The Phoenix Muses...

Emu Farming and India

2012-01-23T00:07:00.000+05:30

Ihave followed with interest (and some trepidation) the media coverage ofcommercial Emu farming that is gaining popularity around the country. Thevolume of information obtained by an internet search on the subject is indicativeof the marketing activities focused at luring farmers to easy money.

Overthe past couple of days I have also searched the internet, albeit withoutsuccess, for endorsements and environmental clearances from appropriate Governmentdepartments on Emu-farming. I am left wondering whether appropriate ecologicalimpact analysis was carried out before Emu-farming was commercially introducedinto the country.

This bringsforth my nagging fear about the bird going feral in the Indian hinterland. TheEmu is an exotic species without any natural predators in our ecosystem.Accidental or intentional release of mating pairs of these birds in the wildcould establish a feral population in the wild. They would ravage crops and fruits,as well as populations of indigenous insects and small amphibians, alreadyreeling under the indiscriminate use of pesticides.

Ihave blogged in the past on theenvironmental and economic impact of invasive species. We are acutely aware ofthe detrimental environmental, health and economic impact of invasive speciessuch as Parthenium and Lantana in our country. Nations across the globe also bear the economicburden of managing feral animal populations. In Australia in particular, rabbitsto camels (and many animals in-between) have been released from livestock intothe wild by early settlers - out of love or ignorance. Exploding populations ofthese feral animals have necessitated allocation of large government funds forpest management. While contributing to the national GNP and creating exotic professionssuch as feral boar-hunting, such funds could definitely be put to better useelsewhere in the economy. Emus have been known feral culprits in the Australianoutback, necessitating culling on war footing.

Thereare thriving Emu farms in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Emu meat reportedlysells at around Rs.450/= per kg in Bangalore, way above the price of the pale poultry.Manifestos have been written on the virtues of the fat-free Emu meat. It isalso claimed that almost every part of an Emu can be commercialised, creating alucrative picture for Emu-farming to the debt-ridden Indian farmer, currently contemplatinga rope from the branch of the nearest tree.

Butdo we have the capability (and appetite) of controlling this (and other) alienspecies ? The glimmer of my hope lies squarely on the hungry millions in India,capable of decimating any avian population, feral or otherwise. Though biggerthan a goat, an Emu is a bird, nonetheless. The flight fancy of the flightlesswonder might well remain unrealized in India.

Thatis, if the animal rights brigade doesn’t clamour a prohibition to such jolly huntingand feasting !

Pictures and Memories - The Ladakh Journey - V

2012-01-10T15:23:00.000+05:30

LeavingLeh around 8.00am, we travelled the Leh-Manali Highway to Upshi, crossed theIndus at the Mahe bridge and drove along the Indus towards Puga. We reached thePuga Sumdoh (literally meaning ‘the crossing at Puga’) in the afternoon. The sumdoh near Puga village is an important3-way intersection, leading to Leh, Tso Moriri and Tso Kar (and onward toManali via Rohtang). Of course, there are no road signs and nor many souls toseek directions. We reached Tso Moriri late early in the evening.

(Click images to enlarge)

Flocksof Bar-Headed Geese rested with their chicks along the water’s edge. The geeselay eggs and raise their young here during the summer and migrate to the Indianplains in winter. I have myself seen Bar-Headed Geese at the Veer reservoirnear Pune (Maharashtra) and at Kaziranga (Assam) during the winter. Marshes onthe periphery of the lake support rich avifauna and is now protected as awetland bio-reserve.

The nextday, we retraced the road till Puga Sumdoh and turned to Tso Kar. There aregeo-thermal springs near Thukjey village not far from Puga and the smell ofsulphur filled the air as we neared. In the wetlands to the left of the roadwere flocks of water birds, mostly waders. In the distance were two pairs of black-necked cranes, too far out to bephotographed. We stopped more than half an hour to watch the cranes waltzingand feeding. Native to the Tibetan plateau and revered by locals, these cranes arenow endangered due to loss of habitat in their homeland and poaching duringtheir winter migration to the Indian plains.

Therewere marmots (theLong-Tailed Marmot and the Himalayan Marmot) aplenty on the way, as well aspacks of wild yak. Near Polokongka La, we saw the first lone kiang – the Tibetan wild ass. The valley was strewn with clumpsof wild summer bloom.

Wedrove past settlements of the Changpa nomads at the pass and the valley around.These nomads raise yaks and graze their flocks of sheep in the rolling aridvalleys.

Wereached Tso Kar in the afternoon.

Thewater of Tso Kar is crystal-clear and brackish. There is a dusty trail on theedge of the lake.

As wedrove around the lake, a herd of about 11 Kiangs galloped across the trail aheadof our vehicle, They stood in a line, alert and watching us from a distance.After sometime, they adjudged us harmless and dispersed to forage. The wetlandson the water’s edge had plenty of waders.

Nextmorning we took the Leh-Manali highway driving across the large plateau calledthe More Plain, to reach Pang.

Pangis a cluster of tents in summer where bikers rest overnight on their drive toLeh.

Thetents at Pang offer the basics of life to the traveller, including a cot andblankets at Rs.100/= per night.

LachulungLa at 16,616 feet is the last of the high altitude passes en-route Manali.

Theair is chilly and sheet ice glistens under the midday summer sun at thepass.

Landslideson the mountain roads are constant reminders of our struggle against the forcesof nature. Road repair crews from the nearest Border Roads Organization (BRO)staff lines appear almost from nowhere to clear debris and keep roadsmotorable. Once again, hats off to the BRO and its incessant efforts, that wemanaged to adhere to our travel plan.

(Travelogueto be concluded)

Pictures and Memories - The Ladakh Journey - IV

2011-12-25T00:28:00.001+05:30

Ournext excursion was for Tso Pangong (Pangong Lake). Driving from Leh we crossed the Chang La pass to reach Pangong. We encountered summer snowfall on theway

ChangLa top had the now-familiar gompa(shrine) draped in prayer flags

Anarmy convoy began rolling out from the top as we parked

The roaddownhill from Chang La - wet patches are from melting snow deposited by vehiclewheels

Onwardto Tso Pangong…

Agaggle of black-headed gulls greet visitors at the water’s edge at Tso Pangong.One of the largest lakes in Ladakh, Pangong is more than 130km long and about5km at its widest. A land-locked endorheic lake, The Pangong does not flow out into any river orstream, water being lost only to evaporation and seepage. About 60% of the lakelies in China

Thewater of the lake changes hues with reflected light throughout the day…

Thereare a few basic tented accommodations on the bank of the lake. The double-beddedfield tents are sturdy and well-secured to stand-up to the chilly winds thatblow down the hills and across the water. The wind carries pale dust as fine astalcum powder, that is continuously deposited on all exposed surfaces

The rocksare mossy, the water crystal clear and extremely salty. Evaporationcontinuously increases the concentration of minerals in the water. The salinityof the water is a surprise, given that we usually expect lakes to be freshwater!

Aseverywhere, the faithful build prayer columns beside the lake

Movingon - Tso Kiagar, en route Tso Moriri

Thedrive to Tso Moriri, through hills of slithering gravel

TsoMoriri is reached mostly by following tracks. There are no roads, roadsignsor residents to provide directions…

Pictures and Memories - The Ladakh Journey - III

2011-12-09T02:51:00.001+05:30

Thenext leg of our Ladakh trip took us north of Leh to the Nubra valley via KhardungLa. Khardung La is the highest motorable road in the country, cutting through themountain ranges at 18,380 feet. The pass has a shrine engulfed in a cloud of flutteringprayer flags, offered by passing devotees.

TheSrinagar-Leh National Highway (NH-1D) is cleared of snow and opened to civiliantraffic only around mid-June every year, remaining snow-bound and inaccessiblefor more than half the year. Journeying across Ladakh, one is humbled by the untiringeffort and commitment of the Army and the Border Roads Organization that ensureroads remain motorable in remote mountainous terrain, through hostile climate andinclement weather conditions.

Wewere forewarned not to halt too long at the Khardung La, in order to avoid illeffects of the rarefied air. The pass has a small canteen run by the Armyregiment posted in the area, that sells hot black ‘masala chai’, veg momos andof course, piping hot Maggi. Posters on the wall script the virtuesof drinking black tea and eating Maggi !

The 'JULLY' (pronounced - jooley) in the poster is the local equivalent of 'namastey'. Everyone begins a conversation - specially with a visitor - with this greeting. It was recommended that we use this greeting frequently in our conversations with friendly locals.

Travelling across the mountains in our MUV, we were amazed to pass teams of cyclists pedalling up steep gradients in the rarified air laden with their camping gear - including ladies and gents who appeared to be riding on theirown. Most of these intrepid cyclists were visiting foreigners. Chatting with themI was amazed to know that some of them have made repeated cycling expeditionsto Ladakh.

Ladakhis a veritable paradise for geologist and geography students, with varied topographyand rock formations, some of which are possibly unique in India. We travelledbeyond Diskit to see the high altitude sand dunes, on the banks of the river Shyok near Hunder. Sand dunes at an elevation of over 10,000 feet are aweinspiring.

TheShyok is just a shallow stream at Hunder, as it flows down the valley.Summer is a blessed relief and time for celebrations in snow-bound Ladakh. We found a bus-full of school children frolicking in the chilled water - some dipped in theminimum of clothing, while a couple of small boys were into the water in their school uniform - shoes, ties, blazer and all. Clicking them would make a mockery oftheir unhindered jubilation, I felt.

The glacier-fedShyok, a tributary of the mighty Indus, flows subdued through the wide Hundervalley.

A drivealong the vast sandy riverbed allows one to appreciate how wide and mighty theriver may have once been. It would be fascinating to understand the reasons forthis spectacular transformation.

The sunis intense on a summer day - but peeling off clothing and putting ones footinto the flowing stream may not be as pleasant as expected. Ladakh is oneof those fascinating places where one can get sunburnt and chilled, at the sametime. High altitude UV radiation quickly burns the skin and the flowingwater in the stream comes from melting glaciers, so cold that the foot goesnumb. Full-sleeves and a heavy sunscreen is recommended and as well as trying the waterbefore dipping !

Downstream, the Shyok joins the river Nubra and the confluence flowsinto the scenic Nubra valley.

The well-irrigated Nubra valley stands out as a green oasis amidst thebarren Ladakhi landscape. The woods and thickets in the valley support rich avifauna,with the black-billed magpie conspicuous all around.

While there were summer clouds in parts of Ladakh during our visit,rains were very light drizzles, at most. This frame was shot facing east, withthe sun dazzling behind heavy clouds hanging over the Nubra valley. Our speedingvehicle blurred the foreground.

Ladakh lies on the leeward side of the Karakoram ranges and istherefore deprived of heavy showers, leaving the land parched and barren. This landscape near Tirich Tso, is typical. People have painstakingly laid stones to mark out a track

Almost the entire annual precipitation in Ladakh is in the form ofsnowfall.
But Trust the ‘RainMan’. Imust share that we received rainfall with all the flash and bang, during oursecond night in the Nubra valley. It rained so heavily that I woke up in thedark of the night, alarmed if our tent would cave in. I became worriedwhether roads would get snowed-over, delaying our return to Leh. The weather-prooftent held through the rain and wind. And in the bright blue morning, the only traceof overnight rain was the damp soil and the glistening sheet of fresh snowon the hilltops all around.

This frame taken while returning to Leh from the Nubra valley isanother typical topography. The land is hard-baked almost to stone, the ‘rain-bearing’clouds are surreal, deceptive and the soil erosion is due to water run-off frommelting winter snow.

Pictures and Memories : The Ladakh Journey - II

2011-11-28T15:53:00.001+05:30

It is common to find streamers ofprayer flags strung across peaks and mountain passes all over Ladakh (and otherhill-tracts of India having significant Buddhist populations). View offluttering streamers spanning hillocks next to the Royal Palace In Leh

The Shanti Stupa is a Buddhistchorten on a hilltop at Chanspaadjacent to Leh town. The stupa dedicated to world peace was built by theJapanese monk Gyomyo Nakamura in 1991 and consecrated by HH the 14^thDalai Lama. A walk around the stupa offers a 360-degree panoramic view of theterrain around Leh. Restoration was underway when we visited the stupa

Close-up of Shakyamuni mural at theShanti Stupa, highlighting Japanese inscriptions

Detail of boddhisatva mural at thestupa

Maintenance and restoration was underwayat the Shanti Stupa when we visited

We met this venerable Lama as we climbed upthe steep stairs to the Hemis monastery

Devotee prays turning the prayer wheelduring the festival at Hemis monastery

Lamas of all ages were in attendance atHemis

Shtakna gompa (monastery) of theDrukpa sect stands on a hillock on the bank of the river Indus, about 25 kmfrom Leh. Established in the 16^th century by a Bhutanese monk and scholar,the word Shtakna means “tiger’s nose”

The Thiksey gompa of the Gelugpa(Yellow Hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhists, is said to resemble the Potala Palace,the original seat of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa. Located about 19km east of Leh atan altitude of above 11,000ft, this gompa is a 12-storied complex housingprecious Buddhist religious artifacts.

Fruity lore

2011-10-13T17:18:00.000+05:30

Unfoldingthe newspaper yesterday morning, I was taken aback by the front-page headlinedeclaring the guava as the healthiest of fruits.

Whilemy grandparents praised the guava, I had not realized that it was the healthiest.And what is a ‘healthy’ fruit anyway ? Fruits have always been food for Indians,eaten for nutrition and health. I was curious to understand how the humbleguava became topper. Reading on, I learnt that ‘healthy’ in this case was ameasure of the abundance of antioxidants in the fruit. That a certain institutehad evaluated 14 fresh fruits commonly consumed in the country and found that theguava contained the highest quantities of anti-oxidants.

