Village Pongal

My native village Vallaypatti, is a small village near srivilliputtur in southern part of TamilNadu. It is 65kms from Madurai. It is quite famous for its rules against using and selling tobacco products, there is a total ban on selling tobacco products in shops in village. The ban has been in place for more than 50 years, way to see the effects of tobacco so early and ban it. There is a ban on selling seasoned fish( fondly called karuvadu) , since it was the agent for spreading lot of contagious disease. There were lot of articles written in famous newspapers and vernaculars on the Tobacco Ban.

Village and the agricultural lands owned by the villagers are in the leeward side of Western Ghats. Major rainfall happens during the North East Monsoon during months of October and November. Rice, Red Small Onions and Peanuts are the usual crops cultivated. They will sow the seeds after the rain and it takes 90-120 days to grow, harvesting will be done during march end or early part of April. Essence of Harvest Festival in any part of the world is to thank the mother earth or nature for the bountiful yield, it is same in my village too, harvest festival/pongal is celebrated in the last week of April or first week of May. It is the time when most of the villagers will have money in their hand.

For the village of its size (300-400 houses) it surprisingly high literacy rate and there is always a stress given on education. As it with any village in India there was lot of migration towards cities for doing business or education or work. People from village(most of them my relatives) are settled in lot of places in around in India and around the world. Harvest Festival in my village is for thanking Goddess Kali( there is a kali temple in my village) Harvest Festival usually acts like a catalyst for bringing everyone to one place and it is more of a family re-union. Since it falls under a school or colleges vacation time, it is ball for kids and teenagers.

Festivities around the Harvest Festival/Pongal are the best part. My favorite is the games being conducted for all ages for fun and show casing their skills. There will be a cricket tournament around that time organized for harvest festival and my village had a very good team, mostly they would win it. Game is played with "CARC" ball it is actually a hockey ball man it hurts when it hits you and guys play without pad or shoes, hats off to their gutsy approach. There will be definitely another cricket match for guys who have moved outside village to guys who are in village, it mostly the friendly rivalry with lot of banter going around it is fun to play and watch. There will be games for kids like lemon and spoon race, balloon bursting ( i remember i cried running to my mom when i was a 4 or 5 year old since some kid burst my balloon), filling the soda bottle with water.

Each house in the village has to contribute for the expenses of Harvest Festival, they call it "ThalaKattu Vari" head count tax, it is based on the number of married couples in a family. Actual Festival is for two days. First Day function usually starts with "Agni Chatti" (a clay pot with burning charcoal in it) they carry it for 2 days around the village, it is a very very intense form of worship, to thank kali for answering there prayers. There will be "Nayanadi Melam crew" accompanying them through the villages. They will stop in each and every house in the village and the house will mix turmeric in water and pour it over the person carrying "Agni Chatti", way to cool their body down in the intense heat of summer. Mostly family members of the person carrying "Agni Chatti" will accompany them the whole two days.



There will be a goat from every family/house in the village that will be grown for the purpose of sacrificing it to Kali during the Pongal Festival. It will be taken care really really well. The only part what i don't like in the whole festival is sacrificing the pampered goat. Sons in the family will take the goat to the temple for sacrifice, after the goat is sacrificed they will clean it and carry the meat back to house for food in the morning. I will go vegetarian during the Pongal Festival. Sacrifices have been part of the culture for eons and I am not going to ask them to stop it since i am not doing it or i don't like it. Women from the village will keep pongal in the Kali temple in midnight, usual with any festivities they will clad their new sarees for keeping pongal.


Next Day starts with us waking up to good food, there are lot of vegetarians in my family so there will be vegetarian food cooked in my house in village and non vegetarian food in my uncles house. Guys generally have food and leave to the cricket ground for a game of cricket and assemble back to get ready for the evening festivities.

A way villagers predict how the harvest for the next year will be is through doing something called molapari. Women who are going to do molapari will sow the seeds(I guess it is mustard seeds) in a pot in the temple and the temple priest will take care of watering it and taking care of it, how big the molapari grows is an indication on how bountiful the harvest will be for that family. Molapari will be kept in the temple and that is where young girls/women will dance around it by clapping the hands, the dance form is called "Gummi" . Then the Molapari will be taken in a procession by the women( they carry it in their head), to the small pond in the village and it will be dipped/mixed into water.



