Bangalore Musings

Had been here for almost 3+ months now and that too sort-of-joyfully as a bachelor. Some observations about the city:

• Chennai has summer, Summer, and SUMMER and Bangalore has winter, Winter, and WINTER.
• Missing the old walk on MG road. Completely messed up by the Metro rail which looks like a dinosaur spreading its foot and walking on a main road.
• Good to see that Ramakrishna Lodge @ Majestic serves the same classy lunch at the grand old homely atmosphere. The area around RK lodge has changed so much that it looks like Stuart Little's home in between skyscrapers.
• The Bangalore Corporation completely trusts its people very much. People on self service mode to clean their roads and keep it tidy. Probably wants people to make their own manure since its a garden city.
• Amazed by the relationship between Chennai and Bangalore. Chennai remote controls Bangalore city's weather. When it rains in Chennai, it drizzles in Bangalore! Twin cities, these two!
• The best thing to happen to this city is the Blossom book shop which I would rate as the best in India. Thankfully most Bangalorians are blissfully unaware of its existence and hence the place is not as crowded as it should be.
• Uphara (Fast food joints) owners seems to be practitioners of Yoga. Currently most of them wants all their customers to stand in "attention" and eat. Would be good if they can spend a little more to buy a few chairs so that customers can sit and enjoy their food too.
• Hosur beware. Bangalore is fast expanding on all sides that soon Hosur (then vellore, Kanchipuram etc.) might be taken over by Karnataka!
• Rangashankara out beats all art movements in India in terms of maintenance of the theatre, quality of programs etc. Its punctuality is something alien to our Indian culture of procrastination.
• Intercity bus service far far better than what I had noticed 20 years ago. But some old steel also are running in the name of buses here.

As always, amazing weather, excellent auto drivers who do not charge a penny more  (Ok...sometimes they do charge 10 bucks more but not like their Chennai brethren who will charge 10 bucks an inch of travel), and great people.

Will share thoughts as and when (and if) it comes.

Hic Hic Hurray

 

Saw Carlsberg beer bottles getting loaded to a TASMAC van. 

Though I stopped drinking some months ago, thought “One small step for Tamilnadu, One big leap for the dazed up community”.

Digging Deep

We thought that he was a true Jedi master who would make his pupil the most accomplished one (or the Chosen One if you love prophetic words). 

But turns out that the Great Master himself has a lot to learn, especially on the power of silence.

 
The master here is a gentleman named Digvijaya and the pupil is a Gandhi in making. The more Digvijaya talks, the more we understand that he practices the ancient, secret, esoteric art called nonsensia!

This coke has lots of fizzzzzzzzz

At last some refreshing music.

After years of highly uninspiring, ‘custom –built’ music, Coke Studio (from MTV) which enthralled Pakistani audiences with exciting performances by top pop-quwalli talents including Atif Aslam and the likes is to open up its innings in India at 7.30 PM IST this Friday (17^th June 2011)@ MTV.

The difference between this program and the other music programs is that this program works on a jammin session mode wherein music is jammed live along when the singer sings. While other programs work on pre-defined notes, it does not often gel well with Quwwali and Hindustani music as singers are allowed to improvise.

That is why a live performance captures the soul than the studio music and that is why CDs of live performances are so much in demand. And this program does capture that soul well.

On line up for the Desi version are exceptional talents like Shankar Mahadevan, Kailash Kher etc.

How do I know vouch for the quality of the program? Go to YouTube and listen to the Pakistani version of Coke Studio. 

In this case, hearing is believing.

Singhism (From the dictionary of the silent one)

Coalition  Dharma: A new hybrid thought coined recently that is made to sound very Indian and very ancient. Refers to turning a blind eye when there is a theft, but neither the guard nor the thief is responsible for the act of theft.

Job: Refers to the work carried out as per coalition Dharma (See- Coalition Dharma above).

Coalition Partners: Refer to Mafioso (Mafia groups)

Corruption: Part of coalition dharma. Ok till not caught.

Economic Reforms: Any newer economic initiatives that has coalition dharma in mind.

Did you OPEN yet?

Sorry if that sounded like a bizarre Ad in a commercial newspaper (on a second thought, is there a newspaper other than commercial?)...

Did you check out the weekly Open Magazine from the RPG stable?

It is two week old and costs 30 bucks an issue.

