Summer Days are here

Summer time!

The end of exams, & the promise of long days of fun..

You won’t hear me complaining about the sun

 

Summer time!

End of exams, beginning of holidays

Long afternoons & even longer evenings

Board games, made up games, badminton, & truant play

 

Summer is Mangoes!

Raw Mango pickle & cool curd rice

Mango shake, Mango ice cream, Aam ras – & paying the price!

 

Chilled Melons , ganne ka ras

Driving mom crazy till she gets vexed

 

Summer is my Birthday!

A shower of new clothes & gifts & love

 

Summer is reading (novels)! , undisturbed by homework

Lending Libraries & visits to the bookshop

Reading every second of the day

That I am not playing, or sleeping or eating!

Dreaming…

About Secret Islands & Faraway Trees,

Murder mysteries, & tales of chivalry

 

 

Summer is that visit to my hometown!

Cousins, aunts & uncles, grandparents

Lots of noise & food & joy!

 

Its summer time!

 

Now that I am grown up & working & responsible (at least I say so 🙂 ) its somewhat different –

Summer is work, work & no respite

Heat, perspiration & no lights!

 

How perspective changes when you grow up….Which is why I still like to associate summer with the colours & feelings when I was young…& carefree!

 

I do love summer !

That day of the year again!

My birthday is just around the corner again. I am turning a really grey-with- strands-of-white twenty seven ….I have just come back after finally hitching a tailor to stitch my blouse since I have promised to wear a saree on the DDay…And I cant help thinking, why do we make such a fuss out of it? ( not that I don’t love it! )

In my school days I remember it was the one day when people used to wear a civil dress to school & bring toffees for everyone. The teacher would call the particular kid to the front of the class & we would all sing a noisy “Happy Bday to U” . I, somehow always bunked school on my birthdays because the very routine mentioned above that made people wait for this day used to scare me to bits ! I always used to take toffees on the next day for my close friends though…The only time I did go to school was in the 11th ( by when thankfully u were too old to really go to school in a color dress 🙂 ) and my friends gave me a good scare with an unknown gift from a mystery guy !

My most special birthday would be the one in which he & I met the first time in the capacity of ‘sweethearts” from being “friends” …We were back in college after a 3 month long hiatus & decided to go for a walk… he gave me a book – my birthday present. It was a very well worn ( & torn ) James Hadley Chase, an author whom my father denounced as ‘trashy” since the time I remember and therefore considered so all along by me…& I didn’t know what to say. I looked at him somewhat confused while at the same time rifling through the pages of the book, and, right in the middle in a carved out crevice, lying in a bed of cotton were the most beautiful pair of coral studs….My first gift from him & the one dearest to my heart. Since then he has bought me gold & diamonds & what not…but those- those were truly precious!

Well he is not here for my birthday (again) and well…I just thought a subtle message is in order… don’t u think? 🙂

About Kolams & native places…

We tamilians ( may be all South Indians) have this practice of adorning our door ways with a Kolam (Rangoli). The early morning ritual of washing the doorway & making the kolam is followed without fail by every lady of the house. Kolams are supposed to be made early in the mornings after bath and are supposed to welcome Lakshmi into the house & generally bring good luck.Its however not the same when you are in a flat…you don’t have to sprinkle water & wash because it’s a concrete floor after all…and you don’t want to drown the verandah with water …plus of course there is only so much space.. but even so, people like my mum continue the tradition with much enthusiasm.

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My kolams are mood dependent ( To make or not to make, then what to make-too many questions!) – Some how I can never stay satisfied with the standard floral or geometric motifs ( Some would say just an excuse for not knowing them so well 🙂 ) Anyways I make just about anything from a scenery to flowers to people to smileys to…well just about anything that I can manage to draw – its fun & I do enjoy them ( As long as I manage to wake up , of course!)

