My manager got fired today. No, that's not a euphemism or something, he really did get fired. I am of course very satisfied with the result but I must admit, I wasn't too thrilled about the way it went down.
As I've mentioned before, I have the lowest of opinions about this guy. He is technically incompetent, has horrible interpersonal skills and is a very bad manager. He was very petty when it came to dealings with people. He was very sneaky and dishonest in trying to show himself as better than he is to his superiors, to the extent that he was actively dishonest in plagiarizing reports and presenting them as his own work. It was terrible. In the morning it came up that he had sent an inaccurate report which was full of holes. He got a public tongue lashing from the boss. And then an hour or so later he was called to the HR. When he came back he looked like he'd been crying. He shook our hands and said he was leaving. Almost everyone was in shock at that announcement.
Even I felt sorry for the guy at one point. It seemed a bit too harsh the way the HR dept handled this. It was like cutting someone and leave them to bleed to death. He was given no time to digest the news, his login was locked even as he was being dismissed and he pretty much had to just pick up his stuff and leave. That evening he came over to the apt of one of the guys for a small farewell dinner. Even there he was in complete denial about the reasons for his dismissal. He kept talking about how it was a conspiracy against him, something about being fired because the company wanted to keep a higher earning person on the payroll (that one didn't even make sense). I came very close to giving him a piece of my mind but decided not to do so at the last minute.
Almost everyone in the office was happy he left. He'd made so many enemies by his immature behavior during his stay here that it wasn't surprising. For better or for worse, the big news about his departure was drowned in the buzz of shifting of our office to a brand new office building in a very posh office complex the very next day.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Chair Soccer
We are moving to a new office building so the facilities in this office are dying. We had internet outage for almost the entire day and that stopped all work because we access the work programs over the internet. We spent parts of it running some errands but got bored soon. That's when the game of "Chair Soccer" or "Chair Football" was born. Basically we have really nice chairs at work that have excellent bearings on all the moving parts. You can sit in it and with one push can spin around for 5 rotations! Similarly if you sit in it and push yourself off, the chair rolls all the way to the end of the long conference room we work in. So we decided to pick up some random plastic item and kick it around without getting off the chairs. You move around the room by propelling the chair with your feet and you shouldn't use your hands at all. We marked the goals and kicked it off.
In about 15 minutes we were sweating a lot (inspite of the hall being air conditioned) but we kept playing for an hour atleast. And that my friends is how we pass time here when there's no boss and no internet!
In about 15 minutes we were sweating a lot (inspite of the hall being air conditioned) but we kept playing for an hour atleast. And that my friends is how we pass time here when there's no boss and no internet!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
A man date
I went on a date last night and I'm pretty sure I was the girl. I got asked out by this guy to a bar. I got picked up by him. He laughed excessively at everything I said and after he dropped me off he said he'd call me later.
Now, to be fair to everyone, I should mention that it was probably more of a man date. But the dynamics of the whole thing were very similar to a guy persistently asking out a girl. Maybe it's because I've been watching "How I Met Your Mother" but I immediately thought about the episode where the guys head out to a gay bar and after the initial thrill of being hit on, find it very annoying after they keep getting hit on.
It's my realtor, the guy who helped me find my current apt. I used to see him once a month to pay the rent and he's not a weird guy. It's just that he and I have very little in common. But a few months after I moved to this city he started calling to see if I wanted to hang out. First it was for post-dinner walks. Later he got to asking me if I wanted to visit some neighboring cities. I'm pretty sure he was just bored and wanted a dude to hang out with. (Either that or my gaydar is just totally non-existent.) I tried to ignore his calls for a while and tried to make it up to him by visiting him in his office but I couldn't keep doing that. So finally I just decided to call him and let him know that I was up for checking out the Navratri mela nearby. I figured this was a safe neutral location with lots of things to do and no place for awkward conversations.
He said he's be ready to go at 8pm. And then at 8pm he called and switched the plan to hang out at a bar. I was pissed because, not only did I not want to drink, a one-on-one at a bar was exactly the type of social situation I was trying to avoid and he had successfully outwitted me! It was quite bad. He didn't have his own vehicle and so we took an auto, except that he misjudged the frequency of the vehicles and I had to walk quite a bit before getting into one. On the way back, we had to walk all the way back home. The bar was full of smokers. And the icing on the cake was the phone call from another friend.
