That Tomboy at Boring Road

Ok i choose this particular video not only for it's music and all that it depicts...the sheer thrill of flying a kite, but for a specific reason which shall come to fore as i progress. The fact of the matter being that something in this video is so much in the memory of this girl but she can't find it anymore. At least not in the city she resides in but she believes that maybe it still exists somewhere and one day she is going to find it and bring it home just like that toy she found in Dilli Haat. The one with wheels having a drum like structure between the wheels and when pulled with the help of a string the stick fixed to the drum makes the drum beat a funny tadaak! tadaak ! as this toy, the drum cart moves forward. This song from an old classic by V Shantaram has this toy that trails behind Sandhya the heroine who is singing this classic number in the movie 'Do Aankhain Barah Haath'.






My story should see this young girl of class 7-8 who was learning how to ride an adult bicycle a 26 inch too huge for her 4 ft frame, in the space provided in her home which can be best described as a pathway leading to the ground floor flats, one on the either side of the building constructed by her father and named after her grandmother Sujan Bhawan. She was using her own methodology as advised by the pros which was called half pedal. Which meant her grabbing one handle by one hand while the other grabbed the front rod of the bicycle, the one which starts below the seat and joins the handlebar. The two legs passed on the either side below this rod to the two pedals as she gleefully demonstrated her prowess as good as boys her age to her uncles visiting from the village. They meanwhile praising her ability and applauding her efforts showing all the amazement a rustic can have to see a women drive a Scorpio or during those times a Mahindra jeep.

It was not surprising then that just a week later in order to prove to her uncles how brave and still more she was, she now tried full pedal just the way the boys do. This by placing one feet on one pedal and sliding in rythmic motion to gain momentum and quickly jump on to the seat of this 26 inch beast just like how men and boys do. How her heart palpitated with thrill and fear when finally seated and her other feet on the other pedal, the machine was in her control. What she was afraid of was the control part not that she can fall and get bruised badly on the concrete. Fear again when she had to stop and alight as there was no more space to move forward. Well, before her uncles could come to her rescue she with her heart pounding did alight which can be best dubbed as the gymnast who has done all her routines well but had a bad one at the landing. So that is her story with the bicycle which brought her closer to what generally people would call urchins...those rugged, unwashed, unkempt boys her age and perhaps even younger seen at the roadside pumping air into the bicycles for a small price and also doing minor repairs that again for a pittance.

These would be thrilled at her sight when she approached them to do the minute repairs and also fill air into the cycle tyre . "ladki hokar cycle chalati hain?"(Being a girl and riding bicycle?) To which she would nonchalantly reply in an affirmative nod and when the task would be done she would hand (that one who obliged) over the 5 to 25 paise as per the work, clearly show her gratefulness by her English Thank You and ride back home happily little caring whether the boy understood the meaning of her thank you or not.

Her association with these boys began with the hawa (air) in the cycle and ended in a passion for her during those days, of that of guddi udana(flying kites). In Hindi it is called patang but this place where her father was posted it was locally known as Guddi. Not that she had never seen kites before but on one particular day these boys for want of anything better to do, were busy flying kites on the side of the road which is not tarred but had dusty ground. Those days did not have this concrete jungle and hence less obstruction of electric poles and wires. That day she forgot her bicycle at which she was now a proud pro even when she was tiny and the bicycle looked huge in front of her. That day she wanted to master another art and that was kite flying and more than the kite it was the spool that caught her fancy then. A roundish cylindrical grilled structure made of bamboo into which was wound the twine which in turn rose up high on with the kite.She wowed at the way the twine forming a curve with tension held the kite. That spool and the twine could manoeuvre the kite into gay abandon and even break the kite into fanciful twirls in the sky as if dancing at the panorama of tunes the world had to offer. The spool looked exactly similar to the one showed in the video Chal Chali re patang meri chali re. And these boys called it letair/letayee. As she held her bicycle steady she had forgotten about the flat tyre and now she wanted to know all about letayee and the guddi. She wanted to handle the latayee so badly that it was written all over her face just like that of a hungry beggar child watching a sethji (a rich merchant) eating hot jalebis ( a spiral Indian sweetmeat).                                                                                                                                    To be contd....

