Vanakkam Doctor !

Well I am knackered and too tired to wake up anyway. It’s around 8 in the morning in Kanchi. The morning is still young and Sun has not gone stronger yet and I was still having a lie in with my cousins and few uncles on the terrace yard, where we slept last night after a protracted and an intense game of Thaaya Parisu (Sadhurangam) with the house hold folks. The lovely scent of early morning dew on my nostrils and the dampness on the bed sheets was so soothing and cozy and I almost forgotten that it’s the fourth day of Pongal celebrations (called Kaanum Pongal or sight-seeing Pongal), and our third day here in Kanchi; and sooner we have to leave; feel low, want to stay longer; well I am lazy and knackered, unlike the ladies of the household, cooking yet for millions and minions, incessantly without any grudge. Well, I could already smell the spicy chicken and mutton gravy or kuzhambu on the breakfast menu served traditionally with Idli’s and Pooris, at the back yard of our hug...

Well, someone woke me up at 3 o clock this morning. It must have been Amma or possibly Appa. The sweet aroma of freshly lit fire already was in my eager nostrils and was sooner getting excited. It also slowly dawned on me that today was Bhogi, and at instant started remembering, Amma, scavenging lots of oldies over the past two months for this day of Bonfire eve, before the great day of PONGAL , tomorrow in Kanchipuram, at our grannies, 80 kms from our house here in Coral Merchant Street. Alas,  now it’s time to wake up and worship Nature. Well, I have been looking for this day for nearly 3 months, especially after the recent Deepavali holidays, in November; this would be the time when we shall get to meet all my cousins; young and old; aunties and uncles; favourites and not so ones; family friends; get to see new movies hidden away in my Amma’s sarees from my  hawkish periya maama or big uncle; get to exchange the lovely PONGAL Vazhthugal or greetings cards; get to w...

November and December were very eventful; heartening and disheartening for so many reasons. Well, Chennai was flooded to the brim; possibly man made, Amma made; nature made; however humanity with spontaneity was deemed the eventual winner; and we had seen the same in our condo recently, here in Singa, when one of our friendly lovely bloke breathed his last in a not that far away Pulau Ubin, of a sudden cardiac arrest and him gone forever and his young family now back in Mumbai. Albeit glad, that Chennai is perking up again and bouncing back to life as usual; Amma is deep down the floods, yet; in deep sleep/ coma and has become a sister to Chennaites in the process; unable to breathe, bathe and swim, her ministers had escaped by and large leaving the hapless Chennaites to fend for themselves; whilst the rivers within 100 kms of Chennai including the infamous cooum were so furious and flowing with vengeance;. Amma and others have now got the elections fever and dear Thatha ...

Well, after a huge gap, this one is meant to be chaotic  and I hope would succeed in creating the same. It’s been a whirlwind Vaadiya tour of Northern India recently and was certainly an Adiyaa (two half bottles of liquor in Punjabi), ending on a very high note in  Delhi, the Indian capital. The highlights obviously were:  The Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikiri, Amber fort, Qutub Minar, The Golden Temple and of course, the main motive and modus-operandi behind visiting these cities… a great Indian, Punjabi wedding! 12,000 kilometers by car, flight, bus and by train; four Indian states ( Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana) and straddling across four great  cities( Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Amritsar) ; and to cap it , an eventful Punjabi wedding at an hitherto unknown place for me, called, Bhatinda; in  a remote north western state border of north west Indian state of PUNJAB, bordering  PAKISTAN; and  for that matter I knew an...

Amma is back to Whack!! Modi masthan’s ministers would have visited the accused Amma at home to enquire about her hernia exactly few weeks before the judgment day; judge will forget to do primary level math; land bill will try to change its ugly face again; Metro rail may run soon underground forever; Autos in Chennai will have meters; Buses will run in diesel; Traffic police will make money on Helmets; Temple priests, poojaris and astrologers in T Nadu will now go to bed poorer; Amma’s water is bottled again for sale (no pun intended); Amma’s Idli’s too. “Thatha” is still hanging on; awaiting a Masala Dosa for the last time. Obamacare is almost down. Labour has lost badly once again. Cameron is back with an unexpected majority. NHS is possibly going down the brooms. Princess Charlotte Diana somebody appeared from nowhere and Prince Charles, her grandpa, nonetheless is too disappointed with his mum still being alive and happy that his ex-wife is not alive. ...

R ajapakse lost his re-election bid in SriLanka, which must be an eye opener to us all, who prostrate before our favourite and not so favourite deities, discreetly and openly after perpetrating what can easily be called as mass man slaughters, genocides, multiple Rapes, scams, friendly back stabbing and betrayals, murder etc.. etc... So, how did he win the first and second term, as President? Was he a good soul then? I leave it to your imagination though I fickle mind would call it readily as fate and destiny. Well, Rajapakse had been going around everywhere in India, for the past two years, visiting Temples, consulting astrologers 24 hours a day for his day to life chores. Well, was the fate and future predicted by astrology was so strong that the man himself could not correct and twist his fate with his bribery and so called Parigaarams to Gods , albeit supplemented by multiple visits to different Hindu and Buddhist temples with an eventual no solace with Paava mo...

Stanley 1986-92 Batch mates…….. Well, back to what’s in WhatsApp where few of us may not like what I am blogging about! I left for United Kingdom in 1994, a couple of years after I completed my internship and graduation; from SMC, to do PLAB, where I eventually stayed till 2013, until I relocated to Singapore, with my family. This is just to register my views with respect to the Stanley group 1992 (actually should be 1986 batch) activities, with regards to, W hatsApp. Well, whatever is happening now with our classmates in Chennai and around the globe for the past few months has been nothing new for us, our batch mates, who had settled in the UK over the past 20years. I am not sure about our batch mates in United States, as I was told many times by our friends in US, that the geography of US doesn’t help them to meet often, let alone find a suitable time for a sparse phone conversation!  Not to forget about the availability of internet ...