Vanakkam Doctor !

As I used him as a safety net To tread an often unsafe path, My nimble fingers were Tenderly caressed And I really cared for nothing…... My ideologies and beliefs Began with him During those late night Tedious Cycle trips to Chennai’s cinema halls Scattered along the Anna saalai!! He was full of contradictions; unknown and unheard logics…. No wonder, Life was hard on him As he was on life. Valour and pride, albeit self pitied, with self contained Inferiority complex….. Humble background; The eloped educational boat Along with his untimely father’s death. I revered him and adored him, for his whole package! Whilst he adored cricket And be up in the early hours, niggling my feet For an Australian telecast feast. Hated him for many reasons too…. The quintessential quarrelling and bickering Sequel- ling the monthly fiasco of insufficient pay slip!!! He was my friend, He was my unsung hero. Sincere smoker, possibly till the end Addicted to the rummy game especially with his friends! Simple ...

It was barbecue time again, last week and it was such a fun. Five families turned in, on the Sunday eve of the May first long weekend at our home in Cheadle. We were twenty six in total, including Amma(her first public barbecue) and three months old Akshay! The day started bit gloomy and cloudy, as predicted by the forecasters the previous day. Saturday in fact turned out to be a sunny, albeit predicted, the other way around. What we fondly realise is that the weathermen or weatherperson, universally, are all the same, having evolved from one breed or weather clan. Well, we actually planned the day well in advance, however, cancelled it few days earlier, as it became increasingly known and were told that it was going to be a wet, horrid bank holiday weekend. Well, kudos to me for changing the plans once again on Saturday lunch time, sparing not much time to spare for my better half or others to gear up to the event. Anyway, lawns in front and back ( I mean t...

Why do we behave like a grown up When we are not actually! We are mentally yet a child Running underneath a fluffy tiny cotton wool Wafting through the air, just over our head, We try to grasp, unsuccessfully… Blinded in the process Incessant jumping along Continuous bumping and mindless warring……… The fluffy cotton wool… Knowing not the final destination We know not the final resting place Before both of us blown off again by the waft of air…… We were forgetting the feet underneath. The fluffy cotton ball still evading our useless hands…. We striving hard to appease the Secretive knots, yet to be untied Unfathomable games, we keep on playing. Ever struggling with the moral fears…. Why do we behave like a grown up When we actually only grown physically.

Amma was in Hospital recently. What started like a simple cold and flu, turned out to be a full blown lobar pneumonia, last Sunday! She was in a septic shock at the time of admission, was adequately diagnosed, fluid resuscitated and stabilised in our local A&E, before moved to the medical wards. Her initial stay in Acute Medical unit was uneventful, however was out lied to an Orthopaedic trauma ward the next morning, which then became very eventful. We had to be with her most of the time because of communication issues, not only from her, but between the ward and medics. Obviously, she was an outlier, that too in a trauma ward, which delayed the medical input and all other necessary care every day. However, by God’s grace, she picked up really well with the intravenous antibiotics and soon was stable enough to be discharged the following Thursday. Five anxious days in hospital! Lots of friends visited, enquired, helped, and supported her and us during this time and many thanks to a...

………The evening in Park hotel Bar was more than what we thought life in Chennai would be for those upper middle class and higher income Chennaites. We bumped into few sports icons of our age, notably Dennis Lillie, the maverick Australian pace man and few popular faces of Kollywood and Mollywood. The bar was very noisy though and the techno stuff was mostly crap and was in high decibels. However the birds were extremely good looking of all sorts, including svelte escorts accompanying, funny weird looking, Thoppai Thannivalas! Most of the birds were either smoking or high on their vodka cocktails, with very skinny and skimmed dresses, a delight to browse, after few a whiskies!! We were also joined later in the evening by Saravanan, Napaa and our talented maverick Prabakar for few pints. The chaps were slogging their way, tidying up the last few bits in the venue with T Karthi, who had apparently swallowed quite few shots and went for an early, quite lie in. However, we narrowly missed th...

Well, it’s going to be a lengthy one unlike others and another in the pipeline too. It was a surrealistic experience and bliss, especially as a born again bachelor in Chennai, the city I love. I mean the build up to the reunion party and the days spent looking forward to it. I would like to thank our friendly organisers and our dear old friends for making it a successful and a memorable one. On the flip side there were none, however, in future it would be better, if we have it over two days rather than one!! Well, we planned the trip very impromptu (me and Chandru), during the Wales holidays around the New Year eve. And there we were few weeks later, cruising over the Alps, gulf, Arabian and Indian Peninsula, eventually landing in Chennai’s airport on Saturday night of 23rd Jan. I am glad and hope Chandru too, that we made the trip. Well, coming to the crunch, I have been christened again. The name is Balu Mahendra! The infamous fellow, who had made memorable movies like “ Moodu Pani”,...

Mukil (our son) was very annoyed with me few days ago. It was his birthday last week and I am yet to blog about him, unlike his sister’s. Well, I thought I would write something about him today, on this PONGAL day. I have taken off today, which I normally do for PONGAL and the kids too. I love PONGAL, than any other Hindu festivals for too many reasons and which itself needs a bigoblog. Well, coming to Mukil…. Mukil was conceived in a Travel lodge. I am not talking about the plans for of having a baby, way back in 2002, but the technical aspects were done in that Travel lodge, in East Didsbury, no that far from where we live now! I have to thank, our friend Ramesh, who is a GP now in Grimsby for that entertaining and productive weekend! It was his son’s combined birth day celebrations, which he had organised in his then house in Blackburn . It was an unforgettable birthday party for tooo many reasons. One was Mukil’s possible embryoge...