The Tale of the Mole under the Sole

"You know, when I grow big, I'll go to Australia"
"Bah! When I grow big, I'll go to Antartica!"
"Silly gals, When I grow big I'll go to Bermuda Triangle"
And so we went on, when we were about 2 ft high, knitting dreams in the air, about far flung places, as though we were just talking about going to the Periyar street behind our house.

Then one day, while removing the shoes and socks for the computer science class, when the Preethi saw the mole that I have on the sole, she pulled me aside, with eyes as big as saucers. While I was wondering, if the reaction was due to the fact that she was accidentally in the vicinity of Varun, when he was removing his shoes & socks-that-were-rumoured-to-be-the-reason-for-computer-ma'ms-frequent-fainting-episodes, she was regarding me with something in the terms of a venerable expression. While I was searching for something to hit her head with, to get her out of the trance, and decided that James's shoes were not the right option, she opened her mouth at last to throw some light on the matter.
"Hey Aishu, you have a mole on your sole of your right foot. You know what that means?!!"
Must say, I never realized that a mole could actually 'mean' anything. But apparently it did to her.
"I don't know what it means. Err.. do you?"
"Hey.. u know.. that means 'payanam' (travel). You are really going to travel to a lot of places. Only very lucky few have a mole right in the center of the right foot. My god! What a luck!"
And so she went on until the computer science teacher at last told us, that she might ask us both to make a short trip to the principal's room if we didn't stop chattering right away. So much for traveling! :O

Well, somehow that thought registered itself in my brain, and whenever my eyes fell on the mole, my thoughts would wander among the monuments that Discovery channel would show. Sigh!!!
Little did I know, how true Preethi was. Travel I did.To far flung places, you ask.. oh sure!
College itself was a good six hours of bus travel from the place that I lived. Though this is common and many even travel longer and have tougher journeys, I'm just highlighting upon the fact, to stress on the effect of the mole. The journey though only of 6 hrs, made me change 4 buses and a van/car to get me to the house. As you can imagine, by the end of the journey, any beggars in the vicinity would look at me, as though welcoming me to join their gang. (The best part was that they wouldn't hound me for money.. Pheww!)
Ok.. let me not digress. After those dreary college days when I started working, I thought the mole's luck would take me away from the Tamil Nadu and I would get to work in other cities too. But no, I got a job in Chennai itself, and the only mole-effect was dreary bus journeys to the Siruseri. While in 2 hrs you can make a trip to Madurai from Karaikudi, I would be waiting for more than that time, sitting in a bus, looking at vehicles honking for no reason.

But the mole-effect didn't stop there. My toothy problems, had me going to the dentist, who for some god-forsaken reason, felt Perambur to be the best place to pratice. Sitting in a bus for more than 2 hrs, all to have a doctor tighten some nuts and bolts in your mouth in 10 mins, then ask you to come after 2 weeks, also reminding you not to eat anything solid, was really not my idea of travel! During all those longer bus journeys, Preethi's fateful prophecy kept rewinding in my head. Mole-ki-to-aisi-ki-taisi!!! $@%$#@($#!!

And then happened the fateful US trip very recently, after quite a bit of fate and luck played their parts. So when I thought, "Hmm..after all Preethi's prophecy ka kuch to hua" I was boarding a plane to Denver. Happy that in the end, the mole decided to do something true to it's dubious reputation, I was quite happily going about my way.

But looks like, the mole is not very happy to have obliged it's role. For now, another mole has sprang up on my left foot's sole. Though not as big as the other one, this one now seems to be more like those fresher kids who join work, right out of college. The kind you know, who are all eager to prove themselves.. and come and ask your permission even to go to restrooms? I know.. really amusing lot! But not this teeny-weeny mole, I tell you!

Next month again, I'm moving to West Chester, PA. I hope this small travel on my part will abate the pangs of this new mole, and I can at last stay there for while. By the way, do anyone of you know, how to prevent moles, especially on the soles?
(Quite rhyming eh? :P)

And I'm back!!

Whoa! I haven't been writing for ages! Hmm.. I need to do some justice to this space that dear own blogspot has allocated to me, thinking that I would scribble now and then, but what am I doing? Reading dready documents all day and your night, trying to exercise the top bean into a hit shape. Well, in any case, jolly old bean liked to be left alone, and I wanted to do some scribbling. So am back! :P

So amidst doubts of 'Tera Kya hoga re Aishu' I was flung into this far away land of Denver, sometime last month. I must tell that, when the weather outside is like -5 C, it is a very bad time to be caught by the worst form of cold. But it had already caught sight of me, and while I was sneezing the bejesus out of all and sundry, I had to travel to this land of 'Mile High city'. 34 hours of solid travel, in a trance like state, nose all clogged up, almost wheezing, sounding like a baby-elephant learning to bleat, I somehow reached this city. The best thing about the travel was that, I was able to watch 'Zabaan Sambhaalke' on the flight. Now this used to be the TV show that brought many a laughter with it, when I was in school. Those days of simple unadulterated laughter, the kind that is really rare now. Simple easy old days! Sigh! :)

