Dedication

Squirrels are wild creatures. The normal North American grey squirrel grows up so fast, anything older than 12-14 weeks is impossible to catch. We usually catch animals that are to be released back into the wild at night when they are kind of slow and cannot see too well (unless they are nocturnal animals). Greg stepped into the cage with a net in hand and gloves for protecting his hands.

He caught one squirrel carefully and put it (err….him) in the smaller cage normally used for transport, as he was about to catch another, it jumped on his face, scratching his left eye and cheek narrowly missing the pupil of his eye. He saw blood on his glove as soon as he touched his jaw. He stepped out and I followed him inside, he examined his face in the mirror and was back at the cage in a minute. “Let’s give it another try”, he said and went in again with a pair of goggles to cover his eyes.

I was simply amazed, there’s so much to learn everyday about people, about animals. Things can go wrong in an instant without following proper safety protocols. Every time I have to get an injured owl or hawk out of a small cardboard box, I hold my breath in anticipation, 5 seconds of stillness is what I need, and I need to bring this time frame to a lesser time. Experience, truly teaches many things. I won’t forget an injured person walk back again into a cage and catch the remaining three squirrels so that they can be transported back to the area where they were found 2-3 months ago under a tree without food, water and protection.

Alabama Wildlife Rehabilation Center

http://www.awrc.org

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Encore

Pandit Ravi Shankar and Anoushka Shankar

Birmingham, Alabama. October 29th 2007

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Just another day(?)

While Kodsi went on an errand and was back at 10 AM and rushing to work, I got up. I haven’t felt a sore throat in 4 years like I felt today, quickly rushed through samachar and indiauncut and Times of India in 5 min and was at the car showroom for servicing, had planned to go there at 7 AM, was late by almost 4 hrs, called up work number and informed I will be late. After dropping my vehicle off and deciding couldn’t sit there for an hour, called kodsi again and told him, wanted to go to the new Thai place for lunch, cursing me inside but too polite to say anything out, he obliged and the coconut soup did some good to the sore throat.

Got back to work and finished up some small tasks while still struggling to figure out how to condense an 80-page report into 3 pages without being too technical. Opened rediff and skipped through headlines and then Tehelka created a tehelka in my mind. Rushed through the interviews of Babu Bajarangi and the likes who were bragging about how they killed and burnt people in the Gujarat riots of 2002. I stopped reading and closed all unnecessary browser windows, tried to finish up the remaining tasks, the sweetest secretary in the world then brought the cheque for this darned H1B renewal and I called up kodsi again for dropping me off to pick up my car, swearing he wouldn’t want to see my face again, he came promptly in 6 min as I waited and got my car, dropped the cheque at my H1B lawyer’s office and rushed to get the VIP (ahem!) free tickets for Ravi and Anoushka Shankar’s show on Monday.

Finished up as much stuff on the grant as I wanted to and went back to Tehelka, three interviews on youtube, each more saddening than the other. Babu Bajrangi’s transcript, I began to wonder what stuff this shit is made of, I mean Babu Bajrangi is made of,

TEHELKA: How could you organize it all in such short time?

Bajrangi: Little time… We organized everything that night itself… We mobilised a team of 29 or 30 people… Those who had guns, we went to them that night itself and told them to give us their guns… If anyone refused, I told them I would shoot them the next day, even if they were Hindu… So people agreed to part with whatever cartridges and guns they had… In this way, we collected 23 guns. But nobody died of gunshots… What happened was this: we chased them and were able to scare them into a huge khadda [pit]. There we surrounded them and finished everything off

All this to a reporter who said he was pro-hindutva..

Bajrangi: It was a huge pit… You could enter it from one side but you couldn’t climb out at the other end… They were all there together… They started clinging to each other… Even while they were dying, they told each other, you die too, what are you going to be saved for, you die too… so the number of deaths increased.

TEHELKA: Then people poured oil in…

Bajrangi: Oil and burning tyres…

And then it goes worser, worser and worser [for lack of a stronger word]

TEHELKA: In other words, the way [you] have killed will go down in history.

Bajrangi: Arrey hamari FIR me likha gaya hai… ek woh pregnant thi, usko to humne chir diya thha (It has been written in my FIR… there was this pregnant woman, I slit her open, sisterf****r… Showed them what’s what… what kind of revenge we can take if our people are killed… I am no feeble rice-eater)

Later in the evening, I went to the art exhibition 10 min late, the first painting I saw, and I had seen a few times before in the home of it’s creator, a woman whose back is facing me, she has a bare back from the neck until her waist, she’s holding a pot above her head with her two hands, and there’s a red fluid flowing at the top of her neck and then from the front of her body then covering her decency again from her waist at her back.

