Visit to Narbhavi-Part 1

Narbhavi-a senior citizen home walkable from sholinganallur-chennai. we went there around 11A.M on Sunday with my friends(Prasad, Navata, Anusha and Hema) . We came to know about this place from an office colleague of my friend Hema. Interesting portion is that no one knows the exact address and we reached the place after navigating the all possible-paths to it. It is exactly on the first right road after the foot-over bridge near toll-gate(On way to mayajal from the traffic signal.)

The very first impression on Narbhavi is "a beautiful house with peaceful surroundings". The cool climate and pleasant surroundings added more peacefulness to the place. As we all came from the same college in Andhra, no one of us knows tamil properly. However, we plan to spend some hours with them and entered the Narbhavi. It takes no time for us to change the opinion as "It is not a house and indeed it is a beautiful Home." It is a family with 45 grand-mom's spending their time happily and enjoying their retirement. They received us as if they are welcoming their grand-children.

Initially we met vaidehi-the head warden who looks care of everyone there and she explained the daily schedule, Medical processing, Food-time table and everything that belongs to Narbhavi. It reminded me a Joint-family under the supervision of family head Vaidehi. She is the good care-taker and We started distributing the fruits which we brought and started talking them in my known tamil "Patti-Nalla-irika? saptiya?" . That is the moment that i felt bad(worst) on myself is i should have learn tamil.

I got surprised with the recieval from a grand-mom(Bala) and i keep on listening to her words. She is speaking, speaking and sharing many moments in life.I am wondering about the fluency of english spoken by Balambal(Bala). "Man, she is the unmarried woman and aged 91 years" said by vaidehi. My conversation with bala has gone this way...
Me: "Grand ma, How are you? Do you know english?"
Bala: "Pardon!!!"
Me: "Grand ma, how are you? How are you doing here?" ..am surprised with word "Pardon" she speak
Bala: "My name is Balambal and you can call me Bala, Am i looking too aged?"
Me: "Hehhehe..Okay bala, u r speaking english very fluently..May i know, what you studied?"
Bala: "I studied at Trichy-SRC college, Presidency college-Chennai and i worked as Asst.Engineer and............."
Me: "How is life here?"
Bala: I get Times Of India daily and read it. I participate in Bhajans, prayers, games, go to library and reading books. We dont feel bore here as we have so many people to have fun with.
Me: wat are your hobbies bala?
Bala: Playing violin, reading books etc.
Me: "Will you come with me? I will take care of you grandmom, sorry bala?"
Bala: Hehhhehe(with an innocent smile without teeth and I looked her as a child smiling), I shall take permission from my brother who joined me here. Instead you can join here grand-son,
However with permission of vaidehi :)
Me: (I looked many people watching us and wanna share some time with them) It is nice time spending with you bala
Bala: Ofcourse, i feel glad seeing all you people and spending time here. May God Bless you and Best wishes.
Me: Thank you bala, we keep visiting here and take care.
Bala: Yeah yeah u r always welcome, we will be waiting for you. Good luck my boy :)


and I turned to V.Padma (Sister of P.Susheela-a great famous singer). Please do wait for part-2 and it will be blogged soon. Stay tuned :)