REUNION!!!!!!

The much anticipated Reunion, finally took place! It involved a lot of planning and co-ordination over the past 4 months! I think that it was smooth sailing after the initial hiccups. It was wonderful to meet everyone. Wednesday was like a preview to the actual where most of my cousins got together at one cousin’s place and drove to the Smoky Mountain. The drive was very scenic and the music accented the mood! We carried a huge amount of grocery as the plan was to cook and eat at the log cabin that we had booked for the 4 days that we were there. Though the cooking and cleaning was a lot of work, it was fun as all of us shared the chores. The stories we had heard about bears knocking on the door in the middle of the night were scary but they sound silly now, sitting here and thinking about them. All of us hardly ever slept. We stayed up almost every night until 3 – 4 AM laughing about the silly things we did in our childhood and ended up losing our voices. All the crazy things that we did, that we would never normally do like doing weird dance steps and breaking into a song in the middle of the road just reassured us that in our hearts we are still the little kids that met up over the summer vacations! Our ever enthusiastic aunt provided us with delicious hot vadais that complimented the cold weather and the snug cabin. We missed the others who couldn’t be with us. One day, I hope it is possible for the whole family to meet at one place but for now I feel so happy and lucky to have met many of the family members. Thanks for making the effort, everyone!

Deepavali

Wet hair with water dripping on the back of new clothes, the taste of Deepavali marundhu in the mouth,eyes burning from lack of sleep and the foggy smell of fire crackers!! My Deepavali!! Hope I get to enjoy this sometime!

Hi- Tech Navaratri

This time around I have received a couple Navaratri E-vites for Vethilai Paaku with RSVP options. I could not help but remember the time when I was a kid ( here I go again with one of my ” Jab mein Chhoti ladki Thi” tales!!) and how Navratri was then. For as long as I remember, I have always had very short hair and back then it was almost a close boyish kind of cut. Of course, my grandmother always insisted on braiding my hair(?!) and decorate it with a Raakodi and lots of mallipoo. She was an expert at making fake pinnal look very real and since I used to get a lot of attention loved to have my hair done and wear pavaadai and lots of jewellery and go to everyone’s home in the neighborhood to invite them for Golu where I would get lot of Sundal and then my parents would take me to other relatives’ homes to get more Sundal and in turn invite them.
My dad had a Bajaj scooter then. Dad rode it and Mom sat behind him. I would always stand in front of Dad. There was this once when on a similar Navaratri evening my parents were taking me to my uncle’s place which was a bit far off. There I was, very proud of my bejewelled fake long hair (my real hair was just about long enough to touch the nape of my neck- a typical “barber shop cut” from Ambuli saloon!!) with jasmine strands and pavaadai and jewellery. I couldn’t wait to show it all off to my cousins. When we were about 10 minutes away from there home, disaster struck!! Nothing major but just that my lovely “hair” in all its glory was swept off by the wind and had fallen somewhere in the dark wooded part on the side of the road. (Back then there were wooded parts near Velacheri, Chennai!) Neither my parents nor I noticed it. We reached my uncle’s place. My cousins came out to greet us and I turned around very haughtily to show of my beautiful braid and my cousins didn’t understand why I did that. Of course, I was a little disappointed in not getting the reaction that I hoped for! I was so embarassed when I came to know that my plan had foiled!

As a result of advancement of technology, people send out E-vites these days for Golu. Sure it is a convienient way to invite and with today’s way of life it is practically impossible ( not very safe) to follow those practices of dolling up the younger girls and send them around to invite people but I still wonder if it was more fun doing all that or is it simply the fact that it is a part of my childhood memories that makes it fun.
Whatever said and done, it is indeed a Hi-Tech Navratri we have today!

It’s never like the good old days!!

Cliched statement! I, for one, never thought that I would be using this one! Telltale symptoms of “old age”?! I hope not! Anyways, coming to the point. I guess there is a time in everybody’s life where they always miss “the good old days”. To me it is my childhood! I have had the fun-est childhood growing up with a lot of cousins. I somehow feel life was a lot simpler back then. To begin with, there weren’t many TV channels to watch. So we were forced to play out a  lot and the times that there was actually something to watch on TV used to be so precious!  Don’t get me wrong. I am definitely not one of those who say that change or growth is bad. On the downside, awareness was less. It was really hard to communicate with family members who lived half way across the world. But one’s got to admit that there were fewer threats and complexities back then. Everything in moderation was probably the reason- my parents would probably have a different take on it if you asked them!!(especially the “moderation” part!)

Looking forward to cousins visiting for summer vacation was exciting. Much later when all my other younger cousins came along, I always felt special as I was the big sister around and they would kind of look upto me! Even today, although we have each gone our different ways, although we may not be “very good” at keeping in touch, when we meet we still feel the special closeness all over again. I would love for my kids to grow up being close to their cousins and experiencing the same special feeling! Not a very easy thing to achieve(hence the title!) but would definitely want to make the most of whatever opportunity is available.

Inspired by Li’l sisters!!

My blog! Feels good to finally have started my blog – inspired by 2 of my little sisters- amazing writers!! The one thing that would come to the minds of people who know me when they think of me is, “the girl who can’t stop talking!” Seriuosly! one of my uncles used to take me along on long road trips just for the entertainment factor(his car did not have a radio in those days)! Anyways, I have had many people suggest to me that I start a blog. I always used to wonder that I may not have as much to say if I started a blog but when 2 of my cousins (did I mention that they were amazing writers?) started their own blog, I thought I might actually want to try my hand at it. So here I am! My blog would essentially contain my random thoughts on this and that. So let’s see how it goes!