10 DOWNING STREET We are a group of women and in those days of yore, when going out was easy, would get together at least once a month for lunch and normally meet at 10 Downing Street, that pub of Hyderabad, with the same name as that of the official residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom but obviously so much different. With wooden interiors, heavy furniture with leatherette covering, it had and has an island of a bar, where one has spent quite the number of evenings. When it was first inaugurated in Hyderabad, it was the place to be seen in every Saturday night. With a small dance room and David Masilaamani, popularly known as Black Jack, at the DJ Console, it would turn magical while we danced, sweated and drank the evening away. I do not have too much of a memory of how Murali and I returned home. But we were back home each time, blind drunk and a guaranteed hangover the next day, but come the next Saturday and we were ready to visit the place again....
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NOT SO EQUAL I posted about the Statue of Equality and the trip I had with friends. I then slept over it and got up all roiled to think that though built recently, it was still disabled friendly. There would be Agama Shastra to stop you from doing good for the aam junta because it is a temple and to be studied and later constructed only by those few learned ones knowing about this shastra and of course all about what God wants and needs. Give me one good, friendly priest, who will explain why the Agama has to be followed to the `t' even now. We are still following many rules set during the British times, including in areas like education and prison reforms to mention a few.... But considering people are building houses close to temples; airports are being built in every small village; keeping all this in mind a few changes can be made, especially for the differently abled. The Statue of Equality is not a temple. It is built as a tourist attraction, already giving it the status of ...
A TEA CEREMONY Murali and I are part of a group and there they held a virtual tea ceremony, for the early-bird ladies of this group, with a Japanese lady presenting it to us from Kyoto. Very charming, she with a kimono and all that. It was an interesting hour and more with a lot of questions and answers. Primarily there is no way the Japanese tea ceremony can be enjoyed by me to the fullest, because you need to sit in Vajrasana for this. I cannot go on my knees to look for my dropped gold ear stud. And then these days they serve only macha tea, I think it will remain a ceremony, at least with me. Macha tea is the latest fad, a dark green in colour, beaten to a froth with a bamboo whisk and drank from a tea bowl, the final sip slurped with a sound, to announce that the tea is over. Like I said before, not happening. I will slurp, to announce that I am enjoying every sip but from a rakabi, where treacly, hot and fragrant tea is poured on to a saucer from a continuously boiling kettl...
WHO'S ON THE TAKE HERE? By and large I am a soft hearted person and many people will vouch for that. Naive enough to be taken for a ride several times over, thought I have realised that it could also be an easy route for me to be able to concede to any kind of pressure, for that is something I cannot take. Especially the emotional kind. I've been known to buckle and fairly easily. But then, this is not a complaint or a confession. This is me and a few people like me for this. Having said the above, I can be quite the stoic when it comes to beggars who come to the car when you are waiting for the green signal. There was one old lady at the Panjagutta signal and apart from being wrinkled and bent over, she also had her wits and would pass some nasty comments which always got a smile from those who heard her. I would regularly pay her, only to later hear that she had amassed lakhs by way of doing this. There was this other guy who would be on a plank and would roll along to the p...
A GOOD COMFORTABLE DARSHAN AT PALANI Marudamalai is not too high, but there is a certain steepness to the steps and anyway climbing of any sort is painful for me and I do not like it, but with athletic friends like Akhila and Ravi, you kind of trudge along, hanging on to all the help you can get en route. Once you reach the top it always feels nice and of course we got a good darshan. Lord Muruga here was bathed in Vibhuthi or sacred ash. Luckily for us there was not much of a crowd because everybody was busy with the local body elections. Many got Rs.1000 from the DMK and Rs. 2,000 and a pair of silver anklets nestled in a box from the AIADMK. Mr Kamalahassan came and gave his speech on behalf of his party MNM (Makkal Needi Maiam) and no money exchanged hands. Walking down was that much easier with the breeze blowing gently. The weather in Coimbatore was very conducive for travels, but the roads and traffic not so much. We came down and there were some carts selling sliced ...
THE LORD CALLED AND WE WENT I have been waiting for 15 years to go to Palani. My mother was very ill towards the last two years of her short life and she would pray to every single God and Goddess in our huge pantheon. She spent the last one year with Murali and me and in one of our conversations she wanted me to go to Palani and pray for her recovery. But her illness was such that every extra day we got with her was a bonus for us and huge suffering for her. She smiled through it and Appa was always by her side to help her deal with her painful moods. I had told quite a few of my friends about wanting to visit Palani and then suddenly it all fell into place. Akhila and Ravi were wanting to visit Coimbatore to visit with Ravi's elder brother Shankar and wife Ramani. I also started calling them Anna and Manni. And Palani is just 110 kms from here. And since we were there we also checked into Dhanvantari, Isha and Marudamalai. Yes it was a tad hectic, but I had good company in...
TM INPUTS AND SERVICES PVT LTD IS 31 YEARS OLD Thirty one years and going strong. I think. I am talking about TMI Pvt Ltd. It was started in 1988 and T M Inputs then very simply stood for Turab and Murali. Turab Lakdawala, the founder partner left us to start Tempest and they come out with the most creative ads ever so often. Murali continued on his own till we found partners in his brother T Sreedhar (late) and B R Ramakrishnan, a dear friend who also worked with Murali at Nocil. About the company, I do not hear too many cha chings, but during board meetings there is a lot of gung-ho talk. One thing, for sure is that the presentations have become more interesting. I am not a frequent visitor and in fact, there have been occasions when the front office person at TMI has asked me who I was, and I have been heard saying "And to you I am Mrs TMI," much to her chagrin, till someone from the office runs up to invite me in. Primarily, because I visit the office rarely, other than ...