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I don’t remember the name of the movie…it had this studio whose primary clientele were…shavams. The famous SS. Perhaps the phrase shavam studio was never used in the movie, but for Sangham suddenly everything bad was ‘studio’.
This was during our ‘gross is cool’ phase…leper salute, leper handshake, drinking coffee in Maharaja’s canteen with the two-handed leper grip. (Principal installed a ‘LADIES ONLY’ board in front of the canteen’s smaller hall. A few days later somebody changed the board to ‘LADIES LONELY’ and the guys moved back in)
Last month, I had my shavam studio moment. I dreamed I was dying, I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly, And looking back down at me…saw my corpse on the ironing table. I opened my eyes, realised my eyes were open all through, realised that the shavam was real. Bwah!
Sangham get-together at Mercy’s new terrace restaurant that offers a view of the…shipyard. (I kind of prefer the old terrace restaurant that faces HDFC. There is this water tank with black legs on top of HDFC. When the legs disappear and the tank starts floating, you know it is time to go home.)
At Mercy 2, the crowd is more cosmopolitan and genteel. There are fewer tables with the pool taking up most of the space, but service is slow…and as recommended by old Kochi hands we order three rounds together and the Nepali waiter isn’t surprised.
We stick to the time-tested koodal format. Reminisces about trips and trippings, crushes and crashes, we crib about Mooks and call up Lineman. Peanut masala arrives (one hour late) and Rojobhai starts the Vackachan stories…Santhosh Trophy, Three pegs = 3 am, Wedding Cake…Osa proposes a trip to Dubai, with pondatti in oor and all that, Biju is keen but I am not too sure…
We pile out by midnight – Biju, Diji, Jose, Mac, Pattar, Rojo, Varkey and yours truly – to take our chances with the cops/ autobhais/ wives.
Bonus: Check out Mercy’s brochure. Very Hotel California…
A few months ago, at Spencer junction, I witnessed an amazing sight – an accidental collage created by a tree, spotlit by sunshine, its rain-cleansed leaves glowing green, and the image of a man on the Jet Airways hoarding in the background, the guy staring up, ecstatic, as if enthralled by the beauty of the tree. I tried to capture the scene on my N72, but then the signal turned green and I had to get going.
Few minutes later…ping, the irony-meter redlined, this was so Ogden Nash…
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I’ll never see a tree at all.
Gotta get that pic for the blog, Gotta…Day 2. I managed to stop the car at just the right place, grabbed my phone, but before I could get the shot, I noticed the girl in the car ahead leaning across to the boy driving the car. Wow! Valentine’s Day…the tree can wait. The girl pulled out her dupatta from underneath her, returned to vertical position and got busy patting out the wrinkles, and the signal turned green.
Day 3. I finally managed a shot, but the camera position, shot composition and lighting were all wrong. I guess you can’t recreate a kaleidoscope pattern…
Day 4. Jet Airways had a new hoarding at the site.
Then last week, the billboards fell. The trees emerged from the shadows, and reclaimed their territory. Kind of like the end of The Mansion of Gods…
By nightfall, the forest has taken over once again. Only a few Roman remains show that the Mansion of Gods ever stood there…
…which reminds me of the first business venture I was a part of: The Four Star Lending Library, started by Biju, Keeshan, Sridharan and I, when we were in high school. The business plan was Biju’s – enter the market with Keeshan’s Kottayam Pushpanath novels and Sridharan’s Indrajal Comics, buy Tintin/Asterix comics using the revenue, plough back profits to buy more comics…The Mansion of Gods was the first book we bought. We had a great run and build a huge collection of Tintin/Asterix comics till John Sir busted us. Those were the days…
Vaal Kashnam: Too bad our underground library experience didn’t inspire a multi-million dollar enterprise. Snigger, snigger.
Team Rojo was placed overall 3rd (2nd in the Professional Category) in the Mitsubishi Vagamon Rally held on 6 April 2008.
