Mallus, Marus and More

Five Years Ago...
"Vivek was telling me that Thursday might be a holiday for all of us," John said.

"Whose Vivek?" I asked, as we sat at the end of class.

"Arey, Vivek, dude. The short, spectacled guy, in Philip's class?"

"Oh, that Vivek."

Present Day...
"Rohit says there's no college tomorrow. We'll watch a movie?"

"Rohit? Who's that?"

"Rohit, macha. The maru who sits behind us in class."

"Oh, that Rohit."

Funnily enough, until I joined a college in India last year, I never knew what a maru meant. Of course, now I do. Not just marus. I know who mallus, iyers, firengis and the rest are.

Three Letter Word For 'Being Happy'

It's something that I've been wondering about for the past few days. When did I first hear the word being used? It's like trying to remember the first time you heard about the concept of death, or money, or air conditioners, I guess. It's just something that we grew up with.

The word 'gay'.

Three Blind Men

Over the years, many of my readers have asked me about my first article as a journalist. Thinking back to that time, back in 2001, I could tell you the details as though it’d happened yesterday. 

On my very first day as an intern at The Hindu, I was well on course to being late for work. As I ran down the steps of the overhead footbridge two at a time, the railway platform was drowned in the sound of two oncoming trains. 

Great! I thought. Just what I needed. Within seconds, hundreds of passengers spilled onto the platform, flowing towards the footbridge in unison. As I pushed my way past college students, flower selling middle aged ladies and office workers who must’ve owned surprisingly defective deodorants, something caught my eye.