Coriander Aroma Goes Missing in Kitchens

By R Swaminathan

The New Indian Express, Mindspace page, May 19, 2012

The day’s routine is becoming increasingly difficult for the bread winner, the male, as well as the homemaker if either of them is forced to visit the nearby vegetable vendor. Not that they have to plan their requirements well ahead if both are working. They are most of the time in for shock as the items they think they have to acquire for their routine and special preparations (to please guests or deities on special occasions) are just not available. The problem is not that of availability but that they are not available for the notes in one’s wallet. Haggling over this essential ingredient is nowadays a common sight. Coriander leaves, known as Pachai Kothamalli, find a special place in south Indian homes and they play a significant role both in traditional and north Indian cuisines, for  flavour and medicinal properties.

Cookery book writers don’t fail to mention this for garnishing just about any other dish. A few days ago coriander leaves became as important as gold because they just disappeared from the handcarts of street vendors and in Chennai retail chain stores a small bunch (small in this case would be a gross understatement) was being quoted at `15 (weighing just 35 grams). None could be blamed for pinching themselves as here is an item that not long ago used to be given free of cost along with other curry leaves by vegetable vendors. It was more like the free soap one got on buying a costly shampoo.

Now the bunches of these leaves are not only expensive but contain fewer stems and leaves. At the rate at which the prices of curry leaves and coriander leaves are skyrocketing soon they will vanish from the kitchen table. Like tamarind paste or tomato puree, we can’t just think of alternative options for coriander leaves because the green leaves add to the beauty of the preparation and the aroma will disappear the moment it is turned into a concentrate.

There used to be good times when thick and big bundles of coriander leaves used to be dumped into the  buyer’s hands at the rate of `10 for three bundles. Of course, it was a different story that most of the buy would rot the next day given the weather conditions and excess of moisture. Vendors often pushed these leaves to get rid of them before shutting shop for the day much like flower vendors who quote exorbitant rates in the morning and resort to a firesale in the evening. 

Whatever be the case, it is unimaginable to think of a meal without the pinching-pleasant aroma of kothamalli hitting one’s senses and alerting all the olfactory nerves. For these leaves to continue to be a part of our cuisines it is important that their prices hit terra firma rather than floating among the summer clouds.

the great grandson of the day

Dear friends, you will be wondering how we spent 11 a.m. to 1 p m today. Mom's day became a grandson's day for a few hours in our house.

i had no calls on my mobile in the morning. that is the usual practice or trend. i had put my mobile for charging last night. suddenly i remembered to disconnect and keep it ready for my office. this i did at 11 a.m. i did not find the mobile on the table. deci...ded to give a call using the landline. dialled a wrong number. for a moment thought the cell has
reached some other hands. then my son called . the mobile started ringing but the volume was feeble.
we traced it to the speaker of the sound system. shreyas had disconnected the phone mounting the diwan and a stool to reach the table. he had put the mobile into the hole of the hoofer speaker of our panasonic system. the ringing osund came from inside. we tilted the speaker in all directions only to see the mobile travelling inside but never coming out.
i disconnected the speaker and tried all possible tricks in another room.. but of no avail. tried using all available screw drivers. nothing was fitting because the screws behind the box were star type. I got one from my neighbour but it had a blunt head. then my son reminded me of a screw driver set he had given me long ago of a foreign make. i could not find the suitable one.
he did and opened the speaker rear end with the help of his wife. at last, the mobile was taken out. by that time two hours had gone. My son had to leave his biriyani and come to help me. My wife decided this morning that he cook his favourite biriyani on mom's day for all of us. My wife had to give the finishing touches because he rushed to my screams for help to take my mobile out for the day. finally, the mobile was retrieved from the speaker.
only yesterday i was telling my friend about the cat in the sombu story ( R K Lakman's).
this is another type in this century. enjoy the company of kids. but better give no mobiles to kids and also no crisp notes (as visitor). you never know how they will handle
them. also avoid using the mobile in trains when u travel with open windows. You have a chance of the instrument going out into the open when the small one gets angry or his impulse is thwarted. so at least for me, my grandson was in the limelight and not any mom in the house today.

Differences over demands keep VIP hostage

Differences over demands keep VIP hostage (TNIE, May 8, 2012, Mindspace page 8)

By R Swaminathan

When I switched  on the TV early this morning there was a news flash that our governor had been kidnapped to the Chaoist Land somewhere in the wild west and negotiations are expected soon. Within an hour details began emerging that two negotiators have been named and are on their way to the spot where the VIP was being held. Naturally, they should have been taken by a copter because of the risk involved in delaying the relief work.


The negotiators got a warm welcome in the Chaoist Land and immediately sought to know the demands of the kidnappers. The list was long and one of them  agreed to mention only a few because of poor tower connection. They wanted crores of money in foreign currency (for what purpose, God knows?) and lorryloads of drinking water as drought had set in due to summer and confectionery items manufactured in the last two months.

The negotiators told them immediately that it was difficult to get these. It was required to get RBI permission for the foreign currency and those who had it in their trunks would not come forward to give any now even in this emergency. Drinking water is what is already scarce in our country and making it available cannot be discussed. About confectionery items of recent origin, it was difficult to get them even in the biggest malls which stock heavily and naturally for a longer time to decorate their gaping shelves and impress their customers.

