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Sakeeb

Had been to Chennai over the weekend. Over all the trip and stay there was very nice. Traveling in Shatabdi express was as comfortable as traveling in a flight. As soon as we board into the train the crew will start serving the welcome drinks, mineral water, snack dineer etc.. one after another. The coach was well maintained and it took less that 5 hours to reach Chennai. The train started some 20 min later than the scheduled departure time and reached 10 min earlier that the scheduled arrival time.

Hiran came to pick me up and it had drizzled there to welcome me. The cloudy whether and cool winds spared the notorious Chennai heat for me. Visited the chennai hangout places like City Centre (aka Lifestyle mall), Satyam theatre and Spenzer Plaza. Somehow I felt the Chennai crowd has more liveliness than the Bangalore crowd. I didn't feel every unknow pesrson as an alien. Also, from Hiran I learned that every theatre should be charging only Rs.10 for first row seats - Thats the govt ruling it seems. Also, the tickets rates are not exoberent like in Bangalore. The full cushion seated theatre in Satyam Charges maximum 110

Then something really misearable happened yesterday. I had lunch at Mary Brown (Chicken Burger) inside the pensor Plaza and since evening I started having loose motion. Today morning I started vomitting also. In the return training, I was almost doing shuttle service between my seat and toilet. But till then I was not sure what caused all this catastrophe.

Back in the home I told about this to Nidhin and his first question was did eat at Mary Brows. Heck. He had the same experience when he went to Chennai for the first time it seems. Hell with Mary Brown. Where can I complain about their food.

So you are in the Forum waiting for you friend to turn up...

To escape the embarrassment and the guilty feeling of being single in such a big crowd, where not a single other single is not found, you decided to spend some time in the Landmark till your friend arrives.

Inside the Landmark, you spot an area relatively less crowded and that happens to be the travelogue books sections and you settle down there. You Pick one book, flip through the pages and keep it back. You Take another one repeats the same and then you notice that someone has just appeared beside you and picked the same book you were leaving through earlier. Not caring much, you move to another book only to realize that the other guy again has picked up the book you just put back. This process repeats again and you feel something fishy and decide to move on to some other area. But before you could do so, your book hunter guy starts a conversation. "So... you are kind of a guy who loves travel books..."

Oh man... Isn't this the exact scene from the Malayalam sitcom Akkara Kazhchakal which made me laugh out louder and louder a few weeks back. Having realized I am going being a victim of "direct selling" marketing, I cleverly evaded from there like Biju.

Note to self: Don't loiter around alone in the book stalls.

Just found out that the btis.in has added a lot of features recently. Ever wondered if there is any (pending) penalties / fines to be paid? .. visit http://www.btis.in/fines

Dissemination of a new kind of flu evoke anxiety in City administration.

How it spreads

The virus spreads the same way a typical seasonal flue does, via news paper boys, tv reporters, bloggers and coffe table discussions. An infected person can pass it on before they even develop symptoms. The incubation period for most flu viruses is 3 to 5 days, and the period for this flu is disputed, and has been reported as anywhere from 1-5 days. Scientists say it was originated in middle east and before its advent in India; people in Iraq, Israel, Britain and partially China were reported to have affected by the virus. There is no evidence yet that any of the preventive vaccine will protect against this flu. But, you cannot get this flu from voting machines.

What you can do

If you believe have flu symptoms, stay home. Don't attend any public meetings or political campaigns. Refrain from reading newspapers, watching news channels and visiting blogs.

Your doctor may not be able to determine whether you have the flu buy he may write you a prescription. Hospitalization is not really required, as patients have recovered without medication.

Preventive measures

When going outside, try not to wear any foot wears and keep away from other people wearing sandals and shoes. Don't pay any attention to political news as it may infuriate you which can weaken you immunity towards this virus.

The experts appointed by Indian Medical Association are examining its psychological relation with IPL being taken away from the country. There has been unconfirmed reports that the wretchedness of loosing the opportunity to see the direct throw run outs and bowling/chucking action in IPL is causing the widespread of this disease.

