But, is it nothing to know when you are dying, when you are about to take leave of this world, of its joys and sorrows, when the past of your life is unfurled before you, when eternity opens wide its portals, is it nothing to know at that last awful,supreme moment of your lives, that you have not lived in vain, that you have lived for the benefit of others, that you have lived to help in the cause of your country's regeneration?

-Surendranath Banerjea

Friday, July 10, 2009

Pedigree..

Long since i was born,i had been hearing a you-are-a-hopeless-decadent-piece-of-shit-not-worthy-of-being-an-iyer rants from my grandpa..Ok now,don't get me wrong..me and grandpa had been the best pals in my childhood,thanks to the endless hours of cards and carroms..But that doesn't exempt me from earning his disapproval..if u've been digging into my previous posts,it wouldn't be much difficult for you to conclude that i'm a sleepyhead myself..a nocturnal one i am..but i love sleeping when everyone's awake,and stay awake when everyone springs into slumber..zzz..and that's been the earliest of all the reasons to gain a hopeless image..
I wake up late,point no:1!..
And when i wake up late,i will still be sleepy,that i would bathe late,point no: 2!..
And when i don't bathe early,i wouldn't pray on time,point no:3!..
And on and on goes the intricacies of an intertwined vicious network..Alrite,not nasty..still,at one point of time,when i wasn't accustomed to dictionary i.e. when i was a kid,i had even asked a teacher at school if the word 'hopeless' meant something good,like,pretty/intelligent/sweet or something of the like..

So goes my plights of enduring the tag of an iyer..i enjoy that tag though..quite proud if u ask me..proud to be a veggie in particular..Now you may ask me what's there to be so proud of..but that feeling can't be quite articulated..the kind of feeling of self respect you have when you find amid a horde of drunk pals,you,totally sober..Self-respect!omg..am i the one speaking!! :O..

So what's it like to be an iyer..there are quite some quintessence you find in every iyer home..
#Tamil..!!
And if you happen to be in kerala,especially if you are somehow linked to palakkad,it would definitely not be a tamil that your tongue would be,but a talayalam=talli+mallu..For a real time experience,'Nala damayanthi' or 'Micheal-madan-kamaraj' is prescribed..

#At any function that you attend,the guy you bump into,would somehow turn out to be your aunt's father-in-law's nephew's grandson or the like..everyone would seem related..which i guess is the reason why there's a lot of out-of-caste marriages in the community,.afteral,marriage inside the family is not very appreciable you see..

#Everytime you meet another Iyer/iyengar of the opposite sex, most pro'ly parents would be busy thinking, "what a cultured boy/girl...marriage potential?"!

#Learning carnatic music or bharatnatyam,being one of the mandatory stuffs!!yours truly has been 'trained' in classical music until she was eligible to vote..

#Mathssss and sanskrit were the only subjects whose marks my grandpa was interested in..as a result of which my sanskrit sir used to mock me a walking dictionary..

#Fridays..gaya3333,go and bath di..you have thengayennai(cocunut oil) and manjal(turmeric) in the bathroom..glorious day to get me dressed up in a litre of oil and paint myself yellow..

#♫kousalya supraja rama♫..=>>5.30am,.and dad nodding and humming an aaha...

#Thair sadam and oorga(curd rice and pickle)..to all those who is yet to have a taste of that scrumptious food,you are missing something ambrosial..

There are a lot more which i would obviously find it hard to put it in english,like the 'etcchal pannathae' dialogue you hear when you eat..

Sarcastic and all i sound..But,brahmin brains are regarded highly efficient world over..(and i'm still wondering which part of my brain went adultered!!)

Khuda Hafiz
~Gayathri~

24 comments:

ZB said...

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice post.

Actually i am an half 'pattar'( donno if iyer is pattar?). My Paternal grandfather is a Nambuthiripadu.

But i am a proud Menon.(hope i dont sound castist).

But Iyer men can be a bit dumb looking.(no offense):)))

And they are obsessed with maths and a government job, esp Bank or LIC.we used to have an iyer neighbor whose daughter(my same year in school) scored 100 in maths year after year, and when yours truly used to bared score half centuries. I was constantly reprimanded and asked to see her and learn myself. But when Engineering entrance results came, stupid me got through REC(AHEM) and she had to go for BSc Maths.
Nice, i wanna write something like this, about being Nair-Menon. :))))))

ZB said...

missed out, i like their disciplined approach. And the food can be really good. I am a 90 % veggie myself, except for occasional seafood.

BTW, when i read the heading i thought you are going to write something about the dogs(i am still on a dog hangover):)))))))

Anonymous said...

HAHAHA
"venda Lakshmi, ni kulikyathe. Apudi e iru. Ni ena namma pole ye alla!"
"diiii...yen di vengayam narakuraay? inukki amavasya"
"Nok onumee teiryathu!"
Goes on and on and on! Oh god! I guess i am like you, someone who does not be like an iyer, but still takes great pride in being one!
Nice read. Loved this post :-)

Durga Nandan said...

hehehe.. :D
ur iyer pride n u.. :)
i see only iyers have replied to ur post. :P

gayathri vishwanathan said...

we share the same name and belong to the same iyer clan and I can quite relate to whatever u have mentioned in this post...good one!

Dhanya said...

Aaah another nocturnal creature! Glad to meet you ;)

Amrit said...

Hey,

Give a high-five!!! Even I am one big nocturnal...and love staying awake when everyone is sleeping...like right now..its 4 in the morning :)
But I can do this only on Friday & Saturday :(

Well, I really dont have much idea about caste thingie..but definitely glad that you are proud of being an iyer. My roomie is a kerela-ite..so will ask him more about these stuffs you wrote.

