My parents still follow certain ancient tribalistic rituals. One of the most publicly visible and socially embarrassing ritual is the application of kungumam on new clothes.I am sure some of your parents do the same. If not, I really really envy you.
I have tried my level best to escape this 'tradition'. But to no avail. The best trade-off I could have was applying the kum kum myself. This way, I used to ensure that some totally minuscule and negligible quantity of the kungumam actually got transferred from the kunguma chimizh to the collar of shirts or the flap of trousers as the case may be.
However, this Deepavali day, things got slightly out of control. I bought shirts and t-shirts for Deepavali and my birthdays (English and Tamizh so to say) - a total of 3. But since the day started too early and also since it had religious overtones to it, I was not allowed to do the kum kum honors. It had to be done by the elders of the house.
My father was not sure which of my shirt/t-shirts I was going to use for the day and played it safe by bringing in all 3 into the pujai - a la Hanuman and the Sanjeevani herb. I have no objection to that. The problem is basically what transpired from that moment on.
Probably because he had to do this application for quite a number of clothes or probably because he had to do all this without his morning cuppa or probably because he had to do all this before sunrise or whatever..... The basic point is, he applied quite a lot on to my clothes.
IMHO, he didnt apply kum kum. He smeared it. Almost equivalent of placing a kai naatu on stamp paper, though why my literate father would have to resort to attesting by not using his signature is a mystery.
A t-shirt and THE CARGOS (sorry Neeluking, I mentioned my cargos only as part of providing inventory) escaped by virtue of being darker shades. But another t-shirt and a shirt were not that lucky. As is evident in the picture.
I also know one thing. My folks arent the only ones who still follow this kungumam stuff. I have seen quite a lot of shirts after Deepavali having these red dots.
So what really bothers me is the funda behind this ritual. Is it yet another of those completely logic-less things we do in the name of religion? Or is it the equivalent of hanging the dhrishti bommai in some road facing part of our homes? If the kum kum application is similar to the dhrishti thingummy, let me tell you this. No one would have actually noticed that you were wearing a new piece of clothing unless you walk around with that red spot on an otherwise perfectly good looking shirt or trouser or whatever it is that girls wear.
