A Day Well Spent

August 14^th 2010, at 2.00 on a sultry afternoon we set off to do our bit for the less fortunate. While some of our luckier batch-mates went off on personal vehicles, the majority of us were left to board T51 to Tambaram. After a deep sleep on the bus, a sweltering hot walk and a confused auto ride we finally reached the Good Life Center .

When we got there, sweaty and worn out, we weren’t sure of what to expect. I , for one, was very apprehensive. How would the children react? What could I possibly say to these kids whose lives were so different from my own? But I needn’t have worried. From the moment we entered the premises we are assaulted by kids from all directions. With perfectly practiced manners, they came up to us without the slightest shyness shaking our hands, asking our names, and introducing themselves. In those initial 5 minutes those kids took good care of us.

As “official photographer” (I’ve given myself that name) a lot of kids instantly gravitated towards me just as we all used to follow the guy/girl with the camera during our college days! I had innumerable kids come up to me and ask me for a solo picture, posing and preening till the perfect shot was achieved just as we do for our facebook profiles. Proving that circumstances can be different but essentially all kids are the same.

I didn’t have many personal, one-on-one experiences but I do remember one boy named Surya. I’m sure all of you will recognize the name. He was all over the place, chatting up everybody and making sure to get in every single one of my shots. He was loud, rowdy and energetic as only a child can be. But that all changed when he took me to meet his “friend Vicky”. Vicky was a quiet, mentally-challenged child sitting by himself off to a corner. With a sensitivity that belied his rambunctious exterior Surya introduced me to Vicky, taught me how to shake hands with him and lit up with pride when he told me, “Vicky only listens to me”.

I’m sure you all remember the boy who sang us that incredibly inappropriate song! Later on in the day he soundly beat me and Megha in a bunch of mathematics games. In our defense, he just learned his multiplication tables and its been quite a while for us! I learned a fun hand clapping game which an older boy called Venketesh kept making me play. And when some mysterious cake was distributed, a bunch of very affectionate girls came up to feed me as photos were taken. Sadly most of the cake ended up on my glasses. When we played ‘Kola Kolaya Mundhirika‘, one girl spent the entire time telling me we were playing the game completely wrong. And all the while, little baby Amudhan was passed from one person to another, adored and endlessly photographed.

In the middle of this chaotic mess, the running and shouting and screaming ,stood a few older boys. They leaned against the walls, by themselves with their hands crossed over their chests :the very picture of surly adolescence. When I tried to involve some of them they brushed me off and walked away and I just knew what they were thinking. They had probably seen countless groups of outsiders like us come and go, especially on national holidays. While the younger children had their innocence to protect them I’m pretty sure these boys were hyper-aware of their situation, of just how hard their lives were going to be. Surrounded by excited children I just couldn’t go up and talk to them. Even if I had been able, I don’t know what I could of said.

At one point I had a good opportunity to look around at what my fellow batch mates were doing. Akshaya sat in one corner with a bunch of girls, perhaps imparting more of her fortune-telling wisdom. I saw Suresh anna and Andy singing while the kids showed off their best moves. I saw Sridhar sitting with a bunch of interested boys teaching them god-knows-what. Sathya akka was in another corner listening to a boy recounting a long and complicated tale. And the whole time we were there I saw Santosh anna sitting and talking with paati, persuading her to take a picture and listening as she spoke with tears in her eyes.

The games were played, the chocolates and balloons were distributed and all too soon it was time to heft our bulging bags and say goodbye. The trip back home, for me at least, was tiring but I think I speak for all when I say we all had a long, exhausted sleep in our individual beds.

Thinking back about the day we had, I am glad to have been given this opportunity and ashamed that it took this glimpse of these children’s lives to remind me of my good fortune. To say I will definitely go back and visit again is to make a promise I’m not sure I can keep. But I will say this and I hope you will agree. By some twist of luck, and for no reason at all we were given loving parents, happy homes and opportunities upon opportunities. By that same arbitrary, divine lottery these children were denied the pleasant existences we have been lucky to lead. We complain and moan about the day-to day difficulties of our lives, and that’s not going to stop just because we had this one experience. But if, now and then, you think back on this day and ,just for a moment, remember that we are indeed the fortunate few I think August 14^th 2010 can be considered a day well spent!

10 things I've learnt about Chennai

I've lived in Chennai for quite some time. In fact its the longest I've ever stayed in one place so I consider it my home. And from my time here I've come to some pretty important conclusions about the city. So here for your consideration...

