IF NOT FOR YOU

THERE IS NO ME

There is no me
 If not for you, mother

All I knew was you, caring  
The most beautiful, God fearing

Playful, childish joy apparent
Yet, the most strict parent

And the smartest ever
To my questions your answers 

Guide me to this day
As candle you lit my way



LOVE YOU MUMMY & MISS YOU!

I am my mothers' daughter,
Copyright©VeerajaR 2015

Ureka! Uduvil Style -Hoppers!

Hoppers (Appam) have been and are the favorite breakfast/dinner of children growing up in Ceylon. It's healthy and easily digestible. It is also popular, tourists' pick as well.

Making hoppers is kind of like bread making... and involves fermentation, but  a much more intricate process with tropical ingredients such as coconut milk & coconut water. Requires lots of attention and patience. I consider it one of my greatest achievements to have mastered this process. Thanks to my mum-in-law for teaching the standard method and giving me my first Appam pan, a crucial and essential part of the equation for success, nearly eighteen years ago.

Thanks to my own mummy for choosing to live and be a teacher in the town which was famous for Hoppers. There were lanes/roadside boutiques side by side, making and selling the best hoppers ever... every evening!

Hoppers are so unique and unlike bread, pancakes or rotti, hoppers (Appam) have a thinner crusty winged edge and a soft center. It is best eating them fresh off the pan as they come out, made with eggs or coconut milk or plain centered with the crunchy winged outer edge.

Each child's choice and hopper pick often differ. As a child you get such a satisfaction when a hopper is made, even if at a boutique---specially for you, at your request perfectly as your requested; with an egg center (pepper/salted if you wanted) or coconut centered and jaggery or brown sugar added as you wish! The plain centered aren't lacking choices either... as they can be eaten dipped in the custard soft yolk of egg hoppers or with maldive fish vs coconut sambol for side. As a mother I felt such pride in making them to each of my kid's preference.  It's such a blissful family bonding nostalgic moment... every single time.

For the past fifteen years or so I had been improvising and my kitchen had become my experimental lab to making every food I loved, a little more healthier each time as it can be... The Red rice Hoppers had been a "Healthier Hopper" project I had been working on remembering my grandmother's Uduvil-style red-rice hoppers which were pinkish in color. As you can see in these pictures I have finally mastered the red-rice hoppers which are actually darker red because of higher bran content, but, yet... came out fermented just right with soft center and perfectly crunch winged outer edge! I do wish mummy is here to taste it and give her approval of excellence!!!

Ureka moment, indeed!

I am my Mother's proud daughter...!

Copyright©2013VeerajaR






 









Copyright©2013VeerajaR

My Mother's Day Rose

So Blessed I am.... to be YOUR Daughter!

Divine Mercy Devotion-2012

Today is the Divine Mercy Devotion Sunday!

It was a great day visiting St. Anthony's @ yet another beautiful site...

The wonderful surprise was that we actually crashed into Divine Mercy Devotion

at this small church. The amazing grace was the vibe for my little chapel- a vision to bring light to people who need it.

JESUS, WE TRUST IN YOU!

Mummy I miss YOU...

I am my mother's daughter,

Copyright ©2012 by VeerajaR

Eliza: Grand Daughter of Muthalithamby Saravanamuttu

Copyright©2011 VeerajaR ELIZA 'Ponnu' was a grand daughter of Saivaite nobles Muthalithamby Saravanamuttu and Vairavipillai of UDUVIL. In fact, for generations this noble family's charity "Maadam" (building) on Manipay road, right past Uduvil school, had been providing water and shelter to the pilgrims on their way to Manipay Maruthaddy Pillaiyar kovil/temple. During the annual festival throughout the month of April, the relatives took turns serving free lime juice, lime pickle water, butter milk, yogurt, young coconut water and even milk rice or sweet "Aval." As a child, I had enjoyed this charity event and remember all the excitement of pilgrims whenever a cauldron full of drinks or rice was brought in. This charity Madam of our Saivaite ancestors' still exists. Ironically, still serving the people--but, as a post-office. Next to this charity-maadam, towards Uduvil school is the dowry house of my great grandma Ponnu. This being the first, mostly concrete (local limestone formula) cement-built house (1800s), my great grandma was called "kal veetu Ponnu"--- meaning girl of the stone house. She was married to my great grandfather Dr. Robert Breckenridge who was an Alumni of Jaffna College, Vadukottai. Mind you, those days and even to this day "caste system" or class is number one criteria in considering a marriage proposal. This house was later given as dowry to Eliza Ponnu's second daughter Grace Muthumani, upon her marriage to Muthaliyar Arasasingam of Alvai. The older daughter Lily, my grand mother, married Dr. Solomon Saravanamuttu Rajanayagam and was given as dowry, the dutch built ancestral house with royal crest on top. Both son-in-laws of Eliza Ponnu were educated and held very respectable jobs. Not only that they were also from noble caste, very handsome and good looking. Worthy of the dowry?

Don't take me wrong: My grand father was the most gentle, kind hearted and dedicated doctor, I have ever known! I am my mother's daughter, Copyright©2011 VeerajaR

Eliza: My Ancestor!

