Sweet Memories- I

Today I happened to watch this Ilaiyaraja's concert. Well, not a live-one. Its a pretty old one. But it brought back my sweet memories.
We were a big gang from my 3rd standard. Just perpendicular to our house there was a street. And we happened to stay in that street for 2 years when we re-constructed our house. It was a great period. There might be easily around 10-15 kids almost in the same age group.
Well, coming to the event. There was a neighbourhood school where almost all the kids were studying except myself, P and R. P studied in a famous girls school in Mount Road and R in one of the other neighbourhood school where people switch over once they go to 11th std from 10th CBSE. And this neighbourhood school was completing its 25th silver jublee year and arranged for Gangai Amaran's concert in Music Academy. So they gave this invitation which said admit two only to all the students. We all planned to go as a gang and without any elders i should say.
The only one accompanying was this anna "I" who was a journalist and also happened to be the uncle of one of the kid. So we started to hunt for the invitations from all the kids and started to plan the trip. We were more than 15 people and only 5 of them were from that school. We somehow managed to grab the invitations but it was short of one more. Somehow we managed to dodge and smuggle two of the kids inside by enough confusing the teacher at the door.
It was a very new experience and i was in my early teen and that was more than enough to cook up the excitement. Since this anna was a journalist he went backstage and we all once settled. It was the first live-in concert for us. P , R and myself were always pretty close. P, being the daughter of a doctor couple was a brilliant girl and needless to mention a pretty girl. She was a year-old than mine. We were too close . This R is 2 yrs elder than me.
I had this secret crush on R though we were pretty good friends. But, you see boys are often vry cunning and they choose only the best of the lot. And whenever there is P all the boys would try to charm her. But i should really give credit to her intelligence. She is a soft girl and always stand first in class and good at drawing. More importantly she was fair. This is the criteria which everyone consider whenever they look at some girl.
Well , iam deviating myself. And i got the opportunity to go back-stage cos of this anna who likes me a lot and got to interact with the singers present there. It was feeling good at that stage cos i was only around 11. The concert dragged well into the midnight and after that we started walking to the bus stand. The road was very much deserted and it was fun walking with all ur friends chatting and pulling each other in the night.
And since it started getting late that anna arranged the auto for 5 of us whose parents were very much capable of causing a scene out of their ultimate affection. That included P , R , Myself, my cousin S and Pa. In the auto we were all hush-hush discussin the possiblity of kidnap by the auto driver. So we were all totally geared up to meet the situation incase any of it warranted. Luckily nothing happened and he was sweet enough to sense our commotion and offered a free ride.
When we got into our street there was literal chaos with all the family standin outside the house and worrying.
My first night out without any elders was a big hit.

Glittering Peacocks

Decorate our national bird peacock with glitters. This was the worksheet given yesterday to my kid.
Thank god, when i went on the purchase spree for doing his scrap book i had picked this glitter glue from Landmark. And at that time it was a mistake on my part to pick that instead of glittering pens. But the mistake proved quite useful. That too when i was submit it the next day.

I thought of it an easy job. But my fingers were throbbing. Just like glue i had to press but the mere concentration and the caution sent fresh shrills thro my fingers.
First i started to do it with my kid. Both of us were doing it together. I was just guiding his fingers though inadvertently i started hurting him. So, i said i wud do the smaller circles requiring concentration and did one.
Avvalavuthaan avanukku kovam vanthuduthu. He said u do i will not come near that. He is so sensitive and adamant too. And for the rest he refused to indulge. So, i did it myself.
Then only i discovered that i had certain passion towards them. I mean doin those craft works.

During my school days we didnt have much of extra-curricular or should i say much of crafts activities. It was just obligatory on them to do the work experience and general studies since they made it compulsory in the CBSE pattern and were awarded grades.
And since procrastination was in my genes i wouldnt do them till the 11th hour and rush at the last minute. So was not in any position in putting my creative thoughts into it. Hahahaahaa.....

Anyway the peacock was good but a bit sothapified with the eyes. That stole the beauty of the picture entirely. Anyway, there is always the next time i can prove. Still 3 or 4 more years i wud help him, i suppose with his project works. Athukkapparum , i think he would be independent like the x-gen kids and would scowl at me at the very sight of me stepping into his room.

