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Sangham get-together at Mercy’s new terrace restaurant that offers a view of the…shipyard. (I kind of prefer the old terrace restaurant that faces HDFC. There is this water tank with black legs on top of HDFC. When the legs disappear and the tank starts floating, you know it is time to go home.)
At Mercy 2, the crowd is more cosmopolitan and genteel. There are fewer tables with the pool taking up most of the space, but service is slow…and as recommended by old Kochi hands we order three rounds together and the Nepali waiter isn’t surprised.
We stick to the time-tested koodal format. Reminisces about trips and trippings, crushes and crashes, we crib about Mooks and call up Lineman. Peanut masala arrives (one hour late) and Rojobhai starts the Vackachan stories…Santhosh Trophy, Three pegs = 3 am, Wedding Cake…Osa proposes a trip to Dubai, with pondatti in oor and all that, Biju is keen but I am not too sure…
We pile out by midnight – Biju, Diji, Jose, Mac, Pattar, Rojo, Varkey and yours truly – to take our chances with the cops/ autobhais/ wives.
Bonus: Check out Mercy’s brochure. Very Hotel California…
These mallus!
Was the title font of Satyam, the new Vishal movie about an upright cop, inspired by Satya, RGV’s underworld classic? Guess we will never know the ‘other side of the truth’…
“I received a letter this morning from a young stranger named John Figler, of Crown Point, Indiana…
…John Figler is a law-abiding high-school student. He says in his letter that he has read almost everything of mine and is now prepared to state the single idea that lies at the core of my life’s work so far. The words are his: “Love may fail, but courtesy will prevail.”
This seems true to me – and complete. So I am now in the abashed condition, five days after my fifty-sixth birthday, of realizing that I needn’t have bothered to write several books. A seven-word telegram would have done the job.
Seriously.”
That was Kurt Vonnegut in Jailbird.
Last week a stranger who read my blog ‘end-to-end’ summed me up as follows:
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A great friend of your friends
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You love yourself
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Young at heart
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Loves your son dearly and probably his mother too
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Used to be a flirt, now like the company of women
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Like wine and dine
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Lazy
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You’ve a good sense of humour
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A voracious reader
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A movie buff
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Lover of music
- A happy soul at the end of the day
I needn’t have bothered to write all those posts. A dozen bullet points would have done the job.
Seriously.
Steel bars branded ARS (there is a connection there that I would rather not pursue), a bike called SUSU, a builder who is simply pissing against the wind…
Doctor…enikku vivaham kazhikkan pattumo doctor…
Bonus: Rorschach Test
My STC class pics posted on this blog (links: here and here) a few months ago drew enthusiastic response from nostalgic alumni…
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Do you know what happened to___?
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Would you have the address of ___?
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Is Miss ___ still around?
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I was ___’s classmate in high school…
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We are planning an STC alumni lunch, would you like to join?
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I was in IV B, can you lend me some money…
I realised there were all these people who wanted to hear from, or at least, about, their old classmates – and they were all banking on me! The obvious thing to do was to post information about the school Alumni Association on the blog.
I convinced a junior (she kept on insisting that she was anti-social) to drop in at the school to collect the details…anticlimax…the LP School doesn’t have an alumni association. The good news is that the school maintains a database of alumni addresses going back to the ‘60s. Wow! OK, most of the addresses would not be valid, yet something to start with.
I decided to launch an alumni association for St. Teresa’s Convent LP School. By then Anti-social – let us call her Sonya – had de-volunteered, and I turned to Sangham.
Typical responses (I did not make these up):
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“You want to jam with 42-year old women? Count me in if the daughters would come”
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“Hey, I always wanted to find out if ___ took that finger out of his nose”
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“The ‘girls’ would be more worried about the grandchild’s primary class than their own”
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“The guys would all be battling mid-life crises (MLC) – except of course, the super successes. I wouldn’t want to meet any superstars, and the MLC cases would not want to meet anybody”
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“Wow! I would do anything to meet that hot ___ once again”
One of the more articulate juniors, a blogger-in-waiting, mailed me her vision of the primary school alumni get-together. Over to her…“A hall full of grown ups, more men than women; some chirpy, some nervous, some with their spouses, some without. One of the organizers announces that it was time for introductions. Each goes to the stage and gives a brief intro. Applause follows… or some comments. Some listen, some do not. Some of them who knew each other before have already formed themselves into groups and are busy talking. After that food is served. They all eat amidst some small talk. End of the reunion.”
End of Alumni Plans.