POI - Sarkozy

In this new feature about Persons of interest, French president - Mr. Sarkozy!! As some of you might know he is on a visit to England this week. Stars (Astrology, I mean) predict a tough communication battle between Sir Cozy, err, Sarkozy and Gordon Brown, British PM who have an enormous language barrier between them. Gordon Brown, it seems, can’t speak French. And when Sarkozy spoke English he shot to fame the first time before his romance with Carla Bruni and became nothing short of internet sensation, pity youtube did not exist then, so much so when a newspaper article called him Inspector Clouseau, I couldn’t think of anything more apt of a title….

Mere landlord ko gussa kyun aata hai?

Kyon ki..Holi hai!!!!!!!!

Enid Blyton’s Famous five with an Indian head

Remember Famous five? Read on…

TimesOfIndia reports:

Sixty six years after British author Enid Blyton unveiled her Famous Five series before adoring children the world over, the fictional adventurers have been updated for a new generation and with a new leader - Jo , an Anglo-Indian.

In the new version, Jo - short for Jyoti - is the team leader. She is the daughter of George , short for Georgina Kirrin , the tomboy of the original series.

I’ve had immense fascination for these novels as a kid, a story with siblings, cousins -all children, with a pet dog out an adventure. Universal appeal. I still remember our own gang - myself, Bharath, TVK Prasad, his brother Santosh, their dog trying to recruit members for our own club.  We even had an inauguration party and a story that I wrote for enactment in skit that never happened, the story eventually got published in Tinkle holiday digest.

sigh! First paycheck of 105 Rs/- in 1996.

Enid Blyton on wikipedia.

My secret friend

Just as dawn cuts through the night
rays pouring down from the bright red sun,
who asks, what happened to the night?

The light is here,
what is there, isn’t the only thing to be seen.
Secrets are best left to the night.

Bask in the glorious dawn, shed tears in the dark night.
Glow in the sun, hide in the dark.
The dawn is ruthless, tearing away the mask of comfort.
It’s a cycle, night and dawn, so are emotions - joy and sorrow.

Happiness is important, sorrow will teach you,
not always does the same soul experience both,
there’s a price for everything, life will teach you.

Let the small good night wish be for good luck.
To get through the night.
You are not lonely, the night is with you.
Just because, the dawn is brighter, happier, fuller, livelier,
Don’t ignore the night.
In the darkest hour, darkness is your companion,
that will carry you forward to the dawn.

Travelogues 4

Pack up. Dozens of pickles, everything you can lay your hand on, tomato, ginger, crab. Sweets - pootharekulu - Godavari special and laddoo. Powders and Masalas. Totaling 10kg weight in all, leaving no space for other necessary things. Call to all relatives happy, call from all relatives unhappy. Neighbors, few friends and acquaintances. Begumpet airport is FULL of people, hours earlier it was announced that contrary to earlier announcements of the closure of airport and beginning of the Shamshabad airport, the operations will continue for 10 more days, good for parents who will board their flight to L.A. in 8 hrs from now.

By some strange coincidence, it’s the same car I’ve traveled in5 years ago to the airport, the same car picked me up one month back from the airport. I’m driving the same car again on my way to the airport-it’s not mine or my family’s. And I know, it’s probably the last time I’ve this car for so much personal use, because the guy who owns it, is now a Canadian.

I leave the country contented. It’s been a spiritual cleansing exercise, just about everything, traveling, walking, talking, eating, sleeping - they have cleaned me of the accumulated thoughts of Home and Home country. It’s like a clean slate now - wiped with a wet cloth. All my family in California by Tuesday. California is another country’s distance away, but no border problems, I can go any time.

3 hours flight to Dubai is uneventful, just getting on to the flight is cumbersome, there’s a Lufthansa flight, Air India flight and Emirtes flight through a single security gate, I get up and sit down three times after each announcement -  Zones E,F on Emirates,  seats 25 and higher on Lufthansa, all passengers on Air India, all through the same gate. Everyone is huddled around the gate waiting for their turn, the doors have been closed and the staff and security watch me through the glass with their grom faces, while I return their looks just as grimly. We don’t smile around much.

