Two Thirds Water

All the A's

2011-11-29T22:17:00.001-05:00

It's A's all over the place.
On bits of paper on the sill. On the large Pooh board books. On notebooks. Everywhere.

A's of all sizes and shapes. Some as big as my hand. Some as small as her little fingernail.
Scrawled in the shapes of stars, some resembling W's.
But they are all A's. I know because that is the only letter she has learnt so far.

Her tiny hand holding the pencil tight. Moving Up, then Down and then Straight.

The sheer excitement on her little face when she writes an A after another.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ammu, shall I teach you to write B today?"
"No Acha. I want to write A".

And so it is A, again.

Lovin' it.

Books-owned-list

2011-07-29T11:42:00.003-04:00

Lying very safe somewhere in Bangalore are a hundred books. All of which I have read except 6, which I started, but never finished. Some very close to my heart. Some which I dont want to be caught reading. Why put it here now? There was this list sitting at the bottom of my google docs page. Brought back so many memories. Funny how you can just think of a book from the list and wake up all the stories behind it.

A brief history of time

Alchemy of desire, The
Alexander - Child of dreams
Almost Twelve
Angels and Demons
Apocalypse watch, The
argumentative indian, the
Athabasca
Atlas shrugged
Autograph man
Black Sunday
Bourne Supremacy
Broca's Brain
Broker, the
Business @ the speed of thought
Catcher in the rye
Cat o nine tales
Code name God
Contagion + Vector
Contest
Cosmos
Da Vinci Code, The
death is my neighbor
Deception Point
devil's alternative, The
Digital fortress
Dilbert principle, The
E-Intelligence
emperor's new mind, The
Everything happens for a reason
Exorcist, The
Feast of the goat
Fermat's last theorem
Five Point Someone
Fooled by randomness
Foucault's pendulum
Fountainhead
freakonomics
Google Story, The
great Indian novel, The
Great short stories of the world
Hammer of Eden + Code to Rebecca
Hannibal
How can you move mount fuji
How Opal Mehta got kissed, got wild and got a life
idiot, The
Iginited minds
India Unbound
Interpreter of maladies
Invisible man
J Kishnamurti - Knowledge & Thinking
Karamazov brothers
last frontier, The
Last Juror, The
last temptation, The
lexus and the olive tree, The
Light of Asia
Made in Japan
Mediocre but arrogant
metamorphosis, The
Mila in love
Mister God, this is Anna
Music of the primes
My own country
Mysterious pleasures
No comebacks
Of human bondage
O Jerusalem
Old man and the sea
Oliver's story
One hundred years of solitude
One night at a call center
Pickwick papers
Piece of cake
Portable Thoreau
Power of compassion
principal Upanishads, The
Readers Digest 1
Readers digest - 2
Red dragon
Reminisces of the Nehru age
Roald Dahl - Short stories
Rule of four
Shadow of the wind
Shakespeare - Complete
Silence of the lambs
snapshots from hell
State of fear
Three men in a boat
tipping point, The
To kill a mocking bird
velocity
Vertigo
veteran, The
wheels
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
Zorba the greek
damsel in distress
clocks, the
Rumpole omnibus
mammoth book of Jacobean whodunnits, The
maximum city
Hannibal rising

Miscellany

2011-07-21T13:35:00.001-04:00

Read in the news - "Mr. Krishnakumar, who is a Coconut oil producer by profession..."
Wait. Is he a Coconut?

Office - "You know I am very scary sometime" - Someone describing how scared he gets. I always imagine him as Sulley from Monster's inc.

Priya made her 'Stone soup' last weekend. Sambar was on the menu, and something was missing from it when we sat down to eat. Sambar powder. True story.

Ammukkutty, after her tinkerbell (tittabell as she calls her) series and Tangled ('doll' as she calls Rapunzel for reasons unknown) has a new fixation. Rio. Yup, I know all the dialogs.

Priya was explaining to my aunt in Kerala how Ammu was always playing on her phone (iP). I could imagine the aunt's confusion, her imagining the wired phone and Priya talking about a 'smart' touchphone. (Yes, ammukkutty calls it Aditi's phone).

Reading a horror genre story after a loong time. Heart-shaped box, by Joe Hill, the 'Prince (King's son). The first Stephen King book was 'IT', after watching the movie. The movie was lame. The book, superb.

That's all. Oh yeah, and this - http://theviewspaper.net/the-diminishing-window

അച്ഛമ്മയില്ലാതെ ഒരു കൊല്ലം

2011-07-06T23:42:00.002-04:00

ദൂരെയിരിക്കുമ്പോള്‍ അസമയത് ഫോണ്‍ കോള്‍ വന്നാല്‍ വല്ലാത്തൊരു വേവലാതിയോടെയാണ് ഫോണ്‍ എടുക്കുക. അച്ഛമ്മ പോയി എന്ന് ഏടത്തിയമ്മ വിളിച്ചു പറഞ്ഞത് പുലര്‍ച്ചെ ആയിരുന്നു. ഒരു കൊല്ലം. കാലം എത്ര പെട്ടെന്നാണ് പോകുന്നത്.

അച്ഛമ്മയെപ്പറ്റി ഓര്‍ക്കുമ്പോള്‍ ആദ്യം ഓര്മ വരുന്നത് പ്രേം നസീറിനെയാണ് എന്നത് ചെറിയൊരു വിരോധാഭാസം തന്നെ. പിന്നെ ആലോചിക്കുമ്പോള്‍ ഓര്‍മകള്‍ക്ക് ഗന്ധരാജന്റെ മണമാണ്. വെല്ലത്തിന്റെ സ്വാദും. എന്നും രാവിലെ അലനല്ലൂരിലെ വീട്ടിലെ മച്ചില്‍ പൂജ ചെയ്യുന്ന രൂപം. വൈകുന്നേരങ്ങളില്‍ കാലില്‍ കുഴമ്പ് തേക്കുന്നതും, ഉച്ചക്ക് മുകളില്‍ പോയി ഭാഗവതം വായിക്കുകയും, ഇടയ്ക്ക് ഭക്തപ്രിയയിലെയും മാതൃഭുമി ആഴ്ച്ചപ്പതിപ്പിലെയും കഥകള്‍ ഉറക്കെ വായിച്ചു തരുകയും, അതിനിടയില്‍ അച്ഛമ്മ ഉറങ്ങി പോകുമ്പോള്‍ അടുത്ത് ചുരുണ്ട് കൂടി കിടക്കുന്നതിന്റെയും, രാമായണം ടിവിയില്‍ കാണുമ്പോള്‍ കുട്ടികളോടൊക്കെ മിണ്ടാതിരിക്കാന്‍ പറഞ്ഞു ഭക്തിയോടെ അത് കാണുന്നതിന്റെയും, ചെറിയ നോട്ടുബുക്കില്‍ 'നാരായണ' എഴുതുന്നതിന്റെയും, നിധി പോലെ അച്ഛമ്മ സൂക്ഷിക്കുന്ന ആ ചെറിയ പെട്ടി തുറക്കുമ്പോള്‍ അതിലെ ഓരോ സാധനത്തിന്റെയും കഥ പറഞ്ഞു തരുന്നതിന്റെയും ഓര്‍മ്മകള്‍. ഒരിക്കലും ദേഷ്യപ്പെട്ടു കണ്ടിട്ടില്ലാത്ത ഒരു മുഖം. കാണണമെന്ന് പറയാറില്ലെങ്കിലും കാണുമ്പോള്‍ സന്തോഷം കൊണ്ട് വിടരുന്ന മുഖം. ഇനി ഈ ഓര്‍മ്മകള്‍ മാത്രം.

ഞാന്‍ അച്ഛമ്മയെ അവസാനം കണ്ടത് അച്ഛമ്മ പോകുന്നതിന്റെ രണ്ടു കൊല്ലം മുമ്പാണ്. അന്നും കിടപ്പിലായിരുന്നെങ്കിലും ഇടക്കൊക്കെ എണീട്ടിരിക്കാന്‍ പറ്റിയിരുന്നു. അതാണ്‌ അച്ഛമ്മയെക്കുറിച്ചുള്ള അവസാനത്തെ ഓര്മ എന്ന് മാത്രം ഞാന്‍ ആശ്വസിക്കുന്നു.

Paattupetti

2011-04-13T18:43:00.001-04:00

Bathroom singers like me have a very leading edge over all the full time singers in that we never have to be conscious of our ragas or talam, and we could sing in any language, any song with no regards at all to the meaning or the tune. But once in a while some of the songs defy known norms and pass on to the realm of "Unbelievable", where the lyrics are so ridiculous that no one would actually believe that these songs exist.
Priya, who is very tolerant of the tortured noises emanating from the bathroom is one soul who'd believe almost every thing I sing, real or made up. But even she has limits and here are a list of 3 songs that have defied even her. And the irony is, even when she couldnt see through the many impromptu songs that I made up, the ones she suspected were all real movie songs -

1. Dishum Dishum Dishum - Before we were married, and were working, she'd once in a while narrate a long malayalam movie story and ask me which movie it is from. Her whole family would have watched the movie on a sunday on TV, but since none of them can read malayalam she wouldnt know the name. But CID Moosa, she knew. Mention the movie name and she would start giggling. It was (is) one of her all time favorite movies, for reasons I really cannot comprehend. And so when I ask her how she likes the "Dishum dishum dishum" song, she gives me a blank stare and tells me not to bluff. I tell her that the movie actually has a song where the chorus goes "Dishum dishum dishum, Dishum dishum dishum". She tells me she has seen the movie a lot of times and even by CID Moosa's utter silly standards, this is a bit too much. So I tell her that I'd call her when the song comes on cable next. I do. But by the time she switches on the TV and gets there, the song is done. We miss again and again. Then one day, finally, she gets to hear that and she is surprised and dumbfounded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdnCydBnKQE

2. Maathaadu Saaku Mouna pisaaku - You pick up some rare gems in Bangalore Auto rickshaws. This song being one. The Auto drivers overcharge like there's no tomorrow. And if you start in Hindi or English they instantly recognize you for what you are. An overpaid IT employee. And charge you like that too. Start in Tamil, and you never know which way it goes. If the autodriver is not a hardcore Kannadiga who doesnt mind Kaveri politics, you might do ok. Else, well...
But start in Kannada and I have always had positive results. There was this time when I had only told him where to go and had asked the rate in Kannada and he started this long monologue that included traffic woes and politics and movies and inflation and what not, of which, well I understood traffic and Kumaraswamy and Puneet Rajkumar and rupees. But then, he charged only the meter fare, even though it was nearing midnight. Oh, I digress. Well, the song. I had heard this one in an auto, and once when we were having lunch in the cafteria, I "recited" (sang might be too strong a word, given my capabilities) the first 2 lines and the future wife gave me a sarcastic look. I had invaded her territory.

"There is no song like that!!".

"Of Course there is. I heard it the other day."

"No no. I wont believe that."

"Well, you better..."

Now since this was before youtube had become a comprehensive registry of all the songs in all the languages ever. So I couldnt get her to believe me. It had to wait. But eventually, it didake it to the tube and well, she had to believe.

Even I didnt (and dont) know the song past the first 2 lines, and it is kind of an atrocious song for me to want to follow in whole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RK2Wzx6WOs

3. Coming Coming Coming Coming Aayi Hoon Main - It must be the way I sang this (though I tried my best to stick to the tune) that she outrightly said "No Way!!". This is the most recent one, from last week. Now things are at a point where after a song with some of the most meningless lyrics, I jokingly ask her if she's heard it before, and she almost always has. But this one, no. And now technology being on the tips of our fingers, I pulled up the tube immediately, but surprise, I couldnt find it there. Eh?? But Sri Google (like Sri Krishna - now g is omnipresent and omnipotent - stale one, I know) knew about it, and then 5 minutes after she had questioned the existence of the song, it played loud and clear. Coming Coming Coming Aayi Hoon Main...Aapne jo pukaaraa.

http://www.redfm99.com/old-mp3-songs/online-listen-mp3-songs-download.php?song=Coming+Coming+Aayi+Hoon&movie=Rang&singer=Alka+Yagnik&sid=13275&cid=1202

Ammukkutty

2011-04-12T22:56:00.000-04:00

Ammukkutty decided to take this -

And do this!!

Airport cities

2011-03-31T13:51:00.001-04:00

Happened to read this piece by Pico Iyer in Time Magazine.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2059521_2059701_2059696,00.html

Now, who am I to talk about a piece written by an Oxford educated author? But what stuck me was the irony in it. All those people scurrying across the globe to wonderful new places, the jet-set, are all professionals. You would be hard pressed to find a tourist living out of airports, I am sure. And while I agree that humans are nomads by nature, all these people fly out mostly to improve their stature - better money and a better social standing being the final goal, of which the ultimate culmination is a large house in a suburb which in some terms translate to better living conditions, away from the ruckus.

So an "Aerotropolis" is a means to a villa?

Of a long lost summer

2011-03-30T22:41:00.000-04:00

Remember summer vacations?

I hardly do any more. They are more of a blur these days, like all of the past summer vacations have been fused and melted together into this one giant long vacation that has bits and pieces from all those making up the weeks or days of it, a memory there, and one here.

But there is this one summer that sticks to the memory. I had spent a month at Alanallur (my father's ancestral house) and muthassan had come to take me back to Vaniamkulam towards the end of the vacation. And he talked excitedly about a couple of books he had brought me. One was a book on science games (101 science games?) and the other was an abridged copy of Oliver Twist. The science book did raise more interest in me than the story of a young boy stuck in a miserly orphanage, but then that was only the first in a series of abridged books. Tale of two cities and Robinson Crusoe and the Three Musketeers followed soon. And then The Count of Monte Cristo and Great Expectations. I had already watched Great Expectations aired on Doordarshan and knew Pip, but the small book opened a whole new window. It did take a long time for me to eventually read all these in a non-abridged form, some of them years because I just couldnt get myself to pick up the book now that I knew the story, foolish in not realizing that there is very little in the story alone. Like they all say, the joy really is in the journey.