Agni Chatti that was being carried around the village will be brought to the temple. It kind off culminates the function. Then there is another small celebration where the broken coconuts devoid of the shells will be thrown out to the waiting crowd outside the temple from the temple wall by young men. More fun is for catching that compared to actually eating it.

Then there will be stage performances like Dramas which will run whole night or karakattam with nayandi melam. Usually dramas will be harichandran, ramayanam etc...
Youngsters does not have a liking for drama, but usually old people sit and watch it the whole night. There will be refreshment stalls selling hot tea and Bajjis the whole night, they really do brisk business. Life gets back to normal after the pongal ....

Train Ride to my native place

Who doesn’t like riding a train to their native place? I have very sweet memories of train rides to my native place. I was born in Srivilliputtur a small satellite town in Virdhunagar District of Tamilnadu. Temple in Tamilnadu's government emblem is from srivilliputtur, check out the photos below, thanks to my friend George Mathai for the photos. Town is very famous for milk sweet palkova(milk peda). There use to be a Meter Gauge train called Kollam Mail from Chennai Egmore to Kollam in Kerala, it goes through some very scenic stretches. I love the night journey in Meter Gauge Trains; it is like sleeping in a cradle, with your mom/dad swinging it for you (my dad use to swing me in the cradle when I was a toddler). Most of the times we tend to travel with the extended family my aunt uncle and cousins that makes the trip even more interesting. Once the train tickets are booked, it will be mostly sleeper/sitter class (sitter class and you can sleep on the floor of the train with news paper), finding the right spot to sleep and jostling for space will be fun. Preparation for the trip would start at least a week ahead, with round table conference on what food to prepare and then asking dad to convey that to my aunt and uncle (it was days of no phone in my house) what time we will leave to the train station etc. We will start announcing (I would rather call it bragging) in school or with friends in summer vacation at least a week in advance that I am going in train to my native place and it is fun etc. Excitement would set in at least a day before train ride, I will not be able to sleep for a day or so. My mom and dad would be happy to go and see their parents.

We would arrive in the station at least an hour in advance and wait in the station. My dad cultivated good reading habit in me and my brother. He use to buy us Magazine (I remember it as Times Magazine or Week Magazine or Aanda Vikatan) when we were waiting in the station, we use to go through the tidbits and then read it for the 1st hour in the train. Station would be buzzing with activity with vendors selling tea and snacks, you can see people from all societies in the station. I use to love watching people’s expression when they say a byee to someone on a train that is leaving and happiness in receiving someone in the arriving train. Excitement for us in the station would set in the moment we see a train arriving into the station from Yard, we have to be ready to see where the coaches will be , it can either in front or back, we use to always take the middle ground so that we need not carry our luggage’s and walk all the way. As kids we use to board the train first to search for our reserved seat and to catch a window seat :-) and let our parents know where our seats are. Then our parents have to answer a question every 5 mins once till the train leaves on when the train will leave. Once the trains start moving we will peer outside and wave at strangers and say a byee to them( I guess it was fun being a kid, can never do that now). We will unpack and empty our home made food packages once the train crosses Chengalpet (it was an hour from Egmore). Most of them would retire to sleep 15 or 20 mins after dinner. For sleeping there will be newspapers laid out in floor of the train for kids ( so that we don’t get our clothes dirty) and then there will be an air pillows coming out and it will be like 1 pillow for two kids( I hate that , I always use to fight for a pillow alone) We( kids) use to wake up whenever the train stops in a major station it goes in this order Villupuram, Tiruchi, Dindugul and by the time train comes to Madurai most of them in the train would be awake. We use to get Tea and drink in Madurai and then wait for ManaMadurai station to come for getting good fresh vada’s with coconut chutney, yummy. Srivilliputtur was an hour away from Manamadurai. It has a very small railway station with just 1 platform. We have to be all prepared with our luggage’s before the station comes, the train use to stop their only for 5 mins, should get down before that. Railway station is 5 kms outside the town, the only modes of transport from Railway station to Town is through Jatka (horse driven carts), it was another fun ride. There the fight will be for who will sit along with the guy who controls the cart (horse driver, I don’t know what they call him, he is not a jockey though), slow moving cart with the greeneries around I don’t have words to express it. My village is 9 Kms from Srivilliputtur town, we have to catch a bus to go to a nearby place Krishnan kovil and the walk 1 ½ kms to my native village Vallaypatti. We usually hire/rent a bi-cycle from Krishnan kovil and load all the luggage in that and then walk to my native place with that. My dad won’t allow me to ride a bicycle. We usually go to pongal/harvest festival in the April Month to our native place. My village is on the leeward side of Western Ghats and we get rain there during North East Monsoon in October, November and December. The cultivate rice, onion and ground nut during that season and harvest it during March so the farmers will have money during April hence the harvest festival is celebrated on April.
Preparation on the way back to Chennai for the train ride will be hectic. We usually get produce (rice and other stuff) from our land and take it to Chennai. Packing the Produce in sack and stitching it requires lot of skill, we will have at least 4 100 kgs sack packed with all the required items. Usually my uncles (mom’s brother) would come to the railway station to send us off, they and my dad use to carry all the huge sacks. Getting it into the train within 5 mins when it is there will be a challenge by itself. There use to be a good curve for the trains approaching the station and you can just see the smoke from diesel engines coming from the train from a distance between trees and mountains, you know that your train is on the way. There starts the fun of train journey again and our lifes in Chennai will get back to the routine grind.

