Nostalgia

Ta na na Ta na Na na Naa

Ta Na na Ta na Na na Na

Ring a bell?

When I saw this book in the bookstore, I just had to pick it up. And although I am not a short stories person, this was one exception I was willing to make.

This has been one of the books I’ve most enjoyed in the recent past. And I don’t mean just reading it.  The memories that they bring back are another treat.

R.K. Narayan portrays the extraordinary stories in the ordinary life of the common man. He almost paints the stories in your head. The short stories are all witty, some are ironic and all of them very simply written. But why this book is also special to me is because of the sweet memories they bring of the old episodes of “Malgudi Days” on DD.

As I read through the stories, images of those particular episodes flash through my eyes. That was one hell of a production not to mention well cast. Whether it was Anant Nag as the Mithaiwalla or master Manjunath as little Swami, all of the characters stayed with you. My favorite episodes back then was “Swami and friends”. I really enjoyed watching them as a kid. What I didn’t know is that Malgudi is actually a fictional place and is not actually on any map.

The book and the serial definitely made a lasting impression, not to mention the cartoons by R.K. Laxman. But what I’ll probably never forget is this music. I’ve been humming this tune from the last few days. If you heard me, now you know why.

Now you don’t see it, now you do

It so happened that we had this safety audit at work and so we were all being briefed regarding some of the safety aspects of the lab.

While discussing fire-safety, the person in charge mentioned this particular fire-exit in one of the corridors. All of us were thinking the same thing, “ Wow, Is there a door in that corridor??” Try as we might, none of us could actually place it.  We all refused to believe her. And just to prove her point, the safety warden actually took us down to the corridor and pointed it to us. We were all amazed that none of us had noticed this door before, even though we pass through this corridor a hundred times every day.

It is true, isn’t it?

Many a times in life, we just don’t see what’s right under our nose until someone points it out to us. 

Going Incommunicado

So, a colleague and I were scheduled to go to the US embassy to apply for our visas. As we were making plans to meet up at the bus stop before going to the embassy, we came across this set of instructions, which said the US embassy does not permit cell phones or ANY electronic devices inside. “Please leave everything at home,” the website said.

My colleague: How can we manage without our cell phones? What if one of us is late? What if we miss each other?

Me: Lets just try not to, ok. Lets try and be there on time. And, we might have to spend about 2-3hours waiting there, you know. So, bring something to keep yourself occupied.

Her: Oh,That's not a problem. I’ll just play some game or listen to music.

Me : It says, no electronic devices. That means, no laptop, no iPad, no PSP and definitely that means no iPod as well.

Her: (with a look of terror on her face) Whaaaaaat? The horror!! So, how?

Me: Maybe, you should just take a book.

Her: a book, huh? But I have all my books downloaded on my iPad.

Me: They still have the print versions, you know. The ones with paper and all

Her: Umm, yeah. Maybe I should buy one of those.

Her (still, terror-stricken): Oh God, oh God! How am I going to manage for a few hours like this? Nobody can reach me. I can't communicate with anybody at all!!

Me: This is how it used to be about 10 years ago (probably lesser than that for some of us), you know!

        

And we managed pretty fine. 

Life's Little Pleasures

I can’t quite describe it,

This feeling that I get.

Brings a twinkle in my eye

Adds a spring in my step.

On Wednesday it appears,

But it’s ever so slight.

On Thursday it’s more intense,

This feeling of delight

On Friday morning, it is definitely there

And it lasts all day.

By evening, it reaches a crescendo

The feeling is here to stay...

What more can I say…

Thank God It’s Friday!!

The weekend’s finally here!!