Instead of posting about my gorgeously good looking brownies I baked this morning at 7.00 am, I decided to jump ship and write about poonals or jandhyam(which is used interchangeably in the post below). Today’s Jandhyala Pournami, Avani Avattam, Rakhi, and the Full Moon when folks go crazy, among other things.
The single girls are no less.
They go crazy about that white thread across a man’s chest like kids in a candy store selling only one candy. A realization that I shared with the rest of the silent open-mouthed boys and men over the last week’s very vivid dreamy and sure conversation the single girls had. Naturally what does any respectable bunch of bloggers do when they come across something different in their otherwise mundane real life? Blog about it of course!
One adds masala, preps it, bakes it and serve it with some good looking colorful garnish. Then again, time is of essence, coz such a discussion, there are at least 10 other pairs of eyes reading and processing it all. The mind races but who dishes it up first always wins. So Bhel and Max boy did a fine job and timed it well! Me being the mom with no time on hands am left behind. Argh!
Then again, we don’t give up easy now do we? So I stop work and am writing this. The sacrifices one makes.
Mine however’s from the polambal (ranting and venting) angle. Married woman polamb-ing angle.
So heres’ the dish with all parts added on by the girls’ imagination (just so more boys benefit, we do it all for the welfare and harmony of the humans!) :
- Jandhyam’s cute on a guy.
- It shows that he respects tradition and listens to his mom. (not sure when that was a turn-on, but I guess it has its perks)
- When a jandhyam-toting young man is heard reciting the Vishnu Sahsranama, he’s super cute.
- Add a dash of namam, vibhuti or kumkum, he’s a candy!
- Do this in a temple and pretend to completely ignore the girls gaping from the temple tank, behind the pillar, or across the line, the guy’s a genius.
- Peeping jandhyam’s uber cool.
I stop. Lots more came up and my own imagination can run wild as well, but am forced to keep this blog G.
Real questions after the wedding (oh, there has to be a wedding!):
- In Denial: Inevitable question at some point in time, jandhyam, what jandhyam?
- Whiner: Do I really have to wear this? It keeps falling off!
- BoyScout: What? How can I wear this and have chicken? Sacrilege.
- Neat Freak: I can’t wear this and clean the place! Take your pick, clean shower or this thread.
- Tough Bargain: You wear your thali everyday and I’ll wear this everyday too.
- Survival: It gets in the way. One of these days in the state you get in, you will strangle me. No Thanks.
tunneling thru' 
Real Q #5 sounds like a good bargain, not a tough one. One could reason that married poonal wearing men find all the same characteristics w/ wives and the thaali. :)
I think you mean “strangle” in #6.
And why just Vishnu Sahasranamam? It seems very unfair to Saivites and those who prefer other works such as chapters of the Gita (which btw has the same tone as the Sahasranamam for obvious reasons), Lalita Sahasranamam, Bhaja Govindam, Rudram and such.
And seriously, this is a new fetish. 5 yrs ago, women scoffed at those with poonals and wearing Hanuman sindhooram everyday like yours truly.
And I must add, 5 yrs ago, the current poonal loving demographic seemed more interested in expanding the gene pool of their yet-to-be-born offspring! Especially to bring in genes from the Malabar coast and from the pind.
What is Hanuman Sindhooram?
That orange chandanam type thingy?
lol, it’s all new and fascinating as with anything new and fascinating.. after awhile convenience takes over. Its priorities and values in place etc.. but wait, I don’t want this to become a serious discussion!
It was to poke fun, so will stop here :)
Suddenly there is an overdose of cultural information…in this case poonal,avani avittam, etc.
Neat post. I really liked the questions after wedding section :)
hehe, it’s all a phase :)
oh yes, a few are true and then a few are hinted :-)
So poonal is “on” eh?
May be I should wear it back then :)
lol, yes, now that you are educated. But be careful tho’ apparently it’s a hit or miss ;-)
very interesting observation
That’s being safe :P
Excuse me while we demand royalty!
ahem, spinoffs surely, but the last 6 are all mine! :p
The condition for wearing a poonal bare-chested in temples must be that the person sporting such a thing does not resemble a large bear (and does not smell like the posterior of such an animal).
It’s unsettling to see (and smell) fat, ugly men sporting their (dirty) sacred threads.
Somebody should modify sandhyavandanam and introduce pushups and crunches as part of the regimen. At the very least, Brahmins will stop alternating between skinny skunks or a smelly gorilla.
