R.I.P. Robin a.k.a RTech

Sunday, the 23rd of December 2007, would not be a day that I will be able to forget for a long
time to come. Around noon of that day, I got an SMS informing about the death of an online friend in a bike crash at Mumbai.

If you mourn & miss someone whom you have never met in person or even talked to over the phone, it sure says a lot about that person's character. Robin was one such person, with whom
my interaction was purely online, due to both of us being members of the Indian motoring
forum called http://www.team-bhp.com/, of which he also happened to be one of the mods.

An avid biker with interest in superbikes and a skilled rider, he put his money where his
mouth was and chose a career with the Motorsports Association of India (MAI). His aim
was to make motorsports popular in India and he worked towards that end.

From what I know, as has been a practice with his group of Mumbai biker friends, he had
gone on an early Sunday morning ride and the accident happened when they were returning back home. I am not very sure, but from what I heard, some psycho jumped across the road
resulting in the crash. He fractured a couple of bones, but no one thought the end would be
fatal.

He was taken to the Breach Candy hospital, where he breathed his last. I am not a doctor and hence found it surprising how a couple of broken bones could lead to death. A doctor I know,
said that when we have big bone fractures (ie. the limbs), one consequence is fat particles
getting into the bloodstream and choking the lungs, resulting in death.

I don't know what happened in Robin's case. All I know is that it is not fair for such a young
and promising guy to be snatched away by death. It had been just a year since he got married.
When we, who did not even know him personally, miss him so much, I cannot even imagine
the grief that his wife, parents and near ones would be going through.

Robin, may you rest in peace, brother and let us have only the memory of your smiling face.

Embracing the modern, yet holding on to the traditional

December is cold at Chennai. Mind you, not 'cold' as in North India (Delhi was 4-deg-Celsius yesterday night), but cold as in comparison to the other three seasons that we have in Chennai, namely hot, hotter and hottest.

Today was another cool morning, when you find it really tough to drag yourself from bed. And
the overnight rains did not make the task of leaving the covers and getting ready for work any easier. I hit the road to work around 8AM and the weather is pleasant, with the sun not to be seen. I take the left turn at Loyola college onto the scenic and green tree-lined Sterling road.

On the pavement, a little ahead of me, I see a young girl (late teens) walking towards Loyola college. She has a sprightly walk and is dressed in a nice top / capris - the epitome of a typical modern girl. Just before the Eatalica restaurant (serves Italian + American, hence the name), there is a sort of 3-road T-junction.

And like it is all over Chennai (not sure if it is just Chennai or all Tamilnadu), this junction also has a small idol of Lord Ganesha built into the wall adjoining the pavement. I am told this is because Ganesha somehow has the power to prevent accidents at 3-road junctions.

Anyway, as the girl comes in front of the idol, she turns around, folds her hands in prayer,
bows her head for a moment and keeps walking. It all happened in a few seconds and while
I drive past her, she has resumed her brisk walk. I have seen people cross themselves while passing a church (I do this religiously) or dab their lips with the fingers while going by a temple.

But this is an action usually associated with the elderly or atleast with those aged 30+. The current generation is not normally associated with such belief in the power above. They are infact often accused of being materialistic, selfish, arrogant, lacking respect for elders, almost
no belief in the Almighty (of any hue whatsoever) and of chucking Indian traditions out in
favour of western ones.

Looks like this is a very wrong generalisation, as the actions of this young girl made clear.
You sure can be modern and yet hold on to tradition at the same time.

Chants of "Aanamayakki-ye sharanam" in the land of Ayyappa

Last Monday evening, I am at the Mavelikara railway station, waiting for the train to Chennai. The train is late by an hour - train drivers had declared a surprise strike on Saturday, which
resulted in trains getting stranded at various stations all over Tamilnadu and Kerala. Even after
two days of them getting back to work, the after-effects of the strike showed in the form of late running of trains.

Since I had an hour to kill, I come out of the station to get some fresh air. I am standing near
the bike / car parking area, when I am drawn into the conversation between the parking
attendant and an auto-driver. They are discussing the travails of the pilgrims visiting the
holy shrine of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala (in Kerala) and how inspite of the temple being
one of the richest in India (in terms of offerings received from pilgrims), the facilities are not enough to handle the lakhs of people that come to the temple every year.

The conversation turns to the corrupt politicians that we have the misfortune of being ruled
by. One of them feels strongly that the only way for the country to improve is by imposing military rule for some time in the country. He should talk to a few Pakistanis before he wishes for dictatorship. As we shoot the breeze, the power goes off and the whole area is plunged into darkness. Which gives the guys another reason to bash the politicians for the frequent power cuts.

And then we hear repeated chants of "Aanamayakki-ye saranam". In the moonlight we can
make out 2 young men in enebriated condition (by their unsure walking) walk towards us on
the road in front of the railway station. For those that don't know Malayalam, Aana is Mallu-
speak for Elephant and Mayakki means tranquiliser. So, aanamayakki is something that can
tranquilise even an elephant.

It is slang for a local alcoholic brew with toddy (coconut tree sap) as base. Toddy is legally
sold in Kerala and is a very good alternative to alcohol and is considered healthy too (if taken
in moderation). Many years ago, we used to go to the nearby toddy shop to have some great
food (in Kerala, you will get the best food in toddy shops and at real affordable prices too)
washed down with a few glasses of sweet toddy.

But today I would not dare to drink toddy unless I can confirm that it is straight from the tree,
and not adulterated with god-knows-what to make it more potent. This adulterated potion
gives an instant and stronger 'kick' and thus got the name of Aanamayakki. Local legend goes
that after having a few glasses of the stuff, it would be a miracle if you made it home. Something
on the lines of "one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor". :-)

And all over south India, 'saranam' is used only alongside the name of Lord Ayyappa, as in
"Swamiye saranam Ayyappa", which means, "My refuge is Lord Ayyappa". So, basically it is
blasphemy to associate / parody the holy chant with something that has wrong connotations.

The auto-driver is stung by what these guys are chanting. But it is also not a wise idea to join
issue with 2 young men who happen to be drunk. So, he murmurs, "Such blasphemy. I am
sure they will live to regret this." in what seemed to me like a lowered voice. I am sure the
guys did not hear exactly what he said, but they could understand that it was directed at them.

One of them shouts, "Who the f*** is there, *&^$&#$ ?". Auto-guy does not reply, even though
I can see that he is stung by the obscenity uttered by the guy and in normal circumstances, it would have resulted in a serious fight. He knows it is not a wise idea to take on two drunk guys. Also, if they could not be tranquilised by the famed aanamayakki, they should surely be having enough fight left in them.

The guys move on into the darkness and you could still hear, "Aanamayakki-ye saranam"......

We do toe the line, though under duress. Not bad at all.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, the helmet-compulsory-for-bikers rule was put in
place by the Tamilnadu Government, due to the intervention of the High Court and almost
everyone had scrambled to buy helmets before the date of enforcement.

But then, as is their wont, our politicians played their part in diluting the rule, by issuing
irresponsible statements like "Cops should not harass the public using the helmet rule as an
excuse", "Women and kids riding pillion should be exempted" etc etc. Understandably, there was protest from women's organisations about the latter statement, which they felt implied
that women's lives were not as valuable as men's.

However, looks like the rule is again being enforced strictly (not sure of the motivation), as
can be seen by the majority of bikers using helmets. The other day I was having a cup of tea
at a corner shop which is located at a major junction and was watching the traffic pass by. Almost all bikers (men/women) were wearing helmets which suggested atleast a 95%
adherence to the rule.

However, I did not see even one pillion rider (men/women) wearing helmets, which is pretty
sad given that in most bike accidents, it is the pillion rider who suffers fatal/serious injuries.
Until the government intervenes again, I do not see this changing. For those that complain about having to lug around 2 helmets, the solution lies in getting a helmet lock (costing a few
hundred rupees) which is fitted to the bike and can be used to secure 2 helmets.

It is a contrasting scenario in the neighbouring state of Kerala, which also introduced with
much fanfare the helmet rule. You would not even see 5% bikers using helmets there. This
is inspite of this state being almost 100% literate and newspapers reporting statistics that clearly showed that the month in which helmet rule was strictly enforced had seen a dramatic reduction in fatalities among bike accidents.

Actually, I do not need to look far to see non-conformance of this rule, which is for our own
safety. My father-in-law is a regular biker and inspite of my many subtle and not-so-subtle suggestions, he prefers not to wear a helmet. And mind you, he does have a helmet, which
he promptly went & bought when the government brought in the rule. However, it remains unused, except for the rare times when I use his bike.