Rain and Flood

I miss Chennai during rainy days, that too my house. I love the smell of earth or mud whatever you want call it( manvasanai that is how they call it in Tamil). It evokes lot of good memories and which kid doesnt like rain.

My house was in a low lying area so it use to flood a lot when it rains. Flood use to be running water not stagnant water. My dad knew about the flooding in the area before he constructed the house there, so we had a high basement for our house compared to others, it was 4 1/2 feet i guess. The kind of preparation we use to make for going to school would be nice, cover the school bag with polythene cover and carry the school shoes and socks in a polyethene bag and then walk till the point where there was not water then dry the feet put the socks and shoes on. The whole thing has to be repeated when we have to come back home too. Going to school when we have a white uniform without getting dirty was a big challenge by itself. My dads two wheeler choice was also based on the flood water, he had Bajaj M80 which had the silencer higher than a TVS Champs ( those were not the ages for fancy bikes). Usually the flood use to be atleast 1 1/2 to 2 feet of running water, he cannot bring his two wheeler in, he us to park it in his friends house in some what higher area compared to us.

My parents would allow us to play in water one hour a day if it is an holiday during flood. We use to make paper boats, convert any stick into boat and send it, there use to be competition on whose paper boats goes the farthest before it sinks in water. The flood water use to come the stream nearby, thanks to google earth it is actually the source for river Adyar, it is very clean since it is very near to the source. So whenever there is flood water there use to be fishes and obviously snakes around of different colors, I don't know what it is may be it comes from my mom, we were never scared of snakes in water. Another thing what we use to do is try to throw flat stones in water and make it to glide in water. Miss all those days....

Till 2005 December water never entered into the house, but 2005 december it was very very heavy rain from october and almost all the lakes around our area was full and some miscreants broke lot of lakes off( since they have constructed house near the lakes illegaly) and it was high tide in sea that day too, so water was pushed in through Adyar river and with so much water rushing in to Adyar River with breaking of lakes it kind of created a backflow and started circling around our low lying area. When i came home the night before from work, there was hardly any water on the road and in the morning at around 6 water was entering our house, we had to vacate our house. Fire fighters had to be rushed into even more low lying areas with boats to rescue people. It was a bad flood that year and it was the last flood i saw.

And why did write this blog, since it is monsoon season in chennai and it is raining heavily there now

This is disgusting

We understand that media runs on money from investors and the money earned from Advertisements but running ads disguised as news items is disgusting. I read this article in Hindu, I like Hindu newspaper for their un-biased views on lot of things.

Thanks to Hindu for writing is article and bringing this to the public attention not worrying about the wrath they may face from the media organizations.
Hindu
There have been lots of instances off late where media turns itself into a self proclaimed saviour of justice and starts convicting the accused(in a case) in public, even though accused would not have even had a chance to defend himself in court. All the four pillars of democracy should be in harmony for the country to prosper, there have been cases of judicial arm extending more than what is suppose to and then legislature approving themselves more pension for their job ( I don’t think they should even receive a pension) and then executive passing government orders in favor of someone. It is not this did not happen before but then there were good news papers and media which brought this to public, but now media being more tainted than ever, it is very tough for the general public to believe what is true and what is not.

