HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tstpcc@gwunix1.gwu.edu (Paul C. Chemmanoor)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: The Ackerlist
Date: 23 Jan 1993 09:44:38 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


   The Ackerlist 
   -------------

   This is a list of ackers who have sent their names and current data
   to be maintained in a centralised database for alt.culture.kerala

   To have your name appear on this list all you have to do is send mail
   to whoever is maintaining this list, which at present means me.

   Send mail to paulchem@ucsu.colorado.edu
   with 'ACKERLIST ADD' in the subject line
   and your relevant data in the body.
   Your entry will be included in a few days in the ackerlist.

   To access this list, send mail to paulchem@ucsu.colorado.edu
   with 'ACKERLIST SEND'
   in the subject line. The body of this message will be ignored.

   It is suggested that you read the existing format for the ACKERLIST
   by using the 'ACKERLIST SEND' before sending your data to be added.
   'ACKERLIST ADD' requests will be added manually from the file 
   created automatically once a week, to the ACKERLIST.
    

   Note that the subject line has to be *exactly* what is expected,
   as these messages are processed automatically.
   The subject lines have to be in upper case.
   Any change in subject line, like transposing words etc may cause
   the message not to be processed.

   A correct 'ACKERLIST SEND' message should recieve a reply within minutes
   of transmission from the processor, subject however to internet delays.
    
   Posting an introduction to the net will not mean inclusion in this list,
   because we can not assume that person wanted to be on this list.
   Several introductions have appeared on the net that have not been 
   included in the list for this reason.

   The original purpose of this list was to lay the foundations for
   networking between people who have links to kerala or those who
   have interest in kerala and its culture. Its also a means by which
   people find long lost friends and I hope make some new ones.

   While in the original acker list postings I had said that all
   the information provided by the user to be included on the list
   could be free-format but within 20 lines, as someone else has
   pointed out, it would be very useful to have such vital information
   as date of birth and current location. This is just a suggestion 
   of course.

   I will try to update the information in the current list and 
   bring up the current location for each user on the list.
   Some users I have marked with an '?' when I couldnt locate the place.
   If they want  to update the place entry send me mail.


Paul Chemmanoor.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
.    ~ ~                                                                  .
.    o o         signito ergo sum.                                        .
.     |       i sign therefore i am.               paul chemmanoor        .
.     =                                            washington d.c.        .
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: anandraj@tis.enet.dec.com (Geetha Anandraj)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: movie songs
Date: 21 Jan 93 13:12:27 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Northboro, Massachusetts, USA


Hello Everyone,

Can someone tell me what movie these songs are from?

All the songs are sung by K.J. Jesudas.

	1. Sangeethame Amara Sallabame   

	2. Krishna kripaa sagaram	

	3. Aavani poovani medayil aAyiram poothiri mela (Jesudas & a female)

	4. Paarvathikum thozhimaarkum palli neeraatu (jesudas & a female)

I have a whole lot (about 5 or 6 tapes full of jesudas's songs) more but I 
can't remember them now.  I'll post them later.


Thanks & Regards,

Geetha
remember.
From: ah173@yfn.ysu.edu (Koshy George)
Subject: Re: The origin of the species
Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 09:08:29 GMT


Some examples of thiruvanathapuram slang.

Note that the underscores within the words are meant for
easy reading. They dont have any phonetic meaning.


A typical thiruvanandapuram greeting
------------------------------------
A: Enther~  paReyen~ vElambilla_yannA?   sughanGal~  thannie?
  nnGale  macchambiyE pAtthenkOd~ ASupatthreenn~ 
   discharg~ cheythA?


Equivalent malayalam (close to written form)
--------------------------------------------
A: enthokkeyAn~ vElayudhanpilla chEttA?  sukhamANO?
   ninnGalude aliyanE pOtthenkOd~ ASupatthri_yil_ninnum 
  discharg~  cheythuvO?





=====================================================================

A house wife complaining about her husband
------------------------------------------

RAtthRi_kalil~   RAtthRi_kalil~,  vellannGal_umadicch~   
RvATukali_kkoode behelannGal_umundakki  
bAkki_yollOrE  buddhi_muttickAn_nadakkaN~! 

Equivalent malayalam (close to written form)
-------------------------------------------

RatthRi_yilokke  kallu_kudicch~  Roadil  kidannu behala_mundAkki
bAkki_yullavarE  buddhi_muttickan  nadakkunnu!






