Manimma: 2011

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

It's a girl !

Congrats Aarthi & Rajiv !

श्रीमाधवी काननस्थे गर्भरक्षाम्बिके पाहि भक्तं स्तुवन्तम् ॥

Saturday, September 17, 2011

மணி பெரியப்பா (1928-2011) - சில நினைவுகள்

ஜம்பு, சின்னனி, பெரியப்பா, அப்பா - ஜூலை 1954

இரு சகோதரர்கள்

கல்யாண ஊர்வலம்- 1955

San Diego-வில் பெரியம்மாவுடன் - 9 July 2007

San Diego-வில் பெரியம்மாவுடன் - 12 July 2007

La Jolla Beach, 15 July 2007

ஸ்வாமி பரமஹம்ஸா யோகானந்தா ஆஷ்ரமம் - Encinitas, 22 July 2007

Sea World, 23 July 2007

ஸ்ரீ வெங்கடேஸ்வர திருக்கோயில், மாலிபு, Aug 4, 2007

முருகன் கோயில், உள்சூர, 4 July 2009

ஸ்ரீகாந்துடன், லால்-பாக, 5 July 2009

காமாக்ஷி, வித்யா, பெரியப்பா - 5 Jan 2010

பெரியம்மா, பெரியப்பா, உள்சூர் - 5 Jan 2010

Saturday, August 13, 2011

In one of my earlier posts, I said:
My last post was on memories of varalakShmi vratam, but was made on ஆவணி ஆவிட்டம்.
This post brings that number to 2 :-) Yesterday was varalakShmi vratam, and today is ஆவணி ஆவிட்டம். As promised here are some photos from yesterday

After the puja, Friday, Aug 12, 2011.

Vara(maha)lakshmi (coloring by Kamakshi)


Varalakshmi Ambal.

And also from that older post:

Now this (ஆவணி ஆவிட்டம்) happened to be another majorly important day in Besant Nagar, and I almost wanted to make a post of all my ஆவணி ஆவிட்டம் memories <snip>.

Well, here are some photos of the good stuff we received from Manimma and Perippa in past years (in karta-ne, karm-ko, karan-se format)

From: Manimma	To: Vidya	For: varalakShmi vrata

From: Perippa	To: Sridhar	For: ஆவணி ஆவிட்டம்

From: Manimma	To: Srividya & Sridhar	For: varalakShmi vrata, ஆவணி ஆவிட்டம், and காயத்ரீ ஜபம்

From: Ambi Anna (Malini Manni) and Raja Anna (Geetha Manni)	To: Kamakshi, Srividya & Sridhar	For: varalakShmi vrata and ஆவணி ஆவிட்டம.

The last one in particular (sent this year from Besant Nagar) addresses the sadness in my post from last year that "this was most likely the first ஆவணி ஆவிட்டம் in the US that I hadn't received a ஸங்கல்பம் from Manimma (or Besant Nagar)", and shows that the torch has been passed to the next generation :-)

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Letters from Manimma - Part 2 - சமைத்து பார்

Today's post (made not-coincidentally on varalakshmi vratam day in India) has been in the works since the day this blog was started !! When Manimma passed away, several people shared their memories of her cooking (hence the சமைத்து பார் title); here are some excerpts:

Raja Anna: Speaking of cooking skills, she could create food of any flavor or taste- north or south Indian, sometimes food that she had never tasted but by your description. I remember two such instances- one after going to Telco club and seeing someone eat a vegetable cutlet and “finger chips” (French fries) that I could not afford to buy. However, just my describing me what it looked like she could make it at home- and tasted better than many a cutlet I have since had and home-made ketchup to go with it as well. Similarly, I remember after coming from a train trip, I liked a ‘sabji’ that I got with chappati at a train station. She asked me what the vegetables where, what color it looked and the flavors and could create the recipe from her imagination.

Pushpa: For some reason, some of my favorite memories of Manimma are related to food. I remember one time when she made "finger chips" with Maggi ketchup for us, years ago at the old house, and while we were sitting around the table she told us how Appa used to really like them as a kid too. She always seemed to remember, even with years between our visits, which curry Meera and I liked and didn't like, which urga we liked and didn't like.

Meera: One of my favorite memories of Maniamma was her helping me learn how to cook traditional South Indian dishes. I was alone in India one summer (without any other young people or parents) and we would make something different each day. She would instruct me from her chair near the kitchen and would be able to tell me exactly where everything was - which cupboard, which drawer, etc. She would tell me the exact measurements to write down in my notebook, even though she only knew how to cook through practice, not recipes. That summer, with Maniamma's guidance, I made rasam, sambar, kerai, my favorite potato curry, and many more - and Periappa even enjoyed most of it!

and Aarthi in a comment to the varalakshmi vratam post wrote: Most people seem to think of Manimma and nourishment almost always together. I got a taste of this even though I came in last into the family.

