Tamil New Year
Tamilians consider 14th of April every year as their new year. Considering it wasnt a year since my MILs death last April, we hadn’t celebrated it then.So I was looking forward to Apr 14th this year. However since Kannan isn’t in town, I wasn’t really sure if I could give it my best and I generally don’t like compromises on the religious front. 13th April was a hectic day in the office and I reached home really tired. Had a lot of todos at home for the next day. Was wondering where to start from. I decided I’l start off with cleaning the oil lamps as that happened to be the most tedious task. I went into the kitchen to get the scrubber and suddenly remembered that I should not be using the same to clean the lamps, the concept being the kitchen scrubber had already been used to clean vessels, so the same cant be used to clean up anything related to GOD. So I decided to go and pick a new scrubber and a dish washer soap from a shop nearby. Picked up a lot of flowers also on the way, for the next day. Came back home and applied a liberal quantity of the cleaning liquid on the oil smeared lamps and decided to leave them that way for some time before washing them off. In the meanwhile I thought I’l catch up with some forums that I am extra active on these days because of a new journey that I have embarked on recently. Nothing like sharing things with people in the same boat, you see. But after all the rigorous typing that I did, I was hardly left with any energy to work at home..Just then my brother’s wife called me to check if I needed anything for the next day. Since my hubby isn’t here, the idea was that my brother, and his wife would stay at our place on the Tamil new year and we would all celebrate the festival toegther. That was some relief, because otherwise the thought of making puja delicacies for me alone at home wasn’t very exciting. So I quickly gave her a list of things and requested her to pick them all for the two of us, for the next day..She readily agreed and must have reached home in like an hour.The thought of doing all this together with someone who can match up your energy levels is in itself very exciting. Soon we decided to divide tasks between the two of us.. .She chose to start off with decorating the entrance with mango leaves while I chose to decorate the pooja mandap with Rangoli..I realized I picked up the wrong task..so hurriedly cleaned up the mess I created and redid the whole thing with rangoli moulds this time..Turned out beautiful I must say..
Before tying up the mango leaves outside my SIL(sister in law) asked me if the artificial leaves that were already hanging outside were not enough..I was supposed to be knowing the answer since I was elder 
..Dint want to misguide her though and so called up mom to double check with her..My mom’s theory was artificial leaves were ok only if you din’t manage to get the real ones..Luckily we had already bought mango leaves, so we decided to stick to the custom..But I must say I love the way my mom bends rules for me every now and then..though I keep telling her not to do so, since as I said I don’t like religious compromises..There were some more rituals that were to be followed for the new year that included applying haldi kumkum on a nice clean mirror and tying up a gold chain around it, placing a thali full of uncooked rice and uncooked dal, along with a mango and notes of various denominations..When I was a child I remember my grandma used to neatly deck up a few 10 rupee notes, some 100 rupee notes ..the ritual was to see the thali first thing in the morning on the day of new year…after that she would offer to let the children of the house pick how much ever money they wanted to..I still remember how I would request (read force) my granny to start off with me before going to the other cousins and how I would pick away all the 100 rupee notes before anyone else did..LOL..btw my granny used to be extra partial towards me..she still is! So there was no question of her not acceding to my request..;)
Coming back to my story, we finished all the things that we had to do on the new year eve by around 1230 in the night. I don’t even remember when I dozed off after that. The next day we got up around 6AM. As the ritual demanded went and saw the thali and GOD first thing after getting up. Was wondering if I could go catch up on some sleep again because I dint have a proper sleep last night..Called up my mom , hurriedly greeted her and dad and checked with mom if it was ok to sleep for some more time, which she vehemently denied..Her theory was I could have slept slightly longer but going back to sleep after getting up on a festival day was a strict no no..So I tried really hard to keep my eyes wide open and started playing some divine songs to get myself off my sleep..that helped..The next challenge was to do up the home without a domestic help..because my maid was on leave that day..Supposedly she wanted to go to her hometown to get a voter’s ID..As much as I was tempted to ask her to stay back saying it wasn’t important, I decided not to, realizing social responsibility ..I anyway don’t vote..But why refrain someone else who wants to? So I just let her go..In about half an hour I would have called mom again to check with her if sweeping alone was enough or mopping was compulsory..She said “mopping inst compulsory considering your present health condition..Just make sure to sweep all the rooms and see if you can find an alternate maid for today alone even if it is just for sweeping.”. I replied” Mom please don’t tell me things considering my present situation..if something has to be done it has to be done..So if mopping is compulsory I’ll do it or get it done..Don’t worry”. She said it wasn’t..Relieved I started doing the other chores..washed some vessels for 10 mins took an half an hour break, called up mom to check if the kitchen slab and the gas stove had to be washed..was hoping to hear a no but she was like “Dint you already do it? You should have”..It was then that I remembered her having told me a dozen times the previous day, that I had to..I quickly hung up the phone saying I’ll do it then and managed to clean up the slab also..Finally my cook came over and cooked the offerings that had to be made..this included vadas, kheer, and some chutney, while I cooked rice and dal and got everything else in place before I could offer all these to GOD. Just when I placed the dal before the puja mandap my SIL asks me “Didi do we need to add salt to Dal?” I laughed as much as I could, NOT because I knew the answer but because I found the question funny and sensible at the same time..Called up mom yet again, put the speaker on and asked her if salt needs to be added to which she said “Itz ok..GOD will adjust”…both me and my SIL had a hearty laugh over what my mom said, and we exclaimed in unison “MOM!?!”.. Mom reassured us then that it wasn’t needed, and we finally decided to leave the dal that way..Here I MUST add that I love the enthu this girl shows in doing things the right way, despite the fact that she is a Gujju and is new to the Iyer household. 
. And like I said my energy levels double on seeing someone with a matching wavelength. Coming back to my story, it must have been like 1030 by the time we finished all this and we both had to rush to our respective offices..Barely had the time to take some quick pics..
Finally I called up my driver and asked him to pick me..Must have reached office around 11 and was already waiting for the evening to leave office..PHEW! Tired soul I was that day, who couldn’t even afford a power nap in between, because there is a belief that all the good you do in the morning on the festival days will not get counted if you sleep any other part of the day except at night..So managed to keep myself awake till 9…Dint even have the energy to watch Uttaran..something that I never give up otherwise…Don’t even know when I fell asleep…Long day I must say, but definitely a day that I thoroughly enjoyed, as I felt I did things to my satisfaction.
Note: I just realized this post turned out longer than I wanted it to..Kya karen..Aadat se majboor ..But on a serious note, I am letting myself be as elaborate only for some more days..after that I have decided to keep my conversations (be it posts/face to face talks/ IMs) shorter..which means my replies would be in the ratio of 1:1 as against the 10:1 it is now..LOL
Recent Comments