This friend from work called me when I was there and I told him where I was. "Oh you should have let me know, I would have joined." I wanted to let him know that this evening was quite lame because of the company I had and said (in English), "Oh you wouldn't have fun here. I'll explain later." I knew that the guy sitting in front of me spoke English but I assumed that he wouldn't be able to understand much or just wouldn't be listening in on the conversation. Boy, was I wrong! "Something wrong with this place, you don't like it? You're not having fun?" he asked me as soon as I got off the phone. Thank God for my improv skills - I quickly made up some excuse about how my other friend wasn't a drinker and that non-drinkers are lame and that they would bum the rest of us "cool drinking people" etc, and I just kept talking and changed the subject to my IIT days and then to my life in the US. I just kept talking till he bought it. Atleast I think he bought it.
When I did a post-game of this evening with my friends later, they suggested that I might have to go on another "date" with this guy to convince him that I wasn't bored. Seriously, is this how annoying it is for girls who get pursed by guys?
Now, to be fair to everyone, I should mention that it was probably more of a man date. But the dynamics of the whole thing were very similar to a guy persistently asking out a girl. Maybe it's because I've been watching "How I Met Your Mother" but I immediately thought about the episode where the guys head out to a gay bar and after the initial thrill of being hit on, find it very annoying after they keep getting hit on.
It's my realtor, the guy who helped me find my current apt. I used to see him once a month to pay the rent and he's not a weird guy. It's just that he and I have very little in common. But a few months after I moved to this city he started calling to see if I wanted to hang out. First it was for post-dinner walks. Later he got to asking me if I wanted to visit some neighboring cities. I'm pretty sure he was just bored and wanted a dude to hang out with. (Either that or my gaydar is just totally non-existent.) I tried to ignore his calls for a while and tried to make it up to him by visiting him in his office but I couldn't keep doing that. So finally I just decided to call him and let him know that I was up for checking out the Navratri mela nearby. I figured this was a safe neutral location with lots of things to do and no place for awkward conversations.
He said he's be ready to go at 8pm. And then at 8pm he called and switched the plan to hang out at a bar. I was pissed because, not only did I not want to drink, a one-on-one at a bar was exactly the type of social situation I was trying to avoid and he had successfully outwitted me! It was quite bad. He didn't have his own vehicle and so we took an auto, except that he misjudged the frequency of the vehicles and I had to walk quite a bit before getting into one. On the way back, we had to walk all the way back home. The bar was full of smokers. And the icing on the cake was the phone call from another friend.
This friend from work called me when I was there and I told him where I was. "Oh you should have let me know, I would have joined." I wanted to let him know that this evening was quite lame because of the company I had and said (in English), "Oh you wouldn't have fun here. I'll explain later." I knew that the guy sitting in front of me spoke English but I assumed that he wouldn't be able to understand much or just wouldn't be listening in on the conversation. Boy, was I wrong! "Something wrong with this place, you don't like it? You're not having fun?" he asked me as soon as I got off the phone. Thank God for my improv skills - I quickly made up some excuse about how my other friend wasn't a drinker and that non-drinkers are lame and that they would bum the rest of us "cool drinking people" etc, and I just kept talking and changed the subject to my IIT days and then to my life in the US. I just kept talking till he bought it. Atleast I think he bought it.
When I did a post-game of this evening with my friends later, they suggested that I might have to go on another "date" with this guy to convince him that I wasn't bored. Seriously, is this how annoying it is for girls who get pursed by guys?
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Mauritius: A long lost, French-speaking India
Imagine you get on a plane and see a bunch of Indians. Then you see some of them wearing saris, with bangles and bottus (bindis). You'd think it's a good bet that when they speak to each other, they'd speak in Hindi or some other Indian language. But when they start speaking, it's in French! This is what is called cognitive dissonance. And this was the feeling we had during our entire trip to Mauritius.
Mauritius has an old relationship with Indians. Back in the 1800's the British Empire took a bunch of Indians (along with Chinese) to the island to try out what they called "Indentured Labor". Basically these people were entered into labor agreements voluntarily - this was proposed as an alternative to slavery to show that there was a way to get cheap labor without coercion, and in a way which would lead to exchange of culture and harmony. It was such a huge success that the idea is still in practice all over the world. What this also meant was that the island was now full of people of Indian origin!
