To Chitta, With Love !

It all feels like yesterday 

When you bounced into our lives! 

Then a teenager, now a beautiful bride, 

Oh! Can’t just believe, so much time has just flown away! 

When I reflect, 

Those little sparks flash before me, 

I can’t but thank you 

For all the laughter, smiles, and tears, 

For all the crazy times, 

For all the love and life 

For all the fun we have had together! 

For the special bond that you share with Sankunnis, 

For all the care, love and those lovely moments 

You have gifted him. 

A beautiful path opens before now, 

To tread on with love for each other 

Go ahead with confidence, 

And fill in each others’ life with joy!

As we gear up for that very special day of yours

Which is just a week away,

We pray,

Let God Almighty shower all His Blessings on you Both!

Days ahead are gonna rock for you Girlie!

Chitta and Sankunnis @Aluva

Chitta and Sankunnis @ TV Malai 

@Pondy

@Chitta's Engagement

The Language of Love....

Happy Teachers' Day!

My Salutes to all my teachers on this special day! May your tribe increase and inspire the coming generations…..

Some days just turn out to be beautiful, and today was one such!

My day started with a lovely Teachers’ Day wish from my son! 

It feels great to know that students still remember me after those long long years! Many of the students from the Jeeva Velu days called up to wish! Many of them messaged too! Many of the old colleagues too made it again! It’s just that “WOW” feeling that can’t be explained! It feels good, yes it feels good! Extremely Good! 

With every wish, frames kept moving, faces kept flashing, and so stunned was I with what I saw……so many years, so many faces, so much love …………….it is pure joy to be loved and remembered by my students! 

Bharathi Mam made me feel great with a simple message, I understand I am so much liked! 

Anu Ma’am keeps on surprising me!!!!!!!!!! For the kind of schedule she has, these cannot be on her list! But she found time to wish me, I can’t help admiring her! 

Japna just made my day with a few words, I absolutely loved those words! She proved it time and again that words have so much power to gift you a wonderful feeling! Lovely Gesture from a Lovely Girl!

Arvind literally made me cry with his message on FB! You are so much loved, Arvind! Thanks for being the craziest, weirdest, yet one of the most sensible students of mine!

Vaibhavi sent me a wonderful message with my name attached, one of the most unique messages I have ever received, unique, just like her!

Rheu n Miru never miss a chance to wish! Lovely wishes from both of them!

From Chennai came the Happy Boy's Wish, Sunil, attached with a Happy Morning wish !

At school too, it was wonderful to receive all those wishes!

This is indeed the Joy and Satisfaction of being a Teacher…

This is the good, the better and the best part of being a Teacher…

Thanks so much for all those wishes, it makes me feel out of this world!

'Awesome' is the answer!

Nothing can be more energizing than a good weekend. We had a beautiful kick-start to the weekend, with Babs joining us on Friday!

A word about Babs, alias Babuchettan – a guy with contagious enthusiasm, he is elder to me by almost 12 years, but looks younger than me. (Oh No! I hate myself for writing this).

A weekend experience unfolds here! I love to jot down each of such experiences, just for one reason. It is fun to read it after a long time and it always gifts me the same feel again.  

As soon as Babs got home, he told me, “ Mole, I am moving to a new apartment next week, would like to buy some cute furniture from Pondy.” Whenever my folks visit Pondy, it is my duty to take them around for shopping, something which I thoroughly enjoy! So I was more than ready and assured him that we would go around Pondy the next day. I even thought about a few shops which I knew, but on Saturday when I landed back from school, they were all ready to go to some “Kenji” furniture. I had never heard of such a place, I kept wondering how he got info about this one. Anyway, I didn't kick up any fuss, I got ready and we headed for “Kenji”. 

As I had got hooked to just one thought, it came out from me involuntarily! “Where is this place, exactly?” 

He said, “Auroville!” 

Aaahhhhhh, I got it! None other Dhanesh could have given him the info, ‘coz, Auroville is one of his favourite haunts. Visiting Auroville is like pouring some 'energy tonic into the soul' for him!!!!! Needless to say, he didn’t even mind driving through the rough suburban roads there. ( Hey, I can use this point elsewhere!) 

I guess I had written about Auroville in one of my earlier posts. It is such a terrific place to visit and stay! Auroville is a universal township in the making, with people from around the globe living here. We have been to Auroville a no: of times, but I should say, this one was unique altogether. Usually, we make a good research about the community we wish to visit, collect info about the people there and get a route map to the place, but as this was a sudden plan, and we weren’t really prepared, but decided to follow Mohanlal’s policy of “chodichuuuu chodichhhuu pokam!”

We advanced through the ECR, and reached the point where the roads diverged. Here started the confusion! As my Tamil is as good as the English of the people there, I requested Babs to take up the task of asking the route. We proceeded along an empty stretch of road, with not a soul to ask the route! The lady whom we asked said it was some 6 km from the visitors’ centre. The roads were good till the visitors' centre!! From then on we ‘enjoyed’ the mud roads, which gave us the feel of a boat journey. The car stopped at a place, where it looked like the end of the world!!! But when we asked around, we found there was some 3 km to our destination. At this point, I even doubted if we would be able to get back to Pondy, it almost resembled a small forest, the ones similar to the ‘woods’ described by Frost in his poems! I kept the thoughts to myself! But, Sankunni voiced it, like mom, like son.........what a lovely combo we make!!!

Confused!

Not a soul to ask the route....

Avoo..we caught sight of this lady, who helped us with finding the way...

