WP Daily Prompts – TEMPLES of South India to the TABLES at Las Vegas

Describe your most memorable vacation.

Most memorable vacation. Every vacation is memorable to me or some incident in those trips. To recollect some of them on a chronological order.

The one that I went to Kashmir when i was 4, 5 years old. I don’t recollect but based on a photo where I and my sister dressed in Kashmiri dress, I still add it to my vacation list. I also remember something like, seeing a python snake during the trip and at a point we got down the bus, to escape some terrorist activity..I’m not sure how much of is this true but I still have those memories.

My father was working in the telephones department, the now BSNL. He used to take us to trips on LTA once in 3, 4 years. Once we went to a trip to temples in Karnataka. Going to Udipi, Belur, Halabedu. Taking bath in the Tungabadhra river, visiting various temples. The beauty was that this trip was completely on bus and was arranged and accompanied by few of my dad’s colleagues. Every day, we will move back by one row in the bus. When you breathe out, you will get smoke out of ur mouth and that’s the first smoking experience we all enjoyed with family.

Subsequently, through LTA, there was also a trip to Dehradun, Mussoorie and Delhi, Haridwar, Kasi, etc. Another childhood trip. I still remember tasting a fabulous roti in a hotel called Akash deep in dhun.

My father at a trip from Haridwar

Every annual leave, I go to my native place Madurai or to my Periammas house. It was Palani, Dindigul, Trichy , udumalaipet. I was the youngest cousin and had lovely memories in each of those places.

Post which, at college days, visited Kerala and few other friends native place. That Is when I enjoyed the beauty of villages. I invited some of my friends to my home who were enjoying Chennai. However, I always liked their style of life.

In 2005, While At TCS, my first flight to Kolkata for a project takeover. Walking in Lungi in the streets of Kolkata 😀, and enjoying the Pani pooris and Rasogollas in the streets of Karunomoyee was fantastic.

It was around Christmas , we 4 of us went to Gangtok and witnessed the snow for the very first time. It was a such a fabulous experience having a local soup, riding the yak and seeing a frozen lake.

In 2009, my first Himalayan trek to Roopkund, with Tamal, Bindu and a bigger group of people for 9 days. Walking around 10-15 kms daily, staying in tents, witnessing some stunning views, talking bath in a cold falls which was around 5-10 degree. Drying our dresses in campfire. Walking in Lungi at Hinalayas, which my friends used to make fun of.

2010, took an official trip to Denver and my First trip there was to Las Vegas. No comments on Vegas , 😉. Visited Aspen to witness my first fall colours.

I grew up around the Temple streets of Madurai and was taught a lot of divine stories in my young ages , which had a great influence on me. The main advantage of Tamil Nadu, is its beautiful temples. KUDOS to my mother who is an encyclopedia of various temples in India but never admits that she knows about 100s of temples. Some of her suggestions were places deep inside villages and that we enjoyed travelling through the serene farm fields to witness a silent, divine, not so famous, uncrowded, village temple.

At times we take temple trips visiting various temples in and around Tamilnadu. I wish this becomes a routine and to write a weekly blog about the unexplored stories of temples

Visit to Los Angeles, subsequently to Vegas was super duper fun with a fun gang . San Diego and the la Jolla beach kayaking were awesome.

The latest trip to London, which started off with a bang taking me to a Cambridge hospital (https://mukerv.wordpress.com/2023/04/11/my-london-diaries-kothu-parotta-to-kambridge-hospital-the-addenbrookes/) and the recent boys trip to Wales, all have been fabo fabulous.

Thus my memoir has been great so far w.r.t vacations. Every vacation has one or some memorable stories. Ranging from the temples of South India to the poker tables of Las Vegas. Wish to continue further.

What else can we do until we leave. The destination is unknown hence spend time eating, sleeping, moving from point a to b in the natural labyrinth named warth, calling it a travel; working for money and thinking about our state of mind from the past, etc. etc.

Thanks

Mukundaraman

PS, Excuse Typos as my blogs are written on mobile and auto correct plays a spoilsport. Please point out so that I can correct it. Thanks to chatgpt for the tags

WP Daily Prompts – Forced Attire – Veshti vs Lungi

If you were forced to wear one outfit over and over again, what would it be?

I would prefer my traditional veshti and shirt, in such a situation. The situation being hypothetical, I would prefer something that shows my identity, my culture.

Its closest brother is a Lungi alias Kaili. It doesn’t receive the same respect as the Veshti. Without further content, I would like to quote the six differences between them.. Finding 6 differences is something I used to engage with in a book called https://www.kumudam.com/.

The six differences b/w veshti and Kaili

• Veshti isn’t stitched whereas it’s counterpart is stitched to form a covered, cylindrical structure when visualized expanded across all directions.
• Veshti is mostly white in colour whereas the Lungi normally comes in blue colour dominated checked patterns. Nowadays, there are other colours, checked patterns but haven’t seen a plain white one in my coarse grained analysis

• Veshti is predominantly worn by men in Tamilnadu on a daily basis. I have heard about people, there overall wardrobe contains 3 sets of veshti snd white shirt. Ideally, they don’t use a Wardrobe. One in the cupboard, one getting dry in the rope outside and one that they wear. One category of people cannot afford to more , so they have 3 or just 2 sets in some cases. However, they ensure they wash and wear a fresh one every time. Other category of people is those who can afford but stay simple with their needs. This is much better than Mark Zuckerbergs wardrobe having 100s of black dresses , have just 3 or 4 and repurpose it. I have seen some old women wearing Lungi, not the one who wear for fun but in reality, on a day 2 Day basis. In my childhood days, a family who lived next door, the lady head of family used to wear it. We fondly call her as ‘chaachi’, ‘paetha’. Not sure if it is inspired by a region or section of people. In Kerala, my neighbouring state’s people wear a similar dress called as ‘Mundu’. I’m not sure if it a Veshti or a Lungi or a generic reference for both.

• Veshti comes in silk but haven’t seen a silk Lungi. Lungi is mostly cotton or polyester as far as I have seen
• Veshti is mostly worn during auspicious, religious functions. Also presented to people. A Lungi didn’t gather that amount of respect as far as I have seen.

• Veshti has various draping styles , regular wear , cross threaded panchakacham , kushthi knot which looks like a trouser in the old silambam fight. That Is my favorite Mr. M N Nambiar in Thooral Ninnu Pochu

Luckily, I think It is yet to impress the international so called fashion designers, otherwise they would have been selling the piece of cloth for a few thousand pounds or dollars.

All such personalized or localized options exist at each and every corner of the world and would request bloggers to include them in their posts whenever possible.

Thanks

Mukund