This is your World my Child

Child abuse or Child harassment is something that I have been hearing since my childhood, but I came to understand the context, when I reached my Higher secondary level in school. I am a very conscious and cautious person by nature since my younger days and I am still the same. When I was very young I used to feel very delicate when people touch and talk to me, irrespective of their gender and I still hate this, but due to social obligations, I have permitted myself to be hugged(only with Women) and shake hands with anyone.

After I have been confirmed of my pregnancy, I have become more responsible in every aspect I do and in particular to the developing fetus in my womb.

In the recent past I came across a lot of news related to children kidnapping and trafficking and this has created a strong state of concern to my unborn child and I am preparing my mind from now to be a responsible parent in terms of rearing my child.

I hope I do justice to my child as a parent in teaching what a society is and exposing my little one to the practicality of the world then imposing or stressing on what is good or bad.

Honey we blew up the TV

Since my parents in law left to their native, our idiot box shrunk from 21 inches to 14 inches in size. We gave the 21 inches TV to them and used their 14 inches TV. During the initial usage of the TV, we found it little difficult but thought that this is enough as we dont use it much.

On a Sunday, my husband saw an advertisement which had a discount offer on Panasonic LCD TV s. He told me that it could be a good deal to buy during this offer. We researched about this TV model on the net and it had almost similar features of Sony LCD TV, which we had intended to buy earlier. The cost offered by this dealer was less in comparison to the others dealers in chennai.

My BIL also suggested us in going for this brand and gave us some technical gyan, in which I am still an alien.
We booked the TV on the day of the offer, it was delivered on last Saturday, and I was thrilled to watch my favourite programme in the enlarged version of this electronic gadget.

Our television viewing was normal, then it shrunk and now it’s blown up.

A small Desire

It was nearly 2 months since me and my Hubby watched a movie in theatre. I was feeling movie theatre sick for some time and told him that I wanted to watch a movie now (this happened last Friday night). He thought for few seconds and said ok done. Our journey started, we reached Satyam Theatre which is hardly 1 and 1/2 Kms from my home. The tickets were available only for two movies; one was for 'Pen Singam' and the other for 'Katrathu Kalavu' both of us did nt give a heed to watch any one of the movies. We asked for the movie 'Singam' it was full, 'Iron Man' it was also housed packed. I told my hubby "let’s go, I am hungry, we will eat and then come to find if we can get any cancelled tickets". But he wanted to get the tickets first and then eat, then I thought ok let’s wait. But we did nt get any, then we left the place and I told him I want to eat Paper roast, he asked " do u want paper roast or to try for tickets in Inox?" I immediately said "Inox" (after answering, I felt that I was acting like a kid who responds to her parent). My Husband's bike took a U turn reached the theatre Inox.

Inox also showcased the same scene as satyam, I checked with the security guard, who was standing near the counter, whether any cancelled tickets were available, he asked me to check with the counter person. I asked the person in the ticket counter, he said there are no cancelled tickets, but to wait for some time, so that we can get. I was very keen in watching as this is my first experience in watching a night show; I have watched an early morning show of 'Aniyan' with my cousins but not a night show. Since my college days, I have been planning to go for night show movie, but it never happened. I thought at least after marriage I could implement , I told my husband that I have nt watched any night show movie and wanted to watch one, he was fine, but we had restrictions from home. Thought my dream of watching a night show movie will never come true. My In laws have gone to their native for some time, I thought it’s the good time to fulfill my dream [Cheap thrill :)] and the so the above said happened.
We were still waiting to get tickets; suddenly I noticed a change in the ticket counter table, under the movie Singam the status has changed from full to fast filling; now I decided to go for it. I was waiting in the queue of 5 people before me, my turn came, I asked for 2 tickets, the counter person said "madam I have 2 tickets, but it is not together" I said "Sir we are Husband and Wife, how can we sit separately ?, please konjam paarunga( please consider) , then he said "oh he he I have Madam" I was thinking " Seriyana loose" (crazy fellow). Anyways we got the tickets, we entered the theatre hall, now my stomach reminded me that it is not fed, I looked at my husband and said, "Pasikuthu". We bought some burgers, French fries and some junk (this was our dinner).
We entered the screening hall, watched the movie, I enjoyed, it was a fast one, did nt feel bored.

I was complacent that finally my wish was fulfilled :)

Naanum 'Aval"um

I do not have the habit of reading, the reason is I get bored, and I lack concentration in reading , but in recent past I developed this habit, rather an ‘affair’ .

