When a poetic expression boomerangs

Do you remember the boomerang? Most of us played with it while we were young.

 It works on a simple technique. You flip the boomerang through the air in the forward direction and within seconds it comes back onto us.

Alright, i know that you remember but  how is this related to my post?

Read on......

When i have to substantiate my point of view to my children, i often quote some poetic expression, wise saying or proverb . Say for instance, i use poetic lines  like  "Little drops of water make a mighty ocean" to just drive the point that ,  Big things in life have small start ups. My teens too listen and absorb them.  Only i did'nt realize they would apply it on me.

My 14 year old   has CCE  this week( continuous comprehensive evaluation). The average of the marks scored in the CCE  throughout the year decides  his grade in the final exam. My son has very good attention span , grasps concepts  and applies them,  But he does not put in hardwork.  Since he is regular to class room teaching, he scores honorable marks, if not glorious marks.  We are also not mark obsessed parents but we ensure he understands the principles, concepts, expresses them and applies them. He does not miss the classroom teaching  and he has no private tuitions so far. 

But last work week we spent  in Chennai as we had to attend our nephew's wedding and so my son missed his lessons . This week he had to clear the backlog notes and prepare for the CCE amidst his busy schedule of watching TV, playing and fidgeting with gadgets. 

I asked him to read  on his own and explain the lesson 'Force and the laws  of  motion."  He read the text , explained force and the first law of motion on the white board with drawings and examples from real life. All these precisely in 14 minutes.  He then paused and smiled....

I goaded him to continue .and  this was the conversation that followed

HE:  I  have to study the  text to explain further.

ME:Ok, go ahead, i will wait. you read and explain

HE: Not now ma..... later. I want to rest now.

I raised my voice  and told him he is going to higher classes now and he has to put in continuous effort for long time. Bits and pieces won't do.

For which he replied " Ma, Boond boond se hi banta hai sagar" and went away to play while i was left holding the physics text in my hand.

What I told him  a few days back, boomeranged on me. Is this what they say " Life takes a full circle"

They are making memories.........

                                                         "Mirror in the middle"

                                                            "God in the middle"


Most parents of growing children would have heard the above lines or similar ones often at home. If not, read ahead……


I had rested my son one day from school since he had a severe dry cough. He was tired and sleeping on his bed when my daughter returned from school at 2.30. I had laid her lunch and was waiting for her to come to the table but she refused telling that she will have food only with her brother. He was in no mood to give her company and so he refused to eat with her, not one to listen my daughter went on nagging him to give her company. When he did not yield , she started bothering him by tickling and shouting into his ears, this irritated my son and finally he hit her.

Not wanting to be a mute spectator, I intervened and shouted badly at my daughter telling her not to bother him since he was unwell and went into the kitchen to do my work. A few minutes passed and while at work on the kitchen platform, my son came and tapped at my back, I turned around and my son had this to say,

“Amma, why did you interfere and shout at her? Ippo avo azhara paaru(see she is crying now), Go say sorry to her”

My jaws dropped at first and then I went Hmpfff......I deserve it.

A lesson learnt …. I decided that day, I would never interfere when these siblings fight.

But wait….Did I learn?

On an another day…...

This time again both of them had a fight, usually it’s over a rubber, pencil , pen, A4 sheet or for something trivial. My daughter a perfectionist who keeps her things clean and safely and my son who is just the opposite …….

This time I shouted at my son badly which sent him crying to the bed and now my daughter came to me and this was the dialogue that followed…

She : Amma, everytime he cries he ends with a bad cough and you are the one who suffers and takes him to a doctor, when he has a dry cough… why do you shout and make him cry?.

ME: It irritates me when you both fight. Stop fighting.

She: No ma, we are not fighting, We are making memories. These things are what we will remember when we grow up , so allow us to fight. You don’t interfere.


Now whenever there is a shout or fight, I never go in the middle it is either ‘God in the middle’ or ‘mirror in the middle’

Do you get the drift?

When one shouts the other says the above dialogue … it means god is in the middle so the other automatically stops shouting.. now who would shout at god?

Mirror? Now you all know mirror reflects…..

Like all siblings they rival and revel and when they revel they are so creative and come up with beautiful music compositions (between them they learn carnatic music, tabla and they learn keyboard from internet), art works and delicious recipes and help each other with their school projects… when they rival they send my head reeling….

Never mind the reeling…. They are making memories after all. Little wonder then this relationship calls for a celebration.

Happy Raksha bandhan to all those brothers and sisters celebrating this lovely relationship.

