The Family Tree

Cheeniya · Feb 21, 2017

‘The Hindu’, today, literally made me deaf by screaming ‘Ben Stokes breaks the bank at Rs.14.5 crores’. To the uninitiated, I must explain that Ben Stokes is an English cricket player who has been bought for this amount by the Rising Pune Supergiants. In all, some 66 players were bought in auction for a whopping Rs.91 crores by eight competing teams. They will battle it out for the top spot in the gruelling Indian summer for some six weeks. Buying men for money is the basis of slavery though IPL auction is far different from the ancient slavery. Here the men who are bought for fancy prices are not under any compulsion to deliver value for money like the ancient slaves.

The practice of buying men for money is reported to be some 11000 years old. We have recorded evidence of the practice of slavery in every ancient civilisation. When I saw the movie ‘Cleopatra’ starring Elizabeth Taylor in the title role along with Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar and Richard Burton as Mark Antony, I was moved by the plight of the slaves of these characters. When Cleopatra decides to end her life dressed in golden attire by letting herself bitten by a poisonous asp, her slave Eiras follows suit. That was the moment I realised how the slaves of legendary figures lived and died with their masters.

When I read ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ first, I was far too young to feel moved but a latter reading of the same book made me feel intensely moved. But the book that fascinated me most was ‘Roots’ by Alex Haley. A man’s passion to explore his family’s roots is mindboggling. It is a great pity that Alex had to face plagiary charges against his monumental book and ended up paying a hefty fine. After my second reading of this book, I was bent on exploring my own family tree and all that I had by way of basic information were the names of my parents and grandparents of three generations whose ‘Tharpanam’ I am doing on every New Moon Day! After my memory loss in the recent stroke, my wife has jotted them down on a piece of paper so that I do not get confused between my paternal and maternal lineage! I was telling you about my work on my family tree. I had to give it up after sometime when I found that each of them had fathered a mindboggling number of children. My own grandfather had some thirteen of them! I had to abandon this project reluctantly and at the time of abandoning it, I had already discovered some forty odd cousins and their wards!

What fascinated me most was that what started off as a family in a modest nest has expanded into several affluent families in massive villas. I am not talking about myself but my distant relatives! As long as my mother was alive, we were in touch with quite a few families but, after her death, the links are completely broken. My generation now leads the rest and we have not much cue about my ancestry. For all I know, one of you who may be reading this could be a distant nephew or niece of mine!

Getting back to the subject of slavery, I was discussing this with a friend of mine who married into an affluent family. Being well-educated, he got into a lucrative job and was eventually captured by a rich family in matrimony. His father collected all the money spent on his education from the girl’s family by way of dowry. At the moment, the son is virtually a slave of his wife and spends most of the time buried behind a newspaper which he reads at least ten times a day! The only time his family lets him join it is at the dining table unless guests have been invited. On such occasions, he is fed first not for reasons of age but for the fear that he might become tongue-loose! Isn’t this slavery of a different kind?

satchitananda · Feb 21, 2017

Dear Cheeniya sir,

That made for a very interesting read. Loved the meandering 'narrative'. Sorry for using that word, but I seem to be hearing that word so often these days - there is the Indian Narrative vs the Pakistani one, the narrative of the colonizers vs that of the colonized ..... So coming back to this narrative, loved the parallel between the IPL auction and buying of slaves. But this is another example of the 'empire strikes back'.

As for family trees, I keep counting cousins - have still not seen a couple of them - and keep losing count of whether it is 33 or 36. As for their offspring, I can't even remember their names (some I don't even know). Strange feeling, isn't it? And like you said, who knows ... our own kith and kin might be right here chatting/fighting with us. :-D

Slavery through dowry? Well, that is just, isn't it? If he was purchased, he should be owned!

shyamala1234 · Feb 22, 2017

Cheeniya said: ↑

‘The Hindu’, today, literally made me deaf by screaming ‘Ben Stokes breaks the bank at Rs.14.5 crores’. To the uninitiated, I must explain that Ben Stokes is an English cricket player who has been bought for this amount by the Rising Pune Supergiants. In all, some 66 players were bought in auction for a whopping Rs.91 crores by eight competing teams. They will battle it out for the top spot in the gruelling Indian summer for some six weeks. Buying men for money is the basis of slavery though IPL auction is far different from the ancient slavery. Here the men who are bought for fancy prices are not under any compulsion to deliver value for money like the ancient slaves.