Despite the deteriorating situation, a prominent astrologer who claimed to has accurately predicted the prime minister candidate of INC for last 40+ years has a verdict that this disease will disappear after the general election. But he refused to comment on the Swine Flue outbreak in other end of the world.

References

1. http://blog.taragana.com/n/now-slipper-thrown-at-karnataka-chief-minister-42205/
   
2. http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKTRE51448S20090205
   
3. http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=14385
   
4. http://www.myantiwar.org/view/177460.html
   
5. http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=3699

What is the role of eye in a face to face conversation? This particular question is jiggling in my mind for sometime now. It started when I saw her asking a villager some favor. While talking to a stranger I definitely would have removed my eyeglasses. I felt it weird for a moment that she didn't bother to do so. It looked peremptory to ask an unknown person a favor without removing the goggles. However, if she was wearing a normal specs, I wouldn't have felt so. Does eye-to-eye contact gives some warmth and friendliness in a conversation?

Then again, I usually remove my cap (If Im wearing one) when I talk to some socially respected figures like a school teacher. Does it mean that its my beautiful hairstyle that shows my respect to him? ;-). Though cap gives a cool dude look sometimes, it can represent one's uppity attitude as well.

I am wondering if both of these (removing goggles and caps) are considered an action of expressing one's respect to others or only I feel so. What is your take on that?

Yes, I am turning 16. Oops was that a year ago? Can't remember - feels like yesterday :-P

Is birthday really a special day? "Its not his achievement that he is born to this world on this particular day. Then for what the heck he is giving a party for it?" - My college friend Shiyas asked once, when I came back from a birthday party given by a classmate. Yes, birthday is just another day, until someone heartily wishes you.  However you try to act it as just another day, the moment someone comes to you,  hold your hands, exchange a full blown smile and says those magic words "Happy Birthday", you become elated and feel treated special. Thats how the birthdays become a special day. Then onward you start riding on the joy disseminated from those magic words.

Like every year, I tried to be not very conscious about the birthday. But Aarushi kept on reminding about it past few days. I decided to take leave on today as I had some other secret plans ;). But I couldn't ignore the "genuine" request from Swathi today morning Swathi to stop by office. She and Neethi had bought a cake for me.

I left office by 10 - Remember - I had a secret plan. Took a round trip bike ride through Jeevan Bhima Nagar (Sagar Travels) - CMH Road (ICICI Bank) - MG Road (HSBC Bank) - Chikpet (Photo Circle) - CMH Road (ICICI bank again :( ) - back to Mahadevapura (office) and then to Banasawadi (house). Then proceeded with my plan and of self-gifting; bought a Canon EF-S 55-250 IS Lens.

Now looking forward to enjoyable long weekend. Mokshi, KK, Anoop,  Sanoj, Giri and yours truly are heading to Munnar and Thekkady. Hopefully we won't be blessed with as many lucky or unlucky misses like the previous Ugadi weekend trip.

The Eripuram-Pazhayangadi road is about one kilo meter long and has a moderate slope which is increasing the speed of the scooter whose break has stopped working. If allowed to continue in its current speed, the scooter would enter the Pazhayangadi town and hit someone and cause a serious but non-fatal injury. The lady riding the bike didn't have much time to react. She maneuvered the bike towards the side of the road and jumped into a bush on the side of the road. The bike fell down to the road-side gutter. The lady's sari was slightly torn, otherwise she didn't have any major injury. No one harmed in this unfortunate situation where she had little time to react.

A lorry broken down in the centre of K R Puram railway over-bridge in the after noon is further slowing down the traffic through the narrow underpass. A traffic police officer is watching the broken down vehicle as if someone asked him to protect the antediluvian truck. It should have been in that state for more than an hour and it was not enough time for the police man to think about towing away the vehicle. This ascribed me to compare this police officer with the lady riding the scooter. This guy had a lot of time to respond to the situation and remove the burden out of the narrow road. But he is standing there like an obtuse dense.

