Plans

How realistic is it to set goals and make plans months and years in advance? What are plans after all?

- Marathon in 5 months
- Intermediate Spanish degree in 1 year
- Some French too tal vez...
- ...no I am not even going to say this one...

Doublespeak

Holi and all the consequent celebrations always bring to mind the doublespeak that leaves me dumbfounded and floundering like a landed fish

Tonight?

We all have our idiosyncrasies. We all have our quirks. And these in turn influence our preferences and tastes. Fridays always throw open the debate,"Where are we going tonight?"

I find it intriguing how a genial, slightly garrulous, slightly smoke filled atmosphere with some ale can stimulate so greatly. An atmosphere where the strains of acoustic guitar blend in complete harmony with a harmonica, where the talk is about appreciating the subtlety and genius of the music in the air, nodding in agreement at modern day troubadours and their messages, where the talk is books and travel, distant bazaar streets and spice markets, rustic cafés and their unique air. A place where one does not know whether its the music and smoke and ale, or the company or the talk that takes precedence but they all blend into this delicious yet undefinable whole..like hot baklava and sheesha and apple tea...all serving to take the senses to a parallel which is always fresh no matter how often one visits.

This would be my ideal refuge. A perfect Friday or Saturday evening.

*pop*

I work in an unusual environment. Of course what I mean to say is its unusual as compared to commonly held perceptions about what a work environment constitutes: an impersonal off white office block stretching to the sky, those horrid wood prisons we call cubes, phones beeping, muted chatter, unduly long breaks at the water cooler, board rooms, late evening ordered -in pizza ...you get the picture.

I work in an office space which has no cubes, where staff sits on whichever chair is available then depending on how many people are in the office, a wash basin next to my designated desk from where my desk is at times sprayed with droplets when ever the sink is put to use, water colour paintings and crayon drawings made by young children plastered on walls and a furniture factory next door to provide a steady hum, whine and clash of wood being forged into something people buy. But that's not what makes this office different. In fact, with my laptop, earphones and back to the office, I pretty much manage to block out what may initially seem inconveniences but actually aren't. A bubble woven with an almost toxic mix comprising MS Office, broadband internet and an extensive music collection. But like all bubbles, this one too pops, but what you see and hear makes up for the fleeting discomfort.

What does set this office apart from the normal are the conversations that I overhear when my earphones aren't plugged in:

"Why don't you want to finish your 10th grade exams? You should...it will help you and you'll be able to earn twice what you earn today"

"Where is your friend? Call him here...otherwise he'll soon run away again or will steal something. Bring him and I will speak to him"

"She just completed her vocational training course and is now earning 3500 a month!"

"The parents were extremely angry because the children returned later than expected...some of them were drunk and beat up the children. They then came to beat us up too, accusing us of taking their children away and removing their kidneys & eyes to sell them..."

At times jarring, at times disappointing and on rare occasions satisfying...I guess these emotions aren't very different from what one might experience in a more, shall I say sterile office environment. What keeps coming back is the reality that here, it isn't quarterly sales targets or revenue estimates that are being discussued...and of course it sure beats water cooler induced gossip ...back go the earphones.

OST

Trippy times spent with Delhi visitors always throw up interesting questions: if you were to have a soundtrack for your life, what would it be like?

:-) Interesting no? Definitely something to think about....

Who's to say?

Most often, I eat lunch at a nearby south Indian fast food outlet which is 5 minutes away from my office. The road leading to it takes me through slums and narrow winding roads. I spend about Rs. 20 on average for my meal (50 eurocents). The restaurant is small, clean and with no seating space. One buys their food ala McDonalds and stands their plates on granite platforms lining the sides of the walls, quickly runs through the meal and leaves. The interior of the restaurant is kept spotless and clean; plates are removed as fast as they are emptied, spots of curry or bits of food are mopped up instantly and glasses are disposed into plastic trays and taken to the wash. Its a great place to eat for a quick & clean meal...cheap & tasty.

