Granny Potter!!!!

Chronicles of Naani-maaa:)

Granny Potter!!!!

Chronicles of Naani-maaa :)
Intro: Like most Indian families, when the schools shut or we were too young, we used to go to our maternal grandparents house in Jamshedpur every year for vacations. My mother being the second sibling, the eldest sister lived then in MP and younger brother in Jamshedpur itself. The rule laid down by my Granpa then was simple but loud and clear. Since the house was not too big, the visits of both sisters in Jamshedpur had to be one by one. First one sister and family would come and just when they are about to leave, the last week the second sister would come and join the family. This way the entire cousin lot interacted for one week in total. Great idea but in this fast paced society, this is one such tradition that is dying fast….
The cousin lot….
Delhi Kids (US): Me and 3 years elder sister Sangeeta
The MP Bros: Ramesh 4 months elder and 5+ years older bro Rajesh
Jampot Bachha: 4 months younger than me Kartik and (decade little kid sister Kritika not our generation anyways.)
FYI
Paati: Here Naani maternal side
Tata: Tata as in Tata Nagar, Jamshedpur and also Granpa in Tamil
Naiyee: White butter boiled and made to a southy ghee.

The Chronicles of Naani-maaa, well I am told they were mainly mine…read on…if you may! I can’t say…please though!

Paati: And then you put your foot into our Kadma (Tata Nagar) house latrine and your foot got badly struck…With super irritated shrilled pitch of your howls, and an absolute wrecked elder sister of yours, in all of 3 years or more your record of waking up the entire locality of Jamshedpur that morning should still be pretty much intact…

Me: The shrillness is still there, but in giggles now…But Paati I am on my father Na… the genes of loudspeaker voice comes from His Highness you see…Pat comes the reply, but then I also had adamancy and stubbornness mixed with the above mentioned shrill voice. A trait that I quite carefully exhibited and only when I was in need of something…How clever!

Paati: Do you constipate now? (Excuse me paati?) I mean, you constipated quite bad when you were little…that year when you came for vacations to Jamshedpur in 1983 or 84…You were some 5 years old…we had to use a famous soap then called'OK'…The screechy howls were back again and yet you just wouldn’t do it…It hurt you alright … and though you would start happily, suddenly you would stop…Tch! what a pain? You would keep it in an in-between stage and refuse to pop it out and insist you have to getup too as your legs hurt sitting in the latrine…To get you to do it was a daunting excersize… The entire family in the house would stop and watch the show asking “kiya? Vanduda? We never thanked god that much after each day…

Me: Oh My God Paati you are really Gross…what about the fact that Tata beat me because I plucked just a rose from his most exquisite garden…I was so young, how would I know? :(

Paati: Arey, don’t you say a word about him…he never could beat you…Everyone was so scared of your howls that they thought it was better to bear the brunt rather…Though you used this weapon quite effortlessly and do I say regularly...For poor Tata, his garden was everything just like Ashok Kumar in the film Khoobsoorat …and to pluck a flower was difficult yes but not impossible…but know what you would do? You would quietly go in the afternoons and mess up with the roses. Some mad girl had taught you how to scrape rose-petals and apply them on your nails as nail polish…Since we had most color of roses, you wanted a different shade everyday…and so child it was never one single rose…it was one single rose everyday…

Me: Ooops, paati sorry about that…Yes I did that but look at the irony of it…I hardly ever apply nail paints these days…But paati Ramesh used to cheat me on Gold Spot and Campa caps…why the heck, what would that do to him anyways…those were mine…just because he was older by silly 4 months…

(Paati swaying her head from left to right in slow motion reminded me of the girl in Ek chidiya anek chidiya…haha…)

Paati: Woh tum sab ajeeb thay (You all were weird) Rajesh loved to pick on road sides to collect matches (box), Sangeeta (my sis) loved pens, Kartik loved to simply sharpen pencils and loved to see the flowering of the wood above the sharpener and get slaps from his father…and Ramesh and you were mad about caps of Campa and Gold Spot and other drinks…apparently there was something behind the cap of these cold-drinks.. Mickey, Minnie Mouse…and you guys smelled the rubber to identify if it was a cola or an orange juice…and play some silly game…

Me: Okay, but tell me something, have I ever embarrassed that bad?

