A Surprise which sprang from the Swimming Pool

Well this is holiday time for Tejas. I was in Coimbatore for almost three months, overseeing the wood work being done there by Carpenter Selvam's people. At the end of the work my husband, Anu and Tejas joined me . The work has come out very well and I felt elated having completed my dream project.

All the four of us returned together to KL. Earlier Vinu had called to tell me that he will be coming at around the same time to the LCCT Airport and I was to keep this info secret. So when Anu asked me, I said Vinu is coming the next day. After getting down at LCCT in the middle of the night, I got tensed that I may not find Vinu and started wondering where he would be. I tried to switch on my KL Cell Phone which refused to cooperate and was trying to see if I have any messages. We all proceeded to the prepaid taxi counter and in my confusion , I had to take hubby dear into confidence as we needed a bigger vehicle since Vinu would be there. So we all proceeded outside instead of standing in the queue for taxi and Anu started asking me what the matter was. I said we are looking for taxi and proceeded towards waiting area (instead of the taxi stand) where to my great relief I found Vinu sitting trying to look different with a headband and dark glasses . I started smiling sheepishly and walked towards him.

Anu immediately found out and asked me is Vinu here and spotted him thereby spoiling the whole Surprise and I got nice mouthfuls for one, smiling that stupid smile of mine, two, walking towards him.

All was forgiven and we got a bigger taxi and went home.

The next day evening Vinu was itching to go to pool and asking Tejas to join him. They both went to the pool . Anu wanted me to go for walk with her and invited her dad also who had just come back from office. He was surprised that he is called for walk for when we two go for walk it is only the two of us who go. He had other plans and decided to ask some technical doubts about Pancreas and Anu had to explain the function of Stomach in detail. But I did not notice her restlessness to be at home instead of going out.

When we went out at last, she detoured and wanted to go to the pool area. She explained saying we will go and see Tejas swimming. I who had seen Tejas swim many a time, went along without suspecting anything.

In the swimming pool I was looking at Vinu and Tejas doing some floating when suddenly I saw some one coming up to Tejas and talking to him in the pool. He had dark swimming glasses though it was late in the evening and an apology for a swim cap. (later I found out it was the use and throw Shower Cap which I keep in the bathroom which was given to him by Vinu). He just had a swimming trunks and bare upper body. I was wondering who it was as I had never seen strangers talking to Tejas in the pool and something was familiar about him and I was utterly confused. He started talking in an exaggerated accent and I was wondering which Country he belonged to. Now it was Tejas's turn to give my dear Anand away. He started replying in the same accent and a roar of laughter, which immediately made me shout ANAND.

He jumped out of pool and almost pulled me into the pool with his typical bear hug. How on earth I was to expect him to be in the swimming pool when he was supposed to be in the other end of the world called California, that too with a stupid cap and a glass.

I came to know it was planned well in advance by Anu, and Anand which was disclosed to Vinu and they all pulled out the surprise so well.

Now it was the turn of my hubby to fall for the Surprise trap. Anu went back to pick him up telling him to come and see Tejas swim. He also must have wondered ' what is so special in Tejas's swimming today' . She added saying we are all there , come and join us.

This time everybody was well prepared. Vinu introduced Anand as his friend Arun who did his Engineering from Pilani. Dad's response was ' oh hello' do u live here.' Vinu replied from the pool with a deadpan face that he had come there to visit his relatives who live in our Condominium.

Now it was Anand/Arun's turn. He suddenly put on this heavy accent and said ' uncle, can u find me some job, as I am jobless now' . Anu was roaring with laughter behind Dad, but he did not notice and was kind of taken aback by this conversation and started walking away from the pool. Arun continued shouting ' hello hello why are you walking back'. For this Dad who had not recognized Anand yet said with a serious face 'yeah I am in the hearing distance.' By then we were all laughing so much that he at last recognized his son and shouted oh my Anand. We all walked back with his luggage which was hidden near the pool, dripping as Anand hugged everybody.

Nizal Maiyam

I have been wanting to write about my Turkey trip and some how has not been able to do it for almost one year. I will come back to my Trips later and now I have something else to write about which has made me feel quite elated.

I am at present in Coimbatore in our Cheran Nagar house. The title of the Blog roughly can be translated as 'Shade Centre'. This is a kind of Service Organization which is doing its bit to save the environment.

We live in a gated access community where there are about forty independent houses.

Last week I was told that a NGO (Non Governmental Organisation) has agreed to come and plant trees in our colony.
Our road has already been lined with small trees which we had planted earlier and I did plant two more saplings this time in front of our house. There are quite a few places on the other roads where there are no tree saplings.

Today morning few youngsters came in the morning and said they do this as a service and they started digging holes to plant the trees. They had brought the tree saplings also. We all helped them plant the tree saplings happily.
When I asked them about the details they said they are all working people / students who do this in their spare time to make Coimbatore green where lots of existing trees are being cut to widen the roads. They are doing this work every Sunday .
Apart from this work they give food to orphanage every Sunday morning. They also help needy children by paying fees to school and also getting them books.

The man behind this organization is one Mr. Murugan who drives a call taxi and does this commendable work in his spare time. The volunteers are youngsters who work as Mechanics, computer professionals etc. There was this man who said he works in a Photo Studio and I could see few college students also who come and help these people on Sundays. The Students are from a nearby place called 'Annur' (which is around 30kms from the city) and the student was telling me that he comes and helps on all Sundays but not during his exam time.

I was quite impressed by this group and felt happy that such good work is being done without waiting for publicity.
I always have tremendous respect for this younger generation and this has made me feel more positive and happy about the future.

The email id of this organization is nizhalmaiyam1857@gmail.com

Turkey Part III

We went to a Leather shop in Pammukale before leaving the place, where there was a fashion show organized specially for our group. By now we were all kind of getting addicted to 'apple tea' which is served hot in very small cups and tastes very good. so when they offered coffee and other drinks many of us opted for apple tea. We ended up buying a jacket for Tejas and it was bought after a great bargain by hubby dear.
On 27th of of May we started very early in the morning after having breakfast, as we had a long journey ahead. We had some 600 plus kilometers to cover . Our destination was Cappadocia.

Through out the journey I could see vast fields of Poppy flowers. I was told that these were grown with the permission of government for medicinal purpose and every yield has to be accounted. The fields looked enchanting. When I mentioned to my guide that this place looks so serene and lovely that I would like to spend my retirement days here, he laughed and said that the winter will be so severe and the place full of snow that it is very very tough to live here even for youngsters. I remembered my Srinagar days in summer, (long long ago) when the locals were telling me about the severity of winter and how it is tough to cope up. How nature can change the entire place in different seasons can be understood only when we visit other places. We live in tropical places like Southern India and Malaysia where the sights are almost same through out the year and we fail to appreciate the blessings of having a nice outdoor weather through out the year.
We halted for lunch in a place called Caravan Serai. We halted in one of the biggest Caravan Serais. Caravan serais are places where in ancient days the merchants used to take a break in their long journey with their merchandise and also their camels.
This Serai was called the Sultan Caravan Serai and the building was very old and the whole place was kind of maintained as it was in olden times. The food their was excellent.

