Review: “Lady Washington, The Story of America’s First First Lady” by Dorothy Clarke Wilson

I have reason to believe every US President is a stimulus of economic activity in his own right, the reason being the number of books written on him. And these books are popular regardless of the President’s popularity or effectiveness. The fascination with the First Ladies seems to be even more hysterical. I had thought this began with Jackie Kennedy, but it goes long into the past.

I chanced upon “Lady Washington, The Story of America’s First First Lady” by Dorothy Clarke Wilson in a Reader’s Digest Condensed Edition (which I pick up without bothering about the books or summaries, provided they are pre-1990) volume of 1984. I was intrigued because I was just reading about the period of the American Independence and its related events.

Set in Virginia, the initial part of the book reads almost like fiction set in colonial America. There is not too much about the plantations, trade and related issues of the time. The focus is on the households of the plantation owners, socializing and the Colonial Assemblies that are more social affairs than political. Martha’s character buildup is quick and not very colorful.

Once George Washington comes into the picture, political events make themselves felt but only mildly. The author takes great care to ensure the book does not deviate into political waters or turn onto Washington. Washington is always viewed in Martha’s eyes. The author deserves credit for her focus here.

Contrary to my expectations that the book would become more interesting with the Declaration of independence, confrontation with Britain and the Presidency, it progressively became monotonous and slow.

Always following Martha, the writing style is very dry and often feels like a chronology than a story. As we go on, one can almost predict the sentences. There are repetitive phrases like “.. and his arms were around her.” every time Martha meets Washington after a separation. The lives of Washingtons seem to scattered with deaths of dear ones – they are also mentioned in the same fashion over and over again. Another lacking aspect is that there is very little on her interactions with her friends and contemporaries. They are mentioned only in passing, only exception being her first interaction Mary Washington, George’s mother.

Washington is portrayed reluctant to be in public affairs all the time.  And Martha in the vortex of it all, has no leaning towards any political ideology or opinion. She remains only a devoted and supportive wife for a very long time. While she has won the affection and admiration of the people by her unassuming self and good-naturedness, it is only at the end of his first Presidency that she actually realizes the significance of her position as First Lady. Even her caring for his soldiers is the duty of a wife to her husband’s affairs not patriotism.

The book in its devotion to correct chronicling of events misses out on innovation in writing. The narration of six years of Washington’s campaigns seems almost as tiring to the reader as the actual campaigns were to Lady Washington.

The book is a glorifying account of the life of Martha Washington and is all praise for George Washington's devotion to his country and modesty. It fails to make any mention of, or rather diligently avoids, the controversies surrounding the Washingtons, esp with regard to slavery. It only mentions that George Washington sets his slaves free in his will.

This was either a bad condensation(it is thick enough with 175 pages) that did not capture the essence of the book very well or the book itself has been written in a plain style. The book can be called informative at best, but netiher a very engaging read nor a non-partisan account. It can be read for its history – one who is ignorant of American independence history might find it useful and even a light way of understanding the sequence of events.

Discoveries this week.. (Contd)

As I stretch out listening to BBC podcasts subscriptions, I send a silent prayer to bless the developers of Miro yet again for the handy tool. As to my friends here, I have not forgotten my promise to write about my other discovery this week. In fact, this has been quite the “discovery” week. But I will not reveal my other web-treks as yet – yes, they are mostly cyber-world discoveries. I will save them for future posts ;)

“Discovering” Book Blogging almost three years after my baby steps into the world of blogging, does throw into sharp relief what an amateur I still am ;) Another irony of this discovery is that, my first blog post ever was a book review! One would have thought I would be a veteran in book blogging! Well, things did not progress on that front as you can see. I spent too much time racking my brains and keeping my eyes peeled for things around me to blog about, that I missed what has always been close to my heart. Sure, I have blogged about books and bookstores. But I never got into mainstream book blogging. This is not to say I will stop boring you with these musings :P and do only book reviews hereon, but I do intend to make an attempt at reviewing.

A lot of the book blogs I looked at were semi-professional – there was a proper book review policy, reviews done on books picked up from the store as well as on requisition by author, etc. I am not aiming to get into the high-flying league though. Even I am not that deluded you see ;) My reviewing will be mostly for my own sake. I went back and re-read my first post and my only book review in history. I remember the pleasure I experienced writing it, my first piece of writing that was not a school essay or exam paper. And it helped me refresh my memory about the book beautifully and inspired me to pick up a book from my to-be-read stack as well. And that is reason enough for me to try book blogging!

Discoveries this week..

