what is for 'touching'

At home, whenever there is a talk of a meal  / tiffin there is always the question of ' thottukka  enna ?'  (for the benefit of non tamil speaking, thottukka literally means 'touching') , but it is one of those untranslatable words associated with the way some people eat.

It is best explained in a scene in the tamil movie 'nala dhamayanti'. A customs official opens a jar of pickles and asks,  ' something eatable' ; the pallakkad brahman is mortified; and he  exclaims in a thickly accented english 'no no no no, not eating.. only touching."

It is not seasoning, not garnishing or anything like that. Typically, when you have  curd rice with your  fingers that have just touched a dollop of pickle, well that is 'thottuka',

Some people  call it a side dish. but it is more than just that. it complements the  main dish from taste, texture, nutrition and health point of view.

There is strict code for what can go with what . There is virtually not a single preparation that is complete in itself. What is idli without the coconut chutney or curd rice without a dollop of pickle, particularly, lemon or better still, dry sweet lime pickle.

How can one have adai with sambhar?  For a Tanjavoor brahmin,  it is sheer blasphemy to have adai with anything other than jaggery or butter.

Curd rice being the most important dish for the 'Tambra's has a great many items to go with it. Just the sight of makali kizhangu  kindles one's appetite so much that you end up having double the portion of curd rice; after all you cannot have makali kizhangu without curd rice.

While 'touching' is so important while eating, at times, a simple touch can render a whole meal uneatable.  Here, we come to the concept of echil (avoiding contact with saliva, like while sipping from a tumbler) and pathu (segregating cooked food from uncooked food).

most people can never understand the nuances. But a tamil brahmin can never understand as to

• how can you  drink water from a bottle or a glass on which some one else  has put his or her lips to ?
• how can you pass around a cake or a sweet for everyone to take a bite from ?
• how can you wash the utensils in a sink where someone has just gargled after a meal ?

tail-piece

an american, the story goes, was offered a makke ki roti with saag on top. He ate the saag with  a spoon and returned the 'plate' to his host.

Give a man a fish

"Give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and he is fed for a life time" ...much quoted lines.. after all why should it be only about food ? Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests people come to me with computer problems, hardware, software and skills... they are not stupid people , (they are generally smarter than me) and they can easily do what I do, through a bit of googling and a bit of experimentation.. but then they enjoy taking a fish from me , rather than learning how to fish.. though sometimes someone does insist on learning but then complain that I don't teach well...!? the bottom line is that I enjoy fishing and giving fish to people and they enjoy receiving their fish free of cost and using their time and effort in more productive ways, for example partying or networking.. I don't complain at all, since the whole effort makes me feel good ;-) How I wish the whole world adopts ubuntu for their OS, and I am saved from the pain of seeing innocent people suffering from virus attacks , formatting and reformatting of hard disks, data loss, rampant piracy and anti-piracy operations in the cyber space.. not to mention the financial loss to all except Bill Gates and his like ? I do feel strongly that there is a great injustice perpetrated on innocent computer users. But who am I to complain ? who am I to change the way people use their computers ? I restrict myself to making some noises where I can, just to please myself. coming back to the first line ...sigh .. sigh... will I, or someone else ever be able to teach the world how to fish ?

A tale of two indians

In the past month, I read two books with similar settings , but diametricaly oppposite story lines., "the White Tiger ' by Arvind Adiga and 'a tale of two Indians " by Maharshi Mehta. 

Both the stories are set in rural India and have protagonists struggling to break out of a vicious cycle of poverty, ignorance, casteism and feudalism .

That is where the similarity ends.The white Tiger, from rural Bihar  finds his way to Delhi through cunning and deceit and finally obtains a fortune by murdering his employer. He then goes on to use his ill-gotten wealth to bribe the powers that be and become what he calls an entrepreneur.  

The second story, set in rural Gujrat, follows a course diametrically opposite. Our hero, loses both parents early in life; and he is particularly upset that he could not save his mother as medical help could not reach her in time due to poor roads. Fired by his mission to participate in building good roads in rural areas, he struggles through his way , through sheer grit and handwork to become an engineer in Goverment service. Through out his life he faces more than his quota of  tragedies and yet finds ways to overcome his personal grief by serving his fellowmen. It is also significant that most of the characters in the novel are based on real people , as mentioned in the 'acknowledgments'. 

