The history of 'bride seeing' ceremony!

Originally Posted by ammukutty

Dear Cheeniya Sir,
A truly hilarious post.I tried visualising how you accompanied your uncle in his bride seeing spree & how you reacted on hearing the family chorus during your bride seeing ceremony .I have seen this in few Tamil movies but never knew that S&B were an intergral part of this function.In Kerala this is picturised as the bride entering the scene with tea & passing the tea to the groom with shivering hands & exchanging secret glances.But the fact remains that such scenes can be seen only in movies.I became victim of this ceremony almost 3years back & luckily got "clicked "in my first attempt.It was an informal tea-time chat.
Enjoyed reading each & every bit of your narration!

regards,
ammu

Dear Ammu
Are you telling me that in Kerala, the bride seeing ceremony gets over with a cup of tea? Do you have to be so business like?! In a recent ad, I see a pretty bride to be distributing tea with a promise to each that she will be a dutiful DIL, a good aunt for the groom's sister's daughter, a good sister in law etc etc and finally makes a demand that all her jewels must be bought only from a particular shop!
Bride seeing ceremony is the best part of an arranged marriage. My uncle loved this ceremony so much that he saw thirty girls even though he had mentally decided to marry the very first one he saw.
Take it from me, men never get as much attention ever after in their lives!
Sri

Dear Sir,
You got me wrong.What i meant was the movies picturise the occassion so dramatically & its so funny,because its not the reality.Speaking about the gold demand you can make it out from the increasing ads that come up.Atleast you men will get attention during this occassion.What about we women who never gets attention & if at all we get it will be for the wrong cause.

regards,
ammu

Originally Posted by cheeniya

The last straw was my FIL telling me how he hoodwinked the municipality with a one-inch underground pipeline to ensure copious water supply for the family. When he opened the tap to prove his statement, I got frightened by a terrible hissing noise followed by a furious spray of water that drenched me completely. I knew instantly that it would be foolish not to get married into a family headed by such a genius and I mumbled a ‘yes’ at the bathroom itself!

You are no ordinary man, Cheeniya Sir. You are a prophet. Who else could have thought years back that there would be a perpetual water crisis and people would be killing each other for water. Back then, you could forsee such a crisis and so you chose an FIL who had a secret water pipe. Blessed am I to be in thy virtual company!

Originally Posted by lalitha shivaguru

Dear Sri Sir,




abba vaytha valikiradhu............. sirchu sirchu. You wont believe siting in my office, iam laughing away to glory and all are staring at me whether I have gone. better to .

A nice post sri, ably supported by our dear Naradhi and samayal arasi. I hope ungalai saran adaindhu, indhu mami appadiya irrukala illa reverse ayuvitatha ippo.
Your research on S B is terrific. But was thinking the cooking queen will come out with the relevant history but was dissappointed. Maybe no time with naradhi behind her.

Don't ask abt my penn pakkaradhu, as you may be aware my dh belongs to 18th century (that is the nickname I have given him immediately after tying the knot), we also had the same sampradhayam but no singing because if had heard me, enga veetu side thalai vachu gooda padukamatar. He never spoke to me but now he does not close his mouth.

Dear Lalitha
After singing 'Unnai Saran Adainthen', all of them were grinning at each other and I did not realise the meaning of it then. Only later on I realised that this belonged to the category of 'flattering to deceive!' After the marriage, it is me who is singing that song daily!
You talk of 18th Century but do you know that 18th Century produced some of the greatest men in politics, art and literature like Peter the Great, Frederick the Great, Samuel Johnson, George Washington etc etc (Courtesy Wikepedia)? So we'll call him Sivaguru, the Great!
Nice to know that you have a potential weapon to put your DH in his place if he gets tough. I mean your singing!
Sri

Originally Posted by Jaynat

Dear cheeniya sir,

A truly hilarious piece which nicely takes us back in time and beautifully traces the history of Bride Seeing.Loved all your anectodes especially the gushing water and singing chorus hahahha...

In order to avoid exactly such a ceremony i refused to have the Bride seeing for my wedding. Told my mom that i will see the proposed groom without all these additional frills and fancies and the Bajji and sojji too. If i like him then they can hold a ceremony as a namesake!

So my mom knowing my stubborn nature made arrangements for me to visit the family in their home and i very happily went with my aunt to visit and talk to the proposed boy. We got to meet and speak in his house for more than an hour and i also ended up eating the special puluo and palak paneer that his mom had prepared. ( Defenitly different from our ususal Bajji and sojji is it not?) Needless to say i got married to the same person in the year 2001. Now i wonder what my two daughters would do... and how the situation would change in their times to come. Your beautiful writeup made me think back to my Groom Seeing ceremony and i just shared it with you.

With Warm regds
Jay.

Dear Jay
Good to hear that you were able to prevail over your people in avoiding the bride seeing ceremony! I too tried in vain to avoid being taken round the city in a rickety car in the name of Mappillai Azhaippu. I did not succeed as I had to yield to my dear mum's tearful pleas.
I was seated alongwith a dozen kids who completely eclipsed me and my wise FIL placed me on a couple of pillows to make me visible to the world. As the car proceeded, the bride was brought clandestinely in a car that crossed mine to enable her to have a good look at the suited and booted me! It was precisely at that moment it started pouring cats and dogs and when I reached the marriage venue, i looked ridiculous in my drenched suit and dripping shoes. An old man nearby remarked that the bride would have eaten a lot of raw rice in her younger days and everyone laughed. I could not make out the connection but still laughed courteously, effectively hiding my rising BP at the silly remark!
Sri

Maapillai Azhaippuu ...and surrounded and eclipsed by kids

hahahahhahahahahhaaa :)) :))

In my parents' wedding album (black and white), my dad is smiling through suffocation as my mamas and sithappas (all small kids then) were vying with each other for their face to get maximum camera exposure !!!

Originally Posted by nivedi

You are no ordinary man, Cheeniya Sir. You are a prophet. Who else could have thought years back that there would be a perpetual water crisis and people would be killing each other for water. Back then, you could forsee such a crisis and so you chose an FIL who had a secret water pipe. Blessed am I to be in thy virtual company!

Dear Nivedi
You are right about my FIL's sagacity and vision. When the entire town was going water during summer, my FIL's house got copious supply. But the problem arose during rainy days when the town's water source got filled to the brim. It used to be quite tough to close the tap during those days and the entire house would resemble a bit of Venice!
Sri

I could not make out the connection but still laughed courteously, effectively hiding my rising BP at the silly remark!

Cheeniya sir,

Now, that is stretching it a bit , you could not have had BP at that young age or was it the effect of all those S &B's you enjoyed while you went on the girl seeing sprees with your uncle?

Originally Posted by sundarusha

I could not make out the connection but still laughed courteously, effectively hiding my rising BP at the silly remark!

Cheeniya sir,

Now, that is stretching it a bit , you could not have had BP at that young age or was it the effect of all those S &B's you enjoyed while you went on the girl seeing sprees with your uncle?

Dear Usha
Dont you know that there are two types of BP? One is clinical which can be measured in the tongue twisting Sphygmomanometer and the other is Emotional BP which can only be felt and not measured. I referred to the second. I had felt it even at the age of 10!
But today's BP can be traced back to the days when I accompanied my uncle and consumed all the S and B!
Sri

Dear Sri,

It was so interesting..

A pleasurable travel though mythology to sojji and bajji...

So, you were clean bowled by, 'unnai charan...'. Good for you. Escaped from so many sticky sojjis and kadak mudak bajjis. How were the ones which you tasted? Looks like your FIL, instead of keeping ice, used water to drench you.