Meet At Adyar!

Hai freinds,
I am just back from the Meet At Adyar, hosted by our dear Bhooma and Lakshmi1945. The venue was Bhooma's sister's house, rather bunglow.

The house is very beautiful and tastefully decorated. All ethnic colours of red and brass and teak. Whole of the house is beautiful, kitchen is very functional large one. I was reminded of our Chithra's house, it was nearly on those lines. A pooja room which has the entrance in the kitchen, neivedhyam can be directly done.

I reached around 11.50. Bhooma was standing on the outside of the house to guide us.She was vivacious in a black embroidered salwar kameez, so swift in talking, walking and everything.

In I go and find, who else, our own dear Kanaka Raghavan, in a pinkish orange (or vice versa) crisp cotton salwar kameez. Wow, she looked like girl straight from the college, she was so dashing. We exchanged pleasantries and sh introduced me to Lakhsmi 1945 and also Uma Sridharan. Lakshmi, I am meeting her for the first time though I saw her snap in the earlier meet. She looked very maternal, in a yellow with green bordered saree.She was also so very friendly and warm.
Uma usually sends me greeting sms and we have chatted on the phone a few times. She was in a grey salwar suit, with her daughter Brinda also in grey. Brinda is a very active and smart girl, she just got familiar with all and was having fun on her own.
Then came Lakshmi's friend Jayanthi, who is about to register in IL, by now she would have, after seeing the warmth between the members. She was rather surprised at our easiness in interacting with each other. She said she was glad that she came to the meet.

Viji krishnan was the next to come, straight from the airport where she went for dropping her friend from Dubai. She was also very happy to meet every one. She was very sad that Chitvish was not there. We all missed Chithra very much, she is an icon of the Chennai ILiites. She is very eager to meet her soon, I hope it happens soon too.

We all talked about the earlier meets, ourselves and our families, about how IL had grown and about keeping track of the members. Bhooma has a pet dog, Joshua. He was getting irritated because she had brought him down from her flat. So he too joined us. But he did not like that we all are sharing his mom's time and was sulking a little. But thankfully, he kept quite, hearing our banter and not disturbing us.

Bhooma had put up a spread with very homely food, she said it was simple, But our tummies say 'oh my God, is this simple?'.
There was custard sweet, which Lakshmi had prepared. She said it was very easy to make and shared the recipe with us too. Fried rice, rasam, plain rice, curd rice with carrot scrappings and the works, potato and banana chips, cucumber raita, poori and channa masala. These were all prepared by Bhooma ( I think so ). Also, milk khoa, coconut burfi, badusha were also there, I am sorry I have knowledge about who brought these. Bhooma assured us that she could not make any sweets.
I had taken small onion vathakuzhambu and lapsi halwa. At least Chithra's recipe was there.
We all had a good time eating too. Bhooma had prepared all the items very well, rasam was superb that we all drank it.
Then again talking talking..... Then we all felt that we were getting late and started to leave, with reluctance.My heart was brimming with the warmth of meeting other ILites, tummy was full with the good and tasty food and my bag was also full- Bhooma had packed something for my son also.
All in all, a memorable afternoon spent among friends!

The posted became long, so continuing...
All this was possible, yes, due to Malathy and Jey. How can we thank them enough for making this sort of friendships happen? We all were remembering them also very much.
So, Malathy and Jey- THANK YOU VERY MUCH FROM ALL OF US.
Viji Krishnan was saying that she has just gone thro Chitvish recipes and confessed that she had not had time to cook much as she had been working till recently.I told her that she had seen only the tip of the ice berg, she should dive into the sea of recipes and try one by one. It sure will take a lot of time to try out everything, what do you people say?
Now she had taken VRS and intends to make up for the lost time. Bhooma was lamenting that she could not perfect sweet making. And Uma was taking mental notes about all these, she too have decided to try more recipes. Actually she is running a house keeping business with her husband, which is going on well by God's grace and their hard work. So naturally she too would be having less time.
Bhooma had taken pictures and would post them on Monday.

Dear Varloo ma'am

Thanks for narrating the whole occasion. Jus before sometime i spoke to Lakshmi ma'am n got to know about who all made up for the meet. Lakshmi ma'am said she missed us (Myself n Ramya) a lot. It is I n Ramya who missed you all n a great event!

I have met Lakshmi ma'am n Bhooma ma'am earlier in Pushpavalli mam's house but have not seen you n others who made for today's meet..Was eagerly awaiting to meet you all..But college work kept us from joining you.

I felt as if i was there in that bungalow amid all those beautiful colors reading your write-up. Had i made up for this meet, i would have joined Kanaka ma'am in giving her college company . Badushah, coconut burfi, milk- khoa, poori with chenna masala, fried rice, vathakuzhambu, halwa....Wow! (Am already drooling here..pls dont post the photos of all these mouth-watering dishes..Chumma..Kidding)

Bhooma ma'am pls don't forget to get me a cup of rasam when we meet next time .

to you all Chennai IL'ites..Thanks Varloo ma'am for coming out with this wonderful write-up. Waiting here for the photos..

Love
Meena

Hi Varloo

Thanks for the nice write up and those lovely words...

I should be the one thanking all of you for coming and joining us.

We did indeed have a wonderful time. what strikes me again and again .. is the ease with which the ILItes mix with each other .. even when we meet for the first time !

Now we have three ILites in Gandhi Nagar ( that I know of ).. we all stay so close to each other and didnt know all these days !!

Turned out Kanaka Raghavan could be distantly related to me !!! I spoke to her MIL too !!

Chitra ... I should take your advice and start practising all those yummy sweets... the halwa brought by Varloo was good .. so was the custard cake from Lakshmi

Our ( lakshmi and myself) party didnt end there :-0 we decided we would visit Sankara hall for the exhibition and purchase some more gift items on the way back we dropped in at my sisters house at Abhrimapuram for a cup of coffee and were back by 6!!

thanks Varloo,Kanaka,Viji,Uma, Jayanthi ... for being there .. ofcourse missed all others too who couldnt make it ... maybe next time

thank you Indusladies ... for spreading the net of friendship.. its wonderful ..

cheers

Bhooma

Hi Chennai ILites,

Good to hear that you all met again. Hope to see some pictures.

Hello Ladies
Its wonderful to hear all your meet news
Varloo such great detail wonderful to read ur post. I felt like I was there.
Waiting to see photos
A big thanks for posting all this.

Hi Varloo,
A nice write up on the Ilites Adyar meet. Sorry I couldn't make it. I think I haven't seen only Uma and Jeyanthi. Waiting to see the pictures.
Bhooma and Lakshmi,
Thanks for hosting the meet and continuing the Chennaites hospitality! May our tribe keep growing!
Love,
Pushpavalli

It feels good to read about Ilites meeting now and then.

Varloo, it was a beautiful piece of narration of the proceedings ... U took us right to that bunglow..Thanx..

Hoping to see the pics today....

Bye

Dear Varloo,
Thanks for the detailed write up on the meet.The menu sound yummy and I would have loved to meet all of you. IL has a way of spreading a bond and warmth that cannot be put down in words. I was unlcuky cos I had to be at work. Bhooma, thanks so much was inviting me and so sorry that I could not attend and join the fun.
Would have loved to meet Joshua too.
Well Alas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please do post the pictures when you can.

Hi Varloo,
Very interesting write up of the meet which seemed to have taken place hardly at a stone's throw distance from my house. sorry I missed it, Count me in for the next meet near this part of chennai, will you? Happy new year to you and family.
regards,
meenu