Friday, June 11, 2010

Originals, Adaptations, Remix - All for Tulika Blogathon-4

Hi guys !!!

How have you all been?This blog is being revived from its dormant state, thanks to Tulika :)
I couldn't resist submitting an entry for Tulika's Blogathon-4

Our home resonates with several rhymes and songs in both English and Tamil, some very well known , some long forgotten and some new ones !

Apart from the common Tamil ones like
1. Kaakkaa kannukku mai kondaa
2. Annai Annai, Azhagar Annai
3. Nila, Nila, odi vaa

here are some others that are part of our daily routine


4. Ammaa inge vaa vaa
Aasai mutham thaa, thaa
ilaiyil soru pottu
eeyai dhoora ottu

Meaning :

Amma, please come here
Give me a loving kiss
Serve food in a plate and
whoosh/flick away the flies
                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~
5.  I guess this one does not have any theme, just rhyming words
Adho paaru kaakaa
kadaiyila vikkudhu seeka
ponnu varaa shokkaa
yezhundu poda mookaa

Meaning :
See there's a crow
Shop sells seekai (herbal powder for washing hair)
A girl comes smartly dressed
Get up and go, you big nosed fella

                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~

6. This is about a tiger chasing goats

Changili bungili kadahava thara
naan  maaten venga puli
aaattu kuttiya kandeengalaa?
kandom
Yenge?
Vettukulle
Varalaamaa ?
Vara koodadhu

Transliteration :

Changili bungili, please open the door
I will not, tiger
Did you see the goats?
yes, we did
Where?
Inside the home
Can I come in ?
No. You shall not.

                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~
 
And there are some cine songs (old is gold) which my dad sings to Jillu :). Jillu loves it and she demands us to sing these songs all the time. Not only that, now, she sings them as well (just missing a word here and there )! And it so lovely and cute to hear her sing these !

1. 
chinna paapaa yenga chella paapaa
sonna pechaa kaetta dhaan nalla paapaa
chinna paapaa yenga chella paapaa

thinna unakku cheeni mittai vaangi tharatumaa?
silk chattai, cheena bommai, balloon venumaa?
kanaaa moochi aattam unakku solli tharatumaa?
appo gala gala-nu sirichukitte yennai paarumaa

Meaning :
Oh, little baby, you are our cherished baby
Only if you obey, you are a good baby

Shall i buy you sweet chocies to eat?
Do you want silk shirts, China dolls and balloon?
Shall I teach you to play hide and seek?
Then, laugh aloud merrily (gala-gala-nu) and look at me !

                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~

2.
once a pappa met a mammaa in a little tourist bus
yennadi paapaa, sonnadhu doopa ? kannam sivandhudhu, what is this ?
my dear paapa, thalaiyil topa, what about the hair oil?
evening duty, yennadi beauty ? meet me in the boat mail !


Meaning :
once a pappa met a mammaa in a little tourist bus
What baby? did you lie ? your cheeks are red, what is this ?
my dear paapa, there's a topi on yr head, what about the hair oil? (meaning he's bald :) and  I just love the way Jillu says "whaaat-aboot-the-hairoil")
Hey beauty, What's your evening duty? meet me in the boat mail !
  
                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~

Apart from these, my dad is very well known for modifying lyrics, keeping the tune and the rhyme intact. I just love the way he does that sooo spontaneously with reference to the
context on the fly. The below are some that he came up with that stuck in
our house hold and is sung as any other song or rhyme :). In fact, we sing only the new version :) and for some, we do not even know the original one. I had to do some research and grill my dad to get the original. Especially for the first entry below, I knew only the last line (4th line) before this post :)

Adaptations
---------------

1.
Film : Karnan
Song : 
Naani chivandhadhu, maadhalaar kangal
Naadu thorum, Nadandhu chivandhadhu paavalar kaalgal
Nar-porulai thedi chivandhadhu gnaaniyar nejam
Dhinam koduthu chivandhadhu karna maamannar thriru karame

Meaning :
Lady's eyes are red owing to shyness
Poet's feet are red owing to roaming the country by foot
Scholar's heart is red owing to the endless search for knowledge
And Raja Karnan's hands are red owing to lending people on a daily basis