Historically Mauritius was ruled by the Dutch, then the French, then the English before finally getting independence. Of these, the French had arguably the most influence as the people speak mostly in French, even though the official language is English. One of the guides we met said that at the time of independence, Bhojpuri was actually the most widely spoken language on the island. I can believe that.
By and large the people were very friendly, as you would expect in an island nation. The biggest crop is sugarcane, but one of the biggest contributors to the economy is tourism. Like I said, they are all Indian-looking people but they don't identify with India. Things you would hear from recent immigrants to the US like "Oh you're from India, so am I." would never be heard there. Most people look at India as a place that their ancestors had something to do with, but for the most part they don't know anything about it. Their cuisine is mostly continental. The Indian food that they do cook is mostly stripped of all spices and even salt. In the hotel we stayed in, when we got served Indian food, we started adding salt without even tasting it because we knew they wouldn't add salt.
The people there speak of religion and language interchangeably. Apparently when their ancestors first came here, they stayed with people of their own community - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu etc. So later when they started growing wealthier and building temples, they built their own temples. So when you ask someone there what his religion is, he'll reply, "I'm Telugu"! It took a little time to understand what they meant.
The entire island itself is quite small - 790 sq miles. The road signs read "North" and "South"! And being in the Southern Hemisphere, they have their winter when we have summer. So I can see why people from India prefer to visit there in the summer. More on our experiences next.
Mauritius has an old relationship with Indians. Back in the 1800's the British Empire took a bunch of Indians (along with Chinese) to the island to try out what they called "Indentured Labor". Basically these people were entered into labor agreements voluntarily - this was proposed as an alternative to slavery to show that there was a way to get cheap labor without coercion, and in a way which would lead to exchange of culture and harmony. It was such a huge success that the idea is still in practice all over the world. What this also meant was that the island was now full of people of Indian origin!
Historically Mauritius was ruled by the Dutch, then the French, then the English before finally getting independence. Of these, the French had arguably the most influence as the people speak mostly in French, even though the official language is English. One of the guides we met said that at the time of independence, Bhojpuri was actually the most widely spoken language on the island. I can believe that.
By and large the people were very friendly, as you would expect in an island nation. The biggest crop is sugarcane, but one of the biggest contributors to the economy is tourism. Like I said, they are all Indian-looking people but they don't identify with India. Things you would hear from recent immigrants to the US like "Oh you're from India, so am I." would never be heard there. Most people look at India as a place that their ancestors had something to do with, but for the most part they don't know anything about it. Their cuisine is mostly continental. The Indian food that they do cook is mostly stripped of all spices and even salt. In the hotel we stayed in, when we got served Indian food, we started adding salt without even tasting it because we knew they wouldn't add salt.
The people there speak of religion and language interchangeably. Apparently when their ancestors first came here, they stayed with people of their own community - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu etc. So later when they started growing wealthier and building temples, they built their own temples. So when you ask someone there what his religion is, he'll reply, "I'm Telugu"! It took a little time to understand what they meant.
The entire island itself is quite small - 790 sq miles. The road signs read "North" and "South"! And being in the Southern Hemisphere, they have their winter when we have summer. So I can see why people from India prefer to visit there in the summer. More on our experiences next.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Mom will stay at home
This post is a bit out of place for this blog but not too much so.
A few months ago, when I visited Hyderabad to see my parents, I had a big discussion with my father. The topic was - how much freedom should he give mom in terms of traveling etc. Dad was of the opinion that since mom has been relatively sheltered all her life, he wouldn't feel comfortable letting her go and do stuff by herself. I was trying to make the case that mom would never learn to do things herself if she remained sheltered. So I gave him a hypothetical. I told him that should mom come and stay with me in the US at some point in the future, I would let her roam the neighborhood as much as she wanted at the risk of her getting lost. Dad was aghast that I would do that.
That was a few months ago. Now I read this story.
http://nymag.com/news/features/59009/
Now, I'm not so sure anymore. Now, mom's English is much better than this Nepali woman's and she's been in the US for a month or so and she has an idea of the sizes of the cities involved etc. But even so, if I let her go walking, I think I'd give her a traceable iPhone or something.
