Travel Vaccine Recommendation for South Africa

 Two years back, my friend got an offer to work on-site. It was to South Africa.

At first he was in idea to take it up, but on knowing that we have to get yellow fever vaccine couple of weeks before travel and mosquitoes are high in South Africa , he preferred to say offshore.

Picture Courtesy:  from Google images. 

I was thinking, when Africa and South America has this yellow fever vaccine for outsiders, Asia (of course India) should have something else.

On checking internet, I could find a list posted by a Doctor.

http://dr-razavi.blogspot.in/2006/03/travel-vaccine-recommendations-for.html

The list would be quite scary to some, but to me it was like a breeze.

We had born in this country, had most of these vaccines and enjoying our life.

--Dhanesh Amma

DD's favourite game

Deepak is  crawling around the house, however Dhanesh runs. Still, what ever Dhanesh takes,  be it a paper/pencil or toy/gadget or  tricycle/bicycle, Deepak demands for it.  When Dhanesh gives the stuff he has in his hand to Deepak and picks up a new one, Deepak is right behind him for grabbing that too. There was no item where both could work together.


I was under impression that it would take a year still for Dhanu & Deepu to play together without grabbing from each other. I was wrong.


They found a common game to play together. Guess what ? It's the electrical two way switch along the cot side.


Deepak would hold a hand to the wall and use the other hand to knock the switches. Dhanesh would be right near by, to switch it ON if Deepak switches it OFF.


This has become their favorite time-pass event.


below is the picture clicked when DD's [ Dhanesh & Deepak  in short ] were busy with their play.

What? checking if the image is not loaded correctly ? Image loaded correctly. It is a blank image.
DD's DD [Dhanesh Deepak 's Dear Dad in short] felt not to put kids image on web and I too felt the same.


We might change our decision in future. So for now, picture is left to your imagination.


--Dhanesh Amma

Marriage and Plantain trees

In past generation , marriages did not happen in a mandapam / party hall. The event was happening at the bride's home. If the house was not big enough to hold all the relatives, a pandhal was made in the street and marriages happened.  The bride would then be taken to the groom's house by the groom family. My parents wedding happened this way.


Later, people started to book a hall for conducting marriage. Still, After marriage relatives would then be visiting the bride & groom house. So a pandhal was kept in front of the house, with the welcome board. This would be easy for the visitors to identify the house. lot of spaces would be used in front of house for the visitors to sit and chat under the roof.


When streets were very narrow or houses on the Highway road, no chances of putting big pandhal. Two full grown plantain tree would be tied on entrance with the serial lights welcome board. Full-grown plantain trees are used as they are Eternal tree of evergreen plenty for endless generations!


Recently I came across one house in Chennai in my neighborhood. I could not stop laughing. They had covered the plantain tree with the white sac. Picture shown below.



Reason is obvious. Our area is fully occupied with residential who have cattle's at home. They would be walking along streets all day. To avoid those cattle's damaging the plantain tree's trunk, they have covered it with sac.




Either the people at home, wanted to avoid bad luck due to cattle (they call it as bad sagunam if the tree fell down before the function)  or wanted to safe guard the plantain tree's trunk as it can be used for some other reason post function. At least they believe humans and left the banana part. Else they would have covered that also with sac.


On seeing this, something came to my mind.. Instead of tying a plantain tree and covering with sac, as they rent the welcome board and serial lights, better they rent a plantain tree made of plastic / thermocol. that way cattle wont damage it.


--Dhanesh Amma

Nagerkovil & Nungu sarbath...

 During my childhood days, when we visited to my native, I heard about nungu sarbath. It is available only in the district of Kanyakumari and may be you will find such sarbath stalls till you reach tirunelveli.


 I had tasted it once, the blend of sarbath with ice and nungu was really good. When i informed my best half (yes.. not just better half..) about it, he wanted to taste that.


Below is the picture of sarbath we took during our recent trip there.

Sarbath was horrible. Mainly the reason was, we saw how it was prepared.


We were under impression that they will take the nungu from the big shell , peel of skin and mix it with sarbath and smash it with some sort of smasher or mixer. But to our shock it was not done that way. The lady just took two tablespoon of peeled off nungu pieces with the water and poured them into tumbler directly and pour a tablespoon of sarbath and filled up the remaning space of tumbler with water. mixed it with spoon and handed it to us.


A sarbath without ice.. uhh.. people would say , the chilli bajji if consumed after it cooled down will taste like a sweet cake . How can you drink a juice like this without the chilling. The lady said ice was over.  The water she had in shop was also warm due to the hot climate.


Ultimately we ended up having something which was purely our bad luck. Dhanesh appa emptied the cup as he does not have the habit of wasting food though it does not taste good.


