BEGGARS CAN BE CHOOSERS ..IN A LIGHTER VEIN

                                         

                                        

                                   BEGGARS CAN BE CHOOSERS !

                                               Reading  J S Raghavan’s middle on the Nocturnal Collectors of Leftovers , in the New Indian Express recently,took me back to my younger days ,when begging was  sort of banned in Kerala  those days, but we did have some “regulars “ in our locality who   came calling mostly on Sundays. This article  is not written to belittle beggars as we all know that no one normally takes to begging unless it is the last resort and perhaps out of sheer  helplessness.And I am talking about the " old generation" of beggars ,not the present one where organized begging rackets are in existence.

                       My  first memory is of an old  grouchy  man who would come    and make a racket at the gate with his walking stick. The expression on his face was always bitter ..may be life had given him nothing to smile about .The only time  I remember having seen a gleam in his eye and a half smile on his lips was when  the 50 paise coin was first upgraded to a rupee ! Then there was another old man , totally opposite in looks and demeanour , always with a smiling face, standing silently at the gate ,hardly knocking. Perhaps  he would have been standing there for minutes before someone in the house would spot him .He wanted only food and would  extend his little white enamel bowl for it. Not a day was he seen without  that friendly smile on his face. We often used to wonder among ourselves, why he had taken to begging and why his family could not take care of such a pleasant person,or may be he did not have a family at all. Today I wonder why none of us ever thought of asking him about his background..  All we were interested in was sending him away after providing  him with a little food .

                                In distinct contrast  was a very loud woman beggar, may be in her late sixties. She would be at the gate very often when the family was sitting for lunch. She would  raise her voice and keep calling so it would lead to an argument among us  as to who will get up from the dining table to give her food. Invariably it was my mother who did it. The woman wanted alms as well as food. Not just food ,she insisted on being given drinking water too .And at the end of it , a sweet was a must ! The days when there was no sweet , if we gave her a plantain she would start her rant !Once she asked  for a  saree and my mother ,a widow ,who uses only white sarees  gave her one. She promptly  returned it stating that she wanted a bright coloured one! She would not leave until she was given a brighter saree in place of the white one offered.

                          One day a new  beggar called at the gate .He was quite old and in tatters. After pocketing the coin he asked for a shirt. The only male adult  at home was my brother in law and he had just the other day given off his old shirts. However seeing the state in which the man was  in, he rummaged through his clothes and  gave not one but two shirts, one a cotton and another of a   Polyester material , both good ones. When his wife questioned him about giving two when only one was asked for, he gave a smug look which translated in words meant “ look here I am not like you, I am a very generous person with a kind heart “. Anyway the shirts were given and the old man walked off without any expression on his face. In the afternoon, the maid who was working for us came carrying the cotton shirt given  to the beggar .She found it thrown on the compound wall of our neighbour’s  house and since she knew it belonged to her “sir” she had brought it back. She was under the impression that  the shirt left to dry, after wash , must have been blown off by the wind !! It was difficult to convince  her that beggars can also be choosers !!!                 

MY BRIEF AFFAIR WITH THE TAMIL LANGUAGE

                                    

                                             

                                  My brief affair with the Tamil language

           My mother who can manage to read ,write and speak the Tamil language  says that it is one of the most beautiful languages of South India… but her daughter, yours truly , somehow has always had a mental block in even picking up a few sentences of this beautiful language , (which is often called a  cousin of my mother tongue Malayalam!!!) and whatever attempts were made by me to use it,  ended up in embarrassing myself and those around.

        Why I suddenly remembered this  is because of a flying visit I made to Chennai  two days back , after a gap of eight years ! I was getting a chance to  use my linguistic skills in the language but frankly I did not open my mouth to utter even a single word remembering my past fiascos.

        In the early 70’s when I was attending a training programme at ZTC  Chennai , my friend and colleague ,Padmasani invited me to spend the weekend with her and offered to come and pick me up. But I refused the offer and  decided to  take an Autorikshaw, especially as it appeared that  it would be easy to locate her house as it was next to Cine star Vyjayanthimala’s. Unfortunately I did not anticipate that Madam Vyjayanthimala was not as famous  as  Madam Jayalalitha and  the joint enquiries of the autorikshaw driver  and mine  in the locality , did not bear fruit inasmuch  as we  could not  locate the house. It was  mobile-less era and the only means was asking the passers  by. The Driver did his best. Then I spotted a middle aged lady ,with almost a garden of jasmine flowers  in her hair , not very smartly dressed , barefoot , coming  that way .I ran to her and addressing her as Aunty tried to give details like "Vyjayanthimala veedu pakkathile Rayaningar veedu " etc… .She looked at me for a few seconds and asked me in CHASTE English…"My dear girl, whose house are you looking  for ? " She knew the house and gave the correct location. Needless to say I  bowed my head in shame while thanking her. I realized that day,  that knowledge of  English has nothing to do with the way one dresses ! When the driver took me to the address ,I gave him extra  money over and above the fare and told him in whatever Tamil words I could muster , to keep the change because I  liked his “samsaram”(which in Malayalam means  way of talking )  I of course meant  that I liked his polite  ways , but never expected the  way he replied    “ enakku samsaaram illey “ and left with a strange smile.  My friend had to explain to me that samsaaram  meant  WIFE in Tamil  ! (The first fiasco).But later on I came to know that this was a common mistake made by Mallus when speaking Tamil!

