The Purugespettai tales - 2 Lunch time

You should know that my grandparents was not very rich. But they had enough to ensure that their kids ate healthy. It still amazes me but during those days, they found it cheaper to buy fish than vegetables. So, it's all the Omega 3 from the seafood that made my mom and her siblings all bright and successful.

Since there were 5 kids aged with sufficient age gap, I believe there has to be at least a year or two where all of them must have gone to the same school. Anyway, the kids were in school 3 miles away and they commute only by walk. Of course, sometimes prison vans from Keppar malai Jail have dropped them to Cuddalore OT and mother swears that she's seen deadly criminals in the back seat. I believe her. Since this is also my favorite part of this episode, you should believe it too.

Breakfast usually Idly with thengai chutney so let's not dwell on that too much. But I would like to point out that anything hand ground using ural and ammi tastes extraordinary. So, the grandma wasn't all that into cooking and had an old lady called Raaspettai as her cook. During lunch, she brings a lunch carrier that's almost a foot tall and has the following (mostly)

1. Keerai
2. Fish Kozhambu
3. Fish fry
4. Rasam
5. Steamed rice

I know it isn't really a king's meal but even a king would be tempted by this simple meal. Imagine sitting under a tree during a hot afternoon with your siblings and enjoying a lunch.

*Sigh*

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!

No more TV series

I have been dodging all urges of starting to watch a new TV series.

I am not monopolizing binge watching TV series, but Netflix will soon face a law suit for wasting my precious time, in the future, soon, after I am done watching all their TV series.

It all began with Heroes - Season 1 continued into Prison Break - Season 1 into Big Bang Theory - 6 seasons through to Drop Dead Diva via all seasons of Breaking Bad and House MD and now I'm stuck with House of Cards.

After House of cards, no more TV series.

New year post #1

Happy new year everyone !

Guilty as 'charged'

I am not a shopaholic. I don't shop at will or when I don't have enough money to last the month or when I am in a store helping someone else shop.

I shop when in need. 

The process of shopping is strenuously very psychological. I hate paying for things that I do not intend on using. So, when I am attracted to something,  I imagine myself in them. This mental calculation has two outcomes and the one that convinces me that the product is worth the price, wins. I do not splurge on clothes that are over priced, not always. Sometimes, very rarely, I fall in love. Blindly, I lust a pair of shoes or a dress or a skirt. I can count the number of times this has happened in my entire life.

1. The royal blue salwar khameez from Kumaran Silks that I bought for my cousin's wedding. Trust me, a thousand rupees used to be a lot of money.

2. The silk saree from Varadaram's that I bought for my mom and me.

3. The Banaras saree bought for my brother's wedding from Kalaniketan.

4. The Mokshaa saree bought for my college symposium.

I can assure you that I will keep them all safely forever and ever.

The last two consecutive weekends saw me spending 400 bucks totally. I am feeling happy and guilty at the same time and this post is my idea of keeping things on check. I swore not to buy anything for the next three months and I hope to stick to the oath.

Wish me luck!. Because, window shopping is fun and in my case it almost always leads to the door.

Tamizh kazhagam

A thought that inspires you to great deeds needs to be cherished and kept alive. As a result of a friend's whatsapp text that contained a link to a Barathiyar song, we founded a three member club for Tamizh.

We discussed Barathiyar at length on Friday, August 15th and eventually ended up watching the video below.

Yaar Barathiyar

We hope to meet more often. I don't want to rave about the club but I'm quite pleased with ourselves.

Selfies of the good kind

Games

Have you ever observed yourself while playing a game that you are good at? You are at your subconscious best. You multitask, beat your own high scores and remain quite oblivious to the thrill of winning.

Have you observed yourself while you, for the lack of a better word, 'stink' in a game? Your conscious effort to get better at it is met with a stronger force called the opponent. I recently found a number game called the 2048. Quite popular one, that game. Every time I fail, I start the next trial with the belief that I will conquer it. But in the end.. ah well, I started this sentence with a 'Every time I fail'. So you see, I have convinced myself of never being able to solve it and yet I get back to it. The games at which I stink are the games I feel very alive in. Counts as a reason to not fair well in the silliest of games right? Right.

Bye. 

Mid week crisis

I have been laying off some real tedious work for almost two weeks now and I picked it up today, on a Wednesday!. I hate documentation work and I cannot frame a sentence without hitting the back space on it at least five times. To think in sentences that make sense to everyone who reads it is the world's toughest task. I'm glad no one reads these posts and that's why it pours.

Good day, bye.