A little hand and a Hoola-Hoop

Scene - Mayo Hall Junction, MG Road

Time - around 9:00 a.m. every weekday

I'm sitting snug in the driver's seat of my swift waiting for the light to go green. Its a long traffic signal; so, doing my bit to reduce global warming, I switch off the engine.

A little girl comes and stands in the space between a couple of cars. She brings out a small hoola hoop (that ring through which they can wriggle through and do some tricks, if I am mistasken with the name). An even younger boy, of maybe six-seven years, holds in his hand a rough contraption that could double as a drum for lack of anything better. And he starts beating it. No rhythm to speak of, but just some background music to help provide an ambience to the girl's performance.

The girl begins her performance. A few cartwheels and somersaults. Then she wriggles through the hoop by twisting her body through it (the hoop is extremely small you see). A short forty second performance. The traffic light is red for about 120 seconds. She has to complete her routine in that time. After that, both the kids walk around to each car and tap the glasses of the cars asking the driver or the co passenger for some small alms.

The girl makes a very sorry face. Sometimes, I give in and hand over a few coins. ( Generally, we dont think twice to pay 200 bucks for a multiplex ticket nowadays. But, now suddenly the few coins seems like an amount to reckon with. ) Now, this kid is pretty intelligent. If I hand over a few coins one day, the next few days she wont even ask you. She actually remembers your face.

Now am I stingy, I reflect? A wave of guilt washes over me. At her age, I was a happy kid with no cares in the world and spent worry free days in a great school and cosy evenings at home. At the same age, these kids actually had to work to fend for themselves. To get a square meal. No parents to provide for them probably.

Their courage was admirable. They had no other choice. Or did they? Had they been offered a seat in some government school which they ran away from? Maybe she felt the skills (of education) were of no use to her in her life. At the end of the day, she still needed a meal to survive the night and see the light of day tomorrow. Or then again, maybe she did not even know the concept of a school. I would never know. I only knew that by giving in to her pleadings and giving her money, I was encouraging her to continue this. Maybe now it was ok. But what ten twenty years from now? Continue with this forever. But the next ten years is probably far from her mind. She would probably think as far ahead as dinner for the night. Period. Then again, if I didn't give her the money, someone else would. She wouldn't be convinced into dropping this just because I refused. This was pointless.

I continue the same routine to this day. Sometimes I oblige, on others I just ignore her. Simply because I cannot decide which is the best course of action. I remember the time when there used to be a kid hanging in front of the National College, Jayanagar Coffee Day. This kid would try to extract money from the clientele of the cafe by making up a melancholy face and an excuse of not having eaten for the last twenty four hours. At first, I felt sorry for him. But then, i noticed on the second or third time that the kid was actually acting. He could change between his real mood (which was quite happy and satisfied) to a tear-stricken face in the blink of an eye. He knew from experience that the sorry face would get more takers. This chap was also equally street smart. He would always zero in on the female clientele about to enter Coffee Day. He knew that girls had a softer heart and were more likely to reward him earlier. He would even shed a year or two while he beseeched that he hadn't had a decent meal all day and tug on the girl's shirt or jeans until she relented from sympathy or just to get rid of the clinging boy. Once my friend Satya tried to be I don't know which, a saint or a wise ass. He asked the kid why he was not going to school and offered to personally enroll him somewhere. The kid retorted -

' If you get me something to eat from that bakery, do it and I'll be thankful. But i don't need your advise' - in kannada.

Satya relented and bought him a bun to eat. So the point is, maybe the kid was too comfortable in his role now. It definitely beat sitting in a school and learning something which he would probably see as useless. But I guess, at that age, if I had been given a choice, I might have decided against studying too.

Finally, the point of this article - well I guess I dont know what is the point. I was just trying to fit into the shoes of those kids. They may not be sad and depressed. For them, seeing a meal at the end of the day might bring the same amount of joy as buying a spanking mobile phone for me. But that's beside the point. They deserve more than that. I thank my stars for having had a good life till now and it makes me believe in the concept of Karma to some extent. But for now, I promise myself that when I have more money, I will definitely do something to make the lives of such kids better, so that they can have a brighter future. Wishful thinking, but I have hope and faith in myself to do something good for others.

On a High!

Well, didn't know about this combination until recently. Came down with fever and my mom handed me some new tablet to fight the fever. I don't know if it did, but the combination of this fever and this new tablet definitely gave me a very pleasant high. And its pretty long lasting. So now I have discovered a new and free way of getting high. It has a better effect than beer too! And on top of that, if you have someone special to keep you company and some really good music; well what more can you ask for especially on a weekend when you are bored anyway.

Move over Mallya, it is the days of the infectious bacteria. Fly the good times while firmly rooted on the ground.

NITK Lingo demystified...

With or without the consent of my dear friend Fish, I include here a link of my friend's post where he takes the pains to explain some of the very popular NITK lingo. Strangers to the world of NITK may not appreciate this, but if you are one of the alumnus esp. of the 2007 batch, knock yourself out!

Click here.

I am Legend!

