MAIJI IN THE HINDU

When we were growing up, my mother (Maiji, as we and everyone else calls her) had trained us not to brag about ourselves or our achievements (what little there were). Fortunately she never placed a restriction on us showing off about her. For that is just what I am going to do!

It was a very pleasurable moment for our family when  Maiji was noticed by the big newspaper of the city. We are proud of our mother for all her achievements as a housewife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, master cook, knitter, crossword solver, sudoku finisher and later on as a blogger. We did not seek any publicity, though. We just know Maiji is multi-talented and admire her.

We appreciate her all the more for carrying on with all these activities, given her problem with her eyes - something Maiji seldom talks about, though she wrote about it once. She has glaucoma which is under control with surgery. (In fact she had another surgery early this week, soon after the publication appeared.)

So when the reporter Anusha Parthasarathy of the MetroPlus, The Hindu, contacted her, having spotted Maiji’s blog, we were pleased and to be honest, we were quite thrilled when the article appeared

I give below the link to the relevant piece or click here

http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/society/article843051.ece 

The picture above is from the article taken by The Hindu photographer Sivaji Rao. I feel he has captured Maiji beautifully.

 NDTV Hindu, which has a MetroPlus show,  came home to follow up the article with a talk with Maiji . The show will be aired on Saturday October 30 at 9.30, and at different times in the week later.

 You can view NDTV Hindu on Big TV or Tata sky and also on SCV.  If you have Tata Sky all you need to do is to go to channel 532 - which is NDTV 24x7 and press the red button on your remote. NDTV Hindu will appear as picture in picture. 

Update: And if you missed the programme, you can watch it here. 

BLOGGER FRIENDS

What do bloggers talk about when they meet?
Well, this and that, and the old pussy cat…

When Maiji (my mother) first started blogging, one of the persons who appreciated her writing was fellow blogger Abraham Tharakan.



Maiji continued blogging, and it seemed serendipitous that Abraham also lived in Chennai. Emails went to and fro and it was decided that we should meet one another at some point. And the fact that all our blogs were featured in the group blog Mysore Park Blog, only made the prospect more appealing.

On Easter Sunday, Abraham visited us and we spent a nice one hour talking to one another. The surprising thing was, none of us felt we were talking to strangers whom we were meeting for the first time. Over some coffee (which Abraham remembered from a previous blog!) news and views were exchanged.

When Maiji turned 80 in 2007, I had posted an article mentioning it as the day of one thousand moons. Abraham had pointed out that by one’s 80th birthday one could not have seen a thousand moons – and he is right, of course. I found this a good opportunity to tell him so, belatedly.

In older days, there used to be pen friends – people who lived in different places and had never met, yet because of correspondence through regular letters, came to know one another very well. And sometimes they would meet too. Today the internet has taken over that job. We email and ‘chat’ with people we have never seen, (but will only be too happy to!)

Blogs are a great point of communication, and obviously they tell the reader a lot about the writer. And the comments section helps us to interact. Blogging is a great way to make friends, as we have found out. A close circle that is ever widening.

FOR FRIENDSHIP

This is the season for awards – nominating, announcing, presenting - the Globe, the Oscars, the Screen, NDTV, the Padma Shri…

I got my own little award, too from fellow blogger Sunita. It is a heart-warming, smile-inducing award – the Friendship award.



And I would like to pass it on to all my fellow bloggers and readers, who come to my page, and who with their visits and comments have made blogging such a pleasure for me.

Thank you everyone. This award is for you, you and you. . . .

(Have I been watching too many Oscar shows?)