LOL

Imagine you are in Africa. You have been tied hanging on a tree
with a Rope anchored on the ground, a candle is slowly burning the rope, andthe lion is waiting for you to drop and be his lunch.
Your survival hinges on the rope staying intact, there is no one around to help you.
The only possible way is to somehow convince the lion to BLOW the candleout. How do you do that?................. ......


Think Some time..................

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Then Scroll down . ..................
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Holidays and afterwards(2)

I suddenly found that the landing time was nearing. The air crew were rushing to set things alright. We started looking down. Many times I have felt bit bad when the plane flies around Madras. Having flown across continents, especially on some major cities of the world, and seeing the twinkling lights of those cities appearing grand, it appears very dark when we fly on Madras. Even our Bombay is grand. I have always admired while flying over Dubai. Anyone from the plane can make it out that Dubai is a rich place on looking at the lighting over the city. Unfortunately when we fly over Madras, I have looked into the eyes of foreigners visiting for the first time. They used to wonder whether this is the place we need to land. My Italian co-passenger asked me the same question. I have been handling this always by saying the Airport is in suburb. (Sand not sticking on Moustache story). Also the anxiety of reaching our hometown dies soon on seeing the looks of the airport from the air-craft. This time I found that few letters in the word 'INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT' missing. Why can't it be just named as Madras/Chennai International airport. This was another question posed by foreigners to me. Why the names of Cities change in India example Madras/Chennai, Bombay/Mumbai. Most of the foreigners have wondered. Let me stop with this and not make the citizens start another demonstration.

After the plane touched land and stopped it took another 20 minutes for the doors to be opened. It is awful to see the passengers on their toes waiting to rush out. These are the crucial moments. Anyhow after much relief the doors opened and crowd started moving out. I also do not understand why our people who are very disciplined in other international airports (atleast tend to be) start rushing once the plane lands at Chennai. I remember a gentleman once commented to his wife in Frankfurt " Yennama... disciplined manusha parthiyadi . Ahah.... yeppadi ozhunga queuela nikkara....". The same gentleman started trying to squeeze himself in the middle of a queue in Chennai. I intervened and said " Yenna sir... Neenga than Frankfurt-la appadi praise panneengo.... Ippa super squeezing in the middle....". He blushed and started moving ahead.

Needless to say while in the queue some of our Tamil youngies who return with their families speaking Tamil as if they have just learnt it in the flight annoys me. We used to call them as MGFT (Mother Gown Father Tie) in our school days.

The next disappointment was in the baggage clearance. I never know why the baggages arrive so slowly. This time I had to wait for more than 2 hours. Though we need to appreciate the way immigration officials quickly dispose the passengers, also few can be trained how to smile. After dreaming for a holiday, and arriving at our hometown, these are the first public servants whom we come across. Though many little things like scanning hand baggage, treating passengers , packing luggages facility available at the airport, scrutinising the passport photo and the passengers like CID Singaram have changed in the recent years, there are more areas which have to change a lot. Everytime I have seen few assistants asking for money to innocent oldies returning after nursing their grandchildren/daughters sugaprasavams. Hope the changes happen soon.

After all this ordeal, when you push yourself out of the Airport there are hundreds of them waiting to see their dear and near ones. Finally old diesel 'Ambassador' welcomes you with dur...durr....durr...durr engine sound.

I stayed at my cousin's house in TNagar. Mosquitoes outnumbered my relatives in welcoming me when I reached TNagar. You would have heard much about those rains, floods. The roads were so bad in so many parts of the City, I had to fold my jeans till knee level, remove my shoes and socks (Mind you they were not stinking... I wash them daily) in one hand and all the documents in another hand to reach the VFS office the next day in order to apply Visa for my Mom. I think this is not the best season to visit Chennai on Holidays.

