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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Comedy of Errors

Oscar Wilde has very aptly quoted " Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative". May be we have taken this excerpt in right earnest and hence come up with exceptional and ingenious ways to do away with the humdrum that keeps sneaking in from time to time in our lives.

As i have narrated in my preceding posts, I have two room mates who share the residence. This arrangement has been there for the last few years and has worked perfectly fine without causing  any disquiet or anxiety. There is a tacit agreement with respect to our respective responsibilities which are taken care of more or less. This blog is about the "less" part of the aforesaid phrase.

It was in July that I was coerced into taking a leave by my office,  so spent  a quiet holiday in Delhi and was beginning to long for the pandemonium.  My whim was to be very soon awarded. July in Bangalore is a month of relentless rains, i managed to reach work albeit late and was completely drenched  when i left office for home. All i wanted at that hour was hot bath followed by a warm cup of coffee and then to snuggle into the bed with a book, but was forgetting that i had asked for ruckus and there was no reprieve now. This is what transpired.

I reached home, there was no power, nothing atypical in that, a very familiar scenario in Bangalore, however what was here deviant was that all of our neighbors had electricity, this called for some legwork and on inquiry it emerged that we had not paid the electricity bill and the lineman had disconnected our supply. Bill payments are my area of responsibility and in my absence apparently no one discharged it. The only recourse was to go out get the bill paid, find the line man get him to the home and reconnect, Easier said than done. Rain and I are anyways always daggers drawn, so it was foolish  to presume that it would abate, in fact it had now begun to pour with vengeance. Nevertheless i stepped out in the rain, the first task was to find where the BESCOM office was, some friendly neighbors explained the address, it could have well been in greek, i however noted whatever they said, the next Herculean task was to find a "tuktuk" that would take me to BESCOM in this rain. Bangalore auto drivers are notorious for their behavior( trust me when i say so they are worse than those in Chennai), painstakingly i found one, well he dropped me in the middle of nowhere and i found my way to the bescom office walking in 6 inches deep mud. I used the ATM machine there to pay the bill and was in the meanwhile joined by one of my room mates. By this time it was 1930 and no line man was then availble, as if this ordeal was not lavish enough, the local people there emphatically informed us that our area didn't come under their jurisdiction and gave another unintelligible address.

We had to undergo all of this vexation again but much to our wonderment, the lineman came with us and repaired the line.

Why do i write this blog today, i could have very well written it in July when this incident happened, or over the last two months when there was a genuine paucity of topics. It so happened that this month our supposed friendly neighbors failed to give us the electricity bill and as a consequence our line was disconnected yet again yesterday, this time however it was easier as we knew where to find the right people, and instead of the frowns we were exchanging sheepish grins.

We have now marked a date in all the months for the remaining year bill or no bill, i am optimistic it "might" work.

Gruß
Suyasha

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Devil's Advocate !

They say that she is your mirror that shines back at you with a world of possibilities, she is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best and loves you anyway. She is a partner in crime, a midnight companion one who knows when you are smiling in the dark. She is your teacher, your defense attorney, your personal press agent, even your shrink, and she is also sometimes the reason you wish you were an only child ! No reward for the correct answer there - she has to be your sister.

no truer words were ever spoken !

with this blog today i share with you a few reminiscences of my being (read survival) with my sister. I was the first born in my family and for two good years an only child. As every first born I was mollycoddled and indulged by my parents. This prerogative was however ephemeral, as i was to be presented with not one but TWO younger sisters. This is the ode to the elder one of the two.

I was too young to conjure up here the exact reaction on hearing the birth of my sister, but my parents never however fail to recount the memoirs of those formative years- I would stand up at the balcony of our house in Ajmer and would enumerate the plight of being an elder sister to all the animals: calves, dogs, puppies and the likes, ( though calves were a favorite)  the homo sapiens were way too occupied to listen to the rues of a two year old. This is "what my parents say" i said : " My younger sister cannot eat and drink, she cannot even speak cannot walk and talk and that is why she always stays close to my mom" I find it extremely difficult to envisage me saying anything like that but have no proof to invalidate that.


Well my whining and lamenting had some progressive results. In my sister I got an ardent and an earnest companion and advocate ( hence the defense attorney in Bold). She would repeat the last word of everything i would say, clap on seeing me on stage at the annual day, give up eating curd and the likes and may be it was this abiding attempt of hers that i had to moderate,  yield and accept her as my younger sister.She has not given it up yet, though only the articulation has somewhat changed. What di does is right and fit to be followed !!! Come on where do you get such sisters in the 21st century !

She might rant and storm about what i am going to write next, but rest assured every word of it is true. Over the years we have been  very mainstream conventional sisters: went in different lines of work, had different dispositions and opinions, she grew up to be a very intelligent, independent person but the sister in her has continued to be the champion of my causes and an inadvertent follower of it too. Here goes the example: I write a blog and she has off late started to write one too, here the link if you have doubts.
:http://ameanderingamazon.blogspot.com/
she would come up with all sorts of veneers against this, but trust me i know better :P


I can site more  examples here but frankly speaking who would like to antagonize a God sent gift like her !


Liebe Grüße
Suyasha






Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Tag der Deutsche Einheit - 20th Anniversay of the Day of German Unity

This blog was hardly supposed to be a chronological account of my anxieties and  adversities but since they seem to be all magnetically drawn to me, its hard to escape and disregard them.

The Day of German Unity ( this year it was celebrated on the 6th of October 2010 ) also made no allowances in that direction. The Day had its share of disruptions but inadvertently ended on quite a pleasant note. Here is a bit by bit account of the same.

The concept of RSVP is for all practical purposes totally antediluvian  to Bangaloreans, we had sent out almost five hundred invitations and from the other missions' paradigm we were expecting close to 200 - 250 guests. By the 1st of October we had received only 20 RSVPs and this was inclusive the in-house acceptances of the invitations. We were in a very precarious situation now, and as all desperate times call for desperate measures we started calling up all the guests on our invite list to confirm their presence. Amusingly 80% of them replied in affirmative.

Concurrently another brouhaha was in the offing. The Diplomatic missions' disposition is  not very unique from the common man's, even they vie with each other as to who attended who's party especially on their National Days. As a matter of principle the bureaucratic community doesn't attend these events ( uniquely in Bangalore). The ceremonial invitations are however sent, and though they acknowledge it in principle its not followed in practice, therefore it was quite a pleasant surprise to our Consul General when the Chief Secretary and the Governor both sent their written acceptances. So far so good, we sent them the written program of the day, where the German Anthem was to be  played before the Indian National Anthem ( as against the Indian protocol but accepted in many other countries on National days), naturally the ADC objected, and insisted that the Indian should be played before the German one. It took the drawing of a leaf from the book of the Embassy in Delhi to put an end to the protocol dilemma, that Indian National Anthem would be played before the German one.

We were just getting to be slightly sanguine about the whole event on the morning of 6th October 2010 when there was a political imbroglio in the state of Karnataka, which became worse as the evening fell and blighted all our hopes :(.  The roads leading to Vidhana Soudha and Raj Bhavan were totally choked, ironically our reception was at the Taj West End Hotel which is apparently at the heart of this commotion. Incessant rains only added to our woes. I was myself stuck in the traffic for exasperating 90 mins and reached after the arrival of all the "dignitaries" As one of the hosts and as " mistress of the ceremony" I was expected to be on time and was sure to be reprimanded for being late. ( i was miraculously forgiven).

