vedanthangal

We hit vedanthangal after a gap of over 18 years. And we were happy that the tourism department has not been sleeping in the meanwhile. There used to be one old watchtower with a single binocular mounted on a huge pedestral. Now there are quite a few watch towers and tourists bring their own binoculars and have unlimited viewing.There are no facilities for boating in the lakes unlike in Ranganathittu near Mysore. But the small pathway skirting one side of the lake is well laid and well maintained with benches all along the pathway. With cool and shady trees lining the entire pathway life was good. We enjoyed the cool breeze blowing, after the cyclone in Bay of Bengal dumped the entire depression into kavali and machilipatnam and sparing chennai of gale and gusty winds.

The birds were in good measure and were fun to watch.

I had tried the handycam for the first time outdoors. I wanted to capture the birds by zooming. They looked fantastic to me, but when we played it at home, the pictures are shaking quite  a bit. I thought it is the swaying of the bushes in the breeze but apparently not. 

We had two binoculars, one still camera and one video camera and a book on birds.So we were really like tourists.

We were told that vedanthangal is oldest bird sanctuary in India. This was due to the fact that when our winged friends from siberia and australia came over to roost, the local farmers took care not to shoot them or harm them in any way. They actually adopted these guests gladly in their midst.This is the story of the guests and their future generations  repeatedly making visits for over 200 years here.

My best view for the day were two grey herons sitting light on a rubbish heap in the water and floating gently along with the rubbish heap.We almost did not notice it, it was a perfect camouflage. I was reminded of the 'teppotsavam' in mylapore temple! One of them flapped her wings and flew a bit and landed back again and the camouflage of the grey was broken with a tinopol white of their inner feathers. Cormorants there were aplenty and their swift dive into the waters to catch fish was a treat to watch. Ibis and pelicans were in large measure and there were busy nesting and relaxing in hoardes.

The place was choc a bloc with visitors jostling for space with the birds who had come travelling from sri lanka, pakistan, siberia and australia.

hierarchy

It all started with some boxes of ceramic tiles arriving one late evening in our house. No, not delivered wrongly. It was in response to a call from an interior decorator who was doing some work for a neighbour's flat.Some tiles were extra he said, with panic in his voice and he needed to hand over possession the next day.The tenants who were arriving the next day wanted the house clean and neat and empty, sans any left over tiles. I never thought through what i will do with a few boxes of assorted tiles. Somebody was in need and i said okay and invited the tiles over for temporary shelter.

They occupied pride of place in the front porch. I never realised that they were going to be in the way of our normal routines. The potted plants had to be watered and the maid said her hands dont stretch that far.The kola maavu for adorning the front portion of our house was in a nook there and again another place had to be quickly found for that, if our house should not go with kolam.And then we got a brand new lady bird added to our family! it had to squeeze itself between the tile boxes piled now all over the place. Y had developed a great knack to do the gymnastic but anybody else will have massive issues with extricating the same from the porch.

So the pressure was steadily building up on me to find some use for these tiles. I commandered the creative juices to flow and waited for the flood. It arrived no doubt, and I decided to have the walls of the rear verandah duly tiled . It also comprises the work area and the walls tend to get messy. I had asked for the 'family odd job man' through proper channel. He arrived immediately and said it could be done, but then wait for the 'tile specialist'. He seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth for all we cared. Numerous phone calls to powers that be elicited the response that it will be done the next day, positively. When this happened with fair regularity it left me wondering. I was told that tile work is a very specialised work and he would not want to employ any tom dick and harry but wait for that special specialist who will do a very thorough job. But more time elapsed and my wonderment grew! Dussera came and went and so did deepavali but still no 'tile man'. For the benefit of the uninitiated, these festivals offer excuses for any hired help in the informal sector.There is the north east monsoon of course which cohabits with the peak festival season in Chennai. It always comes in handy even after the festivals have come and disappeared from the seen not to be seen till next year.

But then two days back a pack of three arrived by 9 am with necessary tools and earnest looks and surveyed the scene once more. They said they will get the cement and be back. But then they did not come back. The family odd job man appeared in his motorbike and asked the whereabouts of his workmen. I told him the last i saw them was alongwith him going away from my house. He too disappeared.

Yesterday the three of them appeared again , slightly sheepish (could be my imagination) and said they would start the work.I was quite excited that the work would finally start. The entire rear verandah became like a battlefield and so did the entire house from the front porch, drawing room and dining area. There were these tiles of all shapes and sizes and colours which had to be colour matched . I thought this area could really be a kids playpen when they play 'colour colour what colour'. Y quickly surveyed the scene and said, yes there were a riot of colour tiles here but then the kids would feel cheated as the tiles were slightly short of some vital colours like red and dark green!

