The Sea And Hyma 1

Hyma is my cousin..a year older to me and the forerunner of our batch, all of us, the second generation kids........It was stated that none of the babies before Hyma in our family survived.....So,Hyma started and all of us followed....Sometimes the fact that we all survived was attributed to her VENNU CHALAVA....Means that she is covering the fire for us all.....May be she does....For doctors have testified that her x-ray reports show an extra rib....

She is also the proud carrier of that much used up name.....Our family seems to harbour a mistaken belief that they are a blasted royal lineage and keep giving us the same names so much that now there are no less than five Hymas, three Ratnas,two pairs of Anasuyas and Kameswaris and ofcource we are all rather tired of the whole thing....


So, Hyma the first ,is not only a leader of the batch but also a rare beauty,.( rare also in the fact that she is genuinely unconscious of her looks) a fact that all of us girls have to regretfully concede.....Ofcource the crown has been presented to her only after a very stiff fight ,mind you....(We have our our self-respect..Don"t we?)..Delicate, curly haired and with unblemished complexion, , Hyma used to resemble a JAAJIPOOVU in our childhood .....Still looks like a jajipoovu these days......but like one that has slightly gone to fat....Exsoose me, for being catty...You do"nt know what it is to live under the shadow of one such great looker...as me and Janaki.(nearer her age) have discovered to our chagrin......

Looks like Hyma has got a lot of her MENAMAMA----my father---in her than his own kids....Surely she has inherited the same zest for life...easy attitude,a capacity to savour the simple pleasures and joys that life brings...,and same whole-hearted enthusiasm for her interests.... Launches herself headlong into every thing that catches her attention..and tries to the best of her ability to live life to the full....

By nature, a warm person, her interests are varied....That included great cooking (we can all vouch for it) ,classical vocal music, (passable, i daresay..though she might kill me for that)....,playing veena and sitar (she has a delicate touch), and to top it all.........talking...(That is an A grade too).. As Rajnikanth says in some film ,Hyma is a perfect Indian and would drop dead if she has to stop talking.....We remember how once as a kid Hyma engaged a 70 plus friend of grandpa, who dropped in when the elders were not at home....She sat talking to him nearly a full one and half hour non-stop till aunt came home...while we yawned and waited in the background.....

Gardening also used to be her passion once,...when they used to stay at an independent house, --Alas, they had a transfer and had to move out perforce---.....During that time she literally filled up her garden with a great variety of croutons, cacti, and others....There were so many that an exasperated Bavagaru had to put his foot firmly down on further expansion....Ofcource, like all good wives she never paid heed and kept bringing in some and shoving them out of sight under the portico....

They stayed at Vizag for a decade---till...94 or 5 i think---moved to Hyderabad for few years and shifted again to Vizag two years back and this time they got a flat on the beach road, and Hyma, with her two sons having settled down, found that she has acquired other hobbies too....A renewed interest in vocal music....She has joined a group and started taking annamachrya music lessons.......She insists her group is in great demand to do kutcheries for ganesh pandals so much that she recently informed Bavagaru that she is fast running out of stock for jari sarees and must refurnish her wardrobe ....

Then there are yoga classes.. ..These days she could do BHASTRI, she gleefully informed me....and meditations in the nearby Ramakrishna mutt.....( the other day during her meditation she gave a shhhhhh when irked by a noisy group of visitors, closed her eyes and when she opened them after few minutes,...to her horror,.....found all of them around , reverently prostrating before her..)...Between bouts of laughter she told me she is being more careful these days....

ANNADAANAm....That is yet another work she takes up nowadays....A friend,..few like minded people and Hyma get together, contribute to the kitty and very frequently on festival days, organize free food distributions to the poorer and needy people in the locality....She has a Thataki of a maid with her,who arranges to fetch food from a mess...A curry , dal, sambar, curd, rice .....Ten Rs per head...Sometimes the women cook up few kilos of extra rice, and dal... somebody contributes a sweet or fruit and nearly seventy five hungry people could have lunch, for a 700, or 800Rs .. ..She explained the economics of it to me.......and I must say i am impressed...


But what i am going to write on is about her recently acquired, most favourite pastime..........More on it later....