Story Behind Tamil Proverbs- Anju Maatuponn Kadhai

jskls · Aug 3, 2017

Starting with Anju Maattu penn navigating to Ezhu maatu penn and learning about Maatru-Naattu-penn this thread is another good read. Thanks folks for all those enriching information and oh the story another good one

Thyagarajan · Apr 5, 2024

Satlak said: ↑

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.
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Thank you and many happy returns of the day.
I have never heard or read this proverb nor the story.
Interesting . I shall read your other jottings .
Your last post was in aug 2017
God bless.

Viswamitra · Apr 5, 2024

Thanks to Thyagarajan Sir, I had a chance to read this thread. I have heard this through out my childhood. We are only two boys at home with no girl child in our family. My mother used to divide the work to both brothers when one is responsible to buy milk, the other responsible for buying the vegetables. When one child is responsible to assist mom in grinding Idli batter or Dosa batter or Adai batter, the other child is responsible for cutting vegetables before cooking. There are somethings that are compulsory for both children to do. It is reciting slokas at a specific time in the morning and evening. The play time is strickly between 4 and 6 p.m. 6-8 p.m. is study time. 8 p.m. is dinner and 9 p.m. is the bed time.

My mother brought up this story multiple times because my brother and I used to pressurize my mother to finish off our assigned work even before the scheduled time. The way she told the story is little different. The first dil cooked food, the second arranged for the dinning by placing the plaintain leaves and water, the third served the food, the fourth removed the leaves and fifth cleaned the place but without caring whether anyone is eating the food or not. In other words, after the food is served and before anyone ate the food, a DIL took the leaves off and another cleaned the place. It is not only a sequence issue but also the purpose why those responsibilities were assigned got defeated because no one cared whether anyone eats or not.

We used to laugh a lot hearing this story.

Thyagarajan · Apr 6, 2024

Viswamitra said: ↑

Thanks to Thyagarajan Sir, I had a chance to read this thread. I have heard this through out my childhood. We are only two boys at home with no girl child in our family. My mother used to divide the work to both brothers when one is responsible to buy milk, the other responsible for buying the vegetables. When one child is responsible to assist mom in grinding Idli batter or Dosa batter or Adai batter, the other child is responsible for cutting vegetables before cooking. There are somethings that are compulsory for both children to do. It is reciting slokas at a specific time in the morning and evening. The play time is strickly between 4 and 6 p.m. 6-8 p.m. is study time. 8 p.m. is dinner and 9 p.m. is the bed time.

My mother brought up this story multiple times because my brother and I used to pressurize my mother to finish off our assigned work even before the scheduled time. The way she told the story is little different. The first dil cooked food, the second arranged for the dinning by placing the plaintain leaves and water, the third served the food, the fourth removed the leaves and fifth cleaned the place but without caring whether anyone is eating the food or not. In other words, after the food is served and before anyone ate the food, a DIL took the leaves off and another cleaned the place. It is not only a sequence issue but also the purpose why those responsibilities were assigned got defeated because no one cared whether anyone eats or not.

We used to laugh a lot hearing this story.
Click to expand...

Thank u sir an interesting read and of course nostalgic. Previous generation to put things succinctly and subtly use proverbs adages . They convey the objective of the situation in a crisp manner and listener can not miss out the point.
My dad spent his first twenty years in village and had many siblings and kins around in a joint family. His vocab used to be full of proverbs . For every situation sorrow or sadness or happiness he would say it with tamil proverbs seemingly hackneyed.. proverbs he used in conversation - a few of it listed below often brings to mind those situations and circumstances to mind instantly.

Valtha kada māril paayndhadhu pol
Yerikitta kovichukknu k-ndi kazhuvama poran
Chiruga katti peruga vazh
Komanam kattadha örula......