Perspect_Ivar

Many Happy Returns!!

2011-11-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

It has been less than a few weeks of my refreshing post about the Anna Centennial Library, where I had hoped that her benevolence will not transform this into a hospital or anything else. Well, she has indeed announced that this will be converted to a multi-specialty pediatric hospital. Not that there is anything wrong with it. This marks the vengeful transfer of two very expensive and extravagant buildings to different locations and announcing these buildings for hospitals. That is a master stroke for posterity since no politician in their right minds will announce the move of a hospital. But libraries and legislatures are dispensable. Thankfully so.

The plan is to move the ACL to some integrated knowledge park in Nungambakkam near the Connemara library. Perhaps it makes sense. But then we can visit the ACL for the next 4-5 years since the new building has to be built and everything transferred there until they start to remodel this building. In a way, it shows that we are still not ready for such swanky public buildings and cannot afford it. If only the motive behind such acts of commission and omissions are rational.

Live and Let Honk!

2011-11-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

Last week I was driving in our relatively less crowded campus and I got honked several times from the rear for occupying a little more than 1/8th of the road to avoid a pedestrian. It is one of the most annoying aspects on the road for me and I have yet to program myself to ignore these. And instinctively I tell the hooting gent that if the prolonged exercise was really necessary and to this, the honorable specimen slowed down and spewed a barrage of epithets in tamil and I was shocked. More at the attitude that led to the language than the language itself! He also added that I should drive outside..if only he knew where my blog was.
I really had to bite my lip and let him go before I had the inclination to really bite him and then the other dogs on campus would have had some fun chasing one or both of us.

Several people that I know have advocated and even demonstrated that honking is unnecessary. It only takes a little bit of extra attention not to practice honking. Why would anyone honk? Several possible reasons and rhymes.
a) Desperate honking: If your vehicle is ultra-silent (such as the new BSA electric scooter) and you would like to shoo some animals off the road and away from your royal path. You do not want to hurt people or get into trouble. Most commonly cited reason for honking.
b) Pre-emptive Honking: If you think you are royalty or atleast a pilot vehicle for a politician or administrative celebrity that you want the path cleared 100 m before you arrive on the scene. You can perhaps identify the driver who honks in this manner because he/she will not look at the subject off the road, but will keep their eyes firmly on their path in a model driving stance.
c) Communicative honking: This is practised and abused widely on Indian roads and I have done so myself. This is done in lieu of various messages - "I am coming in this path, so don't you dare cut me"; " How dare you cut me? you $#@%^&^%"; "I dont know who you are and you directly dont affect me, but I like to teach you a lesson and since I cannot speak directly to you, here goes". I have often wanted to substitute the horn for a voice recording that will deliver the actual message on road.
d) Impotent honking: This is practised in extreme stress, where you know the honking is not going to get you anywhere, but people do it out of frustration.
In any case, any amount of rationalisation or categorisation is not going to work as well as some good headphones with a music player or temporary deafness or extreme bullishness, whichever is easier. Then again, you may get honked at by me!

Refresh and Refreshing!

2011-10-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

My pen had been very heavy for obvious and non obvious reasons leading to a long gap of non-activity since my last post. A lot of things have happened since then - most that cause the heaviness of the pen and the feelings that drive them. Since most of the things I write on this blog are primarily 'whiny' in nature, I believe that I was waiting for a positive thing to write. And I found one such this last weekend.

After passing it several times and musing that I should visit it someday, yesterday I decided to visit the Anna Centennial Library in Kotturpuram, Chennai. It was an impromptu decision that has a lot of significance to me. To do some things that I wanted to without deliberating too much. This is one of the most impressive public buildings I have seen in India outside of New Delhi. And that too for a public library. We went to the section on English literature - fiction and non-fiction section, checked out some of the collections and sat there for a about 30 minutes reading and pondering the view that extends from the Bay of Bengal to the forest cover of Guindy National Park. The time I spent there was one of quietest I have had in Chennai. The only other locations in India, where I experienced that kind of silence was in Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari and the Bahai temple in Delhi. Admittedly, it was Sunday with only a fraction of the traffic outside, but the silence was almost deafening.

The library staff mentioned that they are still waiting for a proper online catalog and are in the process of doing it and I am not sure if checkout facility is available. The collection itself, at least the english fiction and non-fiction, seems to be a mixture of the must-read classics and a motley mix of random books including a Murakami diary - which is not really a book, but a diary with quotes from characters in his books. There was also a book on 100 places to have sex!! I hope a library was not one of them. My only hope as I was going through the library, impressed with every step, was that the new government does not do anything drastic and random as to convert this building to a ...museum or something. I certainly hope that the response to this library as a haven for book-lovers or scholars will keep it alive and people using it will be proud and conscientious and help maintain it that way.
I would strongly recommend that you visit this library, if you have not already.

Yes, We Can!

2011-02-18T19:26:00.001-08:00

This phrase is used very cheekily in the plot which does involve characters from the land of milk, honey and dollars. "Phas Gaye Re Obama" is a racy, satirical crime caper that is set in the backdrop of the recession in the United States and its fallout in India. The film has mostly relative new comers to the big screen except for Rajat Kapoor and Neha Dhupia/ Amole Gupte who plays the role of one of the villains in "Kaminey" plays a short role. If you understand some of the rural dialect of Hindi, you are likely to get more out of the movie. The way the movie shapes up in the beginning and the background score, one can guess that all will be well in the end. But one keeps hoping that there is a plausible close-formed ending. Writer-Director Subhash Kapoor does it fairly admirably. This movie falls in line along with the other satire to come out this year - "Tere Bin Laden", that exploits current affairs into an entertaining script. Both these movies rely on a daring premise and then wriggle out in the end without getting too trivial. It does take some thoughtful writing.

The current crop of writers are thriving on the fact that many of the promising film makers have opened their production houses and are willing to take a chance to make entertaining but smart movies. Similar to the scenario in the late 70s and early 80s when NFDC produced a lot of movies written by Film Institute graduates such as Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Sudhir Misra, Kundan Shah and others. This movie affirms that there is some original writing talent in the Indian Movie business. Maybe We can !

Movie Buff or Movie Bluff!

2011-02-10T06:56:00.000-08:00

It is that time of the year when Hollywood is in overdrive. The Oscar (Academy Awards) nominations are out and every movie lover and critic start shooting - their mouths. Every news channel and a newspaper has a team of reviewers who then pull out their predictions. It is also the time of the year when you see all kinds of tests - "200 movies that you should have seen to consider yourself a movie buff", or "100 movies to see before you die" or "10 movies to help you die".

I too get very excited this time of the year. I used to consider myself a movie buff. This does not seem to count anymore since the arrival of the internet. During a quiz recently, one of the audience members commented that he could get the answer on the internet from his cell phone! I read in the newspaper recently in the 'Next Generation" section, a comment by one of the genXrs that he bought a DVD player 'two years' ago and discovered DVDs and now he is a movie buff! Well, it made me roll my eyes over violently! I have been watching movies since I was 24 inches tall - before TV, before cable, before VCR, DVD and that is a lot of good, bad and ugly movies. The only qualification these days that one seems to think one needs to be a movie buff is a DVD player. To which I quote David Mills (yes, i remember character names, thank you!) in Se7en (played by Brad Pitt) - "...just because the F****r has got a library card does not make him Yoda". (If you ask me who Yoda is - you really are a movie bluff!).

PS: Are you rolling your eyes violently!!!

Dust, Smoke and Evil Eyes!

2011-02-09T08:33:00.000-08:00

I was recently in the city where I was raised - Hyderabad. Since I do not have a vehicle in Hyderabad, I cannot do my customary bitching about traffic and other drivers. Instead I have the privilege of travelling in auto-rickshaws. Invariably, within a few minutes of every auto journey, I reach into my pocket to pull out a handkerchief and block the passage of the wonderful mixture of dust and smoke into my nose. This season, it seemed more severe, maybe because Hyderabad (like most major Indian cities) is in constant 'development' or 'redevelopment' or 'infrastructure enhancement'. I am tempted to use the word repair or disrepair, but that would be rude to the harbingers of development in our modern cities.

Coming back to the issue at hand - smoke and dust - from roads and vehicles. In response to this, I see a large number of two-wheeler drivers (both female and male) cover their entire face while driving to reduce the inhalation of noxious ambient air. And then I see a large number of women wearing burkas. It seems that the practice of subjecting women to wear burkhas in public in hot climates such as Hyderabad (or anywhere in the world) is widely decried by some sections of the population. Many of these burkha-clad women were from a middle/ higher- middle class families and were ostensibly educated (or atleast went to schools or colleges). I was also told (since I am not privy to this observation) that these women remove their burkhas once they get into their colleges. I have assumed for long (from information in stories and essays written by others) that this practise is to protect the presumptuous women from the evil eyes of lecherous men in our society who may hurt these women if they see their faces.

This season after travelling in autos and clutching my kerchief to my nose, I had an epiphany - one that uncovered my mind. I now suspect that the burkha-clad women are protecting themselves not only from the evil eyes but also the evil dust and smoke. I also suspect that some women impose this on themselves (as is evident from the hundreds of others who have followed suit). This way, when the entire world will be contaminated, they will be safe. It is not the meek that will inherit the earth. We won't know who will, because we do not know who they are or what they look like because they covered their faces. So that they can uncover them to see the day that we - the shameless, may not see.

