Co-optex, Solidaire, Samuelson's Economics books

These days when you go to a portrait studio, the assistant tells you

1. you get so many poses
2. you are allowed this many dress changes
3. you get this many props
4. you are allowed this many backgrounds

Then the adults in the family enter into roundtable discussions on who is wearing what color, how to optimize the contrast of everyones dress colors, the props and the background and either

a. launch into a philosophical discussion on color and background
(typically done by the grandparents) where statements like

"andha kaalathula naanga ellam jamakkalam dhan background-aa use pannuvom. Appove photo nalla dhan varum!"

"In those days we used floor spreads as the background and the photos would still come out nice!" followed by

"En ponnukku enna? .. saaku thuniya kattinaa kuda azhagaa dhan iruppa!"

"What does my daughter lack? .. even if you make her wear a flour sack she will look beautiful!" which invariably sends a not so young man into a dream scene where the woman is wearing only a "saaku thuni" and without realizing it blurts out "saaku thuni ondi pottunda endha ponnu dhan nalla irukka maataa?"*** (Won't any girl wearing just a flour sack be beautiful?")***

b. try to infuse logic into the situation (typically done by the young parents)

If the kids stand in front of me and complement my blue sari, then it doesn't matter where you stand or what color you wear.. they are going to look at the girls in the picture anyways! or

The Stephan Boltzmann law clearly states that for a black body like mine the radiation of color is dependent on the constant Sigma which is equal to .. enge en log tablesa konjam edu paapom! (can you go get me my logarithmic tables book please!)

or

c. run around in like crazy chicken around the studio, oblivious to any color discussions going on.. (typically done by the kids)

One thing is true though. In those days there were no simple backdrops. You went to Sathyam studio and they had this artwork painted on the wall with a archway and laurel wreaths and every family would take a photo under that same background.

The once in two year home portrait sessions where a relative or hired cameraman took photos of the entire family (we are talking an assembly of ~40 folks here) would usually be with creative "Co-optex" handloom blanket backgrounds.

Laughing at this photo now, but for 25 year ago Chennai technology, it is pretty cool!

While today the props include nicely painted ponies, giant alphabet blocks, fake rocks and dinosaurs, the early eighties saw large scale solid state devices like Philips Radios and Solidaire TV's as props. Why not? You have just started enjoying good times and this whole photo session is to get a sampler of the "times they are a changing".

The only prop that we actually remember being there perpetually for no reason were those heavy Economics books by some dude called Samuelson. For years the family starred at this series of books neatly sandwiched between two elephants on top of the radio. Had dad ever read those books? Did he buy them to show off? What kind of a sick dude would show off with such dull books which seemed a cardboard read even for 5th graders?

The last India trip did have a search for the elephants and the Samuelson books for pure sentimental value, but were not be found.

At least the two photos are digitized now and will be around for Jr. and the little one to see 25 years later.

What would props and background look like in the early 30's?

2030's that is!

***Do not try this type of comment at home. Comment made by professional son-in-law under controlled conditions.

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Tough Girls in pink

Now that a whole week has gone by, after coming back from India, the house has returned to a routine, especially with Grandmas arrival today. It is a full house again, with Daddy and the four women who shape his daily life.

To celebrate, we decided to get matching fake tattoos! A friend of mine had given me these Harley Davidson stick on's, just the day before we left for India. We had promised the kids that we will put the tattoos in the airport and have some fun while waiting for the plane. Although we spent more than half a day at the airport (more on that later), we did not use the tattoo because daddy forgot to take them and put them in his pocket!

So, we did the tattoo thing on our return, and took pictures. The girls look all tough and giggly, now that we have matching eagles!

Considering that daddy does not even know how to ride a motorbike (having graduated from bicycle directly to the four wheelers) and his only experience on a two wheeler being limited to four sessions of scooter coaching class in the desolate Boat Club road, from his Chitappa almost two decades ago, this is as close to a Harley as he gets!

Now, we talked about the girls, and being tough! What has pink got to do with it? The answer lies in the next picture! Behold, the tough girl, wrapped in pink...

In case you are wondering "Why the happiness radiating from her face?", it is because she has been given a new "blankie" aka security blanket. After our bitter "blankie" or "thuni" experiences with Jr. growing up, we decided to get not one but two blankets for the little one. On second thought, we should have gotten a dozen!

