The Anniversary that coincides with India’s Republic Day

Today, on the 12th Anniversary of a great event in my life, the time has now come for me to officially document it in this blog. Some of you have heard me narrate the story and for the benefit of the few who haven’t, here is that very interesting event.

We first rewind to India’s first Republic Day of the new millennium – 26-Jan-2000. I was well into my 2nd year at work and it was also just more than a month since my family had purchased our first car – a Cyprus Blue coloured Maruti Suzuki 800 DX. I hadn’t gotten my permanent driving license as yet and was still on my learner’s license. Also, my car driving experience by itself was only 2 weeks more than my car owning experience. Given this situation, I used to drive the car at every opportunity, within my neighbourhood, to gain more experience and confidence.

On the date indicated above, two of my friends from school had dropped home. We then decided to go to the beach. Though the beach is barely 300 metres from home, I opted to take the car. And for reasons I just don’t remember or fathom, those two guys decided to take the bike and not come with me by car.

For such a short distance, it is always faster by bike and those two reached the beach first. I tried to get a parking spot near where they were standing, but couldn’t find one. So I had to drive down a little further, take a U-Turn and park on the other side of the road. When I reached the other side, I was driving slowly, looking for a parking spot. Also, I had my windows rolled down, probably because I didn’t want to use the AC for such a short distance.

Even as I was looking for a spot, some 2-3 guys ran across the road into the lane and appeared to be headed towards my car. One of them reached my car faster than his friends and punched my face! I just had no clue what was happening. Then they all asked me to step out of the car. I did and in a completely disoriented and nervous state, was asking them why there were hitting me. One of those guys was holding me by the scruff of my shirt/t-shirt and another one gave me one more slap.

I was barely aware of what was happening, when a crowd gathered around us. The 2-3 guys were hurling abuses at me and primarily accusing me of trying to run over them! I tried reasoning with them, but I think my voice box refused to pass on to the world, the words that my brain was sending to it.

All this while, the crowd around us was just enjoying their free entertainment for the Holiday. Thankfully, mobile phones especially those with cameras weren’t sold for dime a dozen, else, I would by now be on You Tube.

Anyways, out of the blue, two policemen, on a TVS Champ, came towards this gathering. The crowd finally swung into some action and dispersed. The 2-3 guys also ran away. Being the major சமத்து (innocent) guy that I am, I suddenly got worried that the cops would ask me for my license and on seeing my learner’s license, would probably take me into custody. So, I ended up doing a non-innocent act and fled the scene in my car. 

While you may be engrossed in the narration, feeling sorry for me (or more likely be ROFL), your attention should now be directed towards the two friends of mine, who have been absent from the narrative for the past 2000 words. They now make a re-entry.

When I reached home, I stopped a few meters short my gate, primarily to examine the damage to my face. Just then, my two friends came nearby on their bike and asked me what happened. They patiently heard me narrate the incident. With their support, it was now easier for me to enter my home. My parents obviously got the shock of their life seeing their son with a big blue patch around the right eye and a completely reddened face. We went over the story once again and that is where, I found out more about what happened.

Apparently, after I crossed my friends at the beach, they saw some 2-3 guys walking near the road in a very inebriated condition. A blue coloured car had gone past them and they were miffed by the proximity it had with them. These guys had seen the car go further down, couldn’t track where it really went and when they suddenly saw a similar (similar; not same) coloured car (mine) in the opposite direction, the alcohol in their blood stream made them decide that it was me who had almost run them over.

You would still be wondering why my friends didn’t come over to help. Basically, they first saw me go by; then saw this near-accident and then, they were just chatting and looking elsewhere (at someone I suspect). They saw the crowd gathering a few seconds/minutes later and had no clue that I was there in middle. In fact, they seemed to be looking out for me in some other direction. Only when they saw the crowd disperse and spotted my car also speeding away, did they realise that I too had something to do with that gathering!

Needless to say, they were continuously chuckling while narrating their side of the story.
I was then taken to the Doctor, who gave me some medicines and did some basic cleaning of the external wounds. My colleagues at work had a tough time in accepting that someone as innocent as me could get such beatings, though my boss strongly suspected (in front of my colleagues) that I got whacked by a girl’s sandals.

