First Impression – Part 2 of 2

Time rolls by. He had finished college and now has a good job in New Delhi. Lost touch with his college friend after graduation. 2 years gone. On a Sunday afternoon, he was walking in Connaught Place. Is this a fate or is this a fate? Who he saw in Connaught Place by chance on that day? The same college friend. And, they started meeting each other frequently.

 

He was going on vacation to Chennai. His friend gave him a package and asked him to deliver to his family. So, one day, he visited his friend’s family. This time he did not go in a bullock cart. He went in a rented car. Not wearing a lungi with no chappals. Decent pant and a dress shirt.

 

Ding Dong. Who opens the door? That most beautiful girl. He asked: Remember me? She replied: How will I forget. Neengathan andha lungi katna retta mattu vandikaran (You are that lungi wearing double oxen bullock cart driver).

 

He: Is your mom home?

 

She: Mom has gone to the hospital. She will be back in a few hours.

 

He: No one home except you?

 

She: The servant maid and the errand boy are here. And, our 4 Alsatian (German Shepherd)

 

He: I will come back after 2 hours

 

She: Please stay here. I want to talk to you.

 

He: What????

 

She: Remember you said I was wasting my time doing English lit?

 

He: It was an off the cuff remark. Hope you did not take it seriously.

 

She: After you left, my brother told me how intelligent you are. But in your village outfit on that day, I thought you were an uneducated villager. I took your comment seriously. I thought about what you said and changed my major.

 

He: (a guilty) What????

 

She: Yes, I changed my major to “this subject”. I was also impressed you were the first guy who never gave a damn about my beauty. All the boys I have come across used to agree with me all the time because of my beauty and how rich our family was.

 

He: Your brother told me also about how good Bharathnatyam dancer you are, and a great violinist. I did not give a damn for them either.

 

She: Unga thimir appidiyey irukku (You still have the same arrogance)

 

He: I was born with it.

 

And the two hours went by like two seconds.  Almost the entire conversation was a  non stop talk talk talk. The 4 German shepherds (one sitting on her right side, one on her left side, and two near her feet) constantly looking at him.  Looked like any wrong move from him, they were prepared to clobber him. The last 15 minutes were shared silence. They fell for each other.

 

They were happily married a year later.

 

Years later, they were travelling frequently in first class across USA and Europe and Asia. On one occasion, in the comfort of first class, a glass of double scotch on the rocks in his hand, 35,000 feet above ground, he asked her: why are you silent? What are you thinking?

 

She: How the world turns! That maatu vandikaran (bullock cart driver) is now travelling in first class in a jumbo jet.

 

He: How about the girl who married that maatu vandikaran? She should be in a village fetching water from the river 2 miles away. She is also comfortably seated in a first class cabin sipping orange juice.

 

She: I was born with luck.

 

He: Our fate is intertwined

 

Epilogue: KK wrote: Does the girl know about this story being written and posted on the internet for the world to see? If yes, what does she think about it?

 

No, she does not know. She passed away in a freak accident 10 months ago. If she was alive and informed about this post, she would have said: Don’t you have any other topic to write about for your blog?

 

Aval avan uyirin uyir (She was his life’s life)

First Impression? Part 1 of 2

He was a big city (Chennai) college student. He spent his summer vacation with his uncle and his family in a remote village in Tamil Nadu. He used to spend every summer vacation in that village. That village had no electricity. Only hurricane lights. No phones. You have to cross a river to enter the village. There was no bridge and therefore cars could not come to that village. His uncle in that village was a big land owner.

 

On that day he took his bicycle and went to the nearby small town to the post office. There, by chance, he saw his college friend from Chennai. They both were surprised. The friend said his mother is a government doctor and she had been transferred to this small town a few days ago. The friend asked him to come to his home sometime. He said he would.

 

A few days later, his aunty asked him to go to the nearby small town and get vegetables. So he took the family bullock cart and went to that small town. Even though he was a big city boy and studying in a college, he knew how to drive a bullock cart. He came in front of his friend’s home and parked the bullocks there.

 

His friend greeted him. They both went inside. Then came the most beautiful girl with coffee in her hands for her brother and this guy. Tall, lean, very long hair, skin color almost European. Her face could launch a thousand ships.

 

The friend introduced both of them. Since it was a village and he was driving a bullock cart, this big city boy was wearing a lungi and a banian and no chappals. And, at that time, she thought he was an uneducated villager. Her brother introduced him just as a friend and no other details. At that time he did not know his college friend had a sister. If he had known, he would have dressed kind of reasonably.

 

Here is how their conversation went – all in Tamil.

 

He: Hello

 

She: Hello

 

He: What are you doing?

 

She: Studying in college

 

He: Which college?

 

She: (she tells the name of the college)

 

He: What major?

 

(Now she is surprised this villager even knows something about college major)

 

She: English lit

 

He: You are wasting your time studying English lit

 

She had the shock of her life time. This uneducated country brute tells me I am wasting my time. Since she was so beautiful she was used to boys going after her and agreeing with whatever she says, this was the first time she experienced that someone did not care or even notice her beauty and said she is wasting her time. She stared at him angrily for 10 seconds and left without saying a word.

 

And then?

 

Stay tuned until next week

More Election Drama

Trump won the electoral college votes. So he was declared the winner. Hillary won the popular votes. Still she accepted and conceded defeat.

 

During the election debates, Trump said if elected he would investigate Hillary’s email server problem and the Clinton Foundation and put her in jail. After winning the election Trump said he will not investigate Clinton and he has other important things to do.

 

And now comes the drama. An independent candidate who also ran for President of the United States, Jill Stein, has started a process for recounting the votes in 3 States – Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. All 3 states were won by Trump by a narrow margin. It will cost her money to do that. She has appealed to the “Trump haters” and raised about $7 million.

 

What is her reason to ask for a recount? She said she suspects the voting machines were hacked. I have never heard a more ridiculous thing in a long time. I am not a computer expert. Some of my readers are computer experts. So please tell me if I am wrong. Voting machines are not connected to the internet. If so, how is it possible to “hack”?

 

At first, Hillary Clinton said she will have nothing to do with the recount. Now her campaign says it will take part in the recount effort.

 

So what I suspect will happen? Trump is not a good guy. He is a vicious guy. I have a feeling he is going to re-open the Clinton investigation – email server and Clinton Foundation. (For those who are not familiar with the US Presidential powers, let me say one thing. In the US, when a President is elected, they are electing a “dictator” for a 4 year term. He/she is that powerful.)

 

There is already a rumor going around that about 3 million non-citizen illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton, majority of them in California. May be Trump supporters want to have a recount in every state in this country.

 

Pure entertainment if you are not personally involved. At least, this will be resolved in a few days/weeks. Unlike India.

 

Mr. P. Chidambaram contested the Lok Sabha election in 2009. His opponent was declared the winner. After 30 minutes, the election authorities changed the results declaring Mr. Chidambaram as the winner. The votes that were tabulated to Mr. Chidambaram was given to his opponent and vice versa. The authorities said that the computer operator made an error in posting. The opponent claimed his votes were illegally transferred to the credit of Mr. Chidambaram, thereby tilting the result in Chidambaram's favor.

 

The opponent filed a case in the court. Mr. Chidambaram became Finance Minister. New Lok Sabha elections came in 2014. Now it is 2016, almost 2017. That 2009 election case is still going on in the courts.