Category: Chennai

Agonizing over a cast – the crybaby

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Friday – 26, September 2025:

“I don’t think I will be able to have it for eight days. Can you go and ask him if he can remove the cast and just put a plaster around the toe?” I asked my wife while sitting on a metal chair in the waiting area of the ortho clinic.

“It’s not a good idea. You need to have it for the broken bone to heal,” my wife replied.

“I don’t think I will be able to have it. Can you please go and ask him?” I asked in a tone that combined both desperation and frustration.

Reluctantly my wife went into the doctor’s room to check with him.

It started raining heavily as I waited for my wife to come out. I could hardly think about anything apart from the multitude of sensations originating from beneath the wet cast on my left leg.

There were three other groups of people in the waiting area besides me. There was a college student who had come along with his mother. He had a pink-colored bandage wrapped around one of his feet.

There was an elderly woman who struggled very hard to even climb the two steps leading up to the clinic. A younger woman was with her.

There was a third group of several people. It was hard to tell who was the patient in that group. The group were very animated, talking among themselves as well as moving from one part of the waiting area to another.

After a few minutes a middle-aged woman and her adolescent son, who were completely drenched, came into the waiting area and sat in the chairs facing me.

The door to the doctor’s room opened, and my wife came out. She came and sat next to me and started, “He said that the crack is slightly deeper. If you don’t have the cast, the toe won’t heal. And then you might need two surgeries—one to keep the wire for the fracture to heal and one to remove the wire after it has healed. He has prescribed a tablet to reduce the itching sensation. I think you will have to retain the cast for eight days. It is for your good only.” My wife had the look of a Nazi general delivering the terrible news to Adolf Hitler.

A sense of defeat clouded over my mind. The rain was still in full swing. The college student was getting restless. He wanted to go home. His mom pointed out that it was still raining heavily and they could not go on their two-wheeler in that downpour.

In a few minutes, the downpour reduced to a slight drizzle. My wife and his mom went to the nearby pharmacy to buy medicines. He got lost with his phone.

‘What happened?” I asked him.

“I broke my foot while playing football in college,” he replied cooly.

“How long did you have your cast?”

“I had two casts for a total of thirty days,” he responded with a triumphant tone of an adolescent who had just completed his rites to passage into adulthood.

I looked at him but did not follow-up with another question. He continued to look at me briefly and then retreated into his digital world. I went back to languishing in mental agony.

After a few minutes his mom came back with the medicines. He started walking towards the gate. In a few minutes I heard the retreating sound of a scooter.

My wife came back in an auto. She came back and wrapped a carry bag around the cast. We got into the auto to go home.

That night I could not think of anything else other than the discomfort caused by the dampness from the cast seeping onto my skin. I watched stand-up comedy on YouTube for a long time. But none of the jokes were as effective as the dampness from the cast.

Sunday – 28, September 2025:

I asked my wife to check if the ortho clinic is open so that we can go and remove the cast. She called the three numbers printed on the prescription sheet multiple times. No answer.

I then asked her to call her former physiotherapist. She dialled and started, “Hello, Mam…” The conversation continued back and forth for nearly twenty minutes. The conversation sounded more like their catch-up call.

When my wife finally placed her mobile down, I looked at her.

“She said that she won’t come and remove the cast.”

“Did you ask her if I can remove the cast myself?”

“She mentioned that if you don’t plan to go to that doctor again, then you can remove it on your own.”

“So, what should we do now?”

“Why don’t you try and manage until tomorrow? We can go to the clinic tomorrow and get the cast removed.”

As we were talking, my mom walked into our room to inquire about the conversation with the physiotherapist. My wife went on repeat mode. She explained the situation to her.

“A small child had a cast for so many weeks. He can’t even manage for two days,” my mom commented with the disgusted tone of a math teacher reprimanding her student who can’t recall Pythagoras’ theorem.

My mind voice: “Thanks, Mom. That was so helpful.”

She was referring to my son. In January my son fell from his cycle and incurred a hairline fracture in his right elbow. He had a cast for SEVEN LONG WEEKS.

They both looked at me with the same disappointed look of Sanjay Manjrekar and Ravi Shastri reviewing the dismal performance of Indian batsmen in the fourth innings of a WACA test match.

As I did not respond, they decided to entertain themselves with their own mother-in-law versus daughter-in-law verbal volleys.

My mom lobbed first, “I took care of my son without any major injury for so many years. See what has happened under your able reign.”

My wife smashed a backhanded return, “My son had a cast on his hand for seven weeks without any complaints. Your son can’t handle the cast for two days. Your son is such a crybaby.”

They both argued with the same animosity of an elderly couple reluctantly working out a schedule of taking their pet dog for morning walks.

My mind voice: “Enna vachu comedy kemady pannalaye?” (Rough translation: Are you guys using me as a prop for your comedy show?)

