My long hiatus from writing a blog entry ‘again’ has made me wonder whether it makes sense to give justification every time I delay writing a blog. Giving justification would imply that I am on some sort of schedule which does two things - first, the activity would then be classified as a chore, and WE wouldn’t want a fun activity being reduced to a chore - second, it leaves no scope to make the mistake again (wink wink).
Anyways, this time - believe it not - the reason was too much enthusiasm for writing a blog. It all started with the Kashmir Conflict. I read articles in newspapers/ magazines by S Aiyar, by Vir Sanghvi and then by Arundhati Roy and plus a lot of not-so-famous-but-equally-good journalists, and I wanted to pen down my own thoughts on the same. A number of these articles advocated that - Kashmir should now be made independent of India. The reasons were quite a few, from special treatment given to the state, financial aid given (far more than that given to other states like Bihar), continued failure of governance, mass deaths, never-ending military expenditure, and, finally, and most importantly the principle of self-determination.
Of all these reasons, the only thing that sounded worthy of discussion was - the principle of self-determination - a corollary to the tenets of democracy. The advocators argued that the protests in the Valley were different this time as the people were a part of it and the common man participated in a nonviolent movement, like the ones Gandhiji had employed. The time was therefore due. I, though, have my reservations against granting independence to the troubled territory. Somehow, I cannot help feel that it would set a wrong precedent, especially to some north-eastern states which find themselves in similar mess. Imagine tomorrow, if Madhya Pradesh (right in the centre) decides to go free of India. I know the thought is totally rubbish, but, still plausible. Imagine carving a map of a country with a hole in the middle. I know my mind is working overtime….
Apart from setting the wrong precedent, the other problem, I was told was that the Valley opens access to the Indian mainland, which cannot be good, given our nosey neighbor’s propensity to involve themselves in our internal affairs. But are these reasons - wrong precedent and security concerns - good at denying people their basic rights. I think the solution lies in Governance, good solid governance. Till now, the people in Kashmir have never been given a government they could relate to. I tried to dig up some facts on governance in Kashmir … both pre and post independence and I could not believe some of the mess that our politicians have made in that beautiful place. A whole lot of mess can directly be attributed to Pandit Nehru and Farooque Abdullah. I cannot help but think that so many people lost their lives and such a beautiful place got ruined because of these two. There are so many interesting informational pieces on the net - one such is http://www.kashmir-information.com/ConvertedKashmir/ by Narendra Sehgal - there are many more. There was so much to research about this topic that for a novice-journalist like me… it got a lil too much. Nevertheless, it made an interesting read, and people with time should explore it further.
Recently, I went to Shimla with my friend Valerie who is from France but interning in Bilbao, Spain. She told me that this problem of self-determination is not unique to Kashmir. Even Bilbao has its trouble and is fighting for independence from Spain. Also, I was shocked to hear, that Belgium, which most Indians would consider a peaceful nation, has this great divide between Dutch-speaking north and French-speaking south, and the country might be divided into two. So it is endemic.
Now, I am no Nostradamus predicting the end of the world. Neither am I a practioner of Eschatology (don’t look up the word in the dictionary … it’s not worth it…. I don’t even know why I still have it in my vocabulary). But it sure doesn’t look good.
Next, I picked the topic of Beijing Olympics, and the grand success it has been. The Chinese preparation for the Olympics, Michael Phelps, Usain ‘Insane’ Bolt, our very own medal-winning trio - again the research bug got to me and I ended up with so many interesting pieces…that it will be another ‘Work in Progress’ story. I also wanted to cover the Tata Nano - Mamta Banerjee - Singur story and the mess in Bihar caused by the flooding of the Kosi River. There is so much stuff to write about… that just writing about the probable topics itself makes up a blog entry…Lol… not a bad idea… for next time.
Speaking of Mamta Banerjee and the flood in Bihar, I noticed an alarming trend. Earlier, I was convinced that the politicians did us no good, but irreparable damage is something I cannot digest. Take any state, and you will find a similar story. J&K is a mess because of the politicians. Jharkand is not making any progress till we have the likes of Shibu Soren. We all know about Laloo and Bihar. UP has its own share of problems with Mayawati and Mulayam Singh. West Bengal will implode one-day with Left, Karat and Mamta. Karnataka, the state which could have reached dizzy heights, is destined for mediocrity till we have likes of Deve Gowda (to me he was the worst prime minister we ever had and we ever will), which finally brings me to the curious case of Maharashtra and MNS.
The Raj Thackeray led MNS is at it once again. In reaction to Jaya Bachchan’s statement, they have started chanting the “Marathi Manoos” nara once again. For a political party, I would think, the agenda should at the very least address the problems of common people. Attacking the Bachchan’s and Shah Rukh Khan or even the North Indians is not the way to go about it. I was born and brought up in Mumbai - am a Maharashtrian - and I can claim that Mumbai is as much of Marathi’s as it is of anyone else. MNS would do good to remember that the Portuguese were the first claimants of this land, followed by the British. And if it wasn’t for the Industrialization of the Parsis, Gujratis and Marwadi’s, Mumbai wouldn’t be half of what it is. But I think the worst offender is the Congress. Every time parties like MNS try to get mileage in the media by raising issues like these, Congress seems absolutely incapable of dealing with it. The problem is we have too many DEALERS and too less LEADERS. It ain’t a coincidence that both leaders and dealers are made of exactly same alphabets.
So, in all, I have read and read, with an aim of constructing an interesting, “worthy-of-your-and-my time” piece, but I have nothing to show for it except for a list of probable topics. Ya I know the phrase - A day late and a dollar short!! Next time, I will pick a more a cheerful topic and hopefully will outsource the research! Any takers?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Magical Banaras - I
I have been planning a trip to Banaras for quite some time. Last weekend, I finally made it to Banaras. And I went alone. The last time I went alone on a trip was way back in January 2006 to Dharamshala/ Macleod Ganj. I must confess both solo trips have been amazing.
Whenever I tell people that I plan to go on a solo trip, I manage to draw expressions which sort of hint at the fact that there is something inherently wrong in what I am doing. While some (my parents included) think that I have lost my marbles, others simply assume that going alone would be such a boring exercise that you wouldn’t wish that upon your worst enemy. Some even hint at the fact that I am not telling the whole truth - implying a paramour in tow. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy going out with friends and on trips too. But, going on a trip alone has a charm of its own.
I know people who travel alone to be away from the mundane. I have been told that they want to get away and do things they want to and in the way they want to. That to me is only a part of the motivation. For me, it is more on the lines of exploring and the sheer joy of trying something new, whether be it the indigenous culture, the local cuisine or even the strangeness in the weather conditions. Sometimes, it helps me see my own problems in better light, but in most cases, it just amazes me to see how with distance, life changes form. I think it is dangerous to get too deep in this sort of philosophical stuff. But the long and short of it is, I like to experience the change. And I think everyone should try it out once, should an opportunity present itself. It can be a cleansing experience.
Banaras is a city with many names - the more common ones being Varanasi (official name) and Kashi. For a whole list of other names visit Wikipedia. There were a lot of things that intrigued me about Banaras. For starters, I wanted to know how one of the oldest continually inhabited living cities in the world looked like. From my childhood, I have been hearing about how a dip in the Holy Ganges can wash away sins (In my case, I would have to go there every alternate weekend, if that was the case :). Then the many ghats bordering the Ganges - each with a myth of its own. Add to that, Banaras’ reputation of being been the cultural and religious centre in northern India for several thousand years - many prominent Indian philosophers, poets, writers, and musicians resided or reside in Banaras, including Kabir, Ravi Das, Munshi Premchand, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Hariprasad Chaurasia, and Ustad Bismillah Khan. Tulsidas wrote his Ramacharitamanas here, and Gautama Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath near Kashi. Ayurveda is said to have originated at Varanasi (all this of course from Wikipedia). And finally the banarasi paan of the ‘khaike paan banaraswaala’ fame, the khoya sweets, the lal peda and the famed banarasi silk. So, a Banaras trip was definitely on.
So I hopped onto Delhi Banaras Special as it trudged out of Delhi at around 6:15 pm late on Friday, 1st of August. The time stamp is quite unnecessary, but what the heck! Just felt like capturing the momentous occasion :). The train reached Varanasi Railway station at around 9 am (~ 15 hours), 2 hours behind schedule. I had done my research well, so I knew that I had to catch an auto rickshaw to Assi Ghat and the charge of the fare would be around 30-40 Rupees (Source: Wikitravel). The other option was to take a cycle rickshaw to Goudolia market and a cycle rickshaw from goudolia to Assi Ghat. The auto rickshaw charged around 50 Rupees and I was in no mood to haggle. What followed next was an unbelievable ride in some of the narrowest alleys, I have seen. There was about one centimeter gap between the farthest edges of the auto rickshaw and the alley walls. Yet, the driver insisted on driving through them. What was even more shocking was - If there were people coming from the opposite side, they had to go back to the point, the auto rickshaw could be allowed to pass :) Plus, there are cows and dogs on almost every alley - acting like speed breakers - to slow you down.
So I reached Assi ghat and checked out some of the renting options that wikipedia and other blogs had suggested. Most people had claimed that the location near Assi Ghat was ideal as it is a lot cleaner and quieter as compared to say any other ghat. I thought so too. But none of the renting options gave a view of the Ganges that I was looking for. So I jumped back into auto rickshaw and we did the alley-blazing routine again still I stumbled upon a guest house near chowki ghat (next to the famous Kedar Ghat). The location was good, not as clean and quiet as Assi ghat but a lot better than most other ghats. The room at ‘Kedareshwar Bed and Breakfast’ (KBB hereafter) was fantastic - it was directly above the ghat and the room offered an unobstructed view of the Ganges. The bathroom was clean, they offered power backup and cable TV and the price for a day (500 Rs for non-AC) seemed very reasonable.
So I quickly settled into my latest accommodation. The other advantage at KBB was that they offered me a guide who would show me around. A guide is not exactly not what I wanted as it goes against the backpacker’s basic instinct of self-exploration. But having seen the maze of alleys I decided to change tact save myself some time using some local help.
My first stop was the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple, having the holy shrine of Lord Kashi Vishwanath (a manifestation of Lord Shiva) and one of the twelve revered Jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva. According to mythology, Lord Shiva once in fact lived in Kashi (Varanasi). I was warned a million times that I should stay away from “pundas” (short for pandits). But my guide suggested that I take the help of a punda as the temple inside has numerous exits and I might get lost. But he too warned me to refrain from giving any money while inside. What followed next was something that I would not like to remember too fondly. Even before I reached the entrance, I was frisked by policeman at least five times. The serpentine line made breathing in the alley very difficult and there was a lot of pushing and shoving. My punda took me inside from the exit instead of the entrance (he later confessed that the temple closes for some time in the afternoon and had I stayed in the regular queue I would have to wait for 4 hours). So the strategem of entering the temple from the exit worked. Once inside I prayed for forgiveness for not waiting in line like others :(. The pundas are super smart. Once inside the temple, they quickly make you visit the lingam and then escort you to places where the other murtis are kept and here is where they extract money. I was innocently escorted to one small murti after other and then made to offer prayers and accept prasad for which I had to pay. After a couple of instances, I refused to pay for which I was told that I would cursed by lord almighty himself - so I had to oblige. I was even made to buy a whole bucket of milk mixed with bhaang (when a small cup would have sufficed). Needless to say, I felt robbed once I came out. The blessings of Lord Vishwanath aside, I am not keen on meeting another punda in my lifetime.
Next stop was the famous Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple. This one was a lot better, and orderly and most importantly minus the virus pundas :). The third temple in line was the New Kashi Vishwanath Temple or the Birla Mandir at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Campus. The important thing to remember about Banaras, is that there are a million temples, all important ones depending on whom are asking, so you to have pick and choose before you go. I chose the Birla Mandir because I wanted to see the BHU campus. BHU, also known as Kashi Hindu Vishwavidyalaya, is regarded as the largest residential university in Asia. Moreover, the fully-residential campus has more than 128 independent teaching departments and several of its colleges, including engineering (MCA),(IT-BHU),(Agriculture), (Law), Science and medicine (IMS-BHU), are ranked amongst the best in India. I loved the campus. It is amazingly well maintained, very green and peaceful. The Birla Mandir was good too. I lunched at the BHU itself minus any soft drinks - apparently colas are banned on campus - way to go BHU :)
It was almost three in the afternoon and I was done with all the temples I wanted to visit. I bought some khoya sweets and lal pedas (the sweets in the city are amazing and you must try the rasgollas). Then I decided to visit madanpura where apparently they sell authentic silk. The two places mentioned in Wikitravel are apparently too expensive. But my guide informed me that KBB has its own silk shop and they sell authentic silk at very cheap rates. Plus he said that I could sit in my own room and pick while relaxing on my bed. (my guide was a smart salesman - “relaxing on my bed” bit really made it an easy decision). So I went to the Krishna Silk Shop at the KBB. Buying silk is apparently an art. A lot of other cloth material can give a similar feel as silk. The easiest way to tell authentic silk is to pluck out a thread and burn it. Apparently, silk gives an odor and then leaves behind carbon residue when the charred thread is crushed. Cotton thread would burn out completely while plastic would give a plastiky odor and leave no residue. See the inset pictures.
