Out With Junk…. By Vengrai Parthsarthy The ‘Anjana Petti’ of our grandma’s days can be claimed to be the forerunner of the idea from which the ‘Organiser’ concept has spread to America! The’petti (box) which is still in vogue used to be a round box with ten or twelve tiny containers for storing, pepper, fenugreek,…
Hallowed be thy Name
Hallowed be thy Name By Vengrai Parthasarathy There is a romance attached to names, names like Juliet, Cleopatra and Helen They demand attention and conjure up visions of their romantic escapades. There are of course names like Heidi (the madam), and Monica Lewinsky the errant intern of Clinton fame, which straightaway put you off. though some romance is attached to…
Colonel and Me…… (Vengrai Parthasarathy) “A loaf of bread cost a mere six pence then and when they increased it to seven, there was a big howl”, recounted Robert , an Air force veteran., as he got into a nostalgic mood about ‘those days’. I am from India and this kind, young-at-heart gentleman has been my constant companion on our walking jaunts. Every day that I have spent with him has been uplifting. A fine raconteur, he would hop into the past and dig out some nugget. He often talked of the depression days when he had hauled tons of coals and timber and earned two dollars a day. “It was good money then”. The Colonel has waded through life with Ginny his school sweetheart whom he married and stays married to, for over sixty seven years. “Though my job took me to different places I have not missed a single Christmas with Ginny. “She is an adorable girl”, he says this family man .with a fabulous family .down to the youngest great grandson. Robert hails from Long Island. After retirement from the Air Force he was looking for a place to settle down. He came to San Diego, saw the verdant green of Rancho Bernardo and its equable climate, and said “This is it”. Ginny said Amen to that.. They have been here now for thirty years. Robert had come up the hard way. “Once I had to clear out two or three inches of wet cement from the ship’s deck. I have managed to keep stress out of my life. In my job as Navigator I had to remember that other lives depended on my alacrity. I can claim to have done a good job of it” he says with great modesty. It was in a very casual manner that he told me one day: “I have had a triple by-pass surgery and am under the cardiologist’s watch”, He had a dead pan expression on his face even for such significant news. Great guy! To keep himself ‘in the swim’ he walks about three miles for three days and for another three days in the week he goes golfing. “I preserve a precious memento of my ‘Hole in one’, says this keen Golfer. Robert is a proud and quintessential American. Every day the first thing he does in the morning is to hoist the ‘old glory’ to flutter in all its glory and take it down with all solemnity in the evening dusk…As of October 2011 he had done this 13000 times! Every life has its own theme. Robert’s is “Today is better than yesterday.. Tomorrow will take care of itself “ .Colonel Robert Spence, I salute thee. You are the old glory.
Colonel and Me…… (Vengrai Parthasarathy) “A loaf of bread cost a mere six pence then and when they increased it to seven, there was a big howl”, recounted Robert , an Air force veteran., as he got…
The tram rides of a different era
_____________________________________________ The tram rides of a different era By Vengrai Parthasarathy 07th September 2011 10:53 PM Those were the days which only Chennaites in their seventies will remember. In the Thirties and Forties the rumblings of trams were heard in all the main arteries of Madras. Those were leisurely days when no one was in a…
KRISHNA DROPS A BRICK
Krishna Drops a Brick By Vengrai Parthasarathy Krishna our hero, was a ‘Made in USA‘ guy, born and educated in Texas. This fourteen-year old liked to be calledChris, the name given by his American friends. Chris had a Western accent and a slight drawl which sounded funny when he tried tospeak in his mother-tongue Kannada.. It appeared it was mostly…
OWNING RESPONSIBILITY
Owning Responsibility ……………..VENGRAI pARTHASARATHY Sri Karunakaran Swamy, noted for his anecdotal discourses , related an episode from the Ramayana in a lecture. The hump-back Mantharai had poisoned Kaikeyi’s mind which led to Rama’s exile and ultimately to heart-broken Dasaratha’s death. Mantharai was rewarded with many pieces of jewelry by Kaikeyi, almost weighing her down. Shatrughna…
AND NOW TOMORROW
AND NOW TOMORRROW By Vengrai ParthasarathyThe guide at the San Diego Wild Animal Park was in an expansive mood as all tour guides are. He was introducing the bird EMU,a large, flightless bird of…
NANDAN’S RUDE AWAKENING
Nandan’s Rude Awakening * * * ___________________________Vengrai Parthasarathy___________________________ Nandan was a high profile officer in an export firm. He was tall and handsome as his wife Radha was charming and petite. She was a Lecturer in a Women’s college. The report is that he fell for her…
Literary Oddities
by Vengrai Parthasarathy LITERARY ODDITIES Proper words in proper places’ was how Jonathan Swift defined style’ in literature. That is something not hard to find. There are countless illustrations if one only looks out for them in classics by master-writers. On the other hand, some hold the opinion that it should suffice, if, depending on the effect…
Ma Telugu thalli
O Beloved God-mother By Vengrai Parthasarathy “Ma Telugu Thalli”—is a haunting offertory to “God-Mother Telugu” This is a free translation, not conforming to meter or other poetic parameters . Surya Kumari a comely actress with a mellifluous voice…