She chewed the pop corns slower than before. She sat motionless; her gaze steadily fixed on the TV, almost forgetting about the caramel flavor soaking in her mouth.
He looked up from the book he was reading for a split second and exclaimed
"Oh this one! Where Bruce Willis is a ghost?"
and walked out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Loosely based on a real life incident; thanks to my bro :-p
Showing posts with label nostalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nostalgia. Show all posts
Friday, April 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
And I never thought I'd ever miss..
- Walking back home: Less than 10 years ago walking back from college was the most hated thing. I was always the 'autorikshaw person'! Walking back home then meant aching legs, sweat, the evening traffic, the swarm of people rushing back home, the buses almost brushing your sides and as if they were not enough, heavy bags and lab records in hand, at times the mini drafter as well. And today, the office cab drops me right in front of my gate and volvos stop a metre away from home. Oh yeah, lets not forget the car and the bike too! Today, thoughts about walking back home is not clouded with aching legs or buses any more; rather I miss all the giggles and gossips, chats and pranks, snacks and fun with friends that was part of the walk. Today, I hardly walk, let alone walk with friends!
- Getting drenched in the rain to the skin: One drop of rain on my shoes and I got into a maniacal state. There was always this thought fed into the Malayali minds to reach home/college/wherever one is supposed to go before it starts raining. Rains weren't romantic then when one was out in it - how could it be when your wet dripping umbrella would form a mini-pool wherever it was placed, when every auto driver's towel would be so wet that it can't be used to wipe the back seats anymore and the honour is on your salwar to do so or when your slippers made embarrassing noises gurgling with water while you walked. It was days and days of almost continuous rains and one used to wait for it to cease. Today, my umbrella hardly sees light! Today, we stay in a place where any drizzle beyond 10 minutes leads to fallen trees, over flowing drains and the newspapers term it "heavy rains".
- Non-exotic Kerala foods I took for granted: No, they were not my fave of faves then. Pazham puzhungiyatu (steamed bananas) or mathi varatatu (fried sardines) are something ultra mundane and non-exotic. One is so used to eating them that there was nothing to relish! There is a lot of difference between one yearning for mom's special curry and one yearning for something as simple as steamed bananas; its hard to justify the latter :-)
- Power Cuts: This, from the lips of a Bangalorean, might shock you. I wasn't mentioning the day long power cuts, but those 30 mins/ 1 hour power cuts that used to happen everyday in the evenings for a few months. That was the time when the family did nothing and everybody was in one room, faces partially lit by the yellow glow from a single candle or the 'emergency lamp'. Mosquitoes buzzing in chorus, shadow puppets, the deadly red glow when you wrap your fingers tightly over the torch beam, the rain pelting on the windows and the music of the crickets.. I remember them all! Power cuts today are either from dawn to dusk or if you are lucky, you might have a gen back up. Both cases, they don't evoke anything!
- Surprise Guests: Having your mom's colleague and family visit you in the evenings of a week day or dad's cousin's cousin's cousin and family drop by on a Sunday morning while they were on their way to some other place was always a very frequent occurrence. Visits, in those days were so informal. No prior calls, no syncing of calendars to fix a date and no elaborate lunch preparations. They just walked in one fine day, drank a cup of tea/coffee and ate snacks, light talks and off they go. A similar visit would be returned on another weekday at their place too. While the parents talked, kids made new friends. But at times, visits like this throw all the plans you had to visit the fair at the town out of the window and you are forced to switch off the TV and be with guest right when the cricket is going on live. You grumble about "surprise guests" who spoil your plans. Today, we hardly go visiting somebody or take pains to invite anybody home! Weekends are exclusively for being lazy. And even when somebody is invited, it has to start with calendar syncs, buying all the stuffs in a super market to cook a lunch and then so busy with cooking that you forget to sit and chat! And worse still, today nobody walks in to your home 'one fine day' - isn't it considered impolite!!! I miss a surprise visit!
And all the while, I never though I'd ever miss these!!
Friday, November 07, 2008
Past, Present and Future Tag ..
Tagged by Gasper !
In fact, I thought I would do only a portion of the tag, The yesterday, Part A alone and make it into a post. But then I decided to play fair and take up the entire thing :)
But I will definitely add a new post just for that section in my next post :)
The tag:
Two questions in each category answer them and then tag your friends from the blog-o-sphere.
(Simple enough right?)
Leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged and you are all set.
I. Yesterday
A. Your oldest memories
Aged around 3 - Bro left for school, and I got bored at home!
1) Watching and waving at people on the road for 3 hours in the morning, over the compund wall. It was a complicated process. I wear my "blue-n-white hawai slippers", and to reach the wall, I needed to stand on my right leg on the remains of a cut tree. My left leg would be wrapped around my right one. In due course of time, my parents discovered a mysterious hole appearing within 2 weeks of having bought the slippers, and interestingly, only on the right slippers, of every new pair :))
2) Waiting for "orange", the man who used to sell oranges. When he came near our gate, he calls would get extra louder "Waaaaaoooorangeyyyy". Dad used to get one for me every day :)
3) Looking for hours at the Monalisa painting hung on the wall at home and telling everybody that its Mommy's picture :) Well, I was damn sure it was.. :)
4) Mannu theetta :)) Yep.. its too embarassing! But I used to love eating the soil!
This is aged around 2! Mom would come running in panic the moment she hears this call "Mommmmyyyyyyyyyyy..... Sooryaaaaaaaa....... mannnnnnnuuuuuu...... thinnunoooooooo". If she reaches before the word "mannnuuuu" ends, she spanks me on my hand, if late by a word, she has to dig her fingers into my mouth!
5) Dad forcing a bulls-eye into my mouth and me screaming the world out! Ammamma
looking pathetically at me. PJ enjoying his bulls-eye at the dining table. In fact, playing with it by gently jiggling the gooooey yellow centre. An hour after the ordeal, I puke on the sofa as a mark of truimph :D The first and last bulls-eye I ever had!
Aged 4-5.
6) Getting ready to school. Holding dad's index finger with all my fives and crossing the road.
7) Fights with Dhanya to get "side-seat" in bus :)
8) PJ cutting characters out from my new UKG english work book and making shadow-puppets!!!!!!! And me crying.
9) All the "Chess Championships" with PJ and Gouthu etta, with my "exterptise in
defence", a single game would go for a whole day!!!!! Then I would lose with Gouthu etta, and I would cry! Finally ammamma would play with me (she doesnt know how to, but I didnt know it then) and lose , just to make me happy about my "bronze medal" :)
10) Dahlia teacher beating me up in UKG, for talking in the class. My legs were pink, with marks of the cane, but I can't believe, I didnt cry at all!
11) Proudly singing "vara veena" for english oral test in UKG, when asked to sing
"any rhyme". This option was given after I admitted I didnt know "Johnny Johnny" and "Little Miss Muffet"! Maggie teacher complained to bro. Complaint being "your sister doesnt know any rhyme. Why is she so dumb when you are so bright!" :-S
Aged 6
12) Enter KVK, the best times I have ever had. Scoring 100% in all subjects in 1st
Std and surprising my mom. My mom had lost hope in me in terms of studies after the "vara veena" incident!
13) First steps into painting. Drawing the yellow-n-orange lil bird in every page my
rough book :) (Rough sketch on MS Paint)
A year later, PJ used to make me draw one painting every day after I am back from school and only then let me go out to play! He would carefully stack the sheets and keep it safe somewhere. I wonder where they are now! :)
Aged 7-8
14) PJ watching UGC programs on Doordarshan!! There would be this guy who has a neat
handwriting. He would draw different kind of triangles with a black marker pen and write some stuff. PJ in rapt attention. Make a small noise, and you are dead meat in his hands! :)
15) First books... sifting through "The Three Bears".. reading "When Daddy was a
little boy" for the 100th time... Sunny's Stories from Muthacha's collection...Biju mama getting us books each time he came to see us...
Well..ending here :) Will continue in a new post :)
B. What were you doing ten years ago?
1) In 9th std in KVK. Busy with Social Science Projects... we had made a model of the Apsara reachtor at BARC.
2) The VMS(Vaish-Malu-Soo) club in full swing! Science experiments done in Vaish's
house. "Making bacteria".. looking through her microscope at ants..small stuffs.. :)) our hugely successful VMS lending library business and selling hand-made greeting cards and book marks to friends and family and spending all the money :))
3) Made papier-mache with atta, maida and news papers and stowed it under Vaish's bed and forgot about it. Vaish's mom detected some very very very bad smell in her room, but never knew what it was! Even we didnt realise, until the maid pulled the stuff out from under the bed and ohhh mannnn... :(
4) Mills and Boon... more Mills and Boon :) Followed by crushes..crushes...more
crushes;)
5) Table tennis tournies and walk-outs :)))
II. Today
A. Your first thought in the morning
Trrring...Tringgg...alarm goes off at 6:45.
My mobile calendar showed an event : Corporate Anniv.
Today, I complete 3 years in the industry :)
B. If you build a time capsule what would it contain?
1) It would contain all my diaries I have maintained in my teens. I would want my daughter(when I have one :)) to read them when she goes through the same age as I was when I wrote them.
2) Few of my fave clothes. Just want to look at them later and think how small I was :)
3) Some special e-mails, threads, chat logs exchanged between me and you-know-who :), to read them later on and to make my day
III. Tomorrow
A. This year…
Is almost done.. am not looking forward to anything great till dec..
