Diji

January 10, 2008 in Sangham | Tags: , | 2 comments

Last month we celebrated the Return of Dijiraj. Jam session at Biju’s. TV was there. Jose phoned in. Bobby was away (or as the famous song goes, kappalil aanu ku**a).

The jam almost didn’t happen. Unable to locate Biju’s house, Diji was actually rushing back home when I saw him in Panampilly Nagar. And then I knew, though I had not met him in a decade, he has not changed a bit. Good old Japan, the man in a big hurry – pouva, pouva, pouva.

Before he became Japan, he was Idi Rajappan, the nemesis of Onakka and other school bus kids. He was also the Commando fan, the ‘fastest man’ and a pioneer of hard tackle football. Actually football’s gain was boxing’s loss. The windows of MSc Chemistry lab in Maharaja’s (and many of us) can vouch for the power of his punches.

During the pre-degree days, I was a permanent fixture on his BSA SLR. We discovered Eloor together, filled in our engineering applications together – then I went to Calicut, he went to Kothamangalam…and the rest…is history.

Welcome back, Diji.

Dijimobile: +91 99472 76214. Photos courtesy TV

ISS space GREED

January 10, 2008 in TV | Tags: | 1 comment

Idea Star Singer hit rock bottom yesterday.

The tenth round format was bad to start with – four performances per participant, and only two performances per day (Don’t get me started on the weird “performance” rounds – Singing with Family and Friends…what next? ‘Performing with Pets’?). Yesterday, even with four commercial breaks and very detailed analysis of the performances, they could not fill the one-hour slot. So, out comes Didi’s birthday bash footage from the archives.

What an idea sirji

Mumbai Masala

January 7, 2008 in Random Ramble | Tags: | Leave a comment

Midnight. A lone Jacobite in the CSI Airport. Around me are IT kids waiting for the New York flight, pawing their newly acquired brides – celebrating their first moments away from daddy, mummy, bhaiya, bhabhi, munnu and Kuttan Pillai (the driver, stupid), …and getting into that New York state of mind.

Was in Mumbai for two days – kampani pani. Went book hunting in Flora Fountain. Picked up Tom Robbin’s Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (More about the Sultan of Simile later). Had beer at the Pizzeria on Marine Drive, took a leak at Jazz by the Sea (the club next door – the loos are labelled Lou and Louise).

Got swindled by a Mumbai cabbie…again. Flashback. More than 12 years ago. En route to Biju’s place, the cabbie asked me ‘Idhar ka admi ya bahar ka admi?’. ‘Bahar ka admi’, I proudly announced. Wokay, out comes the doosra card…History repeated itself.

Last month, another B’bay trip, I shared a room with Sriram. Guy snores. And mutters in his sleep, and trashes about…pandi melam pandemonium…kept me up till 4 am.

Next morning, I wake up late, open my sore bloodshot eyes, and Sriram the early bird, informs me, “Bum, you snore.”

Around me the snore symphony has started. Gotta join them. Bye…

Ippol Pazhaya Packil

December 22, 2007 in Blog, Random Ramble | Tags: , | Leave a comment

I started this blog six months ago. We had just launched a corporate blog and the positive feedback it received convinced me that i also should publish my – this word is a bloggers’ favourite – musings online. June was good, experimenting, laying the ground-rules, posts on people and places closest to my heart – Sangham, REC, Vonnegut. July was better, lot of passion, lot of posts, and the response from my core audience was excellent.

That scared me. I froze. I couldn’t write.

I started posting stuff from my ‘Stuff’ folder and stuff i found on the Net – Meera Nandakumar, ‘I am a Malayali’, Chak De Mallus… My friends had given up on the blog, but the high that the blog-stats gave me made it easier to ignore the fact.

Not any more. I am going back to my original credo.

The Little Angel on top of the Christmas Tree

December 17, 2007 in Boo Haa Haa | Tags: | Leave a comment

One particular Christmas season a long time ago, Santa was getting ready for his annual trip … but there were problems everywhere. Four of his elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones so Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind schedule.

Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her mom was coming to visit. This stressed Santa even more. When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two had jumped the fence and were out, heaven knows where. More stress.

Then when he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked and the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys. So, frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of coffee and a shot of whiskey.

When he went to the cupboard, he discovered that the elves had hid the liquor and there was nothing to drink. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the coffee pot and it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw it was made from. Just then the doorbell rang and Santa cussed on his way to the door.

He opened the door and there was a little angel with a great big Christmas tree. The angel said, very cheerfully, “Merry Christmas Santa. Isn’t it just a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Isn’t it just a lovely tree? Where would you like me to stick it?”

Thus began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

Deepa sent me this ages ago.
Deeps, Here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas…

St. Teresa’s, Kochi, Class of ’75

December 5, 2007 in St. Teresa's | Tags: , | 4 comments

Sometimes, when i get this urge to blog, but my brain doesn’t share my enthusiasm, i hit people with my old photo album. Tonight is one of those nights.

On display are my Class III and Class IV pics. I had posted my Class I pic earlier. In fact, i had wanted to post all my St. Teresa’s pics together, but i could not locate the Class II pic, so i posted the Class I pic, went searching for the Class II pic, but…now you know.

