Churningthewordmill

As Mumbai heaves a sigh of relief as the hostage situation finally draws to a close after three long days, my head is abuzz with questions. Nagging questions that I don’t have answers to.

Why do people turn into terrorists? No matter what the “incentives” of becoming a terrorist may be, how can anyone convince someone to become a cold bloodied murder? Are such people completely devoid of a conscience? Don’t they ever think of the immense degree of damage they would cause to life and property? Of the people they will scar for life? Don’t they realise they are becoming pawns at the hands of religious fundamentalists and ill-intentioned governments? How can they be blinded so completely?

As a country we aren’t new to terrorism, we have had it for a number of years now. But how come we still seem unprepared, almost careless about it each time it hits us? How do such things happen? Why are we unable to prevent them? I was at the Taj exactly 5 days back for a conference and I can assure you they seem to have no security measures in place. I walked up to the main entrance and walked right through the doors- no one asked me to walk through a metal detector, no one checked my bag, no one asked me where I was headed. I had carried an identification card along with the invite thinking someone may ask me for them. No one did.  I literally waltzed into the hotel. If newspaper reports are to be believed so did the terrorists. And that’s what is scary.  Why aren’t we learning from past mistakes? I understand that the situations aren’t predictable- the attacks are getting worse each time and the terrorists are using new strategies and tactics but there must be something we can do. We can’t always be the helpless victim.

And what about those who lost their lives in this operation? Now that the operation has been successful, the media is full of reports about the martyrs, rightly extolling their  bravery and their contribution to freeing the city. But  as short lived as the public memory is, a few days from now, we would all have forgotten about them. Just like we forgot the Kargil martyrs and innumerable others. At the most their families will get some compensation from the government or a substitute job for one of the family members, but the lives of the families will never be the same again and we will all conveniently forget and move on.

Do horrific instance like this wake up our politicians from their stupor? Does it make them realise how selfish they are-mindlessly running after vote banks, caring not for the welfare of the people who they are supposed to govern?  I am not sure it does. They seem to enjoy getting milage out of the situation. (Read Thought Safari’s post on this here.) A number of smses have been circulating around Mumbai, some of them aimed at Raj Thakre. “Where is Raj Thakre and his brave sena? Tel him that the 200 NSG commandos from Delhi have been sent to Mumbai to fight terrorist so that he can sleep in peacefully (all north and south Indians, no marathi manoos)Please forward this to others so that if finally reaches him” said one of the messages I received. The Indian Homemaker did a post on this. I agree to the sentiments behind that sms. How petty are our politicians that they are willing to pit their own countrymen against each other? Is this how want to govern the people- divide and rule? Should the commandos have only saved north Indians and south Indians and left all others? What comes first- religious and regional affiliations or humanity?

While I try to find answers to these questions and find none, you could extend  help by answering a few for me.

PS: Have any of you seen this ad? I love the message it conveys. I wish they made more ads like this.

Pretty darn good!!!

It was packed with truckloads of activity and people and I loved it!

I discovered this lady who teaches how to make ice creams at home. I fixed an appointment with her and spent a major part of last Saturday afternoon in her miniscule “class-room”, gasping for air, taking down copious notes on the exact procedure, as mentioned by her. She made it sound quite easy- take milk, add flavours, essence, chemicals ,freeze and voila!! You have yourself ice cream! But I havent tried it out yet. So for all you know its not all that simple. I will have to try it myself before I can officially declare myself to be The Ice Cream of Maker of the family.Talking of The Ice Cream maker, I finished the book about a week back. Need to write a review on that soon.  

After the class, I headed towards town. For those who have never lived in Mumbai, I must enlighten you on this “town” business. Normally when  we say “town”, it means we are refering to any part of the whole city, right? But when you live in the island city and you use the word “town” , it refers wholly and solely to the southern tip of the island. Why only south bomaby is called “town”, I still haven’t figured out. Its one of those things I laughed at at the beginning and graudally came to accept. So anyway, I made a trip down town to meet up with a friend. A friend who is the co-author of qtol. (neha??I hope you realise I’m still referring to you as co-author. That means that verrrry soon you will need to write something.. i.e. if you want to maintain that title!:P). I went to her office, met her colleagues, saw some of the cool stuff she does and told her of some of the not-so-cool stuff  I do at work and the not-so-chilled out people i work with.   We headed to Colaba Causeway in search of an early dinner but before we could decide on dinner, made a  stop-over at Theobroma(slurrp…slurrrp) to buy a few brownies for those at home and then went over to Cafe Churchill to eat. We ordered for fresh lime soda and we served exactly that- it was fresh, it had lime and soda and it was luke warm! When Neha asked for ice we were told “We dont have ice . Its coming.” Donno why they dint have ice or where they were getting it from, but eventually we drank the beverage without the ice. The food was much better than the beverage. While Neha ate,I hogged.:P We went back home after the dinner. I got home a little before ten, dog -tired but very very happy.

