Email signoffs!

The CEO of a back packing company signs off his emails with a very appropriate 'Keep Traveling'...

A member of the Association of Bangalore Amateur Astronomers where I have joined an astronomy course signs his emails with a very hopeful 'Clear Skies'

So should I – an IT nerd sign off my emails with a 'Ctrl + Alt + Del'?

Falling in…and out of love – Two nice quotes!

'Needing someone is like needing a parachute. If he isn't there the first time you need him, chances are you won't need him again.'

There are 2 ways at looking it…in a morose kinda way or with a grin...and the kinda person that I am, I just couldn’t help smiling...but wondering at the same time...how true!
The quote came with the 'him'...I didn’t put it there...so I guess it is accepted that it’s the men who are not there when one needs them!

Now before some of my really close friends start reading in between the lines ...the above slightly cynical one is nothing to do with my mood...and so I have for you another really cute one...

'I ran up the door, closed the stairs, said my pajamas and put on my prayers, turned off the bed and hopped in the light, all because you kissed me goodnight'

Accept that some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue.

For a long time I had been the pigeon... I guess since June 2004 when I first joined my current company. I was what they call an indispensable resource. I had worked hard and smart to reach that situation.
Don’t know why...but knowingly and willingly I gave up the project/program that gave me that position. And…don’t know whether it’s good or not... did a terrific Knowledge Transfer so that someone could take over the work from me...which however made me not so indispensable!!!
And so since the last 3-4 months have begun what I would say 'my statue days'...and I ain’t liking it. But I guess that is life.

Woyzeck – an adaptation by Anmol Vellani at Rangashankara

Woyzeck by Georg Büchner is set in Prussia in the 1830s. He left the work incomplete at his death, but it has been variously and posthumously "finished" by a variety of authors, editors and translators and has become one of the most performed and influential plays in the German theatre repertory.
An adaptation of Woyzeck by Anmol Vellani was playing at Rangashankara. As I read the synopsis I thought ...it sounds quite depressing but it would be a play where a good actor can create magic...and was I right...but more on that later.
It is the story of Franz Woyzeck, a disturbed soldier with an illegitimate child by his mistress Marie. Woyzeck earns extra money for his family by performing menial jobs for the Captain and agreeing to take part in medical experiments conducted by the Doctor.
As the play proceeds we see that there is deterioration in his mental health and he has hallucinations. Meanwhile, Marie grows tired of Woyzeck and turns her attentions to a handsome Drum Major.
With his jealousy and suspicion, Woyzeck confronts the drum major, who beats him up and humiliates him. This leads Woyzeck to murder Marie and then kill himself.
The set was very simple, using very few props and a cardboard wall… but still very effective. Infact what I must appreciate is that even with the minimalist set, I can compare it in effectiveness to the plays that I have seen in West End which rely so much on detailed sets, costumes and live music.
A special mention must be given to Anish Victor who as Woyzeck gave an outstanding performance. It was intense...so intense that you could see the beads of perspiration on his forehead. In one scene where he is supposed to faint he falls from a small wooden box and gasps were heard from the audience. He was sooo still at that moment that we felt he had actually fallen down and was not acting...BRILLIANT.
Generally his portrayal of a disturbed man was so convincing. His eyes, his facial expressions and the way he spoke...all was awesome. The other actors were good to, but just paled in front of him.
The other actor that I really liked was the Tavern Keeper. She carried herself well and her role gave the much needed comedy in the otherwise somber mood of the play.
All in all...a brilliant evening which convinced me that theatre is about ACTING and in the end the stage, props, costumes and music don't matter.

Voting in the Elections 2009

I am a disappointed person since yesterday. I couldn’t cast my vote in the General Elections. I did so want to ...in fact I was desperate, but it seems that my form was rejected and my name NOT included in the electoral rolls.
Some one commented..."even if you do get to vote, you have to vote for a buffoon!!!"
That’s not the point. If the politicians realize that it is going to be the urban educated population that goes out to vote they will rethink...they will know that they are going to be taken to task so they will do something for their constituencies.
Now they know, even if they do nothing for 5 years, just before the elections they can lure the unaware poor & uneducated voters by just distributing booze and one sari. They know that it’s not the aware that decide the winners, but the poor and they know how to get the votes from them.
We should not think that its only a single vote...coz if we all think like that, it would an important part of the vote bank that does not vote.
Every vote counts...and I believe (optimistic that I am) that we can bring about a change and that is why I ran with my friend in the blazing heat from one booth to the other to figure out where she can vote!
As Mahatma Gandhi once said "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history".

