My arms hurt!! Why? As is the case with me, it’s a long story…….
8:30 PM yesterday, and I am at the local departmental store, trying to get some of my grocery shopping done (so the weekend can be dedicated to much more important things-like lazing around) when I get a garbled phone call from my mom. “ You have to cut up pictures of cricketers and stick it in Appu’s scrapbook.” WHAAAAAAAAT? The first question that pops into my head is “Why is the school encouraging cricket above all else?”
After hastily concluding my shopping, I rush home to check his diary (fashionably called Almanac!!)-Nothing there, a quick look at a page in the scrap book and there is a page bearing the legend-“Streck Pieteers of players”. This was well beyond my powers of translation, hence a frantic yell to hubby dear working upstairs. “Could you please log into his school website and see if there is anything there on Appu’s homework for today?” Nada…
A few deep breaths later, I realize I do not have a choice. I have to decipher my son’s hieroglyphics come what may. Further scrutiny revealed what looked like pictures of a snooker table, boxing gloves, a tennis racket, a gun and the ever present cricket bat!! Aha, now I get what the “Streck Pieteers “ part of the heading means!! -“Stick Pictures”!
I rushed to my parents’ home to pick up all the newspapers they had-some three months’ worth. (and this is where the hurting arms part comes in). Why, oh why, mom do you insist on getting rid of newspapers as soon as the newspaper tower threatens to topple over and engulf all of us?
Soon we were all settled on the floor of our living room, scissors in hand, busy looking through newspapers, when I realized something. All those raves and rants about cricket being the only game encouraged in this country are so very true. I could find pictures of even obscure cricketers-past, present and future involved in all kinds of activities-from walking their dogs to cuddling their girlfriends-but no sight or sign of sportspersons from other disciplines.
After about an hour of searching we found pictures of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, but no, hubby dear persisted until he had found ones of Sharapova and Kournikova. An argument ensured with me asking why we needed foreign players when we had ones of our own that would fit the bill. Appu, for once was on my side, asking for pictures of “Shani” which I took to mean Sania Mirza. Disaster was averted as we found one of Sania’s pictures and it duly went into the scrapbook.
As for pictures of Abhinav Bhindra, Virendar Singh and Pankaj Advani…there was no sign. That was when I saw a picture of Dhoni in a clothing ad and had a brainwave. We had better be looking at ads too…what if one of them had featured in one? Additionally, we should also be looking at Page 3 photos-our sportsmen are the partying kinds aren’t they?
Peace reigned until hubby exploded looking at a sheet in my hand. “There’s a picture of Virendar Singh, cant you see?” Well I did see, but the caption beneath said “Virendar Sehwag”-so not my fault right? “Ever heard of the printers devil?”-asked hubby dear(sore at having lost the Sharapova, Kournikova war), grabbing the paper from my hand and cutting out the sought after picture.
Another hour of this and hubby dear and his illustrious scion went to bed, while the stubborn lady that I am, kept at it. Eureka!!! I soon found a tiny picture of Abhinav, squashed between ads for growing hair on bald pates, and one for a herbal supplement for Viagra. Interestingly, the picture accompanied a tiny blurb where he was talking about his favorite cricketer!!
One last picture-that of Pankaj-and I could go join the snore fest upstairs. I searched and searched, to no avail. I had gone through them all: ads, page three photo shoots, sports pages, even ones where celebrities were talking about their favorite recipes-I had left no stone unturned. I was at my wits end and had almost admitted defeat when I saw it-a tiny but recognizable picture of Pankaj- handing out an award for the best restaurant in a Times of India contest!!!
Thank you God!!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Ingenuity at work
After a too-short nap to while away the hot afternoon, I woke up to the results of A’s latest project. A jam bottle, complete with silvery sand, coral, sea weed and a few tiny black and white, striped fish that seems to thrive so well in the Lakshadweep islands. The amouth of the bottle was tied with an ordinary polythene bag with holes punctured in it. A miniature aquarium and a perfectly proportioned one at that!!!
