Quo Vadis?

If you have seen my earlier posts, you would have seen the playing area and the rules that held fort back then. This post is about my contribution to street cricket. If you have read Part 1 carefully, you would have realized that I was the ball boy, being the youngest and also because of my comparatively limited cricketing skills. All that changed one eventful day when something dramatic happened. My Chithappa (uncle, more specifically husband of my mum’s younger sister) who was then in Bombay sent me an amazing gift by courier appreciating my good performance in school. Let me take a detour from this to tell you till that fateful day, the cricket bats used were generally the flat painted ones made of country wood, which surprisingly could be bought off a kitchen vessels store where they would be stored in an oversized bucket. For those who could afford them good cricket bats from sports shops made of ordinary wood and passed of as oil bats. These bats often had no balance and the ones...

This is the landmark for our area, the Housing Board Arch. It is not called Sunnambu whatever, but the place is called Pattinampakkam or ForeShore Estate. Yet another landmark of the area, Our Lady of Guidance Church also popularly called Lazarus Church (which is a misnomer). The car festival of this church reminds you of a village fest. Not 10, Downing Street but 10, Malaiappan Street. ; ) Taken from my car, this is about the spot where the stumps were drawn on the ground near the manhole. This house in the foreground was the boundary, you get 4 if the ball travels to it on the ground, a 6 if it reaches through the air and you get OUT if it goes over the house. Also it is the end of the game, if you did not have a spare ball.

This was my pin code for over a decade during my schooling days. And this is also a tribute to the street cricket (SC) that was wonderfully picturized in the movie by the same name. My fond memories of SC are as follows: The playing area: My earliest memories of SC in Chennai 28 were in front of my then residence No. 10, Malaiappan Street. Our playing area was the narrow street that would be around 30 feet approximately. As the street was narrow the game could be either playing along the length of the street or the breadth of the street depending on the number of players available. As the youngest of the street then I would eventually be the ball boy, so the following is my spectator view of the sport The kit: The playing kit included two bats (whenever available) and a constant supply of rubber balls or if we had enough money tennis balls. As the street was of asphalt we had to avoid stumps so as to not hammer the stumps into the road and breaking them, however on those odd occasion...

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Hi, I was commenting on yet another tribute to Dr. APJ as he completed his term I was struck by the fallacy of it all. We have all hoped for our people’s president to serve yet another term but our elected representatives denied us. Please read the last line carefully and pay attention to the phrase “our elected representatives”. Now let me ask you, did you elect your representative? Did you exercise your fundamental right and by virtue of it your fundamental duty to choose your representative? When was the last time you paid attention to the election process, meaning the national, state or even local level government elections? It is a sad commentary that the euphoria and enthusiasm that many college students show for their union elections and total apathy to the general elections. Too often we have heard the refrain “Politics is a gutter, we will not step into it”. My friends every time you see that poor soul who stripped down of his clothes and his dignity enter the sewer to clean ...

How often has an advertisement in the media left you as confused or utterly bewildered as in the cartoon above? Given below is a crude translation of a radio ad that is doing the rounds recently: Dumb ass 1 (a.k.a D1) : I’m so worried Dumb ass 2 (a.k.a D2) : Why? D1: My wife has not been shopping for the last two days, I don’t know what happened to her? D2: Don’t worry, my wife is shopping like crazy, it does not matter if your wife or my wife or anybody’s wife shops, whoever shops, the benefit is for us. Me: ???????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the @#%&? How in the wide world will my wife’s constant shopping benefit all, me included? PS: The ad in question was for a mutual fund.

To the first person who exemplified the term First Citizen of India by his conduct and not by virtue of the post, who redefined the nature of public office, who led by example, who wore his love for his country passionately on his sleeve, who made the common man look at public office as a noble service finally, who broke all precedents and established new benchmarks, who showed what it is to be a good human being; a simple tribute. You will remain forever in my mind as someone who rose above all odds and reached the top, yet remained down to earth grounded on personal values. God be with you sir in your new endeavours, you have done so much, yet there is much more to be done. My best wishes are mingled with those of millions who would have loved to have you as our First citizen for some more time. For all that you have given our country and us and for all that you will continue to do, Thank you. A proud citizen of India.

