Playing Resident Evil on the road

There's a stretch of road, about a kilometer long on the way to my apt
from work. This particular stretch has big rectangular patches of
unfinished road at random. When you drive on the road, you try to
avoid these patches by swerving around them. They're not so bad that
you'll damage the scooter or hurt yourself if you drive through one of
them, but they're a nuisance nevertheless. You don't want to get
carried away and swing too much because there are other vehicles on
the road. So you end up memorizing, or trying to memorize the
locations of all the patches so you can anticipate and avoid them.
It's like playing a video game.

You know that scene in the movie "Resident Evil" where the guys are
trapped in a passageway and the lasers cut across the room and the
guys have to jump around to avoid getting chopped up? This stretch of
the road reminds me of that. And if you've seen the movie you know it
doesn't end well for the guys. It's the same here as well. After all
these patches of unfinished road, there's a big band of unfinished
road that stretches across the width of the road. And you can't avoid
it, so you end up going through it.

Game over.

I'm pretty sure I entered a red light district

(These are the first non-violent thoughts I've had since the attacks
in Mumbai. I don't think I want to share the violent thoughts yet.)

Friday evening I decided to go shopping at the Lakshmi road area but
that plan quickly disappeared due to too many choices. So I decided to
make the most of it and picked up about Rs. 10 worth of boiled and
salted peanuts and just walk around in the neighborhood. The area is a
lot of fun with plenty of random stores specializing things you
wouldn't think they'd have stores for. Like wooden horses, I saw about
three different stores selling those.

I parked my scooter at a big intersection and explored all the four
quadrants around that. I didn't even realize I was (probably) in a red
light area for a while. It wasn't the whole neighborhood but in one
area I saw a big group of women just standing around, standing very
close to each other. I assumed they were waiting for a bus but it
didn't seem like a bus stop, and the street was too narrow to actually
allow a bus in. Then I thought they were waiting for milk or some
other groceries. Again, they were a little too dressed up for that.
Then I noticed there were no men near them. Considering atleast of
them were dressed up like housewives, I thought they'd be accompanied
by their husbands. But then I kept walking and saw another group of
women standing around. And then another.

When it hit me I tensed up so bad my neck started hurting. I avoided
making eye contact with anyone and just walked out of there as fast as
I could. You always think you'll act cool when put in awkward
positions, but I did not want anyone to walk up to me and ask me if I
wanted a good time. I think I'd have a heart attack!

The only reason I am not sure I saw what I think I saw is that I
didn't see any negotiation take place. There were a few guys walking
on the street, and a few sitting in restaurants etc in that area. But
not a single one of them was talking to any of the women. Also, from
movies etc, I expected atleast a few women to be brazen and solicit
customers. These women just stood there. Maybe it was because they
didn't want any complaints about them harassing people. Or maybe they
were just really waiting for milk.

Somehow I doubt it.

View from a temple

Everyday as I go to work, I see this giant sign that says "Om Namah
Shivayah" (written in devanagri of course). I had wondered why it was
there but finally, about 10 days ago I checked it out. Turns out it's
the Tarakeshwara Temple. It sits on a small hill right next to the
busy Yerawada Bridge. I parked my scooter at the base and climbed up
the rather steep steps to the top, all the time wondering how people
managed to do any maintainance on that hill, seeing as it's so
inaccessible. I found out once I got to the top that there's a road
that leads right to the top of the hill :) Oh well, good exercise.
The view from the temple is just amazing. You get a great view of the
river and a bunch of buildings on either side. I decided this would be
a great place to shoot from early in the morning. I wanted to scout
the way to the hill first since I didn't want to be searching for it
and miss the sunrise. And that's how I got to meet another wonderful
Punekar.
Basically I got lost in some alleys and I stopped to get directions.
This guy was sitting on his scooter, talking to someone in a store.
When I asked him for directions he was dismayed that I was so very
lost. Then, instead of just giving me directions, he started up his
scooter and asked me to follow him. He only left after pointing out
how I could get the main road. Maybe he was going to leave anyway, but
he didn't have to do that.
(And yet I hear from these people who claim Punekars are rude and
annoying. Wrong!)

I never got around to visiting the temple during the daytime yet.
Partly laziness, but also the morning mist/fog these winter days is
too think to get good photographs of the sunrise. It provides for a
different type of look but I wanted a clear sunrise. Maybe I'll try it
anyway. But summer is when it should be fun to shoot.

India's Eva Green

Google "Kangana Ranaut" if you don't know who that is. And help me
figure out why she reminds me of Eva so much. I think it's the
extremely exotic look each of them has. Eva with her smoky eyes and
Kangana with her curly hair. And both are preternaturally pale.
Regardless, I think they're both very interesting creatures. Kangana
is probably the only Bollywood celebrity I'd like to meet at this
point. Maybe Gul Panag. The rest seem beyond vacuous.

Even the so called serious male actors who keep cheapening themselves
with the commercial cinema. Only exception is Nandita Das who seems
like she'd rather jump into a volcano than do a typical Bollywood
movie. Sadly the movies that does act in aren't inherently that good.
Otherwise I'd add her to my list.

