I am a proud Iyengar. Are u?

It is with a sad heart I have to say that some of the valuable customs and traditions of Iyengars are slowly fading away. Pop and Corporate cultures have weakened the strong roots of such conventional traditions. Practices like taking oil bath, going to temple, learning slokas are fading away. Healthy choices are replaced with junk foods. Pastas and Speggatis have replaced Sevai. Pizzas and burgers have replaced Thavalai Adai.

Although I am not full-fledged in knowing these practices, I have started to learn some and practising them on a regular basis and would like to pass them on to my future generations.

I have started to eat Sundaikkai, Veppapamboo rice calling Black and white mammu, the Zebra rice (Megna Kept the name). I loved the Mangai Pachadi made on the New Years day. If vethakuzhambu is made I cannot miss thairsadam and have it as a side dish. Pulikaachal can a be good substitute for it on Non-vethaikuzhambu days. Amma said, they are the staple food of an Iyengar and take pride in loving them. I would love to learn them and make them on my own and pass the torch on.

Who likes Shopping?

It has been a long while since I stopped by. I had been busy for days together. Before pulling anyone's legs I shall try to have you answered these couple of questions.

1) Who takes more time to dress up? A man or a woman?

2) Who takes more time to shop? A man or a woman?

But its contrary in our household. My dad always takes his own time to dress up even on weekends. He dresses up like a CEO even to throw garbage in the dumpster. Believe it or not we are almost 3 women and together we take less time in shopping than him. Last weekend when we had been to the Mall, he took 2 hours to choose a shirt. My question is What is there to think when the choice left is only Blue color? The worst part is he dint buy anything after spending 2 hours in browsing. Improvising rules like 'Every half an hour of his time spent on browsing = money spent on something for us' also does not seem to work. Worst is the case that the lessons learnt by anyone is NIL. He does the samething whenever he goes to the Mall and we do try to give him company patiently as usual.

Fortunately that evening we had a delightful Dance concert in temple to soothe our headache. It was performed by three professionals and the first half was Mohiniattam and then the Bharathanatyam on the second. We dint understand the Mohiniattam part, but totally enjoyed the later half. They rendered on the theme 'Shivashakthi'. 'Ommachi and Demon were dancing on Thodi' - those were my words after the concert. Yes I mean the Mahishasuramardini doing vadam on the demon dancing to the beats on Thodi Raga. I have to say its just more than awesome. Something unthinkable and a flawless professionalism in each of the individuals.

Where do I learn from?

When Mama's friend was dressing up, I saw her keeping a red thilakam on her forehead, and I instantly told mom that she is keeping 'Narayana Nethi'. Both of them were stunned hearing me say that. Mom has no clue where I got this from.

When she was doing dishes in the kitchen, I pestered her to sing 'Atma Nivasi Ram'. She started singing without noticing what I was doing. Suddenly something made her turn her face instantly on me. U know What I did? I started to play beats for the song on the Jendai Melam, which my Uppili thatha gave. On the other day, I also mocked playing a violin with a spoon and a fork for a carnatic song on youtube.

My parents are listening big words from a little pod these days. Some of the new words that I learnt during the week are Hibernation, Migration, Skiing, Skating etc.

I love my Appa

It took so long to say this for we were like a Cat and a Rat all these days long. But things change slowly. Isn't it? I have started to become a daddy's daughter these days.

He leaves to work before I wake up or as soon as I do, and so I miss him in the mornings but plays Uppu Mootai on his back as soon as he is home.

When Mom was in the Music Practice sessions, I was very hungry and he fed me with Idlies. :-) And u know what, thats when I started to have idlies. Otherwise I wud prefer Dosas. (So the food's taste really change when fed with love and care) He took me round the temple and we were walking in the hallway and had enough fun until she came back.

During the weekends I dress-up on Veshti(Thundu) and Cheechii as he does and recite Ramayanam along with him. He teaches me all the verses word by word with patience. Isn't he cho chweet?I sleep on his arms nice and tight during nights and hold his shirt while he wakes up. Oops! Am I getting too sentimental? Here we go.The annoying thing that he does is cleaning dirt on my nose.

My Heart is a Pump - Make some sense on Shiva's Thandavam

We have "My heart is a pump" as the theme of this week. Ms. Cathy said that our heart pumps all the time to circulate blood to our body. She said it pumps slower when we sleep and faster when we run. She also said it pumps faster when we are angry and slower when we are happy.

When I came down from School Mama taught me about Shiva's Thandavam. Shiva dances to the Kanda Nadai beat (faster beat) when he is angry (Thaka Thakita, Thaka Thakita) and dances to Misra Nadai (relatively slower beat) when he is happy (Thakita Thaka Dimi, Thakita Thaka Dhimi).

Now doesn't it make some sense on why Shiva cut Baby Ganesha's head while he was angry? When he danced to the faster Kanda Nadai, his heart was pumping faster without enabling his brain to think. Thats why ke killed Baby Ganesha in a Haste.

Sheemaro's Bal Ganesh

My Thatha and Paati have sent a lot of Indian Mythological Videos for me to watch. I love Bal Ganesh and Hanuman the most. Because I remember watching them with my cousin brother Saashu when I was in India last year. Saashu would pretend to be the Ganesha and I would pretend to be the Mooshika and both of us would take a ride on our Thatha's back who would play the Nandi role.

But these days, I play the Ganesha role. Cos, I have a little brother / sister on the way to take over Mooshika's place.

Everyday after watching, my mom would ask me to narrate what I saw on the video. I told her several times that Ganesha would do ice skating on the Icy Kailasha Mountain. But she is not convinced with my answers. She excused me that I am too young to narrate the stories. After all I am 2 yrs and 8 months. So she decided to test me by asking questions about the Video. Would you like to play the audio file to listen to one of the tests that she gave?