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. 

Client and Hyderabad Visit - Day 0 - 19/Oct/08

19th October was the date identified by the Tamil Nadu state government to inaugurate the fly-over (bridge in local parlance) in front of the airport at Chennai. The time was set as 5:30 PM. I had decided to fly out to Hyderabad that same Sunday evening. My boss also got her ticket in the same plane.

So, in order to avoid the traffic jam expected in front of the airport (after all it was the Chief Minister who was inaugurating it!), we decided to leave quite early from home. We reached well ahead of time and got our boarding pass issued by 4:45 PM.

That’s when my boss said “Why are they boarding us in at 6 PM?”. I too was equally bewildered. Domestic flights usually board some 15-20 minutes before the departure time and this looked like a lead time of almost 90 minutes. After flipping over the boarding pass a couple of more times, we then looked up our e-Ticket. And it was printed in a very clear font that the flight was scheduled to leave at 18:20 hours and reach Hyderabad at 19:20 hours.

You see, I’d originally been booked on another flight at 19:30 hours. But since it was an ATR flight, I asked my agent to book me on another flight leaving at around the same time. He got me this new one, but I happily assumed that the flight was only at 19:30.

If there was no inauguration function that day, I’d have started at least an hour later that day. And I’d have reached the airport just around the boarding time. I’d have had the ground staff of Air India (nearing their retirement date) come look for me!

Anyways, I called up my parents after the Security clearance was done and told them that I was all set to fly out and would call them after reaching Hyderabad. I then made a resolution not to tell my parents about this near goof-up and decided to call them around 20:30 hours when the flight (per my schedule) was presumed to land there.

But the minute we left the Hyderabad airport by cab, by force of my good nature and habit, I called up home and informed them that I’d reached Hyderabad and was in the cab headed towards my office. It was around 20:00 hours and so my mother was shocked. She wondered out loud as to how come I’d reached there so soon. At that point, the cat was clearly letting itself out of the bag and since I don’t lie (about such trivial things) I told her about my mistake.

I got my second reminder dose of the Hari incident in 2 months. I could only sheepish grins and rest the issue.

On a side note, the flight to Hyderabad was really empty. I would put the occupancy at only around 70%. Agreed this was Air India and was a bigger Airbus plane, but still it was quite surprising to see so many empty seats on this sector. Perhaps the business travelers mostly prefer flying out really early on Monday mornings and with the evident increase in prices of air tickets, those travelling on personal reasons had perhaps stayed away from the flight.

After dinner, I went back to our Guest House complex and before I hit the bed, I met the Program Manager for my project. I didn’t want to have any surprises and guesses to be done in front of the client as to who was who. After a quick chat, I returned to my room. The TV was not working in my room at that time and I didn’t want to connect my laptop to the internet anyway. Also factoring the long day ahead, I decided to sleep early and so I hit the sack by 11 PM.

Monumental bulbs

On the day that India was celebrating the birthday of M.K.Gandhi, Mrs. and Mr.Raghu and self, decided to go out on a long drive along the ECR. Our dear friend Nilu, however, couldn’t make it due to “prior commitments”. We weren’t really clear about where to go, but we were clear that the main intent was to spend time out of the house and not inside a mall/movie hall.

In October 2007, while returning from Vaitheeswaran Kovil by car, I had noticed a board near Kalpakkam that talked about the presence of a Dutch Fort. Since I have a mild attraction to archaeological monuments, I have been thinking about visiting this place ever since.

So I broached this venue to Raghu and he accepted it with no qualms. After working out the logistics, we decided to head out by 2.30 PM and believe it or not, we actually left by 2.50!

After we started from home, we first headed out to my usual petrol bunk at Adyar to fill in fuel. In what turned out to be a harbinger for the rest of the day, the bunk was closed. We moved on to another bunk nearby, filled up the fuel and proceeded with the trip.