My Dad is an occasional biker - he mostly uses his car. He also never uses the helmet and
his argument is that he uses the bike only occasionally and also only within a 1-km radius
of our home, which is not a high-traffic area. Again, he also has a helmet at home. The only
silver lining is my younger sister's husband, who religiously uses the helmet, though this
was not out of his own rational thinking, but because the government enforced the rule.
Still a laudable effort.

When my wife started riding her bike some 6 years ago in Kerala, mainly to go to work,
I was insistent that she always ride with a helmet on, which she adhered to and has now
become second nature for her. There was no rule in place then insisting on helmets being
worn and she used to be a curious sight for people around town because practically no one
wore helmets then. Add to it, the fact that she was a women rider, and there is really nothing feminine about a helmet.

Today, 4 out of 5 women (young working women) in our town zip around on bikes, but
not even one sports a helmet, which could in serious accidents mean a difference between
life and death. It is sad that we need a government to prod us to do something which has
to do with our own safety.

What is more sad is a lack of will in the authorities to enforce a rule that they put in place.

Quest for coffee leads to learning something eco-friendly

It is usually not much fun working at the client's place. Not only do you have to work within serious restrictions (restricted work areas, inadequate work space etc), but sometimes even getting a cup of coffee can be a real nightmare, as I learnt last September when I found myself at the client's place for a weeks time.

Taking a break was a job in itself. Getting out of the high-security area where we were assigned workplaces was easy (the door opened from inside without requiring any ID), but entering it was tough. It used finger-print recognition technology for identifying legitimate users and being vendors, we were not in the 'pass-thru' list.

So, we had to either wait till we found some employee who was entering the premises and tag along with him or had to knock on the door and hope that someone inside would hear our knock & open the door for us. But, this was a minor inconvenience that we learnt to get adjusted to.

What was tough was not having access to even a single cup of coffee during the whole workday which lasted anywhere between 10-14 hours. At my office, I usually down around 4-5 cups of coffee a day. So, it can be imagined how tough it would be for me to manage without even one cup. Ofcourse, there was a well-appointed pantry at the client's place. But my Japanese colleagues had mentioned it in passing that the pantry was out-of-bounds for us non-employees.

The first day passed painfully, without the dose of caffeine that my body was used to. But, I
was sure I could not go through the whole week without caffeine. So, on the second day, I decided to check out the pantry. It was quite small compared to the one back home in our
office, but then what is big in Japan ? I see the mandatory coffee-maker with jugs of hot
black coffee. I do not see any cups or stirrers - maybe they are in the cabinets.

Anyway, when I am checking out the pantry, an attractive lady who works there drops by for
a cup of coffee. We smile on making eye-contact. I want to ask her help to get a cup of coffee,
but do not know the Japanese for that. Anyway, I am determined not to let my ignorance of Japanese keep me away from a hot steaming cup of coffee.

Using a mixture of hand-gestures and English, I am able to make her understand that I would like a cup of coffee. She smiles and takes a conical-plastic cup, plugs it into a cup holder, pours out coffee into it and points me to the tray of stirrers, sweeteners etc in the cabinet.

Pic-1 : The plastic cup with stirrer.




Pic-2 : The cup-holder into which the cup slots in securely.




Pic-3 : The assembled coffee-cup ready for use.



I thank her profusely and move to the reception area to enjoy my first dose of caffeine after what seemed like eternity. Coffee done, I go to the pantry, chuck the cup and stirrer into the trash can, wash the cup-holder at the sink and leave it in the tray nearby which holds the washed articles.

And that is when I see the washed cups/stirrers in the tray and realise my mistake of throwing the cup/stirrer in the trash, like we would do in India and elsewhere - we do not normally reuse the disposable plastic stuff. But here, they wash and reuse them.

Commendable practice given the fact that we are going to soon make the earth one giant
trash-bin full of non-degradable plastic, given the rampant abuse of plastic. But, before you
start replicating this in India, ensure that the disposable cups you use are of the same quality
as the ones I saw in Japan. The ones we get here are so flimsy that it is usually a big deal if
we can manage to use it atleast once, let alone wash and re-use.

And we slowly tread the American way.

This piece of news in yesterday's newspaper made me sit up, literally.

Two school students in Delhi, just 13-odd years old, shot to death a classmate over some trivial
issue. One of them pumped 4 bullets from the service revolver of his Dad (who is in the police
force) and then handed the revolver over to his friend, who fired the final bullet.

Kids going on a shooting spree in American schools was shocking when we read it for the first
time. But over the years and many such incidents later, the shock-value just wore off and we
would just attribute it to the easy availability of firearms in the US due to the right enshrined
in the American constitution for every citizen to bear arms to defend himself/herself.

Whether we ever get to American levels of development (in terms of infrastructure and standard of living) could be debatable, but looks like we are pretty quick in taking up traits
that we are better off without.

And now FM radio turns tearjerker.

I have lost count of the number of FM radio channels in Chennai, given that there is one being
announced daily. Infact, one of my colleagues comes out with an idea of starting a Malayalam
FM channel in Chennai, which he thinks would be a great business idea, given that there are
lots of Mallu guys in Chennai. When s/w engineers are planning FM stations, I would think it
is better to quit the radio scene itself.

Since my car stereo provides the option of storing only 6 pre-set channels, I usually stick to surfing through those 6 channels. Radio Mirchi FM remains my favourite from the days of
their fabulous RJ Suchi (too bad that she is no longer with them) and Radio City FM is the
least favoured channel (mainly because they were too much into Western songs - give me
Tamil songs anyday).

Today I surfed to Radio City by chance and stumbled upon a program, the format of which
is pretty common across radio channels. Its all about phoning in with your personal problem
and they either tell you a solution or like in this case they would even take the trouble of
sorting it out by calling the other party and explaining your viewpoint to them.

So, usually you would have girls calling up & telling about how they are in love with someone
but now the guy is chatting up his ex-girlfriend and she is feeling insecure and such trash.
And the RJ, like some agony aunt would chip in with his/her advice about how she could
either ditch him or slap the other girl. :-)

Anyway, today morning, on my way to work, I happened to be on RadioCity and a guy calls
in. He is a software engineer (who is not one in Indian cities?) and starts off with "I am having
problems with my Mom. I am what you would call a 'Mamma's boy', but after my wedding,
the relationship with my Mom has never been the same again (what's new there ?). She does
not understand how much I love her and that I am still her boy, inspite of marriage etc etc".

Now the RJ's call up his Mom and tell her that they are from the FM channel, but not telling
that her son gave them her phone number. She sounds like any typical mom, exuberant and
all. Then they ask about her son. Immediately she thinks its someone from his office playing
a prank on her. The RJs convince her that they are truly from the FM station.

She says that she loves her son a lot and that he is the best son and she has learnt a lot more
from him than she could teach him as a mother. But, she also acknowledges that she is at times
a little short-tempered. She tells that her son lives in the same apartment complex as she and
his father stay, but different apartments. She tells about how she would like to see him in the
morning, but does not because she thinks it would intrude into his family's morning activity
of leaving for school and office.

She thinks she will instead see him at night, but he works late. This irritates her and she gets
mad at him to which his reply is, "why don't you just drop in whenever you feel like seeing
me ?". She doesn't tell it, but I think she would rather he drop in once in a while and his not
doing this (or not doing it as often as she would like) could be the reason for her irritation.

Then the RJs tell her, "We see that you love your son a lot. But do you know that your son
loves you equally or more ? Infact, we have him over here and he has something to tell you,
which he is going to say over the airwaves and all of Chennai is going to hear it now. Would
you like to hear what he has to say ? "

And then the son comes online and sings a para from a Tamil song (don't know the album),
the translation of which would go like, "If there is another birth for me, I would still like to
be born as your son ...... ". She hears this and does not know what to say and becomes very
emotional and keeps repeating, "I love you Venky", to which he says that he also loves her.

I had never thought an FM program would bring me to tears. But this incident did. OK, its
not like I started crying while at the wheel of the car, but it was so emotional for me as just
a listener. And after a few minutes the RJ reports that they had got numerous calls from
listeners who were affected the same way as me. Anyway, all I hope is that after this radio
conversation, the Mom and son live happily ever after.

Kids first day out.

We had my kid's baptism last Sunday and like the many baptisms that I have attended till
date, I expected it to be a function devoted to just one kid. Imagine my surprise when I see
three more cute kids (and their parents, godparents, relatives etc) at the Church.

It seems a Sunday evening every month is specifically kept aside for baptisms at this church
and the priest would baptise all the kids that turn up for baptism on that day. Proceedings
were kind of long-drawn because the priest would have to repeat the same verses for each
kid and go from one kid to the other while making the sign of the cross on the their foreheads
or while sprinkling holy water on them etc.

One thing I noticed was that all the kids were silent, which is very unlike what I have seen during other baptisms. Usually the kid would cry atleast when sprinkled with holy water,
but in this case none of the kids even seemed to notice it. Old-timers would say that the kid
cries because Satan is expelled due to the sprinkling of holy water. Hmmm. Does this mean
that Satan managed to stay back in the kids inspite of the holy water ? I hope not.

