Roller Goshter ride . . .

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

cute boxing . . .

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

Love your family

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

Bear gets cub down from tree . . .

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

THINK TWICE . . .

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

Respect Nature . . .

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

Mani & Son Slapping

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

Ignorance of Ability brings Disability

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

Baby Break Dance

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

Indian National Antham in Jalatharangam Music

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

Birthday Party

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

Ancient Tamil enrich Food - Kambu Kolukattai

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

Kambu kolukkattai

Kambu ­ pearl millet (bajira ­ Hindi), kolukkattai / kozhukkattai ­ steamed sweet
dumbling

Few generations ago this must have been a staple snack / breakfast among the village
people of Tamilnadu. I have read about this in Tamil folk tales and tasted a few
times.Then I tried to bring out that ancient snack and here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Kambu ­ 1 cup
rice ­ 2 tbsp
coconut (shredded) ­ 1/2 cup (optional)                                     
cardamom powder ­ 1/2 tsp
jaggery (crushed) ­ 3/4 cup (or lesser)

Method:

Dry roast the kambu, rice till the kambu smells good.
Let it cool and powder it.
Add 1/2 cup water to jaggery and dissolve it by heating.
Filter and remove any impurities.
Pour the hot solution to a mixing bowl. Add the flour, cardamom powder and kambu
flour. Mix well to get something like hard chapathi dough. Take a ball and press well
inside the palm to get a rough oval shape. Grease an idly mold with very little sesame
oil and place the dumplings. Cook in idly cooker for 5 minutes (full steam).

Kambu kolukkattai is ready!

