Last week on getting up at 6:30 am after snoozing my alarm for about 30 mins I sat down with the brush in my mouth to congratulate myself about what I was doing. I have been getting up every morning, without break (ok ok before you people shout.. with some obvious breaks) for putting my mind into guitar learning. I have already talked about my wonderful guitaring skills so much that I wont delve into that right now. What I noticed with a brush is that what things are actually important for me:
The most important things in my life have become:
Learning guitar than learning any new computer language. I can't remember a single time I have got up in the morning for studying (whenever I have done that my friends only have rememered that). This is considering I have been looking for some special upliftment in technology areas. Perhaps learning a new language or technology or even brushing them all over again gets me a better chance at interesting jobs. But rather I am comfortably ok with my other persuits and am only hoping for 30% reservations in IT industry for those who know guitar and cannot study. And I already have 50% reservation in Guitar classes for not scoring more because I have a busy schedule in IT industry :) I can score 50% lower than the class and yet be considered actively learning guitar.
Finally if you have to read a book then closest it comes to study is reading novels. Reading any material remotely related to work puts me to sleep.
Drinking on weekends is more important than having a girl friend. Yes only that you remember your gfs those that have gone extinct and those that are to be conserved only after a few pegs down.
Finding a song that you saw on TV on the net is quite an interesting challenge in life.
Weekend travel to a nearby place is also a great use of time (this one seriously).
And finally writing a blog is more important than chatting to a friend, who ahhmmm also happens to be a girl. Doesn't matter what you scribble but yes you're increasing the number of posts.
Now am going to get a call from friends who read this post about.. "abe kaun si ladki se baat kar rahe the be??"
3/30/2006
Lounge Chamundi
The cool breeze, the starry lights of the lazy city of Mysore, light music from car, Friends whom you can tease and crack jokes. What more you want from a lounge? I don't think any of the big cities' modern lounges can give you that kind of experience.
This is our slap back on all those 'stags not allowed' lounges which offer good hookas but mandate you to carry a girl with you. Here everyone is allowed and even gxirls too. Though I never could manage to get a girl with me there at 1 am in the night ;). Overall with Soft music in the air, its a nice place to suck in life. A few calm moments from the world of computers/printers/laptops/TV are like getting back to innocence.
From the past few times it has been a laughter riot whenever we have gone there. Last time it was the video shooting of our camera men for the concert. Well it was just a dig at their talents and how they can mange to get all things in the concert except me and Suppi :). That video is now my retirement fund. I hope to sell that video to some TV channel during that time.
This is our slap back on all those 'stags not allowed' lounges which offer good hookas but mandate you to carry a girl with you. Here everyone is allowed and even gxirls too. Though I never could manage to get a girl with me there at 1 am in the night ;). Overall with Soft music in the air, its a nice place to suck in life. A few calm moments from the world of computers/printers/laptops/TV are like getting back to innocence.
From the past few times it has been a laughter riot whenever we have gone there. Last time it was the video shooting of our camera men for the concert. Well it was just a dig at their talents and how they can mange to get all things in the concert except me and Suppi :). That video is now my retirement fund. I hope to sell that video to some TV channel during that time.
3/27/2006
Dishes that may be extinct soon
Has anyone tasted Mokambo paneer? I doubt. This is one of the many filmy and non filmy dishes served in our campus by a caterer called golkonda. In the crowd of the Food court the board of this one caterer speaks for itself in two terms. One is in wasted food. Always a unanimous topper at it among all the caterers and second for the name of its dishes.
To a Lakhnavi the dish names are not a new thing. You can have any thing fried and with gravy with the name of "shahi", "Makhmali", "Galgoti" etc. But back there I used to find atleast some pattern and coherence with the name and the dish. Story here is quite different actually. The dish names change but the dish remains the same everyday.
I think it has something to do with the way these dishes have to be had. 'Mokambo Paneer' which might taste the same but is intended to be had with the same pride as Mokambo would do. Mokambo khush hua. 'Paneer lagaan' can gives you the fervor to have it like you're just going to bat against the English. Then there's Paneer Dumpukt which I am yet to get any clue of. Taste is what keeps the people down to earth however. Veg Jaipuri or Kolhapuri aur lahauri go on to show Indo-Pak unity as they all look/taste and are wasted in equal quantities.
