The life that young waiters lead is not an easy one. Especially, if they happen to be working in cramped darshinis that are dime a dozen. Most of these darshinis offer a drive-in facility to its customers who prefer to eat in cars, probably to make up for the lack of space. Young boys are usually allocated to this as waiters since it entails considerable shuttling between the kitchen and road. It also requires quite some patience and skill to deal with arrogant drivers who honk and scold if they are served late. However, fifteen year old Somu had adapted to the job pretty well. He placed 2 cups of coffee and the bill on the salver and hastened towards the honking Honda City. Somu had run away from his village a few weeks earlier and had landed at the city. After doing odd, menial jobs for a couple of weeks and sleeping at public places, he had found a waiter's job at one of the darshinis. The car honked again after a few minutes implying that they were done with the coffee. Somu ran with the salver again and the driver of the car paid the bill and also tipped him with a 5 rupee coin. Somu deposited the coin in his pocket and began walking towards the cashier.

Kumar, who manned the juice counter was keenly observing the goings-on and glared at Somu as he walked to the cashier.

"He has got 25 rupees already and it is still evening" Kumar bristled.

Kumar was quite senior at the darshini. He had also started out as a waiter around 2 years earlier but now, he was given complete control of the juice counter. Though it was a rise in position, it did not translate into any monetary benefit and this distressed him. Another young waiter walked up to Somu and they chatted for a while. He showed Somu a 10 rupee note and said that it was his lucky day. That was the last straw, Kumar could take it no longer. He came out of his juice counter and began walking towards them.

"Is this the time to chat? Why can't you fools look after the customers??" he shouted at them.

The two boys hung their heads and began walking towards the kitchen.

"You should serve the cars once...you will know how difficult it is.." Somu muttered under his breath.

"You there! What did you say?" Kumar caught him by the collar.

"I said it is not as easy as sitting on a stool and operating mixers.." Somu said as he struggled to free himself.

Kumar slapped him hard. The commotion drew the attention of everybody. The other young waiters were miffed by this and feebly supported Somu. Somu who felt humiliated in front of the crowd was encouraged by the support and he too slapped Kumar. Enraged, Kumar charged towards Somu and they both began raining blows on one another.

"Stop it! you dogs!" Ramesh, the owner of the restaurant hurried towards them and separated them. "I have been watching you fellows, you seem to be bent upon spoiling the reputation of my place. Both of you are kicked out this minute...get out of here! I will settle your dues" he fumed.

He had their bags brought from the store room and threw it at them. He paid both of them their dues and pushed them harshly towards the road. Kumar was threatening Somu of dire consequences and simultaneously trying to appease Ramesh. Somu took his bag and began walking silently down the road. Soon, he was lost amidst glaring headlamps, honking horns and the engulfing darkness of late evening.

Jodhaa Akbar must be the undisputed emperor of rubbish movies.

Have you thought about this? Physically, how close can you get to a person (or an object for that matter)? Can you ever come into contact with the material making up that person/object? What is it that you feel when you touch a person/object? Actually, what you feel is the electromagnetic repulsive force between the electrons in the atoms of the person/object and the electrons in the atoms of your hand (or whichever part as the case may be). So when thousands of couples across the globe kissed each other passionately on Valentine's day, what they actually felt was the 'repulsive'(no less) force between the electrons of their lips!
Here is a nice account on touch - What's in a touch?...nothing!

I have always been amazed at the way lifeless forms thwart time. The floor of one of the unused compartments in my wardrobe was covered by a sheet of newspaper which was dated Sep 1998. Bill Clinton clad in a blue suit, waved merrily from a photograph accompanying one of the articles on the sheet. The sheet had been lying there for the last decade hardly undergoing any metamorphosis while the man himself experienced innumerable events ranging from his impeachment to supporting his wife for presidency. Last week, I went on a trip to a place called Kumbakonam and surrounding places in Tamilnadu with my family and a few relatives. There are many old temples along this belt, some of them more than a thousand years old. Just looking at the stone structures is enough to fill one with wonder. Each and every stone has seen generations of kings, their victories and failures, wars, famines; yet they stand unscathed by the ravages of time. Whereas, life is ephemeral. It is made up of the same fundamental constituents of nature, but combined in an extremely complex way. Life forms have intricate mechanisms for assimilating energy from various sources and channelizing it towards various physical and mental processes. They move about, talk, sing, dance, mate, think, feel etc. However, it is short-lived. Like a huge castle built with cards, it begins to reel under the complexity and after a certain time, invariably comes down.

