My Grand ma

Mostly I get chance to visit my grandma during my summer vacation. She is more of a strict person those days. Grand ma house was on the main road. It is almost house arrest for us, as we can't play outside home. She wont allow us, as there are chances that we would want to cross road and get injured.

I had not shown much interest in visiting my native for various reason. Mainly the water and food taste much differ from the regular one which i have almost for rest of the year. Next we don't get chance to watch tv. Visit to distant relatives house with my parents were a boring one for me.

The other one big challenge was that, grand ma house did not have a bathroom. In those days, men, women and kids have the habit of taking bath in river. So only toilets were present in the houses. Each house was built in traditional kerala type. Back side of house will have open roof. They call it thotti or thodam , roof is kept open with iron rods. Sun light and rain fall into the back side of house.

If women and kids can't go to river means, they take bath in that thodam. I don't prefer bath in river but I can't bath in thodam for one reason. If the main door and next door are kept open, view of road is open and people who walk on road and who travel in bus can see us taking bath.

I would refuse to take bath there, and my mother would convince saying you are still a kid. My grandma who would be busy at home in preparing food for us, would be in kitchen. I would close all door and get ready for bath and my grand ma would keep the door open and go out to buy some vegetables. I would call my mother and ask her to close door again and again. Luckily these issues were solved in couple of years as we started to stay in uncle home and take bath in morning where bathroom were present.

Uncle home had a big water tank. Since we can't go in morning , we packed dresses and would go in late evening after dinner , sleep in night, morning wake up , take bath and come back to grandma house. Grand ma used to convince telling water is sufficient here and we can get bore water from nearby house etc. She was feeling sad that we are not staying with her.

I was happy that I got escaped from open bathroom. Staying in grand ma home or uncle home had not made much difference for me. My grand ma does not spend much time with me. It is not like she does not love to move with grand kids, but she does not have much time for it. She would be busy the entire day with house chores.

I had not known much details about my grand ma other than her name and age. Now I feel , I have missed spending time with her during my child hood days. Now she is very old and she cannot speak much, I do not want to disturb her.

Grand ma is a mother of ten kids. Five boys and Five girls. Hmm.. i used to think whether she had been a  baby making machine or what. The challenge is not just delivering kids, but bringing them up. Surely she had done tremendous effort, in that  no washing machine, mixer , grinder age. That physical work had actually given her strength.

My father used to tell that , they had hen at home and the eggs of hen would be given to kids on rotation. There is no chance of giving eggs to all kids at a time.

Life at her age was not that complicated like now, where we run school after school for admission. Still she gave education to all of her kids and they were settled well.

Gone are the days and it can't be back. I had missed interacting with my Grand ma.

What all I have described here is about my paternal grand mother. Almost my interaction with maternal grand mother is also the same.

--Dhanesh Amma

Sparrows at our home in chennai

The house we stay currently is bit old type. They have the ventilation in balcony walls with holes. The sparrow come and lay eggs there. Their houses are left untouched as they come in for every season.

It is a lovely morning to wake up and hear the chirps of the sparrow. 

Last year, the bird hatched few eggs. We heard the additional count of chirps and the parent sparrow was feeding the little ones. We could see only the head part of the sparrows.

If the bird tries to fly before its feathers are well grown, it fall down from the roof and eventually dies. Last time, one such bird fell down, but survived to live. Parent bird was searching for its little one in nest and kept on making sound. Below is the little bird picture captured at that time.

 

We took great effort in putting it back to its nest, but after half an hour it again tried to fly and fell down.

I also came to know from neighbors that, once fell down means, the elder bird will not take the little one though it is put back in nest. I am not sure how far it is true, but as the bird fell from such height again and again, it is tough to survive.

This year, sparrows were lucky I believe. No such bad incident like last year.

I was lucky enough to see the parent bird watching the little one learning to fly. Below is the captured images.

Little bird                                                                                                                                    Parent bird

--Dhanesh Amma

Dhanu's Policy

I have the habit of telling about Dhanu's conversation with me, to his did. Recently, when i told what Dhanu told me, Dhanu interrupted and told, not to tell dad what he told me.

I was thinking that he was quite shy to hear that. After that in another occation, when his dad told me about his conversation with Dhanu during his bike trip, Dhanu said, I told already not to tell others what i speak.

He also does not like me saying about him to neighbour or others even though it is about his positive side.

Hmmm... I am not sure what he will say when he comes to know about my blog and what ever I have spoken about him. especially the kutti kurumbu series.

