Trip to Kallipatti - Samyu's House!

Now about Kallipatti… Since I am from a village myself, I thought I knew what to expect. But I was not prepared for the primitiveness and beauty of the village. Most of the roads to the place have the greenest paddy fields on both sides and nearly-full river flowing by. And Samyu’s house is a mini palace. It is like a Zamindar’s house you’d see in any tamil movie…and her dad is really (I mean actually) the Chinna Gounder there. Jaime, Parko, Karpi, Vaishnavi (Parko’s Sis), Samyu and I landed there close to lunchtime. Parko and Karpi had to leave early, before which we spent time looking at photos and running around the house and of course yak-yakking. Once they left, Jaime, Samyu and I had lunch and decided to rest for sometime…actually only Jaime slept. Samyu and I were lying in bed talking. In the evening, we had a lot of village activities lined up for us. Jaime got to feed grass to some calves. We finally named them Rachel, Ross and Monica (after going through Paula, Elizabeth, Henry, Sakthi, Lakshmi and another few names) We also saw them milking a cow. We had a walk in the paddy fields and that was great…it is really nice when you can see just green all around you. We had lots of tender coconut to eat and drink. We visited a temple built by Samyu’s fore fathers. And then our driver, Samba was ready with the bullock cart. Samyu’s grandfather owns a theatre and we went there in the bullock cart. Its funny…when you want to honk the horn, you’ll have to scream it out yourself. Jaime did the job well, be screaming “vali vali” all the way. At the theatre, we missed selling tickets ourselves…we only managed to give it to one small little girl, who was probably scared of us. We got to see the movie cabin…saw the olden day’s slide advertisements and the manual rewinding of reels etc. and we watched the movie for fifteen minutes…it was a Vijaykanth film…It was a nice experience…not totally new to me, but must have been out of the world for Jaime. Samyu’s mom was a sweetheart and accompanied us everywhere. We also went to Samyu’s cousin’s house and got to see the deer they had in the temple. Once we got back home, we got into the fancy dress act….Yes! We dressed Jaime in a half saree and decked her up with Samyu’s jewellery. It looked nice…. You guys can get to comment once Samyu is kind enough to send the pics in. After dinner, we went back to catching up of gossip (lol). We were all very sleepy but kept talking and talking…you know how it is…you say good night, then decide you want to say something more and you continue….and then you say good night again…. Anyway, in the morning, we had breakfast, left to Erode, put J on her train and then Samyu put me on a bus….and I was on my way back home. I cant think of anything else…I talk of nothing else with my mom…and I’ve called a couple of those who didn’t turn up for the wedding…and filled them with the news…. So, that’s the story of my Kallipatti trip.

Pavi's wedding!

I just got back from a trip to Erode and Kallipatti and I can think of nothing else. Pavi’s wedding was held in Erode on the 23rd of Nov. Well, its something I’ve been looking forward to, for the past two months. It was really fun calling everyone up and finding out who’ll be able to come, who’ll be staying over and sometimes trying to convince people to stay etc. I left home on 22nd and since I wanted to get there quickly, I didn’t go with my parents in the comfort of the car. I chose to go by bus, which turned out to be quite an experience. I had estimated the journey to be 4 hours long and it actually took me close to 5 hours 45 minutes. The reason is that I didn’t get a direct bus and had to switch four buses. Jaime had already reached by then. Boy! Was I glad to see her! We went yak-yak over lunch until Sudha and Samyu arrived. In the midst of non-stop chatter, we dressed for the reception in the evening and finally reached the Mandapam. Roopa, Parko and Karpi were already there. Shiyamala joined a little later. The evening went off in a whiff…non-stop chatter and lots of photographs. Pavi was dressed in a very pretty blue and green saree and looked the perfect bride. Sudha and Shy left that night itself. Samyu, Jaime and I spent the night together. Pavi Devi joined us in the hotel room for another chat. We managed to get close to 4 hours of sleep before it was time to get up and get dressed for the wedding. It was a typical Tamilian wedding and Pavi, even though nervous, handled it very well. And after breakfast, we left the madapam to get ready for the trip to Kallipatti.

Something that I noticed this time and at all times I meet up with Shy friends… Even though we meet after years, we just pick up from where we left off… I think it’s the best part of our bond. Like, I was meeting Shy after 7 years and it was like we’ve never been apart. And most of the trip, I was giggling like a school kid. It was like I was back in school.

Lots of Tulips...Awesome!!!

Yesterday I got to see a picture of a field of Tulips. And it got me absolutely awestruck. I’m not the kind of person to admire flowers much…I mean, if you had given me just one Tulip, I may have not found it so beautiful. But a whole field of Tulips was too much to handle… I just couldn’t get enough of the pic and had to keep looking and looking. And it seemed to grow more beautiful with each passing minute. When I was in Higher Secondary, my school had houses by the name of flowers. And I was in the Tulips house. Never knew it was such a beautiful flower. The only flowers I like are the Red Rose and Jasmine (typical Tamil girl). The red rose looks absolutely out of the world when left to dry for a week…you then get a nearly black, crisp rose. I love it that way. And the Jasmine (has to be fresh buds) has a great smell and looks nice with a pattu saree. Talking about flowers, I had participated in an extempore where my topic was ‘Flowers’ I started off questioning the audience about the flowers women loved. You can bet, I had an amazingly attentive audience. And I remember, one guy actually gave me a red rose that day…J Getting back to why I liked the Tulips so much, maybe its because my favourite colour is Maroon. Or maybe it was because a whole field of it had a great effect on me. I’ve always noticed that a large number of flowers seen at once always have this effect on me than a single flower. Especially if it is not within my reach, i.e. it is something I cant see anytime I actually want to. I always get excited if I see a field of sunflowers when I’m driving or traveling. The same sunflower will have no great effect on me, when it comes in a bouquet. Well…that Tulip field has been in dreams since yesterday and it’s something I’d love to see in person, sometime.

