Serial on Ravana

Few days ago I saw on episode on a new serial on Ravana.

First time perhaps it showed the “other side of the story” we have always been looking at the character as the epitome of the badness. No doubt he serves as a fine example of greatly personality spoiled by ego.

But this serial makes you think.
In fact all many of the bad boys in the history if we take a relook at, we generally find positives a lot. It is generally one or two bad acts or characteristics that end up in putting them up in the bad rankings.

I had same feelings when I read the Mein Kampf.
Take example of Karna also. An otherwise perfect personality was portrayed badly just because he did not betray his friend. If he had done then he would also have been portrayed as a good boy.

And the basic fact that history is always written by the victors who would obviously try
to glorify themselves. This is not to glorify Ravana, but is it not wrong to ignore completely the good traits of Ravana as well as mistakes of Ram?

What if Ravana had won in the war? One more thing is that all the right wrong opinions are relative.

Ravana was a great devotee of lord Shiva. Ravana is known to be a great Brahmin and composer of Shiva Tandava Stotra. He was also a master of Veda’s.
Even though he won Lanka from Kubera, he was a just king and as the name “Golden” implies Lanka flourished under his rule.

If we look at some basic facts from Ramayana, Ravana did not abduct Seeta out of lust or something. He did so as a revenge for the treatment Lakshmana gave to his sister shurpanakha. Certainly, cutting someone’s nose and ears just because she expressed her love was not a just act.

Moreover he kept Seeta perfectly safe in his Ashokvan. If we wanted he could have done whatever he wanted with Seeta, what if he had cut nose of seta and sent her back? But he did not do so.

On the other hand, Rama did kill Vaali hiding behind a rock. No rules applied to Ram and he could justify it because he was victor.

I always like to compare the behaviors of Vibhishana on one hand and Karma, Bhishama and Dronnacharya. They stuck to their duties and loyalties in the face of adversity. On the other hand Vibhishana left Ravana and joined Rama.

Karna was perfect in this regard. He fought against his own brothers but did not betray his friend.

A weekend that changed the course of my life forever

Last year around this time…. It was 18 (or 19) November 2005. On my yahoo messenger I got an offline message from some unknown id. If I was to believe that the ID was not misleading then it could be someone named Deepa save.

It was clear that the person on other side has mistaken me for someone else because that id was not in my friends list and from the message it was clear that it was not for me.

I just wrote back and asked for an introduction. To be precise, this is what I had written from my yahoo archives…

“hi...buddy....it will be great if u could give some introduction of urs....”

Next Sunday I was in office. I had got a reply from that id to my query for intro.
It was a girl named Deepa Save. We had a brief chat. We soon found a common ground in form of a yahoo group where we both were members. She had some trouble in sending an email so I sent it on her behalf.

After that we exchanged our phone numbers and talked top each other.

At that time I did not know what lied ahead…
Very soon the phone call had become a regular thing. Thanks to VSNL, Deepa used to call me regularly. When she was not in office, we used to give missed calls to each others.

We used to talk about a lot of things office…family…friends…likes…dislikes…hobbies and many other things that mattered to us. We used to exchange opinions advises so on and so forth.

One day decided that we should meet sometime. I agreed that whenever I will come to Mumbai next time I shall take out some time for the meeting.

It was when I came home for Holi we managed to meet. We spent an entire evening talking to each other about so many topics.

Phone calls were now a daily matter. We used to speak at least once a day. We used to meet whenever I was in Mumbai and our schedules permitted.

This continued till this Diwali. During Diwali we met three times. One thing we had done was we never lied to our parents. We used to tell parents whenever we met. No hiding. By this time all this sequence could not have gone unnoticed by parents. In Diwali my mother questioned me if had any plans to take this relationship to next level. I had not thought on this point till then. We used to discuss even the marriage proposals we received but I had never thought of this angle of our relation.

I was one day she was telling me about a proposal her family had received from some relatives and how serious they were about it. This made me think.
Am I really willing to let her go? I questioned myself.
The Answer was No.

I started thinking seriously on this line. Shall I or shall I not? What does she think about me? What will be her reaction? But somehow I needed to communicate. And I did not have the courage to ask directly.

One day I got a sms from her,
“Dont love the love unless d love loves u,If love loves u then love d love in such a way tht it wont love anyone else...”

I responded…
“Does the love love me?”

And there was a reply in a short while…
“Yes.”

I called up. We talked for a lot of time. But now the conversation was not the same as in the past.

We decided that we shall have a face to face discussion in this regard before we take up the matter with our parents.

Regular phone calls went on as usual.

We met on 25th Nov… One year…53 weeks to be precise… after our first introduction…

We discussed a lot of things that mattered to us… which we thought could be causes of potential conflicts later.

In the end everything was fine… I asked her if she would marry me. She accepted. We decided that we would keep quiet for a year and only our parents would know it.

A new phase in life had begun. The snap here is a snap of sunset taken on 25th Nov at Girgaon Chowpatty. This was an evening to be remembered forever.

I have written this on 30th Nov 06 but I shall publish it on the day we would get formally engaged.

(Publishing on 28 Mar 07... 2 days after our parents formally announced the alliance...)

A month full of twists n turns…

It’s almost a month since I left for home for Diwali…

This one month has been so far the most eventful period in recent past.
Well… it is not so much about Diwali celebrations…. But about the other events during Diwali and days that followed.

The day I reached… next morning I got two bad news… my uncle was hospitalized because of mild heart attack… and one uncle expired…. both on same day…

So effectively there was nothing to celebrate about Diwali. I was regularly visiting the hospital to look after my uncle. That was first time in my life that I spent a whole night in a hospital. Since someone was always required to be present at hospital, me, my father, and aunt we all used to stay in shifts. That was a totally different experience for me.

Those visits had other things in store…. Something that was about to become a major turning point in my life…

My friend’s office was nearby the hospital. We used to meet every time either before start of my “shift” or after it were over. Those visits have come a long way in just a month…
I ended up proposing to her…

After I returned to Bangalore… there was another twist…

One day I saw a mail asking for referrals… the requirements were for our Pune Development center. I had a long pending with of transfer to Pune. I immediately send mail to higher ups asking to consider me first for the positions in Pune before any recruitment happens.

My wish was immediately granted. And movements began as to decide which team to move into and all.

The bosses here wanted to hold me back for some more time… and bosses at Pune wanted me to join at Pune at the earliest.

It was almost on the verge of completion…I was almost sure that I will be in Pune by year end…

Then I got another offer from my bosses…

There was a new implementation project coming up at Hong Kong… They wanted me to join that team as a team leader.

I wanted to go for this assignment… This was going to be my first independent assignment as a team leader….
but at the same time I did not want to loose this Pune opportunity. I told so to my boss. He too agreed…that after I finish off this assignment I will continue with my Pune relocation.

And here I am... traveling to Hong Kong next month… everything happened just within a month… certainly one of the most eventful months…

Things have taken twists and turns so fast that even though it is less than a month since I came back from home… I feel too much of time has elapsed…

Finally SCJP.

It is almost 3 years I m working in software industry.

Being a Diploma as well as Degree holder in Mechanical engineering, I had spent 8 years learning Mechanical engineering. And immediately after finishing my Degree, I landed in Infosys.

I remember the days during my DME when they had failed me in practical exam for Pascal. I had never thought that a few years down the line and I will be working in software industry.

Even during BE I had never thought of becoming part of so called “IT BandWagon”

I used to feel very odd…
Even though I could do all the coding and all that generally a software engineering graduate is expected to do, I had no formal qualification that would link me with the software skills.

So I decided to do some certifications which will give some credibility to my claims about software related experience in resume.

I decided to go about the Sun certification. After spending 3 years in java this was the easiest thing I could do.
I registered for the exam on 19th September…

Like they say “Prathamagraase Maksheekapaat” (roughly…trouble at first step) after I stared studies and planned to give exam, I was sent to my usual destination, Saudi Arabia… that too during the period when I had booked the exams.

I had to postpone the exam date. I set it on 30th September.

I started to study again for it… it was going cool… daily 1-2 hrs… just 2 days before exam, friends in office suggested about going to picnic somewhere….
The dates??? 30 Sept to 2nd October…

2nd October…. I had entirely missed it out while booking the exams. This was going to be a 3 day weekend. A rare opportunity for picnic... After initial hesitation, finally I decided to postpone the exam and go for picnic.

