Vidyarambham

I started this blog on a vijayadasami day. Vijayadasami is celebrated all across India in different ways, different reasons. While to the external world it is "Victory of Good over Evil" and the most common thing that happens in India is celebrations to commemorate the victory of Lord Rama over Ravana, Keralites celebrate it a a little differently. The durgapooja in North India converts to Saraswathi Pooja in Kerala. Here, many kids officially start their learning during this day. "Ezhuthiniruthal" or "Ezhuthinu veppu" or "Vidyarambham" as it is called, is supposed to happen between the 2nd and 3rd birthday of the child. This auspicious event generally used to happen inside temples. Now like many other rituals, it got blended more with culture than with spirituality and spread towards the outside world. Nowadays, many social, cultural institutions take this up as an activity in their calendar and offer it to invite many new kids to the world of words. Goes without saying that the ritual is used as a marketing activity to some extend by many business establishments as well.

I'm told that when this was happening inside temples, few of the educated young men in that locality used to get the privilege of being the master for teaching children their first words. My father had commended that he was one among the most sought after GURUs of this kind. I always tell him that those kids whom he attended to would have have a "bright" future - of course, pun intended!

Oh...where am I now? Oh yes. We were on my nostalgic moments related to vidyarambham. As you would have guessed by now, a kid at 2 years will hardly be able to recollect anything that had happened during his first day of letters. I was informed by my mother that I never made an issue with writing on my tongue. Yes - that's how they start it. No panic - i don't think it is painful, but definitely a bit irritating for a kid of 2 years, when you write on the tongue. The 2nd phase is writing on grains of rice or sand. So once again, I was the humble guy who took all the pains and acknowleged the process of writing, but there is one interesting story of my brother. Malayalam had 52 alphabets (during our days, which was later brought down to 51 - not sure on where it stands now) and when it reached towards the end series that starts with ya, ra, la, va...and touched "sha" - my brother said "illa" - He meant, enough of it. I'm no longer available for this business. Goes without mention that this "sha" devil had been one of his nightmares whenever the topic of vidyarambham was discussed at home. Since this was an yearly affair, everyone made sure that the story gets telecasted at least once in a year.

Later on, Vidyarambham had a highlight. The day prior to it, studies were a taboo. In other words, as part of "aayudhapooja" you were supposed to put all your tools, work material to rest and take break from it for a day. May be the god's concept of yearly scheduled maintenance! The highlight was at least one day's freedom from books and studies. My best passtime was games, and movies! It was a must that I go to the theater and watch at least a movie that day.

Then again, superstition had its role to play. The day prior to "aayudhapooja" or "Mahanavami" - is called "Durgashtami". You are supposed to study until that evening and then put all the books to pooja. We used to keep books for pooja at 2 places. One at the nearby parthasarathi temple and one at father's uncle's home. WoW! They have a BIG pooja room, well maintained with all the diety's photographs there. I used to feel so religious the moment I step into that room. Now here comes the issue - elders always say that its just symbolic that you put books for Pooja. You keep either one or two for namesake and retain the rest at home. All said and done there was this fear that it might get missed out since so many people bring books for pooja. I had this big question in mind - if I put my science book for pooja and leave the math book at home, definitely my half year math results are going to be weak! Somehow I will convince my parents that I can take the load of the books and ensure that it doesn't get missed out. Now there comes the next question - which all will I pack to the temple and which all to my uncle's place ? - Solution was - you take a text book to the temple and the corresponding notes will go to the uncle's pooja room and vice versa!

Now, here starts the pooja days! Father used to help us pack all the stuff to the temple. Once newspaper wrap, on top of it, another one. Cello tapes to hold them together and finally a big square piece of whitepaper, gets stuck on to it with gum! - Yuck...that spoilt the looks of the packing actually! The priority was not looks, but traceability of the packet - so no questions asked! That packet goes to the temple. The rest of the job is simple, pack all the other books to the school bag and give it to the uncle's place. He was of the opinion that the entire set of books should be hidden. He made sure that he had enough of those nice smelling, pure white clothes that covered my bag completely.

The next day was just play, play, movies, food and sleep. I used to have a fear when I read the destination boards of the private buses plying on the road next to my house! Well...it was a sin to read, and knowing how to read, you can't ignore things that come in front of your eyes. This problem multiplied when the TV set came! The biggest adventure was to read the name of the movies running in town. The funniest thing that I have noticed is, on Mahanavami day, the newspaper will come and then you are not supposed to read. Now if you don't read the news becomes stale for the next day. Since the presses also remain closed for the Mahanavami day, the newspapers won't come the next day!

A movie with everyone's blessings and return to those places where your books are kept - Mahanavami closes down religiously.

The fun begins the next day. Get up early, and form a queue in the temple to get books back. Since all the family members sort of meet up at the temple, someone will make sure that the books are brought back without any delay! How mean! My dad's uncle used to have a pooja at his home, with all the offerings that they prepared for the gods and we used to have that "prasadam" as breakfast from there. Now the scheduling problem begins. I have to go to the temple, someone gets books from there, I have to read those books, go to the uncle's place, take books from there, read them as well, write all Malayalam alphabets on the sand that my father had placed for me and my brother and last but not the least, have breakfast. The entire process has to get over at least before 10 AM in the morning. The hang over of the movie, and enjoyment of the previous day, will not get you up from the bed before 8 AM.

I used to sort them all out - especially the breakfast problem :-) but one thing used to really put me in trouble. I'm the one who had kept maximum books - now I have to read at least a paragraph from each of them. To me everything was a ritual, and I was fine with reading one line from each. Please understand that this used to happen under supervision and my brother used to sit and read pages from the few books he had submitted for Pooja - obviously, I had a tough life considering the fact that the full course breakfast was waiting!

It all disappeard once you got a job. I don't remember attending any of those pooja ceremonies, once I came on board with a job. I used to wonder what could IT guys keep for pooja during that one day in the year. This time around, I made sure that I don't touch my laptop for Mahanavami. The boy who used to carry a truckload of books, was happy by putting his pen in front of the gods for pooja. This year is very special to me - next year onwards, I will be in the role of packing those books (with a name tag of course) for my daughter ! Feels great to move ahead.

Missing those pooja days at home - small superstitions, run arounds, that one movie during the day, the breakfast.....few lines from each text book.....