We proceeded further to a place called Konya on our way to Cappadocia. This is the place of the Sufi saint Rumi and saw the mausoleum of Rumi. This cult had what is called the Darvesh. They are the mystic sufi saints who sing and dance. They are called the swirling dervishes. This is the place where they were trained to become the dervishes and it was a rigorous training. They wear white cloth and a peculiar cap and whirl round non stop for a long time. This was also part of Muslim religion. This dance form is picturised in the movie 'joda akbar' where actor HrithikRoshan has also tried to do this round and round dance form.
This sect was abolished in Turkey by 'Ataturk' in 1922 and now this place is maintained as a tourist attraction.
We reached the lovely place Cappadocia. On our way we could see the extinct volcano 'Hasan'.

This place is full of volcanic ash which erupted millions (or is it thousands I am not sure) of years ago and the ash is very soft but when exposed to the atmosphere it hardens. It could be dug easily and formed into cave dwellings. So we could see these type of dwellings every where in this place.
We checked into the hotel and had dinner and we were taken to the Belly dance show.
This was also held in a dwelling which was cave like structure and the program started with a religious dance of the Sufi culture. It is amazing how they go round and round without getting dizzy. They are trained to do it by keeping one leg steady so that the ear balance is not lost. This is what we saw in the Rumi place as to how these darveshis are trained.
After the darvesh dance group dances by men and women started. The drinks were on the house, but as usual we all had apple tea.
One girl looking very much like our Hindi actor vidya balan danced with a big hat like thing around her waste and was swirling to the music so was the round thing with beautiful design which was shining and twinkling while she danced. It was a wonderful dance.
Later some group dances were performed and some acrobatic dances which were very similar to to our Rajasthani dances.
Again our Vidya Balan came on and started 'the ' belly dance. My God she did so well at one point of time it looked as though her lower part of the body is detached from her upper body as she was moving only the lower part of the body in such rhythmic movements with the flowing music. She later started giving movements (shaking) her shoulders, belly, etc according to the beat of the drum. It was as though her body was beating or producing the sound of the drum. It was an excellent performance. we returned to the hotel at midnight 12 all tired but rich with experience.

Turkey part II

After breakfast ,We visited the ruins of Troy. Yes the famous Troy of Homer's Iliad. While going through the itinerary when I came across this part, I had thought this is some other place which is similar to the one in the Greece. I have never been to Greece so thought it logical that Troy to be in today's Greece. I was surprised to find out that The actual Trojan war for the famous Helen of Troy took place at this place and this was part of Greece in ancient times.
( I was pleasantly surprised to note that Homer the author who wrote this famous epic is from a neighbouring place called Izmir.) We saw the ancient ruins which are still being excavated and is a world heritage site. A model of wooden (Trojan?) horse has been kept there for the purpose of photo sessions I suppose and we were all very thrilled to have visited such a historically important place.
We were next taken to top of a hill where ancient kingdom of Acropolis is situated. Acropolis is nothing but a city built on a hill top which is built for the purpose of safety specially from enemies. This is also a Greek structure and it is supposed to have been built around
1st century A.D.
We proceeded to a place called Kusadasi for night's stay and next morning visited the house of Virgin Mary which is also on a hill. It is said that Virgin Mary was brought here after the Crucifixion here by St. John . This is considered as a Holy place by the Catholics and Roman Catholic Church at Vatican has approved this as a holy place.
We proceeded to a place called Ephesus. This is an ancient city and the ruins of which have been very well preserved. There is a temple for Goddess Artemis considered as Goddess of family. (this goddess was unique to ancient Turkey but later accepted in the Greek pantheon of gods and goddesses) Saw the statue of Goddess Nike from which the symbol for the famous Nike shoes have been adopted. We saw the ancient library structure and then the magnificent
Amphi Theatre which could hold 25000 people at a time. This is one of the most beautiful ancient structures I have seen.
We then proceeded to a place called Pammukale where we can see the white cascade like natural phenomenon. It is calcium carbonate deposits on a hill where you can see the amazing white snow like deposits over which the spring water flows. It is a lovely natural phenomenon. We could walk on them with bear foot. Tejas enjoyed walking down the hill on his own with energetic Mrs. S and the young and energetic S. This walking is supposed to have medicinal value. Incidentally, this is the spot where the shooting of the song 'Konjaneram Konjaneram' in Rajanikanth's, Chandramukhi has been picturised.
We were told that preivously many hotels were built very near this natural phenomenon and the place started turning black due to pollution. So the Government moved all the hotels away from this place and now the natural spring water is made to flow in different directions every day so that the white colour is retained and the whole thing is preserved properly. It is heartening to note that some action has been taken to restore such a beautiful site.
We proceeded to the hotel. There was a pool which had the water from the hot water spring with medicinal value and also lot of mud which was also supposed to have medicinal value. After dinner Tejas enjoyed getting into this pool and smeared the mud on himself and for once I could not say anything.

My Turkey Trip

I have been wanting to visit Turkey. The reason being that some how the name 'Istanbul ' has a fascination for me. So when we all planned a trip to Turkey I was very excited. We had joined a tour program with 'Parlo' under which everything is taken care of including stay, food and sight seeing. We were 25 in our group and 13 of us were our friends.(5 families) . Me, hubby dear and 'T' were from our family. We started from KL on 22nd May 2009 evening and reached Singapore. Our flight was in the night and we reached Istanbul on the morning of 23rd. We had a transit halt in Dubai and the airport was excellent with such big and wonderful shops.
We freshened up in the airport itself and immediately the tour started. We had a good breakfast in a local restaurant and were taken to the old city where the centre of the Byzantine and Ottaman empire called Hippodrome is situated. This place is full of historic buidings and where ever you turn you can see historical spots. It is maintained very well.
We saw the famous Blue Mosque which gets it's name from the blue colour tiles inside the Mosque. It was quite different from the other mosques I had seen in Malaysia. We went to a crowded local market and returned to an excellent hotel for the night stay.
Next day after breakfast, we packed our bags and left for some more sight seeing in Istanbul. Our long journey of about more than 1000 kms within Turkey in the wonderful Bus started. Our guide was one Mr. Ali Ishan who was wonderful with a lovely sense of humour. He filled us up with lot of info. as well as jokes.
We went on a small boat ride on the Marmara sea and the Bosporus straits which divides Europe and Asia. Istanbul is the only city which is both in Asia and Europe. We could see from our boat both sides of the city the European and Asian.
Later we visited the Ayasofya which is a Museum. It is very interesting to note that this was one of the earliest churches built around 5th or 6th century AD. After the conquest of Istanbul by Ottoman Turks this was converted to a Mosque by building Minarets and a Dome. The Christian mosaics were plastered over inside the church building.
When turkey became a Republic in 1930s it was converted to a Museum and now it is no longer a worshiping place. They are trying to retrieve the mosaics inside.
We left Istanbul after a good lunch .(through out our journey we got quite a good food that too vegetarian food, we could get yogurt every where and also lot of sweets for dessert.)
We travelled to Canakale and crossed the Bosphoros Sea in a ferry (our bus went inside the ferry) to cross over to the Asian side of Turkey.
We halted for our night in a hotel next to Aegean Sea. I was thrilled to look at Aegean sea which felt very familiar as we have heard about the sea a lot of time in Greek history.