So having done a little science experiment, I finally bought a few silk sarees for folks back home, which really made my wallet a trifle lighter. It was almost evening now and I had been on the road since almost yesterday evening, so I decided to get some rest before I catch the famous dusk “Ganga aarti”. Once back in my room, I switched on cable television and watched India kick Sri Lanka’s backside in the Test match at Galle. I dozed off while the ball had almost reached the boundary on one of Gambhir’s shot :)
Whenever I tell people that I plan to go on a solo trip, I manage to draw expressions which sort of hint at the fact that there is something inherently wrong in what I am doing. While some (my parents included) think that I have lost my marbles, others simply assume that going alone would be such a boring exercise that you wouldn’t wish that upon your worst enemy. Some even hint at the fact that I am not telling the whole truth - implying a paramour in tow. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy going out with friends and on trips too. But, going on a trip alone has a charm of its own.
I know people who travel alone to be away from the mundane. I have been told that they want to get away and do things they want to and in the way they want to. That to me is only a part of the motivation. For me, it is more on the lines of exploring and the sheer joy of trying something new, whether be it the indigenous culture, the local cuisine or even the strangeness in the weather conditions. Sometimes, it helps me see my own problems in better light, but in most cases, it just amazes me to see how with distance, life changes form. I think it is dangerous to get too deep in this sort of philosophical stuff. But the long and short of it is, I like to experience the change. And I think everyone should try it out once, should an opportunity present itself. It can be a cleansing experience.
Banaras is a city with many names - the more common ones being Varanasi (official name) and Kashi. For a whole list of other names visit Wikipedia. There were a lot of things that intrigued me about Banaras. For starters, I wanted to know how one of the oldest continually inhabited living cities in the world looked like. From my childhood, I have been hearing about how a dip in the Holy Ganges can wash away sins (In my case, I would have to go there every alternate weekend, if that was the case :). Then the many ghats bordering the Ganges - each with a myth of its own. Add to that, Banaras’ reputation of being been the cultural and religious centre in northern India for several thousand years - many prominent Indian philosophers, poets, writers, and musicians resided or reside in Banaras, including Kabir, Ravi Das, Munshi Premchand, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Hariprasad Chaurasia, and Ustad Bismillah Khan. Tulsidas wrote his Ramacharitamanas here, and Gautama Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath near Kashi. Ayurveda is said to have originated at Varanasi (all this of course from Wikipedia). And finally the banarasi paan of the ‘khaike paan banaraswaala’ fame, the khoya sweets, the lal peda and the famed banarasi silk. So, a Banaras trip was definitely on.
So I hopped onto Delhi Banaras Special as it trudged out of Delhi at around 6:15 pm late on Friday, 1st of August. The time stamp is quite unnecessary, but what the heck! Just felt like capturing the momentous occasion :). The train reached Varanasi Railway station at around 9 am (~ 15 hours), 2 hours behind schedule. I had done my research well, so I knew that I had to catch an auto rickshaw to Assi Ghat and the charge of the fare would be around 30-40 Rupees (Source: Wikitravel). The other option was to take a cycle rickshaw to Goudolia market and a cycle rickshaw from goudolia to Assi Ghat. The auto rickshaw charged around 50 Rupees and I was in no mood to haggle. What followed next was an unbelievable ride in some of the narrowest alleys, I have seen. There was about one centimeter gap between the farthest edges of the auto rickshaw and the alley walls. Yet, the driver insisted on driving through them. What was even more shocking was - If there were people coming from the opposite side, they had to go back to the point, the auto rickshaw could be allowed to pass :) Plus, there are cows and dogs on almost every alley - acting like speed breakers - to slow you down.
So I reached Assi ghat and checked out some of the renting options that wikipedia and other blogs had suggested. Most people had claimed that the location near Assi Ghat was ideal as it is a lot cleaner and quieter as compared to say any other ghat. I thought so too. But none of the renting options gave a view of the Ganges that I was looking for. So I jumped back into auto rickshaw and we did the alley-blazing routine again still I stumbled upon a guest house near chowki ghat (next to the famous Kedar Ghat). The location was good, not as clean and quiet as Assi ghat but a lot better than most other ghats. The room at ‘Kedareshwar Bed and Breakfast’ (KBB hereafter) was fantastic - it was directly above the ghat and the room offered an unobstructed view of the Ganges. The bathroom was clean, they offered power backup and cable TV and the price for a day (500 Rs for non-AC) seemed very reasonable.
So I quickly settled into my latest accommodation. The other advantage at KBB was that they offered me a guide who would show me around. A guide is not exactly not what I wanted as it goes against the backpacker’s basic instinct of self-exploration. But having seen the maze of alleys I decided to change tact save myself some time using some local help.
My first stop was the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple, having the holy shrine of Lord Kashi Vishwanath (a manifestation of Lord Shiva) and one of the twelve revered Jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva. According to mythology, Lord Shiva once in fact lived in Kashi (Varanasi). I was warned a million times that I should stay away from “pundas” (short for pandits). But my guide suggested that I take the help of a punda as the temple inside has numerous exits and I might get lost. But he too warned me to refrain from giving any money while inside. What followed next was something that I would not like to remember too fondly. Even before I reached the entrance, I was frisked by policeman at least five times. The serpentine line made breathing in the alley very difficult and there was a lot of pushing and shoving. My punda took me inside from the exit instead of the entrance (he later confessed that the temple closes for some time in the afternoon and had I stayed in the regular queue I would have to wait for 4 hours). So the strategem of entering the temple from the exit worked. Once inside I prayed for forgiveness for not waiting in line like others :(. The pundas are super smart. Once inside the temple, they quickly make you visit the lingam and then escort you to places where the other murtis are kept and here is where they extract money. I was innocently escorted to one small murti after other and then made to offer prayers and accept prasad for which I had to pay. After a couple of instances, I refused to pay for which I was told that I would cursed by lord almighty himself - so I had to oblige. I was even made to buy a whole bucket of milk mixed with bhaang (when a small cup would have sufficed). Needless to say, I felt robbed once I came out. The blessings of Lord Vishwanath aside, I am not keen on meeting another punda in my lifetime.
Next stop was the famous Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple. This one was a lot better, and orderly and most importantly minus the virus pundas :). The third temple in line was the New Kashi Vishwanath Temple or the Birla Mandir at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Campus. The important thing to remember about Banaras, is that there are a million temples, all important ones depending on whom are asking, so you to have pick and choose before you go. I chose the Birla Mandir because I wanted to see the BHU campus. BHU, also known as Kashi Hindu Vishwavidyalaya, is regarded as the largest residential university in Asia. Moreover, the fully-residential campus has more than 128 independent teaching departments and several of its colleges, including engineering (MCA),(IT-BHU),(Agriculture), (Law), Science and medicine (IMS-BHU), are ranked amongst the best in India. I loved the campus. It is amazingly well maintained, very green and peaceful. The Birla Mandir was good too. I lunched at the BHU itself minus any soft drinks - apparently colas are banned on campus - way to go BHU :)
It was almost three in the afternoon and I was done with all the temples I wanted to visit. I bought some khoya sweets and lal pedas (the sweets in the city are amazing and you must try the rasgollas). Then I decided to visit madanpura where apparently they sell authentic silk. The two places mentioned in Wikitravel are apparently too expensive. But my guide informed me that KBB has its own silk shop and they sell authentic silk at very cheap rates. Plus he said that I could sit in my own room and pick while relaxing on my bed. (my guide was a smart salesman - “relaxing on my bed” bit really made it an easy decision). So I went to the Krishna Silk Shop at the KBB. Buying silk is apparently an art. A lot of other cloth material can give a similar feel as silk. The easiest way to tell authentic silk is to pluck out a thread and burn it. Apparently, silk gives an odor and then leaves behind carbon residue when the charred thread is crushed. Cotton thread would burn out completely while plastic would give a plastiky odor and leave no residue. See the inset pictures.
So having done a little science experiment, I finally bought a few silk sarees for folks back home, which really made my wallet a trifle lighter. It was almost evening now and I had been on the road since almost yesterday evening, so I decided to get some rest before I catch the famous dusk “Ganga aarti”. Once back in my room, I switched on cable television and watched India kick Sri Lanka’s backside in the Test match at Galle. I dozed off while the ball had almost reached the boundary on one of Gambhir’s shot :)
Magical Banaras - II
Fresh from some rest, I decided to go ghat-seeing. Again, the deal with ghats is that there are far too many (I think I heard someone say there are around 80 ghats), so you got to pick and choose. Most of the ghats are bathing ghats, while others are used as cremation sites. Many ghats are associated with legends or mythologies. This piece below from wikipedia:
“Dashashwamedh Ghat is located close to "Vishwanath Temple", and is probably the most spectacular ghat. Two Hindu mythologies are associated with it: According to one, Lord Brahma created it to welcome Lord Shiva. According to another, Lord Brahma sacrificed ten horses in a yajna here. A group of priests daily perform in the evening at this ghat "Agni Pooja" (Worship to Fire) wherein a dedication is made to Lord Shiva, River Ganga, the Sun, Agni (Fire), and the whole universe.
Two legends are associated with Manikarnik Ghat: According to one, it is believed to be the place where Lord Vishnu dug a pit with his Chakra and filled it with his perspiration while performing various penances. While Lord Shiva was watching Lord Vishnu at that time, the latter's earring ("manikarnik") fell into the pit. According to the second legend, in order to keep Lord Shiva from moving around with his devotees, his consort Goddess Parvati hid her earrings, and asked him to find them, saying that they had been lost on the banks of Ganga. Goddess Parvati's idea behind the fib was that Lord Shiva would then stay around, searching forever for the lost earrings. In this legend, whenever a body gets cremated at the Manikarnik Ghat, Lord Shiva asks the soul whether it has seen the earrings”
The Manikarnik Ghat is a cremation ghat and you see a lot of firewood and smoke in this area. I witnessed the cremation rituals performed there and it was truly a numbing experience. Next, I visited the Dashashwamedh Ghat to see the famous Ganga aarti. The aarti starts at around 7:15 and goes on for an hour.
Prayers are made to River Ganga as well as Lord Shiva along with a host of other deities. The aarti was magnificent and full of music and spectacular visuals. In fact, I would call it the highlight of my trip. I was so tired at the end of ghat-seeing, that I decided to call it a day. I had to get up early next morning as I was told that the sun-rise is one of the most beautiful sites in this part of the world.
Next day, I was up by 5am and with my guide in tow, I visited the Kedar ghat and sat along the river banks and watched the dawn while sipping tea. It was truly magical. Next on schedule was a trip to Sarnath which is around 13 kms from the Varanasi. Sarnath is the site of the deer park where Gautama Buddha is said to have given his first sermon about the basic principles of Buddhism. Also visited the Dhamek Stupa and the Chaukhandi Stupa commemorating the spot where Buddha met his first disciples (in the 5th century or earlier, BC). A Buddhist temple with a Gautam Buddha statue and a picture gallery outlining Buddha’s life in pictures is almost a 200 meter walk from the deer park. It was almost three on the sunday afternoon and the only thing left to do was try out some banarasi chaat and the famed paan. The chaat was average but the paan and thandai was amazing.
I still had like 3 hours to kill before I could get on to the Shiv Ganga Express taking me back to Delhi. So I decided to watch a movie in one of the local halls. It was sweltering hot and humid on the streets so the AC-cooled movie hall sounded appealing. The only movie on offer was “Ugly aur Pagli” starring Mallika Sherawat and Ranvir shorey. The movie was so horrible that I left the hall in half-an hour flat. Pritish Nandy - I want my money back!! Once outside I stumbled on a life-size poster of a recognizable political party - guess what - the Shiv Sena. I find it ironical that the Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray’s MNS would have presence in UP while they are trying to throw our North Indians from Mumbai. And the other hilarious thing about the poster was that - it was for a Kushti Pratiyogita - meaning a wrestling competition. Lol. I guess the tiger will keep its stripes (pun intended).