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I think of kolams and I think of Sri Rangam…In fact ,the one unforgettable picture I have of my native place Sri Rangam, which is a little temple town in Tamil nadu is that of one day early in the morning when we had just arrived by train ( from Hyderabad I think, for my summer holidays). It was 5 am in the morning & dawn was about to break…and the little town was just rousing itself…

We took a maattu-vandi ( bullock cart) that day to get home from the station… …The early morning quiet was only broken by the intermittent jingling rhythms of the bullock cart – as if peace had conquered that moment and spread contentment in the air. All through the way home I saw many entrances already adorned with kolams – beautiful, intricate designs, some plain white & some bursting with colour , mingled with the smell of the freshly washed earth…they managed to etch a permanent place in my memories…Sri Rangam never was and never will be , what it was for me that morning….

The Bridge Across Forever

Dawn’s peaceful, luminous blue,
Intensified with the day
As did happiness,
Blue…bluer…bluest,
White puffs of delight,
Joy overflowing.Until sunset
Wrapped us in tender pink,
And we fused in a
Passionate magenta goodbye,
Earth-soul and Cosmic-soul
Bursting with beauty.

When night came
A baby moon
Laughed sideways in the dark.
I laughed back
And thought:

Partway across the world
Your sky
Is filled with this same
Golden laughter,
And hoped that you,
Twinkling Blue eyes,
Saw and heard,

So that somehow we three
Were joined in our gladness,
Each in our own space,
Together apart,
Distance meaningless.

And I slept
In a world
Full of smiles.

( From Richard Bach’s The bridge across forever)

Yan can cook, & so can dad!

OK. Let me admit it – Cooking & I are NOT friends. Well not as bad as a Harry Potter- Draco Malfoy feud , I would say more like a Tom & Jerry – my relationship with cooking having a fair share of struggles, chasing & racing ( against time – aren’t the guests early? ), shortcuts, injuries, mishaps – You get the picture! I am a hatchling in a field where my mom & my father-in-law are veterans, my in-laws all enthusiastic foodies, my friends confident cooks in their own right and the worst of all – my HUSBAND who is one of the most intuitive & innovative cooks that I know of ( I rarely tell him this though – mostly I call him an arrogant Know-it-All ) Among this formidable group, it was only my dad who gave me much needed comfort ( My brother doesn’t even count in this category) – the number of times he has entered the kitchen to cook can be counted on my fingers. Now imagine my surprise when he told me, in all seriousness mind you, that he is going to give mom a rest & take up cooking after his all-too-near impending retirement. Ha! was my first reaction and one that turned to resignation & now to amused curiosity as appa continues to spread news of his intended occupation. I mean, the closest he has come to cooking (except for the time when ma wasn’t there and he used to make yummy aloo kai and passable kozhumbu-rasam 🙂 ) is procuring recipes & tips from various sources & prod ma to escape the shackles of her heritage cooking! ( She has borne it stoically all these years) Of course, nowadays, as a prelude to his taking up full time cooking, he has perfected the recipe for his own brand of Cinnamon Tea! ( Here, I must say, it is quite good) So, am I going to have to add him to my formidable list? Maybe I could teach him a thing or two? (!) Whatever happens – appa’s trials in the kitchen will definitely be something to look forward to. Who knows- maybe the two of us novices together can give the veterans a run for their – shall we say, kadhais in this case? Ma- are you listening?

We Have Moved…

Henceforth, find us at https://ashishandradhika.wordpress.com/

Cheers,

Ashish

Comments from the past:

fullhyd.com
9 Mar 2008, 4:24pm

Hey Ashish,

fullhyd.com is coming out in a new avatar in about 10 days, with a much slicker blogging section. Why not continue here? Please send your email address to webmaster at fullhyd.com, and we’ll give you a link to the beta of what your blog looks like there, and the control panels to see all you can do. Cheers.

P. S. I tried to post this on your other blog, but it doesn’t seem to be allowing commets – I was getting a HTTP 500 Internal Server Error.

For Her… written on April 8th, 2005

Its her birthday tomorrow. My best friend, and also the one I am about to marry this June. I have known her for three years now. Its been an interesting phase in my life. My first year of MBA, the monsoons had been in full swing, drenching the landscape with wet greenery. We had a busy schedule at college… but whenever things got too much for me to handle, or when I simply wanted to be alone… I used to go out on long, long walks.

On one such walk, as aimless as it had been purposeful; I found her. Not that we had not met before, we had… but we never really progressed beyond the “Folks in the same class” kind of nodding of heads.

