My Musings

TRVG's son HARI got married to POORNIMA on 22 April 2018 at JD Mahal, Chennai. JD Mahal is 500 meters away from Kamatchi Hospital. We two went on the evening of 21st also. Aditi came with us. Many had come from Hyderabad - Ganesan, Sivasubramaniam, Vaithyalingam, Saibaba, Subba Reddy, UAV Prasad, Ramakrishnaiah etc. Ramesh P PAI had come from Kochi ! Aditi enjoyed eating the Buffet dinner. We two went on 22nd for the marriage also. It was a grand affair. After a grand lunch, we returned home.  God bless the young couple. Rajappa 22-04-2018

We two went to Ooty and Coimbatore from Apr 27th to May 2nd for SATISH marriage with APARNAH SREE. We left by the 07:15 AM Shatabdi express from Chennai. Sowmya also came with us. We took an OLA cab to the station. The train reached CBE by 2-15 PM and we took another OLA cab to வெள்ளைக்கிணறு பிரிவு where Gopalan came and took us in car to his home. After rest etc, we all went for a walk. Sowmya took the dog Buddy for the walk. We slept in Gopalan's house. 28-04-2015 Tuesday : Arun, Gayathri, and Sriram arrived in CBE ? Gopalan's house by 7 AM. After bath and breakfast we all left by bus for Ooty by bus. Reached Ooty at 2 PM, after 3 1/2 hours' travel. Reached the KSTDC hotel. Ashok and Neeraja came to that hotel from Mysore at 3 PM. In the evening we all went to the Botanical Gardens and walked for a long time. Coming out of it by 5:30 PM we had coffee and started searching for the Delhi Group. After a long walk we could locate them and had a talk. Tomorrow Vijaya ...

TR Venugopal is known to us since 1971 from our Poona days. He is now Senior Accounts officer at DMRL, Hyderabad. He performed the marriage of his daughter JANANI with Natarajan at Nanganallur Chennai on Sunday, 10th July 2011. Vijaya and I attended it. Venugopal on the right, his wife Saraswathi on the left We left house at 6-10 AM in Wagon-R and reached the Rama Mandiram Kalyana Mandapam at Nanganallur by 6-50. The Mandapam is just next to the Anjaneyar Koil. There we met my former colleagues at ERDL Cell, DRDL Hyd. Ganesan, Nair, Jagadeesan, Saibaba, Subba Reddy, Srinivasa Reddy, S Venugopala Murthy, Venkataramaiah, Ramakrishnaiah, Kaleeswaran, Mohan Rao, Rangarajan etc; they had come with their wives. Ganesan and his wife Gomathi with us NAIR (behind Vijaya) his daughter PREETHI (next to Vijaya) Preethi's husband (Airforce, Agra) is also seen. Venkataramaiah, Srinivas Reddy, Ramakrishnaiah, ME, SVG Murthy, his wife Vijaya, Saibaba's wife, Saibaba Ramalakshmi,...

MOHAN, cousin of Vijaya, fixed the marriage of his son VINODH with ANUSHA at Madurai; he and his family came to our house to invite us. Earlier he had informed about the event and asked me to book tickets for GNY family. Accordingly, I booked nine tickets by Pandiyan Express of 27th June and return tickets by Pandiyan of 29th. Mohan - Thilaka We two left Chennai on 27th night for the marriage. Indira, Lalita-Kumar, Mohan, Akila-Raja-Jyotsna travelled with us. Ramani and Padma manni joined us at Madurai Jn on 28th morning. Janani came on 29th morning. The Group [Janani missing] At Madurai the marriage was at Brahmana Kalyana Mahal, SS Colony; we were put up in Hotel Aarathy, near Koodal Azhagar koil. It was about 5 km away but bride's father provided with a van. Mohan's brothers and sisters attended the function. The marriage was celebrated in a nice manner. Vinodh and Anusha became husband and wife. Vratham Jaana Vaasam Oonjal ANUSHA - VINODH We went to Koodal Azh...

Vijaya's elder sister Indira's grand-daughter APARNA got married on 3rd Sept at Chennai. We reached the Kalyana Mandapam at 6-30AM on 2nd for the Vratham etc. After Vratham and breakfast, there was simply nothing to do. Just idling. Nichchaya thaartham was at 4PM and reception at 7PM. As I have written in my earlier posts the habit of having "Reception" a day before the actual marriage is becoming a fashion these days. Utterly non-sensical, in my view. The usual Reception Menu for dinner. Tamilians are fast turning into North Indians in culture !! Next day, the marriage function started by 7 and was over by 9 AM. What to do then? Idling ! Waste of time and waste of money for everyone. We returned home by 8PM that night. Slowly but surely the Brahmin marriages are becoming a bore. Extra lavish expenses, intrusive and all-pervasive north indian culture (Mehendi function etc),அளவுக்கு மீறிய தாம் தூம் டாம்பீகம் (there were over 50 varieties of supari in North India...

Baraats in GRSfamily Today in Indian Express I read a column on baraats and my mind floated back to some of the baraats in GRS Family. Not in the strict sense that the word is understood in North India, but the way we (the groom's party) travelled & reached the mandapam. In anna's (GSR) marriage (1956), I remember only that I travelled in First Class (railways) to Kumbakonam. thanks to the Free Passes that Pappa Chiththi had. Obviously, I impersonated someone in her family (Gopu, perhaps?). I don't remember how we travelled to Coimbatore for Sundaresan's marriage (1965). For my marriage (1971), I vividly remember we had packed everything by 9PM the previous night and everyone was sleeping as though in a station platform. The passenger train to Chengalpattu was at 4.00AM; we got up at 2 AM, anna brought a kattai vandi and we loaded our luggage and proceeded, on foot, to the station. At Villupuram station (6 AM) where the train halted for more than 30 minutes, anna an...