music my love

Music has always drawn me whatever be the genre ,though never good at it futile attempts were made in learning carnatic vocal and later the guitar in my young days ,The famous music director Ilayaraja was a student of my guitar master at the same time as me ,( this goes to show it isnt the master who makes the difference it is the student !!)
my daughter Sruthi has more than compensated for this with her mesmerising singing ,

I believe Music rendered from the soul takes one close to our maker ,and the right music soothes us and is a salve for our ilnesses ,I did a small study on music for chemotherapy patients in Kochi and found melodies in the background did bring down the symptoms .

Dasettan our Gana Gandharvan too believes in this and has given his mite for research in this field ,

it is documented that music helps in learning in children specially the compositions of Mozart .

So I never missed an oppurtunity to listen to and attend music shows whenever possible .

In U.A.E I recently saw two of them .

One was Ishai Mazhalai in Dubai by the Tamil Mandram to which a friend was gracious enough to take me along .

I remember Abaswaram Ramji in my college days conducting a light music troupe ,he is the brother of Padma Subramaniam the famous Bharatanatyam exponent ,

with a penchant for sarcasm he called himself Abaswaram and used to hand over aspirin tablets for headache and ear plugs to people who came for his shows but all this negative publicity made him popular but his shows were professional and had good singing so they were a sucess ,with a career which included catering ,conducting music shows and stints in film industry ,AIR and TV Ramji kept his magnum opus for his later years .

He started a professional music troupe of children from 4 to 14 years in the year 2000 .

he screened more than 800 children to select his dozen and has never looked back ,the small ones growing up and conducting more than 90 shows in and out of India ,recording for ace music directors like A.R.Rehman ,and becoming experts in track singing .

I was stunned to hear the children singing song after song from old to new with verve ,oru naal poduma the old hit of Balamuralikrishan to Sivaji the Boss were renered with professional nonchalance

Ramji with his peppy walk shaking his salt and peppered head was everywhere in and down the stage ,

it was a real feast indeed .

The next show was the philharmonic orchestra in Al Ain ,classical western music has to be appreciated with some knowledge ,for a novice like me it was just a huge collection of well dressed people with massive harps ,drums ,trumpets ,sweet violins and melancholic flutes ,all this moved by a master pupeteer ,the conductor ,whose posterior was visible for most of the time expect when he turned around with a grin and bowed to the applause ,

the music itself was less appealing to me ,a western classical music illiterate ,while the well dressed opera special audience specially the gentler sex was a better attraction and so were the excusite dates handed over by traditionally clad Arabs in the fine Al Jahili Fort .

The crescendo came when the lights blew out leaving a silent audience looking at the desert sky .

The conductor made his bow and slinked away with his team for a much needed break and I took it as an oppurtune moment to make mine !!

Dr Ahmed Ali

This blog is about one of my revered teachers ,it is about one of the persons who had directed my life to a certain extent and about a person I have admired a lot .
Even before I joined medical college ,in my preuniversity days when I was at Secretariat colony ,Kilpauk ,Chennai ,Dr Ali was our family doctor .
He was then an young surgeon in Kilpauk Medical College ,with a healthy practice in family medicine and I remember occasions when I was one of the patients who lined up in his waiting room with trivial complaints of a fever or a pain here or there ,

one never grudged the long wait as Dr Ali was a busy person ,

I still remember his baritone voice giving instructions to patients in his chamber as we waited for our turn ,seeing him would melt away most of our troubles as he made small of our complaints and with his characteristic light hearted banter making us at home .
He probably was one of my many inspirations to become a doctor ,I longed to dismiss patients like him with a hearty laugh ,
but behind this his keen clinical acumen never ever missed anything and he would arrive at the diagnosis unerringly .
and then the day came when I too got into medical college and that too in the very same medical college where he was the teacher the Kilpauk Medical college Chennai .
He had a soft corner for me then as he knew I was a father less boy staying with my mother .
In college I came to know more of Dr.Ali ,he was far from a humble general practioner we thought he was ,he was a surgeon known for his excellence and a great teacher .
It was only from our third year when we had our clinical postings that we started attending
Dr Alis classes ,huge crowds of students flocked to listen in his OP days ,
here too he was brilliant in teaching with excemplary skill and in a very intresting manner ,he was quick ,agile and smart in all his actions .
One never missed an occasion to be in the theatre when he operated as his skills were superb and a delight to watch ,cracking jokes he would go about the most complicated ones with practised ease ,
so time flew ,and I had the luck to be in his unit for surgical postings in my internship too ,at these times he would occasionaly take me home in his car enquiring about me and my mother on the way .
On call days we usually had a makeshift dinner in the unit with one of us bringing dinner for all and we used to have fun late in the night over the exotic fare .
Once it was the turn of my friend who today is a leading surgeon owning his own hospital in the south of India , 'J' i would call him was a hostelite those days and had arranged for an excellent biriyani prepared specially by his hostel mess ,it was all ready and we were all waiting with bated breath in the small room waiting to begin ,
Dr Ali came and sternly looked at' J ' and said ," I find you didnt do the postoperative dressing for that patient in bed three "
'J ' trembeled ,he hadnt ,he had forgotten it in the confusion of arranging food .
Dr Ali was all fun except when it came to shirking your work and then he was a terror ,
"You go now and do it ,we shall wait for you ",
poor J ran and came back after his job and then it was Dr Ali back to his happy self .
Once my internship was over he called me and said " Hari you look after my clinic for a few days as Iam going out of station ,and also ,do give insulin injections to my mother everyday ",
a budding me was wary of the big responsibility then ,and I hesistated

