Vaide’s memories

13 Grihapravesam at Kodambakkam Pudur and after          The year is 1965 and I am in class 6. Grihapravesam preparations are in full swing . Just 5 days to go and we receive a telegram  "all leave cancelled". From the newspapers we learn China has intruded into  Ladakh. We know that Appa is in the Ladakh region.          Stoically every one goes about their job. Our  Periappa and Periamma officiate and do the honours. One relative comments that the house is like a pigeon hole. Comparing it no doubt with our ancestral house at Tennur. Patti returns to Trichy and me meet her again only after 4 years.                 Actually by today's standard it is a good property. MIGH in the TNHB records . It has two bedrooms on the ground floor and one on the first floor. Set in almost 3 grounds , it is perfect for Amma to indulge in her hobby..gardening.           ...

12.  The extended family.               For some time now I have been observing Tamil FB writers from different backgrounds. . A person with a rural or small town background usually goes on and on about the merits of his  upbringing , the pleasures they are sure city dwellers miss. Mostly it is about living in an extended family. Well everyone cannot be country born. We too have a place in the scheme of things. I think unconsciously I am writing my story just to offset theirs.               However I am not a seasoned writer so I do tend  to forget something essential.              Arakkonam Thatha is in the Railways( usually in Andhra ) our sittis  are just about 4 and 6 years older than us. They do visit us off and on. The anchor for our lives is however our Trichy patti. Every year wearing narmadi saree she would be seen off at the Trichy junction . ...

Cooped up 11                 Licking our wounds we shift to a Abhiramapuram.           Please allow me to tell you here that , that family was an aberration rather than the norm. Army families are never ever brought up on caste lines. Basic religion yes but no overt displays  . All religions were equal.In fact since Appa was in the Sikh regiment we would often go to the gurudwara at the back of our house near Sun Theatre . Okay I will confess that it was for the ghee dripping wheat halwa prasad.              Here in Abhiramapuram we are on the first floor of a house. Very small flower garden . No fountain or playing space. No place for Amma’s vegetable garden.             I remember people saying that the house near the bend on our road in T. Nagar belonged to Gemini and Savitri.  Here however we are in exalted company . Opposite is Cho's fat...

The serpent enters 10           The serpent enters in the form of a family. The ground floor of our house is vacant on and off. We are hardly aware of the residents there  as it is usually a small family with a baby or toddler.          Now here is a family of six children ,one boy ,five girls and their parents. The girls do not go to school with us . This should have alerted us. We are so naive. Our friendly overtures are snubbed. They would all huddle together in the front garden and sit with their mother.               Their games were  not ours , the idiom of their language not ours. Always ready to pull us down, our school, our eating habits our intelligence level. Now for the first time we learn of the C word which is the bane of our society.                 More than all this ,what differentiates them most is their utter dread of their fathe...

1 to 9 of childhood memories    Appa and his second love. (1)      Even when in his late 70s and early 80s Appa would walk from Ashok Nagar to my house at Rameswaram Road T. Nagar.        If you know the lay of the land you would know that you have to take a turn on Lake view Road go to  station road  then over the Mambalam stn.overbridge and you are there at the junction of Ranganathan street and Rameswaram Road.         However Appa would always  continue walking on Lake View Road upto the Doraisamy subway , climb the stairs and enter our Road at the other end.          Wonder why?         There is a vadai shop on the Doraisamy bridge where he would get his second love keerai vadai.           Don't underestimate his skill in getting what he wants. Now that he is wheel chair bound and I live with him at Ashoknag...