Little Smriti was thrilled beyond words when her aunt gave her that gift. It was long, and was wrapped in the most beautiful wrapper she had ever seen. The wrapper had pictures of balloons, angels, teddy bears and candies on it. It was colourful and even glittered at some places. Adding to Smriti’s delight was the beautiful, soft, pink satin ribbon that held the wrapper.

She felt her hands shivering with excitement as she held the gift. Why, it was the BIGGEST gift she had ever received so far!

She let out a wide grin and looked at her aunt.
“Thank you, aunty!”
She looked at her mother. Mother was smiling.
“Can I open it now, ma?” she asked.
“Of course, dear. Keep it in the prayer room, thank God for a minute and then open it” said mom.

Smriti’s grin lessened a little. This meant a delay in seeing what the gift was. Her three-year old mind could never understand why she had to thank God, keep new things in the prayer room before using them, et al. Anyways, she had to do it because otherwise ma would get angry.
She hurried into the prayer room. She would place the gift on the platform where pictures of all sorts of Gods were kept. She carefully cleared that place off flowers, ‘kolams’ made in white powder and incense dust so that the wrapper wouldn’t get dirty.

“Thank you God!” she smiled.
Whew, finally a minute over.
She took the gift and sat down. She cautiously untied the ribbons and removed the wrapper, taking care not a speck of it got lost. She folded the wrapper neatly and kept it aside. After all, it was a memorable one – it wrapped her best gift!
She opened the box, all excited.
She gasped.
There, inside, were many shining, tiny, train coaches and an engine. And a red track for the train to run on.

She quickly assembled the tracks and fixed the train. She fondly looked at the whole set, flowing in admiration. Yes, it was her best gift. She should thank aunt once more.
She put the train inside and ran out, clutching just the red track to show her mother how quickly she had assembled it.

She stopped short at the door.
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
There was a much bigger gift in the hall, for her baby sister! Her mother was all smiles, telling her aunt how much she had wanted to buy this for the baby, as she opened the package.
A torrent of anger raged within little Smriti. She hardened her grip on the little red track in her hand. This anger had to get out very soon, somehow, immediately.

She summoned all her might and flung the red track out into the hall. It broke into pieces. Every head in the hall turned and looked at her with shock and disbelief.
Smriti ran inside and shut the door, tears streaming down her face.
Chennaiyil oru mazhai kaalam!
First: Credits for title go to Sandhya, as she told me about this movie which should have been made.

Now, IT’S RAINING IN CHENNAI!!

Every road is marshy, everything is dirty, and all leaves in a bright, nice green, unique only to plants drenched in rain.

Walking down the rain after going out with a friend with a silly black umbrella said to protect me, I was thinking of various things. Black umbrellas are sad, but worse are those colourful umbrellas printed with flowers. I’d deny any opportunity to take them because they remind me of movies – of women clad in saris getting down from a bus in a village. Ha! You might have guessed it right; they are new teachers for the village school. And hence follow horrible village stories, which I shall not discuss.

Rainy days were obviously fun during schools, to be exact, rainy mornings. A morning when it has been raining gives me high hopes – of school being declared a holiday. Immediately what would follow would be a flurry of phone calls from grandparents and schoolmates, all discussing the probability of a holiday. And soon, discussions by parents as to whether I actually deserved a holiday from school. Things would go on like this till about 8 A.M., and by this time, I would be completely dressed up and ready for school….bag pack panni, lunch vecchu, ellam nadanthudum. I would sigh innumerable number of times, and pray fervently that it’s a holiday.
But given the “strict” school that I was in, all hopes of holidays would be lashed. I would sigh more and curse my school. Then would begin the trauma of how to get to school. My dad would not be all that willing to drop me, and I would, obviously hate to take a bus. Auto drivers would shudder at the thought of wading through the waters of G.N.Chetty Road, and immediately turn down our pleas.

Finally reached school after great difficulty, or rather, hullabaloo. School…ugh, outside there would be a huge marsh that has to be crossed with great caution. Irukardhu poradhunnu, a huge traffic jam enough to drive anyone nuts.

Whew, finally reached the classroom, to discover that though it’s about half an hour since the school started for the day, less than a quarter of the class had turned up. That means more joy! We would again start prayers – now that the rain should pour like crazy and hence others should not come to school. All this in the hope that with just nine or ten students, teachers won’t teach.

