Wedding Bells for Pushpa

When we created a blog for Manimma, I resolved to contribute at least a few posts before Pushpa and Ben's wedding. I had grandiose plans of coming up with fitting tributes to Manimma along the lines of Subrahmanya Bharati's beautiful elegy to Subbarama Dikshitar, where he says

கன்னனோடு கோடை போயிற்று 

உயர்கம்பநாடனுடன் கவிதை  போயிற்று

....

அருட் சுப்பராமனேனும் இணையிலா விற்பன்னனோடு 

சுவைமிகுந்த பண்வளனும்   அகன்றதேனப் பகரலாமே !

Charity vanished with Karna

poetry with the lofty Kamban 

...

but with the passing away of unparalleled Subbaraman, 

mellifluous music departed.

With two weeks gone and me no closer to becoming a mahAkavi, and also with the கணபதி ஹோமம், சமாராதனை and விரதம்-s over this morning (Thu, Aug 19), I decided to scale down my plans and just post *something* before the wedding, and I thought what better thing to post during this occasion than memories of Manimma's long association with weddings (and other festivities) in our family. We start with some photos (and one video) of Manimma at some recent weddings:

Manimma at Aarthi Rajiv's wedding, Nov 23, 2006

Manimma at Srividya & Sridhar's wedding, June 21, 2004

Manimma at Kalyani & Sriram's wedding, June 11, 2000.

and a not-so-recent one :-) Both Raja Anna and Mythili Akka are in this photo, along with a a very happy Perippa.

Manimma at Amma & Appa's wedding, Nov 11, 1958

Here are a few more scans from Sriram's and my उपनयनम् (upanayanam, பூணூல்)

and the 80th birthday celebrations of Manimma (one of the most beautiful gifts to Manimma !)

Manimma's 80th Birthday celebration,  Oct 17, 2008

We conclude this post with the following observations of the bride-to-be "Manimma helped Amma figure out and organize many of the details for my wedding, I think...I know she'll be with us in spirit". 

Amen.