by Vani Viswanathan
[box]A few bloggers are quietly taking the internet by storm – and they are doing it anonymously. The first in a series of interviews with anon bloggers, Vani Viswanathan introduces The Cowgirl.[/box]Blogging has brought out talents from across the world that I’m sure many of us have been thankful to, for the endless hours of entertainment they provide us. They have saved us on many an occasion of utter boredom at work, provided a distraction when we’re drowning in studies, and made us realize and celebrate the fact that there are quite a few like us out there that we can connect to.
On the occasion of our first anniversary, Spark has decided to pay tribute through a series to one very special group of bloggers – the anonymous ones. A bunch of very talented, witty writers, these bloggers have managed to amass an immense fan following despite their anonymity. In a world with social networks where we try to know people we don’t know, these bloggers reach out to a wide audience that appreciates them for the identity that they create through their words.
The first in the series is The Cowgirl (http://maatuponnu.wordpress.com), Cowgirl is English for maatuponnu in Tamil – which is how the layperson refers to the maatru penn – ‘the other daughter’, or daughter-in-law. Although she has only been writing anonymously for some six months now, maatuponnu has already built a substantial following.
If you understand Chennai-ism, you’ll understand it when I say maatuponnu is like waking up to M.S. Subbulakshmi, filter coffee and The Hindu. In other words, it’s an authentic experience of Tamil culture, told from the author’s scrutinizing eyes. Maatuponnu manages to capture the weird balance that is quintessential of many a Tamil (and Tamil Brahmin) family – progressive in many ways, but particularly insistent on maintaining one’s ‘culture’. This is apparent in everything, ranging from the topics she picks – drinking parties, margazhi season kutcheries, the Tamil-English balance from our parents’ generations, typical protagonists from Tamil movies, diamond studs, intellectual snobbery, the Tamil+English that she has generously sprinkled across her posts, US for MS and engineering college talk. Maatuponnu’s writing is so reminiscent of everything home for a Tamil girl that reading her blog has often left me swimming in nostalgia (and even homesickness!) and longing for turning back time to when I lived in Chennai.
Maatuponnu has graciously agreed to an interview from Spark and obliged our questions on anonymity, humour and inspiration, among other things.
Ok, cowgirl. Before anything else, why did you decide to write under a pseudonym? And why the decision to be called ‘daughter-in-law’? 🙂 Did you think about the name for too long?
The idea of starting a blog was in itself not new. I have been writing prose, poetry and fiction for a while now, and have a couple of publications as well. I wanted a break from what I had been writing and wished to try something new. Since I had never tried humour, I wanted to give it a shot. It is easier to say outrageous things under a pseudonym. I wanted to be Miss Maami first, but then somehow the maaminess-on-top morphed into Cowgirl, which also conveniently translates into Maatuponnu. I did not give it much thought, really!
Talking of the blog itself, why this decision to do something so Tamil? 🙂 And in a way, so Tam-brahm?
Humour works best when you pan something you know. It’s easiest to poke fun at yourself. Maaminess and Tamizhness are in my blood, so that’s the way it is!
Does it worry you that the actual intent and joy of your posts may not reach out to the non-Tamil readers? Do you plan to work around that?
I have not thought about it much, really. Considering what I have written so far, one facet is humour, the ability to laugh at oneself and be critical in the process. The other is the simple joy of identification, bringing up what is familiar. Not many people outside can really identify with the texture of ‘more kozhambu’. Let’s see, if I ever find the need to reach out more, I might become more inclusive.
The Tanglish and Tamil words – you seem to have generously sprinkled them in all your posts. Do they come with the flow?
It’s pretty much the flow. Tam-brahms of my parents’ generation, to paraphrase the writer Sujatha, think in Tamizh but speak and write in English. We think in English more often than not, but there are some ‘untranslatables’ that we have to use Tamizh to express. Just as the thinking in Tamizh is the hallmark of the parents’ generation, so is the familiarity with the catchphrases heard just by being around people. It is evocative of the essence of maaminess, which is all I want to achieve.
If we were to ask you five points of inspiration for your posts, what would they be?
Each of my five aunts. Like Wodehouse, I have five formidable aunts, each worth the salt of her diamond mookuthi maaminess!
We love the subtle (and occasionally slightly loud) humour that underlies much of your writing. Are you the type that always jokes around? Do you laugh too as you write just as your readers do when they read? We would love to know that expression on your face when you write!
I am known to be a silent, serious person with a so called ‘intellectual’ bent of mind. It kind of tickles me that people like my humour, because what can be more entertaining than proving conceptions wrong! 🙂 I have always had a dose of cynicism (my ancestors are from Thanjavur) , so that helps. Humour is probably a balance between cynicism and compassion – cynicism, the ability to identify the false and hypocritical; compassion, the ability to recognize that it is human and live with it.
If we were to ask you what the equation between creativity and humour is, what would you say?
Humour is the ability to state the not-obvious. It is lateral by definition; it has to be clever, original, and certainly creative.
You have a substantial following, and I’m sure a few people are dying to know who you are. How do you deal with that? 😉
The following is honestly something I did not expect, but altogether something I am growing to like. There’s ‘writing for oneself’ that I’ve always been a fan of, and the writing for an audience. This is turning out to be a lot of fun. The best part is the people I meet – among others, homemakers, filmmakers, entrepreneurs and professional line-maro-ers, all bound by the common thread of familiarity with maaminess. As far as I am concerned, Maatuponnu is just an avatar, an alter-ego. There is a certain attraction towards the unknown and the mysterious, kind of like how geishas painted their faces white. Perhaps one reason for the popularity is just the mystery! So, no, I am not going to kill that for now!
What are the sort of creative experiments we can look forward to from Cowgirl in the months and years ahead?
I am getting better with using Photoshop, so perhaps a few sight gags.
The Cowgirl on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cowgirl/121045727960544
Pic Courtesy : CowGirl
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