Waterboarding

Roshan, I'm taking the cue from your extremely courageous classmate (how did he put himself through that?) and am letting people who read my blog know what waterboarding is all about.

According to the Geneva Conventions, waterboarding is a form of torture used in interrogations, but according to a 2002 memorandum from the US Attorney General, it's not. In an interview with the Guardian last week, Dick Cheney even referred to its usage in the war against terror as 'a no-brainer'. You see this for yourself and decide.



And by the way, I couldn't bring myself to sit through the whole thing.

Sleepless nights..

Is it worth it to stay up working till 2 AM in the office when you know you need sleep and will be groggy and bad-tempered the next morning for your 8 AM meeting, all for the sake of a job you will be quitting in 22 days?

A wedding blessing

Now you will feel no rain
For each of you will be shelter to the other
Now you will feel no cold
For each of you will be warmth to the other
Now there is no more loneliness for you.
Now there is no more loneliness.
Now you are two persons but the life ahead of you is one
Go now to your dwelling place
And enter your days of togetherness
And may your days be good and long upon this earth.

- Apache wedding blessing

Congratulations on your wedding, SublimePattern.
May your days be good and long upon this earth too :-)

I TOTALLY know this feeling - too!

I'm not a grad student but at this exact minute, this is how I feel anyway.

Link via Ash.

Case Closed : The Victory Of Justice

The Priyadarshini Mattoo case was one instance where the loopholes in the Indian justice system were brought to the public eye. The gory incident took place in 1996, ten years ago. Today, the Delhi High Court convicted Santosh Kumar Singh, son of a former IPS officer for the crimes he committed.

I used to think then that there was no hope for a country where who you knew mattered more than who you were. That may still be the case, and not just in India but other countries as well - but today, I am honestly glad that I stand corrected, at least in this case.

One thing that I couldn't help but notice : The sentence is to be prescribed 'after Diwali vacation'. I only hope that decision doesn't change.

I just wrote to say....

I write because I want to write. No, really. I write because I want to re-acquaint myself with the language I was once so familiar with. Words that I loved to use once upon a time that are lost now, that resurface unexpectedly, like quiet echoes in a valley. I want to hear laughter through words, and sadness and anger. I laughed today, eating my Oreo cheesecake. I laughed like that years ago, in Leicester Square, eating strawberry cheesecake ice-cream. In childlike glee. Childlike. Glee. See what I mean, words which are so visual they make you understand immediately. They make you SEE immediately. That is the power of words. Take ‘icy stare’. I’d hate to be looked at by someone like that. Or ‘soul-shattering tears’. I’ve cried like that a few times. It really did feel like my soul was being shattered, like I was being asphyxiated by my own self. In today’s world of the omnipresent Internet (how many people with access to the Internet do NOT visit Yahoo, Hotmail, or Google at least once a day), television (likewise for BBC, NDTV, MTV, or Discovery) and radio (ditto Radio City, Radio Mirchi, Magic 105.4 or the radio stations of whichever city you’re in) – all of these being brilliant introductions to the world notwithstanding, I think I’ve lost the comfort I used to have with plain-Vanilla English, as it is written on paper. (Words seem more beautiful to me, somehow, when I see them on paper. Like seeing a bride on her wedding day, as opposed to seeing her in photos. Somehow, reading a book on a computer is not the same as the real thing. And I’ve done that as well – reading an e-book, I mean). Less meaningful conversations with people and more dependence on technology mean less moments to remember Forever. I want to read, and discuss, and debate and converse – and write. I want to swim in turquoise-blue pools.

Of words.

Hyperventilation

It’s a pleasant grey day today here in Bangalore. By pleasant I mean it’s not so overcast you feel the grey of the concrete pavement is a happier colour to look at than the sky. There are tinges of blue even, showing through here and there, and the lake outside my office building looks greener than ever (Yes, green. This lake has never been blue in all the time I’ve looked at it). Funnyman (previously called V, which was highly unimaginative, shame on me) is now living up the New York life while I am being wished farewell and congratulated and tying loose ends up before I quit work next month. Oh, I didn’t mention that I was requested by my boss to stay a few weeks more than initially planned (that essentially means one more trip to good ol’ Portland is in the offing), and I agreed. I’m a bit nervous about what’s going to happen next year, a bit excited, and a bit of me feels like I’m watching the story of someone else’s life on TV or something. I don’t know if that’s usual or I’m just unusual. This whole new phase thing also means that I am not restricted to doing the same thing I was earlier, in terms of work, when I start working again. That also means I don’t know if I should stay on in the corporate world, or go back to the development one, and even if I do stay on in the corporate world then what kind of job do I do? This is one of the quandaries I fall into every time I start thinking about my career, irrespective of the fact that I have never got anything less than a pretty successful performance review every single time I’ve had one, no kidding. I feel I’m sort of a Jack-of-all-Trades (yes I know how that phrase ends but I’m being positive here for a change). Someone once said it’s OK to try out whatever jobs you want to till you’re 30, but after that you need to fall back on the one job that will give you security. I don’t know if I will ever get that fall-back plan in place even when I’m 40! I suppose that’s why I’m marrying someone who is as constant as constant can ever get. In my world of change and often-confusion, that’s a relief.

As an aside, the sun is now shining and the lake looks silver.

Wow, that was one large amalgamation of words. Also one large vent for my current thoughts. Bye for now.

Kiran Desai's 'The Inheritance of Loss' wins the 2006 Man Booker Prize

Two things that I didn't know about this year's Booker Prize winner:

Kiran Desai is the youngest woman ever to win the prize, at 35.

Her mother Anita Desai has been shortlisted three times since 1980, but never won.

Read the press release here. The book sounds intriguing. Must get my hands on a copy soon.

Anonymity, obscurity and the importance of being a blogger

In a piece called ‘Bye Bye Blogger’, the New York Times interviews Lee Siegel, whose blog for The New Republic met with an unhappy ending after he was found to deceive readers by commenting anonymously on his own blog, shooting direct daggers at his enemies and basically telling everyone, in so many words, that he was God’s gift to the blogosphere. A couple of comments Siegel made about bloggers made me think of my own experience in the field of blogging so far:

Q: (…)don’t you think it’s intellectually lame to express one’s opinions
anonymously?

A: I do indeed. Everyone seems to be fleeing from the
responsibilities that come from being who you are. I think that is why the
blogosphere is thriving. It allows people to develop a fantasy self.

Some things I’d like to say in response to this: It is true that I don’t use my real name to blog, just like many others who write witty, entertaining, and/or personal blogs (a few of whom are on my list to the right of this page) but I am certainly not using the blogosphere to create a fantasy self, or alter-ego. I suppose I started out wanting to be anonymous, yes, because I thought (quite naively) that it would give me the freedom to write about things that may be controversial, or even boring (seriously, at that point I did not want to be blogging with the expectation of writing purely about my political views, for example, not that that is necessarily what people would have expected of me) and I would have been able to defend my viewpoints without having to wade through the baggage that others may have had of who I am through their interactions with me in the real world. But that, of course, is no longer true because most of the people I know who read this blog, are actually people I know in real life as well so my Master Plan turned out to be a damp squib :-) Why have I not yet revealed who I am then, you may ask? I guess now it’s just a matter of having got used to being Wanderstruck. And besides, it’s a free world, right?!

And he also says this:

Q: Anonymous bloggers are also saddled with obscurity, which I doubt you would
similarly glorify.
A: That’s right. In their case, anonymity is obscurity’s
rash. At least for those who practice incessant character assassination, which
represents a good portion of the blogosphere, they vent out of the pain of being
unacknowledged.

My thoughts: I know there are people who do leave character-assassinating anonymous comments, but I am not one of those. And as far as anonymous people being obscure is concerned, I’m OK with being obscure to the larger blogging world. Doesn’t bother me in the least! And besides, I may become famous yet!

If dessert be the soul of life, eat on!

I have a weakness for sweets. I admit it openly. I think they are among the things that make life worth living. I mean, do other animals know the difference between strawberry cheesecake and a rasogulla? It's probably all the same to them! The kind of happiness I get from good desserts is slightly difficult to parallel. Those of you who have tasted good food know what I'm talking about. There are people who say we should not live to eat but eat just to get the bare minimum nutrition required - and well, live. I beg to differ.

I've been compiling a list of the best desserts I have tasted in my life so far, and while the list is progressing very slowly (there really are not as many desserts around that send my tastebuds to heaven - average just doesn't bear mentioning here), I think I will put the list up for public display now and keep adding to it as the years go by, instead of waiting till I get a definite number. If anyone reading this has any more suggestions to offer, by all means, do let me know!