The negotiator thought it was his turn to offer what he could assure to the Chaoists. He said he would secure the biggest malls, government engineering colleges and super speciality hospitals. All in the near future. The Chaoist leader laughed and said : "Who wants your malls because we have no adequate population to register footfalls and claim a success in the market? We don't want the engineering colleges because we know what kind of products are turned out after four years of schoooolling. No to hospitals because you will build them today and tomorrow instal giant machines and equipment  and charge lakhs of rupees for diagnosis, dialysis and transplants of vital organs. The colleges attached to the hospitals will have plenty of seats for admission for our sons of the soil but each set will require Rs 20 lakhs in capitation fees."
The negotiator realised that time was running out and desperately asked the other side to come up with realistic demands to convey to the command centre. The Chaoist leader asked for metro trains to run long distances 60 or 70 feet below the ground. The metro stations will enable the setting up of their government under ground far from the range of intelligence operatives. He did not want Volvo buses or duronto trains running over the ground because he did not want to hear of casualties of his kin in unmanned level crossings. And reminded the urban visitor that Metro trains will not pollute the environment and destroy the flora and fauna close dear to their heart.

The negotiator as a digression asked the Chaoist why they were still in the food (arms) gathering stage instead of setting up processing centres and marketing strategies.

The Chaoist asked the negotiator to shut up: we know processing will invariably result in middlemen and commission ranging from 7.5 to 15 per cent. Marketing does not impress us because we believe in more demand and less supply whereas modern techniques work on the reverse principle.

The negotiator asked the leader how to find money for the rail projects. He suggested the setting up of a Tribal Infrastructure Development Authority and the creation of a special purpose vehicle for that. The negotiator could not cope with the pace of talks with the host and decided to leave the spot for consultations with his superiors.

The victim, our govenor, has to wait for at least 72 hours for the talks to resume. Let us hope for the best. The media need not worry about story for the page one and the package on the inside page giving reactions of the leader's families, inlaws and admirers, fans and partymen who have to come together minus their differences and simmering discontent.

A Life Full of Trash But no Cash

-- 


A Life Full of Trash But no Cash



R Swaminathan



A search for a roof starts with a 2 BHK apartment to accommodate a nuclear family
and guests including parents; but a
few years later, the place seems to be uninhabitable, and a change becomes
absolutely necessary all because the
three-decade family has accumulated huge luggage that is mere junk. The electronic
waste problem is assuming
incredibly high proportions not only for the nation but also for the individual family.

The love for gadgets and appliances grows even as the family becomes bigger and
prosperous. Some of them become scrap
due to wear and tear and when spares are not available or when it cannot be
serviced. Sleeker models with latest
features replace the old faithfuls. Ask any couple who have lived in a metro for
over 10 years about the useless wares
they have with them. The list will invariably start with the mixie, followed by the
VCR and MP3 players, tape
recorder, two-in-one radio, transistors of various sizes, grinder (old stone model),
boxes of cassettes, etc.

No one wants to discard electronic waste perhaps because it will fetch a measly sum
when sold as scrap or because the
absence of it will leave an empty space on the shelves. Those who have become
computer savvy in recent times have
monitors lying packed in a corner, and even some peripherals quite obsolete now. The
LCD monitor and other hardware of
the PC will be new. Usually the first acquisition is a showpiece and the count of
junk starts from the portico and
extends all the way to the kitchen and balcony.

The kitchen loft is full with all the old utensils, given right from the time of
marriage (but never used), the old
water purifier (it is still there because you get only `1,000 and that too in
exchange for a new model costing about
`10,000), a vacuum cleaner from the '80s and a wooden crate or iron trunk full of
dolls (marriage sentiment again!).
Coming to the balcony, you find a heap of plastic trash of all hues and varieties
and empty containers of cosmetics
adorning the rack. Your heart breaks because you are offered just `2 per kilo for
the plastic and cassettes.

You end up calling the pest controller because of the legacy that is lying with you.
Anyone picking a quarrel with his
better half over things to get rid of is simply told he deserved to be dumped in the
Bay of Bengal. If you are a brave
heart, you will take a peek into her almirah full of clothes, most of them never
revealed to even the man of the house
because he would curtail further spending on those items.

It is a naked truth that no family even cares to dispose of the inners and
undergarments, storing them for a rainy
day. So you can imagine why you have to look for a bigger place to live --- not
because your family has grown in size
but simply because there is no room to keep your trash. “What is this life if full
of trash but no scope to convert
into cash?”, I wrote a verse, reminded of the poem  Leisure by William Henry Davies.

A lurking danger in an ATM

A lurking danger in an ATM with glass panes above on the first floor.

There are a lot of freak accidents possible in Chennai and the threat can be lurking in maanja thread and even in a glass pane of a bank branch which houses an ATM on the ground floor. For example, we have the Indian Bank branch in Royapettah on Gaudiya Math Road. A few guys were waiting outside the Royapettah branch of Indian Bank on last Saturday (March 31, 2012) at 11 a.m. and there was a customer (a lady) spending unusually long time to do her work inside even as  the to-be victim of the day waited with two others on the road outside the ATM patiently for his turn. Suddenly, there was a sound signalling breaking of a glass pane. Pushed with great force, it sputtered and crashed on people below and injured only one person badly in the head.
A member of staff of the branch on the first floor pushed the window pane outside to let air in because there was a power cut at that time. The glass pane broke into small pieces quite unexpectedly and there was a shower of glass on those below including a member of stafff and a member of public. The bag the latter carried was filled with glass pieces of all sizes, all small ones only.Thank God.

