Ore the pheelings!!

Kaarirulil sooriyan, neer alaiyil thamarai, thaagaththil kaayum paalai mannil vaanmazhai....

I’m skipping with joy at being back as a whole.

Kaathirundha naatkalil kaadhal oru aarudhal, kaanaamal sendru pinbu thondrum vaanavil...

But I’m kind of sad too. Little bit. I’m going to miss my life here. Although very thrilled at new prospects, somehow all this missing thingy is messing with it.

Wait, I have got some good ones to list, my personal favorites. What's not to miss about/ in/of these?

• Amma
• Vaasal kolam in the early morning hours on the swept, water sprinkled wet mud/cement
• Home, where the heart is. And the systematic way a life should be led. A way, time tested and successful and a way that tries to keep up with tradition as much as possible
• The mayakkum fragrance of Mallipoo and pichi poo and agarbhathis, soodam and Mysorepak
• The seasonal seduction of two of the mukkaannis-maa and pala
• SMS buddies
• Bikes. The sexy and romantic rides in bumpy roads
• Unlimited and guaranteed availability of baby-sitters (read grandparents) anytime of the day, even at the shortest notice
• Fire crackers during Diwali and sugarcanes during Pongal
• Kites and colors
• Maid to wash, sweep and clean. Someone to iron clothes. Someone to deliver fresh milk at doorsteps every morning. Someone to get sugar from Raation kadai. Like what one Client said, ‘In India, you can afford to live life King like, by the normal middle class too.’ Maybe we do.
• Parent’s home comforts. Where I can lounge and can expect to be served delicious norukku theenis with filter kaapi; Where I can sleep through migraine pains and not care or worry about the little one and the big one; Where I can mindlessly yell and somehow get a clear head from that. If I were a King my parents would be my scepter (or that thing whatever it is called which the Royalty holds in his hands and taps it in front of him keeping in rhythm with his steps)
• Suda suda Aanadha Vikatan and Kumudam on Thursday mornings.
• Noise. Just about everything is loud – the phones, the vehicles, the speaker playing questionable bhakthi songs at the local Amman kovil, neighborhood kids
• Step out of the house and throw out your wand-hand and you get rides to just about anywhere, the real public services you know, autos and rickshaws and trains and buses.
• Temples. My support buffer. Will especially miss Mr. and Mrs. Kabali and their extremely beautiful Mylai residence. Dears, please watch over us wherever we are.
• Shopping with the crowd in Ranganathan Street, Usman road and Pangal park area.
• The sometimes ‘48 hours not enough’ weekends to fulfill all the postponed social visits, just dropping in on family elders, or certain mandated visit to the pukkathu folks.
• Weddings and the activities around it, pattu saris and kalyana saapaadu
• While walking through crowded streets or struggling to get a foot hold in a packed suburban train and the thrill of seeing someone from the past who is almost forgotten. The live kind of social networking.
• Power cuts and the candle lit, dark days with panai ollai visiri; a time when long forgotten family stories are dusted and retold in agal vellaku/ arikkan lamp velicham
• Paatis to make you feel that there are a lot to know in this world; and that only fools question tradition; and amaze you with their knowledge of random and long branched members of the family; and their knacks to remember all days and their importance without the need of a calendar. Hearing her talk about her childhood days makes me sad to realize how much I have lost touch with my proper roots and culture. [Funny thing is, she used to say that she was sad too when she was my age, but unlike me she felt that change was justified]
• The romance of the mottai maadi kaathu
• Occasional rains and the city looking beautifully green instead of the sickly, dusty, muddy brown

I’m sure there's so much more than these that I'm going to miss, more than I can account for here.

Leaving all this behind, I’m off to the land of extreme silence and unnatural neatness and screwed up notion of personal independence.

Let it snow... let it snow....

Gottago... to catch the handsome Jhonny in all his pirate-ness... Ahoy!