1. Banoffee Pie at The Big Chill, New Delhi
2. Oreo Cheesecake at Spiga’s, Bangalore
3. Strawberry Cheesecake ice-cream from Haagen-Dazs with whipped cream and coloured sprinkles on top
4. Hot chocolate at Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco
5. Lemon Passion Cake at The Macaroni Grill, Portland, Oregon
6. Watermelon ice cream (seasonal) at Gokul, Santacruz, Bombay
7. My mom’s sponge cake :-)

And the best years of my life are yet to come - whoohoo!

I Rock..and Blogger Beta does too!

I am completely software-programming illiterate. I swear. And yet I was able to carry out some PRETTY funky changes to my blog design, as those of you who are reading this have figured out!

It's the little things in life that make me happy. I am not as clueless as I thought! :-)

Pictures from Portland

6:32 PM in Bangalore

This picture was taken ten minutes ago. It's the view from my office window. They say I have one of the best seats in office :-)

All Hail the Tag!

I almost could not believe my eyes when I read this, but Penny Lane, girl, you rock! Just when I was beginning to doubt if more than two people ever read this blog, I have truly and honestly been given my first ever tag! OK so the deal is that I have to write 8 things about myself. I sort of did this (I wrote way more than 8 then!) in an earlier post a few months ago, but in the true spirit of tagging, I’ll do it afresh. (I’m SO excited!) So here goes:

1. I am extremely jet-lagged right now. I believe that the body can only take so much of time-zone-skipping at a time, and I think I’ve been pushing that more than I ought to in the last one year. But I’ve had a blast traveling – I just love traveling – and I guess I always will.
2. I am getting married four days before I turn 26, in a few months’ time. And I am way excited about that too (its increasing day by day), because I am going to FINALLY be with the one person I have ever wanted to, and in the bargain my parents are finally going to get their wish, and my grandparents too, and so everyone will be happy.
3. Really, REALLY, people, if you ever think of getting into a long-distance relationship then let me know because after close to five years of never being in the same city and STILL surviving mine, I think I’m something of a pro at it. No kidding!
4. I will probably never ever be reed-thin even though I desperately try to at least twice a year. I just love yummy food and have a weakness for desserts in particular. Even simple food like good ol’ curd-rice and pickle can make me sigh with happiness (especially if its polished off after a good night of partying)
5. Drinking is never fun without friends. On the same note, drinking can be quite uncomfortable with relatives. Ha-ha. Make sure you distinguish between the two. If a relative IS a friend or vice-versa, then that is one hell of a lucky situation. How does this piece of advice relate to me? Because I have drunk without friends so many times I know that the ‘it’ factor is always missing from those experiences. And I have also had a couple of very uncomfortable drinks with relatives.
6. I used to wear glasses with ugly plastic pink frames in classes 4 and 5. And then I wore slightly better looking pink metal frames in classes 6 and 7. And now I hate the colour pink. Period. Most shades of it, anyway. I do wear cool-looking blue frames now though, when I don’t wear my contact lens that is. I think that I think they’re cool now because V thinks I look nice in them. So I guess beauty in this case lies in the eyes of the beholder!
7. I did well in school and college without really having to try too hard, and teachers liked me big time. The funny thing is all that used to matter to me then, but now I couldn’t care less. Sometimes I think I’m angry at them for not giving me REAL education. I don’t remember shit of what I learnt between classes 8 to 12, for example. And I got State ranks!
8. I am a very moody person. I make no apologies about it, because to be honest, I don’t NEED to be liked by everyone, and I don’t like everyone either. It’s a bit impossible. If you liked everyone you ever met, there would be something wrong with you, if you ask me. I used to try and be one of those. They’re all wrong, because they’re trying too hard. (Can you believe someone once said that about me? In college. That I ‘tried too hard’. I used to think that was one of the most cruel things I heard about myself then. It was probably true. Its not anymore).

Penny, you’ve disabled comments but in case you’re reading this…happy belated birthday and may your house be full of all the furniture you ever wanted by your next birthday! (That includes the hep plasma TV and all that stuff that (ahem!) only homeowners really invest in!) And SublimePattern, Skepsi, Sharad, The Smugbug, Vikram and the Desi Bridget Jones Diary, I hereby tag you all!

The power of words

On the flight back to India, I watched one of those feel-good movies called ‘Akeelah and the Bee’ – for the second time. Due to some error, the airline played the same movie on the flight to Portland as well. I didn’t have a complaint though. The story of a tenacious African-American eleven-year-old from Los Angeles in her quest to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C, it reminded me of my own days as a Spelling Bee contestant when I was in high school. Watching the movie throw up words I am unfamiliar with even today, at the quarter-century of my life – prestidigitation, argillaceous, ratatouille for example – it reminded me that education is not a means to an end but a journey in itself. I had no coach when I went (and won!) my Spelling Bee, and I still recall a conversation with a friend who asked me what I was doing to learn so many long and difficult words. My answer: nothing. It was the accumulated knowledge gleaned through years of reading, something I am indebted to my parents to, for inculcating in me.

The quote where Akeelah’s coach encourages her to believe in herself when she is besieged with self-doubt and lack of confidence, which I found out just today is taken from Marianne Williamson’s ‘A Return to Love’, is something that I would like to put up here just for everyone to read, let filter through their minds, and chew on. I only wish I had read it earlier. It’s taken me years to gain the strength that these words instill with just one reading.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are
powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people will not feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It's not in just some of us;
It's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

A little bit of air on earth...

One of the things I like about this place is the air. It is pristine. It smells like sparkling white sheets in a five-star hotel bedroom. Even better than that, it smells of Nature - pine trees, bubbling water in a brook and the vast sky, overcast with rain clouds or happy sunshine. Water and the sky don't really have smells of their own, but if they did, this is what I think they would smell like. It really does add a spring to my step. Un peu d'air sur terre (as the French clothing company's tagline goes) really makes a difference, especially if it revitalises you like this.

This picture was taken in June, and its not so sunny or warm over here now, but the air is certainly as fresh!

Is work worship?

I finally told my boss that I’ll be quitting work in November. I felt awful doing it, but as luck would have it, it came up in the most unusual way. I thought I’d let him know at the end of this month, but yesterday we were enjoying some juicy cheeseburgers at Red Robin in Beaverton, Ore., (aside: Red Robin gives McDonald’s a run for their money in the burger department) and he asked me when I was planning to get married. I ‘fessed that January was the month, and then my team-mates started cracking what they thought were jokes about my impending resignation. Imagine the look on their faces when I very seriously said that they had actually hit the nail on the head and I was really planning to leave! They said they’d have no more of Red Robin, ever. Ha. But knowing the bottomless pit that their stomachs are and their fascination for Red Robin burgers, that’s highly unlikely! :-)

I’m trying to understand why I feel bad in the knowledge that these will be my last few weeks at work in India. Is it because I like my job? Or working in general, i.e keeping myself busy? Or because I like these people (even if they get on my nerves once in a while?!)

My first corporate job is coming to an end. The impending close of another phase in my life.

But life, as they say, will go on.

Poppin and popout :-)

Just thought I'd dust some of the cobwebs off this blog o' mine.

I didn't know till last week that a cousin of mine reads this blog (probably 'used' to read, thanks to the inactivity). I had no clue till then, and I wasn't quite sure whether I should panic or not. (Did I reveal any extremely secret secrets on my blog? Uhmm..Ahmm...AAAAAA!!!!!). No, I'm OK. Nothing scandalous. Boring, huh?

I'm in a good mood today, though I have the prospect of staying late at work staring me in the face. Still, it doesn't matter. Oh, and I HAVE to insert a couple of these here because I think they are such fun (link via Penny Lane's blog) :



Au revoir for now, folks!

Go figure!

Last weekend, for the first time in my life, I saw a condom-vending machine in a public place in India.

Where, do I hear you ask?

In the ladies' toilet of Rex Theatre, Bangalore, which is one of the oldest in the city!

Either they are more forward than the multiplexes, or I've just been walking around with my eyes closed.

Go figure!

The Great Indian Wedding

I went for a friend’s wedding in Madras this morning. It was Tamil Brahmin Iyer wedding, and an early morning ‘muhurtham’ meant I was able to make it only for the latter half of the ceremony. Tamil Brahmins have a whole load of ceremonies that are included in the ‘upgrade’ of the selected pair from bachelorhood to coupledom. It’s a long list, and if you’re interested, you can catch them here. Weddings might be boring affairs for some people, tiring and long even, but they are also very meaningful, especially this kind. Also, at the end of the day, I guess there is a reason why every Tom, Dick and Gurinder Chadha make millions out of The Great Indian Wedding. They are quite a sight and a very social affair, with women decked up to the neck in rich silks and beautiful jewellery, and men on their best behaviour – one reason why weddings are often hunting grounds for prospective brides and grooms. Of course, North Indian weddings are radically different from South Indian ones, and within those regions, greater differences exist, so let’s not get into that!

