Rumours that grew up with us

I watched this video by madras meter about childhood rumours and from then on, I couldn’t hold back from writing about it Madras meter is a YouTube channel that’s known for its quirkiness and absolutely hilarious subjects for spoof. So this time they had come up with few popular childhood rumours that most of us would have heard and also been guilty of being a part of it(Fingers pointing at Yours truly). I couldn’t find a better topic to kick start my posts for this year

Peacock feather
Rumour:When you keep a peacock feather inside a book, it multiplies (duration required: 10 days)
This was one of the famous rumour.I remember this episode where one of my friends gave the other friend of mine, a peacock feather. I was totally offended by this favouritism and challenged them that it’s not only peacock feather, even a crow’s feather can multiply and left the place picking up a crow’s feather*monkeyclosedeyes* I threw it on the way to home as my mom would have thrown me out for bringing litter from road. Day 10: The D-Day – Our little Aishu didn’t have even the big sized feather, leave about the multiplied feather. The advantage of challenging with crow’s feather was that you can find it in plenty There is a neem tree near my home, so crow’s feathers were never a scarcity… I stealthily picked up one big feather and one tiny one and placed it inside the same book. I was feeling guilty but didn’t want to be left behind when she shows her peacock feather magic. When the judgement moment arrived, she eagerly opened her book to check the magic (she really followed the instructions of not peeping to check for 10 days ) Obviously nothing had happened… Now our hero/heroine opened the book with full confidence (obviously ) I actually had my best friend(neighbour) ready to testify it (friend in need you see ) All whoa ,Woos and hows were handled by putting on airs of how I was truthful and good by heart for it to happen (*insert punch dialogue* Kanna… Kettavangaluku Aandavan Neraya Kodupan, Aana Kai Vittuduvan. Nallavangala Aandavan Sodhipan, Aana kai vidamatan )

Boomer man
Rumour: When you ace your the bubble blowing skill, you’ll be rewarded duly by Boomerman. He’ll appear when you are sleeping and will take you to places far and wide(like they show in boomer ad). Plus you get a tattoo free (*out of the topic gossip* All of a sudden, one day, I told my mom that I want to tattoo…She exclaimed ‘I didn’t know that they still give free tattoos for Boomer’ *moms moms moms!*)
*back to topic* Even after repeated lessons, I was not getting any better with my boomer bubble. All that happens was my half-chewed gum hitting the ground in a trajectory motion when I try to replicate my friend’s bubble tuition. So when it was crystal clear that I am just going to be blowing my bubble-gum out rather than just the bubble, I had this terrible feel of what if Boomer-man takes my friends with him and leaves me behind? That’s when I did this emotional athyaachar ‘You are my best friend na? Will you tell boomer-man to take me along too if he comes to your house’ I made my best friend to promise and ofcourse complete it with a tick and action of blowing into the sky above

Biting nails causes a tree to grow in your stomach
Rumour: When you bite your nails, a nail tree will grow inside your stomach.
I didn’t have this habit but still I would be time and again repeating this dialogue to my friends who do it I used to exaggerate the after effects so much that they’ll feel like that ‘Naan dhan Mukesh’ anti tobacco ad guy

One for sorrow… Two for joy
Rumour: Spotting one fully black crow(cuckoo) will bring sorrow* and spotting 2 of them will bring joy
Going by our tradition, *Terms and conditions apply. If you touch any black object, the effect nullifies (don’t ask me how). You can also pass it on to people whom you don’t like. So me being the goody goody girl (clears throat) used to opt for the former idea. As my mouth used to mimics in a cool tone ‘I don’t believe in all these… It’s stupid’, my hand used to slowly reach my head to touch ..Thanks to my brain for reminding that ‘maths answer sheets are due today’

Mr India… the invisible friend
Rumour: Tadaa! Meet our invisible friend. He became our friend and will protect us always. He’ll be visible to only few of our eyes.
My neighbour and me stood by this for such a long time that few kids complained that we are seriously having some paranormal connections. Only when we were given strict warnings, we backed off from our prank. We used to reserve an empty seat between us, talk to that imaginary friend , act like sharing ice creams/chocolates… One day when my neighbour was getting beaten black and blue by his mom for something, he was shouting ‘Mr India…Please save me… Mr India I’m in danger!’ I could here this from my window and knowing that little secret of ours that there is no Mr. India and that was an indirect message to me, I had to do something… So I ran out fast, rang his doorbell continuously and rushed back inside. When his mom opened the door to check, he escaped out, shouting ‘Thank you Mr India…You are great!’