Paati: Of course you always embarrassed everyone; you would do the unexpected…we would hide Nayee/ghee somewhere and in order to eat it you would drop flour, coffee powder all over you…when you were very young, you caught hold of a cockroach, and that almost would have become your meal, had your mother not picked you in time…all this…again while you were sitting to…you know…hahahaha…

Me: Eeeeks, Paati if there is any one thing on earth I am scared off, that would have to be the one and only – Stupid Cockroach…Also, surely I think I was at my best behavior during ..Yes I know it! HeHe. But paati, don’t tell me everything was just me…We were five, Rajesh the eldest, Sangeeta after that…Ramesh, I and then Karthik… How is it that you have only me as a culprit… surely you would have stories of them too right….

Paati: What is a child that is not naughty, but this naughty, baba re… while all children were naughty, you stood out…you have bothered us so much in the past when you were all of 5 years and before…that even now when it comes to stories, it is only yours that comes to my mind the most… Things like aunty can I have a toffee, despite some 100 times told by your mother to not ask in public…you would ask for a toffee and to that your mother would lightly pinch and you would embarrass her by crying like a thunder saying she beat you…in front of everyone…

Me: Ha-ha Paati after all, I made the stay memorable, didn’t I?…Being naughty is nice paati, kids should be a bunch of trouble…But I am amazed, you have so much in your memory even after 83 years…how come paati…You are so cool…

Paati: These are not mere memories kanna; these are moments etched on my skin…. I am happy the way I am and as long I live, I just hope I am never a burden or bed ridden…God give me strength else take me…That’s all…and Sujju kutti…by the way, I still love plain non-masala Maggie…you used to make ages ago…in Sahibabad…

Me & Paati: What???? "School se aate dhoom machaate, ek hee baat hamesha dohraate, la la la la bhookh lagee hai.... Maagie Maagie Maagie" (Ha Ha Ha Chorus)

Me:…How am I glad that this visit happened and I could get her to my home and keep her here for a week and give her rest and maggie;) I agree the chronicles don’t really say anything much nice about me, but know what, I thoroughly enjoyed…There are still so many stories I need to re-hear and write…

O’ Paati, you don’t even want to know what you mean to me……I need a century from you now…Best wishes and TOUCH WOOD!

The (Mel) Bourne Identity!

The (Mel) Bourne Identity!
www.assault-mugging-rape.com: One would dread a website like this. Hopefully there shouldn’t be any but there is a lot www can decipher for the sufferance in the World today. The cobweb of factors, shattering names of countries and putting several nations to shame and embarrassment can be defined by these factors alone. WWW might be the new World Wide Web to us, but since time immemorial Women, Wealth & Wine have been the prime reasons for destruction of one and many. Most historical wars have been fought on the pretext of these three factors and in recent times, think of any hi-profile case and you would find one of these factors as reasons for the shocking cases we hear. Unless Religion is one latest aspect you would want to add. Amazingly the economics of WWW is anything but shrinking! And to cite that 3 countries come immediately to my mind!

Consider this! After all the splashes of horrid pictures, headline news items, debates, unending discussions etc – Assault is clearly now the new sick name for Australia (Melbourne). South Africa has always been the epitome for nefarious activities; prostitution, muggings being the favorite pastime. Even though Johannesburg has the dubious distinction of being the crime capital of world, you don’t want to deny the country its Kudos for hosting IPL at such short notice, Well done at that even while the ‘Wanderers’ kept busy mugging about…

But then, YET the winning tag in this loser’s category would perhaps go hands down to India – Unfortunate that GOA is fast becoming the new rape haunt, ask the Germans? Italians? Russians? Israelis? Lebanese? Surely, this one legacy is indeed going far and wide! And nothing to be proud about this part of Incredible India really!

Been there and done that? Yes and No. Somebody like me, who has taken a while to like countries despite being better and convenient in lot of ways than India, Australia was one place I truly liked. And why not…unlike other countries, there people Smiled. Aussies are known to be friendly; they could ask you for a drink even at 6 AM in the morning or offer you pizzas for practically no agenda and just few good moments of chatter. But then way back in 2003, on my way back from work, I was hounded by a group of drunken boys ironically in Melbourne. At a taxi stand, they tried playing Ringa-Ringa with me in the centre as my heart inconveniently kept coming to mouth. I realized I wasn’t alone and yet scared. To my relief; they just wanted to know what that little dot in the centre on my forehead was called. They wondered if one had to get a Bindi tattooed. I was amused, thinking how drunken gibberish always had to get to such extreme levels… They left me with no harm and in fact even let me hail a taxi before them. Gracias! It was a weird experience – I knew I was lucky; but then Wine of WWW had clearly been the culprit.