TAMIL CUISINE - Rice and ritual: the Tamil art of cooking

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

                            TAMIL CUISINE

Rice and ritual: the Tamil art of cooking  Thilaka Baskaran UNESCO Courier,  March, 1984 Sangam literature paints a vivd picture of the social life of the ancient Tamils and provides the historical background for their eating habits. In the Sangam poems land is classified into five geographical areas and the food related to each area is described. Many inscriptions chiselled on the walls of temples reveal how food habits and religious practices became intertwined. These epigraphs give an idea of the role of food in rituals, as sacrificing, cooking, dedicating and feasting all became part of worship. Not eating... fasting, also emerged as a ritual. By the 11th-12th century AD, caste groups had appeared with distinct lines of demarcation, and the eating habits of each caste began to assume different characteristics. (The culinary profile of the castes can still be noted by the careful observer). Such issues as "who can serve whom?" and "from whom can one accept food?" became significant in the context of caste structure. Depending upon the degree to which a caste was "Sanskritized", it became vegetarian or non-vegetarian. A tradition of vegetarianism, which was largely absent from ancient Tamil Nadu began to emerge, mainly as a result of the popularity of Buddhism and Jainism. Over the years, certain interesting concepts in food appeared. Taste was classified into six groups, and all food commodities were divided into two broad categories, hot and cold. The whole of Tamil cuisine is still largely based on this classification which also influenced indigenous medicinal practices: illnesses were classified as hot and cold and the diet therapy was based on treating with cold food those caused by heat and with hot food those caused by cold. This belief still persists. Chicken pox, for example, is believed to be a manifestation of body heat and the foods permitted are those that are supposed to counter this heat--fruit, butter milk and tender coconut. Some of the recipes that were in use in the 1st century AD are still being followed today, pretty much unchanged. Cooking is elaborate and complex, and is considered to be a fine art. Treatises on cookign specify the size of the kitchen, the kind of stove to be used, the direction in which the stove is to face, and even the desirable characteristics of a cook (he should be "a native born and good caste, he should observe the cooking and eating taboos, not harbour any grudge, be absolutely clean in his habits, and always tie his long hair into a bun"). The everyday diet is fairly austere, consisting of boiled rice, sambar (dhal [lentils] vegetable and tamarind), fish or meat curry (for non-vegetarians), a vegetable pugadh, rasam (spicy pepper water) and curds. On special occasions payasam, a milk-based dessert flavoured with cardomom, is served. Even in affluent families there is not much variety in the daily menu, but when there are guests or a wedding is held it is a totally different story, and a truly ambrosial meal will be producted. the food served on these occasions is an indication of the hosts' status. Eating habits vary geographically and are shaped largely by what is grown in the different areas. In the riverine and delta regions, paddy, sugar cane, banana and coconut figure largely in the diet. In dry areas millets and grams are the major foodstuffs. The delicate blending of herbs, condiments and spices is the touchstone of good cookery. The combination and quantity of spices used vary from family to family, providing subtle variations in taste. The contrast between opposing tastes is a recurring theme. Most of the popular dishes like sambar, morekolumbu (curds and spices with cocnut) pulikolumbu (a spciy sour curry with vegetable and tamarind) and the red-hot fish and meat curry are all different combinations of sour and hot tastes. The staple cereal in most parts of Tamil Nadu is, of course, rice, which is often eaten at all three meals. Breakfast in most middle class families consists of idli (a rice and dhal batter, steamed), dosai (the same batter fried like a pancake), puttu (a steamed rice-flour preparation served with coconut scrapings, bana, and sugar), idiappam (a rice-fluor dough pressed through a mould to resemble vermicelli and steamed) or appam (a rice-flour and coconut delicacy fermented with toddy and cooked like a pancake). In modern Tamil cuisine coffee has become one of the main drinks. Brewed from freshly roasted and ground beans, and served with plenty of milk and sugar, it is always drunk at breakfast. This method of coffee-making is holding its ground in all Tamil kitchens in the face of instant coffees promoted in the media. Change in food habits is slow in coming to Tamil Nadu, but some signs of it can be seen. Wheat is being increasingly used in urban areas. Chappathi (wheat flour pancake) may be substituted for rice, especially for dinner, and poori (a deep-fried wheat pancake) and potato be served as breakfast. Though stainless steel cutlery and crockery are used in urban homes, food is still served on ceremonial occasions in the traditional way--on a banana leaf. The leaf is spread in front of the diner, with the tip ointed left. Serving begins with salt and pickle being placed at the extreme left. The first course is sweet--everything has to begin with a sweet whether it is an infant's first solid meal or the newly-wed's first drink. The series of vegetable dishes, pachadi (a vegetable and curd salad) and the crisp appalam, all of which go with the various rice courses, are placed on the top half of the leaf. With every course the leaf is carefully replenished, the diner's protests being totally ignored. Even among non-vegetarians, ceremonial feasts are always vegetarian. Every festival and ceremony has a traditional menu. The first rice meal given to a baby in the seventh month is sarkarai pongal, a combination of rice-milk, sugar and ghee. The teething of a child calls for pal koshukattai (tiny rice flakes resembling teeth, cooked in milk with sugar). The coming of age of a daughter is an important family event, as it is in all traditional communities. Milk, banana and sugar are give to the girl and to all well-wishers who visit her. Seemandam, celebrated in the seventh or ninth month of pregnancy, calls for a variety of rice preparations. Since Tamil Nadu is predominantly agricultural it is not surprising that the most important festival should be pongal, the harvest festival, which is celebrated at the beginning of the Tamil month of Thai. Pongal, which literally means "boiling over", symbolizes the farmer's overflowing prosperity. Newly decorated mud pots are used to cook dishes to fit the occasion, such as sarkarai pongal and ven pongal. Modernization is slowly bringing changes to the culinary scene. Compromises and adaptations are being made. Traditional receipes that call for elaborate and leisurely cooking are disappearing. Processed foods such as ready-made idli-mix and pre-packed curry powders have invaded urban kitchens. Mechanical aids such as motorized idli-grinders are also being used in traditional cooking. The break-up of the joint family and the increase in the number of career women have inevitably changes some Tamil Eating habits. A movement towards a simpler cuisine can be sensed. All the same, Tamil food practices and their cultural implications still retain their basic character.

Rice-Paddy-History

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

History of rice cultivation

Oryza sativa was domesticated from the wild grass Oryza rufipogon roughly 10,000–14,000 years ago. The two main subspecies of rice – indica (prevalent in tropical regions) and japonica (prevalent in the subtropical and temperate regions of East Asia) – are not believed to have been derived from independent domestication events. Another cultivated species, O. glaberrima, was domesticated much later in West Africa.

Recent genetic evidence show that all forms of Asian rice, both indica and japonica, come from a single domestication event that occurred 8,200–13,500 years ago in the Pearl River valley region of China.

In China, extensive archeological evidence points to the middle Yangtze and upper Huai rivers as the two earliest places ofO. sativa cultivation in the country. Rice and farming implements dating back at least 8,000 years have been found. Cultivation spread down these rivers over the following 2,000 years. 

Puddling the soil – turning it to mud to break it down and prevent too much water percolating away – and transplanting seedlings were likely refined in China. Both operations became integral parts of rice farming and remain widely practiced to this day. With the development of puddling and transplanting, rice became truly domesticated. 

Movement to western India and south to Sri Lanka was also accomplished very early. Rice was a major crop in Sri Lanka as early as 1000 B.C. The crop may well have been introduced to Greece and the neighboring areas of the Mediterranean by returning members of Alexander the Great’s expedition to India around 344-324 B.C. From a center in Greece and Sicily, rice spread gradually throughout southern Europe and to a few locations in northern Africa. 