Ever since I saw these observations (and possibly even before !) I wanted to post on Manimma and cooking, but never did find the time. And then everytime Vidya cooked the best sambar or rasam or curry I've ever tasted, or made something special (which was quite often, see below for a sample in the months of March-May)

Gulab Jamuns, March 2011


வற்றல் குழம்பு and வாழைக்காய் கரி, April 2011

Badam Cake, May 2011

Pizza, May 2011

I was reminded about completing this post, but perhaps, like Pushpa's சமாராதனை, it was destined that this post happen on Manimma's favourite varalakshmi vratam :-)

So here it is: Manimma's second letter to me after i came to the US, written in Oct 1995, with instructions on how to cook rice, sambhar and rasam. Her clear and really detailed instructions are in perfect agreement with Meera's observation "She would tell me the exact measurements to write down in my notebook, even though she only knew how to cook through practice, not recipes".

Only a few more hours and we'll be observing varalakshmi vratam here in San Diego, and the day after is ஆவணி ஆவிட்டம். I hope to continue tomorrow with photos from varalakshmi vratam here plus some more memories of Manimma/Perippa and வரலக்ஷ்மி விரதம்/ஆவணி ஆவிட்டம், and then another update on Aug 14 (காயத்ரி ஜபம் here, and Kalpagam Mami's birthday in India) with Manimma's ரசவாங்கி recipe as told to me by my mother when we were in India in Jan this year.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

.. and a letter from Perippa

Talked to Perippa two days ago on the occasion of Manimma's first anniversary. He seemed just slightly emotional. I wrote to him several years ago thanking him for what he and Manimma had done (and were continuing to do !) for all of us, and he accused me in his reply of the same thing (being emotional, that is).

His letter to me is attached below. The line "If you or anyone else feels that I have made some contributions to the family, it was all entirely due to the ... and the unstinted help and cooperation we got from Sarada" is an echo of what I said on Taatha & Paati's blog about how they both exemplified the "Behind every great man, there is a great woman" and vice versa.

Ambi Anna tells me (I talked to him an hour ago) that Perippa is back to normal now, even though he is sure to miss Baby Athai and Raja Anna when they leave :-(. I hope he feels better soon. For all he has done for the family, he deserves all the happiness possible. I have very fond memories of the பாராயணம்/பூஜை that he did every day (complete with நைவேத்யம் and ஆர்த்தி), how he would take us to music class (first with Salem Shri Chellam Iyengar and later with Shri V.R. Krishnan), take us to the book fair every year (where he bought tons of books for us), the trips to Music Academy and other places, and how he has always taught through example.

Concluding this post with some good memories from our trip to India in 2009

Manimma & Perippa, गृहप्रवेशं -s, June 11, 2009

Manimma & Perippa @ home, June 11, 2009

Manimma, Perippa & Srikanth, June 2009

Leaving for காஞ்சிபுரம் भिक्षावन्दनं, July 30, 2009

Kamakshi & Perippa, priceless !

Monday, July 18, 2011

Letters from Manimma - Part 1

Soon after I came here (and until I started my PhD, when my roommate got a PC, ruining everything !) I started corresponding with folks back in Chennai (I got letters from Manimma/Perippa/Appa/Amma, Rajiv, Srikanth, Sriram and also from Durga Akka, Amrith, Pushpa (a sample from Amrith/Pushpa was posted here) Balachander Mama, Rajagopalan Mama (who shared his priceless tape collection with Perippa) and many others.

For a long time now, I have been thinking of putting up scans of some of the letters from Manimma. Manimma was the most regular person in writing letters, and asked me to keep writing even if I called up regularly (which i did not). I tried to write regularly until the stupid PC thing changed everything and made me lazy, so I'd just send folks back home email and ask Rajiv/Srikanth to either read it or print it out and hand it to them.

One could certainly expect a packet from Manimma (with poonal, darbhai, and sankalpam) for every ஆவணி ஆவிட்டம் (see my post here), and generally a letter before varalakShmi vrata , nOmbu etc. After much delay, i took the initiative of scanning a few letters (I did this before i started posting so I don't lose steam and wait too long between posts), and have decided to start posting them at regular intervals, maybe one every month or so. Before i do so, here's a cover from a card that Manimma sent Rajiv (in Jan 1999)

and one from my parents the same time as the letter from Manimma I am going to post shortly (2 posts from this one).

My father's advice was to save these letters so I could enjoy reading them later (which i now see was good advice, that i thankfully followed :-) while my mother's was to keep doing my sandhyavandanam and veda/music practice (தினம் 121 காயத்ரி ஜபம் பண்ணவும், வேதமும் பாட்டும் மறக்காமல் முடிந்த பொது சொல்லவும் ) which I unfortunately never did follow :-(

How time flies..

Amost one year since this blog started..

Was going over old letters, all collected since I first came here to the US (more on that in my next post). Here's some idea of how much time has passed since then..

Dikshitarini

R.I.P Annapurne Paati (1922-2011)

From an earlier post:
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And even though we didn't see Manimma that day (I don't think we did), we did visit a very special Manimma-esqe person, Kalpagam (Swaminathan) Mami (whom Manimma held in great respect) that day.

Vidushi Kalpakam Swaminathan Mami, 2009 ஜந்மாஷ்டமீ

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http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/07/27/stories/2007072750570300.htm
http://www.carnaticdarbar.com/news/200902/20091108.asp

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Back from India & First day of Preschool

Got back from Madras over a month and a half ago. Have been meaning to update the blog with so many things, but hasn't happened so far. Some highlights from the India trip: