The Edanganni Equation

After the night prayer in our village chapel it is customary to gather in the facade for a small tete-a-tete  before  we disperse for dinner.

That day the talk was about an uncle whose wife was his sworn adversary from day one. The story goes that  he was taken to a house for 'bride viewing' and he  was so fascinated  with the girl that he gave his consent then and there and the marriage date was also fixed by the elders on that occasion. But at a later date the bride's side found out some  astrological hitch and the proposal fell  through. To be turned down by the bride's side, that too his son being a  government employee, this was indeed a  prestige issue and the  father vowed to conduct his son's marriage on the fixed date. This time there was no bride viewing. The father took on the onus and in great haste a girl was arranged. Our boy was upset and on the day of the wedding he would not budge from his bed. He was cajoled and coaxed  and literally pulled to the chapel  to the accompaniment of drums and nadaswaram.  There was nothing wrong with the bride, she was  homely girl, well versed in house hold work but the man's initial dissatisfaction continued to the end. At his death bed all his anger towards his wife which included the little chapel and it's patron saint too!

He used to shout "When there are umpteen number of male saints in the church, like St. Antony,  St. Sebastian  which fool's idea  was it to name the chapel after an old  lady (St. Anne) who protects the female genre to the disadvantage of the male population?"

"Look at this village........"he lamented, “the joker in the last house died young, while his sickly wife had a good grip on life and survived till her late nineties........

Another healthy and hardworking cousin died in his seventies in his sleep while his wife freely enjoys movies in the nearby town. In the very next house the sick man is pushed to the cowshed due to some life sucking ailment while the lady plays dayam (similar to mahjong)  with her friends all day  long  gossiping .   Every year the ladies leave no stone unturned to celebrate the feast of St. Anne and pacify her by making pongal (sweet rice)

The reluctant bridegroom, our uncle, now in his seventies, used to tell his wife; "Hey lady don't ever imagine that you are going to enjoy my pension for a long time hiding behind that 'old lady of the chapel', as soon as I go I will make sure of a reservation for you in heaven to immediately follow me " With this caustic remark he would toss and turn around  in  pain.

My uncle died but something should have gone wrong either with the reservation or the delivery from the next world.......even after 20 years the ticket from the world beyond had not  reached our aunt."

 "Or St. Anne might have caught hold of the courier from heaven on his way to the village and threw the ticket into our 'Pappa kulam' tank (which is the large pond in the village).

Everyone laughed including our dear aunt as she recited this episode in the holy venue on the portal of the chapel.

There is a truth in what he said in spite of his venom for our aunt. One of the ladies in the gathering said. "We ladies live long in this place" We  laughed out again. It became the joke of the day! I shared it over a call with my elder sister for the next bout of laughter and with friends and other family members longing for more!

 "Shall we all go live there ?!" one of them joked

In great anticipation  I shared it with my youngest sister, a leading campaigner for gender equality, who regretfully belong to the category of women who could squeeze out  any element  from any woman's joke for condemnation.

After a pause she said "It's no joke sis, Do you know that in those days the girls were married off as soon as they reach puberty? Or sometimes even before that? Do you know that our own mother got married very young and we know the age difference. Our men love to have young girls as their wives. 'Young is beautiful'. 'A man never gets old' is their male chauvinistic notion. They think and believe that the ladies lose their vibrancy very quickly. So at the husband's  old age a young wife can be of great assistance to him rather than being a sick and aged companion!

Do you know that the Singapore prime minister late Lee Kuan Yew's wife is elder to him by years?  Together it was a beautiful experience for them.

Do you know that Kasthuri Bai is older by months to Gandhiji? They were an ideal couple.

Do you know that both these ladies preceded their husbands in death?

Now tell me sis, whether it has anything to do with the chapel named after our dear  lady St. Anne and that she is partial?

With this gender justice water fountain she right royally doused the feminist sarcasm.

In any equation there are two sides and that is true for the Edanganni equation too.

The Pasca - Passion play

A few years back we were fortunate to visit an exotic place in Yercaud where our friends had built an equally exotic house. Of the four grounds  plot that has been sold, the purchase agreement says  one is allowed to build  just on one ground of land  allowing the rest for greenery! The seller was indeed a green lover!!

