Some Sizzling Scintillating Speculations

  What a thrill that used to be.. reading that a competition I entered had won a prize.. Trying to recall the very first competion sometime back in year '87 or so. I remembered the folder of magazine clippings that I have here, and checked. However, I could not trace that particular first clipping.. maybe it's in some other file..it was in the magazine 'The Weekly Sun', one of my absolute favourites(I wish they would restart publication)... it was a pic of Rekha from the song'In Aankhon ki masti mein'...we had to guess the song and the movie (Umraao Jaan). That delight on winning the prize in a draw of lots - for the first time - it's unimaginable .. a real mood-booster it was. And, then, there was no looking back.. Sun used to have a number of such competitions . One was 'Spot The Ball'... a pic from a cricket field scene, and, we had to guess where the (hidden) ball was. The most accurate guess would win. The next one, as per my list was an article...

  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 lu...