The window glass pane which you see in IT companies on the sides to give a rich look broke into small pieces in the air and a shower hit the head of the member of public who started bleeding and crying for aid. Deep cuts in the head and bruises all over the body and blood gushing out of the head injuries prompted a bank staff to rush the victim to Isabel hospital for first aid and the bank shelled out nearly Rs 2000 to dress the wounds and for first aid. Two stitches were put to arrest the blood flow.The victim with blood gushing out was advised a shower in a nearby parlour or even a tonsure to get rid of possible glass pieces on the scalp by the duty doctor in the casualty department!

Tablets were prescribed for the victim who took an auto and returned home. He has been advised dressing on alternate days for ten days before the stitches are removed. Luckily, the glass pane broke into small pieces in the air before coming down. If it had come down as a small plate, the victim would have been no more to tell the story to any one.That the staff in the minor OT in the same hospital were very courteous during the first dressing is another positive story about people who vowed to serve patients.But on Wednesday when the victim went to the same Isabel hospital for a dressing of the wounds, he was kept waiting outside the mini operation theatre where all the rooms had been occupied by doctors to attend to their regular patients. As the ATM glass victim had no doctor connected with the treatment having been attended by the casualty ward duty doctor, he was made to wait indefinitely. He lost his patience after two hours and moved on to Ashwini Soundara Nursing Home on Kasturi Rangan Road where  he got the dressing down in five minutes for the same fee of Rs 50. When he went to the bank to look for the manager, he was not there and was still on leave. The staff who came with him to the hospital on Saturday was however there and was profusely thanked for the timely care he showed to the bleeding victim. The victim decided not to pester the bank further with bills for dressing or removing the sutures and his travel expenses any longer. He hoped to recover fully within a few days.

A piece of advice  here for banks: do not have glass panes which open outside just at the entrance to any ATM in front of the branch. Like Many other bank ATMs, this Royapettah Indian Bank ATM machine has also been badly positioned in the sense, there is no curtain or poster behind the glass and one can see the customer collecting all this money from the road. Ideally, many ATMs face the road and the customer draws money showing his back to those outside. This is absolutely safe for the public. Hope all banks will take proper steps to ensure total safety at the ATMs very soon.

Banks should not take on rent premises which have no setback space in the front and  locate an ATM there. The security person can become a casualty any day any time, and the cash in the branch may not be enough to compensate his poor family, due to the negligence of the bank staff impelled to open the window when there is a power failure.

Please write on your FB page hidden threats to citizens so that places which the people frequent are made safe from at least this angle, if not others about which read  now and then in the media. 

30 years ago

There can be no greater soul or person than your father who made you what you are, and my salutations to my father MKR on this great day which I cannot forget in my life.  

Dear friends and relatives.

