Gulmohar Flowers(Flowers of Royal Poinicà)

I came to see Gulmohar Flowers for the first time in the climax scene of the Movie Devdas; a visual treat made by Sanjay Leela Bhansali..The astonishing beauty of the sequence inwhich Paro's long white saree flowing along the steps and the Red colour of Gulmohar flowers lying near Devdas..A Movie buff can't forget such superb visuals..
   Broadly speaking my memories about Gulmohar flowers are related to certain movies,literature, some beliefs of christians of kerala and romance(not mine)too...
The story about the Red colour of Gulmohar seems to be interesting.Saint Thomas Christians of kerala believe that when Jeasus was crusified there was a small Royal Poiniciana tree near by his cross.It is believed that the blood of Jeasus Christ was shed over the flowers of Royal Poiniciana and thus they got sharp Red colour.So that the keralities call the flower as kaalvaripoo...

             The Flower has inspired so many writters and based on the time which they blossom(generally during summer) and the beautiful sights offered by them has set a background for movies released entitled the same...To my knowledge two movies have been released(one in Malayalam and marati)having the title "Gulmohar"..
               Most of the poets use Gulmohar as a way to describe lost Love..May be the tree is to common so that many of you might have seen lovers walking under the tree by holding their  hands together by sharing one umbrella in the rain..
Although Gulmohar brings a tide of Good memories to my mind.It makes me panic nowadays..As I had mentioned earlier the season of blooming of Gulmohar is April-May but for some recent years I had seen Gulmohar in the rainy season also..That indicates an increaaed amount of Global Warming...One of the prime reasons for the alarmed rate of this dangerous phenomenon is the chopping down of trees..All Gulmohar lovers can you guys try to plant a tree or atleast try not to cut trees if other alternatives are available..
     Waiting for your sincere feed backs.-Neethu Sreedhar
       

Greeting Card

Here goes the defnition of a greeting Card from wikepedia "Greeting Card is an illustrative piece of Card or high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or a sentiment"This is a true definition according to me who gives a lot of importance for emotions and relationships..
            In our school there was a game called.Xmas friend in Which the name of each student is written in a tiny piece of paper by themselves or all names are written by one in each single paper,then folded and put altogether in a box and then each member which take a piece of paper and the name od the person written in it will be their Xmas Friend.The rule of the game is that you have to buy a gift for them without letting anybody know the name of your friend including them until tje gift exchange.day
Since it was x'mas time many of us use to receive greeting cards..So while turning back the pages of our memory(for me it is my personal diary) an image of atleast one greeting card will be there..One of the habits i retain after my school life till now is the habit of sending greeting cards and to my honest i am plannimg to continue it forever..
In the begining of my teens they were of post card size to A2 sizeand the highest cost of a card is around 25 indian rupees..The money varies according to the no of layers of your card,the.gilt colour and the words written in it...Then came the musical cards which will.play the music of Happy B'day song  or some romantic music which you can gift to your lover on a valentines day..The biggest part which i find interesting in the greeting cards that you will get some interesting words to wish your loved ones on the day (mostly colourfully printed or decorated)and there will be some space in your Card so that you can also add some words or pictures of your own to make their day a wonderful one...
I would like to share the picture of the latest Card I had received weeks back

Loving All those friends who shared lot of Love through these wonderful rectangular solid pieces of papers...
Hope you Love this post...
Waiting for your feed back
Contact:neethusreedhar25@gmail.com

Mittayi..(Sweet)

I am born in kozhikode which is famous for so many things including "Mittayi Theruvu"(Sweet Meat Street).From this itself you can guess how much will be there for me to share about sweets..
   The first thing which comes to my mind when i am thinking about this is a light pink colour mittayi which resembles a bush which is really tasty and the sweet which is fibrous stucks to our tongue.Kids use to enjoy that and some youngsters too..the sound of a bell Which a mittayvala(sweet seller ) posses usually wakes up the elders from their afternoon sleeps..
    My childhood memories mainly consists of utsavam(festival)in temples of our villages...For utsavams there will be lots of stalls set up near the temple and there will be different types of mittayi known as chalk mittayi(which resembles the shape of a chalk)available in shades of pista green,light yellow,orange,Pink etc..then the next item is sharkara jilebi Which the mittayi valla serves us hot..then there are again different mittayis in different shapes and colour which we collectively call as thira mittayi
      The next memory regarding mittayi is kadala mittayi(madeup of ground nut and sharkara),Jeeraka mittayi(having the taste of cumin seeds),Naranga mittayi(taste of orange)...Then comes the first chochlate I had tasted a lot..MILK TREAT I donno whether it is available in the market nowaday...My class teacher was the one who introduced me to that..Neena mam..Whoever does the mathematics home work problems correctly and score good in her subjects use to get MILK TREATs..It was really an inspiration for me in studies...The sight of milk chochlate inside the dark orange wrapper made me love mathematics for a certain peroid of time..
     The sight of colourful ice mittayi(ice candy,pista ice,paal ice(milk ice))which you will get during your visit to beach...How can a person forget such memories?Damn sure your tongue won't forget the taste for years..Which turns your tongue colour to dark Red and Pink..
    Atlast the kozhikoden Halwa which Every person after coming to kozhikode will definitely try to taste atleast once.
   I think that sweets are connected to Every customs,cultures and All..that's why we give sweets to our guests as a gift in marriage functions etc.. Don't you..?
Waiting for your sincere feed backs.-Neethu

