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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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