B. What do you see yourself doing 14 years from now?
I would be 39 years old!!! I would be seen packing lunch boxes, hurrying through the
daily routines and running for my cab (yeah, I am sure I wouldnt have perfected the art of driving a car even then!) to take me to office. I would probably be checking my gmail.. gmail would have some really great features... and well... would be a happy female for sure
:)
I tag.. nobody in particular. If it fascinates you, take it up:)
In fact, I thought I would do only a portion of the tag, The yesterday, Part A alone and make it into a post. But then I decided to play fair and take up the entire thing :)
But I will definitely add a new post just for that section in my next post :)
The tag:
Two questions in each category answer them and then tag your friends from the blog-o-sphere.
(Simple enough right?)
Leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged and you are all set.
I. Yesterday
A. Your oldest memories
Aged around 3 - Bro left for school, and I got bored at home!
1) Watching and waving at people on the road for 3 hours in the morning, over the compund wall. It was a complicated process. I wear my "blue-n-white hawai slippers", and to reach the wall, I needed to stand on my right leg on the remains of a cut tree. My left leg would be wrapped around my right one. In due course of time, my parents discovered a mysterious hole appearing within 2 weeks of having bought the slippers, and interestingly, only on the right slippers, of every new pair :))
2) Waiting for "orange", the man who used to sell oranges. When he came near our gate, he calls would get extra louder "Waaaaaoooorangeyyyy". Dad used to get one for me every day :)
3) Looking for hours at the Monalisa painting hung on the wall at home and telling everybody that its Mommy's picture :) Well, I was damn sure it was.. :)
4) Mannu theetta :)) Yep.. its too embarassing! But I used to love eating the soil!
This is aged around 2! Mom would come running in panic the moment she hears this call "Mommmmyyyyyyyyyyy.....
5) Dad forcing a bulls-eye into my mouth and me screaming the world out! Ammamma
looking pathetically at me. PJ enjoying his bulls-eye at the dining table. In fact, playing with it by gently jiggling the gooooey yellow centre. An hour after the ordeal, I puke on the sofa as a mark of truimph :D The first and last bulls-eye I ever had!
Aged 4-5.
6) Getting ready to school. Holding dad's index finger with all my fives and crossing the road.
7) Fights with Dhanya to get "side-seat" in bus :)
8) PJ cutting characters out from my new UKG english work book and making shadow-puppets!!!!!!! And me crying.
9) All the "Chess Championships" with PJ and Gouthu etta, with my "exterptise in
defence", a single game would go for a whole day!!!!! Then I would lose with Gouthu etta, and I would cry! Finally ammamma would play with me (she doesnt know how to, but I didnt know it then) and lose , just to make me happy about my "bronze medal" :)
10) Dahlia teacher beating me up in UKG, for talking in the class. My legs were pink, with marks of the cane, but I can't believe, I didnt cry at all!
11) Proudly singing "vara veena" for english oral test in UKG, when asked to sing
"any rhyme". This option was given after I admitted I didnt know "Johnny Johnny" and "Little Miss Muffet"! Maggie teacher complained to bro. Complaint being "your sister doesnt know any rhyme. Why is she so dumb when you are so bright!" :-S
Aged 6
12) Enter KVK, the best times I have ever had. Scoring 100% in all subjects in 1st
Std and surprising my mom. My mom had lost hope in me in terms of studies after the "vara veena" incident!
13) First steps into painting. Drawing the yellow-n-orange lil bird in every page my
rough book :) (Rough sketch on MS Paint)
A year later, PJ used to make me draw one painting every day after I am back from school and only then let me go out to play! He would carefully stack the sheets and keep it safe somewhere. I wonder where they are now! :)
Aged 7-8
14) PJ watching UGC programs on Doordarshan!! There would be this guy who has a neat
handwriting. He would draw different kind of triangles with a black marker pen and write some stuff. PJ in rapt attention. Make a small noise, and you are dead meat in his hands! :)
15) First books... sifting through "The Three Bears".. reading "When Daddy was a
little boy" for the 100th time... Sunny's Stories from Muthacha's collection...Biju mama getting us books each time he came to see us...
Well..ending here :) Will continue in a new post :)
B. What were you doing ten years ago?
1) In 9th std in KVK. Busy with Social Science Projects... we had made a model of the Apsara reachtor at BARC.
2) The VMS(Vaish-Malu-Soo) club in full swing! Science experiments done in Vaish's
house. "Making bacteria".. looking through her microscope at ants..small stuffs.. :)) our hugely successful VMS lending library business and selling hand-made greeting cards and book marks to friends and family and spending all the money :))
3) Made papier-mache with atta, maida and news papers and stowed it under Vaish's bed and forgot about it. Vaish's mom detected some very very very bad smell in her room, but never knew what it was! Even we didnt realise, until the maid pulled the stuff out from under the bed and ohhh mannnn... :(
4) Mills and Boon... more Mills and Boon :) Followed by crushes..crushes...more
crushes;)
5) Table tennis tournies and walk-outs :)))
II. Today
A. Your first thought in the morning
Trrring...Tringgg...alarm goes off at 6:45.
My mobile calendar showed an event : Corporate Anniv.
Today, I complete 3 years in the industry :)
B. If you build a time capsule what would it contain?
1) It would contain all my diaries I have maintained in my teens. I would want my daughter(when I have one :)) to read them when she goes through the same age as I was when I wrote them.
2) Few of my fave clothes. Just want to look at them later and think how small I was :)
3) Some special e-mails, threads, chat logs exchanged between me and you-know-who :), to read them later on and to make my day
III. Tomorrow
A. This year…
Is almost done.. am not looking forward to anything great till dec..
B. What do you see yourself doing 14 years from now?
I would be 39 years old!!! I would be seen packing lunch boxes, hurrying through the
daily routines and running for my cab (yeah, I am sure I wouldnt have perfected the art of driving a car even then!) to take me to office. I would probably be checking my gmail.. gmail would have some really great features... and well... would be a happy female for sure
:)
I tag.. nobody in particular. If it fascinates you, take it up:)
Sunday, July 06, 2008
On School Annual Days...
Right through my school days, the Annual Day was probably the day I always looked forward to the most, year after year!
Was it the excitement of performing on the stage, in front of beaming parents, or the anxious wait to get your prize for co-curricular activities(CCA), or the thrill of bunking class for practice... I know not what, but I always had a hard time sleeping on the eve of the D-day, my little heart thumping loud with excitement!
The memories are still fresh.. I can still see me in white-n-white singing the group song "Kadam se kadam, milake chalo" in IL auditorium as a 6 year old. The next year was an action song, with all the 30 of us dressed as Nehru!!! We had all got our kurtas stitched and wore a red satin pundit ji coat with a gulab pinned on it! The year after that was another action song with me doing a "koyal"!!! A black kurta-pyjama with a pair of black wings made by the teachers and a black beak which I had made it myself of which I was toooo proud! I can imagine how silly I would have looked by the expression of the chief guest when she gave me my prize. She was smiling ear-to-ear in the photograph, handing over the prize to a cuckoo!!!
Having advanced to more "human-like" attires for the next few years was a welcome change, for, people could now spot me on stage with ease :)
But even then, the feeling was all the same. The day usually starts early with all of the "participants" (boy, that was a privileged section!) coming to the town hall where the function would be held. There would be stage rehearsals again and again while the ones free for the time would go around exploring the town hall, playing hide-n-seek and what not!
And come 4:30, the early birds would be there, occupying seats..Meanwhile the "participants" get dressed in the green room. As the make-up artist paints your face, you hold your breath for the fear of smearing the lip stick while you peek out of the corner of your eyes and try to make out if you are looking fine from the expressions of your friends who are watching you in earnest! The patience you exhibit is amazing and the moment the artist mutters a "hmmm" indicating he is done, you grab the mirror to check if you look good! And most of the times you will look sick and go and complain to the teacher in charge. She would pat your cheek and say no, you are looking great! And that helps!!
Once done, you are seen wandering back stage, meeting other friends and playing teh guess-who games with them, for you never recognize each other! And by 6 the hall is jam packed. And then the agonizing wait for the chief guest's speech to get over, followed by princi's annual report, blah-blah-blah.. meanwhile you are all queued up back stage with your badge number. In your 10th or 12th, you would be at the tail end! And somehow dad and mom would come and meet us here, hand over a pack of biscuits may be and say "Enda oru vesham!!" (What a dress!!!) with an expression that will prompt you to take a hanky and remove the excess lip stick!
The prize distribution ceremony gets over in a jiffy and you don't even have time to check what book you got as prize! We gotta run for the last practice! Time flies the fastest during that time and you would be seen standing back stage, looking at your other friends performing and you wait, for your group is the next.
As you listen to the mic throwing echoes around, as you vaguely make out the occupants of the first row against the glaring lights, as you hear your ma'am saying "boys and girls...do your best!" , and as you play that long dialog where you always made mistakes again and again in your mind, you can hear your heart is racing, and probably of the guy standing next to you too! Probably he has heard yours too, for he is looking at you and grinning. And then you notice that the curtains are falling... and the people on stage are going away... Your heart has almost stopped beating now!!! The lights go off and the curtains are down. You hear a voice "C'mon..lets go!"..somebody screams a "All the best guys!" and you softly walk on the wooden stage...take your position... curtains up..lights on... and you give your bestest smile to the audience to start with!!!
Rest can come in another episode!
Was it the excitement of performing on the stage, in front of beaming parents, or the anxious wait to get your prize for co-curricular activities(CCA), or the thrill of bunking class for practice... I know not what, but I always had a hard time sleeping on the eve of the D-day, my little heart thumping loud with excitement!