"Sir clinic Iam not very confident ,and your mother is it OK ? "

"of course you have to learn havent you ? "
Well that was the trust he bestowed on me ,

I took the challenge and finally I sat in his hallowed seat and saw his patients and unerringly gave the injections too !
It was Dr Ali who made me take up radiotherapy ,he told me oncology is a good field and you could go into that ,somehow whatever he told I felt was sacrosanct and I have never regretted the descision till day .
Dr Ali never stopped studying as he rose up ,he joined for Mch gastrosurgery at an age any other senior consultant in his position would have laid back and enjoyed life ,he did it in Madras medical college at the same time I did my DMRT and came out in flying colours which was expected with his skills and experience and immense academic knowledge .
The best part of him like all great persons was , how he could relate to every patient rich or poor ,old or young and we all had a lot to learn from him .
I moved to Kochi in kerala but kept him abreast of all the happenings in my life good and bad ,to me he was always a mentor .
Dr Ali rose to become Director of Gastroenterology Dept in MMC a coveted post before he retired .
I went to meet him in Chennai recently before I came to UAE to get his blessings ,and he was still the same jolly person with a warm smile on his face ,he was in Mehta hospital in his chambers and he welcomed me profusely ,he was as active in his profession as ever .
Today he keeps in touch with many of his students with his enlivening e mails and forwards ,
Dr Ali never ages he becomes younger at heart and mind day by day and keeps others too the same with his positive attitude .
May I wish him and his family long years of prosperity and health .

navamukundan

This post came about after I watched amrita TV programme on temples and tradition called pradakshinam .

An excellent very watchable one indeed .

this one was specially intresting as it was about my most favourite temple that of navamukundan in tirunavaya near tirur my fathers place.

About the temple

Navamukundan temple of Tirunavaya is located on the banks of Bharatapuzha river. The presiding deity here is Navamukundan and Malarmangai Naachiyaar thayar. It is one among the Malai Naadu Divyadesam of SriVaishnavas in Kerala state.

Tirunavaya is located in the Chennai-Calicut route of Malappuram district of Kerala, close to Trissur. Edakkulam station is the nearest station to the temple and is located on the Palakkad-Mangalore rail route. The temple is 8 kms from tirur which is 43 kms from Kozhikode. By bus, one can reach Kuttipuram and take another bus to Tirunavaai.Nearest railway station: EdakkulamNearest Airport: Calicut

Specialty of this temple is that thayar has a separate sannadhi as compared to other malai naadu divyadesam in Kerala. Lord Navamukudan can be seen only from the portion above knees. The lord is also called Nava narayanan since it is believed that nine sadhus prayed to Lord Vishnu here and attained moksha. It is considered equal to Varanasi since temples of the three lords- Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva are present here. Maasi Makam is an important festival here.Pushkarni and VimanamThe pushkarni here is full of lotus flowers and hence known as sengamala saras, sengamala meaning lotus.The vimanam here is known as veda vimanam, derived from the vedic knowledge of the nine sadhus who worshipped here.
SannadhisNavamukundan in ninra thirukolamMalarmangai Naachiyaar (Periya Pirattiyar Laxmi)GaneshaBhagavatiSearch TermsTirunavaya, Thirunavaya, Tirunavai, Thirunavai, Tirunavaai, Thirunavaai, Navamukundan, Nava narayan

Though often associated with the emotion of grief as I have visited the temple many times mostly for doing rituals after the death of someone close but even in these occasions when our vision is blurred by remembrance of the departed loved ones one could but not escape from the serenity and beauty of the temple .

The Bharatapuzha curves sinously and laps on gently on the ghat steps which in the mornings are filled with people wet in thier dress and thier hearts doing thier duty for thier lost .

there are several priests and one can buy recipts giving ones preference or by precedence but unlike in benares in the north the priests dont knaw at you for lucre and custom .

after the customary dip and letting go of the physical remains one goes into the temple with a heartful of only memories .

kerala temples have a unique style entirely different from thier southern counterparts they blend so well with the surroundings .

simple in design they give a sense of peace and serenity ,the shantis ,ambalavasis who string the flowers go about thier job in studied silence and sincerity .

an air of cleanliness pervades most of the temples and there is no tinge of commercialism polluting the atmosphere .

in the evenings as temples light up the glow is etheral and divine .

navamukundan temple has a huge banyan tree in front of it facing the river and one could sit here for hours far from the maddening crowd caressed by the winds that sail across the river .

the movie by jayaraj desadanam has lovely composition by kaithaparam damodaran nampoothiri and the song navamukunda hare by manju is a treat to listen .

one can find this in raaga.com ,malayalam song section ,desadanam.( tried to give a link but not working )

The temple is supposed to have five mystery questions which are enigmas without answers ,

they are

1 which direction does the water in the river nearby flow ,it appears in one direction but it isnt in that .