  Decades later in  mid nineties while I was  working in the Regional office at  Ernakulam ,in the Credit Dept, I put up a Housing loan proposal  of a staff member under Aashiyana scheme for a second house as was permitted just recently at that time.  The proposal had to be routed through the Dy Regional Manager, Mr.V M George . George Sir  had worked in Tamil Nadu for long and always had the habit of addressing me as Amma and speaking in Tamil, which he knew was a language I could not speak. He came to my table with my  Sanction Recommendation Note  in his hand and said in Tamil.. “Amma how can I sanction  this loan of Mr. S….. when he already has another Housing loan and House “  Mr. George  was not aware of the new HO circular in this regard. I  smartly replied  in my broken Tamil ..Sir  the first one was for Periya Veedu… the present one is for  a Chinna Veedu. Oh My God… the way he scooted  off  laughing and the way everyone around me started guffawing , I realized I had committed some  blunder. When I was informed of the gravity of  my blunder all I could do was pray that the concerned staff member would not sue me for defamation if he came to know about this  incident!!!

   Just  when I was thinking of improving my command on the Tamil language , an incident happened which  put me on the return track. While in the same RO , a Senior Executive, hailing from Tamil Nadu   visited the office. While  I was being introduced to him ,he asked me something in Tamil. Having learnt two lessons in the past , I decided to just smile. Seeing me smile idiotically he  stared at me. .My friend  Mr.K M Surendranathan , who was sitting at the nearby table  came to my rescue and told him , Sir she does not understand Tamil. The remark from the Senior officer really  shocked me. He asked “How did you survive in BOI without knowing Tamil ? “ I am still trying to decipher what he  meant., by that statement . I did “survive” till my retirement… but I wonder if it   was  a case of the survival of the unfit ???

  Actually the  incidents mentioned above are known to many but what is not much  known (or at least I try to believe so ) was one in the very early  days of my joining the branch, when I was in my early twenties.. A senior colleague in the branch would always come  to my table  and tease me  in Tamil…” So when do we get to enjoy your wedding lunch ? “ .This  was getting to be very irritating ..so once    I told about it to a  colleague  sitting at the next  table and asked him to write and give me a sentence in      Tamil     which would mean “ I  have no time for your nonsensical talk “ . He wrote    “ enekku Kaadhilakku neramillay “ and told me to say this firmly but politely. So  the next time the  person asked me  his routine  question I  said this sentence  in Tamil. The fellow just took an about-turn and left and never  irritated me again.It was years later that I understood  how  my “advisor colleague”  had tricked me !! I had not discussed this matter  ,with any of  my  friends. I don’t know whether he had shared this , with his friends!!!( He was a very jovial person and must have only intended it as a joke …. He is no more…else I would have confronted (!!) him if I met him some day… Today he must be sitting in heaven and will have a hearty laugh, if he reads this). As far as I was concerned  ..the matter had ended there and I had prided myself  of being smart !!! I had  not known then ,that it was only a prelude of smarter incidents.!!!

GLOSSARY ...FOR THE KIND ATTENTION OF THOSE WHO ARE WITH ME VIS-A-VIS KNOWLEDGE OF TAMIL.

TAMIL                                                          MEANING IN ENGLISH

ENAKKU SAMSAARAM ILLAY..                               I DONT HAVE A WIFE
PERIYA VEEDU                                                            LARGE HOUSE
CHINNA VEEDU...                                                       MISTRESS
ENAKKU KADHALIKKU NERAMILLAY...              I HAVE NO TIME FOR LOVE.

THERE'S STILL NO MERCY FOR THE GIRL CHILD ...

                                                       

THERE'S STILL NO MERCY FOR THE GIRL CHILD ..

                        THERE’S STILL NO MERCY FOR A GIRL  CHILD…..!

