RGB Monday

Our Colorful Pongal Kolam

Not alone Pongal, any festival or event is not celebrated without drawing Kolam in Tamil culture. Although kolam is a Hindu custom or tradition, drawing a beautiful kolam in front of or in the courtyard of an event venue draws attention and adds charm to it. In Hindu custom, drawing Kolam is a daily activity of a household (mostly the women) in front of their house; until we moved to the 1st floor of our native home, mom used to draw Kolam every day. But now, due to a knee problem and difficulty in waking up early morning, she stopped drawing Kolam; but my aunt continued to draw the kolam on our doorstep, which was common to both of us.

This year's Pongal festival was better than the previous year where the covid and some personal losses took away the festive spirit and celebration mood. Though, this year too, we missed the traditional way of celebration with mud pot Pongal, what made it special was the arrival of the two new nephews. My sister’s (cousin) son, nephew Jeswanth, went to their house to celebrate Pongal while my brother’s son Kavin came here from their maternal home for the Pongal. Now Kavin had gone back, and Jeswanth returned. I hope you guys too had a good festival time if you celebrate Pongal.

My Deepavali celebration Video 2021

I share here a short video on my Deepavali celebration of fireworks. I like fireworks from childhood, and my favorites are night crackers and sky shots. Deepavali is the only time we get a chance to light and watch fireworks; though I only hold up to sparkler, I buy sky shots and fancy fireworks to let someone light on my behalf, and I watch and shoot with interest. The same applied this time, and for a change, my childhood friend (from the neighborhood) lit up the sky shots instead of my cousin, who used to do it yearly, had gone out on a trip. I added some mild 3d effects available with the video editor to make this photos/videos show.

Time to Light - Deepavali

The thought of just a day left for Deepavali brings excitement within. Though the weather wasn't that favorable to celebrate Deepavali - the festival of lights and fireworks - as it kept raining for the last few days and a warning from meteorology that there could be rains across the day of Deepavali. The covid has its share already in defusing the light of Deepavali; the supreme court's guidance has gripped the firework sale, but at masses, these don't matter when purchasing things and celebrating the festival. 

I love rain, and it must keep away drought, but never during the festivals, especially Deepavali. 

I hung rice led serial in our living room for Deepavali 

I see a general feeling of excitement of Deepavali is missing among the people; perhaps their lifestyle changes and influence of gadgets has kept their interest away from the festivals and celebrations. I have fond memories of Deepavali, the most anticipated days of our life - from childhood till now - an inexplicable feeling embraces. Since I grow up lighting fireworks, it has become an inseparable thing during Deepavali, and every year, I buy some fireworks as I enjoy the same. 

During childhood days, we begin celebrating Deepavali a month early to the festival. We buy crackers loosely from the nearby petty shop and burst one by one during the weekends. I recollect how joyful the days are then - with our neighborhood friends, we go for cracker hunting on the day of Deepavali, picking up the unburst crackers on the road to burst. Roaming the street is my favorite pass time, then, and it's fun as we keep talking and walking around the streets in our area.

I miss so many things right away, and when I think back, I feel the pleasure and pain equally. Not only that I miss those days, but I also couldn't make up with the contemporary world, even for the smallest desires and right to be human. Though I buy a variety of fireworks, what I could light was only a sparkler. My world is little with endless vision and works to do, but being a dependent, I could not achieve anything without aid from anyone. 

Hope you all have a Happy and Safe Deepavali! 

Deepavali Shopping

Deepavali or Diwali - the festival of lights - isn't far away! There are many reasons to celebrate Diwali traditionally, and we aren't going into it, but it is one of the grandest festivals celebrated in India. And illuminating lights, which means hope, in other words, is showered all over our lives. 

Festivals are usually associated with people and celebrated together. But being a pandemic time, we are forced to work against that practice of what I believe festivals are. Festivals open doors to new things, like buying new clothes, sweets and anything associated with the same and where could we buy those other than in shops. 