( While at Kumbakonam, I visited Srinivasa Ramanujan's house which has been converted into a small museum now )

Apparently, India's population has quadrupled since 1947. I wonder how/why the policy-makers and 'visionaries' didn't pay attention to it all the while. I followed a link to http://www.censusindia.gov.in/ which supposedly gives detailed census data and the page initially threw an OutOfMemoryException...hmm, quite understandable.

From last week, Bangalore has one less two-wheeler to contend with. That is about as much I can do for a city that seems to be bent on spiralling towards its doom.

As more and more people jump into the rat race, eating out or taking home parcelled food is slowly becoming the norm. Eating out is not a very promising option. If you don't die of hunger while navigating through the 4 million vehicles of Bangalore, you definitely will while waiting for your seat at the restaurant. Taking home parcelled food is also not as straightforward as it used to be earlier. A couple of weeks back, I was entrusted with the responsibility of getting something for dinner. So, I walked over to this restaurant with a self-service wing and the moment I uttered the word 'parcel', the cashier waved arbitrarily towards the footpath and began taking orders of the person next to me. It took me a few seconds to realize that he had directed me towards a small kiosk on the footpath which was the parcel counter. A substantial mob was present in front of the kiosk with people shouting orders. I tried to slip in as discreetly as I could mindful of people's toes. Yet, I was rewarded with a couple of stares and clicks of mouth. Three persons were holding the large, laminated menu card and reading it while a fourth one stood on his toes, arched his body into a painful, unfinished polygon and read the other side of the card. I peeked over the shoulders of the trio, quickly came to a decision and began repeating my order "15 rotis, 2 mixed vegetable curries and 2 green peas masalas" along with others. Around the 4th time, the person manning the kiosk heard me, keyed it into his cash register and repeated "15 rotis, 2 Bhendi fries and 1 channa masala, right?". "Yes..Correct" I replied with a straight face, lest I dampen his momentum and face his wrath. He took the duplicate bill, wrote 97 on it and gave it to me. I slipped out of the mob and came to the side of the kiosk where people collected their parcels, quite happy with my achievement. However, that was not to last long. The guy who distributed the parcels was shouting "Token no. 76, who is token no. 76??". It looked like it was going to be a long wait. So, I went over to the main section and got myself a cup of coffee. After idling away for some time, I came back to find that order nos. 96 and 98 were ready. The distributor told me that my order could be taking time and sent his assistant, a young lad, to check if 97 was ready. Minutes passed and I was eagerly looking at the kitchen door. The young lad finally came out, but to my dismay, he joined a group of lads chit-chatting nearby. After another brief wait, my order finally arrived. I walked back home only to be greeted with "What took you so long?".

It has been quite a while since my last entry. So, let me give a small update. Rashmi and I got married on the 3rd of Dec, 2007. Married life has been good so far. I was on leave for quite some time and resumed work only yesterday. It is said that married life is full of excitement, new hopes and experiences...

( Click here to see what I have been indulging in daily, for the past few weeks..  )

Yesterday was Vaikunta Ekadasi. The ekadasi of dhanur masa shukla paksha is supposed to be very auspicious. It is said that the doors of Vaikunta (Vaikunta Dwaras) remain open to all the devotees on this day. Vaikunta Ekadasi is also said to be auspicious for beginning spiritual journeys/learning. I visited a temple near my place at around 9:00 PM with my wife. Surprisingly, there was a long queue at that time too. After some time, we managed to pass under the idols of the deities (Lord Narayana and his consorts) which are placed on a platform. There was much jostling and a person behind us even bumped his head on the platform. I am sure that the Lord wasn't very pleased. Come to think of it, I was pretty irritated and frustrated during my marriage reception itself when hundreds of them wished me one after the other. Imagine the situation of the Lord who has been sitting there from 4:00 in the morning. Nevertheless, the Lord with his infinite mercy and patience still smiled at the devotee.

Recently, I acquired a good C# bass bansuri. It is an altogether different experience.