Cut to the land of safaris and you would wonder why a country like South Africa is third world at all? Pray, terms like apartheid had become history, brilliant infrastructure and better economy had taken over (face it! A Rand is any day good enough than a Rupee). Then what’s stopping them from crossing the line of the so called third world tag? Apart from many reasons I am sure, I realized the basic problems hadn’t been eradicated. As put in crisply by a black cab driver, the problems had just been swept under the crevices of flyovers and highways. He asked me to point him a single ‘White’ beggar and I couldn’t! Also both the times in 2003 & 2008, we were instructed strictly by our salary givers not to venture outside of our hotels: alone or even in groups – irrespective of the gender. Venturing after 6 Pm in the evening was entirely at our own risk. Muggers had been known to shoot/stab in desperation even for meager Rands! And so I realized “Wealth” of WWW or the lack of it had taken its toll….

But then I never go to India. I live there. I belong there. I am also somewhere responsible for what is happening there. While this page is not about writing goody-goody things about India, it is about stating the obvious becoming of the beautiful country. Sadly, India is coming a long way from being safe and is fast becoming anything but a secured haven for people and especially for women. From killing of unborn female fetuses to raping married women, India is indeed going from bad to worse in its reputation. Woman of the three cardinal factors is becoming a cause for concern now. Tourist destination of GOA has been hitting world headlines for sometime, just as Melbourne news is echoing our shores. Just that we don’t realize, that we are at the peak of not one but all the three of the W factors. A few incidents cannot make a country bad and this goes for India too. Just that for India few has become far from few, sadly a mere adjective!

But then I am lucky that my experiences of other countries were rather decent, but then there is also one other thing. You do not need Amitabh Bachhan to reject his well earned honor when we haven’t tried to be careful enough. By saying this, I am by no means undermining what happened to these boys in Melbourne. It is indeed sorry state of affairs, but then one should learn from it and discouraging going to Australia is not a solution! If that is the case, then after Mumbai attacks no one should ever come to India.

That it is high time we realize, no place in the world is safe now…. Not Melbourne, Not Johannesburg, Not Goa, Not any place on earth… Clearly you do not need a travel insurance alone to remain safe abroad or an LIC policy for security at home. The need of hour is simply to be little more sensible. No matter what we say the mantra for today is indeed….Better safe than sorry!
By: Sujatha Srinivas

Jai “Mata” Dee!??

Jai “Mata” Dee!??
Maa…you can be such a pain in the…..@$$#!

Last Friday when my husband said, come and pick me up early. I was excited, hoping for a dinner or a (long due) walk to the beach during sun-set. Being in Chennai, with all my friends back in Delhi, I endlessly whine and wait for Fridays where I can have a bit of a go-out session! And all decked up, I picked him up and said where do we go, while he almost simultaneously informed at home – Amma, I am on my way home! People, who know me, would have seen the VIBGYOR on my face fade to the expression of that of LIVID. (BTW, my good friend Dr. Dominic told me once that LIVID that can mean angry/annoyed- is actually a medical term now used commonly. When you have a concussion or a small blood clot - the color that you see changes from red, violet, greenish blue…that’s called LIVID - FYI) So I figured my husband who is a fitness fanatic had done thigh exercise at the gym and was feeling the heat “Perhaps”. He realized the tension in me for the weekend was falling and I would get bored watching the SUN and the MOON TV’s. Nobody’s got an interest in Hindi channels and I don’t blame them and Discoveries and NGC’s are not allowed in a vegetarian household! How could you watch a Lion tearing apart Oh Dear, Disgusting! He said I am feeling tired! And I was mum! (Thinking why did you have to go all out at the GYM) But later I realized, Mum is actually the word!!! Thereafter I started cursing myself, for I realized what a stupid un-understanding and selfish wife I was becoming. He kept quite, but I felt the heat (literally), he was running a temperature and while I did what I can, I was quite ashamed of being such a jerk! Anyways, so Saturday came and he rested and slept endlessly… Sunday morning happened and I saw something, that didn’t look like acne or a heat-boil. Suggested him to get it tested for Chicken Pox…and then the shit hit the ceiling…!!!!