The practice of buying men for money is reported to be some 11000 years old. We have recorded evidence of the practice of slavery in every ancient civilisation. When I saw the movie ‘Cleopatra’ starring Elizabeth Taylor in the title role along with Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar and Richard Burton as Mark Antony, I was moved by the plight of the slaves of these characters. When Cleopatra decides to end her life dressed in golden attire by letting herself bitten by a poisonous asp, her slave Eiras follows suit. That was the moment I realised how the slaves of legendary figures lived and died with their masters.

When I read ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ first, I was far too young to feel moved but a latter reading of the same book made me feel intensely moved. But the book that fascinated me most was ‘Roots’ by Alex Haley. A man’s passion to explore his family’s roots is mindboggling. It is a great pity that Alex had to face plagiary charges against his monumental book and ended up paying a hefty fine. After my second reading of this book, I was bent on exploring my own family tree and all that I had by way of basic information were the names of my parents and grandparents of three generations whose ‘Tharpanam’ I am doing on every New Moon Day! After my memory loss in the recent stroke, my wife has jotted them down on a piece of paper so that I do not get confused between my paternal and maternal lineage! I was telling you about my work on my family tree. I had to give it up after sometime when I found that each of them had fathered a mindboggling number of children. My own grandfather had some thirteen of them! I had to abandon this project reluctantly and at the time of abandoning it, I had already discovered some forty odd cousins and their wards!

What fascinated me most was that what started off as a family in a modest nest has expanded into several affluent families in massive villas. I am not talking about myself but my distant relatives! As long as my mother was alive, we were in touch with quite a few families but, after her death, the links are completely broken. My generation now leads the rest and we have not much cue about my ancestry. For all I know, one of you who may be reading this could be a distant nephew or niece of mine!

Getting back to the subject of slavery, I was discussing this with a friend of mine who married into an affluent family. Being well-educated, he got into a lucrative job and was eventually captured by a rich family in matrimony. His father collected all the money spent on his education from the girl’s family by way of dowry. At the moment, the son is virtually a slave of his wife and spends most of the time buried behind a newspaper which he reads at least ten times a day! The only time his family lets him join it is at the dining table unless guests have been invited. On such occasions, he is fed first not for reasons of age but for the fear that he might become tongue-loose! Isn’t this slavery of a different kind?
Click to expand...

Cheeniya said: ↑

‘The Hindu’, today, literally made me deaf by screaming ‘Ben Stokes breaks the bank at Rs.14.5 crores’. To the uninitiated, I must explain that Ben Stokes is an English cricket player who has been bought for this amount by the Rising Pune Supergiants. In all, some 66 players were bought in auction for a whopping Rs.91 crores by eight competing teams. They will battle it out for the top spot in the gruelling Indian summer for some six weeks. Buying men for money is the basis of slavery though IPL auction is far different from the ancient slavery. Here the men who are bought for fancy prices are not under any compulsion to deliver value for money like the ancient slaves.

The practice of buying men for money is reported to be some 11000 years old. We have recorded evidence of the practice of slavery in every ancient civilisation. When I saw the movie ‘Cleopatra’ starring Elizabeth Taylor in the title role along with Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar and Richard Burton as Mark Antony, I was moved by the plight of the slaves of these characters. When Cleopatra decides to end her life dressed in golden attire by letting herself bitten by a poisonous asp, her slave Eiras follows suit. That was the moment I realised how the slaves of legendary figures lived and died with their masters.

When I read ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ first, I was far too young to feel moved but a latter reading of the same book made me feel intensely moved. But the book that fascinated me most was ‘Roots’ by Alex Haley. A man’s passion to explore his family’s roots is mindboggling. It is a great pity that Alex had to face plagiary charges against his monumental book and ended up paying a hefty fine. After my second reading of this book, I was bent on exploring my own family tree and all that I had by way of basic information were the names of my parents and grandparents of three generations whose ‘Tharpanam’ I am doing on every New Moon Day! After my memory loss in the recent stroke, my wife has jotted them down on a piece of paper so that I do not get confused between my paternal and maternal lineage! I was telling you about my work on my family tree. I had to give it up after sometime when I found that each of them had fathered a mindboggling number of children. My own grandfather had some thirteen of them! I had to abandon this project reluctantly and at the time of abandoning it, I had already discovered some forty odd cousins and their wards!

