Private Tamil Lessons

These days, I am going to Thatha and Patti's place (Arvind's grandfather and grandmother) after work. Unless it is too late, I go there for a workout at their gym and then for a Tamil lesson from Thatha. Thatha is a great Tamil teacher!! Everyday, I am learning 1-2 sentences in Tamil that are frequently used in everyday life. He is very forgetful so he repeats the same things over and over again and this is actually a great thing for me because I am ‘forced to’ (not ‘forced’ in the literal sense but you know what I mean…) listen to the same sentences over and over again and also I am ‘forced to’ repeat the sentences myself over and over again :) Recently, Mami (Arvind's grandfather and grandmother’s live-in maid) joined Thatha in teaching me Tamil. Since she cannot speak English at all, she is providing me with an even better opportunity to learn Tamil. Let’s see how much I can learn in the next several months…!

Locked out!

This weekend, Arvind and I locked ourselves out from our apartment... Both amma and anna were out of station and we just stepped out of the apartment to say hi to thatha and patti without taking the keys. What was ironic about this whole incident is that thatha kept saying that we should stay with them over the weekend but we kept refusing because it will be inconvenient for us, but it turned out that we had no other choice but to stay with them for the entire weekend. It turned out to be a nice weekend, just relaxing and chilling. One thing I was a bit worried about througout the stay was the concept of yechel. In a Tamil brahmin community, there is this concept called yechel which means that anything you eat from (like plates, utensils, your right hand if your hand touches your mouth) is considered dirty and you have to make sure that these do not come into direct contact with the non-yechel things (like common plates, dishes, cooking utensils, pots and pans, etc). In Patti's household, this yechel is very strictly followed, so I was very consious when eating. The concept itself is pretty straightforward once you think about it but since eating is something that you do without thinking too much, it gets quite confusing. Also since there are also some cultural differences between Japan and Tamil brahmins, it makes me even more difficult & confusing to follow the ways. For example, if you don't want your right hand to become yechel (eg. if you want to directly eat something like chips from the common plate), people will just throw the food into their mouth. In Japan, it is extremely disrespectable to throw the food, even if you are throwing into your mouth, so I find it quite difficult to follow this custom. Also, in order for the left hand to not be yechel (eg so that you can use left hand to get second servings, etc), you cannot touch your plate with your left hand. In Japan, it is often not respectable, if you DON'T put your left hand to hold the plate lightly.

What I found was interesting was when Arvind moved his plate a bit to his side (position A) to get the second servings of something that was placed a bit far from where he was sitting. After he put the food on his plate, he moved his plate back to the original position. Patti spilled water on the place his plate was (position A). I thought she did that by mistake, like accidently tipping the cup, but actually she did that on purpose to purify the place (position A) where yechel plate was placed. Very interesting... I think it will take time for me to fully get accustomed to this custom.

ホッケー・スティック

今朝、ammaがあーびんのホッケー・スティックを持ってベランダを出たり入ったりしていたので、何をしているのかな、と思い、聞いてみたら、まだ朝のシャワーを浴びていないので、洗濯されたきれいな服・タオルには直接触ってはいけないんだと説明されました。もちろん、何か宗教に関係した理由があるからこのような事をしているのです。あーびんのおばあちゃまはとてもtraditionalなのでこのようなことをされると耳にしたことはありましたが、まさかammaまでこの風習を守っているとはびっくりしました。このようにインドで生活していると、普段の生活の中でちょっとしたことからインド独特な文化・習慣を垣間見ます。

Puneへ

出張先のPuneから帰ってきました。どたばたと忙しい出張でした。月曜日の夜に着き、色んなごたごたがあった後、やっとホテルにチェックイン。ごたごたというのは、Chennaiオフィスから4人、ミーティングのために同じ飛行機に乗ってPuneにきたのはいいものの、タクシーだと思ってお金を払った後連れて行かれたのは、Shared　Van。エアコンは効かないし、窓はあまり開かないし、蚊がたくさん車の中にいたのでものすごい勢いで刺されるし、運転手はいい加減で初めに行ってほしかったホテルをは通り過ぎるし、もうひとつのdestinationであったゲストハウスはではちゃんと行くかな、と思ったら、ここだといって何もないところに下ろされそうになるし、本当に初日は散々でした。翌日は、タイム・マネージメントはどうなってるの？？と思いたくなるような長時間のミーティング。午前10時半から午後7時半までのミーティングのはずが、夜の8時の時点で全プレゼンの２５％を終えただけ。私と同僚はラッキーなことに飛行機の時間が迫ってきていたので、9時にはミーティングを退散。夜中の1時ごろにやっとマドラスに帰ってきました。ほんとに、やれやれ、という感じの出張でした。

Eclipse

Yesterday was a solar eclipse (around 6pm in Chennai time). Too bad that I missed it, but the interesting thing happened after I came back home from the office. Arvind and I went to his grandparents’ place just to show our face to them but when we went there, his grandmother kept asking whether we’ve had shower or not. Of course, we haven’t taken shower because we immediately left home after I cam back from office. She kept asking why not?, why we haven’t taken shower? etc… That was when I was told that eclipse is a very auspicious event and very religious people will take shower both before and after the eclipse. They will also have to finish their food 6 hrs before the eclipse so that their stomach will be completely empty when the eclipse happens. Also men who lost their parents (i.e. whose parents are deceased) should do a special prayer during that time. Certain stars (i.e. people with certain horoscopes) will be affected negatively by this eclipse, so usually a priest does a small prayer to get rid of the evil that may affect these people. I saw a priest leaving Arvind’s aunt/uncle’s place yesterday and I later found out that the priest was doing a prayer for their grandchildren who have this horoscope. According to amma, these days, people don’t follow these things that strictly but they do follow things like not eating before the eclipse (4 hrs before instead of 6 hrs before) and doing prayers for those people who have a horoscope that may be affected, etc. Arvind wanted to drink beer yesterday because it has been a while since he drank last and also because it was Friday night, but since it was eclipse, he asked for permission to drink at home (actually he does this everytime since anna is religious and we don’t want to offend him but taking permission was especially important yesterday because it was eclipse yesterday). It seems anna did not really like the idea, but amma was okay with it because he will only drink after the eclipse (not during eclipse which is the auspicious time), so he ‘sort of’ got the permission and drank. Everything was really interesting :)