Dinner at a South Indian wedding reception

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 15 Feb 2012, 12:06

People who read my writings seem to conclude that I am averse to any experimentation in music and that I avoid such programmes. I am writing this to disabuse such people of their false notions about me.

I must grant that I grew up in a very traditional South Indian household and had not eaten a chapathi (roti, or whatever you want to call it) or a puri (the same thing fried in oil) until I was about 12 years old. At that time, the North Indians who have donned the mantle of the King Emperor of India pushed wheat on to unsuspecting South Indians in the name of averting a foodgrains shortage in the South; but, if you ask me, more likely to lower our intellectual capabilities to their levels as well as our self-esteem so that we shall soon start accepting Hindusthani sangeeth. They seem to have partially succeeded.

Now to the topic of the reception dinner. It used to be a sit-down affair where the usual South Indian delicacies would be served on a banana leaf. This has now been replaced by a buffet where the South Indian items are reduced to bisibhelahuli anna (a fancy name for sambhar saadham) and curd rice. You have your choice of roti, naan and puri, a couple of North Indian (heavy on the oil, gharam masala and onion) sabzis and dal. Watery tomato soup (this has to be a British import as I have seen nothing like this in the U.S.) is usually the starter. In what the current generation considers "fancy items", we may have a stall selling chat which is really cheap street food not fit for human consumption -- and in some really fancy weddings, Chinese food! Aaaaarrrrggghh!

I do attend these receptions and quietly eat the curd rice and depart from the scene.

In a similar manner, I decided to attend the opening event at Saarang 2012 on the IIT campus in Guindy on Jan 18. This would of course enable me to sample the musical fare on offer as well as gauge the taste of the public that flock to these programs.

The evening opened with a combination of musical genres. We had Shashank Subramaniam on the South Indian flute and Patri Sathish Kumar on the mridangam constituting one side of a triangle. On the second side were Purbayan Chatterjee on the sitar and Chandrajit on the tabla. The triangle was completed by the Mango Fruit Clan, the folk balladeers from Rajasthan, one of whom was a singer, one played a dholak and the third a string instrument called a kamancha which was played with a bow, much like a violin. No, they were not sitting in a triangle but in a straight line but you get the idea -- at least, I hope you do.

About 15 months ago when Carnatica at Bharat Sangeet Utsav presented Chitraveena Ravikiran, Sri Balamuralikrishna and Smt Sudha Raghunathan on stage together, Sruthi magazine wondered if that should be called a trigalbandhi a la a jugalbandhi involving two different persons. I thought the English language had a perfectly acceptable phrase "three ring circus" which would have served the purpose of describing such events but not everybody sees eye to eye with me on these, least of all Carnatica, whose logo of course is the ancient South Indian instrument, the harp!

The opening number was in the raga Ahir Bhairav which we South Indians know as Chakravakam. Shashank took the lead and was followed by the sitarist. When the sitarist went into high-speed phrases, Shashank could match his speed quite easily and convincingly. Soon, Anwar Khan Manganiyar joined in with a bhajan and the whole crew on stage came together in a crashing finale where the dholak, tabla and mridangam joined in, raising the decibel levels, which was highly appreciated by the audience.

Shashank then announced that they would now play the raag Jeth which differed from Mohanam in just one note. My friend suggested it could be the raga Vaasanthi, differing in Dhaivatham from Mohanam, which of course is as mournful as Ahir Bhairav and two such ragas in succession would have induced a deep enough depression in me to cause me to hang myself. I suggested perhaps it would be Mohanam with a lower Rishabham which would make it Varnaroopini whiich is actually a lively raga. I was right and Jeth/Varnaroopini followed. Anwar Khan joined in with a Meera bhajan and towards the end of the item, he was singing "Giridhar, Giridhar, Giridhar". Shades of "Vittala Vittala Vittala" and I wish I was less inhibited that evening so I could have danced. I mean, it is one thing to dance among persons of my own age but quite another to dance when the students of IIT are the age of my own children. I had to maintain some decorum so I did not/could not dance.