Incredible India that we live in can be quite amazing and annoying at the same time. Like I mentioned in my previous post about similarities in addressing people across cultures as bhai jaan, bhaiyya, anna, dada or chettan…For conjunctivitis also, the term is EYES… Aankhein in Hindi, Madras Eye for here and likewise! And for Chicken Pox too…the word is MOTHER! In North it is called Mata and in South it is called Ammai! (Chinna Ammai/Chotee Mata is Chicken Pox, Periya Ammai/Barhi Mata – Small Pox and Thaata Ammai/well thaata means grandpa…so I am assuming Measles in hindi it should be Nana?Nah.. doesn’t sound like it – how about DADA MATA???).

So Goddess has come home! And while, surfing enough on the net, I figured there is nothing much you can do about it and this one is purely treated by home remedies… BUT My dear COOK MAMI was all active. (She will figure quite a lot in my posts hereafter, for she is our lifeline, literally pampering me like a kid from morning coffee to lunch dabba to dinner…she is somebody we can’t do without and I have to admit she is extremely nice and a warm lady, and that’s also because my Mother-in-law is also all caring I am not saying this to impress her…she doesn’t read this). But then we all are annoying at times aren’t we? And the dear cook MAMI is no exception…I think it can also be because of her all screechy voice…

So there she was...Firm! NO Going to the doctor! For God sake WHY? Arey, Amman has come home/Maata ghar aayee hai, It’s a good thing!! Don't worry! Oh Yeah? To see the poor guy erupting like a cracker is a good thing? And what if this is Herpes and not Chicken Pox…Well, Thanks but no thanks… Helplessness, anger and teary eyed all I wanted desperately was to confirm if these 2 boils are actually courtesy –Teri…Maa kee! But while I was Hyper, I must give my husband 100% credit for the patience he has (I think all Pisceans have it in them), he kept nodding, waited and tolerated her for the next hour and a half and after she left cooking more than meals for us…he forced all at home to go and get it at least confirmed with the Doctor. But ask any original and ultra religious MOM, and you are told, “If you go to a doctor and do anything against the wishes, Ammai/Maata will get angry”. What will you do? It was a difficult choice – Hell difficult. Nobody was to be blamed. I believed in medicine and she believed in GOD and why the disease itself is named after GODDESS DURGA/KALI…so what to do? But thankfully, the cooking influence was greasy enough, for we finally convinced at home and to my relief went to the doc! And yes, it was confirmed as Chicken POX. And while doctor, gave medicines, he also rationally made everyone including ME understand that home-remedy is the best cure and these medicines are only to lessen itching and scarring. So both the parties were relieved. While the traditional therapy is being followed, medical intervention was a big phew - to me!

I think scientifically the disease is considered a blessing in disguise for the cure leaves you with some strong antibodies that hold your immune system even better. And probably that’s why Ammai/Mata coming home is considered good…And for traditional therapies like neem any guesses. Actually when the boils explode, the pus attracts a lot of ants and unwarranted insects and bitter Margosa leaves around the patient help stay them away. Oh Okay! So the moral of the story was don’t confuse everything with orthodoxy and superstition! Like I did! Honestly, While we sometimes get too aggressive about the whole deal about what the heck and I don’t believe in this orthodox and stupid superstition –And I am modern shit …I couldn’t deny that the vegetarian household finally had a chicken suffering from Mata… and much to kick off my false- ego; Reality bit me… Indeed one has to go by what the oldies say. It is indeed the good old Neem/ Margosa leaves and turmeric that cure the disease from spreading and while it is contagious, I see my poor man’s Cherubian face look like more and more like that of Archie!

And while he is trying his best to take it all by himself so it doesn’t spread to anyone of us.…he forced me to run to office…And when I was leaving, despite high temperature and a very-very tired look on his face, Archie managed to say with a faint smile – Hey I told you I wasn’t 30!!!! I was quick to reply controlling my emotions Sure “Jai Mata Dee”!

I am my own Bappida!

