Impressions

 I feel people should travel a lot. It really gives u so much to think about and by various means of transport especially. By travel i mean, not like todays generation with headphones watching mobiles or ipad. Maybe, iam getting old or rather i say young by all these travel.

Perusa onnum travel pannala - just went to Mumbai to be with aathu for a continous 10 days and the last few days went to Alibaug. 

Everytime i travel till i complete my security check, i feel like iam getting into examination hall to appear in NEET. Starting from identity and boarding pass check, i always feel so nervous. Especially the check-in for baggage. Its like giving fasting and PP sugar before consulting your doctor. Kadavule it should stay within the limit. Illenna doctor thittuvarennu. After that the security checkin which also involves the hand baggage check. Ithu gives me 100% anxiety. To take everything and keeping on the tray especially the charger, adaptor and the electronics. I always give a sigh of relief after this procedure.

Ellam mudinju we start boarding and if iam with P and Pa, oru periya drama ve nadakkum. P would start scolding - amma en kaththi pesara, methuva pesu, en poi queuela nikkara, lets wait appadinnu noi noinnu would start. I would silently remember the same conversation with my paatti. Hmm ellam kaalamnu. Do we all go into that phase when we get into 40+ or ist just me? He would be like for 9.30 flight, we can checkin before 8.30 nnu, but i would get palpitations if it crosses 7.30. He checks the google map and says it would take 17 minutes to reach, so lets start by 8.13 nnu solluvaan. Enakku appadiye tension, BP ellam shoot up aagidum.

Now, after boarding, they dont prefer Window seat at all. They nicely sit with either music or movie or a game. Whereas, i start admiring the other airplanes and the arrival and their departures. And while flying would try to decipher the clouds and the sometimes cloudless sky. Start wondering how clouds form and try to recollect my geography. But, all i can remember is the rain cloud formation and not the other ones. Then i would think if i had been travelling before my school days could have studied something related to geography or science instead of these numbers nnu.

Samething happened when we went by the ferry, i was so fascinated with the sea. The waves, the beach and the not so sandy but clay sort of beach there. Why didnt i think of not learning all these things before. Ist because iam middle aged now, and instead of watching movies or listening to movies , iam fascinated by these or iam so vetti travelling that these thoughts occur. I love watching the waves that come non-stop and everytime its not the same. It varies in speed and the distance it covers. East and West are so different during sunset. 

And about the city - wow - literally the city never sleeps - even at 2 or 3 there is so much traffic in the main roads in Mumbai whereas in Chennai literally u can see people only in the tea shop or some famous instagram shop and that too only for the past 3 or 4 years or so. 

So much to write about the city in the short span and my observations.

The Devil wears Prada

 My stint with movies can be categorised into two phases. It would be before Pa and the second innings after 12 years once Pa became a big girl.

It all started when aathu bought a big size television from Malaysia and had it fixed in our bedroom. It was HD one and the one in the living room was left exclusively for paatti. We gave the cable connection with HD and those times the English channels and few tamil came with HD (we watched only those). 

We watched movies left and right. P had school from morning 8-2 and once he is back home, we would start watching all those star movies, movies now and all those movies channel. Not that i didnt watch when he was at school :) There were few movies which were our favourites like the Real steel, I Robot. I loved all those feel good movies like You have got mail, Serendipity, Mrs.Doubtfire, Speed to name a few. The names dont come to me now just that i wanted to pen it down.

To recollect i googled top movies from 1990 to 2013 and when i went through the IMDB list of top 250 movies, i realised i had watched only a handful of them. Is my taste so bad or i dont gel with the world. Whatever

After 2013 my world completed changed. It literally turned upside down. And i was always on a run that i barely had time to watch movies. Now, i have again resumed. Eventhough we have subscribed for amazon prime and Netflix at the behest of P and Pa , only recently i have resumed watching movies.

Like P, we have been going to movies to watch all language movies. We even watched few Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi movies. Even Pa who just loves or should i say anime with all those Naruto and what not ( i dont know the difference. every character looks the same to me) enjoyed those movies. The recent ones which we enjoyed were the pakka telugu commercial Chiranjeevi movie and the malayan ones - sarvam maya and Vaazha II.

It was so different to watch non-tamil movies in theatre. I thought only the native speakers would be there. But, i can see so many tamils. How do i now they were tamils. As the movie started we couldnt see the sub-title for few minutes and i said P, if no sub-title how would we enjoy and clearly the same sentiment was echoed in the theatre.

Now why did i name this post as 'The Devil wears Prada'. I always watch this movie whenever they play it on .  I love Meryl Streep, her attitude. So, now iam watching all her other movies. I loved Julie and Julia. I loved how effortlessly she portrays all her characters. And i love Anna Hathaway's role in The Intern and i just started liking her from The Princess Diaries

Eagerly waiting for the sequel of 'The Devil wears Prada' .

While I was watching Julie and Julia, i was thinking about my blog which is dormant and wanted to regularly blog atleast for my sake. When i write, I feel so light and want to write everyday my thoughts without any filters. Now a days my blog has been more of a rant or philosophical. How people change.

Waiting for my humour to takeover sometime. Wish i was carefree like good old days 

Financial Independence

 I was having this conversation with my colleagues the other day and not far from that day had an incident which proved my thought process is right.

Lady S has been working in our office for 5+years. Lets not get into the personal details but when she was confronted for the mistake she made, she panicked and wanted to quit. The reasons she gave were all so authentic and it was as if she was waiting for the last straw. 

I was not aware of any of the above and when i went to office, i was told she had to quit due to family pressure. Me being me tried to reason with her that financial independence was very necessary.

Even though aathu literally carries me on a platter, i felt confident and self sufficient only after i resumed work after a long break. Literally, i had all the cards of aathu and never once he has asked me about my spendings. If i say i need money he would just give me without asking me about the whereabouts. 

Still, when i again started earning it gave me glow and power which iam unable to express. Due to some circumstances i was the breadwinner during that time. And aathu being aathu never felt his ego bruised nor was ashamed of me being the breadwinner. Still i have the Gpay and when aathu had to spend for anything, its me who approves the payment.

And still when there are any special occasions he doesnt think twice before spending on lavish gifts whereas eventhough i also hold the purse i think a lot before spending. Whether its for me or for aathu or the kids. Ist female genetic characteristic or the paranoid me or the cautious me or traumatic me. Iam unable to figure it out.

Last week went to dinner with my aathus friends family and when i picked the tab it felt so good. And i was proud of aathu who was so casual about everything. 

Note-The very same people who went from sympathetic to frivolous when things were bad and again wanted to be so magnanimous but showed their true colours (jealousy) when they saw we have recovered and ahead. I know i dont make sense but some things can be felt and cannot be reasoned. 

I know this is a very personal post which i wanted to record for posterity