Archive for the 'memoirs' Category

For Jaya

Published
by
Rinchen
on September 28, 2007
in memoirs
. 3 Comments

(…who inspired me to write this post)

My life began two decades & eight years back when I had the privilege of sharing my childhood with some wonderful people whom I can still count as my friends. Although its been decades since we last met, we share a nostalgic bond that goes back in time to frilly skirts and birthday parties filled with presents and good times.

My parents had about a dozen neighbours who in turn had at least two kids so we were a huge group of noisy/bratty/sweet/angelic/strange kids of every colour, shape and size. We girls used to stick together, along with our kid brother/sister in tow and head out to play marbles, chasing each other for no apparent reason, show off newly bought stuff - I once threw Jaya’s brand new eraser down the drain because I was so jealous!!! Poor thing cried like anything - I still feel guilty about it even now…

We were more than just neighbours forced to live next door to each other… we were like a part of a huge extended family that celebrated every festival with one another. I especially remember the wonderful Diwali times when we used to go mad bursting crackers and fireworks. The explosions that went off outside our homes made it sound as though a real war was literally going on. Christmas time used to bring in carol singers braving the cold winter night and singing beautiful hymns too.

I remember the sunny winter days where we used to gather around and have a picnic right in the front yard or sit on the long steps that led to a kid called Ubica’s house and eat oranges! Quite a unique name… wonder what it meant… We also used to hold dance shows where we showcased some of our best dancers in the neighbourhood. With me & another girl as the choreographers. I must say I have no idea what made me actually do all that….

We spent so much time of our childhood playing happily with one another that we didnt realize when it was that we grew up and by that time, we were already 16 and shifted base to all parts of the state/country. Its only now, after three whole decades do I realize what a wonderful childhood we had and what beautiful friendships we made during those precious years.

If only I could give my children (as and when, people… read on) some kind of childhood like that, I think I would have had half my job as a parent WELL DONE. To all my friends from those good old days…. thanks for making the first one and half decades of my life memorable.

If I had a chance to go back in time, I wouldnt change even one thing… except perhaps relive it happily all over again. And also not chuck Jaya’s new eraser down the drain ;)

A driving force

Published
by
Rinchen
on August 8, 2007
in Gender blender, People I admire and memoirs
. 6 Comments

I was in my second year of college when my best pal invited me to a trip to her house in Cochin. So both of us made a five hour journey all the way from Calicut to her place to be greeted very warmly by her wonderful mum, Amma. Looking back, I cant help but wonder what a Super Mom she really is. She’s a doctor by profession and an amazing cook who used to feed us dosas, idlis, puttus, appams and what not at breakfast! Yumm…. Now this is a really big deal since now that I’m also working, I can only manage to provide bread & eggs for breakfast. Thats why I really appreciate her culinary skills & time management especially at rush hour!

Amma is also a very good driver not to mention an excellent mom. I remember her taking us & the girls to Weekender and other places for shopping trips which we simply enjoyed. She drove us all over MG Road in Cochin and I remember thinking Wow! I’m sure there are few moms who’ll indulge their kids (and their friends) so much!

When our trip finally did get over, she drove us to the railway station and packed us a big bundle of marble cake and biryani for lunch. I still remember her clearly standing at the station waving us off, looking so pretty in her sari. What a Complete Woman!

A few years later, when I finished college and got back home, the first thing I demanded my dad was that I wanted to learn how to drive the car. He pointed me to a driving school and paid my fees following which I finally learnt how to drive and there’s been no looking back ever since.

Four years later, here I am today - I believe I am an experienced enough driver, excluding one memory of a terrible crash but yeah, you live and you learn. These days, when I drive my car to office, I cant help but remember Amma who undoubtably inspired me to get driving. Hats off to her and I love her as much for being my real-life idol :)

Fare thee well, my friend

Published
by
Rinchen
on July 6, 2007
in Life as it happens and memoirs
. 0 Comments

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Goodbye, my dear friend, you were more than just a student for me. These three short, sweet years that we have spent together, creating beautiful memories will surely last my lifetime. You have left behind a void in my life, a lingering emptiness and my heart is heavy, knowing that maybe we may never meet again for a long time to come. I bid you goodbye, dear friend as our paths separate this very day and you follow your destiny while I stay back fulfilling mine.