Diwali, being one of the foremost festivals, shopping is unavoidable all over India, and for people living abroad, the shops come up with various discounts and varieties to attract people. I think my last shopping for a festival was perhaps Diwali that was more than 20 years back. I could still remember holding the hand of my parents rush out of Ranganathan street, a shopping street in T.nagar, Chennai, famous for clothing, jewels, and home appliances. 

The popular stores in Chennai like Chennai silks, Pothys, and other parts of the states had already started to rock the television channels with their glistering ads to attract customers. Only Super Saravana Stores Annachi is missing! FYI November 4th is Diwali. 

Today as we complain about seeing the festival rush in the news, we forget we had been one among them then. My parents take new dresses for us only during the festival of Pongal, Deepavali, and Tamil New Year other than the wedding of my uncles and aunt. But these days we avoid festival shopping, and parents visit the stores when they are free, and we need a new dress.

Usually, we don't purchase readymade outfits then, and even today, I wear only stitched clothes according to my comfort. I prefer light color clothes, so I go with any patterns and colors my parents chose. Contrary to me, my brother and other cousins buy banded or trendy clothes. 

Every year for the Ayutha pooja festival - this time October 14th,  my late uncle used to purchase a bunch of clothes for his workers, and it was my mom and aunts do it on his behalf, and it was the big purchase we do. After new clothes, sweets, and snacks, lighting diyas, Diwali is incomplete without fireworks or crackers. 

Since fireworks are my favorite, people who disagree on using fireworks should spare me. These days my only purchase for Deepavali is fireworks. Thanks to the availability of crackers online, I could easily choose the firework I like from the laptop/mobile; the firework is either sent to the home or a nearby freight warehouse where we collect in person.

Many YouTubers these days are busy making fireworks reviews and promoting stores that sell crackers at discounted prices; I chose the most reliable of them. I purchased crackers from Modern Crackers, which sell fireworks online at an 82% offer, but I don't believe their words, and for me, the price was fair enough to purchase. 

The first-time purchase with them went smooth, and they were kind enough to answer the queries and delivered the parcel to the nearest freight warehouse. From there, dad picked it up. As usual, I avoided loud crackers and went behind the cheerful fancy fireworks that emit less pollution than before, known as green crackers. Some crackers bear that symbol on the boxes, and some don't, but they seem to belong to the same. 

I hope you guys have a safe purchase this Diwali season following all the protocols of wearing masks, social distancing, and sanitizing. While celebrating the Deepavali happily, we should not forget those making this possible - the doctors, nurses, and frontline workers with whose cooperation the covid had brought down to the least affected. Moreover, with many sensible people and followers of the rite of the covid protocol.

Thank you

#deepavalishopping 

Masks and Events

Masks have become mandatory in the period of the pandemic. Just because I didn't go out much, I did not experience the difficulties of wearing a mask much - except going through my brother's engagement and marriage last year, and the baby showers of my cousin at the beginning of the year and sister-in-law's yesterday. Mask doesn't become a matter in my life. I wear a mask only when I go for an evening walk on Sundays or guests visit our home. Since the members in our home follow the protocol sincerely leaves me pretty casual at home, and even seldom do they miss a thing or two, I remind them in earnest. 

The difficulty I experience - wearing a mask - is most difficult to speak and respond through a smile. It's not easy for me to lift my hands above the elbow unless I use a board or the wheelchair tray to support the hands, so usually, my response to those gestures by hands to say hi or bye is replay through a smile and headshake.  I got mild neck pain yesterday at the sister-in-law's baby shower responding to the relatives and friends visited the venue. I wore a mask the entire occasion, though it wasn't much difficult to complain rather than talking and responding to the guests, I hesitated to speak and converse wearing the mask. 

I saw two kinds of people at the event, those who wore the mask and those don't. And there's a third kind that masks the mouth alone or covers their cheeks. It has been proved that the events like these are the spreading ground of Covid, and keeping this in mind, we invited only close relatives and friends to count about 100 total, but it reached out of hand to about 150 members. 