Since the baptism was in the afternoon and it being generally hot and humid, the kids were drowsy / asleep and that could explain how they went through the whole exercise without
even a whimper.

It is usually a normal practice to have the kid lie in front of the altar, after the function is
over. In this case, it was actually a pleasant sight seeing 4 cute babies lying side-by-side.
They looked so cute & lovely in their white dresses. Though my son did not take kindly to
leaving the warmth of his mother's arms and started bawling as soon as he was laid down. :-)





At our place, the baptism would usually be the first outing for kids, since the time they came home after delivery. Elders do not allow the kid to be taken out anywhere till the Baptism is
done. Except maybe a visit to the hospital if the kid is not well or for vaccinations.

I think this has also to do with Mr.Satan - the fear of Satan becoming an uninvited guest in
a kid that has not been in a church yet and been baptised, sprinkled with holy water etc.

Give us this day our daily bread.

The title of this post, is from the prayer which I think is one of the few things that the
hundreds of Christian denominations in the world happen to share among themselves.
And it is so apt a request because while man toils to be able to acquire a lot of things,
but the one thing that he cannot do without is food.

Ofcourse there is water and air also, that he cannot do without. But then air, however
polluted it might be getting daily, is freely available to all. And water is also sort of like
a given, though getting scarcer by the day.

The full prayer, in my humble opinion, covers almost all that a rational human being
should pray for, to whichever God he believes in. It reinforces belief in God, asks for
God to take care of our needs, requests God to forgive our sins and asks his help in
enabling us to lead a virtuous life. Anyway, this post is not about spreading the Good
Lord's words and anyway I am in no way competent to do that, given my numerous
failings.

Coming back to the topic at hand, I have always had a love-hate relationship with food.
I can't do without it for sure. Yet, I don't like to be fussy about it either. I eat just about
enough to get through. And not for any dietary reasons. Call it luck or whatever, I have
been maintaining a constant weight (which is correct as per my BMI) for years now,
without any real effort on my part.

Our office pantry is no 5-star hotel restaurant. But it is not bad either. An average
employee spends around 20mins there for lunch. I am in-and-out in 5 minutes.
Not that I disrespect food. Given that I am from a country where atleast 10% of the
population are having a tough time managing one decent meal a day, I accord food
the respect it deserves.

I am OK with whatever food the circumstances have in store for me. In my 30-odd
years on earth, I don't think I have criticized anyone's culinary skills. As long as it is
edible, I eat it. Edible being a very loose term, that covers any food that I can eat
without throwing up.

If the cook, by mistake, put 5 spoons of salt instead of the required 1 spoon, I would
just say, "A little salty, ain't it ?" and continue eating. No wonder the womenfolk at
home love me. Whatever they dish out, I eat, relish, thank them and move on.

For I know that millions in my country and around the world, would give a limb for
that food. If only the good Lord granted each living being its daily bread, instead of
having to pray/struggle for it ? Now that would be utopia, ain't it ?

Maybe He has a reason behind making us work for it. If it were available without us
having to put in any effort, we would surely divert the energy that we would have put
into doing work, into something destructive.

There's many a slip twixt mind and limb.

It is said that ideas have a strange way of striking at very odd times and it is always
a good idea to have pen and paper handy to note them down, lest you forget it later.
And miss a gem of an idea that could have made you a millionaire, enabling you to
retire to some fancy beach. :-)

But what happens when you are ready with pen and paper (or a laptop, as in current
times), but the mind races so fast that the hand holding the pen is unable to keep pace.

Noting down the title or even the gist of a blog post is easy. But putting down on paper,
the full post, as the mind blabbers away, is tough. There are numerous times when I have
experienced this. It sounds so easy when your mind gushes away. But try putting it down
in a way that conveys the full meaning, without being boring, and you will know what I am
talking about.

I thought about getting a small voice recorder for such situations, so that I can spew my
thoughts into it and later play it back so that I can capture all the details that I would have
otherwise lost by the time I set down to putting it down on paper.

Ofcourse, it would surely look odd if you are in a public place and are seen mouthing stuff
into a small device. Anyway, except for people thinking of you as a lunatic (which is not a
big deal anyway today, if you look at all the people walking around like zombies glued to
their mobile phones), I do not see any other cons in this idea.

Another reason for you to strap on that helmet.

If you thought the helmet would be helpful only when you have an accident while
riding your bike in India, well you are mistaken.

There was a news item couple of days ago, about a biker who was riding down a
subway when a 40kg block of railway sleeper fell on him from the railway track
above. With the railways shifting to concrete sleepers from the older wooden ones,
I am assuming that this was also a concrete block. It did look small in the newspaper
photo, but if you think its trivial, imagine a 40kg block of concrete falling straight on
your head from a height of something like 15 feet or so. Ouch !!!

Anyway, as per the report, the guy lived to tell the tale only because he had his
helmet on. And even with the helmet taking the direct impact, he is in a serious
condition. So, imagine the case if he did not have the helmet on.

So, for all those that avoid strapping on helmets, hope this incident helps in changing
your attitude to this safety-aid.

Giving back to society.

The year : 1962
The time : Around 7-ish in the morning.
The place : Mavelikara, a small town in Alappuzha district of Kerala state in India.

A young man is at the river bank to have his morning bath. His family is not well-off
to have their own bathroom, with running water and the works. Infact, things are not
exactly hunky-dory at home. His father works at a school and while he draws a regular
monthly salary, the money is only just about enough to make ends meet.

Unlike most families in the neighbourhood, this family has to worry about one additional
expense - college expenses for the son. While children in most families here do go to school,
most of them drop out sooner or later. And for those that stick on (due to providence or
their own interest), reaching Standard X (S.S.L.C.) itself is a big deal, let alone passing it.

So the number of kids here that complete Std. X and then the 1-year Intermediate (today
it is a 2-year period called 10 +1 and +2) and make it to college can be counted on one's
fingers. While it was a matter of pride for the parents that their son was doing well
academically, college also brought with it expenses.

The college was at Pandalam, a town some 20-odd kms away, requiring money daily for
bus fare. His Mom used to raise hens and the money got from selling the eggs used to
support bus fare to college and back. But ofcourse, the hens simply had no idea about the
important role they played in the young man's academic life. So, on days that they didn't
lay eggs, Mom had to find other alternatives to enable her son to get to college.

Anyway, the parents were determined that nothing should come in the way of their son's
higher education and worked to overcome all odds to ensure that he is able to pursue his
studies without having to bother about where the money for supporting it came from.

Coming back to the river bank, while the young man is having his bath, there are other
guys from the neighbourhood, junior to him and in school, who also share his passion for
studies. These guys cannot afford any private tuitions to supplement the little that they
are taught at school and thus look forward to the young man's daily visit to the river in
the morning, so that they can clear their doubts with him in the short time that he spends
there. And the young man, is only eager to help anyone who has any queries or needs any
clarification.

His good grades in Intermediate could have easily got him admission to an Engineering
college. But he had no one to guide him about career choices, and in all probability, he
was not even aware about the options available to him. He takes up Bachelor of Science
(B.Sc.) degree in Chemistry. Not taking up Engineering would be a decision he would rue
later on in life, due to not being able to advance in his career as much as he could have
done had he had an Engineering degree.

He finishes his B.Sc. degree with a First Class and works for a short duration as a teacher
at a school. While there, he gets called by the Employment Exchange for a position in a
premier oil exploration company. He has to go to Gujarat for the interview, which for all
he knows could be in the West Indies, given that the furthest he has gone from home is
like 50-odd kms.

He gets in touch with someone in the neighborhood who happens to be working at Gujarat
and gets his help to get around when he reaches Gujarat. Due to the financial conditions at
home and also because trousers were not so common then, he did not have a trouser to
wear to the interview. And ofcourse you can't go in a mundu (a South Indian attire loosely
translatable as sarong) to an interview.

Again friends help with their trousers, which he gets altered by the tailor to suit his girth
and height and boards the train to Gujarat. He lands the job, and soon is an expert in his
department (Production) of oil exploration. He stays with the organisation till he retires
40 years later at the age of 60 as a manager at a very senior level. His only regret was
that if only he had taken an Engineering degree instead of the B.Sc., he could have moved
much more further in his career.

After having been working and keeping busy for 40 years of his life, he is sort of worried
as to how he will keep himself busy during retirement. But, he is soon to find out that he
will be left with much lesser time than he had when he was working.

He decides to take up farming first, given that he has always been blessed with a green
thumb. Quite some time is spent pottering around the yard growing tapioca and plantains.
Still there is quite some time available. So he decides to be part of an NGO to do his bit for
society. His friends influence him to join the Lions Club, which he believes is doing quite a
bit for society. But the Lions Club meet only so many times a month, which still leaves him
with a lot of time.

