Blog reader gets her fifth Happy Birthday post

[This is a quick, late night post. Remember, I warned you!]

People who grew up reading ‘The Hindu` will remember a Tennis writer called Nirmal Shekar. He once, while describing one of the many Leander Paes` wins in Davis Cup wrote: “When miracles happen too often, they cease to be miracles.” Very profound, I thought. Maybe that`s why….after writing four continuous Happy Birthday post for a blog reader called Himani Sahni (spread over the last four years!), I decided NOT to write one this time. It has nothing to do with the fact that now she is married. I promise.

As they say, old habits die hard. And here I go again with a fifth Happy Birthday post for her.

Rekha, if you are reading this…I know you have started swearing by now. Let me assure you that I amuse the women readers more often only because they are the ones that mail me and ask for such favors. Men seem to hate me.

Since Himani has just entered her second year of marriage, I thought it made sense if I gave her some birthday advice on what to expect in the second year of marriage. After the wedding album has been resigned to a dusty fate inside the cupboard (and visitors are spared the torture of going thro` 1000s of photos) ….and the couple has discussing EMIs, Bills, Work Loads, In-laws etc.

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Nuclear bombs, Indian Ocean and secret agents

Nuclear bomb explosion
Nuclear bomb explosion

MN Devarajan was a nice fellow. Just that he always managed to put me in trouble. Back then, my father had a Bajaj Chetak scooter…and Devarajan sowed the seeds of inferiority complex in me by saying that his father went to office in a helicopter.

I continued to feel bad about this for a long time…till, another classmate came up to me and said, “My father is starting on a new job tomorrow. He is going to work on moon.”

Back then, my desk was my store house for used chewing gum…whenever I didn`t have money to buy new ones, I would pluck one from under my desk and start chewing. One day, when I was selecting one of the dry chewing gums stuck under my desk, Devarajan asked me: “Have you ever been scared of secret agents?”

“I have seen them in movies….never really been scared of them. Why?” I asked.

Only the previous day, my father had told me that Issac Newton was an intelligent man because he asked a lot of questions. Since then, I had asked 1024 questions. But unlike all others till now, Deverajan didn`t answer my question. Instead, he pulled me closer and whispered into my ears: “Can you keep a secret?”

“Yes!” I whispered back.

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Fame, faith and failure

Rajans at Corbett, 2011

This post isn`t funny because I have been spending all of my time between ibibo.com and my daughter Rhea. Without that creative time slot to think and plan a blog post…coming up with a funny piece is difficult. So here goes an autobiographical piece. This article is about Fame, Faith & Failure…the three things that … Read more