From August 2001 - Do I Yahoo?

'Do you yahoo?' Whenever I see this question sticking at the end of some of the e-mails I receive, it sets off a train of thought beginning from the early periods of my yahoodom (also of my bro, cousins and friends) and traverses through the peak periods during the late teens and most part of twenties and in the end unceremoniously crashes into Aojiru and Yahoo Appu.

Do I yahoo? No, I don't. However, for a period of 16-17 years starting from the age of 13-14 I yahooed, but not anymore. This is an age (13-14) normally considered underage for anything (fun) in almost any society. On hindsight, when I analyse my own reaction nowadays to Japanese teens with cigarettes etc, I think I'm getting closer to understanding what society was trying to tell us then. Like, "You have lit the filter-end of your cigarette, son." No, that is what society tells you when your cigarette bursts into flames in the corridors of movie halls. What society, comprising of my mother, aunts, uncles and other assorted relatives plus the general public who take undue interest in your affairs for no reason whatsoever, was really trying to tell us was that "Cigarette smoking is baaaad". They weren't yet aware of our drinking habits at that point of time.

Without any of them knowing, we were following the "catch 'em young" or rather "catch ourselves young" philosophy. From one pint of whisky and 6 guys with a take-out pack of fried beef from Kamal Cool Bar and water from the public tap in a dark corner of the Museum gardens we quickly progressed to days when the number of pints outnumbered guys 2 to 1 and food enough to feed a small village, we did Yahoo. Now, I drink 'Aojiru' (a green health drink made from crushed kale leaves) to keep down my uric acid levels and other such acid and alkali levels with which doctors threaten you every time you see one!

That brings me to Yahoo Appu. He runs a cloth store called Yahoo in Trivandrum, thus the name Yahoo Appu. I think it's a bit unfortunate that he's Yahoo-ing in Trivandrum. If only he had his shop in Texas or Tacoma, he would have become a multi-millionaire now by suing the doodoo out of Yahoo.com. He had this name for his shop (even the design of the logo looks eerily similar) long before Yahoo.com came into existence or for that matter, long before Al Gore 'invented' the Internet. Maybe I should try putting him in touch with one of those lawyers in America and ask for a small share of the prize (which will help me in my quest for early retirement). You never know.

Well, it's summer again in Japan. The cicadas are screeching, the soumen noodle is here, the hanabi taikais (fireworks) are here and above all, the stifling temperatures are here. Last months average high in Tokyo was the same as in Delhi; 33 deg. C. The top Japanese delicacy to fight summer fatigue - the eels - is being flown in from Taiwan. Talking of eels, even Eric 'The Eel' Mousambani from Equatorial Guinea was here for the World swimming event in Fukuoka. For those of you who forgot, he was the man who almost drowned trying to swim in the last Olympics in Sydney. This time he managed to learn to swim properly and finished in front of 3 other dudes. Let's all Yahoo for him.

P.S.: FYI: May, 2006 addition - I met Mr. Yahoo Appu when I was in India last time. He's now running (what else?) a gold jewelry shop. Didn't ask whether he named it Yahoo gold.