Rusted Nail

A couple of weeks back – the 6^th of October to be precise – I went out to buy a pair of sneakers. And to clarify things, it was for moi. The plan was to go for regular casual shoes type of sneakers and not necessarily the types used for needs that generally involve straining of body muscles. As usual, I dragged Raghu along, since it was also a long time since we had visited our original “kadamai” spot – Spencer’s Plaza.

While waiting at Raghu’s house, I opted to first go to the ATM and get some cash. So I stepped out of his main door and reached for the latch in his gate and in the next instant I cried out in pain, accompanied by muted expressions of profanity. If you wonder why the mute button was On, it was because Raghu’s wife Madhu was around and I still had to maintain some decorum. 

But you the reader may be more piqued as to why I shouted out in pain in the first place and that is what the rest of this narrative is dedicated to. It has been a practice of mine to blog about many of the trivial things that go on in my life and off late, I have passed on that honour to Facebook. But there are still some trivial things that I blog about and hence this narrative. So where was I? Ah the crying in pain after reaching for the latch in a gate at Raghu’s house.

Before I get into the details of why I was in pain, I must also elaborate on what caused me that pain. It was the gate. The gate is probably older than even Raghu and by that, I am only implying that it was created in a day and age when gates were sturdier than those that are created today. And again, by virtue of being that old, it was also rusting and some parts of the gate did bear signs of having seen a coat of paint in the past decade or two.

So, when I was reaching out to move the latch from its seated position, a flake of paint or probably a piece of the gate itself (in the form of a piece of rust of course) pierced the gap between the nail and skin of my middle finger. For the first 15 seconds or so, I only felt some pain in the nail-skin region and I was more engrossed in shouting and muting, than checking what really happened. It was only after that 15 second period, that I looked closely at the finger and saw something dark protruding from that nail-skin area. 

I was able to pull out the part that was outside of the nail and only after doing so, did I realise that the piece had wedged itself even deeper. It was then time for more action to unfold, when Raghu, Madhu and I decided then debated the next course of action. Wash it. Pull it. Cut it. All sorts of ideas were floating around. We finally decided to do all of them in that order. A piece of soap was brought and lathering of the nail was done in the hopes of dislodging that piece stuck inside the nail. After some 10 minutes, all the continuous watering ensured that my dry skin became drier than usual and wrinkled like anything.

I then suggested using a drop or two of some oil to help lubricate the piece out of its current residence and also help my skin expand. But no, that didn’t help either. Madhu then brought out her makeup kit and when she opened the box to show the assortment of blades and files, I just couldn’t but help remember Dexter’s kit! Anyways, we selected one instrument that seemed to be the right one for the job and it helped a little.

Meanwhile, we also used a nail cutter to cut some more of the outer nail and so these other instruments were able to make some inroads in the removal process. But there sure was some part still deeply embedded inside the regular nail. It was then the turn of Raghu’s mother to try her luck with her instrument of choice – the choice of my mother in general and I am not speculating when I say that it is the choice for most maamis – the proverbial “ooku” a.k.a Safety Pin. She did manage to poke some more part of it and then suggested that we let that piece grow itself out of my body. That seemed to be a logical thing and so we finally put an end to the festivities!

The next morning, I opted to get an Anti Tetatnus Serum injected in me, lest that piece of paint or rust cause some kind of infection. I went over to the Doctor’s office in my Office campus and told the Nurse that I wanted a shot. She told me to first consult the Doctor, checked inside to see if there was any other patient being consulted and then told me that I could go in since there was nobody inside.

When I entered the consulting room I found that the Nurse was being very true. There indeed was nobody inside; including the Doctor! The Doctor then came from a cleaning room on the side and took stock of my position vis-à-vis the metal in my nail. She suggested that I consult a Surgeon since she was not equipped to try and dislodge the piece and may end up pushing it deeper. However, she did write a note to get the shot of ATS.

I got the injection done on my hand – I always get my shots on the arm and never on the bum – and for the next two weeks, I watched my nail grow. It is a very difficult thing to watch how fast your nail grows and we generally get to gauge it when the Election officer marks the indelible ink on our finger. I had a similar thing going on for two weeks, courtesy this piece of metal and last weekend, I was able to cut it off the nail. 

But I still have a lingering feeling that some part of that piece could still be inside my system because, I do have a magnetic personality, right? 

Painter Man

Ever since I read the story of Tom Sawyer painting a fence, in my primary school days, I have had this desire to take up a paint brush and color some wall or table to something of that sort.

