Happy Rakshabandan

Rakshabandan, the very word reminds us of brothers all-round the world. Being a south Indian, it’s not part of tradition. But I got to the habit of wishing my brothers and tie a Rakhi on their hands if possible.

This post is to celebrate this year’s Rakshabandan and to wish all my brothers. Fortunately enough, I have always been surrounded by brothers from the time I can recall my memory. They are the best bunch – be it fun, talent or anything else. All the more I always was the only sis they had for a long time. Likewise my uncle always used to call me ‘Princess’. Being the only girl in a large family definitely has it’s own advantages. But the disadvantage was that you would be left alone at times. But this never was an issue, as I used to join these chaps in all their activities. I even remember playing street cricket with them at times or roam around the colony riding bicycles.

Rakshabandan normally falls on the same day as ‘avaniavittam’, a small festival celebrated by ‘Brahmins’. On this day, normally all the boys gather at one place to perform a rituals and change their ‘Poonal’ (the sacred thread). Also this day they get small gifts mostly in the form of money from the elders in the family. The first time I celebrated Rakshabandan was on of those days when all the boys had gathered in my uncle’s place. I can recollect the excitement I had that day to Rakhi. My mother had got the bands ready along with some chocolates. Since morning I waited for the arrival of each one of them and thrust the dairy milk into their hands and tied the rakhi. Then at the time of lunch, it was my little sis’s (the youngest) turn. She got the boys’s lined up and tied the rakhi. I bet that she being the youngest won the collection that day.

Here are a few photographs of this wonderful bunch.

Navin(Navdoz) and Kiran (Kichoo)
Neeraj(Neeju), Sriraj(Chiju) and me

Karan (Chicoo), Rajiv anna, Keerthi (Nikki)

Srikanth(Cheeka), Srinath (Cheens), Chiju and me

Dear Bro’s

Wishing u a very Happy Rakshabandan. Pray and wish you all success in all your endeavours!!!

A Letter after Eight Years

Dated Forever

Dear Mom
Today I sit here thinking about the drama that was executed this day, this time, exactly eight years back when you bid adieu. Since then, there has been too many things happening around. So I just thought of letting you know what all you have missed to witness in this world till date.

If you could have postponed your journey by one year and a half, you could have witnessed your daughter’s convocation ceremony. All I could do is visualize you distributing sweets to your pals to celebrate your daughter becoming a graduate engineer. Also you would have seen your son passing out his board exams with flying colours, which I am sure was most awaited by you. Very soon did I get through my job interview. I did move out to a new phase of my life, while my sweet bro got into his engineering course with ease. Things happened so in such quick succession, but without your physical presence. All I could do was visualize the happiness on your passionate face.

Soon I got going with my job and I started realizing how much you missed the small milestones I reached. My first salary, the first gift I could get you, the first ever business card I got printed for myself, the scooty pep I bought, the weekend trips I made to CBE, the appreciation letters I received, the first promotion and so the list is endless. All I could do is shed a few tears for you before I got to bed every night.

As you taught me, Time waits for no man. Soon it was my brother’s turn to get through three job interviews consecutively even before he was certified as an engineer. Soon he passed through all the good things that happened to me as mentioned earlier. He didn’t stop there, for he got through his fourth one also with ease. By this time, I had already left the country to get my bread faster and better. All I could do was to visualize how you would have felt when you saw him in his formal shirts and pants, riding his bike to office every day.

Thus seven years passed and now it was time for me to tie my knots and move into another phase of life. I know you missed this a lifetime. But all I could do was to place your portrait on the dais.

All this time, I told you about the good things that took place. I don’t want to take you through the little unfortunate things we got through. All I would say is that I know you wanted to guide us through the bad phase of life as well. All I could do was watch your portrait for a minute whenever I felt your guidance was required.

Now here are a couple of points that you will be glad to know. Your son is very much like you. That is very much enough to get thoughts about you to flash across the mind of any soul. Also of late we had a chance to meet many of your friends. Every time I meet someone, my heart beats faster when they talk about you or shed a tear for you.

Now as I complete this short letter, I realized that you are omnipresent and probably you would have witnessed all the incidents that I narrated from the other world. It’s just that you are invisible to us. Though your voice is not audible to the world, it is being heard deep by our minds. The fact is that I have been missing you all this time!!!

Eight years pass by since you bid adieu. But what I am today is what you did to me.

With Tons of luv,
Your beloved child

Appearances Are Deceptive

Casually changing channels, I landed up watching the Star Vijay Film Awards. I believe they were telecasting the award function in segments, one a day. This day, it started with (or rather, I started watching) the announcement of nominees and winners for the best costumer for 2009, then the makeup artist, Stunt master, art director, cinematographer, editor, story and screenplay writer. Then came the performance category awards and the first in the group was for the best supporting actor and actress.

The nominated movie list for all the above mentioned awards was almost a standard list of movies with just the name of the artist/technician changing. One of them was ‘Nadodigal’ and the best supporting actress was bagged by Abinaya, who played the role of the hero’s sister in the movie. As she walked on to the stage, they turned the camera towards a middle aged man who was in tears. This was possibly Abinaya’s father. As she approached the dais, I was wondering if this was the same girl who played the ‘sis’ role. She appeared very different (of course that was on big screen and this was on the silver screen), clad in a black and red salwar. She received the trophy, grabbed the mic and gave a shriek even before the MOC could ask her a question. Then she went on blabbering with the mic in her hand and I couldn’t understand a word of what she said. Anybody watching this; would have felt that she couldn’t get her voice out due to over excitement.

