Wuzzzzzzzaaaa!
How are you doing today?
Today is a saturday and I hope you are out having a good time.
I know you like your saturdays. I hope you are surrounded by beer, loud music, dancing, and most importantly people you like.
My saturday started out lazy. I woke up rather late and sat down after a bath and brunch (dosa again, Mum's got lot of maavu around at home to last a lifetime) to get some work done.
I made a call to Kotagiri and figured out some details for the trip. I told them that I would be bringing someone along to take video. I think they are okay with it although I am not sure how the kids would react to a video camera AND a new guy teaching them something strange.
I also found out that the storytelling classes aren't going too well. The kids aren't interested in listening to their teacher read out from Jungle Book. They want something more engrossing. something with pictures I suppose. They prefer reading by themselves. I know that if i told them the story of Jungle book they would love it. But how do i get the teachers to do a good job themselves? Therein lies the challenge.
And then I had an interesting conversation with Janani about relationships. She reads this blog regularly (prolly the only other person to do so) and she observed that something was going on. I confessed it was just a strange obsession of mine that i was indulging in. The we spoke about how we are always trying to please the other person in a relationship until we hit a point where we ask, "whats in it for me?" And then i said its gonna go downhill after that. She pointed out that it gets very exhausting when we indulge in obsessive love, to which i said that most of the time we are hardly aware of it. And even if we are, we convince ourselves that we are pursing something great and continue without too much of introspection. I told her a little bit about my new job but then had to stop conversation because it was lunch time and I had to head out to buay's place.
(I think you should read her recent blogpost about a girl contemplating a dip in a lake. Its very well written.)
Lunch at buay's place was awesome as always. It was chicken kozhambu and roasted chicken. I belted... we were then watching Panchathanthiram on TV for a while and then we headed out.
There was more food in the offing. We stopped at Bajji kadai and had freshly made, super hot, dripping in oil capsicum bajji and vazhakaa bajji.
And then we went to Rado. And I had butterfruit juice while he went for fruit salad with ice cream. Yeah, I know man. We always end up stuffing our faces when we hang out INSPITE of our personal resolutions to lose weight. Haw Haw.
And out of the blue we decided to goto Trade Center to check out the Times automobile fair. In my awesome-O. Thats what he calls my kinetic. we weren't sure if the poor thing would survive the trip. We fueled up and headed towards kathipara. And just before turning towards Nandambakkam, buay had a strange impulse and turned left into the road leading towards St.Thomas Mount.
He said he had been wanting to go there for a long time and BC and him had planned to do it the next time they were in chennai. We stopped next to a nice white house and asked a mallu uncle for directions. He was a handsome man, early forties. With his bulging muscles, in his lungi and banian, i thought he would have given the mallu villains a run for their money. He spoke politely though, without an accent!
A left turn about a hundred metres from his place took us to the road with an upward incline. Raj, you wont believe it! It felt like we had been teleported to a far away small town on the foothills of a mountain range. There were cows lazing around on the badly laid roads, kids running about, countless shrines, and churches and prayer halls and a quick drop in temperature. We then entered the archway and bought a entry token and the steep climb began.
It was just a half a km ride, and as we turned a bend on the road, madras lay bare in front of us. It was like looking at your favorite heroine without make-up, the way she would be at home before going to sleep? It was a whole new perspective of a long worshiped beauty.
"faaaaaaak", buay said. "this is awesome!".
I concurred. It was beautiful. We slowed down and took in the view. I spotted a couple standing near the bend in the road, engrossed in conversation, oblivious to the rest of the world, ignoring the fantastic view. They knew they were at a special place, and were completely at ease.
We then parked the bike and climbed up to the church slowly. An opening in the trees on the right gave way to another magnificent view, and just at that moment a flight came in for landing. It was amazing, Raj!
Then we walked a little up and turned left and I saw a cemetery, with four rows of neatly arranged tombstones, one next to another. They were exactly replicas of each other, the only difference being some had withered bouquets of flowers on them while the others didn't.
64, 82, 90, 29, 18, 46...The ages of the people laying in rest there was written on their tombstones.