The memories are still fresh.. I can still see me in white-n-white singing the group song "Kadam se kadam, milake chalo" in IL auditorium as a 6 year old. The next year was an action song, with all the 30 of us dressed as Nehru!!! We had all got our kurtas stitched and wore a red satin pundit ji coat with a gulab pinned on it! The year after that was another action song with me doing a "koyal"!!! A black kurta-pyjama with a pair of black wings made by the teachers and a black beak which I had made it myself of which I was toooo proud! I can imagine how silly I would have looked by the expression of the chief guest when she gave me my prize. She was smiling ear-to-ear in the photograph, handing over the prize to a cuckoo!!!
Having advanced to more "human-like" attires for the next few years was a welcome change, for, people could now spot me on stage with ease :)
But even then, the feeling was all the same. The day usually starts early with all of the "participants" (boy, that was a privileged section!) coming to the town hall where the function would be held. There would be stage rehearsals again and again while the ones free for the time would go around exploring the town hall, playing hide-n-seek and what not!
And come 4:30, the early birds would be there, occupying seats..Meanwhile the "participants" get dressed in the green room. As the make-up artist paints your face, you hold your breath for the fear of smearing the lip stick while you peek out of the corner of your eyes and try to make out if you are looking fine from the expressions of your friends who are watching you in earnest! The patience you exhibit is amazing and the moment the artist mutters a "hmmm" indicating he is done, you grab the mirror to check if you look good! And most of the times you will look sick and go and complain to the teacher in charge. She would pat your cheek and say no, you are looking great! And that helps!!
Once done, you are seen wandering back stage, meeting other friends and playing teh guess-who games with them, for you never recognize each other! And by 6 the hall is jam packed. And then the agonizing wait for the chief guest's speech to get over, followed by princi's annual report, blah-blah-blah.. meanwhile you are all queued up back stage with your badge number. In your 10th or 12th, you would be at the tail end! And somehow dad and mom would come and meet us here, hand over a pack of biscuits may be and say "Enda oru vesham!!" (What a dress!!!) with an expression that will prompt you to take a hanky and remove the excess lip stick!
The prize distribution ceremony gets over in a jiffy and you don't even have time to check what book you got as prize! We gotta run for the last practice! Time flies the fastest during that time and you would be seen standing back stage, looking at your other friends performing and you wait, for your group is the next.
As you listen to the mic throwing echoes around, as you vaguely make out the occupants of the first row against the glaring lights, as you hear your ma'am saying "boys and girls...do your best!" , and as you play that long dialog where you always made mistakes again and again in your mind, you can hear your heart is racing, and probably of the guy standing next to you too! Probably he has heard yours too, for he is looking at you and grinning. And then you notice that the curtains are falling... and the people on stage are going away... Your heart has almost stopped beating now!!! The lights go off and the curtains are down. You hear a voice "C'mon..lets go!"..somebody screams a "All the best guys!" and you softly walk on the wooden stage...take your position... curtains up..lights on... and you give your bestest smile to the audience to start with!!!
Rest can come in another episode!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Monday in School...
This is the story I wrote for the short story contest in office today.. and coincidently it happens to be the first story I have penned in my life :-)
Little Neha never liked Mondays. She wondered why God had made a day thats not liked by just about anybody she has met in life.Mondays always seemed longer than any other day. Not just longer, they felt depressingly darker somehow.Mondays usually had you writing exams, submitting homeworks and sometimes, PTA meetings too!And as if all those were not enough to hate mondays, the Bangalore Traffic Jams, as daddy says!
And today was not just-another-monday, Neha knew. Her mom was back with her this weekend after a long span of 6 months in the US. Neha had pleaded her to take her along when her when her mom said she was to go onsite for 6 months. "In which country is onsite in mommy?" ,Neha had asked her, in between her sobs.. and mommy had laughed and taken her in her arms and said "No dear, onsite is not a place... Am going to work for a while in US for my company and that is called onsite".
She was so happy to have her mom back soon! Her grandma and grandpa had come from Chennai on Saturday and they had gone to pick her Mom from the airport on Sunday morning.
It had been a hectic weekend for little Neha. She had planned lot of surprises for her mom. Saturday was spent with Dad and Neha going around shopping for groceries, something that Neha used to love doing with her mom before she left. She would carefully pick up packets from the shelves and take a good look at whatever is written at the back, imitating her mom,
though she rarely understood anything.. but it made her feel like mommy and she loved the feeling! After taking care to pick up few packets of chikkis for her mom, she returned home and collected all her toys scattered around and put them neatly into her box.
Neha hardly slept on Saturday night thinking about all the things she planned to do once her mom is back home. She woke up her grandma time and again to ask if it was morning. She didn't remember when she slept, but was already awake and looking at the hands of the clock when grandma came to wake her up in the morning.
On Sunday she was ready even before her dad! And she stood next to the car and screamed "Daddy, come soon..we are going to be late!!" While she waited, she shouted in glee at the newspaper boy "My mama is coming today!!", and then at guy who supplied milk, at the watchman , at the uncle next door...!!
And when mom landed, Neha was running helter-skelter! She ran into her arms and hugged her mom, not speaking a word! Ah, mom's smell is so special! She was too happy to even speak!!
Back at home, the existence of dad,grandma and grandpa was completely ignored by little Neha and she was always with her mom. She did everything she had missed doing in the past 6 months.. she sang to her mom all the new songs she had learnt, mom made Neha her favourite cookies, they went out and had ice creams and then her mom read to her in the night and was at her bed side till she slept.. It was a perfect day!
Monday morning it is... Neha felt like crying out loud.. "Its not fair, I don't want to go to schoolll!!" but mom wouldn't listen. It had been raining heavily since the night before and it was quite cold.Neha remembered she had not done any of the school works in the weekend and her Dad had also completely forgotten about checking her school diary amidst all the weekend rush.
"Mommy, I have not done my English homework and the teacher is going to beat me.. You won't believe it, she beats really hard..I don't want to go...". Mom was not budging at all. She gave another pleading look at grandma knowing her heart would melt. "Let her stay at home Padma, after all she is a small kid". Neha nodded her head and with an even more sad face, she looked up at her mom again to see the response. Hmm.. no way! With a sunken heart she packed her bags and left to school in the rain.
In the bus,as she watched people on the roads with umbrellas, she thought of all the good times spent yesterday and then about her English teacher who is going to beat her soon. Neha never liked her English teacher, but yes, she hated Mondays more.
In the English class, ma'am walked in. Neha was scared to even wish her. She was the famous terror in her school.The kids never liked her because she never hesitated in beating them! Neha's throat was going dry. Teacher began looking into the notebooks of the children in the first bench.. one after the other..Neha was in the 3rd bench. As her turn was fast approaching, Neha was sweating though it was cold and damp outside.
She could hear the teacher getting angry at Rahul for having made a lot of mistakes. Tina was beaten and she began crying. Arun was sent out of the class because he didn't do his. She even said she wants to meet his parents.Peter, who sat next to Neha was fumbling with the pages when ma'am asked him his notebook. "GET OUT OF MY CLASS" she screamed and the whole class froze in silence. Peter was inconsolable.
Neha thought she would burst from within, the tension was mounting so high!
"Excuse me,ma'am. There is a message from the principal to all students" , Rajan uncle, the peon in the office was at the door. Ma'am took the paper from his hand and read out aloud to the class "On account of heavy rain in the city, considering the safety of students and members of staff, all classes have been suspended. Everybody is requested to leave the school premises and board the school buses rightaway and go home."
"Children,please go and board the school bus and return home... there are no classes today".. For a moment, Neha's face turned expressionless. Then all of a sudden she got up and screamed.."Yeeeeaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.." in joy!!
Soon enough the whole class was jumping with joy!! The teacher was also looking at the little ones and joining in thier celebrations... Everything had changed in a split second!!! Neha looked out through the glass panes as the rains lashed outside and whispered to herself
"thankyou rain!! Mondays are not so bad " and gigggled to herself.
Little Neha never liked Mondays. She wondered why God had made a day thats not liked by just about anybody she has met in life.Mondays always seemed longer than any other day. Not just longer, they felt depressingly darker somehow.Mondays usually had you writing exams, submitting homeworks and sometimes, PTA meetings too!And as if all those were not enough to hate mondays, the Bangalore Traffic Jams, as daddy says!
And today was not just-another-monday, Neha knew. Her mom was back with her this weekend after a long span of 6 months in the US. Neha had pleaded her to take her along when her when her mom said she was to go onsite for 6 months. "In which country is onsite in mommy?" ,Neha had asked her, in between her sobs.. and mommy had laughed and taken her in her arms and said "No dear, onsite is not a place... Am going to work for a while in US for my company and that is called onsite".
She was so happy to have her mom back soon! Her grandma and grandpa had come from Chennai on Saturday and they had gone to pick her Mom from the airport on Sunday morning.
It had been a hectic weekend for little Neha. She had planned lot of surprises for her mom. Saturday was spent with Dad and Neha going around shopping for groceries, something that Neha used to love doing with her mom before she left. She would carefully pick up packets from the shelves and take a good look at whatever is written at the back, imitating her mom,
though she rarely understood anything.. but it made her feel like mommy and she loved the feeling! After taking care to pick up few packets of chikkis for her mom, she returned home and collected all her toys scattered around and put them neatly into her box.
Neha hardly slept on Saturday night thinking about all the things she planned to do once her mom is back home. She woke up her grandma time and again to ask if it was morning. She didn't remember when she slept, but was already awake and looking at the hands of the clock when grandma came to wake her up in the morning.
On Sunday she was ready even before her dad! And she stood next to the car and screamed "Daddy, come soon..we are going to be late!!" While she waited, she shouted in glee at the newspaper boy "My mama is coming today!!", and then at guy who supplied milk, at the watchman , at the uncle next door...!!
And when mom landed, Neha was running helter-skelter! She ran into her arms and hugged her mom, not speaking a word! Ah, mom's smell is so special! She was too happy to even speak!!
