Sunday, June 05, 2011

Jaya Jaya shankara... Hara Hara Shankara

Blessed are those who had happy childhoods...
Doubly blessed are those who still keep vivid memories from their childhood...

I am not doubly blessed...

I remember so less, the school, the after school, the friends, my akka (she was the only constant during my childhood - my friend, my playmate, my quarrel mate - i fondly remember how she used to take all beatings from mom, when we quarrel. I was always admonished and only occasionally spanked)

It is a good idea, therefore, to recollect those wonderful but sparse memories and pen them down... before they are irrevocably lost in the thick folds of my cranium.... in no chronological order, here they come out, my silvery memories (how I miss a pensieve to transport myself into those memories)

I remember.........

going to school...daddy driving me and akka... first on bicycle (when I first entered 5th... that is when i shifted to 'the shed' from north wing)... and then on our TVS 50...

getting ready to school and going along with akka, javed, raja and chinna...this was to north wing...

watching 'shy..shy... sugarman' in annapurna's aunty's color TV...

going to shadow's magic show with akka and vijay in harihara kala bhavan...

akka and bubby at pedananna's funeral and i was so scared of bubby... at the same time, eager for her to accept me as a friend...

manayya thatha's son ( i dont remember his name) gifting us 5-star chocolates.. and we going to kurnool on semi-luxury bus (white and green paint combo) with kantappa pedananna....

going to 'edurinti mogudu pakkinti pellam' with dad, mom and akka... probably the last movie our family watched in a theatre together... suresh it was....

falling in love with shobhana when i saw the movie 'naari naari naduma murari'..i still remember the wonderful feeling.. i was hardly 10 perhaps...my first crush...

the independence day (way back in UKG or 1st class) when we used to go to 'the shed' and we were given free toys... WOW.. was heaven....

the first ayyappa pooja that amma sang in ( in the ground of jayaprada aunty's house, where we stayed later).. and seeing guruswamy first time there....

sruti.. swati... pavan... and other tuition kids...

how peddamma quarreled with us when we went to shirdi in bhel tour bus... somebody called shobhakka who came along with us then...

going to raja and chinna's new house and the rent then was 350 rupees. i really liked their house...

meera bai and her mom (the dhobis)

playing the 'movie photos' game.. the credit-card sized hindi movie cards, which were used to play a game of matching with the first alphabet... after school, i never went out and played much.. this was the first game, i really was obsessed with... and went to streets to play...

how i was running on the road to catch a kite.. and another boy (smaller than me) scared me off, and this wonderful spectacle witnessed by vijay (in probably the first week i met him in my life).. my best friend knew what darrpok i was....

how dad took me to ram nagar to get a small tumor operated on my little finger... i still have a scar to show...

how i went to so many bhajans (of course i only remember very few visually) with amma and akka... 'akkada unnadayyappa ikkada unnadayyappa' was our hit song...

how amma came along with me to request for waiving our school fees.. when she met murthy sir.. he agreed to waive mine, and waive half akka's...god bless him...

the time when amma got operated for hernia in tirumala nursing home, and i went to chella mami's house to get ganji...

one day when nalini pinni and baabai came to our house, they brought biscuits and cakes from MGM bakery...

going to guntur in repalle passenger (only I and akka) to veeranna mama's house, then going to grandpa's house from there, and I feigned stomach ache with him (how he kept on making fun of me later because of that stomach ache)..

and above all... the yearly visits to skandagiri in summers for chandi homam and other homams... 'Jaya Jaya shankara... hara hara shankara", the yummy food, 'sandehattuku sambhar', rasam, paayasam...

Today I went to patong pasir sivan kovil here to again see chandi homam... they also did kannika pooja - a group of girls who sat in the front row.. all smiles... as they were worshipped... i saw a girl wearing green dress... while accepting the garland, and the plate of goodies (including silk clothes, mirror, kumkum, coconut etc etc), she was beaming with importance... which only reminded me of my dear sister... she also so wanted to sit in the group when she was a kid... i exactly dont remember if she ever got a chance... but i wrote this whole thing above, because i saw akka in that girl today, and missed her and my child hood so much...

God bless you akka... we are all with you.....