Overall, the trip was fantastic. The only regret, if at all, was that I missed the boat ride - which is supposed to be the most amazing experience. The water levels in the Ganges are high at this time of the year and the plus all the boatmen were on strike for some god-dammed reason (couldnt even bribe them to take me around). So no boat ride for me. But still, I will remember the Ganga aarti, the temples, the sweets, the silk-buying experience, the alleys and of course the pundas. I think Varanasi is close to Bombay in a lot of ways. As Suketu Mehta, in his book the 'Maximum City' describes Mumbai as the city as a city of “no” which means that you don’t like the city initially till it creeps slowly on you. Varanasi or Banaras is something like that. The alleys, the sheer amount of people, the stench of cow-dung and poor sanitation can be repulsive but after a point you see past them and see the beauty that the city has to offer. It truly is one colorful experience.
Boat-ride is only one of the many reasons why I would want to visit Banaras again.
“Dashashwamedh Ghat is located close to "Vishwanath Temple", and is probably the most spectacular ghat. Two Hindu mythologies are associated with it: According to one, Lord Brahma created it to welcome Lord Shiva. According to another, Lord Brahma sacrificed ten horses in a yajna here. A group of priests daily perform in the evening at this ghat "Agni Pooja" (Worship to Fire) wherein a dedication is made to Lord Shiva, River Ganga, the Sun, Agni (Fire), and the whole universe.
Two legends are associated with Manikarnik Ghat: According to one, it is believed to be the place where Lord Vishnu dug a pit with his Chakra and filled it with his perspiration while performing various penances. While Lord Shiva was watching Lord Vishnu at that time, the latter's earring ("manikarnik") fell into the pit. According to the second legend, in order to keep Lord Shiva from moving around with his devotees, his consort Goddess Parvati hid her earrings, and asked him to find them, saying that they had been lost on the banks of Ganga. Goddess Parvati's idea behind the fib was that Lord Shiva would then stay around, searching forever for the lost earrings. In this legend, whenever a body gets cremated at the Manikarnik Ghat, Lord Shiva asks the soul whether it has seen the earrings”
The Manikarnik Ghat is a cremation ghat and you see a lot of firewood and smoke in this area. I witnessed the cremation rituals performed there and it was truly a numbing experience. Next, I visited the Dashashwamedh Ghat to see the famous Ganga aarti. The aarti starts at around 7:15 and goes on for an hour.
Prayers are made to River Ganga as well as Lord Shiva along with a host of other deities. The aarti was magnificent and full of music and spectacular visuals. In fact, I would call it the highlight of my trip. I was so tired at the end of ghat-seeing, that I decided to call it a day. I had to get up early next morning as I was told that the sun-rise is one of the most beautiful sites in this part of the world.
Next day, I was up by 5am and with my guide in tow, I visited the Kedar ghat and sat along the river banks and watched the dawn while sipping tea. It was truly magical. Next on schedule was a trip to Sarnath which is around 13 kms from the Varanasi. Sarnath is the site of the deer park where Gautama Buddha is said to have given his first sermon about the basic principles of Buddhism. Also visited the Dhamek Stupa and the Chaukhandi Stupa commemorating the spot where Buddha met his first disciples (in the 5th century or earlier, BC). A Buddhist temple with a Gautam Buddha statue and a picture gallery outlining Buddha’s life in pictures is almost a 200 meter walk from the deer park. It was almost three on the sunday afternoon and the only thing left to do was try out some banarasi chaat and the famed paan. The chaat was average but the paan and thandai was amazing.
I still had like 3 hours to kill before I could get on to the Shiv Ganga Express taking me back to Delhi. So I decided to watch a movie in one of the local halls. It was sweltering hot and humid on the streets so the AC-cooled movie hall sounded appealing. The only movie on offer was “Ugly aur Pagli” starring Mallika Sherawat and Ranvir shorey. The movie was so horrible that I left the hall in half-an hour flat. Pritish Nandy - I want my money back!! Once outside I stumbled on a life-size poster of a recognizable political party - guess what - the Shiv Sena. I find it ironical that the Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray’s MNS would have presence in UP while they are trying to throw our North Indians from Mumbai. And the other hilarious thing about the poster was that - it was for a Kushti Pratiyogita - meaning a wrestling competition. Lol. I guess the tiger will keep its stripes (pun intended).
Overall, the trip was fantastic. The only regret, if at all, was that I missed the boat ride - which is supposed to be the most amazing experience. The water levels in the Ganges are high at this time of the year and the plus all the boatmen were on strike for some god-dammed reason (couldnt even bribe them to take me around). So no boat ride for me. But still, I will remember the Ganga aarti, the temples, the sweets, the silk-buying experience, the alleys and of course the pundas. I think Varanasi is close to Bombay in a lot of ways. As Suketu Mehta, in his book the 'Maximum City' describes Mumbai as the city as a city of “no” which means that you don’t like the city initially till it creeps slowly on you. Varanasi or Banaras is something like that. The alleys, the sheer amount of people, the stench of cow-dung and poor sanitation can be repulsive but after a point you see past them and see the beauty that the city has to offer. It truly is one colorful experience.
Boat-ride is only one of the many reasons why I would want to visit Banaras again.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Heath Ledger - Hollywood's White Knight
Its been almost two months since I last wrote on this blog. Given a frequency of writing an article every fortnight, I am currently lagging behind by almost four crisp articles. That is considering, anyone is keeping track besides me :) Anyways, a lot of stuff happened in the interim period, for instance, just in sport itself, we have had - the first IPL (infact given the pace at which cricket is played, we also had the Kitply Cup and the Asia Cup), followed by Euro Cup (an unbelievably fascinating tournament - which Spain deservingly won), then the incredible Federer-Nadal Wimbeldon final ...and more recently (infact, just yesterday) Greg Norman's spirited effort to be the oldest one to win the British Open. And all that just sport wise. On the local front, we have popcorn drama over the Nuclear Deal. Then some movies exceeding expectations, such as Jaane Tu.. ya Jaane Na - and some big banner movies crashing such as LoveStory 2050 and Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic. Since, i cannot address all of them, i will pick and choose based on free will (a concept i learned while watching Jim Carrey starrer "Bruce Almighty").
For starters, lets all stand up and applaud for the movie of the year - The Dark Knight (If u think I am exaggerating, check the Imdb ratings. Infact it has topped all reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 92% which is the most i have seen, it broke Spiderman 3's record of revenues generated both in opening day as well as first week's earnings.. and there are many more records.. if u care to know). Not only do I concur with all the rave reviews (inspite of entering the movie hall with high expectations), i am as a matter of fact totally sold. The acting - superb. Effects - Top Notch. The thrill factor - Undescribable. And a word about the Joker (played by Heath Ledger). Without him, the movie wudnt have been half as good. There is alrea
dy so much info on the net about how he prepared himself for the role (staying alone in a hotel, reading DC comics, practicing voice modulation to match earlier Joker Jack Nicholson's tone... ). No wonder the acting has been truly memorable. He recently died of accidental drug-overdose at the age of 28, and the world has lost an amazing talent. There has been a lot of talk of a posthumous oscar.. and i for one think he thoroughly deserves it. Definitely Hollywood's White Knight.
There is this other thing about Hollywood actors that really amazes me - the amount of dedication they have for the role. For instance, if u have seen Christian Bale in the movie Machinist, all skin and bones (apparently he slept only for a few hours and ate only fruits to get that body shape) and then u see him in The Dark Knight with all the Hulk-like body, and u know some serious work has gone behind the scenes. Daniel Day lewis's preparation for his roles are legendary and so is Gladiator Russel Crowe's preparation for his. Compare that to Bollywood, where Aamir Khan not trimming his hair in Mangal Pandey (or cutting his over-grown hair for Gajjini) is seen as actor's dedication for work. And he sets the benchmark. Others dont even do that much :)
The second important theme is the Nuclear Deal and the joke-house called the Parliament. I cannot believe that these people chosen to carry the country on their shoulders cannot agree on a deal that is of national importance. And if you are following stuff written in the newspapers, u would know that large amounts of money has changed hands. Some MPs dragged from jails and one even from his hospital bed to vote, so that their respective parties win. Some are in fact paid to abstain from voting. How can a government allow a member of parliament to abstain from voting, you tell me? Imagine, you choose a leader and the leader sits home while an important decision is being made of national importance. What a leader. So much a victory for governance.
In all this infighting, I think, we missed an opportunity to dictate terms to China. I admire China. No two ways about it. Some of their policies, such as regulating child-birth, are inhuman, i agree, but the country is definitely doing more things right than wrong. China, is currently totally focussed on its preparation of the Olympic Games and cannot afford any negative publicity. Methinks, we missed a trick here and should have pressurized the Chinese on issues like the Indo-China border and also a host of contentious issues. China might not agree, but this was our best chance. If only the Left parties had a little more sense.
Speaking of China, the country won 32 golds at the last Olympics, second only to the US who won 34. There was a time, when US and the Soviet Union won everything under the Sun. The US topped the medals tally four straight times till 1932 Los Angeles games, while Soviet Union held sway eight times from 1956 to 1992. US returned to dominance back at Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. But what has been surprising has been the rise of China, even in this sphere. Liu Xuan's 110 mts hurdles victory was last Olympics's greatest shock to the Americans who pride them on their Athletic hegemony. This year, i think China will race ahead. Though, they have downplayed every news stating this fact, i am sure they must have practiced their heart out to emerge triumphant on their homeland.
If India cannot decide on its Nuclear Energy policy, planning to win medals for Olympics (for even pressurizing China in its moment of weaknesss) is a long shot. Infact, we cannot even keep our manhole covers (circular lids on roads for accesing waste pipelines). What has manhole covers to do with all this? Well, you will be surprised. One day, i read a newspaper headline in a local daily claiming - Mumbai Municipal Government blaming China for over 5000 stolen mahole covers. The story goes that the Chinese Dragon kept consuming steel at such a rate for building infrastructure for the Games, that they ran out of steel. So they started purchasing steel from other markets. Apparently, thieves in Mumbai sold each steel-made manhole covers for Rs. 1200 each to China, and the mumbai roads were suddenly deprived of 5000 manhole covers. Go Figure.
For starters, lets all stand up and applaud for the movie of the year - The Dark Knight (If u think I am exaggerating, check the Imdb ratings. Infact it has topped all reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 92% which is the most i have seen, it broke Spiderman 3's record of revenues generated both in opening day as well as first week's earnings.. and there are many more records.. if u care to know). Not only do I concur with all the rave reviews (inspite of entering the movie hall with high expectations), i am as a matter of fact totally sold. The acting - superb. Effects - Top Notch. The thrill factor - Undescribable. And a word about the Joker (played by Heath Ledger). Without him, the movie wudnt have been half as good. There is alrea
dy so much info on the net about how he prepared himself for the role (staying alone in a hotel, reading DC comics, practicing voice modulation to match earlier Joker Jack Nicholson's tone... ). No wonder the acting has been truly memorable. He recently died of accidental drug-overdose at the age of 28, and the world has lost an amazing talent. There has been a lot of talk of a posthumous oscar.. and i for one think he thoroughly deserves it. Definitely Hollywood's White Knight.There is this other thing about Hollywood actors that really amazes me - the amount of dedication they have for the role. For instance, if u have seen Christian Bale in the movie Machinist, all skin and bones (apparently he slept only for a few hours and ate only fruits to get that body shape) and then u see him in The Dark Knight with all the Hulk-like body, and u know some serious work has gone behind the scenes. Daniel Day lewis's preparation for his roles are legendary and so is Gladiator Russel Crowe's preparation for his. Compare that to Bollywood, where Aamir Khan not trimming his hair in Mangal Pandey (or cutting his over-grown hair for Gajjini) is seen as actor's dedication for work. And he sets the benchmark. Others dont even do that much :)
The second important theme is the Nuclear Deal and the joke-house called the Parliament. I cannot believe that these people chosen to carry the country on their shoulders cannot agree on a deal that is of national importance. And if you are following stuff written in the newspapers, u would know that large amounts of money has changed hands. Some MPs dragged from jails and one even from his hospital bed to vote, so that their respective parties win. Some are in fact paid to abstain from voting. How can a government allow a member of parliament to abstain from voting, you tell me? Imagine, you choose a leader and the leader sits home while an important decision is being made of national importance. What a leader. So much a victory for governance.
In all this infighting, I think, we missed an opportunity to dictate terms to China. I admire China. No two ways about it. Some of their policies, such as regulating child-birth, are inhuman, i agree, but the country is definitely doing more things right than wrong. China, is currently totally focussed on its preparation of the Olympic Games and cannot afford any negative publicity. Methinks, we missed a trick here and should have pressurized the Chinese on issues like the Indo-China border and also a host of contentious issues. China might not agree, but this was our best chance. If only the Left parties had a little more sense.
