Happenings - June'10

P successfully stepped into his I standard and touch wood - never complained about the change of sections which separated B his best friend. Though he did mention few times , he took it in his stride - yet to feel the full impact i suppose.
Went to B's birthday party at Pizza Corner. P enjoyed the whole evening with the attention showered on him by all of B's acquaintance including friends and relatives. His parents , grandparents and all other relatives were very much eager to catch a glimpse of P (oh neethan P ya, B unnapathi than eppavume sollindu iruppan). His father was saying , " P i think has got more authoritative influence over B, whenever we ask him the reason for not finishing his lunch he would reply as - P moodi vekka sollittan paaa". Actually kathai ennaanna P inga veetla vanthu B sonnannu solluvaaaan. Ithula ethu poi ethu unmai. On the whole kids are smart enough to fool the parents nnu nenaikkaren .
First trip on our anniversary to mark 7 yrs of Happy Married life (athu happy ya illayannu aathukarar ah thaniya kettaathaaan theriiyum).
Googled about kodaikkanal - resorts, sight-seeing, availability of hotels, Food, route-map and tickets...
Then about Yercaud, then yelagiri and then Goa . And after prolonged research and continuous googling got tired and abandoned the project and got back to my routine life.
Then all of a sudden tickets were booked, hotels arranged and finally boarded the train - destination - Mysore. (Kadaisiyaaa vacationnnu engeyaanum ponaaa thevalangara maathiri aayiduthu) [Realised at last that aathukarar was postponing the trip religiously to make it an anniversary special ;)]
13 hours of travel - train late and added to that coach was flooded due to the rain - athuvum right below our seats - all the more made it difficult. But the scenic beauty captured at the time of dawn compensated everything. En route to Mysore from Bangalore (appothaan veliya paakka mudinjathu athu vera vishayam and the travel time was 5hrs) had its own charm and we were all engrossed with that. P was rather in a irritable mood and whenever we show him something would say - seri, naan erkanave paarthuten. No amount of cajoling helped in this. Lack of sleep put him through a bad mood, but he enjoyed sleeping in the upper berth. Only person who practiced sit-sleep was aathukarar who sat all the way near P and at times tried to accomodate himself near P in somewhat called sleeping position but all the more realised the former was better than the latter.
Atlast reached Mysore and three days went in a jiffy. Started writing a travelogue but didnt have the mood to complete it - would soon post it.
Attended one more bday party - V, a cousin of P. Then finished three books of Nora Roberts - and after reading Northern Lights started dreaming about Alaska - would like to go sometime there. Chennai kulir kkeee AC off panra neeee Alaska poganumaaa nnu Aathukarar bayangara ootttuuuu.
Met friends and had a meeting sort of thing - MIL vambu, family politics, kids - ithukke 2 hrs seriyaa pochu. Before marriage kooda perusa ethuvum uruppadiya pesa mattom , but atleast we would talk about ourselves or something funny. But, now-a-days it has become more of a complaints session. The drawing of conclusion - either nee parava illa or naaan better :(
Four movies in the pipeline to watch - wil watch them and write abt them after the weekend.

Kiddie Scoop

Scene - 1
P's new adventure into ishinryu started on June 1st. So, over-enthusiastic mom took him early to the class. Since no one was around we decided to kill time by getting into Sathyanarayana koil. But P had other plans of visiting his cousin (daily pona nalla irukkathu illaya). He came without any enthusiasm and when we were praying lord lakshmi narasimhar, he started to climb the iron bars there. Mama asked him not to do . So he was all the more cranky.
" Enakku ummachi ye theriyala eppadi paakarthu?"
Next we were doing prathakshanam for anjaneyar. He was parakku pathufying (appadiye ammava kondu irukkaaan) So i told him to pray. Immediately his retort was,
"Ummachi sevichukko sevichukkonnu solra aaana anga ummachi enga irukku, verum statues thaane irukku" " En antha statues ellam decorate panni irukka?"
One moment shock , and after regaining said control told him that ummachi is worshipped in that form and asked him to recollect narasimhar story of " thunilum iruppar and thurumbilum iruppar"
Aaanaaalum avan ennavo convince aaana maathiri theriyala.

