Madrasapattinam Again! + a gross tale absolutely free!

ONwards!! packing for chennai AGAIN!!! This year I've visited chennai a lot of times and though I find this city extremely hot and sultry and maybe a danger zone for my poor face, I feel kinda  attatched to this city... I certainly dont have any basic sort of knowledge about this place.. yet whenever my relatives start off naming some million areas in Madras I lend my ears keenly to the conversation...This time the occasion for the trip turned out to be my sister/aunt's wedding (long story).. Anyways..So i hope this trip turns out more fabulous than before..
(The above passage was written before the chennai trip)
AND IT DID!!!!! These days were few of the best days of my life.. because I realised literally a lottt of things about relations and had hell a lot of fun! So I dedicate this post to all my sisters and brothers who showered upon me.. loads of love and affection .. giving me this bountiful experience that I'll never forget... Rammu. Vaishu. Abhijeet. Abhishek. N how can i forget darlings Mahathi, Ananya, Adhithi, Vardhu... You guys made these 2 days of mine rockin awesome!!!!
Starting with ramya.. What to say yaar.. I always have cartloads of fun with you everytime! Having the usual girl gossip and listening to funny tales! This time I understood the sisterly bond we share.. The amazing berth to berth chats..
Vaishu! Was a pleasure meeting you.. Honestly speaking I have never seen a person so warm hearted like you. Our tastes match a lot and looking at you makes me crave for an elder sister!
Jeet and Shek.. You guys are a package of fun and the most kindhearted guys i've ever seen! Thank u so much for being so welcoming and treating me like your sister. Will never forget those scooty rides to palwanthangal station and around nanganallur..
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                         "Who likes watching sarabhai vs sarabahi?", abhijeet piped in enthusiastically.. We (ramya, vaishu and myself) were leaning on the staircase and chatting after finishing our lunch "the heavy tamizh kalyanam food".. I raised my hand in response to his so called casual question. " Then come home! We'll all watch it together!"  This gave me a sudden jerk! "How'll I come to your house? I need to go and change first and there's no one to drop me!"  I replied. I was excited at the prospect of being with my cousins but then, troubling people was the last thing I wanted to do. Somehow, Jeet  agreed to take me to  mami's home and then to watch sarabhai vs sarabhai. Meanwhile we had to wait for  mami who was inturn waiting for my mom to finish her lunch!
"phew! this is gonna take a while!" I sighed shaking my head. Jeet grinned.
" Ol' Mcdonald had a FAARM EE YAA E YAA OO!!",  mami sang in her melodious voice looking after 5 kids all clad in beautiful pattu pavadais. I watched her play with the kiddies without getting bored . Like she was a universal mommy!  "ANd In HIs FaRm He......" that went on for a while until mahathi yelled " Amma!! moochaaaaaaa!!"  Mami stopped singing and said earnestly " Will you watch them? I'll take mahathi upstairs." I shuddered at the thought of managing 4 kids demanding nursery rhymes. I didnt have the universal mom thing in me, I knew that! " NO NO NO I'll take mahathi instead!" I said.
Mahathi walked beautifully with me asking sweet questions, talking in her cute higgeldy piggeldy accent! I "hmm hmm - ed" at her answers and replied to her questions until we reached our destination.. washroom. Taking a toddler to bathroom was something I didnot do regularly. So, I was pretty hoping that she would finish her job.. 2 mins, 3 mins.. My baby sis sat for a while.. "Are u done darling?" She looked at me and grinned.. "I pooped geethu!"
"Oh my god!!" I felt like laughing at mahathi's expression and also felt like banging my head against the door at the same time.. How am I gonna complete my "after poop formalities" with my baby sis with people waiting for me out there! I tied my skirt tightly like tamil men tied their "veshtis" and got  to my work. Adjusting her silk, I put in as much efforts as I could and somehow did my job satisfactorily!
We both came out looking pleasant. At least mahathi did. "Done?" Jeet asked. " Ya! done!" I said with the "Oh-yeah-it-was-such-a-cakewalk-that-my-skirt's-gonna-fall-off-any-moment" expression.
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Entry of Maheshwara putra - GANESHA!

