Free hugs

Being a vivid newspaper reader, I was attracted by this news that someone in Australia has been giving free hugs in the down streets of Sydney. His intentions were that if the small hug could inculcate a small ray of hope in a stranger, the small hug can help a few hundred souls in relinquishing despair for a moment. I was very much inspired by this hug concept, and thought of doing it in a busy street of Chennai.
I was sure, my friends will make a merry of me if I talk to them about this when we meet in the usual Lakshmi Stores corner. I was excited by the idea. Oh! How nice it could be to give hugs to everyone. My mind started pondering about a suitable busy street. I was about to talk it to my family people. I knew that my mom may start abusing me for such a thought, in a traditional, cultured family. Is it not a good culture? Why should I feel shy about it! Also, I started feeling very romantic about it.
Oh... god! If this news spread like anything and plenty of young girls come around and want to be hugged.
Will the private channels be with their cameras!
Will I have any problem if I become too popular?
How will my own community people think about it?
Will I not get a good girl, who gets attracted by my thought and tight hug and become a great friend, partner for ever.
What will I do if more than a girl gets attracted? OK.... probably I can choose... that should not be a problem... Hmmm...
I did not want to tell my family about this idea. I started getting thrilled. I wanted to have a cool shower and visit my friends. It was a very hot day. I went to my garden and took the garden hose. I started having a good shower by connecting the garden hose on to the tap. Oh...what a pleasure it is to have a cold water shower in the open space, on a sunny evening. My thoughts were again on the free hugs.
After the shower got dressed in a cool Kurta/Pyjama and walked towards the street corner. Ramesh was returning back from work.
“Hi ... da.. whats..up... Had a very tiring day today.. Let me go home and come back after a quick shower” – he said.
“I met Jack in the train... Murali and Jack should be here within half an hour. They are purchasing some CD’s in Friends Videos shop” – he added.
I waited with patience. My friends turned up and I told them one by one about my crazy idea. They started laughing on hearing my idea.
“I do not think that will work out here in Madras... da” – Murali said.
“Why not...?” – I asked.
I was waiting for Anand. He was busy talking to a young girl who was just 8 years old. He always does that. As soon as he arrived, I told him and he started encouraging my idea. Jack challenged me.
“If you could do FREE HUGS for one hour in a busy street in Chennai, I shall take you for a free trip to Pondicherry..” – said Jack.
“OK... da.. I shall do it...” – I replied.
After discussing with friends I decided to do “FREE HUGS” at Ranganathan Street, T.Nagar.
My friends said that they may not stand near me, but will we watching from a distance. I decided to write the poster with Indian Ink, after everyone in my family go to bed. I knew that my first critique will be my younger sister. I also wanted to keep her informed, since she could bring all her friends to the scene and I could give free hugs to them.
The D-day arrived. I reached Ranganathan Street and looked at the crowd from the overbridge near the Railway station. The crowd was at its peak. I carried the board “FREE HUGS” and went and stood near the pillaiyar temple and prayed to pillaiyar.
As I had closed my eyes while praying from the street, I felt somebody scratching my back. I opened up my eyes to see a big buffalo, about to hit me with its horns. Oh... god. Lucky escape. I held the board high and started walking here and there. There were two middle aged ladies coming. Since they were looking literate I showed them the board “FREE HUGS”. They looked at me and gave a cold stare and walked suddenly into a fancy store.
But I heard them saying “Oh... he looks like educated. But what to do. Probably must have worked hard for his exams and would have become mental.... I pity his parents.”
Then I saw a group of girls totally ignoring my board and giggling and walking on the other side of a bangle store.
A young boy on seeing my board came towards me and he was my first hug. He said “I have been longing for a hug. Thank you and keep it up!”
Then a group of some Arts college boys came towards me and said “ Ithoda…. Katti pudi vaidhyam kuddukka vandhutaru….. “.
They brought a stinking beggar from somewhere and gave him a five rupee coin before me and told him something in his ears. The man started walking towards me. I knew this was a challenge. He looked like he had not taken bath since he was born. There were plenty of bruises all around his body and he had wrapped the body with just a simple towel and was wearing a canvas shoe.
I just said to myself “Oh…god… let me hug him and tell the world… what he deserves ...”.
When I went near him in a hugging gesture, he said “Sámi…. Let me tell you the truth. I was given 5 rupee by those people to walk near you. But you seem to be very kind and want to hug me. So…kind of you… I have not taken shower for many years and please do not hug me… I appreciate your intention…”
I did not have words to say.
Suddenly a group of men wearing white colour dhotis and sporting a white towel on their shoulder came towards me. They abused me very badly. They said that they belong to some organisation working towards improvement of a unprivileged community. I could make out by their dressing and looks that they have improved very well. They said that people like me are a shame for their culture. They abused me that I am trying to degrade the culture by trying to attract people of opposite sex and hug them in public, and thus bringing a degrade to the culture.
On seeing the confusion within a few minutes, a policeman arrived. Someone of the group went and whispered something in the policeman’s ears and he came towards me fiercely.
“Do you have permission for doing such thing in public?” – He asked.
I said “ Sir…. You need to understand what I am trying to do. I am not forcing anyone for a hug. Impressed by something which happened in a foreign country, I wanted to try the same in Ranganathan Street and give more secured feeling to those who needed it… and ….”
Before I could say anything someone came and held my shirt’s collar. He pushed me and the police had to interfere. My ‘FREE HUG’ poster was torn. I managed to get up from the road. The police warned me to get away from the scene.
I walked towards a tea stall near the station and had a look at the over bridge where my friends were supposed to be. I could not see them in the crowd. I ordered for a cup of tea and sat on the tea bench.
An auto passed by splashing the slush on me. I looked at the Auto and saw a board on the back side of the auto “BE INDIAN BUY INDIAN”.
I smiled to myself.

