அல்லவா / அல்லோமா ?

ஒரு மேடை பேச்சாளர் உணர்ச்சிப்போங்க முழங்கிக்கொண்டிருந்தார்

நாம் தமிழர் அல்லவா ?!

இதைக்கேட்ட அன்பர் ஒருவர் அடியேனது சட்டையை பிடித்து " 'அல்லவா' ங்கறது அஃறிணை சொல் இல்ல ?"; "அட விடுங்க, அவரே இப்பத்தான் பொருந்தப் பேசறாரு!" :P

3(?) Versions

There are three versions to a story : Your, Mine and the truth

is probably the most contrived line of thought I have come across in life.

Society and the Two Houses

Happened to read this today and it brought me a remembrance of a question raised in a not-so-intellectual forum, which goes like this :

Is Hindi the national language of India? if or if not, can some one quote relevant section of Indian Penal Code to back their claim?

The one who raised the question had definitely passed high-school and perhaps, was on the verge of securing a bachelors degree, if not he already had one. With the state of knowledge on the 'State' of an average person, identified as an educated, it wouldn't be fair to expect public support to a Judicial activist.

But, it has been, in history, a consistent mistake by those who (atleast think that they)belong to the Upper house of the parliamentary democracy, to expect the general public to be aligned with their lines of rationalism. So said, as a rule of thumb, there has always been some amongst the members of the upper house, who have a large public support, and vice-versa, and they are those who bring an apparent togetherness to democracy.

So, instead of the unparalleled(?) gathering of the urban youth, the IAC managed to achieve and thereby pulling media support to paralyse just the head (I should just say Hat), had they directed a mission 'Bombard with RTI', filing hundereds of RTI petitions in each office, right from a Village Panchayat to the Collectorate to the Secratariat, they could have paralysed the entire State of India without the help of the media. It is not a very unreasonable ask, for there have been buyers for a mockery of a missed call campaign, and facebook activism, there would definitely have been at least a 100, for every pincode all over India, for this. As Sri Navamani Murugan (former IAS) said, even with 10 Cabinet dissolutions in as many years, the state can continue to function efficiently, IF the administration stays unaffected.

If you can gather just 100 people, with the cost of buying 100 candles, you can very well strip your local EB fellow and choke him to get your local transformer put to order.

There is a Upper house in everybody.

Learning 101

Knowledge is gained by knowing something; Wisdom, by arriving at a conclusion after analysing what is already known, using your rationale or listening to the views of others. Most people, I find, these days try doing the second part first, and think that the conclusion they have arrived to, indeed, is knowledge.

Had people been taught to follow the line above, there would have been far less "andhar-baltis" on this IAC issue :P

srIjayanti nirNayam

It is a privilege to share a really useful posting on srIjayanti nirNayam by NS Parthasarathy Bhattachar of Triplicane.

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Sriramajayam

All sampradayas are correct in their view. So, one should follow any one of these which is in his ancestors' way. Janmashtami is on sunday. Smarthas north indians and almost all south indians perform Srijayanthi on sunday. Main Criteria is ashtami should prevail during midnight. So, as on sunday at midnight ashtami is there so janmashtami is on sunday. at Mathura and through out India Janmashtami (Srikrishna's birth day) is on sunday.

Regarding Srivaishnava culture, there are three types All are correct in their way.

1. Srivaikhansasrijayanthi:- There are two vachanams in sasthra. 

 a. one is Ashtami should prevail during midnight and srivaikhanasa sampradayam favours ashtami vyapthi as janmashtami.

b. and srivaikhanasas' second is If sapthami is there during early morning or prevails through out the day b4 evening, night or midnight and if ashtami comes b4 evening, night or 12 midnight and 12 midnight enters with ashtami, then that day is not favoured as that day has sapthami vedhai dhosham. so, if we perform on monday thats also correct acc. to srivaikhanasasastras.

c. but as sampradaya favours ashtami in midnight (thithipradhanyam) sunday is more apt.

At tirumala and other vaikhanasa shrines and vaikhanasa households, this year srijayanthi is on sunday 21.08.11 night.

