Geeta Gopalakrishnan - My Grandmothers Tweets: Stories Inspired by Avvaiyars Ancient Wisdom

Arpanippu

DEDICATION

This book is a tribute to all the children fighting cancer with fortitude and courage, many of whom I have known at the Tata Medical Center, Kolkata.

With great love and gratitude,

I dedicate this book to my two grandmothers,

Ranganayakiammal and Kamalammal.

They would undoubtedly chuckle to know that this book

will be read by future generations.

Also my beloved mother and best friend, Padma, who truly embodies all the 109 sayings of Avvaiyar.

Ullatakkankalai

CONTENTS

Anindhurai

Every society in the world has a rich repertoire of accumulated wisdom. They pass this wisdom down the generations through aphorisms, stories and cultural forms. These nuggets of intelligence are so incredibly rich in texture that artistes are able to present them in different forms and interpretations through films, music, drama and dance.

In India, we are blessed to have an array of folk and traditional wisdom, diverse artistes who showcase it and a huge eager population which imbibes such wisdom through art forms.

What I find fascinating is that this well of wisdom is bottomless the more you dig, the more you find.

Personally, I was unaware of Avvaiyar. Now that I have learnt a bit about this grand old lady from the South, I think it is a great idea to dress her up in jeans and make her wisdom accessible to the 21st-century youth.

And that is what Geeta Gopalakrishnan has done in such a simple manner that I am reminded of US Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said he would give his life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.

I highly recommend this book read it from any page, whenever you feel like it, and savour the surges of Indian wisdom.

ZAKIR HUSSAIN

Munnurai

Both my grandmothers got married when they were just ten years old. They barely had any formal education. Yet, their wisdom was as profound as that of philosophers and poets.

My paternal grandmother, Ranganayaki, was the only woman of her times who participated in a conference of Sanskrit scholars, hitherto a male bastion, and was given the title Shri Dharma Choodamani Ranganayaki Ammal, meaning, a jewel among those who are generous and righteous.

My maternal grandmother, Kamalammal, under whose wise eye I grew up in Hyderabad, could arguably match a philosopher with her fine homilies.

Both my grandmothers source of knowledge came from a most unlikely source Avvaiyars one-liners. Avvaiyar was a simple, illiterate woman in the 10th century during the Chola Dynasty who over the years came to be venerated as a saint. She gave the world 109 one-liners that contained the wisdom of her times.

As Avvaiyar travelled barefoot from village to village, she saw human nature and made the most profound observations, each summed up in a short line. In Tamil Nadu, these have been passed down orally through the centuries from grandmothers to daughters and granddaughters.

Perhaps sons and grandsons were not widely included in this because women were seen to be the carriers of values and tradition.

My grandmothers would rattle them off at appropriate moments, as their grandmothers had before them. They would choose the situation, the right moment, to dramatically drop an Avvaiyar saying, so that it would get firmly embedded in the brain.

These sayings became the foundation stone for the right reflexes, part of the wisdom-building block for me.

There was no Twitter in my growing-up years but I would receive these daily tweets from my grandmothers.

Whenever I hesitated about sharing something I had learned, they would tweet: Kai vinai karavel (Dont hide your skills)!

In todays time and age, it is reassuring to know that Avvaiyars advice on humanity will reach many more, regardless of gender and race.

As I pen these words, I can almost hear: Aram seyya virumbu (Desire to do good)!

Enjoy the read, folks.

Geeta Gopalakrishnan

ciriyar

Dear Friends,

The Divine hand has played a remarkable role in guiding me to an ultimate state of satisfaction.

As a child, I dealt with two tragedies in our joint family. The first was that of my little cousin, Chitra, who was born with extreme retardation, and then my uncle, Ramraj Mama, who bravely fought Hodgkins lymphoma for three years but succumbed to cancer. In these and other misfortunes that befell the family, both grandmothers faced the circumstances with prayer and philosophy and drew on reserves of what seemed to be an interminable flow of inner strength.

It is not a coincidence that the first part of my working life was spent in the Sadhana School for special children under the wonderful mentorship of Sister Gaitonde.

The second part has been devoted to helping underprivileged children with cancer, first under the guidance of the gentle and empathetic Sarla Kohli in Bangalore and then, for the last eight years, at the Tata Medical Center in Mumbai under the benevolent eye of R.K. Krishna Kumar. My advertising skills helped me create fundraising campaigns for both.