Kite thumb photos courtesy:http://www.freefoto.com

Find your tribe

My going to a bloggers meet was actually supposed to be an escape. Initially though but on second thoughts it was more of an attempt to have one to one with all the bloggers and i was curious to see and hear, those who are the top most in their ratings/ranks. Actually i get awed too quickly. i am saying that for myself because an honest comment from my side may give the impression of FLATTERY. But then again i don't really mind that.

Then close introspection of why i went led me to the conclusion that i was eager to find my tribe. Because i'm still clueless about that. i am a kind of potpourri of varied interests each so oppposite to the other that i,m beginning to feel a maverick of some sort. As of now my friends and acquaintances are also an interesting potpourri too. That for the simple reason that i see a little bit of myself in everybody. But it's hard when one genre comments something like-"Shivani how can you tolerate ****" or something like "God alone knows what you see in ****". All i do then is to just give a sheepish grin and blabber some stuff to which sometimes i get something like-"HOLY COW". Anyways i just chill and don't go overboard to prove why i'm seen with so and so. i don't really know if that means me being passive but it helps in directing conversations elsewhere and that way i'm saved of much dissection and all that postmortem which usually happens if you stretch a negative topic too long. Plus i land up feeling guilt free as neither have i participated nor allowed anyone of further sad analysis of so and so.

So was i successful in finding my tribe i'm not sure because instead of really talking to each other when the time was allotted to familiarise we got busy passing our URL's to each other. The only easy and happy moments i feel of the meet was when each one of us introduced ourselves on the cordless mike and some of the introductions though said honestly were very funny which made the convention hall reverberate with applause and laughter. Truthful words are often funny if only we care. And this reminds me now of that film "About a Boy" starring Hugh Grant which has truth from his side all the time and extremely hilarious to make one roll of the sofa with intense laughter. No! i'm not talking about the introductions being so funny here but about true mundane things being very funny. Some introductions were simply SO CUTE like this gentleman who said "Hi friends i am a blogger and have no originality". Of course there has to be some introductions which sounded like banging one's own drum but that was also fine. i honestly had no idea how i sounded until this charming lady much younger to me walks up anD says "hi i'm **** and i really loved your introduction.....". Needless to say how good i felt then and it kind of gave a phillip to doing away with my earlier inhibitions.

Another lovely moment was towards the fag end of the meet when we broke for high tea. It was here between sandwiches,cutlets,CHIPS,rasmalai,icecream and good tea/coffee that we mingled better and shared some one to one conversations. Of course earlier during the URL signing session i had met my blogdost who goes by the moniker Websnacker but it was between happy munching that we talked on friendlier terms. Quite an impressive blogger and more impressive in the questions and answers round. A beautiful charming writer however was also a winner when she mentioned about the value of blogging how it means "POWER TO THE AAM AADMI". That after giving due credits to Mr Laxman for first coining and bringing to fore the term AAM AADMI(The common man)

The fag end session would've gone trackless of time had my husband not joined the melee asking me why i was not answering my phone. He had come to pick me up from the venue to save me from the rascals of Chennai-the autowaalahs. His arrival sort of made me feel hurried and after quick introductions i would've exited the venue without the return gift had my blogdosts there not reminded me to collect it. In such a short span of time this gesture from their side made me feel very optimistic and looking forward for more.Yeah we all got a hep black tee with the Indiblogger logo and slogan in the front and UniveraCell logo on one sleeve whereas the other had the Indiblogger. UniverCell i believe had sponsored the event in Chennai the second one so far as history goes.

It will be criminal on my part if i fail to applaud the brilliant efforts of the Indiblogger Team for hosting this event with all bon homie. Some who were just names earlier in my mail box were right in front of me all smiling and eager to help me with all my doubts. i hastily accumulated all their visiting cards just in case i need some help later so far as applications are concerned. Sad but applications freak me out and my last attempt to make my page attractive resulted in a malware alert to my visitors. So unceremoniously those attempts had to be done away with.

Smiling and gentle in his manners Mr Anwin J from Indiblogger left his coffee unfinished to help me with my queries. Actually i would've been a real pest to him so in a way my husband's arrival saved him of much agony.

So far so good. Escape or no escape, found my tribe or not, the event saw me all fresh and raring to go. i needn't be afraid of my simple unimpressive writing. So what i can't match up to the levels of the 80+ or 90+ i have something to say and now i'm more sure that i will catch on with my tribe who will hear me out.Yipeee!