“Chinamma Chilakkama ….Choodu Choodu Choodu,
Chinamma Chilakkamma…. Aadu Aadu Aadu!
Koochamma, Uravamma, Tulasamma, Raagamma…
Chinamma Chilakkama!!!!”
I have heard this song before - Yes I have heard this song before… And I know it was a Rahman song... A Chorus song with that husky Sukhiwinder’s voice. While I hear the same song in Tamil in the car, I sing the original version thinking to myself how M F Hussain’s disaster has tortured poor Tamil Audiences as well… But then my much in tune (?) husband doesn’t hum this one – Ohk! Chalo, so MF
jee spared the dubbing of Meenaxi! The Great!!!!When Film “Meenaxi” - A tale of 3 Cities hit the screens and protestors in turn also hit the screens protesting against almost everything!!!! (and in the end failed to stay even in one city when released.) Meenaxi was protested from the moment go because of practically everything! Be it, MF Hussain or the film itself or the qawwali, in fact could be some Godess’s biology painting also…I remember practically nothing of Meenaxi as a movie. To me Tabu's Meenaxi was just a musical treat, thanks to A R Rehman. He loaded Meenaxi with nice songs like (mentioned above) “Chinamma Chilakkamma- Titttleeee (butterfly) daboch lee maine” and “Ye rishta kya kehlata hai…” But most of all, I was most fond of this qawwali – Noor Un-Alah! I think apart from 100 thousand other reasons against almost invisible but much around MF Hussain (And may God bless him for that), the song Noor-Un-Alah song was one other reason that troubled the attention of Muslim Clerics…Again, I remember vaguely – in those good old… Delhi days…FM refused to play that Qawwali all of a sudden. I think it had to do something with the picturization of the songs on prostitutes vis-à-vis the holy Qawwali (Apparently). Sorry, not done! And so, Tittleeee flew away…suddenly Meenaxi left theatres! But one thing that remained and most outstanding thing was a certain Kunal Kapoor of Rang De Basanti fame!
Coming back to my post… while the stereo was going all Tamil-ly “Chinamma Chilakkamma”…I started humming the original version, arguing - the song is in Hindi as well…And suddenly my Husband is weirdly annoyed! He wonders why I would hum a song in Telugu; claim it’s origin as Hindi – while listening to something in Tamil! For that brief moment, I couldn’t explain much and burst out laughing real loudly!!!! One of those lol types! Anyways, I didn’t bother explaining to him, and ignored it but I had already fetched a new peg for another post! I am my own Bappida! Yes welcome to the new remixed world of Bappida kaa gaan, Baapida ke hee naam! (Is that Possible? Go Figure!) But Unlike Bappida who’s (also) famous for plagiarism – Oh sorry inspiration – The now famous and legends of the music industry are for once genuinely inspired! And by none other than themselves! Yes and they are remixing their own songs. Take Legendary Illayaraja for instance, His film“Cheeni-Kum” s same titled song is nothing but a good 18 year old song called “Manram Vantha” from Mani Ratnam’s slick film Mouna Raagam. And perhaps Rehman thought if Illayaraja Sarr… can do it why not I? Why, hardly anybody saw Meenaxi, plus such good songs were being wasted… So kya karein, remix them – and guess what – “The Chinamma Chilakamma and “Ye Rishta kya kehlaataa hai” are now hit numbers in Kollywood, s new film called Sakarakkatti (meaning – Mishree/Sugarballs)
Is the trend of remakes God or Bad….? To me, for once nothing wrong…. I don’t see anything wrong at all in doing this. You can’t steal you own thing! And do what you want with your songs… In fact its much better, to see the old songs in a new beat and new scenarios…Its almost hard to believe that this crunchy number of Cheeni-Kum could have been the real back bone for the film Mouna Raagam – in a more serous way.. Amazing…! Sometimes the recycle can work and sometimes they won’t, but No harm in experimenting the same song in different genres and age. I think it’s far more difficult.

We can always wonder; if creativity is diminishing; I think it is very simple: A good song is a good song is a good song! What say:-?

Insignificant now but forever significant for me - Arvind Swamy!

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"Favorites change every Friday when Box Office opens!"

