So, here I am at the new street corner nukkad cybercafe:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/10/street-corner-india.html
We moved 25 km away to the other end of Hyderabad...an emerging township.
We live on the 13th Floor (there IS a 13th Floor unlike in the Crusade Christian US States...none is above superstition and post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy).
Ishani and me run to our balcony whenever any of 50 odd daily trains on the Bombay Line whistle; a stone's throw away...from this height they look like toy trains.
The Gated Community Township we live in is vast: 27 blocks each of 14 floors, each of 10 Apartments.
It is named: My Home Jewel.
I guess it grew beyond the Dreams of the original Builder who named it so.
For, after naming each block after the English Crown Jewels, like Turquoise (our Block), Agate, Pearl, Amethyst etc, the Namer lost steam and got down to good old Hindi: I saw one named: Gomedh and I am pretty sure that there is a Pushyarag to say nothing of Mothi.
If guns were erected on turrets on our boundary wall, it would be like living in the Red Fort with Akbar and Birbal.
I came out of the Main Entry for Diwan-e- Khas, crossed the Road (at my peril) and here I am in a cubicle of my own, trying to hunt and poke in a darkened chamber.
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Many of my readers send me the hilarious bloomers that keep on appearing in my blogs. I enjoy all of them, but don't correct them on purpose....let them stay and please more youngsters.
Speaking of bloomers (spellbound or otherwise), I am reminded of my lady Classmate Ms. S at my University in Vizagh of my teens. I used to visit their place often for chatting and topo-ing. She was living under the care of her grandmother who was the female species of Swamijees...are they called Swaminis? She had a large number of Female Spiritual Followers spread all over AP, who used to write post cards @ Rs 0.25 each; and Ms. S had to read them aloud for the benefit of her Grannie whose eyesight was worse than mine now.
One day when I was visiting them, a Post Card arrived and Ms. S started reading it aloud. But as soon as she turned it over, she stopped and was blushing like a million roses. But grannies are grannies and gps is gps ever curious.Then she had to read it aloud:
The disciple wanted to say: "We are all Bhagavad Bhaktas"..."We are all Devotees of the Creator".
But the Card could only hold: "Bhaga" on one side and on turning it, the writer lost track and continued: "Bhaktas"...so Ms. S had to read it out as: "Bhaga Bhaktas".
It so happened that I knew the meaning of Bhaga because in our Village High School at Muthukur 60 years back, the lad at the back bench was asked by his elder brother to find out the meaning of Bhaga from our Telugu Teacher: Reddy Sir.
The chap innocently raised his hand, stood up and asked: "Sir, what is the meaning of Bhaga?"
Reddy Sir asked the kid to fall out to him, grabbed his head by his hair, shook it to and fro and right and left, slapped him this way and that and said:
"Bhaga" is the Passage through which you and your donkey senior brother emerged into this world to test my knowledge".
In short, the "Devotees of the Creator" became "Devotees of the Crater"; and as Varun would say: "She can't blame Spellcheck".
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I recall a story told us by the same Reddy Sir: Apparently a Romeo & Juliet were passing through the pangs of: "Pyar kiya tho darna kya?".
The King came to know of this and wanted Romeo killed peacefully and sent a Messenger Boy with the written instruction: "Give poison to Romeo".
And our Romeo intercepted it and changed it to: "Give Poisson to Romeo"; Poisson being the pet name of Juliet.
And they got together and eloped happily .
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Actually our Juliet's name was: "Vishaya"; and in Telugu "poison" is called: "Vishamu".
Speaking of Vishaya; it has a double meaning (apart from being a girl child's name):
1. News item as sent out by the cub reporter
2. The Act that is responsible for the birth of the Brothers who wanted to tease our Reddy Sir (see above) post hoc ergo propter hoc
So, "Vishaya Daan" may mean: "Gift of a News Item" or "Gift of Vishaya {;-}"
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Last Laugh (True Story):
Myself and my friend NP were sitting in the Banerjee Typing Center at KGP circa 1976
http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/05/shyama-o-shaymali.html
In rushed an RS of Ag E who was getting his thesis typed by Shankar-da.
Shankar-da: Eta ki theek aachey tumi likhecho "Rice is grown on a million hectares all over the world"?
RS: Aaapnar ki bhabhna hochey?
Shanker-da: Amaar mone' hoi eta billion hectares houa uchit
RS: Theek aachey; thai type koroon
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Dear GPS,
ReplyDeleteYour blogs were missed!
Couldn't Shanker-Da ever slip his name onto the title page of a thesis?
No, he was too modest for it...but he used to slip in a profound Acknowledgment to the Typist alright. He was the epitome of charm and could smuggle in a dozen of his family members, relatives and friends into IIT KGP, all of them extremely talented; by virtue of his 'connections'...most every Prof had his or his students' thesis typed in the Banerjee Typing Center....
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for sharing a unique content!
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