Coutralam-Nature's Spa

                                                   Will any housewife be so anxious to find a handful of dust after  the floor is swept?I will in the month of June.That's the sign of  season arriving at coutralam.The time when scorching heat of summer is blown away by that gentle breeze from southwest,mother nature calls me to relish in her lap for three days.You can see almost every vehicle speeding along the Tenkasi road with a crown of luggage ,smiling between two headlights shining bright on either side .As our car speeds on the highway,drizzles stain the glass and mix with dust.As you advance the movement of trees turn from leaves fluttering to boughs bowing.Whatever time we may reach there, our first duty is to dump the luggage somewhere, wear that garland of towel and reach the nearest falls.                                    
                                                   On the very first day,the chillness creates goose bumps and the moment we try to take the first shower we feel like running away from the place but once we embrace the white angel she drenches us and fills us with ever brimming  joy.I disappear for almost 20 minutes and feel like coming out only when my stomach calls out for the delicacies served out.Hey!we can have bajjis and vadas at 24 hrs service but we cannot miss the ayyarwal's podidosai and degree coffee in the morning!

•   Unlike the other tourist spots you don't find curious tourists.They loiter around everywhere ,men in their shorts and women in nighties.Most men catwalk with their bellies protruding  and ladies with unkempt hair appearing to have had some electrical shock.
• Beautifully arranged fruit stalls with special fruits like mangustaans and ramtaans will attract us like flies but their price will make us runaway.
• Women need not bring their fashion accessories except comb but still can take back a lot of them from colourful shops by spending few rupees.
•   Men can submit themselves to the oil malish where their bodies are serviced.Their blows are not less than that of policemen giving their beloved mischievous chaps who indulge themselves in any kind of eve teasing.
• Families will be leisurely spending time on the big rock enjoying the breeze and running clouds always expecting a sudden shower.Most young men who come with their friends are busy boozing while housewives have husbands at their service.Those who don't cook there, have only this schedule for three days -showering ,eating,sleeping....
• Nobody can escape from the naughty monkeys.Everyone who comes to coutralam will definitely have an encounter with monkeys either your hair is pulled or your snacks snatched.
• Nobody is going to return without visiting the border kadai at Sengottai.
• Nature gives full guarantee for the relaxation to mind,body and soul.

                                                      At the end of the third day ,with  entangled hair oiled and combed ,neatly dressed we start for our hometown with plants from the nursery,honey,banana chips and pickle and also with heavy heart.Should we wait for one long year to have all the fun we had?       

dads and daughters

                                                                     Getting to know my degree of patience by paying 200 bucks to  Siddharth's "180" I considered twice or thrice to get into theater screening DEIVATHIRUMAGAL .The movie that could have been an art movie worthy of being screened only in film festivals for limited group of audience (definitely not us) surprisingly appealed to all class of audience.The one man who throbbed the show was definitely the director.He was successful in bringing all kinds of expressions in the viewing faces.When he makes everyone empathize with the deserted state of Krishna,the next minute he makes everyone  roar with laughter with Santhanam's comedy.When the hustle and bustle of Chennai creates the liveliness among the audience ,suddenly they are teleported to the serene cool atmosphere of Ooty.The scene in which Vikram puts the baby bird back to its nest underlines what the story is all about.Did Vikram act in the movie anyway?I could see only a new face called Krishna a mentally challenged perfectionist who observes and imitates others.Look at the reaction he gives when he hears his wife is no more.Definitely actor of the millennium is Vikram.The climax scene is very impressive. The proceedings of the the court are made out of focus and the thing that goes between the separated pair explains to the judge  what verdict he has to pronounce more  than any other arguement of any advocate.
                                          The director vijay suceeds in weaving poetic short stories with the main plot without confusing the main story and we have read detailed reviews of the movie and the character portrayal but what appealed to me most is the father attempting to narrate a story to his daughter. My dad would always start with four bulls and a lion and the moral will always be directed towards me and my brother and neither his imagination nor his memory would help him or us and myself though I read a lot of stories I would try to weave a new one exactly like that one narrated by Krishna in my semisleeping mode during bed time and my kids would be roaring with laughter the next day narrating the same one to my husband.The next thing is the motherly affection in a dad's heart and also the daughter playing the role of mother to her dad.No dad with a daughter is going to like the end of the movie and  the daughters as well.My girl who always saves a last bite of chocolate in her hanky for her dad whenever she is offered one,said "mom ,can't they finish the film by uniting the doctor daughter with her dad?"

