Navarathri, and the things it stands for

Every evening is as colourful as that rainbow that hardly appears these days...sparkling with jewellery, mild or gaudy, light or heavy...bright with the shades wrapped around each one, kancheepurams, pink and blue, with and without zari... loud with comments coming out of each one's mouth, remarks on one's way of dressing, or just next door gossip...lively, with the dolls and the lights, and i daresay...the songs :D Navratri in chennai - You see it all, hear it all, and experience the chennai-ness!

Its not like i have a problem with any of the factors mentioned above, i just marvel at them, and amuse myself. As per tradition, atleast one new bommai (doll) should be bought every year for kolu... If you've lived in chennai, you must know the Mylapore tank...of kabhaleeshwar kovil fame,And something more... a place where you can't walk without getting pushed around by maamis during this time of the year. And even if you do manage to walk without getting pushed, there are always the sacred cows which will conviniently walk right infront of you, such that you see nothing but the tail, and traces of whatever's come out from below even if you wish to see something else, or there'll be the cars and the auto-rikshwas that try to make way for themselves in that already crowded street when they could have conviniently zoomed off on the main road. Sigh...Kolu bommai shopping can be tedious indeed. You get to learn how to bargain from maamis who'll ridiculously by a 400 rs doll for 50rs,leaving the shop keeper stunned as to how he allowed such a sale...and its also a good training session on weight lifting! The dolls dont get heavier,i hope!

And then you come back home, and have a big argument with your mother or grandmother, or anyone else who wants to argue with you, about where which doll should be placed, on which step, at which position, and next to which other doll! And when all that is set, you try fixing the flashing lights, which refuse to work because your grandfather bought them 4 years back and refused to use them! So u manage with some other lights, and everything is set. Then your mother starts calling up each maami/aunty and saying "yenga Aathle kolu vechurkom, vandrungo. Ponnaiyum kutindu vaango maami...aam naanum varen, divya um varuvaa'...Did she have to say that last line? There, stuck!

Aah, then the rounds...It starts with the teeth show and the exchange of greetings. And you're taken inside the house to where the kolu stands, all colourful and beautiful. There's not a single kolu that has failed to impress me...and some are so cool, so huge, and have such nice themes. Yeah, so once you reach 'the spot' you're asked to sit. And mind you, you wont be alone...there'll already be some maamis who reached earlier than you, whose eyes will notoriously follow each movement of yours, pentrating stares! And then the doomed moment arrives... 'yaraadu paatu padungole...'(somoene, sing!) aaah, now's the time i usually start coughing, and sounding like i have the worst cold that's ever hit me...blow my nose, make it sound like a trumpet, try making it look like my throat is so sore that i'm not even able to talk...sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it just doesn't! Everybody's pretty convinced that one should sing just for one's satisfaction of having sang infront of someone's kolu, and impart the same satisfaction unto the host, who will also rejoice on her kolu being honoured! So the cold, really doesn't matter after all! And just as i give up...and say, ok i'll sing, they place a plate of yummy vadais infront of me...which i can savour only if i sing. I'm a great lover of food...so, i allow them the honour of listening to my voice, so that next time, they wont dare to ask me to sing the lord's praises! But there's something worse that happens... when you start singing, some maami or the other definitely knows the song, and hums along, or in the worst case, sings along! And this is a very stressful moment for it makes one forget the lines in the song...and one has to take extra effort to block out any other voice but one's own (which i assure you, is very very difficult!)...huffffff, when its finally over, everyone takes great pleasure in passing comments on how one has to practice more often, or how beautiful the lyrics are, how one's grand daughter also learns music and sings that particular song so very well, or in very
very rare cases, how well one sang! *sigh*

But its fun. Navratri rocks...the festive mood lifts your spirits, you get to meet alot of people, some who you meet only year after year during navaratri! Even though i might have sounded like i just whined, or made fun of things that go on around here, i enjoy this period, and will definitely miss it if i leave this place...Namma chennai ma!!!!!

So i continue...singing my 'Koovi azhaithaal kural kodupan's and 'Kurai ondrum illai's and 'yena thavam seidhanai's in the hope that these words will be heard and taken heed of!

2 thumbs up to navratri!

Yours "Do come home for Kolu if u're not too busy"ly
Signing off....

An Appeal...

