Zeno Says

கிடைக்க வேண்டுமென கஷ்டப்படு
கிடைக்கவில்லையெனில் கஷ்டப்படாதே

இரகசிய சினேகிதிக்காக(அல்ல)

எங்க வீட்டுக்கு வாயென்
நிறைய பொம்மை தரென்
நிறைய choclate தரென்
பெரிய TV இருக்கு
அவனோடு சேர்ந்து விளையாடலாம்
அன்பாய் அழைத்த அத்தை

எங்கள் வீட்டுக்கு வர
நிறைய நகை கொண்டுவா
நிறைய பணம் கொண்டுவா
பெரிய car கொண்டுவா
அவனோடு சேர்ந்து வாழ
ஆசையில் ஆணையிடும் அத்தை

அன்றே போய் இருக்கலோமோ?

காலை பொழிதின் மயக்கதிலே

Footboard-ல் தொங்கியவாறு
Road-ல் scating
செய்யும் பயணிகள்

ஆட்டுபட்டியில் அடைத்து
Rollercoaster ride
தரும் shareautoகள்

Traffic rulesஐயும்
Signalஐயும் சட்டை
செய்யாத twowheelerகள்

Handsfreeயில் இரகசியசி்னெகிதியொடு
கொஞ்சிக்கொண்டும் கதைத்துக்கொண்டும்
அனைத்தையும் சபித்தவாறு

சென்று கொண்டிருந்தான்
wrongside-ல்.

Deepavali

காற்று மண்டலத்தை
கரி மண்டலமாக்கும் புகை

தலையை பிளக்கும்
காதை செவிடாக்கும் சத்தம்

நடக்க முடியாமல்
யாழ்ப்பாணமாகிப் போன தெருக்கள்

காந்தி தாத்தாவை
குப்பை கூளமாய் வீணாக்கி

துப்புரவு தொழிலாளியை
stretch செய்ய வைக்கும்

பட்டாசு பிசாசு
தேவையா விசுவரூபமாய் கேள்விகள்

வெடிக்காத வெடியாய்
புஸ்வாணமாய் காணாமல் போனது

சிவகாசி குழந்தைத்தொழிலாளி
மனதில் மின்னி மறைந்தபோது!

For a very long time recently, I am back to square one.Yeah,I have been reading nothing else than tamil fiction.One such novel that held my attention was Dollar Marumagal (daughter in law) by Sudha Murthy. None else than the wife of NRN, the co-founder of Infosys.

It was initially written in kannada in the name, "dollar sosai" not dosai, sosai which in kannada means daughter in law. It is also a text book in mysore university. It has also been translated in telugu, hindi and marathi. Even it has come has teleserial in Zee. Hope our Radhikaa doesn't comes as the heroine either in sun or kalaignar tv

Our hero is the ambitious younger son of a middle class family with an elder brother who leads a contented life.The story begins with, hero(technically speaking, he cant be called hero!!To know why keep reading) hearing a sweet voice in the train, get to meet the girl,sacrifices his berth to her due to a confusion in the ticket allotment by the clerk(which company wrote the software for the railway ticketing system?) ends up staying in the house of the girl,comes to know her life is filled with grief, the girl takes care of him during his arm fracture. Well, what else he falls in love with that girl. (Poor hero doesnt have guts like NRN, who proposed the sudha, the author herself)

In the mean while, he gets a job in TCS,(does the skipping, earns a lot more in dollars. Being a NRI,He gets married to a girl from a rich family during his vacation to india and takes her back to US.

If you havent guessed, the girl with who he has fallen in love will end up as wife to your elder brother, either you havent watched any of the balachander movies or you havent been reading this post with your fullest concentration.(You gotta concentrate in Reading comprhension section, if you are appearing to CAT this year)

Well, the story is not all about a guy who lost his lady love being ambitious and chasing dollars. It is not all about just another day in today's IT techie life,though it portrays it. It is all about the knowledge transfer(odyssey of meeting with long term people) that happens to a mother to be precise the mother in law during a short term visit of the with two daughter in laws, one at onsite(america) and the other at offshore(india).

She gets to interact with different types of NRI's hearing about their "ABCD's (American Born Confused Desi's) as well as the ground reality about her dollar daughter in law.she gets an insight about, People not interfering in other personal lives, man and woman sharing the domestic chores in an equal fashion, Festivals being postponed to week ends and racism.
At one instance in the novel, the mother in law travels alone in a less crowded bus. When she goes and sit near a old lady of her age, the old lady moves away and sits in another seat. The mother in law compares this to an incident where she sacrificed a seat to travel in a crowded corporate bus, when a sweeper woman sat near her. (what else could be an eye opener, even though it could be a land of opportunities irrespective of caste, it is a land with difference to color)

I wouldn't be surprised, if the novel is nothing else but a collection of the account of true stories several NRI's.

This is not something written in mind to act as detrimental effect to avoid the long term guys making a skip(pun intended). as well as to paint a bleak picture that migration and settling down at US is dangerous. It is not to emphazize,"east or west, home is best"

Still,I strongly feel that it is a must to be read by all the software guys, girls and their parents as well as non-software people.(Because everybody lives in illusion) hence a post in english about a tamil novel. (I remember seeing the same title even in english.)

இரகசிய சினேகிதிக்காக

அவளை கூட்டத்தில்
தேடும் கண்கள்
அவளை கண்டபின்
தொலைத்தது கூட்டத்தை!

avalai kootathil
thedum kangal
avalai kandapin
tholaithathu kootathai!