When I was discussing this with my sister and she was telling that there are stalls which will sell fruit juice. Its not the normal fruit juice. I guess it is a mix up of fruit juice. I'm not sure if that is also mixed with sarbath. I said I don't want to try that. By that time, my mother responded that it will be tasty, she had it years back. I replied, to my mom. It tasted good years back like the nungu sarbath I had. Now that will also be horrible. I don't want to try that.


Tips:


* Never look into the process how it is prepared be it the road side stall or hotel. you would not like to eat it if you do so.
* Ask for requirements clearly before placing an order. A Sarbath could not be had without ice, like we have other fruit juices.


-- Dhanesh Amma

குட்டி குறும்பு [3] - வயிறு என்கிட்டே சொல்லுச்சு...

தானேஷ் , தீபக்  ரெண்டு பேருக்கும், டிபன் அல்லது சாப்பாடு என்றால் ரொம்ப கஷ்டமான ஒன்று. அதே நொறுக்கு தீனி என்றால் ரொம்ப இஷ்டம்.

தீபக் இன்னும் பேச ஆரம்பிக்க வில்லை. அதனால் சாப்பாடு என்றால் வாய் இறுக்கமாக மூடிக்கொள்ளும். ஆனால் தானேஷ் , சமத்தாக கொஞ்சம் சாப்பிட்டு விட்டு போதும் என்பான். இன்னும் கொஞ்சம் சாப்பிடு என்றால் வயறு புல்ல் என்பான்.

அப்போ பிஸ்கட் , ஸ்நாக் கேக்க கூடாது என்றால் , தலைய குனிந்து வயிற்றின் கிட்டே வைத்து பின் நிமிர்ந்து , அம்மா வயிறு என்கிட்டே சொல்லுச்சு , தோசை சாப்பாடுக்கு உள்ள இடம் இல்லியாம். ஸ்நாக் அப்புறம் தண்ணி குடிக்க மட்டும் கொஞ்சம் இடம் இருக்காம். அதனால கொஞ்சம் ஸ்நாக் அப்புறம் தண்ணி கொஞ்சம் ஓகே வா அம்மா ? என்றான். நான் அவனை ஓர கண்ணால் பார்த்து சிரித்ததும் , ஓகே சொல்லு அம்மா என்றான். பதில் சொல்லும் வரை விட மாட்டான். அதனால் ஓகே சொல்லி விட்டேன்.

-- தானேஷ் அம்மா

Human Evolution

Ten years back, I found the below type of pictures on the internet for Human evolution.

Five years back, I received one such below , as IT went boom and life is much around with computers.

A year back, life became go-mobile and people started doing all the stuff with smart phones..

I thought people are going crazy.. creating these type of images, as and when a new technology come into place... but... 

last week, I came to see a picture which is completely different from the above two pics.  It had lot of messages in it. Its about man becoming obese by eating too much. The article covered the line saying, earth's resources are being utilized by people, where it is supposed to be consumed by the double the size of current population.

The above picture is surely not good for the human evolution. Eat healthy, at the same time, one should keep body fit.


--Dhanesh Amma

குட்டி குறும்பு [2] - அத்தையை கல்யாணம் பண்ணிக்கிறேன்...

இரண்டு நாள் முன்பு , எங்க திருமண நிகழ்வை டி.வி. யில் போட்டு கட்டினோம். தாணுவிடம் சும்மா கேட்டோம். தம்பி , நீ யாரை கல்யாணம் பண்ணிக்கிற ? உடனே பதில் வந்தது.. "தீபக் தம்பியை கல்யாணம் பண்ணிக்கிறேன்". உடனே நாங்க , பாய் ஒரு கேர்ள் தான் கல்யாணம் பண்ணனும் என்றோம்.

அடுத்த நொடி பதில் வந்தது. "அம்மா நான் உன்னையே கல்யாணம் பண்ணிக்கிறேன்". நாங்க சிரித்து விட்டு சொன்னோம். அம்மாக்கு தான் கல்யாணம் ஆயிடுச்சே. அமைதியாக யோசித்தவன் கேட்டான். "ஷென் அத்தைக்கு கல்யாணம் ஆயிடுச்சா?" நாங்க இல்லை என்றதும் , "அப்போ நான் ஷென் அத்தையை கல்யாணம் பண்ணிக்கிறேன். "

அவங்க அப்பா உடனே, தம்பி நீ அத்தைய கல்யாணம் பண்ண முடியாது , வேணும்னா அத்தை கல்யாணம் ஆனதும் பிறக்கும், அத்தை மகளை கல்யாணம் பண்ணலாம் என்றார். தாணுவுக்கு புரிந்ததா இல்லையா என்று தெரியவில்லை. அவனிடம் ஒரு அமைதி மட்டுமே நிலவியது..

-- தானேஷ் அம்மா