When it comes to 'The Beach", the Marina it is.

While there are a lot of good things about Kerala, a nice expansive beach does not seem
to be one of them. Atleast the beaches I have seen from Trivandrum to Cochin. Possibly
Varkala beach is good, but I have not been there.

During my weekend trips to Kerala, we ensure atleast 1 visit to the beach since Aman
loves playing on the beach. But the closest beach that we have at Thrikkunnapuzha is
10 kms from home, has black sticky sand and is a small strip of beach. Plus not very
clean too, due to having human habitation nearby.

This is how it looked when we were there 3 weeks ago. It was about to pour heavily,
as can be seen by the dark clouds in the snap. Though taken by my phone-cam, the
snap looks kind of good - maybe it is due to all the darkness overhead & on the beach
contrasting with the foamy white waves.


And here is Aman having fun on the beach playing with sand and his new volleyball.


The next bet is the Thottapally beach, which is comparitively bigger and has white
powdery sand and quite big too. This one is kinda unique because here the backwater
meets the sea during high-tide. But the downside is that it is like 20kms from home.

This was where I used to come with friends in the late 80s whenever I could manage
to get my hands on the keys of our Maruti-800. I was only 16 years old then and even
though I knew driving, I was not old enough for a license and thus the car was out of
bounds for me. But, it did not prevent me and my friends from pooling money for the
3-4 litres of petrol needed to drive down and back. Petrol cost just Rs.9 a litre then.

My wife & kid are in Chennai for a week and so the other day, we drove down to
the Marina beach to spend some time on the beach. Being quite late (9PM), the
crowd had thinned and the place looked much better compared to how crowded
it usually is during the evenings.

A nice cool breeze was blowing, which could easily lull you to sleep. I took out the
folding-mat that I keep in the car and stretched out on it on the beach. The breeze
not only keeps you cool, but drives away the mosquitoes too. Ofcourse, the joy is
short-lived as I discover sand flying all around, courtesy my son whose favourite
beach activity is not building beach-castles, but sending sand flying all around.

As I looked around at the huge expanse of sand that the Marina is, I felt glad that
we had it in Chennai. Nice powdery sand, which is non-sticky, lots of beach-area
which is well-lit, huge parking, etc - it was all that you could ask for in a beach. I
usually avoid the Marina because of it being crowded, but I found that if we are to
come there late, the crowds are gone.

Chennai might be infamous for its round-the-year hot weather & rude auto-wallahs,
but I doubt any other city in India has such a nice expansive beach. A good place to
spend an hour or two.

A note of caution. Lest you also go through what I had to.

I should have posted this last Monday (20/7/09) itself when this happened, but somehow
got delayed. Anyway better late than never.

This post is for those using the bike parking facility at Chennai Central railway station.
For years, bike users entered & exited the railway premises by the same entrance (in
pic below), which leads to the road that lies in front of the Moore Market reservation
complex building.

For the past many months, I noticed (since I park my bike here on my weekly visit to
Kerala) that while entry is allowed, the RPF personnel do not allow bike-users to exit
via this gate. You can see the barricade with a big "No Entry" sign in above snap.

So, what most people do is cross the car parking area in front of the Moore Market
complex and get onto the main road. The poles in the pic below are spaced such that
bikes can easily pass through and this was what I also used to do till last Monday.

Things changed when an RPF (Railway Protection Force) guy in plain clothes stepped
in front of my bike & told me that I had violated a "No Entry" sign and thus I would be
charged for that offence. It was another matter that not only was the "No Entry" sign
not conforming to signage rules, but was printed on a thin sliver of paper, which was
intentionally designed to not be visible. Can you make out the sign on in the snap below?

Hint : It's that white part seen in the diagonal centre of the barricade.

He reached forward to grab the bike keys, but having spent most of my life in Chennai,
I know that this is one of the first things a cop here does on stopping you and thus I was
quicker in not letting him get to the keys.

From a previous run-in with the RPF guys years ago, I knew that my day was screwed,
because unlike state police who charge a spot fine for traffic offenses, these guys do not
collect the fine directly. Instead, they charge a case and take you to the railway court,
where a magistrate asks you if you indeed committed the violation and a fine imposed.

I was asked to come to the RPF office at 12:30PM, which I did. But as I feared, when
the whole drama ended, it was 4:30PM and I was drained - physically and mentally.
All this waste of time for just 200 bucks. I would have gladly paid them 2-3 times that
amount, if they would have just wrote out a challan and let me go.

Anyway, now that I went through this long ordeal (made even more miserable by the
hot sun), I hope none of you have to. The whole idea of this post and pics is that none
of you or your friends have to go through this ordeal, which is not really about ensuring
orderly movement of vehicles, but a sham to snare unsuspecting people into a trap and
screwing their happiness.

And maybe a chance for the RPF guys to show that they are doing their job (which as
the name of their organisation indicates is Protection of Railway property), at which
they are really inept, given the fact that terrorists are able to plonk bombs in trains at
will and dacoits are able to loot passengers on moving trains. Heck somewhere in North
India, some guys even hijacked a train, which would show how good these guys are at
their job.

Ofcourse, they will never get around to catching these real threats and to compensate
for this ineptitude, they will round up a few guys for violating a barely-visible No Entry
board which would be intentionally well hidden from sight. Or maybe spend time taking
bribes from some poor tea/coffee vendor who is trying to make a living.

BTW, I noticed that almost all the RPF guys involved in this sham of an operation were Malayalees, which did not really surprise me given the average Malayalee's aptitude to
be incredibly innovative in 'discharging' their duties, while not really being effective at
the assigned job.

So, avoid falling into this trap setup by the RPF and also inform your friends and anyone
else who might use the railway premises. Don't tell me you were not warned.

Black Gold in the backyard. Without the need to brave high seas.

It never ceases to amaze me how an idle stroll in our backyard at Kerala almost always
ends up as a revelation of sorts. All you need to do is to be in a slightly observant mode
and nature would reveal something new each time. And that's how I stumbled upon the
treasure trove of black gold in our backyard last weekend.

