When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Approximately a month back I did something I thought I had not even a wee bit of inclination towards, even in the wildest of my dreams. Cook! Yes, this writer finally managed to gather enough courage to go to the kitchen, pick up a few utensils and cook himself a decent meal.

In order to ensure that there were no disappointments, I started off with something easy namely Pudina and cocon

ut chutney with Dosa. The coconut chutney was easy to prepare with very minimal actual cooking involved. It was the Pudina which presented a little bit of a challenge and frankly it did give me a few jittery moments.

When my mother narrated the method of preparation over the phone, I just religiously jotted it down without questioning her. But when it came to the practical session, I started feeling a little wobbly. How else would an amateur cook react when the instructions read like ‘handful of this’ and a ‘pinch of that’? But as time went by, I realized that cooking is not an exact science but rather an art of approximations and it is this that made cooking an exciting and innovative exercise.

Having been emboldened by the results, I wish to try my hand at more complex recipes. Chicken Chettinad and Mutton Keema, here I come. Moreover, I realize that my scope of television entertainment has widened. All of a sudden, shows like ’MasterChef’ and ‘Highway on a plate’ seem more relevant and appealing.

While we are still on the note of food, my project mates and I went to a premium restaurant for a quarterly dinner. The place is called Premier Inn and it is located in the Whitefield area of Bangalore. It is actually a hotel with a restaurant in the ground floor. The restaurant was spacious, well furnished and had customizable seating options. The waiters were generally courteous and helpful (apart from the time we kept asking for repeated starters!). The buffet spread was ample and did cover a good number of Indian cuisines, both vegetarian and non vegetarian. And you get discounted ‘you-know-what’ during the happy hours….:)

Mumbai so far...

Hi All,

Self is back in this space after a really looooonnnng time. I have been busy with searching for & eventually switching jobs. As part of my new assignment in a new organization, I had to move to a new city namely Mumbai, the city of dreams [or so they say]. And move I did, from the pleasant confines of Bangalore to the bustling & uncertain atmosphere of Mumbai.

My journey across the great Indian Deccan plateau had to happen via the air route given the tight time frame I found myself in. Not that I am complaining. Much to my surprise, the flight departed on time and managed to get me to Mumbai in one piece. For those not familiar with Indian conditions, this by itself is a major accomplishment! The air journey was reasonably comfortable and the pure rush of adrenaline that courses through your body when the plane is taxiing down the runway & preparing itself for takeoff is worthwhile for the thousands you pay for the hour or so ride.

The joining went off smoothly. It was other related incidents which I wish to elaborate on here. I was prodded on by a fellow joinee to take the notorious suburban railway back to my hotel on the first day of induction. I reluctantly agreed but had a bad feeling about it from the word go given that it was just the third day of my landing in Mumbai. To top it off, I was linguistically challenged. The only Hindi I knew then (and prob. even now) was “Hindi nahi maalum hai” (I don’t know Hindi).

At the train station, a mass of humanity had gathered and was anxiously waiting to be my fellow passengers. The train arrived and there was a sudden increase in activity. People started pushing & shoving mercilessly. It was as if I did not exist. I got a little peeved by all this and “lost precious time” (according to my friend) by which time the train was impossibly full. The next train arrived a few minutes later and this time I doled out the same treated that was meted out to me earlier on. I angled & scuttled my way across to board the carriage. My friend was suddenly all praise for me and even commented that my initiation (read into a Mumbaikar) had begun. My friend continued to enlighten me on various aspects of rail travel in Mumbai.

The 2nd day of induction was equally eventful but this time for all the wrong reasons. Another fellow joinee offered a motorcycle ride back to my hotel and I gladly accepted especially after the “sardined” train ride the previous day. But it seems, as always, God had other plans. The bike I was riding on didn’t have the usual mirrors. The ubiquitous traffic policemen, deployed strategically at various traffic signals, gleefully stopped us and fleeced us accordingly. I felt bad for the poor guy who lamented that till that day hadn’t been caught and that too twice in a single day.

