GUNTHROAT

After two serious blog I had decided that the next post would be something light and personal. A lot of interesting things happened in the last two weeks. This blog is basically an assortment of those.


At Irinjalakuda

This time the trip home was eventful and helped me forget all the bad things that have been happening with me for the last 9 months. Vinu and I went to Vinu’s rubber estate in the eastern part of trichur driving his old but mighty tata sumo. The worker in the rubber estate has a good looking daughter (what you call the village beauty). I always mock vinu by calling him ‘Kochu mothalali’ reminiscing the old villains like ummar and jose prakash. Everybody would remember their class acts depicting rich youth who would regularly molest the daughters of their workers after sending them away. The most ubiquitous dialogue of villains of those days was ‘oru glass vellam tharumo’ (can I get a glass of water) before attacking the women in the kitchen. Poor vinu is always irritated with these accusations. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see her this time.

We also went to Pambumekkatu mana the famous snake worshipping temple near Mala. It is a customary practice to get inside the temple with wet mundu after dipping in the nearby pond. When we were to enter the temple one of the guards stopped us and asked in a low tone- ‘’are u nairs?’’. We said yes and got in. Suddenly I remembered that the temple is one of the last places in kerala where lower caste people are still barred from entering. I am not a racist but it felt good to enter a place where there is reservation for forward caste people.

Near our tharavadu there is a B grade theatre which is incidentally larger than most of the theatres in cochin. I have seen a lot of movies in that theatre in my childhood days. It has been a long time since I last visited the theatre. This time it was the latest james bond flick ‘quantum of solace’. I went with my cousins vinu and nithu. It was real fun because we were the only audience in the balcony. Vinu and I even thought of bringing some brandy from home at the interval though we did not do that. Vinu went back to Bangalore on Sunday.

Seeing new people

I went to trichur and with vijayini cheriamma set off to invite our relatives for the marriage of my cousin. I haven’t gone to most of these homes spread around irinjalakuda. Anyway one thing I can swear is my hometown is the most beautiful place in the world. It was a great experience to drive through paddy fields and small water bodies on country roads. All the new people I met were warm and nice.

Technopreneur 2009

I went to ernakulam to attend the annual seminar conducted by Yi (junior body of CII) of which I was a member. It was conducted in gokulam park hotel with a lavish budget. It was a wonderful experience especially because last time when we conducted the event we had a very small budget and it feels good to see the event growing. The speech of sharath babu the IIM A alumnus who rejected offers of MNCs to become the idli magnate of india was truly captivating. It was a very innocent and rhetoric less discourse about his journey from the slums of Chennai to become a millionaire. His dream of becoming an education minister at 41, health minister at 46, and finance minister at 51 though impractical is a silver lining to the current political situation. The very thought of aspiring to changing the country by entering politics among educated men is a welcome sign especially when they are not inheritors of political dynasties. We had another budding politician for the event (who incidentally switched back to her previous Christian surname though married to a hindu to appease the supreme leader of her party) who made the funniest remark ever that politicians should become entrepreneurs (and not vice versa). Thank you for speaking your mind out Young Turk.

The director of VSSC, who is the head of chandrayaan team, Mr Radhakrishnan was the last speaker. My father had asked me to meet him. Though I was initially reluctant, persistent cajoling from Lakshman made me go and meet him. We then went to his room where he said his father and my grandfather were friends. I suddenly started wondering whether he really knew who I am and had mistaken me as someone else. I had never heard such a story. Then he said about Sreedevi dictionary when my bulb glowed. He was actually referring to my maternal grandfather who was a renowned lexicographer who completed a mammoth Malayalam-English dictionary. It was a tryst with a great legacy and personal ignominy when he asked me “what are you doing these days’’

I came back to Trivandrum yesterday. The dull life is back after a good week. My father is calling, I have to go, I need to drop the mechanic who brought my bike after servicing back to the workshop. When you are unemployed the first casualty is your dignity.