Singapore visit again

I had been to Singapore again this time for a period of 2 weeks. Tejas had his end of term holidays and so decided to spend the holidays with V and J.
This time we went by Aeroline bus which is considered as the best Bus service among many which operate between Singapore and K.L. The reservations were done online and we selected the front two seats. This is a Double Decker Bus and so I was very particular to have the front rows for the aerial view! Yes indeed ! It was indeed great to watch the traffic and also the natural scenery on both sides of road from an elevated seating. I really enjoyed the bus journey. (Incidentally I had taken a book to read and it also helped me in enjoying this journey) Good vegetarian food was served on board (yes!) which is very unusual on these side of the Globe. Even food finicky Tejas could have some good drink apart from his coke. He got hot Milo while I had hot coffee. In between there was a 20 minute break on the way. (the high way has good rest areas).
The immigration was done very fast as the Bus took the alternate route to Singapore via Tuas instead of the usual Woodlands entry. We were told the journey would take approximately 5 hours and our bus which started at 3 p.m. in K.L. reached the bus station in Singapore on the dot of 8 p.m. I was impressed.
Singapore fascinates me every time I go there. This time the amazement was about the open areas and parks which surround the housing colonies. There is a very good park and play area with proper football court and shuttle courts near to where V and J live. After J's return from office we could go and play foot ball and Frisbee even after the sunset as the parks are quite well lit. Tejas was thrilled playing his favourite game. Lots of people were walking, running exercising in the park. No wonder , the population there by and large has a very fit look.
I am told that there are lots of park around the residential areas and also good exercise facilities and swimming facilities for a very nominal charge.

This time we visited the Zoo as my last visit to zoo was about five years ago. (Night Safari we had done recently.) We had breakfast with Orangutans, that is for a good fee buffet breakfast is served and Orangutans are nearby with trainers having their food too. The break fast was quite sumptuous. There were few shows by animals which were very good.
We spent time playing board games at home apart from going to few Malls and one or two dinners in Indian restaurants. (There is no choice for the food when I am around, poor kids).
I am eagerly waiting for my next visit to Singapore.
I should not forget to mention that we returned to K.L. by aeroline bus and we reached on time with good food on board and a smooth ride.

Gardening

I always had a lot of interest in Gardening. As a little girl I did not know how to get those beautiful Bangalore Roses also called Ooty Roses bloom in our garden.
We had the typical sturdy plants like jasmine, nityamalli, the ordinary yellow rose, different colours of a flower called spatika or december as it used to bloom around december, the drumstick tree, the curry leaf tree and the banana trees which were used more for their leaves, and also the Henna plant known as marudhani in tamil. All these plants did not need much nurturning and I used to keep myself busy digging and trying to plant some plants brought from friends' houses. There never was a gardener. We never bought any manure and the basics of watering the plants and tending them was done by us. There used to be occasional exchange (barter!) of the drumsticks with 'champaka' flowers which used to bloom in plenty in a tree in a nearby house.
This interest was kindled while in Palghat in Railway quarters where we had a gardener and a big garden with a lawn, and lot of coconut, mango and jackfruit trees. Our gardener used to plant vegetables also and we used to get brinjal (eggplant), ladies finger(okra) , cucumber and avaraikkai. we also had quite a few rose plants but they were all of desi veriety and not the ooty rose as the climate was not conducive for that variety of roses. All the work was taken care of by the gardener and I used to water the plants when he was not available. I had no idea about manure to be used to grow the plants nicely.
Well now that I live in Kuala Lumpur the ooty rose is still eluding me but I have become wiser as a gardener. I have a very small patch of garden in the front balcony of our apartment here.
I have started reading the 'pasumai vikatan' which is a tamil magzine which talks about agriculture and gardening and it has helped me in my gardening.

Now I don't waste the vegetable waste that we generate at our house. The vegetable peels and the fruit peels really add up to quite a lot of quantity. As my area of garden is very small I deviced a way to make myself a compost pit. I took plastic buckets and started putting the vegetable peels in it. (cooked items should not be put in it (that is the remaining food items)). I put the garden soil on the waste so as not to attract the flies and mosquitoes and once this bucket is filled up my second bucket is used . I am surprised at the speed at which the bucket gets filled up. This can be used as compost after about a month. I also buy the goat manure available in market and put it to plants after powdering it. I am very particular not to put any chemicals and I am really happy to see the plants grow nicely with lot of and flowers.
In this place plants grow very fast but lot of insects affects the growth of plants. I am experimenting again with some home made insecticides.
I am really happy that I am recycling the garbage and putting it to good use.
Hope to grow the great ooty roses in the near future. Here also I do have few roses but all of the normal variety.

Culture and Merit Certificate

Well today Tejas was presented with a Merit certificate for getting 25 stars . They have a system in his school where they give stars for good performance. For example if they write neatly, or do all their math problems correctly, or do well in any subjects in class they get stars. It is maintained in a slip attached to their communication book. There are stars for participating in extra curricular activities like sports, music etc.
Well he had collected 25 points earlier and was given a Merit certificate last month.
They have another system in his school and each class has its own assembly for which parents are invited. It is called year assembly (like year 5 assembly) . All students participate in cultural activities like music, drama etc. They have some theme also. In this assembly Merit Certificates are distributed. For his year assembly Tejas participated in a drama, and no body got any Merit certificate as it was just held in the year beginning.
Last month it was Year 4 Assembly and I was specially invited as Tejas was getting the certificate. The theme was Greek and there was some Greek skit and some programs related to Greek History.
Today it was Year 3 Assembly and again I was invited as my child was getting the Second Merit certificate.
Today's theme was Deepavali. There was a small skit where an European girl was dressed in a Saree and the kid was looking very very cute and a Boy in a Jubba and pants and they were decorating their house and lighting lamps and inviting people home and were exchanging sweets and putting 'Rangoli' with coloured rice . They even mentioned that 'murukku' is special dish of Deepavali.

This is how Malaysian Indians celebrate Deepavali in Malaysia . Then they said they would like to enjoy the festival with some dance. Music was played and the Hindi song Gunguroo... Gunguro...... was played and the music was catchy and some few kids danced to the tune so nicely. The music was not offensive but very nice and the beat was good. It was nice to watch girls wearing ghagra cholis and dancing away that too nicely. I could see all the parents enjoying the Malay muslims, the Chinese, the Africans the Europeans, American and of course the Indian parents were all clapping away to glory.

Again in the end since all the kids wanted to dance to that song, the whole year group all dressed with jubba and pyjama, Salwar kameez , with some of them even having 'malligai ' on their hair danced really nicely to the song. This time parents and the other class kids who were watching also got up and joined in the fun and were all swaying to the nice beat.
This set me into thinking. Now Indian culture is slowly becoming synonymous with hindi film music. I some how liked it this time, thinking why not? Even Bharatha natyam which is now considered as the epitome of Indian culture was considered as taboo only a century or so back. As long as the gestures are nice and the song good I felt good to be represented as Indian by Hindi Music. I was thinking that we should encourage kids to learn three languages, Mother tongue, Hindi and English and definitely children will be able to do justice to all the languages if they learn from class one. Already Hindi movies are so popular everywhere and even in Malaysia they are very popular. I do see lots of good movies are being made in Hindi. Slowly good movie songs and movies will become part of our culture. Instead of fighting against the language let us slowly integrate ourselves with the national language without forgetting our mother tongues.