Ah.. well, where was I? Oh.. yeah.. so now it has been more than a month here, and I've seen the snow, the rain, and sun too (thankfully). It is a quiet place, with rabbits and geese having a stroll on the roads as they like. I even saw a deer jolly well crossing the road in 2 long leaps, while my mouth was left hanging by itself. Err..By all this don't you guys go into any thoughts in the rein of "Iva entha vandalur zoo le irukka?" There are enough people around, and though the place is a far cry from the honks, loud whirring bikes, and other noises that keep company all the time in India, it has a peace about it, that quietens the soul. Take a peek.. go on!



Now does the peace part of my talk make sense? :) *Smiling benignly* I knew it is difficult to expect so much of the grey cells residing in the cranium without giving some of the tough work to the photoreceptors on the top of the head. Ah.. well, now that you got it, the most part of what I wanted to scribble here has been conveyed successfully.

While I go on, to enjoy a little more of the solitude of the place, you all have a jolly good time! Pip Pip!

A week that just wasn't

The whole week has been one draining, hopeless, hell of a week. Some observations below

I run behind a bus, huffing and puffing with a handbag full of junk in one hand and a loaded lunch bag in the other, and the bus keeps moving, ignoring me. I decide enough is enough and board it running, and it behaves like a lazy buffalo and comes to a stop! What the....

A review meeting gets scheduled at 8.30 AM for which I've to start from home by 7.30 AM. This being the worst punishment anyone can meet out to me, I take it sportingly and accomplish the worst task of waking up and getting ready on time. 7.15 AM. Message comes that the same has been pushed to Friday. Translates to - 1.Vetti, it is not today. The whole big thing about waking up is one big waste. 2. Try the same again on Friday.

How stupid can I get?
Well, to the point of trying to book tickets, without even checking the date. To the point of not realizing it after I've spent some 500 bucks for a movie which neither I can't go to, nor can make others go. To the point of making funny 'adhu' gestures at my bro, who was unable to book tickets using his card earlier. :S To the point of being hopeful that I can actually cancel them. Sighhhh!

Well, life is all about it, right? [All of you better say yes!!!! I can't take any more of this :(]

Directionally Handicapped!

"Right a left a ma?" asked the auto driver
Uh oh! Now which is right? Eeeeks.. I was almost hyper ventilating!
"Enna ma.. right-a left-a?"
"umm.. err.. adu.. adu.."I stammered, while the auto driver tried to slow down in a extremely busy Anna street in Thiruvanmiyur. If I didn't come up with the right way soon, we were going to be hit, either physically or verbally. Twenty pairs of eyes were trained on the auto, framing the choicest abuses in the worst possible way, while the auto-driver himself was glaring at me, a little baffled. He might be thinking what happened to me, since I looked perfectly normal when I got into it. Little does he know my problem! Sigh!
Tension rising every minute, I quickly kept the bags in the auto seat, and took out my hands, identified the right, right hand and pointed to the driver.
"Idu anna. Right" Phewwwwwww! At last!

Yeah.. that is me! I'm the most directionally handicapped person you can ever meet in your lifetime. (Pray to god, he never produces any more specimens like me, even after your lifetime). I've always found it difficult to point out right / left when someone asks me. I have to use my hands all the time. I take out my hands, look at them, mentally figure out the one used mostly, the right one, then take the other one, which obviously has to the left one,(How lucky, we have only two hands!!) and then point out to the person who asked me the fated question, only to find them in a half-slumber already. So I simply wake them up, and tell them the right way. :D
Thats why I call myself directionally handicapped, coz without my hands I'm lost! :P

Now, not only this. I have another problem. I cannot remember any routes, even if I've been through that route 100 times. Say, even if it is a simple, straight, then this way and that way and again this way(Oops, I was again using my hands to point out.. Wait, till I figure out which way...2 mins later.. yeah, so where we we..) So even if it is a simple straight, then right, and left and again right, I need to ask at least three people, keep track of their hands, and memorize the way they move pointing directions, to find my way there. It is such a sorry state of affairs, that my friends know I can get lost soon. :|