Naah, I did not stumble upon an oil-well, given that in today's world, black gold usually
refers to crude oil, for which many a war has been waged and many an overconfident
nation has found itself bogged down in the Middle East, in what it thought would be a
walk in the park on its pursuit to secure the oil-fields of Iraq. But I am digressing.

I am walking back home after checking out the water-level in the fields behind our home
when I chance upon this tree with a creeper covering its trunk.


At first sight, it looked like a parasitic creeper using the tree as its host. But a closer look revealed that it was not just another useless creeper, but a plant that produces what is
today known as the King of Spices and what was centuries ago known as Black Gold.

In the snaps below, you can see spikes with still-green unripe berries on them. I am not
really happy with the close-up shots produced by my phone-cam, but since my Sony-H7
is not around, these have to do for now.


Reference here is to black pepper, which is today one of the most widely used spices in
the world. Ofcourse this was not the case always. There was a time when the demand
for this spice far exceeded supply or actually supply was controlled to create a kind of
artificial demand resulting in the price becoming prohibitively high.

It is said that when the Portuguese under Vasco da Gama landed on Indian shores at
Kozhikode (or Calicut as the place is known in English) in 1498 AD, they had twin goals
in mind - spreading Christianity & access to spices. The former goal was unnecessary
because Christianity was already thriving here. But they did strike gold with the spices.

I am not really surprised by the thought-process of Vasco da Gama, when he asked the
local ruler (known as Zamorin) if he could take back with him a black-pepper sapling.
After all, why brave the harsh sea conditions every now and then to source the spice, if
you could grow it back in Portugal ?

The Zamorin's courtiers were outraged at the impertinent request, but the ruler is
supposed to have calmly replied, "You can take our pepper, but you can never take
our rains with you". He was referring to the unusual twin monsoons that the region
enjoys and which plays a big role in the quality of its crop. To this day, though regions
elsewhere grow pepper, Kerala reigns supreme in its quality, dominating the high end
of the market.

As I finish my photo-session and continue walking home, I come across another tree
with the black-pepper vine around it. Now I know better than dismissing it off as just
another parasitic creeper.


While this plant has also flowered, the berries are kind of smaller. Maybe they will grow
bigger now that the monsoon is in full swing.


As always Wikipedia has a full page on black pepper, the various varieties, how they are
processed from the point of collection as berries-on-the-wine to when they finally find a
place in our kitchens or dining tables.

The natural U-tube.

While at school, it was fascinating to watch the U-tube phenomenon of liquid poured into
the tube settling such that both arms of the tube have water at the same level. Last week,
I could see a perfect example of this phenomenon in nature itself.

While we have a fresh-water well in the backyard, it is very rarely that we actually draw
water from it, since there is piped water in all the bathrooms, kitchen, etc. The water-level
in the well keeps varying through the year & depends on the monsoon and the water-level
in the nearby river & other seasonal water-bodies like the low-lying field behind our home
that gets flooded during the monsoon.

Last Saturday, I happened to look at the water-level in the well & was amazed to see that
the level was pretty high - not even three full rungs.



Looks like the netting spread over the well is not very effective, since I can see atleast
a couple of twigs floating on the surface.


And when I did a visual comparison of the water-level in the well with the water level in
the flooded fields just 50 metres away, they are at the same level. As if the well and the
field were the two arms of a giant U-tube, connected by the landbody in between them.

Ofcourse, it is not possible to frame a picture such that I can show both the well and the
field in the same frame and also with the water level in both. But what can be done is to
give an idea of how the fields look like today, here is a picture taken last week. Funny
that just a few months ago, the kids were playing here & today it is like a swimming pool.

Actually the low-lying field is now fully flooded and water has even entered the higher
land on which my Dad has his banana plantation.

A perfect demo of the U-tube phenomenon by nature. We see/learn new things daily.

Sparse traffic. Due to the eclipse ?

Left home at 8:10AM and was at work at 8:50AM. Took me just 40 minutes to do the
20-km distance, which on normal days would take an hour or so. Traffic was sparse on
the roads today, which aided the fast commute to work. I am guessing that this must be
due to the effect of the solar eclipse.

Maybe people stayed indoors or plan to leave late for work to avoid the effects of the
eclipse. Whatever be the case, I am happy I could be at work without getting stuck in
traffic. Would be nice to have an eclipse every now and then.

Since the day started on a good note and due to certain other reasons, today looks like
it is going to be a good day and pretty productive, without any unwanted intrusions or
disturbances. Should be able to get lots of stuff done at work and on the personal front.

What can 15 minutes of delaying your purchase get you ? How about 50% off on your bill ?

We live in a world and time where attention spans are low and thus marketers have to
try harder to catch our eyes. Apart from being bombarded with advertisements on TV,
Radio and the internet, our attention is also solicited by wall posters, flyers and the like.

Usually, I would avoid accepting any flyers from anyone & would not really give much
attention to flyers pasted on walls and doors of establishments. But as I learnt a couple
of weeks ago, there are times when paying attention to flyers helps get you a good deal.

Me & my wife vouch by the pastries at Cake Walk, who have outlets at Besant Nagar,
Egmore among other places in Chennai. The softness, taste, sweetness etc is just right
and once in a while we drop in to sample their wide range of pastries. And then I heard
about a new bakery chain called French Loaf, who were supposed to have a nice range
of pastries and other stuff.

Though they had an outlet near my home at Harrington Road in Chennai, somehow I
could never get around to paying a visit. And then a few weeks ago, I chanced upon
their Velachery outlet. On my way home from work, I had stopped to drop in at the
Naidu Hall store on the Velachery Byepass Road to check out something, when I saw
that the ground floor of the same building housed a French Loaf outlet.

