He's Back!

Live! Live! Live! Mahendra spotted on the evening news, Sunday, 29 April 2007. And he looks like he had a haircut!

Wearing: a black jacket, that amasi coloured shirt and a tie that is either salmon, terra cotta or apricot. Mmm, not quite sure about the tie with that shirt. What do you think?

Damn... I need some technology - so I can grab images of Mr Mahendra and post it here.

Saturday

There was no Mahendra, no TV, as Australia took the cricket World Cup.

Still no Mahendra

I am really getting worried about Mahendra. Is there a putsch coming to fruition among newsreaders at the SABC? Is he sick?

So, in the colourful one's place tonight was Tsepiso Makwetla in something grey I think. I really don't care... All I care about is Mahendra.

A miss and a miss, again and again

There was no TV on Wednesday, so no Mahendra was spotted. Did Mahendra appear? I don't know, and where are the other field agents who are supposed to be on the lookout? Were they all out, eating, drinking, living it up, letting the colourful one slip by?

Thursday evening, Mr Mahendra was elusive. What is up with Mahendra? Is all this scrutiny getting to him? I must say, I am getting tired of describing all the wannabe Mahendras and Mahendrases, like Joanne Joseph in her new Madonna haircut and sloppy blue (nice colour though) jacket that looks quite cheap with the one collar curling up and that ribbon or whatnot used to tie the jacket at her stomach. I mean, I like her, she's a good newsreader, she generally dresses well and sober, but, she IS NOT MAHENDRA.

Television abandoned...

in favour of a friend's birthday party where ages ranged from early-mid twenties to late seventies. Dress codes were informal and understated and not a Pratt- nor Windsor-knot in sight. We were regaled with tales of romance on the high seas by perhaps the eldest guest at the table. What a storyteller! Her flow and cadence and narrative goals never once suffered from countless interruptions by parties both who had interest as characters and parties interested in hearing a tale well told.

Alas, no Mahendra.

Sunday comes, Sunday goes...

and now it's Monday but still no Mahendra.

No Mahendra

Matinee Mahendra

It looks like Mr Mahendra may after all have gone off to a matinee disco because he was back reading the evening news last night in the same aluminium and plum combination. What AT calls his ringmaster's outfit.

Fellow-watcher AT also pointed to a slight discoloration under Mr Mahendra's left eye and what looked like swelling on his cheeks. Is it bad make-up, too little sleep? What's up with the puffy face? He has been away from the box for a few days... was it plastic surgery?

Goeie genugtig! Is dit aloemenum?

[Good Lord! Is this aluminium?]

That's the colour of his jacket, people, Live! at lunch. With that deep plummy shirt and plummy striped tie. My gawd! It's lunchtime Mahendra, not disco-time!

A fleeting glimpse...

...that lasted about 15 seconds. Mahendra looked good, as if he was glad to see us. His tie, however, was disappointing. In my consternation I managed to make out something in red and black diagonal stripes. Could he be going to the tote after work tonight? A tie like that can only lead to betting on horses.

Joanne's Jackets

From now on, this blog will be called 'Joanne's Jackets'. She's wearing a charcoal jacket with white polo neck. Pretty boring...erm, I mean, sober.

Bloody Elusive Mahendra

Live! I am, but no Mahendra. Fellow watcher, AT, muses over the phone: What does Mahendra do when he's not reading news? Given the scattered slots, can he actually keep his beloved fridge full?

I didn't have any responses for her, but I have come across a few Mahendra impostors and namesakes, none of them good newsreaders.

First up, and inspired by Nostradamus, is Mahendra Sharma, Founder of the Wave of Nature Theory to Envisage the World Financial Market. You can find him at Mahendra Prophecy. This man is good. He doesn't say when exactly, but '[a]fter the long stay in jail of Nelson Mandela, [he] predicted that the freedom fighter would be the first democratic ruler of South Africa'!

Elusive Mahendra

...last night, but Joanne Joseph in black and black, and a new hairdo. Too much black, too many flicks...

"In today's office, the rakish dresser...

is the tall poppy, standing out to be downsized — raked away."

Thus Edward Tenner in "Suiting Ourselves" (at the Chronicle of Higher Education), a review of a clothing exhibition. So, I wonder, is Mahendra's dress a bit too rakish? In one interesting paragraph, Tenner continues:

But in the mid-70s, John T. Molloy's Dress for Success heralded the end of such polymeric exuberance. Molloy's meticulous research revealed clothing's signals of social class and education, confirming that conservative cuts and colors, and dressing like one's superiors, were the means of advancement. Science had developed brightly colored polyester double-knits to defy conformity; Molloy made conformity a science, helping consign the leisure suit to comic punch lines.

Read the whole article...

Mahendra does Columbian

Live! Live! Live! Mahendra spotted in his black jacket with crimson buttonhole, his buttermilk shirt and a tie that would make Juan Pablo proud: red, gold/yellow and blue! A pity Massa won the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix. Someone tell Mahendra Juan has moved to Nascar.

I saw Mahendra

Live! Mahendra is here, in a lovely grey jacket! Oh how I love that jacket! The shirt... well, a fellow-watcher thinks it's either white or a very light blue; I think it's a very light lilac. Shirt and jacket in my mind well-suited to function, although Mahendra could hide some more cuff.