The last item was in Sindhubhairavi which the folks from the Sindhu region call just Bhairavi. Shashank announced there would be a percussion solo in which Patri Sathish Kumar would vocalize the words that describe how Krishna danced nimbly on the slimy head of Kalinga. I nearly had a myocardial infarct, assuming it would be the famous Snake Dance Song. Thankfully, it wasn't and Sathish Kumar was vocalizing the Sanskrit words almost like konnakkol. After a while of this, there was a vigorous percussion solo in which all three drums joined for a crashing crescendo. This brought the biggest applause from the audience. As the original song resumed, Anwar Khan led the chant "Giridhar, Giridhar, Giridhar" once again and all the instruments and the voice came together in unison -- and in high decibels.

Going back to the food metaphor, what we had was the equivalent of the South Indian wedding reception dinner. But even in that, people don't mix chop suey with malai kofta. We are taught by our mothers when we are young about how to eat properly and relish each taste individually. Indeed, on occasions when I attempted to camouflage some unpalatable items by mixing everything on the plate together, my mother used to admonish me not to eat like a Vaanchi, whoever Vaanchi might be.

All I can say is that we are raising a generation of musical Vaanchis.

As to the decibel levels, I remember attending the 5000-musician extravaganza in Oct 2010 sponsored by the Art of Living. As they did the sound test at 5 pm, the birds that had returned to their nests for the evening flew off, proving that the people who remained had less sense than the birds. At the IIT, 20,000 watts were being pumped out through 25 pairs of speakers. I pitied the poor animals which were kept in cages at the Children's Park next door, which probably were wondering what natural calamity such as an earthquake was going to strike soon.

Next year, I think I will call the SPCA!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 15 Feb 2012, 13:05

Adding this link in a Hurrymove mode
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/che ... 812016.ece
The festival of IIT-M saarang has certainly lost the artistic touch(too much of sound , flash and lighting) when compared to Mardi -Gras that they used to have few decades back.

priyashekar · Post by **priyashekar** » 15 Feb 2012, 14:02

Harimau the Great! I was just wondering and missing his quotes.What a grand comeback!It is a wonderfully written piece.Cant stop laughing at his snake dance expectation.I fully agree with his views .It is not music but noise.

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 15 Feb 2012, 14:22

harimau wrote: Indeed, on occasions when I attempted to camouflage some unpalatable items by mixing everything on the plate together, my mother used to admonish me not to eat like a Vaanchi, whoever Vaanchi might be.

My granny used to call them "gosaayees"... Never found out the etymology!

Great article, nevertheless!

semmu86 · Post by **semmu86** » 15 Feb 2012, 18:19

Brilliant

mahesh3 · Post by **mahesh3** » 15 Feb 2012, 19:00

GENIUS!

Thalaivarda · Post by **Thalaivarda** » 15 Feb 2012, 19:14

Nice Read.

ramanathan · Post by **ramanathan** » 15 Feb 2012, 19:26

harimau wrote:...least of all Carnatica, whose logo of course is the ancient South Indian instrument, the harp!...

mau, I know you intended this in a sarcastic vein, but guess what? You are right, our logo is indeed the representation of an ancient South Indian instrument! It is called the yAzh and it is indeed a precursor to the western harp and one of the oldest instruments in South Indian music.

Enjoyed your write-up, btw...

kedharam · Post by **kedharam** » 15 Feb 2012, 19:34

gosh...

:):):):):):):)

sakthi.balan · Post by **sakthi.balan** » 15 Feb 2012, 20:18

Superb!

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 15 Feb 2012, 20:21

Do North Indians have buffet at their wedding like South Indians and do they include Idli dosa vada and sambar sadam? With a similar note, do north Indian concerts include south Indian songs? Harimau, I love your well thoughout writeup.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 15 Feb 2012, 22:20

Harimau - Superb, as usual!

Just a word of caution (in the same vein) - with your tongue so firmly planted in your cheek, I am afraid bridging vessels may grow, permanently anchoring the tongue to your cheek (or has it already happened?), and you may need surgery (that is, if you ever want to stop your 'tongue-in-cheek style)!