I am very much tempted to write this blog because technology has enabled us a lot to record things for posterity and immediate benefit to those who care to read. This day thirty years ago, precisely March 12, 1983, my father shed his mortal coils and reached the place of Eternity and Bliss as God/Mother desired he should. I was hardly 30 years old and had not settled down in life though I had a job for five years in the Indian Express as a budding sub-editor, after being placed by him under the care of Shri CPS, fondly called as Master. In 1978, I happened to raise my family and subsequently with Divine Grace was blessed with my son and daughter. All that before I could even to some extent realise the personal, social, emotional, economic implications of a full family.
It can't be said that it was too early for my father to leave as he had already completed 75 years and discharged almost all his duties in spite of having to choose a freelancer's career half way through his life with three sons born late in his life. He had married off two of his daughters when I was a small baby.
He knew only his commitments to his profession and nothing else, and was reminded dutifully about other tasks to the family by my dear mother every now and then. He did not know how to lavish love and care on relatives who visited him because his world was different from anyone's else, we normal beings. So nearly 25 years he spent with his sons and that is the period about which I am aware of because I was not born till May 1953. It might seem to many from the surface that he did not express fully and openly his love and affection as immensely as do parents of today right from the moment a child is born. You cannot also say that he was very cold and as hard as a rock in familial relations. He had his own priorities which ordinary mortals could not fathom rightly. But his genius bordering on a superhuman existence and eccentricity enabled him to assess all individuals who interacted with him. He would cultivate only those whom he wanted/liked.  It was difficult to get into his good books for anyone for that matter.
Mr M K Ramamurthy, sorry I have not mentioned his name so far because still I feel I do not have even a spec of his greatness to claim genealogical benefits. But among the three sons he had in the later part of his life, I had the boon or benefit or rare opportunity to interact with him because he depended on me for nearly 15 years to get his despatches typed, to be sent to the Economic Times or Deccan Herald by writing which he eked out a portion of his living. My mother saw to it that he paid a pocket money of Rs 100 a month  in those days for that shabby job I did (called typing because I could not follow his subject or possess the required vocabulary.Thus he taught me many things.)
His stock market insight got him a better portion of his financial assets just as the property he purchased out of his savings to settle down in Gopalapuram (just before my second sister got married). He did not raise any loan or pay EMI! Of course, in the years that followed he managed his finances with an OD bank account. But he never shared his cares/worries with anyone in the family and so no one knew how he managed those things we call crises ( of any variety).
I should say that if he had make a frank written statement of his achievements on the personal front my father would have had a lot to record as disappointments. First, the marriage of a daughter (third one) failed and she came home. The eldest son did not graduate or settle down with a decent avocation, and even I, the second one, did not show signs of great potential for achievement by then. His third son who managed to scrape through with his BA degree was placed in an advertising agency and till my father exited this world he did not have anything to regret because of his last creation. The history of my younger brother, after my father's time, better need not be recorded because of its bitterness for everyone.
The fact that my father had a little hearing difficulty enabled him to devote all his attention to reading books, journals and newspapers and keep acquiring knowledge and creating publishable reading material out of his incredible intelligence and the solid education he had received in the British raj, the Madras Christian College.
He most often did not bother about who was around him and whom he should pamper, at least in a small measure by present day standards of acceptable social behaviour. He lost his mother at a very tender age, missed his family life with father due to his hostel education and career in a distant land like Calcutta and interacted very little with his brothers and sister due to developments after the passing away of his father. However, his relationship continued on even keel with his sister who passed away months after him.
His association  with the Mail newspaper in Madras, the Statesman in Calcutta and the Indian Express, Madras, the Indian Finance (he served this journal before and after his Express stint) and later on with the publications of the Times of India Group like the Economic Times and Deccan Herald in Bangalore till he breathed his last enabled him to create published material which he and we have failed to collect and keep a record in hard copy. Today I am very much ashamed for this negligence. That the children did not learn enough or much from him for their life and career was yet another disappointment for him. I should admit that here.
Apart from being a journalist par excellence with unparallelled memory of history and economics (Indian and world), (he was called a walking encyclopedia by his friends and colleagues) , he was very  pious all my years with him and he joined my mother in Japam and Pooja every day, and he was a great admirer and follower of the Paramacharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam.He used to visit him every year a number of times, and had audience with him on many occasions. The Mahaperiyawal recalled his association with my father when I went for his darshan a few years later. That he was a Srividya Upasaka must have earned my father the right position in Devi's Sripuram for Eternity.

I had gone out of Chennai for a family wedding in Palani and before I could return on a Saturday morning to type is weekly stock market review for Deccan Herald (on March 13),he chose to sleep forever and far away from us. As such his last despatch could not be typed. No one could read his handwriting, and he used to dictate his articles to me whenever I sat for typing. I could not decipher anything he had scribbled. Only two stenographers in his lifetime could type my father's articles and even they would have a quota of mistakes which he corrected in the draft.
He prefered buses and cycle-rickshaws and never zipped past in cabs/cars though friends offered him that luxury. He never got trapped in opulence.
But my father's blessings and noble principles of living within one's means and simple living/high thinking, reading a lot to learn more and spread more knowledge, etc., continue to guide me, and I shall cherish all that till the call comes for me one day from the Lord.

I wish to offer my best and most dedicated Pranams at the Lotus feet of My dearest father this day with all the love I failed to show when he was with me, and he has to pardon me for all that I did not do to rise up to his expectations and be an independent man by the age of 30 by which time I had rushed to complete the constitution of what in my later life became my family. For my part, I could not in right measure assess and reciprocate the love he had for me. True love unexpressed and unreciprocated that was the equation between him and me as father and son.

R Swaminathan, March 12, 2012

Little known aspects of Kamakshi temple

Sri Kamakshi Amman temple in Kanchipuram was buzzing with activity, swarmed by devotees from near and far, during the recent Navarathri festival. I visited the temple not only to offer worship on one of the special days for Devi but also to get clarifications from some authentic priest in the temple for some doubts I had and also to find out the little known aspects of  the Amman. I went there wondering whether a Devi described as “Unnatha Kartha” can be frightening in her appearance to the sincere devotees.