I decide to try the pastries first and then attend to mundane shopping & am about
to enter the French Loaf store when the words "Happy Hours" on a flyer pasted on
the door catches my attention. I stop to read it and find that after 9PM, everything
in the store is available at 50% of normal price, which is not a bad deal at all.

I look at my watch & it is 8:45PM, just 15 minutes shy of 9. I walk back to Naidu Hall,
finish my work there and by the time I am back at French Loaf, it is 5 minutes past 9.
They do have a nice range of pastries, but somehow I still think CakeWalk is better. I
buy an assorted set of pastries and also pick up a loaf of bread for breakfast next day
and walk out with a 50% discount on the bill.

Not a bad deal for delaying my purchase by 15 minutes.

P.S. : After tasting the pastries, my verdict is that CakeWalk is still better. But, if you
stay near a French Loaf outlet, do walk in during their Happy Hours for your purchase.
At a 50% discount, it is not a bad deal.

The best time to hit the river. To have the place all to yourself.

Last Sunday, we finally zeroed in on the best time to hit the river for a splash. We had
tried various times of the day & invariably at all times there would be a group of women
there for a bath or for washing clothes or to give their kids a bath. Apart from privacy
issues [for them, not for me or my son - we are not bothered by anyone ogling us :-)],
another factor was the bathing area being over-crowded.

On Saturday, due to some reason, we reached the place around 1PM and were there till
1:30PM, splashing around in the water. At that time, most people are having their lunch,
which would explain why there was not a soul around. We make a note to come to the
river at this time of the day from now on. We park the bike close to the water.


The bridge across the river helps shield us from the overhead sun, but at the same time
it keeps the water cold, which can be a bit of a problem, especially for my son, who says
the water is "Choodu", which is Malluspeak for hot. He hasn't yet learnt the word for cold
and so both cold & hot is choodu for him.


Aman is raring to enter the water and walks on ahead with his inflatable tube in hand.

Apart from the inflatable tube around his waist, we also have a couple of inflatable arm-
bands, which add to help him stay afloat. Since it is tough to explain these bands, I guess
it's better to post a pic of the thing - a picture is worth a 1000 words, right ?


As he splashes around in the water, he occasionally calls out to his Mom asking her
to at his antics - "Amma, nokku", which translates to "Mom, look here". My wife
has always wanted to get into the river with us, but has been afraid since she doesn't
know swimming. Plus she feels a little self-conscious due to the crowd around.

But today there is no one there and I ask her if she would like to join us in the water.
I can see that she wants to, but says, "I dont have dry clothes to change into. What if
someone comes?" etc etc.

I tell her that clothes aren't really an issue, because she can wade into the water in the
salwar-kameez that she is wearing (sans the dupatta) and when we ride back home, she
can cover herself with the dupatta. Since we are on the bike, no one would notice her wet
clothes anyway. And since there is no one around, she needn't be self-conscious.

She sees my logic and slowly walks in till the water is at her waist. Aman keeps calling
out to her, but she is afraid to come any further. I tell her that it is not as bad as she
thinks and she can come further. Since she is not convinced, I give her my hand and
slowly she walks in further till the water is at her neck.

Though she is happy that she could finally make it, there still is the fear due to not
knowing swimming. Being her first time, I don't want to push her any further and
the three of us spend time splashing in the water. Aman has learnt how to splash
water around by hitting the surface with his hands & is eagerly drenching both of us.

After a nice 15 minutes in the water, we are tired and hungry too and decide to get
back home for lunch. As I had said, she sat pillion and covered her with the dupatta
and I guess it would have been tough to notice that her clothes are wet. I was glad
that not only did we come across the best time to hit the river, but that my wife
could finally indulge in something she wanted to do for a long time.

The Malayali's penchant for whacky names.

It is a known fact that Malayalis come up with the craziest names possible for their kids, something well attested by email-jokes floating around on this subject. And after having
come across Tina, Tiny, Gifty, Gift (as in Jassie Gift - a Malayalam music director), Mini,
Riju, Sinu, Sini, Sanu, Shine, Shiney etc, I thought I had come across the whackiest possible.

But No, we have the penchant for coming up with even more whackier names, as I learnt
when we had some guests over for lunch last Saturday. My sister's colleague had dropped
in at our place with her husband and two cute girls aged 7 and 3 years.

As I was introduced to them, I could not hide my amazement at the fact that they had
named the elder daughter as "Alpha". Well, while both the parents are teachers, I am sure
they don't teach Greek - so not sure why the affinity for the Greek alphabet ?

While the name can be construed as logical since it is their first kid and Alpha is the first
letter of the Greek Alphabet, how practical is it to name your kids as Alpha, Beta, Gamma
and so on ? I expected the second kid to be named 'Beta', but thank God that was not the
case. Well, it's their kid and their choice, but I fervently hope that the kid is not subjected
to teasing at school on the basis of her 'different' name.

Closer home, my name itself is quite whacky. I mean, for the hell of me, I have not been
able to figure out what my name 'Biju' means. And this inspite of googling a lot. It is some
consolation though that Wikipedia has a page on 'Biju'. The closest I have come across a
meaning for my name was when I was in Belgium a decade ago, and a Belgian colleague mentioned that "Bizou" in French means "jewel" or something similar. But then there is
a sea of a difference between Biju and Bizou.

I am glad we (actually it was my wife's choice) named my kid with something that has
meaning. His first name 'Aman' means "Peace" and while we hope he grows up at peace
with himself and with those around him, current indications of his behaviour is anything
but the opposite. :-) And his second name "Mathew" means "Gift of God" in the Hebrew
language, which ofcourse he is to us.

Actually, other Indian communities are catching up fast. :-) I know someone who named
his first-born son as "Pratham" which is Sanskrit for "First" - sort of like how "Alpha" is
in Greek. But I am glad he did not name his second kid as "Dwithiya", which in Sanskrit
means "Second". Phew !!!