The million dollar arm - update

Turns out the Million Dollar Arm kids didn't disappear into obscurity
like I'd imagined they would. They ended up signing with the
Pittsburgh Pirates.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/11/24/pirates.indians.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

A few notes -

a) When I saw the headline, "Pirates sign two..." I immediately
assumed the story was something to do with the Somali pirates.

b) The URL for the story as you can see says "Pirates.Indians". Now in
case you don't know, there's a team called the Cleveland Indians. So
one could be tempted to think the story was about a trade between the
Pirates and the Indians.

c) Can't wait for these kids to be traded one day to Cleveland so we
can have the Indian Indians. Dots meet feathers. The Universe with
explode.

Scrubs censoring in India

Just found out Scrubs is on TV here. And guess what I found gets
censored? You know when Dr. Cox refers to Turk as "Gandhi". Yeah,
that's out! I just laughed out loud when I noticed that.

Decadence

The lassi from heaven. Or is it hell?

Last week as we went out to get some supplies for the lab at work, we stopped by this dinky-looking restaurant very close to work. The place looks like it serves only milk products - plain milk, lassi, ice cream etc. Apparently this place is quite famous and the guys wanted me to try this item called "Lassi, Double Malai". Malai (మీగడ) is basically cream. The stuff you get when you churn unhomogenized milk; the stuff that when you melt in a pan you get ghee.) Except this is fresh, thick, greasy cream. The stuff I can imagine Lord Krishna craving for as a kid. As fatty as you can imagine. They add two spoonfuls of this (funnily enough, the menu doesn't have a "Lassi, Single Malai") stuff to the already sweet, thick lassi. This is the equivalent of one of those enormous burgers you get at BK or McD's - it looks like it could give you a heart attack just by looking at it.

On the other hand, it's sooo good. So decadent. Even if you got a heartattack from having this stuff, you'll die with a smile on your face. They serve it to you in simple steel glass with a spoon in it. It can't be more than a 100ml of liquid in there. You dig into the malai and lick the spoon clean. Sometimes by the time you finish the malai, there's hardly any lassi left. That's how much the ratio of malai to lassi is.

If you want to be jealous of one item of food I'm eating here, this has to be it.

Veggie rule in India!!!

Well, I always knew that we get veggie food in abundance in India. But even though I read about the veggie labeling in India, it was nice to walk into a grocery store and not have to wonder if a certain product had meat/meat products in it. Ironically, my go-to restaurant for lunch is a place that serves meat along with the veggie food and cooks them all in the same vessels, hence negating the advantages of eating in India. I suppose my justification for going there is that I go there to eat the eggs which provide a little protein boost.

The toughest sports quiz ever!

On the Tamil DD network, I see this dial-in sports quiz program once
in a while. It's gotta be the toughest sports ever made. The questions
on the show are all over the board, cover cricket, soccer, Olympics,
racing etc. When I say soccer I mean leagues from various countries,
players etc. Maybe it's because I was never into soccer but I wonder
how many Indian are aware of what the guy is asking.

This is a typical quiz -
http://sportsquizzard.blogspot.com/2008/02/dd-podhigai-bsnl-sports-quiz-16022008.html

It's just amazing that this guy is so on top of his game (no pun
intended). And embarrassing that sports is one thing I think I'm good
at, but I realize that it's restricted to American sports.

The anchor has a very funny style. He borders on arrogance but really
is just impatient. He takes calls from the viewers and when they're
wrong, he waves them off with a wave of his hand. He acknowledges the
hard questions and is genuinely amazed when someone answers them. All
with a squint and a smile. I mean, you never see his eyes! Good show.
I'll watch more of it, if only to improve my knowledge of world
sports.

More hippie talk

The White girl who was sitting with the desi guy ended up already
having a boyfriend. And the desi seemed to be hitting on her inspite
of that. She was Italian actually. He kept asking her to teach him
Italian.

A desi family sat down next to them. Their little girl got a cake and
her mom explained to all of us that she loves cutting the cake and
have people sing "Happy Birthday" to her everytime she cuts a cake. So
we all sang and clapped!

A skinny guy in a hat walked over to me and inquired about my laptop.
He introduced himself as, "I'm *****, I'm catholic. I'm from the
Philippines, the only catholic country in Asia." And then went on to
rant about Muslims (more Muslim bashing!) and how they want to rule
all, and they can, because they have oil! He asked if I worked in Pune
and then when I said I did, he recommended I go to Australia or
Europe. "Not US though, because you'll have to give Barack some time
to set the country right."

So this is where the weirdos are hiding - Austin in Pune

I'm sitting at this place called "German Bakery" in Pune right now.
I'm logged wdith my laptop and my USB card. I just uploaded this
picture from my phone using the bluetooth connection on my laptop. I'm
feeling really geeky right now.