Congrats! (Nirtarayille mashe?)
(Check out Indian Express Report on Rojo’s victory at Monsoon Rally 2007)
That is a mnemonic to help you remember the spelling of Mnemonic. Mnemonics are words or phrases which are difficult to forget, used to remember things that are difficult to remember. (That, OK, reminds me of my fav intro line: Name is Babu Kuriakose, the first name is easy to remember, the second, difficult to forget. BHH)
Through the word mnemonic was never used, in school we imbibed a lot of them:
- Geography: HOMES – Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior; LONGitudes
- History: SPA – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
- Physics: VIBGYOR; V = IR (Iyer!, Voltage = Current x Resistance, Ohm’s Law)
(Remember Ohm’s Law. Vinu Joseph Cherian – any idea where he is? – invented the Ohm’s Law chant. Here’s how you do it – start saying ‘Ohm’s Law’ over and over again, first at normal pace, then fast, then slow, then very slow, then very fast…When 48 guys do this in harmony, at the top of the voice, the effect is awesome)
- English: Ass Ass I Nation – Spelling help
(Remember ‘To Get Her’: Mathew Sir had completed a session on syllables, he asked the class to suggest words for him to demo and Joe Antony shouted ‘Together’. Mathew Sir fell for it…to-get-her, the class was ecstatic, and Joe got thrashed)
- Guitar class: Every Good Boy Does Fine – EBGDF, Treble Clef Lines (I Googled!)
We also developed mnemonics for a lot of schoolboy stuff:
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‘APES WIN’ – The Test Playing Nations: Australia, Pakistan, England, Sri Lanka, West Indies, India, New Zealand
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‘Pascoe Bowls And Misses Stumps’ – Australian Test Venues: Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney
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Clockwise – CLOSEwise
I remember the first time I came across the word mnemonics – in Popular Mechanics, in REC Reading Room, 1984 – and also some of the mnemonics mentioned in the article (the power of mnemonics!)
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‘My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles’ – The Nine Planets (Pluto was not just a dog in those days)
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‘Sohcahtoa, Indian Chief’ – Trigonometry : Sin = Opposite/Hypotenuse, Cos = Adjacent /Hypotenuse, Tan = Opposite/Adjacent
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‘Washington And Jefferson Made Many A Joke’…(American Presidents, in order: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Munroe, Adams, Jackson)…I cant remember (!) the middle portion of the verse, but it ends with ‘Ran To Every Kitchen Jar Nook. Ford Capitulated Readily’ (Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan).
Thanks Judy. Your book on mnemonics took me on a major nostalgia trip…
There is one Good Friday that I will never forget, the Good Friday that Chaly and I bunked church and went for the noon-show at Lulu (Revathikkoru Pavakkutti starring Gopi and Radha)
Image from The Passion of the Christ website
Photo from Google Earth.
Check out the website. (The faculty page has some familiar names – Mr. Xavier Panackal, Mr. M. J. Zacharia, and Paulosechettan)
1987 – Right after Pattar’s victory at Ragam. On a Mullapanthal table he very proudly demonstrated the prize-winning bongos bit…and Rojobhai managed a near-perfect copy with one hand (the other hand, of course, was busy).
Another visit. Biju wanted ‘vedi irachi’ and was served ‘aama fry’, sparking off a session on the methodology of hunting tortises with guns.
Ormayundo?
(Thanks to Pattar for the images. Website)
PS: No Frog Legs…
Most of us know each other for ages and have over the years heard all the different versions of all our stories. One only has to mention the opening line and the whole gang would burst out laughing, causing much anguish to new guys, and in turn providing more amusement for the Sangham. In fact, there was once a suggestion that we catalogue all the stories and give them numbers so that guys will just have to shout out the number and not waste time and energy by actually retelling the whole story.
Better late than never. I am planning to compile the Sangham Stories – a part of our shared heritage – before my memory is totally shot…
Contributions are welcome.
Babu Kuriakose 