I do not know if as a child, I had a security blanket which had to be within 2 feet of me at all times, which was a necessity for me to smell and touch before I could go to sleep. I vividly remember some of my mom's sarees and was probably holding her saree while sleeping, but nothing like this phenomena we see in the US of A.

People who are used to seeing me, probably think I have started some political party which goes by a "Pink" thundu! PTMK, that's me, Pink Thundu munetra katchi! Look at every photograph of me taken anywhere from Disneyland to weddings to just around the house and you can spot me with the pink blanket on my shoulder, irrespective of wheather the kid also happens to be on my shoulder or not!

In short, daddy is nothing but a blanket depot of sorts for the little girls. Jr. graduated from the little pink blanket to a larger full size "poobie" (Pooh Bear blanket shortened to poobie by her!). Although she doesn't go with it everywhere, she still sleeps with it at home and takes it on long trips in the van, if she plans to sleep on the ride!

The little one is still dependent on "thuni" for her every breath! As fate would have it, there was a typhoon in HongKong the day we were supposed to leave for India and our flight got cancelled, rerouted etc. etc. Long story short, in all the hoopla we forgot to take both "thunis"to India. One was still drying at home. That left us with one blanket for the entire 13 days.

"Madras is hot. I can wash the thing and dry it on the terrace while she is playing! Don't worry!", I told a worried San., and kept that promise too! Although smeared with kumkum, turmeric, coffee, boost, etc. from the wedding and the ranganathan street floor, mylapore tank bus stop, etc. from our local trips, the blanket was holding up rather well till day 10 of the trip. Then it happened!

Within thirty seconds after reaching the Meenambakkam airport, there was so much activity because some guy had parked his car at a 18 degree angle to the pavement, as opposed to the customary 17 and this had jammed traffic all the way to the entrance. There was a frantic search for the second car following us and while my brother and me went in different directions, the sleepy little one, had dropped her "thuni" from my shoulders. We were glad to get inside the airport and just as we were about to wave goodbye to my brother, the little one chipped in "my thuni?!".

The whole airport whizzed past me and San in slow motion. I could see her lips moving, but could not hear the words! They might have said something like "All you have to do was guard that stupid blanket and you failed! Where did you drop it? In the car? or at home? Where?". I muttered something like "It was there on me when I got in the car". She either dropped it outside or in the car!". The rest of the conversations were immaterial.

We knew our return trip was going to be to rerouted to San Franciso, via Hellkong!

And it was! We were so happy to come home to the backup blankie. We will spare you the details of the return. The story does not end there! Considering that there is no immediate plan to graduate her from the little thuni to something like "poobie" and also considering we don't have the energy to go through a "blankie weening" process, we decided to search and get two additional blankies.

One has to remember that any two feet by four piece of cloth can be purchased as a "receiving blanket" from the local Toys'r'us, Walmart or Target, but they cannot become a "thuni"! There is a careful ageing process that goes with transforming an ordinary cloth into a security blanket.

In what would put the making of Jason Bourne to shame, this 2x4 cloth goes through 3 washes in a washer/ dryer per week over a couple of years, gets spit on, mothers milk/formula/whole milk/chocolate milk/ovaltine leaked on, peed on in the car seat at times during a rare scientific phenomena called the "midway diaper shift", extensively vomited on, dragged and dropped in places that range from normal parking lots in local shops and malls, to exotic locations like National parks, village temples, paddy fields, australian beaches, not to mention trampled on by the adults feet, elder sisters bicyle, tricycle etc. It has even occasionally been run over by the minivan!

It aquires a unique smell, faded color and texture over time. It also aquires some superpowers. The little one can "possibly" hold one end of the blankie while being perched on daddys hip, drop the other end on the floor, swirl it around, then pick it up and get some kind of idea of the nuances of the floor. It is like that Johnsons bud with fluid which tells the CSI investigator, "This is blood, alright!". Such are the qualities of the "thuni"!

Although she posed happily with the new blanket, she disowned it after 20 minutes!

One has to come up with a rapid ageing process now that matches the performance of the natural process. This is something along the lines of making artificial diamonds that match the color, carat, cut and clarity of a natural diamond.

Even the scientist in me is not ready to take up that challenge, because I know the little one can detect that the % Ranganathan Street platform is off by 0.001% on the new blankie compared to the old one! So why bother?

I can only dream of having a crowd chanting, "Pink Thalapathi Mandaveli Sundar...."

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