Manic Moods
Saturday, August 31, 2024
STFU at least in foreign countries, dear Malayali male!
Sunday, February 4, 2024
Smile, dear Jeeves!
I have now slowly begun to make sense of the non-filmy, real-life British sense of humour. Three instances from the recent past:
Saturday, January 13, 2024
Go, garbage, Goa!
Sunday, November 19, 2023
I was returning from Aylesbury yesterday after having spent some time with my sisters Lakshmi Menon and Srilatha Menon and brother-in-law Harish Nair. I took a train from Paddington to Swansea. A minute into the journey a man and his little girl came and sat beside me. I was reading Art Buchwald — the article was on the Iraq war.
The man suddenly asked me what the book was about. I answered. He didn't let up. He asked me about Art...and then went on to suggest the podcast "Empire". Heaped praise on Dalrymple.
I gave up and shut my book to engage with him.
Turns out, Asim Vane is a Kashmiri -- Gilgit native -- from Lahore. A doctor who immigrated to the UK seven years ago and now works as a GP here. His wife's an anesthesiologist and he has another, elder, daughter.
He became visibly happier on realising I'm from India. Quickly slipped into Urdu. Very charming fellow in his 30s or early 40s.
Asim had moved to the UK for the sake of his daughters after seeing the conditions in his country deteriorate. As expected, he asked me about my move. I only said, "Humme zyada fark nahi hai, Asim." Didn't bother to elaborate.
Before stepping off at Cardiff, we exchanged contact numbers, hoping to keep in touch.
Interestingly, only two weeks ago, while returning from Leeds, I got into a taxi and was whistling "Ye raat bheegi bheegi..." when the taxi driver -- Gilgit native, again -- asked me politely if I could sing the song instead of whistling. I did. He was so thankful. Before driving away, he said: "Aap se milke bohut sukoon mila..."
I mentioned this to Asim...and he simply said: "You never know...we Kashmiris are separated only by a few degrees...he could be related to me."
The Malayali in me felt that familiar surge of endorphin at that moment.
:D
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
"Teff...I'm deaf, too"
Sometime in early July…
“Hello! May I join you at this table if it’s alright?”
The elderly but spry man approached me, looking to sit in the chair opposite mine at the Swansea city library. I welcomed him, and we immediately hit it off.
The Englishman-turned-honorary Welshman’s friendly demeanour was warm and welcoming, like those of so many other elderly persons I regularly meet at the library nowadays.
“I’m quite deaf…” he often said, reminding me to speak slightly louder than usual even though we met in a library. I thought of informing him about my own defective auditory problem but skipped it for now. His 85 years and my 43 weren't really comparable.
Like any good Englishman, he rarely missed a quip on the weather. Sometimes I’d, too, go faux British with a “Great day, eh?” if only to amuse him. He’d look out of the library window with stretched arms and a happy smile.
Around the fourth or fifth time we met, I walked away after the usual pleasantries, then turned around and walked back to him to finally ask: “Hey, I keep forgetting this…what is your name?”
He was lost as my voice hadn't reached him. I repeated my question, only slightly louder. He smiled, put his hand to his pinna, and said, “Teff…”
….
Over the next few months, we greeted and politely enquired about each other’s well-being and weekends, before passing the day’s edition of The Telegraph. I would often do a slightly louder-than-usual, "Hello Teff..." for his benefit.
We bantered; Teff briefly narrated his 85-year history as an Englishman in Wales, a banker, and an average British Joe. On my part, I fed—often twice over, given his hearing problem—his curiosity about India and my job as a journalist.
Teff is chubby but looks at least two decades younger than his age. A Tory voter, he is also a practitioner of Tai Chi and meditates regularly. He was widowed 25 years ago. He then made a girlfriend with whom he lived in his home of eight decades till she, too, died two years ago. Now he lives alone and is enjoying it.
“I am not going to be around forever, so I’m giving these last few days of mine my everything,” Teff said.
