Outpressions

When the news about the re-telecast of the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata reached the Ranga's ears, Ranga could not help but recollect the memories of past when the epics were first telecast in Doordarshan as serials. The promotions and marketing of the serial was unimaginably magnificent for the financial sector those days. Big banners and cutouts  were installed near the town theaters for the promotion. No other serial received such a splendid welcome in those days.There was a lot of expectations for the serial to begin.The buzz around Ranga's friends group was nothing less, they too were eagerly awaiting for the serial to begin , deciding on whose house they need to turn up to watch the mega serial.  Those days owning television was a dream come true, not every household could afford it. The story of it was not some thing new, he had heard it numerous times from the discourse when his grand mother(paati) forcefully compelled him to accompany her for Katha Kalakshebams. ...

The other security who played a crucial role in the process of  uninterrupted contemplation was Krishnan the watchman. Although Krinshnan was not a direct acquaintance to me, he was popularly well known figure with in the streets of  Perumal kovil in Madaveethi. Most of the encounters with him have been from the recollections of memories in past by few of my family members. Krisnan unlike the stories of other watchman is the security guard of  Perumal temple in our town.It was the time in mid 1960's that the word of security guard were looked up as an luxury affordable only for people holding higher government positions, like MLA,MPs , ministers etc. Neither was employing a security guard was affordable, nor anyone found it necessarily worthy of employing them as most of them opting to sleep outside the house in varanda. Moreover flat system and apartments were far from reality. Every household owned an independent house or rented one or were staying in an rented ho...

It was a warm Tuesday evening when i could hear old Tamil movie songs been played at a near-end of our apartment balcony which caught my notice suddenly while i finished washing my tumbler after a fine tea. I turned around to look where the music originated from. It was from Kandan's mobile phone. Kandan is a middle aged watchman of  another flat right adjacent to us. I could see him happily watching youtube  with a loud sound.Every morning Kandan would meticulously open the door for the people in that colony and ecstatically bestow his salute to selected portion of people who were either owners, or those who owned big cars.Those who hold positions like president/ treasurer of that colony also received his gleeful salute. He closed  the gates of the tall standing luxurious apartment which he was responsible to guard. Any one, even if he were the president of any country , would be stopped by gate, asked about the whereabouts and where he is leading to, what his intentio...

EVERYDAY ROUTINE: The mornings in Chennai was unusually beautiful. The pleasant and quite atmosphere allowed me to sip my ginger tea with peace in my house varandah. I glanced at my father, to what he was up-to. He had his own way of enjoying his morning routine by nosing inside the newspaper sipping his daily ginger tea which my mother made every day without fail. I had revisited my home after a brief stay in Bangalore because of work. I could see Mrs. Minnal down in the car parking taking her daily walk. She was called Minnal by everyone, after Eshwari Aunty coined her that name due to her lightning speed walk which she took on daily mornings and afternoons. Our building was neither so tall nor too big. It was built on one ground with which 18 families shared car parking and gym.Footpaths were made around the car parking to let everyone walk. While everyone would take 1-2 minutes to complete their one round of walking, Minnal would complete it in 30-40 seconds. While we  we...

Women's day have been a very hyped event in corporate world. The buzz would be mostly because of lesser females among the existing work environment."Sex ratio" as you would term it in social studies is not equal as expected. So there was a buzz about the things that's got to happen on the day of women's day. This is not actually the first corporate outing I was ever invited for. But this was the first I decided to attend. There were a couple of momentary events which required my presence like someone got married and was eagerly throwing a lunch party to celebrate the fate of life. I smartly escaped from couple of those lunch parties that were thrown before. Probably , to be honest, I was mostly unnoticed when I went missing for those occasion, as I was a new joiner, fresher. My team was very self -satisfied team to accept any sudden outside member whole heartedly. I did feel a little bad for not including me or taking notice of me, but gradually adapted with t...

It is not the usual scenario in the households of southern Chennai region to have vociferous discussion on a topic. The voices were too loud that it penetrated the neighborhood houses, deafening all the others in the street. One high pitched voice especially was ear-splitting. Everyone from opposite flats peeped out through their windows out of curiosity. Rather me out of embracement shut tight those old wooden windows and sealed them. It was anyways futile, but I was a little Panglossian those days to accept the harsh reality. I couldn’t believe the fact that, a sudden arrival of a confused clamorous family would stir a curiosity in the whole neighborhood. Being in nearest proximity I was technically the most affected of the serendipity. “Baaalaaaaa! Baala!” shouted Kamala…. She was wearing a long nighty kind or a night gown. She panted heavily, with a panicked expression came running down, her dress was dangling very similar to how a tent would dangle in a forceful wind. Well is it...

It is been a tradition that all of us in our high school need to perform a skit for our language assessment. The best play would participate in intraschool competition. Our Tamil class had always been very perticular about staging a play for the assessment and narrowed it down by giving it a topic “kapyams and idhihasams”. There are 2 Idhihasams( Ramayana & Mahabharatham) and 5 kapiyams in Tamil. Quickly there were 3 groups which was formed out of nowhere and choose Ramayana, manimegalai,and valayabathi. Only sevaga sindamani , silapadigaram and  kundalakesi were left in the topic of kapiyams which we had no clue about the storyline to make it a script and stage a play. Mahabharata play on the other hand had too many characters to be staged which could not make a justice with just 7 of us remaining. Hence for our Tamil skit, remaining group of girls left out , finalised to stage silapadugaram.  Silapadigaram tells about the protoganist merchant named Kovalan w...