Moonlight Dinner

Thank you for sharing this write-up @jskls (and @kaniths, thanks for inspiring her !) ! Thanks for kindling my memories too ... This Nilaa-ch-Choru (moon light dinner) is a tradition in our family. My paatti would do this to the whole family . It is etched evergreen in my memory, the scene of her getting ready with a big vessel , hot rice and kuzhambu/sambhar, rasam, Mor, that itself will makes us all hungry !

All of us , the elders,men, women, the cousins all would gather around her and it will be more like a race between our hand and mouth. Whoever has the last 'kavalam' (adi vaai, aanaikutti vaai) for a round will be hailed as hero/heroine- - that gives more strength. Every round she will give that last remaining mouthful ( kavalam) to a different person. Those dinner times were filled with laughter and fun with stories from Mythology to moral Science, quiz, songs and music , gossips - What not ? Soru konjam, settai konjam, sellam konjam, sandai konjam, samaadhaanam konjam ! (We will eat, do mischeif, get cozy, fight amongst us and sort out differences ! ) Aahh.. Memories.. sweet memories...

After my paatti, chiththi (chiththappa's wife) continues the tradition of this Nilaa-ch-Choru. As me and brother were fortunate to grow up with two of our cousins, this was once in a month tradition at our home till we all had to move out. Even now, whenever we all gather, we have this atleast once during our stay. With families becoming more nuclear the tradition is slowly dying out . My son has so far not experienced this. Next visit to India, this sure is atop my priority list of to- do- things.

 

Hi,

I really liked your post. I didn't know how to reply because I have never experienced the things you had written. Not sure whether I missed them, but maybe I would give that experience to my kids, after reading your snippet.
I am sure lots of people would have memories which are forever embedded in them. Thanks for rekindling those memories.

@kaniths thanks to make jskls write a snippet out of your Amma's samayal.
@PavithraS - That's a lovely feedback.

Regards,
Vaidehi

 

@jskls,

I know what you mean. All of us have had the experience one time or the other. We always looked forward to the moonlight dinners as well as kids. I get it that you don't have a terrace here but may be we can make do with the patio and grass for now....trying to give the experience to our kids! Oh yeah I just realized we have to wait ate into night for that now. How about a meteor shower then? I am sure our kids will think of that the same way

 

@jskls, thanks for sharing these beautiful memories.

We didn't do moonlit dinners but we had family sleepovers on the terrace. I remember the peals of laughter and silly secrets shared among cousins.

I think I'll steal your idea and try a moonlit dinner in my backyard some summer night.

-

 

@jskls
Beautiful snippet on moonlight dinners. I had those wonderful experiences at my parents home and grandparents home with cousins.Specially I love those days when power goes suddenly and we did shadow plays.Really I cherished in my childhood.
Thank you jskls for bring back my beautiful days.

 

Dear Jskls,
A beautiful snippet on Nila Sappaadu- a nostalgia-wherein all 25 cousins sat around, with patti and athai sitting in the centre each serving a semi circle.Extending hand twice and athai forgettingly serving second time which instigated others in the circle, athai comforting them-all come to my mind.


When I think of moon light, not only the 'nila sappaadu' but also the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore comes to my mind.
Once on a full moon night, he was reading a book about aesthetics, trying to find out the definition of beauty. A night when the splendour of nature was revealed in the cuckoo calling from the far off shore, the silvery moonlight spread all over the lake, with silence reigning except for the cooing of the cuckoo, and an occasional flight of a bird over the boat or a fish that jumped piercing the still waters.

Tagore remained bent over his book searching for the definition of beauty. As fatigue gripped him, he decided to rest and blew out the flame of the candle. A surprise awaited him, when he saw the rays of the moon infilterating through the windows and the door into his cabin. It then dawned on him that the candle light had kept the rays of the moon out. All of a sudden, he heard the call of the cuckoo. Tagore suddenly became conscious of the surmounting silence. Tagore was transported into a different world all together. Tagore wrote in his diary, ““I am foolish! I have been searching in books for what beauty is, and beauty was standing outside my door, knocking on my door! I was looking for beauty, searching for beauty, with a small candle, and the small candlelight was keeping the moonlight outside." He wrote in his diary, " It seems my small ego is keeping God out — the small ego, like a pale small candlelight, keeping the light of God outside. And he is waiting outside. All that I need to do is to close the books, blow out the candle of the ego and go out — AND SEE!" Tagore actually realised the definition of beauty.
Moonlight, candle light and blowing out of the candle are ever green in my mind since college days.

Jayasala 42

 

nila soaru is vivid in the mind, oh those days!!!!

 

Lovely snippet jskls. We did not have a terrace. So we used to sit in the kitchen on the floor and mom would hand out balls of rice and vegetable to everyone with me usually competing with my sister (it was a one sided competition) to eat first, eat more and finish first!!! Fun days those were. Or sitting at the dining table and eating for hours together. Sis is a very slow eater and I would eat the equivalent of two meals in the time she finished one. I need to sue her for my being overweight!

 

Dear jskls,

Our maternal grandparents had 8 children and my mother was the eldest. Therefore, my brother and I were the senior most cousins when my grandmother used to feed all of us in moon light. She would make a rice ball and tell that the whole thing should go into the mouth without falling away from the mouth. Lot of our cousins were babies unable to experience that wonderful feeling. Unfortunately, she didn't live long enough to experience that feeling with every grandchild.

My mother took up that role to bring her sisters home to manage their delivery and ask their children to come home for summer vacation but since we lived in the city, we never had the opportunity of a big open space to have that kind of moon light dinners.

Viswa