City Life

Aroma of Jasmine, Chime of Anklets around the office in Mid-night

Guest post from my friend: http://www.ramanipgr.blogspot.in/


Four guys were working in night support for several months

Two days back Jay and Venkat were busy working. Other two guys Harish and Tarun were on leave for the week. Around 12:30 in night, Jay took a break from work and stepped out of hall.  Venkat was seated alone. Suddenly  he felt the aroma of nice jasmine flower. around the same time, he also heard chimes of anklet bells in specific intervals. The eligible bachelor was kind of shocked and horrified. He was waiting for Jay to come back.

Venkat: Jay, Where were you?

Jay: I stepped out to pantry for having a cup of coffee.  what's up ? you look dull. Again fight with your girl friend Riya?

Venkat:  No. This is worse than Riya.

Jay: What else then... yet another girl? what's her name ?

Venkat : Why ? you wanna try ? We call her mogini pisasu(Beautiful Ghost). Just now I could smell jasmine fragrance and the chime of anklets.

Jay: What ? Didn't you sleep well in morning ?  so you slept and had a dream ? (Jay laugh out loud)

Venkat: Shut up. I am serious.

Jay: There is no pisasu. You better behave like a educated man.

Venkat. You wait for some time. Then you will believe me.

Time passed. No smell or sound. Bad luck for our guy Venkat. When shift time was over they both left office.

Next day, Jay forgot what happened previous day. Venkat was tensed like yesterday.

Around 11:45 , Jay wanted to take a break to attend nature's call. The moment he stood up, Venkat opened up.

Venkat: Sit Jay.

Jay: But Why ?

Venkat: Do not leave your seat till I say.

Jay: (he recollects) Oh Man. You are still into yesterday sickness ?

Venkat: Stop talking. Just sit at your desk for another hour.

Jay: I shall go to rest room and be back in five minutes.

Venkat: No. What ever you do it is after an hour only.

Jay: Dei, Don't make me angry. I can control my anger but not this. My bladder will burst.

Venkat: Okay. Then lets both go.

Jay: This is not possible. Other two guys are on leave. Alteast one have to be there online to respond to queries

Venkat: Ok. Then you sit here for another one hour.

Jay: Oh God. Mercy to Riya. I can understand now, why there is frequent fight with her. I have to go rest room.

Venkat: Then come lets go.

Jay:  I will also get black mark for absense in desk.  Its all my fate. Come.

They both are back to desk in five minutes. Nothing happened till dawn.

Jay: Better stop reading horror novels Venkat. Don't open up the same topic tomorrow.

Venkat: I'll try. Better you take your break before 11:30 and be on seat for next hour.

Jay gives a hot glare on venkat and steps out to home.

Yesterday, Venkat seemed to be relaxed a bit, as nothing happened previous day as he feared. But Fate had something else for them.

Around 12:30 Jay heard the chime of anklet bell.

Jay: Venkat, do you hear ? I hear the anklet bell chime

Venkat : (he does not open up , but sits quiet and observe the sound)

Jay: I am asking you da

Venkat: Keep quiet. Don't open up and convey the Pisasu(Ghost) that we guys are here.

As Venkat said other day, Jay now heard chime sound and smell of jasmine flower also followed shortly. Both were shocked. But kept quiet. The only fellow they can talk to is the security who works in night shift. But they were scared to discuss it with him. What if , he suddenly fear and run away. They decided to stay inside the cabin locked and avoided going out.

At Dawn when duty was over, both of them stepped out. They could not stop worrying. At the same time did not want to terrify the security.  So they went to him casually and had a chat.

Jay: Good morning Sir. All set to leave for the day?

Security:  Yes Sir. I shall leave once the morning shift security is here.

Jay: Oh. okay. So you will come back here in night again like us ?

Jay wanted to develop a conversation, so that in night he can ask him about their sense of smell and sound. However Venkat could not control it for a day further.

Venkat: some smell is present here Jay. Do you sense anything?

Security: That's nothing but the new Odomos cream with Jasmine flavour .

Security bent down to pick the cream from the cup board lower shelf and the key chain fell down from his pocket. It was having a bunch of bells like the one of ladies anklets.