I am just a couple of days away from my longest vacation in these three years – two weeks, yay! That doesn’t necessarily mean I am too harassed with work, yet I have never taken such a long stretch off and it is a luxury not to be bothered with checking mail every morning and evening. The off-side of a long vacation usually means an overflowing inbox on the day back which can drain away all the bubbling enthusiasm(even if half the mails are official, company-generated spam). But this time I need not even spare a thought to that, cos it is Christmas season and not too many mails would flood in(even spam might take a break!).

Ok, before anyone who knows my plans for the “vacation” reminds me it is not going to be all sleep and fun(in that order), I know, I know… But it is still a luxury not to worry about the mailbox, don’t you agree? :D

I am a couple of days away from my vacation, with loads on my plate, official and otherwise, to finish off before then. Yet, being the vagabond that I am, I did not stick to what needs to be done and went on to explore… well, quite a few things. And yes, writing this entry is another thing that is not really required to be done at this point of time, but don’t remind me please! That said, I will move on to my real topic.

The first discovery that I made this week was Miro! I know this discovery is not going to win me the Nobel, but it is important to me. Read on to find out why. The path that took me to Miro was BBC, blame the stiff Britons ;) Wandering all over TamilNadu last week, I missed following the news so much, that I went digging into all the news sites I frequent, both regularly and haphazardly. BBC podcasts beckoned and I was frustrated that the last time I had followed two consecutive episodes of one of my favourites “From Our Own Correspondent” was in August. And I was on the road only last week, so that was not an excuse. I decided it was high time I got “something” to organize my favourite audios for me, since I was not getting anywhere with the job myself.

So I went hunting for “podcatchers”, the of course, in the very top was “Google Reader” which I immediately vetoed. Google knew too much of me already(this blog included) without knowing my news and music tastes as well. iTunes was up there too. I hesitated a few minutes before I decided to give it a try. I am not a fan of Apple’s proprietary products, and only grudgingly do I admit that I love my iPod. I convinced myself that having come up with the iPod in the first place, Apple deserved a chance. So with that very noble reasoning I set out to try and configure iTunes with a sample feed. It refused to connect to the web. Excellent, that is it! I decided and struck that option off my list. Alright, I was just waiting for an excuse to get rid of the iTunes option, so what? I had never been a fan of iTunes and the reason I even had it on my laptop was only that worked with my iPod Shuffle(courtesy of IBM).

With the two recognizable choices off my list, I was now faced with Miro, Nimiq, Juice and a few others. I played around with the idea of having a web-based podcatcher, something that would just keep track of my preferences in one place –on the web, not on my laptop. Of course, it had its drawbacks, but atleast it would save space on my already overcrowded harddisk. But I did not get a decent enough option, or maybe I did not look properly enough.

Anyway, I was now left with only the regular podcatchers. Miro looked cute(atleast the red sheep logo did) and the features seemed sufficient for my limited requirements. I hit the download button and forgot all about it for the next few hours. When I realized there was a dialog box open waiting for me to approve the install, I clicked the “Yes” and decided I would configure it ASAP, no IMMEDIATELY. Otherwise it would be another couple of months before I got to it.

Once installed, I saw it was a simple interface, nothing too fancy - a sidebar that listed the podcasts and a bigger right pane that gave the details of each one when clicked upon along with the Download and Play buttons. Adding feeds was simple and it somehow seemed to know when I copied a RSS link to my clipboard. Auto-download options were easy to configure and sensible, though the “Keep outdated items” options of 0, 20,50, and 100 appeared to be on the clumsy side. More importantly, it had an option to pause Auto-download when the number of unplayed items hit a threshold. That is crucial, for I am sure I will not listen to all the feeds I over-enthusiastically subscribe to and like I mentioned earlier, space on my disk is a problem.

I do realize that these features are simple and probably present on most podcatchers, but I am happy with it. Too bad it does not have a facility to follow Text/webpage RSS feeds as well. I have tried many and discarded and am yet to find a FeedReader I really like. And oh, I forgot! Miro is targeted at video-playing and it is not their fault if a primitive like me bothers about plain RSS feeds.

My next discovery is Book blogging! The discovery is still in progress and will be updated soon…. Till then happy no-crypticrunes time! (What else do I say when I bore you faithful readers with a drab post on podcatchers and my non-specific vacation plans :P)

Lingering music

Myself and a couple of friends strolled out on a beautiful Sunday evening with a chillness in the air that brought to my mind the fabled Bangalore climate of yesteryears, and for us just the climate for an ice cream. A few delightful scoops at Corner House later, we were on our meandering way trying to hit the vicinity of MG road to board a bus. We were due to be present at Jnana Jyothi Convention Centre, Central College campus the occasion being the “In praise of Vitthala, Abhangs by Aruna Sairam”.