PS: 1) By the way, why deprive tayir sAdam of its fancy name (bagALA bAt)? 2) I guess when the garam masAla gets heavy, it becomes gharam masAlA...

Sundara Rajan · Post by **Sundara Rajan** » 15 Feb 2012, 22:24

Could "vanchi/gosaayee" refer to the narikoravaa who mix up and enjoy all left overs from thrown out banana leaves at weddings ?!

Thalaivarda · Post by **Thalaivarda** » 15 Feb 2012, 22:35

Drinks being served at one reception, masala dosa, idli at another, non veg at one more, one side of family was brahmin, i see all sort of non sense in bangalore. My relative wedding with a north indian girl had a disco like dance at the reception. Crazy times.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 15 Feb 2012, 22:57

Harimau,
One of your super essays. Enjoyed reading it

I'm a bit smarter than you are in this (experience speaks). However early the muhUrtham is, I go. The lunch promises to be good old traditional fare. I may find a dish or two which bring northern flavor to the traditional meal, but I don' t mind. A hamIr kalyANi or a bhairavi (their kind) does not interfere with my relishing a concert either...

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 15 Feb 2012, 23:15

Excellent, Harimau. Keep up the sociology!

Generally, I avoid fusion, and even jagalbandis, but I have made willing, and enjoyable, exceptions for some of Shashank's collaborations. For one thing, they tend to be collaborations, rather than a struggle for who is going to sing solo and who is going to settle for the support role. I think I might stop short at the trigalbandi, though, particularly at 20,000 watts.

At the IIT, 20,000 watts were being pumped out through 25 pairs of speakers.

Try a genuine rock concert, that is not pretending to be anything else. You should take earplugs, but I think you will enjoy it a great deal more than high-volume high-power "Indian" music.

By the way... I attended a SPICMACAY Shiv Kumar Sharma concert a while back. It was packed, and very good too, with good sound quality at modest levels. What is it with IIT that they only manage a dozen or so for carnatic concerts?

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 16 Feb 2012, 02:06

my mother used to admonish me not to eat like a Vaanchi, whoever Vaanchi might be

Never heard this expression. Does anyone know more about Vaanchi?
My mother always warned me against eating like "Kabandan", a well established presence in Indian mythology, with a track record for gluttony.

VijayR · Post by **VijayR** » 16 Feb 2012, 04:49

Wow, still shaking my head several hours after reading this... Regardless of whether one agrees with the content or not, I am sure most will agree that harimau's writing is never boring!

I am sure I will have a quiet chuckle at every South Indian reception that I happen to attend henceforth.

On a personal note, it is sad that harimau had this experience at Saarang. During my final year as an IIT student (seems like ages ago), I was one of the main student organizers of Saarang 2000. I still remember how particular I was about the audio before the carnatic concert (the concerts at Saarang were called professional shows or pro-shows in IITM slang)... two hours or so spent at the Open Air Theater, making sure that it wasn't thousands of Watts all blasting out of two huge piles of speakers on either side of the main stage! The audio engineer and his crew hated me for it, but I made them move several speakers and was on their case throughout the concert to modulate the output levels.

I guess my (long-winded) point is simply that, especially in an open air theater built for blasting audio and where 90% of the audience is used to (expects?) blaring music in these shows, such things are inevitable unless very carefully monitored by the organizers.

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 16 Feb 2012, 06:25

harimau wrote:People who read my writings seem to conclude that I am averse to any experimentation in music and that I avoid such programmes.

Now what's wrong with avoiding music you don't like?!

That was an entertaining read.

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 16 Feb 2012, 06:41

Harimau wrote: 'my mother used to admonish me not to eat like a Vaanchi, whoever Vaanchi might be.'
In our house our grand mothers used to admonish us if we eat like that 'don't eat like a vaNDikkAran'.
Probably the (bullock)cart drivers who used to travel long distances had this habit. I am not sure.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 16 Feb 2012, 07:07

Great read!

