ENSEMBLE…

This life needs a purpose… now now don’t start groaning guys, I’m not going to lecture you at all!

Yeah… so where was I? Hmmm… this life needs a purpose. Some goal… people need to know one lived here one’s years.
Now how can we achieve it? I sat and wondered about this for a while and came to this conclusion… or rather… these conclusions!
*Be a philanthropist- well it is impossible for me to be society oriented at so young an age.
*Be a terrorist- well, naan Mahathma Gandhiji mannle porandhu, idhellam epdi pannuven?
*Be a genius- porakkum bodhe geniusa porandhrukkanum. Now too late…
*Leave behind something that no one has ever left behind- Ah… whattan idea! Reconsider point 3…
Now every Anita, Asma, Agnes( yes… the female version of Amar, Akbar, Anthony!) leaves behind books, music or antiques. So, all ruled out cos Sandhya here likes to be different!
So whattu do? I asked myself.
The bulb glowed…
Leave behind so many things that people will remember you as the greatest collector in the world.
I remember my amma telling me that appa wanted me to be an IAS officer initially. Andha collector aga interest illa. Seri appavodu aasaiya en keduppaanenu indha maadhri collector ayitten!
From then began my life’s ambition, goal, aim- whatever you may call it ( My mom prefers the word ‘Rubbish’though!)
From stamps, to coins with feathers and stones in between, I collect EVERYTHING!
Hmmm… let me begin… I collect the letters me and my cousin write to each other every time someone comes from her house to mine or vice versa, other letters written by my friends and teachers- sometimes on nice scented papers( ah… how Victorian I feel…) and at others on postcards and scraps of papers-all carrying loving enquiries and chatpata gup-shup!
Then comes my ‘star-struck’ collection. I’ve told you about my habit of collecting photos, articles and snippets from the newspaper, right? Yeah… this is what I’m talking about. Ever since my hands caressed a newspaper, all stuff I’ve liked in it, I’ve cut out and stashed it for future reveling. Sudhish’s articles, Rahul stuff( wait wait… there’s a whole para about it comingup), Madhavan, Shah Rukh,Aftaab, Kajol, Aamir, etc’s photos comprise this collection. I used to like Aishwarya Rai once and still have a 60 photo collection. I have an Alai Payuthey collection, though I can’t find it :( ! Then I have this large cricket trump card collection. A one trump WWF collection. I actually do sit with it every year and look through them again. If ever somebody doesn’t find an article in the Hindu archives, pl contact me.
RDX- no no… nothing to be frightened of! I’m not a terrorist as I already made it clear. But yeah, I do possess some explosive materials( other than my charms, of course!)! A humungous collection of photos, articles, an autograph, an album of my meeting him, a CD of few of his photos and even an audio cassette with a little recording of his voice- ah I own them all. My collection of 6 years… one of patience and reverence! I have some 600 odd photos and stuff now. At this rate, I sure am gonna create a world record! Hopefully, I’ll meet him again then… Rahul Dravid eXtraordinary- that’s RDX for you!
Books- I buy ‘em in loads, but lend them nay! I keep them in ‘my shrine’- a shelf which is the only neat niche of mine in the whole house, where I stock this lifelong priceless treasures… I keep a record of them and one day plan to build a library and have the world’s greatest personal collection! Another Guiness record, I guess!
Cassettes- I declare all the money I save goes to buying cassettes and books. I adore Rahman’s music. They transport me to a different elevated plane… I have a good collection and I think, other than Harish- THE greatest Rahman fan in the world, I’m the next best at worshipping him.
Speaking about music... I also have this book called- 'Lyrics for the incurably music mad'- which safeguards my favourite song lyrics between its covers. My mom decided that this proved the heights of my craziness and guess how I proved her wrong? I wrote the tamil songs in tamil, hindi ones in hindi and escaped saying this way i get to learn languages!!!
If you still think I’m quite normal with my collection… well, patience they say is a great virtue, and you just failed in exerting it!!! I collect old greeting cards, stones( they are heaped in ‘Harmony’- a creative corner on my table), sea shells of every possible hues, pista shells, friendship band( I can start a shop with it man!), Sportstar posters( I have posters of unknown people, at least unknown to me! Boxing stars, squash players, etc… and I ended up using these posters to cover my XII reference books, he he! My mom was relieved!), Movie cds, rakhis, autographs( A.R.Rahman, Rahul Dravid, Rajni Kanth, Gangai Amaran, Prabhu deva, Revathy,Kris Srikhanth among others!), wooden sticks, feathers( got a whole bunch from a ‘kozhi pannai’ of my relative!), memories of every event that took place( my first bus ticket, train ticket, my LKG rhymes book, all my writings- christened ‘trish-trash’, certificates for a family show I organized but never did, etc etc…), quotes and in my computer I have stored most of all the blogs I’ve visited… all their writings, all the photos I take using my Digi Cam( there’s a whole collection called ‘Sandhya and her kakas shot on my terrace!), e-mails of my dear ones ,chocolate wrappers, school sand, wooden sticks and leaves from my favourite tree(‘Old lady with Green Fingers’-a neem tree), dried flowers gifted by Greeshma on my birthday and a lot lot more…
I’ve told you only half of it! I’ll run out of blog space if I continue… So now, don’t you agree I am one awesome collector?
Hmmm… This life needs a purpose…
And I’ve got mine!