Bruno's hurt - badly!!

Bruno is hurt. very badly. He is seething with anger. He tore apart the morning newspaper lying in the porch , thrown by the newspaper boy, for Veekshanam to read. He is sure all his friends would be doing the same thing at their respective places. For, all of them think alike.

He is an indian at heart. Though there is no record or history that proves he is an Indian,he knows he is Indian. Atleast Veekshanam had picked him from Indian Streets. He has high esteem for Veekshanam and by virtue of that relation he has the same feeling for all Indians and in turn all Human Beings.

That is, until Achu Mama ( lovingly called Achuthanandan) bought his species into lime light. Bruno loves attention, but this was one he didnt approve. He was caught off guard. He is aghast at the manner in which his species was insulted. Bruno is quite aware that Achu mama cannot generally utter a sentence with out having long impregnable silences in between, when he rolls his eyes around and with out uttering some nonsense or the other in the course of his speech. Bruno is also aware that this technique is taught at the communist camps along with other techniques like creating road blocks, having bandh on all days in a year,unfolding umbrella in India when it rains in China,beating up others, grabbing somebody else's land,eating parippu vadai, drinking milk-less tea and smoking beedis.

But Bruno fervently hoped that Achu mama had not taken the name of his species in so despicable a manner, that too when speaking about a martyr.Bruno does not bother about Achu Mama, but he cares for the Martyr's family.

He and his canine friends pray that Achu mama be given some training in civilities. They pray fervently that the martyr's family does not look down upon Bruno and his species.

After all Bruno loves Indians.

Vilas Rao's Vilas(am)

Veekshanam Menon is amazed at the Leela Vilas of Vilas Rao the Deshmukh at The Taj.

First he brings a shooting party to a place where a great tragedy has occured. Then he goes on TV and says what the heck is wrong with that and then he says he has "offered" to quit "if" he is responsible.

Veekshanam does not have this liberty. He has to be correct everytime. and responsible. If he forgets to bring potatoes along with other vegetables , after being reminded by Smt. Veekshanam, he has to render an apology. He cant resign though.He has to face the music and the bleak prospect of a sullen Srimati at the dinner table- that is , if there is dinner at all. He wish he could be as suave as Vilasji and say to Smt . that there is nothing wrong in not bringing potatoes and then expect her to believe it.

Veekshanam has nothing against Ramuji though. Ramuji is an old friend. VK had done an item number in one of Ramuji's productions before he discovered Urmila. Even otherwise ,Ramuji , just like every other concerned Indian , just wanted to be at the scene.Soak in the terror. He will effectively communicate his feelings to the Indian multitude through a muti starrer named "RGV ka Bomb", which will, VK is sure, set fire in the Box Office.

Vilasji ,as VK knows very well, likes big life. He likes cinema award functions ( the last count has him attending atleast 12 in a year ) ,Marriages, Parties , Social Dos.. He doesn't like to be bothered about Tiffenwalas, bai's, blue,yellow and white collared shirtless workers or the breed collectively called the aam aadmi - Mango Man.

VK is not surprised at Vilasji's contention that the whole world is a Cinema and he , of course, is the master story teller.

Vilasji is a great actor. His son is the living testimony to the fact. It is a known fact that Vilasji outdid the nava rasa's by inventing a 10th one. VK had the good fortune of seeing it once. It has not yet been named. Some names doing the rounds are Vilas Ras, Ras Vilas ,VilRa..

Vilasji is in and out of Delhi meeting with something called as High Command . What ever happens, VK is sure that Vilasji will prevail.

Mango Man can go take a walk !

whats in a name??

Veekshanam Menon was not born with that name. His father gave it to him. His father was a man of view points. Hence Veekshanam. Veekshanam when translated from his language means view point .

Veekshanam Menon did not have an issue with his name. But the people around him had. His ma called him "veekshoooo" with the swara, raga and taala varying according to the degree of sweetness or naughtiness Veekshanam displayed. But legend has it that his ma never "shoo"ed him away.

His school sweetheart- meenakshi- called him "Veee", suffixed with endearments like "Kuttaa", "Kannaa", "Ponnae " depending on the level of sweetness she herself found her in. She had an affinity to" modernity" she frequently saw in Hindi movies,the ones she watched with her friend Lakshmi at Laksmi's house in the imported Akai VCR that Lakshmi's  father had bought from Sharjah. But she could not enjoy "modernity" herself because her mother was of the opinion that girls should be seen and look good  in Half saree and blouse , oiled and braided hair tied with red ribbons.So she satisfied herself by giving Veekshanam a modern pet name. Luckily, his school did not have the stylish upperclass pranky boys with gelled hair and ipods and who spoke Phoren English in his times. Else he would  have been easily counternamed Peeee.

His north Indian friends , during his days of bachelor hood and work, would stop at Veekshan!!He used to wonder, how a typical Delhiite who could talk endlessly about how he is the most influential person in the whole of Delhi or give a long list of politicians and policemen he knows or give the choicest of exotic verbal abuses at a hapless scooterist for threatening to touch his Maruti Esteem could be so frugal in pronouncing his name. But then most northindians have that tendency with names... think Ravan ( not Ravanan) , Lakshman ( Lakshmanan) , Ravan ( Ravanan) ,Anant( ananthan) . 

His stint in USA threw up quite an interesting array of pronunciations. It will be beyond the scope of this article to list all of them. but there was this incident when a client whom he was getting introduced to in the US, started pronouncing his name and got stuck near" nam". His jaws locked and he has ever since been seen with a sneer in his face caused by that jaw-lock.

During his US stay Veekshanam did become attracted to all that was American and opted for a beer-burger belly,blonde girlfriends, 3Km/litre SUV,a clean shaven look and  a new name his American friends gave him- V K SHAN!! 

And he did have a brief stint as a Rock Star in the "let the Bums shake" pub in down town Manhattan.

He returned to his motherland and over the course of his many years of existance , Veekshanam, through the arduous and scientific  method of trial and error arrived at a name that eased many a pain- V K Menon!!! He suddenly was home!! He became erudite, fashionable and elderly.

Wonder what Meenakshi would think..

Whatever the name, Veekshanam Menon is a man with a view point , except when his beer belly obstructs the view  of his "thingy" when he pees.