Muthassan left us long back, at the end of another summer vacation, and his dream work of translating the Kambar Ramayanam, used to narrate the story in the Leather Puppet Show (Is that even a fair translation of tholppaavakkoothu, a dying art?), is still not complete.

It was the same summer, the day on which Leelacheriamma was to start back to AbuDhabi, when the house was in a frenzy of packing and farewells and emotions that I noticed a broken toycar in a ditch. It was one of those remote control cars, which were I guess still a rarity. There was a small motor in that which when connected to a batter went whirrr, and started a lifelong fascination with elctricity and things it does, including really nasty elctric shocks several times and blowing up the entire building's fuse up (Imagine 64 flats without electricity? You get the idea.).

It was the same summer that I learnt how to swim. After several small misadventures featuring cocnut floaters, truck and car tire tube floaters and sari floaters (Now that deserves a story by itself?), I had somehow learnt to stay afloat like a dog in the water, leg down, hands wildly flaying. That was when people decided to get rid of all the plankton that had gathered up in our little pond. And somehow, with several people working at one corner I did not feel so scared to dive in. Oh, the glorious feeling of being able to swim.

I can still smell the dry wind coming up from the paddy fields in the evening, the rumble and tumple of the old grinder going about its work, and the devotional songs starting to play from Aaryankaavu on cue from the setting sun. A quick dip in the pond, and then the prayers and the multiplication tables. I obviously loved the 1s and 5s and 10s because they were the easiest, but then later amma decided that I could skip those.

After dusk, it was mostly s depressing time, with the voltage levels so low that lights burned like candlesticks. There was nothing to watch on tv, so it was mostly reading some old reader's digest in the dim light.

And after dinner, we'll all sleep in the big hall, on beds stuffed with cotton. Muthassan would be smoking cigarettes late into the night, lying down, only that small ember visible in the dark, and the sound of crickets and some odd bird calls. (Oh, how I miss sleeping near open windows.)

Now, when generation gaps are getting created within just a couple of years, and we are so connected that we refresh the twitter feed and facebook feed every half hour, I miss the isolation the most. And I grow nostalgic about that summer vacation.

But then nostalgia is only for those who can afford to think of a better time, I guess.

Corruption

2011-02-11T00:29:00.002-05:00

Sukh Ram, Communications Minister, was arrested in 1996 for misappropriation of funds worth 3 Crores.

A Raja is being detained for misappropriation worth 3000 Crores.

15 Years.

A 1000 times increase.

Ugh!! Enough said.

Nightmares

2011-02-06T01:47:00.002-05:00

It used to be the same dream again and again. I would be walking down the railway bridge near Shornur. The Bharathappuzha below, mostly bare. And I would fall. I would see Leelacheriamma below. Raising her arms forward to catch me, running in from some distance. And Thud!!
Unlike in the movies, I would not fall off from the bed. It just would remain as a striking feeling under my feet that shoots up the legs. And a thudding heart.
And then, they somehow ended.
******************************************************************
Back in the early 90s we did not have cable tv and had to watch the boring state transmission in Abu Dhabi.Friday evenings were mostly camel races. Boring Camel races which I am pretty sure not too many people watched, most of the population being Malayalis. Never gave it much of a thought until I read a recent article.

The article dealt with human trafficking in general, concentrating on the Indian subcontinent. In between it described in chilling detail how children from countries here, especially from Bangladesh, were brought to the Middle East as Camel jockeys. The children, it seems are just between 2 and 6 years old since they prefer light riders. They place the child on the back of the camel and hand a whip. The children scream in fright driving the camel to run faster.

Is there absolutely no humane feeling left in the cold hearts?

Since reading this, every single night I have woken up sweating, a silent scream bursting out from inside, to find ammukkutty lying peacefully beside me.
She turns 2 next month.
And I see her face on that child on the camel every night.

Fairytale

2010-12-02T00:17:00.002-05:00

While trying to get Ammukkutty to sleep, I thought I'd tell her a small stpry. After all, I grew up hearing a lot of stories from my leelche, amma, ammamma, achamma and achan.

So I started with the most familiar beginning:

"പണ്ട് പണ്ട് ഒരു രാജ്യത്ത് ഒരു രാജാവും, രാജ്ഞിയും, ഒരു രാജകുമാരിയും ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു.

ഒരു ദിവസം രാജകുമാരി രാജാവിനോട് പറഞ്ഞു 'അച്ഛ, എനിക്ക് ഒരു സ്വര്‍ണത്തിന്റെ ആപ്പിള്‍ വേണം'."

I was about to tell her how the king went into the forest in search of the golden apple, met the bird with golden feathers, found the horse with the golden mane before finally getting the golden apple.

But her Amma intervened.

"അപ്പൊ രാജാവ് രാജകുമാരിക്കൊരു iPhone വാങ്ങിക്കൊടുത്തു."

I just sighed and turned over to sleep. So did ammukkutty.

Feeling small

2010-11-04T17:59:00.001-04:00

I was watching the Big Bang Theory theme song the other day, the "Our whole Universe" by BareNakedLadies.

And the way it tells that the Universe was formed in an instant, kind of sooner than it takes to sing the song.

Made me feel tiny, and silly thinking about my problems. What are we but a tiny speck of sand in a desert.

Made my thoughts seem frivolous. Wonder at what silly things like land and art and books that we fight about.

And the religion and the gods that we made and now make us.

And the way we inflict pain without even pausing to think that it doesn't even matter a tiny bit, in the eons of time, nothing matters.
EVER.
Wow!!

Federer is what again?

2010-09-09T11:02:00.001-04:00

Great win Roger!!
Found this on the comments section on the US Open site:

What Kerala Drinks

2010-09-08T16:36:00.001-04:00

http://bit.ly/b9s7hX

The Communist Conundrum

2010-07-01T23:04:00.000-04:00

CPI-M and the High court of Kerala are in an open conflict. The reason? The High Court order aginst conducting public meetings on road-sides that causes people a lot of inconvenience. Some really unimportant leaders and some important leaders then started calling the Judges names that roughly translate to fools or simpletons or what not. NEWS HERE
Wonderful now.
If the young 'leaders' are not even respectful towards the judiciary, who would they respect? Sometimes, it really is no wonder and is as plain as daylight why this state is going nowhere. Leaders without any ideals, a younger generation of people who don't respect anyone.
And yes, frankly, the Communists have kind of lost the plot. And they are becoming a pain on the neck. When they rule, they do not allow progress and strike for everything, bringing the whole state to a standstill and causing people great trouble. When the Congress rules, then they pretty much do the same thing. Strike for each thing, stop progress and bring the state to a standstill. And of course they are taking a whole generation on the wrong path with the wrong leadership and pretentious ideals. Granted, we have seen some really great leaders in the party, but sadly, that does not seem to be the case anymore.

'Phone'

2010-06-30T12:34:00.001-04:00

She'd started calling Priya 'amma' a while back.
'Amma', I guess is always the easy part.
For all the children, it kind of naturally spurts our, so easily, so naturally, and really spontaneously.
I wonder why then, in malayalam, they invented this really tough 'Acchan' word for fathers. Tamilians have it easy - 'appa' seems easy enough.

Despite this I was really eager to hear her next word. Hoping that I would hear the magic 'cha' sometime soon.

And then yesterday, the phone rang. At the second ring, she said -'fone'. Yup, 'fone'.

I guess I understand my place at home now.

First Sin

2010-04-27T23:56:00.001-04:00

Adam opened his eyes. The sunlight streaming through in between the trees. He got up and walked past the gentle stream. The berry bushes, and the flower beds. The birds singing sweet songs. He still looked around to make sure that the serpent was not around, albeit out of habit. Ever since he had prevented Eve from biting onto that wicked fruit, he had been cautious. He shuddered at that thought. They had almost been thrown out. But he had stopped her on time, and now, past was past.

He plucked a berry and bit into it. He did not see her around, maybe she had wandered out somewhere. He had, deep within, grown tired of this. Sure, the flowers were beautiful, it was never either too cold or too warm in eden, the lions and deers grazed together. But it was all....boring!!

Adam got up and began to walk toward the waterfall. Eve was taking a shower there. He went beside her and feeling the water splash on him, thought for a minute and asked.
"What do you think would have happened had you bit into that?"

Eve gave him one of those looks that many many millennia later, men would still dread.

"I don't know. Maybe we should ask God."

They walked, hand in hand to the knowledge tree, where they could summon God.

"Oh, God, Could you please let us show the life had we bit into the fruit?"

And God, who never could say no to his dear children, showed them just that.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Yes, I do truly believe that the role of Satan or the serpent or whatever is grossly overstated.

Don't you see? It was the TV that did the trick!!

First of a hundred

2010-03-02T21:16:00.003-05:00

She's One.

Really?!

Yup.

Still remember when I first held her close. A tiny bundle. Remember it like it was just yesterday.

She's one.

So soon, yet...

No one else...

2010-02-24T23:37:00.005-05:00

No one else deserved to do this first as much as he did.

Congrats on the 200, Sachin.

Picture courtesy AFP.

3 Years

2010-01-28T01:06:00.006-05:00

It's been 3 years.

Long? Heck no, just like a small step in a journey.

Felt long? No, I guess she never let me feel it that way.

How does it feel? Waking up everyday to see the woman you love and the tiny tangible result of our love, and going to bed everyday, watching them cuddled in sleep - there is an excitement that never ends, a feeling that never quells.

Love just deepens.

Happy anniversary, PS.

See I know Not What *

2009-12-05T09:38:00.005-05:00

He was narrating the incident, and I could visualize it.

"I rushed onto the station. I knew he was on that train. The platform was empty and that was strange. The train had not arrived yet.

Every time I thought about it, my heart seethed with anger and hatred. The deeds he had done. The havoc he had wreaked. The seeds of hatred he had sown. I punched on one of the iron pillars and it just caved in. Yes, the rage within me was empowering me. Sort of like the incredible hulk. The train was approaching and my mind was reaching its critical point of control. But I knew that if ever I lose control I could always go back to normality by gently pressing here."

While saying this, his face turned red, and I had never seen that happen. And on his forehead appeared a tiny circle, like the Hydrogen symbol on Dr. Manhattan's forehead. Or perhaps like the third and destructive eye of Lord Shiva.

He clenched his teeth, and I knew that I had to do something. I pressed the point where his eyebrows met. He then opened his eyes with a strange calm in his eyes and asked in a mildly accusing and condescending tone. "Why did you do that?". And I knew no answer.

********************************************************************

Another strange dream, I bet even Freud would be a wee bit confused on this one.

* Title of post inspired by a Russian fairytale "Go I know Not Where, Fetch I know Not What" from the book "Vasilisa the Beautiful".

Mondays...

2009-10-03T18:41:00.002-04:00

Woke up late.
Shirt not ironed.
Can I still catch the 7:47 train?
Bus is late.
Run for the train. Pant pant pant.
Train stuck in tunnel because of signal malfunction.

I hate mondays.

Scram for the subway.
Pick up paper in between.
Metro card did not work at the turnstile. Swipe again. And again. Worked.
Squeeze in through the closing subway doors.
Run up the stairs to the street and to the office building.
Elevators.
Get out, flash id card, get into the office floor.
Rush to the cubicle to find someone else sitting in mine.
A hundred thoughts run through the mind before I gather the sense to ask him if he's new.
He says he has been working here for 3 years, asks me if am new.
Realize i got off on the wrong floor.
Phew.

Monday mornings open a whole new perspective.

Aditi

2009-09-30T23:58:00.002-04:00

How I long to touch her, feel her, hug the breath out of her.

When I hear her voice on the phone, the sweet little nothings that she says out magically become words, talking to me, asking about my day, telling me about hers.

And when I see the picture of her sleeping on her side, as she always seems to do now, I wish I were right next to her on a Saturday morning, the alarm clock quietened, looking at her, watching her sleep.

How I yearn to run my fingers through her hair, how I wish I were the reason for every small shy smile on her tiny lips.

And the sight that widens her eyes into joyous glee.

Oh, how I miss my daughter.

Spelling bee

2009-07-31T19:48:00.001-04:00

A child near my place has his spelling homework well done.

A for "apple"
B for "Ball'
C for "Poocha"...came the reply without hesitation. And it goes on..
D for "Naaya", E for "Aana"...


I am not joking!!

നീർമാതളം ഇനി പൂക്കില്ല

2009-05-31T12:46:00.001-04:00

കമല സുരയ്യ, അല്ല, മാധവിക്കുട്ടി, ഇനി ഓർമ്മ മാത്രം...
ബാഷ്പാഞ്ജലികൾ...

A bing and a wave; AND a wedding?

2009-05-30T23:04:00.003-04:00

Two things I am looking forward to.
Bing, the decision engine, and the Wave, the communication engine.

Have just read previews on both and watched the exhaustive video on wave, and sounds really exciting.

You can find them here and here.

Off topic : Riverdale is in spotlight. Seems Archie asks Veronica to marry him and she agrees.
The news is here. (I like Betty better, guess everyone does.). But deep within, I guess it's the right direction because I never really thought that Archie deserved Betty.

Overheard

2009-05-06T22:19:00.003-04:00

Overheard in the train :

"Why are Newark and New York stations named 'Penn' stations?"

"I am not sure, maybe trains used to be called penns?"

Duh!!

*Penn station is named after Pennsylvania Rail Road, the station's builder an original tenant

Why Bangalore and not Beijing

2009-05-05T12:20:00.002-04:00

A lot of hulala over Obama's speech.
Why did he have to refer to Bangalore and Buffalo, and not maybe Beijing and Buffalo?

After all, it is not only the software that is being outsourced. Step into any major retail store in US and you will find why manufacturing has died down in the country. Everything (with a capital E) is made in China.

