Gone are those days when we eagerly buy new clothes for important occasions.Life in this country has made us forget important festivals. Deepavali would be just another daywith the usual samayal and nothing more.Atleast "Pongal" Might remind us to make "venn pongal" and "sakkarai pongal" but deepavali dint seem to trigger one particular item to make the festival complete.
Rewinding 10 - 12 yrs back...The festive mood would start a month early with the advertisements in TV for the latest designs in sarees,salwars and jewellery.Amma and her friends(neighbours) would start thinking about the sweets and savories that need to be ordered.sundar anna from chari mama's catering service would come in one day to collect the orders for the whole partment.As usual,it would be mine and bharath's favourites ranging from laddu,mysore pa crossing into adhirsam and ending with murukku and mixture.
Unlike other festivals where you get to enjoy the sweets only after the prayers, deepavali is the only one where you start munching even weeks before the actual festival.Amma and her friends would ask the orders to be delivered just a day or 2 before the actual festival to make sure that there will be still something left out for the actual festival day and would store a seperate share for the daily-helpers ranging from the milk man to the post man.
I get to wear the gold earrings, golusu,chain and valayal as soon as the holiday mood starts.Long weekends would be the only ones that I show interest in wearing the jimiki and golusu.Rest of the days would be the most precious ones picked from pondy bazaar or ranganathan street."pandigai naal adhuvumaa kandatha potukkatha dee" would be the comment from paati.
On the evening(day before deepavali), "arattai katcheri" would begin with the neighbours showing their deepavali clothes and last minute purchases.Tales(read it complaints) about getting the salwars and blouses stiched on time or the design change(sodhappal) that the tailor made and the fight to get it altered right on time would definitely be a part of the topic.
There was no strict Pooja associated with deepavali where you'll have to wait and make the offerings to the god and then have your part. The new clothes would generally be the most expensive one for the year and would already be marked with turmeric and arranged in a "kolam podapatta manai" in front of the god. There was no need for an alarm and the street folks would start the cracker bursting competition.The house that has more papers in the "Vaasal" ( from the burst crackers )would be highly looked upon.
By the time we wake up,the "venneer andaa"(hot water boiler)will be ready.The big batch would contain atleast a cup of "Ganga jalam" added to purify the whole batch.A "nalangu" followed by oil bath would be the routine.The goddess lakshmi is supposed to reside in the oil and ganga in the water purifying the body and the soul.New dresses and jewellery follow and the first thing to eat would be the deepavali marunthu or "legiyam" in order to ensure the sanity of our stomachs even when we go overboard.I was never a big fan of bursting crackers(scared!!) and would restrict to the busvanam and changu chakrams.Amma would warn me to be careful with my clothes.It was usually my brother who would burst the lakshmi vedi and the other noisy ones. Exchanging the wishes over the phone would be a major test for the ears and TV would almost be in the mute mode inspite of increasing volume.
The typical pandigai samayal would be the morekozhambu with vazhaikkai poriyal followed by pachadis, vadai,payasam and what not.The rest of the day would be spent watching the TV programmes .Amma would perform a lakshmi poojai in the vening and the day would end with the 10,000-wala saram that kicha uncle burst every year.
Deepavaliku dress vaangitiyaa?.. asked my mama in our daily chat......Anga laam verum mathappu thaan kolutha mudiumaamae...apdiyaa?....
I quickly thought about those golden times and replied..Deepavaliyaa...eppo mama???...mathappoo?...i dont even remember when i saw that last and dressaa...no specific time mama...eppo vaangareno appo potuppen.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Yellow and Orange
Why did you jump to yellow and Orange asked my sweet heart........................
My indoor Jasmine plant that was giving at least 5-10 big flowers a week slowly reduced the size of the flowers hinting me that the so-called summer time is gone.It was cold till the end of may and we had rains through out the June.(yes..no exaggeration.it rained all June!).
July and august were not the best.the number of visits to the beach this year was hardly 2 against the weekly visits that happened the whole of summer last year.
The much awaited greens(spring) and a quick summer are gone and we are well into the 60's during the day time and 40's in the night.It looks like the yellow's and oranges are more stronger than the greens - especially this year.It is definitely a fall time for this tree and it is one of those early affected ones like a layed off worker!.The yellow leaves are spread through out the street,exposing the bird's nest.I don't hear the cuckooing birds waking me up around 5 in the morning nor do i see the fat squirrel in the evening running here and there.My long wait starts now and Iam not sure how long I'll have to wait to see the little life around...again....
