Nandini,Priya and Amrita-the daughters of our Mighties!
These young women are delicate of frame and beautiful-but these words fall far short of what they really are! There is a touch of serendipity about them.They are dynamos all-full of electric energy and a magical quality that mesmerizes audiences!They are spirits that fly because they love flying.Let their delicate frames not fool you-they are all steel-all achievers-all supremely confident- somewhat like young Alexander going out to conquer the world!They believe they are destiny's children!If they were generals they would have inspired many victories and they could if they wanted.They are born leaders-inspiring and caring and lighting up peoples lives with joy and wonder ! Let their stories be told by their own loved ones in their own words:First is Mighty Saras's(1971) daughter-Nandini-described in the words of her own loving husband-----------------------------------------------------------There are so many things to appreciate about Nandini thatsometimes you wonder how anyone so petite can be so substantial aperson.She's only about 5 feet tall and weighs very little, but I believe about half of that is brain. In no particular order, my little wife is a wholesome entertainer,a trained singer with a wonderful voice, a chef par excellence, acleanliness freak who is naturally efficient and organized, has aprodigious memory for events, has a wonderful aesthetic sense, and oh,by the way is a highly qualified environmental engineer. Once described by the head of the department at her university as" the smartest student I have ever taught", Nandini works for theDepartment of Transportation, State of California and will also soon bea licensed professional engineer. Her incredible discipline, focus and calm determination in all walks oflife have marked her professional achievements as they have done foreverything else she does. Each of these descriptions is really the tip of the iceberg andall of these can scarcely begin to describe Nandini's personality."Nandini" loosely translated means "bringer of joy", and I creditmy parents-in-law with remarkable perspicacity for having named herthus. In any gathering with Nandini in it, you can almost guarantee thatthere will soon be a general gravitation to a particular area, in themiddle of which you will find my wife in a middle of a most hilariousnarration of something or other, complete with voices, accents andnoises with the audience in hysterical laughter. It is at this pointthat someone usually taps my shoulder and wonders why I ever botheredto invest in a television set.Her intelligence, wit, kindness and reliability have made her alot of friends, young and old, and I am glad to be one of them. I havebeen her friend for 12 years and have been in love with her for 11. Wehave been through a lot of life's ups and downs together, and seen eachother at our most positive and vulnerable moments. Every day I thankthe Lord for my best and most beautiful friend.----------------------------------------------------------Next is Priya-the daughter of Mighty Bhagirathi(1973)-Here's Priya described by her adoring mother!A Poem Called 'Priya'Priya Ku(maa)r-that's her name. Engineering-that's her profession. Cancer-that's her zodiac sign. Choreography-that's her hobby. Anddance!!!!......that's her passion. For her life is a celebration andshe sure knows how to celebrate it. Studies for her is a last minutething, and physical regimen is a must.Whenever a friend is in trouble, the first name that comes to mindis 'Priya". She will go to any length to solve it. She often keepsher mom busy too. The stray animals in Bhopal know they have a saviorin her. She picks up the sick ones and sneaks them into her hostel,without the warden's knowledge. With her care, and help from friends,the sick animal recovers, and is placed back from where it came. Shehas asked me to use the KV....MAA forum to request the Mighties toadopt a sick animal each and give them a home. She is a Maa herself tothese mute and cute beings.Leadership is something that comes naturally to her. She is always in command of any situation and is called a 'Lovable Leader'Priyais an epitome of elegance and grace,confidence and talent, innocenceand cheer. She dances like a swan. If you happen to be anywhere nearher college and hear the sound of several footsteps, you can be surethe lil girl is making a large group of students, double her size,dance to her (tune) every move and step. She has succeeded inconverting the most shy and awkward friend into a reasonably gooddancer. Every choreography of hers is a masterpiece in itself. At theage of three, she once tried to convince a dance instructor that shewas seven, when the lady told us that that was the qualifying age tostart dance lessons.The enthu of people around her is to be seen to be believed. Athome whenever there is a crisis, I don't know how she manages to turnup on time. The moment the crisis is over, she too isgone...........to her celebration................of life.This lil nurturer is filled with supreme confidence in herself andconfidence in others. She is able to see the best in people. She hasproved the saying 'great things come in small packages'.Priyais a bundle of joy, energy and talent. You can write a never-endingbook on her. She is food for thought, a balm to your soul and a smilefor your lips. She reminds you of Lisa of the Simpson's fame and SaniaMirza of the Tennis fame. Keats rightly said, 'a thing of beauty, ajoy forever' !!