"I Have a Life"

2010-11-28T08:49:00.000-08:00

This is a phrase that is attributed to a 'younger generation'. The most recent carrier of this message is Blackberry for their mobile phone advertisement. In one ad they show that Blackberries were originally carried only by business men who are shown as suited middle-aged to older men and now a host of younger and casually dressed people have started using them. Younger and cooler people who look like they don't brush their teeth or their hair. So it is proven in this ad that older people with blackberries had all the fun and now the younger ones are joining in. But a recent ad shows that younger people do all kinds of things using a blackberry. The ad also proclaims that if these people are 'not listening' they "have a life". When they show that scene the youngsters are all at a rock concert when they cannot hear what they are saying. The potrayal of the Blackberry usage profile is very confusing to me. (Maybe because I do not have a Blackberry, which would either solve my problem or completely distract me or I can always blame it).

I was not there, but did children metamorphose into adults without going through teens and post teens in the 1960s and 70s? I think that 'youngsters' were always like that since the dawn of time. Rebellious and wanting to be independent. We would not have come this far if only older men did all the work. I think that it is just simple smart marketing. Now that younger people have significantly more income and/or richer and more indulgent parents (who nurture every sprout of excessive want in their spoiled brats), it makes good marketing sense to make youngsters feel that they are a new breed of youngsters who never existed before.

Don't write any comments. I may not read - I have a life!!! (Especially without a Blackberry)

"The Social Network"

2010-11-28T08:21:00.000-08:00

The movie is the dramatised story of Mark Zuckerberg, the "co-founder" of Facebook and based on a book "The Accidental Billionaires". The movie is directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en, Curious Case of Benjamin Button). The movie relates to the controversy of the intellectual, creative, property rights of Facebook and the ensuing lawsuits. In the process attempts to dissect the character of Mark Zuckerberg, so much so that towards the end he tells a member of his legal team that he is not a bad person. The movie also potrays the irony of the creator of a humongous social network while being socially in-adept at making or keeping friends. The movie reminded me of Amadeus, the dramatised story of Mozart who over-achieved at a very young age. It is one thing to make a movie about Mozart who has been long gone, but to make a movie about a person who made his mark just a few years ago seems a bit weird.

The movie is written by Aaron Sorkin, who specialises in political dramas (writer for the movie The American President, A Few Good Men and The West Wing series ). His scripts usually feature at least one dialogue every second. Indian audiences in theaters are distracted and may not latch on to the subtle dialogue-a-second driven english movies such as The Social Network. One other reason could be the social network that people have via their cell phones (some of them with Facebook).

Some of the dialogues in the movie were f*&^%@#$ hot and really showed what an xxxxxxx Mark Zuckerberg was. No, I am not afraid of blogspot debarring me and or trying to prevent some of my readers from expanding their vocabulary. This was how some of the dialogues of this movie were at the theater I watched the movie at. This is again a first time I am seeing this kind of censoring that happens usually on Network TV. At a time when we have huge malls (where some of these movies are shown) with Christmas trees and international chain stores and people with more exposure to different stimuli, with the web, with SMS and Facebook, whom are these theaters protecting? Does it make a difference? perhaps not - arey chill yaar, this is less offensive than an unintended and abrupt interval in Indian theaters.

"God Save Our Tools Again"

2010-10-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

for, we know not how they work....... It is the festival season here starting with Navarathri and culminating with Diwali. My rant meter goes a notch higher on one of these days when there is a giant smear fest all around. Anything that moves unnaturally may receive this rather ungainly splash of yellow (turmeric) and a cross stroke of white with a dot of red. Maybe there is a profound mathematical or statistical significance to this very elaborate organised disorder in this superposition of complex geometries. In case, you are wondering what I am referring to , it is the ayutha pooja during navarathri.

Our car also had similar designs but in white and brown - these were not created by us in an attempt to move nature, but created by nature's own natural movements. But it does not matter since they all look the same unless you go close to it to inspect! It is perhaps an attempt to invoke the supernatural especially in the case of vehicles because driving around is such a hazard and one should take all the help one can get. So much so that some drivers have splashed their entire wind shield with the yellow stuff - well seeing the traffic really does not help, does it? God knows how traffic works here, so god will take care of it through this yellow and red radar homing signals on the car!

This season, in Chennai, we have a special reason for observing this ritual. The biggest movie of the (perhaps) the year has been released and it is about a machine. Enthiran's release before navarathri may not have been a coincidence. And it gives us more reasons to believe that we should pray because our machines can turn on us. But we can always splash our holy concoction of yellow and red on the enthirans so that it makes them blind followers of our orders and therefore keep us safe. I think we really need to pray because shankar may be planning a sequel.
They are coming to get us. Collect all the turmeric and non-electromagnetic vermillion!!! This is also perhaps the reason why travellers from the western civilisation came to India in search of turmeric at the advent of the industrial age!!

Dabangg - Bangg, Shebangg and RayBangg

2010-09-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

Saw the new Salman Khan starrer "Dabangg" recently. I was drawn to see this potboiler for various reasons. I have never seen the most Chunky of the senior Khan trio in a moustached role. The title Dabangg seemed goofy enough to expect something different. A recent review by Sudish Kamat of his previous movie - Wanted proclaimed that Salman Khan was the only remaining 'full blooded male Hero" (or some words to that effect or atleast that is what I thought he meant!!). The point is that I agree with him - he has a swagger that is exaggerated (the same way Rajnikant's 'Style' was exaggerated in Sivaji).

The role of Chulbul Pandey - The Dabangg - offered all that and yes...Rayban. The popular glasses plays a very important role in the movie. It even appears in the titles as part of each word. There is a scene when the hero, the villian and almost all the henchmen who can fit into the frame wear Raybans. The meaning of Dabangg and its connotations were explained very clearly in chaste hindi and bhojpuri in the first song of the movie - these include bold, courageous, outrageous, boisterous, stoneageous, egregious and many more ouses. Based on these explananations, I have decided to exclaim 'Dabangg" instead of an unprintable expletive whenever I encounter a vagrant traffic-mate or people who run across my car without the fear of death. It is a true popcorn movie - even if your popcorn has been exhausted towards the end in the 'Dabanggish' fight, the hero pops out of his attire that had the entire theater popping their mouths out. You have to see to believe it.

One other reason I was keen on seeing the movie was to see if Abhinav Kashyap shared any creative genes with his brother Anurag Kashyap. I cannot conclude in the affirmative - I doubt if they even shared a pair of jeans. Though two entities from Anurag Kashyap's Dev-D make an appearance in this movie - "Emotional Atyachaar" and Mahie Gill. And spare a thought for Arbaaz Khan, the producer, Salman's brother off and on screen. He is the antonym of the Dabangg in his role in the movie and he gets beaten up by everyone in the movie and on top of it, his real life wife - Malaika Arora "Badnaam hui Darling Uske Liye". Hope he gets his money's worth.

Running Account

2010-09-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since the Give Life Chennai (half) marathon Aug 30. We decided to make the 7 km run since we thought we could handle it. We diligently woke up in the morning and 'drove' to the run in a car and waited for it to start behind a large lateral column of people. There were a large number of people who had turned up in all sorts of attire and accouterments. Obviously it was more than just a run. It was a party and the 'in thing'. What with all the FM stations blaring and urging you to 'give life'. I find that caption very ironic - after all, marathons have been known to take lives!! In any case, I don't think any 'lives were taken' and hopefully all lives were 'given'. We ran the 7 km run and based on the relative ease with which we ran, we do not think the run was actually 7 km. It might have been much shorter. Nevertheless, more than the run I had the opportunity to observe a lot and this has prompted a top ten reason list to participate in a 7 km race as part of a marathon or half marathon. The 7 km race is truly the case of 'also ran' primarily due to the distance and also because there was no registration fee - so you really are simply running and not doing anything noble.

Top 10 reasons to participate in a 7 km micro-marathon

10. I wanted to wear t-shirts with outrageous captions in a conservative place such as Chennai
9. I always wanted to drink free isotonic fluids in the morning
8. I wanted to run short sprints with human hurdles in my way
7. It seemed like a good excuse to bump into strange women
6. I always wanted to witness the police ogling women indiscreetly and unapologetically.
5. It seemed like a good excuse to bump into strange men
4. I always wanted to kick empty or filled water bottles at hundreds of people walking around me
3. I always wanted to see what a garbage ridden street would look like at 8 AM
2. I was feeling very fit for a long time so I decided to get me some infection or body ache.
1. I was not around in 1941 for the Dandi Salt March - this was my chance for redemption and it was easy - just had to scrape it off my skin.

Needless to say, we have decided that we will not be running a 7-km race again. If we do run in the city, it will be a larger and more serious affair.

What An Idea! - Nolan-ji!

2010-07-20T09:03:00.001-07:00

A lot is already being written about this movie within a week of its release. The IMDB (Internet Movie Database) entry for this movie already has about 40,000 votes and with an overall rating of 9.3/10 and at #3 on the all-time top rated movies (behind Shawshank Redemption and Godfather). Christopher Nolan first shot into the limelight with the brilliant 'Memento' and later made more bankable thrillers (such as Batman Begins, Dark Knight, Prestige). His latest feature - Inception - is his 6th major feature film and is a spell-binder that moves at a frenetic pace with great visuals, action and music. He is a great writer and may very well see the Oscar with this one (though I thought he deserved it for Memento). I will not write more about this movie since I may not do it justice.
I am wary of watching English movies in Indian theaters usually due to increased audience 'participation'. But 'Inception' was an exception - partly because the movie was arresting; but partly also because there were subtitles. This a new phenomenon that I have seen in one other movie in Chennai - the recent Sherlock Holmes movie. Perhaps most Indian audiences talk because they cannot follow the dialogues and the subtitles help. I also heard snide comments about Tamil directors coming up with possible ripoffs or atleast vignettes of this movie (and be called great original thinkers - cue : Memento - Ghajini).

I kept thinking after the movie - "who put that idea into Christopher Nolan's head"!!!