All in all I think branding is something to be learnt from the caterer. I even did googling on paneer mokambo to see if there's this dish anywhere left in the world. And to my surprise, since web results showed none, I think this dish is on the verge of extinction.
To a Lakhnavi the dish names are not a new thing. You can have any thing fried and with gravy with the name of "shahi", "Makhmali", "Galgoti" etc. But back there I used to find atleast some pattern and coherence with the name and the dish. Story here is quite different actually. The dish names change but the dish remains the same everyday.
I think it has something to do with the way these dishes have to be had. 'Mokambo Paneer' which might taste the same but is intended to be had with the same pride as Mokambo would do. Mokambo khush hua. 'Paneer lagaan' can gives you the fervor to have it like you're just going to bat against the English. Then there's Paneer Dumpukt which I am yet to get any clue of. Taste is what keeps the people down to earth however. Veg Jaipuri or Kolhapuri aur lahauri go on to show Indo-Pak unity as they all look/taste and are wasted in equal quantities.
All in all I think branding is something to be learnt from the caterer. I even did googling on paneer mokambo to see if there's this dish anywhere left in the world. And to my surprise, since web results showed none, I think this dish is on the verge of extinction.
3/23/2006
Ye log kaun hai be?
Ye log kaun hai be? Jis weekend poocho us weekend tum free nahin hote? This is a common refrain from my friends who are not in Mysore. And most of the time I am like, yaar pata nahin kuch to program ban raha hai, Kahin bhi ja sakte hain. This is mostly courtesy our 'raj tours and travels' run by Rohit and kapil. Will tell the details in the lines to come.
So thought of jotting a few lines introducing these people. This is also due to the utter need for a lighter post on my blog. I'll try to acknowledge that this appraisal of mine is purely subjective based. Those having problem with this, I would assure them that 'next time' its going to be bed of roses for them. And that too whole 3 and a half inch matress of it. Ok!! On this post some of the things that cannot be published on my very respected and widely read blog are purposely avoided fearing national uproar and sonia's resignation.
Rohit
So lets start with Rohit, my room mate. He is the co founder of the secret travel organisation which I will call raj tours and travels only in our circle. They gave a fancy name but It has slipped my mind. I think I will come to this travel part after I tell about Kapil. So the most noticeable (or un-noticeable) thing about him is his age. Rexona people should pack their bags as I can vouch he uses only dove and still has beaten any Rexona college model by a margin of 10 years. I don't know if you people can figure out maths and physics but he was born on 29th Feb and counts himself 7 and a half years old only. But believe me in a recent dinner a girl voted me the oldest of the lot :). A great project manager as he can manage atleast 4 windows of chat at a time. Oh forgot to mention, on atleast 4 different messengers ;). He also possesses a different ability with the camera. The category if I call is people photography and I have not seen my photographs clicked by him. I have posed many a times though but when the photo is downloaded god knows why I am never in it. Some supernatural phenomenon maybe.
Kapil
Kapil could have been the best girl on bike. The way he leans over you at every break you press, every bumper you cross or practically mostly except when your bike is accelerating. Unfortunately he is not a girl and fortunately he owns a car. So we don't get this feeling all that often. Has hidden talents like singing and dancing together when fully reloaded. I remember last time I saw this was on a highway where we stopped and he sang and he danced. I think most of us could dance to his tunes. Has the best songs suggestions in Antakshari (only rule is that kajrare should be allowed 4 times)
Now the travel part. When Kapil combines with Rohit they make a dangerous mixture for getting insane ideas of travel. They can make programs like "kal ka breakfast ooty main hoga", almost like Alexander would say to his army while capturing a territory. Though we had their predecessor in Jitenrdra Pandey who fortunately did not have such execution skills. So the latest is.. 'yaar Singapore chalte hain'. Bhagwan hi maalik hai ab.
Suprabhat
Jeda naam haiga 'Su' or 'Suppi' as most would call him. Ranks second in drinking.. water. First is the most health conscious Rahul Bakshi. Suppi has the extreme privilege of learning guitar with me and is most supportive in following my pace of learning. So in total we are at the bottom of the class of guitar. We recently did however beat 2 joinees in playing Jana gana mana of course with I starting from where Suppi stopped and vice versa. He can be called the most serious person on the group. The sane balancer to the travel organisers, though his controversial video was caught in 2005 new year which did shake people's opinion a bit.
