Word of the Day: Ghugre :)

Ghugre (verb/noun)

Verb: To ghugre: To bore someone to death with long stories - where the audience keeps waiting and waiting for a punchline that never comes.
Example: He was ghugred to death at the lunch table because he was new to the office and thought it was rude to interrupt. Amen.

Noun: A ghugre: A long long story/joke whose point you never get.
Example: When the guests refused to get the point and leave, he unleashed a steady attack of ghugres on them. Everyone left - including his wife, his children, and his dog.

Maash Continues to Win Hearts!!

Ratheesh's Birthday Cake!, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

Friends!

Our dear old Ratheesh Babu's popularity just keeps increasing with every passing year! Not just with "old people" but even with his totally new Banner team - who apparently just adore him!

One day before his birthday, they asked me for a photograph of Ratheesh, got a cake made with his Dubai Chettan photo on it [he once made the mistake of posing for me in that costume!!!], bought him a painting easel [so that he stops leading and goes back to painting?!!!] with all pencils and paint brushes, came early in the morning and decorated his place beautifully, and sent mail to the entire office inviting us to participate in the celebrations! Is this man popular or what?

He very sportingly agreed to do a demo of how the lungi is worn!! In full Kerala style! Don't miss the photos inside! [The lungi I once bought as a joke gift for someone, it is always at my place, and is used as prop for various funny events]

Three Cheers to Ratheesh, the King of Hearts!!
He has done North Kerala proud!! True son of the soil! [We have this North Kerala - South Kerala feud - as ex-SCT Mallus will remember! And I choose to remember that we North Kerala Mallus have always dominated!!!]

Pass the ball - camarado!

Football 17 Nov 06, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

UT and I started a football team some months ago. We play in the playground next door - in between all those people playing cricket. Very often we don't get space, or they build a pandal there, or it rains, but when we do play - we have such fun!! And this way, I also get to know a lot of the new people.

Wrote this article for the Newsletter Sports section some time ago. The picture was taken today. Only 8 people came, so what, we made 2 teams and played! On the way back, washed our faces, and the ball, in the Cisco fountain!

Pass the ball - camarado!

It is 5 PM on a Friday evening, and time for the Football club to get together again. So stepping out of the air-conditioned, tube light-lit office, I go to reserve a place in the public playground, after sending mail to the group – "Come to play football NOW!"

September, as it leaves, is bringing in that beautiful clear winter sunlight which gives me a high nothing else can.

There is not enough space in the ground – already there are two cricket teams and two football teams, and also a huge tent being prepared for Dussehra celebrations. So we use the strategy we learned, and request the group of hesitant young college kids to play with us. They are not very well-off, they wear poor clothes, they look thin and under-nourished. No one has good shoes; in fact most of them are barefoot. The economic disparity between our teams is glaring.

They are still hesitating, even though we confessed that we are not exactly State–level players. The closest state we ever get to is Exhaustion, and that we reach without much effort. I leave Partha and Kiran to keep guard on the space and to exert silent psychological pressure as the boys still haven’t said Yes, and go to get the others. We haven’t played for many weeks due to the Dussehra pandal, and I am not in any mood to give in again.

We kick the ball around in the small narrow gap in between the football and cricket teams. The boys finally give in and agree to play with us, since we don’t show any signs of going away. Tenacity pays.

I am made goal-keeper. I am usually made goal-keeper because I am no good at playing. I know that I am no good, and everyone else knows it too, but since I am the catalyst, the one who gets it all going, I am held in fond respect, though there is much ragging as always. Who said young people aren't kind?!

The game starts. We have mixed the college kids with our team; they didn't have enough numbers, so it is not us against them. They are absolutely brilliant – agile, fast, impressively co-ordinated, untiring. We are completely wowed by them. Our boys too are good – and as always I am moved by how these normally serious sober youngsters, some of them so quiet and shy at office, are suddenly transformed into fired-up, passionate, intense people. It is a sight to watch. Just watching them, I know it was all worth it, starting this club, which everyone told me won't take off.

The scene is funny – in between our game, cricket balls come whooshing past, fielders come running backwards to catch them, a football comes in which is not ours and we kick it back. There is very little space, but no one minds really.
A bright yellow cricket ball soars up up into the sky – above the shadow of the huge 8 floor Divyasree building, it catches the last rays of the setting sun – and glows for a brief glorious second.

I don't know most of the rules of the game. I don't ever watch football; I didn't even see the World Cup. Like all sports, I'd rather play the game than watch it.
The amazing footwork of the boys fascinates me as always. Each time, I think – oh, this is so much like dance, what grace. And all the while, even with the limited movement of a goal-keeper, my shoelaces somehow keep getting undone.

