Monday, May 11, 2009

Work, Life and Vettiness


Perambur bridge is coming up... apart from being a good poll tactic in our constituency, the bridge also has made a lot of changes in the locality, most annoying change being the shift of the bus stand. So, my 2 min walk from my house to the bus stand is now almost a 15 min walk. Once when I was getting back home from a really crowded 29 C (no surprises there!) and through the dark subway, and waiting to cross the really busy road, this person comes up to me. Looks at the phone in my hand and says, "Cell phone ku Tamil la enna theriyuma ma?" Me being the proud tamil-speaking-tamilian, said "ulaa pesi". He just gave me a I-knew-these-people-don't-know-anything kind of expression. I went, "sel pesi? sellida pesi?" etc etc. He said, "Illa ma. Vera peru iruku. Yosichu naalaiku sollu. Naan ingaye dhaan irupen". The next day, I couldn't find him there. He was a traffic cop. I still don't know what the "Vera peru" is.

Preparation for Jhankar is a really tedious process. It is worse than the performance itself, if you know what I mean. Especially the travel. When you have to wake up early in the morning, catch a crowded bus to the "spitting zone"(Copyrights: Deepti "Bumboo" Menon. All rights reserved), you are already starting to wish you knew WHY exactly you are doing it. But, as such, when you are thoroughly jobless, looking back at the (already) good ol' college days, you probably think they are worth it. One fine day, when we were getting back, and I was pretty enthusiastic about the whole "Jhankar thing", I started doing all these weird mimicrys of film actors and discussing plots for "mock awards". This person behind us started enquiring what college we were from, and giving us ideas(Bumboo was giving this what-is-going-on look). He also said, "Naan kooda college padikum podhu kavidhai ellam ezhuduven ma. Eppavum edhavadhu competition poitu dhaan irupen. Indha velaiku vandhapram onnuthukum nerame illa. Janangolada oriyaadhathaan time iruku". He was a...yeah, you guessed right... bus conductor.

Our street had a garbage collector called Solomon who used to sing everyday when he collected garbage. He was such a happy man, it made you feel real good to see someone singing and smiling at everyone, in the morning.

Some people like their work. Some people don't. Some change...some lose their identity...some discover themselves.

(Mind voice: Indha peelosapy ellam vela kedachuduku apparam! Ippa poi IPL paaru :P)

3 comments:

Sandhya Iyer said...

I miss 29C :( The pride in saying Anna oru besant nagar kudunga! fighting for seats, squeezing thru the traffic.. I miss the whole experience.. MOP Canteeen!

Seri ippo na poi IPL pakaren!!

Supraja said...

in full form of bein thoroughly bored!!

Deepti said...

nice it be :)