Chennai 600086

Madras week celebrations are on in full swing at the home town. It is in times like this that I miss being there the most. To mark the occasion I am going to name the things I love about the city of my heart!

1. 600086- For home, school, Gangotree, Joy Shop,”sighting”, Eashwari library, playing hide and seek in the streets, Krishnar Kovil pongal in Margazhi, for being the center of “my” city and and my world! However much Madras is expanding, I always think I live in the center of the city! Mylapore and T.Nagar are a short ride away, the beach is a 15 minute drive, Nungambakkam is almost next door and ofcourse Sathyam Cinemas is a stone’s throw away!

2. My black and yellow chauffeur driven limos! With those wonderful creations of mankind, anything was only a drive away Haggling with them, walking away from one, only for them to come rushing behind you to catch up with you, walking away from the really arrogant ones, looking for “swami padams” in the autos before getting into one late in the night- ah those cheap (well not really) thrills of life!

3. Marina Beach - For the awesome memories : of 15 kids catching a bus at 6:30 in the morning to go play catch at the beach, of thenga manga sundal and pineapple with masala podi, of shooting balloons, of driving there late in the night in the middle of a cyclone, of enthu girls who drove there early in the morning to watch the fishermen after a night full of sleepover confessions, of going there every single day in the eight semester for apparently getting over my tsunami fear (that is what I told my mom!), of a plan made in the middle of the night on a conference call to meet there early the next morning, of meeting friends after two years to realize that somethings stay the same forever!

4. ECR : The beachhouses, the drives, the memories, the plans, the schemes and the promises of staying together forever!

5. For the food.

6. For the kutcheris with perimma, dance programs with D and Uthu, for the canteen food at the Academy and for Margazhi!

7. For the wonderful Chennai tamizh and engineering college lingo. If you don’t get it : Free a vidu!

8. For Kollywood, Super Star and other geniuses like Mani Ratnam, Rahman, Kamal, IR, Shankar..

9. For being THE home where the heart lies!

I could go on forever! But I like the number 9…So!

Of painting walls and pots

Today is Varalakshmi Nombu..one of my favorite festivals. There is a week of preparation usually that goes with it  and the frenzy with all family gathering at home and the anticipation of good times that come with the zillion festivals that follow.

A few days before the nombu, Parasuram, used to come in and paint white over the previous year’s nombu picture. And then we would start on a clean slate. We would proceed to paint on the wall : a pot with Lakshmi’s face on it , on a medai with betel leaves and paaku in the form of an akk (tamil alphabet resembling “therefore” symbol) , a comb and mirror set (with a paen seepu also, which always tickled me as a kid to think that ambal was also occasionally louse infested:P ) and the entire medai flanked by 2 banana trees and of course the maavalai thoranam.Given my artistic capabilities, I would be usually delegated the task of filling the banana tree with green or maybe sometimes even drawing it. Perimma and the artistically inclined used to proceed with the pot drawing (which is the most difficult thing..to draw a symmetrical pot took multiple attempts always) and of course drawing Lakshmi’s face.  We had close to 10 hands working on the picture every year and the night before the nombu we’ll finally be done with it. Of course, only for the men folk to step in and comment on the cross-eyed ambal or the pug nose!  The old wooden cradle would be brought down from the paran and made to stand vertical in front of the wall art giving the look of a mandapam in front of the goddess. It would then be draped with a purple silk saree (or whatever remains of it) with bright gold flowers, which belonged to my grandmother and is atleast 60 years old. Then P perimma, the most artistically inclined and enthu pattani of them all, will proceed to paint the goddess’ face (mugam) on the Sombu, which would then be placed on a plate with rice, in the cradle mandapam.