It was to be my first live music concert of any genre or form. My appreciation for and limited knowledge of Carnatic music is completely attributed to my friend Saranya. I literally had no ear for music before I entered my engineering course, the best I could do was recognize the most popular tunes of Tamil Cine Music. I was afterall the genius who unabashedly hazarded Ganagaiamaran as a guess in a quiz when asked to identify the voice in a classic carnatic rendition by Balamurali Krishna. In the numerous mini-concerts we had in our hostel room, Sarani would sing to us and explain not just the nuances of the music, but also the lyrics when rendering Sanskrit or Telugu kirthis. Her favourite vocalist Aruna Sairam slowly became my favourite singer too for her lively renderings.

So that said, a concert by Aruna Sairam under the aegis of Novemberfest by The Hindu was a tempting proposition. The concert was on a Sunday evening. All seemed perfect, save one small glitch – Abhangs, sung in praise of Vitthala, the deity at Pandharpur in Maharashtra, were Marathi and my Marathi-knowledgeable friend was out of town on the concert date. Well, I of course know music is languageless, etc, but I usually prefer to understand atleast the theme of a song to appreciate it better. Nevertheless, I decided to go for it and I am extremely glad I did.

We landed at 7.15 pm on the dot and settled into our seats. The auditorium was three-fourths full and we looked like the only ones under forty there, not that we minded it.Given that the concerts lined up under Novemberfest ranged from Abhangs to Hindi Retro to African-Rock, the décor was contemporary and tastefully done. For the evening’s concert, a raised platform was setup in a semi-circle and the instruments in place. The audio by Bose was of course impeccable.

The instrumentalists who were to accompany the vocalist were introduced. The artistes manned instruments ranging from the regular gadham, mirdhangam, violin, tambura to some unconventional ones - a drum of sorts and some others I cannot identify by name. The star of the evening walked in draped in a blue and green Kanchipuram saree and folded her hands in a namaste bowing to the audience. Before she let her powerful voice sing the praises of Vitthala, she gave the audience an introduction to the varkari sampradaya, the pilgrimages to the Pandharpur and the devout, simple peasant men and women for whom devotion to Vitthala transcended everything else. Arunaji encouraged the audience to treat the evening not as a concert but as an experience and invited everyone to sing along, clap and dance if one felt like it.

Abhangs are a unique blend of folk and traditional devotional styles and Arunaji’s singing was in keeping with the style and spirit of the music. The renditions were lively and soulful. She moved from one song to the next with ease, interspersing them with anecdotes and insights into the culture and lives of the originators of this unique genre of music. As she spoke, her perfect diction was a delight to hear.

The songs were highly energetic and the high-energy performances seemed to only increase the enthusiasm of the performers and not once did Arunaji appear tired. About halfway through the concert, Arunaji and her instrumentalists requested lights in the audience section be turned on, so that the artistes could see the reaction of the audience and connect with them. She mentioned again what she has stated time and again in her concerts  - the audience were the source of energy for the performing artistes.

As the evening progressed, audience vied with each other to request songs close to their hearts. Arunaji cheerfully obliged and her trademark renditions of Maadu Mekkum kanne, Bhaktajana vatsale, etc filled the hall. We overran the concert schedule and requests still kept coming in. Arunaji finally had to entreat the audience to trust her judgement and let her go back to her original planned sequence for the final renditions to bring the evening to closure.

What I loved most about this concert was the range of songs – Abhangs by Sants Gyandev, Tukaram and others of course were the central theme, but also rendered were bhajan-type namasankeertham from south, a Meera bhajan, a rendition dedicated to Kolhapur Goddess Saraswathi and Bengali and Gujarathi songs.

A proper or more precise listing of the songs can be found here, so I will not list them here in detail. I would like to focus instead on the spirit behind the compilation of the song sequence. The journey to Pandharpur took a unique route, through Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bengal and even Thirupathi. The sheer expanse of the Indian subcontinent covered by the renditions was a marvel in itself. Integration of a nation as multi-faceted as India can only be achieved and developed by an equally multi-faceted approach – democracy, arts, law, sports, etc need to come together. If there is a single thread or theme in the history of our country it is definitely the assimilation of cultures and traditions. We have always welcomed with open arms and generous hearts, the communalism that troubles us today is largely a “modern” manifestation. This rich history of cultural growth comes from people who studied and embraced without inhibition, languages, cultures and arts of people other than their own region or community. And it is this unique aspect that one seems to miss in our present times. How many of us would even know of Kohlapur or Gondhali folk if it wasn’t for this concert?

