UNDA-URULA –SPHERE Dear friends,
Though there are manyshapes, certain shapes have more preference. One among them is sphere shape. Ithought of writing about sphere shape today. It is a new posting - Recently one member asked to write on newtopics, not reposting old ones with editing and updating. I can, perhaps the member may also write a new posting, I hope . Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan12-6-2021. 1 Primary school A child admitted toprimary school is taught about the spherical size of Earth showing a Globe. Beforethat examples are told like lemon, orange etc. Then teacher expands our earthis like them, and show the globe. Later the child is taught, earth is slightly oval inmiddle school and taught about the North Pole and South Pole. Probably only oneglobe might be there, it was kept in a common place in head master’s room. Fromthere it was taken to classes. The globes on earlierdays were made as spherical, but now with slightly oval shape, one can observe,if an old globe is there with them. 2. Globes in homes In the last few yearsbefore the appearance of smart phones, it was common sight to see a globe keptin visitor’s room or Hall. When discussion comes about foreign countries, hostand guests used to illustrate showing in the globe. I have used the term illustratebecause, it is making the other very clear. On those days questions in publicexaminations might be like- Illustrate the following:- 3. Sizing to sphere. Probably easier tosize as spherical, from earlier times it was practice to prepare many things tospherical size. Even in my boyhood days, most ayurvedic capsules were preparedin different spherical sizes. Ayurvedic physicians used to tell the quantity ofsomething to be consumed comparing to physical sizes of fruits like chundaikka, Kunnikkuruetc. It was a practice toeat rice making as small balls with dishes among many without touching lips.Now Nampoothiries eat so. Rice made to small ball and put in to mouth not touchingthe lips. Most important sizingto sphere is in temple Tirupathi where prasadam laddu is prepared as a possible ballusing both hands. Small sweet kids are compared to Laddu. Though normal colouris yellow, Thirupathi laddu is slightly dark and North Indian laddus are rosein colour. 4 Auspicious and in auspicious functions. During functions likemarriage and upananayam sweet laddu is prepared as balls. There would bedifferent types- smaller for guests and large ones for seeru. Not only thesize, the costly ingredients like cashew, clove, kismus etc. also may be lesserin the smaller ones. For Nalungu in the eveningafter marriage on those days a brass ball was used. Now jasmine flowers rolledlike a ball, or almost round coconut is used. For semi auspiciousfunction like srardha, in auspicious functions after death, rice is made in toballs for PINDA. I conclude duringsorrowing time, a person can make the easiest size as spherical. Small and largepindas are prepared. Large Pinda for the pithru. During srardham thebhokthas are served Ellurunda.Normally ellurunda is not prepared in homes. For cursing it iscommon to use – Ninte ammetapinnam. (Your mother’s pinda).In fact pinda is offered to mother only at Gaya during Gaya srardha. 5 Kitchen If we ask our womenfolk they could easily tell the spherical size made for different preparations. The preparation Undakuzhampu usingthoordal boiled and made and added to dish after frying is most liked by me. For preparing Cholapuri, Poori or chappathi, the dough is madein to balls and spread using a cylindrical wooden piece of about 7 inches overwheat powder spread on a firm base. Depending on the item the size of doughballs are made. I am still to understandwhy the dough for papadis prepared as cut cylindrical pieces. Many thavas are semispherical, pans are semi spherical. For preparing rice Venkalappana/ chembukalam are almostspherical with a flat base and top mouth. On those days mud pot for cooling water wasspherical. It was placed over a support called thirika (medium ring) since base was also notflat 6. Kalasakudam Kalasakudam are 95%spherical with flat base and top mouth. Pots are made almost spherical. I haveseen 100% spherical copper pot with mouth used to fetch water from the inner wellfor abhishekam in Mookambikaitemple. On those days homeundiyals were made spherical using mud, with a small hole to put coins forsavings. The undiyal was broken and taken