Rant 47: Dharma Dharam Dharamsthala

A few weekends ago, we visited a place called Dharamsthala.
It's about 70 Kms east of Mangalore, or a 2 hour bumpy bus ride away, through some lovely ghats and overlooking some beautiful scenery.
However, pointless statues were not the only worthwhile sight at this place. The temple complex also boasts a beautiful antique museum, which has everything from old guns to old cameras...yes even an ancient Nikon!! Plus, there's even a car museum here...Buicks, limos, etc...even the old Gangsta, Al Capone era getaway type car. Sadly, we weren't allowed to take pictures at these two museums, though I did try to capture a bit of video at the car museum which came out really crappy
still, as always, enjoy the pics that I was able to take

en route all smiles?...maybe not...(L to R) Melllissa, Vinod and Yashpal

The gateway to Dharamsthala

The temple and the hostel


Devotees...

...of all shapes and (hair) sizes...


not to mention, of all idiosyncracies....anybody say The Wailing Gate???

large structures, one useful...the other... simply self-aggrandizing

I learned in my high-school Biology classes that one of the defining characteristics of being a "Living" being, was Response to Stimuli...I guess my teacher forgot to mention it was the same for Exploitation as well
Boy I hope that woman gets her money's worth of blessings, otherwise religion would just be an exploiter...

Ohhh wait...

Rant 46: My Office Episode 3

There is a reason why I took my time with this Episode. I was giving myself an extra few days, just in case my opinions got changed by some miracle. Sadly they haven’t.
Oh wait! You don’t know what I’m talking about. Ok let’s get up to speed on this one.
Ever since I arrived (yes Vinod, I can hear the snickering) in the state of Karnataka around three and a half years ago, I have thought a lot about languages, specifically, local languages in this region and those that I can’t understand. It’s alright to watch a Kannada movie and figure out the general storyline through overly stereotypical character constructions, actions and dialogue delivery styles. However, it’s quite another to be in a public place, say a bus or a restaurant and to understand what is going on. I honestly feel completely out of place at times, especially after moving to Mangalore. During college at Manipal, the language barrier was a little less pronounced wherein it was only the odd autorickshaw driver or shopkeeper who’d turn out to be a mono-linguist (it’s an international college campus for f***’s sake. I mean come on!!!). Most of the local populace there could communicate quite manageably in Hindi and a good number could even speak English. I guess that sort of put me in the language bubble where I assumed that a similar situation existed in Mangalore.
NOT!!!
The language barrier here is the Berlin Wall of all such dividers. People here naturally assume you know the local language. I can understand that to a certain extent. But dude, even after I’ve told you "No kannada boss", you still rattle on in the same manner. I mean that’s either plain stupidity or plain linguism (couldn’t find a better word for language racism…lol!). In very few places (not counting malls of course) have I seen people communicating in Hindi or even English. Ok, I can hear some of you saying, "Learn the friggin’ language dude!" But seriously, there is a minor sense of animosity I get whenever I speak to say auto drivers in Hindi. It’s sort of like, "Oh you’re from outside. Okay, I’ll take you but I won’t be happy about it!" Now, normally I wouldn’t care if they were happy about it or not, as long as I’m not overcharged. However, I feel that it is this attitude of "you’re an outsider" that is the cause of so much strife and rioting in this region. "You’re an outsider", can so easily be interchanged with "You’re different from us" (Yes you pussy communal-riot-flamers, I am looking right at you!!).
And it’s not just with people working in the public sphere. In fact, the language barrier is a kind of front for what I feel is the general attitude of people here. My own landlord gave me a stern message the first time I spoke with him. "We don’t like outsiders!" I kid you not. These were the exact words. I guessed he meant people from outside Karnataka. At that time, in a room with 6 people where I was the only "outsider", I have to say, I felt a slight shiver down my spine.
Apparently, they don’t like leasing rooms or houses out to Non-Karnataka people. My landlord’s logic went something along the lines of "If you come, then more people will want to come, then our community will become bad."
How can you not feel like smashing something up at that point?
Further, doesn’t this seem similar to what is reported about Mumbai/Maharashtra? Where exactly is the society here heading towards I ask you?
Well, until next episode, to all my local friends: Kannada Gotthilla!