Music is indeed boundless and boundaryless; music brings people together. And we need people like Aruna Sairam to realize this power of music. And even more so in these troubled times, to show us how close we Indians really are to each other. For this alone, my salutations to Arunaji!

It has been over a couple of weeks since the concert, but the music and the atmosphere remain with me. An evening I will always remember…

What kind of super power will India be?

This should have been posted long ago, it has been lying around in my writings folder for over two weeks now.... 


The World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit had some intriguing topics and good discussions. Though the event was streamed live on the web, I got to follow it only on the last day. I am excited about some of the topics on the previous days and looking forward to listening to the recordings soon.

The discussion I tuned into was “What kind of super power will India be?” It is a very interesting topic for many reasons. With a panel consisting of members from the media, NGOs, industry and the Planning Commission, it was a balanced and well-informed discussion. With India’s growing economic clout since the recession, India Inc’s confident ventures from Africa to the US and great strides in various fields, the once unheard-of usage of “India” and “super power” in the same sentence, is commonplace now. With the UNSC seat debates, G20 meet, RIC trilaterals, recently concluded CWG and Obama’s visit and his “emerged India” comments along with the newly assertive Indian PM’s comments, “super power” is indeed the new fab word.

A discussion on a similar topic a couple of years ago would have been titled “Will India emerge a super power?” So, the very title of the discussion says a lot about the lines of thought of Indians as well as the light in which the rest of the world looks at India.

Yet, the topic is slightly hazy. One of my first thoughts on coming across the topic was “What is a super power?” And the question was reflected in the discussion quite a lot.

What indeed makes a super power? Is it economic clout? Military might? Political or geographical reasons? Nik from BBC made a fantastic point when he noted Soviet Union was a military giant, but its finances were in a mess. Indeed, it was its financial position that pulled down the Soviet Union from its super power status, but it did manage to be a super power long enough without corresponding finances. And the world not being what it was, say, 50 years earlier, it is hard to define what makes up a super power. Today’s world is multi-polar as opposed to the bi-polar or uni-polar world earlier. Almost every country has leverage in one way or another. And one single country is no longer able to dictate terms to any other country as a super-power in a traditional sense should be able to. There is of course, the USA trying to having a finger in every pie, but it is proving increasing difficult, and not just with China.

And many answers came up, a prosperous nation, one that can defend itself against external aggression, one that clubs both the above-mentioned, etc.

Talking about defending oneself, in today’s world aggression doesn’t mean just territorial aggression – pressures on the trade front, external political pressures, disarmament treaties, all of these can amount to aggression. So having said that, now the task of defining a super-power becomes a little easier. A super-power, I would say, is a country that can hold its own in matters it considers important to her own welfare.

Sudha Pillai, Member, Planning Commission, said in her quiet, dignified tone that India will be a “soft” super-power. One may not at first instance like the idea of “soft”, it need not be taken to mean that India will not be assertive. It means India will indeed be assertive, without being aggressive. In fact, that is what India actions embody even now from the climate summit to the NPT. What Sudha Pillai meant to say was that India would be assertive of her rights, but not force any other country unduly.

If we were to take my explanation of super-power, then India has always been a super-power – able to hold its own in the international arena. But then consensus doesn’t prevail that we ARE a super power. Where to we lag? We are yet to meet some of our needs satisfactorily. And we have been forced to appease and flatter some countries time and again.

If we were to take the explanation in a narrow sense, every country that doesn’t let anyone else dictate terms will be a super power, and that will include rogue nations. So, a super power should be one that will be able to influence other nations substantially in matters of international interest.

This ability to influence is dwindling down slowly for the powerful nations of the day. Being a one-way process, “influence” is not much desired today. Also, the line between “influence” and “aggression” is very thin. So what would be desirable for a super power is ability to bring about cohesion – a much-needed attribute in today’s world, which is ridden with trade imbalances and where protectionism seems a tempting option. So, the dynamics of world affairs today is such that a super power would be one that can bring about cohesion in international affairs.

This is closest to a comprehensive, defining definition of “super power” I am able to come up with – A nation that can hold its own in the international arena and one that can bring about cohesion in international affairs will be the super power of tomorrow. India is inching closer to this definition, from the Climate summits to G20s, India is emerging a driving force rather than a participatory one. That said, it would suffice to say India would be a next-gen super power, “soft” or otherwise is quite irrelevant.

