puppets

OK. so there are vacancies for puppets.

Who is the puppet master? wont tell :)

Yellow again

We all live in a yellow submarine...

gagged !!!

So much to say - so little energy to do so.
when the brain is doing a lot of processing - its first fallout seems to be a restriction in 'saying'.
it thinks and wants to express but doesnt quite get down to it - and when it does its as vague as this !!!

Plastic

So all credit card machines in this part of frankfurt terminal are down. Imagine the chaos. Most people not even accepting anything other than euros because they can't convert without the machines... Finally found 6 euros in coins for breakfast.

Only the menu in common

Son's birthday party. Difference from last year... Everything, not even one guest repeated. Only the food remained the same. He wouldn't accept a variation on that one.

Cash, phone and...

Security check at frankfurt. Big guy is directing the emptying of my pockets. Passport, wallet, phone, gun... Gun? I look at him and we both burst out laughing. Their definition of security with a smile :)

too few hours

the problem when i get started with work is that the day never seems to have enough hours... is that what they call a workaholic.
today was just one of those days when you want to do so many things and can keep doing them forever.
have always had some hobby or the other but havnt kept at any of them as long or none have given me as much pleasure as work that i like :)

a full meal

cooked a full meal after a long time - felt good.
i enjoy cooking - gives a sense of having done something (mostly something useful).
in my dreams i build bridges and great monuments - something that can be seen and appreciated - in real life of course i build something invisible to the naked eye - not that its a bad job - just so invisible :)

Using swype

Writing this and the earlier post using swype.
fiddled with the settings a little and now I'm kind of loving it :)
I enjoy the spell correction most of all...

The joys of sportsmanship

As we played squash this evening, I kept getting beaten. That's when my partner pointed out the major error I was making (I am relatively new to the game).
Well the good thing is it raised the level of the game and we had more fun. The perils of sportsmanship of course is that he lost the game thereafter - but we both enjoyed that game more than all of the before.

Good strong muscles

Well i argue you never use your upper body muscles in this day and age... But lo and behold you do - though rarely.
Remembered this argument as i carried a full gas cylinder from the neighbours to my house. Ah the nice tingling in the arms :)

an exotic week

of fruit and drink (all of the non alcoholic variety).
hows this for a list
jackfruit, jamun, star fruit, litchee, plum
and juices of
pomegranate, guava, mango and kokum.
hmmm... summer has a few benefits for sure doesn't it?

Tum jiyo hazaron saal

Har saal mein ho din hazaar...
Now heres this guy who has probably called me 2 or 3 times in my life - and i am just finishing off a call with a friend where we are talking about him and he calls...
Not sure the friend likes the subject line but it is funny how these things work :)

cars have locks

one gets so used to the metal tiger with no locks to speak of - that i spent a full 20 seconds tugging at the car door this morning wondering why i couldn't get in!!!
its locked - needs a key.
well ok - wouldn't it be great in a world where locks weren't needed?

May - it be the last day

No - i am not being a doomsayer...
rather in the syle of capt jack sparrow "it be the last day of may"
the end of May used to evoke a happy reaction back then.
it signified the killing summer drawing to a close - a new school year starting - back with friends and of course the coming of the rains very soon - rains that i have always loved.

oh how beautiful

saturday night epiromized the beautiful game and everything we love about it.
this Barca team is probably the best that every played on this planet.
keep at it - you guys give us hope in the times of the Netherlands, the Ronaldos and the Gatusos.
Sir Alex's expression said it all didn't it - no shame losing to this side - and congratulations on not playing ugly Man Utd.

lifes good

Seen on my 1 year old's T-shirt this morning
"Life is good when you are ME"
really?

when every day is a picnic

my son is in that kind of an age...
summer holidays, some food, a hamper, a mat and every breakfast is converted into this nice little picnic!!!
oh what fun.

Intellectual stimulation

Can be produced by beer and boredome on a lazy evening... How?
Well advertisements (really difficult ones) that i couldnt follow for weeks or months all became clear as i sat in front of the idiot box in such a state.
Thinking clearly i was but what were they that produced such ads thinking when they did it?

still - yellow

hard luck danny boy. hope you get another chance in the final

Onions

when i was younger i ran on most mornings.
in onion fields down a narrow road.

every winter they harvested the crop and stored it - i was fascinated - yes everything smells like onions but i was fascinated by their storage huts - i found a photo on the web

you could even buy it off the fields - for about Rs 10-15 for a 20kg bag.

