Chitthi Aayi He.....

On a recent visit to my in-laws place, my FIL had bought down a file in which he had religiously stored the letters sent by his mother decades ago. My hubbs grandmother(from his father's side) had expired long before we got married...so thou I have heard people singing praises of her generosity, intelligence I could never relate to her. But this time as I read those letters I discovered a selfless, brave, practical woman....... a firm mother who advices her son to mend his ways so that he is no trouble to his wife (Her DIL), a warm n affectionate MIL who doesn’t differentiate between her Daughter n Daughter-in-Law, who believes that the maids should be given a weekly off (like any other profession)! N the thing tht impressed me the most??? The pride with which she signed each of her letter as "Mrs.P.N.Menon"..... A simple act but doesnt it show how proud she was of her husband...This is saying something considering her husbad was dead decades ago!!


But \ this post isn’t abt her...its abt the beauty of letters! The emotions that a letter brings about can it be bought out in am email?? Coming to that when was the last time we wrote down a lengthy email to your family\friend ...isnt it much easier to pick up your mobile or hop onto skype n talk for ages!! Yeap it makes the communication easier...we need not wait for ages to pass a news around! Can a email replace the good old inland letter? Well for all practical purposes it has but wht abt emotional purposes..... How many of us would preserve these emails?? Once read n replied staright they go into trash box..... n with it goes the memmories!! My mom still has the first letter tht dad had written to her.....A wonderful n invaluable relic isnt it!! Do I have the first email hubbs has written to me????


Today when my dad is no more all the memories tht I hv is all in my mind n may be a few pics! Isn’t it sad tht my child will never have a chance of knowing him better! Sad considering what a beautiful writer my dad was!


The best find in the lot of letters my FIL preserved...A letter written to my FIL on the eve of his marriage by his mother.......!!Imagine 40 years down the line when am well into my 60's...what bliss it would be to sit down n read a letter tht my dad had written to me on my graduation or wedding eve........ooph tht would be some trip down the memory line! Sad isn’t it tht we are depriving ourselves of these small pleasures in life!!



Here is bidding a sad good bye to our very beloved Inland Letter

N as with all things our own bollywood songs - Chitti Aayi He, sandesha aate hai capture the spirit of chitti beautifully.....

PS: The smart husband of mine reads the blog n here is his comment "Gmail is gonna replace your inalnd letter soon"......hmph Mr.Hubbs I dont think so......lets imagine the remotest of possibilities tht u dont delete mails(like tht is possible) would u share ur password with gen-next for them to read n relish the mails(Fat chance tht considering he doesnt share it even with me)!!

Happy Duserra All!

Here is wishing you all a v happy Dussera!

This pic is of a small statue tht I picked up 2 years back on a trip to Kolakatta....isnt she a beauty :)

Onam Visheshangal.....Onam 2009!

As promised in previous posts here I come to flood this space....Lemme start off with the easiest of the ones to capture...... Onam at our new home!

Onam was just one day after we landed at new home....so any before hand preperation was completely ruled out! The day before was spent in makinbg the house hospitable\livable......thou it seems mundane, today as I look back it has left me with a few sweet memmories of the time spent my mom...who else can u shout at just cause u r felling cranky n expect the person to take it in stride....who else but your own pyaari maa!!

The onam day started with poor m having to wake up at 4!! Ho yeah I was awake n kicking at tht time of the day.........Wht all things do parents make their litlle girls do....sob sob! But having a hot cup of tea sitting put on your bed this early in the morning is just pure bliss....hmmmmmmmmmmmm !Thnx to mom ofcourse....its again after 2 years tht am being pampered with a bed tea(save for the occasional short trips to hyd)! The other enticing propspect to waking up tht early was the early morning drive....the joy of having pleasent cold air blowing on your face as you zip along traffic free roads is just uncomaprable! N after reading the above few linesif u think am gonna get converted to an early bird...sorry no luck there! Am much happier sleeping away cosying up to my hubbs :-D

After this long sojourn a quick recap of the day...woke up early morn to a cup of hote tea(yeah tht is all we hv read uptill now in this long sriteup) n yeap yeap I had mentioned of a long romantic drive.....so now lemme break the bubble n confess that the drive was no romantic long drive....we were headed to the vegetable market.....ho ho ho!!! But again there is something soothing about the site of a buzzing market of fresh vegetables, fruits n flowers after being subjected day in n out to the neon-lit shopping malls!!

