Tuesday, March 29, 2011

My First English Article

This March end ’2011, I am completing 2 years of blogging. I wish to thank one and all for visiting/ commenting on my blog regularly or occasionally. Even though I started writing  in English as late as 2008 on regular basis, I tried my hand in writing  English articles in 1974-76 when I was 24 years old. On this occasion, I present my first satirical English article published in Youth Times (A Times of India publication) May’1974 issue without any changes.

“Trapped- by Pen Friends!”

Yes my friends, I am trapped by my new pen friends! You may think that I must have inserted my address in some newspaper as an advertisement to gain name and fame and thereby I must have got trapped or else some old landlord must have caught hold of my neck to recover old dues. No such a thing happened to me.

All that happened was, once my address appeared in the ‘Pen friends’ column of a magazine. It was my desire to have friends all over the country but what happened afterwards is altogether a different story. I would like to place before you two important letters which are worth preserving. I received a letter from a reputed International concern from Bombay offering me a handsome job without applying for! It reads as under-
‘Dear applicant, Congratulations! The selection board declares you successful in the preliminary selection……...if you are late in complying with the above instructions, your placement will be transferred to the pending file’. I don’t know what kind of a job was that, but I can get it if I send them Rs.10/- worth of postal stamps by ‘ordinary post’ only. If any of you are interested, you can contact this bogus firm at the bogus address by inserting your address in some pen friends column.

The second important letter came from ‘The Metro films’ (Alas, not from MGM-Metro Golden Mayer). All aspirants for films please note. The Metro films is eager to help me in becoming a super star like Rajesh Kahanna for just Rs.10/- only. (Even though I may look like a Chimpanzee). I feel pity for those boys and girls who are trying hard to get into the film world. Poor chaps! Some are running after the Poona film Institute and quite a few are pestering film stars for recommendations. I think they are unaware of the Metro films, who are eagerly waiting to turn these boys and girls into top stars of all time.

Believe me, I would have joined the Meto films had I the physique of Dharmendra, voice of Raj kumar, face of Dev Anand and talent of Rajesh Khanna , but it is really very unfortunate that after publication of my address, I am so trapped that I am not in a position to spend even a paisa. I am praying God for more such friendly letters and looking forward to a letter which sends me a ten rupee note to purchase a handful of ‘Aspro’!

23 comments:

  1. :-) Congratulations, Mr Ayyangar. It is a pleasure "knowing" you. Please, republish your print articles here?

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  2. FROM FACE BOOK-
    Congrats Shri Ramji. Thoroughly enjoyed reading the 1974 article. It was quite funny. Tricksters were there, are there and will be there!
    -Shobha Warrier

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  3. Congratulations Shriram Sir for completing two years and for Blog Junta's Editor's Choice too. You have a gift this isn't it? This article really great! Life is as simple as 10 Rs. Note. LOL :). Thank you so much for being in my network. Give us such pleasant articles ...again and again.!

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  4. Ha Ha so the scamsters just progressed from post to email these days :D

    A job and film chance in 10 Rs! Not bad, from 10 Rs then and now we have progressed to email dupe mails asking for some Lakhs ;)

    Congratulations for completing 2 years in blogging! Looking forward to more articles from you :)

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  5. Congrats Sir for you first english article.

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  6. Congrats on the blog anniversary! enjoyed the article too. Did you get any letter offering the said Rs.10 or not? :P

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  7. Congratulations for completing two years

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  8. Congratulations to you!

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  9. From Face book-
    Anu Appaji- Wow, never knew this part - when was this? Amazing that such scams date back way back when ;-)
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    Alka Gurha -thats a revelation...Congrats
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    Geeta Singh -congrats Sir :)!!!
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    Irfan Uddin- My Heartiest Congratulations Sir...
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    Mohini Puranik- Congrats Ayyangar Sir! :)
    -------------------------------------------
    Mohan Nellore- wow... so much of nostalgia!!! :D

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  10. Very interesting article.. :) Congratulations on completing 2 yrs on blogspot :) !! Keep blogging :)

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  11. Congratulations Indeed :)

    I never knew that we have been nurturing the same "Congratulations you've been selected" ideology since 1974!

    There is that pinch of innocent humor in your blog, and i quite liked that :D

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  12. Great sir!!!. This is sweet memory of you. But this is true and still we are receiving the similar kind of messages as emails and SMS. Things not changed.

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  13. nice article sir...!!
    nice to imagine the concept of pen friends!!... it must be really exciting for letters to arrive!!...and to reply them...!!
    today we have facebook and orkut whr u can connect to ppl around the world in seconds...but it doesnt hold any surprise when compared to the concept of pen friends..... i thought these pishing mafias existed only in the 'sms' era...!!

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  14. nice article sir !! and congratulations on completing 2 yrs

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  15. A hurray for your blog! Haha…uncleji getting 2 many job offers.:) The film industry is incomplete without the ordinary looking people in it also.;)

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  16. belated HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS!!

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  17. Congratulations on surviving the blogworld for two years and imparting lots of good informative blogs for all of us to read. Keep blogging. A big loss for MGM huh?

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