As i visited my childhood home one of these days i drove down the same road - no longer narrow - now a 4 lane high traffic road.

there were no traces of onions, storage huts or even the fields. concrete everywhere - the farmers (or middle men) have made a lot of progress...

hijacked in passing

a scene from this morning reminded me of an interesting incident i observed a few months ago.
peak traffic time one morning after a night of heavy rains - theres a major disruption because the rains have opened up a very big pothole blocking a full lane.
so there is this bulldozer going on its merry way when 2 policemen go up and have a word.
what they have done is requested the bulldozer guy to pick up some gravel from the roadside - dump it into the pothole and roll over it a few times. the bulldozer guy obliges and in 5 minutes we have a usable road.
surely no case of missing initiative there - imagine having to do this through the normal bureaucratic channels.

a fresh pair every time

my top 4 reason why you would be forced to wash your clothes after just 1 wear.
1) do something which makes you sweat like a hog and hope that the sweat smells like one too - gross eh?
2) have a nagging wife :(
3) have a dog that loves puddles (and you).
4) love biking in an indian city - especially when it rains.

well - thankfully i have nothing to do with the first 2 - generally avoid 3 and really like 4.

whats your top 4?

Abort, retry, fail?

Which of these did she choose is what went through my mind as our airplane coming in for a landing at pune suddenly put on full engine power and pulled up.
Well a full minute later she comes on the PA and announces "as we came in for our final landing ATC announced dogs on the runway and we had to abort. We are circling back and will be rescheduled for landing soon"
Dogs? Well i guess she did choose the right option whatever the problem may have been...

Maa mati manush

The results both in bengal and tn makes one hope that the voter has gotten over the very basic needs of food and started asking for better governance.
Good luck to us all in this pursuit

The bootstrap effect

When the standard of living of the country goes up its rich become richer, middle classes become richer and so do the poor.
I call it the bootstrap effect and i believe (without sufficient data though) that a higher percentage of people in this country today live in relatively less trying conditions and have a better chance of a brighter future...
The said bootstrap is however elastic in nature and hence the difference between the classes seems to go up - a dangerous condition indeed and one whose fix is hard to grasp (probably socialism).
In effect the employment of maids drivers and cooks is a way to distribute the wealth in such a massively populated country via this effect. Fair? Donno...

thump wump wump

goes the metal tiger.
it rouses the heart and drowns out the world.
with the wind on the face - its a beautiful time to reflect and just enjoy the ride...

Quite a bit of salt

In that salt and pepper hair of mine....
And while the barber did not claim it to be "galich" this time around, he sure did want me to spend some good money on hair dye...
Par yeh baal kya maine dhoop mein pakaye hai? I refused to give up the distinguished look ;)

so whats my style

  

अजीब कश्मकश है जिंदगी में 

someone help me decide. 

good wine, confirmed bachelors and duality

A few glasses of good wine later - i asked this confirmed bachelor if he would ever get married.
well - after a short discussion we concluded that yes he should but only to his perfect dual.
happy hunting buddy...

A reminder to question

Its strange and insightful at times when a computer generated random password that you use several times a day starts with "why"
Well reminds me to be inquisitive at all times for sure.

Greenland

From an airplane. Nothing green about it.

Dal roti and conversation

Great fun to catch up with an old roomie after several years - 7 to be precise...
He cancels his weekend trip with family, invites me for lunch on an hours notice and we get talking like in the old days...
Some excellent jain lunch done the 2.5 hours feel like mere minutes and he insists that i reschedule my flight and calls the airline too...
Alas its not always possible. We say our goodbyes but as we part he drives me to the airport himself promising to return my rental car at a later time...
I'm touched old pal...