Bakshi
He is an occasional into our outings. I think he knows its better to avoid it than to get sucked in. Rank one in what Suppi is second. Holds national records for that. Can tell sher-o-shairi on occasion. A married man. That's all, what else can I tell about a married man.
Vikas
Vikas PK roj office aata hai. He does not come drunk or something, its his name and I got inspired from 'Chupke chupke'. Mostly we have contention in the matter of girls. Somehow we like the same girl and we are still friends only because of our collective incompetence in such matters. He is master of PJs. Is infected by his cubicle mate (or I think he has infected him) but they run the biggest factory of PJs in our department. Its to the level that we sometimes warn people like 'Vikas type joke mat maar yaar'. One of the weekly PJ is that if you say you're lucky he would in a reflex say "no I am vikky" and you'd just bang your own head. He also became famous after his 2005 new year party video was caught and seen by a few girls.
Vivek
Or Kandya as we know him. Sleeping is his basic biological limitation. And he watches movies remotely made in Siberia with English subtitles. I think both activities aid each other. Movies put him to sleep and so he can watch the movies fully even without subtitles. Only unexplained phenomena is that he can discuss about them the next day. Has the lethal weapon in smile, use it when someone puts you in difficult situation and stand with that. Vikas sure can recall when we had seen this scene at the Food court birthday party. Speaks fundoo hindi with gems of slips of tounge, latest one was when he was talking about something on Elephant's anatomy. He is the first person who has taken permanent subscription to the Raj tours and Travel agency.
Who all ask this???
Anshul
Now he is in Bangalore and has capacity to talk hours to guys. Incidentally he used to claim that he cannot talk to girls that much till recently he surpassed his own records. I can actually write more interesting stuff for a few more pages about him but sheeshe ke ghar main rehne waale doosro par patthar nahin pheka karte (he was my schoolmate/collegemate/stuggle etc)
Rishi
Bhappaji or bade bhai in punjabi. He lives up to his name. Ram chandra in modern days. 'Sakoon ' lover. Good cook.A good fellow till he recently got married :). Again can't say anything more about married people. Can write loads about him but as he was my collegemate/strugglemate etc the same rule as Anshul applies to him.
On a realistic note, the ball is not there to last. Globalisation has its fallouts after all. So before I end, one picture is most apt for remembrance (not because it contains all of the mentioned but because our photogenic faces are saved public scrutiny)
So thought of jotting a few lines introducing these people. This is also due to the utter need for a lighter post on my blog. I'll try to acknowledge that this appraisal of mine is purely subjective based. Those having problem with this, I would assure them that 'next time' its going to be bed of roses for them. And that too whole 3 and a half inch matress of it. Ok!! On this post some of the things that cannot be published on my very respected and widely read blog are purposely avoided fearing national uproar and sonia's resignation.
Rohit
So lets start with Rohit, my room mate. He is the co founder of the secret travel organisation which I will call raj tours and travels only in our circle. They gave a fancy name but It has slipped my mind. I think I will come to this travel part after I tell about Kapil. So the most noticeable (or un-noticeable) thing about him is his age. Rexona people should pack their bags as I can vouch he uses only dove and still has beaten any Rexona college model by a margin of 10 years. I don't know if you people can figure out maths and physics but he was born on 29th Feb and counts himself 7 and a half years old only. But believe me in a recent dinner a girl voted me the oldest of the lot :). A great project manager as he can manage atleast 4 windows of chat at a time. Oh forgot to mention, on atleast 4 different messengers ;). He also possesses a different ability with the camera. The category if I call is people photography and I have not seen my photographs clicked by him. I have posed many a times though but when the photo is downloaded god knows why I am never in it. Some supernatural phenomenon maybe.
