7 June 2017

That be my wife. Dealing with me :-)

Photo courtesy: Natasha
The backstory is that this weekend Sharmila and I, after much postponement, finally sat down at our breakfast table to look at ticket prices for some trips for the girls. But moment we sat down, I noticed thru the corner of my eye that the elusive Goldfinch was at the bird feeder.

With great alacrity I jumped out of my seat to go get my camera. And with equal amount of alacrity, Natasha fished out her iPhone camera to capture the look on Sharmila’s face 🙂

7 June 2017

Five years back…

Exactly five years back, on this day, at this time, I was sitting with my dad in his house in Durgapur and had a funny conversation which I had posted in my blog that day.

Here is the repost…

P.S. The best translation of the last line might be “It works. But you might have to slap and kick it a little at first”.

More P.S. Before he left Durgapur, he donated the scooter to the guy who used to tend to our garden. For all you know, this thing is still plying on the road of Durgapur…

—-
Repost from Jun 7, 2012:
In an apt display of how the previous generations valued things (when money was tight), my dad has stuck with his first and only vehicle he ever bought. In 1977!!! The manufacturer does not exist any more!!! There is only one mechanic in town who is even willing to fix it.

The value of the scooter literally doubles every time he fills in petrol 🙂 The ignition key, which comes out loose in all that rattle and ruckus during a ride is permanently chained to the scooter (see the photo carefully). Still, he refuses to give it up!!!

I actually took it out for a ride today. Before that, I asked him “Eta ekhono choley?” (does it still work?). He thought for a few moments and then reluctantly admitted “Choley. Kintu ektu maardhor korey chalatey hoy”. [i need some help from Bengali FB friends for the transliteration to do justice to his sense of humor]

7 June 2017

The meme cup brimmeth over…

In case you were wondering what all these memes are about (like you do not have anything better to do), I need to tell you about an ex-colleague of mine from DC area – Karen Hawk. Sharp as a whip and with a biting sense of humor that is guaranteed to bring the floor down, I got to know her – oh! about five or six years back.

Her daughter worked in our company already. And then one day, we hired her mother (Karen) to keep our office straightened out and above all keep me honest whenever I was in the DC office.

Next time I was in DC, I walked into our office and went straight to her cubicle. There was this elderly lady sitting at the desk – her work area extremely well organized. But what caught my eye was the poster that she had hung just behind her. It read “My Tiara is giving me a Headache”. I looked at it, I looked at her and then I burst out laughing. “I can work with you the rest of my life”, I remember telling her.

Unfortunately for me, I left that company. She still works there and keeps in touch with me. In these days of much circulated jokes, once in a while when she finds some new gems, she shoots them my way. This week, she sent me a few. And I promised her that I will convert them into memes and feature them on my blog.

So, here goes the next one… And thank you, Karen, for keeping me smiling!!! You indeed are one of my most memorable colleagues!!

Category: Humor | LEAVE A COMMENT
6 June 2017

East Bengal!!

That is an American Goldfinch with a Red Cardinal.

Growing up in a place where soccer was immensely popular, yellow and red were the jersey colors of one of the top two teams those days – called East Bengal. Rivalry between the top two teams amongst its fans was pretty intense. I was with the other team – Mohun Bagan. I am not sure I will ever see a green and a purple color bird on my bird feeder ever!

6 June 2017

How did that come around? – To get away “scot free”

I was reading a social discourse which talked about a certain category of folks getting away “scot free”. Which got me thinking about where could this phrase possible have come from. Of course, it means to “get away without penalty or unpunished” but how do you put a Scot in that?

Some amount of research showed that actually, this has nothing to do with the Scots. Apparently, “scot” refers to taxes. Specifically, 12th century England municipal taxes. And the Anglo Saxon word was “sceot”. But there were similar words at that time – Swedish “scatt”, Danish “scat”, Icelandic “scattur” – all meaning tax. In fact as recently as in 1921, the US Senate Committee on Finance hearings transcripts read “[The common laborer]He is scot free at 40 cents an hour”.

So “scot free” meant escaping without taxation. And all of us agree taxation is an unnecessary punishment 🙂

And that is how “scot free” came around to mean “get away without penalty”.