Almost Single

Recently I was in Alipurdwar, where my friend and her friend insisted that I should read 'Almost Single'. The author is alumni of my school, so loyalty to a fellow Welhamite demanded I read this book.
I was stuck at Siliguri airport due to bad weather and managed to complete the book in a couple of hours. I won’t say anything about the book. The reason being simple...recently a visitor to my house saw the book lying around and wanted to know what I thought about it. And I couldn’t remember for the life of me what I read in the book...and that is so NOT like me at all. If someone asks me what I think of a book like Kite Runner, I can point out the exact sections which I liked the most, what moved me, what I didn’t like etc.
Someone has rightly said "Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."

Manic Screaming

The moment I heard the name of the book –"I heard God Laughing" I knew I had to get a copy...
It’s obvious...with a name like that and the fact that it was not readily available at any of the bookstores!!!

It’s a collection of Hafiz’s renderings and each one is a gem... deeply passionate and always very inspirational.

One of my favorites -

God is trying to sell you something today,
But you don’t want to buy,
That is what your suffering is:
Your fantastic haggling,
Your manic screaming over the price!

Never buy a car you can’t push

Among some other interesting phrases from a recent forward was the following –"Never buy a car you can’t push"
Have been contemplating changing my car...initially I was damn keen to buy a CRV.
Don’t know what was going on in the mind of the person who designed the underground parking in my building...it has sooooo many pillars. That kinda held me back. It’s not only me, but many of my friends also find it difficult to park the car. So much so that one of them told me...you really do need to rethink the CRV!!!
And now after reading this phrase, I am thinking... I definitely can’t push the CRV...but nor can I push a Honda City or Ford Fiesta (my other preferences)!
So does that mean I should but a REVA...or maybe a NANO? Naaaahhh... I’ll just stick to my beautiful Santro...not that I have ever tried pushing the Santro!!!

Getting around in Egypt – Nov 2008

One of the things that is worth mentioning about my recent trip to Egypt was the various kinds of mode of transport / moving vehicles that we got to experience.

Starting with the flight from Delhi to Cairo followed by a mini bus ride to our hotel and then dinner on a floating restaurant on the River Nile.

At the pyramids the next day we enjoyed Camel rides and later in the evening we took a train from Cairo to Aswan.

Next we boarded the ship for the Nile River cruise.

To visit the Philea temple, we used motor boats from Aswan.

Another mini bus ride…but this was different. To visit Abu Simple one has to join a policy convoy at 3:30 AM (!!!!!) and hundreds of buses interspersed with police vehicles move across the dessert.

Tonga Ride at Edfu to visit the Edfu Temple.

Hot Air Balloon ride was next on the cards at Luxor from which we got to see the Valley of the Kings, the two colossus of Memnon, the East Bank etc.

Later in the evening we went for a Felucca ride. Felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat used along the Nile. It was a really beautiful evening - the sun was setting and a cool breeze was blowing…

At Hurghada the first day we went for Glass Bottom boat ride in red sea where we managed a few glimpses of the many varieties of rare fish and coral reefs.

So 2 of us decided to go snorkeling the next day so that we could get up close to the rainbow colored fishes and Coral reefs in the Red Sea. The safari boat that took us to the sites was bigger than the glass bottom boat, but smaller than the ship and so qualifies for a separate mention in this write up.

And all this in 9 days!!!!

Calvin and Me!

Hobbes: "Shouldn't we read the instructions?"
Calvin: "Do I look like a sissy?"

As I read this Calvin snippet I couldn't help but smiling as I remembered some recent incidents.

Very sweetly I had asked a friend to help me set up my cuckoo clock...even as he read the instructions I had already ripped open the box and was several steps ahead of him.

As he said...now do this...I was like...ohhhhh already done that, what next? But before he could finish reading the next step, I had already experimented and completed some other steps...not necessarily all executed in the correct order.

A few days later we were setting up the Wii. Remembering the look I got when the cuckoo clock hadn't worked I decided to sit patiently and wait for his instructions...

Honestly I tried, but several steps later I realized...there I was on my own trip, not waiting for his instructions but optimistically just trying to plug all the wires and accessories and hoping it'll work!

My Power Packed Fun Filled Sabbatical

Last year I decided to take a sabbatical from work for 4 months...there was some apprehension...I had been working since 1997 and I often wondered...would I get bored, feel unsettled and thrown off balance since the discipline in my life would be gone...

