Make your own road - the Jeep & Gypsy way.

As I guessed (so rightly), Chennai was back to its normal hot weather on Saturday. There
was no sign at all of the rains and good weather that we had had for the preceding 3 days.

But that did not deter us (a group of 30 guys) from doing the long-planned road trip. We met
at 12PM (hot, hot sun) and then drove down on the East Coast Road (known better as ECR - runs along the sea) to a secluded beach which the off-roading gurus deemed as a good place
for off-roading.

As the 10-odd cars turned spectators to a sport that they cannot even think of doing in their wildest dreams, the 2 Suzuki Gypsys (known as the Suzuki Samurai in other parts of the world) and the 2 4WD Jeeps took over, mesmerising the audience, most of whom were seeing offroading for the first time.

There was nothing that deterred these beasts - they ran over shrubs, jumped into pits which were like 3 feet or more deep (and came out easily), drew circles on the beach sand and even climbed wild inclines. In short, They made their own road. See pics below.

1. The beasts set off for some fun on the beach.


2) The Gypsy did get stuck once when it bit a little more than it could chew - see below. But
then the Jeep came to the rescue with its winch and steel cable.


3) The Gypsy is not deterred by a failure and tries again. But does not succeed.


4) The Jeep does make it (on the 3rd attempt though). But then it has AWD.


5) I have loved the Gypsy from childhood and after this, I am smitten. Check out this pic.
Looking as if it is coming up from the sea. A la Halle Berry in that Bond movie. :-)


6) The other Jeep - I liked the open looks of this one.


7) The cars at the restaurant parking.


8) Some wild shrub with flowers, on the beach.

9) The Jeep making its own road.

By the time we were done with this and reached Mahabalipuram for lunch, it was like 4PM. Everyone was hungry and thirsty and tired - more so because all the action was under the

hot sun. But all was forgotten as soon as the Kingfisher beer bottles came out. :-)

As the tagline for the beer goes, "The king of good times".

P.S.: If you happen to find yourselves at Mahabs, the Moonrakers restaurant is a good place

to go to, if you like seafood (nice calamari) and beef. And ofcourse, nice chilled Kingfisher to

wash it all down with.

The weather God is being kind on Chennai.

It is mid-March and at this time of the year in Chennai, the sun should be giving a preview of how the summer is going to be this year. Well, no suspense in how the summer is going to be.
It will be same as last year and the year before and so on - BLAZING HOT.

But wait a minute. That is not how the weather has been for the past 2-3 days. It has been generally cloudy, not much sun and surprise of surprises, we have had rains (brief though)
in March.

I don't know how much this has to do with Global Warming, but I am noticing a welcome
change in the Chennai weather pattern. Years ago, rains were something that you got during
the months of Aug-Sep only. But over the past couple of years, we are getting occasional
showers all round the year.

Mind you, these showers cannot be called real rain (rain as in what we get in Kerala), where
it rains not cats and dogs, but pigs and sheep. The duration is also different. In Chennai, the
rains come in suddenly, catching everyone by surprise and ofcourse drenching them and after
a few minutes, the sun is shining bright, as if nothing happened.

In Kerala, you get warnings, in the form of the sky slowly darkening and when it rains, man,
it will rain for quite some time. During monsoon, it will rain for days. And this is almost all year round, except for a couple of months when there would be no rains at all.

I am loving the weather and all I hope is it remains like this tomorrow also. Actually it would
be great if it rains like hell tomorrow because me and a group of friends are driving down to Mahabalipuram (50-odd kms from Chennai) for a lunch + some go-karting and then some
off-roading on the beach sands.

There are not many things that can rival the pleasure of driving a car in the rains on the highway. But, knowing Chennai, I won't be surprised if it is back to hot weather tomorrow.

And you thought this happened only in India ...

Take a hard look at any political party in India and you can see the leaders grooming their kids
to take their place. And for those that don't have any kids, there are always some relative or
the other to be propped up in positions of power.

You don't have to be a genius to figure out how it has worked in the Congress party, which has practically been a family fiefdom to be passed on from one generation to another. Starting with Jawaharlal Nehru to daughter Indira Gandhi to her son Rajiv Gandhi to his wife Sonia Gandhi. Ofcourse, they only had control of the party all these years, while actual power did slip to other parties during many terms when the Congress lost elections.

And ofcourse her son Rahul is already being groomed for the top job, and daughter Priyanka is waiting in the wings. Rahul is not married yet, but Priyanka has a couple of kids. So the next generation is already ready.

Add to this list the other heirs in the Congress party viz. the Pilots, the Deoras, the Prasadas etc etc

Coming to other parties, take the DMK down south in Tamilnadu (TN), where Papa MK has son Stalin almost annointed as Chief Minister and daughter Kanimozhi as his representative in New Delhi. And ofcourse elder son Azhagiri is the chieftan in the southern districts of Tamilnadu.

The PMK, which is another party in TN has a heir ready in the form of Anbumani Ramadoss,
son of the party chief Ramadoss. The AIADMK is kind of different as the head honcho Jayalalitha has no heirs, having never married (though marriage is not required to have progeny). And it would be interesting to see the succession battle after she is gone. But then she is not that old and so there is quite some time before we reach that stage.

