My Favourite Things

Am I ready to blog about this week’s theme, ‘My Favourite Things’?

Who will not be ready to share details about their favourite things?

Most of us will be and I am too.

 What do you classify as favourite things?

 A very tough question indeed.  It is very subjective. And here are some of my favourite things which I can immediately recall.

My favourite games: Cricket and tennis to watch, cricket, shuttle and carrom to play. I can never forget Chetan Sharma’s hat trick in the World Cup 1987 in our college hostel where about 500 of us were watching and the atmosphere was electrifying. I was sitting in front of the television in the first row and I will never ever forget that moment.

My favourite years: Definitely college. I studied in Bangalore away from the place where my parents and uncle stay, Madras. I was so lucky that I never once felt homesick, even the first time I went to Bangalore to stay. I loved the college, my evening dance classes, then cricket till 6.30 pm, discussion about that day’s play and a game of shuttle after dinner in the night.

It brings a smile when I remember how, at 8.30 pm in the night, I would suddenly go off by bus to eat bhelpuri which was about 20 minutes away, and watching night show movies in tent houses. There were days when we would play cards. Maybe you can call it gambling but the stakes were very small. My happiest tour was to Mekkedaatu along with some of my classmates. And to top it all, I never missed Bangalore when I came to Chennai.

My favourite trips during my initial years as a lecturer: Going with a few of my colleagues on day trips. We went to Muthyala Maduvu, Shimsha and Hogenekkal. How much I enjoyed those trips and the innumerable photographs I had taken then!

My favourite restaurants: Copper Chimney, Red E-Food Court and during college days, a Punjabi restaurant in Bangalore.

Two of my favourite walking trips: Thumburu Theertham on Tirumala Hills and Edakkal Caves in Sultan Bathery (Battery), Kerala, about 25 years ago. You should do them too.

My favourite moments during the trips that I have gone along with my wife and uncle are walking to Tadiandamol in Coorg, wandering in Cabo de Rama, going to Doodhsagar waterfalls in Goa, looking at the architectural marvels of Hampi and our half-day trip to the dilapidated Alamparai fort near Chennai.

Some favourite photographs:  I thought it would be nice to make a collage of some of the photographs I like.

Clockwise from extreme left: At Alamparai fort; One of the best dance programmes I've ever seen; Coonoor tea garden; Cabo de Rama, Goa; Hampi stepped tank and Doodhsagar waterfalls, Goa

My favourite moments now: Spending time with my niece and listening to her chatter.

And finally this quote which I picked up from Facebook, “If a single teacher can’t teach us all the subjects, then how can you expect a single student to learn all subjects?”

Thank you, Aparna, for giving me this opportunity to relive some of those great moments.