Weconsume fruits for their food value – as a source of energy, roughage andessential micro-nutrients. Anti-oxidant content is only one of the several meansof identifying a fruit as superior to others. The headline almost portrays theguava as the best fruit available for the common man, the manna from heaven forthe millions of Indians who toil to eat one square meal a day. At the other endof the economic spectrum, this news also strokes the upwardly mobile urbanite, well-fedenough to choose food items by their antioxidant content.

Adearth of sensational news on this particular day had catapulted the humbleguava to front page ‘breaking news’. How casual our news reporting has become. Contextmanagement, controlling the availability of information, dearth of knowledgeand at times, ulterior motives and common agenda end up influencing readers - Firingup imaginations, fueling passions and nurturing fads. Driven by suchstupendous discoveries, the guava will become ‘cool’ and too hot to be digestedby the common Indian. The aam admiwill learn to be satisfied with cheap mangoes.

Thisnews item also underlines how as a nation, we remain far behind leading-edge research.Although early studies abroad suggested that antioxidants may promotehealth, large clinical trials have since been unable to establish benefits and insteadsuggest that excessive supplementation may be harmful.

Anyway,I am hoping that someone abroad hasn’t already filed for a patent on the guavagenome, preparing to consign the bicycle-borne guava seller by our roadside to history.I am reminded of the travelling fruit hawker from my childhood, trudging downthe lane with a large cane basket on his head, crying ‘panifal singara’.

Waterchestnuts, anyone ?

Glimpses of the festivities last week...

2011-10-13T00:52:00.004+05:30

Durga Puja at the Bengalee Association, Bangalore

Durga at the Bengalee Association, Bangalore

My screensaver of the month

Cactus rocks @Indiranagar, Durga Puja, 2011

Pota rocks with Cactus @Indiranaagar, Durga Puja, 2011

Pictures and Memories : The Ladakh Journey - I

2011-10-11T02:13:00.002+05:30

Acouple of airtight boxes have been lying in the cupboard for sometime, loaded with colourtransparencies (Fuji Velvia was my favourite film stock for TPs, as we used to callthem) - treasures from a couple ofdecades of sporadic photography. Not to mention the additional shoe boxes packed withcolour and B&W film negatives in polyester sleeves.
Over the years I havebeen dispassionate enough not to devote time to catalogue and scan the TPs tothe digital age and offering a new lease of life. Today I have resolved to spend a couple of hours every day to begin organizingmy digital photographs of more recent vintage. I began with the most recent photographs…

Here are somememories of my first trip to Ladakh during July this year, by road through Srinagar- Kargil - Leh - Nubra - Pangong - Tso Moriri - Tso Kar - Jispa - Manali -Delhi.

Frame#1 – The Black Pavilion in the Shalimar Baghnear Srinagar. This sprawling Mughal terraced garden with fountains and waterbodies on the bank of the Dal Lake is a popular location for family outings.Vandalized over centuries like most other historical architecture in our country,the Pavilion now stands desolate and unkempt behind steel net fencing. At aglance, the stone columns of the Pavilion bear an interesting resemblance to columnsin South Indian temples.

Frame #2 – The gardenbuilt in the early 17^th Century by Emperor Jahangir has gravity-drivenwater cascades and fountains and served as his imperial summer retreat and royalcourt. The Emperor and his entire court entourage are known to have travelledto Srinagar from Delhi at least a dozen times, crossing the Pir Panjal mountainranges on the way on elephant back.

Whilewe visited the garden in the height of summer with the holiday crowd millingaround, I could only imagine how beautiful it would be on an early autumn morning.
Frame#3 – A little girl plays hide and seek with friends in the garden

Frame #4 – Summerbloom at the Nishat Baghon the bank of Dal Lake

Frame#5 – A glacier on the Soemarg - Kargil road

Frame #6 + #7 - Coupleof views on the Sonemarg - Kargil route

Frame #8 – Locals bythe roadside in Drass town

Frame #9 – Thewindswept Fotu La (La = Mountain Pass) beyond Kargil town, where our gentle guideand chauffeur, Norbu put up a prayer flag. At about 13,500 feet, Fotu La is thehighest point in the Srinagar-Leh road (National Highway - 1D) and is higherthan Zoji La, which made headlines during Indo-Pak conflicts.

Frame#10 – A majestic Ladakh landscape in this wide-angle frame taken during the driveinto Leh. On a straight, flat stretch of road near the “Magnetic Hill”,about 30kms from Leh

Autumn is in the air...

2011-10-07T22:01:00.002+05:30

Re-living the past

2011-09-28T01:46:00.000+05:30

Hestepped and hopped about his nocturnal exploration and almost jumped into abottomless chasm. He clung on for dear life, to the slippery smooth cold metal onthe lip of the abyss. Carefully shifting his body weight he pivoted himself ontothe expanse ahead. Land here felt very different – smooth, lifeless and cold.But was surely preferable to a fall, which might have been nasty, even fatal.

Suddenlythe land was flooded with bright light, it wasn’t the sun, though. And somehuge predator almost came crashing down on him. Jumping to save his life yetagain, he hit the end of land, slid and crash-landed. He lay there, dazed. Allthe while the land kept hurtling skywards, crushing him down.

Atlong last, the land stopped moving and quaking. The great predator moved away. Theheavens appeared to close down and the stunning bright light was suddenly doused.Even in this strange land, the darkness offered a semblance of comfort. But a sliverof light shone ahead, tantalizingly beckoned further exploration. He creptahead into another land flooded with the bright light that he was now becomingaccustomed to. Still exploring, he crawled straight into the inviting darkness ofmy neighbour's fourth floor apartment. An intruder silently breached lockeddoors that night, while the residents lived through their wonderful dreams.

Hecrept into a cool corner. Behind a shoe rack ? After he had calmedhimself, the genetic programming of millions of years took over and he began hisrasping call. Not the low tone call to a mate, but his signature tune -announcing his arrival to the apartment and the world at large. His shrill callshattered the peace of the night. Through the haze of deep sleep it was distantat first but steadily became proximal, persistent and irritating. It was arude awakening for the Kumar family.

Theywould have all come out of bed in crumpled night-dresses, surprised and irritatedby the intrusion. Armed with flashlights and brooms, the entire family wouldhave initiated a mission to “seek and evict”, rummaging all dark recesses oftheir home. The coordinated efforts of three human brains would have quicklylocated him behind the shoe rack. He would have felt the vibrations comenearer and halted his call, in alarm. But it would have been too late by then. Hewould have cowered in his corner under this sudden spot of bright light,exposed and frightened.

Aquick swish of a broom would have sent him sliding out, rolling helplesslyacross the smooth floor and under the door, crashing headlong onto the wall ofthe corridor.

Helay still for some time, hurt and dazed. Eventually he rolled upright,stretched his wings and limbs, brushed his antennae and wiped his eyes -confirming that he had survived yet another ordeal, in one piece !

So, I now have this cricket screeching somewhere in my bathroom.
As I try to settle into a comfortable slumberafter a long day at work, I am far from being enthralled…

songs of serendipity

2008-04-09T01:08:00.008+05:30

the phoenix struggles
to rise yet again
in the trepidation of a brave new world
where monoliths charm
to unite in some megalithic dream

hope
serenaded by the fleeting songbird
lives rapturous
blissfully unaware
of nine lives
running out
in eons ahead …

shifted base

2007-08-27T01:38:00.000+05:30

to the place that promises quality excellence, from cow to consumer

and lay low, turning almost into sedimentary rock...

another muted prayer

2006-10-13T03:16:00.000+05:30

for reason,
in these times of strife...

may the red flag flutter ever higher

2006-10-12T04:21:00.000+05:30

Nuclear Korea - way to go !

creativity@work, did i say ?

2006-10-11T03:02:00.000+05:30

the heartless moon stares
across a sea of shining black

while the relentless monotone

of ceaseless blacksmiths

hammer emotions

into begging bowls.

weary desires reach out

to stone the mirror

shattering reflections

to free shards of dreams

piercing my heart

in blue pain.

wisps of haze

escape tender wild lips

laced with the desire

of bitter nicotine

in erupting spirals

of dazzling tungsten.

searing songs of silence soothing

i penned so long ago

gazing the vista

of blossoms in sunshine

lingering waves of myriad mirages

in wavy curtains of spring rain;

that danced

in your brown eyes...

a mute prayer

2006-10-10T05:06:00.001+05:30

for love,

in these times of strife…

Here n There...

2006-09-08T04:04:00.000+05:30

MBBS in China advertisements appear no more. Kudos to the scrupulous Management at the Times Of India !

Using “MBBS in China” in a Google search continues to throw-up a long list of websites of unscrupulous agencies happily duping unsuspecting Indian students.

Remember seeing that hulk of a Amby or Matador minivan stripped and abandoned, rusting by the dusty roadside ? As we rush headlong into a “use and throw” (read “use and litter”) lifestyle, do i really care about recycling and disposing my waste in a manner that is environmentally sound ? The EU has norms even for disposing scrapped cars. In our dreaming-to-be-superpower desh, that is nothing short of a mirage !

The continuing saga of paradise lost

The festive traveling season is just round the corner. If you are visiting Thailand, please refrain from eating shark-fin soup. Shark “finning” is a controversial and wasteful fishery practice, driven by an ever-increasing population of the affluent, which conservationists are beginning to highlight

City rat, country rat - data suggests that Leptospira prefers the excitement of the big city

Interesting reading - Bonfire of the brands

Death comes easy

2006-08-31T03:59:00.000+05:30

Earlier this year, pro-whaling nations won a vote by the narrowest margin (33-32, with 1 abstention) to implement a “sustainable consumptive use of whale stocks".

Japan

has declared its intention to double its catch of minke whales for “scientific research”. This annual catch will also include - for the first time since the International Whaling Commission (IWC) imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986 - at least 50 each of humpback and fin whales for research. There is, of course, no independent verification of the number of whales actually taken. Catch sizes are voluntary declarations, the real number of whales killed could be substantially higher.

Japan

maintains that hunting whales is a part of its cultural heritage, which other nations have no right to condemn. Commercial interests dictate the warped logic that an increased whale populations have led to the depletion of global fisheries stocks. But there are contradictory claims that a glut in the Japanese markets have led to whale meat being sold as pet food.

On another note, researchers are now developing a “scooping” technique to accurately measure the age of whales, without having to kill them. “If the technique works, it would put a large nail in the coffin of

Japan

's argument for a scientific whaling programme," says Phil Clapham, a whale biologist at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, Washington.

Nature, it appears, is easily flogged.

plunder, plunder everywhere...

2006-08-26T03:45:00.000+05:30

Let it bleed - The depraved logic driving the continual plunder of our natural resources

sanity, revisited

2006-08-24T04:01:00.000+05:30

Fluttering shimmer
Scarves in the wind
Toiling handlooms
High designs
Of calloused hands
Smothering mountains
Single-handed.

Milking cows
Drinking elephants
Green cards
Java codes
Monkey willing
The Superpower shall emerge
Resplendent in ochre
From glowing embers
Of our pristine Sati.

Bow low, ye all
At the lotus feet
Of the spaghetti-topped diva

-- Mumblings of the Sane

Change Manager

2006-08-24T03:45:00.000+05:30

Poverty alleviator and a quiet contributor to social change - an interesting reading at TCSDaily, on Wal-Mart 's impact on global economics

whatahit...

2006-08-22T23:15:00.000+05:30

Milking cows, drinking elephants.

The Monkey willing, The Superpower shall emerge glowing from this darkness.

As gen-X says - i`m to be liking it !

Bismillah and his shehnai...

2006-08-22T05:04:00.000+05:30

Ustad Bismillah Khan (1916-2006) passed away yesterday.

Ever since i (and whole generations) began to appreciate music, the name Bismillah was synonymous with the shehnai. i have persisting childhood memories of cool winter evenings, marriage receptions, the delicate fragrance of attar sprayed in the air and the sweet strains of the shehnai over the music system. The Ustad’s name slowly rotating on the red label on the LP record.

The last time i watched him perform with his entourage (his accompanists were all his family - sons, grandsons and cousins) was at the Music Academy in Chennai, Oct 2002. What magical melody and power came from the lungs of the frail-looking master ! The ragas leapt melodious heights the moment the rakish baritone of his shehnai joined in. i sat there awestruck, listening to his playful jugalbandi with the tabla.

He was already old and professed his inability to play continuously for very long. But even then, he serenaded us over a couple of hours. Sitting on the dais cross-legged and erect, his hallmark cap perched on his grey hairs, he belied his advanced age. He was 87.

He spoke to the mesmerized audience in earnest – and a child-like frankness - of his years of taalim and the time he spent in rewaaz everyday. How he wished there would be schools where pupils would learn music in the guru-shishya tradition. He lamented the young generation forsaking the country’s rich musical tradition and musicians eager for early commercial success without committing to the rigours of achievement. As always, he minced no words, he spoke straight from his heart.

The auditorium hosted two stalwarts of Indian music that evening - the Ustad and A R Rahman. Rahman could only speak Tamil and English, while Ustadji spoke Urdu and Hindi. As he wrapped a shawl around Rahman, the Ustad remarked that even though he did not remember listening to his music, he knew that AR was a famous and successful musician. Far more successful than he was himself ! An observation loaded with irony. The two maestros, from far ends of the Indian music spectrum, briefly exchanged pleasantries, with the compere for the evening doubling up as their interpreter.

That was not so long ago.

But writing these lines today, it is a sad realization that curtains have come down on another great act. Another pantheon of Indian classical music has succumbed to time - leaving behind memories and sweet music for the ears.

Docs from China

2006-08-19T03:58:00.000+05:30

This is college admission season and am pleasantly surprised by the absence of the multitudes of MBBS in China (with pagoda and all) advertisements which adorned the classifieds section of the Times Of India, till last year.