We decided not to give up, Babs was in full enthusiasm, he got down at several points to make sure we were right on the track….we met many foreigners on the way, all Aurovillians. The weather was pleasant and the cool breeze energized us! It is a pollution-free zone and the way was sprinkled with the many guest houses of Auroville. We were also able to spot many of the unique training centres of Auroville, which we had always longed to visit. Their websites were familiar, though!

http://www.auroville.org/environment/avag/svaram/svaram.htm

http://www.aurovilleguesthouses.org/gs-profiledetails.php?id=12

Bamboo Research Centre, Auroville.
It was started some 40+ years ago, they have some innovations from bamboo! 

At last......our Destination....
Kenji, The New Dawn Carpentry Workshop...

                                      http://www.indiamart.com/kenji-japanese-woodcraft/ 

 Finally, after many a twist and turn, we were successful in hitting our destination – Kenji, the New Dawn Carpentry Workshop.

On the way back, we got a terrific view of the Matrimandir, one of our favourite places in Pondy!

Though at first, it looked like we would get lost, it turned out to be one of the nicest trips we made to this place………On our journey back to the concrete jungle, we made this good decision - to spend a weekend at one of these guest houses… to enjoy the serene atmosphere! I never miss a chance to raise my hand for something exciting/ something new/ something different, so this one really paid off! Nothing can be as refreshing as spending some time in this calm and peaceful place, studded with trees. Looking forward to it from now……

Many times I got reminded about the trip we made to Auroville, with Romaa Ma'am....

One thing is assured – this place can radiate joy and gift you the much-needed peace of mind. So, if you have any idea of hitting this part of the globe, make sure you stay at Auroville at least for a day or two…. …..Do make a trip, it is surely a place for people who appreciate the finer things of life!

Hmmmm.....

No matter how long a person has been teaching, he or she can always learn new and better ways to do it. Students today are vastly different from what they were when I began teaching some 12 years ago. When I say ‘teaching’ – it isn’t just teaching the subject. There is a lot more to handle when you are helping kids to come out as successful citizens of tomorrow. You can no longer tell them, “No, we were never like this, we used a different style.” Though we may have learned it in a much better way, there is no point in telling it. Kids today are not the same as the kids of yesterday, they have changed, so we need to change as well…… 

but the question is - what/where are we heading towards?

I am calling it a day, rather running away from today…it was simply an awful today! Let tmrw be kind enough to bring in some sunshine!

An Ode to "Paras"...

If you are a Mallu, I guess I don’t have to explain what a ‘para’ means! I am sure most of you would have a smile (sarcastic/mysterious/weird) on your face, right now!!!!!!! Yes, I am talking about one of the most common words in Malayalam -‘para’. Not sure, who coined it, but trust me, there cannot be a better word!!!!!!! 

I happened to analyse this word today – thanks to a very interesting caricature show by Jayaraj Warrier, which I had watched recently. He opened his show with a very interesting intro about how our “God’s Own Country” came into existence. The story is known to all mallus – Parasurama, the warrior-sage threw his favourite weapon the axe, from Kanyakumari to the northern direction. To show his reverence, Varuna , the Sea God receded to the spot and this land, later came to be known as 'Kerala', a land which is free from all human vices. 

Warrier’s version of this story is the same, but the addition he made is really hilarious. He says, “Parasurama used an axe made of iron, and later mallus used a part of the iron left to make “para!” For those who are wondering what a para is, let me explain. The literal meaning of this word is “a hand tool with one side of its head forged and sharpened to a cutting edge, used for felling trees,”, but now, for mallus, it is the nickname for troublemakers. These kinda people can be annoying, and bothersome. Though they are not really successful with their task, they can create ripples of disturbance in us. According to Warrier, only mallus possess this trait, but I feel they are found every nook and corner of the world. 

When I put my mind into the action-replay mode, I hear the long conversation I had with a good old friend of mine, about this topic. I guess, it was after this episode that I changed my attitude towards “paras”. I have also modified my way of dealing with these kinda people . My friend is in software industry, where he has to deal with a lot of them. His philosophy is amazing! He says, “Without them, my life would be very dull. They make my work interesting and challenging. They give me the much-needed enthusiasm.”Attitude!!!!!!!! That’s what I should call it! 

These‘paras’ used to get on my nerves earlier, but now, whenever I need to deal with paras, I borrow his attitude and believe me, I have found it absolutely TRUE. So the moral of the story is “Let there be more and more of them, let’s have fun dealing with them!!!!!!!” 

They are interesting – Paras! Thanks for being there!!!!!!!!!! 

Just another Day!

So finally, I turned a year older, with nothing much changed …....neither did I wake up an inch taller(which I would’ve loved to see), nor did I have any extra grey hair on my head. I was happy for all those wishes from round the globe….it was just another day - one happy day!

A Dive

Though just a month and a half, I feel it has been ages since I came here! Yeah, I am back from TH and the work associated with it. Today, I had a memory montage playing in my mind. Off and on at random hours, images blazing in a line….its all fresh, some images had sound effects too…sparks of laughter, serious conversations, arguments, jokes and those happy happy moments – happy happy faces– yes – from Talent Hunt! Now, this is being replaced with a slide show of question papers and answer scripts! The time has come for me to go back to that shell for a while, and let me focus on getting back to “serious work” for me and “real torture” for the kids - The Exams! 

A patchwork of memories from TH can bring in a twinkle in the eye and make the sun shine brighter for me – A Dive! Some great moments – perhaps the ones I liked the most!

The Best Moment of TH

The Prettiest Smile.....

Chetan Rocked!

My Boys....

The Seniors

Oh, Vaibhavi ....the poem abt TH
Oh...TH & Vaibhavi - Inseparable....
2013?????

The Wall - My greatest support this TH...Well Done Man...

The five-men army ROCKED too!