Some Sizzling Scintillating Speculations

  I have very faint memories of the first mode of transport, which used to be someone from the family dropping me off to school(usually Granddad or Dad on their cycle) Then, there was this cyclerickshaw (risk-shaw, rather, the way he would pilot his vehicle) guy who was ‘appointed’, to do the task. Besides the overload of kids in his rick, he used to also speak bad words(Probably hangovers from previous nights), and, one day, I used one of the bad words he would speak, at home. I had no idea what it meant, however, the next day, he was terminated for teaching me bad words. Luckily, one of our teachers (KM) used to stay right opposite our house, and used to go to school via bus. Hence, she agreed to take me as well .. this was, I think Std IV or so. From Sursagar,(Next to Pratap talkies), we would get bus GRS 7613(Of course I remember the number)… and the same bus coming back as well, if lucky. Sometimes, if I was lucky, KM would be late in the morning, and I was accorded the luxury

 Digressing a bit from school memories. This incident flickered into my mind today. I had posted about it some years back. Some memories remain fresh in the mind, always… this is one of them… back in 1988, when I was a fresh trainee in BSL, first job. One day, my boss called me. He needed a drawing from a supplier in Ahmedabad,  and asked me to get one of the apprentices from the Service Department to go there and get it. I arranged it, feeling quite pleased with myself(Any small work done in those days, gave an immense sense of satisfaction, as you can imagine- those rookie days at work are the days when you want to prove you're worth every rupee they're paying you). Off went the apprentice to Ahmedabad. In the evening, the boss asks 'is the guy back?'- of course, he wasn't. I went to the workshop section of the office, and it turned out that no-one even knew the guy's name, since he was quite new. And, the senior service people had left for the day. Someone

  20 03 24 We are from the blessed people, who have seen music progressing from a simple radio, to record players, to audio cassettes, to the current forms. My first favourite, in the early seventies, used to be (like for many others), Binaca Geet Mala (Later Cibaca), with Amin Sayani. Wednesday would be a day eagerly awaited, time 8 PM, when we would hear the all too familiar voice saying ‘Namaskar, Behnon aur Bhaiyon’, on Radio Ceylon. We had a Philips radio, which had Short Wave bands(Not sure @ FM in those years), and, Binaca used to come on one of those bands. Luckily I found a pic of the exact same model via google, and it was this one, indeed.. it says it’s model LX4. (Now, an antique piece worth quite a bit, I am sure ). Sometimes the reception would not be too good, and the ears had to be kept right on the ‘screen’, in order to hear something. And, woe betide if the electricity went off during that hour.. everyone in the house would know how irritated I was. Ahahaha. At the en

  19 03 24 For some reason, the memory section of the brain always remember school days well, but, jog it to recall what I had for lunch or what I wore yesterday, and I have to strain . heh heh. Since I mentioned one of the unusual guys from class, in the Reading related post recently, here’s some more memories on similar fun people. To start off, let me recall people who really use to make us smile/laugh/guffaw in school days, by their remarks, innocent or otherwise. (Names shortened to initial, to maintain privacy) 1. There was this guy, D - he used to deliver gems of information every now and then, and he'd end with 'You see, Idea is India'. 2. There was this other guy, P . We used to have morning assembly, as all schools do. One of the prayers/anthems each week would be 'India is my country. ( https://www.indianmirror.com/geography/geo7.html ) All Indians are my brothers and sisters'. Well, this guy would always add, in a louder-than required voice,

  Being an avid reader in those days meant that I would look for all sources for getting books and comics to read, on returnable basis, and, then, return, and borrow again after a few days and return… and so on. And, being an avid collector of these, meant that there would always be friends or relatives wanting to borrow some of my precious collection from me. First, the borrowing part. These used to be mainly school friends.. I remember borrowing Laurel and Hardy comics, Hardy Boys books, Tintin/Asterix (the ones I had not got yet from my friendly neighbourhood second hand books guys)…before returning, in a couple of days, each one would be literally ‘devoured’ page by page. Now when I get these gems in pdf form on the net, I wonder how life would have been if today’s advanced technologies had been available then. Wow. One thing I’d always make sure – the borrowed material would always be returned in the same good condition that I had taken it. Sadly, not so the other way round –

  More than Phantom or Flash Gordon, I used to (still read) love Mandrake the Magician and his friend Lothar's adventures. A favourite daydream(Piscean trait, of course) for me, would be to imagine doing such magic/illusion/hypnosis, on friends/ enemies. heh heh. One of the most famous friendships on earth- Mandrake and Lothar. (As they say in the tales) Mandrake- a magician par extraordinaire known for his mass hypnosis feats. Lothar-the strongest man on earth, King of 12 nations. Brings an ice machine when Narda asks him for ice cream. Picks up a car when Jed's cufflink rolls under it, rather than going under the car like us ordinary mortals would do. Narda-another Princess, Mandrake's fiancee.(I forget the name of Lothar's fiancee-she came into the picture later) Jed- head of Inter Intel-short for International Intelligence, which has a robot as it's big boss(above Jed). No-one thinks that there could be a human being behind the robot's voice which is disguis