After weeks of effort, I managed to tame it a bit - Marwa Alaap

(Marwa is a serious, meditative melody that I like a lot. Some day, I plan to sit on a secluded river bank with this flute and play Marwa)

Maximizing profits is one of the primary aims of any business. So, some decades back, a group of 'organizational behaviourists' working in this direction decided to study the effects of physical conditions on employee efficiency (quite similar to studies with the aim of increasing the yield of cows..). One of the conclusions that they drew was that employees work better in cooler temperatures. As a result, most of the offices started using air conditioners to keep the air temperature inside optimal, while riddling the ozone layer with holes and wasting gallons of water(nowadays though, it is said that viable alternatives are available). Around 15 years back, AC's were not that prevalent in Bangalore. As a child, my concept of an AC was limited to restaurants which proudly proclaimed "A/C Family Room" on tinted doors. Of course, eating inside one of those entailed a surcharge. Personally, I have always felt that eating in an AC room/hall deadens my taste-buds and the food tastes bland. Car AC's are worse. Of course, it is all good when the sun is beating down and you are driving through traffic spewing out black smoke. But after a while, the stale air works up a slight throb inside my head. That's the time when I usually put it off and wind down the windows to get some fresh air. My first protracted exposure to AC was at Hyderabad, where I had to attend a training as a part of my first job. After a couple of days, I ended up with a bad cold and fever and missed office. A couple of years later, I joined a company whose employees I can't help but classify as eskimos, for they seemed perfectly at home amidst chilling blasts of air. But, I had learnt the tricks of trade by then. So, on the second day of the induction (or whatever), in a bid to rescue myself from frost-bite and boredom, I purposely activated the ring-tone on my mobile, said a hello to the dial tone at other end and excused myself out of the room. I sat in the lounge for sometime, but it was as cold. I walked across to the huge hall and sat on the sofa there, it was as cold there too. So, I went out to the tiny tea-stall standing on the footpath, had an elevating cup of tea and promptly returned home. I left the company after some time due to many reasons, that's another matter altogether. Anyway, I have somehow got used to AC's now. But, ambitious measures for ensuring efficiency worries me to some extent. Not too long from now, 'organizational behaviourists' might walk through the diffused lighting in your office and force a pizza and coke down every employee's throat so that they remain efficient.

( The Nomad.. )

I guess you needn't go very far to perceive the impermanence of material things. In my case, it would suffice to walk up to the clothesline which runs along the back of our house. About 10 years back, I bought a very good pair of trousers. It quickly became a staple part of my dress for important occasions ranging from my sister's wedding to send-off parties at college. After 3-4 years of washing and pressing, it paled a little and I began to wear it less frequently. Of course, after the zip failed to work, it was relegated to the position of daily-wear. It served me in that position for many years. One fine day, I stopped wearing it as it had turned incredibly pale. I am not very clear about its fate after that, but I reckon it got a long and well deserved rest in the innermost corner of my cupboard with a few similar clothes and moth balls for company. Yesterday, I was surprised to find it sunning itself at the end of the clothesline. Perhaps, it was recalled to serve as a wiping cloth. Nature moves on..

I usually don't focus much on personal matters/events/happenings when it comes to LJ. It has been a long association and I guess people do get closer than you'd imagined. I somehow didn't feel like keeping my LJ friends in the dark. So, I will make a small announcement. I got engaged a few weeks back. My fiancee is from Bangalore. She is a simple, likeable person. We seem to understand each other and get along pretty well (till now). If you are congratulating me, thank you very much for your wishes! (As an aside, I read somewhere that it happens to more than 90% of the people before they reach the age of 35)

The Jamun fruit must be an excellent source of natural dye. The other day, I had parked my two-wheeler under a huge Jamun tree which stands opposite to my friend's house. A couple of small fruits that had fallen on the seat escaped my attention and I ended up squashing them as I sat. Two purple blobs adorned the seat of my new pair of trousers. They obstinately remain even after two washes.

I don't have much to say right now and the above paragraph must have convinced you that I am simply rambling. So, I will end by rambling about a book which I read quite some time back, ( The man who knew Infinity, a life of the genius Srinivasa Ramanujan )

I am not much of a movie-goer. One of the reasons could be attributed to the tag-lines that the movie-makers come up with. I think these tag-lines are a recent phenomenon, as far as Indian movies are concerned at least...I may be wrong though.

I saw a poster of a Kannada movie today. The name of the movie was Jambadha HuDugi which means Proud girl and the tag-line read A Florence in disguise.... I assume it refers to the compassionate Florence Nightingale. Anyway, I think the tag-line gives away too much about the movie. An Upendra starrer has the tag-line Love...Laang...Life. (In case you don't know, Laang is the colloquial term for a long machete). Predictably, the poster has the lovelorn hero sitting in a murky corner with a laang in his hand. Another recent movie called Pallakki has the tag-line Nenapirali Jothe Jotheyali Pallakki mele koothu hogoNa. Initially, I was confused about the long winded, abstract tag-line. Later, I realized that Nenapirali and Jothe Jotheyali were the director's previous successful movies. He had concatenated those two names with his latest movie in the tag-line thus subtly showcasing his credentials. Bollywood is not far behind when it comes to tag-lines. I saw the poster of a movie called Fool 'N' Final which has the tag-line Stealing stones 'N' Breaking bones. If anybody has understood this, please get back to me. I will round off with the rather embarrassing tag-line of a B-grade gory action movie..it reads Nobody has invented a condom for their guns.

