Let me say a kutty story

 Let me write a kutti story ..Pay attention listen to me

If you want take it ..or else venam tension leave it baby …

 Just imagine what I am describing ….There was one person who was caught in a vast thick forest which was inhabited by lions, tigers, elephants etc.,The person became disturbed and frightened and went hither and thither to find out some place of refuge. He did not succeed and while he was running around the forest he fell into the pit and caught himself hanging from a branch of a big tree. As he was hanging from the branch he witnessed following:

1)      Huge elephant catching hold of the tree

2)      Snakes below the person who was all getting ready for him to fall

3)      White and black rats sitting on one corner of the branch which are slowly but surely eating the branch

4)      Honey comb with honey drops falling on top of the person and bees flying around

 Interpretation of Elephant: Elephant catching hold of the tree represent past karma; If you have earned good karma elephant can pull the tree over from the pit and escape you from falling directly into snakes; Instead if you earned bat karma elephant can expedite you falling into the pit and make things miserable. Karma plays a huge role in one’s life and many a times when people face hardships for which they do not have any control the reason can be bad karma inherited from past.

 Interpretation of Snakes: If elephant represent past karma then snakes represent future karma. If you have done good things and inherited good karma then there is a chance these snakes can be non poisonous; In case you have committed many sins then these snakes are all ready to bite you. That is why it is very important to inherit good karma as much as possible not just for the well being of oneself instead well being of the whole family.

 Interpretation of white and black rats: Black and white rats represent day and night respectively and slowly but surely they eat up time and take you closer to death. Whether you are in purple patch or going through a rough phase time always ticks. Days and nights keep rolling by and as they say ‘Time and tide waits for no man’.

 Interpretation of Honey comb: There are so many dangerous signs for the person hanging from the branch instead he relishes the honey drops that are falling which are nothing but the materialistic possession. Human beings always have this love towards materialistic world though they may portray otherwise. 5 series BMW for a male, diamond necklace for a young lady, bike/Ipad for a teenager all brings in so much of happiness. Desire never ends and people keep running and running to buy more and more assets (movable/immovable). Person forgets about everything that is happening around him since he is carried away by the sweet drops, even bees fly around and try to wound the person but still the joy of having honey drops makes the person in intoxicated state.

 Lord Vishnu: Lord Vishnu extends his hand to help the human to give him Moksha and release him from the cycle of rebirth but the person is so engrossed in the dripping Honey that he fails to see the helping hand of Lord Vishnu. In life when God is ready to help us we humans give paramount importance to worldly pleasures which people derive from materialistic world. People pray with full spirit but when they get to experience materialistic world they get carried away.

 Summary: Corona has given us all free tuition on philosophy and help us understand life is very uncertain. It reminded us that no matter how much bank balance you have in the end it will be transferred to some other name, all pathiram/deeds are mere legal A4 sheets of paper; In this Corona period all of us must have lost at least one person in our near and dear circle. When someone leaves this world you are reminded of two things: 

(a)You are reminded of the good time spent together 

(b)Humanitarian based work the person did etc., Basically the good deeds(dharma kariyangal) you do is going to stay in people’s mind. 

Look at Vivek, almost entire Tamil Nadu mourned for his death. More than his movies people remember him for the number of trees he planted. From what I understand embracing with religious activities and earning good karma by associating ourselves in as many charitable causes should be our goals in life. 

Next blog: TN Election results (already have few punchlines ready - BJP is pista in north whereas in TN it is mere sundakka, MNM party can be proud of their feat and deserve some M&M)

Banana Tree

 Vaalai maram is nothing but Plantain tree and is considered to be very auspicious especially in Tamil Nadu. In any function we will see vazhai maram in the front entrance and there is a rationale behind it – plantain tree has a special feature that of producing baby plantain tree from the root and that is why they say 'வாழை அடி வாழை’.It basically means family should be prosperous and produce more offspring. Also within my community there is a tradition when relatives meet for an occasion plantain is cooked signifying unity of the family. Also Banana is one among the two fruits which is considered to be sacred as far as Neiveidhyam since they do not grow after throwing the leftover part. If you eat banana and throw its peel nothing will grow out of it. Our ancestors made Banana as one of the prasadam items which had good nutritional values and medicinal values on top of being sacred. It is also readily available and very affordable for people from all walks of life.

