America Return

My mother and father visited me recently. A couple of days ago, my mother's mahila mandal, did a Samman to recognize her visit to America. She said she spoke a few words and that "America is good for a trip, but we cannot live there". 

Samman means to pay respect.

Warmth

Years one to ten of my past were spent in a village named Khakharia, Gujarat. As winters came, that meant diwali vacation and a visit to Ujjain. Though my grandparents from both sides lived in Ujjain, I would be excited at the thought of meeting up with my cousins at Nani's house. At that time, there were no children or friends to play with at my paternal grandparent's house, and I must have found it boring. 

We would usually take the Sabarmati Express in the night from Khakharia and it would arrive early morning in Ujjain. From there an auto rickshaw would take us to Dadaji's house. There would be mild fog, a few people on the roads wrapped up in shawls, a gathering around a fire maybe. The air still seems fresh as if it was yesterday. All the hatred for the big homework to be finished before coming back to school was forgotten.

Soon my calculations would start revolving around when and how would I get to Nani's house. There were no telephones then, so somebody from their house or mine would have to pay a visit. There would cousins to play with, especially the youngest one. There would be sweets and namkeen mami and nani made, there would be games, there would be firecrackers to be bought with Mamaji. 

After a couple of days at Dadaji's house, my parents and grandparents, willingly or unwillingly, would let me sleepover at Nani's place. All cousins would sleep together in the night, in the hall. I would have already gobbled more gulabjamun's than anyone. The youngest and I would be shouted at for not going to sleep and chattering after the lights were off. We would turn each other and then the other cousins over to see if they were really asleep or faking. Eventually, sleep would come naturally.

Morning would be a ruckus. Mami would be busy making Chai for everyone. Other elders in the family would be numbering for morning motions and a bath. We children would be the last ones, although I would come out of the rajai before the others, for the chai. Sometimes, one or two of us would go back to sleep, and then we would be given ultimatums; before 8'o'clock everyone has to be done with a bath. With so many people in a small house, and the youngest and I running around, it must have been difficult to have some order. So the culprits would be made to take a bath, their heads dipped in oil, hair combed and would be sent out.

We would sit out for a while, looking at other people, chattering, planning something, maybe how to get a coin out of Nani to buy chocolate, or wafer fingers. I remember vividly. It would be chilly, the morning sun would fall on the skin, and there would be a feeling of warmth.

Aurora Borealis

The photos.

The Science.

Dancing

Growing up, I was shy of dancing, in public presence. No wonder one of my childhood pet names was pappu. Pappu_Can't Dance Sala. That shyness, I think, came from being somebody. Even a small child has already developed an acute sense of personality, and that, I think, more than anything else, is the reason for the reservation. In childhood, the fear of looking awkward, clumsy and being laughed at, stopped your feet. At that time, these words were not there in my mind, but the fear was.

Once in a while I got pushed onto the dance floor, courage took center stage, but I didn't enjoy it as much. When you dance with somebody, for somebody or in front of somebody, that is a performance. Performance by default has consciousness associated with it, I think, and that is not real fun for a non-performer. 

As you grow up, the inertia builds, the desire to move yourself to the music gets pushed into a corner.

Yet, over the last few years there have been times when I've danced free, to my heart's content. And  I understand this about dance. It is an activity which lets you forget yourself, if you let go and immerse yourself. The very act of matching yourself to the beat, the melody, the words, sets you free even if only for a few moments. 

Obviously, if you live on ground floor, that helps.

Snappy The Crocodile

A friend of mine showed us this video, today, while random-surfing youtube. Schnappi the crocodile

Another song from Slumdog Millionaire

Peppy, fast number, Jai Ho.

No words

From slumdog millionaire, Latika's theme

A song

Over past few years, I have read works of quite a few Indian saints, poets. I haven't read any one of them in a lot of detail, however I've read excerpts here and there, online and in books.

Of these, today I remembered Mirabai. Somehow while talking to friends, we ended up in a frivolous discussion on Indian literature and ended up talking a bit about Mirabai. Regardless of what I bantered with my friends, she's is one of the Indian saints whom I respect.

Here's a song in her memory:
Teri Deewani by Kailash Kher

Not that this song does justice to her works or life. It's lyrics are not that impressive or influential for me, yet there's something about Kailash Kher's voice which is very likeable, earthly, rustic, may I dare to say. It's that feeling which he conveys by his voice that I attribute to her devotion.

(Earthly is what I read somebody else describe his voice as)

Change

Can a person really change? How much? The worldly wisdom tells me that old habits die hard, that people are made of their past more or less. So if I will be thirty soon, do I have no hope :)?

The Debate Is Here

I just read this news and I am interested, in listening to both sides.

Two influential speakers will face off next month at the University of Colorado in a debate titled: "What’s so Great About God? – Atheism vs. Religion." The debate, organized by the school’s Aquinas Institute for Catholic Thought, will feature Dinesh D’Souza and Christopher Hitchens presenting their cases for and against organized religion, its influence on world history and impact on current events.