The one advertisement that still appears with regularity in the TOI, Pune reads :

MBBS in China
Choice of 8 Top Rank Uni.
English Medium
Eligibility min 50%in 12^th
MCI Curriculum
WHO & GOVT. Recognized
300 Students already studying
GATEWAY Overseas Education
24275037 / 9890799993

i thank the Management of The Times of India for their sense of responsibility to the aam janta by not printing those pagoda advertisements any more. Would appreciate if the above could also go off print.

The novel menace is the regular (TOI, Pune 7 / 8 / 9 Aug 2006 and many more) Study in Russis - MBBS - BDS - MD - MS advertisement inserted with the contact details of Dr. Suhas Mane MD (Russia) #020-25510118 / 56024111 / 94224 10508 / 93701 60708 and a website.

Ergo, the good Dr. Mane probably makes more rokra as enrolment consultancy fees, than from his medical practice.

btw, the only other MD (Russia) i have seen in print was a doctor’s signage in a small village, during my bus journey from Chennai to Kodikarai (earlier called Point Calimere), on a bird-watching trip a few years ago.

Charmed Quirk

2006-08-05T01:48:00.000+05:30

i have this white T-shirt in which i laze around at home. Worn and soft with the years, it sports a multicolour “Charmed” across the chest. Complete with 3 squirts of pastel paint - one each of green, blue and red.

Those were the days when i would slouch around town in a pair of blue jeans and the T-shirt. Never so much of a Casanova, i could only hazarded wild guesses reading the minds of female (and male) readers !

To all friends and acquaintances who cared to ask (and dared to display their ignorance) what it stood for, i just pointed to the back.

Quirky matter that ! i had “Quark” painted on the back.

Pearls...

2006-08-03T03:49:00.000+05:30

PERFETTI does it again - i have a Protex Happydent chewing gum packet in my hand.
This one boasts the disclaimer – CONTAINS ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER AND FOR CALORIE CONSCIOUS. Pray, what is this supposed to mean ?

Many Perfetti product wrappers carry these pearls of English. Someone must have been hard at work, transliterating !

Beware of the rights you surrender to the hosting site you use - interesting thoughts here

Mining the Story

2006-08-01T05:33:00.000+05:30

The channels covered the haematite mafia a few days ago, i lent my weeny bit to the freakonimics and now, the Businessworld runs a cover story on the plunder (?) of our iron mines.

Interesting, how different media trigger each other and run the smae (or similar) lead stories... i no longer have to hunt for a story, i just keep my eyes open !

Rain

2006-07-29T04:07:00.000+05:30

Pune is sprayed by monsoon rain... and the accompanying breeze.
Evenings are chiily and immensely pleasurable.

But not the driving conditions. All roads have potholes galore. Throw in the sundry fly-overs under construction and we have pure mayhem.

The serene fiery dusk of Uttaranchal now seem a distant dream...

pic - Barny

Jaws of the Boss

2006-07-28T02:24:00.000+05:30

Co-habitation - With the barracuda
i have reasons to believe that, the thin line the canary trudges, is strung above the gaping jaws of the lethal predator - perilous proximity that !

To throw in a bit of the monkey business - will the barracuda and the bonobo make the same headlines as the monkey and the crocodile ?

We are not alone - Here’s an incident our cops might find familiar - a Chinese Three Gorges Dam activist “beats himself up” so severely that he’s not expected to walk again !

Appraisal - It's once again mid-year appraisals time. Don't get worked-up if you have 9 appraisals to complete and only one day to go for the deadline.

Seek automation support from Dilbert ! Here's just the thing. The automated performance appraisal generator !

War Games ?

2006-07-27T04:37:00.000+05:30

Chinaman’s new dark designs ?

What on earth is going on here, if this is factual ? Cannon fodder for black helicopters ?

btw, if i had the time AND paranoia, here was an option to choose from !!!

freakonomics !

2006-07-22T04:37:00.000+05:30

Like many of you, i have been watching the coverage (call it expose’) of organized illegal iron ore mining in the Bellary district of Karnataka.

Millions of tons of haematite are being exported to China. Resulting in the rampant exploitation of labourers and miners, while lining the pockets of cops, politicians and political parties, bureaucrats, Mafia musclemen and sundry beneficiaries.

In my limited understanding of the complexities of global economics, it makes very little sense to export iron ore out of the country. i would almost equate it to a move to legitimize en-mass slaughter of our Royal Bengal Tigers for the sale of their pelts through covert auctions in the international black-market. It could fetch us zillions of green-bucks !

Tigers are, after all, exploitable resources - who cares whether we can regenerate them or not.

A few years down the line we might initiate a tiger-breeding program - we have done it with the bees, you know - with generous funding from the WWF, IUCN and all. Politicians would take great pains to explain that such a captive breeding program would generate employment and contribute to the national GDP, in addition to being a laudable scientific endeavour !

In all humility, i am definitely not the first to think in these lines. Mr B. Muthuraman, MD, Tata Steel has already drawn media attention to the fact that exporting iron ore is not in our best national interest. Jairam Ramesh also appears to publicly profess the desire to end this iron-ore exports to China.

Given the furious pace at which governmental decision-making happen in our great nation (mind you, this pace is extremely selective), i’m hoping there’s enough haematite available in the country by the time the proposed Mittal steel plant in Orissa becomes operational !

Back from a long hiatus…

2006-07-21T03:15:00.000+05:30

What happened ?

Well, as they say, variety is the spice of life.
Forced - albeit involuntarily - to take a break from blogging.
Have returned, refreshed.
Changes in life - a little at the workplace and a big one nearer to the heart.
Will renew blogging, in right earnest...

Currently reading : The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

SOS

2006-02-16T03:26:00.000+05:30

Feral Animals in Australia - Was reading on the adverse ecological impact of alien Carp (Cyprinus carpio) on Australian water bodies, where it competes with and often overwhelms, populations of native fish species

i had read the fiery tales of pets (and domesticated animals) lovingly introduced to the wild by Australian settlers - rabbits, foxes and camels, which have subsequently run riot ecologically. The list also includes species like the cane toad which were introduced to Australia for pest control but have themselves turned into rampaging pests. But the list the “loving” impact on Australian ecology is far more impressive.

The list of feral animals itself is, to say the least, remarkable : Wild Rabbit, Red Fox, Camel, Cat, Goat, Horse, Donkey, Pig and Water Buffalo ! Here’s more on invasive species in Australia. More tinkering on the way

Also. the only known habitat of one of

India

's rarest birds, the Jerdon’s Courser, may yet be saved from destruction in a last-minute effort to re-route an irrigation canal in Andhra Pradesh

trivia...

2006-02-14T03:47:00.000+05:30

Following bossman (?) - Bush shoots his mouth, Cheney shoots his buddy ! (site requires registration)

Also, gasping for life

virgin flying...

2006-02-09T03:20:00.000+05:30

Steve Fossett has taken off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in an attempt to make the longest non-stop flight in his Virgin GlobalFlyer plane.
The GlobalFlyer homepage here

Some Mind Games

2006-02-04T02:59:00.000+05:30

Review of Aparna Sen’s 15 Park Avenue at Amardeep Singh’s. Has an interesting sign-off line

Adding to my wasp stories, here’s a fascinating new one from Carl Zimmer (of the Parasite Rex fame)

save...

2006-02-03T05:38:00.000+05:30

- Drug swap urged to save Indian vultures

- Nations meet to save the Asian elephant

- Reading from the YaleGlobal Online - Blaming globalization for workforce anxiety in the

and Europe is misguided

mass extinctions around us

2006-01-31T03:30:00.000+05:30

“Conservationists are mistaken” argues Professor Tim Halliday… “many animals and plants cannot be saved from extinction, and the job of conservation scientists is to document them as they disappear”

Reading on chytridiomycosis

under developed...

2006-01-31T02:44:00.000+05:30

All in the glorious tradition of the “under developed” (or dare i say, “never to develop” ?). Desi politicians take heart !

Bumper hash haul in Spain.

Intricacies of Chinese global politiking, courtesy TPM Café

Gasoline price rises, but gas-guzzlers do not wane. But there is hope on the horizon (?) - the water-powered (hydrogen-cell) car !

gasping...

2006-01-18T03:28:00.000+05:30

Drowning in work and gasping for ideas, but could not resist this bloomer off a Coke can :

Diet Coca Cola
Carbonated Water
Contains Artificial Sweeteners And For Calorie Conscious
Ingredients : Carbonated Water...

New Year Pearls

2006-01-05T04:18:00.000+05:30

Wrapper pearls for the New Year

From SugerRite (low calorie sugar substitute) - Best Before Within 2yrs. From Dt.Of Mfg.

Napolitian chocolate - Chocolate Produced in Singapore, Packed in Malaysia for CJ Van Houten & Zoon AG Zurich, Switzerland

Now reading : Haruki Murakami - Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

knotty and naughty...

2005-12-30T02:52:00.000+05:30

Evolution in Action - Science magazine’s Breakthrough of the Year 2005 (Login Required)

Dual-polity - The President tries squeaky cleaning

Some more reading here and here

All my favourite late-night movies to follow ftv to oblivion ?

the ichneumon fly

2005-12-30T02:45:00.000+05:30

Bio-warfare - USDA fights invasive fire ants with flies

Ichneumonidae wasps (also called “assassinator wasps”, “ichneumon fly” ) are natural wonders of parasitism and biological population control. The wasps actively hunt for their hosts, sting them into a paralytic stupor and lay their eggs on (or inside) their body. These wasps typically have very long ovipositors and some species even use them to bore deep into wood, seeking out host pupae to inject their eggs.

Larvae hatching from the eggs feed on the host and grow inside them. It appears that the larvae practice selective feeding - they feed on the host’s fatty tissues and muscles earlier than devouring vital organs. The host provides the larvae fresh food while it is being eaten alive from the inside. Studies have reported butterfly chrysalis twitching in agony as they are devoured by the pupae inside. Observation of such instances created great debates in the medieval Church on the subject of the Benevolent Creator - how could God possibly create an animal which so cruelly ate alive another of His own creation ?

i first observed these wasps, years before i read about them, while eating a post-lunch orange on our rooftop one balmy winter afternoon. There was this insect jumping (more like floating) funnily across the roof. Walking nearer, i found it to be a cricket. Now, crickets either crawl or jump, but this one was sort of skipping along! Inspecting closer, i found that a slender wasp was actually carrying the cricket between its legs. The cricket, seemingly dead, was about three-times the wasp’s size and weight. So, it was only able to fly a distance of about a foot at a time. And i had never heard of wasps eating crickets !

The wasp lugged the cricket across the roof to a crack in the wall. Deposited it at the entrance of the crack and dove inside. It soon emerged and with dexterous handling, dragged the cricket into the crack. As i sat there watching, it soon emerged, sans cricket and flew away. Maybe, to hunt for the next hapless prey.

A few years later we saw a Walt Disney movie on hunting animals. And here was this wonderful footage of a duel to death - between a large, hairy, tarantula and a nimble, slender, wasp. The tarantula charges and the retreating wasp falls to the ground on its back. As the tarantula crawls over the wasp to deliver its deadly bite, it is stung in its exposed underbelly by the wasp. The wasp proceeds to drag the huge tarantula to a hole in the ground, lays a pearly white egg on the spider’s abdomen and covers it up with loose sand.

While i have, since then, observed ichneumon wasps on numerous occasions during field trips, one event stand out in my memory. We have a madhabilata (Hiptage benghalensis ?) plant next to the verandah in our compound in Calcutta.
It is a hardy, vigorous climber with clusters of lightly-fragrant, slender-stalked pink-white flowers, which typically bloom at night. Walking out to the verandah one summer night, i was taken aback by a wave of little popping sounds coming from the garden. Walking out to the garden torch in hand, i was astounded to find the madhabilata plant covered by a cloud of slender, hairy, caterpillars - bright red, white and black. The popping sounds came from the caterpillars shaved off leaves from the climber. The noises continued into the night. Next morning the caterpillars had vanished almost as magically as they had arrived. Only the madhabilata, now stripped bare of all greenery, bore mute testimony to the invasion overnight.

A few days later, the scrub below the madhabilata was splattered with ghostly exo-skeletons - scaly cases in the shape of caterpillars, complete with the hairs but hollow inside. Some ichneumonidae at work again ?

Tango and Cash

2005-12-23T01:08:00.000+05:30

Reactions from afar, to a problem real in our own metropolises

University education is big business in swadesh and beyond.

Britain

tries to wake up to the realities of fake degrees and certificates - the sort that drives the Classified clutter in our leading dailies

The world wide web of illicit business - the despicable world of child pornography on the Net

Stardust available from 15^th January - the magazine remains available on stands !

Satellite launch milestones - INSAT 4A and Meteosat 9

Two to tango…

bugs on grass...

2005-12-22T01:50:00.000+05:30

Gridlock enters second consecutive day in New York

British hospitals ignoring winter superbug. More on Clostridium difficile and the other hospital superbug MRSA

More environmental mishaps from the galloping juggernaut - Cadmium spill prompts water shutdown in southern China

Not the sweet grass of home

...still looking around...

2005-12-21T04:56:00.000+05:30

· Hey, how about me ? A disappointed lover in the

has left a $15,000 (£8,500) diamond engagement ring in a stranger's unlocked car, accompanied by a heartfelt message

· New flight plan - my friend plans to fly back to Bangalore this weekend. Looking forward to the next episode of the Dhakkkan Air saga

· Continuing debates on teaching Darwinism in US schools - A court in the

has ruled against the teaching of "intelligent design" alongside Darwin's theory of evolution

· New York on the move by bike, car, skate, ricksaw or on foot...The city that never sleeps had a 24/7 subway service - until workers went on strike

English as she spake...