Speaking of China, the country won 32 golds at the last Olympics, second only to the US who won 34. There was a time, when US and the Soviet Union won everything under the Sun. The US topped the medals tally four straight times till 1932 Los Angeles games, while Soviet Union held sway eight times from 1956 to 1992. US returned to dominance back at Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. But what has been surprising has been the rise of China, even in this sphere. Liu Xuan's 110 mts hurdles victory was last Olympics's greatest shock to the Americans who pride them on their Athletic hegemony. This year, i think China will race ahead. Though, they have downplayed every news stating this fact, i am sure they must have practiced their heart out to emerge triumphant on their homeland.
If India cannot decide on its Nuclear Energy policy, planning to win medals for Olympics (for even pressurizing China in its moment of weaknesss) is a long shot. Infact, we cannot even keep our manhole covers (circular lids on roads for accesing waste pipelines). What has manhole covers to do with all this? Well, you will be surprised. One day, i read a newspaper headline in a local daily claiming - Mumbai Municipal Government blaming China for over 5000 stolen mahole covers. The story goes that the Chinese Dragon kept consuming steel at such a rate for building infrastructure for the Games, that they ran out of steel. So they started purchasing steel from other markets. Apparently, thieves in Mumbai sold each steel-made manhole covers for Rs. 1200 each to China, and the mumbai roads were suddenly deprived of 5000 manhole covers. Go Figure.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Travails of a Bachelor
Circa 2002 - Graduated with a Bachelors degree in Engineering. One proud Bachelor. Fast forward to 2008 - One disgruntled Bachelor.....
My landlord decided to sell his house. This decision of his put me and my flatmates with the seemingly innocuous task of finding another 'roof over our heads'. The process is streamlined anyways, we thought. We call up a few brokers. We see whats on offer. Try to negotiate the price to as low as we can. Hire the movers. Settle down in the new place. I couldn't have been more wrong.
We did call up the brokers. The conversations followed a similar pattern.
Broker: Family or Bachelors?
Us: Bachelors
Broker: Hmm. Muskil hai bhai sahab. Company lease mil Jayegi?
Us: Nahi. Humari company mein woh system nahi hai. Letter of current employment mil jayega.
Broker: Hmmmm. Koshish kar ke dekhta hun.
Inspite of his and our collective koshish, two weeks later we still had nothing to show for our efforts. We decided to double the number of brokers and tried to visit residential complexes ourselves. This continued for a while, till it dawned upon us, that people across residential complexes in Gurgaon are unanimously wary of leasing their properties to Bachelors.
For last two years, I have been staying in an apartment complex, lets call it Residency Greens (RG) for the time being, and we had our share of ill-treatment. There were people in RG who referred to us as "Call-Centre guys" as if we didn't have names. Dunno from where they got the idea because we have regular work timings 9 -7. Anyways, even if we worked in Call-Centres, there is no reason to look down upon us, as it honest labor just as any other profession. Further, we were always warned to drive slow once inside the complex, while the aunties themselves stepped merrily on the accelerator full throttle. Any occurence of theft and our help was questioned, as if the maids they themselves hired were above reproach. And if we had visitors, who committed the blasphemy of parking their vehicle along the edge of the street, the hyperactive colony people would instruct the watchmen to deflate the tires.
I have never seen such behaviour anywhere. I am shocked that educated people can stoop to this level. And that too when we have been on our best behaviors. To this date, we have not had a single party organised at our place (given the people around we have always chosen to party out), no complains of noise whatsover, driving inside has been regular. I dont see how we are different then anybody around.
Frankly, the Bachelor concern does hold some merit. For most people, Bachelors stand for unresponsible citizens. The typical stereotype is Bachelors have booze parties, bring women, make noise and in general disrupt the decorum of the society. There have been stray incidences of murder being committed in bachelor pads too. Of all that, noise is probably the only concern that i can digest. Booze consumed within the house should not be anybody's headache unless those drunk spill out on the streets and create nuisance or worse still borrow money from the neighbors, buy booze and do the above. Women, ah thats an interesting one. Though again, i could have brushed aside the topic as "I dont understand how that is anybody's concern", i still ponder, would my sister or cousin come to meet me.. should i tell them - I am a bachelor, you are not allowed here? And arent we grown up enough to accept that a guy can bring his girlfriend home, without trying to imagine what the hell is going on outside. Will leave that to the aunties.
What is even more interesting is people who say stuff like - I have nothing against bachelors but i just wont rent out my apartment to them!! Everytime somebody says something like that to me, my heart bleeds out a lil at the stupidity. To them, I would ask - Werent you a Bachelor once too? Or did u skip the phase and were born married? Morons.
Further, people forget that they have kids too. In an increasingly networked world, their kids might grow up and might have to work outside like we are doing and might face the same problems. I am sure they would not want the same treatment meted out to their own kids.
I think the people who put a blanket refusal to bachelors are "lazy". They dont want to take the extra effort and meet the Bachelors and try to look for themselves that Bachelors are not the devils with horns on the sides of their heads, as they are made out to be. In most cases, bachelors are well-educated and responsible. They infact rarely default on rent (One family income Vs three bachelor incomes) and are probably a better bargain in that respect.
My mom's take on this - Lets get you married !! Damn it.
My landlord decided to sell his house. This decision of his put me and my flatmates with the seemingly innocuous task of finding another 'roof over our heads'. The process is streamlined anyways, we thought. We call up a few brokers. We see whats on offer. Try to negotiate the price to as low as we can. Hire the movers. Settle down in the new place. I couldn't have been more wrong.
We did call up the brokers. The conversations followed a similar pattern.
Broker: Family or Bachelors?
Us: Bachelors
Broker: Hmm. Muskil hai bhai sahab. Company lease mil Jayegi?
Us: Nahi. Humari company mein woh system nahi hai. Letter of current employment mil jayega.
Broker: Hmmmm. Koshish kar ke dekhta hun.
Inspite of his and our collective koshish, two weeks later we still had nothing to show for our efforts. We decided to double the number of brokers and tried to visit residential complexes ourselves. This continued for a while, till it dawned upon us, that people across residential complexes in Gurgaon are unanimously wary of leasing their properties to Bachelors.
For last two years, I have been staying in an apartment complex, lets call it Residency Greens (RG) for the time being, and we had our share of ill-treatment. There were people in RG who referred to us as "Call-Centre guys" as if we didn't have names. Dunno from where they got the idea because we have regular work timings 9 -7. Anyways, even if we worked in Call-Centres, there is no reason to look down upon us, as it honest labor just as any other profession. Further, we were always warned to drive slow once inside the complex, while the aunties themselves stepped merrily on the accelerator full throttle. Any occurence of theft and our help was questioned, as if the maids they themselves hired were above reproach. And if we had visitors, who committed the blasphemy of parking their vehicle along the edge of the street, the hyperactive colony people would instruct the watchmen to deflate the tires.
I have never seen such behaviour anywhere. I am shocked that educated people can stoop to this level. And that too when we have been on our best behaviors. To this date, we have not had a single party organised at our place (given the people around we have always chosen to party out), no complains of noise whatsover, driving inside has been regular. I dont see how we are different then anybody around.
Frankly, the Bachelor concern does hold some merit. For most people, Bachelors stand for unresponsible citizens. The typical stereotype is Bachelors have booze parties, bring women, make noise and in general disrupt the decorum of the society. There have been stray incidences of murder being committed in bachelor pads too. Of all that, noise is probably the only concern that i can digest. Booze consumed within the house should not be anybody's headache unless those drunk spill out on the streets and create nuisance or worse still borrow money from the neighbors, buy booze and do the above. Women, ah thats an interesting one. Though again, i could have brushed aside the topic as "I dont understand how that is anybody's concern", i still ponder, would my sister or cousin come to meet me.. should i tell them - I am a bachelor, you are not allowed here? And arent we grown up enough to accept that a guy can bring his girlfriend home, without trying to imagine what the hell is going on outside. Will leave that to the aunties.
What is even more interesting is people who say stuff like - I have nothing against bachelors but i just wont rent out my apartment to them!! Everytime somebody says something like that to me, my heart bleeds out a lil at the stupidity. To them, I would ask - Werent you a Bachelor once too? Or did u skip the phase and were born married? Morons.
Further, people forget that they have kids too. In an increasingly networked world, their kids might grow up and might have to work outside like we are doing and might face the same problems. I am sure they would not want the same treatment meted out to their own kids.
I think the people who put a blanket refusal to bachelors are "lazy". They dont want to take the extra effort and meet the Bachelors and try to look for themselves that Bachelors are not the devils with horns on the sides of their heads, as they are made out to be. In most cases, bachelors are well-educated and responsible. They infact rarely default on rent (One family income Vs three bachelor incomes) and are probably a better bargain in that respect.
My mom's take on this - Lets get you married !! Damn it.
Friday, May 2, 2008
India Shining? Me whining.......
For almost last three years, I have been working in the field of Intellectual Property. For those who haven't heard the term, Intellectual Property or IP, relates to creation of Intellect or mind. And just like any other property, for instance real estate property, an owner may lay claim to his or her product of mind (Intellectual Property) through rights known as Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) enforced through Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks, Geographical Indications and the like.
With that background, let me begin my tirade on a topic that is bugging the hell out of me. Last week, I had an opportunity to attend a conference on IP Awareness at Connaught Place (CP), Delhi. I will not give the name of the organizing committee or the illustrious speakers who graced the occasion. Needless to add, there were CEOs, Key R&D personnel, academia luminaries, scientists, government officials, foreign delegates and rest of the sundry, including yours truly.
Everyone was ofcourse on the same page with regard to the fact that IP was going to play a very important role in India's dream of becoming a Global Powerhouse. Further, everyone agreed to the lack of IP awareness and the need to do something about it. But the methods discussed for achieving the same, were truly Indian in every sense of the word. The chair of the first session gave seven points as to what they were doing to create IP awareness. I counted four out of the seven were about some "committee" he had formed to do the same. If creating a committee were the solution to our problems, India would never have had any problem!! By the end of the day-long conference, I was so disillusioned that I immersed myself in.... you know what. I was referring to grief...what did u assume.... twisted mind.
Before I go into discussing everything that is wrong, let me for a minute, dedicate a couple of lines on Why IP is so important to India's future. Every country worth its salt has a strong culture of technological innovation. Take US for instance, the technological advancements there, are driving most things around the world. All major inventions, take Electricity bulb (Thomas Alva Edison), Telephone (Alexander Bell), Steam Engine (James Watt) and there are millions more, have revolutionized our lives. No wonder, with that culture of innovation, most US companies like Microsoft, Apple, GE, IBM are leading the world in their respective segments. What this means to countries like us, is that we are forever doomed to tag along what others have invented and protected through IP enforcement. Unless, of course we create our own technological innovation, our very own IP. Only then can we make our companies compete at a global level and bring home the benefits of capitalism to the burgeoning Indian population.
So how do we create this culture of Innovation? I don't think I am qualified to answer that question, but i want to share something that I noticed while I was pursuing my Masters degree at the University of Maryland (UMD). UMD, like most schools in the US, receives grants from institutions like NASA, NSF, Lockheed and the like, for collaborating on cutting-edge research. The professors at most of these schools are leading thinkers in their field and they in collaboration with the scientists at the institutions chip away at some of most baffling problems troubling humankind. Further, most schools in US follow what is called the 'tenure system'. The professors in the schools have to work towards 'tenure' which basically means, a permanent association with the school. For getting the tenure, the professor is not only graded on the course content and the student feedback, but most importantly on the research papers published and the contribution to cutting edge research alongwith the grants that come along with it. This simple last line, implies that each professor in the US is accountable with regard to research and his or her contribution to technological innovation. The professors are not only forced to come with new ideas, but are also forced to sync those ideas with industry problems so that they may then approach the industry for grants. The professor and the grant giving institutions then work in collaboration to make the research culminate into a solvable problem.
Further, the professors employ students in the form of Research Assistants and direct them towards achieving the objective. Some of my friends while working as RAs, stumbled upon inventive concepts and now have patents to their names. So, this simple accountable system called the 'tenure system' combined with healthy interaction between industry and academic institutions have ensured that US stays at the forefront of technological innovation. Imagine, thousands of US Schools with hundred professors each, working their backsides off, trying to create magic. I am not too sure, how the system works at the IITs, but I am dead sure that there are brilliant professors and students around and we can achieve the above by getting some accountability into all our schools.
The second and infact slightly more important factor is the law. There is no use of talking about technological innovation and IP, if there is no way to protect the rights of those who invested time, effort and money to make it work. In fact, the law is the biggest hindrance to a majority of our problems. Let me give you a simple example, in US as we all know, every house has at least three cars (the lack of mass transit options is appalling). That means there are a million cars on the street leading to congestion and related pollution issues. One of the solutions they came up with was a 'Carpool lane'. It is the most amazingly simple concept yet very powerful. The 'Carpool lane' is a lane on a freeway (highway) that is dedicated to vehicles carrying more than one passenger. In US most people often travel alone to work. Now to use the Carpool lane, which is relatively free as compared to other lanes on the freeway stuck in traffic jam, most people leaving in neighboring areas come together so that they can use the Carpool lane and reach to office on time. So not only has the number of vehicles reduced on the street as more people are driving together, but also the amount of petrol consumption has gone down with reduced pollution overall. Fantastic.