                                          -Koshy George,
                                           george@pogo.cs.umass.edu
From: indran@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: Re: SCK, Moderation and other stories
Date: 22 Jan 93 11:00:35 -0400
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

 I am not ready to surrender my right to 
express my views to someone sitting in some corner of the world ( say Micheal
Paul or Mahesh).
Roots of many social problems in Kerala and in any other part of the world 
lie in religion and God. Thus by banning all 'religious propaganda' from 
the news group without defining what it is we are making ourselves slaves. 

It is very difficult to isolate social and cultural aspects of Kerala from 
religion. Here are some examples.



1)  Tippu Sultan destroyed many temples in Malabar. But he never touched the 
Temples in his own state. What was his motivation ?. Was he a religious 
fundamentalist or an average ruler of the time.
 




2) Guruvayour temple is a property of Kerala government (HR&C board) 
Near the temple you can see a board saying 'Ahindkalku Pravasanam Illa' 
What are the moral, cultural and legal aspects of putting such a board.

3 ) The Muslim civil law allow a Muslim man to marry four times. Where as 
a Hindu 
is not allowed to marry a second time while the first wife is alive. 
 Can we discuss the sufferings of those Muslim 
women and children with out mentioning religion ?

4) What is your view on reservation based on cast and income ?

5) One of my neighbor was very eager to have a son. So he prayed to the 
God and pledged his daughter to become a nun. Now after nearly twenty 
years the daughter is(?) living the will of her father, as a nun. Do 
the father have moral/religious/...../right to pledge his daughter to 
become a nun ?


These are few examples where we can not seperate religion from social life. 
In fact the list is much longer. Are we going to ban ourselves from discussing 
such  matters ?. 

...ravi   
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala,alt.culture.karnataka
From: small.caltech.edu!sathi (Narayana Sateesh Pillai)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: Re: The origin of the species
Date: 21 Jan 1993 15:56:25 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
NNTP-Posting-Host: small.caltech.edu
Originator: sathi@small

In article <C1422q.BHJ.1@cs.cmu.edu> pjn+@cs.cmu.edu (P J Narayanan)  
writes:
> I sometimes tell my American friends that they know nothing about the
> issue when they describe USA as a "melting-pot", "cultural
> kaleidoscope" etc. Deep cultural differences -- and harmony -- that
> one finds in one village in India might outweigh what one can find
> across US of A!  One of the few things I like about Indira Gandhi was
> her remark when someone told her that USA is a melting-pot. She said
> India was a fruit-salad, where each entry maintains its uniqueness,
> while blending with others!

	Sorry, I beg to differ here! The US of A is not a melting pot.
The cultures are not mingled (and do not mingle sufficiently) to describe
it as a melting pot. It's more like a soup, with lumps of meat and 
vegetables. They never mixed. But there is a background liquid
through which they mingle. If you notice, the Indian community keeps to
itself, and so does the Afro-American community, Latino, Italian,
Jewish etc. 
	Each community here also tries to maintain it's uniqueness.
The only difference is that each community is different from what it
was in it's homeland. Eg: the Indian community mingles more than they do
in India. All the European communities here are mixed, etc.

> PJN

TATA!
Sateesh
-- 
		| Sateesh Pillai			
		| 128-95, Caltech
who am I?	| Pasadena, CA 91125
		| (818) 564-1225
From: aknair@eng.auburn.edu (Ajit K. Nair)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: Moderation and SCK
Date: 22 Jan 1993 14:53:44 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


I have been following closely the discussion regarding moderation and sck.To me
it seems that few ackers have got the wrong idea regarding the role of the 
moderator.Yes,the role of the moderator is to eliminate junk and vituperative
postings.But it would be wrong to see them as a group of "trigger happy" individuals, who are out to reduce the no: of postings.I am sure that there are more than enough people in ack who can serve in the panel,with the maturity to promote
an open and healthy discussion irrespective of their personal opinion reg a
particular issue.To me moderation does not mean sieving out an article just because it is factually incorrect.I think the fears of some ackers that the postings
of some may never see light because of inaccurate facts is misplaced.To express
ones opinion in a responsible way(whether right or wrong) in compliance with
the charter;share your knowledge;learn knew things and above all respect the
viewpoint of others,thats what moderation is aimed at.I am sure that almost 99%
of the postings made till now would have got the approval of the moderators.It
is in our interest that we get rid of the minor irritants.So I am all for having
a moderated SCK

Ajit Nair.
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
From: mchundat@essex.ecn.uoknor.edu (Mathai Chundattu)
Subject: Re: Music and Lyrics
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 19:00:05 GMT
Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

In article <25JAN199315555287@rosie.uh.edu> mece21x@rosie.uh.edu (Yesudas, Michael) writes:
>A friend of mine told me that once upon a time, the lyrics were written first
>and the music was given accordingly. (for Malayalam film songs) But nowadays
>it is the other way. Music first and the lyrics are adjusted to fit the music,
>and so they are senseless.

