Today I happened to have my lunch at Spencers Plaza,being bored of Lunching in Saravana Bhavaqn,Sangeetha,Vasantha Bhavan...and the other ubiquitous lot of hotels around my office.There I saw kids and college students happily roaming about ...not looking at their watches and having lunch as the working population does.Lunch More so is a nice outlet for pent up feelings and talking about life in general and hardly does it involve about how god the food is or how many different items,we would be trying out.
Work has become so much enmeshed in our lives that it is semingly becoming difficult to switch off,even if we head somewhere else.As I was observing this younger sect of the population shopping at Spencers,I was reminded of my College days, when roaming with friends around various Chennai Shops and markets in the summer holidays was quite the norm. One had time to go about shamelessly window shopping for hours and sitting on the steps of Spencers for hours talking all things under the sun. Spencers these days is seen by me as a place where only landmark and Pizza hut exist.Either I go in for a quick glance at the books or I go in to munch some new offer at the food courtwithin a constrained time limit.Gone are the days of idling around Spencers.These days an inordinate hurry is what is pulling me in and out fo wherever I go.
The Good old school days ....had so much on the agenda,but so much enjoyable too.... I used to get up early ...by around 6 or 7...read Newspapers,books and sit down on my corridor with my friends for some indoor games and then a short nap in the afternoon with tons of Pepsi and Cokes(Gosh ! I had Pepsi for headaches in the season of Dil Maaange More times,that was seemingly my best excuse to sneak in a Pepsi). Then after the siesta,my set of friends would start knocking each other's door...and would start the intense " Mohalla Matches " with each one aping a cricketers batting or bowling actions.I still remember me modeling my action on Allan Donald and just to look as menacing as him with the war paint look, the poorest substitude I could get to a Zinc Cream would be a fair and Lovely Cream...all over the two sides of my nose...and damn applying the sweat...over the nose all over one side of a rubber ball,expecting it to "reverse swing" :-).
Seems really funny,when I look back to those times.... and April-May generally meant matches in Sharjah ...and Indo Pak Cricket on the dreaded Friday which India would Invariably lose.Those Days Sharjah Cricket had its own charm in the days when matches used to start at 11 am Indian time...and watching INDO PAK matches was special..because of the kind of aggressive sentiments that were assosiated with such matches.I guess the best tournament was the 1996 and the 1995 series in Sharjah ..which had some lovely matches.Though I still remember Sharjah for the Inaugaral season 97-98 which had floodlights and coloured clothes...the earlier matches with white flannels evokes special Respect.
To come to think of it, I used to even follow the English county season to full detail....and here I am today...I happen to know of an India Pak encounter in the UAE..only a couple of days in advance. Surely times have changes...and I see that the relaxed atmosphere of the yesteryears has given to way to tougher, hurried competitive times...
Now Am I complaining? A bit of yes and No... Yes ..as I see that I would love to be in the idolatary world of an R.K.Narayan and guess what, thats how I spend my weekends at home.I sleep a lot, move about slwoly at my pace ...pamper myself over a few old books and stay in a lost world...where I forge what I do over the week...
A bit of no ..as I too want success,fame,money.and hapiness and am willing to work hard to get where I want in this competitive world,but why the mind really keeps on thinking about this topic is probably because of teh paradigm shift in the way my mind functions contrastingly over the week and on the weekend.There is this need for respite from the maddening hurry of teh first five days,which makes you papmer yourself over the weekend into a cocoon,a lost imaginary world...where idolatory rules.
Has anyone experienced similar feelings? pls do letme know ..by commenting below
1 comment:
good one man..yeah those were gr8 days in our lives..guess most of us share similar experiances.
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