Someone had recently confused me into thinking that the original Kamakshi was in the Adhi Kamakshi Amman temple outside the famous temple I was visiting. Another person had told me that  Kamakshi was originally a Ugra Swaroopini, and that Adi Sankaracharya, after establishing Sri Chakra (in front of the main deity) personified her as Shanta Swaroopini. According to my friend, during the days of Adi Sankara, the presence of the Ugra Swaroopini was felt outside the temple precincts, and Sankaracharya had appealed to her not to leave the complex. He further pointed to a tradition in which the Utsavamoorthy of  Kamakshi takes leave from Sankaracharya, at his shrine in the inner prakaram, each time she is taken out in procession.
I approached Neelakal N Ramachandra Sastrigal, a 70-year plus hereditary priest of Kamakshi temple, to collect special details about the temple and the Goddess . He recalled a stanza  from the Dhyana  sloka in Lalitha Sahasranamam: “Shree vidyam shantamurtim sakala suranutam Sarvasanpatpradatrim .” He highlighted the “Shantamurtim” aspect of the Devi, and said the Adhi Kamakshi Amman temple was being touted as original for reasons best known to the campaigners.
“Lalitha Thirupura Sundari dwells here as Goddess Kamakshi, in a posture offering penance, with four hands with Pasa, Angusa, sugarcane bow and flower arrows. The Amman is always graceful and protects the devotees with Her eyes. Her name Kamakshi itself signifies Saraswathi and Lakshmi aspects are in her eyes.”
He further said Kamakshi is enshrined in Padmasana posture in the sanctum sanctorum and is referred to as  “Parabhrama Swarupini”, seated with Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Eswara and Sadasiva.
The Sri Chakram installed in front of the Devi  is offered archana and poojas. There are no shrines for Ambal  in any of the shrines for Shiva in Kanchipuram. “As the supreme Shakthi, Her writ runs everywhere in Kanchipuram.”
Immediately surrounding the sanctum are small shrines for Ardhanareeswarar, Soundaryalakshmi, Kalvar (who has been mentioned in the hymns of Tirumangaialwar) and Varaahi.
The sanctum where Kamakshi idol is installed is called Gayathri Mandapam and has 24 pillars, standing for 24 letters of  the all-powerful Gayathri Mantra. On the right side of the Gayathri Mandapam, there is a sannadhi for Varahi and Arupalakshmi and Santhana Ganapathy, and we can see Santhana sthambam covered by a silver plate. Dasaratha consecrated the Santhana Sthambam in the Gayathri Mandapam to pray to be blessed with children. Sri Kamakshi is the family deity of Rama and his descendants. The Kumkumam prasadam of Kamakshi  is offered first to Arupalakshmi with prayers and is taken from her feet by the devotee for adorning his forehead, according to custom and practice in this temple.
One of Sri Ramachandra Sastrigal’s sons,  Syama Sastry, (he  is one of the priests in the temple now), gave me rare details about  a work “Kamakshi Vilasam” which contains all information about Kanchipuram, its boundaries (avaranas), etc., and the Kamakshi Amman temple, its relationship to other temples surrounding it. He spoke at length about Kamakshi Vilasam.
In Kamakshi Vilasam, there is a vivid description of the glory of Sakthi Kamakshi, and the sanctity and distance of temples of Shiva, Vishnu, Sakthi, Ganesha and Karthikeya situated around the Amman temple .
The sanctum sanctorum of Devi in all Shiva temples beyond Kanchipuram is described as “Kamakoshtam” in Silpa Shastras. Even the deities in those temples are referred to as Kamakoti. The 14^th chapter of Vilasam has explanations for points shrouded in mystery in other Puranas. Kamakshi Vilasam contains all the information buried in Agama and Silpa Shastras, and details about the temples in Kanchipuram,  the sayings of ancient Saivaite savants, and elucidates points made by them.
In the Kamakshi temple, poojas are performed according to Sowbhagya Chintamani, believed to have been  written by Sage Durvasa. Chintamani  describes Kanchi as delineating  the Akasa swarupam of Devi while explaining the five kshetras of Sakthi that embody the five elements (like Chidambaram is associated with Akasa swarupa of Shiva).
In Lalitha Ashtotrasatanamavali, Kamakshi Amman is hailed as “ Kamakotimahapeetasthayai Namo Namaha.”  In Lalitha Trisathi, she is  extolled as “Kameshwari” and “Kamakoti Nilaya.” She is called “Trikoota” and “Kamakotika” in Lalitha Sahasranamam.
Only priests belonging to two Gothras (Kausika and Bharatwaja) are performing poojas in the temple now, and there was a time when the priests belonged to six Gothras. But all those from the other four Gothras left Kanchi  to worship at the Bangaru Kamakshi Amman temple in Thanjavur.

Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 3:43 PM

Chithirai is still fancied

NEW YEAR

Chithirai is still fancied

R Swaminathan
Do you accept the first day in Tamil month Chithirai as the beginning of
the new year, this time Vikruti? Or do you prefer to swear that we should
go by the diktat of the TN government that January 14 (Thai Thirunaal) is
alone worthy of celebration by the Tamils? It was clear on Wednesday that
still many prefer to continue with the April start.
The Tamil Nadu government had declared that from 2009 the Tamil new year
would be celebrated on the first day of Thai coinciding with Pongal
festival.  To placate the old timers,  it was said it will be called
“Chithirai Thirunaal.”
In the Brahmin community, a new year is ushered in with the performance of
tharpan (offering of ablution) to ancestors. To specify when and why the
offering is made, the Brahmin devout clearly mention that they are doing
it to their forefathers on the occasion of Vasanta ruthu (spring season),
Mesha Masa, and the name of the year also figures here, as Vikruti. When
they do the same offering in January they extol the arrival of Uttarayana.
 An archaka of a leading Kanchi temple pointed out that we should
distinguish between months in which category Chithirai falls and the
Uttarayana which begins in mid-January. For the year, we should go by the
months and not the movement of Sun.
The customary reading of almanac in most temples was there yesterday. May
be, official functions would be kept for January 14. When the new year is
in April in many northern and eastern states, not to mention countries
like Nepal, Burma, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, will the diktat be
taken back by the government? This can’t be answered now.

Date:    Wed, April 14, 2010 8:06 pm

Landlords no longer rule the roost

The new scenario in Thanjavur:

Landlords no longer rule the roost

Thanjavur mirasidars have lost their holdings, their fiefdom has shrunk
and their political clout has severely diminished. Thus with their past
erased and prospects in the political arena ruined, they are keeping their
fingers crossed, looking at the heavens (not for rain this time) but for
the final call from the Creator.