Kerala is no different. We have the wily Karunakaran trying to make his son and daughter biggies in the state politics, though as of date, he has not seen any success. Same with Karnataka (the Gowdas), Andhra (Reddy's), Uttar Pradesh (the Yadavs), Bihar (again the Yadavs and here the chief has 10 kids - so a full cabinet is available readymade), Punjab (the Badals) etc etc.

The right-wing parties are no different as seen from Uddhav taking over the Shiv Sena from Daddy Thackeray, leaving cousin Raj in the cold. Ofcourse Raj promptly floated a new party,
which will also go to his heirs.

The only ones that seem different are the Communists. Atleast I cannot recall any progeny trying to follow their communist parent's footsteps. But I might be wrong also.

Is it because they want to serve us, the people ? You must be kidding. Not really. Having experienced the fruits of political power and wealth, they want to make sure that their progeny also enjoys it, and thus remain above the hoi polloi.

All this time, I was thinking that this is a pure India-specific (or even Asia-specific, if you include the Bhuttos and the ladies in Bangladesh) thing. Looks like I am wrong, as this article by Nicholas D Kristof in the Asahi Tribune newspaper (also available on his blog at www.nytimes.com/ontheground) indicates.

As he observed correctly, since 1989 (ie. for the last 20 years), the US has had Presidents only from 2 families (Bush and Clinton). If Hilary becomes President, and also manages a second term (which should not be tough because if someone like Dubya can get a 2nd term, any duffer can), that would make it 28 years of American presidency from just 2 families.

Like him, I also doubt whether there is any democracy in the world, which has had the top post held by members of 2 families for such a long period of time.

This is not all. Check out http://bushclintonforever.googlepages.com/ where they already have the successors listed down far into the future. LOL.

2009 - 2017 : Hilary Clinton
2017 - 2025 : Jeb Bush
2025 - 2033 : Chelsea Clinton
2033 - 2041 : George P Bush (Jeb's son)
2041 - 2049 : Chelsea's husband OR an adopted son/daughter of Clintons
2049 - 2057 : Jenna Bush

Ofcourse, if Obama lands the Democratic nomination, then the calculations go for a toss.

Intruding even into a dialogue with God.

Yesterday morning, I was at our parish Church at 9AM for the Sunday mass. Over the years, while still remaining a believer, I have sort of detached myself from the rituals, especially the
routine of attending mass every Sunday. Instead I prefer to drop in at times when the church
is empty (say late evenings) and spend a few minutes in conversation with the power above.

But, when I am at Kerala, I cannot skip Sunday mass, because my parents would like me to
make it. Also because, the church, after Sunday service, is the place to be present, to catch up
with friends, relatives etc.

And as is my usual practice, I prefer to stand outside the church building for the duration of
the mass, instead of being inside the church. There is a mango tree just in front of the church,
whose shade gives some respite from the sun, to those who prefer to stand outside.

The priest's sermon is over and the mass is almost halfway through and is at the main part of
any Catholic mass - the blessing of the body and blood of Jesus, which is a re-enactment of the
Last Supper. As the priest raises the bread (symbolic of the body of Jesus) and the goblet of
wine (symbolic of his blood), everyone bring their hands together in the universal gesture of
prayer and bow their heads. For women, it is required that they also have their head covered
with either the pallu of their saree or dupatta of their salwar-kameez or some cloth.

A little away from where we are standing, on the left side of the church (the church is laid out
in the shape of a cross) stand some women. Women usually stay inside the church during the
duration of the mass. But those with small babies step out when the kids start bawling. The
priest is blessing the bread and wine and I have my hands folded in prayer and my eyes closed.

A few seconds later, I open my eyes and I see a woman with her head veiled and hands folded.
Nothing unusual about this, except for the fact that she is facing away from the church, which
is strange. Whatever be your religion, if you are praying near a place of worship, you would be
facing the church/temple/mosque/gurudwara/pagoda, not away from it.

Since it is quite strange, I continue observing her. And it is only then I notice that her hands
are not exactly together - while one of them is near her chest, the other is against her cheek and partially covered by the dupatta of her salwar-kameez.

Ha, now I get it. She was not actually praying, but talking very discreetly on the mobile phone. Like it has taken over other public spaces, the dimunitive mobile phone has invaded places of worship also. Not even God or the time spent communing with him is immune to being taken over by it.

A tough (and strange) problem calls for tougher preventive measures.

This happened last Thursday evening. Around 5PM, my colleague comes and tells me that
his car is not starting and could I please have a look ? He had driven to work in the morning without any issues, but while leaving for home, the car won't start.

We go to the basement of the building, where the car is parked. Its just a 1-year old car and
except for one time when the battery got drained after the car was left overnight with lights
on, this was the first issue he has faced with the car. I crank the engine, but car does not start.

I can see from the way it cranks that the battery is fully charged - so battery issues can be
eliminated. I check the Fuel Gauge and it is at Empty. Ask him if there is fuel in the car and
he says that he had put 10 litres of petrol the night before, after which he would have done
only maybe some 10kms. So, where did the rest of the fuel go ?

We discuss possibilities of someone stealing fuel at his apartment complex (it is not possible
to steal fuel from cars at the office parking). Since it looks like a problem due to lack of fuel,
I send him out to get a few litres of petrol. He comes back with 2 litres fuel which we pour
into the fuel tank. We try starting the car, but still no success.

