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..
Showing posts with label flash back. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flash back. Show all posts
Monday, October 13, 2008
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..
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..
Monday, July 28, 2008
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.
"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.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
school days- 1
the first incident that came to my mind on my school days was this.
well, all my schooling from 2nd std to 12 th std was done in a small town ( my dad loves to call it semi urban !!) called rajapalayam. it is 2 hours drive from madurai..all in tamilnadu.
so i joined a small school in 2nd std, and that was quite a modest one by all means. nothing much i can remember of that. then for the 3rd std, i got into the best school in that town, chinmaya vidyalaya. this was the best , coz they insisted that u spoke in english, which was unheard of in that part of the world..and i was going to learn hindi :-) .
anyway, so the little girl (me!!) trotted into the class on the first day and sat down. (now comes the best part. ). the teacher asked us all to take out the notebooks and guess what this stupid one took out?? a big, black slate !! the whole class burst into laughter. even the teacher was amazed. even in that small town, people didn't bring slates to school and that too in the 3rd std.
i still don't know if it was my parents who asked to take that or me. but the first day was such a big embarrassment and i was in tears. and to top it all i was in the wrong section and asked to leave halfway through the class.
whew..so much for the first day !! :-)
well, all my schooling from 2nd std to 12 th std was done in a small town ( my dad loves to call it semi urban !!) called rajapalayam. it is 2 hours drive from madurai..all in tamilnadu.
so i joined a small school in 2nd std, and that was quite a modest one by all means. nothing much i can remember of that. then for the 3rd std, i got into the best school in that town, chinmaya vidyalaya. this was the best , coz they insisted that u spoke in english, which was unheard of in that part of the world..and i was going to learn hindi :-) .
anyway, so the little girl (me!!) trotted into the class on the first day and sat down. (now comes the best part. ). the teacher asked us all to take out the notebooks and guess what this stupid one took out?? a big, black slate !! the whole class burst into laughter. even the teacher was amazed. even in that small town, people didn't bring slates to school and that too in the 3rd std.
i still don't know if it was my parents who asked to take that or me. but the first day was such a big embarrassment and i was in tears. and to top it all i was in the wrong section and asked to leave halfway through the class.
whew..so much for the first day !! :-)
School days !!
just thought of going down the memory lane a bit..think about things good and bad, the great deeds done and some of the not so great ones too. not sure how honest i can be. and one more decision i made ( which is not entirely my own idea), is that i'm not using caps in my blog unless absloutely necessary. you know it is so liberating to know that i don't have to press the shift key at the beginning of every sentence. i saw this style in another blog and found it quite interesting. well, some things can be imitated !! :-)
ok, now back to the point..so from now on, whenver a blog of mine carries this title, get ready to walk down the memory lane . but i'mm not planning to put these down in any order of time.so you may find me in 1st std some time and then in my 12 th. so bear with me.
ok, now back to the point..so from now on, whenver a blog of mine carries this title, get ready to walk down the memory lane . but i'mm not planning to put these down in any order of time.so you may find me in 1st std some time and then in my 12 th. so bear with me.
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