Kapil
Kapil could have been the best girl on bike. The way he leans over you at every break you press, every bumper you cross or practically mostly except when your bike is accelerating. Unfortunately he is not a girl and fortunately he owns a car. So we don't get this feeling all that often. Has hidden talents like singing and dancing together when fully reloaded. I remember last time I saw this was on a highway where we stopped and he sang and he danced. I think most of us could dance to his tunes. Has the best songs suggestions in Antakshari (only rule is that kajrare should be allowed 4 times)
Now the travel part. When Kapil combines with Rohit they make a dangerous mixture for getting insane ideas of travel. They can make programs like "kal ka breakfast ooty main hoga", almost like Alexander would say to his army while capturing a territory. Though we had their predecessor in Jitenrdra Pandey who fortunately did not have such execution skills. So the latest is.. 'yaar Singapore chalte hain'. Bhagwan hi maalik hai ab.
Suprabhat
Jeda naam haiga 'Su' or 'Suppi' as most would call him. Ranks second in drinking.. water. First is the most health conscious Rahul Bakshi. Suppi has the extreme privilege of learning guitar with me and is most supportive in following my pace of learning. So in total we are at the bottom of the class of guitar. We recently did however beat 2 joinees in playing Jana gana mana of course with I starting from where Suppi stopped and vice versa. He can be called the most serious person on the group. The sane balancer to the travel organisers, though his controversial video was caught in 2005 new year which did shake people's opinion a bit.
Bakshi
He is an occasional into our outings. I think he knows its better to avoid it than to get sucked in. Rank one in what Suppi is second. Holds national records for that. Can tell sher-o-shairi on occasion. A married man. That's all, what else can I tell about a married man.
Vikas
Vikas PK roj office aata hai. He does not come drunk or something, its his name and I got inspired from 'Chupke chupke'. Mostly we have contention in the matter of girls. Somehow we like the same girl and we are still friends only because of our collective incompetence in such matters. He is master of PJs. Is infected by his cubicle mate (or I think he has infected him) but they run the biggest factory of PJs in our department. Its to the level that we sometimes warn people like 'Vikas type joke mat maar yaar'. One of the weekly PJ is that if you say you're lucky he would in a reflex say "no I am vikky" and you'd just bang your own head. He also became famous after his 2005 new year party video was caught and seen by a few girls.
Vivek
Or Kandya as we know him. Sleeping is his basic biological limitation. And he watches movies remotely made in Siberia with English subtitles. I think both activities aid each other. Movies put him to sleep and so he can watch the movies fully even without subtitles. Only unexplained phenomena is that he can discuss about them the next day. Has the lethal weapon in smile, use it when someone puts you in difficult situation and stand with that. Vikas sure can recall when we had seen this scene at the Food court birthday party. Speaks fundoo hindi with gems of slips of tounge, latest one was when he was talking about something on Elephant's anatomy. He is the first person who has taken permanent subscription to the Raj tours and Travel agency.
Who all ask this???
Anshul
Now he is in Bangalore and has capacity to talk hours to guys. Incidentally he used to claim that he cannot talk to girls that much till recently he surpassed his own records. I can actually write more interesting stuff for a few more pages about him but sheeshe ke ghar main rehne waale doosro par patthar nahin pheka karte (he was my schoolmate/collegemate/stuggle etc)
Rishi
Bhappaji or bade bhai in punjabi. He lives up to his name. Ram chandra in modern days. 'Sakoon ' lover. Good cook.A good fellow till he recently got married :). Again can't say anything more about married people. Can write loads about him but as he was my collegemate/strugglemate etc the same rule as Anshul applies to him.
On a realistic note, the ball is not there to last. Globalisation has its fallouts after all. So before I end, one picture is most apt for remembrance (not because it contains all of the mentioned but because our photogenic faces are saved public scrutiny)
3/20/2006
String Theory
Stumbled upon this sensationally made documentaries on "String Theory". When I say stumbled it was actually that only as I was using "Stumble Upon" Extension on my Firefox to kill my boredom. Its a nice good plugin. You can specify your likes and then keep on clicking stumble till you hit something good. When you hit something good by your interests its better to rate that page so that stumble upon refines its searches from the set of pages it has. You can even meet people who have pages of the same interests. You can maintain your bookmarks (not as elegantly as in del.icio.us). All the links that I have put is nothing which has appeared suddenly that I am writing about, but yes I have started using them of late only.
Well coming back to the topic, String theory is actually a theory of everything. Something that has not been proved wrong and obviously not true either. Whether true or not but the arguments given in the 3 hour documentary program are quite interesting to say the least. But somehow at the end of it the theory goes complex enough for mortals like me to loose track. The end parts that it cannot be proved and yet people sticking to it seems more like a fad. The initial few episodes seriously did brush a lot of physics basics which surely one forgets in this sea of IT services job.