After this I am lost. I know a little bit about carburetted cars, having had them at home for
more than 2 decades and with whose innards I am quite familiar with. And I can do some basic debugging as far as fuel lines and filters are concerned. But this is MPFI (ECU controlled) and the engine bay looks entirely different.

So, we give up and call the breakdown service, who send their man with the repair van. He comes, identifies the problem & fixes it in like 15mins and is gone. Any guesses as to what could have been the culprit ?

A rat had chewed the fuel line and also the signal wire indicating the fuel in the tank, resulting
in no fuel to the engine and fuel-gauge showing Empty. Actually the mechanic mentioned
that when he was looking at the lines from the fuel tank, he saw the rat jumping off. :-)

And when I mentioned this incident on the car forum that I am a member of, it seems many
had had this type of issues with rats. And that set me thinking about our cars in Chennai and Kerala. In Kerala, I have noticed a few rats running around in the yard, where we stock firewood. The garage is not far from there and there is quite a possibility of them invading the car. I see a plan forming in my mind.

Chennai is different, because the rats here are huge. I mean, as huge as the cats that are also
around. I have never seen the cats chasing the rats and I think they are just shit scared of
these monsters.

Anyway, I decide to tackle the smaller pests first. Last weekend, at Kerala, I went and bought
a rat trap, made of wood and steel wires. Cost me all of 45 bucks (a dollar). Got some dried
fish which I set as bait and placed the trap near the firewood storing area.

It seems there is a psychology involved even in this seemingly simple act of catching rats. If
you were to keep the trap in an open area, the rats would not even touch it. It seems you have
to keep the trap hidden, so as to attract their attention. Maybe, they do not go for it, if there
is no element of adventure involved.

Quite similar to human psychology, I guess. We want those things that are forbidden for us
or which is kept away from us. A child never gets attracted to the fruits on the dining table.
Instead he tries to get cookies from the jar placed away from his reach.

Anyway next day morning, I check the trap and yes, I have baited the first rat. Now comes
the difficult part of killing them. Drowning is the usual method used and I get an old unused
bucket, fill it with water and drop the trap (with the rat inside) into it. Put a brick on it to
keep it submerged. When I check out after a minute or so, Mr.Rat is looking as fresh as if
he just had a refreshing shower.

So, in he goes again and this time for 3-4 minutes. I bring him up and see that he looks dead,
but still there is some faint movement seen. In he goes again for another 5 minutes, after
which he is truly dead. Take him to the yard and bury him in a hole that I dig up.

Put the trap again that night and the next day, we get another little rat. And yet another one
yesterday night. So, 3 rats in total. Not bad for a total expenditure of 45 bucks. Maybe there
are more out there, but we are not stopping till we have eliminated the whole family.

Ofcourse, I still have not decided what to do about their bigger cousins at Chennai. They won't
fit in the trap and even if their limbs get caught, they would just walk away with the trap. :-)
I would have to try out some rat poison for these chaps, I think.

Innovative way to woo customers. But is it worth the effort ?

This happened during the first weekend of February, when I was shopping for a camera. As usual, the first place to visit is 'Yodobashi Camera' in Shinjuku, one of the big electronic stores

in the area. Another option is 'Bic Camera', also in the vicinity of Shinjuku station.

Yodobashi Camera can be best described as a cross between BestBuy (or CircuitCity) and the pavement shops in Indian cities. :-) The similarity to BestBuy is because of the huge range of products that both stores stock. And the connection with pavement shops in India is due to

the noise in and around the shop. It is so noisy with the hundreds of Yodobashi sales people welcoming you in or just shouting out deals of the day and what not.

Anyday, I would take the calm shopping experience of a BestBuy or CircuitCity. As I have mentioned here before, one of the best things about the US is the incredible shopping

experience it provides. Anyway, I check out all the digicam options at Yodobashi, note down

the ones that suit my need best and decide to get back to the hotel to get more info about

these shorlisted models online.

As I walk out of the store, I feel like I heard a language alien to the place. It sounded like

Hindi and it was playing over the microphone. Naah, thats not possible. Why would there

be Hindi in Japan, of all places ?

But no. The lines are repeated and this time I catch them clearly. It says, "Yodobashi camera mein aapka swaagat hai", which translates as "Yodobashi Camera welcomes you". And then, it goes on to say more about the store, the products it stocks etc etc.

Nice marketing gimmick to attract some Indian customers, though not all of them. Because

even though Hindi is the national language of India, not all Indians know/use it. At last count,

we had some 29 states in India and most of them have their own language, with its own script.

Also, unlike the US, where you could practically be tripping over Indians, I have not seen

many Indians in Japan. In the more than 2 months I spent there (over 3 visits), I would have maybe seen some 20 Indian faces. Not much of a customer base to spend such effort on.

And if I know Indians, more than being wooed in their language, they would prefer a nice deal anyday. No wonder I saw most of the 20 Indians at Akhihabara Electric Town, which is an

area full of electronic stores with the lowest pricing you can get anywhere in Japan.

For those familiar with Chennai, just imagine Ritchie Street, but like some 10 times more

bigger and infinite times cleaner and orderly. That's Akhihabara for you.