   Let us look into some of the health benefits plantain tree has to offer. The stem (Vazha thandu) is an effective method to combat renal stone problems. The potassium content and the diuretic properties in the stem help to stall the formation of calcium lumps or crystals from the kidney. Banana stem also helps in treating Urinary tract infections due to presence of Vitamin B6. Banana flowers (Vazhai poo) is loaded with fibre, protein, potassium, calcium, copper, phosphorus, iron, magnesium and Vitamin E and the beauty is it is affordable for all. Banana flowers are loaded with antioxidants which battle free radicals, they inhibit growth of pathogenic bacteria thereby keeping infections at bay, and for women they help in increasing progesterone levels in the body thereby preventing excessive menstrual bleeding. Thanks to the person who invented Vazhai poo vadai - he deserves a diamond ring; Banana leaf (Vazhai elai) virundu is always special and no costly plate can come close to a meal served in Vazhai elai. Leaf has got polyphenols which contain natural antioxidant. On top of that it contains Chlorophyll which helps in treating ulcer and skin problems. After its use once you throw it either becomes food for dogs/cows or becomes natural fertilizer for plants.

   Hindu religion always had relation with plants and animals and had a nice bonding with Nature. The plants and animals have direct relation with gods and goddesses and are considered important due to specific qualities. According to Hindu Mythology, Rishi Durvasa had cursed his wife for interrupting his sleep, He cursed her to turn into a banana tree and upon receiving the curse, she pleaded with her husband for a wish that she should be treated special and as a holy plant. Rishi fulfilled her wish and since that day the leaves of banana trees are considered auspicious. Also tree is considered equivalent to 'Devaguru' and planting the tree is equal to having a guru or Brihaspati at home. Tree is devoutly religious which symbolizes Lord Vishnu and worshipping it every thursday one gets benefits of planet Jupiter. 

  Hinduism is always famous for old rituals and practices. Based on Astrology bride or groom may have mangalya dosham. As per birth chart this may bring issues in their respective marriage life and hence the couple may be deemed incompatible. So if the bride has Mangalya dosham then bride is married off to a banana tree in order to break the curse. It is believed that mangalya dosham causes problems only in first marriage. Then the tree is uprooted and destroyed which symbolizes husband of the bride is no more. Upon nullifying the mangalya dosham then the bride is married off to a real groom. 

Next Blog: Let me say a Kutty Story 

C-A-S-T-E

 

‘Pariyerum Perumal’ was the main reason to come up with this blog and missed watching this movie earlier which definitely had an impact on me on ‘Caste’ based issues. I was very particular to watch Director’s second venture KARNAN as soon as it hit theatres which is once again based on caste but this time the protagonist had the guts to face the society versus Pariyerum perumal where the hero just had to succumb to reality. Both the movies are the driving factors for me to express my views on Caste. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed Karnan as the movie conveyed pain and agony of the oppressed people. Dhanush was brilliant and every time he raised voice in support of oppressed, audience went crazy just because they could relate to the dialogue. One of the dialogues “Kandaiyya mavan Kannabiran aagalam, Madasamy magan Karnana iruku kudatha“ just got reception as much as a Thalaivar intro and my favourite dialogue in Pariyerum Perumal was the climax dialogue “Neenga Neengala irukura varaikum, naan naaya thaan irukanunu neenga edirpaarkura varaikum inga eduvumae maaradhu". These sort of dialogues are slice of life of oppressed people and people tend to think we live in 21^st century and talking about caste is outdated but little do they realize Caste plays a significant role on so many different facets of life in a place like India where we have slum as well as Bandra next to each other. In other words people who reside in Mount Road, Chennai or M.G Road, Bangalore may not know about caste whereas the working class who commute daily to these places from different parts of the city know how caste discriminated them.

 Caste and Politics:

Caste and politics are interlinked and candidates rely on caste based votes. Let us look into one recent example. Current Tamilnadu Government passed a legislation granting Vanniyars 10.5% internal reservation in Education and Employment within the reservation for MBC (Most backward Class) and DNC (Denotified communities). ADMK’s alliance partner PMK (Paataali Makkal Katchi) is a primarily vanniyar based party and their demand has always to see reservation of vanniyars to see the growth and improve overall livelihood of vanniyars. PMK was asking for more seats from ADMK but once they saw this bill been passed they settled with 23 seats. To dig deeper we will have a category of MBC (V) which will include Vanniyar, Vanniya, Vannia Gounder, Padayachi, Palli and AGNIKULA Kshatriya sub-castes that come under the Vanniyakula Kshatriya community and this is the group which will enjoy the 10.5% internal reservation while the other 25 castes under MBC and 68 castes under DNC (overall 93 castes) will be allocated a reservation of seven percent. There is still 22 castes which fall under MBC and will enjoy the remaining 2.5%.  So in summary Mr.Karunanidhi’s move of allocating 20% reservation to 108 communities (MBC & DNC) is further itemized by EPS government. Similarly TTV is eyeing Mukkulathors in Kovilpatty, Mr.Raghupathy relies on nagarathar community in Thirumayam though community is a minority one. In districts such as Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi, Thirunelveli and Kaniyamumari we have so many minorities (Christians and muslims) who once again determine who rules the state.

