OUR SOCIAL NETWORK - NOSEBOOK!

People in most metros have pastimes; in Chennai - meddling is the No.1 pastime. With such a huge network of relatives, the opportunity to wreak havoc in each other’s lives is endless. The platform is all there. Weddings where one meets, greets and eats while poking one’s nose into the others affairs is the no.1 hunting ground. Deaths provide another opportunity to pry, albeit solemnly and in hushed tones. Births, naming ceremonies, 60^th birthdays, 80^th birthdays, housewarmings- the hunting ground is large and there is always some sitting duck who is the perfect target for an interfering old biddy who is too lazy to do anything but watch Sun T.V. and then enact the same drama elsewhere.

In Bangalore you see old people in parks with tennis shoes peeking out from under their saris, gamely waddling around or attempting Yoga Asanas or clapping their hands in glee in Laughter Clubs.

Her evil doppelganger in Chennai is the old hag in pattu saris with that diamond nose ring glinting evilly as she pokes her nose in, you guessed it, where it does not belong.....

Nimmou Nilakantan

(nee Writerberg, founder Nosebook, no followers, no income)

(Dec 23^rd, 2010)

OUR MUTANT PLANTS....

They blossom with studied neglect...but it is not flowers that bloom. Curled up leaves in different shades of yellow, brown and green and soil cracked in different geometric patterns. Stalks that stand proud in stark simplicity after leaves and flowers have withered and fallen out. Our plants represent a wasteland of different sizes, shapes and colours. And yes, they have a certain beauty invisible to the critical eye used to moist greenness and freshly turned earth.

Life is like our mutant plants. You just have to see beauty not always apparent on the surface. Conformity kills... it destroys the need to be independent and free spirited. Keeping up with the Joneses is just another way of always running and remaining rooted to the same spot. So, when people cluck when they see our wasted collection of indoor landscaping, I feel sorry for them. They haven’t opened the inner eye which sees beauty in the strangest places....

Nimmou Nilakantan

(Too lazy to water plants and yet energized to write about it!)

(Dec 23^rd, 2010)