*****

"It is already 8 'O' clock. Could you please wake up daddy..." my daughter woke me up. I threw the pillow which I was hugging walking to the Toilet thinking about the dream.

Original pic courtesy: Dheera

Morphed by: self

It is all in the game

I was travelling to Vellore by bus to accompany my sister who was about to move to Gujarat. Due to the World Cup fever, I took my Dad’s National Panasonic transistor. I tried to listen to the commentary but with lots of disturbances what all I could hear was India struggling with few top wickets fallen for mere 30 and odd runs against a country like Zimbabwe who were minnows then. Irritated of the disturbance in the transmission and the score, I switched off the transistor. After reaching my sister’s house, totally forgot about the game. Only after a wonderful dinner, realised about the game, and switched on the transistor to know the score had gone above 250. I could not believe myself. I probably thought my understanding of English was wrong. So I waited for the commentator to tell the score in detail. My heart was pounding with joy, though I could not believe it. After hearing the score in detail, and knowing that Kapil Dev had scored 165, I started jumping out of joy. I did not have anyone with Cricket knowledge to share my joy. The next morning rushed to the local newspaper shop to get the papers. I bought both of the leading English dailies. Read each and every line on the Cricket articles. It was a great game. Kapil was my hero, and still there were many players whom I liked.
Again I started travelling with my sister’s family to Ahmadabad, by Navajeevan express. My transistor was in hand with me. During our journey there was another match against England. Whenever the train stopped for some signal, I switched on to the transistor and there was a huge crowd next to me. Every boundary by Sandeep Patil were cheered by my fellow travellers. Mohinder Amarnath and Roger Binny excelled too. If I remember Madan Lal was also performing well. The game ended with a victory for India.
After few days, I was surprised, overwhelmed when I heard that India were to play against my favourite team West Indies. I decided to view the match. I went into IIM Student’s hostel where they had a medium black and white Television. I just went around the place the previous day. I felt as if I was having a pre-inspection of the pitch. The tempo was so high. I was happy with the viewing environment. I viewed the previous match along with some students by sitting on the floor. I liked the electric atmosphere.
The final day arrived. I was there and it was a great atmosphere. Each and every shot by Krishnamachari Srikanth was applauded. His cover drive off the knees is still remembered. When I met Srikanth in person in Edgbaston couple of years before, one of my friend Varadan mentioned it to Srikanth. My friend said that the shot is still in front of our eyes for which Srikanth gave his usual smile. After India ended up with a score of 175 or so, we were a bit tensed. Then when West Indies started playing it was ‘Jimmy’ who did the trick. Oh... What a bowler he was! We started getting hopes, after Viv Richards wicket fell. I was sad and happy. I was sad for Viv because he was my favourite batsman but felt happy that Indians were on to the road to victory. The rest is history. Oh...those moments!. Who could forget the spectator who was in conversation with Andy Roberts when he was returning back to pavilion. I was almost ecstatic, when my hero Kapil Dev lifted the world cup. Oh....what a wonderful time it was! In those days the teams had a great spirit. The players were not paid as much as they are today, but were of a class. I am proud that I have had wonderful days in the past when I was very young.
I know some of you wondering what this post is all about! What to do! How long are we going to keep talking about the past? Should we have to talk only about the past? Is there no hope in the future?
Let us turn the pages of history and try to learn from the past. We still have those heroes living amongst us. Why not BCCI take the experiences of stalwarts like Kapil, Sunil, Mohinder, Sandeep, Mohinder, Srikanth, Kirmani, Binny, Bedi, Shastri and many more whom I have missed? Dravid I pity you!

