Our Third Empire!

Off late Google [read Third Empire] is playing a very vital role in decision making session of my family members. For example, last week all of us, including my Gundu mama and Yo Uncle (If you are wondering who are they, then please read this. And ya, please don’t forget to comment! :D) were watching TV. Nothing great was on TV so I simply switched to a random music channel. A song started playing (unfortunately I don’t remember which one!)  And suddenly my dad made a statement!

Dad : Hmmm.. It’s been really long since I listened to Hariharan song. Such a nice rendition by him.

My mom gave him such a horrified look as if he told her that an alien from Pluto came to earth and gobbled up Hariharan as a revenge for removing its name from Planets list.

Mom : Oh please! Don’t insult Hariharan by telling that he sang this song and all (She is a major Hariharan fan)

Dad : Oh is it?! Then tell me who sang it?! It is Hariharan.

Mom : No, its not!

Dad : Ok then tell me who is it!

Mom : Wait I will tell you! I don’t remember this guy name now. He is that tall lanky looking guy!

Gundu mama : Its that guy! Shankar Mahadevan!

“Yo” Uncle : Eh Gundu! Its not Shankar Mahadevan!

Gundu Mama : Then who else!

Mom : Ayio.. I can’t remember his name.

She turned to me and asked me to help! Since I had no clue, I just rattled off my in depth knowledge on Tamil Industry singers.

Me : Karthik?

Mom : No!

Me : Unnikrishnan?!

Mom : No No!!

Me : SPB?!

Mom (Also a great fan of SPB) gave me such a threatening look as if she is going to push me down from the LIC building!

Me : Eh.. sorry.. came out in a flow! Naresh Iyer?!

Mom : No!!!

Me : Douglas Kennedy?!

Mom : Eh.. who is that?!

Me : He is a writer! I was just testing if you are really listening to me or not!

Mom : Hmph.. Ya! Krish! That’s it! Krish is the singer!

Dad and Gundu mama : NO!

Yo uncle looked at me – Uh huh! Fight is boring! Come we will go check out Third empire.

Thus we ended up in the front of comp and it turned out that some Belly Raj has sung the song. So the fight came to an end with everyone getting disappointed and myself and Yo uncle having a nice laugh!

Next day some other issue came up. This time it was the population of Chennai.

Dad : Would be around 3 to 4 crores.

Gundu mama : Cha cha.. Would be in lakhs!

Dad (with again a horrified look) Are you mad?! Ever visited T nagar during Weekends?! You cant even come out alive from that place, esp if it’s a festive season! And you are saying that Chennai population would be in Lakhs!?

Mom : 8 crores!

Dad and Gundu mama looked at each other and started laughing!

Yo uncle, who was happily sitting on sofa with a book turned to me and said: Comp is on! Go consult the third empire!

I googled and found out that its 4.34 Million. The reactions?! Don’t even ask about it!!!

The story behind my "Yo" Uncle's sheepish smiles!

Recently two uncles of mine, has come down to spend some time with us. I am pretty fond of both of them. One of them is lovingly known as Gundu mama (Gundu means fat in Tamil!) Everyone calls him like that only. In fact, majority of our common friends don’t know his real name at all. And the second one has landed straight down from Dubai. Nowadays he is trying to differentiate between Kozhambu (Kudumbu in his words) and Sambhar and also between Podi (chilli gunpowder) and Maavu (batter used for making Idly and Dosai). Thus, you can see his expert knowledge in Tamil. But he is one super cool person! So let’s call him the “Yo” uncle! (I do hope they don’t read this post in near future!)

Yesterday scene is something which is worth mentioning here. My mom generally makes the batter at home itself (In other words, Maavu archify with the help of the grinder). As in we don’t buy it from outside. She always does that in the evening but then, she remembered that she had to go to market to pick up few stuff!

My mom : Ok I have to go to market.

Yo uncle : (Since he knew that she had to carry out the maavu archifying process, he offered to help!) Oh ok akka, you carry on. I will put the podi in the grinder and finish your work.

[Sensing that some hilarious moments are about to follow, Yours sincerely and Gundu mama positioned ourselves on the sofa so that we don't miss out anything!]

My mom : ?!?!?! why do you need to put podi in the grinder?

Yo uncle: Why? Are you planning to buy podi from outside to make the Dosai?

My mom : AYIO! Podi is different. We use Maavu to make Dosai’s!

Yo uncle: “55 watt bulb sheepish smile” (In order to cover up the situation) ok then I will make Kudumbu!

Me : Is it a goan dish?! (He is from goa!)

Yo uncle: Eh? No, your mom only made it yesterday!

My mom : No I didn’t! I don’t even know how to make such a dish!

Yo uncle: But you made it yesterday for dinner!

My mom : What did I make for yesterday dinner?

My dad : Same old Sambhar! What else!

Laughter erupts which gets silenced by Mother dear’s chilly stare directed to dad!

My mom to Yo uncle: That was Sambhar!!

Yo uncle: “75 watt bulb sheepish smile”

Gundu Mama: What’s the connection between Kudumbu and Sambhar?! I mean, how can one get confused with 2 different words!

Yo uncle : Actually I thought Sāmbhar was the one which you made for today’s lunch!

My mom : Now what did I make for lunch?

My dad : You showed some mercy and made Kozhambu for a change!

Another laughing session which was again silenced by Mother dear’s threatening advances, following which my dad disappeared from the scene!

Mom : That’s Kozhambu !! Not Kudumbu!!

Yo uncle : “100 watt bulb sheepish smile!”

This announcement has been pending for a very long time! Parzi has awarded me Freakin Fabulous award.

Though I feel that I am not eligible to receive this award (as you can see from the amount of cobwebs my blog has gathered from past few weeks!) Please do visit her blog ! She is a total sweetheart with a nice blog!