( The Realization.. )

( The Examination.. )

I am happy to announce that I have finally managed to close my credit card. A similar attempt about an year back was successfully thwarted by the credit card providers. This time though, I was quite determined. Anyway, during the last financial year, my purchases against the card were nothing worth writing home about. Perhaps, they were miffed by this and took the matter into their own hands by billing me for some insurance and stuff. What's more? They also slapped a late payment fee on it. I thought, enough is enough and closed the card by offering some lame reason. The only thing that remains to be done is cutting my card into four pieces and mailing it to them, which I would be happy to do.

One of the meager purchases on the above-mentioned card was a collection of books containing nursery rhymes for my nephew. Speaking of rhymes, did you know that a majority of these famous rhymes allude to historical events\characters? For instance, consider the seemingly funny,

Jack and Jill, went up the hill
to fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown
Jill came tumbling after.

It apparently refers to King Louis XVI and his queen who were beheaded by the guillotine (now you got the tumbling after part!). The popular rhyme, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall refers to a cannon in England. This site has information about the origin of many rhymes.

As a child, I didn't mind attending marriages. My favourite haunt would be near the balloon-man who stood just outside the marriage hall. These balloon-men were ubiquitous near marriage halls during those days. They would be having a large wooden frame supported by a pole. Balloons of various shapes and colours, watches, cameras which scrolled pictures of bollywood heroes/heroines and numerous other petty plastic items would be stuck on the frame. I would badger my parents and close relatives to buy me some of those. Some of my cousins who were of the same age-group would be there and we would play Lock and Key, Eyes-Spies and other games till we were dragged back to our houses.

Nowadays though, it is something that I don't exactly enjoy. Before I can sneak into the marriage hall unnoticed and occupy the farthest chair in a corner, chances are that I will come face-to-face with an acquaintance, a middle-aged lady dressed in a silk saree and displaying her array of jewelry. After some initial, harmless remarks like "So many years since I saw you", "How much you have grown" etc. the question of what I do to earn my bread invariably comes up. After hearing my version, she will most probably mention the names of a few of my cousins, their companies, designations and names of the countries that they have visited. While I am still nodding at the information overload and making appropriate noises, she will call her husband; an elderly, benign looking gentleman who in terms of knowledge, can put our Information Technology minister to shame. "Where do you work? Which technology?" he starts off effortlessly. In just about 5 minutes, he will lay bare my woeful inadequacies, smile the smile of a HR and dissolve into the sea of visages.

As I finally plop down on the chair, ruing my decision to attend the marriage, I become aware of the next onerous task of slicing through the mob and getting onto the stage to wish the couple. This is something that I really abhor. Destiny plays a cruel joke on me every time I do this (she does it all the time anyway..doesn't she?). Though I'll be in the company of friends/relatives as the case may be, I always end up next to the bride for the video session. I maintain a sort of distance, not wanting to embarrass the newly-wed bride. But, the ruthless videographer has other ideas. He motions me to close in on her repeatedly. Somehow, I really have not perfected the art (if it can be called that) of facing a video camera. My hands move from the sides to the front and back alternately. I shift my weight unnecessarily, blink unnecessarily and generally make a total fool of myself. A thousand eyes watch my every move beyond the blinding incandescence and it is recorded for posterity.

Frankly, I don't get the idea of modern marriage 'celebrations'. What is all the fuss about anyway? Blowing lakhs of rupees for a couple of days? A common question one asks a would-be bride /bride-groom is "How are the marriage preparations going on?". Preparations include arrangements for marriage hall, lighting, food etc. etc. and last but not the least, dresses. A few months before marriage, a girl asks herself the most important, eternal question concerning her life.."What should I wear for the wedding?". She takes days to solve the problem considering various parameters like colour combinations, designs, prices etc. Finally, she gets a garment and matching slippers which she shows off proudly to all her giggly friends during the mehendi ceremony or whatever. The guy meanwhile collabarates with the girl and buys a matching sherwani (that is the fad now) with a whooping price-tag. He is ready for the marriage after a customary bachelor's party in which everybody gets drunk and act like fools. The marriage itself is a grand affair. More than a thousand people, different styles of food, ear-splitting orchestra, youngsters dancing with sticks in their hands and finally ending with a display of fireworks...and a divorce, occasionally.

