Of Lunch Breaks and more...

He sits there behind an old, rusty, over-used billing machine, spectacles perched on his nose, his eyes tired yet darting around to check on each and everyone seated in front of him.

He slouches over his little chair all day, quietly taking his plate of food to a corner of the small hall before the crowd comes in each time. He looks up at the tiny TV set fixed high up on one corner of the wall as he polishes his meagre portions of dal-chawal-sabzi, wipes his mouth and gets back behind the counter.

He has only two people helping him serve the many hungry employees who come in for a bite, a meal or just a few conversations over some wafers and biscuits.

Anna, as we call him, (at most times with irritation) is our man at the canteen. Ask him for a plate of steamed rice and he would have rattled off the entire menu that could (or could not!) be eaten with it. It really did not matter that you only wanted some chawal! Tell him you want 2 chappatis and he would ask his man to give you 4. You finish your meal at last and go over to settle the bill and he would suggest a hundred things to have for dessert!

I was never one of his favourite customers as I found one too many occasions to give the old man a tough tough time. I either grumbled about his not-so generous portions, or his watery dal, his stingy jam sandwiches, or the runny maggi.

I silently smirked with my colleagues and friends as he, with some level of exasperation, would try to find a way to shut me up. He confidently uttered 'Ho jayega.. Chaka-Chak' as if that word would do magic and transform the abysmal dish to something utterly beautiful!

But soon enough my tantrums grew on him. He got used to and even prepared himself for the many trials my friends and I put him through.

He stopped rattling off the additions to our plate, but after suggesting I indulge in a piece of the plum cake next to his cash register, he would also remind me the next day of my gaining weight - chuckling with the rest as I seethed. So the old man was finally retaliating..!

That did not stop us from troubling him. As we left after lunch, we would at times sneak up to the huge white board with the day's menu written on it and re-create our own menu. So that COLD COFFEE became OLD COFFEE, STEAM RICE became STEAM ICE, CHICKEN CURRY turned into CHICK CURRY and BADAM MILK was now BAD MILK..!

He would never realise it till the canteen broke into titters, leaving Anna all flustered and miffed.

To give him some credit, Anna learned to laugh with us and lighten up a bit.

There were many times when we skipped meals due to our shoots or ate out instead. He would then enquire about me.

We had given our old man Anna, a slice of humour to spice up his bland canteen!

Forward Planning

The IPL will be done and dusted with at the end of this month. The Indian cricket team will be happily sent off and I will (hopefully) have a month (atleast) of quiet around here. Time then to do all that I missed doing all these months:

1) Take that much-needed vacation and go to some place nice and cool to just relax and unwind

2) Swimming: There is a lovely pool in my complex. Might as well check it out and learn to swim while I am at it. :)

3) Start playing tennis again with Mulls - the weekends under lights (can't wait!)

4) Read 'Love in the Time of Cholera'. That has been on the shelf for years!

5) Buy some painting supplies and draw some. I know I miss it terribly and would just love to paint all over again.

6) Read up about new recipes and experiment a bit. I loved doing that briefly this month - could make it a weekly routine in June

7) Finish that home-shopping that I started earlier this month.

That's about it for now I guess. It will be great if I could get started on these. I will consider this space hugely inspirational! :)

And now I tag Pavitra to pen down her list of things to do in June.

'SAY CHEESE MR FLETCHER'

I googled Duncan Fletcher and the screen lit up with a number of pieces on his next stint with the Indian cricket team, his biodata, his wiki link, his childhood days... The number of search results exceeding that of the infamous Greg Chappell by a mile.

But I was not too keen on that. I clicked on the images tab and the page flooded with hundreds of pictures of the man in question. His chubby face in every possible angle, clothed in every english jersey that was ever made during his tenure (a handful donning the Proteas colours too). And almost every photograph had Duncan Andrew Fletcher looking hard at something (or someone) at a distance, his gaze fixed on the target and the mouth in a firm thin line.

I rummaged through the snaps, marvelling at the limitless patience with which all these lenses waited and ended up capturing the now-to-be-familiar stoic-ness of Mr Duncan Fletcher.

He was pensive and then he was curious. He was stern, he was all discipline. At some places, he was worried. At other times, a tad cautious. The cameramen snapped the seemingly reclusive Duncan Fletcher in every emotion that registered on his jawline and the wrinkles on his forehead... but never reached his eyes.

Even the title of his book, 'Behind the Shades', probably gives away a part of his innate nature and his core. There have been stories of his not-so-happy times with the English side. And incidently many of his dispassionate-looking photos have appeared in the blues of the poms.

After pouring through the many images of the unflappable Duncan, I managed to chance upon a picture at last of the old man letting out a laugh. And truly could not fathom what brought upon that rare moment in the canvas..

I imagined a joke being cracked - one that the old man had probably never heard before. So in one of those hard-to-imagine conspiratorial moments where everything fell into place, Duncan Fletcher grinned.

I smiled thinking of the lucky photographer who managed to get the shutter to fire at exactly that moment!

Just one photo in a myriad of otherwise glum, ponderous, almost sedate snapshots of the next Indian coach. It's clearly a position that not many fancy, a few stay away from and others whisper the horrors of, in empty corridors of big air-conditioned offices.

And I wondered, surely Fletcher would think of arming himself with more than just those glares, piercing eyes and smoldering expressions if he were to come out of the 2 years unscathed..!

A joke book maybe, videos of the best stand-up comics, the top 10 english comedies perhaps.... the options are endless.

That's because Mr Fletcher, you are about to coach the number 1 squad in Tests, a team that has just won the World Cup and is led by, whom many claim, the coolest customer in cricket and a man of many laughs.

So at times, a hearty chuckle could probably be the lone thing that will see you through the day...!