Silent Sounds and Sulphurous Smells

Mannvaasanai

It has been thundering for quite some time now. But winds were not fierce enough to rattle the windows. After 40 minutes since the first thunder rolled down, sky has opened up, it is pouring and with the first drops of holy union, came manvaasanai.

Just 5 minutes before, the sulphurous-phosphorus smell of the match stick being struck for the evening lamp in the next room assailed my nostrils and thank god immediately God sent me manvaasanai to compensate. The good thing about gusts of wind before rains is that the mangoes just fall down. We don't have to strain and arrange some help outside.

Rain droplets are falling on my face, through the window, but am concerned about the laptop now. Once I left a water soaked scarf with my laptop during a trip and experienced the shock of my life, the moment, I switched it on back home. When i told the repair guy that am getting mild shocks, he replied, it should not be mild, it is full charge that is flowing from the socket thanks to the failed adaptor. Even now, after repairing, i experience mild shocks whenever i touch the metallic ends underneath or by the sides of the laptop, but it is really mild.

Want to learn birdspeak

Be it 3:30 am or 3:30 pm or some random afternoon post lunch, the moment I enter bedroom from the hall, these babblers create such a ruckus. I have never bothered about the cawing of crows, but these babblers seem to have such an important meeting - all bursting to say everything at once. I wish I could understand what they are speaking. And the moment, I try hard to decipher, they grow silent suddenly and disappear the way they came. I don't quite remember which purana mentioned, that there were parrots or birds who could recite Vedas.

Another one is the lone call at night. It sounds like cuckoo but it is definitely not cuckoo. It just calls so languorously starting typically around 10 pm and goes on even beyond midnight. At times even at 4 am. Sometimes, I hear more than one bird calling. Wish Salim Ali was there to guide me about these birds.

Vandu

It would have measured 3 cm by length and 2+ cm by breadth… a thick, black mean looking vandu (kind of large non hairy fully black bumblebee). It was buzzing in vain by the window pane and at last found its way out past the curtains. Now that the vandu left, there is this small bee to continue the incessant buzzing. It has fancied the tube light and now the two yellow wires. These bees and their tube light and their buzzing while the wall clock seconds tick by so loudly. I wonder if there can ever be true silence.

Hey excuse me, Mr. Kanthasamy; Oru coffee kudipom, come with me

We started at 6:13 am from home. We had our first stop for tea-vadai near Thirumayam fort, for the sake of our driver. After some time, we saw 100s of fishermen in less than knee deep water, fishing with koodai (hand woven basket) near a place called Kallal. Nets, fishing rods, bare hands, spears, even dhotis for fishing was a familiar thing, however this was the first time, I saw such a huge crowd that too with koodais.

Kundrakudi Murugan Koil

Our first darshan was in Pillayarpatti a peaceful one. The next stop was Kundrakudi. Typical nondescript temple. Sugi and Cheenu knew my obsession with MS and told me that MS Subbulakshmi’s house was right there. Though I had read TJS George, I eagerly went to the place that they pointed to find it was indeed Subbulakshmi’s abode. And my Subbulakshmi was an aging elephant. I was so let down, but well yes, these younger ones need to have their share of fun teasing me.

Subbulakshmi

Temple Gopuram

Rath outside

We had to climb up and found the lord in his thiruneeru kaapu, prayed and had a view from the tiny square hole. As usual, I gave the temple elephant 1rs and had its trunk brushing my head.

Karaikudi Thiru Nachiappan Palace

The next stop was the Karaikudi Palace. If it was rennovated, it would be a real charming grand house. 5 folks from the family were still surviving it seems, as was told by the guide. We went to the kitchen, the open space and everywhere else we were allowed. (We were not allowed upstairs) After Mysore Palace and vicarious visits to other Palaces and forts, well, it seemed more like a huge traditional house.