Pursuit of Snow

                                 Getting grrrh.....over the status of friends in US .While we here are sweating in the desert of Madurai weather, guys there are giving cool poses with their beloved and some over there feeling bad about the 3"inches snow huh?But what part had snow played in my life????I have funny experiences to share.
                                Those scenes in Indian cinema showing snow spread as a white velvet with balls thrown on one another mostly by the lead pair always wanted to feel how it was like to be in it .But being the month of September we were not destined to find snow in Manali but the orchards were full of apple trees. Small streams had  apples - those apples which costed hundred and more were bit by us directly from the trees.Apples and snow do not get along with one another .A stretch of basmati rice fields also feasted our eyes.But they could not be as exciting as playing in snow?!The guide promised to take us to Rohtang pass to show us snow.Hiring those leather jackets and  boots that stinked (this is the worst part)we set on but even after we went there he told we should take the ponies uphills and the poor creatures carried us above and we appeared as if we were set on an adventure to find out some hidden treasure, he showed the distant snow clad mountains and he made us believe we were going to be at the snow land at last.The pony at times climbed at right angles and the helper gave us some tips to ride .Somehow  we came to a place where we could not see anything like snow but rocks and there were group of 4 young men around a setup that had a 25 sq.m of dirty snow.
                                  The great effort made by the ponies for our endeavor went futile .There was a flag fixed near it and a pair of skiies stuck to the ground and a couple  was standing over that and took photographs.The man held the flag with that achieving pose after climbing the Mt.Everest and the photograph came out so well that the man had the expression of Tenzing.We both were asked to stand on the skies and the helpers, you knew what they did, took out fresh snow from a flask and threw on us from all sides when the cameraman clicked and the photograph looked as though we skiied for many kilometers in the Himalayas .When we returned to Manali bazaar a local shopkeeper had a photograph in his reception.His legs were  plunged in 3 feet of snow and had put some snow over his head and also on his shoulders proudly as if he was wearing a medal .And that was taken on the place where we stood there. But anyhow he would have not skiied like us LOL!

I wish I were a child-always............

                                                                    I am in love with Enid Blyton's books.The magic words of fantasy she uses, creates a fantastic world of pixies,elves,fairies etc.Animals and birds that can talk and sing,cows that could jump over the moon,witches,wizards ,genies,jugs,cups,cots and clocks with "magical "prefix  make me awe struck at her imaginative power . How she ties them together to create a world that everybody will want to inhabit.Almost every story will convey something good to the child as well.The amateur detectives in the famous five and secret seven ,their secret meetings ,the codes they use,their caravans,their snacks-tin of chocolate biscuits,lemonades,cupcakes with orange sauce creams made me want to live in england when I was a child.The girls dormitories,the pranks played on each other,their cupboards,their term holidays had  made me yearn for a school life like that .
                                                                     Now a days our children are supplied with  fairy tales and factbooks on science.They fall headlong into those bulky episodes of Harrypotter and goosebumps but in these works atleast the evil punished and happiness is ever after.But as we grow older  SydneySheldon,Robin Hook,Harold Robbins etc we read are mostly concentrated on power,crime ,sex and money. They give every minute detail of place and incidents so that we are teleported to that place and occasion.  whatever feeling it is panic,thrill or anything it is passed to us.Recently  all the details of a donworld are brought into the limelight as the writers hire men to observe their worlds and bring out their works realistically.Films  also recently have the trend of showing everything realistic.Subramanyapuram and paruthiveeran etc had the extra dose of violence in them and the last scenes in those films made me sit embarrassed and I couldn't even sleep for few days.And I was completely frightened when I got to know that a group of ruffians cut the throat of a young boy in madurai in the same style of subramanyapuram.Now a days my bed side table always have the stories from Toyland and Fairyland .The witches there are really harmless creatures and I love to inhabit that dreamland.I like a child refuse to wake up afraid of my dreams being shattered in my realistic world.

Tinsel World

                                                                                   We should have our patience raised to the degree of infinity to watch a movie(a shot) filmed.

SCENE 1

                     VGP, the only funpark of those days was fuming with white mist and from that an outline appeared shaking the neck right and left.Hi! mike Mohan minus the mike!He had to do that difficult move(?!)stretch the right hand to north and left to the south and bend a little.While the assistant director was persevering to kindle the fumes like the musalman who puts dhoop,the man with the two inches compact powder on his face continued to do that.In evening,we returned from the beach and merry go round and all that , he was doing -"stretch this stretch that and bend."

SCENE2

                        After about ten years the same VGP welcomed me but this time with Arjun for "Thayam onnu".When I saw films like Mudhalvan and Gentleman I was wondering if this was the man I saw in VGP.He was very short and he could not resist keeping his fingers away from cigarette.In our short stay for about thirty minutes, he was puffing out like the Ooty train.The pollution control officer should have arrested him for intoxicating a poor kid, his co artiste.He finished off atleast ten cigarettes just like that.

SCENES 3,4,5

                         At kodai,Murali was peeping from behind a tree from morning till evening .At VGP again actress Suganya was twisting and turning around the pillars from morn till night while the telugu hero was practising the step from asst dance master.At lamb's rock coonoor ,Saif and Kajol were spreading their arms from morn till night and imagine how many of them would be redoing their actions now.

SCENE 6,7

                        Next to Maayajaaal!My memory failed me miserably in recognising a girl who passed behind a shifting shooting troupe.OMG! Was that Heera who stole the hearts of many Muralis.Surely one has to have strong IDHAYAM to accept that she looked like this while they had thought  she looked like that.Kajol was also unrecognizable .But Suganya was very beautiful with the perfect nose that did not need a plastic surgery.While things went on like this ,I saw a girl come out from a toddy shop with her father near my house.She pointed out to a jikarthanda shop.This scene was filmed just like that and it hit the screens with a massive success Kadhal.

