Blossom-Two lives and One heart FF** completed and author's notepg 29 - Page 2

Originally posted by: rajatshweta

All conversations of a typical Agraharam South Indian Brahmin community daily dialogue doses ! Automatically transports you back Home, make you smell your soil, Digri Kaapi, and bring a smile on your face 😛

But, for the benefit of Non-Tamil readers, it would be useful if you add the translation of the Tamil sentences. Of course, you can't do justice to certain Tamil brahmin subtle jibes, but to a certain extent you can translate common comments.

You have made IPL, Bollywood, Chandra Nandini Serial, Ranganathan Swamy, Temple Pond, Vishnu Sahasranamam, even yourself, along with India Forum Members a character in your story 👏

Very creative... So, CN Show and CN in real life are expected to be different by default in your FF. that would be interesting to read.

Carry on.. Entertain us as much as you can, dear ... IAM WAITING (in Vijay Style)...

Originally posted by: sashashyam

My dear Avantika,

As you know, these days I am stressed out and in no shape to comment in detail on one more FF; I am not able to cope even with the three on my plate, being hopelessly in arrears😉. So while I read your opening chapter and Liked it, I had no intention of commenting on it. All the more so as I am not in general interested in historical characters being plonked down in contemporary surroundings.

But you, my dear, have made it impossible for me not to post this one. I was absolutely delighted with the impeccable agraharam ambience - I grew up in Mylapore, and so the mention of the Mada Streets at once brought back memories of the Ambika Appalam Depot on East Mada Street next to the Kapaleeswarar Temple- and I also remembered my visit to the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam as an IFS Probationer on district training. The Anantasayanam pose of the Perumal was magnificent, and if I close my eyes, I can see it still, with the three doors, one near his head, one near his naabhi, and one near his feet.

In the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in Tiruvananthapuram, which has the Perumal in the same pose, they have a rule that if you drop anything in the inner sanctum, you cannot retrieve it. It is arpit to the Lord. So folks used to hold on to their purses and handbags very carefully.😉 I do not remember there being a similar tradition in Srirangam.

I do not understand Sangeeta's request for English translations of the Tamil lines, for as far as I can see, you have provided them without fail.What is lost in translation, of course, cannot be helped.

I am pleased that your Padmanabhan (he would not be Padmanabh) is a respectable character😆, and your Saraswathi Patti is a hep and with it character who is wonderfully entertaining. But she should be more than 65 if Padmanabhan is 52, Avantika. A baby at 13? They did marry very young in those days, but the girl was never sent to her husband's house till she was mature.

Others have commented on the interweaving of Chandra Nandini and Rajat into your tale, but that does not interest me, as I have quit the show for keeps. But it is a clever gimmick.

Also, I hope you do not dilute the regional flavour that is, right now, a major charm of this FF, in order to make it pan Indian once Nandini has moved to New Delhi.

All that is for later. Right now, this is going great guns. My felicitations for having thought of, and achieved such a fresh and appealing framework. Just make sure you keep it up!

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Avantika,

I forgot that when I was posting the piece above, but your Saraswathi Patti herself says she was married only at 17. So Master Padmanabhan could not have put in an appearance before she was 18. So she has to be 70 at the very least. Period!😉

Which makes her perkiness all the more remarkable. Of course I am nearly 70 myself, but my background was entirely different. She is an original for her milieu.

Though I would add that for a 70 year old to have had difficulty getting a schooling is odd. Why, my mother went to college, and she is much older than this Saraswathi Patti. Even my grandmother studied up to Class 6. Unless they were located in a remote village, and she had very orthodox parents who said Pennuku padippu ennathukkudee? (Why does a girl need to be educated?)

Shyamala Aunty