Believer or not but the documentary is worth a watch.
Well coming back to the topic, String theory is actually a theory of everything. Something that has not been proved wrong and obviously not true either. Whether true or not but the arguments given in the 3 hour documentary program are quite interesting to say the least. But somehow at the end of it the theory goes complex enough for mortals like me to loose track. The end parts that it cannot be proved and yet people sticking to it seems more like a fad. The initial few episodes seriously did brush a lot of physics basics which surely one forgets in this sea of IT services job.
Believer or not but the documentary is worth a watch.
3/16/2006
Sunset Photographs
Recenlty on my trip to Madikeri we reached a place called Raja's seat which is famous for its sunsets and sunrise. Sun happens to be quite photogenic and as I am learning photography, this is one of the things that I would definitely be trying to get better at.We wandered around the park till the sun was quite high and never noticed that people were gathering around to see the sunset. We clicked loads of random pics of the flowers and buds at which Rohit is best at. Luckily we were in good time to notice the sunset to get my normal digicam into action. All pictures posted here are experimental and have different exposure times. After getting worse to ok kinds of results I thought of getting some tips from the net. Here are a few of them.
Safety first:
As mentioned here in this page, one should avoid looking directly into the sun. Even at sunset or sunrise the sun can easily damage one's eyes and even for digicam users who would see on the lcd only it would be able to damage the camera. Never go taking photographs on a sunny day. Its important for digicam users especially as digicams keep taking exposures of what it sees to be shown on the LCD and hence their sensors are constantly exposed. Hence keep closing the lens when in front of direct sun.
Secondly Sun doesn't pose for you:
Its a rare chance or sheer effort to catch sun in the best of poses. We all know sun is round and have seen some NASA images about it but that's a different kind of astrophotography. What we are looking at is not the sun alone, but about sun in its surroundings which actually lends it a nice dimention. The clouds, the trees, the leaves and even perhaps traffic lights, buildings etc.
Sunset and sunrises are faster than you imagine:
In the photos that I have taken, I got hardly 5 mins of time with sun constantly moving down. So its hardly any time. So don't be miserly on the roll (I know digicam people wont mind) and be fast and decisive.
Preparation:
Know the sunset and the sunrise times to be aware where you have to be and when. What I could find on the net are these. But I think I will stick to intuition and mood. So I wont mind going an hour early on a day when I desperately want that sunrise or sunset. Just know the approximate time and be there an hour early would be my way.
Exposures:
I think exposure should be depending on how much light you are getting on your camera. Best is to be a little conservative on exposing. Expose lesser than you imagine. Less exposure sometimes gets you nice results like these.
Wait a
fter it:Sunsets might be the best but the glow after sunset is nothing less. Wait and take photographs of glow on the sky. More clouds the better. Safe for camera, safe for eyes and wonderful eye treat.
Sunset and sunrise times are also known as the golden times for photography. Even starters get startling results. As this tree which stands in nice contrast in the dim light of the sunset.
I have done a few crops on all the pictures posted here. They are purely not inspirational as they are far from good but as I am looking for the methods to make my next sunset snaps better, this whole post might be helpful for some of you who might want to pick up the camera.
And last tip I would like to add is sit back and enjoy the pics you take. See the deeper meaning in it. Atleast you can tell people that you already imagined it and then only you took that particular pic. Here's one where I imagine it as the eye and as you know I had this in my mind before taking the pic :)
3/14/2006
Holi phir hai
Happy Holi to all.I have almost always enjoyed this festival. Almost because sometimes it has been just sitting at home and other times its been good blast. Some memorable ones which come to my mind are:
1. Waking up a close friend and colouring as the eyes open. Friend who never played holi. To see the face in surprise and just out of sleep has been one of the best things to see on holi.
2. Chasing a friend who did not want to get coloured. The guy on foot and we on bike. :)
3. Paying the landlord 6K for dropping colour on floor. Shuks that was sad but wont forget that.
4. Seeing a lot of Mysorians standing out of their houses to see us coloured people and murmuring (culture kharab kar denge ye north indians). Little did they know in our coloured faces that I was perhaps the only north indian. :)
I think its the mixing of cultures that would bring the best out of Indians. Its sad to see that a lot of so called Multinational Indian companies, calling them truly multinational in their work force also do not acknowledge holi and give holiday. I appreciate Infosys for having a holiday for that.