And that is when he comes across a kid in the neighborhood, who has a passion for learning,
but cannot afford the tuition centres. He decides to spend some time coaching the kid. From
an average student, the kid soon moves into the top scorers in school. Word spreads about
the person who can coach kids from average performers to top scorers and soon there are
three more kids that come to him for coaching. Now, he has his hands full and time is now at
a premium.

Without knowing it himself, he has come full circle. From coaching his juniors on the river
bank, he is now coaching a new generation. A generation of kids that have the urge to learn,
but do not have the means to pursue the same. Apart from coaching them, he takes care of
the school fees, books, uniforms for the kids that cannot afford them, with the intention that
a kid in the neighborhood should not drop out of school just because of the lack of money.

This person is my Dad. Whatever I am today, is because of him. He never had the luxury of
learning English grammar in school, but he did not hesitate to buy a copy of 'Wren & Martin'
so that he could teach us the nuances of the English language. While growing up, he had never
heard of Cursive writing, but ensured that me and my sisters spent time writing English, the
way it should be written.

He would take the effort and time to read up our textbooks so that he could teach us. Be it
Science or Mathematics or languages, he was there to guide us, if we had a doubt. And all
this, after a hard day's work at the oil-field.

Today, when I see the effort he takes to teach the kids that are not priveleged enough to
afford the kind of education that most kids take for granted today, I feel proud of him.
When I see the interest the kids display in making the most out of the time he can spend
teaching them, I am sure that these kids will go on to do big in life. And knowing that my
Dad would have played a big role in that, makes me feel proud that he is my Dad.

Happy Birthday Kerala

Today, the 1st of November 2007, marks 51 years of the creation of Kerala, my home state.

Kerala came into being on this day in 1956, since when, this day has been celebrated as Kerala Piravi, which is Malayalam for "Birth of Kerala".

Many happy returns of the day to the paradise on Earth.

Long forgotten parentage and occupation.

Till some years ago, the phenomenon of having stickers on cars (on the rear windshields
usually) was something alien to Kerala. It was more of a fad in Tamilnadu (and up North)
where the top favourites were to :

1. have the names of all kids in the family, with their initials intact, plastered all over the car.
2. have a religious message "Jesus saves" or "I am Jesus' favourite" or "Hare Rama, Hare Rama; Rama Rama Hare Hare" or "Jai Mata Di" etc
3. Up North, it would be like "Munnu Chunni di gaddi" (meaning, Munnu and Chunnu's vehicle).

Looks like it has caught on in Kerala too where I now see kid's names, religious stuff etc on
the rear windshields. But what I saw on the rear of a Suzuki Alto last week, was, to put it
mildly, really different.

It read, "MY BOSS IS A JEWISH CARPENTER"

Took me a few seconds to understand what he/she was implying. Put this across to a couple
of my Christian friends, but they could not make any sense of it. Looks like over the years,
the Jewish parentage of Jesus and his initial occupation of carpentry is forgotten as far as
modern day Christians are concerned. For them, maybe he is simply the son of God.

How low can we get ?

This came in the Malayala Manorama (a Malayalam newspaper) yesterday.


Picture courtesy : Malayala Manorama, Kollam edition, dtd 29-Oct-2007.

Those that can read Malayalam, can make out what the picture is about.

For those that don't know Malayalam, here goes the translation.

The news headline says "An advertising model for its own death".

The paper stuck on the buffalo reads as :
Local buffalo meat
1 K.G. for Rs.110
Available at Pazhayarinkuzhi Junction.

Hmm. There is no limit to man's cruelty, it seems.

A serious case of paranoia ? :-)

To say that I am crazy about my car, would be a serious understatement. I can rather be
called car-fanatic or paranoid or some such serious name. The very first car accessory that
I bought the day I got my baby (yeah, that's my car) home from the dealer's was a full body
car cover. Mainly because my flat in Chennai did not have covered parking facility.

The guy I bought it from, used terms like 'parachute material' to describe the fabric from
which the cover was supposedly made of. Implying that it is really strong, durable etc etc.
Ofcourse there is nothing that a pen knife can't do to cause a tear in it. Or, maybe the sharp
handle-bars of a cycle ridden by a girl, as I was to discover soon.

Anyway, in the 938 days (ok, I made up that number - it's like 31 months) that my car
has been with me, there has not been a single day when the car was left uncovered. Rain
or shine, the car would be covered, when parked in our apartment complex.

I would have loved to keep it covered when parked at the office complex too. But, even
for my paranoid mind, that was taking it a little too far. So, had to make do with leaving
it uncovered and just giving it a glance-over every 2 hours when I would come down to
the basement to have a coffee. You know, just to ensure that she is safe and fine.

I thought I had no competition whatsoever in being paranoid about my vehicle. But,
that was only till I saw this at Yonago airport in Japan. Click on the pic to get a clear
picture.



Heck, I did not even know that there were helicopter-covers available in the market.

Hmm. Now this is surely a case of taking love to new heights. :-)

Better late than never.

I had mentioned here about how the billboard advertisement for the Deccan Chronicle was
grammatically incorrect. Looks like there were others who noticed it (like I did) and maybe someone pointed it out to them because the billboards as I see them today have been corrected.

In place of the old copy, which read as "sometimes two letters denotes an era", what I see
now is "sometimes two letters denote an era".

Hmm. Good for them.

Am back after a hectic few weeks.

The last few weeks have been terribly busy for me. Forgot all about the blog
due to this cute guy who came into our life 2 weeks ago. Camera-shy, ain't he ?

Will try to resume regular posting soon. "Soon" being a very relative term.

Lost in Tokyo. And guess what I found.

After the late Saturday night at the karaoke bar, I wake up only close to noon on Sunday.
As I wake up, it hits me that most of my shopping is still pending. I need to visit the
electronics shop at Shinjuku (Yodobashi camera) to check out DVD-handycams.

Usually, I would just take the Hilton shuttle that operates every few minutes (depending
on the time of the day) between the hotel and Shinjuku station. However, the next shuttle
is some 15 minutes away. I reckon that it would be faster to walk to the metro station and
catch the metro to Shinjuku.

I reach Shinjuku, and walk out towards what I think is the exit. Given the underground
maze that Tokyo is, I come up to level ground and look around to find that it is a placeI
have never seen before. Yes, for all I know, I could have been in Dublin.

I assure myself that if I walk around a bit, I will come across a landmark that I have seen
before and will be able to find my way to Yodobashi. But no. I have been walking for atleast
an hour and 2-3 kms without seeing anything that I even faintly recollect to be associated
with Shinjuku.

Slowly, discouragement starts setting in. Ofcourse, I know that I have 2 last options. I could
just look for a Metro sign, which is almost all over the place, go down and catch a Metro to the station near the hotel. Or hail a taxi and get to the Hilton. Ofcourse, taxi being a costly option
in Tokyo, will be only the last resort.

I have difficulty admitting I am lost (common human male behaviour all over the world) and decide to give it another try before hitting the Metro. I turn a corner and this is what I see.



The Indian tricolor waving in the Tokyo breeze.

There is a rush of emotions - surprise at seeing our flag in Japan, a sudden thought of home
and overall a happy feeling. Can't resist taking a snap. I see that there is an Indian restaurant
in that building and most probably the flag is there because of them. I guess, more to attract Indian patrons than for patriotism.

Anyway, I turn the corner and still the place is as unfamiliar as it was an hour ago. Finally, I convince myself to ask for directions and after checking with a few people, I succeed in getting directions to Yodobashi, from where it is easy.

It seems, instead of taking the West exit out of the metro, I took the East exit, which resulted
in my getting lost. Hopefully I will get it right the next time, though I won't bet on it, given the maze that the Tokyo underground is.

Another Karaoke night.

Finally after 3 weeks here, I got to visit the karaoke bar last Saturday night. Since I have
been there only once during my previous visit and do not seem to remember the way, I get directions to the Champion karaoke from friends.

I follow the directions, which could not be any more precise. Turn left out of the Hilton,
walk to Nishi-Shinjuku metro station, cross the main road, turn right and keep walking till
you pass a Mister Donut, turn left, walk a block and you are there.

However, by mistake, I take the left just in front of the Mister Donut, instead of the left
after passing it. I am assuming that walking a block would lead me to the bar.The time is
11PM and the whole place is swarming with people. It is as if it is daytime, such are the
crowds of people, mainly young guys and girls.

I walk through the crowds on the street. A pretty good-looking Japanese girl (actually most
Japanese girls look cute and doll-like) is standing on the pavement. As I near her, she smiles
and the following conversation takes place between us.

Girl : Hi.
Me : Hi. Do we know each other ?