The exam date went to 14th October…

They had given me two chances for postponing the exam. And I had used both. This time I must appear for exam or I would have to pay fine.

So finally… study started again…. This time there were no holidays… no travels…
I had planned the exam on Saturday hoping that it will be weekend.

And finally the D-day arrived.
But as it had been happening since beginning… something was still to happen…
They had a strike on 4th of October in Karnataka. The office had remained closed.
To compensate that they had decided to keep the 14th as a working day!!!!

I had to consume a leave to appear for the exam.

I reached the exam center on the given time.
Exam server was down…
It was not expected to be up on that day!!! Sunday was holiday for training center… so I had to go again for exam on Monday…

I chose the very first exam batch on Monday….

Even though I was very much confident… usual exam nervousness was there.

But final outcome was good…. I got the much wanted certification…

Sun Certified Java Programmer…. ;-)

Youngest Daughter’s Town...

Continuing with my series of travels… One more new place….Once again the mesmerizing Western Ghats…

This time it was Chikamangalur and around. Chikamangalur literally means Youngest Daughter’s town and hence the title.

We had made a very ambitious plan for three days that is 30th September,1st and 2nd October. Although the plan was great… no homework had gone into it… no planning… just ad hoc decision… booked tickets and left for the destination. End the there were quiet a lot lessons to be learnt.

As expected… trouble started right after we landed in Chikamamgalur. It was a three day weekend and in addition police had beefed up security for Vijaya Dashami as well as Datta Jayanti (Chikamangalur is surrounded by many holy places). All this had resulted in all the lodges being fully booked since police dept had also booked lodges for staff. After roaming around whole city we finally managed to find a lodge with a room available… we decided to make it base camp for next three days.

On the first day we went to Kemmannugundi… A beautiful hill station. One needs at least a whole day to fully enjoy this place. We started in the morning for the hill station. The distance in map was given as about 50 KM.. so we had expected an hour to reach. Bt again… the hilly region ensured that journey too double time.

One more handicap we faced was that since we were only 3 people… hiring a sumo became too costly. So we decided to travel by local transport. This obviously resulted in lot of wastage of time. Furthermore last return transport from Kemmannugundi was available at 4 00 pm… so we had to leave our adventure halfway… we could not visit the Hebbe Falls.

Learning from this, we decided to start a bit early for the next destination… Kudremukh.
Again…. Just 80 km on map. We started at midnight 12 30 by local transport. And as expected reached early morning… but it was a bit too early. There was absolutely no one at bus stand except a few private transport drivers. First we decided to spend the time at bus stand but later we changed plan and went to Kalase.. a nearby village and nearest plave where one could find a lodge. The plan was to get refreshed and collect some info.

We had a lot of expectations from Kudremukh. It during initial research before travel, we had found a lot of information about trekking opportunities at Kudremukh. We made a lot of enquiries at Kalse expecting that there should be some facilities to get trekking permission from local forest dept. but we were told to go and get permission from the forest department at Kudremukh.

The photo above is of a Tea Garden in Kudremukh Area.

So finally we went back to Kudremukh.

We visited the forest office. And here came the biggest shock.
They had stopped permitting the treks. The reason? Rise in naxalite problem in the Jungles. This was my first direct encounter with the naxalite problem. Till today I was only reading about it in the news papers.

Frustrated… we asked them if there is anything at all that we could see under such condition.

They suggested visiting a nearby waterfall “Hanumangundi falls”.
We had already wasted a precious day… there was no point in returning back immediately… so something is better than nothing. We went to the water falls.
The snap beside is of Hanumangundi Water Falls

We spent some time there. While coming back we faced the biggest travel setback ever during this travel. There was no transport available for two hours!!!!

We returned back from Kudremukh to chikamangalur late evening… again 4-5 hours journey. We had not slept properly since last two days because of travel.

Next day we were to travel back to Bangalore by 3 00 bus.

We decided to spend the morning visiting nearby places... mainly temples. We identified two temples that we thought we could visit and come back before 2 00 pm.

One of them was the Belevadi temple.

Chikamangalur was under the Hoyasala dynasty from 11th till 14th century. This area is full of temples. Beautiful temples... We had planned to visit Belevadi temple and the Marle Temple which were nearby.

While going there we were expecting a normal south Indian temple with so many people around. But what we came across was entirely different. There was no one in the temple.
The temple sculptures were too good. Below is a photo of temple's interior.

One good thing we observed was that they were trying to restore the structure of the old temple. They were trying to do it much the same way as the original builders by using similar ingredients.

The priest there took us around the temple explaining the stories carved in the stones. After he learned about our plans to visit Marle temple next, he strongly and repeatedly recommended us to go to Halebid and see the temple there.

Initially we were reluctant given our time constraint. But after repeated recommendations from the priest, we decided to give it a try. He gave us all the details about going there, and we set out on the way to Halebid.

Based on our prior experience with local transport we were too skeptic. But this time we were wrong. Transport was good. We changed the transport twice on our way to Halebid but it was a smooth process. We never waited for more than 10 minutes.
The priest was right in his recommendation. If Belavadi was good… Halebid was simply awesome. I had never imagined that sculptures can be made to such minute details. The efforts of those unknown artists were clearly visible after more 600 years… after so many devastations from Muslim rulers and the nature…. It had withstood all… Photograph below is a panoramic view of one of the sides of the Hoysaleswara temple.

Halebid was the capitol city of the Hoyasala Rulers.

During my last visit to Murudeshwar, I had seen a hige new “Gopuram” built for the Murudeshwar temple. I can not resist temptation to compare the devotion and imagination of these ancient artists with those useless people working at Murudeshwar. On the entire Gopuram being built which is almost 10 floors high, one could count a small bunch of sculptures that were mass produced and put everywhere along the entire Gopuram. As if they were doing it just for the sake of doing…
Just look at the photo beside and you will understand how much attention has been given to the details.

We returned to the Chikamangalur Bus stand by 2 00 pm as planned. And finally set out on the return journey by 3 00 pm bus….

This picnic was not a well planned one. And as a result we could not see one place fully but too many places incomplete… certainly I shall plan and visut the same region again…
Well planned… and very specific…

Once Again Riyadh...

There seem to be some truth in Elmer’s remark that every time I say that I will never return; I end up visiting Saudi Arabia for some reason or other.

This time too I landed in Saudi Arabia once again on 16th Sept… although for a short… rather shortest visit ever for seven days..
But this time the trip was full of fun. Primary reason was that it was only 7 day trip. We had a workshop for clients and then back.

I got to spend time at home while going...as well as coming back. Thanks to Air India… they have issued more confirmed tickets than the flight capacity. So passengers in Mumbai could not be accommodated. So we got the next day flight and a hotel stay. I refused the hotel stay and went home ;-)

After the workshop was over I stayed there for three more days because of unavailability of return tickets. Those three days were full of time pass (within the “Saudi” limits of course)

There were a few things I did for first time in my life.
For first time I went on the top a 300+ meter high building. The Kingdom Center in Riyadh. With 302 meters height it is currently the 33rd tallest building in the world. As well as the Al Faisaliah Center this is currently at 64th position. Below is a snap from the top floor of the Kingdom Center.



It looks awesome from the top. Something that can only be compared with the view one get to see while plane landing. Although from google earth we can get the brief feeling but it is no match for the actual experience.

Also I got to eat Ostrich Meat for the first time. I saw the Ostrich egg also for the first time. Even though it is as big as a small coconut, it looks too small for the size of the bird. They were giving the eggs as gifts whenever available. Unfortunately I was not lucky enough.

But the biggest fun was escape from Ramadan… last year I had spent entire month of Ramadan in Jeddah…I still remember all those “Hungry Days”.

This time I left just one day before the Ramadan Started. On my way back, I once again spent the weekend at home before going back to Bangalore.

Shimoga… The Beautiful face of Shiva…

The last week end of 9-10 September I spent roaming around the Shimoga and around. It was a short and sweet picnic with only 6 of us around.

