When life gets busy

I made a commitment to post at least two blogs a month but then- reality bit me, tied my hands to my desk, made me work long days and nights, giving me little time to think about anything else. I know it is a poor excuse, it is not like I forgot to eat or sleep or catch up on my favorite TV shows. I did them all, but kept finding excuses not to do this. My sister is extremely annoyed by this and has stopped asking me about my blog completely.

Now just when I thought the worst was over, I am again stuck on another tedious work that looks to take up my entire time. The prospects of never ending to do list, takeaway dinners and late night cab rides looms large for the next couple of weeks. This weekend it slowly dawned up on me that I am always going to have something or the other on my plate and there will always be more pressing issues than getting my post published. Therefore I decided today that nothing is more important than getting my blog post published.

Based on my rant above- don't think that moving from one tedious project to another is all I do. During the time that I didn't publish a blog post, I went on a drive to the beautiful Jenolan caves, got a haircut, saw a couple of movies on Netflix, tried out different recipes, joined Instagram (and now I am glued to it), continued to read a novel, etc.

Another interesting that I have been trying in the mean time is to talk in தமிழ் . It is not as easy as it sounds. There are so many English words that are part of our conversation these days, that we don't even realize it. It reminds of Kamal Hassan's dialogue in Vassol Raja- "தமிழ்- ல அடிக்கடி சொல்ற வார்த்தை  ஆனா ஆனா உடனே வர மாட்டேன்குது  --ஆ(after a thought) ..Feelings" I think it is a very intelligent and clever dialogue (full credits to Crazy Mohan sir). This dialogue is a glaring example of how English words have gradually replaced the தமிழ் words as we speak. I am not a fanatic here or in anyway implying that one language is better than the other. Being a தமிழச்சி , I thought I should at least know my mother tongue well. So my sister and I have taken up this challenge to keep our conversation strictly in தமிழ். It has been quite interesting and amusing to see how much we fumble to use a correct word in தமிழ். For example- what is the first thing that we say when we pick up the phone? We say Hello! I have been trying to find an alternative word for Hello in தமிழ் and still not sound like a news anchor (வணக்கம்!). For the time being I am just saying "சொல்லு டீ/ டா/ அம்மா" when I pick up.

Go ahead and try this challenge in your mother tongue. You'll be surprised as to how much we don't know our own mother tongue. In case you are a தமிழன்  who is reading my blog- have you tried to speak only in தமிழ் before? Do you struggle to speak colloquial தமிழ் like I do? If you have any ideas you'd like to share please comment below and let's get our conversation started!

P.S: Another goal unlocked for the year- try to write a blog post in தமிழ்! Maybe!