"You brought a thaat?", the man at the idol shop wearing white dhoti and a gandhi cap asked. "No! we'll carry", dad replied. An assistant took the bill and went searching for the idol we'd ordered. Meanwhile I stood gaping at the variety of ganesha idols. Each one was of a different size, different colour and different style. But the majestic wise look on lord's face was the one thing which did not vary. I wondered which one mom had ordered. Meanwhile the assistant came back carrying a brush and a creamish golden murti of Lord ganesha clad in a pink dhoti. My eyes lightened up. Immediately I began chanting the holy mantram Om gan ganpataye namah...
My hands shook as I took my ganpati in my hands. A rush of emotions - pride, exhilaration, and love for I was carrying my own ganesha finally!!
On coming home, I called out to mom, " Look who has come home amma!!" Mom came running from the kitchen beaming, carrying a aarti thali. "Dont come in yet!", she said.
After the aarti, I entered the poojai area and placed my ganesha on the stand. I took a fine look at him. "Beautiful!", I muttered. His appearance itself made me feel blessed.
Then, the actual activity began - applying chandanam kumkumam, arranging flowers, preparing kozhakattais, and prasadam etc. Amongst all the activity, a score of ganesha suprabatham was being played in the background. Everything just seemed perfect. The melancholy was replaced by divinity!
Slokams n bhajans followed by archanai n neiveidyam were done to please the lord. It was an utmost pleasure!
What I experienced from this day is that that having Lord Ganesha at home is pure bliss! I had always wished for having a ganapati at home since I was a child. Finally, when the wish has come true, I feel entirely satisfied to the core. GANPATI BAPPA MORIYA!

Dragonflies, woods and magic

Monsoon has startd waving a goodbye already and that makes me feel really glad given to the unavoidable fact that my moods are mainly governed by the weather outside my balcony.. rather balconies I should say..
Holding a cup of bournvita I walked slowly into the open balcony of my house relieved to find that the floor was dry and rain hadn't played its dirty "slippery- muddy- algae" game.. But ironically the aloevera plant looked so unusually green and healthy and I felt that it was wrong on my part to blame monsoon up to this extent. Anyway, I ignored my guilty conscience for a while and leaned on the wall, watching the sunshine highlightling every bit of the lush green grass that had grown wildly over the sides of the road..Dragonflies were racing about my head with their golden wings rapidly flapping... I felt like smiling..felt like nature was conveying an important message....After every rain, someday, beautiful sunshine flows in enlightening the spirit of nature..
I wanted to stay, wishing  that I was a part of this nature's movie, wishing someone would play a soothing background score... and I could dance to the rythm..

Wearing my shoes, I ran down the stairs, towards the park,, There wasn't a single soul on the road. Taking advantage of this situation, I started humming and hopping about, talking to baby squirrels collecting nuts on the road... Though grass had grown wildly everywhere, it had created a unique path.. one could almost expect snow white to arrive with her seven dwarfs, gently lifting her skirt gracefully.. I plunged into every imagination that my heart ridiculously created.... knowing that I was the snow white at that moment.. .  

Get Set Cook - Part 2

In maharashtrian cuisine... the dish that makes me lick my fingers out of temptation is the one and only "Veg Kolhapuri" . May it be any menu card, my eyes go searching for this delicious side dish. So since mom was tired and bored to cook, I finally took over her battelefield "home kitchen" last week... n went all Peel Chop Fry again !! ( I know I shouldnt go repeating that dialogue over and over again)... BUt this time.... it was not at all a cakewalk.. Making noodles was quite easier compared to this... that too without mom's mom's supervision ( "not" theoritical meaning :help), it was defenitely much much harder than i had thought.. So like a professional, I first gathered all the necessary masalas n powders n veggies n spices n arranged them in order of their usage. (felt like a mini sanjeev kapoor). Then went for a utensil hunt around the kitchen.. I had actually done some malpractice i.e got hold of a fully accurate recipe one night before and then laid down my diary along with the veggies. I started out the procedure with choppin (felt lazy; used a dicer) and then ended up with stirring hte veggies as usual. Cooking this dish was fun but tooo hectic. And it made me realise the pain with which mom cooks everyday. When making just one dish ( though a tough one) took me 3 hrs ( am a beginner, give some mercy :P ), how does mom cook everyday???? :O    Anywass..... here are the pics of my dish n the above pic is the proof that i made it myself .... And I forgot mentioning.. I make HORRIBLE rotis...(turn out looking like papads) :)

the "Ostrich" moment

The moment when you feel like burying your head in the sand and gettng lost in your lonliness away from the rest of the world.. Well.. most of the situations in life are expected..This is so, because even though our mind denies the fact that there is, a hint of a chance for a thing to occur... deep inside... a small voice does warn us about the possibility of it.......and no matter how, we try to tag a situation as "unexpected", the inner voice ends up getting stronger and stronger.... So the only way to wipe off guilty conciousness is to face the truth boldly.. well... nobody is blamed or mocked for facing the truth... What the world says is never shit.... It is the plain truth that we shamelessly tag as "Never Listen To It"........ It is like pretending that you are the king when you actually are the duke..  I say... why not accept the fact that  you are a duke and live with it? Why not shut the doors of discourage and fear... In this way.. what the world says automatically turns worthless.. The most comfortable option that people prefer in such a situation is "acting fake"... But now ... does that minimise the internal pain in any way?
So.. I prefer the "ostrich option".. bury your head in the sand and when the right moment comes...lift it up with pride..... when all the other heads are buried instead..... when you are confident that nothing will ever force you to seek the sand for comfort again........being positive is good but being overpostive is dangerous because it never leads to anything .... you just get stuck between success and failure... in a no mans land......yelling and yelling for help but in vain........