I'm also feeling terribly nostalgic for Austin. This place is full of
hippies. I don't see any ashtrays or hookahs otherwise I'd assume
they're all stoned from their body language. About half of them were
non-desi (the population turned more brown in the next hour as I
stayed here). We had White, Asian folks mingling with browns. (There's
a Buddhist store right next door.) The bakery itself sells a variety
of food and drinks. There are pastries of course, omelets, salads.
Fruit juices, a bunch of exotic coffees. I just had a couple of White
chicks walk in looking very Austiny. One of them sat at the table next
to me and kissed the brown guy with the long hair on both his cheeks.
Very chaste, so definitely NOT his girfriend. And started talking some
philosophy immediately, I kept hearing the word "love" like, "This is
what love is, you love everyone. Universal love". There was a White
guy who was talking in perfect Hindi. I could go on, but you get the
idea.

And to think, I found this place by accident. It's Friday evening and
I decided I was going to find a Coffee Day and park myself there till
I felt hungry and then went in search of the closest Subway. Instead I
walked into this place by accident.

I'm so thrilled right now.

"Terminal" theme on Gmail

I'm sure you've noticed Gmail has added new themes to their site.
Check out the "Terminal" theme they've got. My eyes almost popped out
of their sockets when I tried it. It's a throwback to the dumb
terminal days and it brought back memories of sitting in the Aerospace
department computer room in IIT (around 1997) and checking my email on
those things. The good old days of Pine and Lynx. Super!!!

Tar heels - the IIT flashback

After dinner yesterday I saw a bunch of road laying equipment on the
road near my apt. I was super thrilled that they were improving the
roads here. As I was driving by the tar mixer I felt a sudden burst of
small pain on my ankle and I had to veer off the road. Turns out the
tar was being sprayed on the road and a stray spray went in my
direction. My left leg took the most of it. My right leg got a little
on the heel. Tar on the heels.

At first I was mostly annoyed that Sasha got sprayed on and that I
would have to scrub my skin to get the tar off. But when I went home
and started the scrubbing I realized that the skin was coming off
under the tar. Not much but enough that a few minutes later it HURT
LIKE HELL. It was only a small strip, about a few mm wide and about 10
such drops, but it hurt.

The last time I got burnt that bad was in IIT when a careless
classmate in the smithy workshop took a piece of metal out of the
flame and grazed my skin with it. And that just reinforced this whole
feeling I've been having about the Pune stay being an IIT flashback.
Almost everything I'm doing here feels like I've done it back when I
went to IIT first. Bizarre.

The first couple of the Telugu industry

Last time I was in Hyderabad, I saw a poster for the movie "Kotha
Bangaru Lokam" that was just a picture of Jayasudha and Prakash Raj
sitting next to each other. Made me wonder when these two had become
the first couple of the Telugu industry. I am not counting but this is
alteast their third venture as the parents of the protagonist, the
other movies being Amma Nanna Oka Tamil Ammayi and Bommarillu. I'm not
complaining as such, just wondering when this transition happened.

The mystery of the missing guest

We were expecting a very important guest from the US at work today.
There had been plans in place for ages now, presentations were
readied, labs were shined up. And out of the blue, about 30 mins
before we were to meet him, we get an email informing us that the
entire program has been scrapped. This was a big blow since apart from
impressing him, we actually needed to impress on him some of the needs
of our team here.

Soon I heard from someone in the office what had happened. The guy
arrived at the Mumbai airport and waited for two hours. No one was
there to receive him and he got pissed off and went back to NJ. I was
shocked that someone would behave in such an immature fashion. But
soon after that we heard the real reason. Apparently there was some
problem with his visa and he couldn't be let into India. He'll be
returning next week with all the proper documents.

The thing with the first story I heard made me wonder how these rumors
get started. I know the person in the story chain about two steps
above me and for that person to have either made up the story or
passed on an unsubstantiated rumor is just stupid. But I guess it
takes all types.

On the other hand, I felt good on hearing that someone got sent back
from India for improper documentation. I've heard plenty of stories
like this about people going to the US and being stranded for lack of
documentation and now we get to impose our will on other nationals.
Very cool.

A day long seminar: Phrases which annoy me

Today has a sort of holiday feel to it. Not because I wasn't working, nothing new about that. Today I took the day off to attend a seminar on an important software that we use. It was basically a sales pitch and so it was free, even had a free lunch. The people did a good job of presenting the new package.

The best line of the day was probably right at the beginning. The keynote speaker began his address with these words - "I thank you all coming here so early in the morning." It was 10am when he said that!!! It was kinda fun to see how fast you could guess what part of India each speaker was from based on their accents. We could easily spot the Tamilian and the "Hindi speaker".

Other than that, these guys kept saying things that I hadn't realized till then how stupid they sound. One such phrase is "... and without much further ado ..." before introducing EVERY speaker. Now I can barely accept "... without taking up much more time ..." because it's a self-deprecatory way of giving respect to the speaker. But the "ado" line has become the staple form of introducing people and the lack of originality bugs me more than anything else. And I wonder if these people even know what "ado" means. Another small thing the speakers kept saying as they began talking was "Am I audible?" or "I hope I am audible." Why not just say "Can you hear me?"

Atleast they had a free lunch, which even though it began at 2pm was worth it. Let me just mention the desserts - Jalebi, Butterscotch icecream, rabri and a kheer of some sort. Did I go for second servings of the dessert, you ask? What do you think?

