TONGUE (NAAKKU) Dearfriends,
Tonguehas two specialities. One is that it is flexible muscle. 2nd one isthat it is the only muscle connected at one end. Inchild hood days we were advised to clean the tongue using flexible Earkil (coconutrib). If Earkil was not available the mango rib was used to clean the tongue.Cleaning of tongue gives more clarity in speech. On those days if speech is notclear, teachers used to advise to clean the tongue well. Nowwith Covid 19 all wear masks, and if what talked if not heard clearly, it iscommon to lower the mask and talk now. Early1955’s metal and fibre tongue cleaners appeared in the market which were bestsuitable. They were flexible and moreeasy to use. Though tooth brush with tongue cleaning action added at one side came,still for best cleaning metallic tongue cleaners are preferred. Though toothbrush is available in all shops, nowadays very few shops are having tonguecleaners. It is a practice to keep two or three as spare in homes. Onthose days with a hole in tongue cleaner, it was attached to tooth brushthrough their holes at end. It was a common scene people coming to bathing gnatwith towel, soap dish, tooth brush with tongue cleaner. Todaywash basin stands or special shelves or box designed for keeping such items areused. RecentlyI read tooth Brush and tongue cleaner should not be kept open in the attachedbath rooms with toilets. These closed shelves solve the issue of bacterialinfection. Many tooth brush comes withouthole in the handle now. Awrite up about tongue. Sincerely, GopalaKrishnan 27-11-2012 Reposted on 17-7-2021 after editing andupdating.R.Gopala Krishnan. 1. Kavi kalidasa. Ihave read about the kavi Kalidasa was a shepherd and he used to pass through aKali temple and worship. A legend aboutKalidasa is approximately as follows. ThePrincess of a kingdom was forced tomarry the illiterate shepherd by the foul play of some learnt men in the court.The princess understanding he is illiterate, asked him to worship in the nearbyKali temple. One day while worshiping a query came from inside- Purratthu aara?(Who is out side?) Theshepherd answered – dasan, He further enquired who is inside. Kalihas answered as Kali, and asked him to extend the tongue through the window.Kalidasa did so, and Kali wrote with her thrisul on the tongue something. Thenon wards vakdevatha appeared to him. He became a knowledgeable person and poetKalidasa. Kalidasakrithikal was a lesson in Malayalam while studying in 9th standardor so. Abhinjana Sakuntkalam, Kumara sambhavam, Mayura sandaesam, Rithusamharam etc were told in paragraph in the lesson as I recollect from memory. 2. Vak vaibhavam. Toquote the words of Sri Perinkulam, it is a VARAPRASADAM for a person to talkfluently on subjects, write scripts or poems etc. Automatically words and ideasmight come to them. There is a saying in English- Some people bring happinessWHERE EVER they go. Just change the words WHERE EVER with WHEN EVER the entiremeaning changes to the opposite one. Peoplewill be eager to hear certain people’s words. But certain people will alwayshave tough words. Thisis with our group also. Some members are interested and eager to read somemembers postings. They would be impatiently waiting for the posting to appearin mails. Some are allergic to respond in positive though they read, but happyto criticize. 3. Nakkila Thegrowing end of plantain leaf is like a tongue. A leaf cut from the growing endis called Nakkila.Nakkila is used in all auspicious functions. When our sasthrikal prepares listfor auspicious functions, he would write- Nakilai oru dozen… 4. Ponnum thenum kodukkal Itwas a practice to give the newly born infant a small drop of honey adding amicro size gold powder got by rubbing and addedon the tongue Nowour doctor’s opinion is not doing so, it can cause indigestion of infant. 5. Aayus nooru (Good longevity) Iffew people are talking of a person and in a minute he comes, in Malayalam it istold- Ippo paranju NAKKU eduttthae ullu.. Meaning just now we have talked ofyou. You have longevity. 6. Nakku kondu Mookil thodamo?( Can youtouch nose with tongue?) For98% people it is not possible to do so.Unless the tongue is lengthy and more flexible it is not possible to doso. So, when some practically impossiblethings are told, it is compared with this action 7. Kari nakku kondonnum parayalle (Somepeople having black line should not talk in auspicious things) Mosthave no marks in the tongues. But a few have black marks. If they talk ofsomething it might happen. Though it can be told as superstition, many times ithappens. So such people are warned not to talk inauspicious things. 8 Nakkintae neelam( Lengthy tongue ) Somepeople exaggerate and tell things, some will talk unnecessarily on very smallpetty issues blowing it like a balloon, some people will remind always ofthings one try to forget, some people always of pinching nature. These are all told bad natures of the tongue.The exaggerating type of people is told as having lengthy tongue. 9. Nakku adakku( Control tongue) Thisis used in two occasions, one to control speech. The other to control intake ofliking or delicious or tasty things when medically warned. On Karthigai deepam auspicious day, womenlight ghee lamp for the well being of her brothers. ( At that time we should not talk anythinginauspicious about her brothers, IF AT ALL ANY. It is not the occasion . We should talk good of them. 2ndsweet appam is prepared, adai and Pori. I am a diabetic. Just because it is atime to consume as much appam, I should not eat without control. I shouldcontrol my tongue and LIMIT to maximum 3 or four. 10. Tongue and Nose Tongue along with nose decides the taste. I read itelsewhere, not the tongue alone can decide the taste. The smell also attributesto it. 11. Dog will drink water with tongueonly even from sea. Thisis another saying mostly talked about the mean nature of people. Depending onsituations there should be some changes in nature of all of us. 12. Kuratthi nakku arutthalum kudamrandu kasu ( It is firm, the price of mud pot is 2 paisa) Itis another saying told using the word tongue. The mud pot seller is telling, ifat all my tongue is cut , the pot value is firm. 13 Sarkarakudathi kayyittal nakkathavarundo( Whether there is any person who would not lick their hand after putting inliquid jaggery. Itis a natural tendency to lick the hand on tongue after putting it in liquidjaggery without wasting the portion remaining in the hand. The saying is usedto mean in a wider sense , people may make use of occasion without wasting. 14. Misuse of tongue Thebiological purpose of tongue is to assist in chewing and swallowing, producingsound and talk etc. For infants it is for sucking the breast milk also. Unwanteduse of saliva as paste or wetting a pasted item to make more adhesive byapplying saliva etc are least hygienic. Many are tempted to do such things. Itappears highly uncultured to do such things while in a group. 15. Nakkil narambu illatha samsaram (No nerve in tongue) Aperson having no kindness and talking hard is said to have tongue without nerve 16. Fierce Goddess Normallythe fierce goddesses are shown extendingtheir tongue out side. 17. Silent man Thesilent man is often asked- where is your tongue. On many occasions guiltypeople will remain silent to make the situation calm. Somepeople also offer as fast keeping silence. No use of tongue. 18. Gayathri recitation Itis told the gayathri has to be recited making minimum use of tongue almostsilently. 19. Itching in tongue Iam completing my nakku puranam with this. Itching while eating something isfirst felt by the tongue. When a person desires something to express andcontrol, he used to say- Nakku choriju varunnu. (I am controlling my itchingtongue) Writer- R. Gopala Krishnan, 77, retiredAsst General manager, Kerala Telecom, Trivandrum, now settled in Chennai. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thatha_patty+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1677708238.271859.1626480448457%40mail.yahoo.com.