It took me a moment to realize that she was having a problem with her speech and hearing. And at once, I found my throat choking. This was a very touching moment indeed. She deserved this very award and much more, the reason being that no one would ever get a hint on her disabilities while watching the movie.
Her father was called on stage and was given a chance to speak about this award winning moment. This gentleman had just words of gratitude to three people, the director Samudrakani for the introduction he gave her, Sasikumar (the guy who played the lead role in the movie and the director who has offered her a lead role in his next movie) and the camera man ‘kani’. Abinaya signalled to the trio to come on dais. The emotion on the stage was really felt when the trio came in and spoke a few words each. I could see the majority of the audience with tears and found a drop falling from my eyes too.

I have heard a lot about handicapped people proving themselves. But the deaf and dumb actress caught my attention. Hats Off to Samudrakani and Sasikumar.

p.s: Earlier I had written a post titled ‘The Best Investment’. The title might have been more apt for this post.

No Time To Stand And Stare

Three days back, I was downstairs staring at the road, expecting my cab. I was late to office and to my dismay; the driver had informed me about another ten minute delay due to the traffic block somewhere in the city. After few minutes a kid came out of the elevator followed by his caretaker. The moment he was out, he started running around the corridor, excited about the wide space around him. A minute later another tot of his age came out of the same elevator. The company seemed to get more exciting and the two ran after each other ever happily.

It was a great pleasure watching them having a gala time. They were not bothered about how the rest of the day would go. They were not bothered about their nationalities. They weren’t bothered about the two caretakers who were running behind them. They weren’t bothered about their back packs. They weren’t bothered about the weather. (It was a cold day.) They fell on each other and began to rise immediately, but weren’t about the fall as well.

To put the scene to an end; came the school bus. The name read ‘Salmiya Play School’. Now it was the caretakers’ turn to put the back packs in place. One of them grabbed one of the kid’s arm and dragged him towards the bus. The other kid started down the few stairs, when he stood for a second staring at the bus (not sure what was on his mind). The next second, the caretaker shook him from his thoughts, directing him towards the bus. I wonder if the kid would get another minute of the whole day to stare at anything.

Then is when I realized, I had a few minutes to stare. Thanks to the traffic. Since then, it’s taken me three days to pen down this post.

What is this Life if Full of care
We have no time to stand and stare!!!!

--William Henry Davies

The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And Miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

--Robert Frost

Nanganallur Days – Nostalgia

The last time I really celebrated Pongal was in 2002. That was when we had put 5 Rangoli Patterns in front of our sweet home, 1 in front of the door, 2 inside the house and 1 in the courtyard. With Mom preparing the 2 versions of pongal for breakfast, the spirit of the festival was achieved to the fullest. I never realized her pongal was the best until I started missing. Since then I neither had the time nor the interest to celebrate the festival (any for the matter) with the same spirit.

This year seems to be a really dull pongal, considering the number of emails, SMSs or scraps flowing in. The festival falling on a weekday, it had to be somebody or the other to remind me about the day. I wished just four people all day. Today being a holiday in this country, my cousins wanted to compensate for what was missed out yesterday in terms of food. So he pulled out a bunch of papers containing the recipe for ‘Ven Pongal’ and ‘Sakarai Pongal’. (Not that we are cooking pongal for the first, jus that our kind of cooking is slightly different from the regular tamil style). The very sight of the picture (below) got my thoughts wandering about the Nanganallur days. I have spent about 2 solid years in this place and I miss the Nanganallur Anjaneyar temple like crazy.



My house hunt in Chennai was getting really scary, considering the n number of problems: water, cost of rent, neighbourhood and distance from my workplace. It got too complicated for me and I left it to my dad to find one. After some research, he landed up in this under-developed (no longer) area. Madam luck being with us, we found a really good house without compromising on any of the above mentioned factors. Enough of water, Affordable rent, excellent landlords and 20 minutes drive to office. There I promised Mr.Anjaneyar that I will pay him a visit every day.

I did justice to that promise atleast for some time until the leading road became unusable for days due to the heavy floods. But I never stopped visiting the temple, though not every day. Apart from the peace of mind I got there, the below are the various reasons for the affinity I had towards the temple

1. Pepper Rice: Distributed every day in the evening probably a little later than 7 PM. The best Prasad they ever made, amazingly tasty.
2. Ven Pongal: Distributed every day Morning. I used to have my second breakfast before going to work. Very taThis is where my thoughts landed up today morning when I saw the pic.
3.Sakkarai Pongal: Distributed every day in the evening around 7 PM. If you are early for pepper rice you will be lucky enough to get this.
4.Puliodhare: I know this is available in the weekdays. But I normally get this when I visit the temple during the weekend in the mornings a little later than my usual time.
5.Curd Rice: Yummy, but I never got chances that frequently.
6.Vada: These are hard and can be preserved for days together, but have a taste similar to that of the regular ‘uzhundhu vadai’
7.Sundal: Or I woukd say ‘Chundal’. Normally made of chick peas and available early in the evenings.

Looking back at Point #2, I have been celebrating pongal for almost 2 years. And it took me almost three years to realize this!!!!!!!

........To be Continued