Hmm…we weren’t given even that little joy. All of them would ultimately turn up, one by one, and by 9:30, almost the whole class would be there, a rarity on normal days.
Sigh! Things would get worse when returning by public bus. Very few would have umbrellas and there was this huge dilemma if many should huddle under one and all get wet or let one be clean and dry and the others drenched. Ultimately we would get a bus and get inside. It’s pretty surprising how God makes buses so furiously crowded on rainy days; and with our clean, white canvas shoes, this was a pain. We would start next round of prayers that people shouldn’t stamp our shoes, and curse anyone who did, under our breaths.

Nowadays rainy days mean nothing to me; if it’s raining too hard in the morning, I simply skip my lectures…attend practicals after a round of grumbling.

Good old days!! But even now, it’s fun!
Finding Neverland….a beautiful movie. A movie I would rate as one of my favourite English movies. What an awesome portrayal by all the people involved, especially James Barrie (Johnny Depp), Sylvia (Kate Winslet) and Peter (er…I don’t know his name!). a story so wonderfully told, that the narrative just drew me into it.

The movie talks about what inspired James Barrie, a playwright, to write Peter Pan. Barrie, a man who I assume is in his 30s, has such outstanding imagination – one that every kid can relate to. Peter Pan having been one of favourite stories when I was a kid, the movie was only all the more interesting because it showed how the boy who never grew up came into being.
And as I watched the movie, I wandered again back to my earlier post, “Ah! That carefree life..” and further back into my childhood. Well, I’m not an old nanny now, but well, things aren’t the same!

That post talked about how simple things kept us happy when we were little. But deep within each one of us, were fathoms of wild, freaky imagination, and stories of fairies, demons, magic, goodness, evil and God. Each of us would have had our own way of expressing those innumerable figments of imagination. I, for one, made little plays with my dolls or people, whichever were available. I do not remember if I wrote stories at that age, but I do recollect making up all those creatures with the aid of illustrated fairy tales. These books of fairy tales had pictures of elves, pixies, fairies, beasts, and princesses, and these helped me by giving a proper shape to my imagination.

Writing for kids has always been my dream. One of my favourite books “Swami and Friends” by R.K.Narayan was somehow my biggest inspiration. It talks of a kid’s view of the world around him, and his descriptions of his newborn baby brother take the cake. R.K.N. is again my biggest inspiration in life to write; his simple, yet gripping narration has always enthralled me, and his language – some of the most beautiful expressions told in an easy manner – exquisite, yet simple. Oh, I could dedicate a whole post to him!

R.K.Narayan’s style of writing also made me stick to stories about Indians. Most of the characters I have in my little stories are Indian.

All these led me to start a story in my seventh class. It’s untitled; years later, even now, I’ve never been able to think of an apt title for that, sadly, unfinished story. The story, coming in chapters was one of the lives of a little girl called Chumki, and her friends Kicchu, Renu and Priya. Set in some village, which I don’t even remember if I named, the story elaborates at considerable lengths the happenings in Chumki’s life, weaved in and written by a fervently dreaming 11 year old mind. Chumki and her friends even turned invisible after drinking some orange liquid, and then left to Chennai. This was where I left the story as an 11 year old. I resumed it was almost 13, and somehow, that mind which had started the story was gone; it had evolved in less than two years into a supposedly more “mature” mind, which thought of more advanced things, and didn’t really know where Chumki and her friends should have headed after they came to Chennai. And after a few attempts to make the story regain its lost fervour, I quit trying. Even now, I regret having left the story unfinished. I had started the story with great aims of getting it published; had even imagined how Chumki should look. Looks like it will all be a lost dream! At least, though, I have the papers where I had written the story; it gives me such delight even now to read it, and I can’t help feeling proud and if possible, stretch my hand and pat myself on my back!

All I hope for now is that someday I will get back all that innocent imagination and write a story for kids I’ll enjoy reading forever. What’s to happen?

P.S.: Below are my tag posts, two in one!
Tag number 1:
Was asked to do this by Praveen. Paavam avan solrachey naan romba vetti-nu nenachutaan. I wasn’t then. Now that I’m vetti, I’ve qualified to complete that stuff. So here goes.
THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
Lu
Vanilu
Kin
P.S: Requests for origins of these names will strictly not be entertained.

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
sugarspiceandnice
Free! Free!! Free!!!! (Exam mudinjapram aarva kolarula MSN-la vechadhu!)
Look at the half full glass (intelligent people should have noticed lots of traces of optimism here! Again MSN nick when my computer was giving me hellish trouble.)