And there was this Telugu friend of mine, whose Dad was a History teacher and due to
his passion for Indian history, named his 3 kids after prominent figures from ancient
Indian history. My friend himself was named Vikramaditya (after a king from the past),
though we just called him Vikram. His sister was named Sanghamitra, which was the
name of Emperor Ashoka's sister - I loved the name and had that name in my list if we
were to have a baby girl.

While these 2 names were pretty much OK, where the father went overboard was in
naming his eldest son as "Maharaj Ashok". Ashok is a common Indian name, but on
adding Maharaj (meaning Emperor), it became kind of whacky.

It was quite clear that the Marxists have lost it. Now a comrade comfirms it with his idiocy.

To a layman with even very minimal political expertise, the list of follies committed by
the Marxists (CPI-M) in the recent past would be crystal clear. Mr. Karat sets the ball
rolling by killing the golden goose that let him wield power without any accompanying
responsibility by overplaying his cards and withdrawing support to the UPA government
at the Centre on the US-Nuclear deal issue.

Not to be left behind, comrade Vijayan replicates it at the State level by arm-twisting
their allies and allying with a communal element like Abdul Nasser Maudani, leading
to the party's rout in the recent Lok Sabha elections. His spat with VS also helped.

Ofcourse I have no problem with them shooting themselves in the leg. But I do have
a problem when they debase the name of an Indian freedom fighter by equating him
with one of their corrupt leaders.

Some guy called Suneet Chopra (never heard of him till yesterday) who happens to
be a CPI-M Central Committee member, has proven that not only is he not tuned to
public opinion, but is also pretty bad at basic Indian History.

This comrade made it amply clear that he was nowhere near his school premises when
history class was on, when he chose to equate Vijayan with Bhagat Singh, comparing the
Lavalin case with Singh’s throwing a bomb in the Central Assembly against the Defence
of India Act enacted by the British.

Nice, really nice. In a way, he has a point - both of them share the fact that they fought
for something. While Shaheed Bhagat Singh was a freedom fighter who laid down his life
fighting British rule in India, Comrade Vijayan is fighting a case of corruption against him wherein he has been charged with taking a bribe.

Ofcourse only a Marxist would be able to see a similarity here between someone who
fought for his ideals and another who lacked any.

When pointed out that unlike Vijayan, Singh was not charged for corruption, Chopra
still held his (shaky) ground, claiming a grand conspiracy against the Communists.
Conspiracy, eh ? Does anyone need to take the trouble to conspire against the Marxists
when their own Karat & Co. are already doing a pretty great job of leading the party to
extinction with their suicidal political manouvres.

Looks like idiocy has no limits in the Indian political scene.

How time flies ? Already a year since our 1-day vacation on water.

I remembered that this week, it is going to be 1 year since we did the houseboat trip in the
Alappuzha backwaters. It was so much fun and a good break from the daily routine of life.

Even though I have posted various posts about this trip on my blog, the one place where
it is all there in totality is in the 'Travelogues' section of my car-forum. Was going through
my travelogue on the forum and felt nice to relive the experience. Especially great for the
eyes is the awesome landscape (or should I call it waterscape) of Alappuzha.

So, if any of you have some time to spare, the following link to my travelogue would be the
place to visit to get a full picture of what the house-boat experience is like.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/49311-24-hour-cruise-alappuzha-backwaters.html

Happy reading/viewing.

When even your wife opposes your decision, it's time to ponder.

It is finally curtains (atleast temporarily) on one of the longest running intra-party feuds
in Kerala. For the past many months, the only news that made the front-page headlines
of most Malayalam newspapers was the rivalry between the Chief Minister (CM) of Kerala, Mr.V.S. Achuthanandan, known popularly as VS, and the Secretary of Kerala state CPI(M), Pinarayi Vijayan (PV).

Inspite of belonging to the same party - the Communist Party of India (Marxist) - they
have been rivals for many years now. At one time, PV was even an ardent follower of VS,
but then chose to make his own path, which led to crossing paths with VS. While both of
them are members of the somewhat exclusive party Central Committee (CC) and also
part of the even more exclusive Politburo (PB) which has only 15 members India-wide,
they are a study in contrast.

VS is the elder of the two & is known as a man with a clean record. Ofcourse, he is known
to make the occasional gaffe when he shoves both his feet deep in his mouth, but general
public opinion of him is good. Keralites know that he is not corrupt & I subscribe to that.

On the other hand, PV has a totally negative image. No one doubts his corrupt credentials,
which have been reinforced by the C.B.I. enquiry into the SNC-Lavalin case where he is
one of the accused and is facing prosecution for having taken a bribe from the Canadian
company SNC-Lavalin. Like any other Keralite, I am sure that he would have taken money
and that the case against him is justified.

With both these top honchos of the ruling party taking pot-shots at each other daily, what suffered was governance in the state. People were losing patience with the government &
the CPI(M) and finally they got a chance to get back at the party when the Lok Sabha
elections came around few months ago. The CPI(M) was routed out and could just manage
4 seats out of the total 20 seats in Kerala.

The Central leadership under CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat tried hard to bring
about a compromise between the 2, but failed because both stuck to their positions. At one
point, losing patience with the antics of the two, the leadership suspended both of them for
a limited period. Though that did not do much to stop their fight.

Finally, the central leadership decided that they will put this issue of infighting before the
CC and then the PB would recommend a course of action. The CC meeting was scheduled
in 2 sessions for last Saturday and Sunday, to be followed by the PB meeting where the
final decision on their fate would be taken.

Like any other Keralite, my Dad and BIL were glued to the TV from Saturday morning,
with me occasionally getting updates from them. The CC has around 75 members who recommended action against both leaders for their constant bickering and infighting,
which was damaging the image of the party. Sounded fair to me. The final decision was
left to the PB meeting next day.

Meanwhile all the Malayalam TV channels had only this issue being covered. Apart from
interviewing various leaders for their comments, they also took to the streets to know the opinion of the common man, whose opinion was clear and unanimous - "We stand by VS.
We already expressed our displeasure against his being marginalised by voting against the
party in the LS elections. If the party again takes action against VS and lets the corrupt &
tainted PV go scot-free, we will ensure a full rout of the party in the next state elections".
I was mighty impressed.