Back at home, the existence of dad,grandma and grandpa was completely ignored by little Neha and she was always with her mom. She did everything she had missed doing in the past 6 months.. she sang to her mom all the new songs she had learnt, mom made Neha her favourite cookies, they went out and had ice creams and then her mom read to her in the night and was at her bed side till she slept.. It was a perfect day!
Monday morning it is... Neha felt like crying out loud.. "Its not fair, I don't want to go to schoolll!!" but mom wouldn't listen. It had been raining heavily since the night before and it was quite cold.Neha remembered she had not done any of the school works in the weekend and her Dad had also completely forgotten about checking her school diary amidst all the weekend rush.
"Mommy, I have not done my English homework and the teacher is going to beat me.. You won't believe it, she beats really hard..I don't want to go...". Mom was not budging at all. She gave another pleading look at grandma knowing her heart would melt. "Let her stay at home Padma, after all she is a small kid". Neha nodded her head and with an even more sad face, she looked up at her mom again to see the response. Hmm.. no way! With a sunken heart she packed her bags and left to school in the rain.
In the bus,as she watched people on the roads with umbrellas, she thought of all the good times spent yesterday and then about her English teacher who is going to beat her soon. Neha never liked her English teacher, but yes, she hated Mondays more.
In the English class, ma'am walked in. Neha was scared to even wish her. She was the famous terror in her school.The kids never liked her because she never hesitated in beating them! Neha's throat was going dry. Teacher began looking into the notebooks of the children in the first bench.. one after the other..Neha was in the 3rd bench. As her turn was fast approaching, Neha was sweating though it was cold and damp outside.
She could hear the teacher getting angry at Rahul for having made a lot of mistakes. Tina was beaten and she began crying. Arun was sent out of the class because he didn't do his. She even said she wants to meet his parents.Peter, who sat next to Neha was fumbling with the pages when ma'am asked him his notebook. "GET OUT OF MY CLASS" she screamed and the whole class froze in silence. Peter was inconsolable.
Neha thought she would burst from within, the tension was mounting so high!
"Excuse me,ma'am. There is a message from the principal to all students" , Rajan uncle, the peon in the office was at the door. Ma'am took the paper from his hand and read out aloud to the class "On account of heavy rain in the city, considering the safety of students and members of staff, all classes have been suspended. Everybody is requested to leave the school premises and board the school buses rightaway and go home."
"Children,please go and board the school bus and return home... there are no classes today".. For a moment, Neha's face turned expressionless. Then all of a sudden she got up and screamed.."Yeeeeaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.." in joy!!
Soon enough the whole class was jumping with joy!! The teacher was also looking at the little ones and joining in thier celebrations... Everything had changed in a split second!!! Neha looked out through the glass panes as the rains lashed outside and whispered to herself
"thankyou rain!! Mondays are not so bad " and gigggled to herself.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Why Everybody needs a Mom like Mine!!!! :-))
Mom was quite shaken when she discovered that she had one of the most deadliest "PJ sense" ..I think it was around the time when my bro was in college... He called it a kind of "parallel thinking". Am strictly prohibited from listing down any of her PJ's on my blog (In fact,she doesn't even want me to tell it to my frnds coz she thinks its awkward for moms to crack PJs!!)
Yesterday, in between the rain of test sms-es I was getting from her (She was learning to type/send sms yesterday!!) ,I msged back asking her to contribute something for my blog if she was free. And here is what she wrote for my blog....
(Its entirely un-edited)
----------------------------------------------------------
Hi Beti,
Sub:- Mother of a Bloggist(blogger-bloggistsariyalle?)
Once upon a time there lived a bloggist.She lived wth her Mother blogger &Father.Blogging is her hobby & she asked everybod towrite blogs.One day poor Mother blogger tried to blog& fell asleep.The moral of the story is anybody who wants to sleep may write blogs. 'Kutty karayenda.' I liked yourblogs.Especially about your mother,about the cookingskills you have inherited from your mother etc .I went30 years back when I started my experiments in the kitchen. Poor Dad,Now poor Sandy. Anyway carry onwith cooking & blogging.Photograph of girl playing inrain looks nice.I want to see you. .Please come & haveChoodu kappa & meen curry.
I told Etta that I am goingto write blog for Soo."Enikku vayya " ennuparanju.Avan onnum vayikkarilla ennu paranju. Naanpavamalle.Ithu porey.
Bye
Mom.
-----------------------------------------------------------
And I guess now u know why I say "Ende mommy oru rakshayumilla"!!! :-))
Yesterday, in between the rain of test sms-es I was getting from her (She was learning to type/send sms yesterday!!) ,I msged back asking her to contribute something for my blog if she was free. And here is what she wrote for my blog....
(Its entirely un-edited)
----------------------------------------------------------
Hi Beti,
Sub:- Mother of a Bloggist(blogger-bloggistsariyalle?)
Once upon a time there lived a bloggist.She lived wth her Mother blogger &Father.Blogging is her hobby & she asked everybod towrite blogs.One day poor Mother blogger tried to blog& fell asleep.The moral of the story is anybody who wants to sleep may write blogs. 'Kutty karayenda.' I liked yourblogs.Especially about your mother,about the cookingskills you have inherited from your mother etc .I went30 years back when I started my experiments in the kitchen. Poor Dad,Now poor Sandy. Anyway carry onwith cooking & blogging.Photograph of girl playing inrain looks nice.I want to see you. .Please come & haveChoodu kappa & meen curry.
I told Etta that I am goingto write blog for Soo."Enikku vayya " ennuparanju.Avan onnum vayikkarilla ennu paranju. Naanpavamalle.Ithu porey.
Bye
Mom.
-----------------------------------------------------------
And I guess now u know why I say "Ende mommy oru rakshayumilla"!!! :-))
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
I love the rains coz....
The skies are cloudy today and it looks like we will have a downpour here tonight.. At last!! Today's post might look very silly and 6-yr-oldish but can't help it..am in such a dunno-wat-to-do-so-bored mood!
So here we go...
I love it when it rains coz..
-> I love watching the dark clouds covering up the skies ready to burst any moment. And that moment when the first big drop of rain splatters on my arm, I am reminded that I have no umbrella with me and that am wearing the newest and my favourite-st clothes which had a tag "Dry-clean only" ... The feeling of utter helplessness as you look around for a shelter not there combined with the glee as it starts pouring is a strange feeling a lil similar to the one you have had when u faced that question paper on computer organization and design back in 4th semester and you saw that all the questions were "out-of-syllabus" and you didn't have a clue as to what they are asking you to elaborate for 15 marks!!! All you did then was look around and giggle. Same here when you are soaked to you skin...
-> I love the smell of the damp earth. It makes me look too poetic and romantic, but naah... just that somehow it makes me want to go home :-(
-> Mom makes kappa-meen curry then for sure !!! A hard-core kappa fan ,my mom se
es to it that we have a steaming kappa and spicy meen curry awaiting us when we get back home drenched completely...yummmmyyyy..
-> Most of the time we have the famous power failures!!! And its time to curl up in the bed with a warm blanket and pillow.. No wonder power failures were such a "Most Wanted Phenomenon"!
-> Rains might bring a rainbow... one more thing which I can keep watching until it disappears.. Last week ,I was in the company bus at 6 when I noticed a beautiful rainbow looking like a bridge between two towers. I tried showing it to a girl from the same stop who was sitting next to me.. "Look , there is a rainbow.."..She looked around and asked me "A what?? Where?" .. I said again .."A Rainbow...see there..looks nice na..".. She looked took one look at it and said "Haa..yeah...rainbow" and returned to listenig to the chattering of RJ's on her cell. Got so annoyed.. rainbow vs RJ, RJ wins??? Too bad!!! :-(
-> You are relieved to know that if God himself cries at times (naah..thru out the season!) , its alright for u too to shed a few :-p
So here we go...
I love it when it rains coz..
-> I love watching the dark clouds covering up the skies ready to burst any moment. And that moment when the first big drop of rain splatters on my arm, I am reminded that I have no umbrella with me and that am wearing the newest and my favourite-st clothes which had a tag "Dry-clean only" ... The feeling of utter helplessness as you look around for a shelter not there combined with the glee as it starts pouring is a strange feeling a lil similar to the one you have had when u faced that question paper on computer organization and design back in 4th semester and you saw that all the questions were "out-of-syllabus" and you didn't have a clue as to what they are asking you to elaborate for 15 marks!!! All you did then was look around and giggle. Same here when you are soaked to you skin...
-> I love the smell of the damp earth. It makes me look too poetic and romantic, but naah... just that somehow it makes me want to go home :-(
-> Mom makes kappa-meen curry then for sure !!! A hard-core kappa fan ,my mom se
es to it that we have a steaming kappa and spicy meen curry awaiting us when we get back home drenched completely...yummmmyyyy..-> Most of the time we have the famous power failures!!! And its time to curl up in the bed with a warm blanket and pillow.. No wonder power failures were such a "Most Wanted Phenomenon"!
-> Rains might bring a rainbow... one more thing which I can keep watching until it disappears.. Last week ,I was in the company bus at 6 when I noticed a beautiful rainbow looking like a bridge between two towers. I tried showing it to a girl from the same stop who was sitting next to me.. "Look , there is a rainbow.."..She looked around and asked me "A what?? Where?" .. I said again .."A Rainbow...see there..looks nice na..".. She looked took one look at it and said "Haa..yeah...rainbow" and returned to listenig to the chattering of RJ's on her cell. Got so annoyed.. rainbow vs RJ, RJ wins??? Too bad!!! :-(
-> You are relieved to know that if God himself cries at times (naah..thru out the season!) , its alright for u too to shed a few :-p
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Like Daddy Like Daddy-in-Law!