2005-12-16T04:07:00.000+05:30

The business of live and let die

Dubya-speak : “No advances made in adult literacy” study says, “1 in 20 U.S. adults not literate in English” …About one in 20 adults in the U.S. is not literate in English, meaning 11 million people lack the skills to handle many everyday tasks, a federal study shows. From 1992 to 2003, adults made no progress in their ability to read sentences and paragraphs or understand other printed material such as bus schedules or prescription labels…

Pictures

2005-12-15T04:31:00.000+05:30

The politics of under-development : No one knows how many Nigerians there are - and the authorities are too afraid to find out

The same pictures of under-development…from another wannabe “SUPER-POWER”

Archaeologists working in Guatemala have uncovered spectacular pieces of artwork created by the ancient Mayans

love and death...

2005-12-13T04:10:00.000+05:30

Did someone say love will survive ? A twist to the tale here from the love machine

Heart rules head on risky calls - Uncertainty activates the brain's sentimental centres

“…The rest of us have to be as concerned for the victims as for the perpetrator. Anything else is a claim to pass a judgement that does not belong to us…” - The arguments over the fate of the convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams challenge us to decide whether we are all capable of change. While Courts uphold gang boss execution

New research indicates that Killer Whales have become the most contaminated mammals in the Arctic

Researchers have compiled a global map of sites where animals and plants face imminent extinction

Much Ado...

2005-12-10T04:40:00.000+05:30

Much ado about nothing

Two men accused over the murder of a US-born nun Dorothy Stang, have gone on trial in the northern Brazilian state of Para.
Sister Dorothy pushed for land to be granted to landless peasants as an environmentally-friendly alternative to large-scale ranching and logging. Many landowners in the area have openly argued that Sister Dorothy's murder was in legitimate defence of property

"The Islamic nation is in a crisis. This crisis does not reflect on the present alone, but also on its future and the future of humanity at large" it said, "We need decisive action to fight deviant ideas because they are the justification of terrorism. We are determined to fight terrorism in all its forms" - quote from the he Organisation of the Islamic Conference meeting concluded at Mecca -here and here

flight plan...

2005-12-09T05:33:00.000+05:30

A friend was traveling from Bangalore to Bhubaneshwar. Balancing time and financial constraints, she chose to fly Deccan Air - the afternoon flight from Bangalore to Kolkata and the evening flight from Kolkata to Bhubaneshwar.

That was the plan…

The Deccan Air flight took-off from Bangalore about 6-hours behind schedule and reached Kolkata around midnight. She, of course, missed the connecting flight to BBSR. True to our great national heritage of customer service, Deccan Air failed (refused ?!) to provide her any accommodation for the night.

So here was my friend, calling from the DumDum airport terminal around 1-o’clock at night, taking directions - from me in Pune - to travel from the airport to the Howrah railway station. During the serendipitous 6-hour break in Bangalore, she had the good sense to buy a train ticket (the Indian Railways, time tested…) to travel to BBSR on the Falaknama Express, seven in the morning.

She spent the night on the couches of the swanky Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International airport (quite a mouthful that…) - drinking coffee, chatting-up passengers awaiting early-morning flights, occasionally napping, calling friends on the mobile, surfing the Net from a internet kiosk. In short, living life to the hilt !

i again took a call around 6.00 in the morning. Two gallant ladies riding a cab from DumDum to Howrah. Amazed at all the activities on the streets as the city stirred itself awake (Bangalore is largely deserted that early in the day). Trucks emptying their loads of fresh vegetables, people bathing from overflowing taps by the roadside, clusters around chai-shops, delivery boys sorting newspaper on the footpath, people in mufflers hurrying on their way…

She marvelled at all the heritage (derelict ?) buildings en-route and kept up a constant commentary, reading interesting street names off shop-signboards. Confirming that the driver was taking the correct route. As they crossed the marvellous Howrah bridge, i suggested that she had time enough to take a quick holy dip in the Hooghly, to wash away some of her traveling travails.

She, of course, refused. Citing the inability of her delicate constitution being able to cope-up with the cough, cold and fever that could follow. She could end up being unable to write her final-semester exams the following day !

i wonder if she’s read The Great Railway Bazaar.

Serves her, for choosing Dhakkan Air, right ?

ice...

2005-12-03T04:28:00.000+05:30

Interesting reading on Dr Singh’s economic policies. Seems marbles are being lost here…

Have money, will ski…

The US has carried out its 1000th execution since capital punishment was reintroduced in 1976

It is...therefore

2005-11-29T01:55:00.000+05:30

Knowledge is
the quiet blossoming of the night-queen
the dewdrop on a web in a autumn dawn
the slow waltz of a hovering goldfish
the cold stare of a hooded cobra.

Bliss is
the azure of the winter sky
low cooing of the blue rock pigeons
the wind on my face in a crimson sunset
the sprightly sparrow on a flowering bough.

Strength is
the courtship dance of the sarus crane
the little spider suspended mid-air
the shrill cries of the gliding kite
the deafening clap of nearby thunder.

Sweet...

2005-11-28T21:50:00.000+05:30

Discovered this perfect whammy on a toffee wrapper the other day - Contains Added Flavour (Natural Identical Flavouring Substances) Plain Toffee…
That’s on the Perfetti Alpenliebe wrapper. Beats me…

Another reading on the views of the religious right in the US

Nets kill 800 cetaceans a day'

"Research has suggested that romantic love fades after a few years and becomes companionate love and it seems certain biological factors play a role…”
i’m confused, even more confused, not willing to believe i’m an exception

Flight...

2005-11-23T03:45:00.000+05:30

An Algerian man, wanted in connection with a bombing on the Paris Metro in 1995, has lost a legal attempt to block extradition from England to France. In legalaise suspected terrorists appear to have more rights than the victims of the terror attacks perpetrated by them.

Banta ever tried this one - Opening an airplane door in flight ?

jhanda unchaa rahey hamara...

2005-11-17T02:50:00.000+05:30

Returned last week from a short trip to one of the last “Red” bastions in the world - West Bengal !

It is almost a year since i last visited Cal (oh uh, Kolkata…). The change was very visible, actually hurt the eye. Huge billboards have sprung up all over the city, shining brightly into the night, highlighting beautiful people and wonderful things. Some even powered from their own generator, purring away on the sidewalk. btw, Cal experiences very little powercuts. The Reds have obliterated all industries, consequentially very few power-hogging machinery and plenty of floodlit billboards and malls. Jai Baba Marwariji !

Add a few flyovers and a bumper harvest in real estate development and you have the complete picture of the burgeoning Bengal.

High-rises have sprung up in every other nook and cranny. Including the wasteland that is metamorphing into the Rajarhat township. Acres after acres of paddy fields land-filled with soil from “bheris” (shallow lakes traditionally used to rear fish for the bangali platter) in the eastern edges of the metropolis. Spanking new high-rise clusters dot this desolate landscape. Attempts for a brave new facelift for a Bengal festering and crumbling from inside. The “maantey hawbey” brand of militant trade-unionism and the general apathy to labour for a living, die hard.

“The Party” has, in the meantime, taken up the cause of the down-trodden IT professional. Adjudging the IT industry to be in dire needs of unionization. What of all rampant exploitation – more than 8-hour workdays and no “overtime” payments. And no unions equate to no enhancements to Party funds…

A brave new vision of the proletariat world… Narayana Murthy’s campus gates barricaded by red banners and “maantey hawbey” chanting Java developers !

...when will they ever learn...

2005-11-16T03:00:00.000+05:30

Here today, gone tomorrow - Fake drugs undermine cheap malaria control therapy. When will we (if ever) learn ? i’m all for implementing the Principles of Retribution (read here and here) against the manufacturers of fake drugs

The democratic bandwagon - Afghan style. Appears familiar, huh ?!

Interesting reading from Dilip, on how inefficiencies drive up our economy

Negotiating the future of the Net at Tunis

Stunning visuals in the Visions of Science - Photography awards

time and again...

2005-11-11T01:40:00.000+05:30

Fascinating photo-journal on cattle raiders from Sudan

Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn are being awarded America's highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom

The Intelligent Design Policy - Evolution suffers Kansas setback… Teachers have been ordered to tell pupils that Darwin's theory of evolution is unproven and that the universe is so complex that it may have been created by a higher power… Well guys, just in case you did not know, Brahma said “OM” and it all began !

A little-known battle to save Himalayan plants rages in the North-East

Pony-tail...

2005-10-18T03:50:00.000+05:30

Got around to reading some blogs after many days.

Reached Gaurav Sabnis and his critical review of the continuing fraud in education in our country.
Tip of my hat to Gaurav ! Interesting reactions from IIPM. Thanks Annie at Known Turf for leading me there.

Steely eyes...

2005-10-11T04:50:00.000+05:30

Sanjubhaia was earlier giving C3PO an identity crisis. But now he’s turned smarter, pushing the ball into my court… he challenges “kya aapmey hai woh steel ?” (checkout the new “Elegant” steel ad on the idiot box). No way Bhaia, i’ve told you earlier, i’m all skin n bones !

So, blogs are contributing to improved copy-writing ?!

Awakening...

2005-10-07T04:31:00.000+05:30

Heat wave makes plants warm planet - A new study shows that during the 2003 heatwave, European plants produced more carbon dioxide than they absorbed from the atmosphere

Cameroon lakes spew killer gas

Stretching the social security paradigm - A disabled Danish man is fighting for the state to pay for him to have a prostitute visit him at home ! ah. oh !

All’s fair in love, war and politics - Peru's ousted President, Alberto Fujimori, has announced that he intends to run for the presidency in 2006. Mr Fujimori escaped prosecution by fleeing Peru to the protection of a hurriedly-bestowed Japanese citizenship

deep impact

2005-09-15T03:50:00.000+05:30

Esoterica : Chief Internet Evangelist - Google employs Internet pioneer

The mushy General plays to the gallery, once again, in sync with his visit to the US

The future of democracy - Taleban rebels shoot dead seven people carrying voter cards ahead of the Afghan parliamentary elections

No bangs, so no “impact” on astrology ! The Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft approaches within 20km of asteroid.
btw, did the Russian astrologer win damages from NASA, for disturbing her astrological predictions by landing the Deep Impact probe on the asteroid Tempel-I ? Don’t asteroids influence Indian astrologers ?

Peeking

2005-09-13T03:50:00.000+05:30

Some West Bank wall paintings and also here

Hue and cry - the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina (our own fair lady in Bollywood is now infamous!) was awesome and my sympathies go out to the thousands affected. This calamity only drives home the power of Nature’s forces, their ability to wreck havoc and how puny our engineering and technology really is.

Interestingly, the public statements by officials of state administrations reminded me of our dear own country - the central (read federal here) government did too little, too late ?!
To think about it, large tracts of our country - UP, Bihar, W Bengal and Assam, in particular, are inundated by rivers in spate with unfailing regularity every year. The images from New Orleans would have appeared unsurprisingly familiar to Indian viewers, specially the residents of Mumbai, fresh out of their own ordeal. Does all of that qualify ours as a developed country ? Or does it pull the US down onto a level playing field ?

A peek at the past - Astronomers have witnessed the most distant cosmic explosion on record. A gamma ray burst that has come from the edge of the visible Universe

hard talk

2005-08-31T02:45:00.000+05:30

Back from another short hiatus…

An extremely interesting episode of HardTalk on BBC TV on 23rd August, Stephen Sackur speaking with Qazi Hussain Ahmad of the Jamat-e-Islami party of Pakistan. Often at a loss of words when pushed into a corner during the discussion, the Qazi nevertheless held his position on the right to self-determination of all righteous and freedom-loving people around the world. He spoke of supporting all peaceful opposition to the occupational forces in occupied Kashmir, while also professing that his party supported all means of defeating the occupational forces in occupied Kashmir !

Whether it is the beloved General or any of his spokesmen, i cannot but admire their eloquence, aggression and their media-savviness. Isn’t it time for all our government office-holders (their eminences the IASs et al) to undergo mandatory grooming on facing the media ? Or would that pave the path for just another scam ?

Another interesting interview on HardTalk the following day, Mr Sackur spoke with the fiery Asma Jehangir, lawyer and human rights activist from Pakistan

The fascinating story of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bio-Acoustics team’s search for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker which was recently rediscovered in the woods of Arkansas.

Now reading - No god but God by Reza Aslan

btw, i seem to be drawing the ire of the good Colonel Madan and his ilk...

still looking around...

2005-08-12T05:30:00.000+05:30

Anything in the name of democracy and politics - The All Naga Students’ Association of Manipur, which has been holding the state to ransom since midnight on June 19 - do i read that correctly, 19 June ?
Blocking a highway which serves as a lifeline for a whole state, for almost two months ? Did this make the news headlines ? It takes the powers-that-be two months to wake up to any action? Does anyone care ? And we sing and dance glorifying our democracy! It's time for “Kalki” to make an appearance ?

Supply Chain Management – The Time of India continues it’s glorious tradition of being party to deception and fraud. “Study In Russia. MBBS, MD, MS, MDS No Donation and Entrance Exam…” screams the header of the display advertisement from Smegavision Educational Consultancy.
Ah, just add a “S” to a well-worn “megavision” and you made an advertising coup ! Smegavision sounds - oh so Russiki (a-la Smolensk)! Trust Mrs. Meghana Kulkarni, she could definitely look at launching an advertising thoughtshop as an alternative business opportunity !
Sounds sort of familiar ? To refresh my memory, she is the famous “Former Reg. Manager, A.J. Trust”.
The “Rusi-Hindi bhai-bhai” style advertisements beckon the hapless to throng Russian medical universities, with dreams of minting millions on returning home.
Interestingly, the same TOI, Pune ran a feature on 05 July 2005, on the virtues of Chinese and Russian medical schools “…Teachers, websites and even brochures - are all managed by these agents. “There are no ads in the papers for these faculty. Most of them are people who haven’t been able to clear the MCI screening test after an MBBS from Russia”, said an educational ”, said an educational consultant….”. Note the anonymous comment to the blog !
Both our Good Samaritans - Smegavision and our dear Colonel Madan advertise in the TOI classifieds, unrestrained.

The suave General is presented a new cracker on his birthday !