2 the pazhuppu mandapam is a part of all vaishanvite temples and this is for the utsava moorthy to be placed during ritual processions so that devotees can pray to him ,but the pazhuppu mandapam here looks as if it is outside the wall from inside and inside the wall from outside

3 a particular family has been given rights as kolathiri for ages ,the kolathiri is always the senior member be it a woman or man ,the question is who is the kolathiri now a women or a man ?

4 the banyan tree in front does not have a half where did it disappear ?

5 the idol is only from the knee ,the rest of it is below the ground .

most of the priests in the area have all built good houses in the road leading to the temple ,as huge crowds throng to the temple every day in the mornings .

good for them as many of the temples in kerala and the employees are ill paid by the government which strangely continues to have a stronghold on hindu temples and dare not try it with churches or mosques ,this is the reason for the dilapidated state of many heritage sites and lack of facilities for devotess though millions of rupees fill the government coffers from temples like sabarimala and guruvayoor ,one really wishes the kings were still ruling us instead of theses selfish politicians .

legend has it that Markandeyan escaped from Yama and came to Navamukundan for protection ,the lord opened his backdoor and asked him to run to Shiva across the bank as only he could sabe him and also promptly closed the door after markandeya left so yama could not follow him .

The mammankam of the Samoothiri took place once in 12 years very close to this temple ,it was where a chance was given to the velathirs who was given the right to rule when the perumals departed but usurped by the samoothiri,the samoothiri would give a nilapadu once in twelve years to the velathiris to avenge him if possible a band of marital panikker families well versed in kalaripayyitu called chevers like our present suicide bombers would make thier way through the huge army of the samorin ,

one uncle and his young nephew manged to cut thier way to the samorin almost ,at that time the uncle fell to a sword attack by the samoothiris men and called out to his nephew

" thavazhide mannathe katholanne monne ! "

" njan nokkikolam ammama "said the brave young man as he swished his sword on the samorin ,who cried out "narayana ! ",the nephew hesitated hearing the name of the lord which gave enough time for the samorins men to cut him into pieces and thus the samorin escaped death that day .

after this in 1775 the samorin never tried out mamankam .

there is an excellent book on kerala temples called thulasimala written by the trivandrum maharani which goes on to describe each temple so intrestingly .

my dream is to visit all those temples one day .

samosas with Shanmugam

I caught the Trichy express from Cochin that saturday night at 9pm as I had been regularly doing every fortnight to travel to Vellore CMC as my wife was there with my child for her training .( this was some 14 years back )

I would get down in the wee hours at 3 am in Erode and wait there till 7 am to catch the West coast express to get down Katpadi and then on to vellore .

All this so I could finish my clinic on saturday evening which I would miss if I travelled by cochin Express which left at 4.30pm .

I would spend my time in Erode chatting to the cofee shop vendors in Erode platform and I became a familiar figure to them .

That day also I caught the west coast Express from Erode and got into an empty sleeper coach and got a berth ,slept for some time and woke up at Salem ,there was some commotion in the platform and I saw a rotund dhoti clad figure getting into my compartment ,he seemed to be an important man as a retinue of servants followed him with some big bags full of vessels .

He ordered some of them to get back and told his driver

" Thambi vandiyya nera viddu ,madrasla pakkalam enna "

strange I thought .".(.which meant go straight to madras I will meet you there ),

then why cant he too go in that ,shortly I had the answer for this question as he plonked right opposite me even though the whole compartment was empty .

His man friday came along and arranged the luggage and sat on a corner .

I stepped out before the train left and bought some samosas as nothing else was availabe and I was feeling hungry ,and came back and sat in time for the train to chug out of the platform .

Dhoti looked at me and the packet in my hand ," enna thambi sappadu ivilo thana ? "( is this ur lunch ?)

"well what to do nothing else here "I answered

he laughed heartily

" ayyo enna pa nee ,nariya irukku namma sapidalam va ,"

(I have lots lets eat )

and looking at his side kick he bellowed

"dey elaya poduda !!!"

that meant put the leaf for serving food ,

I was riled "oh no please have your food ,iam happy with this ,"

"ha ha thambi naan yaru theriyuma ?

