Man on the Sheppard platform

As usual on my evening commute, I had my nose buried in a book, lost to the world, while waiting for the Sheppard train. In my peripheral vision I noticed a man approach me with a note in-hand. Years of navigating through droves of panhandlers and street urchins have developed an instinctive, doctrined reflex that sprung into action and curtly dismissed the man before he he encroached my personal space. I felt my head nod ever so lightly and in a fraction of a second the action was complete. The reasoning part of the brain arrived at the scene of the crime like so many TV shows a few moments too late and immediately radioed for backup, Guilt. Guilt arrives instantly and boy does it do a really throrough job. I was ashamed. What if this man was impaired and just wanted directions ? What if he was mentally challenged and wanted some help to get back home ? The note might have been given by his caregivers to use incase he was lost. Guilt, like a good defence lawyer, takes you apart at the seams and questions your sanity. I flipped the book closed and looked around for the man. I could probably walk up and find out what he wanted to know. The terminal was filling up with the evening commuter crowd and the man had disappeared.

I combed through the crowd while the train pulled in to the terminal and the sea of people rapidly moved in to filled it up. I was still at the platform, when the doors chimed and closed. I walked back to the bench to where I was sitting, annoyed at myself, one for not finding the man, the other for missing the train. As I watched the compartments slowly roll by, filled with tired bodies on their way back home, I saw a man get up from his seat and approach a fellow passenger with a note in hand. Last I saw before the scene passed out of view was the passenger handing the man a Loonie*....

* Loonie: The Canadian 1 dollar coin (commonly called Loonie) is a gold-coloured, bronze-plated, one-dollar coin introduced in 1987. It bears images of a common loon, a well-known Canadian bird, on the reverse, and of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse.

All for want of a shiny new toy...

Once the feet began to ache it dawned on me that I had now become one of those people who you see in the news waiting forever in a line to pick up a shiny, new, over priced, over-hyped, under performing fashion accessory that's apparently a must have in this day and age.

That's right the iPad 2 launched today in Canada and I am in line to pick one up. I will bite my tongue, swallow my pride, steel up and stand with the black turtle-neck clad devotees, bear with their snooty talk while guzzling their Venti cafe-whatchaminghtcallits. All this while blue t-shirt clad drones buzz around giving advice, controlling crowds and handing out little cards with little fruit logos on it. Let's just hope I don't see anyone I know walking about in this mall

Armistice Journals - IV - Mandal Dilemma

Some more from the Armistice series. Mandal,our dorm-mate, kept kept dropping in about something or the other ever so often one day. Ich and MT took it upon themselves to get back at him by mounting a counter-annoy tactic, which worked really well and he ended up storming out of the room yelling explicits in several languages and us laughing till our stomaches ached . I then proceed to my trusty, battered, blue writing desk that was precariously balanced on 1.5 textbooks on one leg and writing out a short piece. This is the draft and the final copy. No edits have been made. I was rather pleased with it. Can't say the same about Mandal. :-)

I hope he is doing well. The last time I spoke to him was in the summer of '03. He had just moved to Navi Bombay and I was in India for a short visit.

There was this guy called Mandal

Who once went after a vicious vandal.

The vandal he had kidnapped an actor

And getting him back was the deciding factor.

The bandit, he hid in the jungle

And the whole operation Mandal did Bungle.

Mandal, he, never did find the actor

Instead, stayed home and bought a tractor.

Drove it around for his friends to see

What a smart chap he be.

Then one day she rode to town

A southern belle in a long flowing gown.

As she walked across the square

Everone at her did stare.

She looked around and smiled knowing

The interest on her the people were showing.

Then our hero rode to town

Stopped at the sight of the one in the gown.

Crazy did he go right then

And serenaded her for the next days 10!

She finally agreed to seal the matter,

but, for tying the knot

he was to get rid of the tractor!

Mandal next day went to the market

Exchanged the tractor for a Luna and a Locket.

Smiling he rode the luna to her gate,

Checked his watch to see if he was late.

Just then a Porche stopped by.

Mandal wondered 'Who's this guy?'

The horn sounded twice and the door flung open

Out she ran, and there stood Mandal hopin'

She looked at him and waved him farewell

Jumped into the car and left him

High, Dry and Unwell.............

13 Rules of Indoor Cricket

While in our first year we had several distractions that kept us from achieving the success that our family had envisioned for us. One of the chief distraction was cricket. Ever since the cricket scandals of '96-'97 I have had an advent dislike for the game and was never an avid cricket fan. But something in my short post secondary exile and the lack of other more appealing stimuli, gyrated me towards a variant of the sport.

In the first few months we were subjected to several occasions of hazing and this had limited our movements to the confines to our hostel rooms after classes. I must admit my fellow roommate in crime and myself used to get ourselves intentionally picked up for these sessions several times just for the sole purpose of scamming a free coffee and snacks after their silly antics. Most of the tasks they assigned us to do were trivial and in some cases fun. But it was the consolation coffee and snacks we looked forward to every other evening. Subsequent they did catch on to our scam and we paid the price for it. But I digress.

My friends in the designated 'mallu' room on the ground floor devised a very clever variation of indoor-cricket to wile away the spare time We had between dinner and lights off. I was quite happy to be left alone with my school work or good book, I was drawn to the intricacies of this improv game that appeared to occupy more and more of my friends time. Eventually I joined in one evening and the next thing I knew was that it was the eve of the exams, we were wrapping up the tournament at 4 in the morning and was scaling up the school wall to sneak out to the telephone booth for a drink and ice-cream.

Th games were all held in room #9 (the mallu room) and the rules were crafted by the way items were positioned in the room, the beds, suitcases and other objects were part of the obstacle course that determined the way the game played out.

So here is a cheer to Shynu, Vinu, Gireesh (lungi), Gireesh (ich), Dhiraj, Ballsgopal and others who partook in this insane game that was probably responsible for a grade or two drop in our final marks.

Rules of Indoor Cricket

Venue: Junior Boy's Hostel rm#12

GVIT,

1. Two teams max 5 a side.
2. Bowling - under-arm only. Ball must bounce once before reaching batsman
3. Ball should not bounce over waist height. Should a ball be thrown and it bounces over set limit, 1 run is awarded to batting team.
4. Wicket-keeper must be behind batsman at all times. Knees on bed. It is illegal to stand on bed.
5. It is illegal for wicket-keeper to step in front of batsman or block his shot.
6. Boundaries are the established 3 walls the batsman is facing.
7. Ball must bounce before touching the wall to be awarded 4 runs.
8. Should the ball not touch or bounce off ground, bed or suitcase, the batsman is out. No direct shots to the wall are allowed. All direct shots result in the Batsman being out.
9. Bowler must be seated in a chair opposite to batsman at a distance of at least 17 feet.
10. Standard ball is a regular tennis ball bound with electrical tape evenly wound around the ball.
11. Vinu's bucket is the Wicket.
12. If a match runs for more than 2 hours, players are mandated to break for drinks and refreshments for an hour.
13. Match can be interrupted only under the below circumstances:

• Warden's surprise visit to hostel
• Seniors roll call for ragging sessions
• Trip to Stadium, interrupted by senior or staff intervention.

Please note that some of the finer details escapes me. Please feel free to drop me a line to update the details.