WTF news of the day

the commissioner of bombay municipal corporation says this here:

Civic officials say the massive construction activity undertaken for the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing has increased demand for iron ore globally. As a result, they claim, organised gangs are now operating in Kurla, Bandra, Mankhurd and parts of Byculla to systematically steal the manhole covers. (emphasis mine)

earlier wtf series - 1, 2, 3,

dasavathaaram - review

well, well and well.
first day last show happened.
just after i had finished writing about it here, i landed up at the swankiest theater in mumbai and easily got 2 tickets.
felt wonderful at the start to be surrounded by fellow tams.

ok, here are some other reviews.
1. rediff raves repetitively.
2. a disappointed fan writes.
3. the hindu is congratulatory.

i had a above average experience with the film and more later on some details.
i think overall, the film will perform badly as it is certainly nowhere close to the hype created.

the things i liked:
1. the premise of the script and the story: very well written story and concepts and linkages between the different characters and events.
2. kamal is certainly outstanding as each of the 10 avtaars. especially his voice modulation is brilliant. that some of them were really unnecessary comes later.
3. casting - it was good to see a lot of earlier generation actors and actresses in action. the surprise packet is certainly mallika sherawat. short and spunky role she does. kamal does little justice when he says - "she is there for the same reason she is there in other movies"
4. one of the beauties of kamal's writing, is the subtle gems he places in scenes and dialogues. lots of that here, especially in the role of an dalit activist, who takes on the sand mafia (those who illegally dredge river-beds and are creating a environmental disaster). the climax has his japanese character screaming tsunami!!
5. the last climax special effects of the tsunami was spectacular.

some sore points:
1. the heroine, as in, asin, is asinine. screechy and high pitched and cringe-worthy.
2. too long. at least 30 mins of chases and fights and violence could have been deleted. the editor seems to have gone to sleep doing his job.
3. the direction was really not there. the super-hit maker k s ravikumar should have done a much better job. kamal-worship reeks right through his efforts.
4. make up quality was sub-par. the overdone-noses (i should know!!) really gave it away. i think the earlier efforts in indian (hindustani)/avvai shanmugi (chachi 420) were far superior.
5. 1 role too many. the afghan (khalif ullah) was certainly completely unnecessary.

overall i would end by saying that i could watch it one more time. to understand some of the subtle messages better. hoping that enough viewer feedback will flow by that time for the editor to do some snipping.

dasavathaaram releases today

one of the frenziest movie releases in recent times - dasavathaaram - releases today.
kamal will always be my all time no. 1 favourite and in spite of his earlier hyped movies, i remain a true bhakth.
the pre-release digest. with links to tons of articles, interviews and total gushing adulation.
rediff has an entire section.

planning to watch it asap.

our cities and their budgets

this is from the RBI report on municipal finances.

leaving aside mumbai, all the other 7 cities add up to just less than mumbai.
for the record, the latest Mumbai Corporation Education Department budget for 2008-09 is over Rs 1000 crore, which itself is more than the overall budget of all the cities.

considering that over 50% are slum dwellers and of them, the per capita figures are just amazing.
the city is quite astonishing.

the budget values is in Rs crore.

city	budget	per capita
greater mumbai	4162	3417
surat	662	2577
pune	507	1890
ahemdabad	599	1668
chennai	591	1385
hyderabad	338	964
delhi	880	872
bangalore	369	810

undo undo

i was writing some stuff on the blackboard today - the old fashioned teacher aid - when something strange happened.
i had written down 2 bullet points. when i realised that the second one was a mistake, i took the duster and erased it.
in my haste, i erased the first point as well.

immediately i was looking to slam the 'ctrl z' (undo) key.

what a habit.

south asia could have been

ramachandra guha has delivered an outstanding lecture titled 'the beauty of compromise'.

i discovered the very excellent himal magazine 6 months ago and lost track of it 5 months ago.
after tons of mind-bending googling, i found it, and assiduously went through the archives and unearthed guha's gem.

it is long and intense and covers history, fantasy and analysis of the last 50 years of south asia in a delectable manner.

am going to put out some excerpts here on the parts which i really loved:
1. on Jayprakash Narayan(JP)

Within India, J P is celebrated for his role in two major movements: the Quit India struggle of 1942, and the ‘Indira Hatao’ movement of 1974-5....In 1942, he was a charismatic young leftist, who sought to throw the British out and rebuild India on socialist lines. In 1974-5, he was a charismatic old radical, who sought to throw Indira Gandhi out in the process of bringing about a ‘Total Revolution’ in India. While in India today J P is remembered for his anti-colonial and Total Revolution campaigns of the 1940s and 1970s, what has been quite forgotten is his equally interesting and, in my view, even more noble work during the 1960s, when he tried heroically – if, in the end, unavailingly – to resolve the two civil conflicts that have plagued the Indian nation state since its inception. At either end of the Himalaya, these were the Kashmir and Nagaland conflicts.

2. what could have been in kashmir

J P spoke out longest and loudest against the illegalities of the Union government in Kashmir. He was a close friend of the popular Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdullah, who was jailed by the Indian government in 1953. J P called repeatedly for the release of Sheikh Abdullah, and when the Sheikh was finally set free in April 1964, encouraged the idea of sending him over to Pakistan as an emissary for peace. This was originally a proposal of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru...,(but when) Nehru died in May 1964; the peace initiative died with him. The next year, Sheikh Abdullah was put behind bars once again. In June 1966, J P wrote an extraordinary letter to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, asking that the Sheikh be freed in time for the next elections. “[To] hold a general election in Kashmir with Sheikh Abdullah in prison,” remarked J P, “is like the British ordering an election in India while Jawaharlal Nehru was in prison...I cannot see what other device will be left to India to settle the problem. To think that we will eventually wear down the people and force them to accept at least passively the Union is to delude ourselves.

It took another eight years for her to allow the Sheikh to re-enter politics. When Sheikh Abdullah was made chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir in February 1975, J P welcomed the move (despite being, by then, a bitter opponent of Mrs Gandhi). But the concession itself was perhaps eight years too late. For by then the Sheikh had become reconciled to subservience to New Delhi, and in time was to place the interests of his own family above those of the Kashmiri people. What might have been the fate of Kashmir and the Kashmiris, had Mrs Gandhi listened to J P in June 1966 ....

