Always listen to Chiju

"Polaam da (Lets leave man)", Arvind said. "Its getting late. We'll play tomorrow."

"Only one game", I insisted. "We were not able to play this evening and we'd not be able to play till monday."

"Its already dark. We won't be able to spot the ball", he argued.

"That's ok. Only one game na?", I wouldn't let go.

We were at Rajeesh's place, stopped by to drink water, on the way back from tuition. We did not have Hindi tuition on weekends. It was just another tuition my mom tried out with no other rationale other than getting me to like the subject a little. I was in fourth standard and Hindi, especially grammar was a pain in all the wrong places.

My idea of Hindi tuition meant fun with Rajeesh, Nithin and Arvind (he got 95% the last exam and suggested the idea, little did he know that the problem was me and not any teacher). Every evening Arvind used to walk to my place, I joined him there and the next stop was Rajeesh's house. I made sure that we reached his house at least half an hour early to celebrate Cricket Time! I never knew that they were actually going to learn Hindi.

After a long and unsuccessful attempt of convincing, I gave up. We came out of the house, and as we started to walk, I said, "Let's take the forest route da,".

"Are you mad? Its too dark", he was stern.

Yet another round of argument and finally I said, "Ok. You go this way. I'll come through the forest. We'll meet in the next lane", and started walking towards the other direction. He called behind me and warned me, but why would I listen?

By forest, I am talking about a big deserted piece of land connecting two lanes. It was left unattended, so was covered with big, dense bushes with only a narrow pathway through which we used to walk. At that age, doing such a thing meant heroism to me. I'd go home and say, "I walked via the forest today! How brave am I!"

I know what all of you are thinking (at least people who know about my one actual fear). But, nothing happened in the forest that day. I walked through it as usual and reached the next lane. I was sure Arvind was walking in the perpendicular lane and would reach the meeting point in no time for mine was the longer route.

My aim was to reach there sooner. The reasons being, one, I wanted to reach before him and two, the street lamps were all out in that lane. It was pitch dark. Now, I was a hero, but can't take on darkness because I'm tired from the forest adventure. I wanted to run, but wasn't sure. I was bad at running too (I was not fat back then; just a bad runner).

I started to panic and decided to run. Immediately I thought I saw a couple of small, glowing balls in the air, but I did not want to stop or check, I kept running. Suddenly, I heard a breathing noise (hmph hmph hmph.. in CAPITALS) behind me. As I was running, I turned to see a fully grown Doberman chasing me. Its wrath gave me the assurance that its going to taste my leg that evening. I would definitely say that of all the running in my life, that day was my personal best.

I did meet Arvind, but the scene was a little different. He was running behind me yelling, "Chiju Chiju Chiju. Don't run", and me running even harder as if he was the dog. I did not stop until I reached my house. I was panting so badly that it took more than an hour for me to explain it to my sister and mom. Arvind had to stay there until I completed it, just to check if I was bit by the dog or not.

That idiot went home late anyway that day; he might as well played a game of cricket. I'd have not thought about walking through the forest. Of course, I never stepped in there from then. Hence the proof.

PS: Its Arvind's birthday today (06/08) and I wrote him a testi in orkut, before which I read the one he had written about me, for my last birthday. He has mentioned it there and this funny scene came to my mind.
Happy Birthday again da!

Cost Cutting Techniques

The famous corporate term "Cost-Cutting" can be implemented in everyone's lives. A few techniques I recently employed are below:

Fun cutting
"Hey! We just went for a team-outing last week. Why don't we postpone our Pondicherry trip to September?"
(Never thought everyone around me are so broke. They accepted it wholeheartedly)

Inflation
"You wanted to buy a pair of shoes right? Why don't we hit the Adidas showroom in Spencers?", a friend asked.
"Hey! I checked it out last week. Nothing attractive. Why don't we go to Big Bazaar next week? Came across a sale on converse shoes!"
(Adidas Fans don't kill me!)

Fuel Conservation
"The doc advised me not to wear helmets. As it turns out to be, it is the root-cause for my hair fall. Planning to take the electric train to office soon."
(Yet to implement)

Health Conscientious
"A long time since we had Dominoes Pizza", my friend said.
"Hey buddy! On a strict diet. Sorry!"
(You guessed my reply as soon as you read the title, din you?)

Planned travel
"How come you got tickets to Cbe by train?"
"It seems ABT travels don't have an option for season tickets."
(For the frequency I use ABT, he ought to have given me concession)

Power Saving
The fact that I'm cutting short this post and switching off my monitor right away.

