Madras Kalangal!

When memories decided to visit me.

This morning when I was heating water to make coffee for myself (and of course, dreading the idea of working on projects), memories of my childhood in Madras suddenly flashed by for a second... Don't know if their intention was to remind me of how pathetic it is to stay away from home or to just make me smile for at least those few seconds. So I thought I'll put down a few words about the lovely days in Madras. My typical morning, then, was something like this...

Wake up at four forty five after amma reminds you the time (oh yeah, I turn deaf when I am sleeping- so alarm clocks don’t work. I need a person to literally shake me from the slumber) only to feel so stupid to have woken up so late(!) (interestingly, I do yoga immediately after I wake up not consciously but the way I stretch and turn looks like some sort of an abnormal unstructured yoga)… And then I sluggishly walk into the kitchen for a quick review of the day's menu (which is usually dosa and sambhar, kootu-sadham, paruppu thoghaiyal or the likes) with amma and tell her what I dreamed of the previous night (mostly about how I was honoured as the Chief Justice of India or how the entire Chennai is praising me about my thoughtful arguments in a happening case(!) or how I bought a stylish black Ford Ikon)... Then obviously as anybody would expect, brush my teeth but for five minutes humming my favourite kollywood hit not realizing that five minutes have passed until anna queues up behind there with a evlavu-thechalum-pallu-onnum-vellaya-minna-pordhu-illa-look on his face...By then anna playing loud English music (as opposed to any normal form of suprabatham or adityahrudayam) and with a Kumbakonam degree kaapi (something you shouldn't miss- the best way coffee beans and chicory can be combined) and a fight with anna about how I should be allowed to check my mail first because I have Maths tuition (which is the fate of every Board-class student of Chennai) at five thirty, my day actually begins... One round of Gmail and Yahoo after which at five, my heart beat races as I realize I have not done my math homework (which invariably is a worksheet of 100 odd questions) and so I quickly sit down to see what damage-control I can do in the given twenty minutes... Two questions here, two questions there. Then after telling amma varen (and being corrected for the nth time to say poitu varen and not just varen), I run out of the house to see my TVS-Excel ready to gear me up for the day...

After ninety minutes of mindless rambling at Math tuition, I get back home at seven fifteen and park my bike under a tree outside my house... look up at the veranda (mine is a first floor apartment) to see appa reading the newspaper (we only read The Hindu)... and then get indoors to see Rajam cleaning the house religiously... I quickly go to the kitchen to peek into what amma is doing and usually grab raw ingredients (such as chapathi maavu, vadam, maggi noodles, etc) as I switch over to a coversation with appa to learn what the CM's plans(!) about Tamil Nadu are... And then iron my yellow-grey uniform to get ready to go...

At seven forty five, appa, anna and me sit for breakfast in the hall before the TV (appa waiting eagerly for the Sun News Channel update) as amma gets hot-hot dosas and chinna vengayam/vendakka sambhar (or with ghee :D)... Appa then questions me about how far I have reached in Accountancy (In the fifteen years of schooling, this is the only subject he was ever interested in for obvious reasons- he is an Accounts Manager himself)….And when I tell him Sir has reached company accounts, he starts recollecting his reminiscences about company accounts (Yes, I know people grow weirder as years pass. How else can you justify somebody reacting so positively about company accounts?!) Then its time for listening to the usual things from amma and appa such as "pocket-la kaasu irukka?, fast-a otadha vandiya, lunch michham vaikama sapdu, paathu poitu va, saingalam oor suthhama veedu vandhu seru"...

With that, I rush to school at eight ten... obviously not realizing then that they were going to be the best days of my life! :)