Chennai anniversary meet 2010 - The actual day! :P

Venue - Rani Selvaraj's residence in Chromepet.

The ‘Black Cats’ that attended the meet - Lakshmi Raghu, Sumathi, Manivasuki, Jaya Mohan, Judy, Usha Venkatesan and her daughter Nive, Akhila, Subashini, Aparna and Rani.
The ‘Navy Blue Cat’ (hehe - the sole reason for all the rest to dress up in black) Viji.
Apart from this was Rani’s mother-in-law, and co-sister Durga and guests were Rani’s neighbours Veni, Banumathi, Manjula and her son Gautham.

Sumathi and I went to Lakshmi's residence at 9 am where Manivasuki was already waiting. Shortly we were joined by Usha and Nive. Naveena had called the previous evening to say she was running temperature and would not be able to make it. We had arranged a tourist car which was waiting at Lakshmi's residence. Rani called Lakshmi just before we could leave and as they were talking the call got cut. Immediately Rani called me to find out what was happening and I told her that I was not well and would not be coming. She was thoroughly disappointed and convinced herself that we would meet another time. Again she called Lakshmi’s landline and Pavan picked up the call and told her that we had already left. Now as planned all of us were dressed in black (of course Nive wore a white salwar with black designs). Excited about the day, all of us got into the car and left Lakshmi's residence. We had to pick up Viji on the way. As we were nearing the spot where Viji said she would wait, we were all looking for a lady in a ‘black’ saree and much to our surprise we found her dressed in a ‘navy blue’ saree. The moment she got into the car all of us jumped on her as to why she deviated from the colour code since she was responsible for the rest of us to dress up in black (in the hot sun) and you know what she said?? "This is a black saree yaar!!". Viji asked Lakshmi ‘is it 8.30 now to which Lakshmi said ‘yes’ then she commented ‘ you said you will pick me up by 8.30 and you came at 9.30 – idhu thaa 8.30 ah?? what is this pa? Lakshmi and Sumathi immediately pounced on her ‘ if you can say navy blue saree is black saree then we also can say 9.30 is 8.30!! Everyone including the driver burst out laughing. All of us kept arguing with her trying to convince her that she was not wearing black (imagine only by the evening she agreed with us that maybe it was wearing navy blue - I think she could not differentiate navy blue from black). What a funny way to start the meet. Close to Chromepet we picked up Jaya who had called us , once when we were leaving Lakshmi's house to say that she was waiting on the road and that ice-cream 'urugudhu'. Lakshmi said we would pick her up in about 20 minutes to which she said that she would give us milkshake instead of ice-cream. When we reached Chromepet we called Jaya and she said I am in the ice-cream shop, just come near the signal and I will meet you. We waited at the signal for 5 minutes and not finding her called her again. She said drive upto the entrance of the fly-over and wait I will be there. We waited at the given place and still no sign of Jaya. We called again and said we were at the fly over entrance she said come back to anandha kalyana mandapam and we reversed back. Inspite of that we could not see her and called to say we were waiting in front of ‘MORE’ department store and she said ‘aaaa ok wait I will come’. Since there were some vehicles in the way we backed up a little only to find Jaya going past us on the scooter with her husband. She got down in front of the department store and took her mobile to call us. We were parked just behind her and had to shout out to her. Finally we picked her up too and crossed the railway track, heading for Rani's house. That sure was a long trip down lanes and bylanes, winding in and out, right and left, stopping here and there for directions. After a bit of a (sort of) treasure hunt we reached Rani's residence. Now while on the way she called Lakshmi once more to check where we were and asked about me. Lakshmi said ‘ Judy is not coming pa, she is not well and last minute she cancelled her plan’. Rani was really upset and said ‘What pa, I thought she would come also and we would have so much fun, now she is not coming – I am really upset’. I was talking to Viji and Sumathi and Lakshmi shh ed me ‘ don’t talk she will hear you they said. Lakshmi had to control herself from laughing. We were in a very narrow lane opposite Don Bosco School when at the curve a water lorry turned in and we had to reverse. Just then Rani asked us where are you’ll and we said we are going reverse – she was shocked and asked why are you going reverse, then we said we are making way for the water lorry. She started laughing. After all this confusion we finally reached her place. Everyone got down from the car. I was holding a big watermelon (for the fruit salad) and as I got down Lakshmi offered to hold it but to my dismay the plastic bag handle snapped and down fell the darboos (I think that was drishti poosnikaa for Rani’s house and the meet). Thank God no major damage to the fruit. Since Rani was not expecting me we decided to play a trick on her. Now everyone went into Rani’s house and introduced themselves. I walked up to her smiling and said, "Hi, I am Naveena!!". She looked at me and said 'hi, come in'. Then Usha told Rani – ‘look nicely and see who that is’. I think she was too excited to guess who I was and we all broke the suspense. I said 'I am not Naveena - I am Judy'. Her eyes almost popped out with surprise and then she started laughing out loud saying 'I never expected this from you. I was upset that you were not coming and now this is such a lovely surprise for me'.