There was however one mortification left to be faced. When the Chief Secretary commenced his speech the guests were palavering uninterrupted. From a group of guests who belong to the top most echelons of the corporate world and boast to come from a very refined and well bred society the behavior was self derogatory and belittling, especially when they need all sorts of favors from the Government for their industries. This embarrassment lasted for about 20 mins after which our Chief guests left and the buffet was declared open.

Not everything was bleak and grim as painted by me so far, the food was simply superb and quite a few comments flowed in for the same. The guests were in good attendance in spite of the traffic snarls. My two friends had also joined me for the very evening and together we all had a good time.Irrespective of all the stumbling blocks it somehow turned out to be one of the finest evenings i have spent in Bangalore.

Liebe Grüße
Suyasha

PS: Now for those who attended the party and also happen to read the blog, kindly note: you have to read between the lines here and comment accordingly. I have dropped a couple of hints here and there. Iff your train of thought is still boarding its station or you are going to bestow on me some irrelevant tangents please refrain and kindly check with me before posting :)

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Under a Lock and Key contd....

Now that I have been chastised by all those who mattered, i have decided to put my lassitude aside and finish my blog.
My apologies if the blog doesn't come up to the mark. Torpidity has proved quite expensive and has blighted my language. Nevertheless here is my attempt. I pick it up from where i had left.

The Runaway Bride:
We were in the worst possible predicament, no one seemed to be taking us seriously. To most of the management committee at the Arya Samaj we appeared immature friends who were way too much under the influence of Bollywood and knew not what they were doing. The absence of the groom was not helping the situation either. The condescending in charge at the Arya Samaj  looked down upon us with her patrician nose and said: are you sure the guy would turn up at the wedding? We actually had to use propinquity of contacts to procure permission to solemnize the wedding there. So much for an Arya Samaj wedding, I wonder why they say its a retreat of the runaway brides !

I Do
The Wedding Day, the 4th of July 2010 arrived, and so did thankfully the groom. The stagecraft was however far from over. Aviral, who was acting as the bride's brother had been especially requested to behave sincerely and was taken for gratis that would come in an attire most suited to an Indian wedding, much to our chargin came more prepared for the party which was anticipated for the evening. As if this dash was not enough, Zoya our esteemed room mate refused to sign as Abhishek's sister. Since I had already registered myself as Priya's relative, we had to convince Dhiren to act as Abhishek's cousin and Zoya as a witness to the marriage. Not to mention that due to our disquiet we all signed up at the wrong places, i don't remember  who was who's relative in the end.

Trepidation was even more in case of Priya and Abhishek, they performed the ceremonies in such an amusing fashion that even the strict lady who was supervising the marriage was forced to give a smile or two every now and then.  There is a tradition called "Madhupark" in the wedding where the bride offers honey and curd to the groom by way of welcoming him, Abhishek who had lost all faculties due to nervousness as a reflex kept taking his hand back to his hair after each "aachman" and had to be told that honey would set in his hair and they would have to be removed if he kept doing that.

However the zenith of amusement was the part  when Abhishek had to put the "Mangalsutra" around Priya's neck. Since this marriage had anyways been unconventional in all respects how could this tradition follow the usual norms: he took out a very stylish "swaroski" chain encrusted with lock and key swaroski crystals. Naturally the pandit ji showed disapproval, supervisor's expression's reporach and Aviral who just couldn't contain himself showed his expression by way of saying aloud" aha Swaroski, wah wah !"

Some how the wedding got completed,  blessings were showered on the bride and the groom and it was followed by a very entertaining late night party. Here i would also like to mention that Priya and Abhishek are getting married yet again, yes to each other yet again,  on 21st December 2010.  Seeing the prologue the final showdown is for sure not to be missed !!!


PS: Names of all the characters, save mine and the names of most of the places have been changed at Priya's request ( though it is not serving its purpose ) :P

Many thanks to those who attended the marriage at  at a very short notice and request:
1.  Oliver who with his daughter and wife gave a family touch to the wedding, and
2.   Dhiren's mom who provided us with the presence of someone elderly.


with all my best wishes
Suyasha

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Under a Lock and Key

This particular blog is at the behest of a friend and is in accordance with a whole set of prerequisites stated by her. Before I start with the anecdote, i would introduce you briefly with the protagonists and other peripheral characters of this narrative.

Priya: the female protagonist who also happens to be my room mate.
Abhishek: the male protagonist and Priya's boyfriend of four years.
Zoya Jain: Our room mate
Myself ; the blogger
Dhiren: Priya's colleague
Oliver: My Colleague
Aviral: Priya and Zoya's good friend.

Preface : we three friends have been staying together for the last four years, and in all these four years the enduring topic of discourse has been as to who amongst us is the czarina of melodramatics. After a lot of resilience posed by us, (many will be flabbergasted to know)  the tiara was worn this July by none other than Priya, but  of course she had an ace up her sleeve( read boyfriend ) which we two lacked.

Act One : To be or not to be
Madame Priya, is in a league of her own,  though she has known Abhishek for the last four years but it was after a lot meandering and flirting around with the idea,  she decided this January that Abhishek is the one and the wedding was fixed for December 2010. Parents gave their blessings, congratulations flowed in and we booked our calenders for December 2010. Mr. Abhishek who has been working with Accenture in Czech Republic all this while, had a sudden,  very avant - garde and an extravagant brain wave. "If the wedding bells are to ring in December by the time Visa formalities are completed it would be March and his sojurn in Europe would be complete, why not enjoy a paid holiday in Europe while it lasts". So on 30th June we are informed that he would fly to Bangalore on the 3rd of July and that we should arrange for a wedding to take place on Sunday, the 4th of July 2010. Court marriage was out of question as it requires a month's buffer time and we did not have even a week at our disposal, so an Arya Samaj wedding was our only alternative.

Act Two: My Best Friend's Wedding !
Indian Society can hardly be called secretive, we all have our share of good natured gossiping acquaintances and so having a hurried wedding in Calcutta from where both Priya and Abhishek hail was also not a feasible idea.  Since I happen to be an Arya Samajist Priya requested me to check our options in Bangalore itself. Arya Samaj unfortunately enjoys a very notorious reputation among common men: An institution where an eloped couple gets married, that month the Arya Samaj was on a cleansing reputation spree.
Priya's and Abhishek's parents were not in a position to come for the wedding as one parent was in the US and the other engaged in the preparation for the formal "roka" cremony. the onus was on us to formalise the wedding.


To be Contd........


Liebe Grüße
Suyasha

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

It Happens Only in India..... contd.

Coming back to Arjun Singh's celebrated silence: He had two alternatives, one that he had the prerogative to take Foreign Policy decisions or that he was issued a directive from the Centre. Digvijay Singh says that it was not Arjun Singh's call and the Centre says no such Directive was issued.

Here we have to keep the ruling legacy of India in mind, we are a nation where the subordinates are programmed to take orders, it would be very very audacious of someone to act on his own accord in such a vital matter.

What the whole episode as a synopsis implies: Neither Arjun Singh nor Rajiv Gandhi released Anderson, so either the District Collector, the Police Superintendent or the pilot hatched a conspiracy to get Anderson out? If that was the case,  then Gentlemen, Why are you in the first place sitting here as rulers and why did we choose such impotent weaklings?
Thank God we are done with the election of the President of India, otherwise Arjun Singh would have emerged as the most appropriate candidate for his disposition in the present situation !


Now that we are done with the Legislature and the Executive, we turn towards the judiciary, that put an American before hundreds of Indians. How does one explain this, love for dollar or the white skin? If the Supreme Court of a country fails to deliver justice then there is hardly a choice left for its citizens to go anywhere.