This essay is part 1 of the 5-part personal essay series – Agonizing over a cast

Part 2: https://yogesvr.xyz/2025/10/21/agonizing-over-a-cast-the-bad-news/

Part 3: https://yogesvr.xyz/2025/10/22/agonizing-over-a-cast-conjuring-up-scenarios/

Part 4: https://yogesvr.xyz/2025/10/23/agonizing-over-a-cast-the-zen-master-in-the-house/

Part 5:  https://yogesvr.xyz/2025/10/24/agonizing-over-a-cast-painting-our-own-rainbow/

The Crow, The Fox and Grandma’s Vadai

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A mural on the outer wall of Kaylir Canteen depicted “Paati Vadai Sutta Kadhai” – a classic short story for the kids. This is probably one of the first stories that I had heard as a kid apart from stories from Ramayana & Mahabharata.

Apparently, this story is adapted from the Aesop’s fables. You can read the story here. Looks like this is a popular kid’s story (with minor variations) in multiple countries including India, Afghanistan, Iran and Greece.

The mural depicts a slight variation of the story with the grandma feeding her vadai to a crow and the fox having an excess vadai problem. Wonder what advise Dr. Pal Manickam would offer the fox.

One of the blogs that I landed on while searching for this story, made the following observation: “Whenever they say a single old women in a story, they make sure that she looks like a widow!!! Most of the animations / illustrations depict single old women in white saree without pottu (red dot on the forehead) and without flowers on her hair. In olden days widows were not allowed to wear colorful cloths, nor allowed to wear pottu, bangles and flowers! Even though am not exactly encouraging to wear pottu, bangles, flowers…etc! Here, as a feminist it is important for me to address this!“

After reading this observation, I went and looked at the photo of the mural once again. Sure enough, the woman is of a slightly older age, she is wearing a white saree, doesn’t have pottu in her forehead and doesn’t have flowers on her hair. It’s amazing to note that even a story meant for kids could end up passing along stereotypes through it. With all the jewels that the woman is wearing, could it be that it’s a woman from Kerala (women in Kerala wear half-white sarees in golden zari border for festive occasions)?

Wonder what changes this story would undergo in the years to come. Would it be a granddad or a dad making vadais? And if such a change is incorporated would some sections of the population find the story too woke?

As for me, I was happy to find one of the beloved stories from my childhood depicted as a mural.

Location: CIT Colony, Chennai

Date: 12th September 2025

Down Memory Lane #1 – A Friend’s House

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I cross this building very frequently. Every single time I look at it I am reminded of my high school days. The above building used to be my friend’s family home for a number of years.

This house introduced me to a several new concepts. I had never heard of the term duplex house, until I walked into my friend’s house in this building for the very first time during my 10th standard. I was blown away by all the awards that were on display in the visitor’s room. My friend’s dad, director Durai was a famous Tamil film director from the 1970s and 1980s.

Their family used to run a fast-food restaurant, ‘Hot and Sweet Chat Home’ cum Ice-cream parlor selling Dollops ice-cream on the ground floor where you see the three shutters (in the photo). This was probably one of the very few fast-food restaurants in Madras (as Chennai was known then) in that era.

My family moved back to Chennai only in 1994, so the concept of fast-food restaurant was alien to me. My menu of evening snacks included just Verkadalai Burfi (Peanut Candy), Biscuits (Butter biscuit, Milkbikis, etc.), Vadai, Bajji, Bonda, and Onion Samosa. Hot and Sweet Chat Home introduced me to the snacks of Bollywood Gods – Bhelpuri, Pani Puri, Pav Bhajji, etc.

Until then I had only had Arun and Kwality ice creams. Dollops ice cream sounded an ultimate luxury to me. I guess Dollops brief association with Cadbury’s and Cadbury’s dancing female fan ad gave a Halo effect to Dollops. The restaurant used to have outdoor seating arrangement with an umbrella for each table. That was another novel sight for me.

I was introduced to the concept of playing cricket in the terrace in this building. I used to play cricket with my friend Pramod on the 3rd floor; sometimes we were joined by Pramod’s elder brother Prakash and/or their employee Moorthi.

How can I forget the multiple Christmas parties that Pramod that given to us in this building? The entire battalion of friends would descend on this house on Christmas. Not forget all that banter that would accompany the Christmas parties.

During my 11th and 12th after our family moved to Abhiramapuram, I used to frequently visit Pramod’s house in the evenings. Mostly it would be Pramod overseeing the restaurant. We would both be listening to songs on FM radio stations and chatting. I was introduced to listening to English songs on FM radio in this building – songs of Ricky Martin, Celine Dion, Backstreet Boys, etc. I was never able to follow the lyrics except for a few lines here and there. I assumed Pramod used to follow them better.

You should have seen the disappointment on my face when I walked into the restaurant one evening and Pramod telling me, “Pepsi Uma had come to the restaurant with her family and had left only a few minutes back?” I never even paused to think whether that was true until after typing the above sentences today.

