Ever heard of ‘nose cut‘? It’s an English phrase that was not known to English! (I checked, it drew a blank).
Well, it’s actually a Tamil phrase with no Tamil words!! Sounds even more bizzare isn’t it? It actually refers to giving back an insult (or retort) to a high sounding person. Well used in Madurai & most parts of Tamilnadu.
Found a reference on ‘nose cut‘ in an unofficial ‘Dictionary of Indian English‘ http://snipurl.com/nosecut [www_vsubhash_com].
So how come such a unique phrase came into use? It was attributed to the ‘Mysore – Madurai war‘ at the fag end of ‘Thirumalai Naick‘ period, which was finally won by Madurai with vital support from Sethu Nadu (Ramanathapuram).
In this war, the Mysore King ordered to cut the noses of enemies as they advance. And the Madurai army retaliated in the same way!! But it certainly was not funny as it sounds. Read about the full history of the war here http://snipurl.com/nosewar [www_visvacomplex_com] . It also has an interesting map of south India during 17th Century. (The article was written by Dr.S.Jayabarathi, a renowned scholar on Archeology & Tamil Literature)
The article had interesting points such as Mysore rulers ‘exhort southern rulers by holding back Kaveri waters‘ in 14th – 17th century period. So River Cauvery’s part in politics have a long history.
Share with Madurai friends
When it comes to movies, Madurai used to have a special place. Actors usually get a large fan base here. It was said that every actor worth his name in tamil filmdom will have a fan club in Madurai!
With such a dubious distinction, film going in Madurai used to be a rough experience. Ticket booths used to be heavily barricaded & private guards stand around ticket booth to ward off storming youths. These youths were storming ticket booths not to capture it, but only to buy tickets!!
Well, those days are gone! Theatres now wear a desolate look, except for a few inaugural shows of established stars. Even acclaimed films do not draw a full house after first week. So theatre owners have the option of either converting the vital land for better usage .. or .. pamper the visitors with better experience.
Second rung theatres like Jeyaraj (near LadyDoak College) & Pandian (near Vilangudi) were converted into an Apartment-cum-Shopping complex.
Some other theatres were opting to pamper the visitors. Ganesh & Sundaram (kk nagar) theatres were taken over by Reliance’s Big cinemas, and these were now on par with other Big cinema theatres all over the country. The famed Regal theatre was revamped & now draw crowds mainly due to the facilities there.
An individual theatre on the outskirts – the Mani Impala (near Tirunagar) is now converted into a multiplex of 3 theatres and said to be on par with Big cinema group or Satyam multiplex.
Of the previous multiple theatres (not multiplexes), the Priya theatre complex seem to have the potential of becoming a multiplex, but it shows no sign of improvement.
Share with Madurai friends