So coming back to the point of law, the US can have the Carpool lane (and not run into problems like we did for the BRT corridor) because they have a law in place. The moment somebody driving alone moves into a Carpool lane, he gets caught and punished appropriately. In India, without a system in place to catch the offenders, we can never get to implement anything. And with the Tata Nano and other such cars ready to hit the market, it is about time we get our act in place. This is not just one isolated instance, where the enforcement of law is hurting technological innovation or even the traffic on streets. Most of our problems have been because the law has not been able to punish the offenders.
So where does this leave India? Good question. Methinks, getting law in place and that too a expedited version (not the 20 year prolonged process) is critical. The schools form a fulcrum of most things the country bases its dream on. You strengthen the base, and most things will fall in place. And please no more committees !!
With that background, let me begin my tirade on a topic that is bugging the hell out of me. Last week, I had an opportunity to attend a conference on IP Awareness at Connaught Place (CP), Delhi. I will not give the name of the organizing committee or the illustrious speakers who graced the occasion. Needless to add, there were CEOs, Key R&D personnel, academia luminaries, scientists, government officials, foreign delegates and rest of the sundry, including yours truly.
Everyone was ofcourse on the same page with regard to the fact that IP was going to play a very important role in India's dream of becoming a Global Powerhouse. Further, everyone agreed to the lack of IP awareness and the need to do something about it. But the methods discussed for achieving the same, were truly Indian in every sense of the word. The chair of the first session gave seven points as to what they were doing to create IP awareness. I counted four out of the seven were about some "committee" he had formed to do the same. If creating a committee were the solution to our problems, India would never have had any problem!! By the end of the day-long conference, I was so disillusioned that I immersed myself in.... you know what. I was referring to grief...what did u assume.... twisted mind.
Before I go into discussing everything that is wrong, let me for a minute, dedicate a couple of lines on Why IP is so important to India's future. Every country worth its salt has a strong culture of technological innovation. Take US for instance, the technological advancements there, are driving most things around the world. All major inventions, take Electricity bulb (Thomas Alva Edison), Telephone (Alexander Bell), Steam Engine (James Watt) and there are millions more, have revolutionized our lives. No wonder, with that culture of innovation, most US companies like Microsoft, Apple, GE, IBM are leading the world in their respective segments. What this means to countries like us, is that we are forever doomed to tag along what others have invented and protected through IP enforcement. Unless, of course we create our own technological innovation, our very own IP. Only then can we make our companies compete at a global level and bring home the benefits of capitalism to the burgeoning Indian population.
So how do we create this culture of Innovation? I don't think I am qualified to answer that question, but i want to share something that I noticed while I was pursuing my Masters degree at the University of Maryland (UMD). UMD, like most schools in the US, receives grants from institutions like NASA, NSF, Lockheed and the like, for collaborating on cutting-edge research. The professors at most of these schools are leading thinkers in their field and they in collaboration with the scientists at the institutions chip away at some of most baffling problems troubling humankind. Further, most schools in US follow what is called the 'tenure system'. The professors in the schools have to work towards 'tenure' which basically means, a permanent association with the school. For getting the tenure, the professor is not only graded on the course content and the student feedback, but most importantly on the research papers published and the contribution to cutting edge research alongwith the grants that come along with it. This simple last line, implies that each professor in the US is accountable with regard to research and his or her contribution to technological innovation. The professors are not only forced to come with new ideas, but are also forced to sync those ideas with industry problems so that they may then approach the industry for grants. The professor and the grant giving institutions then work in collaboration to make the research culminate into a solvable problem.
Further, the professors employ students in the form of Research Assistants and direct them towards achieving the objective. Some of my friends while working as RAs, stumbled upon inventive concepts and now have patents to their names. So, this simple accountable system called the 'tenure system' combined with healthy interaction between industry and academic institutions have ensured that US stays at the forefront of technological innovation. Imagine, thousands of US Schools with hundred professors each, working their backsides off, trying to create magic. I am not too sure, how the system works at the IITs, but I am dead sure that there are brilliant professors and students around and we can achieve the above by getting some accountability into all our schools.
The second and infact slightly more important factor is the law. There is no use of talking about technological innovation and IP, if there is no way to protect the rights of those who invested time, effort and money to make it work. In fact, the law is the biggest hindrance to a majority of our problems. Let me give you a simple example, in US as we all know, every house has at least three cars (the lack of mass transit options is appalling). That means there are a million cars on the street leading to congestion and related pollution issues. One of the solutions they came up with was a 'Carpool lane'. It is the most amazingly simple concept yet very powerful. The 'Carpool lane' is a lane on a freeway (highway) that is dedicated to vehicles carrying more than one passenger. In US most people often travel alone to work. Now to use the Carpool lane, which is relatively free as compared to other lanes on the freeway stuck in traffic jam, most people leaving in neighboring areas come together so that they can use the Carpool lane and reach to office on time. So not only has the number of vehicles reduced on the street as more people are driving together, but also the amount of petrol consumption has gone down with reduced pollution overall. Fantastic.
So coming back to the point of law, the US can have the Carpool lane (and not run into problems like we did for the BRT corridor) because they have a law in place. The moment somebody driving alone moves into a Carpool lane, he gets caught and punished appropriately. In India, without a system in place to catch the offenders, we can never get to implement anything. And with the Tata Nano and other such cars ready to hit the market, it is about time we get our act in place. This is not just one isolated instance, where the enforcement of law is hurting technological innovation or even the traffic on streets. Most of our problems have been because the law has not been able to punish the offenders.
So where does this leave India? Good question. Methinks, getting law in place and that too a expedited version (not the 20 year prolonged process) is critical. The schools form a fulcrum of most things the country bases its dream on. You strengthen the base, and most things will fall in place. And please no more committees !!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Epicentre - Gurgawa's coming of Age
Every Sunday morning, I look forward to reading the "Gray Matter" section in the Hindustan Times. You generally have columns by Vir Sanghvi (Counterpoint), Karan Thapar (Sunday Sentiments), Indrajit Hazra (Red Herring) and occasionally by Manas chakravarty (Loose Canon), and all of them, whether with agreeable or with disagreeable content, make a good read. I have lost count of the number of times when both Vir Sanghvi and Karan Thapar have written on the same topic on a given Sunday and often bringing a totally different perspective to the same story (Take the one on LK Advani's autobiography for instance). Neways, today, to my surprise, all of the four columns were dedicated to the Chinese/Tibetan cause and three of them made unfavorable references to a certain Aamir Khan.
For the ignoramus, below lines from the Red Herring column will give you a background on what the references were about -
Aamir Khan reportedly received many requests asking him to refrain from participating in the Olympic torch run on April 17 as it would give out the wrong message at a time when Good People all around the world are shouting against Tibetans being boot-crunched by the hands-free Han Chinese. Aamir Khan responded by saying that "Olympics do not belong to China" and that he saw the Games as coming together of different people across the world despite their differences and difficulties. Then he added that he has the highest regard and respect for the people of Tibet are going through and that he will take part in the Beijing Olympics with a prayer in his heart for the people in Tibet. The last part was what ruffled the feathers the most. Most thought that Aamir was trying to have it both ways and that the two-faced stance was downright deplorable. I agree.
On reading the above, my mind instinctively started thinking of Aamir's other such controversial involvements - namely Narmada Bachao Andalon and the Aerated drinks pesticide issue. Both of which, he was pilloried for. It is one thing to take a stance and using your standing in the society for a good cause and it is altogether a different thing to take up a stance when you are not sure of the head and tail of the issue. And thats why I think Aamir is better off at doing things he is remarkably good.
Aamir Khan has been sorta my favourite on-screen actor for a while. His body of work - QSQT, Rangeela, Lagaan, Dil Chahta hai, Rang De Basanti and Taare Zameen Par have all been fabulous stuff. Am I not even counting his hits like Dil or the incredibly funny - Andaz Apna Apna. But the off-screen image is not that great. Here, i must mention Shah Rukh Khan. And I know, there are often these two camps - you can either like a Aamir Khan or a Shah Rukh Khan, and i am getting myself into muddier waters, but I like the Shah Rukh Khan off-screen. Aamir, whether in an interview or even supporting any cause, comes across as this 'cerebral' guy who has given a lot of thought before saying anything. His interviews often make a boring read and the technical jargon puts you to sleep. Shah Rukh Khan, on the other hand, has this charisma or whatever you call it, his answers are spontaneous and witty and most often than not, you see the interviewee smiling and having a good time. He generally comes across as very sensible (except when he talking about Big B) and that combined with a ready wit is very endearing to his fans. Even his involvement in causes like the IPL (he co-owns Kolkatta knight Riders) reek off finance being a priority, but the fact that he has never claimed to be anything else, is good enough for me. Only the high and moral society, will begrudge that fact.
I dunno why i got into this discussion about on-screen and off-screen personas. Stars are too complicated anyways. Speaking of stars, i saw a gem of a performance at the Epicentre, yesterday. I have been bemoaning the fact that Gurgaon does not have entertainment centres like say those in Delhi and Mumbai. But Boy! was i wrong. Epicentre in Gurgaon is like a stone's throw from where i stay and it truly disgusts me that i didn't know this all this while. Anways, check out some of the stuff being staged at the Epicentre - http://www.epicentre.co.in/. The events truly cover the entire gamut from Theatre, Music, Bharatnatyam recitals, Odissi choreographic presentations, puppets shows (next week there is a play - Kuch Bhi ho Sakta Hai on Anupam Kher's story and he will be performing himself). I am impressed. And the play I saw yesterday - Charandas Chor, directed by noted Hindi playwright Habib Tanvir, was a paisa vasool affair. The dialogues are in a tongue that will make ur mind spin (in a good way :) and the dances and the background score (played live) gave an incredibly authentic folklore feel to the whole thing.
I also managed to see the movie 'Race'. The only comment i have on that is - Too many cooks spoil the broth. The two directors - Abbas and Mustan- have both tried to include their own share of twists in the tale - to make the whole thing one heck of a twisted story :). The only good thing about the movie, was that I was accompanied by a special person (wink wink) which made 3 hours pass like a breeze! Thats just one twist in the tale from my side :)
For the ignoramus, below lines from the Red Herring column will give you a background on what the references were about -
Aamir Khan reportedly received many requests asking him to refrain from participating in the Olympic torch run on April 17 as it would give out the wrong message at a time when Good People all around the world are shouting against Tibetans being boot-crunched by the hands-free Han Chinese. Aamir Khan responded by saying that "Olympics do not belong to China" and that he saw the Games as coming together of different people across the world despite their differences and difficulties. Then he added that he has the highest regard and respect for the people of Tibet are going through and that he will take part in the Beijing Olympics with a prayer in his heart for the people in Tibet. The last part was what ruffled the feathers the most. Most thought that Aamir was trying to have it both ways and that the two-faced stance was downright deplorable. I agree.
On reading the above, my mind instinctively started thinking of Aamir's other such controversial involvements - namely Narmada Bachao Andalon and the Aerated drinks pesticide issue. Both of which, he was pilloried for. It is one thing to take a stance and using your standing in the society for a good cause and it is altogether a different thing to take up a stance when you are not sure of the head and tail of the issue. And thats why I think Aamir is better off at doing things he is remarkably good.
Aamir Khan has been sorta my favourite on-screen actor for a while. His body of work - QSQT, Rangeela, Lagaan, Dil Chahta hai, Rang De Basanti and Taare Zameen Par have all been fabulous stuff. Am I not even counting his hits like Dil or the incredibly funny - Andaz Apna Apna. But the off-screen image is not that great. Here, i must mention Shah Rukh Khan. And I know, there are often these two camps - you can either like a Aamir Khan or a Shah Rukh Khan, and i am getting myself into muddier waters, but I like the Shah Rukh Khan off-screen. Aamir, whether in an interview or even supporting any cause, comes across as this 'cerebral' guy who has given a lot of thought before saying anything. His interviews often make a boring read and the technical jargon puts you to sleep. Shah Rukh Khan, on the other hand, has this charisma or whatever you call it, his answers are spontaneous and witty and most often than not, you see the interviewee smiling and having a good time. He generally comes across as very sensible (except when he talking about Big B) and that combined with a ready wit is very endearing to his fans. Even his involvement in causes like the IPL (he co-owns Kolkatta knight Riders) reek off finance being a priority, but the fact that he has never claimed to be anything else, is good enough for me. Only the high and moral society, will begrudge that fact.