The conversation was turning very interesting one day...Sand and I were discussing about childhood days and the topic carelessly swirled to our dads.. And it didn't take long for us to keep exclaiming "hey, my dad used to say/do the SAME THING when we were kids" after every new point we discussed abt our dads... Surprisingly,the points we noted were in no way helpful to conclude that all daddies around the world were the same coz the similarities we noticed were not something that you would readily tag as a daddyish-behaviour...they were more or less character specific traits,rather than a role-specific trend. AT the back of my mind,I had already decided to blog about this... And here goes the points:
1) Both our dads NEVER EVER used to get us Pepsi/Coke/or any aerated drinks for that matter,when we were young. For me, the restriction went as far as to my teens.
2) Chewing Gum was a strict ban. No matter how efficiently you list down the names of dads of your friends who don't have a blanket-ban on gums, its not going to work here.A ban is a ban is a STRICT BAN !
3) Sand and I,both, had one long-term Homeo doc (not the same) who used to be at our aid when we were running temperatures or when we showed symptoms of measles. He was always The One and Only Doc trusted by our dads.. And the tiny sugary pills were the only medicines that were given to us for a long time in childhood! (One more common point : both of us loved the pills!!:-D )
4) Sea was always a nightmare for both our dads when we were kids (or even in our teens ). Even wetting our legs was a result of a deal made in half-an-hour after we have decided if the legs are to be made wet one inch above the knees or half an inch below. :-)
5) Both our dads used to love getting us masala dosas when we went out in the evening... There was hardly any room for a second thinking when asked what we wanted ! :-) And strangely, ice creams were also in the pls-avoid list for both our dads!! And stranger still, we never protested too !
6) Both our dads love the same fruit :Bananas ! 'Nothing like Bananas' was the common punch line that was mentioned on a daily basis and once this is said, the rule goes without saying that you are supposed to eat atleast 2 after your dinner so that "the loo-blues" are avoided!! :-S
7) "Train-il poyaal cutlet venammmm " :-) And dads ,though try to make us understand that they are made in unhygienic conditions, have to relent to the cries!
8) Both our dads are the "trusted-unofficial career consultant" for many a worried parent of a Standard Xth student and both have a soft corner for the engineering stream and make it a point to suggest a rigorous entrance coaching at trissur from the famous Mr.P.C.Thomas's when asked what stream is the best for their son/daughter who has scored a 98% in their boards!
So much said and done , the discussion was such a relief for both us....coz when you realise that your daddy in law is no different from your own dad , you can be sure that a blog on this would be met with a safe response from either sides and that you needn't duck your head!!!! :-))
Love ya Daddy and Daddy-in-law!
1) Both our dads NEVER EVER used to get us Pepsi/Coke/or any aerated drinks for that matter,when we were young. For me, the restriction went as far as to my teens.
2) Chewing Gum was a strict ban. No matter how efficiently you list down the names of dads of your friends who don't have a blanket-ban on gums, its not going to work here.A ban is a ban is a STRICT BAN !
3) Sand and I,both, had one long-term Homeo doc (not the same) who used to be at our aid when we were running temperatures or when we showed symptoms of measles. He was always The One and Only Doc trusted by our dads.. And the tiny sugary pills were the only medicines that were given to us for a long time in childhood! (One more common point : both of us loved the pills!!:-D )
4) Sea was always a nightmare for both our dads when we were kids (or even in our teens ). Even wetting our legs was a result of a deal made in half-an-hour after we have decided if the legs are to be made wet one inch above the knees or half an inch below. :-)
5) Both our dads used to love getting us masala dosas when we went out in the evening... There was hardly any room for a second thinking when asked what we wanted ! :-) And strangely, ice creams were also in the pls-avoid list for both our dads!! And stranger still, we never protested too !
6) Both our dads love the same fruit :Bananas ! 'Nothing like Bananas' was the common punch line that was mentioned on a daily basis and once this is said, the rule goes without saying that you are supposed to eat atleast 2 after your dinner so that "the loo-blues" are avoided!! :-S
7) "Train-il poyaal cutlet venammmm " :-) And dads ,though try to make us understand that they are made in unhygienic conditions, have to relent to the cries!
8) Both our dads are the "trusted-unofficial career consultant" for many a worried parent of a Standard Xth student and both have a soft corner for the engineering stream and make it a point to suggest a rigorous entrance coaching at trissur from the famous Mr.P.C.Thomas's when asked what stream is the best for their son/daughter who has scored a 98% in their boards!
So much said and done , the discussion was such a relief for both us....coz when you realise that your daddy in law is no different from your own dad , you can be sure that a blog on this would be met with a safe response from either sides and that you needn't duck your head!!!! :-))
Love ya Daddy and Daddy-in-law!
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
For you, Vaish and Malu..
Most of my posts on this blog have been reminiscences of my childhood. And it goes without saying that my friends in school, without their knowledge, played a role in making me the person I am. Infact , there might not be anything significant looking at it in a glance, but from a closer perspective, you realise how much those small changes they made out of you are still carried along in your persona. Probably, these small changes are your distinguishing attribute today that people identify you with. This post is a small dedication to all my friends I have had until now to show them how much they have meant to me and specifically targeted at two people in my life for whom the tag "My Best Friends" is only an understatement - Dedicated to Vaish and Malu.
Galz, I know its been a looong time since we cuddled together for a warm chat catching up on the latest of the latest of things under the sun, but those memories still linger fresh in my mind.. Am very very sorry that I am posting our loony-toony thoughts and embarrassingly funny ideas on this blog, but I thought this was the best way to get nostalgic! :-) So start turning pink.... :-))
Remember galz, when somebody asked about our friendship we used to make sure one of us
mentioned this vital stats without fail that "Our friendship,you know, dates back to 1989 !! " and how we loved to watch in eager the expression on the listeners face doing atleast 5 rounds of change from an "hmm" to " ohhh??" to "wow" to "thats cool" to "going green with jealousy" to "ohh,they are so proud" !!! The "going green with jealousy" was our fave among them :-)) Even if this emotion wasn't evident (for the plain reason that it was absent!) we would imagine that everybody would get jealous at that statement!!! lolz..! And remember how the teachers would ask us "Where is the third of the trimurthi?? " when one of us stayed back in class ??
Any idea how many pranks we have played on the poor librarians??? Vaish, I know you might be praying from the bottom of your heart that I shouldn't mention about the embarrassing incident when you placed the Nancy Drew you borrowed from the library on one of the cycles of God-alone-knows-who only to find the cycle missing after we returned..and you lied to T* Sir that you had returned the book to him on Wednesday evening... You sounded so convincing to even Malu and me who knew the truth very well that no wonder T* sir relented in the end and actually said " Oh yes...I rememeber..Vaishnavi,You did return the book on wednesday and I probably didn't update the register" !!! Vaish , you still retain the crown for the Best Liar I have ever met!!!
And remember those after-school Club Activities hours.. when we would wait for that one painfully long hour of painting to get over so that we can run through the dark verandahs in the school playing Hide-n-Seek and Help? And remember how we all used to desert A* in the game by making him the seeker always coz we thought he was too irritating?? And during one of those days the three of us somehow got away from the rest of the kids when we stopped to drink some water and Malu got so drunk (yes guys, Just plain H2O ! ) that she fell on the floor and was later found dancing to a Suneil Shetty number "oh jaaneman " ??
And I think it was during one of those after-school club activities days while we munched away those (banned) yummy paruppuvadas (made out of "unhygienic oil, don't have it children" - or so claimed by A* ma'am ,who nevertheless had 2 of them everyday at sharp 11 AM ) wrapped in newspaper from our very own 5* Manju Tea Stall that we decided we will have a reunion , just the three of us, in the year 2010, on Dec 25th at nowhere but Manju Tea Stall ! What of that galz ?? :D
And how we loved to imitate our teachers... especially the way P* sir said"Portiaaaa ...hmmm..portia ki umar shaayad pachaas teekh rahegi .." and greyed out my hair entirely for the Shakespeare play for the Annual Day despite me screaming in protest .."Sirrr....Portia is married just nowwwwww...She is young!!" And what about those series of humorous characters ,better known in school as Social Science teachers... remember S* ma'am, who at the thought of her upcoming wedding went to a shopping spree, only to buy a hand-bag looking half like a pomeranian pup and half like a snow man , and looking the least like a hand-bag of a school teacher!! I remember Vaish blushing and answering "Sunsilk,ma'am " when she asked her "Which shampoo do you use Vaishnavi ?" !!!! And the way she used to start every History class with her trade marked sentence "Bachon, aaj me tumhe itihaas ek kahani ke roop me sunaathi hoo ..puraaaaaaane kaal me jab bhaarath me aarya log rehthe the tab bharath me chaaaaaaar varg the... brahman,kshatreeya,vaish aur shoodra..isme braahman.. " zzzzzzzzz.... :-)) What about her successor L* ma'am who resembled a horse when she got angry!
Remember those times we got sooooo jealous when MK* ma'am ignored us completely in the English periods and showered all her attention on A* ?? And we vowed we would come up with better ideas for our activities ..much better than A*'s :-) , and we believed (hoped!) secretely she still had a soft corner for us and that she was just not showing it out! It wouldn't be fair on my part to skip a mention about the Hindi classes by S* Sir! I remember how everything would just vapourize away from our heads and we would jsut be blinking away when he asks us a question, his eyes gleaming with terror !!! And remember all those times we ended up writing essays as impositions " only 500 times, before 3 o' clock " even though we knew the answer but had gone into a paralysis when the hand was pointed at us followed by a thundering "You" !!!