Rather less eventful, yet exciting; that is the short yet precise description about the moonlight trekking at Antargange we did on the Holi eve.

We started one hour later than planned as some people were stuck in traffic caused by procession associated with the Eid Milad, the birthday celebration of a prophet who proclaimed to remove the obstacles on the street. A large number of Muslims celebrate Eid Milad to commemorate the birth anniversary of the Holy Prophet (the same day marks his death anniversary as well). And we have a government holiday for this which is V.P Singh's contribution to our public holiday list. My father who worked for QTel which is Qatar's State Telecom Company, for more than quarter a century, never had such a holiday. A large number of Muslims, do not believe in celebrating the birthday or death anniversary because there is no historical evidence that such was the practice of the Holy Prophet.

Coming back to the moonlight trek, it marked the first commonsense approved use of my long wished Valentine's Day gift. I wonder how embarrassing it would have been when the one walking with you, who appeared normal till the moment, suddenly started taking picture of the very usual things on the M.G Road (this, this and this) with great alacrity and pretend like it's once in a life time shot anybody can take. My dear friend you should understand his desperation of not being able to find any interesting subject ever since he got an SLR!!. My diligence to use the ISO 1600 helped nothing to alleviate this desperation. The snaps were as bad as if it were taken in my old Powershot A520.

To summarise the trip:

1. The sky was clear, the Moon was fully visible, Clouds were beautiful - all these remained true till 2 am in the night.
2. After getting my first shock of the day when the auto driver readily agreed to go by the meter and the fare came only to 90 rupees for a ride from Banasawadi to Majestic, Chandru's gaadi took me all the way back till the infamous K.R Puram Hanging Bridge as close to 4 km to my apartment.
3. Chandru's assistant JLRP accompanied this time as well. In his executive wear adorned with a collar tie, he looked like fleeing fugitive who ended up in Chandru's hand. There were two other known faces - Sooraj whom I met during Kottagiri trip and Neeta who is my team mate's room mate's class mate :-P
4.  After the hottest fortnight I ever had in Bangalore, climate is now back to its comfortably cool state. The night was even colder, As we started hiking uphill, I slightly started sweating. Sweating and still feeling cold is a nice joy. Though its a mountain trekking, I don't have to get tanned under the burning sun as is in the case of the daytime trekking. For those who still didn't get it, moonlight trekking happens in the night :-D
5. The view of Kolar town from the top of the hill was awespring. In the complete darkness, the shining Kolar town looked like temple decorated during Diwali, which I have seen only in movies.

From Antaragange



6. Like Abhishek Bachan (Delhi-6 Fame :-P ), I started hopping from one rock to another, until I felt some sprain in my ankle. After all I am not a Kala Bandar. I can't keep on jumping and hopping . But this new Lee Cooper shoe proved to be perfect replacement for my old broken pair woodlands. Good grip and very comfortable to walk as well.
7. On a closing note, we reached back Bangalore by 6, much earlier than predicted. It was the most Imanic trek as I wouldn't have to miss or defer any of the "compulsory" prayers

Those two confabs brought forth the essence of next two para. Later in the evening, quite coincidently the readings in similar line in the chapter "Many Crescents: South Asia's divided Muslims" of Edward Luce's In Spite of The Gods acted as a catalyst to the post.

It all started with a question about self-flogging practiced by some people during Muharram which in turn lead to a blatant admission of my ignorance about the subject. But I acted smart by justifying my proven ignorance on the subject by pointing it to the difference between Shia and Sunny principles. The next obvious question was about the difference which I didn't even have a vague idea about. It was a catch 22 situation - which was born first, me or my ignorance. A little bit of research about the topic revealed that the origin of Shia and Sunni was not on spiritual grounds but purely on political difference. When prophet Muhammad[PBUH] passed away, the question about the next leader came up and one group argued the leader should be elected from his companions,while the other argued that the leadership should go to his descendants. Over the centuries, these difference has grown to varying religious practices which exists today. The former is called Sunni's while the latter is known as Shias.

