Paati's Thaalaatu

When we were children (I wish I were remained a child! :D), we would fall asleep listening to the melodious voice of our Paati (grandma) and sometimes Amma. The song that is sure to make us drop into deep slumber was 'Mannu Puhazh Kausalai Than..' I miss those carefree days.

It was a lullaby(thaalatu) sung (in his PerumaaL thirumozhi) for Lord Sri Rama by Sri Kulasekara Alwar (more details here).

mannupukazh kowsalaithan maNivayiRu vaaytthavanE

thennilangai kOnmudikaL sinthuviththaai semponsEr

kanni nan maamadhiL pudaisoozh kaNapuraththen karumaNiyE

yennudaiya innamudhE iraaghavanE thaalElO

Oh Rama! The One who took birth as the darling son of eternally fortunate and famous Kowsalya! The one who shattered the heads of the strong king of lanka,

in the south! The One who shows Himself so gracefully in the divya desam of

ThirukkaNNapuram divya desam surrounded by tall, beautiful and strong

ramparts studded with gold! The apple of my eye! My sweetest nectar like

Lord! Sri Raamaa! Lullaby to You.

My Paati would often replace the word Raaghavane (in the last line of the verse above) with my name and sing it. It would feel so personal as though she is singing just for me. And she would be singing just for me! :D

I wish to record this song in her voice... I do not know when I will get to meet her. Sometimes life changes so much that you can't help being lonely and longing for our closed ones. Even a far-off friend can make us feel so warm and yet a person right next to us may make us feel very distant.

I would not want to continue in these lines else this post would lose its meaning.


Courtesy: http://ahobilavalli.org/perumal_thirumozhi.pdf

What is love?

"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it?

It makes you so vulnerable.

It opens your chest and it opens up your heart

and it means that

someone can get inside you and mess you up.

You build up all these defenses,

you build up a whole suit of armor,

so that nothing can hurt you,

then one stupid person,

no different from any other stupid person,

wanders into your stupid life...

You give them a piece of you.

They didn't ask for it.

They did something dumb one day,

like smile at you,

and then your life isn't your own anymore.

Love takes hostages.

It gets inside you.

It eats you out

and leaves you crying in the darkness,

so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends'

turns into a glass splinter

working its way into your heart.

It hurts.

Not just in the imagination.

Not just in the mind.

It's a soul-hurt,

a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain.

I hate love"

-Neil Gaiman

Lori

This post is dedicated to the joker of our group, Mr. KT. No.. No.. Please do not hit me for calling you a joker. I just wanted to say that just by looking at your face, anybody will feel cheered up! :-)

We all were on our Kerala-Kanyakumari trip, traveling by car. All of us had been on the road for the past several hours and everybody was too much exhausted. Some of them dozed off, while others were playing some game or the other to keep themselves occupied. I was looking out the window taking in each and every change of landscape and humming to myself. Karthik was complaining that he was trying to best to sleep but could not. That was when I sang the Lori from Mission Kashmir.

Soja Chanda Raja Soja.... Chal Sapnon Mein Chal...
Neend Ki Pariyan Pehen Ke Aayi Pairon Main Payal...
Thujhko Apni Narm Paron Par Lekar Jaayegi...
Sone Ka Ek Des Hai Jiski Sair Karaagegi…

I went on humming this song continuously as if the player was put in a single-song-repeat-loop. Magically, Karthik fell asleep and so were some of the other friends who were busy playing! From then on whenever I feel restless in the night and am not able to fall asleep, I hum this song to myself and sure enough I start snoring at once (I can’t confirm about the snoring part! Ha ha ha)

Do you believe in Telepathy?

Well, I don't know about you, but I do! :-)

This night our dear Mandu asked me if I needed anything for dinner. I was sitting at my office desk, fully-exhausted and dead-tired. I had already eaten my lunch for dinner, so I told him:'Nothing'. He joked that 'Nothing' can't be ordered for dinner and that it is very difficult to get 'Nothing' for me. I just smiled and got back to work. Infact I was feeling like having some sweet paans. You know what I like the most in Tabla? The sweet paans that come along with the bill. ;-)

When he returned from dinner, guess what? He had got sweet paan for me. I was utterly surprised and extremely delighted. How could he read my thoughts? Or was I silently in my thought, asking him to bring me sweet paan?
No one knows but he did read my mind and this was not the first time! :-)

So, atleast now, do you believe in Telepathy?