Being a city girl, I was dumbstruck at how anyone could have managed this; that too in the short time that one took to take an exploratory walk. A, forever mindful of the gaps in my childhood experiences of the kind, decided to show me the contraption he had used work the miracle.
It was very simple fishing device. A thick long piece of wood, a long piece of cloth that had two ends tied to the wooden piece while a third end was held away from the piece of wood to make a makeshift triangle-shaped net. All one had to do, according to him, was to find a rock pool and scare some fish into the area where the net was held.. And hey presto… you had bagged some fish!! I was so impressed with his ingenuity that I decided to take a closer look. And hey presto, the net seemed to have a neat frill along one edge. Realization, though slow, did dawn; he had found some lady’s blouse to use as a net!!! And from the looks of it, it belonged to a pretty gargantuan lady at that!!! So now we have some poor lady wandering the island blouseless!!
Being a city girl, I was dumbstruck at how anyone could have managed this; that too in the short time that one took to take an exploratory walk. A, forever mindful of the gaps in my childhood experiences of the kind, decided to show me the contraption he had used work the miracle.
It was very simple fishing device. A thick long piece of wood, a long piece of cloth that had two ends tied to the wooden piece while a third end was held away from the piece of wood to make a makeshift triangle-shaped net. All one had to do, according to him, was to find a rock pool and scare some fish into the area where the net was held.. And hey presto… you had bagged some fish!! I was so impressed with his ingenuity that I decided to take a closer look. And hey presto, the net seemed to have a neat frill along one edge. Realization, though slow, did dawn; he had found some lady’s blouse to use as a net!!! And from the looks of it, it belonged to a pretty gargantuan lady at that!!! So now we have some poor lady wandering the island blouseless!!
And the best laid plans…………….
Important note to people travelling to the Lakshadweep islands: However well you plan, there is one contingency you can never plan for…. the whims and fancies of the dreaded species called the “M.Ds”(that’s local parlance for the government VIPS) . This is a species unique to the Lakshadweep islands, and their powers are vast and sweeping. Changing routes of speed launches, throwing people out of previously booked cabins,-this is all in a day’s work for the “M.Ds”.
Picture this: Waking up at 4:30 am to be in time to get on the speed launch that goes from Kavaratti to Agatti enroute to Bangaram. We were warned time and again by the locals that we simply had to be at the dock by 7 or else we would miss the boat for sure and there wasn’t another one for days after. We did manage to make it on time after a lot of scrambling… only to be told that the vessel was waiting for the “M.D” who arrived 50 mins later!!!
Two hours later we were told, the vessel was heading to a different island altogether before carrying on to Agatti. The reason? The MD and his family wanted to visit this island. The thought of enduring another two hours in the speed launch was unimaginable to most of our group, so we decided to get off at Kadamth.
We thought we were rid of the pests for good when they surfaced again on the ship back to cochin!!
Thanks to them, we didn’t get the air-conditioned cabins we were supposed to and since it was unbearably hot, we ended up on the open deck of the “Tipu Sultan”, the ship hitherto used to transport cattle. (Is there a lesson here somewhere?)
The whole situation reminded me of the fish in A’s bottle. After a point of time, most of the fish came up to the holes punched in the plastic sheet covering the bottle, in search of oxygen, per A’s expert advice. Somehow, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between their situation and ours!!!
Picture this: Waking up at 4:30 am to be in time to get on the speed launch that goes from Kavaratti to Agatti enroute to Bangaram. We were warned time and again by the locals that we simply had to be at the dock by 7 or else we would miss the boat for sure and there wasn’t another one for days after. We did manage to make it on time after a lot of scrambling… only to be told that the vessel was waiting for the “M.D” who arrived 50 mins later!!!
Two hours later we were told, the vessel was heading to a different island altogether before carrying on to Agatti. The reason? The MD and his family wanted to visit this island. The thought of enduring another two hours in the speed launch was unimaginable to most of our group, so we decided to get off at Kadamth.
