Vinayaka Chathurthi

Yesterday around 3 in the afternoon, I asked my friend to update the list of items to be purchased for the Vinayaka Chathurthi. She made a lengthy detailed list and sent and shared it over a chat application. In the evening I couldnt start from office on time & was a bit late and had to hear the question "Then why did you ask me to send that list. Rather, I could have gone directly and purchased them".

But still I managed to reach home a bit early and upon reaching, started for the purchase with the list, which I transcribed to a paper. My friend's strategy is to first walk through all the shops and then come in the reverse direction, asking for prices and purchase them. The market today has extened to the main road near the signal. She first started with Arugampul:
"How much?"
"10 rupees madam"
"Too much... Its 1 rupee normally"

I stayed a bit behind, expecting a tough fight over the negotiation, as a negotiation starting from 10% of the quoted price is sure to bring one. But she decided to move out of that shop and went to another one. Finally she got it for Rs. 5 in a shop. Shopping continued in a similar fashion and finally came to a completion. When she started searching for a "Berikai", I told her that its out of season. But when she found them in a shop, she shouted several times "What is this"... "What is this?" by pointing to those fruits. The women in that shop got scared and told in a feeble voice "Berikai", thinking that the question was posed at her. I managed by saying that some had taken intensive steps to procure them, even if they were not in season currently.

Finally a bunch of banana was the only item to be bought and we came to a man selling bananas. I was summoned with the task of finding the type of banana. For me all banana are one and the same, as inspite of several conscious attempts, I could never distinguish between their varieties. Fortunately that shop man was having only 2 varieties and I asked him what those varieties are. She selected one from them, and said that it was variety offered to God commonly and it was of the variety "banana" :-).

Morning we  were supposed to wake up very early, but slept until our usual time and started making preparations for the Poojai. Mama & Athai had woke up very early and they made all the cooking & initial arrangements for the Poojai. We prayed to God around 9:15 AM and thus our Vinayaka Chathurthi commenced happily.