Updates...

Sibi has started school. Now, he has started school last week itself and I was there for a couple of days to send him off and bring him back. He is crying and ofcourse, now saying that 'school vendam' but once he comes back from school he says 'school alama ponum'. But he cries anyway the next day. He is talking cutely these days and there is no way to tell him anything harshly. I often wonder about that kural 'Kulazinithu Yazhinithu enbartham makkal mazhalai sol kelathar'. That is so true. At home, he writes a few words and numbers and is making progress in learning rhymes and Tamil. Hopefully he learns to adapt in school and like it.

As promised here is my take on the conversion of Nadars/saanars into christianity. Since one of my grand mother was a converted christian and many other relatives of mine are christians, I had an interest in understanding the history and thereby try to reason the conversions that goes on within the Nadar community. There is a very good document by a missionary which studies the spread of christianity in the Thirunelveli district and the conversion activites in the area in the past 300 years. This is interesting because there are passing references to the reasons for the local converting into the fold. Nadars/Saanars are the people in the south tamil nadu area who are dependant on the palmyra trees for their livelihood. In fact, my grandfather used to tell us that we are the 'panai eri kootam' (people who climb palm trees). They are not caste hindus (like the vellalas of north TN) or the untouchables. They are somewhere in between and this is one of the major reasons why the conversions took place. The aspiration for a social status within the community was high and there were riots and struggles by the Nadars in the south recorded by the Bristish demanding social justice in the 19th century. Christianity promised a social status for these people if they converted. This was one of the major inducements for converting and there are records showing conversion of entire villages(of nadars). Since the conversion was in groups, there was not much friction in the social fabric of the village except that there is church in the village now. One of the events that triggered the large scale conversion was the 'thol seelai' struggle in the Travancore samasthanam(which included Kanyakumari, Nagerkoil and other areas of south TN) in 1860. Before these times, anyone other than the caste Hindus were prohibited from wearing the upper garments. The struggle for wearing the upper garments started sometime in the 1850s and there were riots and uprisings in support of this. This was the period when the missionaries were able to convert large number of Hindus (including Nadars) promising (and delivering) them the rights to wear upper garments. Uthram Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the ruler of Travancore, noticed this and gave the same right to everyone by 1860. This ,along with the temple entry for lower castes, seems to be the major reasons why a large number of Nadars converted into Christianity. One other aspect is the educational oppurtunities available for the christians in the area. Even today, Thirunelveli is literally swarmed with schools and colleges, most of which were run by Christian missionaries and institutions. Education offered a chance for the community to rise beyond the daily grind of palmyra business and respect gained because of it is another bonus. Thus by 1895, the missionaries had accomplished their mission in the southern TN to a large extent. There were resistance from the Hindus for these activities from earlier days and the notable ones include Arumuga Navalar, who basically took on the missionaries in refuting their claims on Hinduism and was able to re-convert a few as well as convince a lot more not to convert. Of course, the missionaries view of this and the Arya Samaj activities is to cry persecution. By 1900s, the conversion activites has slowed down and the social reform movements were in full swing. I really have no idea about the current state of affairs. But as it is, it goes to show that till social justice is meted out, these activities will continue.

Whiz Kids and Tamil blogs...

All my life I have read about the whiz kids. 4 year old Kids who can remember 1330 Thirukurals, 3 year olds who can name 130 countries and their flags along with the national bird, animal, flower and other crap or 5 year olds who swim across the Palk strait or climb up the KanchenJunga, 6 year olds who recite the entire Thevaram along with other Thirumarais. Where are these kids now?. While I was busy playing roadside cricket (OK, watching), reading Ponniyin Selvan and cycling around Teppakulam, these kids were doing all these things. Now, I am wondering what happened to these kids?. The assumption was that if these kids are so good at an early stage they must've become high achievers in their later life also. Now its 10-15 years since that and definitely all these kids must've grown up by now. Whatever happened to them?. Of course, I am reading about the current crop of whiz kids in Hindu and elsewhere. Strange.

There is a site, Tamizhmanam ,which publishes all the blogs that are published in Tamil. There is a surprising number of blogs there and the number of people who publish in Tamil is astounding. Infact I found Manushyaputran's blog there. It was quite a surprise. I don't know who else is lurking there (Sujatha?).