Farewell, my beloved. May you grow as a person and reach soaring heights in whichever path you choose to take. I wish joy and happiness to embrace you and never leave you even for one moment. I hope you will remember me whenever you go through tough times and know that I will always be thinking of you, wishing you courage to handle things.

I dont want this goodbye to be forever. I hope we will meet again soon and laugh about times gone by. I wish you all the love in the world so that you will never be unhappy. I will always think of you, my dearest Anusha.

And I will miss you.

About old friends

Published
by
Rinchen
on July 3, 2007
in Life as it happens and memoirs
. 0 Comments

Yesterday I met an old friend of mine, a classmate since kindergarten actually. We were together right upto high school and met after a period of perhaps a decade or more later. Seeing him was bittersweet in every sense of the word. He looked ruggedly handsome with all the right lines on his face, a nice unshaved look and just a hint of long hair. After I was done appreciating his good looks, I started wondering about how his life had gone till date and whether or not he also went through that rough, transitory period of drudging through all stupid things in life and growing up to be a wiser, if not more sane person, like me.

Its not just about this one friend… I wonder how my old friends have been doing since I last saw them 7 years, 10 years, 15 years back. I count myself fortunate that I did reunite with some very dear old friends, thanks to Orkut and I am more or less in constant touch with them at least. Meanwhile back to the train of thought chugging around in my head, I wonder how my old friend from college is, the one who gave up her love and married the guy chosen by her parents. Last I heard, she was the proud mom of two kids. Or another pal from college who was as gutsy as hell, although we, read: AnDePRin, didnt understand it back then and thought she was loud instead.

Its strange how we all are briefly together for a short period of time, enjoy each other’s company, thinking there’s no tomorrow and suddenly, we say goodbye to each other thinking oh well, we’ll meet one day or the other. What we dont count on is the fact that some goodbyes are forever indeed.

The AnDePRin Saga

Published
by
Rinchen
on June 2, 2007
in REC Calicut and memoirs
. 4 Comments

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Once upon a time in the remotest corner of civilization possible, lived four good friends in what was called the Ladies Hostel or LH for short. These girls were Ann, De, Pri & Rin and one night all four racked their brains to think what their group should be called before they passed out from college when they decided on AnDePRin. Also sardonically called as The Cough Syrup company by Ms. De, of which all girls were the primary stake holders!

And so, all four members of AnDePRin parted after the short 4 years in REC Calicut where they spent more time solving their personal problems than engineering sums of computer or electrical nature. They not only took along with them a new approach to life as intelligent women but also some memories that would probably last them a life time or more.

These girls laughed together (a lot) much to the bewilderment of other open mouthed, gaping mand-buddhis/doofuses who passed off as their college mates. They told each other all their troubles and shared advices as of what to do next & how and basically played each other’s Oprah to the hilt.

All four would exchange Calvin & Hobbes, Asterix & Obelix, Tintin and a thousand other novels borrowed from Eloor library in town. Someone amongst the four also used to read Photoromance mags but I dont remember now who!

They even wrote anonymous, sarcastic letters against supposed authorities over despotic issues and had them pasted all over campus courtesy of one boyfriend who did quite a thorough job, as everyone in college observed the next day.

They went for movies to the only English theatre in town, against undesired, creepy attention of all leering, drooling males who probably never saw a female in their stupid life ever before. They survived a kleptomaniac & major bitch whose shenanigans would require another whole post dedicated in the harrowing memory…

The AnDePRin members are now succesful women in their own respective fields. Who would have thought that friendships made over puttu-breakfast & cream rolls for tea would last a lifetime. AnDePRin lives on through electronic mail & memories from a sleepy placed called Calicut. The LH couldnt have boasted of better inmates and sooner or later, someone will have to remind it of this fact!

Mutta Chechi

Published
by
Rinchen
on May 9, 2007
in REC Calicut and memoirs
. 2 Comments

Back in the days of yore, we used to get bread, jam & eggs twice a week in the Ladies Hostel. The mess worker, fondly known as Mutta Chechi (Mutta=egg & chechi=elder sister, in Malayalam) used to make us customised eggs while we formed a larger than life queue outside the kitchen door.