I found the magazine to be much more closer (closer but not really there yet) to the GentleMan magazine of yesteryears from the Indian Express group.

A monthly, I used to luv Gentleman 'coz it was more offbeat, covering more about music, arts and lifestyle.

The magazine was blessed with an excellent editorial team which had the uncanny knack of publishing new stuff instead of stale news stories (like your regular weekly news magazines does).

But, Indian Express suddenly quit publishing the magazine in late '90s and I haven't seen anything closer to it till date.

Gentleman, had it been kicking alive today, would have been a decent answer to our eternal cravings for an magazine with a difference.

Whatever I have seen of Open in the last two weeks makes me feel that this magazine could fill that void, but still miles to go...

Random Poetry - Sangam poem by Kaniyan Poonkunranaar

Thanks to the website (http://www.cs.utk.edu/~siddhart/tamilnadu/POEMS/poem_yad.html), I have picked up the translation of my favourite Sangam poem (written between 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE) "Yaathum Oore Yaavarum Kelir" by Kaniyan Poonkunranaar.

The translation:
Any place is a city indeed, and all are kindred;
Good and evil do not proceed from others.
Suffering and soothing are to these similar.
Even death is not new. We would neither feel the thrill of
Calling life pleasant; nor would we out of spite
Call it unpleasant. Just as, when with lightning
The sky pours cool drops, uncontrolled,
Hurtling on rock, resounding, a raft is carried away
In the course of (a) great river of plenty,
In the course of Order is (our) dear soul carried;
Since we have benn enlightened by this vision of the wise,
We would not be amazed bt the great in their glory, and
We would even less despise the petty.

Thanks once again to the website and the translator Satyanad Kichenassamy.

To know more about Sangam literature, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangam_literature.

First a shoe...then a wood...

First it was a shoe...
...Now we read that a wood was hurled. (http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=6a6755f9-4e43-4001-829c-ea7f0573f5de&Headline=LTTE+supporter+hurls+wooden+missile+at+Chidambaram).
Whats up Doc? It seems Indian politicians surely have become a dartboard of sorts for people to vent their feelings!
But poor thing, it's P.C who has to bear all the brunt for a collective failure...

Just finished – Stephen Hawking – A life in Science

This is the biography of Professor Stephen Hawking,
A quick intro about this remarkable human being:
“Stephen Hawking is considered the world's foremost living theoretical physicist. He is an expert on black holes, whose stated intention is to unify quantum mechanics with Einstein's general theory of relativity, forming a single theory to explain the origin (and end) of the universe. Hawking, a professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, is the author of the best-selling book A Brief History of Time and something of a celebrity: he has made guest appearances on the TV shows Star Trek and The Simpsons. Hawking has suffered from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig's disease) since he was a young man and is confined to a wheelchair.”
Prof. Hawking is not only confined to a wheel chair but cannot speak…he communicates through an artificial voice synthesizer using his two fingers, one of the few responsive parts in his body.
The biography is fascinating, essaying the intense self-determination of the professor against his ill-fated destiny.
This man has travelled across the world in his wheel chair, delivering some of the most cutting-edge discoveries on the origins of the universe through his lectures, despite the illness diagnosed by a doctor when he was in his college.
Doctors, at that time, had pronounced that the young man wouldn’t see more than two summers…but now the professor has crossed his sixties and still carries his mission with an higher level of enthusiasm than ordinary folks like us.
What are we going to do for our planet?

P.S: I am reading Galileo, the biography of Galileo Galilee, the 16th century scientist, mathematician, artist, philosopher who pronounced that earth revolves around the sun with evidence and was prosecuted by the holy church for committing this ‘secondary sin’.

Why gender-neutral terms are still biased

We are used to terms like flight attendant/ airhostess, actor/actress etc.
Now, it is no more politically correct to call the job roles as such.
The way it has been corrected is by using one gender term over the other and that is where the bias comes.
Hence forth, you should call every role by the male gender format i.e., flight attendant, actor etc.
I am amused…
Why not the female gender format for all?
What the hell will happen if that is followed?
Still some ‘old world’ (I would call that out of the world) notions, values and order is followed in this otherwise ‘equality’ filled world.

What is ‘Illegitimate’ about the son?