Class III D

  • Sister Grace was our Class Teacher
  • Our class was on the second floor, and I spent a lot of time watching hawks ride the thermals over chanda kolam


4th Row: Paulose, Gilbert??, Praveen, Mahesh, Anand, Pradeep??, Paulson, Warren, Justin??, Anil/Sunil??, Joseph, Danny, Kannan
3rd Row: Benny, Sreekumar, Reny??, Ram??, Aju, Leni, Milton, Me, ??, Jayashree (Daughter of Wisdom Maash), ??, ??, ??
2nd Row: Roshni, Sheila, ??, Shanthi, Helen??, ??, Sheeba
Sitting: ??(Milton’s sis?), ??, ??, Nisha, Sheeba??, Teacher??, Sweety, ??, ??, ??

Class IV D

  • Sister Bumbina’s Class


The usual suspects…

Plus Jojo Jose (Rajagiri 1981, Row 5, 7th from left), Shakeel (REC 1987, Row 4, 2nd from right) and Jacob/Varghese (To Shakeel’s left, Benny’s cus).

I would like to hear from my old classmates. In case you know somebody in the pics above, or if YOU are in the pics above, please get in touch with me…

And I would like The Class of ’75 to check out The Class of ’57 by Statler Brothers – Lyrics, Video(tribute )

Bach-analia

November 30, 2007 in Books | Tags: | Leave a comment

I woke up at 3:00 in the morning, could not go back to sleep, stood on the balcony staring at the morning star – till I realised it was some flight coming in. Revelation, truth, epiphany…things are not what they seem to be, airplanes and pop philosophy, a Richard Bach moment. “Remember that this world is not reality. It’s a playground of appearances on which you practice overcoming seems-to-be with your knowing of what is”.

That is from Bach’s latest, a collection of quotes packaged as the Messiah’s Handbook. A quickie, but I bought it for old time’s sake, and who knows, perhaps he needs the money – divorcing your soulmate is expensive business.

My first Bach was Nothing by Chance. Barnstorming in the Midwest, “Come up with us where only birds and angels fly!”. Biplane, Gift of Wings, Illusions…wow! fan to follower to convert before you can say “Everything in this book may be wrong”. Then came The Bridge across Forever, which I read when I myself was on a soulmate quest. Of course, then it sounded very profound and all that, and not like some teen fantasy – working his way across the country, sampling women…Then came the divorce, and I never forgave him for that.

But I stood by Dick, I bought all the books he wrote. And I hope he will one day realise “You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however”.

Tailpiece: My cousin’s non-mallu girlfriend used to call him “Wookie”, and for a long time she didn’t get it why his friends greeted him with “wookie?”

Flunk?

November 26, 2007 in Caught in Passing | Tags: , | Leave a comment


Near Shipyard, Cochin

Desperately Searching Meera Nandakumar

November 15, 2007 in Caught in Passing | Tags: , | 4 comments

In July, when mallus had just started planning their vaikittathe paripadees around Idea Star Singer, I posed a question on my blog, “Do you have any dope on Meera Nandakumar?”

Soon I realised there were a lot of guys on the Net who were asking the same question, and many started landing on my blog – I guess mine was the only site then that mentioned Meera Nandakumar and Idea Star Singer together.

 

By the time Meera started accounting for 20% of the traffic to my site, I decided I had to do something. But Google Search yielded zilch. Google Alerts gave me a lot of updates about some Meera Nandakumar in Cisco. Mallu mags were mum; Mallu mums, mad…

 

Then Idea Star Singer celebrated their 100th episode and YouTube adopted Meera wholesale…but still no d-o-p-e. Then last week Malayala Manorama, Mangalam and Indian Express ran stories on the kid.

 

Highlights…Meera is a Class XII student of Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir, Elamakkara. 

 

Before ISS – where she started as a contestant – she appeared in Jeevan TV’s Star Chat and Family Fun, and Amrita TV Vanitha Ratnam. She has also acted in Veedu, a telefilm. 

 

Meera’s big screen debut will be in Lal Jose’s Mulla Poovu, with Dileep. Heppy?

St. Teresa’s, Kochi, 1971-72

November 1, 2007 in St. Teresa's | Tags: , | 5 comments

From Ammankovil Road Archives…

I was in Class I D.
I D-Vandi – that used to be a major gag in those days.
I am in the last row, second from right. The first guy in the row is Praveen PP (Rajagiri ’81). Peter Milton Lopez and Paulose are next to him. In the 4th row, Benny George (Jos Brothers) is 3rd from left and Sreekumar (REC ’87), 8th. The last three guys in the row are Anand, Mahesh (Rajagiri ’81) and the famous Varghese G. Paul.

In the 3rd row, Shanthi is 2nd from left. Roshini is extreme left on row 2 (daughter of Captain Thomas, used to live in Karakkamuri). Seated on the ground, extreme right is Nisha Mukundan (daughter of Dr. Mukundan). The girl next to her is Sweety, who gave me chicken pox when we were in class IV.

Click here for the photo displayed on the noticeboard when I first got first rank in first standard.

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