Anyone with even an iota of gray matter in his skull would know how the wind is blowing
and understand that with such an informed electorate, it is better to tread cautiously. But
given Mr.Karat's past performance where he not only bungled up the chances of the Left
parties by first pulling out of the Congress-led UPA on the Nuclear deal with the US and
then how he let PV screw the party's chances in the election by letting him bully all their
allies in the state leading to widespread resentment against the attitude of the CPI(M), it
was too much to expect.

So, on Sunday when the PB met, the 13-member PB (excluding VS and PV) were divided
10-3, with Karat & 2 Kerala leaders on one side, with the majority on the other side. The majority were against action being taken only against VS and felt that the fair thing to do
would be to penalise both. Significant to note here that Brinda Karat, w/o Prakash Karat
was in the group of 10, implying she did not see much sense in her husband's opinion.

However, like in the past, Prakash Karat bulldozes popular opinion (of both the PB and
the general public) and suggests disciplinary action against VS - removing him from the
PB, while letting PV go scot-free. While the decision itself sounded unfair and atrocious,
there was nothing surprising in the outcome, given his past decisions that have led the
party to new lows.

Common public feeling in Kerala is that PV took crores of money as bribe from Lavalin,
part of which he would have shared with other leaders and some of it also going to the
party-kitty, which would explain why almost all leaders are supporting him inspite of it appearing pretty clear that there is enough evidence of his guilt.

So, by evening, the news comes out of VS being demoted by having him removed from
the PB. They would have liked to oust him from the CM's chair too, but know that public
opinion is too much in favour of VS and that move could prove bad for them. So, the idea
is that demotion from the PB will maybe make VS resign from the CM's chair by himself,
making their job easy.

But, I am sure the wily VS has a few tricks up his sleeve, as he would have expected this
verdict from the PV-Karat group. I don't know what decision he takes, but like others in
Kerala, I hope he does not resign as CM, but continues to stay in the post. I do not want
the corrupt PV and the feather-brained Karat to have the last laugh.

Karat, PV & gang might be feeling victorious, but the game is not over yet and the next
time elections come around, they will get to hear from the people. I have at times voted
for the Communists, but not any more. Maybe Karat does not watch TV and thus has no
idea of how the people feel about the whole thing, but he should have had some inkling of
how wrong his decision is going to be, when he sees 10 of his colleagues voting against his decision.

And even if he ignores his colleagues, when his own wife sees his decision as wrong, maybe
he should have stopped to ponder. But since he did not, he will learn it the hard way - the
electorate willl teach him.

How the obvious is overlooked when our mind is stressed.

As I drive into the parking lot of Mavelikara station last Sunday evening, I can faintly hear
a train arrival being announced. My wife lowers the car windows so that it's more audible
and yes, it's the arrival of my train to Chennai that's being announced.

Since we are there 10 minutes before the scheduled arrival of the train, I know that it must
be the first announcement which means that the train must have just reached the previous station. There will be a second & final announcement just minutes before the train chugs into
my station.

Anyway, I say my goodbyes, kiss my son and watch them drive away. Since my ticket was Waitlisted (WL) when I booked it, I walk to the station notice-board to check the current
status & my coach number. While my name is there on the chart, there is no indication of
my current booking status or the coach number.

I am slightly tensed now. I hate travelling in uncertainty which is what it is if your ticket
is RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation) or worse WL. When I last checked on Friday,
it had progressed to RAC34, which means I have sitting accomodation guaranteed. And
if someone cancels their ticket, I would even get a berth to have a nice night's sleep.

My mind races on how I can get to know my latest status and coach number. My people
would not have reached home yet and thus not possible for me to ask them to check on
the internet. Two of my close friends/colleagues are on vacation in North India and thus
they can't help. I think of another friend who is in Chennai, but don't want to disturb him
on a Sunday evening.

Anyway, I decided to accost the TTE and get into the coach that stops near where I am
standing. Luckily the TTE is there in that coach and he tells me that my status is still RAC
and my seat is 39 in coach S6. That problem solved, I move to my seat in the next coach.

The train leaves after a 1-minute halt at my station, but takes a long unscheduled halt at
the next station - no announcements nothing, so no idea why it was held up there for close
to 1 hour. Anyway, I use the time to call my wife and tell her about how I got tensed about
not knowing my ticket status and could not think of anyone who could look it up for me on
the net.

She stops short of calling me "dumbo", but says, "When you have GPRS enabled on your
mobile and can surf the net from it, why do you need someone else to look it up for you?"
I am like, "How could I forget this ?"

I had GPRS enabled on my mobile some weeks ago & have been actively surfing the net
and checking my mails from my mobile. But when it came to a crunch situation, my mind
just did not come up with the most obvious solution. No wonder it is said that when faced
with a problem, the first thing to do is to take a deep breath & be calm, instead of panicking.

P.S. : I thought I would have to sit through the night, but thanks to God, around midnight,
the TTE came over and alloted me a berth. So could get a nice night's sleep.

School-post #3 : Friends (and crushes) at school and in the neighborhood.

I am pretty sure there must have been other kids from my neighborhood who studied at St.Xavier's, but I somehow can't recollect anyone. As far as my memory goes, I remember
only me getting off at the St.Xavier's bus-stop and roaming around the place till other kids
came in.

As far as friends at school go, I can recollect only two kids. I remember a classmate named Jeremy D'mello being my friend at school, though I have no recollection of his face. This is
kinda strange because I usually forget names, but remember faces. I remember a canteen
at the school where me and Jeremy would buy mango-bar ice-creams - loved them then
and still love them today.

