 Tuesday, February 22, 2005 |
Erode. @ 
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By Whoosh 2 @ 7:32 am 
8 Comments
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This weekend was fun. It was my cousin sister's engagement in my native place and I was visiting my folks after a good 6 years. In this time, I missed the following:
- The marriage of my cousin brother
- The marriage of another cousin brother
- The engagement of yet another cousin brother
- The marriage of my cousin sister
- The birth of a neice and 2 nephews. (Not to mention another neice and a nephew whose birth I got to attend! Man, I am getting old!)
Wow! Now thats a lot.. Honestly, I am not at fault for not being able to visit Erode that often, given my commitments at my Undergrad college, Grad School and my place of employment. Having nothing worthwhile to do this weekend, I attended this "nichayadhaartham".
One thing I hate about visiting my place after long periods of time is the way my distant relatives start a conversation. This invariably is the first sentence..
"Yen Kannuuu, enna gnaaabagam irukungalaaaa??" (Please remember that this is said with a Coimbatore/Kongu slang. .. Remember "Chinna Gounder"?). Now, how does one answer this question. I would have absolutely no idea who the person is. Can I just say that in front of their faces? That would just offend them. I would invariably end up saying
"Yenga, Ungala poi maraka mudiyungalaaa?" (Coimbatore Slang). The next line from them would be...
"Naan yaarunnu sollu paalalaaam" (Coimbatore Slang again...) **Bish Bang Dum Damaal**. What do I do now?? Can there be a situation worse than this? How does one handle this..? But I have a standard answer for such questions.. I would give a slight grin and say,
"Ada, valaiyaadaatheenga.. elaam theriyudhunga.."
Now, let me get back to those kids I was mentioning about. I couldnt meet all my neices and nephews, but I did meet three of them.. Dalu, Kailu and Manoj. By relation, I am supposed to be their "Chithappa" (Younger Father). But the kids wouldnt have any of that. Having never met them before (I had seen Dalu and Manoj before, but they were babies at that time), I needed to introduce myself to them first. So, I called Manoj first.. (The conversation is in Tamil)
V: "Manoj, ingai vaa"
M: "Enna anna??"
V: "Naan yaaru theriyumaa?"
M: "Theriyaadhu"
V: "Naan yaarunnu correct aa soNaa, naan unakku chocolate tharuvein"
M: "Enakku chocolate vendaam"
V: "Seri, naan chocolate a Kailu kku kuduthudurein"
(For no reason, this kid suddenly starts crying!!! Not knowing what to do, I surrendered and gave him all the toffees in my hand!)
V: "Seri Seri.. Naan tharala.. Indhaa neeye vechikko!. Seri, naan thaan Vikram Chithappa. En peru sollu.."
M:" Vikram anna"
V: "Anna illai da .. Chithappa"
M: "Vikram anna - Vikram anna - Vikram anna" ... and the fellow runs away!
As much as I tried, he would not call me "Vikram Chithappa" that day. I didnt have much luck with Dalu and Kailu either.. Dalu ended up calling me "Vikku". I had a little more success with Kailu who called me "Vikram mama". I could do nothing and I gave up, hoping for a better things to come the next day.
Hope as u may, if u are bound to get it..u will get it! The next day started with a knock to my groin (thanks to Dalu's knee) and a fall from the chair (thanks to Manoj who flung himself onto me when I least expected it!). The engagement (that was going on parallely) went off without a hitch.
Having not had much success the previous day in ascerting my position as their "Chithappa", I caught hold of the three rowdies and refused to let them go till they called me "Vikram Chithappa". Try as hard as they might, they couldnt escape my clutches (Muhaahah.. I sound like Dr.Evil, dont I). Having no other option, they had to yeild to my "request".
And as the wise man once said... "Mission Accomplished". My sister is getting married in 3 months time and I am hoping to visit Erode once again. Hope these kids remember who I am then, else I would have to undergo the same "torture" once more!!
Vikkki |
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8 Comments
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| 8 Comments: |
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hey thambi,
it was for the firts time I read ur blog...it was..coimbatore baashai ellam naan irunthuthu..apapdiye nee pesara maathiri irunthuthu.:)
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@Geetha Akka:
Hey 'ka.. Thanks for popping into my blog.. I checked ur website.. U are looking cool in the modern dress 'n all.. Never seen u like that b4 :) Eppo India varei?
@Gowri:
:) Enna maapillai nyaabagam varudhu?
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Nice one :). Reminds me of my native village in North Karnataka and my HUGE joint family. Makes me feel nostalgic.
BTW, some of my nieces r much older to me, in fact, they r married and have kids! Such things r common in joint families in our part of the world :D.
Of course, not in this new era of 'fast and furious' nuclear families...
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ROTFL!! i know exactly what ur talking about..!! i guess we all use the same tactix at family functions :-D
and poor kids.. in a time when people correct the little ones saying "aunty koopdadha, akka nu koopdu" u want them to call u chithapa..LOL!!
oh and the coimbatore slang.. ROTFL again!!
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a person is either your cousin or your sis/bro, not both
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@Sanket: Couldnt agree with you more man! Ur neices have kids?? Guess i am not that old then !!! ;)
@Chikuado: I seriously wonder how many people use the same tactic on me though!! :D.. And about that Chithappa thingie.. I liked being called "Anna" once.. But all the cute looking gals started calling me "Anna" or "Thambi" and I have started taking a hatred towards those names! :D
@Ishwar: Yes Boss!!!
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Hey!!!
This was a hilarious one...Hahahaha Vikki anna..nice one...
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LOL... that was funny... and the CBE slang... i got few friends there... it is so cool to hang out in CBE with them... their slang is very interesting... and love them for their hospitality....
And perils of calling 'Anna'.... damn, dun talk abt it... i'll go mad....
already ranted abt it in my old blog > http://www.livejournal.com/users/guy_next_door/3505.html
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hey thambi,
it was for the firts time I read ur blog...it was..coimbatore baashai ellam naan irunthuthu..apapdiye nee pesara maathiri irunthuthu.:)