Category: Yesterday

four days of holidays ahead, so the grateful self thought he should write a few words about the phenomenon thats making it possible..diwali…
the earliest memories are getting dressed up in the white kurta,pyjama set(the one for special occasions), going into the storeroom, taking out the earthern diyas, cleaning them and arranging them on the window ledges… career highs included being allowed to handle oil and light the diyas myself…
simultaneously happening was the cracker department, which had its own career path- from a rookie user, who was not allowed to handle stuff without permission, to the gradual scaling up of the stuff that could be used..the pinnacle being the rocket, i guess, which had to be launched carefully lest it created a “neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride’ effect in the neighbours’house… and finally , the top seat being the buying of crackers and their division among users…..well, once we reach the peak, the only way is down..
i stopped celebrating the year we shifted residence…did celebrate in patches later, but more as a desperate effort to recreate the magic of the days that were gone… a lost cause that redeemed itself only in the joyful faces i saw around me…….
P.S. though south indians usually use ‘deepavali’, these days, in our house, it is ‘diwali’, since ‘wali’ pronounced slightly differently, means ‘fart’ in malayalam, and….
until next time, have a blast 🙂

a couple of days back, there were some VIPs in office, and all of us were asked to be on our best behaviour, and loud noises were met with cold glares that said ‘dont you know they are here?’…..
it took me to a whole long time back , to a school which used to have school inspectors, who, like the mythological king mahabali (for whose visit we celebrate onam..grrr, i am digressing) used to come once a year to monitor the school’s standards.he used to visit all the classes, and sometimes, if he actually took his job seriously, visit some classes twice. now, all teachers had their ‘poster boys’ who were chosen to answer the questions posed by the inspector. (it reminds me of the first scene in troy, where, to avoid the losses of battle, the two kings let their best fighters take on each other, oh, but i am digressing again).
once, the inspector refused to let the teacher choose, and insisted he would leave the question open,but little did he know that the wily teacher had anticipated this possibility too, and had forbidden anyone else but the chosen one to raise their hand. but the inspector was adamant, he posed the question to the girl next to the chosen one.
a little history, the job of the chosen one wasnt as easy as it looks on the monitor. you should remember that he was the flagbearer of the entire class, and carried the expectations of the teacher and perhaps the school itself. it was not confidence that killed the butterflies in his stomach, it was ambivalent feelings – if he got the answer right, he would continue to recieve adulation as the chosen one, if he got it wrong, well, the wretched job would be taken off his shoulders.. and for the few butterflies that did remain, you can blame the ego…
back to the story now, the girl didnt know the answer, she looked pleadingly at the chosen one,but with the inspector staring at him, he chickened and stared straight ahead….
for the girl, the poster boy had transformed into the first anti hero of our generation.. it certainly wasn’t SRK !!
and since we are on the subject, here are a couple of toons..um, not exactly for children, but..

until next time, know your role….

These days, i find i am ‘doing’ the things that ‘happened’ to me in childhood, to this generation of kids (perverts, mind your mind !!)..simply because i am reaching the stage of life that my relatives were in,at that time…Relatives were important initially coz of the attention they gave, and perhaps also because of the favourable comparisons (favourable to me, that is..hehe) they made with their offspring…. and it was only a sidenote that they used to give pocket money when they left….
unfortunately, increased exposure to the material world gradually converted the sidenote to a headline..well, thats the excuse..:)..gradually their visits became important because they became a major source of revenue… i will refrain from commenting on the status of the comparisons…
On my last visit to kerala, i ended up on the ‘relative’ side of things… quite obviously, i wasnt so naive that i couldnt understand the relatively low value of affection(for the kids, that is)… i was smug in the knowledge that, at the time of saying bye, i would be bestowing some surprise pocket money on the ‘kids’…. but i realised how ‘out of touch’ i was with the world, when hours before departure, the ‘kids’started asking me how much i planned to give them…. the only solace was that i had matched their expectations in value…at least i think i did… shudder to think of comparisons!! Innocence was not lost, it wasnt there at all!! …*sulk*
until next time, get some values!!