The reading I mentioned is in English, but now I have developed this habit for Tamil as well. This all started after my marriage. My MIL buys Aval Vikatan ( a Tamil Magazine for Woman), I usually don’t pay much attention to Tamil magazines or books, I am ashamed to say this as my dad is a Tamil writer and is very passionate about this language, his passion for Tamil follows him everywhere, he does nt sacrifice his love for the language at any cost. ATM counters are also not spared, he chooses the language option as Tamil only and even if that option does nt work he will wait for few seconds for it to work and then he will proceed.
In my in laws place, my husband, parents in law are very strong in Tamil. Many times I try to avoid using difficult Tamil words, so that I don’t blabber and become a laughing stroke.
Though my dad buys Tamil Newspaper and some popular weekly magazines, I never used to pay attention to those journals other than the movie reviews and tit bit columns which always interest me. In my home, we also buy Tamil Newspaper and 3 to 4 weekly Tamil magazines. Among those, I started to pay attention to 'Aval Vikatan', the language was very easy for me to read and the style of writing impressed me. As usual I started with movie articles in the magazine and gradually started to read other articles as well. The magazine focused on various sectors which interest many readers, and I was one among them.

I realised one thing reading is enjoyable in any language.

Paiyaaaa

Finally we watched the Tamil movie Paiyaa yesterday. My husband was planning to watch this movie, since the launch of the movie's audio release, the reason; we watched the audio release live. This happened, when we came out of the theatre hall after watching kanden Kathalai, when we were walking through the way to exit the theatre, on the left hand side of the theatre mall, there was an other movie hall which was crowed with video cameras flashing at the crowd and the crowd was anxiously waiting for some people, I did not know and I usually dont pay much attention to anything once my work is over.

My husband sneaked and said that it is the audio release of Payiya movie, I asked "So ?, he said come lets go in and see it live. I was very hesitant as I was thinking that the entry is allowed only with a gate pass and also did not have much interest to watch it. But my hubby, pulled me through the crowd near the hall and said "its fun, chumma va , its nice to have cheap thrills, I have not seen and audio release before, va polam". His honest explanation broke the barrier of my brain and said ok what’s in it pooi than parkalame" lets go and see". We entered found 2 seats which was not very far away from the stage. Though I agreed to go, I was looking around to see if any one was looking at us as we did not have any pass or invitation for the show.

The host began with his usual introduction and praising the director of the movie and called each guest at the dais to talk about the director and the film. It was for about 1 and 1/2 hours, I enjoyed watching and appreciated my husband for his brave task :).

After that audio release we went home and me and my husband were thinking that we will watch the movie immediately after its release. The movie was released, from the day one, we were planning to go but did not find time as some thing or the other came on our way. Yesterday both of us were jobless and were thinking what to do?, so we thought that we will implement our long term plan and watched the movie.

It was a typical commercial and Lingusamy's original version, I enjoyed the songs, its picturisation and the dialogues, but it’s not a great one to review as far as I am concerned. A time pass one, so finally we watched it :)

Auto fare or fair??

Last evening, I was waiting for an auto to my house which was 1 and 1/2 kms of distance.

I halted an auto and told the driver the location to my house and asked for the fare, he said 15 Rs Madam, for a second or 2 I looked at him and repeated the same question, he said Rs 15 Madam, I was still in a state of shock and got into the auto. I still could not believe what I heard I asked him again “did you ask for Rs 15 ?, he said yes madam.” I asked him, whether he is new to auto driving?, he said “the place you wanted to go is on the way to my home, and if you would nt have come, I would have gone empty so I did nt want to charge you much”.

I was thinking that when I leave the auto, I will pay him an extra Rs 5. My place came, I gave Rs 20 instead of Rs 15, he immediately gave Rs 5 back and said this is enough Madam.

I still could not believe and said to my self the famous Vadivelu's dialogue "Evar romba nalavaru" he is a gentleman.

For You !

I am still waiting for you
I need you till my home
the devils of the season are attacking me!
Please come soon and take me from this place
When I enter you, I listen to the music of your heart
Please come soon and take me from this place
I am still waiting for you... waiting, waiting and waiting.....













PS: The above is for AC PTC bus, I had written this when I was waiting for it :)

Explanations:
devils of the season: Heat
music of your heart : Songs played in the bus

Summer Summer

It is a normal human tendency to react or over react to every season of the year and in particular the summer in Chennai has no exceptions to it.