Should I publish in Tamil?. Not for now anyway. Not that I am anti-tamil or anything. But if I start writing in tamil, I will end up using a lot of english words. So until I feel that I can do justice to the entries I am not attempting it.

Sibi - Updates

Sibi was not well these past few days and that had a direct impact on the frequency of blogs. It looks nothing but some common cold with some throwing up. Anyway, important thing is he is doing well now. Weekend was busy with shopping and other mundane activities with visits to a pediatrician. Surprising part is that, Sibi behaved wonderfully during the doctor visit, which was a total surprise to me. Last time I remmeber, he was crying and wouldn't even let the doctot touch him (but that was in Alpharetta, anyway). So is it because it is an Indian doctor or is it because he has just grown now?. Ofcourse, he is starting school on Wednesday and it is a great occasion for us. He is going to start L.K.G and I dont think he is that enthused about it. I really pray he start liking the school and make a few friends.

No tickets for Anniyan this week also. Only tickets left are for the 7.30AM show. For a Vikram starrer, I have no inclination to lose my precious early morning sleep. So next week it is. Anyway, I am not that worked up to see the movie anyway.

And I can write a huge volume about finding some affordable housing in this crazy city where the real market prices resemble the black market prices for food in the starved Africa. Its very high, insane and driven up by completely idiotic logic. I am sticking to my budget and hell will freeze over before I change it. What a rip off!. I am just wondering how a person with a 15000Rs salary (which is the median income p.m for most of the Govt. employees and others employed in non-IT jobs) can afford a house/flat in this city?. Had to write a post on my adventures on this end also.

Anniyan and Batman

This is the week that sees the releast of 'Anniyan' and 'Batman Begins'. I am trying to see whether I can see at least one of these two. Of course 'Anniyan' is booked for the week. Need to enquire about Batman. Surprisingly, it has good some very good reviews so far and so I want to see it. After seeing Clooney in the Bat suit and the pathetic excuse of a movie called 'Batman & Robin', I am really very skeptical about this one. But being a childhood fan of Batman, I had to watch it. Of course, I am waiting for the reviews on 'Anniyan' and looks like it will be another week before I can see it. Never mind.

Read this article about the riots in rural China. I wonder what the communists in this country had to say about it. Probably, they will denounce it as the conspiracy of capitalists to tarnish the 'glorious revolution'. I wonder why noone asks these questions to the stalwarts of the Party in this country.

Eventful Weekend and in defence of chickflicks..

Surprisingly, I did a lot of things this weekend against my best instincts to lay bck and rest. Went to Higginbothams and bought a few books ('Purananuru - Oru arimugam' by Sujatha). Shopped around in Spencers (vcd's/shirts/snacks for home etc). With my wife not in town, I was taking solace in shopping around wildly. Almost like the chocalate-munching post-depression dumbos. Actually, I abolutely had no idea what I wanted to do. Horrible. Anyway, you shop in the glittering shops in Spencers and come out, you see a lady with her(?) child begging for money. While the paradox is quite interesting for the thought process, it will not feed that female. Reminds me of a poem by Pasuvaiah (Pesinom/vivathithom/melum pesinom/ ennathan sathithom?). Not exactly the same words. But makes the point. There should be a way to help all these poor people in this city. How?.

One of the things that confounded me all these days after reading the detailed, multiple-perspective histories of Greece/Rome/China in the eons, why there is no such thing for the 'oldest civilization' of all, Tamils?. While we take pride in the fact that our grammer was defined 2000 years back and hence, the language, by extension the people, should at least be another 1000 year older, there is no hard evidence for this and you dont see the amount of literature it warrants in the world space. Why?. We talk of the kumari kandam, people from lemuria, the first Tamil sangam with Lord Shiva, Lord Murugan in it. How much of it can be scientifically proven?. In the preface to 'Purananuru - oru arimugam', Sujatha raises few of these questions himself. One differnce is that he knows some answers or at least people who have researched on this front. One such person is Prof. S. Vaiyapuri pillai. His 'History of Tamil language and literature' is supposed to be very scientific and is very good in placing the various Tamil epics in different time periods. Basically he places all the epics between 200B.C to 200AD. This did not go well with the other Tamil scholars who are very emotional about the fact that Tamil cannot be dated. This is the kind of approach that resulted in us not having a decent history of our culture before the Pallavas and Later Cholas. There needs to be a lot of research to be done in this area and there should be an effort to jot down and write a concise history of our culture and language for the period 500BC to 500AD. This is a daunting task and needs to be done if we are to have any history other than just rheotoric. By the way, I am looking for this book by Vaiyapuri Pillai and anyone knows where I can get this let me know.