And then why blame Bangalore?

Simple reason.

If he had mentioned Beijing instead of Bangalore, the next day, Hu Jintao would wiggle his nose, and maybe throw a reference to a trillion in gold deposits, and wonder how safe they are.
And down comes the Dow (-Jones index.)

Well, there you go! :)

Rain, Rain, Rain... I am mad.

2009-04-18T02:45:00.011-04:00

Office, around 3 in the evening. A meeting.
Someone was explaining about the new project schedule and whether we'd hit it or miss it and all that.

I just keep glancing out of the window.
First I don't realize why, because I am a bit interested in that time line thingy, because it's MY time that he is discussing.
But then I realize why I have been checking out the scenery.
Somehow I can't really believe that there is still so much of sunlight outside.

I still don't realize why I can't believe that. Winter has passed and spring has been smiling upon us. So why not? Longer days, well...

Then it clicks. I feel that it has been raining outside.
Wait a minute. It is all sunny and light outside, and then why the rain?
Oh...so it has not been raining.
But I can feel that it is raining.

No, No. 3 days for implementation? Need 2 more.

I can smell the rain. So that's the deal. I am not seeing the rain or feeling the rain. I just am smelling the rain. What the heck?

I look around.

Aha!!
I lean to the guy sitting next to me.

"One of those 'fresh rain' scent detergents"?
He is surprised for a second and then nods with a knowing smile.

Well, that works.

Yup. Time line kind of looks ok too.

Aditi

2009-03-29T23:37:00.000-04:00

There's a new woman in my life!!

2009-03-22T00:09:00.003-04:00

Well, strictly speaking, not a woman, but a wonderful little girl.
Aditi was born on 2nd March.

Nothing prepares you for that feeling, when the doctor handles that small bundle into your hands, no matter what you have read or heard from others.

This is strictly cliche but there really are no words enough to describe the feeling. Whether it is extreme joy, or pride, or a mixture of both that makes you want to hold her tight and cry, I do not know. What I do know is that this is a wonderful thing, watching her change every moment, watching her sleep for hours, looking deep into her face, reading each tiny expression that crosses it, and being rewarded with that tiny hint of a smile that she unwittingly throws your way.

Yup, daddydom rocks!!

I guess I can't even start trying to describe how mommy is feeling.

And the Oscar goes to...

2009-02-22T22:56:00.003-05:00

ARR!
JAI HO!!
TWICE OVER!!!!

Preparing for her...

2009-02-15T23:48:00.003-05:00

The irony

2009-02-07T00:03:00.006-05:00

"How much further do we have to walk, amma?", the little boy asked in a feeble voice.

His mother looked ahead. It was dusk, and was getting dark. She heard the horn of the 7 o'clock train leaving the station, behind them.

They had not walked much, but the child, his body weak, and his small feet aching felt that he had been walking for several miles. The child was only 3 years old, and his mother was still a young teenager.

It was that old beggar on the north end of the platform who had told her about this. He was always laughing at the world, his eyes brimming with dreamy mirth. A bit of spit always drooling over his long beard. He liked this girl, maybe reminding him of someone he had long lost.

He had told her about the wheat godowns. The big huge buildings filled with grain. He had even showed her some that he had got, carefully unwrapping a cloth bundle and showing her the wheat and rice.

He had also told her how to get into one of those buildings, about the small hole in one of those, through which you could sneak in and out. "Do not tell anyone else, Beti", he had warned her at the end. "Let this be our secret". And he had smiled again. No, not with mean or perverse intent but with a very baby-ish innocence that she did not find on the face of even her own son.

She had waited till sunset as he had told her and then had crossed the tracks and gone westward. It was perhaps a mile or two to the godown. She had passed them often, but had never even wondered what was in them.

The large buildings loomed ahead. She slowly hid behind the shadows. The old man had told that there were no sentries, but then nevetheless. She counted the buildings, and found the one that had the hole in the wall. Picking up her son, she slowly walked towards that one.

And there it was. Just as the man had told, one side of the wall had a small hole. She could just barely get in. The inside of the building was pitch dark. She stood in the dark in a moment of anticipation. Then fumbled with the box of matches and the small candle that she had brought along. She placed her son on the floor and lit the candle.

The sight took her breath away. There were hundreds, nay, thousands of sacks of grain stacked neatly, row upon row. She stood, wide - eyed and lost for a long long moment. Then she spread the saree that she had brought on the floor. Pulling out a small knife from her waist, she ripped one of the sacks. The wheat smelt old, but then, it was food. She cupped her hands and began gathering the grains into the saree. When she had a small heap, she knelt down and made a bundle of it. She then blew out the candle, picked up her son and the bundle and then made her way out of the building.

"A month", she thought. "We can eat for a month now". A hint of a smile played on the edge of her lips.

"Aye, Stop!". A voice hollered from behind her. "Trying to rob government property, you filthy beggar", shouted the man in the khakhi. He had a lathi that he had swung above his head to beat her, but then he had seen the baby. "Give me that bundle and then be off. I will break your legs if you dare to come snooping around here again". Saying that, he grabbed the bundle from her and opened it. He went inside the godown, emptied it and threw the saree back at her. "Now scram!!". She rested her fearful sight on him for a second, and then slowly walked back to the station. The child was whimpering.

*************************************************************************************

She took her usual spot on the platform the next day, begging for alms and food. The child lay next to her, his eyes closed in an exhausted and hungry sleep.

She had spread a paper in front of her and had kept a small tin can for alms.

If she could read, the paper shouted in red bold letters "A lakh tons of wheat rotting in godowns".

Thankfully, she couldn't.

*************************************************************************************

The news bit is here

Ammamma

2008-12-14T23:38:00.000-05:00

There are some people whom you consider invincible. At least deep within, you have the perception that somehow these people are going to be around forever. You have never imagined them as old, and they have pretty much stayed the same. They even seemed not to age, as if they are just stuck in time. Ammamma was one such person.
It is shocking how a group of tiny cells invade and conquer a body, a life. Like the trojan horse, they sneak in and in no time spread like cancer - well, it was cancer.
She had conquered the dreaded disease once before, a few years back, and had had her check-ups regularly. It was in one of the very recent once that they found that it was back.
I last saw her when I went to India for my sister's wedding - 3 months ago, in August. She had grown thin, but her smile was spot on. Then we were pretty sure that she could beat the disease. She was able to attend the wedding without any issues and really did enjoy it too.
when I was about to leave, I gave her a hug and said that we'll see soon, and she can hold her great-grand child in her arms soon. She smiled and said that she'd get strong enough by then and that she'd start looking out for names. We said goodbye happily, in contrast to the usual tearful farewells, being sure that we'll be seeing each other in May.
Then she began to get these pains once in a while, but the pain killer injections subdued them. But then she began to get them in increasing frequency. They took her to a cancer speciality hospital in Cochin, but by then, she had drifted off into a coma. And then in a week, she left.

They told me that she did not have to bear any pain that we associate with the deadly disease, and that is perhaps how her karma aided her. But then, she is gone.

She has had a good life, a happy one. all her children were near her towards the end, and most of her grandchildren too.
Maybe because I am here, I am yet to realize the full extent of my loss, how much I will miss her. I guess when I go to India the next time is when I will realize the void. Even now, though it has been only just a few days since she passed away, I almost ask out about how she is doing when I call home. I can never really imagine home without her.
The umpteen times I have fallen asleep on her lap, even really recently. How when I was doing my engineering, she would always be looking forward to the weekends when I would come home. How she had spent a long time alone in the house in vaniamkulam. How I would squeeze her in a hug and she would laugh and gasp, and laugh again. How I'd grow worried about her cough in the night and would rub her back, and she'd assure that everything was ok. How in my teenage vanity I'd sometimes speak harshly, and she with her vats worldly experience would just smile and nod.
That ammamma will never be there again has not settled in yet, perhaps she will be there when I go back, in the umpteen lovely memories.

Obama it is!!

2008-11-04T23:50:00.002-05:00

Didn't we kind of know this all along?
Well, Congratulations, Mr.Obama.
Hope you turn out to be the one people hope you to be!!

Do not disturb!!

2008-10-12T01:42:00.005-04:00

A little one...

2008-09-06T01:36:00.003-04:00

The room was dark. I had somehow imagined it to be well lit. But then when I thought about it, I just smiled at the absurdity of thinking it to be bright. Of course it would be dark in here.

The technician, a young woman, (Is she a doctor? Don't think so) told Priya to lie down. She smeared some gel onto her stomach and reached for the probe. gently, here, there. I looked at the screen.

For a moment I was lost in marvelling the technological wonder.

But then, there it was!!

The technician, with a small smile lighting up her face pointed onto the screen.

But then I did not need to be told. There it was. The tiny head, the little body, and for a moment I really stared, a tiny hand, waving. You could even make out the little fingers!!

My baby; OUR baby!!

Yes, we are expecting a new addition to the family, in March.

I guess this is the nearest I can get to shouting it out!!

Back from India...

2008-09-06T01:17:00.009-04:00

Peethambaran, my cycle rickshaw driver, used to take my hand and walk me to
the house, since the rickshaw couldn't get to the doorstep.
Just around the corner, I'd raise my eyes, and at the window, propped up by amma, she'd be
standing. I have never seen anyone get so excited to see me, ever. She'd
reach out both her hands, and with uncontrolled excitement, would
shout,"Bakka, Bakka!" - my dear little sister, Thulasi.

It really is fresh in my mind, still, even today, as I look at her,
standing poised in her wedding saree.

We'd had our share of fights. Sometimes I'd forget that I am older and
would hurt her. But then like all kids' fights, we'd always patch up in a
second.
She still was really small when we moved to vaniamkulam. Then sarojini amma
would accompany us to the bus stop, over the hill, about a kilometer away.
It was always a hurry, we almost never were on time, and sarojini amma
would sometimes half carry her along with the two bags.

Abudhabi schools had two different shifts, and slowly we began to see less
of each other. But then I used to take her to her music class, even though it was on the
next building, and then we'd catch up on the happenings of the day.
We used to go over to the park nearby on weekends and have rounds of dumb
charades.

When Satish ettan came over and stayed with us, on lookout for a job, we
wrote drama scripts from tinkle cartoons and played them with him. Oh! How
he was tortured.

After my 12th, I came back to India, and she stayed back. It was then that
I realized how much she was a part of my life. She too came back after 4
years and was in Vaniamkulam with ammamma. She had to travel to college by
bus, and she'd tell me about her friends in the bus, her favorite bus,
Kripa, and how she really hoped that she'd get into engineering college so
that she won't need to travel so far.
She was disappointed when she did not get through in the first round, but
then one day over the phone she breathlessly shouted about her being
selected. A wonderful moment.

There probably is never a dull moment in engineering college. When she
talked about Nitin, I really did not mind much, thinking it off as a
typical campus crush.
Amma and achan very much being against it. And once after a very silly
fight with them, she hugged me tightly and cried and cried. A moment when I
thought I hardly had started to know her.

Now, she stands posing for a photographer, on the stage with Nitin. She
looks upto him for a second, and ihe looks to her and I can see a look of
wonderful expectation and excitement.
And then, in a second that only I could catch, she looks at me and smiles-
Love you Thuchi!

The God of cut-paste coding

2008-06-27T23:36:00.003-04:00

Shiva trembled with fury. His dear wife, Sati, who had gone to attend a yagna performed by her father had self immolated. Unable to bear her father's cruel words against her husband, she had set herself on fire.
Shiva had warned her not to go for this yagna, but then the daughter had thought that she could somehow reconcile her husband and her father. But Daksha had taken this as an opportunity to try to further humiliate her and Shiva.
Shiva began his Taandava dance and this threatened the whole universe. From his hair-locks evolved Veerabhadra and Bhadrakaali, two fearsome Bhootas and they all set out to take revenge.
Shiva was only satisfied when he brought down the entire place and had decapitated Daksha by severing his head off.
But then, Lord Vishnu interfered and convinced Shiva that killing Daksha would amount to brahmahatya and that he should somehow bring him back to life. Shiva, his anger cooled, looked around. Daksha's head had been burnt to ashes in his violent rage. Shiva, then brought Daksha back to life by fixing his body with a goat's head.

******************************************************************************

Much later Sati was reborn as Parvathi, and Shiva married her. One day, while she was about to bathe she created a maanasaputra and told him to guard the house and to let no one in. The son, not recognizing Shiva, stopped him too. A small battle ensued and Shiva killed off the little boy by chopping his head off, without realizing that he is his own son. When Parvathi came to know about this, she was beside herself with grief. Shiva too was sad. He sent his Bhootas to search for a proper head so that he can revive his son.
The Bhootas were really not the smartest people on earth (or Kailas) and they returned with an elephant's head. Shiva put the head on the body and lo, Gajaanana, or Ganapati came to life and they all lived happily ever after.
****************************************************************************************************

"The migration has to go in tomorrow, Alok", said Ram, the project manager. Even though his voice was soft, Alok really couldn't miss the steely edge in Ram's voice. "I will try my best" managed Alok.
Late in the night, almost alone, Alok ran his fingers through his hair. "Migration code" - That was the only thing in his mind. And then it struck him. He quickly browsed the repository. Somewhere he had seen that bit of code to make it all fit together. It was in that now retired application. Alok had a smile on the corner of his lips now. He carefully read the code and did a cut and then a paste onto his workspace. Then slowly he got up, stretched and bent down to lock his computer for the day.

******************************************************************************************

Life in these US

2008-05-30T17:17:00.002-04:00

Now, Wait a minute. This one is really confusing.

Tracy Lagondino wanted to become a man. So she had a gender reassignment operation to become a man, and so became Thomas Bertie.
So far, so good.
And then he married a woman. But of course. You'd think that was why he got that operation done in the first place.
But then, guess who gets pregnant? No, not his wife, but he!! He got pregnant by another man!! Shucks!! Life is getting complicated, isn't it?

