From my kitchen and from my Bookshelf

Here is a picture of our breakfast two days ago - fresh tapioca from our backyard. No chemical fertilizers or pesticides were used to produce these tubers. What the heck, we did little other than paying for planting the tapioca cuttings! 10 months later, we are reaping the benefits! 

Did you know that tapioca was first introduced to Kerala by a Travancore king? Sri Visakhom Tirunal Rama Varma (ruled 1880-1885) brought the tuber to Kerala in an effort to alleviate the famines caused by frequent paddy crop failure. Paddy must be one of the most fragile of crops - the least drought or unseasonable rain spells its doom as we all know. So tapioca was a big boon to people at that time.

Which brings me to one of the books I am reading right now - I got this historical titbit from "The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple" written by Aswathi Tirunal Gowri Lakshmibai. I did not know that there was a such a book until some photographs from it began appearing in the newspapers in connection with recent events. The next time I went to the temple, I asked the staff about the book and got the astonishing answer that there was a counter in the temple itself exclusively for the Malayalam and English editions of the book! You can imagine I didn't lose much time in getting a copy. I bought the Malayalam edition, translated from the original English one by K. Sankaran Namboothiri and K. Jayakumar.

The book makes for some heavy reading, combining mythology, history, arcane religious symbolism and religious philosophy all together in one volume, in very ornate language resembling nineteenth century English novels. It starts with the origin of the temple and makes informed guesses regarding the founder and the founding according to which the temple could be anywhere from 5000 years old. Of course, the present grand form was the contribution of Sri Anizham Tirunal Marthanda Varma whose reign marked the entry of Travancore into the modern age. The author bases her work on several earlier scholarly works, but mainly on the biggest treasure (according to historians!) of the temple. These are the Mathilakam Rekhakal - the thousands of precious palm-leaf scrolls that form the "log book" of the temple since ancient times and have inadvertently become a history book of sorts in a country notorious for its mostly oral historical traditions. Remember studying in school that we have had to learn about the great Indian emperors of yore from the accounts of Chinese, Persian or European travelers? These same scrolls have served Dr. RP Raja (New Light on Swathi Tirunal) when the very existence of Swathi Tirunal was questioned in a writ filed in the High Court in Chennai. Since the temple was intimately connected with the royal family, temple history is also the history of the tiny kingdom. I would say that the temple has had some measure of peace in the post-Independence era as it seems to have been a hotbed of intrigue and power struggles before that.

History aside, the book is valuable in its description of the huge temple itself. I have been there several times and still the descriptions of  many of the rituals and minor deities are new to me. To any uninformed first-time visitor, the temple would be a total puzzle. I remember my first visit in 1996 while I was a student in Thiruvananthapuram. I couldn't make out the proper exit from the inner temple, so I ended up doing a counter-clockwise circumambulation, which is considered sacrilegious! Thankfully, since then I have learned to ask the very helpful temple staff for help when in doubt. The elaborate offerings, traditions and festivities of the temple are laid down clearly in the book and make for fascinating reading, although they must be a real headache to implement. I imagine only the British sovereign family and the Vatican must have more elaborate protocol.

 

The author takes on a lot in the book - she has to play impartial historian while being a passionate devotee of the deity and being absolutely devoted to her own family which has played the central role in the fortunes of both the state and the temple. I find it interesting that she has let the historian in her be frank about some of her ancestors - stating mildly that they were occasionally not as capable as they should have been in ruling the state or the temple affairs. Since the book is about the temple, the historical portions are as brief as can be made and she apologizes in several places for mentioning the rulers - the profuse apologies become tiresome after a bit! She could've just mentioned it in the Introduction and then left it out altogether. There are photographs of the temple's seevelippura, the kulasekhara mandapam and some of the murals - not available elsewhere since photography is not allowed in the temple.

All in all, it is an excellent study of the iconic temple, a concise textbook of Travancore history and in light of the controversies of the day, makes you believe that history indeed travels in circles! Take it up when you are in the mood for some serious reading only - don't say that I didn't warn you!!!

Raising children in 1859

What do you do when you are waiting somewhere outside and forgot to bring a book to tide you over? Simple, read an e-book downloaded on your phone! Mind you, I don't buy e-books because I find old classics from Project Gutenberg and copy them in .txt format on to my phone. I occasionally download some books from the nonfiction category too - especially books about the domestic scenes of the times.

The current e-book I'm reading is Trials and Confessions of a Housekeeper by T. S. Arthur. It's a collection of essays pertaining to domestic matters in nineteenth century USA. After several interesting essays about horrible servants, bargain purchases, false economy and such, I came across one regarding the "sacred duties of motherhood". Most of the ideas in there would be dismissed as totally anti-feminist in the present-day world. There is some sound advice like being consistent in disciplining children, how to deal with the whining habit and how only practising what you preach is the only way to inculcate values. What piqued me was the following passage regarding how to deal with a lying child...

