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...

Discover - a weekend adventure
Discover brain games is an exclusively weekend venture. All the games are designed, written and uploaded on weekends and holidays. So why do we do it. to channelize our creativity, keep ourselves thinking and most importantly in the hope that the games give someone else some pleasure.

If you do like the games at discover please do give us some space - on your websites, blogs, social networks or just by word of mouth.

we are available on facebook as discover-brain-games and on the web at http://www.discover-brain-games.com/

they tell me the wright brothers flew their first aircraft on this day in 1903.
as they do i remember for some reason an interesting episode on a flight.

Indian Airlines flight from Pune to Bangalore - sometime in 2004...

We are at takeoff (on the runway ready to leave) - flight is ontime
Captain : Crew to takeoff stations.
20 seconds.
Captain : Ladies and gentlemen. we have a technical problem. we are returning to our gate where you will need to get off the plane and wait. inconvenience regretted.
a collective sigh goes through the cabin as we begin taxing back down the runway towards the gate.
10 seconds of taxing - then a sudden acceleration
Captain : the technical problem is corrected - we are taking off. please relax and enjoy the flight.
10 seconds later we are airborne.
Not too many people look 'relaxed'.

i still wonder what the technical problem was - forgot to release hand brake ??

i am myself amazed to return back here and find that its been more than 2 years since i wrote on this blog.
how life and times fly by - how one's definitions of important things and priorities change.
anyways here i am back with a promise to myself - to pen something down whenever i can(hopefully the next post is not another 2 years away).