A new light..

This morning Mr.Free-spirit sent me the above photograph.He knew it would affect me deeply and needless to say it did exactly that and more.Here is a little history behind the photo from Mr. Free-spirit's diaries.

Circa July,2006

Place:Bhandardhara , 250 km from Mumbai

This is a remote village in Maharashtra where there is only one phone.There is a queue to receive calls from sons/daughters/relatives and people are given time slots.This old man's daughter is married to someone in Pune.She calls him once a month.He comes here every Sunday morning though,with a big smile of anticipation on his face.Smile disappears when talk veers towards his son who has no time for his old parents.But life goes on..His dream is to see his grand-son before "Ganesh Chaturti" if he can arrange the money, that is.
My first reaction to this was an unspeakable measure of pity towards this old man. My heart and mind usually disagree on any given day, but this morning was different.They were working in harmony, resenting his children for doing this to him. How can anyone abandon their old parents!!!!! I had many things to say to the politicians and governments promising people the world when in reality they can't provide something as elementary as telephone connections in this day and age.I must have cursed poverty atleast a million times.
I kept looking at this photo for a while and then it struck me that the old man actually looked happy. To him happiness was this moment of anticipation. I realized that if he didn't go to this place every Sunday to wait for his daughter's call he would probably die.Sure there is poverty,sure his children are certified ingrates, sure everything is working against him but he bravely trudges along to do what he wants to.To me he symbolizes a word - a four letter word. HOPE!!! That which makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside on a harsh rainy day.
I can't thank this old man enough.I have learnt one of life's valuable lessons today.I am happy and hopeful.
P.S:I am really hopeful that this village will get more phones soon.I am really really hopeful that this man will meet his grand-son.I am really really really hopeful that I get to go to a "real" village as Mr Free-spirit suggested.I am curious to know what life's lessons are waiting for me.

Snowflakes and all that..

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens;
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens;
Brown paper packages tied up with strings;
These are a few of my favourite things.
Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels;
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles;
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings;
These are a few of my favourite things.
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes;
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes;
Silver-white winters that melt into springs;
These are a few of my favourite things.
When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,
When I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favourite things,
And then I don't feel so bad.
I love the sound of Music and I would give an eye and an arm to be in Julie Andrews' shoes.This song gets me thinking about my favourite things and if they do really make me happy. I have decided to list them out and then I will see if they make me feel better.
1.Starting with something close to the Earth, I love the smell of wet Earth.There is something so.. what's the word!! Earthy about it :).
2.There is nothing more gratifying than feeding a hungry dog. The rascal will follow you even to the end of the world after that.
3.I love the smell of a freshly laundered towel.No explanations will be given.
4.I have always been fascinated by the trail a jet leaves in the sky.Lucky are those women who have been propositioned this way :)
5.There are very few things that beat this one. Getting up in the morning and realizing you can afford to sleep for ten more minutes.Bliss!!!
6.I get really excited if I can recognize the song they're playing at a restaurant or a cafe.Its even better if I know the lyrics.
7.New Shoes :). I will beg for shoes. A pair of new shoes is what every girl wants!!!!
8.When they play all my favourite songs back to back on the radio.
9. A mid-night ice-cream escapade, with a cherry on top. :)
As I wrap up this list I hear myself humming
When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,
When I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favourite things,
And then I don't feel so bad.
This can only mean only one thing :):):).

City City Bang Bang!!!

Something has changed and I dont like it. It's like a lot of Pandora's boxes have been opened over the last few months.I am a true blue Bangalorean (having spent 23 years of my life here I can say that confidently) and proudly so. It's true what they say about being a Bangalorean for life.I have always loved the spirit of this city and will continue to do so always. People are nice and very live and let live or so I thought till yesterday.Its strange how your views change when someone dear to you gets ambushed for having a bike not registered in Karnataka and gets told that they have no rights to go jogging in a park for the same reason.I blame this on our complacence. It's the good old Bangalorean attitude of "swalpa adjust maadi" which is riding on my nerves right now. We are fine with people walking all over us.We dont report issues such as the one I mentioned above because we assume nothing will be done in any case. I am sick of being careful. I hate being cowed down.
I miss those days way back in school when we used to go to Cubbon park every summer hols and it was almost like a yearly ritual back then.A day out at cubbon park meant unlimited amount of ice-cream and pop-corn.It also meant unlimited time on the monkey-bars,swings, and slides and the ultimate thrill- a ride on the toy train.I feel bad for the new generation of kids.Cubbon park has definitely not been preserved for posterity.
The Lalbagh flower show was an event that was marked on our calendars.My dad being a principal scientist with the Indian Institute of horticultural research,went into a tizzy each time
we went to attend the flower show.This was more like treat for him than for us. We always looked forward to the treats afterwards.Sadly we all got busy with our lives and there is
never any time for a "silly flower show" anymore.
Bangalore will always have a special place in my heart.This is the city I grew up in,the city that taught me to love and let go, the city that gave me an opportunity to interact with some
fascinating people, the city that gave me great friends ( so wonderful that sometimes I wonder if I deserve them).Here is where I learnt that nothing is impossible;tough-yes but not impossible.I have had some of my sweetest victories here.This city taught me to be tolerant and humble(I'm working on that :)). I learnt my lessons on "not being judgemental here". This
city taught me to live and let live.My heart bleeds today as this very framework of the city is being attacked.As the city loses its charm slowly I feel I'm losing a part of my personality along with it.I want my city back!!!! I want to feel at home again.

