Aandal

You knew Aandal was in the vicinity when the atrocious stench of her chewing tobacco (called Panneer Pugailai in Tamil) assaulted your nose. It’d normally be early in the morning, around eight, when she would turn up to perform her duties as our maid. No one really knew how she ended up in the neighbourhood. […]

‘Pitchi’ Rammurthy

The bogeyman of Pagadamanu street in Greamspet, during the early 80s, was none other than ‘Pitchi’ Rammurthy. Pithchi means mad in Telugu and our bogeyman was as mad as mad can get. He strutted about, perennially clad in a dirty white shirt with no buttons and a dirtier white dhoti, drawn up and tied up […]

The Angry Young Teacher

Everyone was scared of Suresh sir. The new science graduate from PVKN College, Chittoor. His explosive temper was legendary. Even Mallik, the Correspondent of Anita Tutorials avoided confrontations with Suresh. The lady teachers though had little to worry about. Suresh was nice to them, especially to pretty lady teachers. I kept a very low profile […]

The hunt for the Bison – 1

“My uncle saw the Bison. Mother promise!” Prabhu said. I stared at him for a good minute and said, “Let’s go camp then. Tonight?” The late winter morning had a deceiving chill to it. Prabhu pulled his hands into his sweater sleeves and shook his head and said “Not today. Probably next Sunday?”He was two […]

Blast from the past: B M Reddy

On November 11 1990, the PVKN Arts College Cricket team created history. We won the inter-college tounrament for the first time in the history of the college. I don’t think the college repeated the feat. Our captain was B.M. ‘Chilka’ Reddy. A drill master, leader, and one of the finest batsmen that the town produced. […]