Scene - 2

While visiting the library usually i make it my point to get one book for P as well. So this time it was " Stories of Pirates". I got this book just yesterday. Today i had some work so left him with paatti and went ahead. While i was leaving he asked me about the library book and once i gave it to him he started reading it. I left him as such and went without disturbing him.
On my return, my paatti called me and told me in a hush tone,

Patti -" Nee oru book kuduthiye athu enna book"
Me - Story book maaa, childrens story book , pirates book ,en kekkara?
Patti - Illa antha book avan full ah padichaaan
Me - Oh good very good
Patti - Illa kelu, athu padichuttu enakku katha sonnan, ithu hero villain ,avan sanda poduvaaan, ellaaraiyum kaapathuvaan appadinnu
( then her tone became more of concerned sort and with lots of kavalai)
Apparam etho oruthan oru ponna rope pannuvaaan nnu sonnan athu nalla book thaaane?
Me - Couldnt control laughter at the expression and more of the understanding .... ROFL non-stop .......
The story goes as follows the pirates tie the girl with the rope and P in his enthusiasm explained to her in this format as - avan avala rope la katti poduvaaan nnu solrathukku bathil rope panniduvaaan nnu solli irukkan :)
LOL..............
Apparam avangalukku explain senju mudikkarthukkulla bayangara comedy ya pochu...

Brahmotsavam - Kancheepuram

1. Vahanams at the utsavam

2. Presiding deity - Devarajaswamy

The word “Brahmotsavam” immediately brings Thirupathi to our mind. Infact it’s a ritual which is common to all the perumal temples.

Origin of Brahmotsavam

(script courtesy - http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/apr99/0147.html )

Brahmotsavam means "Grand celebration" or a "celebration performed by Brahma".

Lord Indra once killed a Brahma-raakshasa (a Brahmin with demonic characters). In doing so, he incurred a great sin of killing a Brahmana- "Brahma hatya dosham(BHD)". To relieve Indra of this burden, Lord Brahma conducted a ceremony. In this ceremony, officiated by Brahma himself, Indra held Sriman Narayana ( Lord Vishnu) on his head during the special ritual bath "Avabritha Snaanam". This verily was the first Brahmotsavam.

Because of the immense cleansing power of Brahmotsavam, this utsavam is periodically performed in Temples to wash away all sins that may have been incurred in the community as a whole. It is said that the Lord Brahma himself rendered the first Brahmotsavam seva (service) to Lord Venkateshwara (Vishnu) of the Thirumalaishrine. Indeed, it is a common
belief that every Brahmotsavam is witnessedby Lord Brahma. In recognition of this, a well decorated empty chariot ispulled in front of the chariot carrying the deities at the processions heldduring the Brahmotsavam Brahma is believed to be seated in that chariot and oversee the celebration. Thus, Brahmotsavam is also referred to as "Brahmapratyakshotsavam" (celebration conducted right in front of Brahma). The earliest inscribed record of Brahmotsavam at the Thirumala Temple is 650 AD.

In kancheepuram it is conducted during the tamil month vaigasi which usually falls in the period May/June. The presiding deity is called Devarajaswamy – perundevi. The whole temple town wears festive look during the period. Its such a sight seeing the deity taken in a traditional Pallakku with huge umbrellas. Only thing which keeps on bothering even after the festival is the plight of the people who carry this. Its such a heavy pallakku with three priests standing on it with huge umbrellas. And more than two dozens of people on either side carry it in the scorching sun on their shoulders. Since this is “God” they cant even wear their slippers but only the socks. I somehow feels all the punniyam would only go to these people who carry the pallakku though the rituals are done by the priests. Not to leave behind the scores of Maamas who go before the procession chanting the vedams. I learnt later that the native people who have moved out of the town and landed in plum jobs make it their point to be present during this time just for attending this urchavams and to serve in the temple.

We got to watch only 3days event due to the warring schedule of P and aathukarar. Next time planning to attend whole Urchavam there. The thing is if you are present during the Kodi etham on the first day, you cannot leave the town for the next 9 days.
The mandagapadi which I wrote earlier in this post http://oreponnu.blogspot.com/2009/06/reminiscing-about-kancheepuram.html was on 29.05.10 this time . And if you keenly observe the Perumal’s face, you can find it is unfinished with few holes here and there. There is a story behind this. Its been passed on by word of mouth, so iam not sure of the authenticity. Since the statue was found in a dilapidated condition, the temple authorities tried to restore it . The sculptor after restoring the body started with the face and the moment he kept his chisel on the face, there was gushing of blood from the idol. As soon as he witnessed them he fell on to the floor breathless. The following night perumal came in the dream of the temple administrator and asked him to leave the idol as such. While I googled for the source of this story I was unable to locate. If you could find anything on this kindly pass on to me.