Though I am pretty conservative, I don't immediately judge people who are given to public displays of affection (towards their loved ones). It is their way of doing things and they have the freedom to act according to their wishes. But, I draw the line at somebody chattering away on the phone telling his sweetheart "You are my Cadbury's".

A few days back, I came across my brother's autograph book in the cupboard. What a fine way to spend a few minutes on a saturday afternoon! In fact, I had a couple of autograph books too, but they are lost. I remember buying one on the day before our 10th std. send-off party. Most of the guys were dressed in ill-fitting suits belonging to their fathers and gals in sarees (thankfully, I went dressed in usual formals). You could walk up to just anybody and present your autograph book. They in turn would fill up all the important details like their favourite colour, favourite soap, favourite shampoo etc. and finish it off with a verse.

Anyway, here are a couple of verses that I read in the autograph book...

Day by day, week ends
Week by week, month ends
Month by month, year ends
But my friendship for you never ends

One of the gals was particularly vociferous, she had written :

Ghee is ghee, Butter is butter
If you forget me, go and fall in gutter.

And, in case you felt that the story in my previous post was a bit exaggerated, please read about the Visa Venkanna temple at Chilkur. God save our country and people, Govinda Gooooooooovinda

It was almost 7:30 as Mohith scampered to the bus stop. He was a medium-sized, male rat with rather twitchy whiskers. It was a friday and Mohith had dressed himself up in a brand new pair of Levi's. Small white sneakers covered his hind paws. He adjusted his laptop bag with one of his front paws and smiled at a colleague, a female rat.

"What plans for the weekend?" he squeaked.

"Oh nothing much..may be a bit of salsa and partying.." she squeaked back and giggled.

Mohith nodded with his small head and twitched his whiskers appreciatively. Their company bus would arrive any moment now. Most of these well-to-do rats worked in software companies housed in large, cool, modern holes.

"Do you know that Lobhith is giving a treat on sunday? He got his H1 visa. He had called me after the interview..he was so excited! He would be leaving in a few days." she squeaked happily.

For most of the rats, this was the ultimate goal; working in that paradise. They could eat pizzas with the very best cheese, drown it with Starbucks coffee, travel around in luxury cars and make huge sums of money.

"Oh..that is great!" Mohith exclaimed. "It is good to know that there are no visa problems now. My friend also got the visa recently. Poor guy! when he had applied the last time around, there was a slow-down and his application was rejected. This time, he had prayed to many Gods and had even promised that he would shave his whiskers and head if he got a visa. He got it!" he added.

The visa was the only thing that stood between these rats and paradise. They stood in serpentine queues and were interviewed by paranoid rats from outside, who sat behind bullet-proof, thick enclosures made of glass.

"So when are you going?" Mohith asked.

"Oh..I don't know. My boyfriend has just started to settle down there. He is juggling with both his current job and a management degree. As soon as he finishes that and lands another good job, I will probably go..." she pouted.

Mohith smiled and twitched his whiskers again. The company bus arrived and they got into it along with the other rats. Their daily race started again.....

Nowadays, the fastest way for a child to gain popularity and media-attention is falling into a pit. I mean, this must be the fourth or fifth such incident I am reading about since the young boy named Prince fell into a deep well. A friend of mine was saying that he had fallen into a dry well when he was young. The soft bed apparently had damped the impact. Finally, it seems that some elders lowered a bucket tied to a rope. He sat in it and was pulled up. He would have surely made it to the headlines had it happened now.

The last month kept me on my toes. It wasn't work, exactly..but those small niggling things at office which irritate you the most. I had a nice break of 3 days though, as I had attend a close friend's wedding. I took an additional leave of 2 days as I was not feeling all that well after returning from the wedding. The long break had done me good and just when I was looking forward to office today, all the associates were advised to leave early due to the Cauvery issue.

Anyway, that did give me time to experiment recording a few samples of my new flute. A flute which suits one perfectly is so hard to get. A few months back, my master lent me a very good flute. Though its tuning is a wee bit off for one of the notes, it suits me very well. I enjoy playing it a lot. I hope I get more time and enthusiasm in future and restart my learning in earnest.
When you have nothing much to write, the best way to come back to your journal is to post a few links! So, here is a small sample recording that I spoke of - ragh_sample_brundavani.mp3 (Sorry about the quality of the recording..my mic isn't very good)