It was perhaps first picnic where our small group of 6 traveled in three different units. I traveled in a first class sleeper bogie. This was first time in my life that I traveled in those typical old Hindi movie style bogies with a door for every compartment and all.

We reached Shimoga early morning. We had only two days so without wasting much time we started off with the endeavor.

In local language Shimoga means Face of Shiva.

This entire region is lush green forest. Even when I am going about various places and all, one can stop anywhere along the route. Entire region boasts the full beauty of the Western Ghats. It’s green and only green everywhere where... it may be the thick Teak wood jungles… or the Rice fields… or the coconut or betel nut farms…

The very first place to visit was the Gajanur Dam. Nothing special; it’s a normal dam. The only specialty was that this village is associated with kannada actor Rajkumar. This is the place where he was abducted by Veerappan.

Just ahead of the dam is the Sakrebyle Elephant training camp. We could not see the elephants being trained… but we got to see them bathing in the dam water. Also at this place I got to see what I would like to call forefather of the reinforcement process. The houses were built with mud and reinforced with Bamboo.

From there we went to another place….Mandagadde Bird sanctuary… again I did not find much interesting since I don’t have much knowledge about different types of birds…

But still it was a good site to see hundreds of birds with their nests and all.

Next came the Thyavarekoppa tiger-lion safari. Again this too was no different from the various other safaris… but the most interesting point I noticed was that, the animals here were too passive towards the tourists. At one time our vehicle stopped literally a few inches away from a sleeping tiger. That animal did not even bother to move a bit. Same story repeated with those lions.

From there we left for the Famous Jog falls…

It was around 5 pm in the evening when we reached there. We had our arrangements for overnight stay in the same vicinity, so we decided to spend some time and then come again in the morning.

All of a sudden it started raining there. I enjoyed the rain like anything. After a year this was the first heavy rainfall I was experiencing… so the jeans… sport shoes nothing mattered… it was raining for almost an hour and I was out there for entire period.

Next day we went to the Linganamakki Dam. To be frank we could not go to the actual dam. But the areas surrounding the dam were too beautiful. So we spent some time there.

From the dam we again went to the falls. Due to the rains earlier day, the falls had good amount of water flowing. After spending some time there we left for the Murudeshwar.

The route to Murudeshwar is a really beautiful one. It takes you from the high hills of the Jog falls to the seashore where one can see the huge idol of lord Shiva from miles away.

On the way we visited one place called Idagunji. This place is famous for the Ganapati temple. Since they were not allowing photography inside, while others entered the temple with some religious thoughts… my sole purpose was to take a snap of the idol. I came out of the temple with a snap of the idol in my phone camera…

After spending some time we had to leave the Murudeshwar early at around 4 00 PM because we had no shortcut to reach Shimoga and had to all the back first to Jog falls and then back by the same route we came.

By around 8 00 PM we reached Shimoga and after having some roaming around the city we left for Bangalore by train at 10 00 PM…

Ganapati 2006…8 days full of joy…

Last year I had missed Ganapati…
So this year I had planned for the week almost two months ago…
I simply did not want to miss it this year.
I was at home a day earlier so that I don't miss anything right from the preparations.

Since last year we started celebrating Ganapati at one more Amit's (my cousin) house too… so two places to enjoy at…

I really like this Ganapati days… we get to meet all the relatives. In that sense Ganapati celebrations become more important than even Diwali.

First three four days…. Simply full of fun…
We a bunch of brothers' n sisters gather and look after the decorations part at both the uncle's houses where we celebrate. The activity goes on till late night before "Ganesh Chaturthi". On the eve of the festival we all go and bring the Ganesha Idol home.

From next day start those magical days…
I really enjoy singing… at the time of "Aarati"… well classifying whatever I do under "singing" will be insult to the word…. Let's call it shouting… whatever it is I m good at it by default.
This time I got to do it 4 times a day… twice in the afternoon and twice in the evening…

Then come the "Jagaran" or keeping awake the whole night…
We had arranged for a traditional folk dance show known as "Balyaa Dance" at one of the uncle's home… All the elder public was enjoying the dance and at other house… the younger public was enjoying…. What we call as "Madira" ;-). Al though I too was part of this act... I did not like it somehow… later I felt that at least we should not have done it during Ganesh Festival… next year I shall oppose it…

Last day while taking the Idol for immersion…we tool it on a handcart.
I was the one pushing one. There is no steering mechanism in it. So you have to lift the rear wheels a bit and then turn it... put it back and push…

This one act all of a sudden raised respect for all those people who whole day roam around city selling various items on hand cart. This was an empty cart with just an idol on it. What about the people who go around with a cart full of onions and potatoes?

Only thing I missed upon during all this period was that I could not visit any of the relatives and friends for the festival. Mainly because we were too busy taking care of the people who visited uncle's home for the festival.

I visited Vinayak's home after a long time for Ganapati.
Another major event during this vacation was the inauguration of my cousin Pushpak's new office. He started off with his own lawyer practice.

I was simply not willing to return to Bangalore. But I had to…
So finally on Sunday night I headed back for Bangalore….

Four damn hectic weeks...

A bunch of four damn hectic weeks…

Past three weeks had been a pretty hectic with no time for these "extra curricular activities" from office like blogging… study… reading…
Generally I manage to find some time after office hours for these activities but this was first time I was unable to do so…

Weekdays were busy and so did the weekends…
Past four weekends the story had been simple….
Beginning of Ganapati vacation (well... actually leave)…so obvious travel to Mumbai…
Then the end of that one beautiful week at home so travel back to Bangalore…
The immediate next weekend at the Jog falls…
Next weekend I was already on my way to Riyadh for a short official mission…

And here I am writing from Riyadh after successful completion of it… and here lie another weekend of travel back home… ;-)

All these busy days had already shattered my plans to clear the SCJP exam on last 16th... and the fate was sealed was sealed by my sudden travel to Riyadh on 16th. I had to reschedule it for 30th.

I had thought that the beginning of his "Blog year" will also be with a blog about Ganapati, but that does not seem to be the case.
Anyway…

I would prefer such busy weekends… full of short travel…
Somehow I love this traveling to places… that too in this pleasant whether… it is a lot of fun.
I am already thinking of which next places to cover and aiming at covering maximum all those beautiful lesser known places in south India. Let see… how far I can go.

Somehow photography interests are on rise…. I am feeling like buying a SLR camera and taking some basic course in photography….
Latest thing now on my agenda is the SCJP exam which I hope I will clear on this coming 30th…

A lot of blog backlog is pending…A lot of photo's to be uploaded… and I shall clear it now…

My Blog Anniversary…

It’s a year since I started this blogging activity…
I posted my first blog on 7th Sept 2005!!!

I initially started it off as a time pass activity to kill boredom I felt in Jeddah…
But over the period of time I succeeded in keeping the spirit up…

Now when I look back to the first blog… that was about Ganapati… and then scroll through the posts I have put up till date… it’s a nice history of a year in my life… my thoughts…different moods…. frustrations…sorrows and joys…

It’s it surprising… life was so eventful for a year….
Incidentally next blog too will be about Ganapati…thus completing the whole cycle and starting my next year of blogging again with Ganesh…. The god of wisdom…

In past I tried to maintain a diary…writing events every day and all….
But those attempts never lasted more than a few days. Because I used to find that the same story was repeated most of the time and this took out the interest…

But now I find it’s really nice to maintain this open diary… because I don’t write every day but only when there are some noteworthy events…or when I feel like writing.

When I read my early posts, I feel amazed to visit those memories again…Certainly I don’t remember those events now with same detail…So it’s a journey back in time.

A month ago I put a counter on the blog page out of curiosity to see if anyone read those posts apart from me…

I was again surprised to see that more than 40 people (to be frank 40 different IP addresses…) has visited various pages in a month. I think some of them had accidentally stumbled upon my page…while others were directed by Search engines while searching for some Marathi words… How else can I explain people from Egypt and France visiting my blog!!!

I hope to continue this writing experiment for a fairly long period….

Thanks to Sachin…. It’s because of him that I seriously looked into this nice idea of starting a blog…

Bangalored....3 - The Auto-Rickshaw...

