We woke up listening to the untimely ring of the land phone! It was about 5 in the dawn! I kept listening to Ebie, who took the call! The deep sighs and dismay in her voice clearly told me that someone had passed away. In vain, I prayed and waited for something better from her tongue.

It was about a neighbor's death in Thrissur.

I'm particularly afraid of calls incoming early morning! I somehow feel that those are only to announce a dear one's death! They come only to keep us up on the bed, thinking the most painful thoughts. They come only to talk about someone's journey, a never ending journey.

Let's switch off the way we use the natural resources! Let's spread the message! Let's join with the world and shut down the power from 8:30 PM to 9:30 pm today.

Click to know more about Earth Hour

Story of an old man goes this way! A young boy saw an old man planting a mango tree on the roadside.
The young boy asked, 'Uncle, what foolishness are you doing? It would take several years for this plant to become a tree and bear fruits on it; by that time, you would probably be no more"

The old man replied; "Son, I know that I would die soon and would never get to eat a fruit from this tree, but tell me something, by the time you grow up and when you want to eat mangoes with friends, where will you go for it? That is why I'm doing this, this is for you and not for me"

When Karunakaran sir was teaching this story on the 1st standard of N.S.S LP school in choorakode, I did hardly understand the meaning behind it. But now today, in the midst of recession, global warming and Tsunami, the moral of such a story becomes the only hope. Switching off lights for 1 hour wouldn't save us from the threatening power shortages and immediate death of natural resources. But this can serve a strong message to thousands of minds, reminding them of this great duty they are otherwise about to miss, doing for their future generations!

Once again, let's switch off and pass the message!

During my first local- train journey in Bombay and I got caught by a ticket examiner at Dadar. I had thrown away my ticket after the one way's travel, never realizing that my ticket was meant for two way journey.

On my first attempt at an ATM near Wadala, the card was wrongly inserted and it was eaten up by the machine. On the bank, I could not reproduce my signature. Hence I waited till the card came back to my address.

The first ride on my brand new bike. I got caught at Kandivli, as the bike was not yet completely registered.

Prabhachechi had called just like that. She wanted to call me 'santhane' after a long time. That is how she calls me from childhood. (She used to call Achachan as 'Paatta' till lately; which means a cockroach in Malayalam. She also keeps an ‘edie-podie’ relationship with Amma. So comparatively, I've been fared decently).

As the talk ploughed down, she asked "Santhane, have you sent any SMS to Achachan last week?"

I said "No.. I haven't"

"Sure?"

"Yes I’m sure, but what SMS?"

"With Kisses and all"

"What??"

"Yeah.. Seems like a SMS from Ebie"

"Whaaaaat? Ebie has sent to Achachan?"

"No.. It is from your number.. So you must have sent it"

"What else there in that"

"Yey, Nothing much!! Some more kisses.. That’s all". She stopped, giggling.

I cut the phone. SMS from Ebie has been forwarded to Achachan! Whataplight? Whattosay? Whattodo?.

I called again and asked her to delete it. She said she had already discussed the happenings with Vino and Jaiho (Jaimol) and now there was no meaning in deleting it!

Previously, Vino had forwarded a message to Ebie that wrongly went to Daddy (Ebie's Pa). The content was like this "Nee po Maramakri" (Frog).
You will be surprised to know that this had happened even before our wedding has been fixed. Daddy was upset for sometime because he did not know who had sent this to him. Apologies had been made.

SMS. Short Messaging Shockers!

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Beggars normally won't get a chance to be choosers, but they can be effective sellers at times! That's what I had witnessed last week at Mahim and made me stand awestruck for a minute.

As I was already late to start off for Mahim church last Wednesday, I thought I should not park my bike, which would eat up at least 15 minutes to park, and five rupees. Instead, I chose to stand beside the church, on the main road itself, while our 3G, ('the Sreejith'), who was with me, had gone to offer his prayers. It was then I saw the 'beggar business' around me.

Like bees surrounding a hive, there were hundreds of beggars around the premise and sadly, a large number of them begged not for their stomach's yearnings, but for their nerves' cravings (by consuming drugs and alcohols). I could also see a lot of donators, who (rather than giving monies in the wrong hands), lavishly gave eatables like biscuit packets, bread-packs and sandwiches to these beggars.

The business started soon after each donor left. As I closely watched the entire scene, I saw many 'collectors' coming and buying these ready-made food packets from 'selected' beggars and going back (I guess to the shops again). They gave some money to the beggars per packet, which was seemingly a half of the actual price. This means, for a 10 Rupees Buiscuit he received, a beggar could get 5 Rupees from the collector. Look again, 10 biscuits = 50 Rupees.

A mini-political style right?

Why shouldn't we nominate these 'begsinessmen' to parliament? They could play a Financial Advisor role!

I have two close friends, Kartheesh, who was my classmate during PG, and Nagaraj, my colleague at Yahoo. Both are sons of Tamil Nadu!

I normally start my conversation with these guys with a fight in vernacular.

"Enikk innariyanam... mullapperiyarile vellam jnangalkku kittumo illeyonnu!! (Translation- I want to know right away, whether we, Keralites can take the water from Mullaperiyar Dam or not)

Or

Nee Jayaramine idikkarayi alleda?? (Are you upto beating our actor Jayaram, huh?)

Or

"Tharilleda...pachavellam tharilla jnan... nee aadyam ulliyude vila kurakk, ennittavam bakki" (No.. I won't give you even a drop of water.. first of all you cut down the price for Onions, we will talk afterwards")

Finally Kartheesh stopped calling me. Nagaraj, I fear, will take me to Dharavi and beat me up with his Gunda leaders there.

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