If there were a tomorrow...

I frequented her house as her daughter and I were classmates. More than classmates, best friends. I needed no occasion to sleep over at her place. Even my sudden visits would be responded by delicious food & lots of chatting. All this, even when she would have just returned from school, tired of listening to the noise little ones make.

I remember the one time when I went. She opened the door saying, “I knew you would not let Gayu alone at this time. I knew you would come to pep her up.” Her eyes were giving away the truth that she was holding her tears. She was a great mother.

As I moved out of the city, my trips to her place dwindled. Sporadic, but yet periodic. This time I stayed over at her place, the house was full of guests. It was her daughter’s wedding after-all. On the Wedding day morning, she pleaded that I cajole he daughter to wear the poo-jadai she had bought. After the wedding, she blessed that I get married soon too… I noticed the moistening of her eyes then.

Shortly, I got married… she was not present, but her wishes came along with her husband, and mails from her daughter. She was bed-ridden. I couldn’t see her, but I know her eyes were wet again. I promised myself I would see her when I go back home for Diwali.

But alas, this time she left my eyes drenched….

Mysore - the Dassera Splendour

I am just back after an eventful and most looked forward to trip to Mysore. Being a 4-day long weekend, Hubs and I took off to Mysore to check out the Navarathri festivities in the city. We amusingly took a Rs.19 ticket to Shrirangapattana and decided to move on to Mysore by bus after sight seeing there. At Shrirangapattana, we first visited the Ranganathaswamy temple. After a quick and easy darshanam, we moved on to other places. Among places we saw were Tipu Sultan’s place of death, tipu’s summer palace – which now house a museum, Gumbaz –which has the burial chamber of Tipu. As the burning sun pierced our bodies, we decided to head straight to Sangama which is the point where a branch of the river Cauvery re-unites with the main course, and take a dip. Unfortunately, Friday being Mahalaya Amavasya, the p[lace was full of people engaged in carrying out rituals for their ancestors. Unhappy but yet hopeful, we went on to Nimishamba temple. Though we didn’t enter the temple, we had a great time playing in the river water flowing behind the temple. After lolling in the cool waters for more than an hour, we very unwillingly carried on our journey towards Mysore.

Mysore that evening was peaceful with nothing much to do except visiting a couple of houses. However we were quite enthusiastic and all set to materialize our talakkadu plan for the next day. Come Saturday morning, my poor BIL had a problem with his bike and by the time it was fixed, it was quite late to start a journey so far. So, with no further delay, plans changed and 4 bikes and 8 humans hit the road towards Balmuri. The super awesome thing about this was Balmuri being much closer, Amma and Appa also agreed to join. We just about drenched ourselves in the water there and then moved further down to Edamuri falls. This place had a nice waterfall, safe and large at once for a family to enjoy their day. Having spent a couple of hours bouncing in the water, getting a natural massage by the force of the falling water, with all the slipping, laughter, cheer and joy, we left for home, tired and famished. We stopped by at a restaurant for a very late lunch.

Back home all of us slept like logs at whatever place we could find and only woke up late to take a small bike ride to nearby places to check out the lighting which made the city look bridal. We went a couple of circles away and the first time as it was for me, the feast for my eyes had me yelling with excitement.

Day 3 at Mysore started off with a puja at home followed by a heavy meal of delicious Bissi Bele Bhath in company of 4 of our cousins and an aunt. Early evening, Hubs and I visited the much talked about flower show and I must say it was worth all the talk. The Mahishasura made of roses was spectacular as were the various flowers. I loved most the vegetable garden as I saw for the first time how all my favourite vegetables looked as they clung on to their guardian looking forward to be picked and tossed into a tawa.

Later we went to Chamundi Hills. Now, I had visited this place before but today our intention was to catch the lighting in the city from atop the hill. Half way up the hill it was pouring cats and dogs. Hubs continued riding even as the rain drops pierced at our skin. Once atop, the hot cuppa tea was relieving. Since there wasn’t much crowd at the temple we were able to have a quick darshan and we were on our way downhill. We had to wait about 15 minutes before we witnessed the breathtaking sight of the city lights coming on. The palace looked divine even as the rest of the city, adorned with lights across each and every road was glimmering.

The last event for the day was to be the Yuva Dassera which everyone told me would be an experience of a lifetime. The crowd was huge when we reached the ground. The singer for the day was Shreya Ghoshal. The show was quite a disappointment for everyone else more than me because Shreya sang melodious numbers one after the other giving no opportunity for the crowd to even tap their feet. As she progressed from one song to another, the gathering was slowly disappearing. We too left for home after the first 5 songs.

Today we were to head back for Bangalore, leaving behind the festivities and coming back to mundane reality. We however managed a quick trip to Bombe Mane which is a handicraft emporium. They had arranged an exhibition of traditional dolls for the 9 days of Navarathri. The only thing I could wish when I was there was that I were a baby who could throw a tantrum and wail until somebody bought me everything that I liked (…which was almost everything on display). There were depictions of the various stories of mythology, a model of the highly regarded Dassera procession at Mysore, and stray idols of all hindu deities in their leisure.

As I boarded the train to Bangalore my mind was already counting days before next weekend when I will be witnessing the Dassera procession for real.

My childhood & I

I am tired of working second shift. Yea, I know you’d say its better than working double… but this doesn’t suit me either. I know until very recently, I loved working 12 hour days. I never even minded taking client calls in the middle of the night. Buy you see times are different now. I reach office at 12:30 and wait for opportunities when I can run away at 8, not even waiting for my shift hours to complete. Then it doesn’t even matter if I have to sneak away without my Manager’s knowledge or I need to leave myself online to make him believe I am yet at office.

While in the cab I restlessly look at the watch time and again wondering why it takes so long to be home. I literally jump off and run all the way up the stairs. When I reach, I am always jubilant as if my day has just begun. I go on and on with narrations of what happened through the day…. Just like I used to when daddy came back home after a tiring day at work, just like I used to every evening on the way home from school as mummy tugged me occasionally to keep me off the middle of the road, just like I used to when my sis returned after her never-ending tuition classes, just like I used to when I met my cousin after a while…

This mindless chatter that I oh so cherish, I thought was childhood… but I guess this is actually what it means to go back to family.