Introduction to addicted maniacs from grandmother's Diary - Attack of television serials

She looked around to find a way out of the dark house using a torch. Sirens unexpectedly erupted, ringing throughout the giant house and the grounds, as a light started revolving through the window. She saw a bang on the door and… “che poyaloda”(oh it is gone) screamed my grandmother after receiving an interruption in the climax of her regular TV serial. She started cursing the electricity board for their improper service in the locality. She added that it has happened twice and at a time when some of her favorite serials are in the verge of disclosing some mysteries. My grandmother is a TV serial maniac who starts watching TV from 7 PM until 10 PM. We have dinner in between but her eyes are stuck on the TV screen and the dialogues from the characters.

(Most of my posts mention about my amma. The right hand side is mother and left is grandmother)

I visit my grandmother’s house once in a week. She calls me in advance to confirm my arrival and prepares all the delicious dishes that I love to eat. I reach there by 8PM and get the privilege to witness her non-stop TV serials.

Once I was having my dinner and she said that Vishnu is a very cute and nice boy and she loves him a lot. I asked her the whereabouts of Vishnu and she said that he is a little boy who sings song in “junior star singer”, a TV reality show on Asianet channel. I was surprised to hear her reply. My grandfather always teases my grandmother for watching TV serials and taking them seriously. He said that he is not interested in them and watches them just for passing his time.

There was a party and I was with my grandfather listening to his friends who were discussing some issues related with a property connected to a temple. In the middle of the discussion, my grandfather turned at me and pointed to a person saying “see he looks like Ananthan”. I was wondering who this Ananthan is and asked him in anxiety. He replied that he is a comedy character in a serial that started 4-5 months ago. Later the family members discussed this and laughed at the grandfather who was always there to protest the serials and tease my grandmother.

My grand mother gave me a list of some popular serials that included idea star singer, devi mahatmyam, parayi petta panthirikulam etc. and advised me to see them daily. I agreed with a gentle smile nodding my head, signaling the acceptance. I am not used to serials and don’t get the time to watch them. I even got the chance to see some of the ladies in the neighborhood crying while watching a mega serial. :)

Six weeks ago my grandmother called me and asked whether it is possible for me to reach home. She said that the Television is not working properly and she is not able to see her favorite serials since one week. She said that she asked some technician to repair it but still of no use. I reached home and she was waiting for me in the front of the house. The moment I entered the house and she insisted me to see whether I could repair the television. I tried the level best but was not successful with it. Her face was dull and appeared like she did not have any food for a week. I could not bear her silence and took my vehicle to the nearest store and purchased a big TV. The moment I installed the television, her face was lit like a lamp and a sweet smile appeared on her face. I was satisfied with my purchase.

Grandmother's television dish

We had a big dish in the home though which most of the Malayalam channels were viewable. I searched the internet and tuned several channels for my grandmother. Some weeks later she called me and said that she took a cable connection as the channel featuring her favorite serial is not available in the dish. The photo shown above is of the old dish that is now a house for birds and plants.

I brought the new mobile and decided to take some pictures from the locality. While I was at the back side of the house, I could see the dish receiver placed naked on a drum with plants surrounding it. It was avoided from the day my grandmother received the cable connection.

Grandma's old receiver

If you could closely monitor the old people watching television then you will be able to find the depth of their viewership. My grandfather’s sister moves her head along with the actions of the TV characters and sometimes starts searching for them when they are out of focus. :)

I read an article recently that says, reading books can increase mental work whereas watching movies and television on a regular manner affects mental behavior and thinking capability. I would suggest that parents should take care for their children who watch televisions or play games continuously. They should teach them to use it as a means for time pass restricted to few hours a day.

In olden days people used to spend time with their family, discussing funny incidents, sharing knowledge but today TV serials have robbed their valuable moments leaving them in from of the television. In my childhood only Doordarshan channel was available that had limited movies and serials and children used to play quiz and outdoor games. Today children have shifted to Dora, ben-10, Tom and Jerry and action packed-movies making them engaged in front of the television. Watching television is fine but becomes a problem when it affects relationships.