What fascinated me most was that what started off as a family in a modest nest has expanded into several affluent families in massive villas. I am not talking about myself but my distant relatives! As long as my mother was alive, we were in touch with quite a few families but, after her death, the links are completely broken. My generation now leads the rest and we have not much cue about my ancestry. For all I know, one of you who may be reading this could be a distant nephew or niece of mine!

Getting back to the subject of slavery, I was discussing this with a friend of mine who married into an affluent family. Being well-educated, he got into a lucrative job and was eventually captured by a rich family in matrimony. His father collected all the money spent on his education from the girl’s family by way of dowry. At the moment, the son is virtually a slave of his wife and spends most of the time buried behind a newspaper which he reads at least ten times a day! The only time his family lets him join it is at the dining table unless guests have been invited. On such occasions, he is fed first not for reasons of age but for the fear that he might become tongue-loose! Isn’t this slavery of a different kind?
Click to expand...

Cheeniya said: ↑

‘The Hindu’, today, literally made me deaf by screaming ‘Ben Stokes breaks the bank at Rs.14.5 crores’. To the uninitiated, I must explain that Ben Stokes is an English cricket player who has been bought for this amount by the Rising Pune Supergiants. In all, some 66 players were bought in auction for a whopping Rs.91 crores by eight competing teams. They will battle it out for the top spot in the gruelling Indian summer for some six weeks. Buying men for money is the basis of slavery though IPL auction is far different from the ancient slavery. Here the men who are bought for fancy prices are not under any compulsion to deliver value for money like the ancient slaves.

The practice of buying men for money is reported to be some 11000 years old. We have recorded evidence of the practice of slavery in every ancient civilisation. When I saw the movie ‘Cleopatra’ starring Elizabeth Taylor in the title role along with Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar and Richard Burton as Mark Antony, I was moved by the plight of the slaves of these characters. When Cleopatra decides to end her life dressed in golden attire by letting herself bitten by a poisonous asp, her slave Eiras follows suit. That was the moment I realised how the slaves of legendary figures lived and died with their masters.

When I read ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ first, I was far too young to feel moved but a latter reading of the same book made me feel intensely moved. But the book that fascinated me most was ‘Roots’ by Alex Haley. A man’s passion to explore his family’s roots is mindboggling. It is a great pity that Alex had to face plagiary charges against his monumental book and ended up paying a hefty fine. After my second reading of this book, I was bent on exploring my own family tree and all that I had by way of basic information were the names of my parents and grandparents of three generations whose ‘Tharpanam’ I am doing on every New Moon Day! After my memory loss in the recent stroke, my wife has jotted them down on a piece of paper so that I do not get confused between my paternal and maternal lineage! I was telling you about my work on my family tree. I had to give it up after sometime when I found that each of them had fathered a mindboggling number of children. My own grandfather had some thirteen of them! I had to abandon this project reluctantly and at the time of abandoning it, I had already discovered some forty odd cousins and their wards!

What fascinated me most was that what started off as a family in a modest nest has expanded into several affluent families in massive villas. I am not talking about myself but my distant relatives! As long as my mother was alive, we were in touch with quite a few families but, after her death, the links are completely broken. My generation now leads the rest and we have not much cue about my ancestry. For all I know, one of you who may be reading this could be a distant nephew or niece of mine!

Getting back to the subject of slavery, I was discussing this with a friend of mine who married into an affluent family. Being well-educated, he got into a lucrative job and was eventually captured by a rich family in matrimony. His father collected all the money spent on his education from the girl’s family by way of dowry. At the moment, the son is virtually a slave of his wife and spends most of the time buried behind a newspaper which he reads at least ten times a day! The only time his family lets him join it is at the dining table unless guests have been invited. On such occasions, he is fed first not for reasons of age but for the fear that he might become tongue-loose! Isn’t this slavery of a different kind?
Click to expand...

