Brahmin or Brahman
Besantnagar was, and is to a large extent, still filled with residents, who mostly belong to the Brahmin community. Having been in this area from 1982, and having lived here from 1990, my Tamil slang has imbibed a few words from their dictionary, which i find difficult to shake off for i am not even conscious about it, and yet it gets me into a bit of a mess when i am dubbing. Director Saravanan, in whose film VALIYAVAN, i played a character asked me when i was dubbing for my scenes if i was a brahmin.I said no, and he said then you need to change your residence and your entire set of friends. I thought about it as i was driving back from the Dubbing studio, and my mind went back to the point from where i possibly could have gotten this influence and i think i can pinpoint it to somewhere, from the year 1995, for it was then, i in the grip of depression, turned towards god and turned inwards to myself for strength that was non-existent then and is now. Temples, my my friends who are mostly made up of Brahmins, reading a lot of religious books in tamil and listening to lots of tamil discourses, me thinks are the reasons that have influenced my tamil lingo, but for the good i guess. For earlier, the first word out of my mouth was 'O..A' and i remember some of my pals teasing me ' dei machaan satisha, porakkum pothu, ellarum amma, amma appidini oppari vechukutu varuvannga, nee mattum thaan 'o..a,o..annu sollikuttu vandha mathiri irukku'. It is very embarassing, to hear that but that is who i was and maybe still am, in bits and few pieces. I learnt, a lot of tough and rough tamil words, when i studied in krishnaswamy matriculation school, and although it kind of died a bit, when i joined Besant Arundale, it reared its dirty head later and has now kind of begun to subdue to a large extent as i am getting older.
The past Fifteen years, my morning routine, has helped forge loving bonds with many members of the older and also those from the Brahmin community, and i am happy to say that i have made some really good friends, of whose association i am really proud of.
But sometimes, the old Tamil lingo, jumps out and rears its ugly head, leaving me wondering for days, where it had been lying in dormant and also, leaving behind a very much, ashamed man.
A year back, a pleasant Sunday morning, found me sitting among some of my older and wiser pals and we were discussing k.balachandar and his influence on film's, when a few teenagers sat a few feet from us and started smoking. One old gentleman who was the last in the small crowd asked the boys not to smoke near them and go away, to which the boys smirked and turned to the other side and kept puffing away.
I, should have let it go and remained calm and quiet but then that is not me and I walked up to them and whispered slowly and softly, ' O..A, Sonna puriyatha, o..a, m...u, vera engayavathu poi udha vendiyathu thaane', and yes, it did have the desired effect and the boys left probably thinking 'machaan antha iyeru mama, enna asingama tamil pesuraan. pakrathukku padichavan mathiri irukkan, vaiya thorantha koovam thaan varuthu'.
Maybe then or maybe later it dawned on some of my oldie friends that i was not a brahmin and one caught me alone and this is the gist of that conversation.
HE-satish,neenga Iyeraa ille, Iyengaraa
satish- yen
HE- summa,summa thaan ketten
satish-ungalukku enna thonuthu
He-iyeru thaan but mooku,muzhiya paartha, iyengar mathiri irukku
satish-sari, enna thidirunnu, intha santhegam ungallukku
HE-naan Iyeru,sari, neengulum, Iyer thaanonnu nenachen
satish- rendum ille, Aaanna
He- Aaanaa?
satish- Brahmin ille naan, Aaanaa, enakulle, Brahman irukaan
Needless to say, he stopped talking to me and kind of told everybody, that i was an adhigaprasanngi, and a person who thought of himself, as a periya pudungi.
Iyer,iyengar,kshatryian what does it matter.
But at least that is how i have been from the start. My first and best friend was Perry,a poor, Anglo Indian boy, during my 2nd and 3rd std in Saraswathi Matriculation school, kodambakkam, and sometimes, i used to go along with him for lunch, which was only Rasam saadam and nellika uruga, and yet it felt like nectar that was made in heaven. I wish, i could meet him and his mother now, for i want to give back the love which they gave me, but, that building is no more and in its place is an old shopping complex.
But, the love, that Perry and his family gave me, still runs deep and strong in my veins and i knew then as i do now, that love is Brahman.
Yaar yaar sivam nee naan sivam
vaazhve thavam anbe sivam
Aathigam pesum adiyarkkellam
sivame anbaagum
naathigam pesum nallavar endral
anbe sivamaagum
Anbin paathai sernthavanukku
mudive illaiyaada
manathin neelam yethuvo
athuve vaazhvin neelamada
Anbe sivam anbe sivam enbom
anbe sivam anbe sivam enbom
anbe sivam anbe sivam enbom
anbe sivam anbe sivam enbom
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