A chill through the spine.

Was reading the newspaper this morning. It was sunny out side with a mild chill. One of the blessings of California. As I turned my second page, this news caught my attention. A 93 year old veteran froze to death. A frantic search online gave all the chilling details. The whole scene in Kentucky and Arkansas looks like a part of "Day After Tomorrow", the movie that portrays a steady freezing of America.

Apparently this veteran had money, but must have had slipping memory. His electricity bills had about $1000 unpaid balance over past 4 months, so the local Bay City Municipal electricity worker had installed a meter that shuts off electricity after certain usage. And this poor soul had no clue. How monstrous can that be??????? I am at a loss of words to explain the inhuman treatment toward this aged veteran. If they look into his billing history he had never had any late payments or defaults. he was living alone with no children and wife being passed away two years earlier. I am completely sad. Strangely I think of people back home in India - there too the neighborly, humane attitude is slowly dying if not already dead. So is it the whole world becoming a totally selfish, inhuman society?

On top of this a news article suggested people in those parts of US with heavy snow and snow storm (over a million) might have to live with no power until mid February. Oh my God, it hurts even to imagine. I remember way back in 2002, we had a power outage for about 3 or 4 hours. I was pregnant with my first child. We ha no food to eat and i still shudder to remember my husband frantically driving through the rain looking for food for me. Now How many moms are pregnant there? how many infants need warm milk or simply water to drnk? how many elderly need heat to keep warm? Oh to think of all the basic necessities...How ever can this happen? We call America the most advanced nation in the world.

Inspite of many of the states going bankrupt, we are able to offer $40,000 for civilians killed in Afghanistan. How are we going to handle this dire life and death situation caused by extreme weather conditions? I wish the governemnt makes plans and acts immediately to bring relief to the people in pain and cold.

Simple Pleasures.

Travel through the time zones
Looking beyond the horizons
searching for a light
through many sickening blights
we forget-
Life's most memorable treasures
Are the simple everyday pleasures.

Hope

On a floral path pushing thorns aside
Glides a gentle thought as the snakes slide-
With a venomous force a hissing raise
Blocking the serene mind with an awful noise.

When gripping fear seems very near
The terrified mind searches for a dear-
A ray of hope like a seeping sunshine
Brings a moment of peace when darkness reign.

Great Expectations

Past presents knowledge never learned
Present fills with a void of wants ...
Future beckons with elusive illusions.
The flow of life seems to falter
at wants un met and deeds un done.
Slumber brings dreams which
pragmatic mind dispels away...
Greater the expectations, bitter the frustrations.

Watching moments of history - January 20, 2009.

As I am watching moments of history unfold digitally in front of me. I just couldn't help but write down my thoughts. One of the most moving, best orchestrated (I wouldn't call it once in a life time 'coz Obama is paving a way for many new firsts) inauguration ceremony for Mr. Barack Obama. With greater expectations does he take charge today. I watch it with mixed feelings of exhilaration and skepticism.

Welcome Obama and God Bless you, the Country you are going to preside over and the World at large.

Mr. President -The expectations are higher, making your job tougher. As much as excited about your arrival to America's presidency I am as much worried about all the looming problems that are going to shower on you, along with our best wishes for you. The favorite chant "Yes, We can" only gives me a hope to look into the future with warming thoughts that Yes, of course we can cross all that had caused a deep gash in the American spirit. We have our Hope and Confidence in a better tomorrow.

Let the country flourish, Let the world bloom into a better place and let humanity reign supreme.

Pongal - Walk down the memory lane...

Pongal starts at least a week ahead of the real day in my village when I was little. My dad buys a bunch of Pongal Vaazhthukkal (greeting cards) and me and my sister sign every one them and send them out to every one of our cousins and friends. I wonder even in those days of hardship my dad took the time to teach us the value of maintaining relationships and remembering them every pongal time. Thank you dad, for all the values you had taught us.

My mom, athai and grandma will clean all the anda kundas at home including all the unused pathiram pandam. Those were the days our palm roof bungalow had a mud floored living room! The older women use mattu chani and kari (coal power, what do you call mezhuhal?) to tharai mezhuhal, two days before pongal day. On Bohi night comes the biggest decoration ever, drawing makkolam on the blacked, newly chani mezhuhia floors. Man the beauty, all the heady smells.... It was a smell very unique to the south Indian villages. Our neighbor aunties and my family ladies would have competition in kolam drawing. What imagination they had in creating Kolam designs!! Unbelievable colors and intricate designs unfold in front of you in minutes. I wish I had a camera to record all those memories as a child.

