Review of 2009

Generally 2009 went without any hiccups, it was an ordinary year without any extremes. Neither it was too bad nor it was too good.
Let me analyse it chronologically
1.First pongal celebrated without any sugarcane or sweet pongal. We celebrated with molagu pongal for a change.
2. P joined his dance class and (thank god) continues till date.
3. One of my aathukarars cousin got married and met all the relatives (athellam ippadi ethavathu kalyanam kaatchinnu meet pannathaan undooo). Kandipppa ellar veettukkum varomnu promise pannathoda seri.
4. Was off and on with co-sis and became pretty close with her. Lets see to what extent it goes.
5. P got his tonsillitis and adenoids removed. And it was the second time i saw my aathukarar crying (first during his fathers death) . I was shocked to see him crying profusely outside the operation theatre. I carried him inside and made him to change to the theatre dress and P found something was wrong and clung to me like a kangaroo and started crying. I controlled myself and left him with the doctor and came outside just to witness aathukarar crying and sobbing uncontrollably.
6. Went on a religious trip and long pending venduthals offered (Anthaa post innum complete panna padu illa) Innum konjam venduthals pending - karnataka side and kerala side.
7. Made peace with my father and visited him and his family. Went to the car festival of perumal koil after a gap of 12yrs.
8. P made smooth transition from Lkg to Ukg and in fact excelled in his class. (I love u P whatever it may be)
9. Three of my friends welcomed their angels into their family. So my son is odd one out among our circle of friends. So far only girl children.
10. Swine flu scare forced everyone inside their home and due to this was not able to celebrate P's birthday as requested by him by inviting all his friends
11. Two nightmare incidents happened and it taught me a good lesson.
12. Have been into serious blogging of late.
13. So many relatives visits happened and two marriages are due.
14. Made friend with S and she was first colleague of my aathukarar and later joined us in the beginning of this year. Though i knew her for the past 10 yrs met her in person just this year as she joined our organisation. Since then, she continues to be good friend and a confidante of mine.
15. First time spent a week-long vacation without my aathukarar and the beauty was i didnt miss him much. (Athu konja naal aanaa appadithaan polannu avar polambarthu kaathula kekkarthaa?)
16. Renewed my long time passion - reading books. At times iam even awake till 4.00 in the morning reading just with the help of night lamp. Illenna P yoda thookkam kettu poidume. Looking forward to visit the Book fair. Hope to visit this weekend.
16. Last but not the least we were featured in one of the IT newsletter - Couples as such in Sp business being partners and the role of the spouse.

So many international events happened and many bloggers have listed them and i wouldnt be doing justice by re-listing them, though the order may change. Though there were few incidents here and there , as in my opinion, no major disaster except for the befall of LTTE happened.

Stepping into 2010 without any major plans and wish to take things as they come.

Wishing all of you a warm and fun-filled 2010 ahead.

New avatar of P

P generally follows the proverb " Look before you leap " while making friends. But, there in my fathers place he befriended "B" within seconds. And he followed the give and take policy with him to the T.


He learnt all the new tamil words from B. While P knows The Mask, he sent everyone into splits by his understanding of the tamil word. When B said "dey athu ennod mogamudi daa " , P showed him a cap and said "dey moodithaan inga irukku mogamoodi enga da irukku".

And he meticulously corrected his pronunciations ,

Mickey - Mic cc keyyyy sollu. AAn corrct Mouse apparam. Athuthaan Mickey Mouse, athu oru eli daaa.
Unakku magishi theriyumaaa athuthaan da Ayyappa destroy pannuvare (His father bought him a book on ayyappa on his return journey from sabarimalai)
And he also teaches him the "ab, ap , og , od words " ., with proper pronunciations.

And in return he learnt to drive the tyre of a car sans the car, and of that cycle sans the cycle. Tries to master the art of jumping from the wall and walking tight-rope on the small platform which is in our front-yard.

Also, gave us a big treat of dancing to the tunes of "barbie girl" along with "B". And this was the first time we saw him dancing.

Note - After seeing P, he also got a ear-muff and religiously wore it on every trip outside the house.

