Comments on: Review: “The Toss of a Lemon” by Padma Viswanathan

By: Vaisnavi Devi Dasi

Vaisnavi Devi Dasi — Fri, 28 May 2010 06:39:56 +0000

I’m halfway through reading it and can’t put it down. Especially love the character Sivakami.

By: Rashmi Mehngi

Rashmi Mehngi — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:54:38 +0000

Was the worship of Vishnu indigenous to the Dravidian people or was it absorbed later? I find it interesting that orthodox Tamil Vaishnavites have strictly Tamil names. Vishnu is believed to be a northern “aryan” deity. Can anyone tell me if Vishnu is a Sankrit or Dravidian name/word? I’m doing research on indigenous Indian religions.

By: port

port — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:36:13 +0000

loved how your husband and in-laws read to you. it is a pity that road trips are so maligned.

By: V.V. Ganeshananthan

V.V. Ganeshananthan — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:01:12 +0000

You can see my review of Toss of a Lemon in The Washington Post here.

By: mA vadu

mA vadu — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:52:25 +0000

AK:

Tamil brahmins used to have non vada pAdai, pure Thamiz names in the earlier centuries. Some examples:

Ramana Maharishi’s mother’s name: Azahammai

mahA kavi BArathiyAr’s father’s name: Chinnasamy (atleast in part!)

of course the vaiNava brahmins still use pure Tamil names such as ManivaNNan, Aaravamuthan, Thirumalai, ThirumEni, Uppili…

Nowadays pretty much all the Tamil Hindus go for pure Sanskrit names.

‘Bet most of them don’t have a clue what the names mean though

By: AK

AK — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:51:35 +0000

The book sounds intriguing.

But she could've worked on the names of the characters.

Thangam and Vairam don't sound like Tamil Brahmin names. Tam Bram names are more Sanskritised. Thangam = gold in tamil and Vairam = diamond. I haven't come across such pure Tamil names among Brahmins. "Hanumarathnam" sounds awkward. It's neither "Hanumantharathnam" which may be a Kannadiga name or plain "Rathnam" which is Tamil. I do wish authors would do a bit of research before naming their characters.

By: sandhya

sandhya — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:49:57 +0000

ah, but there is a significance (and an interesting one at that) to the title, tying it again to the horoscope which is at the heart of the novel. The Canadian cover (RH), in evil abhi’s defense, does not have fruit on it:)

By: mirage

mirage — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:21:34 +0000

i guess fruit has orientalist associations such as ‘tasting the forbidden fruit’, etc.

By: Dr Amnonymous

Dr Amnonymous — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:46:31 +0000

Thanks for the post. This sounds really interesting – like 100 Years of Solitude for Tamil Nadu, like you mentioned (implied). I’m really curious about the way the linguistic / anti-casteism movement was dealt with in the novel.

By: Camille

Camille — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:50:31 +0000

But Abhi, it’s a lemon, not a mango