************************************************************************************************

And hey, next time you fly, be sure you are not suffering from constipation. In case you are and screw up you face to look the feeling, your plane just might get shot down.
Details here.

Bow-Wow!!

2008-04-25T18:30:00.004-04:00

What the American dog would tell the Indian Dog -

"Did you know that I make humans pick my sh*t over here?"

"Oh sh*t!! No Kidding!! Really??!!"

And this thing with Two Wheelers...

2008-03-25T19:08:00.005-04:00

A two wheeler has always made me nervous. Be it a simple bicycle ("bike" in America, will henceforth be called "Bicycle" or "Cycle" in this post)or a complex Hayabusa. While I have been an ardent admirer of the simplicity and efficiency of the cycle as a personal means of transport and the awesome aura that a Hayabusa creates, I always have stepped back from a two-wheeler.
Maybe it has got something to do with how Gopan, a childhood friend a few years older, taught me to ride a cycle. He went to the little down nearby and got a cycle for rent. It was one of those older Hercules', with curved handlebars, and a bit too big for me. Which incidentally I didn't realize until it was too late. Running in front of home was this unpaved road, the stony kind, which gets real ugly in the Kerala monsoon. In summer, the sharp edged stones would pop out, making it really unfit for walking (unless you had one of those CAT boots on) and only slightly fit for any vehicle other than the old Mahindra jeep. The road passed in front of our house and then rose onto a steep climb, one of those which you think of tackling with a third gear, but then have to shift to a second, and maayy be onto that first. There was a telephone post right on top of that climb and this was the crucial element of Gopan's tutelage.

"This is all child's play" grinned Gopan. I guess I am pretty bad at reading people's faces. That devilish look was not really hard to spot. But then the enthusiasm of being mobile eclipsed all the anxiety.

We wheeled the cycle to the top of the slope and Gopan leaned the cycle against that post there. The instructions were pretty straight-forward. I would get on top of the cycle, Gopan would walk down the slope and wait for me there. Once I was ready, I just needed to give the post a gentle push, get hold of the handlebars, try to keep the legs on the pedals, and balance the whole thing - me, the cycle and all that. "Meet you at the bottom", he said and walked off.

I climbed onto it, and sat on the seat. Sat might be too polished a word; I managed to perch on top of it. I saw Gopan at the bottom of the hill. Somehow, the both of us had forgotten that the road was not smooth, and that there existed a concept called brakes. I pushed against the post, and down went the cycle, with me screaming on it. I really did not know what happened, because I had my eyes closed, but I do remember that my feet wouldn't really reach the pedals, and that it really was a bumpy ride. I cursed the "Contractor" Gopalakrishnan who had paved the road, I cursed Hercules for making huge cycles, and of course, the smiling Gopan.

That lesson perhaps instilled a permanent fear of two wheelers in my mind, and made me realize that my center of gravity if a feet in front of me. How else can you explain the numerous times that I have fallen, sometimes for no reason at all?

In the dorm, Chacko Jose and Azher would wait every Saturday morning to see me fetch two buckets of water from the bathroom and the come down crashing when I reach the door.

But then somehow, I did master the Bicycle. Amma's running around behind me, balancing me helped.

But motorcycles were still (are still) a nay.

It was in the first year of college, while we were going home to fetch a record that Chacko urged me to shed my inhibitions and try. It was Nitin's Blue Sunny. Now, a Sunny is a vehicle that can do you no harm. It is small, manageable, has no gears, and even 7 year old kids drive it around.

But then, this was me.

We (me-kins the mahout) were driving perfectly, the road being straight and there being no other vehicles, until the formidable enemy became visible. The Curve. Now everyone had forced into my head that a curve should be taken slowly, but then I somehow managed to mess up. The accelerator got a twist, the Sunny neighed like Shivaji's horse e Chetak, and before we knew, both of us were on the ground. CBM college stands right by the curve and there were a lot of pretty dames coming out. Chacko realized in an instant the depreciation this would cause to our face value. With the same swift motion with which Alexander would have mounted Beucephalus, he straightened the scooter and got on top of it. Not to be outdone, I grabbed the back seat and climbed on, and in an instant we were off. Even before anyone could set sight on us. wow!!

Nitin was heartbroken, and of course hasn't trusted me with a vehicle since then (I myself have not), and we painted the Sunny a sparkling blue where the paint had worn off.

From then on, I never really have tried my hand on a two-wheeler, except when we got that scooter of our own in the final year. Anoop and I. He always encouraged me to try my hand, and while returning from our project place, on the lonely roads, in the silent nights, when my loud singing from the backseat gets unbearable, he would gently stop the scooter by the side and hand me the reins. I never have messed up on that one, but that was the last motorcycle I have driven.

Celebrity Obsessions...

2008-02-13T16:31:00.003-05:00

Times Of India online edition was asking its readers on Monday whether they think that the media is obsessed with celebrities these days.
Well, doesn't the edition really speak for itself with three references to Sanjay Dutt's wedding?

Will Perepiteia change the world?

2008-02-07T12:24:00.000-05:00

I guess we all had been fascinated by magnets and motors at one stage of life or the other. Imagining if we could float a magnet above a field with repulsive force. Making iron dust magnetic fields.
Looks like Thane Heins has really taken it to the next stage.
Though everyone's still scared and wary of uttering the "Perpetual Motion" word, Perepiteia really seems to be headed somewhere. If it could even give us a small percent of extra bit of energy, I guess it really would be worth it.
Will this turn physics as we studied on its head? I guess it still is too early to say anything, but this is really worth watching..

You can find the story HERE.

More here -

and here .

Monkey? or...Maa Ki?

2008-02-02T14:48:00.000-05:00

Information age seems to infer sensationalizing anything and everything.
Case in point now? Harbhajan Singh's words to Symonds.

Monkey or Maa Ki...

ICC forgave Harbhajan because he apparently cursed "Maa Ki..(and god knows whatever followed)" instead of "monkey".

Now I don't know about these Australians or the ICC folks, but isn't a reference to your mother's anatomy much more offensive than calling you a monkey?

We used to call each other monkey and donkey in junior school. When did that attain a racial slur overtone?

Funny how time can complicate things and distort simple vocabulary!!

Sa re ga ma pa...ha ha ha

2008-01-25T22:10:00.000-05:00

It is truly funny what people watch on tv these days...
There is this show on Zee tv thats supposed to be a singing contest for kids...its called Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs.
Believe me, there is a lot of talent there, they sing really well...so the SaReGaMaPa part is pretty much justified I guess.
But then we lose track. This episode had a girl singing wonderfully well, and then stopping in the middle of the song and saying that she's gonna quit. And she says with the same expression as say, a stock broker who has lost all his money, or like a software engineer just out of a QA meeting.
The judges and the audience suitably act stunned. And then they question her as to why she is quitting, and she says that she doesn't want her beloved father to suffer the same fate as the father of one of her co-competitors. Seems after her friend got eliminated in the contest, her father had a massive heart attack.
Now I really do not know whether to laugh at this , or hang my head in shame at where the so called entertainment is heading and the fact that I am watching it, or whether to shun life as a whole and go do penance in the Himalayas.
Should I blame the father for getting that heart attack? Should I blame the kids for this? Should I blame the judges for not boycotting this tomfoolery?
I guess finally the blame should all be upon me, the aam aadmi tv audience, for watching all this, and trying to make sense of all this!!

Indian Republic turns 58.
Jai Hind!!

Checkmated on the last square!

2008-01-18T13:03:00.000-05:00

The 'Mozart of Chess', Bobby Fischer, is no more. Guess the players on this world were just not worthy of his genius anymore.

The Pooja

2008-01-15T18:22:00.000-05:00

The only light that shone in the dark, stone room was from the lamp that Neelakanthan Namboothiri had lit. There was the rather pious smell of flowers, the ghee and the incense sticks. He was lost in the prayers, slowly and softly chanting them, his hands in constant motion, offering the flowers and the prayers to the Deity. We'd all gathered outside the pooja room, hands joined in prayer, lost in a sublime world.

******************************************************************

The reverie did not last long. I was standing by the door looking out for a Honda Accord that would bring the priest, the poojari, for the "Gruhapravesham". He was in touch by mobile phone, was en route, just that his GPS had somehow taken him somewhere else.

He reached a bit late, clad in a white dhoti and a white shawl. He looked much younger than I had expected him to be, late 30's or early 40's. His website had told us that he had done a "padayatra" from Kanyakumari to Badrinath, so I had expected him to be older. I guess I had skipped his photo on the site.

He started off without much ado, and between the agni-kund and where he sat, he carefully placed the most important "yantra" - his mobile.

The pooja began, and he chanted the mantras in clear loud voice. And about ten minutes into that he stopped for a couple of minutes to confirm his next appointment over phone.

And then about ten minutes later, to suggest a better camera angle to me (I was filming it so that it could be shown to people back home).

And when the fire alarm rang he loudly shouted that it could be disabled by pressing the button in the center of the alarm; But when none of us (the poor short ones) could reach it, he jumped from his "Padmasana" and came running to switch it off.

And when after the pooja he explained that it takes only a year for the green cards to get processed for hindu priests, the green card aspirants gathered there "burned" in jealousy a tiny bit.

And off he went, to the next appointment - Sunday being a really full day in his schedule.

**********************************************************

Neelakanthan Namboothiri came out of the pooja room, and sprinkled the holy water, the punyaaham. He respectfully accepted the modest dakshina, and blessed all who had gathered. Then he got hold of the crude walking stick that he had fashioned out of a bamboo stick and walked silently to the temple, to give "Naivedyam" to the lord.

A shame for the democracy!

2007-12-21T12:47:00.000-05:00

The other day, while returning home from work, saw a message posted by the railway department in the compartment. It talked about a suggested nominal hike in the parking lot charges. It also said that people could appeal against this, and had to file their appeals by a particular date.

Democracy.

I could not help but think about the state of "democracy" back home. The politicians extol its virtues every time. We call ourselves the largest democracy in the world. Shouldn't it now be changed to the largest partial democracy in the world? Look around, in many places, people are forced to vote for a particular person by force, goondaism, because they are scared for their lives and families. I rush to say that this is not the case everywhere, and also to say that this is far far better than a country being ruled by autocrats, but there is still many a mile before we can actuall pride ourselves with a complete "Democracy" seal.

And on this democratic landscape, Nandigram stands out as a sore sight, a blemish. But more than that, here are real people, in a democratic world, tortured, not even by an opposition, but by the very party they elected to power, and to which they probably still belong. Whatever the government's excuse, this is an intolerable crime in a billion strong democracy. And when a resident laments that the next time too the same people will come to power because they come asking for vote with a symbol in one had and a dhoti in the other hand as a threatening symbol for wrapping the dead in the family, we can just hang our heads in shame.

Here is to a new year filled with hope and light for an emerging country - let us step into the light, let us have the strength to raise our heads in pride.

I miss the static!!

2007-11-21T11:00:00.000-05:00

I still pretty clearly remember the day Doordarshan started airing their programs in Malayalam. They had started a new transmission station in Trivandrum. Our house being in a kind of a valley with hills and mountains all around, our antenna, (the yagi-uda one) was perched on top of a really really long pole. And someone had climbed on top of the terrace and had started rotating it slowly, and then someone in between would convey from someone inside the house whether it was all coming properly, or whether the signal was weak. It was almost all static then; just barely were able to make out the president inaugarating the station lighting a lamp.
But the static was interesting. The white and black grains all around. And back then it was 'grains', not static. And there was a sense of simplicity to it, and a kind of hope there that if you turn it in some other direction you really might get a better picture.
But then the tv makers replaced this with those blue screens (too many micro$oft imitators?) that just shows a blank blue screen. No making out the shadow, no idea as to how close you are to a better reception.

And hey, the static(the white and black variety) had something really important in it. Almost 1% of it is radiation from the very edge of the universe. Yup, you were getting the live transmission of the noise from the most primordial source. And that has been replaced by a blank blue absurdity.

I want my static back!!

Thamasoma Jyothir Gamaya

2007-11-08T13:52:00.000-05:00

Wishing you all a Happy Deepavali!!

Vanka and Gupta

2007-11-02T16:53:00.000-04:00

Ever so often you come across a sad story, something that totally depresses you.
I ws searching for a singer's name which I did not remember and stumbled across Vanka. I had read this story by Checkov a long time back, but then never expected to come across it in this manner. When I did see the title, I really could not resist a re-read, though I was pretty sure that it'd depress me.
I guess I had read it when I was ten or twelve, and I remember having read it in candle light, in the one of those roaring monsoon seasons in Kerala. And somehow, it felt as if poor little Vanka was rushing to the postbox right then. Probably written in a language a nine year old boy would not write (though I suspect that the translations I read might have exaggerated it from simple Russian), this story is about Vanka, an orphan who's been taken as an apprentice by a shoemaker and has been abused and beaten up. He begs his grandfather to come and take him in his letter. And addressed just to a name, we know that the letter would never reach the destination... But ten, Vanka sleeps well that Christmas night, dreaming of his grandpa and the family dog.

the story is here.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

Then, here is an article from Times Online

It talks about how for about Rs.150, you get a "fligh-like-experience".
I know that this guy is probably fulfilling the dreams of many who wouldn't ever be able to get into an airplane, and that he has formed a pretty decent business opportunity for himself, but reading the comments from the people who did get on for "the ride", somehow pulled a string somewhere. And the site calls him an "entrepreneur". My foot.
It might just have been an emotional mood, but the depression is pretty much real.

Dumbledore??!!

2007-10-22T17:17:00.000-04:00

So Dumbledore is gay??

Can the kids really digest that?

And I don't even want to start thinking about all the possibilities now...

And now we know what she (Rowling) meant when Harry said "He did things with his wand I've never seen before".

Poor poor Harry!!

Chak De!!

