Kudumba Maanam (Family Reputation)

It was two years ago... the Tamil movie Sivaji came to town and we (me and my daughters) were super excited to go see it at the theater. my husband said it would be a waste of his time and our money. we ditched him and went with our friends and had a gala time. About three months later, the 100th day showing of the same movie came to the theaters. And this time around, our nephew (hubby's sister's son) was visiting us from India and we roped him in to see the movie again. Hubby could not refuse and reluctantly agreed to go. That saturday morning as we were having coffee, he said ' I had a dream last night... that you were dancing down the theater aisles during the movie...my nephew is shocked and he tells all about that to my mom and sister'! 'you are not planning to do anything like that... are you?' he asked quietly. News about what i did during the movie the first time must have come trickling down through some of our friends... not much.. just shouting a couple of open threats at the guy who says 'Sivaji must be hanged' or something similar and at suman who taunts Sivaji for being a bus conductor and a few high pitched howls whenever Sivaji uttered a punch dialogue. So that was what was bothering him. I just smiled smugly at him.

We were at the movie finally. At Rajini's first scene on the screen and every time he did something awesome (which was pretty often), i only had to look at my daughters... with all the accuracy that comes only with two weeks of practice, they threw both their hands up in air in front of them and screamed at the top of their lungs 'THALAIVAAAAA'!

Epic(s) Meeting

I told the story of Arjuna being the best archer to my younger daughter. About how he can shoot at the eye of a toy bird (it can't be a real bird... she won't let me continue the story...she will grieve the death of the bird for a day.) by looking at its reflection in a pond. The next day, it was the story of Vishwamitra asking Dasaratha to send Rama and Lakshmana with him to fight the demons so that he can perform his yagna. Dasaratha hesitates to send his young sons and instead offers his army.

Vishwamitra insists on taking the boys with him. She asks me, 'why can't he just take that guy who can shoot at the eye of the bird... did he live far away?'

The antibiotics of life

There was this Tamil movie i saw on DD when i was 12 or 13. Thengai Srinivasan is the hero. He is disease ridden and lying on his death bed with a side table full of medications. Lord Krishna, played by none other than N T Rama Rao is sitting on bed making thengai realise that he is suffering because of all the sins he committed in his life. This is the conversation that goes on....

Krishna: Do you realise why you are suffering like this?
thengai : Why?
Krishna: Because of all the bad things you did in your life...
thengai: I don't believe that.
Krishna: You are taking all these medications...
thengai: So...
Krishna: What is this one here called?
thengai: Erythromycin.
Krishna: Erythro what?
thengai: mycin.
Krishna: This one?
thengai: Zythromycin.
Krishna: Zythro what?
thengai: mycin.
Krishna: And this one?
thengai: Someothermycin.
Krishna: Someother what?
thengai: MYCIN.

And thengai suddenly realises what Krishna is trying to say.
This scene has played in my mind every time i was prescribed antibiotics over the years.
Last week, i was down with pneumonia and the doctor ordered a fresh round of antibiotics - and you know what, this time the mycins were much bigger than i ever remember.

Retort to Top 21 things......

This is the second time someone has sent me this forward. When you get past all the spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and badly formed sentences and finally read the 21 points you realise how ridiculous the whole thing sounds.
Obviously written by a US return osmania university graduate.

Here is what i would have said to the guy who wrote this.

Top 21 things Indians do when they come back to India :

Here are TOP 21:
21. Tries to use credit card in road side hotel.
That's what Madavan does in Anbe Sivam and he did not come back to India, he was in India.

20. Drinks and carries mineral water and always speaks of health conscious.
Of course, to drink tap water and carry mineral water would defeat the purpose of being health conscious.

19. Sprays duo such so that he doesn't need to take bath.
Come on, there are people in chennai who do that on a regular basis. unless, you mean spitting on two people.... wait, there are people in chennai who do that too on a regular basis.

18. Sneezes and says 'Excuse me'.
'That's good manners' - says my daughter

17. Says 'Hey' instead of 'Hi'.
says 'Yogurt' instead says 'Curds'.
Says 'Cab' instead of 'Taxi'.
Says 'Candy' instead of 'Chocolate'.
Says 'Cookie' instead of 'Biscuit'.
Says 'Free Way' instead of 'Highway'.
Says 'got to go' instead of 'Have to go'.
Says 'Oh' instead of 'Zero', (for 704, says Seven Oh FourInstead of Seven Zero Four)
Says 'gas' instead of 'petrol'

So what... add new words to your vocab.

16. Doesn't forget to crib about air pollution. Keeps cribbing every time he steps out.
Both sentences mean the same. this is what air pollution does to your brain.

15. Says all the distances in Miles (Not in Kilo Meters), and counts in Millions. (Not in Lakhs)
What is there to count up to a million?

