Heritage Homes

Do you know Maison Perumal?

No… OK.

Do you know Anandham Swamimalai?

No… okay … Then… Mantra Veppathur?

No...

No, no, they are not names of people whom I know. In fact, even I didn’t know them till I saw them featured as most favored holiday home stays.

Yes, these are nothing but holiday homes which are an extension of your ancestral or patti-thatha’s (grandparents) house - a fading heritage house which has been embellished with modern comforts and special luxuries.

These home stays serve traditional cuisine for lunch and dinner. You can experience the timeless old world elegance, rediscover yourself and blend with the rhythm of the surroundings. All these are neatly packaged and marketed as holiday home stays/holiday homes.

A typical traditional Tamil home in a gramam(village) has a pillared verandah with tiled awning and stone benches called thinnais which doubles as a reception area for unknown strangers. Known people are ushered in through the rezhi (hall way) through the main solid wooden door which has beautiful alcoves embedded in the walls on either side called ‘maadam’. Diyas are lit inside this alcoves in the evening.



Inside you will find an inner open courtyard called ‘ Nadu mittam’ generally open to the sky or having grilled ceiling through which the sun’s ray filter. Around the inner courtyard on all the 4 sides you will have the bed rooms, store room and kitchen.

Behind this at the backyard you will find a place called 'pin mittam'( utility area) where you have ammi kal, kal ural,(grinding stone) and thoikkara kal( washing platform) along with kinaru (water well). This is the design of such homes.

For most of us staying in high-rises, caught in traffic locks, inhaling the polluted air and caught in the web of robotic city life, working lunch, fast food, deadlines etc., These home stays help us to recharge, rejuvenate and connects our children with age old traditions , culture and our roots.

Some of us are lucky to have old relatives staying and maintaining these ancestral traditional houses in gramam (village) while the children and grand children are at faraway places.

I have experienced many such beautiful holidays with my relatives and cousins at my husband’s grandmother’s home ‘Madhurambika Ashram’ in Lalgudi (a small town near Tiruchi in Southern Tamilnadu).

Waking up to the calls of chirping birds, the fresh scent of the unpolluted air tingling your noses and step out to the kitchen garden glistening with morning dew in the backyard or ‘mittam’ with a cup of hot frothy filter kaapi (typical south Indian coffee) in steel davara and tumbler (traditional cup and saucer) and enjoy them outside in the ‘ mittam’ under the shade of the narthangai tree ( citron) along with our aunts and cousins where huge patterns of kolam( rangoli) adorn, while our children enjoy the exercise of drawing water from the wells.

The bath water is not heated in a geyser here instead on a huge copper pot in the mittam on a viragu aduppu( chulha/ firewood stove).

Atthai patti(Mil’s aunt), chitti (MIL’s sister) and M-I-L (all of them are 70+ and very active) have their bath and get together to slow cook authentic traditional recipes with patient hands in earthern stove (aduppu) and gas stove on gentle low flames in vessels like kal chatty(stone vessels), irumbu vanali(Iron wok), vengala uruli( brass vessels), Iya chombu( tin vessel).These vessels guard and endow the dishes with essence and aroma enhancing the dishes with a distinct flavor which cannot be experienced in microwave cooking.

The dishes are made from the keerai(greens) like mudakathan,vada narayana keerai, murungai keerai( drumstick leaves), lemons, curry leaf, sundakkai(turkey berry) ,Manathakali, Narthangai, coconut all grown in the kitchen backyard or from fresh native vegetables like vazhaipoo( plaintain flower),garden beans, vazhaikkai( raw plaintain), pooshnikai,(pumpkin), senai (yam), pidi karanai etc brought from the market.

The maamis (uncle’s wives) in their 50’s help them in grinding the spices in ammi kal and kal-ural (grinding stones) while we cousins and DIL’s help in de-stemming, de-veining the keerai and chopping the vegetable.

Anna thatha(MIL's uncle) and mamas(uncles) are engaged in keeping the children busy with traditional games and storytelling.

Evenings are spent chatting, visiting nearby temple, shopping or making arrangements to take a tour to nearby places on the banks of the river Cauvery and star-gazing.(How many of us have seen a star spangled sky especially those like me staying in a city like HYD?)

We decided to have one such leisurely holiday at Lalgudi with atthai patti this December and promised atthai patti that I would be there, but thanks to the T-factor in our state, the schools have not declared X-mas vacation for a fortnight. It is just a 3 day vacation, so we have decided for a homestay, but of a different kind. We stayback at our own home for a vacation.

Happy vacation to all my blog readers and blogger friends.

Photo of mantra veppatur courtesy: The hindu

My family tree on Geni

Twenty five years back I enjoyed the company of houseful of people during my vacations. All of us staying in various cities assembled at our grandparents house in Chennai. My cousins along with our parents, grandparents filled the house and each day was like an occasion.

The visits of our parent’s uncles, aunts, second cousins and third cousins and our visits to their houses and other family ocassions completed our vacation. These get-togethers forged a strong bond amongst all the relatives.