Pictures of the hike

The triangle. Sasha, the temple at the base of the hill and two guys who I was pretty sure would try to steal Sasha but ended up being just some more nice Punekars.


The beautiful hills

Me!

The dancing pair.

More dancing.

More dancing.

These were this oddly patterned rocks all over the hills. Crystalline formations. I wish I had a geologist or a chemist with me.

Another odd rock formation.

More cool rock stuff

Funny story behind this picture. I was trying to climb down the hill and was caught in an awkward position where I couldn't find any way down. I couldn't move my legs and was scouting a path when I saw this beautiful sight I just had to shoot. But I was afraid of moving and causing a minor landslide. So without moving out of my crab pose, I unslung my camera, shot the picture, all with one hand.

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My first hike in Pune: The snake

Ever since I saw those beautiful hills on my flight into Pune I've been wanting to hike on those hills. Sunday I finally managed it. I was woken up early by a bad stomachache and wondered if I'd still make it. But the good thing was that it helped me get an early start. Managed to leave by 7am.

The places is about 10 kms east of where I live; I found it by just looking at the contour map of my area on Google maps and seeing where a hilly region appears. I'm pretty proud of myself for my ingenuity in finding this place, and later, my ability to find the place from memory. Just took off on Sasha and drove and sure enough, the hills popped up right in front of me. The drive was beautiful, the city just waking up, the roads slightly misty, the roadside dhabas just opening up for business.

I managed to get close to the hill on Sasha and started climbing. I had my sweatshirt on since it was chilly. It was a nice climb and I enjoyed the view (photos coming up). I reached the first peak and was walking along the path when I saw a giant snake cross my path, about 5 meters ahead. I froze! This was the first time a snake was so close to me in terms of accesibility. I saw a few in parks in the US and in IIT in India but there wasn't a real chance of the snake coming close to me. This time I was utterly vulnerable. After about 3 mins of just standing there, I decided that if the snake was going to come back, I'll just fall back on my reliable back up - scream like a girl and run. But for now, I just kept going.

I'm glad I did since it was a beautiful hike. The hill was very interesting, had some interesting rock formations and some green formations on rocks that looked like copper oxide. (If anyone buys that hill after reading my blog, I want a share of the profits.) I got to watch a ballet between two birds which seemed to be dancing with each other.

Getting off the hill was a little trickier though. I fell about three times, which is three times more than what happened in my years of hiking. The pebbles were loose and the ground was very slippery. Finally I just decided to show the hill a lot of respect and took my time getting down by scrambling down on all fours. That took care of the falling.

An inch deep

Saturday evening I took my laptop and went out in search of a good wireless signal. I couldn't find it, but I did find a roadside DVD seller and managed to kill some time. I got home around 10pm, opened my door and stepped into an inch of water!

I knew I had left the water tap open so I could fill the water tank in my apt, but in the past any overflow just stayed in the bathroom. So my first thought was that my neighbors had decided to dump a lot of water in my apt to punish me for leaving the water on. Later I realized that the bucket I'd left in the bathroom to collect the overflow had ended up blocking the drain and caused the water to leak into the apartment. As I surveyed the damage I realized I had a fully flooded bedroom with more than an inch of water, a kitchen that had mainly served as a passage for the water and a living room that had one half of it covered in an inch of water.

My initial thought was that I would have to take a cloth and soak up the water and empty it into a bucket till I soaked up all the water but I realized that my second mop, which is a squeegee, could be used to push the water. I sent all the water from my living room either into the balcony or into the stairs (and ended up cleaning them too!). The water from the bedroom and the kitchen went into the bathroom. It took me about an hour to clear all the water and the fans dried out the moisture. The one downside of this was that as the excess water evaporated, the room temperature dropped a little overnight and ended up making the room go from cold to really cold.

When I saw the flood, I was almost in tears as I feared the worst for my clothes and electronics but as silver linings go, I couldn't have asked for a better day for this to happen to me. I had just mopped the floor in the morning and has removed all critical items from the floor. So no extension cords or wires on the floor. In fact, since I was trying out a new mop (incidentally my third mop since the first two didn't work to my satisfaction) I had added a lot of detergent to the water and as a result my floor had been sticky. I was wondering if I would have to do a second round of mopping but with this water overflow, the excess soap got washed off. Of course, the fact that I live in a fully tiled apartment, on the lowest floor meant that I didn't need to worry about water damage. It really could have been much worse.

A small conversation

DB came by my desk and chat and her phone rang. It was her daughter and I could only hear DB's side of the conversation -

"Hi Chinnu, how are you?"
"Have you finished your homework?"
"Chinnu I don't understand, what does it mean?"
"No ma, what does वाट लग गई mean?"

I just about fell down laughing.

In case you don't know, "vaat lag gayi" means something like "I got screwed" or "I am in trouble". Except it sounds much funnier in this mumbayi slang fashion. And especially when I pictured little AB talking to her Telugu-speaking mom in slang, it was just too much.

