Memories of Navratri

Navratri. These 9 days bring back a hell lotta memories. Golu (its a creative display of dolls in odd numbered steps), Vettalai Paakku, Chundal, Naivedyam, Saraswati Poojai, Vijaya Dashami.  The building where I used to stay was Southie dominated. It was a combo of all Iyers, Iyengaars, Andhraites and Kannadigas. Here’s a glimpse of what used to happen:

The entire house was washed and Mamma drew amazing Kolams. Mango leaves torans (festoons) were put up on the main doors and in our poojai room. Though we didn’t have Golu at our place, Mom used to keep a Kalasham and do the pooja. My favourite part was the one where in I used to arrange for the Vettalai (betel leaf) Paakku (betel nut) in a plate. 2 0r 4 betel leaves, 2 betel nuts, a pair of tumeric roots, kumkum packet, a coconut, fruits, flowers, one or two rupee coins, one packet of prasadam (invariably, it was Chundal) and a small gift. Now this gift changed every year. Small mirrors, bangles, kajal, etc.  

I had an Andhra neighbour (Avva [– grandmother in Telugu]! Meeru ippudu ekada unnaru?) who used to baby sit me as a kid and I was treated like a granddaughter. Man, there’s was a big family with 4 sons, 4 daughters-In-law and their kids, where each couple had 2 kids! I, along with other granddaughters, was given complete freedom in deciding which doll needs to be placed in which step, which colour to be chosen for decorating the Mara Paachi bommai (doll), etc. My responsibility didn’t end there. I used to dress up and go to all the other flats to invite all the aunties and their girls for Vettalai Paaku. Yep, to the Andhra couple’s house as well as mine. I used to invite them in Telugu for Avva’s house and in Tamil to my place. Gosh! Those were the days.

I had 3 friends and these were my paattu class (music class) friends. We were always invited to all the houses and were supposed to sing in front of the Golu. So Navratri was something that we as kids always looked forward to. We used to decide days in advance what colour pattu pavadai to wear, how to do up hair, what colour pottu (bindi), glass bangles or plastic ones, etc. I was never in favour of glass bangles (though I love them and have an amazing collection) since they could end up getting broken while putting Thalam, while singing. So there used to be some tu tu main main before deciding to go with plastic bangles (matching ones).

Vijaya Dashami, the last day, is the one that I will always recall fondly. Our music teacher used to teach us new songs, new students would get enrolled and all this happened in Bhavani Temple. The temple used to be beautifully lit up and Goddess Bhavani used to be decorated in the most spectacular way! Yellow and Red coloured silk sari nicely draped, decked in fine jewels and flowers, the Goddess looked bewitchingly gorgeous!

These images and memories are so etched in my mind and are so fresh as if these happened just yesterday! Wonder if that temple still celebrates Navratri with such aplomb. 

 BTW, Happy Navaratri all!

Wish I hadnt known this

Learnt a very valuable lesson today. Never strive to know everything or never ask for everything, you may end up getting it. Feeling disgusted now! Nonetheless. As always music was there to comfort me.

I’m not in the mood to write or do anything for that matter. Just uploading a couple of songs that helped me heal today.  These belong to my super list of I-CAN-LITEN-TO-THIS-SONG-AT-ANY-GIVEN-POINT-OF-TIME.

Will we ever learn?

I’m back to my bickering. Cant help it much. When I see nonsense and I’m not allowed to do what I’m supposed to, it bothers me.

Traffic and the Desi attitude: By far, I find this to be the most annoying one. Everybody wants to go first. Picture this – where there’s traffic on one end, all the vehicles from the other end will just cram up wherever there’s space. Numb skulls dont realize that its clogging the whole freaking road. The point is “Even if I dont get it its fine, but I need to ensure that YOU dont get it.”  And to do this, we’ll break signals, bribe the Pandus, runover innocnet people. Killing people here is not that big a crime if you got the power of Vitamin M. Again the same shit starts. Buy witnesses, kill ‘em or destroy them, bribe babus.. Somewhere I feel Mustaine had India in mind when he was writing Killing is my business. 