U.A.E has announced an amnesty program for illegal workers (workers without proper papers like passport, visa etc.) and thousands are waiting for their turn to get some breather.
Most of these ‘illegal’ workers (mostly from the subcontinent) are illiterate, daily wage labourers who have been misled by agents and are waiting for their chance to legitimise their residence status or rush back to their country.
It is a humanitarian move by the government to announce this laudable scheme.
Gulf News, the leading UAE newspaper, regularly reports ‘human interest’ (I hate this media term…is there an ‘animal interest story?) stories.
A few weeks ago, the same newspaper wrote about two Indian amnesty seekers begging for money on the roads to buy their air tickets to go back home.
Now, it has published the story ‘Mother with illegitimate child in tow seeks amnesty’
Please read the story http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Immigration_and_Visas/10138328.html and tell me what is illegitimate about the child.
It is so disturbing and makes me wonder whether we have lost all our empathy for fellow homo sapiens.
Are we trying to make every story 'newsworthy' and 'worth a sound bite'?

Oh God...We are Saggitarians and not Milky Wayans

All these years we thought that we are peaceful residents within the Milky Way galaxy in the cosmic plan of things and suddenly this new research says that we were swallowed by Milky Way and are actually from another galaxy.
Read more: http://www.viewzone.com/milkyway.html

Random Poetry - A.K.Ramanujam

Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan (1929-1993) was an author who wrote in both
English and Kannada. Ramanujan wore many hats as an author: he was a
playwright, folklorist, philologist, translator, and poet. In his academic work
as a scholar of literature he drew on his skills as a producer of literature.
His academic research ranged across four Indian languages: Tamil, Kannada,
Telugu and Sanskrit. He published about both classical and modern variants of
these literatures and also argued strongly for giving local, non-standard
dialects their due.

- Introduction courtesy www.wikipedia.com

What he said
What could my mother be

To yours? What kin is my father

To yours anyway? And how

Did you and I meet ever?But in love

Our hearts have mingled

Like red earth and pouring rain

- Translation of a Sangam poetry by A.K.Ramanujam

Still Life
When she left me

after lunch, I read

for a while.

But I suddenly wanted to look again

and I saw the half-eaten

sandwich,bread,lettuce and salami,all carrying the shape

of her bite.

- Original poem by A.K. Ramanujam

Self-Portrait
I resemble everyone

but myself, and sometimes see

in shop-windows

despite the well-known laws

of optics,

the portrait of a stranger,date unknown,

often signed in a corner

by my father.

- Original poem by A.K. Ramanujam

Random Poetry - Arun Kolatkar

I have always loved Arun Kolatkar's poems epsecially the Jejuri collection. I
thank Era.Murugan who introduced me to Arun's poetry.As usual, I encourage you to google (search the web) for more details about
this poet.The below introduction and poetry is published courtesy:
http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/jtap/board/config.pl?noframes;read=9846

Poet: Arun Kolatkar
This is a poem by Indian poet Arun Kolatkar. Its a beautiful poem ridiculing
the commercialisation of pilgrimage at jejuri, Maharashtra.

Yeshwant Rao
"Are you looking for a god?
I know a good one.
His name is Yeshwant Rao and he's one of the best.
look him up when you are in Jejuri next.
Of course he's only a second class god and his place is just outside the main temple.
Outside even of the outer wall.
As if he belonged among the tradesmen and the lepers.
I've known gods prettier faced or straighter laced.
Gods who soak you for your gold.
Gods who soak you for your soul.
Gods who make you walk on a bed of burning coal.
Gods who put a child inside your wife.
Or a knife inside your enemy.
Gods who tell you how to live your life, double your money or triple your land holdings.
Gods who can barely suppress a smile as you crawl a mile for them.
Gods who will see you drown if you won't buy them a new crown.
And although I'm sure they're all to be praised, they're either too symmetrical or too theatrical for my taste.
Yeshwant Rao, mass of basalt, bright as any post box, the shape of protoplasm or king size lava pie thrown against the wall, without an arm, a leg or even a single head.
Yeshwant Rao.
He's the god you've got to meet.
If you're short of a limb,
Yeshwant Rao will lend you a hand and get you back on your feet.
Yeshwant Rao does nothing spectacular.
He doesn't promise you the earth Or book your seat on the next rocket to heaven.
But if any bones are broken, you know he'll mend them.
He'll make you whole in your body and hope your spirit will look after itself.
He is merely a kind of a bone-setter.
The only thing is, as he himself has no heads, hands and feet, he happens to understand you a little better."