So there it is; Yours Truly has been a victim of a public beating also known as தர்ம அடி. 

The summer of '88 - part 3

Continued from this post...

The opponents came out to bat and their batsmen had a jolly good time for the next 30 overs, which was where the innings typically concluded in these matches. And when I say jolly good time, I mean it in a very polite manner.

To be honest, we were hammered around the park. Remember India batting against Bermuda in 2007 World Cup? This was pretty much the same thing. I don't remember my bowling figures nor the number of runs they scored in total, but all I know is that the former was quite bad and the latter was alarmingly bad for us.

When our turn came to bat, we were able to prove to them that our batting skills were as bad as our bowling skills. We must have been bundled out in 15-20 overs I think. And I didn't do well with the bat either - I was a lower middle-order batsman - and till date, I feel that I got a bad decision.

Just on that day, my regular bat was being used by the non-striker and I had to take some other bat, which was much lighter than the one I was used to. And for some reason, the non-striker refused to part with my bat even when my turn came - he said he was scoring well with it!

Anyways, I had gone on the back-foot to work an off-spinner to the square-leg for a quick run. But by virtue of having a lighter bat, I seemed to have completed my stroke much earlier than the ball arrived. And when it arrived, it hit me on the thigh pad of my left leg. I thought that the ball was going down the leg side and that it was also high.

But the umpire preferred to hold a different opinion and ruled me LBW. That day, I felt cheated and that is also the reason why I am able to remember so many justifications as to why I got into the position wherein I could be given out and also why I should still have not been given out.

The only good thing about the whole match was that all of us sucked. Really sucked. But then, our affluent team-mate took us inside MAC. By inside, I mean into the actual playing field. We were taken close to the pitch and were allowed to generally wander around the outfield. He then took us to the pavilion area and showed us around the gym. He took us to a restaurant there and all of us had some sandwich and juice. All on his tab - his father's tab rather.

We came back to school and all the eager followers wanted to know what happened. And all that we could narrate was our trip into the MAC grounds and not really about the thrashing that we got in the match.

And that I think was the last match I played for my school. The following year, when I was in class IX, I somehow didn't participate much in cricket or basically have no proper memory. And once class X came up, my parents realized that my cricketing skills weren't good enough to compensate for my average academic performance.

So, that's how my cricketing life came to an end at school. I never played any formal cricket until I joined work some 10 years later. Those were interesting times too and I can also never forget the real competitive cricket I played in the USA. I am saving those stories for some other rainy day.

The summer of '88 - Part 2

Contd. from this post...

The shock was that the entire ground was flooded with water. It was one huge pond there and not a cricket ground. The flooding was because of the rains I had mentioned in my previous post.

So, we just waited there for the umpires and opponents to show up. The umpires did show up, but the opponents did not. After waiting for some mandatory period, the umpires informed us that by virtue of being physically present at the venue and in the absence of the opponent team, we were given a "walk-over" to the next round.

We all returned happily to school, though the happiness was mainly around the travel in the luxury car and the fact that we could brag to people around us about our entry to the second round.

Our next match was scheduled in a couple of days' time and in the meanwhile, we came to know that all the other U-15 teams of our school had been eliminated in the first round itself! That came as quite a bit of shock to us, primarily because our school has always had a pretty good reputation in the cricketing circles. On top of that, the A team that was formed was indeed quite strong and hence all of us were in real shock.

Anyways, our next match-day came up and this time around the match was scheduled in the "nearby" ground of TI Cycles, Ambattur. Once again, we all set out in that great car and were once again presented with a ground in a rather bad state thanks to the rains in the interim period. Lady luck favored us again and this time too, it was only the umpires who showed up and not our opponents. We were through to the next round, once again due to "walk-over".

When the news spread to the less knowledgeable circles in the school that the U-15 D team was through to Round 3, there was a general admiration at this achievement. Those who had a more inquisitive mindset wanted to know the scores of the match and that was usually where we got busted. But, we didn't care and simply moved on.