cash, during absolute necessities orwhen fully filled up. 7 Sports In sports football is 100%spherical. Tennis balls are small and spherical. Children playing balls are medium and slightlylarge depend on the age of Kid. Cricket ball is heavy comparingto size. I know about a person lost hearing because of a cricket ball fell onthe neck area of the person. For reasons not known we can see some players rubballs on the pant side. Though the playground is with Corian grass, still dirton balls during rubbing make the pants dirty. I have seen throughpicture, the football in the USA is slightly oval. Then there is basketball, baseball, soccer ball, volleyball,Golf ball, hurling ball, etc. There is a playcalled shotput wherean iron brass ball with a chain is thrown by the player. Recently there was anews item in Kerala, during hurling, a girl hit another player’s mother in theplayground and she was hospitalised with serious pain. In Chinese checkersmall balls used to play in the board. In the billiards also. Golf and billiards are considered rich men’s play. Mosthill stations have golf fields. The golf ground I saw in plane is nearBangalore city railway station. 8. Feeding of rice and medicinal rice to elephants The Mahout feeds theelephant the rice with jaggery, or medicinal rice, preparing to the size of amedium football in its mouth. Whatever is eaten by elephant Aanapindam (relieving ofelephant) is almost global. There is a saying- One should fear elephant, why fear the relieving? There are many peoplewho are like relieving, but think they are elephants. The old Karyasthans (Land lord’strusted assistant) of Kerala were like that. There are some retired officers still thinkthey are not retired even after years. They gain respect in their office itselffor maximum six months. Afterwards respect start to decrease. In a recentMalayalam serial one person was telling to a retired police officer- Sir, you have long back removed yourcap. Now both of us are EQUAL. As I understand only lawyers have no retirement.Many doctors have to retire because of hand shivering to perform operation, dementia(Not recollecting) names of medicines etc. Once my family doctor with highfever told- Sir, we are also like you. With all care, still diseases comes to us. 9 Agricultural products. The jaggery isprepared after processing sugarcane extract, while it is hot as large balls. Soit has got the name Undasarkara.The shapes can be slightly oval, still the name is Undasarkara. The large size potatoare mostly oval, though smaller ones are spherical. On account of this potatois called Urulakizhanguin Malayalam and Tamil. The fruits Mulampazhamand Krishani are spherical. Already I have written about lemons and oranges andsimilar fruits are spherical. 10 Industry In Industry sphere typeEquipment are used in many manufacturing units. Spherical ball type valves areonly available now in controlvalves for water pipes in homes. One can find AC technicians comewith ammonia gasin a sphere type equipment to fill in the repairing air conditioner unit. Some produces like Napthalene are inspherical type. Actually naphthalene isonly in the outer part of the naphthalene balls. At one time small transistorradios appearing like balls were there. 11. Shops. If one goes to ahardware shop, jute twine is kept as balls in most shops. The quantity onerequired is made as a ball twisting over palm/hand and given. I have wonderedthe perfect ball shape they could make. Threads for stitching garlands etc. are rolled like aball and kept. One can see such rolled ball is brought by plumbers to set rightleakage in pipes. He roll over the new tap end with the thread, apply asolution and screw in the leaking tap. Now PVC thin strip is also is there toroll over tap, but not effective like thread. 12 Sweets and snacks Many sweets areprepared in ball size. Many snacks like Mysore bonda, kozhukkatta, and cheetai aremade to ball size. For vinayakachathurthi kozhukkattais prepared in all homes. If a lady is no conversant in preparing vada, sheprepare Mysore bonda with the same thick batter. 13 Undasami An iyer short in sizeand bulky is called undasamy. He may be oval. 14 saying- There is a saying in Malayalamundachorinu nannikanikkanam. (One must show gratitude for the rice consumed.) Unda iscoming here with the meaning eaten. -- 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/121956312.3942384.1623517697451%40mail.yahoo.com.