But it was one helluva busy time for me...now I wonder how I managed to pack so much in such little time...

I landed in Delhi from London on 2nd Oct...
For 4th Oct and 9th Oct I had scheduled two of my MBA semester 3 exams...
In between I was running around trying to organize a trip to China and the visa.
10th Oct – 19th Oct I was off to China- Shanghai, Beijing, Xian and Guilin.
27th Oct was Diwali, which is generally a busy time in Delhi. More so last year my sister had just opened a boutique in Delhi and she was loaded with orders as everyone buys new clothes during Diwali. So there I was running around with her, trying to get dupattas dyed, buying buttons, laces, kinaries etc...
28th Oct I went to Chennai for my annual medical check up...there I decided to see the dentist too, who advised me to get 2 of my wisdom teeth extracted for which I had to stay put in Chennai till 6th Nov. Returned to Delhi on 6th evening and 8th early moning I was off to Egypt. When I returned from Egypt on 17th I was like –"I am in a state of constant Jetlag"
18th Nov my sister had planned for us to go to Amritsar – to visit the Golden Temple and do some sourcing for her boutique. As if that was not enough we decided to stop off at Jullandher to meet my cousin. I hadn’t seen her kids for ages and thought I should make use of this time to catch up.
Returned to Delhi in the wee hours of 21st. Then I got barely 10 days in Delhi before we (sister and I) were off to Chandigarh and Patiala for some more shopping for her boutique. In between all that shopping I decided to meet up with a school friend after 19 years!!!! I just wanted to do soooo many things.
Returned from Chandigarh on 4th Dec and 9th I left for Gandhidham to be with my parents. I guess this was the most relaxing period of my holiday, though here too I found enough to do. I managed to catch 2 days of the 'Rann Utsav' – a desert festival with lots of cultural programs and folk dances.
Then we visited Lakhpat which is small town with a historical Gurudwara – Guru Nanak visited this site on his way to Mecca. The relics are kept here and the room where he stayed is a Gujarat heritage protected site so no changes are allowed to be made to it. It was sooooo beautiful.
And finally I decided to get my parents 2 storey house painted!!!
To Delhi on 28th Dec just in time for New Year and my 4th semester exams on 3rd and 9th Jan.
14th Jan I was off to Alipurdwar to meet Namrita - In between learning to cook, visiting the forest reserves and guest houses and a desperate hunt to see a Wild Rhino, I also managed to order some furniture for my house from Siliguri.
Returned on 24th and 30th I finally came back to my own nest in Bangalore!
As I look back I think – Whew...that was some power packed holiday and am I glad to be back to my routine life!

The Balance of Nature

I always feel that we humans take everything for granted, believe that we are so damn superior, and don’t respect the environment and nature...
Many a times I have wondered what must the wild animals think of us? Are they wild or are we wild???
I just love this one!

Shanghai, China - Oct 2008

On an impulse I sent a message to Sumitra on 28th Sept...what if I want to go with you on the China trip leaving Delhi on 10th Oct? I didn’t think she could pull it off considering I was returning to India only on 2nd Oct. She had only 7 days and moreover it was the Chinese National Week and the embassy was shut till 7th, but she was quite hopeful. So fingers crossed, I sat and waited for the visa.
Well I guess crossing one’s fingers works...coz there I was at the airport for the flight to Shanghai where I met some 20 other women all dressed in shades of pinks (as with all WOW trips).

I was walking with Uma at the Shanghai airport. As everyone made their way to collect their baggage, she was like I don’t have any baggage...only this backup that I am carrying. I was like...wow this woman travels light! I wish I had a snap of hers as we were checking in at Beijing on our way back home. She shopped and shopped and bought gifts for everyone including her building chowkidar I think!
As I looked around I saw Vidya with a trolley bag and I thought ...looks like they all travel light...when suddenly I see her pulling a biiggg suitcase from the conveyor belt :-)
Little did I realize at that point how valuable that suitcase was...with its MTR’s and snacks...without which us vegetarians (vegiterraneans as per Chi / vegetables as per Mary) would have probably starved.

The Shanghai airport was quite impressive. In fact the infrastructural facilities across China were excellent…and made me thank my stars that they have a problem with the English language. Otherwise all the BPO and IT work would move there.

Shanghai is also called the Paris of the Orient for it is supposed to be very fashionable. One day around and I would call it the Land of Duplicates. You can get a duplicate of everything here, including the Guide – as Chi herself pointed out as she was not a native of Shanghai really but from some province in Western China!

