Thursday 3 July 2008

Dad re-discovering his roots!

My Dad's a Mallu. He was born in Kerala and his whole family shifted to Madras (Lloyd's road to be specific) sometime in the late 60s. Since he spent most of his Childhood in Kerala, he kinda knows Malayalam.

Usually, his TV time-table was pretty monotonous. News at 7,730,8,9,930 pm every night. Thanks to him, the rest of our family has the same schedule kinda imposed upon us. But off late, the 930 news slot has been sacrificed for a couple of serials, 2 serials concerning "Krishna/Guruvayoorappan" to be precise. Now these two are aired on Surya TV and Asianet at the same time. Kinda like some 2 high profile serials being aired at the same time on Sun TV and Jaya TV.

Now, what my dad does is pretty tickling. He sees one of the serials, waits for the break in that and watches the other one till there's a break in that and so on. This may not be new for the serial Serial Watchers, but he adds his own Mallu Touch to this.

Deviating a bit, I learnt some basic French at school and whenever I watch a French movie, I am able to pick up 1 word in each sentence.

My Dad, similarly, seems to have forgotten his Malayalam (Constant Exposure to Madras Tamil can do that I am told) and picks up a single word from each sentence. This can get pretty irritating when he picks it up, says it, translates it to Tamil and waits for the next word. Accompanied by frequent "tsk tsks" and Singing along with Jesudas, who sings the title track for both serials, this habit has started to get on my nerves.

But what the heck? If he can derive pleasure from doing this, if he can keep himself happy for that 1/2 hr, who cares? Why would I want to break his Happy Little Bubble?? Sigh, My Dad!!!

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