So its a wonderful time to be with friends and enjoy colours. I hope you all enjoy it this way.
So 'bura na maano holi hai'
3/12/2006
BlankNoise
This post is mostly inspired by BlankNoise project which is against eve teasing. The blog-a-thon is over and I could get a lot of views to digest and produce some of my own (not as bad as things produced after digestion).
I see it as two things which are majorly responsible for eve-teasing/molestation etc :
First its lack of respect for the women. Those that are do this stuff are totally oblivion to the value of women to the society. For them they are the weakest beings who are to be exploited and cannot revolt at any of their indecencies. One of the major reasons for their flourishing trade is the submission on the girls part and before I blame them, its the bad law enforcement which is the second reason I would be coming to. Societies where women share an equal place its hard for the society to tolerate such acts by some crack pots. The data given by Anshul would be correct in telling that India would be standing in high ranks among the most unsafe places for women.
The second thing is the bad law enforcement. There are innumerable cases which are famous and have caught limelight. Those were courageous women who could say "I was molested" and face the world. My guessestimate would be that there would be some 100 to 1000 times such women who would not have mentioned about this to their husbands/brothers/mothers/fathers. Why do they fear that? Reason is that if they come out and talk about that we all know how bright chances they have in getting him pinned down and what better if the person is a rich asshole.
To sum the above two points. The countries that treat women much better off than in India in terms of respect and have a good law enforcement, the cases are dead low. Just as a case mentioned here by Gaurav Sabnis' blog ,I witnessed a scene in Zurich where I was returning at around 1 am in the morning. A group of girls were also returning from a party and were drunk, kind of girls who would be labeled what not as soon as we see them at such times and state. And after some time a big group of drunk guys also came. As my instincts said and would have happened in India with 200% probability, it did happen there also. A guy from the group could not control and went and started misbehaving and touching one of the girl in the group. At the first sign that he was not going to do some "Hello my name is this and can we be friends" talk (because I don't think they would have got scared at that), she started shouting at him. The guy immediately retreated and in fact all guys left the platform. What I noticed is that the other girls did not even have to say a word, forget unity etc as one itself was enough. On the other side, none of the guys were forming a group behind this one guy as would have happened here. They all caught hold of him on hearing the girl shout and took him out. The respect as an equal other sex and the empowerment of women make them safe and comfortable.
People may shrugg off a million such incidents saying that those are possible there but not here. Its time such people look inwards. I think paying due respect is something anyone can do. Here I would like that its not an slumber from which only men have wake up from, its also the women who have to rise up and stop being submissive. Things will change.
We all live in a conservative mould and while I utter these words I would like to put disclaimers that there can be a zillion definitions of words like conservatism, modernity, freedom etc. What I feel is that conservatism with respect, modernity with thoughts and understanding are some of the very positive ingredients of a change or cultural fusion which make a culture rich and eradicate the follies of the past.
I see it as two things which are majorly responsible for eve-teasing/molestation etc :
First its lack of respect for the women. Those that are do this stuff are totally oblivion to the value of women to the society. For them they are the weakest beings who are to be exploited and cannot revolt at any of their indecencies. One of the major reasons for their flourishing trade is the submission on the girls part and before I blame them, its the bad law enforcement which is the second reason I would be coming to. Societies where women share an equal place its hard for the society to tolerate such acts by some crack pots. The data given by Anshul would be correct in telling that India would be standing in high ranks among the most unsafe places for women.
The second thing is the bad law enforcement. There are innumerable cases which are famous and have caught limelight. Those were courageous women who could say "I was molested" and face the world. My guessestimate would be that there would be some 100 to 1000 times such women who would not have mentioned about this to their husbands/brothers/mothers/fathers. Why do they fear that? Reason is that if they come out and talk about that we all know how bright chances they have in getting him pinned down and what better if the person is a rich asshole.