Ratha Yoga

2010-07-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

There must be something good about driving around in a vehicle in India. And It is called Ratha Yoga. Ratha means 'chariot' or 'vehicle' and Yoga is a way of life. After years of painful practice, these are my observations. Ratha Yoga is about extracting the most out of your driving that can benefit you in your life. You may follow it directly from here or learn it the hard way by practice. You wont get it from any driving school (they don't even teach you the colour of a signal, let alone the colour of life while driving). There are different categories of Ratha Yoga - such as Dwichakra, TriChakra, Chaturchakra, AthichaturChakra, Asura and AtiAsura. The last one is not so common in India on local roads but they come out at night on highways. In addition one has to deal with the Dwipada and Chaturpadas, which are important parameters in your Yogic endeavour. This document mainly deals with the SaamanyaChaturChakra ratha Yoga.

There are only two ways to do things in life - for Bhukti (pleasure) or Mukti (Liberation). In India, driving Bhukti for some drivers can literally mean Mukti (Deha Mukti) for some others. My objective is to attain Classical Yogic Mukti (Atma Mukti) without its physical implications - true liberation from the influence of other worldly forces. Some of the practical action points are given below:

a) If you are a ChaturChakra Yogic, Keep you windows open and Do not roll down the windows despite all temptations, if you are in a crowded traffic - Open your senses to the world around, above and below you. See all the sights around you. Hear everything. Smell the faintest whiff, Inhale deep and be your environment.

b) Stay in your determined path with utmost concentration despite urging from all evil forces to do various things that you may not want to do. This is heavily inspired from Buddhism. Most Indian Ratha Yogis follow the Middle path advocated by Buddhism. They do not subscribe to the left wing policies of the Commonwealth or the Right flank policy of Europe and the US. You can follow all, any or none of it. But be focussed and determined.

c) Do not make eye contact with any other competing Yogic practitioner for any reason (unless they are goodlooking). This is especially true for those in the Asurarathas. Any attempts to make eye contact may lead to dehamukti.

c) Refrain from raising your hands or fingers in any formation while driving to communicate with other yogic practitioners.

d) Exercise your facial muscles to stretch at all times by forcing a smile while you practice the yoga.

e) Do not raise your voice - for legal or illegal word formations - even if it is to yourself.

f) At any cost, do not compete with other practising yogis or non-yogis for expeditiousness. Time is Maaya and it does not matter. You can extend time if you practice Ratha Yoga diligently along with other techniques such as Vakrakaala Yoga.

A true practitioner may see the following benefits:

a) Immunity from diseases such as arthritis, respiratory ailments and high blood pressure.
b) You can work in a very high stress environment such as a kindergarden school or metal foundry with relative ease.
c) You will have less problems with impudent children or spouses who place unreasonable demands on you. You can deal with greater insouciance.
d) You will feel less irritated with people chattering around you or Indian movies in a theater since you are immune to noise.
e) You will not be involved in any fights on the roads and people will not spit on you from a passing or stationary vehicles. You will not be a receipient of any virtual blow signs that may cause mental trauma. This will cause extension of life.
f) You will not embarass yourself in front of family and friends by opening their ears to unprecedented verbal violence from you.
g) Your image will always be good even if you are photographed at an inopportune and ungainly moment while you are practicing Ratha Yoga.
h) If you dont reach your destination in time and are fired from your job, you can then stay home and not worry about the woes of your roadtime and dedicate to the other yogas.
i) You may land up the job of Gautama in Ashutosh Gowarikar's upcoming movie - Buddha.

Note: All practitioners are encouraged to add their views to the doctrine and practice of Ratha Yoga.

Brazilian - Once in Four Years ?

2010-07-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday night it seemed like except for Uruguayans, Germans, Dutch, Spanish, Paraguayans, Argentines and some Indians in Kerala, a large section of the football watching population was briefly stunned and saddened by the unexpected and uncharacteristic loss of Brazil to Netherlands in the Quarterfinal of the Soccer world Cup in south Africa (Thanks for the Info!!). Even the commentator seemed to be upset and kept suggesting in the last few minutes of the match that Brazil can still come back, It was all not to be and the match became ugly through desperation.

I watch Brazil only once in four years during the soccer world cup. I do not follow their fortunes or do not even know the names of the main players. And yet, I want them to win and am sad if they lose. Why? Is it because their style of playing is very artistic to watch and there is a general sense of loss of style when they leave a tournament or is it that they are 'supposed' to be a great team and an upset always causes a perturbation. It was not like the Dutch won undeservingly. They played very aggressive and gritty football. Someone asked me the result of the match after it was over, and then followed up with the question - "Was it good?", - "who cares if it was good football, when Brazil lost" - was my response. I wonder!

Hills, Streams and Whistlers!!

2010-07-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

Our last destination in this trip was Munnar. The trip from Thekkady (Kumily) to Munnar by bus was about 5 hours. The last bus from thekkady departs at 9:45 AM! We were determined to travel by bus. We tried our best to travel by government operated buses, since we figured they were unlikely to overload or drive rashly. This choice was not available for this journey since the only bus that operated was a private one. Any normal non-deluxe bus in India is not built to accommodate me. I always find myself strapped for legroom. We were hoping that the bus travelling through the remote mountains of western ghats in interior Kerala will have less passengers and that the two of us can sit comfortably in the three seater. But this was not to be - firstly because this was a private bus and it will stop at any place that has the words 'stop' even if it is the name of your home. Second, as I mentioned in my previous post, there were no 'desolate' or 'remote' areas in Kerala. People live pretty much everywhere. So by the time we landed in Munnar our legs were almost fossilized. Notwithstanding our misgivings with the private bus driver who did not remember that this was a two way road or that we were almost more than a kilometer above ground, the views were fantastic as we approached Munnar. Our little Panasonic afforded us great photographs even from a moving bus. Some samples on the way to Munnar are shown below:

We stayed at another KTDC hotel called Tea County. It is about a kilometer from the center of Munnar town. Every room has fantastic views on both sides and a balcony facing the mountains. Again a very well maintained facility and seemed a little more upscale than Aranya Nivas in Thekkady. There was a Parliamentary committee meeting at that place on Labour issues in tea estates. Lots of cars and bureaucrats. We were not sure if we reached the right place as we alighted from our auto in slippers (we were not ready to wear our shoes courtesy our little bloodsucking friends)!

There are a few places to visit around Munnar, but unlike Kodai or Ooty, they are not really destinations. So we decided that we will stay in the hotel and enjoy the views and the peace from the balcony reading our books. It was fantastic except for the fact that there was a common wall with the neighboring room balcony. As long as there are other people who would read their own books and not try to stare into our sweat pores or if there were no children who would ask their mothers why we wore blue and she was wearing pink (among other things). Fortunately, our neighbours were equally short-nosed as we were and we looked longingly into the greenery. There was one character(s) who startled us early in the morning by continuous whistling. Irate about being woken up so rudely, I looked out and around and realised that this was not a human doing it unless it was Superman or Batman. This was a whistling bird in one of the most amazing sounds from a bird. I chased the origin of this sound the second morning and recorded it. The bird essentially sings a complicated whistling tune for almost 30 seconds and then repeats. We found out later that this was the Malabar Whistling Thrush. I am unable to upload the file from my cell phone. A sample of the call can be found here.

We took long walks around the region walking uphill. We encountered a bunch of school kids and we followed to see where they were heading. We chatted with a few of the girls and found out that they walked about 7km to school everyday and back from a tea estate. They seemed pretty cheerful and nonchalant about it and I felt guilty and gloomy for a while. Munnar was a great place with to chill out and read and even write. I read recently that Dr. Vijay nagaswami, a famous relationship counseller, wrote his recent book on mid-life marriage crisis ' A 50-Fifty Marriage' in Munnar. If more couples visit Munnar not for the traditional honeymoon (as this place is famous for), then the sales of his book are bound to go down!!

Real Bisons, Real Leeches and Paper Tigers

2010-06-30T09:28:00.001-07:00

Next stop from Kumarakom was Periyar Tiger Reserve at Thekkady. A 4 hr bus ride from Kottayam brought us to Kumily town which is about 4 km from the sanctuary. The route was very scenic and one of the main observations was that there were almost no stretches of settlement free land. There is a bus stop almost every few kilometers just as in a suburb of a major city or town. It is nevertheless quite impressive especially with the large number of waterfalls that are created due to the monsoon rains.

At Thekkady, We stayed at the KTDC operated Aranya Nivas. We were very impressed by the hotel and the way it was managed. Apparently, KTDC is different from Kerala Tourism Department. KTDC is operated as a corporation and is quite professional about it. KTDC also operates another hotel which is slightly cheaper - Periyar Forest lodge. Both of these are inside the sanctuary and therefore you have to enter before dusk. You are at the edge of the Periyar lake created by the reservoir of Periyar dam a few km from the hotel. The forest department and KTDC offer several activities including guided trekking in the forest and a boatride in the lake. During our morning walk to check things out at the lakeside, we saw three elephants cross the a narrow stretch of the lake. It coincided with the start of the morning boatride and people on the ride got a chance to see the elephants from close. Later in the morning, we went on a three hour guided trek on a nature walk. Very scenic especially in the grasslands part of it.

We saw a few birds, deer, lots of insects and lots of elephant droppings of different stages of decay. One could perhaps infer when the elephant passed by looking at that. We heard an elephant - probably one of those that crossed into that part of the forest in the morning. Fortunately, we did not have to meet one of them.

After generally sauntering in the open for about an hour or so, the guide took us into the thickets and for a while it was fun, looking at birds, camouflaged frogs and streams and then our nature watch turned into a leech watch. It was more than a watch - it was a vigil. All cameras went in and a stick came out and we were really glad to be out in the open. It was a true forest hike. We were warned sufficiently and were prepared. If you notice the funny looking khaki colored socks in the second picture, they were to prevent leeches from getting into your pants. still, the leeches could climb up and reach some other part of the body or could fall or rub from a branch.

