Saturday 15 February
Once again a relaxed day with nothing much to do. I’m still on London time and didn’t sleep till the small hours of the morning. It gave me a chance to finish J D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. A story I found a bit confusing in the beginning till I read the review to understand the relevance. Teenage angst explained in the best possible way.
Once again the myna wakes me up. I came here thinking I have lots of time to do everything at a leisurely pace. The heat however is slowing me down and I find myself aimlessly wandering around. Amma is busy in the kitchen but doesn’t want any help. She knows that I will just get in her way and slow her down. I watch her sautéing the ingredients for the rasam, which is my must have item with rice. She has made fish curry with green mangoes from the garden. The fruit trees are full of young fruit, mangoes, guavas, papaya and jackfruit. She tells me that the chances of getting ripe guavas are slim as the bats get to them before she gets a chance.
A white stray cat walks past and looks at me as if he owns the place. Amma tells me that his mum sneaked into her bedroom one day and gave birth to the kittens. She then had to get them out and cleanse the place. So now I know why he walks with that swagger. He has more claim to the place than me.
There are more stories, worthy of serials but nothing with a good ending and so I shall refrain from mentioning them here. It seems that life certainly is far from boring in my little village. After lunch I lick my platter clean. The tastiest part of the meal. Once a long long time ago, I got carried away in the company of my friends at the TVM club. I did this subconsciously as I was chatting with them, till my friend stopped me. One of my many Mr Bean moments.
In the evening we call Sugar Auto to take us to Kundara for a bit of shopping. He only has less than an hour to spare. The school opposite LMS Hospital is celebrating its 100 year anniversary. I never knew that a school existed there. The shops are busy with minimum staff to serve. I had the impression that the staff were ignoring us but later find out that they were actually people known to Amma and they exchanged pleasantries at some point without me knowing. We get back in time for Sugar to attend his next ride. The sky has taken on a dusky pink shade and I see the sun glowing from the direction of the Devi temple. A massive orange globe illuminated from the inside, the fieriness has gone and it is getting ready to melt into the distance.
After Amma finishes her naamams she turns on the tv to listen to the music competitions. The special guest these days is a lady from Attapadi who composed and sang the title song for ‘Ayyapanum Koshiyum’. I didn’t catch her name and so google the film with singing old lady and find her. Nanjamma is 60. That will teach me won’t it. A likeable character singing heartfelt catchy songs, she is the next viral phenomenon it seems and deservedly so.