The day of the pooja would involve being woken up by exasperated amma, who would then in between her million chores bully me into getting into a paavadai and getting dressed and ready before the function. The entire herd of atahis, perimmas and cousins would be assembled and ready for the pooja. The vadhiyar would come, we will invite the amman into the house : Kindu and me singing Bhagyadha Lakshmi Baramma (which Paatu maami would have forced down our throats on amma and perimma’s request). I love this festival as this would be the one time in the year the women actually get to perform the ceremony as opposed to do all the hard work and watch from the side lines! Once the pooja is done there is the Nombu sharadu tying. I hate flowers especially Jasmine! So I would fuss and sulk till I got a sharadu with just the wonderful smelling meru leaves and nothing else. A huge meal followed with Vadai, payasam and fried appalam

Things have changed now. After the house was renovated, the drawing is done on chart paper instead of directly on the wall. With a lot of the girl children being married off and moving out, the drawing responsibilities are now upon Perimma, Amma and A. They try to keep the enthusiasm going. But where there were 15, there are 5 now! I miss being at home. I am bugged that I missed out on the opportunity to crib about how Independence day and Nombu fell on the same day denying me an extra holiday!

And yes, Happy Independence Day to all of you!

The Stomach’s Nostalgia - The “Kaila saadham”!

I seem to be in a very nostalgic mood these days. And am also trying to shed a few (more than a few..happy?) pounds. Which means food is on my mind constantly. Most often the kind of food I don’t have access to or don’t have the inclination to cook myself! Which ofcourse brings me to my inherent laziness..I crave for vengaya sambar (sweet onion sambar) and Aloo curry all the time..Simple enough to cook. But the fact that I have to cook it myself to satiate my craving is kind of unreasonable don’t you think. And to see my point you would have to know where I come from!

I grew up in a big joint family and lived in the family house that everybody else gathered at for all festivals, important and sundry. Diwali eve meant sitting in a circle around my athai with my cousins, receiving in turns, dolloped out small balls of vengaya sambar sadam with a small appalam bit in it. Trust me, vengaya sambar tastes the best eaten that way! I would then skip the rasam course (I never liked rasam as a kid cos of the extereme inconvinience of eating runny rasam sadam) and rejoin the ranks for Thair sadam with avakkai! Even regular meals at home would always be handed out to me in premixed form in eversilver basins, that were available in plenty at home thanks to the kolu visiting bounties. I would then proceed to sit in my trademark blue wire chair, with a book in one hand and the basin in the other. My mom and perima had long since given up trying to get us to eat any other way. With me especially, I think they were more than happy I was eating at all! Yeah..I know for people who know me now, it is a little difficult to believe.But I used to be an extremely fussy eater as a kid. I think making me hungry all the time now, is God’s way of punishing me for all the times my mom ran behind me basin in hand, tears streaming down her face. And for all the times she had to receive tips from a lot of other smirking mothers in school on how to cook tastier food so I wouldn’t bring back my lunch home everyday! So yeah, I was a fussy eater and was brought food premixed, course by course while I sat in my chair reading my book. I should make it clear though that I was not at all a spoilt kid, as I got suitably admonished when I visited my maternal grandparents’ house where my dining table manners and eating habits were constantly criticised, especially with paragon, behaviour model cousin B around

So after that huge detour on why I am like this, you will understand how my thoughts of going back home in the evening from the lab, and sitting down in a chair when magically a basin of sambar sadam comes to my hand remains a sweet bit of nostalgia!

Stomach’s Nostalgia -1 here.

PS : Shameless plug for sister’s blog

Music memories-Kaalai Thooki

Most of us have memory associations with a particular song or album. I always associate songs with a time period of my life. Minnale always reminds of post 12th standard summer hangouts in the beach, Rhythm with chemistry class rides with D, Pehla Nasha of singing in the moonlight on the terrace…I digress..But you get the point right!

