The drowning of festivities...

Unbeknownst to him, the carefully crafted arrangements for the evening progressed, while he plowed through sunrise finding things rather repetitious. As the autonomy of dusk presented itself, the couple decided to browse through the few outlets in the littlest of apples, hoping to enlighten yet another evening.

After enduring a bisected hour, Sethu's inclination was to settle into quite brooding while waiting to proceed from the local Target store. To alleviate symptoms of lethargy, a call was routed to his good friend Sanjeev, though unexpected brevity concluded their dialogue.

The way back home too, proved uneventful with the monotony continually swelling around him. Save for the appearance of one bobbing dome, parking at the predestined lot and the subsequent ascent home provided little solace. While the principal point of their immediate conversation may go unnoticed ad infinitum, future confirmations would clarify that the thunderous uproar that accompanied their entry home had hardly put a dent upon the pent-up somberness from the day.

Having failed to inject an iota of surprise through a meticulously planned festivity, we the despondent clump of friends, have little going our way. Perhaps years later, as we look back, we may yet find solace upon examining a reminder from this day.

Fast swingin, nose nickin

Three-fourths arrived on time filled with anticipation for the impending pyrokinesis. Usurping my tardy spot, He Wang kept the play going at a decent pace. After waiting along the sidelines for a couple of games, myself and Shiva teamed up against Wang and Praveen. A couple of anxious minutes in practice shots, and away we went to a flying start. Leading 3-1, our service spiraled upon an audacious trajectory, piercing the opponents side. A speedy cross-court return to my backhand forced my mind to slow things down and consider the developing scenario.

Standing precariously at the front-center position, Wang wasn't the wiser to what had transpired. A cross-court return is always a risky maneuver to undertake when in an offensive position and the expeditious ones tend to leave the man behind cornered against straight drives. Executing upon this strategy, the Armortec made contact with the birdie just a few seconds before the fateful event transpired.

A series of unfortunate events embarked as the birdie in distress sliced through Praveen's machinations and forced Wang to lend a helping hand. Effortless racing behind the birdie, placed Wang upon a hit-or-miss precipice and he undertook an all arching swing shot. Impressed by his partner so far but not willing to pin any further hopes upon him, Praveen ensued a backup strategy.

Hoping to catch a missed swing, he edged ever closer to the gargantuan machinery executing before him. While it is true that due to its contact-free nature, badminton is a relatively safe sport, pairs in doubles need to coordinate their movements well. The lacking in this department led to the racket seeing a target upon Praveen's face and the subsequent anxious moments for all.

Akkara Kazhchakal, along the shores of satire...

While the few TV series that I watch with some consistency had been introduced through casual conversations, expecting the same from one in my native language was unusual. This indeed was the case for Akkara Kazhchakal, a sitcom from the Kairali channel, which takes a satirical look at the early Keralite communities of the US.

Though its capacity to entertain beyond linguistic borders is uncertain, it is a worthy attempt at depicting the clash of ideologies. Cultural differences, generation divides and social stratifications, while divisive in nation states, prove to be fertile grounds for comedy in the global state.