Paying to cook your food yourselves + some history along with the food

In India, people usually go out to restaurants either for a change from the normal home food
or to eat some stuff that is difficult to make at home or to try out some exotic cuisines from
other countries / states or because they are just plain lazy to cook.

In short, I am sure that no one goes out to a restaurant, expecting to cook their food themselves. But then that is just us Indians. In Japan, there are quite some restaurants, where the patrons are expected to do the cooking. I was fortunate to try two such restaurants.

My very first experience of cook-your-own-food (a new concept to me) was the Shaabu-Shaabu, which I was introduced to, by my American colleagues in Aug2007. I had planned to do a post on this then, but somehow it did not happen, even though I took detailed snaps of the whole process.

During my trip last week, we visited a lamb barbeque at Tono. The restaurant was named Jingisukan - more on this later. The lamb in this part of Northern Japan is quite renowned, which is surprising given that it is not local to Japan - it is imported from Australia.

Anyway, this is the restaurant.


And a close-up of the name and logo.


The seating is a cross between the western table-chair setting and the typical Japanese low-seating, and looks like this.


Notice the big hole in the centre of the table ? It is actually a gas-fired stove with a perforated pan on it for you to cook your food. :-)

The waiter then brings you all the food items you need to cook your meal. Butter, sliced onions & other leafy vegetables that you need to saute, and ofcourse the lamb, which is very thinly sliced.


Each person also gets a tray having some rice, some sauce to go with the cooked meat, some soup, some pickle-kind-of-stuff and ofcourse chopsticks.


You drop the cubes of butter on to the pan and as they melt, you add the leafy stuff and then
drop in the lamb slices. My Japanese colleagues and an Indian colleague starting the cooking.
And yes, they give you these paper aprons to keep any stains off your clothes.

Each of you takes turns to turn the lamb and vegetables around, so that they get cooked evenly. And after a few minutes, your dinner is ready. Once you run out of lamb in the pan, you keep adding more.



The lamb almost ready to eat. Looks yummy ain't it ?


It did taste good. More so, when the temperature is like -10 deg C outside and food is always welcome in cold weather. After we were done, I was discussing with my Japanese colleagues, about the origin of this type of cuisine. Especially because the main ingredient was something
that is not local to the place.

He mentioned that this was something that came in from Mongolia. A practice adopted from
the Mongolian tribes and with some connection to Genghis Khan, the legendary Mongolian warrior and conqueror. And that is when the origin of the name of the restaurant struck me.
Jingisukan is just a Japanese-version of Genghis Khan. :-)

In school history classes, I have read about Genghis Khan, his army, their conquests etc.
One thing I still remember is that when they would run short of food, they would cut a vein
on their horse's body, sip some blood to quench their hunger and close the vein. Which would
be opened repeatedly for satiating their hunger, till they got to other sources of food.

Though I never knew they had pioneered a come-pay-cook-eat system also, which is still in vogue. :-)

Note : Actually, come to think of it, Shaabu-Shaabu is also very similar to this, with the main difference that it involves beef and sea-food, instead of lamb.

Too much of anything .....

It is snowing again in Tokyo since late evening today. I was feeling so fortunate to have
another chance of getting to see nature in such splendid form. So, I grab the camera and
get down to the ground floor of the Hilton.

But since it is dark, I am not sure the videos came out as good as they came out during the
last snowfall at Tono during daytime. Anyway, I take some snaps and videos and get back
to the cozy comfort of my room.

I am all excited about getting back home tomorrow. The flight is at 10:30AM and I have
booked a seat in the airport limousine bus that leaves the Hilton at 7:10AM. While Japan
is definitely a great place and I love snow and all, but there is no place like home, inspite
of its many shortcomings.

I see that somebody has left me a message on the phone and when I call back, it is the
airport limousine company. They say that if the roads are freezed over tomorrow morning,
then they might cancel the bus service. And if that is the case, they will inform me tomorrow
morning.

Great !!! This was the last thing I needed, just before getting back home. Taxi is not an option because it is a long way away and could cost quite a packet. And anyway, if the roads are not good enough for a bus, how is it going to be good for a car ?

Well, this is Japan and as long as the railway tracks are not iced up, it should not be an issue
at all. So, it would be the Narita express tomorrow, which in any case is atleast 30 mins faster
than the airport limousine.

Too much of anything (even if it is pristine white snow) is no good .........

Beautiful Tono - a photo-post

Finally downloaded all photos from the Sony H7 to my laptop and here come some of the
snaps I took at the beautiful town of Tono in North Japan.

Snowing in Tono - a video post.

There is surely something special to snowing that is missing with raining.

Maybe it is about the flakes floating around leisurely, instead of the impatience
seen in raindrops to hit the ground. Or maybe it is the pristine white color.

With you, through thick and thin, health and illness ...

In all metro train compartments here in Japan, some seats are marked "Courtesy seats".

These are intended for the elderly, physically challenged, women with kids and pregnant
women. These seats have the following sign above them, with a pictorial description of
who is eligible to sit there.



One of my colleagues took a photo of this sticker and showed it to his wife, telling her that he
has been with her while she went through all the 4 stages depicted in the sticker. He was by
her side when she broke a leg, stood by her when she was pregant, and then when she was
with baby and finally now when she is getting old. :-)

I am sure she (like any other woman) would'nt have found the 'getting old' part very amusing.
More so, because she is only in the early thirties, which is not really what you would call old.

