Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Navrathri Golu - A Nine night worship of Mother Goddess – A Tamilian celebration

Idols of Hindu gods and goddesses made in clay adorn the madaveedhis (4 streets surrounding the temple) of Mylapore (an area in Chennai, India) two weeks prior to Navarathri (aka Golu in Tamil). During my Saturday visit to the temple, I stopped by a few stalls and scanned the dolls to look for new themes. Usually the dolls are miniature replicas of the idols of Hindu gods in various temples and these days they also have Ganesh (elephant God) holding iPads and iPhones. The artisans also depict a few scenes from the famous Hindu epics – Ramayana and Mahabaratha. And since Cricket is more than a religion in India, these days spotting a cricket field is common, yet Chennai Super Kings have not made their debut in the Mylapore Golu.
I got home from the temple last Saturday evening with some pictures of the new dolls that I spotted during my stroll, while my mother was ready with her list of things to-do for me. It is a tradition to start good things on New Moon day (aka Ammavasya) and since it fell on a Monday this year, Amma (mom) wanted me to clean the house, vacuum the sofas and set-up the stand for the dolls the day before. It was a working Sunday for me L. Some people also built Golu with themes and concepts, while we decided to keep it simple.
While I got busy bringing the dolls from the attic and building a stand for display, Amma was busy inviting all her women friends in the neighborhood to come home for Golu. On that same piece of paper she had also planned a high protein snack called as “Sundal” (boiled lentils sautéed with spice, salt and coconut) for each of the nine days to be offered to the Goddesses and then distributed to those who visit our home.
Women and girls visit our home during the nine days festival and they sing hymns in praise of the three incarnations of Mother Goddess – Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. Women are dressed in traditional pattu (silk) saree and while girls dress-up in pattu paavadai (silk frilled skirt) and some of them also dress up as gods and goddess. This helps girls get over stage fear and also helps them to be social butterflies.
In between the hymns, women discuss about water woes, power outages, cooking gas shortage, long queues at the public ration store, and also their shopping plans for Diwali. They also smack some neighborhood gossip, bash their mother-in-law in between the hymns and munches of sundal. Along with sundal this year Amma decided to make Badham Kheer (ground almond boiled in sweetened milk and garnished with saffron) and Puttu (steamed ground rice sweetened with coconut and jiggery) for a snack.
It is a tradition to give a thamboolam (coconut, betel leaf, betel nut, pieces of turmeric and sachet of vermillion) to all the women and girls who come home. Along with that Amma also gives useful and usable knick-knacks, thought most women prefer giving blouse material for sarees or a plastic container. Every year amma comes up with a new idea and I have to take her on a shopping trip to find something of utility value. One year Amma gave Tulsi plant, another year she gave people shopping bags made of cloth to discourage use of plastic. This year she gave a key chain that had colored plastic rings to help people differentiate house key, car key, cupboard key, etc. And these days it is almost a competition amongst women to find something unique and useful to give away.
Usually the male members play the role of a driver and drive their women and girls around the neighborhood. My dad usually engages them and all they talk about is politics! While women get something to take home, men get nothing and I have heard a few grinningly complain about this inequality. So this year we decided to give them a Soduku book.
Today is the fourth day of Dusshera and I can smell Amma cooking Chick-Pea Sundal in the kitchen. In another six days (on Vijayadashami day – 10th day) the status quo of all this kolahalam (gala) will be restored - the dolls go back to the to the attic, kids back to school to collect their quarterly exam report cards and womenback to the grind of domestic chores, home making or professional life.
Looking at our tradition and culture, our ancestors are super marketers – they weaved the social fabric through festivals in the era of no-Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin. And even in the era of online social networking today these festivals and traditions find relevance and purpose.
I wish I could offer you some sundal snack and a small gift, but I guess you will have to come in person for that. For this year I leave you with just words, some pictures and some links for more reading. Hope you will be able to make it to my house next year. Catch you soon!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Top 5 reasons why you should watch English Vinglish

Sridevi may be the only reasons for some, but nevertheless this movie has a lot to offer both men and women. Every man who walks into the theatre will definitely see his mother in Sashi’s character, but will he do anything about it is yet to be seen. May be make-up for the lost opportunity by treating his wife, sister and other women better?