Rain rain don’t go away Come again every day India playing overseas test today Rain rain don’t go away. After sneaking away with a test draw gifted by the rain Gods probably yielding to the prayers of the millions (the blue billion was just hype, like the team), who after yet another disappointing performance realized that a miracle was in order to save us from more embarrassment. So with an amazingly resolute effort by Dhoni, the 11th man Sreeshanth (no dancing this time) and the 13th man the rain God, India got a honourable draw. So what about the 12th man? He with the other team members was busy singing the song mentioned above!!

Have you winced when you see how South Indians are mocked for their apparent inability to speak Hindi properly? The done to death cliché of an Iyer’s “Aiyo…” or the Keralite “Simbly” have worn threadbare on the TV. I know South Indians who can speak flawless North Indian languages and vice versa, though it is comparatively more difficult to learn the classical south Indian languages as the intricacies are more. The tamil la, lla and zha are legendary. So why this prejudice? Do the people up North perceive themselves linguistically superior to their brethren down south? Just for a moment let us take the common denominator for all of us as English and then we find how language can be a leveler. When I say English I refer to the queen’s English which by virtue of our colonial heritage united the educational mediums into a common platform. I wince when I hear some of us speak English. It is indeed painful. I do not look down on their inability for whatever is the reason but it is indeed pa...

What is it about women and dates? No, I’m not talking about the fruit of the date palm or even a social outing with a current or potential lover; I’m referring to the simple calendar date. Women have a phenomenal memory for dates; ask them when did India become a republic and you may have a thoughtful pause, but ask them, “when did I promise to take you to the big sale?” and hey presto, in a flash it comes “On XX day of XXXX month at XX time”. Just the other day I was woken up to the fact that the day was the 22nd of the month by D. I failed to realize the significance of the day despite racking my poor memory for all the possible birthdays or anniversaries I could remember. Then I was informed that we were married on a 22nd and today is a 22nd. It is the nth month anniversary. Get the general idea? No, I’m not complaining, it’s just that I’m amazed to the point of bewilderment as to how much they value dates. The other day as we were driving home D again reminded me of that day when w...

A pinafore (colloquially pinny in British English) is a sleeveless garment worn as an apron. History The pinafore was a type of apron that was pinned over the dress and easily removed for washing. Buttons were frequently damaged with lye cleaning products, which was one reason why dresses were not laundered very often. The pinafore had no buttons, was simply "pinned on the front" which led to the term "pinafore." So now for my big question, “Where have all the pinafores gone?” Hey, it’s not that I’m crazy but look around you. When in school we noticed our sisters, friends, sisters of friends and whatever you have studying in their schools (usually convents) wearing pretty pinafores in various colours. The uniform was unvarying till they finished school. However over the years the seniors have a change of uniform where they have to wear often yucky salwars. This I’m told is modest. It is a commentary of our times that as years go on our modesty has increased. I know ...

Hi, got back from “The City of Joy” yesterday. I have not read the book or seen the movie so from what I saw there I am still clueless why Calcutta, oops Kolkota should be called so. Wiki as always had the answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Joy I was in Kolkota for my induction having joined my organization only 50days ago. We were in the Tollygunje Club (www.thetollygungeclub.com), one of the top twenty clubs in the world. Unfortunately our programme was structured to stretch over the best part of the three days I spent there and coupled with travel exhaustion left me little time to explore and utilize its many facilities. However life in that club gives a deep insight to the English style of city living. Being my second trip to Kolkota I had seen a few of the many sights earlier, however to oblige my companion who wanted to go sight seeing and also as he did not speak any Hindi, I did manage to see the two famous bridges and the swanky Park Street. We missed the monuments a...

