Things that make me PUKE !!!

*The age old (probably a british legacy) rifles that our policemen sported fighting the "terrorists" armed with grenades and AK 47s.Thank god for the NSG & Army.


*The new age "english" news channels telecasting terror attack 24/7 punctuating it with "these shots are exclusively shown on xxxx" (c'mon guys show some shame!!)


*Reporters showing us the aftermath of the attack on Taj and crying over burnt antique carpets and rare books and historical heritage pieces,when an equal number of lives were lost at CST.(probably a businessman's life or an antique carpet lost is equal to 5 aam aadmi's life in their world)



*A British survivor narrating her tale says "i was relieved when I saw the Indian gurkha arrive" ..My dear honourable lady ,for christ's sake he was a policeman and not a "gurkha"..take off your imperialist blinders for a moment please!!!


*Mr.Mammohan Singh in his address to the nation saying this attack comes from a "neighbouring country"!! oh that is such a great find!! i felt like shaking him at that precise moment !!with all due respects to his education and qualifications,I would've cheered if he had said that this came from militants in pakistan and we would not spare them even at the risk of sounding like george bush. To hell with his oxford and cambridge diplomacies!!


*the talk of "Spirit of Mumbai" and "spirit of India"...c'mon,after all this I have no spirit left in me at all.and if you are suggesting that the common man going back to work shows his spirit then you have got it wrong.what would a man earning Rs 20 a day,without a semblance of savings , do for his next meal if he doesn't go to work the next day after an attack?? it is not about spirit but survival.and btw it is only the business bigwigs surviving the attack who sat at their home watching TV and narrating their tales of survival,who could afford to not work till things get back to normalcy.


*Lighting candles for the martyrs!!! how long are we going to be doing these stupid symbolic Rang De basanti gestures !! If you really want to show your anger and distress march to the parliament/assembly and sit till those stupid politicians propose measures for tackling the issue and see to it that they implement it.


*people who say "I'm tired of indian politics,that's why I never vote".Guys,are you so stupid that you don't understand?? If you don't vote ,your vote will be cast by somebody for a party you don't support.ok if you don't support any party then don't complain.you have to choose a lesser evil,that's the choice we've got.



You can only choose between an inactive congress and a hyperactive BJP (at the national level),if you don't like them,then come up with an option,else don't complain.Just because you don't vote,these puppets in the parliament don't care about you and are not wary of you and they only cater to the so called voting masses and patronise them.

Madurai Veyil

the first thing that hits you(literally) as soon as you land in madurai is the heat !!! "madurai veyilla kazhudai kooda suthadhu" were words that rang in my ears(courtesy:my granny) almost everyday that i came back home roasted,burnt and dehydrated after all the "oor suthal". meaning not even donkeys roam around in madurai heat.

but paati,what do you do if the weather report reads hot,hotter and hottest all through the year!! stay at home she would say, but i chose the other option ..roam around as much as you can and get to the point where you no longer feel the heat ,you and the heat become one and the same ..

yeah chennai is also hot,infact the whole of tamilnadu except for those summer getaways kodai & ooty are always hot.but madurai veyil(heat) is something unique.feel it to know it. anyway it never deterred us from exploring the nook and corner of this city and we got so used to it that the once in a blue moon showers had us whining !!

the daily "ilaneer" (tender coconut) outside our college,the jigardhanda(a drink unique to madurai),the mug full of fruit juice in pazhamudircholai near periyar bus stand,the juicy,mouth watering melon pieces near arasaradi which we ate (licking the juice flowing to the elbow as if our life depended on it) all the way through the walk back home ...i bet you can't get these in a cool country !!

but what stays on are these..the paati selling the ilaneer dispersing some "gems"(!!) on how girls should behave seeing us girls giggling away , the annas selling juice at pazhamudhircholai and the akka at the melon shop ( not a shop really just a "thallu vandi-mobile trolley kind of ) saying endearinlgy" nalaikku kuudu da , parava illa" in that typical madurai lilting tamil( you can give it tomorrow dear,its ok)when you don't have the Rs 2 change for a piece of melon..

the nostalgia express

have been doing so much of blog hopping for the past 2 weeks and found a bunch of really interesting blogs.it was while reading one of these that i found myself going back in time...(imagine old movies' style tortoise mosquito coil going round and round).

