Tempo!

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tem·po

 noun \ˈtem-(ˌ)pō\

: the speed at which a musical piece is played or sung

: the speed at which something moves or happens

Well, that is the Webster definition of 'tempo'. But the way the word has been used in the society I mixed in at various times had different connotations and nuances.

The first I heard of the word was as the first name of an author of Telugu detective booklets  during my school years at Muthukur in the early 1950s. 

He called himself: 'Tempo Rao'.

These booklets were pocket size and slim...never exceeding hundred pages. They were the first of the species. And they circulated hand to hand among us slyly. For, our teachers and my HM Father wielded the stick on anyone caught reading them red-handed. And so we used to hide them inside our bulky Social Studies books and pretended to be absorbed in Nehru's Socialistic Pattern of Society (including the now ditched Planning Commission and their Five Year Plans).    

I once brought one of the series home and was reading it and my mom caught me and asked me about it. And I just passed it on to her and she vanished for an hour and came back and asked me to get her the next in the series...on the sly... which shows ladies are as 'unfathomable' as my blog-posts.

I now know that Tempo Rao neatly cheated and abridged and translated rather poorly Perry Mason's episodes. His Perry was named Yugandhar and his Ford Skyliner was reduced to the only 2-wheeler on our roads...the Red Lambretta. Paul Drake was replaced with a guy called Vijay. Della Street was neatly omitted...our society then didn't have lady secretaries for love or money.

Anyway the tempo in Tempo Rao meant perhaps unrelenting thrill ending in a climax and catastrophe. 

A decade or two later there appeared on our roads 3-wheelers used as mini-trucks to carry luggage to and fro. And they were called Tempos..I can't figure out why.

And then I reached IIT KGP at 21 the first thing I heard was about Hall Tempo. Apparently this meant a combo of skill, thrill, frill, drill and fulfill. 

I mean each Hall vied with others in a footer match in driving rain and there were cheerleaders on the borders with drums and pipes all shouting:


RK ka tempo high high!


in competition with 


Lallu ka tempo high high!

This tempo also meant absolute languor till a week before the exams and sudden bursts of night-outs then on till the exams were over...to relapse into coma...much like Sherlock Holmes.

Like in any race, there are three kinds of competitors...horses or men or even women. The first start off magnificently and break down soon enough and drop out. The second are steady and steadfast. The third lie low in the early laps and pick up, and in a sudden burst of adrenaline, breast the winning tape. These last ones are endowed with loads of tempo.

My son, having been an IIT KGPian for all of 5 years, is endowed with a heavy dose of tempo...even now at his work or play.

A year back the thought appeared in his mind that he should appear in a fairly tough exam and win a PMP certificate (Project Management Professional). And for the next 2 months he was hardly visible without his books online and offline and mock tests and cramming, and all of us complained that he was neglecting everything else.

And his enthu raised to a crescendo a night before his real exam which he cleared maxing in all its 5 sections. 

And then he relaxed back..

...till one day he felt he was overweight, tipping the scales at 85 kg...eating and lazing like me.

And then he decided to reduce his weight with a crash course of dieting and running and dieting and running...all over the neighborhood and the huge campus of nearby BHEL.

And within 4 months he cut his weight down to  70 kg flat.

And someone told him about the Hyderabad Runners Half-Marathon and he decided to participate in it come what may...to the bewilderment of his wife and father but to the cheers of Ishani.

The event was held yesterday and he woke up at 2.30 AM and returned at noon with a medal and a certificate. The event was sponsored by Airtel, and 10,000 odd athletes, old and young and male and female, choked the streets of Hyderabad and the traffic was controlled by severe restrictions.

The picture above shows the medal he got.

The one below shows the start-up melee at 5 AM from the Tank Bund:      

And here he is in his marathon gear:

Long Live High Tempos!



...Posted by Ishani

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