After a couple of decades, I finally got the opportunity to fulfill this wish of mine. There are 2 cane chairs (the hanging types) at home which are now around 10 years old. Other than the regular washing and cleaning, they have not had any other special treatment ever since their manufacturer applied some form of varnish on it.

We had tried to get it painted by the folks we had hired for painting the house recently, but somehow they got away without painting these 2 chairs. But they did leave behind a container of paint they used on the doors upstairs. My mother tried goading me into painting it last week, but I promised to take it up this weekend. And as usual, I stuck to my promise and went out with paint, brush and other paraphernalia to start the painting of these 2 chairs.

With good help from my mother, I went about my task. I didn't have too many mishaps during the painting and things went peacefully. By the time I was done with the first coat on both the chairs, 3 hours had gone by! I prefer to think that this duration is on par for an amateur painter and that too for one doing it for the first time.

This is how the chairs look now:

I have not converted my Tamizh New Year and other points that don't really warrant separate posts

A couple of months ago, the "illustrious" (sic) Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, introduced this new bill,seeking to change the Tamizh New Year to the first date of the Thai month in stead of the ages old tradition of Chithirai month.

Ordinary folk can afford to make errors due to senility, but letting such individuals be a head of state is bound to cause such official jokes. While he may have his own linguistic chauvinistic reasons to make this change, he basically ignored the religious sentiments of the Tamizh speaking Hindu community.

I don't want to get into more details of this bill which will soon become a law, but to me, my Hindu New Year falls in the Chithirai month. I am least bit bothered about what the Government decides is the New Year. My religion, my tradition, my culture, my customs dictate that my New Year starts with the Chithirai month and I am not planning to deviate from it!

Anyways, this puthaandu started on a relatively low tone at home. The reason was just that with all the painting work going on, things are still not in place (quite literally). So in terms of the Vishu kanee, it was nowhere like usual and definitely not like last time.

And this must be one holiday that I have spent at home without watching much of TV. Once again, the blame is on the painting job and it was only in the late afternoon that I reconnected my Tata Sky to my TV.

Other than that, I have spent quite a lethargic Sunday. Of course, I washed two loads of clothes and still have some left over, but other than that, I didn't do much at home. I did help around in re-hooking many of the screens and putting them back in place. But in general, I guess I was probably I am a bit tired after my outstanding performances of scoring 56,51,64 and 64 in consecutive Hoops games at City Center. I now have around 350 tokens and from next week onwards, I can probably think of redeeming them. I bet its gonna be QUITE embarrassing having to exchange tokens in the midst of kids, but just because I am bigger than some of them, shouldn't make me feel out of place right?

Also, my newspaper agent came by to collect the first month's prepaid coupons for my Times of India subscription. He says it will start tomorrow. Eagerly waiting for it!

On a sad note, the father of one of my superiors in office (in the same unit, but not my line manager) passed away yesterday - may his soul rest in peace. I didn't see the message he sent me and only when a friend of mine called me later, I came to know about it. We couldn't visit him yesterday and today being the festival day, we couldn't go today either. We planned to go tomorrow, but my mother says that the "Dhukkam" rules allow me to visit him only on Thursday. I will decide on the course of action after consulting with my friends at work tomorrow.

Its good to be back!

As part of the painting job that's going on in my house, I had to pack up my "office room" on Wednesday. That in effect meant that I had to dismantle the whole computer setup I had done in one portion of the room. Speakers, Webcams, Keyboards, Printers and some stuff that I didn't know that I possessed - all had to be moved to a box.

But the most important thing that also went into the box was my modem and the ADSL splitter; in other words, I was unwiring myself from the Matrix!

I did all this under the assumption that they would move to that room on Thursday and get out by Saturday. Unfortunately, there was a change in plan and it was decided to take up that room as the last one in the house. And the work on that room has started only around 4 PM Sunday (few minutes back).

The point to be noted is that since the painters took over the hall as well, I lost out my Tata Sky connection too. So, I had to spend a good portion of Friday night and Saturday browsing through the Tamizh and News channels available on my cable connection upstairs. (To be honest, the presence of Tata Sky would have given me some 15 more channels to browse, but still.....).

I got totally fed up with no Internet and no TV. So, this afternoon I opened the box where I had put in all my computer stuff and took out the aforementioned modem and splitter. Came to my room and hooked it up to the telephone jack. Connected it to my computer and voila, here I am, back on the Internet. I am feeling so happy.

But, it also makes me wonder how bad a life I am leading. Just 4 days of staying away from the Internet and 2 days of staying away from a DTH connection is making me feel that life is empty. Bring back the Internet and I feel like getting a shot in the arm.

As usual, this is a tussle between the brain and the heart. And as usual my heart wins!

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.