3. On the Nagaland people (JP at his masterly best)

In 1964, after a long decade of civil war, a ceasefire was declared between the NNC and the Indian government. A three-member ‘peace mission’ was formed, consisting of the Anglican missionary Michael Scott, the Gandhian nationalist B P Chaliha, and Jayaprakash Narayan. Sadly, the mission collapsed within a year, due to inflexibility on both sides, and the rebels returned to the jungle. It was at this time that J P wrote an extraordinary if still little-known booklet in Hindi, based on a speech he delivered in Patna on Martyrs Day, 30 January 1965. The booklet is titled Nagaland mein Shanti ka Prayas (The Attempt to Forge Peace in Nagaland).

“In the history of every nation,” began J P, “there have been disagreements among the servants and leaders of the nation. Where democracy prevails, these disagreements are discussed and resolved by democratic means; but where democracy is absent, they are resolved by the use of violence.” However, history teaches us that violence begets counter-violence and, eventually, violence against one’s own comrades. Thus, “when disputes arise, past alliances and friendships are forgotten, and allegations of betrayal, traitorous behaviour, etc are levied on one’s opponents.”

J P proceeded to recount the history of the civil war in Nagaland – the recourse to the gun of one side, the reaction of the other, and the brutalities committed by both. Then, in the spirit of his master, Gandhi, he asked each party to recognise and respect the finest traditions of the other. First, he told the Nagas that, among the nations of Asia, India was unusual in having a democratic and federal Constitution. Were the rebels to abandon the dream of independence and settle for autonomy within the Union, the only control they would have had to give up was over the army, foreign affairs and currency. In all other respects, they would have been free to mould their destinies as they pleased.

Narayan recognised the distinctiveness of Naga cultural traditions. While both East and West Pakistan bore the impress of the Indic civilisation, “what we call Indian culture has not made an entry into Nagaland.” That said, J P thought that the Nagas could not sustain an independent country, what with China, Pakistan and Burma all close by and casting covetous eyes on their territory. Why not join up, therefore, with a democratic and federal India? When New Delhi could not dominate Bihar or Bengal, how could it dominate Nagaland, J P asked rhetorically. If the rebels were to come over-ground and contest elections, said Narayan, they could give their people the best schools, hospitals, roads and so on.

Towards the end of his lecture, J P turned to educating his Patna audience about the virtues of the Nagas. He was particularly impressed by the vigour of the Naga village councils. Anywhere else in India, he said, to construct an airport the “government can uproot village upon village,” whereas in Nagaland this could never be done without the consent of the local people. He was even more struck by the dignity of labour, and the absence of caste feeling. In matters of cooperative behaviour, said J P, the Nagas could teach a thing or two to the people of India. He gave the example of a magnificent church that had been recently constructed in a village near the town of Mokokchung: with a seating capacity of five thousand, it had been built entirely with local material and local labour, much of it contributed voluntarily by graduates and post-graduates. J P contrasted this with the contempt for manual work among the educated, upper-caste elite of the Indian heartland.

4. the bangladesh story

Pakistan was under military rule between 1958 and 1970. Towards the end of 1970, General Yahya Khan called for elections. Apparently, he had expected the ambitious politician from Sindh, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, to become prime minister, allowing him to continue as president. But these calculations went awry. The Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won 167 out of 169 seats in the more populous East Pakistan. Playing on the sense of discrimination, Sheikh Mujib’s party achieved a majority in the national Parliament.

Rather than honour the democratic mandate and invite Sheikh Mujib to take office, Yahya Khan postponed the convening of the National Assembly, and in this he was encouraged and abetted by Bhutto. The response was a general strike in all of East Pakistan, and the Pakistan Army decided to settle the matter by force of arms. But with India choosing to ally with the Bengali dissidents, the task was made much harder than the general had anticipated. Eight months of episodic fighting culminated in an all-out war in December 1971, which led to the defeat and dismemberment of Pakistan.

Would Pakistan have remained a single nation state if Yahya and Bhutto had permitted Mujib to take over as prime minister? In asking this question, I certainly do not mean to turn the clock back, or to suggest that the creation of Bangladesh was a mistake. I mean only to highlight how the techniques of suppression, so often used by a state to settle an outstanding conflict, tend mostly to intensify and deepen it.

5. some lessons from rest of the world

...the lesson to be learnt from the most successful peace negotiations of contemporary times, that which led to the demise of apartheid and the birth of a democratic South Africa. Had President F W de Klerk and his National Party not begun a dialogue with the African National Congress, and had Nelson Mandela and his comrades not turned their backs on the gun, there might yet be a civil conflict raging in that country.

One notable aspect of the transition in South Africa was that the reconciliation was racial as well as political. The whites handed over power, but did not relinquish their rights as citizens or professionals. The need for black economic advancement was recognised, but it was not pursued in wanton haste. The comparison with neighbouring Zimbabwe is striking. There, the end of settler colonialism was followed by savage retribution, with the whites forcibly dispossessed of their lands and coerced to leave the country. What was once the breadbasket of Africa has become a basket case.

Looking over to Europe, Southasians may also take instruction from the political transition that took place after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Once run with an iron hand from Moscow, countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have emerged as vigorous democracies. After the hold of the Soviets was loosened – largely through the voluntary abdication initiated by the visionary Mikhail Gorbachev – the different sections of Polish, Hungarian and Czech society eschewed the politics of revenge and retribution. Instead of turning on one another, communists and anti-communists formed political parties of their own and fought elections based on universal adult franchise. Autocrats became democrats, while rebels became governors (most famously, Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel). Who, in 1960, or even in 1980, would have imagined a transition as painless and productive?

6. on the narmada dam andolan

Between 1989 and 1995, the NBA organised a series of satyagrahas to stop construction of the dam. Their struggle won wide appreciation, both for its principled commitment to non-violence and for its ability to mobilise peasants and Adivasis. By now, several scientific studies had been published calling into question the viability of large dams. These studies adduced environmental arguments, such as the submergence of scarce forests and wildlife; economic arguments, such as the fact that sedimentation rates and soil salinity had greatly diminished the financial returns from such projects; and social arguments, namely the utter despair and demoralisation of the communities that the dams render homeless.

The struggle and the science notwithstanding, the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam proceeded. In 1995, a group of engineers based in Pune advocated a compromise solution. Given that the dam had already come up to a height of about 260 feet, clearly it could not be stopped. But its negative effects could be minimised. The Pune engineers were proposing a model of a dam smaller than that originally envisaged. The reduction in height would greatly reduce the area to be submerged, yet retain much of the benefits that were to accrue in power and irrigation. The drought-prone regions of Kutch and Saurashtra would still get water, while fewer communities would be displaced in the upper catchment.