The actual job appeared quite simple to me. There is this 'senior techie' who will wait for the tiles to be plastered on their rearside with a liberal dose of cement mix by the 'unskilled asst' and then put it on the wall and gently tap it with a small hammer. That's it; the tile is fixed. So the operation went. The senior techie could operate a simple cutting saw which could cut the tiles in a jiffy. He could handle technology well, whereas the junior just sat and saw and mixed some more cement mix. The hierarchy appeared very strict; not for them flat organisations. The divide was most clearly visible when the lowly asst had to go and fetch tea. No, the senior will not demean himself to go for any fetching, even if a hammer is lying by his side, he would call out to the asst to fetch it and give it in his hand! All the time i hope the lowly assistant was learning fast, so that he could do the same thing to his under study some day.

I offered them tea in the evening and the same story was repeated, the tea cups had to be fetched and washed by our understudy.
But then i was left wondering if this was the skill level in short supply that I had to wait for four months. But i am told experts are those poeple who make a specialised job look simple.
It looks neat and clean now, this rear verandah. It looks so good that i will now have to look for another work area!

wedding receptions chennai isshtyle

I dont get it.
You get invited for a wedding;with a heavy dose of pressure that we should close the kitchen and attend for all the functions(four different meal times by the way).The family has recently moved into our neighbourhood, so the excessive invite was a bit too much, but still. We decided to go for the reception as it was conveniently on a sunday evening. I double checked that they did not have a light music programme. It was clearly mentioned that there was a carnatic music concert by master mandolin rajesh and company. I was looking forward to some soothing music and a quiet slip away.
SGS kalyana mandapam greeted us with a watchman who said, 'parking full sir'; so the first shot was fired. I had to then expect a 'HOUSE FULL" reception area. Yes it was overflowing with guests standing dutifully in a long serpentine queue upto the entrance. I had difficulty stepping into the place. Two old men were sitting disinterestedly in the reception area, guarding the 'chandan', rose flowers and kalkandu! I usually like to smear a bit of chandan on my palms, so i did that and invited myself in!. I then waded through the crowd and went to the hall where the kutchery was arranged. I gave a premature kudos to the organisers for separating the reception and kutchery. There were lots of empty chairs about and i headed for a vantage position and sat down to listen to mandolin music.
But i was rudely shaken by the din that was emanating from the dias. There was rajesh with the mandolin and was playing it with such a speed as though he was in a formula one race. What is it supposed to prove? As if this assault was not enough, the percussion duo of mridangist and ghadamist(?) banged their instrument hard and all the while keeping the mike very near to them. In all this melee, the three of them were smiling broadly as if they are enjoying themselves thoroughly.
Are they competing with light music troops for the noise level? Are they letting off steam for playing in a wedding reception where the audience attention is perhaps two seconds? Are they doing some sadhana where they want to test for themselves how fast their hands can dance over their instruments, melody be damned?
I remembered my 7th standard science teacher who introduced the subject of noise and music and asked us to differentiate the two. I never had much difficulty then and was surprised why she needs to pose such a question.
But here noise was being passed off as music. Somebody has to go meet 7th std science teacher for an orientation.

artificial jewellery shop on theagaraya road

Jil mil is a well known address in pondy bazaar.So we heard from a friend of ours whose daughter got married recently.We were seeing the wedding album and I was asking her about the jewellery which was very impressive. She said it is the usual GRT and narayana pearls and jil mil. I had not heard jil mil till then so wanted to be educated on the whereabouts. She was surprised and said everyone knows that it is the one stop shop for all jewellery needs. YOu buy a dress/saree and this is the shop you head to, before you head home!
Yes, I was ignorant, but took the first opportunity to remedy the situation. It is on pondy bazaar, the street market which makes the girls go crazy when they visit chennai. It is a three storeyed building actually and I was told is owned by the kumaran silks group. It has a massive car parking lot and that is a big big plus in chennai and more so in t nagar. I have been quite wary of any mention of tnagar and shopping thereon. If the crowds in the shops were not bad enough, the streets keep getting crazier with constant change of one way, no way and fly over diversions . And then there is the car park issue. No there is no issue actually, you cannot park your car anywhere. The bylanes surrounding the shopping area are also choc a bloc with cars not necessarily of the residents or their visitors. You have a choice to park your car half way back home and then get an auto to get back!
So the car parking lot is a big plus. The shop itself is truly astounding with its variety and choice of artificial jewellery of every shape, size and taste. If a girl cannot get her hearts content of accessories here then perhaps she can walk in straight into any of the fashion designing courses without any elaborate entry barriers.
I am truly mesmerised by the scope and scale of the shop. What if all girls decide one day that they will wear only grey colour trousers and white shirts all 365 days of the year and say no to any jewellery. Pondy bazaar will become a ghost bazaar.
Or if girls enmass follow the dictum " punnagai irukum pozhudu ponnagai en?"