Okie, lets not mumble about our teachers now...we did love them a lot for whoever they are ! :-) And galz, I wonder what happened to our "Dead Man's Path" , the banned shortcut to the library where you had to duck your heads as we pass in front of princi's office enroute! Not to mention that deserted machine in the play ground which had enough nooks and hideouts for us to play hide-n-seek ! Of course, I remember that sapling we had all planted together on Vanamahotsava. The mud was so dirty that it was stinking and we were very close to our guess about a toilet being in its vicinity, but after all that effort, I still remember the wide smiles we had on our faces when we watered it! I guess it must have become a tree by now !
Do you remember how we used to read only "fat" books so that we could score atleast 5 point in one go to earn the Reading Habit Award?? Or those moments of Shivaji-Raman-Tagore-Asoka House competitions! Can't forget those Annual Day Drama practices... the secret crushes we have had,followed by the crush-failures(!!).... how we took turns when only 2 were allowed in one bench and one of us had to move out and sit with Ms A*.. how we returned home after a good 8 hours spent talking in school , yet found something new to talk on the phone from five in the evening to seven !! And how my mom scolded me for keeping the phone busy (those days we didn't have that "Press 2" option to keep somebody on hold...all mommy could hear for hours was the familiar bugging beeeeeeeeeeeep beeeeeeeep!!)
Phew!!!! I could go on and on, coz there is still so much unsaid about the absent-minded Malu who used to cry so much initially for every single reason which used to scare us a little...Her eyes would go red and they would well up with tears,big blots streaming down her face while she screamed "I am NOT crying" :-)) (OK,I have to admit that later on she literally stopped crying and even when the whole class cried,she wouldn't and she would look at others with an expression that suggested crying was a sin !!) or the emotional Vaish who sometimes got too emotional that Malu and me were met with a tearful Vaish after our class-play about Brain-Drain in English class! May be a part 2 will follow... !!! Probably more parts!!! :-))) But I guess I should stop here ofr today!! Love you buddies, for all your gimmicks and love!!!! Ciao!
Galz, I know its been a looong time since we cuddled together for a warm chat catching up on the latest of the latest of things under the sun, but those memories still linger fresh in my mind.. Am very very sorry that I am posting our loony-toony thoughts and embarrassingly funny ideas on this blog, but I thought this was the best way to get nostalgic! :-) So start turning pink.... :-))
Remember galz, when somebody asked about our friendship we used to make sure one of us
mentioned this vital stats without fail that "Our friendship,you know, dates back to 1989 !! " and how we loved to watch in eager the expression on the listeners face doing atleast 5 rounds of change from an "hmm" to " ohhh??" to "wow" to "thats cool" to "going green with jealousy" to "ohh,they are so proud" !!! The "going green with jealousy" was our fave among them :-)) Even if this emotion wasn't evident (for the plain reason that it was absent!) we would imagine that everybody would get jealous at that statement!!! lolz..! And remember how the teachers would ask us "Where is the third of the trimurthi?? " when one of us stayed back in class ??
Any idea how many pranks we have played on the poor librarians??? Vaish, I know you might be praying from the bottom of your heart that I shouldn't mention about the embarrassing incident when you placed the Nancy Drew you borrowed from the library on one of the cycles of God-alone-knows-who only to find the cycle missing after we returned..and you lied to T* Sir that you had returned the book to him on Wednesday evening... You sounded so convincing to even Malu and me who knew the truth very well that no wonder T* sir relented in the end and actually said " Oh yes...I rememeber..Vaishnavi,You did return the book on wednesday and I probably didn't update the register" !!! Vaish , you still retain the crown for the Best Liar I have ever met!!!
And remember those after-school Club Activities hours.. when we would wait for that one painfully long hour of painting to get over so that we can run through the dark verandahs in the school playing Hide-n-Seek and Help? And remember how we all used to desert A* in the game by making him the seeker always coz we thought he was too irritating?? And during one of those days the three of us somehow got away from the rest of the kids when we stopped to drink some water and Malu got so drunk (yes guys, Just plain H2O ! ) that she fell on the floor and was later found dancing to a Suneil Shetty number "oh jaaneman " ??
And I think it was during one of those after-school club activities days while we munched away those (banned) yummy paruppuvadas (made out of "unhygienic oil, don't have it children" - or so claimed by A* ma'am ,who nevertheless had 2 of them everyday at sharp 11 AM ) wrapped in newspaper from our very own 5* Manju Tea Stall that we decided we will have a reunion , just the three of us, in the year 2010, on Dec 25th at nowhere but Manju Tea Stall ! What of that galz ?? :D
And how we loved to imitate our teachers... especially the way P* sir said"Portiaaaa ...hmmm..portia ki umar shaayad pachaas teekh rahegi .." and greyed out my hair entirely for the Shakespeare play for the Annual Day despite me screaming in protest .."Sirrr....Portia is married just nowwwwww...She is young!!" And what about those series of humorous characters ,better known in school as Social Science teachers... remember S* ma'am, who at the thought of her upcoming wedding went to a shopping spree, only to buy a hand-bag looking half like a pomeranian pup and half like a snow man , and looking the least like a hand-bag of a school teacher!! I remember Vaish blushing and answering "Sunsilk,ma'am " when she asked her "Which shampoo do you use Vaishnavi ?" !!!! And the way she used to start every History class with her trade marked sentence "Bachon, aaj me tumhe itihaas ek kahani ke roop me sunaathi hoo ..puraaaaaaane kaal me jab bhaarath me aarya log rehthe the tab bharath me chaaaaaaar varg the... brahman,kshatreeya,vaish aur shoodra..isme braahman.. " zzzzzzzzz.... :-)) What about her successor L* ma'am who resembled a horse when she got angry!
Remember those times we got sooooo jealous when MK* ma'am ignored us completely in the English periods and showered all her attention on A* ?? And we vowed we would come up with better ideas for our activities ..much better than A*'s :-) , and we believed (hoped!) secretely she still had a soft corner for us and that she was just not showing it out! It wouldn't be fair on my part to skip a mention about the Hindi classes by S* Sir! I remember how everything would just vapourize away from our heads and we would jsut be blinking away when he asks us a question, his eyes gleaming with terror !!! And remember all those times we ended up writing essays as impositions " only 500 times, before 3 o' clock " even though we knew the answer but had gone into a paralysis when the hand was pointed at us followed by a thundering "You" !!!
Okie, lets not mumble about our teachers now...we did love them a lot for whoever they are ! :-) And galz, I wonder what happened to our "Dead Man's Path" , the banned shortcut to the library where you had to duck your heads as we pass in front of princi's office enroute! Not to mention that deserted machine in the play ground which had enough nooks and hideouts for us to play hide-n-seek ! Of course, I remember that sapling we had all planted together on Vanamahotsava. The mud was so dirty that it was stinking and we were very close to our guess about a toilet being in its vicinity, but after all that effort, I still remember the wide smiles we had on our faces when we watered it! I guess it must have become a tree by now !
Do you remember how we used to read only "fat" books so that we could score atleast 5 point in one go to earn the Reading Habit Award?? Or those moments of Shivaji-Raman-Tagore-Asoka House competitions! Can't forget those Annual Day Drama practices... the secret crushes we have had,followed by the crush-failures(!!).... how we took turns when only 2 were allowed in one bench and one of us had to move out and sit with Ms A*.. how we returned home after a good 8 hours spent talking in school , yet found something new to talk on the phone from five in the evening to seven !! And how my mom scolded me for keeping the phone busy (those days we didn't have that "Press 2" option to keep somebody on hold...all mommy could hear for hours was the familiar bugging beeeeeeeeeeeep beeeeeeeep!!)
Phew!!!! I could go on and on, coz there is still so much unsaid about the absent-minded Malu who used to cry so much initially for every single reason which used to scare us a little...Her eyes would go red and they would well up with tears,big blots streaming down her face while she screamed "I am NOT crying" :-)) (OK,I have to admit that later on she literally stopped crying and even when the whole class cried,she wouldn't and she would look at others with an expression that suggested crying was a sin !!) or the emotional Vaish who sometimes got too emotional that Malu and me were met with a tearful Vaish after our class-play about Brain-Drain in English class! May be a part 2 will follow... !!! Probably more parts!!! :-))) But I guess I should stop here ofr today!! Love you buddies, for all your gimmicks and love!!!! Ciao!
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Confessions of an Embarrassed Mind
>Everybody would have had childhood fantasies and crazy thoughts.. Penning them in a blog for the world to see would be the most embarassing thing,but I guess I can dare to do it ;-)
Few among the craziest which I remember are..
1) I thought that the seats made out of bricks in the railway stations were used to bury people if they died waiting for a train in the railway stations! Still worse,I used to think it was so mannerless of people to sit on other's graves!!
2) I thought being a "Bank Manager" was the highest point of anybody's career... whether you be a teacher,a doc or an employee of the bank! I remember arguing with my dad when he asked me to do something I really didn't feel like doing saying
"You are not a Bank Manager..then why should I be listening to your orders!"
3) My school was still in its infant stages when I joined KVK in the 1st Std. It had classes only till the 9th Std then. And as per my 7 yr old database, that became the last phase of one's education. I didn't hesitate to tell my parents and neighbours that
"After 9th Std, marriage" :-)) A puzzled dad (or may be worried?? ;-) ) asked me to repeat what I had just announced and I was the least hesitant to do it! All of them roared with laughter I remember,and I obviously found the joke unintelligible then.Atleast now I don't ;-)
4) This was not during my childhood...it was during my early teens. I thought God had accidently "endowed" me with pheromones cos one day I tried to shoo away a frog and it kept following me wherever I go for another one and half hour until I
got so terrified that I trapped it under a bucket!