I believe, I have some five more years for him to know about this blogging and to understand about his mom and dad blog. By that time, he would have forgotten what he had spoke, when he was a kid. I believe, he would be happy that we have recorded his childhood memories and it would bring up smile on his face when he reads them.

--Dhanesh Amma

நிலா சிநேகம்

மழலை பருவத்தில் அன்னை
அறிமுகம் செய்தாள் உன்னை

நிலா என்று சொல்லி அமுதூட்டினாள்
நம் சிநேகம்  ஆரம்பித்தது அன்று

ஆதவனிடம்  இருந்து  இரவல் வாங்கி
அம்புலி நீ அழகாய் தோன்றினாய் 

தனிமை மறக்க என்னுடன் நடந்தாய்
என்னை மகிழ்விக்க கண்ணாமூச்சி ஆடினாய்

சில நாள் கோபம் கொண்டு
சந்திக்க மறுப்பாய்

சில நாள் மகிழ்ச்சி  கொண்டு
முழு மதியாய் சிரிப்பாய்

இன்றும் அதே சிநேகத்துடன்
என் மகனுடன் நீ... 

-- தானேஷ் அம்மா 

My pizza experience(s)

It happened a decade ago, I was invited for a job treat of one of colleague. It was decided that lunch at pizza hut in nungambakkam. I have heard that pizza's are costly. Of course treat are aimed at high budget of the sponsor-er.

I was kind of thrilled, as it will be my first attempt for pizza. People were discussing, if pizza will give a feeling of full stomach. We were informed that , pizza hut sells the pasta's and it is not that costly as pizza's.

A table was booked and we reached the venue on time. We had a look at the different pasta's and fresh vegetable salads. I did not want to give a try on those, as it was much like different form of noodles and macroni's which i had tasted already. We ordered for pizza and waited for it to come. They gave normal water and asked if we need mineral water. Since people preferred chill water, it was ordered. They then started to keep plates, spoon, fork and blunt knife (This is for cutting the pizza).

There came the most awaited pizza. To be frank, it was not that easy to eat the pizza. I had a tough time in cutting the pizza with knife. The big pizza already had the cut lines for making our work easy, yet the pie cannot be eaten as such with the help of fork. We were struggling with knife and fork.

After few minutes, one of my lady collegue said, I am going to eat with hands. she kept the knife and fork down and took out a pie with hand and started eating. After her, some took her way and others remained to use the fork and knife telling this is how we are supposed to eat pizza.

I forgot to mention about one more important thing here. They had the tomato sauce, chilli flakes and the pepper flakes for adding flavor on top of pizza.


After that, I have had quiet a few experiences with pizza at office for birthday treats. It was ordered and delivered at office. We all had it using hands. It was more like, eating the puff with tomato sauce on paper plate.

Years after that, i got chance to eat pizza out at anna nagar with my spouse. Dhanu missed the chance as he was at native with his grand parents.  Two things were missing there. First being drinking water and second was knife and fork. People either ordered for bottle water or cool drink to replace the normal water.
We wanted  normal water and it arrived after several requests.

Next, we had our next pizza experience in our native, at Domino's. I was surprised when our ordered items arrived. It was all packed in the boxes as I could see when it was delivered at office. They call it as Take away. We can either have it there or take home and eat. In addition to the pizza and pasta's they were selling ice-cream and chocolate cakes. It was a happy dinner time with family member's.

Recently, due to pestering from Dhanu, we had visited pizza hut in kilpauk for dinner. We ordered for "Meal for 2" (1 Medium pizza, 4 pieces garlic bread with a cup of pepsi). At the billing counter , A message was  stuck saying "Sorry, We have stopped giving tomato sauce". We asked them, if we have to pay and buy the tomato sauce. The billing person said, No sir, we are adding the sauce to the pizza so it is not necessary for buying sauce. It was also packed as it is for Take away. No water, fork and knife.

We can have a grand non-veg feast for three, for the amount we had spent for "Meal for 2" pizza. But Dhanu was happy to have the pizza than the Indian food we had bought home for dinner. Still I told him that , pizza should not be had frequently and not to demand as he did this time.

--Dhanesh Amma

Photo of Tom & Jerry

The real tom and jerry cannot replace my favourite Walt Disney's tom and jerry show.

-- Dhanesh Amma

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Here's english version for Non-Tamil readers.

Gandhi Struggled for Country,

Country is Struggling for Gandhi Currency.

--Dhanesh Amma