This year at the intra-organization football tournament, we are having a guest. People say he’s the Indian football team’s goalkeeper. It seems he followed one of our football team’s regulars to practice and was interested in joining the team for a game. Felix d’ Souza his name is, some players say. Google throws up two Felixes associated with the Indian football team, both being goalkeepers (of course, they might be the same person too) – Felix Edward and Felix D’ Souza. Felix Edward it seems has been guilty of letting his team (Indian Bank) down on a couple of occasions while Felix D’ Souza is the star of his team (Goa). Our guy has been known to have claimed working for the Indian Bank and being a native of Goa. All of a sudden, I’m perplexed about the whole thing. Who’s the real goal keeper of India and what’s his name? It’s a shame that while I’m aware of Atul Bedade, completely unaware of Mr. Goal Keeper.

Murakami’s puffed up cheeks and overall rotundity don’t make him look like a runner. His manner of writing doesn’t make him impressive.

Yet, there’s a faraway look in his eyes and utter simplicity in his work. I’m not a fan yet, might even go the other way. But who knows?

As we were leaving, The Dude said, ‘Tonight I’ll take you to a new place; where everybody speaks Tamil. It’s like a mini Tamil Nadu.’

We took right from Kondapur Junction and turned into the police battalion street. The first right on that road and we were at Tastey Food House. ‘They emphasize their taste. Hence, the ‘E”, explained The Dude. The place was a racket. I don’t understand Telugu but since whatever was being spoken didn’t sound like Telugu, I assumed it to be Tamil. It was confirmed when somebody replied ‘Elle’ where a ‘Ledu’ would have sufficed.

A wheat dosa, a rawa dosa and some delicious egg kothu parota later, we emerged satisfied. By then I’d finished off one of the curries placed at our table meant for general serving. I think it was the coconut milk that made it whitish and sweet. We left as soon as this picture was taken, still discussing Tamil cuisine.

If you are somewhere close by and would like Tamil company, please make sure you visit this place.

USP: You don’t even have to tip.

UBP: There’s no garden even if the board says so.

In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones needs to be remade. The story needs to be told to a larger audience and since it’d generally be acceptable to the more open society now, it’d probably be a hit at the box office. While there may not be much problem hunting for people to play other roles, the role of Radha would be hard to find an actor for. Ms. Roy has done such a wonderful job of being Radha that whoever plays the role now, runs the risk of paling in comparison.

The credits include Manoj Bajpai and Harsh Chhaya. We wonder if they are the same ones we know of now. Raghuveer Yadav doesn’t have much of a role; he comes in only to have some paint sprayed upon him. The less we talk of Shahrukh Khan, the better for his fans.

Ms. Patil, it seems, spends most of her time working on Parva, the upcoming graphic novel on the epic The Mahabharata. It explains why her posts are becoming shorter, though frequent (to balance it out maybe). We think she’s playing it safe, taking care not to divulge more of her professional work before time. Also, she might be tempted to use her eloquence on Parva, rather than the blog. It makes sense too. We just wish the blog for Parva hadn’t been an invited- guests-only affair. Unlike a certain admirer Mr. Neel Mukherjee, readers like us hardly matter. As Ludwig Wittgenstein would say, ‘… Ethics are transcendental. …’.

I’d promised Slimy Snake that I’d give him a hug each day for the rest of my life if he got me the two movies. He’s kept his part of the deal and it’s time for me to honour mine. Being the yellow chicken (I can’t call myself a chick now, can I?) that I am, I don’t think I’m going to engage in a hug everyday. But there’s hope for me yet. I bet he wouldn’t like the idea of being hugged everyday either. So, if he scraps the deal, I can always claim to have been willing for the same.

One of the movies has been watched and liked. The old flame has rekindled and I’m in love again. With her. Imagine her in a sari, with a hat and sunglasses!

Lesson to self: Make a promise you can’t keep only if you are sure of the other party’s reluctance to let you go ahead with it.

There’s this little thing inside each one of us that suddenly inflates to gigantic proportions without warning, pushing commonsense out of its place when the slightest hint of being ordered about is detected. Commonplace acts become laborious if undertaken under command. Refusal and disobedience lurk in the vicinity while orders are being handed out. Each man feels he’s the brightest star in his solar system and it’s the duty of other men to acknowledge his luminescence. What most of us don’t realise is that some orders are life saving.

No, I don’t.

When Raja Rao questions his existence he exudes poetry.  With me, it’s rant. He celebrates his detachment by indulging in idiosyncrasies that are celebrated. I honour mine by shutting out others. No wonder it’s taking me forever to get through with him. I’m lulled to sleep wondering if ever a man could be as logical, objective and temperate as Rao leads us to believe.

Q: And what kind would you like?

A: Someone like Leela Naidu in The Householder.