Rangolis by Mummy :) - 20Dec21

-

 


















































 - Durga Kulothungan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Laali - 12th Aug'24

-
  Laali In the suburbs of Udaipur, at the foot of Aravali mountain range, on banks of river Gomati, there was small well-planned mines colony – Zawar . In the center of the town, there is a long-cemented bridge connecting the New Market to Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) hospital. The largest one in the vicinity of Zawar to Udaipur. The straight road had the company guest house in the middle which ended at Naka Bazaar – the end of the town. Up straight on the road from the guest house lead to the officer’s colony on the top of a small hill which was almost cut off from rest of the town with few officer’s families residing in an array. Here everyone knew everyone from end to end. All the kids went to school together and played cricket or 7 stones in the evening. Mummies made papad (dried crisps), achar (pickle), sweaters, quilts together depending on the season in continuum. Dads worked in same places and played badminton together in the guest house on most of the evenings. There w...
Read more

Thorn in my heel

-
Thorn in my Heel Years later after I got married, had a kid, I prayed to lord Murugan to fast for days doing prayers, wearing holy beads on neck, being bare foot with a small black shawl on shoulders. Seeing me transformed everyone were agape. Some really cared to ask how I walk barefooted on the roads of Chennai when it is raining all the way. All I had to tell was a small story. A new place, new search for home, a heart filled with happiness of bagging a new job. I was at cloud nine after getting placed in a reputed Chennai based IT MNC as recruiter for a talent acquisition team. A small bit of mine ached to leave my hometown Kancheepuram. It was exciting to move and experience this phase of life all alone without parents. I couldn’t ask for more when I with my 5 friends found a lavish 3 BHK home in the heart of Mamallapuram for only INR 10,000 per month as rent. It was pure luck. Any day, for such a flat, the nominal rent was INR 40,000 per month. The house owners were old people wh...
Read more

The Hair-loom

-
Image
 The Hair-loom My grandpa Ramakrishnan had a floor mill. The mill had a Shikakai (seeka) grinder as well. Dried Shikakai, Amla, Ritha, hibiscus etc. were ground together for washing our hair.   Those days people seldom used shampoos. This powder was part of every household in the KGF town. Every Sunday morning was a hair bath day. Panjamani Atthai* or Panjattey worked in our floor mill and washed our hair every Sunday with seeka. Being the youngest, I was the first in queue followed by Rohini akka* (Chittappa’s daughter), Madhangi akka (Gowri Atthai’s daughter) and Selvi akka (Mathi Atthai’s daughter). After a long hair wash with sneezes and burning eyes, the hair was rolled up in bun with thin towel. Next, it got fumed with Sambrani smoke. Then, I drank kashayam* as shikakai cools the body and I caught cold easily. All of us sat in a row to get a small plait on our head crown leaving the rest of the hair free called as thenneer jada*. It resembled the flow of a water s...
Read more