This is
about an unexpected Vishu kaineettam which
I
got...
Thursday,
11th April, 2002
Unlike
other vishus for which I'd made it home, this one
was
special. This trip was decided at the
last minute,
which
meant, I'd to bunk Friday's office.
The
usually reliable Puzhekadavil Transport goofed up
this
time. I'd a seat in their 8.15 PM bus
to Ernakulam,
but
found myself out in Madiwala, yielding place to
a
mother with a child.
I was
told I'll be put in another bus. After
heated
exchanges
and frayed tempers, I found myself cooled,
in
fact, cold, in the newly started Volvo (air-conditioned)
coach
operated by Shama. Since this was
unplanned, I
hadn't
taken a blanket or jacket - and shivered my way
through
to Cochin. It's a different story that
I got
the a/c
ride at no extra cost!
Friday,
12th April, 2002
The
Friday was uneventful, unless you call the reading
of
"The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie, to be a matter
worth
talking about. Oh, I've got your attention
now,
I can
see. A friend of mine had got this book
(banned
in
India) but never got around to reading it.
In one
of the weaker moments, I got the book from him,
and
here I was, bunking office and trying to make sense
of
Rushdie and the writing, which led to the infamous
fatwa
on him.
Saturday,
13th April, 2002
Nothing
to report on this day either, but more progress
on
Rushdie. I found this book to be
similar to other
fare
which Rushdie has dished out (I'd read Shame
and
Midnight's Children). Since my
knowledge of Koran
and
Islamic historic characters were non-existent,
I
guess, I couldn't figure out what part of his book
incited
the wrath of the Islamic faith.
Hopefully,
I'll write a review of the book later.
Sree
Rama Navami festival got off to a start in the
temple
near my home. A few eye-brows were
raised at my
presence
in the city, having descended in Cochin, only
a
fortnight back for the Good Friday holidays.
But
then Vishu is usually an occasion for family
gatherings
and not much ado was made out of it.
I met
my periappa-periamma in the temple premises, and
we had
a chat, while a good artist tried to make his
flute
heard, as part of Ramanavami concerts.
Sunday,
14th April, 2002.
This
brings us to our D-day. Vishu kani was
the usual...
Talking
of kani, I've gone to Usha akka's place a couple
of
times for Vishu, and found the event more interesting
there. (Usha akka is my dad's cousin)
There,
you have to close your eyes, and open them only
before
the kani. Also, you're quizzed on the
contents
of the
kani, and need to answer how many oranges are there,
and
what is the colour of the flower, and so on.
Vishu
is interesting for the younger folks for one thing -
vishu
kaineettam. This is a token amount
given by
elders
to the youngers (!) on this day.
We had
quite some visitors on this day. My
cousins
Mohan,
Hari and their family. I was glad to receive
kaineettams
from them. Aparna-Suparna, my second
cousins
made it, as well.
Later
came, dad's cousin Radhakrishnan and his wife to
invite
us for their son's wedding.
It was
soon 3 PM, and time for us to make a visit.
The
visit was to the residence of one Mr. Easwara Iyer,
in Giri
Nagar.
Leaving
my Rushdie aside, I put on a shirt and pants
(this
needs to be emphasised to contrast my normal attire,
which
all of you know). Off we left by an
auto to
the
destination.
You
must now be wondering what we were upto - me and
my
parents. Well! I'd met Mr. Easwara Iyer during my
last
visit (Good Friday visit), when he came down to my
home to
give his grand daughter's horoscope. By
sheer
coincidence,
I had handed over my own horoscope, after
some
search for turmeric, with which you colour the
edges,
by tradition.
I'd exchanged
some pleasantries with him, especially
as we
found one common thing to talk about - Bangalore.
Anyway,
we were going to his home now, because by some
good
fortune, the horoscope of his granddaughter had matched
mine
from both sides.
Contrary
to popular beliefs, the success rate for horrorscope
(spelling
intended) match is about 10% - that is, one
in
ten. For both sides to match, it is
then 10% of the
10%,
that is 1%! So, it is an event, if the
horoscopes
matches
for both sides.
Okay,
okay! Let me get to the business part
of it. It was
time
for me to see the girl - pon pakkal - as you would
call
it. I'd had a glimpse of Deepa (the
girl in question)
during
my earlier visit in Samoohamadom. But that was
before
the horoscope match, so I hadn't paid too much
attention.
I guess
she had seen a photo of mine (or two).
So
there it was - we were in Mr. Easwara Iyer's place.
I guess
my parents were a little nervous. I
must be
honest
here, and confess that I was too - not because
of the
occasion, but because I hadn't planned it out.
We've
had several lengthy discussion among us friends
to
create a questionnaire for precisely this occasion.
We've
spent endless hours arguing on what questions
should
be asked, how they should be asked, and such.
But I'd
conveniently neglected to refresh this and
thus
wondered what I should be talking. In
no time,
me and
Deepa sat across from each other, in an empty
room.
I'd my
first surprise when I asked her, what she would
like to
know about me, which will help her take
a
"go no go" decision. She
replied that she had
gone
through my web site (http://www.geocities.com/maruhgar)
and
knew about me. As you can see, I was
already on
the
back-foot.
I'll
not go into other things we talked about (considering
that
they are not relevant to this write-up), but it took
my
mom's arrival to make us get up after 45 minutes.
I was
hungry enough to have some snacks, and also found
that
San Mario Grand Prix, was just being flagged off -
Schumacher
(Michael), as usual in the pole.
It was
important that I play my trump card - so I told
Mr.
Easwara Iyer that we were forgetting something -
my
vishu kaineettam!
I'm
sure I must have shocked them soundly, but considering
that
this came, after me and Deepa had said "yes" to
each
other, it would probably have been "after-shock"!
Thus it
came to be that I got Vishu Kaineettam on 14th
April,
2002, from an unexpected quarters.