Kolaveri Di

It’s amazing how, in the course of exercising, conversations take off at one point and end somewhere else. Sample this.
Well, there was this noisy South Indian couple today, obviously new to the Garden, who took a special interest in our group. They stopped abruptly in their tracks and gaped at us open-mouthed, as though they were seeing monkeys from a zoo. Then blabbering between them-selves, they walked away.
Hari Singh Shekhawat overheard them. “Kolaveri,” he muttered under his breath – probably the only Tamil word he knew. Clearly, he did not like being disturbed.
“Kolaveri ho, Kolhapuri ya Sholapuri, kya farak padta hai?” consoled Tara Chand Seth.
“Magar yeh kolaveri hai kya?” interjected Nafisa Sayed.
“Who knows?” replied Razia Khan and went on to expound on how meaningless words make for film lyrics these days and become runaway hits. “Songs with meaning are no longer heard,” agreed Khatoon Baig.
Silence. Exercise continues…
“Magar yeh gana gaya kissne?” persisted Nafisa.
Razia: “Kolaveri? Woh uska daamaad hai!”
Kisska daamaad? Big mystery. Exercise stops as everybody wracks their brains. Singer becomes irrelevant and father-in-law gains importance. Monthi Serrao, Harbans Singh, Nahid Khan… all film aficionados, all blank. And then, somebody says Rajnikanth!
Nafisa makes a face. “I prefer Dharmendra, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand… Rajnikanth has style only in lighting cigarettes!” she says, giving a demonstration. Shekhawat is thrilled. For his benefit, Nafisa does a retake, classic Rajni-style.
Somebody (name withheld) interrupts: “Kolaveri-kolaveri, big deal. Before the Tamilians coined 'kolaveri-di', we’ve been hearing ‘terimaa-di’, ‘teripehn-di’ since childhood.”
End of discussion. End of exercise. Srichand Arora distributes a circular (pic above) on plans to take forward the plan to monetize this blog. Group disperses.
Harish Wadhwa:
* What a rally of weird thoughts, words and senseless discussions we are all capable of. One can read today's blog with a smile and imagine how all this must have unfolded actually in the Garden today. LOL. It was a fun-filled morning as usual.
* Arora-ji was also excited to share some nice badmaash jokes with his badmaash friends!