After we hurriedly came out of the forest, we spent almost half an hour extracting leeches that were in our shoes. We did not have any contact with them, but they had gotten into the shoes though various openings. Needless to say, we did not wear those shoes for the next 48 hours in the hope that any residual leeches would creep out of our shoes either due to hunger, boredom or intolerance of bad foot odour.

Later in the afternoon we went on a 2hr boatride on lake Periyar. We found out that at the same time that KTDC has a scheduled boat ride, Kerala Department of Forestry also has two boats - at one quarter of the price. The explanation of KTDC was that need the extra money to pay their employees. Usually they do not tell their hotel customers about the cheaper boat option unless the guests are adventurous enough to seek out the other counter. The following picture shows the Great Periyar Boat race, five times a day.

During the boatride, we were asked to wear life jackets and not get out of our seats to watch rare animals such as the bison. Incidentally, a bison was cited as one of the causes of an accident on lake Periyar last year. A KTDC operated boat capsized when all the passengers moved to one side of a double decker boat to view a bison. More than a hundred people died because they had no life jackets on. All this for a bison? Since then all passengers must have life jacket on. This rule was enforced on the Forestry Dept boats as well. We also got to see human 'bisons' who threw plastic bottles into the lake water and remained nonchalant even after a verbal castigation from one of the crew members and several co-passengers.

We did not see any tigers, though we knew they existed in the reserve because of the name and the following signpost. I, for one, am glad I did not see one.

No Room? No Problem - We can live on the lake!

2010-06-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

In our trip to Kerala, we visited Kumarakom (Lake Wembanad) from Trivandrum via Kottayam. Being the monsoon period, it seemed to be a low season with relatively fewer tourists except those who hated to see children running around (with the schools in most parts of India having commenced their new years). We stayed at a place called Illikkalam Lake resort. The term 'resort' seems to be misused in this part of the country with scant regard for size and facilities to qualify for that classification. 'Lake house' or 'Lake rooms' seems more appropriate. But I guess it is the marketing thing. The 'resorts' being far away from any stand-alone restaurants, one is essentially forced to eat what is provided by the kitchen and that may not agree with many. Our stay was very short, so it did not matter much. The following are a few images of the life on the lake.

including a very 'illuminating' state of current affairs.

The Spirit of Vacationing

2010-06-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

We are just back from a 10 day vacation in Kerala. On the last day of the vacation, I started feeling bad that the vacation is going to end and I have to get back home. What is a vacation supposed to be? a) Is it a tick-marking exercise of visiting different destinations? b) Is it to expand one's collection of experiences (good, not-so-good and bad)? c) Is to relax and unwind from a hard period of professional work, so that one can get back to work with renewed vigour? or d) Escape.

I certainly seem stressed towards the end of the vacation - a sense of panic that it is about to end - and a sense of urgency to extend the clock in the last few hours! The significance of my vacation seems to be (a) or (d). It certainly is not (c) as it has been professed in various advertisements and travel guidebooks. My wife on the other hand seems to be gung-ho about getting back to work on the last day of the vacation. Invariably, my vacation extends in a long sluggish tail a few days after I return - so I plan to come back on a Friday or Saturday. There are some who feel that work should be like a vacation and even take work to a vacation. For these it is most likely reason (b). Unfortunately, I do not belong to this category and that creates a veil of guilt that vaguely envelopes as a spoiler for the other physical thrills of a vacation. I remember a regular feature in Reader's Digest called "All in a Day's Work" - Maybe that is a good philosophy for me to feel less stressed out about work and vacation. Whatever the reason, maybe I should not think so much and just take a break!

On an Average

2010-06-01T19:46:00.000-07:00

On an average things are good and working. I have heard this a few times especially when I complain bitterly about various things in our society. In a chaotic society such as ours, we can only go by the average and if that is acceptable, we are happy. That may be OK. Statistically, there are always fringes to the ideal average behaviour and these fringes may be 5-10 % (liberally speaking). In India, this fringe is a very large number and may form a significant bulk of the actual sub-population in a different country. In a paint job, for instance,on an average, the walls get painted fairly uniformly and according to specification. But then there are these streaks at the bottom where the wall meets the floor skirt. Roads are laid and they are sometimes good. But then, the fringes are literally ignored (especially in the area where I live). And there are a large number of people who populate the fringes. But hey! Be happy that there is a road that takes you places, brings you the morning paper and milk. I do not know the actual numbers of the argument I have presented here, but my gut feeling is that if you estimate the width of roads and the composition of population on its fringes on the roads you may be able to get a fair estimate of our 'average behavior' (may be an aerial image of a road might work). I am also guilty of this. Maybe it is the heat and dust!!!
A related issue (at least marginally) is the number of deaths that happen in India due to negligence. There was a very strong article written by T.R. Jawahar (in a local newspaper) on this issue.

12 Balls - 76 Muscles - 4 days

2010-04-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

That is the equation after my recent participation in a cricket match where the average age of the participants was around 25. I am 38. In the last twenty years after my high school, I might have played intermittently every few years or so and have not played at all in the last four years. But since I have been jogging (at a very slow pace) in the last few months, I figured that I have the adequate physicals skills to handle some cricket. the younger participants were very generous and allowed me to bowl two overs and it was not too shabby. And I must say I enjoyed it very much, playing on natural turf for the first time in my life. But to make up for my age, I was trying to put extra effort and that now manifests in the above equation. The shoulder pain after the bowling was expected, but the muscle aches in the rest of my body was unexpected. I should have seen the symptoms that I perhaps do not belong in such a match. With apologies to the top three scorers in IPL 3 (who are all above 36). I think there might be some symptoms that one might be too old for a cricket match. Some of these are as follows:
* You wear a stainless steel watch to the match
* You wear walking shoes to a cricket match
* Your team members cheer you for picking up a ball travelling at the pace of a one year old crawling child
* The opposing team batsman complains to the umpire of a shiny object at mid-on, which happens to be your head
* You are thinking about casual/medical leave and insurance you have when you are chasing a ball to the boundary
* When your age is greater than the number of overs in an innings
* When the average strike rate is greater than your heart rate

Waking Up with Steve and Alec

2010-03-12T19:18:00.000-08:00

Last Monday morning was "Oscar Night" in India. James Cameron was there in his latest 'Avatar' as director after 12 years. However the other nominees present attending the ceremony were not feeling insecure since there was no water around!! (Jack Nicholson remarked during his acceptance speech after receiving the best Actor Award for As Good As It Gets in 1998 - that he had a sinking feeling all night, since Titanic swept all the awards except the ones for acting that night). Predictably, Avatar got the Best Visual Effects award and when it was announced, about a third of the auditorium got up and approached the stage to receive the award. And when people tried to congratulate James Cameron, they found out that it was only a 3-d projection of his self since he did not fancy his chances to win this time especially since there were movies about Iraq, Child abuse and the economy in the competition !!

I scampered to watch "Inglourious Basterds" by Quentin Tarantino before the Oscars. This should have been in the foreign Film category since most of it was in French and German with subtitles. And the ending was outrageous as should be expected from QT. Needless to say this movie will not be shown in the History Channel any time soon as part of their favorite theme - Adolf Hitler!

Ravi calling Ravi

2010-03-06T20:31:00.001-08:00

(Caution: Spoilers Alert)

The movie Karthik calling Karthik was quite taut and engaging as a thriller. It takes the phrases "Note to self" and "I tell myself" to serious levels. And the pivotal entertaining moment of the movie, where many members of the audience gasped and exclaimed, was made possible by a pair of AA batteries. These tiny often forgotten things will thank the writer and director of this movie for giving them the importance they deserve. That is, importance from those people who came to see how different this movie was from Fight Club or A Beautiful Mind and not for those who came to see Deepika Padukone's acting abilities or the different varieties of clothes and accessories available at Shoppers Stop.

I did make some "notes to self" - not to visit Devi Complex in car since one has to go through very small roads and touch wallajah road which seems like a volcanic site with the construction of the secretariat complex (with apologies to non-Chennaities). But, I am not very good at remembering things so I will have to rely on different gadgets / devices such as Post it notes, Stickies, Nokia phone calender reminders, alarms and email alerts. Considering the high usage of these devices and the high flow of information, I am confused and may be a good candidate for multiple personality disorder as well. Added to these personalities are the brand names of all the devices that I use. (Good product placement techniques. Unlike the movie though, I am not getting paid).

Conditional Misanthrope !

2010-03-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

In a recent get together with some people, I found myself recounting various experiences I have had in recent times when I have had a persistent scowl on my face. I concluded that I must be a conditional misanthrope! Recalling a few of them.
I scowl at people who walk in the center of the road,
and at people who honk at people who walk in the center of the road.
At those who stare at me
and those who don't make eye contact with me
At those who laugh and who express their joy publicly
and at those who express their anger publicly
those who have the same weakness as mine
and those who have strengths that I don't
and so on...

Particularly I don't seem to like talking to strangers on trains, flights or buses as others around me seem to. In one particular instance, an old man, sitting next to me, tried to break the ice by guessing where I worked (the train was coming from Bangalore to Chennai,,,and you can perhaps guess what he guessed). In response, I grinned and continued reading whatever I was doing, without opening my mouth. In hindsight, it was a good anecdote for me and perhaps for him too. My wife pondered if the old man was recounting this experience to describe how little respect younger people give older people these days or perhaps feeling with pity that I might have been deaf and/or dumb or crazy! It seems like I do not like taking advice from strangers who have known me for a few minutes. And most strangers will offer free advice at the drop of a syllable. I have seen people who exchange the contents of their guts to relative strangers. It is mostly entertaining and at times irritating.
And it seems like there are a lot of people who hate people.