Girl : Would you like a massage ?
Me : Massage ? No thank you.

Girl : A massage and much more. Only 10000 Yen.
Me : Sorry. I am not interested.

I move on. There are guys sitting on the pavement railings. One of them jumps in front of me.

Guy : Hi. You need nice Japanese girls ?
Me : What ? Sorry, I am not looking for that.

Guy : It's very cheap.
Me : Doesn't matter. Not interested, Thanks.

He must have seen me talking with that girl and assumed that I might be a potential customer.

From there on, it is all about fending off these guys, who are soliciting customers. It's all done
in the open, with no fear of the law. Maybe it is not illegal here, who knows. Anyway, while trying to avoid these people, I walk more than a block, but do not see the Champion bar.

So, I cross the road (to avoid walking through the soliciting crowd again) and walk back
towards Mr.Donuts. I am halfway across a small street, when a black guy comes over.
I had seen him last time I was here and know that he also is looking for customers for his
club (an euphemism for brothels).

Actually, I had taken a snap of him then. See attached photo - a little blurred though.



I try to avoid his outstretched hands and try to walk past with a smile. But he would not
have it that way.

Guy : Hi, man. What's up ?
Me : Nothing, man. Just looking for a karaoke bar.

Guy : Man, you can atleast give a handshake. Nothing wrong in that, right ?
Me : Okay. And we shake hands.

Guy : Where are you from, man ?
Me : India.

Guy : India ? Cool man, we play cricket with you guys.
Me : Yeah, man. The West Indies are a pretty good team.

Note : Actually I care zilch about cricket, given the kind of guys we have for our cricketers,
who care two hoots for the country. All they care for is the endorsements coming their way.

More shakehands due to this cricket thing.

Guy : OK, let me tell you. You can have a real nice time. And very cheap too.
Me : Sorry, man. I am not looking for that.

Guy : Are you sure, man ? I can get the best girls and won't cost you much.
Me : No, man. I am meeting some friends at a karaoke bar, but can't seem to find the place.
Do you know where the Champion's bar is ?

Guy : Champions bar ? Its over there.
Me : Thanks a lot, man.

We were actually standing and talking a few metres from the bar.

I am relieved to get inside the bar, where it is business as usual. A mostly white crowd with
a few Japanese girls and a really drunk young Japanese guy. Get myself a beer and just stand watching the action. Many English songs are being sung by the crowd, but I don't seem to
know or have even heard them before. Then a guy sings a Japanese song, followed by a girl
who again opts for a Japanese song.

They used to have a couple of chairs around a round table, at one end of the bar. While the
table is still there, the chairs are not available. So, unlike last time, I have to stand. After
some time, I lean against the wall. A white guy, who has been singing for some time, takes
his drink and comes over to the round table.

Guy : Hi man, are you the bouncer ?
Me : What was that again ?

Guy : I mean, are you the bouncer of this club ? Asking because you have been standing at
the corner watching all the action.
Me : No, man. I am just here for a few beers and to hear some good karaoke.

Guy : Oh, sorry, my mistake.
Me : Thats fine.

Guy : So where are you from ?
Me : India.

Guy : India ? Cool. I grew up in Trinidad and had lots of Indian friends. Many of them are in Bangalore.
Me : That's cool.

Guy : Yeah. I attended an Indian wedding once - my first one. No one told me that they do
not serve liquor at Indian weddings. So anyone that drinks (which is, most of the guests)
goes out, has a drink and comes back. It was funny. And man, no one also told me that it
goes on for 8 hours.
Me : Yeah, Indian weddings can be long. Infact some communities have it spread over 2-3 days.

Guy : 2-3 days ? Thats amazing. BTW, how do you like Tokyo ?
Me : Nice and safe place. Like it.

Guy : Yeah, the safest place I have ever been to. I sometimes get up at 4AM and go for a jog. If I try the same thing in the U.S. where I live now, I could get mugged or even shot.

Then, Martin and his friend Akki come over to our table. He is from England and been here
for 12 years now. Speaks fluent Japanese. His friend Akki, however is yet to master English
as fluently as he knows Japanese. She starts off in English, but gets stuck every so often and switches to her native tongue.

Then there was the Dubya look-alike (a little bit older though), who just knew how to get
exactly between my camera and whoever it is that I was photographing. Frustrating guy.
And to top it, he had to smoke a cigar (a stinking one at that) inside a closed bar measuring
at the max some 100 sq. feet. God, how I wished I could yank that cigar and throw it out.

I spend around 2 hours there and finally decide to head back to the hotel at around 1:30AM. The black guy is still there at the cross-road.

Guy : Hi man. So how was it ?
Me : Good, man. Had some beer and karaoke.

Guy : What do they do there, man ?
Me : They let you sing karaoke and also have beer / liquor.

Guy : You sure thats the only thing ? Or do they have drugs ?
Me : Drugs ? No man. None that I could see.

Guy : So, how about the girls I told you earlier ?
Me : No man. I am not looking for that. Good night, man.

Guy : Good night, man.

I walk the 1.5 km or so distance back to the hotel. I am tired, and all I look forward to
is the soft bed of the Hilton Tokyo. The place that has been home for the last 3 weeks
and for another week to come.

Switching mentally between Dollars, Yen, Euros and the Indian Rupee.

While in India, shopping is something I do as a last resort. Either because I have run out
of something and can't proceed any further without it or because someone wants me to
buy something. I hate the crowds at the shopping centres, I hate the lack of parking and
the actual shopping experience is also nothing much to talk about. So, I stay away, unless
I have no options.

But the moment I am in a foreign country, I change into an avid shopper. I am on the
lookout for shops that have local souveniers that I can gift people back home. Or for
chocolates for the kiddies back home. Or I check out specific gifts for people like digicams
or watches etc. I also shop for dresses for my nieces. In short, I love shopping when I am
outside India. Ofcourse, the Japanese shopping experience has not been that much fun due
to not knowing local language and also due to them labelling most of the stuff in Japanese.

I love the way business is done in the US and Europe. You go to a shop, they have all the
models displayed, with the price alongside. You check out the product that best matches
your requirements and buy the one that has the price which you think is right. And, to top
it, we have the online versions of their shops, where you can browse from home, see the
various options available, zero-in on the correct match and just go get it from the shop.

Contrast this with the Indian shopping experience. Online retailing, while it surely is catching
up, is nowhere near the BestBuy.com or CircuitCity.com experience. And the actual brick-and-mortar shops display only a few models, limiting your choice. Prices might or might not be tagged on the products. In short, its not a fun experience zero-ing in on the product of your choice.

One inconvenience though, of shopping abroad is the difference in rates of the currency used
for trade in the country you visit and the one in your country. This requires quite some quick mental calculations to ensure that the price indicated on the product in local currency is infact
a good deal when converted to your currency (Indian Rupee a.k.a INR in my case).

While in the US, this would require me to multiply the price by 45 (1$ was equal toRs.45 in 2005 when I was last in the US - today it is only Rs40). So you find the right product and
then need to do some quick calculations so as to compare with the price you would pay in
India for the same or equivalent product. Or if it is something that is not available in India,
you would still need to convert it to rupees to be sure that it is worth the money and also in some cases to ensure that it falls in the budget you have in mind for that product.

In Japan, its the other way round. The INR is stronger than the Yen, and 1 rupee equals
3 Yen, and so here you need to divide the price in Yen by 3. Comparitively easier and faster than multiplying random numbers with 45.

So, for Indians shopping abroad, it mostly involves multiplication because except for a few currencies like the Japanese Yen, most currencies are stronger than the INR. And while the
fact that the INR is weaker might seem a weakness, the business community, especially the exporters from India, would prefer to have it that way. Already, with the rupee appreciating
in value against the dollar, we have all our software majors crying out loud - it hurts their bottom line you see.

For every $ worth of export, instead of Rs45 that they were getting till recently, they are
now getting only Rs40. Imagine the reduction in revenue (in INR) for a firm that exports,
say 1billion dollars worth of software or software services a year. A straight reduction of
5 billion INR from their revenue. No wonder the Premji's and Nilekani's of the Indian
software industry are making a big noise about the appreciating rupee.

Anyway, getting back to the original topic of this post, the one place where I could shop
without multiplying or dividing the price in local currency to arrive at the equivalent in
INR, was Belgium, in the pre-Euro period. The Belgium Franc (BEF) had a value almost
same as the INR. So if the price tag of that nice French wine I was checking out, read as
950 BEF, it meant that it is also 950INR. No division, no multiplication, no nothing. Just
plain and simple hassle-free shopping.

Maybe one day, there will be only one currency for the world. That does sound like a fun situation, and not just for shoppers in foreign countries. It would surely make life easy for
lots of people - no exchanging currency on landing at a foreign place, no carrying around
banknotes or coins of different countries.