I have also witnessed my first terrorist attack. With the frequency with which bomb blasts are happening here, I guess everyone must add terror to their list of firsts when they are narrating their experience in Mumbai. People have been just reduced to statistics and terrorists are striking with such audacity and certainty every 2 years that you get confused if the authorities here are really in charge and have things under control.

So, there you have it. This is how my Mumbai sojourn has been so far.

My cousin's grad day ceremony

Hi All,

I attended my ultra genius cousin’s graduation day ceremony last month, 26th Feb 2011, at the Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute [BMCRI]. The event was graced by the Mr Bharadwaj, Governor of Karnataka, several eminent doctors & the entire brass of BMCRI’s faculty. The media was in attendance too, hoping to get good sound bites and capture some picture perfect moments.

The atmosphere was vibrant and alive. Overjoyed students, proud parents and relieved (!) faculty members. It was like a throwback to my own graduation almost 3 years back. Like all typical Indian ceremonies, this one too started off late. We are like this only, yaar!

The governor arrived with much pomp and gaiety. After the usual welcome address, a string of speeches commenced. [more on this later]. Then came the awards distribution. Everyone, especially the parents, was in awe for the prize winners and that’s when I realized this country’s craze for academic prowess never vanishes. Call it a middle class disease. This was followed by the ceremonial Hippocratic Oath, a rite of passage for medical practitioners. Finally, much to the pleasure of the graduands, the degrees were handed out, but not before mentioning some suave qualities about each and every one of them.

Most of the speeches, save the one by the Dean, were interesting and note worthy. There was a doctor who was prescribing competition with self being a much better challenge than competition with peers. Another one which proved statistically that having more doctors per capita will not solve the medical problems we are facing now. That was a real insight to me. A bureaucrat was detailing the state of hospitals and medicine in general in Karnataka. But the one who caught my attention the most was an eminent doctor who gave up his great career to work with tribals in interior India. He was narrating the appalling conditions in rural India and that it only takes a little bit of resolve to address the challenges we are facing. This man was austerity personified, dressed in just a formal shirt and pants while most of other invitees, probably rightfully so, had their coats and suits on.

The day ended with a sumptuous lunch, loads of photo taking and a cultural event which was actually an excuse for the graduands to let their hair down. I was overwhelmed by how the guys and girls danced as if nobody was watching. There were even some who might have put Prabhu Deva to shame! That was when I realized how many of us, self included, were/are so coiled up in life that we don’t we even realize how to have fun anymore. I remember telling my aunt how un-inhibitive these kids were. To all my friends and well wishers, self has taken a leaf or two out of the books of the graduands and is evolving. Effects will be visible soon

Pic courtsey: My cousin, fifth from the left

Modern Revolution for Dummies

Folks,

The winds of change are blowing across the Arab World. As the rest of the world watches on with jittery nerves, unprecedented events are unraveling on a daily basis. Regimes across the Arab world, thought to be ‘stable’ till now, have either fallen or are facing a real threat of collapsing like dominoes. By the time this post reaches it’s Holy Grail [i.e. my blog site…:)] it would have been more than a week since the autocratic Egyptian government fell and more than a month since the Tunisian regime found its rightful place. Bahrain, Yemen & Libya are witnessing sustained protests and it’s any body’s guess on what will happen there.

Now, I don’t really want to go into intricacies of these revolutions and give a blow by blow account of what transpired there. I am sure most of you would have got daily fix from watching the news. I rather want to concentrate of the characteristics of a modern revolution.

What creates/sparks revolutions?

1. Pent up frustration - Long years of autocratic rule just creates one thing: Pent up frustration. A pressure cooker like situation where people are just waiting to explode. Even in so called democratic countries (like erstwhile Egypt), lack of true political reform and imperceptible benefits led to the turmoil we witnessed.

