I woke up this morning, made and had coffee, made idlis for dubba, realized there’s no “chutney powder” to go with it, roasted and ground the lentils that make our particular recipe for “dosai milagai podi”, even as I prayed there should not be a power-cut.
Then, I sat to have coffee with Sury, who showed me something in the Times of India, Bangalore edition, Sports section. This:
“THE RACQUETEERS CLUB: Indian players (from left) Rohan Bopanna, Somdev Devvarman, Mahesh Bhupathi and Vishnu Vardhan with AITA vice president Karti Chidambaram on the eve of the Davis Cup World Group Qualifying tie at Ariake Tennis Stadium in Tokyo on Thursday.”
Besides the fact that my eyes filled up with (ugh!) tears and I got every emotional looking at the picture, I was delighted to see Vishnu’s photo in the paper. Sometimes it is so hard to believe that someone I knew as a baby is an adult. Law of nature and all that notwithstanding, I couldn’t help taking a brief trip into the realms of nostalgia – and I remember how Shnu, as we liked to call him fondly, called me Chia in turn. Oh, wet eyes all over again. Vishnu was the baby of our dreams and although I’ve said it before, I’d say it again – back then, when I was around 24, I wished that if ever I got married and had a child, I’d want him to be like Vishnu. No, no gender bias here. Just because we spent a lot of time with him, I said “him”.
God bless him and his wonderful parents. I will always remember with happiness the great times we’ve had. Even today, his mom is the first person to wish me on my birthday – and every other festival or occasion in our family. This is significant because we met them in 1987 – and we’re talking about 24 years. Wow!. To think Vishnu was barely eight months old when we first met him!.
Proud of you, Vishnu. And am sure, so is your “Aanthie”. We wish you all the best!