2. Munithrayasrijayanthi:- If sapthami is there during early morning or prevails through out the day b4 evening, night or midnight and if ashtami comes b4 evening, night or 12 midnight and 12 midnight enters with ashtami, then that day is not favoured as that day has sapthami vedhai dhosham. so, this munitraya sampradaya is also correct. we cannot underestimate this. This is also to be hailed.

Munithrayasrijayanthi is on 22.8.11 monday.

3. Pancharathrasrijayanthi:- If Kruthika is there during early morning or prevails through out the day b4 evening, night or midnight and if Rohini comes b4 evening, night or 12 midnight and 12 midnight enters with Rohini, then that day is not favoured as that day has Kruthika vedhai dhosham. so, this Pancharathra sampradaya is correct in their view.(Nakshathrapradhanyam) This is also to be hailed. At srirangam and other Pancharathra shrines, Srijayanthi is followed on tuesday 23.8.11 this year acc. to above lines.

Comments / suggestions / questions are welcome.

-- 

SriVaikhanasaBhagawatSastraBhaskara,  

 SriVaikhanasaAgamaRathnakara, 

SriVaikhanasaSevaRathnam, 

  SriVaikhanasaKulapati

N.S.Parthasarathy Bhattacharyar

Vice president, South Indian Vaikhanasa Archakas' Association

Secretary, SriVaikhanasa Archaka Seva Sangam

Archakar, SriParthasarathySwamyTemple, Thiruvallikeni

PradhanaAdhyapaka, SriVaikhanasa Bhagawat Sasthra Patasala

Editor, 'Srivaikhanasam' Monthly magazine.


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Added later: A more general and elaborate reading on the comparison between mannAr swAmi's and maNapAkkam kidAmbi tOzhappar's jayanti nirNayam
SriJayanthi-Janmasthami


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Note: These details are for those who fast(atleast attempt at fasting) in the day-time and bathe in the evening and perform SriJayanthi araadhanam in the night (vrashaba lagnam), following it with their respective practise of taking pAraNai.

28,000

Yesterday, there was all that ruckus in twitter about Rs.28,000. 10 grams of spot Gold touched that price and all the 'non-Indian' Indians, who have scorn for the 'Indian' Indian sentiment for gold were in some hurry to show a mockery of shock or surprise in every possible social media.

I was waiting to talk to my mom, who always wished one of her sons was a daughter (don't try guessing which one :P), to ask her if she still wished so :-). And when I spoke, she responded with a marked smugness "wouldn't I already have saved enough in gold already? Even at not having a daughter, the DIL's are due to get 10 sovereigns and a diamond ear-stud each, at the wedding" !

Next Nobel laureate in economics must be for the one who writes the best thesis on Indian middle-class-housewives idea of economics :D

On What Avani-Avittam is and is NOT!

It has been a while since I had to only 'e-live' in India, and all these years I get to see greetings like "Happy Avani Avittam". But this backdates even further, during my days in India where I get to see neighbours and relatives asking "Poonal maathiyaacha?". Don't take me wrong, but it is really depressing to be in know of facts when all around you prefer being shallow about it.

A brahmachari is not just an unwed boy with upaveetham (poonal i.e., post upanayanam). He is (assumed to be) a learner of the specific shAkai of vEdam prescribed for his gOtram; TaitrIya-shAkai of krsnayajurvEdam in my case. His vEdArambam is on his upanayanam day for the first year, and from the subsequent years, the adyayanam (learning) period starts on Pournami day of Kataka mAsam and ends on Ammavasai of Makara mAsam. There are days of Ammavasai, grahanam and some other miscelleneous occassions when the adyayanam is prohibited, within the learning period.

But in the quest to finish his quota for the year, the boy may jump the limits and continue learning a bit further than the stipulated end-date, and there may be a few lapses in-between. Before starting his term the following year, he is expected to perform upAkarma, when he chants a mantra a good number of times as a prAyaschittam for the above lapses. To perform the prAyaschitta japam, he needs to change his upaveetham, mounji and deerskin.

[During the anadyayana period (Makara Ammavasai till Kataka Pournami), the boy is expected to devote himself to learning of the vEdAngAs : sikshA, vyAkaranam, niruktam, chandas, jyotisham and kalpam]

In the sankalpam for upAkarma, the main sankalpam will be to the adyAyOtsar~jana akaraNa prAyaschitta japam and adyAyOpakarma (starting a new term), for which, the changing of upaveetham (with mounji, etc.) is an angam, an angam for which is shaving and bathing. Since the changing of upaveetham on this day has a special karma attached to it, one may choose to mark the day with it. But in general sense, asking a brahmin male, whether he has changed(see note: 4) his upaveetham, is only as good as asking if he has bathed!

