Category: Food For Soul

The kids of ’70s and ’80mes couldn’t have missed her metallic voice: L R Eashwari. For years I found it difficult to believe she was born a Christian very much like K J Yesudas who got synonymous with Aiyappa bhakthi songs the very same way. KJ Yesudas’s ‘Harivarasanam’ still is No.1 chartbuster when it comes to Sabarimala season. Followed by Veeramani in Tamil Nadu who came up with his own Aiyappa songs such as ‘Bhagawan sharanam’ and ‘Pallikattu Sabarimalaikku’ we knew the months of Karthika to Margazhi with the flavour of the season. L R Eashwari blared from every loudspeaker loud and clear in every single street of Chennai that came alive with the month of Aadi. I am talking about the times when we were spared the Aadi sale by Kumaran, Nalli to Ratna Fan House and Vasanth & Co. Its not that these folky singers got to us with their boomeranging voices, there just was something about their bhakthi element that got embedded into the songs they sang. Listening to them thirty to forty years later, I still feel the goosebumps when they invoke for me my favourite deities. So far as we Hindus are concerned, our local deity or Kaval deivam or the Kula deivam has a significant place in our worship over even the Shiva Vishnu family. Which is why Bodyguard Muneeshwara sees the devotees turning up with their newly registered cars for Car puja! Every street in the Kanchipuram-Chennai districts comes alive in the month of Aadi reverberating with the L R Eashwari Mariaamma songs. Aadi is from mid July to mid August. Some Tamil communities prepare the koozh (porridge) with pearl millets and water it down with curd and onions and distribute it to the neighbourhood and the street Amman temple. The koozh or the millet porridge coming by the end of summer when normally epidemics such as measles may emerge, scientifically helps by cooling overheated bodies. The koozh is supplemented with Murungai keerai, the greens from the drumstick tree which is enriched with vitamins and minerals. So Aadi has relevance for this reason to be observed with such a religiosity by our masses. Needless to say, it is difficult NOT to spot at least a small chapel like temple dedicated to either Lord Ganesha or Ambal in Chennai. Temples take turns in organizing in-home Koozh collection and distribution days (usually a sunday) and ensure that there is a perennial supply of koozh every weekend that way for at least two months. With its medical and cooling benefits, the koozh cannot come at a more precise time. We had this koozh tradition in my parents’ side. We made the vegetarian Koozh and we poured buckets into the common collection at the temple. We also gave away jugs to our neighbours. Of course, everything stopped with my mother’s untimely demise. My in-laws are from Arni and they have never had any Aadi tradition! Looks like Aadi is so sensational only to us Chennaivasis. Anyway I miss the Aadi maasam in Chennai. Right on day one every year, my househelp excuses herself for an hour as she carries ‘Paalkudam’ for Ambal on her head. She even attempted firewalking once. An ardent Durga devotee, she has been doing the Rahu kaala puja for over twenty years now (on my advice, who else’s?!). Her children are now graduates, she has progressed economically and is doing well. Aadi for me means, preparing the sweet jaggery pongal and distributing it to devotees in temples. I used to prepare the jaggery pongal in my next street Vembuli Amman temple premises and then Mundagakanni Amman temple premises in Mylapore. For years I did it but in last five to six years, I find no energy to do it in the temple. So now I make the pongal at home and take it to the temples for Archana alone. Fridays and tuesdays mean Diya puja for me for over 20 years now with Lalitha Sahasranama recitation. The recitation started over 30 years ago. Now fridays have come to mean also Soundarya Lahari and parts of Devi Mahatmyam if time and energy levels permit. Taking a break from the ritualic Diya puja here for lack of facilities but the chantings go on. Of course as per Arni customs, we have Kuladeivam puja on an Aadi friday at home when we also do kind of Sumangali worship (Poovadaikari) (women ancestors who died sumanglis in our family) and Kanni (for the children departed too early in the family line). I have been blessed to see the Poovadaikari pudavai (sari), a cotton one preserved in a clay pot for generations spanning over 200 years in my father-in-law’s family with such a reverence. The family tree can be traced back by ten generations at least. Yearly thrice the pot is kept in view for the family guests: for Aadi friday Kuladeivam puja, for Deepam and for Mattu Pongal. The women who came in our lineage were Kula Patnis. No dilution of any kind anywhere. Explains why some of us are what we are and how we are even in this 21st century. We consider the matriarchs equal to Mother Goddess. One of the Aadi fridays also mostly will have Varalakshmi Vratham but it looks like this year, everything has gone for a toss. We have the occasion coming up a bit later, in August. Aadi Pooram is the bangling ceremony for Mother goddess who we assume is pregnant! Very special for Aandal in Perumal temples as well. As much as I can, i try to get Ambal some bangles on this day. We in our local street temple organize a small function for women who are trying to get pregnant. We observe ‘mock’ ‘valaikaappu seemantham’ for them and bangle them up in front of Ambal. Many have returned with babies within an year or two. Its such an emotional moment – doing the nalangu (haldi kumkum ceremony) for these young married ladies. Its a privilege being invited to bless these women. I as a grandmother and coming in the Arni line of matriarchs have my share of responsbilities. Aadi is a very sacred month and from this month the Tamil Hindu calendar starts getting busiest. Non stop pujas at home, back to back at times. My mother observed Varalakshmi vratham (and Gowri Kedara vratham on Diwali day) as well but these vrathams stopped for us with her. Yet they are special to me. They bring back memories because vrathams in our house used to be celebrated very grand. Four short young banana trees would be affixed to a small wooden stool on which would be placed the Kalasam. Trays and trays of fruits and flowers and bakshanams all homemade. In fact the flour used to be ground in a stone