One of the boys in the other team is standing near me, holding his tummy, he is exhausted. He is new to office; I don't even know his name. I smile at him. He says he hasn't played in 11 years. I tell him I haven't played in 28! We introduce ourselves, he is Khanjan.

In between some go off to answer mobile phones, in the other team people have taken turns being goal-keeper – whoever gets tired becomes goal-keeper, is our rule. The light is fading, but we don't want to stop. After the initial slips, I am learning to become a reasonably good goal-keeper, and everyone cheers when I manage to keep well, even the opposite team. Like Siddharth, who comes over to shake my hand after I nearly crush it catching the ball coming at me at full speed. I am proud when I fall down, because I saved our team. I am 10 years old again.

At 6.30 it is almost dark, and we stop. Towards the end, we were so admiring the little kids, we forgot to count the goals. We all won, we all had such a good time. I shake hands with the kids and tell them they are superb players. They must've found this really weird – I was the only woman playing in the entire playground – and definitely the oldest. It strikes me that I am old enough to be the mother of some of them, though I am small and have weird Calvin hair.

We walk back to the office in the dimming light. Above us the huge rain-trees have closed their leaves and gone to sleep, the crows are back in their nests. As we climb back up the stairs when everyone else is going home, I think – this is the way the week should end, this is the way the weekend should begin. Under the blue blue sky, camaraderie takes on a different meaning altogether. I remember Walt Whitman, beloved friend, who had the right words for everything:

"I think heroic deeds were all conceiv'd in the open air, and all great poems also;
I think I could stop here myself, and do miracles............................*"

Song of the Open Road

Did you know we also row? Well...almost!

Rowing round and round in the Munnar reservoir!, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

That was the subject of the mail I sent to Martin Schwartz on 4 Jan 2002. Find out why!!

Hi Martin !
A different kind of mail for a change ! Did you know that you have competition building up for the next World Rowing Championship ? See the pics attached. The SAS team put up a great show of rowing during the Munnar trip last month - during which someone or other kept on saying " Martin should see us now" - well, the tone changed a bit later, you will understand why - read on if you have the time now and have nothing against beginning the day laughing....!

The scene of action was a huge scenic reservoir at the biggest arc dam in Asia, so they said - on the Kerala border, in the Munnar mountains. Kabilan, Sri and Chandra went off in one boat, with Kabs and Sri rowing and Chandra praying for dear life (so I think !). In our boat there was Vimal and Surya rowing , with Niteen and Partha taking turns, and me the petrified Navigator - to be on the safe side I sat on the floor of the boat, since anywhere else seemed dangerously unstable.

We had successfully managed to row ourselves (or was it thanks to the wind? ) to the center of the lake - and were having fun watching Kabilan and Sri take the boat almost right into the dam sluice gates. We decided that Kabs was doing an in-depth mathematical, metaphysical, and mystical study on the dimensions and architectural geometry of the dam (whatever that means) since they were not showing any sign of moving away from the dam walls.
We felt really good about ourselves and unanimously agreed that "Martin should have seen us now".

After some time we decided that we need to go forward, sideways or somewhere. And then started the drama - whatever we did, we kept on going round and round in circles, full 360 degree turns! All 4 of the rowers took turns, with me (and everyone) shouting instructions:

" Niteen, you stop !, Vimal, you row ! - hey Niteen, you don't row, let us turn first ! let the other 2 try !, Surya, you are rocking the boat !, Partha, don't dip the oars too much !, eeks, the oars might fall into the water, then we're finished ! , remember, none of us can swim !, you are using too much force!, hey, both of you try rowing together, start, 1,2,3.................................stop ! oh God, we are still in the same place !"

That was the time we thought of you again, but in a different way - "If Martin was here, he would have shown us how to row this thing ".

We even discussed the photos of you rowing somewhere in Germany , was it - which we had seen long back - to remember how you people were holding the oars.

This went on for quite some time, with no signs of us having moved an inch - all that was happening was that we were seeing the surrounding scenery from different angles. By that time, it looked like we were going to spend the rest of our lives in the boat right in the center of a scenic lake. We had only 30 minutes of boating time, which we did not want to end up as Just Floating time. The cold wind also became stronger- and wasn't in our favor - I could imagine us slowly moving right into the dam - eeks.

Suddenly solid unmoving land seemed very attractive, and I said that it would be a good idea to go back. No one protested - and soon with continued shouting and non-stop instructions, we slowly learnt the art of rowing to a direction we wanted to go, not where the wind wanted to take us, and managed to reach the shore - Wow ! that was some relief - I went and sat down on a bench and told myself that deep waters were most beautiful from afar.

