Its very unusual for all of us to gather in Chidambaram for Pongal. We would normally meet during the Annual holidays every year. But one year it so happend that we all gathered in Chidambaram. Bogi would be a normal Bholi eating ritual. But Pongal and Maatu Pongal are quite special there.
We have a kind of Competition in the neighborhood as which house makes lot of sound during "Pongalo Pongal". Since we run a Grocery store, lot of unused tins will be on the backyard. Joo Chittappa and Kumar Chittappa brought lot of such tins to the kitchen and we started beating them with vengala/pithalai karandi..... That created a lot of sound. All of us started to yell 'Pongalo pongal' superceding the tin's sound. Atlast it was our house that made lot of sound.
Maatu pongal would be another fun event because we keep Kanu podi in the mottai madi, where monkeys quite often come. So we had to keep the kanu real fast before the monkeys could come. When we were about to take Harathi and return back downstairs, Joo Chittappa came upstairs with the left over of the pongal Kanu kuzhambu and we all ate the thachi mammu (white rice we keep for kanu podi) with the kuzhambu... That was yummy... From then on, Kanu pongal is my favourite. Every year I ask my mom to save the kanu Kozhanmbu for the next day.
Then in the evening, our servents give all the cows and calfs a shower and dress them up. Watching that is a real fun. But then at this time, we would generally feel home sick, because we might have to start to our places and go back to school.
Hi! Good to know there is a blog on D S Iyengar family, Mrs Saroja & Mrs Ramanujam, Joo, Pushpa, Kumar and others. I am Sudarshan whose family were neighbours to Ramanujam and Saroja in Cuddalore in the mid 60's. We still keep in very occasional touch, esp my sister Shobha with Joo and his parents.
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion : Use more photos of the family, the house and of Chidambaram, Cuddalore etc. That would ad to the interest. Otherwise the posts look bland. All the Best.