17 hrs flght to  Houston is boring, I watch a Hindi movie, three English movies, a chinese movie from the choices on Emirates and am getting tired of sitting, when I finally land - get my baggage, go through customs, call family and relatives, check my baggage in again, and board my final 1.5 hr flight.

Six friends show up at the airport. Shower at home, dinner at a friend’s place.

I woke up to a fresh, bright, sunny, lovely Sunday morning in Birmingham, Alabama. Walked to the nearest grocery store half a mile away - it’s the second time in 5 years I’ve been in this store. There’s a desi dude at the counter, new management I assume, because it was owned by some middle-easterner settled in England before.

Are you Gujarati? He asks me. Hyderabad, I say.

I’m planning to open an Indian grocery section insde this store, please let your friends know.

I smile as I think, the invasion is complete.

Travelogues 3

Who says water has no flavor? It tastes different in Chennai hotels, it tastes a lot different in every village in East and West Godavari districts. But for the Byrraju foundation(not-for-profit wing of Satyam computers). A foundation that “adopts” a village and provides drinking water in barrels for cheap, a physician and access to a school if necessary in every village they have adopted. Awesome work.

108 is our 911.

Their footprint can also be found in the “108 service” all across the city. Emergency Response service (ERS). The ambulance reads Medical.Police.Fire, with a display of Rajiv Gandhi’s picture and Satyam’s logo as a technology sponsor. I’ve seen a good number of 108 ambulances on my way to the heart of the city and out, with sirens blazing as they cut through the traffic as best as they can, and add a little chaos as they wade through and go about on their mission, handling emergencies. Right now only Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat can handle 108 calls. With the change in the government, some names have changed, e-seva is now Rajiv citizen services, I wonder if we deserve to honor Rajiv Gandhi so much, because there have been real national heroes who haven’t been honored enough. But as long as Congress is in the state, everything that hasn’t been named NTR will be named a version of Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi. Change.

Necklace road stinks. But enough of Hyderabad anyway.

Airdeccan flight from Hyderabad to Chennai is a little bigger than a Cessna aircraft, the airport is full of people and is not a luxury mode of transport, there are very few things that distinguish an airport from the Imlibun bus stand, the bright displays and more security personnel. Air Deccan passengers get their baggage screened only at the Air Deccan security screening, similar for Jet Airways. Funny, that airlines have their own baggage screening protocol, equipment and staff.

My stay at woodlands hotel was uneventful though upon reflection I figured out I had never stayed alone in a hotel before. Speaking of habits, I put my hands beneath the tap in the restroom expecting a sensor by default, the elevator doesn’t go bling when it arrives on your floor and you look like a fool, when you keep pressing the elevator call button wile it is still at the same floor an you don’t notice it beyond the grilled gates that are not automatic. Worse, you tell the cab driver on the phone you are at the elevator and he doesn’t understand you because, an elevator is actually called a lift, just like before.

People. I met a surgical oncologist on my flight to Chennai, and she offered me a ride in her chauffeur driven car just because I asked her where Hotel New Woodlands is located. Another guy travelling with my cousin paid a 200 rs for a train related bribe for me and wouldn’t take them back from me. Because I was alone in Bhimavaram, with none of my cousins around for a day, my Aunt’s neighbor paid a 40 rupee movie ticket, a 20 rupee soft drink, 10 rupee samosas from his money, and wouldn’t take it back. I’ll most probably never meet these people again and yet they spend money on me out of courtesy.

Draksharam is one of the holiest places in south India, a paltry 12 km away from my Dad’s native village. The temple itself is centuries old. The travel time is 25-30 minutes on an isolated road that is full of potholes. A car full of people travelling along the road and when you see a pothole, the car slows down, one half of the car stays on the road, while one half slowly enters the pothole, nudging the travellers and their potbellies a slight left here or a slight right there, while their bums are firmly on the car seat and they continue their conversation after a momentary silece as if paying homage to the pothole on the road. The next pothole is a few feet away.