10 Things I've learnt about Chennai
1.If you give the bus conductor a 100 rupee note for a 2 rupee bus ticket he will yell at you.Even if you are a girl. He has been standing on his feet since morning, dealing with pushy commuters and their snotty children.He will not appreciate the fact that you have no change.And he will tell you so.Loudly.

2.Shopping in T Nagar is only for the suicidal. Also it is an unwritten rule of shopping that the dress the girl next to you has is exactly the one you want.

3.Eleven months of the year the sun will shine.Chennaites will complain looking up at the sky willing for a drop to fall..One month out of every year it will rain.Chennaites will be shocked by the amount of precipitation as if this hasn't happened every year since the beginning of time. The city will promptly and elegantly fall apart.Chennaites will complain because no one does irate citizen as well as a wet Chennaite. Then one day after about 2 weeks of torrential rainfall the sun will come out from behind the clouds and shine for the rest of the year..Chennaites will complain.

4. The beach is not relaxing. You will be accosted by peanut vendors,fortune telling ladies and sundal-selling preteens who should be in school. There is a high probability that you will be whacked in the head by a cricket ball or run over by horse.Also some men should never take their shirts off.

5.During Diwali it is best to stay at home. The kid on the street does not care that you would also like to use the street.He does not understand that lit firecracker+petrol filled car=Explosion. Sometimes idiots on the terrace will think its funny to aim a rocket at you from above. If you value your life and your eardrums you will stay at home and watch whatever specials Sun TV is airing that day.

6. Nobody likes a pedestrian. There is no such thing as a side walk and nobody will stop to let you cross the street. It is your responsibility to pick the right moment and dart between cars,buses and bikes. Don't even think that the zebra crossing means you have right of way.Its just a pretty pattern on the road.

7. Everyone will want to know your marks on everything. Exam results are public property. When the 12th results come out everyone in your apartment building will believe they have a right to know. They will also offer you free,unsolicited guidance on how to get into college. Also every kid that you will ever meet will have gotten 1st rank in his/her class.

8.The policemen and metal detectors at Egmore and Central are there for purely ornamental purposes. The one time you do not get a platform ticket is the one time you will get caught. Do not underestimate the aged and skinny porters for they have supernatural strength. The red shirts are the source of all their power.

9.Anybody who sells or makes chat will be north Indian. Apparently the art of chat-making is a well guarded secret that the Northies refuse to leak to us Dravidians. The chat people will not understand you if you talk in Tamil or English.They will look at you like there is something fundamentally wrong with you. Sometimes they will laugh.

10.The selling of sweets is practically a Fortune 500 Industry.Grand Sweets will always be crowded.Mostly packed with NRIs taking the bounties of their motherland back to their adopted homes. In fact Chennai's greatest export is the humble mysore pak. Also trying to get a lot of free samples and then not buying anything is frowned upon.

LTTE- noble freedom fighters or evil scum?

The LTTE are GONE.My mother says its been going on for almost 30 years.30 years of war,bloodshed and destruction.And what have they achieved in all that time? A country devastated by years of instability.A Tamil community that is now severely demoralised. Assasinated Prime ministers and various other officials. And the charming concept of suicide bombers.

Thank you,Velupillai Prabhakaran. We're really going to miss you.

I have no sympathy for the LTTE.And that's how I thought everyone felt. Mass murdering,child soldier recruiting,cyancide capsule wearing terrorist outfit? The normal response should be NO THANK YOU! But there are so many people, people who are otherwise upstanding model citizens, who are in silent support of their efforts.

I get that we're Tamil and they're Tamil. I understand and condemn the years of oppression the Srilankan Tamils have faced under the Sinhalese government.I even accept that as more powerful nation it is our duty to protect the interests of our Tamil cousins in Sri Lanka.But empathising for their sufferings and supporting a guerilla army with a penchant for blowing up stuff are two very different things.

Its cliche,it sounds naive and trite -but when you KILL PEOPLE you automatically become one of the bad guys.It sounds like a childish distillation of a very broad and complex issue( one which, admittedly, I know little about) but sometimes you have to step back and look at things in black and white. And when you do I can't see how the the LTTE can be viewed as anything other than what they are-terrorists.

They may have lofty ideals and they are fighting for a noble cause.But the indiscriminate bombing of your own country, your own people is not a way to affect change. The road to Hell, as Madonna sings in one of her songs, is paved with good intentions.