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF
Nails
Eyeball colour
Hmm….ears! (vera onnum thonala, that’s why!) :P
Oh no, I love my hair (marandhupocchu!)
That’s four…but it’s okay.

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF
Nose
Cheeks (sometimes people really wonder if I hog food in Singapore…enakke romba confusion-aa irukku. Miserable food, yet it’s chubby cheeks! L )
That chicken pox mole on my face

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE
Ehh? What’s this?
Seri,
Amazing old books
Helluva lot of awesome music
Temper! ;)

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU
Cockroaches
Horror movies (the fun is in getting scared, but I don’t like to get scared!)
Sudden noises (guess I have a weak heart. Any kinda noise, konjam loud, if sudden, scares the living daylights out of me!)

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS
Water (to drink)
Air (to breathe)
Food and music (to eat and then enjoy!)

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW
Nightdress-la irukardhu naala, no comments

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP
I won’t cook. Condition number one. (yeah, for the way I cook, he should gladly accept this condition! There, confessions!)
Latest updates after more contemplation:
Any person with me in any relationship should accept condition number one for their own safety.
Now, relationship with amma: Should make lots of rasam and of course, pozhinjufy with love! :) How I wish my mom reads this!
Ha, relationship with akka: Now that she is earning, get me lots of things and be my best friend! Sis, I know, I know, wipe your tears...
A, appa, thatha patti, friends, athai athimber, chitthi chitappa, periappa periamma, mama mami ellathukkum I need more time...so konjam porumaiyaa kaathiru.

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE (in no particular order)
Praveen romba nallavan. (Now you know what the other two are!)
Naan romba busy
Naan romba chamathu!

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU
Meesai illadha moonji
Ah! One smile that would bowl me over!
Tall and thin, nice eyes
Edho, Madhavan maari konjam nalla irundha manage pannikalam!

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY NOW
Kill Praveen for asking me to do this.
Hug my pillow and sleep
Idhu mudichu thallanum!

THREE CAREERS YOU ARE CONSIDERING
Bajji putting (I’m expecting lotsa customers!)
Veedu perukkings (only perukkings; no thodachings or pathram alambifyings)
Rendum work out aavalenna edha ad agency poi copy writer-aa seruradhu!

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION
Bay of Bengal
Arabian Sea
Indian ocean…..illa Tsunami vanduchunna problem, so….Red sea!
Namma ooru veyilluku idhellam dhaan seri!

THREE KIDS NAMES YOU LIKE
Acchu
Thakkali
Getti chamathu!

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE
Space-ku poi Madras-a top angle-lerndhu spot pannanum
Meet A.R.Rahman
Live one day without anyone at home scolding me! (aah, matthathellam easy-aa nadandhudum, not this!) :P

THREE (make it more!) PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO TAKE THIS QUIZ NOW
Anu
A (leave it as a comment!)
~phobiac~ (pazhi-ku pazhi! :P)
Deepak J.D.

Yeah, now, tag number 2: Asked for by phobiac.
Total number of books I own:
Sathiyamaa theriyadhu. Ennavum mudiyadhu. (Haiyya! Nice limerick I’ve written; enna, rendu line missing, but ok!)

Total number of books that were given out and never came back:
Sniff, sniff, my (okay, my dad’s) precious R.K.Narayan collection. Number, cannot make it lah

Total number of books flicked from others:
Onnu rendu. What I remember is Three men in a boat by Jerome K. Jerome. What’s surprising is, now I can’t find it!

Last book I bought
Been ages. If books bought by my dad count, it was The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh

Last book I was gifted:
How to Study by Ron Fry. Sadly, I got it in my class 12!

Last book I read:
Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

I am currently reading:
Rich Dad Poor Dad
The Glass Palace
The Fountainhead (been pretty unsuccessful, though!)

Five books that mean a lot to me:
Sophie’s world by Jostein Garder
Swami and Friends, Guide, The world of Nagaraj by R.K.N.
All things bright and beautiful, Life as a vet by James Herriot
My class 9 and 10 CBSE English textbooks
The collection of Disney comics that were bought when Anu was a kid!

Now, Sandhya ( I know what you’ll write, but well…), Harish and Smitha go on….
Hah! A month long internship finally over. And more than the pain of sitting in the air-conditioned room of the office, was the pain of travelling to and fro by bus. Whoa! Plain torture, that’s what it was.

Half of my school years I’ve returned home from school by bus. It had never been such a pain. Now, suddenly, every bit of torture seems to have elevated itself to a higher degree, with the aim of draining me of my energy completely.