I decided to stay in a corner to keep distance myself from others. I also minded them neither they check me nor not; I tried to stay away until finding me on their own. I like to interact with people and hear stories from their corners, and occasions like these are bridges to connect with people from distant relatives and friends, but now it is out of reach due to pandemic block. Though we know it's a temporary block, the occasion like these are limited in my life as I don't attend every event that takes place in our family, the pandemic has suppressed the leftover chances. 

The venue (of the event) is close to my house, so I went there in my wheelchair, and the hall located on ground level made my attendance easy. My uncle accompanied me to and fro the hall, And also, the event ended well, and those who could not attend the wedding (due to the cyclone then) made a visit to bless the couple. It's also one of the reasons for the rise in the number of visitors. 

Instead of turning better, the situation in our state continues to be the same or to say the cases of covid is slightly rose in last few days increases the anxiety. This event was something possible only because of the decrease in covid cases and relaxed lockdown. It's all in our hands to make such events possible only if all followed the protocol and sustain self-discipline.

Idol of the year - Ganesh Chaturthi

Contrary to the present cloudy weather, yesterday was sunny and a bit hot, yet I saw a beautiful sky over the evening in accompany of altocumulus clouds with mild orange sunset that went hide behind a building. For some time now, there's been balanced weather of the sunny morning and rainy evening due to the upper air circulation transforms into super cool weather, which isn't usually like before. 

The Ganesh Chaturthi - aka Vinayaka Chaturti, in short, is the birthday of Ganesh, who doesn't need an intro as being a prime deity of the Hindu religion - celebrates the arrival of Ganesh to earth from   Kailash, believed to be the abode of Siva. Every year we place an idol of Ganesh, made of clay, at home to worship on this day, and in the morning, dad bought a clay idol from a roadside shop -  the temporary stalls that pop up during the festival times - worshiped; offering special ingredient to the lord and ate our lunch along with those. 

And later in the evening, we dissolved the clay idol in a bucket of water rather than dissolve it in a nearby water body as per the ritual. We adapted to this method 12 years ago to preserve the waterbody and use the muddy water for gardening.  Today many are following this idea, and some went further in producing idols with a seed inside, and by burying the idol, we help growing trees. 

Our idol dropped in a bucket of water to dissolve.

Jeshwanth as Krishna

Krishna Jayanti (Aug 30), or whatever it's called in other parts of India, is a Hindu festival that marks the birth of Krishna, a Hindu god. According to mythology, many tales are told relevant to Krishna; and he's a popular figure among the women for his naughtiness, and for every mother, their child represents Krishna, so on the occasion of Krishna Jayanthi, they dress their children as baby Krishnan. And this seems like a tradition in every Indian Hindu family who has a baby at home. 

I don't remember me dressed as Krishna or have a photo, but my brother had been dressed this way, followed by my cousins walked the same path. No matter who, kids do look adorable in whatever way they dress. And now, my little nephew too joined the tradition, and at just 4 months, he's too young for this play. I have seen kids who don't cooperate easily to dress up fancy, but amazingly Jeswanth was very quiet and posed cutely. 

The general notion that children would cry was missing on him, and he would cry only when put to bath, so it wasn't an issue dressing him, but once excited, his movements become rapid, and nothing stays on him. It's not easy to keep things in place if the kid's cooperation was nill. In this way, I admire his attitude, and anyone seeing his photos was amused, and I hope you guys too feel the same. 

Krishna Jayanthi isn't a festival celebrated on my paternal side. It was my maternal parents who had cows and did dairy business. In mythology, Krishna is mention to be around cows, and he was also portraited as a cowherd, so naturally, Krishna was inspired to be their favorite deity to celebrate. Being a milk producer, they do not buy dairy products from outside as they produce the yogurt, butter, and ghee they need themselves. And butter being the favorite of Krishna, they offer all their dairy products, including homemade snacks, and celebrate the festival by placing idols of Krishna and cow-calf. 