Ofcourse, I don't think people who make a living out of the existence of different currencies (forex dealers, traders etc) would be too happy about this.

It's TTT (Typhoon Time in Tokyo) :-)

Yes, for the past couple of days, we were hearing our Japanese co-workers tell us about
the typhoon that's gonna hit Tokyo soon. Today afternoon, they said it's going to hit tonight
and by evening, it was getting real rainy and windy.

Most offices in Japan, I am told, have a kind of small balcony for employees to go out
and have a smoke. How I wish, we had something like this in India. Anyway, while leaving
for the day (and early at that), our Japanese co-workers had only one thing to say, "Avoid
going to the balcony". Meaning, you could be swept off from there, to God only knows where,
by the typhoon.

Hmm. But, what's life without an occasional smoke ? So, I gear up to go to the balcony and
the usually easy-to-open door would just not budge - it was being pushed by the force of
the wind. Anyway, that was sign enough for me to use my common-sense and avoid the
balcony. I try the stairway, and after some effort the door opens, but the wind is blowing
the rain all over the place.

Anyway, inspite of the danger of being drenched (and even swept away), habit prevails
and I somehow manage to hold on (to the door) for the 10-odd minutes I need for having
a cigarette.

While all co-workers have left early for home, due to the impending typhoon, I have to
stay back to finish some stuff that was long overdue. The wind gets louder and wilder.
I am worried as to how I would be able to make it to the hotel. Finally, at 10:30PM, I
am done and cautiously head to the street to make it to the hotel.

Well, there are people walking on the street, cabs are plying, the metro is running - so
life is going on as usual. Catch the metro, get to the hotel and am home. From the hotel
room, I can still hear the wind howling and the rain hitting the windows. But atleast I
am safe home (if you can call the hotel your home).

But then, who knows. I go to sleep now on the 23rd floor of the Hilton and might wake up somewhere on the ground far away, carried courtesy the typhoon. All I ask for is that, if
it is so destined to happen, let it happen when I am asleep, for I am afraid of heights.

Amazing coincidence this.

When it comes to mobile phones, every visitor to Japan is treated the same. You could be
from the US or Europe or India or Somalia, you could be having GSM or CDMA or whatever,
it simply won't work here. Period.

The alternative is renting out a mobile phone for the duration of your stay here. Rates vary depending on where you rent from. The Hilton charges 1000Yen for a day as rental, while I have seen ads in the Metro trains offering as cheap as 250Yen per day. Since a mobile phone
is more of a necessity than the luxury it was some years ago, I rent one when I am here.

The hotel's rental range is all Sony Ericsson camera mobiles. Since I have a digital camera to take snaps and also because the hotel does not provide the cable to transfer images to your
PC, I do not use the camera on the mobile. Last time I was here, I did try out some snaps just for the heck of it and to check out the image quality.

So, this time around also, when I rented out a phone, I just stuck to using the phone only for making /receiving calls and never used it to take snaps. Yesterday I was feeling bored and
was just fiddling around with the phone's menu and end up at the data folder where images
are stored.

I see 30-odd images in the folder which must have been taken by the person who rented
this phone out earlier. I go through them and see that most of them have been taken in some pub / karaoke / hotel room etc and some of them are pretty personal with a few also having intimate moments of a couple (a Caucasian male and a Japanese female).

I am surprised how people could be so careless to leave their personal stuff on something as public as a rental mobile. I scroll through the images to see the girl dancing, the guy and girl sitting in a bar, he with his hands around her and then they move on to some serious stuff.

After some 15 such snaps, the images change from the couple to buildings, hotels and cars.
There is a snap of the Metropolitan building (one of the tallest here) taken from ground level looking up to its dizzying heights. I can't help thinking to myself that I would have tried this angle when I visited the building during my last visit. And there is a snap of a lovely black
Lexus and a sexy black Merc S-class convertible. I again think, "Hmmm, someone who likes cars as much as me".

But then I notice that the cars are parked at the Hilton. Intuition kicks in and I get this
feeling that these snaps are too familiar. I go through more of them and yes, there are more Hondas, BMWs and Suzukis. By now I am sure that these were taken by me last time when I was here. Just to confirm, I check the date on the snaps and yes, they were during the time I was here last.

No wonder they looked familiar. I don't know how many phones the Hilton rents out in total,
but it was such an amazing coincidence that I got the same phone that I had got when I was here a couple of months ago.

And yes, I will delete the personal snaps of the couple, before it gets into the hands of some prankster.

When life throws us lemons, most sulk. The motivated few make lemonade.

I had mentioned here about how a self-motivated and go-getter like Dr.Jacob Thomas I.P.S.,
is not going to sit sulking because he was moved away from Supplyco where he had brought
in stellar changes for the organisation, resulting in better service to the common man.

He has proven me right (does not surprise me though), as this link posted by an anonymous reader indicates. Whoever this 'anonymous' commenter is, I need to tell you that I am glad
you brought this to my attention. I was wondering what Dr.Jacob was upto in his new job.

Here is a man, who put in months of effort to turn Supplyco from the den of corruption and
inefficiency it was, to an organisation that was not only serving the purpose for which it was
setup, but also managed to turn around and post some profits. While the profit part is not
really important (because it was not intended to make profits in the first place), it does tell
something about the man and the effort he put into his job.

And then, instead of being rewarded for a job superbly done, he is removed from the CEO's
chair at Supplyco and put in charge of an almost defunct institution like the Kerala State
Film Development Corporation (KSFDC).

If it was any average man, the response would have been to sulk, given the demotivating
transfer to KSFDC. But then, Dr.Jacob is not your average guy, in any sense of the term.
He sees opportunity even in adverse situations, the opportunity to put in effort to bring
about change - change for the better.

So, he sets out to work on the Chitranjali Studio, which over the years had not been
serving the purpose for which it was built - to help filmmakers make movies without
hassles. He has taken the employees into confidence and motivated them to work with
him on the project.

"If all goes well, by the end of 2008, a filmmaker can enter the Chitranjali grounds with
an idea and walk out with the prints of the film, ” says Mr. Thomas.

That sums up in brief what he has in mind. For a full read of the work he is doing at
KSFDC, check out the link below.
http://www.hindu.com/pp/2007/08/18/stories/2007081850340100.htm

I, for one, know that all will go well, as long as the pesky politicians do not play their
dirty tricks.

Finally stumbled upon a flaw in the Japanese.

It is really tough to find flaws in the Japanese. They are extremely courteous, patient,
good listeners, very intelligent, punctual, hard-working, drive sanely, accord the utmost importance to cleanliness and very eager to help. I could just go on - there are just too
many desirable traits in them.

During my last visit here, some months ago, I couldn't help wondering whether they do
not have atleast one flaw in them, some behaviour which could be seen as wrong. But no,
could not find even one.

This time around, I seem to have finally stumbled upon something. An important client
was coming over to our office with a couple of his subordinates to discuss about the project
that we were working on for them. I was told that I would need to be there at the meeting
which was scheduled for 11AM. Apart from me, my organisationwould be represented by
our local office manager and another engineer who works at our Tokyo office.

Knowing the Japanese penchant for punctuality, I was in the conference room 5 minutes
before the meeting, making some quick notes about the points on the agenda. As if by magic,
as soon as the office clock showed 11AM, the clients trooped in. To say that I was amazed by
the timing, would be a gross understatement. I have seen their metro trains arrive at the scheduled time, to the exact minute. But this was incredible.

Ofcourse, my deviant Indian mind, could not help thinking, "What if they had arrived some
5-10 mins earlier and were just waiting downstairs, having a smoke or something and then walked in at the exact time? " Even if this were to be the case, it is neither wrong nor does
it take away anything from their penchant for punctuality, because they still took the effort
to be at our place before the scheduled time of the meeting.

Anyway, they troop into the conference room and after the normal introductions and
exchange of business cards, we get down to business. We start of in English, but soon
I see (or rather hear) that they have switched to Japanese to converse among themselves.
So, while the group of 5 are animatedly discussing among themselves, I am sitting there wondering what the heck is happening. All I am able to make out are some tech-jargon
which they have kindly decided to retain in its English form.

I think that it's a temporary thing and that they will switch back to English, but even as
time goes by, I do not see any chance of it happening. If this were to happen in India, it
would be considered seriously rude behaviour. And it was not a one-off thing, because I
saw it happening again.

However, after that first experience, I have wisened up to the act. As soon as I see them
move to Japanese, I excuse myself and tell them that I have to get back to work and will
only be glad to come when I am required. Otherwise, I don't think I will be able to get any
work done here, if I remain in the conference room for hours, wasting my time in a meeting where I am just a mute spectator, and not a contributor that I am supposed to be.

Back again in "the safest city in the world".

