Month: November 2016

Kadlekai Parishe. Learning Never Stops!

kadalekai

I have visited Bengaluru a number of times and have lived there once for three and a half years. I have family living there even now and may even land up there soon for a short visit to catch up with family and needless to say, a number of friends.

Like almost all Indians, I too love peanuts. The real variety as well as the comic strip. I feel lost without my daily quota of roasted peanuts, which is also called groundnuts here.

It therefore came as a total surprise to me to learn about a festival that is celebrated there every year about which I had no knowledge whatsoever. That it was brought to my notice by a newspaper from the UK makes it even more wonderful – full of wonder!

What a country that I live in!  I seem to learn something or the other new about it almost on a daily basis.

Writing By Hand.

handwriting

The cable TV man came for his monthly subscription after the demonetisation and I had no cash on hand to pay him as I have been doing for the past many years. I explained the situation to him and he suggested that I give him a cheque and that he would not mind waiting while I wrote one out for him.

I was simply zapped! I had not thought of that option at all. I took out my cheque book and discovered that I had not issued a cheque in months. I had made most payments through internet banking by direct transfers and so, had not issued any cheques.

I also found that there was an entry missing in the counterfoils for a cheque that I had issued some time ago, no doubt due to being out of practice!   I had to go to my bank account online to find out details so that I could fill in the counterfoil!

I also found that writing by hand has become difficult and I had to practice signing on a blank paper a few times before I could safely sign the cheque for the cable man. I had to use block letters to write out the name and the amount as well. Apart from not writing anything regularly other than using block letters for my daily tryst with crossword puzzles, my right ulnar palsy acted up while writing the cheque! I have asked the bill collector to find out if I can transfer funds directly into his account and I hope that they would agree to that.

My life, now built around the computer and the internet, has ruined my cursive handwriting which was a very good one!

Memory Trigger 9. Green Green Grass Of Home.

My sister Padmini, out of the blue sent this clip on whatsapp to our family group. She of course knows that her three brothers love this song but perhaps did not know another side to the story which I shared with her and all the others in the family.

Before I proceed with my story let us look at the lyrics for those who do not know them.

“Green Green Grass Of Home”

The old home town looks the same as I step down from the train,
and there to meet me is my Mama and Papa.
Down the road I look and there runs Mary hair of gold and lips like cherries.
It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home.
Yes, they’ll all come to meet me, arms reaching, smiling sweetly.
It’s good to touch the green, green, grass of home.
The old house is still standing, tho’ the paint is cracked and dry,
and there’s that old oak tree that I used to play on.

Down the lane I walk with my sweet Mary, hair of gold and lips like cherries.
It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home.
Yes, they’ll all come to meet me, arms reaching, smiling sweetly.
It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home.

Then I awake and look around me, at the four grey walls that surround me
and I realize, yes, I was only dreaming.
For there’s a guard and there’s a sad old padre –
arm in arm we’ll walk at daybreak.
Again I touch the green, green grass of home.
Yes, they’ll all come to see me in the shade of that old oak tree
as they lay me neath the green, green grass of home.

This song was a favourite of mine as well as my late wife Urmeela’s. Till she one day found out that it was a song sung by a dead man. She could never listen to it again with the same enthusiasm as before she found out.