sAnKrAnThi MuSinGs....

Today its - Bhogi, first day of the 3 day Sankranthi festival. Having born and brought up in Hyderabad I do not have great expectations of Sankranthi while my mom has stories unending about her Sankranthi celebrations when they were there in their village. My mom hails from Guntur District of AP. 

All I know about Sankranthi is home made sweets, Kites, new movie releases (a sentiment for major blockbusters to be released) and yes Hyderabad roads become desolate. The barren roads of Hyd invite us with a broad smile. Most of the NRH’s (Non residents of Hyderabadi’s) move onto their native places and we are the kings again.

 Maudlin at times, after hearing to mom’s stories and today after speaking to my friend who has been to home for Sankranthi I feel I also need to check their kind of Sankranthi as well. Their definition of celebration is to stay with ur loved ones inside home and mine till date was to hang around with frenz Outside.

 Their Version of Sankranthi – Bonfire, Colorful Rangoli (we call it Muggulu), Get together of families (Babai,pinni,attayya,maamayya,ammamma…the entire bandwagon), Temple visits, special pooja’s, especially in coastal parts of Andhra new Son-in-laws get a Royal treatment from their In laws a tradition followed, Cock fights (Kodi-pandalu) though officially banned there are those flamboyant heads who donot care about them.

 Mom says people fight with cut-throat competition to prove that their Cock is the best - it’s a matter of pride. Palnati Yuddam kind of ones….

 Mouthwatering delicacies like Nethi Arisellu,Kobbari boorellu,Garelu,chakralu,Payasam never appear tiresome to keep u away from them. 3 days u end up only eating ,eating and eating with lot of affection wherein u will be forced to eat to make sure tat u do not hurt their emotions.

 “Sankranthi vachindi tummeda..Saradalu techindi tummeda …“ (forgot this song’s movie nameLL)

 Also Sankranthi is the time when we (my mom had these privileges) pay respect to our Ancestors. Grandfathers and great grand fathers expect their next generation fellows to pay obeisance to mark the new harvest season.

 Oops Sankranthi marks the First harvest season of the crop and is hence celebrated jubilantly. Also this is the most important festival which I believed was bcoz ur half yearly exams are done and u get a break of 15 days and also 3 new blockbuster movie's release – sadly my reasoning sounded insane.

 Mom kept on repeating “Kanna that’s why I tell you… choose a telugu girl who hails from such a village where atleast ur next generation will not miss this excitement “.

 Though I revert saying its my mom’s Emo-s-nal atyachaar, at times feel what she mentioned is also a point to be noted.

 Or else I end up smsing “Happy Sankranthi/Ugadi/Dussera/Diwali ”, and the celebrations remain the same routinely.

 “Choodamu ley amma…ivvala repu inni qualities unna ammayi dorakaalantey kashtam”

 Huhhhhh…ekkada ekkada ekkada undo taaraka……padahaaru anaaala teluginti aadapaduchu ekkada unaavey???

Em-tio-nal Atyachaar….

“ Tauba tere nakhrey …Tuaba tera pyaar….tera Emo-tio-nal Atyachaaar…..”Perfect timing for this song from the yet to be released movie Dev D to be played as I am made to bear the brunt of this unremitting atyachaar.

At the behest of Mom, I went to pick up mom after 1 hour from the birthday Party thrown out by our neighbors to celebrate their Grand Daughter’s 1^st birthday.

Mom who has always been quite Altruistic, offered to drop our neighbors as well since they were planning to take an auto stopping them to have the utmost pleasure of a chauffeur driven Wagon R(have to be pompous as the chauffeur was none other than me)

I normally would not entertain such request had it been told to me before in hand. But at the last minute I was shocked to see that Mom was actually being followed by my Neighbor. I am not being rude, but some how the very sense that this old lady who is our neighbor (let me call her MM for varied reasons ) is always interested in out- of –her-house matters interrogating people to update herself with the recent developments and thats wat I am not comfortable with.

Wat else can I do at this point of time rather than Smile at MM and wish her. (Just like Vinay Pathak in the movie Dasvidaniya where he cant utter a word against his mom LL).

As I started the vehicle, MM’s curiosity raised to know how the party was organized and she knew how much did our other neighbor’s spend for this, and from where did they pull up resources for this…hufffff

Added to my travail and dispossession the traffic at KPHB was at its peak ,being Sunday and most of the Hyderabadis working out of hyd had to bid farewell to home for the last time in 2008.

MM slowly started to move the topic closely to my issue. She blatantly asked my Mom about my marriage ,now that I am well settled citing my strong CV of a Job & car (never knew this is called as settlement ) trying to push me from the frying pan to fire. I could see my Mom’s eyes gleaming with anxiety to share the fact that she has been getting such Queries from her frenz,collegues and she was readying herself to start the list of proposal’s with the most Handsome offer (or rather Bid) as the first one.

I signaled to Mom that she better keep it down or else I would have to create a 1999 kargil episode once we reach home. But as the famous quote goes“Pennu toofanu ni Plastic Godugu tho aapaleru”(U cant stop a Cyclone with a Plastic Umbrella), I could not control my Mom’s cyclone of information.

MM looked very content with this info as she seemed to get the right ingredients for her next day’s matinee talk with the other Septuagenarians. This is not the first time but MM is quite keen to know what we do or rather I am doing (god wat does she do with all this info….i hardly can remember the birthday’s of all my frenz..and with out orkut I wud have been cursed by most of them).

As I drop MM near her home, She bids Gudnite and showers her blessings upon me which included…that I shall b married and have my own child by this time next year …phewwwww both in 1 year @^^@$%$.

Mom…………Grrrrrr….tera Emotional atyaachaar….%@$#$@#$$@# LL