Believe it or not, the third match was at the same venue after a couple of days and the story simply repeated itself. We were now through to the 4th round without even having to call heads-or-tails in the preceding three rounds.

At this point, we started becoming the laughing stock. We could no longer take refuge under this slew of walk-overs and wanted to play an actual match. I think we prayed at the wrong time, because the next match was against one of the best, if not the best, cricketing schools in Chennai. And adding to our woes, the rains started disappearing too.

Our 4th round match was scheduled at MAC 'B' ground. This ground is on the same compound as the M.A.Chidambaram Stadium at Chepauk, Chennai. We were now extremely proud that we got a match in THE cricket stadium of Chennai.

We reached the venue on time. And for the first time in 4 matches, we were greeted by an opponent team. The umpires also came around and we were all set for the match to start. I was always penned down for the final playing XI and that was the case this time as well. And I used to open the bowling for my team too, though I was always the one to bowl the second over.

The toss was won by our opponents and they opted to bat first. Or in local parlance, they wanted the first gaajee.

To be continued...

The summer of '88

As should be evident to those who experience the current weather in Chennai or follow the same through other sources of information, this August has been quite vague. For that matter, most of the formal summer season (April-August is the formal summer. All other months are the informal summer.) this year has been like this.

There are the usual hot and humid days of course, but there have also been a lot of rains in this period. Typically, we only get a short spell of two of rains during these months and even that is most often due to some cyclonic storm forming in the Bay of Bengal.

But this year, the weather in Chennai seems to be moving from Tropical to Equatorial. Every hot day or a couple of hot days, is invariably followed by a heavy spell of rain. And this spell has sometimes lasted for 2-3 days.

While the doomsday believers may attribute this to the end of the world and the more informed ones may blame Global Warming for this, the only thoughts I have are of a similar weather pattern that Chennai experienced in the year 1988.

Want to know why I remember that year more than any other? Long story.....

In the years 1987-1988, I was an active cricketer in my school. I was a constant part of the Under-12 and Under-13 cricket teams. Not that I was someone extraordinary on the field, but was more like the Manoj Prabhakar or Ravindra Jadeja type of player – players who basically seem to be able to do many things, but in reality are not really good at anything!

In 1988, I was in Class XIII and therefore, was eligible to play for the Under-15 team. While many had to undergo selections, those of us in the U-12 and U-13 teams were automatically moved into the U-15 teams. I say U-15 teams because there were usually 2-3 teams every year.

When the final list for the U-15 teams of that year were announced (pasted on the notice board to be precise), I saw that there were 4 teams – A, B, C and D. The teams seemed to have been formed based on the principle that the A team was the best and the D team was the worst. And guess which team I was on?

If you said D because you think that's where I should belong based on the details I shared earlier about my skills, well you are right. Except that you are wrong. My name was not in the D team list. So, do you think there is an anti-climax here and thought I was on the A team? Wrong again, because I was not. So, do you think I was the average dude and hence got placed in either the B or the C teams?

Ha ha ha... Wrong again. To cut another potentially long paragraph short, my name was not listed at all. All my fellow U-12 and U-13 players were in the A or B teams, while my name was not listed anywhere. I hurriedly checked with the PT master who directed me to our trusted marker, Ravi. Ravi realized the mistake and was wondering where to slot me.

His thinking process was along these lines:
Team A is quite strong and this guy probably didn't belong there. Team B and C seem to be okay too, so let me not disturb that. Team D seems to be doomed anyway and maybe I will simply add his name to the list.

And so he did.

Quite soon, the TNCA Under-15 tournament started and we got our first match scheduled at the YMCA grounds Nandanam. I don't remember the date of the match, but I do remember traveling in the Standard 2000 car of one of the guys in my team, to the venue. This guy was my classmate and a really rich guy. Most of us in school came from normal middle-class backgrounds and traveling by a car was a luxury suited for the rich kids. And we sure as hell were in awe whenever this guy used to come to school in a Standard 2000 car, which is an iconic car that was far ahead of its time in India.

Anyways, we all reached the venue and were in for some shock.

To be continued.....

Vaazhga Tamizh - வாழ்க தமிழ்

வணக்கம்.

