LOVE is...

HE: Hellooo
ME: Enakku konjam velai irukku, namma apparam pesalama?
HE:Seri ok, naan apparam pannaren
ME: Illa, enakku inniku pesara mood illa
HE:Yean enna aachu?
ME: Onnum illa
HE: Is something bothering you?
ME:Ya, something is bothering me, aana ennannu thaan theriyala
HE:Ennada ithu?
ME: Paathiya, nee aluthukkara, I know you are fed up of me
HE:Appdi ellam onnum illa
ME: Illa, appdi thaan
HE: Why do you assume things?
ME: Ya, I always assume things, I am only so bad
HE: Ippo ennada pannanum?
ME:Onnum panna vendaam, am ok now.
HE: Sure?
ME: Ya am ok now, aana en mela kovam illa la?
HE: Enakku kovam ellam onnum illa da. Nee ok na, naan ok.
ME:Nijamma?
HE: Nijamma da.Ayyo yean da oru vishayatha ivlo complicate pannara?
ME:Seri ok, lets hang up now. You take care. Bye!



LOVE is driving SID nuts and make him totally clueless like, in the above conversation. Oh ya, the above conversation was between me and Sid.

My North Indian Friend

I got a call from one of my friend( actually speaking one of the avoided brigade of friends) after almost 6-7 months.I was surprised on getting her call cos we werent the best of friends and we have spoken to each other only a few times.She started talking on a very apologetic note.Oh ya, she wanted my help. She is from U.P and was placed in an IT company in Chennai and she needed my help in finding her an accomodation in the city.Adyar, Thiruvanmiyur was her first choice.I gave her some assurance on finding her a suitable accomodation and called a couple of my friends & relatives to put them on the job of finding her a good place.

After about 2 weeks, we found her a place in Indra nagar. She was happy.I was happy too cos I was of some help to her.PEACE!!!

She used to call me every week ( guess it was some form of gratitude) which later was reduced to mails, and further dwindled to mere SMS'es.When during the calls stage, she was happy being here, during mails, she wasnt so, and during SMS'es, it went downhill .Every SMS from her was only about her sufferings of a North Indian in CHINNAI ( dont you know most of the North Indians say CHINNAI instead of CHENNAI). Once or twice, I tried cajoling her that things wud be allright. But it got worse later that everytime I got an SMs from her, I flinched.Everytime she talks, she said more or less of these:

*Chinnai is alaways hot yaar
*Why do the men here have to gape on seeing a girl in some teeny weeny t shirt?
*People dont speak Hindi
*Auto fellows charge a bomb
*Only idli, dosa and sambar
* No Atta made rotis here, all rotis made of maida
*No asli Punjabi khaana
*No night life

I have always had a feeling that North Indians dread coming to south. To them,. South is MADRAS and all South Indians are Madrasis.Why is it that invariably, most of the North Indians crib on coming to South? I have lived in Pune, and gelled well with the place. My family was in Delhi for a few years and we thoroughly enjoyed those 3-4 years there.My friend asked me why people dont speak Hindi. May be they dont want to, I said.We speak Tamil and English.I dont think I can communicate to an autowala in Delhi in english as I can do it here in Chennai.And what did you tell me? Only idli dosas? You guys thrive in Aloo.I had to have only aloo parathas, aloo sabji when I was in the North.I had to struggle in finding one good place where I could have some typical South Indian food.These kind of conversation only makes me all protective of the place I live in.No offence meant here, but guess we should learn to respect the place we live in.When in Rome, be a Roman. Try learning something from the place you live in so that you could live anywhere in the world.Stop making an upheaval about such trivial things.Every place has its uniquness. And this post wudnt be complete without me saying that I love Madras and everything that makes it up.

Clean All

I was damn busy, Appa wanted some proof receipts of the LIC premium paid.I had to take out a file in which these receipts were filed.I take the file, run through to find out the receipts, there is paper and clutter all around, my mobile phone rings and in a hurry to reach out to my phone, I accidentally kicked the glass of bournvita that was kept and the spilled bournvita very rightly flows on all the whole lot of papers scattered.I reach up to my phone and it happens to be a wrong number.I am damn irritated, and I decide to give up.Just then, there was a lightning thought that I could indeed use this as a chance to sort out the papers and trash the unwanted papers, bills,etc.I patiently did that and waahh, my file now has only relevant stuff and no rubbish.


But, now that I sorted out all the clutter, I dont want this to happen again.I only wish that I be more regular in sorting and disposing the unwanted stuff than wait for a situation like this!

These kids I say...

Kids say the darnest things and take you by surprise.

