Moment it Rain

My sky before it started to rain

First rain of the year
waked up the aroma of earth
from deep slumber, blanketed
in dust, drought and dryness.

A dramatic change in sky,
where scattered clouds gathered
filtered the radiating heats
to lesser, sprinkle as shower.

Not a kind of downpour
but it brings hope and cheers
to mind that so drought
and a kind of moody exists.

The senses woke up
as every drop knock the ground,
earth responded fragrant
as nostalgic rushes into vein.

The weather turns vital
since there isn’t a sign of rain
past failure of northeast monsoon
the rain becomes crucial
as there no prevention, care or cure
unless earth quenches thirst
to nurture its children.  

Linking this post with Skywatch Friday

Sister’s Wedding @ Mamallapuram

My sister got married on Friday at our ancestral town Mamallapuram, about 45 km from here on ECR and I attended both the events – the reception at night and marriage in morning – by staying a night from a guesthouse there. Though the wedding turned out eventful and content packed there was something couldn’t make feel relaxed or comfort at certain level i.e. the wedding hall was in the first floor with no lift!  It was a marriage happened within kinship and my sister (cousin) is married to her maternal uncle’s son and it was their desire to go together in life and we all approved their decision after small hesitations, since we were looking for a bridegroom outside the relative circle this was unexpected and we couldn’t say no as it was her life and she has all rights to decide her companion and thus marriage was fixed and following an engagement in February.

My sister was sent off  early in the afternoon (of Thursday) to Mamallapuram to get ready for the evening reception and bride inviting and we planned to leave by 4 pm in evening so that we could relax before the event begin by 6 pm. But we left home only by 6! Though we reached there in an hour things were to be hurried up. We had booked two vans for the relatives, friends and neighbors to cover the distance also arrived late to delay the pace and my sister went directly to the nearest temple from the beauty parlor - as per the custom, the bride will be invited to the wedding hall following a procession from temple, either by car or walk about, which signifies the beginning of wedding process in Indian culture. Already the crowd perched the hall when we arrived and there wasn’t time for anyone to spare me to transfer me to the marriage hall in first floor and it was packed further to make transfer difficult, so I settled in the ground floor courtyard where couple of rows seated and a shamiana tent was spread out with popcorn and cotton candy stalls installed where people thronged despite age differences.

I happened to meet and see many people during the occasion, where many of them were long seen and as I seated in a corner some couldn’t notice me as I did but glad there was a LED screen placed in the courtyard where I watched the live happening on the reception. The dining hall was in ground floor so it wasn’t an issue to have dinner but the tables aren’t comfortable for me and I was to use my regular wheelchair tray and plate instead eating from banana leaf, which takes a special place in our festivals.  Being late to the venue and beginning of the event it extended beyond 10 pm, when we had our dinner and moved to the room, which is a walkable distance from the wedding hall   that I covered in wheelchair.  I couldn’t participate in the wedding reception but I was content attending the special occasion of my sister and I was transfer to the wedding hall in the morning to watch the ceremony with help of my brothers and his friends.  The wedding was attended by close relatives alone so it wasn’t much difficult to transfer me by shifting to a chair and then to wheelchair, I got to watch things happening on the stage from the first row.

But what really turned out difficult was the timing. The marriage ceremony that held between 6 to 7.30am is quite an inconvenient for us whose wakeup time is not less than 8 am and for the 6 am ceremony I waked up at 5 but still went half a way through the marriage rite. The brides sat on the decorated stage in traditional wears of Dhoti and Saree and I felt they looked beautiful and fresh in the morning than in the elaborated makeup for the night reception. The marriage is conducted by the bridegroom family, so we haven’t to decide anything and the wedding hall was also their choice as it located very close to their house. I feel there was something missing which I couldn’t say what but I could transparently see the happiness on my sister’s face despite the exhaustion went through wedding process. We couldn’t spend much time with the brides rather hurriedly taking photos, the couple were sent off to Tirupati temple (about 200 km from Mamallapuram) as soon the breakfast is over and we moved out of the marriage hall and check out the room and fired back to home. Both the dinner and breakfast was good enough and this was quite a wedding I attended after a cousin’s marriage in 2012. I hope my sister led a happy married life and being a known family I believe she feels the comfort of home.

Our house illuminated in colorful led lights for the wedding

Apart the celebration of marriage, the day out there was terrific and the weather was burning to ashes once out of the wedding hall! The air con in car couldn’t control the heat wave even at high speed and I couldn’t remember how we reached home so was the sultry weather blurred the senses. We checked out our guesthouse room (Sri Murugan) by 11 am and I felt it was too pricey for a night with two to three cots in a room with no blankets and air con with no control to reduce cold. Moreover they denied allowing our pet dog, which they agreed when our relative inquired and so we booked the room. I had no chance to capture any photos and what you see here were few shot by mom.

Unspoken Still

Words cannot describe certain feelings
the pain in pursuing dreams, passion
when contemporarily rely on someone
or more than one, to even overcome a day 
comes with a question can I?

There’s something to be chased always                                         
even at dreams, and it could be anything
that anybody could decide the course
or chose the kind of attitude
from their personal vista.

Dreams come and go, but passion
keep tracking the path that flash lighted
sustaining a flow to keep track free
and a smooth ride is always on
however hard the surface rock!

Sometime it feels like nothing to lose
hopelessly life moves on, stereotype
that I always like to break
has become unchanged for a while
what decided by me not.

Like the terms and conditions that ever read
people never take time to read minds

or understand the difficult being different
as we try to outshine from the low light
their high beams brings us down. 

RGB Monday

A colorful shot from the streets of Mamallapuram 

Mamallapuram is a sculptural town as well a coastal town and popular tourist place near Chennai and its sculptures and monuments are dated back to 7th century, where the rocks carved by the Pallava dynasty. I find this snap I took from the slow moving car looking like two different shots weld together– where on the right-side of the image is seen a bakery, hang out with colourful junk food packets (resembling RGB colors) and the left side is a shop sells seashell ornaments. And this girl came into the scene, adds a sweet gesture with an amusing expression going with a wind wheel in hand. 

Skywatch Friday

Sky keeps changing its pattern, texture and colors from time to time and esp. during the sunrise and sunset it displays incredible changes from the often blue or grey sky. I sky-watch these days more than before and I was never a morning person to wake up to dazzling shower of rising sun so I only end up more with sun setting scenario where the actual settings happen behind the buildings. For a complete sunset I need to move out of the city but it wasn’t a feel bad to catch up with a part of the sky. The sky captured here was from two evenings back; though it wasn’t awesome I liked the pieces of clouds (looking like the handpicked cotton candies before it put into the mouth) scattered on the fore screen of the sky.