We had a pretty decent drive, notwithstanding the efforts of an SUV to run over us a few kilometers after Mahabs. We finally reached Kalpakkam. But there was no sign of the board that I saw last year. We stopped over at a couple of places to enquire about the fort. And no one actually knew about it. Finally there was a cop buying some stuff at a shop and I approached him. He finally understood what I was looking for and gave me the directions to the “koattai saar. British kaaran kaalathula kattinadhu”. He obviously lived with the maxim that all Caucasians are British theory and I had no patience to try and correct him.

We followed his directions and after passing through the Kalpakkam Township, we finally spotted a rather small board that said “Dutch Fort and Cemetery” and had an arrow pointing to the left. We looked to the left and lo behold, there was this long wall which had shed its plastering and was proudly exposing its bricks. We turned left and took the road alongside this wall, only to find a longer wall exhibiting a similar constitution. We then reached the entrance.

After having reached the entrance, we were worried if there was some other way to go inside the Fort. The reason was the presence of a tall iron gate that was locked. There was a small gap in the fencing (by design) and there was something like a path that led to another of the walls I mentioned before. This wall however was different, because it had the semblance of a formal entrance in the form of a gate capped by a minar like structure and there were 2 canons on either side of this gate.

One thing that was glaringly visible was the ABSENCE of people. In a country that’s known for its density of population, it was scary to see nobody at a monument where some kind of history exists. There were no visitors. There were no officials. There were no sign boards other than the one at the main gate that said that this was a protected monument. The only way we knew that we were not trespassing into someone’s private property was the assurance from a local woman who looked like the caretaker of the place.

Even as we stepped inside these walls, I was still alive to the possibility of seeing some relics. Some more cannons. Probably a spot where some major fight took place. The place where they stored their ammunition. The place where chief’s office was. The place where they had their flag post. And all of this explained with lot of signboards.

But all I could see inside was a big piece of land with growth of wild grass and a few trees in the middle. There was this muddy path which was headed towards a few structures which were in a dilapidated condition. You just cannot say what these structures were meant for, by looking at it.



The caretaker lady pointed us to an area which was basically the Cemetery mentioned in the board we had seen 10 minutes ago. We went inside and came out in, probably, 39 seconds. Then, we headed inside the grounds I mentioned earlier. We went inside one of these structures and found them to be just rooms; rooms with windows and arched ceilings. The area we went to appeared to have walls that were plastered with modern day cement. Obviously some amount of restoration has happened, but then, the charm of the old building was lost. There were more ruins of course, but we were in a deep state of bulb to try and venture there.

We took the mandatory pictures of our presence in that place and made a hurried exit. The visit to this Fort would probably rank in the top 10 bulbs I’ve had in terms of expecting great things and getting sheer nonsense. In fact, it is high time the authorities call it the “Dutch Cemetery and an extended ruined compound wall around it”.

And thinking about the Fort now, it is clear why the Dutch never ruled us. Going by the reports in the article related to the excavations done here, this Fort seemed to have been some sort of a glorified club/watering-hole for the expatriates of those times. In fact, the fight between the Dutch and the Brits must have come up due to suspected foul play during a Tiger-Goat-game! Or else, this Fort was just a warehouse for the Dutch traders to stock their goods. And probably they sabotaged their stock to take the insurance benefit. Unfortunately, they may have insured with some Brits who found out the truth and took over the Fort/Warehouse.

Anyways, after we came out, we decided to head to Mahabs with the knowledge and assurance of being able to see ancient architecture. We stopped over for a quick cup of coffee that extended itself into a plate of vegetable bonda. We set out to the Shore Temple.

Unfortunately, that day turned out to be “Kaanum Eid” – at least that’s what I am calling it since I don’t know the technical details for that festival. You see, we Hindus in Tamil Nadu have this event called “Kaanum Pongal”. This is the day after all other Pongal days and families make it a point to visit important tourist spots. I called this Gandhi Jayanthi day as “Kaanum Eid” because there was a lot of crowd around the Shore Temple and most of these were Muslims. Since the previous day was Eid, I created this event called “Kaanum Eid” to equate my Muslim brethren with the Hindus.

