Mayiru! The dad used the word one day over a telephone conversation. I then knew that was a bad word used by people to scold somebody else in a fight. Mayira pochi! He used it again. In a different form. But I was old enough to know it meant the same. He is a bad man, my dad. He uses bad words; it registered in my young mind.
As I grew older and started using those words myself, I realized mayiru means hair! HAIR! The bloody hair. The hair growing on our heads and if you are as old as I'm more hair falls than grows. But, how did mayiru became a bad word? How on hell do you scold somebody a hair? I mean, we don't scold someone in English using the hair word, do we? Even the holy bible has used the word often! It cannot be just a bad word, said my logical brain. My dad, the hero growing up, cannot be after all a bad man! Wink! Wink!
Come to the point, my boy! I can hear my dad's mind voice when he reads this!
In Tamil, that word is more often used to denote uselessness! Mayira pochi mean, it is just the hair, don't worry! Hair, the useless hair, the ones which will grow back and even if it doesn't it is okay; nothing in life will happen if we lose some hair, is all the philosophy behind the term mayira pochi.
When I saw this person 'R' had donated her hair for cancer patients, it hit me hard! Hair, the useless hair, is actually so precious that we find it difficult to do away with it. When I saw her photo, it just clicked that my mom cried that day she lost her hair. When that bloody disease and the treatment took her hair away, my mom felt it. She wanted her hair. That useless hair. Yet she wanted it! My mom, who did not mind working for the poor doing away with so much money found it hard to do away with hair.
Man! Are you called useless? Even the mayiru, the bad word it has become, is never useless. Sometimes we don't realize that the cornerstone is the most important stone of the foundation.
As I grew older and started using those words myself, I realized mayiru means hair! HAIR! The bloody hair. The hair growing on our heads and if you are as old as I'm more hair falls than grows. But, how did mayiru became a bad word? How on hell do you scold somebody a hair? I mean, we don't scold someone in English using the hair word, do we? Even the holy bible has used the word often! It cannot be just a bad word, said my logical brain. My dad, the hero growing up, cannot be after all a bad man! Wink! Wink!
Come to the point, my boy! I can hear my dad's mind voice when he reads this!
In Tamil, that word is more often used to denote uselessness! Mayira pochi mean, it is just the hair, don't worry! Hair, the useless hair, the ones which will grow back and even if it doesn't it is okay; nothing in life will happen if we lose some hair, is all the philosophy behind the term mayira pochi.
When I saw this person 'R' had donated her hair for cancer patients, it hit me hard! Hair, the useless hair, is actually so precious that we find it difficult to do away with it. When I saw her photo, it just clicked that my mom cried that day she lost her hair. When that bloody disease and the treatment took her hair away, my mom felt it. She wanted her hair. That useless hair. Yet she wanted it! My mom, who did not mind working for the poor doing away with so much money found it hard to do away with hair.
Man! Are you called useless? Even the mayiru, the bad word it has become, is never useless. Sometimes we don't realize that the cornerstone is the most important stone of the foundation.
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