Why blame the then Government alone, the following governments of the Centre and the state be it that of BJP or any other, had equally insensitive roles to play.  The Vajpayee Government in fact awarded President's medal to the official of Union Carbide.

My conclusion from the episode:

First I am corrupt who elects such people to power, the next level is the administration and the police, then the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers we are all a Team, a team of mercenaries.


Liebe Grüße
Suyasha

Friday, July 16, 2010

It Happens Only in India !

I happen to have a very unfortunate habit, I write on topics after they have faded away from the headlines. As usual I am starting with a disclaimer: though I am writing on the Bhopal Gas Incident but have tried to refrain from writing what has already been written, and secondly the ideas expressed through this Blog are not entirely my own, they are slightly abridged but i am quite rest assured that there would be no accusation of plagiarism here :)

there is a famous adage that says " A society of sheep gets in time a Government of wolves" How astute does it sound in today's context ! Three  facets emerge from the Union carbide Tragedy : the role of the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary. I have spent the entire Primary School and the Middle School learning how they co ordinate to run the country. for the first time I discerned that they co ordinate, to run the country NO ! For this particular incident, they were in complete sync with each other, all three lacked sensitivity, they all lacked allegiance to their duty, honesty and resolve, they just didn't feel the need for it, they are not accountable to this country or its people.
The Information Media provided a platform to awaken and instigate the "civil " society, and what came out was a brazen display of swindling, infidelity and treachery. All efforts were made to defer the the fingers pointing to the obvious miscreant. By doing so they are only demonstrating their adherence to the ruling lady and her family. The kind of arguments that have come in support are incongruous, outlandish and repugnant all at the same time.
Lets go through them for a good laugh and my apologies if you are disgusted simultaneously !
Arun Nehru : Rajiv Gandhi cannot be involved, his expression at the press conference didn't look like those of a guilty man ! Incredulous !!!
Another Politician: Rajiv Gandhi was barely in power for two months when the aforesaid incident happened, he didn't know much about the country, he was guided by others on the incident.
Mr. Dhavan, the loyalist says : That Mr. P C Alexander at the PMO  was responsible as he was antagonized for not being made the president.

What gives me some food for thought here is that Government of India has rendered Union carbide Inculpable, here we are assuming that someone did that without consulting the then foreign Minister or the Prime Minister, well iff thats true " It Happens only in India".

Now coming to the then Chief Minister Arjun Singh.: his silence to this incident is of significance, here the comment of the Finance Minister is noteable: to prevent the situation from becoming bad to worse Waren Anderson was allowed to leave the State. One wonders which situation is being referred to here: Country's/Anderson's/or Arjun Singh's.

Well this begs the question why are we trying Kasab here, he should have also been sent to Pakistan for a trial.

to be continued.......

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

My pet Dog Sheru

The furlough from blogging this time was exceptionally long, and now I am facing what we define as a writer's inertia, not that i am a writer, but having an inertia nevertheless.

I have decided to write on a very simple topic, a topic that kids learn to write and speak on in kindergarten, that was in my times, now they know it  may be even as they learn to speak.

During my brief tarriance in New Delhi this week,  I was fascinated by the antics of our farm dog, Sheru.
My parents are very fond of traveling so we could never afford the luxury of having an animal as a pet, but when they started living in Delhi, they found a pup who had come wandering to the farm, it was super cute and looked of a good breed so we got it home, it has grown into a handsome dog now, every time i see this dog, i get a feeling that dogs have been created to be domesticated, you don't have to train them to be faithful to you, a loving glance with a small of glass of milk is all it takes to earn the loyalty of a life time.Irrespective how tired one is from the day's work, regardless of how late one comes back home, there is this fellow waiting to greet you with a wagging tail, running after your car, and waiting till you get out, escorting you till your room and then relaxing that you are back.

When my mother goes and feeds  the cows, it is jealous that they are also getting a part of her attention, and barks at each and every cow, it drives the monkeys that eat away the fruits, reports its success and also waits for a nod of approval. it has recently learned  that it is photogenic too, now every time it sees any of us with the camera hanging down our necks, it makes a point to follow us. this time my flight from Delhi was at six in the morning, so we had to leave from home as early as 0330 and I had Sheru there to wish me good bye !
 There is not a minute of loneliness with it around,  i don't know how do animals realize what you expect of them.

i don't know if all the dog owners feel the same, but I have come to realise how good it is to have a pet at home.

Liebe Grüße
Suyasha

Monday, June 28, 2010

A tale of two cities

Johannesberg VS New Delhi                               
I am fond of comparisons, and the events around the world keep providing me the fodder to continue drawing parallels. And as the appellation very much indicates this blog is also not going to be any different.

All the sport aficionados would be quite familiar with the two mascots that are motifs of  the two major sports events for the year 2010.
If you are acquainted with Zakumi and are clueless about Shera, it is slightly flustering but predictable.
Zakumi is a cheerful and sporty leopard who is official Mascot of the 2010 FIFA World Cup,  and Shera is our very own Royal Bengal Tiger, it is the embodiment of everything that is royal, brave and fierce. If Shera is not as popular as Zakumi, its not the fault of the royalty but the Government of India which has not done enough to make it the face of India for Commonwealth Games 2010.

What I have found quite interesting here is that both the countries are a part of commonwealth, they both have their official mascots from the cat family, but the analogy culminates here. Johannesberg has put up a world class show, it is the first African country to have hosted it, and is apparently doing quite some justice to it. If one goes through the website of the hosting city , one cannot help being impressed with the painstaking, diligent and ostentatious preparations. The so called third world never ceases to bewilder the west on and off the field, be it beijing or johannesberg.

But as always there are exceptions to the rules : New Delhi, If one stays in the capital one can see witness it for self, its a lot of brouhaha and no real action, news feeds are awash with their aspersion of the substructure and arrangements. For a city that has an additional responsibility of averting all possible terror attacks it is obviously not doing the needful.

As i write this post, there still remain ninety seven days for the show down, lets see if the sorcerers of Delhi can give us a spectacle.

I remain, India's sincerely
Suyasha

Monday, June 14, 2010

A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure

My allegiance to beer is complete, I was myself not conscious of this till the last weekend. The whole of Friday, Saturday and Sunday were invested to the service of the drink which is a bliss to so many. I have come so far as to believe that fermentation might have been even a greater discovery than fire. Here goes the chronicle :

For Germans football and beer are conjoined, its impossible to imagine a football match without beer mugs to give it company, so when the FIFA world cup time table came up,  with it also emanated the arrangements for viewing the match on a big screen with big beer mugs. All the quotas were checked and rechecked and finally 900 litres of beer was secured to be imported from Germany... I know its..... WOW !!!

But as always there was a Caveat...as I am a widely acknowledged proverbial Pech Vogel, the import was hardly going to be a smooth affair. i completed the formalities of a duty free import and was fervently awaiting the cargo arrival notice. The ship was caught in the "Doldrums" i should have apprehended that (with the kind of jeopardizes and contingencies I am accustomed to, this should not have ideally come as a surprise). So the task which normally takes four working days to complete was to be accomplished in 12 hours. It took every iota of patience at my disposal, and every good word in my limited vocabulary to get the barrels delivered at my door step ( Please read door step as Office), @ 12:30 in the night.
I am no alcohol drinker, and have never been inclined to try it either, but when the barrels were being transported to the storage, one of them developed a leak, and spill on my hands, as a reflex I wiped it off my shirt, and LO !!! I was actually stinking of beer, it took a lot of washing and cleaning to get the rid off the odor. Finally I retired home with the satisfaction of a job well done.