I was on a cooking spree on Sunday. I desperately needed a break from office, work and collagues. Of late its been getting a little overwhelming. So cooking served the dual purpose of giving my mom a break from the daily drudgery and gave me the opportunity to keep my hands and head creatively employed. I cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner. And amazingly all of it turned out nice. I even got a pat on the back from mommy dearest for it. Btw, my mom started blogging some time back. I think that really cool! Unfortunately, she wants to keep her blog private, at least for now. If and when she decides to change her mind, I will keep ya al’ posted.

I was an eye-witness to a political public meeting on Sunday evening. Some sometime politician , along with his cronies had pitched his tents on a road intersection a couple of meters away from our building.  They had  made all the arrangements for a full-fledged public sermon. There was a lound speaker system set it on the highest possible volume level, neat rows of plastic chairs with  disinterested looking people occupying them, a make-shift stage and  a handful of white clothed individuals walking around looking busy but actually doing precious little. I suspect the white clothed people were politicians in the making and were there to support the main politician. the situation kinda reminded me of a intership. lol.  Though I thought these chaps made an interesting subject to watch and pass comment on, I also realised what a public  nuisance they were. The road had been dug up to accommodate the bamboo poles on which the tent was pitched. The traffic had to be diverted because of the blocked road and the near-by shops had to shut early in the evening because the crowds were spilling over to the enterace of their shops and the sound of the loud speakers was deafening. I am sure the politicain got some direct benefits out of that meeting-may be a few additional votes at the next election, but I am sure the general public got none at all. If I think hard, I can think of one  benefit that some members of the public got out of this nuisance - the free samosa-chai served at the end of the sermon! 

I began reading the book on short-stories by Tagore- the one that was gifted on my birthday, this weekend. This is the first time I am reading Tagore. I managed to read the first two stories and really liked what I read.

So after that very productive  and satisfying weekend, I am back at work now. All charged up to face the week ahead!

PS:Listen to the song on the box.net widget. Its one of my all-time hindi favourites. I heard it over the weekend, so though I should share it with you all.

I am back from my vacation and have taken my own sweet time to write a post about it. Its not that I dint want to write earlier, I dint have access to the net for over two weeks. Hence the delay

Now that I am writing down my travelogue I don’t quite know where to begin! What to write and what to leave out? Eight days is a long time, you see. A lot happened, a lot was experience and a lot was seen and appreciated. We visited three places and I am jotting down things I liked and memories that stayed with me.

Peaceful Puducherry- I have been to Pondi quite a few times before so in that sense I dint discover anything new. I know the place and I know where to find what. But amazingly as familiar as I consider myself to be with the place, I always stumble upon something I had previously missed. Generally I am not the kind who does touristy things when I go to Pondi, I prefer to unwind, contemplate and recharge. And this is the perfect place to do just that. A visit to the Samadhi is recommended, whether or not you are a believer.

The lack of a common language always adds spice to the trips. Take for example this incident at a local eating joint-Anand Bhawan. We ordered for two masla dosas and got served four. Explaining to the guy at the counter that two people cant eat four dosas was pointless. Like a broken record he kept repeating “Madam ask four.”( in these exact words) Madam in this case was yours truly. No way had I ordered for two surplus dosas but the guy refused to listen. He eventually switched to “Manger ask” which meant “Go ask the manager to sort out this problem you have gotten yourself into”. Manager dint quite know how to handle the situation and language continued to be a problem with him so he asked us to “eat and see later.” .Anyway we ate two dosas and God only knows what they did with the remaining ones. I tell you its high time I learnt that language. My broad vocabulary of five words of Tamil is getting me nowhere.

There is bakery that I like and visit often when I am in Pondi. Its called Hot Breads. They make nice pastries and large variety of  decent looking breads etc. They also serve meal but the choices they offer are rather limited. So its best to visit them in the evening for a snack and eat your meals at the Ashram Dining Hall or wherever else you may like. (Madman doesn’t like this place. I don’t know why!)

I spent Dusshera in Pondi this time and realised what an important festival it was for the locals. We don’t do too much for Dussera. As a kid in Delhi  I looked forward to the burning of Ravana’s effigy. But I don’t think that tradition is very common nowadays. And Bombay does practically nothing for the festival. Dusshera was becoming a forgotten festival so naturally it was nice to see all the festivities and excitement. Beautiful white rangolis in front of homes and shops, strings of twisted grass (that’s what it looked like to me) tied together to make torans and lots and lots of white pumpkins broken near the doorways. I assume that’s done to ward away evil.