An innocuous joke about the infamous triple talaq suddenly popped up in todays coffee-talk. Despite the fact that talaq is originally considered as a necessary evil in Islam, it's the second most well-known axiom of Islam after jihad . Even if the scholars - who had clearly declared triple talaq to be considered only as a single talaq and it requires talaqs to be made in three consecutive iddah periods (1 iddha period is 3 menstrual period) for a divorce to formally accepted - had given any fatwa against triple talaq it wouldn't have gained much acceptance enjoyed by other fatwas on inconsequential issues.

A bliss, that is what she passed in that smile when the bike was stopped for allowing her to cross the road. Bangalore traffic is not at-all slow moving if you are trying to cross the road. But this illegitimate kindness came as a bemusement to a tailgating biker who was still trying to assess the infancy of the former allowing a pedestrian to cross the road. Thinking of this unlawful act he had totally forgotten to slow down his bike and had eventually bumped into the felon relocating him by at least quarter a wheel distance. Like any other motorist, our fellow biker was following his inner call that he should overpass the struggling wayfarer before she succeeds in her attempt to cross the road. Being a non fatal prang, the dashing biker forgave the unscrupulous act of the other and started moving on.

It was then our victim had a innocuous doubt that whether the kind-hearted-unlawful-pedestrian-respecting-felon had murmured something against the pleasure of his ear drums that changed the gaiety of the scene all of a sudden. Before the murmur-suspect could even understand what was happening both his cheeks were blessed with a pair of equally balanced smacks.

Well, the audience at by-then-crowded-junction enjoyed analgesic reaction of the latter more than the fast paced action that preceded.

PS: This epic is depicted from three independent incidents.

The Pub Bharao Andolan and the Pink Chaddi Campaign were the next most celebrated hypes after the "Slum Dog Millionaire", at least for the hopelessly growing singles population in the city. Hesitant to fathom the media attention for the Valentine's day, a few celebrated HAPPY SAD!. A typical SAD celebration goes like:

a. Invite all your single friends for a gathering at your house.
b. Make sure that gas cylinder is not empty.
c. If your room mate knows some cooking, send her somewhere far.
d. Keep all your kitchen utensils unwashed and dirty for atleast two days in-advance. This is for keeping your visitors engaged while you prepare food. That way you can make sure that your friends wont involve in cooking or prepare a tastier food.
e. Buy a lot of Rajma and invite somebody who can kill your sense of humor by making bad (I mean really bad) PJ's around it.
f. If your friends does not finish the Rajma, lock them inside the room and prepare some lemon tea for them. Add a lot of pepper, salt and lemon to it.
g. Most importantly, buy a cake, preferably pineapple cake, and don't forget to write HAPPY SAD! on it. Don't spare the fun of watching the bakery boys screaming in wonder "Why HAPPY SAD!". A genuine whoop about eating the Lychee Cake made of Pineapple is also not unprecedented.



That said, the V-day passed not without setting its marks in the history:

1. To the dismay of many couples, Pramod Muthalik took a U-turn on his promise of marry off dating couples, for whom this was their last resort for an hassle free marriage.

2. ShriRamSena further disappointed the growing [number of] saari aspiring "Indian women" who optimistically sent Pink Chaddis hoping to get saaris in return.

3. As the annual greeting card burning ceremony was buried in other Swadesi movements, Hallmark and Archies didn't get their anticipated business. They requested the Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women to include a Card Bhejo program in next year V-day propaganda.

4. The frivolous to frugal transformation caused by the current economic situation which plummeted the pub business relieved a little by the pub-bharo andolan. The yet to be confirmed report claim that the liquor sales were close to Kerala's festive season sales.

5. An unreliable source reports that the planned layoff at a Victoria Secret's factory unit was called off due to the record number of manufacturing orders received during the season.

6. After realizing nobody is bothered about me at all, to get away from the despair, I gifted an SLR (EOS 1000D) to myself.