Monday Feature - Tiny Stories

I have decided to have a feature that will run every Monday. I am calling it a Tiny Story, because it's much much shorter than a short story. I am not calling it a 55 word story, because I don't want to be restricted by any word count. It could be as small as a tweet or sometimes a paragraph. I am not hoping to make a big impact with these - I just hope you will like them enough to check them out every Monday. As as I was telling a fellow blogger, the audience is a huge part of a (my) blog and I have driven mine away by extended periods of silence. Am hoping this might bring a few of them back. :-) Keep reading!

** Watch this space on Thursday for a new feature **

The New Bride

The ends of her nails have an orange tinge on them, the vestiges of wedding mehendi. She wiped the sweat off her forehead without a glance at her unmanicured nails and continued cooking for the large family she had married into.

Growing up in Madras

1) Cartoon Network, which would turn to TNT in the nights - Speed Racer, Johnny Quest, Precious Pup, Johnny Bravo ...

2) Johnny Sokko and the Giant Robot

3) Small Wonder, The Wonder Years - best shows ever

4) Shrimati Ma'am and Shrinivasan Sir tuitions

5) Pizza was an exquisite, gourmet dish

6) Shopping in Bata for new school bag, shoes and socks before school reopenings

7) Hershey's Kisses were one of the best chocolates ever since it came from America.

8) Tv Video games - Super Mario, Duck Hunt

9) Bourbon, Jim Jam and other "cream" biscuits

10) Watching movies on VCR (deck)

11) Going to the library to get story books
(Side note: I know many parents now who complain that their kids don't read. But I remember almost everyone in my class loved reading books. The problem was you were allowed only one book per week from the school library and that would be read in 2 days.)

12) Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Archies, Tintin, Asterix, Enid Blyton, Chacha Chouwdry

13) Birthday parties which usually had cake baked at home, chips and Rasna. And most gifts received were pen sets and sketch pens

13) Bournvita Quiz contest was one of the coolest shows

14) WWF card obsession

15) Playing Trade(Monopoly), Life, Scotland Yard, UNO

16) Hero pens, Bril ink vs Chelpark ink

17) Running and catching, Lock and Key, Ice Boy, Four Corners, King

18) Saravana Bhavan sambar vadai

19) Big Babool and Boomer gum

20) Contessa and Premier Padmini were the cool cars.

Can the gentle readers add more?

Spring

She took a shower
Threw on a green shawl
And leaned further onto her fiery lover.

My Life Is

a string of sitcom reruns! You that's what my life is reduced to now. H feels that being married means I should go from one adventure to the next. My biggest adventure these days is meal planing - "Should I make pasta for dinner? But the bag of beans has been sitting in the fridge for a week now. Maybe I should cut it and freeze it. That way I can cook it another day. Well, if I am going to cut it, might as well cook it. Ok then sambar and beans karamadu tonight"

But I don't want this to be a rant post - summer is finally here! Paying an extra $15 a month for a woods view from my apartment is finally paying off. I wake up to seeing lush green tree tops against the bright blue sky. The view from the patio is awesome and it feels like I am living in a forest. I want to have some pretty flowers in the patio - so if one of the few people reading my blog is a gardner, can you tell me which ones would do well? Husband dear wants to grow tomatoes. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated too

I have also bought a Sega Genesis and a Nintendo NES and I finally have a vintage game system put together. The guy who sold the Genesis gave me his entire set of games - about 20. So far I've played just Sonic the Hedgehog though. The NES takes me back ages. H and I used to spend hours playing Super Mario, Dr Mario and the such. And I used to read Archies comics a lot then. I used to see ads for Sonic the Hedgehog and Sega systems and somehow I used to burn with a desire to play them. So it feels oddly satisfying to play them now :-) Also I now can kick anyone's ass in Mario Kart Wii woo hoo! :-)

I was waiting for everything to be perfect before being happy. But life never is perfect. So I have started enjoying all the simple pleasures - one sitcom at a time :-)

Sooo

I am back in Madison. Where do I start? After a rocky semester at NC State, I had been to India and gotten married to my longtime bf S. People were starting to worry if we would ever be married. Also given the Thamizh panbadu of the younger sister waiting for the elder one to get married - my parents, relatives, friends, their friends and their naikutties wanted us to get married. And being the samathu kids we are - we did! I can never check "Single, never married" ever on any form now. That sucks! Also I keep introducing S as my husband to some, my fiance to some others and even my boyfriend to some. Much to S' consternation, I never correct myself. So if any of you who know me in real life are reading my blog, yes he really is my husband. Here's a nice pic from my wedding to prove that!