Senseless?!!!

What makes you think that if poets adjust lyrics to fit the music they
become senseless? Writing songs in my opinion is just fiting the music
with meaningful words. For a moment let us think about the way our great
poets wrote their kaavyams. All of them conform to a particular vR~ttham
(meter) of construction to make the reading easier and for other
reasons. Now if you think that conforming to such rules of vR~ttham make
them write seselessly, I cannot agree with you. There are accepted rules
to compose the lines in a poem. And in my opinion this attempt to fit
the vr~ttham makes the poems more enjoyable.

Now the question of music. Earlier the music part in a movie song was not
that important. It was because most of the people enjoyed the meaning in
the song rather than its overall appeal as a piece of music. Think
about the song "thaamasamenthE varuavaan"; the original version from
the movie and the remix of the same song in Yesudas's ganamela. Anybody
can find it out for himself that the ganamela version is far better than
the original. The way people enjoy music has changed. They care for the
overall appeal of the song these days.

Even a movie song is performed to conform to a certain scale (raagam)
of the music. Now if you consider the human voice as a kind of
instrument then the part it has to play in the overall music separates
into two parts. The literal meaning of the words and the particular way
it blends with the other part of the music. As a music instrument the
human voice must be compatible with the scale and at the same time the
words have to make sense. If you do both at the same time you have
written a great piece. Hence conforming to the other parts of the music
makes the overall song more enjoyable.

These days people care about the overall music than just the lines.
There are only few poets who can discover such great words to fit the
music and their songs always become hits. 

>Sincerely
>Michael

mathew
--
From: chidi@eng.umd.edu (Chidi Subramanian)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: Neelagiriyude
Date: 23 Jan 1993 04:24:04 GMT
Organization: Project GLUE, University of Maryland, College Park
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: ampere.src.umd.edu

Here is the lyrics of "Suprabhaatham .."
 
    Suprabhaatham ..
    Neelagiriyude sakhikale jwalamukhikale
    Jyothirmayiyam ushssinu velli chamaram veesum mekhangale
    Suprabhaatam ..
 
    Anjanakallukal minukki adukki
    Akhilanda mandala silpi
    Paninjittum paninjittum panitheerathoru prapanja manthirame
    Ninte nalukettinte panippura muttattu
    Njanente murikoodi paniyichotte
 
    Aha ha..  Oho ho ..
 
    Ayiram thamara thalirukal vidarthi
    Arayannangale valarthi
    Vasanthavum shishiravum kulikkanirngunna vanasarovarame
    Ninte neelavarmudi churulinte attattu
    Njanente pookoodi choodichotte
 
    Aha ha Oho ho ..




Chidambaram
From: sreeharshan@elis.enet.dec.com (Sreeharshan.O.G...)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: Re: Tippu Sultan - some speculation
Date: 27 Jan 93 23:22:28 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Nijmegen, The Netherlands



>Wait a minute! The place could be Kottayam, near Calicut. That place has a
>name of some town in South Kerala and it was near Calicut or Wayanad. Could
>someone help further?


  Michael, I think you are referring to Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja. He was from
  the Kottayam kovilakam. This Kottayam is very near Kuthuparamba.
  Kuthuparamba is appr. 10 kms from Thalasseri. ( And it is very near home
  for me !)  So you are right ( more or less ;-) ) in saying that it is near
  Calicut.

   Pazhassi Raja ruled from Pazhassi. It is another 10-15 kms towards east. The
  Pazhassi Kovilakam is still there. A hill there is still called "Kotta-Kunnu".
  ( Fort-Hill in Malayalam) . The fort is long gone. It is said that it was
  destroyed by the English East India Company army.

      Any way Pazhassi Raja did fight the Company and had defeated them and
  recaptured Pazhassi. He was eventually defeated. He died in Wayanad.
  There is a bit of controversy about how he died. Some say he committed
  suicide when it was certain that he was going to be captured, in a battle.
  And some say he was killed in battle.

  Pazhassi Raja once joined Tippu to fight against the  East India Company.
  I think later he fought against Tippu as well. I read these long time back.
  I could be wrong about the sequence and I don't remember the reasons.

