The Purugespettai Tales - 1 PO.KA.

Pottukadalai Vs Duties

My grandfather was a member of the Purugespettai Murugan temple's committee. (This Murugan temple is an absolute beauty and my mother's family adores the Murugan)

Anyway, the family had one duty every evening - open the temple's store room. This room has all sorts of riches - A monthly supply of oil, camphor, incense sticks, wick and no one else is allowed to hold the keys but my mother's family.

Every day, someone from the family takes the keys, opens the store room, gives the gurukkal the oil and other supplies and wait for the poojai to get over. My mother and her youngest older sister - Mangai (periamma) are usually the enthusiasts and hence until the poojai is over. They fulfil their temple duties and one of them drops the word - 'Po.ka' and that's their cue to start their ritual - head straight to the window sill and eat pottukadalai. They stuff their skirt pockets with pottukadalai bought from the shop with their pocket money. Like, that's all they do. They wait, munching on pottukadalai until the gurukkal decides to call it a day, everyday!

Po.ka is what the mom, periamma duo call the pottukadalais and that's their cue to kickstart their evening. Whenever she recites this story, she stops to tell what Po.Ka means and I listen to it like she cracked the code for me the very first time. It's an exclusive family secret, you see.

I sometimes think of this as my retirement plan. I'd be happy to do it all my life. I just need the store room keys and some pottukadalai.  You in?

The Purugespettai tales - New series

My mother is from Purugespettai. Cuddalore and stories of her childhood, though filled with hardship and struggle, have always had humor (at least that's my mother's version).

I'll try and recollect them in this series.

I hope this helps me keep blogging.

A little background needs to be set. So I'll introduce the characters now.

Mother's Siblings -

Sisters - Periyanayaki, Thilagam, Viruthaambigai

Brother - Ramalingam

Mother's name - Amsaveni, though she spells it a little differently because her absolute favorite "Bama" teacher said so herself. 

What is an alarm clock?

It's been 30 years since I won my last battle against the alarm clock and I'm 30 years old.

Even before the term bipolar gathered all the popularity, I knew I had it. This is not really about the display of my eccentric characters (which I do possess) but about the two kinds of mindset in me - one when I am setting the alarm for 5 AM and the one that completely denies any association with it when it rings.

To add to this misery, all the 'How to be successful' articles lecture about having to start the day early and that's got to be  5 AM not a minute more or less. I don't read those articles to be successful. I read them to make myself acquire, in vain, one good character that I was not born with.

Anyway, I get up to practice meditation and I do sometimes. I slide to one end of the bed and start meditating and before I know it (and I hope it is at least after 10 minutes) I get back to sleeping.

All my efforts to wake up have been failing because -

1. I do not have a motivating plan for workout. No, gym is not motivating if I need to brush my teeth at 5 AM. Not at least at this this stage of laziness.

2. I do not have company to wake up. I don't want to wake up alone and be sorry for myself.

3. I believe in, sometimes very strongly, that there is a tomorrow.

I could overcome these by -

1. Having a packed morning plan.

2. Being committed to the plan.

3. Fear of wasting my life wanting to do something but never working for it.

4. Trying to wake up by 5 AM everyday continuously for one whole month (I believe in training my body clock to work its wonders)

Let's see. Wish me luck!