Monday, December 22, 2008

Ah...the richness of tradition

I have rarely (rarely!) acknowledged my rather culturally - rich background - Tamizh brahmin-ness (note to readers: Please note the authentic spelling of my mother tongue).

This Sunday was very similar in composition to the ones enjoyed by my Madras cousins - Oil bath, puli avval for breakfast, a fantastic pre-lunch nap in the thereabouts of 12 to 2..Waking up to mor kozhambu and uralaikizhungu (potato) fry...eaten while watching Kandukondein Kandukondein and singing along to "Yenna solla" at the top of my rather jarring voice..

It was in short perfection! 
And perfection was rounded off by watching Bombay (albeit in Hindi..an Iyer maama with vibhoothi lining his forehead talking in chaste Hindi is rather disconcerting especially in the light of how absolutely challenged my Madras family is in saying anything beyond Namaste!!). I could devote an entire post to Adi and his attempts at communicating in Hindi which generally having me keeling over laughing...

Whole bunch of tamizhness that I have been enjoying (unknowingly!) throughout my life...About time I acknowledged them
1. Mani Ratnam/Gautham Menon (different genres I know!) movies..
2. ARR/Haris JayRaj/Ilayaraja for music...
3. Carnatic music...
4. Pujari-Bakery jokes (for the uninitiated..Pujari - Iyers/ Bakery - Iyengar..about all they are good at doing eh?). It is the birth right of all Iyers to mock their Iyengari brethren..We have made it a sport largely played in the playing fields that weddings offer us given the disproportionately high ratio of Iyer:Iyengar found here!
5. Saapad - I am not much of a foodie..I hardly eat and my oft-used phrase to this day remains "pasi-illai"(I am not hungry) but I just love my thair-saadam and rasam!

So..apparently you can take the maami out of Madras but you cant take Madras out of the maami...muahahaha

Right...so have a nice day and all such..started my day listening to Thenpaandi (again!)