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I’d decided that I should post at least twice a week - like most good intentions, mine was found lacking in implementation. Now I’ve found a way (I think) to ensure I do post regularly – like I mentioned earlier, I have a huge collection of quotes, and I have now decided that if I cannot find anything to write about, I’ll cull some of my favorites and post those.
Here are a couple from a woman with awesome attitude – and a fantastic sense of humor: American writer, actress and comedienne Rita Rudner.
“When I eventually met Mr. Right I had no idea that his first name was Always.”
“I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”
And here is a live performance of hers you can enjoy!
© Sosha Srinivasan
These last two years, my son, Arjun, has been showing a healthy (whatever that means!) interest in the opposite sex – and I have been privy to his elation as well as his heartbreaks…
We are very close – he often says I’m more like the older sister he never had than mother – I can nag, chivvy, mercilessly tease – or share a joke and even music I come across – this hip hop dance track Good Vibrations by Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch (featuring soul artiste Loleatta Holloway) that I saw on VH1’s Cardio Video is a recent example!
Only later did I realize that Marky Mark and Mark Wahlenberg are one and the same! What a turn-around now compared to his bad-boy adolescent years!
Anyway, back to sonny’s love life! Here’s a transcript of a year-old conversation:
Sonny: You know, X isn’t really my type…
X was Sonny’s first girlfriend.
Me: What do you mean?
Sonny: Well, er… (with a slightly embarrassed laugh) she’s too, um, well-endowed - and she’s short!
Me: Desperation shows.
Sonny: Mom!!!
Me: Er, what’s your type anyway?
Sonny: (dreamily) Slim, athletic…
Me: (innocently) Oh! Well, I suppose opposites do attract…
Sonny makes a thunderous leap in my direction, muttering threats – and gives chase when I quickly scoot into the next room. We then have a mock scuffle that ends in a hug!
I really enjoy this complex, caring, maddeningly irritating, talented teen…
© Sosha Srinivasan
I relish creative stuff and commercials with a dash of humor always catch my eye. This one made me laugh aloud – because an almost parallel story line runs at home! My not-so-young son sometimes regresses into childhood and gives me a a long hug or a nuzzle – and hubby dearest looks daggers at sonny from his corner… Only (according to Wilkinson) hubby’s not anywhere in the competition – because he wears a full beard!
© Sosha Srinivasan
The nicest thing about this video is that it’s just 10 seconds long, so it doesn’t take ages to load! Have a laugh at the crazy denouement! I’m not sure whether it just happened accidentally or it was planned! Some people think it’s fake – a video that was mixed on something like Sony Vegas Pro. What do you think? Whatever it was, the end result is hilarious!
© Sosha Srinivasan
All those strange Mallu names suddenly make a lot of sense! Mine, though, does not belong to this category – read my post Tame that name for details. You have to admit, though – we Mallus know how to laugh at ourselves!
A relative of ours’ firstborn was named Sony – this was back in the 1980s when music tapes and the Walkman was the rage. When my cousin George heard of it, he chuckled and quipped, “What are they going to name their next two kids – National and Panasonic?”
Finally, the name ‘Boben’ is mentioned twice below – reminds me of a cartoon strip called Boben & Molly on the last page of a Malayalam magazine that my parents used to subscribe to during the 1970s in Bombay (Mumbai). We kids couldn’t read the language, so would pester my mom to, even though we mostly couldn’t understand the jokes – probably because they were political satires…
The formula below that I got through a mailing list may be old hat – from 2005 or thereabouts – but worth reproducing!
© Sosha Srinivasan
It has been a well kept secret for eons, but finally Itty Boben Jacob Elias Kuruvilla from Pazhookaville, near Thelmasherry, Kerala has consented to let us publish this classified Mallu formula, on the naming of Mallu Christian kids.
1. Select a combination of both the mother’s and father’s names. e.g. Suresh and Sharon = Susha, or Joseph and Beena = Jobi.
2. The addition of a ‘mon’ (meaning son) or ‘mol’ (meaning daughter) is optional. eg: Sushamol, Jobimon
3. To attach a modern, Anglicized feel to the names, the mol or mon can be replaced with boy or girl. eg: Jobiboy, Sushagirl.
4. For the politically correct Keralite family, mol and mon can be replaced by the universal ‘kutty’(child), which
can be used for both boys and girls! eg: Jokutty, Susikutty.