Though as a mother i would both be happy at his independence and worried at his behaviour.
What u sow is what u reap.

Nasty cold

This post is not about some thorn in the foot but literally the virus commonly known as common cold. I somehow dread this cold very much. From my childhood, i can stand any illness but not this one. I would always feel i should just lie-down whole-day. Normally, i don't fuss and all are well aware of my problem with this cold. But, the past few days iam suffering. Thanks to the weather and vaikunda ekadasi. Ennamo naanthaan perumal oda sole propreiter maathiri, naan veratham irukkatta perumal thoonginde iruppar maathiriyum kalankaarthala thailakku kulichen. Hmm athanoda vilaivuthaan.

Enna perusa thalaikku kulikkartha solriyennu ketta, naan konja neram ennoda medical history pathi solla vendi varum.

I have this sinusitis and cos of that dust, smoke and cool items enakku othukkathu. Naane bayangara somberi and added to that ithellam senthaa kekkava venum.
I can have even bag-ful of medicines but injection appadinna mile thooram oduven. I would cry as if they are wrangling me. So my doctor would never give injection to me. I got hardly few injections during my pre-conception period.
One was during my eighth standard half-yearly examinations time. Antha examkku thaan olunga padichi irunthen . Appo poi fever vanthuduthu. Antha marks vechu thaan matha papers oppethanum so appo agreed for the infection.
Next was few days before the excursion trip. Illenna enga paatti enna anuppa maattangale. Ithukke kenji koothadi permission vaanginathu.
Enga paatti too much. Pooshanikka saapdathe cold vanthurum. Paitham paruppaaa , athu intha winterla aagathe. Aiyo cauliflower maargazhi maasam othukkathe. And for potato athu vaayvu aache. She worries too much. My aathukkarar would comment ' appo ennathaan saappadrathu". I feel the seasonal veggies are the best and one should go with them according to their availability in their particular season.
I think i have written this post randomly without any correlation. All due to this cold. Hmm romba mokkaiyana postnnu enakke theriyuthu. But cant help it.

Still savouring

Three days passed. Still iam happy reminiscing the day over and over again. Iam content of the fact that i didnt get a chance to brood over. All in all it went well. Though my athukkarar showered with surprise gifts on occasions before and after marriage for the past 2 yrs he was occupied with work tension. So he would tell me that why u still expect me to get surprise presents. Though i agree with him, its not the value of the presents i expect, but just the action on the whole. I would be content even if he gives a diary milk and wish me.

This year he over-reacted saying that u shouldnt have expectations. With his abnormal behaviour i understood he is upto something. Since i didnt want to disappoint myself i didnt pester him either. So promptly i went to sleep at 11.00pm unlike last year http://oreponnu.blogspot.com/2007/12/birthday.html

Treat it as telepathy or else, i suddenly got up at 12.00pm and casted a blank stare towards my aathukkarar. There he was standing and wishing me. And he gave me a gift. Lol u know wat was there inside a nice earing and chain set from GRT. It was very delicate and small. I prefer these kind of things. And he is also interested in non-showy things. It was the beautiful thing neatly packed. For few seconds i was dumb. Its not the present but his gesture. Then he sent me this beautiful sms and asked me to check my mail. The e-card was cute , but i prefer the hard copy. Somehow, i feel closeness and the unique personal touch in the traditional greeting cards. So i have this habit of sending and giving cards. (not e-greetings).

In the morning i got wishes from my friends - including my friend for 20 yrs, F , though there s no consistent contact we are pretty close. Somehow it is destined that during important occasions we renew our contact. She is getting married in this Feb. Iam so happy for her.
The from the relatives. First timers i would say in the span of 20+ years.

Evening we went to temple. This time it was vadapalani temple. Almost all the temples have been converted into mini govt offices. When they see this 100 rupee note in ur hand only they offer to do the pooja to the shrine . Else, thallunga thallunga only. And in the name of archanai he just broke the coconuts and showed aarthii. Thats all. Oru chinna manthiram kooda sollala. I was more disappointed.
Coming to the prasatham counter, the puliyodarai and the chakkara pongal were worse than my preparation. Thought i should ask them to take class from srirangam kovil . They serve the most delicious puliodirai.

