Daughterhood might colour what I have to say of mom, 'Manora', as she was called by Dhamayanthi aaya. Married young and widowed at the age of 36, this was woman power at its best. Manohare, that's mom, proves that women can achieve anything if they have the will power to fight against setbacks and challenges. Brought up as the privileged eldest daughter in a large family of an affuluent and upcoming industrialist, mom got into a large joint family, raised all the  children in the family , loved her in laws and was a dutiful daughter-in-law too. 

Like all of Dhamayanthi aaya's daughters, mom too has inherited a lot of aaya's practical sensibility and conviction. I remember that on many occasions she makes quick decisions which are supported by her belief in the correctness of her decisions, just like aaya.

She loves to entertain people like aaya ...(Dhamayanthi aaya never minded the floating population in her household)  and is always fond of reminding us that as the eldest daughter, she has cooked for atleast eight to ten people on ordinary days and twice that number on special occasions. She remembers a lot of Dhamayanthi aaya's cooking styles and strategies and is proof of aaya's kaimanam. 

A warrior all the way, mom accepted challenges, like daddy's death, our almost disrupted education, failure in business after dad and the loss of many privileges that she had as a married woman. Inspite of all these, she raised us boldly and fearlessly, braving many comments about her single woman status. Today, at the age of 74, she likes to move around, travel, visit people and talk about the past, present and the future. 

I see a lot of aaya in her and I'm sure that aaya is blessing this doughty daughter of hers. Love you amma for being Dhamayanthi aaya's daughter, for the indomitable spirit that you have and for the unreserved love and affection that you show all. 

The post on Chandra Maama in the Dhamayanthi group made me feel proud that I have a patron of art and lover of fine arts as my uncle. 

I remember him as Bumbai Maama in my childhood. He was then a Bombay returned engineer in textile Technology and was looked upon with awe and respect by all in the family. We kids called him Bumbaai maama and I think, we were all  especially smitten by his height, elegance, refined manners and sophistication. His straight hair and flamboyant hairstyle made him the handsome Shashi Tharoor of those days.

I still remember the visit to a club in Coimbatore, where we saw maama fraternising with a foreigner who offered us tea and cake and who asked who would act the host. We bit on the cakes or scones or whatever they were and daintily sipped tea from exquisite cups. The awe never went away, really.

Maama always expected us to be at our best, rather difficult for runny nosed kids, dirty from scuffles, fights and adventurous games. We would all run to clean ourselves the moment we saw maama. We wanted to impress him when we saw his tennis racquet and heard that he was his university player for tennis...he was our Bjorn Borg...

He narrated  tales of his escapades at college and we listened to him in open mouthed wonder. There was never a dull moment with maama around. I recall him taking Devanthi under his wings, when he realised that she had a love of photography. He gave her an old camera of his, taught her the basics and appreciated her work. This when Devanthi was probably just about twelve or so. 


Diwali, the time for bakshish and 'kumbidu panam' was a rather difficult time for us, as we strove hard to get maama to give us the one rupee or so and the hundred rupee note that he always flashed as a reason to not have small change.



Today, he stands as a pioneer in offering music, dance, harikathas and celebrity speakers to Erode connoissuers at his beautifully constructed Anjaneya Park. He takes pride in his garden and collection of exquisite flora there. He is a doyen of art appreciators at Erode and as he continues this task of giving his home town a taste of the Mumbai artistic sensibility, we are happy that as always, this maama is unique and different. God bless our maama.