Anyways, by the time we reached the Shore Temple, the authorities refused entry since the stipulated visiting hours were getting over in 5 minutes. We then braved the crowd and headed to the beach just for the heck of it. We spent some time in the Mahabs Promenade (c’mon there were merry-go-rounds, bonsai giant-wheels, air-rifles to shoot balloons, lot of small shops selling souvenirs and hell even an apology of a LifeGuard’s outpost) and after Mrs. and Mr.Raghucompleted their souvenir purchases, we walked back to our car.

Even as I was driving the car back home, I got a call from my team-member at onsite about a serious problem that had come up. Raghu being the great guy he is, he quickly took over the steering wheel and drove us back, while I chalked out some plan with my team-member.

The only good part of the day came after we reached home. We had decided to have dinner at Eden and as is always the case with them, we were not disappointed. The really good dinner helped round off what was otherwise a day filled with one bulb after another.

Note: The Dutch Fort and Cemetery is listed at # 66 in ASI’s list of monuments in Tamil Nadu.

Damned if you do; damned if you don’t

That’s what Arun, a friend of mine from my previous company, must have thought when he heard me complaining last evening. To cut a long story short, I had to attend a reception yesterday. But unfortunately, I assumed that the event was today and had planned my schedule accordingly.

Arun called me at 7:50 PM and checked my plans. When he found out that I was at home he reminded me about the reception. I initially suspected this call from him to be an elaborate prank, since he and a few of my friends in this group are quite capable of pulling my leg. But I finally understood the truth and dashed to the reception.

When he’d called, I was being admonished by my mother for not coming for supper, even after she’d been calling me for the past 5 minutes. So she was quite upset that I was now rushing out due to my absent-mindedness. And she didn’t lose the opportunity to check if this was a recurrence of a similar incident in my 12th standard board exam, when I assumed that date of the Chemistry practical exam to be one day later than the actual date! If Hari had not called me on the morning of the exam, I’d be history. (Thanks Hari).

Anyways, the venue was quite close to my house and since I had just bathed, I was able to leave my house quite quickly and be at the venue by 8:15. After I reached there, I was admonishing Arun for not calling me earlier. My whole point of contention was that he and my other friends SHOULD have called me at least on Saturday morning to find out when I’d be coming. More than just planning our entry at the venue, it would have helped serve a reminder to me.

Arun’s side of the tale was simple. It was a foregone conclusion that I’d be coming there. With respect to the time, it was perhaps going to be 7ish since that is the time that people usually start coming to wedding receptions. So there was no explicit need to call me!

Even though I was angry with him for not calling me earlier, I was obviously thankful that he’d called me at least that late. And from his side, I was chiding him for calling me that late and would have been blasted if he hadn’t called me at all. Ergo, Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Bad luck?

I am sure there are a lot many of you out there who have similar experiences, but I thought I would list down few of my special ones:

1. Bought a 29 inch down for a whopping amount and within 6 months, the price was reduced by almost 50%.
2. Bought a big car and within a year, the prices were slashed by 25-30K and by the 3rd year, the model was replaced.
3. Bought mobile phone and within 7 months, it was on sale at 50% of the cost.
4. Bought another mobile phone and within a year, it had a 30% reduction in price.
5. Bought a Printer-Scanner-Copier model and within 2 billing cycles, there was a better model at the same price.

While the list above is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, the latest bulb that I got happened 2 days ago.

We at home, finally decided to repaint our Besant Nagar house after a gap of almost 12 years. We contracted the work to Asian Paints and they started early last week. By this Monday, they completed cleaning the exterior walls and applied the "primer". They completed the primer stuff by Tuesday and from that night, it has been kinda drizzling and raining in Chennai. This was due to a depression being formed off the coast near Nagapattinam.

This is probably in the first time in Chennai's history, there is rain in the month of March. But I can proudly say that it is all due to our luck!

You are welcome to share any such bulbs you may have experienced and assuage my feelings to some extent.