A few months ago, when I visited Hyderabad to see my parents, I had a big discussion with my father. The topic was - how much freedom should he give mom in terms of traveling etc. Dad was of the opinion that since mom has been relatively sheltered all her life, he wouldn't feel comfortable letting her go and do stuff by herself. I was trying to make the case that mom would never learn to do things herself if she remained sheltered. So I gave him a hypothetical. I told him that should mom come and stay with me in the US at some point in the future, I would let her roam the neighborhood as much as she wanted at the risk of her getting lost. Dad was aghast that I would do that.
That was a few months ago. Now I read this story.
http://nymag.com/news/features/59009/
Now, I'm not so sure anymore. Now, mom's English is much better than this Nepali woman's and she's been in the US for a month or so and she has an idea of the sizes of the cities involved etc. But even so, if I let her go walking, I think I'd give her a traceable iPhone or something.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
The Virgin Goddess residing on the mountain - Part 2 (darshan and the aftermath)
Now, to give you an idea of how good our overall timing was, consider that statistically (based on stats from the temple's website) September is the third best month to visit the temple. You don't have as many visitors then. Normally after you get your token, you can expect to spend upto 3-4 hours waiting for your group to be called and then maybe another couple of hours in the queue. We walked upto the guard even as group #197 was being shown through and showed our #198 ticket, he just let us in without comment. Now, the security in this place is really tight. Our bags were x-rayed twice and physically examined (item by item) twice during the climb, and then once more at the top of the hill. Further, for the actual darshan, you aren't allowed to take in any "artificial" items. This means no wallets, belts, watches, cooling glasses or combs. Bags, cameras, mobiles and slippers are out of question anyway. Even after stripping down to just your shirt/pant and some cash to offer the goddess, you're frisked twice in this line! They are taking absolutely no chances here.
The darshan happened very quickly. The goddess herself is deep in a cave. And she is represented as "pindis" representing the female Hindu Trinity. We got out in 15 mins. After that we visited the temple of Bairon Nath, which is a further climb of 2 kms away but we did this part on horses. And in another case of good timing, we reached there at a great part of the day, just before sunset. We got to shoot plenty of pictures (and if only I could have cleared out there area of tourists I could have shot better pictures!)
We started the climb down at 7pm. Now, we thought it wouldn't be a cake walk but atleast it wouldn't be too hard. But walking down is easier from an effort point of view, but the impact is high if you don't watch yourself. Soon we were all showing the effects of having climbed up and down a mountain. We even thought of just giving in and taking the horses but we kept going. Finally we made it to the base at midnight and climbed into bed in our hotel an hour after that.
Our feet were sore and our legs were tired as hell. We took a few painkillers, massaged our feet as much as possible with an ointment and passed out. A good night's sleep would have cured us, except the third guy, the very same one who couldn't sleep in the bus earlier, woke up really early on Sunday and decided to wake us up too. He shook us awake by telling us that it was 10am instead of 8am that it was. I could have killed him them and after the bout of sickness I suffered in the aftermath of the trip from the reduced sleep, I think I could have killed him again. But at that point I tried to be as polite as possible and explained that there was no way we could do any sightseeing seeing as we could barely walk. So we stayed in the hotel room till noon and went to Jammu. In Jammu once we got our tickets back to C'garh, we just tried to kill time. One place we visited was the "worst temple in the world". The other was the park "Bagh-e-Bahu". Each place we went to we were "oh"ing and "ouch"ing in pain. Somehow we made it till 9pm, got into our buses and passed out till we reached Chandigarh!
The darshan happened very quickly. The goddess herself is deep in a cave. And she is represented as "pindis" representing the female Hindu Trinity. We got out in 15 mins. After that we visited the temple of Bairon Nath, which is a further climb of 2 kms away but we did this part on horses. And in another case of good timing, we reached there at a great part of the day, just before sunset. We got to shoot plenty of pictures (and if only I could have cleared out there area of tourists I could have shot better pictures!)
We started the climb down at 7pm. Now, we thought it wouldn't be a cake walk but atleast it wouldn't be too hard. But walking down is easier from an effort point of view, but the impact is high if you don't watch yourself. Soon we were all showing the effects of having climbed up and down a mountain. We even thought of just giving in and taking the horses but we kept going. Finally we made it to the base at midnight and climbed into bed in our hotel an hour after that.