As usual ended up with HSB for dinner. This time i had my favourite kasi halwa. too much ghee though.

So ennoda pirantha naal inithe niraivadainthathu....... Hope i remain content without any complaints , jealousy, possessiveness and bad temper and keep myself occcupied for the rest of the year.

Restaurants and Eating out

In today's world eating out has become one of the family ritual. You can at any time find hoards of people standing outside the restaurants. The scene has almost become pathetic. Now-a-days i find eating at home pleasant rather in restaurants.

I can hardly pick out the instances where we went to restaurants before i came across my aathukarar. Since i grew up with my grandparents, i hardly got an opportunity to eat in a restaurant. (lost my mom when i was 2.5yrs) . So they insist on home-cooked food even if it is rasam saatham.

I always had curd rice so with me they didnt have any problem.

But i should mention this udipi hotel rite behind our house. They used to serve this lip-smacking vada and sambar. We used to jump the wall behind our house and go into the side-path of the restaurant.

Every 2-3 times a week we would go and get 2 vadais but used to take a big paathiram for sambar. That days no plastic covers and hell lot of sambar they would give for just 2 vadais and certainly not 2 karandi of sambar neatly put in a polythene cover enough to hold only safety pins which they given in saravana bhavan now-a-days. And since it was an udipi hotel the sambar would taste like sure honey.

They also used to have this halwa in the evenings and i just love this carrot halwa and the poosanikka halwaa. Though other sweets would be yukkkk.

The few instances where i went outside ....

1. The one small cafe where they serve those cute little samosas with sauce. My uncle whenever he is in town would take me there. Once after finishing a drawing competition in D.A.V royapettah i was waiting for someone to pick-me up. He came there and i was very much happy (cos he is my favourite) And we went to that cafe in the light drizzle.

2. With another uncle to this saravana bhavan fast foods.. since i have never been to the restaurants i didnt know what to order. so i followed my cousins who were much younger to me. They ordered for bhel-puris and other chat items. That time we didnt have much of traffic in pillar, so we had our food in the car.

3. Same Saravana Bhavan but T.nagar, with our long time friend's family. This was on my 10th b'day. I was standing outside our gate just parakku paathufying and they were just passing by. Actually they are a family of four - Husband, wife and their two sons. So when they learnt that it was my b'day they wanted to take me with them. That day also they ordered on behalf of me. That was the first day i had this chola batura.

But now i would say intha hotel saappade vendam. Cos right from the time i was into articleship we had enough of it. Enga audit ponalum they would offer food to you. And like kancha maadu kambula pona maathiri we would experiment daily with our menus. Instead of auditing, we would look the vouchers for any of the food bills and decide our menus based on that.

In that process we were able to taste food from almost all the hotels in the city. Some good, some worst..

And also since we went to this sriperumbudur for audit we were also able to taste those factory canteen food. God, it was too good. Athuvum after working for some 5 hrs continuously when you get to eat full meals , vera ethuvume sorgama thonaathu.

Antha audit experience llam thani katha i would post elaborately later on that.



Ippo my son is also sick of restaurants since i over-dosed him with HSB which is rite parallel to our home. Ippollam antha HSB sambar smell pannale ore komattarthu.

So always, home food is the besttt. Ippovavathuu thirunthineengale nnu enga paatti solrathu kaathula kettunde irukku.....

Looking Back.....

Now i look back to my post http://oreponnu.blogspot.com/2008/01/juggling-mind-temper.html

Though i didnt do anything considerably , i would say i had my hands full. Atleast, i got into a bit of discilplined life. Since my son was put into his first year of real schooling (cant, take pre-schooling as real thing) i developed this habit of getting early. Hardly i have seen handful of sunrises... Iam always a night-bird. Even during my school days, i prefer staying awake in the night and doing things.. Whether it is studying, writing or watching tv or listening to music...(not to forget chatting over phone with my then bf now aathukarar ;) ).

Now iam also going regularly to office...not to mention my aathukarar's consistent nagging about punctuality, responsibilty and seriousness...

Iam thinking of refreshing my driving skills. Ippa enakku break, accelerator and clutch kku mattum konjam confusion. Rest i can manage.... ;) (i have license also u see).