I dunno why i got into this discussion about on-screen and off-screen personas. Stars are too complicated anyways. Speaking of stars, i saw a gem of a performance at the Epicentre, yesterday. I have been bemoaning the fact that Gurgaon does not have entertainment centres like say those in Delhi and Mumbai. But Boy! was i wrong. Epicentre in Gurgaon is like a stone's throw from where i stay and it truly disgusts me that i didn't know this all this while. Anways, check out some of the stuff being staged at the Epicentre - http://www.epicentre.co.in/. The events truly cover the entire gamut from Theatre, Music, Bharatnatyam recitals, Odissi choreographic presentations, puppets shows (next week there is a play - Kuch Bhi ho Sakta Hai on Anupam Kher's story and he will be performing himself). I am impressed. And the play I saw yesterday - Charandas Chor, directed by noted Hindi playwright Habib Tanvir, was a paisa vasool affair. The dialogues are in a tongue that will make ur mind spin (in a good way :) and the dances and the background score (played live) gave an incredibly authentic folklore feel to the whole thing.
I also managed to see the movie 'Race'. The only comment i have on that is - Too many cooks spoil the broth. The two directors - Abbas and Mustan- have both tried to include their own share of twists in the tale - to make the whole thing one heck of a twisted story :). The only good thing about the movie, was that I was accompanied by a special person (wink wink) which made 3 hours pass like a breeze! Thats just one twist in the tale from my side :)
Saturday, March 29, 2008
More sight-seeing, my own IPL and some free gyan....
Its been a while since i last wrote on this blog. A lot has happened since then. For starters, my sis and jiju were here in Gurgaon and we scourged the nooks and corners of Delhi and Agra like 'sight-seeing' was going out of fashion :) Anyways, it was also the first time i got to see the 'Taj Mahal' and the 'Akshardham Temple'. Saying that, I was stunned, is an understatement. With the Taj Mahal, I had already heard so much, that frankly I thought it had to be really special to amaze me. But it did and for totally different reasons. The Akshardham Temple took the amazement level to a different height altogether. I remember going to Disneyland in California and being stunned by the boat ride they have there, and, thinking when can we have such unbelievable stuff in India. Boy! The boat ride at Akshardham is much better than the Disneyland one and add mythology and history to it, and you have something that goes beyond the entertainment - something far more meaningful. And for those whom I bet will complain, I am not comparing the Akshardham Temple with Disneyland, but only the fact that both have this 'Prepare to be amazed' feeling about them. Anyways, I plan to write about both - the Taj Mahal and the Akshardham Temple once i have the pictures :)
We also went to Dilli Haat, CP and Chandni Chowk taking the famous Delhi metro and took pit-stops at Paranthewaali Gaali and Karims (gorged on the killingly delicious Jehangiri chicken and Mutton Burra). All in all, we had a heck of a time.
Another thing worth mentioning that happened during the interim duration was that I cleared the Patent Agent Exam. So now i am Registered Patent Agent with the Govt. of India. Frankly, i will avoid the details of how important it is to clear this exam for an Intellectual Property professional. But it is quite important and hence the mention on the blog :) Infact i tried to crack a lame ass comment about it saying "I joined IPL without the moolah". IPL ofcourse stands for the Intellectual-property Professionals League (I know it is humor at its' lowest). Moolah or not, i am celebrating :)
And finally, the main course - time for dispensing some gyan. Of late, I have been thinking about my future, career and such. And that thought process without fail gets me worried. Below is the thought sequence verbatim (I mean - thought to word instead of word to word :)
We also went to Dilli Haat, CP and Chandni Chowk taking the famous Delhi metro and took pit-stops at Paranthewaali Gaali and Karims (gorged on the killingly delicious Jehangiri chicken and Mutton Burra). All in all, we had a heck of a time.
Another thing worth mentioning that happened during the interim duration was that I cleared the Patent Agent Exam. So now i am Registered Patent Agent with the Govt. of India. Frankly, i will avoid the details of how important it is to clear this exam for an Intellectual Property professional. But it is quite important and hence the mention on the blog :) Infact i tried to crack a lame ass comment about it saying "I joined IPL without the moolah". IPL ofcourse stands for the Intellectual-property Professionals League (I know it is humor at its' lowest). Moolah or not, i am celebrating :)
And finally, the main course - time for dispensing some gyan. Of late, I have been thinking about my future, career and such. And that thought process without fail gets me worried. Below is the thought sequence verbatim (I mean - thought to word instead of word to word :)
I am not too sure, what has got into me. For last few years, i have started feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. I am sure others go through this as well. Somehow, i have always found a reason to be worried about. Something like - my default state is 'creases on my forehead'. My predicament is like an excited atom, which might leave its lower energy level orbit to go into a higher orbit (excited state) momentarily only to return to my low energy level state (even my examples reek off my engineering background...yuck!)
I think one of the most over rated phrases you'll ever come across is 'I want to leave my mark' or 'I have only one life and I want to make it count'. Bullshit. Ofcourse you would want to make it count, but who the hell is counting. Most of us want to remembered long after we are gone. Well who cares after we are gone anyways. And what good has ever come out making the world remember our name. I just tried to remember one famous name that most across the world would remember. The first name that came to my mind is Albert Einstein (Gandhi was a close second). I bet both Gandhi and Einstein did not endeavor to be remembered. They just did what naturally came to them and got remembered in the process. But is that good enough. I mean imagine you are Einstein for a second. And you have just propounded your theory of relativity to the world. What then to poor ol' Einstein? Nothing, Nada, Zilch.
Frankly, i think i'll pass. I don't want to be remembered for anything. I don't want to leave my mark. I am convinced it is a futile exercise. What i want to do instead is to drift and be aware of where my life takes me. I bet it is going to be more enjoyable than killin' myself over leaving my mark.
Some thought sequence that..... ain't it.. i will leave u to mull over your own future... cheers.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The trip that almost didn't happen - Memoirs of Dalhousie
Banikhet and Chakki Bank - these names wouldn't have made sense a week ago. Now they bring memories of time spent well. The trip to Dalhousie would have never happened for more reasons than one. In fact, it was not even on our radar, when we first decided to plan a trip. It was just that somehow, one thing led to another in a way only nature can, and we found ourselves lapping up one breathtaking view after another in Dalhousie. Below is all the spice.....read on...
The script begins at...
Wednesday, 6th February - 1: 30 Pm - Vinay, Pooja, Priya and I step out of office for a post lunch break.
Wednesday, 6th February - 2: 00 Pm - Out of the blue, we decide that we should plan for a team offsite, the coming weekend. Vinay suggests Patnitop in Jammu as a possible option. Once back in office, we check out pictures of Patnitop on the net. The decision is an unanimous Yes.
Wednesday, 6th February - 5:00 Pm - We take a headcount of the interested people. Most have some or the other plan for the coming weekend. We decide to go ahead with the earlier plan as an unofficial excursion as opposed to a team offsite.
Wednesday, 6th February - 6:00 Pm - We book train tickets for nine (Uttar Sampark Kranti - Delhi to Udhampur).
Thursday, 7th February - 7:00 Pm - TV channels beam images of heavy snowfall in J&K. News is - road to Patnitop would be blocked for next few days. We make frantic phone calls to people, we know, in Jammu to check whether this is the case. Some of the nine ask for cancellation of train tickets. We plan to board the same train, but plan to stop on the way to Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh, instead of proceeding to Jammu.
Friday, 8th February - 10:00 Am - Number shrinks from Nine to Seven as two drop out for personal reasons.
Friday, 8th February - 8:45 Pm - We are on our way to Dalhousie.
We (Pooja, Priya, Sireesh, Rajendra, Abhishek, Vinay and I) reached Chakki Bank railway station, in Pathankot, on Saturday morning at 5:00 in the morning.(~ 490 kms in roughly 8 hours). The city of Pathankot lies in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab and serves as a meeting point of the three nothern states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and J&K. There are two railway stations in Pathankot City- Pathankot railway station and the Chakki Bank railway station. Except for few trains most of the trains use the Chakki Bank railway station.
The name, Chakki Bank, I am assuming derives its name from the river Chakki flowing through Pathankot. Apparently, efforts are underway to rename Chakki Bank - check out this link - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/63159.cms - the trouble is - the article is dated June 2003. Lol.
Reaching Chakki Bank, we decided to hire a innova to take us to Dalhousie (70 kms). The other option was ofcourse to travel to the Pathankot railway station (4 kms) and then board a bus to Dalhousie. The cab driver offered to take us to Dalhousie at an off-season rate of 1800!! Further, he reasoned that since Dalhousie had received a major snowfall since last few days, the bus could take us only so far. Frankly, we didn't have an option. It was around 5:30 in the morning and we were stranded in almost pitch dark at the railway station. But the price - 1800 bucks seemed too steep. So we did the next best thing - we haggled our lives away, till he agreed to take us at off-season discounted rate of 1350 :P.
Hiring a cab, in hindsight, was the right choice, because no sooner did we hit the winding roads taking us uphill into Himachal Pradesh, a few of us developed some serious bowel problems. And we had to take a number of pit-stops or rather puke-stops to make us feel lighter. I cannot imagine a bus stopping that many number of times to accomodate our puking :) Neways, the cabbie also put a movie - Cheeni Kum - on a small video screen - for us to be entertained while we were on our way up. But it was the scenic beauty on offer that kept us captivated most of the time. The movie was no good anyway and in a way only gave us one more reason to look outside.
Our journey uphill was abruptly halted as the road got too dangerous for the innova - leaving us stranded almost 3 kms from Banikhet. The city of Banikhet lies in the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh and from here the road bifurcates - one towards Dalhousie and the other towards Chamba. Banikhet is 7 kms from Dalhousie - meaning we were almost 10 kms away from Dalhousie. The cab driver nonchalantly informed us that we would have trek from here onwards!!
After an hour spent hoping that the road would miraculously get better, we decided to start walking towards Dalhousie. That started, what i would call the highlight of the trip. We partly walked and partly hitchhiked on 4x4's to Banikhet. We lunched at Banikhet before proceeding to trek the remaining 7 kms to Dalhousie.
Here's what the official website of Himachal Pradesh ( http://himachal.nic.in/mapbig.htm) has to say about Dalhousie -
Nestled on the spur at the western end of Dhauladhar, Dalhousie in its present shape was founded in 1850’s when the British acquired five hills from the ruler of the Chamba State for developing the area as a sanatorium. In 1853 the five hills of Kathalagh, Potreyn, Terah (now called Moti Tibba by the locals), Bakrota and Bhangora were acquired by the Govt. of India from his Highness the Raja of Chamba who was allowed a reeducation of Rs. 2000 from the annual tribute of Rs. 12,000 paid by him. Since the estate was founded in the time of Lord Dalhousie the sanatorium was recommended to be called “Dalhousie” by Sir Donald McLeod. You could also visit the website - (http://hpchamba.nic.in/destdalhousie.htm) for getting more travel-related information for Dalhousie.
If ever a written word could fail to do justice to the content - this is one such instance. I cannot possibly begin to explain what it felt like - looking at one breathtaking view after another while trekking up to Dalhousie. Hopefully, some visuals will try to put across the point i am trying to make -
Stranded
Try bettering this for a view
We walk a lonely road.....
sCARy
Picture Perfect
View from the hotel balcony
Hotel Himgiri
To tell you the truth, we were expecting to see a typical hill station. We were told that we would see British row houses nicely lined up. We also planned to visit Khajjiar (described as mini Switzerland), which is only 24 kms away from Dalhousie. But the snow fall changed all that. The roads to Khajjiar were snow-blocked and the British row houses disappeared in the pile of snow. Forget Khajjiar, i couldn't even tell u a thing or two about Dalhousie if you asked me. All we saw there was snow, snow and more snow. One of the locals told us that the last time Dalhousie received this kind of snowfall was in 1970's. (Ya the guy was old enough :)).
But, i couldn't have been happier the way the trip shaped up. We had a ball of a time trekking in snow - and the the whole experience was simply overwhelming. It was like walking in a never-ending white cave. Most travel sites would recommend May onwards as a suitable time to visit Dalhousie. If you are expecting a regular run-of -the-mill hillstation then may be they are right. Methinks, Feb is the time !!!
Looks like Patnitop in Jammu will have to wait :)
The script begins at...
Wednesday, 6th February - 1: 30 Pm - Vinay, Pooja, Priya and I step out of office for a post lunch break.
Wednesday, 6th February - 2: 00 Pm - Out of the blue, we decide that we should plan for a team offsite, the coming weekend. Vinay suggests Patnitop in Jammu as a possible option. Once back in office, we check out pictures of Patnitop on the net. The decision is an unanimous Yes.
