Its been raining Birthdays

We have been going left and right to birthday parties and having said that i should also say that "I just love it". Its like refreshing apart from the family functions or religious functions where you are required to maintain the decorum and the gossip mills going.... And its all ladies meet with an exception of two or three fathers who look like lost bakras in the midst of the chattering ladies. (Aathu is extra cautious and after one incident of the same kind avoids them altogether hehehee...) . Now-a-days birthday parties start with cakes and ends with dinner (no cooking yeh....) All i have to do is deck up myself and P nicely , get a gift (ithuthaan romba kashtamana part-to get appropriate gift-cos kids just tear then and there and react instantly) and reach the house/party place. Kids instantly fleece and abandon us. There greetings are just awesome. All 7 yr olds hugging and greeting each other calling machaan etc...... All the parents were starring like aaawwwwwwww.......Hmmmm time is running fast like the japanese metros......
Next comes the welcome drink...i sincerely hope they give us choices in this regard except for the poochi kolli marunthu - then starters they range from french fries - cutlet - chips.
Apparam the main attraction cake cutting - Inge ore senti oh senti thaaaan - these kids know how to hog the limelight - calling their best friends and asking them to stand next to them and hugging each other - birthday song - cake cutting - ippo ore oottti vidals thaaan they forget their parents also . Now starts the sole purpose of party - athaanga dinner......Ending la vethala paakku and beeda mattum and thamboolam thaan missing or else all the ingredients of marriage are present. But that too is taken care of with the return gifts. Host kku main test eh ingathaaan irukku , i mean the success of the party lies with the return gift. You got to make right choice or else ella effort um bulb thaaaan. Best choice would be pencil box or the latest cartoon sensations. They never get aluthufied to our kutti chatthans. ;)
Finally we hit the sack at 10 -10.30 , so it is best to plan the day accordingly with no samayal and no padippu on the particular day and not to mention no saapadu to aathu or only neer mor ;p

Raahukalam and Yemagandam

Literally, my grandmothers days start with this only. She is an ardent fan (u can also say devotee)of AMR. For those of you who haven't heard about him - His name is A.M.Rajagopalan and he is the man behind "kumudam jothidam", a weekly magazine related to astrology. So, right in the bed as soon as she wakes up, she would take the book, which is normally kept under the pillow and would read the weekly updates . My aathukarar would always tease her regarding this, saying ur paatti would do anything if AMR says.
And she is a staunch believer of all these rahukalam, yemagandam and yogam etc...She would always insist that we should not start during raahukaalam and yamagandam or during maranayogam.
And we generally just shrug it off and do as we please. But, two incidents happened which made me wonder about these technicalities.
The first one being our trip to vellore during last May. We exactly started during Emagandam and that too on a day with full maranayogam. Hardly we had crossed the poonamalle bridge, when i heard some rattling sound. Told my aathukarar so and he just brushed it aside saying you are imagining things. We generally, travel with windows shut and with AC for air circulation, cos P is allergy to dust, smoke etc. So, the outside noise as such would be just negligible. In spite of that, i was hearing the rattling sound with full force now. So, just again told aathukarar and this time he heard it too. So, we just orangattified and checked. Just then , we noticed that the left back tyre had got punctured and was literally shredding into long pieces . It was about to hit the alloys , when we finally stopped. Just seeing the tyre as such , juices started flowing inside my stomach. Imagine what would have happened, incase we had been continuing , and that too NH at full speed.
Luckily we got two good souls who helped us with the process of replacing the tyre with that of stepney.
The same puncture story happened during the return trip from Bangalore too during November last year. Should i say, same yogam and same yemagandam.....
And again today morning when i went to drop my bro in the bus stand , it was raahukalam. Yesterday, he used my two-wheeler and i think forgot to fill the tank. Me, having immense faith didnt check while starting the vehicle and just dropped him and while returning back , got stuck. So i just opened the petrol cap and to my utter dismay saw that it was dry as a dosa pan. Bayangara kovam and helplessness drove me to the petrol bunk near udhayam theatre, and angeyum oru sathi. The bunk was closed. I just didnt know wat to do. Could have called my aathukarar, but he was busy with morning tender work , so didnt wish to burden him. So i just stood there , just watching the traffic . Another man was standing with his bike and when i enquired whether any loose petrol would be available , he replied that even he was stuck in the same position. Then came a man, from the petrol bunk and told me that there would be one in the 1 st Avenue. Adaadaa, i know that and i cannot go on foot with my scooty trailing behind all the way again nnu sonnen.
Apparam avar enna nenachaaro theriyala, he said then only auto would do nnu sonnar. I was quite confused between, whether he was giving suggestion or was offering to do one nnu. After hesitating for sometime i asked him whether he would be able to get it for me. Me all the way quite not sure, whether he would do or would just escape with the money. Just thought that i would take that risk. One automan came forward and said u give 100 , 60 for pertol and 40 for auto. That man from bunk again asked whether i was interested to go. Rather i thought i would risk 100 than being taken away in autonnu nenachu, "illa illa can u go and get nnu sonnen". He readily agreed and while going told me " Bayappadaatheenga, iam working here only nnu".
After what seemed like eternity both of them came with the petrol. And i offered them my generous thanks along with some money and left the same with some advice "to take proper precautions before venturing out in a two-wheeler".
Veettukku vantha same old archanai - Naan sonnen paathiyaa rahukaalam nu, en pechai kettathaanennu...
But still even after hundreds of experiences and adventures, we would still like to think it as a mere co-incidence....