But off late I have begun to enjoy the food less. Plates, spills and glasses are wiped, picked up and removed by 2 or 3 young boys ostensibly "working" in the restaurant. The boys can't be more than 14 years old. They aren't legally allowed to work which makes things worse for them. Going by what usually happens, they must be kids brought in from a town in one of the outlying districts of Karnataka state, sent by their parents to earn some income. They would get a place to sleep at night (usually the same floor on which I stand and eat my lunch), they would get 3 meals and any income they would earn would be sent directly to their parents. These kids would almost never pick up a cricket bat on the streets, wouldn't know the meaning of a holiday.

There's many questions here: Where do you stop enforcing your moral standards and temper it with practicality? I feel increasingly uneasy eating as the kid goes about his bleak existence. Because I don't go up to the manager and speak on this issue, am I just another of the herd...going about my life without living the values I claim to work for? Or am I just being practical in accepting the sad yet ultimate truth that we can't change the world. Or am I just reverting to my elitist roots, metaphorically rolling up my car window and driving on whilst nodding my head in sympathy at the sad state of affairs that exist today...forgetting about them the moment I am in my favourite coffee house?

Is there a right answer? Or for that matter, is there even a right question? As hard as I try to distance myself from the work I do, its a struggle at the best of times. How this struggle manifests itself in my daily life, I shall write separately. For now I don't feel so good about that lunch I just had because a spoonful of helplessness is the most bitter of tonics to swallow.

Then, who?

Last week I changed all the light bulbs in my house. I discarded the incadescent yellow light emitting ones and replaced them with white compact fluroscent lights or CFLs. I then went on to tell my Mom that we've just reduced our carbon footprint a little bit.

Cut to another scene, there is a water crisis of gargantuan proportions looming over the city of Bangalore. With 9 million people and growing, there simply isn't any water to go around, or if there is corruption is seeing to it that people pay 3 - 5 times the normal amount they would for it.

Conservation of resources and preservation of the environment are two behavioural characteristics closely tied to each other I think. Those who understand it...well understand it. Those who don't, don't seem to really apply much thought to it. Nobody likes being preached at and hence for those few beacons of hope that are out there are shut out or laughed at or have a now common phrase thrown at them, " But there isn't enough science to support your theory". Ludicrous of course....friends of mine actually believe in this rubbish or even if they see what is happening to our natural resources, aren't worried enough so long as you open the tap and have water flowing or flip the switch and there's light.

This brings me back to a basic premise of being a responsible citizen, not just of your community or locality but of the entire planet. Once we internalize this concept, we allow room for change. I keep saying that its not about awakening any latent change agent characteristics...you can't go around expecting people to wake up and do volunteer work or save the whales. The only thing that can be done is to provide easy access to information and hope that people will eventually become more sensitized to these pressing issues. Once people are sensitized, its amazing the things they do. But till such time I can only sit back, read how a 100 countries came together, all agreed climate change is real and went back home...meanwhile the lightbulbs burn bright all over Bangalore and commercial renewable energy is but a distant dream and hundreds of thousands of people go without potable water and electricity in one of the world's biggest technology hubs.

Irony likes its jokes cruel.

Rewind

This might as well turn into a music blog. I was sent this song by a friend and the lyrics brought a big smile to my face and a knowing nod...I keep saying that I was born twenty years too late....here's another validation of that belief (minus the flowers of course)

From "Wish I was a punk rocker..." by Sandi Thom

Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
In 77 and 69 revolution was in the air
I was born too late and to a world that doesn't care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair

When the head of state didn't play guitar,
Not everybody drove a car,
When music really mattered and when radio was king,
When accountants didn't have control
And the media couldn't buy your soul
And computers were still scary and we didn't know everything

When popstars still remained a myth
And ignorance could still be bliss
And when God Saved the Queen she turned a whiter shade of pale
When my mom and dad were in their teens
and anarchy was still a dream
and the only way to stay in touch was a letter in the mail

When record shops were on top
and vinyl was all that they stocked
and the super info highway was still drifting out in space
kids were wearing hand me downs,
and playing games meant kick arounds
and footballers still had long hair and dirt across their face

I was born too late to a world that doesn't care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair

The Other Side

Isn't it funny & strange how certain things are trumpeted and made so much about when they are actually not a big deal at all? In fact they are not even worthy of more than a passing mention but instead we debate, dissect and try to extrapolate till the ends of the earth. But once you are out on the other side, more than a fleeting sense of liberation, one more importantly is left with a comfortable feeling of self assuredness.