So, as I was saying, the wedding was very nice. The bride had called me up a couple of weeks go when she landed from New York for her wedding to ask if I could make it, and though I haven’t seen much of her the last few years, what stayed with me from my past was that she was a gem of a person. So I made the trip here, and I’m glad I did.

At the end of the day, that’s what I’d like to be remembered as – a really nice person. She really is. I hope she has a wonderful married life.

I'm afraid I can't come out to get your order ... I'm 150 miles away

I was in the US last month and went to a McDonald’s drive-in one day to get lunch. It’s quite interesting the way a voice booms out of this box, you rattle off your order, then proceed to the next window to pay and collect your order, all in the span of less than 5 minutes. In 5 minutes, it’s all done and dusted, your hunger satisfied.

I thought of that day again when I read this. I think they’re now taking technology a bit too far – literally. We’ve all heard of business process outsourcing (a.k.a call centres), but McDonald’s is now ‘outsourcing’ exactly what I spoke about above – the ordering of fast-food! Read The Long Distance Journey of a Fast Food Order. Time travel won’t be too far away. Mark my words!

Fireflies Festival of Sacred Music

I haven’t blogged in a while – so hello all of you out there who still bother to check this blog. I’ve been keeping myself busy with work and travel. Most recently, I went here. The Fireflies Festival of Sacred Music in the outskirts of Bangalore last weekend, was an experience that I suppose many people have had the good fortune to experience, possibly multiple times, but I was a first-timer there and boy was I glad I went. There is something about sitting in an amphitheatre watching performances under a banyan tree in the middle of almost-nowhere that is soul-breaking and soul-making at the same time. Soul-breaking because it made me feel that I’d been wasting a lot of my life so far, and soul-making because some of it was music that I’d never heard before – and I’m talking jazz, Sufi, Hindustani classical, alternative soul, indo-western fusion, instrumental (and what instruments – drum beats that are primordial, tribal, whatever you’d like to call it, the flute that sounded like it was singing your song, trumpets, the sax, harmonicas – instruments that I don’t hear on a day-to-day basis that sounded so strong, real and melodious I wished I knew how to play them all).

If you’re slightly high (on whatever, let’s not elaborate now), then so much the better!

Happy to me, happy to me!

I entered the quarter-century of my life on the 28th of last month, and initially thought there wasn’t really any point in writing a birthday blog piece, seeing as how I wasn’t doing anything terribly fascinating from a reader’s point of view that day. (To those of you who are interested, I went out for lunch with my family and it was a nice feeling to be surrounded by people who very obviously love you very much and always will, no matter what. Maybe it’s because they don’t have a choice in the matter, but that’s a different issue – I’m kidding!)

I was quite inspired by Jay’s birthday blog, who, I found out quite by accident, apparently shares the same birthday as me. So happy belated birthday Jay, and here goes:

1. Being fit is very important to me. Not thin as model-reed-thin, but fit as in being able to climb the 8 floors to work without huffing and puffing like a fire-belching dragon. Yes, yes, I want to mention Puff the magic dragon just because ‘puff’ and ‘dragon’ came up in the same sentence there but there’s no actual connection!

2. I have returned from New Delhi railway station at 11.30 p.m all alone in auto on primarily empty roads, and lived to tell the tale. I had a knife and some chilli powder in a packet in my bag.

3. I revel in eating desserts that I like. I become a silly little kid when I do.

4. Walking along the Seine in Paris is no fun without having someone you love by your side, but it’s gorgeous nevertheless.

5. Walking aimlessly along the roads of London just to avoid thinking about someone who was the be-all and end-all of your life for the preceding year can be heartbreaking and tiring but is a good way of learning more about the city. It only succeeds in taking your mind off things to a very minimal extent.

6. Being under the same roof as Michael Jordan, Sebastian Coe, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Wayne Rooney, LeBron James, Pete Sampras and Carl Lewis can be a humbling experience.

7. Surfing on Bondi Beach in Sydney for a newcomer can be extremely exhausting and the waves will probably batter you to bits, but the sport can get addictive.

8. Laser tag is much better than paintball because it is double the fun with none of the bruises.

9. Seeing people living in poverty day in and day out can numb you to its effects after a while, for a while.

10. I hate not being able to remember where I put something.

11. I believe that everyone can be attracted to many others in their lifetimes, but there is only one person who is really made for you.

12. Listening to a favourite song play when you least expect it can be instantly mood-lifting. Whether you are sitting in a pub with friends or alone at home, it gives you a total jump-start.

13. I don’t believe in stereotypes. Roses are supposed to be romantic, but I personally prefer carnations or tulips. Sorry, V!

14. It is important to spend time with people you love if you want to get to know them better. There really is only so much other methods of communication can do.

15. I respect people who do not have too strong a point of view on any topic (they do have some opinion though) but are able to respect other people’s points of view, rather than those who have a very strong point of view on something and are not tolerant towards others’ viewpoints. I belong to the former category.

16. Imperfection can be attractive.

17. The bonds forged with people who are there to help you when you need it the most can mean more to you than those that bind you to people you have known all your life.

18. Murky rainy days can be as poetic as bright happy ones.

19. If you want to own the stage during a performance, focus on the present and don’t let your mind wander. I made that mistake once.

20. Mustering up the confidence to take that first step can mean the beginning of a possibly life-altering experience. Believe me, you wouldn’t want to miss out on something just because you were chicken. I’m glad I went for those two auditions I did. I got central parts that got me standing ovations.

21. Is it possible to feel something stronger than love and if so, what do you call it?

22. I find crowds in malls and streets hateful, but those in clubs, concerts, sporting events and pubs add to the atmosphere of a place usually. I think it’s something to do with the psychology of crowd behaviour.

23. I believe the race for power and money can make people lose sight of the better things in life. It probably also corrupts them along the way.

24. I think it is important to nurture children, encourage their curiosity and ensure they grow up in the right kind of environment – intellectual and physical. No, I do not have kids yet.

25. I will not stop dreaming my little dreams.

Update on the presentation thingy

So my presentation went off quite well, was without any major hiccups and after a night of going over what I was going to say repeatedly in my head (!!!), on the whole a pretty decent experience for me.

Question for the day: is it better to be disliked by your co-workers and be a fast climber up the corporate ladder or liked by them and a slow climber?

Stress and excitement...work and intrapersonal dynamics

What does one do when faced with a dilemma like this at work: your immediate boss asks you to make a presentation one way, but another senior person asks you to do the same thing a different way. You tell them both what you are feeling: that the two are sending out different messages to you and you don’t know whose instructions to follow. The two of them lock horns, and you are caught in the crossfire. The two agree to disagree and go off in minor huffs to their respective cabins. Your immediate boss explains to you what exactly to do and why, but the other person is suitably miffed and considers the two of you, who were supposed to be part of a larger presentation, as now separate and ‘on your own’.

I’m supposed to make my part of the presentation tomorrow. Let’s see what the reactions are.

The world of business and the excitement it brings, I tell you…

P.S: The stress too. Thank God this does not happen on a regular basis to me!

The post on the Tata's....

The earlier post I'd put up on Jamshedpur and the Tatas, was from an article not by L.N.Mittal but by Suhel Seth, and you can access it here. The error is regretted, and thanks to Pritam Jaipuria (whom I haven't been able to find a link for), for directing me to the right place.

Yogaaaaaaaahhhh!

I’ve taken up yoga pretty regularly of late – it’s the latest fad in my life and for the time-being, I’m completely hooked. In fact, I even quit gymming as a consequence, simply because I feel that this is so much more effective for me. I enjoy it more than huffing and puffing in the gym to some dhin-chak music that I would be happier not listening to for the 100th time, and it helps in creating better awareness of one’s body as well. What kind of yoga am I into? It’s called Bharat Thakur’s Artistic Yoga, and combines cardiovascular training with the mental and spiritual level of things. Over the past few weeks, my body has realized it has so many muscles which were dormant, and it’s a good feeling to get those initial aches and pains out of the way as you progress on your way to a healthier body.

What I like about it, is that it is not so much about preaching as it is about working out and realizing exactly what muscles you are pulling or pushing and why. We’ve only had one class so far that was a bit philosophical, but even those, because they are the exception rather than the rule, are quite enjoyable. My instructor, by the way, thinks I have way too many questions ‘on life’, to which he admits he has no better answers than the next person, such as:

- what qualifies as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, because what may be good for me could be bad for someone else and vice-versa?
- this is a classic one: why was I born? (!!!!)