  As for Tippu Sultan himself, not many people have fond memories about his
  invasion in the part of Kerala that I am from ! Anyway, those were
  different times. Did we not have three major kingdoms battling each other ?
  Did we not have mamanGam ? In yesteryears our 'very own' kings have killed our
  'very own' people. Reasons ? power/wealth/... why do kings/kingdoms/nations
  fight with each other ?

  About the Duke of Wellington. Thalasserri ( very much Tellicherry then ! )
  was the capital of British Malabar. The time I think was the early 1800s
  or late 1700s. Anyway he was the "in-charge" at the Tellichery-fort then.

  That is my bit of history session for now ;-)

  On another note, these days the place "Sultan's Battery" is called
  "Sulthan Bathery" or "Batheri" for short. A good example on how place names
  evolve , eh ?

  Harshan
Organization: Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 11:53:17 -0500 
From: Prathapan Sreedharan <ps4e+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Annuninte nunakkuzhi

Thanks Ravi, for reminding me of this wonderful song....I can try to
post the lines, but there may be some mistakes.  Incidently, my friend
(more about him later) was of the opinion that the guy who can hum these
lines for a girl ("oru penninte cheviyilee varikal moolan kazhinjavan")
is the  luckiest person in the whole wide world!!

Annu ninte nunakkuzhi thelinjittilla
Annu ninte kavilithra thuduthittilla
Pottukuthan ariyilla, kannezhuthan arilyilla
Ettumpottum thiriyatha paavatakkari
Oru thottavadi karalulla paavatakkari

Annu ninte mizhiyilee malarampilla
Kanmunayil innu kaanum kavithayilla
Pallikkodam muttathulla mallikapoo maram chari
Padam nokki padikkunna pavatakkari
Kandal kannil kavitha thulumpum paavatakkari
Pinne paari paari parannumayum paavatakkari

Annu ninte manasakum malarpoikayil
Ponkinavin arayannam Irangarilla (aren't these the sweetest lines ever
written for a movie song?)
Paattu paati thannillengil
Pooparikkan vannillengil
Paaloli punchiri mayum paavatakkari
Neelakkannil neeru thulumpum pavatakkari

This is from "Pareeksha"

Lyrics:  P.  Bhaskaran
Music:   Late Baburaj
Paatiyathu: Yesudas
From: anandraj@tis.enet.dec.com (Geetha Anandraj)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: names of spices
Date: 22 Jan 93 13:31:04 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Northboro, Massachusetts, USA


Some minor corrections to the names of spices.  I think it should be like this.

	Fennel Seeds - Perum Jeerakam
	Cumin Seeds  - Cheeru Jeerakam

Geetha
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
From: molly@uga.edu ()
Subject: Re: Movies
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 13:47:01 GMT

In article <1993Jan26.221702.19102@newshub.ariel.yorku.ca> cs911093@ariel.yorku.ca (SHANTY KOKKAT) writes:
>Here are some movies I like..I don't mind watching it over and over..
>
>1. Pukalam varavai
>2. NadodiKatt
>3. Ai Auto
>4. Chithram
>5. PeruVannaPurathe Vizhenjal
>6. Bharatham
>7. Thalayanamathram
>8. His Kindess Abdulla
>9. Kudumba puranam
>10. Oru paikili kadha
>11. Vannanam
>12. Akare akare akare
>13. keereedam
>
>+ any movie produced by Bala Chandra Menon (I guess I spell it correct)
>

Thanks for this list.  Isn't possible to give brief info about some of
these movies (e.g. actors, comedy, drama etc?)
#1, #9, #10, #13 about these movies.  Thanks

Molly
From: eswaran3372@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: Re: Chettimantharam (CORRECTION)
Date: 24 Jan 93 18:34:51 -0600
Distribution: world
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <1jqh02INN6ce@mojo.eng.umd.edu>, chidi@eng.umd.edu (Chidi Subramanian) writes:
> Here is the lyric of "Chettimantharam .."
                        ^^^^^^
> 	Chettimantharam thulasi pichchaka malakal charthi
        ^^^^^^

I think there is a slight mistake here. Instead of Chetti, it should be 
Thetchi. (I believe thetchi is a plant and, here in this usage, the flower
of that plant. Chetti, as far as I know, is a derogatory term for a parti-
cular group of people who speak Tamil. Well, don't take this at the face
value. I am one of the rankest amatuers in linguistics)

