Pongal Musings

At The Hindu, Pongal is That Time Of  The Year when all the gals ask each other, “What’s  the color?”   Everyone received a brown package with their name on it, and everyone knew what was inside …the Pongal sari given to every woman employee . This has long been a tradition. You get one each year. The men get a pair of  veshtis, which everyone passed on to their dads or grand-dads. Or probably wore it to weddings and upanayanam ceremonies if they were in the mood for traditional. No one ever told.
But as the number of women employees,  in editorial and other departments swelled,  some color was infused into the annual tradition A week or two before  Pongal, which is a holiday , the packages arrive from Chennai, and  soon the attenders Thimma and  Venkatesh go around handing out the packets. Everyone signed for them, and  wasted not a single moment in tearing up the cover to know “what’s the color?”
Some years, the saris were silken and looked quite Banarsi or Balucherry, a couple of years we went Utkal cotton which have a linen-y feel to them, and sometimes it was   Coimbatore cotton., or printed silk.  The look on the lady’s face at the first sight of her sari almost always told the story: if the mouth zigzagged to a droop,  the sari was a disappointment.
A splash of orange, or pink,  and yellow, a muted beige contrasted with deep maroon, spelt class, and did not bring forth a droopy mouth, but a decorous smile and  eyes widened in surprise. Lunch-time buzz in the canteen was always about “I like mine better”,  “I think you are always lucky”,  “how about exchanging?”
The last question has never led to the transaction taking place, and everybody went home with what they got.  They probably gave it to their moms. Or just let it hang in the wardrobe,  so every time you looked in you’d know how many years you’d added at  The Hindu.
There have been a couple of years when we thought the guys with their veshtis were better off……and one  has often toyed with the idea of   “exchanging with the guys ” and  convert the veshtis into ” a designer sari”  . But the men probably did not want any ripples in their smoothly flowing river of domestic life, or have to explain to the wife/girlfriend the details of the deal with a female colleague……

The Pongal sari is legend, and as much a part of being a member of  ” The Hindu Undivided Family”  as waiting for the excellent coffee at the canteen, or going in there to be swamped by the aroma of fresh ground sambhar powder ……. Loading up on the “oota” complete with  palya, sambhar, rasam appalam, pickles was, always, an invitation to sin.