The kid across the street was having a jolly time when I was crossing the road. He was playing in the pile of construction-sand that was in front of his house. Just then I heard his mom shriek from inside, calling him inside. I was already walking up my stairs when she came running out and hoisted the 3/4 old kid onto her hip. (holding just a single slender hand, almost ripping it off!) I turned almost uninterestedly when I heard the ‘SMACK’. Horrified I turned to look and saw the kid get a flurry of slaps on both his cheeks, while the mom bounced up the stairs into her home, always pushing the kid from behind! I was bewildered watching this sudden outburst!
Yes, I don’t know what the kid might have done before, how it behaves usually and I can’t go telling people not to hit their children!! But a 3 year old kid? Did the kid deserve all those smacks right on the face?! I don’t think so! What I was thinking was, yeah all or most of us have at various stages would have ‘got it’ from our parents, for whatever reasons and now on retrospect it might have been deserved too! If the kid is old enough to know what he is doing, and knowing what he is doing is wrong, still keeps continuing doing the same thing a strong rebuke or a smack would help put things right. But the other day when I saw what I saw, I felt pity! I definitely thought the small kid dint deserve such a whacking for just idling in mud for a few minutes. I wanted to run across the street, pull the kid off from the mother, give her a few slaps, console the kid and return back! But I decided I’ll blog it! :(
Monday, June 20, 2005
Sunday, June 12, 2005
It’s a state of mind
A revelation of sorts today! Music was always a passion, but my foyer never extended much into the English domain. Ms. V kept persisting it should. Gave her reasons why I dint venture, but the Scorpion she is, sent me few songs over. Love songs at that!
All of it made sense to me; brought me to an awesome state of mind, from the weary one I entered office with! So when music transports one into a totally different realm, it’s the state of mind that changes! And today’s feeling was bliss! Maybe blame it on the lyrics – ‘When love and Hate collide’ Def Leopard, ‘When you love someone’ Bryan (the God) Adams, ‘Say something stupid like I love you’ Robbie Williams with Nicole!!!
Smitten!
Gracias’ Senora’!
All of it made sense to me; brought me to an awesome state of mind, from the weary one I entered office with! So when music transports one into a totally different realm, it’s the state of mind that changes! And today’s feeling was bliss! Maybe blame it on the lyrics – ‘When love and Hate collide’ Def Leopard, ‘When you love someone’ Bryan (the God) Adams, ‘Say something stupid like I love you’ Robbie Williams with Nicole!!!
Smitten!
Gracias’ Senora’!
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Here a blog, there a blog
I need to blog.(Biting nails) I need to blog.(Biting skin off finger tips) I need to blog.(Just got up from a deep sleep after having dreamt that Rehman is a guest at my place and get to spend a day with him!) I need to blog.
So here I blog whatever happened the past week or so... whatever needed to be remembered! It was Chennai trip again, and one worth remembering too! The trip to Tirupathi on 3rd June with the whole family was a grand gala affair! Whether it was someone bellowing their worries straightaway to the Almighty’s ‘silai’ or someone who started choking, having difficulties breathing because they had started laughing so much, all of it was fun! There were the usual harsh moments too, those that occur when more than 10-14 adults go on a trip, but the fun time all of us had surpassed it all making the trip a memorable one.
4th June was mom’s birthday. And this was also the day when I got a precious gift from my sister – a digital camera!!! Wooh! There were lotsa cakes to eat and a lot more snaps taken. Breakfast at the new Saravana Bhavan joint in Ashok Nagar was just great! It was made another day to remember by my bro – both of us skidded off with the bike on West Mambalam road, thanx to his excellent biking skills! Still have abrasions on my leg L $#@%^R^%#
5th June was pack up day. Darn....! Had to come to office for night shift. And it was farewell time to Giri too, ‘cos am yet undecided whether I will go back to Chennai soon enough to see him off to Ahmedabad. Another breakfast session at new Saravan Bhavan with Giri, Swetha, Divya and Aarthi went majorly uneventful.
Though most would find this entry drab, I guess I can excuse myself. Tired of traveling for a whole month – schedule would look like this!!!
Blr-Hyd-Blr-Chn-Blr-Mys-Blr-Chn-Blr-Chn-Tirupathi-Chn –Blr
Poor me!
So need to gather myself to come up with something new. And will do! Adios till then!
