Filter Kapi

What is the connection between tam- brahms and the above mentioned beverage?? Is it some kind of unexplainable link that we are born with? A curse…no no…it can never be a curse…a divine blessing, I presume. The exhilarating feeling it gives when we have one Davara full of filter kapi along with Hindu newspaper is out of the world! A day never goes perfectly without the above combination

The aroma of the coffee powder drifting from the Raja Coffee house in C.Pettai main road itself gives me a high! My paaTi had a huge selection procedure when it comes to buying it from any coffee shop. No..not those fancy CCDs or Baristas where they give you froth laden, creamy, water with coffee powder sprinklers, but those where you get coffee beans and powders for daily usage. C.Pettai has 3 main coffee shops and a couple of other smaller ones which don’t even get short listed by my paaTi.

Coffee Day- it was a pioneer launching, actually one of the first fancy shops that opened up in C.Pettai. All the vinyl board on the shop’s headboard impressed paaTi (compared to the hand painted Raja Coffee, where we used to buy) and we soon joined in the queue to get our ½ kilo kapi poDi along with its freebies- variants included plastic mug, one stainless karandi and of course, a davara-tumbler. I still remember my paaTi saving the coupons for increasing her pointless-saving-stainless steel-davara tumblers account. It took a while for her to realize that there is no point in getting those davaras when the coffee decoction is watery!! So, we went back to Raja Coffee which also had started the freebie business (Competition boss!!) to get back their old customers. I think raja coffee was established somewhere in the 1800s, this coming from the oily look of the half deaf coffee mama. But since we had changed patrons, oily mama started giving us scorching looks and more chicory in the kapi poDi. PaaTi started complaining again about oily mama not treating her as a venerable customer. So, we again had to shift to the newly opened Narasu’s coffee- ‘Bhesh bhesh!! Remba naNNa irukku’, right opposite to Raja Coffee. Though business never picked up well, oily mama moved to Narasu’s for no particular reason. Narasu’s also had a business strategy, giving away free packets of chicory or parrys’ sugar. But the business started soaring when they decided to start giving home deliveries. Now, all my paaTi has to do is dial their number, make sure her instructions are clearly spelt back by half deaf oily mama “Kaal A Kaal B, No chicory” (These lines were god’s lines- never to be forgotten at any given point of time- by the oily mama/me/dad) And very soon, oily mama’s son used to drop in the packets of ½ kg every now and then. Thankfully, we haven’t changed our coffee shop for the past couple of years.

I still savor the first batch of decoction prepared everyday morning by paati (no..i haven’t tried making it; tried once, was a huge fiasco) along with sudoku in the Hindu and Vishnu Sahasranamam on Jaya TV. Aah! What will I ever do without filter kapi daily morning????

Ishkool Matters

Lots of fun filled memories would come to everybody’s mind at the mention of the word “School”. But to me…I wouldn’t say it was bad...i would rather say it as the worst part of my life. Not that I detest the learning part considering it was the only reason I actually went to the school. I just hate the rest of it. Now, let me begin with a light introduction of what my school is…d intro mainly due to the fact that it was no normal school.

Yr 1998: A group of weirdly dressed girls with long ponytails and huge books were boarding the train during one of my monthly trips to T.Nagar for shopping. I asked my sister, “Akka, yaarukka ivalellam?? En red colorla ellarum half-sari potruka?? Naan poi izhuthutu varatta?”(Sis! Who are these red color clad half-sari girls?? Shall I go pull them??). “You better not!” my sister advised, “These girls are a part of train bandits! Haven’t you heard about them??” I got scared with this reply and continued ogling at them from a distance. I promised my sister that I would never leave her side and be a good girl. My sister smiled smugly.

Yr.2000: I was in my 10^th class when this topic came up. Dad and sister were debating on which group I should be taking up for my higher secondary. Not that they didn’t listen to my pleas of studying something related to fashion, my dad wanted me to attend the best school there is and get better marks than anyone in my family. Well…what a long lost hope! Here was I, struggling to get past my phobia for subjects and my dad has started to look in for the best! When I tried to point out this to my dad, all he said was to listen to him and work hard. Well, I did work hard, more in terms of watching movies and enjoying my school life. By the end of the year, my dad told me that he had had me shifted to another school in the locality. I didn’t bother much about and continued to e-ottify my life. Little did I know that life had a different plan!

Yr 2001: Results were out and I surprised myself by passing all the subjects excluding a slight dent in my Hindi numbers. Since, the main subjects were cleared with decent scores, my family celebrated with much gusto. After all the merriment got over, my sister called me over separately to our room. I presumed it had to be something about me spilling ink over her books and hence, went grudgingly. I automatically started jabbering an apology when she plainly held her hand and asked me 2 shut my mouth. I was a little taken aback as she would never miss such a golden opportunity to get bashings from my mum. Though a bit relieved, I never expected that she would start on to tell me that I would be shifting schools to complete my higher studies.