1st weekend in US

My parents arrived in US on Thursday at around 5.30. I was super super excited to receive them in the airport, most of my colleagues saw the big radiance smile in my face.

Airport is a mile away from my place, I saw the flight landing visually (From our office we can see the run way of the airport) and then I left to the airport. In excitement I forgot to take my camera along with me, otherwise I could have captured my mom and dad’s excitement or smile in their face.

I made lot of plans for cooking for them and then finally my friend invited us home for dinner that night (they had good food ;)). There started my eating spree for 3 months, made me put on lot of weight. I received a pat on my shoulder from my mom for keeping the kitchen clean (obviously I never cooked there ;)). I got nice scoldings for keeping Masalas and spices worth for 4 or 5 families for a year and I don’t cook, she just couldn’t understand why I need so much garam masalas for cooking. I tried to explain to my mom that it came from so many people and I just kept it there. Un packing of all the stuffs they bought from India and the wet grinder what they got for me, they slowly unpacked and assembled all the things.

That weekend was a long weekend so I took them around in and around Philadelphia. My mom got a shock on how big the people in US are, the way they dressed and how much the eat and drink. I got her a venti chai from star bucks, she gave me a stare and asked if it is for the whole day, May the potion is high here, I never realized. She started carrying the extra paper cups wherever she goes so I can get one Grande Chai from star bucks , she and my dad would share that and drink. Philadelphia zoo trip was fun, saw a king cobra and it was a good way to start the trip. Food was a major concern for my parents and we ensured that we pack our food wherever we go. There was this big gorilla in the zoo and it knew what was doing and posed for the cameras, it gave a very good pose and damn memory card in my camera was full at the time, I missed that shot. We took chapatti and potatoes ( poori kelangu ) for the zoo trip. It was a short trip of about 5 hours.






I played in a doubles co-ed volleyball tournament in Maryland on Sunday. I took my parents along with me for that, they have never seen me playing volleyball. We were all prepared with a Canopy, chairs and off course food from my mom. They met most of my volleyball friends their and my doubles partner becca and her friend john. My mom and dad felt cold on a warm and sultry day and they were in their sweaters for the whole day. They were observing how people are and the particularly had questions about the sunscreen lotion what people used. My dad then explained to my mom about the whole melanin pigment and why they should use a sunscreen. Becca and John both love Indian food and they enjoyed the food. John is 6ft and 11 inches tall and my mom being 4 foot 11 inches looked diminutive standing next to him. Becca isn’t short either she is 5foot 11 inches. We made it to the playoffs and then it started pouring down so we took off back home and it was a 100 mile drive back home. My parents had a good time but started feeling bored at the end of the day. Drive back was good my mom never sleeps in the car she was wide awake after the whole day out and was watching all the trees, road and traffic and she is very inquisitive too, asked lot of questions.

Next day we were off to Camden aquarium and Battleship New jersey. Camden aquarium is situated on the other side of Delaware River (bay whatever you call it), you can see the beautiful Philadelphia skyline from there. Battleship New Jersey is anchored right next to the aquarium. Aquarium was good with lots of colorful fishes. We had an opportunity to touch the jelly fish( harmless one though), star fish and a baby shark. Viewing area for watching the fishes were good, it is a good sight to see the fishes swim through and as if posing for us J. Underwater shark tunnel is the best one in the aquarium, it was a surreal feeling with sharks swimming right over your head, very close encounter with the sharks indeed. 4D Theatre my mom enjoyed the show like a kid with her my hands when water was sprayed, It was role reversed, I use to hold my moms hand when I am excited or when I am afraid.











Battleship New Jersey, a majestic war ship anchored right outside the aquarium. I have never boarded a battleship before and so are my parents. We took the Arms and ammunition tour (there are lots of tours in the ship) and an electrician (85 years old) who worked in the ship was our guide. Very valuable insights to the ships history and the battles it fought. It is considered to be the lucky charm of the American navy and it had only one fatality in its entire career. Our guide was insisting on what difference a college education can make to kids( there obviously little kids on the tour with us) with an analogy on how the life on the ship was. Only Navymen with officer cadre will get food served to them, separate bunkers and a better bed for sleeping on the other hand for a normal navymen they have to share the bunker with another Navymen , shared restrooms and rationed food. He did make a good point to the kids there.