As we went  for an early morning around the 56 acre gated community and  verdant beauty we were introduced to the gardener whom  our friends thought was an enigma. Apart from tending the gardens with great care and love that son of the soil was a  medicine man par excellence. That particular day a man was celebrating the birth of a child after 14 years of marriage! He was thanking the gardener who was responsible for this miracle with his herbal medicine! We were overwhelmed! The gardener, Mr.  Mariannan was like a well chiseled sculpture with a baritone voice and as we were  congratulating him on his  wonder medicine our friend told him that we are Christians too. This made Mariannan very enthusiastic and turning to us he said; "Aha.... Sir then you should have witnessed a pasca (passion play) during the Lenten season". We replied in the positive and told him that even in our village it was customary to celebrate the washing of the feet on few Thursdays in the Lenten season by each family in remembrance of the last supper of Jesus and that two weeks back we took part in that ritual.

He said that  in the local pasca  he was  one among the  key actor which takes place in Yercaud on the 6th week of Lenten season every year. When we wanted to know the role he played in the show he informed us that he was John the Baptist who was the precursor  to Jesus. It seemed that the drama reached  its crescendo when Herodias, wife of Herod demanded John the Baptist’s head as her birthday present which was cut off and offered in a platter to her!! Such was his powerful performance that most of the audience would leave the place as if it was the end of the show and not the  crucifixion  of Jesus! Mariannan was laughing with pride when he shared this information with us.

As we walked along I remembered the first and Pasca I attended.  I was eight then and  went to my aunt's place in Michaelpatti a small village of our relatives. I got the fright of my life when the relatives came into the house to chat. Most of them had long beards and moustache! My aunt explained that were going to play various roles in the passion play. She also added that on these  40 days of the Lenten season peace prevailed over  the village since the actors fasted on all days and  most important they avoided booze and paan chewing.

The show started on Good Friday and went on through Easter Sunday. The whole village was in a festive mood with the sprouting  sweet meat shops with their pink and green offerings. Bangle shops  vied with one another to tempt the  ladies. The balloon man laughed along with the sticky sweet seller with his fare in a long wooden rod who could magically produce 'vibgyor' edible watches and bangles! With one anna and half an anna  gift from my various relatives I was indeed rich and my cousins lead me to these various shops where I became a provider. And as a sort of recompense to the Lord we made occasional visit to the church in between!!

The piety with which the Good Friday rites were conducted in our  house was totally lost in this festive mood.  We didn't attend any way of the cross. For a change I didn't mind and enjoyed the ambience with the guilt pushed to the outer most corner. But if only my mother had known these facts it was doubtful if mother would have allowed me this trip at all!

People running around to get ready for the show filled the village with anticipation. A stage was set up In the huge church ground and villagers  reserved their seats by sprinkling water and spreading the mats at the vantage points The show would go through the whole night and we children had the advantage  of  snoozing within five minutes unto the show  in the cold breeze from river Caveri!

Now back in the present at Yercaud, our friend was saying; " We haven't heard about such a show at all. May be this year we will go and witness Marianna's " our friends said

" Why don't you go to the village of Oberammergau in Germany  where the world's greatest passion show is happening?" I said

"Is it?"

" You know  the   villagers of Oberammergau  were  enacting the show from 1634.In the  year 1632 a bubonic plague was ravaging the region and the death rate among the adults rose. The villagers prayed  that if God spared them from this   they would produce a play thereafter for all the time depicting the life and death of Jesus. The death rate among adults slowly subsided. The villagers kept their part of the promise to the Lord . The whole village participated in the show. But what was once a village show had turned into an international show extending to 5 months once in 10 years ! And even in this international show the villagers are part and parcel of it."

" It would be interesting if  we all plan to go together."

" The next show is happening in the year 2020."

" God willing............ If not our Mariannan's show is available all the time... ha... ha....."

We continued the  walk.

" I also have an interesting anecdote in this regard." my husband went on with the passion talk.

 "This happened in a village near Dindugal. The passion play was at the climax when Jesus was to be nailed to the cross. The cross was laid on the stage and Jesus was  pushed  unto it by the Roman soldiers. One of soldier dramatically brought in big nails. The audience was in tears.  As the Roman soldier raised the hammer the spectators were literally crying. As the hammer went down with big thud into the cross ,a screaming Jesus jumped off the cross and pointing his bleeding finger at the Roman soldier he gave out a  ******* word  and shouted " Mind where you are putting the nail you son of a fool.......  never ever  on the finger but in between the fingers..... you******* idiot." So saying Jesus Christ went back , stretched his hands and laid himself on the cross!! The most passionate of  part of the show turned into laughing event! The funniest part was that the Roman soldier happened to be his own son and whether he  was sleepy or did it on purpose was questionable even to this day!

Our laughter continued till we finished our walk at the water falls!!