Wednesday, 6th February - 5:00 Pm - We take a headcount of the interested people. Most have some or the other plan for the coming weekend. We decide to go ahead with the earlier plan as an unofficial excursion as opposed to a team offsite.
Wednesday, 6th February - 6:00 Pm - We book train tickets for nine (Uttar Sampark Kranti - Delhi to Udhampur).
Thursday, 7th February - 7:00 Pm - TV channels beam images of heavy snowfall in J&K. News is - road to Patnitop would be blocked for next few days. We make frantic phone calls to people, we know, in Jammu to check whether this is the case. Some of the nine ask for cancellation of train tickets. We plan to board the same train, but plan to stop on the way to Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh, instead of proceeding to Jammu.
Friday, 8th February - 10:00 Am - Number shrinks from Nine to Seven as two drop out for personal reasons.
Friday, 8th February - 8:45 Pm - We are on our way to Dalhousie.
We (Pooja, Priya, Sireesh, Rajendra, Abhishek, Vinay and I) reached Chakki Bank railway station, in Pathankot, on Saturday morning at 5:00 in the morning.(~ 490 kms in roughly 8 hours). The city of Pathankot lies in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab and serves as a meeting point of the three nothern states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and J&K. There are two railway stations in Pathankot City- Pathankot railway station and the Chakki Bank railway station. Except for few trains most of the trains use the Chakki Bank railway station.
The name, Chakki Bank, I am assuming derives its name from the river Chakki flowing through Pathankot. Apparently, efforts are underway to rename Chakki Bank - check out this link - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/63159.cms - the trouble is - the article is dated June 2003. Lol.
Reaching Chakki Bank, we decided to hire a innova to take us to Dalhousie (70 kms). The other option was ofcourse to travel to the Pathankot railway station (4 kms) and then board a bus to Dalhousie. The cab driver offered to take us to Dalhousie at an off-season rate of 1800!! Further, he reasoned that since Dalhousie had received a major snowfall since last few days, the bus could take us only so far. Frankly, we didn't have an option. It was around 5:30 in the morning and we were stranded in almost pitch dark at the railway station. But the price - 1800 bucks seemed too steep. So we did the next best thing - we haggled our lives away, till he agreed to take us at off-season discounted rate of 1350 :P.
Hiring a cab, in hindsight, was the right choice, because no sooner did we hit the winding roads taking us uphill into Himachal Pradesh, a few of us developed some serious bowel problems. And we had to take a number of pit-stops or rather puke-stops to make us feel lighter. I cannot imagine a bus stopping that many number of times to accomodate our puking :) Neways, the cabbie also put a movie - Cheeni Kum - on a small video screen - for us to be entertained while we were on our way up. But it was the scenic beauty on offer that kept us captivated most of the time. The movie was no good anyway and in a way only gave us one more reason to look outside.
Our journey uphill was abruptly halted as the road got too dangerous for the innova - leaving us stranded almost 3 kms from Banikhet. The city of Banikhet lies in the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh and from here the road bifurcates - one towards Dalhousie and the other towards Chamba. Banikhet is 7 kms from Dalhousie - meaning we were almost 10 kms away from Dalhousie. The cab driver nonchalantly informed us that we would have trek from here onwards!!
After an hour spent hoping that the road would miraculously get better, we decided to start walking towards Dalhousie. That started, what i would call the highlight of the trip. We partly walked and partly hitchhiked on 4x4's to Banikhet. We lunched at Banikhet before proceeding to trek the remaining 7 kms to Dalhousie.
Here's what the official website of Himachal Pradesh ( http://himachal.nic.in/mapbig.htm) has to say about Dalhousie -
Nestled on the spur at the western end of Dhauladhar, Dalhousie in its present shape was founded in 1850’s when the British acquired five hills from the ruler of the Chamba State for developing the area as a sanatorium. In 1853 the five hills of Kathalagh, Potreyn, Terah (now called Moti Tibba by the locals), Bakrota and Bhangora were acquired by the Govt. of India from his Highness the Raja of Chamba who was allowed a reeducation of Rs. 2000 from the annual tribute of Rs. 12,000 paid by him. Since the estate was founded in the time of Lord Dalhousie the sanatorium was recommended to be called “Dalhousie” by Sir Donald McLeod. You could also visit the website - (http://hpchamba.nic.in/destdalhousie.htm) for getting more travel-related information for Dalhousie.
If ever a written word could fail to do justice to the content - this is one such instance. I cannot possibly begin to explain what it felt like - looking at one breathtaking view after another while trekking up to Dalhousie. Hopefully, some visuals will try to put across the point i am trying to make -
Stranded
Try bettering this for a view
We walk a lonely road.....
sCARy
Picture Perfect
View from the hotel balcony
Hotel HimgiriBut, i couldn't have been happier the way the trip shaped up. We had a ball of a time trekking in snow - and the the whole experience was simply overwhelming. It was like walking in a never-ending white cave. Most travel sites would recommend May onwards as a suitable time to visit Dalhousie. If you are expecting a regular run-of -the-mill hillstation then may be they are right. Methinks, Feb is the time !!!
Looks like Patnitop in Jammu will have to wait :)
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Saturday Blues.....
I woke up today morning with a start. My head was spinning without axis. I raised my palm to check whether i was seeing double. I could see two palms staring right back at me. Maybe i was seeing double. Maybe i raised both my palms. What the heck!! Pondered for a second whether to go back to sleep again. I decided to freshen up instead.
While having my chai, I started thinking about what dream could make my head spin like that. Suddenly out of nowhere, Sigmund Freud and his 'The Interpretation of dreams' flashed across my eyes. Not much scope for interpretation when you can't remember your dream, can you Sigmund? Anyways, spilled my chai on my beloved sports section of the newspaper. Sigmund Freud, please make way for Murphy and his laws. Newspaper was neatly rolled into a blob. Tried shooting hoops with it. This form of entertainment was not going to last long anyways. I decided to switch to reading. I'm currently reading - Khuswant Singh's 'Not a nice man to know'. This piece was about Khuswant's trip to Japan. Boring as hell.
Music. My last hope. After U2's - With or Without You and Cranberries - Animal Instinct it was time for Goo Goo Dolls's Iris .... love this song. This one is dedicated to you "T".
And I'd give up forever to touch you
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now
And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight
And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything seems like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive
And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am.
I feel better already!!!
While having my chai, I started thinking about what dream could make my head spin like that. Suddenly out of nowhere, Sigmund Freud and his 'The Interpretation of dreams' flashed across my eyes. Not much scope for interpretation when you can't remember your dream, can you Sigmund? Anyways, spilled my chai on my beloved sports section of the newspaper. Sigmund Freud, please make way for Murphy and his laws. Newspaper was neatly rolled into a blob. Tried shooting hoops with it. This form of entertainment was not going to last long anyways. I decided to switch to reading. I'm currently reading - Khuswant Singh's 'Not a nice man to know'. This piece was about Khuswant's trip to Japan. Boring as hell.
Music. My last hope. After U2's - With or Without You and Cranberries - Animal Instinct it was time for Goo Goo Dolls's Iris .... love this song. This one is dedicated to you "T".
And I'd give up forever to touch you
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now
And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight
And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything seems like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive
And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am.
I feel better already!!!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Thank Opium for the Rise of Bombay ....
History has always fascinated me as a subject. So, recently when i read a fascinating essay on the 'The unlikely rise of Western India' by Vikram Doctor in one of the supplements of Economic Times, i decided to put a hyperlink of the essay on my blog. Unfortunately, the article was nowhere to be found on the Internet.
So i did the next best thing. I typed out the more meatier passages of the text (Ya i have better things to do in life...but somehow this seemed important too :) Who would have taught Opium could be responsible for the rise of the financial capital of the country. Neways, below are the excerpts:
"During the Mughal period, Surat was one of the richest cities in India, with the Hindu merchants so powerful that even Aurangzeb was conciliatory towards them. And when the gradual silting of the Tapti river diminished Surat’s viability as a port, it was compensated by the growth of Bombay to the South, which had one of the few natural deepwater harbours on the coast.
However, the gap between Surat’s decline in the 17th century and Bombay’s rise at the end of the 19th century is a surprisingly long one, and it fails to explain why the west coast as a whole lagged behind Eastern India’s growth at the same time. From the 18th century till well into the 20th the real economic action was in Eastern India, with Bombay playing an enterprising, but still only a supporting role.
The reason is rooted in geography. The great thrust of the Western Ghats running down most of the West Coast, with no navigable river enabled few easy connections across it to the vast hinterland of the Deccan plateau. This single feature negated Bombay’s deepwater advantages since it meant the city lacked access to the economic resources of its hinterland in the way Calcutta did, with all the products of north and east India – indigo, tea, silk, cotton textiles, jute and coal – flowing down the Hoogly. Lacking an easy outlet Central India failed to develop similar tradable products, and the whole central region of the West Coast developed little external trade other than coastal commerce.
A product was needed to link Western India to global trade, as Indigo initially did in Eastern India. This turned out to be Opium, a product which transformed a backward possession called Bombay. From its start as a part of Catherine of Braganza’s dowry Bombay had never lived to British’s expectations: “A poor little island sniffed the diarist Samuel Pepys in 1663.
All this was to change because of opium, a fact often downplayed in Bombay for the later notoriety of the trade. Recently, however, historian Amar Farooqi had refocused attention on it, arguing that it was critical for the city’s early take-off. “Modern Bombay, in a sense, has its genesis in the poppy fields of Bihar” he writes in the Opium City: The Making of Early Victorian Bombay. Farooqi notes that of the two centres for opium cultivation in India – Bihar and Malwa, the region around Indore – the former was the first one developed for International trade. Started by the Dutch, the trade was greatly expanded by the British, who saw its potential in the Chinese market, where it could be exchanged for much prized tea.
The trade was such a success that the East India Company moved to monopolise it. In 1773 Warren Hastings abolished free trade in opium, and soon every part of the business was tightly controlled by the Company. This left resentful businessmen, both British and Indian, looking for the ways to break into the trade, and Malwa opium suddenly presented an opportunity. The Company’s presence in Western India was weak, and the influence of local merchants with rulers like the Scindias could thwart any attempts to crack down on opium cultivation. Since opium was not too bulky it could be transported easily, even over the Ghats. And if the Company tried stopping sales through Bombay (which it did) there was always Portuguese Daman close by through which consignments could be routed. Businessman stayed in Bombay, but grew rich on Daman Malwa, as the Western Indian opium was called. “This accumulation together with the capital which had become available through a very strong indigenous presence in the commercial activity of Western and Central India, could be channelised into industrial development at Bombay,” writes Farooqi. Opium also helped develop Bombay’s ship building industry, as the traders needed ships, and opium was also a profitable investment for the ship-builders. But if opium gave Bombay traders their kick-start, they were smart enough not to come to depend on it entirely. They invested their profits in other businesses, in building new trade connections and physically building up both the city and the other centres near it, like Ahmedabad.
Claude Markovitz in his paper ‘ Bombay as a Business Centre in the Colonial Period (paper printed in Bombay, Metaphor for Modern India, edited by Sujata Patel and Alice Thorner) points to this far-thinking and flexible approach of Bombay’s business community as the most important reason for the city’s ultimate success over Calcutta. He notes Calcutta’s many advantages, including direct access to government for most of the Raj period and the greater variety of export products at its disposal. Yet Bombay leveraged opium to get going, and when that declined after 1860, the greater flexibility and the greater capacity for innovation of Bombay’s businessmen meant that the impact was far less than was felt in Calcutta after decline of Indigo.
Opium had connected Bombay with its hinterland, and when that was gone the city found another connection is cotton. This grew well in the Deccan, and providentially started enjoying a huge boom once the American Civil War started in 1861. This ended in a major crash, yet it was a sign of how far Bombay had come that the city soon bounced back. It started marketing yarn and cloth in the domestic market, until Lancashire started competing, with all the backing of the British Empire. Bombay turned to the Far East then, and by 1880, 80% of its yarn production went to China. When the Chinese and Japanese started their own mills, Bombay turned back to the domestic market, weaving yarn into cloth and even riding on the back of Swadeshi movement and sell it"
Fascinating piece on History.
It is about time we start celebrating 'Opium Day' in Bombay. Lol.
I have been typing the whole damn essay for close to an hour. Time for cuppa chai,
More Later
So i did the next best thing. I typed out the more meatier passages of the text (Ya i have better things to do in life...but somehow this seemed important too :) Who would have taught Opium could be responsible for the rise of the financial capital of the country. Neways, below are the excerpts:
"During the Mughal period, Surat was one of the richest cities in India, with the Hindu merchants so powerful that even Aurangzeb was conciliatory towards them. And when the gradual silting of the Tapti river diminished Surat’s viability as a port, it was compensated by the growth of Bombay to the South, which had one of the few natural deepwater harbours on the coast.