So here I blog whatever happened the past week or so... whatever needed to be remembered! It was Chennai trip again, and one worth remembering too! The trip to Tirupathi on 3rd June with the whole family was a grand gala affair! Whether it was someone bellowing their worries straightaway to the Almighty’s ‘silai’ or someone who started choking, having difficulties breathing because they had started laughing so much, all of it was fun! There were the usual harsh moments too, those that occur when more than 10-14 adults go on a trip, but the fun time all of us had surpassed it all making the trip a memorable one.
4th June was mom’s birthday. And this was also the day when I got a precious gift from my sister – a digital camera!!! Wooh! There were lotsa cakes to eat and a lot more snaps taken. Breakfast at the new Saravana Bhavan joint in Ashok Nagar was just great! It was made another day to remember by my bro – both of us skidded off with the bike on West Mambalam road, thanx to his excellent biking skills! Still have abrasions on my leg L $#@%^R^%#
5th June was pack up day. Darn....! Had to come to office for night shift. And it was farewell time to Giri too, ‘cos am yet undecided whether I will go back to Chennai soon enough to see him off to Ahmedabad. Another breakfast session at new Saravan Bhavan with Giri, Swetha, Divya and Aarthi went majorly uneventful.
Though most would find this entry drab, I guess I can excuse myself. Tired of traveling for a whole month – schedule would look like this!!!
Blr-Hyd-Blr-Chn-Blr-Mys-Blr-Chn-Blr-Chn-Tirupathi-Chn –Blr
Poor me!
So need to gather myself to come up with something new. And will do! Adios till then!
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Indulgence is heavenly!
Chennai trip
Day – 1
09:00 PM – Chennai touchdown time
10:00 PM – Night show – Woodlands theatre – ‘Kanaa Kandein’, with Giri, J and BK!
Neach! Vaazkaye vaaznthu thallaren po!
Day – 2, 3
Had a blast with my makkal – mama, mami, perimma, perippa, cousins Aarti, Abi and Kartik, my bro (!!!) and parents! Great time! There were ‘sillarai’ errands to run at home, which I did without even a trace of a frown and am now thanking almighty for the same! Other enjoyables were those sketches I helped Aarti with, for her fashion designing paper!Oh...and those choclates......'slurrppp'! Met Swetha just for getting hold of the ‘stupid dog book’ and our Coorg snaps! Have they come out well or what! My ‘ponnu paakara foto’ – perfect. And yeah, shouldn’t forget to mention J’s treat at Raam’s Milky Way – the idli manchurian, the paani poori, Nut-O-Delight was all ecstasy! As I told J, this treat will be remembered. I was actually smiling to myself because I was back at Raam’s within the next hour with Jenni, Prakash, Satya and other friends eating other flavors of ice creams! Worth remembering ain’t it?!
Day – 4
Today was wedding day – my cousin Karthik, who got married in Hyd, was hosting an evening reception in Chennai. Still the errands won’t cease, and I still managed a power-lunch-coffee with Swetha at Java Greens discussing ‘a bus journey and other issues’. ;o)
Then came the celebration of colors, people and great fun! And what color I chose for sweltering Chennai – a black Sherwani! Poor me, I was as drenched as Karthik, the wedding boy, was in his two piece suit when it was all over! The music band that played melodious numbers as entertainment was pretty ok. Little did I know when I invited Giri to the wedding that he is going to slip into their group so easily! He almost knew everyone of the song band, calling them mami and all! Master stroke of the day was when he combined with a mami to sing ‘Konja Neram’ from Chandamukhi for us! Neach! I should definitely mention my cousin Abi’s singing efforts, though Giri had a piece of advice for her. She rendered ‘Kannodu Kaanpathelaam’ from Jeans and the wind-up song of the day - our very own MS’ ‘Kurai onrum illai; Marai moorthi kanna’.
Some serious discussions were happening in between all the fun among my bro, Giri and me. But inevitably I had to be at so many places at the same time. So I decided to continue with it later and headed straight to Giri’s place from the mantapam!! Both of us slept at 3am after discussions that started at 11pm! The discussion put lots into perspective and I am starting to enjoy these ‘sessions’ nowadays!
Day – 5
With all the hulla bulla over and only couple of niggling errands remaining, I was preparing for a full rest day, having made plans for the latter part of the day. But Moore’s law held me today. New errands, some utterly pathetic, kept propping up and had to do them grudgingly. All plans from sleep in the after noon, distance-biking in the evening, watching ‘Bose – the forgotten hero’, all crash-landed for various petty and irritating reasons! Not the best 5th day I could have had in Chennai. Anyways, there was one more day left, and slept peacefully through the night looking forward to day 6.
