Johny Johny, No Pappa!

 Recently I was at the iconic Indian Coffee House (ICH), Thirunakkara, Kottayam. I have any number of stories to tell relating to the ICH; stories of my first visit to an ICH sometime in 1975 to the latest. Every time it was the Masala Dosa and their special Coffee that I had to my satisfaction. For almost half a century the Masala Dosa tastes the same and the aroma of the coffee remains unchanged, as tempting as ever before. I can go on talking about the exciting ICH experiences over the past half-a-century. Let me restrict to the latest experience at the ICH, Thirunakkara, Kottayam.

A month ago I was there for my Masala Dosa and Coffee. The waiters there know that I like to get the coffee hot from the kitchen only after the Dosa was finished. That day as usual I was sipping the coffee after the Dosa when a man came in and occupied the chair opposite to mine. I almost rose from my seat seeing the film personality just opposite to me. It was the actor-director Johny Antony. Siting so near a celebrity in fact made me a little uncomfortable and perhaps noticing this he started talking to me like an ordinary man and tried to make me feel at ease. A minute into his jocular way of speaking non-stop, I was a little relaxed. I slowly turned around to see jealous faces staring at me for my luck, but to my dismay  could find none. I felt anguished by the insensitivity of the people and told myself that such a film personality in a public place in Tamil Nadu would have been treated differently and would have been mobbed by people for selfies and autographs. I felt pity for him and started talking to him. I told him that I have watched all of his movies starting with CID Moosa. To make him happy I made a brief analysis of his various movies and tried to shower some praise on him. Just when my strategy seemed to be working, he asked me whether I want to have a selfie with him. I could not have asked for more. I told him "very kind of you sir..., you are such a simple person...., celebrities never offer fans a chance for a selfie...., usually it's so irritating for the celebrities..". My words didn't seem to enthuse him much though that characteristic smile was there on his face all the time I was talking. After pausing for a while he told me "of all the things you said I agree with one thing... yes I am a simple person. But what can I do? Wherever I go people flock around me to take selfies thinking that I am Johny Antony and I oblige!"

I was crest fallen. Now I didn't turn around to see jealous faces as I was sure that all around it should be faces with sarcasm writ large. The only way I could have got back to life was to have another bout of Dosa and Coffee. And I did exactly that. 

The Big Game on the Big Screen and this Girl called Meera

 

December 18th,2022

The world cup football was to be played between Argentina and France. The CMS college was showing it live on the big screen.

By the time I reached the Great Hall, it was jam-packed with football-frenzy youngsters in their teens or early twenties. I was the only one with grey hair. With no chance to even enter the Great Hall, I stood dejected at the entrance when my friend Midhun condescended like a Messiah and took me to the front and managed to get a seat for me. The position of the seat was such that it provided a difficult angle to the screen. Seeing this, a girl seated next to me offered to exchange her seat with mine which provided a better angle. I thankfully declined her offer as she too had come there to watch the match. I could sense the care the girl was trying to provide me. When a seat next to her became vacant instead herself moving to that better position she forced me to move in and I obliged. To reciprocate her loving care to a stranger like me I asked who she was. To my surprise she told me that she was a 2^nd year BSc student of Physics in CMS I was even more surprised as she had given me all that care without realising that I had one taught in her department. Meera. That was her name.

Forty years from now, Meera, then only in her fifties,would be watching the world cup football on what screen, with what technology, God alone knows.

If Meera reads this post now, I am sure she will remember me then; yes forty years from now.

Time, Technology and some memories

 

This is a story from 1984. The Olympics that year was at Los Angeles, USA. Then with no TV we had no means to watch the greatest event on the globe. The Indian hockey team had won gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. I still remember the picture in newspapers of the captain V Bhaskaran and his men in jubilation. After four decades India has not won the gold again in men’s hockey. Even the gold at Moscow was from a depleted field with the US and its allies boycotting the event at the height of the cold war.

The event was still in progress and one day the local administration made an announcement that the event will be shown live on a TV set installed at the Thirunakkara Maidanam. The sports lovers of Kottayam could not ask for more. On the day of the hockey match between India and Germany, I and Kuruppachan (C Sreekanta Kurup), then in our twenties reached the maidanam well before the start of the game expecting a big crowd. But there were only very few people, may be less than ten, to watch the match that ended in a goal less draw. After the match was over, two men, in their late seventies came to us and told us that they have been here some forty years before to listen to the radio broadcast for the first time!

Another forty years elapsed. On the 18^th December, 2022, I watched the Football world cup finals on the big screen inside the great hall, CMS college.

In 1940’s those two men listened to the radio broadcast at the Thirunakkara Maidanam. At the very same venue I and Kuruppachan watched the Olympics on the TV on the 6^th august, 1984. Almost forty years later I watched my favourite team Argentina winning and Messi kissing the coveted trophy on the big screen.

Forty years from now, who knows what the technology will be. One thing we can say with certainty is that technology never stops, it keeps galloping and we have to, keep pace with it.