Not sure if I was like this when I was growing up. Seems to be relatively new phenomenon since my return from the US. May be I have become a gas molecule and do not like collisions with people - the probability of which is very high in India. May be I am an inert gas and considering my social tendencies - Xenon may be a good choice!

All iz phair in love, war and Bollywood....Idiot!

2010-02-28T01:42:00.001-08:00

I saw the current national phenomenon called "3 idiots". To prep myself on the ongoing creative content controversy surrounding this movie with reference to Chetan Bhagat's book "Five Point Someone", I read the book. Well, I endured the book largely. I was rewarded by some racy stuff towards the end - reminding me of the time when I first read Sidney Sheldon's "The other side of midnight" when I was 16 and the way I responded to the coming of age episode in that book was similar to my response to the racy stuff in the book. I was glad to know that I was still a 'boy' at mind and there were others like Chetan Bhagat who were similar to me...These racy parts give glimpses of the literary brilliance of Chetan Bhagat as an author to watch in the future. I heard that he has given up his regular job to be a full-time writer. I am sure he knows what he is doing. (I heard he was an investment banker and hope he knows what he is investing in). Well enough about that kid. Lets go to the other kids! - Mr. Rajkumar Hirani and Mr. Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the original creative directors of the 3 idiots. I heard , about (but did not see) Vidhu Vinod Chopra's outburst to the media about the 'adaptation' of 5.someone.

Here is another example of what Indian film makers consider copying. "The film is really different from the book. Can there not be three people in a movie - there have been tons of Hindi movies with three people in the lead doing different things. Tridev, Shaan, Amar Akbar Anthony, Naseeb and many films made by Manmohan Desai. There are many films where one of the hero's father is paralysed and mother (played by Nirupa Roy) is either helpless, blind or both. And a sister who is helplessly watching from the sidelines and needs to get married to be saved! People have jumped off the roof and have been undead thousands of times in movies. In fact, in most movies heroes just get up and walk away. Here at least we take him to the hospital. And that is not how the Alok character in 5.X jumps off. In the book, he jumps off the roof of the main building, here he jumps from the director's office. Really different. And the heroes' hideout is the top of the tallest building, where they drink. In the movie, the hideout is the roof of the water tank - in the book, the hideout is the top of the main building. The prof's son committed suicide while the prof thinks it is an accident. Well, a lots of trains in India and lots of suicides as well (as the movie proclaims with statistics). And the prof's daughter is the leading lady in the movie, same as the book, but she does not fall in love with the narrator, but with the other dude. Well the other dude is also different, so everything is different. Rancho, in the movie, is short, smart, muscular and can do anything, while Ryan, in the book, is tall, smart, muscular and can do anything and does not look like like Amir Khan. So really different!

Well the biggest difference is that the movie is set in Imperial College of Engineering - Delhi and not in IIT Delhi. This is really original because there is no Imperial College of Engineering (actually I'm not sure..but I guess the movie makers must have made sure there is not for the fear of getting sued for copyright violation or paying royalties or fees to the college)".

Not sure if the movie was better or worse because of the adaptation. But that is for another literary session. There is a very good comparison of the movie and the book at Sudhish Kamat's website.

Auto Ignition

2010-02-23T08:59:00.000-08:00

(With thanks and apologies to the bard.)

Hath not a MAD eyes? hands,dimensions, senses, affections, passions;
Does he not eat the same food
nor clothe and educate their kids
Is he not subject to the same diseases,
heal'd by the same drugs
warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer
does he not use the same fuel,
nor feel the pain of the roads
If we get a rupee is it less worthy than anywhere else
Does he not deal with the same people
for the same kind of demands
AS A CAD....

Apparently not!! Why?
May be because CADs are special people
with special needs
they believe not in the land of the law
but with the law of the unwritten word - 'it is like that'.

Maybe because
the Chennai Auto Drivers are really CADs
and Mumbai Auto Drivers are really MAD!!

This is the renewal and magnification of the disdain I already had for the special CADs of Chennai after a visit to Mumbai. When I mentioned the behaviour of Mumbai auto drivers with respect to following the meter to the nearest rupee to a Chennai auto driver he balked at me and said (in tamil) "paithiyakaranga, pozhakka theriyathu - those crazy guys dont know how to survive. let us spend a few days in mumbai and they will change". Perhaps. In chennai, the lowest denomination of currency for an auto driver is Rs 10 instead of Re.1 or 50 paise. maybe they all pay 20 rupees for a liter of milk while we all pay 11 or 10.50. Yes, we should let them do what they want. They are special people. so special that Lonely Planet deems fit to mention them in their 'warning' about Chennai. Maybe we should all boycott getting into autos for a week. Maybe while newspapers like the Hindu celebrate every insignificant discharge from any celebrity about Chennai in the supplement, they should denigrate the slur in our city in the newspapers. But then the newspaper staff has got to go places!!!

Well. I will explode if I think or talk about them or to them anymore than I have.

You Take That!!

2010-01-15T21:12:00.000-08:00

Tata Motors has entered the US Automobile market with the Ultra 'cheap' Nano and the headlines in Yahoo News reports that it wont be that cheap in the US.
Why?
Well...the folks in the US are paranoid about pollution, emissions, safety during driving etc. So they have had to refit the car to meet those standards. In India, we are still growing, so we don't need such standards. We can take more crap than any other nation in the world.
I am not sure if the safety and emission options are presented to a customer in India. It is as though Tata Motors is telling the population to take it as they deem fit. There are numerous analogues associated with the environmental field in India. Who cares about the stink or the pollution or the probability of life after 50 when basic necessities are not met!! We also have environmental regulations in India (which is similar to our traffic rules situation...). Yet we will make a Nano for our population and have Snow Worlds for our recreation. We are a wonderfully heterogeneous society with multiple levels with people climbing all the time and still leaving a lot of space in the parking lot where the sewers flow!

Unholy Smoke!

2010-01-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

Today is one of two special 'holy'days in India and especially south India - Bhogi Pongal - dedicated to combustion of waste. One can wake up in Chennai to find very poor visibility. It may be fog or smoke. Though Chennai has fairly high humidity, it is not cold enough to create fog and owing to its geographical features, it is not conducive for fog formation - except on two days when the conditions are overwhelmingly favorable. The picture below shows a low level haziness.

In the second picture, to the right is the area above the sea and to the left is land. There is a clear difference in low level cloud. Two years ago, the visibility in the morning was very poor. This morning however, it rained and the air cleaned up a bit. Or maybe it rained because there was too much condensation nuclei in the air!!
No prizes for guessing what the other festival is.

The Taj Mahal - Once again

2010-01-11T07:24:00.001-08:00

Though this has been written about and photographed perhaps millions of times, I cannot resist it. This is the first time we were visiting it and the moment we saw it, all the text and praise that has been written earlier gushed forth to lift us to show us why. And spontaneously the clicking started and would not end for nearly the next 3 hours we spent at The Taj Mahal - from its bleary eyed awakening to straightening itself to a resplendence that it is well known for. The following are some of the souvenirs that we captured on film.

Me too..Me too

2010-01-10T06:32:00.001-08:00

We were on a trip to Delhi, Agra and Jaipur in December. In Jaipur, we went to the Amber Fort - the famous palace/fort that has starred in several movies. You can get up to the palace by foot or by car. But the most expensive and the exclusively marketed means of ascent is on elephant back. We chose to walk up. However we had to cross path with the elephants on a couple of crossings and it was scary. It is just as dangerous as crossing a regular busy street in Chennai or Hyderabad. Why? Take a look at the picture below:

In case, you have missed it, I want to point out that one elephant trying overtake the other in this narrow path. Maybe the elephant mahouts are taxi drivers at night and cannot get it out of their system....or maybe they are not and their friends are and these people feel bad that they are missing all the fun and are unable to drive taxis or buses. I wonder what they do to honk at another elephant!!

Black Scarf and Black Shoes

2009-12-11T07:57:00.000-08:00

It is that time of the year in Chennai. The scarves are back and they are black. And they can be seen strictly only on men. But these are not due to 'harsh winters' of Chennai. These are symbols of temporary austerity preceding a sacred pilgrimage.
Two decades ago, people subjecting themselves to this exercise would be readily recognizable by their overall appearance - black dress, unshaven face, beads, bare feet. Today we rarely get to see the full uniform. Instead the predominant sign is the black scarf around the neck with a variety of garments - work dress, business casuals or even formals. Perhaps a religious entrepreneur came up with this in response to the current scenario of IT, corporate globalisation and the consequent difficulty in following the extreme austerity measures for practical reasons. Religious entrepreneurship is in full action in India. One visit to any big active temple town in south India will throw up a number of such observations and the fountainhead of all such 'holy business practices' being Tirupathi.

