Coincidence

My friend has bought a winter jacket from Ooty. Price was very reasonable but it had some logo and two other words HERMES & Antwerpen, which I didn't have any clue. I started using that jacket when ever I travel to some cold places.

I got a chance to travel to Brussels, Belgium on a business trip. I went alone. From Brussels airport, took a car for rent and reached the hotel. It was a remote place and there were no good malls and restaurants near by. I need to go to Brussels central to get all the stuffs. After getting necessary information from the hotel attendent, I walked to the railway station near by to get a train to central.

It was a small station and only three trains per hour stops in that station. I was alone in the station and bit tensed as I am not sure about the train I need to get in and the stop I need to get down. After a few minutes, a guy with the British Airways uniform came to the platform. He looked at me and smiled. I felt bit relaxed and approached him to get the details about the train and the central station. When I said "I am new to this place", that guy gave a weird look and asked "Have you never been to central?". I said "Yes". I didn't know why he reacted like that. He told that, he thought I was a Hermes student. Again I didn't understand anything and left.

LaterI noticed the word Hermes written in back of my jacket. I googled immediately to know more about that and found the intresting facts that Heremes is a European network for Literary, Aesthetic and Cultural Studies. It is based on a collaborative agreement between partner institutions from six European countries. It has a partnership with one of the institution in a city Antwerp, which is very close to Brussels,Belgium. So the jacket gave an impression that I was a student of the neighbouring city. That was really useful to me as it gave a secured feeling during the initial days in the unknown place.

Searching for some good jacket or T-shirts with any of these words: Auckland, Melbourne, Toronto. Who knows!!! again the coincidence may work!

Bird Watching

I vaguely remember when and how I got the interest of watching birds. It was during my seventh standard. School was half a kilometer away from my house and I go to school by walk with few of my class mates lived in same street. On my way I used to listen the creeching sound of birds inside a compound. Every day I stop there for a while and try to see the birds through the compound grill. After crossing the house, the talk will be about the birds. Friend accompanied me got irritated to hear me saying repeatedly that "I will be buying these birds soon and have as my pet".

1.Love Birds 2.Cockatiels
Requests for buying those birds were rejected by parents without consideration. Atlast managed to buy a pair of Love Birds (Budgies) after 5 years struggle. That sweet pair attracted everyone at home and soon everybody started loving it. One afternoon when I was in school, my father opened the cage to feed the birds. Besides being cautious, one of the bird escaped from the cage and flew away. Everybody got upset just for the reason that I am going to get disappointed heavily by knowing this. My father made a quick plan to buy a bird before I come home. On seeing a huge flock of birds at the pet shop he got so impressed by the different colours and bought two more pairs home. It started breeding and the birds count reached more than 100. Next intreset was in Cockatiels, an australian origin bird, bit expensive than budgies. Bought couple of them too.

3.Cockatoo 4.Macaws

Still the intreset is growing and the new targets are for Cockatoos which is again an australian origin and Macaws, south american origin birds. They are exotic and available even in chennai at the un imaginable price of Rs 40,000 per pair and Rs 1,75,000 per pair respectively.

I had 5 years wait for getting my first pair of birds I loved. Now I don't know the real wait time for getting my favourite Cockatoos and Macaws.

My Name is Billa

First post is about the title - My Name is Billa

1980 - Pudukkottai (Subtitle - Maniratnam Effect)

School admissions for the L.K.G students are about to start by next week. Since pudukkottai being a small town, the number of english medium schools are less (in 1980s). Parents of a mischevious kid wanted to place their son in one of the decent english medium school . They have started training him with simple questions like "What is your Name? / Father's Name? Father's profession? " etc, . The kid learned them quickly and the parents are quite confident of getting an admission for their kid.

First day in School

Parents took their kid to the principal room. As expected the conversation between the kid and the principal started.

Prinicipal : Good Morning.

Kid : Good Morning Sir!

Prinicpal : Very Good. What is your Name?

Kid : My Name is Billa

Prinicpal : !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every one in the room including the principal laughed after a minute of silence. And the kid got admission in the school.

P.S : The kid forgot these incidents happened at the age of his 3. And later came to know about his mischevies from their parents. And the kid has grown up now and started this blog.