So anyway, I was browsing through my music and chanced upon this piece from Sanjay Subrahmanian’s Tamil Moovar CD. The Yadhukula Kamboji composition by Maarimutham Pillai..I love tamil compositions. I emote better with tamil songs. Especilally songs praising the dancing lord of Thillai! Yadhukula Kamboji is a joyous raaga with wonderful glides and I almost envision a gentle swaying when I listen to it. The first time I heard Kaalai Thooki was when my Athai sang it in her almost abaswaram koral. My Athai is a little overweight due to thyroid issues and always gets teased by us on her weight. On one such day she took chagrin to it and told us about how she was super slim when she was young. And about how she was the choice dancer for school plays and events. “Valanju valanju gracefull a aaduven theriyuma?”, she said. Cruel kids that we were burst into laughter immediately! And to prove it, she immediately launched into song and dance :”kaalai thooki nindradum deivame”..And to her credit she managed the Nataraja pose pretty well..She was breathless very soon..But we were quietened. And I fell in love with the song! My athai is a super sport, and since then has always complied to put on a “Kaalai Thooki” performance whenever we requested, sometimes with my other Athai providing a slightly (very slightly) improved vocal support!

You can listen to the song here : http://www.musicindiaonline.com/p/x/ZqK2pqqMHd.As1NMvHdW/

Mahabharatha - the greatest story ever

I love the Mahabharatha. In all its forms, renditions and narrations. It is one of the biggest stories ever being atleast 10 times the size of the Illiad and Odyssey put together! It is the mother of all masala movie scripts. It is not as preachy as the Ramayana with some wonderfully multi-layered characters. Duryodhana’s character is one of the best explored one.Almost every charcater is painted with shades of grey. It is a fantastic exploration of the powers and devices of the human mind.

Starting from appa’s awesome bedtime narrations of the smaller more obscure stories and plots, I graduated to the various Amar Chithra Katha volumes almost as soon as I could read and comprehend full sentences.  And like every other kid that grew up in the early nineties, I would join the rest of the family in front of our TV religiously every Sunday to catch up with Mr.Samay. I remember this one time where appa and perippa with a lot of effort taped the theme music for me to use in a school annual day play. I played Nakula, amber was one of Drona’s (played by a droolicious S Murthy - BG remember?) sidekicks, D was very aptly Duryodhana (ha ha), and we were recreating the bird’s eye aiming story. Soon enough by the time I was in my early teens I was finally permitted to read our family bible - Kamala Subramanian’s Mahabharatha. It is almost like a coming of age ritual in my family, considering my dad and all his siblings know the book cover to cover! My dad’s favorite Sunday afternoon pastime used to be conducting “The Mahabharatha Quiz” ,my cousins and me being enthusiastic participants, right after Mastermind India finished on TV and usually during the Spirit Of Unity concerts. It is from that time that I remember useless information like names of  Krishna’s charioteer and Bhagadatta’s elephant (Daruka and Supritika if anyone is interested!). We had this awesome Hindi “non-detail textbook” in the 7th std , from NCERT I think, which had wonderfully glossy pages and even resembled a slokam book with a landscape page format! For once I listened in Hindi class. And my love for this epic continues till date. I am sure I would have watched Ekta Kapoor’s crappy “K” Mahabharatha with equal deligence if I were in India now.

I hope that some day my kids would inherit my passion for this wonderful tradition and epic and go to sleep listening to tales about Karna’s bee-bite and Abhimanyu’s valour. I for one will continue to return to my tattered copy of the book enjoying the stories from the days by-gone and memories from the years that were!

*Sparked by a recent discussion on the tennis court with friends*

P.S: The new header image is from my library at home in Chennai. I can even spot the Kamala Subramaniam book at the right extreme in the second row right by the Pears cyclopedia

The particle nature of love!

Friday was a day of adrenalin rushes for me. The whole day at school was spent in a frenzy of anticipation and impatience. By 3 I had given up on attempting to get any work done. Why you ask me..There was a Sikkil Gurucharan concert in town that evening and being an arrrrrdent fan , I had bulldozed S into driving me some 30 mins away from campus for it. To be fair to him he also showed some mild interest in wanting to attend My friend U and I had fervently “sited” SGC all through our college years. I love his voice and from what little I know of Carnatic music I think he is very good! So back to story..It had been almost 10 months since I heard a kutcheri of the live variety and not something off a CD or Youtube. So obviously I was thrilled to bits about sinking myself in the bliss that is SGC’s music. By 5:30 I completely gave up on work and left to spruce up for the concert. On reaching home I found a box from USPS outside my house.