chakki at home. We had it until very recently. What I do these days is not even one percent of what my mother or grandmother used to do. But what I cannot do, I try to catch up with my little bhakthi quotient and puja. I think of the years and years when after starting the Aadi friday Diya puja early and completing it on time, I would be rushing to Mylapore. I and my Chithi both would then go to Mundagakkanni amma. We both cooked hot steaming jaggery pongal on our own bronze/copper pots within the temple premises on woodfire or using the cowdung cakes as fuel. Water we would draw from the temple well! We would have darshan by 2 or 2.30 in the noon. I would be famished because without offering Pongal to Mother goddess, I wouldn’t eat. I survived on coffees four or five in those days. But when we would finally distribute the prasad and return home, my heart would swell with such a sense of fulfillment. Cooking for Mundagakkanni is very important to me. My life mission. Before returning to my in-laws, when my son was just 1.5 months old, I first placed him on Her lap. Every baby born in our family has the first outing to Mundagakanni Amman temple only. Even I was placed in Her bosom by my mother when I was hardly one month I believe. I miss the Mariammas of our streets. As much as I may perform the rituals, recite the mantras, chant the slokas, I must say I also feel equally drawn to our rural or village deities who are deemed powerful – the kaval deivam, the Ellaisamy, the Aiyanar, the Kula deivam etc. Our Kula deivam in Arni is some 30 km away from the town – in the middle of an agricultural field in a village. Access was through farm lands only on ‘othai adi paadhai’ (by foot) – only now they have secured the place with a compound wall on three sides. There under the Neem and Peepal trees are our Kula deivams. There is aslo Muneeshwara, the protector of children closeby. The magnetic pull and aura of our rural deities can be awesome. First of all we picture our ancestors standing right at that spot some 150-200 years back. I feel emotionally moved. This year anticipating my absence from home base during Aadi, I finished my temple Pongal duties by January (in the month of Thai) itself. Thai (mid Jan to mid Feb) is also an auspicious month when most Tamil Hindu marriages take place. If possible I try to visit Mangadu, Thiruverkadu, Vadivudaiamman temple and of course Kapali temple and Perumal temple (for Aadi Pooram) in the month of Aadi. In our street temple, we have a ‘Dhandumari’ but as She shares the space with Shiva (the presiding deity of the temple), we have no ritual of ‘koozh.’ Instead we have ‘Kanji’ made with broken rice and a spicy mixed vegetable Vatha kozhambu. Its a hit with the street people. I look forward to Temple food always. Its the biggest blessing to eat what Mother gives you. Like, once I was asking my Mother goddess, why I never had a mother’s home to go and eat. Next week I was in Chottanikkara in Kerala. The archakas asked me and my friend to have lunch in the temple. We were just in time. We had had an awesome unbelievable and leisurely darshan of Bhagawathi. It was only two days I guess since I asked that question to Mother in my Puja. In fact I verbalized my question aloud. When we ate at the temple seated with the general janata, I was overwhelmed with tears and my friend squeezed my hands. I don’t need a biological mother to invite me home or give me lunch. I have eaten at the Sharadha temple, Sringeri. So what if I have not cooked one square meal for my biological mother who never lived to eat out of my hands, from my kitchen, in my dining? I feed Mundagakanni Amma. I feed Vembuli amma, Kolathamma with my jaggery Pongal. I am feeding the Universal Mother for years now. What more to ask for. By the way the meal at the Bhagawathy temple at Chottanikkara was simple but yum. Typical Keralathu Sadya. The Aravana Payasam was impossible! I thought they served it only at Sabarimala. Mother Goddess lives in my heart, etched in my heart. She is my mother and I have a special connection with Her. I reckoned She heard me and invited me home for lunch! I miss being in India now – but I see a greater purpose: I am seeing my Mother goddess is a sweet angelic face here. I see the goodness of my Mother. I see Her choicest blessings. People ask why India is not like China. How can we be? The electric wave of spirituality that sweeps through the Chennai streets in the month of Aadi needs to be witnessed to believe. Our energy is spent on thanking our Mother for what She is to us. A lot of self introspection happens. Self realization takes place. Materialism loses its prime importance at least for a brief while as folks vie with each other to feed the masses. Contributions are generous. Mother brings her children together. She is the Brahman. This is Her holy month. My throat is sore right now because of a cold, but I manage to silently chant as much Her name as possible. Just thinking of Her will suffice. In this special month of Aadi, I am grateful for all the blessings She has bestowed upon me, for I know I am far well placed than a vast majority of human race. I have no complaints absolutely. READY TO GO REALLY. If its my time, I am ready mentally. With or without me the world and my family will go on. To be able to say that, you must be blessed. You must be satiated. Folk form of Hinduism can be enchanting – this is taking down your faith to the grassroots where you can see the raw unadorned bhakthi that cannot be seen in elite Yagnas performed even in Agama temples. This kind of intense bhakthi grips me totally – the unshaken faith, as I see in my househelp. Her kind of devotion, i will never be capable of in a thousand years. I heard of their practice of anointing ‘vibhuti kumkum’ after cleansing every single step when climbing the Tirumala hills on foot. After that they would go for Dharma darshan and be out in flat one hour. I think of the time we the so-called well-offs spend in queues. God has a way of honouring this clean rustic earthy bhakthi that insists on no mantra recitation or the ritualistic puja. All that matters is, YOU HAVE THE HEART. This post of mine will be incomplete without the mention of the Aadi cultural scene. Karagam and Pulivesham are the highlights although they are fast losing out to entertainment shows of modern day. This is one long story that is better googled.