Day – 6
Having nothing to do but for the last of errands, I dint have any plans actually, which is how I usually function too! And a trip to KK Nagar with Giri set the tone for the day, and a promising one at that! Both of us were literally stunned looking at the ‘Vallavan’ posters – dei Simbhu nee oru ‘yechai payyan' da! Anyways, Giri reminded me that it might actually be the last chance I get to really meet BK before his sojourn! Next thing we were at BK’s place cooling our heels when I just casually asked why the ‘Bose’ plan for yesterday dint work out. And immediately plans were made for all of us to be at Devi theatre at 2pm!! And what time are we doing this – 1 pm!! I rushed back home for a shower and lunch and actually got 10 minutes late for the show, faithful BK waiting for me outside.
I keep getting these comments from so many people these days that I think almost all films are good. I have been maintaining to my roommate that it might actually be that because I keep watching only quality films. And Shyam Benegal’s ‘Bose – the forgotten hero’ is a natural inclusion into my must-see list. This is hugely influenced by the mind blowing music / rerecording of ‘thala’ Rehman! Those who haven’t still listened to the songs / not got the cassette yet, I pity you! As I am writing this, I have listened to ‘Ekla Chalo’ 5 times, ‘Ghoomparani’ 4 times and am listening to Azaadi for the 5th time today! This was the first ever film I have watched in a theatre where the whole credits was rolled till the end. The song Azaadi started playing with the end of the film and lasted till the end of credits roll-up and the very few present in the theatre were all standing on their feet in total rapture, consuming the song and the original snapshots / reels of Netaji that were scrolling on the left of the screen. It was as if the National Anthem was being played, because each and every person stood for all of 5 minutes without batting an eyelid, engrossed by the music! Maybe Giri’s quote would suffice the feeling here for me – ‘Patriotism is a better feeling than Love!’. Every film lover, music lover please do watch this film!!!
Returning from the movie, it was almost time to start back to Bangalore. But another rendezvous made it a definitive evening to remember! I was smiling to myself in the bus, as I am doing right now writing all this up! Here I would repeat what I told my cousin Lakshmi yesterday when she asked how my life is going – ‘naa ennoda vaazkaye vaaznthu thallindu irukken, fully enjoying every moment of it’. Indulgence is heavenly!:o)
Day – 1
09:00 PM – Chennai touchdown time
10:00 PM – Night show – Woodlands theatre – ‘Kanaa Kandein’, with Giri, J and BK!
Neach! Vaazkaye vaaznthu thallaren po!
Day – 2, 3
Had a blast with my makkal – mama, mami, perimma, perippa, cousins Aarti, Abi and Kartik, my bro (!!!) and parents! Great time! There were ‘sillarai’ errands to run at home, which I did without even a trace of a frown and am now thanking almighty for the same! Other enjoyables were those sketches I helped Aarti with, for her fashion designing paper!Oh...and those choclates......'slurrppp'! Met Swetha just for getting hold of the ‘stupid dog book’ and our Coorg snaps! Have they come out well or what! My ‘ponnu paakara foto’ – perfect. And yeah, shouldn’t forget to mention J’s treat at Raam’s Milky Way – the idli manchurian, the paani poori, Nut-O-Delight was all ecstasy! As I told J, this treat will be remembered. I was actually smiling to myself because I was back at Raam’s within the next hour with Jenni, Prakash, Satya and other friends eating other flavors of ice creams! Worth remembering ain’t it?!
Day – 4
Today was wedding day – my cousin Karthik, who got married in Hyd, was hosting an evening reception in Chennai. Still the errands won’t cease, and I still managed a power-lunch-coffee with Swetha at Java Greens discussing ‘a bus journey and other issues’. ;o)
Then came the celebration of colors, people and great fun! And what color I chose for sweltering Chennai – a black Sherwani! Poor me, I was as drenched as Karthik, the wedding boy, was in his two piece suit when it was all over! The music band that played melodious numbers as entertainment was pretty ok. Little did I know when I invited Giri to the wedding that he is going to slip into their group so easily! He almost knew everyone of the song band, calling them mami and all! Master stroke of the day was when he combined with a mami to sing ‘Konja Neram’ from Chandamukhi for us! Neach! I should definitely mention my cousin Abi’s singing efforts, though Giri had a piece of advice for her. She rendered ‘Kannodu Kaanpathelaam’ from Jeans and the wind-up song of the day - our very own MS’ ‘Kurai onrum illai; Marai moorthi kanna’.