The moment I registered what it was I immediately made the correlation to the stuff my mom had sent me through Kindu. I definitely wasn’t expecting it that evening considering Kindu’s promptness in mailing stuff. To be fair to her, I broke her record mailing things out the last time I came back from India. The thrill that I felt with the realisation of what was inside made me behave like a five year old. I rushed inside and immediately grabbed a pair of scissors and started ripping the box apart. I was like a kid let loose in candy land. Inside were several thoughtful, wonderful and I must say tatseful gifts. I got a lovely puff sleeved cotton blouse in skyblue from Cotton World. Thanks Perima and Kindu! My mom had also sent me four very simple yet chic tops/shirts for summer use. But the best of the loot was a pretty pretty handbag in jute with ethnic prints in brick red. Thanks Amma! I spent the rest of the evening declaring “my mom is so cool” to S and R who accompanied me to the concert. The love with which my family thoughtfully sent me gifts sent me to euphoria. Sure I bugged my mom to send me a “surprise”. But the willingness with which she complied is sweet. I went to the concert that day in my nice moss green silk kurti (a gift from my athai in a previous package!), my funky target chappals and carrying my new jute bag. I don’t consider myself too much of a materialistic person. In fact my mother claims it is very easy to please me. More than the gifts, The thought behind it was more important for me. I spent the rest of the evening floating a few inches above ground level buoyed by all the love and wonderful music that god has directed towards me!

P.S The concert was wonderful and I hope to make a separate post of it soon. I’m currently drowned with work in preparation for a conference presentation next month and a couple of proposal deadlines next week. (Yes I clearly must be writing them now instead of blogging but escapism is my biggest sin !).

P.P.S The title needs explaining. The particle nature of love - It comes in packets from home

Kindly excuse if you find the mokkai unbearable

The stomach’s nostalgia

I have a lot of passions. But food, friends and Madras are definitely up there in the list. Living away from home has made me realize how much these mean to me. I’m a complete foodie. I love to eat and experiment all kinds of food. I am also a glutton and so don’t have too much of a connoisseur’s discerning palate. But I love my food, my friends and “namma madras” and here is how they all come together. From my stomach and heart, onto this blog!

Gangotree : This is THE place. Numero Uno on my list definitely. A small bite of their pani puri and I have arrived home! I kind of grew up with this place. From late night ice creams with perippa, to trips with the “third street gang!”(after a lot of begging and pleading to convince parents), to the coke cards and “New Gangotree”, saturday stops with school friends, the 35 college bus gang, the chemie gang-I have memories at this place at every phase of my life. All visiting relatives get taken there; take them once and they demand to go there everytime! It of course helps that I live 2 streets away from G3.Whenever amma sensed an about to explode tantrum on upma days,G3 always came to the rescue. They make the world’s best pani puri. The bhel puri and Tawa tikki are other personal favorites. And ofcourse the mouth watering Dhokla and the yummmmmmm kalakhand and other drool worthy bengali sweets. To me Gangotree is gastronomical heaven! I’ve tasted the “oh so famous” chaat in bombay and also the gol guppas in Delhi. But IMO Gangotree kicks butt!

College “family” hangouts: The golden era of my life so far definitely began somewhere late 6th semester of Engineering. That was when THE GANG evolved. From a bunch of friend’s friends who hung out together we became a wonderfully knit group of people who knew everything (i mean EVERYTHING!) about the others and then CHOSE to be friends and practically lived like a family. Every moment away from home and classes was spent together or scheming and “making the plan!”. I will never make friends like that again and the carefree and fantastic times together will be some of my most cherished memories. There are a lot of food “spots” that we frequented and those are extra special to me. Kai yendhi bhavan outside Brilliant Tutorials- for the uninitiated, it is a road side van type place serving the most scrumptious dosas, idlis and biryani. You will see Sonatas and Astras and Accords vying for parking space aroung this eatery. The food is cheap yet delicious. Healthy? I don’t know..They do sell Aquafina though :P. As college students we were always short for money especially to finance our rather extravagant outings. So kaiyendhi was the pit stop for stomach fill up before we went on elsewhere.The nei podi dosa there is to kill for. Close to kaiyendhi is RADO (right across the road from Holy Angels school) a juice bar that serves the best apple milkshake ever! There is also Buharis on East coast road which has amazing dhaba type food. A superb Panner Butter masala. Ambur Biryani (in T.Nagar? I donno. Amber always called to get it delivered) home delivered amazing biryani and curd rice. Of course there was also Galloping Gooseberries on Greams road for amazing Lasagna and sandwiches, Cascade in Nungambakkam for great Chinese, the delicious Tapas at Zaras…..