As a result of Europe’s great Age of Exploration, new lands to the west became available for exploitation. Rice cultivation was introduced to the New World by early European settlers. The Portuguese carried it to Brazil and the Spanish introduced its cultivation to several locations in Central and South America. The first record for North America dates from 1685, when the crop was produced on the coastal lowlands and islands of what is now South Carolina. It is thought that slaves from West Africa who were transported to the Carolinas in the mid-18th century introduced the complex agricultural technology needed to grow rice. Their labor then insured a flourishing rice industry. By the 20th century, rice was produced in California’s Sacramento Valley. The introduction into California corresponded almost exactly with the timing of the first successful crop in Australia’s New South Wales. 

Regional development of rice cultivation

Asia

Based on archeological evidence, rice was believed to have first been domesticated in the region of the Yangtze River valley in China. Morphological studies of rice phytoliths from the Diaotonghuan archaeological site clearly show the transition from the collection of wild rice to the cultivation of domesticated rice. The large number of wild rice phytoliths at the Diaotonghuan level dating from 12,000–11,000 BP indicates that wild rice collection was part of the local means of subsistence. Changes in the morphology of Diaotonghuan phytoliths dating from 10,000–8,000 BP show that rice had by this time been domesticated.[28] Soon afterwards the two major varieties of indica and japonica rice were being grown in Central China. In the late 3rd millennium BC, there was a rapid expansion of rice cultivation into mainland Southeast Asia and westwards across India and Nepal.

In 2003, Korean archaeologists claimed to have discovered the world's oldest domesticated rice. Their 15,000 year old age challenges the accepted view that rice cultivation originated in China about 12,000 years ago. These findings were received by academia with strong skepticism, and the results and their publicizing has been cited as being driven by a combination of nationalist and regional interests.In 2011, a combined effort by the Stanford University, New York University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Purdue University has provided the strongest evidence yet that there is only one single origin of domesticated rice, in the Yangtze Valley of China.

The earliest remains of the grain in the Indian subcontinent have been found in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and date from 7000–6000 BC though the earliest widely accepted date for cultivated rice is placed at around 3000–2500 BC with findings in regions belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization. Perennial wild rices still grow in Assam and Nepal. It seems to have appeared around 1400 BC in southern India after its domestication in the northern plains. It then spread to all the fertile alluvial plains watered by rivers. Cultivation and cooking methods are thought to have spread to the west rapidly and by medieval times, southern Europe saw the introduction of rice as a hearty grain.

O. sativa was recovered from a grave at Susa in Iran (dated to the 1st century AD) at one end of the ancient world, another domestication of rice in South Asia.

Today, the majority of all rice produced comes from China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines, and Japan. Asian farmers still account for 92% of the world's total rice production.

Philosophy Simplified!

If 1 liter of milk is spilled down and, if you console your mind by thinking that, 80% of it is only water, this mind set is called ZEN state.

If suspicion arises, even a Lizard looks like a Dinosaur.

Instead of grumbling, “While selling Salt raining starts, while selling flour wind blows”, if both are mixed and cooked as a snack, it can be sold in all seasons.

We know barking dog won’t bite but, the dog does not know it because, it can’t read.

                                ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am going to tell you, how to turn the curses and abuses of our teacher, into boons.

a). “You are only fit for cow grazing”:

    Don’t worry for this. Simply start a cattle forming. Teacher become happy as we fulfilled his words, and profit to us also. Currently, this is better than studying Engineering.

b). “You will only end up with standing in the street”:

This is not at all a problem. Just clear the traffic police examination. Problem solved.

c). “See, he is standing like a tree if anything is asked”, “open your mouth”?

What else, straightaway become Chief Minister. If luck is there, even there is chance to become Prime Minister.

But, one thing …… whatever may be his abuses, don’t receive the curse which I tell you now.

It is ……. “You will never improve; you will get a big blow in life”

If you receive this curse, that’s all!  ……. Is it necessary to tell what will happen?

You will get married man,  you will get married!

Honey 100 % Medicated Herbal Food

Tamil Tradition and Culture is Healthy and Scientific Formalities to us

Why we take honey daily?

Drinking milk mixed with honey in night helps in good sleep. Heart will become strong.

Drinking fruit juice with honey gives energy.

Drinking pomegranate juice mixed with honey helps in production of new blood.

Drinking lemon juice mixed with honey clears cough.

Drinking amla juice mixed with honey releases insulin.

Taking orange mixed with honey gives good sleep.

Taking rose flower kulkand mixed with honey reduces body heat.

Taking coconut milk mixed with honey cures stomach ulcer and mouth ulcer.

Taking ginger mixed with honey clears pitta( a condition of excess bile).

Taking carat with honey clears iron deficiency in blood.

Applying lime mixed with honey clears lumps or reduces swelling.