The morning of pongal dawns very early before the Sun God has time to take his first wink, with another Kolam session on the front, this time colorful rangolis adorn our front yards. Then comes all new cloths and yes, Pongal! Awesome delicious mommy only can make kind of pongal, she actually doesn't do any magic but always my mom's pongal is the best. Pongal - typically every familymakes two paanai pongal, that is make two types of pongal - one sweet - made with rice, milk, jaggery, pacha karpuram, cardamom, cashewnuts and raisins. (But real village pongal is very simple, yet soooo delicious, made with rice, jaggery, channa dal and coconut). The other kind rice, a sprinkle of channa dal and grated coconut - called white pongal. We make it either in the front yard or in the kitchen and adorn the pongal pathiram with fresh turmeric plant around the neck. Sugarcane and fresh ginger are all offered to Sun God - symbolically thanking him for the bounty he offers humanity. Then we hog on the pongal and chew on lots of long sugarcane's. I remember having races with my sister to see who finishes the long sugarcane first. Inevitable yours truly wins in all eating contests with my sister back home :). The lunch menu on Pongal day looks somehting like this - Sambhar made with all vegetables, Rasam, Kara Kuzhambu, Avial, Pachadi, Vazhaka fry, Vada, Appalam and twokinds of Pongal. I only used to enjoy the food and forget the rest as a daughter, now being the mom, I realize the time and amount of work behind such extensive delicacies.

Where I come from, Pongal is a three day affair. Next day to Pongal is Mattu Pongal. We typically celebrate the farm animals. All the bulls, cows and even goats are washed and decorated with garlands. Generally the whole village joins in one big arena and cook pongal together. This pongal is sooooooooooooooo yummy and my all time favourite. They add jaggery, freshly grated coconut and ripe bananas to cooked white rice on plantain leaves and mix it. Oh yummmmmy! Mattu Pongal used to be big grand affair where all our cousins get together at my maternal grandparents huge house until i was like 13 years old. Thatha passed away and so did all those traditions, family get together and all the fun.

Third day of pongal is called kanu and we make pongal - agian sweet kind to celebrate the kanya pongal - young virgins in the family. Young girls get new cloths and money as presents from the elders on Kanya pongal day. Evening is the fun part. All the young and old alike dress up and meet in the center of the village. Many weddings gets fixed! Oh I can see those days of fun! there is so much music and so much dance - kummi, kolattam etc etc. We can see all folk arts vibrant and alive in that Pongal celebration on the third day.

Life was beautiful. We knew so many family members and extended relatives. We knew how to get together and share the joys and sorrows. As children we were exposed our very traditional, meaningful festivals and we had grandparents around to tell us stories - even if all the reasons my patti or ammachi told me were not authentic reasons for a celebration, at the very least I had them around, to lean on, to look up to and take refuge in.

Cruel reality

I came to know this- I am at a loss- what to call this shocking, heartbreaking news? A friend of mine called me this morning - we speak after a long time, but you know sometimes you don't have to be talking everyday to keep up the friendship. She is such a person. I was very happy about the call but the magnanimity of the information she shared in a chocking tearful voice shattered my very being.

Her family - the couple, 2 boys and a girl are all going to attend a "celebration of life" of the older boy's friend (4th grader). What??? Celebration of life for the young child? We both cried. My thoughts wandered, oh my God the unimaginable, unbelievably cruel reality of life had touched upon the family of a fourth grader. That little boy - a student at Stratford, De Anza Campus, got a burst blood vessel in the brain and is not alive any more. A loss of a child - I had gone through a loss of an unborn child - if that was excruciating for me, to lose a child, a 9 year old, how would it be to the parents. God why do you do things like that? Why give and take at such tender age? Sometimes I cannot relate or come to terms with the reality of death. Why should it happen? Whats the equation that You use for all the births in the world? Now trying to rationalize the desperation that I once experienced, I can only pray to You God, again to give them the faith to come to terms with their loss.

Will Obama prove to be a transformational global leader?

This is a survey question( very similar to many others) I come across on many websites after Barack Obama got elected as the President. All I want to do is to scream out loud FOR GOD'S SAKE GIVE THIS PERSON A CHANCE AT THE OFFICE before wanting to come to a conclusion, stop all the speculations you bird brains.

Agreed the country is in rags. Agreed the depression is greater than the great depression. But its a mess created and systematically piled upon layer after layer on the American people, on the American Economy and on the American Dream. All we have now is a nightmare. A nightmare beyond comprehension.