----------------------------------------------------------Next we have-Amrita-Arvind Mathur's lovely daughter .Incidentally do take time off to congratulate Amrita as she is to be married on 26th December 2008-the reason why Arvind cannot attend the Alumni Meet-So Here is Amrita"My daughter is no super kid. Just a very averagegirl. But as parents we are proud that inspite of not being a bright girl shehas taken up the challenge of excelling in the areas that she was good in.After graduating with a degree in BSc (IT) from Mumbai University she went to Canada to pursue a one year diploma in International BusinessManagement.Frankly we did not want her to go that far away.But she had her way and landed up in Toronto with the SenecaCollege there.She was one of the very few Indians who landedup with a job after getting her Diploma. During a short time in collegethere she identified the skill sets of goodcommunication skills and referals required to get a descentjob and she developed on those. And once she had her first job in Canada therewas no looking back. I had applied for immigration to Canada ayear before she went for her education there. She took advantage of that andgot permanent immigrant status in Canada.Some of the highlights of her personality as I have recognised are : Good recognition of peopleExcellent communication skillsExtovert and supreme confidence and courageGood judgement and decision making skillsAnd above all, a good head over her shoulders.She changed jobs every few months, appeared for numerous interviews,prepared and structured her resumes for the type of jobs she was seeking.She did everything on her own as we had no relatives in Canada. In thepresent job as a Marketing Manager with REDKNEE -a multinational which deals with production and marketing of software for telecommunications she is the company's mascot.She is asked to make presentations to large audiences. The last one was in Barcelona wherean International Telecommunications exhibition was held in May this year.The presentation was telecast live to audiences in Europe and America.Besides this her marketing work takes her once in a while to the US and Europe besides places in Canada.She is not really globe trotting but doing well enough for herself. Theimportant thing is that she has an independent thinking process, is selfconfident and very vibrant and full of verve and energy.O Mighties I hope -you liked what you read and you will tell us about other young women and men who will shape tomorrow's world.
Pijush Das, 15th December 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Roy Abraham – my classmate and raconteur nonpareil
Krsssh!!! Dijgeeyaon..... Dijgeeyaon..... Dijgeeyaon.... maraa wo...... (in slight malayaali accent). If u heard these words in our class in 1976/77/78, it would most likely be a Friday and the protagonist would be none other than Roy Abraham.... One could unfailingly catch him recounting the story of the previous night's movie in Nausena Bagh open air theatre.
Roy loved to tell us stories from the movies he saw the previous night. It gave him undiluted pleasure and made us feel as if he would watch the movie only to narrate it the next day to us. Every frame, every movement, every flicker of an expression would be captured by him and recounted vividly and often graphically with sound effects to boot.
Roy was a nice person at heart and also a great looking guy: fair with fine golden downy hair on his face and handsome features almost like a Greek sculpture. His boyish looks, a nice straight jaw-line and if memory serves right, a clefted chin made up for his short frame. Don’t remember Roy ever wearing trousers (full pants as they were called) but only shorts, which were always very tight and made him look like a proud male model showing of his glutinaceous tissues. He wore bright white shirts sewn from high quality cloth that his Navy father must have got him from distant shores. He could make girls swoon with his looks if he ever wanted but was too shy to admit his interest in girls, and even to that one particularly special one that always gave him respiratory problems each time she walked into the room. Roy’s philosophy in life was something akin to what Kajol would sing several years later in a Hindi movie classic….. “yeh dil ki baath apni, dil mey dabaake rakhna….”
Roy loved movies..... Hindi movies..... and especially action movies. When the whole world (the World we saw and knew as kids growing up in a C category town like vizag) was being swept away with the lover-boy cum teary sentimentality of Rajesh Khanna and the angelic beauty of Sharmila Tagore or the fast emerging era of the quintessential angry young man, Roy was lost in his own world of Jeetu and Shatru action flicks. Not that he had a choice......'cos even with the privileges the Armed Forces enjoyed or would be extended, it would not have been possible to get A-grade and Super A-grade movie to be procured for special screenings in those dark but halcyon days of pre-cable television. Getting even a moderate hit movie that was less than 3 years old for a special screening would have been impossible, even for the Navy.
It was a privilege to be his deskmate in school, something I never had, but made it up by virtually begging his deskmates – was it Viswanath or Srikumar or Bidyut (?) – to move and sit elsewhere for a few minutes for me be able to sit next to Roy and “listen” to the movie. With a very strict “one movie a month” rule at home, the only way I could catch many movies was through these vicarious ways with Roy as my surrogate. Delay in the arrival of a teacher, gaps between class periods, or a free class period were gainfully utilised especially on a Friday. I would run up to Roy as would several others including guys in the desk in front of Roy’s (who would simply turn around as much as they could) to “catch” all the action. And the story would start to unfold again after the brief unwelcome interlude that was the class period. Roy would start precisely where he had left off in the previous installment. He would show almost a selfless purposefulness as he moved systematically from sequence to sequence, patiently unfolding the plot as he held his listeners captivated.