These bus journeys have given my character shades of grey! I’ve been such a mean girl, I can’t believe it’s actually me.

First, a brainless crowd. Why the hell would I be standing near the footsteps of the bus if I were not going to get down? Every soul who is to get down in my stop asks this dumb question; or okay, to be fair, most of the brainless beings. “Yeranga poreengla?” And I would give this furious stare or pretend not to have heard them at all. This, somehow, vents my anger and I’m cooled down by the time I get down and start walking.

Second, idiotic men. No offence to this sex, but some of you can get so horrifyingly irritating. And don’t blame me if I stamp your foot hard! This seems to work really well, and all trouble quite gets out of the way. :P

Even conductors can be a huge problem! There was once this time when I got into a bus and did not know if would stop at my bus stop. “------- poguma?” (Does the bus go to ------?) No answer. Repeat six to seven times. Absolutely deaf as a post, I thought. Who the hell gave him this job?? Finally this man got the sense to look at me. And then he says, “Naanum appolerndhu paakaren, oru mariyadhai-ye illama pesitrukeenga!” (I’m watching from that time, you don’t seem to be giving me any respect!) I was non-plussed. I turned to see whom he was talking to. “Ungladhaan”, he said. Me?? Heck! What lack of respect was there in my tone?

Me: “Ennanga sollreenga?”
C: “Yenga nalla pant shirt-lan pottu dress pannirkeenga, konjam kooda mariyadha theriyadhavangalaa irukeengley?”
Me: (thinking) “Dei, matter-ku vaada!” (Things were becoming like dialogues in daily soaps. I made my contribution too). (to C) “Konjam puriyaraa maari solungalen?”
C: “Yen maa, conductor kitta edha kekarche ‘Sir’, illa ‘Conductor’, illa ‘Iyya’ apdinu solli kekanum…nee onnum mariyadhaiye illama pesariye!”
Ayyo..okay, translation!
(Me: what are you saying?
C: you’re nicely dressed in pant shirt etc. but you don’t seem to be giving me any
respect!
Me: Can you clarify? :P
C: When you ask a conductor something you must say “sir” or “conductor”…you are
talking to me without any respect!)
Whew, translation done. If any of you don’t know tamil, you owe me special thanks! :)
I felt like throwing anything at hand at him.
Me: Cha, idhukku thaan ivalo pesarengla! Seri, conductor sir, ------- poguma? (oh, you made a big fuss for this? Ok, conductor sir, does the bus go to -----?)
C: Haan, ipdi thaan kekanum. (Yes, this is how you should ask.)
By this time, more than half the distance had been covered. And guess what, the bus wouldn’t stop at -------. I got down at the next stop and walked that freaking distance.

All said and done, though, bus journeys are fun too. Women discussing topics ranging from the weather to kids they have, with people they’ve never even met before, women irritated beyond life who just pounce and scold you (this is funny because I shamelessly laugh when such people scold me!) and all the fuss made while people get in and get out, could actually offer a nice treat to watch. All this, that is, if you don’t mind the crowd. At least I don’t, now.