I felt elated to see so many kids from other cultures doing justice to Indian Culture and felt good.
N.B. They served each parent with a small packet of 'murukku', Earlier during Tejas's year assembly they distributed ginger bread shaped cookies as they enacted a play by name ginger bread girl. Normally they also arrange a nice snacks and tea for all the parents who attend the Year Assembly.

Sanfransisco

While coming back from Baltimore, Anand asked us to fly to Sanfransisco instead of Los Angeles as he had gone there and said we can all drive back to Santa Barbara. I had heard about this city a lot and was told that it is one of the beautiful cities of America.
Yeah I found it was true and I am impressed how they maintain old buildings about 100 years old or so and maintain it so well. We went to a big botanical garden which was full of flowers and trees that we spent a lot of time there even though we had not planned that way. We could see hundreds of varieties of Dahlias and many volunteers were there maintaining. It is also a kind of social/community service there. I am impressed by the different ways community service these people do and are so proud of their community.
We then went through different bridges (The city is full of bridges) and went in car into the great Golden Gate Bridge. It was so hazy and cloudy and full of mist that I could see the great bridge only bits and pieces and now showing me one girder and then vanishing. Since it is a thoroughfare and many cars were behind us, in just a few minutes the money paid was spent. I mean we had to pay a toll to get on to the bridge . Though the bridge was beautiful due to the vanishing act I could not see the enormity of the great bridge.
This was before we went to the garden . Anand was also visiting the place for the first time and he saw the map and after our visit to the garden took us through different roads where I could see lot of old buildings. When I saw some steps which looked like ladders on the front side of the buildings I wondered aloud how come they have kept such precarious steps outside the house and who will use it. I was told by my sonny dear that those are all mandatory steps as emergency exits in case of fire and they have been installed later on as previously when the building was built there was no emergency escape ways.
He took some turns this way that way and brought us to a place from where 'hey and presto' I could see the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge which eluded me earlier clearly shining in the Sun. He took us by foot near the bridge and we climbed up the pathway on to the foot path of the bridge and I saw many cars fly past us. It is really a marvel of Civil Engineering and my husband explained the engineering part of the bridge. It was worth all the walking climbing up the path way. From here we went to the downtown. Trams are in use till date and it was funny to see the trams moving on the roads slowly along with the cars. There were electrically operated buses also taking the electricity from the wires going up the roads. The same type of buses I had seen in China also. A broad V shaped steel atop the bus taking electricity from the wires. I was told that Californians are very much conscious about the pollution and hence the use of electric buses. By this time it was evening and we started back to Santa Barbara which is around more than 5 hours journey from here. We went to Saravana bhavan which is in a place an hour's drive from Sanfransisco and packed some food and started our journey back. This is one of the most beautiful roads in US as there is mountains on one side and the other side is the Ocean. I had earlier enjoyed a trip to LA from Santa Barbara which is also like this. LA is further South from Santa Barbara where as SFC is to its North. It was quite late when we reached home. It was one memorable trip and yes SFC is definitely a City which has a character of its own.

Washington DC

Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument

Capitol Washington DC

Arlington Cemetery

Aerial view of The Mall

Well I have been wanting to write about the places I visited while in US and only now the 'mood' has come.
My husband joined me in my trip to US in Baltimore where I had gone to visit anu. This place is an hour or so from the Capital of The United States. I had visited DC few years back when anu was in North Carolina. The Smithsonian museums is the greatest attraction in DC. I visited the place around Smithsonian on my earlier visit but could see the Halocaust museum which is set in memory of Jews who underwent the hardships and ordeals under Nazis. It took quite some time to come back to normalcy after seeing the tortures though in pictures and documentaries, they underwent.
This time being so near DC I wanted to see the places in a leisurely pace.
Hubby and me went to the places for three days in a row. It was an hour's journey by train to DC from Baltimore. The places around the Capitol are very near the train station. There is a well connected underground trains to go from one place to another. Capitol is the Parliament of US of A and it is an imposing building. Great architecture. The road which stretches from Capitol to the Washington Memorial is called The Mall and it is a beautifully laid out road which can be seen from both these buildings which are constructed atop hillocks. Both sides of these roads are full of museums which are generally known as Smithsonian's. Lots of trees and water fountains and Statues, flower beds are laid in these areas. We had lot of time and had taken some home cooked food which we ate under the trees which became an impromptu picnic.

This time I decided to get inside those two majestic buildings. When we inquired about that, to my surprise we could get the entry pass to both the places immediately as it was a week day. Every one hour there is a conducted tour and we got our passes for a particular time and we could roam about till that hour around the mall. The best part about this is the whole thing is free of charge including all the museums of Smithsonian's which is very unlike America where even to go near a small waterfall they charge a fee.
Capitol tour was so overwhelming and I could recall seeing the Parliament House in New Delhi. It has beautiful Frescoes on the inside of the circular doom roof . we could go into the gallery where the sessions of parliament are normally held. The House was not on Session and we just sat for a few minutes in the upper gallery.

Washington Memorial is a tall pyramid shaped building which is built in the memory of President Washington. We were taken by lift up the building to the uppermost level from where we could see the views of DC all around us. I could recognize so many places which I had seen earlier including the Potomac river which I had read about in the Tamil comedy drama 'washingtonil tirumanam' by 'Chavi'
I could see the old town ship of Alexandria where we had gone earlier evening and taken a boat ride on the river. It had such a old worldly charm.
I could see the Arlington Memorial Cemetery about which I had read in the books about American Civil war. This I had visited the previous day. This place had belonged to the Confederate Commander General Lee whose house is Arlington House where he lived before the Civil War for 30 years. This is now part of the Arlington memorial park which is the resting place for the soldiers. Every hour in a given place which is called the Memorial of the unknown Soldier, ceremonious change of guard takes place. We sat and witnessed that. Many many rows and rows of crosses can be seen from the bus which we took to go around the park. We saw the resting place of President Kennedy and his family. We were told to maintain the serenity of the atmosphere, as even now there are memorial services/burials are being held there for dead soldiers. This reminded me of the Chinese Cemetery in Malaysia called Nirvana where a beautiful atmosphere is maintained and acres and acres are maintained well and many people reserve there resting place while living. It has a big Dragon shaped building inside which lots of urns are kept under locker as it is a custom for certain Chinese to preserve the remains of dead in urns.

We walked around the Smithosinan's but had time only for the Natural History museum which has the exhibit the Hope Diamond which was found in Golconda. This is the museum which has so much of information about our planet and some how I never get bored even after visiting it twice.
We did not have time to visit the Air and Space museum which is the most popular museum around there. I had seen it on my earlier visit years back and seen the space ship and other exhibits.
The Lincoln memorial has a big Statue of President Lincoln. I just stood looking at it wondering how he managed to bring the Civil War to an end and how he was the starting point of Free America and brought an end to slavery though it was not his intention. He wanted an United America rather than an America free of Slaves.
We just walked near the White house and stood gaping at it. They have stopped admitting public inside the white House.
I vowed to come back to this place again and see as many museums as possible in my next visit.

