Sunday
It's a Sunday. There's nothing remarkable about it because it is a Sunday far away from home. How far away you ask? About a decade away from the Sundays I remember. I don't want to use the clichéd "Those were the days.." here, but those indeed were the days. I remember reading somewhere that the strongest memories are those that were made using all five senses. Sundays were typical back then, and when someone says Sunday, those are the days I remember. Sunday meant waking up at 8 as the headlines were being read out.
Sunday meant going back to sleep after the 8 am bed coffee.
Sunday meant waking up 2 hours later to the smell of keerai, chowchow or whatever kozhambu of the day.
Sunday meant the smell and sound of potatoes being being fried because said keerai and chowchow were not considered edible by 25% of my four member family.
Sunday meant wondering how the kid sister could eat spinach.
Sunday meant exiting the shower and being fed hot paruppu sadham and fried potatoes while Sun TV was still on; either showing James Vasanthan hosting some family show, or a movie that did not have less run time than the ads that it was interspersed with.
Sunday meant appa battling against the ants in the house with erumbu powder in an old shower to shower dabba.
Sunday meant coffee again at 3:30 or whenever TV ran out of interesting things resulting in us waking up the parents.
Sunday meant homework after two nights of procrastination.
Sunday meant calling friends on the landline to remind each other to avoid missing stuff for school.
Sunday meant going back with excitement because Monday meant new lessons and no 'reading' of old lessons in class.
Sunday meant sitting on the hot blanket after appa ironed uniform for the next day.
Sunday meant searching for the school belt.
Sunday meant remembering that I forgot to cover the text book ask appa to cover the text book which was only covered a couple of weeks back.
Sundays do not have that familiar aura anymore. Nor do they stand out from the rest of the week. Sunday has become yet another day of waking up to spending another day with the laptop and phone. Those Sundays will be the Sundays I remember.