More roads and electricity

The road from my apt to work is improving at a phenomenal rate. When I moved in, about 30% of the way was unpaved road and pretty much after crossing a certain point, it was hell to drive back to my apt. Now the roads are being worked on so fast, I can barely remember what it looked like just a few days ago. Now I think about 95% of my route is paved, the only patches being the connection from my neighborhood to the highway and the path outside work. Even the tiny roads that lead to my apt that were peppered with potholes are miraculously flat now. My estimate for the time it'll take for a super clean road from my apt to work to be ready will be way off, in the good way.

Power cuts are back. They had reached a peak before Diwali, the explanation being that they need to do this in order to ensure the Diwali days were free of power cuts. And they kept their word. The two weeks of Diwali (!) were heaven - hot water to shower in the mornings, news on TV etc. Now the power cuts are back. My neighbourhood has it back, 6am to 9am in the mornings, which means it's back the IIT system where we used to skip showers in the mornings (because it was too cold and we didn't have time to heat the water) and have them in the evenings. However I'm still thankful for my current system of laptop and data card for internet. There's the occasional frustrating day where the network speed is just horrible, but by and large it's nice to be able to browse the internet even when no one around me has power. So I can still do my morning ritual of checking my email and the news in the morning before I go to work.

The power cuts apparently last from 6am to 9am and noon to 4pm. The latter cut doesn't affect me much since I'm at work, but today I had to come home at 3pm all the way from work and I seriously considered just staying home and watching the rest of the England-India cricket match but there was no power! I just took what I needed and hauled butt to work.

Delayed Solace for America!

I got my vehicle back from the shop and after pondering the decision for a while, I decided to go watch Quantum of Solace. That's right America, read this and weep - it was released here a whole week before it'll come out in the US. No prominent sites have even reviewed the movie. And you get to read all about it here. Just kidding. No spoilers.

A weird faux pas

While I was with my dad this past weekend, we were watching TV and they were doing a program on a particular holy man. I commented out loud that I didn't care very much for this particular person. For a while no one said anything and I didn't even realize something was wrong. A good five seconds later I hear my dad ask me, "Are you talking about _____?" And I said, "Yes.". He replied, "He is my guruji. Why don't you like him?"

I was totally shocked. This almost never happens in our home since we are all mostly aware of each others' sore spots, and even more so because have so few of them. Almost everyone is fair game to make fun of, including my dad's favorite actor, and all our relatives regardless of which side they come from. Apparently at some point my dad had decided to follow this particular holy man and even though it wasn't hardcore to the point where he got angry it made me suddenly uncomfortable. I managed to do an awkward change of topic. Of course now I can't stop laughing at myself when I think back to that evening.

Cheeni Kum

Preethi had mentioned this movie to me as a good movie to watch and even without watching I predicted it would be lousy and hence not worthy of my attention. It wasn't lousy, I'll give it that.
The movie gripped me with its narrative. It was well paced at first. Didn't fall into any of the cliches I was expecting. The dialogue was crisp for the most part, economical is another word I'd use for the dialogue. Tabu was bewitching. She's a very beautiful woman and it bothers me when she does these overly artsy roles. I suppose it's better than the running around trees that she used to do earlier in her career, but still, this was a perfect role for her.
Sadly the movie couldn't avoid the biggest trap, the third act. Even as I was watching the beginning of the movie, I felt that if this movie managed to navigate the tricky third act, it would be an amazingly entertaining movie. But it didn't and it isn't. The Paresh Rawal character seems woefully underdeveloped in relation to the others and the whole part about him starving himself was silly. It stretched out the movie and didn't add anything to it other than lip service to tackling the age difference issue.
Another aspect I had a problem with is calling the kid "Sexy". That's not just an adjective they use to describe her, it's basically her nickname in the movie. Now the former would have been creepy but the latter is just ridiculous. Especially when there are heavy dialogues that talk about her. It's laughable to think that someone can talk your emotions and feelings about a kid called Sexy with a straight face. Yeah, I get it. Everyone is so cool that they can joke about a relationship between a 64-year-old man and a 8-year-old girl. So cool that he calls her Sexy, and she pretends to be jealous about his girlfriend and he confides in her. But come on, isn't that exactly why we laughed at Joey Tribbiani when he confides in a Dakota Fanning character and then her bear? Enough with the overly mature kids already. And enough with the faux flirting between them and the adults. It's been done to death and I really hope no one does that in real life and thinks it's cute. Although, I will admit, the scrawny, little, child actress who acted in the movie did a good job and is really cute.
Overall it was a movie worth watching. Just don't tell anyone I said so.

The couple on the bus

Before I write about Cheeni Kum, a quick word about the couple that was on the sleeper bus. Like I described, the bus had a layout like that of an Indian train. So there ended up being four people sleeping in a small enclosed area. So if there were to be a couple in there, like we did, it's hard to miss any parts of the conversation that take place. It's not so much what they were talking about that was interesting as the whole manner of the conversation. This seemed to be a young couple, neither of them seemed over 30, and I'd bet that guy wasn't older than 27 and the girl over 25. With such a young couple, it was very incongruous to hear her side of the conversation peppered with మీరు and ఏమండీ - basically referring to her husband in the respectful plural form.
I figured that most marriages are love marriages these days and, even otherwise, that people held liberal views like the partners in a marriage are equal. So it was refreshing to see this rather old-fashioned couple and for that matter this shy Telugu girl who asked her husband to do everything for her, like grab her a snack. Their berths were both on the same side of the cabin, one upper and one lower, and they asked me to switch berths with them so they they could both sleep on the same level (and presumably talk). I refused since I liked my lower berth. The fourth guy in the cabin gladly agreed and the couple disappeared into the upper half of the cabin for the rest of the night.