Oru periya vishayam naan panninathu intha 2008 la ennanna i didnt indulge in vambu with any of the family members especially with in-laws. Rombavum chamaththu ponna irunthutten. Yaar enna sonnalum just boom-boom maadu maathiri thalaya attittu (without giving comments.. athu rombavum kashtam that too with my Ms.X who will kindify your mouth untill she gets wat she was expecting..) and athavida romba mukkiyum engeyum atha pass pannama irunthathuthaan.

Met all my friends (lost friends) through orkut. Some of them too thrilled to know that i married my one and only and long time bf. "Hey nee avaneyava kalyanam panninta?!! Hey great diii! Apparam eppadi di manage pannina also to study this CA amongst ur other activities????!!!!!!!! By other activities they mean is love.......

Anyways i dont have this habit of taking resolutions. Athellam just utter waste that too waiting for new year to take resolutions is absurd. (my point of view).

Let me look forward for this new year ...
Strange thing is i wud look for both new year and another additional year at the same time every year.

Sweet Neighbour!!! grrrrr....

So far I have been blessed as far as the neighbours are concerned, but this time i would say iam cursed to the core.
We live in the first floor as one among the four tenants of an independent house. All four of them are four corners of a trapezium i would say.
The family of four who live just opposite to us form the crux of rest of this post.

Lets call them Mr.X, Mrs.X , son-1x and son -2x.
I wonder what on earth does this Mr.X for their living. Always he would be at home and their daily routine starts at 5.30 am. They would play the devotional cassette with max volume like some road-side mariamman temple. Then Mrs.X would come outside and sweep outside their door while all the way arranging our slippers in front of our door like some display...(someday i think iam going to blast her for this). Then their pet stray cats(pls note down not 1 or 2 cats but a whole bunch of cats though they follow the discipline of coming one after the other) would come and wait near our door cosily sitting on the slippers and shoes neatly arranged by Mrs.X.
I dread going out and picking the milk cover in the morning. Those green emerald eyes of the cats would shine in the dark. Somehow, they send fresh chills throughout the spine. So, I always beg my aathukarar to go and get those milk packets.

Coming to son1x , he is doing eng in some, stand alone on the highway, engineering college. The moment he sees my head, he would rush into his home and bang the door, as if iam going to rape him. God, he is such a creek. Once when i was standing outside to send off my son and aathukarar , the said creek was returning from outside. The moment he saw us, he didn't even enter the house but started to go on the opposite direction and was wandering in the roads. So even i stood there deliberately to see how long he would be hanging on. But, man u should give credit to the boy for carrying on and holding ultimately. Finally, fed up i climbed back. He would run like a new-bride with his head bent down as if running he is running for his life the instant he comes in contact with any of us.

Nothing much to say about son2x. He is a nice boy as far as i know but certainly a far cry from the creep.

Our house-owners are an aged-couple. They are bit cranky and nosy too. They are of the previous generations who would like to maintain and state now and then that they are the owners of this prestigious red fort building.... Though i respect them for their age nothing out of my way i wud do to please them. But u have to see this Mr & Mrs.X . They would literally fall on their feet and would start nodding their head the moment they enter the house. Sometimes i wonder may be after the departure of the house-owners should i help them with some vicks action 500 and iodex...(oohhh...aaaaaahhhhh.... ouch...)

Then comes their maruthi swift... to park the vehicle and to put the cover always Mr.X needs an escort. And the way they pamper the swift, even i would be considered a bad mother. Pavement la irunthu ella blocks um onnu onna eduthu tyre kku adila veppanga. Hmm illenna vandi odi poidume. Then a big akbar kalathu poottu for the gate. Okay this is for the swift. Now to their cycles... Oru periya alibaba kalathu poottu with a changili.. Athukku mela oru car cover. Dont think their cycles are outside the house. But it is all the way protected under the stairs with a big grill gate and that too with 2 locks.

And all the way enga santro road la yum and our two two-wheelers compoundkku ulleyum anathayaa engala paathu aluthunde irukkum...... pesama Mr.X familykku vaakkapattu irukkalaamnu nenachindu irukkum.

Heard that they are going to vacate the house by april of 2009.
Hmmm....... or should i believe known devil is better than unknown angel.....