Santa Barbara

Here I am living in one of the lovely places in US of A. This is the first time I am living in Sunny California. The weather I am told is the best in the whole of the Country. It is Sunny, but not hot or humid. Cool breezes keeps blowing in spite of the Sun. We live very near the beach. Just 5 minutes drive from the beach.

This is a suburb called Goleta in Santa Barbara. I have always associated humidity with any beach and this one is very different. The beach itself is not big, but the view is fantastic with so many curves and cliffs can be seen from the beach. The water is also not pristine blue but muddy and also dirty with lot of sea weeds. The town is not very big but very neatly spread out with one storey houses (two levels). I am told that there is restriction in building more than one floor, so even the banks and the hotels are not the multi storey buildings but just one level or two levels.

The time of my visit being summer I see lot of flowers and what I see is big 'arali' plants with lovely white and pink and magenta colours. I don't know what it is called in English it is called as 'kanigale hoova' in Kannada. I have seen so many of this bush back home and also in KL where I have one plant in my little garden which, with so much care gives one or two flowers a day. This flower is sold in India as it is used in 'pooja'. These bushes have to be seen to believe it is this flower as the bush which stands on the side of the road is full of flowers completely hiding the bush itself.

I see lot of Eucalyptus trees and also healthy hibiscus shrubs.

Anand's one room first floor apartment overlooks a tree which has a mapelish kind of leaf. I can see the tree from the kitchen window and it is as if it is saying 'hello' to me every morning. He has a small kitchen garden in his balcony where he has planted some cherry tomato plants and also some ladies finger plants. The cherry tomatoes have started yielding where as the other plants does not look as if it is going to yield. I was so thrilled to pluck some eight little tomatoes and use it for my cooking and the dish also turned out so well.

Santa Barbara has a beach which is about half an hour drive from here and it is a tourist centre. The whole place looks like an European town and I need to go by walk in those roads where there are malls which look like some old building. No modern high rise buildings are called Malls which I am so used to in Malaysia, I would like to go and see those shops. I am told the wares are quite expensive over there and so I would like to do some window shopping.

A mountain range over looks this little town and there are few houses dotted in the lower level of this mountain range. We went to a Vedanta Centre which was in such a place . It turned out to be a place which has a meditation hall and the centre is formed by was followers of Ramakrisha Paramahamsa. The hall had a serene atmosphere where no external sound was there being in the middle of no where and it was a good experience to sit there and meditate.

Latest journey to US

Well I am back in US for holidays this time to the West. This time we tried a different airlines Delta airways operated by China airlines. (called co sharing). I was kind of apprehensive about the airlines thinking it might not be good. We had changed over to this option since it was cheapest in this sector that is KL to LA.

While checking in itself there was some delay since the computer systems were down. Suddenly there was a flurry of activities and some personnels from Air china appeared and helped clear the queue. This flight was going to LA via Taipei (Taiwan). The passengers going to Taipei were checked in first and also passengers without any check in baggage and of course first class passengers. I waited patiently(!) in the side lines and was checked in after some time what they called mannualy. I was little worried about my check in baggage. In this milee my luggages were not weighed and just got checked in. Though I had heavy luggages I knew I was well within the limit allowed to me. There was a big queue even after I checked in.

I casually went in after having the customary milk shake in the Mcdonald's thinking the flight will be delayed due to the confusion outside. When I went to the gate I could see that people had already started boarding the plane. The China airlines staff helped me change my seat numbers which was not given next seats for me and Tejas intially. They changed the numbers for the onward flight from Taipei too. We got very comfortable front seats with lot of leg space which I needed badly as I had hurt my toes earlier and the doc had said it has to heal by itself with rest. Tejas was very happy to see a tv terminal next to his seat with facility to play games. I had told him not to expect that! The service and the interiors of plane was very good and I was impressed.

I was pleasantly surprised that contrary to my expectations the service and the airline was quite good and efficient in spite of being the cheapest. I was given some good vegetarian meal too.
We landed in Taipei from where we had to take on the next flight to LA. The airport was so clean and good it left me the usual longing within me 'when we are going to go any where near these international airports.' I had taken some food with me, for tejas and myself which we ate while waiting.
This second flight was a bigger one a Jumbo and the service was equally good if not better. When we both refused food , the airhostess was really concerned! She offered us some fruits and juices . I have not seen this concern in any airlines for quite some years now.
I found there was a hindi cinema also in the video section of the flight.

Comparitively the journey was shorter than I normally undertake since I was not taking any connecting flight in LA.
We landed in LA and again there was some 'system down' this time with the immigration. I was almost in front of the queue and so we just stood there staring at the immigration officers. After about an hour or more we could come out.

Tejas helped me all through in taking and moving the hand luggage in the escalators and walkalators in the airports and also in loading the check in luggage to the trolley. He has indeed grown into a big boy.
At last I came out and could see anand waiting for us with a big grin. We travelled another one and half hours by road to reach his place. By now I had lost count of time and any way it was night and so I could go to sleep and hence lucky did not get into the trap of jet lag this time. I have started my stay in this lovely place, Goleta in Santa Barbara.

Dasavatharam

Yes this is about The film Dasavatharam. I saw this movie this week end with hubby and Tejas. It is a technically very well made movie and one should see this at least once in the big screen at least for the great efforts put in by one man(ten show). We both like Kamal's movies and mainly we like his comedies. Mostly his comedies will be from the dialogues (ala crazy Mohan) and one should be attentive to the conversation among the characters. The best example of this was his Mumbai Express. Not for him the crude way of making people laugh by a person getting hit by all and sundry and obscene body movements. But unfortunately majority of cine goers seem to like the crude presentation of comic situations.
Coming back to this film, his acting is excellent especially as the Andhra Police Officer. This character is presented as typical Kamal comedy movie type character and the situations where he comes are quite hilarious. The heroine Asin has also acted quite very well. Tejas was enjoying the movie trying to recognize the different Kamals and counting and not ending up with the figure ten and finally when I told him about one of the character, his comment was ' oh was that also Kamal, no wonder I could not get to 10'. Of course the credit should go to the make up artist.
I really hope the movie runs well. I am sure the audience will be there first to see what is so great about it but I am not sure whether it will attract repeat audience which seals the fate of any movie especially big movies.
Kamal looked the best as the 12th Century Vaishnavite in the first few scenes.
Hats off to that man for trying out something so different.