I feel we need to highlight the totally changed and different scenario in
the erstwhile composite Thanjavur district, once considered the granary of
south India, where the landlords who wielded tremendous power controlling
politics and economy of the state, are groping in the dark for their
identity and future. The district once boasted of a number of land lords
with huge holdings, employing cheap labour, minting money when the rain
god blessed them like anything and the river water was available in
plenty. They lived in the district farm houses, with families, mostly
undivided ones, taking care of the property and commanding respect in the
nascent Indian democracy. The peasant revolution pushed them into the
nether world. The rulers too have learnt how to rubbish the blackmail of
the land owners.
Due to the advent of Communism in pockets of the  East Thanjavur as it was
called then, and the increasing awareness among farmers  that they are
just being exploited and paid lowly wages, and the change at the helm of
affairs in the Chennai Secretariat after the general elections now and
then, the landlords began to see their downfall and many fell like by the
roadside in no time.
Today, we see only a handful of them, but their holdings have got largely
decimated and their focus is dissipated _ and they have lost interest in
the agrarian business in which they once flourished. They have realised
that paddy or sugarcane cannot bring them prosperity and the labour will
not be at their beck and call any more, ready to accept the meagre wages
and toil on the land for endless hours day or night. The fragmented
holdings do not permit a feasible practice of modern farming methods.The
net profit has also become negligible.

We can  send a team of journos to the district and visit the landlords in
person, talk to them about their claims of glorious past, the listless
present and the hopeless future they face. The old generation is living in
distant memories, the dwindling present group is in despair and confusion,
trying to identity itself with this party or that party and tries to make
hay while the political sun shines. That is how we see election-time
defections, skirmishes and enormous liquidation of property to fund the
process of getting elected at some level to represent the people and pick
up money from even the shit and stand to be counted or mentioned in
vernacular paper's news briefs.

Then we see the vast expanse of agricultural lands giving way to
engineering colleges and medical institutions where politicians see scope
for making easy money and engage their benamis. The education wind mills
are tirelessly working in several TN districts, and Thanjavur is no
exception.No solution has been brought to the Cauvery imbroglio and thus
irrigation can no longer come to their aid.


A few bright brilliant people who are descendents of the old landlords,
who used to be called mittadars and mirasidars, have moved out of their
villages to big cities and towns, and have even settled in overseas
countries trying to squeeze money out of their paper degrees earned in
Indian colleges/ universities.

They sometimes try to see their ancient moorings, unable to forget their
love for the land their ancestors owned or the grand village festivals
which they gave them some importance in the local  history of their
villages and bloated their ego. Try to send some money to the remaining
elders in the villages . But the  truth is the land has become barren due
to neglect and repeated failure of monsoons, tremendous shortage of power
and hefty increase in wages and total change of attitude among workers to
time and work. We never know when the remaining handful of mirasidars will
be gone and the history of the state will be totally forgotten, and
rewritten for posterity with little or no trace of the fertility of soil
or brains that once stood for Tamil culture and civilisation.


Swaminathan R
Date:    Thu, April 22, 2010 6:59 pm

All that an 18 month old can do or does!

My 18 months old grandson, Shreyas, who is in Bangalore and whom I visited yesterday with my wife on our entry into 35 years of wedded life, was seen by us all the time pushing hard his goals and objectives.

He is quite vehement about certain things being done his own way. You find him always in the kitchen with vessels and laddles or even small spoons,  making his own meal of vegetable leaves or even pieces of paper which he will multiply in number with his hands tearing them. He is making noise all the time, his neighbours are bound to say. Certainly, he walks briskly, falls at  times and hits his head against the wall or ground.He cries but stops soon. He is keen on going out; is ready to be taken out but only by familiar people.
He has develped attachment to us, his proud grandparents, but always keeps looking for his either of his parents and is not satisfied with our pampering. 
At times, Shreyas goes only in search of his mother. He is most often found playing with the cellphone: whenever there is a call, he must be given the instrument and he will babble and will not stop till he closes the call by mistake. He walks and talks like his father loudly but in his baby language comprising sounds. He is thus very fond of answering calls on mobiles and when the landline rings he goes there, and climbs the cot and shelf on the wall and picks up the receiver.  After a while he leaves it dangling unable to cover both ends of the receiver.  Or presses the speaker  button.
On the whole, he is becoming an unmanageble brat which is a symptom of a working and growing individual's brain. All the best to him. As they say, many things need vivid description in person and over hours, and cannot be written down in one blog.