She used to make these amazing eggs, with onions, green chillies & black pepper, as per the wish of the egg eater. She used to churn out omlettes, double omlettes, Bulls eye day after day for the 4 years that I was there in the hostel. Her eggs used to have this even spread and large circumferences that made us wonder if a single egg could be that big.

Most of the time I make eggs for breakfast at home, she is the first person I think of and wonder if she’s still making memorable eggs for all and sundry in the hostel right now. I think I speak for all the ex-inmates when I say that eggs were the best thing after Mutta Chechi in the hostel mess ever.

The Calicut Experience

Published
by
Rinchen
on April 9, 2007
in REC Calicut and memoirs
. 5 Comments

A period of my life stands unmistakably lucid in my memory. It was the summer of 1997 that I enrolled in REC Calicut for four years of harrowingly memorable college. To be fair enough, there were good things and there were an equal number of bad things. Good or bad, all one could do at that point of time was take things in one’s stride and face it with a grin.First came the language factor. Its not a pleasant experience being the only North Eastern girl in a bunch of malayalis in the hostel and not understanding a word being jabbered about. The endless streams of Malayalam got exchanged back and forth, while we poor minorities from the northern part of the country looked at each other’s faces and rolled our eyes! But all that became history when I met my best friend Anju. She’s the sweetest girl in the whole wide world, my teacher through 4 years of college to whom I truly owe my degree. She taught me the basics of the language. Then came much needed help in the form of mess chechis. (Chechi = elder sister) Slowly and steadily, I learnt the language and was soon the newest sensation in the hostel, the college and pretty much the town. I became this chinky female from God only knows where, who suddenly understands Malayalam and speaks it too. It was truly one of the finest moments of my life…

The college was just like any other semi-urban one, boys dominating the population and fighting over which girl would have the good fortune to be their girlfriend. Evening trips to the Happy Valley and Sorrow Valley (a.k.a. the Couples Valley) ensured constant romance in full bloom. Rumours spread faster even than wildfire and sometimes I think the general populace got wind of probable link ups even faster than the two main people concerned!

The problem with these romances was that unfortunately the profs’ houses used to line the Valley to Hostel route. Those dirty old geezers used to give us even dirtier looks as if to say wait- till-the-sessionals-come, you-people-are-in-hot-soup. But being the typical rebel, I usually gave a damn. Looking back makes me wonder how it was I ever passed their tests, esp that horrid, cranky old Fluid Mechanics prof who had made me his pet peeve.

I almost wish I didnt have to mention the grossest part of the 4 years… But like life, Calicut also has its dark side, without which the story shall remain incomplete. The college was a good one hour bus journey from the city. A mere 7 bucks was the fare, although the crowded buses rarely were empty. An interesting concept prevalent down south is the “ladies seat” at the front of the bus. Even then, some male would invariably have parked his butt there and it was always a pleasure to see sharp ladies deliver their comeuppance and eject them out from the privileged seat!

More often than not, these buses used to commute perverts and creeps, who’se fave pass time was to feel up girls. This trait was not only isolated to buses but the main city, walking amidst crowded frustated men… still sends a shiver up my spine. I recollect a belligerent moment of slapping a creep in a crowded bus plus delivering the choicest of Malli gaalis I could possibly think of, that I’m sure left him wondering if he’d felt up the wrong girl… I’d also like to take this moment to publicly enlighten the Kerala government that your ladies seat still doesnt guarantee safety of the women occupying them!

Calicut was my home for 4 years. In this short duration, I inculcated a love for malayali food, some of which I still make in my home and I must say have a new found respect for the multi-talented coconut. I love the beautiful backwaters, the spectacular beaches and also learnt to live with the hot, humid weather. It was a 4 years well spent and all my learning experiences has made me what I am today. So no regrets whatsoever….never did that, never will either. Since I’m all grown up now, I’m truly less in denial now than before. I’d say it was a time well spent, a life lived to the fullest and will blessedly continue till I live. Cheers!