Ajith Nair

A rainy day was a bad omen. I didn’t want to be standing wet and vulnerable in front of the Visa Officer at the US Consulate. In retrospect, the whole saga is funny and how. Arriving half an hour before my scheduled time, I thought I might be laughed at. Instead, what greeted me was a sombre looking line that threatened to make me back pedal at least half a kilometer. Parents and wards, husbands and wives and all genetic combinations possible had arrived with rain gear and mortal fear, hours in advance. Nobody spoke, just tentative glances, shuffling of feet and then tentative glances again, this time in the direction of the gates to the Consulate. Mumbaikars are an optimistic lot; else why would one of the gentlemen preceding me in queue not carry an umbrella, in spite of it having poured that morning. His feeble attempts at accommodating himself in the rear part of his neighbour’s umbrella ended with a feeble smile from him and a condescending stare from his counterpart. Interestingl...

I won’t post anything new until 1. The English pick the Jelly Bean that they threw at Zaheer and throw it at themselves (they’ll gladly do this if it makes Zaka bowl lollypops at Oval) 2. Sachin gets a hundred (not with Taufel around am sure…kidding) 3. Sanjay Dutt gets slapped with TADA (if wishes were horses) 4. Pratibha Patil smiles (now that she’s finally got to Raisina Hill) 5. Himesh-bhai takes his cap off (and shows he’s human and bald after all) 6. Amitabh goes farming (better this than some of his latest commercials) 7. Pronoy Roy comes back to anchor the 9’O Clock news (enough of sending the kids) 8. Contestants stop crying in singing shows on TV (and start singing ) 9. I stop seeing Harry Potter books and young readers who increasingly resemble him 10. I can come up with filler ideas like these while my writing takes an un-sanctioned vacation

I was privy to a decking up ceremony. Before you get ideas, it happened to be a truck. A goods carrier. I have never seen a new truck, a brand new one, not even in pictures. For me trucks have always been pesky, irritating occupiers of road space without whom travel would have been so much smoother. They are dirty, spew a lot of smoke, and are all noise and no speed and perpetually breakdown and cause traffic snarls. Finding a new truck was special. I’ve never stared long enough at the front face of a truck. You don’t want to see the face of most things you don’t like right. Truck posteriors with Horn Ok Please messages have inundated my vision, more by default cos one is usually tailing a truck that refuses to give right of way. Coming back to how the ‘new’ truck looked. At the forehead, was a salutation to a certain Goddess, written in bright saffron. Right below, the forehead, much like a human face, was a wide eyed windscreen which gives the driver a large view of the smaller piece...

Great to see the Master get back into prime form. Lashing CC saw quite a lashing from the MRF blade apparently. Its just a matter of time now before he gets into the run getting habit again. Can't wait for that to happen. Shashi Tharoor will make quite a different UN sec gen, if he makes it that is. Vis-a-vis kofi Annan who looks calm, composed and Buddha- esque, our man is stylish flamboyant articulate and suave. Will do wonders for the public image of the UN. Meanwhile,might be a coincidence, but all three African nations playing the world cup this year are neighbours.....any Freakonomics style explanation to this?

While I write this, Ivory Coast is walking in with a purpose- a goal down against a Dutch side that looks to be at peak performance. The football today has been a notch higher than what one has seen until now. I waked in into the compond and a notice caught my eye.It said that we're banning mongrels in the compound cos they are potential threats to everything. This just adds to my theory that we are getting increasingly intolerant of most things, yest it was about beggars today it's about dogs. Meanwhile in true Mumbai style where land is scarce and every resource is disputed, we have a garbage bin dispute. The neighbouring slums have a problem against us dumping garbage in 'their' bin.