My indoor Jasmine plant that was giving at least 5-10 big flowers a week slowly reduced the size of the flowers hinting me that the so-called summer time is gone.It was cold till the end of may and we had rains through out the June.(yes..no exaggeration.it rained all June!).
July and august were not the best.the number of visits to the beach this year was hardly 2 against the weekly visits that happened the whole of summer last year.
The much awaited greens(spring) and a quick summer are gone and we are well into the 60's during the day time and 40's in the night.It looks like the yellow's and oranges are more stronger than the greens - especially this year.It is definitely a fall time for this tree and it is one of those early affected ones like a layed off worker!.The yellow leaves are spread through out the street,exposing the bird's nest.I don't hear the cuckooing birds waking me up around 5 in the morning nor do i see the fat squirrel in the evening running here and there.My long wait starts now and Iam not sure how long I'll have to wait to see the little life around...again....
Thursday, April 2, 2009
My beloved Subway,
As an agmark, chennaite, the only subway that I ever knew was the ever vivacious Duraiswamy subway which connects the east and the west mamabalam.My acquaintance with the subway dates back to the good old Jain school days. The entry to the school is couple of blocks from the entrance to the subway.
The already crowded and slow moving traffic in this area would get even more cramped during the beginning and end of the school hours when the countless rikshakaran’s and parents including my own folks waiting to pickup the children would block this area.11 years later, I started taking the same route resuming my acquaintance with the dear subway being precautious to avoid the school hour traffic or when it was time for a boat ride instead of the regular scooty ride. Since the early 80’s that I remember, the subway continues to be the same good old being unlike humans who change over a period of time.
A competitive project to reduce the traffic which was started couple of years back to connect the 5-lights area with T.Nagar with another tiny subway could no longer keep up with our ripened friend. The project was recently discarded owing to the soil issues after couple of years of digging the soil turning the area to a mini …..mountain…no… valley…. hiking trail with plenty of ups and downs to the dismay of the residents and comfort of the autokaran’s who could lay the blame on the road for the increased fare. A ride from Kodambakkam to Pothys used to be 15 rupees in early 2005 which is not less than 50 rupees now.
A 20 minute crawl on the Duraiswamy subway on a full-traffic hour could:
1. Include a scratch to your new or old bike for sure.
2. Change your dress color from any light color to various shades of black and brown.
3. Add an additional layer of dusty makeup would be applied to your beautiful skin.
4. Make you could feel and taste mud stuck to your lips if you are a lipstick/chapstick user.
5. See couple of 2 wheelers colliding and rushing to squeeze through the available space
6. Watch a mini movie ~ An over loaded bus struggling to move, mini accidents including toppled autos
7.Witness some interesting conversations and chew outs!
8.Encourage you to add a point to your to-do list ~ Test for bronchitis in the next medical-checkup!!!
After moving to the United States, I did miss my friend for a while and guess it missed me too. This time it took a different appearance from the Duraisamy subway in the name of MTA-Subway.
As most of you know, the Big-apple is comprised of the under ground subway system for trains and MTA (metropolitan transport authority) includes buses and the subway train service.
Some interesting facts:
1.The largest subway car fleet in the world that operates 24-hours-a-day
2.Ridership on NYC Transit is approximately seven million daily - more than 2 billion annually.
3.NYC Transit employs nearly 47,000 people in more than 20 major departments and divisions
4.You could teach you child ~ alphabet, numbers and colors through the number of different subway lines
5.STEEP fare hikes inspite of being used the most!
What could be the best place other than a subway ride to observe people from all over the world in this vibrant BIG-APPLE? The most interesting way to start a day would be to take up a 10 minute subway ride.
On any regular day, through out the year, you could see .......
1. The busy office –goers either rushing to work or back to home to take the connecting trains
from the Pennsylvania station with the heavy laptops
2. The religious Brown baggers who cannot start their day without the brown bag containing a coffee and donut/bagel from the Dunkin Donuts.Star bucks has become expensive after the onset of recession.
3. The health conscious brown baggers with a vegetable or fruit or veggie-fruit smoothie/juice/shake.
4. The curious ones checking for the mobile signal though they are aware that it does not work underground.
5. 90% of the people don’t even care to smile at you unlike the people in the midwest.If it was Chicago,you would befriend atleast 1 person a week on a regular ride.
6. 10% of the curious one’s who stare at your bindi and ask you to explain what a bindi is.!
The already crowded and slow moving traffic in this area would get even more cramped during the beginning and end of the school hours when the countless rikshakaran’s and parents including my own folks waiting to pickup the children would block this area.11 years later, I started taking the same route resuming my acquaintance with the dear subway being precautious to avoid the school hour traffic or when it was time for a boat ride instead of the regular scooty ride. Since the early 80’s that I remember, the subway continues to be the same good old being unlike humans who change over a period of time.