Past Fortnight

Well, can so much happen in a fortnight? The answer is yes. First of all an event happened twice and i was apprehensive about penning it down for the simple reason that it brought back the bitter and the spine chilling experience again. But , finally i made up my mind that to ensure it doesnt happen again i should pour it out and empty myself.

I have heard so many times the phrase " oru nimisham oru ugam maathiri" but havent experienced it untill last week. The first one took place in a famous store in pondy bazaar. I used to be very proud of the fact that my kiddo was extra smart and very cautious but, he proved my belief wrong and also made me feel guilty. Just penning my thoughts itself gives me nightmares and it is like re-living the experience. That day my kids class got cancelled so inspite of his protest to go straight to home i took him to the shop. I felt that if we went straight home he might either go for TV or the PC, so in order to drag the time i planned to go for shopping.

We purchased some books and a toy for him there and when we went to the counter which was in the ground floor ,he stayed in the steps leading to it which were hardly 10 in numbers. I stood in the counter and had an eye on him as well. But, when i just took my eye to take out the cash and looked again he was not to be seen there. Gosh!!! fresh shrills went up to my spine and my first thought was someone had taken him. I rushed outside to confirm that he didnt leave the store. But there was no sign of him and the security and one of the store manager who was standing there told me that no child went outside alone. But, i wasnt convinced and searched again and then went to the basement and called aloud his name. It would be silly to say one hundred thoughts passed in my mind and i was afraid that he would go past me if i leave the entrance and check the first floor. At that time i started calling my aathukarar and tears started rolling down my cheeks. When the ring was going i just looked accidently in the first floor and there was my kid standing and crying with one of the shop assistant and words cannot describe my feelings i felt on seeing him. Immediately i disconnected the call and rushed towards him. He was scared and i didnt ask him anything at that moment. And i profusely thanked everyone and once i got out of the store i started telling him how worried i was when i was unable to find him. Then he told me that he was just sitting there and when i went to the counter he was unable to see me and assumed that i had gone back to the first floor.
Irony is that i have this series of read aloud books called "Bruno series" where one of the book is Bruno gets lost. I religiously tell him everyday the story and make him answer the questions at the back of the book where a similar story is printed. I felt very guilty in assuming the things and not taking proper care. This iam saying cos the incident got repeated two days later in the kamatchiammman temple in kancheepuram where i had gone with my sister, chithi, athai and paatti. There too while doing the prathakshanam i assumed that he was with my sister but he had stopped enroute to do the namaskaram before the dwajasthambam. It was our practice to do in every temple and since there was heavy crowd we decided that after prathakshanam we would do the namaskaram. But hardly we went 10 steps when we noticed him missing. Ran and came backwards in search of him when i found him with a lady who was about to take him to the office since he was crying and standing there. Again thanked her and got nice thittu from her for being so careless. Never i had been this careless, and all the way iam feeling guilty. Am i not a good mother and how can i repeat the same thing twice. Always my aathukarar used to complain that when iam on road i used to "parakku paathufy".