Of course, there are some answers that are pretty obvious, but I take one of them to be a pretty decent answer to most questions: one of my fellow yoga-mates had a query on why she wasn’t able to do a particular stretch ‘like XYZ’, and my instructor replied that everyone has a separate body and no two bodies will respond alike to the same thing. We aren’t meant to. I think that also answers a question that often pops up in my mind like an unwanted weed every now and then: why am I not as successful as ABC? The answer lies in the premise that I shouldn’t be comparing myself to ABC in the first place. His or her parameters for success are in all probability different from mine. My yoga instructor is 35 and all he does is teach yoga. That’s it. No other full-time job or anything. He lives life on his terms and is not worried about success, failure and the rest of it. Whereas, a Harvard MBA grad is probably preoccupied with how much money he or she can make and how fast he or she can climb the corporate ladder. I want an incredibly satisfying, meaningful relationship to last forever – that might not be a priority for others. That does not in any way make me less of a success than them now, does it?

I guess that’s what we call life. Imagine if everyone in the world lived the life of a Wall Street or Liverpool Street banker, or if everyone was an artist or poet. It takes all kinds, and one should live and let live.

People are a problem!

The major problem – one of the major problems, for there are several – one of many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact, that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Four Parts

How true. Especially applies to Indian politics, if you ask me!

A New Year has dawned...

Happy New Year everyone.

2006 has started off on a very satisfactory note for me. I’ve already managed to do a few of the things I suggested in my last piece here. The weekend was rocking. V finally made it to Bangalore and there was no better time for him to come here than New Year’s. You know, many people ask me now and again how we have managed to sustain a long-distance relationship for close to 4 years. Seriously – I don’t know. There is no precise answer to that. It’s a lot of things – love, patience, commitment, compromise and trust being the foremost that come to my mind right now. It hasn’t been easy but it’s always felt right – I guess that’s what has kept us going.

Non-stop partying was the key phrase last weekend. Friday we went to the 13th Floor, which with its view of Bangalore and a nippy breeze blowing, was really refreshing as we went about downing a few drinks. Saturday was the day for a pleasant lunch at 100 Feet. It’s got such good décor and I don’t think most people realise that they have some pretty cool ethnic clothes, accessories and home fittings as well. Must go back there to pick up some stuff (mental note). And New Year’s Eve started out pretty badly with both of us coming down with fever and colds, but at the newly-renovated Noir Bar (previously the well-known ‘F’ bar), with unlimited drinks and snacks for the ticket that we bought, we were soon having a pretty good evening and didn’t even realise how midnight struck and 2006 waltzed in unnoticed – or should I say grooved in. On Sunday, we met some friends at Firangi Paani (‘The English Spirit’, the tagline says) at The Forum which was so packed I felt like I was a sardine in a tin can – I was just relieved when we managed to squeeze into Firangi Paani which had a bit more breathing space. I must be growing old – crowds and smoke no longer excite me. When I think of college and all the crazy times I had, even with all the smoke and crowds, it feels like such a different me now.

And by the way, guess what, I got my top 50 songs CD (V recorded it and gave it to me), and today I've heard the songs thrice over so far..ALL of them! I love those songs!

I wish I didn’t need to come to work today but it’s been pretty quiet so far, so no complaints. Mainly thanks to the fact that my boss is still on leave – haha.

Anyway, I’m not making any resolutions this year, let’s just see what 2006 has in store for me. It’s always the journey that’s so much more interesting than arrival at the destination (I keep reading that on the TV screen when I watch fillers on Discovery Travel and Living, one of my favourite channels) and this year, I hope to live that motto – enjoy the journey.

P.S: SublimePattern, time to start posting again - your last one-line blog piece has not had the desired reaction (heheheheh evil smile) :-)

What the Queen did and did not mention – looking back at 2006

This is part of an excellent read by Ros Taylor from one of the UK’s more interesting and well-written newspaper blogs, The Guardian, written the day after Christmas.

For the tabloids, the Queen's speech is the big shocker. "SNUBBUS HORRIBILIS", splashes the Sun. "THE Queen failed to welcome Camilla into her family yesterday — by NOT mentioning Prince Charles' wedding in her TV speech." In what the Mirror calls a "doom and gloom talk", the Queen reflected on a year dominated by the London bombings, the New Orleans floods, the earthquake in Pakistan and India and the aftermath of the Asian tsunami and spoke of the difficulty of maintaining one's faith in the knowledge of such suffering: "I have no doubt that the new year will be all the better if we do but try," she concluded. The Telegraph believes the speech hit exactly the right note: "The Queen's tone yesterday was one of human warmth and humility, and could not have been better judged to unite her audience."

I have been pondering over whether or not to do the whole ‘looking back at the year gone by’ deal before 2005 comes to a close. I keep going back to one point: what, really, can I write about if I embark on that route? So much has happened (some of the bigger casualties having been highlighted in the Queen’s speech above so I will not repeat those, though I feel quite strongly about them), but both globally and locally, so many other events have occurred that merit mentioning, and it would just not be possible to recap all of them fairly. In India, from the heinous molestation and murder of a BPO employee in Bangalore a few weeks ago to last night’s attack in the Indian Institute of Science, from Delhi’s bomb blasts as Diwali drew near to the fact that as of today, girls are actually being abducted IN ONE OF INDIA’S MOST IMPORTANT CITIES, MUMBAI, for refusing to marry within their castes (is this the 21st century? You could have had me fooled), it shows us that, to put in very simply, all is not well. And it doesn’t bode well for the future. It also doesn’t feel too good either – in fact, it’s made me feel downright depressed. I was indecisive about whether I could reason it away to a bout of PMS but I think there are larger issues at stake here.

Things are not too good with the world right now – yes. Does that realization make anyone feel better? No. I propose a solution – at a very basic level, let us do the best we can to live happy, simple lives. Maybe I am simplifying things too much, but I for one need a break from the overdose of misery that is going on. Wake up to see a sunrise from a hill. Trek up the hill or mountain first. Go for a run in a green, non-polluted park. Buy a bouquet of flowers for someone you love – for no reason at all. Buy flowers for yourself. Play with children for a while. Get a massage for yourself. Visit an old age home or an orphanage. Go out for a quiet dinner with your special someone, away from the smoke and crowds. Watch an episode of ‘Friends’ on TV on your favourite worn-out couch. Spend a day sleeping as much as you can without forcing yourself to wake up for work, or the gym, or any other pressing engagement. Smile at a stranger. Feel the rain hit your face. Clean your room (OK, now I’m exhibiting some of my Monica-esque tendencies, but it’s therapeutic for me at least!)…..

Life is not so bad. Yes there are issues which need to be dealt with. Government officials that have to be seen 10 times when just one would do to get things done, like I experienced yesterday. Crucial deal-making meetings to attend, as the bigwigs at my company were engaged in for many months till last week. Solutions to thwart terror attacks that have to be found, as Karnataka’s ministers are probably engaged in right now, as the Delhi cabinet ministers probably are ensconced in as well.

I wish I could help solve the problems of the world. Who doesn’t? Till I find a practical way to do that, I am going to do at least some of what I said above. I will probably be able to think more clearly after that.

For what it’s worth, have a blessed and prosperous New Year. May the coming year be better than the last.

Prospero ano y felicidad. …

….And a Happy New Year too! (You can’t rid me of my infectious enthusiasm for life, you motherfucking terrorists – take that – and that – bambamdishoooooooooom!)

White guy - Bollywood style

Time for some laughs again... check this one out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=2FNkUswfQdI

Again, please wait for the whole thing to download - but I bet you'll start laughing way before that...!

Happy 27th of December (not that today has any special significance, but anyway!)

Christmas past

A bit late, but here is a picture of my Christmas tree at work - it's still up, by the way :-)

Jingle bell jingle bell jingle bell rock…

Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring
Snowing and blowing up bushels of fun
Now the jingle hop has begun.

It’s Christmas time and there’s no better time to say Merry Christmas to everyone who reads my blog. We in India might not enjoy the traditional ‘walk in a winter wonderland’:

Gone away is the bluebird
Here to stay is a new bird
He sings a love song
As we go along
Walking in a winter wonderland.

But we sure know how to have a merry blast at Christmas. Of course, most of us know how to have a blast and party 365 days of the year, but that’s a different story! Last weekend , I was with a jolly group of Christmas carol singers, and we were practising Christmas carols to go and sing them around a couple of neighbourhoods in the lead-up to Christmas. Now, I’m not a Christian myself but that shouldn’t and didn’t stop me from going and having a great time laughing and singing the best I can to old Christmas carols like ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer’, and learning a few new ones like the two I’ve just mentioned above. It’s all about the spirit of the festival, the spirit of sharing and caring and loving and giving (reminds me of Joey’s speeches as he was working out what to say during Monica and Chandler’s wedding ceremony where he was to be the internet-ordained priest!!!).

