Margazhi is an auspicious month in Tamil year. Tamil calendar consists of twelve months and this is a very special month. It usually comes in december and lasts till the first two weeks of January. This month  is meant to be dedicated entirely for devotion. Ah! I dont beleive the last sentence. Because our predecessors were neither empty headed to advocate an entire month for devotion  nor they had the luxury to sit and happily sing bajans for a whole month. I seriously doubt the purpose of it.What could it be? Voila!! As expected I found the reason behind it. It is a month with strict timelines and exercise shedules framed by our ancestors to make the young girls stay fit and slim.Do my reasoning sounds idiotic? Well. Read through the entire post and then judge.

Here comes a little background about the famous margazhi. Hinduism has two main  sub divisions namely,saivam and vainavam. In saivam the lord is Siva and in Vainavam it is  Vishnu. Noteworthy poets and sages of saivam are known as Nayanmars and they were 63 in number.In vainavam there are twelve such devotees,known as alwars. Tamil literature is highly indebted to both alwars and nayanmars for their splendid contribution.Margazhi is a special month for vainavam. Andal,a female alwar is  the protagonist of margazhi season.  Her work is the famous thirupaavai,collection of songs for margaazhi.The story goes like this. Andal, a mortal girl falls in love with the immortal Lord Vishnu. She loves the lord,pray for him,observe the fasting in margazhi and finally join with the Lord,her goal! (Its like the paramathma Jeevathma concept,I have explained in my earlier post. The Alchemist & HinduismAn ordinary girl acheives her impossible goal as she beleives in her dream. Yes. One of  the many “The Alchemist” stories of Hinduism.)  This fasting is mainly observed by young ladies to garland the man of their choice.

Firstly Bhakthi or devotion in Margazhi is different from that of other months. It is symbolised with colourful kolams and joyful young girls as against the concept of renouncing and old sages. Choosing margazhi as the month for devotion is noteworthy. Margazhi precedes the month “Thai ”,the harvest season. There is a popular saying in tamil.”Thai piranthal Vazhi pirakkum” - When the month Thai comes many opportunities will come. It is the season when crops are harvested and traded which results in money.So it is a spending season. In this month,lot of marriages and all good things will take place. Doesnt it sound sensible to make the girls fit when such an important season comes?

Margazhi fasting has this procedure.During margazhi, Andal wakes up early in the morning. She goes to each of her friend’s house and wake them up. Together they go to pond,fetch water. Then they return home and adorn their houses with kolam.Kolam is an excellent physical and mental exercise. Proficiency in kolam is viewed as an important parameter while considering the brides to be. It is similar to how singing and playing music was considered as a brides to be scoring section in western world. Andal will be singing songs in praise of Lord Vishnu,her interest while doing all these chores. Isnt it similar to a young girl waking up early in the morning,going to the gym or beach along with her friends and exercise listening to Metallica or any good music along with the frequent chats?

Then comes the diet part. People observe fasting during margazhi. Margazhi fasting is not just elimination of non veg items from food. It includes the exclusion of milk products from the diet. Andal specifies it in her song,”Nei Unnom Paal unnom” (We wont consume ghee and milk). Doesnt it sound like a dietician’s advice?

So the system is like this. For one full month girls will wake up very early, gather together,chat their way towards ponds,fetch water,sing and will draw the elaborate kolams  and have limited diet without milk products. Obviously it reduces the extra weight and makes them slim and fit. Apart from the fitness it also develops the quality which are advocated by many current marriage counsellors essential for a succesfull marriage. The quality of moving amiably with ones acquaintances such as neighbours,forming good relations and doing things together. Its like coming out of ones small circle of family and exploring the outer world with your peers.

Andal must be the earliest dietician cum marriage counsellor!!

October!!! seems to be a great month for space exploration. This month in 1957(October 4 1957), Russians launched Sputnik 1 - the first artificial satellite.  “Sputnik” literally means “Satellite” in Russian.  The day marked the beginning of space age for homosapiens.

Today (Oct 22 2008), India had sucessfully started its maiden voyage to moon. Its a moment of great pride.  However, we need to remeber this mission is still in its first phase at the time of this post. Currently the satellite is in earth’s orbit and it will take 15 more days to reach lunar orbit. Apart from the high end scientific studies to be carried out by this satellite for two years in orbit, one another important part of this mission carrying symbolic significance is “Moon Impact Probe(MIP)” - a small satellite carried by “Chandrayaan” which is to impact on the moon. This “MIP” has a picture of tricolor(Indian Flag) on it which marks India as the fourth nation to place the flag on the moon after Russia, USA and Japan. Also this mission marks international presence as it carries six foreign payloads(US - 2, ESA - 3 and Bulgaria - 1) apart from five indian ones.

Its really inspiring to see asian nations making great progress in space exploration in this century. Japan started first asian lunar exploration mission  by launching “SELENE” in 2007. Chinese followed suite with their “Chang’e”. Now its the turn of India. May be these countries are drawing inspiration from great feats acheived by western world during “Space Race Era’. Well, the Russian “Sputnik Shock / Surprise - by which mankind defied gravitation for the first time” and American answer “Apollo - which enabled Neil Armstrong to take a small step which in turn become a giant leap for mankind”, were inspiring to every one around the globe. So let these developing asian nations follow the steps of mighty western powers and explore space for the benefit of the mankind. Also they need to be careful not to end up in a “Star Wars” type stalemate which plagued last century. Let there be more cooperation between world nations than competition so that total mankind is benefitted. There are lot of talks cropping up about “Space Colonies” and stuff like that. This is good if “Colonies” are developed for total humanity. Let us not carry the divisions we developed in our “Mother Earth” to these distant celestial bodies. Let us remember though Americans conquered moon as early as 1969 they haven’t made any territorial claims on it. This should be a guiding spirit for all new age space explorers.

One childish wish… We, children in India grew up hearing stories from our “Grannies” about a “Grand Ma” feeding rice to her “Grand Child” in Moon(”Nila Choru” in Tamil). We wholeheartedly believed it until this story was busted by our school geography teacher who made us realise those dark marking on moon were just craters on lunar surface. May be these lunar missions can make it possible for this child hood story / belief to become a reality some day.

PS: Well, I was typing and deleting the previous paragraph on  ”One childish wish”. I was ambivalent - “to type or not to type”. Suddenly the following quote by a great man(JFK I guess but i am not sure) flashed in my mind.

“PEOPLE SEE THINGS AROUND THEM AND EXPLAIN WHY. I DREAM ABOUT THINGS THAT DON’T EXIST AND ASK WHY NOT?”.

Which made me muster courage to type those lines. Please post your comments on this article.