If you missed Anuradha Sen Gupta’s blog on Shivaji, read on…. Who is Anuradha Sen Gupta? Well till she wrote her blog was just another journo-presenter in CNN IBN. What is her claim to fame? One blog: where she writes “Shivaji, The Boss of Crap”. She went on to give her “personal opinion” on the movie. She does this after not understanding a word of the language. What happened next? 1724 comments to her blog and they were so acidic that Ms. Sen had to eat her words. Then she tried literally stuff the shit back into the horse, by issuing some silly retractions. Finally she retreated to the point of saying that her comments will be moved to a personal blog in future. I’m not an opponent of free speech, but what Ms. Sen did was silly. By calling the phenomenon as crap she has single-handedly mocked all those who made the phenomenon what it is. Whatever the movie may be, it still is nothing that India has seen till date. A true barometer of any movie is the box office and what is the box o...

Radio City was asking its listeners to come up with the nicest thing you can say to someone who drives horribly and makes your blood boil. You know the typical candidate who regularly sets your blood pressure through the roof with some mad, reckless and law breaking feats on whatever he commutes. (Please note that he is used to generalize the human race and “she”s are not excluded) To me the nicest thing I can think of is “Excuse me, why are you in front of my car, when you should be actually under it?”. Now you know why I did not participate in the dial-in. When I was pondering over something more subtle and yet hard hitting to say, my mind wandered to that night when during one of my late night drives with Dave (www.disjusme.blogspot.com) , D (www.trinityreigns.blogspot.com) and friends; Dave just rolled down the window and screamed at the top of his voice “Your mother is a Giraffe” at some hapless passerby. It was not the most polite, witty, hard hitting, obscene, whatevayoumacalli...

Hi! What you see are three famous kisses that made the rounds recently. What is common to them? All three were shamelessly flogged to death by the media channels which try to appear respectable but have only sensationalism to capture market share. Of late the overdose of such “news articles” has defeated the very objective of watching news programmes. So while we are at it, a few comments on the pics: Pic 1: An obscene publicity stunt pulled by two wanna be starlets. For all the cases filed by Rakhi against Mika, admitting this was not the first time made the issue look so fishy. Just note the reaction of the onlookers for confirmation. This was just some entertainment for the party, even if Rahki “looked” stunned. Pic 2: This to me was a genuine admiration for a pretty woman, note the sequence of events and execution, it looks unplanned and simply impetuous by Gere. Had he done it anywhere else, it would not have even come to the last page of a daily. But this is India and the moralis...

Still cribbing about your job? A lesson for all, me included.

The hardest part of holding on is letting go . This remarkable line was the refrain of an otherwise unremarkable song I heard on Radio City the other day as I was driving home. It was so thought provoking that I tried to relate it to my life and found that I always had and still have a big problem letting go. How about you?

Ok, this is an eye-catcher. But if you have missed the full story read about it in: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/woman-strips-walks-in-city-against-dowry-demand/44089-3.html Pay great attention to the picture and you will see that this is one smart and gutsy woman, not only does she make a jaw dropping point, she is prepared to meet any lecherous male with a jaw breaker. Note the base ball bat in her hand. Makes you wonder if she is really so tough why did she put up with a parasite of a husband and his abominable parents? There is a lesson in it for you girls out there, if you must make a point, keep your clothes on but do go out and buy a good base ball bat! PS: I understand the lingerie, the bangles and even the base ball bat, but pray can some one tell me why the handbag???

   This poster adorns my workstation for over 4 years now, and has been a constant source of inspiration during my lows at the workplace. P.S: I found this among some more great posters at http://print-a-poster.p-rposters.com/  

You may have heard enough of my constant ranting and raving about the notorious drivers in Chennai. I suppose it is not isolated to Chennai, but driving here for so long I have decided that it is the worst place to drive. What irked me so much was the total insensitivity our people show today to their fellow being. They have become so selfish and greedy that I precedes We always. And no matter what be your faith or religion, today it matters not how you reach your goal, but reach your goal, no matter how many people you may kill on the way. Shame on you all: That middle aged moron with a kid before him and a wife behind him who brazenly jumped the red light on his bike and squeezed between an onrushing water-tanker today। Why do you want to look respectable with well-pressed clothes and tie when you commit such crimes? You are the actual white collared criminal। Shame on all those of you on Nungambakkam High Road today at around 10 AM when you refused to give way to the ambulance ...