Another instance which almost confirmed my belief was cos of the lizard that used to live beneath the tube light in our dining room. The identification mark was the black mole on its back.I christened it Venky (I don't remember why!). Venky used to come out from his abode whenever I sat on my chair in the dining table.And was that a smile! I thought so ;-) One more classic observation was that Venky loved it when I hummed Hindi songs.And when I tried few English songs,it used to turn its back at me and hide behind the tube light again. Being the smart kid I was,I wasn't letting go of the research with just that. I would sing a line from one of the Hindi songs followed by a line in English and alternating it...the expected behaviour was Venky would come out,Venky would go back,Venky would come out... alas.. :-)
I guess I revealed too much already! I am not all that courageous to go on.. ;-)
Now buzz off... I ain't spoiling my reputation :-))
Cheers!!!
Few among the craziest which I remember are..
1) I thought that the seats made out of bricks in the railway stations were used to bury people if they died waiting for a train in the railway stations! Still worse,I used to think it was so mannerless of people to sit on other's graves!!
2) I thought being a "Bank Manager" was the highest point of anybody's career... whether you be a teacher,a doc or an employee of the bank! I remember arguing with my dad when he asked me to do something I really didn't feel like doing saying
"You are not a Bank Manager..then why should I be listening to your orders!"
3) My school was still in its infant stages when I joined KVK in the 1st Std. It had classes only till the 9th Std then. And as per my 7 yr old database, that became the last phase of one's education. I didn't hesitate to tell my parents and neighbours that
"After 9th Std, marriage" :-)) A puzzled dad (or may be worried?? ;-) ) asked me to repeat what I had just announced and I was the least hesitant to do it! All of them roared with laughter I remember,and I obviously found the joke unintelligible then.Atleast now I don't ;-)
4) This was not during my childhood...it was during my early teens. I thought God had accidently "endowed" me with pheromones cos one day I tried to shoo away a frog and it kept following me wherever I go for another one and half hour until I
got so terrified that I trapped it under a bucket!
Another instance which almost confirmed my belief was cos of the lizard that used to live beneath the tube light in our dining room. The identification mark was the black mole on its back.I christened it Venky (I don't remember why!). Venky used to come out from his abode whenever I sat on my chair in the dining table.And was that a smile! I thought so ;-) One more classic observation was that Venky loved it when I hummed Hindi songs.And when I tried few English songs,it used to turn its back at me and hide behind the tube light again. Being the smart kid I was,I wasn't letting go of the research with just that. I would sing a line from one of the Hindi songs followed by a line in English and alternating it...the expected behaviour was Venky would come out,Venky would go back,Venky would come out... alas.. :-)
I guess I revealed too much already! I am not all that courageous to go on.. ;-)
Now buzz off... I ain't spoiling my reputation :-))
Cheers!!!
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
What thou speaketh is English?
Haven't you faced situations in life where you wished you could have rolled on the floor with laughter,but since the butt of the joke is usually somebody much superior to you in the heirarchy,you have had to submerge those giggles and at the same time prevent your face from turning pink in the effort.
I remember an incident way back in the first year of my engineering days.All of us were attending our first class in the mechanical workshop. Everybody looked curiously at all the gigantic machines around us and for people like me who happen to be both vertically and horizontally challenged,it was only natural to let out a silent prayer to Lord Vignesha, hoping that these metallic giants would cooperate with me when I need them to.
Having sensed our uneasiness in the presence of machines equalling twice our height,the tutor,with an air of superiority,cleared his throat and began with the rules and regulations to be followed in the lab. "First and foremost,if you ignore the machine,don't work the machine"..
All of us quirked our eyebrows..what was that? Somebody dared to ask.."Sir...?Excuse me..but..could you repeat what you said?"..By then everybody had a smile on their faces..growing at an amazing rate to an endless laughter against which our bodies were fighting a battle in vain. But nobody dared to laugh...except this single guy,oops,and he was sent out :-)
At times people speak English in the most idiotic way ,seemingly non-idiotic to them that we are at a loss to decide whether to laugh or act as though you didn't notice anything wrong! You get the message clear and loud,so does everybody....but... :-D
Reminds me of this bird watcher friend of my brother,with whom he had frequent and interesting correspondences. His clumsy broken English sentences even managed to be humour laden.And the best part of it was,being a nature-lover that he is, nobody got suprised when he signed off as "Yours naturally,XYZ" :-D
And as a foot note,in case you thought such incidents occured due to the lack of education.. look at how education ruined this sweet 6 yr old girl in my neighbourhood. What she said about her pregnant mom one day sent both my mom and me laughing to death that the little girl was almost close to tears for having been teased! "Mommy said,its a bull in her tummy..." chirped the innocent girl. My mom and me gave each other quizzical looks.I pressed on.."Bull? She told you that? But how can a bull get inside your mom's tummy?" She couldn't understand what was it in her statement that I didn't follow.So with great deal of patience she explained.."Seeeee....mommy's tummy is big na? she told me..its a bull inside her tummy....u know..bull...bulllllllll.....not cowwwwwww....." Any comments ;-)
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Veendum Oru Vishu...
Innu Kerala New Year Vishu pramaanichu Malayalathil "blog"aan theerumaanichu..Ende ippraavishathe vishu bangalore_il thanne aayi..aadyaayittaanu vishu diwasam veettil ninnum maari nilkkunnathu.
Innale raathri kidakkunnathinu munbu athyaavisham nalla saadhanangal okke pillow_de side_il othukki vechittaanu kidannathu...raavile kannu thurakkumbol ormayode kaanane ennu praarthichittu kidannu.
Samayam 6:15...ende mobile goes beep beeep beeep beeeeeeeep...Reflex action pole mobile_il nokki.."Alarm off!!" "Snooze" ennokke paranju light minnunnu...Aiyyyooooo....vishu kani!!! Vegam kannadachu bed_il position cheythu kannu thurannu,to see the mirror...ende thottu purake oru nalla window aayathukondu sooryaprakashathil frame itta enne njan mirror_il kandu...(kandu ennu parayaam..aake frame maathrame kandollu!!) pinne pillow_de thaazhennu oru photo album eduthu..last page edukkunnathinu pakaram ormayillaathe 1st page eduthu...NSS College of Engineering ennu ezhuthiya valya building..ooops...thetti poyi..last page eduthu..hmmm...thank god..mom,dad and pj..:-D
Angane kure mistakes okke kazhinju vishu kani kandu.. Pinne chaadi odi pidanju marinju oru kuliyum b-fast_um kazhichu veendum chaadi odi bus stop_il ethi,just-miss aakenda bus_inde purake odi chaadi keri phew-huff-puff okke kazhinju settle aayi..office ethi..back to work...anganeyum oru vishu!
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
I,Me,Myself-Unedited
There is this neat pile of books at my home stacked away in a dusty corner , each of them looking not a bit like the other in their appearance,shape and colour...but they all share one similarity.Every book has lots of pages filled up with writings,musings and pictures,little souvenirs tucked in with love in the first half of the book while the other half is almost bland...wondering what these books are? They are my journals through the years - I,Me,Myself- Unedited.
An old saying goes "Paper is more patient than man" and every crazy thought strewn across those pages of a journal is a testimony to this fact.Sometimes I have wondered what I would do with all those journals I have maintained through right from when I was 12 years of age. And I think I am going to read all that junk (!!) after a few years,probably share it with my family too,and enjoy a good laugh (thats the only best thing I can think of now!).Sometimes I get so embarassed about few of my cranky ideas etched in there that I even thinking of burning them all away! But that invisible string tugs at your heart and you put off the idea.
Getting specific about my journals,as I mentioned earlier,the process gets kick started with much fire and fury in the first half of year....with almost all the pages scribbled about anything and everything under the sun...right from the fight I had with my best friend to how I was chased by a dog and ran for my life hoping no one had seen it! Post July,the laziness takes a toll on me and frequency of scribbles reduces drastically and by December,there would have been atleast half a dozen pages of apologies for not writing anything! Come January,its again a new beginning,a fresh dairy,but same old me again :-)
First few years,my journal even had pictures of the daily events..cartoons...what not!Advancing through the years,pictures reduced,daily chore jottings also reduced and I tried evolving by writing about serious stuffs.By the end of the year I realised serious writing was not my cup of tea cos the entire journal was the worst one I had ever written!
And now with blogging,a beautiful new vista of I,Me,Myself-Unedited series has opened before me....with a serious risk factor--the blunders and stupidity is now open for the world to see! But I am definitely enjoying it!! What about you..?
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
God's Own Country-You are missed!
Lush paddy fields,circled by a chain of palm trees,a gurgling stream finding its waythrough tiny narrow openings,caressing the smooth white pebbles underneath,mountains lining up the horizon kissing the clouds and blue blue clear sky as you look up .....the thought of
Kerala fills my heart with pride and love and that longing drives you so crazy that you are
prompted to go through your calendar.
Running my finger along the rows of the month,my eyes
light up as I see 30th marked in grey in my official calendar.A
pplying for leave on 31st was the next chore in hand.And then finally tickets to that sleepy town-Palakkad! Its summer back in Kerala and am looking forward to the ripe mangoes and jackfruits waitingfor me!Reminds me of those sultry afternoons during the summer vacation when there was
absolutely no option about going out.I used to make myself as comfortable as possible before
the TV with juicy mangoes in hand....
And come June ,it rains cats and dogs!I studied in a school where summer vacation began a
little late and stretched to mid June.For the other schools in the state,June 1 is Day 1 for
the next year.And the monsoon in Kerala plays the prank every time. It lets out all its fury
right from that day! Its really a sight to watch kids return from school,drenched to their
skins despite their raincoats and umbrellas.Once back home,there is a lot of hard work to be
done...the brand new leather shoes is completely soaked,an entire bucket full of water is
wrung out of the socks and the uniform no longer identifies your school! But as all kids
knew,that was all mama's job...:-) How I miss those days!! Kerala,I miss you! And am coming....! Have a nice day!
