The largest IL meet attended by the Legend

Part I

The day dawned clear, bright and sunny with a mild lovely breeze hitting the face. I was totally excited and apprehensive too. Excited because the Legends are my guests of honour and apprehensive about the number of members present in the Ilite meeting.

I got up around 6.45 am because of the back breaking job of packing my gollus back safely and went to the kitchen with a song in my heart, my feet literally in the air to boil milk for my cuppa. Exactly at 7.05, my phone rang confirming the arrival of the greats. They had checked into the hotel and called me. I was more worried whether the hotel would be to their taste, whether the selection was good etc but the cheerful voice of the hero simply allayed all my worries. We decided we will meet at 10.30 a.m.

So the activity at my home was hectic, as it was my weekend the cleaning was also on my shoulders, did everything to a tee took a bath and dressed up to receive them. For a change, my younger one created no fuss in getting ready on time. The driver I had hired also came on time…. But then my phone again rang saying that we would meet at 11.30 as the Legends had slept off after a tiring journey. So had time for a short breakfast and headed straight to the hotel where they stayed.

I called them to announce my arrival and lo they both came down and we just hit the road through the traffic and even in our conversation. My daughter is Indhu’s pet and she promptly started to complain about me to Indhu. So we started to pull Sridhar’s legs to the core. We reached the venue very early so went for some window shopping and came back to the hotel much early. We three started to discuss about IL and slowly my phone started to ring announcing the caller as Meenakshi Rajan. She lost her way but came back. Then came the local champion, Hema aka Hemchi. Then Durga aka Durgees came with her mother in law and now it was VisalamKrishnan who joined us. The time was already 1.30 we decided to go ahead with the order for food as Abha was coming little late as she had her office. By the time we ordered, we saw Abha joining in and the order was revised. After the formal round of introductions, nobody felt that they are meeting Sridhar and Indhu for the first time. They just started from where they left. Hemchi and Abha joined us in pulling legs and we had a gala time. Never knew the time was flying to make this meeting a History of sorts. Sridhar revealed that this was the first ILite meeting he had attended, where the local champion was also present. So Bangalore Ilites were very proud of this honour. We had our round of photo sessions and finally Visalam had to leave early for her doctor’s appointment so we started bidding a bye to her..and then we too realized that we had crossed our time. Sridhar had promptly brought everybody mementoes and we in turn hand over one from our side. Slowly everybody wanted to leave but nobody had the mind to do that. We were engaged in a small chat outside the hotel. Finally we bid an adieu … Abha and Durga left from there directly and myself, Akshaya, Sridhar, Indhu, Meena and Hema packed off in our Santro and dropped the Sridhars at their hotel as they had to leave to meet another old friend of his. We all left carrying lot of memories never to be forgotten. Each having their special moments.

Part II.

12^th of October, 2008 will be etched in my memory forever. The day dawned early for me as I was the kitchen In charge for a change. My Dh took our vehicle and went to pick the Sridhars’ at their hotel. He took them to a nearby restaurant and brought them home after a light breakfast. They had brought gifts for the family and myself and Indhu were locked in the kitchen talking of all things under the roof. My MIL, FIL and dh gave company to Sridhar. The kids returned from their Abacus classes. As the elder one is very shy, she took some time to warm up but the younger compensated her. Time for lunch, it was decided gents would have first and ladies would follow. Fil, Dh and Sridhar had their lunch. The menu was

Carrot, cashew & Almond payasam
Bisibele bath
Rice
Lemon rasam
Beans poriyal
Cucumber, tomato raitha
Appalam
Curd Vadai garnished with Boondi
Khara Boondi
Curd
Tender mango pickle.

Sridhar refused to have the curd vadai stating he was tooo full and postponed the same to 4p.m. and Dh, kids and Sridhar retired to play cards after frightening us the poor ladies by telling us that he would serve us food. Finally we made him to play cards so that we are saved the ordeal of he serving us.. As soon as we finished lunch, there were more surprises to follow…. The phone began ringing announcing as another ILite from Kuala Lumpur who is on a vacation in India….. Brindha K. I was more excited to receive her call but was very sure that she had called to speak to the legends and not to me She spoke to them and was on cloud nine and started to reprimand me not to pull Sridhar’s legs because he was alone without any support. After the call, we too joined in the cards game and played for almost one hour and then had hot coffee and left for some shopping and visited ISKCON temple and came back. Their train was at 9.20 so Sridhar had his dinner consisting only of the promised curd vadai and payasam. Indhu had the same with curd rice and we took them to the station. The train was delayed by good 40 mins and made them comfortable as soon as the train came in. We bid a bye and got down but I was tear eyed. I have never been soooooooo emotional but they made me that. We promised each other that we will meet soon. Luckily they were in an AC coach and could not see me through the glass as it was very difficult for me to hide my tears.