SCENE 8

                         Then came the most miserable day in my life.When Vijay had come for a shooting "Madura" we went to the spot to see him as my kid was an ardent fan.A kid was enacting the "indha yeriya andha yeriya" before him he remained as cold as a stone.I wonder if he ever had a kid.When many wished for his birthday ,he didnot respond to any of them.When I see his interviews in magazines with his wife I am glad that  he doesnot behave like this to his wife.They said thalaivar was upset because many had tried to pinch him during his shooting.I do not know why we give this much of importance to actors and actresses?In the foreign shoots people don't even turn their heads to watch what was going on.When we saw him leave the hotel to go to the airport, people flocked around him and 'rasigars' had to safeguard this hero to take him to the airport.This superhero who could swim in tsunamis,rip the villains as God and let out as many punch dialogues as  he could, was safely packed off to Chennai by his very beloved 'rasigars 'who believed that he was their saviour.

 SCENE 9

                         There was a man who could not even smile but this man raised up my spirits about the tinsel world.Cheeyan came with bubbling energy to the hotel he resided after his hardwork in Bala's film.When the girls in the swimming pool were singing his song when he entered, he crossed his fingers and shouted O podu.Smiling at every person on the way, he robbed us with his humble behaviour.I even had a chance to talk  with him(perhaps the only person I had talked to) .May be this came out of his struggle in the industry for many years.He had no  director father who directed films like "once more" which we cannot see even once.Oh please! don't come to a conclusion that I am a fan of thala I'm a diehard fan of Vijay.

                    What I came to say is that if you love watching movies, never be curious to watch a film being filmed?

SCENE 10

                    I DON'T WANT ANYMORE SCENES TO BE SEEN .

PLZ SIMBU,JEEVA,ARYA,DHANUSH AND MANY OTHERS DON'T EVER COME BEFORE ME .

                                               I  LOVE WATCHING  MOVIES .                                                       

101 romantic ideas

Idea no#1
Go to your homepage .Type the title in the search engine and find the other ideas.

Bored of penning down a lengthy one!

so this time this much!Bye!

COOOOL!

Happy day guys!

rustic life

                                                                    Hi everybody! you have been  in the maddening crowd of city but have you experienced a deafening silence! Then you should go to a village.Now a days many films bring the nativity of villages to our theater screens.When I went to school I had to cross many such villages where we can see old people sitting under the trees with  Dailythanthi, youngsters would be playing carroms, aadupuli attam and cards and young kids halfdressed roll in the mud and  be busy in  sand play which our Montessori schools offer our kids nowadays, life seems to be carefree and I wonder why I had to take that large practical notes to school to learn.On festive occasions a loud speaker would be set with the maximum volume the knob could turn.The whole village flocks around the temple and they seem to enjoy life to the full extent.
                                                                    I had been to such village festivals as my periamma lives in one such-I wouldn't call it as a village but a hybrid of a  village and a town.Take a paper and draw a line for Madurai Batlagundu road and draw a very small line perpendicular  to that and that is the hybrid town -Nilakkotai.you enter into the main bazaar as soon as the bus withers you .I wonder why do they call main bazaar because it is the only one  area there.But you could see lovely jewellery shops there.When I was a small child it was rare to see any traffic there except bicycles and TVS 50s in which farmers carried loads to nearby villages.Jasmine gardens surrounded the entire town and it is such a lovely sight to see women and children plucking jasmines from the garden.My aunt used to take us to touring talkies there and for this we have to walk through the fields.I was lucky to have that experience of watching film sitting in the sand and relishing tasty native snacks like murukku ,seedai,,ellurandai etc.we can get out of it anytime but we always had to view movies that was released before  three years in my town.
                                                                Nilakottai will be a colourkottai on Mariamman festival held there during the month of march.The whole bazaar will be roofed with thatches and the street will be bordered by the fashion accessories shop for young girls there.While the kids would be throwing temper tantrums to buy their dream toys,girls would be busy applying nail polish from the fancy stores.The cool drink shops would display all the hues of orange in long bottles and sugar cane will be crushed.Men would flock around parotta stalls and the clattering sound of kotthuparotta would raise above the loud speakers blaring through the air.Mostly they would be dressed in radiant colours- the ones which showroom designers use for their show rooms(panjumittai.arachamanjal) to paint their walls.It would be such a fun to watch them come in bullock carts and many loving fathers would be having their kids seated around their shoulders and above their heads.The  mini giant wheels would have only four baskets.We would sit in one of them and place a stone in the first round and take it in the second round and will repay the owner without getting down and they would run it manually by elegantly passing between the rods.We had gone for jolly elephant rides.On the main festive occasion children would be sitting from its head to tail.Poor creature! The big giant wheels will take us to top where we could see buses going on the main roads, we get stuck there due to a powercut ,my aunt would narrate the tale of how they were get caught in the giant wheel due to leaking electricity somewhere and how fire engine came to their rescue the day before, to get them down.While in the evenings people  seem to be very pious taking agnichatti and all that,in  late evenings the whole atmosphere will be set into a gala time .The stage shows would be teenage boys with a young girl in the center displaying their talents in gutthu songs.In these recent times the girl dances to "Aasai dosai appalm vada" almost every year  for the past  half a decade  and the whole crowd dances with them. We also could see many Muthalagus and Parithiveerans roaming about .When we go back we really miss all the fun there,but till now I envy those people for several reasons.