Another Rambling

My vacation plan is like the cat on the wall. It always happens whenever i look forward to it. Dont know whether i would make it or not. Konja naal intha samayal , saappadu vittu free ah irukkalaanna avarukku porukkathe. By avar i mean, GOD. Vera yaarum illa. Infact, it was my aathukaarar who suggested me to go to my fathers place , cos he would be out of station. Even P was enthusiastic about that :(
Keeping my fingers crossed, lets see. If yes, i wouldnt be online for a week or yours truly would be asusual boring everyone with posts.

Kiddie Talks - 11

Went with P to pazhamudhir cholai , and started picking vegetables. His all time and one and only favourite vegetable is Potato . And he was insisting and pestering me to buy potato and radish. (Dont know where he picked that). A lady was standing behind me and she was listening to him all the way..
And she asked him in English
"Do you like to come to vegetable shop and pick vegetables"
He was quiet and was hesitant to answer (quite shy u see)
When i prompted him he said
"Yess. I like to come"
L : What vegetables you like?
P : I like potato and radish.
L : Wowww!! Thats very nice.

Then we resumed our work and he started to speak with me in English ( Naan ennathaan sonnalum english la pesa maattam . Would say " Amma school la thaan eng pesanum, veetla Tamil thaan pesanum, Enga Maam solli irukkanga)

Then we came home and he was all the way talking in English only. I was actually taken aback with his vocabulary. Never heard him / expected him to speak fluently though. As we reached home , he told my paatti that he would speak in english only with her and when i said she doesnt know he said, " I will teach you " (all the way in English)

And sir antha flow laya irunthaara, suddenly he called " Mom" (he used to call me amma)

I said "aaaaaaaaaannnnn" . Avvalavuthaan he felt embarrassed and his face went reddddddd.

Couldnt control laughter. Ukg eh inthaa bandhaanna pirkalathula enna aagumo theriyala. Ithula Amma , u dont know english ah nnu enna vera Kezhvi!!!!!!!!!

Pondy Bazaar or Paandi Bazaar

Just yesterday i learnt the original name of the so called " Pondy Bazaar".

After nearly three decades of living in chennai (donot try to calculate my age, it may not be right and u would be hurting my ego badly ;))) ) and oorsuthifying in T.Nagar all the way right from schooling to shopping and everything just yesterday i came to know the actual name of the place.
While i was going with P to the dance class i chanced upon to read the name of the police station at the junction in the Panagal Park and it was " Soundarapandi Angadi Police Station "

Thats how Paandi became Pondy . Hence forth it should be called as Paandi bazaar.

This reminds me of the scene in Avvai Shanmugi where Gemini Ganesan and Kamal meet. He would say all the names of his fore-fathers and his name and at last would say " antha varisaiyila Paaannnndiiii" . LOL. The modulation would be excellent. (Please vodaney enna anti-brahmin varisaiyila serthudaathinga, just recollecting thatsall , serthaalum i dont mind)

The climate is very cool and a little dull due to the rains. Though it is not pouring but just drizzling now, the ambience is too good for the following...

HOT BONDAS / BAJJIS / VADAIS (Though i dont mind settling for hot samosas/puffs instead)

HOT CUP OF TEA

A SUSPENSE NOVEL

ILLAYARAJA MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND

All these things in the bedroom with a dim light......

How i wish for the above.....

But the reality strikes..... night tiffen, dance class for P , then again kanji and night dinner for paatti........

Kumbakonam trip - III

Lalithambigai temple is situated about 1 km from peralam, a small village which is on the way to mayiladudurai. Actually it was past noon and we lost all the hopes of seeing the deity thinking that the temple would be closed from 12 pm - 5 pm. But, my athukkarar wanted to atleast have the gopura darisanam , so we set out to the temple just to catch a glimpse of the temple from outside.

It is amidst a scenic village setup which u normally see in the tamil films. The roads were pretty okay and we heard that it was complete chaos few months before. And finally we reached the temple around 12.45 pm. We had great "kuduppinai" (luck) i suppose, or else how do you account for the temple to be open at that time and that too special pooja with archanais for both the deity. The ambigai there was a mesmeric beauty amidst the old type of temple. I somehow relish the old construction with small praharams but considerably good space outside with lots of trees and garden.