This post is for my son and daughter . After all they are making memories, while I’m recording them…..

An innovator at home

Ever since, he heard from his friend 4 months back, My 11 year old son was interested in a science camp held by Butterfly fields, an Indian backyard science program.

This dussehra holidays, he was very keen on joining this camp although he was busy with his friends playing football & cricket matches and was also catching up with his cartoons and Common wealth games on TV.

The advertisement in ‘The Hindu’ newspaper were very attractive and claimed they would teach innovative science concepts in a playful method for 5 days and it would be followed with a contest and the winner would win a hamper worth Rs1000. They would also provide all the material required for the camp and a free back pack worth Rs250 - all these for Rs 1200.

One of the 6 camp centre was close by home and so decided this was the right opportunity to enroll him, since he showed interest.

The concepts taught was about magnetic levitation, piston pump, mysteries of chemistry, paddle boat and the 6th day children from all the centres were taken to the main center where they all assembled for a competition based on the principles taught. They were also told about the applications of the above concepts and before each day’s session began, the children were given a lot of science books and encyclopedias to find information on the day’s experiments.

After the class, he would display his experiments in our golu (a display of dolls during Navarathri), and when people who came to our house asked him about the principles involved, he would conveniently give the scientific jargon like potential energy, kinetic energy etc., a miss and talk in simple words like push-pull action, spring enery etc., all with a ‘chaltha hai’ attitude and an eye on TV.(His mind would be in CW Games)



The contest day coincided with Saraswathi puja day, and I was slightly sad that we had to rush through the puja and send him to the contest. He was forced to have a hurried puja brunch. We dropped him at the nearby centre and all the children were pooled and taken to the parent center for the contest at 10.am where children from the other branches also assembled. ( More than 30)

By 1.00p.m, Sharun called me from his facilitator's mobile telling that he won the contest and the prize hamper.(The hamper had a board game and a card game designed by Butterflyfields)



Sharun sailed through the prelims by doing two DIY things one a parachute and other was fixing a two pin plug (these were not taught during the program, but an instruction paper was given at the contest center) and a 10 mark paper on the applications of the principles taught.



In the finals where he was pitted against 3 finalists, he did a time bound experiment based on Newton’s 3rd law of motion called Newton’s car with the help of poker( similar to screw driver),card board wheels,Kabab sticks,, bent straw, balloon etc.

The camp, the contest are all over now, but the hangover of the science camp is all around my house. My wash basin has turned brown, thanks to the mysteries of chemistry. There are water droplets all over the ivory colored vitrified tiled house, we have to carefully watch our steps or else the floor would turn into a skating rink , all credit to the piston pump and on our bath tub water you will find a 'pet' water bottle with two chopsticks and marble disguised as a paddle boat and all soap dishes in the wash rooms and the skewer sticks from the kitchen are getting converted to motor cars and paddle boats.

Now I have an innovator at home, Thanks to Butterfly fields,

Golu @ home-2010

This is the golu at home which came up suddenly on Mahalaya amavasya, all credit to my daughter,son and MIL. With our travel plans getting grounded,this vacation I decided to enrol my son in the science workshop at the indian backyard science which he was pestering me to enrol since long at butterfly fields.

As I was through with the winter cleaning on Mahalaya amavasya day, I decided to clean the display unit & display the little doll collection,but my daughter turned around some tables, brought down the plywood sheets from attic with a bathla ladder and set up the whole unit with the help of my MIL and son. Seeing her interest, I only contributed by adding some finishing touches.

Natarajar, a reclining clay doll of ganesa, a colorful ganesa in a hibiscus, standing ganesa, channapatna wooden toys, a wedding doll, some animals like elephants,ducks, a rajasthani seth and sethni(instead of chettiyar and chettichi) along with small brass utensils like aduppu(stove), idli stand, maaram( used to chaff rice) are some of the items you will see. All the above have replaced the olden 'man bommais' which my mil used to display. The older 'man bommais' are carefully packed and stored in an attic at my husband's grandparents home at Lalgudi.

My children have also designed a park with a pillaiyar temple in a mini village set up.

Now I am busy with the theatre workshop(winter camp), i am conducting in the morning and in the afternoon i go to get the vethhalai pakku, poo, pazham etc and in the evening I go over to visit other people's golu and invite them over to my house golu.

Enjoying the festive season.