The next day I was ostensibly dozing off in my German class, the overcast sky was not helping the situation either, when I got an invitation to attend a party of a youth brigade, it was one of those situation where saying no is impolite, so I agreed, which further extended my stint with beer.

Sunday was the Day of the Germany Vs Australia match, for which I had undertaken so much of theatrics, I thought I very much deserved to be there, and spent the final evening of my weekend yet again surrounded by "beer mugs and Prosts and Saluds".

For a person who doesn't drink beer I apparently contribute a lot to the Beer Industry.......just to give you all an idea, have attached a pic with the barrels :)

For the love of beer I have attached a small proverb, its from Russia with love:

the Church is near,
but the road is icy,
The bar is far away,
but i will walk carefully.

Cheers !
Suyasha

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Tale of a God bestriding like a colossus and of a guilty ferret with shifty beady eyes

I had taken a sabbatical from blogging for quite some time, due to work related commitments, and it was indeed very gratifying when a lot of people asked me when was i going to write next :)

Two things caught my attention over the last fortnight, both different contexts but deploring a common thing - A weak national leadership. The first was the press conference held by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and the second was the comment made by Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi on the former Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. From the first PM to this one nothing has changed much for India. My corollary is that both of these men have constantly been described in pejorative terms as meek , timid and myopic and quixotic respectively.

Since there is nothing that we can do about the past, lets take up the present.

Dr. Manmohan singh's conference was one befalling which he could have used to silence his censurers. But instead of quelling the irksome correspondents, he continued his monotonous speech and abstained from answering tough questions, the ones that he answered were of course brimming with over used hackneyed phrases.

I bore the torture as much as my patience would allow, and then my thoughts drifted to an interview that I had read a couple of years ago. It was published in the TIME magazine with the then Russian President, Vladimir Putin, the impression of the journalists was quite a read, the gaze described was that of a man who says i am in command, talking to him is chilling as if the Russian winters are not enough for the foreign press. He gives an evident impression of a man who effortlessly exudes power. He is petite but that factor is easily overcome by his consummate confidence. and makes no effort to placate the press.

I find the comparison between the two premiers quite relevant: both the nations are vast ( russia expands over 11 time zones)they both have their respective share of problems, both have to be most of the time at the receiving end of world politics, but the Russian premier knows the rules of the game better and refuses to be auxiallary subject to the powers at home or abroad, and the less said about the Indian PM, the better. In the whole press conference the only time he appeared chirpy was when the subject of Rahul Gandhi being made the Prime Minister came up,he is a man who is a pawn in his own country and is only making his stature ludicrous abroad.

I am only hoping for a day when the TIME magazine publishes such an article about an Indian Prime Minister.

I also came across a widely popular joke, which summarizes the entire article:

Putin and Bush are fishing on the Volga River. After half an hour Bush complains, "Vladimir, I'm getting bitten like crazy by mosquitoes, but I haven't seen a single one bothering you."
Putin: "They know better than that."

Liebe Grüße
Suyasha

Monday, May 31, 2010

We're all downstream


Now that i have not been able to read much on the topic of the effect of including caste in the census, I have put it on the back burner for some time.

In the interim I made a trip to the Shivansamudram waterfalls in Karnataka, approximately 120 kms. from Bangalore. Since I am a child of the desert and have spent my entire childhood and adolescence amongst sand dunes so my fascination for water is somewhat more piquant than what is normally observed. So when i had the first glimpse of the falls which is from a distance my spirits were in a flutter. I couldn't wait to get down and feel the water flowing through my fingers.

I had to be repeatedly told to slow down while running down the stairs, when i finally reached the falls, to say that i was disheartened would be an understatement.
There was plastic strewn all over the place: in the water on the rocks, not to forget the empty cans of beer, empty packets of "Lays and Bingos" which were swimming everywhere in the water. The place was extremely filthy , the only place that appeared immaculate and unpolluted was the falls itself , where people were not allowed due to safety reasons.

Being a vegetarian the sight there was even more despicable to me. The stench of fish being fried was all pervasive, with bones and flesh rife on the floor. Why are we so deplorable and rotten as citizens, even a cat cleans the place where it sits, and we deface it with no scruples at all!!! i just fail to understand why are we so averse to aesthetics? How difficult it is to carry a plastic bag along and dump the waste in it instead of throwing it around. Why can't the local people there not have shops at some distance and maintain a dustbin at least.
A couple of years back i had the chance of visiting Dandeli in northern Karnataka, its a forest area in the northern part of the state on the banks of the River Kali, the water there was so clean that one could actually drink it from the river. The only difference between Dandeli and sivansamudram was: that there was a fee at Dandeli :)

Since we have already proven time and again that we have an irrevocable lackadaisical approach towards civic sense and a completely circumspect attitude towards money it is advisable that we levy a fine on anyone who spoils the place or put a fee on the visit so that it is not taken for gratis and civic authorities can spend the money on its cleanliness.

Alles Liebe
Suyasha

PS: the Photograph was taken where a small stretch of water appeared clean from distance, just a feel good factor.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Caste System: a malediction, we are so proud of

I am tired of playing the Damsel in Distress ( wrt the last few Blogs) and I thought of taking a contemplative route.

As usual i start with a disclaimer: I have not been able to read a lot of facts, (as the debate is yet to heat up !) hence its more of an ideological approach than a factual one. Its one major event of this year, and no I am not talking about the World cup Football, I am talking about the Indian Census 2011, which is being conducted presently and is sure to turn into a heated Debate.

Before getting to the main point , i will digress a bit, and take you to the background of this caste controversy, and in the next blog will deal with its implications on the census. (Here i need your patience as a reader).

If we dwell a bit into the Indian History it emerges that the caste system has been the result of a social conspiracy, the caste that was determined by actions in ancient India came to be gradually determined by birth. Those members of the society who were at the pinnacle of this pyramid, to establish themselves permanently there encouraged determination of caste by birth. The Mahabharat War was the most detrimental to the Caste system. After the war there was a serious dearth of altruistic people who could guide the society, and a selfish few who controlled the political and religious authority inspired determination of caste by birth. the rights which were based on competence and ingenuity were replaced by virtue of birth. Dwij, the highest echelon of the caste system ( acquired only when one gains knowledge), could now be obtained with or without education/knowledge.

This loosened with the introduction of English education in India, where a certain Mr. Sharma could run a shoe Company and a person belonging to the Scheduled Caste could be the Principal Secretary in the Central government. But this seemingly egalitarian System also backfired after Independence when we introduced Reservation System in India. To annihilate one evil we gave birth to the other: just because its an antithesis, doesn't prove that its right.
The earlier society gave the Brahmins the highest pedestal and now the Government has made the Shudras the "official brahmins".. these both ideologies have one common defect; they are both based on birth, the motto for both is " Long live this Caste System".
Why does this society wants the Caste System alive, : answer is not obtuse: all equations of power travel through the corridors of caste. Since the census of 1931 caste was not mentioned in the Indian Census but it has been resurrected in the 2011 Census.