Mom celebrates the festival by drawing little footsteps from the house entrance to the prayer room in the belief of welcoming Krishna into the home. Mom introduced this tradition at home after married into the family, and from then, she follows it annually. 

RGB Monday

Every year the Pongal festival leaves me with some colorful Kolams that I could use for my RGB Monday series, but this year it left me with some beautiful Kolams to shoot from the neighborhood as well as from our home. The following collage of Kolams is from one of my childhood friend Karthik's home, and his wife drew these Kolams on the eve of Pongal.

As soon as his wife completed the Kolam, he Whatsapp me the photos of the Kolam, and what you see in the collage above is what he sent me that night.  And the following photos are of the same shot by my mom in the morning on my behalf.

My friend's house is located right behind our house and narrow by street, doesn't allow the Kolams to last long, or until the evening when I go out shooting Kolam in the wheelchair. Karthik's wife is a talented woman and does well in artworks, and I have seen a few of her's on Facebook and while admiring her work, I appreciate her patience, which I think is mandatory when creating art. I hope you guys like her elegant work in Kolam. 

RGB Monday

A couple of colorful Kolam from the neighborhood, shot on the day of the Pongal festival last month. 

Since I took this from my evening walk, the Pongal pot kolam (above) drawn in the morning was scattered a bit at the bottom as people used by.  

Both the Kolams above were from the same house in the neighborhood. 

A cow and calf

A cow and calf drove down our street on Mattu Pongal – the third day (Jan 15) of the Pongal festival celebrated to thank cattle. Each year we find a cow or two drove down our street after the worship or perhaps to or fro from a temple visit since they are celebrated on this day. I guess the cows are walked down from a nearby slum because they could only be seen at those places in the city.

Linking this post with SATURDAY CRITTERS

RGB Monday

The four days of the Pongal festival went with the flow and I was just idle watching a couple of newly released movies on OTT and entertained by other programs on tv and YouTube.   As usual, I went for Kolam hunting on our streets on the Pongal evening, but as I expected, I couldn’t see many colorful kolams, and some are in regular patterns to shoot. The Pongal festival wasn’t lively at home, and we miss the Pongal cooked in mud pot right outside the home, what we had done for the last four years, including two years along with uncle’s family. This year’s Pongal was the same as what happens when you eat Pongal – a dull feeling.

But the next day, the Mattu Pongal was good enough as I went on an outing on ECR to explore a couple of places, and what can give me happiness other than the opportunity of travel? I enjoyed the day, except for a couple of disadvantages, and this was my first outing with the sister-in-law, and it went all comfortably. I may write on the places in further posts with photos.

Now coming to RGB Monday, I share my aunt’s colorful pot Kolam she drew for the Pongal festival. Mom’s knee pain stopped her from participating in drawing Kolam, so my aunty managed to draw two more simple Kolams, the only colorful thing we added this year for the Pongal. Hope the Pongal is celebrated with happiness and peace at every house of Tamil people and a wonderful weekend for the others.

Spiritless Pongal Festival?

2020 exists no more, but it took away the happiness and festival spirit with along. I didn’t decorate the Christmas tree or put lights for Christmas and New Year, and now with Pongal, in 2 days I couldn’t feel excited in the usual way.  Pongal is the only festival that leftover to speak the tradition and culture of Tamil people living all over the world and it is a common festival that communicates our lifestyle and unites the people to support and thank farmers for their continuous work of feeding.

Every year we used to draw colorful Kolams, aka Rangoli, in front of the home to add auspiciousness to the festival, and boiling milk and rice in a mud pot, on top of firewood, is another kind of gesture greeting farmers and nature, and also helping the pottery workers.

