A pinch of salt to enhance the taste !!

 

My sister and I were discussing yesterday, about the excessive use of abusive language and cuss words in OTT serials. My sister was saying that all these serials can definitely be made without using such foul language ‘in a better way’. Thinking about this made my memories jog to yesteryears. (as it has in many of my recent posts)

The days of childhood and early teenhood. It was a time when cuss words (Gaali – in Hindi) was a way of talking to friends. It was a language in itself with a judicious mix of sharp words thrown with varying degrees of intensity and voice modulations. Like animals make different sounds with their voice box to depict different emotions (A dog for example- barks, whines, growls to express different emotional states - anger, sadness and ferocity respectively.) ; gaalis were ‘thrown’ in different ways to express anger, hatred, laughter, evilness and even sadness at times. Cuss words were used as all figures of speech and in each of its forms as well. It could be in place of a noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective and as a noun form, verb form, adjective form etc. In fact, when talking to friends, each sentence used to have atleast two cuss words. A true friend was one with whom you could talk this way and neither of you felt anything much about it later on and neither one was offended in any way. It was a very normal way of talking to each other.  

And of course, you had full control over it – never used to be uttered in front of parents, teachers, elders or girls. At the time, we used to think that girls are generally not knowledgeable in this kind of vocabulary. I know better now. They do know all of it. They just don’t think it is prudent or feminine to express it so openly.

As we grow older, our environments change and the time you spend with friends is ‘replaced’ by time you spend in office with colleagues and seniors and with your family. It is not ‘conducive’ then to speak such foul language openly. Hence you mellow down. You even come to a point where you don’t like it. And of course, you would teach your kids not to pick up such things from their friends. 

But somewhere there is a child in everyone of us, who is still out on the ground playing cricket with his friends and swearing loudly at each and every one of them……!! 😊

Coming back to OTT serials, I partly agree with my sister that it doesn’t need to be there – THAT MUCH. But it shouldn’t be totally censored. Because even swearing is an art. Imagine if you were really angry and swearing at somebody in a very flat monotone. It would have no effect, no power in the expression at all. The person would kiss you rather than being very angry at you for abusing them !!

For me, the fact is I really enjoy a series if it has its fair share of abusive language and cussing – not too much, but a little bit of it. Used with the right timing and intensity, it gives a very powerful effect to a dialogue!!

As a metaphor - just a pinch of salt is enough to enhance the taste of the dish exponentially…..      

Frisbee - the boomerang

 During our days as kids, some games were seasonal for us (My friends and I). And others were like a fad coming in during a time and then going out eventually.  

We played football during monsoons, cricket at other times. Hide and seek, catch and cook never went out of season. We always played, but eventually as we got older it stopped as it was considered for-the-younger-kids kind of game. There was a game called fielding in which we threw the ball hard on a big wall. It rebounded and the person in whose direction it went had to stop it before it rolled to the boundary. It went out after a few years. One-tip cricket was a rage when we were in college. We used to play under a street light pole, which was basically the stumps. At the time, not many cars were parked on the streets, so the streets were relatively free for us to play !! Eventually we stopped that too. (We lost our space to the cars which were parked near the street light pole AND a speed braker was built near it too as if someone from the road department had decided not to let us play !!)

Another such ‘fad’ during our college days was ‘frisbee’. This is what this post is about – the frisbee. I think we first started playing frisbee when our fifth semester engineering exams started!! There was this huge gap of 3-4 days between two exams, so obviously, since we studied only on the last day, the rest of the days were treated more of a ‘normal leave’ than a ‘study leave’. Someone had this idea of playing a relaxing game, instead of something like cricket, which could give us finger injuries !! So frisbee started.

There is a garden in front of my house. We all played there. Playing frisbee is total bliss. Kind of a very liberating feeling !!

Believe me, there are people who cannot throw a frisbee well !! Most of my friends and I did pretty well. When thrown well, it glides beautifully and gracefully. You can throw it straight, fast or slow. You can throw it along the ground so that it just drifts over the grass. You can throw it at an angle upwards or downwards. You can make it just skim (bounce) the ground and rise rapidly again !! You can even make it boomerang back to you or throw it at a steep sideways angle, so that it soars sideways but lands in front - perfectly in a person’s hands !!

Catching a frisbee too gives you a super feeling !! You can catch it with your wrists turned either way. You can catch it side on or in front. You can time your jump or dive to catch. Frisbee catches when taken are as amazingly stylish and satisfying to watch as they are to take !!  And while it doesn’t take very high skills to either throw or catch a frisbee, a reasonable amount of dexterity and nimble footedness is definitely required. Even dogs love to play it !!

All in all a superb game. So one of my old friends was saying that he played frisbee today right after those days. So I threw a frisbee at a high steep upward angle into my memory and those memories came back to me like a boomerang!!

My journey and the start of a new innings

 

I always think that the hours to go before the time you actually reach the airport are the worst in terms of emotional state for everyone – including the one who is travelling away for a long time and also his family and folks. Its not that bad for the latter, as they have each other, something the former does not once he is abroad !!

Anyway, check in and the rest of things took 2 and a half hours, so that by the time I was at the boarding gate, people had already started boarding !!

Schipol wasn’t bad at all – for me. (After reading facebook forums, I had prepared myself for things like – long long queues to passport control, baggage or baggage not arriving at all, or anything else that may be the case. But because I was prepared, I guess I was out in a little over half an hour !! (Murphy’s law). It was a feeling of nostalgia as I came to the familiar old red checkered square which is called as 'the meeting point'. I was back here the same way in 2013, but with my friend and colleague.  

After thinking and thinking whether to catch a taxi – which was OUTSIDE the airport or whether to go by train, I finally froze ‘Train’. The taxi would’ve cost me half my flight ticket to Amsterdam and so my sense of adventure kicked in, I bought a train ticket and dragged two big wheelies weighing about 23 Kgs each along with a handbag and backpack weighing around 12 Kgs together into the elevator that took me to the Schiphol NS station. I felt like a soldier carrying a light artillery weapon and dragging his sack alongwith it !! The train arrived and I quickly loaded the luggage in the train. The train was to leave in just a minute !! Choosing to sit on the seats by the door, I rearranged everything so that it wouldn’t come in the way of anyone. As I settled down, I heard the announcement that the train would start a little later, as there was some problem !! It started a full 10 minutes later and I wondered whether I would miss the connection train !! I wouldn’t have worried if I was without any luggage, but then WITH it was a different concern !!

Luckily, I got the connection equally easily. I reached my destination after a full 2 hours. That wasn’t bad at all. After getting down at the destination station, a lady asked me if I needed help with the luggage. I politely refused, but thanked her. Coming out of the station, I dragged all my luggage another half a km to my new home. Even half a km seemed to be an eternity. The housing agent was there with the keys, right on time. She showed me around the house, got my signature on the inspection sheet and left. (after all it was a Sunday !!). My wife had packed some stuff for lunch and I gobbled it up quickly. After some sleep and a chat with home, I got outside to buy stuff – Milk, cheese, bread and all.

After this, time has simply whooshed by. I had thought of writing a post immediately upon arriving, delayed it to the second week and then the second month and now I'm almost 3 months here !!

All this time, Ive had a lot of fun – making new friends, meeting the old, doing a new kind of work and settling down in a new life and weather !! I decided to finally post this post, so that I could move on with more posts !! This post was like a barrier which I had decided to post before any others !! Now that its out of the way - the road is clear !!