Since I live in an apartment, anything/anyone coming to my house is strictly scrutinised by one of my flat mate and more precisely their 4 year old son.This little boy wud follow the visitors to my house so religiously just to see what they talk and what they eat at my home. Nothing/ no one can come to my place without his knowledge. So did my A/c. I purchased an A/c this April and as expected, this boy was right there when the A/c was delivered at my home.He came in and sat along with me, kept saying that he would stay with me to see how the A/c wud function. He kept comparing the A/c at their house with mine. Mine is a split A/c while theirs is a window A/c.Now goes the conversation we had

BOY: unga aathula periya A/c. enga aathula chinna A/c
ME: aamaam. aana ellam onnum thaan ( me thinking not to discriminate bwn things)
BOY: periya A/c na romba jillunnu irukkuma?
ME: aamaam
BOY: nee ellamey perusa thaan vanguviya?
ME: appdi onnum illiye
BOY: A/c um perusu, tv um perusu, bedum perusu
ME: not knowing what to say, tried diverting him to something else and offered him some fruits to eat
BOY: enakku fruits pidikkathu
ME: trying to advise him, fruits healthukku nallathu, konjam saapdu
BOY: enakku pidikkathunu sollrenla
ME: pidikkathunnu ethayumey solla koodathu. konjam saapdu

Here comes the dialogue totally unexpected

BOY: nee nalla sambathikkara, periya a/c, periya tv, periya bed ellam vechurukka, yean ippdi fruits saapda sollra? pizza, laysnu ethavathu enakku vaangi tharalamla?

Who has got the better of this conversation?
He took me by surprise totally. I did not speak a word after this, and dropped him back at his home.

Murungakkai

I have never had a fancy eating MURUNGAKKAI. Infact, I have been annoyed with this vegetable quite many times.Ask me why?I started detesting sambhar because of the murungakkai added in it.I always prefer vetha kuzhambu to sambar cos vetha kuzhambu can be made even without any vegetables, but by adding some manathakkali vethal.But for sambhar, you need to add vendaikkai or murungakkai. My appa has always felt murungakkai does better justice to the sambhar and that left amma with adding lots of murungakkai to it.I had no qualms with vendaikkai cos as the cliche goes, I was told "vendaikkai is the vegetable which helps me improve my mathematical abilities"( anyways that dint help me in becoming one mathsla puli).But I happily stuck to vendaikkai and disowned murungakkai.

But it wasnt that easy to ignore this vegetable.I agree it has a nice flavour, tastes nice, but many times it gets stuck in your thorat. Sometimes I wonder if people took some special training to chew the murungakkai. I am sure even a cow if competing with our men would loose its race in chewing a murungakkai.How is it that our people manage to chew it so violently?.I always associate eating murungakkai with embarassament. Another thing was washing the plates after my appa/ chithappa or the guests ate. I dreaded doing this especially when there was the violently chewed murungakkai in the plates and I had to trash them before washing the plates.And then on, I close my eyes before trashing the chewed murungakkai and also wash my hands with soap after I trash.

No longer committed

Oh, how do I write this? I am finding it difficult to express myself. It was 4 yrs since I was committed, and ya it was immediately after my schooling.Amma never liked this relationship of mine.So it was but obvious that she dint approve of it.But I dint want to listen to her cos we had a good understanding. Just like in any relationship, we too dint get along all that well initially, but as years rolled by, we were thick n thin.We were seen together most of the times.I started spending most of my weekdays and sometimes my weekends with my love.we got along pretty well. Inspite of ammas repeated pleads, sometimes shoutings, I continued with my relationship, ignoring all that she said. This continued for a while until amma cudnt take it further. And she just threw my old, worn out school uniform out of my cupboard and later handed it over to my maid servant asking her to take it away. This time, she happily ignored my crying, pleads and shoutings .

Children who aren’t allowed to stay young

Are kids being treated as kids? I am afraid they are not. Being a child prodigy is no longer a blessing. These kind of things only spawn huge expectations Invariably, kids are expected to perform exceptionally well-each time, and every time. The talent of a child needs to be nurtured, but it is often seen that children with exceptional skills/quality become a victim of parental pressure or fall into the trap of expectations. Parents have very high expectations and want to fulfill their dreams through their children. Parents become nervous if their children do not fulfill such dreams. And its not just parental pressure, but peer pressure also pushes a child to perform exceptionally well.

One of my flatmate says that she should join a particular course / class, just because her friends have also joined the very same class. And the sad part is that her mom approves of her attitude.

Wont expecting the child to do well everytime become a burden for the kid? This often makes me wonder if being super talented is more a bane than a boon. And the recent news about a 15 year old boy performing a C section clearly shows that he is a victim of parental pressure or rather too much pressure to outperform others of his age. Similarly, the news of a 5 year old Budhia creating a record(??) by running 65 kms gave me jitters. Now, the poor kid is being expected to do more. I am so cross with such parents who want their kids to be over achievers. Why should the parents be so obsessed with making their child do some exceptional stunt like recalling the country name by the mere look of the country’s flag or use computers at the age of 1 or 2? Why should every little thing be treated as an opportunity to outperform than just taking it as an opportunity to learn? My parents never tried forcing things on me, or kept preaching that I should use every opportunity to outperform someone.

Why cant we just treat the kids AS kids? Their inherent and inborn talents and genuine abilities should not be suppressed. The children should be let to decide what they want to do or what they want to become, with the parents efficiently guiding them towards that.

I am glad that all these ring an alarm in me. If I could have one wish for my child, it would be that he is a happy person always and am ok if he is not successful, but all am concerned is that he is at peace with himself.