The tie. What a tie. Broad stripes of grey, pink, gold, blue and somehow filled with special effects. A fellow-watcher says it looks like the northern lights.

Friday's ties

Elusive Mahendra as I slipped out the door for a night of food and company that lasted into the early hours of today. I am recovered now, I think - but maybe I should have a soft boiled egg nevertheless... Here's to finding Mahendra tonight.

...and ever, Live! but Elusive

That's right, Mahendra's Ties comes to you Live! tonight, but our man is elusive still. Instead, Joanne Joseph in... erm, well I don't care. I want Mahendra!

Elusive as ever...

but welcome to AT, a second guest watcher who, unfortunately, was unable to spot the elusive Mahendra on Tuesday.

Also, there was no tv last night, so...

Better a day late than never

Tsepiso Makwetla standing in for Mahendra in an asymmetical fitting attire looking like a slightly disheveled tortelduif. Refreshingly no costume jewellery assaulting the senses, just a lovely pair of teardrop pearl earrings. I wandered away from the news humming Visage's Fade to grey.

OMFG Live! - be those bedroom eyes?

Ok, I can't decide whether tonight it was a black or navy blue jacket and whether it was a white or powder blue shirt. If it was black jacket and powder blue or light blue shirt then I have to give Mr. Mahendra two thumbs - black and blue... you can't go wrong. The tie, while not exuberant, refused yet to be sober: stripes in shades of blue, perhaps a thinner one of silver grey, a quarter inch broad white stripe and perhaps an imperceptable pinstripe of gold in that white band. And then of course knotted in that smug Windsor knot wide as Westminster. I glimpsed old Riaan Cruywagen the other night - sober sober sober, like the news. Sober jacket, sober tie, authoritative newsreader.

But OMFG absolutely Live! At some point our man Mahendra introduced another story and with a twitch of the lip a la Riaan, instantaneously looked out at South Africa with bedroom eyes. I swear. Thank the goddess it only lasted half a second. I wonder whether Mahendra watches Riaan at all? Could he maybe ask the master (I mean, thirty years in the business) for some tie tips?

All in all, there was a blue sheen around our man in Jo'burg, a blue-black sheen which compelled me with much force to keep on watching the news.

Sunday, slow sensual Sunday

Mahendra remained elusive on Easter Sunday.

As you will or may have noticed, I made reference to Mahendra's wide as a bleach-white cuff goodbye smile earlier. Some friends suggested that I should definitely include his goodbyes in my remarks, but who can bear to sit through the news?

No TV as Alonso takes Malaysia

Happy Easter, yes, to all my readers in Melkbosstrand, Maitland, Heideveld, Nyanga, Kalkoond and you two in Rivonia. Was out last night for some hip-shaking to some hard funk, so no report I'm afeard. And what's up with Massa, drifting from pole to fifth? Come one Felipe!

And a Good Friday to you too

Mahendra spotted Live! on Good Friday evening in a black jacket (not the one with the crimson button hole) with what might be a white shirt or a not-quite-white shirt with white collar. I think it was a very, very light pink, but a fellow watcher disagrees. If it is indeed a white shirt, perhaps Mahendra should wear a white vest underneath it, so that the colour is uniform with that of the collar (IF it is indeed a white shirt).

The tie... well! It was a shiny, stripy gold affair and while it matched Mahendra's pen and wedding band, it did remind me of those shiny fresh mint humbugs from my childhood.

And, just as wide as his cuffs sticking out of his sleeve (too wide Mahendra), was his goodbye smile on this Good Friday...

No good Friday...

No TV last night. Out for a dinner of braaied tuna (yum!), but the VCR attests to no Mahendra. Instead, it was Tsepiso Makwetla, soberly dressed and all, but could the oversized black jacket be Mahendra's?

Mahendra plethora?

Yes, spotted Live! with the news at 7 p.m. last night. Our man in Auckland Park was wearing his lunch time getup though.

Well, the Easter Weekend is upon us. Perhaps Mr. Raghunath will be away for some r&r or the team of Mahendra-watchers will not have ready access to television sets. Hang on though; one never knows when the Mahendra might be spotted...

Today, Live! at Lunch Time

Yes, thanks to a tip-off from a Mahendra-watcher, we find the man himself reading the lunch-time news at this very moment in his black jacket with the crimson buttonhole in the lapel, a cream shirt and a tie of a creamy yellow hue. Is it butter-yellow or custard yellow?

Mahendra, Mahendra, where are thou?

As you can infer, elusive as a leopard. News last night was read by Tsepiso Makwetla and unfortunately I didn't pay much attention to her clothes as I was rushing out the door to go and enjoy some steak and some good company. Followed by the traditional white russians.

Spotted! Live!

Mahendra was spotted tonight in his black jacket, a very light shirt (white?), and a tie with half-inch grey-silver and light blue diagonal stripes. Rather sober, like a newsreader.

Not that I want hastily to develop wild imaginings of who is reading the blog, but I know I have a reader in Rivonia. Could that be Mr. Mahendra?

No tv for a long weekend

My apologies to our reader in Rivonia, the other one in Maitland (Cape Town), and the three in Cape Town proper, but I have been away for walks on the West Coast, lazy days and braaied lamb chops. There was a tv, but reception was poor. Nevertheless, I spotted Mahendra on Friday 30 March in his black jacket and then that plummy shirt and striped tie combination from a previous time. Mahendra mixin' an' matchin'...