My dad always chooses the last line's tune for his twists and turns
Adaptation for Jillu: "vaayil kaiyai pottu chivandhadhu kutti Jillu-vin kaatta virale"
Meaning :  Little Jillu's thumb is red owing to the endless thumb sucking 

I still remember his adaptation for me when I was a kid
Adaptation for me: "Appichi kaettu chivandhdhu kutti Lavan-in vaayaame"
Meaning:  Little Lavan's mouth is red owing to mouthing endless demands of Appichi (home made snacks )

                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~

2. This is pretty simple and straight forward :) Still Jillu likes it, even though its pretty far fetched :)
Song : Gandhi yai pol oru, Shaantha saroobiyai Kaanbadhum yelidhaamo
Meaning : Its hard to find a soothing or calm soul other than Gandhi ji

Adaptation : Jillu vai pol oru shaantha saroobiyai kaanbadhum yelidhaamo
Transliteration: Its hard to find a soothing or calm soul other than Jillu

                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~

3. This is a rhyme with no meaning/theme again, just random words to get the tongue rolling. But my Fav:)

Oh, Onnara davara don
Often Koften Muski don
Kullan Kallan 21
Ahh, Ooh, May, Black
Black ka thooki mela potttaa chettiyaar veetula Nandu
Nanda thooki mela pottaa Nagarathna paambu
Paamba thooki mela potta, panjavarna Kili

And my dad added here for Jillu's sake

Kiliya thooki mela pottaa, Lavan vettula Jillu
Jillu thooki mela pottaa, thaathaa veetula paati and so on and on, we can say whatever we wish with various twists and turns :) Jillu loves this so much :)

Transliteration :
The first 4 lines are just jargons, no real meaning to the best of my knowledge
Line 5 onwards:
If the black is thrown upwards, then there's crab in chettiyar's house
If the crab is thrown upwards, then there's a poisonous snake
If the snake is thrown upwards, then there's a parrot

And my dad's addendum:
If the parrot is thrown upwards, then there's Jillu in Lavan's house
if Jillu is thrown upwards, there's grand mom in grand pa's house and 
so on and on! keep making up and have fun !

                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~

4. And this one I love the most, because Jillu coined it herself spontaneously the first time my dad sang the titbit to her

Film: Maayaajal
Song : 
Thathom thom thana, thom thom thana, 
Thaali katta varuvaanaa?

Meaning : Will he come to tie the knot (thaali) amidst  drums and music

Jillu immediately sang, "Thooli katta varuvaanaa?"  the moment my dad finished singing.

Meaning : Will he come to tie the thooli (babies crib made out of cloth, that generally hangs from the ceiling) ?

And now  its a habit for us to sing the original version and Jillu to complete her line and she says it with such glee :). She loves it :) and we love it too :)

                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you, Tulika for giving me this wonderful opportunity to share these cherished moments:) It never struck me to write  a post on these adaptations ! Now that I have, I wonder how I missed it !

And while writing this post, I realized how difficult it was to translate without compromising the meaning :) and brought home the truth of the wonderful job that Tulika is doing with the bi-lingual books ! 

Well done and Thank you Tulika !


5 comments:

Anuradha Shankar said...

Great!! loved all of them! and esp those of your dad and jillu...and looks like jillu has inherited her grandpa's talent! give her a big hug for me!

Swaram said...

Amma inge vaa vaa and Changili bungili are very sweet .. luved them :)
And u r rt .. hatz off to Tulika for the work they r dng :)

Lavanya Sriram said...

Anu : Thanks Anu :) and glad that you enjoyed ! I enjoy it every time we sing all these 1 by 1

Swar : yeah ! i found it so diff to translate crisply and I like Changili bungili as well :)

Momo's Ma said...

first time on this blog apartfrom jillu yen.. nice collection of rhymes and well translated. my dad used to sing the one ra duvara thing. great fun but meaningless..

Lavanya Sriram said...

Welcome to my space, Momo's Ma :)
Oh Onnara seems to be well known :). None of my relatives knew it and they were all fascinated with it. So, i thot its not that common. I seem to be wrong :)