That rain swept evening; we decided to walk together, for just a while mind you. I was supposed to be a taciturn guy, I suppose in some ways I still am, but that evening I found myself telling her all.

It was not ‘Love at first sight’ .. no, not at all. More so, because I had been involved with someone else then…. And she was too concerned about her career to even think of an idiot like me.

But we did find a lot of common interest. Fans of P.G. Wodehouse, both of us and Oh! So totally. Come to think of it, a Comic writer probably played a major part in bringing me and her closer. Reading is a great hobby they say…

So it went on…. Two years of college, lectures, assignments etc etc… then one fine day, I found myself a part of my college team participating in a management festival, she too was there. I been a last minute entry for Western Solo… she spent the entire afternoon selecting a song for me and hearing me practice. I sang, “I Can Go the Distance” by Michael Bolton. Won the first prize, and as she tells me.. maybe moved her a bit as well. Thanks ! Mr Bolton.

Then came the most anticipated and dreaded phase of an MBA grad…. Placements !! I did not make it to the first company I was interviewed for… trust me guys I was shattered… I had always believed that no company can ever reject me… well the first one did. She had been around…. Worried about her own placements yet found time to reassure me.

Then I got placed.. in one of the finer companies… She? Well she never even applied to 99 % of the companies. She wanted only.. Advertising/Brand/Product Management… I was skeptical, openly so. Anyway, since I was placed, I was free to go home.

It was then I realized, that I was missing her, and then it struck me, through a haze of drunken stupor on 31st December 2003, I was madly in love with her… She complains about my drinking, but I guess I did one sensible thing when drunk!!

So I think for a few days, and realize that I was sincere enough. So I meet her, take her for a walk (again) and tell her that I miss her in a way I never realized I could… The world ‘Love’ was never mentioned anywhere.

She lapsed into one of her deep silences and two days later, her smiling voice on the phone confirmed what I already believed in.

Then she got placed… and the lady proved me wrong. She is now a Product Manager, and Boy ! Am I proud of her !

Last year, her birthday found me broke as the Berlin Wall, hope I do better this year. Am off to Bombay tonight to be with her tomorrow, trust me…. Sometimes… life is beautiful

Marriage…why! … written on February 23, 2005

What is marriage….is it a longlasting commitment to another person…is it a social requisite after one acquires a certain age…is it a security blanket for life… various things to various people. Also…is marriage really necessary: Going beyond what the neighbours next door will say for a moment…lets think…is it really necessary…maybe not is it, atleast not the way it is socially defined.I think its perfectly ok to live with my fiance had it not been for my parents (I dont think he will agree to it though:)
Most people will think I am mad.They will say its the age.Shake their heads at the “young gen”.My mom would think i just want to rebel, to be ‘different’.Even my friends would find it blasphemous.
That is what i find a bit tough to understand.Marriage, to me, is a deeply personal thing.My idea of a perfect marriage is a quick function solemnising the marital status supported by very close family & friends. Simple, straightforward & practical.Quick & inexpensive.Probably thats because the ceremony itself is not very important to me, but what comes beyond. …We seem to have made a practice of hailing the birth more than the life itself…

I am getting married this June.I am going to marry my batchmate,my friend, my love. Right now, I seem to only be involved in perfectly pointless arguments about my hairdo during the ceremony, the timing-the food-the dress- the ritual- the guests…its never ending.Especially if the guy is from a different community. And has different views on everything from SRK to alcohol:) There are fights between us in the family.THere are fights between my fiance and me.Is this what i want : no!Why should all these decidedly inconsequential things take precedence over the fact that I am going to get to live with the person i love the most in life…and be able to share my life,my love,my dreams with him …

We seem to have mastered the art of impracticality so much so that to be practical, is to be impractical.To be realistic,actually, is to be idealistic. Am i being idealistic…..i dont know…

But then what does one do: there must surely be people out there who feel like i do…but in the end you give in to what your mom and your dad and your fiance want because you love them so much…
After all, if this ceremony isnt so important to me in the first place, I shouldnt fuss about how its done right!So this is what i am doing..or atleast trying to do…

Here’s to a new beginnning..literally!