The South Indian Brahmins are a bit a dichotomy. Some remain the most ultra-conservative in their ways and practices, while others are very quick to adapt and take on new customs and practices due to external influences. Of course, there are many in between too!

Ranganayaki · Post by **Ranganayaki** » 16 Feb 2012, 07:52

Harimau, great writing, thanks so much.

varsha · Post by **varsha** » 16 Feb 2012, 07:56

Harimau, great writing, thanks so much.

+ 1
i say this, while swallowing a large chunk of kannada - HM Pride

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 16 Feb 2012, 08:02

Punarvasu, I think vaNDikkArans are a much maligned group...my mother used to invoke them, when I would refuse to eat tayir sAdam

sridhar_ranga · Post by **sridhar_ranga** » 16 Feb 2012, 08:07

PUNARVASU wrote: In our house our grand mothers used to admonish us if we eat like that 'don't eat like a vaNDikkAran'.
Probably the (bullock)cart drivers who used to travel long distances had this habit. I am not sure.

Yeah, vaNDikkAran is what my mom would use in such situations. Perhaps it's the slang more common among tanjoreans.

..my mother used to invoke them, when I would refuse to eat tayir sAdam

Yes that used to happen in our home too.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 16 Feb 2012, 08:52

Sridhar...we're as far from Tanjavur as possible....it must be a more universal usage...

pattamaa · Post by **pattamaa** » 16 Feb 2012, 09:09

We are confused folks, either when conducting wedding or attending concerts.. that's why the wedding reception dinner - neither south or north, so is some of the concerts...As bilahari writes, there is nothing wrong to pick and choose the concerts we like, i wonder, we can do so with wedding receptions! Even assuming that one attend the reception, but skip a meal, it will raise an eye brow or two! In some marriage receptions, there are separate counters for north/south etc, similarly in music concerts - better they label them as traditional, experimental etc while advertising, so we know what to expect );-);-

anandasangeetham · Post by **anandasangeetham** » 16 Feb 2012, 09:43

the fare at the wedding reception is more of a cultural evolusion.....courtesy the inter caste, inter community, inter religion etc marriages.....the parties have to satisfy both (sometimes more) sides.....i have been to some weddings where four varities of menu was available...a north indian platter, kerala platter, traditional tanjorian and bengali...(the parents of the bride and groom were also of different caste/religion/state ). but nothing like having a menu that is pure and adhering to one particular cuisine....be it north indian, tanjorean, etc.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 16 Feb 2012, 09:53

gOsAvi was what our grandmother had to say when we mixed unrelated items and ate. vaNDikkAran is also a familiar expression (used for the same thing). Sridhar, I don't know if that's exclusively a kAvErik karai expression.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 16 Feb 2012, 11:34

The vaNDikkAran expression, as used in kAvErik karai, is not just about mixing different things, but it has to be in huge quantities. When the usual method is, 1/3 first course, 1/3 second course and 1/3 third course approx., the vaNDikkAran way is all in one big heap

Good writing, Harimau. It was quite smooth flowing in spite of your broad coverage from Thamirabharani to Yamuna to Thames to Mississippi.

I for one think serving that kind of a 'modern' combo is a good thing as long as the quality is good. As Arasi correctly observes, the wedding day meal is still traditional, so we get a chance to enjoy both.

gardabha_gana · Post by **gardabha_gana** » 16 Feb 2012, 15:47

In my days - when it was Mardi Gras - I remember L Shankar with the fusion gang shakthi and it was a big hit in the OAT. Mardi Gras was really nice then!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 16 Feb 2012, 23:00

Ironically, calling it Mardi Gras itself is an example of what Harimau campaigns against

---
Mardi gras is French for Fat Tuesday, referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday;"Mardi Gras season" ( "Carnival season" ) refers to events of the Carnival celebrations culminating on Fat Tuesday

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 16 Feb 2012, 23:37

Ironically, calling it Mardi Gras itself is an example of what Harimau campaigns against