Verandah Outside (Pictures of Lakshmi to my right and Saraswathi to my left)

Kinda large foyer as we stepped inside

Up above

Open Space - nadu muttam

Surprised to see sundrying vadams and Tulsi

As we stepped out

Koppudai Amman Koil

Next stop was amman koil and our driver took us to some Mariamman Koil, where I found so many fresh cut roses, the kind I expected to find only in Ooty or Bangalore. I am really wondering, where they came from. They could not have been bought from those places, had to be local.

Gopuram

Finally, we got our directions to the correct Koppudai amman koil. We were in time for the Uchi kaala abhishekam and pooja. The order of things being poured, I remember was ochre yellow liquid– turmeric – milk – curd – fruits paste – sandal. Then they dressed amman in a parrot green sari. My head accidentally hit an aunty’s head who was from blore and out of habit, we gently banged our heads again. (The childhood lore was that, doing so would prevent horns from sprouting on head) There was this bhairavar sannithi, Icha sakthi (left) and Gyana sakthi (right) amongst other prahara devathas.

Lunch in Amsavalli Hotel

This was supposed to be one of the good vegetarian restaurants in Karaikudi. We had beetroot pattani poriyal, cabbage kootu, lady’s finger pachadi (so called), kadamba sambar, murungaka vatha kolumbu, rasam, appalam, yellow coloured semiya payasam – cups and cups of buttermilk. I could not discern anything so Karaikudish in the famous cuisine. It was a typical hotel meals like anywhere else. The waiters were way more courteous than Trichy waiters though.

Way back home – Thirumayam Fort

I am really wondering about the controversy surrounding this fort. It was pretty hot in the afternoon. We just viewed the fort from outside. All ruins. The fort was supposed to have ancient treasures hidden somewhere inside.

View from the vehicle

Fort from the main road

Temple and fort

Practically ruins

Narthamalai

Narathar Thavam Irundha Malai and hence Narthamalai. My advice would be never go there, unless you can walk barefoot on garbage. There was this big festival going on. Everywhere we stepped, there were too many coconut husks, bananas and rock salt and left over flowers. It was so very dirty. And amman had to be viewed from raised pedestal. People were leaving live cocks, hens and goats as offerings. Such an act was supposed to safeguard the cattle and the brood of domestic animals it seems. Even swamy had left a goat here and the foxes had kept away from their goats from then on it seems. Nevertheless, straining temple it was.

On the way, I tried to take a snap of my college. I was seeing it for the first time after 8 years. I made the driver rush back for my music classes and luckily ma’m came, just as I alighted from the qualis. She was wondering, how I could sing, after a whole day trip, I somehow managed.

I had meant to blog this right after I wrote about Pillayarpatti, and suddenly lyrics of Kandaswamy’s – Excuse me Mr. Kandaswamy that I heard recently made me recollect this whole thing starting with Subbulakshmi.

The doctor who cries wolf

source

For none of the 9 surgeries to the best of my knowledge, I had been asked to get an ECG done. Now, for this surgery, the wonderful cardiologist, said some long winding story on something being slightly abnormal and insisted on further ECHO and Treadmill tests. Since he didn’t make it mandatory, I opted out. Why to spend extra 1.2k? I always look at a person’s hand first thing and as I was analyzing the cardiologist’s NoNerveJutting large hands, little did I realize that he was writing in my medical record that I was not cooperating. This went to the main ortho doctor, and after a brief argument, I was forced to go another day for the required tests, where I had to bare my breasts to sisters. After few operation theatre experiences, one loses all sense of modesty. What is this body, destined to age, rot and be eaten by worms (if the docs are fast enough, probably some person may get my organs) or destined to be burnt few years down the line. Then some curious dog might dig out this half decomposed body’s remains and drag it all around. Anything could happen. Why bother too much?

