When the sea had him for supper

We do enjoy glorious sunsets every evening but not all days are clear sky days and we dont always experience this beautiful huge orange ball touching the waters, because the villains called clouds hide the scene. Yesterday turned out to be one of those lucky days and by the time i realised and fetched my camera, he was half-eaten. Here's the last bit of the swallowing act by the mediterranean.

Marriage cuts men's health problems risk

Says an article in the Times of India -

"volunteers aged 57 to 85", "long marriage lowers a man''s chance of developing serious health problems." "how strong the effect of being married and having strong social bonds can be"

So says their research, but in practical life we say thats the high-risk age. My dad always says, beyond 60 years of age everything is like bonus - be it health, wealth or happiness. Lower's man's chance of serious health problems - is that so ? Thats when most married men retire and their immediate worry is money, younger son or daughter's education, one of their marriages. That's when a son or daughter comes up and tells them that he/she wants to marry his/her love who doesnot belong to their caste or religion or economic status or which ever way they want to spot a difference. Thats when obesity is at its peak due to stress from all the family related issues and stress due to idleness since he's retired. If their kids are happily married, they are probably on the other banks of the ocean so 'paasa malar' might be killing them. The husband and wife staying all by themselves at home start acting like kindergarten kids. They will start worrying about Sashtiabdapoorti and about satisfying their sambandies on such occasions - giving them equal importance and maruvaadais. There were days when they used to make kadala urandai and murukku just like that for a snack, but a slightly bigger in size paruppu thengai would be like a nuclear bomb issue on ocassions like engagement, weddings or son/daughter's seemandam or the 'kapu arasi kadali' on the new born's namakaraman becomes imperative than the child's name.

Phew! the list is endless. May be their research specimen should be an indian male. I would blame this unwritten tradition which people have been blindly following and imposing on themselves just for the sake of the onlookers. When nearly 60% of folks aged >50 are already diabetic why do they stress so much on paruppu thengai, adirasam and laddus ? When asked they would answer its for the children - ahh, well done, time to spoil the next generation's health too. More nerve-wracking are these kids' birthday parties these days. Will write about it later.

I found this statement the most hilarious - "No matter how much you bicker after marriage, but walking down the aisle is actually good for health, especially for men," OMG, ask any south indian groom - that would have the most worrying and horrifying hours of his life - shirtless and the trancy dhoti worn in such a way that when it falls apart he wouldn't know which end he should pick up first. The return from Kashi yatra - with kodai, coconuts and a small bag hanging down his arms, a walking stick, pancha gacham and anga vastram - i think this can be compared to walking down the aisle fund of the vidhesis. Are they trying to say, if an average man has gone through this kind of a marriage - he can handle anything in his 60s ?

Suklam Bharatharam and filter kaapi

My dad just gave me this so-far the most hilarious meaning of the shloka,

Suklambaradaram - 'Suklam' is white/bright so it refers to the pure white milk

Visnum - the dark colored dacauction

Sasivarnam - like the color of the moon (is the moon really brown ?)

Chaturbhujam - 4 hands involved, 2 hands of the wife who offers the coffee to the 2 hands of the husband who accepts it.

prasannavadanam - the ever smiling face of the person who drinks (here, its is the husband)

dhyayet - peace prevails till he drinks

sarvavighnopashantaye- removes all odds or bad mood and makes the husband that pleasant person after-coffee.

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

From us and from our hand-made eco-friendly terracota clay Elephant God!

Standup tamil comedy

I have watched this one many many times and every time i watch it, i enjoy it like it is the first time. I appreciate his move for the cause of charity!

ABRACADABRA = 9 = 4+1+4 in Hebrew

Now that i know Hebrew, i find this amazingly interesting!!! Even otherwise, this one's self explanatory :-)

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abracadabra

Amram Kehati [2]claims that the source is Hebrew and the ABRACADABRA has to be read from right to left as in Hebrew. ABRACADABRA, when phonetically pronounced from right to left, reads in Hebrew ארבע-דאח-ארבע. The Hebrew word דאח is the word אחד with rearrangement of the letters. This was done to confuse the daemon or for various witchery reasons. The evil, dark forces and the daemons kingdom in the Jewish Kabbalah are represented by the number 9 (the Hebrew word תשעה) or the Hebrew letter ("טית "ט). Since the ABRACADABRA word has to diminish a letter a day for nine (9) days it has to have enough letters. The Hebrew word תשעה is too short because it has only four letters. Therefore, the Hebrew word ארבע-אחד-ארבע was created. The Hebrew word ארבע is the Hebrew word for the number 4 (four) and the Hebrew word אחד is the Hebrew word for the number 1 (one). Therefore, ארבע+אחד+ארבע equal 4+1+4=9 and it represents the dark forces and daemons kingdom. This explanation for ABRACADABRA succeeds where all other previous known explanations and sources did not explain why the patient has to wear the amulet for nine (9) days. In Hebrew the "ABRACADABRA" should read as "ארבעאחדארבע" and the amulet should be as follows:

א-ר-ב-ע-א-ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
ר-ב-ע-א-ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
ב-ע-א-ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
ע-א-ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
א-ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
ח-ד-א-ר-ב-ע
ד-א-ר-ב-ע
א-ר-ב-ע
ר-ב-ע
ב-ע
ע