Sraddha is now shrinking in rigour

Sraddha is now shrinking in rigour

AS customs keep changing,  the rites and rituals also undergo a churning up. This is true in case of not only one-time events like marriages or  jubilees  but also the ceremony that is performed every year. The way Sraddha is conducted has totally changed in a Metro like Chennai where more and more people are accepting pay and use premises, with all arrangements being made there.
Whether they have their own homes or flats, they prefer to arrange everything at
premises available for six to seven hours in West Mambalam  or even a suburb like Nanganallur. They remit an advance of Rs 500. The owner even shares his own
flat with a party in need of the premises for the function. A lady cook (mami) arrives early in the morning and readies the meal and sweets and savouries by 10 a.m. The priest arrives with two other Brahmins; the rites go on for not more than two hours.
Gone are the days when elders in the Brahmin families, would go to shandis to bring bags of vegetables and groceries for the elaborate cooking the next  day. No longer do they need to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning and stay in wet clothing for hours together, pounding condiments or other ingredients to prepare several special dishes. The mami who is hired for anything from Rs 600 to Rs 800 does it all with great profiency. The overall charges for the preparations, the lady cook and the rental for the premises could be about Rs 2,800. If special items are ordered, you have to pay extra in three digits.
Of course, the priest and his companions are to be paid separately and this again may be Rs 800 to 1,500, depending on whether these purohits are hired directly or sent by agents. Apart from feeding the two Brahmins, food is prepared for the Kartha and his spouse and also brothers and their families, provided extra money is paid for every plate (leaf). Items could be small in size, very few in number and the quantity could be much less than what used to be got ready in older days, the beneficiaries keep their mouths shut and go through the motions for a few hours as it is just for a day for a parent. No protests or no comments. 
One reason why this option is being exercised is that the families no longer live in
large numbers or in large homes but
only in pigeon hole apartments where most grown-ups go out for education or
employment. Also, it is not simply possible to keep such habitations pure and unpolluted as per religious injunctions.
Sraddha is thus shrinking in rigour and practice. Ancestral worship is felt to be 
compulsory by many at least for the sake of their progeny and wellbeing. Endowments have sprung up to do this and some look for alternatives like poor feeding at homes and orphanages, saying they attach no great significance to excessive religiosity.
Even purohits feel the old system may collapse totally one day due to socio-economic
compulsions and upheavals in demographic structure of family units. Children get
to know very little of what is exactly done, and parents are also keen on insulating them from centuries old practices to skirt probing questions.

How a fridge rocked the house on Diwali

How a fridge rocked the house on Diwali

By R Swaminathan

The frigid response to a call for a new fridge for the house almost set afire a ten thousandwalla this Diwali day. The lady of the house saw water oozing out of the cooling monster in our living room, and said something must be immediately done to get a new one.

What strikes a stingy husband in such a situation is the possibility of repairing the machine. The refrigerator was studied closely by me for the source of the spring. The tray below the crisper tray holding milk satchets was the villain of the piece. It was crushing the outlet too much and water was dripping in front of the fridge.

A quick examination of the tray revealed that it had been overloaded with all sorts of things _ cheap to expensive articles. The stored items below the overloaded milk tray included almonds, cashew nuts, cardamom jar, dates packets, laddus (giant size) acquired in recent marriage functions (from the groom's side), gram dhal, rava (half empty) and maida packet of 2010. God knows why all these things are hoarded in a fridge. A ready explanation is to protect them from pests and for a longer shelf life.

The fridge was overloaded with dough in two containers, prepared more than a week ago, and cooked items (when a spouse goes out for an impromptu dinner, the items are readily pushed into the fridge for the morrow.) The homemaker's job becomes easy next day. These foodstuffs sometimes emit a foul smell.

It is needless to describe the condition of the vegetable tray; it accommodates anything from broken coconuts and copras to fruits like mangoes and apples, simply because rest of the place is already fully occupied. No one wants the apples to roll out in the living room like gooseberry from a broken sack and so dumps them in the tray.

That the fridge is the most abused, overused and misused electrical appliance in the middle class homes these days will not be contested by any one. It is never switched off even if the people of the house look for getaways and spells of holidays to enjoy elsewhere. The electricity department really takes care of the defrosting operations whenever there is a forced or unexpected power failure/breakdown or shutdown. That again causes the ice in the chamber and below that to melt and spill all over the place.

The next place to look for is the door. The person who discovered the scope for creating shelves for an assortment of bottles, cans, lemons/eggs, chunam, betelnut powder, etc., needs to be hanged without a trial. Bottles come in sexy shapes and sizes and keep multiplying in the fridge after every shopping spree.

So I decided on "Operation Dehoarding " to please the madam. Removed as many things as possible and educated the user to keep the place free for the water to flow smoothly into the defrost tray provided at the back. Of course, it took a lot of argument to convince the person that the time is not ripe for a new fridge for the house even in an exchange mela or through combo offers. Things cooled off easily in a few minutes, and the special TV programme was another factor that brought about peace in the house.