A competitive project to reduce the traffic which was started couple of years back to connect the 5-lights area with T.Nagar with another tiny subway could no longer keep up with our ripened friend. The project was recently discarded owing to the soil issues after couple of years of digging the soil turning the area to a mini …..mountain…no… valley…. hiking trail with plenty of ups and downs to the dismay of the residents and comfort of the autokaran’s who could lay the blame on the road for the increased fare. A ride from Kodambakkam to Pothys used to be 15 rupees in early 2005 which is not less than 50 rupees now.
A 20 minute crawl on the Duraiswamy subway on a full-traffic hour could:
1. Include a scratch to your new or old bike for sure.
2. Change your dress color from any light color to various shades of black and brown.
3. Add an additional layer of dusty makeup would be applied to your beautiful skin.
4. Make you could feel and taste mud stuck to your lips if you are a lipstick/chapstick user.
5. See couple of 2 wheelers colliding and rushing to squeeze through the available space
6. Watch a mini movie ~ An over loaded bus struggling to move, mini accidents including toppled autos
7.Witness some interesting conversations and chew outs!
8.Encourage you to add a point to your to-do list ~ Test for bronchitis in the next medical-checkup!!!
After moving to the United States, I did miss my friend for a while and guess it missed me too. This time it took a different appearance from the Duraisamy subway in the name of MTA-Subway.
As most of you know, the Big-apple is comprised of the under ground subway system for trains and MTA (metropolitan transport authority) includes buses and the subway train service.
Some interesting facts:
1.The largest subway car fleet in the world that operates 24-hours-a-day
2.Ridership on NYC Transit is approximately seven million daily - more than 2 billion annually.
3.NYC Transit employs nearly 47,000 people in more than 20 major departments and divisions
4.You could teach you child ~ alphabet, numbers and colors through the number of different subway lines
5.STEEP fare hikes inspite of being used the most!
What could be the best place other than a subway ride to observe people from all over the world in this vibrant BIG-APPLE? The most interesting way to start a day would be to take up a 10 minute subway ride.
On any regular day, through out the year, you could see .......
1. The busy office –goers either rushing to work or back to home to take the connecting trains
from the Pennsylvania station with the heavy laptops
2. The religious Brown baggers who cannot start their day without the brown bag containing a coffee and donut/bagel from the Dunkin Donuts.Star bucks has become expensive after the onset of recession.
3. The health conscious brown baggers with a vegetable or fruit or veggie-fruit smoothie/juice/shake.
4. The curious ones checking for the mobile signal though they are aware that it does not work underground.
5. 90% of the people don’t even care to smile at you unlike the people in the midwest.If it was Chicago,you would befriend atleast 1 person a week on a regular ride.
6. 10% of the curious one’s who stare at your bindi and ask you to explain what a bindi is.!
You would burn the energy from your breakfast if you had kept a sindoor which means a double explanation for the bindi and sindoor.
7. Tourist searching the FREE subway map (who said nothing is free in america???) for their next destination trying to memorize the number of stops that have to be bypassed.(you can ask for a subway map in any of the subway stations and they are given out for no cost)
8. " Lost in their own world " award goes to the following people :
* High volume on their ipods disturbing others
* Busy with their books waiting to complete the novel
* The spiritual ones chanting their daily prayers
* Students doing their home work
* browsing through their black berry checking for emails
* quick touchup to correct their makeup
9. Passionate lovers who couldn’t resist.
10. Tiny tots excited by the train ride
11. Gothic dressed souls wearing a red or black dress,spiky neck chain.You could feast your eyes looking at their pierced nose bridge,eye brows, over painted eyes
12. A home-less person narrating a story on how he served as a veteran but got AIDS or a
formally dressed young woman with a back-pack asking you to lend a hand.
13. A person giving a religious sermon who expects your utmost attention and not the money.
Men may come and men may go but subways go on for ever!!!
There is yet another subway which is also an integral part of my life and you know what it is :-))
7. Tourist searching the FREE subway map (who said nothing is free in america???) for their next destination trying to memorize the number of stops that have to be bypassed.(you can ask for a subway map in any of the subway stations and they are given out for no cost)
8. " Lost in their own world " award goes to the following people :
* High volume on their ipods disturbing others
* Busy with their books waiting to complete the novel
* The spiritual ones chanting their daily prayers
* Students doing their home work
* browsing through their black berry checking for emails
* quick touchup to correct their makeup
9. Passionate lovers who couldn’t resist.
10. Tiny tots excited by the train ride
11. Gothic dressed souls wearing a red or black dress,spiky neck chain.You could feast your eyes looking at their pierced nose bridge,eye brows, over painted eyes
12. A home-less person narrating a story on how he served as a veteran but got AIDS or a
formally dressed young woman with a back-pack asking you to lend a hand.