Completing the trifecta - India wins!

The trifecta is my personal one. UT beat Baylor on Sat. Colts beat the Steelers on Sun. And now on Monday, India beat Australia in the fourth test match, winning the series 2-0 and hence reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. A good sports weekend.

Beating Australia is always nice. Getting back the trophy was even better. After all the acrimony of last season, it was nice to get a relatively less controversial win. Gambhir's suspension, trading accusations of playing too defensively were about as bad as it got. Kumble and Ganguly leave the team after great careers. I'll miss Ganguly more, probably because he's such a colorful figure. As for Kumble, I'll always remember that match saving knock in Bangalore almost a decade ago when he partnered up with Srinath and won the game for India. Good players both of them. But I'm eager to see the new faces and see how they perform. I would have liked Ganguly for the England series that's coming up but I guess it'll be a farewell series for Dravid, if he gets picked up in the first place.

Dhoni continues his magical touch by winning both the test matches he's captained. He's the Barack Obama of Indian cricket now. Not enough experience but firing up everyone's imagination. And now he's at the helm of a young and hungry team. Fascinating days ahead.

The sleeper bus

There's a new beast on the road, it's the sleeper bus. I tried it out for my journey back from Hyderabad and it was fantastic.
But first, let me bring up the APSRTC bus. Now I don't just want to pile on the State-run bus just because the fashionable thing to do is beat up on all things government run. On my trip to Hyderabad, it was the second time I got on an APSRTC bus, and unless I'm strapped for cash, it would be the last. The bus picks you up a bit far away from the ticketing office. The last time, the bus company provided transport by means of an auto. This time the guy just pointed in the direction. I was pissed, but also I was concerned since I was pretty sick and I knew I couldn't walk all that way. I asked him to provide an auto and he said, "The auto will charge Rs. 10, just pay him." That did it mostly. And the bus journey itself was quite uncomfortable with all the rattling, clearly a sign of the bus being old. The walls of the bus were creaking too, which caused me to have nightmares where the top of the bus collapsed and as I lay there dying, being a structural engineer, I was explaining the mechanics of the bus failure with my last breaths. The final nail in the coffin was the movie they showed on the bus - Raja Hindustani. You're finished APSRTC, bye bye.
The journey back was much better. Last time I had a burst tire and got to work at 2pm. This time I made it with time to spare. The bus is laid out like a train compartment with two levels of berths. You can't really sit in them, only sleep. But if your journey is an overnight one, like mine was, this is perfect. You get a pillow and a blanket, and a bedsheet on the berth. You get your own TV screen like on an airplane and as far as I could tell, they were playing movies for a long time, on two different channels! I watched "Cheeni Kum" (more on that later). With your personal headset, you don't get a lot of interference from others. Of course, the rest was similar - they stopped for dinner, they gave out a water bottle to each person. After the dinner stop (I didn't eat) I got under my blanket and passed out till Pune!
The ticket price is a little high, but if you're an infrequent traveller and want to travel comfortably, this is the way to go. Much cheaper than a flight and much more clearn and hygenic than a train. Aah, I'm falling asleep just thinking of the bus again!!

Dad's magic

While in the hospital with dad, we were watching TV and the ad for Five Star Fruit and Nut comes on. I've always loved Five Star and I had been planning to try out this new avatar of the candy bar for a while. So when I saw this ad I announced, "That looks cool, I want to try this."
Dad responded in his usual style of showing off, "I can have this bar brought over to our place."
I said, "That's OK dad, I can just pick it up on our way back home."
"No", he insisted, "I won't call anyone, it'll just come to our house. Magic!"

Now I was really intrigued. Dad always used to do this when we were younger, where he'd promise the sky, and usually delivered. But what was always wonderful was when he did something magical. As an adult, I can reason out how he managed those, but the kid in me will always be tickled by these things.

Eventually he just gave in and said that he'd already purchased the bars knowing I might want to try them out when I visited. And after we went home, the first thing he did after we woke up the next day was go to the fridge and bring me the candy bar.

The bar itself wasn't great - Five Star is still a superb item and I love fruits and nuts, but the two just don't go together. But it was nice to see that dad still had his magical touch with him.