Rant 45: Cartoon break

Whenever I'm a little bored in the office, I go on a Cartoon break...
just hunt around the net for time-transcending strips like Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes etc. And sometimes trawling for newer, more intelligent sounding ones.
XKCD (google it, I'm too lazy to link it for you)
plus this strip I found very recently on this site (is it funny today? no I'm not asking you, that's the name)
Looks like a modern day version of Calvin and Hobbes, except that both characters are animals and the "Hobbes"-esque character (a guy called Utahraptor) tends to speak more than his Bill Watterson counterpart. Also, the drawings are the same for every single strip, which is interesting because the character expressions pretty much make sense (or are laughable) for every dialogue in every different strip

thats all I have to say...
I have to get back to work now!

Rant 44: My Office, Episode 2

So life, as they say, goes on. Hold on! This was a sentence I used to see in my school magazine as endings to corny (and sometimes funny) articles. I’m guessing the authors couldn’t think of a good ending, and thus ended that way. So why am I using this sentence and that too in the beginning of this post?
Maybe, it’s because life inside the office will always have its particular rhythm. I really don’t see any need to elaborate much on the general workings and happenings, at this moment. (If you’re interested in it, please see Episode 1 of this series)
So let’s step out of the office space. However, I will stay within the confines of various aspects of office-life.
First things first, Lunch.
In the beginning, there was thali (a traditional south Indian meal and apologies for sounding biblical). Well, to actually call the cafeteria’s meal a traditional thali would be stretching it. It was…uhh…well…you know, an-edible-assortment-of-things. A cup of white rice, two chapathis, a curry, some sabzi (vegetable mix) and curd. I would say that from childhood, I’ve evolved from being a picky-eater (huge euphemism) to one who can survive on anything. And the afore mentioned meal was okay, I guess. The first month or so, my 30-minute lunch comprised standing in the lunch line, picking up whatever variation of curry/sabzi was on offer for the day and then endure the TV, which for some reason was always tuned to MTV. For an even odder reason, my lunch breaks always seemed to coincide with Splitsville (and if you have never heard of this show before, Run Forrest Run!).
Then came the rumours, not to mention the heavy drowsiness I felt post-lunch. After discussions with some colleagues, I decided that the vicious rumours about the canteen guys adding Soda to the rice to increase quantities could well be true. And in any case, who wanted to take chances eh? Next thing you know, they might come up with a stomach disease called Soda-stone (Shotgun on the name rights, in case they actually find something).
They say the grass is always greener on the other side. In my case, I just hoped the food at a certain restaurant located just outside the back entrance to the office campus, was better filling and had less potential for harm. What I imagined to be a hoattall turned out to be a plain old dhaba (quite possibly, a house converted into a dhaba). There was nothing plain old about the service. Enter "Aunty"!
A hobbling old woman (reminds me a lot of my grandmother) is in charge here, and she is pretty much the only one. And yet, despite the fact that loads of other employees from the company (or as I like to call them, the soda-in-canteen-rice-conspiracy-group) come to eat here, she remembers the choices of every single one of them.
And the food itself, is divine! Well, maybe not divine in the true sense of the word, but the very fact that it was "home-cooked" or at least tasted as such, was enough for me to forsake the canteen. My regular choices include 3 parotas, curry, sabzi and 3 pieces of chicken kebab. It’s been one heavenly lunch after another so far. The best part about Aunty’s (that’s the name of the place I think. At least I haven’t heard a different one yet), is that she doesn’t really care how much of curry or sabzi she lovingly doles out. Or even of the number of pieces of chicken. She handed me five once, when I’d asked for three, and the smile on her face told me who my second mum was! (first mom, I still love your food the best…KFC, you, of course, are my second dad).
A wholly satisfying lunch later, I return to the office to continue work. And here I wish I was allowed to take pictures in the office, wherein I could post a before and after pic of my post-lunch situation. BEFORE: resting head on hands, eyes closed, in risk of getting pulled up by manager.
AFTER: eyes wide open, ready to take on the world…or is it China?

