Musings from India: D-Day!

Its official now - Swami and Niru are man and wife! It's the first big occassion in the family after a very long time and it was a very memorable event for all of us.

Enjoy the snaps from the engagement, reception and the wedding!

Musings from India: Marriage rituals

Listening to elders in the family talk about customs and traditions associated with the pre-marriage rituals tends to blur the lines between the real and the unreal. While my rational part of my mind seeks to find the reasoning, the irrational part chooses to not to sift the lores from the logic.


Leading upto the the marriage, we had several pujas at home, starting with the Sumangali(a woman whose husband is alive, or was alive during her lifetime) puja. This puja is done in honor of the departed Sumangalis from our extended family. On this occassion, the mangalyam ("thaali"), which is to be tied around the bride's neck, is worshipped and blessings are sought to esnure that the new bride and groom have a long married life together. Friday was chosen as it is an auspicious day and our home was filled with floral decorations, delicious food and several relatives and guests.


On Saturday, we had the "Thaluvu" to seek the blessings from Lord Venkateshwara (Vishnu). We started the day early and had a "naamam" painted on our foreheads. As part of the custom, the males in the family need to seek alms (of rice) from the neighbors. This rice is then used to prepare 5 different rice dishes and offered to the Lord. We made tamarind rice, lemon rice, pongal, sweet pongal and curd rice.




Sunday was fun - we had 2 pujas that day. In the morning it was the Maariyaatha puja dedicated to Mariamma, the Goddess of well-being. She is the guardian against illnesses, particularly measles and chicken pox. During summer months when these diseases are most virulent, this Goddess is placated. Villages typically have large gatherings near temples where women make "koozhu" (a semi-solid dish made from boiled rice and ragi) and distribute them. Notice the right-most vessel containing the koozhu alongside with karamani kozhambhu, plantain, kootu, kozhukattai and keerai. Yummy!


Finally, we had the Muneeswara puja in the afternoon. If you drive by the villages, chances are you'd see a large statue of this God at the outskirts. He is a well-built, fearsome looking God with a large mustache and is often seen riding a horse. He is feared as much as He is revered. This nocturnally-active God is supposed to protect people from the things that they fear most, especially at night. Interestingly, unlike other Hindu Gods, people traditionally serve cigars, toddy (an alcoholic drink) and non-vegetarian food as part of the offerings! At our house, it was just the cigars :-) Some of the relatives who were gathered there claimed to have seen Him at nights. I was fascinated to listen to the several first-person accounts about sightings of him at night. It all seemed so unreal.


On a different note, I'm off to Chennai tomorrow morning for the wedding. We're so close to the D-Day. My brother is getting married ... I cannot believe that we've all grown up so quickly and ready to start our own families. The days that we went to school together, played cricket on the streets and fought over the silliest of things seem like yesterday! Time indeed flies ... or rather times fly.

Musings from India: 30 decibels more

Two days into my vacation, I see two different Indias. The dreamy one that I knew as a kid until I left for the US in 2002; the other is a "Wal-mart"-ized India that has burgeoned ever since. In spite of the contrast, the common theme is that everything is atleast 30 decibels more in India when compared to the US :-) Everything around me seems louder now - the traffic, crowds, stores and the crows! My eardrums have been trying hard to re-caliberate their acceptable threshold values.

On a different note, the retailing phenemenon has really taken off in India. Giant stores selling everything from cheap plastic goods to appliances, clothes to condiments, spices to cigarettes ... all under under one roof. It is sad to see this killing the shopping experience - the kind I thoroughly enjoyed during my childhood. A trip to the local grocer meant clutching my dad's hand and walking through the narrow lanes in the bazaar. The sights and sounds were so earthy. One could smell camphor, spices, jasmine, soaps and numerous other aromas drifting in cramped, grimy, dimly-lit one-roomed stores. Dad and mom would hold the grocery list while keeping an eye on the scales and carrying a conversation with the owner. Compare this with rows and rows of crowded shelves, automated weighing machines and the impersonal touch to every transaction!

Sigh, I guess I'm still stuck in microcosm of pre-2002 India. However, the redeeming part of the experience was that the personal touch wasn't completely lost. The sense of community, connectedness and being part of one big family has been one of the country's biggest charm! My local barber recognized me immediately even after all these years and we chatted about old times, family and careers. He still knows how I liked my hair styled. This was followed by a trip to my one-roomed house where we grew up. It brought back memories of my early childhood.



I met my cousin's kids after a very long time. They've grown up so quickly! We hit off really well.



More on the rituals and poojas in my next post ...

Musings from India: The arrival

YES! I've made it on time for the mango season yet again this year ... and it's two good crops in a row! Oh, I forgot all about Swami and Niru's marriage: it's happening on the 17th in Chennai.

The journey this time was comparatively uneventful: no missed connections, delays or missed bags. Mom was mighty pleased that the stars were looking good during this trip when the last one was such a nightmare.

The halt at Singapore was fun - the duty free shops are aplenty, but expensive. It is a very clean city! We had a cruise at the Singapore river where I had a chance to show off my spanking new D40 SLR.

Since I had requested my "welcome dish" well in advance, there were no surprises! Urundai (round) kozhambhu and Malgova mambazham (mango)! Strangely enough I cannot explain either of them to my friends (yes, even some Tamilian ones). Urundai kozhambhu is composed of lentil dumplings dipped in tangy, tamarind-laden sauce. It goes well with plain rice, salt and water (for an even heightened taste, try old rice leftovers). Malgova is a special variety of mangoes that comes from Salem, characterized by it's unique texture and larger than average seed. It was a trip down memory lane as Periamma served it on my hand, much like the days when numerous cousins would sit at the terrace of our family home and the elders would place balls of rice and curry on our palms!

After 4 hours of sleep, we woke up the next day to a pooja at home. It was fun to see so many people at home - kids, elders and family - all doing their thing. Needless to say, the food was good! Then there was a power nap, shopping for clothes, and muscling your way thro' Bangalore's traffic crawls.

Hmm .... I'm tired now, got to sleep. Another long day tomorrow filled with more shopping, guests and pooja. And more food. If I manage to eat at this rate, I will be rolling back to Seattle in in style ... much like the beloved "Urundai" ;)