Jemmai is my paternal grandmother, she was the sweetest person in the world, never remember her ever scolding me! Always took our side in any fight and would sneak and get us ice-cream sticks from Tequila bar. Her one favorite pastime was to go to all the Tamil plays and kaccheris (music concerts) in Shanmukhananda Hall, Tamil movies in Aurora Theatre or video in Pappu Maami's house. Pappu Maami was our neighbour in NN. She got named Pappu Maami after her youngest son (whose real name I still don't know but only know him as Pappu!). She had a mother living with her, an old old lady whom we called "Chinnaa Paati". I presume, it was supposed to mean "small paati" as chinna in tamil means small. She was in no way small though, I always felt she was the tallest paati in the world. Mostly because she was always with Jemmai, who at 4 feet 9 inches was quite short. Both of them gave real meaning to the words "two of a kind". I rather think them as the "Lambooji-Tinguji" of NN. Both only wore 9 yards sarees, in similar colors and prints. Chinna paati was whitewash white and Jemmai was the opposite! So, they were like day and night, literally. But the opposites end there. Likes and tastes, very very same!!
They both loved Shanmukhananda Hall, Jayalalitha, MGR, Sivaji Ganesan and Rajnikanth with a passion! Any play, good or bad, if playing in Shanmukhananda had to be viewed and reviewed. Any tamil movie in Aurora had to be seen. And I don't think anyone made this much use of the VCR as they did, with tamil movie watching. Now, we were good kids and all, but what is the best way for parents to get their pesky kids out of their hair on weekend evenings? Send them with their grandparents! And what is the best way to get out of going to watch inane movies and plays - patch your grandkids with your wife and let them go, so you can read paper at home (that was Jempa!).
So, like it or not, we were Jemmai and Chinna Paati's eternal companions in their jaunts to Shanmukhananda or video watching. Chinna paati was weird, she never wore shoes! Walked barefoot to Shanmukhananda through the dirtiest roads and back...ugghhhh!! Most of the time, we had to sit on the floors unless both the grandmothers managed to fleece someone into giving up their seats for us. Our "bribe" was the bhajjis/batatawadas and Gold Spot/Mangola in the interval time. That was our big treat! Btw, I still say its fun to eat that junk food in theatres, much more than the fancy sandwiches and popcorns one gets now.
One time, we had a rather bad play experience, couldn't understand a thing and on our way back, had to cross that big 4 lane highway with Jemmai and Chinna Paati in peak traffic! Sandy was also with us and she kept singing "Paati Namooonaaa" (referring to Chinnai Paati) and making us laugh uncontrollably, which didn;t contribute much to the road crossing effort.
Jemmai, was cool though, she would always get us ice-creams and those little peppermint mittais in pink and white from irani hotels and kirana shops. I used to bug her for those plastic rings which she got for me without fail on every visit to Asthika Samaj. Earned me the label of "Modirakirukku" :-)
Chinna Paati was Kanjoos no.1, would shell a dime for anything! See, how the most opposite of people remain the best of friends till the very end. Jemmai and Chinna Paati were polar opposites of each other, in personality, looks and style, but yet, they were bonded by their unique love for theatre and MGR (I think when he died, they felt like they had lost a part of him, thanks to the hungama created then). Those memories will always stay, nowadays its near impossible to take the kids to Shanmukhananda. They were also the ones who always turned up for school annual days in that hall. Today, Tanisha's school program is always in a smaller auditorium in Borivili, which brings back memories of Shanmukhananda Hall.....