But then, I am sure he was just kidding.

And as expected I dozed off.

I was supposed to wake up a bit early on Wednesday (6-Feb) to take in the beauty of nature
around Hotel Aeria Tohno, where we stayed for the last 4 days. But, as expected, I switched
off the alarm clock when it rang at 7AM and dozed off again only to wake up late (yet again).

Since we were checking-out on Thursday, I was determined not to miss what could be my
last and only chance at Tono, though another visit to Tono cannot be entirely ruled out.
I had to stay up till like 2AM at night for some discussions with my Indian & American
colleagues and so, chances of my waking up early, looked bleak.

But, I willed myself out of bed at 7AM, got ready, finished breakfast and went out of the
hotel. Man, it was bone-chilling cold. But the beauty of the place more than made up for
the weather. I ventured out and started taking pictures of the whole place. But after
sometime, I could not even feel my own finger, due to the cold.

So, when I was thinking that I am zooming in, nothing would happen on the viewfinder,
because my fingers were so numb from the cold, that I could not even press the zoom
button. I did have leather gloves with me, but handling a camera with gloves on, is not easy.
So, after taking some real nice snaps, I had to rush back to the warm comfort of the hotel.

I am yet to download the snaps to my laptop. Will do that tonight and post here.

Tono is such a beautiful place guarded by mountains on all four sides and I guess the snow
adds to the beauty. Now, if only it were not so cold here, it would have been just perfect. :-)

More than Tono town itself, nature's beauty is much more evident during the drive from
Tono to Shin Hanamaki station. It is a 45 km drive (takes an hour) on roads cut through mountains and the view on either side is to kill for. Unfortunately clicking snaps from the
car was not giving good results.

Also I had colleagues with me, who just wanted to get back home (Tokyo) and thus would
not have liked to stop the car every now and then, for me to admire nature's beauty and
to take pictures. But if there is a next time, I will surely go for it, colleagues be damned.

A room with a view.

It was quite late (around 8:30PM) when we checked into the hotel yesterday night.
So, when I moved the curtains and looked out, all I could see was darkness. But today
morning when I looked out, it was such an amazing view. See the pic below.



We grab some breakfast at the hotel and leave for work around 8:30AM. It is cold outside,
but we are doing OK thanks to the car's heater. As we drive out of the hotel, I see that there
is a small stream flowing just in front of the hotel, with a couple of quaint little bridges over
them. A really beautiful sight. Especially due to the white snowy landscape all over.

If I was alone, I would have stopped to take in the sight and even snapped pictures. But I
am with 2 colleagues, both of whom have been to this place earlier and don't see any novelty
in the surroundings.

So, looks like I will have to wait till tomorrow morning and hope that I am able to wake a little earlier than usual to check it out. Not an easy task, given how difficult it is for me to wake early.

Far from the madding crowd.

I am far, far away from the madding crowd that Tokyo is. I am at Tono, a quaint little town
in the extreme north of Japan, which takes a 2.5 hour ride by the Shinkansen. If it was not
for the white landscape all around (thanks to the snow), the biting cold and the mountains nearby, I would have thought I am at one of the towns back home in Kerala.

Like in any Kerala town, a little after sunset, there is almost no human presence outdoors
here. Ofcourse, in the case of Tono, the weather plays a big role in keeping people indoors.
I was told that it was like -9 degC today morning and when I went out of the customer's
office for a very brief coffee break in the evening, it was like -6 deg C. Unless you are out
of your mind, you would not want to venture out in such weather. More so, if you are from
a place which rarely sees even temperatures below 25 deg C.

Our train (which resembled the TGV of Europe) left on the dot (like anything else in Japan)
at 9:16AM from Tokyo and after some 6-7 stations, we found ourselves at the railhead
closest to Tono (Shin hanamaki station), at exactly 11:47AM. Now, that is punctuality.

The train ride was fast and smooth, though with the closed windows and all, you could not
really feel the speed. The view from the windows was to die for - mostly white & more white
and ofcourse the mountain ranges. Clicking photos was not easy, though no one can blame
me for not trying.

We get off the train and leaving the bags there, I run to the front of the train to get a snap.
I make it just in time, before the Hayate shinkansen could resume its journey to the final
destination (Morioka), which is a famous skiing spot. Will post the snap later as I have not
yet got around to installing the s/w for the new camera to download snaps to the laptop.

We go down the escalator to the ground level and then we hear thunder above us. It was
another Shinkansen that zoomed past at amazing speed and before we could even say
"What the hell", it was gone. I mentioned to my friend that we could wait and try to get a
video of one of these trains from the moment it approaches the station, till it literally flies
past.

He said that it was not easy because these hi-speed trains don't give much of an indication
of their arrival and before you could hit 'Record' on your handycam, they are gone. Still, I
would like to give it a try one time.

Anyway, we rent a car and drive some 45kms to the customer's place. All around us it is
just white snow. While the roads have been cleared of the snow, at some places, there still
remains traces and you can feel the tyres sort of slip over without gripping. I am not even
thinking of how it would be to go out of control in a car over snowed roads at even not too
high speeds.