Prepping Parents for their Visit

I had a fun time with my parents when they visited me here in US. Lots of my friends are also planning to bring their parents here, so thought will pen a blog which will share my memories and will help my friends to plan their trip. This is going to be a series of blogs and here comes the first one.

In my case my mom didn’t want to get out of India and take a flight and come to US. It involved lot of cajoling, sentimental talks and threatening (saying that I would get married to my imaginary American g.f if they don’t come here) to make her to come here. I started the process a year back with Passport and others. Visa interview was booked in the starting of the May and they came to US on May 21st. I was so excited to and couldn’t contain my excitement when I was waiting for them in the airport. Then there she came out with 1000 Watt smile in her face and off course my dad was ensuring that all the baggage’s came out proper and things like that. When planning for their flight journey I followed these tips or thumb rules whatever you want to call it



1) I didn’t want to book a direct flight from Chennai to JFK, It will be difficult for them to sit continuously and travel. So I booked tickets in Lufthansa from Chennai to Frankfurt (7 ½ hours) with a 3 hour layover in between and Frankfurt to Philadelphia (7 ½ hours). With a 3 hour layover in between they can stretch their legs in between the flights and can get refreshed. I am not a big fan of long haul flights.
2) I made sure that they carry some dry fruits and biscuits incase they don’t like the food in the flight, it helped since mom didn’t like the food in flight and she ended up surviving in biscuits. Even though they are non-vegetarians (like most Indians they don’t eat red meat), we made the food choice as Asian Vegetarian since they may get some dosa or idli in the initial flight.
3) They had enough foreign exchange (my dad got it from Thomas cook in Spencer Plaza Chennai) with a seal on his passport for getting foreign exchange.
4) I took a printout of customs declaration form and Immigration form from Path2usa.com and filled the details out and sent a scanned copy. This would ease their fears and questions on what to fill for what.
5) My dad can speak decent English so I didn’t give any other letter to immigration but for parents who cannot speak English then you can give a letter stating that they have problem with the language and you can give your contact number and details Immigration generally calls you for details. My friend did that for his parents.
6) For Philadelphia airport there will be porters for taking your baggage and putting it in big cart and take through customs and bring you out. They charge 10$ for that cart and I asked my parents to use that rather than them going through to find 1$ bills and put it in the vending machine for carts.

What happend to me?

What happened to me? I didn't write a blog for more than a year now. Lots of things happened in between. I had to shift to Philadelphia from Scranton. New location, new people, new project etc etc. Philadelphia is a nice place and lot more things to do but miss Scranton. Obviously one bound to get an attachment to place if you stay there for long, i stayed in Scranton for 3 years and it was like home away from home. Made lots of friends, fell out with a few but still i can come back once in a while to say a hi to them and keep in touch with them. It is a place where i started playing volleyball after a gap.

After almost breaking my hand in volleyball last year April, I had to change my game. I couldn't set anymore due to injury and I am too attached to miss volleyball. I ended up changing my game, became an outside hitter. It is not that i am good at it but i am putting all the effort to be good in it and I have improved a lot from last year. Shifting bases did help in becoming an outside hitter, playing with some good setters and better skill level does help in that.

Parents visited me from India for 3 months. It was awesome to have them here and take them around to lots of places and meet my friends etc etc. They did enjoy US to the most part except that my dad kept complaining that he didn't get a kind of spinach what he use to get in India( ponnagani keerai), I was like yaa yaa yaa. I cannot forget the way my parents and my friend priya's parents enjoyed like little kids in Niagara, the happiness in there face was a definitely a kodak moment. I am gonna blog about the whole trip and tips for do's and dont's when bringing parents to US( East coast in particular).

And with My mom's visit my 2 years hardwork of decreasing and maintaining weight is gone. Too much of good food and i packed on pounds like anything. I am getting into weight loss mode again. I hope i reduce my weight like last time with good workout, i have to get good motivation for working out though.