Cubbon Park - the literary risk

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"Our sambhar may be sweet, our women too forward, our government right-wing, we may have opened the gates to a greater integration with -what the informed rightly call - the North Indies...But sir, at the end of the day, we have Cubbon Park. Your city does not." he said dipping a slice of his kadubu into a cup of liquid jaggery.

I smiled patronizingly. "The reason for that is quite simple sir", I said dusting the sand off my gentle moustache. "You see, a place like Cubbon Park with its deceptive sense of idyll encourages all and sundry to attempt poetry. Even I came within an ace of that this weekend about Eden, Fall of Man and all. Scary, no ? We - the Hindu reading population of Madras - take our role as protectors of our national language quite seriously. That is why we make do with Panagal Park and even build flyovers next to it. Even with that, our boundless imagination sometimes threatens to make us susceptible to poetic afflatus. Then, we sit down and do the crossword and read "This Day that Age" till the impulse passes."

Okay, got to run. Someone a few streets away has apparently won an Oscar.

Comments

  1. ofternoons-n-coffeespoonsFebruary 23, 2009 at 11:11 AM

    :) our ajdust maadi-ness rarely makes space for the Hindus of the world. So much better to focus on putting kadalai than poetry, no?

    ReplyDelete
  2. dagaltiFebruary 23, 2009 at 4:58 PM

    o-n-c, you are right. But the problem with being a Hindu-bred oldworlder is that one depends on poetry even to put kadalai. I realize it doesn't work in the much heralded deccan.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 25, 2009 at 5:50 AM

    tangential. Bengalooru parks need to be considered one of the seven wonders of modern South India - to give the devil it's due, they do a great job of maintaining the parks, and not just the well known ones.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ofternoons-n-coffeespoonsFebruary 25, 2009 at 11:17 AM

    :) probably not Mr. Dagalti, but I'm sure we can manage some kadalai-putting towards those with higher literary sensibilities of some. They too have a right to acknowledgment, yes?

    ReplyDelete
  5. ofternoons-n-coffeespoonsFebruary 25, 2009 at 11:18 AM

    ...and the poor sentence construction was deliberate :P

    ReplyDelete
  6. dagaltiFebruary 28, 2009 at 3:39 PM

    //They too have a right to acknowledgment, yes?//
    Hmm...these are the kind of things which are to see with a nose turned up.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMarch 15, 2009 at 2:28 PM

    super.....hahaha ending note - super-o super

    MADDY

    ReplyDelete
  8. dagaltiMarch 15, 2009 at 7:12 PM

    Just seals the argument :-)

    Thanks for dropping by Maddy.

    ReplyDelete
  9. PrashanthJune 16, 2011 at 10:54 PM

    Another Bennai-Changalore contest ? Have fun :)

    ReplyDelete

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