May 28, 2008

.. it's all just a little bit of history repeating

Moving to Bangalore taught me all about petrol bunks, rickshaw drivers' attitudes and lumpen elements.

Trips to Pune in the summer were refreshers on alphonsos.

And now here I am in London, graciously accepting people's apologies when I bump into them with pointy suitcases, and learning to cunningly put into my sentences words like posh, lush, whinge, toff, luvvies, yobs, WAGs and chavs.

(Anyone who wants to get an insight into the English weather-alcohol-sense of humour-class obsession should read an anthropologist's view. )

But despite the newness of my surroundings, things do seem to have turned a full circle. A delicious, sweet, soft, sugar-sprinkled circle. With a hint of nutmeg.

Did I, or did I not start this very blob with a post on pedhas being near, yet so far? And three years later, here I am in South-east London, while Chitale's finest are in an unopened box, cooling their heels in a house in South-west London. A careful courier courteously carried them on Corean Air (bear with me). Now all that is required is planning the drop at a dead letter box. Synchronize your watches, and remember Moscow rules!

7 comments:

Ludwig said...

> Now all that is required
> is planning the drop at a
> dead letter box.

14 Wimpole St. Right under the eaves, 5th row, 3rd brick, loose. Wear a red cape when you leave home, and stop the third hansom. Tell the driver (brother Mycroft) that you "know all about Eulalie".

Keep your eye open for airguns. And trained cormorants. Avoid the Giant Rat of Sumatra altogether.

semper fidelis

D said...

am still waiting for the post on secret parking spots in bangalore after collecting scores of parking tickets!

Orcaella brevirostris said...

Ludmilla: I do hope you don't mind me calling you Ludmilla and taking away your chi. bir?
You need to move on from foggy London with hansom cabs/ male roomies and the young boys who report to them.
Think instead, of the Cold War.. George Smiley and his fall from grace.. he paces about rainy london, worrying about his wife, meeting Karla in the Delhi prison, and the pedhas.

D: The secrecy involved kept me from disclosure until now. Basically, park in the lane next to Chinnaswamy stad. There's usually a guard there, not to mention loads of cops around, so your car is safe. (Try not to do anything illegal while driving past them). Then walk miles to your destination- whether it's Strand or Eloor library. And while leaving, expect to get stuck for ages at the Brigade road signal.
Is raaz ko etc.

D said...

that's it?! (rolls eyes, appears incredulous...) i was waiting for a long list and some secret underground entrances a la platform 9 3/4 and kept driving thru walls and some autos;) the stadium lane has been my solace for ages. these days you can get stuck anywhere incl. funnily enough in front of nimhans :(

Orcaella brevirostris said...

getting stuck in front of nimhans (i assume this isn't meant in a figurative sense) was the norm.

Anonymous said...

Hi ,

I was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be wow.. u write well.. Why don't you popularize it more.. ur posts on ur blog took my particular attention as some of them are interesting topics of mine too;

BTW I help out some ex-IIMA guys who with another batch mate run www.rambhai.com where you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best make it to the homepage!

This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could become your ardent fans.. who knows.. :)

Cheers,

Orcaella brevirostris said...

Hi Ray, Glad you liked it.
I've not done snything to popularize the blob, I admit. It's linked to the same attitude that makes me not explain cryptic/ Marathi/ Indian references. The blob just is.

But new ardent fans would be nice, the old ones seem to have drifted away. Maybe you could add a post of mine to rambhai?