So after this vegetable-fruits-flowers-shopping we head back home after picking up my little niece n her mom!! Ho yeah nothing like a small girl to make ur celebration complete.....N drive u mad too especially in the chaos tht the house was :)

After this so-very-ordinary things of everyday we now get into the 'onam-mode',...of putting up a pookalam (Coutesy my cousin....much better than the amateurish work of last time hey).... n getting a yummy sadhya ready....My conributiond to Sadhya?? Made a yummy kheer couurtesy 'Ready-to-Cook' MTR kheer mix....hmm n for all of u laughing at this come on now its the spirit tht matters......

So this in a gist is wht Onam this year was abt......simple but warm n loving symobilc of the life we gonna start at our new home(hopefully)!!

The pookalam!

The yummy Sadhya

N the best part of Onam!!

Onam 2008...A quick Recap!!

Ho yeap u read the subject line rt.....This post is a recap of the last Onam...a good one year gone by now! But the magic of the first onam we spent together is so special (n so silly) tht it gotta be captured for posterity sakes :)

Before we dive into the subject a brief decko of us an year back(not that we are any better now)......We were this still-newly-married :-p couple both with no sense of responsibility or a Trace of domesticity.....cooking(at least the kerala.....not tht am good at any kinda cooking), traditions, poojas were all geek n Latin to us...But wht the hell we wernt gonna accet defeat for such a small hurdle!

Onam started the day before with us going flower-vegetable shopping. A word(or rather line) of praise for my hubbs here....In those days I was working in electronic city while my hubbs office was on banergatta road n poor fella drove all the way to my office to pick me upn then we drove back all the way to banergatta road n beyond for the shopping......those of u who know the distance n the chaos during peak hours will know wht am speaking of!! Now before u go "So sweet" I guess it was the prospect of my tantrums tht made him do it...Ho yeap it seems like am being this one big bully of a wife....huh huh!

So back to the subject we reach back home loaded with kilos of vegetables(ho ho didnt i tell u we were clueless). N then of course the hubbs of mine had to drive me around to different shops before I picked up a dress well after 10 in the night(after coaxing the shop keeper to keep it open for just a few more mins)......

Back at home it was time for pookalam......huh huh confession time again! Its the first time both of us were getting a hands on in putting up pookalam!! But of course the enthusiast in us start it up with lots of gesto n energy n after a lot of error n trial we came up with this! Pretty amateurish hey!!

N now comes the D-day...but D-day or not we wake up at our own Sweet time..... N before we realize its temple time which meant dressing up in 'Kasuvu-Sari'....n those of u who know me must be wondering 'Kausuvu Sari N u'...ho yeah the same thot ran thru mine!! But thank heavens I did a cover-up job which stood the test of time(referring to a period of 1 hour to visit the temple n get back :))

Ha tht accomplished it was time for some kerala cooking......ha ha h!! N tht meant frantic calls to mummies back home n of course recipes courtesy good old google! The end result...we came up with a full fledged menu starting from sambar, olan, erisheri, cabbage thoran, poolinji, payam, ooperi.....but was it palatable........lemme leave tht to u to guess!! N dont miss the beer mugs in the pic.....now tht made sadhya complete :)

So tht was was our first onam together.....clueless, amateur but complete...in a sense tht is exactly wht we are :)

PS: The bakras for the day were good old sabs-bins! But I gotta confess again...after this flurry of activity we were so drained tht we had no energy to play good hosts :)

The 'Great August Rush'

Ha n there goes the month of August.....N what a month it has been!! Starting off with the hubbs birthday, chasing against time to get our new flat ready , the hoard of relatives n guests, the much -looked forward to house warming, the anniversary and what better way to end it but with moving in into the new abode.....ho yeap thts some month!

N not to be left behind comes the month of September...Our first Onam together at the new home - pookalam, sadhya, Birthday of my sis(sad thing being she couldn't make it here thnx ????) and the short but beautiful trip to Nandi hills (N for those of u from B'lore wondering wht could be so gr8 about a trip to Nandi hills of all the places plz watch this space)!!

N the best of all is tht after 2 good long years of marriage I got to spend some quality time with my mom...well doesnt distance make your heart go fonder...

N but of course each of these deserve a blog in themselves...at least for posterity sake...so hopefully u gonna c a flutter of activity in this space....... The other thing tht strikes me as I writ this post is the fact tht when u hv so many things cramped into such a short frame of time the result is chaos...you cannot afford to sit back n relish each momment...its but a mad rush from one event to other!!

PS1: N for those who spoilt these beautiful moments in my life...just remember wht goes around comes around too (Did I get the line rt :) )

PS2: I know the post would have been complete if it had been sprinkled with a pic or two but the lazy buggers tht we are, we havent yet got around to do it!