When the 31st tooth causes pain

It has been a couple of years, since I learnt to keep it to self, untill it becomes absolutely neccessary to open the mouth. By that, I have managed to save myself from the un-productive and often counter-productive arguements that I used to run into.

There was one arguement that I raised, three years back I suppose, when a person made a claim that Hindi was the mutated, simplified and modernised version of Sanskrit. I got real serious into explaining how Hindi fundamentally was different from Sanskrit, be it in the deviation in grammar, pronunciation and etymology (vyAkaraNa, swara and niruktam), and how it was far away from any original Indian language, only enjoying borrowed vocabulary from Sanskrit with nothing alike in structure. I even managed to elaborate through three examples. When I got in return, this:

"You are giving examples with proper-nouns, and a proper-noun can be pronunced or spelt anyway we want to",

I was seriously taken aback. In my knowledge and understanding from the elementary level, the freedom to pronunce or spell a proper-noun was an allowance given in the grammar of English language. Since when did that become a Universal Fact ?, I wondered. I gave the above reply and withdrew myself from the scene, there. But it took me back years, quite a number of years that is.

I believe it was my 3rd class in school, and in the exam hall, I was seated next to a girl from the 1st std class. I had finished my exam well within time (as always!), and was peeping into that girl's paper. It was her Science exam, and I suppose she had a question about 'Food and clothing habits of Earlyman', and she was answering it ".... when Tom spilt milk from the Bess's bottle, Bess was very sad. She started crying ....."**.

I got really disturbed with that, and hissed to her

"nee ezhudardhu english!" and she replied "naan mattum enna tamizh'na sonnen?"

I didn't realise then, that I will live one day to see that some people just grow old and not up!

**There was a short story in English Prose on Tom and Bess, in which Tom spills Bess's milk and apologises and shares with her, milk from his bottle. It was a lesson to teach to say sorry and share your belongings with friends. :P

10 Things about being braught up as a South-Madras Middle-Class kid

1)

You get to have an extended childhood, upto early 17. Till then, you have the privilege to get slapped for your mischieves in front of about a half a dozen till about 14 and behind closed doors after that, at home and school (not sure of the closed-doors thing with the later ;-) )

2)

You tend to get more possessive of your paatti than any other person in your life; being envious of a cousin with whom she had to stay for a while. You also strike a deal with your friends to borrow their granny for an afternoon tale when your's is away, with a promise that your Paatti will have a fresh new tale to tell them too, when she is back.

3)

A Cold war that has picked up, for your group chose to live with a cricket bat and bruises in elbows and knees, while the other half took a comb to groom their Barbie dolls and their little Ponies, does get a temperory patch up during Navaratri, when they shed a little of their ego to light up your girl-child-less home with their colourful presence. Not to deny your part of shedding the ego in the tolerance you show towards the "thaenja-record" singing of 'vara veeNA' and 'rAravENu gOpApAlA' :P

4)

I remember, most of my daily wear that I put on to go to play, had buttons stitched in 4 different coloured threads; also the shorts with some mending, for not that we can't afford or take more care on looks, but for it was decided to be enough. These things change at 17! And quite a drastic change will that be.

5)

The apartment/street association meetings will be so acrimonious that women and children are generally forbidden from being in the vicinity. Nevertheless, such animosity which ought to have warranted no eye-to-eye greetings amongst our Dad's, will all subside for their children play together. We were the peace-ambassadors unaware :-)

6)

We make challenges about being the first to burst on the Deepavali morning. It started off with a 5am Redfort, then to 4:45 Redfort Giant, then to a 150 wala at 4:15 and finally to a bullet bomb at 4. I am an unbeaten(able) champ you see! B-)

Poor Appa!, had to get up 15mins ahead of my (challenged)schedule and get the cracker ready with the thread pinched and agarbathi light, to wake the VIP up to go royally escorted to win the challenge :P

7)

You can't help but to live with the build-up around, when you reach that stage in life, the stage of being in 10th grade (Matriculation or Secondary School). You would be forced to buy the story that you will end up feeling guilty of not actually feeling the pressure. I just couldn't resist, and went out to play the evening before my Mathematics-II exam. I still wonder, how many of the households saw me as a maverick then, lest they would know I scored a 97+ in that exam ;-)

8)

Once you complete school, even before you reveal the results to your neighbours, you will be surprised to see that a person, whom you had thought had no connection with you, knows exactly what you have scored and would have a list of suggestions to make, on what you should do further!. But Beware! Beware of all the 40+ people. Society will have a planned Tsunami attack on you. If you manage to escape the wave, you will actually have a life. You have one example... in Me!