Coming to the wedding itself, which was held on Feb 1 in Chennai (to those who are wondering) - it was fun. Sorta! All my cousins (yup all of them!) and most of my friends in India (totally 3) made it. There was a lot of good food supposedly. But people kept forgetting that the bride was in her room (including the groom who was allegedly in love with the bride for the past 5 years) and I missed half the meals. Also there was a lot of drama and tears. But that's another story for another day. Since it was my wedding and all, I had a lot of ideas about the venue, menu and what not. Of course no-one listened to me. But I got to have one of these brass vases with flowers though. My mom assured me that I could have my dream wedding as soon as my daughter is old enough to get married.

We had just a week in India after the wedding, since my darling husband had just 2 weeks off for the wedding. We spent that week at home, enjoying Amma and Viji athai's cooking. S' bro B was also at my place during that time and we all bonded. Oh and there was that embarrassing confession session where everyone spilt their secrets and we were not even drunk. So now everyone has something to hold over the other's head.

The first coupla weeks in the US were a whirlwind. I was in St Louis, Madison and Raleigh. We moved our car and other stuff from Raleigh and plonked myself into an amazing apartment (if I may say so myself) in Madison. The best part is, it's just a mile away from work and I get to go home for lunch everyday and watch TV.

Well since I have gotten married and all that, one would assume that I must be busy being taken of by the doting husband and have company to watch all the movies I want and try all the restaurants in town. But nooo, my husband being who he is, has to get himself a job in St Louis and is home only during the weekends. So I come home from work everyday. Watch Friends and Seinfeld. And then I catch up on the shows on DVR. And then I get to play Super Mario or Tennis on my new Wii (graduation gift from S). So safe to say that I absolutely don't get any reading done these days. Ahh lying on a Papasan chair near the fireplace and watching TV while it's snowing outside - priceless!

Little Things of Life

that makes me feel happy

1) Getting the green light at 4 intersections in a row

2) The tiny speaker that S bought me so that I can listen to songs on my ipod without headphones

3) Frozen custard at Goodberry's. Mmmmm

4) Catching the comedy show on Aahaa FM at nights

5) Discovering the new address of one my favorite bloggers whom I had lost track of and reading all her posts that I had missed in one go

6) Watching Ramany vs Ramany on rajshri.com


In difficult times, it always nice to make such a list! I recommend this exercise to everyone who is even mildly depressed or not in love with life

Kannamma

“Yeah honey, I am on my way home from the bank. The lines were more than a mile long. Can't wait to get back home babes.” Smrithi frowned and raised her voice on the phone, “Abhi, how many times have I told you not to call while driving? I am worried about you da.” She mellowed on receipt of the ensuing silence “No da chellam, it's just that I keep reading about these accidents, especially on the freeway. You know I love you don't you?. Sweetie pie, I am sorry I screamed at you.” It was Abhishek's turn now “Baby, I am sorry too. I know that you said that because you care.” They disconnected the phone with mutual I-love-you-s.

Smrithi went back to her Google Reader and continued reading comments on her new blog post. Another tab was open simultaneously where she was googling for tips on switching to Wordpress.

“Vasu, have you kept the dhoti and towel aside to wear to the temple tomorrow?”, Ramanujam intoned. “Eduthu vechuten naa*, I have washed and have let them dry separately on the terrace. And Geetha had come by today, it seems her brother's daughter has given birth to a son. We should go and see the baby next week. Also we should book tickets to Kancheepuram for the Utsavam. We should ask if your sister and her aathukarar** want to come with us. We don't want them to complain like last year.” Vasu droned on, all the while cutting vegetables for the night's dinner. “Ayyoo, I forgot totally about tickets. I have to book soon, else we have to travel in the General Compartment. You think of everything di.” Ramanujam smiled, and then added softly as an after thought, “Kannamma.”

Vasudha smiled and hummed all the time while making kootu***. Some how the pressure cooker's refusal to give a whistle didn't bother her as much today. She decided to serve curd tonight instead of buttermilk and didn't worry about having enough for tomorrow. After all some days are more special than others.

* - I have kept it aside

** - Husband

*** - A vegetable and lentil preparation