Okie. Now to reduce the intensity of this post.

Went to the doctor since my kid had cough for the past one week

kid : Dr. Ungalukku sticker venuma

Dr : (avarukku mothalla onnum puriyala) Ennathu sticker ah? Seri okay venum enna sticker vechindrukke.

Kid : Spiderman sticker. Aana neenga enakku oosi (injection) poda koodathu , appothaan ungalukku sticker tharuven.

Both doctor and his wife were astonished and later burst out laughing.

(I didnt know that he carried the stickers and somehow assumed that the dr was going to put injections, cos we vaccinated him the previous month)

Reminiscing about kancheepuram

After a gap of about 12 years i visited the city. So much has changed in the temple city. Its the native town of my aathukarars as well mine. Though we were born and brought up here , our parents and their parents were associated with this city.
The city is crowded with more number of one-ways in force, thanks to the likes of NOKIA and SAINT GOBAIN and all the mushrooms in the corridor. The land price has leaped forward from a mere 2 lakhs per ground to 40 lakhs in a decade. All Saravana bhavans and Saravana stores are queuing up to put their foot in the available commercial spaces. Car showrooms and Titan gold showrooms have made their way into the city with the sole aim of capitalising the tourism there.
All cars both big and small are zooming across the city. And regardless of the public transport which is aplenty , unlike chennai, share-autos do brisk business in this city.
Even as i say about the modernization of the city, the city still retains its charm with the ever-popular car-festivals and the Urchavams. Its still a treat to watch the thear and the pallakku of the perumal going around the city and the people thronging alongside to get the blessings of the perumal. And not to mention about the local holiday declared on garuda sevai. People's humanity is at its peak when they offer the home-made thayir sadams and puliodarais with the butter-milk. Living in apartment culture, it was a different experience for me to meet relatives and friends every step and nook and corner on the way to shopping. In my fathers co-operative society , all the staffs thronged to see his daughter, son-in-law and grand-son.Also,it was a new experience for me and my kid watching hundreds of people waiting in the temple grounds with all the kattu-satham and murukku .
But, we were unable to visit the moolavar due to the death of a little boy in the temple tank. That incident, they say is a regular every year. When they say it is a common one, why cant they make necessary arrangements to prevent them. By rather restricting the area after the incidents, they can cordon off the entire area during these festivals. And not to mention the cruelty rendered to the animals especially the elephants. I have this phobia, that is imagining all the ways by which things might go wrong.
Same thing happened with respect to elephants. When i saw the mahout beating the elephant with the sticks i started thinking " What would happen if suddenly the elephant gets mad and runs among the crowd" With the thinking cropping in my mind i started walking out fast with a hand firm on my kids shoulders. I was not able to breathe till the minute i was out of the vicinity of the temple.
The next day, there is this thanga pallakku oorvalam. On that day, the lord is taken around the city in the thanga pallakku and rested in mandapams on the way for few minutes for the people to get darshan. During this procession perumal would rest only in temple mandapams and this is known as "mandagapadi". In the whole city, our home is the only house where mandagapadi takes place in the big thoradu of our house, other than temple mandapam. The story dates back to my great-great-grandfather. He was a ardent perumal fan. And when after few generations they decided to stop the mandagapadi taking place in the house my great-grandfather went and fell on his stomach flatly before the perumal and requested to continue the practice. So till today the mandagapadi continues.
On the whole, it was a rejuvenating experience for me and my kid enjoyed each and every hour spent there.