Keep guessing who :)]

Carnatic Ragas- Mayamalava Gowla

An introduction to Classical dance forms

A peep into the next issue

Subscribe Now!! It’s free!!

Articles contributed by:

Santhi Krishnan

Nithya Raghunath

Chandrasekharan

K V Ananthanarayanan

Vivek Subbaraman

Navneet T Narayan (cover)

Hridya Ramani

Special thanks to:

Rajan Ramakrishnan

Send us your write-ups/material at:

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://sites.google.com/site/taranginiki/

Tarangini Feb 2010

Documents

Transcript of Tarangini Feb 2010