2007-10-16T17:27:00.000-04:00

Saw the movie "Chak De India"...
A nice inspiring story, with some nationalist sentiments thrown in. Nicely shot, not too long, just about right. But what is particularly nice is that the director selected hockey rather than relying on cricket. The movie even has a character who looks down on hockey and mocks it calling "Gilli-danda". Was it just because he is referring to the women's hockey team that he calls it this or would he have done the same had it been a men's team?

That apart, it is certainly ironic then that the "Chak De India" slogan was applied to the Indian cricket team returning after winning the Ywenty20 cup. No mean feat that, but the very term theme that tried to tell us that there is more to sports in India than cricket, was used to embody a cricket victory.

And what did the Indian hockey team get when it came back victorious in Asia cup, unbeaten in the whole tournament? Most of us don't even know the name of the captain.

And now that cricket has forayed into the super-short version, the future of our hockey players seems really bleak indeed.

Persecution of Rama

2007-09-14T16:34:00.000-04:00

Flashback...!
some time ago, there was this king, a brave adventurous and yes, very very righteous king. He travelled across the country and even across the sea, to rescue his wife from the clutches of an evil king, and unfortunately (though he did not realize then) built a bridge on his way there.
He got back to his kingdom, and when some people raised their eyebrows on the sanctity of his wife (this way waaaaay back), he abandoned her. Sita was abaondoned in the forest, and that too while she was pregnant with twins. But what Sita, nor her husband Rama, had not counted on was a far more influential power - a power called Sonia Gandhi!!

Fast Forward to present...!
I really do not understand the ruckus that the congress is raising about Rama, and his bridge. Why couldn't the Aarchaeological survey and the congress party just contend to say that the "bridge does not appear to be man-made"? Why do they really have to question Rama's existence at all?

There are probably a billion people (or more, there are people in Indonesia who believe in Ramayana too) who believe in the Lord, who worship him and Sita as the epitome of righteousness. Rama is portrayed as the perfect man and Sita as the perfect woman, incarnations of Vishnu and Lakshmi.

Why deny the existence when there is no proof that he DID NOT exist? He might as well have walked the very grounds that Valmiki has so beautifully described. Would the ASI or the center dare do this if it were about some other religion? Like knocking off this cave in Talpiot, Jerusalem, saying there is no hard evidence that Jesus resurrected?

I am not against development here, just against the exact propaganda being used. Also keeping in mind the fact that there is a pretty delicate ecological balance at stake here.

Wherever this heads, well, Shoorpanakha has had her revenge!!

Every Dog...

2007-08-31T14:32:00.000-04:00

Every dog has its day, goes the saying...Oh yes!!
But a $12 Million day...hmmm..that's one lucky dog!!

"Trouble", Leona Helmsley's (the Queen of the Mean) pet dog has inherited $ 12 million...more money than I probably would ever see in my life (Now, if that Super Lotto clicks, or if my 'soon-to-be-written-but-perpetually-postponed-book' becomes a reality, I will delete these lines from the blog :)). And a dog inherits that!! And yea, two of her grandchildren did not get anything at all...
Maybe they should have helped her clean that doggy poop when they'd visited after all...

http://www.slate.com/id/2173103/

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

2007-08-14T13:11:00.000-04:00

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought
and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
-- Tagore

It has been 60 years since India has woken up into a new found freedom. Woken up to being the largest democracy in the world. Proving wrong the umpteen predictions that such a diverse nation would not survive a democratic rule, a unified rule.

After the painful dismemberment, the death of the Mahatma that raised some uncomfortable questions, the war with China, and then with the sister nation, the emergency, the mandal, the babri masjid and the opening up of the markets for competition on a global scale, India now stands poised to take full advantage of its more-than-a-billion heads and pairs of hands.
The political and bureaucratic machinery willing, we'll get there.

But this is not ignoring the situation elsewhere. The abundance of mere politicians rather than visionaries, the increasing disparity between the rich and the poor, literate and illiterate, and the short-sightedness in core sectors like agriculture may cost us dear.

Nehru's speech could as well have been written yesterday "Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially."

Let's not be complacent. Like Vivekananda said - "Uthishta jagratha praapyavaraan nibodhata!!" (Arise! Awake! Stop not till the goal is reached!).
Let's not stop like the fabled hare. Let's march on like the mighty lumbering elephant. For there are "miles to go before I sleep; and miles to go before I sleep".
Here's to a self-confident and soaring India!

Jai Hind!!

While we were sleeping...

2007-07-21T20:27:00.000-04:00

The world's largest democracy gets her first woman president. Though the post is more os a statutory one. Will the world's oldest one get one too?

I was not in the queue to buy Harry Potter's latest, but just couldn't resist reading the spoiler on the net...

Those were....

2007-07-17T21:22:00.000-04:00

"Are you sure this is safe?", we asked from the sidelines.
"Eda, can't you see? I can't take more precautions than this!!", Thotti, exasperated, muttered from under the helmet.
We weren't so sure this was a good idea. But expert ideas were not forthcoming either.
Thotti slowly moved towards it, the tongs extended.
Another loud hiss and he jumped back, and stared at us. Flashed one of those stupid laughs the way only he or Jose could do, when faced with a difficult one. This is going to be more difficult than we'd planned.

It all began when we decided that we'd spend the study leave at Nitin's place. His "Kunjammamaar" make the the most delicious and the thinnest home made dosas ever. Period. Thotti (Ranjith-Thotti- because he was the tallest among us, and called all of us "Kullanmaar"), Jose and I readily agreed, with the mouth watering perspective of unlimited paper thin dosas in mind. But alas, the whole family had gone home for vacation, and we were to tend (and cook) for ourselves.

The culinary skills being limited to rice and dal and ghee (yea, yea, I know, after 3 years of hostel and bachelor life, this was quite a feat that we knew so little...), we decided that well, we'd have it for lunch and dinner and bread for breakfast.

And then we had to face the formidable enemy. The stainless steel mechanical wonder - the Pressure Cooker!! Rice- we could manage in a vessel. But Dal? With not even a clue about the intricacies of the number of "whistles" and the weight lifting skills of steam, we decided that we'd get help from the experts. The call center being Divya.

"Hello, Divya? How many cups of water do you need for one cup of dal?"
"You guys cooking there?"
"Er....."
"Hahahahahaaha....."
(She did try really hard to suppress that laugh...)
"Ahem..."
"Oh, yes, ...for one cup of dal..."
And on and on she went...

Well, we did get the measurements right and she did tell us how many whistles we were to watch out for...

Hmmm...

They had a mechanical text book perched somewhere on the fridge, and were discussing complex machinery and I had a text book, and was day dreaming, while the dal cooked...and cooked...and cooked...

Hey wait...Isn't there supposed to be a whistle somewhere in between?
Uh oh...

*************************************************************************************

The numerous press stories had given the pressure cooker the image of a wildly unpredictable contraption that could go off on a sneeze...the fact that we couldn't find an ISI mark on it just helped heighten our fear...
Well, what the hell, with proper precaution (Ahem, no pun intended!!)

Thotti fetched his helmet and the tongs. We gathered by a corner. He slowly advanced. If he could just lift the weight a bit and release the steam...

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Thotti jumped back, and gave that smile...

"How many whistles did she say it takes for this to cook?"

*************************************************************************************

The dal was yummy!!

It's all on Google, silly...

2007-06-20T16:03:00.000-04:00

"Acha, how do all those people fit in that small box?" I might have asked my father, when I saw a TV for a first time. He might have launched into a long and simple narration of how it was catching stuff "off the air" that was being done some place else.
"Why can't we go to the sun, just like we went to the moon?", or to come closer to nature, "How does it rain? Is god really peeing from up there?" and a thousand other questions, which he or mom would have answered patiently.
And I considered (still do...) superman and superwoman...They'd know the answer to any question, however intriguing it might be, to me.

Will my child too, sit on my lap and ask the same wide eyed questions? I don't know.. Because I have a very formidable opponent who goes by the name google. Maybe by the time my children are old enough to start talking, this guy might come up with a voice interactive query engine which'd just listen and answer. Or we say "Sun" and it opens a picture of the galaxy and winds down to sun, just like it does with the earth now. With children coming to grips with technology at the rate now, I do not think they'll have time to sit on my lap and wait for the answer while I weave a fancy tale. He'll just go sit in front of the computer, look deep into googl's eyes and ask, "Why do you think we never can get to the sun", and with s smile, google'd say, "It's very hot out there, we'd all burn off". And that's it! He'd come back with a happy face and a "know-all" look on his face!! I'd be left trying to grapple with the harsh reality, the only solace in the knowledge that the computer has an "Off" button..

Attachments...

2007-06-19T11:49:00.001-04:00

Aren't boys more attached to their mothers and girls to their fathers? Priya and I were having this discussion. And she said that after marriage, boys(?) tend to get more attached to their fathers and girls to their mothers. Maybe because after marriage the guy gets to know what kind of a silent torture the dad has been through all these years. And the girl realizes how mom is the keeper of the "We rule the world" mantra... :)

Puerility...

2007-06-04T16:57:00.000-04:00

The first thing I noticed when I got into the bus today was the lady right in the backseat, talking animatedly to a gentleman next to her.
Like most of the people in the bus (the bus through Woodbridge...reminds me of 'Last bus to Woodstock'), the both of them were Indians.
The woman was telling him "And you know, my daughter stopped and asked, Mom, who is that?". And I did not know who that was. Do you know that man, the freedom fighter who has a dhoti across his shoulders? I know it is not Gandhi, because I can identify him anywhere, but this guy was wearing proper clothes.

The gentleman somehow surmised who this is, and with much mockery in his voice "Oh, that must be Sardar Vallabhai Patel you are talking about". And went on to explain the dress and all that, and some glimmer of recognition dawned on the woman's face. "Oh yes, that's the one". I really do not know how she missed the sarcasm in his voice.

I can understand this if she were a second generation Indian in this land. Or if she were from some remote corner of India, uneducated, living under her husband's foot. But no, this is a software engineer, maybe a couple of years in the US...

Any person, of any nationality other than ours, who's had as much education as she's had, would have been ashamed to ask such a question. Wouldn't Americans remember Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King?

Was she really ignorant of this personality or is it just a "show off" to show that America has changed her so much that she doesn't remember her nation's heroes any more? And brag it out so loudly and proudly...

We all cannot help but laugh at the pathetic depths to which some of us can lower ourselves. It'd help a great deal to realize that these things, rather than enhance our image in the eyes of our gracious host countrymen, would make them ridicule our puerility.

News!!

2007-06-01T14:00:00.000-04:00

Hurray!!The inbox is going to be clean!!(Or a bit 'cleaner') Robert Soloway, the so-called "Spam King" was arrested.

My buddy's sister came third in the state in her exams (10th). Wow!! You can find that here - http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/01/stories/2007060108090300.htm

Google has 'Google Streets' now and people have already started protests. Are they getting really too close? I have changed my transparent shower curtain into a very thick opaque one, just in case.
You find the story here - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/technology/01private.html?ex=1338436800&en=dcf03c92d90d9c0c&amp;amp;ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

I give up!! Stop the world and I will get out...

2007-05-04T14:30:00.000-04:00

The Belgian police has registered a rape case. Now why is it so important? Well, it was committed somewhere you'd not expect it to happen. No, not in Belgium, not in Europe, not on earth. Heck, no not even in moon or Mars or space. But in Cyberspace!!
Apparently, 2 men committed this "heinous crime" on a hapless dame. And all prominent computer magazines are writing tons about it.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/sexdrive/2007/05/sexdrive_0504

I too participate in this virtual world called "Second Life" where the lady was victimized. I attend seminars, watch previews, earn money dressed up as bunnies with corporate logos and yes, I even do fly. With so much prowess at your disposal (the ability to actually fly!! I always had this jealous feeling whenever I saw David Blaine levitating.) couldn't the lady just fly off? Or just shut the program off? Or was the shut-down button for windows so hard to find?
I wish this was some stupid joke. I really did not know how to react to the news. But now I can't react in any other manner than to laugh out loud. This is so very sad that human beings, who invented the whole set-up have stooped to such low levels as to complain of being raped in the virtual world. And that too, not even in virtual reality, just in an online computer world. Either we must all have reached the peak of intellectual achievement and the only way forward is down, or it must be a sad sad joke.

Duh..Lord, come soon to rescue thy children, for they really need to be rescued!!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and some more..

2007-04-23T14:16:00.000-04:00

Well, what the heck is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious??

Well, this is the word that won 13 year old Morgan Pozgar the title of the national texting champion!! And she did that without a single spelling mistake in 15 seconds flat!!
Now where is the "s" on my mobile phone's keypad?

**********************************************************************************

"If you can wait for 57 years, can't you wait for 1 more year?", the Supreme court bench asked the solicitor general.

Well, not a casual statement this. Makes sense, when you think about the consequences of the decision. This was when the SG asked the apex court to lift the stay that they had imposed on implementing the quota for OBCs this year. Never understood why the congress is in such a hurry to get this done. And what is more disturbing is that somewhere there is a clause where the Central government is empowered to exempt any of the educational institution from implementing the quota for one reason or other. Hmmm...that's a real tricky one!! And the SG seems to have argued that the implementation of the system will no way affect the general category candidates. How amusing.

I am not against this whole quota thing. I guess we do need a reservation of some kind to give equal opportunity to others. But we must take into account the financial co-efficient too. There is no meaning in providing a seat to a rich NRI kid belonging to one of the castes listed there while a poor bright "higher" caste kid goes without a seat. It might actually have helped him save a family.

Also, the idea of giving reservation to a generation makes more sense. Put in simple words, if your father or mother had got reservation, you shouldn't. It makes sense when you think about it. If you are educated and are able to make a decent living, you should be able to direct your son or daughter to the proper channel and guide him or her in her studies. And if you are educated and poor, give concession on the fees; not a free seat for god's sake!!

