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Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Of times and timings

Its been nice being at home. I wake up to Amma's usual indignation of me sleeping on after the wake-up-deadline of 8am everyday. My father can be seen eating his breakfast at the table, silently oblivious to anything and everyone. Occasionally looking up to check the time on the wall clock. I'd still pretend to be sleeping, though I would have woken up some 2 hours ago, to wake a certain someone up. But I should say that these waking ups do not in any way hamper my sleep. waking up is OK. Its the getting up from bed that is a pain in the 'wrongest' place.

Just when I think Amma has given up on me and that I can steal in another 10-15 mins, I hear Achan thundering my sister's name. My very punctual sister is, as usual late for her classes. Amma and my sister are stalwarts at keeping time. Give them a deadline of 9am in the morning, you can be rest assured that you'll see them out of the house, very punctually, at 10.30 am. I am ready by a quarter to 8, Achan at almost the same time and Ammumma around 5 mins to the said time. Amma meanwhile can be seen humming away a song at the top of her voice, the pitch,rhythm, tune all intact. The lyrics, a mess. This facet never fails me irritate me as am particularly finicky about the lyrics of a song, not much about the other necessary factors. But all said and done, Amma still creates havoc with the lyrics and keeps singing. I bite my tongue and try to convince myself that the lyrics could have been probably written like Amma sings them too.

In between the singing and rushing out of rooms here and there, and the never ending search for safety pins to pin up her Saree, punctuality is lost on Amma. My sister, the boss of my family, and also the youngest member, believes in the motto of going out well-dressed. OK. I get that point. But not the reason why it takes so long. Before going out, my sister changes her hairstyle from a plait to a pony tail, to a french plait and then back to a plait. Her dress changes from jeans and pink top, to a black shirt, to the pink top again and then to her usual favourite white striped shirt. And then, she invariably has to wear the matching earring, slippers and watch. By the time my sister is done with her Queen's dressing and has stepped out of the house, Achan would have already started the car, blared the horn 12 times, and decided to call off the outing 3 times. Amma would have by then realized we are horribly late and begin her woes about how little chores always make her late,and ammumma would have finally finished all her sudoku exercises in our two morning dailies. I would sit next to the window, watch everything happening around me and feign concern over the necessity of punctuality. But honestly am hardly bothered. We invariably make good time anyway-all credit to Achan's brilliant car maneuvering skills.

So to come back to my mornings. I venture out of my bedroom after possibly everyone has stepped out of home. Ammumma would be happily struggling with her Sudoku and would be lost till I voice my need for coffee if she can make it. The coffee is usually the only good thing that happens in the mornings these days. The very thought of dragging myself to the good for nothing internship, at Indian Express, where I see my name printed along with articles, which I would never accept as mine, even when threatend with death, puts me off immensly. But then there are things in life which you've got to do, and counting this as one helps me just a wee little bit. And then there is always a slight twitch of the heart whenever my name appears on paper, and also an opportunity to stun people who think tuppence about you by telling them that you 'work' for the Indian Express...sigh! Probably what they call little pleasures in life.

17 comments:

Abhi said...

A very funny description of your sister's "solah-shringar" ritual :)

And, I can totally identify with that waking-up-but-not-getting-up and finally-getting-up-being-a-pain-in-the-youknowwhat parts of a lazy morning at home :D

Anamika said...

@ abhi

:)with my sister, it is always "karne de karne de solah singar, koi dekhega' :D

welcome to my blogspot :)

man in painting said...

oh! my god ! brothers and sisters...
those mornings...
The whole house will be like a time machine programmed for different eras..Everybody searching for the lost screws of their own "martian heads"...
And grannies...hmmm they will be sitting so cool in the middle of all these chaos and will ask.."boy tell your mother to bring my cofee"
Buddy..
you will remember these faboulous days when they are all gone..
Thanxs a lot.Very cool post..
That was nostalgic for me...
hey!thanx for the visit too..

Anamika said...

@MIP

forgive the acronym :D
i enjoy these little things. i may crib abt all thse but then i find all thse xtremly funny too...so no hard feelings :)

crumbs said...

if you want i can give you my my-life-is-sadder-than-yours speech to make you feel nice about your life. I've delivered it so many times to so many people that I can now recite it in my sleep. Yes, these days I like to think of myself as the little ray of sunshine in people's otherwise morbid life :D

Anamika said...

@crumbs

my life is perfect :)and my life is in no way sad...yes the indian express part is depressin...but again "this too shall pass"
:D

Matangi Mawley said...

tht was an excellent post! my comments have become so clinched!
i was reminded of my granny's home! i miss her a lot!

n yes... i ve tagged u. do see my blog for details..

Anamika said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anamika said...

at matangi..

am fortunate enuf to stay wth my granny...but wen am away at college, thers no one i miss more ...:) wil chk ur blog..and thnks fro taggning :)

Anonymous said...

nicely written. looking out for more from you

Anamika said...

@anon

thank u :)

Abhinav Viswambharan said...

Though I doubt your getting ready earlier than your mom and sister, I can relate to each and every single line, as I also have two beauty conscious ladies at home, one in her early 50s and other in her mid 20s.

The funny part is that, when we get to the place late and if someone asks "why late?" they blame it on "traffic"....Inn kudiyon se Bhagvan hi bachaye... :P

Anamika said...

@abhinav

guys hav such misconstrued perceptions of girls...oye, hello...i do get ready before anyone does and i hardly go thru the "solah singaar" ritual...so there :D and oh yes i know a lot of dress concious and fashion conscious guys who take more time thn girls to dress up...lest hope u r not one among them

_caca said...

on a not-so lighter note, kya family hey yaar..:-D
thoroughly enjoyed d times n timings of every single thing..:-)

Anamika said...

@ suji

thts wat i tell myself often "kya family hein"

glad u found the time to visit sujichetta :)

neermathalam said...

u belong there at indian express i mean.. :)...journo in making..btb nice post

Anamika said...

no no no1 absolutely not..i do not 'belong' at the Indian Express :D was just doing a spot of interning there :) about the journo bit...you never know :)

and thank you for liking my post :)