• They lead a very simple life -they have time to eat even it is palaya sadham amd mormilagai and relish the taste while we have to cook fast,eat fast,run fast to work and then to other chores.
• Turban men are least bothered about the rise or fall of share markets while the same turns the life history of urban men.
• Their life goes around petti kadai,tea buns,news papers and of course lot of  tiring manual work while people's life here is filled with bank loans,programming,computing,share markets,empty nutrient pizza and soft drinks.
• women apart from doing their hard work in fields are busy watching serials in kalaingar tv while city women are  busy both in homes and offices.
• They seem to enjoy the travel in open lorries and bullock carts but  we are not able to go without air conditioners switched on.
• While we here are discussing about the despotic rule of Catapi, they would be lamenting for the demise of MGR singing melancholic songs into the microphones who had passed away before two decades.
• while our kids would be answering questions like which woman went into space first the kids there  will be bubbling with general knowledge by commenting"pombala wandi oottudhuda" if they happened to see a woman riding in a scooty through their village.
• While we had to see films of punch dialogues they would be serving their eyes with kudiyirandha kovil or ragasiya police in Eastman colour.They would have seen them for more than their fingers could count.
• The kids play with the so-called bats before the so called stumps .They are contended with  1 buck top while our  kids are  not satisfied with a UMD we buy ,their eyes go roving the shelves and their  fingers points to some other thing as well.
• One rupee turmeric powder does wonders in their skin while we have to dissolve our money in Olay creams and facial bleach and still come out of the parlours as wonderful as a  a witch.
• They don't mind powercuts while we make a lot of fuss overthat.

If you get a chance to go to some festive occasions like this don't miss it!

"Happy" birthdays

                                                                   In our childhood all would have died for this day to come so fast every year. It's our birthday!The word "birthday" doesnot exist alone, it always comes with a prefix "happy"in a child's mind.I had even  tore the papers from the daily calendar with the child's innocence so that  this day appears very fast and  make  me feel like the vodafone kid, given special attention to.But I don't dare to do the same that today.Who would love to celebrate that day after 30+?
                                                                 With birthday dress worn proudly,with that kesari or payasam made by mother to fill the stomach, we proudly walk through the streets to school. We usually had two sets of toffees-the one covered with a glossy green cover or white wrapper with a pineapple picture on it and the other is caramilk in two colours- the blue and red.While the former is for friends the later is reserved for teachers whom we thought very special those days.There was even a craze over bringing roses to our favourite teachers.oh!so sweet childhood!With the birthday song sung in the prayer we blush and thank everybody and return to our place with two hundred eyes ogling at us.Some children would wear another new dress in the afternoon session.Some  would  hate those who just put hands  into their sweet boxes to take as many sweets as possible.At the end of the day the bright face hangs down in agony for having to wait one long year for this day, to celebrate .But as this time- age  graph shoots up our mindset is different.
                                                                      After marriage almost everyone of us start to celebrate it  as a Valentine's day .Exchanging greetings like "I am celebrating your birthday because you're born for me " and  stuff like that our birthdays turn to be very romantic.We show our love by  cooking favourite dishes,gifting  teddies  ,throwing a very private party,sending love notes in cellphone etc...How many of you have lighted the tiny candle on a little piece of cake and cut it with a pencil knife in your rooms ?
                                                              I have started liking this day recently  because my kids are very busy preparing cards for me and they discuss what to gift their mom on this day.I am awestruck at the choice of gifts  by my kids.Those gifts are exactly what I had longed for or what I had admired .I would have talked about those things earlier and how sweet of them to observe what their mom wished for.At this point down comes a realisation "how didn't my mom come to my mind earlier on my birthdays?"Nowadays whenever my mom calls me to wish me I wish her first for bringing me into this world.Mom is the best! Always!!

on maids

                                                      My friends in US seem to miss only two people in their life for living abroad and both of them start with the letter M -one is Mom and the other is  maid.While the Indian women brood over the luxuries enjoyed by those in the west,they on the other shore roll up their sleeve for a fight saying that I 'm unpaid driver unpaid maid servant unpaid this unpaid that while you people just command your maid and have your own time.Most of the statuses would be this "Had a tiring week end ,had to mop, had to wash the dishes , had to do the laundry ". I am one of the housewives enjoying the luxury of having a maid at my command(?)but i wonder if I am the employer many times.
                                                        While I walk here and there expecting the arrival of my maid my face finally blossoms like the lotus that responds to the feather touch of the sun when she turns up.Once shown the sophistication of having maids we are unable to keep them at bay.I immediately vanish from the door and appear near sink trying to put the vessels one into another to make it appear as though I had not cooked for days.Clothes to be dried are dragged out from the drier and the bucket appears in the foot of the staircase to be  spread under sun.Forgetting the purpose of keeping maids I rearrange things and put them in order, for her to sweep and mop easily.what all difficulties we have  to face each day....

