My Musings

INITIALS # INITIALS “Initial” is the letter beginning a word esp. a name, so the dictionary defines it. But, in real world, with some initials your mind is immediately drawn to some men/women and fond memories of these persons. In our family, say GRS, doesn’t it bring memories of our father / grandfather? I don’t know if GSR was widespread, but I feel KVS is rather prominent. Any other instances? Just say MS – who do you recollect instantaneously? That wonderful, melodious Queen of Carnatic music. MLV takes you to another Carnatic musician; TMS was the ‘voice’ of Sivaji and of MGR. Yes, MGR is known as just MGR. Like MGR, NTR was there in Andhra. But, no other actor was famously known by his initials. I doubt whether Shah Rukh is known as SRK. The film personality Meyyappan is known by AVM. Think of JRD, the name Tata just pops out. The man who put India on the steel industry map and on civil aviation among many other things. The three letters TVS signify the man TV Sundaram Iyengar, t...

** We are like this only. Easy to question “where is Advani, where is X, where is Y”, but, let’s ponder for a sec. Tamilnadu is an atheist State, let us digest that first - If not atheist, definitely anti-Brahmin. Vote bank politics play a powerful role here as in entire India. And caste politics. The present CM had lost 40 out of 40 recently. The bleak prospect of losing 234 out of 234 looms large. Veeranam, VCD were all just passing clouds. But, the momentum gained with these shall not be forfeited to the opposition. Keep the impetus on – at whatever cost, even arrest Sankarachariyar; dub him as the “most dishonest criminal”, make him eat “prison prepared food” just like any other criminal, show and profess to the entire world that “I am more anti-Brahmin than anyone else!” Do a midnight-arrest drama on Deepavali day; prove that “for me, Kanchi and Karuna are equal” Show the footage of the gory murder repeatedly with EVERY news-bit even after seven days – impress the voters with your...

Changes in the Indian menu over the ages. The food that we Indians have been eating has been, over the millennia, steadily evolving both in variety and taste. These have been identified from relics and fossils and also described in written lore. The eminent food scientist Dr KT Achaya has analyzed these in a scholarly and entertaining way. He points out that dosai and vadai have a 2000-year history in Tamil country but Idli is a definite foreign import. The earliest reference to Idli occurs in 920 AD and again in 1130 AD. But no mention is made of Urad dal, the long fermentation and steaming the batter. The kings who went to Indonesia in 800-1200 AD brought the IDLI from there (It was called kedli, those days). The Harappan civilization had rice, barley, wheat, karamani, moong, masoor, dates, pomegranates etc. During Vedic period (1700 BC), we are informed, rice, urad dal, spinach, pumpkins, cucumber, suraikkai, paagarkai, radish, brinjal, mangoes, oranges etc were available. Kothamall...