*************************************************************************************

The papers have been full of the Abhishek Bachchan-Aishwarya Rai wedding. While I believe that it is just an over-hyped wedding, there was another wedding(s?) that caught attention for all the wrong reasons. In Madhya Pradesh, the minister for co-operatives, Gopal Bhargava,arranged for a goverment sponsored wedding for poor girls - not 1 or 2, but for 101 girls. A very good deed indeed. But then he also organized "entertainment" for the 1000 odd guests assembled.
The main item was "Rai" dance by Bedia tribals, around 100 of them, which is a kind of erotic dance that simulates sexual movements. And then the brawls broke out. And all of hullaballoo...

With a minister providing entertainment of this kind, and another MP getting caught trying to get a girl abroad on his wife's passport for human trafficking, we finally know what to expect from our rulers!!

*************************************************************************************

And yes, the Hamilton guy in the Merc drives really really well!! Keep going!! (Though the heart still beats with the Reds!!)

New York

2007-04-02T23:41:00.000-04:00

Every morning I walk to office from the path station, about a five minutes walk. And being a down to earth person, as in, I look down while I walk, thanks to my center of gravity being located at a point about a foot in front of me and my constant tendency to fall, I do always make it a point to look out in front of me for formidable trip mines while I walk. And know what? The first thing I noticed was "MADE IN INDIA" written all over. Yup, all the New York City Sewer covers are Made in India.
No am not mocking it. In some sense it instills a good feeling deep within, thinking that this country that polices the whole world depends on us for sewer covers...hahaha...

Was tinkering (as a matter of fact, helping change the filter for the blower) in the heater room yesterday, and found out that there is a small flame burning. Told Rajuettan to raise the fire alarm, and well, he laughed and told that that is how the house gets heated. Central gas burns a falame...24/7. No wonder these people invade all the oil rich countries and carpet bomb them. They do have to somehow satisfy the enormous energy needs. And they keep on buying these giant trucks that gives 10 miles a gallon for family use. Irresponsble...plain plain irresponsible. And this while Indians queue up for the vehicle having the most mileage. Hmm..

Train Travails

2007-03-27T11:55:00.000-04:00

Heard in train :
"My wife was delivered yesterday..."..."Oh?"..."Boy or girl?"...hmmm...!!

The journey was lousy, standing there, till I saw thus guy reading a fat volume. Was wondering which book it is, when I got a chance to peek onto the cover. It was a book of funny Tech Quotes. Hmmm...Well, the interesting part was, well, he had a bookmark to mark pages in it. Wow!!

In the space too....

2007-03-15T14:00:00.000-04:00

There was this edited image some time back, circulating on the internet. It depicted an astronaut on the moon, and he finds himself in front of "Chandran's Tea Shop". Chandran of course, is your omnipresent Malayali.

Well, though we haven't got there yet, seems like we're getting closer to it than most people from the world are - yes, the first Indian Space tourist will most probably be a Malayali.

Santhosh George Kulangara, who publishes educational guides and has visited almost 50 countries is all set to zoom off on a space adventure aboard VVS Enterprise, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceship.
Now here's wishing Santhosh a very very happy 3 hour stay in space.
Know what? I think he might be going scouting for new places on behalf of all the Malayalis...

NYC

2007-03-14T15:41:00.000-04:00

Seeing snow for the first time, quite an experience - the Statue of Liberty, now contesting to be one of the new wonders of the world, more than that, the values she stands for - The Empire State building, and the view from on top of it - Mme.Tussaud's wax museum - Times Square, where time almost loses its meaning - the Museum - NYSE, where the world trades - the path train - the narrow, not so narrow and wide streets - the slow drizzle - Macy's - the unending malls - the crowds, everyone going somewhere, without pause - the cold mornings - the Cheese-Bagel breakfast - Yup, New York is pretty!

book of a book of a book?

2007-02-21T13:24:00.000-05:00

I was browsing through all these books in a book-store the other day, and on one particular rack, saw "the Da Vinci code". Now, what's the big deal about that?

Well, the book next it was a book explaining the places where you'd find the things described in the Da Vinci code. And the next book was about why the whole thing is a fake. The next book debated both sides of the Da Vinci code. And the next one was about the two societies mentioned in Dan Brown's book. And one about Da Vinci. And one about the holy chalice...It just went on and on. It's really surprising how many people can live out of one book. Maybe I will write one about one of the books that is about the Da Vinci code. Hmmmm....

They were showing this new cannon in the military channel and the presenter was explaining the advantages of it. Earlier it required four guys to operate the cannon. Now it needs only one guy - a computer operator. Well, four guys laid off in US. One job opportunity for an Indian computer operator!!

Miss ya Shane!!

2006-12-26T11:52:00.000-05:00

Well, the Spin magician retires, and he's still in top form. Yes, it's been a roller coaster ride, all those controversies and stuff. But hey we all stood awestruck watching him bowl.

And to McGrath too, the gentle aggressive bowler!!

Why do they need this??

2006-12-21T07:20:00.000-05:00

I was visiting Delhi, and happened to go to this place called Akshardham Swami Narayan Temple complex. Well, complex it was!!
It is a huge structure, and has marble ceilings with intricate carvings. It really did look like the abode suitable for Gods, and at the center was the golden statue of Lord Swami Narayan. But the fact is that the temple complex, while evoking a whole lot of emotions like jaw dropping awe and opulence, just does not induce any feeling of devotion or bhakthi. It comes across as more of an exhibiton hall than a place for worship. No SHANTI here.
Well, while there, I noticed idols of Vishnu, and Shiva. There were many of these idols in the National Museum too. And then something strange occured to me. All the god (or their idols) were wearing the sacred threads around them - the same sacred thread that every brahmin in India wears.
Now why should the God have the the need to wear the sacred thread if he/she is the god? Isn't he/she/it the ultimate truth, the Brahmam that all of us seek? Does God necessarily wear the thread?

Thoughts are welcome.

The alchemy...and yes, a marriage!!

2006-12-12T23:37:00.001-05:00

Its really been long since I talked about a book, and felt like talking about a couple of them. And both of them, at least by title, linked to the mythical art of turning iron into gold, Alchemy.
The first book is the more popular "The Alchemist". I must admit that I never am quite an "Inspirational genre book" reader. Just happened to glance through a copy at someone's place, felt I could finish it over the night and brought it home.
It did not "transform" me or "inspire" me. But I did read it a couple of times and I liked the way things were presented there. There is a very simple yet subtly coomplex feeling to the whole book.
The second one is "The alchemy of desire". Tarun Tejpal, the editor of the news-magazine "Tehelka" (yup, the same one that exposed many a minister including the defence minister with Sting operations). And believe me, it was a mind sweeping read. That the guy pumps in a lot of sex into the narrative is true, but it is just amazing how gracefully he does it. It has its boring moments once in a while, but then somehow, I just loved the read. And he somehow makes his "Un-English" English sound really good. Really worth the ride.

The marriage part...Well, Nitin, the best buddy, got married!! was really good. (The payasam, I mean). The culmination of a long courtship, that lasted several years. Felt good for him, and Anu. Congrats!!

Breaking News!!

2006-11-27T06:22:00.001-05:00

Bleary eyes...gravity at its maximum, like 10G, pulling you down...you twist, turn, writhe, stretch...hit at the console again and agin to switch off the alarn...yup, waking up early (especially after a late night) definitely counts among the toughest tasks in the world.
And as I scamper to iron my shirt, I switch on the tv.
"BREAKING NEWS" - proclaims a no nonsense news channel.
"Omigosh!! The Chinese are bombing us!!" I think, and run around searching for my specks. And then I get to the window to see if I can see any nuclear heads raining on us. Well, no. Phew!
"Oh it must be something in the US. I won't get my H1 now..damn!"
But hey they're showing Indian policemen.
"Please, not another bomb blast...!" I brace myself when they zoom the camera and pan it, scared that I might be seeing dea bodies strewn all around the first thing a monday morning.
"Varanasi" is written on top of the screen. "Is it something religious? A religious riot or something?"
"Hey, that guy looks familiar, and the short lady behind him too." I blink my eyes. "And the guy and that lady."
'Bachchans do mangal aartin in Varanasi; Aiswarya joins the family' - the marquee reads.
I switch off my brains. And no, the tv runs.

Howazaaat?

2006-10-26T23:21:00.000-04:00

There have been several reports about the alarming rate of increase in heart attacks in India over the past few days. Many may attribute it to stress, but well, the former generation did not have so many One Day cricket matches!!

Adieu, Michael!!

2006-10-22T23:49:00.000-04:00

Thanks for a scintillating race that showed us what exactly we're going to miss when the next season starts, and goodbye, Michael!!

Deepavali Wishes to all!!

2006-10-20T09:20:00.000-04:00

Dada ki baat sunenge na?

2006-10-16T09:53:00.000-04:00

You wouldn't really know whether to grab a tissue and sniff into it, or break the goddamn tv when you see this new ad.
We see Saurav Ganguly, who certainly has a special place in our minds, and quite a lot of sympathy, sitting on empty stands.
We imagine that same old guy, the growling aggressive tiger. But then he meows. Yup, literally meows, that he still hopes to get back into the team, and whether he gets in or not, he will always be there to cheer "team India".
And what more, there is a specific cheering tune, even. You're not supposed to yell out something like "Go India Go!!" or "Hip Hip Hurray!!" or "Sachin, go ahead, show them how to play!!".
You are specifically supposed to yell "Ooh Aah India"!! I guess the inspiration was the Iodex ad, and just replace the "Ouch!!" with India, and well, you get the picture, don't you?
And just so that we don't forget our poor former captain's plight, he says "Apne Dada ke baat sunenge na"?
I can understand Pepsi's interest in promoting their drink and trying to make a billion cricket fans out of us poor Indians, but I really can't understand what Ganguly was doing there.
There he was, yelling "Ooh Aah Ouch" (oops, Ooh aah India) on the empty stands like a nincompoop, and then begging "Won't you listen to your Dada?". If he had said proudly "Won't you listen to me?" we would all gladly oblige our most successful captain. But this certainly, is too low.
Suffice to say taht I just am stopping short of calling him a clown.

When did all this become so complex?

2006-09-20T03:36:00.000-04:00

Believe me, these trips from office to home can be maddening. Particularly if you live in this corner of the world called Bangalore and you happen to be an "IT" guy (aren't we all, here?) and your office happen to be in Electronics City. It really doesn't matter where you live in Bangalore, because it takes quite a lot of time to commute from EC to any residential area in Bangalore.
You try to read, but then soon give up - bad light and the bus constantly jerking. And tehn you sleep. And wake up, look at the watch and panic that you might have crossed the stop. But hey, fear not, you are still on that monstrous road called Hosur road, which by now must be a constant nightmare for a amjority of the EC populace. Mom's can even try telling their kids - "Beti, Khaana kha, nahi to hosur road mein daal doonga". (Forgive my Hindi, but believe me I am working hard at it).

It was on one of these sojourns that I wake up suddenly, and listen to the radio babbling.
There was an ad going on, and a mom was asking, "Beta, are you still on the Internet? First finish your homwork."
The child, sounding about 5 years replies "I have already finished my homework mummy. I am now working on my own project on Artificial Intelligence, on machine learning for robotic systems".

***************************************************
Now I was WIDE awake. I expected it to be a spoof take on one of those nutritional supplements that promised to make us more intelligent. Or an MTv stunt on radio.
***************************************************

Then the dad enters the scene and bursts out laughing.

***************************************************
I am relieved. My suspicion turned out to be true. It was the dad and son playing a joke on the poor mom. Phew.
***************************************************

He says, with a whole lot of awe in his voice, "Wow! The internet has made our soon a GENIUS!!"

***************************************************
Hey wait!! This is all a bad dream!!
***************************************************

The ad turns out to be that of a broadband provider.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I gasp for breath. Am I getting outdated, or is this what the child was supposed to reply? Should I be envious of that little creep? Should I feel sad that my young cousin takes about ten minutes to decide (correctly) between two websites for her class project, but that she still cannot fold a paper boat? Or is it some kind of ecstacy of the triumph of human intelligence? Right now, believe me, I am just very very confused. When did it all turn so very complex?

Good Bye, Champ!!

2006-09-06T00:22:00.000-04:00

Bye Bye Pluto

2006-08-25T02:31:00.000-04:00

Trrrrrrrrring!!
The alarm clock went off. I woke up and opened the door to pick up the newspapaer. YIKES!!
MY UNIVERSE HAS CHANGED!!
Where the heck has Pluto gone?

I personally feel that it was mighty unfair of those Astronomers or Deep Sapace Scientists or Sky Scientists or whatever to strip poor Pluto of the status of a planet and make it a "Dwarf Planet". Poor thing has been circling the sun for so long now, and the we do this.
Mercury and Venus and we have it pretty cosy and warm , near the sun, and Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus and Neptune are all big and huge and all. This poor guy, flung far out in the cold, going round and round, and then Big Brother Neptune blocking it's way now and then and still holding on...
And then, we decide that it's just a dwarf!! Will Mickey's dog be smaller now? Will the Scorpios be less taller? Or less predictable?
Pluto is suddenly the underdog, fighting to make it into the big league.

Dusk time stories - 1

2006-08-23T00:34:00.000-04:00

Muthassan turned to me and yelled "Mone, run, and tell Bhaskaran to come as soon as possible". He did not even look at me, his eyes were still glued there, up at the stone quarry. But I could almost sense the feeling of dread in his voice, the look of hoppor and hopelessness in his eyes.

It was dusk; no a bit later than dusk. The birds had already nested, and the Sundaran Nair's shop, where half of the village would gather to gossip and buy their provision for the day would have been empty. The last of the drunkards would be heading home, and the prayer lamps were being taken in one by one to be replaced by the dim incandescent ones, and the children reciting their lessons.