Of minds, media and marriage

Of minds, media and marriage

R.Swaminathan

A strong case has been presented in the September issue of Brahmin Today to try to show how Brahmins should not go in for inter-caste or inter-religious marriages.. It is sought to be shown that the parents are ultimately responsible for the wayward thinking or  behaviour of  adolescent girls _ their not being properly indoctrinated at the time of festivals or rituals at home while giving more importance to their studies or career. We want good education, it becomes well nigh impossible to retain them during such occasions.
Love marriages are becoming common place, and the increasing success of such weddings is driving more people to experiment with it. The entertainment media are entirely responsible with all kinds of  episodes and feature films justifying and promoting love,  elopement and marriage against the wishes of elders.
It may be the misfortune of the present generation that there is tremendous exposure to channels and films. The advent of DVD player gives the children total privacy and immense opportunity to acquire a different mindset and a value system! Mobiles are playing havoc all the  24-hours on them.
The economic decline of parents in their middle age and the fact that their exit salary in most cases happens to be the entry emoluments of the youth diminishes the parents' role and they just wish  to buy peace.  
One argument that has not been mentioned, may be due to want of space, is the trauma the characters of such inter-caste marriages will be facing in the later part of their life when their own children question them, or show propensities that irritate or worry their parents. Confusion arises over the cultural affinity they should exhibit. Reminiscences of the type we are familiar with become impossible. People need to take a look at the value of our heritage and stand to benefit in the long run.
The protégés of love marriages say “good and bad are solely dependent on personal views. I have seen well- oiled and beautifully working love marriages and terribly shattered arranged ones.  It is also true the other way round.. It depends on the person who handles that...boy or girl or the parents.”
A well-educated, mature and lovable person from a lower caste is always superior to the haughty, half-learned and harsh upper caste person or Brahmin, it is argued. Their contention is :  “We have to develop the qualities of Brahmins among all, and not breed a race by  species choice alone. DNAs are no guarantee for your mental status or maturity. No race is pure for that matter,”

“Satyakama Jabala is revered; so do Ashtavakra, Aswathama was denounced and doomed but not Sanjay, he got the Divya Drishti. We need to build and develop such godly men.”
But it must be emphasized here that Lord Krishna himself highlighted where the Sattva Gunas are extensively present. The virtues He has recommended are more intensely and widely seen in the Brahmin community than in others. Being divine is second nature for a Karma Brahmin.
Another point to note here is that boys and their relatives from other communities  are eager  to trap and somehow marry the Brahmin girls to boost their profile in society and win greater social acceptance.  If  the girl is a Brahmin and the boy is from some other caste or community,  there is little or no opposition from the boy’s side.
Brahmin girls need to be educated about the high status they enjoy in the traditional society and should exercise their choice very carefully and with a lot of discrimination. They should know that the brilliance and ascribed status they come across elsewhere  is available within the community provided they are ready to wait and see.

Our Jagadgurus can do it

Our Jagadgurus can do it




By R Swaminathan


The themes like "Whither Brahmin?" seem like evergreen topics that have wide attention and acceptance. This is comparable only to the movement we saw when a Rishi like Ramana popularised Atma Vichara (Self Inquiry) or Vivekananda gave his own brand of Advaita Vedanta. Is it a cry in the dark? Or is it a genuine concern for the betterment of the community. But Brahmins must think for a minute that their plight has come to such a pass that they prefer to watch what is happening to their community through soap operas and sponsored serial programmes. No one can be ambitious and impractical enough to argue for a political stake but everyone must think why there is no initiative or endeavour for example from spiritual leaders who head various Mutts to do good to the community.
The Brahmin community is beset with several problems and most of them social and economical. In our society there is lack of recognition or proper voice whenever someone is trampled upon or victimised or vandalised or his efforts bear no fruit.
That there is no spontaneous reaction to acts of injustice is a matter of regret  that needs a separate column.
In the economic sphere, we find a large number of families struggling to sort out their family problems like marriage of their daughters  and sons. For instance, in a recent swayamvaram held in Chennai for Brahmins we saw how the boys waiting to get married outnumbered the girls by several times. Is it because the Girls (Girls because their economic power has made them Big. and to speak from commanding position) want to delay their marriage or because their parents need their help for a few more years to settle financial issues like early retirement of the father or educational loan of the brother who is right now abroad, or because their minds  have been polluted by several cases of the so-called love marriages involving spouses of other communities?
The pathetic situation can be remedied if, and only if , our spiritual leaders or jagadgurus spread a word among the members of the community that they are ready to facilitate or even arrange mass weddings without ostentation and grandeour. Many middle class families try to ape others and become bankrupt, and wallow in debt and poverty the rest of their lives. That their children care little for them once their job is done is a different tear-jerker..
I have heard several anecdotes from my father about how the great sage of Kanchi could inspire people who came to him to help bless the children for an early marriage and how he advocated simple marriages and avoidance of dowry. Many have forgotten his principles and preaching, and are making easy ready-to- handle compromises in today's world.
Let us see how the problems in many well- to- do families can be solved if they are brought together at a function organised by a Mutt Head. The children who get married, without elaborate lunches we see in air-conditioned marriage halls and several times a day for two days or even more, will have respect for simple living and high thinking of the Seer who inspires them to live by the ideals of the traditional Brahmin family.
Brahmin associations also can do a lot for such community weddings on a small scale so that those who are hunting for brides or grooms succeed easily and end up with conducting the marriage as per scriptural injunctions sans all that make-up or paraphernalia.
Marriage is an important event not only for the couple who must strive to make the relationship a permanent and enduring one and extend its benefits to the next generations. It also rids the parents of several worries they have in maintaining their grown-up children and ensuring a safe future. Partners found and bound under the canopy of spiritual organisations will have lasting values, and of course, the new tribe of A to Z Marriage Facilitators will find their going tough after such events. When the event is sought to be made very big, naturally we find it dfficult to organise things to the satisfaction of both sides and there we find middlemen entering and making a fast buck. We can and should end this vicious circle. But will our Jagadgurus extend a helping hand to us and in time?