To sum the above two points. The countries that treat women much better off than in India in terms of respect and have a good law enforcement, the cases are dead low. Just as a case mentioned here by Gaurav Sabnis' blog ,I witnessed a scene in Zurich where I was returning at around 1 am in the morning. A group of girls were also returning from a party and were drunk, kind of girls who would be labeled what not as soon as we see them at such times and state. And after some time a big group of drunk guys also came. As my instincts said and would have happened in India with 200% probability, it did happen there also. A guy from the group could not control and went and started misbehaving and touching one of the girl in the group. At the first sign that he was not going to do some "Hello my name is this and can we be friends" talk (because I don't think they would have got scared at that), she started shouting at him. The guy immediately retreated and in fact all guys left the platform. What I noticed is that the other girls did not even have to say a word, forget unity etc as one itself was enough. On the other side, none of the guys were forming a group behind this one guy as would have happened here. They all caught hold of him on hearing the girl shout and took him out. The respect as an equal other sex and the empowerment of women make them safe and comfortable.
People may shrugg off a million such incidents saying that those are possible there but not here. Its time such people look inwards. I think paying due respect is something anyone can do. Here I would like that its not an slumber from which only men have wake up from, its also the women who have to rise up and stop being submissive. Things will change.
We all live in a conservative mould and while I utter these words I would like to put disclaimers that there can be a zillion definitions of words like conservatism, modernity, freedom etc. What I feel is that conservatism with respect, modernity with thoughts and understanding are some of the very positive ingredients of a change or cultural fusion which make a culture rich and eradicate the follies of the past.
3/09/2006
India-Pakistan
No I am not going to talk about any cricket nor any Kashmir. Its just about a small incident which made me think about the feelings we get whenever the words India and Pakistan are uttered together. And how strange it is to discover the people on the other side of the border.
I have never met any of the Pakistanis in India but in my few stints outside India happened to meet or hear about a few of them. One was a typical example of how we perceive them and love to hear those stories of them. There was a guy who was in an Indian guy gang because all used to work in the same office and he would come out cursing the film makers whenever he went to watch Indi patriotic movies like Border etc. Quite natural to the image of Pakistanis who as we think are surely not going to believe in our glory.
Its common for Indians to look for an Indian restaurant to get a taste of our own food and there are many of them who are Pakistani run but the names and ambiance is all Indian. I bet every major European city will have a 'Taj Mahal' restaurant. So it was a few visits to a variety of them which made me make some observations:
- Generally recognizing you as Indians, the owners will tend to ask you sometimes where are you from and all that. In case you tell them you are Indian, most Pakistani restaurant owners will not confess they are Pakistanis. They would rather say we are from Punjab.
- The Pakistani style food is quite the same as north Indian food.
And hence we have an habit to shrug their attitude thinking its valid considering the relationship the countries share. But a recent incident changed this outlook a little. I happened to go to an "specialty Indienne" restaurant named 'Shameer' with a friend of mine who has been there in Paris for long. The same sequence of questions followed. "Where do you come from?" and we unanimously answered "India". "Hindi bol lete ho?" and we said "Haan haan , kyon nahin!!". Then he asked where in India and all that and then when we asked where was he from and he said Pakistan. This itself was a little surprising but it had happened for me only once earlier when on too many questions on Punjab the person had said that he was in Pakistani Punjab which is almost the same as ours.
We ordered some northie food and wine. The food was real good and so in the end I could not help complimenting the owner about the food. I also added that I had a similar good experience in another Pakistani restaurant in Zurich. I said I have started liking the Pakistani style of cooking. To which he replied you will be surprised to know that our cook is Indian. Also he could recognise the owners of the Zurich restaurant and told they too have an Indian cook. We had some talk and he left us till outside of the restaurant and it was a nice experience.
The above was normal. Two days later another friend of mine had come down to meet me and he wanted to have Indian food and so I gave him this address. I had to leave back so I told him that he could go an have it. My friend was quite talkative and as it learn from him that when he went, the owner and he had a good discussion about how India and Pakistan are hardly different outside of India and how our politicians keep pulling the countries apart. And on top of that the owner did not even take the money from him. Pakistanis are hardly from rich backgrounds in those parts of the world and leaving some 30 euros for a lunch, just for a healthy discussion with an Indian is seriously moving.
Overall what I learn is that we on both sides of the border share quite similar feelings, have the same language, have the same food but yet even if I could go to all the places of the world but crossing the border would be the hardest thing an Indian could ever do.