Auto Rickshaws in Bangalore can very well be a subject of someone’s PhD thesis.
There are two kinds of rickshaw drivers here. First one is “needy” driver and the other is “Rich” driver.
You can easily differentiate between these two. The ones that you generally see in a small group round the corner and chatting, they are the Rich Drivers. They do not need customers. They operate on the assumption that a needy person will pay whatever amount they ask for And are silently waiting for such a prey. The fare they ask for is generally more than double. It is strongly recommended that you avoid these drivers. They are generally a drain on your pocket.

Some creatures in this category roam around city too. They generally go around city roaming just like you would go if you have your own car. Now if by any chance you happen to stop them, which is a bit difficult task since they go as if they are not in the business. It is not guaranteed that he will agree to go to the place where you want to go. There are a few criterions to be met.

First is that your destination should match with his plan of roaming.
Second, the destination should not be too near or too far. Again these definitions of “near” and “far” are at the discretion of the driver.
They will never agree to take you to a place where there is a prepaid auto stand. They generally fiercely protect their right to charge excess fare by not going to places where the “cruel” traffic police will curb their freedom to charge fare at will ;-)
Finally if above two criterions are satisfied, and then comes the third and killer criterion… Fare!!!

The second and “Useful” category is the needy Rickshaw Drivers. These are those harmless creatures who actually believe that they need customers to make their living.

They can be easily identified by two criterions, when they are waiting somewhere, they will be scanning the surrounding area for probable customers. Generally they will not be waiting round the corner but around a bus stand. When they go along the road, they generally go by the side of the footpath slowly scanning the footpath for any probable customer. All you need to do is look at him and he will stop.

There are some people in this group too who are selective about destinations. But he will not overcharge you or he is not afraid of the Prepaid Auto counter. No doubt these people form the majority of the chunk that makes the prepaid auto concept a success.

They generally think in your interest. Suggesting shortcuts… or giving information about area and all. You can very well expect the meter not to be tampered. They will also return the change.

the police generally tries it’s best to straighten these rich drivers by various means… by opening help lines numbers… by carrying out surprise raids and surprise checking of meters and other means like making it mandatory to display license information and all.

But till now all these rich rickshaw drivers like all other rich people have managed to pull the political strings and stop such attempts by the police.

All these actions have opened up a new way for us. Now I check around if any traffic police is around. If yes then I go and stand nearby for stopping an auto

Bangalored....2

There is a strange feeling when you go out on the roads here… to feel reasonably secure you must be in a four wheeler… bigger the vehicle more secure you are… for traffic sense is near zero in Bangalore. Driving bikes on footpath is very common… generally big vehicles do not care for bikers or pedestrians. Seeing notices about sad demise of someone while traveling on bike has become very common in office… here signals have no meaning unless a traffic police is present to enforce them. When I compare this to Mumbai I think of a common difference… the one between the “Rich” and the “One having lot of money”. When you get a lot of money all of a sudden you have what the “Rich” people have except the manners. This is what I see on streets of Bangalore. People have got four wheelers but not the traffic sense to stop dutifully at signals.

But it is not that major chunk of the city is rich…there is a sharp divide seen between the “have” and “have not” of the city. The reason is that this city is not like Mumbai or Delhi where many different businesses are booming at the same time. Here it’s only about IT and BPO’s. So people associated with these sectors are among the “Have” group. They are the ones who are generally seen going to big malls and spending money on branded stuff and all… and most of them are from outside of Bangalore or Karnataka

This seems to have resulted in aspirations among the” Have Not” group to earn a lot of money. But instead of making some honest efforts, some of these people seem to have found a shortcut. The crime rate is going high… and the targets? Obviously all those in the IT and BPO sector… this is multiplied by the fact that most of the people are from outside and staying alone. Earlier they used to rob u at gunpoint or used to manhandle people and rob them. But now there is a new trend… they kidnap you... take to atm and beat you up till you hand over the card and pin to them. Don’t ask about guards at ATM… they themselves are caught trying to break into the machines by stealing security codes.

Another thing I observe about Bangalore is the presence of flag poles painted in red and yellow spiral strips. You can see these flag poles everywhere. It is quite obvious that these are for hoisting the state flag which is red and yellow in color. But one seldom see the flag hoisted… even on the “Kannada Rajyotasava” that is the foundation day of Karnataka many of these poles do not carry flags… at some places these poles carry flags throughout the year and year after year…. The flag is torn… blackened…but no one bothers to change it…

This city looks surprisingly young. Thanks to the highest density of educational institutions coupled with high number of IT and BPO companies where most of the employees are in the twenties. Everywhere you go you see young people around and the impact can be seen on the older generation as well. One can easily see older people roaming in the malls with younger ones and helping them selecting jeans and t-shirts and tops and all….

A few more… I guess I need one more post…

Bangalored....

A few observations about Bangalore….Bengaluru…City of gardens….full of lakes…

It’s almost two and a half years now that I am associated with this “City of Boiled Beans”

Like every city this one too has its own special traits. It’s own special style…

Here are a few traits that i noticed...

The very first is the presence of liquor shops on literally every corner of the road… go to any area… round the corner you are bound to find at least one wine shop. The only problem is that many times you end up with duplicate stock. This city has the highest density of pubs too…

Every small grocery shop here accepts credit/debit cards!!! Something you will not see even in big metros like Mumbai or Delhi. IT boom certainly has left it’s mark on people not associated with IT too… also unlike other places where they don’t accept cards below certain amount… here u can pay any amount using your card…something very convenient for people who believe in plastic money…

The outsourcing culture has taken its toll too…

Everything that can be outsourced... you will generally find being done here. Not that in other cities they don’t do it but here you notice this in particular. This generally results in a chain of outsourcing like some call center companies out source their transport system. But the people to whom they outsource in turn outsource the vehicles from other individuals…who again hire some driver…. Or to give some other example…even bakeries outsource many of the food item which we expect them to prepare…

This city is perhaps the most green among all the big cities in India. It is very very rare that one can see a tree being cut. And even when it is necessary to cut they generally cut a few obstructing branches and all. Have a look at this city from Google earth or wikimapia and you will immediately notice the presence of green lines marking the roads.

Another thing regarding trees is the special importance given to the coconut trees. This something really special… at least I have never seen such thing anywhere. People change the plan of their house but do not cut coconut trees. One can even see a tree going up from inside the house. Not a single line of exaggeration…

Now that it has come to nature… one thing I find strange… may be it is common in south India… You get everything in Kg. even fruits that generally we buy in dozens like mango’s or apples… everything goes in Kilograms here… Another thing is that generally most of the grocery shops sell vegetables also. Unlike the Mumbai where we see vegetables generally sold either on streets or in special markets, it is very common here to see a shop selling vegetables in same line along with other grocery, medical, food shops and all…

A few more things to write about…. To be continued in next post…

Feeling the pinch…

I lost my friend Amresh in the Mumbai blasts.

The guy lost his life for no fault of his whatsoever.

I got the news of his sad demise next day afternoon. I could feel the cry in Amit’s voice when he told the news.

Till then I had a totally different point of view towards the entire blasts series.
I had not lost any near and dear ones so I could easily write about the blasts and the resilient city and all.

It all changed all of a sudden. I could not work for rest of the day. All those college days were were scrolling through my mind like a movie.

I went home. All news channels were bombarding with news about blasts. Busy blaming Police… Intelligence…. Pakistan… and so on…for the incident.

For me it was just another painful reminder of the fate of my friend.

Amaresh was my hostel room partner during college days. I shall always remember him for his practical approach towards life and the way he used to support his friends when they needed him…

Every news on TV brought up memories of the days we spent together… the fun we had…

Being in Bangalore I could not even attend his funeral. It became too difficult after that to watch the photo’s of the injured and the dead…. Somehow I could feel the pain.

By the evening all channels were busy showing how the people were courageous to return to their jobs very next day….

I now realized that it was more of a helplessness than the spirit… the same helplessness that make them risk life every day when they hang out of the door of local train.

