The Kennedy Tapes - by Ernest R. May

Shoe Dog - by Phil Knight

Man's Search For Meaning - by Viktor Frankl

4-Hour Work Week - by Tim Ferris

Recently, on the last day of the billing cycle, I was surfing the net to download stuff to exhaust the remaining data quota. Taking a free course on Coursera or Udemy was out of the question as I wouldn't have been able to finish it within a day. I downloaded a lot of stuff from BBC - history hour and other podcasts. That site is a virtual treasure trove of infotainment. Anyone interested in history and world politics can remain occupied there for hours. Hats off to these folks!

Even after going through a couple of 'Best Podcasts' lists I couldn't find anything worth downloading. Sure, there were a few podcasts about cold cases and supernatural stories but downloading would have meant keeping tab on their latest updates - something I wasn't interested in doing on an ongoing basis. For a few minutes it really looked like the remaining data would remain unused.

Then, in a sudden burst of inspiration, I turned to Youtube. First videos to be searched for were those of Fireball XL5 - this 60s show was telecast in India in the 80s. Of course, in keeping with the primitive technology of the time it wasn't terribly sophisticated e.g. the Fireball used to cast a shadow while taking off. :-) But we were kids then and kids don't usually bother about these things - at least those of my generation didn't. And I loved Steve Zodiac and Venus (though she always sounded as if she was either drunk or sleepy!). So I downloaded 4-5 episodes before remembering Sherlock Holmes - the one portrayed by Jeremy Brett. There were very few whole episodes - I wasn't interested in downloading parts and seeing them in sequence. But I managed to download The Dancing Men, The Blue Carbuncle, A Study In Scarlet, The Case Of The Christmas Pudding, A Scandal In Bohemia, and - The Hound Of The Baskervilles! Can's wait to watch that one!

Thinking of the Holmes series brought back memories of childhood, good ole DD and the 80s-90s shows. :-)

Oh, that was one hell of a ride down the memory lane. I looked for R.K.Narayanan's 'Swami and Friends'. Found 2 whole episodes and, grinning from ear to ear, downloaded them. I had to restrain myself from watching them immediately. What next? Oh yes, देख भाई देख. Since I was out of my teens by then I knew that the happy joint family depicted in it couldn't be found anywhere in the real world. But this was the pre-Ekta Kapoor era. And so there was no devious plotting, scheming or screaming in any episode. Plus I had a huge crush on Sanjay Diwan (played by Vishal Singh). ;-) Next on my list was the late Jaspal Bhatti's Flop Show. If you want to know what clean comedy is, you got to watch one of its episodes. Bhatti managed to deliver his punchlines with an absolutely deadpan expression and yet never failed to throw light on the corruption, inefficiencies, contradictions and inconveniences that were part and parcel of living in India of that time - but all in good humor. An absolute delight to watch! I also downloaded a couple of episodes of 'इधरउधर' for good measure.

Of course, I suspect that some shows like Karamchand would sound rather primitive in this day and age when crime shows are a dime a dozen on any channel you turn to. Still, it would be great to watch an episode or two - just for old times' sake. I would have gone for episodes of Byomkesh Bakshi but I had watched the series when DD had aired it a few years back. But then there is so much more out there. Stone Boy, इन्द्रधनुष, यात्रा, Malgudi Days, बाबाजीका बाईस्कोप, दादादादीकी कहानियाँ , रजनी , देखो मगर प्यारसे, बिक्रम और बेताल, नुक्कड़, ये जो है जिंदगी, जबान संभालके......

I guess I don't have to worry about exhausting my data limit for a few upcoming billing cycles :-)

Learning Sanskrit - Class 6

Anyone who knows me well knows that I hate to be late. But that day I couldn't leave home in time, so by the time I reached the classroom I was late by a good 10 minutes. As I stepped out of the elevator and hurried towards the classroom I ran into the teacher who was heading to the canteen for a hot cuppa tea. I muttered an apology and breathing a sigh of relief, entered the classroom.