The question of whether the world has space for just one or more than one super power is another one :)

A taste of Chettinadu masala - Part II

The morning of 24^th Oct dawned bright and clear.. probably.. well, it was a bright and sunny day and we will assume it did dawn so, I wouldn’t know for I was deep asleep then ;) Maami was the poruppana ponnu, she woke up at about 6.00 AM and took her bath before myself and Nithi deigned to wake. Even 6.00 AM was a late hour to wake up when you have to attend a South-Indian Muhurtham, but thankfully for us, the auspicious hour was 9.00 –10.00 AM. We dressed up in saris, adorned our trinkets and flowers and started to the mandapam. Being the early bird, Maami had reached there a little earlier. Thendral was quite ready and waiting for her muhurtha-pattu to be brought in.

The bride’s room was even more fun-filled than the previous day, Gowri akka, anni and the three of us pulled Thendral’s leg and she gave a good number of “natural”, read blushing, poses for the photographer. Muhurtha pudavai, traditionally given by the groom’s side was brought in and by 9.15 AM, Thendral was ready to proceed to the manavarai.

With Mrs. &  Mr. Durai Pandi

We were quite ravenous by now, but we knew from our experience at Baskar anna’s wedding that the actual ritual lasted barely two minutes. So we couldn’t risk sneaking into the dining hall. We loitered near the manavarai and clicked a few pictures. Soon it was too crowded to click pictures and we did not want to stand right at the front and block the view for the other guests. But Maami, our never-say-die girl wouldn’t give up, she hopped on to the stage and squeezed in beside the official photographer and clicked pictures. It was official now; Miss Thendral Muthusamy was now Mrs Thendral Durai Pandi.

The elders and guests lined up to bless the newly-wed couple. Thendral and Durai had quite a time touching the elders' feet for blessings. We now looked around and spotted our gang right at the very back of the hall. VP, Prasad, Vivek M.E(bar)@ Maapu, Muthu @ Solo, Baskar and Vijayakumar senior were the MIT CS gang that had made it to the wedding. We had already met the family people a few minutes before – Reemaa, Priya and their respective husbands, Satish and his wife.

Pongal session started in full earnest. It started off with deceptively mild how-are-you-s, and then progressively turned into riotous fun. Our 8-point-someone Maapu M.E(bar/overline) , Maami, and unfortunately, me :( were the center of ootals. They wouldn’t let me forget the seminar I had given at MIT a couple of days back, and I was branded dhrohi :). Also, I will not deny that I thanked my stars our 8.5er Vivek M.E(bar) had missed the seminar. Finally, the crowd near the stage thinned out a bit and we made our way to the stage, wished the couple and handed over gifts.

Not the ones to miss a feast, the guys had finished a good breakfast earlier. But we poor girls had no such luck, so we insisted we finish our lunch before we made our next move. We finished a delicious traditional Chettinadu lunch, and over ice creams, we made plans to visit the famous Chettinadu palaces/mansions around Karaikudi after a short stop at the hotel to freshen up.

A little past noon, all of us with the exception of sincere Oracle’r Baskar were ready to explore the Chettinadu, C/o our official guide, Muthu. We hired an auto and our convoy of auto and Indica was on the road headed towards to the Chettinadu Royal Mansion of Rajah Annamalai Chettiar’s lineage. The ride was fun; the winding road was well laid and flanked by fields of cashew trees and other plants, no traffic and no requirements for screeching braking.

Chettinadu Mansion

Though often seen in movies, the splendour of the mansion was still awe-inspiring. Two more or less identical mansions stood side by side. One was being occupied by the members of the extended family and was private. The other was generally open to public viewing, but recently due to some reasons, it was closed. One needed connections and recommendations to get in. Fortunately for us, our VP knew some political VIP, or his father did, which was lucky for us. I doubt we would have been able to get in otherwise.

As we stepped inside the entrance gate, the first thing that struck us was the coolness of the place as opposed to the scorching sun outside. We fell in love with the huge pillars, the cool flooring tiles that were unique to Chettinadu and the massive door under an ornate threshold immediately. All this before we had even stepped in. Once inside, the main hall was a exhibition of sorts – huge portraits of the eminent members of the family – all easily recognizable names, a man-sized mirror flanked by a pair of huge ivory tusks polished to a shine, a smaller mirror on a table flanked by a pair or minutely carved tusks, an elephant’s preserved foot, many intricate wooden and metal sculptures, a showcase of graduation-type gowns – this was after all the home of family that founded a university, Annamalai University, and many other framed citations. When we had finished gawking at the exhibits and the painted ceiling that was two floors high and stained glass windows, we stepped over another huge threshold and we were in the courtyard that was the trademark of Chettinadu style of architecture. 