Shopping festival

During my childhood days its from the arrival of spring and the opening of flower stalls  we understood that the days of Onam are coming.

  But now it is not the arrival of spring or the kannikonna reminds me of the festival season, but It is the ad films of jewellery and textile shops that reminds me of the festivals mostly the term discounts and shopping utsav which I repeatedly hear  in those ads.

    Few years back I went for shopping Which made me to write this post. There was rush in the textile floor including pongacha pathuma(term use for calling ladies who boasts about themselves)and sales persons. Sitting in the sofa near the billing section I saw a a gipse boy looking enviously at those huge shopping bags near the entrance.

           Is this what maveli had wished for??In our epics it says that king maveli will come at that day called Onam from pathalam to see his fellow people and it's for that reason we are celebrating Onam.

May be my thought has reached god's ears. It happend suddenly. A wind came and then a kasavu thundu(piece of cloth Which gents use to put On their shoulders while wearing shirt and dothis)fell down from the display statue. The gipsy boy picked it up and looked On both sides smiled and just ran off from there. It was one of the beautiful smiles that I had ever seen.

Pattu class ormakal(memories of Music classs)

My sound is not good enough to sing in a stage.But I do Love Music and find it interesting to sit in Music class.It's not because I am deeply involved in carnatic or western Music.It is because of the teacher..We were suppose to earn credits for some extra ciricular activities..So we had one or two music class perweek..
  I am Sorry to say that I don't remember the teacher's name because she took only very few classes for us and after that she got teansfer to some other schol.But I do remember some of her actions while singing,way of delivering Music,her passion etc..
    I will jott some of the lyrics of thw last songs Which she taught us and I am Sorry that the Song isn't complete because she left us and join some other school
Chayakkadakara ningade chayayile maduram ila
Velathinu choodum illa
Chayapodi theera illa
Panchara lesham illa
Kaal paisa njan tharoola
Ariyunda sugiyin kandal kurumulaginte valuppam und
Porotta pathiri kandal katt adicha baloon pole
Chayakkadakara ningade chayayil maduram illa
    Try to tune this and sing this one during tour or leisure times..it's about teasing a chaywalla.I am not sure from where she got this Song..

Last bench Days

One of the reasons why school life is precious for me is the days which we did a lot of mischeif in last benches..
    Sitting in the last bench will divert your attention in studies but it was a great relief in boring social science classes..Usually one or two benches before the last bench is safe so that teachers won't ask questions to you related to the previous lessons.
    One of our favourite hobbies sitting in the last bench was to create parody songs related to the social issues that time and some was just for fun...
 I will cite You one example...
Remember the Song "Uppukaruvadu"from the movie Muthalvan?We use to change its lyrics and sing
"uppilita manga uppilita chena
  kooti thinnan kothiyayi enikku"
The reason behind the creation of this parody was indeed hunger and the delicious taste of uppu manga (dried salty mango)which she brings for Lunch ...Ah..
The next reason for preffering last bench was teachers won't expect magic from us in the class test..So we were free to learn whatever we want and some of the answers wasn't from the rext Book it was our creation..One such comedy I remember is a question based On JCB and one of my fellow classmates wrote as JCB is a well known british writter.His works include poems and novels etc...Poor fellow didn't realize JCB was that machine used in construction sites etc...
The beauty of school life lies in such comedies and moments..if you have a school going little one in your home spent some time with them asking about How was their day and you will also feel young and atleast for some time You will feel relaxed.

Pookal(Flowers)

I am sharing some of my interesting findings about how flowers are related to malayali Women...

Poove poli poove poli pove ...if You are a Malayali then you will certainly remember this song.This is a Song sung by kids at the time of making of pookalam(flower carpet)during Onam season and for summer vaccation again we need flowers for vishu;kannikonna is also named as Vishu konna..the sight of those dark yellow flowers along with lord Sreekrishna...How can a Malayali forget such an amazing visual..

We need Bhagvan for each and Every moment of our life.Remember those petals of aambal, thulasi, thechi, thamara(lotus) which You get along with theertham and sandal paste...