After check in, Sumitra wanted to go pick up some local wine for our WOW evening later. That was when we got our first shot of the LANGUAGE PROBLEM. We tried everything to explain Rum, Gin, Vodka, and Rice Wine to them. This included enacting drinking and giving a tulli look. But it didn’t really help. Finally she picked up some local drink.
And this was in Shanghai, which is supposed to be quite cosmo!!!

Our first meal in China was a dinner at Shanglin Teppanyaki. Teppanyaki is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle (teppan) to cook food, frequently with the teppan located in the center of the diners' table. I guess I was too excited with the whole concept and clicking snaps that I paid less attention to the food. Someone even commented the vegetarians are too busy clicking snaps while the non-vegs are too busy eating the food! There was some complaining but I enjoyed this meal. It took about 3 days for the food to get on my nerves!

After dinner Chi took us to this place where she said you get the GOOD DUPLICATES of all brands...she was sooooo convincing and so even though we were tired we agreed...guess she wanted us to loosen our pockets there before we saw that the stuff is being sold by even street vendors at every corner in China. Whoever shopped here later realized that it was expensive and we still didn’t know that in China one has to bargain like crazy and drop the prices by 90%!!!

Next day began with a visit to the Jade Buddha Temple followed by the Shanghai Bund. The bund means the Shanghai skyline. Chi was so proud of it and many people liked it. But I thought – this could be anywhere in the world. In fact that is what I felt about Shanghai as a whole. While most people preferred Shanghai, I personally liked Beijing more. People felt that Beijing was soooo dead, Shanghai was alive. I agree but that is the case world over. The financial capitals be it Mumbai, New York, London will always be bustling cities. But it will be the smaller towns (not that Beijing was small) which will have a character of their own.
Post Chinese lunch – food still good (read tolerable!), we went to Yu Garden. At the entrance we saw 2 imposing lions very similar to the ones outside our hotel. Infact later we realised that statues of lions are seen at the gates of all the imperial palaces, official residences, temples, tombs. This represents a male lion on the left with the right paw on a ball - the symbol of unity of the Chinese empire and a female lion on the right with a cub under the left paw - a symbol of offspring. The garden itself was a very quiet and elegant place with old trees, beautiful flowers, ornamental ponds and flower walls. There was a very interesting stone carving of a dragon that sat on a wall.

Next was a visit to a tea shop for a tea ceremony – basically they make you taste different kinds of tea. The dried flowers teas are quite nice - it was quite amazing to see the chrysanthemum flower open slowly as it was infused with the hot water.

After shopping and testing our bargaining skills in the bazaar that has developed around the garden, we went for some more sightseeing which included a visit to a silk factory.

Post dinner (Imp note: food still good!), we went around Shanghai to see it by night as Shanghai is said to come alive at night. The highlight was the view of Shanghai from the Shanghai Grand Hyatt Hotel on the 88th floor of the Jin Mao. There is a very interesting building right next to it - the Shanghai World Financial Center building which looks like a beer bottle opener! It was made like that with an aperture at the top to reduce the stress of the winds.
Here I managed to win over a Japanese fan – he seemed to be impressed with my photography skills as I experimented with clicking Parul’s snap with a top-down view of the atrium. We both were literally leaning over the window and believe u me the results were quite good :-). He even wanted a snap with Parul and me!!!
That day Chi was wearing a really short dress...and as she modeled and walked in her stylish way towards the entrance, one man literally followed her making a movie with his handy cam. She just turned, smiled and said to him "you have to pay me for that!"
I guess Chi thought we still hadn’t had enough of Shanghai so she took us to a posh part of Shanghai, the French settlement area called Shin Ten Tee for coffee. And it was like we were actually in Paris or somewhere with the outdoor cafes and stylish boutiques.
All this was not really a part of the itinerary but Chi just wanted to show off Shangahi.

Apart from the usual stuff next day like the Shanghai museum and Nanjing Road, what the vegetarians loved was the Indian Lunch (yippee) and what bought smiles to everyone’s face was the ride to the airport on the sleek and fast Maglev train - it rocketed to 300 kph in two minutes flat and as the LED continuously blinked and informed us of the speed…we reached the max speed to 430 kph. It was an amazing experience as even at that speed, the train was sooooo smooth.

With this we bid adieu to Shanghai and Chi who in her typical dramatic style said…Chi not cry and you not cry!