Effects of Youth dreams and eating disorders

Escaping sleep is a big mission and I cannot achieve it. I spoke with the client to fix a contract and the meeting went until 3 AM in the morning. Streets were dark and there was neither the watchman nor the dog visible in the house. I went inside the room and fell on the bed like a dead piece of paper. Daily I wake-up at 8 am and miss the gym, so I decided to set an alarm and go to the gym no matter how it affects my physical/ mental state.



I got up at 6 AM with the alarm and decided not to sleep. I changed the dress and went to the gym (forgot to mention that I brushed my teeth). I was half sleeping but the exercises made me active and the whole day passed without feeling tired. I understand that physical exercise is an important part of life and I will try to continue this even if I sleep late.

Youths are trying to maintain a slim body that attracts audience. I could see my sister dieting to make her look like Aishwarya rai or priyanka chopra. I witnessed some girls vomiting and being unconscious due to irregular diet. People do not understand that dieting or no-eating is not the solution to attain a slim body or a perfect posture. Proper exercises and balanced diet is the vital solution to achieve the aim.

Ghajini star Suriya with Six pack abs, brought a tremendous revolution in the youths. Everyone is dreaming for a 6 pack muscle on his abdomen without being aware about how difficult it is to achieve. You have to maintain a strict diet with daily exercises.

I am not concerned about my six pack abs neither the diet schedules. I would like to discuss the cause that made me a continuous visitor of gymnasium. I went home last year and my mother gave me loads of tasty food and all of them were my favorites. After I reached Cochin, I could find a tummy out and cheeks blown like balloons. Jk has a affordable tummy that he is maintaining for years and I did not care much about myself. We were walking on the streets and I heard a comment from a friend asking where the two fat cows are going? I was not able to understand in the beginning but later noticed that it was also on me. This insult resulted in joining a gym and reducing the weight by 11 kgs. I decided to maintain the so called abdomen for long and preserve my physical presence.

The reason for writing the post is to introduce the importance of exercise in life, sleeping disorders and youth desires. Most of us might be working in offices sitting on a chair passing orders to the subordinates without doing any physical exercise. This affects the body on a longer run and makes one sick and lazy. We can walk from one floor to another or one cabin to the next to provide a physical exercise to our body. This makes me remember the dialogue “walk and talk”.

Yesterday, I read about neurons and their importance in brain. The article mentions that a research conducted by a group of scientists found walking very useful for the proper functioning of brains and helps it develop better. I and my colleague decided to have the lunch from a hotel and I insisted to walk. The atmosphere was hot and sun was shooting its rays towards us. I decided to walk and see my brain develop but when I returned back I could find my head paining. It is therefore necessary to know the best place and time for exercise. You can choose a morning session or an evening time depending on your working hours. I hope you all might have experienced the above mentioned problems.

So let’s promote exercise and denominate dieting.

Porridge athava Payasam mega festival at home - Amma's swantham prepration

Today the lunch was from a hotel in Cochin. As a change I ordered rice (the big one called as boiled rice) and he brought some vessels with curries and kuttan(sabji). The usual curries namely moar, sambaar, mooru curry, rasam etc. I was upset and thought it is a practice to have lunch and I should satisfy my stomach with whatever I get. I could see one more vessel, a small “kutti” one and to my surprise it was the payasam (kheer or porridge). Now I was really happy to see my favorite in the eatables.



I completed my lunch and had the porridge so that the taste remains in the taste buds and I could enjoy it for a couple of hours. Sorry, forgot to mention that I washed my mouth very well. : ) when I mention about payasam and my love for it I should not forget to mention the weekly payasam festival we used to have at the home. Now when the festival comes into picture, I should also mention about the taste of my family members.

My Father and sister are fond of the dishes that are too spicy whereas I and my mother like sweet items. I hope you would have guessed who could be the visitors of this festival. Yes, it was my mother and me. My mother says that when I was a child I never eat things without insistence of my mother or shouts from my father. She says that I always would eat porridge from my childhood without any issues and would always ask for another plate of it soon. She never prepared any professional porridge for me in the childhood, rather she will pour some milk in rice, with jaggery finely chopped and coconut grates, however I liked it very much.