So those of you who travel by bus now say “Conductor sir!”
Sir, yes, sir!
When I was going down for a walk a while ago, this little kid in my apartment put out both his hands in a “Wide” cricket decision giving manner and yelled, “Stop it!” at me. Yeah, I wanted to say “Yevan avan…” but decided to humour the kid and stopped. He then smiled and said, “Go!” I found it so cute and said “Thank you!” to the kid and his joy knew no bounds. This kid Mone has always been a sort of mystery to me. I was taken aback this time when he acted traffic cop, as for a change, he had not shrieked and ran away, as he usually does. Well, to make up for all this cute act of his, as I came back and tried to pinch his cheek, he yelled and ran away, making threatening signals at me at a distance he felt was safe.
Mone is actually his nickname, the Malayalam word for “little boy”, the male version of mol. I knew this fact quite late, and till then I was thinking he was Monu. I always used to call him “Monoooooooooo……” and my mother used to look at me with some surprise, I never knew why. Until the aunty next door called him Mon, and I asked my mum why she spoilt the kid’s name like this. The big bulb I received was that I was calling him wrong!
Well, so much for the kid. As I looked at him and proceeded for my regular walk around the huge apartment in the night, I couldn’t help feeling jealous of the kid. He had not even started school, and showing people that he knew the words stop and go made him so happy. And here I know thousands of words but rarely am I happy with it! Cares change as we grow; they never remain the same.
I often wonder why I never remember what all I had done as a kid; all I know are things narrated by various people who had seen me as a kid. And with all these fragments of tales I put together that jigsaw puzzle of how I had been as a kid. I imagine myself crawling under tables and chairs as one uncle keeps telling me; I imagine myself gnawing at wooden sofa legs to put my new, growing teeth into use; I imagine myself looking down a deep, still-being-dug well, miraculously not having fallen down and imagine my mother searching for me as I do deep studies connected with this well. I see pictures of myself sobbing because I didn’t get to wear that pretty dress my sister was wearing for her dance performance and pictures of me smiling triumphantly after wearing a cousin’s nice dress (while she was angry and frowning standing next to me, by the way!). I wonder why I only cared for such things at that time? Simple things like getting a new toy kept me satisfied for days. A hassle free life then. No generation gap fights, no school, no university, no cute boys, no grades, no disappointments, no crushes, no failures, no need to keep up promises or behave any particular way. Life seemed to be so simple then. Wake up, eat, run around, eat, maybe cry a little bit on the way to get something done, eat and sleep. The best part was being put into sleep in the afternoons. Try it now, and all I get is a whack for sleeping. Wow, how much my mom might have fret if I didn’t take a nap then…lord, why should things change so much within just 18 years? :P
I wonder how we call ourselves grown up, and therefore mature, but get so difficult to please. Things just aren’t simple anymore. Yes, cares change as we grow. Mon will also get into this cycle soon with all his schooling and blah. And then there’ll be those endless tuition classes and ECA classes- tennis, cricket, dance, and so on. And he will very quickly lose his innocence as all of us did, too. Well, the only difference is that each of us loses it at some different rate.
But that is the essence of the whole thing. The fact that we no more are child-like makes us cherish those times when life was so simple! I now have slowly started thinking about how my life would take a dramatic swing again in another month and a half, and how it keeps oscillating between Singapore life and Chennai life. Uhh…maybe it’s not right to think about that now.
Like any normal kid, I too wanted to grow up quickly so I could be “grown up” and also get some attention that my sister used to get. Yeah, green-with-envy kid I was, at times! And as any other normal person, I wish I could go back to that age again. That age when I just woke up, ate, ran around and slept. That age when the only cares were toys, playing, and, well, I can’t even remember more. That age when I was free and umm, happy?
My eyes want to shut as I type this; but I don’t want to leave it and go to sleep. My mind has just chilled after some hectic time…all thanks to the amazing music playing right now. As I listen, I wonder how music has the power to keep so many of us in good cheers…. what would we do without music? Oh my god!
When I went to Singapore to study, all I heard about my music taste during the initial periods of ragging was that my music taste was kiddish; and what did I listen to that was “kiddish” according to the “cultured” seniors of mine? Tamil music, bits of old and new Hindi, very little of English, well, BSB, MJ and some random songs, to be precise. This was a matter of amusement for many…but I have no idea who they are to judge my taste of music.
Ugh, one thing good about those episodes was that I learnt I never have to feel ashamed of what I like and that I never have to change my tastes because someone else didn’t like it. Well, this was a principle I had ever since I know it, but these incidents just enforced them hard into me.
After some time of living there though, I stumbled upon many people who shared my tastes in music. And I hit a near jackpot (yeah, these are jackpots for me) when I got my own computer and was free to log in to the Indians’ network and access many computers. This was when I found a treasure house of many of my favourites, music I was longing for in its absence there: background music of Mouna Ragam, the Pa Sa Ni Sa bgm from Bombay, the Airtel ad video, the Radio Mirchi jingle, the Spirit of Unity music (which was quite a hit during days Sun TV hadn’t really come up yet), and some bgm pieces from Roja never did I think people would’ve noticed. This made me so happy the day I found them that I was excited and quite sleepless too.
