MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THESE

These two months were perhaps the busiest and the most enjoyable two months of my life. You can see how busy we were when I say that we visited 20 concerts, 50 temples, 10 international tennis matches, 5 films, my brother's 60th birthday and had a family get-together in our house with a couple of lunches and dinners in between. Now the details.

Aarthi
Aarthi had holidays for 20 days for Christmas. She had a gala time from Christmas to New year with her classmates in Goa and came here on 2nd January. As happens whenever she travels, the train was late by 4 hours and she came home at 1.30 AM on 3rd. We all had a hectic time till she left back for Bangalore on 11th Jan. morning.


Amritha
Amritha was busier than me in this period as she is an active member of the Women's Organisations of ICF as well as Southern Railway. She sang two songs in the Pongal celebrations organised by them. One was 'Manapparai Maadu katti' and the other was 'leke pehla pehla pyar'. Though I could not hhear them as the function was off-limits to men, everyone I later met she sang very well. In fact one lady told me 'Aap ki wife ne kamaal kar diya'.

Carnatic Music
The Music Season in Chennai is an unique concept and attracts people from all over the world, mostly NRIs, but a few foreigners as well. This year, we were determined to attend as many concerts as possible. We managed to attend about 20 which included big names like Jesudas, Unnikrishnan, Aruna Sayeeram, Nityasree, Sanjay Subramanian, Kunnakudi, Kadri Gopalnath etc. as well as a number of budding and talented singers. On a Sunday, we attended the 12 Noon concert, had our lunch in the Arusuvai Natarajan-managed canteen, attended the 2.00 PM concert, had our coffee, attende the 4.00 PM and 6.30 Pm concerts and came back home at 10.00 PM. The best concert was of Kadri (which Prasad could not enjoy in TTD due to the loud volume) who was brilliant that day. Originally we had planned to leave the concert by 8.00 PM as Aarthi's train was due at 8.30 PM. But we were happy that the train was delayed.
We were also fortunate to attend Tyagaraja Aradhana at Tiruvaiyaru on 12th January for which Pushpa and her husband accompanied us. Though we had the VIP passes, we had to go early and occupy our seats (on the floor). It is a great and a divine experience to hear alll the musicians as well as a large number in the audience singing the five Pancharatna Krithis in unison. I think I must mention that Kadri Gopalnath came as a spectator and could not find space to sit as he came late. Pushpa's husband and I accommodated him. Later when he got Padma Shri on 26th January, I told people I have rubbed shoulders with him.

Cricket
India's performance in the tests in Australia was unbelievable. There will be endless discussions whether Ganguly did the right thing in not enforcing the follow-on in the final Test. Anyway, well done, India. But we were brought down to earth in the one-day series.

Divya Desams
We are quite far ahead in the Divya Desam race. I'm keeping a tally only from 2003 after I made the web site and by January 2004 we've covered 66 (out of 106, with 2 being in the other world). December/January saw us visiting Kumbakonam, Mayavaram and Kanchipuram which together have about 40 Divya Desam temples. Hema came with us to Kanchipuram on 25th December when we were able to visit 13 of the 15 temples there. The most beautiful temples we saw were in Thiru Indalur (Mayavaram) , Nachiar Koil (near Kumbakonam), Varadarajar Koil and Pandava Dhoothar temple (Kanchipuram).
We also visited a number of other temples including a Panchamukha Hanuman temple , with a 36 feet granite statue of Hanuman, near Pondichery for which Chooda and Kannan accompanied us.

Family Get-together
We organised our third family get-together on 8th January. The first two in 2002 and 2003 were held in the bedroom on the first floor. This time we had it in our garden. We had organised a couple of games including Housie. The menu was different this time with Idli, Dosa, Poori and Dahi bhath. My sister, sister-in-law and Radhika were absent from the list of earlier attendees. But Prasad, Mukund and Prema were present.

Films
We saw 5 films in these two months. (I count only the films that we see in theatres). Jay Jay, a Madhavan starrer was OK. Pithamagan was very good. Fun2sh, a Hindi film that had Paresh Rawal (who was the one that drew us to the film) was horrible and for the first time all the four of us (Amritha, Harish, Aarthi and I) decided to leave the theatre 15 minutes before the end of the film. Kal Ho na Ho and Finding Nemo which were the other two films that all the four of us saw were good.

Harish
Harish came on 3rd Jan. in the evening. His train was late by about 3 hours. After a hectic time ('ivvalo busiya naan irundhathe illai' was what he said about his trip), he left on 11th morning. He set a new record by leaving the house after 11.25 AM for his train from Central at 11.45 AM leaving Amritha and me very tense. He was, of course quite cool and made it to the station with a few minutes to spare.

Mother's masyam
We continued to perform our mother's monthly rites regularly. Upto December, we did it in Triplicane while the one due in January was performed at my brother's place in Ambattur.


Mother-in-law
My mother-in-law came to our house on 25th January after spending a couple of months in Kannan's and Santhanam's houses. She fell down in the bathroom in Santhanam's house and suffered minor bruises. Since she had earlier fallen down in our house also, Shoba asked whether she has a 'venduthal' to fall down periodically. She is fine now.

Other travels
I had a couple of official trips to Trichy and Gudur. GM's Inspection is unique to the Railways when the General Manager accompanied by all the Principal Heads of Depertments and the Divisional Railway Manager visits various stations.

Tata Open
The Tata Open Tennis tournament was held in Chennai from 5th to 11th. this year Moya, Srichaphan and Schalken were there along with many other good players. Harish attended on five days (except on 8th when we had the get-together). Aarthi attended for four days. But they both missed the finals as they left on 11th morning. Amritha attended on five and I on four days. The stadium is top-class, the atmosphere electrifying, the weather very pleasant and the matches were excellent. I have decided to add this to our must-visit in winter in Chennai (along with the concerts in the Music Season).

Bye till Tamil New Year's Day,


9th February 2004