Pune shocks me again

The lemon juice near my place. Every evening as I get home I try to get either coconut water or a glass of lemon juice. The juice vendors - lemon, sugarcane etc - try to up their profit margin by adding ice to the juice one way or another. Either crushed ice to fill up the glass, or ice being left to melt in the juice receptacle which dilutes the juice. This is an acceptable level of theft which I don't normally make a big deal about. But last night the juice tasted really watery. I got pissed off and start yelling at the vendor. Even before I could finish my rant, the guy simply says, "Shall I make a fresh glass for you?" That I was not expecting. I felt bad immediately and tried to wave him off but he just took the glass out of my hand and poured the juice out and squeezed me a fresh glass. Like I mentioned before, this is hardly the first time a vendor behaved in an honest manner when he could easily have been a bastard about the whole thing. I hate to say this, but I don't think the situation would have been that smooth in Hyderabad. Pune, my biggest compliment to you yet, your citizens are better humans than Hyderabadis.

I'll even go one step further. I keep hearing comments on how Pune autos are atrocious and tend to fleece you. Well, I would take the worst auto driver in Pune and rather pay him to run his auto over me than pay a Chennai auto driver to transport me. I think of some terrorists whose lives I'd save before I saved the life of a Chennai auto driver. So, yes, no matter how bad people might think auto drivers in Pune are, they're all saints compared to their counterparts in Chennai.

The lifestyle catches up, I think

I knew there would be a breaking point when all the junk eating would hit me. And I think that's what happened today. Yesterday during the evening I ate some spicy roasted and seasoned peanuts from a roadside vendor. Didn't seem too bad while I was eating them. Dinner was preceded by some roadside lemon juice and I went to bed feeling fine. Got particularly hungry in the morning and since I didn't have any bananas in the apt (my usual breakfast) I decided to stop by a small restaurant and get a masala dosa.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep because I was too excited about the election. Maybe it was the dosa or the peanuts. Right around 10am I started feeling sick. Stomach ache, aching of the joints and an overwhelming need to just lie down for about 10 hours! I had to skip lunch and find a low traffic corner of the office to sleep. I seriously considered going into an unoccupied office and just sleeping under the table, a la George Costanza. But in the end I just pretended to be reading a journal and nodding off, which seems to be an acceptable offense at work. After a couple of hours of this "accidentally falling asleep" I recovered enough to walk around the office.

I did feel bad but honestly, I would have just loved to have gone home after taking a half day off but I can't do that because of some crap at work. And also, I am travelling to Hyd tonight and don't want to be sick during the journey.

Lesson learned, I suppose. Cut down on the junk food. On the bright side I found out where I can get protein powder here and will be getting on that soon.

Jhumpa Lahiri at the coffee shop

This weekend when I went to the coffee shop with my friend, I took a copy of "Unaccustomed Earth" with me. It was a pirated copy I'd picked up on the side of the road. I had decided that I was going to do some shopping for some paperbacks and DVDs to keep me entertained during the weekends and there are a lot of places to do this type of shopping. I found the entire Rocky anthology on a DVD and a bunch of Telugu movies as well. I was going to buy "White Tiger" too but I have decided I'm going to hate on it till someone tells me otherwise. I did buy Lahiri's book though since I've been meaning to buy it for some time now.

The book was supposed to be an excuse to sit there while I did some people watching. But as I started reading it, I was completely swept up by the writing. She's really got a way with words. I couldn't take my eyes off the book for an hour and was basically in a trance. Great book, highly recommended.

The shortcut that wasn't: Evidence of a lack of civilization

Well that was a nice honeymoon while it lasted!

You know those days on a college campus during the summer, or better yet, between semesters when not everyone's on campus? How incredible it feels for those few days? You get parking quite easily. No lines at the food court. No flooding of the streets on the hour. Well, we got to experience that this past week on a grander scale. A bunch of Punekars had gone home for Diwali (which probably means they weren't Punekars to being with) and that brought a bunch of unexpected (for me) benefits. The parking lot at work was less than half full, the restaurants around work had no waiting and the roads to work were empty. Sadly I'd gotten really used to the last part and took it for granted. So when I saw the traffic backed up in front of my office in the evening, it was a rude shock.

I had my shortcut that avoided the big roads, so I didn't mind at first. My shortcut avoids the main roads and is a little longer but faster. But right as I got to the last big traffic light in the downtown-type area, I realized there was a power cut there. And that meant no power for the traffic lights either. In the US when the traffic lights go out, people behave like at a four-way stop sign. But here it was quickly deteriorated into a right of the might. An auto had got stuck in the intersection and everyone has locked themselves into a right pattern all around it. And it was tight - I could have gotten off my two-wheeler without its kickstand and it wouldn't have fallen to the ground. People were just going crazy! Honking, shouting. No one would step back to allow the other person to leave. Everyone wanted to get theirs first. It was a glimpse of what was hinted at in Nightfall.

After 15 minutes of waiting I decided to get creative and got on the wrong side of the road. Big mistake. Normally this is standard practice and the oncoming traffic accepts and forgives your transgression. But here, since the traffic was tight everywhere, the small shoulder on the side of the road has disappeared. I had to wait while people ahead of me, facing me, ultimately got frustrated and gave way. And then I'd move on the next guy who wouldn't budge and stare him down. This went on for a long time. I turned off my engine and kept pushing Sasha through the traffic. I just couldn't switch over to the correct side of the road because of the divider in the middle. A bunch of about 14 scooters has decided to follow by example and were trailing me. Some picked up their motorcycles on to the sidewalk and started driving on that. I eventually got stuck between a car and the sidewalk and after realizing I could easily start denting his car, the driver moved out. Finally after another 20 minutes of pushing, I found a gap in the divider and made it through.

