My Grandmother's Tweets- Stories Inspired by Avvaiyar's Ancient Wisdom

SIMPLE ADVICE FOR A COMPLEX WORLD

Avvaiyar lived more than a thousand years ago, but her advice on day-to-day life continues to guide people till today. She is remembered most of all for 109 adages that people in Tamil Nadu learn as children, but can use all through life. She is revered as a saint.

Geeta Gopalakrishnan brings Avvaiyar to life for a wider new audience, with examples portraying each of her 109 adages. Livened up with illustrations, My Grandmother s Tweets is a book that will comfort and entertain, just as the original one-liners have done over the centuries.

Both my grandmothers got married when they were just ten years old. They barely had any formal education. Yet, their wisdom was as profound as that of philosophers and poets.

My paternal grandmother, Ranganayaki, was the only woman of her times who participated in a conference of Sanskrit scholars, hitherto a male bastion, and was given the title `Shri Dharma Choodamani Ranganayaki Ammal', meaning, a jewel among those who are generous and righteous.

My maternal grandmother, Kamalammal, under whose wise eye I grew up in Hyderabad, could arguably match a philosopher with her fine homilies.

Both my grandmothers' source of knowledge came from a most unlikely source — Avvaiyar's one-liners. Avvaiyar was a simple, illiterate woman in the 10th century during the Chola Dynasty who over the years came to be venerated as a saint. She gave the world 109 one-liners that contained the wisdom of her times.

As Avvaiyar travelled barefoot from village to village, she saw human nature and made the most profound observations, each summed up in a short line. In Tamil Nadu, these have been passed down orally through the centuries — from grandmothers to daughters and granddaughters.

Perhaps sons and grandsons were not widely included in this because women were seen to be the carriers of values and tradition.

My grandmothers would rattle them off at appropriate moments, as their grandmothers had before them. They would choose the situation, the right moment, to dramatically drop an Avvaiyar saying, so that it would get firmly embedded in the brain.

These sayings became the foundation stone for the right reflexes, part of the wisdom-building block for me.

There was no Twitter in my growing-up years but I would receive these daily 'tweets' from my grandmothers.

Whenever I hesitated about sharing something I had learned, they would 'tweet': ' Kai vinai karavel (Don't hide your skills)!'

In today's time and age, it is reassuring to know that Avvaiyar's advice on humanity will reach many more, regardless of gender and race.

As I pen these words, I can almost hear: 'Aram seyya virumbu (Desire to do good)!' Enjoy the read, folks.

Every society in the world has a rich repertoire of accumulated wisdom. They pass this wisdom down the generations through aphorisms, stories and cultural forms. These nuggets of intelligence are so incredibly rich in texture that artistes are able to present them in different forms and interpretations through films, music, drama and dance.

In India, we are blessed to have an array of folk and traditional wisdom, diverse artistes who showcase it and a huge eager population which imbibes such wisdom through art forms.

What I find fascinating is that this well of wisdom is bottomless —the more you dig, the more you find.

Personally, I was unaware of Avvaiyar. Now that I have learnt a bit about this grand old lady from the South, I think it is a great idea to 'dress her up in jeans' and make her wisdom accessible to the 21st-century youth.

And that is what Geeta Gopalakrishnan has done — in such a simple manner that I am reminded of US Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said he would 'give his life' for 'the simplicity on the other side of complexity'.

I highly recommend this book — read it from any page, whenever you feel like it, and savour the surges of Indian wisdom.

**Contents and Sample Pages**