Smiles Vs. Tears

Today I was listening to this discussion on the radio about the kinds of happiness that cannot turn into sorrow. Many people had different thoughts... some said that if you dont have too many wishes, that is, if you are not too greedy, your happiness will be stable. True...if you wish for things within your capacity, that happiness cannot lead to sorrow. Others said, that the happiness derived from hard work will not change into sorrow. True, we always relish the fruits of our hard work. My personal opinion is that if we give happiness its due position in our life, it will not turn into sorrow. But if we treat something as the be all and end all in our life, even though it initially gives us joy, it may turn into disappointment later. For example, if i think that getting first rank is going to give me happiness and i work really hard for it, and i get the first rank, i'm going to very very happy, because my hard work paid off. And if i dont get it the next time, i'm going to be very disappointed. Here, my joy turned into sorrow. If i give the first rank more than due importance and in case i dont get it, then i'm going to be very sad. If i am mature enough to think that a first rank is not everything in life, i'll be in a better position to work towards getting the first rank in the next exam. Short term happiness is not worth the long term happiness in your life. Its ok to lose on short term happiness to ensure the long term happiness. Because in the end, that is what matters. :)

Heard melodies are Sweet but Unheard melodies are Sweetest!

Today, we had a bit of rain…slight drizzling actually. One of the things I really enjoy doing is sitting on the swing on the balcony, watching the rain and singing a song. Eating a hot baji or drinking hot bounvita would be an additional treat. It’s real great to see the rain coming down…the smell, the colour, the breeze… and if you get to see the rain start beating down some 100 metres away from you and slowly come towards you…my! Nothing to beat nature. The thing about nature is that it is up to us to enjoy it. Two people can look at the same scenery and think differently. It’s the same with clouds…I always seem to see something in clouds…either an animal or a shape or an alphabet… it’s a great feed for your imagination. I remember this tamil song, where the girl sings that she sees her lover’s face each time she looks into the clouds. Very true! It’s up to you to make out images…totally your imagination. Whatever is on your mind, will take shape. Brings into my mind, John Keat’s poem lines…”heard melodies are sweet, but unheard melodies are sweetest” It would be great to ask a kid to describe the shape of a potato…you’ll get so many different answers that you’ll actually be surprised! So, doesn’t this tell us something? That we look at things the way we want it to be…and it would do us good to look at it from other angles. Look at events from other’s point of view and maybe we can avoid a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. A great way to maintain good relations and stay happy!

I asked God for everything to enjoy life, He gave me Life to enjoy everything!

Today was a very sober day… I seem to have pushed my neck into a funny position, so its kind of stiff. Cant turn sideways and hurts a bit. And I got to know that a family friend’s been in a heart attack…they had to give him shock for about 17 times to revive his heartbeat…. Brings back memories when appa was in an attack…they had to shock him once. It was a miracle that he survived. It’s this thing about hospitals…when you are there, you are so scared, you feel so helpless…you pray to god, you believe every word the nurse says, and you worship the doctor who saved you… and when the critical stage is passed by, you feel so relieved, you want to kiss that doctor, for a moment want to make your kid study medicine or build a hospital yourself or at least wish that you were doctor. I wonder how the doctors feel when they save a life...does it feel like god, to bring a person back to life? And does it feel like crap when they lose a patient? Or do they get so used to it that they don’t get emotional? I always feel a tug in my heart when I go to the eye hospital. I get to see so many kids with infected eyes…sometimes a 6 month old baby with a disfigured eye… or an illiterate lady who lost her sight because she should have seen the doc 6 months earlier…breaks my heart to see their face when the doc tells them that their eye sight is lost for good. There is this other time when I went to the skin doc and saw this kid who had burnt his chest by pouring hot milk on it. He was so young and his skin so delicate…how could he have borne the pain when I scream when a small oil drop splashes on me while cooking? Makes me wonder….. anything could have happened to me…I could have been born with a defect in my body, or i could have developed some disease anytime in my life, or could have been in an accident and lost a limb, or could have been careless about some medicines….or damn, anything could have happened to me anytime….but look at me…I’m hale and healthy, I’m whole and I live in a clean environment with parents who can afford to treat me, in case anything should go wrong. I don’t know if I’m lucky…but I sure do know that there is a God up there and that I am his special child! Even if I don’t get all the things I want in life, I should be happy for what I have now, I should be happy that I’m blessed with so much!

My first blog

first of all, i'm new to this blog thingy....my friends have been telling me to blog and i've finally got the mood to start blogging.... i'm the talkative kind, so having a place to write what i think and having people to read it, sounds like great fun. i have no clue what i'm going to blog about...just what i did, what i read, what i felt and what i thought... a place my friends can come back to everyday and get to know what's going on in my life... now i can say that i'm an open book..oops! open webpage! :)