தற்சமயம் தமிழக அரசு, தமிழ் செம்மொழி மாநாடு ஒன்றினை கோவை நகரத்தில் நடத்தி வருகிறது.

இந்த தருன்ணத்தில், தங்கள்ளுடன் நான் எனது தமிழ் புலமையை வெளிக்காட்ட விரும்புகிறேன்.

நான் பகிர்ந்து கொள்ள விரும்பும் இச்சம்பவம், எனது 2வது அல்லது 3வது வகுப்பில் நடந்ததாகும். எங்களது தமிழ் பாடத்தில், பெருந்தலைவர் காமராஜரை பற்றி ஒரு பகுதி இருந்தது.

ஒருமுறை, ஏதோ ஒரு பரிட்சையில் இப்பாடதிலிருந்து கேள்ளவி கேட்கப்பட்டது. வினாத்தாளில் "காமராஜர் கள்ளுக் கடை மறியலை முன்னின்று நடத்தினார்" என்று எழுத வேண்டும். ஆனால் நானோ, "காமராஜர் கள்ளுக் கடையை முன்னின்று நடத்தினார்" என்று எழுதி விட்டேன்.

இதனை படித்த எனது தமிழ் வாத்தியார், எனது பெற்றோரிடம் அதை காட்ட, அனைவரும் வெகு விமரிசையாக எள்ளி நகையாடினார்கள்.

இன்று வரை, எங்கள் வீட்டில், நான் எப்பொழுது எனது தமிழ் புலமையை வெளிக்கொணர முயல்வேனோ, அப்பொழுது எல்லாம், எனது பெற்றோர், மேலே விவரித்த சம்பவத்தை நினைவு கூர்ந்து, என்னை வெகுவாக கிண்டல் செய்வார்கள்.

வாழ்க தமிழ்.

What a coincidence

Last weekend was probably one that registered the highest level of coincidence in my life.

2 of my childhood buddies came to Chennai. One of them lives in the US and the other in Bangalore. I had met them separately in 2005-6, but the last time that all three of us were in the same coordinates, was in the previous millennium!

The friend from US - Dr.Bulb, Ph.d and 2 post graduate degrees - landed in Chennai last Friday night (27th Nov). The guy from Bangalore - Papsu, an M.S from I.I.Sc - came to Chennai that same morning. And we all met up at Dr.Bulb's house.

And as part of the catching-up routine, this is what we did!


Papsu had earlier come home with his mother, wife and son (baby). His sister, BIL and nephew joined a little later. He left that same evening back to Bangalore. Bulb is still here in town till end of this year.

The real thing is different from the look-alike

I got a refresher course in this lesson on Saturday evening.

Saturday afternoon saw my parents come out with their guns blazing questioning my laziness, being waisty and spending a lot of time at the malls. Yet, I had to honor my commitment of going to City Center with Raghu and headed to his house. Once I reached his place, I suddenly remembered all the discussions the 2 of us had about setting up a basketball board/hoop in my house, so that we could play.

That discussion had then veered off towards playing basketball in the school where we studied because (1) it had a proper basketball court and (2) proximity to his house. And it has actually been sleeping at that stage for a few months now. But after the mini-tirade I received at home, I finally convinced him to proceed with our plan and so we bought a Spartan brand basketball, from a shop nearby. We came back home and after leaving behind all our valuables - wallet, keys and mobile - we walked up to the school and started playing basketball.

When I mean "playing" I obviously don't mean playing in the true sense of the word, especially when you consider that we were "playing" basketball. We tried running around trying to steal the ball off one another but then our gasping lead us to stop that attempt after merely 2 minutes.

We then just decided to just shoot free throws. Raghu then refreshed his memory from schooldays and said that we could play "ZEROES". This is quite simply a case where the player has to go to 6 designated and marked spaces around the basket and shoot the ball.

I must advise the reader at this point at least, that I have never really played basketball before. Never in school and never in college. I am obviously excluding the one time I played it in Los Angeles at my client place, because that was for a total of say 5 minutes or so and when I tried defending a 6 footer, he reminded me that I was creating a record of committing the maximum number of fouls and violations in a single possession! And him a whole lot of others were actually laughing at the way I was playing, so I didn't make a second attempt there.