• We will not have any guts to command her to grind the masala in the ammi because she herself would have come to work  after having  done that in her mixer grinder.
• Usually these maids will be short or atleast become short when we ask them to dust high windows or remove cobwebs.They will not be able to lift anything heavy.
• We should appreciate her  work now and then for the fear of loosing her service and patchwork should  be done after she leaves.
• Over appreciation leads her to over enthusiasm and she may start arranging things by herself and save energy by switching off all the possible switches and there is  always a risk of being scolded by our kid in search of his belt or tie on monday morning and our computer will show an improper shutdown while we lovingly open our PC to watch the movie we  thought we had downloaded.
•  We  never mind the laundry soap lathering in the sink.After all her service is more worth it.
• We dare not speak anything personal when the maid is around because our secrets will  not be  secrets anymore.
• We should be their ATM and give them money anytime when asked and if we hesitate our post as an employer would be gone and that prestigious post goes to our neighbour who invades our house now and then for the want of a maid.
• We walk around the place now and then to ensure that the floor is mopped properly.
• She will never forget to give us  tips on how to cook with limited vessels and when to change the broom and about the advantages of a fully automatic washing machine over a semi automatic .
• And one thing that will be hard to digest is that she will increase the salary by herself for every three months and grant  leave for herself .

                                          Friends I can hear my maid coming and I'm off to  my duty.Get! set !go!... And one minute -now you say- Am I not the employer employed by my employee?!Actually she owes me some money from her salary every month.Grhhhh....

The (mis)adventures of a Facebookian

                                                Of recent times I'm suffering from this OCD- carrying cell phone wherever I go to check the SMS notifications from the monster community FACEBOOK.Smiling to myself on seeing the funny statuses makes my children gasp in wonder what happened to their mom.Until the previous year I used to envy my husband for having a friends circle the men who  studied from  Lkg flocked together always SIGH.I was wondering if I could see atleast one of my friends.One day when Sasi came to my house by miracle  she gave me  the  phone number of Rajini and that was a fishing rod with which I hooked to her but then came FB with the huge  net with which I caught almost all my collegemates and also some of my schoolmates and also olivia mam who had started correcting my blogs as she  had corrected my creative writing paper in semester and her comments raise up my spirits.
                                               From the day I had listed reading as my favourite hobby I had quit reading to  spend a lot of time in exploring the web and from the day I listed aerobics as my activity I had quit it for my typing activity I 'm amazed at the typing speed  and I'm crushing my brain to add funny comments and so useful statuses(?!).I am sitting here typing with few extrapounds added to my weight.Aren't the videos posted sema interesting?When I wanted to show some to my kids,I am embarassed when a lady with almost no clothes on her, calls for chat with a sexy pose and my kid turns to me and asks "amma idhellama pakkureenga?"What should I say?and this is the case when we try to use some funny applications. we could see some pair passionately kissing and the kodumai is they ask "are u interested?"If that was banned in India I think we could enjoy facebooking with family.while here I'm trying to be as funny as possible my friend there writes why the whole family behaves  very badly  to her and  I consoled her and commented to take things easy but it took time for me  to realise that that was a funny status selected by her from the network .Did I not make fun of myself?
                                              And as for the like buttons,i have clicked "like" to numerous pages like kolam where i try to learn numerous neli kolams but my frontyard will always have that  simple lotus or anjupulli kolam.Then how could I finish my chores to sit and practise that skill?My friend is always  busy in a recipe page raining the community pages with her comments but whenever she is asked about what she made for lunch she would say"Doesnt this thayirsadham and the spicy pickle make a great combination,Raji?.my hubby loves it".My another friend a dietician and nutritionist will be busy downloading recipes for pizzas and burgers.Another one who gives serious comments on parenting would be scolding her kid for disturbing her while she was typing.Most of my friends fill my news feeds with the farmville requests and I have an innovative idea for the zynga games.If they started a game called childville  moms will go crazy over that but still there is a sikkal.Soon the children will want their parents to allow them to play parentville.
                                                   This is the place where we can easily damage our image.when I copied and pasted this funny status stating"if hardwork is key to sucess donkeys would have been kings"my friend asked if I was donkey or lion.I  enthusisastically ,wanting  to sound like kamalhassan in his interview(does anyone easily understand that ), wrote "lion which brays or donkey which roars" and the truth is that I myself didnot understand what I was saying.But before I could post another one, the hypothesis had been transformed into law that stated "Raji is a donkey".:) and there my niece is so innocent that she clicked a like button to a phrase that stated "I like it in the couch"thinking that it was about sleeping.LOL.My another friend was very curious to know about the status in her friend's page that stated "I am proud of my son"and the real thing behind was that the son wanted to make his dad proud by entering his dad's profile.
                                                   Now let's come to other matters .What all transformations we have had in this fb!