Dear Cheeniya sir,
I do not watch or follow IPL matches at all. Do not get a feeling that they are playing for the country....they sound like horses in a race courses. Whenever I read about the cost of horses in racing, their value, worth how many lakhs I remember IPL players's auction. Of course, as you said sir, it is not mandatory that they should perform well. Can even score a duck.It is not slavery. Big fat check and no need of working hard. Excuse me if there are any IPL lovers here. It is my personal view. I do not understand when already cricketers earn loads and loads of money should fall for this. One may say who is not attracted by such bg checks! But still....
Many kinds of slaveries are there. Torturous, taking freedom of a person, treating them badly on and on. They are all bad...blatantly.
But isn't every human being slave to something or someone? Yes, we are. Willingly or unwillingly.Man to woman, vice versa, slave to some bad and good habits as well (we call it addiction) and latest is parents to children. Children demanding unaffordable things and parents conceding. Do not want the child to be unhappy. Kind of slavery in my view. In your childhood and even in our generation, next to you love is the binding factor. But now it is materialistic...a kind of blackmail (not everyone, but a section).
Difficult to trace family tree for more than three generations. My father were 8 children and mother four. My father was the seventh child.......counted , on both sides 56 cousins spread all over the world. Difficult to keep track. As long as uncles or aunts are there bonds were a bit stronger. With some cousins I am close though.Good one Cheeniya sir.
Already long. Let me stop here. May come back later after some more fbs.
Syamala

Cheeniya · Feb 22, 2017

My dear satchi
Your mind is no less meandering than mine! A comprehensive response it was!
I often use to wonder what would be the reaction of Adan and Eve if the visited the planet now and saw the billions of their progeny! Will they be proud? Will they go mad? Considering that one of their sons killed the other, the rate race now is thoroughly understandable! The family tree of Adam and Eve up to the latest entrant into the planet would require the entire planet to draw! And what about other living beings? Our head will burst!
Going back to your opening para, your 'narrative' has been well narrated. What if it made me lose 45 of my 450 hairs? I still have 90% left for you to work on!
Sri

Cheeniya · Feb 22, 2017

My dear Syamala
Race horses of sound pedigree are bought for fancy prices and those horses earn their owners at least 20 times the money paid for them by winning many races. If unfortunately they have an accident and rendered lame, they are shot dead. This is what I have heard from seasoned punters. You say you don't follow IPL matches but you seem to know more about them than me. I follow these matches on TV to save myself from the stupid TV serials of which my wife is crazy! I am forced to sit with her and watch them for want of anything else to do. Today most of the serials are based on ghost stories where girls become snakes and back to human form according to the circumstances. Some ghosts are good and even have a sense of humour too. Some ghosts are thoroughly villainous and scary. When the good ghosts and bad ghosts fight, the good ones win invariably like their counterparts in real life.

You have raised a very pertinent question in asking me if we are all not slave of something or other. I started counting and at the time of writing this reply, I have found myself to be a slave of some 39 items/peoples including my grand children. I was shocked. I scolded myself for talking about others when I am myself a slave of 39 items! But then, comparatively my slavery is not the kind that interferes with my sense of justice. What I mean is that if one is a slave of smoking, he kills himself through cancer and if he is a slave of drinking, he destroys the whole family. Mine does not fall into any such category.
Sri

Viswamitra · Feb 22, 2017

Dear Cheeniya Sir,

IPL is changing the life of many whether they are affluent or poor. Even Natarajan from Tamilnadu who was expecting to be hired by IPL for meager Rs 10 lakhs was hired for Rs 3 crores. His father is a cooli in the Railway Station. Besides learning cricket, one needs to be training a lot and also lucky to be selected in IPL among many talented resources.

Regarding family tree, one of my cousins started building family tree going into several generations. He is not done yet and still updating all new generations from time to time. He opened up a Whatsapp only for the family to communicate any new additions through a marriage or birth. As you said, I also know only three generations for the limited purpose.

My wife has been insisting that we should visit the village my father was from and hence we decided to visit it 10 years back. Interestingly, we learned about Bhagavata Mela conducted in that village every year that too in Telugu. My mouth never shuts for any reason and I ended up asking the priest in the Temple why Bhagavata Mela is conducted in Telugu in the heart of Tamilnadu. He explained that 400 years back, there was a short fall of Brahmin community and this village requested Telugu Brahmins to migrate to this small village. After I heard that I have a suspicion whether my mother tongue is Telugu or Tamil.

Similarly, there was a big debate in our family a few years back what is our Kuladeivam. Some suggested it is Murugan in Swamimalai and others suggested that it is Vaitheeswaran in Vaitheeswaran Koil. We visit these two temples regularly and it makes no difference to me which one is our Kuladeivam anymore.

My cousin used to say the one who is not married is called "Bachelor" and the one who is married is called "Pechillar" meaning one who is speechless.

