Durga and Swami. Old Man ever, ever favourites. Twins, for Old Man. Swami or W.S. Swaminathan of Malgudi fancied by Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami and Durga of Nishchindipur imagined by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. Friend Usha Subramaniam in USA had asked for books to read and Old Man suggested Swami and Friends, missed out on Pather Panchali or its edited version Making a Mango Whistle. Durga and Apu hear the chug of a steam engine in the writing of Bibhuti, never sight it. Swami at Malgudi Station says bye to friend Rajam boarding a train. Late night Old Man is into again enjoying Swami and Friends.. a soft snore cascading into loudness of old age... Durga boarded a train at Nishchindipur station without a ticket to Malgudi to meet her friend Swami, on an invitation. After two days and three nights she touched Malgudi and stared at the station... as Swami was a touch late ... a crowd of some five including the station master were talking in Tamil and Durga had one tongue Bengali. She had been invited by the Malgudi Cricket Club to play a Test Match with Young Men's Club on the sands of Sarayu ... a mixed Test match, the first ever .... men and women in both teams... Durga could have been Harmanpreet Singh as Swami is Tate ...... Durga scored a double century, Tate taking ten wickets... Test match won by Malgudi Cricket Club ... with Kapil Dev presenting the Cup..... and arguing for men-women mix Test matches in a five minute Tamil-Hindi-English speech... if there can be mixed doubles in tennis and badminton, why not cricket, he argued. Swami and Durga wagged their heads, impatient for the ice creams, sodas, dosas and chutneys, teas for Durga and coffees for Tate and his team. Old Man spun out of a last whirr, stirred out of a dream. For an hour he lay still on the bed wondering over the absence of a girl friend for Swami in Swami and Friends; and the total absence of dosas, idlis and vadas in Narayan .... coffee is mentioned along with tiffin .... a smile took over Old Man, as he recalled Narayan write the best cricket reports in 1935, possibly the first Indian cricket correspondent musing Bradman, Hobbs, Duleep, .... embroidering the Indian soul with cricket, to make it the forever game of Swamis and Durgas in 2018 ...... a way to wake into a morning. With coffee he is into Making a Mango Whistle... and Ashes and SA-India Tests.... Perhaps Wisden should put Swami and Durga on the cover.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Durga and Swami
Durga and Swami. Old Man ever, ever favourites. Twins, for Old Man. Swami or W.S. Swaminathan of Malgudi fancied by Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami and Durga of Nishchindipur imagined by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. Friend Usha Subramaniam in USA had asked for books to read and Old Man suggested Swami and Friends, missed out on Pather Panchali or its edited version Making a Mango Whistle. Durga and Apu hear the chug of a steam engine in the writing of Bibhuti, never sight it. Swami at Malgudi Station says bye to friend Rajam boarding a train. Late night Old Man is into again enjoying Swami and Friends.. a soft snore cascading into loudness of old age... Durga boarded a train at Nishchindipur station without a ticket to Malgudi to meet her friend Swami, on an invitation. After two days and three nights she touched Malgudi and stared at the station... as Swami was a touch late ... a crowd of some five including the station master were talking in Tamil and Durga had one tongue Bengali. She had been invited by the Malgudi Cricket Club to play a Test Match with Young Men's Club on the sands of Sarayu ... a mixed Test match, the first ever .... men and women in both teams... Durga could have been Harmanpreet Singh as Swami is Tate ...... Durga scored a double century, Tate taking ten wickets... Test match won by Malgudi Cricket Club ... with Kapil Dev presenting the Cup..... and arguing for men-women mix Test matches in a five minute Tamil-Hindi-English speech... if there can be mixed doubles in tennis and badminton, why not cricket, he argued. Swami and Durga wagged their heads, impatient for the ice creams, sodas, dosas and chutneys, teas for Durga and coffees for Tate and his team. Old Man spun out of a last whirr, stirred out of a dream. For an hour he lay still on the bed wondering over the absence of a girl friend for Swami in Swami and Friends; and the total absence of dosas, idlis and vadas in Narayan .... coffee is mentioned along with tiffin .... a smile took over Old Man, as he recalled Narayan write the best cricket reports in 1935, possibly the first Indian cricket correspondent musing Bradman, Hobbs, Duleep, .... embroidering the Indian soul with cricket, to make it the forever game of Swamis and Durgas in 2018 ...... a way to wake into a morning. With coffee he is into Making a Mango Whistle... and Ashes and SA-India Tests.... Perhaps Wisden should put Swami and Durga on the cover.
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