Saturdays and Sundays

Saturdays and Sundays... If you ask me are better than vacation. I was just thinking today that I dont do much during weekends nowadays as I used to back in India. So I started recollecting all the fond memories I had about these two brilliant days.. So here is my story..

When I was an undergrad, I used to be a day scholar. So I was subjected to all rules directly or indirectly put forth by my Mother. One among them is getting up in the morning. During weekdays, I usually got up at 6:30 in the morning. Even though I got up this early, I missed the first class most of the time. I have no idea how that happened. Anyway, On friday evenings, usually lots of friends come over to my house and we usually ended up chit-chatting or in our words "manga". Among them, Hari usually crashed at my place for the night as he used to be a hosteler.

Okay, my saturday starts something like this,

"Dae.. eilthuru ra... papamma vanthutanga paru..." My mom used to whisper in my ears... Papamma was our  house maid. Really nice lady, very old and she was always right on time. I used to sleep on a floor on a mat. My mom wanted no one to disturb papamma when she was doing her job. Ofcourse, I was a disturbance because I was sleeping on the floor and she couldn't clean it.

"Enna amma... its saturday... 8 u mani than achu..." I murmerd like a drunk who had a really bad hang over... "Dae... eilthuru..." My mom was persistant... I eventually got up. After scratching my eyes and trying to get a feel of early morning, I saw Hari was still sleeping. I was so angry. "Amma.... avan mattum thungituirukan... enna nakkala... avan thungituiruthana mattum vetta clean panna pudiyuma..." I told my mom in the kitchen. She finished the conversation by her winning line "Athan eilthuruchutalla.. aparram enna..". When I crossed the bedroom, I sighed at Hari and thougth to myself.."lucky #@$@#%".

But thats it. Getting up early in the morning and arguing with my Mom was the maximum activity that I had on saturday morning. I am not a big fan of playing cricket (one big reason being I am a crappy player and whenever we went to play, I preferred keeping wickets or umpiring) which is what everyone played. So I spent most afternoon playing games on my PC, mainly NFS. But I had Madhavan and his brother Sharanyan for company in playing NFS. I usually burned most of the games from them. Whenever I went to their house, Sharanyan would be many levels ahead of me in NFS. So I once asked him "Eppadi ra.. ivolavu levels mudhicha ivolavu sikrama?. 24 hours valadraya?". Sharanyan always replied "Ofcourse not". I tackled "Oh... I know.. you have a better computer"... Madhavan's reactions would be "ahh.." and then would start laughing... which revealed that I was lying my ass off....

Saturday evenings are typical.. Myself and Hari eating Gobi from a food cart on street or in tamil "Kaiyanthi". I still have not found anything that I could eat outside and enjoy as much as I enjoyed eating Gobi. I dont know how they do it.. but its too damn good.

My sunday goes something like this:

On Sunday mornings, I am not forced to get up in the morning because papamma comes only at 11 AM. So saturday night.. before sleeping I usually think to myself... "Ahh.. Tomorrow is sunday... I am not getting up until 11 AM or 12 PM". One random sunday morning at 8 AM, TV shouts "Lalitha Jewellery in 'Patukkku Pattu' ". Okay..Lets rewind a little bit. Saturday nights I usually end up sleeping in the hall watching TV. Okay.. we are back. I got up and saw my father operating the remote. He greeted "Good morning!". I replied sarcastically "Suppper morning..."

Patukku pattu program was telecasted only during a short period during my college days.. I guess during my first year of college. But then the program stopped telecasting. I said "Finally freedom". Another sunday morning..  conversations from TV "unga ponna pathi solunga..." Mom of the girl replied "Romba nalla ponnu... bank la valapakkra.. Mouglaya gothram..". At the same time in my dreams a Blonde chick comes towards me, shakes my hand and says "Hi. I am Mouglaya gothram... Thula rasi"..  I replied in shock "What the hell!" and thats when I woke up. Conversations from TV continues.. "Thula rasi..". This time the TV program name was "Mangalyam" or something close to that. I dont remember correctly. This program was like a live BharathMatrimony.com. I asked my father, suprised, "Yarukaga intha program pakuringa? Enaku ippo therinche aganum". My father laughs in response. When I was brushing , it hits me.. "Was there a blonde girl in my dreams?Oh god.. Mangalyam sucks".

After that I read the news paper. For some reason I like the Sunday sections of The Hindu. In the kitchen, my Mom was cooking something really good for lunch. Okay... the deal with Sunday lunches is my Mom cooks one of the following:

- vengaya sambar, molagu rasam, potato curry or

- Bisibelabath, potato curry, raita or

- Vethha kolambu, vendakka curry.

Brilliant menus. Brilliant food. One of the things that brightens my Sundays which I really really miss these days. In between news paper reading and eating lunch, I never missed one program.. "Lion dates Top 10 Movies". When you watch this program long enough, you will start realizing that the anchor says these cool phrased tamil sentences eventually to conclude that the movie is crappy.

I actually dont remember what I did Sunday afternoons. Probably playing games.

Thats my Saturday and Sunday story back in India guys. I wish I could be more active (this is something I lacked even in India :) ) and do something fun during weekends these days.

Enjoy your weekends guys. Could easily end up being your most memorable times.

UPDATE: The name of the program was not Mangalyam. It was Kalyana Maalai. Thanks to Arun R for mentioning it.