A lot of evenings we hardly spoke much apart from listening to the songs. But I always felt like those were time well-spent. All good times do some to an end. Pramod went to do Engineering in Coimbatore. Hot and Sweet Chat Home had to be closed because the North Indian cook they had employed decided to go back to his hometown and they were not able to find a suitable replacement.

Pramod’s family relocated to another part of the city. I even lost touch with Pramod in between for a few years. Luckily, I was able to establish contact with him through a mutual friend and his brother. Thanks to WhatsApp, communication with friends these days is much easier. It’s another story that we don’t get to talk much until we meet face to face once a year or so.

Today, as I looked at this building with the shop closed (being a Sunday) and minimal light, I was overcome with sadness. I decided to go down memory lane and write this blog post.

Here is a Haiku to eulogize the good old times:

A magical world
Songs of friendship and banter
A bygone era.

This is the first post in the series, ‘From Chennai to Madras Down the Memory Lane’

2nd post in the series: Sharing Slivers of Joy

3rd post in the series: The Audience Laughed when Jacked Died of Hypothermia

4th post in the series: First Interaction in New School

The Need to Read the Fine Print

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I have been wanting to write a blog post about the yellow-colored billboard in the above photograph for some time now. The billboard announces that a restaurant has been featured in the Conde Nast’s Top 50 Restaurants in India in 2024. However, the name of the actual restaurant that made it to the list, Pumpkin Tales is not featured prominently in the billboard. The name/logo of Pumpkin Tales is featured in smaller size on the bottom right-hand side of the billboard and is almost completely hidden behind the leaves of a small plant!

The name/logo of the Chinese restaurant in the same building, Zhouyu is featured next to the billboard in an outdoor advertising lightbox. If one doesn’t bother to read the fine print associated with the yellow billboard or to go online and check at the Conde Nast list, there is a possibility of assuming that Zhouyu is the one that has made it to the Conde Nast list. This is exactly what happened with me a couple of months ago, and I ended up for a dinner at Zhouyu.

I have been wondering why a restaurant would commission and install a billboard in which its name is not featured prominently or could lead to confusion about another restaurant having won the award in its place. Unless if the other restaurant (Zhouyu) belongs to the same group/ management. I tried searching online.

Pumpkin Tales’ website does not list Zhouyu as one of the associated/ sister-concern restaurants in its locations section. Ditto for Zhouyu’s locations section as well which did not list Pumpkin Tales as one of the associated/ sister-concern restaurants. However, the Book a Table section on Pumpkin Tales website which led to Eatapp listed Zhouyu as one of the options in the dropdown list. I searched online and landed on a September 2020 article in the Mylapore Times with the headline, “Pumpkin Tales launches its Chinese restaurant ‘Zhouyu’ at Alwarpet.”

Is it genuine oversight from the restaurant management? I looked at the photo one more time. The prominent food image on the yellow billboard about Conde Nast list caught my attention this time. The food item resembles a Chinese/ South-east Asian dish in a white ceramic bowl with a couple of chopsticks placed on top of the bowl.

The combination of the image of what looks like a Chinese food item in the yellow billboard as well as the tagline, “A Chinese Kitchen” on top of Zhouyu in the outdoor advertising lightbox placed close to it could trip someone into making the wrong association between Zhouyu and the Conde Nast list, as happened with me.

To be fair when viewed from the other side, the food item on the yellow billboard and the Zhouyu outdoor advertising lightbox are spaced apart. So, the scope for confusion is lesser. Plus, there is nothing obstructing the Pumpkin Tales name.

This billboard placement and different sized fonts used in the billboard, reminds me of the need to always read the fine print and/ or footnotes.

Odd Tree

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Stumbled upon this tree on C P Ramaswamy Road during my evening walk today. I might have seen this tree so many times but have never looked at it or observed it until today. I came to the road through a different street than the one that I usually take. The moment I entered the road and turned towards my right this tree caught my attention. What a strange sight and an odd tree!

Every other tree in the vicinity is lush with green leaves. And yet, this tree almost had no leaves. I was wondering what could be the reason that this tree is devoid of leaves – pest infection, seasonal pattern or is the tree about to die.

After coming home, I searched online. One of the articles mentioned that tropical deciduous tree shed leaves due to drought stress. Still very strange that only this tree would face drought stress but trees around it on the same road look normal. Wondering if this tree is not native to India but somehow its seeds or sapling ended up on this road years ago.

Had this tree been in an open field or in the woods it would have been spooky. But since it’s on a busy road, it doesn’t attract much attention.

Location: C P Ramaswamy Road, Chennai

Date: 3rd September 2025

Central Avenue Park

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Stumbled upon Central Avenue Park on Greenways Road during my evening walk today. It had an open badminton court with a walkway and benches for sitting around it. This is probably one of the smallest parks that I have ever come across. This park also had a small temple on one end of the court. The badminton court occupied nearly 80 – 85% of the park’s area. Happy to find the park very clean.

Location: Greenways Road, Chennai

Date: 2nd September 2025