I always love celebrating a festival beyond its religious beliefs and rituals, as I believe festivals are mean to gather people and celebrate the spirit of togetherness. Pongal is a social festival and farmer’s festive so wishing for their wellness is important and being a pandemic period, we had no option other than limiting our celebrations although our celebration is always restrained to two families. But this year is gonna be celebrated in the kitchen itself. Hehe

Talking about the past year will only make it sadder than happier, and it is a year the world will never forget for the number of losses mankind faced, but the consoling fact was nature restored its place even if it is a temporary phase.  Personally, 2020 is a devastating year for us apart from the pandemic Dracula sucking the life from all over the world, some lives were lost in our family circle and a couple of them were quite unexpected. Though no life is lost for COVID-19, my uncle’s death was the most sent tremors into our family than the cousin who died leaving back two little kids. No life is left to comparable and life is a life that is replaceable by anything but we haven’t been close with that cousin to deeply feel the pain.

This cousin is a good-hearted guy, and kindness would melt in front of his smile, and he had never raised his voice or think to hurt anybody, but he died out of high pressure and cardiac arrest. Perhaps because of this, he hadn't shared his problems with others, and this is a problem with many of our reserved types is to suffer silently. He’s a project manager in a reputed IT firm and an affectionate kid to his mom and with a problematic married life, should I need to define the challenges he got in front of him to cease his life?

My uncle is just 6 months younger than my dad and thus they are like best friends and whatever it is dad only call him first to know his thought before proceeding. I would say he was an iron man who lived among us, and his support to our families is significantly strong and there’s nothing he unknown, and has great grasping power to workout things at observing.  It was him, and it was on his captainship my brother’s wedding in November held successfully. But he couldn’t live less than a week to see them lead their life or any of our future events.  

We meet him frequently or to say at least once in a week or two, it was hard for us to think or feel he’s no more but we feel regret for our aunt who misses him the most as a loving wife. They lived like made for each other and as a cool and casual couple.  They lead any of our functions from the front and now seeing her confined to home hurts really. I hope she returns to normalcy and continues the way she was earlier. I know she too knows life has to move on, more than any of the other, as she already came over her daughter’s demise a decade ago. My thoughts go for her…

Thank you

My Brother’s Wedding Story

Before I go ahead, I need to say I wasn't in mind to post this blog because we faced a great loss to pluck away the happiness instantly coming out of the wedding mood. The unexpected loss of one of my uncles shattered us to pieces and left us in a great void of grief. I should make a post soon on this ironman, who had been greater shoulder support to our family and who also conducted the wedding from the front.  

Despite the pandemic restrictions and alert and alarming Nivar cyclone, the last week's wedding of my brother went on well and trouble-free as along. What we anticipated wasn’t far disappointing, but instead, reversed in order of what we planned.

We headed to the wedding hall earlier than we planned as we had no idea when the cyclone would hit hard or reach its extreme, so we informed the cook to prepare lunch for us,  and the bride’s family too reached the hall by the afternoon for the evening reception. There’s a custom that the bride should be invited only from the temple rather than going straight to the wedding hall had been broken down by the Nivar cyclone.

The day the reception and wedding was surrounded by gusty winds and pattering rain, agree to blow along the resonating Nadhaswaram and Thavil – our traditional music instrument used in weddings and any auspicious functions. Our family friend Selvam and his team of instrumentalists hit the notch in their playback instruments. Perhaps because this’s a wedding everyone looked out for for a very long time, and the enthusiasm hasn’t left him alone.

Everything went on planning or timing we set on other than fewer disappointments. We anticipated more people for the reception and less for the marriage, but the cyclone kept the twist, thereby reversing the order. The threatening Nivar cyclone had kept away many people from attending the evening reception as many don’t want to take a risk paid a visit to the morning wedding. But there weren’t people up to our expectation, and we understand the situation wasn’t favorable to us and there’s a waste of food for about 200.

Glad we decided to advance going to the wedding hall and halted there for the night, instead of coming home and return in the morning, like how we planned first.  Sure it would be a bad idea to execute our former plan in the gusty wind and rain, and our stay at the wedding hall was comfortable too. The room allotted for us on the ground floor was spacious with two king-size beds, reminding the cottages we hire during our travel,  was convenient to stay and watch every aspect of the wedding.