Later when I grew up, we started making porridge every week and after the introduction of daal and bulk sugar scheme, it raised to 4-5 times every week. I understand you would think what this sugar and daal has to do with this Payasam. In my house it was decided to purchase sugar and the grains in bulk to save money and avoid frequent visit to shops. My neighbor had a daal mill and we purchased daal in sacks of 50 and 100 kg’s that will last for a year.

The preparation schedule was really funny where I would look at my mother and give indication about my father leaving the house after his daily lunch. She would then wave her hand and we will start the works for the porridge preparation with me doing the initial works like grating coconut and cutting balls of jaggery into small pieces. We would use sugar most of the times and each time it would be a different payasam. I am sure if my mother would be blogging then we would have a lot of pyasam recipes. We have almost tried all sorts of payasam.

After a couple of months my father realized the shortage of sugar and other household items and he thought to find the cause. With the help of the detective of the house(My sister Anjali) and his skills of intuition he came to the conclusion that I and my mother are the roots of the problem. He ordered to reduce the habit of making porridge and we did it for some weeks.

We later resumed it but I miss my mother a lot and the nice days we had at home. Amma!!! Mm… I love the tasty food made from her hands. Do you miss the same?

Introducing Hindi in Mrs. Phillips and a Loving teacher

Today was not a great day for me. As usual I wake up at 8 in the morning, went to the office, came back, had food and was about to sleep when I thought why not to be online on my Google talk and find some friends. To my surprise I could see Anupama from “sincerely yours…” and then we chatted for long until she said “veendum kanam” (We will meet later). I accidentaly used some hindi words and she replied to them back in Hindi. I asked whether she knows hindi and her reply was that she stands first in all three languages. It was really nice speaking to her and that made me remember my hindi teacher Mrs. Anitha Phillips and I thought to write something about her.



Anitha Phillips madam is a kind hearted teacher who was nice in looks and sweet in words. She was my class teacher in fifth standard and always supported me in my studies and sports. She taught us hindi in such a way that each class appeared interesting. I still remember when she asked me to stand in front of the class and praised me for my hindi speaking skills. She said, “See Abhilash; he is from south India and speaks so fluent Hindi”. I was at the top of the class and in front of the children with a single praise. Thank god! the fan was not kept rotating. : ) My friend did not like all such praises and said “batau kya re! tu north India me pala bada tha”(should I say that you were born and brought up in north India?). After promising him a pepsi(it was a plastic tube filled with ice water) that we used to get at 50 paisa, I was able to escape from his harassment.

I can remember the way Mrs. Phillips explained each poem in Hindi and the poet’s intention of writing such lovely poems. She could always find two to three meanings in every sentence and the way of expressing them was like Amitabh bacchan narrating dialogues. My mother liked her very much and used to get good remarks regarding me. My mother is a very knowledgeable person, not at all like me. She reads a lot, solves puzzles, watches cricket and does all creative things. A really active woman I have ever seen.

When said about Mrs. Phillips I should not forget mentioning about the day when she made me the Class monitor. I used to look after the boys and girls who will talk and always write their names. There was always a boy and a girl as volunteers. I enjoyed my tenure for 1 year while a number of girls changed as monitors and some resigned during my rule. I really don’t know why? :)

I was like a ruler who was always in the good books of all the teachers and all of them knew my mother. My mother would come in all the parents teachers meetings and teachers would never praise me rather they will praise her for the efforts she took to teach me. Really I also praise my mother for how she made such a dumb boy like me study well.

We have a tradition called chor oonu(where children are given rice for the first time and father writes on the tongue of the child with gold ring dipped in honey) and I was given that at the Guruvayoor temple in Kerala. My mother says that a Brahmin saint saw me that day and said that he resembles Lord Krishna and would become a bright boy. My mother always used to tell me. Abhi Lord Krishna is fine but I never want you to be mischievous like him. I said at least not in the case of Radha’s.

