wutheringheights

I had left my house for lodges a couple of times during my college days. Maybe this was because of my great fascination for old, stinky lodges with common toilets. I was also attracted by the mysterious presence of creatures like bedbugs, mosquitoes and cockroaches in the interiors of these ‘budget’ rooms. There was a sense of rhythm in our live-in relationship. The cockroaches were the most liberal, as they were occasional visitors. Once in a while, someone would perform a mid-night-walk over my body. I could even feel in my deep sleep the ‘hairy legs and antennae’ moving from one end of my body to the other. The action would last only for a couple of seconds. The mosquitoes attacked me only when they wanted food for thought. The bedbugs were the most dangerous. They were good mind-readers and they did this even in my deep sleep. Despite the disturbances, we shared an absolute tent of unity. A friend of mine had an interesting experience when he was staying at a rented house in

A former colleague today invited me for her birthday party. The invitation over phone was different. "Hey, Saju. I turned 40 today, just want to celebrate it. Please come to the Guindy Race Course club tonight." Normally, I avoid birthday parties. I hate being formal. If at all I want, my communist hangover comes as a barrier. But today's invitation was different. This is the first time someone inviting me for a birthday party after disclosing the age. How many women do this? I still remember how furious my mother was when my dad got her age wrong (two years more to her exact age) while booking a railway ticket some twenty years ago. Let me tell you another incident from my childhood pages. The character was Sarada, a vegetable vendor. If you asked Sarada how old she was, she would immediately tell, "I am 38 now, and next Dhanu (March) I will turn 39." Nobody would believe Sarada's words. Because her elder son was 30 when she said this. Usually, Sarada wou

Six months ago, when I visited the controversial Thoothampara Estate near Nelliyampathy, I saw a deer's skull kept for drying outside the storehouse. I immediately took a couple of pictures of it from different angles. The workers told me they would send the skull to the forest department in a month's time. Recently, a wildlife enthusiast from the area told me that the skull was missing from the storehouse. I had my own doubts about the skull when I saw it. The kind of care it was getting made me believe that a "rich enthustiast" would turn up at any moment. Good that i took the pictures, otherwise you might ask: How does it look like?

A couple of days ago while returning from work I stopped at a shop near my house in Velachery. An old woman and a little girl were standing before the shop. The woman was counting some old ten rupee notes while the little one was busy. She wanted chocolate, not the usual ones but Kinder Joy. The poor woman was struggling to pronounce the word so she asked the shopkeeper, Mutta chocklate irkka, saar ?,. The shopkeeper laughed. The little one's ego was hurt. Patti, Kinder Joy, thereelya, she tried to explain it. The shopkeeper's reply was a bit surprising. "If I stock Kinder Joy, I will definitely lose my regular customers. I used to stock it but you know whenever children come to the shop, they ask for it. The parents (rich or poor) will lose Rs 30 at a stretch. It's a kind of addiction that children get from this egg-shaped toy. The next day they will again ask for it. So my customers suggested I must stop ordering this toy which I obliged." True, that's wh