August 31, 2011
I am writing this a little after 7am. I don't think I will be able to get back to the laptop before 11pm next today. My duties for the day start off with receiving Chalam's mother at the Railway Station. I look forward to seeing Chalam's mother again. She is right up there with Amma when it comes to not mincing words. When she came to the US for the first time, the immigration officer asked her if she had anything to declare. "I don't want to come here. but my son brought me here," she declared. There was no more customs checking.
She never wasted an opportunity to tell all of us in US that, "America mohathile ungale mathiri ilainjarkal irikarathinale thaan India urupada maattame irikaruth" (India is not improving because youngsters like you are attached to American life). I had mentioned this statement a few days back when Leny chechi (neighbor across the street) remarked that I speak Tamil very well. I have mostly Tamilians friends in US, I reasoned. "Is it only friends or is there someone special?" Rema aunty asked out of the blue. I ignored the question and steered the conversation elsewhere. Next day my astrologer uncle told Rema aunty that according to her zodiac sign she is a very intuitive woman who can x-ray vision other people's secrets. I need more evidence to reconsider astrology!
When I woke up Sharath was online. Both of us had the same WTF reaction on seeing the passenger train arrival and departure website maintained by the Indian railways. Did our eyes deceive us? Did we actually see that more than a few trains arrived EARLY!!! Some as early as by 10-15 minutes. I don't know if this is the combined effect of the previous railway ministers Mamta di and Lallu ji but before I left India trains would arrive like most Indians, smugly late (which I think is a psychological overcompensation for coming too early elsewhere!) Some high class trains are VIPs here, conspicuously late. There used to be an amazing Guwahati-Trivandrum 'express' which was regularly one or two days late. Not that trains are not late today, but these early arrivals are a startling development. Sharath says it is the 'bleedy dedicated south Indian aged station masters and controllers' who are pushing these trains on time. I will spend some time with the railway website to see how the situation is in northern India.
Talking about punctuality, Mathrubhumi carried a stark half page photograph this morning on their metro supplement front page. It was the government sponsored public display to honor the dead body of 'Charchavedi Babu' (discussion-forum Babu), a silent force in the Thiruvananthapuram cultural scene. The exhibition hall with his body was deserted. There were only a handful of relatives sitting around the glass display case on which the name of the display case supplying company 'Ranjith' was written in tastelessly huge font with couple of cellphone numbers.
'Charchavedi Babu' moved to Thiruvananthapuram 40 years ago as the editor of the Malayalam encyclopedia. He started the discussion forum as a weekly cultural gathering. Several prominent poets,writers, politicians and administrators have gained their prominence through 'charchavedi'. Little kids who sang the opening prayers at these meetings went on to become nationally renowned playback singers, K.S.Chitra and M.G. Srikumar.
Every week Babu would send out hand written invitations. Over 1200 discussion forums, 400 poetry forums, 100 story-telling forums to date. The hallmark of the forum was that Babu would insist on starting the event on time even if the participants and audience are not there.
40 years ago this was revolutionary. Even today, it remains revolutionary.
Cultural and social luminaries and politicians would huff and puff to get to Babu's events on time. Babu passed away after teaching the value of time and punctuality to hopefully more than a few. But from the deserted hall with his dead body, such hope seems misplaced. Achan and his sister knew Babu. Aunty said she received the hand written invitations every week. She never went to any meeting of the forum. I don't remember seeing Babu though he was active with the nursery school I went to. Now after his death, I learnt about his work and I admire him.
Here ends the morning session of my writing.
It is 10:30pm. Six hours and 200-odd guests later, just a handful of people are left at home.
It rained heavily this morning completely ruining one set of carpet that had been laid on the street below the shamiana. Franctic prayers followed. New set of carpet was pressed into service. I went to the Railway Station to pick up Chalam's mom. We had the same Innova car that was used for the wedding invitation trips. But the driver was the younger brother of the previous driver. His name is Nishanth and he had returned from Muscat, six months ago. Ultra careful about the vehicle, he found the most roundabout routes to avoid traffic. I got to pass in front of Swati Thirunal College of Music which was established in 1939. I don't remember the last time I saw this college.