I liked Hindi class not because it was my favorite subject but because it was thought by my favorite teacher. I met her last after my tenth exams and she had tears in her eyes and blessed me with both her hands on my head. I felt like I have achieved everything in Life. It’s said in Sanskrit that “Mata, pita, guru, deva”. After the position of Mother and father next is The Guru(the teacher). Guruve namah! Really I feel like crying when I think about the incident of my teacher blessing me for my bright future. I caught both of her legs and asked her for the blessings that could lead me to the great heights of moksha. Its also said that guru ke pairon ke neeche jannat hain(Its heven in the feet of your Teacher ).

It is really nice thinking about those childhood days which could not be captured in a single article like this. Mrs. Phillips always used to say that time may pass and you will reach a stage where you will be able to get everything in life and buy everything under the sky but never can get your childhood back again. So true she said. I wish I could be the same small boy who always used to be close to his mother and friends.

Honest chicken curry that revealed some important secrets

I visited gymnasium only once in the previous week and cooked once in previous one month. I am sleeping late and the same happens when I wake up so I miss the Gym. Reasons for not cooking the food are lack of time and laziness. I have a lot of reasons for not doing the activities I did daily; however I could have changed my habits to make them possible.



Shalini from “diminutive corner of my mind” tagged me with the so called honest scrap and said to mention some honest points about me. I already received this award prior from Mythreyi but did not write any honest points at that time. Here I will compensate it by listing few honest things about me.

Some honest points aka secrets about Abhilash

1. The person whom I love the most

Ans: Amma (My mother). She is the person I love a lot and care for. There is no other creature in this world as kind hearted as a mother. Even a father (man) would never sacrifice certain things for his son/daughter as a mother (woman) would. And that is one among the reasons I respect woman, as my mother is one among them.

2. My favorite eatables

Ans: Aloo ka paratha with curd, Conju theeyal(prawns theeyal), gajar ka halva, tilli ke ladoo. My mother prepares them very well and I love eating them. I have been having worst food after I started working in Cochin. These comments are applicable to hotels (No motherly homes).

3. My favorite chef

Ans: My mother. I hope no one can prepare better than that, at least for my taste buds.

4. Qualities in boys I search to call them good friends

Ans: unselfishness, Kindness, Ability to accept faults. I hate people who cannot keep words and who react different according to situations. I love active, laughing, frank and adventurous people.

5. Qualities in girls I search to call them friends

Ans: Maturity and ability to take decisions. My father was a late 70’s guy and never encouraged boy-girl parties and discussions. Further to my mothers insistence I started studying and made myself away from girls. (Ok, not everything but something is true yaar). Girls in my college used to call me “Einstein” :) This fact was revealed by one of the girls who discussed this with me in final year farewell party.


6. My favorite childhood movie star

Ans: Mithun. Oh! Sorry Mithun da. I remember the dialogue of my friend Mayank, who insisted to add “DA” in front of Mithun.(His words were as follows… Mithun nahi Mithun da bolne ka)

7. My dialogue during college days

Ans: “Kyun re, happy bday hain kya?”…

This dialogue was often used in front of the people who reacted rude and used to show their influence in the college. Happy bday hain kya(Is today your birthday?) signifies the intention of warning the listner that things may go wrong.

In north India, we used to hit the birthday boy at his back for the numbers equal to his age (This was called birthday bump). The speaker of the dialogue intends to ask the listener about his willingness to have some bumps.

These were some of the honest things about me. I am not ready for more, the reason being 11 Pm and I feel sleepy.



Today was a very busy day for me. I watched all the 7 movies in the series “police academy” and cooked food at home. I got a comment from Mythreyi on my previous article which detailed that she hasn’t seen any recipes in my blog since long time. So I decided to prepare something and chose Chicken pepper chops as the recipe for preparation. I am not planning to describe the recipe as she already did it once in her blog.



I went to the nearby market and bought 2 kg’s of Chicken. Then started the process of cooking which lasted for few hours and finally I was able to taste chicken and chapattis.
Mythreyi’s article had the chicken with gravy. I reduced the amount of gravy and made it thick so I could have the masalas well spread over the pieces. I am thankful to god that all went right otherwise my stomach would have gone for an emergency and 300 rupees, in air.