Mean girl that I am, I have realised that music only has the power to lift my spirits..more than anything or anyone. Yeah, I say mean because this is not something my mom would like to hear. Well ma, I cannot help it! ;)
Frequent arguments pop up at home about how classical music has never interested me much and about how I made a grave mistake by quitting my music lessons. No I’m not guilty. Quite surprising that I’m not able to generate the levels of interest that my people at home want me to have to appreciate classical music. Well, one reason for this; and I will blame them for it is the classical music on radio. I doubt if anyone reading this post (except my sis, maybe) has ever heard all this stuff on the AIR stations. No doubt, some concerts that AIR airs are excellent, but for most of the time they are so miserable I feel like running out in agony! Some records are so old that they play music of artists who died ages ago; some cry out in pain as they have been played so many times over and over again…oooof! Hearing such classical music has played a substantial role in pulling down even that little interest I had in classical music left after my torturous music teacher.
It is not really probable that my mum reads this, but I wish someone would drive this thing into her mind; I’m not any Aurangazeb (yeah, that’s how she calls me because I supposedly cannot appreciate classical music). It’s just that very few artists’ classical music can get my approval. (yeah, that’s my high standard!) :P
After going there to study, I have found a lot of freedom to enjoy my taste of music. I found a couple of guys who love the same pieces of music from movies as I do and nothing gives me more joy than discussing those with them. Thanks people! You make my days many a time!
As I sit at times now in the balcony in the awesome wind, I’m reminded of my XII board exams and their preparation. Radio Mirchi used to be playing continuously and every favourite song of mine that I heard used to boost my enthu so high that I would start working out with so much more energy…so much of what I remembered during the exams were because of the music. I also remember how I kept humming a song from Roja throughout my maths exam when a sum similar to what I had practised listening to that song came up. Whew, good times they were!
For the past six months in Singapore, I have become used to the comfort of not having a roommate; my music has always been blaring. I shudder to think what would happen when I get a new roomie next year! It would be a blessing if she also is never in the room most of the time… or is it asking for too much?? ;)
Whew! Finally back home after two days of hectic (!) life in Karaikudi for a marriage. Marriage of an aunt I’ve never kinda met before. Watched a marriage almost completely after years. Went by train after a year too. Was good fun and a pain at times, too.
First my kiddo cousins. SR, Ad and Aj, I know you guys wouldn’t be reading this, but I must let you know you guys were some helluva lot of trouble in between. These kids pestered me to play Dumb charades, quiz (guess the questions? “Which is the capital of India?” and the like), Name Place Animal Thing and Antakshari. Maybe I should be thankful they didn’t ask me to play running and catching with them. It was quite difficult to explain to them that college second years don’t generally play running and catching, that too with kids, and that too, ME….one person who never gave much a damn for sports.
Ooops….not in my dreams did I think that Karaikudi would be worse than Chennai! Boy, the heat roasted me live and I was thankful I had some tolerance towards heat because of my Chennai upbringing. I hate to think what would’ve happened otherwise.
The train journey to Karaikudi was, well, bad. The train jolted, shook, swivelled, jumped, rocked, jiggled, and well, I’m out of words in English to describe how the train moved. So much so that I felt I was in a train and felt that up and down movement till I boarded the train to come back home. The return journey was perfect except for somebody’s snores that were actually grunts and snorts. I did all I could to find the source but because of my laziness to climb out of the berth, I was unsuccessful. The grunts were periodical and shook my lil’ bits of patience out of me. Thank heavens; they stopped after about a couple of hours.
Metre gauge trains are pretty horrible. They are so extremely small. My head kept bumping against the ceiling and so I was not able to sleep in the upper berth. Worse still, my hair kept getting caught in the fan and I gave a tiny scream every time it did, getting my mom freaked and hence me, down.
The marriage was good. I met strange people who claimed to be close relatives of my mom and dad, and some who are related both ways and I felt like tearing my head apart and telling them “Sorry, en thalaila ithana vishyathukku idam illa.... what’ll I do knowing this?”. But decency and a sense of showing off to people that I was a well-behaved girl stopped me short.
So Karaikudi is famous for Chettinads, aachis and paniyarams. I had my first taste of paniyarams with my mom by my side patiently explaining how it was made…. “Namma appam pannuvom illa, instead of frying it in oil they just …” I stopped listening and had a bite…boy it didn’t taste that nice. Konjam uppu chappu illadha maari irundhadhu. But maybe that’s the way they do it.
And Karaikudi poi how can anyone miss temples? Pillayaarpatti, Kunrakudi, Ariyakudi and Koppudaiyamman temples. Boy, erkanave visiting temples is not my cup of tea. On top of all this was the heat around the place and this was enough to make me grumpy. Thankfully again, I was able to revive myself after seeing empty temples and the feeling that I didn’t have to wait to see God in long queues.
I finally met my “aunt”, a regular reader of my blog who is in Chennai but we still couldn’t just make it to meet each other. Hi D.!!! Try to start blogging too!!
Two eventful days. Filled with fun, too. They’re over now and I’m back to lovely home. Nothing is like Chennai, eh? :)