Yes, am back in Tokyo for another 3-week visit on work (how I wish I could be here on
vacation). But then, if wishes were horses, software engineers would fly.

Anyway, was looking forward to seeing new stuff and also blogging about them.
But this trip looks like it would be hectic. Am already on the 4th day here and I
am yet to do 3 things that I love and which I usually do when I visit a new place.

In no particular order, they are "walking around the city and taking in the sights",
"photographing anything interesting" and "trying out the local beer". But then I did
not factor in the hectic schedule that awaited me here. Suffice it to say that my
walking shoes are yet to be unpacked, the camera has not been touched and I am
yet to drink even one beer.

Hey Will, if you are reading this, I miss the fun we had during the last visit here, the
trying out various cuisines, the karaoke bars etc.

All I hope is atleast I get to indulge in the three activities during the weekend.
And ofcourse be able to blog once in a while.

A lazy Sunday photo-blog

Had been to Kerala again last week for 4 days. Main reason for the visit to attend a friend's wedding - yes, the friend about whom I had posted here, who wanted only a nurse as his wife. And yes, he did finally get a nurse as his wife.

Since the trip was planned at the last moment, I did not get reservations in the usual train
which arrives at my home-station at a normal 9AM. Instead, had to take a train that would deposit me there at an ungodly 5AM. Set an alarm on the mobile phone for 4:30AM and
went off to sleep. However was woken up much earlier by the ruckus created by passengers who had to detrain at stations before mine. Anyway, reached home at 5:30AM with not much sleep.

Normally I would've just hit the bed, but decided to go for a long leisurely walk through the countryside. The plan was to take a route that I have never taken before. Even though it's
my hometown, there still are lots of places I have never been.

So, off I hit the road with my camera. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I would let
my camera do the talking.

1) Lotus blooming in the field.




2) Don't let the water and canoe misle you into thinking that this is a river.
It's a field that got submerged in the heavy monsoon that Kerala gets every year.




3) People taking the boat to attend Sunday mass. Yeah, like you and me would take the bus or train. :-)

4) The boatman rows across the river to get the next set of people.




5) This young chap was all along watching me with curiosity and was sportive when I asked him to pose for a snap.

6) Nothing to beat some fishing on a Sunday. What say ?

7) Our parish church - awaiting the faithful on a Sunday morning.




All in all, it was worth the time and effort. Should do more of such exploring next time I am there.

How about walking the talk, preacher ?

I was in church last Sunday after a long time. Over the years, I have managed to avoid
Sunday mass, while still remaining a believer. What turned me off was the quality (or
actually the lack of it) in the sermons that are, according to me, the meat of the one hour
(typical duration of a Catholic mass) spent in church.

As far as Catholic services go, the mass will be the same anywhere, line-by-line, with the
sermon given by the priest being the only differentiator. My time would have been spent
wisely on an otherwise lazy Sunday, if the sermon makes me think and does even a tiny
bit to make me a better human being. If it lacks that spark, I would rather stay at home.

At my parish church, we used to have a priest who was not only good with words but also
the content was educative and informative. As long as he was the parish priest, I would religiously attend Sunday mass. He got transferred to another parish and the replacement
did not really get my attention and thus I stopped attending mass for some time. However,
I would still drop in at church during late evenings to spend some time in solitude, conversing with the power above.

The current priest left on a temporary deputation and so we had a new priest as a stop-gap arrangement. I decided to check out the new incumbent, thinking,"What if he is good with sermons ?".

So, I sacrifice my usual late-into-the-morning Sunday sleep and haul myself to church.
When we get to the sermon part, I am impressed by the priest's speaking skills and the
subject he had chosen to speak on. He mentioned about today's mad rush world, with
people busy with work and making more and more money. And in the process they not
only fail to look around them and appreciate the joys of nature, but are also increasingly becoming indifferent to other human beings, including their own family members.

He urged people to take time out to converse with people, to take genuine interest in
those that are suffering from disease or other problems, to spend time with the elderly
who are lonely and to help those that are not as blessed in life like us. Sounded good to
me, given that our daily lives have become so routine and machine-like that we don't
even have the time or the interest to think of others.

I am enthused enough to start making plans of how I could make a difference to others
and think in terms of doing something for charity - maybe visit the orphanage nearby
or try to volunteer some time for an old-age home and so on. So, while the priest continues
with his sermon, I am actually mentally debating what I should be doing.

I am brought back to the church from my mental meanderings by a loud shout. It takes
me some time to understand where the shout came from and at whom it was directed.
It seems that a mentally challenged boy (looked like in his early teens) who was sitting in
the front row, decided that the sermon was getting too long and boring for him. So, he
leaves his seat and walks around near the altar, resulting in the whole gathering looking
at him and whispering amongst themselves.

This seems to have enraged the priest, who till a few seconds ago was talking about caring
for and understanding others, lost his cool and screamed at the poor kid. So much for all
his talk on being considerate to others etc etc. All the time and effort that he spent on
preaching to the audience, was to me a complete waste of time, if he could not himself do
what he preached to others. All he needed to do was walk the talk and the audience would
have got the message, than by his giving an hour-long sermon, which he himself does not
believe in practicing.

Anyway, looks like I would not need to waste time at the Church on a sunday morning
for some time to come. A morning walk should do me more good.

Blood is thicker than water ? Think again.

Read about this lady in a weekly magazine. She is a native of Orissa and had been married
for something like 8 years. Life was good to the couple except for the fact that they were not blessed with a kid. They tried all the usual avenues - gynaecs, fertility clinics etc etc, without any success.

Finally they decided that they have had enough of it and decided to adopt a kid. They got
in touch with an adoption agency and soon were able to adopt a kid. The baby brought joy
to them and gave a new meaning to their life. However, what they had not factored in was
societal opposition to adoption. Her parents, inlaws and other relatives were all against
them adopting a kid and tried their best to convince them against it.

However, they stood by their decision and soon the cute baby turned all its detractors into ardent admirers. All those that had been against bringing the baby home, were now waiting
for a chance to hold the baby and spend time watching its kiddy behaviour.

The kid grows up with love from all quarters and soon no one is even thinking that it is
an adopted kid. Ofcourse destiny has to put in a turn of events to rock the boat. The lady becomes pregnant. To say that the couple are surprised would be putting it real mildly.
All these years they had tried every means to have a kid of their own, without any success.
And now when they had given up hope, they get blessed out of the blue.

The whole family is happy about this development, except for the lady herself who is in
two minds now. While she is happy that she is going to be a mother, she is also worried
that once her biological kid comes, her love for the adopted one would diminish, which
definitely is a possibility given the way normal human behaviour goes.

As days go by, she is more and more agitated about this unexpected turn of events and
tries to get a handle on how the future would look like, when her baby would join the family. Though she feels that she would treat both the kids similarly and fairly, she still cannot rule
out the small possibility of being more closer to her biological kid.

She finally decides that if she indeed happens to love her own kid more than the adopted
one in the future, it would not be fair to the bundle of joy that helped give a new meaning
to their life some years ago, when they were all down due to not having kids.

So, she does something which would be unimaginable for any normal woman in her place.
She terminates her months-old pregnancy. I was purely zapped reading this article and
amazed at the sacrifice that she did for the sake of anotherhuman being who is not even connected biologically to her.

Looks like blood is not thicker than water, as we have been led to believe.

You want who ? A nurse ? OK, get in line.

Was talking with a friend while at Kerala last week. He works in Saudi Arabia (or the 'Gelf'
as any self-respecting Mallu would say) and was in Kerala on a well-deserved 3-month
vacation after some 2 years of slogging it out there. Primary intention of the visit was to find himself a wife.

We meet over a few whiskey-and-sodas and our conversation went something like below :

Me : So, you are having fun at home. 3 months of vacation sounds cool to guys like us, who
have to do with occasional visits of few days.
Friend-1 : Yeah, but even if your duration of stay is less, you get to come whenever you
feel like, while we get to come only once in 2-3 years. So, sort of evens out, doesn't it ?

Me : Thats true. We get to make more frequent trips, though short ones.
Friend-1 : Anyway already 2 months went by so fast. And still no success on getting a wife, even after some 10 bride-seeing visits. I have only 1 month leave left.

Me : Why did none of the 10 girls work out ? You did not like any of them ?
Friend-1 : Well, some of them I did not consider - mainly because they were not working.
And the ones I preferred, the girl's side did not respond after that - maybe they did not like
me or my job or something. Anyway, its been a pain, this bride searching.

Me : What are your priorities when you consider a girl to be your future wife ?
Friend-1 : Well, looks is definitely important, though I am not looking for a beauty queen. Looks compatible with mine should be more than enough. And what is important is
that she should be working, preferably a nurse. I would prefer a girl with a B.Sc. (Nursing)
degree, though if push comes to shove, I can make do with someone having a General Nursing degree also.

