Author: Douglas Brooks

Today is Appa’s birthday, his solar birthday. My teacher, Gopala Aiyar Sundaramoorthy was born on March 11th, 1936, we think. I say, “think,” because there was no name or date on his birth certificate, just “baby boy” and the names of his parents. Appa wasn’t sure about the precise day and Brahmins of his era...

In the Tamil language the Lord of Dance Shiva Natarajar is also known as Tillai Kuttan (say “Kuu-tan”). He is described as the “Dancer of the Blinding Forest” because, it is said, that once upon a time a vast mangrove forest enveloped the brackish byways where today stands the great temple city of Chidambaram,...

There’s a notion in Tamil hard to explain. It’s called nalla-paampu, and it means literally “good snake.” It refers to the snake that doesn’t bite when you really hope it will not and only bites when it should: to eat, to digest, to protect, to do all of the things that allows it to live,...

My teacher once said, wearing a familiar unconcealed guile, “The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is certainty…”  He paused. And with a Steven Wright-worthy riposte, “Though I’m sure we can’t be too sure of that.” Appa made a point of parlaying criticism into actions, often without further comment.  If he was sitting in a chair and I sat at...

I use the word “Rajanaka” without Sanskrit diacritical marks in the title of this blogspot and everywhere else that I use it because it’s become something of an _English_ word, perhaps not well-known but as a proper noun and a “brand name.” So the word with diacritical marks, which is rājānaka, refers to its...