2. Iconic Images – Remember the ‘Tank Man’ of the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, 1989. The image of the man, who refused to give way for a tank to pass, still flashes in our minds and must have been a great rally point for protestors then. It must also be noted that the more recent self immolation of a vegetable seller in Tunisia was what started this unrest in the Arab world.

Indications that a revolution will probably be successful:

1. Relatively peaceful - If there is something the Egyptian revolt has proven, it’s that non violence is still relevant and a potent force to be reckoned with. [yea, Chak De Gandhi]The protests were not without their share of violence but given the magnitude of the protests and the competing interest of various parties involved, violence of much greater scale was expected. But, thankfully, that was not to be. Egyptian protestors were so responsible as to set up ‘check points’ and swipe down the fellow protestors to ensure weapons didn’t find their way into the protest area.

2. Participation of Women - Women power was out on display during the protests. There were mothers, housewives, sisters singing and chanting out on the streets with their children in tow. Women change the dynamics of any protest. Unlike men, who are just looking for an excuse to turn violent women, women have more pressing domestic concerns and for them to disregard that and turn up and mix with the crowd is a phenomenal thing. [It indicates to how much and how far the rot has spread.] All this in a region where women, apparently, are treated more like cattle than human beings!

3. Social Media - It would be safe to say that the revolution in Egypt would have come up to nothing if not for social media like Facebook. In social networking sites, people connect on a personal basis and this ensures that news is actually appreciated rather than just viewed, as we do it on TV. The fact that the internet was shut down just days after the protests broke out in Egypt reiterates the critical role of the internet and more importantly the social media.

A different journey

2 weeks ago, I experienced a different kind of journey, one that I am not much used to. The journey was an eye opening one so much so that I had made up my mind to write about it while travelling itself.

So this is how the story goes….I was scheduled to travel from Trichy to Bangalore in XYZ travels (name concealed intentionally) after commemorating Sankrati with my kith and kin. But the bus I had booked was starting off from Karaikudi and passed through Trichy on its way. So, just to be on the safer side, I called up the travels several times to confirm my seat and the boarding point. Everything seemed fine till the bus actually arrived. To my utter shock, all the seats were already full!

I was enraged to say the least and consequently an argument broke out between the travels operator and me. But it was as if the guy was programmed to do one thing and one thing alone…shout at the top of his voice and turn a deaf ear to anyone arguing with him. After a couple of minutes, I realized that I was up against a sleazy, conniving bloke who was part of a gang that was in the business of making a quick buck with scant regard for professional and ethics. With no other viable alternative, I reluctantly accepted the ‘conductor’s seat’ that was offered to me in return for the overbooked seat.

The first hour or so went off well with me striking a conversation with the bus driver. He whined about pot holed roads and the powerful head lights of incoming Lorries. It was nice to hear, feel and see, literally, things from a driver’s perspective. I felt a sense of adrenaline rush every time he accelerated and these fleeting moments of excitement were the only saving grace of the otherwise arduous and unpleasant journey. I even managed to sleep for about 1.5 hours, sitting up straight in a tiny weenie seat while swaying in circles the whole time due to incessant braking and accelerating. I got to know of some trivia while interacting with the driver during the last leg of the journey from Krishnagiri to Bangalore. The toll charge for a bus for a round trip from K’giri to B’ lore is Rs 300. There is a CCD in the outskirts of K’giri. I arrived in Bangalore early in the morning, feeling groggy, sleep deprived and absolutely relieved to have got off the bus.

But there are some nagging points in my mind even now. What is the grievances recourse that misled passengers have? Who do we have to approach, how do we initiate proceedings etc. Or should we just brush off the incident as a random one. This kind of behavior [overbooking of seats in my case] smacks of the crony capitalism which led the global economy to the worst ever recession in recent times. Why have we let ourselves be blinded by money rather than being guided by principal and ethics…?

Democracy in India: A farce?

