A lot of relatives responded last month by mail and phone. Prasad's and my articles on songs seem to have touched a chord for many. Prasad was glad I wrote it. I am even more glad to have written it and I have been inspired to write another nostalgic piece.

Many youngsters today are bored. Even 2-year old Neha claims to be bored sometimes. So I started wondering whether I was ever bored in my younger days. This has led to my article for this month. First I had planned to write a piece on the games I played as a boy. Later I expanded the scope to cover my entire childhood and boyhood activities. I leave it to the readers to judge my efforts.

Prasad wanted Aarthi to design new logos for the masthead as well as the features. She is very busy (she is now doing 'colour course', which has so much work that she says she has slept for just 4 hours in the first week of the course). So I have done it myself. But I hope Aarthi will find time later to give a professional look. Maybe for the 25th issue.

Things are staying up, both on contributions and feedback. Sudarshan continues to be the first relative to send his contribution for the month. Prasad has written not one, but two articles. Nitya and Rahul could not perhaps sustain their enthusiasm. Their place has been taken by Radha, whose piece I have given the title 'Radha Writes'. A new feature this time is 'Feedback'.I am a regular reader of Sujatha's column in www.ambalam.com, an e-magazine in Tamil. I have given extracts from his article on limericks (in Tamil). I have been motivated to try my hand at writing limericks in Tamil (I used to write limericks and rhymes in English) and have come up with three. Another interesting piece that I made this month using Javascript is the one in 'Humour' section - 'Bodybuilders and Mona Lisas in the family'.

The first feature, as usual, are the old photos.

MEMORIES ARE MADE	OF THESE
	Kannan (Narasimhan), my brother-in-law with Chitra.
The second photo was in 1976 when my parents visited Chittaranjan for Harish's first birthday.

MY DIARY FOR AUGUST 2002
The news of the month for us was the fact that Jaya Akka's potassium level has come down from 6.4 to 5.2 to 4.8. It has to come down further to below to 4.5.

India's good performance in the Commonwealth Games, Anand's victory, the release (and the flopping?) of Rajni's 'Baba' after all the hype, Sachin's 30th Century and India's big win in a test abroad, the Big Fight between cricketers and BCCI over contracts, Veerappan's coming back to the media with a bang, another Big Fight on Gujarat elections were some of the other news for the month. I am repeating what I had written to Raghu about the Commonwealth Games. 'We saw a number of games in the Commonwealth games on DD Sports which was telecasting them live. Aparna Popat played well to defeat the top seed from your country. The women's hockey SF and final were both good. The final, however, left a bad taste though the goal was correct as per rules. Overall, it was creditable to win more golds than Canada, New Zealand and SA. In fact it is sad that the cricketers who won in a tournament which had three countries get far more attention and money than the players who did well in a tourney that had about 40 countries. But who said life is fair?' But the good thing is that the shooters and others got a grand reception and cash awards and this may encourage many more to try games other than cricket (like the Anand effect in chess).

August was a busy month for us. In Mumbai, we rarely visited people, though we were going out to dramas, films etc. But here we are busy visiting and receiving people. I also had to go to the dentist for five sittings. Since he was in Adyar, we took the opportunity to visit relatives in South Madras. We also went for the Grihapravesam of Amrith's cousin and 60th birthday of her class-mate's husband. Our daily routine of exercises, shuttle, newspaper, crossword and magazines continues. Jaya Akka came here on 8th. When Neha was here, all of us saw and fondled ducklings for the first time.

We also visited Tirupathi after about 8 years. We went by train on 28th Afternoon and returned on 29th evening. All readers of this, PLEASE VISIT Kapileswar (or Kapilateertham) in Tirupathi (4 kms. from Govindaraja Swami temple) and the Meditation Hall in Tirumala when you go to Tirupathi/Tirumala next time. On 28th, we visited The temples at Tirupathi, Tiruchanoor and Kapilateertham. The last is an ancient temple and very nice (no crowds also). Next morning, we left at 4.00 AM from Tirupathi for Tirumala and had Darshan at about 6.00 after waiting for more than an hour for Archana Anantha Sewa. I have written a limerick on my experience in the Tamil section. The Meditation Hall came as a nice change after all the crowd and the noise. Since we had time, we also visited the factory of Amara Raja batteries, who make industrial as well as car batteries. Chooda was kind enough to take care of our house (and her mother and my mother) during Amritha's absence.

Harish has arrived to attend Shoba's wedding. He reached just a few hours before and will leave back for Pune on 8th September.
anbudan,

31st August 2002