The Longest IL Meet Ever! In Madurai!

The Longest IL Meet Ever!

I am really proud to have been a part of the longest meet that ever happened in the history of IL. Until now the longest meet record is held by the Gulf ILites meet which was there for a whole day.

But this meet went on for a day and a half. Of course we did not have many ILites. There were just three ILites – Lalitha Shivaguru, Indhushri and Varalotti and of course, Akshaya (Acchukutti) Lalitha’s cute little daughter. When it comes to ILites, numbers do not matter at all. That’s one of the lessons every ILite meet teaches me, this one more so.

Lalitha Shivaguru the firebrand of an ILite had plans to come to Madurai for her cousin’s marriage. On our request she extended her stay by a full day.

The ILite Meeting, this post is all about, started from Thursday Evening (21^st August) and continued till Friday night.

As my wife Indhu and I were waiting outside Chitramahal a Kalyana Mandapam opposite to Appollo Hospitals, Madurai, our minds were filled with a lot of expectations.
How will Lalitha look like in person? Will she be as warm and as friendly as her writings in IL? Will the meet click? Will the chemistry work out? So many questions.

But when Lalitha climbed down the stairs of the Mandapam and got into our car, wishing us and started talking in an animated fashion, all our questions were positively answered. Of course with respect to one question, the answer was negative. Will she be as warm and as friendly as her writings in IL?

The answer is a big NO. She is at least a hundred times more friendly and warmer than her writings indicate. And she started to talk as if she were in the middle of a conversation.

Lalitha comes out as a very friendly and a highly unassuming person. She is pretty relaxed and by her demeanour made us feel quite relaxed in her company. Her beautiful daughter Akshaya looks like the Cine Actress Sithara in her young days.

The girl is very cute and of course naughty as well. I had to call her naughty because she started addressing me as “Thaatha”. Then I started calling her as “Achhu Paatti” and finally she relented to call me as Uncle. You see the irony! She insisted on calling me as Thaatha but Indhu as aunty.

We had planned for a long outing and a good, relaxed eat-out on Thursday. But it was threatening to rain. And I had to attend a business meeting at half-past eight. So we went to Hotel Ashok Bhavan (opposite to Thamukkam Grounds) for our dinner.

Lalitha was constantly complaining about the heavy feast she had earlier on that day. So our dinner was quite simple – nei idli – about 14 mini idlies soaked in ghee and sambar and a set of Chettinaadu “kaara paniyaaram” and a desert of strawberry ice cream.

We exchanged notes about ourselves and our IL experiences (read: gossipped about IL… ha ha ha). Time flew. We then dropped Lalitha and Acchukkutty back at the Mandapam promising to pick them up early next morning.

We met them again at 9 30 at the Mandapam. I don’t know what Lalitha told about me to her cousins, uncles and aunts. A group of people came out to greet me and Indhu.

One of them told me that he had always wanted to meet a writer in flesh and blood. And there I was!. For about 60 seconds Lalitha had created an optical illusion of a celebrity status for me.

We took Lalitha and her daughter home. The girls were just waiting for me to go to my office.

They hired an auto-rikshaw for the day and went out for shopping. They first raided a huge textile complex near our house and then went to town to ransack Pudhu Mandapam, Madurai’s shopping paradise, located just opposite to the Eastern entrance of Meenakshi Amman temple.

I came home at about half past one. We had lunch together. Can any one guess the menu? Yes, it is the same which Marimuthu’s wife prepared for Arun. Onion Sambar, Potato kaarakkari, Lemon Rasam, Cucumber Raitha, Semia Paayasam and Pappads. (The conspicuous omission was maracheenikizhangu appalam)

We did not have power for the whole day. But the girls were chatting totally unmindful of the discomfort. I had to go to office in the evening for a few more hours of work. They used the time to some “in-house” shopping in the saree-shop run by my parents.

Meanwhile the power came around 4 pm and the girls were watching my marriage video. A rerun of a historic event that happened 24 years back.

I came back from the office by 6. Lalitha was repeatedly saying that she was going to post in IL that “Varalotti Emaathittaar.” (Varalotti has disappointed me). I asked the reason for that. “Didn’t you promise Jigarthanda? I have not tasted it so far. So you have disappointed me.”