R.K.Narayan - My Days - Review

For a long time, I was longing to read the My Days by R.K.Narayan - his auto-biography. Whoever writes about R.K.Narayan or about his stories always have a reference to his My Days, which increased my eagerness to read it. Last month when we went to landmark, I was able to locate all other works of R.K.N, except his My Days. But somehow recently I managed to acquire a copy of it and started reading it.

Earlier whenever I read his novels or any of his work, I used to complete it in a day or in 2 or 3 days max. I remember reading his "The Talkative Man", while I was travelling from Chennai to Trichy in bus, seated under the only blue-coloured night lamp that was lit in the bus. I started reading when the bus started at 9:30 PM and finished it by 3:30 AM, after which I slept. But this time, I was reading My Days for over 3 weeks. This might be due to the fact that I have not read any novel or book over the last couple of years, or I may have lost my interest in reading, a bit.

In the initial chapters, he describes about his childhood in Purasalwalkam, Chennai. As I live close to Pursaiwalkam, and I know almost all the landmarks that he had mentioned, leaving nothing to my imagination, made it a bit less interesting to read - for me. He has not written the book in chronological order, but has mentioned the major events in his life in different chapters. His school days, then college days, love, marriage, career and it ends abruptly with RKN mentioning that an auto-biography cannot have a final chapter.

I liked his chapter on college days, where he mentioned about his long walks on the Chamundi hills in Mysore. I had been to Mysore for a special trip in my life and I could visuvalize the roads and greeneries in his walking route. But unlike the Puralwalkam, I enjoyed reading his life in this area. During my college days, I also had the habit of walking for very long distances in the evenings, mostly on Friday evenings, until one day I saw a very big snake crossing my route, in just one feet before me. We both got scared on seeing each other and rushed to clear out our ways from each other.

The chapters in which he describes about his search for a job after completing his college was intresting. He had a short stint as a schoolmaster(A govt job). He left that job when his boss asked him to go as substitute for the Physical Training class. He finally decided that he should become a writer, a profession that he liked. A Govt job is much sought after even in these days of liberlization, and he has dared to leave one, since he wanted to do something that he really liked to do. And his family member's support for this un-orthodoxical careers was a plus for him. As my friend used to say, one is very lucky if one is paid for persuing his hobby and makes a living out of it. I am one such privilaged to some extent.

His love was another interesting chapter (read about My Love here), somewhat un-conventional when we think about him, getting in love with a 15 year old girl and subsequently marring her, which should be a tough task in those days, and a un-matching horoscope adding more toughness to it. But unfortunately his wife left this world after 5 years of marriage, leaving behind a girl. Having read his "The English Teacher" - which was more or less his auto-biography of this part of his life - I expected this area to be a water-shed. But he just crosses it in a few paragraphs. He also describes how he over-came it and he belived that death was only a change of vehicle and the soul continued to live.

He also briefly describes his trip to US and his stay in Berkely, during which time he wrote the "The Guide".
He also explains the challenges he faced while running his own publishing company and about his experience in building his own house. In all it was a intresting read, sure to be an inspiration for aspiring writers. Hoping to read  his "My Dateless Diary" soon, which was a journel of his trip to the US.

- spgr.

My Watch Collection

I got my first wrist watch when I was very young, may be while I was doing 4th or 5th standard. Both were ladies model digital watches, with metal bracelets. There landed in my wrists after my Mom wore it for a brief time. In my 7th standard, I got my first analog watch, another ladies model watch, A hmt shoba, which I got as a gift for securing 2nd rank in class. It moved on to Amma after sometime and I was back to digital watches. Dad got me lots of watches. My sisters too got me some watches. After marriage, my friend also got me lot of watches. I kept wearing them in rotation, and my all time favorite were digital watches.

I have a vintage Henry Sandoz and a HMT Kohinoor in my collection. I kept buying them whenever I felt like and before one year I decided that I should not buy them anymore, as I finding it tough to maintain them. But still watches get added to my collection at the rate of 2 per year.

Here is my collection for your view.

 
Here is my collection with my friend's and little friend's collection:

It entered my life (1) : TV

When I was in high school, I read a series of articles in a Tamil Weekly in which the author described how various items like TV, bike, fridge, etc. entered into his life and how it changed his and others lives. Right from the time I read those articles, I always wanted to write such a series. Now since I have a platform to write, let me start writing the series.