New life again

Days are rolling and things are changing. New Year has brought in a new job for me, but far from home. So, now I have become a weekend dad. My new job is at Manchester and I need to travel from home which is London. Since I love travelling by train, I am enjoying my journeys every week.

It is nice experience to travel. The so called Pendolina trains are great. They travel at a maximum speed of 140 mph. You would have heard about a train accident in UK recently. The train involved was Pendolina. In the train accident, only one elderly lady who was above 80 and was in the next compartment to the Engine died. There were few who were injured. None of the windows of the train broke. It was so robustly built. The accident was due to some fault on the track.

I had to travel the very next day after the accident. There were no worries in my mind since I love travelling. I meet lot of people, but hardly few who smile at you. Every week I wanted to write about my experiences. Since I do not carry laptop to my hotels, could not browse from the hotel. The hotel accommodation is good except for the receptionists.

By the way, I had a strange experience when I checked out after my first week. I check out every Friday and get back to the same hotel on Sunday night. During my first weekend, I was shocked to see that I was charged for 14 days ( ie. for 2 weeks instead of 1 week). Luckily I checked my bill, and expressed it to the receptionist. I had to fight hard to explain it to the receptionist. The second bill was produced and again it had errors in it. I checked it and found that I was charged for 7 days where as I had stayed only 5 days. Again, I pointed out to the receptionist, and this time her expressions are left to your imagination. The third bill was there and I paid it, and confirmed twice whether she had booked me for the next week.

Few weeks before I had purchased few DVD’s at discounted price in one of the chain stores in London. I did not check the receipt since it was for fewer pounds and went home. When I was about to destroy the receipt, I just had a look and was shocked to see that the DVD’s were not of the price it was quoted on the shelf and as well as on top of the DVD’s. I retained the bill and went a week later and got the claim back.

Couple of years before, in one of the photo shop, where I normally process my films, I paid for the bill and went back to work. While at work I was shocked to see that I was charged twice the amount for developing a film when I looked at the receipt. The normal procedure here is, when we are told the amount, we place our credit card on the machine, and key in our pin number. Then they give the receipt and we return home. But I realised that we need to check since the error has occurred. What has happened is, somehow the salesman had keyed in a wrong amount, while he said the right amount. Probably it was the amount of the previous receipt which he had in mind or so. Luckily since it was a shop where I go frequently and the salesman remembered my transaction, he refunded the excess amount back to me.

So, however though I learnt that we should check the amount twice, at times it is not practically possible to do so, when the queue is long, or when we need to rush out due to other commitments.

In this electronic world, we cannot take anything for granted and we need to check however twice. Especially the shopping receipts and big bills should be checked spontaneously.

In the same chain stores when I bought a new travel bag I checked twice at the shelf that the suitcase was marked as 7 pounds. When it was brought for billing, the till clerk said it does not have a tag and requested help from his senior. His manager came and went to the shelf and came back with a tag and handed it over to the till. The clerk scanned it, and said that it costs 35 pounds. I was not prepared to pay and objected that it was wrong. He argued that it was brought in by his manager, and she is very experienced, and cannot make mistake. I looked at the tag brought in by his manager, and mentioned that it had a different description about the product than the one I had picked. So, he requested another senior staff to check it again. I requested my son to accompany the staff and show the shelf and the product. This time the staff returned back and said that I was right. There was a huge crowd in the queue waiting with patience.

The clerk was embarrassed, and gave me the correct bill.

I whispered “The boss is not always right” in his ears, while thanking my son for his compliments about me.