I have never been able to ever answer these unanswerable questions on networking sites or by people in general (Ok! Kids exempted!). How can you ever pick out a favorite or two when there is an entire Encyclopedia to choose from? I think favorites are like some fever that come and grip you over and go and then come back in greater or lesser mercury levels... As for my favorites - it can be even a Bhagyashree – A one time Wonder! And her MPK flick! For me a favorite could be a Manisha Koirala for her innocence in 1942 A love story…A Sri devi in Chandni or why favorite could be even Amrish Puri in Mr. India, Pankaj Kapoor in Maqbool…There surely must be something favorite about everybody in the film industry across the world and hence they are there damn-it! And so one other actor that comes to my mind is Arvind Swamy! For the simple reason – that I spotted him in Chennai and hence the blog! While I quickly slipped in and out of Hotel “Chola Sheraton” after a leak (For me venting out possibilities exist only in these 5 star hotels apart home and office…FYI!!!!) I happened to spot a certain somebody at the parking lot of the hotel. After wondering for good 10-15 secs, thinking where I have seen this guy… It came as a surprise, disbelief and a mild shock - Hain???? Arvind Swamy hai ye???? And then I realized quickly enough that, I haven’t seen him, I have actually watched him and tons of times. I have adoringly watched him and sometimes only for him in films like Roja, Bombay and even Devaragam (Even though Malayalam is like writing from my non-writing hand). And we all have repeatedly watched him especially on every 15th of August and 26th of January till about 5 years ago, until films like Gadar, Veer Zaara, Lakshya’s, Rang De Basanti’s and now Chak De’s – replaced them. But when it came to southy flicks the general perception was more of shake your bon-bon…shake your bon-bon… thing! I have often heard my north Indian friends joke about Southern Film industry with their witty and outrageous/hilarious comments! Some I still remember… Maximum qualification for an actor was – to be NOT at all handsome, good in monkey jumping dance and for actresses – Weight lifter Karnam Malleshwari type with Thunder Thighs would make for supermodel looks! (I mean heavy duty here and nothing personal) Comments like if you want to watch porn, try watching the Southy channels at night. I think somewhere down the line even I felt the same about the common perception. This Arvind Swamy came as someone who I was and I am still very proud of, someone I could use as a weapon to win arguments with my friends and Yes when this name cropped up – there was never 2 ways about what we were talking!!!! Arvind Swamy might have done handful of films but we all have seen them despite the dubbing… Give equal credit or more to the makers of those films… but this blog is about him… So kindly excuse me! From a passionate Indian to a passionate lover – I doubt if any of those post-10pm viewing on the channels would induce that much passion, as much a single passionate scene of this guy in his films. Be it his romantic fling with Madhu in the Kitchen in Roja or Manisha in Bombay.. to his serious role in Devaragam. This is one classy actor and I have not heard anyone talk anything about this actor – No never. I have had people talk extremes about even Big B, SRK also but I am yet to find people say anything about this one! That was the charisma of this actor. An actor for whom acting was more of a hobby and work more of a priority. Apparently an adopted son of an Industrialist, Arvind Swamy is equally famous in his current work profile! But Hello!!!! what happened then?

Seeing him and his receding hair line – I realized what my dear friend Misha often says… Time flies!!!! And yes the so called “Favorites” have changed…But in this bald look also, the real Arvind Swamy is still there somewhere…Outside of his now and then pictures/ mould, there is still that fine, brilliant and a captivating actor residing… They say it is extremely important for people to maintain themselves for people generally take the usual famous nautanks as role models. But I think in Due-south, it’s more like “I don’t have any pretentions – I am what I am!” Motto! Look at Rajnikanth! While I dare not comment yet on Rajnikanth – For Arvind, a little fitness on the girth side and weighty issues can sort it out! But big deal – If we can have favorites in Pankaj Kapoors, Irfan Khans, and why even SRK’s – not ideally the most beautiful people around – with some kind of flaw this way or that way… Arvind can be back like Alaizpayuthay(tide) and blow us away once again…

And while I had decided to end the piece, something came to my mind…It might be slightly out of context, I am not sure but, one other not so beautiful, handsome, charming or good looking – lets say nothing of all of this and yet everything of all this was actor Raghuvaran (for people who haven't seen much of him in Hindi, His hit dubbed films in Hindi include that of RGV's Shiva and of course another hit of Ratnam - Anjali!) . But with his untimely demise, we have definitely and undoubtedly lost a fine, fine actor... There are only few of these rare breed of actors in the entire Indian Film Industry I would say, who can fit in any role, father, son, villain, hero, husband, you name it... and when somebody like Raghuvaran leaves us in lurch, shouldn't actors like Arvind Swamy come to rescue and think aloud if they could try and fill the shoes of actors like him... If not a hero now, then a passionate father, brother, son...maybe even a villain...the roles and scripts will automatically be written once fine actors are around...

Anyways, I strongly feel some people should never give up acting, they can act less but they should never quit – AS I say again Arvind Swamy, come entertain us, once again!

