Usain Bolt's Yams

Get me some yams !

Bolt quotes are funny.

"I was looking at myself and I'm like, 'that guy's fast,' " he later said. Some woman in the back--evidently overcome by emotion--laughed deliriously at everything he said.

No wonder IOC is screwed up with their misplaced priorities. Yes Mr. Jacques Rogge, Bolt is the problem with this Olympics !

Olympic Thoughts

1. Micheal "Freaking" Phelps !

2. Usain "Lightning" Bolt: Bolt just went on cruise control and chest thumping the last 15 meters of the race. Amazing performance. He could have clocked under 9.6 seconds if he had ran the last 15 meters with the same intensity.

3. Bela Karolyi: Bela Karolyi is the NBC Olympics Gymnastics Analyst. Having said that, I did not hear any intelligent analysis from him. He was whining all the time. I understand that Gymnastics is a very subjective sport to judge and there have been some questionable scores/medals awarded to gymnasts. But, I get tired of hearing from Bela Karolyi on how American gymnasts where robbed of medals without any intelligent analysis from him. He should stick to coaching.

4. Rafael Nadal: Fantastic year for him. He has won French and Wimbledon along with the Olympic Gold in Men's Singles. One of those years for him.

5. Roger Federer: This is one of those years that he would like to forget. Having said that many players would like to have his accomplishments this year. He made it to the finals of all 3 grand slam events held so far this year along with the Olympic Gold in Men's Doubles.

6. Olympic coverage is stunning on high definition TV.

Reminiscing the Grand Old Man In Our Family

Years ago, when Director Sankar produced a seminal classic 'Indian', starring Kamal Hassan in two contrasting roles, the film caught the attention of the public, amongst other reasons, for Kamal's make up. A man in the late 40s was neatly transformed as a man in the late 70s. The creases and crinkles on the cheeks, the skin folds elsewhere seemed so real. However, what attracted my attention was the hair style of the old man. His silvery, gleaming hair, always neatly combed reminded me of another old person. My thaththa. While he went by the name Natesan, not many dared to call him, even affectionately as Natesa Thaththa. He was simply 'thaththa' for all. For me, he was the only 'Thaththa', since I had lost my paternal grandfather even before my birth.



Well, whenever I refer to my 'thaththa', it should be complemented with a reference about his wife, my paatti. By the time I was mature enough to understand them, they were well into their sunset years. However, I could see the distinctive difference in their personality. They were like the peas in the pods, never the same, yet together. Paatti was always the domineering character. She always wore a mask of dominant nature to her face, to the extent that one could easily suspect that the husband is merely a hen pecked one. Or that's what I had thought. How wrong I was!

Later events proved how assertive thaththa was. After his death, paatti lost the command in her voice. Her so-called authoritarian look was lost completely. Her eyes failed to portray her officious nature. She looked completely lost. So she remained until her own death…

Looking back, I could realize the role my thaththa would have played in shaping up the destiny of not only my paatti but also many others. Most of his grandsons and granddaughters, many not have realized what exactly they owed to him. He was a silent teacher for all of us. Teacher, yes. Silent? Not quite. As any retired Headmaster would do to his third generation, he left us a language legacy. For all the grandsons and granddaughters spread around the world, he sowed a seed. A seed of learning English correctly. Unlike any other schoolteacher, he pinched us rarely. He had no 'ruler' or 'scale' with him…yet his firm ways helped us to learn the nuances of the language.

Though I was not fortunate enough to catch him young, I could distinctly recall his interests in finer aspects of life. If our wives have complaints on our overbearing interests in games like cricket and tennis, they may have to probably blame him. I didn't catch him play those games, but his expertise in these games left us with rich knowledge. If any 'pozhudu pogadha' scientist is willing to find out the reasons for most of his progenies reading 'The Hindu' newspaper from top to bottom, the scientist would easily trace the genes back to thaththa. Though he was quite knowledgeable, he was never opinionated. He would happily discuss many topics with us, from Venkatragavan's fielding to Borg's drop volleys.

In his last days, his locomotor senses started to deteriorate and his mobility curtailed. It was sad to see the frail figure confined to the house. For a man who was affectionately called as 'Loco Thaththa', his 'imprisonment' caused much consternation amongst the relatives. Even when he moved to Thirunindravur, what was then a god-forsaken place, to be with his eldest daughter, he silently endured his pain and never uttered any complaints. His death was as silent as his personality was.