Back to my heart. Till 2008, paneer dishes were reserved only for eating out, which was pretty rare. However, once I joined the institute in mid 2008, almost every day, we used to have paneer malai and other creamy dishes on the menu. Stored and reheated most of the times. I used to hog paneer like anything. Ever since, I read “Autobiography of a Yogi," I used to eat puris fried only in ghee. From dal, sambhar, chapathis, dosas, pesarattus, upmas, khichdis, sabjis, podis, desserts I needed to pour ghee liberally on anything and everything. I would fight with my sister if she added even few drops of oil for making festival sweets, it had be 100% ghee made for me. At home, I would empty nearly 500gms of ghee in 1.5 months single-handedly. And 2 years in the institute with no direct cash mess account had me eating Rs.50/- worth of chocolates every day on an average. Believe, i would have been the only person to have ate Rs.8.5k worth of chocolates beyond allowed mess limits and paid extra for it. Thank god, my friends used to visit my room often and save few calories for me. But that also got stopped by Feb 2010. My pizza indulgence double cheese margarita is once in 3-5 months.

Of course, I also made sure, I was within the correct weight range, I did my yoga pranayam practices religiously, fasted nirjal whimsically now and then (if my tummy jutted out) and for my height of 169 cm, I weighed a decent 54-56 kgs. And that was fine I thought till yes’day.

Now after ECHO and TMT, it seems, there is some abnormality, (probably because I had pizza only last week) and so I have to take some tablets for smooth pre and post op. Well, blah. I was literally mad, when the cardio guy further suggested an angioplasty. I wanted NO more unintelligible purse burning tests. If the problem is known, I could always do the required physical exercises and solve it without tablets and hospitals. So mission quadriceps now. I will become less metallic – minus 12 screws. Time to focus on 12 years of atrophied quadriceps. Good bye to laptop, internet, FB, mails, ebooks and mobiles for a while. Back to paper books. I have just mailed my pranic healers. Probably I should call them up as well.

Cats!!!!!!!!

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I have no issues with cat, as long as it does not distribute its hair on the sofa set. In fact, its various sounds apart from usual meows amuse me.

Since we are in the ground floor, we have to keep the lower windows closed in this ever inquisitive neighbourhood. If I pack my suitcase for a solo trip, I have to answer everyone right from my neighbours to all folks who claim to know me before I was born; till I board the moffusil bus in peaceful anonymity. Painful most of the times, yet dependable in times of need.

Things I have to learn

1. Purify my internal system weekly without mom’s knowledge. The moment she learns, then my fasting plans would be ruined. She would elaborately prepare 3 chutneys for a simple idly, and offer this and that on a platter. She would then report that I don’t drink water to everyone who comes home and to all relatives over phone.
2. Not to shriek on seeing a flying or an equally scared cockroach. (In ground floor, all creatures feel free at home, even snakes)
   
3. Not to shriek and wake up if a cat jumps on to your bed through the open windows in the middle of the night.
   

I have learnt to tolerate and ignore the buzzing wasps and humming honeybees just 1-2 cms from my body every day. (The perils of sitting close to a mango tree in ground floor) I had great compunctions to get mom to destroy the wasp nest. (Out came 5 big green worms!) I was surprised to how these worms metamorphose to wasps due to tiny doses of wasp venom.

Coming back to cat. God knows where and all, it had walked before choosing to jump on my bed and spoil the cleanliness with its soiled paws. Once I made the bed in the morning, I would not let my bro sit on it, or my sister place her dirty feet on it, a fact that has caused so many mini fights in the past, and now, there is nothing I can do with a cat that has already taken flight.

Summer rains. And it just does not simply rain. The winds are fierce and howling, the windows rapidly close and open in a crash. The fallen dry leaves are lifted up above and then rolling thunder-lightening and it pours. In this rain, there was this mother cat with a kitten in its jaws. It was trying to jump up to the window. (Nearly 9 feet). It fell twice, still could not make it to the window. God knows where it kept its kitten that rainy night.