The compromise formula was rejected both by the Gujarat government and the NBA. The former insisted that the dam had to be built to its originally sanctioned height of 456 feet. The latter insisted that the dam must never be built. The Andolan was continuing with the rallying cry, “Kohi Nahi Hatega! Baandh Nahin Banega!” (No one will leave their homes! The dam will not be built!), even as the construction and displacement continued. A part of the dam was already complete, thousands of tonnes of concrete had already been poured, and no one really expected a reversal of this. On the part of the state establishment, there was not a hint of its willingness to consider a reduction in the dam height.

In retrospect, it is unfortunate that the NBA did not accept the lowered-height proposal. Had the Andolan advocated this alternative energetically, it is just possible that public opinion would have veered more strongly in their favour. The Supreme Court, before whom an appeal was pending, might have given a more favourable verdict.

7. on gandhi as a 'civil engineer'

In many ways, Gandhi was the arch-reconciler, the builder of bridges – bridges between Hindus and Muslims, between India and Pakistan, between high castes and low castes, between men and women, between the coloniser and the colonised. Independent India has had many failures, but also some successes. The most conspicuous of the latter are owed to Gandhi’s political followers having honoured his spirit of compromise. India is not – or, at least, not yet – a ‘Hindu Pakistan’, because its first prime minister followed Gandhi in promoting religious pluralism. The Indian Constitution provided special privileges for Dalits and Adivasis under the inspiration of Gandhi. In fact, the Dalit leader Dr B R Ambedkar was made both India’s first law minister and chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution on the recommendation of Gandhi. It was also Gandhi who first advocated and promoted the idea of linguistic states. All of these initiatives were attempts by Gandhi to reach out to the ‘underdog’ with a hand of conciliation and unforced magnanimity.

Among the all-pervading but little recognised of Gandhi’s successes was the forging of a stable, harmonious and even affectionate relationship between the United Kingdom and independent India. Certainly, nowhere else have Empire and Colony maintained such a friendship after the sundering of the imperial (and essentially inequitable) tie that once bound them. Consider the bitter relations that exist to this day between the French and the Algerians, the Dutch and the Indonesians, the Belgians and Congolese, the Russians and the Poles, the Japanese and the Koreans.

That the citizens of India today do not ‘hate’ the English is owed largely – one might even say entirely – to Gandhi. His closest friend was an Englishman, Charles Freer Andrews. When Andrews died, in 1940, Gandhi wrote that while the numerous misdeeds of the English would be forgotten, not one of the heroic deeds of Andrews will be forgotten as long as England and India live. If we really love Andrews’ memory, we may not have hate in us for Englishmen, of whom Andrews was among the best and noblest. It is possible, quite possible, for the best Englishmen and the best Indians to meet together and never to separate till they have evolved a formula acceptable to both.

In the six decades since the Raj ended, the ‘best Englishmen and the best Indians’ have met regularly and amicably, to their mutual advantage. A spirit of conciliation helped England and India to evolve a powerful friendship, which had myriad benefits for both. The economic benefit to India from this friendship alone will have been enormous.

A truly outstanding piece. please read the whole lecture here.

waste statistics

decreasing waste generation is catching people's fancy for sometime and more so in the wake of the recent food crisis.
my earlier post and kbpm's recent are just a partial list

just bumped in 50 ways to help the planet.
here are some astounding stats:
1. each child uses 5000-8000 diapers in their babyhood.
2. each american uses 2200 paper napkins a year.
3. recyling sunday papers in america will save 2 million trees a month.
4. 130 million cell phones will be replaced each year.
5. 500 billion plastic bags are used every year.
6. 138 billion plastic straws and stirrers are used/disposed every year in amercia.
7. 15 billion batteries are used and disposed each year.

the alarming rise of english medium

the rapidly increasing demand for english medium education is seeing a supply side increase too.
more english schools are being opened and more parents are rushing to get their children into these schools.
a disaster in the making.
TOI reports on the numbers.



this is a bad trend because:
1. where are the teachers/infrastructure? as per above, there should have been an additional influx of over 1 lakh teachers in 2 years(assuming 1 teacher for 40 students). and we should see this data with the corresponding increases in the number of schools.

2. most importantly, mother tongue instruction should be universally applied in primary school as research shows.

wheat size

source: salman usmani

this is from the tehelka story on punjab farmers two timing customers...

look at the 2 shoots. the one on the left (in the farmer's right hand) is organically grown and the other is with chemicals and stuff.
apparently the organic shoot catches up in size over 2-3 years.

pink salt!

this is an image of the Salt Pans in San Fransisco.
image source is here.

how are salt pans pink?

where our taxes go - 4

to provide airconditioning support to lord shiva.
and that too in a temple which is in the himalayas.

check out their innovation in making this a 'green' venture.

Micro-hydroelectric plants (dams) would have to be set up along the Amravati river, which flows close to the cave, to generate the electricity needed to operate the cooling panels.

guess that we should definitely stop expecting them to have any time for the aam aadmi.

earlier posts WOTGO, WOTGO-2, WOTGO-3

googletrans

google has moved from transliterate to translate. very soon, transmogrification is up next.

am working from my madras home desktop which is running on ancient OS and am having some font issues. but have heard that it is a good start.

for the simple heck of it, i have added the translate gadget on the main page.
maybe, its time i try to expand my operations into china.

weather complaints

why do we complain about the weather? all the time, almost like an all-weather complaint system.

madras is hot now. like early 40s in deg C.
happens each year.... unfailingly.
rains in bombay, fairly incessantly during the monsoon.
delhi is cold winters, each and every winter.
but each year, we keep hearing incessant streaming complaints from far and near .

what is it in our make-up that makes it 'india whining' at the most natural and predictable of weather occurrences.
other international friends can throw light if this is solely a desi trait.

goddam sweat is pouring off onto the keyboard. this heat, i tell you.

video - revolution and transformation

had a long chat over the 2 sentences that originated on this blog here and culminated here.
i took it offline with a good friend and we came up with an analysis of the 2 phrases and ended up creating a nice presentation.

now the real revolution and transformation started post the ppt.

i converted the slide show into a pdf using PrimoPDF and converted the pdf to images using PDFill.
then using the cool new MS photo story 3, the below video was made.




am impressed.

greendex - a green index

we did a test 2 months ago calculating our global footprint and water footprint.

now there is a new green index - greendex - from nat geo. this was done through a qualitative survey of around 14000 consumers in 14 countries.
india and brazil are the greenest countries with scores of 60 each.

they also have an individual calculator.
csm score is 75.