Now let us see the top 5 reasons….
1.      Women empowerment (WE) means equality, respect, and opportunity: Women empowerment is often misunderstood as a gender war and right to competition, but this movie clearly explains that WE means giving them an opportunity to be heard, respecting their feelings and providing them with a platform/opportunity to learn/perform/express. And for those women who think WE is about overconfidence and arrogance, director Gauri shows that it is not by painstakingly and prudently constructing Sashi’s character.

2.       Character casting: Director, Gauri Shinde has understood that Sashi’s character needs the experience of motherhood more than beauty and since Sridevi was away from lights, screen and action for 15 years, the movie was apt for her and delivered a big come-back bang. Like I said earlier, every man will see a reflection of himself in the husband and children character. Be it the French actor Medhi Nebbou or the little boy Shivansh, every character tugs your heart.

3.       Script, Music & Costumes: The script flows seamlessly and there is never a point in the movie where one finds himself adjusting himself in the seat and waiting to throw some Red Bull on the sagging screenplay. The script gives you an opportunity to tear, laugh many at times, and finally walk out with a smiling face and teach how to respect partners in a marriage. With Bollywood dance being popular in the West today, director has avoided throwing in too many songs, and trimmed it to suit the story. Sridevi’s sarees, OMG! From cotton to chiffon to polyester, Saree will soon make a comeback and dethrone “Nighties” from being the national dress of Indian women.

4.       Real on reel: I will be irate if Film Fare and the Government of India hands over Sridevi a trophy for acting in this movie. This character needed 15 years of experience away from lights, camera and action and completely in marriage and motherhood to play this role. She lived her real life on the reel. There was never a moment where you felt she acted, leave alone overacting or emoting beyond the need.

5.       An ode to Womenhood and Motherhood: The other day I read a Modern Love column in NYTIMES and one of stories said that indifference takes marriages to the brink of divorce more than infidelity. Sashi had ample opportunities and reasons to step out of her marriage, but it is her patience, prudence and perseverance that made rest of her family look at her with awe and admiration. Her speech at the wedding just makes your realize the value and respect of partnership.
It is easy for women to misunderstand “empowerment” and read it as being “overconfident” and “arrogance” and that is the fine line that Gauri  Shinde walks in the movie “English Vinglish” and shows the difference and makes women in your home and work worth worshipping!
Watching English Vinglish is the first step to saving your relationship and marriage and the  last opportunity to reform yourself, if not your English. Definitely respect for women (your mother, wife, sister and colleagues, classmates) would go up by a few notches after watching this movie.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Chennai CRX Celebrates “World Heart Day”