Then we climbed the stairs and there was a wide open ground and the whole of madras was visible in front of us. We could see the airport on one side, the Equestrian academy on the other, and we even spotted the Hyatt far away. It was cloudy and there was a cool breeze.
I felt alone. I had only one thought in my mind. That if i ever could, i would bring you here. And sit with you and while you took in the view and watched planes take off and land with a childish fascination, chattering incessantly, i would stare at you with contentment and savour the moment and store it away for those lonely days that await me later in life.
The shrine itself was nice, and functional. Not particularly pretty. I suppose they figured that with such a wonderful view, that would touch people's hearts there was really no need to try hard.
Strangely we observed that there was a Kodimaram, and a thaer (a temple chariot) and bells and other things that are certainly Hindu in their origins.I haven't visited too many churches but i am sure this is an anomaly and not a norm.
We spent a little longer there, thanking ourselves for the detour that we took.
And as we climbed down, all I could think of was... you.
We then went to the trade center and checked out the cars over there. Raj, you would have liked it. I am sure you and buay would have had an engaging conversation about cars and i would have stood back and watched you both talk about your favourite topic. We saw a white Audi A8 and a red Audi R6.
There was also a chocolate fair next door but i wasn't really in the mood, plus my tummy was full.
We drove back thru Ramapuram and MGR Nagar and KK Nagar and Ashok Pillar and reached Mambalam. I dropped buay off and came home.
It was a good trip. We had lots of laughs and tripped on everyone on the road....
Its nice to know that your days are packed and so are your evenings. Its good to keep yourself occupied. I know you are good at it. I am happy you are able to talk about your life with people you trust and have an open conversation. And that you are taking a serious effort to move on in life without letting things pull you down.
I am very proud of your work too. Its amazing how much you manage to do with so many constraints and under a lot of pressure. I have always admired your work ethic.
Hope you are okay and hope you are taking care of yourself.
There were lots of things i wanted to write to you about, but as it always happens i get caught in a train of thought and before i depart i forget the things i wanted to write about.
Goodnight, have a great weekend.
Suresh.
How are you doing today?
Today is a saturday and I hope you are out having a good time.
I know you like your saturdays. I hope you are surrounded by beer, loud music, dancing, and most importantly people you like.
My saturday started out lazy. I woke up rather late and sat down after a bath and brunch (dosa again, Mum's got lot of maavu around at home to last a lifetime) to get some work done.
I made a call to Kotagiri and figured out some details for the trip. I told them that I would be bringing someone along to take video. I think they are okay with it although I am not sure how the kids would react to a video camera AND a new guy teaching them something strange.
I also found out that the storytelling classes aren't going too well. The kids aren't interested in listening to their teacher read out from Jungle Book. They want something more engrossing. something with pictures I suppose. They prefer reading by themselves. I know that if i told them the story of Jungle book they would love it. But how do i get the teachers to do a good job themselves? Therein lies the challenge.
And then I had an interesting conversation with Janani about relationships. She reads this blog regularly (prolly the only other person to do so) and she observed that something was going on. I confessed it was just a strange obsession of mine that i was indulging in. The we spoke about how we are always trying to please the other person in a relationship until we hit a point where we ask, "whats in it for me?" And then i said its gonna go downhill after that. She pointed out that it gets very exhausting when we indulge in obsessive love, to which i said that most of the time we are hardly aware of it. And even if we are, we convince ourselves that we are pursing something great and continue without too much of introspection. I told her a little bit about my new job but then had to stop conversation because it was lunch time and I had to head out to buay's place.
(I think you should read her recent blogpost about a girl contemplating a dip in a lake. Its very well written.)
Lunch at buay's place was awesome as always. It was chicken kozhambu and roasted chicken. I belted... we were then watching Panchathanthiram on TV for a while and then we headed out.
There was more food in the offing. We stopped at Bajji kadai and had freshly made, super hot, dripping in oil capsicum bajji and vazhakaa bajji.
And then we went to Rado. And I had butterfruit juice while he went for fruit salad with ice cream. Yeah, I know man. We always end up stuffing our faces when we hang out INSPITE of our personal resolutions to lose weight. Haw Haw.