The Coimbatore Era - Part I

Coimbatore (Cbe), the place I was born, brought up, where I built a small empire of my own and ruled it and will keep ruling it forever. When I talk about Cbe, first thing that comes to my mind is Saibaba Colony (famously known as "Colony" there). Except for a cursed 12 months, I've lived there completely.

Vinayagar Temple (a good start always)
This one is situated round the corner of my house (the first house for me in Cbe). This place used to be a daily visit place, because I (rather my family) cross His hide-out wherever we used to go. For my first B'day (they call it "andinaar") I was taken to this temple for the pooja formalities. Since then, He is my Best Friend. A couple of years back, I had a small fight with Him and let's say I've not visited there since. Way too many memories left behind.

Annapoorna
Anybody associated with Cbe would know the speciality of this place. Available in every area, Annapoorna Coffee is the best of all the coffees i've had outside home. At least 75% of my diet, I owe it to this place. Colony Annapoorna has fed me like any mom would feed her children. I don't think the waiters there (excpept for 2) know me by name, but for sure they know me.

N.S.R Road

This is the Diagon Alley/Mount Road/Brigade Road or whatever of Saibaba Colony. It connects at least 3-4 major areas in the city. We owned a Sunny (bicycle with a motor attached to it). I'm a proud owner of that vehicle just because it has been able withstand me until 4 years back. Lets just say that our Sunny has its tyre marks imprinted on each and every pixel of N.S.R road. For grocery shopping, music CDs/Cassettes, video stores, tailor, typewriting classes, cycle repair/puncuture shops, stationery, bakers/confectioners, gift shop, college bus stop and the list goes on, the only solution was N.S.R road.

A.R.C Pani Poori stall
If Annapoorna was 75%, a major portion of the rest was contributed by A.R.C Pani Poori stall. The bhel puri (south indian style), Cauliflower (similar to Gobi Manchurian) and Paneer soda used to be my routine here. Long time since I've gone there also. Have to give a visit sometime. Sasi anna and Raj anna would definitely miss one of their favourite and well paying customer.

Padma Miss Tuition Class

I took Hindi tuitions with her. In simple words, she ROCKS! I never called her maam. Somehow, the first time I met her I called her Aunty (the other students always wondered why) and I stick to it till date. Unable to bear my trouble at home (for studies) I've been tested with a good lot of tuition teachers from time-to-time. The only successful person (or sane person after trying to control me) was Padma Miss. If she had not fallen sick during my public exams (10th), I'd have bagged the school first (in Hindi). I had to settle for the second highest score. I missed it by 4 marks. One full year, I took lessons with her and she is one of the most respectable teachers in my life.

Kerala Club

This is another awesome place. My dad is a member there. He used to take us (cousins, my sister and me) at times during vacation. We used to spend entire evenings watching people play Tennis, Badminton (coaching classes). The coaches used to lend us a couple of used tennis-balls in the end and we played in the lawn. My cousin Srinath and me used to wait for the bar to open. The bar looked like the ones that come in movies and all, with elevated, rotating chairs in front of the bar-tender counter, where one can sit and enjoy his drink. We used to order Thums-Up and imitate movie dialogues and scenes, say two detectives meeting at a bar and plotting to catch Veerappan and stuff. As kids, it used to be so much fun. I've been there with my college friends (Vivek, Vibu and JP) and as far as I know, they love the food there. Chilli Gobi, Paneer Tikka and Special Parotta are their favourites I guess.

To be continued..

PS: This is the 50th post Chiju has spoken (A blog that was supposed to be shut down has 50 posts now, which is something). Got to thank a few people whether or not I write sense.

1) Vibushan, first of all, to have introduced the word Blog to me.
2) Vivek, who used to encourage me whenever my blog slept and made me write come back posts. Though he is not a fan (which I recently learnt from him), he has even given me a blog award.
3) Aneesh, who never hesitated to tell me the truth when he felt what I've written is crap.
4) VJ, who comments everytime whether or not she understands it.
5) All my silent readers who read and give me offline comments (includes Bhuvana, Karthikeyan from school, Robin, my cousin Srinath, Sheetal, Ananth, Swetha, and Hari from Amrita).
6) Divya, who spent a lot of dedicated hours and gave my blog the appearance it carries now.
7) All the bloggers, whose writing inspired me a lot. Check out the Good Reads section in my blog.
8) Any well-wisher I missed out.