But I find this season to be more colourful as a lot of bright and ripe fruits decorate the pavement of the road thich gives a pleasant vision to the sight.

I think, this is the good time for me to use my goggles too, I use it during my walks from the railway station to my office and I find it very useful , though I was thinking it is big waste to buy an expensive cooling glass, when it was gifted by my husband, but now no regrets, it serves the summer very well.

Even if we make huge hue and cry in this season, I think it is much better than the rainy one, as in summer we can some how finish our tasks with sunscream lotions, umbrellas and cooling glass to shield us from the scotching sun than the flooded roads with dirt and filth.

Languages have their own impact

This morning, the bus I boarded was quite a crowded one than the usual. I was standing and holding the bars, which was above my head so that I dont fall.

A lady , seated near the window got up to move to the front to get down from the bus, as the stop which she wanted to go was nearing. She was sitting near the window and she kept a big bag underneath her legs, when she got and moved from her place , another lady who was sitting beside her moved to the seat of the lady who was going to get down,so as to give room for the other passengers who were standing to sit in her place.

While moving to the seat near the window, she found the big bag which was kept by the one, who got up first. The second lady found the bag very inconvenient for her to keep her legs.

This lady yelled at the first lady in Tamil saying that she does not have sense to keep the bag here etc etc….the argument heated up, when the first lady used a 15 letter foul word in Tamil and the other lady who yelled first got up from the seat and tried hurting other one with her slippers and a lot of foul languages in Tamil were exchanged. Other people in the bus started agitating and a few came forward to stop the “Bajari sandai”( very commonly used in Tamil during such situations) It means big fight, I am very subtle in using big fight, as it is little worse than that.

I associate this scene to that in the Tamil movie ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’, where two heroines would verbally fight and use all possible foul language in English. But the fight scene in the movie did not have much impact as it was in English, but the meaning was same as used in bus today. But the impact of a regional language is more than a foreign one. I found it more glaring and I was very annoyed by the way the two women were fighting in the bus. I was also irritated in the same manner while watching the movie when such language was used, but was little discomfortable during the bus scene than in the movie.

I still remember, in school, my biology teacher told all of us in our class that “If I call you Buffalo , you will not take any offence , but it will not be the same if I say ‘Erumaimadu’, which means Buffalo in Tamil.

I have seen in lot of instances where people take a lot of offence when they are harassed in a regional language than a foreign one. For eg, people don’t mind when some one calls them a fool than Muttaalle( means fool in Tamil) ( I am taking example in Tamil , as I am not much fluent with other regional languages)


I have finally arrived or derived to complete this post is that human brain is tuned to be swadesi :)

East or west, black, brown or whilte, MIL is a MIL

My friend who lives in UK telephoned me some months ago, it was a casual call, she keeps calling me once in 3 to 5 months.

We usually exchange a lot of things ignoring the fact that we are on ISD calls. She told me that her Parents in law visited her place in the recent past(My friend is an Indian and her husband is a slovenian). My friend began, she said ," you know I derived a theory after my Parents in law's visit". she continued, When my MIL stepped in, she looked at the house and pointed at the dining table which was at the corner of the house and told me "dont you think that the Dining table could be placed some where else than here ?, my friend replied politely with a grin " I like the way it is ......".

Then... all of them were having lunch and her MIL started again "I think we can change the dining table's location", my friend did nt say anything and was little discomfortable, seeing her discomfortable, her FIL came to her rescue and told her MIL something in their native language and her MIL kept quite and they finished their lunch.

My friend said, "you know Subha, the outcome of my thesis is " East or West MIL is a MIL " .

I completly agree with her :)

College Gana

11 years back, when I was in school, I used to board a PTC(Public Transport Corporation)bus from a bus stop close to my home to school and this bus passes via a Men's college.

I get down in a bus stop which is few stops before the college's bus stop. Our school's starting hours and that of the college used to be the same. When ever I board the bus there used to be a group of 10 college students who make noice, sing songs especially "Gana songs"(famously Known as fast songs) and their instrument was the sides of the bus and they drum it through out their journey. I used to get irritated and think that they are job less and are doing such acts to attract girls. As I was a typical girl's school student who used to think that those who sing in bus are'bad boys'.

Then after three years, when I was doing my MA,the bus in which I used to travel was also going via a Men's college. Here again the 'Gana' songs continued, these men change the movie songs lyrics to their own and composed a brand new one. This was absolutly funny and I used to laugh through my jounery from home to college as I board the bus from the first stop to the last.