I know its not a big deal..shifting to SAMOHSS. But it would be a big deal when you go to a school with a cropped hair and wearing a half sari(don’t forget the specs).. Sniff Sniff!! I was the center of all the stupid jokes. The younger kids in the school used to come and gape at me as if I was some animal in a zoo.. Boo Hoo.. Sigh! This school is situated in T.Nagar and is famous for its students getting the top ranks in the final exams. I used to travel in the suburban train as C.Pettai was quite far away from it. All the students in the school were big time paDipps and I hated it from the start. All these guys could chat was only about Chemistry formulae and Physics theories. Guys (had to wear VeshTis) were not allowed to interact with girls which itself was very annoying, considering half my friends in the earlier school were only guys! Teachers used to teach in Tamil, even though it was English Medium School. Half my knowledge of swear words in Tamil were learnt from the teachers themselves. It became usual for the teachers to say “Pannada! Paradesi! Ecchakala Naaye!! Anga enatha pudingitruka!!!”(Swear words on Tamil that I do not wish to translate). Classrooms were typically a dungeon. No fan (doesn’t work even if it is there!), no light, the only ventilation used to come from the so called windows (no windows either, just paraphet walls with grills). It wouldn’t have been that difficult if not for the fact that almost 150 students were dumped in one single classroom which can hold only 75 in the first place!! Girls who didn’t wear Bindis were given punishments. All Fridays, we were supposed to sit and listen to Upanyasams. When a Jeeyer (Did I not mention it was an Iyengar School??) ever comes to Chennai, they would undoubtedly make a visit to the school without fail. Everyday evening after 4PM, all the girls would be sent off to learn Divya Prabhandams, and the guys would be sent off to learn Vedas. This doesn’t matter if you are interested or not. It was school rule. The teachers themselves came in VeshTis and Panjakajams. Sanskrit was a compulsory subject to be taken up. Even the Shlokas had to be deciphered and explained in Sanskrit. The Sanskrit teacher used to come to the class with her kids. The Blackboards actually were the wall on it was painted black. And wait, the most bizarre part is that the school fee was 700 rs!!!!

All said and done, this school had something that I couldn’t understand. No matter what, it could make even the dumbest of the kids (read me) to score really good marks. This certainly was surprising to me, just because of the fact that I had never put efforts to study; nor did the other kids who were like me. I also am grateful to the school for having taught me Prabhandams and Shlokas. But the reason why I hate the school was for the reason that it made me lose my confidence to socialize with people. I could not bring up the courage to speak to guys after I left the school. And I had started swearing a lot. When I started thinking about, I realized that the whole environment had been so narrow-minded about life, and things around it. I don’t even have to explain how it would have been when I told them about Instituto Scenology! Well…Life has its own way to explain itself. I guess I should be happy of the way it has shaped me in the process. SAMOHSS and IS…whattaa combination…!!!

The Dog's Umbrella

The plan was set. The time decided. The venue was some newly opened restaurant in T-Nagar. The gang was the usual- my best friends which included the sardonic TJA and the goofy LAS. The more we hung out together, the more we found out our potential to hog. We took an oath to try out all the restaurants that has ever been printed on the daily supplement of The Hindu, “Metroplus”. Food in whatever form or shape, when presented in front of us had the tendency to disappear within seconds. Even though maami was a strict veggie, she used to join the rest of the gang without hesitation.

Till her higher secondary, maami never used to go near non-aacharam foods; for that matter, not even a veg-non-veg combined restaurant. Enter TJA and LAS…not only did they introduce me to the delicacies of the world, they introduced me to the world’s yummiest food item…the Mushroom. Now, the entry scene of the exotic mushroom in my life is much earlier. It was around circa 1996, if I remember right. My dad had just come back from one of his tour trips and was bugging my mom to try out some new food item (of course!!) he had had earlier. Though mom was a bit hesitant, she finally agreed onto it. So, one glorious day, he bought a whole packet of button mushrooms and kept it in the fridge. A whole 5 minutes had passed when I heard a blood curling scream from the kitchen. I and my sister ran to the source, to find my paati heaving about the new weird bulb-like that had been kept in the fridge. Our explanations were to no avail and my paati had already decided on its penalty. Thus, by the next day morning, it was sent off with the garbage. The whole episode was kept quiet from dad so that he wouldn’t get upset.

More mosquito coils…soin soin soin…..circa 1990. As grandpa’s place had a huge garden attached to it, this turned out to be the ideal place for mushrooms to grow during rainy seasons and that’s where I had my first class on the subject when I accidentally plucked one.

Lesson 1: Mushrooms are not be touched; they are supposedly toxic!

Lesson 2: it’s a non-veg food item

Lesson 3: Its called “Naai kodai” (translated as Dog’s Umbrella)

Well, of all the above lessons, the last chapter intrigued me. My paati being my venerable tutor, I asked what that term meant. She frowned at me for even asking about that. Then, she told me a tale which gave a gist of something that would make me not go near that thing- that it’s a plant which grows when dogs pee on it!!!!! And this is the same reason she gives me even to date.

After a couple of months of joining college, I used to cringe at the thought of my friends having it as a delicacy. Not because, I didn’t know what it was, but from the thought of my paati’s explanation would make me feel sick. I tasted it first when I had my first pizza- and fell in love with it!!! Have become a great drooling fan of mushrooms and always make it a point to order at least something with it. I still do not clearly understand why my paati had to give such an explanation for it, but I do respect her (and her weird theories) and don’t mention about the food items I had had with Naai kodais!!! As to how we spent our hard earned money at that ridiculously expensive restaurant in T-Nagar- that would become a separate post altogether. Till then…d goodbyes……