Greetings

Greeting Rajiv and Namita on their wedding anniversary.  Many happy returns!
31 January

Greetings

Many happy returns, Priya!!

30.01.2013

Greetings

Greeting Ravi on his birthday and Aparna/Srikrishnan and Rama/Sekhar on their wedding anniversary. Many happy returns!
                               29 January 2913

Shruti's poem is really beautiful, and so true a reflection of our feelings when we see now s girl in Pavadai Melaaku. IMay be she can write a poem about the dress changes.

Vaishnavi has completed the rangoli well and I can imagine how proud she would have felt to be left to do it by herself.

Gayathri's report about the snow is interesting and I remembered the similar experience Saradam and I had in Connecticut in 1995 January. I had a Driving Licence and I had the experience of driving Vichu's car on the roads made narrow by the snow shovelled to the sides, to take Vishak to school , bring him back and also some visits to the supermarket before and after Sowmya delilvered the baby (Varshaya).

Shruti's poem is really lovely! I always look with longing at long braided hair - and the next time I see that person, she has cut it :( I remember long long ago, once I asked Thatha his age. And he told me "our English and Tamil birthdays coincide every 19 years. This is the fourth time that is going to happen for me. Guess my age". Happy B'day Mani Chittappa. Hare Ram Gayathri

The Poem

The poem written by Shruti is lovely Perippa. Thanks for sharing it with all of us.

Wow, so many celebrants on the 20th!! Our wishes to everybody :)

As perippa mentioned, we are all eagerly waiting to meet everybody during the wedding.

Our world is now more or less ...

*Our Phones ~ Wireless

 *Cooking ~ Fireless

*Cars ~ Keyless 

*Food ~ Fatless 

*Tyres ~ Tubeless 

*Dress ~Topless

*Youth ~ Jobless

 *Leaders ~Shameless

*Relationships ~ Meaningless

 *Attitude ~ Careless 

*Wives ~ Fearless 

*Babies ~Fatherless

*Feelings ~ Heartless

*Education ~ Valueless 

*Children ~Mannerless 

Everything is becoming LESS but still our hopes

are

~End-less. 

In fact I am ~Speech-less .........

Greetings

Joining  in KN's birthday greetings to Mani.  And adding the family's best wishes to Ramakrishnan and Saradaam on their wedding anniversary and to Varshaya on her birthday, 20 January.  I am presently in Chennai on a short visit and did  not bring my laptop.  I do have an IPad but am unable to post anything on blogs through it.  

Poem

As I rode from London to Glasgow

I noticed a sight once familiar

I blinked my eyes hoping it was so,

And it was! A long Indian plait

Lying innocently over the seat

Bringing back many memories

Of rich dark hair of sisters and mother

Braided and fragrant with flowers

Hair once so familiar and now replaced

By cropped fair and bleached British hair

A welcome respite among the redheads and blondes

Lay the innocent snake of rich dark hair.

As the train rumbled on

Light shone through the panes

And was caught by the hair so glossy and dark

and revealed hints of red and brown.

As I gazed at the reminder of my past

a custom so common in my country place

once adopted by me, but now cast

aside by my ‘rebellious side’ which made

my head home to a chic bobbed wave

or a ‘chicken’s nest’ as my mother would say.

As the train rumbled to a halt

the owner of the object of my interest

(or ‘tamer’ should I say with respect to hair)

Stood straight and shook herself

Ridding herself of the tiredness of a journey so long

And as I watched in dismay

Unwound her beautiful braid

and put it up in high ponytail.  

 Shruti

Happy Birthday

Mani says his date of birth is January 21, and not 22. Yesterday was also his birth star, Krithigai (They coincide every 19 years.) Yesterday was his 76th birthday.
Happy birthday, Mani.

KN

snow

There was snow yesterday! The whole of last week was cloudy, drizzly and gloomy. Yesterday, the wind was howling outside,the tall trees behind the house swaying scarily. The electricity went off for about two hours from 6.30pm. Only at such times do we realise how much we are dependent on it - we had to keep ourselves entertained in the dark with no other external aids but our wits, hehe! Thankfully the stove is gas & not heater - Ramya made dhoklas and we had candlelight dinner! Then at about 9pm, as Ramya and I were watching some recorded tv animation serial, Anuj called us and we saw the snow raining - yes it was like rain, only instead of water drops, it was tiny snowflakes. It was really exciting for me, and I HAD to step out and touch it :) Anuj had earlier parked the car outside as the garage wouldn't open without electricity. Within a few minutes, the car was covered in about 2" of snow. He brought it in and shovelled it all off, before it could set and harden into ice. This morning dawned nice and clear. The houses looked lovely with the white layer of snow. The sun came out very bright and strong. As the snow started melting, the roof parts facing the sun cleared up in a jiffy, and those in the shade still had the snow! I took a stroll down the street at about 11 am - the sun looked so inviting (can you imagine us feeling that way back home!) - a light breeze was blowing and it felt quite chilly. I had to get back inside before my fingers and toes got cold! Ramya is doing well, thank God. Her next check up is on 22nd. The final few days of waiting is upon us now - and it could be any time that the baby decides to come. Praying that all goes well. Hare Ram Gayathri

Pongal and so on

Thank you, Aakila for the Pongal greetings which we heartily reciprocate.  We hope you all had a grand time.  Vashnavi's art is quite impressive.

We are all looking forward to Harish's wedding when we expect quite a large cross section of the family.

Pongal namaskarams

Our pongal namaskarams to everybody. My mil spent pongal with us this year. This year I left the pongal rangoli to V totally (the coloring part).

She was totally thrilled to be left on her own.

The lullaby is so soothing. She definitely has magic in her voice. When V was a baby, one of Koushik's friends sent a cd of Vaatsalyam. Am not sure if V slept listening to it, but Koushik and I definitely did :) Later we learnt that even his friend fell asleep listening to it.

Thanks to Jayaram for posting the Life of Pi Lullaby, it is indeed very soothing to here as a lullaby should be.

Belated greetings and wishes to Meghna for her birthday. For the last few days, wheneer I tried to sign into the blog, I got the message Service Not Available. I got it today only. 

Joke: "Have you ever laughed until you cried".
"Yes, this morning, Father slipped and fell and I laughed.



 

01 - Pi's Lullaby (Life Of Pi - Mychael Danna)

Greetings

Greetings to Meghna on her birthday, 8 January.  Many happy returns!

Greetings

Greetings to the family on the dawn of the New Year.  May it be a time of peace and prosperity in the world, a greater sense of oneness within our own country and tolerance and sense of humour.