And there is a fight going on over a story called 'Pillai Keduthan Vilai' by Su.Raa. The original story can be read here and the reaction by AzhakiyaPeriyavan is here. I couldn't find link to the article by Charu Nivedita on the same in 'Theera Nadhi'(I read it in the published version). But you can try to search and find. Also the responses in Kalachuvadu are in the April and May editions. Personally, I think the story is good and the fight is unwarranted.

Yesterday went to ThiruAlliKeni Parthasarathy temple. Met an interesting blind man in the MTC bus by name Woodrow Wilson. Howz that?. I know there are enough comrades around there to name their kids Stalin and Lenin and such but a Woodrow Wilson is not what I dreamt of. But of course, his father is a history prof in St.Stephans in Delhi and thus the name. Had a interesting chit-chat with him for a while. And the temple was crowded because it was sunday and a lot of tourists were there. After dharsanam, listened to a speech some acharyar about the songs of ThondaradipodiAlwar. It was very interesting. Then returned back home and watched 'Kandukondein Kandukondein'.

I remember a conversation I had with a friend called Prasanna (whatever happened to him, last heard he was in SanJose). He was actually making fun of me for watching the chickflicks with such regularity and on top of it, buying the DVDs and watching them also. I ,for one, believe that chickflicks are actually good for the soul, in that, they bring out the emotions from within and makes you realize that you are a human being, after all. Long time back (7 years, perhaps), I used to have a visitor to my apartment for weekends (I was in Omaha, NE then). He was a 34-35 year old man with wife and kids in India. All he will do is watch the weather channel from morning to evening and very much interested in weather talks. What the ..?. I used to joke with Hari that 5-6 years of married life will make you into a specimen like that. Now, watch chickflicks and you will never be want of lively interests in life.

Now, when Ajith leaves Tabu in the climax or the scene where Aish convinces Mamooty that she really loves him may not go into filmi history as the best pieces of cinematic excellence but the jerk they make inside the heart with the slight tug into the throat that chokes a little emotion out of you is indeed wonderful. Of course, watched 'Sense and Sensibility' immediately after that. Again the climax. Ferrars (Hugh Grant) tells Elinor (Emma Thompson) that it is his brother who is married and so he is free to love anyone, there is a moment of surprise in Emma's eyes then comes the breakdown, tears, sobs and full-fledged crying. Isn't it heart-wrenching?. But then, why is Hugh Grant always act like he is half-drunk and is sleep-walking into the frames?.

I am reading a lot about the conversion of Nadar/Saanar community in the south Tamilnadu into Christianity. But thats for another day...

Upper berth with viruthappa

Its been a boring week. Except for the one day when I went out to pick students from a different campus this time and had fun travelling to Coimbatore and then on to Sathyamangalam. But this is not about it. This is about the wonderful rail network run by Indian Railways. After starting to go for the campuses, I am travelling regularly by trains (in second/third class A/C). All the times the trains leave on time and reach the destination on time and the comfort is without parallels. Sleeping in a upper berth(somehow I like upper berths,reminding me of the superb short story written by Adhavan by the same name) with the vents blowing A/C , there is no tiredness whatsoever when you reach the destination. Comparing it with the dreary 7 hour red-eye flight, in economy class,from LA to EWR, I feel Indian Railways is the hands-down winner. Of course, reserving is much easier with the online reservation system and tracking the trains online, IR is into the internet world also. Hats-off!.

Was reading Gnanakoothan's 'Andru Veru Kilamai' yesternight. I bought this book in 1995 and it is amazing that the kavithai are still fresh and puts a smile on your face whenever you read it. Another such book is Vikramadityan's 'Thiruuttarakosamangai'.

I found that 'Thiruvasagam in Symphony' is going to be released on June 20. So, do not download/bit torrent/share it but buy it from your neighbourhood shop and enjoy.