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The swelling of the finger beyond a limit!

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, Apr 28, 2008.

  1. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    There is a famous saying in Tamil which roughly translates to “The swelling of the finger should be commensurate with its size”. I have tried to find the genesis of this statement, as I strongly believe that every wisecrack like that is usually born out of someone’s personal experience. I am unable to get any clue about this particular statement but I am sure that it must have been an agonized utterance of somebody who was more troubled by the uncouth appearance of his hurt finger than by the pain it caused him. He must have been a chap who wanted to capitalize even on his misfortunes. He may have thought that even a swollen finger had a cosmetic value provided it enhanced the appearance of the finger like the turban on Manmohan’s head but when the swelling was beyond the acceptable norms of beauty, he uttered those words!

    This statement is usually uttered when someone lives beyond his means or attempts to do anything far beyond his capabilities. I never understand the connection between a swollen finger and someone attempting something beyond his capabilities. Does it imply that a swollen finger will burst if it tries to swell further? Or is it with reference to the greater swelling resulting in more excruciating pain? I have been introspecting on this aspect of a person living beyond his means being compared to a finger swelling beyond its permissible limit.

    Living beyond means must have started when man switched over from the barter to the currency system. It was not as if he never contemplated living beyond means before the currency system came into vogue. When his buying spree was severely curtailed by a need to produce something that could be bartered for what he wanted to possess, he had to content himself within what he could himself produce. Currency system totally dispensed with such a predicament and he could acquire things for a wad of currency notes. That was when the concept of living beyond means took roots. How is it that such an ancient human malady came to be associated with the swollen finger?

    We have to again travel backwards. Remember Charles Darwin, the guy who wrote ‘Origin of species by means of Natural Selection’? It was a custom in those days to give an alternative title to books written by well known authors. In Tamilnadu, the crime thrillers of Vaduvoor Doraisamy Aiyyangar used to be as famous as those of Agatha Christie. All his novels always had alternative titles! Darwin too named his ‘Origin of Species’ alternatively as ‘Preservation of favoured races in the struggle for Life’ When Darwin pointed out the link between man and monkey, many people, like my great grandfather who was as handsome as Adonis, flew into a rage and called Darwin a donkey!

    The point that I am coming to is how Darwin hit upon this idea. He observed that among all living things only the humans and the monkeys could use their hands in general and their fingers in particular in identical fashion. In the matter of scratching the head, removing lice from the hair, peeling a banana and not to talk of wearing a foolish grin while doing any of these functions, monkeys bear an extraordinary resemblance to humans. Darwin made a lot of people scratch their heads side by side with the monkeys to reconfirm his findings. Putting hands to useful purposes is called dexterity and this dexterity is common only to humans and monkeys.

    Whatever use that a man can put his hands and fingers to, a monkey can easily imitate. If you peruse any human science book on this subject, you will find a lot of blah blah like ‘Dexterity, defined as the skillful manipulation of the hands, is now amenable to physiological investigation. Dexterity depends on powerful, distributed neural networks and is particularly vulnerable to brain lesions. Knowledge of physiological mechanisms is needed to deal with these neurological problems.’ I am mentioning this not to scare you but only to ensure that you are with me so far!

    Now you know that the study of human finger has played a crucial role in unraveling the mystery of man’s origin. Is it surprising then that living beyond means is compared to a finger swollen beyond its limit? Both are contemporary subjects that have engaged human attention from time immemorial. So next time when someone talks to you about swelling of the finger in a sly reference to your life style, narrate this history to him and he will never mention a swollen finger to you again!
     
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  2. Kamalji

    Kamalji IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Sri,

    HAHA.From where do u bring subjects of Swollen fingers,Living below or above means,Darwin, monkeys and Donkeys.Makes my head spin.Let me read this after my quota a nightly sin,but a hilarious comparison.

    I see yr blogs are very less these days? Hope felling well and in good health, Sri ? Regards.kamal
     
  3. sowminivibu

    sowminivibu Silver IL'ite

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    dear cheeniya sir

    i think the best quality tht i adore abt u is to write an article about the most trivial thing in a very very light n humorous way......well as u say this veralukku yetha veekam dialogue is sumthing tht all of utter at sum point or the other and it absolutely sounds ridiculous to compare living beyond lifestyle to a swollen finger..if i remember right there is infact a tamil movie in this title and shows how three couples get debts beyond their limits and go through all kinds of struggles in life and finally realise how they should live within their circles !!!!! in short another Bama vijayam with different set of artists...
    am sure if i talk sumthing like dexterity and all tht when sumbody talks such a statement they wud definitely think i shud get an admission in kilpauk......namma makkal ku avlo dhaan sir arivu !!!!HarharHarhar

    lov
    sowmi
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 28, 2008
  4. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Kamal
    Who asked you to read this before you had your quota of nightly poison? This thread would have made more sense to you after a couple of straight ones!
    I have now scheduled one thread per week which I post on Sunday or Monday every week. The reason is mainly to concentrate on replying the FBs that I get and writing my FBs in others' threads. I love such interactions with ILites a lot more than writing a blog! Secondly, I also know that too much of anything could work the wrong way. If people are willing to suffer me happily once a week, why put this to test by writing more?
    Otherwise I am perfectly OK and in good shape to play host to you when you come to Chennai!
    Sri
     