Monsoon Magic

2005-08-05T05:45:00.000+05:30

Well, i am around, just been quiet for sometime. Didn’t get washed away by the flood waters… not yet !

My flat has a long window facing the south-east. The window has horizontal bars and three panes. To keep out insects, it is covered on the inside with nylon mesh. i generally do not open the pane nearer my bed - the curtain also remain drawn - but the other two remain open throughout the year.

A month after i moved into the flat last year, a pair of Spotted (Scaly-breasted) Munias (Lonchura punctulata) discovered a safe haven between the closed windowpane and the mesh. For many days they laboured, flying in with fluttering strips of green vegetation, twigs and what i thought were the soft green tips of plant stems. The nesting material kept piling up as scrappy stuffing behind the mesh. And i had begun to wonder whether human encroachment and urbanization of the environment, had made the birds lose their nesting skills.

Realizing that i had not seen the birds flying-in for a few days, i parted the curtains and was amazed to find the unruly pile transformed into a beautiful circular chambered nest !

The pair reared a clutch of noisy nestlings, but one day, just as suddenly as the birds had appeared, the female vanished with her brood. For a few days i heard the male bird flying-in to the nest and plaintively calling out to his family inside the nest. But there was only silence in response... And then, he too flew away.

One day during the winter, i peeled away the mesh on the window and removed the birds’ nest. It had turned brown and dry and crumbled into shreds as i cleaned it out.

A pair of Spotted Munias again discovered the cozy nook in the window early in June this year. They quickly flew-in some twigs into the gap. i have not seen them collect any more nesting material. Neither do they spend the nights on the window. But lying in my bed, i hear the pair fly-in every morning, and spend long hours in the nook - whistling and singing while fluttering between the window bars. Two hearts in love, serenading in courtship in their favourite hideout !

i wonder if this is the same pair that nested during the monsoon last year. Do even little Munias have such good memories ?

ps - Mr Clean squeaked and i was reminded of our dear own Lallu hosing the tonsured on the streets of Patna, not so long ago. A dip of my hat to the General, he is getting his F-16s anyway !

dare and bare...

2005-07-26T04:40:00.000+05:30

Al-Qaeda 'destroyed in Pakistan' - President Musharraf’s sales pitch is straightforward, obvious and as repeatedly demonstrated in the past, extremely effective. It is well planned to get even on the White House dinner rebuff ! Not to mention the F-16s and Orions in the offing and the 'biased' dirty press from the London bombings. Here’s the knight in shining armour, giving it back to the muddling mandarins in South Block, (un)fair and square !

Next steps, the crafty General will now lay bare the hidden Indian hand in the London bombings ?

Where black is white and law is a zillion dollar industry, jury selection is under way for a unique trial in the US - to decide whether a man is intelligent enough to be executed ! Oh, it’s all so easy, score zilch in the IQ test and be a life-long guest of the state. Millions of our countrymen could die (sic) for such a royal treatment, if they get to know. Firang prison cells even come with a pot built-in, no more dawn trips to the wheat fields…

Trivia...

2005-07-23T04:30:00.000+05:30

Scientists have discovered a tiny caterpillar in Hawaii that binds snails with silk webbing before devouring them

Has the advent of digital cameras made us better photographers ? An interesting reading for the photographer in us

Built to win, Lance Armstrong unraveled

Giant river catfish feeds an entire bite !

Blasts...

2005-07-22T05:20:00.000+05:30

Ardeshir Cowasjee wrote of the primrose path to paradise (through India Uncut) and Musharraf acknowledged "No matter where something happens, we end up being directly or indirectly involved", even as the moderate face of Islam spoke in even as the moderate face of Islam spoke in Britain

PM Manmohan says peace efforts are under threat

The Chairman lives long

2005-07-19T04:15:00.000+05:30

Maoists loom large in the districts of West Bengal bordering Jharkhand. A report from The Telegraph, Calcutta of 15 July :

Bandwan (Purulia), July 14 : Comrade Dhruba sat on a bunch of leaves scattered on the ground, his legs folded. “Give us five years, we will make sure you spend sleepless nights” - that was the Maoist leader’s message to the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government. A police officer and three CPM leaders were killed on Saturday night in Maoist strikes in two places, 20-22 km from here. Moustachioed, with a three-day stubble covering his face, Comrade Dhruba (not his real name) said: “Our mass base in Murshidabad, Malda, Burdwan and Nadia is ready. After five years, we will launch our strikes”. Dhruba is a member of the central committee of the CPI(Maoist).

The journey to Dhruba took four hours from Jhargram - partly by car, partly by motorbike and the rest, about one and a half hours, on foot. It started at 5.15 in the morning yesterday, first to Bandwan by a hired car, resuming in another vehicle from there. The second car left me at a deserted crossing. After about five minutes, I heard the roar of a motorcycle. A Suzuki bike braked in front of me and a dark, thin man in his late 20s, wearing off-white trousers and a blue shirt, curtly asked me in Bengali, with a heavy local accent, to ride pillion.

I tried to strike up a conversation but the man motioned to me to shut up. After about an hour and a quarter, we stopped at a spot where two youths were waiting. They waved me to follow them into the rain-soaked dense forest covered with segun, mohua and mahogany trees - a chameleon dropped on me from a branch, startling the entire group. A third youth joined us after about 15 minutes and we walked some more before coming upon Dhruba, sitting under a tree somewhere on the West Midnapore-Purulia border, a stone’s throw from Jharkhand.

I pulled out my handkerchief, spread it on the ground and sat before Dhruba, who looked to be in his late thirties. Wearing khaki trousers and shirt, he said: “In our politburo meeting last year, we decided to focus on these four districts (Murshidabad, Malda, Burdwan and Nadia)”. Dhruba, who belonged to the MCC, which merged last year with another extremist group, the People’s War, admitted that the outfit’s previous efforts to spread its influence in north Bengal and parts of the south had failed.

This was the reason why the 13-member politburo decided to concentrate on the south Bengal districts. The organisation is dominated by five Bengali leaders. “If the government wants to control us by using police or paramilitary, they are wrong. It will help us gain more support from the people. Comrades have been working hard for those who don’t know what a full meal is”. Do the Maoists have designs on Calcutta? “We do not plan violence in Calcutta because we know when we establish our base there, people will be forced to obey us,” Dhruba said.

After about 25 minutes of conversation, he suddenly clapped and two of the three youths reappeared. The journey back to Bandwan began.

Mouthing populist rhetoric, the Maoists plan to replicate in parts of West Bengal, their model of “socialism”, “parallel government” and ruthless social justice that they impose across swathes of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand. They appear poised to revive the social anarchy of the early-70s in W Bengal. The soicio-economic price for which, Bengal is paying to this day.

Bengali intellectuals have been the perennial rebels and “angry young men”, they are the vanguards of student politics even today. It is no wonder that the Maoist movement is led by Bengalis inspired by the canons of the Late Chairman Mao.

The Maoists have initiated their acts of threat, coercion and outright violence to precipitate anarchy. Moves designed to provoke heavy-handed responses from the powers-that-be, driving vicious cycles of chaotic violence and social upheaval. As The Time noted of Mao - His ruthless vision united a fractured people and inspired revolutions far beyond China's borders.

While the bastions of Communism have collapsed, the ideology continues to be exported and nourished through covert funding, to drive socio-economic destabilization across the world. i understand that IT organizations in Calcutta have begun receiving communications from Maoists, directing them not to visit educational institutions in the districts of Burdwan, Malda and Murshidabad for recruitment. The vicious cycle has begun…

While the Maoists have made grand plans to bring chaos, what is the alternative reality they promise ? They are adept at threatening and maiming, but are they truly capable of sound governance and social justice ? Have they visited Shanghai recently ? Or, are the Bengali more Chinese than the Chinese themselves ?

Tightrope Walker

2005-07-16T04:00:00.000+05:30

"We are acting as if we are under some kind of a contractual obligation to support jihad (holy war), no matter where in the world it is being waged" - rhetoric from the Tightrope Walker. The chameleon-act confirms that Pakistan will not abandon the Kashmiri militants until it is absolutely clear about the exact terms on which peace can be secured

A man in the US (where else ?!) shot his postman and surrendered to the Police, so that he would be convicted for life and escape his $90,000 medical debt. Human ingenuinity always impresses

International scientists say they have sequenced the genomes of three parasites responsible for diseases, including sleeping sickness, that kill more than 150,000 people a year

Russian plans to build the world’s longest oil pipeline to supply fuel to energy-hungry China and Japan spells doom for wildlife and environment

Scientists have discovered how migrating locusts avoid the danger of flying over seas. The research could lead to novel deterrents against marauding locust swarms

still looking around

2005-07-13T03:15:00.000+05:30

Swaziland continues the glorious African tradition of pillage by dictatorial rulers. This tiny country is Africa’s last absolute monarchy. Poverty is chronic and wide-spread, unemployment is the rule and about 40% of the population is believed to be HIV positive.
At last count, the king had 12 wives and several more fiancées. Recently the king bought a $500,000 luxury Maybach (a-la Manikchand, of Oxyrich and D-Company fame) for himself and 10 luxury BMW cars for his wives, at an additional cost of about $820,000. Long live the king !

Since childhood, whenever i have looked up in the day sky, i remember seeing scores of vultures traversing. Mere specs high in the air, gliding in slow circles, riding the daytime thermals. Eager scavengers which kept nature clean of the remains of dead animals. But vulture populations have rapidly declined in recent years. The crash has been variously attributed to poisoning from toxins in livestock carcasses to some virulent viral infection.
The population crash appears to be acute in Western India, where i moved in last year. During my weekend (and other) outings around Pune, i no longer see vultures patrolling the high skies. i have been consciously looking for them, and vultures are alarmingly absent in the day sky.
The truth hit home hard during a drive around the flooded Veer dam last weekend. i witnessed the miserable sight of a few crows trying to peck away at a bloated cattle carcass lying on the bank of the lake in broad daylight !

around...

2005-07-12T03:30:00.000+05:30

One of the world’s most impoverished countries continues to act with impunity and utter disdain of world opinion. Highlighting that good governance and better resource-management (and not writing-off debts) is the essential path of emancipation for Africa’s miserable millions (we almost qualify !) Lest we forget, Africa is extremely rich in natural resources, which is continually plundered to finance long-running civil wars and pad the personal coffers of sundry tyrants. Economics of the war industry...
Singing dingo wins trivia award - An Australian wild dog who sings, dances and plays the piano has been voted the country's top trivia item, in a competition organized to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the Trivial Pursuit board game
… Dinky had to beat serious contenders.One candidate was a man who
can stationary jump on his unicycle 232 times per minute.Another boasted an
ability to clip nine out of 10 toenail cuttings into a paper basket from more
than a metre away
Pandit Ravi Shankar ensures show goes on
Author Chris Cleave’s debut novel Incendiary - about a "massive terrorist attack on London" was published on Thursday, the same day the city was bombed. Incidentally, the publication date for his novel was set up six months ago
Prize divides Ayodhya protectors. Blame the booty!

Perspectives...

2005-07-09T03:50:00.000+05:30

Excerpts from the CNN website -

Some prominent Arab writers said the attacks were a reminder that efforts to fight terrorism were necessary.

Jihad al-Khazen, an op-ed columnist for the London-based pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper, wrote: "Such criminal terror acts prove that no measure is enough to fight terrorism.

"Actions that governments take to fight terrorism are totally justified because protecting life is a lot more important than protecting civil liberties."

He said he was saddened "that there are people in our Arab world that continue to sympathize with terrorism."

"This is our sick reality and it doesn't help anyone to pretend this mentality doesn't exist. One can't ignore the fact that Arab governments didn't act early on to crush the extreme movements growing in our midst."

He criticized the United States and Britain, saying he hoped they would change policies that fostered "hatred around the world and make it easy for groups like al Qaeda to recruit and execute terror attacks."

On the Arabic-language TV network Al Jazeera, Mohammed Amara -- identified as an Islamist thinker in Cairo -- said "those who want to perform jihad (Muslim holy war) should go and fight the occupiers in the battlefield and not kill unexpecting innocent people.

"We (Muslims) do not kill clerics, we do not kill women, we do not kill children, we do not kill trees. This is what the prophet taught us. The U.S. and Britain are committing atrocities against our people everywhere but we shouldn't respond to a crime with a crime."

TV network Al-Arabiya, on its Web site, solicited readers' responses to the attacks. Several expressed happiness, with comments such as "Allahu Akbar, thanks be to God," "More power to al Qaeda leader Osama (bin Laden)," and "What did you expect? This is only a response to the what the British government has done to the group regardless of which group it is."

In response, these notes were posted: "To the heroes of Arabism and Jihad, since you are sparing no method to attack the West and you gloat as you try to kill the largest number of civilians. How would you like it if the West relieves itself of your headache by hitting you with one of its nuclear weapons. It takes only minutes and then there will be no heroes, no men and no shish kebab."

Another wrote: "Why you are so happy about something like this?" What if one of your family members in London died? Even in a war, don't kill women, children, old people ... please Muslims think before you judge any action, and think about your actions and judge yourself before you judge people."

Also, Middle East condemns London bombings

Messages of sympathy and condolences poured in from Middle Eastern nations, some of them all too familiar with street bloodshed.

Iran and Syria joined an unbroken chorus of condemnation, as did the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Lebanon's Hizbullah.

"The use of violence to achieve aims is condemned," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokes-man Hamid Reza Asefi said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, in a message to Prime Minister Tony Blair, condemned "these detested acts."

Hamas said that there could be no justification for the London bombings.

"Targeting civilians in their transport means and lives is denounced and rejected," Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of the group's political bureau, told Reuters in Damascus.

Look who’s talking, Hamas and Hizbullah ! Not bad, huh ?!