There is another big cat with a thick black mustache and its nearly white counterpart. Their favourite place is beneath the tamarind trees. Sometimes the mustached cat and I play a StatueNoBlinkingEyes game. And every time, the cat wins after we stare hard at each other for some time.

Garuda purana mentions that “A person who shouts and scolds others without proper reason will be born as a cat.” And there are stories that a cat has 9 lives. Tom and Jerry, funny cat mimicries. Cats! The menace!

Destiny Changing Thirupattur Brahma Temple

April 16th Saturday


Our busload of bride’s relatives travelled from trichy to Kanchipuram and since Thirupathur was on the way, we decided to spend 30 minutes to pray. It was hardly 1 hour from Trichy. Unremarkable temple, till I saw Patanjali Maharishi’s sannithi.

Temple History (translation of tamizh booklet)
This temple has a east facing Rajagopuram with five levels. Once we enter we can see kodi maram, and nandi under rudraksh pandhal. (shelter) This mantap is called Veda Mantap. Going further we find Naada Mantap. This mantap has sapthaswara pillars. Once we cross this, we can have a darshan of Brahmapureeshwarar. He is supposed to have changed the fate of Lord Brahma himself.

Brahma’s Story

Brahma sannithi is present to the south of naada mantapam. The general belief is that there are no temples for Brahma, but the fact is, there is no shiva temple without Brahma. Brahma is present as a koshtamoorthy (koshtah - any of the viscera of the body, inside apartment; koshtam - surrounding wall) to the left side of Eashan from where abhisheka teerta comes.
However, only in Thirupattur, he has a separate, majestic sannidhi, that too empowered to change fate. Brahma was proud thinking he could create this universe and thought, like Shiva he too has five heads.

Shiva, in order to humble Brahma’s ahamkar, plucked off Brahma’s fifth head and Brahma lost his tejus and creative power in this process.

Brahma realizing his position, does a pratitishta of 12 shivalingas in Thirupattur and prays. Shiva is pleased and restores tejus, creative energy and additional blessing that Brahma could better the fate of any devotee.

Only those devotees, whose fate is destined to be bettered can ever come to this temple it seems according to this booklet. Yet like in any other temple, I see beggars outside.



Best days to pray:
Monday, Thursday, Thiruvathirai, Punarpoosam, Sathayam and birth nakshathras.

Patanjali Muniver
He is present to the south of Brahma’s sannithi. He is called nithyakainkaryaal. He prays to Eashan everyday and blesses the devotees with yogic wisdom.


I would have hardly closed my eyes in the Sannithi, when periyamma asked me to get up, since the bus was getting delayed. She was right, but wish, I had spent some more time meditating there on some Thursday.

My last class before Summer Vacations

Broke my Tuesday sankalpa, by munching dosa and baganpalli around 2:30 p.m. Yet by 6:15 just after 45 minutes of singing, my chest hurt, hunger was gnawing inside; I felt like walking out of the class to go home and eat first. Could not sing. Luckily ma’m started telling harikathas in her sweet amusing iyengar tamizh for more than 40 minutes. (Since it was the last class).

Her usage of words would be so lovely. For instance, she would not vendify or kumbidufy rather sevichify Hari. Her message was that we were supposed to light lamps, offer some neivediyam everyday and sing at least one namavalli for the next two months, only that would be an athmartha guru seva for her. Here is what I could discern of her two kathas:

Story 1: Kurma das:

She related the above story with few changes. One being that the saint rolled more than 230+ kms and that the rich man was a silk merchant on a horse.

Story 2: Purandarar Vittal (Dasarvaal) – DasarTail

How Dasarvaal, metamorphosed to a Hari bhaktha from a successful diamond merchant. How his wife prayed to bhagawan and how god materialized 2 diamond nose rings which she had given for a brahmin’s upanayanam. Well... those days, upanayanam was done by begging from households it seems.