Weddings planned during holidays added more fun and if it was planned away from Chennai then it was more merrier. Travelling by trains and buses to the wedding venue with an army of relatives blocking a whole compartment/bus was absolute joy. I have enjoyed many such wonderful moments with my folks. One such cousin was Radhika (Her great grandfather (GGF) and my GGF were brothers)and that makes radhu my third cousin.

With passage of time, I lost contact with her though our mothers met during some Chennai weddings. I recently pinned her on a social networking site where I placed her through a display photo (surnames have changed and is now based in Atlanta). We immediately exchanged mails and now share all those beautiful memories over mails and during our telecons. She introduced me to our family tree on Geni.

Geni, again is a networking site connecting relatives with a family tree. It displays the relationship at the top of the tree and has a news wall where you can share information and photos with relatives who are in the branch. I have also appended my father’s side (edakkudi branch) to the tree. We are all scattered all over the world while rooted to Edakkudi, practically this whole village (3kms from Mayavaram) belonged to my GGGfather.

Today , Geni tree shows that I have 900+ relatives(500+ blood relatives) and it is still growing. To this tree I have also appended my MIL(lalgudi) and FIL( tiruvaiyaru) family and so I am still counting.

In modern society, generally most of the families have single/two children. Children of the next generation miss the pleasure and warmth of extended family members during vacation and also work and other priorities are grounding most of us and we are unable to attend many family functions, though here i must admit i never miss an opportunity and take my children to their maternal and paternal homes on all vacations.

Geni has helped me connect with so many relatives and it is really nice to see the shastiaptha poorthi(60th birthday) and sadabhisheka(80th birthday) photos of senior relatives, the birth announcement of young ones etc. Old people also share and record some important incidents , anecdotes and sepia toned photos of their youth which would have otherwise gone unnoticed. It also gives moments of pleasure to old people who are unable to meet their relatives in far away places.

People who are interested in connecting with relatives should discover Geni and build their tree and this will also serve as a gentle reminder for our next gen to know about their ancestors.

This is my golden post(50th post) and I dedicate this to all the people on my family tree especially the elders.

A fairy tale vacation

After a tiring 3 day tour at Neyveli, it was now time for our annual retreat - Bangalore. B left to Hyderabad after two days leaving us back to enjoy our break.

One whole month at my parent's home was nothing short of magical - pure leisure. No morning hurry, no monday morning blues, no bills to be paid,no glancing head lines, no dead lines, no early morning school bus.

Life was in a gentle pace. I woke up leisurely (would be up by 7), had the pleasure of drinking morning tea slowly, had a brisk walk in the wooded and landscaped 9th main park without worrying about my daily menu, read most parts of 'The Hindu', 'Dinamani' and sometimes 'Bangalore Mirror'. Simple pockets of joy like these were aplenty without costing me a fortune and this is my idea of an holiday.

This kind of life is possible only during holidays outside your own home. I'm sure if many led their lives like these today, the doctors treating lifestyle diseases would be out of business.

The children too had their share of joy and fun. Shre, Shar and Janu( my 7 year old smart niece from Hosur) spent their time enjoying the company of their grand parents listening to stories of their childhood, playing cards,chess and chowka barah( dayam). They learnt simple cooking, helped their grandparents, read books from BOOKMARK Library, drew, painted and relished the good food made by their grandparents (my appa and amma are great cooks).

The trio creatively staged a mock fashion show which was crafted and choreographed by Shre, anchored by Shar and the ramp walker was the cutie Janavi. The threesome provided cutlets and nimboo juice made by them as refreshment during the show. All their creative work was possible because of the restricted TV time. Thanks to BESCOM( Bangalore electricity board) for their frequent unscheduled power cuts.

Inspite of the power cuts, we did'nt feel the heat and sweat at 34 deg ,( our body was seasoned to the 43-44 deg of Hyderabad) although appa and amma used their hand held palm fans for fanning.

Outings were few but enjoyable and memorable.

Children were not very keen on Lalbagh, Cubbon park / museum as they had already seen in their previous visits. Even the workshops at the leisure stores which we visit regularly had nothing new to offer( last time we attended Rob's(pogo fame) workshop at forum mall). But they enjoyed and forged good bonds with my aunts, uncles and cousins when they came over or when we visited them.The kids specially enjoyed the company of 16 month old Sanyuth, my cousin's son.
We missed going to the newly opened 8000sft children's book mall which was closer home.( we did not know its exact location)

We (I and my sister) relived our childhood memories with our childhood friends, who had also come down on vacation with their kids.

We also has some spiritual and divine moments at ISKCON, which we visit every year. The kids preferred to walk through the Hari Nam Dwar here. The hari dwar has 108 slabs of Granite measuring 2x2 feet. As you step on each slab you have to chant 'the hare krsna hare ram' mantra. This way, you chant 108 times and ascend the steps and reach the temple top. Had a nice experience watching 'Krishna and Poothana story' at the mini theatre in the temple.

We also visited the new TTD devasthanam at Vyalikaval( was inaugurated on May23) and our regular Sai Baba temple at Malleswaram.

The experience of Rasalok (still theatre) at Bimba- the art hut( near Gandhi bazaar) was simply extraordinary. It was a combo of divinity,art and culture. ( will blog about it later).

Also had very precious and memorable time at my sister's place in Hosur.

Hosur times to follow.