Why is it such a controversy and why should it be desisted... will take it up in the next blog.

alles Liebe
Suyasha

PS: i know this was a lesson in History and a mere repetition of facts that you all have read but felt it necessary to write in order to prepare the ground for the next blog.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Harbingers of Misery


I am a sheer failure at reading omens, i see the precursors of doom every where and don't heed to the warnings ! we start from yesterday: I had a very hectic day at work, i had been running from pillar to post doing errands for an upcoming event, in the evening i had promised to visit a father's friend so i was anyways not looking forward to a usual restful evening. But this..... i had not expected.

The acquaintances were good people they had sent some one to pick me up, i spent a quiet evening at their place and insisted ( on second thoughts i invited trouble open heartedly and quite unnecessarily too ) to go back on my own. it was drizzling and the sky had a very deep shade of gray instead of the usual azure at this hour. ( An omen), i sat in the volvo occupied a convenient seat and was enjoying other people running to weather the storm, when the conductor asked for the ticket i looked for my wallet , i couldn't find it, worse i couldn't remember where had i misplaced it. i was forced to join the bandwagon of those forsaken people who i had been looking from the window and humoring my self ( i did not know i would be rewarded so soon for my impish pleasures). you can find a fleet of buses on the outer Ring road in Bangalore, but finding an auto there, who would be ready to drive till Indiranagar, is a Herculean Task, i found one, after 15 minutes of tryst with the rain, paid on reaching home, and was glad that the day was finally over. But the troubles were waiting for the climax!!

The same night we ran out of water, its surprising how Bangalore runs out of water when its pouring every where, Water here, water there but not a drop to drink :(
By morning there was just enough water to brush my teeth. Wow what a lovely start... couldn't have been better!!!

Sulking i reached office albeit 45 mins early than usual, from here things started to look up a bit, we run our office from a nice apartment off MG road which is set up with all modern amenities and we are by default supposed to keep a fresh supply of clothes and other toiletries for emergencies like curfew's, terrorists attacks, overwork etc. ( though these kinds of emergencies they would have never thought of). I made use of all that was at my disposal, took a long bath, have decided to go for a king size breakfast and looking forward to the usual leisure of an evening well deserved.

Hopefully i am out of dark ages and re welcomed into civilization, and have running water at home by now :), i have two friends joining me tomorrow from Delhi and i am in no good humor to go through the plight of the day before. I am hopelessly optimistic :)

toi toi toi !!!

Alles Liebe
Suyasha

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

When the Cat is Away the Mice will Play !


He has been adorned with many sobriquets in every office: Team lead, Reporting Manager, boss or even Hitler, depending on his disposition towards oneself. But one thing is for sure, irrespective of the fact whether he or she is for better or for worse, the fact that they are away definitely brings a euphoric and zingy feeling even if for a few days.

I am yet to meet a person who has not conveyed the news brazenly with a very genuine touch of amusement revealing how he or she truly feels about it. I have undergone the ordeal of having an atrocious woman for a boss, such was her terror that the above mentioned adage seems custom made for her. The mood used to become boisterous on hearing that she was a having a cold or a cough. I found myself often praying that her son should have an exam to write everyday so that she can take leaves :)

Barring a few circumstances, my luck is quite a bestowing one and very soon i got a break. It seemed to be a transition from a winter of despair to a spring of hope. The gentleman was a prodigiously well bred man, with a great superiority of mind, a genuine concern or at least its expression, i never had a problem working with him.

To my utter surprise when he went on leave i found myself jubilant, now what was that? i enjoy the absence of a good boss and a bad boss both !!! i have to be harebrained to think like that, but over the time i have seen this fact is universally acknowledged albeit not openly.

The fact that you are not being chaperoned gives a sense of freedom and emancipation, you are the master of your life in your office, you feel exactly like a modern teenager who party's when parents are away.


Why did i write all this today ??? i leave it to your own surmises :)

Liebe Grüße
Suyasha

Friday, May 14, 2010

Das vier Augen Prinzip

I had a very amusing evening yesterday and an equally jocular day today. Reasons? i am sporting a pair of spectacles these 24 hours. Had i known i will get a barrage of comments this bizarre, i would have tried it long back. Here some background of the events before that:

It was after a lot of dilly dallying and cajolery by my room mate ( i had once escaped from the Titan Eye Showroom) that i went to Lawrence and Mayo for an eye check up and there was a slight aberration from a perfect eye sight of 6/6. The salesman very dutifully said that not to aggravate the power further i must go for spectacles, I must say he did his job rather well because i was convinced that i should go for a pair of glasses. After the prosaic theatrics that we customers are so used to, I picked one frame and was asked to collect it on Thursday.

Yesterday afternoon i went to pick up the glasses and was asked to try them on to see if everything was alright, of course it was;

My first comment for the day came from the saleswoman there: Ma'am you look like a student with these on ! not bad at all, comments about younger age make any woman happy and I am no exception ;)

While i was still basking in the glory of the nice comment i had just received i was to receive a rather preposterous comment. My neighbor who happens to be a Tamil woman and least diplomatic tells me in her fragmented Hindi" didi tum aise chasma pahnega to koi ladka tumse shadi nahin karega" ( Translation for the benefit of those who don't know Hindi: if your wear spectacles no guy would marry you !) Phew so much for a ride from cloud 9 to the kingdom of Pluto. The comments from my room mates were however quite comforting; they thankfully didn't have the 19th century approach.

The next comment was even better and it came from my boss: "Ms. Suyasha the spectacles look very good on you, you could have tried them earlier even if for the style purposes".
The other reactions that i got were a mixed bag:
Why didn't you go for lenses,
Hey the case you got is very nice, they didn't give me such a nice one : so much for observation :(,
They give a very studious look, the frame is very nice .... and so on.

Tomorrow is weekend and i better gear up for even more interesting comments..

Wish you all a good weekend !

Alles Liebe
Suyasha

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Mirror mirror on the wall....


I am not writing this blog to rejoice in my vices. Its just a small attempt at self evaluation, i just hope i have chosen my faults well.

1. Technically challenged: No amount of training has been able to do away with this handicap of mine. The instructions in the technical jargon fade away from my memory like water from cupped hands or even faster than that. I am a person living in the 21 st century with a distinction of the 16th century. I have been using computer right from standard VI but i don't consider myself germane at anything farther than doing a copy and paste and i know i am myself culpable for this. It took me almost a month to figure out how to change the looks of this blog :P !

2. I have often regretted my speech, never my silence: spontaneity is appreciated by many but its not something i can pull off. It does more harm than good at both professional and personal levels. The impulse to react is sometimes so overwhelming that it erodes the general prudence completely and then what remains is some anguish.
Trying very much to avoid it, success rate to be evaluated by others.

3. Procrastination: Many suffer from this malady and it is somewhat acute in my case as well. Given a choice i will defer something till eternity. its an appalling habit and just because it has so far never backfired i have persisted with it.

4. I love Stress: I have an unfortunate habit of following a completely opposite trajectory than the rest of the world. when the rest of the world is advocating lower stress levels for a good life, i am disposed to think of it as otherwise. i know its not something to be spirited about but i am not apologetic about it either. i am living by the principle that " performance is directly proportional to the stress level". it has served me well and also makes up somewhat for my habit of deferring things.

5. I have a congenital weakness of not being able to take criticism well. Worst part i cannot even masquerade it for some other expression. it is there out in the open for every one to see and coupled with the impulsive nature that i have the misfortune of having, its fatal. rationally speaking I know that criticism is positive but some how it pierces badly.

I would refrain from writing more as it has already dampened me a bit, i would also very much appreciate when those who know me would help me complete this one.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Justice Delayed is Justice denied !