 Caste and Education:

Every now and then we see some hot topics being politicized and NEET is one such topic which is being heavily politicized recently in Tamil nadu. On top of MBC and DNC we have seventy six scheduled castes and thirty six scheduled tribes. Now let us look into how the present practice of reservation in Education system. If there are 100 seats then top 31 seats are awarded based on ranking and the remaining 69% of the seats are based on reservation system. Backward class is allotted 30% quota, Most backward caste is allocated 20% quota, Scheduled caste is allocated 18% and scheduled tribe 1% quota. Within the backward class (30% quota), Backward class Non muslims is 26.5% and backward class muslims is other 3.5%; Within scheduled caste (18% quota), Arunthathiyar is allocated dedicated 1%; According to Supreme court order reservation should not exceed 50% but Tamil Nadu is always an exception and state got its 69% reservation based on authentic records and a law passed at legislative assembly. Education is a key element in building a nation and creating bright citizens but when bright is deprived of quality education due to outdated caste system then how can you expect individuals like Sundar Pichai to settle in India?

 Caste and Job:

I am not going to speak about figures instead I am going to pull some examples of how caste and career go interlinked. Before the supermarket culture came, all of us must have seen grocery shops in our neighbourhood in other words Annachi kadai; primarily people from Thirunelveli settled in various parts of Tamil nadu and got into Grocery business. We are into Medical wholesale distribution for over four decades and pretty much all throughout cashier has always been from our Nagarathar community; No prizes for guessing the unwritten rule is if you want to get selected into Tamil nadu cricket team and eventually into National cricket team, One of the leading private bank in India which is performing very well is based out of Kumbakonam based from a particular community, in Tamil nadu when it comes to Bakery business you will find one ‘Iyengar’ bakery in every kilometre and one of the largest drug manufacturers in India is named by its caste. When you approach for a loan though collateral and other formalities are seen in those days caste did play a role on ‘Trust’ factor and once again caste played a role on who gets a loan and how much one gets. Across the border if you take Kammas they are one of the richest castes in entire India and cream of Tollywood belong to this caste. They had vast landholdings in and around Krishna-Guntur area which is blessed with fertile lands thereby making them financially stable. If you take Marathi Brahmins they are into Political circle and similarly caste plays a significant role in shaping careers for many people. 

 Caste and Matrimonial services

 I have taken Hindu paper (Dated April 11,2021) and let me go over few highlighted areas - 

Fair/Mudaliyar seeks groom, Pillai seeks grrom, Velakatala Nair seeks groom, Wanted Tamil Iyer boy, Arunththiyar seeks groom, Gavara-Naidu seeks marriage, Saiva Vellala seek groom, Hindu SC seeks groom; Under Elite Matrimony column: Brahmin looking for a match, Thevar looking for a match, Mudaliyar looking for a match, Arya Vysya looking for a match, Viswakarma looking for a match, Vanniyakula Kshatriyar looking for a match so on and so forth ...Trust me these are wordings from last Hindu edition. 

Looking into all of these I have couple of questions: 

1) If a person from Caste A marries person from Caste B then the kid from both of them belongs to which caste ? How will they determine the eligibility criteria for the kid as far as education or career purposes ?

2) If a particular caste in shrinking and there is gender imbalance within the caste, who is the governing body to make decisions as far as sustenance of the community? 

It is easy to say Caste system has to go and pave way for deserved candidates rather than reservation system but  unfortunately Politics is involved. We need young blood and a dynamic leader to make ground breaking decisions with respect to Caste. 

So what am I upto?

You might wonder I started with two movies based on caste and slowly went over how caste played a role in different aspects of one's living but not sure what exactly I am coming to say. Well I am just expressing my views on caste and believe caste is here to stay for few more generations before it  gets wiped away. India started its IT revolution from mid 90's and there was a golden era when Mr.Chandrababu Naidu in AP, Mr.SM Krishna in Karnataka, Mr.Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu along with help from past US president Bill Clinton paved way for India's tremendous IT growth. Economic liberalization started in huge proportions and we started to witness standard of living get into new paradigms. Assuming those who got married in mid 90's then those are the people who would have kids ready for marriage now in 2021. Since these kids had good education and got used to sophisticated living and getting exposed to more people we are seeing intercaste marriages starting to happen more now in India.We have three sets of people - Grand parents, People who got into the IT revolution from mid 90's, kids who are teenagers now. Grand parents belong to old school with traditional values whereas the middle generation is a sandwiched generation where they both have old values from the past along with the cosmopolitan culture from their 30's, teenagers are all Hip-Hop tamizhas !! In another couple of decades once we will have all three generations adapt to the new cultural environment that is when we will have lot of people with forward thinking. Until then caste will make its presence felt in some way or the rather. 

 இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள் to all my readers. 

Next Blog: வாழை