A box of marbles!

We see children playing many games, but there is one notable absentee- the game of marbles. Back then, it was the first game you grew up with. Cricket as a serious pursuit came later. What set marbles apart from other games was its simplicity. All you needed was a blue sky, a patch of green and a pocketful of marbles. Somewhere, in the last few decades, we lost this game completely.  

A game of marbles sharpened a variety of basic skills. Like Billiards and Carom, it took a combination of concentration and finger-skill to master it. The champion marble player could strike a tiny marble in the far distance with unerring accuracy. The rest of us were not so dexterous and stumbled to strike a target even a few inches away!

Regardless of your proficiency in the game, you maintained a marble collection. A marble was a collector’s delight. Each marble was exquisitely crafted- shiny and glassy. When viewed against the sun, a kaleidoscope of colors filled its interior!  Like a crystal ball, the more you gazed, more secrets it revealed! A second variety of marbles was the opposite. These marbles were stone-like- in a grey monotone. When you dug your hands into a boxful of marbles, its tinkling sound lit up a smile! Hawkers set up shop outside the school gate and enticed students with an attractive marble display.

The box of marbles came handy when the class got too monotonous. No one knew who was the bigger prankster- the boys or the marbles! From time to time, the box jumped out of the school bag and came crashing to the floor! Marbles scattered and bounced in all directions! Right under the glare of the irate teacher, there was a complete riot! Students ran helter-skelter in pursuit of the marbles which were equally mischievous and evaded attempts to catch them! It was just the distraction you needed to liven up the day.

Marbles was not just a game. It was a means to bonding between friends- much like Golf for today’s elite. When you spoke about a particular celebrity as though you knew him very well, someone cut you with this oft-quoted phrase, “Did you play marbles with him?” Such was the camaraderie shared between marble pals!

Back then, children stayed outside and played marbles the entire day. Parents complained that they do not spend enough time at home. Ironically now, children are at home the whole day- busy with their virtual games and gadgets with no time to go outside! What can we say?  We can only borrow the poet’s words- “A poor life this, if full of care, on mobiles alone, we have time to stare!”

The cool generation!

These days, the most trending word is “cool”. It is used in a variety of situations with different nuances. To be in step with the current generation, your language must be peppered with a liberal sprinkling of the word “cool”. True, we used “cool” in the earlier days too. Erstwhile Bangalore’s weather was described as “cool” or you used cool in sentences like “He lost his cool”. Dark glasses were “cooling” glasses. Cold drinks in South India were called “cool drinks”! But the context was limited.

English language is currently undergoing a massive course correction thanks to social media. Brevity is of essence. It is here that a word like “cool” makes an impact. In social media chats, “cool” is used as an acknowledgement- an enthusiastic substitute for the somber “ok”. A typical chat goes as follows: “To come to my place, get to MG Road”. Pat comes the reply- “cool”. Then, take the left turn onto Brigade Road. The response is the same- “cool”!

Another usage of “cool” is to make a style statement. “This skirt looks cool on you! You look cool in this T-shirt”. Something original is also termed “cool”. Budding entrepreneurs make a pitch for their start-up companies, with this opening sentence- “We are currently working on this cool idea...” You have half a mind to interject that the idea can only be as cool as a cucumber, but such a riposte would be uncool!

Another shade to “cool” is to denote a modern outlook. You would say, “He has cool parents! He dropped out of school and told them he wants to pursue Wildlife Photography. They were very cool about it!” When “cool” is repeated twice in quick succession, it conveys a mood of conciliation. After an argument, you are filled with remorse and hesitantly ask your wife, “Hope you are not still upset!” If you get the answer “Cool! Cool!” it means all is well and you can heave a sigh of relief! In degrees of coolness, the superlative degree to cool is “chill”. You ask your friend on his way to Goa- “What are you planning to do there?” His answer is brief- “Just chill!”

Dictionaries in the future will look different- all adjectives will be expunged as archaic words. They will be replaced with “cool”. The irony is, every generation thinks itself as cool, and the previous one as uncool! With this rate of increasing coolness, future generations will resemble frigid ice sculptures! Finally, “cool” can be used as an exclamation. I plan to tell my daughter, “I wrote this cool essay on “cool” and guess what, it actually got published in the newspaper!” I am certain how my daughter will respond. Eyes filled with disbelief, she will exclaim, “Cool...Appa!”