Long long ago, yet not so long ago a piece of history was written. Well, not so much a legend that lives on in the hearts of people for generations to come, but nevertheless a story worth telling on my blog. It was the winter of 1999. It was a big day. For all the sports lovers out there, indeed, it was a culmination of all the sweating out and competing of the last month. All the team games had completed and all the shields won. They were yet to be handed over to the winning teams of course. That was part of the valedictory function.

The three day athletic meet was coming to an end. Now S. K. C. H. (Sri Kumaran Childrens' Home) had three different streams, State board, I. C. S. E. and C. B. S. E. streams. So as you might expect, there was a healthy rivalry between the three streams. Although academically, ICSE was the clear winner, when it came to sports, it was another story altogether. The ultimate test of superiority was the 4x100m relay race that took place between the three streams just before the valedictory with the chief guest looking on. The entire school was watching.

Junaid Khan was soaking in the electric atmosphere. This was his final year in school. This was his day of glory. He was quite attractive; sharp nose and jaw, centre-parted slick hair, athletic build; all the girls were already swooning over him. Not that he was complaining at all. After all, he was a gifted athlete. He was part of the his house team in the team events which they had mostly won. And he had struck gold in all the sprint and field events. It was not too much to say that he was the star of the event. Later on, he would be receiving a sportsman of the year award from his stream from the chief guest too. He was flexing his biceps now and then just for effect. State board had retained the relay gold for the last three years and so it would be this year too. Could it be otherwise, when he was the anchor of the team.

The girls' relay was first. Of course, state board won that. He walked upto the girl's team and congratulated them nonchalantly.

"Junaid! Thanks so much! All the best to you", crooned the girls team.
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. He didn't need it anyways. But he went there just so he could hear the words coming out of the cute anchor of the girls team. He would flirt with her later.
"Boys teams! Get ready for the relay!", screamed the physical instructor.

Nobody fooled around with the instuctor. He was one with a foul mood most of the time. Junaid got into position at the final leg after a small ritual of shaking his team's hands and a round of masculine back patting going all around. All the drama was actually for the benefit of the audience gathered around the track. Primary, middle, secondary school kids, his friends, parents, dignitaries- they were all eagerly watching.

He started checking out the other two teams. He was upbeat about the whole thing. Taking it pretty casually. The CBSE chap had taken his position and was looking ahead nervously. No sweat, he was no problem. Then the ICSE anchor walked in. A thin wiry bespectacled youth. He didn't even look like a tenth grade guy. Eight grade looked about right for him.
'Huh? This was their best runner, common don't insult me.' he thought to himself. Then the lad removed his track pants and tees. The lad was now dressed in sky blue sports sleeveless and matching shorts. Printed in Bold white capitals across the chest was the word 'YUVA'. A roar went down the crowd. Just in time, Junaid noticed the spikes on the lad's feet. Something wasn't right. Why was this chap dressed so meticulously when he himself was only in casual shorts and tees?

And then something dawned upon him. But he had no time to react. The whistle was blown and the first leg athletes were off the starter blocks so to say although there were no blocks here. Now the crowd was going berserk. Some of the guys were even running along the track inside the field and following the race along with the runners. Baton to second leg. CBSE was slightly ahead. Second straight was tight, but the state board lad did a good run and equalled the CBSE chap by the beginning of the third leg. ICSE was lagging behind badly what with a very poor first leg. Second leg could just about maintain the gap without lagging behind further.

Third leg was on now. His third sprinter was sprinting along nicely. CBSE was close behind. The ICSE third leg was a chap named Balajee, running quite hard and covered up some gap. Come to think of it, Balajee was ICSE's best. Now, why was he in third leg? No time to think now. Junaid started off on a jog in the relay zone and took the baton at 35% full speed. He looked back to see the CBSE guy just starting off. The ICSE dude was still 15 metres behind at least and yet to start.

Junaid turned ahead and concentrated on finishing the race. He would put atleast twenty metres ahead of the second team. It would be a deserving victory. Behind him, the ICSE lad started off on a slow sprint and picked up the baton in his right hand. Then the lad started accelerating at a shocking speed. Within twenty metres past, he was at full speed and approaching him at an alraming raet. By seventy metres, a blue streak just whooshed past Junaid. And Junaid could only sprint on and look ahead in despair as the blue streak crossed the finish line almost a full ten metres ahead of him! The ICSE lad had a tough time hitting the breaks and almost collided with a kid standing a few metres from the finish line. The crowd was pouring into the tracks now. It had gone wild. But not the state board crowd that he had expected. It was the ICSE crowd mobbing the ICSE anchor. Even the physical instructor had a smile on his face. The ICSE teachers were also walking up to congratulate him too. Junaid was embarrassed.

Oh hell, what the heck, it was not so bad. He had just been beat by one *****, the new legend of SKCH. He was a budding junior state level athlete in the making and had trained in 100 metres sprint for almost two years. Junaid walked up to the lad and shook his hand meekly. He got a shy smile back in return.

The lad went to on win the silver in the relay of The Junior National Championships two years later as well as breaking the 100 metres national record at the All India ICSE Sports meet. But no victory was sweeter than the one in 1999 at school with the entire school watching on!