Road Trip to Vaitheeswaran Kovil - Part 5 ::: Unwinding at the hotel

While checking in at Hotel Sampoorna, I reminded the guy at the desk about the extra bed. When my mother had confirmed the booking 2 days earlier, she did tell the guy that there were going to be 3 of us and so we would need an extra bed. The person who spoke to her had said that they would provide that at an additional cost.

So, I reminded this guy about the extra bed. He coolly replied that they don't have extra bed. I told him about the phone conversation and he said that their hotel doesn't stock extra beds, only extra bedsheets. Apparently, when they say extra bed over the phone, they actually mean bed sheet.

The worst part, he was going to charge me 100 bucks extra for that one extra bed sheet! I got upset and asked him about the availability of a bigger room. He said there was a family room with 4 beds and would cost 200 rupees more than the room I'd booked. I instantly took that room.

We walked up to the first floor - not because we were full of energy or too health conscious, we had no other option since the hotel only had stairs and no lift - and entered our room.

The room was pretty good in size. The beds were very neat. The A/C was Blue Star. The attached bathroom looked very clean, though the water closet was Indian and not European. There was even a small TV in the room. The 2 double beds were quite big too. For Rs.770 + tax, it came across as a fair deal.

My parents decided to rest. We made quick plans that in the evening, we would first set out to the local temple and then go to Chidambaram temple. But at some point or the other, it was clear that I would have had to drive in the twilight or even later. Based on my earlier experience on that route earlier in the day, I was quite convinced that I shouldn't be driving my car.

I enquired with the hotel reception and booked a local cab operator to take us there and return. Once this was decided, I decided to take a stroll around the hotel to buy some packaged water. You must be informed that I had set out on this trip in my cargos and I'd not changed them.

So while I walked around the main road of Sirkazhi in my cargos, you can rest assured that I got quite a lot of stares from the local residents. I am used to hot girls staring at me in Chennai (sic), but there was no such entity in this town. Every person on the road, in the shops, in the bus, in some vehicle... anyone and everyone did a double take looking at me. I cannot attribute it to any factor other than my cargos.

Anyway, I bought the water and returned to the room. Updated my parents about the proximity of the Sirkazhi temple and confirmed our evening plans. Then I had a minor siesta for 30-40 minutes.

Around 4.15 PM, we all started getting ready for our evening trip to the Sirkazhi temple and later on, to Chidambaram.

Grihapravesham on 29-Apr-2007 ::: Part 03

To put it in Chennai Senthamizh, the navagraha homam "bend-a kazhatidichu baa". In other words, that part of the whole ceremony warranted 9 namaskarams with about a minute's gap between each.

The priests let me go after that. A little later, they asked all of us to come to the homam area and asked us to do 3 pradhakshanams around it. And even as we were doing it, they started putting stuff into the pyre and it increased its smoke output manifold. Needless to add, all the smoke getting into the eyes, made the walk around the homam quite difficult.

The eyes were watering like crazy and I had to take a pit stop after every 2 steps or so. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one facing that ordeal. It was experienced by all of us. I came out of this episode quite shaken and apparently, Superthumby felt that my eyes were bloodshot - probably due to the excessive rubbing.


All this while, Superthumby was quite keen on taking pictures. Not of the function per se. His focus was more on how I was going about the namaskarams, pradhakshanams et al. I had brought my digi cam in the hope that some good pictures of the whole function would be taken. But he had other ideas and thankfully, to negate his goal, the memory stick on my camera was near full and so he stopped taking these voyeuristic pictures.

Anyways, as part of the closing ceremony of the religious aspect of the function, my parents and I were asked to sit near the homam and give the dakshinai to the priests. It included cash and clothes. And BTW, I was intentionally wearing one of my cargos that day, just so that I could keep all the cash needed for the function in different pockets. My uncle was quite impressed with this!

So we dished out the dakshinai to the brahmnaall and in turn we were asked to drink the milk that was boiled specifically for the function. I am totally averse to drinking plain milk and that if its warm. I cannot stand the smell and the taste. But like they say about porcelain (like the sand has to be mixed in water to make a yucky paste; then be spun around in a wheel; finally get baked in an oven), one has to sahichufy such tortures in the bigger frame of things. (I am actually not sure if the milk drinking part came at the end or somewhere in between itself, but that doesn't really matter).

So the brahmnaals finally went to have their breakfast. After some time, Superthumby, Madhu and I had breakfast and we were the last ones. Nilu was coming in late and so we'd decided not to wait for him. The breakfast was cold yet, quite tasty!

A while later my invitees started coming in.

Unleashed my cargos at work

I wore my new cargos to the Office yesterday.
One friend said 'oh you are wearing ur cargos'.
Another pointed to one of the pockets near the knee and said 'ennadhu idhu'.
Another laughed when the comment was made.
But basically, nothing else.
Nobody gave me any odd look too. At least my brain refused to accept it as such a look.
So net-net, people were either indifferent to my cargos - which coming from the general public doesnt matter. But when people known to you dont make any statement, I have a feeling that they didnt like me wearing it. Whether it was because I looked hideous in it or whether they felt jealous is something that only time will tell.

My mother in pretty decent form...

Though my mother has not fully recovered from her illness, the pain in the joints still continues for her, she has not lost her touch when it comes to making fun of me.

I present to you, some of her comments about 3 things/events surrounding me, over the past 10 days.

I. I bought cargo trousers for Deepavali.
Her reactions:
1. When I first told her that I am going to buy cargos, her query was 'andha mechanic pant-a'?
2. When the cargo was shown to her after purchase, there was like a stony silence. Then 'un kitta irukkara ella spanner-um idhula adangumono'? P.S: My cargos have a string at the bottom of each leg, just to tighten it. My mother asked me 'inga edhukku da kayaru irukku'? For which my father(!) replied 'aaama, ennamo indha pant-la irukkara mathadhellaam edhukunnu therinja maadhiri kaekkara'?
3. On Deepavali day, I wore the cargo and similar sets of comments were received.
The main query she had was, 'aenda thiripuli-ya enga vekka pora'?

II. I am growing a little hair below my lower lipHer reactions:
1. 'Yaenda onakku indha velai'?
2. 'Yethana naala indha kandraaviya vechundu irukka'? The thing to be noted is that, what I have is not immediately noticeable. And my mom's eyesight aint in that great a state.
3. 'Idhodayae vaa oru vaaramaa office poyindu irukka'?
4. 'Idhellaam panninda onakku azhagu varum-nu nenappa'?
5. 'Onna yaaru idhellam senjuka kelappi vidaraa'?
6. 'Appo oru arai mottai. Ippo idhu. Kandraavi'. arai mottai is how a 'mushroom cut' is referred to by her. And yes, I once did have that cut while in college.
7. 'Nee padichavan dhaanay. Yaen onakku ippadi buddhi poradhu. Indha slum-la irukkaravan dhaan, oru velai vetti illaama, kaiyila blade irukkunu, idhu maadhiri kanda kanda-dha senjindu iruppaan.'

III. I bought a new Sony Ericsson W810i phone. I gave her the demo an hour or so ago. The features on display were the 2 MP camera, the media player, the external speakers that came with the phone, FM radio etc.
Her reaction:'adhellaam seri, idhula phone paesa mudiyuma? call varumo? vandhaa attend panna mudiyumo?'

I rest my case.