Dear God, please tell them that professing power unto people who automatically fall below them is so useless, it can be done by anyone...
Tell them they should strive for better rather than take great interest in things that dont matter one bit...
Show them the difference between imposing discipline and being barbaric...
Make them realise that they can earn respect, and respect will never come when it is forced.
Teach them how to treat humans as humans...
Tell them that if something goes wrong somewhere, it is definitely not their fault, and they
are not expected to solve it painstakingly, because you are there for that...
Show them what is right and wrong according to the world...and i plead, teach them how to
discriminate between the two.
Tell them that nothing's a big deal till you make it one, and a problem will be one only
when you think of it as one...
Tell them where riches lie...
Show them the beauty in simplicity...its something i don't think they've ever known.
Make them understand that people are not happy with being supressed in the name of something else...and definitely don't appreciate being called things they're not, or taking the blame for things they didn't do,ever.
Lastly God...tell me whether there are limits to endurance, teach me how to hold my words
back, Tell me if words can be read through the eyes, because they're just not being heard
when they come out of the mouth, or they're just heard all wrong, Help me identify the people
i can trust,Tell me why i should gamble my future for the comfort of saying what i thought was right...Tell me why i should gamble my future for mistakes i did not commit, Tell me why i feel insulted, exploited and wasted when i shouldn't be feeling it, Tell me if what i do is right, i do it because someone is earning a living somewhere for me to live today and tomorrow and forever.AND TELL ME WHY.TELL ME WHY THIS IS HAPPENING AND HOW IT GOT
THIS FAR...We leave it to you now. You're our only hope... only hope.

PS: do continue the comments on the prev post. I just found it necessary to post this...

Yours " limits to endurance" ly
Signing off....

Blabberations - 2

Something i did not know- Orlando Bloom has technophobia. He cant keep track of new technology! He does not own a computer, has no email id, and has never visited his space! But he's getting a computer soon...

I love rain. But i hate getting drenched. I hate the 'serru' (slushy mud...whatever!) on the roads after the rains. I hate walking through pools of water (esp in college...we get delayed for lunch!). I hate it when my helmet, hanging from my bike has a mini 'koovam' with mosquitoes flying over it. The only thing i like about rain is watching it and smelling the soil, and feeling the droplets falling on my fingers and maybe the sound. Does that mean i hate rain more than i love it?

Lifts/elevators are wierd. I live on the 3rd floor...sometimes it feels like its taking me ages to reach up there, but sometimes the lift stops even before i realise where i am. Why? Maybe it takes ages when i'm hungry, and takes hardly a second when i'm not thinking about reaching home...lol.

Is 30 seconds a long time? I thought not...but i realised how long 30 seconds could be when we were doing an experiment in the lab where we had to note down the readings from a spectrophotometer every 30 seconds. Phew! Sure is a long wait...Dont know how many times i
said "Innum 30 seconds mudiyalaya?"

Have you ever tried saying your name aloud when you are alone? Am telling you, it can be one of the craziest things that one can do! I've done it...and found it so wierd to pronounce my name the way it is, and found it wierd that i respond to such a pronounciation! i remember saying
'div-ya, divya, di-v-yaaa' lol! Same thing happens when you look at your face in the mirror for a while longer than required...you wonder, oh my God is this my nose? Are these my eyes? Is this how i look! How come i've looked the same from the day i was born! Does anyone get crazier?

I find this mad pleasure in spreading a blanket over someone who is asleep! My mother, my cousins, my brother! And also in removing my mom's glasses resting on her nose, and the the book from her hand when she falls asleep reading...

Sometimes, there's this thing about you that you are aware of, but refuse to accept. But
everything has a place and time...and when acceptance comes, when you have grown enough to
acknowledge that 'thing' about yourself, its painful. It kills you from the inside. Its like a punishment. But once you've come to terms with yourself, its a great feeling. Its like...the completeness that arises out of paying repentance for a misdoing. Its the feeling of completeness that dawns upon you when you know you've got what you deserved, be it bad or good. Hell, it takes so long to know oneself completely, and accept oneself for what one is...just makes me wonder how those 2 things are done to others! It can only happen when a person is placed on a higher regard than oneself...dont you think? Or maybe most of the time, we end up accepting, irrespective of whether we know or not. After all, ignorance is bliss ain't it?

UPDATE - dear readers! pl do me a favour...In one of my posts, i'd talked abt a singer... check this ...Check the 2nd last comment, and please tell me if one of u left that comment! Or if the singer himself visited my blog...aaaaaah am going mad!!!! Just came across it now...after MONTHS! damn...

Yours "blab mouth strikes again" ly
Signing off...

Yours Superstitiously...

I know this is not the first time my hands itch to type about this topic of immense interest to me, simply because it never fails to make me laugh :) Beliefs, supersitions, and how staunchly they are followed by my grandmother's generation, and are a source of amusement, eentertainment to the generation i belong to.The last time (in thumb-letter-trap) i talked about just one...this time, we'll have more. And funnier ones i dare say! I remember laughing from the deep end of my heart when i was discussing these beliefs with one of my friends...and i promised myself such things don't go unacknowldged!

