Growing up in a small town, I used to tell my
sister that we were like Tom Cruise here… people used to talk about us the
way we talked about Tom Cruise. It’s not that we stood out or had celebrity
parents; we were kinda different from the rest in our interests, thoughts and
most importantly dressing. Life was pretty good in a small town, slow paced and
entirely taken up by school activities. But somehow along the way, I kinda
started drifting away from known people and the relatives; I found that I had nothing
to say to them and making small talk was genuinely uncomfortable when I was
struggling with the language. Many of them (the aunts) were actually real nice
and kind. A few were like cows, grazing the pasture for fodder to fuel their
gossip. Over time, it became quite easy to spot the genuine caring aunts from
the cud chewing aunts and their typical gasbag husbands. Now when we (us siblings) see them coming, we say a little prayer for our sanity, and then we smile and nod away to whatever they drag on and on about. There is always a parallel conversation going on in my head about what I would really like to reply to their inane questions and eventually I have to strain to keep the laughter from bursting to the surface.
Anyway, I was home (yeah, that's a picture of home... it's the first sight that greets you early in the morning just before the train halts at my place) recently for a cousin's wedding and it was great fun, I did come across a few such cud chewers and that's what prompted me to write this post. Me and my sister crack up whenever we make up stuff to feed them... it's like our very own live sitcom show.
Here are a few random pictures from the wedding...
Here are a few random pictures from the wedding...
The bride's house all lit up...
The bride on her way to church...
Pretty girls in beautiful sarees at the wedding...
The bride's bouquet...
Gold bangles on one of the bride's cousins...
The bridegroom putting the wedding chain on his bride and the sister of the groom helping her brother to fix it properly.
The bridal couple in church...
Comments
Oh how well you capture the trials, tribulations and the joys of living in a small town. As you say, to be big fish in a small pool has its positives and we can well imagine what fun you had telling 'tall tales' only to have them made even taller by the gossipy aunts!
The bride looks so very, very pretty at her wedding. It must have been a roller coaster of emotions for you to return to your home town for the occasion!
Perhaps you were making one of your delightful little cakes or pies and rushed to the oven :)
Great pics and the flavour of being 'different from the group'captured well.
I can identify - Palakkad Tam-Brahm who can't read Tamil or malayalam - forever getting ticked off by the elders for not learning either language and conversing in Hindi or English :) perenially getting scolded for not wearing the mundu / veshti (dhoti) in the proper manner :)
The joys of life!
Very apt description! I was wondering if I alone had this kind of odd feeling when I faced some ppl...I'm glad that I see a recognition to my thoughts! :))
(p.s. only regret- the photos of the beautiful babes shows only their plaits- leaving much to the imagination)
Haha, Mahesh... trust you to feel the same! Your place Palakkad must be beautiful, is that where you were recently... all those pictures and descriptions on FB? The joys of life indeed :)
Ganesh, nice to see you here :)
A remake of VTV, nice way to describe this post. Those babes are my cousins, what kinda cousin would I be if I did not respect their privacy...
Blessings, thanks for dropping by. Life is entertaining in a small town :)
Oh, and in all this ranting I forgot, congratulations Karen's cousin, you look very pretty in your wedding picture... I hope the aunts are nicer to you.... :)
The wedding looks wonderful and the wedding chain rather than a ring is interesting. Diane
Diane, you can visit me anytime :P
Imagine having no cousins growing up... well, now you have many blogger friends, and though we can't hang out often, know that we do care and hope good things for you.