It sucked. Dabbler hit the nail when he said nostalgia sucks..it means that you are growing old and things you grew up with are slowly but surely disappearing. anyway am not so old (!!) and i still have time to say all these things.still, a trip down the memory lane sure does give you a "i- don't- know- how -to- say- it- but- you- have- to- feel- it " kind of feeling!!!

after reading these blogs of mostly original,agmark tamilians i found the love of "chennai" run through their blogs..and this triggered a flurry of thoughts which threaten to explode my head if i don't put them down!!

Madurai !!! one word that can make me sit up from the deepest of sleep (well..that's a bit of an exaggeration!! ) and strain my ears to the point of them of growing an inch bigger even if i hear a passing reference to it.

i can go on and on on this place where i spent the best 6 years of my life ...but one post would not be enough. so will just put up things as and when they pop in my head and excuse me if i sound biased,coz i can't help it..

...

“If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got.”

stumbled upon this when reading something from somewhere !!! found it interesting ...

The Omnipotent

there is one thing in this world that is omnipotenet and omnipresent. no i'm not talking about god.this exists even for atheists.this has made people fight,steal,beg and even kill each other.there are stories dating back to 2nd century B.C ..well forget it...it's hunger.

it starts clawing at around 3.45 in the evening( my stomach what else..) and then it starts rumbling and grumbling and howling.. i've tried eating anything and everything..from the junk ones to the msot healthy ones..chips,biscuits,cake and everytime it only pretends to calm down only to result in a cramp that doesnt go off till dinner.

still, unwilling to give up i tried a golden vegetable quick soup today.first sip,hmm..not bad. 2nd sip.. i push my taste buds to their extreme..send them on a taste finding mission.they come back with this.. salt + lots of hot water + a few leaves (dried) + lots of tiny stuff in red,green and other attractive colors.they couldn't really find out what they were.

now it was left to my eyes to complete the mission.and i should tell you that they did a great job .those tiny little,colored bits were actually ..hold your breath ..VEGETABLES!! can you believe it..cut into unidentifiable pieces, lives squeezed out of them,dried and flattened,those poor veggies had been slaughtered.they were dead and floating.

after such a tiring mission my eyes and tongue deserved a treat and they did get it..hot & steaming bowl (cup) of golden vegetable quick soup.

Tagged!!

well,got a lot of things to write about but unable to make myself do it.so taking the easy way out by accepting the tag by sriram !!

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER: "No country for Old men" at a theater in Athlone. a psychotic thriller with just 6 more people for company in a 100 seater screen.had nightmares that night and had to read the wiki the next day for the actual story(which turned out to be quite different from what i had understood!!!)

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING: none..the last one was Ayn rand's "Fountain head" 2 months back.

FAVORITE BOARD GAME: is "paramapadham" (snakes & ladders) considered a board game??

FAVORITE SOUND: birds chirping on a quiet morning/evening,nothing can beat the serenity of this.

WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD: loneliness

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE: oh!! what to cook for lunch ???

FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE: Bethleem pizza -right opposite our home,delicious pizzas & burgers (even a non pizza lover would love them)

FUTURE CHILD’S NAME: girl -Deekshanya boy- Aaditya

DO YOU DRIVE FAST? Do I drive ???

DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? not really ;-)

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? well, i don't own a car all by myself..so my dad's first car was maruti omni and ours was a (my husband & mine) Volkswagon Polo saloon.

FAVOURITE DRINK: ginger & elaichi tea

DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI? never tried a broccoli,often wondered how it would taste

IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE? red!!! that would be outrageous !!!

FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH: cricket (once upon a time..now only the scores),tennis and football occassionally.

ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU: ok..do i really have to answer this ?? ;-) anyway..for all the 100 different things he does,talks about or blogs..i definitely think he has a stable head at a not so stable age !!

WHAT’S UNDER YOUR BED? mostly slippers

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN? yes of course...may be with a less active tear gland!!

MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL? a bit of both..depends on what keeps me up or gets me to wake up

FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX? on the bed,with the duvet pulled up and with a movie on the laptop.

Princi !!!

As he came in,hands folded behind,face stern and angry with the meek peon following him with a cane in hand,the class just fell silent in fear. " who is the class leader?? " he grunted..and i stepped up shaking ,with tears just about to stream out any moment."is this the way you monitor the class?" " sorry sir " i said. "ok.give me the names of all the students who were speaking in Tamil". "ok sir" i said and he left.

