Moorthy-Clan Meet (Read: Family Reunion)

For the uninitiated, Moorthy is my pious father in law. After seeing his seven daughters and a bright son (Kannan) reasonably well settled in life, he departed a happy soul. The children formed the Moorthy-Clan group to perpetuate his memory.

The eldest daughter is in Dubai. One daughter is no more. All the others six families are settled in Bangalore.                 

                                            

Kannan and Chitra (now a safe bet to hail them hospitality specialists) organized an Adda at their place last Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. The occasion? Their elder son, Vignesh, is moving shortly to US to do Masters in Human Computer Interaction Design (HCI). What is HCI from a common man’s perspective? I shall share that with you no sooner than I get to know it myself.

Come his Brigade Gateway home. We entered with guilt for being late, more so when Kannan had announced the timings for each item: 11 to 12 tea/coffee or juice with assorted snacks; 12 to 1 lunch, 2 to 3 dessert…ending with Kachori, Samosa and tea at 5 pm. We felt happy when we saw less pairs of sandals at his doorstep. Yes the house was half full.

But it didn’t take long, either for the house to be full or for the session to warm up. The group heaped praise on the eldest present, Lalitha Akka (Aunty, for SFVians), for her untiring contribution on the Narayaneeyam front, and me for walking away with a Ramraj linen shirt and superior cotton dhoti for her efforts.

“Saraswathy Akka,” hailed Kannan, “you are the luckiest among the lot having both sons and their families and you in the same complex but in three different apartments.” With an infectious smile she accepted the compliment.

Uma and Ramani seldom miss a family function. Early next morning Ramani had to leave for Kolkata for a Board meeting, and Uma to Ramani’s sister’s place to be with her on her husband’s first anniversary, before both took off to UK. But they both believe that it is the busiest person who finds time for everything. Kudos. Personally, I wanted Ramani to be on my side for Anthakshari, he  being a ready-reckoner for old songs – nay, Mohammad Rafi songs.

It was however the Chandra-Chandru duo who stole the show in Anthakshari. It was difficult to judge whose collection was more - fantastic. They shared with us the gist of their recent Germany trip, and the planned Thailand trip, let alone the intervening half-a-dozen long inter-state domestic drives.

Shanthy was doubly joyous what with the newly married Puja and her charming Sandeep staying on for the full term, and Sneha having just attended the convocation for her Engineering graduation and set to join officially the multinational where she worked as an intern. During the individual song-session, Shanthy was thrilled as Sandeep sang the PB Sreenivas Tamil number, “Kalangalil Aval Vasantham,,,” passing in between stealthy glances at Puja to convey that it was in her honour. I am not sure if, with her limited Tamil vocabulary, Puja got the message - or it was just another song for her. If so, poor Sandeep, love’s labours lost.

Mohan and Ramesh took charge of the audio-video and dumb charade sections. Dhivya and Aarti competed fiercely in Anthakshari releasing their Tamil and Hindi stocks incessantly. Their three lovely kids meanwhile quietly made sure that Kannan and Chitra had enough work for the next three days setting the house in order.    

Vignesh looked lost. Maybe he was visualizing in advance the University premises, the room he might occupy, the class he will get into… As for Vinayak, it was sadness and ecstasy combined. Sad because Vignesh is now more a friend, and ecstatic because Volkswagen is all his hereafter.

We boarded metro for nack home. The mild jerk-stops, and jerk-starts at each station helped the assorted snacks of the morning, the mouth-watering Paneer subzi, Daal Makhani, and the mixed vegetable of lunch, the assorted ice cream topped with Gulab jamun of dessert, the kachori and samosa with tea to wash them down, and the Tirunelveli halwa and the Srivalliputhur peda began to rearrange themselves within.  “To be on the safe side, back home we shall have Ramdev Baba’s digestive powder in warm water,” suggested the lady of the house. I agreed. Ek ne kahi, duju ne maani; Nanak kahe dono gyani”.

SFV Narayaneeyam Coaching Completes its session

A group of fifteen ladies barged into our home this evening in a highly, wait a minute, congratulatory mood, as I watched Dhoni walk back to the pavilion, run out, when I still had hopes of India making it to the final. “What is there to be happy when India is losing?” I wondered hearing their ecstatic joy.

They were no strangers, but familiar faces. Yes, they had their own reason. Tomorrow they complete the Narayaneeyam course under the tutelage of Aunty (the lady of the house).

With overflowing love, affection and infectious smiles, they brought along with them gifts for Aunty – silk sarees, sweets, different varieties of fruit, jasmine flowers, garland, and what have you, replicating the scene of a bride’s party visiting the groom’s house in a brigade. Not just that. They had some gifts for me too, shirt, dhoti with angavastram – totally unjustifiable from my standpoint. I said I played no role whatsoever in the class. When it was in session, I just confined myself to my computer room. “Precisely for that only Uncle,” said the lady who takes liberty with me. “And for putting up with our mispronunciations of the slokas, and posing unending queries to Aunty close to lunch time, all which must have trickled into your room,” she confided. “Partially agreed,” I conceded.