We decide to wind up for the day at around 7:30 PM, which is kinda early for us. But then shops/restaurants close very early here and if you dont make it before they do, you might
end up sleeping on an empty stomach.

We pick up some sandwiches at the local Lawson store and hit the warm comfort of the hotel
room, where inspite of the thermostat set at 26 deg C, it feels cold. And as soon as I am done
with this blog-post and checked upon on emails, I am looking forward to a nice sleep.

Back home, it is the feast of St.Sebastian, the patron of our parish and today is the penultimate
day, when the whole parish goes out in a huge procession and all homes are decked up. I had
planned some two months in advance to be there for this feast, which I did not have a chance
to attend for many years. But then, that was not to be. Maybe next year.

Snow in Tokyo - a photo blog-post.

My latest acquisition - a Sony H7 Digicam.

I have lost count of the many cameras (and camcorders) that I have bought over the years,
since my first overseas travel in 1998. So much, that when I return back from a foreign trip,
one of the first things I am asked by friends/colleagues back home is, "How many cameras
did you buy this time ? :-)

Many of them were bought as gifts for family, while I chose to retain only the first camcorder
(a Samsung Hi8) and the first digicam (a FujiFilm 3MP 3x zoom point-and-shoot). Over the
years, these served me faithfully, though I lost interest in the HandyCam due to its bulk and
also because I became more interested in still photography than in video.

I would have retained my Fuji cam for years, since 3 MegaPixels was more than enough for
my needs, while I could do with a little more zoom. However, I was forced to think of a new camera because of two issues with the camera, which I could not overcome.

The main problem was insufficient memory in the cam. It had come with a 16MB xD card
and since at the time of buying the camera, I was a little short of cash, I decided to postpone buying more memory for sometime later. But, when I did get around to buying memory, I
found that the camera had got too friendly with the 16MB chip. Meaning, it would not accept
any higher capacity cards.

I tried different brands of memory cards, with the same results (error writing to flash) each
time and finally gave up. This meant that I had to make do with just 16MB memory, which in
the highest resolution of 3MP, would enable me to take just 20 snaps. I got over this problem
by either lugging along my laptop on all trips (a real pain) or by lowering the resolution to be
able to take more snaps.

This worked well for many months till the up-down button on the camera gave way. Now, the
button works fine when you go up the menu, but would not come down. I opened the camera
and found a broken connection to be the culprit. This meant, that if I had set the resolution
at the highest (3MP), I would not be able to come down any more (since the down action is
not working).

One workaround was to open up the camera (held together by some 6 real tiny screws) and
manually move the button down. I used the camera this way for some more months, but at
times, I would have to change the setting to 3MP to get some good photos and then to go back
to the low-resolution setting, I would have to open up the camera again. Not very funny.

That is when I decided to get a new camera. Was toying with the idea of a Nikon D40 (DSLR)
for sometime, but decided that I was not that much of a professional to need an SLR camera
and I did not even have the faintest idea about lenses, filters etc. Also, I carry my camera
always with me - the rationale being that you never know when you come across something
interesting. So, a bulky camera was the last thing I wanted.

Looked at the point-and-shoot varieties, which were easy to have in your pocket, but most of
them came with standard 3x or 4x zoom. Over years of using digicams, I have come to know
that more than MegaPixels, what really matters is the zoom, though the manufacturers would
like us to believe otherwise. All that you need to get some real nice photographs is a minimum
of 3MP, with which you can have nice prints even upto 8 inch by 12 inch blow-ups (without
any pixelisation).

But you could never have enough of zoom though - the more the better. So, my camera hunt
came to somewhere between normal point-and-shoot cameras and the SLRs. These cameras
come with decent resolutions ( > 7MP), but the zoom is to die for (10x to as high as 18x). I
identified a FujiFilm (8MP, 18x zoom) and a Sony H7 (8MP, 15x zoom) and really struggled
to choose between them.

The extra zoom in the Fuji and the lower price were an attraction, but gave up just because
they did not come with English manuals (though you could set the GUI to English). Also, I
somehow had this feeling that the Sony was a tad better when it came to photo quality.
Anyway, got the Sony yesterday. Cost me 44000Yen (440$), which is higher than the price
I would have paid in the U.S., but much lower than Indian prices.

Anyway, I am happy with the product after having shot some photos today morning - of the
snow in Tokyo ofcourse. Hopefully, this camera would be the last one I buy for years to come.

A photo of the new photo-capturer (my new Sony H7)



Note : All references to zoom are of the optical variety ie real lenses. The digital zoom is just
a sham. So, while choosing a camera, ignore the digital zoom part and look for optical zoom.

Yaaaay, it is snowing in Tokyo :-)

I wake up today morning (well, at 11AM, but then it is a Sunday) and what do I see at the window ? Snowflakes dancing around. I rub my eyes in disbelief, jump out of bed and go to the window to take a closer look. Yes, it is snowing. Yippeeeee.

Actually it must have been snowing for many hours now, because already the whole landscape
is a pure white color, with roof-tops, cars etc covered with about few cms of snow. From the
day I landed here, I was hoping that it would snow here, but the weather was slowly changing from real cold to a little sunny over the last week. So, it was a surprise to see snow today.