Anyway, back to what I was saying about Christmas – I’m sure everyone knows about the origin of Christmas. It’s about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, right? However, I am always on the lookout for new information about anything and in my random searches here is what I found about some of the other stories regarding the origin of Christmas.

The birth of Jesus Christ on December 25th probably occurred in late summer or early fall about 2000 years ago. Surprisingly, though, most of the traditions of Christmas pre-date the actual birth of Christ. More, gathered from this site:

The date of December 25th probably originated with the ancient "birthday" of the son-god, Mithra, a pagan deity whose religious influence became widespread in the Roman Empire during the first few centuries A.D. Mithra was related to the Semitic sun-god, Shamash, and his worship spread throughout Asia to Europe where he was called Deus Sol Invictus Mithras. Rome was well-known for absorbing the pagan religions and rituals of its widespread empire. As such, Rome converted this pagan legacy to a celebration of the god, Saturn, and the rebirth of the sun god during the winter solstice period. The winter holiday became known as Saturnalia and began the week prior to December 25th. The festival was characterized by gift-giving, feasting, singing and downright debauchery, as the priests of Saturn carried wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession throughout the Roman temples.

Variations of this pagan holiday flourished throughout the first few centuries after Jesus Christ, but it probably wasn't until 336 AD that Emperor Constantine officially converted this pagan tradition into the "Christian" holiday of Christmas.

I thought that was interesting, mainly because I didn’t know about this version of Christmas. But essentially, Christmas, like any other religious festival, is what YOU make of it. The main message that should be preached and practised, in my opinion, is of love, peace and prosperity for all.

So go to your office parties, family gatherings, sessions of fun and frolic and drink and dance with friends, dress in red, white and green and generally be happy.

You don’t need me to tell you that :-)

Have a blessed Christmas!

All things bright and beautiful

On my flight back from the US, I was pleasantly surprised to find an air-hostess who must have been approximately 80 kilos, very tall and broad. Yes, I know, the first thing that you may think is ‘Whoa! Whoever let someone like that become an air hostess in the first place?’. I was no better, being conditioned to Indian air-hostesses (in all airlines other than Indian Airlines, I mean), who are all pretty, thin and wonderfully made up. None of them are ever over 50 kilos maximum. So imagine my surprise when I saw this lady serving the passengers on my flight.

I’m telling you this because in all my years of taking flights, she was by far the most cheerful stewardess I have ever encountered. Every single thing she said was accompanied by a smile or a pleasant ‘sure!’ to any query. And I mean EVERY single thing she said, her weight and general gait not withstanding. In fact, none of the other stewardesses on the same flight were as cheerful and none of the so-called model-type stewardesses in India have been either, in my experience.

I salute her for that. In service industries like hotels/restaurants, airlines/travel or retail, you cannot be a good employee if you are not enthusiastic about interacting with customers and have patience as well. I don’t think many people realise that. If you can’t do it well, then you shouldn’t be there in the first place.

Like these damned auto-drivers in Bangalore. Of late, I can literally feel my blood boiling whenever I have to depend on the goons to take me from one place to another – which is almost all the time, since I don’t have my own vehicle here. They not only refuse outright to take you where you want to go, they reply rudely and with an awful attitude as well. After months of taking it quietly, yesterday I found myself threatening a group of them to take me where I wanted to go without asking for ridiculous sums of money, or I would go straight to the police. Some of the funny exchanges between auto-drivers (AD) and passengers (P) I have heard about:

P: I’d like to go to XYZ?
AD: (Gives a curt rough nod ‘No’, accompanied by a smirk to indicate his disinterest in your plans)
P: I see. Where do you want to go?
AD: I want to head in the ABC direction.
P: Ah. OK, that’s the route you need then. (Indicates road ahead). Go – what are you waiting for?!

P: I’d like to go to XYZ?
AD: No, not interested.
P: How about Kerala – will you take me there then?

P: I’d like to go to XYZ?
AD: No.
P: How about up there? (Points towards the sky).

(AD stops auto to see where P wants to go)
P: Which direction are you headed?
AD: ABC.
(P gets in quietly)
P: OK. Go on then.

As you can see, nowadays the passenger is exchanging roles with the auto-driver, more or less. Or we decide where we are going based on where THEY are. Which is bollocks, because what are they ‘auto-drivers’ for then? They can jolly well sit at home or become a pilot or whatever else they want. PFFFFFTTTTT!!!!!

This, by the way, is in complete contrast with a place like Singapore, where you have orderly queues that form at a taxi-stop (similar to a bus-stop), and taxis keep coming, stopping and then moving only after the passenger gets in. They take people wherever they want irrespective of the distance or direction. After all, it is money to them and if one ride is short then the next will in all likelihood be long. Which is the way it should be.

Do I sound too derisive of India? I don’t mean to – just reflecting on my own experiences, really. There is a lot to be appreciated about India, but maybe I’ll leave that for another day.

As for the title, it is my ode to that nice stewardess.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wide and wonderful,
The lord God made them all.

Thanks for being one of the better people that were created! :-)

Tell me why...

If you're in the mood for a laugh, then go here.

Please wait for the whole video to download first!

And tell me what you think :-)

Hey Sexy!

So this place has a pretty darn awesome range of cars on the road. Now I’m not a car freak, but when anyone sees some of these cars, you can’t help but exclaim ‘Oh, Wow!’. There are a few cars which are more or less common (pretty much every taxi is a Toyota Crown), but many are pretty rare, even in a small place like this. Sample these:

Mercedes E-class
Toyota Kompressor
Mazda 2
Mazda 3
Jaguar XE8 (S-w-e-e-e-e-t as in S-e-x-x-x-y!!)
Mitsubishi Lancer
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Altis
Citroen Mecane
Lexus RX200
Mitsubishi Grandis
Camry
Ferrari (image above)
Chrysler 300C
Mercedes S-class

To name just a few, that is. The Chrysler 300C (image above) was on display somewhere and it looks rich. As in, only rich people can afford it (obviously), but it looks well worth its plush interiors. An article in today’s paper compares it to the President of America’s Air Force One. I quote from Singapore’s Straits Times dated today:

Airports clear out for Air Force One to make its landing, just as hotel valets will shift the BMW 7-series and Merecedes-Benz S-class away for the 300C’s arrival.

On the ‘look at me’ scale, the 300C is a full runway ahead of the current pack of Audi, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz cars.

Anyway, cars in Singapore are ridiculously expensive even compared to India, where at least small cars are within the reach of the middle class. This is a ploy to reduce the number of cars on the road, since it is such a small place area-wise. In fact, every prospective car-owner has to pay around Singapore $20,000 for a Certificate of Eligibility, in addition to a minimum of Sing $60-70,000 for a small-sized car. Which is a lot of money, really – the equivalent of about Rs.20 lakhs or so.

But the ultimate in status symbols among car-owners over here at the moment is a Lexus, apparently. The Mercs are not really lah-di-dah enough.

Oh, well!!!

World AIDS Awareness Day - December 1st

Today is World AIDS Awareness Day and I really wanted to put up a quick post about it. AIDS is not a joke. I was watching on TV today that Thailand starts its sex education for school kids at the age of 9. To me, that was a surprise because I thought 12 or 13 was the usual age, in places where it is undertaken at all, that is. Kids today are growing up much faster than they should, and whether due to peer pressure or not, exploring the experiences of sex can lead them to indulging in unsafe and/or unprotected sex - and they really should be equipped to understand the implications of their actions. More schools need to spread sex education, in my opinion, more so in a country like India where talk of sex with one's children is very rarely done, even among the upper middle class. By not educating your children about sex and AIDS, you are being unfair to them and increase the chances of them getting wrong information from someone else.

In today's world, it is not fair or even true to say that homosexuals have higher chances of contracting AIDS, as I am sure most people are aware. In the Western world, surprisingly, the incidence of AIDS is sometimes higher among homosexuals, but in countries like India, China and most parts of Africa, it is heterosexuals that are more affected, and many are unknowingly exposed to the virus, especially women.

The ONLY 3 methods of contracting the HIV virus are from a mother to unborn child, through the use of unsterilised syringes and unprotected sex with a partner who has the virus. It is your right, and within your power, to ensure that you have safe sex.

Please use a condom.

First impressions of Singapore

Sitting at the Bangalore international airport waiting to leave for Singapore, I noticed a man with a pink backpack on his shoulders. My first (and very short) reaction was “Pink? For a man? Ewwww!!” And then I gave a disapproving pat to myself and thought “Why is it wrong for a man to carry a pink bag? Of course it isn’t. Stereotypes!” The thing is, most people I know would think pink on a man is not masculine enough. But who put that idea into our heads anyway? Who told us pink = girl and blue = boy? I refuse to subscribe to stereotypes.

