A funny wake-up call on a weekend

"Hi, can we know if there are any tickets available for the Cog Rail?" - thundered a voice on the phone. I was a little confused in the beginning. I knew who it was but quite stunned with the formal tone and sense of authority in the voice. I responded calmly - "Can you please hang on for a moment while I pull the details?". "Sure", went the reply.

I cannot have customers wait ;-) I quickly grabbed my Macbook and logged onto google. Searched for Cog rail. Got onto their webpage and saw only 2 PM tickets were available. I continued on the phone, "2 PM tickets are available..!" The voice at the other end went, "Okay, thank you. 2 PM would be pretty late for us though".

The caller was about to hang-up when I yelled on the phone, "டேய் கார்த்தி.. என்னடா பண்ணிட்டு இருக்க?" It was a long pause. Then came a response, "ஒ நான் உன் நம்பர் அ டயல் பண்ணிண்டன்ன.. ச.. சரி விடு.." We were laughing. I thought my friend was making a ploy.. he has genuinely called me in lieu of Cog rail :-) A funny wake-up call on a weekend..!

Everything cannot make sense..!

8 AM on a Sunday morning. My little kid was crying aloud - and rather very aloud this time. Probably he was very hungry. I had not fed him for almost quite a time. Half the time I don't hear him when he cries out aloud. The more vocal his cry,  the lesser seems the chance of me taking care of him. But when his vocal levels start coming down to a shrill, I sense it immediately and take some appropriate action.

I travel wildly. My child doesn't complain. He just accompanies me, often silently. But what I keep forgetting most of the time is his feeding bottle. His feeding bottle is like a bottomless chasm, I must say..!  Never I know what amount of food satiates his hunger and how long he eats.. what I do know is this - when he is eating, I don't disturb him. He will start crying and cribbing if someone disturbs him while he eats. But as a principle, I don't try to join them and disturb him more... I just allow him to eat and rest and then catch-up with anyone who was trying to disturb him much later. He has a clear and distinct memory of who disturbs him... giving me the complete list to take action on :-)

My kid is often ridiculed as a "one-eyed jack". I don't care. I know the many things he does with his one eye has helped all the "two-eyed geniuses" share some good time and reminiscence on many a things vividly. And I never miss an opportunity as a proud parent to flaunt his capabilities as a "one eyed jack" amidst these "two eyed geniuses".

My kid is a little heavier for his size. But what the heck - I am heavy myself for my stature. He is as much exposed to the wild outside world as he is protected by the comfort of my clothing - resulting in his rather red face and cheeks.

Naughty kid that he is, he would many a times slip out of my control and fall down - often injuring himself with minor scratches. I guess he has it all over his back. But luckily, they have never hurt him much. It was only once when he had my heart skip a beat - when his heart almost stopped ticking and I was thinking he is almost dead. I had to quickly do the emergency operation myself - turned him on his back and pressed him a little on the same side of his heart. He was back ticking and I heaved a sigh of relief..!

It might not be a long time before my kid might leave me to find his own ways, however caring a parent I am And I realize it. And in those times, I am sure, I can still look at what this one-eyed jack did and remember the good times.

QGM - Quite Good Movie

First things first - don't look around for too much in terms of a movie review from me. I have never written one before and never felt like writing one too - until the time I happen to watch a quite good movie called Quick Gun Murugan :-)

Simplicity always attracts. This movie had everything very simple in it. No high fundoo stardom. Not much of a heavy logic or message. The idea seemed pretty simple and very very appealing to say the least - how to merge multiple movies that are new and old, with a variety of stars, into one single one, capturing the essence from everything. Of course, when we want everything, we do tend to lose on many things.. but that is not something a movie should be concerned about anyways? Or should it? I don't know, given that I am not  a movie buff as such.

It was really a very well-thought out one I say ;-) Connecting the fact that Indians tend to love hot food with the dabbawalahs and then moving onto project the water scarcity when a lady under arrest shouts "It is time for the water lorry to come. I need to fetch my pail of water" - all within a few screens and spaced a few minutes apart, would certainly leave your mouth wide open and gasping for more..!

I think I am quite unable to do complete justice to this movie since I must admit that I also slept for sometime when the movie was on - but that is something I would've done in any case for any movie and hence Quick Gun Murugan cannot be blamed for that phenomenon. And I know I did miss on probably a few more enchanting numbers to which I could have probably set myself on my feet.

All in all, a highly recommended watch for anyone who likes a time-pass with some serious thinking behind the scenes - on whatever topic they would like to :-)

Professor, of another kind

***

I was out to my uncle's place in Ohio for the Labor Day weekend here in the US of A. We went to the temple in Dayton on Sunday evening. The temple has an entrance from the basement, where devotees need to leave their footwear before proceeding upstairs. When it was time to leave after the darshan, I just walk out of the exit gate towards the car, totally unconscious about the fact that I never went to the basement to put on my footwear again :-) My aunt reminded me about it and I did it.

***

After quite a drive, I reach home from my uncle's place around midnight. I pull myself out of the large Chevy Impala that had taken me back and forth safely for almost 1700 miles in a span of three days time. I take great pains to ensure that I don't leave anything in the car seat pockets, trash all the cups and bottles, pick my mobile phone from the power window socket etc and head home. I sleep well. Morning, while getting ready for office, I frantically search for my wallet.. and where do you think it was? In the car front seat..!!