Anyways, coming back to Zeroes, the first two spots from where I had throw, were really close to the basket - practically at the "paint". I somehow managed to shoot those 2, though it did take me a few attempts. The 3rd spot was where it got tricky.

The third spot was right at the top of the 3 point line. I tried shooting the ball with the best of intent, but sadly that didn't help the ball go into the basket. Actually, for the first 10 or 15 attempts, I barely managed to hit the board, let alone touch the rim of the basket.

Seeing my plight, Raghu, who btw was miles ahead of me in the game by virtue of having played it in school, gave me tips about holding and releasing the ball. While I didn't follow it to a T, it at least helped me reach the board more consistently.

After many many attempts, I finally managed to shoot the trey and then went on to complete the set. He'd of course, finished much earlier and the second set we played was no different. I was again, stuck at the top of the trey and unable to shoot the ball into the hoop in the first couple of attempts. But I did manage to score after probably 6-7 attempts.

One thing I noticed was that while I didn't really score the treys, but whenever I scored, it was nothing but the net - no clanking of rim, no bounce back from the board, no lucky rolls etc. It was just plain net .Swoosh!

All along, I was comparing the way I was now shooting, with the way I shot the ball in the arcade at City Center. I used to dominate that game so much and found it so easy to play. Obviously having a net at 7 feet height and at a distance of 3 feet makes a BIG difference in getting the ball into the net! Probably, excessive playing time at the arcade has probably eroded my natural skills on a real basketball court.

Anyways, we wound up after an hour and then went on to do other stuff like going to an eatery for chaat items and then heading to a baby shop to buy a gift for Ramadurai's daughter, on the occasion of her ayush homam today (Sunday morning).

Today, I didn't have too much of body pain which in a way is actually unusual. Probably spending two successive Wednesdays on the cricket ground near the office returned some amount of sanity into my system. Of course, Raghu didn't seem to have that luck and till this evening, he said he was feeling like he had completed a heptathlon yesterday!

I hope we can sustain this momentum and continue to play basketball. As of now, the next "game" date is set for May 1st, but it will be in the morning time. Hope I am able to wake up Raghu, for the same.

Got my first cup yesterday - excluding the ones I got in college exams of course

Remember the cricket tournament I mentioned earlier? Well, we had the Finals yesterday.

Basically, my team won the championship. At the end of the match, we had our unit's senior representatives at Chennai, hand over all the cups to us. For the first time in my life, I got a cup in a sporting event.


You see, in the international preparatory school that I studied in, I used to win a lot of prizes in the annual sports day. Never a first prize. Always used to be second or third. Moreover, the events were the ones that the International Olympic Council is planning to include as showcase events in 2012 - Lime and Spoon race, Sack race, Three leg race, Sweet and Flour race, etc. One must also remember that, like the kid in the Gulab Jamun ad says, the number of participants in these events was quite low. That school had some budgetary constraints and so I don't remember cups being distributed. Even if they had, it must have been restricted to the first prize winner only. My consolation was the certificates in different colors that used to be issued.

After I moved to a bigger and better school in my 6th standard, I found out very clearly that my participation in the School events would be just that - participation. Of course, I broadened my scope to include jeering of other "houses" by shouting "Nanga Parbhat - zing sharbat" or "Neelkant, nool kand, vaayila poatta kal kand" and "Kanchenjunga , eli-mi-changa". In High school, the chant of "Kailash, cooling glass" was introduced in lieu of one of the houses, since I was sent to some other house. (For the benefit of those of you who didn't study in Vidya Mandir, our houses were named after the famous mountain peaks in the Himalayas viz Neelkant, Kailash, Nangaparbhat and Kanchenjunga).

There was also an interesting period in that school, when I played for the Under 15 team in 1988/89. I was in the "D" team of my school. In the TNCA league that year, the other 3 teams in my school were all eliminated in the first round itself. But my team reached the pre-quarter-finals. Unfortunately, it had nothing to do with our cricketing ability. What happened was, that year, we had heavy unseasonal rains in the August month. And invariably, the day of our match was either raining or the previous day would have experienced a major downpour. But we would always go to the ground no matter what. And the opponent team didn't show up and the umpires would award the match to us. This happened in round # 1 to 4.