On our way back, we crossed Kabs and team who, having got over their intense fascination with the dam walls, had decided to see a little bit of the lake too. Apparently there were 2 styles of rowing happening in there - with Kabs and Sri having different ideas on how the oars should be placed - Kabs did not fail to stress the point that he had learnt all about rowing from you. The fact that the class was not in a boat, but on the rowing machine at office did not, of course, make the lessons any less relevant!

All of us land finally with everyone alive and well, and then the boat man informs us that the dam sluice gates were actually open, but he did not want to scare Kabs and co!

Now that we were on solid earth again, we spoke at length of the boat with all 3 of them coming out from the other side of the dam all flattened out like in a Tom and Jerry cartoon - a picture we found wildly amusing ! Kabs confessed that he got into the same boat with Sri since she claimed to have done rowing before - afterwards she mentioned that it was way back in childhood, a vague memory !

All this while, the other 4 (Reddy and Venkat, Sankar and Lekha) had taken pedal boats, so they kept moving around effortlessly going to far ends of the lake, without any clue of the action-packed drama going on with the rest of the team.

After all this we watched another group of tourists stuck in the center of the lake going round and round, and we laughed and said "Hey, they don't even know how to row and they go into the lake ....ha ha " !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, well, well ! There's no perspective like the retrospective !

To which Martin replied:

Hi Asha,

Thanks for the pix and the vivid description- I can see the whole scene in mind right now and am definitely chuckling. I do think there is some potential in a few of the team members, but only after they get put through a couple of months of rigorous training...:). Perhaps on my next trip we can head over to Ulsoor lake and commandeer some sort of water craft.

Thanks again,
Martin

Okay, fellow-rowers, if you have any other version of the story, go ahead, post comments!!

So you want your settlement, is it? Aha!

So you want your settlement, is it? Aha!, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

On Dussera Day, we witnessed a great event! Our beloved RNS came dressed as Maharajah to preside over the Dussera programs in the cafeteria!!

He even danced with the dance group! It was a sight to behold! He looked really royal with his costume and his sword - and made a speech welcoming us all to the program. And afterwards posed with everyone who wanted a photo with him!

And he went home in his car dressed like this on Akila's suggestion -stopping traffic all along the way, and giving his wife and all the neighbours a great surprise!!!!

Not to forget the delightful dance again performed by the same group that did the Onam dance - fabulous costumes, foottapping music.

And Sri again wowed us with an amazing Rangoli she did with Anitha and Thangamani! There were Gujarati snacks and a noisy Antakshari which stretched late into the evening.

The whole program was managed by the freshers, led by Jayanti, with me as Initiator and Consultant only. [I am hoping to retire, growing old!]

More photos inside.

Vish playing Mridangam after years!

Vish playing Mridangam after years!, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

We had a fabulous Onam celebration on Sep 5! The best ever.

With Raja and Mahesh S preparing a slideshow presenting the story of Onam, then old SCT photos and anecdotes etc, a fabulous Kaikottikali dance by a group of enthu girls led by Prabha Reddi and Sridevi, 2 lovely flower carpets, one at the entrance of the new office space - design by Sri [Ya, Sri continues to be the Star of SCT!], snacks by the Mallus, Onam songs by a group led by Rinu Thomas Baby - where Vish played the Mridangam for us after years!

More photos inside.

Draupadi Swayamvara.wmv

Play we did at office on Feb 15th, 2006! Directed by Guru, dialogues by actors, costumes from Prabhat Stores, Chamrajpet.

The truth according to Jimmy!

Jimmy Speech!, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

Jimmy's farewell was one of the saddest events at SCT - but we made sure we had fun at his expense anways!! He was made to stand on a desk and tell us all funny stories from the past - and we kept correcting his version!

Like during a Madikeri trip, he and Sri came across a snake, and how each time he told the story, the snake kept on getting longer!

More photos inside.

So you thought PJs cant kill!!!

So you thought PJs cant kill!!!, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

No Comments!

Srini got married!

Srini got married!, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

Congrats, Srini and Nivedita!

UT was so late getting to the wedding, that the entire gang who waited for him reached there after the wedding was over and all the guests had left!!

Mani Mango at SCT!

Asha and Mani Mango at SCT!, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

Dear old Mani Mango came to SCT on Friday!! Was so great to meet him again! Looks older and wiser, but I am sure he will not hesitate to put on a skirt and do one more dance with Subbiah, if we requested him!!!