LAUGH WITH NUMBERS

EK DO TEEN-- HUMOUR IN NUMBERS

I am shocked many of my friends have not been giving numbers the respect they deserve. Indians in particular ought to treat numbers with utter sanctity .This is because many of your friends and relatives are named with numbers and chances are you may not have even noticed this. Thus you can see for yourself the relationship between names and numbers

EK DO TEEN-- HUMOUR IN NUMBERS

ONE………………….Eknath

TWO…………………..Dwivedi

THREE………………..Trivedi

FOUR…………………….Chaturvedi

FIVE[PAANCH]……..Panchapagesan

SIX…[AARU in Tamil]…ARMUGAN

SEVEN[EZHU in Tamil] EZHUMALAI

EIGHT…………………YETI[A mysterious guy from Tibet!!}

NINE……………………….Ninan

Ten……………………Tenzing

Need I say anything more about why Indians need to respect numbers ?

Take number 3 .Dev Anand immortalized this number in Bollywood with scintillating songs in TEEN DEVIAN.Thereafter Hindi cinema has not left the number3 alone for long.Thus Teesri Manzil, Trishul and Tridev are more recent films celebrating that number. The film Patni Patni aur Woh referred to the third man in a relationship.

Teen patti is an addictive game for many a gambler in the back alleys of Mumbai.

In religious traditions too that number is venerated. Thus Christians speak of the Trinity as do Hindus of Brahma , Vishnu and Shiva .In Carnatic Music one holds the trinity in awe—Theagaraja, Shayama Shastri and Muthuswami Dikshitar .

Creative people are said to have opened their third eye. There is a rhyme about 3 bags full.

In cricket the only fielding position that has been named with a number is the 3 rd man.This nomenclature is considered so sacrosanct that even women’s cricket uses that term. The other fielding terms are generally opposed by women—slip, second slip for example. But such is the awesome power of the number 3 that no women cricketer has objected to ’ third man’.

In politics some parties have a significant place for number 3. Thus in some parties the first three powerful positions are held by just one person!

In retail business it is said that the 3 most important ingredients for success are location, location and location. For many businessmen and politicians there are only 3 things that matter—money, money and money.

My grand nephew—the same guy you meet in many of my articles ,attends a play school in Boston. His teacher has taught him that in case he needs to empty his bladder he ought not to unzip his pants to indicate his intentions. He must merely lift his little finger. On the other hand should he wish to do the big job he must lift 2 fingers. On one occasion he lifted 3 fingers . The teacher was perplexed .She called him close and asked him what his problem was . ‘I need to do both the jobs’ said my bright little relative !

Anvar Ali Khan has something about numbers and various Indian communities. Thus :

1 BENGALI is a poet, 2 Bengalis =film society.3 Bengalis = political party, 4 Bengalis=2 political parties.

1 Tambrahm = priest at Varadarajaperemal temple, 2 Tambrahms= maths tution class, 3 Tambrahms = queue outside US consulate at 4 am, 4 Tambrahms=Tyagaraja festival at Santa Clara.

Patrick French author of INDIA:A PORTRAIT says that in each such case—and there is at least one for every Indian community—the depictions are very close to reality.

I leave it to the reader to work out something along these lines for his/her community with all the affection at his or her command.

By the way whenever a politician is dragged to a court he invariably flashes two fingers in a ‘V’. I asked one such politico from UP why he –a known English language hater —preferred the ‘V’ sign. Did it indicate that he felt confident he would emerge innocent and victorious—V as in Victory?

No, he said and winked at me .’The raising of two fingers indicates the kind of money I will use to get out of trouble’.

K.R.RAVI

WWW.KRRAVI.COM