The 'white tiger ' won the Man Booker prize, while 'the tale of two Indians' is hardly known. Is it necessary to expose the dark underbelly of the country for an Indian work to win an Oscar or a Man Booker prize? 

Freedom to break laws

This is cartoon from DNA, on 26 Jan 2012, when our nation celebrated  the 63rd Republic Day.

In India, if you are a  big shot, you have  to break more laws and with more impunity to prove your worth in the society. It is not as if we live in a lawless area like a tribal belt in a frontier region. We have plenty of laws, as any civilized society should.

Oprah Winfrey, on her recent visit to India, exclaimed, "...No, like, what is it with the red lights ? I mean, does the red light mean stop or not ? or is it just for your entertainment ?" . Ma'm we know what a red light is meant for . It is just that we like to break a few rules wherever we can. It is a land of 'speed breakers' not 'sign posts'. If a motorist is to be stopped it has to be through speed breakers or better still barricades. A 'Chaudhary'  is simply not intimidated by a mere red light.

The higher you go in the social hierarchy, you need to break more laws. It also rubs off on the kith and kin. The children can merrily cheat in their school exams and where else can you find news headlines like "IAS officer's wife slaps cop " ?

Encroaching on public property is a birth right, it is our country, our land, isn't it ? If you own a DDA flat, a one bedroom flat with some ingenuity can be converted into a three bed room flat with overhangs here and there.

Intellectual property is a great joke. IP lawyers can fret and fume, but we reserve our right to buy and sell pirated books and CDs at pavements, railway stations, inside the trains and well, wherever we can. And now  we have become tech savvy.  A computer buyer, demands a long list of software to go with it. Shops selling mobile hand sets in small towns, invariably flash a sign board saying "Downloading done here" . Even simple rural folks are not happy with just the handsets ( having 32 GB, storage capacity, all for under Rs 3000/-). They want their handsets with plenty of songs and Video clips of all kinds !

Not every one can break every law every time. A beggar sleeping on a pavement is promptly chased away. A hawker is tolerated as long as he follows certain 'conventions '(not laws, mind you). Then comes an ambassador  car with a red light on top, and it can be parked wherever for however long. 

When you are really big enough, and when you can get away with a murder, not just figuratively, you are ready for bigger roles in the society. Run out of laws to break, some of the law breakers, even mange to become law makers,  so that they can make more laws  to break!

No harm in dreaming . If only,...if only, every Indian decided to abide by the laws of the land,..atleast there will be wider roads, cleaner pavements and no traffic jams. Revenue collection, in every department will soar, to be used for all sorts of welfare measures.

Where are the girls ?

In India, it is nothing unusual to read news stories about female foeticide  or abduction of girls. But what is extremely disconcerting is that one crime feeds on the other and the entire outcome is condoned by the society at large.

In a typical village in Haryana, the sex-ratio is so skewed that there are few prospective brides available. So they conveniently buy 'girls' abducted from impoverished regions and the demand-supply chain is well established . But, why have the villagers become silent spectators to this heinous practice ? The uncomfortable truth is that every third house in the village is party to such a crime, in one way or the other.

Ironically, the relentless pursuit for male offspring has all but emasculated the society.

Men and women alike have lost the courage to stand up for justice and compassion to stand by the oppressed.

Where are the Khap Panchayats , the custodians of clan honour ? What kind of honour does, abduction or purchase of girls bring ?

More than enacting of stringent laws, the need of the hour is social reformers !

I wish, Anna hazare and his gang of four (Kejriwal, Bedi, Sisodia and Bhushan) , who have considerable influence in the region, channelize their energy to weed out this malaise . After all, what good can an anti-corruption to law do to a society where every home is morally corrupt ?

some links

traffickingnews
times of india
indian express
Shaktivahini

Religion and Music

Can a religion exist without music ? No religion can be totally cerebral and there are always some rituals which are invariably associated with some kind of music. Even in Islam, where the attitude towards music is at best ambivalent, the 'Adhan' , Islamic call to prayer is recited in a melodious voice rather than as a terse announcement.