***

I always appreciate my roommate's observation and consciousness. He hopped onto the car and finds that other than leaving my wallet on the front passenger seat, I have also dumped a good deal of quarters near a socket close to the power window controls on the front door. He tells me I would need them for the laundry and asked me to pick them up without fail before dropping-off the car. And what do I land up doing? I carefully shred and trash the gas station receipts lying on the floor, trash the empty Starbucks Mocha and large Dunkin Coffee, leaving the quarters were they were..! It was late in the evening when I realized I needed quarters for the laundry that it stuck me about these.

***

My mobile phone battery had gone down considerably due to the fact that I was on speaker phone, talking and driving for the most part of the time last night. I reach out to my travel bag to pull the charger to re-charge mobile battery. I realize that I had left it at my uncle's place in Ohio.

***

Well... while my father never forced any of us to take or do what he wanted, he would always talk about the goodness of the academia and how he likes being a Professor and how he enjoys teaching and  research very much. He would keep suggesting that we should also probably try to see if we might want to get into such professorial role. I can definitely tell him, head straight-up, "Dad, you son is certainly a professor - of a different kind though, absent minded" :-)

***

Between You and Me - II

*****

One of our friends in our group decided to take all of us to a park nearby Manchester in Connecticut. After walking a few yards into the park, he said, "I have also not actually been to this park". We walk another 100 yards. He said, "You know, this is the place where we had our last cricket match". Another 100 yards of walking and he continues - "This is where they used to have a meet and greet kind of an event from our organization". A few more yards of walking and he was talking more about the park. We all just paused for  a moment, and said in a sarcastic tone, "I think all of us are in agreement with your statement that you have never been to this park..!!!" :-)

*****

Sometimes, truth is very funny. I was in all smile and laughter for at least a day's time for an introduction that I can hardly hope to have once more in any other place. It was a birthday party to which I had been - and with one rather insistent guest, the host didn't have any choice. She had to properly tell who I was . Which means, she had to introduce me as her "husband's uncle's daughter's brother-in-law". And out came another voice, "Say that again and you get another ice cream" :-)

*****

While I look as majestic and imposing as an elephant, my memory about the most necessary things aren't necessarily elephantine. I often prefer traveling in as light a mode as possible - often times just bothering to carry my office laptop and nothing else with me! One day, when one of my friends came visiting me, I decided to leave my office ID card on the tea table at my home so as to avoid the situation wherein I forget it and leave it elsewhere. Looks like my friend was doubly careful than myself. He had not only picked up his office ID that he got along with him, but thought he had missed his ID and took my ID card also with him when he left. The next day, the time when I was frantically searching for my ID card, he called me and said, "Ravi, I mistakenly took your card also along with my own card. I will get it posted to you shortly" That's when I thought - however careful you are, if you are destined to miss something, you miss it, whatever be the case!! :-)

A night to remember..!

To be afraid or not to be afraid is a very hard decision to make. In fact, it might not even be something that we think on and decide. It would definitely be more spontaneous than anything else.

This was an incident that happened tonight while I was walking down the road enjoying the changing weather condition, which sure, is slowly pulling the screen on summer and setting the scene for the fall.

There were a group of people outside a Burger King outlet. It was all dark as I think the cost cutting measures from the municipality in these grim economic conditions is ensuring that the road lights are never getting turned on ;-)

"Kill him. Kill him", went a loud thunderous voice breaking the silence. I was too stumped and scared to even turn but when I did, I saw a set of faces staring at me. My brain didn't surely pause for a minute to think and react - down went the can of olive oil, box of rice and sugar and my sandals started to transform into a horse hoof :D

After 11 long years, I just couldn't believe that I did run, more so on a steep slope, for almost a little less than half a kilometre or so. I enter near the home premises and was gasping for breath. I try hard to relax but just couldn't.

After a few minutes, my brain starts to think a little more logical. If I were the target, what's the big deal? The group of people could have pulled out their car and hunted me down in no time? They were just probably plain drunk and didn't knew what they were talking? 911 if I felt SO scared? Phew... I think the saying "growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional" seems to hold good in my case :-)

I am just hoping that the hidden horse hooves don't come onto my feet the next time something like this happens..! lolz..

Childhood incidents - I

The first thing that anyone who sees me would notice about me would invariably be my size. And there is good enough a reason for it - I just don't eat food. I LOVE food. People say learn as if there is no tomorrow. I am capable of eating as if there would be no tomorrow :)

Well.. for some reason, potatoes have always been my favorite in just about any form - french fries, wedges, chips, small cut and deep fried with skin, small cut and deep fry without skin, spicy, salted, baked - whatever..!

There is a rhizome called "ginger mango" - whose botanical details is something I am not sure of. All I do know are these though:

i. when cut and spiced up, I can never distinguish between potato and ginger mango

ii. ginger mango, when you bite it, would be tasting like a cross between a ginger and a mango

So, now you must be sort of understanding where it is all leading to - one day, my mom had pickled up ginger mango. I entered the dining room. I opened the vessel containing ginger mango pickle. With my love for potatoes and wanting to take a lions share of it before my brother, i conveniently took 3/4 of it and dumped it onto my plate with curd rice. I mix up everything, place it in my mouth and chew. Oops.. it hurt badly. It was ginger mango pickle and not really potato cut finely and fried with spices as I thought it to be.

Everyone in my family had a hearty laugh about my "competitive" sense of eating with my brother.