Me : In that case, why did you not look around at all the Keralite girls working as nurses in Saudi Arabia itself ? Would have saved you the trouble of going around here looking for a bride.
Friend-1 : Nice suggestion, but there are issues with that. For one, those girls earn big money there (nurses are highly paid in the Gulf countries) and would therefore look only at guys who earn much more than them. And secondly, the good ones would already behitched to someone.

Me : OK, so thats not a viable option. So what is the plan of action for you now ?
Friend-1 : I have some more bride-seeing visits lined up in the coming days. Hoping one of them works out.

Me : Best of luck with your search and hope you find a suitable mate soon.

Since he has to go the next day on another bride-seeing session, he decides it better to
stop after one large peg and pushes off. While I am left alone at our awesome open-air bar,
enjoying my second drink, another friend comes along.

Me : Hey, every other girl in Kerala is a nurse, or so it seems. Then why is it so tough for
guys to get a bride who is a nurse ?
Friend-2 : That's so easy. You know what ? Our guys who work in the Gulf, all want only nurses as brides. But do you know what the nurses are angling for ? They want doctors as husbands. That's the whole issue. :-)

Hmm. Quite logical thinking on our girl's part, right ?

P.S: Have been thinking of a post on our open-air bar for a long time. Should do it soon.

Comments on the blog post on Dr.Jacob and my response

As promised in my previous post, here follows the comment (quoted verbatim) by Viswanthan on my initial blog post on Dr.Jacob Thomas. Be warned that it is going to be a long read.

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Viswanthan said...
It is nice to see this blog. As of today what has happened. Where is the author.

Mr. Jacob Thomas IPS was sacked. I think in January this year(or December last year?).
It gained some media attention. But what so. The 'anonymous' shall remain proud to be Indian.

However, I, being a regular customer of Supplyco and a college lecturer was interested in the sudden changes that could be perceived then. I was happy that the public enterprise is going in the right direction. But what so.Who is there to support him. Only powerless public among a few who are aware of the real situation.

But to know the real situation is an onerous task even if one wishes so. Why? Because ordinary citizens are more involved in trivial matters. They also strive to thrive in this world by reaching to get their own rights viz., basic necessities. In between this struggle who has to provide them with the correct information. Sure, it is the elite political class especially in Kerala. Alas, what is the state of affairs of this political class in Kerala. Well. They are increasingly goaded by the hidden philosophy and principles of acquing more money. It would be worthy to note down that the great left politicians who want 'eradication of corruption' played the pivotal role in throwing out him.

Many medias in that time had told about the connections between both the left and right in ousting him mercilessly. Actually, is he who was mercilessly stamped out. No and never. He is an IPS officer, who can very well prove himself and change another bad scenario into good. So the merciless attack was on the common people of the Kerala State. Please read the recent political developments in Kerala where corruption in different fields was highlighted. This would definitely give us an idea of how the recent political class has become classless.

Even the left front who has the history of pro poor has proven to exist so but in words alone. Then who should have had brought the issue to lime light. Yes it was the media. Did media play correct role. No. Why? May be because they have to protect their own interests. Or they were not knowing the actual situation. But are we so naive to assume that our elite media was not knowing the actual situation. No we are not. Media are interested in protecting only their own interests. Isn't it.

I would even say that the media group that had then apparently supported Mr. Jacob Thomas IPS was doing so not because of their love for a corruption free Public distribution system. Instead they were doing that simply because somehow their larger interests were meeting with these.

Will the world ever change. May be. When will we change into a dignified society. God knows. Why these politicians are speaking about 'understanding the reality' now and then so as to highlight their stances to be correct in the existing circumstances. Doesn't they have any role in creating a real situation. In reality, isn't that our own actions lead to reality. Are our political class and the bureaucrats, to a lesser extent, so ignorant and short sighted. Yes. I feel so.

This is an era where people initiate into politics as a career unlike our great past leaders who had dropped their career and entered into politics, raising voice against injustice and fighting brutalities. Then it was not politricks. Now, the political elite - even in the so much acclaimed educated Kerala - are the main perpetrators of injustice. What they all have to show off and cover up is nothing but their own hypocrisy.

Can a Jacob Thomas uproot the rotted system alone. In order to achieve an egalitarian society we need a responsive youth that cannot be bend or mend by political, religious, class, race or any such affiliations. Instead we need, those who values human beings as human beings rather than manipulative objects and who loves their fellow beings, if we have to revolutionise ourselves into an egalitarian society.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And this was my response :

incaRed said...
viswanthan,
I appreciate your comment on my post and more so your concern for the state in which
India is today. I also share your helplessness in being unable to do much to change the scenario.

However, each of us, however powerless we might seem individually, can surely make a difference, if we try to ie. You being a college lecturer can actually do a lot. I have had the good fortune of having teachers who did not just teach stuff from the book, but also inculcated in me ethics and pride of being an Indian.

I am sure you could also deviate occasionally from the textbooks to impart knowledge to your students which would make them a better human being. I on my part would continue trying to bring out to the world gems like Dr.Jacob Thomas who are trying in their own way to make a difference. Apart from walking my talk.

Hoping for a better India.
Thanks.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And this was another comment on the post, which is quoted here only because Viswanthan
refers to it in his comment :

Anonymous said...
proud to say I'm an INDIAN.........after reading this

An update on Dr.Jacob Thomas I.P.S.

I had written here in February 2006, about Dr. Jacob Thomas, who happens to be one
of the very few honest and committed officers that India is fortunate to have. I have had
a few visitors reach this blog searching for "Dr Jacob Thomas I.P.S" on google. However
over time, the interest in Dr. Jacob diminished.

But the last few days have seen a resurgence in interest in him, though I had no clue why.
It became clear when I talked to my people in Kerala. Yesterday, the PDP leader Maudhani
was exonerated for a crime he was supposed to have committed and for which he had been
in jail for the past 9 years or so. I have no love lost for Maudhani or for any one who uses
religion in politics. But, is it fair to have a person put in jail for 9 long years due to political revenge on false cases ? I think not.

Anyway, what is the connection between Maudhani and Dr.Jacob ?
It seems, 9 years ago, when Dr.Jacob happened to be the police commisioner of Cochin
city, the ruling Left coalition at that time wanted him to arrest Maudhani without any
valid reason. Since Dr.Jacob was one who went by the law and because he knew that
arresting a leader who enjoyed considerable support among the Muslim community in
Kerala would lead to serious law and order problems, he refused to arrest Maudhani.

Indian politicians being what they are, they could not tolerate an officer who refused to
do their bidding. So, the same night he was removed from the post of police commisioner
and the government went ahead and had Maudhani arrested by some other pliant police
officer.

Now that the courts have ruled that Maudhani is innocent, Dr.Jacob has been proven right
in the stand he took many years ago. A newspaper in Kerala had published this and thus
the renewed interest in Dr.Jacob.

Anyway, much water has flowed down the Pampa river since my initial post on him
and his work as M.D. of SupplyCo, which prompted me to do this update on Dr.Jacob.
Another thing that prompted me to do this update was a comment on my original post
by a concerned citizen from Kerala (Mr.Viswanthan) who happens to be a college lecturer
and a long time consumer of Supplyco. I will post his comment and my reply in another post.

As I had mentioned in my initial post, Dr.Jacob put in lot of effort and time to streamline Supplyco's operations and to transform it from a government organisation rooted in
corruption to one that actually worked for the people, as it was intended to.

However, along the way, a new Government (left front again) came to power in Kerala.
We, like other people aware of Dr.Jacob's work, expected the communist government to continue giving him a free hand to carry on his good work. After all, communists are
supposed to be for the poor and the down trodden, right ?

But, nothing could be farther from this point of view. The left parties in India today are
just another political party, with most leaders out to line their pockets when they get a
chance in power. They remember the poor and downtrodden only when they need crowds
for their rallies and demonstrations.

So, within a few months of coming to power, they had Dr.Jacob removed from his post
as Managing Director of Supplyco and instead posted him as the head of Kerala State
Film Development Corporation (KSFDC), which clearly was a move to demotivate him
by assigning a competent officer a function where he would not have a chance to put in
use his skills.

When he was moved to KSFDC some months ago, all I thought was that the corrupt
elements who were dislodged from Supplyco would have pulled the strings to have him
removed so that they can get back and enjoy the fruits of corruption which Dr.Jacob had
denied them. But now that we know the Maudhani connection, I would not be surprised
if the lefties had him removed as a revenge for not arresting Maudhani when they were
in power last time.

Anyway, knowing Dr.Jacob, I am sure that he is not one to sit sulking at KSFDC.
He would instead channelise his energy to make that organisation a better one.
Our best wishes to him.

Supplyco's loss would only be KSFDC's gain.