Seemandam
(May 28th 2005)
As the sun rose, the day had the makings of a routine Saturday… laundry, grocery, farmers’ market… Except we did none of those! This day was anything but routine. This was a first for us -- this seemandam; coordinated by Mita at Medha and Sri’s place. We reached Medha and Sri’s place around 11.55am, and everyone seemed well on the ball. Sri and Giri looking spiffy in their designed kurtas; Sri’s dad Rajababu was not to be outdone either. The women were dressed to the nines.
Medha and Sri had enlisted the esoteric catering services of Krishna mama and Revathy mami, who had already set up the dosa-stand on the deck and were ready to churn out the goodies. As events in Medha’s place go this was definitely slim on the guest list – We had Vinayda, Suchuvaini and Abhijit, Subhash, Peeku and Sumeet, Deepti, Seema, Tanika and Nilay, Sailendra and Sindhu, Aravindh was the lone ranger (with Raj too committed to his swords). The others were definitely in-house, including Mita, Medha, Sri, Ananya, Aneesh, Giri, Shyamala and Akshath. And we haven’t forgotten Tatgaru and Nanamma.
Mita had definitely worked overtime to cook up a lot of mouth-watering sweets that included, the traditional Sreekhand, Gulab Jamun, Semya Payasam and Besan Laddoo. Looking a little out of place, but no less savory, was the blueberry pie.
Mita has Shubhada decked up like the Flora… Not the statue in the middle of the fountain, but the goddess of flowers – all green and with garlands and floral bands perched across strategic sections. The fantasia went further. Shubhada did a ‘philum-isytle’ saree change mid-ceremony – from a green one given by aai to another given by Mita. Were this on screen, jewellery and wardrobe credits would go to Mukta aatya, Smitha Kini, Pais, Bhatts, Burras and Kotians. Mita, Peeku and Suchuvaini also offered vocal accompaniment. The only thing missing was rolling cameras. Wait! There were those as well.
And while we are calling it a seemandam, you could call it potarkappad, complete with a proper aarti and coconut OTBP. Though, with some slick editing and nice packaging we could probably market the event to program-strapped television channels back home.
If you thought you were not getting your money’s worth, we had a double header with Aneesh Burra celebrating his first month birthday later that afternoon. Though, clearly, his sister would have liked to claim that. But after all that, we were ready to head home by sundown. Any way you cut it, it was a wonderful day, quite unlike any we’ve ever had.
As the sun rose, the day had the makings of a routine Saturday… laundry, grocery, farmers’ market… Except we did none of those! This day was anything but routine. This was a first for us -- this seemandam; coordinated by Mita at Medha and Sri’s place. We reached Medha and Sri’s place around 11.55am, and everyone seemed well on the ball. Sri and Giri looking spiffy in their designed kurtas; Sri’s dad Rajababu was not to be outdone either. The women were dressed to the nines.
Medha and Sri had enlisted the esoteric catering services of Krishna mama and Revathy mami, who had already set up the dosa-stand on the deck and were ready to churn out the goodies. As events in Medha’s place go this was definitely slim on the guest list – We had Vinayda, Suchuvaini and Abhijit, Subhash, Peeku and Sumeet, Deepti, Seema, Tanika and Nilay, Sailendra and Sindhu, Aravindh was the lone ranger (with Raj too committed to his swords). The others were definitely in-house, including Mita, Medha, Sri, Ananya, Aneesh, Giri, Shyamala and Akshath. And we haven’t forgotten Tatgaru and Nanamma.
Mita had definitely worked overtime to cook up a lot of mouth-watering sweets that included, the traditional Sreekhand, Gulab Jamun, Semya Payasam and Besan Laddoo. Looking a little out of place, but no less savory, was the blueberry pie.
Mita has Shubhada decked up like the Flora… Not the statue in the middle of the fountain, but the goddess of flowers – all green and with garlands and floral bands perched across strategic sections. The fantasia went further. Shubhada did a ‘philum-isytle’ saree change mid-ceremony – from a green one given by aai to another given by Mita. Were this on screen, jewellery and wardrobe credits would go to Mukta aatya, Smitha Kini, Pais, Bhatts, Burras and Kotians. Mita, Peeku and Suchuvaini also offered vocal accompaniment. The only thing missing was rolling cameras. Wait! There were those as well.
And while we are calling it a seemandam, you could call it potarkappad, complete with a proper aarti and coconut OTBP. Though, with some slick editing and nice packaging we could probably market the event to program-strapped television channels back home.
If you thought you were not getting your money’s worth, we had a double header with Aneesh Burra celebrating his first month birthday later that afternoon. Though, clearly, his sister would have liked to claim that. But after all that, we were ready to head home by sundown. Any way you cut it, it was a wonderful day, quite unlike any we’ve ever had.
posted by subabe at 10:15 PM
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