Seniors California Meet
It is always a pleasure to meet a person to whom you owe gratitude.
Shri K. Raman, a co-founder of the Thatha Patty Yahoogroup inducted us into it
which keeps our mornings occupied. I always look forward to meeting
him. But seldom we stay in the same city. Thus when I learnt we both
are in California, I swore to myself, “Well, I will not let go this
opportunity; I am already scheduled to move to Phoenix next weekend.”
I rang him up, and he was all eager. “Shall we also invite another
member, one Mrs Visalakshi and her husband Gopal in San Ramon?” I
quipped. “Well, Sundaramji, it is not 'one' Visalakshi. Gopal is
my cousin,” he corrected me, reinforcing that it's a small world.
Acquaintance with Visalakshi is a compliment to her sheer
investigative skills. Responding to a piece that I wrote, replete
with Bangalore and none whatsoever of Delhi, she wrote back, “Do
you by any chance have any Delhi connection, sir?” That was the
starting point before she unfolded how our two families have a common
friend in Delhi who used to talk a lot about us ('only good things,
by the way,” she had reassured me). Since then it has been an
email- or telephone-chat between her and my wife - once a day as
prescription; and twice, time permitting. It was nice of Sudha, their
daughter, to fit in her packed weekend schedule (dance classes, son's
Tabla class, Sai Bhajan rehearsal for son and daughter) an hour-long
drive to drop her parents and mother-in-law at Raman's place.
We arrived a little ahead of the other group. As we waited at Raman's
doorstep, we could smell Paav-Bhaji that Ritu, Raman's d-i-l, was
preparing. And, like they say, “Yaanai varum munne, mani osai
varum,” even before the Gopals made their foray later, the aroma
of Samosas they brought began to waft. The sealed pack of 'Brownie
Bites' that we brought might be a feast to the eyes but had no
fragrance to offer.
Raman formally introduced the Gopal family to us, which was marked by
a spontaneous bonding between Visalakshi and Lalitha, as though two
classmates were meeting after decades. Earlier Gopal had reportedly
expressed reluctance to join the meet because only Visalakshi and not
he knew us. I therefore feared he would be a recluse. I was wrong. He
was an interesting conversationalist and, if I may say so, he took
charge of most of the proceedings. Raman is witty, and his deliveries
are packed with punches. He unleashes interesting anecdotes at
regular intervals.
Raja, Raman's son, claiming to be an expert coffee maker, offered to
prepare coffee to add more warmth to the session. The assorted
fragrance of food items by then had become irresistible, prompting
someone to suggest, “Not a bad idea. Equally good however would be
something to munch to precede coffee”. This was enough for the
three youngsters, Ritu, Raja and Sudha to get to work. They headed to
the kitchen with Raja taking over coffee, and the two ladies
arranging snacks, while the seniors felt happier at more and more
common friends surfacing from their conversation. The children –
Ritu-Raja's Rishi and Rahul; Sudha's Skanda and Swara; and our
grandson Rishi. all between 9 and 5, locked themselves in a room
upstairs, preferring to be in their own world.
Fortified with heavy snacks and Pete's coffee that corroborated
Raja's claim to fame, the second round of discussions proved no less
interesting, each group apprehensive of the nearing pick-up time.
Raman attributed the secret of his health to the rejuvenating
Grandma's dry-powder preparation from various medicinal herbs,
shrubs, roots and plants. Gopal & Co revealed they got regular
supply of such remedies from their home town, Palamadai,
Tirunelveli. Thus my wife and I felt left out, relying on modern
Multi Vitamin tablets.
In between these interesting proceedings we got a call from our son
and d-i-l if they could pick us up. We successfully evaded them
twice, but not any longer. They too spent a few minutes with Ritu and
Raja (Sudha already having taken children for their classes). Each
couple promised to stay in touch.
“A
well spent evening,” my wife and I uttered at the same time as we
got into the car.
V.V. Sundaram
San Jose
18 Feb 2013