Outside her house her Durga had made a lovely colourful welcome rangoli and on the pathway into her house also was another pretty freehand rangoli - very neatly made. We went in and settled ourselves inside the hall, getting introduced to her mother and father-in-law and Durga. In a couple of minutes came plates of hot pal kozhukottai made by Rani's mother-in-law. God, that was yummy - slurp!! Akhila landed from Pondicherry, all full of smiles and she had brought paper cups which had a pretty kolam on it. It was so pretty that we felt sad when we had to throw it out after use. Good thought Akhila, to bring paper tumblers to match the occasion.

Lata called Rani and we had a small chat with her. She conveyed her love and best wishes to all and then said bye as it was way past her bed time. Thank you for your call Lata - made us feel as if you were with us

Viji had started a demo on jewellery making while Rani and Sumathi got busy opening the soft drink bottles (Sumathi's contribution) and serving Limca. Now there was a bottle of Miranda too and Sumathi was struggling to open it. Manivasuki also tried her level best to open it and it would not budge. Actually the seal had no wedges so it was a bit difficult and Rani took a knife and started cutting open the seal. Even after we broke the seal we could not unscrew the cap as it seemed stuck. Now the 'Bunch of Rowdy Rascals' (we had to prove Lata’s words) had to show their terror skills, so with a big knife Rani started cutting the neck of the bottle - still no use. Everyone tried their hand and different tricks but nothing worked. Finally Rani brought a screwdriver and made a hole by the neck of the bottle with the help of a grinding stone. They literally had to squeeze the miranda from the bottle into a container. I think the cap was stuck on to the bottle and I am sure no one in the world would have ever had this kind of experience before.

Then I started a demo on flower tying, while Jaya started cutting vegetables for the salad. Everyone enthusiastically learned it quite fast (actually it is very easy to learn) and next on the list was Lakshmi's garland tying lesson. Though this looked so easy it was a little tricky to learn. Everyone felt as if they knew it while watching, but while actually doing it, was very confusing. I was the first to actually get the feel of it and succeeded finally. After trying and trying some finally gave up but Sumathi was persistant and learned it. Now once this was done I took pleasure in undoing the garland. It is just like knitting - when one thread is pulled out everything unwinds - just like that when both the threads were pulled apart all the flowers started flying out - it was one of my 'chinna chinna aasai'..

Next was kolam session - Akhila demonstrated her double stroke talent with ease and everyone tried their hand at it. Durga showed us another method of double strokes too. She also drew a small freehand peacock which was quite easy and cute. Viji showed us a tumbler technique, filling kolapodi in a tumbler and unturning it on the table, moving the tumbler slowly leaving little little kolapodi behind thereby forming a petal shape. This can be used to make the shape of a flower also - really nice. Since we had other guests too (I mean Rani's neighbours Veni, Manjula, her son Gautham and Banumathi) we showed them the other types of kolams which we had learnt during the last meet and they were really happy to learn new methods. Gautham also tried his hand at drawing some flowers which was very cute. Rani's mother-in-law enjoyed all the fun and laughter and even commented that we should have a meet like this atleast once a month.