Hi All,

I write this post with great disappointment and an even greater wrath at our elected representatives. An entire session of Parliament has been washed out due to the utterly reprehensible and irresponsible attitude of the ‘honorable members of parliament’. The session concluded with not much business done and the bitter acrimony between the government of the day and the opposition is showing no signs of abating.

Slowly but steadily, my confidence in our democracy is diminishing. This is how the scenario looks as of now: We have MPs who don’t even bother to be present during the session. There are some who will only ask questions in the House when they are ‘paid to do so’ [Cash for questions scam]. For a whole chunk of them, the quantum of money paid is the only consideration for voting on a certain bill. Barring a few exemplary members, almost of all of them love converging on the well of the house to chant slogans and disrupt proceedings. I pretty sure I have missed out at some of the negative traits of our MPs [as it’s a never ending list] but the above instances should suffice to show the state of despair of democracy in our country.

We can keep on with the chest beating that we are the world’s largest democracy. Mr. Obama might say we are a beacon for many nations in the world. We can go on with the humongous carnival of over 600million people exercising their franchise every 5 years. But we must ask ourselves, what does it mean to the poor labourer who is unsure of his livelihood? What does it mean to the farmer who sees no end to his misery? Democracy must work for these people for it to be proclaimed as a mechanism of support and redressal of grievances.

Needless to say, democracy has worked the world over. It has forced society to listen to the voices of the poor and downtrodden, share their burden and more importantly ensure their social and economic uplift. Unfortunately the same concept doesn’t seem to be reaping the desired benefits in our country. The question here is why isn’t democracy delivering for us? Is it really a problem with the system? Where have we gone wrong and what do we need to do to put the house (pun intended) in order. As usual, we find ourselves in a situation where we have more questions than answers.

P.S. Apologies for a rather somber post during the holiday season. But just thought that it might be good to discuss this. Happy New Year 2011 to one and all...

Season of scams

Hi folks,

Yes, it’s official now. We are in the middle of the season of scams. The sums involved this time make your eyeballs gouge out, literally, and put even the biggest of past scams to shame. Right from the land we live in to the air that we breathe, there seems to graft everywhere. In this post, I don’t wish to zoom into specific cases, for the fear of sounding like a mundane news bulletin, but rather focus on how we have responded to scams that have been unearthed in recent times.

Our polity has a new found addiction, the ‘moral high ground’. Find anyone of your party members in a compromised position? No problem. The accused individual will step down upon the request from the party high command and that absolves the individual and the party of all guilt! The loss to the exchequer and the taxpayer is conveniently overlooked and negative sentiments generated by the scam and their consequent effects are not even debated. This kind of circus goes on only in India and goes to show the moral bankruptcy of our political class.

The reaction from the great Indian Middle Class [IMC] has been along expected lines. The latest scams notwithstanding, the IMC has always looked upon the political class with despair and contempt. We couldn’t care less as long as we got our daily dose of Saas Bahu serials and cricket matches. We didn’t see any mass scale upheaval that naturally would have occurred in any other country. But this doesn’t surprise me as IMC knows very well that there is much more to come and will certainly be bigger in magnitude than the scams that have been unearthed.

The only consolation in this whole tamasha has been the fourth estate, the media. This section of our society has toiled hard to ensure that corruption is exposed and that the culprits are brought to justice. The electronic media, in particular, has gone into a tizzy covering the various scams. Official government reports on various scams appear first on television channels before they are even tabled in parliament. The media’s role has been so crucial that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the government would not even bother acting on these scams if it were not for the relentless coverage and as such credit must be given to the media for precipitating change. [Of late, we have been hearing that some journos from the mainstream media were actually in touch with a dubious lobbyist. But we should be careful here not to paint the entire media with a single brush.]

Graft is a cancer that will certainly destroy us from within if we do not address it immediately with as much willpower as we can muster. As of now, I can safely say that we have not even initiated this difficult task.

P.S. While we are at it, why don’t we also turn the heat on petty corruption?