Early Pongal Celebrations in Kalpakkam and Anglo-Indian Researchers’ Conference in Chennai

Friday, January 11, 2019

Kalpakkam and Chennai

Early Pongal Celebrations in Kalpakkam and Anglo-Indian Researchers’ Conference in Chennai

Namaste from Chennai!

The days are flying and I am enjoying every minute of my break from Bombay in the lovely city of Chennai, formerly Madras.  Each day brings new surprises in the company of my cousin, Blossom. 

Awaking at 6.30 am, I began drafting my blog post but as I had so much to recount about Pondicherry, I did not complete it and had to take it up later in the day. I had a quick wash and got dressed for our 7.30 am departure for Kalpakkam, the seaside township that developed when the Indian Government’s Department of Atomic Energy located its Reactor Research Center in this coastal paradise. My cousin Blossom married a metallurgist who devoted his life to nuclear research and ended up as Director of the Indira Gandhi Reactor Research Center. She moved to the sleepy hamlet after marriage about 50 years ago when it was no more than an overgrown village and lived there for 26 years. During those years, she completed her Masters in English Literature by correspondence from the University of Madras and founded a school for mentally handicapped children which she called Mehatva (Mentally Handicapped Training and Vocational Academy). She remained President of the Board of Trustees even after her husband retired, they moved to a flat in Madras and he passed away ten years ago. 

It was to the school that she wished to take me for a very special celebration—Pongal, the Harvest Festival, which is celebrated with much pomp and splendor in Tamil Nadu. In fact, Pongal is on Tuesday, but the long weekend celebrations will find most establishments closed. The school was going to celebrate early by carrying out all the rituals associated with the festival including “Making the Pongal” and Blossom was keen that I witness it as she knew I would find it fascinating.

     We arrived in Kalpakkam after making a stop at Mammala Hotel (my third time there in two days!) for a breakfast of one idli and one vada with sambhar and chutney followed by a cold and very good lassi. Then onwards we drove to arrive at Kalpakkam about twenty minutes later.

Visiting Mehatva inKalpakkam:

  As soon as we arrived at the entrance of the school, we were welcomed by the principal, a lady called Sugandhi who became our guide for the rest of the morning. Students were pouring in, many wearing the traditional Tamil dress of white lungi, colored silk shirt and a white scarf thrown over one shoulder.  We realized later that they would be taking part in a special dance for which they have been trained by the teachers. Blossom introduced me to a few of the teachers all of whom were dressed for the occasion in gorgeous colored silk sarees and draped with exquisite gold jewelry. The place was well decorated with koalams which is called Rangoli in Maharashtra and which involves the decorating of the floor with colored powder—in the case of white, in Tamil Nadu, it is rice flour that is used. I commented that it seemed like an awful waste of food, but Blossom informed me that very coarse rice (inedible) is used for this purpose.

   It was not long before the bustle would actually begin. In the central courtyard of the building, a pit had been dug and was in the process of being filled with kindling and firewood in an attempt to get a fire going. While this was going on, Blossom took me on a tour of the school, through its various classrooms where training  and activities are carried out. There is a sensory room, a gym, a crafts room, a recreation room, etc. There are also classrooms where students are trained in the acquisition of life skills, some as basic as how to blow their noses or blow out a candle—the sort of skills that normal people acquire by instinct. I found it all very interesting. 

Back downstairs, the ritual fire-lighting continued. A large terracotta pot painted in bright and vivid designs was placed on the pit. By this time, most of the students had arrived at the school for what was a festive day—almost a holiday. They exhibited varying forms of disability—many were physically and mentally challenged. They were all well looked after by the teachers who impressed me enormously by their dedication and skill. 

The children were assembled at a vantage point from which they could view the proceedings. Milk was poured into the pot and each time it boiled over, shouts of “Pongal” were heard. Next, rice and dal were poured into the pot and they kept it going to allow it to cook. Meanwhile, preparations were on for the performance of a short pooja that would occur as soon as the rice and dal (the Pongal of the festival’s name) was cooked.  As the cooking was taking pace, the children and the teachers joined in a number of dances—one resembled the Gujarati Daandiya-Raas as it was danced in a circle with sticks.  There were songs from Tamil films to which the children danced with gusto and delight. The atmosphere was celebratory and fun-filled. 

When the Pongal had cooked, the pooja began. Blossom and I were invited to go forward to the courtyard (as guests of honor) to light the lamp while a poojari started singing Sanskrit slokas. The students witnessed all of these rituals and enjoyed themselves thoroughly. This entire ritual is called the Making of the Pongal. 

When this ritual ends, the cooked Pongal (sweetened with jaggery and flavored with cardamom then sprinkled with raisins and cashew nuts is distributed to the entire community. Blossom and I were invited to partake of it in a separate room where we were served on banana leaves—a real novelty experience for me! They had two types of Pongal in dishes—savory pongal flavored with turmeric and curry leaves and the sweet variety that had been prepared in our presence. They were both very tasty indeed.

     It was not long before we left the premises after saying goodbye and thank you to every for giving us such a warm welcome and being so cordial. Blossom told the driver to take us on a tour of the colony at which point we went right by the flat she had occupied for her entire stay in Kalpakkam. The place looked very different to me as it was not a bit like I remembered it—this is natural, I suppose, when one goes back to a place almost forty years after a first visit.

