At the KFC outlet

After a long while, Lekha and me decided to take our guests, Saly and Felix
to lunch and after driving around for quite a while in the hot afternoon, decided to
settle down at the KFC outlet nearby. The 'tough' decision was taken on two counts
viz. the last we'd visited a similar outlet was while we're at Bangalore a couple
of years ago and secondly, the youngster with us showed an inclination.
The atmosphere in these eateries have an easygoing ambience with the clientele
mostly consisting of young boys and girls. I think, at 54, I was the eldest in
the crowd, this afternoon. Whatever said and done, the air around is certainly
very infectious and I really- in fact, all of us did - enjoy the time spent out
there. We'd ordered a 'Bucket Meal' and for all the pieces of chicken, wolfed
down with a generous dose of Pepsi, I'd to really exercise it in the evening to
get out the extra calories.

Tailpiece.
In the quest for a suitable house for the newly married couple, felix seems to
have zeroed in on the flat at Dwarka. Thankfully, there'd be no more visits for further
enquiries on this aspect!

At the Delhi airport

We're at the airport to pick up our friend, who was coming from Kochi. Thanks to strong and gusty winds, she finally arrived almost two hours behind time. And her baggage was overwhelmingly reeking of a fishy smell - on enquiry, it was established that a package of refrigerated fish was stacked on top of her baggage. The clothes inside were thoroughly soaked with the 'unfriendly' water and the lasting impression of last Saturday evening was an overwhelming fishy stink all around me, with a very apologetic Jetlite staff offering to clean up the mess, themselves. And due to paucity of time we'd to decline the offer and sort out the situation ourselves!

A hectic weekend

Ms. Saly Kunchattil, the wife of my classmate from school, will arrive Delhi this evening by the Jetlite. She’s coming to identify a house, furnish and put in essential household items in it for her son, Felix, who has taken up a job with the Mahindras& Mahindras. The youngster had got married last month and his wife, Mily who’s working on a project at the INFOSYS at Bangalore, will only be able to join him towards the year end. I’d told the Kunchattils that the youngster should be left alone to select his dwelling place and they should remain in the background and render assistance, if and when the need arises.
I suppose they’ve their own reasons for doing otherwise. But what I can foresee is a hectic weekend for Lekha and me.

Tailpiece
Mamata Banerjee, after having won the municipality elections of Calcutta, seems to be giving a rough time to the communists. The communists are going to get annihilated, both in Kerala and West Bengal in the forthcoming assembly elections as their party is steeped in nepotism, high handedness and corruption. And the worst is that they hate to be criticised for their wrongdoings and blunders. They badly need an overhaul!

Of sex, sleaze and scandal

The day's newspapers are full of stories that cover aspects of sex, sleaze
and scandal. Be it a General involved in a sexual misdemeanour, a union
minister involved alongwith his family in the IPL bid tamasha or the police
looking away when crime is being committed right under their nose, the
theme remains the same and that's we, Indians, have to go a long way to become
a superpower.
Why don't we accept every Indian's right to live well? Isn't there any limit
to making money or amassing wealth especially, when we know that we do not
carry anything along on attaining eternal life?

Darkness at noon!

Thanks to the cyclonic disturbance off our western seaboard, there's a prevalence of
strong winds in the areas in and around Delhi. And the strong winds, estimated at about
30 knots, has raised a lot of mud into the atmosphere which has drastically reduced the
visibility to 1,000 mts. This is the dreaded phase of the Delhi summers and quite harmful
for individuals suffering from ailments of the lung, especially bronchial asthma. The
dust will only settle down with a good rain and that's what everyone's now looking forward
to beat the scorching heat!

The miffed 'godman'

I am quite amused by the way the godman, Sri Sri Ravishankar, is feeling peeved about the union Home Minister's and the Karnataka DGP's assertions that the recent shootout at his ashram was between two of his followers from different factions and the incident took place much after the godman had made his exit from the venue.
It's my firm conviction that enlightened individuals must strive to make their followers understand the essence of life by making them good human beings and channelise their energies to achieving God. Obviously, this man has proved that he's no different from many of the frauds before him as he seems to nurture factionalism within his flock - a divide and rule policy? And the opulence of his 'ashram' is pathetically garish.
I've this sneaky feeling(the cynical mallu 'Nair' that I am) that he's making a case for 'Z' class security for himself by depicting that his life is in danger! And he's crestfallen that none of the powers that be has bitten the bait and hence, his frustration.
I go by the feedback, about the man given to me, by one of my friends who'd studied with him and I quote, "A shy introvert who was very average in his studies. After college, his whereabouts were not known to many of us classmates and we're naturally surprised to see him in this new 'avatar'. Where has he got his divine wisdom from?"

Delhi continues to be as insensitive as ever!

Yesterday's news portals gave gory details of a lady, in her early 30s, being run over by a vehicle after which scores of vehicles went over her body, crushing the skull and mutilating the body beyond recognition. Is this the ways of a civilised society? Where were those wretched car owners driving away, without showing the basic courtesy to a departed soul? Didn't they comprehend that they're running over some object and out of simple curiosity (that should come from within every motorist) why didn't they ascertain what the object was, before proceeding further?
O, people of Delhi, how heartless can you be? All of you might have reached your destinations thereafter but you've long since proved your brutality, nay bestiality! And all those who drove on, even after knowing that it was a human corpse, let me remind you that you've committed an outright murder and hope God makes you answer for your sin!!
My humble prayer to the departed soul and here's wishing that her family has the strength to tide over this catastrophe.
And to the Delhiites, a simple message - do not forget to live life in the mad scramble of living your lives.