I have never met any of the Pakistanis in India but in my few stints outside India happened to meet or hear about a few of them. One was a typical example of how we perceive them and love to hear those stories of them. There was a guy who was in an Indian guy gang because all used to work in the same office and he would come out cursing the film makers whenever he went to watch Indi patriotic movies like Border etc. Quite natural to the image of Pakistanis who as we think are surely not going to believe in our glory.
Its common for Indians to look for an Indian restaurant to get a taste of our own food and there are many of them who are Pakistani run but the names and ambiance is all Indian. I bet every major European city will have a 'Taj Mahal' restaurant. So it was a few visits to a variety of them which made me make some observations:
- Generally recognizing you as Indians, the owners will tend to ask you sometimes where are you from and all that. In case you tell them you are Indian, most Pakistani restaurant owners will not confess they are Pakistanis. They would rather say we are from Punjab.
- The Pakistani style food is quite the same as north Indian food.
And hence we have an habit to shrug their attitude thinking its valid considering the relationship the countries share. But a recent incident changed this outlook a little. I happened to go to an "specialty Indienne" restaurant named 'Shameer' with a friend of mine who has been there in Paris for long. The same sequence of questions followed. "Where do you come from?" and we unanimously answered "India". "Hindi bol lete ho?" and we said "Haan haan , kyon nahin!!". Then he asked where in India and all that and then when we asked where was he from and he said Pakistan. This itself was a little surprising but it had happened for me only once earlier when on too many questions on Punjab the person had said that he was in Pakistani Punjab which is almost the same as ours.
We ordered some northie food and wine. The food was real good and so in the end I could not help complimenting the owner about the food. I also added that I had a similar good experience in another Pakistani restaurant in Zurich. I said I have started liking the Pakistani style of cooking. To which he replied you will be surprised to know that our cook is Indian. Also he could recognise the owners of the Zurich restaurant and told they too have an Indian cook. We had some talk and he left us till outside of the restaurant and it was a nice experience.
The above was normal. Two days later another friend of mine had come down to meet me and he wanted to have Indian food and so I gave him this address. I had to leave back so I told him that he could go an have it. My friend was quite talkative and as it learn from him that when he went, the owner and he had a good discussion about how India and Pakistan are hardly different outside of India and how our politicians keep pulling the countries apart. And on top of that the owner did not even take the money from him. Pakistanis are hardly from rich backgrounds in those parts of the world and leaving some 30 euros for a lunch, just for a healthy discussion with an Indian is seriously moving.
Overall what I learn is that we on both sides of the border share quite similar feelings, have the same language, have the same food but yet even if I could go to all the places of the world but crossing the border would be the hardest thing an Indian could ever do.
3/01/2006
Where's Euphoria
The Indian music scene is good as we are having good numbers from Strings and Jal. Also A R Rehman is rocking with RDB songs. But amidst all this, one band is seriously missed and that is Euphoria . A band which has its own style of music called indipop and has really given us good numbers like Maeri, Ab na ja, Dhoom, Tum.
This is one band which has delivered good music at regular intervals. Palash is seen in a few songs for 'Hanuman' and some guest appearances here and there but is gone from the scene of indipop where he used to be best at.
There were rumours about the band splitting up and I just hope these are rumours only. The band seems to be growing as per their official website. I don't know whether some that have entered have replaced some people. Euphoria has mostly been a one man show with Palash doing the lyrics, Music and who can forget the vocals. But even with all this the people who make a complete album are the full band members. Lets hope that those that have entered and replaced band members stand up to the fine quality of music that their predecessors have given.
And also with hope that Euphoria will create another Euphoria before its too late.
This is one band which has delivered good music at regular intervals. Palash is seen in a few songs for 'Hanuman' and some guest appearances here and there but is gone from the scene of indipop where he used to be best at.
There were rumours about the band splitting up and I just hope these are rumours only. The band seems to be growing as per their official website. I don't know whether some that have entered have replaced some people. Euphoria has mostly been a one man show with Palash doing the lyrics, Music and who can forget the vocals. But even with all this the people who make a complete album are the full band members. Lets hope that those that have entered and replaced band members stand up to the fine quality of music that their predecessors have given.
And also with hope that Euphoria will create another Euphoria before its too late.
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