சரஸ்வதி நிவாஸ் நினைவுகள்

புதன், 7 ஜனவரி, 2009

வெண்பொங்கல்

After sharing my trials with Arisi Upma, the favorite recipe of all Iyer aunties, I decided not to ponder on food items to avoid domestic disturbances. But Sethu liked my views on arisi upma and wanted my comments on Venpongal.

My idea of Pongal is more for its association with மார்கழி பஜனை. Normally all bhajanais end up with sundal. But மார்கழி பஜனை always completes with hot வெண்பொங்கல். In all Bhajanai groups there will be a couple of persons who has the full idea of bhajanai and their timings. During the mangalam (மங்களம் = concluding song of bajanai) they will appear from nowhere to regulate or distribute pongal. This will be done only after reserving their share of prasaadam. Perhaps the upper layer of the pongal that will have mundiri paruppu fried in ghee may be reserved for these mundiri kottais. Almost all the eyes will be on the முந்திரி பருப்பு. Invariably some senior uncle (sadist)will mix the pongal well when I am first in the queue, so that only lucky ones will get mundiri in their share.

Our canteen contractor menon had different views on all these bhajanai items. If you refer special lexicon for workforce in Tamil, bhajanai means posing as if working but in reality doing nothing. Being well versed in these jargons and terms, menon will prepare pongal for morning and sundal for evening snacks daily. When confronted for better menu, menon shoots his reply

" ஸாரே, நீங்க ஆபீஸ்ல பஜனைத்தானே செய்யறது?"

திங்கள், 5 ஜனவரி, 2009

சென்-சேஷன் - senseshan

My English is not so weak. Our school final class teacher Mr.Ananthapadmanabha Iyer was a great devotee of Johnson, Boswell and had fascination for Wren and Martin grammar. I still remember the day when Balu alias Kullan could not spell the word "apologetically" and the entire class was asked to sit for one full hour after school time and write "apologetically" 100 times. Later on we learnt that the misspelling was a deliberate action by Kullan to settle score with ottarakuchi (thin as stick) Gopu who on the previous day was the cause of some group punishment. As a result Kullan and Ottarakuchi were kept away from Gilli-dandu till they came apologetically and expressed their "sorry".

When we talk of English I remembered an old English joke. A royal lady invited a Lord and a rustic villager for a dinner.
During the dinner the lord impressed the lady by asking, with rhyme and rhythm "Lady Divine! Please pass on the wine".
Not to be let down, the rustic man produced his rhyme by requesting the Lady's husband, " Friendly Bas%*@! Please pass on the custard". You can imagine the consequence.

Coming back to the subject, the topic is senseshan and not sensation. I had two colleagues Mr.Sen and Mr.Seshan who believed that the legs are there to pull. One day Sen asked Seshan " Saar, can you tell me comparative and superlative degrees for I”. Seshan replied, "I does not have degrees of speech". Sen replied coolly " I, Iyer and Iyengar"