License to give a License

2009-11-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

Recently my wife started taking lessons to drive a four-wheeler from a fairly well known car-driving school. One of the first steps is to get a learners license. Given my current 'respect' for the 'fine people of the RTO (Road Transport Office)', I was curious to see what the learner's test would be. (I obtained my license more than a decade ago, when my temperament was remarkably different and I did not not pay much attention to due process that I worry too much about these days). When she went into the office, there were a lot of touts running around. And there was a test. She had tried to prepare diligently from an outdated sheet of instructions given to her by the driving school (replete with spelling mistakes in signs and all). It was to be administered on a computer. When she reached the terminal, her driving instructor appeared from no-where and selected 'Tamil' as the language to the consternation of my wife, who exclaimed that she cannot read Tamil - "But I can!" was the prompt and composed reply from her instructor, who proceeded to sit at the terminal and take the test. And of course, my wife passed. I also learned later that many applicants who take the test by themselves fail in the test and cannot pass unless they take the help of a tout. This is not unique to Chennai - RTOs are notoriously infamous all over the country. In general a driving license in India does not seem to be a well regulated entry to ensure the safety of the driver and other occupants of the road. It seems to be just a license - a chore. For what?. Maybe be it is a license that qualifies one to pay one less fine when you are caught violating a traffic rule that you have not seen or have not been tested on. One suggestion that my wife posed was this - why have this semblance of a test, when by charging a greater premium, one can be allowed to get a license without even being present at the test. Everyone can earn more, less time wasted, less blog posts complaining about it. Maybe the RTO is trying to be socialistic and make it an equal opportunity exercise for obtaining a license. Maybe they like people to pay them some respect in person so that you can distinguish the touts from the folks at the RTO!!

Non-Newtonian First Law of Traffic Flow

2009-11-08T07:17:00.000-08:00

When a stream encounters an obstruction, there is a deviation of the flow path in an observation called streamline separation. Traffic flow can be approximated to this system (with a lot of assumptions) and streamline separation can be illustrated very effectively by some aerial photographs of patterns. The major deviation between physical systems and traffic flow with respect to streamline separation is the following. In physical systems, large objects cannot follow the streamline separation quickly enough and they are subject to inertial impaction on the obstruction. In traffic flow, there is no such restriction. ALL vehicles will move to one side of the road irrespective of size, model, state, capacity, fuel type etc. In fact, the larger vehicles can see the obstruction from far and start the separation early. All the smaller vehicles can travel in the wake of the larger vehicles. Buses try to squeeze into spaces that can transform auto-rickshaws to motorcycles. Too much influence of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (pardon me if the reference is too obscure)on the larger vehicles.

An interesting variation of this streamline separation occurs during the rainy season (especially in Chennai) where there are large pools of water at several locations. In general, two wheelers, cyclists and pedestrians are expected to steer clear of this to prevent wetting their feet or falling into an open manhole or pothole. What about buses/trucks/large cars and four wheelers in general? They also follow the same pattern. I forgot! These vehicles will get their pants and shoes wet! Or maybe the large vehicles don't travel in the pools, so that they will avoid splashing that water on the smaller vehicles and pedestrians. I think that may be the real reason. We are after all a very humane society!!!

Reality Inc.

2009-11-01T05:33:00.000-08:00

There is a new movie titled "JAIL" (Or "All You wanted to know about life during incarceration but were afraid to ask or afraid to know"). This is produced by 'Bhandarkar Entertainment' The last sentence is an oxymoron - atleast if the film is directed by a certain Madhur Bhandarkar. His last few films are titled "Fashion", "Traffic Signal", "Corporate", "Page 3", "Chandni Bar". Informative? Yes; Thought-provoking?, May be; Entertaining? - I do not think so. Maybe no one has the guts to tell Mr. Madhur Bhandarkar (winner of national award for best film for two years and considered one of the 'serious' film makers of India) that his films may not be entertaining, so maybe he should not release his films under the banner 'Bhandarkar Entertainment'. I cannot believe I am saying this now. A decade ago, I used to watch the most harrowing films (Indian and International) under the heading of "Required Viewing". Now I cannot stomach many of the movies that aim to be serious - just the way I cannot handle Indian pickles. Even though I still consider myself fairly omnivorous in terms of movie viewing choices, the spectrum has been reduced with the removal of movies from likes of Mr. Madhur Bhandarkar from it. One other filmmaker that I assumed under this category - Anurag Kashyap, was surprisingly very entertaining in terms of style, content and narration after I saw DevD - especially the ending. If you are intrigued about the inner workings of sewage treatment operations in our country, please write to Mr. Madhur Bhandarkar and he will oblige with his next film "Toilet".

Do not drive your car with such a face !

2009-10-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

These guys look really pissed off at something! And I could put my face right into the slot in series with these two gentlemen going by my reaction for things around me. I can also think of half a dozen people who would fit into the slot as well. The first one is Sweeney Todd (played by Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd")and the second one is old Ludwig van (played by Gary Oldman in "Immortal Beloved") and was sufficiently popularized by Alex in A Clockwork Orange.

Both these characters look like that for different reasons. Both wield a small stick-like instrument, but with different end effects. I am not sure how many people are capable of doing what Ludwig van did, but I certainly can imagine wanting to do what Sweeney Todd did. And was Johnny Depp 'delicious' (sic! - I am almost a pure vegetarian and do not want to elaborate this) in his role as the demonic barber of fleet street? This was one of the most bizzarre movies I have ever seen but it was so 'colorfully executed' - as Tim Burton can be expected to do on film. He gives color its due on film - wherever it comes from. If you have already seen Sweeney Todd, you will understand what I mean when I say that it resonates (well, the song that comes in the pivotal moment of the film) with many of my (and I suspect that of a lot of other people around me) thoughts and desires. I think we all know what will happen at the end if those thoughts are fed and it goes that way - your long face will soon long for a face.

Hey! I don't know why you are looking at me strangely that way. "I wouldn't even hurt a fly !"

God Save Our Tools

2009-09-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

I was reviewing the results of a chemical analysis performed in our lab and I find two extraneous peaks corresponding to two chemical compounds - picrococin and curcumin. While these compounds may be of great interest in other parts of the universe, they are not supposed to be in this sample. I wondered why and visited the analytical instrument to investigate. And there I found splashed carelessly on its face in interesting geometrical patterns, the ostensible symbols of piety in our society - haldi (turmeric) and kumkum (vermillion).

Then it struck me - it was that time of the year again. One component of the 9-day celebration of dussehra - an event called 'ayutha pooja' or the 'prayer to or for the tools'. How do we do it? Like any other festival - deck up the main object (diety/person or thing), chant a few hymns and eat sweets. In this case, the objects are the tools we use everyday. Why do we do it? As a society we like to adhere to the great philosophical adage of fatalistically accepting our fate. But we cannot! So naturally the only recourse we have to exercise any influence is prayer. So we pray for their health so that they do not fail on us. May be this is advanced statistical risk analysis/ management with probability modeling. Next time you go to a buy an appliance, do not ask the manufacturer for a safety report, ask them for a prayer report. Surely these cars are self assembled through an 'intelligent' design. May be in our premier technological institutions we should include a chapter in risk analysis that talks about covering your bases with prayer.

Or perhaps we are praying to protect us from the tools. We have already seen in futuristic movies such as "The Terminator" series and "I Robot", what can happen when tools go out of control. At the rate these tools are increasing in their power and our dependence on it, this fear seems justified. We are a very far-sighted society in this respect. We are already setting up a platform to pamper our tools so that they remember the respect we offered and will treat us well, when they become the all-powerful. But then, we are the ones designing and making these tools (as those movies I mentioned testify) and so we are responsible for this mess. So maybe we should pray ourselves to give us good judgement and not make any more tools - one prayer less. In any case, I hope that I do not do any serious research with picrococin or curcumin - I may get results that will rewrite the existing laws of thermodynamics.

No Beads Required !

2009-09-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

'Flashing' in public is a rare 'legal' phenomenon in only a very few parts of the world at all times and in Bourbon street, New Orleans (USA) during the period of Mardi Gras. People flock to see it happen from all parts of the world and is considered by many as one of the the most visually pleasing events in their life. Many consider this uncivilized behavior, while others think it as an expression of freedom. In India, flashing is illegal, but a large majority of the population does it. It is annoying, noisome, tiring and can lead to accidents. Accidents???....Tiring? I know what you are thinking. We have that kind too, which occurs here day and night, and leaves an unpleasant olfactory and visual graffitti on the Indian roadside.

But the one I am talking about today is the one caused by 'shameless', prurient and impatient vehicles - Cars, buses, scooters, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, tankers, planes, ships (well, not the last two) all get into this orgy of flashing, hooting, whistling and what-not on top of this obscene activity. And it is very far from visually pleasing. Infact you may not be able to see anything - beautiful or not. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to flash. So I thought I will set it up:

To flash or not to flash is not a question
doesn't matter if you are or not at a junction
It is not on request or to request
Whatever be the reason, it is something I detest
Sometimes it seems competitive;
Sometimes it seems trite
Sometimes it seems repetitive
and only rarely it seems contrite.
The government says it is illegal
but the cops are unable to blow their bugle
since the one they have to nab
has flashed and taken flight
and the license plate is just too damn bright
so in the land of shortsighted bats
it is best not to drive after the sun has dozed
and even if you must
maybe you should do it with your eyes closed...

Que!!...Qai!!...Enna??

2009-07-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

If you have not seen this before, a) you definitely do not live in Chennai b) If you live in Chennai, you perhaps travel in a stainless steel opaque vehicle or helmet c) or you like to believe in the milk of human kindness and that all signs and symbols are for the benefit of humankind.

This is the answer in the form of a question to a question in the form of an open palm or finger or mouth. This symbol usually has a verbal accompaniment and if you are in relatively safe and closed environs of a car, you will usually have the good fortune not to hear it. But the symbol is sufficient. If you do not understand the symbol, then you have been following the written and spoken word for too long. Now without straining your patience any longer I will divulge the interpretation of this symbol - "What". What? "Yes, What!!" as in "oh yeah, did I cut illegally in front of your vehicle, so WHAT?" or as in "Did you just say that my vehicle kissed your vehicle's bottoms? So WHAT?" or as in "Are you saying that I stabbed you?..What"... And if you want to ask again I will show this sign closer to your face and lean forward so that the question will become a mark on your face". So, Why cant one ask this question with a simpler gesture? Why the angle and finger spacing etc. And why not, this is the land of "Rajnikanth" and 'Vijay'...and style is of utmost importance and therefore we have another opportunity to be 'uniquely' arrogant.

