Quo Vadis?

This post is part of the Chennai Bloggers Club's CBC VIBGYOR BLOG TAG 2 where some of us will write a post on the colours of VIBGYOR each day starting 1st of May to the 7th of May, 2020. The colour theme for today's post is BLUE. Blue is an interesting colour and I have many stories with Blue. Let me begin with school, for many years I belonged to the Yellow house and I was partial to the colour till I came to higher secondary where I passed out as the Asst House Captain of the Blue House, since then that colour became my default colour of choice. School was on the Marina and exam times we could see the horizon where the sky and the sea met in vivid shades of blue. I remember when I used to buy aquamarine Blue for letter writing and that kind of was my signature style for some time till I grew out of fountain pens. School was the time when my music preference was dominated by the King of Pop. The King used contemporary R&B, (Rhythm & Blues) to sweep ...

This post is part of the Chennai Bloggers Club's CBC VIBGYOR BLOG TAG 2 where some of us will write a post on the colours of VIBGYOR each day starting 1st of May to the 7th of May, 2020. The colour theme for today's post is INDIGO. If you have read my first post yesterday you will know that I have an uneasy relationship with colours and I keep it very simple when it comes to colours. So when the colour Indigo came up the first thing that struck me was a story that we read in school in probably the Non detail text. The story is the Postmaster, those who can make the connect, no matter how insignificant it may sound to you, congratulations to you. This classic by Rabindranath Tagore, (read it if you haven’t already or cannot remember it) talks about an Indigo factory. Somehow this stuck to my head till today, as I was looking up the colour Indigo, Wiki tells me it is a dye that comes from a plant that has been cultivated from ancient times. India has a long connect...

I have been meaning to get out of the prolonged absence from my blog. So when CBC came up with this prompt I decided to use this opportunity. Then it hit me! This is a colour related series and for someone who is colour challenged, I wondered if I was biting off too much than I can chew! So here goes this is the Vibgyor series and it starts with Violet. Colours for me are basic so simple names are enough to understand what I am seeing.  So Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink, Brown, Black, Grey, White, Orange and Violet would be almost all the colours that I will understand.  Cyan, Fuchsia, Magenta, Mauve, Amber, Ochre and some more made me look up a dictionary back then, nowadays I Google it. I have heard people being named Violet, so I wondered why would anyone name after a colour, if not named for the colour and named for a flower, why would anyone go for this flower instead of the popular Rose or Jasmine? I will stop with these as my knowledge of flowers are ...

So the season of Advent has started, despite all the commercial trappings and merry making it is also a good time of preparation. Many Christian homes are painted and cleaned in time and the decorations are pulled out from the attic. The star goes up along with the tree and Christmas music starts playing regularly. The ladies get busy with the sweet preparation which used to be an event in itself, preparing the ingredients and making the sweets, storing them away in dry containers for Christmas day. As a child I remember wandering around when mum used to make murukkus, achappams, adhirasams among others sneaking in a bite or two and taking the broken pieces for snack time. The smells will be divine and then the baking will start, which will make the house smell like pastry heaven. Back then buying from stores was not even an option unlike today when a lot of the sweets are outsourced. Christmas Day usually was all about waking up early despite the late night service and taking...

The choir was singing the final hymn and the people were moving to pay their last respects to the deceased person. Annoyed at being dragged along by his parents for a funeral service of someone he hardly knew, Rajesh gave a bored look around. He made a double take when he noticed someone who looked familiar, their eyes met for a brief moment and she recognized him a brief moment before he did. As the crowd moved closer to the entrance following the funeral procession she managed to come closer to him. “What are you doing here? Are you planning to pull another stunt like your friend? Is this a place for it?” she hissed to him, not looking directly at him as her family was close by. “Wait! I came for the funeral service!” said Rajesh softly. “How do you know thatha?” she asked softly. “Thatha??!! Ok dad and his son are classmates, that’s dad over there, we came to pay our respects. I am sorry for your loss, you must have been close” Rajesh replied. “He is my paternal grand fath...

"This is a bad idea", said Rajesh to Edwin looking at the greeting card with hearts all over in the Landmark store. Having gone through all the cards for the last half hour and having found the one which he felt was apt for his feelings Edwin felt let down.  "Tell me again, why do you want to give this card to that girl, what did you say her name was again? Anita in the electric train?" persisted Rajesh. "Ok, I know she likes me machan, I have been seeing her for the last two months as she takes the train home and she has noticed me many times. I can feel that she likes me" said Edwin slowly. "Have you spoken to her?"  "No! I was too nervous!" "You think that she will take this card?" "Yes! Look at the words, they were written just for me! God bless Landmark" "Ok, I will come along with you but remember you will give the card alone, I am just there for moral support" "There she is!...

He still was not sure how Iniya agreed to the "date", well technically she agreed to meet him for some time outside their usual Nungambakkam platform and it developed into a milk shake in Sangeetha's that was a short distance away. He managed to hitch a ride with his best friends and Edwin could not restrain the big smile when he was told the big secret and Edwin being Edwin ensured that the big secret was known to the gang and so the gang all honourably agreed to drop Rajesh at Sangeetha's. After dropping him and wishing the very best they left and Rajesh with anxiety large on his face waited for Iniya. Time crawls when you wait but mercifully Iniya breezed in with a smile and they found a cozy alcove seating two in the restaurant. He offered the menu to Iniya  and struggled to read the letters in the dark mood lighting of the place, why it has to be dark in the afternoon hours in a hot city like Madras puzzled him and he heard Iniya asking for a drink that ...