"i hate him".that was my first impression of him.i hated him from the bottom of my heart. he was our new principal Mr.Shanmugam.we had just entered the 6th class,came into the new "senior school" from the junior one (which had classes KG to 5) thrilled and excited.basically both the junior and senior schools belonged to the same institution,just physically separated.the senior one being situated in the outskirts of our small town,in the midst of a beautiful and scenic location.(more about the school in a different post).but now, all that excitement was dampened by just one factor, the new princi.

he was a lot different from the previous ones we had.here was a man for whom "discipline" ,"order","punctuality" were not just words.he was tall,well-built and had a powerful personality with a voice well suiting it.he was widely travelled,well educated,had worked in a number of distinguished schools,the last was as a principal of a school in Fiji.

my first thought was, "what is he doing here??" i mean, ours was a small school,by no means popular except for the fact that it was run by the chinmaya mission and this was a "small" town somewhere down in south tamilnadu. we sat in groups during our 10 min breaks, the lunch breaks and basically wherever we met, discussing about him,moaning and cursing him."why didn't he go to chennai?"." why did he come here?".

well the list of complaints against him were long.but most of all he broke all the traditional rules for a principal.

principals were supposed to sit all day in their office doing some crap,just show their face in assemblies, render some speeches on things nobody cared to listen and just smile when they meet students.

he travelled in the school bus , got in at the first stop and sat in a two seater occupying 3/4 of the seat with "The Hindu" occupying him ( or so we thought) for the whole journey. we lost our freedom to gossip and shout in the bus.

he walked around most of the day,shrewdly observing everyone and everything he saw.his daily assembly talks were always about the bad things he had noticed the previous day.

we were made to pick up garbage (like plastic bags etc) wherever and whenever we saw them.
we were not supposed to chase peacocks around for feathers( yes peacocks!!).
worst of all, we had to talk in english, always !!!

now this was something unheard of in our school's annals,nobody had ever laid such a rule.english was just a subject,but how could we talk in it for 8 hours??? "you can speak good english, only when you think in it",he said in the assembly once. "oh ,there he goes" we thought,now he has started policing our thoughts too!!!

the assemblies now had 1 student talk on some interesting topic for 2 mins and another one read the news headlines.so now we had to break our heads for the assembly topic and my legs shook when i stood before the school addressing it.(there was once a funny episode when a student didn't have the time to write down the news and started reading it out right from the newspaper in the assembly.the principal's face was a sight to watch !!! )

he started teaching the english paper 2 classes.the only class which was fun and full of stories and didnt have to be taken seriously was now filled with his baritone reading out "the mayor of casterbridge" and others, to a class forgetting to even blink for a moment. we did not utter a word in his class for fear of our english being corrected by him.we had to write character sketches of all the characters in the story and each one had to be unique.no copying!!.

the school timings were increased by an hour in the evening.he introduced student clubs for journalism,quiz, dramatics and gardening which got together twice in a week after classes.so 2 days of our play time gone!!!

well, the list was endless. he had spoilt every minute of our school life.there were rumours that even the teachers hated him.

so when he left the school,after 4 years of his reign,we were delighted and overwhelmed with happiness.

slowly,things changed. my legs and voice didn't shake as much as before, in the school day plays and elocution contests.i could write on any topic thanks to my journalism club activities.my quiz club participation had definitely sparked off a small interest and my general knowledge was better than before (which was 0!! ) though limited to GK books. most of all,the small,insecure underconfident girl who was just good in academics was beginning to take slow steps towards other actitivities. he had made me discover things about myself which i would have never done on my own.

when i got the best all round student award in my last year in school, a lump rose in my throat. he had passed away, cruelly,in a road accident in chennai some time back. how i wished i could take back all my curses and the bitter remarks.how i wish i could just meet him once and tell him all that i wanted to say and watch that rare smile brighten his face.

i don't believe in heaven and hell but i know that he lives in my memories.

Postscript

whew..feeling better now after completing the epic on my wedding.i tried my best to make it short,but i didn't want to leave out the details either.

looking back, i feel that i really enjoyed my wedding even though i felt drained and tired at that point.yeah i do feel indian weddings are fun whatever way you see them.

these posts are more of something which i can go back and read a few months or even a few years later and relive the experience. of course if someone happens to stop by to read and likes them in some way it is a bonus !!!