(PS: Next episode will be on another important aspect of office life…Communications)

Rant 43: My Office, Episode 1

My office has changed me quite a bit as a person.
About a month back, I was pulled up by my managers here for posting three articles on this blog, based on the workings of my department. I have since taken down those ‘effing posts. Okay, so I can’t write about that stuff but I guess writing about the office in general should not be an issue (I hope!).
So here goes.
For the first time in my life, I am feeling what most office-goers can perhaps relate to, i.e. STRESS. My three-walled workstation, with a computer to stare at for 8-9 hours a day (on Fridays it’s 12) takes its toll on me every time. At the end of the day’s shift I can literally feel the heaviness in my eyes. I cannot remember the last time I felt this sort of daily grind. Don’t get me wrong. The work itself is quite interesting and keeps you on your toes but of course I can’t talk about it here (which probably increases your curiosity right? Don’t worry, I’m not building any nukes here, neither am I being called double-o-seven…sigh!). I guess all I can reveal to you is that it’s an editing and design based job. It has its impacts as well and not only on the reports that I sub. Even on this blog, I have gone from a raving ranting writer who didn’t care about grammar, punctuation and the like, to a raving ranting writer who’s been subbing this particular post as its being written.
I guess the stress and grind parts are inevitable in any person’s life. Most of you reading this have probably already faced all that through high school and perhaps even college. Sadly (?), I was more of the I-DON’T-GIVE-A-RAT’S-POSTERIOR-FOR-EDUCATION types, which meant that high-school was a breeze. I was content with average marks and didn’t value the rat race too much. And college, well, I don’t suppose ANY sane person is expected to feel stress in this period of life. Not with Pink Floyd, pretty chicks and healthy doses of inebriation around at least!
Our office computers have access to the internet of course. However, we have been strictly warned to refrain from visiting social networking websites, accessing our emails, basically visiting any website that’s not directly related to our work. And in the true spirit of "Indian heterodoxy" (my thanks to Amartya Sen), people manage to sneak in visits every now and then. The few unlucky ones, such as myself, were assigned workstations with computers facing the manager’s desk (or at least are within-sight), which means my "illegal" visits have to be conducted during **********.
(no errors or cursing here, just keeping my ass covered)
Thankfully, the office has a few television sets to keep us entertained (though they are understandably kept on Mute). It helps a lot, believe me. Even if you are the Grandmaster of Secret-Orkutting-Facebooking-Gmailing, you cannot help but take the occasional five minutes off your work to watch the Ashes, football or some random movie. And a big thank you to the major movie channels for introducing subtitles in their screenings!
Coming back to the office-changing-me part. Until I took up this job, I could never have imagined myself settling into a 9 to 5 type day. However, two months in, I have pretty much synched myself with the daily routine. To top it off, my job isn’t a 9 to 5 affair. On most days, i.e. days that I’m lucky, I manage to leave by 8 pm. On a Friday, for reasons that I am unable to divulge, I reach home by 10-10:30 pm. The bad part about Mangalore city is that the public transport system (ok that’s too much credit; the BUS service) shuts down after 9 pm. Still, I’m getting used to these late hours and minor discrepancies as well. All part of the real world experience I guess.

Rant 42: Indian v Sri Lanka 3-1

Just saw the game between India and Sri Lanka in the ONGC Nehru cup 2009, at the Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi. Must say, that the team looks pretty good in terms of passing the ball around, creating scoring opportunities and actually taking them when it counts.

Although, India lost their Nehru Cup 2009 opener to Lebanon, they came back strongly against Kyrghystan. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, had been reeling from a walloping they received two days ago at the hands of Syria. In the buildup to the India game Coach Perreira (Sri Lanka) had been critical of the fixtures, saying they favoured the hosts who had to play games at a lesser frequency than the visitors.

