Of snail mail, India Post and their peculiar pricing policy.

During one of my usual declutter-the-home sessions last weekend, I came across a pack of postcards, which I never got around to sending out to anyone. These were printed by the
Kerala Hydel Tourism Centre and had nice photographs of Kerala on them.

As I went through them, I felt that I could actually use them, instead of trashing them.
Yeah, yeah, I know, this is how the junk stays back, till you come across it during the next session of decluttering.

Anyway, I think it would be a good idea to send them out to my nieces and some other kids
that I know. For one, they would like the idea of postal mail coming addressed to them and
also in an age when postal mail is being sort of pushed into obsolesence by email, it would be
a nice idea to let them know of how we communicated pre-email.

So, I dust up the postcards and look for postage stamps to affix on them. And that is when I remember that I have no idea what denomination stamp to use. The official postcards issued
by the Post Office come pre-stamped and costs you all of 50 paise (half a Rupee, which would
be a little more than one cent (US), at today's conversion rates). Yes, that is all you need to
pen a few lines and send to anyone living in any corner of India.

But then, this is a highly subsidised service provided by the government for the benefit of the poor. And to ensure that this subsidy is not misused, the postal service put in place various
rules which would keep any other type of postcard from this low tariff. One apt example would be what is called 'competition postcards' in India. These are the ones that you use to write to
TV show producers, to submit entries or to answer silly questions which are supposed to win
you big money.

Since my postcards do not fall in either category, I have no idea of what stamp to affix. So, I
walk to the post office near my home, to be told that it would need a Rs.6 stamp. And that is when I start wondering what the guys at India Post were smoking when they came up with
the brilliant idea of requiring a Rs.6 stamp for a postcard.

Reason being that a normal sealed envelope weighing upto 20gms needs only a Rs.5 stamp,
which means I can put the postcard in an envelope, send it out and not only save a buck, but
also ensure that privacy is assured, because the envelope is sealed.

Or even better, if I send out the card in an envelope that is not sealed (called Book Post in
postal jargon), it needs only a Rs.4 stamp, thus saving me 2 bucks per card sent out. But in
this case, there would be no privacy.

But, if I send out the card as-is, without any privacy and with chances of damage during its transit and by the elements, I need to dish out more. Hmm. Strange logic, to say the least.

Anyway, am not complaining. Instead I would just Book Post them and be glad that it reaches the kids the way I sent it and for 2 bucks less per card. And since I anyway recycle envelopes that I receive in the mail, not only do I not need to pay for envelopes, but can also be happy
that I did my bit for the environment by reducing paper usage, which would mean that many less trees felled.

Two disparate sides of the same coin

Last Saturday (25-Apr-2008), I was at the Madras Motor Sports Club's race track with some friends for a pay-and-practice session where we could drive our cars on track after paying a
per-car fee. The state of Tamilnadu might have quite some cons, but then which other state
in India can boast of having the only 2 race tracks in India ? Given this, I think I can live with
the weather. :-)

This time though, I was not getting my car on track and was instead planning to try my hand photographing the 4-wheeled beauties in action, which by the end of the day I discovered was not as easy a task as shooting nature or humans.

Anyway, there we were on a hot & humid Chennai summer day, walking the length of the track, trying to identify good locations from where to shoot the cars in action. There were some nice track-friendly cars like the Mitsubishi Cedia, Fiat Palio, Skoda RS, Hyundai Elantra etc being raced, but the highlight of the day was my friend's Suzuki Gypsy which was being raced on track.
With its high Centre of Gravity and SUV-ish + offroad-ish character, it is not exactly a sensible choice for track racing. But at the end of the day, it had managed to notch some impressive timings and won the admiration of all the spectators. Ofcourse major credit goes to the driving skills of my friend.

Some random snaps from the event.

1. The main straight leg of the MMST track.




2. The Mitsu Cedia in action



3. The Palio and Suzuki M800



4. The Hyundai Elantra CDRi


While I was scouting around for good locations, I came across this sad picture of a family on
the outskirts of the racing club campus, lacking some basic stuff which we consider a given.
Could not help feeling guilty that while we were there burning away tyres and fuel, there was another part of India that was worrying about bare subsistence.


So much for 'India Shining' and other such tag lines spouted by our self-serving politicians.

Also came across an unusual group of spectators, who were very camera shy. There was a
whole herd of them, but managed to snap only these few, while the rest scampered away.