there is a knowledge quiz.
csm scores 5/6.

nargisi kofta aka burma ka kurma

the second girl to put burma on the international map after her. this one was totally violent, rending the country asunder.
see this map of how nargis snaked across the irrawady river basin, doing her deadly dance. the extent of the tragedy is heightened by the clandestine operations of the military junta - preventing the flow of required help, aid, relief, etc.

how many more such tragic disasters will it take for us to wake up? my guess, is at least another 1000.

look at the nasa images before and after:




















pst pst - the recipe for nargisi kofta is here.

revolution vs transformation

this is the exchange i had with brother sameer (bs) on this post - revolution begins with the experience of poverty.

bs - i would rephrase it as "revolution begins with the experience of simplicity".
csm - the original is fine, but my modification would be "transformation begins with the experience of simplicity".

revolution vs transformation for me is just a speed differential. transformation is slower and more painful.
poverty vs simplicity is a choice differential. simplicity is usually by choice.

misunderstanding bush

ok. the crisis of food availability and rising prices is there for all to experience.

Last week, the top stories were on the remarks of condi rice and bush on this topic.

Read carefully what bush says:

Worldwide, there is increasing demand. There turns out to be prosperity in developing world, which is good. It's going to be good for you because you'll be selling products in the countries, you know, big countries perhaps, and it's hard to sell products into countries that aren't prosperous. In other words, the more prosperous the world is, the more opportunity there is," the US President said.

It also, however, increases demand. So, for example, just as an interesting thought for you, there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That's bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population.

And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.

so where is he 'blaming' India for the problem. ascribing increasing demand to increasing prices is Economics 101 - which is perhaps the course he is doing now. and not doing badly if you ask me.

while bush-whacking is a popular sport, this particular quote is highly misunderstood and the reactions are totally unwarranted.

in their over-exuberance to pounce on bush, our netas have proved that they are, if anything, just as inert as bush.

hat tip: gaurav sabnis

why bhajji slapped sreesanth - 2

my earlier post got bested by this poster at a recent IPL match on the slapping episode:

sree to bhajji: hum chlormint kyon khaate hain?
bhajji on sree's gaal: thwack.

why sreesanth got slapped by bhajji

bhajji and sreesanth got into a major controversial spat.

i finally got to the bottom of incident.

see this photo.

can you read what's on the the t-shirt of the players.
the mallu SOB obviously got confused and has been living up to the message on the tee.

socking, i mean shocking!

ambedkar - holy cow

my letter to tehelka got prime placement in their letters to the editor space.

primed by that, i am now doing the full blast onto that space. this is my next one. a topic which i think is less explored. ambedkar.

Ambedkar's contribution to India's nation building process is stupendous and unquestionable.
It is however very sad that he is being made a classic 'sacred cow'.
While it is understandable that politicians will selfishly build this image, it does not behove 'intellectuals' and 'intelligentsia' to toe the same line.
Gandhi, Ambedkar, Nehru, Patel, Azad and their eminent colleagues have left behind a rich body of work for us to build on and develop.
It is a sheer waste of time to engage in silly rankings on who was more eminent.
Mohan Kumar (April 19) falls into this trap.

The greatness of any individual lies not solely in their magnificent achievements, but also in their imperfections.

more to follow.

"I think revolution begins with the experience of poverty"

this is tenzin tsundue, the tibetan youngster who created some ruckus in bangalore in 2005, when the chinese head was visiting india.

i also think, he explains gandhi's tactics better than many:

The difference between Gandhi and His Holiness is that His Holiness is non-confrontational. He says truth is important, the ultimate goal, but Gandhi said truth should prevail and there should be human effort toward this. He confronted unjust authority, risked others’ lives and called for sacrifice. This is how he created mass mobilisation.....That awakening is something Gandhi was able to do. When he said, ‘Swadeshi! Non-Cooperation!’ everyone took off their clothes and burnt it. Such direct confrontation, based on truth, puts the perpetrator in a very difficult position.

read the entire interview here.

whats in a name?

i am not sure shakespeare thought about this name when he made his observation on names - luke ronchi.

isn't that what rakhi sawant and sherlyn chopra are instructed at the start of their photo shoot!

btw - he plays in the IPL for mumbai indians. and they are pronouncing his name as ronki. wonder what bhajji calls him.

searing verse

the farmer suicide situation in maharashtra shows no sign of abating inspite of the Rs 60K crore loan waiver in latest budget.

i found this spell-binding poetry from a recent article in indiatogether.

Amhi vasare vasare, muki upasi vasare,
gaya panhavato amhi, chor kalatat dhar,
tapa tapa gham unarato, unarato bhuivar,
moti pikavato amhi, tari upasi lekare.

it translates

we are calves, dumb hungry calves
we tend to the cows, thieves walk away with milk and cream
we sweat and sweat on fields
we cultivate pearls, but our children remain hungry

the poet is no more.
tragedy, no doubt.

why bother?

a must watch - an inconvenient truth. the movie that got al gore the nobel peace prize.
must have seen it 3 times in multiple combos on DVD, cable etc.
each time i have been less impressed by al gore. while the message of imminent catastrophe is acceptable and even within the best realms of probability, the messenger makes it less credible.

coming to the title of this post.
i first heard of michael pollan from this terrific speech.

pollan writes an excellent article in response to the movie, titled 'why bother?'.
nice weekend reading.
he quotes wendell berry a lot. i have a seminal speech of berry. another post material.

what a waste!

perfect time to be anorexic and bulimic.
along with meeting ones mental disorder of wanting to be thin and emaciated, one is also contributing to saving the world from the imminent food crisis.

while tons has been said about the issues around:
1. shift to bio-fuel cropping
2. population increase

and what not...
so many multiple theories and conspiracy theories with billions of dollars worth of scientific research now being pumped into this space, it is the best time for agriculturists and food scientists.

here is a nice alternative solution to the problem - a real alternative perspective.

the farmer loan waiver fiasco

sainath writes 2 nice articles which beautifully capture the entire drama-baazi around the 2008 Union Budget's most discussed moment - the Rs 60K crore farmer loan waiver.
he puts it in such brilliant perspective in 2 scything articles:

Between 2000-04, banks wrote off over Rs. 44,000 crores. Mostly, this favoured a tiny number of wealthy people. One 'beneficiary' was a Ketan Parekh group company that saw Rs. 60 crore knocked off. (The Indian Express, May 12, 2005). However, those 'waivers' are done quietly. In 2004, last year of the NDA, such write-offs went up by 16 per cent. Such 'waivers' have not slowed down since 2004......read the entire article here.

