GRANNY'S TALES- SUN (PART-3)

Click here for Part-1

Click here for Part-2

Welcome back to Granny's tales.

This month I am going to tell you how my Granny is associated with Sun. 

My grandmother used to call the Sun as "Pratyaksha Narayanudu" which means "Visible God".

She designed her chores according to Sun's movement. 

Her every action is useful for today's situation. Especially when this Covid-19 is extending its hands all over world. 

In her total life she never woke up after sun rise. Many of your grand mothers and grand fathers used to say "Never sleep after sunrise" remember?? 

The modern science got to know our ancestral rituals are way for healthy life. My granny used to say "When you brush your teeth after sunrise your teeth will be broken."
"How come sun can break my tooth? if I am aged, then naturally I will lose my teeth, why to worry to wake up early? This was my argument.
Till her day of death, she never fell ill. She always said "Sun is energy. Pray to him".

 Her idea was to make me spend more time with morning sun. But I used to spend it on bed. 

When I came to know the positivity and freshness in the morning sun, daily I am remembering my granny.
Everyday she woke up before sunrise, mostly at 5 AM, finishes her bathing, and cleaning of house, and started cooking for all of us. Her positive nature reflected in food too. Not a single day her food was tasteless.
One more thing she always insisted was, cleaning the house before sunrise.

My granny termed cleaning house after sunrise as"Daridram", which she probably meant Negetivity in house.

Whem she was in her late 60's, she was unable to sleep during night, however her wake up time didn't changed. 

Every day she used to study "Aditya hridayam" and made me learn that. She always said "Aditya hridayam brings you health and happiness. Whenever your mind is disturbed read this one, you will be relieved from stress. Believe in God, if you cannot believe what you see infront of your eye, how can you believe power within you? Sun is creating food for you, with his power, pray him"

Her home made sun-dried chips were the best chips.

Even she used sun for getting rid of aroma in jars, melt her solidified ghee. 

She insisted her grandson who was born with jaundice to expose to morning sunlight for few days right after he was born.

Vitamin D is best medicine for children who were born with jaundice. She knows it as simple act,just by spending some time under Sun.

My granny is a middle class house wife from an orthodox family. Her educational background is also not strong. But she knows how to make her family healthy through natural resources. 

What did your Granny say about Sun?

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GRANNY'S TALES- WATER (PART-2)

 [For Granny's tales part-1 here ]

Grandmothers loses their coolness when it comes to WATER.
In traditional Indian families water is treated almost equal to God. From the moment they wake up they were closely associated with the five elements of nature, mostly with water. Granny considered water as most wonderful, powerful, sterilizing element of one life.
1. Bath: 
She used to say that always have a bath before sunrise. My granny hated when I roam here and there with out having bath in the morning. She used to nag behind me saying that "Go and bathe".  Whenever she heard a bad news or when she is having a bad day she goes straight to the bathroom and does her bathing. She used to say bathing makes her body and mood, clean.
2. Drinking water:
She used to treat water as her elixir of life. She used to wash her copper water utensil, with little extra care every time. She never drank water hurriedly. She used to say "After drinking water, you should sit relaxed for few minutes, then only the water will sink in. More than half of your body is water, respect it"
3.Cooking:
She always used water only she brought. None of the family or maids brought water, is not preferred for her cooking. She used to clean the water vessel after bathing, with her own hands and after that she used to bring water in that, and we are not allowed to touch it at any cost. she called it "Madi neellu",which means "water that should not be touched". The complete process seemed to be illogical and meaningless during my childhood. After I got to know their water has memory, and it reacts to our touch and voice, I got to know 'the' water will effect your health. 

My granny never used the water from taps. She always stored the water in a vessel and after a night she used it for cooking or drinking.

4. News:

Whether it is a birth news or a death news she immediately took a bath.  She used to say some philosophy, both birth and death are part of life, try to treat like same.

5. Others:

My granny always used to say"wash your legs from behind..don't ignore after visiting rest room". May be it was concern about every corner of the body. 

Granny used to use a word after drinking water "this is amrutham", which means elixir. 

In most of the traditional houses, before meals they will do kriya called "parisham" with water as an indication of holy food "prasadam" for the fire(God) inside us. 

Also after completing the food, they again use water for completing the kriya. So she never ignored the water. 

All this will be done by men in the house. This topic is really a vast subject, here I'm not going to discuss. I shall make it as other topic.  

So,  finally my granny's relation with water is a strong one. She even predicted the financial status by usage of water!!!  

Awesome women!! 

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GRANNY'S TALES - PART-1

Most of us were associated with grandmothers. They were like our mother. As for my grandmother, she used to be very strict yet warm. Very ferocious, yet calm. Very traditional, yet she accepted our modernity. They saw life from their granny’s age to us and maybe our children too. (Here I’m talking about an average situation). They are the only people who can pass our traditional knowledge from our ancestors to us.

Especially in India, the traditions and the knowledge is transferred only through chores done in our daily life. Grandparents we know are generally nagging about the olden days and very strict about their routine. However, the routine is the thing which they learnt from their elders, which gave them a healthy body and mind too. And now, we have enough proofs that there is a scientific reason behind every Indian tradition. Grandparents are people made this tradition as their habit. So I wanted to expose ideas of my granny on various things.

Today I will focus on the perception of granny on “TOUCH”.

My grandmother is very particular about the things she touched.  She always reminded me to wash hands after combing my hair. At that age, I was not interested either to wash or to listen to her words. After becoming a mother and a homemaker now I understood why the hair is so bad thing to touch. Today every corner of my home you can find small pieces of hair, which is irritating. The home is not clean enough if your hair is not on your head. Now I understand why she insisted to wash hands after combing hair, touching comb, hair. There will be small hair strands which will get attached to our hand when we touch hair or comb. Washing removes extra hair strands which are on our hands or comb.

Her rule for the touch is broomstick, feet and face. When we touch the broomstick same logic applies, the dirt on the broomstick will be on our hands, which should be washed immediately.  She used to say always “Don’t touch your feet all the time”. I used to think that is okay if my feet are clean enough. But my granny was wise enough to know about microorganisms.

Once my granny said, “Don’t place your hands on your face always”, with a harsh tone. I asked why. What she said made me spellbound. “You will place your hands here and there; you may think your hands are clean. Your facial skin is more sensitive when compared to remaining skin. If you place your rough hands on face, the facial skin becomes rough and your facial pores will be filled with mud. Moreover, my queen should look good.”

Another concern is not to touch the rice vessel during our meals. In many of our traditional houses, we still follow it. We don’t touch curry vessel right after touching the rice vessel. It is not like rice vessel is dangerous or anything. But Cooking rice has separate formula than making curries or sambhar. The whole point is cooked rice should not get affected by the other tastes and spices. Moreover, the water used for cooking rice (which is used as porridge) can become residue and viscous. So my granny usually touches some water or washes her hands after using the rice vessel.

My granny’s touch-hand washing list will not end here. She used to take a bath even after completing kitchen chores. I was surprised when I came to know that she takes a bath 3 times a day. I used to mock her for washing hands after touching certain things. But now I came to know what the importance of washing hands is. (Of course by the western doctors’ suggestions). She was far more intelligent than western PhD doctors. Love you granny!!

Do comment your memories with your granny.

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