"But, impress the child with the truth that a Being is watching these actions, and that though done with the greatest cunning, they cannot be committed with impunity, and it is more than probable that they will never be committed at all ... That child may eagerly pant to perform the forbidden action, or to partake of the forbidden pleasure; but he will not be able to rid himself of the feeling that it cannot be done without being observed. He will stand in a state of anxiety, and steal a glance around, in order to see the Being he feels is looking upon him, and every breeze that murmurs will be a voice to chide him, and every leaf that whistles will seem a footstep, and never will he be able to break the restraint; for wherever he goes and whatever he does, he will feel that his actions are watched by one who will punish the bad and reward the good."

 Hmmm... is that a good idea? In this age of advanced consciousness, I think this is one piece of advice that I would gladly dispense with. Come to think of it, my mom's favorite disciplining tactic was to tell me "Ambotti Kalambum" (meaning God will be displeased) for things ranging from not eating vegetables to being naughty. According to Dr. David Hawkins, thinking of God as a punitive being is equal to having a very low level of consciousness. I wouldn't want my children to be scared of a Big Brothery being peeking at him at all times. When they don't eat veggies, I tell them that unless they do, they are not gonna be as strong as Chotta Bheem/

Superman/Spiderman/whichever hero they are enamored with at that time! :-) For more weighty matters, I try my best to reason it out. When my second grader complains that his friend who copied on his test got full marks, I explain that a test is not a race, that it is only a means to evaluate how much you have learned and to know where you can improve. I also tell him that only real knowledge and not trumped up marks will help in later life and it doesn't matter what you get in tests if you haven't really learned anything. Then I cross my fingers and pray that it is enough. For isn't that what we can really do? We can model good behavior, tell them good things ad nauseam, but how they will behave in the outer world is really out of our control.

What do you tell your children about God? How do you go about disciplining them? Tell me, I really want to know...

Enjoying the rain...

Phew! I thought the rain gods had deserted our district this monsoon. After the first week it was a repeat of the "almost-rain" scene in Lagaan. Thick, thunderous clouds would roll up over us then a strong wind would blow them all up north and drench all the districts north from Kollam with bounteous rain. I had had grand plans for my garden this planting season, but all came to naught - I even had to untie and bring down my trusty watering can which I had hung up in the first week of June! The only rains we had were the sneaky ones that came at midnight and left just a telltale freshness in the morning. It took the birth of Chingom to bring the rains finally to our place. Today the heavens are positively shrouded in grey and it's my favorite color for this season! I've had enough of sunshine, let me enjoy some rain!!!!

Happy New Kollavarsham!

Yesterday, I managed to complete my Adhyatma Ramayana Paarayanam just in time for the new year. This is the 13th or 14th year since I started the practice and I've missed it only once, I think. Every year my handsome, red-bound copy comes out of its year-long hibernation to be dissected into 15-page portions that I set at the beginning of Karkkidakam. I can never stick to that portion because with all my diligence and care, something or the other will happen and I miss reading some days and then have to read huge portions at a stretch, almost destroying my throat in the process.

I love reading the Adhyatma Ramayana, not just as a spiritual practice, but for the opportunity it gives me to enunciate all the beautiful consonants of Malayalam in all possible permutations and combinations. Our day-to-day conversation is limited in its use of the very hard (athikharam) and resonant (ghosham) consonants. Even if they intrude in our daily speech, we soften them so that our speech flows smoothly. In fact, if someone were to enunciate properly while speaking, we would definitely consider him  an oddball or a "language fundamentalist". But I go all out in Karkkidakam and let the ghoshams and athikharams roll off my tongue in all their glory. I can feel them down in my diaphragm when I enunciate and it's a pretty heady feeling!

Obviously, my recital is not musical a la Kaavalam or so slow, because I have to finish reading it all by myself. I concentrate more on getting the pronunciation right and getting the meaning. I have been known to laugh at the funny parts, resulting in people asking me what's so funny in the Ramayana. I have again and again marveled at the knowledge of our sages who have described the growth of a fetus in vitro, down to what development occurs each month it spends in the womb. I marvel at Kumbhakarna's sagacity when he says, "We know that certain things are bad for us, but go ahead and do it anyway. It's because of Karma accrued in previous births" - explains a lot of things like alcoholism and obesity through gluttony, right?

I hate it when the "heroic" monkey warriors have to drag poor Mandodari in to finally interrupt Ravana's meditation. People think that Sita was insulted when Ravan abducted her? They've so got it wrong. Look how well he treated her! He didn't even put pressure on her to stay in his palace, but gave her female guards and put her in the open garden where everyone could see that she was not molested. He only used words of persuasion or threat with her, he made no physical contact whatsoever. And what about Mandodari? 

There is a whole subtext here of offering Sita as bait to initiate genocide with the Aryans on one side and Dravidians on the other, but we will not go into that. Suffice to say, I enjoy reading the poetic rendition of the immortal story so much that I eagerly look forward to reading it every year. I especially enjoy the Sundara Kaandam because the vruththam is so tough that it is a Herculean task to separate the words that are inextricably wound into each other. I absolutely revel in being able to make words out of that aviyal! And the rhythm is so catchy that it is a lot of help in extricating the words too. I always vow that the next time I read the Ramayana, I will have a copy of the Sabdathaaravali by my side to help me with unknown words. Well, I've been saying that for 14 years now, may be this year I shall buy a copy of my own??? Procrastination rules!!!!