The night wasn’t easily forgettable apart from the gusty wind and rain blasting outside, there’s something disturbed the sleep, and it was a cold night that didn’t allow us to use to twin a/c in the room. The bride and the groom looked fair at their wedding/reception outfits and makeups what didn’t go right at the engagement.  After the wedding, the couple went to Tirupati to fulfill the request from the bride’s side.

I wore the mask thoroughly at the wedding, while many didn’t care a bit. I keep insisting my father wear the mask. But during the rituals, it goes off.  I keep the mask away only when I got to pose for a photo!

We were worried about conducting the marriage in the pandemic period, but the cyclone steered the wheel differently. We stayed at the wedding hall till everyone leaves and we moved out only after loading the things the bride brings home as Seeru (gifts from her parents) in the mini-truck, and we also made sure that we didn't miss anything. We are almost content with the happenings at the wedding, and the couple is happy, and the sis-in-law is quite calm and familiar to practice though we haven’t met before. And everyone had our part of smiles through the event.

A group photo of our beloved families after the wedding session and the one standing 2nd from the right (with a big mustache) is our uncle who passed two nights ago in a heart attack. 

Preparing for Bro's Wedding

Brother’s wedding arrangements were going in full swing, and with only two days left for the occasion – of Nov 25^th evening reception and Nov 26^th morning marriage – the invitation process came to an end with Panthakaal on Sunday. Panthakaal is a pre-wedding ritual, where a wooden pole is planted in front of the house (a few days ahead of the wedding) after prayer for a trouble-free wedding ceremony. In the bygone era, word of mouth was the only source of communication; so pole planting ensures the passers-by get to know about the wedding and also the good news is passed to others.

Now, following the Panthakaal, Nalanggu is performed on him for the remaining days to the wedding. Nalanggu is an activity of applying turmeric paste on the cheeks, hands, and feet of the bride and groom by the married women, and as a blessing, saffron is applied to their forehead. Mostly it’s a 3-day ritual, and we are having guests visiting us every day to perform the rite, and my brother is at hold at home from Sunday.  Other than relatives, we invite friends and neighbors to visit us to perform the ritual, and for me, I get something special to eat at home in the evenings and at night as we have guests.

Everything goes well until now, and our house got a cheerful look like the wedding lights that set home in the festival glow. But not to forget, the Nivar cyclone is nearing us and threatening to mess the celebration mood as it is predicted to strike exactly on the dates of the wedding. We have no option other than facing anything that comes our way, but we hope the cyclone passes off quickly before the event began.

The last few weeks were kind of huff and puff for the parents, and presenting the invitation has kept them away from the afternoon naps and our bedtime to past 11 pm. My uncle's family next door has taken care of me while my parents were away on an inviting spree, we still can’t reach out to many of them as we got a very short time, and the pandemic is another troublesome kicking ass as well. Conducting a marriage in a situation of social distancing and mask-wearing is a different experience we’re looking forward to, and hope things work well for us safely and securely.

Deepavali Festival Celebration

Deepavali passed off peacefully, leaving us in a glowing festival of lights and fireworks. The day wasn’t far different from a regular day except for the sound of bursting crackers and night fireworks; I was in a self-celebration mood, spending the evening skywatching from the balcony at the various displays of aerial shots. There’s more than fireworks that are related to Deepavali, but people are no more interested in anything rather than staring or discussing at the mobiles. Smartphones are handled all-day, and people intimate with it like a newlywed, but the lust surrounds it never seems to diminish even on a cheerful, colorful, and sparkling festival of lights.

We had a couple of boys from the backstreet to join the festival night, and we lit some fireworks in the street. I enjoyed watching and taking some photos and videos of fireworks, and my favorites were the sky shots. It's only during this time (of Deepavali), we could see the dazzling show of fireworks in the sky, and the firework mode in the camera is an inspiration for me to shoot a perfect sky shot. But it seldom happens to me, and the GoPro helps me get some decent videos of the fireworks that are waiting to be edited before upload here. I downloaded video editing software and got into trouble as it slowed the system, I uninstalled it, but the system lost its speed and probably would need an OS reinstall. 