Solo Muthu @ royal courtyard

The concept of courtyards is difficult to explain in words to someone not ethnically South-Indian, but I do not think I need to spend too much time here. The courtyard was long with a wide corridor running around it, from where doors opened into rooms on every side. The building was two-storeyed and we made our way up the stairs to the upper corridor that housed the private quarters of the senior members of the family. The rooms were locked and the police guard informed us that some valuable items were locked in there. Good thing the stunt Vivek and Prasad tried did not trigger the burglar alarms fitted on the doors.

Stunt

Leading from the first courtyard was another courtyard. These courtyards were where the photo sessions started :) Vivek was keen on his mission of “no-solos” and Prasad would very obligingly click pictures of someone, then instruct that person to click a similar picture of him. :)

Nattaama...

Our next stop was at Kalathupalayam. For that ride we abandoned our auto and rode in the Innova that our VIP escort had provided. The AC ride was a pleasant interlude after the anal-kathu­ ride earlier. The facade of the mansion was not too promising except for the 3D effect sculpture above the main doorway. But the minute we stepped in, we were impressed even more than we had been with the Chettinadu mansion. The main hall here was blank and we could admire the tiles and ceiling better. This house had an upper corridor to the main hall as well. The bonus here was that one of the rooms was open. It had a huge cot and dressing table. The cot had a kind of rotating apparatus with a mirror on one side and a painting on another at both ends. The ceiling was of wood and the wood everywhere was beautifully polished.

Next we explored the courtyard. Here our Chettinadu-karan Muthu explained the use of this courtyard for weddings and pujas. The photo session here was centred around the pillars and was great fun. From the upper corridors, there was a provision to go to the open terrace as well. Standing on the terrace, we saw palatial mansions on every side – some inhabited, some locked, all in the same style –built around courtyards, but each had it’s own unique features we were told.

Now our guide was starting to get tensed as we were getting late, his endearments urging us to finish our photo-shoots faster fell on deaf ears. Finally, he managed to shoo us out of the house and we went on to Athangudi.

Muthu was related to one of the owners of the Athangudi house and this was where he had spent most of his childhood vacations. We even got to see his childhood cricket pitch in the entrance verandah of the house and the “stumps” drawn on the wall :)

While the previous mansions had been purely Indian, this house had some elements of Anglo-Roman architecture – some of the wall paintings had modern elements like trains, etc and were often flanked by baby angels with wings and such. The intricacy of paintings and tiles was more pronounced here and the doors had mirror and inlay work in them. Each hall had a story painted as a mural series in the arches above the windows. Some of the paintings were pointed out as made of herbal-based paints. To the right and left of the courtyard, apart from the rooms, there opened a long room running the entire length of the house, presumably a dining hall for the functions and festivals. We could almost imagine long lines of men and women dining there on banana leaves, enjoying a traditional Chettinadu feast.

Fun at Athangudi house

We couldn’t help but wonder at how such huge mansions had been lived in and maintained. In earlier days, there would have probably been a bustling life there with people occupying almost all parts of the house. Now, the members of the family stayed in smaller quarters on either sides of the main mansion.

Our “palace” tour done, we sauntered to the tea-shop next door and sipped hot tea. Our “cheers” picture with the plastic and glass tumblers invited a few laughs, but then, when have we cared about all that? :)

Our time at Karaikudi was almost up, atleast for us girls. I had to board the bus to Bangalore at 8.45 and Nithi and Indu had to catch their train at 8.30. The guys bound to Chennai had till 11 pm before they had to get on their train. So we had barely 2.5 hours to pack up, visit Muthu’s place, have dinner and start. Also, Nithi had to visit her periappa’s house and I wanted to visit one of our senior’s house nearby.

We packed at top speed and then Nithi rushed to her uncle’s place and I walked down to Ananthu senior’s home that was just down the lane. I had never met his parents earlier, but he had called ahead to say I was coming. Uncle and Aunty were easy to talk to and I had a good time chatting with them about MIT, senior and his friends, etc. Uncle showed me albums – family albums, and albums that senior had, they were fun to look at, especially those of MIT days. We even spotted a couple of pics of me in my first year :) I wish I had more time to look at all the albums at leisure, but we were pressed for time and I had already gotten a call from Nithi to get back soon as we were running late. So I said my byes and rushed back to the hotel room.