5. Even parents having combination names can still give their children suitable names eg: Libi and Jobi = Lijo.
However, in the scenario where the parents already have combination names that cannot form more comprehensible child names. eg: Itty and Amukutty, would produce only Itam (which doesn’t even sound like a name), or Amit (which is like Northie and stuff!!!!), then:
a. Use an English word like Baby, Merry, Titty, Pearly, Smiley, Anarchy, etc.
b. Use a combination of two English names that you think sound cool (but never cool enough) like
Meredith + Gina = Megi, or
Sharon + Darlene = Sharlene
c. Use a name from the Bible (and not Nebuchadnezzar! Use one that even Vellia-ammachy can pronounce!) like Jacob, Sam, John, Joseph, Mathew, or Jijo!
d. Use a name that sounds like a cuss word but isn’t. eg: Boben, Prussy, Shagi, JustinTimberlake etc.
Note: The use of the letter ‘j’ is useful in the naming of sibling where names that sound alike are a novelty. eg: Ajji, Sajji, Majji, Bhajji and Nimajji, or Sijo, Lijo, Jijo, Anjo, Panjo, Banjo.
Bob Wolpert, 2003 recipient of the Distinguished Junior High School Mathematics Teaching Edyth May Sliffe Award – and my Math teacher at IST, sent me a reference to Improv Everywhere, in particular this video of Frozen in Grand Central Station, NYC:
Harmless, good, clean fun!
You can browse through the Improv Everywhere site too for more videos – or click on the link in my sidebar widget.
Turns out that Improv Everywhere’s creator, Charlie Todd, was also taught by Mr Wolpert. Talk about six degrees of separation! By the way, I loved Will Smith’s performance in the movie by the same name, didn’t you?
Here’s a similar, though more musically oriented stunt, from Antwerp, Belgium:
© Sosha Srinivasan
As I mentioned in my previous post, I am an avid reader. I am especially enamored of books that are hard bound. Take off that dust cover and you get a glowing jewel – ruby or perhaps jade green or deep blue with indented letters in gilt. It feels heavy and solid and somehow rooted in your hands. The best thing is tha pages don’t break away from the spine as they do in paperbacks.
In January 2006, I read in a local paper that there were used hardcover books to be had for I Rs 50 only (USD 1.10) outside the premises where the Chennai Book Fair was being held. I rushed over. I was over the moon when I realized ot was true! I snapped up about 50 of which 40 were Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. Of course I remembered to ask for the chappie’s business card and I made sure I visited his shop atleast every 2 months since. My collection has since burgeoned to 100… The list is on my Books Read pages. I read more than half of them in 2006. 
Then I was struck by a doubt – perhaps this was just the tip of the used book market I’d unearthed – was I losing out on choice by restricting myself to one dealer… So I googled – second hand books Chennai – and up popped a kindred spirit – Mrs Fife, who seems to wander quite far south in search of those beautiful tomes. Though I don’t share her primary obsessions of crocheting or knitting (cross stitch, a bit of tapestry and macrame with a couple of soft toys thrown in is as adventurous as I have got so far in that department), I was hooked (!) by her humorous turn of phrase… here’s to more of her kind.
Talking of humor, James Thurber is absolutely one of my faves – I’ve re-read The Secret Life of Walter Mitty several times and it never fails to raise a laugh. Ditto for The Catbird Seat.
Like Mrs Fife I enjoy British more than American authors – Daphne du Maurier, Mary Stewart, Gervase Phinn (Up and Down in the Dales is a hilarious must read), Marcia Willett, … Then why is it that two of my all time fave books are by Americans – Jack Schaefer’s Shane and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird? Does it have something to do with the fact that I read them in my early to mid teens and they made a terrific dent in my impressionable teen psyche? Still trying to figure that one out!
So what the progress on the pals from IST I was trying to get back in touch with? Morten and I mail each other quite regularly, once or twice a week – he called Dar-es Salaam “paradise”. My son says we should visit Tanzania – but I know it won’t be the same – Places, like people change, often to be unrecognizable – and after almost three decades? No, I think I’ll stay with the memories so beautifully blurred at the edges. Now don’t misunderstand – it wasn’t all that hunky dory when you push away the nostalgia – there were plenty of miserable moments too. Racism, for instance, was quite rampant among several students cliques and perhaps a few teachers. We just kept away from them and made friends with those who were not.
I managed to trace one of the best teachers I’ve had the good fortune to know. Mr Wolpert took Math – not one of my favorite subjects, but just his sheer enthusiasm and verve made me work hard. His approach to teaching was fun – he was and still is an inspiration to me. I used some of the concepts he used when I taught. He’s still teaching - now in Pennsylvania.
I mailed Anna at her office – no reply yet becaiuse she is “out of office” till the 16th. I called DuBois – and couldn’t get through – probably will have to resort to snail mail.
Finally I traced another classmate, John. He is a physician now living in Texas and he mailed me back – catching up. This reconnect was especially poignant since our families knew each other very well – Syrian Christians from Kerala.
© Sosha Srinivasan
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