Of Kalki & Vigadan

One lazy summer afternoon, a month back, I was idling at my parent's house. I felt like reading something light and rummaged through the cabinet. Inside there were current and old issues of "Ananda vigadan", "Kalki" & "Mangayar Mallar". I took out some issues with colorful front page, stacked them besides me and started browsing through them. Usually my first reading includes glancing at the pictures, reading jokes & interesting tidbits. Maybe some "Kelvi Badil" when accompanied by interesting pictures. However, this time I decided to pack all those magazines in my empty suticase and bring them with me to US. That way I could read "The Week" one day and 4 month old Ananda Vikatan the other. A break from monotony.

I have them all stacked in by bedside. I go through several iterations of one magazine and incrementally finish reading the entire magazine after a few days. I found that the jokes no longer are funny. But the "cinema star" gossip articles are still interesting. A day with Asin, Virkam's body building secret, Nayantara & Simbu seeing each other etc, Jyothika to wed surya, this is accompanied by a picture of jo & Surya from the movie "Chill Yendru oru Kadal" (Cold love???).

Kalki and Mangayar Malar have a plethora of cooking, household & Beauty tips. I am not sure if all of these work. Here is one I read: Want your hair to become soft? Apply vinegar mixed with 1 teaspoon of lemon. Can someone try this and let me know if it works? And then there are these short stories. I love reading them. They are short and some really pack a punch. I can't read "Thodar Kadai" and wait till a week to read the next chapter. My Paati used to cut out each week (like sujatha's Ganesh Vasanth) and make a book out of it. That was much easier reading for me.

Yesterday I read this short story about a middle aged mother who is called "Sudoku Sundari" coz she spends all her time doing sudoku. Her hubby darling ends up taking "Kadugu thalichu kottina Moru sadam" for breakfast and lunch. He thinks of making a business out of his wife's sudoku passion by having her start a sudoku class. He comes home that evening with this brilliant idea and finds that his wife has joined a sudoku class taught by a next street "maami" for 250Rs a month. This story is accompanied by a color picture of a rolly polly, saree clad middle aged lady sitting on the bed with a paper and pencil. Her face shows excitement in solving the sudoku. A thin wirey veshti clad husband looks at her with raised eyebrows, scratching his head and a pavadai clad girl peeps from the kitchen with a coffee cup for her dad.

I have 3 months of Kali, viagadan and Mangayar Malar to read. I just finished the first iteration. Good for another 6 months!