               Every day  on  my way to the office I  used to pass them- a small family – father mother and a small child, a boy , may be a year and a half  old. They  had made the pavement  near the  car parking area ,their space. Nobody seemed to mind.

The man appeared to be  a cobbler as  repairing  footwear was his main  occupation However I had seen him repair umbrellas too. They were not  local people. May be from one of the nearby States. The  woman was  either sitting with him, helping him , with the child placed  nearby on a  small mat. The little boy  was mostly  playing with the  knick-knacks  or  gazing at the vehicles and passersby. The woman  used to hang out the washed clothes to dry on the compound wall of the play ground near the parking lot. I had witnessed her shouting back at the Security guard who forbade her from doing that. She continued to use the wall as clothes  dryer ! I often wondered where had  she  washed the clothes and where  they lived. They were there however early I reached office and would be there however late I left.  Attempts made by me  to  be friendly with them were met with  absolute indifference.  On a couple of occasions I  gave some old toys to the little boy, who  took  it eagerly. The woman only glanced at me and continued with her work. She always   had a formidable    expression whenever I tried to smile in greeting ,which put me off.

One day, while passing by ,I noticed that there was another child  lying  next to the little boy who was sitting up and playing. It was a very fair chubby little girl  -must be five or six months old. I wondered  where the baby came from. I had not seen the woman pregnant nor was she away even for a day. The woman took fond care of the child, just as any  doting mother would! The  child  seemed to be  almost an ANGEL in the midst of the   dirtily clad  threesome!!!

During lunchtime talk , one day, I gathered from a colleague that the couple had bought the girl child from its mother , a  vagabond, who found the child an impediment for  eloping  with  her lover. The  mother reportedly wanted to  put  the child to death but the cobbler couple had  taken her custody paying the mother a price. The  purchase price was not revealed but my colleague gathered that  a sum of Rs.1000  was reported  to have been paid.! That day onwards I had nothing but admiration and respect  for the couple. Imagine  adding  a burden to their poverty filled life ! To think they had welcomed a girl child to their fold!  I felt like shouting from roof tops to the world- “LOOK HERE, WHEN THE BIRTH OF A GIRL CHILD IS  CURSED BY EVEN THE RICH AND EDUCATED , HERE IS A POOR COUPLE WHO TOOK A BABY GIRL INTO THEIR FOLD, THUS PREVENTING  HER MOTHER TO GIFT HER TO DEATH ! SUCH A NOBLE DEED  !   THEY CARED TWO HOOTS FOR ADOPTION LAWS ! SURELY THEY HAD HEARTS  WHICH WAS NOT AS DARK AS THEIR SKIN. TAKE A CUE FROM THEM! “  I spoke about them with pride to  my friends  and  colleagues. To  me they were role models  to be  projected before  the  enemies of the girl child!!

  Months  later , I left  the city upon transfer and  returned after  some years. I happened to  visit the same office. Upon alighting from the car  I felt  there was something missing. It did not take me long to remember the cobbler couple  who used to occupy the pavement near the parking area. .I  made casual  enquiries  with the colleague who had given details about the cobbler couple. I was in for a rude shock. It appears that the couple  had used the girl child for begging .The angel-like  chubby  innocent  but unkempt looks  of the child were  an advantage as it evoked the sympathy of people and ensured good returns. The child  had reached adolescence. The  man and woman were scheming to use  her for furthering their income through all nefarious means. The colleague was in the know of  all this. Many others in the locality also noticed  this.  So the cobbler couple changed their  working place to another part of the city.  But why did my colleague not report it to the Child  Help Line  authorities ,I asked . He  looked at me as though I was crazy . Why should he invite trouble on himself by doing so and in any case who had the time--- it was none of his business… I was tempted  to  call up the Police or  the Child Help Line myself. But….Yes, the same thoughts  raced through my mind too? What  could I prove? What evidence did I have? Who would listen to me ?  Once again I felt  like shouting from the roof top – this time  it was –“ NO …..NOTHING HAS CHANGED-  IN INDIA THE GIRL CHILD WILL  CONTINUE TO REMAIN  AT A DISADVANTAGED POSITION  FOR A LONG TIME MORE  , NO MATTER  HOW MUCH  THE  HELPLINES,NGOS , STHREE VEDIS  ETC  CRY HOARSE ..”       

It is injustice, it is unfair, it is inhuman ..my heart cries  out…but  the fact remains that many a girl child in our country is still crying for mercy….

                                   

WHITHER THE SAREE ??????

                                           WHITHER THE SAREE ?????
                            

                                                     WHITHER THE SAREE ?

