Tamil Brahmin.....

[athimber]

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good. now this thread seems to be getting to top gear. well done guys and gals.. keep going.

 

[athimber]

There a lot of old customas like "yecchal" and "patthu" etc. that truly have scientific explanation like spreading germs due to oral contact or mixing of chemicals across different types of foods. So if one explains then scientifically then I am sure even modern youngsters can understand.
I remember when I visited Israel that they observed "Kosher" just like "Brahmins" do. The milk products cannot come close to cooked foods. The vegetables and rice etc. are kept well away from meats etc. In fact the meats are cooked in a separate kitchen. So I as a strict vegetarian had no problem serving myself from all the vegetarian dishes without any fear of contamination by meat or even being cooked in the same room or vessels that they use to cook meat with. I would say orthodox Jews who observe "Kosher" are very similar to "Brahmins" who observe "Madi and Aacharam".

Wonderful piece of information, Meenakshi Sunder, I never new about this. Thanks for sharing..

 

[athimber]

hi

I face similar problem with local vegetable and milk vendors. They used to count the currency notes by applying spit to their fingers. very very dirty habit. I usually fight with them not to do it but of no use. Finally I had to wash the notes and dry it myself. I find it most difficult when I buy things for pooja etc, face quite awkward situation. That's why I always used to keep a bottle of water in my car.

I fully agree with you on this. I also find this quite a dirty practice. But can't help. Either you always carry exact change or compromise with the situation.

 

[CHANDRU1849]

hi

welcome "Mazhalai"......continue this "Mazhalai" PATTALAM.....

A Tamil film in the name of Mazhalai Pattalam was released during early 1980s produced by KB and directed by Actress Lakshmi. The duet song Gowri Manohariyai Kanden sung by SPB and Vani Jayaram was a hit. The music was by MSV.

 

[athimber]

Dear Ganesh Sir,

In fact, those who count the notes by licking should be afraid of infections.

Many might have used echil hands on those notes earlier too!

Best is to keep the echil notes in a cover and wash your hands before buying poojA articles.

But who knows! That guy might have gone to # 1 and be sitting in his shop, without washing his hands!! :yuck:

ha.. ha.. "sarvam krishnaarpanam!" is the only thing we can do here.

 

[Raji Ram]

Kamalhasan tries to 'educate' people to wash their hands before coming out of the toilets but not many pay heed! :sad:

And... in Sing Chennai, most of the walls are only built for one purpose (males ONLY)!!

 

[krish44]

Walls serve the purpose of emptying bladders all over india.

Worst is when boundary walls of parks are used for this.

Most public toilets are not maintained properly.

Unlike chennai walls are not defaced by cinema posters in delhi in residential colonies

Chennai is a cinema crazy city. politics and cinema get mixed up. We do not have cut out culture of film stars and politicians with milk abhishekam in places like delhi

but political posters are more common.

How many waiters in hotels are well groomed or serve with gloves on?

We are a dirty nation

 

[Raji Ram]

...... How many waiters in hotels are well groomed or serve with gloves on? ..........

Dear Krish Sir,

In the dining halls in Sing. Chennai weddings, the servers have gloves ON but they do 'that' jobie with gloves ON too! :lol:

 

[Raji Ram]

In all the restaurants in the U S of A, there will be a notice in the rest rooms (that is how they have named the toilets)

'Waiters must wash hands'. This shows that even here, guys come out without washing their hands!

 

[raysundar]

With regards to the post about the filthy habits of certain "Cehnnaivasis" with respect public defacing of walls and using them as urinals or spitting any where etc. I lived in Chennai/Madras during the early sixties when I went to high school there. Chennai was much cleaner in those days. But over the years I have been regularly visiting Chennai every couple of years to see my mother and brother who live in T'Nagar. This place has become one of the most crowded and dirty places. Pondy bazar road used to be cleaned every morning in the early sixties. Today it is even impossible to do that ever. At one time when I expressed some opinions like that when visited, I was given a good oral whipping by one my cousins saying that you who grew up here and now settled in America have the audacity to mention that "their T'nagar" is dirty! I decided to stop commenting and just carry on with my visits. Only the people living in Chennai can make the changes to their society and environment. I wish everyone there all the best in their environmental cleanup endeavors.

 

[raysundar]

Having licked the dirt of Chennai while growing up I am securely inoculated against any infectious diseases whenever I visit Chennai. However, my children are not and we have to be careful whenever we visit. So far they have survived all visits except once(Touch Wood!). My wife who grew up mostly in Mumbai, just loves it when she reads such derive remarks about Chennai as I see in your forum from a Chennaivaasi himself. Not that Mumbai is any cleaner!

 

[Raji Ram]

.......... My wife who grew up mostly in Mumbai, just loves it when she reads such derive remarks about Chennai as I see in your forum from a Chennaivaasi himself.

If you mean me, it should be 'herself'!!

But all over India, people don't differ much in civic sense!! :sad:

 

[raysundar]

Smt. Raji Ram,
Thanks for correcting the gender. Being a newbie I am still not familiar with all the veteran writers of TB.
For a long time I thought "Sujatha" an old Tamil Writer in Ananda Vikatan and Kalki was a lady until I found out it was actually a "Cat Name(Poonai Peyar)" of a male writer! I guess "Chennaivaasi itself" would have been more neutral address!

 

[raysundar]

BTW is there any "Thairsadam" eating TB who has qualified for the Olympics. I know of Wimbledon tennis players Ramanathan Krishnan and later his son Ramesh Krishnan who irritated John Mckenroe with slicing and dicing the ball on the tennis courts. TB's(Iyers) were generally known to be accountants by profession. This generalization may not be true today.

