Sorry for the break

Are we not used seeing this slide, many times in those days when we had our Doordarshan TV programmes in India long back? Do I sound old?

 Now that we have so many private channels, if you wonder what does the title of this post mean, then it shows clearly you should be very young and must be in teens, or if you are old enough and had lived in India then you should have been a book worm who never bothered to watch Black and white television, in which they used to telecast programmes starting from 6:00 p.m and whenever there was interruption due to technical reasons the first slide that appeared in the Television in black and white was ‘Sorry for the break’.

Now to cut the story short, I have been having tremendous busy activities for the past few months which were keeping me away from blogging.

Did I have a blogger’s block? No...not at all. I wanted to blog about one thousand things. Every time when I experienced something strange I wanted to blog about that experience. Blogging is a wonderful thing and I would never get tired about it. Nowadays I work far from home, and have become a  “weekend family man”. Kids have grown up and need frequent attention. My health reminds me that I am getting older as well. I am not trying to be daft. I happened to see some pictures of old family friends. I found many of them have become old. You never realise that you are also getting old unless you see others of your age. I am not moaning here. I am quite enjoying each and every millionth of second in my life. Then why did I not blog all these days?  I keep questioning myself.

Can I blame the facebook?

Can I blame the school network which is keeping me very alive?

Can I blame my change in jobs?

Can I blame my aged mother’s health?

Can I blame my teenage son who is drawing more attention?

Can I blame my stressed wife who needs help at least in the weekend?

OK... no blame on anyone. Now that I have decided to blog what should I blog about? I had so much to convey to my fellow bloggers every day, every minute, every second. But , let me think about something which I am facing at this moment. Should I have to blog about the South Indian looking couple who are sitting opposite to me while I am travelling from London, and are yet to smile, or even avoiding eye to eye contact? I have tried smiling, trying to keep an eye to eye contact at least more than a dozen times. But I could not succeed.

Do I need to blog about how an asian origin mother who was struggling with her young child in the pram to get into the train at London Euston, and all the passengers in their own world trying to get into the train and grab a seat. Thanks to my father’s genes, I had to rush from my seat leaving my new  laptop,ipod and other valuable possessions avoiding mishap with all those people rushing into the compartment and extended help to the gentle lady who was relieved on seeing me...What a satisfaction and sense of happiness!

Now getting back to the couple who are sitting opposite to me....

Yes I made it.... I smiled and smiled. Smile is contagious and at last the gentleman smiled. I started talking to him...

“Hello..”

He says “Hello”.

“How far are you upto?”

“Coventry..”

“Did you visit London just for the day?”

“Yes”

“Did you have a good time?”

“Yes..it was good”

“If you do not mind, where did you go?”

“All usual places...”

“Hmmm... So you need to start work again...”

“Oh..no..I don’t need to. I have come to visit my friends....”

“Oh..really...where are you from originally?”

“India”

“Oh..really...where in India...South...”

“Yes..Bangalore.”

“Oh...Bangalore...nice to know... So you speak Kannada..”

“I speak almost all the South Indian languages...”

“So...you know Telugu,Tamil, Malayalam... well..”

“Yes... I do...”

“Do you know Tamil well?”

“Yes....”

“Aiyo...super... I am a pukka Madras pettai boy...”

“appadiya”

“How about her”

“She is my friend’s wife and took me to London”

“Oh..what is her mother tongue?”

“Tamil as well..”

“Hello..”

“Hello..”

He tells her about me and she smiles at me.

As the conversation gets slowly about everything, I realise the train is fast approaching Coventry. The train officer announces the same. They become happier on hearing I speak the same language.

I exchange names and other details. They leave the compartment with a huge smile on their face.

I am sure they will talk about this meeting to their friends who live in UK.

At least their friend will smile and make the initiative when they see another friendly guy in their future journey.

 I think people are people wherever they live and they should learn every day.

Please register your comments so that I do not say “Sorry for break” again.