She even called Chitvish on her mobile and told her, “Varalotti promised so many things when he wrote all his “walk with me”, “talk with me” series. But right now I have not even had the Jigarthanda.”

Chithra added her own fuel to the already burning fire. “Sridhar is always like that. You come to Chennai. I’ll prepare jigarthanda for you.”

Probably it was a planned conspiracy to spur me into action. I told them that we are leaving for the station thirty minutes before schedule. Indhu packed rotis and sabji for their evening dinner on board the train..

We drove straight to Murugan Idli Kadai. Thank God, I could get a parking lot at that hour. We ordered their best Jigarthanda, it’s called Super. It contains Jigarthanda, some ice cream, some bassandhi and a lot of nuts and other goodies. We enjoyed the drink chatting about so many things.

We then drove to the station.

When 6731 Tuticorin-Mysore express steamed out of Madurai junction with Lalitha and Acchukkutti frantically waving to us, we had the same feelings we had when we saw off our daughter Preethi last week.

As we drove back home in relative silence both of us were reliving the good time we had with Lalitha, a good ILite and a great human being and her nice, cute daughter.

Oh, I almost forgot! Dear, dear Achukkutti presented me with a small Ganesh idol which I have placed right before me on my writing desk. That was indeed a precious gift. But even more precious was their time and their company.

And my dear GFs, let’s from now on start the tradition of thanking Malathy and Jey every time we have an ILite meet-up. But for Malathy’s vision in starting this site, a moffussil accountant from Madurai would have had no chance of knowing about a Bank Manager’s wife from Bangalore.

We are deeply indebted to you Malathy and Jey for every moment of happiness which we have in the company of other ILites and may you and yours be always blessed.

As usual I messed up with the photos. However two pictures survived my onslaught which I am posting here. But now it seems that even those two pictures have not survived.
So I have deleted those pictures. Let's wait for the beautiful pics to be posted by Lalitha.
love,

Sridhar,

You make the meet sound as wonderful as your writings. Nice to know about LS and Acchu and also about keeping your promise. regarding the pictures, why dont you correct, them and post. it really looks like you have messed them a little. (who does photography at home..oops...sorry..could not help but comment.)

Dear Sridhar

I was thinking exactly what Shanti has mentioned while reading about the IL meet in Madurai--about it sounding like one of your stories. Glad to know all of you had a nice time.

Dear Sridhar,
Wow..It was so beautiful to read your write up!
Lalitha - superb! you are a rocking star ! So lucky of you to have met sridhar and Indhu!

Very happy to note that the meet up went well.
Indhu - super menu! kalakiteenga

Wowwwwwwwwww Sridhar !!!

Amazing Write up !! Since I have seen all of you in Pics... It was like all the scenes happening in front of me....

Indhu Mam's Menu..Is really mouth watering.. ..Hope you guys had a memorable time.....

When I saw your PM... I was really thinking when will I will meet you and other IL friends....

Lalli is very Fortune to meet you and Indhu Mam !!

Will wait for the Good Day !!

Dear all ,
There is nothing left over for me to write about the meet - as my writer husband has written elaborately in his own style ! Anyhow , I would like to share my feelings too ( about the meet ) !
Lalitha is a very nice person - very sharp too ! She was “giving back “ for whatever Sridhar said - I enjoyed thoroughly ! ( she madakkified him very cleverly ! ) who will not enjoy it – especially me ,his wife ! …
Akshaya , the little angel stuck to me the moment she saw me & gifted me with lots of hugs & kisses ! I was totally thrilled to receive them again & again !
Do i still need to say that we enjoyed the meet thoroughly & to the core ? ! ? …
My thanks to Malathy & Jey for making us enjoy life more by meeting our dear Ilites through this wonderful site , created by them !
Honestly speaking , I would like to meet ALL our IL friends wherever & whenever possible ! God only should grant my wish !
Love ,
Indhu .

Wow Sridhar sir, happy to read your write up about your longest meet in Madurai

All creative and legends of IL meeting at one place means we can guess how wonderful it would have been!

Waiting to see you all in snaps..

Its was so nice reading this post and was a story by itself!!! Nice write-up, Sridhar!!

Knowing Lalitha, I would say...she is a person who is extremely friendly and takes that extra step to stay connected and extends herself well!!
Offcourse...i should mention about her impeccable dressing sense!!

Cheers!
-Anusha