I ran through the paddy fields. Dry now, since it was way beyond harvest time. Bhaskaran's house was across the field, about half a kilometer. The touch-me-not hurt, but then this was not the time for that. I realized that I did not have a torch with me, and that I was not wearing slippers either, but then, the house is not too far. I could almost see the house and the silhoutte of Bhaskaran, washing his feet near the house.
"Bhaskaretta!!” I shouted.

The stone quarry was steep, and not very safe. It did pose and imposing picture, rising about 30 feet from the ground, really really steep. We used to go into it and yell, and listen to the echo. Sometimes, just taking in the deafening silence in the structure. We had even tried climbing it, Hari and I, and had got half way when we ran out of crevices to hold on. We'd just managed to come back with some bruises. Of course, no one at home got to know of that. They'd have built a fence around it.

More than to adventurous children, it posed a much greater danger to wandering cattle. We had built a fence around it, the ones you find in our parts, called the "Veli" with bamboo thorns strewn together. But the persistent goats had made quite a lot of leeway into it, a gap there, another one here, and yet, a third one there. Now goats have this fantastic ability to climb cliffs, and somehow stand on almost vertical surfaces. No doubt, inherited from their mountain cousins. And Ammuamma's goats always did wander onto the quarry, though I have never understood why, since there was no grass on it at all. Maybe they too had some sense of an adventure in them...

But now, why did Ammini, the cow wedge in through the fence to get on top of the quarry?

Ammamma, who'd gone out to the work area outside the kitchen had heard it first, a kind of gasping sound and then the cow moaning. She did somehow realize that it must be coming from the stone quarry, and called Muthassan and told him about it. Muthassan always had this hurried and urgent pace to anything on earth, and he immediately took a torch and started for the quarry, about a couple of hundred yards on the hill in front of our house. I was always looking out for some excuse to escape from the textbook, and I joined him too.

Ammini's cries could be heard. And it did not sound good. We reached the bottom of the quarry and looked up. The light was dimming, but we could see that she was dangling on the quarry. She had managed to sneak in though the fence. She had somehow got a foothold (hoof-hold?) on a small crevice, and had her hind hoofs on it, but thet was all. The only thing that was holding her was the rope around her neck, fastened to a tree beyond the fence. I did not dare imagine what it'd be like if she fell. She'd be hung to death. If the rope broke, she'd fall to her death. It was about thirty feet of rocks. Muthassan thought about the most able bodied man who'd not be drunk now.

"Mone, run, and tell Bhaskaran to come as soon as possible!", he shouted.

Bhaskaran had just returned from work. He worked in an electrical shop, re-winding motors with a dextrety i found amazing. I told him about Ammini, panting and in a moment he was on his way, magically procuring a long rope, a torch and dragging me along.

We got back and Ammini was still holding on. Muthassan had climbed to the top of the quarry now, knowing that nothing could be done from the bottom of the steep cliff. We climbed to the top too. By then, Rajan Nair, a neighbor had come too. I really did not know what these guys were up to. It was really dark by then.

Bhaskaran and Rajan Nair fastened the rope that he had brought along to a tree, and made a sort of a loop at the other end. And then in a seemingly impossible way or rescuing her, Bhaskaran started climbing down the cliff. Ammini somehow remained calm, seeing him slip beside her. He asked Rajan Nair to tighten his rope. Then dangling on the rope, he began pushing Ammini. Ammini, sensing what he was up to tried her best too, her animal instincts for survival taking over. We began to tug and pull at her rope, and though we were a bit scared of choking her, we somehow knew that it'd be only for a couple of minutes and that she'd survive the pull. Slowly oh, so slowly, she did make progress, and Rajan Nair took off a minute to pull up Bhaskaran a bit and tighten that rope again. It must have taken just a couple of minutes, but it did indeed feel like a long, long time. Finally, Ammini began to emerge, and once her front hoofs were out of the cliff with just a little bit of a nudge, she jumped on to the flat ground. And Bhaskaran soon followed.

In a way not many of us could have reacted, he smiled and patted Ammini and told her, "Girl, don't do this again, ok?" and gave her a small slap on the stomach. Well, she did seem to understand.

The quarry has been walled since, but well once in a while, a goat does manage to get on it, but then they have a much better sense of balance than poor Ammini did..

Birth Pangs!!

2006-08-18T13:54:00.000-04:00

Has India really "Arrived"?
Hey wait...Isn't this a bit late to ask this? Everyone is talking about the about-to-boom manufacturing industry, the already booming software services industry and well, all the rest of it...

But when we're on the edge of turning a very young 60, where do we really stand?

On one side is the towering peak we have begun to scale and which has given us this heady feeling that we are really going to break into the "Big Boys' Club". Andon one side is the bottomless(?) chasm of poverty, corruption, illiteracy and what not.

Yes, this has been debated a hundred times, and yet this always remains in our psyche.

There have been some really outstanding progress. That we have started comparing iourselves with a model that is better than us in some ways (China), rather than with something inferior to us itself is a proof of the newfound confidence. And that a large population is in its youth also helps. Maybe after another 40 years, the same baby boom might be harmful for us, and I guess a nation should take about a hundred years in a development cycle. Why aren't we foreseeing that this is just the beginning, and that we haven't even hit the tip of the proverbial iceberg? We have not started shaking the world-yet!

It'd take a dedication to education, poverty eradication and grassroot level development and a re-examination and re-interpretation of the "Roti-Kapda-Makaan" concept into "Roti-Kapda-Makaan-Padhai" to lead us on a sustained development path. And well, while we're on it, let's not forget Paani(water) and Bijli (Electricity) either!!

Lets work towards a new tomorrow!!

Freedom...about to be maimed!!

2006-07-19T14:31:00.000-04:00

Indian Govt. has decided to block Blogs, as a security measure against the terrorist attacks.
I really do not understand why blogs are targetted, but I guess the IT bigwigs sitting at the center should have sufficient reason to believe what they are doing.
But then, what next? block message boards?(have they already been blocked?)
Block emails? Hmmmm...Is there no other end to this? No Iron Hand that you can bang on the table and say "Stop meddling with us!!"?
Just the blogs being blocked, some channels censored? Brings to my mind the utterly shamefule picture of our then home minister transporting those terrorists to Khandahar so meekly...admit it, we're just street dogs mooning, who've got out tails waaay between our legs...SHAME!!
Remember how helpful blogs where during Tsunami? Katrina? Even the recent blasts? And now this...
AWWWWW!! Come on....

Let private hells be private hells!!

2006-07-11T07:44:00.000-04:00

Life is all about taking things in its stride, aye?
Never letting that smile waver...
Let private hells be private hells...!

He's back!!

2006-06-23T19:08:00.000-04:00

Yaaawwwnn...!

2006-06-20T23:03:00.000-04:00

Do you know why yawning is contagious?
Or how can we know whether the human population on earth is odd or even?

Well, the answers to both these questions are inter-linked.

You see, when a person yawns, he blows out some air, and this creates a slight increase in pressure in the atmosphere. This in turn prompts another person located nearby to take an intake of breath to balance it, and hence he yawns. Neutralised.

But then, if there are odd number of people on earth, one person would not find anyone who can neutralise his yawn, and so he will have to do it himself, and he will keep on yawning. Hence you can figure out if there are odd number or even number of people on earth.

Or it could just be that you are yawning because you're bored and sleepy.
Seems a much easier explanation to me!!

War is just another game...

2006-06-15T05:01:00.000-04:00

It is cold here. Had been snowing. Why did they have to select this terrain to fight? Even a desert would have been better. And why am I thinking about the weather? Maybe it is to divert my mind from other things. The numb bodies lying near. The numb dead bodies. A few minutes ago, they breathed, shouted, Lived!! Now a wrangled mass of flesh and blood. Lot of blood around. Just around the mound, the Englishmen are waiting.

The Major had not expected such a large battery of tanks here. In this difficult terrain. But they had been ready. Even though we had the advantage of an ambush, somehow, they had sensed it. Perhaps there was a spy, a traitor amongst us. Or perhaps they had caught one of our men who had got into one of their centers. But no it did not matter anymore. Maybe just maybe, the Tiger tanks would come up and attack them from the south. But maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I can see their airport control tower above the mound. If I could somehow convey to the base camp that there is danger here...More men might be coming. And they were in danger, grave one. We should never have attempted to take up this city without proper tanks and air backup in the first place. What can an infantry division with 30 machine gunners and 5 tanks do to such a large division. The Major had even declined the Luftwaffe backup. How arrogant and stupid.

The war! Won't it ever come to an end? We've been killing, moving, killing, conquering. And just when we think there has been a breakthrough, capturing a city, there comes the news that they have captured one of ours. We just don’t seem to have enough of steel and oil to do anything. Nor food. And the guys doing research on bombs are getting nowhere..There have been talks of a new powerful one that the Americans are developing that can wipe out cities in seconds..God save us then..But some of our scientists have been working on a missile shield that just might protect us from annihilation..

But why am I thinking all this? I can almost smell the death around, and hear it in the rat-a-tat of the machine guns.. Every time an air raid siren goes off..Maybe I should retreat and warn the others..Or maybe I should wait for some more time..

There is a slight movement around the mound..It's another tank..They dont know that I am still here, waiting..A kind of a suicidal mission..Should I shoot it down and expose myself? or wait for backup? Or wait patiently?

The gunner turned slightly, and somehow caught a glimpse of me. Or had he? The tank slowly began to turn. Yes, he had.

I slowly raised my anti tank bazooka onto my shoulder and took aim. And fired. Poof.

It all went black!!

"DAMN!!" I cursed. Just as I was about to launch an all out attack on the English troops from the south and help that guy firing at the tank there, Karnataka Electricity Board has given up on me!!

Eh?!!

Well, so are the lures of "Rise of Nations"!!

Overheard...

2006-05-23T13:21:00.000-04:00

Overheard near the office coffee machine -
"When in Rome, do as the Romanians do...!"

Overheard at the "Les Concierges" counter in Bangalore -
"Can I book two tickets to Dubai for my parents through you?"
"Train tickets, Ma'am?"
"Eh?! To DUBAI!! DUBAI!!"
"Yes, Ma'am, I got that...train tickets, right?"

No, I am not joking....!

Religion and Science...

2006-05-22T08:12:00.000-04:00

Every religion in my belief, should be an attempt to disprove the science that refutes God. And every science in turn, an endeavor to prove God wrong. From this mutual and conflicting interest arises a wonderful symbiotic relationship, that would augment the development of the philosophies of religion and that of science.

Religion, in its quest to get closer to the almighty, and Science, it its fervour to get to the great equation that'd solve everything, including the almighty. In a sense both of them converge onto the same goal - one towards proving the existence of an entity, and the other towards defining that entity in terms of known values.

When one of these great powers lag, stop in its path, stumble either because of its inability to keep up with the other, or because of being stopped by the very barriers of human mind that it was supposed to destruct, then the thought process lags. It comes to a standstill. And the other philosophy needs to slow down a bit too, since unless there are new goals defined by one, the other does not progress.

Early man made huge leaps in religion. He tried to define everything that he saw and experienced in terms of a great power that was then beyond his comprehension. And from this arose some of the greatest philosophies, of which some may still be incomprehensible. It'd be foolish to stamp the men who existed millennia ago as undeveloped; since, even without the wonders of modern size, limited and inhibited by orthodox thoughts, his mind conjured an explanation for almost every Universal phenomena, albeit related to an unknown power. But as man developed, religion stalled. Narrow mindedness and refusal to delve deeper, some contorted interpretation, and the fear of being overtaken by the overwhelmingly developing sciences must've caused it to clam up.Rather than an ally, religion saw in science a refutal of all those that was believed to be of religion. Each of the wonders that had been attributed to being holy, being explained by simple scientific laws and represented in equations.

Is it not possible then, to strike a perfect balance between the two? Can there exist, a grey area, that would firmly reassure me that the Big Bang did indeed happen, and that yes, God created the world over a week?That the hubble telescope could capture a piece of a galaxy for us to see, maybe a part of what Ma Yasodha saw in Lord Krishna's mouth? Can't I agree that the Lord did incarnate 9 times to quell evil and at the same time agree with all Dr.Stephen Hawking has to say? Need I be an Atheist or a Theist? Can't I be jsut a person musing about the greatness of God and at the same time gaping at the wonders of science, admiring the great people who are architecting a way to make it better and understand my God better?

59 years on...

2006-05-15T13:14:00.000-04:00

It has been what, almost 59 years after independence? It rained in my city yesterday, a slight drizzle that lasted for about an hour, and the road from my office was blocked for 3 hours. Just a small 22 kilometer stretch took 3 hours!!
And then when I came home, there was no electric supply!!
To be known as the "Silicon Valley" of India, and to be stuck in traffic and without power...well...

I know...we Indians are much better than those New-Yorkers in putting up with power cuts and in facing floods. But that does not mean that the country has no responsibility in providing us with those things. Power now, has become a basic need. And even if after almost 60 years of standing on our own feet, we cannot manage to hold ourselves over a tiny drizzle, where has all the development gone?
I mean, we have been a monsoon dependent country for a long long time. We know exactly when it is going to rain, or storm or when it is cloudy or sunny. Why havent we been able to build a power grid that can withstand a rain? I agree and am happy that the telecom sector has, to a great extent, progressed on that front with the underground cables. But when will we get reliable power? Reliable, time saving transportation?

I agree that just the government alone cannot be held responsible. But then, in this city, I have seen and been part of a large community that has vouched and acted for progress and change. But then sometimes, when you see the things happening around you, you just tend to get frustrated...

I know. There are countless things in our history and our culture that an Indian can be proud of...We have the IT, Space and booming economy now. But when will we be able to raise our head high and say that we have got all the basics right?

Let's dream such a tomorrow...

Waiting for Life to wake me up...

2006-05-01T04:23:00.000-04:00

It's been a dreadful night,
And the ghosts came calling.
Crawling over me,
Pulling into the dark realms, the depths.

