Kashaya.(astringent)

மாற்றவள் பெயர் கூறக் கேட்டு வருந்துதல் தைக்கின்ற வேல் நோக்கினள், தன் உயிர் அன்ன மன்னன், மைக்கொண்ட கண்ணாள் எதிர், மாற்றவள் பேர் விளம்ப, மெய் கொண்ட நாணம் தலைக்கொண்டு, வெதும்பி, மென் பூ கை கொண்டு மோந்தாள், உயிர்ப்பு உண்டு கரிந்தது அன்று . Hearing her man shout out another woman's name, she glances sharply towards him and casts a fiery look, but  noticing that it is not appropriate to do it in front of others, she takes a flower, looks at it and smells it, and it turns dark(burnt)!(her breath is equated to that of fire,for reasons explained above)

Katu.(pungent)


I am not usually fond of air travel. There are two main reasons for this:

#I never have enough money to travel by air.

#I have never travelled by air that much.

I was a little jittery on the plane, that my friend was trying to comfort me by talking about ailerons, rudders and other interesting things that made us be awed about the physics of flying. Suddenly, he asked me if I had seen any of the aircraft investigations on TV. Because that is exactly what you want to talk about when the plane is about to take off after taxi, and there can be no other opportune moment to talk about black boxes and death in mid-air collisions. During the course of the flight, there must have been someone who wanted to have some fun with me by testing the endurance of my kidneys and bladder. There were two things that seemed to keep the toilet sign always crossed-turbulence and someone else. I need to investigate this particular person who so kindly and involuntarily prepared me for a urine test. 

Tikta(Bitter)

He spots the blood mark on his shoulder, and thinks it is only a bruise. But then, what about a shaft that is sticking out of the wound? No, nobody would dare do that. Only a coward would. A coward who is symbolical of all that is effete. This would be the work of an asura, an asura so cunning of the mind, that he had had to sink to such depths to win a war. A dishonorable person with an intention that is so low-down, that even the gods would not forgive this man.

But why is the noble prince of Ikshvahu's bow pointed at him? The personification of everything that is perfect -shoots a man in stealth? No, this can't  be.

Lavana.(Salty)

These days my english has become so rusty, I struggled with some very primitive sentence structures. I found it very hard to string a sentence with a coherent set of words, that I could have been taken for a pre-historic man by the person at the other end. But, in the last few days, I had managed to hone my hindi skills. By hone, I mean the honing of a 'ek gaon mein' into other forms and tenses and the like. I can boldly say things like 'yahaan aao', wahaan jao, ab thoda aur and 'bas bas'. The people who know speak hindi too well and too fast that I had to actually smile and pretend to understand what they were talking about. Thank god I was not asked any questions, or I would definitely have had to lapse back to ek-gaon-mein ways.


Madhur.(sweet)


The poonkuzhali blush. 

She looks up at the sky, and tearfully lunges at the empty space ahead of her. She looks at the man, and at arms length, looks up and down the strange man. She notices a smile on the man's face from the corner of his mouth, extending up to the ears, flailing his hands as if he was inviting her! She is not sure what to do, and suddenly, from one corner of her eye, she tries to suppress a smile, but the smile wouldn't let her! She is now confused, and she is not quite sure what to do. He winks, and she thinks she should acknowledge this strange man. How? How can a woman do this? She doesn't know him! Ah, how beautiful this நாணம் in a woman! Hard to spot these days.

Amla. (Sour)
I am unusually excited over the last week because I bought a bicycle air pump. Something about that pressure gauge is causing unnecessary amount of unwarranted excitement and not even a skimpily clothed silk's image can cause this much disturbance.(Or maybe it can) This pump, its cool. Its new, and it has a really shiny dial and a plastic handle. Also, there is a new bata showroom very close to my house. If that is not going to be a cause for screaming with excitement, what else would? 
Now, where was I? Yeah, excited. So much for the little things in life. 

ஈண்டு நான் இருந்து, இன் உயிர் மாயினும் 

மீண்டு வந்து பிறந்து, தன் மேனியைத்

தீண்டலாவது ஓர் தீவினை தீர் வரம் 

வேண்டினாள், தொழுது, என்று விளம்புவாய். 

Tell Raman that even if I were to die, I would pray to be born again for him to come and touch my body.(sita to hanuman)

Cheers.

ps: 

#poonkuzhali is my marumagal(niece) as you might know. The way she blushes, I cannot  explain it in words.

#Kamba ramayanam references. I did read a bit, but the rest is just copy-paste. I think it would be wonderful to read it in entirety.

# The six different tastes-katu, lavana, tikta, amla, madhur and kashaya.

#I took liberty with the vaali story. Lots of it.

http://www.tamilvu.org/slet/l3700/l3700son.jsp?subid=1265
http://tamilnation.co/literature/kamban/kambaramayanam.htm