Was eating Arisi Pori (Rice crispies) last night. Bought a big bag at my favorite Kabali Pori Kadalai just before leaving India. Finished off that bag last night.. and feel so sad.
The Pori we get in the Indian stores here tastes really stale and is not crispy and the ones that are crispy taste too salty.
The little one came to me and said "give me the last few pori"
She ate it and went "This is like the Popcorn of India, Appa!"
Was in two minds to start a debate on "NO. Popcorn is the Pori of USA!" and decided against it.
Popcorn isn't bad either. It is "ezhaikku etha Pori urundai"!
(Non Tamil speakers, sorry, the last part loses a lot in translation)
Why can't we get good quality Pori (puffed rice) in the USA? Why? Why?
A picture is worth a thousand words. Will leave you with two, pictures that is...
A map (thanks to google) which defines 16 years of life spent just going between the marked spots,
and a very important "X" on that map that got special mention!
More than two thousand words rush into my head at the realization that a life that was centered around crossroads denoted by a small "+" on the map, branched out to locations, far and away.
Life does take you places.
You know I am good for all two thousand words given the time, but will stop with the first 60.
Know at least one person who would exclaim "thank god!" after reading that sentence!
When six hundred or so folk pull a ther (car) with 8 foot wheels around a temple tank for over 5 hours followed by a few mini ther's, it is not fair to compare it to any modern day car.
This is one event where no writeup can do justice. It was just spectacular. There was a public exam scheduled for the government schools that monday morning and in spite of that, this was the crowd!
There are only happy tears, when words fail you.
My grandpa got to see this video and he could not speak. He just lifted his hand and moved it to show "I bless you". That made my day, that made my "trip" and somehow for a fleeting moment, erased that image that I had of myself as the grandson who lived far away, unable to help his grandpa in any way.
A few photo highlights..
The remover of obstacles, literally! Vinayagar goes and clears the mylapore morning traffic for the other chariots.
The lineup from behind
The main Chariot (Ther)
Munnazhagu!
Pinnazhagu? Jr. was so envious of Ambaal's long hair!
Subramanya, Valli and Devaanai
A stitch shot of the main chariot.
This will be the last event summary post from the festival. I had to fly out the same night and missed the Arubathumoovar and another favorite, the China Potti fireworks! After this Chennai trip, there is a new belief. It is a small planet and there might be another chance to see this Utsavam in this lifetime, for one never knows.
ps. My original Video was rejected by Youtube because it was 47 seconds longer than the 10 minute limit. The next attempt was my edit of that video which ended up very grainy.. so the video posted above was the third or fourth attempt which should also be near high definition clarity!
Linking my two earlier attempts (1 and 2) of making this video out of almost 30 minutes of unedited footage, just to remind myself "if you try and fail, try again!"