With Heart ailments being the No 1 killer in Asia today, CRX Sports on Sunday, Sep 30 organized a 45 Km Reaxion Ride from Chennai to Mahabalipuram to celebrate World Heart Day. Close to 150 people participated in the ride with majority of them being youngsters. CRX Reaxion Ride organizes a monthly ride (on a Sunday) from Tiruvanmiyur to Mahabalipuram but this ride was special to me since it was World Heart Day and cause was close to my heart. 
To Chennai youth hydrating means drinking beer
One big complain every passionate Chennaite has to put up with a kolaveri is humidity and hot weather apart from Chennai being blamed for being a conservative city. And a friend of mine who is from Chennai recently moved back from the US swore the city’s conservative seal was not true anymore. On the morning of September 30 at 4.30 am I realized she was right.
I infiltrated the young crowd of young men and women that morning to catch their whispers. There was a guy who was already sweating and talking about the need to hydrate himself. I was so happy to hear the right things in the morning, but before that could transform into a smile on my face, his buddy responded that he was carrying a few bottles of beer to hydrate during the ride. My jaw dropped, the conservative image of Chennai vanished and propelled me towards the front of the rally and then there was no looking back. 
The rally flagged off at 5.08 am
The full-moon from the previous night was still big and bright; temperature was in the mid twenties and humidity about 60%, seemed ideal for the ride. After a 30 min delay, we began pedaling at 5.08 am from behind Tiruvanmiyur bus station on East Coast Road (ECR) towards Mahabalipuram. The tea shops along the road side were already open and were playing devotional hymns loud enough to wake-up the slumbering Chennaiites.
Playing by the rules
I remember the two last instructions that were given before the rally began – one, to stay on the left side of the road and second, look over the right shoulder before shifting lanes. While most of us thought we had to worry about vehicle traffic at ECR, but soon we were more concerned about the herd of cows walking into the rally and stray dogs chasing the rally. But then I was reminded of the article in The Hindu that talked about the 20,000 rabies related deaths in India and 55,000 deaths world-wide. Instead of worrying about the cows and dogs, I decided to keep my focus on the pilot car ahead of me. 
Reaching the half-way point
I crossed VPG Resort, Prarthana drive-in theatre, and finally reached the half-way point in about 45 minutes. Though they oraganizers has set-up four pit stops each 10kms apart, I didn’t feel too sweaty or thirsty, and it was close to sunrise, but nevertheless I decided to signal and stop the pilot car for some water. And to my surprise the woman who was driving the car caught me signaling in the rear-view mirror and stopped the car. I turned around for the time to catch a glimpse of the other cyclists, but I could see none around. I didn’t want to lose the lead I had gained (though the terrain was flat along the Bay of Bengal) so; I quickly grabbed the bottle of water and kept pedaling. Periodically I pulled out my iPhone and turned on Google maps to capture my coordinates and my position wrt to the finish line.
When the unthinkable happens and I make a new friend
What is life without an unexpected stall, a thrill, and a lost feeling? The cycle chain slipped off the gear and got into an uncomfortable groove, and I jump off the cycle, parked on the curb and started to look for a small stick in the bush nearby. After a few minutes I saw a bunch of cyclists whizz past me, but none bothered to even look at me. I helplessly stood on the highway, but very soon an angel in a MTB bike arrived. With no tools on me, I confessed I needed help to get back the chain on the gear. While I held his bicycle, he got the chain back in less than 60 seconds and every soon I had a companion for the rest of the ride.  When life offers lemons, one must use the opportunity to make lemonade.
The head wind and some stories
The numbers on the milestone turned into single digit and the headwind also set-in and reduced our speed considerably. Looking at the gadget, Tirath, my new buddy announced that we were close to 21 kms/hour, a slight drop from 25 kms/hour. While we were catching up with the guys who raced ahead of us, he brought me to speed on the bikes I should look at before I make up my mind on Schwinn Searcher and advised me to go on Choosemybicycle portal. He also brought me upto to speed on various cycling groups in Chennai (Tamil Nadu Cycling Club,  Chennai Cycling Club, and others) and he also waved at a few of them belonging to these groups and who were on their journey back from Mahabalipuram. With less than 5 kms to the finish line, we took it slow and we also knew we would be the first ones. And finally it few minutes past seven when our cycles rolled into the GRT Resort at Mahabalipuram, the finish point.
It is a journey and never about the destination
I looked back at the milestone that read 56 Kms to Chennai, with pride and nothing to prove. I was reminded of July 2011 and today everything was behind me; the pain and recovery. In July this year I tested my heart, though there was no 1-year guaranteed offered despite 2.2 Lakhs spent on fixing it, cycling 55+ kms in a single day in Loire River Valley and then a month later covering 75+ miles at Acadia National Park, along Atlantic Ocean and now in my hometown cycling 45+ miles along the East coast on the shores of Bay of Bengal. Without the support of my mother and friends (who are mostly faraway) this would not be possible. And on this trip to Mahabs, I added two buddies to that list, Hari and Tirath.