Monday 4 February 2008

Nandan 1

Nandan writes to me from Dubai, pointing out several mistakes in my posts and reminding me not so gently, “a blog is in public domain, so please maintain a minimum quality in syntax and spelling and also, style!”


Nandan, he of the acerbic tongue and caustic wit, is my cousin. In his past life, he was a journalist in Delhi. Editors of some of the leading newspapers in India and the Middle East live in terror of receiving his stern missives, roundly chastising them for their abject editorial practices, and lowering what according to him are already, pathetic journalistic standards.


Many years ago in September, I was in Delhi. I come back to Hotel Ranjith after a hard day’s work and take off my shoes. The phone rings and it is from Kerala, with the news of my mother’s death. She had been ailing for quite a while, so it was not a shock really, but suddenly I was this little boy who had lost his mother.


The last plane to Kerala had already left hours ago.


Krishnan comes around to offer his condolences. Then Nandan comes and stays with me the whole night. Nandan is not good at consoling. Like me, he comes off as clumsy and embarrassed in such situations. We lie in adjacent beds and the silence is choking. Finally, I get up around four in the morning, get dressed and take a taxi to the airport.


Nandan also asks: Do you have it in you to continue this blog, day after day, week after week? The answer is: I don’t know. One thing is for sure. I will not allow the blog to control my life. I will not put pressure on myself by setting up deadlines I have no intention of meeting. But with encouraging feedback from all of you, who knows, we can keep it going for a while!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

if it is feedback you want, it is feedback you get:

i think taking it post by post is a great idea. i hope you will continue, you have at least two daily _blog-checkers_ (eleonora and yours truly) even if we don't comment all that much (we would like to think of ourselves as the strong silent types :-)).

let the blog posts roll .. at a nice and leisurely medium pace.

Anonymous said...

Wanted to add a comment on the picture you have up on the profile but ah ! these technicalities.
Perseverance activates itself in me and I shall not give up. So, I place it under a post instead, caring not much if it is out of context, for the message will eventually get through.

The picture bought back memories of beautiful Hanoi , the museum and the company. It felt nice, again. Thanks. And yes, you should add , Photography by VietNAM to it :-) ! It did made its way to your blog, so I ain’t that bad, eh?

Btw, why have the Leo attributes being discounted? That adds interest to the character but on second thoughts, shhh... stay the crab you are ! Pisceans are better off with the crabs. - ND

Unknown said...

keep going kuttetta. just before reading through, while under shower, i was thinking of this limitted life of six, seven or eight decades and about our uncles' famous lines... ee monohara theerathu tharumo iniyoru janmam koodi...
where were we, where are we and where will be we.... waiting for a full stop.

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Stepping Sideways... by K. Radhakrishnan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.