Train Journey

I had the opportunity of traveling by Day Train yesterday from Johor Baru to KL.
Vinu and Family were visiting us. He had rented a car from Johor which is about 365 kms from here . Singapore is just across Johor and if you cross the Cause way the other side is Singapore.
Jayashree had to go back on Sunday night itself and Vinu stayed on. He started back on Tuesday morning. I did not want to miss an opportunity of going on a long drive with my Sonny Dear. The road from KL to Johor is excellent and the drive is always most enjoyable. I had never had the opportunity to go on a long drive with Vinu. I told him I would come with him to keep him company instead of him driving all the way alone. But the question arose as to how I would come back. Hubby dear came to the rescue and said that there is a train starting from Johor at around 4 p.m. which reaches K.L. by 10 p.m. and got me a ticket in the chair car.
All set and we started around 10.40 a.m. Poor kid of mine could not go very fast as we had plenty of time and we had to keep the speed limit to 110 kms which is the normal speed allowed. The roads are so nice that it is very tempting and many a cars just go at speeds more than the allowed limit. We had a lovely journey and had a picnic lunch I had taken in one of the resting areas which is built along the North South Express Way which is what the high way is called.
We returned the rental car and my sonny dear put me in the train and left for Singapore from Johor.
I have traveled from Singapore to K.L. by train quite a few times but never in day time. Once the train started moving I realized the scenic beauty around the Railway track was very very beautiful. I could see some thick palm trees and suddenly there were many banana trees and then there was some patch of dragon fruit garden and then some small streams were flowing. The train was mainly passing through Green Vegetation and not through towns. I had some magazines with me and I was looking out of the glass window from time to time trying to see if I could recognize any of the plants which had grown in plenty.
The train was going quite slow as the Railway system is not that good as compared to the Roads here. I was thinking it could be made into such a tourist attraction if fast trains with lovely coaches could be run from KL to Singapore.
The train reached an hour late but still I did not feel bored at all and was relaxed for a change enjoying the journey.
I was not at all tired and felt as if I had just gone for a lovely ride and back home.
Another thought also came to my mind. I was wondering if I could have done the same in India starting from Bangalore house to Chennai at around 10. 30 a.m. and reaching Bangalore by the night. At this point of time it is impossible to even think of such a thing as it would take 2 hours just to come out of city limits in Bangalore or even Chennai. Incidentally Bangalore to Chennai (340 kms) is a shorter distance than KL to Singapore.

Name and Place

It is really funny how in each region a person is called in a different way.
As South Indians we don't have any last name just some one or two Alphabets of English which is called Initials which is written after or before our first names . It must be very unique to South India where people are addressed by there first names and the first letter of father's name and or the first letter of the name of the place to which they belong would be added to their name as Initials.
So a person would be known as Ramesh P.S. where P will stand for his village and S will stand for his father's name. Many times his name will be written as P.S. Ramesh and when his wife will be known as Mrs. Ramesh which is unthinkable in any other place as the Mrs. is always added to the last name of a person.
Now that people have started traveling every where this confusion of name is more pronounced. In the above example if the initials are put before his name where let us say P stands for some small obscure village in Tamil Nadu in South India say Pachampettai, in airports or hotels or other public places when they want to invite the attention of Ramesh he will be called Pachampettai thinking it is his first name. Poor fellow would not have seen this village even once in his life and will not even be knowing he is being called. When he realizes it is he who is wanted he will be flabbergasted. Of course in due course he will get used to it and life goes on. This has happened many times to my hubby dear and now we are used to his being called by his village name.

Now another problem is when this Ramesh is taken as a last name his wife will be Mrs. Ramesh. When he gets a son he will be named as say Arun and he will be Arun . R, but will be generally known as Arun Ramesh (as these days wisely most of the South Indians are dropping the initials which stands for their village or place and have only one initial) Arun's wife also will be known as Mrs. Ramesh where as actually she is Mrs. Arun. Hahaha very confusing right.

Well in some Kerala Christian families the first name of a person will be the last name of the son. So Thomos Joseph's son will be Jeffery Thomos. where as his brother Jacob Joseph's son will be John Jacob . More confusing right.
But many of the North Indian and Maharashtrian and North Karnataka people have this last name which they call as sur name . There will not be much confusion about their first names and last names.
They also do not understand the naming pattern of South Indians and they think all Ramesh's are related to each other thinking it is the family name. When I went to live in Maharashtra I was always asked 'thula nav kai' which means what is your name. What they meant was what was my sur name. I used to jokingly say that I don't have any name as I put my husband's first name as my last name.
In India lot of migration has been taking place in the last 100 years or so. My grand father who worked in Govt.(British) Service went to live in his village in Tamil Nadu after retirement. Where as my father who was educated in Benaras Hindu University ended up being in Bangalore where we were all grew up. But true to being a Tamilian we all carried two initials one the first letter of our Village the other first letter of our Father's name. My father never went back to live in that Village. I never had the opportunity to live in the village which was part of my name but had visited it only a few times. Later after marriage I had to live in many cities as my husband worked in an All India Service which took us to many places.
We happen to get a transfer to Palghat which is in Kerala.
Keralites are very attached to their native place or village and normally they go back to their native place to live after retiring from active service. So the first question they used to ask me is 'Nad Evide' which means Which is your place. I was and am still flabbergasted with that question. I feel I belong to Bangalore but since I had carried my Village name with me I always wonder whether to tell that Village name or Bangalore. So I used to say I don't have any 'nadu'
Thus by the time I reached my late thirties I had lost my place as well as my name from my journey from Kerala to Maharashtra. Now that I have traveled and lived in places outside India, May be I have really become a global personality without realizing it. As they say in tamil 'yaadhum oore yaavarum kelir' Let me add one more thing. What is in a name........

Power of Technology

It is amazing how the power of Technology has influenced in many ways of our life.

I remember about 30 years back when I was selected to work in Machines department.( which was how Computer department was known as. Those days were not PC days and the data used to be stored in big spools which was maintained in the head office in Bombay) I jokingly said when Computers come to Madurai (where my hubby dear was working and where I wanted a posting) then I will work in this department. I never knew that my words were prophetic and hey and presto within a span of 10 years or so Computers did come to all places including Madurai.
Well my sonny dear bought me an Ipod which we all know as a device mainly used to listen to music when ever we want after down loading the songs from the Lap top or computer of what ever.

I wanted a storage device in which I could store all the pictures I have. Now that we have digital camera the amount of pictures or photos we have has become so huge that it occupies much space even in our personal computer. We have the old paper photos, colour as well as black and white which I want to scan and store in the digital device.
It was suggested by my son that I should get an Ipod wherein I can use it both to listen to the songs as well as store the pictures as it has both facilities and has lot of memory. Then in the same shop I found a device which has two small speakers and has a facility where in I can keep my Ipod and listen to the songs through the speakers instead of putting an ear phone. This has a Radio too so hubby dear and me can both listen to radio or Ipod when ever we want. So we fixed a glass stand in the kitchen and set the lovely device there.

Now came the downloading the music part. Though we were taught how to down load (we means it is hubby dear and I have told him I will learn the trick later) he had to find out the proper way by trial and error. He figured it out yesterday and and put me in a website from where I could select the old hindi songs so that he could save them in the Ipod. This site had some 200 pages of listings and it took me more than half a day to write out the names of the songs I wanted. Now I come to the point where I could see the real power of technology.

