The Great Escape

Usually I don’t visit the local tourist attractions as they are quite boring (especially if you have seen it once). My friend’s mom had come from India and I decided to accompany her to the Night Safari.

After we finished the customary Tram ride and the walking trails we went to the “Creatures of the Night Show”. Although I have been to the Night Safari once before, I had not been to this show earlier. Since we went early we managed to get a seat in the third row. The show began with a piece by A R Rahman (Theme music from the film Bombay). Mid-way thru the show a guy stood up and complained that he has lost Maggi. When probed further he said that Maggi is his pet and it measures 10 feet. It was quite evident that all this was staged. Then they started searching for Maggi. They zeroed in on my spot and asked me to get up. Only my friend’s mom can explain the reaction on my face (we didn’t capture this on camera). There was an opening in the floor below and they managed to pull out a 10 foot long python. Can’t believe that I was sitting on top of this for 30 minutes. I’m still recovering from this shock. Please don’t play pranks with weak-hearted people. Otherwise I need to call the Mafia.

Conversations with a Cabbie

On my way back home I picked up a conversation with a Cabbie. The cabbie (a Chinese guy) seemed to know a bit a Tamil and asked me whether I was from Nagapattinam. He went on to say that he has a friend who is from Nagapattinam. He knew a few common phrases in Tamil and tried to use the same during the chat with me. He could say Vanakkam, Sowkiyama, Saapteengala, Enge Poorenge etc. He was eager to learn more Tamil phrases so that he could use the same to speak to his Tamil customers. He asked me the Tamil equivalents of “Take Right”, “Take Left” & “Go Straight”. When I told him the equivalents in Tanglish (Right-le po, Left-le po & Straight-a po) he wanted to know whether we had Tamil words for Right, Left and Straight. I explained to him that although we have Tamil words for Right and Left we seldom use them in daily life. I think this is the case with most other Indian languages. Wonder what he would have thought about our language(s)?