Great Kabab Factory: This is my Favorite restaurant in Madras! It is in the Radisson on Airport road. Preset menus. A superb variety of delicious kababs, mouth watering dal and salt lassi. They have a wonderful cake too. We always announced someone’s birthday when we went there to get a on the house cake!

Mainland China : Delicious chinese food. Their crackling spinach and pickled cucumbers are my favorite. Love the fried ice cream and they make delicious juice too. I think of D and her parents who introduced me to this restaurant along with several other awesome places.( including Little Italy which makes the best thin crust Pizza!) D’s dad and family in general are my “foodie” gurus. They are a wonderful family who take such pleasure in hosting people and also exploring all kinds of food. They always made me feel like one of them and I love them!

Eden : The one in Besant Nagar used to be a family favorite. Birthday and anniversary dinners. I remember going there on getting my 12th board results and my 20th birthday (the last one in India). The baked corn and cottage cheese is the one I always go for. They also have a heavenly aloo dish called aloo chutneywala or something. And of course their “Last time I saw my waist” dessert.

Karpagambal Mess : Mylapore and Vallishwarar koil always brings memories of my maternal side of the family. The adai avial and badam halwa in Karpagambal mess are beyond description. The place doesn’t have much of an ambience but makes up for it twice over with its amazing Tam Bram culinary delights.

McRennet : I love their Black forest cakes and Veg puffs. And who can forget the yumm Japanese cakes. M (the bestest bus partner :D)and other people on the bus always bugged Nedu sir to make the stop. Getting the bus driver to stop at the Poonamalee McRennet and scrounging enough money to buy the goodies; sometimes even trying to get Nedu to treat us. The joy of biting into a delicious cake after a long day at college and half of the journey back home, with the stomach juices getting ready to devour amma’s tiffin , is closest to edible bliss.

Desi Remixes : Heavily Indian influenced Mexican food at Don Pepe and of course the splendid Tandoori Pizza at Pizza Hut are also very badly missed

Murugan Idli shop : This elitist idli kadai serves the world’s best chakkarai pongal! Period!

Red-E -Food Court : I don’t know if this place still exists. It was this international Food place at the Harrington Road signal which was the place to go to when I was in school. A lot of birthday treats and friendship day celebrations happened there. I love the Lasagna there and their chocolate Mousse.

Saravana Bhavan : Nobody ma(r)ke(t)s and serves South Indian food better. Surprisingly I love their Pav Bhaji. And the Saravana’s Bakery and ice creams are actually world class.

Woodlands/Palmgrove/Maris/Mathura : These are grouped together cos they are all family hangouts. Playing in the Woodlands park on the swings and slides followed by amazing Channa Batura and Dasapraksh ice cream. “Driving in” and catching a glimpse of P.B.Srinivas with his funny headgear. Stops at Palmgrove for sambhar vadai in between Diwali shopping, idli from Maris on sick days and Gumbal dinners at Mathura . All great memories.