And when old temples are renovated , i feel the basic architecture should not be disturbed. I was in for a surprise and taken back when the "Kasi viswanathar temple" at Easwaran koil street, westmambalam was recently renovated. The temple lost its charm and somehow the new one seemed to be crowded and lost its divinity and seemed more of a mandapam rather than a kovil. I remember playing in the huge space outside the temple and though the praharams were small it gave a sense of peacefulness once you are inside it. With the building and the huge structure it seems to have shrunken rather expand ultimately.

And now back to the trip...

The Peralam village would just have been another in the map if not for the Lalithambigai temple. They have well maintained bath and toilet just situated at 5 min walk from the temple which is under lock and key. You should just have to get the key from the woman at the shop outside the temple and can refresh , but not without a cost which is necessary for them to maintain.Even in the city you cannot imagine restrooms / toilet being maintained at the prominent places. It is more necessary than all the parking places and parks which are being developed .

After the food for the souls , we even had food for our stomachs. As soon as we got the darshan we went towards our car, and were about to start, when two men came rushing towards us. They asked us to come inside and have the prasadhams. At it was around 3.00pm and all we had was the breakfast at chidambaram. It was such a treat with 5 types of prasadhams - puliyodarai, maangai saadam , thayir saadam, chakkarai pongal, and one more sweet - akkara vadisal. While we left we were brimming with gratitude cos we had earlier decided to have grand sweets snacks for lunch and to give the kids bread and jam.

There are few houses outside the temple and please dont hesitate to ask in the first house for home-made food, if you are travelling with a kid. Heard from one of our friends that when you ask them they would serve you with home made food. And mind they would never ask you the money and you can give them as you wish. I donot know whether they follow the practice now also. We came to know about that only after the trip so was unable to check it out.

With the topic revolving around lalithambigai in fullfledge we reached thirukadavur. This is the temple famous for the Aayushomams and the shashtiapthapoorthis. The temple authorities would organise for the decorations and the photos , videos and other requirements for a price.

Lets see about this temple in the next post



P.S - This post had been in the draft for a while.

My Grandmother had been ill for the past 20 days. She takes regular medicines with regard to her heart problems. And she is also an ulcer patient, low BP and suffered two fractures. All this and what not more at the age of 80. But this is the longest time she had been in bed.
Never once i had seen her ill for more than a week. Though she would paduthufy me for taking food more than "P" she would recover within a week. This had been a time for testing my patience to the core.
I was able to see clearly "marana bayam" in her eyes. She got tensed for silly issues and all and started relating with all the known and unknown relatives problems with hers.
Ippadithaan enga maama vukku dysentry vanthu avar poi sernthuttar. And no she didnt have dysentery - but just once or twice that too was the effect of prolonged liquid food. Even the liquid food which i insisted were good ones only - juices, oats, kanji maavu, milk and parboiled rice kanji..... It only helped me to maintain without the aid of all glucose IV .
And when we went to kancheepuram, her hometown ,she learnt that she was the only one alive among her classmates and friends. But , her brother who is strong at 95 and his wife have become invisible to her eyes. Its been difficult to maintain her cool and aloof even if i get any death news.
And so far i had never seen deaths as such through my eyes. Only heard, always it was a message from the hospital. And it drives me nuts to be alone when my aathukarar is not in station. I start to imagine all sort of things and spend sleepless nights when she is ill. I would literally pray for the dawn to break.
After i got tired with the "aaruthal route" i have started taking strong route to deal with her. She is always wary of hospitals. So started telling her that if she continues with this sort then there is no other way other than getting her admitted into the hospital.
And this has worked for me today. Lets hope

Random Ramblings

1.Why I always end up keeping the bread till the last date and gobble it up on the last day or worst even throw it up on the next day?

2. Why ist always people who visit the sick get Horlicks? I end up having 3 - 4 in the shelf always whenever my grandmom falls sick

3. And they assume to get Biscuits for the kids and invariably Goodday - the mega pack!!!! - Why dont they think of nice story books or other savouries ?

4.Whenever i buy vegetables for aviyal for my aathukarar, iam unable to do it and end up doing veg kurma for P?

5. Always the alarm snooze goes off after the 1 hr time? Why cant it stretch for another 1 hr? Invariably i end up late and rush :(