Today is the Tamilian New Year – Vishu. (atleast I think its tamilian and not keralite!) It begins EARLY in the morning (everything in tam-bhram land beings EARLY!)..wait I am not doing this right. Lemme start again..
Vishu or preparations for Vishu begin the night before.. the lady of the house arranges all sorts of things near the “worshipping place” of the household. Where the idols are kept. The family temple as it were. These “things” range from grains to fruits to flowers to money! And a nice biggish mirror! So that all the things kept are reflected in the mirror – sorta double the bounty I guess. All the articles displayed signify prosperity.
The lady does the "arranging" after the kids of the house have gone to sleep. You cannot use that part of the house once the arrangement is done.
(Ok, I can’t do this impersonal description thingy too well, going into personal story mode)
At the crack of dawn – 5 freezing o clock – ma would come and take us to the ‘temple’ – one at a time - with our eyes closed (with her hand over our eyes). We were allowed to open our eyes only when we were in proper viewing range – idea being ‘prosperity’ should be our first ‘view’ in the new year! :)
Then we’d touch the feet of everyone older to us and get money! YUP!! Mullah!! It’s one of the few traditions I lovvveeee!! :)) (little wonder that this used to be my fav festival as a child – actually still is! The Indian version of x’mas!! With MANY santas!!!) I was the youngest at home, so it was all ‘get get’ for me (yes, greedy child!)
…awww, now I miss my childhood Vishus …they were so much more fun. Urmila was here… my grandma was here…it was a full house…no it was home… now its just dad, ma & me :-S
Ok, change topic!
Ah yes, last night a friend attended the Latin pop sensation’s concert. He had gone with some friends and suddenly missed me and called up (long distance! on a cell phone!!). He kept screeching into the phone “can you hear this song”…all I could hear was a mad mob. I thought he was at some disc and wanted me to hear a particular song playing. All sorts of confusion ensured…but later when I figured what the call was for…it felt soooo nice! There he was, with his bunch of “in” friends..n he was missin silly ol moi? Chooo chweet! He is a darling. He is the one I’ve referred to as ‘my lil kid’ in a previous post (hey, he has broken it off with both females now!!)
He makes me feel so special and thinking I had any hand in him turning out the way he did fills me with so much pride! :)

Well that’s all for today’s edition of Bombay nonsense!

Oh before I go, to everyone older to me, I’d like to say….
Chinese, Japanese, Manganese, Portuguese, money please! (wish you could see the actions too!!)

And yes of-course 'APPY VISHU! :)