A few days ago I came across email that talked about Mumbai’s response to terrorists and all… How easy it is to write that “Just 200” died when none of them is related to you…

Today it is after so many days that I could gather courage to write about this…

You will always remain in our hearts... Amresh……

Mumbai...The resilient city

I am feeling anguished… for whatever has been happening in Mumbai for a past few days. It is not only about the series of blasts but the seies of the events for past few days…

I guess some terrorist organizations had played cleverly (I must admit) with the city and it’s people. Shiv Sena guys seem to have fallen prey to the plot. Those terrorist must have expected them to behave in a certain manner and they did. There is nothing new with shiv sena doing such acts but more sad part is that Bal Thakare publicly approved whatever those guys did.

Ok… it’s democracy… u have full right to protest… But one must remember that your right to move hand freely ends where other persons face starts….

Burning of busses and vehicles?? Tarnishing statues of other party leaders??

Why someone else should pay the price?

In my opinion this must have been the plan to divert the attention of the police so that others got a free hand to execute the plot for bombing.

We are not new to bombings now… bomb threats have become a matter of routine now… and Mumbai has now become a seasoned city thanks to all these disasters that we are conferred upon every now and then….

Everything has its own positive and negative traits… The local trains may be overcrowded but one must admit that they develop a tremendous sense of co-operation and patience into the people of Mumbai. The daily travels make you resilient enough to face such disasters with courage.

We have seen this courage many times before… last major show was a year ago when Mumbai was flooded….

The stupid people at the readers digest can now eat their words about the rudeness of Mumbai.

It’s amazing to see how people who would normally be acting indifferent to surrounding suddenly spring into action to help total strangers. You won’t hear of any looting or for that matter any incident of someone taking undue advantages of helplessness of people who are stranded. You can easily see people giving lifts to stranded commuters and them accepting it without any hesitation…. Something one would never do on a normal day.

Temporary shelters being arranges and local residents doing all they can to help those who are suffering…

I saw on TV a tea vendor who was distributing tea freely to everyone in an hospital premises… when asked how many tea cups he distributed till now, he answered “Maine gina nahi…. Seva ka koi mol nahi hota….” That’s the Spirit of Mumbai…

I am not willing to write anything about the dirty polotics that will soon follow….

One more thing amazes me... What is this significance of date 11? First New York (Sept 11) … then Madrid (March 11)… and now Mumbai …. All bombings happened on the date 11….

It less than 12 hours and city is back into business…. People are ready to travel as usual…

I believe this is where we are superior to cities like London and New York... a never say die spirit…

And I also believe that it is this resilient spirit of the people that is firing our economy ahead despite of so many hurdles.

The Priority Game...

Today’s Times of India has a nice “A thought for today”.

FIFA has 207 members; we have only 191.

– Kofi Annan.

This tells a lot about the popularity of the Football.

Even in country like ours this world cup fever has significant impact.

In a “Mad for cricket” country like ours, Since last so many days one rarely comes across a discussion about the recent test series between India and West Indies. I won’t even dare to comment about attention given to Azalan Shah Trophy where we were at third place.

The common discussion now a day is of course about Football... The priority game…

Last Friday… Evening…We had four sports events going on in parallel…two crickets matches Sri Lanka vs. England & India vs. West Indies, then Wimbledon and the World cup quarter final between England and Portugal.

Frankly speaking both the cricket matches were damn interesting, India wound up the Windies for 103... and Sri Lanka chased the target of 321 in just about 39 overs.

I don’t remember Wimbledon matches but even those beautiful gals playing out there could not distract our attention as usual….

We simply found ourselves selecting the England vs. Portugal match above all these distractions.

I found that it is an easy activity to watch these football world cup matches than cricket. Since India is not there, there is no tension about loosing so we can enjoy the match for sheer quality of the game.

But this also raises a serious question about the quality of sports in our country. When these poor African countries like Ghana can enter the knock out round; a so called developing country with a population of over a billion can not even quality for the world cup.

Current Ranking of Indian Football team is 117!!!!!!!

There are two main reasons for this I guess…. First one is that in our society Playing is not looked upon in a good prospect. If we look around then we find that children are discouraged from concentrating on sports.

The second reason I see is that cricket has acted as a predator for all other games in this country. Only the cricket players are admired… because of this only they get all the sponsorships… and everything. I won’t blame the sponsor companies because after all they are here for business.

Look at the number of well-known people in other sports… Few hockey players (Thanks to PHL….) and a few others like Vishavanathan Anand, Baichung Bhutia or Sania Mirza, Rajyavardhan Rathod… we don’t even have handful of players to name from other sports.

No wonder we are no where in the Olympics either…

On Demand Politeness

The forthcoming issue of the Readers Digest has some survey of politeness in various cities and the news is already out that it puts Mumbai in the last slot… that is the rudest city. Somehow news spread… (I wonder why RD felt need for this film style publicity?) Already Sunday times had articles discussing it… so much of fuss…

You read any book on body language… the very first lesson they teach is that every culture… country... region has its own traits...ethics & social norms to be followed. One must understand and respect those norms.

In India we consider it a bad habit to enter home wearing footwear… so if some Indian magazine conducts the survey and call western cities ill mannered… will it be ok?

On the scale of those three useless tests Mumbai may be rude… but it is far ahead when it come to real time action.

A person in Mumbai will help you immediately if he senses the need for help. If you drop your books down and if you are capable of gathering the stuff your self, no one in Mumbai will stop and help you…

but try this…let the stuff scatter a bit and someone passing by will lift some of the stuff… and give it to you... again… he won’t stop and collect everything, only what he can within his own limited timeframe... without obstructing his own activity…

This is what I call On Demand Politeness…

You look around city and you will find numerous examples… Local trains and Bus are best places to watch this on demand politeness in action…

One simple example… A year ago… Mumbai faced floods… and so did New Orleans… Everyone knows what happened where… the so called polite cultured city went on rampage and looting whereas this so called rude city held it’s nerve and people supported each other…

This reminds me of one story…
Once Narada went to Lord Vishnu and asked him who his most favorite devote is. Vishnu points towards the earth to a farmer.

Narada who was expecting himself to be favorite asks why the farmer who hardly chants the lord’s name 8-10 times a day is favorite and even after chanting the name of god whole day, he is not his favorite devotee.

The lord gives him a vessel full of water till the edge and asks Narada to make a full trip of earth while ensuring that not a single drop of water is spilled. Narada does so. When he comes back the lord asks him, how many times did u chant my name? Narada says I was too busy taking care of water I did not chant even once.

The lord says, this small vessel of water made you forget me. And that farmer daily completes his all duties towards his family... society and still chants the Lord’s name 8-10 times….

I guess same analogy hold true for this scenario also…

Imagine if suddenly all those people in those polite cities find that they no more have the social security… and they are following the same lifestyle of people in Mumbai where one has to struggle daily for bread and butter…. Will they remain at same index of politeness?

One stroke of nature makes these Western Polite people forget that politeness and start looting… and these poor people in Mumbai while suffering throughout the day show as much politeness as they can….

Who is better?

A nice email and its reply...

Today while sorting all images on pc, I came across this old attachment. This was sent to me by Nishant for my comments. This is almost 9-10 month old story. but I just checked with him if he still had the reply I had sent to him. Fortunately it was available.

I am putting up both the original attachment and the reply since they are very interesting...the original article was published in Times of India on 29 July 2005
the entire scanned image was not visible correctly in main window when uploaded one piece so I cut it into parts and uploaded in serial. Read column wise. or click here to open entire image in new window
Here it goes,

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nishant_Vartak
Sent: Tue 8/23/2005 10:23 AM
To: Niket_Raut; niket_raut@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: (When Self comes b4 Spirit of sacrifice):recommended reading .

Panta aple vichar kaloo dya.
Me jevayla chaloo ahe atta.
This article is applicable to me @ first place.














