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One of Nature's most spectacular displays is the chameleon changing her colors, by the minute. Very few town-bred kids would have been lucky to witness this charismatic profusion. When I was a school kid in Muthukur, one of my friends walking to school from a remote hamlet brought his pet chameleon to the class hiding it in his satchel. And displayed it to us during the recess. He thought he would be punished for disobeying the school rules of discipline. But all teachers, including the two ladies, were charmed and the thing went up to Father who was HM. And he, unusually, smiled at it.
And uttered the Telugu myth that meant:
"When it ripens, a garden lizard turns into a chameleon"
Of course this wise saw is nonsensical...no lizard, garden or wall, can grow into a chameleon however hard and long he tries. But I guess this proverb was meant to be satirical...like denying a village bumpkin like Abe Lincoln growing into the President of the US or PM of India. That only exposes our caste-hierarchy prevalent then...now disproved abundantly in our two thriving democracies embracing each other for photo-ops.
Another myth has to do with cobras. Some of them are supposed to wear a priceless diamond on their heads. Indeed this was so prevalent that girls in AP are named:
"Naga Mani" (meaning 'cobra-jewel')
Once again this may have its roots in our belief that our Shivjee wears a cobra round his neck and Lord Vishnu relaxes in his supine position on a bigger and better version of it in the milky ocean.
Ladies in AP then, and even now, have a special Puja on Nagula Chaviti (or Nag Panchami in the North) when they propitiate cobras in their anthill dwellings in the fields. They make a beeline to the nearest anthill standing in long waiting lines with pots of milk on their heads. And when their turn comes, decant their precious cow-milk into the anthill with appropriate mantras...and feel they have accomplished a difficult mission.
Of course the milk they pour is absorbed by the soil which becomes wet making it impossible for any cobra or cobress supposed to be hiding in it to consume it willy-nilly.
If only the resident cobra decides to peep out and make faces at our belles!!!
Civilized Englishmen! Don't laugh! You have it much worse, in verse, of your ultimate Bard:
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
I would not change it.
And our cobras relish eating your toads and feast on them when they get the chance!
Thousands of myths and miracles are in our Puranas, mostly attributed to Krishna in his infancy, childhood, and adult-ery.
I dismissed and enjoyed all of them when I was a kid as any other of my parents and grannies. But when Father told us the story of how Krishna as a kid lifted the Govardhan Hill by his little finger and his cowherd companions took shelter under it, I thought that hill, as well as all the others, was hollow like an unfolded umbrella. And was shattered when I came to know that all mountains are solid, rather, even when they spew lava.
http://www.bharatmoms.com/uploads/Image/Legend%20of%20pongal%20festival%20celebrations%20in%20india%202014%20bharatmoms.jpg
Speking of this hollow-solid confusion I am reminded, with glee, of the Punajbi youth, Subhash Ghai, in our Faculty Hostel, when he first saw a plate of idlis on his breakfast table and ventured to bite into one. And exclaimed:
"Arrey Bhai! Idlis are solid...I thought all these days that all idlis are hollow, like our paani-puris (phuckas or golgappas)!"
When I was a kid, I made the reverse mistake, when I first saw a plate of what mom called Palakaayalu:
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I thought they were hollow and bit into one...and lost a bit of my right canine...they were as tough as the pretzels on which the President of the US famous for his 'Mission Accomplished' gag fell back and fainted:
The 2003 Mission Accomplished speech gets its name from a banner that read "Mission Accomplished" displayed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during a televised address by United States President George W. Bush on May 1, 2003 and the controversy that followed.
Bush stated at the time that this was the end to major combat operations in Iraq. Bush's assertion—and the sign itself—became controversial after guerrilla warfare in Iraq increased during the Iraqi insurgency. The vast majority of casualties, both military and civilian, occurred after the speech.
...wiki...
...But then came the choking incident.
Bush passed out briefly and fell to the floor from a couch, bruising his lip and scuffing his cheek, according to news reports at the time.
He recovered consciousness on his own within a few seconds, reports said. White House doctors checked him thoroughly and found no cause for concern.
“My mother always said ‘when you are eating pretzels, chew before you swallow,” Bush told reporters at a press conference the next day. “Listen to your mother.”...
...Posted by Ishani
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