First we went to the West Fort of the Padmanabhaswamy temple. An aunty had said that she would wait under the fort's huge stone arch. Last minute she cancelled. We drove out through the heavily congested East Fort. Padmanabhaswamy temple has ancient forts on all sides. The long rectangular wall surrounding the temple now survives only in pieces. The wall was built first and then the temple. The reason is obvious today after we know about the huge vaults and what is in those vaults.
Anantapuri Express carrying Chalam's mom was a traditional one hour late. So I got an hour to watch life pass by at the railway station. It was less crowded today because of the Ramzan holiday. Since it wasn't announced in which platform Anatapuri would pull up, I waited at platform 1. Thiruvananthapuram-New Delhi express was waiting for departure there.
At the information counter a distinctly north Indian looking girl spoke fluent Malayalam. Outside the information counter her distinctly north Indian looking boyfriend loitered. Rest of the Railway staff seemed to be very supportive of their relationship. She did not like me barging in to ask about a stupid little train's arrival time in the midst of her lovely world in that glass cage of "information".
Just as the train gathered momentum, lots of people ran to climb on it. One poor man ran straight towards a police man who stopped him from catching the train. Appreciable concern for safety from the Kerala police. But I think there should be some thought given to the fact that running after trains and buses and jumping onto them is the only physical exercise most Indians get.
On the railway tracks, rodents that have lost the inhibition to exposure in broad daylight and presence of humans.
Anantapuri pulled up in platform 5. It comes in mostly empty to Thiruvanathapuram after being crowded for most of its journey through Tamil Nadu. I was looking through sleeper class S7 through S5 when I heard the unmistakably voice of Chalam's mom calling out, "Mallu"!
She checked into the Keys hotel. Keys: we put you at ease says their slogan. Though the name is Keys,the hotel uses all card entry system. One of the weirdest design features I found was that the washroom for the ground floor restaurant was in the first floor and we had to take an elevator to get there.
After she freshened up, we came home. Already there were around 50 friends and relatives having lunch. Chalam's mom was very pleased to see the photographs of her granddaughter. She slipped on the wet carpet on her way to visit Rema aunty's house. Luckily no injuries. The carpet in that part of the road was immediately removed.
Socializing can be exhausting in the absence of alcohol. I have a cousin who has the amazing habit of saying how exactly things can go wrong. I will call him Murphy secretly from now on. Couple of my uncles came after a couple of drinks and so were in extremely good mood through out. More socializing followed mixed with periodic baseless fear that food might run out. From that fear comes elaborate backup plans which are dead on arrival.
The photographers showed up by 4pm. They lit up the dining room. Elaborate blessing ritual by senior relatives followed. We got a few family pictures taken. The photograph repeatedly insisted on titled heads and then would tilt the camera.
My prospective marriage was raised at least 20 different times. Plenty of jokes and laughter. The kids really enjoyed playing hide and seek and having multiple helpings of black forest cake with ice cream.
One of my favorite aunts was sitting with a concerned expression on the verandah step. Her footwear was missing. Someone had taken them by mistake. I suggested that we enlist the services of our astrologer uncle to recover them, at least find out which direction they had gone. "They have gone the direction you are facing," he said. That was the direction of the shoe rack. We found a couple of ladies slippers on the rack which fit my aunt perfectly. She was about to leave happily with them when the astrologer uncle's wife shouted, "Those are mine. I need them for the wedding tomorrow!"
Late at night, went with some cousins and uncles to visit the venue to make sure that cooking for tomorrow's feast was in progress. Majority of the cooking team had already slept after finishing up the prep work. Tonnes of cut vegetables, huge brass vessels with melted jaggery and mashed ripe bananas. 75 kg of rice in a sack sitting by the side. Another 25kg sack with deep inferiority complex hiding behind coconuts on the other side. Two gigantic vessels full of milk. I presume there will be three kinds of 'payasam'. The decoration team has assembled more than a dozen huge brass lamps.
Off to bed now. Big day tomorrow. Must get ready in my "mundu" (single piece waist cloth) and be at the venue by 8:30. My cousin told me that my responsibility is to put a sandal paste 'kuri' (vertical mark) on the groom's forehead, garland him, give him a bouqet and receive him and his family into the marriage hall. I haven't had a dress rehearsal for this performance. "Mundu" is a tricky dress with no zips or buttons...wardrobe malfunction would be hilarious!
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