I am back!!

Hi all,

I am back. After months of traveling and office work, I am finally free. 

My team and I have earned a month of vacation! It's time for a road trip. Tomorrow we , my darling Saranya and I, will be going back to our place in Kerala. Some of my team mates and their family will be joining us to experience Kerala. It is their first time in Kerala and they will be with us for a week or two and then they will continue on with their vacation in Kerala.

I hope I will be able to blog at least once a week.

Time to pack and for a good night's sleep as we will be starting early tomorrow. My first time on road from Pune to Kerala. Hopefully the roads wont as bad as they are in Kerala.

Keep checking for updates!

- RM

Back Home!

Dear Readers,

           Saranya here. I am home after a long time. Rohit is in Delhi for his project. So this time I made the journey home alone. Kerala seems to be a bit too hot than Pune. I never used to sweat when in Pune, even after working in my garden but here just walking out in the yard makes me sweat. I was so happy to get rid of my saree and switch to nightie the moment I reached home.

Nightie is not some much entertained in my home. My granny hates it. Though I have worn nightie in Banglore and in Pune, wearing one in my home in Kerala was very rare. I wish Rohit was here. He is not so fond of me wearing nightie (some time I use nightie as a way to protest ;) ).






Granny insisted that I change to some thing 'proper' : a set mundu and I protested. It is too hot to wear set mundu...but then I agreed and changed. After usual temple visits I was happy to get rid of melmundu. This summer season is like hell, too hot for me to be comfortable.


Next day I was visited by my cousin Nithya. She and her parents lives about 15 minutes from my home. She had just returned from Hyderabad alone for Vishu as her husband had to stay back due to work. So we girls decided to spend our 'lonely' vacation together at her place (Her parents had gone to her maternal uncle's place for a wedding). The walk to her place is something I will remember for a long time. It was kind of like an adventure for me..an exciting one. Me wearing mundu/lungi blouse at home and in our farm is something very normal. ( I have worn mundu since I was a child, I started wearing lungi at home relatively recently. ) I have never actually ventured out wearing mundu/lungi blouse (by mundu blouse I didn't mean set mundu). This time we girls were in such a hurry to get to her place, I decided not to change. So here I was out in the open wearing mundu blouse and thorthu. Walking by the paddy fields wearing this traditional attire, I felt like a actress from the 80s.

Nithya was used to seeing me like this. She is shy girl. When her husband asked her to wear lungi blouse, she approached me to talk about it.( It was from her that I came to know that guys love to see girls in lungi blouse. ) This was an opportunity for her to try it out and this was the main reason we girls decided to stay  her place rather than at my place. As soon as we reached her place, she changed into her husbands lungi. We spent the whole day walking around and working in her back yard (thengumthop : coconut farm) and cooking. She was really enjoying it. She said it was exciting to be walking around in lungi blouse and thorthu in front of the workers in the yard and the maid.

Archana Kavi in mundu blouse. This is quite similar to how I am at home.

Archana Kavi in mundu blouse

Even though I like wearing lungi/mundu blouse, just wearing it to satisfy my man's desire isn't enough for me. I know he loves to see me wearing it. But wearing it like a fashion show is some thing I hate. I like to work wearing it; be it be cooking, be it be working in the garden or cleaning the house. I think , only when we , girls, work in this attire do we give it the soul. It's an attire to get muddy in or get dirty in, or get sweaty in. It is the attire of the hard working malayalee lady.  I do get dirty in it. I can hardly keep my thorthu white :P . And getting dirty was reason for me to try lungis.

I will be back with more..
Wish you all, a Happy Vishu :)
-Saranya

My first post : Saranya

Hi,

   This time it's not Rohit, it's Saranya here. Rohit is quite busy with his work and is finding it hard to blog. So I thought I will pick up where he left until he is free. I see that it has been really long since he had posted anything here. I will be posting when ever I feel like writing.

He has written a lot about me, but for those of you who doesn't know me let me introduce myself. I am Saranya Rohit. Like my husband, I am too found of our traditional style of dressing and living.

This is just an introductory post. I don't think I will be writing each and every incident like Rohit did over here (he'll be hearing from me for the amount of details he has put into his posts). But, I'll be back soon with something interesting.


-Saranya Rohit.