Nothing was wasted in the process of preparation, as the left over’s of chicken while cleaning were given to Pappu(the dog in the house). I remember his eyes staring at me when I gave him some bread pieces last time. The house owner said later that the dog only eats non vegetarian and avoids chapattis and other eatables.



I never make any mistakes in adding salt, pepper, chilies and masalas(no kidding boss). My mother once said to a women asking for my marriage that I am going to marry after 28 years. A woman replied from a group saying she has a girl for me who could prepare good food and looks nice. My answer was that I think I don’t need a marriage as I can cook well. The lady passed some serious looks on me saying ladies are not only for cooking or cleaning. I understood the ball is in woman’s court and I escaped from the place.



I am signing off for today and plan to meet you the same time tomorrow. I have to heat the chicken so I can have it for the morning.

Story of creating hill top’s and cycle seats as learning grounds

Learning has no fixed place, no fang shui, no Vastu and no Shastra. Children can be seen learning in tree shades, in study rooms, school verandas, balconies and even below street lamps (some famous person is believed to be studying below street lamps). I used to sit on the top edge of my staircase, or the bicycle or the top roof of my house to study. I will sit on the carrier and keep the books on the cycle seat and will start reading loudly with my legs always rotating the paddles in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions. I had a habit of reading loudly, making myself distract from the children playing on the streets or the sister watching television. I never understand anything when I sit on a chair with book kept on the table and eyes pointing to the letters on the pages. I was not able to understand the reason until now. : )



There is neither a start for learning and nor an end to learning. The more you learn, the more you become knowledgeable. Learning and gathering knowledge does not mean a collection of some unusable items in a database that can never be used for something creative and just for mere retrieval in some General knowledge tests. Learning means collecting and implementing. Our ancestors are believed to be monkeys, thousands and thousands of years ago. From that instance to here, we have travelled a long journey, collecting knowledge and applying it for our future generations so that they are not any monkeys who jump on trees and climb hill tops with a long tail.

Studying is not a hard process if you are really interested in doing it. Children often find it hard to grasp their historical monuments, year of great events, dates for birth and death of great personalities etc. It is not that some have great brains while others have a small one; but I feel it is the mentality of everyone that leads to his ability to grasp knowledge. You can see some children who are weak in studies but can remember entire lyrics of a song, can remember a face to draw, can remember names, birth and deaths of film actors, remember teams and records of cricketers etc. This means that they have brains but they are not interested in what they are learning.

Studies should be introduced to children as a means to make them capable of asking and answering what, how, when, where, which, will, but, etc.

I loved drawings, pictures and colors and always used to be with it. Apart from drawings I was interested in playing cricket, flying kites, video games and several domestic games with friends. I was satisfied with each and every outcome that originated as a result of my hands and brushes. I used to hate figures (maths) and dates (history). I thought why to learn when an old man died or what his wife cooked last winter or what Alice did in the wonderland. I would rather use that time creatively in my drawings or play outside with my friends. My parents become irritated about me, who was always involved in drawings or playing with friends and they introduced a slogan “Drawing, playing go back”.



After several protests (Quit drawings and start learning), dandi march(beating with sticks, hands), compromise talks(please learn my son and I am going to get you a new video game this year), non violence(crying to make me change my ways), I finally decided to quit drawing and playing(not completely but partially). Pappu can try to become pappy, but he will ultimately be pappu, right? I was not called Pappu but I like the name Pappu.

So finally I decided to move on the path of ultimate nirvana (learning and studying) shown by my parents. I tried to learn but my brain always hates the equations, dates, histories, geographies, civics, chemistry, etc. My mother decided to train me through sticks, sweets to make me change my mind and some how or the other I started eating equations, formulas and old king and queen stories. I was not happy with what I was doing as this was something out of my crazy and happy life.