Some serious discussions were happening in between all the fun among my bro, Giri and me. But inevitably I had to be at so many places at the same time. So I decided to continue with it later and headed straight to Giri’s place from the mantapam!! Both of us slept at 3am after discussions that started at 11pm! The discussion put lots into perspective and I am starting to enjoy these ‘sessions’ nowadays!
Day – 5
With all the hulla bulla over and only couple of niggling errands remaining, I was preparing for a full rest day, having made plans for the latter part of the day. But Moore’s law held me today. New errands, some utterly pathetic, kept propping up and had to do them grudgingly. All plans from sleep in the after noon, distance-biking in the evening, watching ‘Bose – the forgotten hero’, all crash-landed for various petty and irritating reasons! Not the best 5th day I could have had in Chennai. Anyways, there was one more day left, and slept peacefully through the night looking forward to day 6.
Day – 6
Having nothing to do but for the last of errands, I dint have any plans actually, which is how I usually function too! And a trip to KK Nagar with Giri set the tone for the day, and a promising one at that! Both of us were literally stunned looking at the ‘Vallavan’ posters – dei Simbhu nee oru ‘yechai payyan' da! Anyways, Giri reminded me that it might actually be the last chance I get to really meet BK before his sojourn! Next thing we were at BK’s place cooling our heels when I just casually asked why the ‘Bose’ plan for yesterday dint work out. And immediately plans were made for all of us to be at Devi theatre at 2pm!! And what time are we doing this – 1 pm!! I rushed back home for a shower and lunch and actually got 10 minutes late for the show, faithful BK waiting for me outside.
I keep getting these comments from so many people these days that I think almost all films are good. I have been maintaining to my roommate that it might actually be that because I keep watching only quality films. And Shyam Benegal’s ‘Bose – the forgotten hero’ is a natural inclusion into my must-see list. This is hugely influenced by the mind blowing music / rerecording of ‘thala’ Rehman! Those who haven’t still listened to the songs / not got the cassette yet, I pity you! As I am writing this, I have listened to ‘Ekla Chalo’ 5 times, ‘Ghoomparani’ 4 times and am listening to Azaadi for the 5th time today! This was the first ever film I have watched in a theatre where the whole credits was rolled till the end. The song Azaadi started playing with the end of the film and lasted till the end of credits roll-up and the very few present in the theatre were all standing on their feet in total rapture, consuming the song and the original snapshots / reels of Netaji that were scrolling on the left of the screen. It was as if the National Anthem was being played, because each and every person stood for all of 5 minutes without batting an eyelid, engrossed by the music! Maybe Giri’s quote would suffice the feeling here for me – ‘Patriotism is a better feeling than Love!’. Every film lover, music lover please do watch this film!!!
Returning from the movie, it was almost time to start back to Bangalore. But another rendezvous made it a definitive evening to remember! I was smiling to myself in the bus, as I am doing right now writing all this up! Here I would repeat what I told my cousin Lakshmi yesterday when she asked how my life is going – ‘naa ennoda vaazkaye vaaznthu thallindu irukken, fully enjoying every moment of it’. Indulgence is heavenly!:o)
Thursday, May 12, 2005
A whiff of freshness!
The people who visit this place already know my inclination towards travelogs. And basically being a person who likes to travel, you could expect more and more travelogs from me, just like this one. This happened when I was on my way from Bangalore to Hyderabad to attend my cousin's wedding.
The instance:
This cute looking girl in her teens bubbling with energy, boards the train with her mom after waving 'bye's to couple of male species who accompanied her to the station. That’s when ‘that’ eye contact starts and it goes through the typical I-look-when-u-not-looking routine. But this time I decided I ain’t letting go, and kept looking only towards her!
Anyways, this coy exchange lasted from 6pm, when the train started, till when it was time to sleep! She is on the side-upper berth and me on the upper berth, right angles to her. So still the eye contact doesn't suffer, but for the glances her mom was throwing in my direction from the side lower berth!