The first page of the newspaper today is totally dedicated to the hanging of Kasab. I don't understand why are people so elated about it. In fact this is where all the trouble starts brewing. I was particularly surprised when i saw jubilant comments coming from the politicians, especially the law minister and the Home Minister who actually said " i am proud of our system" i am very sorry to say there is hardly anything in our system to be proud of. They are the people who are very well versed with the art of imparting justice and know equally well if it is actually dispensed. They should not be making such irresponsible comments.

We are unfortunately a democracy and a soft State too. This is a lethal combination. This judgment marks the beginning of an arduous process which might even last till eternity. It will first go for appeals to the higher courts where the case and evidence would be re examined. whether the court upholds the decision of the lower court is another matter. If it does, then too we have the Supreme Court and if we are exceptionally lucky and the Supreme Court also reaffirms the judgment of a death penalty we can still provide him the reprieve in the form of Article 72 of the Constitution. Mercy petition. As a matter of fact there are already 29 mercy petitions pending with the President of India. She has no respite from receiving foreign dignitaries and diplomats at the Raisina Hil, l how can we expect her to pay attention to such trivial matters as awarding death sentence to the enemies of the State.

We don't have the guts to award gallows to a person who masterminded the plan to attack our parliament, would we ever be able to actually do justice to one who has only killed a few citizens in a city which has so regularly been exposed to such attacks, its just a routine affair for it, it has indomitable spirit and will carry on. Funnily enough i am here reminded of an advertisement, its from Kitply where a case is being dragged for generations so that the young lawyer and the accused both forget the names and the accusation only the judge's table remains intact in its place. It might seem insensitive to some but this is exactly whats going to happen now as well. Some years down the line we wouldn't remember who Kasab was, what he had done and we might have abolished the capital punishment by then.

So while you wait for a befitting judgment and watch the other dramas to unfold, i just submit a small quote for reflection.
दण्डः शास्ति प्रजाः सर्वाः दण्डः एवाभि रक्षति
दण्डः सुप्तेषु जागर्ति दण्डः धर्मं विदुर्भुदा

Translation: the law rules over the public and defends it as well
it awakens the lackadaisical and that is why the scholars have equated its with the Dharma (Manusmriti)

Wish you all a happy weekend !

Alles Liebe
Suyasha

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The lady doth protest too much, methinks

I was already a very staunch adversary of any one who spoke in favor of Human Rights especially in Indian context, as it anyways seems to be supporting everything that is inhuman. They support the naxalites against the police and Paramilitary forces, they buttress the militants against the armed forces, and they have the audacity to propose that Ajmal Kasab should not be hanged. Stupendous !!! They are all patients of the Stockholm Syndrome.

What makes the situation even more daft is when these protests are led by our so called emancipated women: Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Teesta Setalvad, Brinda Karat to name a few, though their list is endless. I am surprised how do these women even define emancipation? To me they appear merely the Cheer Leaders of Terrorism. Every time something happens in the country that is anti national they are all at Jantar Mantar protesting in favor of it.

They call themselves the face of modern India and adopt the most redundant philosophies ever in existence. These women are leftists when the world renounced Leftist ideology almost a quarter century ago, so much for Modernism. They are women who in the name of being liberated make a livelihood by writing macabre tales of wanton killings. Actually its not their fault most of them come from the family of activists so hypocrisy seems to be very much coded in their DNAs, they are simply programmed like that.

I recently came across a woman lawyer who with great pride told me that she fights for womens rights, i was curious to know how, she said she files divorce cases for them, and for every divorce case filed she gets rs. 500 from the court. I didn't know how to give a proper reaction to what i had heard. i should rejoice that in the name of women liberation we can now disintegrate families or condole her ignorance.

These women protestors or activists as they like to call themselves these days all do the same work, some do at a grass root social level others do at a national or international level; they all Disinegrate - disintegrate families, society and nation. This woman files divorce cases, Arundhati Roy advocates a separate Kashmir, they support Mohammed Afzal ( its courtesy these protesters that he has not been hanged). There have also been the likes of those who wanted the death penalty for Dhananjoy Chatterjee revoked. I seriously need to know how these women define redemption. Its way too arduous for me to trying understand it.

Most of you would have taken me to be a misogynist or something on those lines. No i am not. I am a very strong believer of an egalitarian society, i just happen to define emancipation differently: I associate it with education and with the right to take a decision with due responsibility and all implications it may entail. i believe that when one asks for rights one is accountable to fulfill certain duties. Duties which are for the betterment of one's family, society and nation.


Here my quote for the day:
अहम् केतुर अहम् मूर्धा अहमुग्रा विवाचिनी ( Rigved 159 II)
Translation: I am the the ensignia, and the hallmark , i am the pinnacle and the perfection and i am the one with immaculate analytical aptitude.

PS: this is what the most ancient text on this planet: the Rigveda says on women, phew so much for modernism !!!

Gruß
Suyasha

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Arbeit Adelt - Work ennobles

A Quotidian Report
After various failed attempts of writing a decent blog yesterday, i thought of writing something about my day @ work. I know most of you would feel that its a very mundane thing to write, and by the time i finish writing this, many of the known readers might even be crying foul, nevertheless i have a right to freedom of expression and have chosen to exercise it.

My office starts at 0800 hours which is early by usual standards of work, and though we don't happen to have a login time per se, we are expected to be painstakingly punctual. Since we don't have a cubicle system we can circumvent the customary formalities of Greetings ( though wishing the big boss is implicit). the work environment here is extremely formal and over a period of time i have come to love the formalities that are conjoined with it. We don't address each other by first names its always with the Surname, i fail to recall when was the last time i referred to colleagues by their first names. Well and the dress code is of course formals only.
At the start of the day we have a small meeting and plan our day accordingly.

A prototypical day work consists of liaison with the the foreign cell and the vast bureaucratic machinery, followed by reading whats making news in India and abroad and summarizing the main articles, it also includes archiving and maintaining a chronological record of the articles of relevance. Things get a little boisterous when we have delegations visiting Bangalore. The organizing of the meetings and visits takes up most of the time. What i like about the work is, nothing is ever left to chance, its so meticulous that it might even be an exception to the Murphy's law.

We have a brief lunch hour at 1300 hrs, and after that work becomes more or less tranquil. I spend the rest of the day coordinating meetings with my colleagues and counterparts across different offices and departments and writing my share of emails for the day. And at 1500 hours i find myself already looking forward to an afternoon siesta :) !!! ( forgive my tautology here)

For those of you who envy me, trust me there is more to it than what meets the eye !

Note: i have decided to introduce a new feature in my Blog - writing a Sanskrit Quote at the end of the Blog ! For those readers who don't understand Sanskrit i have provided a translation :)
so the first thought for the day goes like this:

उद्यमेन ही सिध्यन्ति कार्यनी न मनोरथैह

न ही सुप्तस्य सिंहस्य प्रविशन्ति मुखे मृगाः

Translation: It is only through ceaseless efforts that one is able to achieve one’s aim and the aim is never achieved by wishful thinking. The perfect example is that of a tiger who never gets his feed while lazying in his den but has to make a kill.


Alles Liebe

Suyasha

Monday, May 3, 2010

The Weekend that was !

Einstein thought of the theory of relativity while he was driving a bicycle, well humble mortals like myself were obviously not thinking on these lines when i decided to buy one.
When i shared my intentions with my friends i was in for mixed reflections on the subject - "Have you actually given it a proper thought, why don't you join a gym instead, Bangalore is not conducive for this kind of an adventure, i think its a very good form of cardio vascular exercise, its a completely vacuous thought" .... the list goes on.