Time out at Neyveli - part I

We are back from our 40 day vacation and since I visited a lot of places and people, I decided to note some important and interesting points which I came across as this would help me to blog. Every time I sat with a pen and paper, my thoughts were suspended. Looks like my thoughts flow only in front of the monitor and through the key board.

Well , now to the chronicles of my summer fun at Neyveli , Bangalore and Hosur. We boarded the Charminar Exp on April 27th and reached Chennai next morning. After a few hour stay at our uncle’s place in T. Nagar we left to Neyveli to attend a family function( Ayush homam of my husband’s cousin’s son).

Neyveli the beautiful township is where my husband’s uncle stays. This place on the midway between Trichy and Chennai , is totally owned by Neyveli Lignite corporation and hence only NLC employees are allowed to stay.

Neyveli is very special to us since this is also the place where my husband schooled from nursery to class XII and my Father –in- law was the chief engineer at NLC. This place is a far cry from the Tier I &II cities of our country. This township sees no powercuts and water shortage since they are the power generators.

The employees are blessed with a beautiful quarter depending on their rank in the company. The quarters generally are a duplex house with a servant quarter(rear end) and a beautiful garden consisting of mango, goosebeery, jackfruit,coconut and cashew trees. These trees fringe a beautifully landscaped garden . Depending on the house owner’s needs one can embellish the park with swing , bench and canopy. The broad tree lined roads have never seen traffic. NLC people perhaps might hear of the word ‘heavyTraffic’ , ‘ Traffic jam’ only outside Neyveli. For people like me, staying in a multistoreyed apartment facing another multi storey complex and having a traffic jam around the ben d of the road, these sights are pure visual luxury.

The ayush homam ( the first birthday of the child celebrated according to the Hindu calender) was attended only by close relatives numbering 30.

Since the lunch was cooked by the family elders, we cousins pitched in by helping make vadais and papads while discussing lives in our cities.

After the function we(B,shre and shar) drove out of neyveli to drop our oldest cousin (60+) who was staying some 20 kms away in Vadalur. Since I have visited her place before, I was looking for the huge mango orchard which was opposite her house. But I was in for a surprise when I was told by our cousin that the barren land which was staring in front of us was the place of the mango orchard. Land sharks have not spared the smaller towns . They have chopped the huge trees to make way for plots. There were small stone pillars to mark the measurement of sites and a sign board read ‘ Plots for sale ’with a mobile number beneath.

We spent some time in their house . Shre and shar had some fun times drawing water out of the well in their house, plucking huge golf ball sized juicy lemons and fleshy drumsticks from the trees. We beat the summer heat by sipping fresh tender coconut water which were specially axed for us by our cousin’s husband.
We drove back late in the evening to Neyveli. The next day was our annual visit to our family deity temple at Siruvacchur.

Rasambar anyone?

You know Rasam.

You know sambar.

Do you know Rasambar?


Yes, it is the combo of both rasam and Sambar and this rasambar took birth in my kitchen a few months ago.

A few months back I had a training session on a Saturday and with weekends off B , my daughter and my son were at home. They said they would manage their lunch.

The trio got into the kitchen to make Rasambar. Evening when I returned back both shre and shar were raving about the new preparation cooked by their appa and shre named it as Rasambar.

Now-a- days with the heat getting unbearable , I try to spend lesser time in the kitchen. There is no separate sambar and rasam. It is this 2 in 1 I make.

Well, It is easy to make too. Add 1 table spoon of rasam and sambar powder in a vessel along with crystal salt/table salt(to your taste). To this add tamarind juice extracted from lemon size tamarind , add chopped tomatoes and onions. Let it boil. To this add 50 gms of cooked and mashed tuvar dal, add two cups of water and allow it to boil again, now add few leaves of curry and coriander and sprinkle with a pinch of hing powder. Temper with mustard seeds and it is ready to serve with rice.


The thin watery soup on top is the Rasam and the thick dal gravy with tomato and onion which settles at the bottom is Sambar.

To make it more richer add 1 table spoon of coconut gratings along with dal and you can add your own twists to make it more nutritious by adding your choice of vegetables.

Rasambar with rice, microwaved curry and buttermilk is the main course made in my kitchen this summer.

Madhurambika Ashram --- An autobiography

Listen to the story of Madhurambika ashram.--(Bala's maternal grandparent's house)

Yes, I am an house and that is my name. I measure more than 3600 sq. Feet. My address is 97, First Street, Paramasivapuram. I am situated close to the lalgudi railway station. Bala’s grandfather Mr. Srinivas retired as a station master from Lalgudi and hence decided to stay back at this place after retirement, though originally they hail from Koneyarajapuram in Thanjavur. I was built in the year 1956.

