Let me start with an object called balappam. It is a slender cylindrical pencil-like object used to write on slates. The cheaper variety would have large sand content and you will hear a screeching sound when it makes contact with the slate. The expensive variety was called Dilli balappam. Dilli I suppose was a variant of Delhi and anything connected with the capital was considered exotic! It used to come in two colors - white and cocoa. Use of chalks to write on the slate was a privilege enjoyed by the teachers and some chosen kids - who held authority such as class leader.
A handy erasing tool for cleaning the slate was the fibrous core removed from the banana stem. After cutting every circular piece, the intervening fiber was wound round the fingers. They were ejected out after a sizeable amount was collected.
The banana flower too was an interesting object. The petals were used as plates for eating tiffin. They were large and deep with the result that sambhar will not spill through the sides. Some petals were dissected longitudinally and rubbed against each other to produce a whistling sound. The middle part of each stalk of the flower pods had to be removed. It was generally believed that it was poisonous. The separation of the part was referred to as removing the kallan, meaning a thief. One does not know why it was called so.
Marbles are remembered by many. Wonder how many remember the takli? This was a hand held tool to spin yarn out of cotton. As students, we were supposed to spin a given quota of cotton. Can someone recall the name of the unit in which the amount of cotton was measured? One could also see priests standing on the road near the temples and spinning yarn for making poonal. They would give the takli the initial impetus by rubbing it vigorously on their thigh. Probably the activity is outsourced today to companies who supply bleached shining white poonals.
Is that what a Takli is?? Sometimes, when I am looking for a hard to find object, like a suspected strand of hair or fibre in food, my grandmother would say "Enna, takli noothundirukka?"
ReplyDeleteThis dialogue is also repeated in the movie "Michael Madana Kamarajan" in which, in a very similar situation to what I describe above, Usila Mani says :"Ennankanum, Thakkili noothundirukeer?"
Wow. learning for the day.
thaklis used to be sold for 2 annas and 8 annas.the costlier one will have a brass coin at the top thr' which the hooked stem passed.the other variety breaks easily and hence 2 annas.those who forget to bring thakli during the craft period will have to stand outside the class for the whole duration ie.40 minutes.the cotton used for spinning is called panju pattai.for quarter of an anna we used to get 3,later on only 2 for kaal anna.
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