( do u know who i am ? )

such questions are difficult to answer if one didnt now the answer !

i just smiled

"naan than shanmugam ( name changed of course )

" kali paal theriyuma kaali paal ? "

( name changed again ,yes I knew it was a famous brand of milk whcih was competing with the state owned one called AAvin ,I knew it came from Salem too ,o this was the owner .ok .)

" hmm theriyum "I murmured .

"ama adhe shanmugam salem shanmugam ,"that sounded like Rajinikanth

"thambi en wife nallla cook ,

neriya samaipaa ,

neriya irukku nammaku sappadlam vaa

antha samosa thuki eri "

( my wife cooks well throw away those samosa and eat with me )

"vendanka " I told

"summa iru nee "

( keep quite )

he also told me he was suffering from a spinal problem and he couldnt travel in a car for a long distance and so he would go in a train while his car drove to madras !

my luck !

"Salem vandha vitukku vaa ,periya panna ,elaam newzealand maddu nanne vanginathu ."

( when in salem come to my house I have all new zealand cows bought by myself from there )

"Salem erangina udene kali shanmugam apiidinu sholu ,onne thukittu varuvanga " ( tell my name and they will carry you home )

God save me !

"dey ennada paathukeite nikkira thambikku pasikkudu da '

( hey you idiot what are u waiting for serve the food ,this to his servant )

And so the servant cleaned the seat in front of me kept a neat paper and spread a green plantain leaf

He put portions of so many items like in a marriage feast in both our leafs ,and for the grand finale took the big vessel which I presumed was for the rice .

I was right there but I was wrong too as no rice came and the servant blinked hard ,

" iyya ,iyya ,manichunga iyya ,amma shoru vekka maranthutanga polirukku "

( sorry sir i think mistress forgot to keep rice )

disaster indeed !!!!

Shanmugam went into an apoplexy of rage ,

"ennmanatha vangitye daa thambi enna ninakkum "

( my honour is lost what will this boy think of me now ? )

that was vintage Sivaji here

"paravallanga " ( it is ok i said )

"phone podren paa adutha stationle "

( i will phone next station )

this was the pre mobile era ,

"dont worry "I said ,

"I have an idea let us crush the samosas and eat it with all these side dishes ",

"appidiya ok "said shanmugam by now having lost his demanour .

and so we had a delicious samosa mixed lunch and strangely shanmugam relished it

"nallathanmpa irukku ! '

( it is good indeed )

thus ended my samosa with Shanmugam

My Experiments With ( kitchen ) Truth .

I have always been a foodie ,which means I love food ,not that I was a gourmet food specialist of the wine taster kind.

I enjoyed tasty food but was a bit of a stickler to one type and that was preferably south Indian food .

Having had a childhood in the streets of Madras ( I know it is Chennai now ) and that too in Mylapore which was a stronghold of tamil iyers and iyengars and thier heavenly delicacies my tongue was spoilt early in life .

What could one do if along with this fortune one had a mother who could in a jiffy turn out both tamil and malayalee cuisine fit for the Gods ?

The annual visits to parappanangadi my native village in Kerala was one more step to my early food addiction ,my grandma showered her love during these visits by feeding me in style ,with cashewnuts ,jackfruits ,bananas and ripe mangoes not to omit the tons of banana chips consumed with glee .

I still remember the foray into town with my cousins once in parappanangadi and the malappuram biriyani we stuffed ourselves with in hotel Malaya all with the money we made selling raw cashew nuts plucked from our trees ,this was just enough for the biriyani and we sacrificied the tea to follow this

shaven headed moplas watching us commented ..

" Entha kollothe kuttiyalku chaya vendde ?

khayyi nammalukodukkam "

which meant drink tea and we will pay for it !

strangely with all these gastronomic gymnastics I was as thin as a reed .

It took me 23 years after birth to put on girth and then I did that with a vengeance and have never looked back.

blessed with a wife who was as excellent a cook as the mother I was lucky in the department ,

she too knew the way to my heart ran through my stomach and saw to it this heart was hers .

As time grew so did I and so did my paraumblical tissues of lard ,

exercise and aerobics were not in my destiny

yoga and judo made a wide berth whenever they came near me .
with the bike and later the car ,and the busy schedules i added to my bit .

I waxed and waned but never became slim

All along I continued to enjoy food

The umpteen dinnered medical meetings( eatings really ) ,sumptous marriage lunches ,contributed to my kilos .

When I had been so good at eating I was hardly good in cooking ,for I rarely needed to ,in the early days even heating food was a great event for me .

But strangely I always felt I could cook if I had to and maybe even enjoy it !

It did happen finally now in the fag end of my forties when I forayed into the Gulf and to literal starvation .

When I landed in Al Ain in mid july the sun gave me a torrid welcome and I managed to hide in the conditioned comforts of hotel Hilton where I was parked by my hospital till I got the qaurters.