Then we had the pre-quarter where it was a showdown with one of the top cricket schools - Santhome. The match was in Chepauk "B" and we were trashed royally. Remember the India-Bermuda match? It was practically the same story here. The only good thing that came out of it was that, one guy in my team was Richie Rich and his dad was a member of TNCA. So we were all taken inside the Chepauk stadium. We walked close to the pitch also and went to the dressing room, gym and ate (duh!) at the club's restaurant there. Quite an exhilarating experience.

In my college, I never indulged in anything that resembled physical activity. So the cups I got were only in the semester exams. Not too many there, too. Just one each in the 5th and 6th. :)

So, I was basically very thrilled to win this match which ensured that I would be in the winner's list.....

Valentine's Day - The deadliest occassion invented by Greeting Card companies

Unless you are Rip Van Winkle or our own Kumbhakarna, 14th of Feb is one day that is unlikely to pass by you.

As acknowledged by most people even in western countries, this day is purely the achievement of Greeting Card companies in creating a sense of peer pressure nonpareil.

The earliest recollection I have of this day is in school. Around the 11th or 12th, one of the girls in my class went up to the board and wrote Happy Valentine's Day. Somehow the funda behind the day didn't register in my head that year, but in subsequent ones, it crept in.

In college, around the 4th semester I think, my bench-mates encouraged me to do something on Valentine's day viz. "propose" to a girl that I liked in my class at that time. In spite of their valiant efforts to throw me in the pits, somehow my basic fear overtook all other emotions and I stayed quiet. The only thing that came out of the whole episode was the girl earning the nickname of "14".

The subsequent years in college did see me being motivated by my friends, to approach another girl that I had a massive crush on. Of course, I never did anything like that and ever since, all Valentine's Days have been too darn quiet.

Anyways, what surprises me is that people have rules for the dress color on that day. For those uneducated on that front, here are the rules (email forward from one of my team members):
Ø Blue - I’m free
Ø Green - I’m waiting
Ø Orange - going to propose
Ø Pink - accepted just now!!!
Ø Black - proposal rejected
Ø White - already booked
Ø Yellow - broke up!!!
Ø Gray - not interested…
Ø Red - leave me

Without going much into any logic that was not used in arriving at this color rule, I will be going to office tomorrow dressed in a blue shirt and a dark gray pant. So basically, am indicating that I am free but am not really interested.

I have tried wearing Green on previous Valentine's Days but ain't gonna do that this time. Me wearing that color has not altered the course of history and nor will me stepping out in any other color do anything otherwise.

But I had a small business proposition in mind for tomorrow. Like, opening up a small stall in my food court to sell greeting cards, stuffed toys, heart balloons etc. Basically the things are bought in plenty by kids. There are surely quite a lot of people who would have forgotten to buy stuff, or may be tempted to after seeing it or just be influenced by peer pressure to buy stuff. So a stall that sells these is guaranteed to make a neat profit. Which is the business plan formulated by the consortium of Greeting Card companies in USA, adopted in the 60s-70s, after the Flower Power era.

Whats in a name? Part two (conclusion)

So, time for my nicknames... Obviously, I will be able to comment only about the names that I am aware of and not the ones that you use when referring to me in my absence.

The earliest one I was given, I believe is "MKT". Which is the short form for one of the earliest Tamil movie demi-gods - M.K.Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. I did have long curly hair and this reminded many people of MKT and thus the name.

Then in the "international" school that I studied, the name I can recollect was "pooshanikkai". Yes, not surprisingly, I was a fat kid. Not morbidly obese at any stage, but fat for sure. I cannot remember any other name from that school.

When I joined VM, it was class VI. Thats when the History books started talking about the evolution of the human species. So when talks of homo sapiens, Neanderthal Man, Peaking Man etc came up, Java Man was also one species that was mentioned. By a natural process of cause and effect, I was called Jawaman. A name thats stuck with me for quite some time.

