May Musings......

I am glad that I was not born in Bihar. For obvious reasons.

In T Nadu, Amma   is still hanging around in the dugout; freebies galore in the manifesto; rumors say that she is too unwell to canvass in the elections; Captain is unwell too; PWF seems to be struggling with Vaiko and Captain; as usual Vaiko has back tracked from contesting ; wrong decisions at the right moments for this hapless politician; Thatha seems to be the only one gearing up for the elections amongst the star campaigners; and little MK Stalin, whose campaign style seems very efficient and well received. Majority of pre pollsters have gone in favor of DMK; let see, if they come back with good governance in Tad as promised by their leader and CM in making! If DMK’s back in reckon in this election, after their massive rout in 2014 MP elections, it shall be because of MK Stalin!

So most of you may have thought that I was possibly looking depressed; grumpy; and few may have thought I was thoughtful (!) after my recent FB and WhatsApp photos sporting a beard. There were quite a few thoughtful and judgmental concerns from quite a few friends and from few family well-wishers too!

Well, my beard now has become a signature of me; especially after my recent visit to Punjab; Golden Temple with our friendly neighbor-hooded Punjabi Indian friend who is also sporting a beard. I shall not be surprised and in fact eagerly awaiting few of my friends to follow the suit soon. Albeit, no matter of self-explanation is not going to convince you the yet to be convinced of all (!), that my current possibly depressed, scholarly, strong, thoughtful, wisdom-full look is purely  related to me sporting a full beard, unlike my earlier French beard. (Where possibly I may have looked sexy and attractive; in a self-deprecating manner; however there were ever so many time when I was actually feeling low and gloomy, nonetheless possibly looked glowing and shiny on the photos!)

Kanniah is on IV fluids; Poor horse beaten by BJP MP couldn’t be saved; Modi ji still attracting humongous investors, investment and hapless crowds in his vast election canvass but not in T Nadu; now hopping on to the  chopper deal and Italian stigma to get Sonia sign the future , futuristic Bills of BJP in Parliament ; Rahul is canoodling with MK Stalin in Madurai; Amma is in flying mode as usual; Poor Vaiko has gone poorer in politics and possibly richer personally ; Captain, canvassing secretly against complete prohibition (!) ; Thatha and his daughter are canvassing for corruption free Tamil Nadu.

Well, sadly India lost the semifinal T20 few weeks ago; maybe that’s history now, as we are already hooked on to IPL; and sadly, that night, the Windies batsmen made a mockery of India’s decent score, made possible by Kohl. Indians seemed to have a plan for none in the bowling, but for Chris Gayle, who was out in the second over, by a beauty of a swinging low toss or an attempted Yorker. Or was it, that they had a plan for every batsman in Windies except for Gayle?  We thought we had won the game and got drifted, clueless, by the 10^th over of the Windies innings. The inherent perennial weakness of Indian bowling attack was once exposed, right after the power play and what a chase it was by Windies!

The Hindu Gods were playing against the Indians too; Bharat Maadha Ki Jai -chants were raised time and again over few corners of the stadium and India’s woes begun right after those chants; the Mumbai partisan 30,000 failed to acknowledge the power batting display of the Windies by remaining  a silent spectator for most of the chase!. Dhoni was not his best in this tournament; looked cool, but inefficient in mobilizing and marshaling the resources; Kohli was in top form ad continue to be rightly so;  Raina remained as a master bear hugger ; Jadeja proved  repeatedly he can only bowl and field  ;Dhawan plodded on doing nothing for most of the tournament; poor Harbajhan left on the sideline for most of the month swallowing his finger nails; well it was obvious that Dhoni wanted to win this tournament albeit with patchy and shaded efforts and was as clueless as Amitji and Jaitley ji  with Modiji’s BA and MA certificates; who apparently was skiving and also studying  hard too during the Emergency period (1976-78) as discovered by AAP.

My late father used to love Panama cigarettes. Later on he became a good fan of Gold Flakes kings, that’s when he could afford it. The Panama paper leaks just reminded me of him. Poor David Cameron seems be stuck along with Amitabh ji and also with few more hypocrites from India.

Reminiscing APPA; Panama cigarettes were filter- less ciggies, whilst Gold flake Kings are with Filters.  My Appa used to light one, at the end of the (tunnel) day, before his bed time, me strolling along with him (I was possibly 5-6 yr old), waiting for a peanut sweetie or a chocolate as reward. Appa was never allowed to light those ciggies at home anyway, not even in the loo. 

That was Amma’s power!

Appa would go every night to a particular shop owned by his friend, night after night after his dinner; the Panama ciggies , possibly so popular then, used to give me a real macho feel about him, whilst I being a passive smoker , must have inhaled and sub consciously enjoyed the aroma of ciggies. There were also times when Appa would come with his kerchief tied around his mouth; this time may be after a drink or two.

Those were the days, I with my other siblings would try the smoking pranks, albeit with incense sticks at home. My brother was very good at performing those magic moments for us and no sooner he ended up a big time smoker before he eventually dropped it for good. Well, he was still in great Pachaiyappa’s college, when , one of those evenings, at one of those corner joints near our Coral merchant street, where he used to enjoy a fag or two; me being a puritan, caught him highhandedly and exposed about his whereabouts and duly his secrets to Amma. Well, what happened after that was a smoking history!

Well, by the time I landed in Medical school, we were so advanced (!) at home. There were  many a time when after enjoying(!) odd Gold flake kings, discreetly in the men’s Stanley Hostel campus, I would head back home , chewing peanut sweet ball, masking ciggy smell, at midnight hours, without any guilt or remorse. And invariably it would be Appa who would open the door for me and he knew for sure that I had smoked few ciggies and had gulped few beers too.

Well, that was APPA!

It’s Appa’s 78th birthday this week and how sincerely I long and wish, he were here, still smoking his odd Panama and me having a drink or two with him.