Listening to probably one of the best songs ever “kaatril endhan geetham” by S Janaki, picturised on Sridevi and Thalaivar Rajinikant. The movie is called “Johny”. The world is so much better because of Mr. Jobs !! Can listen to the song and write my blog at the same time. 🙂
Sitting in “Kovai Express” on the way from Salem to Madras.
So here is one of the sub stories from yesterday… Sampath chitappa’s pink Angavastram
Sampath Chitappa is my father’s younger brother. Looks a lot like Appa and sounds a bit like him… And he was the first to arrive when Appa had his cerebral haemorrhage and never hesitated to stay when we needed help.. He also stayed all the way till Appa turned to ashes – teary eyed at having lost his brother. He still gave us instructions on how to mix the ashes in the river.
He loves children and can play with them for hours, but will speak harshly to his wife ! He and Appa stayed together when Appa joined MES in Bangalore. He drank a bottle of rubbing spirit when he was young because he liked the smell and then drank diluted cow dung as its antidote. He didn’t study much, so managed to join the MES with help from Appa. He followed Appa in the electrical line.. Climbed a pole once and was almost electrocuted. Got badly burnt, and survived to tell the tale. Fractured his leg once, arm once – bore the pain and got a “puttur kattu” done.. It’s a bone setting system where no surgery is done, but it’s unbearably painful. And then the most fascinating thing happened with Chitappa – they had “vibhuti” fall from Sai Baba’s photo and my near “nastik” Chitappa became a devout Sai devotee. I still remember, in our Dehu Road home dad had a big picture of Sai Baba in the puja room and Chitappa would comment “why the photo of a magician along with the Gods?” and 15 years later he went over to the same camp !! Ofcourse now as a family they don’t have any photos of Baba because his sis-in-law’s son got killed in a road accident while going to Puttaparthi.
Amma and Chitappa don’t get along … Because he will either tease her or say things in his harsh tone and Amma has never reconciled to that. Guess there is no need, but it’s the same Chitappa who made Amma stand next to his daughter-in-law to take a family picture yesterday !!
A study in contrasts is Sampath Chitappa. The Pink Angavastram was bought for him by Aravind for his wedding and it fitted him well – brought out the contrast, a rough exterior but a pink sentimental heart inside.