Random Poetry - Richard Brauigan

I am planning to randomly publish poetries from my favourite poets (as ever,
this list grows day after day).
These sample poems are from Richard Brauigan.I encourage you to google (search the web) for more details about this poet.

Color As Beginning
Forget love
I want to die
in your yellow hair

My Nose Is Growing Old
Yup.
A long lazy September look
in the mirror
says it's true.
I'm 31
and my nose is growing old.
It starts about 1/2 an inch
below the bridge
and strolls geriatrically
down for another inch or so:
stopping.
Fortunately, the restof the nose is comparatively
young.
I wonder if the girls will want me with an
old nose.
I can hear them now
the heartless bitches!
"He's cute
but his nose
is old"

At the California Institute of Technology
I don't care how God-damn smart
these guys are: I'm bored.

What I finished reading – Class Warfare by Noam Chomsky

I am a Chomsky addict.

About Chomsky (Just in case you don’t know already)

“Avram Noam Chomsky, Ph.D (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, political activist, and a prolific author and lecturer. He is the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Chomsky is credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar, considered to be one of the most significant contributions to the field of linguistics made in the 20th century. According to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index in 1992, Chomsky was cited as a source more often than any other living scholar during the 1980–1992 time period, and was the eighth most cited scholar in any time period.[1][2][3]

Beginning with his critique of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, Chomsky has become more widely known — especially internationally — for his media criticism and politics. He is generally considered to be a key intellectual figure within the left wing of United States politics. Chomsky is widely known for his political activism, and for his criticism of the foreign policy of the United States and other governments.”

- Thanks http://www.wikipedia.com/

If know more about Noam, please google.

This book is a set of interviews and Noam talks about his work, America’s imperialistic attitude, the (ill) effects of Globalisation and other themes.
I would suggest this book to be a definite 'starter pack' to know about Chomsky and his works.

What I am reading – From Certainty to Uncertainty by E. David Peat

I would rate this as the best ever layman’s guide to scientific thought of 20th century.
The book covers all the important scientific revelations that altered human thoughts towards the cosmos that we live in from the Theory of Relativity to Quantum Physics to String theory.
As the title suggests, the century (1900s) started with a common scientific feeling of certainty by the way of Newtonian/ Einsteinien theory which showcased that the length and breadth of the universe can be validated within a few scientific parameters and ended with an uncertainty theory in the form of Quantum Physics and String theory which has proven that indeed ‘reading’ the universe isn’t such an succinct task.
It’s really a compelling read with the author covering not only the scientific activities (read Physics) but also mathematical, literary, art, linguist theories that moved in sync with these thoughts.

Though am a Brahmin basher….

http://www.thinnai.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=80706217&format=html

At last, the Bush's stooge is gone

Tony Blair goes (http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jun/26look1.htm) leaving behind a legacy of bushy subservient attitude.

Police arrests Doctor couple

“The doctor couple of Manapparai, K. Murugesan and M. Gandhimathy, whose 15-year-old son allegedly performed a Caesarean section on a 20-year-old woman at their hospital, were arrested on Monday after day-long interrogation at the Valanadu police station.”

(News Courtesy : The Hindu http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/26/stories/2007062651090100.htm)

From fake doctors, we now have a new development – Apprentice Doctors. The apprentice in this case is a +1 student.
Now I understand the meaning of ‘years of practice’, ‘master surgeon’ etc.
Jokes apart, the incident raises several questions.
1. The doctor is arrested because he showed the video at an Indian Medical Association (IMA) meeting. What would have happened if he didn’t? (In fact, several magazines have reported that the ‘doctor-in-making’ son has performed over 40+ operations in the past 7 years).
2. What is the use of health inspectors and other watchdogs? Shouldn’t they be arrested?
3. Would the trial proceed in the right direction or will the doctor lobby raise hue and cry?
The larger question that lingers is that the doctor fraternity so far has been claiming that they cannot be booked under the consumer case as they are doing a divine service and there is ‘hands-of-god’ situation.
But, many hospitals are now actively advertising on the media claiming 100% / painless results. I have heard that there is a clause within the medical laws,which strictly prohibit the medical fraternity from advertising its services. If so, aren’t they breaking the law?
Doesn’t advertisement amount to attracting ‘prospective’ consumers?