Then he should prepare for some very strange bedfellows

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 17 Feb 2012, 00:31

Yes, given that the popular aspect of Mardi Gras is to overturn social conventions ( putting it mildly )

maduraimini · Post by **maduraimini** » 17 Feb 2012, 05:53

Harimau,

Whatever opinion we all have, we have to appreciate the humor in your writing. Very well done and interesting to read. Read that two times, laughing. Keep it coming, Harimau.
Regarding the Vanchi mystery, this is my guess- there must have been somebody in your area named Vanchi who ate a lot in a rush and your mother was making a reference to him. Remember our mothers saying ' Don't do this thing ( sleep, eat or talk) like him or her'? I have heard relatives and friends who say ' eating like kadodgajan or vandikkaran'. Vandikkaran works very hard and has to eat a lot to do the work like the Football players here.
As far as I know, the Gosabees were from the North (may be Gujerat or Rajasthan- any town north of Madras- including Bombay was North India for us in those days) and many of them used to come for alms.
I don't think they ate from the banana leaves thrown out, like the Narikoravas. I may be wrong, but Gosabees seemed(!) more devotional and quieter( may be because they can't speak Tamil)!

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 18 Feb 2012, 09:43

ramanathan wrote:You are right, our logo is indeed the representation of an ancient South Indian instrument! It is called the yAzh and it is indeed a precursor to the western harp and one of the oldest instruments in South Indian music.

That's not true Ram. The Carnatica logo does indeed have the distinctive shape of a western harp, very much like a modern chromatic harp, and I personally don't find anything wrong with that. Also, it appears not to be true that the yazh predates the western harp. King David (circa 1000 BC) is chronicled in the old testament of the bible as having played the harp whereas the first historic references to the yazh is in the Sangam period of Tamil literature, which even pushing it back as far as we can cannot be before 500 BC. I could be entirely mistaken in this assessment but this is what my google research reveals.

The yazh is typically is a simpler bow-shaped instrument. Here are some pictures (the second picture) of yazhs:

http://www.hindu.com/ms/2007/12/26/stor ... 010100.htm

If the Yazh was intended as the Carnatica logo, Carnatica is in exalted company as far as depicting instruments wrongly or inaccurately is concerned

. Every Krishna ever depicted in Indian art holds a flute that's unviable as far as the pipe diameter, hole placements, hole size, number of holes, finger positions, mouth position and many other details are concerned and hence unplayable in any real sense. Even the famed Ravi Varma, whose eye for detail was good, got something or the other wrong in all his vina depictions. Typically, the bridge is placed too far along the kodam, much further than double the distance to the 12 fret. Such a vina, therefore, would be unplayable. Of course, it is entirely disputable to that the "goddess Saraswati", however mythical, chose to play the 17th century Raghunath Naik designed vina.

harimau wrote:traditional South Indian

As far as the "traditional" south Indian meal is concerned, polished white rice, white cane sugar and the practice of deep frying (including seasoning) in "refined" oil, just to take three examples, can be considered "traditional" only if we include insulin injections/tablets for diabetes, lipitor for cholesterol and alpha blockers, beta blockers and vasodilators for blood pressure as part of that same "tradition". I have so many friends and relatives who are or have been proud upholders of these drug-based tradtitions. Thus, this kind of a "traditional" south Indian meal is no more than a 100 to 150 years old starting around when the white man decided that his rice should be as white as his skin and introduced mechanized rice mills (of course, our ever unscrupulous banias also found the business model worthwhile, seilling the nutritious bran layer, a "byproduct" of the polishing process, to pharma companies) which robbed the rice of all its nutrition and fiber and made it into pure starch. All Indians, obsessed as they are with all things white and ever eager to emulate the white man, made white rice a "tradition". The cultivation of cane sugar and the production of white sugar has a complex and insidious history. Same end result - white poison introduced to table by the white man and readily turned into a "tradition" by white obsessed Indians