Just a week left for my brother’s wedding and everyone is so busy with work schedule, and taking the laptop to service is not possible and insisting couldn’t be right at the moment. So perhaps my blogging couldn’t be regular because I find it really difficult to make a post or upload photos in-between the lag.  Deepavali is always connected with nostalgic memories, and it becomes impossible to drive away from the thoughts of celebration, and I couldn’t stop comparing the past with the current. Though the trend has changed a lot these years – the sound of crackers and smoke level had also drastically reduced this year  – couldn’t create the festival mood naturally these days. I hope you guys had a great festival of lights. And don’t forget to check the short video below, having some glimpses of the celebration.

Happy Deepavali 2020

 Hope you guys have a Great Festival of Lights and Cheerful Weekend ☺

10 Days To Go

I’m counting the days for Deepavali. This year, November 14 is Deepavali or Diwali, and what makes it more special was, it falls on Children’s day – the birth anniversary of the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, who likes children a lot, thus this day is celebrated as Children’s day – and Deepavali is a festival more likely celebrated by the children like bursting crackers, wearing new clothes, and eating sweets. Deepavali is my favorite festival of all time, and I always look forward to this day for nothing but bursting and watching the fireworks. Kids grown up through the 90s could easily relate to what I mean and bursting how much crackers would be the task of the day and see who ends with abundant trashes in front of their homes.

In later years the loudness of crackers had become not my kind of thing, but my passion for fireworks hadn’t come down quite. The night fancy fireworks were my favorite thing from the past decade, and every year I buy fireworks, to only watch it turning my night into delightful light, and colors as someone lit fireworks on my behalf. Deepavali always surges an excitement in me and roll me down the slopes of memories of childhood, what I consider the best part of my entire life despite my belief of best is yet to come. The festival was in a real festive mood then, and the anticipations were high, to look forward to this day all the year perhaps because I was active then to ignite fireworks on my own to see it blast with great joy.

These days I almost forget this day until the day gets closer. My kind of celebration shrinks a lot at every passing year, and I was confined to my house alone rather than going around the neighborhood to enhance my festival mood by watching things happening around relevant to Deepavali. People’s interests had become varied from me, and they have their own set of activities to look after, and I don’t complain about it, and I can’t demand that they should take me out, and on these occasions, it was the cheerful memories of childhood keeps me going. It’s just 10 days to go for Deepavali, and I started to look forward to how to celebrate the festival, despite the pandemic drawback, I wish everyone had their best part of the festival.

Sunday tale – a trip to Mamallapuram

I got an opportunity or I agreed to take a short distance ride on Sunday, after so long days of not coming out of home – for nearly seven months I held myself inside the home, other than looking out from the balcony. Glad we moved here, to our native house, a year and a half early to the pandemic starts so I have this benefit of watching from the balcony what is not possible in our previous house in backstreet with least activities on road. Lockdown days were quiet and pleasant here, but the relaxations lately made it very noisy. Back to Sunday, we accompanied our extended family for a temple visit in our ancestral town Mamallapuram, as per our family tradition, visiting this goddess temple has been made mandatory when a marriage is fixed.

The busy ECR on Sunday in the shadow of trees. This is part of road beyond Mamallapuram towards Pondicherry.

Yes, my brother’s engagement is fixed at the end of this month and so was this visit. I’m not a believer in god exist but I still accompany my family to temples as long it takes me out or traveling. We hit the east coast road (ECR) early morning but the ride wasn’t fun and comforting as well, as I had to wear a mask all the time even though I pull down to chin often it lacks freeness. I now understand how difficult it must be for those who go to work, wearing the mask all the time and while I couldn’t sit freely, I wonder how tough it is to do tasks with masks!

