Tags: journey, survivors

Tomorrow (jan. 13th) is my 94th birthday, and it has become fashionable to have a birthday blog now a days (mostly written by friends) ,,, as my existence here is hardly noticeable , I don’t fancy anybody writing it for me now, so as to save me the blushes I thought about writing one Myself!






















94th?.. Yes!   ninety fourth!!, and it is only a matter of fact that my 93rd was only a few days back!. To make it clear for some one who is still in dark, most of the hindus here have two birthdays every year.. first one or the 'Piranal' is meant for the family.... in my case its on the first 'Rohini'* of 'Dhanu' month of Malayalam calender. To be frank , no one except my mom has some idea about when my piranal is going to happen every year because the mobile phone calenders and the beautiful glossy calenders which drug companies offer don’t have the rohini or dhanu in it.. . It’s a bit surprising to know that after 1976 , never did a January 13th and the 1st rohini of dhanu coincide, so I had two separate birthdays every year..

                                                                       Jan 13th the original date which I landed on this planet, exactly the time when my brother was celebrating his first birthday. (my parents were spot on!..). I still doubt whether it was a precisely calculated move to cut down on the expenses of birthday celebrations in our middle class life. So on Jan 13th we used to have a shared / common birthday party , not like the ones you see in hindi films.
  Both of us get new dress with same pattern,, ,,,,,,yellow shirt with a blue bird printed on right pocket, stone wash jeans with 10 pockets . the 'kiyo-kiyo' shoes…, Elvis puff.. beauty spots,, then to the local studio for annual photoshoot.. two pictures every year, black and white....one with me in mom’s lap and brother in dad’s then next the other way round, then to local cinema and dine out. That was the ritual in preschool days..

School days.. things were slightly different..… Color dress.. again same pattern .. more pronounced Elvis puff, (we called it Kuruvi kudu , meaning sparrow’s nest.) And the most important item was the toffee packet ! . The Parry's milk toffee with a green wrapper ..two apiece.. i had once fought a lost battle at home demanding mom to buy me éclairs packet rather than the boring green candy..

Our class had only 30-35 students so the remaining 40 odd sweets in my bag after the distribution ceremony and 'haaappeeey Birthdaaaaye too00 yuuUUU'  pandemonium always made me a VIP during the break hours and in the schoolbus on the way back home .. I always took special trouble to make sure that Madhu and Georgey didn’t get any additional allowance and Deepthi, Manju , Jyothi ,Rekha.... got an extra toffee from this color-dressed -elvis puffed -dashing -birthday - boy!.
No photo shoot .. no movie, occasional dine out!.. an extra hour of play and television.

How 94th ? well..94 = 33 plus 33 plus 28 …

Its another story..ever since after the age of five I’m having one more birthday.. the Official one!! Its on 28th of may! . the credit for such a beautiful thing goes to my grand mother… she was the one who took me to school admission because my parents were away that time.. I guess birth certificates were not compulsory at that time and because of reasons only known to her she gave the date of birth as may 28th.. .


so let me sing ……happy Birthday to me!




p.s

Thanks fropper team for the surprise gift! I wasn’t aware of a contest going on.. special thanks to every one who commented on my daughter’s pic.





Rohini nakshatra-- shared with me by none other than lord Sreekrishna.


Elvis - puff.. hairstyle which was common in kerala in 1970s, made popular by actors like Madhu and Vincent...   usage made popular by arundhati roy in God of small things

kiyo- kiyo shoes.. jargon coined by us referring to the Squeaky shoes of toddlers.

Tags: who said 13 is unlucky?

We had planned it in advance, yes, our first outing together. I managed to come home early after work and she was waiting impatiently when i reached. It has been a celebration of sorts every day ever since she entered my life almost 4 months back. We had(still have) great fun all day and night but never got a real chance to go for a fun trip because of my busy work. She is a very emotional type of girl,,, she would laugh her heart out for nothing and would cry for hours for simple and silly reasons. I have seen her wake up at middle of night and weeping (cry aloud too), clinging to me.
 
