Only in the dictionary.....

yes the thinnai formed a very important place in my grandparents place in kerala..i think most of the time we spent there..with friends and cousins...we also had a thinnai in our house in chembur...not many in bombay wud have enjoyed that..because of that all friends used to like to come to our house and evenings were bliss with all of us sitting around and gossipping......

thanks for bringing up lovely memories

mindi

Hi all,

My kids are very lucky. Though they are currently in their early twenties, both have had the privilege of enjoying the experience of THINNAI till last year in my mom's place - that too in one of the posh areas of Chennai. But now the old building has been renovated to give way to a modern outlook and alas - modern outlook didn't go hand in hand with the thinnai - SNIFF . I have been attached to the thinnai as it has been around ever since I was a kid. Reading these posts has made me very nostalgic.

Cheers,
Lakshmi.

Many words like Thinnai can be seen only in dictionary.

In Malayalam there is one word called "Poomukham". which could be seen in many houses.
It is no more there.
Thinnai always had a social backing. An indicator of social interaction. Parents and next door mama mami would discuss the day. Mami's would chat about how the curry was made, how long the vattal had to be kept -- - - - - - - . But those days will never come back. A marriage in the neighbour's house was also my house wedding.
There was a bond between neighbours. kanaka

Prana,
Thanks for dropping in at thinnai...

thinnai is a wonderful place..happy to see that it is still in view in the villages.. we say ,'Muttram' in Tamil...is it also called, 'ralli'...
My children after seen these things in my grandpa's house, would get excited whenever we discuss to go over to that place..

sriniketan

Thanks for stepping into this thinnai....Mindi....

Yes, it is the place where all the topics will be discussed, suggestions given, gossiping and what not....playing....with friends...sitting during the night with moonlight...sure those days have a place in our memory...

sriniketan

Sure Lakshmi,
thanks for giving your fb in this regard...me too have these kind of memories of the yesteryears...which made me write this one....

As the modern buildings doesn't pave way for these, what is considered as old-fashioned---thinnais are fast disappearing from the face of humanity that's what I call it..
Glad to note that your kids had the 'taste' of thinnai..which can be in their memories too...

sriniketan

Kanaka,

Thanks for your thoughts in this matter....
Sure, that's what I want to bring about when I started writing about this topic...once again thanks for bringing this to light...social interaction...is very much missing...true..nowadays children and adults are satisfied with their own time schedule in TVs and computers, video games, where we interact with only imaginary characters...

By the way, what Poomukham is....can you explain???

sriniketan

dear sriniketan maam,
thanks for bringing alive the memory of the thinnais...having grown up in the heart of chennai, i was brought up on my mother's stories of their childhood in a village house, where the thinnai was an integral part...i used to love it whenever i had the chance of stepping into old world houses....
my husband's ancestral house in their native village has a huge broad thinnai, and it is a sheer delight to recline there and take in the scenes of village life in the evenings....the fragrance of the fresh earth rising out of the water sprinkled on the front of the houses, the aroma wafting from the peanut seller's basket as he stuffs them into paper cones....hmmm...i keep telling my husband that it would be our retirement home....though that is a long time away....

also, the word pyol reminded me of R.K.Narayan's works...he is a master in recreating an Indian street scene in the most vivid way...u hardly feel u are reading, u get such a visual effect...!!

Sowparnika,

thanks for stepping in...

Pyol's place cannot be replaced by any other...memories with them goes a long way in our lives...
Wishing you to have a retirement house of your dreams..

True, the great writer, R.K. Narayan's work does bring out the clear picture of what he wanted to convey...

sriniketan

Dear Sriniketan,

that's right.. 4years back,we went to the south india and my MIL'Akka's ( We call as a periamma)home in kerala , had this thinnai in every home .we enjoyed very much to see .........such old type of house.

Thinnai is a wonderful place for gossiping ..........