White dots in nails
Rumour: The number of white dots in nails is directly proportional to the number of new dresses that you’ll be getting
I never used to have any white dots in my nails (rarely use to get it) whereas few of them had it in all nails. I later came to know it’s a deficiency. But I used to feel very bad that I’m not going to get any new dresses

Saami kanna kutthum (Literal translation: God will poke your eyes)
Rumour: When you lie, saami kanna kutt-ing
This is one very popular fear instilled when you are a kid that when you lie, God will poke your eyes. I have imagined God (as shown in pics) with his long hand having a jeeboomba pencil (that pencil was famous back then) poking my eyes I used to freak out and blabber the truth *facepalm*

Ricky Ponting’s bat had springs/jumping beans
Rumour- Ricky Ponting used springs/jumping beans in his bat during 2003 world cup. Umpire found it out and now they have called for a replay of the match
We were so upset after the loss that hopes in any form brought smiles. We believed (yes, I’m guilty as accused) that there will be a rematch. Being a Dada fanatic I remarked, “Ahh…I know that guy will do like this! It was so evident in his face that he is doing something wrong (don’t ask me what was evident). Paavam Dada!” As always, my mom did the honours of bursting the bubble and bringing me back to reality as soon as I reached home from school.

Undertaker’s life is locked in a cage
Rumour: Undertaker was not a human. He had 9 lives and his life is locked in a cage
Hey it was not only me…Come on! Accept it! I strongly believed that Undertaker had 9 lives and had already died 4 times…Also his life is safely in a bottle preserved in a cage It was in beach…after the evening’s play, my neighbour and me sat next to our Mom(s). Somehow the topic switched to WWF (now WWE) and we told in low husky tone about the secret. Trust me! The wind, darkness invading the evening sky, husky tone…stage was perfect for any evil dead to reappear. As soon as we finished, his mom shhush-ed us with a laugh which infuriated us and we secretly prayed that undertaker shoudn’t be offended
I have left out few others such as tooth fairy, santa clause, spotting a ghost near school/home, Flames etc etc as those are pretty common ones that all of us are aware

I walk alone... I walk alone

I walk a lonely road

The only one that I have ever known

Don’t know where it goes

But it’s home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
When the city sleeps
And I’m the only one and I walk alone

These were the lines from Green day (one of my favourite number  ) that were ringing in my mind when I decided to take a stroll on a lazy Sunday evening… errr… no… noon… I don’t know to categorize (it was 3 pm  ) Yes, I felt the entire city was busy in the afternoon nap after a heavy Sunday meal  The noise and the honking was pretty less  I somehow wanted to go for a walk (may be cos of the unusually pleasant weather  ) alone that noon (evening)… There were many scenes that caught my attention and made me to capture it in my blog…

Caution: This is gonna be a long post… I tried my best to reduce it but this was the max, I could do 

Here goes my walk to remember

I left my house and as soon as I stepped out of my street, my ‘walk alone’ concept was challenged by a black dog… It started following me, wagging its tail, its eyes pleading to make it part of my walking chronicles… As you all know my dog-phobia… I tried my best to follow my friends’ and parents’ suggestions (Ignore a dog… Don’t give your attention… Only when you keep noticing it, it will follow )… Trust me, inspite of my heart beat which beat with a huge decibel (am sure it would have been heard out  ), I tried walking without turning back but I knew it was close behind my legs  I kept walking till the end of the street and finally when I made up my mind to turn back, I found that my black friend had got distracted with the food packet, a few paces behind… I smiled to myself, thanked the owner of the food packet and his immense road sense for throwing it near the dust bin (not in the dustbin ) and quickly turned to continue my walk alone…

There was a pretty deserted bus stand and a ‘cobbler’ couple were sitting… They were very old… Definitely 80′s something… They took a break from the work (I observed a needle with a thread near a half torn shoe… so decided the ‘work in progress’ board was applicable here ) and having one of the best moments of their life… The old man opened a small tray, that had a scoop of strawberry ice cream… He took two plastic spoons from a jute bag near him and placed it in the tray… Both were all smiles and started enjoying the ice cream… The vehicles, the shoes near them, the dust… nothing mattered to them… They enjoyed every little moment and the teethless mouth was beaming, time and again, making it more cuter…. seeing that scene, my lips curved a smile involuntarily 

I moved on cautiously , not to disturb their moment of togetherness… There were many shops on to my right… A tea shop was one among them… I found 4 people reading tamil newspapers as they show in movies, 90′s song in the background , the tea-master busy with his well practiced tea-stunts and a boy waiting with tea-glasses… While I was giggling seeing this, a white indica was blaring at me… I moved to my left giving it more way… but still he continued to honk urging me to turn and give him a cold stare… I hopped on to the broken platform, making up my mind not to  get irritated… I continued my stroll, with hopping and jumping through the broken tiles in the platform… Actually, I had fun doing it 

The silence was suddenly overshadowed by the hustle and bustle… I took a turn and entered into that road… Market road…The colorful painted dolls, people with bags, loud bargains gave me a clear signal… Dussehra has begun  So many different colors, the paintings in each of the doll exhibited the intricate art work…A guy was giving a final touch to a ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ doll… The paint was glistening under the mild sunlight (it was a cloudy)… His concentration and passion exhibited was immense… Our ‘Mahatma’ soon joined his companions ‘happy man’, ‘a set of cricketers’ and ‘charlie chaplin’.