--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Niket_Raut
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 3:11 PM
To: Nishant_Vartak
Subject: RE: (When Self comes b4 Spirit of sacrifice):recommended reading .



i don't know from where the author picked up the story of monkey...

but since childhood i have always read this story... as Birbal's practical demonstration to Akbar in story "Sabse pyaara koun"

but there the story was used for a totally different perspective... only to show the principle of self survival....

this article is too pessimistic.... u try following it... and u will find that ur life has become too miserable and troublesome....

this thing is good for all those saints who has severed all ties with material world....

in my opinion trust is the one of the basic of society....

the article undermines the basic concept of trust.... and replaces with "business"

of course thete is a risk involved in trust... the risk of being betrayed.... but if u look from that perspective then there is risk involved in absolutely everything.... there is risk involved of death in being born..... :-)

this is the reason we have laws... our society is based on trust..... ppl trust you for what you are.... and expect you not to breach that trust.

but as i said there is risk.... so there should be a safeguard.... the laws of society provide this safeguard... but this absolutely does not mean that we should stop trusting ppl entirely.

so.. as per this this articles'... aligning the interest.... do u expect ur mother to make u sign a bond....when u r a child before she feeds u? she does not know whether u will support her when u grow up....? where will u be then?

is it not her trust in u?

or say... the judge in the court....why should u trust him for justice? u don't have any common alignment of interests.... is it not ur trust in the ability of the judge to be impartial?

there r things that go beyond business....all these "pramanik" social workers... what they do it for? or say the RED CROSS...

ekade tikae natural calamities yetaat... ppl from all over the world... go for help... what for?

it is the trust as a human being...... a sense that makes u see beyond loss and profit.....

my friend... if everyone literally start following this article... the world will be no less than jungle.... instead of going into police... everyone will start fighting his own battle... since he do not trust the authority....

just think... from a animal wondering arpund the jungle.... when human beings first formed the concept of society... or say family.... what would have been the basic motive?

u trust a leader... for his abilities... skills to take you the right way....and obey him..... a concept that that evolved into concept of "King".... and now a days democracy..... what is it? u trust the MLA for his abilities and skills and so elect him to represent ur constituency.... so if the first founders of the society had read this article.....

we would be wondering in the jungle still.....

let me tell u another story.... may be u understand it....

ekada.. ek saap.... eka sadhu che pravachan aikaaylaa jato.....

to sadhu sangat asato.... hinsaa karne paap aahe.... hinsaa karu naka etc... etc....

so the snake stops all "hinsaa"

so he is starved since he can not get his food....all the animals come and tease him....

he does not say anything....

one day the sadhu saw him.... he asked what happened?

the snake said i m following ur advice.....

the sadhu said.... i said unnecessarily hinsa nako.... i did not say u stop feeding urself....

nor did i say that u do not "hisssss" to scare ur enemies away... follow the advice but with a practical mind...

hope u understood what i wanted to say.......

Right Place Right Time

Last weekend I spent traveling around the Nilgiri’s in Ooty and Coonoor…
It was raining heavily along the entire western coast. And till a few days ago we had news of heavy rains in Ooty. So while planning the trip we had totally different expectations. But on the way as we were closing in on Ooty we realized the fallacy of our assumptions. No encounters with rain.

It was early morning 3 00 when we reached Ooty. The temperature was very low and after a journey of 8 hours, we were just willing to get into the cottage and sleep.

The Rain had its effect on the city…. It was remarkably fresh… when we come to Ooty in summer… even though the city has pleasant whether, it is not fresh… everything is dusty. This time everything was real fresh and it had obvious impact on the overall mood… a feeling of being full of energy…

Even though this was a short duration trip, we were behaving as if we had come for a long duration. Usual scenes of getting up late and no enthusiasm for exploring the new place. First thing that we did was to play cricket rather than roaming around the city.

Coonoor was breathtaking as usual… every time u go…. Every angle you see those gardens give a equally stunning view… and then combine this with the clouds of a rainy season. And I have no words for the view…

From Coonoor we traveled back to Ooty by the toy train. Again it was a fascinating experience.

We returned back to Ooty by around 6 30 pm and after that all we did was shoping for vegetables and then Mission Cooking…. From 7 15 till 11 00 we were after cooking only. We struggled for 4 hours just to prepare one vegetable, some rice, few roti’s and some pakode. I really wonder what if someone’s mother was present with us… she would have prepared food for all within an hour that too single handedly….

The next day morning we visited DoddaBetta… the highest peak in the Nilgiri’s…
The travel towards the peak was more interesting than the peak itself…. I will never forget that travel through the forest literally “filled up” with clouds.

From doddabetta after spending some time in the Botanical garden, we were on our way back to home. This time we took a different route to Mysore through the jungles of Mudumalai and Badipur… with hope of spotting some wild animals…

Here we came across a classic example of how we are intruding into the lives of these animals. We spotted a place where a few vehicles had stopped along the road. Expecting some wild animal, we too joined them. It was an Elephant. It watched us for some time and after it was so irritated with all the vehicles that it simply attacked us. All the vehicles had no option but to run for safety. It was a big elephant easily capable of turning a car upside down…

This was not my first trip to Ooty… I had visited this place three times before but still I like to come here again and again. I just love that smell of the Eucalyptus trees that fills up the entire valley and those tea gardens of Coonoor

As compared to all previous trips this was a more stereotype typical family kind of picnic. Thanks to all families we had in the group. We typically did all the things that we encounter on such occasions.

Right from the delay’s in getting up early and the time pass after that to the great ceremony of cooking food. On the first of picnic instead of getting ready fast, we spent time playing cricket. Same thing next day also…along with the cooking episode where we wasted precious time that we could have utilized for exploring the city…

Overall it was being at Right place… Right Time… But not in so right company….

Rise of the Caste

Since so many days all the news papers are full with news of the Government decision related to reservation and the students protesting against it….

It’s almost 16 years after Mandal commission report was implemented.

Today’s times of India carried interesting news, since Mandal report was implemented; the number of registered castes under OBC has doubled.

So what does this mean? After 50 years of reservation… instead of reduction in the number of OBC castes, the number has increased. Are we going back in time?

Or is this just taking undue advantage of concessions? “Ungali de di to haath pakad liya”

One more thing… this reservation is for OBC castes…. These are part of the Hindu religion. There are other religions too. As per 2001 census,
Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2122.html)

Are we assuming that remaining 19.5% Non Hindu citizens are all advanced? There are absolutely no backward people among them?
Don’t they have right for reservation like these OBC’s?
Again why only OBC and SC/ ST? What happened to those NT’s and other categories?

The worst part is that none of these measures will generally help the real needy OBC or ST guy. This is because all these reservations are after completion school.
The real needy guy is so poor that he is not at all able to complete school and drops out before completion of secondary school.

What is government doing to ensure that this guy actually completes the basic schooling and reaches a level of education where he can actually take advantage of the education? Just have a look at condition of government schools in big cities. No need to guess condition of schools in villages.

So the real beneficiaries remain the advanced people from the OBC and other caste’s who actually equal to general category people in all respects. These people then enjoy the undue advantages of the reservation. And this is where a common hard working student feels really hurt.

So, when we say that the real poor OBC guy can’t even reach a level where he can use the reservation, same is true for a poor guy from “Open” category too.

Don’t all these poor people from other religions…. and open category Hindu have right for some help?
Why are we assuming that ALL open category people are rich and don’t need any help?
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/in.html

Check the above link. As of 2003 the literacy was just 59.5%
And 25% people below poverty line.

Now see the poverty line limit for India here…it is rs. 300 PER MONTH!!!!
http://www.wakeupcall.org/administration_in_india/poverty_line.php

So 25% of the people are earning 300 or below per month.
Now check out this…
http://www.thp.org/sac/unit2/poverty.htm

In India, 44% of the population live below the international standard of $1 per day, and as many as 86% live below $2 per day.

Also check out,
http://www.indiauntouched.com/blog/archives/2005/02/a_dollar_a_day_1.html
This gives figure of 75% of population is below $2 per day. That is 3000 Rs. Per month.

Have a look at current cost of education. With an income of 3000 rupees per month; how a family can afford to send a child for higher education??? Even when seats are available, they can’t afford it.

Even in case of current OBC reservations, Government talks only about reservation.
Who will pay the fees??

Now all this data is without any regard to caste. Living standards of the “Upper caste poor” are no better than “lower caste poor”. Poverty has no caste... no religion…

So why are we denying the right of higher education to “Upper Caste Poor” just because they are from so called “Upper Castes”

I am strongly in favor of reservation for the economically backward “Class”.

This reservation will achieve nothing but a divide between the “Open” and “Reserved” groups. The reserved group clearly enjoys the upper hand since the seats reserved for them are clearly in excess of the eligible candidates so the competition is fairly simpler. On the other hand, it has become other way round for the “Open” category.