This actually put me into some kind of quandry, if this was such a good idea at all . But a small travelogue down the memory lane and a little reminiscence of the formative years put me back on track.

So this Saturday i went to Commercial Street and with some trepidation entered the shop. Since i had decided to go for a non geared one, the model of my choice was "BSA Lady Bird". the moment i entered the shop i decided to relinquish the very idea. Kids of ages 11 and 12 were buying those very bicycles. i was profusely flustered, but i happen to have some disregard for the conventional behavior, so i went ahead to the counter to inquire about the "bike" of my choice albeit with a very sheepish grin.

Finally on Saturday evening i got the bicycle delivered at my place. Sunday evening seemed to be a perfect time for the try outs. i had imagined it all in advance the routes and everything for that perfect drive. i was not even a kilometer en route when i found myself already gasping for breath. it was almost a decade since i had driven a bicycle and i realized that 10 years of lassitude and sloth had done a lot of damage to my resilience.

Weather was thankfully in my favor and I managed to complete four kilometers, the drive downhill was very refreshing; Indiranagar defence colony is a haven for such a drive. the odyssey for the first day was a little bit too much for my hamstrings and triceps, and i was overwrought by the time i reached back home. But since i intend to do cycling very religiously, i am hoping that its only a passing phase. i also happened to read something very interesting; and though i am not a feminist it encouraged me nevertheless:

"I’ll tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than any one thing in the world. I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a bike. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and away she goes, the picture of untrammeled womanhood.”
Susan B. Anthony, 1896"

PS: i also don't happen to leave a carbon foot print now :)

Liebe Grüße
Suyasha

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Divided we Fall

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, therefore i had been avoiding getting into political comments, but it has dawned on me that it is not necessary to be a diplomat, a bureaucrat or a politician or a journalist to comment on something, i can comment as a citizen too.

What i have decided to write about today has long vanished from the news, even those who were agitating for and against it, have consigned it to oblivion.

The ideas expressed in this blog are also not entirely my own, they are slightly abridged, but i have a birth right for plagiarism here.

The boundaries of the various countries on this planet keep changing, some innocent people will attribute it to the Alfred Wegner's theory of Continental drift but most of the time its a reflection of the changing ideologies of the nations and its political masters. The disintegration of the USSR is one such instance. Formation of Bangladesh, ramification of North and South Korea just augment this fact further.

Division is therefore a constant and perpetual process, but all nations don't succumb to it - China is one such nation. It has 34 states, numerous languages and one national language. Taiwan is not a part of China ( courtesy American Diplomacy), but China considers it also to be its integral part. It doesn't hesitate to call arunachal Pradesh its part, controls a large section of PoK, so it would be erroneous to say that all nations disintegrate.

Its however safe to say that those nations who citizens and politicians have a strong political will and whose allegiance to their country is uncompromising are not subject to disintegration. External powers are also successful only when the internal disturbances allow them to be so.

I am not going into the external disturbances here. When ones own house is in disorder its hasty and inappropriate to comment on the neighbors.

Division when voluntarily done, for the administrative convenience without external pressure is sagacious. But where it is imperious then it is not necessarily in national interest. In India any division; be it that of the country, states or district has never been in national interest.
The division of the country was a brain child of British Diplomacy, but there was a significant section of Indians for whom religion came first before country, and unity was definitely not cardinal.

The formation of one state on the basis of language was enough to stir the hornet's nest, and more states were carved on the basis of language. Later more states were formed on regionalism : Uttarakhand, chattisgarh and jharkhand.
The irony is the state that was formed on the basis of of language now wants to separate state for development..wow !!!
We never learn from History, the moment we agreed for creation of Telangana we yet again dug our own grave; Maharashtra wants Vidarbh, UP wants bundelkhand and harit Pradesh even the peaceful state of Rajasthan wants a Maru Pradesh. Best was when J& K asked for three separate states; as if it needed any more division.
If it was only aimed at development then it would not have been a political issue. Here i am not even getting into the filth of Naxalite influence or the religious factors that govern the divisive feelings.

We are faced with a similar situation at the district level: Mallapuram in Kerala was made a separate district on account of it being a muslim Majority district, ditto for the Mewat district in Haryana.
If Harit pradesh is carved out of UP we will have the first state in India that would be a Muslim majority one; yeah thats all we need - a mini pakistan.

Yesterday i was blaming the journalists but we have all gotten the priorites wrong; we have an inverse pyramind of priorities, I me Myself first, Voter first, my family first, my religion, my caste and to heck with the country.

For national integration the thought - words and actions of its citizens should be alike , as the Ved says:
Sam gachhadhwam, sam vadadhwam sam vo manaansi jaanaatam :
Meet together, talk together, let your minds apprehend alike
.


Aufwiedersehen
Suyasha


PS: yesterday someone told me "blog on books was predictable... Surprise me". i tried...

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Ode to the Joy of Reading

I am profoundly disappointed with the standard of journalism in India. Much to my chagrin they have got all their priorities wrong. What Sania Mirza does even in Lahore grabs the headlines but what inflation does, is none of their concerns. They say public memories are ephemeral, I beg to differ, they are not ! Newspapers make a vicious attempt to do so. The news moves from the first page to the 3rd and then to a meager column on the 10th page where it escapes from an average reader's notice.

I didn't start this blog for proliferation of melancholyand intend to write on something that makes me happy; reading gives me immense pleasure hence i will write about some of the latest reads.

I will start in a chronological order:

1. The Audacity of Hope by Barak Obama: I till date don't know what made me read that book. Its just not relevant even in American context. Its just a way too Utopian. The Americans were certainly deceived in the man. A good orator and writer does not necessarily make a good administrator and politician. If I go only by the evaluation of the content of the book then also the book is a disappointment for anyone living outside America, even for America because what he thinks is just not pragmatic. Its just a more verbose pamphlet of a Democract candidate, as he was then. Those who have lauded praises on the book must have been beguiled by the man.

2. Life of Pi : a Booker Prize winning book by Yann Martel. It was a captivating read. I say this because I finished the book in one night. I didn't like the book when I started it, especially the protagonist's take on religion but the story picks up gradually and after that there is no keeping it down. The story is real and surreal at the same time. I don't know how writers manage to do that. By all means a one time read just don't expect it to be true. Infact before this book I was prejudiced against the prize winning authors. They complicate the plot too much. This was a very welcome change.

3. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister: is a satirical political sitcom by Sir Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. I have forgotten the number of times i have read this book. I guess I read it once every quarter. My colleague says that even on my death bed I will request that a Chapter from the book be read out to me. do I need to say more. According to me its the finest book ever written, I love everything about the book, the language, the characters, the plot. The book was made into a serial on the BBC too and was devoured by the then British Prime Minister, Margret Thatcher who also makes an appearance in one of its episodes. However the serial just can't replace the book. So if you give my recommendations any weight go and grab your own copy .

you can thank me later !!!

Aufwiedersehen
suyasha

Monday, April 26, 2010

Time you old gypsy Man will you not stay, put up your caravan just for one day !

There is a fine adage popularly known as Murphy's Law which says" if anything can go wrong it surely will", and how can it not when you yourself lay the foundation stone for it.

I take pride in calling myself an organized person, organized not to the extent of being paranoid about it, but yes organized. But yesterday was an exception....here goes the story.

We had no power since the time I got up on Sunday morning, on calling up BESCOM we found out that there is a major fault in the line and we cannot expect it to be back before 1800 hrs. with little choices left we decided to explore the Indiranagar 100 feet road.