9)

When I said extended childhood, one need not panic. Your teen typically starts at 17 and goes on till 24: So nothing is lost. You can get the signs of your Teen-age when you dare to give up your street cricket for watching a live telecast on TV :P. You will have occassional rumours and news about incidents of romance and romantic pursuits and more of that what has gone wrong, but you seldom feel the pressure of remaining single, for your close associates, who still are associates, have all been losers as you are :D

10)

Elders talk a lot to you, especially in your Teens (17-24 in this case, for a reminder). They think, it is their responsibility to transfer their wisdom to you, by all the talking they do. Listen to them. Atleast I did! When you reflect on what they told a few years later, you would have learnt a lot from them, not from what they thought had taught, but from what they Inspired!

Kodambakkam Area

No! No! Naan inga Kavignar and Kalaimamamamani Perarasu'vin ponn varigaL konda Sivakasi (classic) padathu 'melody' pathi solla varalla.

It is by birthplace (err.. I was actually born in a nursing-home in Nungambakkam and after discharge from there, was put up in my Uncle's house in T.Nagar for a week or so for 'obvious' reasons... we shall discount all that). It may be surprising for many on how could a place which is sandwiched amongst commercial chaos be so peaceful, so peaceful that sometimes you can hear the trains running, from good 200 meters away from the tracks!. I spent good 20 years in Rangarajapuram, and would relate every stage of my growth to it. If only I was as creative as "Sujatha" Rangarajan, I could have written down my version of "Devathaigal" about the place.

Some to remember are: the first time I was asked to go to a store to buy stuff, first day I came down to play(cricket, ofcourse!) with other apartment kids, watching mid-day horror movie with slightly senior kids with a pitch dark setting in the house, New year celebrations in the apartment, learning to cycle, going to Sahasranaamam classes, brief stint at a sanskrit class, 'graduating' to street cricket, a jogging routine in the circular road - which started and ended the same day, scooty lessons to amma in UI colony, Weekly temple routines, Margazhi maasam at Chakrapani street Sannidhi, going for a walk through Duraiswamy subway (perhaps the busiest place on a saturday evening, in the entire city), waiting for 12C and 11D which never come, 'migrating' from my apartment to another set of cricket mates, trying to learn stotrams with Hemu akka - but managed to attend only one class, while my mom was building dreams of me learning Raghuveeragadyam!!, and many many many more.

I now feel, I must document them down - not that I will forget any, but to read them for myself. Rangarajapuram perhaps was the most complete road, with every commodity just at our doorstep. A pharmacy, bakery, pawn shop (:P), electrician, a nadar shop (provisions) all across the road, with a general physician a couple of doors farther; to our side of the road - a flour mill next door, laundry, waste paper mart, bicycle shop (puncture kadai), potti kadai, tea stall, tailor, another doctor, another nadar kadai, a barber, coffee mill and a internet browsing shop that came up later, along with a tasmac (:&).

I remember I was 6, when my mom dared to send me out shopping by myself, that too to go to Murugan stores, which is across the road. Mind you, I was allowed to cross the road alone, carry money and buy stuff in a provision store - all for the first time!. Items in the list were 1 kg table salt and 1 kg kall uppu and the total cash in hand was a Rs 5 note. Back then, I was always apprehensive about keeping anything in my touser pockets. I took the money in my shirt pocket, touching the pocket every other minute from the moment I stepped out of the door.

I looked back to see mom watching me over from the verandah. I got nervous when I crossed the first block, beyond which I was all by myself, for having walked sufficiently beyond blind limit from my mom's perspective; Spent a good minute watching over, before I crossed the road; reached the store. I managed to find one familiar face, one of the store boys - Sekar, who almost always comes home for the monthly provisions delivery, spotted and came to attend me. I choked first, then swallowed, gathered myself and asked for the items in a single breath while neetifying the money. Many towering figures around me looked at me with amusement, and also was Sekar anna. Fortunately, the shopping expedition did go through well.

A few years later, a 5 or 6 year old kid came to the store, stretching his arm with the money while asking for 3-4 items in a single breath. Now I was one of those towering figures for him. I was sure, he should have rehearsed on what he should be doing, atleast 10 times since he left home. Good job kid! you made it!

On a side note, I remember an incident stated in Srimad Bhagawatham, when Vamana moorthy leaves his ashramam to Mahabali's yagna saalai, with hands in a seeking posture. He walked all the way with His hands in that posture, because, He who is always used to giving, and was seeking for the first time ever. He managed to take it a level farther, when He entered the yagna saalai, walked straight to the King, and went about asking "I want three footsteps of land", without any formal salutations and introduction.

Moral: Shop-keepers should treat any kid coming to shop the first time without being "used" to "their ways", as a ThirukuraLappan Himself. But what if they get scared of losing everything soon after? ;-)