 

[Vaagmi]

Smt. Raji Ram,
Thanks for correcting the gender. Being a newbie I am still not familiar with all the veteran writers of TB.
For a long time I thought "Sujatha" an old Tamil Writer in Ananda Vikatan and Kalki was a lady until I found out it was actually a "Cat Name(Poonai Peyar)" of a male writer! I guess "Chennaivaasi itself" would have been more neutral address!

"poonai peyar" -- LORL. I enjoyed this. LOL.

 

[Raji Ram]

Cat name? :faint:

It is punai and NOT poonai, Sir!

 

[athimber]

An advice sought:-

In my extended family, there is one Siva Panchayatana Poja, being worshiped by the family for almost 3 or more generations. At present in the absence of able male members in the family the same is not properly taken care for almost an year now. They tried to hand it over to the near by temple but reversed the decision on astrologers and some other elders in the family's advice that the same should be worshiped in family it self. I have been chosen to take this responsibility (There is also another talk that I should not be given this opportunity since I did not belong to the family and am a member of the family only because of my marriage with girl in the family!) The present holder of the pooja, has taught me how to perform nitya pooja etc.. My point of hesitance is I don't do Sandhyavandanam every day. I heard that Nithyakarma is must for doing Siva pooja. Since I have now being turned spiritual I don't want to miss this opportunity as well. How should I ensure that it will not back fire if I do it as I strongly believe the deities got tremendous spiritual energy being worshiped in a systematic manner for so long.

 

[Raji Ram]

Dear Athimber Sir,

My F I L was doing Shiva pooja regularly and after his time, the son who does nithya karma without fail, is doing it.

I think if you starts nithya karma sincerely, you can perform the pooja.

 

[athimber]

Thank you very much Raji Mam, I also think on similar lines.

 

[Raji Ram]

Thank you very much Raji Mam, I also think on similar lines.

Yes, Athimber Sir!

We all know the stories of Valmiki and Thirumangai Azhwar.

P.S: Just giving examples of enlightenment and not to equate you with a robber.

 

[athimber]

ha ha I don't have a past as bad as that any way! Sorry to say, but I know very little about Thirumangai Azhwar. Let me check the wiki pedia on this.

 

[Raji Ram]

Athimber Sir,

This part of the movie 'Thirumaal perumai' is for you, in case you are a Sivaji fan! :drama:

Thirumangai Azhwar

 

[raysundar]

That is exactly the reason I had enquired of you how in one of these forums how to insert actual tamil script "தமிழ்" into my replies. அண்ட் அய் ஜச்ட் டிட் இட்! I did mean "புனை பெயர".
I accidentally changed it to sound like "பூனை". But it does sound good anyway.
However, you did get the point knew how to correct it also.

"இன் எனி கெஸ் திஸ் ஸ் ஏ தமிழ் ப்ராமிண்ர்கள் பொரம்."

But we all still converse and write only in english and express ourselves very clearly. Introducing Tamil only seems to create confusion!

Tamil script is phonetic and English is not suited well for that. Look at the confusion I have created between "punai" and "poonai". I did mean cat because that is the way I had heard it while growing up. "punai peayr" would mean "hidden name" or "secret name" or "pen name".

The art of writing is when you let the reader visualize your writing.

 

[raysundar]

Dear Sri. Athimber,
You mention "absence of male members" alluding to the fact the lineage of a person is only carried by male members. I beg to differ on that ideology. Once you get married both the male and female are equally responsible for the creation of the next generation. Doing the "Panchayatana Pooja" is your family(you, your spouse and children) decision. It does not have to be handed down to you via a male lineage. It can also come from your wife's side if her father was doing it and she had no brother.
"Varalakshmi Pooja" is another such tradition. My mother did not do it because it was not done on my Father's side although it was done on my mother side of the family. Now my wife has decided to do that Pooja in my family even though it not a Father's side custom for me. I did not objected to it. In fact I sit with her and read out the pooja manthras for her from the book similar to the one's that TB sent out through this TB forum.
Any prayer done sincerely to any deity will give you "Spiritual Energy" and satisfaction. So go ahead and ask the temple priest or other people who sincerely do the same pooja and learn the rituals and do it with the full sincerity and faith. You cannot go wrong doing it.

At the end of any pooja recite the following Manthra with some water in your right hand palm and then pour it down through your fore fingers at the end of the manthra. Then touch that water from the ground and apply it to your forehead which is the ultimate source of all your thoughts and actions.

"காயென வாசா, மனஸெந்த்ரியைர்வா, புத்தியாத்மனாபா ப்ரக்ரிதெ ஸ்வபாவாத், கரொமி யத்யத் ஸகலம் பரஸ்மை, ஸ்ரீமன் நாராயனாயேதி ஸமர்பயாமி"

"Kaayena Vaacha, Manasendryairva, Buddhyathmanabha prakrithe swabhaavaath, karomi yadhyath sakalam parasmai, sriman Narayanayethi samarpayami"


"I have done my rites as sincerely as I perceived as correct, but being of mundane nature(implying whether I did it correctly or incorrectly) , I did this all as an offering(samarpanam) to Sriman Narayana(the Supreme Protector)"

This prayer is good for TB Iyers(Saivites) or TB Iyengars(Vashnavites)

This prayer is common to all conscious humans not just TB's because " To err is human".
You can see this "erring" in all my writings and the corrections I receive from Veteran writers!

 

[Raji Ram]

"Kaayena Vaacha, Manasendryairva, Buddhyathmanabha prakrithe swabhaavaath, karomi yadhyath sakalam parasmai, sriman Narayanayethi samarpayami"

"I have done my rites as sincerely as I perceived as correct, but being of mundane nature(implying whether I did it correctly or incorrectly) , I did this all as an offering(samarpanam) to Sriman Narayana(the Supreme Protector)"

Do you change this, Chandru Sir?