a tiny Wall Street cabal which gave itself bonuses worth billions of dollars just weeks before the crash gets a bailout of Rs.1,19,520 crores. That's almost double the Rs.60,000 crores given to tens of millions of farmers in dire straits in this country....read the entire article here.

hema, rekha, jaya aur sushma

we were buying a simple detergent cake .
in this segment, the brands are dominated by my least favourite (most avoided) firm.
so while trying to choose an alternative, i asked for the one brand that really shook the above in the 90s.
this was the one brand that was the favourite of the aunties in the title.

but no, not available.
shocked, i got to their website (linked above). see all the stats. ends in 1999.

ok, the aunties are dead. but we found the naanis :-)
sri mahila griha udyog lijjat pappad, who make a sassy brand of detergent called SASA.

more power to them.

asking nero for a fire extinguisher

telehka covers the hot issue of water scarcity in their latest issue.

what i found extremely ironical is this part:

Coca-Cola in India follows the policy of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recharge for water management. Over the last eight years, we have reduced our water usage ratio by 35 percent. We have installed 320 Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) projects across 17 states in partnership with government organisations and local communities. We currently supply drinking water to 100 schools in India and will increase it to 1,000 in three years time. Bottled water, as any other product in any category, offers quality, purity and easy availability. However, our focus should be to ensure easy access to potable water for all citizens across the country.

coca cola's rampant ground water abuse is well known. Plachimada, Mehdiganj and Kala Dera and who knows how many more.

i reproduce my letter to tehelka below:

Shantanu Guha Ray writes (Water, Water Everywhere? - April 10, 2008) on a burning issue.
But asking for solutions from Coca Cola India is akin to asking Nero for Rome's fire prevention plans. Coca Cola's ground water depradations at Plachimada, Mehdiganj and Kala Dera are well documented.
Even in the best interests of unbiased reporting and giving each side a valid hearing, I never expected Tehelka to completely disregard the double standards of Coca Cola in this matter.

seriously tehelka is losing it.

cost of water

in areas of water shortage, water is supplied through tankers, etc.

while it appears to be an intermediate solution to an otherwise tough problem, there is an element of cost which is neatly highlighted by this article.

there is a XL sheet somewhere in there and download it and play the game.
i was totally shocked by the results.

bhopal is dying again

this is a long and full of links post. on a topic which i thought a knew a bit. not until i read the latest tehelka story and dug up some more. take time and read at length.

1. bhopal died in 1984.
2. the timeline of the history of union carbide in bhopal till date.
3. the poisoning has not yet stopped. more here.
4. how the indian government and indian industry is falling over itself to let Dow chemicals (who took over Union Carbide) off the hook.

the mahatma's marksheets

The Mahatma's Marksheets
Ramachandra Guha

Once, while I was in college, I picked up the autobiography of a man who, at various points in his career, had served as vice-chancellor of the University of Delhi, governor of the Reserve Bank, and finance minister of the Government of India. Curiously, his memoirs had as many pages on his achievements in school and college as on his experiences running central banks and devising union budgets. He first reproduced his matriculation re­sults: the marks listed by subject, never less than 96 per cent. We then learnt of how, in his intermediate examination, he set a record that stood for years in the Bombay Presidency. As if this was not enough, a statistical proof of his gold medals in the B.A. and M.A, followed. Later, as I read more such works, I came to regard this as characteristic rather than curious. When they came to write their memoirs, famous professors of sociology and high officials of the Indian Civil Service alike seemed to single out, above all other high-water marks, success in school examinations. Then I came across an exception: the autobiography of Mohandas K. Gandhi. The Mahatma claimed: 'I was not regarded as a dunce in high school', before—in the spirit of truth with which the work was conceived— speaking of the difficulty he once had with Sanskrit and, for a time, with Euclidean geometry.

Gandhi spoke in general terms, but his somewhat vague recollec­tions of life at school were to be given a devastating specificity in a book published in 1965. It is called Mahatma Gandhi as a Student, and its author, J.M. Upadhyaya, had been principal at the high school in Rajkot where the Mahatma had spent seven years.

Upadhyaya's book packs a great deal into its seventy-four pages. The boy Gandhi, we learn, changed several schools before he reached the age often. At times his attendance was noticeably lax: a mere 110 days out of 238 in standard III, for example. His marks at the annual examinations normally averaged between 45 per cent and 55 per cent. In junior school he was always comfortably beaten by one Tribhuvan Bhatt, who in the manner of 'coppers' of the time ended as a babu, albeit an elevated one. (His last job was as chief minister of Rajkot state.) The one early sign of the young Mohandas's superiority to his fellows was that his elder brother Karsandas was a less distinguished student still. Karsandas lost two years, and ended up in the same class as his sibling, where he usually logged lower marks.

Things turned worse in middle school. Mohandas's attendance slipped again, as he attended on a sick father and a newly wedded wife. Asked to repeat a year, he bucked up and for once 'grew quite serious in studies'. He achieved 8th rank in class, with a (for him) remarkably high overall score of 66.5 per cent. The momentum carried over into high school. Outside the classroom, his life was rich in incident—he played the 'lustful husband', experimented with meat, and tried un­successfully to sell some of the family gold to payoff a debt incurred by brother Karsandas. Yet, despite this, his attendance at school was 125 days out of 125, and he came fourth in class, with an average in excess of 60 per cent. In Upadhyaya's words, 'he could no longer be described as a mediocre student.'

This judgement was put sternly to the test in the third week of November 1887, when Gandhi travelled by train to Ahmedabad to take the matriculation examination of Bombay University. This was his first visit to a city he was to later make his own. In a lovely detail, Upadhyaya notes that Gandhi's examination number was 2275. There were 3067 candidates in all. Of these, 799 were success­ful. Gandhi's rank was 404th, and his marksheet was as follows:

English 89/200

Gujarati 45-5/100

Mathematics 59/175

General Knowledge 54/150

The total, 247.5 marks out of 625, comes to an average of about 40 per cent. Mohandas K. Gandhi could once again be described as a mediocre student.

Mahatma Gandhi as a Student is a work that bears testimony both to the author's industry and to the Gujarati respect for old records. And it contains much more than marksheets. We learn here that despite his rather ordinary performance in examinations, Gandhi's middle-school teacher marked his conduct as 'very good', whereas the best any other student achieved was 'good'. Upadhyaya's reproduction of the English paper that Gandhi answered in his matric exam seems to give certain clues to his later development. For 45 marks, he was asked to 'write an essay of about forty lines on the advantages of a cheerful disposition.' Could not this answer have helped encourage him to become that rara avis, a politician who was never known to have lost his temper? For 25 marks, he was asked to paraphrase a poem which described how Jesus would reveal himself only to the poor peasant, not to the rich men whose chariots went contemptuously 'whirling past'. Might not this exercise have stoked a precocious awareness of exploitation and injustice?