Some days ago I came across a mail it claimed Mr Azeem Premjee as it’s origin. Let’s keep the origin aside but content was interesting. It talked about reservation and relaxation of rules in every sector including cricket. like Boundry line should be closer for OBC player and that they should get 8 runs for a sixer and so on…. Another mail talked of “Deewar” wala Amitabh-Shashi Kapoor dialogue... this time “Mere pass reservation hai”
Another impact will be the much hyped…”Brain Drain”. With foreign universities going ahead with aggressive marketing, no wonder if more n more students start going abroad… They will not return because every parent wants his children not to go through the same pains that he suffered…. So obviously they won’t allow their children to face same “reservation evil” no matter how much they might love their “Matrubhumi” and all…

All of us have grown up listening to stories of Mahatma Phule, Raja Ramamohan Roy and a lot more great Indians who fought throughout their life for demolition of the caste system.

It seems everything is gone in vain….

It’s the rise of the caste system again….this time state sponsored… where the roles are reversed… the Upper caste’s have now become “Dalits” ;-(

The sky below…

19 May… I was on the way to Mumbai. Flight took off on time (unexpected but true!!!)
Everything was going fine; I was “busy” watching recording of Great Indian Laughter Challenge. Suddenly there was announcement that because of traffic congestion at Mumbai airport… journey would be delayed….

On the screen I could see the location of the plane on the map of India and the route traced till now. Speed well in excess of 800 and altitude around 10500. The path traced now started making circles on the map.

Bored… I started looking out of window. Sky was clear so I could see the lights of the villages below.

The scene was exactly like what we would see if we look up on a dark night.
Soon I found myself amazed with those stars below and after some time I was literally sticking nose to the window glass with both hands blocking the light coming from side.

Till now I have seen a few cities from above during takeoff or landing…. Even from above.. It may look bright...With a glory and charm of its own… but this was something different. It had no glare. Only a few dots scattered over a large area… occasionally few dots cluttered… still it had its own appeal. Just like constellations. Needless to say I made a few futile attempts to take snaps only to be thwarted by the lights on the wings…

The horizon had vanished in the dark. For me now it was just a dark sphere outside.
I could see the stars above and below. By now I had started visualizing different patterns made from the “stars below” I could see an octopus…. A bow and arrow… and a few more shapes.

I don’t think the view can be any different for an astronaut when they look out from a window that is facing away from sun.

The plane was still going around the “round track” The altitude had reduced to 6500 and speed dropped to 550. The view was much clear now. And the constellations now have become small villages. I could now see the roads connecting. The long “string” I marked had now apparently become Mumbai-Bangalore Highway….and the octopus had now become a big city in the area… I looked at the position on map…. We were midway between Kolhapur and Pune. So I guess we were roaming over the Satara – Waai region.

After around 40 minutes… we headed again for Mumbai…. I don’t know about others but not a single minute was boring for me….

Reaching Home Unannounced...

Few days back…
Landed in Mumbai… time 9 : 45 PM….
Baggage… Customs… it is 10 30 when I finally come out of airport…
Still thinking… to go home or direct to Bangalore by next flight?
Of course home won the battle…
I headed for Andheri Station…. Tried to call home and inform…
Balance -34 ;-(….. not a single 1 Rs. Coin in pocket….

Reached station…. A bit lucky….
It’s 11 15 and the 11 00 local is yet to arrive…

Reached home at 12 15….
To my surprise the main gate was locked from inside….
Hmmmm… I called mother hoping someone will wake up….
No answer…
Some knocks on the gate….
First with hand... then kicks….
No answer….
Once again some calls…..
Same result... again some knocks….
No effect….

I am thinking….. (Don’t be surprised…. I sometimes DO think…)

Started the small flashlight in phone…
Thank god it has an SOS mode wherein it flashes in the SOS signal….
Tried to use that too…..
Hoping that the flashlight on the window will have some effect….

Still I am at square one…. No success….

What next?
Ok… I have another sim card with international roaming… last time that faithful ally supported me when I landed in Hyderabaad…. Let’s check this time…

So I change the sim card….
Oh...oh…. SOS calls only…. ;-((

Hmmmm… let’s try the final option….
Jump over the wall…..
I put hands on wall….
Too dusty for my clothes…. ;-)

Let’s jump over the gate….
I keep the bag outside and jump over the gate….
Finally after half an hour struggle…. I am IN….
I mean at least I am now in position to ring the doorbell….

The Cosmic Game Show...

Some days ago there was an article in Times of India about “Are we living in a simulated world?” it was usual stuff revolving around Matrix theme… and all that. It quoted one dialogue of Morpheus…If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.
This dialogue is also well-known… but somehow, When I read this in that article I suddenly felt some chill in spine… yeah…. what if……
As usual thoughts running amok… so penning down….

It can very well be true… In a larger sense… like…. You refer to any religion… every one believes in the concept of “The Creator”
Especially all those spiritual guru’s saying “yeh sab usaki maya hai” and all. Now combine this with the concept of soul or “aatma”…. And now you have a simulation of “The matrix”…

Imagine if the “real World” actually consists of souls as its people….
All these people connect and disconnect to a matrix that is created by “The Creator”. Only thing is that they don’t die in one go…. Now add the concept of a soul going through “84 Laksha Yoni’s” and you have a fantastic game going on there…

You connect to the matrix…. Play the game there…. Once you win (or loose?)…. That is when you go to next stage….that is “Punarjanma”… may be this game has all those 84 Lakh stages…. And ultimately “The Exit” (or Ultimate Victory?) from the game …. Or “Moksha”. Is it “The Exit” or just “Next Stage” of a even bigget matrix….. I m not sure… ;-)

We can draw some stupid analogies like…..

What role is for “Bhoot and Bhatakti Aaatma” then? may be Hackers.. or the souls who somehow managed to hack into the system to trouble other players….

The “Yama and Co” replaces the the “Agent Smith & Co”… cool isn’t it? Who plays the role of Neo then??? Should be “The Distroyer”… or Lord Shiva…and the event of “Pralaya”…..

In one sentence Morpehus made it very clear how the concept of matrix can be very real…Many times we see dreams…Everything seems so real that we actually believe it till we wake up. Now… what if the dream continued for ever?? Will we ever come to know? The impact is so real… if we come across some fearsome incident in dream… the sweat is actually on our face and not just in dream…. Sometimes we even scream…

In many robbery movies like say Oceans eleven... we see the concept that people intercept the camera signals and send some dummy signals to fool the guards or like they did in Speed-1 to fool the villain.
Now think…. All nerves carrying the signals to and from the brain to body parts connect to the brain at one point (I m very weak in biology) so what if someone has intercepted those signals and my Brain is receiving some dummy signals instead of the actual ones??

Technologically this does not seem impossible…. Some days ago they were showing on CNN the story of May Chidiac... The famous Lebanese media personality who survived a car bomb. They showed her treatment being carried out in France… The lady lost one arm and one leg in the attack. Now they have attached a robotic arm to the end that reads the nerve signals and performs accordingly ….
Or the story of a Japanese company (again I forgot name) that developed “robotic legs” that you “Wear” and they too read the nerve signals that are being passed and act synchronized with your legs sharing the load and thus enabling you carry more load.

Sometimes this makes me wonder… did our ancestors actually know about this “Matrix”?? Otherwise just think… why a species supposedly evolved from monkey would have thought of all these concepts that are nowhere related to the Jungle Life? That too not in one or two places but all over the world including the areas that were unknown to us till now; like the American continent.

Why does Jesus… Mohammed Paigambar… all says that we are messengers of god….. Why do we have Bhagwad Geeta wherein Krishna Says I am God???
Think of any civilization. Right from Egypt to the Inca and Aztecs everyone believes in some form or the other of “The Creator” and the theory of the soul…why? Why? Why?

May be this is the last of the 84 Laksha Games for me…or what is it is the first? And who cares?

Calvin & I

In past 2 years Infosys has caused a lot of changes in my world… generally all the changes that come along with change in career…change in location… change in lifestyle… and all other job related stuff…
But there is one more change that was brought in by Infy and that was no way related to my career or job…but related to my favorites….
During training period in Infosys Pune I became a big fan of Calvin & Hobbes cartoon strip. Thanks to the unknown person who took all the pain to prepare a collection then host it on an intranet website; we used to read the strip for fun whenever we had free time.