Lesson learned. It's just not worth it being stuck in traffic like that.

I don't know how to feel right now

Guys,
There's a Simpsons episode where Lisa (as Joan of Arc) joins the French army which had been using humans in their catapults on the English walls. She announces herself and tells them that she'll modernize the army with ideas like using bigger, stronger people in the catapults. Or stones. As everyone celebrates this idea, the guy who'd been flung at the English walls till then says to himself (in a gay French accent no less) "I don't know how to feel right now." Yep, that's me.

I wake up and see notes from everyone telling me about the Iverson trade to the Pistons, asking me how I feel. "It must have been terrible Jack, must have been terrible. Well it bloody is now!" This is horrible. What next, watching Manning play on the Patriots? Colt McCoy on the Sooners? M.S. Dhoni and Sehwag go to play for Team Australia? I'm glad I'm not near a TV where I will be forced to watch AI play in the hellhole they call a Palace, among hooligans they call fans, wearing those ugly White and Red rags they call a uniform. For what it's worth, I have a lot of respect and admiration for the Pistons as a team and as individuals. But yeah, that is not enough to make watching those games any easier. And to think I was considering getting a basketball package over here!

Most of you might not know this but right before AI's MVP season, he almost got traded to the Pistons. The trade fell through at the last minute. That ended up firing up AI and he took his team to the Finals. All this was before I started following basketball. What I'm wondering is if that trade had happened, and AI had been playing for Detriot as I started watching the NBA, how different might everything have been. Most significantly, would AI have won a ring or two by now?

This has been a weird week of mornings so far. On Sunday morning (my time) the Longhorns lost in a heartbreaking fashion to a gimmicky coach. On Monday morning the Colts won over the Patriots, always sweet. On Tuesday morning my favorite basketball player of all time gets traded to the team I've hated with a passion more than any other team. Wednesday morning I'll be watching the election coverage, I wonder what that means.

Kalyan

The fruits - yummm

One thing I knew before coming here was that I'd be eating a lot more fruit and drink a lot more fruit juice. Atleast, I hoped that would be the way. I'm happy to say it's come true.

Coconut water might not be classified as fruit juice but it's the best. There's a stand on my way home and I try to have atleast 3 every week. And right next to it is an lemon juice stand. They add a certain spice after getting the juice out that gives it a different kind of kick. It's delicious. I even had sugarcane juice once but it's relatively rare. I have to go into the city to find that.

As for the fruits, there's the seetaphal that I'm still waiting for to hit its peak - cheap but great tasting ones. There's a stand near work where the guy sells pineapple slices for a rupee each. Sliced not too thin or thick, and seasoned with a mixture of salt and some sort of chaat masala, these taste great. Then there's the guava, again, cut into quaters and seasoned. I buy three bananas every few days and have one every morning for breakfast. Why three? Because they sell them by the dozen (Rs. 20) and if I buy any more than three they'll go bad by the time I finish them. When I pass by fruit stalls these days, I'm beginning to notice the papayas. They look so red and ripe! I might start buying those too. Except, since I don't have a fridge, I might have to eat them in one sitting. No complaints from me.

Best of all? Mango season hasn't started yet. Am I going to give myself a stomachache by jumping on the Mango bandwagon before it even hits its peak? YESSSSS!

Things that ticked me off all Sunday long

It started with the UT football game. UT was down in the fourth quarter but after a terrific drive, took the lead. Tech started driving and I knew they needed just a field goal to take the lead. I remembered that their kicker was basically a walk-on. I was praying for the sweet story of the pressure finally getting to him and UT winning. But they threw for the TD and boom went the dynamite. That set the tone.

India was playing for the draw in the cricket match. It was kinda sad to see the team that accused Australia of playing defensively, go into a shell. And then ramp up the tension by losing a few wickets. Eventually they managed the draw but it wasn't a good ending. Kumble retired and count me among those that aren't that sad about it. Perhaps the way he went out is sad - the injury making the choice for him, in a series where he was highly ineffective for a long time. Another bummer.

And then I got into a flame war with this guy on Wikipedia. He insisted on removing an addition that I made which pointed out that Biwi No. 1 is a remake of Sati Leelavathi. Got me all riled up about idiots with blinders, perhaps based on regional pride. (Look idiot, your whole industry sucks and can't even remake a good comedy, so deal with it!) Got me so pissed off that when later that evening I was watching 7/G Brindavan Colony on TV, a movie in which I've always hated the lead character, now I was rooting for him against the North Indian boyfriend of the heroine. Urgh!

I turned on my computer to watch some movies or play some games and it hung. That scared me more than pissed me off. (Today morning it was working fine.)

When my mom called me during the night she commented on how I used to be much funnier when I was in the US but now I'm very sober. I felt bad and I told her all my problems from the day and about how even though they are trivial, they got me in a bad mood. She laughed at the silliness and I got back some of my funny cred along with some respite from the annoyances.