Navarathri reminiscences

Dear Sir,

You are bringing in lot ninaivugals for all. I enjoyed the sundal that i used to receive in pakkathathu mami's house. We used to do postmortem of all the sundals we receive and label which house is worth visiting again.

In return i had only one song which i used to croak despite a lot of practice, thinking about it i agree the sundal was more than what my song quality was. I remember some houses they just rewarded us with vethilla paku and pazham , i use to mutter under my breath " mami sundal tharata bandal".

But must admit your mom was a visionary, she knew you will surrounded by ladies in IL so has trained you by dressing up as a girl. In retrospect a man is complete only when you have some feminine traits and that is reasons for sahadharmini in life. In your case everything is within you.
Cheeniya ! you are a complete person & that completeness is within you

Purna- madah, purna-midam purnat-purnam -udacyate

Jaya

Dear Cheeniya sir,

A delightful post (as usual) that will surely take everyone down memory lane.first of all kudos to your mother for i think that generation was really partial to sons.
I too have fond memories of decking up in paavadai and going for all the golus in the building as a kid.Then during my teenage years (when my mother started keeping the golu) i would just refuse to wear a half sari and go to any house.Now again in my middle age I love to dress up in my "waiting to be used" kaanjivarams but still go only to a few houses.Wonder how and what changed me to a shy person.Somehow seeing the same crowd ,talking the same things (mainly new saris and jewelery acquired during the year) and eating the same stuff for 9 days is not my idea of fun.
BTW the idea of you dressed up as a girl and the fact that your brother (and not you) had to put a stop to that. did make me

My dear Jaya
This is a new concept. I mean the postmortem of Sundal before eating it. I thought it was the exclusive function of the digestive organs after we consumed the food! I recollect a quote of Mark Twain. He said 'Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside"! The problem of doing it before eating is that most of it will get rejected and we get very little to eat!

In return i had only one song which i used to croak!
That was an unusual verb to describe singing. I hope it finds a place in Thesaurus as the equivalent of singing because that's what the majority of people do!

To hear that I am a complete person from someone who has been interacting with me regularly feels great. Thanks a lot Jaya!
Sri

My dear Mindi
To tell you the truth, but for the relentless battle my brother waged on my behalf, my mother might have even put me in a girl's school! He was very keen that my gender identity should not get lost in my mother's obsession with a girl child! All is well that ends well. Thanks to my brother, I am here talking to you as Cheeniya Sir instead of Cheeniya Madam!
Sri