The incident:
Some fellow, don’t know who, drops a crumpled visiting card on her seat. She picks it up and doesn't seem to grasp anything. With a quizzical looks in her eyes, she just passes the card to the person just an arm-stretch distance away, looking at her, me! I just shrug and return it back. She simply shreds the whole thing into some 15 pieces and throws them away. This nothing moment sets a rapport between us, and I don’t intend leaving it just with the start. So when some guy just walks across, I jus look at him and then her with a question on my face. She just nods a 'No-i-dont-think-so' look on her face! So now we ain’t no more stealing looks at each other, but proceed to linger on on 'that' look. I top it with a curl of my lip every time I think appropriate! :o)
The charm:
She tries to sleep and she can't which is evident from how many times she sits up, holding the small pillow of hers. So there she is reclining with the pillow on her lap, hair loose on her frail shoulders and I immediately pull out a small paper I had in my bag and put down a sketch of her! From her angle, all she can see is I am incessantly staring at her!! She just asks me 'what is it?' with an upwards tilt of her head. I just silently pass the piece of paper across... which has gotta pen-sketch of a girl reclining on a train seat and a 'you' written below it! Ha...! You should have been there to see her eyes light up at that very moment! Now fully encouraged, I ask her name which she writes on the piece of paper as 'Abhinaya'(Sweet name!) and passes it on to me. We continue this silent 'conversation, she asks me my name, and I give it in writing in the same piece of paper. Then with a killer smile she returned the piece of paper, but I said she can have it! I had a hard time taking eyes off her lips from where she mouthed a silent 'Thank you'. ;o)
Just then I was reminded of the song,
'paarvai rendum pesi kondal, baashai oomai aagiduma?'
(When the eyes talk to each other, does language go speechless?)
The twist:
She had a slimy string running from behind her ear to somewhere inside her collar, because she is partly hearing impaired. And she is also as speech-deprived as Rani Mukharji was in 'Black'!!! So even when language ceases and sound is cut off, I just realized there is so much else to live for!
The other things I found out from her through actions were that she was the third child and she was waving 'bye' to her eldest brother. And she is in her 12th standard. Immediately pulled out my mobile to make a note of it all, for later blogging! Also was reminded of the recent rendezvous Girish ran into. Life is to be remembered by the moments that take your breath away! Ain't it?
The instance:
This cute looking girl in her teens bubbling with energy, boards the train with her mom after waving 'bye's to couple of male species who accompanied her to the station. That’s when ‘that’ eye contact starts and it goes through the typical I-look-when-u-not-looking routine. But this time I decided I ain’t letting go, and kept looking only towards her!
Anyways, this coy exchange lasted from 6pm, when the train started, till when it was time to sleep! She is on the side-upper berth and me on the upper berth, right angles to her. So still the eye contact doesn't suffer, but for the glances her mom was throwing in my direction from the side lower berth!
The incident:
Some fellow, don’t know who, drops a crumpled visiting card on her seat. She picks it up and doesn't seem to grasp anything. With a quizzical looks in her eyes, she just passes the card to the person just an arm-stretch distance away, looking at her, me! I just shrug and return it back. She simply shreds the whole thing into some 15 pieces and throws them away. This nothing moment sets a rapport between us, and I don’t intend leaving it just with the start. So when some guy just walks across, I jus look at him and then her with a question on my face. She just nods a 'No-i-dont-think-so' look on her face! So now we ain’t no more stealing looks at each other, but proceed to linger on on 'that' look. I top it with a curl of my lip every time I think appropriate! :o)
The charm:
She tries to sleep and she can't which is evident from how many times she sits up, holding the small pillow of hers. So there she is reclining with the pillow on her lap, hair loose on her frail shoulders and I immediately pull out a small paper I had in my bag and put down a sketch of her! From her angle, all she can see is I am incessantly staring at her!! She just asks me 'what is it?' with an upwards tilt of her head. I just silently pass the piece of paper across... which has gotta pen-sketch of a girl reclining on a train seat and a 'you' written below it! Ha...! You should have been there to see her eyes light up at that very moment! Now fully encouraged, I ask her name which she writes on the piece of paper as 'Abhinaya'(Sweet name!) and passes it on to me. We continue this silent 'conversation, she asks me my name, and I give it in writing in the same piece of paper. Then with a killer smile she returned the piece of paper, but I said she can have it! I had a hard time taking eyes off her lips from where she mouthed a silent 'Thank you'. ;o)
Just then I was reminded of the song,
'paarvai rendum pesi kondal, baashai oomai aagiduma?'
(When the eyes talk to each other, does language go speechless?)
The twist:
She had a slimy string running from behind her ear to somewhere inside her collar, because she is partly hearing impaired. And she is also as speech-deprived as Rani Mukharji was in 'Black'!!! So even when language ceases and sound is cut off, I just realized there is so much else to live for!
The other things I found out from her through actions were that she was the third child and she was waving 'bye' to her eldest brother. And she is in her 12th standard. Immediately pulled out my mobile to make a note of it all, for later blogging! Also was reminded of the recent rendezvous Girish ran into. Life is to be remembered by the moments that take your breath away! Ain't it?
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