Things We Are Asked Not To Do

Not to do things

I am sure that we have been told numerously by our parents, grandparents and all perisus, dont do this, do that and just do like this.But we ask why, they would turn blank. Over the course of years, I have tried to make sense of some of these DONT DO LIKE THIS, JUST DO LIKE THIS (of course some really intelligent people I knew also helped along with). I have put forth a list of my take of these DONT DO's and the reason behind it.
1. Pillayar suzhi: We have been told repeatedly that pillayar suzhi is something realted to pillayar and doing it bestows success in writing that piece. But is that so? What does pillayar suzhi consist of? A small circle, a small curve, a horizontal line and a dot. Now think about it. Before the generation of paper usage, people used papyrus and stylus was used to write on it (actually slowly carve it). So the first thing the writers tested for is the whether the papyrus was worth to be carved i.e. soft enough but not too britle so that it would break. The basic movements in writing were circle, curve, dot and lines. Pillayar suzhi (or the series of movements) helped the writers sample the papyrus.
2. Vibuthi - What does applying vibuthi has to do with religion? Actually zilch, nada, zip. Vibuthi, traditionally would be made of slowly burnt cow dung. Once you Mix it with a little bit of water and applying it over the body, it dries due to our body heat. While drying, the ash hardens up and sucks the water in the pores of the skin. Thus clearing our skin of the black head and the white heads, making the skin glow. But people never would do things when they are told about medicinal properties. So how to make it happen, just say it has got something to do with religion and slap religious sanctitty to do it, people would then do it forever.
3. Dont cut nails in the evening: What does cutting nails got to do with evening? Before electricity age, our households were lit up just either a hurricane light or a agal vilaku (which for obvious reasons dont provide that much of velicham). So if someone cut their nails in the evening time, that too when it is not well lit, there is every possibility of the nails getting mixed up with food.
4. Wearing thali and metti: What does wearing thali and metti got to do with longevity of husband? Crap, married ladies werent even supposed to wear metti, men are supposed to wear it. our elders devised metti and thali as symbols of marriage. We have to remember that men were supposed to walk with their held high and women normally go about their business with a slight amount of shyness (thus looking at the ground). So how can men and women identify whom among the people they met are married and who are all unmarried? For the sake of this, married women were asked to wear thalis and married men wear mettis. Thus men (who walk with their head held high) could see thali in their point of sight and identify that who are married and who are not. The same applies for women too.
5. Parisheshanam (Iyer aathu guys would have heard this): The concept of parisheshanam is to take a spoon of water pour it around the food plate in a circular motion and end it up pouring the rest of water on the side of the plate. Well the build up to it would be parisheshanam mandiram. Again to understand this we need to put ourselves in time machine and go back to pre-electricity days and no dining table. Our forefathers sat on the floor and had their food, where by the way ants and insects thrived. So before our forefathers had their food, by circling the food with water it creates a circle of fire to fend off the insects from the food. The final drops of water would be used to just wash the hands.

Well my quest to decipher the DONT DOs or DO THESE LIKE THIS continues.