Boy! India 76 all out. All done before lunch. Kabhi khushi, kabhi ghum…Tara rumpumpum…
…hum…
Listen to the falling wickets
Listen to it fall!
And with every batsman down
There was one more!
Listen to the wickets rattle
No one came there to battle
They just came to listen to their wicket fall.
I am not sure if you will agree, but I feel that the vernacular press in India is more fun than the English. Not that I am an expert on newspapers, but on the occasions that I read the stuff, I find that there is an underlying ‘lightness of being’ that is communicated in the vernacular, which is quite in contrast to the “serious, men at work, I am Atlas carrying the globe, dont mess with me, I tell you what to think” kind of approach of the English media.
Here is an example of a news item that I came across the other day in a Tamil newspaper. Its about birds. I am giving a rough translation below. I may be off in terms of translation accuracy, but you’ll get the general picture. Enjoy.
From Vizag to Tuticorin, the Pigeon Race
Tuticorin, March 28:
In a pigeon race held from Vizag to Tuticorin, a pigeon belonging to Mr Kannan created a record by flying the distance in nine days.
Tuticorin Waxing Moon Pigeons Race club has been organizing pigeon races from places like Vizhuppuram, Madurai, Vizag etc, to Tuticorin, for the last 23 years. In all these years, no pigeon has managed to make it from Vizag to Tuticorin.
This year, on 3rd March, at 7 am, the Vizag-Tuticorin pigeon race was flagged off. 16 pigeons, belonging to 4 people, participated. The pigeons were flagged off by referees Venancius and Ravichandran. The distance of around 1438 kilometers was completed first by a pigeon belonging to Mr Kannan, which arrived in Tuticorin on 12th at around 4 pm, thereby setting a record.
Thereafter, at around 4:50 pm, a pigeon belonging to Mr Anburaj, and then on 15th morning 6:50 am, a pigeon belonging to Mr Veluswamy flew in, to get the second and third prize respectively.