           We dont have much of a choice here at trivandrum for an outing at evening hours, so it has to be the beach. Sankhumukham beach is one of the best beaches here in kerala and arguably the best in India . She was silent during the short drive to the beach, she was watching the slow traffic and the pedestrians with great enthusiasm. When i stopped at  red signal she looked towards me and smiled, i leaned over and kissed her right cheek ..the cyclist infront of our car gave a disapproving look at us, she didnt blush, she smiled back at him too...well..thats she...my dearest...

It was 6.45 when we reached there, no trace of sun to be seen, but still the horizon was fiery red , just like her cheeks when i first saw her.
People were staring at us, ..she started to play with my hair...her head was leaning against my shoulders..
 I was the one who did all the talking, i told her the story of ambilimama(moon) and rabbit..she was playing with my right ear and looking at the waves. The air was crisp and a cool breeze was blowing which was lifting her skirt a bit , she didn't seem to notice .

Sir mithai veno? I looked up to see a skinny lad in his teens with those pink coloured cotton candies. I love them just because of the fact that my dad never permitted me to eat those telling some hygeinic reasons.... Forbidden fruits are always sweeter.. . I looked at her and she gave a silent nod of approval.. Skinny lad thanked her too..
              Power failure came without notice, neon lamps went blind and it took some time to adapt our eyes to the natural moon light..she clinged harder to my shoulder. Now we can see hundreds of small lanterns burning deep in the sea from the fishing boats. I started a new story.. Of the fisher man and the genie,, she was playing with my shirt... She liked that story... I wrote her name on the sand, showed her the tiny shore crabs which walk sideways.... Her eyes told me that she wanted me to sing...nah nah girl, not now ..i said.

She started to cry when we walked back to our car..i tried my best to console her but to no avail.. People were looking at her now. I said.. Pls Nandu..stop crying and be yourself, next sunday... Promise..Kovalam beach...

 at home,.. Obama's victory was the only thing the idiot box played, well ... No Bradley effect , its the Buffet effect.... I like him obviously because of his young and fresh looks rather than anything else....

She is in my lap now , switched to a music channel the channel and muted the television.... and started to sing a lullaby for her........................   
    ... Rosa sat, so Martin could walk, so Barack could run, so Nandu could sleep .........................................................................................

Anju looks surprised , nandu started to cry again and i'm singing it again , this time for Obama..the skinny kid with a funny name..




click here to see the pics.






Foot notes..

Cotton candy is known as 'madamma pooda' locally ..madamma is a white lady and pooda is hair .


Sankhu mukham beach... Located 8 kms from Thiruvananthapuram city, the Shankhumugham Beach is a favourite place of sunset watchers.
An indoor recreation club, the 'Matsya Kanyaka', a gigantic 35 m long sculpture of a mermaid and a restaurant shaped like a starfish are the major attractions here. The long stretch of clean sand is located near the airport.



(fropper deleted the mermaid's pic .. click here to see the beauty..























(pics shown above are not shot by me.. taken from net)


Kovalam beach...Just 16kms south of Trivandrum is one of southern India’s finest beaches fringed with swaying coconut palms. Formerly a fishing village, Kovalam has been transformed into a seaside resort to rival anything in the country. It’s a popular getaway for locals and visitors alike, just minutes from the city.









Rosa.. Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a segregated bus in alabama in 1955

Martin ..  Martin Luther King

Barack..  Barack Obama.. president elect...the skinny kid with a funny name.. 'Obama' sounds funny for a name to ppl with names like 'dick' and 'bush'..