Anyway, Singapore has been good fun so far. The Singapore Tourism Board is organizing Christmas in the Tropics from November 12th 2005 to January 2nd 2006 – a festival of all things Christmassy. Every single mall in the place (and there are many) are lit up with all sorts of gorgeous decorations and lights, and apparently they are even having a competition to judge the best-decorated place. The key roads (primarily Orchard Road) look so pretty that you can’t help but feel this tingling happy sensation inside. Christmas anywhere is an experience, and with Singapore going all-out to make this Christmas one to remember for all tourists (and its own), I just have one thing to say – I’m glad I made it here at this time!

This is my first visit to Singapore and a few observations so far:

1. Every single car passenger has to wear a seatbelt (including those in the backseat – this I specially mention for the Indians who are just not used to the concept), and failure to comply with this invites a Singapore $120 fine. After living in India for so long, with all its careless and ruthless accidents that happen so unnecessarily and so regularly, I am really GLAD they have this rule.

2. Cleanliness is a habit here. At the airport, a sticker from someone’s suitcase fell off and I noticed a staff member immediately pick it up. It is so refreshing to be in a neat and clean place, qualities which are important to me personally.

3. Immigration was smooth and painless and took about one and a half minutes for me to clear. More power to the Singapore government for their tourist-friendly procedures – is the United Snakes of America listening???!! (that’s not a typo – a Canadian I met a few weeks ago told me that as a joke and then began laughing heartily when he saw I appreciated his humour!!).

4. Cosmopolitan, cosmopolitan. Though Chinese form the majority, Indians, Sri Lankans and Malays form huge chunks of the population too. And Westerners really take to this place as well because they are allowed to invest in property and the like, so a lot of them come here to retire. I don’t blame them.

5. The weather is very warm, and, (not very inventive, I know) tropical. Bangalore is damn cold compared to this!

6. I thought about it a bit and came to the conclusion that for Indians, Singapore is a place that combines the best of both worlds because it is close enough to India (for homesick desis) and yet affords the lifestyle of the West. And even East, for that matter.

Let’s see what tomorrow offers.

Knowledge and education

I made a presentation to some students of a top-25-Indian B-school last weekend. The whole experience was rather interesting for me. It was also an achievement, from many angles.

I, a non-MBA graduate, stood confidently on a podium and spoke to a group of people, many of whom were older than me. I would NEVER have imagined it a few years ago (Then again, I would never have imagined a few years ago that I’d be doing a lot of things that I am now!!), but it happened.

I was swamped with work the week prior to it and somehow managed to put together a pretty comprehensive presentation. These days, my mind doesn’t stop working even in then nights. So the night before the presentation I went to sleep thinking about the presentation and in the morning it sort of felt like I’d been working through the night and therefore had everything ready. It was quite a surreal experience. I wasn’t even tired, strangely (considering I am usually happiest when I snuggle into bed and seriously need my 8-hour allotment of sleep).

What lesson did I learn? Most importantly – don’t under-estimate yourself. There is no limit to the things you can do if you really apply your mind to it. And lesson number two: qualifications and degrees are not a measure of your ability. They might be a measure of the extent of your education but that’s it (which, by the way, is not to be confused with the extent of your knowledge). So don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I made that mistake a few years ago, but now I know – life let me into the secret!

Time flies when you're having...fun?

Time flies when you’re having fun. Even if that fun is work, and ‘fun’ is not fun in the typical sense of the term, but more fun in the sense of you know you’re learning new things and can actually sense the change in your thinking because of it.

Work has been crazy hectic but – fun. Apparently one of my career development needs is to heighten my self-awareness and sometimes I feel like a spy keeping a watch on myself, but it really is good to go through it. Always scope for improvement, you know. No one is perfect and the rest of that jazz. (Speaking of which, my mind wanders to Aamir Khan’s slick ‘It’s difficult to improve perfection’ line in Dil Chahta Hai but I’m not so – erm – modest!).

My cousin got engaged in the middle of my long work days and weekend (and weekday) travels out of town and I had to take a day off for it. My boss asked me whether it was going to be a ‘shotgun’ wedding. For the ignorant, like I was when I first heard the term, go take a look here. It’s a Japanese site, but there are a lot of weirdly interesting slang phrases in there. And for the record, no, it’s not going to be a shotgun wedding – the very idea!!!!! Orthodox Keralite families living in India will balk at the mere mention of it!

OK- I’m off to watch Nach Baliye on Star One now. It’s a very absorbing show – a dance contest between married TV-star couples. One attraction for me, of course, is the dance aspect, and the second is watching all these known faces sweat it out for prize money of Rs. 50 lakhs. Some of the choreographers, (the winning couple’s choreographer stands to win Rs. 20 lakhs by the way) come up with outstanding stuff. (And I say this having had the experience of choreographing a dance for some college girls a few years ago). I must say that the top few couples are a joy to watch.

Later, then.

And at the stroke of midnight.....

It is my housemate’s birthday today and my 2 other housemates and I celebrated it at the stroke of midnight by giving her a strawberry cheesecake, a chocolate tart and loads of gifts. Her face was a sight to see when she emerged from her bedroom into the darkened kitchen which had candles all around. At the end if it all, she said she ‘really did feel blessed’.

Penny Lane wrote a wonderful post laying out all her gifts and everything some time ago (lucky Penny!) and all I could think yesterday was how loved a person must feel when they suddenly have all these calls and gifts and people coming round to see them. People whom you haven’t been in touch with for years, gifts you’ve wanted for ages but never did buy because your budget didn’t allow you to. That really is what a birthday should be about – feeling loved and blessed, no matter how old you are. I’m not saying that a birthday should be about the material things only – but no one can deny that when you play a part in making someone’s day so much brighter, then you feel so much happier yourself.

And the effort that went in yesterday for some of her cards and gifts was amazing. Handwritten notes attached to every little thing in coloured gel pens, little artifacts with multiple wrappers (leading to the build-up of excitement, of course – what’s a birthday without some curiosity?!), ‘happy’ flowers (they really do look happy, even at 12 midnight), and the yummiest desserts ever (who needs a man when you have these heavenly goodies?!!). It struck me as I watched her unwrapping her gifts that there aren’t too many people nowadays who actually have the patience or time to wrap and wrap and wrap, and write meaningful things in hand-made cards. And no matter what you do, nothing can replace the magic that comes with gifts that have a personal touch. I mean, I’d love an iPod or MP3 player or whatever (of course I would!), but 10 years later when the things have outlived their usefulness, it’s those cards that will warm my heart. It’s those little gifts that will make me feel loved and blessed. And that’s more important really.

That’s what should be important for everyone, don’t you think?

The end of a love affair

Yesterday my love affair with a city ended. I was ready to leave, sitting at the airport, but felt no particular sense of loss.

The rain was pouring down in sheets from a chalk-grey sky…I’ve always loved the monsoon in India. There is something mind-numbingly beautiful about it, especially when there is some greenery around. An urban monsoon is so different from a rural one, but they both touch a chord in me. Riding in that most useful of Indian vehicles, an auto-rickshaw, I silently watched the city speed by noisily on my way to the airport, even as the water on the roads threatened to touch my feet.

But enough digressing. The love that I have for that city has been passive always. How can love be passive, you ask? Well, it can. It can, because I used to love the city not for itself or even the people I met because of it, but because of a few memories I always associated with it. Those memories, I realized, are not particularly precious to me anymore. The memories weren’t always even happy. It only struck me as I sat quietly in that auto.

I wasn’t sad I was leaving anymore. Usually when I leave any city, there is a touch of nostalgia, or sadness. That’s normal, isn’t it, especially if you’ve spent years of your life there? But yesterday I didn’t feel any. The loss I felt was the momentary loss of those memories – but I chose to let them go. Because I figured that if a city’s memories don’t make you happy, if you are never quite comfortable there, as if waiting constantly at the door for someone to pick you up, then you must do the only sensible thing. Let go.

Making friends in the blogosphere

I’d like to debate the ifs and buts of knowing people through their blogs. There are quite a few people who blog that I’ve been able to figure out the identity of. Some of them are actually friends I’ve known at some point in my past, others acquaintances that I’ve known briefly, and many others friends of friends (of friends – and so on). Of course the bulk, given that there are one billion people in India, about ten percent of whom blog, are people I don’t know. (And I don’t really know that many people – is that a good thing or a bad thing?!) So what are the odds of meeting interesting, like-minded people through the blogosphere?

Pretty high. For one, I am able to know people that I otherwise would not have time to know, given people’s work schedules and my own. I am not restricted by any one else’s opinions, nor anyone else’s recommendations. I choose whose blogs to read based on my interest. I am not even restricted by geography. And that means that the people I get to know, I will 95% of the time hit it off with.