Apart from the ones that we are all pretty much familiar with, for instance, when you sneeze/hiccough/choke - someone's thinking of you (this one, is a source of great entertainment at dinner at home...or atleast once was, when we were 4 cousins around the table.One just had to choke, and the others would roll their eyes and go 'yaar ninaikaraalo...hmm' - i wonder who's thinking of her/him - in the most mocking fashion...and i would invariably smile and say 'appa' ;-) and that, would be followed by a series of protests and 'seri porum, yengulku theriyum!'s!! sigh...good times!) there are others that have recently caught my attention!

Apparently, one is not supposed to enjoy the priviledge of sitting at a table long after eating without washing one's hands, because the drier your hands with food particles on them, the later you'll get married! :D My take on that - I'd rather wash them because its painful to scratch out dried out sambar and paruppu from your hands!

Similar to the first one - One's plate is not to be left to dry after one has finished eating because...its bad for the mother-in-law, or the mother-in-law to be! My take on that - Aah, we actually have a secret way of affecting them? *wicked*!

Cutting nails...not allowed on tuesdays and fridays, not allowed after sunset. And when cut, must be disposed of very carefully in the bin outside the gate of your home :D lol... i even remember this story my servant maid told me about how someone's nail fell inside the hut and grew so big like an elephant's tusk, and now, that place where the nail transformed has become a shrine that people visit! Any comments?

Sitting on a pillow is very comfortable...and i mean the actual pillows we put our heads on and sleep...But, but, one should avoid doing so if one does not want to part with one's money!! If you sit on a pillow, you lose your money! In my thatha's words... "Aishwaryam poidum" literally meaning, your wealth will go! LOL... i still vividly remember my brother saying "Get off the pillow...Aishwarya Poiduva!" My take on that - Ready to experiment! ;-)This sitting on pillow business apparently leads to something else too...Sit on a pillow, and you fight with a family member!! My take on that - Now i know why i fought with my brother on that bright sunday morning as the rays filtered through the curtains...blah! Aah, you can always blame a fight on a pillow :)

Have you ever eaten something directly from the stove when its cooking? I mean...from the vessel on the stove obviously...a million times! Sometimes it evens seems tastier then than ever! But...do that, and the heavens will cry, tears of joy for you on the day of your wedding! It'll rain...lol! My take - Am already getting prepared to arrange boats for whoever wants to get to the place where i'll be married...the city's going to be flooded!!

There are other sweet ones that i have no heart to ridicule...like when a kid smiles when he/she is asleep, it means God's showing him/her a lotus... :) and when there's suddenly a moment of unexpected silence, it means an angel is passing through...:) hmm, so all those uneasy silences with a 100 million people were because some angel came in between and cut out transmission? ;-) lol...but, its a sweet one.

Now to my favourites...

I heard this one from a friend, and i laughed so hard...if you hold an umbrella over your head where there's already a roof, you get an old husband!! Isn't that so ridiculous? Lol...first, who'd ever do that? And my take - If that be the case, am sure am getting one 'young enough'!

And this one... i love this one because i'm quite convinced its affected me directly! If one is hit with a broom, or if one happens to be 'crossed over' by someone just once at a time, and not twice...one doesn't grow tall :( :( !!! I remember so many instances where people purposely crossed over me and walked passed without getting back the same way just because i kept screaming its going to make me short! And ofcourse i remember having a broom fight with my bro...*sigh*! :D

Thats it!!! Feeling...superstitious? ;-) Feel free to add on to the list!

I'd like to add...Am a fan of Surya's :)...and i like Jyothika too....and they got married yesterday...And they looked so cute togther, God bless them!

Yours "superstitiously"
Signing offf...

Li'l angel...

Have you ever seen an angel? Or atleast, felt like u have...? Well... i have. But this one, didn't have wings...this one, wasnt dressed in white...But angel she was, so pure and sweet...imparting a feeling of a happiness so complete, so ethereal. And there i was... drowned in the echo of her voice...in the way she pronounced those two words and smiled at me to respond...smiling, showing the few teeth that she had... the words... "divya chitti"!!
The words still ring in my ears...:D Such a divine feeling...

My niece. Srinidhi. The thing about kids is that they're not only full of life, but also make you feel full of life when you are with them! Every minute of it...She's given me a reason to believe i had one of my best evenings...pampering, playing, dancing with her... forgetting anything else that may have been running through the front or back of my mind. And taking up enough space in the same mind, for days after she said tata and left this country. She made me laugh...and marvel at the intelligence such a small thing like her can have! So smart!You know, we always have a deep regard for people who make us forget what we're going through by making us laugh...atleast i do.:D

Kids...*sigh*

Yours "God bless her"ly,

Signing off...

PS: I hate my college and very sincerely wish those people rot in hell someday... they will.
Don't ask me what they did, you wouldn't believe it. :( ;( Chi...