• People no longer laugh, they giggle,hahahaha...,LOL,grhhhhh....,muah...(thanks ninder)
•  We write all  a lot of abbreviations like OMG,BTW .........google is planning to introduce a dictionary of abbreviations in the near future.
• The spelling mistakes which we got red lines  in our exams rules English  now a days -" u r aw sum"
• all my  young cousins,nieces and nephews are taking a lot of quizzes now a days .They would run away from me if I asked some GK questions but now they readily take quizzes to find how lucky their name was  and what percent they get in love.If they scored 76% they persevere  to take it number of times  until they get a 200% and I think we would all  be happy if that was done in their  GAT or MAT.
• While the parents are discussing how to reduce stress during exams in their community ,the  youth will be discussing how to prepare a bit and that would have bagged a lot of comments.Even I recommended my niece to have chitti as her boyfriend.Oh.. plz don look at me tht wy(a perfect Facebookian i am!)

                                              Now to serious matters.I am frightened at the stories about FB in kumudham.They ring that there is a chance of getting emotional binding with other people and this is going to put family relations at stake.I have also read in newspapers that high schoolchildren use this as a tool to take revenge on their so called enemies and they use abusive words in public.But here I am entangled in this bond of friendship thoroughly enjoying with sweet friends like you  who respond to my comments and also respect my privacy.HAPPY FACEBOOKING.Let us rock FB as ever...

Fascinating Madurai

                                               The city that  had fascinated me most in my childhood is Madurai.Hailing from a beautiful town bordered by western ghats on one side and only with three roads to make this  town and  with only little restaurants and  very few theatres , I was awe struck by the grandeur of the city that  welcomed  me with large cinema banners and huge advertisement hoardings. And all I could see was  people and   people everywhere - people rushing madly in their bikes in  heavy traffic , sweet toothed people hanging around Arya bhavans, crowd of people haunting Mappillai Vinayagar  to watch hollywood movies and people who flocked around every tea shop even at twelve at midnight...(pattikaattaan pattinam partha kadhai) I always went to my cousin's house there and had viewed those rare cassettes of Tom& jerry episodes again and again.
                                                Yanaikkal with heaps and heaps of fruits of different varities, comes into my mind whenever I show my children a fruit stall for picture composition.Even milk supplied in milk bottles fascinated me.I had been to Chitthirai festival watching the Thirukalyanam,Alagar entering into the vaigai river and drank buttermilk in that scorching summer and who could miss the exhibition with those delhi pappads,sugarcane juice,small shops,merrygo rounds and panjumittai that sticks to our nose.I had shopped with my mom for atleast the whole day going around the chithirai veedhis. Milan,Roopmilan,Rajmahal ,Amarjyothi stores and many other places were haunted by us during  every festive season without fail.Anything is made available to us around the temple.
                                                The Meenakshiamman temple with four gopuras,colourful bangle shops inside,beautiful tank with steps on all sides where we sit and eat appam,puliyodharai and murukku from prasadham stalls,walls decorated with paintings,mukkurini vinayagar ,other deities, model of the temple kept inside and other historical details,  had  fascinated  me everytime I went there. Curious foreigners who were walking leisurely behind their guide with their cameras were   stuck at the places bearing  the banner that states" foreigners not allowed beyond the limit "and I wonder why.I was amused at those fair skinned people   loitering  in the streets around the temple with eccentric clothes,with the manjal jolna pai and rudhratcham worn around their neck and a long string of madurai malligai hanging down from the side of their head.They used to go in those rickshaws as though they are prince and princess pulled in the chariots and I am sure malli and their Indian fashion accessories  would have cost them atleast 200 bucks.
                                       I had been to Naicker mahal and played around the massive pillars which are shown more beautifully in Manirathnam movies andGandhi Museum where Gandhi's blood stained dhoti is kept.I had been to Tamukkam and Rajaji park number of  times.Handicrafts exhibitions conducted in those premises displayed beautiful handicraft works from all over India.The spices,dry flowers ,suparis and all types of pickles,colourful wall hangings, kurtas,kurtis feast our eyes.I always go back to that little town of mine with some sadness, missing all the grandeur of the city.When I had joined LDC I felt I could live in this city, which I had developed some liking in my heart, for atleast three years.What all fun we had at ldc!I was introduced to a totally new Christian society.I had attended the carol rounds with my friends to all our lecturers's houses.They had entirely different households.I could see  a lot of western style in their houses with the same hospitalities of Indian culture.Little girl in every family had pointed to me and asked why that akka didn't sing any song with the carols.I wanted to know their style of living  but  the next year I went with them to taste the delicacies served there.From that time  I developed a liking for home interiors.
                                        Things came to my favour when I was destined to live in Madurai lifelong.Has anyone coined a term for this phobia,the one which arises when we have to leave our mother's place after a vacation and enter into inlaws place everytime and that vanishes within a few hours  after we settle down there?I think every one suffers from this atleast for an year and that was the time when I had hated this lovely city of mine.But now the city  still continues to fascinate me with jikarthandas,sweet smelling Madurai malli,murugan kadai idli,konar mess,milanmart, super clean theatres with decent audience,numerous picnic spots around and ofcourse my all time favourite Meenakshiamman temple.If you have come  back to madurai after a very long time these are the changes you could see.