Our feet were sore and our legs were tired as hell. We took a few painkillers, massaged our feet as much as possible with an ointment and passed out. A good night's sleep would have cured us, except the third guy, the very same one who couldn't sleep in the bus earlier, woke up really early on Sunday and decided to wake us up too. He shook us awake by telling us that it was 10am instead of 8am that it was. I could have killed him them and after the bout of sickness I suffered in the aftermath of the trip from the reduced sleep, I think I could have killed him again. But at that point I tried to be as polite as possible and explained that there was no way we could do any sightseeing seeing as we could barely walk. So we stayed in the hotel room till noon and went to Jammu. In Jammu once we got our tickets back to C'garh, we just tried to kill time. One place we visited was the "worst temple in the world". The other was the park "Bagh-e-Bahu". Each place we went to we were "oh"ing and "ouch"ing in pain. Somehow we made it till 9pm, got into our buses and passed out till we reached Chandigarh!
The Virgin Goddess residing on the mountain - Part 1 (the climb)
One day at work I randomly asked my colleague if he would be interested in checking out the Vaishno Devi Temple in the state of J&K. He immediately said "Yes". That's how quickly the plan to make that trip happened. In fact, the legend of the temple is that you don't plan to go there at your leisure. The goddess calls you to come visit her and you're drawn to the temple. The way this trip came together certainly gives more evidence for that belief.
The temple is on top of a hill 5200 ft in elevation. The road to the top is about 12.5 kms long. There are only four ways to reach the top - walking, on a horse, being carried in a "paalki" or in a helicopter. Walking is free of course! The rest have government fixed prices. There are two schools of thought on climbing up - you either climb in the daytime or in the night. Nightime has the advantage of lower temperatures, but you climb all night long and it'll throw off your sleep schedule. The daytime trip of course means that the entire trip falls into a logical pattern during the weekend with the added plus that almost all the eateries on the way are open. We chose the day walk but we should have starter walking earlier in the day. (We reached Jammu at 5am and Katra, the base of the hill, at 6:30am. By the time we picked a hotel, got ready in it and reached the base of the mountain it was 9:30am.) The day didn't get too hot but because we were late in climbing up, we had to hurry while climbing down.
We carried light bags with us - change of clothing and jackets if necessary. The climb started off easy enough but the third guy in our group slept poorly on the bus earlier and he had to constantly sit and recharge his batteries. I was fine with the hike but I would have preferred a slightly faster pace. At the midway point we had a choice between a slightly longer path which took us to a minor temple of interest on the way, or skip it and choose the shorter path (6.5 kms vs. 5.5 kms). In our tired condition we chose the shorter path which was a brilliant choice in hindsight. All along the way we kept rehydrating ourselves as much as possible. We stopped for lunch at one of the many eateries on the way and had vada-sambar. (Why I couldn't find decent vada-sambar in Chandigarh/Punjab/Haryana but suddenly found great-tasting sambar all way in J&K I'll never understand!) We were getting more and more tired but while we took breaks almost every 0.3 kms in the beginning, we didn't stop even once in the last 2 kms. We were almost running in the end and finally we made it, 6 hours after starting the climb.
The mini-city on top was well-laid out, very linear. We got our token for the darshan (in exchange for the registration ticket that we had obtained at about 6:30am when we reached Katra) and that gave us slot #198 and #196 was going in then - not too shabby. So we went to take some quick showers and change before the darshan. In the public showers there, the cold water was very refreshing. I didn't bring an extra shirt so I wasn't too keen on showering but I did want to freshen up with the cold water. However once I got there, there was a gentleman urinating in the shower (and looking at me, daring me to say something to him). That was just too disgusting - I mean, I understand that as a nation we have the freedom to urinate everywhere written in the constitution, but this is a temple dammit! I just quickly threw some water on my face and went out. The other two had finished their showers and we were ready for the darshan.