Roy’s uniqueness lay in his breathless and effervescent rendition of scenes and in flawless sequencing. He would enact Ajith, Pran or Prem Chopra to the finest detail like a good voice-over artist and bring them to life in those classrooms between “periods”. He would get so immersed in the narrative of a car chase….. that he would do complete justice to the sound effects….. screeeeeeeech (braking)……..krssh……. Heeeeeeeeee (careening)…….. uhnnnnn (cruise)…….. and paint a visual picture using the palms of his two hands to represent the cars involved in the chase. In all this excitement, he would often forget to swallow the frothy saliva that would collect in the corners of his mouth from his staccato recitation. The result would be a “yukky” drool onto the desk which he would himself quickly wipe off with his off-white cotton hanky and would continue as if nothing ever happened and without missing a beat, till the car chase was well over and the villains have been either killed or apprehended. And the best part is, in all this, Roy would remain oblivious to our reactions – glary or grumpy expressions or the laughter sometimes even at the narrator. It was an experience unmatched in content, effects and detail and, I daresay, sometimes better than the original (movie)!!
How we miss those heady days of waiting with bated breath for the next opportunity to run and listen to Roy Abraham, the raconteur extraordinaire………
By Sreeram S (1980)
Roy loved to tell us stories from the movies he saw the previous night. It gave him undiluted pleasure and made us feel as if he would watch the movie only to narrate it the next day to us. Every frame, every movement, every flicker of an expression would be captured by him and recounted vividly and often graphically with sound effects to boot.
Roy was a nice person at heart and also a great looking guy: fair with fine golden downy hair on his face and handsome features almost like a Greek sculpture. His boyish looks, a nice straight jaw-line and if memory serves right, a clefted chin made up for his short frame. Don’t remember Roy ever wearing trousers (full pants as they were called) but only shorts, which were always very tight and made him look like a proud male model showing of his glutinaceous tissues. He wore bright white shirts sewn from high quality cloth that his Navy father must have got him from distant shores. He could make girls swoon with his looks if he ever wanted but was too shy to admit his interest in girls, and even to that one particularly special one that always gave him respiratory problems each time she walked into the room. Roy’s philosophy in life was something akin to what Kajol would sing several years later in a Hindi movie classic….. “yeh dil ki baath apni, dil mey dabaake rakhna….”
Roy loved movies..... Hindi movies..... and especially action movies. When the whole world (the World we saw and knew as kids growing up in a C category town like vizag) was being swept away with the lover-boy cum teary sentimentality of Rajesh Khanna and the angelic beauty of Sharmila Tagore or the fast emerging era of the quintessential angry young man, Roy was lost in his own world of Jeetu and Shatru action flicks. Not that he had a choice......'cos even with the privileges the Armed Forces enjoyed or would be extended, it would not have been possible to get A-grade and Super A-grade movie to be procured for special screenings in those dark but halcyon days of pre-cable television. Getting even a moderate hit movie that was less than 3 years old for a special screening would have been impossible, even for the Navy.
It was a privilege to be his deskmate in school, something I never had, but made it up by virtually begging his deskmates – was it Viswanath or Srikumar or Bidyut (?) – to move and sit elsewhere for a few minutes for me be able to sit next to Roy and “listen” to the movie. With a very strict “one movie a month” rule at home, the only way I could catch many movies was through these vicarious ways with Roy as my surrogate. Delay in the arrival of a teacher, gaps between class periods, or a free class period were gainfully utilised especially on a Friday. I would run up to Roy as would several others including guys in the desk in front of Roy’s (who would simply turn around as much as they could) to “catch” all the action. And the story would start to unfold again after the brief unwelcome interlude that was the class period. Roy would start precisely where he had left off in the previous installment. He would show almost a selfless purposefulness as he moved systematically from sequence to sequence, patiently unfolding the plot as he held his listeners captivated.
Roy’s uniqueness lay in his breathless and effervescent rendition of scenes and in flawless sequencing. He would enact Ajith, Pran or Prem Chopra to the finest detail like a good voice-over artist and bring them to life in those classrooms between “periods”. He would get so immersed in the narrative of a car chase….. that he would do complete justice to the sound effects….. screeeeeeeech (braking)……..krssh……. Heeeeeeeeee (careening)…….. uhnnnnn (cruise)…….. and paint a visual picture using the palms of his two hands to represent the cars involved in the chase. In all this excitement, he would often forget to swallow the frothy saliva that would collect in the corners of his mouth from his staccato recitation. The result would be a “yukky” drool onto the desk which he would himself quickly wipe off with his off-white cotton hanky and would continue as if nothing ever happened and without missing a beat, till the car chase was well over and the villains have been either killed or apprehended. And the best part is, in all this, Roy would remain oblivious to our reactions – glary or grumpy expressions or the laughter sometimes even at the narrator. It was an experience unmatched in content, effects and detail and, I daresay, sometimes better than the original (movie)!!
How we miss those heady days of waiting with bated breath for the next opportunity to run and listen to Roy Abraham, the raconteur extraordinaire………
By Sreeram S (1980)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)