While a trip to Japan is something that is always looked forward to, this one was supposed to
be a little more special due to two reasons. Firstly, I was supposed to go to a customer location
which is in the extreme north of Japan and where it is snowing right now. Secondly, the mode
of travel to that place would not be your usual flight, but the Shinkansen.

The last time I saw snow was in '98 in Europe. Had been to Belgium on work and one weekend, me and a Belgian friend 'Jo' decided to drive down to Germany. The idea was to spend the weekend at Germany and if possible also drop in at my aunt's home in Dusseldorf. We reach
the border only to see the whole place snowed up, with cars buried under snow. We knew that
it would not be wise to go further and decide to drown our disappointment in some nice Belgian beer (the best variety of beer in the world) and some fine venison.

I run around the whole place clicking pictures (normal film cameras then) mainly because it
was my first snow sighting. However, never got to see even one of them because before I
could develop the snaps, one stupid friend of mine opened up the camera exposing the full
roll of film. :-(

Coming to the Shinkansen, this is what the rest of the world knows as the Bullet Train.
Running at close to 300kms per hour, these trains would naturally be of extreme interest to someone like me, for whom the fastest trains in India do maybe 100-120 kms per hour. Ofcourse, I have also had the pleasure of travelling in the TGV (Europe's equivalent of the
Shinkansen) from Brussels to Paris, though I do not remember the speeds of the TGV.

Ofcourse, there are different Shinkansens plying on different routes and the one we are taking
tomorrow is unfortunately not the fastest. The fastest is the Nozumi Shinkansen, which I think
plies between Tokyo and Kyoto. BTW, I just noticed that the two places are perfect anagrams. Just googled for it and see it already listed on Wikipedia. So much for my thinking that I was
the first to chance upon this. :-)

So, what next ? Maybe get out in the snow to feel it, instead of just watching it from inside
the hotel room. Will post pictures in my next post.

What's common between a helmet and a birth-control device ?

For starters, both helmet and condoms have been invented to save lives, the former by saving
your head (and life) incase of accidents, while the latter could save you from STDs like AIDS.
But this topic was inspired by my friend headers (not real name, but his id on team-bhp), whose current signature on the forum reads as :

Wearing a helmet is like using a condom. Unless you know how to use it, it is useless !!!
HELMET - Strap up for safety !!!

So, you have started using your helmet religiously, after the Chennai cops started fining
those who don't wear one while riding a bike. But do you strap the helmet securely ?

If not, you could as well not wear one because, in case of an accident, the helmet would
just slip off your head and not be the life-saver it should have been.

Thus, even when the intent was there, the purpose would not be served, due to not doing it
correctly. So, the next time you are out on the road, feeling the wind blow in your face, just
remember to strap up.

For, as the CCTP (Chennai City Traffic Police) says, you need hardware (helmet) to protect
your software (your brains).

You guys never heard of silent mode ?

This interesting incident happened at a friend's workplace. Their VP was visiting their Chennai
operations and last Wednesday, he was to have a meeting with all the Chennai staff. Given the
fact that cellphones are all over the place in India, with some people even carrying more than
one phone, their local manager was apprehensive about phones ringing during the meeting with the big shot.

So, much in advance, he made it clear to his staff that they were not to bring the phones to the
meeting and should instead leave them at the receptionist/secretary's desk. Since the meeting
included the secretary also, the office-boy was asked to man the reception for the duration of
the meeting.

The meeting goes peacefully without any intrusive cellphones ringing and the manager is
happy. The staff come to collect their phones from the secretary's desk and find that one
of the phones is missing. And it so happens that it was the most expensive of them all,
costing around 18000 rupees (around 460$).

The office-boy insists that he never left the reception area for the duration of the meeting.
So, where did the phone vanish ? Then he remembers that there was a visitor who came in during the time everyone was at the meeting. A physically-challenged young guy, who had
come in to solicit financial help.

Since everyone was at the meeting, the office-boy asked him to come some other time.
Just as he turned to leave, the office-boy got busy with a telephone call and did not notice
the guy pick up one of the cellphones lying on the desk, on his way out.

When my friend narrated this incident to me, I was like, "Have you guys never heard of the 'silent mode' feature available on almost all phones ?" Just put the phone into silent-mode
and you could be in the meeting with the phone on you, but without disturbing anyone.

They were surely aware of the feature, but since the boss ordered something, they decided to
humour him, instead of suggesting this more practical option to him. If they had, they would
have not had to lose that cellphone. I am sure the lesson is learnt, though a costly one.

Silent-mode (or manner-mode, as it is known in Japan) is big in Japan. In the metro trains,
there are signs requesting cellphone users to put their phones in manner-mode while commuting, so as to not disturb others. After three visits and countless trips on the metro,
I am yet to hear even one phone ring, let alone see someone talk on the phone.

Which is so unlike the mobile users in India, who think it is their privelege to talk aloud on
their mobiles, irrespective of the location, be it a hospital or theatre or for that matter any
public place. Infact, to me it has always looked like most of them derive some kind of perverse pleasure in talking louder than required, just so that those around them can hear their talk, which could be about something as trivial as what they had for lunch.

Ofcourse, when it comes to cellphones, the Japanese are heavy users. Infact, to me, they look
like they are addicted to mobile phones. On trains, you could see most of them playing around
with their phones, mostly sending / reading SMS-es or playing games. But then, like always, they take care to respect other's space and thus not only do not not talk on their phones, but
also ensure that they do not even disturb other commuters by their phones ringing.