Happy New Year!!!!!

For all Malayali foodies out there

I have just been blog-trawling on this quiet Sunday morning before the rest of the pack was up. Blog trawling is one of my favorite activities - I go to my favorite blogs and then trawl through THEIR favorite blog lists opening several windows and tabs in the process. Before my comp was reformatted, I had thus collected more than two hundred blogs, classified and categorized neatly and carefully. Before giving my comp for repairs, I took the opportunity to declutter the list and only wrote down the names of a select few that are my regulars.

Today I found a site that I felt I must share with in the spirit of the Salt n' Pepper. It is Kothiyavunnu.com . As the name suggests, it is mainly a compendium of  Malayali dishes, with added titbits. I was especially taken with the pictures on the home page. I don't have the time to check out individual recipes right now, because if I don't have dosas on the table within the next half hour, only inedible parts of me might be left by the time my family finishes with me. I would certainly not want to deprive y'all of your favorite blog author now, would I? :-)

Wishing you all a happy Sunday! Check out the site and let me know!

Thru another pair of eyes...

Two weeks ago, the a big news item was the income tax department's raid in our two megastars' homes. Has anyone heard about it afterwards? Did they find proofs of tax evasion? Have they been penalized? Who knows or cares?

The reason I brought this up is because of my cleaning lady whom I shall call Chechi. She likes discussing current hot topics with me and I indulge her with salacious titbits of the day when she comes three afternoons a week. Some background info: She is a single mother of three abandoned soon after the third child was born and has been raising her kids alone since then. She started out as a day-laborer and now has several houses now on her roster and spends the whole day going from one house/business to another as cleaning/cooking help.

So, there was Chechi wielding her broom while I was ironing clothes. I told her about the raid and mentioned that a couple of elephant tusks (it doesn't become ivory till it's made into something, right? ) had been found at one place. She did not reply for a while and then she asked, what is wrong in finding those? I explained that it's a contraband item. The next question was, what is it used for? To make curios, of course. Chechi quietly swept the floor for a couple of minutes and then vehemently burst out, "Some people have so much money that they don't  know what to spend it on. Elephant tusks! And here one has to run from one house to another just to make a living."

That gave me a lot of food for thought...

What must she be thinking about my ever-growing book collection???

Movie Review - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

I would like to stand up and mark the passing of a great phenomenon in the publishing and movie industry - viz.,  Harry Potter. HP will continue to live in books and DVDs, but we've been lucky enough to witness the phenomenon live. I was 24 when I borrowed the first two books from the Kottayam Public Library. Unfortunately, I started with the Chamber of Secrets because my sis grabbed the Philosopher's Stone before I could. After returning the library books, I went ahead and bought the two as well as the Prisoner of Azkaban that was already on the stands by the then. Since then I never missed another book. I caught the Goblet of Fire too from Kottayam. I remember getting the Amazon-shipped Order of the Phoenix from the apartment office in Houston - my only American HP! We were back in Mangalore and still staying in a hotel when we went to a bookstore and bought the Half-blood Prince - the store manager had just unpacked it and I was the first one to buy it! That is the first HP I tried to read in installments - I managed to finish it in a day. The Deathly Hallows came to me when we had just come to Thiruvananthapuram and were staying in a rented home, with just a couple of mattresses as furniture. I was totally sick with undiagnosed bronchitis in a viral fever epidemic at the time. That time too I promised myself that I would savor the last HP one chapter a day. But when one is sick, there is little to do - so I finished it in 4 hours. When I then surveyed the HP-less wasteland that was stretching ahead of me, I consoled myself with the movie versions yet to come...

So it was with a beating heart and high expectations that I sat down to see the final movie in the Harry Potter series. On my right I had 4 British youngsters who seemed pretty tickled to be watching the movie at a fraction of the cost they would've had to shell out in their own country. When the screen started glowing, I was in deep mortification for 15 minutes because all the jewellery stores in the area had their ads coming in one after the other. On other occasions, it might just have been a slight nuisance, but I was then watching the rigmarole through foreign eyes!

I think my expectations were too high for this movie. It was a visual treat, but the movie did not convey the pathos, the tragedy and the final sacrifice of Harry giving up the elder wand. But I don't blame the filmmakers for that, the cinematic medium can only hold this much. I also cannot imagine how Hermione and Ron would've allowed Harry to set out to be killed by Voldemort - the book has him stealing away under the Invisibility Cloak and just asking Neville to slay the snake. Fred's death as well as the Lupins' don't touch us the way they did in the book. Dumbledore - the real hero as far as I'm concerned - does not get his final scene as the one in the portrait. All these omissions just marred the movie for me so that it was with a feeling of dissatisfaction that I came out after the screen darkened.

Enough said - I can always read the books!