Words are Weariness

lt is a sin to call the street cars of Melbourne as mere 'trams'. That is too drab a name. Their dignity of motion comes from a feminine grace unlike the muscular robustness of a metro train.   Easy to get in and easy to get out, always parking at a distance close to a landmark, they fill you with a contentment that no other form of commuting would. The vistas of urban life open up before you through tall windows as they pass by in gentle pace. You hear the faint hiss from the crowd brimming into the awning of the roadside pub, women in impossible stilettoes and coloured hair , street muscians straining to capture attention, an Elvis Presly look-alike performing to a crowd inside an old pop-records shop, a young lad coming forth into the balcony and cruelly throwing down a cat,  what came of the cat afterwards..... I would call them 'Street-cars-named-desire', but that is too unwieldy and therefore I will reluctantly settle from 'trams'. The success of r...

My mama was wondering if my liking for the written word has anything to do with my genes. We do not have even a minor man or woman of letters in our family, while there were quite a few biblophiles including this very uncle of mine. My father and his brothers were basically good mechanics. My grandfather put two of his sons to study law, my father and his eldest brother. My father did not practice law even for a day and took to Radio mechanism after being mesmerised by the lone Radio receiver in Madras that was put up in the sands of the Marina beach by the Municipal corporation of Madras. His other two brothers started a motor workshop after studying up to intermediate. My father got books from 'The Hollywood Institute of Radio Engineering”, Los Angeles and learnt it all by himself. Even the lone lawyer amongst the brothers must have practiced economy more than he did law as he joined the family business of tinkering and turning after a few years. They had all the state...

It was a dismal outing for the Indian team once again. The 1 st one day international at Melbourne   had a start that belied the end result. India had Australia in some kind of a bind after knocking down 2 of their top order batsmen at the end of 11 overs with just 35 on board when rain stopped play. Australian weather is as fickle as their   Met . Department is precise.   Even one week ahead of the match they had predicted rains on the evening of the day-and-night match.   The forecast   was for bouts of rain between 4:30 and 6:00 and  thick black clouds had enveloped the sky above the MCG right after 4p.m.   There were three bouts of rain and the 50 over match was shortened to 32 per side. When the game started at 6:18 pm, the sky was clear blue with shreds of white strewn carelessly across. The first two overs bowled by part-timers Kohli and Raina   belied what was to follow.   The specialist bowlers   Ashwin and Jadeja were car...