While India surely has caught up with the world as far as embracing cellphone goes (actually
we lead the world in cellphone usage minutes, as per the latest figures), we are yet to learn
cellphone etiquette.

Back in Tokyo

I am back in Tokyo for a 2-week official trip. How I wish, I could be here on a vacation,
even if it is for a week or even few days. Hmm. I guess instead of just wishing for miracles,
I should start planning for the same.

As usual, Tokyo is clean, beautiful and the denizens are courtesy-personified. Well, nothing
new in any of that, because that is the way Japan is and maybe one of the main reasons why
it attracts you again and again to it.

Like it does to my American colleagues, who can never tire of Japan and keep looking for a chance to drop in. I heard that William is somewhere here - not sure whether he returned
back to Canada. If not, it would be great to do the rounds of the karaoke bars with him this weekend.

The only difference between this visit and my last 2 visits, is that it is winter here and pretty
cold - it was around 2 deg Celsius when I landed at Narita. And the friendly hostess at the
Hilton mentioned that it even snowed in Tokyo yesterday. Snow... Now that sounds cool.

The only other place that excites me so much, at just the thought of visiting it, is Europe.

Hopefully, I will have quite some stuff for my posts here, in the coming 2 weeks.

And they were dunked in the river. To be born again.

I was at the river with my niece Divya to give her some swimming lessons. Actually, more
than learning swimming, her interest was just to splash around in the cool water, float on
the bike tube and try to catch the small fish that swam around in the shallow water near
the river bank.

Divya would normally not stay away from her mother (my sister) for even a day and a
swim in the river was the bait that I used, to have her visit and spend a few days at my
parent's home for Christmas. And it worked. From the initial 3 days that she agreed to,
she ended up spending 5 full days at our home.

And I am sure, going forward, she would jump at any chance to come over to our place,
just for the chance to have some fun in the water. It was also a chance for me to refresh my
swimming skills, which I had not had a chance to use for quite some time now.

So, for all the 5 days that she spent at my parent's home, we would go to the river in the morning and evening and spend a couple of hours there. And even after such a long duration,
I had to literally drag her away from the water. Given a choice, she would just remain there
all day.

We even brought Ann (my younger niece) to the river one day. She was initially frightened
at entering the water. So, I took her on the boat across the river and back and then slowly
she warmed up to the prospect of entering the water, though she was scared of the fishes swimming around. She did spend some time with us, mainly lying on the tube, and though
she looked very happy, it somehow did not do it for her. So, she chose not to join us for our subsequent trips to the river.

It is like 11AM and while Divya is splashing around in the shallow water, I swim to the middle
of the river and back. I have never had the courage to swim to the other bank and back, but these few days have given me the confidence to attempt it during my next trip to Kerala.

We are enjoying the warmth of the sun and just lazing in the water, when a group of two men
and five women come to the river bank. We think that they are waiting for the boatman to take them across the river. But, their motive was different. One of the men, a young guy of 35 years or so, calls out to us and asks if we mind them using the shallow end of the river bank for a few minutes for the purpose of baptism.

I reply that we have no issues and infact if they so desire, we could even get out of the river
till they are done. He has no problems with us being in the water, so I move a little away and also tell Divya to give them some space. I have seen the Pentecosts (a Christian denomination) doing their baptism at the river before. But for Divya this is something new and she is all eyes.

The guy (must be the Pastor) wades into the river till the water is till his chest. One of the women is sitting on the river bank, while the other four follow him into the river and stand in front of him, till they are waist deep in water. He chants some prayers and then one-by-one dunks the four women into water for a few seconds and brings them up. See pic.



All this time Divya is staring wide-eyed at the proceedings and asks me if this is the same thing that John the Baptist did, which is mentioned in the Bible. I reply that it is and she is all excited at having been witness to a real baptism. Other Christian denominations (especially Catholics) have the baptism in the church itself and it just involves splashing a few drops of water on the baby.

The baptism done, the pastor prays for having had a chance to baptise four believers and for having made them born again. He thanks us and the group moves to a neighbouring house to change their wet clothes, leaving the whole river bank free for us again.

An example worth emulating

There are some people who impress you by their response to the odds stacked against them
by the power above. Inspite of being at a disadvantage (when compared to the rest of us) due
to no fault of theirs, they do not sit and sulk, but look for ways to live as normal a life as is
possible under the circumstances.

We have one such person back home in our neighborhood at Kerala. Physically-challenged at
birth (one leg shorter than the other), he still refuses to live on sympathy or on other's sweat,
and takes pride in earning his own bread. And he is not young either.

He is the boatman who rows people across the Achenkoil river, that flows behind our home.
He rides to work on his 3-wheeled cycle (see pic below) on his own, which he parks near the river bank and gets onto the boat to row people across the river and back.

Whenever I see physically-fit young men/women panhandling, I am reminded of this man.

Pic-1 : The 3-wheeler parked on the river bank, while our man is at his job.

Pic-2 : Our man at work. At the other bank, you can see women waiting for him to take

them across the river.

Pic-3 : A close-up shot.

Pic-4 : Taking a well-deserved post-lunch siesta.

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.