hiii! Today's Karthigai! Lots of lamp-lighting was done, and tomorrow there'll be a grand bonfire at the temple. Everyone's TV's probably tuned to the channel showing the ceremony and prayers going on at Thiruvannamalai. And we keep hearing crackers sporadically. Since there are only oldies here, and me, we didn't burst any crackers or play with sparklers here. But did light up lots of clay lamps and place them all over the house, especially at the entrance! It looks so lovely.

Speaking of old, a primary school bus stopped outside the house today afternoon and as usual I was sitting out in the balcony doing today's crossword. And a whole lot of kids were having a heated discussion about something, and suddenly one of them saw me and told the others "eh there's someone there!" and they all turned to me and said "Hi aunty!"!! 0.o AAARGH. I am so depressed now. I just waved sadly at them sigh.

But on a happier note, the England-India test has started! And finally I get to watch it on a normal screen instead of the mosaic in Singapore. It's actually taking place in Madras!!! If it was a One-Day, I'd have forced people to go with me to watch it, but since it's just a test match, I'm not insisting. Yay I love cricket! Okay dinner time, byee!

Sigh the weather's horribly dull now. Side-effects of the cyclone I think. It's not pouring, thank God, but it rains on and off which is equally irritating coz our clothes won't dry at all. And amma and I are too lazy to leave the house. It's been a week since we got here but we haven't gone anywhere! Not even to the nearby library yet! At least I've got a year's supply of Reader's Digest and puzzle books to keep me occupied for now. I'm also getting thatha to talk to me in Hindi all the time but I end up laughing at my lousy grammar so much that I don't really learn anything finally. My favourite hang-out at home is the balcony. It's cool and breezy so we can save electricity, and the stuff we see from there is really interesting! Compared to sitting in our balcony in Singapore where we can either see the playground or Marine Parade Road. It's a nice change.

Stuff I see while sitting in the balcony from 11am-12noon:

1. Squirrels chasing each other up the coconut trees in our garden.

2. The crow coming to our window sill to eat paruppu saadham (cooked rice with lentils)

3. The vegetable vendor calling out vegetable names in some weird madras accent, cycling along with his cart of fresh veggie.

4. The neighbour's car struggling to get out of the basement coz it's completely waterlogged.

5. The priest leaving on his bike, while wearing saffron robes and a kudumi. (kudumi = a tail kinda thing in his hair. The traditional priests have it)

6. Sari-clad moms on scooters!

7. My grandparents' friends walking past and exchanging pleasantries from the main road (they yell).

8. A sudden gust of wind causing about 50 Neem leaves to fall off.

9. Not-so-well-to-do school kids looking unkempt, but still chattering and running about happily.

10. The road-cleaner who takes ages to clean just a short stretch of road coz he's not doing his work most of the time, but sitting and gossiping with his pals.

11. Americans dressed in Punjabi Suits who come to the nearby school to learn Carnatic or Hindustani music.

12. 2 pigeon couples taking turns to fly from my house to the neighbour's house, and vice versa.

13. The cook maami arguing with my great-aunt and pacing outside to steam off.

And at this point, I run back into the house, in fear of getting caught in some mindless argument. There's never a dull moment here!

Ok, back to my crossword puzzle! byeeeeee :D

hiii from chennai! I'm still calling it Madras coz I'm not used to the new names (which are actually the old, pre-British names). It hasn't changed at all since the last time, but for some minor differences.


Bid farewell to three guys/men at Changi Airport, all of them looking relieved to see us leave :P ("so much more peace in Singapore now!") The plane journey on SIA was good. There was quite a bit of turbulence, and me n amma were stuck with a really irritating guy next to us (well, he kept ON asking for brandy, thereby irritating us) but food was pretty decent and landing was smooth. I was looking forward to watching the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 but that dumb channel refused to work! Neither did the comedy channel showing Scrubs and 30 Rock. So I was stuck watching some unheard of movie called Ghost Town which was actually quite funny, tho not the brainless chickflick type I would've preferred. Anyway I was more thankful that BrandyGuy didn't barf so was in a good mood till we got to the immigration. Oh, the mess! 3 flights had arrived at the same time and there were just masses of people forming their own queues which all ended up at the same three pathetic immigration counters. It took 3 times longer than the usual long time it takes to clear immigration. And after that, baggage collection was a gigantic mess as well. They'd hyped up the security due to the Bombay bombings so we had to clear our hand luggage before getting our checked-in stuff. Luckily, thanks to appa's PPS card, our stuff was placed outside the carousel and we could retrieve it immediately. As we exited the airport, there was another mass of madly-waving people holding up placards, but we managed to find my grandma (patti) excitedly waving to us, standing right in front. So all was good.


On the drive home, the windows were down and the Madras breeze hit my face along with the sights and smells which I'd missed for one whole year - the ample billboards with actors and cricket players, the stench of the rivers, the crazy honking of the motorists for no reason at all (even after 10pm), the crazy driving of the motorists as they drive without adhering to any of the road rules (why do they even bother painting lanes on the road here?!) and the few places like Anna University and Bill Roth Hospital which are familiar to me. Finally we got home, and saw my grandpa (thatha) and great-aunt eagerly waiting at the gate. Here at last! Patti had made cake and custard as she does every single year, so at midnight we were happily having dessert and catching up on whatever we could, despite being thoroughly exhausted.


The next few days were typical and routine, but I won't get bored of this lifestyle for a month at least. Waking up around 8.30, having tea, watching TV, reading the papers (which are v v interesting btw), eating like mad, more TV, more reading, talking to the elders and more TV before sleeping. Lots of cricket, LOTS more bollywood - inexhaustible fun! It's just different coz teenu's still in Singapore and my cousin Adithiya's been posted to work at Mysore. Once they get here (Adi just came today), it'll be just like always. Every year is so similar, yet each day is different. That's what I love most about India.


There's cyclonic weather due to hit Madras tomorrow. So no plans to leave home. This rain, however, might bring in an onslaught of bloodthirsty mosquitoes which have been surprisingly quiet for the last few days. There has also only been one power cut so far which happened this morning. I'm praying that there won't be any more of those. There definitely won't be a water shortage here (dunno about Bombay). So it's just gonna be a fun and lazy two weeks before we set off for Bombay on the 21st.


Oh I went for a wedding today! Vijay TV Ramya's bro's wedding. It was lovely tho we were only there for half an hour. Saw actress Suganya and singer Harish Raghavendra. Oh and Prakash Raj!! But it was weird asking them for a photo coz they seemed to be in a rush. Probably would've seen more if we were there for a longer time! I'm finally getting to wear my few new saris. Haven't even done any shopping yet or gone to the library. I'm just too lazy to leave the house (and the TV)!


Alright, I'm getting enticed by the smells from the kitchen - patti's making a cake for adi's birthday tomorrow - so shall go hang around there now :P goodnight! Oh, did anyone go for the B&J ChunkFest today btw? Sadly there wasn't anything here. Clearly, I am hungry. Goodnight! :D