My best part of my stay was the bloggers meet. It was really exciting. Srivatsan had intimated me about the place and time. It was bit difficult to get in touch with him. During my first conversation with Srivatsan, it looked as if you had talked with this person many times in your life. He is such a friendly and wonderful guy. I started admiring him for being a Ilaiyaraja fan and also that he adores Enfield, Bullet as I do. We decided to meet at 'Newyorker' a restaurant near Rani Seetha Hall. I was there on time and went and occupied a six seater in advance. Believe me I did not put any kerchief for others. There were two persons waiting in front of the restaurant. I guessed that to be 'Jo'. I requested one of the waiters to invite them inside. My guess was right. Jo arrived with a huge smile and his friend. Jo is a very humble and simple guy. Then arrived Srivatsan. Since I had seen his picture in one of the blog and he was walking with a helmet it was easy to guess. Srivatsan is a very interesting person too. After few minutes Prabhu Karthik arrived. He looks fairer in his profile than in person. I do not blame him because he rides motor cycle on Chennai roads. He was simple and we never wasted our time. Vatsan seems to be familiar with the menu and I took his advise in ordering. We had a wonderful time. We requested Jo to sing a song and I recorded it. Vatsan requested the restaurant manager to reduce the volume of music played and they did so. ( Athuthanda.... Chennai.... indha voorula nadakkuma.... Balaji inside me laughed...Yennakkul oruvan...) Though the meeting was short it was also sweet. Another friend of Jo joined us. He was also a bit humorous. I think all of us had met for the first time except PK and Vatsan. But it appeared as though we were meeting for the nth time. This is one of the advantage of bloggging. I should thank PK for being there with patience, in spite of his busy work. After our lunch we decided to have a picture and split to meet Jeevan another blogger. I cautioned Vatsan about my fear with Chennai traffic. But Vatsan took me on his Enfield so safely. It was a pleasure to be a pillion rider along with Vatsan.

We reached Jeevan's house and it appeared that Vatsan was familiar with Jeevan's family. Jeevan appears to be very shy. Looks are deceptive. I could never believe whether he is the one who blogs regularly. He is so quiet and hardly talks. He introduced his family. His mother was proud of him and so his grand mother. Though she did not talk much, I could see from the happiness on her face that she was proud of her grandson. After having a formal chat, Jeevan played his keyboard for us. WOW.... He is so talented with his music skills. I was surprised when I came to know that he did not have any formal tuition in learning those skills. He played couple of songs for us. I remember how much I struggled to play the first line of 'Vasegara' song when I had a key board. Jeevan could play the full song. Hats off to you Jeevan!!! Please remember each one of us are talented in our own way. Everyone is unique. With a heavy heart I left Jeevan's house. It was unforgettable to see him waving out from the balcony. I looked back after sitting on Vatsan's Enfield. The greatest surprise came later. During my conversation I came to know that Vatsan was a product of 'THE SCHOOL' in Adayar. I have always dreamnt of putting my kids in 'THE SCHOOL'. No wonder why Vatsan is such a nice person. School moulds children. Later Vatsan dropped me closer to Pondy Bazaar from where cursing my fate(to travel in an Auto) got into a Auto. There was a surprise inside too. The driver asked whether I was a non-chennaite. When I questioned him back, he said that he was surprised by my respectful language. He said that he was treated with respect after many days by a passenger, and felt elated. He is a native of Coimbatore and he has hardly found any Chennaite calling him with respect. I changed my views on Auto drivers too. He did not argue for the fare and I did not want to under pay a good Auto driver. He was so good that he was chatting with me for five minutes after dropping me at home.

My mother who was looking from the balcony asked " Yenna auto driver friend eh... Ivalluvu neram pesindu iruntheenga. Oru vellai avarum blog adhu idhunnu ....".

I walked into the house smilingly thinking about the wonderful day I had.

( I promise I shall finish my holidays and afterwards post with one more episode....
to be continued....)