The rest of the crowd was busy copying down what was written on the blackboard. I glanced at it - it was a table of all 24 combinations of a feminine noun ending in 'aa' - माला . We were supposed to do prepare a similar table for one more noun - लता (this is the Sanskrit word for a creeper). I got busy with my tables. 5 minutes later the teacher walked in. She called everyone to her desk to check their homework and today's table. For a moment, I had a vision of one of my school teachers doing the same. :-) After this was over, we all recited the table to make sure that it would stick in our memory at least till the time we walked out the door :-)

Then we all read a story in Sanskrit - the one of a king who looks after an orphan baby monkey, appoints it as his bodyguard when it grows up and dies because the stupid monkey tries to kill a fly sitting on the sleeping king's chest with a sword. :-)

One of our classmates regularly posts Sanskrit verses on our Whatsapp group. I had posted some queries regarding 2 recent messages. So the teacher took us through the messages line by line to make sure that we understood their meaning.

The class was dismissed 10 minutes earlier than usual because the teacher had to go home early. But the students dispersed without any obvious signs of glee. I reflected back upon the days of my childhood when such rare occasions used to fill us all up with immeasurable joy. I guess now we can only experience that feeling when (and if) the office is closed because of heavy rains. :-)

It takes all kinds of people to make this world - not to mention a Whatsapp group. Recently, a friend asked me if I wanted to be part of a group that was devoted to discussion about nature in general and flora in particular. Horrified, I said NO, as if the Devil had offered to take me on an afternoon tour of the Hell. She sent back a smiley, assuring me that all the members in the group stick to the group mandate. Be that as it may, I said. It's best to be subscribed to just as many groups - like mutual fund schemes in your portfolio - as you can count using fingers of only one hand. Thumb rule of the day!

And I stick by the rule as if my life depends upon it. Surely, my sanity does. But even in such a small set of groups there is an amazing similarity when it comes to behavioral patterns. First, there are those, and I must confess they will be the death of me one day, who forward messages without ascertaining their validity. Recently, on one of the groups, a member forwarded a message that had 'HOAX' written all over it. I haven't been able to figure out if it is sheer stupidity or sheer laziness that makes these people do it. Eons ago, I used to assiduously post replies giving links about them being hoaxes. Now I choose the path of least resistance - ignore. Believe me, it does wonders for the blood pressure.

Next is the category that will send some message about some event that may or may not have happened in Stone Age and ask if that is true. Now an average Whatsapp group consists of mere mortals like you and me, who at best can be described as Jack of all trades and Master of none - with maybe a handful of experts thrown in, if any. How can any of us verify if the said event really happened or not? And why should I Google to find its authenticity if the sender could have done it with a few keystrokes - especially before posting it on the group. I have a repository of really caustic words for such morons at my disposal but have to refrain from dipping into it every time because who has got time and energy to engage in the War Of The Words all day, right?

And then there are those who will, for reasons best known to them and (perhaps) to God Almighty, send 'Good Morning' messages. You wake up, squint at your phone in a vain attempt to figure out the time, see a couple of messages in whatsapp, decide to hazard a glance at them knowing fully well that you cannot afford the time and chances are very high that one of the overnight messages are from these people. Sent at 5:07am or some equally unearthly hour! One of the members on my whatsapp groups sends 'Good Morning. Bharat Mata Ki Jai' at least once a month. And not on the same day every month, mind you! I have often wondered about asking him why he does that. Does he see Mahatma Gandhi, Jawarharlal Nehru or any other leaders from the independence era in his dreams the previous night? Perhaps he watches Manoj Kumar movies? There has to be some trigger, right? But, this, like many of life's other questions, is forever destined to remain unanswered. And I have to fight back a strong temptation of replying with a hearty 'Jai Hanuman' every time he does it.:-)

For now, the only surefire way of keeping myself sane has been to go on a Whatsapp Sanyas for 3-4 days a month. Siddhartha Gautama didn't have Whatsapp in his time. Otherwise he would have found himself fuming at some banal message or another - right under the Bodhi tree.