  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Sowmi
    Onru sonnalum nanru sonnai magale! Namma makkal appidi irundhadan namakkum vasadhi!
    Thanks a lot for the prompt FB. Bama Vijayam was a classic movie about living beyond means told in a very humorous way.
    But my point was why such an odd comparison of living beyond means to the suffering of a finger? I remember that in my younger days when not many antibiotics were known, whenever people had an infection of the finger (nagasuthi!) they were asked to cut a hole in a lime and wear it on the finger which used to be quite a sight! During exams, the under-prepared students used to wear a lime on the plea that they had an infection in the finger to escape facing the exam. There used to be so many of them doing it particularly at Geography exam, you would think that there was an epidemic of finger infection in the city like the Madras Eye! But the teachers were more clever. They took these boys to a separate room and made these boys answer orally!
    Sri
     
  6. Anandchitra

    Anandchitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Sri
    If its possible to outdo oneself, here you have done so! :2thumbsup: What a topic and what a history behind the topic.. WOW..:thumbsup
    I do have some doubts.. one being if the finger is swollen to begin with as in my case having the Fxx Finger:)... also if we were to narrate to someone this "interesting' history let alone him to mention swollen finger he will not talk to.. and if he is a she sure to happen.. god forbid that if he is a she is your MIL tsk...
    I too have heard of this.."viralluku thagundha veekam".. though i have heard of it(which in of itself is a wonder!).. never would ihave thought of writing such grandeur tales behind it woven ever so skillfully by a master craftman!
    Can it be said that the finger should not get toooo swollen because then how would it hold onto dear OATS the lifesaver or maybe Dexterity depends on how well and how fast one can handle OATS with one's finger and EAT.. for this definetly one would not want one's finger to be swollen.. now if the one is a he is a she ..never mind:) :confused2:
     
  7. Devika Menon

    Devika Menon Gold IL'ite

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    Dear Cheeniya Sir,

    So from here we begin a new innings and what a fantastic opening. Guess the cricket fever is rubbing on me ...ThankGod I remember its IL and not IPL.

    Yes the swoollen thumb factor essential to put a full stop to any dreams of luxurious living has many sequels I guess...One being you should ony spread your feet as per the length of your sheet. So that means stunted growth, what if the person were to grow an inch longer , in height I mean , as long as it is monetary growth ..Sabaash..
    Theres also one in malayalam when translated reads, the cock shouldnt dance just because the peacock does. You know these are general words heard from parents trying to instil values in children but at a young age I would feel really bad for the cock to be humiliated time and again..

    Darwins theory of evolution... One of my favourite subject. I still remember the time we girls in school (a girls school ) would meet boys of the boys school on the street, our secret code would be" Darwins theory', whenever we saw any boy ogling at us and then would begin giggling to the utter embarrasment of the boys . Then we never realised that life would be totally meaningless without these species. When you talk about dexterity and the semblance of man and monkey I remember the story that I often amuse my daughter with "The capseller and the monkeys".

    Well thank God for the dexterity, in this time and age when the world is flying at a rapid speed and we are trying to cope with it ,I can only thank my stars for being ambidextrous.
    But then again SIr when the world analyses one on the basis of your bank balance and tags one with the social status that is so very important to feel like a worthy homosapien it is but natural that the finger does tend to swell, no matter how we try to compress that. I guess swollen figure syndrome will soon be a part of the curriculum in biology what with all falling prey to it, trying their best to outdo one another in this funny episode of ratrace.

    All in the name of life and all in the game for fame!!

    Love,
    Your Mol
     
  8. sowminivibu

    sowminivibu Silver IL'ite

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    dear AC

    I think if a contest was held to connect words and make a nice story u wud win the contest my friend!!!

    Oats-Swollen finger-dexterity

    sema connection.....anyways Oats will always top the list for its health values !!!!Harhar

    lov
    sowmi
     
  9. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear AC
    Thank you for your affectionate appreciation for my rambling! Such FBs motivate me to keep going. Unlike some of the automobiles that are advertised to run eternally without a refill, my brain travels only when there is adequate fuel at frequent intervals. Your present FB would keep me going for another two threads (only)!

    How come I did not think of a swollen finger as a safeguard against Oats? Had I thought of it, I would have kept a hammer ready to give a smack to my finger to make it swell every time I was forced to consume oats! I am happy that I know of such a strategy at least now.

    Please be assured that I have tried telling this story to people who talk to me about swollen fingers with excellent results but MILs are different. Nothing moves them really.Not even ten swollen fingers!
    Sri
     
  10. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Mol
    Let me start with your malayalam saying of a cock ttrying to imitate a peocock. In Tamil, it is not a cock but a turkey. There is a poem on a turkey trying to imitate a peacock which we were forced to learn and recite. But a recent discovery has put the cock ahead of the peacock. Though both birds have not much capacity to fly high ( though the Peacock that carries Lord Subramanya around the Universe), the cock has edged out the peacock in the 'status' race. While the peocock is of a humble origin, the cock is reported to be a descendent of the mighty dinosaurs! With such an awesome ancestry, it would be unfair to drag the cock into any unseemly controversies!

    That spreading the feet example is a good one. Makes a lot of sense. Reminds me of the story of Jarasandha who was torn into two pieces lengthwise by Bhima. Too much ambition in spreading our feet might land us in a gruesome end like Jarasandha!

    Boys ogling at girls is purely a human trait. No other living being does that. Monkeys cant imitate that either! Calling an ogling boy "Darwin's theory' is insulting to the monkeys!
    Sri
     

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