Never a dull moment

 Covid Covid, Covid go away I have earned a privilege over the period of time and was eager to exercise it first time but Covid came in the way. I am looking forward to occupying reserved seats in metro, bus etc shooing away youngsters. I need to carry a lanyard displaying "my eligibility" as my appearance befits a middle ager- my assessment which my family members do not agree with.

I can feel the customer care - very strongly. I have decided to take a new Wifi internet connection. After discussion with two neighbours in our block of seven dwellings who vouched for performance and well as prompt customer service, I confirmed my desire in writing with id proof etc to the area franchise this morning. I got a OTP by SMS by 9 am and passed it on to the franchise. I asked the technicians to come after 10.30 am. Time is now 2 pm. I have got several calls confirming my order and also from several "technicians" asking for my house number. All of them said they would be here in an hour. If they had kept their word, my home would have become a medium sized Wifi organisation by now ! Half an hour back, for the first time a lady called asking about my "order" execution. I told her several guys were on the way. I do not think she paid attention to what I said.She said she would send a technician. This relentless custome...

Can't I speak in Malayalam? I bumped into our post graduation batchmate Monojit Mukherjee in Kolkata airport in March 2015. We found ourselves in same security hold area. We were going to different destinations with my flight departing much later. We sought the help of a much younger passenger to click our photo. Monojit left and I introduced myself to the young passenger -  Amit Dubey , chemical engineer working for Haldia Petrochemical. I sat next to him. I got a phone  call from home and I got up moved to closer to glass wall facing the tarmac. After the call, I heard somebody saying something Malayalam addressed to me. I turned around and looked around. No familiar faces. Amit was sitting with straight face. I asked Amit whether he said something in Malayalam to me. His response? Can't I speak in Malayalam. I told him he was welcome to converse in Malayalam. He had spent his schooling life in Kottayam in Hindustan Newsprint Colony- his dad was working in Hindu...

I was taught cycling by my friend Padassery Raghu during summer vacation in 1971 at Venkitangu. We hired a cycle regularly from the village market. I mastered couple of technical "cycle" skills before I mastered pedaling steadily. The first skill was cajoling the chain back into the sockets and the second one was "aligning" the handle bar for riding on a straight line. I learnt cycling on kucha paths. I fought with sand mounds and trees by banging the cycle ag ainst them. By the time my sister and her friends learnt cycling a couple of years later, the venue shifted to the precint of village temple. On return to Madras, I taught couple of friends cycling in the vast compound of Fatima Mata Church next to Corley School. We hired cycles from shops on Velachery Road, East Tambaram opposite Madras Christian College main gate. As years progressed, we used pedal to Camp Road, Chitlappakkam, Gowrivakkam and Irumbaliyur. Tambaram was the terminus of suburb...

Time does not stand still. People do not live for ever. But time stands still and people live for ever in our sweet memories. I walked up to this building this morning three years ago and stood watching it for a few minutes ruminating. My mind went back to April 1982 – to my impromptu first ever visit to Bombay – and this was the place I went looking for after alighting at Dadar railway station. I know the address of a flat in this building by heart from the time I could pen postal letters in English. 5, BSES quarters ( opp BSES House ) Prabhat Colony, Santa Cruz East Mumbai -400055 While in college I used to write letters regularly to some families. And some of the letters went to the above address for the reading pleasure of Dorai anna and family ( though he was only a few years younger to my dad, we addressed him as elder brother- he was our neighbour from our village in Kerala ) Till I completed my engineering degree in 1982, our holiday travel w...

We are in the age of gel and ball point pens. They are utilitarian and long life is not demanded of them. Most of them are of "use and throw" variety. At school and collge , we used fountain pens. The pens as well as nibs had long life. More than the pen, its nib, on prolonged use developed a character of its own mirroring the writing style of its owner. The nib used to wear out with a "personal" touch depending upon angle of grip and pressure applied by is owner. As a consequence, it was tough to borrow a fountain pen and use it at one stretch for long writing work. I used to find my sister's pen "rough" and she also had similar feeling about my pen. Hence it was much easier for the pen to stay with the owner for long without "getting lost". With proliferation of mass produced gel and ball point pens, such attachment to pen is uncommon among students these days. I spent six years in high school from 1970 to 1976 with...

Is this the right bus stop? Yes. Going by your dress, it is ! My tayiji ( periamma) always wore nine yard pudavai ( long saree ) in conventional style. Tayiji's home was in Chalakudi, about 32 km from Trichur. Our village Venkitangu was on Trichur- Guruvayoor route, around 20 km from Trichur. They would change buses at Trichur on their way to Venkitangu. Though she and my cousins used to board bus to Trichur on the way back from the 'short cut bus stop', they were not confident of locating the 'short cut bus stop' while traveling into Venkitangu. They would alight at a junction further away and walk back. On one of their trips to Venkitangu, after their bus had traversed considerable distance, the bus conductor blew the whistle. After the bus stopped, he called out to my tayiji and asked her to alight. My cousin also got up but both were perplexed as the place looked unfamiliar. The conductor asked, " You bought tickets to Venkitangu, rig...