With just an hour and half to go, we reached Muthu’s house that was again only a hundred metres or so from our hotel. Muthu’s home was a charming house of traditional Chettinadu architecture. We looked around the house and saw an album of his younger days – we couldn’t resist clicking a picture of one or two photos in the album :) We hardly had any time to spend there. Aunty served us girls dinner while VP and Muthu went to get the famous Karaikudi kaimurukku for all of us to carry home. I have said a lot here about the food already, but I cannot leave out Aunty’s excellent dinner preparation. Sweet sevai, idli and kolumbu were simply heavenly. As we chatted, Aunty kept replenishing our plates and we had to plead that we really couldn’t have more before she stopped serving us :) Dinner done, we got our blessings from Muthu’s patti and bade our goodbyes to Uncle, Aunty and Muthu’s brother Natchiappan and left.

Nithi and Indu were in a hurry now as it was over 8.00 PM. They rushed to the station. I lugged my bags down more slowly and made my way to the ABT office just across the road, bidding goodbye to the guys. Baskar finally materialized out of his hotel room and appeared at the ABT office as well.

Thendral’s friends from Siemens, Gowri akka, Saravanan anna, Baskar and myself stood around chatting with Baskar anna for a few minutes. We got on the bus and much to the despair of Gowri akka, Baskar was in the seat right before her. And he faithfully promised to do his best to keep her awake with his telephonic-working that night as well :) Thankfully, for both of us, he did not have to take a call that night. Narayana, Janani and myself chatted for a while till we reached Trichy at about 11 PM. Divya, who was feeling queasy, had also recovered by then and slowly we drifted off to sleep.

A taste of Chettinadu masala - Part I

It is this phase of life when you attend wedding after wedding – friends, classmates, colleagues. Weddings are eternal in more ways than one – two people tie a knot for eternity, they are eternal in another sense too – one never stops attending weddings, they come in all shades and in various circles – relatives, neighbours, so on and so forth. But there is something very special and incomparable about attending a childhood or college friend’s wedding. We see a pal join hands with a friend for life to walk the long journey. It is in some ways, a parting of ways, and in some ways, welcoming a new friend. It can be scary, yet at the same time joyful, for all concerned.

It is to one such special occasion that I will dedicate a couple of posts here – to freeze the memories in words, to look back on and cherish. There will be more than the wedding itinerary here – meeting old friends, experiencing a new place and its heritage, getting to know a friend’s family, making new friends. In all, a lovely experience that ought not to be eroded by the sea of forgetfulness.

On the sultry evening of the 22^nd of October, myself and Nithya threw our paraphernalia into a bag, negotiated the Chennai traffic in an auto and rushed into the Guindy station to meet up with Indu @ Maami enroute to Egmore to board a train to the heartland of TamilNadu – Karaikudi.  Thendral, 20033753 and our dear friend was to wed Mr. Durai Pandi on the 24^th Oct, 2010. Orders concerning our travel to the marriage venue had come from Ms. Thendral well in advance, not that we would miss it anyway :)  I had hatched the seemingly brilliant plan of traveling from Chennai, which meant I was on traveling SBC-MAS the previous night. The travel and a day in blistering heat of Chennai had already sapped my energy and I was ready to drop asleep at a moment’s notice. But the excitement-fuelled adrenalin helped sustain me from blanking out on Nithi as yet.

As the train pulled out of Egmore at 9.45 PM, we attacked our dinner of idlis and chappathis with ardour and the salt intake energized me, and we were all set for a good old pongal session(pongal is MIT lingo for chatting :) ). The dinner was again a reminder of our numerous lunches and dinners at MITLH (short for MIT Ladies hostel). We then lived a simple life – open the parcel, dig in. What is the need for separate plates? And did anyone say spoons??!? ;) We did not think twice about going back to our simple lifestyle. We probably did attract a few stares, as Nithi belatedly wondered the next day, but then, we did not notice them.

