Births (BH:D267)

April 27, 2012

Yesterday astrologer uncle had come around to make the traditional, customary visit for my sister's pregnancy. Discussions swirled around astrology, marriages, births, sickness and deaths; the whole works. I mentioned about getting a call from Saiju 11:38pm the previous night to proudly and happily declare that he has become the dad of another baby boy born exactly half an hour before the call.

"For a man who goes around doing calculations based on people's birth times, I was ashamed that I didn't know my own birth time," uncle went into story telling mode. "After a lot of searching, I tracked down an old aunt who I hoped might have a clue. It took her a while. After a lot of thinking, she said: When I was going to the paddy fields with 'kanji' (rice porridge) for the workers, Pankajakshi (uncle's mom i.e my granny) was cleaning fish for lunch. When I came back from the field, I heard your cries."

"This was all the information I had," he continued. "Traditionally I suppose 'kanji' for the workers is taken around 10:30-11 in the morning. I have written my birth chart with that estimate. Gone are those days when fully pregnant women would be cleaning fish minutes before giving birth!"

"Or the days when they would have 15-16 children spending the bulk of their adult life either pregnant or nursing," I added.

I remember seeing plenty of yard notices and balloons, pink for girl and blue for boy as per the ongoing fad, in College Station-Bryan announcing the birth of babies in the homes. And then there are the baby showers and the e-vites. 

In Kerala, till a few decades ago there was a tradition called "Naadariyikkal" which means "letting the village/neighborhood know" about births. A brother (there were plenty of siblings to go around in those days) of the new born was enlisted to carry out this ritual. If a baby girl was born, the brother would bang the heavy side of a coconut frond on the front porch of the house thrice. In case of a baby boy, a spatula would be banged against the side of a metal utensil thrice. I don't have authoritative information on who takes care of the ritual for the first born at a home.

Went with Abhishek to the substandard shopping fest that is in progress at Kanakakunnu Palace. Only thing worth noting were the signboards of "Lizard Replant" next to white balls of the gecko repellent. Spent a few minutes on Shashi Tharoor's dream flagpole that now serves as a 67 meter cylindrical metallic bench for visitors to the palace campus. 

Abhishek talked about how Kerala looks from the cockpit of his flights. "It is such a beautiful land. There will be a small lake and then we will see a bigger one and then an even bigger one. Beautiful blue and green. The mountains, when you fly in, it feels like it is just mountains everywhere. And they are so steep and appear to extend almost to the coast from that altitude. The contrast with Tamil Nadu is sharp once you fly over the Ghats. "

It is the mountains that made the Arabs call Kerala as Mala-bar, the abundance of 'Mala' i.e mountains.

Another pilot friend dropped me home. "You guys should preserve the uniqueness of Trivandrum." he says as we wait for the signal at Kowdiar. "It is sad to see that Kochi has become just another city with its traffic and tall buildings everywhere. Trivandrum is so beautiful with its narrow by lanes and old buildings. And it is so clean!" 

That is the certificate from a Delhiite to a city that hasn't had garbage clearance done for five months now!