I'll tell you one such incident that happened. I and my friend were off to Ega theatre to watch 'Jab we met' and were on our way back at around 9 or so in the night. Now we had to reach our hostel before 10, else had to be ready to face a 2-hr long torture from our hostel-owner who was always on the lookout to murder people with his supposedly 'intelligent lectures'. (Rumour was that he used to be a favorite of the torture chamber wardens in some unknown country until he killed one of their own with his favorite topic.. Brrr. Scary na! I know!)So coming back to the story, we were trying hard to find our way through the traffic and reach on time. Suddenly my friend remembered another way (she still says it is the same route we used while going to the theatre, though I'm not so sure), and we raced towards it. We reached a junction pretty soon, and my friend asked me, which way we had to take now. (Blunder! I tell ya, the worst she could make.. err.. she knows that now though). In the hurry and tension, I blurted out something, and she took it for 'Right'. She again asked me if she was sure, and I was!! I was soo sure it was 'Right'. But after a few more turns, at around 9.40, we were back at the same junction. And then we realized, we were wrong. (I was obviously wrong, and she was wrong, coz she trusted me with such an important info :P). Now, this time she took the decision, and in no time, we reached another junction, and then she said.'From here only, we took right, not that one. Guess, you were confused"
To which I replied. "Oh.. so this is not the same one? It is another junction?"
Her eyes popped out to such a worst extent, that I had already trained my glasses to check the roads if they had popped out of the eyeballs. Recovering from the shock, she raced to our hostel, and we reached in record time, barely missing the torture chamber. Pheww!

And after that day, never has anyone trusted me to know any way or any direction.
I'm pretty sure this is no silly thing, and is a very rare disease that only the best minds get, but still my friends do not seem to believe me. So, this is my request to you all, if you find any information about this disease, please feel free to contact me.

Note: Nami you are a dudette! :D :D

One unforgettable evening!

Innocence is one thing you can never ignore. It is like that wild flower in a desert. You see it, and a smile flashes across your face! :D

So it was one lovely evening when I went up to the Pantaloons to get a shirt for my dad. (I know, I know, I know as much about shirts as Thala Vijay does about acting.. just read on.. plz) I had my brother along with me, who helped me find the right shirt. Whenever he felt like throwing up, I knew the shirt in my hands was a disaster. So well, after quite a bit of almost-throwing-up-stashing-the-disater-away, my bro took up the job on himself, while I,... err.. like any other species of my kind went up to the ladies department. While I was there I spotted this bright kid. (Pssst..Now I'll let u on a secret of mine. I can do that Kathakali thing with my eyebrows, where they just keep dancing their eyebrows up and down). Now like most involuntary reactions, as soon as I see a kid, my eyebrows start dancing right away, and I must tell you, they love it! Or so I thought!

This kid promptly turned to his father, who was waiting for his wife to come out of the trail room, and started pointing at me.Yikes! I knew I was in trouble! I quickly ducked under some clothes rack, and was pretending to be absorbed in a plain gray t-shirt, when I felt a tug. It was the same kid!
"Ello, Ow-er-u" [hello, how are you]
"Oh.. I'm fine.. how are you?"
"You go to play-shhcool a?"
Now when a cute little 3 yr old, dressed in those over-sized shorts, sneakers and shirts with all big designs asks you some buzzer round questions in a kiddo voice that went 'shhhcool', you get all tongue-tied. Well, I did. Err.. you see that last question was a real bumper!!
"Err.. no-"
"I go to one. Ajay can jump like this only thee tiimes. I jump fiiiive times. And my shhhcool is there only..."
So on.. and on.. for another 15 mins it was like a new language that I learnt from him. Since I'm quite a fast learner, I was somehow able to reply back. Sample this.
"you terra kitnera?"
"ya..terri ponsalaa"
Well, he was satisfied with that answer. Right then, I got a call from my bro, asking me to get going as he had found a good shirt at last. Sadly when I turned to my new friend to bid goodbye, he went "You going? ok Shee you" with a resounding kick aimed right at my ahem-ahem.
His father's "No fighting or beating" apparently didn't include kicking. Owww!

We were at the billing counter though, when we discovered that that shirt was apparently a defective piece, and my bro has to resume his 'search-for-the-right-shirt'. But there was somebody right there to give me company.
"Hey.. nee polaya? Inge vaa" (Hey.. you didn't go yet? Come here]
(Apparently he had included me into his friends list, since we started conversing in Tamil and English there on. :hude-grin-plastered-on-my-face-now:)

We played hide and seek, among the clothes racks, looked at each mannequin there in detail, as to what each was wearing, and why there were no shoes on. There was another insight too from my little friend, as to how tall those mannequins really were! Brilliant I tell ya, my buddy was going places. Well, but by this time, since all the store-assistants had become his thick friends, anywhere I hid, the little sonny found me out in no time, with this HUGE grin that just lit up my day.

But you know what? Even these little fellas fall for a girl. Guess what happened? At the billing section this guy met a new kid (girl), and forgot all about our hide-and-seek. He was so overjoyed. He introduced her to me, and showed her all those mannequins we had so sincerely studied. But well, he tried this big fighter hug thing, and ended up falling over her and hitting their heads. Well, being the superman my little buddy was, he moved on like the Rajdhani and we were back to our little games.

