Tuesday, July 9, 2019

A rainy and yet, not so rainy day.

We'd got up at our usual time. I had lit the lamp in the 'puja room', opened up the house and lazed on the bed for a while when the caretaker, had called us up with the milk from the society. We went through our chores and were ready on time to have our breakfast of dosas, chutney and sambar!

Kamalamma chechi of the Muttathu house, in our neighbourhood, had dropped by just to meet us and spend some time with us, on her return from the temple. She has always been kind to us and she was bemoaning the fact that my nephew, Achu's horoscope does not match with that of her grand daughter's! All of 86 years, she has taken care of herself well, with her positive outlook towards life.

The washed clothes of the day were put on the clothesline even though it was threatening to rain. Eventually, it poured but much later, around lunch time. Lunch was again from Georges' hotel as yesterday. We were toying with the idea of going for a matinee show of the Mammootty starrer, 'Pathinettaam Padi' and found that Padmakumar and Rema were equally interested. The rider was that the idea would be called off if it rained.

The 'Rain God' looked upon us with a favourable eye and eventually, we'd driven down to the Minerva Cinema in Kottarakkara to see the movie. It was 1400 hrs and the sky was overcast with dark, threatening clouds. We reached there just as the titles were being projected; earlier, Padmakumar and Rema had fetched up at the Raj Nivas in an auto rickshaw, from Pidavoor.

The movie was nice and it had a huge star cast beginning with Mammootty, though he comes in only after the interval. We returned, after seeing the movie, via Padmakumar's house, met up with Pidavoor amma and had high tea before reaching home. I'd a quick wash and change to walk down to the temple nearby. It was the family - my paternal grandmother, Kalyani Amma's - temple and known as the 'Koyappilli Temple'. In our younger days, the entire family used to frequent the temple. It was taken over by the Devaswom Board more than a decade back.

The main deity is that of Lord Krishna's, along with Maha Ganapathy, Swami Ayyappan and the Nagaraja. Mom and dad had contributed towards the making of the Nagaraja section of the temple. The 'ashta bandha kalasam', a ceremony where the deity's seating is secured properly - I'm told that the seating had worked out loose due to fair wear and tear - had begun this morning and it will go on till Thursday.

Incidentally, the temple is now called the 'Kushappilli Temple'. Met a lot of people and I continue to have the halo of the UPSC Chairman, in that, two families had approached me to help their children get employment - one has done a diploma in automobile engineering and the other is going through the paces of joining the CRPF! This is a reason for my staying away from gatherings, to the extent feasible!!

I keep telling people that I'm not heard anymore, being retired and retarded(?) but they take it that I'm ducking the responsibility!


Tailpiece.

Today's the first of the two semi-finals in the World Cup Cricket between India and New Zealand. Rain has already played spoil sport towards the end of New Zealand's innings! Rooting for Virat Kohli and his boys!!   

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