We must also consider the significance of the sociological snippets that Upadhyaya so casually throws our way. Consider this: Mohandas's best friend in high school was a Muslim, while their headmaster was a Parsi. The school building was constructed with a gift of Rs 63, 000 from the Nawab of Junagadh. In his last years in school, as Mohandas's marks percentage climbed into the upper fifties, he was given a scholarship of Rs 10 per month, this award being in the names of two Kathiawad nobles, one Hindu, one Muslim. Should we not consider this as part of an early training in multiculturalism, as essential pre­paration for the making of the inter-religious Mahatma?

But, the cynic will say, we can't finally gel away from the mark sheets. Byway of apology and, indeed, justification, let me then remind the reader of the career of one Albert Einstein. Nothing, writes one biographer, 'Nothing in Einstein's early history suggests dormant genius'. The boy was able to speak fluently only at the age of nine. When Albert's father asked the headmaster of his elementary school what profession he thought his son should prepare himself for, he got the answer: 'h doesn't matter; he'll never make a success of anything.' Later, at the Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich, Einstein was 'still slightly backward' and failed to complete his diploma. Later still, after he had moved to Zurich, Einstein failed the entrance examination to the university. 'The accepted reason for his failure is that although his knowledge of mathematics was exceptional he did not reach the necessary standard in modern languages or in zoology and botany.'

Such, in summary, were the academic records of the two men commonly regarded as the best, the wisest, and the most influential indi­viduals of the twentieth century. Long ago, in the 1930s, the Bombay journalist D.F. Karaka wrote a biography of Gandhi entitled Out of Dust, He Made Us into Men. The reference was to the countless nationalists whose heroism and self-sacrifice was a direct consequence of the Mahatma's influence. Without him, these Indians would have been content being ordinary lawyers, teachers, brokers, and clerks or, perhaps, even black-marketeers. One knows what Karaka meant. So did J.M. Upadhyaya, except that he added a meaningful caveat: 'Gandhiji, it has been well said, could fashion heroes out of common clay. His first and, undoubtedly, his most successful experiment was with himself.'

hat tip : shuchi

the demise of april fool

i enjoy playing pranks.
i never bother playing a prank on april 1.

i like being fooled.
even on april 1.

i recall, that during school days, april 1 used to see friends and some family members trying to pull a fast one. in good spirits and all that fluff of course.

since last few years, april fools day is largely some newspaper running a big scam story.

but other than that, the aam junta seem to have given up.
thats good in a way.

when did you last play an april 1 prank?

footprint quizzes

1. Earth Footprint Quiz - Take it here.

india - 0.8 hectares
csm - 2.2 hectares

2. Water Footprint Quiz - Take it here.

Per capita per year
India– 975 cubic meter
USA – 2480 cubic meter
China – 700 cubic meter
csm - 839 cubic meter

where our taxes go - 3

the WOTGO series resumes.

we have a National Research Center on Camels.
yes, the ships of the desert a serious topic of national interest.
the NRCoC has 14 PhD's and over 1400 camels (50% correct data).

i have resisted the temptation to pun on single humps and double humps. aargh.

earlier posts WOTGO, WOTGO-2.

WTF on women's day

this is from bombay times' paid section.

Renowned tarot card reader Sunita Menon, who inaugurated a special preview of the exhibition, recommends that every woman should self-indulge in designer jewellery to celebrate her womanhood on International Woman’s Day. “Celebrating the day in this fashion endows me with a sense of honour, dignity and selfrespect for being the person that I am,” said Sunita.

that's a newton's latest law....

(self-esteem + dignity) directly proportional to the ('carat'age on neck)^2

rohit dhankar strongly believes - 1

Was at this rural education institution (digantar) near Jaipur over the last 2 days.

One of the founders is this startlingly simple, incisive and grizzled veteran of the field of rural development and education and here are some of his thoughts.

On communication
The modern understanding of communication is nothing but hypocrisy, where through glibness and dexterity, one tries to go one up.

True communication involves:
- Knowing what one is saying fully with the full extent of logical and rational thiking to back it.
- valuing the other person as a person
- respecting his/her point of view; however on the opposite side it may be

train alone

this is a first time.

am on way to jaipur for a conference (the smart oens have guessed that i am writing this on the train).
there has been a major derailment en-route.
so the train is taking a diverted route. likely delay of 7-10 hours anticipated.

the cool thing - i am entirely alone in an entire compartment/bogie. other than the railway staff, that is.
simply awesome.

and of course, roaming internet card zindabad.

mumbai phrases 2 - Paid

1. Mall mein sale laga hai aur Rs 10000 ka shopping karo aur sirf Rs 5000 paid karna hai.
2. woh piece ke liye kitna paid kiya

Derived heavily from pre-paid and post-paid, this joins the lexicon of cellphone vocabulary.
This certainly puts paid to the hopes of the language purists.

On a related note, people also use ‘payment’ to mean ‘salary’

water stories

water as the cliche goes is the liquid on which future wars will be fought.

here are some fantastic stories on how some people and groups will not be part of this war:
1. Community based - the 'cave-man' method of water storing. more on that here.
2. Institutions - College proves how financially attractive saving water is.
3. Individuals - no more dependence on external water supply.
4. government - the belgaum municipality shows how it is done 'well'.
5. cities - chennai after 4 years of compulsory rain water harvesting.

shree padre is a star on this firmament of water reporting.

turnstiles afire

92% of all registered voters exercised their franchise in the recent assembly elections.
in tripura.
it was 58% in the 2004 LS election for all india (and 67% in tripura)
it was 60% in the 1999 LS election for all india (and 68% in tripura)
it was 79% in the 2003 tripura assembly elections.
data is given in the rediff report.

now whoever wins this time will have a true majority and not a wishy-washy 'majority of polled votes'.

awesome rocking tripuraah.

obama sin laden

screams hillary as the race for the US presidential election heats up.

i think it qualifies for the headline of the year.

binayak sen

Binayak Sen is a real hero. He is been tagged as a Naxal/Maoist by the Chattisgarh government and is in jail for over 9 months now. it is a gross travesty of justice and with all available information, it is very clearly a human rights violation.

