I Like

I like arts and crafts.

I like history. But then, do not ask me to narrate the Mahabharata or the History of India. I never store anything in my head but love to read and know more about them. We had a wonderful history teacher named Chitra who used to narrate inspiring history lessons.

And so do I like historical places, forts, monuments, temples, mosque, church, museum, old furniture, old houses, and historic stories. I enjoy having tumbler full of spiced neer moru (butter milk) after having a tiresome climb-up and climb-downs on a hot rocky fort. When I travel, I see many mud houses with hay roof. I like to visit those houses and dreamt of living there. Like to visit huge chettinad houses but never been to one :(. I like Dakshin Chitra in Chennai. I like to visit my college library, except them causing itch in my nose, ears and eyes after reading some old, dusty book with degrading paper took out from a corner of the corner-most shelf.

I like to visit any fancy stores in my city just for no specific reason. I like to visit PudhuMandapam in Madurai. If I was to host an Essay competition or a painting competition, then the theme would be ‘Madurai Pudhu Mandapam’ :). The Vendors, fancy items, books, tailor shops, ready-made embroidery, surukkupai (village style compact bags), laces, idols, colorful lights, the pillars, sounds of pigeon, vendors who eat their lunch from a tightly packed lunch dabba sitting inside their shop, the girls and ladies who haggle with their loudest voice with the vendors and more and more. Oww, how did I forget to mention? The glass bangle shops (not just glass… but bangles of All types) at PudhuMandapam…. maybe this is why I like them for best. I also like the temple shops which are inside Meenakshi Amman temple.

So, I like glass bangles, the very colorful ones, or the very simple ones with just one single tint, that make most noise, less noise, or no noise at all. I have all sorts of bangles in my bangle-case. I have this huge huge love for collecting studs, ear-rings (especially Jimikki) and bangles.

I like lanterns.

I have travelled several times between Madurai and Chennai in bus and train. I’m a nature lover too. How nice it is to view the sceneries while on travel… the early morning breeze caressing your face – you’ll feel so fresh like a just-bloomed flower even without washing your face or brushing your teeth :D… the small bulb that glows outside the isolated house in the middle of the green fields… kids, aged people, even adults pooping near the fields, some sitting very close to the road, some acting with shame, some act as if the huge bus/train/the people in the bus are all invisible to them :lol:, that’s right, who can stand up even if God appears at that time? or maybe we should act as if they are invisible to us :D… the lorry carrying sugarcane/buffaloes… trucks carrying fresh vegetables… goats and cows crossing the road with their shepherd, as lethargic as his cows…frightened ducks managing to cross the road along with their team… the river bridge we used to cross, the plantain fields, the mountains – especially yaanaimalai (mountain resembling a gigantic elephant) – every time my bus cross this huge hill, I never used to take off my eyes. It’s very wonderful to watch these backdrops of nature especially during Pongal season (first two weeks of January), be it in the morning or early evening. Every time I travel, I wish to picture these beautiful views. But never shot one.

Sometimes during my travel, I notice nature playing amusing drama. First, gentle winds blow to flirt with the neatly combed trees. The trees too start liking the winds and manage to talk with few laughs…waving their branches front and back…front and back. Then the winds start to blow little hard, telling nasty jokes to the trees. The trees then giggle for the dirty jokes… shaking its branches left and right…left and right. Then later when the winds become more powerful and start seducing the trees too much, the trees get irritated and quarrel with the wind. The winds too clash with the trees, spoil their neatly combed leaves and call the dark angry clouds for their support. They make the clouds fume together and empty their grief. After the heavy pour, the sun slowly solves the dispute between the winds and the trees, bringing a beautiful lemon-yellow rays spreading peace. Then, the winds, now as a soft cool breeze and the trees pose silently as if nothing had happened. Then the sparrows chirp sharply and fly between the trees merrily like how a child plays with its mom and dad after knowing that her parents got to each other after a nice fight.

I like to paint. During my school days I made few nice paintings and had them safe in a file. One day, I gave them to my office receptionist who had access to the scanner and asked her to scan it for having a soft-copy. She neither scanned nor returned my file. I lost those paintings. After that, I never painted any, other than in competitions.

I loved cats. Loved until a street cat killed my parrot at mid-night one day.

I like ALL kinds of utensils. I’m sure I took this habit after my Amma. Utensils of any kind, small to big bigger biggest… made of iron, steel, glass, clay (manpandam), stone-ware, silver, ever-silver, bronze, copper, aluminium, non-stick, brass, plastic. For that matter… vessels from any material, of any size, shape and color! My favorites are manpandam (both brown and black ) and stone-ware utensils. I like all kind of kitchen gadgets.

I like to watch cartoon films and Cartoon TV channels even today :D. Much loved by me is Heidi. My dad used to get nice cartoon video cassettes when I was very young and that time I think I watched “Gulliver’s Travel” and “The Ugly Duckling” a thousand times in our VCR 😀

I like to put huge kolams, both pulli and rangoli. But hate its aftermath – the thigh pain that lasts for 2 days !😆

I like squirrels and chittu kuruvi(sparrows).

I like watching air-planes fly in the sky, the sounds of air-plane. Like to see trains running from distance, the sounds of distant train running and the horn sound of a distant train especially during a silent dark night, when the power is cut and when it has finished raining. I was so lucky to get my college hostel rooms from where I can see trains crossing every day.

I like to criticize sarcastically and make sarcastic humor or say, cruel humor.

I like movies that make me laugh too much. I don’t like to watch movies that make me cry too much. I like to watch the trailer shows in TV channels. I like to listen to songs in the radio rather in a hi-fi music system. I never give my ears to lyrics until lately.

I crave for bakery deli. To me, not any bakery in US match the simple taste of Rajabarley or Jayaram bakery in Madurai :D. I even had thoughts of marrying somebody who owns a big bakery 😆 Have you ever dreamt of eating in your dreams? I have, numerous times! I have dreamt many a time of trying to eat bakery items, especially sweet coconut puffs, but I notice that, such dreams somehow get spoiled just before eating the deli. I’ve been to Big bakery factories in my dream: D

I like to spend the whole day in big super markets and gift shops even without food 🙂

I like to frame photos and hang lots of them on the bedroom wall.

I like to exaggerate things. You would have guessed that if you observed my usage of repeated words, hyphenated words, too much usage of smiley and writing words stressing on a letter tooooooo much.

I like to write more on my childhood days. I like to pen on my family, about the films and songs which I like, the food which I like and so on. There are many many other likes too. And each likes mentioned here can run to pages.

Why did I put my ‘likes’ rather write essay on myself? I thought you can picture me better with what I like. If you too have same such likes, a strong ‘hi-5’ to you