Another new Automatic watch

For a long time I was having an eye on the automatic watches that are available online. On Jan 28, when I saw that the price was slashed in a online e-com site, I immediately took it to the notice of my friend, who suggested to buy immediately. We placed the order and after a long and eager wait for about 10 days, it reached us.

It was a delight to open and observe it. It is a mechanical automatic watch. The watch was prettier than what I had thought, and the dial was a bit larger than what I had thought. It looks a bit big on my skinny wrist, but still it looks great.

While wearing, it looses a few seconds, and when on idle on dial up position, it gains a few seconds. Typical behavior of an automatic watch, and due to this it keeps accurate time on an average. Hoping to use it as a regular, daily wear.

Some pics of the watch for your view:

Wrist Shot

- SPGR.

Book Exhibition 2017 - Visit

Coming back to writing after a really long time. Though I had many things to tell, I never thought of writing them down, as I became busy with other things in life. Now, back to writing. Not sure how long this will go on.

Yesterday I went to the Book Exhibition in Chennai. The Exhibition is back to its old venue of St. George Anglo-Indian school grounds. This time the path from the main gate to the Exhibtion hall is not just a simple straight path, with banners of writers and stalls on both sides but it was a curvy one, with no space on either side for the banners. But still some writers (or stall owners???) managed to keep some flex banners. Since I came by walk, I by-passed the long route to the Exhibition hall, by entering through the bike stand. In the front, there was a dias, where some meeting was going on. Some eminent persons from the literary world were giving speeches. The meeting was in full peak with all the chairs occupied. Saw a big food court next to it.

Took the entrance ticket by paying Rs. 10 at one of the counters. This time I paid with a ten rupee coin. After the rumor that the ten rupee coins will be banned, they are in decent circulation. I went inside the Exhibition hall. As I am used to this exhibition, this time I didn't wonder about the size of the hall (or tent???), number of the stalls, or the number of books on display. I just went to Stall No. 1 and started strolling from there. My friend Ramani had asked me to buy some books for kids, if possible. She also told the stall number (Stall No. 45). Though later I found that stall number didn't exactly match. Or may be that I missed the actual stall that sold imported books for children. Whatever be the case, I didn't buy book for kids. I went inside a stall where there was heap of books for children. I opened a few books and tried to read them, but unfortunately I couldn't understand anything and hence dropped the idea of buying those books, as I thought that even kids will find it difficult to read and understand them.

I just kept strolling though the pathway between the stalls, exactly in the middle, with stalls on both sides. Through any pathway, I traversed only once. This is different from my early visits, in which I will traverse twice, once on the left and once on the right, so that I don't miss the shops on either side. Also, I used to get into almost all the shops and browse through the books. This time I just kept walking. Books didn't attract me anymore (Or may be at the moment???). In Uyirmai stall, I saw Manushya Puthiran, writer Charu Nivedhitha, and three more people seated in chairs and chatting. As usual there was a lady (Manush's wife???) was sitting in the counter. Earlier Manush used to sit in his foldable wheel chair, but now he is seated in a comfortable small cushion sofa. He seemed to be more happy compared to my earlier encounters with him. When I was about to leave the Uyirmai stall, saw the blogger Cable Sankar talking to writer Charu Nivedhitha. More than talking he was laughing most of the time. He was a short, stout man, in his middle ages. Earlier when I used to see writers, I used to go and talk to them, and try to take a photo with them. Now I am least bothered about them. I just kept walking.

In one shop (Stall No. 293), I saw some old tape-recorders, telephones, hanging from the roof. I just stopped to watch them. Then I understood that its a trick to make people notice, enter, and eventually buy a book. Also most of the book readers belong to that period, when they listened to songs on a tape-recorder and made phone calls on those black rolling number dial telephones. Upon seeing Jayamohan's (somewhat big) photo I entered that stall, thinking that if I find a copy of the "Rubber" novel, I will buy. But I couldnt find "Rubber", but found many bundles of "Aram", book by the same author. I thought of buying a copy of Aram. The price was Rs. 300, after a 10% discount, it will come to Rs. 270. Somewhat a big money. So, I called up my friend and she asked me to buy if I want. This "Aram" is a collection of long stories. I have read 2 stories from it on net, one among them was "100 Naarkaligal" (100 chairs). A story I liked a lot, and was very inspiring. I told my friend that I will continue with the walk and after completing all the stalls, if I still feel like buying, I will buy the book.

I went ahead with my walk. I understood that I have crossed this stage of life, and no longer will required to go for a book exhibition (for some time???). Mostly because I lost interest in reading books, and also got used to reading books in electronic format in laptop and in mobile phones.  The latter can be done without spending a rupee, most of the time. Also I have discovered other hobbies that keeps me busy and healthy. After giving one last thought, I came out of the exhibition hall, without buying the "Aram" book. I already have a print out of the "100 Naarkaligal" and thought if I wanted to read the other stories, I can do so on the net, in writer jayamohan's blog. Upon reaching home, I gave a beautiful (according to me at least) punch about this to my friend. But someday I may buy this "Aram" and "Rubber".

On the way back, saw the platform shops. Not the second hand book shops that used to be there earlier. A few years back I bought "Fountain Head" from one of the platform shops for just Rs. 10. It was the first version of that book. I saw one person selling plastic device, which looked more like a big injection, with a 2 litre water bottle attached to its neck. I was spraying a jet of water at a high speed (velocity???). The shop keeper said (to some other person) that it can be used to water the plants and also for water-washing the bike. The latter interested me, but I thought it will be costly here, and hoped that soon it will be available everywhere, and I can buy one. Dreaming of that day when I will fill soap or a shampoo solution into that 2 liter bottle, and will happily water wash my bike with it. From the net found that it is a "universal jet spray gun bottle water sprayer"(Images below). We need to attach a bottle with water, pump, and then it sprays for sometime, due to the pressure built inside the bottle. An ingenious invention indeed.