Sasi Mullappalli Eswaran.
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
From: mchundat@essex.ecn.uoknor.edu (Mathai Chundattu)
Subject: Re: The origin of the species
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 02:08:23 GMT
Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

In article <C1422q.BHJ.1@cs.cmu.edu> pjn+@cs.cmu.edu (P J Narayanan) writes:

>
>About Michael's question, I think regional variation in accent is an
>integral part of cultures. These variations will diminish as
>communication -- such as personal contacts, radio, TV, books etc --
>improves. I am sure a common (or almost common) written/formally
>spoken language evolved in Keralal only in this century, due to common
>textbooks/akashavANi etc. People knew only their regional "version"
>till formal education became widespread.
>

I dont think the regional variations in accent and manner of speaking
will go away with the spreading of formal education. One major factor
for education having no effect on this kind of variations is that even
highly educated people speak most of the time in the peculiar style of
their native place. Only during very formal occasions do they use the
correct pronunciation of malayalam as found in textbooks. If one tries
the aakaaSavaaNi accent in a group of friends I think that will be a
good reason later for calling him "radio announcer", "Extra Terrestrial"
etc. 

The origin of these variations may be due to the isolated nature of most
of kerala's villages in the past. The transportation and such
interaction between people of different places were not very easy during
those days. Since the kerala is a geographically pigeonholed land the
people would not have mixed with each other as much as they mix with
today. I think the solution of this puzzle will be an interesting topic
for a kerala linguist.


And I think this variations make our language livelier. How many stories
have been written about the honey-mixed malayalam of a trichur girl!


mathew

-- 


Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
From: saptho@ee.umn.edu (Sapthotharan K Nair (grad student))
Subject: Re: English/Hindi names of spices - Help
Organization: Electrical Engineering, U of MN, Mpls.
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 21:05:30 GMT

In article <1993Jan20.130717.2508@ucbeh.san.uc.edu> mathewge@ucbeh.san.uc.edu writes:
>
>
>I can fill in some gaps.  All entries in block letters are my contribution. 
>
> 
>> 	I can match a few - could any of you out there fill the rest?

******  I'll try some ************
******  -Saptho       ************

>> 
>>      English		Malayalam		Hindi
>>      ^^^^^^^		^^^^^^^^^		^^^^^
>>   Turmeric Powder 	MANJAL			Haldi
>>   Cumin seeds	Perum geerakam      	Jeera
>>   Mustard seeds	Kaduku
>>   Fenugreek Seeds
>>   Kokum <----------------------NEVER HEARD OF THIS
>>   CLOVES  		Grambu              
>>   Cinnamon 		Karuva              
>>   CARDAMOM		Eleka               
>>   Black pepper	Kurumulaku          
>>   Curry Leaves	Karuveppila
>>   Coriander powder	Mally poddy 
>>  			Malliyila
     Asafotida(spelling?)	Kayam
	(also	Hing)
>>   Red chilly powder	Mulaku poddy        
>
>george
>

I'll give it another try soon when I get hold of
my recipe book I got with my 'Prestige' pressure 
cooker. It has the same recipes in all the three
languages.  
  -Saptho-
From: vallath@vishnu.labs.tek.com
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: Movie songs
Date: 22 Jan 1993 12:05:37 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


I find modern Malayalam song lyrics to be horrible.  Somehow
they try to have some high-sounding words (usually of Sanskrit
origin) which I, with my limited Malayalam knowledge, have trouble
following.  And when
I do follow them, I don't see any meaning in them.  I
definitely think that people like Vayalaar and Sreekumaaran
Thampi chose the song lyrics to suit the movie, the character
and the situation, and skilfully used the various dialects of
Malayalam.  

For most of the young people I know, film songs are an
important part of the music they listen to.  Do today's
youngsters like the songs they hear, just like I used to like
songs like "mANikyavInayum ..." or "chakravartinI" or the
songs from the movie "nellu"?

The tunes are also not that great.  I wonder if it is just
because we get attached to the songs we hear as teenagers?

Fortunately, the movies are a lot better.  The old ones with
Sharada's "karachilum pizhichilum" were so depressing.

Request:
-------

On another note, can someone send me a recipe for fish cooked
in banana leaves which they have tried and tested, or at least
tasted?  Preferably one with a characteristic Kerala flavor.
I managed to get some frozen banana leaves from the local
"oriental" store, and thought I will try this out.  Also I
thought it will be good for ilayaDa!! Mmmm!!

Thanks.

Vallath Nandakumar