     It was about an hour later that we arrived in the city of Chennai where our next port of call was the Hotel Commemara.

Lunch with a New Friend at Hotel Connemara:

If the word “Connemara’ sounds familiar, it is because it is a region on the west coast of Ireland—the Connemara Coast.  Llew and I had driven widely through it on our travels in Ireland about 15 years ago. Connemara is close to the city of Galway and is known for its rugged scenery. Lord Connemara of Ireland had been posted to Madras as a British administrative official and ended up becoming Governor of Madras. His marital woes became the subject of a controversial divorce involving what he said were false charges of adultery brought against him by Lady Connemara who, after the divorce, married her physician, the Dr. Briggs, with whom, during the divorce proceedings, her husband had accused her of adultery. The Governor’s mansion was converted into a five-star hotel that is run by the Taj Group and is named the Taj Connemara Hotel. 

     It was at the Verandah, the hotel’s 24 hour coffee shop, that Blossom and I had arranged to meet Naresh, a new friend that I made in the past week through the Elphinstone College Reunion that I had attended.  Naresh was one of the members of the Organizing Committee and became quite friendly with me. He regretted, in an email, that he had not spent enough time with me and asked if there was a chance that I would be in Chennai. When I told him that I would be there in a few days, he invited me to meet him for lunch. We fixed on this afternoon, just before my presentation at the Anglo-Indian Researcher’s Conference which was being held very close by in the Ambassador Pallava Hotel. 

     The Verandah is a lovely restaurant that overlooks the gorgeous azure pool of the hotel. Naresh was already at a table when we joined him.After a nice reunion and introductions were made, we settled down to order as we had only about an hour before we would have to leave for the conference. Blossom and I chose to share a Caesar Salad with grilled prawns. There were papads and a bread board offered with the meal but we stuck to our salad and then ordered a baked bassoondi desert which was fragrant with saffron and tasted very good. Naresh had the green (veg) club sandwich. Over lunch, he talked about his family’s jewelry business and the places and people of Madras (now Chennai) that he and Blossom know well. He told us about the workings of his business in the city and his role as someone “almost semi-retired”. 

     Soon, however, we had to leave the gorgeous hushed environs of the hotel to go to the venue of the conference.

The Anglo-Indian Researcher’s Conference:

      I had arrived in Chennai to deliver a paper at the Anglo-Indian Researcher’s Conference  which was held in a large hall called the Dynasty Hall. A huge buffet Lunch was concluding when the place was brought to order and the speakers were told to be ready. I met my old scholar friends Brent and Robyn and met new ones—Uther, Cheryl-Anne, Dorothy, etc. One after the other, the presentations were made to an audience which was really large in the beginning but which dwindled as the afternoon wore on.

My paper was presented after the Tea Break during which a large number of people left. I met my friends Blair and Margaret and had a little while to chat with them before I had to prepare for the screening of my PowerPoint presentation and the delivery of my paper. It went well as I had chosen to pitch at the level of an audience that was not necessarily scholarly. There was the occasional laughter at the appropriate spots as my narrative did contain the direct speech of a few people whom I would be happy to continue to get to know. 

     After all the presentations, there was a thank you speech by Oscar Nigli, one the Anglo-Indian Members of Parliament, and each of us was presented with a gift bag. I spent about half an hour talking to people and told them that we would continue the conversation later at dinner.

Finding the Fake Waitrose in Chennai:

Anyone who reads my blog in London knows that I am a huge fan of the UK supermarket chain called Waitrose. So when Blossom told me that there was one right near the hotel, I insisted we go and find it although Naresh had told us that it had nothing to do with the UK chain. However, I had to see for myself what a supermarket that blatantly called itself “Waitrose London” supermarket would carry. 

I was sorely disappointed. It was nothing but an Indian supermarket that had appropriated the name. We took a cursory round about it and marched right out.  A few minutes later, we called for an Uber to take us to the Broken Bridge Cafe in the Somerset Hotel where we had plans to meet the Researchers’ group. We arrived at the venue in about fifteen minutes.

Dinner at the Broken Bridge Cafe:

With such a large group of people all attempting to make themselves heard over the loud music of the restaurant, the evening turned out to be less relaxing than we would have liked. Some old friends were present (Blair, Robyn, Keith, Brent) but we made friends with several new folks among whom was the writer and postcolonial critic Glen D’Cruz from Australia and Uther Carlton-Stevens, a professor from Volgograd, Russia, whom I got to know quite well on this visit. There was so much to discuss, so much news to exchange about our respective research projects that there was never a dull moment. Blossom and I chose to share an order of crab cakes with a spicy red pepper sauce for starters followed by lemon flavored spring hoppers with prawns for a main. We did not drink alcohol although I had a tonic water and Blossom had a fresh lemonade. The food was very good but with taxation that seems very erratic to me in India, it was far pricier that we had expected.

     But as we’d had a very long day, we were, in fact, the first ones to clear our bill and take everyone’s leave. Eating dinner and socializing had been a very nice way to end the day and we definitely made the most of every minute. 

To get back home, we called for an Uber that dropped us off very easily. We had only enough energy to get straight to bed.

     Until tomorrow...