This street was crowded and I apologized thrice for dashing the ladies who were busy bargaining and who didn’t even bother to give way to me… I squeezed my way past them… There was a reunion that happened on the other side of the road… A few relatives who had come shopping waved and got near eachother… There were two kids who were the most affected ones by this reunion… Already the two of them were irritated about getting them to shop in their play time… One of the women from the gang pinched the elder kid’s cheek and am sure would have given the usual comments “How big you have become… Do you remember me?” The kid didn’t respond while his parents were continuously giving clues about the ‘new’ aunty… The kid continued to display the language of our Prime minister… muteness  Like the Indian Janata, after repeated attempts, the elders moved on to other topics… Am sure the kid now would have made up his mind to practice the art of muteness as it was useful in times of need  The next attack was on the younger kid… Girls are always a bit more expressive than boys , so was this kid unlike her brother… She smiled… It was the gravest mistake… She had a cadburys diary milk unwrapped in her hand, when she was about to take the first bite, this over affectionate ‘relative’ lifted her in the arms so fiercely that  the kid missed her control over her precious chocolate.. It fell right on the ground… Tears swelled up in her eyes… The crowd had a tough time to minify her tears… While the entire attention was on this girl child, the elder one slowly moved away from the crowd, opened his dairy milk carefully and started relishing it… Muteness zindabad 

At that time I got a call to my mobile…. The display read “Aish calling”… I wondered ‘how can I call to my own mobile’… Stills of Madhavan’s 13B passed through my mind… I attended the call expecting something unusual… “Where are you? Come home soon… Your aunt and uncle are coming home”  My mom’s voice… Ufff ! I had stored the landline number as Aish… I decided to rename it to ‘Home’ to avoid any nervous breakdown in the future and made my walk back to my home 

PS: A picture is worth a 1000 words… Since I didn’t click a pic, I used 1000 words to recapture the picture 

Do I really Know You?

I don’t know how many of them would have watched this Bru ad starring Karthi and kajal Agarwal…. The theme of the ad is “Get to know your dear ones over a cup of coffee “.

Its so apt… How many of us know(in the sense…. really know) about our near and dear ones? First of all do we spend time with people around us? The interaction has almost become zero…Its come to a situation where our lives are confined to the screen and the issues before us… We have started knowing more about applications, gadgets and stuffs rather than the real people. ‘Lets talk over a cuppa coffee’ is now the words of monitor… We prefer getting cups to desk and telling cheers to the system 

Few of my friends remark as and when they see my post… “I didn’t know this about you till I saw the post ” The worst will be that, that friend would have known me from my college 

I do this making friends thing wherever I go… Similarly, during my first day of hostel, when people were busy crying, I was busy consoling them (though even I was new  ) and introducing myself  After that I don’t know how… gangs started coming into place… People got confined to their gangs for lunch, tea, dinner etc (I was no exception)  So when my friend introduces somebody and says “this person studied in our col only”. I’ll give a blank look which would clearly give out “Really?”… It would be even more embarassing to say I don’t know the person when he/she says “Hey I’ve seen you in col…. I know you” 

So why am I starting this suddenly… Few days back I saw a girl in my building… It rang a bell like I’ve seen her somewhere… After a deep photo matching that my brain did, we (my brain and me) decided that the girl used to travel in the same bus during acadamy and would mostly land up sitting together. She was standing alone in the pantry, so I went to her, smiled and asked “hey hi… You did your training in ASV?” She was like “yeah… we went in same bus” and walked off… I was a bit irritated as she couldn’t even reply a hi for a courtesy sake too… Leave “hi” not even a smile  Similarly, when there was no seat in the bus, thanks to my making friends everywhere nature… I had friends who immediately adjusted and made a 2 seater, a 3 seater for me  But the girl who got in, in the next stop, had to stand for the entire journey. None even bothered to even move a muscle and ask her for courtesy sake. I always offer to adjust , when I find people standing…cos its a long journey… and of course we all work under the same roof 

This attitude made me realise the value and consideration for each  other is fast decreasing… Its high time we realise we are humans and not machines!

I really don’t know how many of us would clear the test if there was a question to list the names of  the people in their bay. Do we know everybody, around us, with whom we spend more than 9hrs a day, by their names ? 

When I got into a share auto, I realised that I have gone in that share auto more than thrice… The driver also felt me to be familiar He asked… “CTS dhana ma” (CTS only right? ) I felt it good that he remembered me (without me wearing my id) among his 100 passengers that he sees everyday… I acknowledged “Kalakkarenga anna… Sema memory power” (Superb bro! U have great memory) which immediately made the tensed auto driver brighten with a 100 whatt smile… Though people around me threw that Be-professional look… I felt good to have acknowledged it 

Well, I just wanted to say lets be human… Lets just find time to interact with people around us  Who knows there might be a Bill Gates, or Sunitha Williams sitting with us… Just get to know people, we have lots to learn and know about and from each one