And out of the blue we decided to goto Trade Center to check out the Times automobile fair. In my awesome-O. Thats what he calls my kinetic. we weren't sure if the poor thing would survive the trip. We fueled up and headed towards kathipara. And just before turning towards Nandambakkam, buay had a strange impulse and turned left into the road leading towards St.Thomas Mount.
He said he had been wanting to go there for a long time and BC and him had planned to do it the next time they were in chennai. We stopped next to a nice white house and asked a mallu uncle for directions. He was a handsome man, early forties. With his bulging muscles, in his lungi and banian, i thought he would have given the mallu villains a run for their money. He spoke politely though, without an accent!
A left turn about a hundred metres from his place took us to the road with an upward incline. Raj, you wont believe it! It felt like we had been teleported to a far away small town on the foothills of a mountain range. There were cows lazing around on the badly laid roads, kids running about, countless shrines, and churches and prayer halls and a quick drop in temperature. We then entered the archway and bought a entry token and the steep climb began.
It was just a half a km ride, and as we turned a bend on the road, madras lay bare in front of us. It was like looking at your favorite heroine without make-up, the way she would be at home before going to sleep? It was a whole new perspective of a long worshiped beauty.
"faaaaaaak", buay said. "this is awesome!".
I concurred. It was beautiful. We slowed down and took in the view. I spotted a couple standing near the bend in the road, engrossed in conversation, oblivious to the rest of the world, ignoring the fantastic view. They knew they were at a special place, and were completely at ease.
We then parked the bike and climbed up to the church slowly. An opening in the trees on the right gave way to another magnificent view, and just at that moment a flight came in for landing. It was amazing, Raj!
Then we walked a little up and turned left and I saw a cemetery, with four rows of neatly arranged tombstones, one next to another. They were exactly replicas of each other, the only difference being some had withered bouquets of flowers on them while the others didn't.
64, 82, 90, 29, 18, 46...The ages of the people laying in rest there was written on their tombstones.
Then we climbed the stairs and there was a wide open ground and the whole of madras was visible in front of us. We could see the airport on one side, the Equestrian academy on the other, and we even spotted the Hyatt far away. It was cloudy and there was a cool breeze.
I felt alone. I had only one thought in my mind. That if i ever could, i would bring you here. And sit with you and while you took in the view and watched planes take off and land with a childish fascination, chattering incessantly, i would stare at you with contentment and savour the moment and store it away for those lonely days that await me later in life.
The shrine itself was nice, and functional. Not particularly pretty. I suppose they figured that with such a wonderful view, that would touch people's hearts there was really no need to try hard.
Strangely we observed that there was a Kodimaram, and a thaer (a temple chariot) and bells and other things that are certainly Hindu in their origins.I haven't visited too many churches but i am sure this is an anomaly and not a norm.
We spent a little longer there, thanking ourselves for the detour that we took.
And as we climbed down, all I could think of was... you.
We then went to the trade center and checked out the cars over there. Raj, you would have liked it. I am sure you and buay would have had an engaging conversation about cars and i would have stood back and watched you both talk about your favourite topic. We saw a white Audi A8 and a red Audi R6.
There was also a chocolate fair next door but i wasn't really in the mood, plus my tummy was full.
We drove back thru Ramapuram and MGR Nagar and KK Nagar and Ashok Pillar and reached Mambalam. I dropped buay off and came home.
It was a good trip. We had lots of laughs and tripped on everyone on the road....
Its nice to know that your days are packed and so are your evenings. Its good to keep yourself occupied. I know you are good at it. I am happy you are able to talk about your life with people you trust and have an open conversation. And that you are taking a serious effort to move on in life without letting things pull you down.
I am very proud of your work too. Its amazing how much you manage to do with so many constraints and under a lot of pressure. I have always admired your work ethic.
Hope you are okay and hope you are taking care of yourself.
There were lots of things i wanted to write to you about, but as it always happens i get caught in a train of thought and before i depart i forget the things i wanted to write about.
Goodnight, have a great weekend.
Suresh.
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