13. A person giving a religious sermon who expects your utmost attention and not the money.
Men may come and men may go but subways go on for ever!!!
There is yet another subway which is also an integral part of my life and you know what it is :-))
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The Long Wait
It will be over by this week is what we have been telling every other person whom we speak with but it never seems to end. The talk starts as early as the end of February and the curiosity keeps escalating week after week. Mar 20 was the official start of the spring and we had a heavy snow that morning. Can anything make the arrival worse? Yesterday’s train ride with couple other friends started with this standard discussion of the season. I hate winter. When will it get over? .I hate to wear the gloves and this heavy jacket. My already small stature though for sure would burn more calories carrying the heavy woolen jacket, hates to do that beyond February especially with the couple of days of the 60 ‘ F’s in between. Why cant my company allow me to work from a warm zone like California for the winter and I would be more than happy to accept a pay cut in exchange commented my friend.
What is there in spring? All of a sudden, your heart feels good and so is your skin. The mind gets refreshed. No more of the heavy jacket. The air smells fresh without the artificial room sprays. The trees seem to be working extra hours converting all of the polluted Carbon dioxide into oxygen.The overtime pay comes to them in the form of rain.
I thought it was just us, the human beings waiting for the spring but the train pass which has a different color every month was yellow for april which coincidentally is the color of daffodils, the first flower of the spring.
I could see the tiny pale brownish-pinkish-green buds from the brown skeleton trees getting ready for the gorgeous bloom (cherry blossoms) in a week.
Why is it the flower first and then the leaves???? ……… What would you prefer, a bouquet of flowers or leaves? May be everything in this world hinted the trees that it is time for the bouquet of flowers after the dull-grey winter I came home and took a quick peek from the kitchen into the backyard and there I see…..the daffodils….Yes!!!!!….the spring has arrived for sure. After the posts on the baby blues and pink….It is definitely the time for GREEN!!!!!
What is there in spring? All of a sudden, your heart feels good and so is your skin. The mind gets refreshed. No more of the heavy jacket. The air smells fresh without the artificial room sprays. The trees seem to be working extra hours converting all of the polluted Carbon dioxide into oxygen.The overtime pay comes to them in the form of rain.
I thought it was just us, the human beings waiting for the spring but the train pass which has a different color every month was yellow for april which coincidentally is the color of daffodils, the first flower of the spring.
I could see the tiny pale brownish-pinkish-green buds from the brown skeleton trees getting ready for the gorgeous bloom (cherry blossoms) in a week.
Why is it the flower first and then the leaves???? ……… What would you prefer, a bouquet of flowers or leaves? May be everything in this world hinted the trees that it is time for the bouquet of flowers after the dull-grey winter I came home and took a quick peek from the kitchen into the backyard and there I see…..the daffodils….Yes!!!!!….the spring has arrived for sure. After the posts on the baby blues and pink….It is definitely the time for GREEN!!!!!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
It is a baby GIRL. Dress her in PINK !!!
I was about to leave work when Arthur wished me a good evening and continued noticing my purple fleece.
I love the color of your fleece and I wish men get to wear dark colors. Do men wear dark colored shirts in India? I saw some Indian men and women on the subway who I most probably think were going for some party dressed in bright colors like maroon, deep blue, golden upper garment like the one are wearing(I was wearing a orange kurta to work that day!)
He turned to Ed who sits across us in the same cubicle and asked him...Hey Ed, do Russian men wear dark colored shirts. I have never seen men wearing anything more than a white, cream or a pale blue traditionally. Ed gave a big nod…yes Arthur…it is always the white and white like colors which are worn.
They turned back to me and within those few seconds, my thought processing ranged from the candy-pink clad MGR/Sivaji to the yellow, purple, red, green blue Ramarajan /Vijayakanth /Sarath Kumar sailing across the heroes who wear the exact same colored costume as the heroines to the silk jacketed Prakash Raj in the movie Villu!!.
There is no concept of a specific color for a gender in India unlike here where a boy baby is dressed in blue and a girl in pink.