I have just read and signed the online petition:

"Release of Dr. Binayak Sen, Vice President National PUCL, from imprisonment"

hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition service, at:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Binayak/

I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might agree, too. If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider signing yourself.

Best wishes,
csm

WTF of the day

from today's TOI-page 13.
the report is on some drunk youth groping a foreign visitor at Gandhi ashram in Ahmedabad.
sacrilege really, undeniably, undoubtedly, but TOI's understanding comes out superbly in saying that...

Keeping in mind the sanctity of the place, no police complaint was lodged and the youth was set free after a thrashing because even the victim vanished after the incident. (emphasis mine)

Language experts may argue that the 'sanctity of the place' clause and the 'thrashing' part are different parts of the same sentence, but i think not.

baba amte

a simple genius has left us... a legacy of love and affection, a packed warehouse of courage and dedication, an encyclopedia in falling and rising, a memory of million life-lessons.

his life story is available here.
anandwan i have to go to.
old reports from the field are here and here.

this story of baba's episode with gandhi at sewagram will remain with me all my life.

Apun

- WWE fan
- bhi colour-blind
- always veering on the edge of frustration, which thankfully is a thick edge
- comment master
- HUL hater
- know this man

aisaich.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

this where csm comes from.
an iconic sitcom revolving around the lives of 6 people.

while being funny and gag-filled, it makes me ask these questions.
1. why do we need friends?
2. do friends have shelf life/pot life?
3. how to make friendship last?

typically, at various stages in our life (school, neighbours, college/s, office/s), we have different bunches of pals.
rare specimens last across the stages.

one rare specimen in my life is 'dog'.
interestingly we are 'dog' to each other. that makes names etc redundant.
we have been friends for around 12 years - thats more than 33% of our lives.
our very first encounter was at the college extension counter - while we were opening our bank accounts.
when he called a kitten, which had strayed between our legs, a 'sonofabitch', i knew that dog was 'happening'.
whats keeps the dogs going:
1. at a fundamental level, we have similar traits, thoughts and decision making process
2. non-negative judgmental in general and more so in the crisis periods.
3. no expectations and no explanations (what also works is clearly stated expectations, but i find that a toughie)
4. a strong group of additional dosts
5. affinity to produce of breweries

if everyone had their one 'dog', world would be a much nicer place.

keep barking.

what a funny Family!!

celebrations and special occasions are wonderful times for families.
and ever more wonderful times for family-behaviour analysts (FBAs).

and weddings are the high points in the lives of FBAs whence multiple families converge in a complete orgy of customs, egos, rituals and faux-fraternising/sororising.
dec 2-6th was the wedding period and it abounded in above.

of particular interest was the powerful presence of the senior-most/egoistical/anal/critical family member.

from her side, it was the eldest brother of the father-of-the-bride. he was hit by the csm charm offensive which permanently disabled his 'critique-al' thinking. historically this offensive was likened to the blitzkreig. last heard, he was making plans to build a temple in my honour!!

from my side, it was the senior-most of my maamis who eventually was anointed CKO (chief keeeda officer). her favoured technique was to question each action and throw doubts over its appropriateness, timing, function, sequence and how she does it differently.
but my in-laws played at a high level, super-traditional space and sucked the air from the CKO's sails.

the FBAs of the world would have been astonished and perplexed if they were in my vicinity over the dec 2-6 period.
the camaraderie was real and effusive and most importantly pleasant.

'5 posts' tag

kenny has tagged me. relay tag on from ludwig.
seems to be a rage on the b-spot these days.

these chains bother me ..... or rather i dont bother with them.
was torn over making an exception, and i stitched myself back to my 'dont-bother' state.

but to be nice, i shall make 5 new posts over this weekend on those topics. cool.

for gil -christ's sakes

it is time.
adam gilchrist retires from cricket.
a pure sporting hero. my hero. in the garry sobers mould.

he is one of 2 people because of which australia became my favourite team. shane warne was the other.
while warne is a maverick genius, gilly is a crafted genius.
time to move on.

cricket watching is likely to fall.

working in india

while reading this article on baba adhav and in his interview, he says

Of the 40 crore workers in India , less than 2.5 crore are protected by some form of labour legislation. They enjoy work security, minimum wages, an eight-hour working day, a weekly off, paid leave, sick leave, annual bonus, provident fund, pension and so on. The remaining 37.5 crore workers have been ignored.

that is just 6.25% in the organised sector.
WOW.
it is backed up with other official data from directorate general of employment and training
so all this 'unionism', 'socialism', 'communism' are really elitist movements.

while checking out employment data, i stumbled upon this site, which throws up some startling stats:

1. Sixty per cent of India's workforce is self-employed
2. Over 70 per cent of the labour force is either illiterate or educated below the primary level.
3. in table 6, it shows that over 10% of the employment is in the "Community, Social and Personal Service"

WOW.

ek rupai ka danda

was buying vegetables the other day.
came to Rs 11 (not buying much).
had 2 tenners and no circular/cylindrical castings called coins.

csm - dus mein de do na!
shopkeeper - ek hi rupai ka danda hai.

while the mathematics will say that there is a 10% difference between 11 and 10, it is after all Re 1.
it does not get much nuts.

but obviously it is significant in a high volume low value business.

so go easy on the rounding off with the small traders.

2008 in preview

this is a funny preview of 2008.

esplly like the tharoor thrashing.
i did not mind him potshotting sainath either.

happy new year.

disap-ponting

india lost today to australia. my preferred result usually.

not today. the controversy over the umpires, is of course a major issue.

i prefer the aussies for many reasons - team spirit, never-say-die, sheer quality of cricket, etc. but today they showed a win-at-any-cost attitude which soured me up.
i also think the harbhajan racial-slur episode is a foisted one.
not the stuff of champions, not the steve waugh style, which made them top my list.

cobbler

right opposite our apartment is this cobbler.
"what's the big deal" i can hear you thinking.

this guy is actually an artist. i mean a cobbler artist.
his work with footwear and leather works are nothing short of artistry.

and he has the flair of the artist too. casual, cool and completely confident in his cobblery.
and like with artists, you don't haggle.
his prices are well above the market average, but his work is in a league of its own. well worth it.

the story is relevant, as he is above 'dignity of labour', it is 'genius of labour'. there is a sense of pride in what he does, much more than anyone i know. much more...

kind-of-a-thing

a rather new indecent intruder to decent spoken english is this 'kind-of-a-thing'.
probably our own version of a thingummy.

commonly used adjacent to nouns like:

1. i am standing next to this guy kind-of-a-thing.
2. what is this bracelet kind-of-a-thing?
3. he looks like musharraf kind-of-a-thing

but i hear it these days even without reference to 'things' or with reference to 'non-things'.