Holidays and afterwards (1)

Holidays are to be enjoyed. I made up my mind before leaving for holidays to just keep cool and relax . My plans for the holidays were to
meet some old time friends (not by age but those whom I have not met for long).
Taste different kinds of food at different places and different restaurants.
Try to mingle with chennaites and catch up the normal things which I have been missing for few years.
Meet our bloggers and know each other more.
Take plenty of pictures.
Visit few shrines in South Tamil Nadu and take pictures.

But whether I completed all is what you will know after reading my next few postings.

It was all a nice start from early morning drive to Birmingham Airport. My favourite friend Rashid who owns a Cab was there to pick me up at 3.45 a.m. from home. My son got up at the right moment to say bye. It was not my intentions to wet my wife's and son's eyes, but it happened. A slight drizzle greeted me and conversations with Rashid did not allow my minds to wander. I started thinking of using my new DVD Handycam once I finish check-in formalities. There was nothing interesting to shoot. I found an elderly Tamil couple in the plane. I wanted to surprise them by talking in Tamil and just smiled at them while going to loo. People from Coimbatore are very respectful. The couple started conversing very nicely. Looked like they were longing to talk to someone and I was the perfect match for them. My talks would have given them a small preview of my life so far. The gentle lady was nodding her head more, and trying to know more details about me. Anyhow, it was all smooth. After reaching Frankfurt, I took them to the terminal and left them, and went around to do a small duty free shopping. ( Thought about people whom I have to meet and wanted to make them chocoholics).

My shopping was over and after a relaxed stroll around the duty free shops, went back to my terminal to see the queue having grown faster than India's inflation. We Indians have certain originalities, out of which standing in a queue is remarkable. I have hardly seen some well formed queues by desis. Some of the ladies were handling their first grandchild and their daughters were not showing keen interest in learning those techniques. As usual the fathers were busy in gossipping politics or their visits to Niagara. I have always cherised meeting people at Frankfurt Airport especially in the terminal to Madras flight. You can hear people conversing loudly in Tamil and it gives a great enthusiasm for people like me who have hardly heard someone conversing loudly in Tamil in UK.

"Lokku Lokkunnu irumbareengaley........ antha muffler katikongo...." this is the lady to her husband.
Most of the uncles hardly speak and just used to follow the instructions.
"Ivanga kooda namba Vimala irukara Los Angeles-lirindhu dhan...varangalam. Naan appavey sonnane illaiya.... namba vooru than paaru...". This is the gentleman to his wife about the newly found friends.

I always meet someone in Frankfurt who is known to me. When I was looking for someone this time my efforts did not fail. I met Venkatesh my ex-colleague who was returning from his official trip to Switzerland. He was very much surprised. By the time I reached my seat, it was the next ordeal to find a suitable place for hand baggage. This is the biggest drawback, if you want to be gentle in getting into the plane. You will never get the newspaper you want, and space for your handbaggage. Somehow I managed to get some space this time and I knew my journey is going to be horrible after seeing a gentleman next to me, who must have been in his 60's and was reluctant to smile. He had a monkey cap and was keeping his eyes closed. My seat on the left was still vacant and then came a gentle lady. She was full of smile and a contradictory person to the one on my right. I thought she was a German but later came to know she was from the same place as our congress party president. She gave me lots of information about Italy and I shared lots of information about South India. I loaded her with so much of informations, she complimented about it while getting down at Chennai. It was one of the best journey, because of our conversations and she enlightened me with so much of informations about Italy. I was really excited when she told me that her trip was long time wish and was keen on seeing Temples, since she was fascinated by her brother who had visited Temples of Tamil Nadu for 5 times. I felt happy for getting an opportunity to let someone know more about our country, customs and traditions(I could hear somebody saying.....Oh.......do they exist...). We enjoyed the plains and mountains of Turkey, Istanbul and Iran. The whole trip was memorable. But I never thought my happiness was so short.

(To be continued.....)