All's quiet on the Northern front

Well, it was a quiet night and I got to reading some of our old blog posts. We have gone down the memory lane and captured a lot of our past. Well done guys.

One of our blogs mentions Vinodini and Rosh says "the less said about it the better." You know when I went for my first visit to India I heard some wierd things too. I wouldn't bring it up if my name hadn't been dragged into it.

Someone was calling the MCC department or Thomas hall or something and telling them they were me. The person was not only impersonating me, but also crying that she (I) was being abused by her (my) hubby. That complicates things as YAK was also a department guy. I think somehow our department staff (probably prof. Rajani) figured out it was V making these calls. I didn't hear more about it again. I hope she is okay wherever she is.

What surprises me though is the reason she would pick me to impersonate. We hardly knew each other.

Professor from India visiting Canada

Professor Venkatachalam and his wife visited Canada. He works for the Agricultural college (assistant Dean!) of Coimbatore. We had them over for a dinner as he was also a good friend of Prof. Balusamy at MCC Tamil department. The latter is a good friend of YAK.

Wedding in Canada

This wedding happened in May. With their parents blessing them from India, dear friends of ours got married. I was a bridesmaid and Arul was the MC. It was all fun!

James at his recital

Olden Goldies

We did a lot of trekking during our Kodai trip despite the drizzle. In fact those long walks were one of our favorite memories of that college excursion. Here walks three beauties escorted by two black cats on either side...

Our MA class (well, most of us) during break hour. Here's Rajeev, Murali, Thimmarayan, Shoba Paul, Rosh, Annie, Usha, Princy, Kavita, Maha, Grace (almost lost inthe darkness of the picture), Ghosh, Amos, Pichandi, Shankar and Persis. Think it was Onam day, judging from the Kerala saris of the Malloo girls. At the cottage in Kodai early morning, shivering and half awake - Annie, Maha, Usha, Miller, Persis and Venky.

Boating in the Kodai lake, a must for all tourists.

Trekking up to Suicide point, another must for tourists. Were the girls chewing lollipops or sugar candy?

The road in front of Selaiyur hall, MCC. Sunita in her hey days as a tall, dusky, Shobana look-alike beauty, with her dear friend Usha Nair. Probably in I MA.

A freezing good morning

Our weather today with windchill, which is important, is -51 degrees

Wind Chill: -51

Temperature: -37.2°C
Pressure / Tendency: 102.3 kPa / rising
Visibility: 24 km
Humidity: 62%
Wind Speed: WNW 17 km/h

Pongal in the North Pole 2008

Deep Freeze

It is only November and we are already in a deep freeze. Global warning must be happening people! We have had -34 weather including wind chill this whole week and it is going to last until Sunday. We are being told by weather guys that it will warm up to -9 on Monday. But who trusts them?!

What do you do when it is so miserably cold? Go to work, shop for groceries, go to school and live life as if nothing has changed. That is Canada. Nothing stops unless there is a complete white-out blizzard. And there isn't one yet. We layer clothing so we can keep warm or take some off if it gets too warm. Winter boots and woollen socks are a must too.

Life goes on.......

Diwali in Canada

Girl with 8 limbs faces surgery

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/11/06/india.girl.ap/index.html

I am watching this story. After hearing the ridiculousness of how people are building temples for her and offering money to buy her for circus, I am concerned. I hope this girl triumphs over this huge surgery and has a good life.

If any of you out there hear anything about her, keep us posted too.

Maha's missive

I spoke to Sunita over the weekend and promised her that I would update you all. Her house, fortunately is still standing although covered in soot and other debri. Some of her neighbours have lost their houses and Suni and her family are really grateful that their place wasn't damaged.
It was a nightmarish experience as she woke up at 3 a.m. and found everything around them - the mountains not far from them, burning. They had to evacuate with just their passports. Luckily a friend of theirs was able to host them for a couple of days. Schools were closed and employees were not expected to be at work. On their way out of ther campus they had to clear a tree that was felled by the fires.
Sunita was coughing a lot as she was allergic to all that was going on around her. Jay and Karthik were cleaning up.
The worst is over. The cleaning and reorganizing remains. Good luck guys and glad to know all three of you are well.
Maha.

Down the memory lane from MK

I thought I would go down the memory lane a bit too. I remember my first day at MCC walking into Salaiyur Hall. Professor Jayaraman was teaching a Shakespeare play (I forget which one now) and I was to show my ID. I didn't know he was blind. I figured it out in a few seconds. From then on he always picked on me as he knew my name. He came to our wedding with his wife and son who was our junior in the department. That was nice of him.

I sat down next to Barathi - the only familiar face. After class Barathi introduced me to two people one of whom became a good friend - Miller and Saleem. Barathi had a lot of comments about everyone including professors. I don't know how she knew so much personal stuff about them - probably through her dad.

I remember Roshin's first day. It was a bit later in the year. Her dad introduced her to me and Barathi who were the first two kids standing around. I think we introduced Roshin to all the other Malayali kids. Now wait, with the exception of me and Barathi, everyone was from Kerala (I am just talking about girls here.)

The year went fast for me as my dad was ill and later passed away in February on '92. But good friends were supportive and very helpful exchanging class notes and stuff. I remember some of you coming to visit me at home - Venki, Prem, Miller, Anne, Usha Sarah, Usha Nair(?), Persis, Grace sorry if I missed anybody else.

And then came summer and then Sunitha's reception. It was at Sunitha's reception that my future husband noticed me - what with all the pattu saree and jasmine flowers. But it didn't go any further then. It was the trip to Kodai that changed some things around.

Usha, Annie, Grizilda and maybe Rosh, do you guys remember meeting at the Tambaram bus terminal to go to Sunitha's reception and coming back terribly late. My mom was quite worried as I had worn jewelry and what not.

Then came M.Phil with some old and new friends. That year just flew by as I was busy dating Arul, teaching at Vaishnav and working on M.Phil classes. I honestly don't remember what I worked on.

Then came May of 1994 when Arul and I decided to get married and in the next three months we landed in Canada. Life in Canada will be a separate post.

Grizilda, Annie and many others at MCC I also knew from Christ King school. I might have been Grizilda's classmate in either gr.6 or 7 - two years I spent in that school. I hated those two years as I had just come from Andhra and found it hard to adjust to Tamil Nadu and learn to read and write Tamil. I didn't understand tamil jokes and Philomina, our tamil teacher wasn't very kind towards me. Not to mention Rosy the terrifying math teacher. But it is all in the past.

Flooding in Saskatoon!

Howdy all, Greetings from Toon Town!

As per Usha’s request I thought I would do a small write up on my basement flooding.
It happened after one day of incessant raining. That was all it took. We had water in the basement and the whole floor was out of commission: walls seeping with water, carpets drenched and a stink up from the drain-flow sewage.

I don’t have as dramatic a story as Usha does. But after two months of work rebuilding about two feet of our walls, laying carpets, painting walls and doors, our basement is back to normal just in time for visitors. Some of you may know this visitor. Arul’s brother who is also known as Arul to his friends is coming with his family for a one week stay and all we have to do now is dust, vacuum the carpet, rearrange furniture and restore paintings to their rightful places on the walls, etc, etc. This is all easier said than done considering I have only two more days and we are all at work full time. Good luck to me!