When we moved in to SFV in May 2016, one of Aunty’s wishes was to impart Narayaneeyam to ladies who might be interested in learning it. Making a modest beginning in July 2016 with four or five students, her list now runs to 20. For her it was Teaching for Better Learning. And she is still grateful that the students stood by her firmly – her explanations combining English, Tamil, Hindi, and rarely Malayalam, notwithstanding. Also the likes of Prema, Usha, Shashi, and a few others had to go to Gurgaon, San Diego, London, Rajasthan and other places to be with their near and dear ones for months on. But the silver lining was that they were all back into the fold once they returned to SFV.

All this gives rise to a basic question – What is Narayaneeyam? To quote from Google, Narayaneeyam is the condensed version of Srimad Bhagavatam, or Bhagavata Purana. Narayaneeyam, on Lord Narayana, gives in 1034 slokas the gist of Srimad Bhagavatam running into 18000 slokas. The author or Narayaneeyam, Shri Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri, was born in Kerala in 1560. He wrote it sitting in Guruvayoor temple.

Thus, more appropriately, the members of the SFV Narayaneeyam group should visit Guruvayoor to commemorate their successful completion of Narayaneeyam.

By completion would you mean the members can now recite Narayaneeyam by heart, or, at least, at ease? Perhaps not. Precisely why Aunty has planned the second phase starting from next week. In each class 15 chapters would be selected, and each member would be allotted one chapter to recite all by herself as the rest watch her. That would introduce an element of healthy competition among the students to do a shade better than the other. Not bad planning, perhaps.

Our heartiest congratulations to the members for their untiring efforts, and best wishes for an early total command for self-recitation.

As we, menfolk, commence Rudram Chamakam chanting, here are the ladies miles ahead having just completed a book of 1034 slokas. But then comparisons are invidious.

Senior Citizens’ Vedic Chanting sessions - Update

The first step is the most important step in any venture, they say. The Rudram-Chamakam Session (RCS), spearheaded a month ago by a handful of SFV seniors, took off to a good start. And as the saying goes, well begun is half done. Today the group completed its first round. That is, all the members had the privilege to host the session in their sweet homes.

Nothing works without broad guidelines. We hold two sessions a week (11 am to 12 noon) and one on Pradosham days (4.30 to 5.30 pm). Each member, in alphabetic order, will host RCS in his house. After the session, the hostess would serve just coffee or buttermilk. Nothing more, nothing less. (The hostesses have better things to do on a mid day). On Pradosham day, it is coffee to members and bananas to God (which will be distributed to devotees as prasad). During the coffee session, no discussions whatsoever on if NDA is good or UPA was better; whether Goddess Cauvery will ever set foot in SFV, or if the raise in the haircut rate is justified, more so when seniors have less to offer for shedding…

Towards the end of the first round, the lady of the house where it was held, recorded the chant without the group’s knowledge, and shared it with the members, as a gesture. It served as a great leveler. Until then we thought that, like when we sing along with Mohammad Rafi’s song, we are in perfect unison with his melody and modulation until the radio goes off air suddenly and we are left to hear just our version, and realize the world of difference.

That said, it was gratifying that it wasn’t too bad, and total synchronization may not be a far cry, or far-fetched – whichever is closer to the objective. Precisely, umeed par duniya kayam, or, life is better off on hopes.

 Yes, members enjoy - or suffer from - varying degrees of exposure to Rudram and Chamakam. Hence synchronization might be found wanting, leave alone intonation and diction, the inseparable twins of this chant. But then we are incurable optimists. We know our way, and nothing is impossible – not for the moment at least.

Being seniors, arrivals and departures are inevitable – off on a pilgrimage to Amarnath and Vaishnodevi, or to Dubai, America; or returning from Chennai or Hyderabad after a naam-karan or tonsure ceremony - yes, we just need excuses to get away. Luckily none of these has affected our quorum, and we never had to reconvene the session after a while to circumvent rules.

Starting from the second phase, that is Wednesday, each member will recite independently one chapter, already allotted, so that he does his homework well and puts his best foot forward. We are keeping our fingers crossed on the outcome of this effort.

We have already identified two ‘experts’ – one from within SFV and the other who takes Vedic Chanting classes in one of the Shankara Mutts in the city – to preside over one session each and point out our strengths (if any) and weaknesses. Meanwhile if anyone feels enthusiastic about joining the group, he is welcome to do so, his exposure regardless.

Though a little premature to announce, in the long-term, God willing, we have two plans: one, to chant Rudram and Chamakam over the public address system at our Madeshwara temple on a Pradosham day and, two, attempt Purusha Sooktham, Narayana Sooktham, Siva Sooktham, Trisathi, Mahanyasam, and what have you. Imagination running riot, I hear you murmur. No harm. Aim at the star, and shoot at the tree. Even if we achieve half the target, it isn’t bad. Isn’t it?