There is something about this character that I really like. Initially if you read a strip or two, you won’t find it very funny. Rather it seems stupid. Initially it is difficult to understand how a stuffed tiger sometimes speak and play and run and sometimes is just a toy?
But as you go on reading, you began to understand the World of Lord Calvin. You realize the way that small kid thinks. You began to understand his Tiger Buddy and the emotional relation between the two. At one point you understand the way the kid think and you find that you also think in exactly similar manner when you are reading the strip… and after that every strip is a fun.

After this there is no stupidity in any of the strip. Everything seems logical. Especially the way author comments sometimes on the serious aspects of life using this small strip are amazing.

All the scenarios are very much close to our daily life… a typical naughty mischievous kid whose parents work in office… he goes to school… a troubling teacher… friends in school…the sledge… the snowballs… and his imaginary world…

Everyone has his own imaginary world where we like to do the things that we think we can not do in real life. And this kid is no exception to it. The way he gives way to his destructive tendencies is just fantastic. I soon found out that I became a fan of this child’s fantastic ability to drive people crazy… especially his parents... Teachers... Friends and of course his baby sitter…

The themes of fantasies are also nice… Space Man Spiff and The Alien Encounters with Miss Wormwood… his teacher… the transmoglifier …. Calvinosorous …The snow goons… and my favorite Calvin the Tiny Insect.

Since long I was looking for a complete collection of the strip. The strip started in 1985 and was up daily till sometime in 1995. The server in infy did not have the complete collection. So I was looking for the complete collection which I could save and later read easily. Fortunately some days ago I found one and I spent a whole weekend in office just to save those pages on machine. I just spent time opening a hell lot of windows and saving one after the other… I don’t know why but I somehow desperately wanted to collect the whole set.

I sometimes feel it is very much similar to my nature… sometimes mischievous… sometimes serious but all the times logical… the ability to experiment is another thing that I find common…. (Oh God…this is height of misconception about one's own self.)

Surprisingly Badri….

I have never written an entire post about any of my friends yet…but there is going to be one exception now Bdrinath Mahabhashya… or just Badri…
To be frank he is one of my Bakra” in the infy who undergoes a lot of mental torture bcos of my usual activities…

Somehow it is my habit of passing taunts and making fun of people and if someone responds to it in an “Expected” ways then god help him. May be my moon sign scorpion is responsible for this behavior… (Nice way of washing hands off)
At every stage right from School... DME... BE… Godrej…L&T... absolutely at every place there has always been a bakra for me…

And so is the case with Badri… poor guy…
But somehow I find this guy a bit different from all previous cases.
There is a nice mixture of innocence and maturity in his nature and the percentage of innocence is higher… and one easily observes this during interaction.

Even when this guy shouts at someone…. If it were not for his words, from his face u could never make out that he is angry. There are two things that I like about this guy… first one is His face somehow remind me of the Tom from Tom and Jerry which is my favorite cartoon. And secondly there is nice sparkle in his eyes whenever he talks about his plans and ideas.

I really wonder how this man can put up with me after all the troubles I give to him. In fact there were two incidents where the situation was too embarrassing for him…and even after these he still comes with us for breakfast and lunch… I don’t think I would have done that under similar circumstances.

Another thing special about this person is the way he keeps on forgetting and missing things every now and then. Most of the times they are found to be with him (that is “in his hand” sometimes) or around him… and many times these are the things that make him “fun center” of the group… of course these are not the only things… there are many more…but I won’t discuss them here…

But somehow this person manages to remain cool all the time… always smiling… always helpful…an ability I envy him for….

Power of Stupids in large number....

Yesterday the legendary Kannada actor Rajkumaar died….
After that whatever happened in Bangalore or rather still going on while I m writing this is the worst case of fanatic behavior I have ever seen. I thought the fanatic behavior was limited to big posters with big “haar” and all…. But this was a new dimension I witnessed…

Yesterday late afternoon we got news in office that actor Rajkumar has died and there are riots going on in the city… fans of the actor were going rampant on roads burning vehicles damaging properties and all…

Obviously all the IT companies and call centers got alerted and asked all employees to leave early and made arrangements accordingly…. As it was evident there was nothing to do with the actor’s death but just to save the property from these stupid people. All the company busses were displaying big posters of the actor on the wind screen “just to protect” it.

I left a bit early… my roommates opted to stay back in office. as I reached home I realized that I have made a mistake by leaving office early….because there was no food at home and no shops open outside…. I had to wait till my friends brought something for me to eat... as well as “survival stock for tomorrow”

Next day was declared as holiday. From the events so far we were pretty sure that we won’t be getting anything to eat outside next day.
On next day... that is today morning was cool… no riots nothing…. But we got the feeling that everything is not ok since there were no channels available on cable except news channels.

Since I work for customer support team… it was necessary that someone should be in office to handle if any of the customers face any critical problem. So I and Santanu decided that depending on morning situation we will come to office…. And we succeeded… after I reached office I got call from fiends that riots started again and better I stay back in office…. And so I m stuck here... writing this post…

These events reminded me of one quote “never underestimate power of fools in large numbers” every action being taken in the city had a stamp of this sentence on it. No need to mention who those fools were… otherwise no IT company would have declared holiday today. Everyone company is simply trying to save its property and employees from these stupid people.

Height was when we found that even petrol pumps … majority of bus service routes were closed… I just hope that those people would have spared hospitals and ambulances….

Now that everything seems to be clearing out… people are just wondering whether to come to office tomorrow or not…. Because the government has declared two day mourning… for some companies it is good Friday holiday but for some it is not…. Let’s see….

Here I m strongly reminded of the incident when King Fahad of Saudi Arabia died, I was in Jeddah. We just got news in office that the king has died. Two minutes silence was maintained and country was back to work…. No holiday…. Nothing… Even the flag was not lowered down to half staff….

Thank god… Bollywood is not based in Bangalore…. Otherwise we would have seen such scenes every time some star died….

The "Holy" Days...

Hmmm…. "Holy" Days...or "Holi" Days or simply Holidays... whatever...
But those two days of Holi were simply full of fun. Maybe I enjoyed it more because I missed it last time.

I always look at festivals as an opportunity to meet all or at least most of the relatives and friends at one go and these festivals like Holi or Ganpati where u need to work together are even more important for a person like me since it helps in filling up any gaps that may have been generated due to long absence and brings the relations to normal.

Above all this Holi was a bit special since we took over the decision making control of "Holi" activities from "old generation" and the very first decision was to switch the Holi tree from traditional "bhendi" tree to the "Supari" tree...

The decision was to be implemented immediately and in excitement we selected a bit big Supari tree for burning. We were totally wrong in estimating the weight of the tree trunk and number of people required to move it. (Some call it youth inexperience)

Even with help of all the 10-15 people it was too difficult to bring that tree to the
"Holy" site and after that making it stand there was altogether a different episode...

we had to make use a truck to make it stand at the holy place... this fact alone should make the difficulty clear... finally after some Shekhchilli episode where after making the tree stand we had to carry out another exercise just to remove the ropes tied at the top, everything was in order.

This Holi was significant for another reason also... we saw our elder generation sitting together and enjoying drinks after a long long gap... I had memories of elders doing this when we were 6-7 years old...after that may be all the family responsibilities and all must have put them under too much pressure to enjoy...

but now since our young generation took the mantle ahead...everyone has sons daughters who are well settled in career and all they were again relaxed... and we could see it on their face...major topics of discussion were of course about our marriages since we are all in the age group of 23 onwards...

We of course had our own drinks party late night...unlike earlier times...this time "seniors" were aware of it ;-)

The next day of "Rangapanchami" was also equally exciting.... the usual fun of colors was even more since we had banned all those oil paints and any other color that may not be removed easily. Incidentally it permitted us the use of mud too....we of course exploited this loophole too…

After the usual activities of going at every home and coloring were over... we were dancing for almost 2 hours... a day full of enjoyment was ended with a party at Arnala beach.(I missed that party ;-( since my sister had come to meet me...)

Overall the vacation was too good.... too exciting for all other reasons mentioned in earlier post too....