Automanic

They are yellow and black and buzz around the city like they own it .No, I'm not talking about bees but the omnipresent auto-rickshaws a.k.a rick,auto,tuk-tuk,rickshaw and the list
goes on.Every auto has a life of its own which largely depends on the captain of the ship i.e., the auto driver.
Taking an auto is almost inevitable in Bangalore and I have hopped into one atleast a hundred million times.I dont usually chat up auto drivers as I dont like to distract anyone on the
job but I have been forced out of my comfortable silence (sometimes jolted) to give directions or to ask them to slow down and once even to tell the driver that the seat had fallen
off(This did happen. I swear on my precious pairs of shoes!!).
The driver of an auto I once took kept speaking out his thoughts.I have seen a lot of people do this and I suspect I do it at times too, only it got a little too scary when he started singing his thoughts. That was definitely a first for me.What if he was some kind of a singing assassin!!!??I was in no mood to find out.He scared me enough to get down a whole kilometre before my destination.
There was another instance where the auto driver was in a hurry for no apparent reason.It was like he had to get me/my dead body to my destination in the shortest possible time.What
followed was a honk/brake/overtake/swear/spit fest.People were honked/spat at for just being on the roads at the same time as we were.It appeared as if he enjoyed getting all worked up and
yelling at people, maybe it made his job more fulfilling.When I did finally get off I couldn't resist myself from asking him if he used to drive an ambulance previously to which he just
smiled. I was totally disarmed as I had been mentally gearing up for a full blown fight with him.
All auto drivers test the waters by speaking to you in all possible languages.This is to see if you are someone who can be "taken for a ride" or not.All of them will invariably never return change.Some of them have to be told which route to take failing which you will have to take the longest and most circuitous route to your destination and some will take offence
if you try to be navigator supreme.And forget getting an auto when it rains.They will not come anywhere you wish to go even if you give them all the money in the world.On the other hand
if you are lost ask an auto driver for directions.They will be spot on.You have to hand it to these guys. The art of "direction giving" comes naturally to them.Some of these guys have hearts of gold .I have seen a lot of auto drivers giving free rides to school kids and they usually pitch in first at the scene of an accident.
Hmmm Autos!!! Can't live with them, Cant live without them.

I wish!!!!

The toughest thing for me to do is to pass time at work when there is absolutely no work(not even documentation) to be done. Today has been one such day and a certain cold virus seems to have taken a liking to me, making the wait for the day to end even more hellish.Thanks to the recession I cant even catch a few zzzzs at my desk and have to pretend to be busy.So, I've decided to make a list of the things I would like to see happening in my lifetime.Here goes..
1. First things first. A CURE for common cold.
2. On the bus I always seem to end up next to people with whom I cant keep a conversation going.Feeling tongue-tied isn't so great. So, I would like an invisibility cloak!! A La Harry P.
3. I am a vegetarian and will remain one all my life. It's comforting to know my food wasn't clucking, swimming,wooing a mate or lazing around before I ate it.I am tired of people telling me what I am missing out on by being a vegetarian.So, each time someone says that to me from now on I want them to develop Alektorophobia (fear of chickens).A little too harsh I know, but heyy it's my list.
4. Plain old boring black uncomfortable office chairs should be replaced with Lazyboys.
5. Diet, Lite, low fat, sugar free, sugarless,substitute,soya, regular: I've tried every kind of chocolate there is and the sad truth is that chocolate makes you fat. I want chocolate that helps you lose weight!!! Ah Bliss!!!
6. I have always loved chase sequences in movies. I want to get get into a taxi one day and say "Taxi, Follow that taxi!!!" with good reason of course.
7. I want to drive a volvo truck!!!
8. I want to go backpacking alone and send postcards to all my friends :).
9. It's embarrassing when your stomach growls. It's worse when the packet of chips or biscuits you are trying to open to feed your tummy protests loudly. I want food packaged in something silent and well behaved. I am ready to pay extra.
10. People should work only 4 days a week. Wednesday should be compulsorily off. Also going on vacations must be mandatory.
I have to abandon this list for now as I am not as jobless as I thought I was. I had better stop day-dreaming and get back to the grind.

Love Actually

Here's my take on what happened at Mangalore. Our poor ineligible bachelor wanted just 10 seconds of fame.He kept whining about how non-entities and terrorists get so much TV coverage nowadays to his fellow non-entities.They came up with a brilliant plan. Since they were already non-entities they just had to fulfill the terrorist criterion as well.
After much brainstorming they came up with nothing.So they got drunk and decided to get even more sloshed at a pub where they were denied entry ofcourse.This must have hurt their fragile male egos.So they decided to take on women in the pub since female foeticide, wife beating and attrocities against women are pretty much the norm in this country. This way they satisfied the terrorist criterion as well.And what have we!!!!! Muthalik and his band of crazy men are more popular than the Pope.
Fame, they say is addictive. And hence the whole ban on Valentine's day and "its against Indian culture" blah.Muthalik is the man you know. Women are sending pink chaddis to him in droves.Must be loving(oops I used the taboo word) it, with due respect to Indian culture.Kinky chap!! :).But he must pretend to be a virtuous "Indian" and send all the women saris in return. Probably his way of saying "Heyy saris are more comfy than pink thongs.I've tried them myself.You've got to let it all hang out baby "
My personal favourite tactic is getting unmarried couples seen hanging around together on Feb 14th married off.Heyy what happens to the married lot???? dude you've got to be clear with your agenda.Is it Valentine's day you are against or does seeing unmarried couples make you go green with envy?? Please decide or you'll just come across sounding like a hypocrite.Women dont find that sexy(oops I did it again).Just say I wont tolerate Valentine's day irrespective of people's marital status(and pray like mad that some woman finds that irreristible) or just go on air and make puppy eyes and say "Somebody love me .. Please!!!!". I have a feeling the second option will work out better.
If you dont change your game plan now buddy I'm sure you'll never get what you secretly hope to get(some TLC I say :) ). When William Congreve said "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" he must've known something that you dont.