However, the gap between Surat’s decline in the 17th century and Bombay’s rise at the end of the 19th century is a surprisingly long one, and it fails to explain why the west coast as a whole lagged behind Eastern India’s growth at the same time. From the 18th century till well into the 20th the real economic action was in Eastern India, with Bombay playing an enterprising, but still only a supporting role.
The reason is rooted in geography. The great thrust of the Western Ghats running down most of the West Coast, with no navigable river enabled few easy connections across it to the vast hinterland of the Deccan plateau. This single feature negated Bombay’s deepwater advantages since it meant the city lacked access to the economic resources of its hinterland in the way Calcutta did, with all the products of north and east India – indigo, tea, silk, cotton textiles, jute and coal – flowing down the Hoogly. Lacking an easy outlet Central India failed to develop similar tradable products, and the whole central region of the West Coast developed little external trade other than coastal commerce.
A product was needed to link Western India to global trade, as Indigo initially did in Eastern India. This turned out to be Opium, a product which transformed a backward possession called Bombay. From its start as a part of Catherine of Braganza’s dowry Bombay had never lived to British’s expectations: “A poor little island sniffed the diarist Samuel Pepys in 1663.
All this was to change because of opium, a fact often downplayed in Bombay for the later notoriety of the trade. Recently, however, historian Amar Farooqi had refocused attention on it, arguing that it was critical for the city’s early take-off. “Modern Bombay, in a sense, has its genesis in the poppy fields of Bihar” he writes in the Opium City: The Making of Early Victorian Bombay. Farooqi notes that of the two centres for opium cultivation in India – Bihar and Malwa, the region around Indore – the former was the first one developed for International trade. Started by the Dutch, the trade was greatly expanded by the British, who saw its potential in the Chinese market, where it could be exchanged for much prized tea.
The trade was such a success that the East India Company moved to monopolise it. In 1773 Warren Hastings abolished free trade in opium, and soon every part of the business was tightly controlled by the Company. This left resentful businessmen, both British and Indian, looking for the ways to break into the trade, and Malwa opium suddenly presented an opportunity. The Company’s presence in Western India was weak, and the influence of local merchants with rulers like the Scindias could thwart any attempts to crack down on opium cultivation. Since opium was not too bulky it could be transported easily, even over the Ghats. And if the Company tried stopping sales through Bombay (which it did) there was always Portuguese Daman close by through which consignments could be routed. Businessman stayed in Bombay, but grew rich on Daman Malwa, as the Western Indian opium was called. “This accumulation together with the capital which had become available through a very strong indigenous presence in the commercial activity of Western and Central India, could be channelised into industrial development at Bombay,” writes Farooqi. Opium also helped develop Bombay’s ship building industry, as the traders needed ships, and opium was also a profitable investment for the ship-builders. But if opium gave Bombay traders their kick-start, they were smart enough not to come to depend on it entirely. They invested their profits in other businesses, in building new trade connections and physically building up both the city and the other centres near it, like Ahmedabad.
Claude Markovitz in his paper ‘ Bombay as a Business Centre in the Colonial Period (paper printed in Bombay, Metaphor for Modern India, edited by Sujata Patel and Alice Thorner) points to this far-thinking and flexible approach of Bombay’s business community as the most important reason for the city’s ultimate success over Calcutta. He notes Calcutta’s many advantages, including direct access to government for most of the Raj period and the greater variety of export products at its disposal. Yet Bombay leveraged opium to get going, and when that declined after 1860, the greater flexibility and the greater capacity for innovation of Bombay’s businessmen meant that the impact was far less than was felt in Calcutta after decline of Indigo.
Opium had connected Bombay with its hinterland, and when that was gone the city found another connection is cotton. This grew well in the Deccan, and providentially started enjoying a huge boom once the American Civil War started in 1861. This ended in a major crash, yet it was a sign of how far Bombay had come that the city soon bounced back. It started marketing yarn and cloth in the domestic market, until Lancashire started competing, with all the backing of the British Empire. Bombay turned to the Far East then, and by 1880, 80% of its yarn production went to China. When the Chinese and Japanese started their own mills, Bombay turned back to the domestic market, weaving yarn into cloth and even riding on the back of Swadeshi movement and sell it"
Fascinating piece on History.
It is about time we start celebrating 'Opium Day' in Bombay. Lol.
I have been typing the whole damn essay for close to an hour. Time for cuppa chai,
More Later
Sunday, January 6, 2008
And the winner of 2007 'Foot-in-Mouth' award is.......
Yours truly. tsk tsk.
Just read an article on some of the biggest spoken gaffes of 2007 on wired.com - http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2005/12/69904. Can't help thinking i have not one but three very recent instances to put forward my candidature. Following is the hallowed list -
1. 'Foot-in-Mouth' Gaffe # 1 - AR Rahman's concert in Delhi was his first in India.
I had written the above line in one of my earlier blogs - no you won't find it now, it has miraculously disappeared :). I would have swore, that was what i was told. The truth revealed itself when i happened to Google my own name ( i believe everyone should Google his/her name, trust me you'll be surprised to see some of the stuff written about you). On googling my name - i was directed to a site for ARRahman fans with the following comment -
"To this blogger Anand Phene (Mumbai/Gurgaon) Delhi Concert is ARR's first performance in India? Why he blogs with wrong information?"
The other comments in the forum following the above one further confirmed my ignorance. Clearly, it wasn't ARR's first performance in India. It so happened that I was told that it was his first live concert. That "in the Capital City" was conveniently left out. Having said that, i wouldn't even vouch for the fact that this was his first live concert in Delhi.
That apart, I never thought of my ramblings on this blog as a source of "authentic information". And that people should look upon it as one. Looks like i am dead wrong. It is, i guess, assumed that the author of the blog has verified the authenticity of the information and is reasonably sure of what he is publishing. Can almost hear blog readers whispering 'Make that dead sure'.
2. 'Foot-in-Mouth' Gaffe # 2 - Mumbai is safe for women.
I have lost count of the number of times, i have used the above line to defend Mumbai to fellow north-Indians (read as allegiance towards New Delhi). The debate on claim to a 'better city' has never been settled successfully with both sides parroting the same age-less points. But the incident on New Year's Eve has laid hollow any such claim of mine. What a shame for a great city!!
And i guess, saying that the city is safe in general, except for some stray incidents like the one on New Years Eve, is at best denying the presence of an elephant in the room. It wasn't a case of one or two miscreants indulging in eve-teasing, but a mob attacking women. That is just crazy. This is not some third-world country. This is aamchi Mumbai, we are talking about. I hope the punishment to the perpetrators befits the crime and that punishment is swift enough and aimed at setting a precedent. And for those who claim that the perpetrators are not from mumbai - i would just say that even if this was the case - just like we celebrate achievements of say an Amitabh Bachchan or a Dhirubhai Ambani, who relocated to Mumbai, as a feather in Mumbai's cap, this incident sadly should go down against us as well.
3. 'Foot-in-Mouth' Gaffe # 3 - India winning Test series in Australia.
This one is the mother of all. In one of my earlier post - You are going down (December 13, 2007), i had predicted that India might just surprise the home-side. I couldn't have been more wrong. Agreed that the basic premise for the prediction was that India avoids losing the first test, which didn't happen, but still, this qualifies as the mother of all gaffes.
Hours ago, I just saw the Indian side lose three wickets in the space of 5 balls to lose the Sydney test. The score-line after two completed tests reads 2-0 - Australia cannot lose the series and hence will retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy. Saying that the two B's - Benson and Bucknor - played a huge role in ensuring the sydney result - is nothing more than an excuse.
I have followed India's fortune on the cricketing field for as long as i can remember. For years, i have seen glaring umpiring errors turn the course of the match against India. Remember, Steve Bucknor giving Jonty Rhodes not out.. who went to score 80-90 odd runs and saving the match, or steve bucknor giving Steve Waugh and Damien Martyn reprieve for Australia to draw the sydney test - denying us a certain series victory in Australia last time around.
Yes, any Indian fan will agree that umpiring errors harming an India cause - to - errors benefiting India over the years have not evened out and that somehow the errors have miraculously done more harm, than an odd bad decision normally does, such as turned the outcome of the match or even the series. Kid yourself whichever way you want, but the fact of the matter, is we lack the mental strength to slug it out when things don't go our way and we let the decisions affect us more than the decision should. Australia in this series have clearly been a superior side and i don't blame the almighty for siding with them.
It is 2008, and the above gaffes are history already :) Hopefully ARR will perform again in Delhi and that Mumbai will be safe for everyone once again and India will start winning test matches...and hopefully i will keep both my feet at a fair distance from my mouth.... amen to that!!
Just read an article on some of the biggest spoken gaffes of 2007 on wired.com - http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2005/12/69904. Can't help thinking i have not one but three very recent instances to put forward my candidature. Following is the hallowed list -
1. 'Foot-in-Mouth' Gaffe # 1 - AR Rahman's concert in Delhi was his first in India.
I had written the above line in one of my earlier blogs - no you won't find it now, it has miraculously disappeared :). I would have swore, that was what i was told. The truth revealed itself when i happened to Google my own name ( i believe everyone should Google his/her name, trust me you'll be surprised to see some of the stuff written about you). On googling my name - i was directed to a site for ARRahman fans with the following comment -
"To this blogger Anand Phene (Mumbai/Gurgaon) Delhi Concert is ARR's first performance in India? Why he blogs with wrong information?"
The other comments in the forum following the above one further confirmed my ignorance. Clearly, it wasn't ARR's first performance in India. It so happened that I was told that it was his first live concert. That "in the Capital City" was conveniently left out. Having said that, i wouldn't even vouch for the fact that this was his first live concert in Delhi.
That apart, I never thought of my ramblings on this blog as a source of "authentic information". And that people should look upon it as one. Looks like i am dead wrong. It is, i guess, assumed that the author of the blog has verified the authenticity of the information and is reasonably sure of what he is publishing. Can almost hear blog readers whispering 'Make that dead sure'.
2. 'Foot-in-Mouth' Gaffe # 2 - Mumbai is safe for women.
I have lost count of the number of times, i have used the above line to defend Mumbai to fellow north-Indians (read as allegiance towards New Delhi). The debate on claim to a 'better city' has never been settled successfully with both sides parroting the same age-less points. But the incident on New Year's Eve has laid hollow any such claim of mine. What a shame for a great city!!
And i guess, saying that the city is safe in general, except for some stray incidents like the one on New Years Eve, is at best denying the presence of an elephant in the room. It wasn't a case of one or two miscreants indulging in eve-teasing, but a mob attacking women. That is just crazy. This is not some third-world country. This is aamchi Mumbai, we are talking about. I hope the punishment to the perpetrators befits the crime and that punishment is swift enough and aimed at setting a precedent. And for those who claim that the perpetrators are not from mumbai - i would just say that even if this was the case - just like we celebrate achievements of say an Amitabh Bachchan or a Dhirubhai Ambani, who relocated to Mumbai, as a feather in Mumbai's cap, this incident sadly should go down against us as well.
3. 'Foot-in-Mouth' Gaffe # 3 - India winning Test series in Australia.
This one is the mother of all. In one of my earlier post - You are going down (December 13, 2007), i had predicted that India might just surprise the home-side. I couldn't have been more wrong. Agreed that the basic premise for the prediction was that India avoids losing the first test, which didn't happen, but still, this qualifies as the mother of all gaffes.
Hours ago, I just saw the Indian side lose three wickets in the space of 5 balls to lose the Sydney test. The score-line after two completed tests reads 2-0 - Australia cannot lose the series and hence will retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy. Saying that the two B's - Benson and Bucknor - played a huge role in ensuring the sydney result - is nothing more than an excuse.
I have followed India's fortune on the cricketing field for as long as i can remember. For years, i have seen glaring umpiring errors turn the course of the match against India. Remember, Steve Bucknor giving Jonty Rhodes not out.. who went to score 80-90 odd runs and saving the match, or steve bucknor giving Steve Waugh and Damien Martyn reprieve for Australia to draw the sydney test - denying us a certain series victory in Australia last time around.
Yes, any Indian fan will agree that umpiring errors harming an India cause - to - errors benefiting India over the years have not evened out and that somehow the errors have miraculously done more harm, than an odd bad decision normally does, such as turned the outcome of the match or even the series. Kid yourself whichever way you want, but the fact of the matter, is we lack the mental strength to slug it out when things don't go our way and we let the decisions affect us more than the decision should. Australia in this series have clearly been a superior side and i don't blame the almighty for siding with them.
It is 2008, and the above gaffes are history already :) Hopefully ARR will perform again in Delhi and that Mumbai will be safe for everyone once again and India will start winning test matches...and hopefully i will keep both my feet at a fair distance from my mouth.... amen to that!!
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