We alighted at Karaikudi junction the next morning. The weather was pleasant, lulling us into a misinterpretation of the heat that was to cook us later in the day. As we awaited the pickup vehicle Thendral’s brother-in-law had arranged for us, we noticed a boisterous gang boarding vehicles in front of the station. Just as we were wondering if they were there for the wedding as well, we spotted the groom in their midst. He was busy ensuring his friends were all accommodated in their vehicles getting a few bumps from them in the process, and he paid no attention the three poor girls standing a few yards away clutching their bags. Grave mistake Mr. Durai Pandi, the bride was going to hear about this! And we vowed to get back at him for that ;)

Hotel Golden Singar opened its door to us. The room was neat and comfortable and the beds beckoned us. But our stomachs growled in protest and we reluctantly acquiesced. Fresh and fully awake now, we made our way to the restaurant downstairs and feasted on Podi dosai, Masal dosai and pongal. The food was awesome, it was no means like any hotel food. Crisp and homely, the dosais disappeared in no time at all, shortly followed by the melt-in-the-mouth, non-greasy pongal.

Bathed and fed, now we called the bride and she excitedly made plans for us to join her at her home. We asked for the address, but she wouldn’t hear of it, insisting that she send an auto to pick us up. The ride in Mr. Ambuli’s auto gave us our first feel of Karaikudi, wide roads and not one double-storeyed building in sight, it gave us the feeling of being in the semi-urban, no, rural, no, semi-rural, well, it can be best put as Indian countryside.

Thendral’s home had all the signs of a bride’s house. Frenzied preparations were in progress – sweets being packed, maapillai alaippu tambulams being readied, relatives busy at various other tasks. And of course, the center of attraction, the star of the day….. our darling, Muthu Pandi! ;) No, not Thendral, she comes next to her nephew, don’t you agree, Thendral?

Thendral was all smiles and vetkam at being teased, with her athachi or anni being our first partner in that. We really missed capturing on film, the blushing Thendral when we gave her a photo frame with Durai and her pics in it. We settled in at no time at all, and in a few mins, the seemingly shy Muthu kutty was dosth with us and things were only fun from there. We met Thendral’s brothers – Baskar anna, Bose anna and Illayaraja anna, and her sister Kavita akka and her kids – cute, doe-eyed Mahadarshini and her new-born brother. 

Muthu Kutty

We had a totally gala time decking up Thendral, not to forget the sumptuous lunch, and the bride was ready to go to the mandapam. By then, the house was in total chaos, Maha and her brother gave akka a tough time and we somehow managed to get some lunch into Muthu kutty. At about 4.30 pm, we started from the house, Thendral and her family went to the mandapam, and we three went to the hotel to freshen-up. The travel and the excitement of the morning finally caught up with us and we crashed on the inviting bed for a short nap.

Refreshed from our nap, we scrambled to get ready – we had orders from Anni to reach the marriage hall soon, and at 6.30 pm we made our way to the mandapam, a couple of hundred metres from our hotel. The maapillai alaippu, marked by the deafening fireworks, courtesy of Durai’s friends, was in progress as we walked in. The bride was getting ready and we sat around and chatted, followed by our personal photo session with the bride. Thendral looked gorgeous in her maaman-seeru purple-pink saree and the hairdressing was simply beautiful. We met the Durai and we chatted for a few minutes. That was when we had our chance at revenge on the groom, he was at our mercy for a sneak peek at the bride and he did not get one ;)

Private photo session with the bride

Muthu kutty was restless, all the running around had tired him nicely and anni was worried he was running a temperature. We all took our turns at carrying him around and pacifying him. He wanted to meet Durai maama, and we took him to meet the groom, small consolation for the groom, nephew in place of the aunt. ;)

Anni escorted Thendral for the ceremony downstairs and we spent our time clicking pictures and observing the rituals. The Chettinadu rituals were foreign to all of us and interesting to watch. Thendral was quiet and serious as she performed the rituals expected of her.

Finally, it was time for dinner. In fact, it had been dinnertime for quite sometime then, one after another Thendral’s annas had repeatedly urged us to have our dinner but we were having too much fun to think about food. But now, we were terribly hungry and we meekily surrendered to Bose anna’s orders to go down to the dinner hall. Dinner was simple and simply delicious – idli, dosai, and idiappam made the main course, with chicken and mutton kolumbu to go with it. Just as we finished one item, our ilais were replenished speedily with piping hot dosais or idlis. Care was taken to ensure vegetarians were served vegetarian side dishes. We rounded it off with palpaniyaram and carrot halwa followed by milk laced with pannankarupatti.

We met Thendral’s friends from work – Divya, Janani, Velmurugan and Naryananan, we chatted for a few minutes. We all said our byes to Miss Thendral Muthusamy (point to be noted ;) ) and walked down to the hotel together escorted by Baskar anna, for they wouldn’t trust Vel and Narayanan with escorting us safely ;) Come what may, what is a get together with old friends without pongal? We were dead tired, yet we couldn’t resist a short chat session in our room before we finally drifted off to sleep.