I also remember another friend, though what I remember of him is neither his name nor
his face, but the kind of lunch he used to bring to school. A Muslim kid, he brought all sorts
of exotic stuff for lunch. I vividly remember him one day bringing baked beef tongue and
also remember tasting a bit of it, which in my recollection tasted good - sort of like burger
patty.

Yeah, I know, to some of you (even meat-eaters, not to mention vegetarians), this might
sound gross, but at that age, all I felt was curiousity. Today, I won't eat some animal's
tongue even if I am paid for it. :-)

I do remember another Malayali kid & his sister (kids of my Dad's friend) who used to
commute with us in the bus, but to some other school. Don't remember the boy's name,
but the girl was named Suji. Wonder where they are today.

I was too young to have a crush, but there was this girl called Sangeetha who stayed in the neighborhood, whom I really adored. You know what, I remember her last name too, but
don't remember even the first name of her younger sister who was actually my age and a
friend. Strange...

Sangeetha was around 10 years older than me and way out of my league - I would have
been just a kiddo as far as she was concerned. But the way she looked was so awesome
that you could not help admiring her. I don't think I have come across any other North
Indian girl who was so beautiful as her. Even to this day, she would remain to me the
epitome of beauty, when it comes to North Indian women.

I don't remember which school she went to, but she also used to come in our bus. And I remember how on one of my Birthdays, she came over to where I was sitting in the bus
to wish me. She offered her left hand while wishing me a Happy Birthday & I responded
with my left hand on seeing which she said, "Hey, you should shake hands with your
right hand. But then no wonder, since you are an April fool" & smiled her cute smile to
indicate that she was pulling a fast one on me due to my birthay falling on All Fools Day.

It's strange how I have trouble recollecting the names or faces of my guy friends in school,
but even to this date can remember each and every crush I had through school, be it my classmates or seniors or teachers.

School-posts to continue ...

School-post #2 : Getting in was easy. The tough part was getting there.

While the test-cum-interview was a breeze, the actual pain was getting to school daily. St.Xavier's school was at Navrangpura, which was quite far from Sabarmati, where we
stayed. Mt.Carmel was also far from our home and thus the task of getting me and my
sister ready for school was all the more difficult since there were no school-buses plying
to our locality.

Since there were also other kids in the township who studied in these schools & other
such schools far from home, we had a staff-bus of my Dad's organisation that did service
as a school-bus once in the morning and once in the evening to drop and pick us up. But
since the bus was needed to serve its primary purpose of dropping employees at work,
the only time they could make out for us was early in the morning.

I still shudder thinking how early that used to be. Our school days started around 4AM.
Yes, that early. Imagine trying to wake up a kid at 4AM in the morning and getting him
ready for school. Especially in a place where winters can be really cold, making it all the
more difficult to leave the comfort of your bed.

I hazily remember being awake at that time and a toothbrush with paste smeared on it
being handed over to me. While my parents would leave me to brush my teeth and go
attend to other tasks like getting our breakfast and lunch packed, I would promptly go
back to sleep just sitting there with the brush in my hand or mouth. :-)

Somehow, our parents would coax us through our bath-toilet routine & around 4:30AM
or so we would be at the gate awaiting the bus. It would still be dark outside and once in
the bus, we would promptly go back to sleep, only to be awakened by the driver when
the bus reaches our school.

Since I was too young then, my memory is not that good, but I guess we would be at the
school around 5:30AM. School started only at 8AM or so and we had loads of time on our
hands, which would be spent roaming around the massive campus, which Wikipedia tells
me is spread over 4 acres of land. When I see schools in Chennai that run out of just a few
buildings, I still marvel at the huge campus of my alma mater.

There would be dew all over the place & I remember walking around the playgrounds.
I remember a bright shiny red bug which used to smell funny and which we would go
after. One favourite place was the swimming pool which had a giant turtle in it. There
was also a kind of mini-museum with stuffed crocodiles / tigers, and other museum-y
stuff in it, including a statue of the Rajput king Rana Prathap in full body-armour.

But what made my school stand out from any other school (atleast to my knowledge)
in India, was the mini-zoo in its campus. There was a big fenced enclosure which had
giraffes, rabbits etc in it. Ofcourse, the rabbits would burrow their way out and roam
around the place.

And as if this was not enough, there were various fauna in enclosures adjoining our
classrooms. I remember studying in a classroom that had peacocks in an adjoining
enclosure. We used to try retrieving any colorful feathers that were within hand's
reach of the cage. Another classroom had monkeys in an enclosure adjacent to them.
There were other such enclosures with other animals in them, though I can't recollect
what they were - can remember only the monkeys and peacocks.

I know that to most of you this idea of a school-cum-zoo must either sound funny or
interesting. Some of you might even be thinking that I am making this all up & I won't
blame you for that because I am yet to come across another school that has giraffes,
rabbits, tortoises, monkeys and peacocks on campus. But that was how it was, though
I am not sure if they still have animals/birds on campus. The Wiki link does not mention anything about this.

Yesterday I was talking to my wife and was wondering whether they still have these
animals at school. She was sure that they would not be having them now. I am surprised
how she can be so sure and her reply is, "They must all have passed out by now." :-)

BTW, the famous billiards champ Geet Sethi studied at my school. And so did the founder
of Syntel, Bharat Desai.

To be continued in sub-posts .....

A series of posts on my favourite school. A school without parallel.

A friend had enrolled her 5-year old son for 1-hour long tennis classes starting at 6AM,
upon return from which the kid has to rush to school that starts at 8AM. As she talked
about the extra addition to her already packed morning schedule (she has a day job too),
my memories went back to the time when I myself was a 6-year old kid and the kind of
pains my parents had to take so that we could be in school on time (to be detailed in a
separate post).

Parenting has been tough then and it still is tough today. I await my turn in an year or
so with trepidation.

I have always wanted to write a post about my school and this was such a perfect excuse.
Since our memories fade with time, it is better to have it all down in one place, not just for revisiting in the future when nostalgia strikes, but as a read for my son & my nieces. But
since this is going to be a really long post, I will break it into sub-posts, each of which will (hopefully) focus on a particular aspect.