I couldn’t see any great changes on ECR other than closed amusement parks and tourism and entertaining hubs but the traffic was unusual for the time 6.30 in morning. I saw many cycle riders on the ECR, enjoying the cool morning weather, while quietly pedalling on the left side of the road unlike a lot on motorbikes vrooming and terrifying the other bike/car riders. We extended our ride another 25km from Mamallapuram to visit another family deity temple. Due to the pandemic and lockdown the government has restricted any rituals, so my family simply visited and worshiped the deities in the temples.   

One of the temple is located amid palm trees and farm lands, a km away from ECR main road

I sat in our SUV quite after a year gap, because only last October we left the car for interior tinkering and painting which was delivered only a week early to lockdown in March so I didn’t had any chance to travel or sit in the car. My trip to Amirthi Zoological Park (Vellore) in February happened in my uncle’s car and it’s the only trip I had this year where I drove for a 150 kms. My travel to Mamallapuram on Sunday was a half day trip and our breakfast was brought from a relative’s house there and we returned home by noon for lunch. It was good to travel even it was for a short distance of 70 km but for a travel enthusiastic this gives a bit joy and I hope the pandemic is over soon so that I travel every length.

October for Me

 

October, often reminds me of Mahatma Gandhi’s specs perhaps because the O – the first letter of the month October – resembles the shape of Gandhi’s specs and moreover October 2nd is Gandhi’s birthday and it could be the reason to connect O with his specs. Gandhi’s birthday is celebrated as Gandhi Jayanthi and we’re proud to say he’s the father of our nation!  

October Sky is one of my favourite movies and the teens experiment with rockets in the movie reminds me of the childhood days as kids when we explode firecrackers and the Indian festival of light, aka Diwali or Deepavali also often fall on the month of October is appropriate to connect. Diwali is a festival that we could not be far from fireworks or firecrackers and it is fun to play with those and watch rockets boom the sky with light and colours stroke a chord of sight.

Ayutha Poojai is another childhood delight that falls in the month of October this year. The festival celebrates weapons or tools, is conducted to maintain and cleans the machineries that helps in production and day-to-day activities will pull-off for a day or two to give rest to them and worship for the wellness of machineries and business. I grew up watching my uncle’s garage as our home was adjoined then and putting a step outside the home is left into the garage. So I don't need to say how well I put on delight during the Ayudha poojai festival which is celebrated as a family festival that please me when I join the employees  in decorating and cleaning the workshop. The festival was so delightful until my uncle was alive (he passed away in Dec 2001) and later they celebrated the festival but the spirit went missing. You can check the link here to read how delightful the festival was then.

October is the starting season of Northeast monsoon which bestows with rain across south east India and dipping of temperature makes favourable weather for traveling. Except for the areas along the Western Ghats, the Tamil Nadu experiences hot weather across the plains and it is from Oct to Feb the weather turns cooler. And it was the time I love to travel as it is a pleasure to do the same with windows rolled down rather using AC – only for highways cruising and dusty roads – the weather out here is inviting for a ride but I do remember the pandemic isn’t over.  I wish at the same time the monsoon flourishes this year at least to say 2020 wasn’t drought!

Hope all is well at your side and great month ahead.

RGB Monday

Half baked in light and shadow. 

All days are same these days or to say every day seems like Sundays after the implement of lockdown. Just felt it was Monday today and decided to cheer up with a colourful image while there is sadness, fear and uncertainty rules the globe right away. Here I share my aunt’s colorful Kolam drawn for the Tamil New Year (April 14) in front of our house and it was a day passed like any other day. The lockdown is extended up to May 3 here and the covid cases are only at rise but it was bit better in our state Tamil Nadu where there is good numbers of recovery and less death ratio. I see some people continue to blame the govt. for lockdown as if they purposely doing it to punish them… I wonder where they lose their senses in perceiving the fact or failed to understand the progress of Covid 19 when everything they connected speaks the same. This attitude is really bad and perhaps this makes them act indifferently and disobediently to put others life at risk. Hope all stay home and stay safe.