2 BB

thats Before Blogger (or at least before it was aquired by google)
it was the age when posts could not be written on e-devices on flights.
did i not write - well absolutely did - on several picture post cards.
i gave them to the wife after my trips - i believe she has lost them now :) with Blogger they are at least safe until google decides to delete them or some random hacker messes it up ;)

The offer

Summer 1997
Somewhere in the western ghats. 4 hours walk from the nearest motorable road.
We are a group of 6 boys camped overnight at a lone temple on a hillside.
Early the next morning we have an unexpected visitor. A bearded man from the neighbouring village. He is inviting us to some celebration in the village that night. He offers us mutton, unlimited local alcohol and "bam bam" which from his actions is something you smoke and then go into a trance !!!!
Well - there were a few disappointed souls in the group when we decided to pass up the offer and continue our trek instead...

biryani and thanda

this weekend an old friend came over with biryani. and he likes thums up with it - so we went to get it.
friend : One thums up 1.5l please. chilled.
Shopkeeper: OK
friend (touching the bottle): are yeh thanda nahi hai.
Shopkeeper (with the straightest face) : yeh to thums up hai. thanda matlab coca cola.

!!!! 

वह बचपन की यादें

As i made the famous Nescafe shake for the wife and me - i remembered the many many hot summers from childhood with wet curtains - improvised tents and tons of nescafe shake :)

and all the other memories - वह कागज़ की कश्ती - वह बारिश का पानी.

do i want it all back - na...

i'm happy with the present, looking forward to the future - the past is a good memory from time to time thats all...

Scorpions

The Big city nights post reminds me of scorpions.
Dec 2009 - at this resort in the middle of the hills a few kms inland of kanyakumari.
i am sleeping with my 2.5 yr old son in a nice clean room on a newly made bed. at about 3a.m my son stirs a little so i move too - just then i feel this excrutiating pain in my right ear lobe - its so bad that i literally jump out of bed with a scream and hit the light switch - for a few seconds i am convinced i saw a scorpion - we take off every sheet and search everywhere but cant find one - i cant locate a local to discuss with either but the ear is red - painful and swelling and i am miles from the nearest medical facility. i do the only thing i can think of - stay awake for the next 2-3 hours and look for signs of poisoning or allergic reactions - thankfully theres none but i still cant find the scorpion - its almost like i dreamt it up.
next morning my son is playing inside the room and he goes to pick up this wrapper of baby wipes lying under the bed. for the 2nd time in just a few hours i jump up like i've been bitten - its the only place i havnt checked - under that wrapper - i get there just as he lifts it - in time to see the scorpion and get the son away.
that afternoon at the reception another guy staying in the neighbouring cottage is complaining that he couldnt sleep in the night due to the howling wind and is unhappy with the resort - so i show him my ear and narrate my story - he checked out within the next 30 minutes - i stayed for another 2 nights...

big city nights

The Tokyo Hilton 23rd floor - sometime in the middle of the night.
i sit by the window and stare into the night time Tokyo skyline - the minutes go by.
every few minutes you hear an ambulance scream past sirens blazing.
you feel like a tiny spec in a vast universe -
i still maintain the Tokyo Hilton top floors are among the most depressing places i've stayed in.
not depressing enough to feel suicidal - but enough to increase the mini bar consumption :)

The water, the twilight and the moon

As i lay on my back in the pool this evening i experienced this rare feeling of calm and serenity.
It was twilight, there was a beautiful half moon in the cloudless sky and the kites were returning home gliding at their majestic best.
But all good things come to an end - some quite quickly too...
Very soon they found me - the big fat black ugly blood sucking mosquitoes. Discretion being the better part of valor i beat a rather hasty retreat :)

A twinkle in their eyes

Story is from a train 9-10 years ago - place called Yadgir - 2nd sleeper.

travelling unreserved (for a short journey) is this 30 something man and his 9 year old son. This little boy has this easy mannerism - beautiful smile and a keen mind. In no time he is a darling of the crowd and he seems to be enjoying it too - theres a twinkle in his eyes - wait something strange about them - what?

His father then tells us the story about how this only son of his was diagnosed with cancer of the brain and eye - that his one eye had to be surgically removed and replaced with an artificial one - that he spent months in a faraway hospital in Mumbai and spent days every month travelling to make it there. How he had to neglect his booming business to take the child from doctor to doctor and chemo to chemo. but both father and child had this serene air about them and not once did either of them complain. the few of us who were complaining about the heat and the dust just shut up and stared. i remember the evening in vivid detail so many years later - hope the family is doing fine... and hope that i can stop complaining and keep smiling like they could...