Lullaby.. like statistics 99% of lullabies i sing are made up on the spot

Nandu - Nandana -my 3.5 month old daughter

Anju - Anjana-  my wife

Tags: sarah palin was a better choice :(

It’s a beautiful day outside, it started sunny and bright. Then the rain started as a slow drizzle, the scent of rain was there in the air, it is still there. Slowly and steadly it picked up pace and its raining elephants and giraffes now. It’s the second spate of rains in kerala called Thulavarsham* or the north east monsoon. Its rather unusual to have these downpours start early in the day, they are usually confined to the evenings and accompanied by heavy bouts of thunders and lightening. I’m not at all complaining about the weather, actually I’m loving it now, because it's my holiday today, and I don’t have anything else to do .

  My parents are here today for their weekly Sunday routine to see their little grand daughter. That means less work for me, because I don’t have to baby sit today, well, that is the only thing I boast of doing on holidays to help my wife.

Its still raining outside, my computer table is placed near the window from where I can have a nice ariel view of the city, yes , we stay in an apartment on the top most floor of a city sky scraper *. It’s a nice view ,alright , but every time I watch the city from the window I know how much I miss home, my village,, everything .....*sigh * .
    Internet connection is not working as they are repairing the cables today, India is not playing great cricket and so I don’t feel like watching the india -aussies test match…. well , its my hard earned holiday which happens to be excellent weather wise or otherwise , but I have nothing else to do, other than blogging.. Writing doesn’t come natural to me so I am too lazy (and apprehensive) to pen down my thoughts …


To blog,, about what? .. no nice topic enters my mind, and I don’t feel like participating in the tag games and the still ongoing war between some of my nice friends and I-wonder-who? .

Yess.. I got a topic, .. from Sunday supplement of local dailey here.. its about historical importance of 12th October 2008 and how it is related to me..

Today( 12th oct 2008) Sister Alphonsa* from Kerala will become the first nun from the country to be canonised by the Vatican . She will be the first female saint and the second saint from India. In the 19th century, Saint Gonsalo Garcia, born in Vasai near Mumbai to an Indian mother and Portuguese father in 1556, was declared a saint.


It’s a day to remember for the kerala christians and
2,000-year-old Indian Church, but why am I elated about it?..

 
I am from a very conservative hindu family but I was a great fan (if not a follower) of sister Alphonsa. I was in fourth standard when Thomas (my close friend then) revealed the ante dote for the daily quota of stick (which we were getting regularly). He told me that the  canes  never pained him. He showed me the last page of his school dairy where a Novena* prayer to Alphonsamma was neatly written, he told me that one has to write it daily for nine days and there after he/she will not feel any pain,, I was excited about the whole thing and readly copied it to my dairy,, and religiously wrote the prayer for nine days ..  and  on the tenth day .. moral science marks were announced.. by class teacher sr. Sloma.. .....


Sreekumar, Thomas, Raj, Naveen.. (The brilliant guys who managed to get a C grade in moral science)

        We were asked to stand up.. we know the ritual well.  , she was a bit surprised to see all of us smiling (all of us had written the novena… Thomas’s secret was made public by me on the very first day itself, Cmon... Sr . Sloma, make it nice and hard, we are not going to be hurt bcos we have Alphonsamma with us. I was a bit tense though..} .. I was the last one to get the stick..ooooooops !!!!!  it pained like  anything .. me almost broke into tears but regained my composure bcos I saw the other three devils were still smiling… after the class Thomas was the first one to approach me, soon the others followed.            
   
         How was it Sree? Did it hurt  ? .. I paused for a sec.. then replied..  NO....NOT a Bit… thanks Thomas…



           Sree.. .     Nandu has rolled over.. get the handy cam ready!
Anju came running to me to announce the gud news...


         this made my day!! .. thx St. Alphonsa ..







links...


             * thulavarsham


             * sky scraper   - There is no official definition or a precise cutoff height above which a building may clearly be classified as a skyscraper. However, as per usual practice in most cities, the definition is used empirically, depending on the relative impact of the shape of a building to a city's overall skyline.

               so in the city i'm residing.. a six storied building cud be called a sky scraper


 * Saint Alphonsa ..

* Novena

* Nandu  .. My 2.5 month old daughter.

Tags:

Tags: girl