When we were in Jullundar Vasu's sister had sent her wordings of a hindi movie song , and Vasu and Swarna used to sing it together in the evenings. I remember the first few words of the song and did not know which movie it was from. Vaguely I remembered the tune and some how I wanted to listen to that song again. When I mentioned this to Vasu about 2 , 3 years back she seemed not to remember it or may be just we did not stay in that particular topic for long to bring it back to memory. Since I did not know the movie name or don't know how to sing it properly I just could not find a way to listen to that song.
Yesterday when I was going through the song list I was so thrilled to see a song which was written as 'Payal wali dekhna...' I think you can imagine how I would have felt. It was like finding some long lost person after a gap of about thirty years. Immediately the song was down loaded and I listened to the song and for those moments I went back to the Jullundar days as if in Time Machine.
Now I am searching for another song from Jullundar days 'Jaane o kaise log o kahate phool ko phool mila. If any body finds it forward it to me.

Trip down the memory lane

Yes I had promised myself I would write about the trip I undertook with my family after
Vinu's wedding. It is almost 2 months since the trip but only now I have got the mood to write about the trip. It was sad that Anu could not join us as she had to go back to her work.
Anand, Vinu Jayashree, Tejas, Hubby dear and myself took up the journey in a Toyota Innova. We dropped Anu at the airport and started our journey to Coimbatore from Bangalore at around 5 p.m. in the evening. Luckily for me my brother VA Sr. had told me previous day the roads after Krishnagiri is not good and it is better for us to break our journey at Salem. That was a good idea as we reached Salem by around 10 p.m. and I was told we had to travel another 3 hours to reach Coimbatore which is just around 100 kms or so from Salem. We started the next day morning and by the time we reached Coimbatore it was almost 10.30 or so. We directly went to our newly built house in Cheran Nagar. I was like a student waiting for her results after the exams as the kids were seeing the house for the first time. They were so happy seeing the house I felt I had passed the exams with distinction. We then proceeded to Forest College in R.S. Puram where I had landed as a newly wed. This is where Sham was brought up and children were shown the place where their father grew up in different quarters he lived as a child and also our first home together (another quarters). We just barged inside the house telling the occupants that we had lived there long ago and asking about the sandal wood tree and other trees which had vanished now. Children could visualize both of us walking or cycling around the big wooded colony of forest college which houses the Southern Rangers Forest College and also lot of Forest Research Institution Offices in the center of a posh area called R.S. Puram.
After Lunch we started for Palghat where both Anand and Vinu were born in the Olavakot Railway Colony.
This time the roads were really bad and I had remembered them to be very good and told them that we could reach in less than an hour as the distance is just 50 Kms. That was not to be. Through out the trip the roads showed me at poor light for planning the road trip instead of making a train journey which would have been more comfortable and time saving.
We reached Palghat and went to our house again a quarters. This is where we lived for 8 plus years of our youth and had a lovely time. Anu would have enjoyed more as she did her schooling in this place. Anand and Vinu were quite young when we left Palghat for Pune but still both said they could remember the house very well.
Like Vasu said in her blog the house looked very shrunk especially the drive way which leads into the house. There must be some scientific reason for such perception as the mind might have an illusion of nice and large images of old things.
The house was a bit disappointing as it was not maintained well and the lovely garden which I was so proud of was not to be seen. The lawn which I used to water every day (since a good variety of grass needs to be watered everyday otherwise the other not so nice looking grass will take over as the ants will eat away the roots of the good grass) looked pathetic. I had a big ever green tree in front of the house and it had also gone . We could not go inside the house as it was locked and the people living there had gone out of station. I just roamed about the garden area full of leaves now which used to be so clean and neat thanks to my Gardner (who attended Vinu's wedding and can be seen in the Vinu wedding picture) and was looking at the coconut, mango and jack fruit trees and I could virtually hear Raghu, Chinna swamy , and Kunjambu speaking to me while plucking the fruits when ever I wanted. It was so cinematic that I almost laughed at the idea of hearing their voices.
We went and saw the club where we used to play shuttle and many housies on monthly club days and watch movies in the VCD and TV in the club which used to be a very great event then.
Since it is almost 20 years since we left the place we did not know any body living there as it is all Railway quarters where people live while posted at that place. Luckily for us our very good friends and neighbours Dr. Mahalingam who used to be a Divisional Medical Officer then had come back to the place as Chief Medical Officer the head of the Railway Hospital. I have a very great attachment to this hospital as both Anand and Vinu were born here within a gap of one and half years. We went to the hospital and when my hubby went to the CMO's room to tell him that we have come (He had also attended vinu's wedding with family and was aware of our program though not the exact date) he came running out with great enthusiasm to receive all of us. It must have surprised the people of the hospital seeing their great boss greeting us with such child like enthusiasm. We exchanged memories of the great times we had together and the many picnics we had in and around the Railway colony together. The best moment for me was the photo taken in front of the hospital with both my sons next to me.
We visited another doctor friend who have settled in the nearby town of palghat and had a great cup of coffee.
We visited the school where Anu did her schooling and also where Anand did his K.G. classes. I showed him the class where he used to sit and which had big window from which he used to see outside longingly to get out of the class as if he were in a kind of a jail. The classes were over and only few kids were waiting to go home and so he went in and sat in his class with his little brother who never studied there and also with some kids and took a picture!
It was a hectic trip but it was worth all the trouble and I have promised my Doctor friends I would visit them more leisurely on my next trip to Coimbatore.
The trip would not have been complete without our eating at the Annapoorna Restaurant especially the Vada Sambhar which no other hotel can match in quality. I had promised Anand he can have the Vada Sambhar which he used to love as a kid of just 3 years. We had missed having breakfast there as we could not reach Coimbatore in time for breakfast but made good by eating Vada for Lunch and also for Dinner.