More voices - European Muslims Slam "Heinous" London Blasts

Also, The "B" word at Sepia Mutiny

A different perspective, closer home

Currently engaged in global bliss - sitting in Pune, licking boiled sweets branded Dallas, manufactured by the Pt. Hawaii Confectionary Factory at Jakarta, Indonesia. Remembering Poppins, they tasted much better !

Continuing the heritage of deceit

2005-07-06T22:50:00.000+05:30

Just read “China, A Medical Students’ Nightmare“ (Page 4, Education Times, TOI, Pune, of 5^th July 2005) which contains choicest reading on the shining prospects of eager hordes of Indian degree-hunters (guess, Col. Madan is doing all right !) -

Welcome to a nightmare called a Chinese MBBS. Following an amendment to the Medical Council of India Act in 2002 which recognizes qualifications set out by the government of the country where the institution is situated, enterprising agents in India and Nepal hit upon a get-rich-quick formula.

They enter into a contract with the interested universities which provide them the information about the schools. Teachers, websites and even brochures - are all managed by these agents. “There are no ads in the papers for these faculty. Most of them are people who haven’t been able to clear the MCI screening test after an MBBS from Russia”, said an educational consultant.

… In the past three years, the number of such universities has gone from 1 to 23… what these agents conveniently gloss over is that at most of these universities, traditional Chinese medicine constitutes a major chunk of the syllabus. “Traditional Chinese medicine has no application in India. After we realised this, we have just done away with that in the brochures”, said another agent.

… While agents advertise these universities as WHO recognized, the organization makes it clear that it has no authority to grant any form of such recognition and merely collates information from various governments…

And guess what ? Just below this scathing report is the good Colonel’s advertisement (complete with the pagoda roof and all !) for MBBS in China- 2005 Hubei University of TCM

A little more research in the Times Classifieds, TOI, Pune, of 6^th July 2005, reveals –

MBBS in China Seminar & On Spot Admission Dr M Haseeb, Eminent Educationist and Visiting Professor in UK & Chinese Universities…

MBBS China – 2005 We represent WHO enlisted Renowned 5 Medical Universities of China, More than 400 Students already enrolled for 2005… Col. Ashok Madan… (our Good Samaritan at large ! Did he manage an honourable discharge from the Army - if he belonged to that institution in the first place ?)

STUDY IN RUSSIA, MBBS MD. MS. MDS. No Donation & Entrance Examination, Smegavision Educational Consultancy, contact : Mrs. Meghana Kulkarni (Former Reg.Manager, A J Trust)… (just in case i was ignorant of her credentials !)

and many more such…

i don’t work in the media but some of you do -

The good Colonel Ashok Madan and his ilk continue to thrive, playing with the future of unwary millions. Can’t any of us do anything - beyond watching and lamenting ?
“400 students already enrolled for 2005” - even if reality is only 10% of the claim, that’s 40 hapless young dreamers with their illusions ready to go under the steam-roller
A cool 40 lakh Rupees (at the least) added to the Good Samaritan’s bank balance. Give me one good reason why i should continue to follow the virtue of hard work and little money ?!
Isn’t it time for some PILs, anyone ?
Or better still, a “sting” operation with massive media coverage - TV and all ?
What can i do to end this deceit ?

Bombay Break

2005-07-05T03:00:00.000+05:30

A break in updates, owing to a short trip to Mumbai, ostensibly, to attend a training program.
Managed to go through the 2-day training program all wide-awake and fairly attentive. What after watching the Brazil - Argentina match well past the half-time, a three-hour sleep followed by a drive to Mumbai.

The drive was of course the elixir. A visual feast of the feathery monsoon clouds hanging low - on what were brown, parched hills a few weeks ago - now cushioned by lush green vegetation from the magical touch of rain. Glistening silvery ribbons of gushing waterfalls, which appear out of nowhere during these times. Driving from a drizzle into a sudden cloudburst, the smoky-grey whiteness - almost solid, the din of a thousand water drops hammering on the roof and bonnet, the wipers working away in a frenzy, the fuzzy amber of the vehicle ahead, crawling with it’s distress-lamps flashing. The life-bestowing magic of monsoon - promises of plenty for the farmers and misery to the homeless on the streets of our ragged, rotting metros.

i no longer feel comfortable in our great metropolitan sprawls. They trigger in me a sense of decay and despair - tremendous individual and collective toil - all just to keep things from falling farther apart. In the process, the rich bloating richer and the poor, even more miserable. A few remarkable sacrificial efforts to make headlines and provide intellectual fodder, tidbits for the champagne party.

Met friends over lunch on Saturday in Bandra. A warm, sticky, drizzling Saturday afternoon, women - garishly made-up and beyond their prime - smoking “hookahs” pre-lunch, all in all, and extremely forgettable experience.

In the evening, travelled in the cool rain, through the foggy ghats to Pune. And slept for a good 11 hours.

A dig brings up some old dirt - Die, for you are uncovered

Oxy Rich !

2005-06-28T04:15:00.000+05:30

Breakthrough in fusion reaction research – The EU is expected to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter; also a Latin word meaning "the way") at Cadarache in southern France. The EU would be expected to cover 50% of the construction and operational costs of the reactor, with the other five partners - Japan, China, South Korea, the US and Russia - contributing 10% each. It will be the largest fusion demonstration on Earth and will see the first sustained reactions required to generate useable power

Technologists are hard at work across the world to build robots, some of the newest creations were displayed at the Prototype Robot Exposition. But how about a robot that can act bhai ? We beat the world hands down, we have Sanjay Dutt ! Walking, talking, cavorting and generally doing “dadagiri”. He’s made of “Elegant”-brand steel. i'm not joking, watch the TV commercial, he confesses ! Move over, C3PO, Sanjay is here ! He also asks what i’m made of… i’m skin n bones, O Mighty One, a mere mortal.

And what about drinking oxygen ? More oxygen = More energy = More endurance = Long-distance running champs… Watch our rickety runners pummel the challenge from the rest of the world.

We don’t need a regimen of hormones (they’ve made it illegal, anyway), we have our daily 5 litres of Mankinchand Oxyrich - with no less than 300% extra oxygen! Note “…The oxygen O2 (diatomic) in Oxyrich has been developed by a natural process that doesn't use chemicals or their salts, meaning the oxygen is not bound up as Sodium Chlorite (NaClO2)...”. Energy shots to the brain… i’m reeling…

Cousin collapses from an asthma attack… give her Oxyrich (no desperate runs for oxygen cylinders at odd hours… keep a few bottles of Oxyrich handy at home !). Use a bottle of Oxyrich for the oxy-acetylene cutter. Ah, all those oxygen bars in Japan serving flavoured-oxygen… make them all drink mango and lichi squashes, prepared with Oxyrich, of course! An Oxyrich shower, for that hit straight to the grey cells. The options are endless… The creative agency take note.

Night Song - I

2005-06-24T02:30:00.000+05:30

A new singer (screecher ?) had moved into my flat yesterday, unnoticed and uninvited.
It’s not often that i have guests coming to stay at home, and uninvited, never. But here was the singer and his music for free - already in my flat. Must have moved in when i was not around and now i could do precious little to change the situation.

It would have taken him quite an effort to reach my flat. i live a bit up in the sky. Or did he just hitch a free ride in the lift ? A stowaway, maybe ? Snuggling in the inviting comfort of the hay packing, in a crate of ripe and juicy mangoes ? A successful purchase by our fifth-floor resident from his friendly fruit-seller.

And when the lights went out at night, he would have crawled out of his cozy corner, onto the slippery ceramic tiles of the kitchen floor - exploring inquisitively, hungrily. Tentative initially and later, boldly. Attracted by the strip of fluoroscent landing light shining through the bottom of the door, he would have crawled out, right on to the landing. He would probably have tripped over the edge and dropped down the first stair, taken by surprise. A few more tumbles and his primordial brain would have slowly adapted to this new method of locomotion - twenty-three steps followed by a leap, down to the next stair.

Traversing a long flight of stairs, he reached another strip of floor, blazing with light but which appearing flat all around – no more tumbles. Still exploring, he crawled straight into the inviting darkness under my neighbour's, on the fourth floor. An intruder was noiselessly breaching locked doors that night, while the residents lived their beautiful dreams !

He would have crept into a cool corner. Behind a shoe rack ? And then, the genetic programming of a million years taking over, he would have started his rasping call. Not the low mating song, but his signature tune - announcing his arrival into the flat and the world at large. His shrill call pierced the silence of the night. Through the haze of deep sleep it was distant and disturbing in the beginning, but steadily became proximal, persistent and irritating. A rude awakening for the little kid and his parents.

They would have come out of bed in their crumpled night-dresses, irritated. Armed with a flashlight and brooms, the entire family would have initiated a “seek and evict” mission, searching all the dark recesses of the flat. Millions of years of medullar evolution and the coordination of three human brains would have quickly located him behind the shoe rack. He would have felt the vibrations come nearer, and stopped his call in alarm. But by then, it would have been too late. He would have cowered in his corner under this sudden spot of bright light, exposed and frightened.

A quick swish of the broom would have sent him sliding, rolling helplessly across the smooth floor and under the door, crashing headlong onto the wall of the landing. He lay there for moments, hurt and dazed. He eventually rolled upright, stretched his wings and legs, brushed his antennae and wiped his eyes - confirming that he had come through yet another encounter, still in one piece !

To be concluded...

Made in India, Best in the World

2005-06-23T03:25:00.000+05:30

A U-2 spy plane crashes while returning from a surveillance mission in Afghanistan, killing the the pilot. Remember Gary Powers and his U-2 which was downed in Russia in 1960, at the height of the Cold War ?

The Business section in Rediff.com proclaims - Tata Steel is world's best steel producer. This “news” appears to be a straight take on the information made available at the Tata Steel website. While i am none to deny the venerable Tata Steel its due credit, this "news" appears to be a careful compilation of data, presented to create a marketing and promotional “coup”.

This is a more of a press release by Tata Steel, crafted into headline “news” by some Great Indian Couch Journalist. Of course, i'm looking forward to many more respectable journalists to report the same in our esteemed news media, glorifying yet another desi-turned-“World’s Best” !

A little research (also conducted comfortably seated !) indicates that the World Steel Dynamics (WSD) is a leading steel information service. To quote the WSD website, “The WSD regularly analyzes and publishes reports on - Steel Prices, Steelmakers' Costs, Steel Supply/Demand and Steel Finances. WSD also undertakes customized steel research assignments - Specialized In-depth Studies, Private Consulting Studies and Financial Valuations”. The WSD DOES NOT crown the “World’s Best Steel Producer“! Grow up, Honey, earn the money…!

Truth prevails when there are flag-bearers

Would we (dare to) do a Bugsy ? Hilarious stuff here !

Liked this post-script in the book. ABOUT THE AUTHOR – Hunter S Thompson is the author of Hells’ Angels, The Great Shark Hunt… Generation of Swine and other major statements of our time. Fear and Loathing in LAS VEGAS – A SAVAGE JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF THE AMERICAN DREAM was written in 1971.

After the mayhem of “Fear and Loathing…”, i have started reading Richard Preston’s non-fiction “Hot Zone”. The unnerving account of the Ebola (and Marburg) virus. “Ebola is a simple virus – as simple as a firestorm. It kills humans with a swift efficiency and with a devastating range of effects…Ebola does in ten days what it takes AIDS ten years to accomplish”. Refer my earlier posts Bugsy and here.
Feels like my gooey brain will be poured from the blender onto a roaring fire…

Richard Preston’s “The Demon in the Freezer” and “Hot Zone” are suggested reading.
On an entirely different flavour, i strongly recommend Waiter Rant.

dip of my hat...

2005-06-21T02:30:00.000+05:30

To Dilip for his moving story - No Run Outs Please, We're Indian

Hunter

2005-06-21T01:35:00.000+05:30

Oxfam pays $1m duty - British charity Oxfam paid the Sri Lankan government $1m in duty for importing Indian-manufactured vehicles to be used in tsunami reconstruction work.

Niger court frees slave activists - A Niger court has freed on bail two anti-slavery campaigners who had been held for six weeks on charges of fraud. The appeals court in the capital, Niamey, said there were insufficient grounds to continuing holding the men. Note that Niger officially banned slavery quite sometime ago… well…. May 2003, to be precise ! The Niger government apparently says that there is a caste system in the country and members of lower castes have been often mistaken for slaves. A brilliant whitewash, say what ?

Amardeep’s blog on Parineeta and Vidya Balasubramanian’s “very traditional Indian looks”, has an interesting Sidenote : An interesting article on the 'Devdas phenomenon' is at the University of Iowa. And Poonam Arora has written a serious, scholarly article on "Devdas, India's Emasculated Hero: Sadomasochism and Colonialism". Have started reading Poonam Arora’s article, no comments as yet.

Also read Amardeep’s thoughts on 'Glocalization' and hybridity - MTV Desi

Turbocharge your ego - Is your name on the Stardust microchips ?

Just completed “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S Thompson.
A numbing tornado of Tequila, Cadillac “whale”, sweat, hangover, Acid, floral shirts, screaming tape-recorder, mescaline, Las Vegas, .332, TV on “snow” channels, f-words, rum and ice, the Great Red Shark, a Samoan attorney, Budweiser, abuse, Rolling Stone, lizards, coke, reckless driving, felony, casinos… as if my brain was put in a blender and the lid flipped open while the blades whirred…
For the uninitiated, i strongly recommend his “Hells Angels”

"The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others - the living - are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later.But the edge is still Out there. Or maybe it's in. The association of motorcycles with LSD is no accident of publicity. They are both a means to an end, to the place of definitions." - HST 1965. The Edge that i refer in the footer…

Even his death was some wild abandonment - "On February 20, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado", said a statement issued by Thompson's son, Juan Thompson, to the Aspen Daily News.

The Rain

2005-06-15T02:00:00.000+05:30

Wasn’t the usual steel-blue dawn in Pantone #290. It was grey and overcast, more like a drop of Parker Quink Royal Blue in five drops of Nestles pasteurized ready to drink.