After reaching home, I was happy that I didn't take Dhanesh with me, as it would have been very boring for him. Also I felt exhausted due to long walk, to and from and within the Book Exhibition Hall and also I felt that I have wasted the ten rupee (entrance fee).

- Pavala
Jan 18, 17. 

Gifts

Not so long ago, the gift one could give to someone on a birthday was nothing more than a clock, watch or a pen. Nowadays a lot of options are available when one has to give a gift. The photo studios play a major part in creating these gifts. After the apperance of mobile phones and digi cams with a high quality camera in it, the number of hard copy photos taken by people has come down, and most dont take at all. They are shows to others on mobile phones or computer screens and shared to others through facebook, whatsapp or pintrest.

Now these studios print these photos on stuff that we have never imagined earlier like ceramic cups, tiles, engraved on wood and these items are presented as gifts. A couple of years back we happily received such a gift of our family photo engraved on a wood, and I was surprised to see such a gift. It was ordered through internet and was directly delivered to us.

Lots of collages were also given as gifts. When I first heard this word "collage", I wasnt sure what it was as it rhymed with both "college" and "collegue". When I saw that, got to know that it was a sequence of printed photos, printed mostly on a A4 size print sheet. But nowadays these phots are also printed on so many stuff like ceramic, tile, wood and glass. Some of them also have a clock embedded on it.

Though my friend had the habit of giving gifts to her friends earlier, I was not much into it. But now I am also receiving many gifts from loved ones in my close circle. I think soon I will also be part of this gifting culture.





- Pavala. 

Another Vinayaka Chathurthi

After coming to Chennai, observed that the Ganesh/Vinayaka chathurthi is celebrated in a grand manner here. Until then, it was just a holiday for me. Also nowadays lot of special programmes, including new movies are telecasted on that day. This time we celebrated in the morning itself, as it was a holiday for me, and I didn't want to spend the whole day in preparing for the celebrations. The rest of the day, we can do something else or we can spend time with family, and with Pillaiar's blessings, it worked out indeed.

I am amazed by the speed at which my friend works these days in preparing for these events, single-handedly. This time my little friend Deepak also helped her. Dhanesh also pitched in then and there. Our celebrations were over before 10 o' clock. Then we saw TV for sometime. Though we watched for around 30 mts, the movie "Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga" was enjoyable, as always. This time we missed the Pattimandram, and I didn't worry for it, as over the years, it became a very boring program on the TV, with the same set of people telling almost the same thing again and again. Then we went around for rounds in bike, and the kind Vinayaka took care of our lunch too ;-).

Took complete rest in the afternoon and the rest of the day just flew away.

This time was happy to know that both Dhanu and Deepu understood that its "Pillayar Sami's Birthday" :-).

- Pavala.

Ramanan - The Weather Man

The earliest memories of me seeing Mr. Ramanan - The Weather Man of Tamil Nadu - dates back to my high-school days. A simple-man, with a small mustache, in white shirt(most of his shirts looked white in our Black & White TV), sitting behind a table. A few computers - two to three in number - that belonged to our grand-fathers generations would be there, facing the camera, in front of him. Unlike these days, there were not many cameras in front of him, but only the DD's. No mikes too. Once the camera rolls, he will bend forward and look into those computer monitors, which makes one to wonder if that is the first time he is seeing those monitors for the day. He will pause for a few moments, when one is supposed to assume that he is thinking and analyzing the data, mostly black & white images of clouds floating over the map of India. Then he will look into the camera and tell his prediction, which most of the time will be exactly opposite to what is going to happen. For example, when he says if its going to rain heavily for the next two days, people got used to interpret that as that the sky is going to be clear and no rain will be there. On the other hand, if he says that the weather will be good and there wont be any rain for the next days, one can safely assume that its going to rain heavily for the next two days. But in those days the government and the authorities didn't go to the extreme of declaring leave for schools and collages, since they too appeared to follow the well-established interpretation of Mr. Ramanan's weather forecasts.

At times the prediction given by my grand-father, just by seeing the sky used to be somewhat accurate than the prediction of Mr. Ramanan and his metrological department.

All of a sudden, after I grew up into adulthood, I saw a colorful Ramanan in Sun TV (By this time we had switched to a Colour TV). In the mean time, Mr. Ramanan has completed a doctoral research and has become Dr. Ramanan (so, lets also change from Mr. Ramanan to Dr. Ramanan). His cute little mustache was also gone. So many mikes in front of him, based on which one can also assume that there should also be many cameras in front of him. The computers in front of him were missing.  But at times, we could see him standing in front of a big TV that displays clouds over the a world map and Dr. Ramanan explaining how the wind is formed and how it is expected to travel. Having seen his predictions from my childhood, I never worried about them and sometimes have planned and executed beautiful outings in pleasant climates, when he said that we can expect a heavy downpour for the next two days. But now there is a big change - the government and the authorities seemed to believe whatever he said, and are going to the extreme of declaring holidays whenever he said that there is going to be a heavy downpour. May be, with improved technology, his predictions are somewhat close to that of my grand-father's.

Move forward a couple of years... I receive memes about Dr. Ramanan!!! Looks like he has become the favorite darling of school and college students, since he is pivotal in prompting the regulators to declare holidays, sometimes up to 2 weeks at a stretch!!!

Some of the memes below...

And here is the ultimate one :-)  (which made me to laugh continueously for 5 minutes while having tea in our office cafeteria, which made others around me to assume that I have gone mad...)