Though I measure more than 36squares, I have not used the whole plot. I have space all round me, especially more at the back yard. As you enter I have a rectangular veranda, on the right is a spiral staircase leading to the first floor. From the veranda you enter into a passage which leads to the hall. On either side of the passage is a bedroom. The left one has a door which opens into the hall. The right one has another door which opens into a bedroom this room has 4 doors. One door to the hall, one to the adjacent room, one to the side garden and another into the right kitchen. Yes, I have two kitchens. The rear end of the drawing hall has a door which leads to a passage. This passage opens into the courtyard. On either side of the passage are two kitchens. The left kitchen usually used for patthu samaiyal (cooked food) and the right side for uncooked food .There is a pooja room in this kitchen. The passage ends in a foyer on either side of the foyer are two rooms.

The left room is used as a store room for storing coconuts and other things. There are nearly 10 coconut trees in the house. The elders in the family hire people to pluck coconuts , then it is broken by the youngsters with thenga uri(coconut cutter) and then the thick kernel is removed from the shell, dried and sent to the oil mill for making coconut oil. This milled coconut oil is then sent to all the sons and daughters house in Chennai, neyveli and Bangalore since the cooking medium of the family is coconut oil.

The right room is generally used to put all junk and this place is also used to cook oily things like savouries and sweets during occasions for the big family which unites together during occasions. The elders of this family have always done the seer murukku for weddings and all other functions in this place. Till recently they have never used the marriage contractors.

Finally, this foyer's grill door opens into Asha’ favourite place in the house --the courtyard. To the left of the courtyard is again another small house measuring 15X15 feet. This house was rented out during Bala’s grand mother’s time but later on Anna (fondly called Anna thatha --B-i-l of Bala’s grandfather) lived in this house until his death in Jan 2009. It is a single room tenement with a kitchen.

In the middle of the courtyard is a shed housing a shallow platform. This platform was used to string the flowers of the garden, or to de- stem the keerai available in the garden. It also served as a place for the elders and youngsters to relax and talk. There is an ammi kal and aatu kal(grinding stone) here. This shed is shaded by the Tangerine tree. (narthangai).The elders of my house like chinani mami, Janaki mami and Baby mami make narthelai podi out of this tree leaves. They pound the tender leaves of the tangerine leaves with red chillies and salt on the ammi kal and pass it on to the near and dear ones living away from Lalgudi. This powder is a good accompaniment for curd rice and very special for native Tanjoreans.

There is a well close to the shallow platform , which caters to the water needs of the family.It is connected through a borewell into the kitchens and wash rooms. The water is the pure kaveri water putting any water purifier to shame. Beside the well is the holy Tulsi (brindavan). The well was the play area for children like Sharun and shreya. They took great pleasure in drawing water from the well whenever they came for holidays.

To the right of the courtyard was the entrance into the neighbouring house i.e door no 96( this also belonged to Bala’s Grandfather and the neighbouring house no 95 belonged to Bala’s mother. She sold the house in 2003.)

I have many plants like the juicy lemon (each bigger than a golf ball and I yield more than 100 numbers in each season. They are again transported to all the children’s house) , vadanarayana keerai, pasalai keerai,murungakeerai , manathakali,sundakkai, plaintain trees, murungai, pasalai , narthangai, coconut, curry leaf ,vilwam,nelli maram marudani and flowering plants like hibiscus, parijadam, mullai ,malli etc.,

I have been blessed by the presence of His holiness Jagadguru Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi swamigal during one of his visits to LLI.

I have been the venue of the various occasions this family has conducted like weddings, seemandham,thalai Deepavali, poonal, nischayadartham etc.,. I have also witnessed the birth and death of various members of this family. I simply love this family.

Well , now you may ask what is so special about me?. Why should I write my history? since every house has one.

Well, Today (nov 27) my ownership is being transferred to an other family. I will definitely miss the members of this lovely family who have migrated to various parts. But, I take solace in the fact my neighbour 96 is still part of the family. I can still meet them when they come here.

With blessings and best wishes to all the family members of Seetha patti and srinivasa Thatha.

Love
Madhurambika Ashram.

Every family member (from the oldest to the youngest)of the house is sad about the sale of the house. Due to old age and health reasons it is difficult for elders to stay and maintain the house while their children are away and they have to move over to their children's place in other cities.All of us will definitely remember the beautiful times spent in this palatial house.