Day Express at Kumbakonam

Though it is hard to imagine today, in the past, India had an extensive “meter-gauge” railway network. Meter-gauge trains with their narrower carriages and pronounced lateral movement, gave the illusion as though they moved at a faster speed than they actually did! Prestigious trains like “The Boat Mail” were part of this network, but the train that stole the show was “The Day Express”. It was called “The Day Express” because it covered the entire stretch from erstwhile Madras Egmore to Trichy in one day.

Going back in time by four decades, summer vacation meant lounging at uncle’s home in Kumbakonam. And when it came to pastime, there was none fonder than meeting the Day Express midway through its journey at Kumbakonam. The days were filled with ample leisure. After father was done with his afternoon tiffin and degree-coffee, we set off to see the train each day.

 A short walk took you to the paddy fields. You balanced on the bund separating the fields till you reached the railway track. From that vantage point, the vision was expanded to cinemascope proportions. All you saw was the dome of the sky and the expanse of the paddy fields that stretched till eternity.

When the time was ripe, there was a sudden flurry of activity. The mood was expectant, like the burgeoning sounds of a jungle, announcing the imminent arrival of a major predator! The signal pole swung into action and went straight up! The telegraph wires beside the railway track rustled. Craning the neck you peered through the tracks into the distant horizon. You saw the nose of the engine- just a tiny dot. It was the Day Express!

Staying well away from the tracks, you waited with bated breath. Soon, you were overwhelmed with a deafening noise as the train hurtled past at a ferocious speed! The carriages were a blur and before you knew, it was all over.  All you could see was a puff of dust as the back of the last carriage melted into the distance! Once the train was gone, an indescribable calm spread over the evening landscape.

And then, there were days when you had other commitments and could not meet the train. The train kept its date nevertheless.  At eventide, from the precincts of home, the ears picked the reverberating rumble in the distance. Eyes filled with excitement, you dropped all activity at hand and exclaimed, “That’s the Day Express!”

The express went about its job each day with the same relentless urgency, like a man on a mission. It seemed to have time for just one sentence as it rushed past, “I have miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep!”

The clothesline conundrum!

You take your parents around the flat you are about to purchase. It does not matter how many rooms your home has or the view from the balcony. Their concern is of a practical nature- where will you have a clothesline? The triviality of the question hits you. But, it is a fundamental point that has eluded us since the dawn of urbanization. 

Your flat in the city is modest. You do not own an entire terrace to dry clothes in the open. The traditional clothesline was confined to the balcony ceiling. It took enormous skill to spread clothes over the line. The garment had to be heaved up to the ceiling with a stick. And once over the line, you eased out the crumple in the cloth. Tiny items like socks toyed with your patience. They just wouldn’t rest on the line- like a pole-vaulter, they went up only to be back on the floor! And in your effort to set one garment right, you disturbed another that came smack in your face! On windy days, it was an exercise in futility- either the clothes took a stroll outside the balcony or lay scattered on the ground. At the end of the day, you knew what the phrase “pain in the neck” meant. 

These days, the clothesline is modernized with a rope and pulley mechanism. You lower the clothesline to eye-level, spread out your clothes and hoist it up to the ceiling! As with any mechanized device, it is “lyrical in its ideal essence”. But reality is far from ideal. There are days the contraption throws tantrums like your two year old! You hoist it up, and find the rope has got entwined and the entire apparatus goes up at an angle. You try to troubleshoot only to complicate it more. Soon, patience runs out. You give one fatal tug with all your might. The next thing you know- you blink your eyes buried under a tent of wet clothes! You have successfully managed to snap the entire clothesline! 

Parents volunteer to spend 6 months with their children in the US. Their greatest culture shock is the absence of a clothesline! You may own a mansion in the US, still, drying clothes in the open is considered an eye-sore and against community rules! Parents are aghast that unwashed clothes are piled up in a heap and the washing machine and dryer runs once in 3 days! They grit their teeth through the 6 months and return to India with much relief. How much they took for granted- that unbridled freedom to dry clothes in the open! 

Eventually, all problems will be solved, including world hunger. But mankind will continue to wrestle with the clothesline conundrum!