That said, Western girls have a strange fascination with the poonal too. I’m sure using my poonal as an exotic “artifact” (i.e. bait) to attract blonde lasses isn’t quite what our ancestors had in mind when coining the term Brahmacharya.
I sure agree with you. I dn’t find poonal hot and all. Bah! :P
rofl@pushups. I agree!
That little piece on non-desis, very interesting I must say! :)
Wearing poonal is uber cool?????????
*Blink blink blink*
Okay, I apparently live in a parallel universe.
Archana, you don’t qualify to call it cool anymore :-p
All in jest silly!
Sheesh – you mean you were just kidding? Oh no – I no longer get sarcasm!
Darn, I must be getting old :-(!
:-))
LOL @ metlin!
o my! If it isn’t the lovely Mrs. S :)
good one …I will have to wait for a few more years to see if my husband will end up in any of the six above.
haha, he may not end up either. Two separate clans of men exist :)
cha ppl are makin serious comments, lite i’ll comeback later…
Max: You can’t compare this with the earlier set you know :-)
Good one rads. All quite true as well :)
hehe, no? :) Am working on convincing the man o wear one for the rest of the evening. We’ll see ;-)
Hmm… I’m wondering what we guys can think of in response to #6 on the first list. But then I’m forced to keep the comments G. :)
As for the second list, TOTALLY AGREE with #5.
And #6 has now got me freaking out: gonna be wearing a turtleneck every time the wife comes home with a hot head
heh, regd #6 – I had something else in mind, but this works too :-))
btw, not sure if you get this a lot… neenga telungaa, or meeru tamilaa? i’m guessing, a hybrid, like me :P
it was the ‘avakaya’ vs ‘polambal’ that spawned this question :)
I do get it a lot. Am a telugu raised in Madras, and so on the fence and jump according to the company I keep :)
My! Im so amazed at your writing skills. It took me two days to complete reading your entire blog and I just loved it :) You write so well and naturally
Magic: Your patience is praiseworthy! You actually sat through my whole rants and raves? :O
Thank you! :)
“Me being the mom with no time on hands am left behind. Argh!”
Excuses excuses :p
Right. Want to swap places? :P
I’ve been through all those questions after wedding :P
lol, so soon eh?! Thought the poonal would survive longer between the two of you! :P
your funny bone is back!
Thanks buddy. On a serious note, I feel it from within you know ..
Oh I also find listening to Mom ultra sexy!
And sigh… my woes fall under the Boyscout thingy! Heelppp… I have still not able to make the husband wear the Jandhyam, even on Jandhyala Pournami! :(
Ah, mine didn’t too, and I tried it all. :|
O well, he can’t blame you for looking around then ;-)
One more category after wedding ( with Poonal being the “in thing” and all..)
The Cool Dude:
Now that I am married, I don’t need to woo chicks anymore and out goes the Poonal.
LOL! Yes, especially the ones who’d start wearing one after reading this!
Umm.. so much for Poonal. I never found any fascination for Poonal, maybe because I was/am a non-believer.
It was more of a ritual for my Dad who also never believed, but had to don it because of my Mum. My brothers used to like it for first few years.They had their Poonal ever since they were 7-8 years old. Then the charm just wore off and my little brother also followed my footsteps of turning into an aethist for a while.
He stopped wearing Poonal, but one fine day while in college he decided to start wearing it. Maybe it must be the coolness factor attached to it :)
My husband is non-Poonal person. So the whole ritual has gone away from my life.
BTW nice post..it has the zing factor to it. Can’t really pin-point, but something about it is very interesting :)
ah, times change and we change along with it too. Sometimes decisions are based on the lifestyles we lead as well. At least we are true to ourselves when we say we don’t like something and respect it enough to not make a mockery of it.
Husband has his reasons and I respect that. In fact he values it more than folks who do and then abuse the concept behind it and it’s a stance we both are comfortable with.
regd Zing: lol, yea, it’s on the flow and buddy may have a point ;-)
avani avittam comes in avani right?
er, then I guess it is Avani now? :S
The thali bargain was awesome!
Fit Freak: How can i go swimming with the poonal? It blocks my hands!
lol, I’d imagine it would float away, but yours is very possible!
Would it be possible to tell us 3 things you’re not good at? And no, you can’t say, I’m not good at not being great. Gomez Addams had dibs on that.
:)
Ha ha ha… nice one! My husband borders on InDenial and Whiner. But thank God, he doesn’t try to bargain :P No need for that too – coz I don’t insist he keeps it on. He has already removed it and put it safely in a box in the puja-room :)
See, smart man. Picks his battles am sure. :-))
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