Our guides in China - Oct 2008

4 cities, 4 different guides...all deserve a small write up before I actually write anything else on my trip to China.
At the Shanghai airport we were greeted by our very, very cute and stylish guide, Chi. Someone liked her dress, someone her hairstyle and someone else her bag...she personified the saying that Shanghai is the Paris of the Orient.
In the Chinese language it seems that for every alphabet there are 4 or 5 tones. And when she spoke she emphasized on the different tones with fulltoosh facial expressions and hand gestures… sometimes it seemed we were attending some theatre!
She taught us the Chinese numbers using the hand .And the way she taught us, I don’t think I will ever forget. I wish I had recorded it… her hands gestures were soooo illustrative. E.g. 6 is the thumb and index finger pointing like a gun. So Chi says – "six...like a gangster shoot" and her index finger goes to her forehead and she tilts her head as if she is dead...toooo cute.
She spoke non stop giving us an insight into many aspects of Shanghai, whether it was the property prices or generally what the building was or notes on the famous Shanghai husbands. That she loved Shanghai was evident in the way she spoke of the city.
She really wanted us to love the city too and so was willing to take us around late into the night...whether it was to Shin Ten Tee (don’t know if that’s the correct spelling, but that’s the pronunciation as taught by Chi and her hand gestures indicating which word is in high tone and which in neutral tone etc) or a walk along the Bund or the duplicates market.
Often she would discuss her personal life. Guess that came from the loneliness of no siblings as a result of the one child policy in China, and the fact that she lost her mother when she was very young. As she said, ‘I have no one to share my happiness or sorrows with’ one really felt sad.
One of the other things that I liked about her was the fact that unlike the rest of the guides, who used their American names, she had given up her American name and asked us to use her Chinese name, which she simplified for us - Proud to be Chinese.

From Shanghai we went to Guilin. Kathy was the stark opposite of Chi - short with what as kids we called a boy cut, in jeans and keds, she looked like a little boy- absolutely devoid of style. But what she lacked in style she more than made up for in her excellent skills as a guide. Her time management skills were awesome.
In the morning on our way to the cruise, at one place the road had suddenly been made one way by the traffic police. She tried to get the traffic guy to let us through but he wouldn’t agree. Then she’s asking the driver to speed up as we may get late and when he wouldn’t listen to her, you should have seen her. She started stamping her feet and like the Maglev train she took off in high speed Chinese scolding him...toooooo cute. She was really hassled for the next 15 minutes as she was worried that we may miss the cruise, which I would interpret as sincerity towards her job. It wasn’t her fault if we missed the cruise and these things happen on holidays, but only after she was sure that all was OK did she turn to us and start telling us more about Guilin.
In Guilin apart from the Li river cruise, there were 3 other activities that we could do after the cruise from 3 PM onwards – visit to the Pearl Factory, Chinese Foot Massage and a show in the evening. There were various combinations with Uma taking the cake as she wanted to do all three. And Kathy actually managed to organize that. She left one group someplace, and then took the next group someplace else and then returned to the 1st...Absolutely Amazing.

I guess all good things must come to an end... the next guide in Xian, Mary was one helluva a jerk and weirdo. She was supposed to be an MA in English but her pronunciation was tooooooooooooooooooo funny. The way she put the emphasis and stress on words was sure to give everyone a headache especially the way she said Tang and Dynasty.
She came across as one of those extra chaloo ones...whereas Chi and Kathy were flexible and were open to show/do things outside the itinerary, when we asked this one anything she would feign ignorance or pretend that she couldn’t understand the language.
Her communication regarding our onward journey and luggage arrangements were not correct which irritated many of us, so we decided that we wouldn’t tip her. But imagine her guts...she asked Sumitra for the tip!!!

And finally in Beijing we were to get a male guide Mark. But all our hopes of a good looking hunk were dashed.
Soon we were calling him – ‘on your MARK, get set go’, because he would get off the bus and not even wait for all the tour members to get off and start charging...don’t know what hurry he was in. Since he was at the receiving end of all our irritation because of the luggage confusion caused by Mary, I guess he just wanted the trip to end and pack us off. In fact he left us at the airport 4 hrs in advance. Crazy fellow and as Vidya aptly put it – ‘If I see him again, I’ll smack him’

Calvin Time Again!

I'm off on a loooooooong holiday to India...heading home for a simpler life...
Hope I dont meet a Hobbes on the way to dampen my spirits