. Interestingly, "refined" oil is a modern fallacy. Thus, a better "traditional" meal, going back at least several hundred years prior to that, would be if it completely excluded (1) polished white rice (and instead used hand pounded rice, parboiled rice, millets like thinai, saamai, varagu, etc..) (2) white cane sugar (and instead used vellam, panam kalkandu, karpaati, etc...) and (3) "refined" oil (and instead used small quantities of fresh coconut or gingelly oil and never overheat it). In fact it is much healthier (and tasty, if ones developes healthy tastes) to eat whole wheat chapatis than polished white rice. That said, I too dislike mixing north and south Indian dishes in any given meal and perhaps the same holds for these jugalbandis and "trigalbandis"

. Of course, north Indian item that are even less nutritionally worthy than polished white rice are maida-based stuff like Naan, "Rumali" roti, etc... A nutritionally well-informed friend once told me, "friends dont' let friends eat maida". I would add that I don't let my friends eat polished white rice either, at least not in my house

.

Thus traditions are not necessarily what they seem. Even grandmothers can be misguided. Therefore, pondering over what is "truly" traditional and worth preserving needs thought. In some cases, there are deep and worthwhile modern "developments" and revivals in music, as in food, which are better than some "traditions" of recent antiquity. In the area of musical instruments for example, I would say that Sakharama Rao at the turn of the 20th century made an invaluable contribution by reviving the exquisite instrument gotuvadyam (aka chitravina) and creating a "tradition", as did Baluswamy Dikshithar a century earlier with the violin. As did the Gramodyog Movement in reviving unrefined foods.

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 18 Feb 2012, 10:39

I am with Uday on rice. Polished rice is very low on protein content too. Sambar tends to have less paruppu / protein than dal too (vattal kozhambu has approximately zero, unless you have a little kadala paruppu tALiccukoTTified), besides. Unless we eat paruppu sAdam or (

) meat, our diet might be deficient in protein.

Refined oil is so flavour-less. How I like the aroma of nalleNNai heating ... even the somewhat "pungent" smell of mustard oil, at least when employed mildly, is so soothing.

Didn't know maida was that bad!

There are also our real traditional cereals ... ragi / kezhvaragu, bajra / kambu, which are in many ways nutritionally richer than rice. Besides, rice needs truckloads of water for cultivation. It's almost retarded to grow it in rain-fed regions.

Wheat IS a rather nice cereal. Rotis made of whole wheat are a good thing ... a better thing possibly than boiled polished rice. Naans and kulchas are not an everyday food in the typical north-Indian household. Roti is.

---
Also this bisibeLe bhath contains (for me) unwanted spices like cloves (krAmbu), maybe cinnamon (lavanga pattai) too.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 18 Feb 2012, 11:20

Potatoes suffer the same fate as rice, having their skin, with its nutrition and flavour removed and discarded. What's more, they don't even come packed like that, and the peeling is a work of hard labour: what a useless waste of time, energy and flavour! In this respect, much of the world is obsessed with "white," although the backlash that has happened in "the west" for decades seems not to have touched India much. The only proper wholemeal rice that I have seen here was being sold as a boutique item in a fancy pack at a high price. Brown sugar, of course, is barely known at all, the phrase being used as slang for a narcotic rather than for the greatly superior and tasty form of the food stuff.

White rice; white sugar; pealed potatoes --- among the world's most boring foods. What's the musical equivalent?

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 18 Feb 2012, 12:00

Nick,
The potatoes 'pealed'--the musical equivalent

Your typo made it happen

Try the khadi gramodyog shops. They won't mark the brown rice high, boutique fashion.

Uday,
As you point out, whenever people speak of tradition, we have to go way back in time to find the truly traditional ones.
Using hand pounded rice as a staple and avoiding maida are some ways of keeping tradition. The sweets, most of them made from milk is another new trend. But for tiraTTup pAl, other sweets were made with grains and legumes, and with brown sugar.

uday_shankar · Post by **uday_shankar** » 18 Feb 2012, 12:41

arasi wrote:Try the khadi gramodyog shops

Arasi, this is going to look like a shameless plug that I had planned out, but I am hurt that you haven't heard of the wonderful organic whole food non-profit store in Kasturba Nagar, run by Radhika the last few years (across the street from your aunt Padma maami, who frequents the store regularly):
http://www.restore.org.in
Several discerning Carnatic music artists, who wish to eat healthy, preserve their voices, etc frequent the store too

.