And Obama is no magician. He is a person with a promise. And he is a person with a promise of change and lots of limitations. However much happy about his election, I am sad and sorry that a historic change for America has to happen at such historic bad economy and challenging hard times. Undoing whats been done in the past eight years is going to take time. We should remember Obama is not armed with a magic wand or any God like powers. So lets pray God to give him the strength and the kind of experienced, knowledgeable support in the cabinet to steer America out of the destructive twister and restore stability, confidence and hope in the American people.

Lets let him take one step at a time and not expect any leaps. With leaps we may falter and get hurt, with careful steps we will reach our destination strong and sound. With proper planning, measures and support, We might take longer to be where we want to be, but we sure will be stronger. God Bless America and God Bless Barack Obama.

Email Etiquette!

Well to begin with I am no great personality to define any etiquette and i do not intend doing a definition. But I think as a person who responds to my emails pretty regularly I am well qualified to "talk" about email etiquette.

Email was a great communication revolution in the late 20th century. Emails are easier to send and receive than the postal mails, 'coz they save writing time - of course typing out is easier than writing, searching and finding an envelope, stamping and walking to the post office or mail box to send it. Then waiting for the mail to reach the person sent and to hear back. When we get a reply in the post, how happy and good it used to feel? I do lament the invention of email some times 'coz it feels great to read the written letter from a loved one and the family. From anybody for that matter. Every letter has a spirit to it. Well that apart -

Email, when we do send them we intend communication. Can communication always be one way? How would it feel if we call a person on the phone and start yapping and the other person never even says an umm or ah? What kind of communication is that? I think un reciprocated emails work the same way as unresponsive calls.

I for one expect an acknowledgment or reply to my question whenever I send an email to my friends and family. But there are many people in the world who do not acknowledge or respond to emails. What might be their thought process? I wonder if people are too busy that they do not have time to hit the reply button and type out a few nice words or thank you or a response to a question? Oh no but what about the ones who send them? Those kind of people do put me off, I never want to communicate with them.

Wouldn't it be nice if the world responds to emails? I do not mean junk mails of course. Real genuine mails from people you know, who had sent you information and are waiting to know if you find them useful? I feel every intentional emails with a wish, communication or information we need should get a response. Well only I seem to feel that way. But never mind I am at peace 'coz I do that always!

தேடல்

நுரைத்து தள்ளி கரையில் புரண்டு
என்ன தேடும் இந்த அலைகள்?
தொலைத்து விட்ட நுரையின் காற்றா
எடுத்து சென்ற மணலின் சுவடா
கரைத்து கொண்ட காலத்தின் கனவா

பறந்து கரைந்து திரியும் காகம்
தேடித்திரியும் காரணம் என்ன?
சின்னகுழந்தை ஆனால் கூட
அம்மா பார்க்க தேடல் உண்டு

இந்த
தொலைந்து போன மனிதம் மட்டும்
தொலைந்த நினைவே மறந்து போய்...

அவள்(ன்)

மின்னல் பெண்மை கண்ணை பறிக்க
கன்னல் இனிமை குரலில் தெறிக்க
அன்ன நடையை அழகாய் பயின்று
சின்ன மனதை கிறங்க வைத்தாள்

பதுமை வந்த அழகை பார்த்து
மெதுவாய் பின்னே சென்ற கூட்டம்
பதறி ஓடும் காரணம் என்ன?
பாவம் "அவளின்" பிறவி தானா?

Visit.

Living in California, We do not get many visitors from back home. Many childhood relationships long lost, we do live a happy content life as any foursome family. Except some pangs of regrets when we see children playing with visiting grandparents in the local park or when our children visit friend's who have their grandparents visiting them for a six months stay. Somehow getting our children's grandparents visit us is always been an alluring enigma.

So now when our cousin had to come to bay area on work from Chennai and stayed with us for 2 months, it was like a rare surprise gift. It was like walking down the memory lane, densely fogged with clusters of emotions. Remembering and discovering the tastes, sharing memories and revisiting common interests, like books and history. Children had a fun playmate and a knowledgeable chithappa - all in one.

But time's winged chariot does fly fast when you are having so much fun. The visit ended and he started to get back to his work, life and family today. We roam around the home like zombies. My little two and half year old is still calling for "chithappa". Older one is bravely trying to hide his disappointment.

Having family live in the US doesn't help a lot sometimes. We do have our family on the other coast and meet rarely and only in India when we both visit. Perhaps defining once a year visits with family on the other coast will give these relatives deprived children a better idea of family and relationships? Like alternating visits every year?