One month in a five star hotel is great ,but with food not included in the bargain ,all I could get was the infinite coffee, tea and fruit bowls provided so much so I hated these on sight the very expensive food of hilton was a torture for me as it was tepid and sat on my tongue like a buffalo would in muddy water .

so the friendly neighbourhood mallu ,parotta corner was the only option ,I did try other types of local food which of course I disliked immensely and immediately .

Finally exasperated I sneaked in a huge microwave oven into my smoke free room and started heating ready to eat parottas and ate them with a salad made of tomattoes , onion and curd ,

One good thing was my lard disappeared into thin air and my wife felt sad to see a gaunt me staring at her during chatting .

Finally because of my desperate pleas I was released from the hilton and given the quarters which was a huge villa but with a big kitchen and 2 fridges ,

so began my foray into cooking ,

I gleaned the net for recipe sites and printed them in reams ,trying out everything ,most of the time they were abysmal failures but since i was my own guinea pig I never conplained .

I still remember the biriyani I dared to make ,this looked very nice but tasted something in between a porridge and a masala kurma

with time and effort I improved

I discovered the charms of garnished onions,tangier tomatoes ,sauted potatoes and rolling chicken deeply fried ,

dosas became rounder ,iddlies softer ,and rice tasted like rice ,

the local lulu supermarkets would be always blessed by gulp mallayaleees as they provided us with real parottas and idiyappams frozen but fluffy and white and all in a jiffy .

These days my repertoire has become longer ,I have become faster and my creations tastier ,I even had the guts to give recipes to others ,even to other ladies !

and above all I am as trim as a fiddle ..............( probably the time has come to add weight on my cooking now )

Addendum in Brunei after many years of trial and error

I have been always a foodie ,specially have a soft corner for Indian food !!
I feel Indian cooking has so much variety and is more complex and has subtler tastes ,this is not to demean other genres each have their own strengths and weakness...es but just like Indian music ,art philosophy and science it has come down the ages maturing over time just like the slow cooking blending its fine spices to a delicate morsel
I have blogged on my experiments in the kitchen in UAE ,survival brings out your best and those years in Al ain all alone without much good choice of restaurants made my foray into the kitchen a practical proposition
online sources ,my own niece in America umitha who has an excellent cooking blog helped me a lot I also had a chef in a five star hotel for a nephew and an executive chef as a close friend
Varevaah cooking in you tube has given me finite directions
my wife says you keeping taking those photographs of your finished products to exhibit in FB no one knows whether it tastes so good point correct at times it never tasted as good as it looked salt was less it was dry and sometimes it just didn't taste what it was meant to but practice makes perfection
to me making a delicate biryani with fluffy basmati rice grains blended with the spices vegetables well cooked and exuding an aroma was a gaol to be reached it was a challenge ,
this time it was a success partly though not perfect

Driven for a licence

To have driven in India for the past twenty years weaving through obstacles of the living and the non living kind in battered roads had made me supremely confident ,
if I could drive there I could do it anywhere was the message that was etched into my subconscious self .
If the subconscious self could eat its words it would have done so by now,
in fact it would have swallowed it in one go .

United Arab Emirates the country with roads as smooth as Hema Malinis cheek
( sorry Laloo I borrowed that ) ,and as broad as possible as a sumo wrestlers posterior with three or more tracks on either side and tree laden dividers made me amused ,
driving here would be a pleasure and getting a licence would just be a formality for a veteran like me .
( I was like a Vietnam returned marine itching for a street fight ."hey guys you wanna punch me ...comon .....")
I was warned by people who knew better not to take it lightly ,
"getting a licence here ,Hari ,is a big thing ,something like winning a lottery so dont be overconfident "they would warn
I just gave them a bemused all knowing smile .just you wait .

So I opened a file in the traffic department and joined the Emirates driving school paying a fat fee for the five day mandatory theory classes .
I never knew so much matter was there in trafficania ,
by the end of the high tech theory classes taken by American accented teachers with the most modern touch screen computers I felt myself enlightened .( now I know how the Gautama would have felt as he left the Bodhi tree )

We had a multiple choice exam on the last day and I passed it,
strangely about 30 % failed !
this was my first surprise as I was then thinking all this was just a formality .
Then we had to take private classes from driving instructors who charged forty dirhams per hour .
The first few classes were for the reverse parking test where one had to make acurate reverse within an L and not hit the sides all looking only in the mirrors .

My Ustad Mr. M an unadulterated mallu from Malappuram told me not to even try to crane my neck as people in India are tempted to do !!!
well well where was his highness from ? I thought
He had a sly smile when I told I had driven for twenty years in India
"Sad ,wish you hadnt , now it is all the more difficult for you to get a licence here ! "
"why so ? dear Ustaad ?"
" well we have to delearn you from all bad habits "
That sounded to me like delousing ,I felt unclean and literally picked nits
"what makes you think we are so bad out there ? can you drive there ?
"no no I cant and thank God for that ,doctor saar ,here it is different and you have to forget all that you did there, if you want to get a licence ."
Demeaning statements I fumed how dare he ? and he calls himself an Indian !
my patriotic spirit was flaring away .
People like these go away for a few years and become brown sahibs ,I would never be like that Bharath is the best .