I was also called Jawa by some kids and those how found that a mouthful to handle, started calling me Jawi.

Then in class VII/VIII (I don't remember), we were introduced to Chemistry. We were told that the chemical symbol for "Lead" was 'pb'. So some kids called me "plumbum jawahar" or "lead jawahar" as a direct substitute for my initials.

Then some enterprising kid came up with the "pub" to replace the plumbum/lead. And with the old Jawi and Jawa, I became "pubjawa" or "pubjawi".

But in the end, till I completed school, Jawi was the first choice for most kids, closely followed by Jawa.

Once I entered college, I never really got any nickname worth mentioning. For the first two years at least, it was only Jawar. And then in my 5th semester I bravely got me a mushroom haircut. This kinda screwed up my hairstyle and by the time the 6th semester started, I was back to being called a bhagavathar.

Thankfully, that name didn't last long and was soon dropped off. There were quite a few other such names that probably lasted a couple of days, but nothing concrete.

And after I joined work, it was again back to Jawa or Jawar. I haven't done anything at work that caused anyone to give me a different name or abbreviation or anything of that sort.

Even when I was in LA, the natives (and naturalised citizens) there, used to make it a point to address me as Jawahar, but in various forms as mentioned in my previous posting. For a short while, some of them called me JP. But like many others, that too didn't last a long time.

And one of the Project Directors there, suddenly started referring to me as "J" in a couple of mails. And coincidentally, another friend of mine (Arvind) too used to refer to me as J in mails.

I somehow liked this and for the past 2 years or so, I sign off most of my personal mails as "J".

And after joined this company too, one of my friends in my circle, suddenly started calling me J. And the leads in my project too used to address some mails and most of the chat sessions as J.

So, since none of you has come up with any kind of good nick name for me, I have decided that I will go with "J" as my other name. Except in totally official mails, I will sign off only as J.

Most importantly, you are hereby requested to address me as "J". Unless, of course, you can give me a cooler nickname.

Re-union season

In the past 50 days or so, I met many people from my previous incarnations.

It probably started off with meeting Anand Rajan - a guy who was my classmate from KG to class V. In the international "Reserve Bank Staff Quarters Preparatory School". The meeting was actually in my office and I met him around the 2nd week of Dec or so. And I bet it was at least 10-15 years since we'd seen each other. But somehow, both of us recognised each other.

Then it was College buddies. My gang of Arvind, Ashwin, Badri, Karthik and Shankar. First, Arvind came home in mid/late-Dec with his wife, kid and mother. One of the few brainiacs who are willing to retain my acquaintance. Actually, we are pretty good friends and have not really lost contact. Of course, he being married and staying in USA has definitely reduced our interactions. But we haven't really lost touch.

During the same period, I also contacted Shankar to try after a long time, to see if Arvind, Shankar and I could meet up. But due to family commitments of the two married blokes, it didn't really materialise.

Then, a couple of weeks or so after Arvind dropped in, Badri spoke to me. We are probably talking to each other after 2-3 years!!!

2 weekends back, Ashwin came over to Chennai. He was actually in India on a vacation and was with his parents at B'lore. But he made it a point to visit Chennai, albeit for one day and that too alone. Nevertheless, this time, Shankar and I did manage to catch up with Ashwin and we went around to Coffee Day and Drive-In. At Drive-In, we saw another classmate from college and had a 10 minute chat with him too. Once the conversation ended and the 3 of us moved from that place, each of us asked the other "What was that guy's name we were talking to just now?". :)

In the meantime, around the 1st/2nd week of Jan, Ravi - one of my earliest friends when I joined Vidya Mandir in class VI - invited Nilu and myself, to a small dinner at his place. I was meeting Ravi after more than 12 years.

That very weekend, I caught up with a couple of friends from my previous company, at City Center. I was meeting Karthick after nearly 8 months and Arun after some 3-4 months.

Then, last evening was another meeting of school friends. Nilu somehow had this urge to arrange one and so I was able to meet Vinayak and Gangadhar. Again after nearly 10 years at the minimum.

All-in-all, I've been kinda re-living my past in the last 2 months.