Do you know why blue is for a boy and pink is for a Girl? asked Arthur and also went ahead explaining the same. A male child is always considered to be superior than the female child anywhere in the world across all the cultures as they are the carriers of the blood line. Blue color is supposed to ward-off the evil spirits and hence the boy baby considered to be the precious one was always wrapped in a blue cloth. When this was continuing over a period of time, a thought arose among people on what color would look the best on a girl child. A pink baby is a healthy baby with a good blood flow leading to the rich pink which shows through the light colored skin. Women are always associated with beauty and what is more beautiful than a healthy child? “In the pink” is an English idiomatic expression for in good condition or in good health. So to conclude there was never a color for a baby girl. I thanked him for the explanation and rushed to catch the train and saw this young father on the subway with his baby girl in the stroller…….
Pink… Pink…. Pink…
The bubble-gummy pink …. The pacifier is pink….
Stroller to the shoes…. Bottle (feeding) to the blanket….
Even the box that carries the wipes is also in pink…
I reached home thinking about the conversation and the pink baby!
Isn’t it interesting that the precious one gets to dress only in 3 colors - white/ocre/light blue in the western world in most of the occasions. Blue has had various meanings in the past and the present.On the good side are the bluish Krishna, neelakanta siva, the clothing for heavenly figures in the Christian paintings andsimilarly in other religions too. Blue is the colour of God's Glory. Contradictorily blue is also represented as a color of dullness like “having the blues”, morning blues etc.
Why get obsessed with the baby blue or the baby pink when there is lot more???????
I love the color of your fleece and I wish men get to wear dark colors. Do men wear dark colored shirts in India? I saw some Indian men and women on the subway who I most probably think were going for some party dressed in bright colors like maroon, deep blue, golden upper garment like the one are wearing(I was wearing a orange kurta to work that day!)
He turned to Ed who sits across us in the same cubicle and asked him...Hey Ed, do Russian men wear dark colored shirts. I have never seen men wearing anything more than a white, cream or a pale blue traditionally. Ed gave a big nod…yes Arthur…it is always the white and white like colors which are worn.
They turned back to me and within those few seconds, my thought processing ranged from the candy-pink clad MGR/Sivaji to the yellow, purple, red, green blue Ramarajan /Vijayakanth /Sarath Kumar sailing across the heroes who wear the exact same colored costume as the heroines to the silk jacketed Prakash Raj in the movie Villu!!.
There is no concept of a specific color for a gender in India unlike here where a boy baby is dressed in blue and a girl in pink.
Do you know why blue is for a boy and pink is for a Girl? asked Arthur and also went ahead explaining the same. A male child is always considered to be superior than the female child anywhere in the world across all the cultures as they are the carriers of the blood line. Blue color is supposed to ward-off the evil spirits and hence the boy baby considered to be the precious one was always wrapped in a blue cloth. When this was continuing over a period of time, a thought arose among people on what color would look the best on a girl child. A pink baby is a healthy baby with a good blood flow leading to the rich pink which shows through the light colored skin. Women are always associated with beauty and what is more beautiful than a healthy child? “In the pink” is an English idiomatic expression for in good condition or in good health. So to conclude there was never a color for a baby girl. I thanked him for the explanation and rushed to catch the train and saw this young father on the subway with his baby girl in the stroller…….
Pink… Pink…. Pink…
The bubble-gummy pink …. The pacifier is pink….
Stroller to the shoes…. Bottle (feeding) to the blanket….
Even the box that carries the wipes is also in pink…
I reached home thinking about the conversation and the pink baby!
Isn’t it interesting that the precious one gets to dress only in 3 colors - white/ocre/light blue in the western world in most of the occasions. Blue has had various meanings in the past and the present.On the good side are the bluish Krishna, neelakanta siva, the clothing for heavenly figures in the Christian paintings andsimilarly in other religions too. Blue is the colour of God's Glory. Contradictorily blue is also represented as a color of dullness like “having the blues”, morning blues etc.
Why get obsessed with the baby blue or the baby pink when there is lot more???????
Everyday Notion....
Notion is all about the different ideas, impressions, perception, thoughts, belief, dreams, judgement, and impulse.
Wait…. Aren’t those the Synonyms of the word Notion?
Words get associated with their meaning depending on their usage. Call out the words apart and would you ever think that they are connected?
This Everyday Notion aims at dealing with those varied fractions of my thoughts which are byfar different from day to day..but it is me..still the very me.
Wait…. Aren’t those the Synonyms of the word Notion?
Words get associated with their meaning depending on their usage. Call out the words apart and would you ever think that they are connected?
This Everyday Notion aims at dealing with those varied fractions of my thoughts which are byfar different from day to day..but it is me..still the very me.
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