under the banyan tree....

The shade of the banyan tree in the village,

ആല്‍മരത്തണല്‍ 

Surely aalamarathadi is not the place to throw muck on all people ..

Aalamaram is the epicentre for so many purposes for different people. 

Ogres, and Pisasus can stay up the branches,

Snakes and birds can live there. 

Priests, and black magicians, sooth sayers and tricksters, all can occupy the shadow of the tree during daytime .

Ooru Panchayat the council of elders of the village can be conducted 

and

wandering aandis (mendicants, indigent nomads ) also would sleep there..

I am reminded of  the story of a rich chettiar(a person belonging to the trading community, noted for affluence) and thiruvazhithan sleeping under alamaram during a night in the course of their travel. 

The whole worldly possession of thiruvazhithan was an otta mukkal(a dime.. a copper coin with a round hole in the middle its worth would be about one and half paise) which he had secured to the hind tip of his kovanam.(loin cloth ) 

The chettiar had a lot of money with him. 

Both went to sleep under aala maram(banyan tree) after some small talk. 

A robber came along late in the night. 

He first woke up thiruvazhithan and asked the latter to hand over all he had. 

The otta mukkal (the dime)was dutifully handed over. 

The thief had not noted the presence of the chettiar till then. 

But he was just looking keenly to check the genuineness of the coin.

. Thiruvazhithan volunteered the information that the chettiar sleeping nearby was a rich trader and was expert on coins. 

He further advised that the robber could verify the genuineness of the coin with the subject expert. 

Now the robber became happily aware of the presence of the chettiar and without any delay the robber ensured that whatever money or valuable was in the possession of the chettiar just become the property of the burglar, of course iron fists had to be  used, again the banyan tree was the witness for all that....

So you can be a friend under the alamaram. 

You can be the heckler, or the devil or almost anything..

the alamarathati is thus a microcosm or miniature of the mindset of the occupants of the society or a group. 

Apareekshithakaarakam

Apareekshithakaarakam 

One of the five subjects dealt with in the Indian Classic, Panchatantram of Vishnusharma, is Apareekshithakaarakam, or excecuting and idea without proper understanding and spadework. 

Once in the city of Pataliputra, there lived a pious businessman(chettiar or shreshti) named Manibhadra. He was doing well in his business and also in life in general but suddenly some misfortune befell him and he was reduced to abject poverty and want. Indeed, for a person who was affluent, to face a state of poverty was worse than death.. and he spent days and nights in the company of nagging thoughts about his misfortune. One day he was so depressed that he decided he would put an end to all his suffering by opting to die the next day. Somehow he slid into a sleep with these painful thoughts. It would appear that the goddess of fate was not entirely cruel. In his sleep he dreamt that the huge wealth Padmanidhi (one of the treasures of Lakshmi), itself had come to him and had informed that She was going to visit him disguised as a Buddhistic Monk, and that if Manibhadra hit the monk on his tonsured head with a heavy stick , the monk would solidify into gold and with that the businessman’s sufferings would be over. 

Manibhadra was skeptical about the dream, but anyway he decided to postpone his attempts at suicide by a day. Meanwhile Manibhadra's wife had asked the local barber to pay them a visit in the morning to help her with manicuring her finger and toe nails, cutting and polishing them. The barber was present in the house right in the morning, armed with his knife and scissors. 

Almost simultaneously a Buddhist monk with shiny tonsured head also appeared at the gate, as if making Manibhadra's dream come true. As directed in the dreams, Manibhadra received the Monk with a cracking hit with a heavy stick on the tonsured head of the ascetic. And true to the dream , the monk metamorphosed into a golden statue 

The wily barber, while engaged in his duty with the fingernails of the lady of the house did not fail to notice the fact that the treatment given to the shiny pate of the Buddhist monk yielded very definite and positive and miraculous results for the chettiar, Manibhadra. A very ambitious plan was took shape in the barber's brain immediately. He was sure that if one monk could do this much of favour in response to a hit on the head, how much he could gain by using the services of a couple of dozens of monks and equal number of sturdy sticks if necessary, for this purpose. 

So the barber went home, had a bath and wearing simple clothes to announce his piousness he made a beeline to the local Buddhist monastery, and invited all the monks available there for a feast in his house. The preference was definitely to the completely and very recently tonsured heads. The monks were reluctant initially. He announced that he was going to serve many sweets and ghee in plenty. In addition he tempted them by stating that his house was stocked with silken clothes to cover the books, and writing material and palm leaves were available in plenty to be distributed to the holy guests. 

The gift of the gab of the barber (usually barbers are noted for that) ultimately proved irresistible and the innocent monks went in a procession to the barber’s house.

By that time the barber was ready for them. He had cut heavy branches of some tough trees and had got them all polished to great shine, and kept them ready for effective use. The monks had to enter the house one by one and just behind the door, the barber was standing ready to deliver the hit like a thunderbolt on the shining pates of the monks one by one. His hit was heaviest on the head of the first monk and the Swami left for his heavenly abode without any delay , leaving behind a cracked skull oozing out a rivulet of blood. However no gold was forthcoming. 

The host did not give up with his first attempt . He was very enterprising and let in all the monks one by one with a welcome hit on their hapless pates. Some fell unconscious and some began to moan and cry. Sensing the danger, the barber closed his door and was waiting for a long time to see the monks turning into gold. 

Nothing happened but the pathetic cry of the holy men brought the attention of the public and the denizens of law forced themselves into the barber’s house to see the misery of the monks. The barber was immediately arrested and taken to the local magistrate. There he told the Hon’ble Court that he had seen a monk getting transformed to gold by a welcome his on the head delivered by the Chettiar Manibhadra and he had only followed the clue.

The chettiar was summoned and he reported truthfully all that happened. The barber had only seen a part of the process and in his foolishness killed or maimed so many holy men. 

In e place of gold, gallows waited on the barber. 

The bottom line is.. "do not imitate others without properly understanding what exactly they are doing.