PICTURE PURRRRRRFECT
My arms hurt!! Why? As is the case with me, it’s a long story…….
8:30 PM yesterday, and I am at the local departmental store, trying to get some of my grocery shopping done (so the weekend can be dedicated to much more important things-like lazing around) when I get a garbled phone call from my mom. “ You have to cut up pictures of cricketers and stick it in Appu’s scrapbook.” WHAAAAAAAAT? The first question that pops into my head is “Why is the school encouraging cricket above all else?”
After hastily concluding my shopping, I rush home to check his diary (fashionably called Almanac!!)-Nothing there, a quick look at a page in the scrap book and there is a page bearing the legend-“Streck Pieteers of players”. This was well beyond my powers of translation, hence a frantic yell to hubby dear working upstairs. “Could you please log into his school website and see if there is anything there on Appu’s homework for today?” Nada…
A few deep breaths later, I realize I do not have a choice. I have to decipher my son’s hieroglyphics come what may. Further scrutiny revealed what looked like pictures of a snooker table, boxing gloves, a tennis racket, a gun and the ever present cricket bat!! Aha, now I get what the “Streck Pieteers “ part of the heading means!! -“Stick Pictures”!
I rushed to my parents’ home to pick up all the newspapers they had-some three months’ worth. (and this is where the hurting arms part comes in). Why, oh why, mom do you insist on getting rid of newspapers as soon as the newspaper tower threatens to topple over and engulf all of us?
Soon we were all settled on the floor of our living room, scissors in hand, busy looking through newspapers, when I realized something. All those raves and rants about cricket being the only game encouraged in this country are so very true. I could find pictures of even obscure cricketers-past, present and future involved in all kinds of activities-from walking their dogs to cuddling their girlfriends-but no sight or sign of sports persons from other disciplines.
After about an hour of searching we found pictures of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, but no, hubby dear persisted until he had found ones of Sharapova and Kournikova. An argument ensured with me asking why we needed foreign players when we had ones of our own that would fit the bill. Appu, for once was on my side, asking for pictures of “Shani” which I took to mean Sania Mirza. Disaster was averted as we found one of Sania’s pictures and it duly went into the scrapbook.
As for pictures of Abhinav Bhindra, Vijendar Singh and Pankaj Advani…there was no sign. That was when I saw a picture of Dhoni in a clothing ad and had a brainwave. We had better be looking at ads too…what if one of them had featured in one? Additionally, we should also be looking at Page 3 photos-our sportsmen are the partying kinds aren’t they?
Peace reigned until hubby exploded looking at a sheet in my hand. “There’s a picture of Vijendar Singh, cant you see?” Well I did see, but the caption beneath said “Virendar Sehwag”-so not my fault right? “Ever heard of the printers devil?”-asked hubby dear(sore at having lost the Sharapova, Kournikova war), grabbing the paper from my hand and cutting out the sought after picture.
Another hour of this and hubby dear and his illustrious scion went to bed, while the stubborn lady that I am, kept at it. Eureka!!! I soon found a tiny picture of Abhinav, squashed between ads for growing hair on bald pates, and one for a herbal supplement for Viagra. Interestingly, the picture accompanied a tiny blurb where he was talking about his favorite cricketer!!
One last picture-that of Pankaj-and I could go join the snore fest upstairs. I searched and searched, to no avail. I had gone through them all: ads, page three photo shoots, sports pages, even ones where celebrities were talking about their favorite recipes-I had left no stone unturned. I was at my wits end and had almost admitted defeat when I saw it-a tiny but recognizable picture of Pankaj- handing out an award for the best restaurant in a Times of India contest!!!
Thank you God!!
8:30 PM yesterday, and I am at the local departmental store, trying to get some of my grocery shopping done (so the weekend can be dedicated to much more important things-like lazing around) when I get a garbled phone call from my mom. “ You have to cut up pictures of cricketers and stick it in Appu’s scrapbook.” WHAAAAAAAAT? The first question that pops into my head is “Why is the school encouraging cricket above all else?”
After hastily concluding my shopping, I rush home to check his diary (fashionably called Almanac!!)-Nothing there, a quick look at a page in the scrap book and there is a page bearing the legend-“Streck Pieteers of players”. This was well beyond my powers of translation, hence a frantic yell to hubby dear working upstairs. “Could you please log into his school website and see if there is anything there on Appu’s homework for today?” Nada…
A few deep breaths later, I realize I do not have a choice. I have to decipher my son’s hieroglyphics come what may. Further scrutiny revealed what looked like pictures of a snooker table, boxing gloves, a tennis racket, a gun and the ever present cricket bat!! Aha, now I get what the “Streck Pieteers “ part of the heading means!! -“Stick Pictures”!
I rushed to my parents’ home to pick up all the newspapers they had-some three months’ worth. (and this is where the hurting arms part comes in). Why, oh why, mom do you insist on getting rid of newspapers as soon as the newspaper tower threatens to topple over and engulf all of us?
Soon we were all settled on the floor of our living room, scissors in hand, busy looking through newspapers, when I realized something. All those raves and rants about cricket being the only game encouraged in this country are so very true. I could find pictures of even obscure cricketers-past, present and future involved in all kinds of activities-from walking their dogs to cuddling their girlfriends-but no sight or sign of sports persons from other disciplines.
After about an hour of searching we found pictures of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, but no, hubby dear persisted until he had found ones of Sharapova and Kournikova. An argument ensured with me asking why we needed foreign players when we had ones of our own that would fit the bill. Appu, for once was on my side, asking for pictures of “Shani” which I took to mean Sania Mirza. Disaster was averted as we found one of Sania’s pictures and it duly went into the scrapbook.
As for pictures of Abhinav Bhindra, Vijendar Singh and Pankaj Advani…there was no sign. That was when I saw a picture of Dhoni in a clothing ad and had a brainwave. We had better be looking at ads too…what if one of them had featured in one? Additionally, we should also be looking at Page 3 photos-our sportsmen are the partying kinds aren’t they?
Peace reigned until hubby exploded looking at a sheet in my hand. “There’s a picture of Vijendar Singh, cant you see?” Well I did see, but the caption beneath said “Virendar Sehwag”-so not my fault right? “Ever heard of the printers devil?”-asked hubby dear(sore at having lost the Sharapova, Kournikova war), grabbing the paper from my hand and cutting out the sought after picture.
Another hour of this and hubby dear and his illustrious scion went to bed, while the stubborn lady that I am, kept at it. Eureka!!! I soon found a tiny picture of Abhinav, squashed between ads for growing hair on bald pates, and one for a herbal supplement for Viagra. Interestingly, the picture accompanied a tiny blurb where he was talking about his favorite cricketer!!
One last picture-that of Pankaj-and I could go join the snore fest upstairs. I searched and searched, to no avail. I had gone through them all: ads, page three photo shoots, sports pages, even ones where celebrities were talking about their favorite recipes-I had left no stone unturned. I was at my wits end and had almost admitted defeat when I saw it-a tiny but recognizable picture of Pankaj- handing out an award for the best restaurant in a Times of India contest!!!
Thank you God!!
posted by newatthis at 12:02 AM
4 comments
