Summer Vacation.

As usual, our India trip is going strong. After a wonderful week in Madras where we went to the beach everyday, the kids, my mom and I Ieft for Bangalore while poor Hd had to go back to Zurich. Antu being the appa gondu is missing him quite a bit! The Bangalore trip was to strictly meet my maternal family and friends and we did just that. We stayed in four different places in five days, met dozens of relatives and friends and spent more time in the car than any house! The girls had a wonderful time everywhere. S who left Zurich in April and had nt even settled in Bangalore fully yet dared to invite us to spend a night in her place and Ashu packed her bag even before I said yes! The girls had a sweet reunion and my heart swelled. Antu too seemed to have missed the little boy. So much so that she did nt bully him at all! As far as I know, that is! :) Thanks, S! Whats life without a blog meet? Lovely Art opened her house yet again for a blog meet and it was nice to put a face to many people! My cousin A with her two kids played host one day and I got so nostalgic thinking about all my summer holidays as a kid spent in Bangalore with A playing Amma-Appa games! Where did time go? My two college going nieces were absolutely adorable and the kids stuck to them. I was so tempted to kidnap one of the girls back to Zurich. Perfect baby sitters! :) They also took me with them to watch Dehi Belly! God! What a movie! I cant remember having laughed so much in a theatre in the recent past! A must-see! That reminds me, Hd and I caught Aaranya Kaandam and it was bloody BRILLIANT! I plan to watch both movies again.

Ashu and Antu met so many of their cousins and other friends kids that they were truly overwhelmed and Ashu was giving me the "What the hell are we doing in Zurich?" look all the time! Sigh! After the hectic trip, took a train back home. My parents place, I mean. Phew. The true vacation begins here with nothing to do all day long! Just what I need to recharge my batteries before I board the flight back to Zurich and get into the routine life! Ashu is busy playing Pallankuzhi with her great grandma, hide and seek with her friends, magic tricks with her grandpa, fighting with her sister, arguing with me, going for swim classes and skipping her Tamil tutions with my mom and playing Uno with her instead! I don't see Antu in one place for more than two minutes unless and until shes sleeping. Me? I am sincerely doing the one thing I came here to do braving the summer. Mangoes, ripe mangoes, red mangoes, sweet mangoes!

Malaysia Vasudevan, MMKR and my Mom.

A couple of days back, I was listening to "Vachaalum Vaikaama Ponaalum" song form Michael Madana Kama Rajan (MMKR) in my car and was giggling like crazy thinking about the picturization of this song. Ashu asked why I was laughing and I told her its a funny song and that I will show the song to her later. ( But soon forgot. ) I can never listen to this song without at least a smile in my face. God, what a movie! I cant event think about MMKR without going "bheem boy bheem boy" in my mind! And then yesterday when I learnt that Malaysia Vasudevan has passed away, it brought a lump in my throat. The same person who put a smile in my face every time I listened to his voice is no more. RIP, MV.

Im sure I have a screw loose up there somewhere to mention this song as one of my favorites when people all around me are going "Kodai kaala kaatre" and "Poongaatru thurumbumaa" but let me redeem myself by saying that "Vetti veru vaasam" is my epic favorite too.

This made me wonder what are the other Tamil songs which are really funnily picturized. And the first one which came to my mind was the one from Bale Paandiyaa - "Neeye unakku"! God, MR Radha's body language is hilarious! And the whole suspense of what will Sivaji do when he sees MR Radha is just edge of the seat funny. (on another note - how the hell did Sivaji lip sync with such perfection for this extremely difficult song? The mind boggles!) And the "Jambulingame" song from Kasethaan Kadavuladaa. Thengaai is just too good in this one.

And talking about funny songs, I have to mention that Nithyashree song from Jeans - "Kannodu". I know that its not really hilarious or anything but then you dont know my mom. So my mom. You know how we type "ROTFLOL" for everything these days. But are we actually Rolling On the Floor Laughing Out Loud? Most often, we are nt even smiling while typing it, are we? Lets just say that who ever coined ROTFLOL got the idea after seeing my mom go ROTFLOL for the Kannodu song. In the cinema theatre that too! One second my mom was sitting right next to me and the next, she was on the floor and I thought she had a heart attack or something! It was 1998. Sis was in the USA and my dad had better things to do so it was just my mom and me. And then I heard her laughing with tears in her eyes and everyone was looking and I was so embarrassed. Then she managed to get up and sit in her seat. But she laughed so loudly the entire duration of the song, slapped and pinched my thigh so hard when the skeleton dances at the end that I had tears in my eyes too. From the pain! God, it was all so embarrassing that I pretended I was not with her when the lights came on. I should have known better though. She has a history. All my cousins and uncles and aunts run a mile from my mom whenever any scene from MMKR comes on TV. "Ava pakkathula ukkaandhamo, sethom" (we will die in her hands if we sit near her!) can be heard from various parts of the household and Im not exaggerating here! So imagine watching MMKR the first time with her in the theatre. Sis, Dad and I kept switching seats because our legs were getting sore!! "anga joke varudho illayo, unga amma kai namba kaal kitta varudha varudhaa nnu paakardhuke time sariyaa irundhadhu! padatha yaaru paatha?" - this was my dad after the movie!! (who had the time to see the movie when I had to watch out for your mom?) Play any of the Thiruppu-Kameshwaran scene to my mom if you want proof. But if theres Delhi Ganesh or Thiruttu Paati in that scene too, then watch it with her at your own risk!

I am just like her too but a bit more restrained after seeing family members run from her! I am always the one who laughs the loudest in any group. We watched Quick Gun Murugan last week with some friends and man! It was awesome! What a brilliant spoof! It was so wonderfully funny that I was truly ROTFLOL. But then I watched it sitting on the floor, so it did nt look quite as bad as my mom! :)

ps.

Can someone settle this for me once for all? Who sang the "Nila Kaayudhu" song from Sakalakala Vallavan? SPB or Malaysia? The song is credited to SPB but it totally sounds like Malaysia and I ve been thinking it was indeed him until a few years ago when my sis raised this doubt. It has been nagging me ever since. "Kattavandi" is credited to MV, "nethu raathri amma" is credited to SPB. So why not this song to MV? But if it was indeed SPB why did he sing it so different from his own voice? Discuss.