A trivial matter this may have been but it would be prudent to heed the outcome still.

Lurgee

I was asked recently what kind of music I listen to and when I listed out a handful of bands and singled out one of them the reaction was "Yes I've listened to a few of their songs but after a point, they get really weird".

I feel better, I feel better now you've gone.
I got better, I got better, I got strong.
I feel better, I feel better now there's nothing wrong

Now if you'd said this about Phish I would have conceded but not with these guys...they aren't weird honey but mostly melancholy...mostly melancholy.

Carrying it off

Clothes maketh the man. My grandfather would tell me this quite often when I was a little kid, exhorting me to dress sharp. Somewhere that bit of sound advice was lost. One tends to adopt a peer friendly attitude to dressing, especially if we are part of a comfortable, mature & non – judgmental peer group. Of course this may not hold true for women but for the guys, it’s by & large the truth.

However, maybe at times we tend to get a little too comfortable…slipping from casual to sloppy. That’s a fine line and often breached. It could be either because we aren’t aware of it, we don’t care or we assume a fake bravado, flaunting frumpiness as our fashion statement.

So what happens when one tries to break out of a perceived image? The reactions are startlingly acute and make for good conversation topics with pretty girls, if one happens to be at a social gathering. Recent experiences also tell me that acceptance doesn’t come too quickly! Comments, compliments (?) and exclamations abound. However, its fun to do if you’re ok with letting go. And letting go, I’ve come to believe is a skill not easily acquired and one that can also be much cherished once mastered. Of course anthropologists could have further uses to such experiments and if not anything else, you'll get a good idea about your perceived image among your peer group! A real time visual DNA test if you like heh.

As for me, I’m not stowing that shirt away anytime soon.

Refresh

Poignant. Moving. True. And many more but words seldom (with me they never seem to) suffice when it comes to doing justice in expressing powerful & enjoyable experiences. The Namesake is one such work, subliminally moving yet starkly revealing...love, lust, betrayal, bonds big small strong weak rejected embraced. Irrfan Khan & Tabu are brilliant with Kal Penn not too far behind and the background score...heaven.

To say this is a movie on the Indian story in the States would be to appreciate a very small part of what Mira Nair manages to weave through 2 hours. But it is representative. And it transcends cultures. And now I'm also more than mildly curious about Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol.

Shantaram should be a cracker.

Legislating morality...for over 60 years

Like there aren't enough things already to test my patience, make me grind my teeth in frustration and nod my head in disbelief

• Our great HD Kumara F-ing Swamy's government is talking about banning horse racing. Why exactly, I could not ascertain from the news reports or his (usually) nonsensical comments
  
• In Bombay, the government-police-moral police have again begun to "crack down" on couples enjoying the sunset at Bandstand and other places Amit Varma tells me
• Ban sex education in schools in Maharashtra because 16 year olds are too "tender" to receive this information
  

And bars, restaurants and pubs in Bangalore continue to shut at 11:30. I wish I could get on top of roof tops all around the world and say how much I think this city has degraded, how we Indians are amongst the most two faced, hyppocritical so n so's and why, in general we are prized asses. From Gandhi till today we have stayed true...legislating morality for longer than I care to remember.

Sorry...boiling point reached, eloquence sacrificed on the altar of anger and now better, calmer

With a p h

Who would have thought that a 30 odd second clip of a song heard in a Simpson's episode 4 years ago would lead to the personal discovery of one of the most entertaining & heady kinds of music, in addition to just letting yourself go to the experience that is Phish.

Future

I read this on the back of an auto rickshaw yesterday:

"Our future - blood cheap, water costly''

Hmmm...true true.