We thought we were rid of the pests for good when they surfaced again on the ship back to cochin!!
Thanks to them, we didn’t get the air-conditioned cabins we were supposed to and since it was unbearably hot, we ended up on the open deck of the “Tipu Sultan”, the ship hitherto used to transport cattle. (Is there a lesson here somewhere?)
The whole situation reminded me of the fish in A’s bottle. After a point of time, most of the fish came up to the holes punched in the plastic sheet covering the bottle, in search of oxygen, per A’s expert advice. Somehow, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between their situation and ours!!!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
കാത്തിരിക്കുക ഫലത്തിനായി
മേയ് 16 നു ഫലമറിയുമ്പോള് ആര് ചിരിക്കും ആര് കരയും എന്ന് കാത്തിരുന്നു കാണാം . കണക്കുകള് കുട്ടുന്ന തിരക്കിലാണ് രണ്ടുപാര്ട്ടിയും. ജയിച്ചാല് പൊട്ടിക്കാനുള്ള പടക്കം അടക്കം നാട്ടില് എത്തിക്കക്കഴിഞ്ഞതായി കാണാം. 21ന് തുറക്കുന്ന സ്കൂളിന്റെ പ്രവര്ത്തനം ഇലെക്ഷന് ഫലം ബാധിക്കുമോ? കാത്തിരുന്നു കാണാം...
പത്താം ക്ലാസ് പരീക്ഷ ഫലം അറിഞ്ഞു. കടമത്ത് ദ്വീപില് ഏറ്റവും ഉയര്ന്ന വിജയം . ആന്ത്രോത്തിനു രണ്ടാം സ്ഥാനം.
സേ പരീക്ഷ സെന്റര് അമിനിയിലും കവരത്തിയിലും മാത്രം. പരീക്ഷ മേയ് 19 ന് നടക്കും . online registration ന് സാധ്യത.
പത്താം ക്ലാസ് പരീക്ഷ ഫലം അറിഞ്ഞു. കടമത്ത് ദ്വീപില് ഏറ്റവും ഉയര്ന്ന വിജയം . ആന്ത്രോത്തിനു രണ്ടാം സ്ഥാനം.
സേ പരീക്ഷ സെന്റര് അമിനിയിലും കവരത്തിയിലും മാത്രം. പരീക്ഷ മേയ് 19 ന് നടക്കും . online registration ന് സാധ്യത.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
ലക്ഷദ്വീപില് മുന്പ് എന്നത്തെക്കാളും പെട്രോള് ക്ഷാമം രൂക്ഷം ആന്ത്രോതില് പെട്രോള് കടത്താന് ശ്രമം. പെട്രോള് വേട്ടക്കിറങ്ങിയ പോലീസിന് കള്ളും മറ്റു സാധനങ്ങളും ബോണസ് .
ആന്ത്രോതില് പോലീസ് നിയമത്തിനു അയവ് വരുത്തി. ഇലെക്ഷെന് ദിവസം ഉണ്ടായ കലാപത്തെ തുടര്ന്നു പോലീസ് ഇവിടെ നൂറ്റി നാല്പത്തിനാല് പാസ്സാക്കിയിരുന്നു .ഈ നിയമത്തിനാണ് അയവ് വരുത്തിയത്.
സ്പീഡ് വെസ്സല് കേയ്ടായി . ഇന്നത്തെ യാത്ര ക്യാന്സല് ചെയ്തു
ആന്ത്രോതില് പോലീസ് നിയമത്തിനു അയവ് വരുത്തി. ഇലെക്ഷെന് ദിവസം ഉണ്ടായ കലാപത്തെ തുടര്ന്നു പോലീസ് ഇവിടെ നൂറ്റി നാല്പത്തിനാല് പാസ്സാക്കിയിരുന്നു .ഈ നിയമത്തിനാണ് അയവ് വരുത്തിയത്.
സ്പീഡ് വെസ്സല് കേയ്ടായി . ഇന്നത്തെ യാത്ര ക്യാന്സല് ചെയ്തു
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