By this time everyone was hungry so we had our lunch break. Pot-lunch consisted of Chappati, 2 types Channa and Kichidi made by Rani, Kesari made by Manivasuki (I must mention at this juncture that Vasuki was suffering from food poisioning and was unwell, but inspite of it she made lovely kesari and brought for us - poor thing she could not eat anything and did not enjoy herself - all she wanted was to be present at the meet - which was far beyond appreciation), Kuzhi paniyaram (karam) and ice- cream by Jaya, veg salad by Viji, boondhi raitha and chips by Subashini and fruit salad by myself. Actually this was too much to eat but inspite of being loaded till the neck I had two shares of fruit salad with ice cream - could not resist it you see

In between we found time to call Brindha and had a chat with her remembering the last meet and of course Thangam aunty. We also called Asha and spoke to her too. After lunch we decided to leave to Jaya's place. Rani and her mother-in-law distributed thamboolam for everyone and it had a small container of Aavin Kova. Rani's husband works for Aavin. Just as we were leaving Chandini (Rani’s daughter) walked in from college and we met her.

After posing for a group photograph and taking leave from Rani's mother-in-law, neighbours , Chandini and Durga, we all piled into the car and headed for Jaya's place. Rani, Subashini and Aparna followed by auto. Jaya's husband welcomed us warmly. There were two big kolams at her residence that welcomed us as well. One was trying to outbeat the other and it was difficult to decide which one was better.

We went in and plonked ourselves on the floor in a circle and started chatting again while Jaya's husband gave us water and Jaya distributed chocolates to us for the birth of her grand-daughter. If all remember – at the first meet in Lakshmi’s house Rajamma distributed chocolates. The second meet at Valluvar kottam, Lata distributed chocolates and this time Jaya distributed chocolates. NEXT MEET WHO?? VIJI or SUBASHINI?? – DECIDE FAST!! All are curiously waiting. Jaya went into the kitchen to make us some coffee (of course tea for a couple of them as well). Usha followed Jaya into the kitchen. Though I don’t know who finally made the coffee, it was excellent. I think the decoction was prepared by Mr Mohan though. Lakshmi's snacks and Usha's sweets were opened to be distributed but no one was in the mood to eat as everyone was still quite full. Soon after we had coffee, we all requested Nive to sing (she was supposed to sing at Rani’s place itself). She rendered a lovely Ganapathy song (solo) and we asked for more. Akhila requested her to sing ‘Kurai ondrum illai’ and she obliged. By the time she sang two lines, Usha, Akhila and Sumathi joined in. I did not know the words so I hummed along. I think Jaya and Subashini also joined them. By the end everyone were so involved in the song. Nive you sure have a lovely voice. After this we went upstairs for the photoshop demo session. Like good school children everyone sat around me asking questions and quietly listening to my tution. Subashini who has become an expert recently also gave a quick demo followed by Aparna which was cute as she said she learnt from Subashini. Such a sweet maamiyaar, maatuponnu relationship (suthi poodunga pa please). You know what? Subashini took Aparna out to buy her a black saree so she could wear it for the meet - that was really sweet

After this Jaya had prepared wet maavu and kept ready for a maakolam demo and everyone tried their hand at this too. It was real fun sitting on that swing in Jaya's house - just like kids we were, laughing and joking and having so much fun - forgetting about the whole world around us. It was just us and our fun and I will cherish this for a long time to come. By this time it was getting quite late and Akhila had taken leave. It was only after she crossed Tambaram, did she realize that she left her watch in Jaya’s house and made a frantic call to Lakshmi. Nive went downstairs and found the watch after which Akhila was relieved. Though she left her watch behind (in the hang of the excitement of the meet) – time did not stopped for her – right Akhila? Shortly after this we also decided to leave and our dear Jaya distributed another thamboolam for us (you know what she gave us, of course the usual blouse bit - but added attraction was the little laughing buddha which was really cute - hey girls did everyone get the same thing??). Thanks Jaya for that lovely thought. Since there were so many sweets which Usha brought Jaya distributed them to all of us too.

During the entire meet everyone was quite enthusiastic about having these kind of meets more often. Akhila who made it everytime to Chennai said we should go to Pondy once and everyone agreed. Then Viji volunteered to host one after she gets back from her US trip shortly. Sumathi said next meet is in my house pa - everyone shook their head. Usha said why not come to Thanjavur – Sumathi said we could make it as a picnic instead of a meet and everyone agreed. So now WHEN IS THE NEXT MEET AND WHERE - is the MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION???

All said and done we all had a rocking time and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I am sure everyone else did too!!

Thanks once again Lata for bringing us together - today I am the proud owner of so many lovely people who I can call my good friends.