Birthday Boy!

My 59th birthday was celebrated on 20th March with our friends from Dubai. My friend Sivasankaran had come with his wife & in-laws to grace the occasion on that day. It coincided with Prophet Mohammed's birthday, so it was a holiday for all of us in Gulf.

I had bought a kurta pajama a year before when I went to Pune to meet Vivek, which I wore on that occasion. That's what you see beside. That Pajama was too lengthy, which I was not used to, this is the new fashion it looks.

The lunch was designed bearing in mind all are interested in light food, hence the menu was Aval Payasam, Dhahi vada, Brinjal Pitle, cabbage curry, rasam, appalam ( fried), grated carrot etc.

After prostrating before the elders seeking their blessings on the eve of birthday lunch was commenced in a typical tamilian fashion, ' Gents first'. Sivasankaran was enthralled by Dahi vada, gobbled a few vadas.

You can see the lunch in full swing.


The appalam was eaten with payasam after soaking it fully which gives a fine taste. Dahi vada was heavy too, but ok once in a way!
Rasam was excellent, every body appreciated it, so lunch was grand.

We had a Satsang too on that day. My friend had brought a VCD of ' Vishaka Hari ' , a very young lady, belonging to the clan of Sri.Krishna Premi performimg a descriptive , musical kathakalakshapam on ' Sita Kalyanam ', which lasted about 3 hours. It was so nice we all missed our aftrenoon siesta especially on a hoilday afternoon after such a sumptuous lunch. She quoted from different epics, including Tulasi ramayanam, Kamba Ramayanam, Songs of different poets, but her main forte was Thyagarval, whose compositions she sang giving the meaning & the nuances of his composition. It was the most interesting event of the day, which we all enjoyed very much.

In the evening, we went to a park nearby & spent sometime walking around, returned home at 9 Pm. We ordered some food from outside & ate that with home made Thayir sadam, which a Tambrahm can never miss especially if brought up from south.

Our friends left for Dubai at 10PM for a long 90 min journey back home.


So it was a nice time we had on that day on the eve of my 59th birthday!

Awareness

One Saturday evening we were driving to drop our Bachelor friend off at Hamdan street, Abu Dhabi and returning to Al Wahda mall for our weekly shopping at Lulu Hypermarket. Things were expensive in the local super markets, hence we went to Abu Dhabi to shop in bigger supermarkets, especially Lulu, which was comparatively cheaper. We were driving through Muroor road & I took a right turn at Al Falah street signal, which turned out to be wrong one. Hence I drove straight & took a right turn to Airport road to get back to the Mall. I had to take a U-turn & hence I was waiting near the signal in the lane adjacent to the median. My wife was sitting behind & she told me that I can not take a U-turn here as there was a board depicting a crossed ‘U’. I was shocked to hear that, I did not observe that at all. I was not conversant with this rectangular signal stations based on American systems, I am more used to round abouts, which is British based. Fortunately I took a left turn & went straight ahead. By mistake, had I taken a U-turn at that place, it would be a chaos since I would be driving in the opposite direction. Thank God, my wife saved me on that day. The lesson to learn here is to be aware of your surroundings & environment, be watchful always!

The Mush Affair

Mush affair!We all always worry about what others will think of us, if I do this or that, but the reality is that no body is bothered about what you do, They have no time to think about themselves, where is the question of noticing what you are after as long your action do not affect them.I will narrate an incident which happened recently to drive my view.I have been sporting a moustache for more than 20-25 years. I have been longing to remove the moustache for a long time, but I was wondering what others would think of me if I remove the moustache, it will look odd. What will I answer if they ask as to why I removed my moustache etc. Such thoughts were preventing me from shaving my moustache.On two or three occasions, I gathered my courage to shave off, but finally I could not pull it through as I was more worried as to what others would think or what I will answer.Once I had a holiday for 5 days continuous for Ramadan , I thought I would shave my moustache on the evening of the day prior to commencement of holidays, so that by the time I go to my office after 5 days, my moustache would have grown , no body would know I had shaved off my moustache. But alas! Even this time I could not succeed due to my thinking some body would notice me in the mall or in public, so I missed that opportunity too.Finally, one day my wife was returning from home country after a short visit to our native place. I wanted to pose a different look to her, so I decided that I would remove my moustache, which is easy to do. So on the evening of her return, unmindful of what others would think of me without moustache, I shaved off my moustache to receive my wife with a flower bouquet etc.On that day flight was delayed, she came out at 0300AM with sleepy eyes, I gave her the flowers & welcomed her. She smiled & did not utter single word about my missing moustache until we reached home & asked her whether she noticed any change in my face, she said, “yeah, you are minus your moustache”.Next day I went to office with my hand over my upper lip, trying to avoid any body seeing me, of course I could not hold it on for ever. But to my great surprise, nobody’s body language even hinted that they observed my facial change, it was normal as usual. It was my misconception what others would think. So the moral of story is ‘do as you please as long it does not disturb others, don’t worry what others would think’.The climax of the event is, when I asked my wife next day whether I should continue shaving my moustache, she said “I like you only with your Moustache”.So I am restoring Moustache to please my better half!!