Infy Chief

writes

Random

White Russian. It was our intern's going away get together and I tried this today. Good drink I say. I had a margarita before that. At my home, they say you should never have lime with milk. Citrus with lactic is bad?

In any case. One of my favorite pieces of music is a snippet of the pachelbel's canon. A good version is available here which I listen to once in a while. My favorite measure comes around the 2 minute mark.

I edit my posts sometimes to rework things and the damn blogger word verification annoys the hell out of me.

Journalism

I don't even know the A B C D of this topic. However, what I understand is, a journalist reports a story, which becomes news. And it is my belief, that when a journalist collects the story, she or he has to collect the facts, and do a fact-check.

I've always been interested in this topic, and so that's my first post on it. I hope to learn more and post more about this stuff.

Hail to Tendulkar

For a tendulkar fan, this is a most happy hour. I remember Chennai test against Pakistan, and this victory has healed that.

It takes two sides to make a good match. The English chose to return and play their hearts out. The Indians responded as a team, and what a match we had.

Sehwag, deserved the man of the match for setting it up; Yuvi, Gautam, Tendulkar, and all others, played their part. And so, in playing their part, both these teams have given cricket fans a memorable match.

More later.

I must appreciate both the captains, Pietersen and more so, Dhoni. They've led their teams well. Most of my knowledge comes from cricinfo articles, and from what I've read, the stories of these two guys are remarkable in themselves.

Tendulkar, dedicated his century as a tribute to the Mumbaikars who are suffering. I hesitate to say this, but he has done his part, and I've to figure out what I can do.

Reboot

You know that feeling when your world is falling apart and all you can do is watch helplessly? Last night my toshiba satellite laptop stopped booting up on me. Yes, I know, we have no life :).

Now it is common knowledge amongst friends that the battery has been on death bed since past few months. However, it is also not hidden, that we can beat any other homo sapien in the competition for laziness, and being disorganized.

We dig the well when the fire breaks out. Just like the Indian government, where the heads roll after the disaster happens.

Obviously, we haven't backed up our drive in a while. Result is utter panic which leads to trying things in desperation, frustration, self blame, and finally, resignation.

But, that's where we are different from the Indian government. We have nobody to fire for this fiasco.

And so, we did give up, but only temporarily and let our minds settle down. Sometimes, silence and calm opens new WINDOWS and brings the much needed inspiration, motivation, life.

We figured there has to be a way for the processor to bootup without the battery. So we took the damn battery out. And thanks to the engineers who built this, it boots up fine. With just the power supply!

Vienna

I was watching PBS travel and I learnt two interesting facts.

Vienna apparently is famous for it's coffeehouses.

The story goes that coffee was first brought to Vienna by the invading Turkish army in the late 17th century.

When they withdrew from the city, they left behind several sacks of coffee beans.

The Viennese found they liked the drink, and they built around it a whole way of life.

Link.

Unrelated, Vienna was where Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, Mahler, lived and composed.

Most of what I have heard is limited to Mozart and Beethoven, and I don't have a great patience for long symphonies.

Yet there are still some classical pieces like the "moonlight sonata" which I really appreciate.

Tonight, biggest full moon for years

Tonight's full moon, it is the biggest and brightest full moon to be seen for 15 years.

Another astronomical treat that could be seen tonight and for the next two nights is the annual Geminid meteor shower, one of the year’s best displays of shooting stars. Up to 100 meteors an hour can fly across the sky. The meteors, which are easy to spot with the naked eye, appear to shoot out from the constellation Gemini, hence their name, but they can be seen all over the sky. However, with a full moon so bright, the best place to look is away from the Moon.

Slumdog Millionaire

Imdb

Slumdog millionaire is the best movie I've seen this year. It is a fast paced love story set in Mumbai with a really good script and great casting. The protaganist is a chai-wala, Jamal Malik, who is the in the hot seat of Who wants to be a millionaire, and one question away from it.

I thought the perfomances were really good, specially by the child actors. The background score does justice to the movie and unlike other bollywood movies, is neither melo-dramatic, nor overbearing. Though the movie is almost entirely in English, yet somehow it doesn't seem out of place. This is one of those word of mouth movies; all my friends whom I've spoken to after watching it, I have asked them to go see it.

As far as I think, if this movie doesn't win an Oscar for Best Movie, I don't know what should. Yes, it is that good.

As an afterthought, the famous Pasteur quote, "chance favors the prepared mind", fits perfectly with the story.

गुजर रही कुछ यूँ जिंदगी
की कुछ और पाने की आरजून भी नही

Return to India

A friend of mine forwarded me this: Return to India. It takes you through the journey of an indian-american family moving back to India. My friends will attest to the fact that I too am the always talking, never returning Indian.

Ped se bichaad patta nadi se mila
Kisi ka daman khali hua, toh Kisi ka bhara

Iponder

Empty soup cup. The black spoon inside reflects the hall light in two stripes. Does that observation have any value to it?