• The ring road built around the city has reduced  traveltime for travellers and they could escape the maddening crowd of Madurai.
• Madurai people  have gone crazy over American corns.
• Remuki in KK nagar  has lost its exclusive charm and now it resembles like any other departmental store.
• People who were afraid of transporting themselves in escalators are now free to move and thanks to Pothys and Milanmart through which they have gained those skills.
• Reliance supermarkets,Big bazaars,Spencers and numerous other departmental stores have been opened with underground parking facilities.Though they have CCs fixed the sales girl  follow us everywhere we go like the little lamb.
• We could find women seated in the corridors of mens clothing  stores  while the men are in their trial rooms trying out their outfits.They have such varieties nowadays to choose.And men you can no longer forward SMS jokes about going shopping with women.It's our turn now.
• we have dominos pizzas,coffeeday and many other places to serve our taste buds.
• The Taj briyani  and Aryabhavans have  now become infamous and there is hardly anyone there now a days.
• People flock around chat varieties offered around  almost every corner of the city on sundays and Teppakulam has now become  the "beach of Madurai".You could get sundals,idiaapam,maangai and almost anything you get in Marina beach.
• And the one  sweet surprise is that the chitthirai veedhis are free from  traffic.You could peacefully loiter around the temple capturing the serene atmosphere and beauty of meenakshiamman temple in your mind and now are you ready to take a virtual tour around the temple? 
• welcome to madurai

exam time

                                                         Hearing moms screaming in the neighbourhood?fridges stuffed?missing cooking and exercise  routines?cable televisions unplugged? ahh.......exams are arriving!There you can see mothers working hard busy preparing questions for the short tests.Indian moms fall into two categories . you would either be a proud mother of  a rankholder or a dejected mother of a poor performer expecting every time to score better .In either case the thing you are really concerned about is MARKS.
                                                        As for the education system in India mothers are educated well than their children  and they are confident of appearing even  for the IAS examinations.The subjects which they never understood in their schooldays,interests them.While they try to stuff every word from the book right into their kid's head enthusiastically, they miss to notice the disgust they are  generating  for the subject .The subject which I neglected in my eleventh standard "maths" seems to be very interesting now.I don't give my kid sufficient time to think and solve the problems orally ,which the kid  is forced to write absentmindedly on the notebook and the result shows in the test papers and I scold my kid  for not being attentive unaware that it is I who destroyed   self interest and confidence.This is the case of many children in India.They fall a prey to non patient parents.Every parent thinks that his child should score first in the class, be the best in art,craft and whatnot,and through these skills should bring pride to the parents.
                                                         The thing that should be abolished in education system in India is the ranking system.This may boost the spirits of the rank holders but this is sure to have devastating effects on the last rank holders.These children  are looked down upon that they are good for nothing.when the +2 results are aired marks scored will be the talk in every gathering while those with highmarks are appreciated,  think of the plight of poor scorers.Life does not treat you with your marklist in its hands. This Indian system of education was designed by the british to select men for  clerical post in east india company and children's abilities cannot be judged by these silly marks awarded.In this fast world of advancing technology they now have lots and lots of fields to shine.
                                              If this is the case in academics, parents are very much concerned about bagging every prize in the competitions the school conducts.When the results are announced and if their child missed in one, they are not able to sleep that day.I have seen such parents.By the overdose of confidence we give , children expect everything best in life.Don't we grab the qualities of tolerance,acceptance and love for fellow beings from kids.If you are the kind who is very much concerned with the marks then you should be forced to see movies like 3 idiots,tare jameen par etc again and again like ramesh kanna is forced to watch romantic films in the movie jodi.I'm not going to ask for the marks scored by the children who had appeared for the public exams this time.how  about  you?don't miss to watch this

Roles of a Indian husband

ATM machine -

                           Just because we were granted the license of marriage we can take as much money  we want from this ATM  -anytime and anywhere.After all, we spend this money to show the world how high his status is or how he keeps us in comfort and luxury.

Chefs-

                          Indian parents can no more panic to give their daughter's hand in marriage to an ITT ian or an engineer .Apart from knowing software,he has tremendous knowledge in cookware.As he has to leave his mom to work in far-off places in India usually in Bengaluru ,Chennai,Pune etc,moms give special training to their boys more than their girls.Soon they learn all the skills in cooking.All a newly- married girl shall do is some lab-work in kitchen and have her husband as a  guinea pig to try out a new recipe.He has to say the food was wonderful when it was wonderful and wonderful even when  it was not wonderful.

 Facebook friend-

                            Husband is usually enlisted as a facebook friend for security reasons.Has he  the guts  to open a new profile without our knowledge?Those who have  nothing to do with FB will keep wondering why the plants in their garden are dried and the angel fish in their aquarium have become angels out of starvation and their pet dog Browny has become bony.Stastics say that while the bitter half is away on work,just to kill time(?) women play farmville,petville ,fishville etc.

Guardians-

                           While the whole world enjoys it's week ends,this pathetic figure  after a busy week yearns to be inside the house.But this liberty is taken from him once he is married.The wife wants to be taken out.Indian women are given advice not to yield to the request of their spouse to learn car driving.They  are careful enough not to fall a prey to his deceitful and crafty idea of passing out some of his responsibilities to us.He should forget about spending his own time and should accompany us to movies which he doesn't find interesting or he is cursed to swim through the  crowd in chicken booths of the malls on sundays while we are comfortably seated in the dining hall.He should come shopping with us though nothing was consulted.