Then Akash joined me to college on bicycle. He was a studios guy who even discussed about studies in the journey by cycle. He tells me to ask him questions and answers them on the journey. He would then repeat the process for me, who did not learn anything. I went home that day and started learning the first lesson so I could answer his questions while on the journey. This started continuously and I was becoming closer to studies and learning. I am very thankful to Akash for his efforts that made me enter the arena for learning and giving me the confidence and inspiration to learn.

Still equations and formulas were a problem for me. I was not able to learn the IC’s, their pins functions and all appeared hard to learn. I started drawing IC’s and pasteurizing their functions. This helped me to memorize them for long even without reading it again. I used to take a singe copy to the college and used to read books. Sometimes a single page used to serve the purpose of taking notes for all the subjects. I only draw pictures and wrote something in 1- words to remember their use. This habit enabled me to remember things for even long than the others reading and memorizing could. I knew what the next point in an answer should be and what is the next equation or next solution to any puzzle. Everything was using drawings and pictures.



I met a lot of people in my life who have new ways of studying things and memorizing them. Vikram was one of them who used to remember anything once it’s narrated to him. He had a very great IQ power. He used to concentrate on the words of the narrator and used to match them with something existing. In this way he could recall it anytime. This helped me in changing my ways of learning and adapting his style to group with my existing one.

The person whom I thank the most for my studies is Mayank. Mayank was a boy who was not a person with great IQ, neither a genious but he had a will power to do hard work, try and try again. He never accepted defeat and used to study until he understood it well. He gave me a lot of inputs in my studies and guided me to new ways of learning. His greatest quality was that he always exchanged knowledge and information and never felt wrong in telling others how to learn things. He says “Knowledge increases when you share it”.

I still have those pictures in my mind. It is necessary for each child to understand the best way he can learn, making learning an interesting session. Also a good friend is always necessary to understand what you need and how you can do.

Try to become that friend for your child or your sister/brother and find his hidden abilities which can be molded to lead the objective. Every child is a genius provided you give glucose (right direction and guidance) and welcome his creative ideas.

Haaaaapy republic day to all.

An effort to kill the mental illness

It was afternoon, the street was vacant around kilometers and I was driving the bike at 70 km/hr. Hot air was blowing from the sides, back, front and everywhere it could find a way in. We were speaking about Solaris and Sameer’s craziness about the software’s and computers. I turned my face and saw a person riding cycle in front of me. I pressed the brakes as hard as I can to make him pass my sight. The pressure was on the front brakes; and the back tyre made its way in front of the later causing us to taste the dirt and mud on the ground. That was the first time Hanish scolded me.



Hanish is my friend who was with me from fifth class until engineering. We were travelling in his new Fiero bike with the knowledge that I was deprived of a license.

Hanish is one of the great friends I have, who has helped me in my life. He called me a couple of days ago from Gujrat. He is in USA and visited India after a period of two plus years for a celebration announced on the occasion of his nephew’s mundan ceremony. He is completing his MS in Los Angeles and often sends me the pictures from Hollywood. He is the only friend who calls me monthly even though he has to spend a grand; and that’s what is called a friend. Isn’t it?

We spoke long until his mother prompted him for the dinner. He left the phone with the message that I can call him back the next day on the same number. I was busy with work and escaping from my life, so did not call him until now. It has passed a week and I am not yet ready to contact him and share old memories.

I do not understand why people start loosing relationships and their importance when they start working in an IT background. The corporate world has its flaws that are hidden behind the money it showers. People can smile in a meeting and exchange old memories but they never remember things again. An amnesia that could be better called a short time memory loss.

I stopped calling my parents daily and made it to once a week. I did not want to keep the nostalgic moments entering my minds when I am far. This extended further and now I call them when they ring back asking my whereabouts. I love my parents and want to keep close with them but I am also a victim of the busy corporate world. This is the reason I can give to the people who ask for the causes of not calling them. But I know that’s not true.

I gave my mobile for a service to let Nokia correct some wifi problems and update the firmware. I bought a packet of pakodas, bread and big bananas for the dinner. I hope that can satisfy the burning stomach.

I am trying to get out of my created problems and find a way to reach my old behavior. I will call my parents tomorrow and some of my friends. I hope this will help me have a refreshing breath and cure my mental illness.