However, for India the match itself was a must-win, which would certainly have increased the pressure, as opposed to the Lankans who simply had to draw to remain in the tournament.
India took the lead mid-way through the first half through a header from golden-boy Baichung Bhutia. For the most part, the first half looked like India's for the taking as the Lankans remained content with their long, ambitious balls into the final third with only their two strikers chasing after the ball, looking like random farmers in a barren, untouched-by-rain Indian rice field.
Prior to the first goal, India almost got their rewards for dominating the first ten minutes via Sunil Chettri who got his head to a free kick from just outside the half-way line. However, the goal was ruled out for offside. The Indian fans were forced to wait for a superb in-swinging cross from Steven Dias, from the right side touchline, that Bhutia converted with a charging header. The Lankans looked unable to defend the aerial ball at all times and were largely uncomfortable with the constant pressure from their opponents right up to the half time whistle. There were several occasions when the Indian players struck the woodwork and one felt, the hosts deserved a better scoreline in their favour going into the break.
After the break, however, it was the islanders who started the more positive, as they managed a ten-minute period of pressure with shots ranging in from the midfielders (I'm not going to pretend I remember their names!!). India too looked like increasing their lead, with Bhutia striking the woodwork (again off a header).
The Sri Lankan efforts paid off eventually. The goal came off a relatively harmless looking free-kick, which was headed into goal off a defender's foot and was enough to set the scores level. Indian coach Bob Houghton was definitely not pleased with the defending but that didn't stop the Indian forwards from pressing on for the lead. Surprisingly, it was defender Gauramangi Singh who got the lead once again for the hosts, with a simple tap-in after the Lankan goalkeeper failed to parry the ball safely away from a near post cross.
Midfielder Steven Dias found the net around ten minutes later, with a cracking shot after being released on the right by NP Pradeep. 3-1 India!!!
The hosts were then content to make the odd foray down the centre, whilst keeping their opponents at bay. Although, Sri Lanka managed a few runs down the flanks in the final stages of the match, India were able to see the game through.

I must say...even though I haven't followed the Indian team before or since the coaching was taken over by Bob Houghton, it was a pleasure to watch them play. There was a definite attitude of "going forward" that we had.
In contrast, I remember a match we played in England against Wolverhampton Wolves (of the English Premier League) a few years back and I actually felt ashamed at the fact that we could not even provide decent enough competition against a bottom-table league side, let alone score a goal and even worse, play against full-strength national sides.
We seem to have come a long way from that and here's hoping our next game, against Syria, goes just as well!

and btw, the match description was my first attempt at something of a "Match review" perse, so feel free to post any comments, criticism of the same...Thanks!

Rant 41: TV, Entertainment and Prosperity

I finally have a form of entertainment at my house apart from the big line of books on the maddeningly low shelf space. A TV.
Don't get me wrong.
I may not be as huge a fan of books as some of my more stiff-lipped friends who love invoking Arundhati Roy and sometimes obscure south-Indian authors just to sound smart, but I do enjoy picking up autobiographies, run-of-the-mill college type comedies (aka 5.someone types), a few action thrillers and - of late - some political ones, every now and then.
However, if you ever stepped into my current dwelling, you would realise that there can be two possible consequences of reading too many books in the kind of "scene" there is: A low power, orangey-yellowey, depressing little night light.
Consequence 1: I go half-blind
and 2: I kill myself.
So in order to avoid both (more so for No.2 I guess) I pestered my folks to finance a TV. And finance they did. Coercion, thy name in my book is whining...
Enter a Phillips 21".
I will refrain from saying too much about the cable connection. Sufficeth to say, Consequence No 1 (see above) has a chance of befalling me yet.
So to talk about the actual TV viewing...
I'd been desperate to catch some EPL action and lo and behold, the first thing I see on ESPN is the EPL highlights show, with Manu's match against Wigan (a 5-0 thrashing to get my grin going). Having filled up on EPL, topped with a healthy dose of SportsCenter, I began my second favourite pastime on TV, channel surfing. Even though the set has a lag time from the moment you press the +/- sign to when it actually changes, wherin the audio stops half a second before change, surfing on it is quite enjoyable. Not least if I end up on a boring saas-bahu show. There is nothing more satisfying than cutting off audio for a woman just about to embark on a marathon of emotional dialogues, not to mention the dramatic soundtrack with pointless extreme close-up zoom-ins and zoom-outs.
However, the icing on the cake was this tele-shopping type sales pitch I saw on some random 24 hour news channel (and you wonder where all the breaking news ideas come from???)
The sales person was a "real" sadhu, complete with braided hair, and through elaborate gestures, he explained how the

SHIV SHAKTHI KAVACH could eliminate all bad influences in your life; bad neighbours, somebody who wanted to cause you harm, swine flu, aids and other horrifying elements. All you had to do was BUY the Kavach and wear it. And in the true spirit of Teleshopping, a free gift was available to the first 100 or so callers: a gold sticker to hang on your house's doorstep to ward off all evil.

Thank you TV industry for making possible rib-crushing laughter without the need for THC!