It was IPL 3 final on Sunday and wherever I went, the discussion on the game was in full swing I am no fan of cricket, its not a game that interests me either, In fact you can sometimes even find me criticizing the game in public. But since everyone in Bangalore seemed to be supporting Mumbai and just to be a rebel I decided to support Chennai - the underdogs.

The morning's wanderlust had already cost me my heels so going home and watching TV sounded like a good idea. I started watching the game and on surfing i found that HBO was showing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I have read the book some five to six times and have watched the movie an equal number of times but still decided to watch it simultaneously.

Chennai won the match and Harry Potter also manged to survive... yet again !!! and I finally dozed off at 0100 hours. For a person who has to get up at 0600 hours and report in the office at 0800... it was late.

So this is what happened in the morning .....I got up at 0715 which is very late by normal standards and cause of some trepidation too. By the time I got ready it was already 0800 hrs. The BMTC was out of question and I decided to take an auto and no one seemed willing to go anywhere near MG Road and another precious 5 minutes were lost. One agreed to come only at the condition paying him 10 Rs. extra.

We were half a kilometer en route when I thought it was a good idea to call up the office and inform them that I might be late and realized that i had forgotten my cell at home. I hung my head in exasperation only to find out i was still wearing bathroom slippers :(

I have finally managed to reach work @ 0830 and staying in hiding, avoiding my boss at all costs...keeping my fingers crossed and waiting to see what more can go wrong today.

As you might have guessed I had no time for a breakfast today... so will sign off to see if I can manage to find any...

But I wish you all a very good day today and for the whole week !!!!

Liebe Grüße
Suyasha

Friday, April 23, 2010

# Buracracy is a challenge to be confronted with a righteous attitude, a tolerance for stupidity, and a bulldozer when necessary - Anonymous

What i am writing today is not what i had in mind for a Friday afternoon, i had much pleasant ideas.
But while my train of thought was still boarding its station, i had a rendezvous with the Indian bureaucracy and there.... all thoughts lost and the only thing i could think about was files and clerks.

Bureaucracy in India is as ubiquitous as is God in its Theology. My job requires me to deal with the bureaucrats on a very regular basis and its not just the lethargy that is so discouraging, its the sheer attitude that drives you to the point of frustration.

The people who work there are a moral vacuum, irrespective of how Gross your problem is they would treat it with a noble indifference and apathy. the best part of it is the attitude is so pervasive that everyone from the topmost echelons of power to the peon carries the same disgraceful attitude forward.

Here i am manicuring only the tip of the iceberg, i am not even getting into the other areas which hold it back they are too grim to be dealt with.... i have already started the weekend on a disheartening note and don't want to carry the pessimism for the next two days.

So here i wish you all a very happy weekend !

Alles Liebe
Suyasha

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page"

Yeah i know i claimed that this blog is going to be about current affairs, but the IPL has been hogging the limelight for so long now that i have decided to take a sabbatical.

I have decided to move to another topic close to my heart : Travel !
but since I am a maverick at heart my ideas of travel might not confirm to the normal standards of tourism so the list might seem to you what shall i say "avant garde".

I have been born in India so the country deserves the right to be explored first; i have selected 5 places which might be or might not be "tourist attractions"

1. Konark: The sun God is my favorite; It has an aura that commands respect and is at the same time benevolent, so it deserved to be first on my list. Words don't do justice to the architecture of the place and its rightly known to be the place where the language of stone surpasses the language of man.

2. Meghalaya: The Switzerland of the Orient is the next on my wish list. Its a less explored destination which makes it all the more necessary to be seen in its pristine form.

3. Nalanda: The seat of knowledge and a melting pot of scholars from all over the world, even the ruins have the power to transport you to a completely different era. The place was understood to be insatiable in imparting knowledge.
(Takshshila would have been my priority but courtesy a lot of things i have to be satisfied with seeing Nalanda).

4. Sarnath: The place of pilgrim for the Jains and Buddhists holds a completely different connotation to me. its the place from where we derive the symbol that signifies India; the lion capital. I don't know about you all but the very sight of the lion capital mounted on a pillar fills my heart with awe and reverence.
If its so majestic on a computer screen how majestic it would be in reality I can't even fathom.....

5. Jim Corbett National Park: Most of you would have understood me now to be a predominantly an "ancient History of India " student, but I have another area of interest and that is nature, Jim Corbett is any adventure seekers paradise. the very Royal Bengal Tigers in its abode is not to be missed for anything.

I know my wish list was a completely different take on tourism but i forewarned you I was bit of an Iconoclast !!!


Suyasha

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

My stint with a language !

I will digress today from current affairs and will write on the language, no i am not writing on how we have ignored our own national language for a foreign one, neither will i plunge into some jingoism about nationalism, i am writing my experience of learning a foreign language and leave the cerebration to you.

At the very outset i would make it clear to you all that i am not a language prodigy, but i take interest in learning; so when i moved to Delhi from the sleepy town of Ajmer in Rajasthan i decided to take advantage of my sojourn in the national capital.

After a lot of contemplation i decided that i would learn German; not that i had any great inclination for it initially; the institute was the closest and i had a direct bus from my home and so i enrolled myself in Goethe Zentrum New Delhi.

From the first level which was at that time known as the "Grundstufe 1", i knew i had made the right choice.
German is spoken in only three countries of the world which are smaller in size and population when compared to the state of Uttar Pradesh in India but their Institutes are spread world wide in almost all principal cities of the world.

The didactic is superb and venerable. From day one you don't use a word of English or any other language for that matter. Innovation in teaching methodology reigns supreme ; games, conversations, team work, Grammar, everything is streamlined.

You actually have to fail intentionally as they don't leave any room for failure. teaching involves not only reading from a book but also listening to various situation you might face in Germany and how do people normally react to them and then simulate them.

As one advances in levels the standard gets higher but the classes remain equally inviting. From the study of business German to German Literature and economics everything is covered.

Its needless to say that i made excellent friends and contacts there.

I am not advertising for the language here, i tried to learn Spanish and French also later considering their more universal appeal and application, but the experience was not even half as enriching.

Kudos to the Germans who have made such deliberate efforts for their language, may we be someday inspired by them.


Suyasha

Monday, April 19, 2010

Brevity is the soul of the wit !

Those who are into news and even those who are not into news by now know how dangerous can an apparently "harmless" social networking site be to your job.

Since the diplomat Mr. Tharoor became the junior foreign Minister he has been enduring eternal adversities, courtesy his incessant tweeting.

I always associated the word "Diplomat " with being laconic in expression; but this former UN diplomat seemed to defy all definitions and create new ones of his own and he was successful too until very recently.

The obiter dictum between the IPL Czar Lalit Modi and the junior foreign minister on twitter have now opened a pandora's chest and as has landed every one involved in a soup from which they are not likely to come out.

While Mr. Lalit Modi's fate hangs in balance Mr. Tharoor has lost it all: the job, the stake and may be the girl too ( it may be at a later stage though).

Lesson from the story: indiscreet tweeting can be detrimental to your job and to those who trusted you with their secrets.

Till the Government and IB carries out its investigation lets wait and watch



Anamika
Lot of people blog .... and today i join the bandwagon.
i don't know how many people would read this blog or benefit from it... but i think its a good way of expressing oneself especially in matters concerning us all.

i am someone who is very much obsessed with current affairs, since my letters to the editor don't seem likely to be published i try the easier way out.....

so here is my blog ;
ab initio


Happy reading !!!