The 14 feet sivalinga is the tallest I’ve ever seen, and there are two lvels in the templ, a priest acts as a guide and tells us a lot of things. Why is 108 important, apart from the emergency response service I mentioned earlier, there are 27 stars of importance (Nakshatra), each having four limbs that carry them. Four times 27  is  108, the priest tells me. At the end of the tour he requests that each of us pay 116 Rs/- for his services, I can’t figure out where this number came from, four times 27 is fine,but isn’t 116, four times 29? Did he include two more stars from somewhere? Some look towards the lone NRI in the group and I shell out the money, hoping it really goes out to the one who needs it.

Yanam, we go to a river side bar with cousins  twice my age some of whom insist I’m a drunkard just trying to be polite, there are 4 tables full of Europeans who are possibly working for Reliance petroleum in the Godavari delta, we are the only ones on the fifth table - natives. Locals.

Travelogues 2

Feb/Mar 08

India is an India about contradictions. Change. No Change. When I hop onto my Honda Passion, on my short drive to Tarnaka, I must stay alert in three places in order to stay alive. The APHB lane, the theatre after railway quarters, the bump on the over bridge near St.Anns. Danger. No Change. On the way I see Aditya’s MORE, Subhiksham, Reliance fresh and other super markets that are fast replacing the traditional concept of Kirana/General stores. I step in and a bunch of young guys and girls dressed in their uniforms are busy at the cash registers, filling up the aisles, mopping floors, checking stock with an occasional middle aged manager overlooking them. 70% of India’s population is less than 35 years of age. The population of all Indians under the age of 14 is more than the population of the U.S. (sources unknown, but can be found online). I go to Hyderabad Central and a score of young people all/most under the age of 25 assisting customers, handling payments and working hard. If this isn’t India shining, I don’t know what is.

I step in Hotel Aditya Park Inn for a lunch buffet and exactly at 1:00 P.M., a hundred people walk in neatly dressed and their badges dangling down lanyards around their necks. Most people are under the age of 30.

The total cost of my prepaid cell phone was 400 Rs/- or around 10$ until today, once I’ve used it very generously. With a few ISD calls. The greatest change in Hyderabad has been the use of digital meters in an Auto Rickshaw, no longer will I have to pay 25 Rs/- from ECIL X road to my house today and pay 12 Rs/-, the correct price, tomorrow. Different autos don’t charge different prices for the same distance. yet. The minimum ticket on a RTC bus is Rs 2/-.

Change, lot of change.

Hyderabad, Mahbubnagar (town, manyamkonda), Chennai, Kakinada, (town, yanam, kolanka), Bhimavaram (town, kodvillu, vempa). Cities have changed, villages haven’t, except most young people don’t live in villages anymore.

–

Hyderabad

Family, friends, relatives. Marriage. New relatives.

More traffic, more cars. Change. Potholes, unused pavements, pollution. No change.

Security screening and metal detectors at eateries, malls, super markets, all points of interest in the city, by private security guards.  Change. Big change.

KFC, McDonald’s with a tikka burger and french fries, Subway sandwiches. Change.

Movies. No change. Oh wait, instead of 50 Tata Sumos stopping in a perfect straight line, it’s now Scorpios or Boleros. They still stop in a perfect straight line. A walk down any road anywhere, the brilliant products of Tollywood’s navel academy, Illeana, trisha, Namitha, rita, nita, pita and if you are lucky, even Balakrishna, heck if you have two minutes of time and none of your family around, you can even have a comparison….sigh!

Reliance fresh, Reliance gas stations, Reliance communication center, Reliance chit fund, Reliance foot wear and now Reliance jewellery.  Even public booths have a reliance phone.

Lot of changes, mostly for the good, some for the worse. 2 hrs of drudging along an impossible magnitude of heart-of-the-city traffic, with radio mirchi (idi chala hot guru) and some other Fm channel(ut-sahnga-ul-lasamga) happily blaring away with an unhelpful input about the traffic situation in the city. Two wheelers passing around cars, buses and autos in a geometrical pattern that cannot be named, cannot be defined. There’s no shape called chaos. An outer ring road that promises heaven, traces of which you can see on the outskirts of the city, a sub way,  fly-overs waiting to be completed, road widening, construction, repair, damage - all going on at the same time.

An India of contradictions.