And as for the sudden outpouring of sympathy and grief from certain political parties on this side of the Palk Strait? Trusting politicians is never wise but its the last thing you want to do in an election year.

Also, fasting for four hours in demand of a cease fire is NO BIG DEAL. I do it everyday between breakfast and lunch. The only diffrence is my fasts aren't televised. And what a televison program that was! The aged and ailing politician refusing both food and water until the safety of his people in another country is secured. How noble,how selfless! Just like Gandhi years before.And yet I doubt Gandhi had an air cooler and a television crew standing by.

Not to mention mutliple wives.

Shame on all of us for electing him back into office.

MORE LISTS! Consider yourselves warned.

Since I spent my last entry listing out those books which so horribly failed to deliver what they promised I thought this time I'd talk about those books that were well worth the money spent.

BOOKS THAT WERE NOT A WASTE OF PAPER AND OTHER PUBLISHING RESOURCES:

1) Gone With the Wind- Margaret Mitchell
Gone with the wind is a hard book to like.In fact, its a hard book to read.Its well over 800 pages long with many of those pages devoted to a detailed analysis of the The American Civil War and its impact on the Confederacy . Apart from that there are millions of names and relations the reader is expected to keep track of. I can hardly sort out the tangled web that is my family,let alone recall the fictional familial bonds in this book.
But when you get past all that (and it took me awhile) you realize why people love this book. And why people can stand to sit through a 4 hour film adaptation. One reason, I think, is because throughout the duration of the book all the characters remain true to their personalities. Scarlett is as stubborn and willful on page 799 as she is in the first chapter. And while Rhett Butler may earn the respect of his peers towards the end he is still as self-serving and dishonorable as he ever was. And everyone of the characters (and believe me,only JRR Tolkien has managed to fit more into one book) is believable. Even Melanie, a character so righteous and good only Margaret Mitchell can make it possible to read about her without rolling our eyes. Enid Blyton could learn a few things from Mitchell.
Long story short, it may have taken me a while and, sure,my power has probably gone up having strained to read all that fine print but in the end I'm glad I did.

2) Good Omens- Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman
Those of you who enjoy reading fantasy novels will know that Pratchett and Gaiman are two of the best in the business.Terry Prachett is as they say "the exalted Father of Discworld" and Neil Gaiman's books are regularly made into disturbing movies .Most fantasy and science-fiction books take themselves way too seriously and Neil and Terry are doing their bit to remedy this. And Good Omens is about making fun of that most serious of subjects-THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT! When the Bible was written I'm sure they didn't find anything amusing about the Antichrist or the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse,but having read Good Omens I find it all nothing short of hilarious. When the Apocalypse finally does come and the great kingdoms and empires of the world are engulfed in hellfire I'll be the one off to the side giggling madly.

3) To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee
Most award winning books are beyond my comprehension but this critically acclaimed, Pulitzer prize winning book does not require a degree in English Literature to be appreciated. Simply and effectively narrrated by 7 year old Scout Finch it is a penetrating account of the prejudices of some men and the everyday nobility and decency of others. Set in a small town,populated by people who have known each other for their whole lives, not only is it about a polarizing court case but also about the education of young Scout. Anyone who has ever been a child, and especially those of us who have had trouble growing up into respectable young ladies, will sympathesize with Scout's emotions. After reading this I guarantee you'll miss the days of your childhood and the magic of those long,lazy summer days.

4) The Lovely Bones-Alice Sebold
This book starts out with the brutal and bloody murder of 14 year old Susie Salmon at the hands of her quiet,disturbed neighbour Mr.Harvey. These are not massive spoilers but facts that Susie herself matter of factly recounts within the first chapter. This book is not about the crime or who commited it but about those left behind to pick up the pieces-the Salmon family. Its easy enough to get murdered and float off to heaven but its another thing all together to have to stay back and watch your family fall apart. A mother who wants her own life, a father who can't quite move on and a sister who wishes people would stop seeing Susie when they look at her. In fact the most sane member of the Salmon family would have to be the alcoholic grandmother.
I have to admit that the ending is a bit far fetched but by then you're too engrossed to care. I must warn you that it is, for the most part,an incredibly sad book. But what starts out in the most brutal way ends quietly and happily as Susie finally sees how her death coloured the world in which she lived and the lovely bones she left behind.

WARNING: There be lists ahead!

