Tribute to my M I L

Last Friday I lost my mother-in-law. Very rarely one can come across a lady totally simple, unassuming, soft with everyone, always active, preferring to be on her own, never showing dissidence even where required - well, I can go on like this. She compensated to me for all the good parental response I missed personally. The last few weeks of physical discomfort were quietly born by her without any murmur, when she should have been comforted but was miserably let down by those who mattered most to her and on whom she showered affection and care.

I pray for her very noble soul to rest in peace.

Last was best

It was curtains down last week for Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi (NVOK) - the Tamil version of KBC hosted by actor Suriya. I did not watch regularly or with seriousness as most of the questions were very elementary, sometimes childish too. With tips from Big B, Suriya was trying to make it as lively as he could with unassuming interaction with the contestants. I am not sure how many of you were regular to NVOK.

I happened to watch the last episode of this season. Suriya brought all the contestants and made the best of them sit in the front. It started as usual with pleasantries and farewell notes. Then unfolded the emotional bits with rewind of some exceptional moments. I felt that I was being drawn to the arena by the sheer humane lessons I could learn in life. There were fun, frolic, mockery, melancholy, grit, cool attitude, helping hands and some real human beings.

At the end of the show I saw Suriya emerging a hero with his humility, real concern and generosity. I also saw that when compared to the lives of less privileged, I was better placed with nothing to lament or complain. I have nothing much to boast of either, when I see how Suriya or his dad were helping many quietly. When I switched off, I felt very uneasy about everything around me. Maybe incomplete life?

Last should never be lost, as last was the best.

Break ke baad

Well, after a break of 3 years, I am trying to revive my blog with regular posts. I have been driven to this by the idle days again in California, from where I started this blog.

I do not see much change in the life here, except maybe some new gadgets and new products in shops and malls. Probably I got this feeling because of late everything is available back in India and I have not been much excited. As always the gadget market offers new things, mostly brought out by Asian brains.

I must however admit that the cleanliness outside, the law abiding citizens, the planned development of the infrastructure, pure water and air, disciplined shopkeepers, no powercut, cooler climate - all these touch my heart in my every visit. Indian food joints, Indian movies are also on the rise.

In my fourth visit now, I meet good number of Indians, specifically South Indians in larger numbers when me and my wife go for daily walk. A new cult has developed of desi parents visiting their son/daughter mostly for baby-sitting. Ladies make the best out of these visits, enjoying their husbands doing dish-washing,  laundry, cutting vegetables, singing lullabies and even handling diapers.

All these somehow get extended to our homes when we get back to India. We grin and bear it! 

raja - why? how?

As a kid, I could sleep only to specific film songs as lullaby, like 'Brindavanamum' from Missiyamma (got my age right!). I grew up with film music, at the cost of good alma mater. The MSV duo ruled my pleasures, with some numbers of KVM also as favourites. I went crazy later years for the Burmans, Beatles, Shadows, Ventures, Jim Reeves and the like. Alongside I was melting with carnatic numbers as well and I had my own favourite artistes and ragas. I had short stint away from my home state when I was a little out of touch with Tamil film music. When I returned in the late '70s, I found a new name ruling the film music scene. ILAYARAJA. What was different? Well, everything. Specifically the orchestrisation. Thank God, TMS got off the scene eventually admitting his shaking voice. So new voices sang lilting tunes. The cult was omnipresent, in tea shops, in buses, in radio and of course in homes. Cassette recording kiosks sprang up, feeding the new cult with great music of high quality. Instantly I fell for it. From then on till now, music for me has been only Raja's songs. I also found out that re-recording could lift film scenes to terrible heights. Whatever musicians of modern times claim as their best were delivered by Raja in early '80s itself. Everytime I listen to others' compositions, my passion for Raja gets enlarged. None of these guys are able to present songs without the Raja effect. There are many tunes of Raja which make me melt, weep, float. There are songs which I hear repeatedly, just for orchestra interludes. There are sure flop films which ran only for the music. Many music directors in Tamil and Hindi survive today by quietly lifting Raja's old hits and polishing them with the synthesisers. They don't feel ashamed as they have no better stuff up on their sleeves. Raja holds classical music at his command as the base and blends ragas amazingly with folk or western genres. I will not fill this space with samples as there are popular links where you get never ending streams of Raja's music. If you have not heard his music with rapt attention, try once preferably through hi-fi gadgets. You can easily feel the difference. I am not trying to market his songs and no one needs to. I have tried only to share my thoughts as to HOW and WHY it is RAJA for me.

As Vaali put it, "Ilayarajavai ariyaadhaar ariyaadhaare".

Grand....Pa

Despite painting a baldy, receding hairline, despite wearing trendy chinos and soft shoes, despite sporting RayBan sunglasses and i-pod, I was brought to my feet on the ground on 12 Mar 2008 with the arrival of my grandson. Overnight I was pushed into the top tier of family system and greeted for becoming 'grandpa'. Between June and August 2008, when I was here in USA, the infant appeared the same with the same routine as I had seen with my two children - to drink milk and to sleep, only to wake up again to drink milk with flashes of smile in between. Our meeting in India in Oct 2008 was short but not much different from the above except some shouts to communicate. But when we met again on 04 Aug 2009 in USA, I saw a new pal in my life. From day one it is me he wants and trusts for everything. I am now his friend to play or feed or listen or console. I am wondering wherefrom I gained so much of patience or grit to put up with all these. Each day starts with his wake-up call and ends with his goodnight kiss. My wife and son are watching my new role in disbelief, especially my 'no tooth grind' face. For me life looks beautiful in this new role. Slowly I have also learnt that the grandpa status brings with it immeasurable thrills and frills, though it deflates the pseudo-young pursuits. Come on everyone, become a grandpa, enjoy the old age !

why this blog?

Well, two years back, my son encouraged me to make my own blog and he himself designed one for me. As always, my initial zeal was so much that i decided to write daily, then thought about weekly posts, maybe monthly and finally I did not make even once in a year. I was just wondering what was there to write and most importantly who would read my stuff. Nowadays I am idle for about 15 hours a day - not that I am engaged for 9 hours, but I sleep. This morning it struck me that I have my blog to spend time with. Why not scribble now and then and ask (request) my wife to read and comment. My wife is very good at keeping secrets and she will talk about my posts to many people as she does with secrets. So, here I am, restarting from where I had left 2 years back.

No respite

Last week I fell victim to a cyber fraud. And I felt like being pushed into this by something from behind. Technology development always appears to be helping touts first, before reaching the hands it is meant for. So criminals are always one up. There is common belief for years that on the night a thief enters your house, all in the family are fast asleep, including even the oldies who never sleep long. Similarly, despite all the warnings and alerts day in and day out, you fall prey when you are destined to it. Post mortem of the incident boils my blood to an extent of holding all the criminals on their heads and smash them on the floor. Once awake, I am convinced that it can only happen with filmy heroes. I am not one. So I try to forget the thing and look for relief.