Mob Mentality: This you can find everywhere. Where there are queues, mob mentality makes its ugly presence felt. Simplest of all examples. Lunch time and Cafeteria. Instead of behaving in a disciplined way and waiting for my turn, I’ll just pounce on the guy who’s serving food. I’ll just shove my plate into his face and scream “Dal Rice aur pappad”. I’m not just alone there. There are scores and scores of hungry (since last few months, perhaps??) wolves who do this and this just scares the jeebies outta the poor guy on the other end. Most popular examples of it being our marriages, functions and festivals. My due respects to everyones’ sentiments, but just one thing. You book a hall or a hotel or a whatever, get inside that room and do whatever you feel like doing. Why block the roads with some band playing the lousiest of music and cause traffic? And when there’s traffic, refer above.

Crazy conversations at a holy place: Like, I come to this temple everyday, observe fast for 8 days a week (^&^#*(@#), my son is doing his PhD in USA (so???), my daughter cooks well and so on. C’mon! Who gives a damn! Your daughter being a good cook or son doing his PhD is not gonna be a life transforming piece of information to us. Just shut up, pray and get lost, will ya? On the hindsight, dear God, I feel sorry for you.

We’ll never understand that one doesnt need policing to behave well. Simple fact - Money can buy you everything, but not the basic etiquettes.

Tagged and “Bakri”ed.. DAMN ^%*()@*

I hate tags. Period. But doing this just for G3. I dont like to disappoint friends. However realized towards the end that this could be fun.

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4 –Its Outlook (my fav magazine) and 4th line says “Writing from London, I’m witness to…”

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can & catch air? – Yeah.. I’m all alone in the room and I can stretch whatever I want..

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV? – SUNTV!! My M-I-L watching some serial. Where someone in each frame has to cry. Wonder how their lives are so bloody crisis ridden!

4. Without looking, guess what time it is? – 10.30 PM

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time? – 10.25 PM

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?- Listening to some Mr Big. No TV now. Serial khatam.
 
7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing? – Went for my walk (gym was closed due to Ananta Chaturdashi. Whats the connection betweeen my darling treadmills and weights and Bappa?). I was walking. What else?

8. Before you started this Q&As, what did you look at?- My cellphone. Sent a message to G3.. She knows what I wrote and why.

9. What are you wearing?- Well this is gross! Still if I have to answer it, my tee and track pants.

10. When did you last laugh? – During my evening walk. Shared some dirty messages with friends.

11. What is on the walls of the room you are in? – A wall clock, a big photo of Lord Balaji, switch board and tubelight

12. Seen anything weird lately? – Hell yeah! Saw lizards mating.. Eeeeeeewwwww!

13. What do you think of this quiz? G3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wait till I catch you! On the other hand, this is fun..

14. What is the last film you saw? Kaminey. (I dont have brotherly feelings for Shahid)

15. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?- All the bags, shoes, perfumes, apparels of the world!

16. Tell me something about you that I dunno!- I have this habit of smelling stuff before eating/drinking them. My hubby calls me a dog, but if its something new that I’m gonna taste, the food automatically goes for a smell check. 

17.If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?- These days, I’d just change one thing: Organized Religion.

18. Do you like to Dance?- Boss!!! Who are you asking this question to? I can dance anytime, anywhere, any music. Just play and watch me sway..

 19. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?- No idea!

20. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?- No idea, again.

21. Would you ever consider living abroad? – Absolutely. In fact I’m thinking very seriously about it these days.

22. What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates? – Bhaaaaaaaaagooooooooo!! Run like hell (Pink Floyd) or Run to the hills (Iron Maiden), these are the two songs that I wanna hear when I get there.. God, did ya listen??