Then after completing my MA, when I started to work, till I got married I was not a frequent visitor of public bus. A few days back, when I was travelling in a bus to my work place, a group of students from some college were drumming the sides of the bus and were singing the'Gana Song'. Now I was really enjoying it, It rewinded my pleasent memories of my school and college days and of course the legacy of 'Gana' songs continues.

My first step in Harry Potter's world

I still remember the day, when the last book of Harry Potter's series was released world wide. Television news channel, news paper and the other news medium gave special time and attention to the last Harry Potter's novel. I still remember the popular book houses in Chennai made announcements on making advance booking of the book.

The day arrived; the book was released in all the book houses across the world. The news paper carried photographs of children with their parents standing in long queue in front of the book stores. I found this, a little crazy, what is in a book, why people are wasting time and money on it?.

Even this book as its previous novel “Harry Potter and Half blooded prince" was a great success. And subsequently the last series of the movie was also released and it was also house packed in all the theatres it was released. The Harry Potter mania subsided and I removed it from my brain. This happened between 2007 and 2008.

As I had mentioned in my previous post about my second affair, My brain started to thrive for reading books of different genres , fiction, non fiction religious etc....

I was reading a non fiction book, it is a self development book and I wanted to read a fiction or a fantasy one along with it so that I don’t reach the monotony. I decided to read Harry Potter books, I went to the book store and found the first novel of Harry Potter series, It was "Harry Potter and Philosopher’s stone", I wanted to buy but I did'nt as it was heavily priced. I did nt want to buy the pirated books either, so I was searching for it in the used book stores , but could nt find it. I left the idea of buying the book for now, thought I would save some money and buy it later.

One day on my way to home from the railway station, I saw a lending library, I went to enquire about the charges and the kind of books they have stocked. I saw the Harry Potter books that I was searching for, I asked the librarian whether he can sell it he said he can and took out 5 - 6 copies of the same book, I was choosy as I found the books either in poor condition or it looked very old. In theses copies of books, I found the Sorcerer's stone, this is also the first series of Harry Potter, this was released in US and Philosopher’s stone in other parts of the world.

I bargained for the book and got it for a reasonable deal.

Though I bought this, it took almost one month forme to start reading it as I was reading something else in between.

I started it yesterday, finished the 1st chapter and almost going finish the second one and I find it interesting.

My latest affaire

well.... now my second affair begins, though I cant call the first one as an "affair" as it is with my husband, but since I did nt have any affair or affairs before marriage , I think I can legally call this.

Ok now coming back to my second affair the affair can be briefly called as "A collection of sheets of paper, or similar material, blank, written, or printed, bound together; commonly, many folded and bound sheets containing continuous printing or writing" confused?, its nothing but books!. I realised this after my continuous reading of books for the past two months, this is an achievement I could say, as I have' nt spent much time in reading(including my academic books ) :)

I forced my self in reading as I did nt find anything interesting around me, I was irritated with the reality shows, soap operas and other no sense programmes on TV. So I gradually started indulging myself with books and I later realised that my second affair is better than the first :):) I know my husband does nt read my blog :):).

This second affair of mine will continue till the end as my first :)

My adventurous days in Alice’s wonderland!

When I was in school, I read an abridged version of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland. Though I know the story, I was very keen in reading its unabridged version.

I bought the book; the cover page of the book has the sketch of a cat with a wide grin and gradually fading down finally with just teeth on it.

The entire book was full of adventure, from the first page till the last. The 86 pages of fantasy took me through my younger days. When I was a kid, I used to wonder I wish I could haven been in the world of fun, adventure, excitement and uncertainties.

Though this book was meant for children, my personal view is that it equally attracts the adult audiences too. The narration, character description, their diction are very well framed to the story. Every character, from the white Rabbit to the queen of hearts tells us about the different characters that exist and those we come across in our lives.

The bored little Alice, who gets tired , when she sees her big sister reading a book and suddenly she is distracted towards a white rabbit with a black coat crosses her and she follows him and suddenly lands in a rabbit hole. From there the story goes around Alice meetings with new characters and when I was reading every line carefully, I was taken to my world of reality, the characters depicted in this tale brings some sort of synonymous substitution for the creatures to humans in reality.

The White rabbit makes Alice to follow like the Vodafone dog, which follows its master religiously. The white rabbit illustrates a simple but a strong meaning to the story, where Alice follows him wherever he goes and ends up in meeting various creatures with different traits in them.