The above picture is the scanned copy of the invitation (courtesy of invitation-Kumaran Silks, T.Nagar, Chennai)
The temple’s website -http://www.kanchivaradarajartemple.com/home.html (could have been better)

Kiddie Talk - 21

Yesterday, we were returning home at night after watching SHREK (will post a review abt this and singam as well - and also abt the urchavam at kaancheepuram) at Satyam. Iam stepping into Satyam exactly after 6 years. What a change!!! Last movie i watched at Satyam was "Aayitha Ezhuthu" ( oooo madhavan and Surya, somehow sidharth didnt impresss me much) . Once i had fallen sick and was just lying down, when aathukarar asked for something gave answer in a feeble voice and again continued my trepedition. Without any conscious effort i was watching and rejoicing"minnale" the moment he switched on the TV. (annaikku film athuthaaan). Naan kettaaa bathile illa, odambu seriyillainnu saakku aaana madhavan TV la vantha mattum ellame paranthu pochaa.. purushan kannukku theriyala madhavan theriyaranaaannu ore otttu thaaan annailernthu ;)
Okie now on to the crux....
Me : 7 yrs aagaporathu illa (anniversary approaching)
Aath: hmm atha en nyabaga paduthara
Me : haaaan ennathu?:
Aathu: Onnum illa, unakku rombavum easy yaaa pazhagiduchu illa
Me : Ennathu pazhagiduchu?
Aathu : Ellathukkum XX nnu ennaiye kooptu (In theatre also he went outside and came 5 times - popcorn, veg puff, water, cake, water again - the moment P calls amma i would say XX ) ellathaiyum pannidra illa. Too much dependency... Athu thappu theriyuma , u should learn to be on your own.
Me : Nee kooda thaaan morning Coffee naan thaan tharanum, and daily atleast 10 calls from the office. (kooda ellathaiyum sethukka vendamaaaa). Iam depending on you naaa , u are also emotionally dependent on me, and you know iam the driving force for you.
All the while P was silent and was listening...
P : Amma neee driving force naaa naaan ALIEN FORCE (ben 10 la alien force nnu oru brigade of characters varum)
Me and Aathu : ROTFL .........Non stop

Kiddie Talks - 20

As usual, we were listening to FM. This time it was Radio City's - Sugamana Ragangal. Aathukarar was held up somewhere , so we were waiting and chatting in the meanwhile.
First they played a song from Roja - kadhal rojave...And i was singing along,
P - Unakku eppadi intha paattu ellam theriyarthu?
Me - Appadiye theriyum, naan chinnatha irukkarche vanthathu athanaale theriyum
P - Yaar hero and padam peru enna?
Me - Arvindswamy (drooling thinking of roja) and padam peru ROJA

Next song - Thalapathi - Sundari song...
P - Yaar hero maa, padam peru sollu
Me - Rajini da , padam peru thalapathi

Next song - Puthiya mugam - Netru illatha maatram
P repeats same question and i answer

Next song - Shahjahan - Mellisaiye
P - Same question repeats
Me - Hero Vijay padam peru nyabagam illa (seriously forgot the name of the movie, and didnt try twice to recollect)
P - (started scolding me , like elders do when kids forget their academic lessons)
Mathathellam mattum theriyumaaa, aana unakku ithu mattum theriyaatha (athuvum vijay padam ngarthaala extra tension aayittan)
Me - awwwwww (muzhichifying open-mouthed )

Pick up Your Room - Mary Ann Hoberman

We normally - myself and P - would read stories with Fm in the background every night. The agreement like this - He should read atleast 3 pages of any book and in return i would tell him 6 stories. Sometimes the count would vary but not the procedure. This had been our practice right from his first year. Immediately dont ask , whether he would read at that age - I would tell him stories and we had those cardboard books of shapes, colors, alphabets, small day-to-day words,vehicles and he would show us when asked!!

So, the reading habit continues from day one, and it is never early. Infact the more earlier we start the more they tend to grasp. When P was a child , there was sudden craziness for Superkidz course. One lady would come and with honey-laced voice would speak for half-an-hour about the course and would give demo with the child....

Enna poruthavaraikkum we should not use the child as mere exhibition items and our real motive should be to educate the child and make the learning process a wholesome entertainment. When we inculcate this , never the child would feel burdened to study or read. The fascinationt to learn new things should be sowed early so that it grows with the child.