OK. So do all the symbols mean the same. I have observed several variations of this. One variable is the angle of the wrist/palm with the forearm. The other is the angle of the fore arm with the hind arm at the elbow. If you have muscles (or even fat in your arms, it will help). I am not entirely sure what the angles mean. I usually do not engage in such Q&A when I am comfortable in my closed windowed, locked door car. I typically run away after the first signs.

Any questions?

Open Information of the Kind Kind

2009-06-26T06:07:00.000-07:00

"This is for your kind information". Be aware of the unkind information lurking around the corner!! What does this mean? It does not even seem to make grammatical sense. Is the information kind or unkind; are you kind; am I unkind. I was, kind of, curious and went to the fountain of all information (kind and unkind) - the internet and found an 'English' Forum, where someone raised the same question. One of the explanations offered was that - when people use this phrase they imply that they are being polite and that they were not scowling and they were typing this information with full attention and with two hands folded and that they were not in their underpants. This is to substitute for the polite expression when giving information in person. When we were in primary/middle school, we were taught to end a letter with "yours obediently" or "yours obsequiously" or "I request you in the humblest of tones" (thus breaking the word-sound barrier). Perhaps this 'kind' information business is an extension of that. Somewhere in the sentence there can be sufficient number of fawning terms such as 'kind' or 'humble'.

'Or' it may that the reader is pleaded to read the information and a kind is thrown in since we are bored to death hearing the word 'please'. OR it may that if the information is put forth just as it is and without fanfare or on a silver platter or a shawl, people may be offended. We have heard numerous stories in Indian mythology when sages were offended that 'such and such' was not done properly and without humility and respect to them and may hurl deadly curses at the offerer. May be there is an expectation of the same behavior. Most of these mails with such phrases such as these are mostly in the government sector, where you might notice that the language might not have not changed since pre-indpendence times. Perhaps, this type of language is some kind of insurance against curse-hurling. May be it also means that "dude, this is a worthless piece of information. You cannot dance with it or take it to the movies. You just leave it where it is, for it to be 'kindly' seen by one and all".

In this context there is another phrase that I have seen more recently - "With Warm Regards". I refer you to http://www.urbandictionary.com/ for discussion of this phrase. Kindly read that.

'Righteous Anger' - What is it Good For?

2009-05-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

"Absolutely Nothing"...says my wife, who has been a teeth-crunching witness to my bouts of righteous anger and in the process has generated some of her own righteous anger about me!!
What is righteous anger? In my definition, it is the anger generated by events that I consider 'wrong' especially when the events in question do not directly affect me. (Yeah, yeah.. I have heard about theories that everything affects everybody else somewhere or the other - but that seems too complex for me to comprehend and react to).
A partial list of some of occurrences or actions that are 'worthy' of generating righteous anger are as follows:
* A vehicle coming in the opposite direction of a 'divided lane' and does not indicate lights for changing lanes
* Auto-rickshaws parked blocking the gate of my neighbour's house (you will get an earful if you express your righteous anger at them)
* Literate-looking drivers who make a u-turn at a no u-turn board and I am standing on the kerbside painting my gate
* Huge SUVs that bulldoze their way through traffic skillfully (and reach their destination faster than me)
* Oil companies that drill in Alaska
* Young kids in the neighbouring building who laugh a lot while murmuring into their cell phones
* A family in rural China who trouble their children and pets
* Advertisements that sell cool and stylish motorcycles

So what is wrong with righteous anger? Perhaps nothing, if it is a Sunday morning breakfast occurrence. But if every second sentence you utter is a statement of righteous anger, it is very taxing on the nerves. The probability of events capable of generating righteous anger is so high in my neighbourhood, there are interpolations and extrapolations that lead to grand and eventually vacuous statements about life in general. And this could repeat at the next traffic light. So I am trying to fight my urges for getting this kind of anger by not interacting too much with people, not reading the newspaper, not watching TV news channel, not walking on road, not looking at other traffic while driving...
Maybe I should move to Mars!!! (well at least for the time being).

Adaptation

2009-05-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

In the last few years, one Indian movie caused a lot of wows and wonders among Indian audiences - Ghajini (Tamil). The punchline of this movie was 'short term amnesia' and how that influences events. The film's appeal and 'novelty' was this punchline, which appeared earlier in Christopher Nolan's film "Memento". The tamil film - Ghajini(starring Surya) was a big hit and the film was remade in Hindi with Aamir Khan in the lead. This is what Aamir Khan had to say about the allegations of plagiarism.. (from Wikipedia)

" Murgadoss (the writer/director of the Tamil and Hindi films- Ghajini) had heard about a film called [Memento] and the concept had really [fascinated] him. Without having seen the film he went ahead and wrote his own version of the script and screenplay. Having finished his script, he then saw [Memento], found it very different from what he had written, and went ahead and made Ghajini."

Ironically, the producer of the Tamil Ghajini threatened to sue the producer of the Hindi Ghajini for plagiarism.

Indian film makers are remarkably good at making adaptations. Full credit to Mr. Murugadoss for that. I don't think the original memento would have worked in India anyway, so the producers of memento need not worry. The original film goes back (but linearly) in time making it a very interesting(and challenging) narrative in the context of short term amnesia. The Indian 'inspirations' are very simple movies to understand and 'viewer friendly'.

Does an idea or seed constitute a whole movie or story? Ghajini is a simple revenge story. We have had tons of movies of that genre in India. What makes it more appealing is the constraint of short term memory loss. That is precisely the reason why the allegations of plagiarism are significant. If a stolen punchline is going to get rave reviews and lots of money, it is also likely get punches from the 'sources'. But maybe it is difficult to prove in court as to what consitutes plagiarism in the creative arts. Often during the credits of Indian movies, you might see an entry 'Story Idea' - in addition to full story and screenplay. This highlights the importance of 'a seed idea' even in the Indian industry. How can a film director claim that it is not plagiarized.

Indian film industry deserves the best adapted screenplay award as a whole. There have been so many instances of a producer 'hearing' about a film and then making an 'original' screenplay 'inspired' by the film. About two or three decades ago, the access to foreign films was so sparse that people could fleece something off and not many in India would know about it (examples: adaptations of american movies - stake out (vandanam in malayalam;nirnayam in telugu); Moon over Parador (Indrudu Chandrudu in Telugu) - incidentally both movies star Richard Dreyfuss). The film industry and the media in India seem to be affected by it that recently an advertisement for the film '13-B' - a horror film, mentioned that this was the first Indian film to be adapted in English. In this context, the efforts of Vishal Bharadhwaj (Maqbool, Omkara, Blue Umbrella) acknowledges that films were adaptations of works by Shakespeare/Ruskin Bond.

Hardworking 'Fine' People

2009-05-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

These are the folks from the road transport office. They are an amazing group - atleast , some of them are. You will find them in the offices at 11 PM. Thats right. 11 PM. Why? Because they are a 'fine' bunch. Yes. They fine people who do not have proper paperwork while they ride/drive. There are so many violations and so much scope for finery that these folks have to work overtime. Perhaps the traffic policemen should take a clue from these people. Anyways, these fine people at the RTO also know their limits. Their concern is that only valid drivers and vehicles operate. They do not care if right in front of their office traffic rules are followed or if signals operate. Imagine a learner is taking a test of traffic rules and just outside the office there is no live example for the well-meaning inspectors to demonstrate. But their fine hands are already full.

The word 'fine' - has several connotations - one of which implies 'fine' and another that is 'not fine' and a third which is also 'not fine' in some circles. With the intent of making this a fine blogpost, I sifted the fines of the internet and found that the origin of both words at a fine website called 'dictionary .com'. And the origin is 'finis' or the final stage, the ultimate, conclusion, settlement. I hope this blogpost is fine and not a fine imposed on you for your overusage of the internet. If it is the latter, I suggest you can try to cheer up with a bottle of fine 'fine' (which happens to be short form of a cheap french brandy). finis.

Pardon Me...Your %$#@ is stuck in our drains

2009-05-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

If this were in 19th century England, this is what we would have told our neighbours in reference to the 'nose'-ache that robbed us of the last weekend. But then we have drain pipes and we have the municipal corporation and the sewerage maintenance people and we have cell phones (and so do the maintenance personnel - I pity them). On saturday night we had a manhole spewing dirty water in to our building compound from outside. We reacted by calling the authorities with the cell phones. We get a civil response and we are happy. Two hours later, the spewing still continues and people in the building are getting really alarmed. We call the 'good samaritan' again. He explains - "Another 'good samaritan' who has volunteered to manage traffic has prevented the maintenance people to work on clearing the drain on the main road to avoid a traffic jam at peak time. That is the cause of the delay. So please bear with the stink till morning". Well how bad could this be? We boarded up our windows to keep out the stench - turned on the ACs and slept blisfully. In the the morning I generally avoided going out - afraid to face the stench; until the first of the pigeons in our building returned to report that we had sewage water flood in our front yard and all around our well from which we draw water for our daily use.

