The Monsoon Ritual Called 'Choodi'

Choodi signifies complete womanhood and most of the GSB ladies perform this pooja. My mother being an orthodox GSB woman, used to follow that religiously every year in the monsoon month of Shravan. 

Perhaps I was the only boy in our home who used to pick those flowers and foliage for my mother on MG Road Ballalbagh by the thodu(rain water gutter), where the present Kalyan Jewellers is situated! I have fallen into that thodu at least once every year in an attempt to pick 'Maajjraa Naankut', a type of fern. The other ferns that I used to pick were useless for chooDi. I also remember that when our neighbour Vakil Venkatraya Kamath's property(Present SDM Eye Hospital) was purchased by Late KP Mukunda Prabhu and construction was going on, they had dumped heaps of bamboos in their compound and some of the rotten  bamboos facilitated growth of anwaali in abundance! My mother was extremely happy to see them!

For me getting Ratnagandhi and Karveer flowers was like a cakewalk! Both the trees were there at our neighbour Narayana Shetty's compound on the other side of the road. Their compound wall was easy to climb with moulded cement ventilators at regular intervals and then of course, 'Ajjana Kode', the big umbrella with wooden staff and arc handle came in handy to pull and lower the top branches of Ratnagandhi plant and pluck the flowers. Dibrankoru used to grow just outside our compound after they surfaced our compound fully with concrete in the late Sixties. Other flowers that grew wild in our compound were doshNi phool, shankha pushpa, chirdo and nantha phool.

I was so keen about flooding the house with flowers and leaves, my mother used to mumble and advice me not to bring such a heap, since she had plans to make limited choodis and distribute them. She also used to say they in exchange people give her the choodis they make and thus the number of choodis were well taken care of!

I have even tried my hand at compiling flowers for the choodis and the main job I used to do was passing chirdo flowers through the stem of rathnagandhi, since chirdo had brittle petals. Sometimes when it rained heavily, getting some flowers was difficult. Then mother used to add any available flower. I had to run to Car Street or Hampankatta on my bicycle, to get them for her.

Drawing rangoli on the door step(Humbraa Chalk) was fun. I used to sprinkle water on the wooden door frame step and draw rangoli designs with either Shedi(Chalk stone) or with chalk piece. That used to last a day, but half of it used to get wiped as people stepped on that while crossing the door step.

The reward we young boys got after the choodi pooja used to be a simple panchakajjaya type sweet like Phova(Pounded rice) or Lhaayi(Popped rice) mixed in coconut jaggery choorna or sweet chutney. Sometimes that used to get soaked in the unexpected rains that lashed while performing the pooja. Very few times mother had prepared some churmundo, sheera or some other sweet for choodi pooja. Sometimes she just offered Nirakkshane or some nuts and raisins along with sugar candy. I also worked as umbrella bearer for my mother as she performed pooja when it rained!

That scenario faded slowly after 1973, when my second sister in law Prabha Shenoy stepped into our home after marrying my brother Srikanth in November 1972. She took personal interest in selecting the dibrankoru and other wild foliage, while I restricted my service to getting rathnagandhi and karveer from our neighbour's compound.

By 1974 July we moved into a rented house in Shediguri and then my sister in law took full charge of arranging choodi components. I was also just out of college completing my undergraduate studies and felt rather embarrassed to continue collecting flowers for choodi! Yet, my elder brothers and friends kept teasing me and kept asking me for the next one or two years about why I was not going for choodi flowers.

I had written an article for a Mangalorean web portal some years ago. Here's the gist of that article:

Choodi Pooja - A unique Konkani tradition

Shraavan is the month when GSB Hindu women celebrate many festivals and offer many Poojas. Choodi Pooja is one of them. Legend has it, that Demon Jalandhara's wife Vrinda was very beautiful and chaste. She was also an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. To save the world from the grip of the demons, Lord Vishnu was awaiting an opportunity to demolish the wicked Jalandhara that would be possible only if Vrinda loses her chastity. When Jalandhara is away one day at the war front, Lord Vishnu is believed to appear before Vrinda in the form of her husband and has connection with her. Vrinda loses her chastity and as a result, Jalandhara loses his life in the battle field. Later, Vrinda realises that it was not her husband Jalandhara but Lord Vishnu who had connection with her, thereby snatching away her chastity along with her husband's life. Being devotee of Lord Vishnu, she has faith that Vishnu's act was aimed at the welfare of the world. Lord Vishnu suggests her to offer Choodi Pooja to the Tulsi plant during Shraavan month, which ascertains chastity and fortune for women. She offers the pooja before noon and thus, Choodi Pooja came into existence.

Women perform Choodi Pooja every Friday and Sunday of Shraavan Maasa(Month). A newly married woman performs her first Choodi Pooja in the presence of many elderly women, separately in her home and her parents' home.

The name Choodi resembles the Kannada word 'Soodi' or a tied bundle. The arrangement of flowers and herbs used to make choodis also resembles the ethnic Japanese flower arrangement 'Ikebana'. Choodis are believed to have cooling and healing effect on the heads of the women who wear them.

A standard Choodi requires many flowers and herbs to be collected, as mentioned here -
1. Ratnagandhi
2. Ratha Pushpa
3. Gauri Pushpa
4. Kaaylya Dolo(Crow's Eye)
5. Anwaali
6. Aarati Pushpa
7. Kangani Pushpa
8. Shanka Pushpa
9. Mithaai Pushpa
10. Cat’s Nails
11. Wild Grass(Dibrankoru)
12. Plantain yarn(Vaayu) for tying.

Making Choodis is a work of art and the formation of flowers and herbs should look balanced in colour and texture. Women personally pick the fresh flowers and herbs where they are available freely. They carefully select the ingredients and make the Choodis and arrange them in a tray.

Next, they prepare a prasadam(Offering) sweet, normally puffed rice(Aralu) with jaggery and grated coconut flavoured with a hint of cardamom. Alternately, they use Beaten Rice (Avalakki) instead of puffed rice. Sometimes, Panchakajjaaya or five ingredient sweet is prepared and offered.

The door step(Hosthilu) are decorated with chalk designs(Rangoli or Humbraa Chalk).

First, pooja is offered to Tulsi plant with a brass pedestal lamp, water drops fed to the Tulsi plant and also consumed by the one offering the pooja (Aachamana). Kaajal and Kumkum are applied to Tulsi as a symbol of womanhood, sweet is offered, followed by Soorya Namaskaara(Sun Worship).

Then Choodi is offered to Tulsi and aarati(Flame) is shown to Tulsi. Later, they offer pooja and Choodis to the Door step(Hosthilu). Finally, all the gods within home are offered similar pooja and Choodis. The remaining Choodis are offered to elderly women by the younger ones. They all wear the Choodi in their hair locks. In return, the elders also present a choodi to the younger ones. For the next four weeks or eight days, GSB women will be busy, going from house to house, offering Choodis and receiving Choodis.

There is also a custom, that the wife offers the first Choodi to her husband along with a worshiped coconut, especially when a 'Vaaina Pooja' is performed. 'Vaaina' is a clean shaven coconut with spots of Kumkum and haldi on it, believed to bring happiness and goodwill for married women.

Superstition apart, Choodi Pooja is symbolic where a woman feels complete within her married life. This pooja also gives scope for women to keep social contact with their families at least once a year.