Can music exist without religion ? Apparently, the answer is  yes, as 'kolaveri' is also music , having nothing at all  to do with any religion. But then,if  you ask a carnatic musician, you cannot even think of music without thinking of God. There is simply no room for atheists there.  Certain kind of music gives rise to certain kind of emotions as joy, peace or compassion in a listener. To a practitioner of carnatic music, music is an intellectual and emotional exercise and also an expression of Bhakti and it also creates a similar feeling in a listener's mind.

Then, we have the lyrics or sahityam . With the current generation, lyrics have taken a back seat and it is all drums and beats. Drums and beats are not great and  such music is so enlivening and exhilarating.  I remember , when we were in the academy, we used to have what we called 'jam sessions'. We could hit the ceiling energized by orange squash, some eats like jalebi and doughnuts and........ the Drums. It was all expression of raw energy and 'OSI BISA' (particularly, 'ojah awake'  and 'dance the body music') was a great favourite.

While the effects of rhythm and beats are physical, it is only the words that can really get to your mind.  Words are powerful and music is even more powerful, and when these powerful words are set to great music and rendered with the right bhava or emotion, it definitely does something to your innermost self. What's amazing is that every time you here such a piece of music, the feeling gets more intense rather than follow the law of diminishing utility. To me, Bharathiyaar songs, sung by MS, or DK Pattammal / Nithyashree or Bombay Jayashree can be listened to any number of times.

Tailpiece . Recently I read AR Rahman's biography. AR Rahman is said to  avoid composing for non-sufi, religious songs. Just wondering what made Rafi sing such wonderful bhajans. Some of these works, Baiju Bawra, Kohinoor  have been the combined effort of a great team, Mohammad Rafi, Shakeel Badayuni, and Naushad, with star cast including Dileep Kumar. They are professionals alright, but how does Rafi put in so much emotions into his devotional songs ?

The Solitude of Emperors

Having read Davidar's first book, it was only natural to pick up his second book, “ The Solitude of Emperors”; to read. It is so different from his first book, yet there are similarities. If caste and racial issues were intertwined in  the earlier plot, communal violence dominates this plot.

The narrator of the story, young Vijay is a budding journalist who , due to sheer boredom of life in a small town in South India, breaks out his cocoon to take up a job with a magazine in Mumbai. Mr Sorabji's magazine, "The Secularist",  has a small but dedicated readership of people who share his vision of a secular India.

Mr Sorabji becomes a  father figure for Vijay and he just soaks up the ideas and vision expounded by his mentor. But for Vijay, it is all just abstarct ideas till the time communal violence breaks out in mumbai, following the demolition of Babri masjid. He gets caught up in the violence on the streets and is a mute witness to riots and killings in all the gory details. His magazine runs a major story on the riots and riot victims as part of the campaign for a secular India.

The second part of the book covers Vijay's experience at the Nilgiris where another disputed Shrine is under attack by the right wing activists. It is here that Sorabji's manuscript is introduced, from which the title of the book is derived.  The artcle is addressed to the young people of the country for instilling of secular values through a study of the lives of Asoka, the emperor of renunciation, Akbar, the emperor of faith and Gandhi, the emperor of truth.

There are two imposing , well defined characters to cover the two main divergent view points, viz, Mr Sorabji, the editor of 'The secularist' and Rajan, the entrepreneur-politician. While Mr Sorabji, believes in convergence of religions for the good of the mankind, Rajan convincingly argues that a strong Hindu rashtra alone can bring in peace and prosperity for all including the minorities.

The most lovable character in the novel, is the  vagabond called Noah, who has seen it  all, done it all , in his 'ripe' age of 36 and is now content to live in the local cemetry with his dope, flowers, a dog called' godless' and his great collection of contemporary european poetry. While all other characters move on predictable lines, it is this loose canon that adds life to the narration in the second part of the book.

The first part of the novel covering Vijay's escapades in mumbai is highlighted by a gripping narration with a meticulous eye for details. In the second part, the narration is more like a tourist guide book, with long interruptions by  sermons in history, ie Sorabji's manuscript on the 'emperors'. Yet there is enough momentum to keep the readers' interest in the ultimate fate of the shrine. Will it also go the Babri Masjid way and if so with what consequences ?

An immensely readable book, if only for the excellent characterization of Mr Sorabji and Noah.