I love the architecture of the buildings there. though I have never done this before,  this time I decided to click pictures of buildings/structures I like. I should have become an architect. May be I missed my true calling !:P Btw, if you ever need to shop for daily necessities while in Pondi there is a shop called Nilgiri. You will get absolutely anything there. Not just anything, huge varieties of anything! We found more kinds of tea on their racks than we have ever  found in any shop in Mumbai ! 

Chidambaram- Land of the Natraja
Chidambaram is a short distance from Pondi and so we made a day trip to visit the famous Natraja Temple. The temple at Chidambaram is famous for two things- having Natraja as the main deity and gold plate covered  roof. The roof of the sanctum is covered in gold and has ridges. Each of these lines represents  the nadis in the body or the number of breathes a person take in him/her life. I am not too sure. The architecture of the temple is similar to the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai. The materials used and the motifs and style of carving seem similar too. The idol is breathtakingly beautiful but because it is lit only with oil lamps , you have to get as close as possible to get a clear view. If you don’t, you only see lots of glittering jewels and the basic outline of the idol.                                                                            
As beautiful as the temple is, it isn’t as well maintained as I hoped it would be. I agree it’s a big structure and maintaining it is not an easy task but still I  felt some improvements could be made. The rule of the temple are not too clear. One priest will tell you you are allowed to take photos of the temple compound and just as you fish out your camera another priest will tell you the exact opposite. It gets a bit confusion for someone who is visiting for the first time and doesn’t speak the language. The Madurai temple officially allows you to but a ticket and click pictures( of course the diety cannot be photographed).  Aside from the minor confusions that persisit in the temple, the temple is certainly worth a visit.                                                                                                                                          

Kanchipuram- Temples and Saris galore
Kanchipuram is an ancient town and has an unbelievable number of very old temples. According to the driver who took us there, Kanchi has more temples than houses! We could have spent a few days visiting all the temples but instead we chose to visit a few selected ones. I tried remembering the names of all of them, but sadly as I write this post  I am facing great difficulty in recalling the names!!The first temple we visited was dedicated to Shiva. It was called the Kailashnath Temple. It was so old that the stones used to construct it had started wearing away. The temple is under ASI and restoration efforts are on. For some reason this temple reminded me of the Hindu temples in Cambodia. Very beautiful, very peaceful and not overly visited by tourists. Most definitely a place to visit.

After visiting a few other temples  like the Ekambarnath Temple,we went to the main temple of the town whose deity lends the town its name.
The Kamakshi temple was a lot like what I had anticipated it to be. In fact it went a little beyond my expectations. It had a small (small is a relative term here!) elephant at its gate! My mom wasn’t willing to wait for me to finish admiring the cute creature. She was too worried about the long line that would greet us inside the temple.  She wasn’t worried without reason. The line was serpentile and figuring out  where what was  posed a serious problem because no one seemed to speak either Hindi or English! Sign language came in hand and fortunately one of the younger priests in the temple noticed how utterly lost we were and helped out. Darshan done, we went back to the elephant. We couldn’t resist talking a few picture with him. Let me warn you, pictures don’t come free. Each costs at least one coin of a denomination of your choice,that needs to be delivered in the elephant’s trunk. Braveheart that I normally am, I dint want to risk my life at the hands of this seemingly calm creature. One light swipe of the trunk or one foot placed wrongly, and I was confident that I would be history. Mom was big time into petting the elephant and smiling and posing, at close quarters, I might add. Never seen this side of her. Usually I am the one who is fond of animals and everyone else stays away. Role reversal once in a while is a good thing, I think!Kanchipuram is world famous for its silk saris. We went around town and wondered into shops hoping to find one or two pieces. Surprisingly  we found nothing appealing. It gave me the feeling that the town exports practically all that it produces. And local needs are seemingly limited and therefore they export more than they consume locally. We really wanted to see a few traditional wearers working at their looms. Sadly we couldn’t find any.

By the time it was time to pack up and go home, the north-east monsoon had arrived in Pondi. I am not making up stuff here. There actually exists a north-east monsoon! It shorter and milder than the south west one but makes the weather just perfect. On the way back to Chennai, I did a bit of cloud chasing. Here are the results.