I came upon this concept rather in an interesting way. Paruppu madichu vantha paper la i read about Glen Domann and his methodology - It was an interesting article about the book and the author. And i got curious and purchased his book. Those time the book was not available and the flash card methodology didnt find enough takers in India i suppose, so i placed an order with landmark and procured that book- How to teach your baby to read .

Really its an interesting book , but the book cannot be followed to the T. We should take the contents and methodology and should try to suit it according to our child's mentality and grasping power. I know this may sound bit preachy for most of them but it would be useful in the long run, so even if not of immediate use, this post might be useful to you in the future :)

Now on to the book , we were reading yesterday - "Clean your room, Harvey moon" by Pat Cummings. I picked this book from a local shop where they had this second hand books discarded from US of A and UK libraries. The book is pretty neat and doesnt look like used ones. They had lots of these kinds early but now when i went again they said they stopped procuring :(

The book is all about the cleaning expedition. Mother says (orders would be appropriate) Harvey moon to clean his while he intends to watch TV . Since the mother is strict he goes on with the task. What he finds and what passes as junk and how he finds the long lost items form the crux and finally by extending the target periodically he finishes the task and goes enthusiastically to report to his mother. Amma as always ,being amma goes through the room and says - " Go finish your lunch and come and when you are done lets get started on lump number one on the bed". (harvey dumps everything on the bed and neatly covers it with bed spread )

What made P to go into convulsions of laughter was this poem at the end

Pick up your Room by Mary Ann Hoberman

Pick up your room, my mother says

(She says it every day);

My room's too heavy to pick up

(That's what I always say).

It's time to take a bath, she says

(She looks me in the eye);

Where shall I take it to? I ask

(That's always my reply).

Drink up your milk, she says to me,

Don't bubble like a clown;

Of course she knows I'll answer that

I'd rather drink it down.

And when she says at eight o'clock,

You must go right to be,

We both repeat my answer:

Why not go left instead?

From the book - Clean your room, Harvey Moon! by Pat Cummings

We had such a good time reading the whole book and especially the poem
(Due credits given to the author and the book)

Amma Samaiyal

You ask any married man about the cooking of his wife - he would say excellent (vera vazhi illai athu vera vishayam) but would not forget to add this - " enna irunthaalum enga amma vekkara vethakozhambu maathiri varaathu". Read for that matter any of the celebrity's interview - he/she would always turn nostalgic about how their mother way back in village would give fish curry / some thogaiyal / pazhaya saatham with some kozhambu. If it is modern day actress - " oh enga mummy panra paneer butter masala thaan enku romba pidkum. Athu romba yummy ya irukkum"

I think this has got more to do with habit - eating the same thing for 20+ years sure must have some effect on your taste buds. So it doesnt matter whether you are having tasty yummy food daily or once in a while the moment you turn to your used food the taste bud recognises instantly - " hey athethaan nee ithana varushama enakku vidama pottundu irunthiye athe thaaan nnu"

I agree previous generations mother pathi kandippa ella pasangalum solluvaanga, bt P , he also likes my sambar and rasam. After prolonged touring at my fathers place during last holidays he actually craved for my sambar and rasam, so i deduced the unmai from his cravings.

And regarding my aathukarar - hmm athu en kekkareenga avar paavam oru appraaani- hehehe chumma oru joke - he never complains and would happily eat whatever i give him. I actually learnt samaiyal from him only - i mean tambram version.

Imagine my state - a complete turnover from what i had been eating all along 21 years. Appadiye oru 360 degree turnover thaaan. His mother was a good cook and me just a novice, still he never once compared. He always appreciates, sometimes ennalaye saapda mudiyaathu, still he would have it.

And since aaathukarar away to some conference today has been officially declared no samayal day. And P is also so accomodating u know, he will happily settle for HSB . Just pakkathu theruvila irukkarthu evvalavu sowgaryam illaya. Morning bfast Pongal and lunch just piping hot rasam (chill weather super menu esp with mangoes) and night HSB. Strategic location eppavume bayangara advantage illaya - Antha pakkam dominos, HSB, Hot chips, intha pakkam Mcrennet , adyar bakery, pizza hut. And anytime w.mambalam nyanambika mess, and other small eateries.

But ennathaan veliya saaptaalum, after sometime ur tastebuds automatically crave for the home-made samayal eventhough it is of no standard to ur own amma's samaiyal.