OONUKALAMAYI- VANNOLU (MEALS READY- PLEASE COME)
Dear friends, I could see a few days back, aserver writing BEAUTIFULLYthe menu for the meals for the day by about 11.30 AM on the guidance of themanager/ proprietor in front of a hotel in T Nagar. This was an intimation meals are ready toserve. Earlier too I have seen, boards are displayed when the preparations areready. Some restaurants display mealstime. Some with meals time and menu. In general one person waiting formeals is not relished by the restaurant people. Restaurants used to ask thepersons to come after certain time. The principle followed is, personshould be asked to sit for meals when MEALS ITEMS ARE READY. Many hotels keep thedining halls closed, if meals are not ready. A look in to meals ready. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 27-12-2012 Reposted on 25-4-2021 after editing and updating. In Chennai aftercovid started in March 2020, there were restrictions in serving food. Many restaurantsclosed, some worked for certain time, some with parcel service. Situationcontinues. Today is complete lockout day. 1.CHOROONU (Giving rice for first time for eating to a child) While the child is about one year,first time children are fed with a very small quantity of rice with ghee,payasam and one or two dishes. Many people make the vow to conduct the ritualin a temple. In temples it is conducted after morning sreebali and nivedyam.Most people like a period of about10-11 AM. 2.Meals in the morning or afternoon? Especially among Brahmins manyfamilies have morning coffee, then between 9 AM and 10. 30 AM meals. If office goers are there it would be by 9 AMitself. Those take meals in the morning used to have light tiffin in the afternoon. Butmost like to have breakfast in the morning and then meals in the afternoon. Some hotels as suchused to have a tiffin section and meals section in the afternoon. My father was in the habit of taking meals in the morning. However we childrenused to have tiffin in the morning. While functions like marriages arein the morning, even now it is customary to have STRAIGHT MEALS without tiffin.First thing- it savesthe expenditure on tiffin. 2nd if tiffin is served, the people whocome over for meals is uncertain. However, the invitees would becomeimpatient if meals are not ready immediately after the function. 3.Meals in the afternoon. Meals in the afternoon are mostwelcome. We havereference to the afternoon meals in the Mahabharatha. Sun God gave Droupadi avessel called AKSHAYA PATHRAM. The condition was she should keep itupside down in the previous day after her meals, and keep it in the normalposition next day and any number of meals asked is given by the vessel.Panchali had to take her food as last one and clean the vessel and keep itupside down. No more supply. This was told as “PANCHALI UNDAL PATHRAM KAMIZHTHI”. One day sage DURVASA came lateafternoon with his sishyas. He said he is very hungry. But Panchali hadfinished her meals by the time. Yudhishitra asked the sage and shishyas tofinish the bath and come. Droupadi called Krishna for the help. Krishna askedDroupadi to bring the Akshaya pathra to him. There was a small bit of cheera (spinach) sticking inside. He took it and put in his mouth.Sage Durvasa was taking the dipwith his sishyas. Suddenly Durvasa made an eambakkam-“Eaaeam” (stomach full sound).As if waiting for Durvasa, sishyas too made embakkam- Eeaam. Durvasa said- I feel stomach isfull. I cannot take a bit of anything more. Shishyas told in chorus- we too Guru.Legend goes thatDurvasa after bath did not return to the dwelling of Pandavas. We have one more instance- BeforeMahabharatha war, both Arjuna and Duryodhana went in an early evening seekinghelp from Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna was taking his nap after AFTERNOONMEALS 4.Heavy meals and normal meals. During yester years the physicalwork was more for us. Hence a meal with more quantity could be consumed and digested.In fact except for a very few people, the intake quantity has reduced verymuch, still reducing. With less production, morepopulation, this could be one reason for somewhat sufficiency. About 50 years back hotels served“Limited meals” and full meals. Now the quantity of that limited meals even cannot be consumed bypeople. Most people feel it is more than full meals. At least for centuries,celebrations and special meals called feasts with added items had been there. Now most of the restaurants givespecial meals. Every day has become festival day. The feasts in marriages or other functionscannot equal to some restaurant’s special meals today. 5.Srardha and items served The meals served to Brahmins duringsrardha is a special type. It is not a feast. It has abundance with restricteditems. Being heavy, the directions for Brahmins are to have fastprevious day, no food in morning, and again fast in the srardha day night. 6.Serving after persons have taken their seat. This could be the correct practice.Somehow now a day to cope with the crowd, in feasts dishes and savories areserved on cleaned leaf and oncethe person occupying seat, rice, sambar etc. are started serving. This we couldsee in many marriages. However in the house, things arearranged in the dining area, and persons occupy seat and then serving is done. 7.Aavani ppalaka, Panthippa , Oottupura. On those days, it was the practiceto sit on a raised plank called aavanippalaka and take food. For feasts ifsufficient planks are not there, a lengthy mat was used. It is calledPanthippai. In temples, the food was served in Ootupura. Now dining table and chairs/benches have totally replaced them. Exception is orthodox religious functions. Most sasthrikals use dining table for tiffin and meals during functionsand at home also. 8.Eachhil and Patthu Normally what is served to one foreating has to be ate by him. If any surplus, it is put to waste. This is calledechhil. The quantity remaining in his hand etc. is called Eachil. Patthu is the quantity fallen down etc. andthe quantity taken from the main preparation for serving. This would not be mixed back the bulkpreparation. Now with dining table and self-serving,these things are not looked in to. Thewife while taking meals, serve with the other had to husband and children. Theperiod home maker taking meals as the last person has become a thing of past. 8a.Patthu and temples. Today we can see the observance ofPatthu etc. only in temples Ootupura servings. Patthu has slightly different meaning with nivedyams. 9.Serving hot. Things eaten by a person are felttasty under two conditions. 1. He is very hungry 2. Items arehot. When hunger somewhat subside, thesame item, which was felt very relishing, would become not so relishing. The same item served hot may tastemore comparing to serve with normal heat. This include the very rice and wheat rice!I consume wheat riceand served hot, half the quantity I eat without dishes 10.Feast and items Today we can say a feast has someadded puddings or payasams, more pickles, more type of papads and specialplantains. All others are served in special meals. 11.My title- It is from the film chitram acted by Ranjini,Mohanlal and Nedumuti venu, Ranjini calling Nedumuti venu for meals.Initially she calls him alone. Later she develop love to Mohanlal and add-AYALAE kootae viliccholu, and when affection becomes more- ADDEHATTHAE kkootae vilicholu… -- 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]. 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