Music Concert

Last week I had guests from India. It was Ms. Vasudha who is Bamini manni's niece. She is a Carnatic Music Vocalist and she had been invited to Singapore to perform in Shree Sivan temple. We wanted her to sing here in KL too and invited her over. She came with her dad.
I have heard her sing before in Chennai in Sabhas as well as at home when ever I happen to be in my brother's place and she visited.
I knew she could sing well, but I never knew she could sing this well. It was an experience to hear her sing. She is a young woman in her early twenties and is doing her MBA in human resources in Loyala college Chennai and she is like any other youngster, enthusiastic and cheerful and excited about her first visit to a foreign country. But once she is on stage she is completely transformed.
I never saw her practice or doing her sadhana early in the morning. She was just quite casual about singing. One local artist was to perform with her as the violinst as the pakka vadhayam. Since the violinist was not very experienced we were asked to meet up with her in the organizer's house. I was just watching their interlude and how Vasudha was asking what Ragas that girl will be comfortable with, so that she will do her alapanas in those ragas. Since my mother had also done the duty of a tamilian mom of putting me in music classes when I was young and the concerts I have heard though not many, I am quite aware of the kutchery format of Raga alapana, swaras and neravals and thukkada and all that even though I can not recognise any ragas. Vasudha told us later that she will decide the songs she is going to sing depending on the audience and she will roughly have a list in her mind.
Here I have to mention that my hubby dear loves carnatic music and I am no music buff.
On the kutchery day she started in a slow tempo and slowly the tempo increased. I could see that she was singing a lengthy song and then a smaller faster song followed. I could see that she was by far better than the accompaniments of mridangam and also gangira who just managed to follow her. She was all the time encouraging the Violinist and was smiling at her all the time. After the kutchery every body was praising her choice of songs she sang.
In the next place she chose songs which were completely different and the theme was 'muruga' songs even though it was a Devi temple. Here a srilankan tamil (of course malaysian) music teacher attended the concert. She teaches some of my friends devotional songs and they sing in murugan temple every sashti day. That teacher is not keeping very good health but she sat through the 2 hours and I could see she was moved almost to tears. The songs really moved the audience. One of the songs was my husband's favourite 'kanda va va'
I had arranged only these two kutcheries and after hearing her, she was invited to sing in another temple. Here she simply excelled herself and we could see that she was doing complicated thalas and while doing swaras she was excelling in her thala control. This I could understand as she did it on purpose and told us before how it is all mathematical calculations and how she is going to go about them. Anand had also once told me that the percussion instrument is just mathematical abilities when he learned tabla for 2 months in India and still he is at it when ever it pleases him.
She is good at purandara dasa kruthis and all these three concerts she could not sing that, she wanted to sing them for me alone. I wanted her to sing for my friends too and so off we went to my friends place where few music lovers had come and it became a chamber concert. (This word I am hearing for first time. may be that is what they do in America where lots of artists from India go, Invite all your friends for grub and then have the kutchery at home) . Here she sang purandara dasa and also kanaka dasa and also basaveswara vachana all in kannada. Her diction was so perfect. It is no wonder as her teacher is Dr. Manjula who is a kannadiga. There were lot of 'neyar viruppam' (audience request) she sang them too. Of course there was no pakkavadyam for her here. She ended her kutchery with a tillana every time. Every time I hear the tillana I can visualize some body dancing nicely to the tillana. Every where she sang she did not have any note or book and just sang from her memory and each time she did not repeat a song sang earlier.
I really wonder why she has not become quite famous as yet in Chennai. Is it that she has no God Father or Mother to support her. Is it that she is not a child of a famous artist or a 'sisya of a famous artist.
She does sing in the music season but not at the prime time of 6.p.m or 7p.m. slot.
I am convinced that with her caliber of music she will be one of the great singers in Chennai if not in India.
She wants to take up a job with her MBA and does not want to depend on music as her profession as she feels she does not want to get desperate and it will affect the way in which she sings. She loves to sing rare thyagaraja kruthis which are not that famous but which are very good.
We want to organize a real big concert for her here and may be we will be able to do it some time.

Fitness Run

There was a Fitness Run organized in Tejas's school here in the nearby lake garden. I had heard about the fitness run through Ayeysha my friend who is from Maldives and whose daughter is in the 9th grade in the same school. So I kind of made my routine walking to jogging for the past month or so. I never knew jogging will be tough. Usually I can walk many rounds around our condominium which is approximately 650 meters. But Jogging I found is quite tough. Even one round I could not jog continuously and had to walk in between. It is another matter that Tejas used to beat me walking while I was jogging. My aim was to complete the run whether walking or jogging.
Finally the D day arrived which was this Saturday. There was this continuous rain from morning 5.30 a.m. The irony was there was practically no rain at all for almost a month here and rain Gods had to see us running and arrived on time on this day. We all reached the venue on time at 7.30 with all proper running gear with hubby dear with a camera to shoot all of us. It started pouring. we were all standing under the tents erected for the purpose of the run. Finally they announced that the run will start as per schedule. It was class wise for the students and there was separate race for girls and boys. Tejas's class had to go 3.2 kms which was two rounds around the lake. First round he did quite well and was in 3rd place but once he started second round I could see him walking talking to his friends!! If I had a mega phone I would have shouted to him to run. It was quite a tough run for the kids (4th ,5th and 6th boys and Tejas is in 4th) and Tejas was able to finish the run in 6th place. I was quite happy that he did that and came within 10 places. But poor kid did not get a medal as only first five places were given medals.
In the Category of 9th , 10th 11th girls who also ran 3.2 kms., Ayeysha's daughter Noor came first. She was way ahead of all the other competitors. We were all very happy.
All this happened amidst drizzling rain.
Finally it was the run for parents and teachers (women). It was 1.6 kms that is just one round around the lake. I started and completed and am happy that I completed within first 10 ladies and also I never walked and jogged the whole round. Ayeysha came 3rd. So mother and daughter both got medals and it was really great.
Tejas was disappointed that I did not get any medal. When I told him that I was the only grandma who ran and he should tell his friends that, he said ' why would I tell that you are my grandma?' That it self was like getting a medal for me. Only few of my friends knew that a grandma was running but I felt elated and told Tejas that I would run a fitness run with his kid too.
All this was made possible because of Anand. One of his dreams is that we should be running the small charity runs with him and he bought me a running shoes when I visited USA last time. So I have made a beginning and has run with the shoes he bought for me. Now I will run better and has decided to practice in the lake garden which we never knew existed so near our house.
Hubby dear did not run as he is not practicing and without practice it is not advisable to run at our age.

oil bath and grand mother

Recently when I had been to Chennai, I had the opportunity to get a Facials, Pedicure etc done from a beautician. She had told me that I need some oil massage for my hair for it to be healthy. When I raised my eyebrows, she said heat some oil and once it is warm massage on your scalp and wash it with a shampoo.
Today I remembered that and heated the 'nallannai' (sesame oil) with some whole pepper and curry leaves. That triggered lot of memories especially of my grandmother.
When we were children it used to be a weekly ritual to have what is called an oil bath. (which is nothing but what the beautician called the oil massage) . Every Friday it was our (girls) turn to have oil bath. Every Saturday it was the turn of my brothers to have their head massaged by my grand father. I vividly remember my grand dad making the sound of a moving train while massaging my brother's head. My brother used to say" come on let the train move faster" and it used to be such fun watching them.
This oil bath ritual if I remember correct continued in my family too, with my kids on Fridays and Saturdays till we were in Pune. My hubby dear took over the 'train' part. I don't know when all this disappeared from our life.
Coming back to my childhood, I used to be so impatient with my grand mother to finish the oil massage faster so that I could wash with what was called 'shiga kkai' ( a kind of nut powdered and used to clean the oil on the head) and go and play. Half the time I never had the patience to wash the hair properly and used to look too oily.

The other traditional ritual was the combing of hair. We all had plaits and my brother's wife used to have a long plait which I used to look at longingly as I just had two pigtails for plaits . (which my dear brother used to tease as 'elivaal pinnal meaning a rat's tail) . My grand mother used to sit and comb our hair nicely and put a tight plait(which I used to hate) and I had to wait for my turn as she had to comb my mom's hair and then my sister in law and then it was my turn. As usual I was impatient and used to say 'come on make it faster'. She told me once that one day you will feel sad that nobody is there to take care of you as this is part of taking care of you which truth I realize today.
Some how all these thoughts came to my mind today. We pay money to the beauticians to take care of our hair, our nails and face and what not when in olden days the grand mothers used to do this adding lot of affection and love apart from the massaging and combing.
May be our Society was fully evolved and we never realized it and changed all that in the name of Modernity and losing our support system which gave us physical support as well as mental support.