School-post #1 - How it all started :
I started my schooling in 1st standard at the age of 5. Unlike the norm today, where kids
do a pre-KG, LKG & UKG and only then go to 1st standard, for reasons best known to my parents, I straightaway joined the 1st Standard at St.Peter's School, Ahmedabad, which
was located not very far from our home.

When the results came out, I stood first in my class in the 1st Standard & I still remember
the "Doctor's set" that I got as prize from the school for that achievement. Till class Xth, I
did harbour dreams of becoming a doctor, but somehow when it came to choosing a stream
of education on joining 11th standard, I opted for subjects that would lead to an Engineering career.

I don't remember clearly why, but I think my Dad felt that given my academic results, I
should be studying in a better institution and that is how me and my Dad landed at the
office of the Principal of St.Xavier's (Loyola Hall) for a test-cum-interview, which would determine whether I am good enough to join that premier institution.

Unlike today, when most schools are bothered only about the dough that parents can
cough up as 'donation' and which determines whether the kid gets admission or not,
St.Xavier's had a written test followed by informal interview which determined whether
a kid got selected or not. I guess my Dad would have been a little anxious about how I
would do, but he did not have to worry because I aced the test and I was selected to join
in 2nd Standard. I still have with me the result of that entrance test - a card indicating
my score in the Merit test.

That's how I joined St.Xavier's Loyola Hall, which in those times would have been one of
the premier schools in India. Infact, I think it would still rate among the best in India, in
facilities provided, campus, standard of education etc. My sister, younger to me by a year,
had then just joined the Mount Carmel school, a reputed all-girls convent school.

Ofcourse, when it came to academics, both my sisters started off as pretty mediocre
compared to me (like other siblings, they hated the constant comparison to the bright
brother) and I still can't figure out how she managed to clear the entrance test to gain
admission at Mount Carmel. :-) However, they did come into their elements while in
college and today while I am just an Engineer, they have amassed a whole bunch of
degrees - M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed., and one of them holds a Doctorate too.

I still remember the emblem of my school (pic below), which would be stiched on the
school uniform. And in my collection of possessions, I still have one of these emblems.

Ofcourse, I was too young to understand what most of the figures/letters of the emblem
stand for. Even today, till Wikipedia clarified it for me, the only part of the emblem that
I could make sense of, was the bees - which I know stand for hard work. The rest of the
emblem was thankfully explained to me by Wikipedia as below :

A Teneris Impende Laborem (school motto) : A Latin Phrase, which means "Apply yourself
to hardwork from an early age."

Three White Bees : Symbols of Continuous hard work and being busy always. The fruit of
such labour is sweet.

IHS written in the center of the Sun : I - Iesu (Jesus), H - Hominem (Mankind),
S - Salvatorous (Saviour) ie. Jesus, Saviour of Mankind. This is the symbol of the
Society of Jesus (Jesuits) established by St. Ignatius of Loyola

Moon : Another Symbol of the Society of Jesus

I remember collecting my set of school uniforms from the school with the emblem stitched
on the shirt-front and walking proudly to school. I spent the best 3 years of my schooling
in the hallowed portals of that institution and am thankful for the solid foundation that the
school and its teachers helped build, which has played a big role in shaping me.

To be continued as sub-posts ...

P.S. : Call it coincidence or whatever, this year (2009) marks the Platinum Jubilee (75th
year) of my school.

Novel stuff that invokes curiousity. Eco-friendly too. But is it effective ?

I was at the Nalli's store in T.Nagar with my parents when they were here a few weeks
ago. Like on all their visits to Chennai, they do not miss out on some shopping -mostly
sarees, and this time was no exception.

While my Mom takes her own sweet time selecting a few sarees, me and my Dad are
bored out of our wits. Finally she is done & we move to the cash counter. The bill paid,
I move to the collection counter where they bag the purchases and hand them over
against production of the paid receipt.

I am waiting impatiently to collect our purchases and be gone when I notice a young
kid staring intently at an equipment on the counter. I look at it and find it interesting
enough to take a snap of it.


It is a tape-dispenser from some forgotten era, just that it doesn't dispense cellophane
tape like modern tape-dispensers. Instead it dispenses paper tape that has some kind
of gluey material on one side, which can be activated by applying water to it. So, the
packers cut out strips of the tape & then roll it over the roller (seen at the right-most
end of the equipment) to make it moist and then seal paper covers using this tape.

Pretty cool. And eco-friendly too I guess, when compared to plastic tapes. And, it also
serves as an advertising tool too, since the tape has the store's name on it. But, I did
notice that this tape was not as effective as the plastic one, given the way the packing
guys were struggling to use it.

They would tear off a strip of tape, wet it on the roller and 'try'to seal the paper bag,
but it would come off. They would then wet it again and try once more. I saw them
trying 2-3 times before it would finally work, and even then, the sealing was not even
half as effective as plastic tape.

Still, the equipment did invoke the curiousity of one and all. More so, after they saw
me taking a snap of it. :-)

You discover new things every day.

Another Sunday at Kerala, but it has been raining like hell and I am wondering how I
would be able to keep my promise to my son to take him to see the temple elephant.
Luckily, rain subsides by around 4PM and the 3 of us ride down to the temple.

I don't know whether I mentioned it in any previous posts, but the temple elephant (Premshankar) has been in 'musth' for a long time - close to 2 months. We did find
its activities strange - not standing still, swaying here and there, a little aggression
etc, but did not know that all was not well with it, till a temple employee cautioned
us from going too near the elephant.

So, me and my wife sit away from it on the stone walkway and while we talk, our
son is having fun running around on the sandy courtyard, playing with sand etc.
After sometime, he is bored and wants to walk around the temple. We walk around
on the stone walkway and take in sights which we missed earlier.