To Girls : If you really have the guts, greet your male relatives and friends who have had upanayanam done : "may your Sandyavandanam be in routine without lapses for the next year". Let's see how many would actually pick up the habit, to save themselves from this (otherwise) embarrassing greet, the next year :-)

Note:

1) Performing daily sandyavandanam is a part and essential requirement of the daily learning in the adayayana and anadyayana period. Even lapses in performance of sandayavandanam is covered in the upAkarma.

2) For one who has finished learning, it becomes a duty to recite atleast one full prasna, from the learned shAkai, everyday as brahma-yagnam without fail. Due to time constriants, the (required)one full prasna may get reduced to one sUktam or one mantram, which still are accounted as lapses that are to be compensated (begged pardon for), for such sins not to hinder one's further quests in vaidIka-karma.

3) The point 1 & 2 extends to gruhastAs.

4) Upaveetham can be changed at will, any day, depending on the need. It needs to be changed everytime one has sarvAnga shave on the face and head from a barber. Also, changing may be of need if there is a special karma like homam or srAddam is performed by the kartA.

Aani Anusham

ஸ்ரீமந் நாதமுனிகள் திருவாக்கு : "குளப்படியில் மழை பெய்தால் குருவி குடித்துப்போம். வீராணத்தில் மழை பெய்தால் நாடெல்லாம் விளையும்."

லௌகீகத்தில் இருப்போருள், பொன்னியின் செல்வன் வாசித்தோருக்கு பொருள் விளங்கும் :-)

அடியேனுக்கு சென்ற வருடம் ஆனி அனுஷத் திருநாளன்று திருமயிலையில் உற்சவத்தை சேவிக்க இருந்த கொடுப்பினை இந்த வருடம் ஏற்படவில்லை :(

When the 31st tooth causes pain

It has been a couple of years, since I learnt to keep it to self, untill it becomes absolutely neccessary to open the mouth. By that, I have managed to save myself from the un-productive and often counter-productive arguements that I used to run into.

There was one arguement that I raised, three years back I suppose, when a person made a claim that Hindi was the mutated, simplified and modernised version of Sanskrit. I got real serious into explaining how Hindi fundamentally was different from Sanskrit, be it in the deviation in grammar, pronunciation and etymology (vyAkaraNa, swara and niruktam), and how it was far away from any original Indian language, only enjoying borrowed vocabulary from Sanskrit with nothing alike in structure. I even managed to elaborate through three examples. When I got in return, this:

"You are giving examples with proper-nouns, and a proper-noun can be pronunced or spelt anyway we want to",

I was seriously taken aback. In my knowledge and understanding from the elementary level, the freedom to pronunce or spell a proper-noun was an allowance given in the grammar of English language. Since when did that become a Universal Fact ?, I wondered. I gave the above reply and withdrew myself from the scene, there. But it took me back years, quite a number of years that is.

I believe it was my 3rd class in school, and in the exam hall, I was seated next to a girl from the 1st std class. I had finished my exam well within time (as always!), and was peeping into that girl's paper. It was her Science exam, and I suppose she had a question about 'Food and clothing habits of Earlyman', and she was answering it ".... when Tom spilt milk from the Bess's bottle, Bess was very sad. She started crying ....."**.

I got really disturbed with that, and hissed to her

"nee ezhudardhu english!" and she replied "naan mattum enna tamizh'na sonnen?"

I didn't realise then, that I will live one day to see that some people just grow old and not up!

**There was a short story in English Prose on Tom and Bess, in which Tom spills Bess's milk and apologises and shares with her, milk from his bottle. It was a lesson to teach to say sorry and share your belongings with friends. :P

Speed!