Will drop a mail soon.

And yes....why dont you take up that book tag...would love to see your choice of books.
So here I tag you officially :)

Gayathri said...

@ZB,yeah banks..it's like a family occupation here..all the men in my family work for diff banks either here or abroad..so ur comment does make sense..
and,iyer men do look a bit dumb..but recently found that there are a lot of youngsters who define an exception(not yet with a marriage potential though :D)
still in pomeru hangover ha!! :p

@Ramya,yeah,like 'dont cut the nails,it's been twilight'..dont cut the hair today,it's tuesday/friday/amavasi/ekadasi..

Gayathri said...

@Joe,huh!! may be u were a bit early!! :P..btw,appreciate the facts man!:D

@Gayathri,i can understand :)
Thanks for dropping by.. i would love it,if it's not the last time :D

Gayathri said...

@Dhanya,yeah!!glad to meet you too :D..

@Amrit,yeah,cheers!! even i sleep at like 3am or sth..
and abt the tag,huh! u sure wanna read?yeah i shall do it..but not in a haste i guess.. :)

Amrit said...

Yes..of course I would like to see your list.

Main soch kar bolta hoon...bol kar nahin sochta!! :)
**Amrit picked this line from the movie Race (watched today itself)** :)

Hmmm...dont do in haste..but dont take ages..really like to see your choice of books :)

Onward said...

Oye pattathi penne :D :D :D...

Luverly post di ..:)....was a wonderful read...so i guess u aint the stereotypical iyer pennu eh?? And oh yes who can blame u for the vicious circle :)...tis but to be expected...all the hard work u do at night :P implies u need to sleep in the day...and one thing leads to another..so on and so forth :P..hehe

But oye therz nothing to be proud of being a veggie...sheeesh!! I thought u had gr8 taste and to think u d be a veggie!!..whoa!! :P

real nice read di..couldnt stop laughing :)

luv
amith

Anonymous said...

hey, I followed your blog through Thousif. I loveee your posts and your writing(:

Take care,

QM

JS said...

nice post...the latter part seems to be abridged from iyer/iyenkar community in fb (yeah i had peeped into that wen i saw ur update)gud thing u shared it here.

n yeah i think every iyer will be proud to be one..as the gr8 mallu maxim states "pattaril pottanilla" wondering they meant it only for so-called dumb-looking iyer "men" only :P

I'm a hybrid of nair(my dad) and menon(my mom) though some argue that menons r just an upper class within nairs..n very often i've heard my kinsfolk referring "pattar"s as total misers..i personally hav such xperience too esp. from my former classical music teacher...no offense tho :)

take care...keep writing \m/

Miss M said...

One of my very first friends from college is an Iyer.

And OH MY GOD, thanks to the "brahmin brains", it was always 'Iyers are this and iyers are that'. And as much as I used to be fascinated with what he had to say, I got a little bored after a while.

So my comeback was, 'Bongs can eat fish, iyers cant! Ha!!'

Obviously he retorted back with his idli-sambar talk and we were back to square one. :P Quite frankly, it was absolutely entertaining having these conversations with him. :)

This post brought back memories. :)

Thousif Raza said...

Ohh the pain ;) lol, you dont wanna know, but baring the noctural plight, it always is the same for me too, abt the praying, the bathing an everyting else

but in your case its still more bad, ohh ;)

the tamil para was a BIG lol


greatly written and hope the situation and ur grand pa come of age ;) lol again


take care and keep writing.....

raMmY said...

Found your post while fiddling in the blogosphere!! ...

One amusing post i must say!! Being a brahmin (non - iyer though) i can sort of relate to some of those stuff!! especially sanskrit and math thingy!! still suck at math!! LOL!... its funny wen ppl around u are mugging living beings and u are quietly eating "ghaas phoos"! :P... but yea happy for wotever i am!!

Gud Post!! ... awesomely funny and great ranting :)

cheers!
rammy

Vyazz said...

MAN....such an awesome and a highly correct description of an Iyer household!!!
My dad's a Palakkad Iyer and my Mom'a a Tanjore Iyer.
Frankly I prefer the Tanjore type, coz I cant understand the Tamil my fathers side speak. Besides I'm not all that fond of avial and kootu.

Guess I'm not that typical an Iyer, coz for starters I hate Maths, I used to be awful at sanskrit, and I detest coffee with all my heart. And unlike my 95% scoring brilliant cousins I scored a measly 80% in the board exams!! :O
The one Iyer trait I do have is the love for Thir Saadam and oorga. Indeed an abrosial combination.

Gayathri said...

@Amrit,insha allah,before i die :P

@Amit,yeah man,for all those toils at night,i certainly need a lot of rest at day :D..for all your loathe on sat's veg menu at cafeteria,Cheers!! Veg can be scrumptious!!

Gayathri said...

@QM,thanks buddy,..hope to see you around :)

@JS(shhhh!! pathukke!! :D)
and yeah,im a miser myself :D

Gayathri said...

@Miss M,hehe..yeah the pride can sometimes become an obsession :D..
Thanks for dropping by.. see ya around..

@Thousif,'but in your case its still more bad, ohh ;)'..eh?? !! :O

Gayathri said...

@Rammy,he he..yeah,i love it when people push me into mugging living beings,as u said,and i reject it politely..
Glad seeing you here..see ya again??

@Vyaz,your non-math thingy is evident from your profession!! :P
And you dnt understand our tamil??haha..refer nala damayanthi!! :D

Thousif Raza said...

'but in your case its still more bad, ohh ;)' this i said comparing to my situation yaar, samjha karo buddhu, lol again tc :D

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