Hari devotee Dasarvaal’s fame reached the king’s ears who invited him to the royal palace. On the way, Dasarvaal stopped by the thinnai of the daasi and spent the night telling her Hari kathas on a ekadashi night. (The next day, the dasi attained moksha.) The news that dasarvaal had spent a night at dasi’s place reached the king. He was disgusted and decided to give only 5 porkili’s to the saint instead of the original sacks of gold coins and other royal gifts.

However, the divine radiance of the saint made the king prostrate before Dasarwaal who said “Thaan aadavittaalum than sadhai aadum”. (Even if you don’t dance, your flesh will dance) The king still did not get the meaning. The king did all the honours as originally planned. When the king finally offered sacks of gold coins, dasarvaal said, just give me 5 porkilis you had intended to. The king was taken aback (since he had not mentioned this to any other soul). The king appointed dasarvaal as the chief scholar poet (aasthana pulavar).

Ma’m finally gave us Pistachios which she had bought from Sringeri and I made pista payasam for lunch instead of pista milk at night due to an evening party.

Swami Sadashiva Tirtha’s The Ayurveda Encyclopedia:
Pistachio
Energetics: Sweet/hot/sweet V-PK+
Actions: Tonic, Sedative
Indications: Anemia, neurasthenia, builds muscles, energy, may help with alcohol recovery. They are rich in potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium salts; which when combined help to control hypertension.

Supposed to be good when eaten in Shishira ritu (late winter - feb march)

Mangoes

I was lying in shavaasana after finishing my routine. I opened my eyes slowly and saw the window and its bars. The lime green curtain was all huddled at one end. Through the bars, I saw the strong trunk of the mango tree and its varicose branches and leaves. The white sky peeped from beyond. The leaves were all still like in a painting, occasionally moving with a wisp of breeze. I was just gazing at the leaves, out of the blue, green mangoes in clusters appeared here and there. (What was left after the vagrant boys raided our backyard) A squirrel was doing acrobatics on the branches. Babblers were flitting from one branch to another. A row of red ants were marching by. Can’t wait for the mangoes to get ripened. Who does not love mangoes? My favourite is Imampasand followed by Banganapalli. Somehow over hyped Alphonsa's ridiculous rates put me off. But what we get locally is only Neelams and fibrous ones most of the times.

There were days in dad's times, when i have devoured 20 mangoes in a single day. Mangoes form the holy trinity (mukkani) in fruits - the other two being treacly jack-fruit and bananas. Yay… mangoes!

Types of Mangoes in India

Pongal Holidays 2016 update:
Apple caused the downfall of adam-eve. A lemon in 1 feet culvert caused the downfall of mom. So i was stepping out of home, walking long distances for vegetables. After i plucked indravalli and Avaram poo leaves for mom's slightly sprained leg, my that day's favourite pulicha keerai was not there in shop, so came back empty handed with just ginger and curry corriander leaves.
 
But when i hit the bed, was really thankful to God for life's small small pleasures. In December January, raw mango rates are exorbitant. Yesterday, was suddenly craving to eat something tangy and in the absence of gongura, had prepared to make Karunai kilangu puli kolambu (suvarna gadde/elephant foot yam). During Christmas, New Year holidays had seen couple of raw mangoes hanging high up there. Though ayurveda states, don't eat out of season fruits, when it comes to mango, all rules are worth breaking. Mom had a long pole with a u-shaped hook which she could use it from ground. To use it on terrace, she used another tiny stick with handle to pull the long pole from ground floor. For lunch, i climbed up, pulled the long pole, using the smaller hooked stick and then to my surprise, found a mango lying neatly on the terrace. I need not have pulled the pole at all, for the tree had provided a tangy mango just when i was craving for one. Was so gleeful and mentally thanked the tree and stepped down.

Yummy mango thokku

Indravalli parantha, ven pongal, vendaika poriyal. Outer cups: Moong dal kheer, Mango thokku, Moong sAmbhar, Curd