As I have to recollect from my memory about the events that happened more or less about 20 years ago, there could be some discrepancy in the details. But still, I will try to be as accurate as possible.

Let me start with the first gadget (or electrical item?!?! or electronic item?!?!) that fancied me in my childhood - The TV. I have already mentioned this event many of my other articles, as the moment I recollect this incident, it fills me with the same joy and happiness that I experienced some 23 years ago. I was in my primary school those days.

As usual on a Saturday (in 1987) I was playing with my friends near our home. At around 5:00 in the evening, all my friends ran into a house. Without knowing why they were going, I also followed them and entered into that house. There I saw a TV, a black & white one, and all were waiting for a program to start. I stood near the door, though the owners of the home asked me to come inside. After a moment, a cartoon(which we used to refer to as "bommai padam" in those days) started with the background song "Spiderman, Spiderman, Does whatever a spider can..." and the song went on. In the screen a spider-man was jumping here and there. The cartoon went for about 10 minutes and once it ended and we all came out.

I do not remember how this info reached my parents, probably I would have told them.
My parents told me that I should not go there. But on the next day(Sunday) again at 5:00 PM, I went along with my friends and saw Spiderman. But after that I never went there. But I was not sure whether this was the triggering event, but in after 2 weeks time, we got a brand new TV in our home :-). I came to know that my parents are indeed getting a TV only at the moment when my Dad got down from the auto holding a big box with TV in his hand. Let me go back 1 week behind of that incident. I could sense some strange events happening at home, with Father making frequent visits to the "town". After I grew up I came to know that in those days, we had to book a TV, and wait for its arrival. They will start the manufacturing in the factories only after they receive sufficient bookings. We will be intimated once it arrives in the stores and we had to go and pick it up.

One day an auto came from the road towards our home (should be April 9 or 16, 1987, a Thursday). In those days, seeing an auto in our Railway colony was a rare event and it always signalled the happening of some unusual event. From the road, the auto has to come a distance of about 150 feet to reach our home. By the time, the auto reached our home, a small crowd gathered and they were eagerly looking inside the auto and some where whispering "TV, TV". Our Dad and his friend were there inside the auto. Dad got down with the TV box. A big iron rod was tied to the side of the auto. It was removed by the combained effort of Dad, his friend and the auto driver. Later came to know that it was the antenna. The TV box was brought inside home, and Appa pulled out a beautiful, grey coloured BPL-Ajit 310 Black&White TV out of the box. It was a 20 inch B&W TV, with one big selector knob at the top to change channels and three small knobs at the bottom for adjusting the volume, brightness and contrast. Later I discovered that it also had 2 hidden knobs at the back for controlling horizontal and vertical scrolling. The crowd which gathered in front of our home, by now have entered our home, inside the hall.

Appa, his friend, and a couple of other people - probably Appa's friend's friends(friends of friends in facebook language) were busy assembling the antenna, cutting the cables and connecting it to the boosters. There were 2 boosters, one was the antenna booster and the other was the TV booster. The antenna was fit outside in the chimney, and TV was kept on the stand. Appa switched on the TV after all the wiring was done. As Appa was an electrician, this should have been a piece of cake for him. They did some tweakings, and one person from the roof top was shouting "theriyutha... theriyuthaa..."(is it visible... is it visible...), as he was twisting and rotating the Antenna and Appa from here was replying back. After a short time, we saw a beautiful picture, it was actally a slide showing that the next programme was "Manaimatchi"(An ultimate Mokkai program on Thursday evenings where some people sitting in chairs give some tips, normally useless ones). By now Amma had prepared tea for everyone and served.

Ours was the second TV in our area. When I went outside, an Akka from the first TV home (where i saw spider-man), asked me whether it was Black&White or colour TV. I said it was a colour TV, since I wanted our to be superior to theirs. She was dis-appointed. Next day when Oliyum-Oliyum was going on, she came to our home to confirm the colourness(What an English :-)...) of our TV. The song that was playing at that moment was a Black & White one, which was to indicated by the text "Black&White" displayed at the top right corner of the screen, so that the owners of a colour TV set, need not worry that something had gone wrong with their system... sorry... TV. She waited until the next song and found that it was also playing in Black & White. She gave a glance at me and I could notice the happiness in her face and she ran home happily. But still, I was happy that our TV broke their monopoly in our area.