Upon Baptism, the Uduvil girls took up a Christian name and often their sponsor's name. Eliza, as the principal of the school was probably a favourite! My great grandmother Ponnamma married to Dr. Robert Breckenridge, was the first female in our family to convert and it's no wonder she took up the name Eliza. Older daughter of respected upper-class (so called Vellala, Chola descent) Saivaite landowner/philanthropist, she and her sister became Christians, while their brothers, Chelliah (oldest) and Thambiah (youngest) remained Saivaites. Chelliah/Chellachi couple and descendants were very fair skinned vegetarian Hindus and lived along the lane right across from Uduvil Girls school.

Upper class women were educated to marry upper class educated Christian gentlemen and raise a Christian elite family. Marriages were and are always fixed within the same caste/class---as a way of maintaining the gene pool, I was told. Even within a village the life styles and mannerism were so vastly different between the different castes, those days, it would have been naturally impossible to cross the line. Apparently, the Uduvil school and the American missionaries were sensitive to the local customs and did follow the caste rule in proposing marriages whenever they were involved. I will write in another post about mummy's thoughts on caste system: She's so ahead of her times and of course a great teacher. She always made us stop and think! *Most of these facts were directly passed on from my grandmother Lily Arulamma, her cousins Samuel Abraham and Thangamma, and my mother to me.Copyright©2011 VeerajaR

Reference: The white woman’s other burden: Western women and south Asia. Kumari Jayawardena 1995 – Biography & Autography (310 pgs)

Eliza Agnew From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Eliza Agnew (February 2, 1807 – June 14, 1883) was an American Presbyterian missionary. She was born in New York City to James and Jane Agnew. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_Agnew

On December 28, 1823, at a revival meeting at the Orange Street Presbyterian Church,

she converted to Christianity. She was educated in and lived in New York City

for nearly 32 years, devoting her service to the home, to the "Sabbath-school", and

in the distribution of Scripture and tracts. After her parents died, she secured appointment

to the Ceylon Mission of the American Board of Boston in 1839. She sailed from

Boston, Massachusetts to Jaffna,Ceylon (Sri Lanka as of 1972), aboard the Black Warrior.

She served as teacher for 42 years without furlough in the Female Boarding School

in Uduvil, just north of Jaffna, Ceylon. The Missionary Herald (September, 1863)

rewarded her pioneering efforts in Ceylon towards helping girls and women with the

following quote: "It is largely owing to the work she was permitted to do

that female education is more advanced here (Ceylon) than in

almost any other heathen land."

She was a woman of prayer, concerned with the spiritual welfare

of her students. Of one thousand people of three generations

under her influence, six hundred adopted to Christianity. She

visited and assisted graduates and ex-pupils with home

economics and spiritual affairs. Then she resigned as principle

of the school in 1879 and moved to Manepay, just west

of the school. She resided in the home of Misses

M. and M.W. Leitch, American Board missionaries in Manipai.

She died from a paralytic stroke in June 1883 and

was buried in Oodooville near the school over which she presided.

• Johnson, Allen, ed. Dictionary of American Biography. New York:Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936.
• Who Was Who in American Biography: Historical Volume, 1607–1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1963.

Categories: 1807 births | American Christian missionaries | Christian missionaries in Sri Lanka | American Presbyterians | 1883 deaths | People from New York City | Missionary educators | American Ceylon Mission | Female Christian missionaries

Uduvil Women: Ahead of Their Times!

Having been raised by one, I have always admired the intellect and leadership characteristics of ladies from Uduvil.

Samuel Abraham, my grandma's cousin and author of several English language books (A.S. Kanagaratnam) had written proudly about my mother as being the first girl ever to ride a bike, in Jaffna. It was in the 1930's and I wouldn't be surprised if it's a national record. In fact, I first heard this from my best friend's Mom -- when we met for the first time and I was trying to answer her about where I was from and who's daughter -- she said "Oh, I know her from Uduvil Girls' School... very pretty and was the first girl ever to ride a bike to school."

The first thing my mom did when she started teaching was to buy her own car and drive to work. Mind you: This was in late 19-forties/early fifties. She always told me that the challenge was to reverse the car and that she avoided it as much as she could. This was a real car with stick-shift, not meant for faint-hearted ladies. In the seventies when mopeds (cute version of Scooters) showed up she wanted to get one to go for marketing, etc. Me and my brother managed to discourage her -- only because we were not so brave like her.

So it was no surprise that my mom was disappointed that I had not learned to drive even after being abroad for sometime. She would ask my husband to teach me driving and often offered to baby-sit Deepan and sent us off to practice. However, it took 10 more years before I actually muster my courage to drive on the street. But I drive now and I am sure she is very proud.

Just happened to read "women of Uduvil" in Wikipedia and amazed to see it explicitly described as "highly educated" compared to anywhere in the world!

I am my Mother's proud daughter,

VeerajaR

P.S._ Samuel Abraham, my mom's uncle is the son of former Hartley College principal Abraham (my grandma Lily Arulamma's dad--Dr. Breckenridge's brother). The Hartley College sports house "Abraham House" was named after him.

Copyright©2011 VeerajaR