My Musings

Every year I give my sisters பொங்கல் பணம் during first week of January. I send the amount by Money Order to those who live out-of-town. Filling up the MO form is a task; a bit confusing and a bit cumbersome. One has to fill the addresses at more than one place in the form. Time consuming process. As this was the only option available those days for sending money to out-of-town persons, one had to bear this. Anyway I resort to MO only once in a year, if at all. So I bear it with a grin.   This Jan (2010) when I asked for the blank MO form at Mandaveli Post office, I was pleasantly surprised to look at the offered form – it was simple and elegant looking, neat printing and all. On the left side, you fill your details (address, email ID etc) – and on the right side you fill details of the other person receiving the money. His/her postal PINCODE is a must. The English used is simple. You sign and submit it. An electronic (digital) ack receipt is given to you. The total process takes...

On 28th Dec 2009, we completed one month at our new house at Besant Nagar. In these 30 days, every one of us had lots of work to do. COOKING GAS: Getting the Gas connection posed a problem as “address proof” was needed.First they refused to accept the Rent Agreement copy as proof, but later as Mrs Thilakam Mohan phoned them, it was accepted on 8 Dec! The refill was delivered the next day. But, we found a spelling mistake in my name. Instead of SA Narayanan, they had typed as S Narayanan. When pointed out on 22 Dec, they said it would not be “possible” to correct the mistake at present. We were stuck! I said, “why not go to IOCL and discuss with the Customer Care?” Vi jaya and I went to Indian Oil Corp Teynampet on 24 Dec, met the Area Manager who gave written instructions to the Gas Agency to correct the name. Back to the Gas Agency on 29th, the Gas Transfer Subscription Voucher was corrected and given to us; now we have a new Consumer number. MILK CARD: Address proof was neede...

This year’s (2010) New Year dawned for us at Besant Nagar. Early morning at 6-45 we two went to the temples as usual and got களி as prasadam, today being Thiruvathirai festival. Met Saroja in the temple, as usual. I cut vegetables for the கூட்டு for more than an hour – வாழைக்காய், நாட்டு அவரைக் காய், பட்டை அவரைக்காய், கத்தரிக்காய், பீன்ஸ், பட்டாணி, உருளைக்கிழங்கு, சர்க்கரை வள்ளிக்கிழங்கு, ப்பங்கிழங்கு,சேனைக்கிழங்கு, காரட், மொச்சை, பூசணிக்காய், பரங்கிக்காய், ஊறவைத்த வேர்க்கடலை, கொத்துக்கடலை ஆகியவை போட்டு கூட்டு செய்தோம். Vijaya prepared களி மற்றும் கூட்டு. Lalitha and Kumar came from Avadi, for lunch; they brought Kali and Koottu. After lunch they went to Indira’s house; Vijaya also went. Evening, Ramesh and his family came, unannounced. They spent 4 hours here and had dinner with us and then left by 9 PM. We gave a Tamil book to Lalitha and Ramesh as NY gift. Thus, this year’s New Year went off in a nice manner. Rajappa 2-1-2010 1000 AM