   Time goes on.the littile girl grows up..time is winter now.Don't you hear the rythm of thiruvathirakali and the most popular Song "kaithapoo manam veeshum".Malayalimankas(girls) wearing kaithapoo in their head and playing thiruvathirakalli..

Not yet finished...Most of the proposal scenes starts with a rose flower 

and finally Marriage it is our custom to decarate the bride's hair with Jasmine flowers..

Then for the Wedding anniversery, celebration of the new one's arrival to the world.Every where you need flowers..

And finally the climax scene where your body is under that white cloth;people comes with wreath in their hand and tears in their eyes..

Don't You feel that these are true..A Great honour to All those flower merchants ,drivers who drives passenger trains which mostly carries tons of Jasmine and other flowers to kerala,the porters...You All make the life of Malayalees colourful and beautiful..

Take your crayons back...

When was the last time You took your crayons??juz refresh your memory..Why I asked you this question is i juz heard the song "Oruvatam koodi en ormakkal meyunna"Remembering those funny moments now..those friends,truthful sincere relationships..

   I think that the main problem why most of our relationships fail is because of ego which arises because we are too serious in our thoughts, emotions etc..juz think how will you handle such situations when you were a kid.Take your crayons back and rub it in your hands..feel the colours...it may lighten your mood...just give a try..it worked for me and I am sure it will create wonders for you too..

Bedtime Stories

Yesterday evening When I saw my neighbour's 5 year old son sleeping after playing a lot of candy crush saga On a smart Phone..I thought about that nighties When mom use to sing me some poems and ryhmes inorder toake me sleep..l realize How lucky I was to hear them because I wasn't affected by the harmful radiations of mobile,laptop and All those electronic equipments at that time
I would like to share one of the poems sung by my.mom to You guys
Kadha Kadha kasthuri
Kasthuri amma kanji vachu
Kanji kudikkan plavilakku poyi
Plavu niraye chaka
Chakka murikkan kathikku poyi
Kathi niraye chora
Chora kazhukkan kullathil poyi
Kullam niraye meenu
Meen pidikan vala kku poyi
Valla niraye otta
Otta addakan kolante aduth poyi
Kollan avide illa illa illa
         If you have such bedtime stories withyour little ones..instead of letting them play in whatsapp..let the future generation be healthy..

ChayaMakkani(Teastall)

Chayamakkani is a Malayalam term for tea stall...The condition of those are like that of a dodo bird.Once these were part of our villages and small.cities...it was a place for our older generation people to start their daily routine.it was a place where news paper discussions,gossips etc where held in a village..We could see many visual of chayakadda or chayyamakkanis in some cinemas relesed before and starting 2000.The latest movie where I saw a chayakkada was "Elsamma enna aankutti" by Laljose and Kahani(Hindi Movie starring Vidya balan)
Changes are neccessary in Every society..That may be the disappearance of chayamakkani's and rising of Pizza hutts..but whatever changes happen juz think whether You are forgetting those ggood things offered by your old generation.

I want to change my NO to YES

I am a very joyful.person loves to hangout,Movie buff,do All sort of crazy things.One of the things Which I usually say NO is to hangout at nights especially When it rains..I know riding in the rain gives immense pleasure..but I usually refuses to do that because of the pathetic conditions of our road..often confused whether it is.a road or pond created after the rain..Other reason Which makes me not to try this is the PWD workers don't cover, he slabs properly..often there are chances for the ordinary people to fall into such spaces because they don't realize there isn't a.slab and they shouldn't walk through it..
Even though such issues happen..being a very optimistic person I believe that I can change my NO to a YES in future..let's hope for it..I end this post by expressing my sincere thanks to Mankavu(a place in Calicut,kerala,india)route Bus workers.who repair their road for their well being..I think that if a road in your area is under repair then a PWD engineer living in your area should be given in charge of that repair so that he will do it properly because it is his way to home..and nobody wants to fall down in front of their loved ones...

Mazha..(Rain)

Mazha(rain) this word brings a lot of nostalgic memories to me...Since childhood I have fall in Love with this nature's wonderful phenomena..The rythm played by the rain drops can't be replaced by any of the musical instruments..I think so..crawling under the bed during the early mornings and enjoying the music created by the rain,smell of dosas from the kitchen..chil chil.sound of squirrels..ah..the aroma of kattan kappi (black coffee)..Which keeps me active during the entire day..murmuring of people who goes to catch fish in the river in the early mornings....atlast the taste of puzha meen curry(curry of the fish caught from the river)..juz think..a small word mazha brings me a lot of golden memories..that's why I always Love this wonderful phenomena..even though it's destructive form has taken away many people's lives,houses etc and it always brings current cut in kerala..I wil say that always I Love you mazha...:)
Waiting for your feedback:neethusreedhar25@gmail.com