1. we shall meet at 4 o'clock kind-of-a-thing
2. what is this red kind-of-a-thing
3. let's watch Discovery kind-of-a-thing

this drop in speaking abilities is a little bewildering kind-of-a-thing.

3rd anniversary

dec 26 2004 was a deadly day in the indian ocean.
with a 9.1-9.3 magnitude undersea earthquake striking somewhere west of sumatra - indonesia, a tsunami of unseen/unheard proportions was unleashed.
the devastation was mind-numbing.

the earthquake was so powerful that it moved the faultline by 10 meters horizontally and around 4-5 meters vertically. it has also marginally altered the earth's rotation, raised and lowered certain coastal areas, redrawn a few maps, etc.

3 years have passed. seems like much longer.
spent a lot of time in 2005 with tsunami related work.
spent a lot of time looking at the sea with fear and trepidation.
spent a lot of time marvelling at the human spirit.
spent a lot of time trying to understand the donor mindset.
spent a lot of time analysing the event.

not any more.
other disasters have come and gone and the mind has moved onto other matters.
while writing this, i just decided to try to throw away my disaster-fatigue.

donate rice and improve vocabulary

a win-win combination is on at FreeRice.

20 grains per word is seemingly insignificant, but trust me, it is not.
roughly 20 grains = 2-5 grams, which means 1 kg = 1000 gms = 4000-10000 grains = 200-500 words correct.

it says that the advertisers are paying with their banners at the bottom, but i don't recall even glancing at even a single one.
it is always fun to rip-off dumb marketeers.

do use dictionary.com if you want. it is not a contest :-)

the physics of sneezing

i had a bad cold just days before the marriage.
bad sneezing attack.
with a sore back, each sneeze feels like a thor tandav (TT) down the spine.

after 2 days of TT, i was reeling with a rickety back with a mega sit down event to follow.

desperate times.
called for desperate measures, i had to resort to fluid dynamics (not the inebriating variety) for solace.

for simple fluid flow, Area x Velocity = constant (those who have used garden hoses will easily understand this equation).
so instead of the classic thin mouth opening stance, i adopted the wide cough stance. with instantaneous results.
as the velocity of the expunging air diminished dramatically, the resultant reaction (newton's third law) force diminished proportionally and hence converting from TT to throwball (sorry, could not resist).

mind you, it is not a visual/aural delight to be in proximity to anyone who adopts this new stance, but the adopter is awash with relief aplenty , aha...

wedding and all

1. dec 5 was the date.
2. simplicity was the planned theme.

well - one of the above was achieved.

landed into chennai on dec 2 and was immediately pulled into a series of mini events and rituals.

dec 2 - samaradhanai (Venkatachalapathi, the Lord of the Seven Hills and his spouse Alermael Manga Thayar are worshipped so that the couple are blessed with a prosperous life)

dec 3 - sumangali prarthanai (This pooja is done to invoke the blessings of the departed Sumangalis (married ladies). The pooja is done for the Mangalya aka Mangalsutra, which is to be tied around the neck of the bride. Sumangalis are invited for a feast and offered gifts. The sari used for the pooja is to be gifted to one of the Sumangalis)

dec 4 - vratham (The marriage ceremonies begin with the Vratham (fast) performed separately by the bride and the groom. The Kappu or the holy thread soaked in turmeric colour is tied on to the bride's wrist to ward off all evil spirits. The groom begins the Vratham with prayers involving Indra, Soma, Chandra and Agni. From thereon, the groom prepares himself for a new chapter in his life as a householder or Grihastha. The days of his bachelorhood or brahmacharya are now over and the acceptance of this is the essence of Vratham)

dec 4 - naandi pooja (Naandi is done to obtain the blessings of the Pithrus aka ancestors for a long and prosperous life, free of diseases and ailments and to ensure that the children get good food and education and lead a healthy life)

dec 4 - paalikai (In this fertility rite, Paalikais or earthen pots with grass and betel leaves at the base are prepared. Nine kinds of pre-soaked cereals called Vilvam are ceremonially sown in these pots by Sumangalis. After the marriage, the sprouted seedlings are released in a river or pool. This ritual is done to bless the couple with progeny and a healthy life)

dec 4 evening - nichyathartham (At the marriage hall, the bride's father and the bridegroom's father face each other and solemnise the betrothal ceremony, in the presence of bride, groom, friends, relatives and guests)

(all above definitions from mypandit.com)

dec 5 - the big daddy day. tons of stuff got done that day right from 7 am to 12 noon.
see here for details and explanations.

end notes:
1. we managed to limit the plastic usage in the catering to 2 cups for kheer. but instead paper cups were used. we ideally wanted to limit all disposable items.
2. the food was excellent and like every other marriage, just too much and too rich. there was enough space to cut down the spread and still keep the excellence. one of my mamas said that - "the variety is there so that everyone can choose their favourite items and hence everyone can be satisfied". my take is that - it is not possible to satisfy everyone, so just do what you feel strongly about and that is that.
3. we got to limit the jewellery to near zero and clothes to just enough levels.
4. we got rid of the official video shooting, which was such a relief.
5. overall, it was fun and we thoroughly enjoyed majority of the time and were certain that the friends and families too had a blast.

to achieve point 2 mentioned at the start of the post would have involved more hands-on work during entire november with both families and the contractors.

we are back into regular mode.
dec 2nd-5th are now pleasant memories which will be with us forever.

wilderness camp

so we went to a wilderness camp called jungle lodges and resorts. a series of high quality tourist destinations in karnataka.
spent 3 days in K Gudi wilderness camp.

saw tons of birds and animals.
an experience in being in the middle of pure wild nature - raw, silent, powerful, thought-provoking.

highly recommended.

wedding bells are ringing

in 3 weeks, the bells will toll at my wedding.

the family circus has already moved into place with full scale 'dress' rehearsals.

many people are asking the standard question - 'aren't you excited?'
i say, 'well...i am not excited, but happy, content and looking forward.'

is it like a 'hey, how are you doing?' question? no answer is expected!!

back into bombay bustle

returned to the city as well as work and as expected, am swamped like before, like i never left :-)

as work expands, the time for extended analysis and wisdom shrink and with that the frequency of posting too suffers.

to return to tons of inspiration and motivation is definitely a tonic from the endless mayhem and monstrosity of media reporting that i have been immersed in.