                          By now you would have begun to think if this particular creature lives in a democratic country like India?He has no liberty to talk anything about our family which we thoroughly enjoy,no liberty to praise the cine actresses,no liberty to ask the wife to loose weight or not to beat the children and this list goes on and one thing you must note, this article in no way contains any autobiographical element in it(he... he... he...)

                          Now friends tell me, don't these people need to celebrate MEN'S DAY-atleast on march 9.My humble opinion is that they should celebrate atleast a week.Letz take a day out(week ?) with our friends

                                                          மயக்கிய மணாலி

குளு குளு  பெட்டியில் ரயில் பயணம்

ஹின்ட்லிஷில் தத்துபித்து உரையாடல்கள்
காரோட்டியின் திகில் திருப்பங்கள்
ஆப்பில் தோட்டம்  ஆட்டுக்கூட்டம்

தூரத்துப்பசுமை போல் தூரத்து வெண்மை

கலகல  பீஸ் நதி நடுவே நூடூல்ஸ் சாயா
குதிரைப்பயணம் பனிச்சறுக்கு
சப்பாத்தி கோழி பஞ்சாபி  தாபா
அங்கங்கே அந்து விழும் அருவிகள்
மலையை குடைந்தெடுத்த டன்ல்கள்
வெள்ளைவெளேர் மக்கள்
இவை அனைத்தையும் விட  மயக்கியது
 கணவனின் round -the- clock அருகாமை!

2010

                                                                   As for anybody my new year dawned upon me with wishes from  friends,relatives and of course with celebrations of video jackies in television.After much pestering and  almost fighting I finally managed to save an attractive diary from my kids. I started jotting down my new year resolutions-I'll not be cross with my husband or kids over silly reasons".With this first resolution already broken then goes my second.I'll fill atleast few lines every day in the diary.But at the end of the year it takes the avatar of  my son's rough note.And my daughter will bag my hubby's diary.By this time we can come to a conclusion that new year resolutions are specially made to be broken.To this many of you will agree.To those who don't agree I dedicate a royal salute!

                                                            Apart from festive occasions,gossips at get togethers,marriages attended -a monotonous life of eating,cooking,sleeping,eating,cooking,sleeping..........whirled around me as any housewife is cursed.FB gave me an outlet.Internet provided me the net with which I caught my old  friends as fishes .The faces I had seen before thirteen years smiled at me with slight changes as if touched up in adobe photo shop.But surely Fb is not a place for non- creative minds.Friends love to play virtual games like farming ,fishing or answering some nutty psychology questions.They  miss the real fun of gardening,growing fishes in aquarium and many other hobbies.With some statuses updated and  no one to give even  a click in like button I have switched over to write blogs.This I'm sure no one is going to read except you. I would atleast save to read in my older years or to boast  to my grand children how their granny got her knowledge updated to the advancing technology or atleast they could use to write some high school essays.                           

                                     When  I joined a web designing course ,I felt as though I got back my college days.But I had a big surprise there .My class mate called to me "Aunty,Will you pass on this book?".Our master a fresher from an engineering college would  not even mind to teach me flash or photo shop.His looks would always  mean some thing like this-What are you going to do with all these?When asked in common,answers seemed to stream down the brain but when the question is directed to  me there was a problem in downloading and the answers stuck in the throat as the youtube videos get jammed in a poor signal .I could then empathise with my children who were scolded by me unnecessarily without even giving them  time  to think.Some how completed the course with only satisfaction that I  had convinced  my classmates into calling  me akka.But this course helped me in following latest trends atleast to some extent.

                                              For the first time in thirteen years of marriage I went on a tour to Orissa,West bengal and Sikkim without my kids and husband through a club of my MIL.Fields stretched on either sides of the track in Orissa.I read a pamphlet on tourism in Orissa which warned us about the beggars in Puri. The Jagannath temple was very wonderful but it was occupied by beggars all around it.While they were begging outside many holy people (?)inside were begging or threatening us to give some money .We were really blessed by the sungod at konark temple.Getting ourselves roasted by the rays of the sun, we admired the beauty of the chariot temple with 24 wheels on all sides.It is a marvelous architecture.

                                                   kolkatta is a big bee hive where the bees really work hard .The people are outnumbered by the garbage  heaps on roads.They would not even mind to put some waste on your head if you stand below a window in a kolkatta household.My mind was running out of tour spirits when I encountered with the dirty atmosphere of kolkatta ,but the beauty of Gangtok healed.Beautiful  monasteries ,clean roads ,the very beautiful Gandhi Marg, where we sat for atleast 2 hours in the street ,the landscape would never get erased from my memory.Darjeeling also was nice but it could nor surpass the beauty of Gangtok.We flew from Bagdogra to Kolkatta and from there to Chennai.

                                                    With these days bearing the beautiful  memories. my year ended.The  new year dawned with another list of new year resolutions jotted down in another diary and of course to be broken in the near future.