So I started going for class M .... made me drive to the traffic park where one learnt reverse parking ,
Along the way he used to swear at me for careening off the lanes ,putting brakes in roundabouts ,not going fast enough ,daring to touch the horn ,looking back , not looking at the mirror and millions of other mistakes .
"doctor please here you have to drive looking at the mirror " he said
"True Most of the drivers I find are doing just that preening themselves or talking into thier mobiles ! "I would retort .
"Please dont argue they have the licence to do that and more ,while you dont have one ....."
"Have I the licence to talk to you at least ?" I would attempt at satire .
He would let out a sigh !exasperated.
Thus I laboured trying to perfect my L to perfection and finally the D day came when I joined a group of tense learners to perform my skill ,
it was dusk by the time I got the chance and my confidence returned as I got through in a jiffy ,
I had I told you so look on my face after that .
I wasnt worried about the road test to follow after a month .

Alas I never knew this would be my nemesis ,
My ustad now handed me over to his friend S..... as he had some urgent work in Naddu .

S ...too was a suddha mallu again from malappuram( some destiny indeed .....)

Breaking news ...mallapuram mallus drive a mallu in the desert

and to add to my woes ustadji was an amateur singer ,he was noted ( so he said ) for his mopla songs .
He said he rendered them with a finesse rarely seen these days .
and so we began the golden era of Ustad sunk in his songs and me driving his chariot ,
it was great fun as I too enjoyed some of his specialities though many were off key and made me drive off to the road side ,
Ustad was a good instructor though ,he never lost his bearing even in high pitch or when lost in rare ragas,he would command between the lines ,left ,turn right ,seedha ,issa ,urja ( the last two in Arabic which meant right and u turn ,I learnt this after making confused stops at roundabouts getting angry blares from drivers who werent amused by my antics )
"my dear S..... I do enjoy your singing but give me the commands in lingos I can comrehend please ,are we not from the same soil ?" I appealed to his good self .
"my dear doctor "the Ghana Gandarvan commented "the police officer will talk in Arabic sometimes so Iam making you get used to it ,"
well this was bad news for me
I never knew I had to learn a language for driving in this country !
our days went in music and ( not dancing ) driving and with time my wallet became lighter and lighter .
Finally the day of judgement arrived ,early in the morning I climbed into a bus like a Bukra laden with potential drivers following the test car for the coveted licence ,
one would get down from the bus when ones turn came ,go to the car and enter with a salaam malle kum to the surprisingly pleasant and respectful cops inside and would adjust the seat ,mirror ,put on the belt and release the handbrake and ease in the automatic gear to driving mode .
All these were practised steps choreographed by our instructors .
The cops would then ask us to drive through small roads or big ones giving us instructions to stop or park luring us into traps .
sitting in the bus like second world war POWs I saw many walking away from the car with forlorn looks while the rare few would give a jig with thumbs raised.
My turn came ,and I got in informing them I was so and so from T...... hospital ,
the cop next to me was impressed ,so thought I ,as he asked me about his persistent dyspepsia ,I told him all about gastric emanations and pepticised ulcerations adding that high profile and stressful jobs like what they were doing were potential timebombs for stomachs and all that was required was more tender loving care to thier tummies in miniscule medical detail while I drove with a smile on my face,
the cop was grateful as he made me stop
I got out waiting for the sure victory sign but was bambazooled when the cop in the back who probably had a healthy gut glared at me and told me "you failed "and sped off !
U Tu Brutus !!!!!
pretty ungrateful to a healer !!!
and what all I taught you !!!
the secrets of matirea medica in a capsule .......GRRRRR
I fumed and fretted and was totally depressed ,
I just couldnt believe it
why did I fail ?
slowly it sunk into me getting a licence here wasnt going to be easy
The second yuga of more days with the singing ustad and his mopla songs began .
He became braver and started bringing his recorded casettes for my listening choice
(weep weep )and karaoke to sing along ,I took revenge by joining him and it was a real party .
All the old malayalam music directors like Baburaj came alive in the streets of Al Ain ,I dont know what they did in thier graves but thier blessed souls probably wanted more of the torture for I promptly flunked my second test too !

This was shameful and I walked these days with a permanent slouch ,
I viewed drivers drivng in thier swank cars green with envy and thought I would never do that here !
All I needed for the atmosphere was a beard which I didnt have because one wouldnt grow on my pretty face
S... had no problem in this department as he had a luxurious foliage as you can see here ........
Finally with very little confidence I approached the third test ( moonam pakkam ) ,
but once in the seat I felt freed of all tension ,i was in suspended animation ,in a yogic trance of not bothering about results and drove with pleasure ,by now two to three months of driving had made me a natural here
( I wonder how I will drive in India now ,as the drivers side is in the opposite )
the cops too were preoccupied and allowed me to drive for long ,suddenly they asked me to stop ,gave me a smile and declared you passed .
Golden words to be engraved in the annals of my history if written .
(please note my biographer )
ustad was so thrilled and rewarded me with a song ....save me
He said this shouldnt stop you listeneing to my songs ....

dear folks so this is the story of my being driven for a licence
and you know what , now I too can say .....