Srikant, I am with you regarding Lavangam (Cinnamon),etc which should be banned by law from being used in south Indian food.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 18 Feb 2012, 13:20

Uday,
Great news! Didn't know that Radhika was running such a place! What do I know of Chennai except sabhas and canteens (don't frown on me!)?

I suppose it's my cousin Padma! Will find out more from her

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 18 Feb 2012, 13:50

... Take the next right (road opposite Nilgiris supermarket / Sony) on to 2nd Main Rd. No. 27/10 is about half way down the street on the left, opposite the Eye Clinic of Dr. A. G. Ramesh

And guess who my eye doc is? A really great man who persists in keeping his charges amazingly low. I'll be finding out that he's related to Arasi next! Any docs in your family?

Never visited that shop: will do so. And say hello to Radhika.

Arasi, coincidentally, I visited the Khadi-shop treasure store only three days ago (first time in about five years). I kept my eyes p-e-e-l-e-d but there was no wholemeal brown rice.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 18 Feb 2012, 18:26

Nick,
If any doctor (a good one) charges a low fee, I'd be proud to claim him as a relative

If only we could 'choose' all our relatives for their merits

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 18 Feb 2012, 19:52

If only we could 'choose' all our relatives for their merits

Not all but we can choose our spouse and in-laws ... and exercise some choice in those of our close kin too.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 18 Feb 2012, 20:53

I agree, up to a point

You have 'quite a way to go' in life, you young thing, to see what I mean!

therasika · Post by **therasika** » 19 Feb 2012, 13:21

Going by Mr. Harimau's review, especially if it were to be a yard stick for other bloggers or music lovers, no innovations would be welcome in the field of music and all musicians or music should be in the same bottle. I was one of the lucky ones to witness the performance at IIT and by all means it was an extra ordinary feat. Perhaps the reviewer must revisit his knowledge on the music and chill a bit.

I, for one, being a corporate honcho, in my board room meetings always encourage people around me to contribute newer ideas even if it were to be totally unconventional and the results are just amazing. Why should music or Carnatic music in particular be an exception?

In this world there is a place for all forms of innovations and experiments - certainly carnatic music or life cant be defined by a small group of conservative thinkers whose knowledge in music itself is not tested at the first place and certainly going by the appreciation of the audience around me at IIT following the performance in reference, it was nothing short of the best. Opinions of bloggers such as Mr. Harimau can only be compared to a small tiny drop in the ocean.

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 19 Feb 2012, 14:23

therasika wrote: I, for one, being a corporate honcho...

Hmmmmm... may be that's what "Vanchi" means

Pratyaksham Bala · Post by **Pratyaksham Bala** » 19 Feb 2012, 15:55

maduraimini wrote:As far as I know, the Gosabees were from the North (may be Gujerat or Rajasthan- any town north of Madras- including Bombay was North India for us in those days) and many of them used to come for alms. I don't think they ate from the banana leaves thrown out, like the Narikoravas. I may be wrong, but Gosabees seemed(!) more devotional and quieter( may be because they can't speak Tamil)!

Marathi/English Dictionary:-

डवरी गोसावी or डवऱ्या गोसावी - davari gosavi or davarya gosavi - [ḍavarī gōsāvī or ḍavaṛyā gōsāvī]
m An order among गोसावी, or an individual of it. They are worshipers of भैरोबा or जोतिबा. They are itinerant musicians, to conduct गोंधळ &c., ...

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 19 Feb 2012, 21:46

So, the itinerant musicians who drifted into tamizh nADu did not know our order of eating one SORu after another (kuzhambu, rasam and tayir) and so mixed them up as they pleased??

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 19 Feb 2012, 23:39

therasika wrote:Opinions of bloggers such as Mr. Harimau can only be compared to a small tiny drop in the ocean.

Harimau cast as The Ancient Mariner!

An ocean of salt water:

Water, water, everywhere,
And not a drop to drink.