Deepika Padukone in Lungi

Dear Readers,

  Saranya just found these photos in the net. They show Deepika Padukone in a Lungi and Shirt along with SRK wearing a Mundu with Shirt. They are posters of their new movie. Finally Lungis are becoming some kind of fashion statement. Lets just hope that more actresses wear lungi and bring it back to fashion. It is cool to wear lungi , no matter if you are a girl or a boy.

Doesn't she look gorgeous in Lungi??
Feel free to leave a comment and share your views.
                                                                           -RM

The Beach House

A week after the events of my previous post, we headed to Chennai to a beach house owned by a very close friend of mine. It is a gorgeous place.

He maintained it as a guest house to his foreign business guests. It is a beautiful place with feel of a grand holiday resort. Right in the backyard they have the beach and the blue Bay of Bengal sea. It was closed for maintenance and the work had just been completed. We were allowed to stay there for a week as a weeding present from him. We had the chef cook delicious food for us from Italian to Thai. He was fantastic and the maids took care of the house hold stuff. We just had to eat , sleep and have tons of fun!


So here we are, in a place away from home, we are practically strangers here and we could do anything. It started off as a dare. I dare her to wear lungi blouse in the house . She was shy because there were loads of people in the house; the maids, the gardener , the manger. But then she was ready to be a bit bold.

Next day when we came down for breakfast, she was dressed in her favorite lungi , blouse and a thorthu. The maids were surprised but they were scared to ask us anything; I bet they have seen weirder things in this house. The manager was the only guy who did ask about her attire. He had seen this dress in movies and asked us why she was wearing it; he thought it was part of some ritual or something that she was wearing it for. He said that most of the time in tamil movies when a malayali girl/ women stereotype is to be shown they use this dress. He was quick to point out that though the dress was worn disgustingly in the movies, ma'am wore it neatly and quite beautifully.

Mamta Mohandas in Lungi Blouse and thorthu 

We were happy to tell him all about the dress and its culture and that we preferred wearing our traditional dress than to any other thing. He said ' Go ahead , sir. It's just fine. Once we had few foreign couples staying here and in a party one gentle man came wearing a skirt. He said it is called a 'kilt'.'

She was getting better with each day. She was no longer shy to be walking around in the beach or resting at the pool side wearing lungi blouse. We took so many photos that I ran out space in my laptop. It was awesome to see her walk in the beach wearing lungi and blouse . Reminded me of the old 'Chemeen' movie. She was so comfortable. She really liked walking like that outdoors.

It was easily the best time we had.


-RM

A week end in Kottayam

Dear readers,

     Its been long time since I wrote anything here (except of my post about me getting married). We were really busy. Loads of visitors, family functions..we never got time to rest. We spend two weeks after the wedding visiting relatives. It was fun but nothing much that I need to be sharing here, after all there wasn't anything related to the topic of this blog.


One day we decided to visit one of my friend's mom (my friend lives in Qatar with his wife), Mary aunty. She wanted to come for our wedding but she couldn't make it. So we drove to her place in Kottayam, a beautiful estate; where she lives with one of her relative lady who takes care of her.
She is lovely woman, very sweet, very traditional. I love her like my own mom. I had been there countless times. She was delighted to see Saranya. She wanted us to stay for the week end and we did. But unfortunately or fortunately we hadn't planned for this and we didnt have anything to change into.

She gave me a lungi, probably her son's, for me to change into and said she'll find something for Saranya to wear. I was watching TV when Saranya came calling for me for lunch and to my surprise she was dressed in a chatta and lungi. Accompanying her came Mary aunty and asked me how she looked. I just couldn't take my eyes off her , that I didnt reply.  While trying out aunty's nighties , all of them where loose for her, she found aunty's chatta. Aunty jokingly suggested her to try it out , never expecting her to, and she wore it.

She looks stunning in any traditional dress, be it be set-mundu, lungi-blouse or this, chatta-lungi.

"Girls dont like wearing these. Make in my younger days we used to wear only this..." , aunty said.

All through the week end Saranya wore chatta and lungi. She wasn't shy walking around in aunty's estate in it. I bet some of the laborers who work there would have been wondering who she is.

A fantastic week end with my lovely Mary aunty and as an added perk  I got see my darling in chatta lungi.

- RM
 

Wedding Bells..

Dear Readers..

I know its been a long time since I posted....

Last month was the best month of my life. Saranya and I got married!! We were all over the map all this time... Now we are back in Pune. I will be back with more of our experiences and tales..

Till then,

Signing off,  RM