My boyfriend was rather worried the other day when I met a fellow blogger - protective soul that he is (which, by the way, I love him for, among other things). But I am happy to say that I genuinely enjoyed the meeting – there were a lot of common topics to discuss – and we even discovered that we knew a couple of people in common! This has reinforced my opinion that bloggers, at least those whom I seem to connect with, given that the average blogger spends quite a few minutes of his or her precious time writing about their experiences or beliefs or views, can potentially be some of the best people I have ever known.

And I hope I am never given cause to think otherwise!

Barista vs. Coffee Day

I was at Café Coffee Day the other day, and it was absolutely full. I was talking to a friend, having a rather interesting conversation about Indian corporates and business politics. My friend had a cup of coffee, as I sat listening to him. In fifteen minutes, his coffee cup was empty. Two minutes later, a person who appeared to be the manager of the establishment came and requested us to leave as there were ‘other customers waiting’. I won’t use the word ‘politely’ because the action itself was rude, arising purely out of the desire for profit. We walked out, not seeing the point in creating a fuss.

Such an incident has never happened to me at Barista, which is their direct competition here in India. In Starbucks, when I was in Europe, people would sit and read for hours, or just sit around and chat for hours. (Remember Central Perk in ‘Friends’? I don’t think the gang always had something to eat or drink when they visited their favourite hangout). In short, the whole IDEA of a café, in my opinion, is to create an atmosphere of comfort. It’s supposed to be a place where people can just go to be themselves, with or without company. And by asking us to leave, the Coffee Day people not only made me decide I would never patronize them again, it reinforced the thought I’ve always had in my head that the measure of success of an institution depends on how you treat your customers, not on how much money you make. Because money will come and go, but if the customers who give you your business don’t like what you have to offer or the way you offer it to them, they can pack their bags and go elsewhere.

And Coffee Day should realise that.

Happy Birthday to the Best Sister In the World!

So I am at work on a day which falls in the middle of a week that celebrates both Diwali and Id (Eid??) and therefore has three out of five working days as holidays. Which, in effect, means that there are not very many people at work and I can afford to sit and type this without feeling guilty (HA!).

A couple of weeks ago was my one and only sister’s birthday (yeah I know, a couple of weeks is late but better late than never, I say) and I want to wish her a very happy, if belated, birthday. I have tons of very strange names for her that I’m sure she thinks are really silly, but she answers to them anyway. Its quite funny, isn’t it – sometimes you really hate a particular moniker but after listening to it time and again by all and sundry, you actually answer to it whether you like it or not!

I remember when we were younger, we used to fight like cats and dogs. Usually, I used to wind up bawling even though I was the older one (Yes, ok, it really is true!). As we grew older, I remember chasing her around tables and chairs to give her a whack whenever we fought. Which, by the time I caught her, I never gave because I didn’t feel I could. Then as we progressed to being teenagers, I resorted to glaring at her when I was pissed with her. By then, she’d figured me out and used to grin and run away. Today, on the rare occasions that I do lose my temper, I just look very hurt. THAT, by the way, does the trick because 8 times out of 10 she feels remorse!

But S is the best sister one could have. She has grown into a very responsible, very sensitive child – she always will be a child to me, even though I suppose, technically she is a young woman now. The age gap between us is just about two years, and these days when I meet her, I feel like I am the younger one. She’s become more sedate, more serious. Still fun-loving though – and she always has tons of friends around! I know that I can tell her anything and she would understand.

I’ve told this to tons of my friends – and when I speak of my little sister, its one of the things that strikes me most. I don’t want her to grow up too soon. I don’t want her to lose her innocence – I don’t want any child to lose theirs but with her I am extra-protective.

But I can’t stop time. Everyone grows up. Everyone realizes that it wasn’t really Father Christmas who kept those gifts under the Christmas tree, nor was it the Tooth Fairy who slipped that shiny coin under their pillow.

As she grows one year older, I want to say Thank You for being the bestest sister in the world. We should spend more time together and I hope, even as the years go by, we always do. Happy Birthday Pipsqueak!

So they said

Some interesting quotes (taken from zigzackly's site) that I really think make sense. Usually the whole quote-unquote deal can be pretty boring to read, I know, but some people say things that genuinely make me feel like I should have said them!

Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.
~ Satchel Paige

Either you think - or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.
~ George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880)

Assumptions are the termites of relationships.
~ Henry Winkler, actor (1945- )

Manners be damned…?

I was returning to Bangalore by flight yesterday. There was an aged couple (both at least 80 years old) travelling on the flight with their daughter (at least 50 years old). At the Bangalore airport, on the shuttle bus from the flight to the arrivals terminal, there was no seat left for the old gentleman to sit, as they alighted from the plane last. I offered my seat to him – indeed I could not have imagined doing otherwise. But to my surprise and consternation, not one other single person offered their seat to the other lady.

I have done the same on the London tube, and on a local Coimbatore bus. Am I expecting too much when I say that basic courtesy dictates that any aged person should have priority of seating? And is India so heartless than in a flight full of what I would assume are educated individuals, not even one other person has the so-called Indian culture or values in them?

The monster called IIPM

As a blogger, I feel it is my duty to rise to the occasion and let the people who read MY blog know what is going on. Amit Varma has summarized the issue well, but anyway here is my little bit on it.

I was writing just yesterday about freedom of speech and expression, especially that of the written and blogged word. As it happens, that has direct reference to what I am about to mention. Rashmi Bansal, editor of a youth magazine called JAM is being targeted by IIPM because of an article published in her magazine way back in June. The article was an expose on the tall claims made by the management 'corporation' (I can justify my using that title because of the kind of advertising the organisation has been doing, more like a corporation than an educational institute), Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), headed by Arindam Chaudhuri. I have read a number of their advertisements in many dailies over the past months and have been highly skeptical about what they say – that the institute is almost on par with the IIM’s, that their students are placed in top companies, their infrastructure is out of this world (Wi-Fi, swimming pools and so on and so forth). The truth is that a lot of these statements are not facts, and this is what was unearthed by JAM. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Rashmi’s blog got some ridiculous and disgusting comments targeting her personally, over the last few days. None of the comment-posters (supposed to be IIPM or ex-IIPM students) clearly mention their identity or are able to refute JAM’s claims. In addition to this, Gaurav Sabnis, an employee of IBM and an active blogger in his own right, took up her cause and wrote his own views about it on his personal blog.

It so happens that IBM supplies laptops to IIPM. After issuing a legal notice to Gaurav, IIPM put pressure on IBM to ask him to delete his posts with reference to IIPM and the JAM article and apologise, or resign from IBM.

Today, Gaurav Sabnis resigned, because he believes that that was the right thing to do, that it was the ONLY thing to do to keep his self-respect intact.

Desi Pundit has a lot of links to people who are raising their voices in support of Rashmi, Gaurav and free speech. Blogging can be a powerful tool to spread awareness, and I intend this post to be one too.

1984

This article by Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram brings to the fore a question that must puzzle many an intellectual – where should a journalist draw the line when writing or exposing information for public review? The article mentions Spain’s sentencing of Taysir Allouni, an Al-Jazeera reporter, to seven years in prison for alleged links with the Al-Qaeda. Allouni interviewed Osama bin Laden a few weeks after 9/11, and the prosecution apparently used excerpts from this interview as evidence against him, a point that has been brought up by Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit working for the rights of reporters worldwide. They argue that if terrorism was what he was sentenced for, then his interview (which was a professional engagement more than anything else), should not have been brought up in court.

"It is inherent in the nature of the work of any professional journalist to meet and extract information from players on all sides of the political spectrum," head of the London-based Arab Press Freedom Watch organisation Ibrahim Nawwar told Al-Ahram Weekly. "In the case of Allouni, he cast doubt on his intentions by meeting Al-Qaeda heads."

Extending this argument to you and me, suppose I were to be vocal about my opinions on America, which are probably not to the liking of the current government there. If someone were to read something I wrote about my ideas, would I be liable for prosecution? Probably, in a fettered society. And yet student protesters even 10 days ago were killed in Meghalaya for making their voice known. Does that make our 21st century society a fettered one inspite of the onslaught of media reports and systems that we have access to that were not available decades ago?

What happens to freedom of speech then?

This of course throws up a host of related questions: does anyone have the right to censor someone’s expressions or voice or, because it is not in keeping with one’s personal beliefs or views, persecute them? Reminds me of an episode of The Big Fight I saw on NDTV once, where people were debating the right of the Censor Board to decree what people can and cannot watch. My 20-year-old cousin was a member of the audience and I recall her answering Barkha Dutt’s question and opining that she did not think the Censor Board had the right to question the intelligence of the public, to discern what was right or wrong for them. That choice should be left to them.