After a while, his parents found us, informing that it was time to leave. My buddy, was perched up at the billing counter, lest he ran off somewhere. We kept signaling to each other, since I was standing just 2 places behind them.
"Bye bye"
"Bye bye"
"Shee you"
"See you"
"Shvuit deems"
Eh?
Oh
"Sweet dreams :D"
And then the best part.. he blew me a flying kiss!!! :D :D. (I so resembled my profile pic then. :P :P)

That little kid's innonence had spread its warmth all over. It was the best evening I had in a long time, and I'll never forget that little bugger! :)

Of Men that laugh and children who cry!

It was a tranquil night. The moon was silently whispering to the barren lands that swished pass by. A lone tree or few bushes,looked on serenely now and then. It was around 10.00 and I was on my way home. Almost all had retired to their berths and when the last light was put out, I had decided to take in the beauty of the countryside in the moonlight, sitting in the dark train. But then, there was this family, to the right of my compartment, with two small kids who found the idea of traveling in a train, a little discomforting. This hunch of mine was confirmed by the kid suffering from wailisirenotopia.( This is a syndrome when the afflicted keeps wailing like a siren every 4 mins and 53 secs.) This one was unique though, coz the wailing was in a different tune each time. And then, there were this group of men to the left of my compartment, who definitely were trying to prove Darwin right, in that we evolved from monkeys. From the time they had boarded the train, they were behaving like a bunch of excited teens out on a trip for the first time. Every 10 mins, it was like a bunch of Narakasuras from Om Namah Shivai had descended on the train, booming at the hapless devi who had fallen victim to them. It was like 10 gorillas roaring in pain (well, it really couldn't be counted in as laughter, you know, so I didn't want the good old hyenas somersaulting in their graves, if I used them as metaphors here)

Now this was not bothering me much, coz staying awake was my idea. I had to get down in an hour or so, and did not want to snore all the way to Trichy, missing my station. Now by around 10.15 or so, this kid with the wailisirenotopia had got into this pretty drab tune, which was certainly not music to the ears. But of course (no sarcasm here) everyone understands how difficult it is to manage kids, and so all patiently waited for the kids to go back to sleep. That was when one of the men from the gorilla gang, wearing his 10-yr old son's shorts, crossed my compartment to the next and kind of gave a look , that was surely meant to be a warning to the parents.

How insensitive could people get! At 10.30, those people never had the sense to pipe down a bit, but the man in shorts had the gall to remind others to quieten down, a kid at that! Appalled, I went back to the barren lands, wondering about the manufacturing defect that Lord Brahma had made while dishing out this particular specimen.

After about 15 mins, the kid had gone to sleep and the whole train was softly sighing in sleep when these men - on a apparently rib-tickling one, went into this ritual of slapping thighs and making sounds that was like 5 old Bajaj scooters + 8 gorillas + 7 Narakkasuras and 11 buffalos on a high!!! The compartment almost jerked, when some 60 (remember a sleeper has 72 berths and a good 8 were occupied by these ppl, one by me, and 3 were unoccupied yet - I'm good at my math, you see :P )people were jostled from their sleep. The ones sleeping in the middle and lower berths banged their heads on the top of their berths, when they were woken up with a start! And our child with the wailisirenotopia, poor thing, also seemed to find a new tune to kick off now!! :(

Now, I decided something had to be done. But what? Hmm... yeah.. there was one thing. But, I had my own doubts. What if they went into another of these thigh-slapping, and guffawing rituals, if I did that?? I couldn't even imagine me being the cause for another of those!!! :O

But well, given that I take approximately some 53.9 seconds to make up my mind, before these thoughts could even play out in my mind, I was already on the way to their cabin. (Remember it was dark everywhere except in their cabin)I went and stood at the entrance of their cabin, and gave them all a bewildered look. I looked at each of those specimens for a good length of time,especially the one in his 10-yr old's shorts, all the time not letting go of the blank expression. There was silence. The guffawing gorillas now closely resembled dumb buffalos basking in the sun, open mouthed. I returned back to my seat, with such of sense of satisfaction, I had never felt before. That had done the trick. Within seconds, the lights went out, and the train went back to it's sleeping mode. I had not actually expected such a quick response, so to say, I was actually scared, if they would start off on another laughing spree, seeing my dumb look. Phew! :D :D Luckily the child also seemed to get tired of wailing, and had quietened down.

The tranquility returned and I went back to the moonlight barren lands, and in all that silence, barely missed snoring all the way to Trichy!

Note: I know the title is grammatically wrong. But it is intentional, which I hope you understand better after reading this post. :)