 All in all the trip was memorable. Would have loved to spend some more time and visit a fewof the other close by places like Mammalapuram. May be next time. I need to start saving some serious money  for the next trip! There is just  so much  to see, experience and absorb.By the way , the roads in Tamil Nadu are very well maintained. So travelling by road is actually fun!:)

It’s a Sunday…the only day of the week I get to myself without having to worry about office (when I’m lucky, that is). I awoke in good time, took a while over the morning newspapers before deciding to take a shower. But as I stepped into the bathroom, the sight looking back at me worried me…the uncouth shock of shaggy hair on my head! The ‘mane’ reason why I immediately set off for Tip-Top Hair Dressers (For Men) about a kilometre away! 

Life’s been a bit strange lately (by lately, I mean to include over four years!)…when you are a child, you yearn to earn as an adult. You don’t think about the things that you’ll end up losing out on in the bargain. I find that often happens to me…

 For starters, I don’t know anybody I live around anymore! Even up to five years back, a casual walk along the colony would bring you face-to-face with at least three different people you know. You stop, have a short conversation, promise to catch up (which rarely happens, though) and move on. But today, it was like taking a walk in Papua New Guinea for all I knew! Perhaps it’s me…but I’d rather blame it on the mentality that exists among us these days, principally in south Delhi. The only time you know thy neighbour is when thy metre box has a fault, and you need to call an electrician to fix the issue! People are beginning to keep to themselves like never before (in that sense, Delhi has never had a great track record for social grace) and it brings a cold anonymity that makes me a bit uncomfortable.

As I skipped across the main road, timing my jaywalks to perfection as Zens and Sonatas zipped past ahead of and behind me, I remembered the walks we took as children. It’s rained overnight, so there was this constant odour of petrichor and cow dung (somehow I never minded it, and I was happy to find I still don’t) as I made my way past my old school bus-stop and walked past Ram Bharose, the mobile Chinese food vendor (one of those old vans). I mischievously wondered if I should give the proprietor a name and number for my friends in advertising…inventing a suitable ad for Ram Bharose the Chinese joint would be an assignment to remember! 

Down the road, I saw our Music Teacher from school. Rita Ma’am was a hot topic of the grapevine in school, but my most vivid memory of hers was being ejected for talking too much the only time I was up on stage to join in the singing (we must have been loud, because we were in the last row…separated at least by about 8-10 feet from the first row where she sat). 

“Rita Ma’am, how are you?” 

She took her time to crinkle her eyes, before recognition seeped through. “Oh, hello Debayan…how are you? Where are you these days?”

 ”I’m with a sports channel…working as Producer.” 

“Really? That’s great…why don’t you come down to School sometime and give the kids some encouragement on taking up sports?” 

“Sure, that’s a great idea. I only keep in touch with School through the Reunions…would love to do something other than that…” 

“In fact the Surendranath Jauhar football tournament starts in some time…why don’t you come for that?” 

“Ok…I will see what I can do…” 

As I bade farewell, I thought to myself…why not get the Indian team to pay a visit to MIS during their stay in Delhi for the Nehru Cup! I must personally request the Coach Bob Houghton…maybe he can come along too…

 As I continued my walk, I saw Mr Jetley (I think that’s how he spells it!). Mr J is a character…he’s your embodiment of Captain Haddock from Tintin. Foul-mouthed, renowned across the colony for his love of alcohol, and quite a grump. But there’s something charming about him that always made me curious to get to know him better. Unfortunately our only interaction those days was restricted to arguing about playing cricket near his house, or parking our car in front of his own! Nevertheless the septuagenarian Mr Jetley looked hale and hearty as he stepped out of his car and carried on (presumably to the bank) and I managed a wry-smile at him that bounced off like those numerous rubber balls that once fell into his backyard and were subsequently confiscated! 

Tip-Top (For Men) was unusually empty today. As a kid, my father usually accompanied me…and we’d always have to wait for a while. Now for some vague reason, the elderly Punjabi gentleman who owned the place couldn’t think beyond Filmfare for magazine subscriptions for his saloon. As you can imagine, my old man and I often wondered how interested we should appear in leafing through the glossy magazine while waiting our turn. That was until the day they got a TV inside (yay!), and usually tuned it to a sports channel (double yay!). 

They have three regular barbers, and today I got the gay one. At least I think he might be…he’s the only one who approaches his craft with some tenderness…and also throws in a free head massage! I don’t mind it at all even if he is, provided he does his job well, and keeps his hands to my scalp area! There’s another guy, with curly hair, who has always detested my hair. Never one to keep quiet anyway, there have been some ‘interesting’ discussions on hair care between Curly Guy and myself…but moot point is he’s not as good as the other two! 