However, as one of the grandsons, I strongly believe that he has left us a different legacy. No, I am not talking about the inheritance of his language skills. What we had learnt was only miniscule. The one thing which he never taught us was the one thing we should have bequeathed from him. His ability to be silent when even some of his sons-in-law were ruffling him. His silence was never a sign of frailty. I never knew if he had a gift of gab. But his choice of words, however few it is, were strong enough to convince and convey the messages. Thaththa, you must have taught us these things. Nowadays, these are hard and tough qualities to come by. Why don't you make a come back?

- Your loving grandson
N.Rajaram

Remembering Natesan Thaththa …

Natesan Thaththa retired as an Assistant Head Master Andrews High School, Arakkonam. He was always a wonderful school teacher and he never stopped teaching until his health deteriorated during his final years. He was someone who led us by example with his patience and harmony.

Speaking of Thaththa, I have to mention about patti and how they managed to have a great family. He was a wonderful husband to Nagoji patti and a great father of 2 sons and 5 daughters. The interactions between Nagoji patti and Thaththa were always interesting. Patti was a high energy person - sensitive, angry, caring, loving, and affectionate – all in one interesting character. If patti was upset and raised her voice Thaththa would speak softly and calm her down. They had a perfect balance – sort of yin – yang thing. He was very affectionate towards my mother. Of course, he shared special and a wonderful relationships with my dad and chittappa.

He managed to successfully conduct marriages of all his daughters, a fantastic achievement with the meager teacher salary those days ably assisted by my father. He even saw them succeed as career women. 4 of the 5 daughters went on to work in Government and Public Sector Units.

I have some wonderful fond memories of him. We were very fortunate to have him living with us for many years when we lived in Madras and Coimbatore.

Eleven things I recollect about Thaththa at this time …

1. He used to feed my sister and younger brother regularly when they were toddlers. In fact, both my sister and brother used to pick up the feeding bottle from my mother and take it directly to Thaththa and sit on his lap and finish the milk. Sometimes, he used to tell stories and sometimes he would ask them to recite nursery rhymes.
2. In fact my younger brother would always sit on his lap and drink his milk and he would insist on me/my sister reciting his favorite rhymes while he drinks his milk.
3. Thaththa had a unique way of yawning and for a long time my brother’s favorite show as a toddler was to mimic Thaththa’s yawn to the visitors. Thaththa was a great sport and he enjoyed this act.
4. I remember him teaching me English Grammar. I think he knew “Wren and Martin” by heart. He taught me all the fundamentals of English language when I was 6/7 years old. I can still recollect his Active Voice/Passive Voice teachings using “Rama killed Ravana” example. I can say with absolute confidence that very little English that I can read and write now is mainly due to the solid fundas he instilled on me at an early age. He was a wonderful teacher. He was patient and a thorough teacher. He never got angry while teaching. He gave me a lot of exercises from “Wren and Martin” and used to correct them diligently and point to my mistakes with love and affection. He even pointed to some typos and errors in the Wren and Martin book.
5. He taught me how to read cricket scores printed on newspapers, how O stands for Overs and M stands for maidens, etc. He was a great cricket fan. He used to regale us with stores of yesteryear stars like Alec Bedser, Tony Greig, etc.
6. He also introduced me to the writings of RK Narayan. He used to read RK Narayan’s article in “Frontline” regularly.
7. I will cherish the time we spent listening to cricket commentaries BBC (Christopher Martin Jenkins)/Radio Australia (Keith Stackpole).
8. He introduced me to Tennis. Yes, to watch Tennis. He taught me the nuances of the game (let/double fault/tie-breaker, etc.) as we watched together the great Borg-McEnroe Wimbledon finals in the early 80’s.
9. Thaththa was a great fan of “The Hindu”. He will wait patiently for the morning commotion to die down (when everyone in the house was busy scrambling around getting ready for the day) and then he would pick up the paper and finish reading it by mid-morning. In fact, he would sort of revise it later in the afternoon.
10. He was a voracious reader. I have seen him read The Hindu, Ananda Vikatan, Gnana Bhoomi and novels from authors like Fredrick Forsyth, Irving Wallace, etc. In fact, some of my elder cousins would drop by to bring some novels for him to read. My aunts used to send my cousins to thaththa to learn English grammar and he taught them with great care and diligence.
11. His hair was always combed, neatly greased and in place all the times. In fact, if I remember right, my patti used to tease thaththa that whenever he woke in the middle of the night to attend to nature's call, he would ensure that his hair is combed before going back to bed. Not sure how much of this is true, but having seen him all the times with every strand of his grey/silver hair in place, I can't reject this theory outright.
    

Thatha, Wish you a very very Happy Birthday! Hopefully you are pleased with lives and achievements. We will always cherish you.

Your loving grandson,

Arun Shantharam

In Memoriam Natesan Thatha….

