Story Behind Tamil Proverbs- Anju Maatuponn Kadhai

Anju maatuponn kadai

Anju (five) maatuponn (daughter in law) kadhai (story)
So it means "the story of the five daughters in law)

As kids when my siblings and I would fight about the work allotted to us my mother would say "Do your work without fighting otherwise it will become like anju maatuponn Kadhai".

Here is the tale as I recall now
The tale is of five daughters in law who have divided the work among themselves. Remember that this is a tale from ancient times when joint families were the norm

First dil, samayal panninal (eldest or first dil cooked)

Second ,illai pottu theertham vaipal (second dils would lay the plantain leaf to eat and keep water alongside)

Third, parimaruval (third dil would serve the food)

Fourth ,ilayai eduthal (fourth dil would pick up the leaf after food is eaten )

Fifth, echil ittalaam (fifth would clean the place where food was served and water)


But the daughters in law just wanted to be done with their part of the work and be free for a while. None of them were really interested in doing the work. Let's not forget that those days there was lot of manual labour to do the ladies had to tend to their kids elders ad do all the household work without our modern gadgets like mixer grinder refrigerator micro wave and the works in stuffy kitchens with no fans exhaust fans. So rivalry and infighting was common among them


Coming back to our story, each of the women does strictly what is her part of the work. In the bargain the sequence is lost as they dont look at the whole picture. So before food is served one of them who is supposed to clean the place does it, the one who has to lay the plantain leaves does her job , the one who is assigned the work of picking up the leaves does so....all this is done before the food could be cooked and served !


Message? When the team is not motivated to work for the larger good each one does his or her bit and there is utter chaos.

 

Thank you . I will post more instalments. I too love these proverbs and stories behind them

 

Thanks. I too have been away from native place all my life. I am born and brought up in Mumbai. My immediate family and most of my extended family is in mumbai. I have not had Tamil as subject in school or college. I learned to read from my mom. I am very slow in reading Tamil, but I manage if the material is not too lengthy. But my mom used to quote these proverbs and tell the story behind them at every opportunity. That's how I know them. I too tend to use these in my daily interactions whenever it is appropriate to .

 

Sure! I too love these proverbs and story behind them

 

Thank you so much for this information. I too did not know this. I got it now after reading your message.