She’s a Gujarati woman, I observed, all the blood flowing and she still can’t cover herself from the prying eyes, which is better anyway? Enveloping yourself in blood or exposing your bare body in front of everyone. SHIT.

I have never felt this way about the painting before, it used to be one of my favorite paintings when I visited my friend’s place. Here it is, as an exhibit - one of the very few pieces clearly labeled NOT FOR SALE. And I can’t think any better. I liked a few paintings, but as much as I was a self proclaimed connoisseur of oil paintings for 2 hours today, I don’t think I can spend 300-400$ bucks on a painting.

While coming back, I stopped for chicken, tomatoes, yogurt and two bottles of Robert Mondavi 2005 Merlot (a.k.a cheap red wine), it was already 11 PM and I could sense a slight feverishness in my body. My first urge was to jump into my bed, but didn’t want to struggle tomorrow evening, so cleaned up the chicken and tilapia from the freezer and emptied two cups of red wine into the bowl of chicken pieces.

Blood. God damn it. This is not wine, this is blood. He ripped of a foetus. And has his own mouth and his head - both physically intact.

My first urge was to dump everything into the trash, however, there are 8 people coming in tomorrow, from Kansas city, Philadelphia, Houston, Charlotte, Atlanta and others a few couple of blocks away. I promised them I’ll have the chicken and fish ready.

In a couple of minutes, the chicken pieces soaked up all the wine, all I could see was the spice mix, and crushed ginger garlic. This is what probably happens when the ground soaks up all the blood in Gujarat, the men, women and children, none exist.

No one cares about what’s not visible, as long as it is not visible.

Then articles about how this Tehelka expose might end up as a benefit for Narendra killer Modi.

To add to my OCD and ADHD ( two of the countless I diseases I suffer from 2 minutes a day), there’s depression/anxiety whatever physicians can call it. People (actually, only one) who claim to know me very well, have another name for it - overly emotional.

I can’t leave you guys on such a confused, negative and depressing note, so here’s a picture of another favorite painting to cheer you up. I liked a couple of other pictures, but I don’t personally know their creators. The painting in reality by s.h.r.u.t.z is amazing. I just couldn’t take a good picture of it.

Biology 101

I saw a dissection today! The first in my life (if you don’t count eatables like fish, maybe crab and chicken). But the ones I’ve cooked have been neatly cleaned inside out (except for crabs, I cannot understand, how all aunts and grannies in my Mom’s native village handle live crabs with perfect ease), the first time I went to buy chicken by myself when I was in middle school, and saw it cut, I couldn’t eat chicken comfortably for a couple of weeks. But today it was a mouse, farm raised. I’ve been handling a lot of animals - wild mammals (Grey squirrels, flying squirrels), raptors (birds of prey - Hawks, Owls, Ospreys),then the curtest (and only) beaver I have ever seen in my life which cuddles up in your arms like a human baby, and then all those bugs - crickets, beetles, beetles still in larvae stage and whoosh…I hope I’m not spoiling your appetite.

But there was this adult red-tailed hawk that ran into a glass window and broke its wing, its feeding instructions included a rat, Farrah was the animal care tech training me today, and she showed me the whole dissection process, intestines, stomach, liver, lungs, brain, teeth that start from the farthest end of the throat and finally inside the brain. I’m not much of a biology person, and by far the internal organs I’ve seen are a human appendix in my biology lab in primary school. Five seconds into the process, I failed to notice the disgusting/nasty part of the whole process. Five min later when I checked the red tail hawk with its majestic talons that can pierce your skin like knife through butter (of course I was wearing gloves, similar to Dhoni’s gloves -somewhat thick), the hawk had eaten every inch of the rat, I didn’t find anything remaining of my first dissection sample. I then told my mentor, I need some more time to do a dissection myself

But count on me when I tell you, flying squirrels are the cutest mammals you can feed (you use a syringe and feed them dog formula milk with some other compounds added). It’s a pity I can’t get the pictures, but I’ve a mental image of every animal I’ve handled, from birds like cardinal, to a quail, to a barn owl, a red hailed hawk, animals like a beaver, grey squirrel, flying squirrel then, not to disgust you with crickets and beetles, yeah not very pleasant to deal with insects, but ducks and squirrels LOVE crickets.

Err, did I mention the nightly ceremonial walk by the ducks - made from an open enclosure to an inner cage room- they know the route! Trust me, and my job? usku usku , I mean I’m not speaking Hindi, I get behind their asses and wave my arms to get them out of their enclosure and bingo - left right left towards their safe room for the night.

I think I love animals. More, I love helping those that are injured and need help. Of course, DO NOT try this at home, I was under the supervision of expert volunteers who have been doing this from 14 years. Of course, I have an experience of 40 hours , in the past 5-6 weeks.

www.awrc.org

Located inside Oak mountain State Park.