And of course there are the other “bit” memories. Amma’s dosas and Mor kuzhambu, Perimma’s Kozhukattai and dangar pachidi, M’s mom’s beetroot paratha’s and peanut chutney (not together of course!), Maddy’s manchurian, Suze’s sambhar rice, D’s house manga thokku, (all eaten from respective dabba’s in college), sundal,manga and corn at the beach, rosemilk at Kalathi in Mylapore, Mint cooler and Jughead’s special at Fruit Shop, Krishnar Kovil pongal, Puliotharai from Parthasarathy Koil, Boondi Ladoo in school functions, Flavored corn at Sathyam/Spencers, Joy Shop 50p samosas, Biryani from wherever in Kancheepuram that the boys used to bring, cream bun and Masala Sandwich from Iyengar Bakery near Mandaveli bus stop….Okie that’s it. Time for snack break

P.S: D chides me for forgetting Anokhi! How could I? I spent every evening there literally final semester of college. Buying the cheapest coffees,  the yumm quesidillas and ofcourse avoiding “The Card!”. She also reminds me that the Biryani place in Kancheepuram was Pandian- “How can you forget after hogging all the food?”, she says! :O

Azhagu!

I am still in the euphoria of having listened to a brilliant Viruttam in Behag followed by Muruganin Maru pezhar Azhagu rendered by Bombay Jayashri ; an all time favorite of mine! I love it when shuffle springs such wonderful surprises at you. Especially in the morning, banishing all blues and aches -body and soul! Behag is one of my favorite ragas. Pundits dismiss it as a “light” raaga. But the soulfulness of the raga is enchanting and throat-lump generating! It is supposed to be a romantic raga. But according to me it best befits the soulful cry of bhakthi!It is a raga for the doldrums. Another favorite Behag composition is Gopalakrishna Bharathi’s brilliant Irakkam Varamal. I have 3 versions of this song, by BJ, Ranjani Gayathri and T.M.Krishna. My favorite is the TMK version where he starts off with the slokha Karacharana Kritam and beautifully transcends into the song.

I heart TMK! His musical sensibilities are simply brilliant. I take personal pride in having listened and appreciated TMK way before he reached his current stalwart status. My first music classes were at Akshara Vidhya Peet in TTK road under TMK’s mother. My perimma still talks of seeing Krishna practice there. My only memory of that period is sitting in trance listening to my teacher sing Hamsadhwani before moving on to teaching the varnam. I quit that class to learn from Shembagavalli maami soon after. But that is the lasting memory I have from AVP! More about music time warps in a post I’ve been writing in my head which will hopefully see daylight soon. Coming back to TMK. My perippa and I happened to catch an early evening (yes, gasp!) concert of his at Kalarasana when I was in the 12th standard. I remember because I had just finished some revision exam and went to the concert straight from school. It was a superb concert! I still remember that he sang the Natha hare Jagannathahare Ashtapadi. I have been a big fan ever since.

I miss Margazhi in Madras. The kutcheris, Dosai and Badam Halwa in Arusuvai canteen, Unni on Christmas at Kalarasana, Urmila Sathyanarayana in the Academy, my desperate attempts at raga identifying, concert hopping with perimma and perippa, Uthu’s dance programs, pongal from Krishnar Kovil in the mornings, Appa’s struggles in making it to the early morning sessions in Kovil …Madras dons its silken best in Margazhi!This post wasn’t meant to set into nostalgia like this. But for once my fingers seem to be running seamlessly through the keyboard. There are no blocks. The memories flow uninterrupted, guided and inspired by the music in the ear.

Delurking and Dandilsa

First things first - This is my third attempt at something close to a blog. The previous 2 suffered horrible deaths. While one was gobbled at the hit of a delete button, the other barely saw daylight post registering! However my obsessive compulsive blog reading is getting closer to kilpauk (for non chennai residents -tats were the hospital treating mental disorders is located) with my google reader bursting at its seams. Yet there is the need to talk about somethings to someone - without coming off as arrogant, stupid, insipid, bloated or plain obnoxious..what better way..start a blog! (again!) That’s why I am delurking in the blogworld!

Dandilsa is a word in my family, synonymous with a hog. The story goes that on being nagged by an aunt for more food my grandmother exclaimed asking if there was a dandilsa in her stomach - it being a monster that gobbles up the food leaving you perpetually hungry! To me, the word means family jokes, rib tickling-nicknaming humour that runs in my dad’s side of the family, familiar smells and family gatherings and every other beautiful thing that nostalgia is about. And funnily enough the nom de plume fits perfectly with my OCDesque blog devouring habits. So there - Dandilsa Delurking!