Quite a few times I have heard scholars quoting HH Mukkur Azhagiasingar's funny remark about standards of speed "Vaayu vEgam!, manO vEgam!, sandyAvandana vEgam!.." (ofcourse. in ascending order :D). Fortunately, American ads for drugs(medicinal ;0)) and investment, have a "disclaimer" that a hired specialist reads out at an unbelievable pace, beats the sandyAvandana vEgam handsomely! :P

Now when the disclaimer vEgam has claimed its status atop, I happened to see an advertisement (Indian - Tamil) from Sundaram-Mutual, where the disclaimer is read (not-verbatim) 'Mutual fund investements are subject to market risks' at a hearable pace. Such is the sincerity of the TVS family in upholding HH's doctrine, keeping sandyAvandanam atop! ;-)

#TVS - Where the word Ethics still has the meaning what is supposed to mean

PS : Author will be grateful to someone, who'd post a video clip of that ad. here.

Definitions - 2

A Fact is an opinion which is 'generally' believed to be 'widely' agreed with.

An Opinion is a fact that is found to be amidst conflict 'most of the time'.

Conclusion: We all can have our own opinion on facts!

Inference: You Fail - I Fail. Together, as collective failures, we can achieve World Peace.

Verdict: Welcome to Post-Modern Intellegentia !!

#People-capable-of-driving-even-me-nuts
#virtuouso-stupid

Gounder's Counter - 1

பொம்பளைங்க காதலத்தான் நம்பிவிடாதே.. நம்பிவிடாதே..

நம்பியதால் நொந்து மனம் வெம்பிவிடாதே.. வெம்பிவிடாதே..

....

....

பெண்ணுக்கு தாஜ்மகால் கட்டிவெச்சான்டா

எவளாச்சும் ஒரு செங்கல் நட்டுவெச்சாளா?

Gounder's Counter: அடேய் டபரா தலையா! தாஜ்மகால் கட்டர அளவுக்கு அவுங்க வொர்த்து! ஒரு செங்கலுக்காச்சும் நீ வொர்த்தா? இதெல்லாம் யோசிக்கர்து இல்லையாப்பா?

[Note: Inspired from Rukmini Sandesam... yea, this is one neecha upamAnam, but still... ;-) ]

Definitions - 1

Education : is the one that entitles a person to own a house within a 3 mile radius of Mylapore, and that empowers him to read the morning newspaper regularly and utter the phrase "This country will never prosper" before sipping his morning filter coffee (without even having the courtesy to pour it into his mouth)

10 Things about being braught up as a South-Madras Middle-Class kid

1)

You get to have an extended childhood, upto early 17. Till then, you have the privilege to get slapped for your mischieves in front of about a half a dozen till about 14 and behind closed doors after that, at home and school (not sure of the closed-doors thing with the later ;-) )

2)

You tend to get more possessive of your paatti than any other person in your life; being envious of a cousin with whom she had to stay for a while. You also strike a deal with your friends to borrow their granny for an afternoon tale when your's is away, with a promise that your Paatti will have a fresh new tale to tell them too, when she is back.

3)

A Cold war that has picked up, for your group chose to live with a cricket bat and bruises in elbows and knees, while the other half took a comb to groom their Barbie dolls and their little Ponies, does get a temperory patch up during Navaratri, when they shed a little of their ego to light up your girl-child-less home with their colourful presence. Not to deny your part of shedding the ego in the tolerance you show towards the "thaenja-record" singing of 'vara veeNA' and 'rAravENu gOpApAlA' :P

4)

I remember, most of my daily wear that I put on to go to play, had buttons stitched in 4 different coloured threads; also the shorts with some mending, for not that we can't afford or take more care on looks, but for it was decided to be enough. These things change at 17! And quite a drastic change will that be.

5)

The apartment/street association meetings will be so acrimonious that women and children are generally forbidden from being in the vicinity. Nevertheless, such animosity which ought to have warranted no eye-to-eye greetings amongst our Dad's, will all subside for their children play together. We were the peace-ambassadors unaware :-)

6)

We make challenges about being the first to burst on the Deepavali morning. It started off with a 5am Redfort, then to 4:45 Redfort Giant, then to a 150 wala at 4:15 and finally to a bullet bomb at 4. I am an unbeaten(able) champ you see! B-)

Poor Appa!, had to get up 15mins ahead of my (challenged)schedule and get the cracker ready with the thread pinched and agarbathi light, to wake the VIP up to go royally escorted to win the challenge :P

7)