Let me thank Jey and Malathy for giving us these gems for a life time.

I should also thank all my Ilite members here, but for them this would not have happened. Thanks dears.

My heartfelt, sincere thanks to Sridhar and Indhu for accepting my invitation and coming to Bangalore and my home…….. I will never be able to put my feelings in words. These are to be felt, to be experienced and to mull over… These are golden letters in the book of Life. Somewhere we all have made some punyam in our previous birth that we are experiencing this now.

Now follows the photo sessions

photos galore

Madam Legend chatting to glory with BrindhaK

Most Gracious ILites,

It's almost twelve hours since we returned to pavilion. But have not gathered ourselves fully. Even now I feel like it's a dream. A really sweet dream that came to an end too soon.
Brindha while talking to my wife Indhu had told her, "I am still wondering whether this is a dream or reality." To which my wife who like Kamla was in a mood to tease, "Why don't you pinch yourself and find it out?". And the poor girl replied "Well I've done that too, but still could not come to any conclusion."

I don't think I can say it more eloquently than Brindha.

It was Lalitha to whom the full credit for the meet should go. After she came to Madurai in August she used to pester me every now and then, "Have you booked tickets to Bangalore?" Soon she roped Indhu also into the conspiracy. When these two ladies were united against me, poor Varalotti was powerless.

At the outset I should say that Indhu and I were thoroughly pampered. If a stranger had seen us in Lalitha's house she would have thought that the daughter and the son-in-law were visiting them.

We were strolling in the Brigades Road (a place which I would never like to miss during my Bangalore trips) when Lalitha reminded us that it was time that we should move over to the meeting venue. We waded through the Saturday holiday traffic to reach Balal residency well before the appointed time. I was praying God that we should reach first and nobody should be waiting for us. My prayers were answered.

We took a comfortable seat in the corner. Told the hotel staff in a stately voice that we are a group of ten people and started commaning their respect from then on. We settled for sweet lime and water melon juice as we were waiting for the ILites to join us.

First to walk in was Meenakshi Rajan. A good looking lady with soft manners and softer words. Thanks to IL there was no need for us to introduce ourselves. When I said to somebody "I am Varalotti" they snapped, "Don't insult us, Varalotti. We all know." I was flattered.

Next walked in a local champion. Hema - user ID Hemchi. Hema has a way with words. And my God! you should see her teasing others! And precisely it was that teasing that reminded us that we all beonged to the same family. And that the thread that connects us all is the thread of love called the IL.

Durga the youngest ILite in the meet, ("Will you believe that I am only 24?") joined us with her mother-in-law. Mrs. Visalam Krishnan the gifted artist was the next to join the gathering. AbhaTV said that she would be a little late. So we went ahead and ordered the soup. The Accountant in me wanted to tease the bearer. I told them that we wanted 6/9 tomato soup. He was a little dazed but understood the fraction. But when Abha TV walked draped in a gorgeous black saree and some exquisite jewellery, I called the bearer again and told him, "I told you 6/9 earlier. Why don't you make it 7/10" The fellow looked at me as if I were a strange creature from Mars.
I told them all thanks to Abha coming at that time all of will be having 70% of a cup of soup instead of 66 2/3%, Lalitha said "KPs will always be KPs"
We ordered methi roties, kulchas, dal, green peas masala followed by curd rice and ice cream.

I could not stop wondering about this great community. I could not stop expressing my gratitude to Malathy for founding such a community. You see a mofussil accountant, a few software engineers, some housewifes, some career-woman, an artist... what does this hetrogenous crowd has in common except the love and affection and the strong feeling that we all belong to IL?

Time was flying at three times the normal speed. Before we could realise it was quarter past three.