Hey u guys in India . u call that driving !!!!!

Sukran.......

Pepsi my love

to lose someone you love is always heartwrenching ,having had a lot of such experiences ,I never thought Pepsi going away would wrench my soul !

My twelve year old black German Sheperd +Irish setter pet looked impressive and did her job of seeing that none dared enter when she was around although Pepsi would quitely go to a corner with a wagging tail when someone dared her and came close !

she ached for attention and played pranks with a busy us ,

taking bath for her was a punishment for her and would hide whenever we touched the hose ,sheepily she would surrender to our demands and cower wet and sad as we towelled her .

when my wife told me Pepsi refused to eat for almost a week when I left home to UAE I realised her true love and now when she rang up and told me Pepsi left us my eyes filled .

(picture not hers )

Taare Zameen Paar ( Stars on Earth )

Movie making is a business ,all the more in Bollywood ,producers expect thier invested money to multiply or at the minimum to get it back ,so one is pleasantly surprised when rare movies come out not bothering about costeffectiveness but more intrested in conveying a message .

Taare Zameen Paar conveys a message and HOW !

The world of Dyslexics or those affected with learning disability is one lost in the quagmire of msinformation ,sad because correct information could make all the difference here .

All the writing or documentaries on such subjects cannot equal a commercial movie by a saleable star in disseminating such information .

Hats off to Aamir for working on such a theme thus introducing a ray of light to the many affected by the disorder .The movie has been rightly given tax free status and now it should be made compulsory viewing in all schools too .

Ishaan Nandkishore Awasthi is a dreamy loveble imp of a boy who is lost in his world of colours ,animals and fishes ,he gets into trouble because unlike other children he finds difficulty in reading ,writng and simple math and as like any other dylectic his comprehensive capabilities are lost by a missing link in his neurological development but at the same time he is intelligent and an excellent painter .

The teachers who fail to recognise his problem are irked by his poor perfomance while his parents pressure him to do better .
His father Nandhkishore Awasthi wants his two sons to be high achievers but sadly finds his younger son failing unlike his supersmart elder son Yohaan ,so he frets and fumes at the poor boy to improve .

Ishaant loves his father and wishes he wasnt so strict and that he would take him to places like the aquarium where he would have loved to gaze at the fishes for hours ,but Nandkishore is the epitome of a rigid man .

Ishaants mother Maya awasthi is helpless in front of the father ,she loves her son dearly but is confused at his poor perfomance .

Yohaan is very supportive of his brother and once even writs a false absence note on Ishants request and things turn awry when it comes to light and Nandkishore blows his top and finally decides to put Ishaant in a strict boarding school as he feels the boy needs such a place to become better .
The boarding school and its environs draws the poor boy into a shell .

Darsheel Saffery who acted the role has lived it in these scenes when your heart goes out to the poor boy bullied by his classmates ,threatened by his angry teachers and sadly deserted by his parents ,

A song here rightly portrays the pathos with the child crying that even his mother whom he had always believed had left him to this fate too and he has nowwhere to turn .

It is then that Aamir Khan comes as the lively drawing teacher Ram Shankar nikumb and quicly grasps that the withdrawn boy is suffering from dyslexia which has never been discovered by anyone ,he wins the boy over in a very clever way introducing the class to a list of celebrity dylexics who had become great achievers like Newton ,Edison ,AbishekBachan ,Walt disney ,etc .


To Ishaant he tells later that one more name could be included in the list and and that is the one of himself .

Aamir also goes to Ishaants house and tells his parents his problem ,the father naturally fails to accept and goes to denial getting furious with Aamir for suggesting that his son had a problem which he calls retarded ( this just shows the amount of knowledge even educated people in the country have about such disorders and its consequent problems )

Aamir approaches the principal and requests him that he would personally train Ishaant and the school should give him some more time to cope up with the others ,which is agreed upon .

He then uses special teaching techniques mingled with lot of fun and slowly Ishaant flowers open .

Aamir himself a good painter recognises Ishaants talent for painting and organises a gala painting competion for the whole school for staff and students and Ishaant goes out to be the winner and his painting appears in the cover of the school magazine .

By the time the year ends Ishaant is much improved and had become popular ,his father by now realises his mistakes after a stinging repartee from Aamir ,they go home for the holidays as a happy family .

Though directed and produced by Aaamir the concept and scriptwriting came from Amole gupta who had worked with disabled children .

Hats off to them for producing such a fine movie

please dont miss this ............