We kept seeing TV till late in the night and slept, when the telecast jumped from Regional to National(Tamil to Hindi). For the next couple of weeks, we used to watch TV right from its start in the early morning with the Doordharshan's rotating logo, followed by Vande Matharam. We also used to watch the Hindi programs after 9 in the night and sleep by 9:30. I dont know at what time I used to sleep before the arrival of TV. But after its arrival, my sleep time was definitely after 9:30.

During the initial days, we lost some privacy, as whenever we switch on the TV, a crowd gathered in our home, which had an impact on our lunch and dinner times. This crowd continued for a very long time, until TV started entering everyone's home. At the time of MGR's death, we had to skip our meals owing to the large crowd that gathered in our home to watch the live telecast of the happenings.

The TV worked for more than 15 years. It changed my schedule and the way I work. During my school vacations, I watched almost all the programmes telecasted from Delhi in the day time. Some of those were "Hum Panchi Ek Chaal Ke","Dekh Bai Dekh", tuesday afternoon Hindi movies at 3:30. I also somehow got into the habit of watching TV while eating which continues till this day. I dont know whether to be happy or to be sad when my little friend Dhanesh inherited this habit from me. I wrote my homeworks before the 7 o' clock news. Had dinner watching the serials after the news. Studied after the serial got over at 7:30. The Tamil programmes in those days will start at 5:30 in the evening and end by 9:00 in the night.

I had no friends during my school days, since my nature was not compatible with others as I grew up. But still I never felt alone. Because our TV and my hercules caption cycle had taken those roles.

During my 10th class summer vacation, Sun TV started appearing in our neighbouring homes. I discovered that by disconnecting the cable connected to the TV booster and hanging it to a wire above the TV in such a way that the plug connected to the end of the wire contacts the hanging wire, and tuning a bit, Sun TV appeared in our TV, without a cable connection. The signal was actually coming from a nearby cable, running through our roof top. In this manner, by changing the channel and tuning, many other channels could be watched. This actually turned out to be a disaster for our TV and it started giving troubles. The channel selector knob had to be replaced several times, since it was used very frequently, followed by the volume control knob.

Soon, we also got the cable connection and disconnected the antenna and the boosters from the TV. This connection was called the Sun TV connection in those days. After this TV started counting its final days. A sequence of problems followed and one day it gave up. Appa took trips in taking it to service center, and it will lay for weeks together.

At one such time when our TV was in a service center, on a new year day(I think its 2001 january 1st)
parents decided to get a new TV. A Sansui color TV replaced our BPL Black&White TV as the primary TV. This was one of the first color TVs in our area. I looked at awe at the colour image, but for some reason, I still kept remembering the black & white TV and its beautiful images in white, black and grey shades.  A couple of days later Appa went and brought the Black & White TV from the service center. But, by now, it lost its importance owing to the colour TV. By now we have changed home and moved to the Disel Colony. Here i got a seperate room, and I took the B&W TV to my room. I split the cable connection into 2 and connected this too to cable and used it to watch HBO movies. But even after that it kept giving problems and one day it finally gave up. The service center person also gave his final verdict that it cannot be repaired anymore.

But I decided to keep the TV with us in home. I had saved it from several occations from selling it in second hand (during its last live days) and also saved it from several occations when attempts were made to scrap it or exchange it for dates. Like the mummies kept in the Egypt's pyramids with the hope that one day they can be brought back alive, I believed that one day I will bring back our TV alive. When we moved to our own home, the TV was kept in the car shed. Once in a while I used to go and take a look at it.

Lot of changes happened in my life in the mean time and once when I went home, the TV was not there. I got to know that it was scrapped by giving it to the preson who collects the old items, probably in return for dates. I couldnt believe that it was no more with us. I was a very sad that the scrapping was done without my knowledge. Had I known of it, I would have never allowed it. I was very sad for the next couple of days.

After that we bought so many TVs, none brought me the happiness that our first Black & White TV brought. At times, once in a while, suddenly I reduce the color in our TV to zero and make it a black & white image and only I know the reason for the smile it brings...