You can't help but to live with the build-up around, when you reach that stage in life, the stage of being in 10th grade (Matriculation or Secondary School). You would be forced to buy the story that you will end up feeling guilty of not actually feeling the pressure. I just couldn't resist, and went out to play the evening before my Mathematics-II exam. I still wonder, how many of the households saw me as a maverick then, lest they would know I scored a 97+ in that exam ;-)

8)

Once you complete school, even before you reveal the results to your neighbours, you will be surprised to see that a person, whom you had thought had no connection with you, knows exactly what you have scored and would have a list of suggestions to make, on what you should do further!. But Beware! Beware of all the 40+ people. Society will have a planned Tsunami attack on you. If you manage to escape the wave, you will actually have a life. You have one example... in Me!

9)

When I said extended childhood, one need not panic. Your teen typically starts at 17 and goes on till 24: So nothing is lost. You can get the signs of your Teen-age when you dare to give up your street cricket for watching a live telecast on TV :P. You will have occassional rumours and news about incidents of romance and romantic pursuits and more of that what has gone wrong, but you seldom feel the pressure of remaining single, for your close associates, who still are associates, have all been losers as you are :D

10)

Elders talk a lot to you, especially in your Teens (17-24 in this case, for a reminder). They think, it is their responsibility to transfer their wisdom to you, by all the talking they do. Listen to them. Atleast I did! When you reflect on what they told a few years later, you would have learnt a lot from them, not from what they thought had taught, but from what they Inspired!

God Save Them! :-)

Perhaps the most shared video among the Tamil Speaking, yesterday

Borrowing words(not exact) from Sreekrishnan, 'Master! oru coffee: extra strong with double decoction; and hanh!... sugar konjam kammi'

Thank Goodness, I am saved!

[Note: 'Goodness' is not a name of any person. (I know! that was a bad/sad one :P)]

Where is your Eye-Dee Card?

A couple of weeks ago, my mom had the company of ONGC'aathu maami to go to some function at BSNL Aunty's, when she got to know that the boy in SBI'aahm got his US-visa rejected twice already. I was zapped!; and went about thinking who am I? - The Bank of Baroda'aathu periya payyan?.

People, especially middle-class ones, give rather too much importance to their ID cards. I have heard quite a few saying 'their daughter is happily(?) married to a software professional'. Well, to my knowledge, say TCS employs about 1.2 lakh lot, and assuming atleast 70% of male population in it; hasn't their Son-in-law got an identity beyond that?

In the case of my family and quite a number of them in our locality for that matter, were originally from the city (most likely South Madras), and moved to the sub-urbs for the dreams of the Heads of the respective families to live in an independant house. We all settled in slowly and got acquainted to each other. At first we were known by the name of the organisation the HOF worked for. About a half of them had retired before moving in and a half of the rest now have now retired from service in the 6years that has passed, but the original tag stays on. Wonder why? Did I mention South Madras?... Well, then, none of them would have had more than 5 good things to tell about their workplace, but still would retain the name, but for, it is not they themselves who identify themselves with it, rather the identity is imposed by their neighbours on them.

This tagging goes further, to matrimony. If one looks at the modern day wedding-cards, traditional phrases like "ubhaya kucalObari", "wedding arranged for by elders with Bagawat Sankalpam and/or acharya katAksham" all have gone into fineprint. Only the list of degrees earned by the Groom and Bride, and if the institute happens to be some top-tier(?) one, gets bold fonts, position in the firm they work, etc, find prominence. It does not stop with theirs, for the Sambandis also get a chance to throw their weight all over the place, while lest one has been observent of a "SriRamajayam" or a "SrimathE Ramanujaya Namah:" that has gone missing.

Also, I happened to hear an interesting proposition to my friend's mom : "I heard your daughter works for Microsoft, my son is with IBM; I was wondering......" :P What next? ID-cards have matched ahead of their Horoscopes ?

Coming back to what am I called as... happened to know that the main road vendors(the natives btw) refer to me as "despite-being-US-return-dothi-clad-boy-who-sports-naamam-allthetime". Honoured indeed! So, the need for tinkering is only for the invading South-Madras-Middle-Class and not the locality, then.

Passenger - THE Story and then THE Movie (Malayalam, 2009)

I am not drawn into any kind of sibling bug*, but, this indeed is a movie review.