                        Whoever invented the Saree as a dress for Indian women ,must have had  some ideas in his or her mind, one of which was certainly that it should  adequately cover a woman’s body in such a way that  the draper’s body was sufficiently  protected  with layers of cloth apart from concealing of the vital statistics !!

The  six yard cloth has been evolving over the years. The traditional saree  is the six yards of cloth  draped with  pleats  in front and a pallav which would fall over the left shoulder  which if  considered necessary could be drawn behind over the head or under the neck to the right shoulder thus giving adequate cover to the body.There were minor  deviations in the drape like the Gujerathi style of having the Pallav  draped  around the right shoulder to fall in front  and the Coorgi style of  draping the entire pallav  around the body  with a bit falling from the right shoulder. Of course there were the nine yards  version popularly used in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Essentially the  saree  was considered as a very graceful dress ,adequate for covering the modesty of a woman..

Over the years the  Saree had its own evolution. In the early years the Pallav was gathered into  unorganized pleats and pinned to the shoulder with a brooch. The brooches came in various  shapes sizes and inlaid with precious stones and what not ,proclaiming to the world the status of the wearer. In the fifties and sixties it became fashionable to leave the pallav free over the left hand in a spread  to display the beauty of the pallav design. Then the film stars  started  pinning the lower border of the beginning of the pallav near the waist  thus displaying the shape of the waist and hips, albeit fully covered. Subsequently the saree which used to be draped much above the navel , slid down to inches below, obviously to reveal the  flabless flawless midriff of the wearer !!  In the Sixties,the length of the Pallav was  reduced  drastically  to make it seem almost an appendage on the left side of the woman’s body ! Came the Eighties and the fashion of   pleated   pallavs ,pinned to the shoulder ,long enough to almost touch the ground, commenced .(It may be stated with due respect that all these  changes were first effected by our Bollywood heroines from whom it  percolated  down to the  “Aam sthree “)

                             Along with the changes in the draping of the saree , changes in the style of the choli ( blouse )  worn with the saree , was also taking place.While the initial days saw the blouse length  upto the  hips  and almost tucked into the petticoat, with short sleeves  and puffed sleeves,  in due course the length of the blouse  kept reducing  perhaps to enable the wearers reveal  their waist. In the sixties the length of the sleeves  kept increasing almost below the elbow.The seventies showed a reverse trend. The sleeve length  went back to the earlier short and puffed   styles  to  return to the  longer length in the nineties !! The beginning of the 21^st century again saw the  reduction in length almost to the point of  being sleeveless .( it may be mentioned that the actual sleeveless blouses were  ever in vogue among the  upper class and elite even from the fifties ).  Now the fashion has almost come full circle and  any lengths are the in thing as far as the choli sleeve is concerned

                          The shape of the necks of blouses also kept changing from closed necks in the fifties and earlier to  round necks, boat necks, deep necks , back to closed necks  in between  in keeping with the fashion of the sleeves.  But  the blouse which was used to cover the chest  of the wearers has  now  gained more importance than the saree and it would appear that the saree is just an appendage to show case the  beautifully designed blouses, especially  in the front. The Saree covers the body ,only waist down. The pallav which once was used to cover the  upper half of the body is now  used to accentuate the  chest portion .Either the saree  is so  transparent to  reveal the beautifully designed cholis or the  saree is draped in such a way that the  chest portion of the blouse (however brief the blouse is  !!) is revealed. In fact, often the  way the saree is  being  draped now a days by the elite and celebrities  ,it would not look like a saree at all  .The Pallav is  tucked in such a way to reveal more than to cover . It  may need a closer look  to actually understand  that the person is wearing a saree! One would feel that it would have been better for the wearer to  just wear a pretty petticoat and semblance of a choli !! The way it  is draped  ,more to  reveal  than to hide ,is an insult to the  saree .The inventors of the Indian saree must be turning  in their graves!

I don’t think that any  other national dress of any other country would have gone through so many changes. We Indians are obsessed with western fashions. We  are literally their slaves when it comes to  dress styles. The majority of our celebrities and socialites  wear Western Gowns for grand occasions  ,dinner parties and the like .That is better than  mutilating our Saree to make it look western . I would call it a double standard of the wearers. They want to  make it look as though they are still Indian but at the same time modern- for them Modern is the synonym for the western  fashions. Many women would I am sure, agree with me when I say that the saree is in fact a beautiful  dress and  if  draped well  looks very graceful and sexy too ! Revealing all is not the only way to look sexy- concealing  much  also is !!! It evokes  curiosity and imagination !!

Long live the Saree in its traditional form!