Tomorrow I have a test. This is nothing new of course. My life has been more or less just a series of tests for the last 5 years or so. Unit tests, model tests, big tests, little tests-you name it, I've spent an hour in a stifling classroom writing it. When I look back at this time in my life 20 years from now (assuming Al Gore's got it all wrong and we don't all drown because of rising sea levels), I think I will remember it as a big blur of question papers, underlining, and gel pens.

At the very least, I will remember with great fondness the guy who sat next to me in the front row cheating with his cell phone. The nerve, you've got admire it.

Forging ahead, I have been reading some very "important" books as of late. Books that people tell you "must" read, books that all glossy magazines trumpet...books that typically make little impact on me.

So here for your perusal, I present Sowmya's list of:

Overly Hyped Up Books That I Had To Struggle To Finish:
(catchy title,right?)
1. The Alchemist:
I have been told, fervently, by many people that Paulo Coelho's life-changing novel is the most poetic and astounding book they've ever come across. So armed with this knowledge I decided I'd give it a go. After all it had a title that few fantasy-addicts can resist. And as I turned the pages getting steadily more frustrated, I still held on to the hope that maybe the big "astounding" bit lay ahead. A hope that died when I turned the last, final page and thought "That's it?".
I suppose my senses have been dulled by Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Maybe I've got to the point where a book is only entertaining if big, loud, exciting things happen. Maybe the subtle, quiet magic of The Alchemist escaped me. Admittedly, I am not the most perceptive of people.
So I'm going to be diplomatic and say that it wasn't the book, it was just me. But I still believe that it wouldn't have hurt to throw a few hobbits into the mix.
And for the record, Nicholas Flamel is the ONLY Alchemist.

2. Five Point Someone:
Chetan Bhagat, they said, was the coolest,freshest author to ever come out of this country. He was hip and in tune with the sensibilities of young,urban India I was told. And since I'd just been through the whole stressful process of filling out forms in triplicate and writing exams to get into a good college, I figured I could relate to the book. All I can say is that Five Point Someone is just one big demonstration about how misleading false advertising and misrepresentation can be. Because Mr.Bhagat? Neither cool nor fresh. Just disappointing.

3. Wuthering Heights:
I'd enjoyed reading Gone with the Wind. Scarlett was the most spoiled heroine I'd ever read, Rhett was most evil romantic lead the world has ever seen but it was a good( if lengthy) book. So I thought that Wuthering Heights,what with it being all about bratty girls, rough guys and estate-ownership struggles, would be fun too. So I read it. And as God as my Witness I never will again!
Without going too much in detail, I'd just like to point out that romance novels have little going for them if the girl croaks in the first half of the book.

There's more where that came from. Looking at how aggressively even the most unworthy of books get marketed these days, I'm sure I'm in store for more disappointment of the literary sort in the future. And whenever that happens I'll just get out one of my Harry Potters and be content in the knowledge that sometimes they do get it right.

I can't believe its come to this

Ok, I caved.

Let's start at the very begining (allegedly, 'a very good place to start'):
I have a diary-not a journal,mind you,a diary- and it has served me well for the last decade or so.And I too have been faithful to it over the years. I stuck to the painful task of physically writing down my thoughts when those around me took the easier route of typing it all down (lets just ignore Carpel Tunnel Syndrome for now). And when the blogging bandwagon really started to hit its stride I was alone in my loyalty to the pen, in a sea of keyboard fondlers. Yes, they were hard times indeed but I was determined to be blog-free.

I think it is quite clear that I was not determined enough.

So, here I am doing what I said (what I swore) I'd never do. And while I am looking forward to what this 'blogging' might bring, I cannot quite push aside the guilt of abandoning my faithful diary. As far as I am concerned this is infidelity in its gravest form.

Moving on.

You might have noticed that I like run-on sentences. This is because I do. I like to pack in as much as possible into one sentence. The knowledge that I am probably causing much distress to English teachers around the world only encourages me to commit this most disturbing of grammar sins. Ha ha, English teachers, ha ha.

I am also aware that I sound like a frumpy, middle-aged woman . Maybe I am a frumpy,middle-aged woman. I certainly won't be telling you.

So, that's it. My first blog post. I am ruefully shaking my head at the computer screen right now (and getting strange looks from family members). I can't quite believe that I'm doing this. Will I be able to go through with this? Will I really do it? Will I really be able to press that big orange,taunting PUBLISH POST button?

I think its quite clear that I pressed it.