Shyam Benegal’s latest film, Well Done Abba featured a preposterous plot point for a valid reason – a well (well, it is indeed a well!) goes missing! Tamil comedian Vadivelu featured this plot in one of his many comic pieces too, earlier, to incredibly funny results.
If you think that is bizarre, how about a missing new year? Yes, Tamil Nadu used to celebrate Tamil new year on April 14th, traditionally. Till DMK supremo Karunanidhi came into the picture and made an official order to change that new year…to mid-Jan and club it with Pongal!
The reason? A Tamil adage goes, ‘Thai pirandhaal vazhi pirakkum’. And Thai is a month in mid-January, signifying Pongal festival. The Tamil new year was based on the Tamil Hindu calendar – so, other religions may not be following it. So, why not change it to some other date which could be more agreeable to non-Hindus as well?
This is old news, I agree, dating back to 2008. There was some debate on the validity of Karunanidhi’s act back then and one of the better ones I recall reading was on Sandeepweb – some good comments that show that the man may not be completely wrong! But there is something that follows based on this diktat that seems enormously funny and silly, year after year. It is the way Tamil television channels announce this day!
Kalignar TV (owned by Karunanidhi’s immediate family) now has promos for special programs on April 14, 2010. But, they cannot call it Tamil New Year. So, they call it ‘Chithirai Mudhal Naal sirappu nigazhchigal’…or Chithirai (a Tamil month) 1st day, special programs.
Sun TV’s (owned by the Maran brothers, Karunanidhi not-so immediate family, but still all-in-the-family) call out is even more silly. It says, ’17am aandu pirandha naal kondaattam’, which literally means, ’17th year anniversary/birthday celebrations’ and they mean the fact that Sun TV started on that day, 17 years ago.
At least in Kalignar’s case, there seems some sense, even though, why would Karunanidhi announce a state holiday for ‘Chithirai’s 1st day’ is a mystery. Sun’s case is outright stupid – why would people take a day off and celebrate a Tamil TV channel’s anniversary? And why would they stay at home on that day and watch their programs?
You see how the story is turning? From a change of date, TV channels are now stumped on how to communicate and promote a holiday full of special programs. Before Mr Karunanidhi came up with his brainwave, it was all simple – Tamil new year, based on the Tamil Hindu calendar – does it matter who’s using that archaic calendar? I haven’t even seen it in my life and many in Tamil Nadu wouldn’t have seen it too. Agreed – Karunanidhi perhaps took offense to the ‘Hindu’ part of the Tamil Hindu calendar and assumed that people of other religions may not follow it – so change the day to something more egalitarian.
But almost every state in India has a local calendar (like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka). Its archaic’ness is not a question here – if we trust and follow Gregorian calendar’s why should we ignore and insult the Tamil Hindu calendar in this manner? Yes, it says ‘Hindu’, but isn’t it also ‘Tamil’? Isn’t this a monumentally anti-Tamil stand by an otherwise staunch-Tamil follower, Karunanidhi? At least we get some fun out of guessing how TV channels would decide to call it, each year!