Ofcourse, this guy was not prepared to back-off and stood his ground on what rightly is his
territory, enabling me to get a close-up snap.

Abandoned under the baking sun.

I was on the train again last weekend to Kerala to spend the weekend with my kid. The train
left Chennai as scheduled at 4PM and the weather being what it is like in Chennai during the summer, it was sweltering hot inside the train. The fans whirred above, but doing nothing to
cool the passengers as it was just fanning the hot air all around.

I am seated at the window, just looking out at the drab Tamilnadu countryside, wishing it
would just change to the cool greenery of Kerala. The next station is 2 hours away. In between there would be many suburban stations of which a couple (Thiruvallur and Arakkonam) are relatively bigger.

Even though it will not stop here, the train slows down as it approaches Thiruvallur. It slowly runs the length of the platform, and as it leaves the station it again picks up speed. A little after the platform ends, I see a kind of rectangular board lying along the tracks. It is 6 feet by 3 feet, with handles on the four corners and draped in black polythene sheet.

As the train approaches this contraption, I think it would be some kind of a makeshift carrier
for labourers to carry stuff. Then the train passes it and I see a pair of human legs jutting out
at the other end. Only the legs from the ankles down is visible, the rest is just black plastic.

I am shocked. This obviously is a human body, left along the tracks (not even on the platform), under the hot baking sun. And there is no one nearby. I think it must be someone who got hit
by a train. Today's newspaper says that on an average 2 people are killed by trains while crossing the tracks carelessly. And that is just the figures for Chennai.

Still, why would you leave a human body abandoned like that ? Given that we have stray dogs roaming all around, how safe would be that body if left lying there ? Is his/her identity known ? Do his/her people know what happened to their loved one ?

It left me so depressed and down. Human life seems to be getting devalued by the day, as we
all run around to make more money, buy stuff, indulge ourselves in material pleasures etc.

When the goddess descends into you.

Every few months, we get some outside gardening help to clear up the front garden and the
thin strip of greenery that borders our apartment complex. This thin strip of earth (rest of
the apartment grounds are concreted) has mainly big Ashoka trees and a couple of coconut
trees, apart from some flowering shrubs.

Since the resident's cars are parked along this strip, it sometimes becomes difficult for the gardeners to trim these shrubs, in which case we ask the resident to move his car a bit.
We ran into a similar situation last Saturday morning, with a Ford Escort making it difficult
for the gardeners to access the shrub behind it.

So, I ask our apartment watchman to tell the owner of the car to move his car a bit so that
the shrub can be trimmed. Our conversation went as below :

Me : Could you please inform Mr.X to move his car a bit ? Or if he is not at home, get the car keys from his wife so that we can move it.
Him : He is at home, but he wont be able to come and move the car.

Me : If he is there, why can't he come and do this ?
Him : Because Maari-aatha has descended into him.
The exact words in Tamil were "Avarukkulle Maari-aatha erangi-irukku".
Note : Maari-aatha in Tamil means "Goddess Maari".

Me : What ???

Luckily I had with me a friend, who explained to me that this is localese for someone infected with chicken-pox. :-)

Hmm. So, we are still blaming the Gods for something which is essentially the doing of a virus.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Last weekend I was travelling to Kerala by train (my usual weekend run) and chanced upon
this western tourist, who was also headed to God's Own Country on vacation. It was like 9AM
on Saturday and since the train would be reaching my station soon, I was getting ready to detrain, when I saw her.

She was sleeping on the side upper berth. I guess her destination must be Trivandrum (the capital of Kerala and the final destination for the train) because the Kovalam beach there is

quite a hit with tourists and comes only a close second to the beaches at Goa, which is the ultimate tourist hotspot.

Trivandrum (the anglicised version of the actual name Thiruvananthapuram) is also in close proximity to various Ayurvedic health resorts, again located close to the beaches or near the backwaters and which is another reason for its attraction to tourists.

Anyway, coming back to the tourist, what struck me was the way she was sleeping. Instead of leaving her baggage under the seats, she had them alongside her on the berth and was sleeping with her feet on them. Not a convenient way to sleep, as I know from experience.

But then, when you are travelling in India, it helps to be careful with your belongings. Or you could wake up in the morning, only to be dismayed to see your baggage missing. Ofcourse,

these kind of thefts in trains are rare down South, but they cannot be ruled out entirely also.

Looks like she had done her homework well, before embarking on the experience called India. Ofcourse, with quite some help from the Lonely Planet guide and Google.