And here was this puny transparent spider, goose-stepping across page #37 of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Dada salaam!). Its sticky safety-line a silky curve fluttering in the breeze of the ceiling fan. Right there, in front of my nose. i rivalled Garfield, the Great Spider Hunter, as i boosted Mistah Spyder on a trajectory landing him on the glowing bulb of the reading lamp. Death comes easy to a spider before its time. Man is the true tyrant. But, if Pat can riddle bucks, i’m a lesser sinner frying an arachnidian commando. But oh, i can not boast any life-threatening ailments, not as yet !

Remembered a recent BBC-TV documentary on everyday life in landmine-infested Cambodia. Men savouring a local delicacy at the roadside food stall, the juicy abdomens and crunchy legs of stir-fried black spiders - “pluck out the fangs while eating, they can hurt the tongue”.
And subsequent recurrent feelings of the crawlies creeping up my leg, as i lay in a stupor in the summer heat. In Cambodia you can dip your hand in the small paper sack, to pick and choose the wriggling crawlies that you want fried. You have hands, but you often have one or both legs missing. i must have arachnophobia.

Somewhere near a kingfisher trilled, voicing its agitation. Indicas throbbed by in top-gear on the road below, while a kite patrolled the sky above shrilly calling its mate. Stroking my chin i felt the roughness of my fingertips. i remembered reading somewhere that Snow White had been legally proclaimed unblemished. Did he use peroxide ?

A sparrow skipped along the television cables strung five-stories high across the road. A couple of bee-eaters swooped down gracefully and glided back in a loop, to perch on cables further in the distance, now barely visible against the brightening sky. A remarkable stunt on a tightrope strung even higher up, across the roofs of tall apartment towers. Twittering amongst themselves in excitement all the while.

The road was moist and darkened, the air cool and heavy. The overwhelming aroma, of the first rainfall on a land scorched by the summer sun. The throaty gurgles of a pigeon serenading his love on a window-sill, accentuated by the steady whine of an auto-rickshaw engine hitting the high forties in the scant early morning traffic.

This wasn’t the beginning of another ordinary day, this was the monsoon hitting Pune.

paay laagu dagdar saab...

2005-06-14T02:43:00.000+05:30

Advertisement in the Times Of India, Pune on 11 June 2005, appearing under Classified - Studies Abroad :

MBBS China - 2005 (complete with pagoda-style roofing! )

Southern Medical University
- Indian Syllabus
- English Medium
- W.H.O Enlisted
- 5 ½ yrs course in just Rs.10 lakhs including living expenses
- Highly sophisticated hospitals
- 77 students already in China through us

For details contact :
Col. Ashok Madan
Star Education Consultants, Pune
Tel : 2613 9312, 5601 9550, 93700 13579
info@starimmicon.com

Curiously,
a) The WHO - World Directory of Medical Schools does not list a Southern Medical University in China (or is the name a transliteration ?)

b) Also checked here - There is no “Southern Medical University” in China. As a sanity check, reviewed the same site on India - the data appears fairly exhaustive

c) How does a Chinese medical university teach an Indian syllabus ? What is the validity of the certificate from such a institution ?

d) Would a Chinese medical institution teach in English (then provide an interpreter on-the-house during internship, for the esteemed doctor to discern whether patient Han’s stomach or elsewhere was paining) ?! Who taught the Chinese teachers to speak English (our very own training major ? which teaches computers and sales in India and English in China!) ? Or is it staffed (doubtfully) by the floatsam and ejects of the Great Indian Medical circus ?

e) By their boast, they appear to have already bagged 77 suckers, many more are certainly in the pipeline! The honorable Colonel is surely laughing his way to the bank! Way to go!

f) Mailing this to the Times Of India for a responsible response - miracles do happen, right ?

g) Waiting to be slammed legalaize confirming that the TOI is not responsible for the authenticity of the advertisements it carries !

Amen

The good Dr Jayant Patel appears to be on the run… As a patriotic Indian, allow me to welcome him back to Mother India folds :
a) Our country (specially, the countryside) needs lots and lots of medical practitioners,

b) Ours is too large a country, you can live an entire life incognito,

c) Greasing palms comes cheap,

d) The world is too busy with terrorists, nobody will apply for your extradition,

e) Even if they do (and assuming you have the misfortune of being exposed), file for a stay / anticipatory bail - live your life in style while the lawsuits attempt to traverse the Indian Legal Ocean,

f) We are a land of plenty, you will make it rich (you’ll definitely outshine the local quack),

g) In this land of plenty, a couple of thousand dead patients (out of 100 crores) are statistically invisible,

h) Nobody bothers with credentials here (70 crores can’t even read !),

i) Humour the local bhai as your protector, to handle exigencies,

j) Anyway, nobody sues a doc here and wins…

Gordon Brown - the British Chancellor to the Treasury - has announced a deal reached by the G8 nations to help the world's poorest countries. Under the deal, the World Bank, the IMF and the African Development Fund will write off 100% of the money owed to them by selected nations.

But, is debt relief the answer for Africa? It is probably the beginning in the right direction. The essence of success, however, lies in democratic and economic reforms and good governance. All of which are long-term issues contradicting most vested interests !

black is pink...

2005-06-10T23:20:00.000+05:30

Continuing on shark fin soup and conservation - Disneyland at Hong Kong has retirement planning

Dr Jayant Patel continues the glorious confidence-building exercise highlighting the competence of our educational system. < ready for the howls >

Securing the future - innovative retirement planning

The Surreal Son - in the land of black is white, nuts have fans.
Legal Eagles, here’s a business opportunity - petition the Supreme Court to make oxygen tents and prosthetics support standard features in US prisons.
i wonder how many millions of the taxpayers’ dollars are supporting this sad circus. Bushchacha could have spared me a few. i could retire, read roadsigns, watch birds and the nightsky. i would have even written some nice blogs!
Appearing rosy-lipped and in the pink of health in all photographs, poor Snow White reportedly doesn’t earn enough to support his lifestyle. It must terrifying to be parasite-infested and friendless in Neverland. Doesn’t that name shout for a shrink ?

Newest weapon in the war against malaria - fungal infection for mosquitoes !

Mayawati... the chameleon

2005-06-10T03:10:00.000+05:30

Alien Abductions - interesting reading

Bombing elephants - plans to install tripwire warnings and chilli smoke bombs to scare away wild elephants raiding villages in Assam. Continuing human intrusion into the elephants’ habitat.

Saw this Breaking News just before leaving for work :

The Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, whose political baseline has been the cause (!) of Dalits (?!), is now pledging to safeguard the interests of Brahmins if she returns to power in Uttar Pradesh. A pointer to her declining popularity amongst her kin ?

History, short

2005-06-09T03:15:00.000+05:30

'Vice Ring Madam' (80), arrested - senility, inhalers and a walking-frame are no deterrents for a successful business venture…

Author Bill Bryson plans to send a free copy of his best-selling science book - A Short History of Nearly Everything - to every secondary school in Britain. The book has now sold around two million copies in the UK alone. i picked up the hardcover edition of this immensely readable book last winter, from the bargains section at the Crossword bookstore !

Last Sunday, there was suddenly a glut of movies worth watching on the idiot box - Good Will Hunting, Kill Bill (Part I) and Back to the Future

Weekend watch : A Few Good Men (re-run)

btw, did i share that i picked up the best mangoes this season from the Sunday market ?

the apple

2005-06-08T01:38:00.000+05:30

The Chinese appetite for soyabean (in step with the country’s seemingly unsatiable hunger of almost everything - coal, gasoline, steel, cement…) is triggering an imminent ecological disaster in far away South America.

In strife-torn Africa, warlords become Cabinet Ministers, in India we (are coerced to ?) elect our bhais and goons to become Ministers - the empowerment, in either case, legitimizes plunder. Democracy only greys the shade of darkness. Darkness prevails, darkness rules…

On Sundays, i often visit a small weekly village market to buy vegetables. This trip provides me a window to peek at the changes suburban India is undergoing. And last Sunday the fruitseller’s handcart had shiny, crimson apples with little stickers proclaiming “Chiquita” / “Chile”! Selling at Rs. 100/= a kilo.

i’m not an economist by training. But, if those apples were really from Chile (that thin strip along the left margin of the South American continent!!), i marvel at the magic of globalization.

i wonder how i (as the consumer) and our fruit farmers benefit from these imports. i am certain the importers and the middlemen traders make a killing - maybe also killing-off our apple farmers in Himachal (and elsewhere) in the process.

i’ve heard stories of apples rotting on the ground in Himachal, for want of cold-storage and fruit-preservation facilities. i have also eaten the delicious, juicy Golden Apples from Himachal. How is it economically sustainable to bleed foreign exchange while not supporting our own farmers with a fair price for their produce? If the “Chiquita” can have buyers here at Rs. 100/=, i’m certain so can the Golden and other varieties of apples grown in the country. i presume we might even get better quality at a lesser price. Only another set of middlemen would be lining their pockets !

Are we exporting, say, our superior Golden Apples and importing the “Chiquita” and their ilk ? If so, why ? Would that be a position of economic strength in today’s global economy ? If i remember our national tax regime correctly, we incentivise exports by allowing duty-free (or reduced duty) imports to the exporter. Do we really benefit long-term by killing indigenous production capabilities - whether in farm products or in industrial manufacturing ? My powers of comprehension and protest are puny… compared to the lawmakers’ might and the dream-merchants’ magic !

But let me share this, the Golden Apples i had eaten, were far superior to the “Chiquita” i had today evening ! (Yeah, i had picked up some, curiosity got the better of me !)

only one earth...

2005-06-06T20:00:00.000+05:30

World Environment Day - the care and maintenance of a small planet

One Planet Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment - An atlas of environmental change compiled by the United Nations reveals some of the dramatic transformations that are occurring to our planet

'The huge growth of greenhouses in southern Spain, the rapid rise of shrimp farming in Asia and Latin America and the emergence of a giant, shadow puppet-shaped peninsula at the mouth of the Yellow River are among a string of curious and surprising changes seen from space.

They sit beside the more conventional, but no less dramatic images of rain forest deforestation in Paraguay and Brazil, rapid oil and gas development in Wyoming, United States, forest fires across sub-Saharan Africa and the retreat of glaciers and ice in polar and mountain areas" - Excerpts from the UNEP Atlas

lookin' around...

2005-06-04T02:50:00.000+05:30

Saudis are outraged over a proposal to allow women to drive. That would expose women to eye-contacts with strangers - male policemen and car mechanics!
Incidentally, under the Sharia (the code of Islamic laws… and their convenient interpretations) women rape victims can be put to death - for having slept with strangers. Mass rape carried out as ethnic cleansing in Sudan’s stricken Darfur region has largely gone unreported. Victims are afraid to testify and face the wrath of Sudan’s strict Shariat laws.

Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare has won the inaugural Man Booker International Prize, beating British authors Muriel Spark, Doris Lessing and Ian McEwan. Excerpts.

My heart bleeds for all the industrious souls of the clandestine gun-making Small Scale Industry in the badlands of North and East India (and elsewhere). i refer to the kind-hearted hardware-suppliers, keeping our bhais, sundry terrorists, brigands and the foot-soldiers of political extremities profitably in the business. In Bushland they could have just put up a NRA certificate and thrive !

i always loved the curves !

Arun called from Toronto today, spoke to him after almost a year. We went to school together in Cal. He's migrated and is doing well, as an IT security specialist.

Looking Around

2005-05-31T02:50:00.000+05:30

Xenophobia and the price of populist politics - Malaysia will relax immigration rules to allow migrant workers to visit the country to seek work. Quite a volte-face from their stand on Indian IT workers, in the recent past.

AIDS in India - lies, damn lies and government statistics

“It makes no sense at all to let market forces destroy a precious ecosystem that we all need for our survival and yet somehow we are letting it happen” says the BBC's Sue Branford watching the rampant deforestation after revisiting the Brazilian rainforest after 30 years

Unraveling the truth…

Disclaimer : All poetry in red in my posts are ©The Phoenix... original

canary dreams

2005-05-28T02:29:00.000+05:30

the heartless moon stares
across a sea of shining black
while the relentless monotone
of ceaseless blacksmiths
hammer emotions
into begging bowls.

weary desires reach out
to stone the mirror
shattering reflections
to free shards of dreams
piercing my heart
in blue pain.

wisps of haze
escape tender wild lips
laced with the desire
of bitter nicotine
in erupting spirals
of dazzling tungsten.

searing songs of soothing silence
i penned so long ago
gazing the vista
of blossoms in sunshine
the lingering waves of myriad mirages
in wavy curtains of spring rain;

that once danced
your brown eyes...

Replicating the Super Ape

2005-05-26T02:30:00.000+05:30

The US House of Representatives has voted to approve government funding for embryonic stem cell research, setting up a stand-off with President Bush who has announced that he would veto the Bill. Interesting to note that the US Government funds research for stem cell lines created from umbilical chord blood and there is no ban on private funding for embryonic stem cell research which is currently underway in a number of US States.

We, the Super Ape at the top of the pile, pushing another one to bite the dust. Cayman Island scientists are calling for assistance to pull a unique species of blue iguana back from the brink.

Continuing A Walk in the Woods, research indicates that exploding population of the white-tailed deer is eating the Wild American ginseng to extinction in the Appalachian mountains. And no prizes for guessing why the white-tailed deer is thriving !

Money, money, money - US publishers accuse Google of breaching copyright rules through a plan to put university libraries online.

Sunil Dutt (from Mother India - to sitting MP) passes away. So does, film producer Ismail Merchant, of the famous Ivory-Merchant duo, at 68.

Here comes Hydra - new super-computer to take on British GM Michael Adams in a six-match contest.

Should bosses blog ?

btw, nothing personal - some Mother’s Day photographs.

potent stuff

2005-05-25T03:50:00.000+05:30

Read about FLATHEAD - The peculiar genius of Thomas L. Friedman !