In every chapter of the tale the various acts of Alice shows the normal human character of curiosity, courage, dislike, negligence, pride, boldness ,kindheartedness etc…

Alice‘s curiosity makes her drink a bottle which claims “Drink me” , but her wise brain makes her to check whether the bottle also has a label "poison" in it. She could nt find anything and she drinks a little from it and suddenly she shrinks, This particular act of hers states how it is important to be conscious at a young age , and this trait of a person will make him/her to be conscious in the future also.

In the following chapter she finds a wise caterpillar who sits on a mushroom with his hookha and he advices her how to cope with the difficulties she will face during her odyssey in the wonderland. This character shows as a good guide where everyone needs in the journey of life.

All the creatures and characters are done so well, that it shows a trait of wittiness and humor.

Every adventure Alice undergoes makes oneself to be in the wonderland and having an adventurous life with the creatures and characters.

While travelling in the wonderland, Alice meets many personalities like the Mouse, Duck, Lory , Dodo, pigeon frog footman, fish footman, duchess and many others but I am not mentioning about them but the characters which played the major role and one which I could relate with.

Then the most interesting character comes, the Cheshire Cat which is always with a grin and appears and disappears and re appears whenever Alice find some difficulties in the Wonderland and also teach her the rules of the place.

The Mad Hatter is one of the members at the Tea Party he is occasionally rude and Alice often reminds him to be civil in his speech to her.

Then here comes our highness the Queen of hearts, I felt this as the funniest, though she is the hard hearted woman, who find pleasure in execution.

Right from the beginning till the end Alice relises that all were a long dream , the narration is very well done.

A really adventures experience for me to travel through this fantasy Island and explore all the characters.

Wo(o)men's day ?!!?!!?!!

Mother's day, Father's day, thanks giving day, children's day.........in the same row falls the Women's day.

Does a woman really need a day to celebrate her birth hood ?, then why cant a man ?", says one group one group of activitis who are aginst any celebration happening in the society.

"Yes if, we can celebrate wedding day, birthday, and even a sorry day, why cant we celebrate Women's day" protests a feminst group.

But when we look from a comman person's view, does it really mean anything worth out of it?. May be for the spendthrift's yes it could be as the big corporates in the city take this chance to sell their old and stocked products at a discounted price.

Now coming back to my previous paragraph, for the commom person does it make any difference? , for daily wage earners?, for domestic workers and for sex workers ? no it is not , take the case of any sex worker does she ever get a holiday or any celebration for her or birth hood, I dont think so!. Then why such celebrations for ?, for the big fat corporates to increase thier sales level? possible!.

But personally, I dont get anything out of it!

Down my memory lane

It was quite a long time since I have travelled in a bus at the early hours of the day! and my definition to the early hours is 7.30 am :) . I boarded a bus to my office, found a seat near the window; the cold breeze went down through my brain and re winded my good old memories of my school days when I used to travel in Bus during the as mentioned early hours.

We lived in a place, which is little far from the main areas of the city. My school was 6 kms away from my home, when I was in my junior class, a rickshaw (three wheeled cycle, with a motor) was arranged. I, my sister and other children of the neighbourhood would travel in that vehicle.

Going to school was a big task for me, I used to invent reasons for not going to school, but it was rarely succeeded as my mother was very keen in not allowing me to take any leave other than anything genuine. In my kindergarten days at school, I had a friend called Saraswathi and with my Mazhalai (child like) accent, I call her Sasudi and I assumed her name as what I called her till I was in Std 5.

She was smart little girl, with a business minded brain at that age. In our school, the top 10 children from the kindergarten were honoured with a small gift, mostly with scripture books, as a token of appreciation for their hard work they had put in.

I joined the bandwagon of the 10 students and I received a book, as good loyal friend, I showed it to Sasudi with a pride, she saw it and told me that, we will exchange it with some piece of paper she had in her hand, at the very moment I was convinced and was about to exchange, then a thought stuck me, why should I?. In the mean while, I could see Sasudi's face full of eagerness in her eyes, as a wolf waiting to eat its bait. I immediately retook my thoughts and said, "its ok Sasudi your paper looks nicer than mine, you have it".She was disappointed! (That’s why I mentioned earlier that she had a business brain:)...................

peelllllllll thuddddd, the driver applied the gears, I realised, oh my bus stop has come. Got down the bus, my heart was contented after a good nostalgia!!