It's time to open the cage;
To let the bird fly.
No longer hold her
Tied on by love.

They snigger and drag me;
I howl in pain, and then see their faces.
Its them, the ones I created;
And now back to haunt me.

I cringe, she looks at me.
A choked whimper somewhere,
Is never let out-
Lest it should be heard.

I see the glimpses.
But they never stop.
The howling, the laughing continue
Somewhere I wish I'd die.

The bird flutters, and is out.
It gives me a lst glimpse and flies;
Into the wide blue sky.
Was it a smile, or a tear that fell my way?

The bird has flown, far away.
The devils have vanished.
I reach out my hands into the air,
Waiting for life to wake me up...

Two Deaths...

2006-04-19T11:20:00.000-04:00

Kunjunni master (maash), a Malayalam poet - unique.

"Kuttettan" for so many Mathrubhumi weekly readers.
Kuttettan who used to send back so many of their valuable poetries and short stories adorned with scratches and corrections.

I first got to know about him when I heard a cassette "Kunjunni Maashum Kuttikalum" (Kunjunni master and the children).Children - I guess he identified best with them, and I doubt if any child would have loved any other poet more than him.

And on the school annual day, when I was in the Third standard, there stood this short man, with a bristle beard, thick black specks, clothed in a "mundu" that reached till just below his knees and a simple white khadi shirt. He was standing in a corner, just like a lost child. From the cassette cover, I recognized him , and got an autograph. :)

His poems were simple, but conveyed a lot of sense. Simple, down to earth.

AAdiraanjalikal...

Prof. Eachara Warrier.
Who became known for all the wrong reasons.

The images that pop up are Rajan, Emergency, Karunakaran, REC, Kakkayam camp and Jayaram Padikkal.

Rajan murder case was one of the most sensational cases and had forced the then Chief minister, K. Karunakaran to resign.

Rajan, a final year stuident at REC calicut, was arrested and tortured to death in Kakkayam Police camp, for being associated with the Naxal movement in Kerala, and allegedly looting a police station of a gun. Though there was enough evidence to prove that Rajan was not present during the looting, the police, under the orders of the then DIG Jayaram Padikkal, mercilessly tortured the young man to death.

His father, Eachara Warrier, begged every single corridor of power, knocked on every single door, to get some information about his son, who was missing. He did not even get a glance of Rajan's body. It was presumably burnt in some remote forest.

The then Home minister and later the Chief minister, Karunakaran, made very devious attempts to cover up the whole thing and vehemently plotted against the poor father from getting justice. But finally justice prevailed, at least partially, and he had to resign.But the culprits went unpunished. Jayaram Padikkal retired when he was holding the highest post in State police. (he died in 2002, i guess). Karunakaran still plays power games.Eachara Warrier, the humble father, died the day before Vishu.You can find his book, "Memories of a father", here : http://www.ahrchk.net/pub/mainfile.php/mof/

This incident happened during emergency.Whatever be said of it, trains ran on time, govt. departments were punctual and efficient - it remains a stark reality that it was a dark time; of utter human violation. the opposition hunted down like animals.

And how much ever you admire Mrs.Gandhi for her "iron fisted rule", it remains a reality that she committed some of the most heineous crimes under the cloak of emergency.
And how much ever Karunakaran goes to Guruvayoorappan and prays, there are some stains that you cannot remove. Even with remorse.

Eachara Warrier will be remembered for persuing justice undaunted by power.

Chaos...and hope!!

2006-04-13T03:06:00.000-04:00

A lot of things to say..

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First of all, the nasty reaction to Dr. Rajkumar's death yesterday. He was a cultural icon, a great actor, a singer, a Padma Bhusha, A Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner, a winner of 10 Film Fare awards, a survivor from Veerappan's kidnapping, and above all a clean and gentle man. I pay my humle homage.

But all said, he was just a man, and he died of natural causes. Being from outside this state, i underestimated the public reaction that'd follow this. When my company urged people to leave early, little did I understand the seriousness of the situation. But when I reached my place (and in record time too, because there were very few vehicles on the road), all the shops were shuttered down. No food, no water, nothing. With some luck we did manage to get some food, but for someone who's not accustomed to this, the incident is very exasperating. Why would anyone resort to violence on the roads, burn trucks, and throw stones at vehicles and buildings if an actor died? Nad that too of natural causes? How will my manager explain to the client that half of the IT companies in Bangalore are not working because an actor died? And there's even a cable black-out. I agree that it is only a small section of people who might be causing this, but that small section is enough to bring shame to the so-called IT hub of India.

I guess I should be proud to say that I belong to Kerala, where we might strike every other day, either to protest against cutting of trees in amazon or to protect the poor of Nigeria from World Bank intervention, but we never ever wreak havoc over the death of a matinee idol and a cultural icon.

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"May you be tough as a Rock." - Rig Veda (LXXV-XII)

No, not the VHP (Viswa Hindu Parishad) this time. This is the motto of "Paritrana" (the complete relief implying the end of the very cause of distress, in Sanskrit), a new political party launched by a group of IIT-ians.

Now, why would these guys launch a political party rather than help launch rockets in NASA?

Well, much before the RDB boys dreamt of killing the Defence minister and changing the world, these guys had come up with a much more feasible and non-violent solution. To launch a political party that'd have the best of the people in it.

You might want to visit them http://www.lokparitran.org ; Might want to vote them or even join the party.

Let's dream a better tomorrow.

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Airtel ad.

The "Express yourself" theme, shows a glimpse of Quit Inida movement, Martin Luther King, The Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Churchill, David Sheaphard (the cricket umpire), the Berlin wall.
Awesome ad.

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J Krishnamurti on knowledge and thinking -

"If you are alert, aware of your own process of thinking, you will see that whatever you tink has already shaped your mind; and a mind that is shaped by thought has ceased to be free, and therefore it is not a mind that is individual.

So self-knowledge is not a process of continuity of thinking, but the diminishing, the ending of thinking."

That thing you do...

2006-04-08T03:01:00.000-04:00

You have seen this a hundred times.

You are travelling in a bus, or a train, or you are just walking along. And there is this very pretty young thing sitting across you or you see coming along. If you just about tilt your head as if looking out of the window you can see her.

She has a nice sweet smell about her and wears a short sleeved t-shirt and jeans. She has her hair tied in a neat little pony-tail. And she KNOWS that she has attracted your attention.

Just about when you are about to look away, she lifts her hands, and unties the small hairband, letting loose her pony-tail. And then she wraps the hairband around her wrist, and in a very typical manner twists her hair, and then ties it with the hairband once more. And you just gawk at her.

Believe me, this is one of the most mesmerizing sights, and one of the most appealing things a girl can do. It gives you a glimpse of that nook on the neck, her longish arms and a bit of a peek depending on the t-shirt, her hands doing trick on the hair, and she gives you a small elusive look and a smile.

I think they really do it on purpose. Else, why would anyone with a perfectly tied pony-tail in place re-tie it?

So near, and yet...

2006-04-02T23:00:00.000-04:00

I was watching the Australian Grant Prix yesterday. Finally, other than in athletics, really got to know the meaning of so close, yet so far.

Fisichella was following Jenson Button closely, and Button, the pole position winner was not going to give up. Lap after lap, for about 10 laps, this went on. Accelerating, braking, taking perfect corners. Even we could feel the pressure of having a car just about half a second behind you.

Button handled it very well, driving perfectly.And finally, when he entered that final lap, we were all too relieved. He'd make it. Fisichella cannot overtake him now.

And then , just before the final corner, smoke bellowed out of Button's car, it flared, and the engine coughed. He could see the Checquered flag beckoning him. If he had a choice, he would have got out of the car and pushed it to victory. It was just a matter of about 20 yards. After you have driven a bit more than 300 kilometres in just about an hour and a half, and the car stops just a few yards short of the flag, you know that it's so near, yet so far...

Engineering drawing and the death of an artist...

2006-03-28T22:03:00.000-05:00

I was small, and could scrawl on paper with crayons.
And then, that was what I did best.

Not all my 'drawings' had meanings, but mostly, they'd come out as something very close to what was intended. There was this competition where I drew lots of kids flying kites, but forgot to connect the kids and the kites and the judges just thought that it was all kids playing under streetlights.

And then the time when the organizers presented an 8 year old me with an irresistibly large sheet of paper and told that I could draw anything I pleased. Out came mountains and rivers and police jeeps and houses and huts and stickmen and sunrises and of course, the inevitable "V" shaped birds.

There were children older than me, drawing some very pretty things, but then who was interested? I was engrossed in filling up the whole huge sheet, and was successful in that too. Of course, some buses took the aerial route, and some airplanes had to be grounded, but yes, finally every inch was covered and I was content. And then came the big surprise...

It was the last day of 4th standard exams, and all were excited. (I mean, then exams didn't matter much. We were making robots with the needles and erasers and rubber bands.

Just as the bell rang, in walked Chitra miss, our class teacher and HeadMistress(no, she is not the type a school guy has a crush on; she had slightly protruded teeth, was dark and wore huge glasses. In order to fall into the other category, she should have been fairer, a bit roundish-faced without specks and soft and warm).

She clutched a HUGE dictionary (now I realize that it had only 1500 odd pages) and a blue certificate. I was sitting on the last bench (by virtue of roll number, and not the grades, mind you!!) and was about to rush out of the class, when she shrieked on top of her voice "Class, don't leave until I tell you". Not even Hitler's men would have obeyed an order with such attention.
"Madhavan, come here!!", she barked.
"Uh oh, this is trouble."
""Children, Madhavan here, has won the first prize in drawing, at a state level!! This is the dictionary he won, and the certificate"
And then she held up the dictionary like Mufassa held up Simba, and my face was beet red. Fortunately, they did not send the drawing with the prize, and no one, except the judges had seen it. FORTUNATELY!!

And then she took me by arm, intent upon parading me in front of all the classes. Just imagine the scene. The bell has gone off, and the children are pouring (?) out, and here we were, walking against the tide, she, clutching a big bad book in one hand, and towing me along with the other, and me, wild eyed and not in the least understanding what was happening. (I had to take my parents to the school the next day to get hold of the dictionary - she told it was because she wanted to proudly present it to them; but I suspect its because she suspected it might be too heavy for me to carry home, and that I might dump it in one of those hundred dirt canals.).
Hmmmmmmm...

Then it was a short dabble with water colors, some of them looking so abstract that Picasso would have bought it at Christie's. And I also got to know that if you don’t mix the colors and the water properly, the tree you intended to masterfully draw, will turn out into a green ice-candy stick.

Then the "people-craze" set in. I'd draw hundreds of faces, all round eyed and stick-mushed. I loved cartoons and tried to start my own cartoon strip starring a dog (it was always lying down because that's the only way I knew how to draw a dog), a Police inspector and a Police constable, both of whom were single-dimensioned. It was met with moderate success - my dad and my mom glanced at it and smiled, ruffling my hair (Now I know what that meant!!).

And finally came the engineering college. The first Engineering Drawing (ED) class started with us trying to learn how to fix a monster called MINI-DRAFTER to a drawing board, and how to align things. Now, structured drawings had never been my forte and alignments just baffled me. But Thomas sir's sarcastic comments and Vijaykumar sir's smacks on the back of the head taught me not to try cartooning on ED classes. This was serious stuff, drawing "Erythromegalomainiacalomistic" projections of a "triangulohorizontalate" prism on a white sheet. But then, I can't say I didn't get practice , what with my drawings and plenty for my seniors too. (Yes, a sad truth of ragging is that I became pretty good at ED). I got good at that gradually, much to my distaste, because that meant that the seniors would choose me to do their assignments. But then slowly and very very painfully ED took its toll. My Police inspector, the constable and the dog, all died at their cartoonistic infancy, because of their creator's ability to sketch circles and triangles and squares and the ability to make them look as part of a machine. Hence died the great cartoonist.

Now only my keyboard is a victim of sketches, with umpteen faces and flowers and mountains, and sunrises and police jeeps and huts and of course, the birds criss-crossing it...

I am Older!!

2006-03-18T14:21:00.001-05:00

Whew!! A year older. Was a hard one, this!!
Like coming out of an egg; it crawled really really slow; must be part of growing up I guess.

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I was walking towards where Joseph had promised to wait, and passed one of those "Nirmala" toilets that you find all over. There was this small girl, in very ragged clothes, very thin and looking all so helpless and well, in an odd way, cute. She had huge eyes. And what she did amazed me. She actually paid a rupee to use the toilet. I guess she must be part of a family that earns bread by digging a canal near the road, or maybe making the road itself. She could have been one of the thousands of children send to beg. She might be selling flowers. But she DID use a hard earned rupee to use the toilet.

People here make a deep gargling sound to gather all the sputum they can from the depths of their throats and discharge it right onto the road. Spitting seems to be a national obsession. For that matter if you happen to take up a journey early enough in the morning, a hundred pairs of bottoms might greet you, indulged in the primordial acts of excretion, all along the road, or railway line or whatever. It need not be all those rural interiors (which I think are much better in case of sanitation these days), you see these right amidst the city. Disgusting.

Well, in this scenario, this was a very strange and delightful sight. A very trivial thing, might be, but a very heartening one.

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Well, JKT was on time, and we went for the "Radio City Live" rock show, featuring "Parikrama".
And I saw Sunaina live for the first time!! And Darius too. (They're both RJs on Radio City, the FM station here. Sunaina is a personal favorite.)

Parikrama was really good. ACDC, Pink Floyd, Cold Play and their own tracks.
http://www.parikrama.com/home.html

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Food at Green onion, and back home. Collins and James and people are going on a trip to Pondicherry. They started at 1130 in the night. Wished them a happy journey.Almost finished the book "The Devil's alternative" (Highly recommended ****1/2). but didnt quite.
Slept.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!
I am 27!!!

What my TV did, last Sunday!!

2006-03-15T04:24:00.000-05:00