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia ( for info on dyslexia )

Eid Al Adha

I wrote this blogpost on the first Eid for me in U.A.E. ,three years have rolled by and on the eve of another Eid iam reposting the same .......

Eid Al Adha ( Bakrid ) is a festival celebrated by Muslims all over the world and in commemoration of Hazrat Ibraheems ( Alay his- salaam ) willingness to sacrifice his beloved son Hazrat Ishmaeel ( Alay his-salaam )when he was tested to do so .
Inthe end God made him sacrifice a lamb instead .

This is also called the bigger Eid as compared to Eid al fitr ( Ramzan )which is a day shorter .

Usually this is seventy days after the Ramadan month .

On this day believers sacrifice a lamb or sheep to symbolise the event,

it actually depicts willingness to submit and accept divine commandments .

In Morocco,Algeria ,Tunisia ,Libya and Egypt it is called Eid-El-Kibr,

in Nigeria it is called Babbar Sallah,

in India and Pakistan it is called Baqra-Eid ,

Indonesians call it as Idhul Adha,

in Turkey Kurban Baiyrami or sacrifice feast ,

Keralites call it as velliya Perunaal.

On this day muslims will dress in thier best finery and go to the mosque for prayers ,those who can afford sacrifice thier best domestic animals ,

sacrificed animals are called as Udhiya in Arabic .

The meat is to be distributed to the poor and needy and feasted with family and friends .

courtesy Wikepedia .

To me in the UAE for the first time this festival was a time to learn more about it and the beliefs behind it ,

The holidays stretched for more than a week and the climate was ideal for long walk

I did just that beating the evening chill with a jerkin,

Al Ain is meant for walking with its neat paved pavements ,grassy knolls filled with colourful flowers and sprinklers spraying thier wetness in deference .

I could walk to the end of the north pole like this !

The junctions were festooned with colourful lights and the city had a festive air with cars 'zooming about to reach the malls for shopping juggernauts . The shops were laden with sweets and gifts .

People are generally polite and even a stranger would greet you with a salaam,

Most drivers are courteous and give preference to a pedestrian when crossing the roads

( I mean smaller ones ,the bigger ones ,one has to use the pedestrian crossings if one doesnt want to turn into fine dust )

A young Arab was driving his big car when I tried to cross one bylane ,he stopped it and smiled at me waving me to do so ,I mouthed a silent thanks and did just that ,

Incidents like this does warm your heart ,people are the same everywhere some are concerned while others are rash .

In the emergency room of my hospital as I went to see a patient on my on call day one of the ER clerks who did the orientation in the beggining in my batch came rushing and embraced me in a warm hug ,

" Dr Hari so nice to see you ,how are you ? Id Mubarak ."he said ,

same day i got a phone call from a patients son "dr let me wish you all the best on this day we want to thank you for looking after father ."

These are small incidents in ones life ,( like in anybody elses ) that gives back the message that after all human beings wherever and whatever are all the same ,

we have to be ,being from the same creator .

....................Eid Mubarak.........

Abhu Dhabi

Though I landed in Abhu Dhabi on my maiden visit to the UAE it looked like a maze of plotted lines from the air and the airport and its surroundings far from the city didnt impress me at all ,I left to Al Ain immediately and never had a chance to visit Abhu Dhabi unlike Dubai which was almost my weekly timeout .

So when I used a meeting in the Intercontinental and a convenient stay there ,to see AbhuDhabi I never thought I would fall for it but I did .The Intercontinental had a novel of way of inviting its guests ,the TV blinked open with a personal invitation but I was christened with a new name in the welcome as

Dr .Narayanan Hari Moh....... !!!!( that sounds distinctly Assamese )

In fact I liked Abhu Dhabi a lot more than Dubai for it is neater ,more organised with less people and lesser confusion .

Intercontinental near the corniche was the right place to go for a night walk which I did after the meeting and the november breeze chilled me to my bones ,I could gaze into the seven star Emirates palace one of the most wonderful hotels in the world right on the sea ,its sandstone facade was like a desert palace in Rajasthan lit in the night .

Beyond it was the Marina mall the huge shopping complex with its Carrefour and many other branded shops .

The food court in the mall was a huge cauldron of gluttons from all nations .

A tall fountain sprayed water and mist to the roof as people lazed and gazed at it .

posh cars were available as gifts for the lucky ones .

Abhu Dhabi has huge multistoryed buildings dwarfing the roads ,there were plenty of sit outs and eating places on the corniche with brillianly coloured yatches and motorboats cruising in the bay .

Malayalees were in the dozen and one could trip on them like as anywhere in the U.A.E.

Next day was spent on loitering and meeting some friends ,taxis are more economic than in Dubai and like in Al Ain have friendly grinning Pakistani drivers .

The pavements are kept neat and vacummed by workers !!

Evening saw me move on to Tawam bus which was on its weekend shopping trip to the city and back to Al Ain .

And so Abhudhabi has one more suitor in her pocket now.