God's own country

Vallara Sandosham Aana!!!
As someone from Kerala or well from the so called no man's land (palghat), I had visited Kerala twice but not really...(once when I was too young to remember and second time during the world cup last year, work was my priority than seeing the place in its actuality). Visiting the "Malayalam" (Malai - meaning the hills, aalam meaning - down/low lying?) and do i guess why Kerala's language is called Malayalam (ulta seedha ek samaan, try reading it from the back). I need not say why Kerala was breathtakingly beautiful, with its downhills, temples, coconut trees, etc etc etc...oh yes chitra and yesudas?? - But, A lot was amazing about the place. By now many know, that south indians do have their respective village names attached to their sur names, my father was no exception... P.D.Padmanabhan... Pallavur Doraiswamy Padmanabhan. We (my father and his sister) visited the village after nearly half a century... and behold, the temples, the pozhai (pond), the neigbours - some still around,still alive, recognized my old man, just by his father's reference... Amazingly, the entire village came out to greet him as if some big celebrity had come.. What pretty sight, ponds still full and so were my father's eyes...and that said a lot! the shararat was back, as if he was just in his teens, the sadness to know his best friend was no more, the pain to see his own house occupied by someone else, the pride to see that the village was proud of him..For him, To see his ancestral home - that now resides a Nair family - he was reminded of how the same place was once hustling and bustling with a big big family of 10 brothers and sisters... hmm and now we wonder if we can even manage or frankly AFFORD a child!!! Pallavur was pleasant and so was my now pukkaattu or the village I am married into..Elapully. I was indeed lucky to witness the "Kumbhabhisekham" of the Elapully Gramam (or maha pooja for the temple that happens only once in 12-15 years). Houses built like those of oldies in karol bagh with green/blue walls and wooden doors with iron bolts and big locks... The ancestral home of my husband has been through the same journey for more than a century..not a stone unturned.. Wow! Kumbhabhishekham (KA) being a week long festival, had its rules. NO cooking for the entire gramam (village, grameen) for that whole week. breakfast, lunch and dinner all courtesy Elapully temple. All you had to do was mingle, mingle and jingle in god Gopalakrishna's name. And finally the last day of the KA, saw the beauty of Kerala in its trademark of 3 elephants nicely decorated with 70..yes 70 drums beaters (medavadyam). The sound that could never ever be termed as noisy..soothed you. For the first time i realised that soothing need not mean anything - subtle, it could be loud and yet soothing.. the vibrations that skipped your heart and yet you wanted to skip it everytime... Kerala's was truly becoming god's own country for me...
Then happened, the visit of Angadipuram temple in Mallapuram.. Mainly Muslim occupied Mallapuram - the sounds of Allah-o-akba at the mosques and the ringing of bells of the Angadipuram temple sounded like a beautiful harmony...
But how can anyone's visit in Kerala be incomeple without the visit of the 5000 yrs old Guruvayur? I finally visited the temple, but honestly, pallavur temple and angadipuram temples were far more authentic than the now modern Guruvayur, of course, you can't wear anything else but saris for women and veshti/mundu for men...or you won't be allowed! Kerala, was showcasing itself even better to me...
Now...For the people.. keralites/malayalis.. lovely people...one thing that's common of all languages/dialects in india it seems is that of the addressing of people/ bhaiyya, anna, and in Kerala "Chettan"!!!! All these chettans love only 2 things in kerala, politics and kallu (alcohol). If you don't have these qualities, you are clearly disqualified. Kerala is proud of its communism and of course even more popular for Bandhs. Why else, would there be a bandh in kerala...there was such a big shit happening in Kashmir/Amarnath...of course if was Kerala's prerogative to call for a bandh... (Apparently Idukki district had 6 bandhs last month). Kerala is proud of it. And I am amused, reminds me of Kolkata...cholbe na cholbe na...Kerala, is full of bustle, everyhouse has a seating outside and i can see why, politics will have to start at the doorstep...afterall!
Now, that I am back from the place, I want to go there again! Before I left, the Asia Cup final was to happen, and the jing bang was much worried about Jayasuriya, and hey, the popeye armed- matara mauler, mauled India, despite sri lanka being 66 for 4? huh...
Now, I m waiting for another bandh there...I want to hear that there is a bandh cos rain gods are shifting focus on to dilli... Keralites are angry, Lord Indra - its also your country...have you forgotten or what..?
But I know they are intelligent...they want tanni/vellam - agreed (Water) but they also have that in plenty (tanni also meaning alcohol)..
Kerala... You are Awesome!
While I rue the fact I didn't have my camera, Kerala - "the journey's been etched on my skin!"