As I paid up (and Anil Kapoor started using words like “maska” and “chaska” on the TV set, apparently he was chief guest for one of the voice of India shows!) and made my way out…the feeling of déjà vu just got stronger. There used to be a snack shop down the road which made amazing aloo tikkis and samosas, and it would have been a sure-fire detour during the rains a decade ago! But these days, those small pleasures are gone (for one thing, I don’t think anybody at home should be having that stuff!). We all live our life the way that our employees/family/circumstances have laid down for us. Phrases like “live for the moment” and “go with the flow” are reduced to just that…phrases!  I was engulfed with these thoughts as I walked back…carefully avoiding the lumps of dung and mud…and wondering if 26 footballers might be a bit too much for manage for the Physical Education department of my school… 

PS: Post by Debayan Sen

My company is on a mission. It has decided that since it has been bought over by a MNC, it needs to ensure that all its employees use the latest technology. They have been consistently working towards achieving this task, but instead of making our lives easier, they have only made life tougher. This insanity has been happening in a phased manner. Let me explain.

Phase I: We are five of us in the CSR Deptt., excluding the boss. Since we often need to exchange information between us, we use Network Neighbourhood and manage just fine. But about two months back, the IT Deptt. disabled Network Neighbourhood and told us to find “alternatives” to work around the problem of sharing information. We decided to use the email. That worked for a little while but then began giving trouble. The company server doesn’t allow sending or receiving emails bigger than 1 MB(its ridiculous we know but try telling that to the IT chaps!), so loads of emails began bouncing back. We moved to using pen drives, but that was too much of effort. The only one in the Deptt. with a pen drive was the boss. She’s sweet and everything but how many times in a day can you ask her for her pen drive? Plus she travels extensively so 75% of the time she isn’t even in office. So then CDs that were floating around the Deptt. were brought into use. But there weren’t too many re-writable ones and the non-rewritable ones couldn’t be used endlessly. We made a hue and cry. The boss called up the IT guys and said “I don’t care what the rules are. Set up Network Neighbourhood for my deptt.”. and so one of the IT guys came in the next day, spent over 4 hours fiddling around with our comps and at 3.00 pm announced that he had formed an alternate type of Network Neighbourhood – functions differently from the old NN but allows free transfer and access of information.( As you are aware, I am not even remotely associated with the IT Field so don’t ask me what this alternate system was. It worked and that’s all I know.)

Phase II:A month later, the IT guys were back. They wanted to re-configure the hard drives( they said they had got the guidelines from the top, but who knows!?). In addition to reconfiguring, they also permanently changed the picture on the desktop(it now has the company logo and a supremely boring blue-green background), prevented us from saving anything on the desktop(for security they said) ,  blocked access to the C drive and blocked all free music sites. The only good thing they did was increase the capacity of the email to 3MB. With no option, we learnt to live with the restrictions.

Phase III:Today was the high point. We were called in for a training on Lotus Suites in the afternoon. The theory part was alright. It was the practical use of the software that we were not prepared for.  According to Co. rules we now have a common directory of addresses for South Asia. So with a click of a button we can send an email to anybody. Only problem, is there are three Anil Jains and four Tejas Patels, so you can’t tell which Anil or Tejus your mail will reach!! Since the IT Head has n’t ordered an inclusion of location along with the name any Anil can get your mail! To solve this problem, the IT boss has suggested the addition of the middle name. But what if the person doesn’t have a middle name!?(I don’t!)They are still looking for answers to that question. The maximum space give on Lotus is 150 MB per employee. We all know that this is miniscule. We were told once we begin reaching max.capacity we can archive emails and save them on the comps. As if we can eternally keep doing that! Comps have a capacity too!!The next “rule” that is going to be implemented shortly is the sealing of all USB ports on the comps. The Co. fears that confidential data can be transferred onto a CD or pen drive and taken out of the company premises. Ya sure, but if someone wanted to do that , he could do it anyway using his personal email!!!! Also, each time we want to use a USB port, we have to inform the IT Deptt. and take permission. Great! I have no work in office anyway. I will spend time taking unnecessary permissions. Sure, why not? Sounds like a good idea.

In some locations mail.com has been changed to cement.com. This isn’t uniform as yet so there is utter confusion. Some outsiders write mail while others cement. Needless to say mails are bouncing like its no one’s business.

I am just dying to see what happens in the coming month. These absurd changes will be brought in by August end, as per the deadline. Would love to see how the office will function then. Either we will somehow develop fabulous, new coping mechanisms or we will collapse( I feel this time its going to be the latter.).

The boss it out of town. When she returns and gets to know of the new IT developments in office, she will hit the roof. Waiting to see that too!