The temple is on top of a hill 5200 ft in elevation. The road to the top is about 12.5 kms long. There are only four ways to reach the top - walking, on a horse, being carried in a "paalki" or in a helicopter. Walking is free of course! The rest have government fixed prices. There are two schools of thought on climbing up - you either climb in the daytime or in the night. Nightime has the advantage of lower temperatures, but you climb all night long and it'll throw off your sleep schedule. The daytime trip of course means that the entire trip falls into a logical pattern during the weekend with the added plus that almost all the eateries on the way are open. We chose the day walk but we should have starter walking earlier in the day. (We reached Jammu at 5am and Katra, the base of the hill, at 6:30am. By the time we picked a hotel, got ready in it and reached the base of the mountain it was 9:30am.) The day didn't get too hot but because we were late in climbing up, we had to hurry while climbing down.
We carried light bags with us - change of clothing and jackets if necessary. The climb started off easy enough but the third guy in our group slept poorly on the bus earlier and he had to constantly sit and recharge his batteries. I was fine with the hike but I would have preferred a slightly faster pace. At the midway point we had a choice between a slightly longer path which took us to a minor temple of interest on the way, or skip it and choose the shorter path (6.5 kms vs. 5.5 kms). In our tired condition we chose the shorter path which was a brilliant choice in hindsight. All along the way we kept rehydrating ourselves as much as possible. We stopped for lunch at one of the many eateries on the way and had vada-sambar. (Why I couldn't find decent vada-sambar in Chandigarh/Punjab/Haryana but suddenly found great-tasting sambar all way in J&K I'll never understand!) We were getting more and more tired but while we took breaks almost every 0.3 kms in the beginning, we didn't stop even once in the last 2 kms. We were almost running in the end and finally we made it, 6 hours after starting the climb.
The mini-city on top was well-laid out, very linear. We got our token for the darshan (in exchange for the registration ticket that we had obtained at about 6:30am when we reached Katra) and that gave us slot #198 and #196 was going in then - not too shabby. So we went to take some quick showers and change before the darshan. In the public showers there, the cold water was very refreshing. I didn't bring an extra shirt so I wasn't too keen on showering but I did want to freshen up with the cold water. However once I got there, there was a gentleman urinating in the shower (and looking at me, daring me to say something to him). That was just too disgusting - I mean, I understand that as a nation we have the freedom to urinate everywhere written in the constitution, but this is a temple dammit! I just quickly threw some water on my face and went out. The other two had finished their showers and we were ready for the darshan.
Monday, September 7, 2009
The worst temple in the world
There are probably millions of temples, big and small, in this world. I've visited maybe a couple of hundred of them. I don't really even think about a lot of them. Nothing wrong with them, they're just unremarkable. Then I visit temples like the Raghunath temple in Jammu and it just makes me want to vomit.
After our trip to Vaishno Devi mandir, we wanted to check out the city of Jammu before we left the state. Our first stop was the Raghunath Temple. This is a big temple complex, that's the largest in N. India. First the good. This is a really big temple that at the very least amused me with its vast collection of idols. This is a Rama temple, and in addition to the "Rama family" the temple complex had mini temples for Shiva, Durga, Hanuman, Brahma etc. And then they had small statues of pretty much everyone from the Hindu epics. Rishi, minor deities, gods of the directions, weapons of gods even! Valmiki, Jamadagni, Chakraji, Gadhaji, Garuda - I can keep going. In fact, the big Shiva lingam they had close to the entrance was made of glass or some transparent stone. It was very beautiful.
And then it got ugly pretty fast. The pujari in the Shiva temple called me to come closer, did an instant "archana" in my name, then used a Rs. 100 note to show me that the lingam was transparent and then used the Rs. 100 note to point at certain parts of the room and then, to complete the "gentle hints" he'd been giving me, said, "Just donate whatever amount you feel is appropriate." He was probably used to dealing with gullible innocent people or just idiots. I just put a Rs. 10 note in his plate and even that was for the archana. My friends didn't do that either.
Then we went to the main Rama temple. Here there was a small line and I saw the big pujari talk to everyone as I was walking toward him. He had the same technique and spiel, "Come here son (or daughter), there's Ramji, now donate an amount you feel is appropriate. No, donate Rs. 50 atleast. This is for charity." If had more energy I would have punched him!
As we left the Ram mandir, we were immediately surrounded by a bunch of hawkers. Atleast, they were behaving like hawkers, shouting at us asking us to walk in their direction. I didn't realize till a few seconds later that these were pujaris of the "smaller" gods. They were just short of actually grabbing our arms or even just taking the money out of our pockets. I was so disgusted I just stopped entering the mini temples and just sat in the courtyard.