A deep bow to Atanu and in turn, Prashant

dinner time

2005-05-24T04:15:00.000+05:30

Sunday evening outing with friend Amit D - currently a victim(?) of the Summer Vacation travel bug which effect wives and school children - who suggested that we attempt an authentic Marathi dinner. Nothing exotic, something the common man survived on.

We ended up at Badshahi. A remarkable eatery unassumingly located on Tilak Road. i ducked through the doorway and entered a courtyard where time stood still. The place would probably have looked the same fifty years ago. Looking around, Amit confided that some of the staff was the same when he used to drop-in about ten years ago! The place had the same aura of the “pice hotels” back in Cal.

Timeless ambience, complete with a Seikosha pendulum clock above the doorway and framed pictures of Hindu deities with tilak of sandalwood paste on the foreheads. The one which caught my eye had a mustachioed Shiva sitting cross-legged with Laxmi and Ganesh on his lap. Shiva was not his popular blue (neelkanth) incarnation, here was a happy God and a proud father!

And of course, the compulsory Chhatrapati Shivaji in full regalia and Bal Gangadhar Tilak with his piercing eyes.

Thoughtful notices were stuck all around, one announced that the establishment welcomed all men and women irrespective of their race, religion, caste and creed - two copies of that one, prominently positioned. One advised patrons to check the menu and the curry-of-the-day prior to purchasing meal coupons, while another requested visitors to refrain from enquiring about membership(?), as none was offered. i noted that accommodation was available at the Badshahi Lodge and dinner was served only between 8 and 10pm.

We purchased meal coupons and logged our name with a dignified old gentleman in white kurta-pajama standing with a slate and a piece of chalk - there was a waiting list! Scores of patrons sat around, patiently waiting for their call. Out-of-town college students (probably staying in boarding facilities), families with fidgety kids in tow, budget tourists, travelling salesmen, shopkeepers, quiet couples, girls in T-shirts with helmets, young men with shopping-bags loaded with recent purchases and many who could afford air-conditioned luxury, but were drawn by the charm of Badshahi.

As customers walked out, the gentleman in white called out names from the waiting-list, in what i presume was traditional Marathi accent. Inside the hall, every diner sat at a small individual table, lined along the walls.

Everyone was served drinking water in a small gleaming brass pot (i remember an earlier posting on the water-purification capabilities of brass vessels) to be drunk with an equally well-polished small steel bowl. The food was simple, warm, tasty and the serving was unlimited - hot roti brushed with ghee, rice, dal, a couple of vegetable dishes, chhaas (butter-milk), papad, chutney, onions and lemon slices. The entire meal priced at thirty rupees. We added aamras (ripe mango shake). They fed you till you could take it no more !

Returned home and slept early, we had absolutely hogged at dinner.
Somehow woke up after three at night and couldn’t sleep after that. Tossed and turned in the bed for sometime, then gave up the effort and got up, around 4am. The day had been hot - around 38C, but now it was wonderfully cool and breezy outside. Sat reading of Stephen Katz’ bumbling along the Appalachian Trail with Bill Bryson, 63 pages in about two hours.

The breeze was stronger and day was breaking. i walked out to the verandah feeling the breeze on my face and listening to the sibilant clicks of the sunbird hunting in the hedges next to the parking lot below. It was time to get back to sleep.

Weekend watch : The Man Who Would be King from Rudyard Kipling’s Plain Tales from the Hills

Hark...

2005-05-21T03:00:00.000+05:30

...read this

trees die easy

2005-05-21T02:30:00.000+05:30

We are the champions, our children hardly matter, really.

Reading the piece, i am reminded of Mahathir Mohammad's, the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, inaugural speech at a global environmental summit in his country a few years ago. Where he lambasted the West (“developed countries”) for using the bogey of environmental conservation to prevent the Third World from clearing forests and benefit from using forest resources for developmental activities !

Sadly, the majority of our development planning is too myopic in approach to appreciate that the Earth’s forests are a renewable storehouse of resources. We may clear forests - plunder and pillage. But Nature is stronger. By re-investing a small fraction of the money generated and a little time and care, the same forest can regenerate. Forests can be managed to benefit society, sustainably.

The man on the street does not understand nor care about the catastrophe looming large on us, within the next decade. Despite all proclaimed efforts (and after dispatching thousands of Crores into Swiss accounts) over at least the last 30 years - Governmental, NGO and otherwise - we have miserably failed to check our burgeoning population. This is triggering catastrophic crises in the availability of potable water and energy for cooking (forget “kyunki saas bhi kabhi…”) - both in our suburban population hotspots and around the countryside. Why do i care, as long as i made it to “Outstanding” in the annual appraisal ?

And with honourable and notable exceptions - NGOs' big business, the enlightenment to achieve karma! Spare the howls of indignation !!

How about a 30-minute discussion with Dawood (him of the D-Company fame) on the Indian population bomb? To be live-telecast Sunday-evening primetime? Oh, wow! The TRPs will be sky-rocketing, he’s a well-known authority on fireworks, you know !!

To borrow unabashed - “Death come easy if you come before your time, Death come easy to a young man in his prime…”

Amen

Diamonds and Paradigms

2005-05-20T02:50:00.000+05:30

Interesting reading in the Obsidian Wings on the mayhem across the world on the Koran desecration issue

The journey to Jurassic Park has begun !

Rediscovered my old and yellowed notebook, and writing of what now seem eons ago. This one’s dated 16 Feb 1985 -

the darkness creeps in silence
until there’s but blackness, all around
black forms, silence and the haze
come together to deceive
throttling out distant lights.

the stars high above
sapphires or fires?
twinkling
looking down with bleak eyes
throwing just another cold shoulder
and no shadows.

there silhouetted against the moon
are the velvety smooth
creatures of the night
floating on silent wings.

the owl stares down
looking around for the defenceless
shrill screeches and soft flutter of wings
cruel beaks and talons
tear apart warm hearts
even as they throb.

flecks of blood fly
villyfying the sanctity, for eternity
as predators’ rule
the night of the hunter’s moon.

A paradigm shift, as Dada says - the light at the end of the tunnel, is often the headlight of the oncoming train…

To borrow a thought, diamonds and rust.

Dog, hardly walking

2005-05-19T03:30:00.000+05:30

A couple of days ago - i’m driving into work and there’s this gawky little girl walking out her dog.

It is one of those lanky lean canines, looks like a hound but really is a local mongrel, albeit, quite visibly well-groomed. The dog is on a long leash and the little girl is pulling it to the right of the gate.
But the dog is also one of The Maker’s own creations, it has mind of its own. And it has just caught a whiff on the left of the gate which mesmerizes its brain cells, demanding urgent inspection.

By this time i’m turning off the road, to drive through the gate, i honk. A couple of security guards posted at the gate remain gawking spectators to the unfolding drama. The little girl pulls the dog to the right, clear off the gate. My sixth sense is working overtime as i crawl towards the gate on the lowest gear. A lanky girl walking a perky dog on a long leash across a gate, spells trouble… the dog looks capable of throwing off the girl with a swift pull on the restrainer.

Curiosity killed the cat, or so the story went. The dog has its long ears up, nose on the ground and inquisition energizes its leap to the left…

In reflex action i brake, the car stops, with an astonished little girl nicely aligned with the car-maker’s emblem in the middle of the front grille… thankfully a few inches clear of the fender.

Meanwhile, the perky young dog is busy putting the carpet of grass to close scrutiny. That’s what it intended to do anyway, right from the beginning of this little drama…

End of an act of providence.

Research indicates that women are far more vulnerable to alcohol-induced brain damage than men. The research also indicates that women may be more vulnerable to chronic alcohol consumption.

Tango Golf - my classmate from school, mailed me an interesting reading on Calcutta lifestyle, more accurately, on the Bangali adda, which appeared in the New York Times (Have to register to read).

postscript - The TOI reports that the Government plans to accredit bloggers !

stop gap

2005-05-18T01:30:00.000+05:30

Hard-pressed for time, so no updates so far this week. Hope to resume my ramblings by the weekend.

btw, critics claim that blogs have nothing to say and are pure self-indulgence !

Now reading : A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

ps - Salaam to globalization, Dada says McDonalds has reached Mathura ! Their Indian expansion plans clearly indicated Mathura (strategic marketing here!) as one of the desired locations...

Mayaji kahein... (with apologies to all who find this Greek)

2005-05-12T22:30:00.000+05:30

“aah”, says Mayaji, “abhee ye CBI mere pichhey kyon ?”
“kyonki main snaas ya bahu nahin, sidool kast hun ?”
“yeh sarasar Ambedkarji ka abmanna hai”
“hum saamuhik aandolan karwayengey, Mahatmaji key tarah jail bharwayengey”
“lassi piyengey…”
“Ram Sing”, she bellows, “aabey lassi mangwao… garmi charh raha hai”

Just in case you had thought otherwise, Ram Singh is your crack NSG commando, part of Mayaji’s Z-plus category security detail.
Ah yes, of course, your tax pays for his salary... and her bunglow, armoured a/c car, air fares and the mahiney ka chhotaasa sale phoon bill…

Meantime, Mayaji on her sale phoon with her persunal sekretry Ram Piyarey, moving the crores from her bank to relative’s and benaami accounts, “behnoi ke khaatey mein bees karore dalwa deyna…”
“sab khaali karwaao, kahin chaapa waapa maarley”

“apnaa khaata meybhi das ek karore raakh leyna, aarey case lipatney mey tow kharchaa pani howegaa”
“deykhlo ee case ka deerekter kaun hain, baat kaarlo, haathwa mey thamaa dow”
“Kumarji ko bhi bulwa lo, abmaanna ka case banwana hai”
“kaal subah tiwiwaaley or akhbaarwaaley ko bulwaao, hum eshtatemin dengey”
“abhi Mohanji ka number lagwaao lok sabha mey suppot ke baat kartey hnai”

You may wish to swear at the scenario, but then we are the world’s happening democracy and Mayaji is the poor elected representative of the mango-people!

Allow the CBI to fret over her, to file a chargesheet which will get thrown out of the courthouse window by the judge in the very first hearing… jai hanuman, long live democracy and the toiling taxpayer…

Further observations on the vagaries of law and the awe inspiring mysteries of the legal system -

Old beyond her years… posted by Medium Lobster
”Florida has no parental notification laws. But it does have a Department of Children and Families, and thank God for that : it has successfully sued to prevent a pregnant 13-year-old ward of the state from having an abortion on the grounds that she's too immature to make the decision. Too immature to choose to have a child, but plenty old enough to risk physically bringing it to term, and to raise it in the squalor of state custody. Ah, the glorious mysteries of the culture of life!”

Interesting reading from Obsidian Wings -

There They Go Again... posted by hilzoy, 11 May 2005 :
Via Crooked Timber, I see that those wacky guys at Powerline are at it again:
"It's great to see someone standing up for colonialism, especially British colonialism. I agree wholeheartedly with this observation, for example:
Had Britain had the courage to face down Gandhi and his rabble a few years longer, the tragedy that was the partition of India might have been avoided." (quoting Roger Kimball)
Offhand, I can't imagine why Kimball or Hinderaker thinks that partition could have been avoided had the British stayed a few years longer. The divisions between Hindus and Muslims were deep, and with Jinnah, the head of the All-India Muslim league, supporting partition, it seems unlikely that given a few more years of unwelcome British rule, everyone would have settled down and decided to get along. Nor is it clear why they think that Gandhi was the person who should have been faced down: he consistently opposed partition, and was assassinated because he was seen by Hindu nationalists as having given away too much in his efforts to keep India's Muslims from seeking a separate state.
But it's not the misreading of Indian history that's really breathtaking; it's the phrase "Gandhi and his rabble." Gandhi was not perfect, but for John Hinderaker to look down on him with contempt suggests a level of moral self-delusion that is, in its way, awe-inspiring."

The Phoenix Muses...

Emu Farming and India

Pictures and Memories - The Ladakh Journey - V

Pictures and Memories - The Ladakh Journey - IV

Pictures and Memories - The Ladakh Journey - III

Pictures and Memories : The Ladakh Journey - II

Fruity lore

Glimpses of the festivities last week...

Pictures and Memories : The Ladakh Journey - I

Autumn is in the air...

Re-living the past

songs of serendipity

shifted base

another muted prayer

may the red flag flutter ever higher

creativity@work, did i say ?

a mute prayer

Here n There...

Death comes easy

plunder, plunder everywhere...

sanity, revisited

Change Manager

whatahit...

Bismillah and his shehnai...

Docs from China

Charmed Quirk

Pearls...

Mining the Story

Rain

Jaws of the Boss

War Games ?

freakonomics !

Back from a long hiatus…

SOS

trivia...

virgin flying...

Some Mind Games

save...

mass extinctions around us

under developed...

gasping...

New Year Pearls

Wrapper pearls for the New Year

From SugerRite (low calorie sugar substitute) - Best Before Within 2yrs. From Dt.Of Mfg.

Napolitian chocolate - Chocolate Produced in Singapore, Packed in Malaysia for CJ Van Houten & Zoon AG Zurich, Switzerland

Now reading : Haruki Murakami - Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

knotty and naughty...

Evolution in Action - Science magazine’s Breakthrough of the Year 2005 (Login Required)

Dual-polity - The President tries squeaky cleaning

Some more reading here and here

All my favourite late-night movies to follow ftv to oblivion ?

the ichneumon fly

Tango and Cash

bugs on grass...

...still looking around...

English as she spake...

Pictures

love and death...

Much Ado...

flight plan...

ice...

It is...therefore

Sweet...

Flight...

jhanda unchaa rahey hamara...

...when will they ever learn...

time and again...

Pony-tail...

Steely eyes...

Awakening...

deep impact

Peeking

hard talk

still looking around...

Monsoon Magic

dare and bare...

Trivia...

Blasts...

The Chairman lives long

Tightrope Walker