THALA-HEAD Today after coming out from the men’s beauty parlour aftera haircut, various thoughts came to my mind relating head. I had no expectationmy area would develop this much. Opposite to my home four shops have come and one of them is men’s beauty parlour. Whenthey compelled me the first man for haircut, I agreed to be the first man forhaircut there.
The first itself was head hair. Though hair is grown inmany parts visibly, still the hair grown in the head alone is always used withadjective- Thala in Malayalam and Tamil. Thala is always added to muti andtold- THALAMUTI.Many times for distinguishing hair grown in other parts we may add the part asadjective. If one was searching to find a barber on those days- It was told asto cut head hair- Thalamuti. In fact today in the beauty parlour the hair cutter himselfwas growing hair and beard. Usually a tip top person. For my warm enquiry hereplied- I am going to temple to take hair sir. Offering hair to God is done inmany Muruga temples, and Tirupati Balaji temple. This offering hair is not so common in KeralaMuruga temples as my information goes. Head hair will grow more with females. Baldness is veryvery rare with women, though it is there. But baldness is seen with most malesthough exemptions are there. I have seen a person aged about eighty with fullgrown hair in head, that too black. No grey hair. Similarly I have seen womenhaving baldness . Hair growth in males and females is related to genes also toa great extent. If a young person started to ask questions to his parentsand elders rather than obeying- it is told as THALAYEDUTHHU- This is used more with male wards. The fate of a person is often told as – What is written onhead- THALAYILEZHUTTHU,though no body has written anything on the head. Thalakku vannathuthalappavotu poyiis a usage for narrow escape in accidents and incidents involving a person. THALAPPAVU is turban.Probably Turban would have been in usage from early times. I have seen manyelder’s photo’s only with turban. Head covering with sari end is compulsory with manycommunities among women while talkingto elders and strangers. The weight taken on head is called THALACHUMATU. On those days most localtransportation of grains was done by carrying on head. There used to haveresting places along roads wheredirectly from head the load could be relieved on a raised granite slab supportedon Pillars. In Tamil it is called Chumai thangi. Chumatu thaangi inMalayalam. These chumai thangai were anindication of location. Head ache is called THALAVETHANA. A person who has to be getting rid of somehow or a thing somehow to be washedoff is also indirectly told as THALAVETHANA. A person having BP or having diabetics may often experienceTHALACHUTTAAL.There could be many reasons including over dose of medicines. An immediateattention requiring incident. Clay on head- THALYIL KALIMANNU on head is a usage to mean a person’slistening and understanding power is lesser. THALAYATTI is a usage meaning a person alwaysagrees to another with out any thinking. This need not be due his agreeingfully, but due to situations. Tanjore is famous to make idols which will alwaysmove the head on tilting and not falling down. It is called THALAYATTI BOMMAI. Though hair is beautiful on the head, on falling it looseall its appreciation. It is immediately removed out. However hair shaved intemples especially of women are used to make artificial female hair (Thiruppan)and wigs. A wife’s talk compelling him to change his earlier versionis often told on account of THALAYANA MANTHRAM. The leader is called THALAIVAN in Tamil. A person with slightly flat head is called Chatti thalayan inMalayalam. Other way if the head is oval he is called Thenga moonchi in Tamil. Thalayatathe val aata means (Without head talking and least important talking) Thala marannu ennatheikkal meansgoing beyond limits Writer-R. GopalaKrishnan, 73 dated 21-4-2017. Reposted on 4-4-2021 with additions and editing -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1251889366.2596413.1617518628409%40mail.yahoo.com.