14. Tries to figure all the prices in Dollars as far as possible (but deep down the heart multiplies by 43 times).
It is the brain that does the multiplication. Poor guy, you've been thinking with your heart.

13. Tries to see the % of fat on the cover of a milk pocket.
Nothing wrong with it. In fact, the Aavin system of color coding the packets according to the fat content is much better for the same reason we have pictures of a man and women on public toilets.

12. When need to say Z (zed), never says Z (Zed), repeats 'Zee' several times, if the other person unable to get, then says X, Y Zee(but never says Zed)
what did you need the spelling for - zoo ??


11. Writes date as MM/DD/YYYY, on watching traditional DD/MM/YYYY, says 'Oh! British Style!!!!'
You've got a keen sense of observation, but you should not be peeking into forms that this guy is filling up.

10. Makes fun of Indian Standard Time and Indian Road Conditions.
Don't you?

9. Even after 2 months, complaints about 'Jet Lag'.
Scientifically, it takes one day to recover from jet lag for every one hour of time difference.
Obviously, this guy was making up reasons to get away from you.

8. Avoids eating more chili (hot) stuff.
what do you mean 'more'? More than what he ate before or more than what your stomach can take?

7. Tries to drink 'Diet Coke', instead of Normal Coke.
Didn't he speak of health conscious in point 20?

6. Tries to complain about any thing in India as if he is experiencing it for the first time.
You could have written just this one sentence.

5. Pronounces 'schedule' as 'skejule', and 'module' as 'Mojule'.
Impressive spelling.


4. Looks speciously towards Hotel/Dhaba food.
You should too.

Few more important
3. From the luggage bag, does not remove the stickers of Airways by which he traveled back to India, even after 4 months of arrival.
That's pure laziness.

2. Takes the cabin luggage bag to short visits in India, tries to roll the bag on Indian Roads.
This gives reason for point no. 10

Ultimate one

1. Tries to begin conversation with 'In US ....' or 'When I was in US...'
When you return from Goodoovancheri, you begin conversation with 'When I was in Goodoovancheri....', don't you?

Early morning prayer - short story inspired by a true story

she woke up with a start. she was sure she heard a 'thud'. she lay perfectly still. 'creak'. oh God, please, let it not be a burglar. she had heard stories of break-ins happening in the neighb0rhood. the tv show said that two thirds of all burglaries happened when people were home. God, let it not be a burglar. images of the garage door, front door and patio door ran through her mind. all locked. the basement door ! she has been asking her husband for months to install a latch for that door. please, Lord, let it not be a burglar. It was 6:01 am. Her husband stirred and then sat up. "can u go downstairs and check, I heard something" - she said. "Ah ! noises downstairs " - he scoffed even while yawning. "you and your weird imagination! a man has other things to do in the morning. " He walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. She heard another 'creak' distinctly from downstairs. God, let it be a burglar.

What was i doing

All right. I was 'inspired' by Asal Tamil Penn. She really has a lot of what i think i have a lot of - a sense of humor. She has exactly what i want - all the time in the world to churn out blog after blog. What can i do? I am so forgetful these days, i even forgot that i created this blog. The other day, we dropped s&s at a friend's house to go to a conference at the school. We come out of school after one hr and i can't find the car keys. we walk to the car, it's there where i parked - with the keys in the ignition, running... he doesn't say anything, he was right there with me, he could have reminded me. we go back to pick up s&s, the friends ask us to stay a while. we do. and finally we go home. at least, dinner is ready. that's what i think. dinner is more than ready. it has been on sim only since we left home. the blackened gravy with channa sticking to it was beyond salvage. s&s are happy. 'yay! we are going to cholaa, can we have kothu parotta and mutter panneer?'

Had to write about fall

Fall (also known as autumn or ilai udhir kaalam or pathjhad) has become my favourite season. For the first twenty five years in my life i knew only the very hot summer and the mild summer. And mild summer was the time when my asthma used to act up and my mom used to make me wear a sweater to college. yes, you read right, a sweater, IN MADRAS, TO COLLEGE. my friends were generous enough not to laugh at my face. Then I came to Chicago in the November of 1998. It was dark as night at 3 pm and it was already winter that year.
But this november, the weather has been kind - it is still fall and it is beautiful outside. It is cold but not freezing so I can show off my sweaters without hiding them under the ugly winter jacket. yes, i love wearing sweaters now.
and the trees, after wearing a uniform green through the summer are now proudly adorning their beautiful colors (just like we used wear our best color dress to school on saturdays).
Fall has turned leaves into rose petals, gold coins, little flames, landing pads, extra yard work and more. My daughters willingly helped me rake all the fallen leaves in our yard into piles and had loads of fun jumping into them. Then they reluctantly helped me bag them.
Driving around with a camera nowadays (thanks to my bro's advice).
If you want to see what I see - click