Birmingham. Alabama.

Modi’s Truthiness

Kya re Karan Thapar, take a lesson from Tv9 and be more persistent. At least you have a valid cause.

5 years later, Modi is (alive and) still the CM of a state, is free, has not been convicted, is not on trial either(?), can proudly proclaim only two-three people think he is a mass murderer (Modi - including me, that would make at least 4), and I bet I can show you half a billion more, if you had a normal vision. I understand you wear a saffron veil that oozes out a million litres of blood, and yet you fail to see the red or hear the screams…..

Apni dosthi bani rahegi?

Karan Thapar should’ve started singing,
yeh dosthi.. hum nahi chodenge,
Marenge logon ko magar, BJP ka saath no chodenge

I-Scripto 1

I love movie scripts. And to share the same passion with you, I would like to present from now on an occasional feature that will include some of my favorite lines from some of my favorite movies. Primarily English, but some meaningful Hindi and Telugu ones too, with translation. And to start with two of my favorite movies of all time.

Sin City. I fell in love with movies once again, after I watched this. This should be the Bible of all thrillers/action movies ever made. My tastes may be varied, but I’ve a strong passion for stories, and few movies are in clear cut story format. Here are some of my favorite lines that I found online.

She shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree
I let her hear my footsteps
She only goes stiff for a moment

The wind rises electric
She’s soft and warm and almost weightless
Her perfume is sweet promise that brings tears to my eyes
I tell her that everything will be alright
That I’ll save her from whatever she’s scared of and take her far far away
I tell her… I love her
The silencer makes a whisper of the gunshot
I hold her close until she’s gone
I’ll never know what she’s running from
I’ll cash her check in the morning

She’ll never be safe. Not as long as I’m alive
There’s only one way to beat him.
An old man dies. A young woman lives.
Fair trade,
I love you, Nancy.

Just Sin City would take hundreds of paragraphs to be paid its proper due, but my resources are limited, so is my reader base. In this eternally-night city, stories full of love, passion, violence clash and intermingle with each other, that are beautifully portrayed in a black and white canvas with a touch of bright red and an occasional fluorescent yellow that just leave a movie lover gasping for more.

A Hitch hiker’s guide to galaxy. Agreed, this is not Star Wars. But this is so spiritual/philosophical in so many ways I can’t explain. I love some of the following excerpts:

[first lines]
The Book: It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, Man had always assumed that he was the most intelligent species occupying the planet, instead of the *third* most intelligent. The second most intelligent were of course dolphins who had long known of the impending destruction of earth. They had on many occasions tried to alert mankind but their warnings were mistakenly interpreted as amusing attempts to punch footballs or whistle for tit-bits. The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt at doing a double back flip through a hoop while whistling the star-spangled banner but in fact the message was this: So long and thanks for all the fish.

–

Trillian: You idiot! You signed the order to destroy Earth!
Zaphod: I did?
Arthur: He did?
Trillian: Love and kisses Zaphod? You didn’t even read it, did you?
Zaphod: Well, I’m president, I don’t have a lot of time for reading.
Trillian: My whole planet destroyed because you thought someone wanted your autograph!

–

Mr. Prosser: Do you know how much damage this bulldozer would sustain if I just let it roll over you?
Arthur: How much?
Mr. Prosser: None at all.

–

Deep Thought: Okay. The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is…
[wild cheers from audience, then silence]
Deep Thought: 42.

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Loneliness

Just that few arduous moments, when everything that was beautiful now looks so hollow, so incomplete.
Yet nothing has really changed, except maybe how you look at things around you.
But unless you can FEEL this, how can you feel the other things; warmth, friendship, love, satisfaction, that make a person so complete.
Welcome, just another chapter of life, still a long way to go.
You can’t understand this I know, I know. The one who can - is the cause.

Love,

Simplicity not his style




Much has been heard and said about cricket and about Sreesanth who is getting more popularity for his antics than his performance, hitting someone for a six after being provoked is atitude, provoking someone unnecesarily is bad-titude as I would call it, and Sree looks like he has a ton of it…

And as you can see here, he doesn’t easily learn from his mistakes..

“In a game during the Challenger Series, Sreesanth went past Sachin Tendulkar’s bat twice and then did what no other bowler has had the guts the do for a long time - he had his hands on his hips and stared hard at Tendulkar.
The little master didn’t like it and he made it obvious on the next delivery when he stepped out to clatter the bowler over his head for a six.

Tendulkar walked down the pitch, tapping it and told Sreesanth firmly, “Don’t you ever come close to me again.”  “

The full article here

Also, another hungry-for-fame lawyer complaining about the disrespect caused to the Indian flag by the winning T20 champions….

kitna dukhi aatma hai saala.