We never noticed this small idol of Krishna under a tree, playing the flute, inspite of
doing the rounds a few times. Maybe the tree hid him from us. I take a couple of snaps
and we walk on.


A close-up of the Kaarvarnan (the dark-one as Krishna is referred to).


As we walk a full circle, we come to the main entrance of the temple, where we come
across an intricately designed multi-tiered lamp (vilakku) having provision to light
numerous wicks. Also, alongside we see the thulabharam (weighing scale) which is
used by devotees to make offerings to the deity.


The devotees sit on one of the scales, while they are weighed against the offering of
their choice - bananas, jaggery, etc and the offering equalling their weight is offered
to the temple. Recently actress Nayantara had come down to the Chettikulangara
temple near my place and had a thulabharam done as an offering.

This gives me an excuse to post a snap of Nayanthara. :-)


We notice that most of the temple premises is in a sad state of disrepair & seems to
be in dire need of maintenance. There are weeds growing high near the wall which
need to be cleared. Not just for cleanliness, but also for safety reasons because you
never know what reptile is hiding there. Especially because they have these small
platforms with idols at various places & I see people going to pray at each one of them.

Also the platforms around the base of trees are crumbling. It won't cost much to have
a mason repair them and spruce them up. Will make them presentable and improve
the looks and ambience of the whole premises.

Ofcourse, instead of spending time/money/effort on maintaining their neighborhood
temple, our guys are more worried about some old/historical temple in some distant
part of India, for which they are ready to kill/die based on the exhortations of some
wily politician, who is only bothered about coming to power.

When will we ever learn ?

You gotta hand it to the Japanese.

When faced with a constraint, while the rest of the world tries to work around it, the
Japanese go for the jugular and find a solution for the problem. So, while the rest of
the world were content with watermelons in the way nature had designed it, these
guys found that the round shape was a problem when it came to stacking the fruit.

So, what did they do about it ? They engineered water-melons that are boxy in shape
and thus easy to stack. See picture below from the Deccan Chronicle of watermelons
that are boxy in shape.

That's ingenuity at work.

The Ferrari replica series at Shell gas-stations.

For those not in the know, the convenience stores at Shell gas-stations are selling a 6-car
range of miniature Ferrari replicas for 100 bucks a car. The following snap shows the 6
models on sale.



Pic courtesy : http://lewis1882.wordpress.com/2007/08/11/shell-ferrari-cars

These are Chinese-make and not very well-built, but not a bad deal for 100 bucks.
I bought one a few weeks ago and found it to be good enough for the price. And since
my son loved it and "Ferrari" also became a part of his vocabulary, I went yesterday
and bought the remaining 5 cars to make a complete set.

I can see the joy on my son's face when I will be giving him these cars tomorrow.
Hopefully it will make up for my missing last weekend with him. He was expecting that
I would be there on Saturday as usual and was a bit miffed when I could not make it.

Makes a nice buy if you have a kid like mine that's crazy about cars.

P.S.-1 : For first-timers to Shell outlets, the service experience can be a pleasant surprise
like I myself experienced. The staff greet you with a "Vanakkam", which is a Tamil greeting
and are extremely courteous and helpful.

P.S.-2 : If my friends who swear by the petrol/diesel from Shell outlets are to be believed,
it is worth paying a buck or two more per petrol/diesel here, since your car not only returns more mileage due to the fuel being pure and the quantity delivered being accurate, it keeps
the engine clean and healthy too.

Rooftop greenery in Chennai.

I was walking down Greames Road last weekend when I came across the MRF building.
For long, this building has been a curiosity for passers-by due to its roof top garden. Since
it was a long time since I had come this way, I looked up to see how the garden is and I see
palm trees soaring high into the sky.






It was an innovative concept when they did this many years ago. And even today it is a
pleasure for the eyes.

Travails of the Indian road-user.

Unlike road-users in other parts of the world, we in India have so much more to look out
for. Apart from stuff that we have become used to over years of government apathy, like potholes, bad roads, bad patch-up works, open manholes etc, we have to be also careful
about big ditches bang in the centre of the road.

Like the one below at Bajanai Koil street in Choolaimedu, which the Innova guy seems to
have missed, resulting in one of the wheels falling into it.

Took a few hours of effort to haul the van out. But a car can be repaired. Imagine what

would have happened if a guy on a bike falls into the ditch ?

In any other country, there would be a proper cordon around the ditch, with bright tape

to warn road-users. But then this is India.

Why does tea/coffee on trains taste yucky ?

Inspite of travelling weekly on trains, I avoid the tea/coffee sold aboard the train because
it has absolutely no resemblance in taste to what I know as tea or coffee. So, on my way to Kerala, I get tea from a restaurant on Kottayam station where the train stops for 5 minutes.
And on my way back to Chennai, I have tea at the Rathna Cafe restaurant (a little too thick
for my taste, but still OK) in Chennai Central station.

The weekend before last, I was on the train to Kerala, which was approaching Kottayam
station and I was near the door of the compartment planning to detrain and get myself a
cup of tea. A Railway policeman walks past me immediately followed by a vendor selling tea/coffee.

They stop at the vestibule area which connects 2 compartments and discuss something.
The vendor complains about how dull business is and how he is finding it tough to make
ends meet. The cop dismisses this line and replies that he believes business is good.

I know by now what the whole drama is about. The vendor must be unlicensed & the cop
is taking advantage of this by demanding a hefty bribe. The vendor is trying to negotiate
on the amount by saying that business is dull, while the cop rebuts that argument so that
his cut is not reduced.

As I stand there, the vendor takes some money and hands it over to the cop, who pockets
it without even worrying about the fact that I am a witness to his taking a bribe. Then the
cop moves on to the next compartment, while the vendor returns back, maybe mentally
cursing the cop for taking a share of his hard-earned money.

Since these vendors have to line the pockets of the cops, they would need to account for
this revenue loss somewhere or the other and what better way than to shortchange their customers, by serving watered down tea / coffee. No wonder the tea/coffee tastes so bad.