Come August 15th Our beloved "Natesan Thaththa" turns a Centenarian,albeit solely in our thoughts and minds. Unfortunately as a grandson I cannot claim fond memories of him unlike my parents, aunts and uncles, Arun, Vaishi or 14 of my other cousins who have had the opportunity to interact and be in his presence for long. I was only 2 years old when he passed away in 1982. All I have is a vague remembrance of the time we spent with him in Coimbatore and his passing away at our Aththai's place in Tinnanur. But I have always felt at some level, that I knew him deep inside in spirits. I guess it sprouts from the many family incidents involving him that my parents have shared with me or may be it is because I see a part of him in all of us in the family.

Almost everyone who interacted with him would agree how great a teacher he was. I have observed that my father always remembers thaththa when he sees the "Wren & Martin" grammar book and I have often heard chronicles of how thaththa would always start his English Grammar class with a lesson on Active/Passive Voice using the popular "Rama killed Ravana" example. There are many of his students from St. Andrews High School, Arakkonam who went on to become very successful in their life and career and even recently I was thrilled to hear so high of him from one of his former students who happens to be a good friend of my father. Another person who was fond of him and misses him dearly is my mother who still recollects his benevolence and the encouragement he had for her. She recounts his continuous support towards her and also his reassuring words when things didn't turn up well sometimes.

Everyone in this family might have their own reasons to remember him but the mutual feeling during his centenary year is that we all respect him for his simplicity, humbleness and poise.

Thatha..

I am sure you guide us everyday and are proud of our achievements. I wish we retain a part of you wherever we go.

Loving Grandson,

- Harish Shantharam

Reminiscence of my father

Nostalgic thoughts rush to me once i decide to write about my father who were to complete 100 years on 15th of Aug 2008.Unfortunately, we do not know where his abode is, after his demise on 24th of Dec 1982.

Immediate picture about him, is of his gentle nature, soft spoken attitude, among other things. As a teacher in St. Andrews High School, Arakkonam, he was a popular teacher in science and English. He was fond of grammar classes as he made a point to enter such classes ahead of time. Wren & Martin was his guide book and he was aware of all pages, exercises by memory. I adored his style of writing English, as well his handwriting. Even in post cards he used to paragraph the contents neatly. I feel bad in not keeping at least a few letters written to me as a treasure. He was also a good public speaker in school functions. Nobody missed his subtle humor in his speeches. He was also lover of sports & games. Used to tell me that he played cricket, hockey, tennis etc. in Madras Christian College. He kept off his family worries in the tennis court, behind town hall- even at times giving company in smoking. As a young boy, I used to pester him to play a few balls with me before the nets are drawn for the day.

I believe that i carried forward some of his traits, including his handwriting. That was handy for him to allow me to correct test papers, tabulations etc. With big family of 6 children-with girls in majority, ever visiting guests running the family was an herculean effort. Monthly budgets were pre-emptied before the beginning of month.

Of course, my father’s strength was my mother. She was a bold, outspoken lady with negotiating skills to get loans from friends & relatives to ward off crises. She developed the instinct of -survival of the fittest. Nevertheless, the family was a good knit -everybody cooperating others-the daughters obediently bowing their heads in marriage to the matches decided by parents. On the whole, all had virtues for quality life.

Looking back of my school days to the present day, I witness a sea-change not only in life but also in development and progress in all spheres. The family too had grown in leaps & bounds .My father’s siblings are holding good position and status. May be, we miss, or likely to miss something which my parents enjoyed. He lived his full life-duely, surrounded by his children, grand children in the evening of his life. The credit should go to him for the quality of life he lived & the virtues he cherished for. God has his inscrutable way of balancing things according to ones merits.

I cherish my relationship with him & he was close to my heart. One touching moment still reminds me about his care for feelings for others .In Valavanur where we lived for sometime, he used to visit Villupuram to get his pension-hardly Rs.150. In one instance, his pension money was pick pocketed. He didn’t want to disclose this lapse to others. He privately requested me to replace this amount & to reveal to none. He never exerted authority on others as a family head. Unfortunately I had to reveal this incident to my wife and others at the time of his death after many years in order to highlight his qualities.

He suffered for long on spondulities, bowels movement, etc in later years. Only on rare occasions had he revealed of his excruciating pain, and talked more about euthanasia -mercy killing. His patience was remarkable.

Before it is getting too long, I wish to recollect the saying-that it is good to be important but more than that it is important to be good.

Let his soul be in peace, wherever he is.

A small satisfaction for us. An insert has been made in The Hindu in the remembrance column in token of our love & gratitude on his centenary. It is of coincidence that, the present house which he fixed for me some 32 tears before is developing into a dwelling complex for his dear grand children.

N.SHANTHARAM. (Son of S. Natesan)