Bangalore ILites made me quite emotional with their beautiful gift of a well-crafted Ganesh idol. And more than that I was simply floored by their thinking as if I am a celebrity, which surely I am not, and pouring their love on me. All I could do in return was a silent prayer to Lord that someday I should be worthy of this love.

Akshaya chatting or complaining??????????

There was one more pleasant surprise during the course of the meet. I had told my friend Sharada (another writer who regularly writes middles in Deccan Herald and one of the earliest ILites - she joined IL in 2005) about the meet and had invited her too. But she told me that she was busy with shopping for her only son's engagement and that she could not come.

Around half past two Sharada and her people walked into Balal Residency. They were shopping somewhere near the place and Sharada had dragged them all for a lunch in that place.
I introduced her to all the ILites. She was happy seeing them all. When she saw Lalitha and Hema in a teasing mood, she too wore a teasing hat. She told that I am like "Gopi Krishna" surrounded by ladies all the time. When the ladies had a hearty laugh my loving wife also joined in it making me proud of her.

Sharada introduced her husband, her only son and her daughter-in-law to be. Indhu was the first to comment that her son resembled Abishek Bachan. The daughter-in-law was quite fair and pretty. She and Sharada sat with us for a few minutes.

The first ever ILite meet happened in Bangalore - at Hotel Amravathi in Brigades on 12th March 2006. More than two and a half years later, after our site has grown from a mere five hundred members to 32000, this memorable meet happened. I am really blessed to have been part of both of these meetings. Between then and now much water has flown under the bridge. But the love that connects one ILite to another has remained the same.

(ILite is a term coined by Prathi (Prathiba) one of the earliest ILites and in one of the replies I told her that that term is going to stick. And it has come true)

An ILite meet is a unique experience. When somebody walks into the meet you fell that she is a stranger. But once you hear the person's user ID in IL, then you remember, "Oh, you are AbhaTV! You are Visalam Krishnan! You are Hemchi! " and then start to talk as if you know her for ages. That's the beauty of this community. And for that we all need to thank Malathy who had this kind of a vision.

Dear Lalitha,

Very happy to read your words... you are blessed !! Thanks a lot... for sharing with us.

Very happy for you !!

With love....

My Dear bas,

You did it. I am not just talking about organising the meet and all. You gifted us a wonderful holiday. In fact the last three weeks have been quite strenuous for me. What with the tax-audit deadline, my other professional work, my writing commitments and above all the ALS... I was praying God that I wanted a complete break from whatever I am doing at present. My prayers could not have been more beautifully answered. And you gifted that to me.

I have never been so relaxed during the last one year. And what happened on Sunday was quite interesting. At about half past eight a serious looking Shivaguru walked up the stairs in our hotel to greet us. The moment he saw us and smiled, well everything changed. He was no longer serious. And soon we were eating green masala idly, gulab jamoons, dosa and coffee in Malabar Hotel, a renowned eating joint in KG circle.

After about half an hour's drive we reached your place bas. The moment Indhu and I stepped into your house we became part of the family. I opened conversation with your fil, with your mil and sil eagerly joining in. We did nothing but talking till 1 pm when we adjourned for a feast of bisibela bath, beans kari, mixed vegetable raitha, lemon rasam, carrot gheer ...
Then we started a series of card games. First a few rounds of rummy where I was continously losing. Then I changed the game to Ass. And taught the game to Shivaguru and Janani.

We went on playing till half past three. Then after a cup of hot filter coffee, a mini shopping at Malleswaram we went to the ISKCON temple.

Brindha's call from Salem was the highlight of the afternoon. I was moved to tears when I heard that she had warned Indhu and Lalitha not to tease me much; that any day she will be there to support me. Brindha's voice is as sweet as her posts.

And finally after a calorie-rich dinner of curd vada and carrot gheer, Shivaguru and Lalitha dropped us at the station. They patiently waited for 45 minutes as the train was late on that day.

My heart was brimming with love and my mind with happiness, even when I was trying to constrict my 6' 1" frame into the 5' 10" side lower berth in the 3 tier AC coach of 6732 Mysore Tuticorin express.

What can do in return for you, bas! All I could do was to shed some silent tears of gratitude for the happiness you gave me and Indhu.

May you and yours be always blessed.

Love,
sridhar