Viswa

PushpavalliSrinivasan · Feb 23, 2017

Dear Mr Cheeniya,
Glad to see your post on the topic IPL and family tree
I have stopped watching the serials. surfing news channels has become an obsession to my DH and so I get stuck up with IPad. In the evening from 5 to 7 p.m. I watch Sankara and TTD channel. Saturday and Sunday we watch the chilidrens' music competition programme in Z and Vijay.
I do love to watch IPL matches, but not interested to watch test matches. One day match is somewhat ok for me.
The owners of the teams and the players and also the bookies might be making money by match fixing.
Regarding family tree most of us come to know only three generations. I know only few cousins from both maternal and paternal side. We have contacts with the ones whom we know and speak to them once in a month even though there is no reciprocation from their side. Nowadays people who are staying in the same house are busy chatting in whatsup and other online chat rooms and have no time to those sitting in the same room.
The irony is Though world has become small due to technological development, we find wide gap in relationship of people.
PS

suryakala · Feb 23, 2017

Dear @Cheeniya Sir,

Nice to see you back with the usual force in the narrative. It is amazing how the sport has become commercial business particularly in games like Golf, Tennis, Boxing and cricket! Who could think of Prasanna, Bedi, or Chandra Sekar getting even a few lakhs of rupees for playing not to speak of Nalarajan's 3 crores or 14.5crores of Ben!

Even today in southern districts in 'Panguni Uthiram' all the members of a clan who have a common 'Kula Deivam' assemble to give "Kodai". It is a good place in which the entire family tree is re constructed alive. This custom which was becoming extinct is now getting revived because modern life style tends to lose the family connections and this "Kodai" provides a good opportunity to revive relationships!

Enjoyed your recollections of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin" and " Antony and Cleopatra". You would have also like to add'" Vicar of Wakfield" and "Oliver Twist" to these reminiscences, no?

Cheeniya · Feb 23, 2017

My dear Viswa
A classy response to a mundane ramble!
I must hasten to assure you that I have nothing against the 20 over version of cricket when the duration of the immensely popular is only 90 minutes. Make it shorter and a greater money spinner is an understandable argument. In my younger days, we had known only the five day version with a rest day after the third day. Everyone was in white as there are now in the Test version but without any advertisements on their shirts. The fancy of the mini version of the game is the colourful attire that the players of different teams wear with money spinning ads dotting them from top to bottom. I have had the pleasure of watching legendary cricketers in action and I must mention the famous trio of West Indies namely, Worrel, Weekes and Walcot. They were reverentially mentioned as Three W's. The cricket stadium was called Chepauk stadium. We used to sit in galleries made of bamboo and wooden planks. It used to be virtually a sit-out vocation!

Building up a family tree is rather tough in South Indian families with the same names repeating over and over again. In my family, for several generations the names Vaidyanathan and Venkataraman keep recurring. If the father is Vaidyanathan, the grandfather would be Venkataraman and the great grandfather would be Vaidyanathan again. Don't you agree that building the family tree of such family is quite tough? If we are a royal family or the lineage of Holy Saints, we could number them as Vaidyanathan one, Vaidyanathan 2 etc. The problem was further compounded by the fact that most of them had a minimum of two wives with each having her own children!

Telugu settlers of Tamilnadu have indeed made the state culturally richer. The foremost of them was Saint Thyagaraja with whose songs the modern musicians are minting money. Some of them charge over Rs.50000 for singing in wedding receptions. And the Saint sang these songs for his personal realisation of the Supreme.

Most of us are 'Pechilar' and when we touch 75+, we are called Saint Pechilar!
Sri

Cheeniya · Feb 23, 2017

Dear PS
How true it is that though the world has shrunk due to technological explosion, we are drifting away from each other. To tell you the truth, I am not half as close to my neighbours as I am with my friends across the world whose faces I may never get to see! My neighbour came to know of my stroke only several days after I got discharged from the hospital! Relationships have acquired a whole new meaning! when a friend on the other side of the planet falls ill, we make a dozen inquiries a day about his health but we are cold when it comes to a person living in our campus.

We seem to be almost identical in TV option. I too watch all the singing competitions irrespective of the age of the
singers. I love the same of the Telugu channels where the quality of singing by the competitors is much higher. For most of them, SPB is god! I have given up watching cricket and update my knowledge of team positions from my mobile. I watch the Kalyana Utsavam of Lord Venkateswars when I am free without fail. When I was in the college, I used to visit Thirumala by climbing the Hills on the 1st January every year. Those days were indeed eventful!
Sri