Passenger is a kind of story that gets overshadowed by a larger-than-life flick like A Wednesday. We all will certainly agree that A Wednesday cannot come, is not going to come and will never come. But we can be a Passenger every day, or atleast a day every week - say every Wednesday.

I remember when Director Shankar was asked the question, soon after the release of Anniyan (##), if he was playing it safe with his usual "Cleansing of the Society" story after the Boys debacle?. He replied saying Anniyan was his biggest risk, for all his previous films had a Macro issue to counter coupled with personal vengence, while Anniyan targeted seemingly trivial issues that reflected lack of personal integrity** and responsibility in the individuals, which has eventually lead the society they form, into an irresponsible society with practically lost integrity.

Our story has two heros. One, hero of the story - Advocate Nanthan Menon, who actually is a Hero. Such Heros do exist even today, but we can't get close to them. Let them better stay where they belong. His wife is a TV journalist who is covering a special story that was rocking the state politics at that time, while Nanthan was fighting a related litigation in Court.

The second one is our Passenger Mr. Sathyanathan, who is the running character of the plot. Sathyanathan is a guy-next-seat salaried-middle-class person who is among million daily commuters by train, whose biological clock is rooted to his daily routine. He is a person with integrity and social responsibility, but not by any means an-activist kind, but with a motivation to do his might to do something about a problem that irks his eyes.

One day, he decides to break his routine to work over-time at office for having applied to take leave on the next day, manages to catch a later train home. His bio-clock fails him as he misses his station and happens to meet Advocate Menon, his fellow passenger. They part close to midnight, when Sathyanathan witnesses something Big. What our Passenger does for the next 16 hours, from what he thinks is the best for the situation, forms the story.

All of us, who are grateful to have had good parenting and been braught up with values, are expected in the society to be like Sathyanathan. But we all need a push to become one at some point of time. We do face situations, situations that brings out an urge to do something, but more often that not we try to supress the rush-of-blood with the word 'fear', like the Station Master in this story. In most cases, like the Taxi Driver, it is the lack of self-belief and a feeling that we are trivial entities to contribute anything significant to this large society, that stops one from doing what is right. We all are caught between this Station Master and the Taxi driver. It is when one manages to cross these two barriers, a Sathyanathan comes out.

The story is about evolution of character of a person in a matter of hours. Sathyanathan who still hasn't conquered fear, dares risking his life, when he gets a stimulus upon understanding the gravity of the situation after meeting Anuradha Menon, and the Taxi driver steps out of his shackles on seeing his Passenger's motivation.

The movie, runs for about 115 mins, is well scripted and filmed with a gripping pace in narration. The director has done his work in including subtleties in a middle-class household and camarderie between cummuter friends to keep the script tight and natural. The parting words from the Taxi Driver took me back to Rashomon's Monk. And, for one negative point in the film - The courtroom scene was too shallow and was not essential. The director could have done with a corridor conversation after the hearing.

Sreenivasan and Dileep, as the lead artists, are brilliant, Sreenivasan in particular, after having witnessed his annoying performance in Bhargava Charitram, was relieved to watch him in this one and Oru naaL Varum. His latest flick Traffic is supposedly good; equally good. Dileep, I fear is on the verge of becoming another Suresh Gopi when it comes to playing stereotypical roles, but this was very well underplayed. If you need a frowning worried old-man, you have Nedumudi Venu, as the Taxi Driver. In my opinion, only Prakash Raj has a wider variety and ease in acting than Venu. It was heartening to see Mamta Mohandas cast in a worthy role, but disheartening that she had King and Kedi releasing after this :P. Jagathy was adequate and I am happy that Tilakan was not slotted in his place.

* The Author's kid-brother is a guest reviewer at Claps&Boos ;-)

** Integrity may find many meanings in different readings, but my personal definition would be the inwardly-honesty in a person. Every person will have his own framework for rights & wrongs. It is when a person commits something he conciously believes is wrong, and has a twinge in his heart in doing so, he is still a person with integrity, but not brazen to stand by his values.

## I am not a big fan of Anniyan. To me, it was a Painting made on the canvas called Vidathu Karuppu, by brushing Primal Fear paint over SE7EN sketch.