A well is supposed to be lined with concrete to prevent runoff or seepage from flooding around it protect from contamination. Of course, that is the ideal world.In the real world, concrete is not really concrete and they are chinks in our armor.
We are all freaked out. Now how can we survive? We have a contaminated well!!! Many concerned residents turn up outside. And the scene turns into a stock market floor with each of us calling the 'good samaritans' for help on a sunday (the church next door was helping us in the prayer as well...). Our calls were so excessive that we were asked to zip it and let them try to help in peace. Meanwhile some 'unauthorized' good samaritans also show up and tell us that they could block the manhole in our building so that the stuff from outside stops flowing in. Wait !! was that not illegal? 'Nope ' they said, 'we did it yesterday to the neighbouring house'. Yes, the neighbours. They did this and now see what we have to bear. We did consider that approach since the 'authorized' good samaritans were nowhere to be seen. However at that moment they save us and appear to work on the unclogging of the problem. They use very simple tools - rakes, wooden sticks and sometimes their feet and even hands. Simple things work in India!!! In the west they complicate things. The main worker came to us after his work and silently asked for tips. We gave it to him gratefully, perhaps for the fact that he used his hands and feet. He then chided us for not blocking the drain the previous night (perhaps to cover up for the lapse the previous night and shifting the blame). What? Is that not illegal. 'Nope' says he. 'It will flood the public roadways or burst another manhole in the neighboring building and so on. But YOU must watch your own back, we cannot do it for you'. Well! Now we know.

The big work of cleaning and disinfecting our well and buying water in tankers started. Then we had more problems of electricity loss to the motor that pumps the commercial water to the overhead tanks and plumbing complications in the building that did not supply water to some houses. We are still figuring out the laws of fluid dynamics as applicable to our building!! My head hurts.

The lady who comes to work in our house watched all of this with a mixture of amusement and pity. Her children travel a kilometer everyday to fetch water in containers and carry them on a cycle. No running water. No motors. I explained sheepishly, 'We are resilient people, but we are used to this. We are perturbed when our routine is disturbed'. We are pampered. Some people argue that we will rise to the occasion and get things done when it stinks. But I am not sure. People show their true basic colours when exposed to such perturbations and that is very disturbing (and it could stink too). Sometimes, I don't think I want to talk to them again ever after such incidents!

Perhaps the best thing to do is to retire into a shell and not think about these mundane problems. For that one must be thick-nosed, thick-skinned and thick-headed. All in all, we are now well on our way to normalcy. We can continue to dwell with this sense of entitlement because we are whatever we are.

Ciao!!!...Bella Ciao.

2009-04-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

Last week we visited an Italian Restaurant in the outskirts of the city. The restaurant is located 100 meters from the sea shore and the owners have tried to capitalize on this by having a number of tables outside. Maybe they can save on lighting and cooling. On this particular evening though it was humid and we chose to sit indoors in the A/c. I was mildly shocked at the prices in the menu. But then, Italian restaurants world over are famous for their quantity and I assumed that this was for that. We ordered. We then asked for water. We ordered again. For Water. When the dishes came an hour later, we were told that it takes time to make Pasta.....so imagined that for the price, they must be making the pasta by hand. Though I am not a big fan of pasta, I thought this must be right way to do it. Then we saw one of the workers carry a packs of pasta (from perhaps a neighboring shop. Then the food arrived. This Italian restaurant served like a French restaurant. The fork made more contact with the plate than the food.

On a normal day the place receives a lot of breeze and perhaps lots of foreign currency? Or do they? I am surprised that anyone that knows good italian food would like this place. I think it is inordinately overpriced. Maybe it is priced for the ambience and for the safety of drinking 'only bottled water', which is packed a few kilometers south ( I wonder if we will have any tourisn in this country if people took Slumdog Millionaire seriously). Perhaps I will never understand that. All I have decided for now is this....ciao! bella ciao!!

That was FAST!!

2009-04-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday news spread about a very aged political 'leader' going on a fast. The first thing that struck me was "Are there riots in the city?" and Not "Oh! poor old man! how can he much trouble he must be going through" or "how much does he care for the plight of the poor helpless people". The train of thought led to the imminent eventual self-sacrifice of the great leader and the outrage from thousands of masses and that I have to sit home for a week to avoid getting into trouble. (When a previous leader passed away from natural causes, there was widespread uproar and rioting as if to question fate.."Why?". In a state where a temple tower is the official symbol, this questioning of fate is ironical).

Anyways it was all forgotten for the rest of the day...Today's newspaper bore the headlines that the fast was broken since something had been done. Great!. That was enough to break the fast which lasted ..hold your breath (maybe you can for that long)...6.5 hours.

Heck, many people in this country fast for that long or more on a daily basis. Are they getting noticed...are they getting what they want? do they get a cot to relax during their fast and air coolers on the street to support their fast or hundreds of people begging to call the fast off?

This does not set the record for the 'fastest' fast, but may come close. But does anyone really care?

Relax! UnButton! Its only a movie...

2009-03-04T09:41:00.000-08:00

We went to see 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' in a theater in Chennai. And we came out vowing not to see any movie that does not have a 1000 decibels of mindless noise/subtitles /CGI action/dinosaur/ terminator/superhero etc...in a movie theater. Soon after the movie began, there were a few dud(e)s sitting in front who did not realize the subtle beginning of the movie and brayed loudly since there was no gong or bell to indicate that the movie had indeed begun. It took two surprising and gently stern warnings from the usher that they should watch the movie in silence that they calmed down. Then a few minutes later, when Benjamin Button is born, a few guys behind us made their entry. I have experienced that when I walk into a dark theater from a brightly lit exterior, I cannot see very well. But it also seems like when people walk into a silent hall from a cacophonous outdoor environment, they also become deaf!! and talk loudly. It took a hushing from several people for them to sit silently.

Then the dud(e) next to us got a cell phone call and he answered "I am in a movie theater" loudly, to which I wanted to butt in and add "So Am I..please". One of his several calls was so loud that again it made me touch this stranger....yikes!!! Fortunately, he did not like my touch and resisted from talking into the phone for the rest of the movie. People were consistently talking in different parts of the theater over which we could not exercise any control. The cherry on top of this was a family with two young children (aged 2 and 4) sitting right behind us playing volleyball with a popcorn box, coke bottle and our seats.

Benjamin Button is a gently paced movie that must be watched preferably alone or with a group of people who do not suffer from vocal incontinence of any kind. Somehow, this makes me think that subtlety is a lost cause in Indian movies or movie theaters. I am not sure if it is a cultural thing. I have been told by some that it is. Perhaps not true in all cases. In a Hindusthani music (north Indian classical) concert, I am not sure if I would dare to talk during a concert without attracting stares from other audience members. In carnatic (south Indian classical) concerts however, everything passes. People enjoy loudly. In western classical concert halls, people are not allowed to enter a hall in between performances let alone disturb the proceedings. In India, maybe you can conduct a marriage during a concert...and yes it is done.
But I guess for most people movies are just an entertainment and they might not care for the nuances. Life is too rough for such niceties perhaps. I think tightly-wound people like me should watch movies at home using a projector and a surround sound system...whenever I get hands on a good quality DVD. Until, then I will wait for a summer blockbuster movie at the cinema...But then, perhaps I should just relax, its only the movies.

Honk If You Like it (or not) !!

2009-01-29T17:38:00.001-08:00

I pull my car out of the driveway
and gently press the horn to warn people out of my way
behind me there is blare urging me to move it
perhaps someone who cannot hold it
i tread gently along the rough terrain
trying my best in the rowdy traffic to be sane

i stop at a red traffic light
which many around me consider trite
and convey that to me in a spectrum of sounds
with sufficient energy to scare bloodhounds

buses that bellow to show their might
taxis that panic to catch their flight
autos which yell almost at everything in sight
some manics who blow simply out of spite

seeking respite from these unrelenting noises
i roll up my windows and turn on the radio
only to hear incessant chatter of RJ's voices
So I shut everything off and bid my travel company adieu

work is influenced by regular perturbations
caused by telephonic reverberations
in addition to my own frequent expositions
about some irrelevant scientific manifestations

after a day full of these, i head home
swimming again through a sea of sharp toots
in hope of chanting some tranquil OM
only to face a new barrage of hoots

annoyed mothers who bark
at children that play noisily in the park
upset dogs do that too
at birds that chirp to woo

builders and developers wielding clanks
playful brats executing noisy pranks
neighbors exchanging daily stinks
and youngsters tapping to "The Kinks"

the sorrowful that in pain wail
and the hopeful in prayer to god loudly hail
i wonder if i can ever free myself from this noisy jail
'cos all this brawl makes me very frail

it is pitch dark and all around sleep
i hope to rejuvenate and relax deep
but then i hear my rapid unsettling palpitations
that reflect my own fears and trepidations

i tire my eyes closed, peace at last, i think
and few hours later that seem like a blink
new hopes of peace and silence rise
through a series of preset cell phone alarm cries.

Re-Introduction & Re-Amnesia

2009-01-26T07:10:00.000-08:00

I have failed again to keep the blog going after the pompous reintroduction. This is ultraprocrastination. The saving grace being that I remember my password and I have bookmarked my blog. I even populated my blog with blogs of others and I mentioned to some of them that I have their links (much to their displeasure since my blog is inactive...no bonus points for them). The only way I can perhaps keep reminding myself that I have a blog and that I have a responsibility to my faithful readers (1 so far) is perhaps to tattoo this on my body somewhere. That seems to be the joke of the season everywhere from commercials to Indian movie awards...the phonomenon of 'Ghajini' the great indian movie marvel - but I will save that for another post (yes!!!...one atleast). So here is to hoping that in 2009, I can contribute to global warming through this blog!!!

Re-Introduction

2008-06-08T20:36:00.001-07:00

I started a blog about an year ago. However I got lost in the maze of usernames and passwords since then and that blog was lost. I did manage to salvage my blog name (with a small syllable change - I had to compete for this name with a different version of myslef from the last time I created a blog). Hopefully this time, the regularity of posting will prevent me from forgetting this password. I view the blog as a diary to articualte thoughts I have about many things in the passing. My toungue cannot keep pace with my head and so I have to collect them and release in a controlled fashion or leash I will perhaps end up in a hospital. Busy Blogging.