Likewise for us. I think we all have the right to write about our actions as long as we can stand by them and they do not harm anyone.

As an educated individual, that is what I believe. The battle is on and my ramparts are officially manned. Counter, you fanatics out there!

It's a time to move on...

I’ve been busy the whole week. New city (sort of), new people around and new work. Too many new things at once. But that’s what life is about, in a way, I suppose. Moving on to greener pastures. Incidentally, my new house-mate was talking about how she was looking for a new place to stay some time last year, but that was just when she got a new job. So she decided to stay put because too many new things at once would be too much to handle. I agree with that logic too – everything all together can sometimes make you feel like Alice in Wonderland. But I suppose those kind of situations are where your real mettle shows through. Either you can, or you can’t. At the end of the day, its all different for different people. That’s the beauty of humans. No two people will react the same way to the same situation.

Anyway, life has been busy, and I’m grateful. Work sees me wondering what on earth I’m doing versus what I’m supposed to be doing, but I’m getting the hang of it!

On a completely different note, I’ve been noticing that lots of bloggers have an Alice in Wonderland quote somewhere on their pages. And no wonder – some of them are genuinely funny, or just shockingly philosophical, given that the age at which most people are introduced to them is sub-ten years. Some interesting ones:

'But then,' thought Alice. 'shall I never get any older than I am now? That'll be a comfort, one way--never to be an old woman--but then--always to have lessons to learn!'

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

`Now, I give you fair warning,' shouted the Queen, stamping on the ground as she spoke; `either you or your head must be off, and that in about half no time! Take your choice!'

I don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it.

Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction.

Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin.

Ah! Then yours wasn't a really good school. Now at ours they had at the end of the bill. French, music, and washing -- extra.

Favourite Songs Part 2

This is an addendum to my list of favourite songs Part 1. Continued:

26. Can’t fight the moonlight – LeAnn Rimes from Coyote Ugly film soundtrack

27. Fallin’ – Alicia Keys

28. I’ve had the time of my life – Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes from Dirty Dancing film soundtrack

29. Take it easy – The Eagles

30. Build me up buttercup – The Foundations from the There’s Something About Mary film soundtrack

31. Sing - Travis

32. When doves cry – Romeo and Juliet film soundtrack

33. Didi – Khaled

34. Yellow – Coldplay

35. Beautiful Day – U2

36. Wonderwall – Oasis

37. In the end – Linkin Park

38. Romeo and Juliet – Dire Straits

39. A thousand miles – Vanessa Carlton

40. Virtual insanity – Jamiroquai

41. Zombie – The Cranberries

42. Imagine – John Lennon

43. Sounds of Silence – Simon and Garfunkel

44. Bridge over troubles water – Simon and Garfunkel

45. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme – Simon and Garfunkel

46. Let it be – The Beatles

47. Strawberry Fields Forever – The Beatles

48. With a little help from my friends – The Beatles

49. She’s a woman – The Beatles

50. Please Mr. Postman – The Beatles cover version

The Beatles songs thanks to inspiration from Sharad. Been listening to a lot of ‘em the last few days. And I realize that there are probably going to be many more songs to listen to, and whole albums to appreciate – these are just a few of the ones I like till now.

Also, this is a call for musical inspiration – I’d love to see lists of other people’s favourite songs, with reasons for why they like those songs as part of my musical education, which like every other education is going to be lifelong as far as I am concerned :-)

Imprints...

It’s ok to feel confused. To feel sad, and happy at the same time. To feel tired. Today I realize that I will soon be saying goodbye to yet another city, a city that is now part of me and my history because I lived here for a while. No matter how much I may want to change that fact (and I don’t really), it will remain. That’s the funny thing about cities. They are just spatial organizations of things – people, buildings, animals (especially in India!), traffic lights, roads, trees, parks – and yet without your really consciously being aware of it, all these things slowly filter into the recesses of your mind and you don’t realize it till you are safely ensconced in another place, another time, another city. It’s been such a regular pattern for me, with my moving countries, cities, houses, away from a set of friends and suddenly to another, that I have only NOW – after all these years, realized that all the places and things that inhabit them, that I have been part of in the past, will forever be part of me. And each one of them has somehow contributed to shaping me and making me what I am. Rather, changing me for the better. And that’s the other thing – it’s always for the better, really. Even if you initially think it isn’t. So I want to say Thank You to all the places I’ve lived in, even visited, and all the people that have known me, whether I am in touch with them today or not. If you have had even a few conversations with me that you remember, then be sure that I remember them too and I will always be glad I had the opportunity.

Blogging Blues

Haven’t blogged for a bit. Am in the midst of shifting cities, but as I was pondering what I could put up on my blog as an excuse, I figured that I am probably going to be going somewhere or doing something for the rest of my life (seeing as how I am a vociferous supporter of the ‘idle mind is a devil’s workshop’ philosophy). So trying to figure out excuses is not going to really help in the long run, what say?! Anyway, blogging is fun. If you a) know what you want to write about b) have strong opinions about something, either pro or con. Being in-between or admitting that both sides of the coin are not so bad, does NOT help. c) have time to surf a million websites so you can sift through what is interesting and then provide an insight or opinion on that None of which groups, as I have mentioned before, I usually am part of. But what the hell, the whole point of blogging is that I can say whatever I want and get away with it…I suppose! And it still is fun.... So this is a call to anyone who reads this blog. Got this idea from Selective Amnesia: if anybody reads this blog and I’m not linking to them, please let me know. It would be interesting to know what kind of people read my blog, and I’d be happy to link to them. Life is all about learning about different views on different things. Make your life that much richer!

Memories of rainy days

You know those days when you sit and stare out of a window, cocooned in your little room alone with the weather royally thunderous or just dauntingly grey outside? I’ve had that experience in many different cities of the world. The interesting thing is that your outlook on life tends to be the same, but what will differ is the view from the window. Madras, and the greenery right outside my ground-floor hostel room. The drip-drip-drop of the rain as it splashes on the plants outside. The electricity suddenly goes off, and the book I am reading almost merges with the darkness created by the storm-clouds that sultry evening. Mellow laughter and conversations can be heard from the corridor outside as the girls continue their cheery banter, momentarily disrupted by the sudden darkness. An hour passes, the electricity is back. But somehow, the arresting solitude and beauty of those moments is spoilt. I wish for darkness to descend once again. Coimbatore, and the cool breeze brought by the gathering rain-clouds. I sit transfixed in my balcony, under the branches of the majestic tamarind tree right outside, in my grandfather’s old rosewood chair with extendable arms. They don’t make them like that anymore. Typically Kerala. I lean back and put my feet up on them. And watch in silent wonder as the drizzle turns to huge splattering drops. Nothing quite like it. I sigh happily. London, and a view of the Big Ben in the distance. This is the heart of London, with the city spreading out for miles from my two windows. Rain in London, is, well, dreary and constant, for lack of better adjectives. It is almost a part of daily life, so well has it become integrated with the routine of Londoners. If you’re smart, then you carry an umbrella (if you can bother to tote one about, which I never can, even today), or have a rolled-up raincoat stacked safely away in your bag, because you never know when the sun will pull a prank on you and be replaced with those looming clouds. But my room-with-a-view is warm and comfortable, a typical student’s room with a nice stereo system. That makes all the difference. I switch it on and listen to Gabrielle singing ‘Out of Reach’. It makes me want to be a writer, pouring out those soulful lyrics. I sing in tandem, surprising myself with my sudden ability to sing the high notes. Brussels, (Skepsi, I can’t thank you enough for all the help you and Eve gave me those days) and my little studio room with a slanting roof. Europe is something else altogether. I feel like I am part of history, though I am jolly well part of the present. Sunday morning and I lie in bed, sometimes feeling as if the skylight on the slanting roof would give way and the rain would splatter right onto me as I lay underneath snugly in my blanket. (I don’t think I ever got over that feeling in all my time there) I close my eyes, not wanting to think of the future, but just enjoying the moment for what it is. Bangalore, and I sit quietly in the little common area with my house-mates. They chatter, I listen. A lovely breeze blows through. I shiver in pleasure. Then we start playing antakshari and all hell breaks loose! Delhi, and me. This is now. As I sit typing this with the grey sky outside again, I remember how I felt in all those places through the years. I re-live them. I remember how I felt each time. This city has been more intimidating than all the rest, and yet it has grown on me. I have everything needed to live a decent life here in my one-room-shelter. And yet I have nothing. It suddenly clicks. I’ve had different window-views in different places, but what I really have wanted all along, I haven’t got yet – not yet, but he will be with me soon.

Murder

Swiftly through the forest The stately panther walked. Flesh! The carnivorous smell - Prey he started to stalk. Stealthily and silently, Padded paws aligned, The man was caught unawares On him the panther dined.