Monday, March 27, 2006
Say Cheese!!
Remember your curiosity and enthusiasm when you saw an elder handling a camera in your childhood? How you used to gape as he adjusted the lens with expertise ,gave a firm support with his palm and the moment of pure bliss was when he clicked and the bright flash of light appears for a split second!
For many, photography has been a passionate hobby.They wouldn't mind spending half their life and money clicking away pictures of nature and animals.Or even birds and butterflies?? I know of a person who hangs around parks and sanctuaries with his blah-blah-blah-specification-Nikon camera-with-even-more-blah-blah-blah-features and takes amazing pictures of dragon flies in every other position! Even the intricately woven details of the wings are seen glistening in the sunlight. And the joy on his face when he shows it to us!
But for me,its being on the other side (or probably,with regard to photography as a hobby,being on the "wrong side") of the camera that has thrilled me! My protocol is that "If there is a flash,there is me!!" :-)
Now,am sure,most of us are no different...When it comes to photography,if you can't shoot cool pics,then be an object for cool pics ;-) Recollecting those college days when we used to try fitting into the frame of almost all the photo taken in the class! And remember those photos where everyone had a "V" over their heads????
One of my careful observation is that most of the time you look the prettiest in photos when you are wearing the shabbiest of your clothes,amidst the dirtiest surrounding...and when you take pains to get dressed up well and expect the photo also to come up well,you are taken in by surprise! There would be no words to describe the shocked expression on your face when you take a look at the result! I still haven't found a way out of this paradox! If somebody has an answer,kindly let me know!
Now,as a final note,few tips on photography(I mean,for the wrong side,of course!)..
1) ALWAYS smile in photos...it makes you look much happier (even if you are not!)..Nobody likes seeing sad faces on photographs!
2) For gods sake,stand still , unless you really want to end up looking like a spooky soul right from the graveyard!
3) And most important of all,pose for a photograph only if you trust the photographer's skill !!!
For many, photography has been a passionate hobby.They wouldn't mind spending half their life and money clicking away pictures of nature and animals.Or even birds and butterflies?? I know of a person who hangs around parks and sanctuaries with his blah-blah-blah-specification-Nikon camera-with-even-more-blah-blah-blah-features and takes amazing pictures of dragon flies in every other position! Even the intricately woven details of the wings are seen glistening in the sunlight. And the joy on his face when he shows it to us!
But for me,its being on the other side (or probably,with regard to photography as a hobby,being on the "wrong side") of the camera that has thrilled me! My protocol is that "If there is a flash,there is me!!" :-)
Now,am sure,most of us are no different...When it comes to photography,if you can't shoot cool pics,then be an object for cool pics ;-) Recollecting those college days when we used to try fitting into the frame of almost all the photo taken in the class! And remember those photos where everyone had a "V" over their heads????
One of my careful observation is that most of the time you look the prettiest in photos when you are wearing the shabbiest of your clothes,amidst the dirtiest surrounding...and when you take pains to get dressed up well and expect the photo also to come up well,you are taken in by surprise! There would be no words to describe the shocked expression on your face when you take a look at the result! I still haven't found a way out of this paradox! If somebody has an answer,kindly let me know!
Now,as a final note,few tips on photography(I mean,for the wrong side,of course!)..
1) ALWAYS smile in photos...it makes you look much happier (even if you are not!)..Nobody likes seeing sad faces on photographs!
2) For gods sake,stand still , unless you really want to end up looking like a spooky soul right from the graveyard!
3) And most important of all,pose for a photograph only if you trust the photographer's skill !!!
Thursday, March 23, 2006
When I grow up....
Title sounds too mystifying to be said by a 22 yr old..right? Well..today while I was wracking my brains(excuse me,why do we use a plural here???:-o) about what I should be writing in my second blog , I had 2 choices ...either to write about the gory details of the "battle" I had today in the morning in the "arena" (a.k.a The Bathroom) with my opponent (a deadly sized creature with sturdy claws and a menacingly long tentacle,firmly sticking to my bath towel) or...something much less gory..the multitudes of ways I used to complete this sentence "When I grow up,I want to be a.." in the past years..I chose the latter.
As some great PJ master said.."Let me begin from the beginning.."..
My first day in school as a 4 yr old...I remember very little of that day except for this incident.The teacher in blue sari (She was pretty,but I always thought my mom was the prettiest in those days...! ) asked all of us to answer a question.."What do you want to be when you grow up?" Initially none of us got her question.Then she suggested.."like..teacher..doctor...??" Many around me flashed smiles,probably because they got their answer...but I was still have the same puzzled face.My classmates started answering her question..one by one.."teacher..".."doctor.."..."doctor..".."teacher.."...somebody said "pilot" (and I wondered what in the world was that!) ...my turn was fast approaching...and I had still not got the answer...I could feel my hands going cold...what am I to say????
Then the person right ahead of me said "Doctor" and immedietely I sprang to my feet and said "teacher..",for the only reason that my friend had said "doctor" and how can I say the same thing????..I sat down and relaxed for having answered the question.
That was my first way of ending that sentence...when I didn't even know what the question meant!
Soon as I "grew up" inch by inch,I fancied doing all kinds of jobs...After what I thought was careful thought,I decided to stick to the teacher figure for quite some years..until I was about 8 or 9 yrs old.I had narrowed down my dream to a "KV teacher" cos I was a KV student.
Then when I was 10 yrs old,teacher announced one day in class that there was this essay competition in school and the topic was "My Ambition in Life"..hmm..why not participate! Back home,I was pestering dad to come up with an "exotic" profession so that I could win the first prize ;-)..and both of us put our heads together and decided that I should be writing an essay saying I wanted to become an "articket"..i mean..an "architect"..with great difficulty I managed to pronounce the word. Soon a nice essay was prepared by daddy and I memorized every line of it in no time!
Voila!!! The essay won the second prize...(I secretly wondered what "extra-exotic" profession the 1st prize winner had come up with!) ..and that day I decided I would become an architect!!!
Those were merry days....cos even though I changed my mind few times,I still secretly hoped to become an architect when I grew up...
The other jobs that caught my attention were..and the weird reasons why were...
1) News reader...cos I had a crush on almost all the news readers in my teens and dreamt of reading news with them!
2) An anchor for cookery shows in TV because I envied those people on Tv who managed to get along without cooking,but still dug their teeth into all the yummy things the chefs cook!
3) An aerobics teacher because I thought that was the only way somebody who didn't know the ABCs of dancing would dance and the world would still not laugh at them!
4) And finally a software engineer (which today I am)....cos...:-)
And today,as I look back on all the clumsy thoughts I had,I still think of all those dreams-unrealized,with a smile on my face...may be one day I can fufill them....??? And the equally clumsy fact is that I have still not stopped uttering the statement "When I grow up.." even today...!!!! have a nice day!!!
As some great PJ master said.."Let me begin from the beginning.."..
My first day in school as a 4 yr old...I remember very little of that day except for this incident.The teacher in blue sari (She was pretty,but I always thought my mom was the prettiest in those days...! ) asked all of us to answer a question.."What do you want to be when you grow up?" Initially none of us got her question.Then she suggested.."like..teacher..doctor...??" Many around me flashed smiles,probably because they got their answer...but I was still have the same puzzled face.My classmates started answering her question..one by one.."teacher..".."doctor.."..."doctor..".."teacher.."...somebody said "pilot" (and I wondered what in the world was that!) ...my turn was fast approaching...and I had still not got the answer...I could feel my hands going cold...what am I to say????
Then the person right ahead of me said "Doctor" and immedietely I sprang to my feet and said "teacher..",for the only reason that my friend had said "doctor" and how can I say the same thing????..I sat down and relaxed for having answered the question.
That was my first way of ending that sentence...when I didn't even know what the question meant!
Soon as I "grew up" inch by inch,I fancied doing all kinds of jobs...After what I thought was careful thought,I decided to stick to the teacher figure for quite some years..until I was about 8 or 9 yrs old.I had narrowed down my dream to a "KV teacher" cos I was a KV student.
Then when I was 10 yrs old,teacher announced one day in class that there was this essay competition in school and the topic was "My Ambition in Life"..hmm..why not participate! Back home,I was pestering dad to come up with an "exotic" profession so that I could win the first prize ;-)..and both of us put our heads together and decided that I should be writing an essay saying I wanted to become an "articket"..i mean..an "architect"..with great difficulty I managed to pronounce the word. Soon a nice essay was prepared by daddy and I memorized every line of it in no time!
Voila!!! The essay won the second prize...(I secretly wondered what "extra-exotic" profession the 1st prize winner had come up with!) ..and that day I decided I would become an architect!!!
Those were merry days....cos even though I changed my mind few times,I still secretly hoped to become an architect when I grew up...
The other jobs that caught my attention were..and the weird reasons why were...
1) News reader...cos I had a crush on almost all the news readers in my teens and dreamt of reading news with them!
2) An anchor for cookery shows in TV because I envied those people on Tv who managed to get along without cooking,but still dug their teeth into all the yummy things the chefs cook!
3) An aerobics teacher because I thought that was the only way somebody who didn't know the ABCs of dancing would dance and the world would still not laugh at them!
4) And finally a software engineer (which today I am)....cos...:-)
And today,as I look back on all the clumsy thoughts I had,I still think of all those dreams-unrealized,with a smile on my face...may be one day I can fufill them....??? And the equally clumsy fact is that I have still not stopped uttering the statement "When I grow up.." even today...!!!! have a nice day!!!
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