Two weeks ago, I told him that I needed someone to give me the British view on current affairs. Two days after he promised to look around, he offered his own service.
I was glad. I couldn’t have asked for a more experienced and enthusiastic Briton. So that was fixed. The first two and most obvious subjects for starters: The average Briton’s relationship with the monarchy and next year’s national election. Yesterday, over a cup of mocha, we had a good insightful hour-long discussion on these subjects.
After wrapping it up, I told him we should next go with “Israel-Palestine” and Britain's controversial “High-Speed Rail”. He put his hand to the ear and said, “Sorry…?” Teff then suggested I email him the subjects so that he could come prepared.
“Sure, gimme your ID.”
He wrote it down: davidmaddox****@gmail.com
I looked at him, perplexed. “David Maddox?”
Teff put his finger to his pinna again and said, “Eh? Sorry…Deaf”
I sighed, nodded, and mumbled: “So am I Teff, I mean David…So am I!”
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
We are chatting a lot with nothing much to say
“Mazha undo avide?” (Malayalam for "Is it raining there?")
Saturday, May 20, 2023
"The UK is busted": Wales Independence March, Swansea
Thousands of natives of Wales, along with their supporters from outside the country, marched cheerfully today (May 20) in the bay town of Swansea, demanding independence from the United Kingdom.
A police official deployed to the march reckoned at least 3,000 people participated in the march that proceeded along the arterial roads of the town centre before congregating in the open ground near the Swansea Waterfront Museum.
The march saw cheery participants from at least three different political parties, including the Communist Party and the Wales Green Party. It was, dominated by Plaid Cymru—the Party of Wales. The event was organised by YesCymru, a non-party political campaign for an independent Wales.
"This is a call for the UK government to take notice," said Clement Louis, a member of Plaid Cymru. "There is growing awareness of the neglect of Wales...Over half the people here today, at least, don't speak Welsh. They have sympathy...," said the 73-year-old retired English language teacher.
The key issues that, according to the marchers, have fueled the demand for Welsh independence include the general "contempt" the central government allegedly has for their country, the economic neglect it has suffered over the years, and the steady effacing of the Welsh language.
The marchers also seemed to espouse, alongside the Welsh identity, a bouquet of causes, from trans rights to "Black Lives Matter" to "Tory racism". Britain's Conservative Party seemed to have evoked much snark in the marchers, some of whom carried placards ridiculing the ruling outfit.
Why Wales feels neglected
"The United Kingdom is busted. We keep trying to resuscitate it. I don't see any way out of it, except for breaking it up and starting again, really," travel writer Mike Parker, a native of England himself, told me at the end of the march.
"It (Wales) is only ever an afterthought. The UK is such a centralized economy...the country is so skewed towards its southeast corner. London is this great planet that eats up all the resources. It is so disproportionate, and that's why I say we need to rebalance," said Parker, author of Rough Guide to Wales.
A pamphlet issued by the marchers today asserted that Wales needed "a change of direction", with policies that will help its economy recover, provide good jobs for people and raise living standards.
Another leaflet, emphasising why the country needed independence from the UK, focused specifically on the "Great Train Robbery." This was an allusion to the great rail project planned to connect Manchester, Birmingham, and London, but designated an "England and Wales" endeavour. The notice claimed Wales had been shortchanged by £5 billion.
It also alleged that Wales had some of the highest energy bills in the UK, with some parts of the country "clocking in at £120 a year more than" the cheapest region in England.
While most participants of the March that I spoke to did not venture to set a time horizon for their efforts to fructify, some, like Parker, felt a lot of change could happen over the next decade. However, a poll of more than 1,000 people in the month of March reportedly showed an all-time low of 18% support for Wales to be an independent country if a referendum "was held tomorrow".
Nevertheless, participation in today's march indicates that the urge for independence, even if relatively slim, is alive and kicking just under the skin.