I guess the good news is that Tirupati is no longer the temple in India that I like the least. It's corrupt but atleast you aren't pressured into paying any money you don't want to. And then compare this to my all time favorite Chilkur which doesn't even have a hundi! Where the pujaris expressly forbid you to pay any money to the temple. Or even the Ganesh temple next to the Sec-bad station. Where the pujaris just take all the money that's put in the harati plate and throw it into the hundi without even looking at it. Something so comforting about that.
After our trip to Vaishno Devi mandir, we wanted to check out the city of Jammu before we left the state. Our first stop was the Raghunath Temple. This is a big temple complex, that's the largest in N. India. First the good. This is a really big temple that at the very least amused me with its vast collection of idols. This is a Rama temple, and in addition to the "Rama family" the temple complex had mini temples for Shiva, Durga, Hanuman, Brahma etc. And then they had small statues of pretty much everyone from the Hindu epics. Rishi, minor deities, gods of the directions, weapons of gods even! Valmiki, Jamadagni, Chakraji, Gadhaji, Garuda - I can keep going. In fact, the big Shiva lingam they had close to the entrance was made of glass or some transparent stone. It was very beautiful.
And then it got ugly pretty fast. The pujari in the Shiva temple called me to come closer, did an instant "archana" in my name, then used a Rs. 100 note to show me that the lingam was transparent and then used the Rs. 100 note to point at certain parts of the room and then, to complete the "gentle hints" he'd been giving me, said, "Just donate whatever amount you feel is appropriate." He was probably used to dealing with gullible innocent people or just idiots. I just put a Rs. 10 note in his plate and even that was for the archana. My friends didn't do that either.
Then we went to the main Rama temple. Here there was a small line and I saw the big pujari talk to everyone as I was walking toward him. He had the same technique and spiel, "Come here son (or daughter), there's Ramji, now donate an amount you feel is appropriate. No, donate Rs. 50 atleast. This is for charity." If had more energy I would have punched him!
As we left the Ram mandir, we were immediately surrounded by a bunch of hawkers. Atleast, they were behaving like hawkers, shouting at us asking us to walk in their direction. I didn't realize till a few seconds later that these were pujaris of the "smaller" gods. They were just short of actually grabbing our arms or even just taking the money out of our pockets. I was so disgusted I just stopped entering the mini temples and just sat in the courtyard.
I guess the good news is that Tirupati is no longer the temple in India that I like the least. It's corrupt but atleast you aren't pressured into paying any money you don't want to. And then compare this to my all time favorite Chilkur which doesn't even have a hundi! Where the pujaris expressly forbid you to pay any money to the temple. Or even the Ganesh temple next to the Sec-bad station. Where the pujaris just take all the money that's put in the harati plate and throw it into the hundi without even looking at it. Something so comforting about that.
What an year it's been
Today marks the one year anniversary of my stay in India. As you can tell from the other posts, this has been a heck of a year. Here's to hoping this will be the last anniversary of this event I will be celebrating.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
"Does he have a favorite liquor?"
At lunch in my office. A colleague was talking about living with her 2-year-old daughter in her joint family. Then she started talking about weeping babies and someone mentioned gripe water, and a misheard word here and there, and I ended up joking, "Well watch out, your kid's going to be walking around with a bottle of alcohol before you know it." She replied, "Oh she does that already." "Good one," I replied.
Turned out, she wasn't kidding! She went on to tell us how her kid has been sipping the adults' drinks in their house almost from the age she could walk. And then a few days ago, the kid was sitting on her potty trainer and she was constipated. She called out to her grandfather, "Grandpa, get me the bitter juice it'll help me poop better." Apparently the adults used to try to dissuade her from drinking alcoholic drinks by telling her it was a bitter juice. But the kid got over the bitter taste and now drinks from time to time.
I was shocked on a bunch of different levels. The kid had somehow linked up alcohol with a cure for constipation, which meant that at the very least she's had enough experience with alcohol and bowel her own movements! Further, the mother was telling us about this stuff like it was a joke. Now, technically it's probably not harmful for babies to sip alcohol, I don't know. But it's disturbing to hear that all the same.
Turned out, she wasn't kidding! She went on to tell us how her kid has been sipping the adults' drinks in their house almost from the age she could walk. And then a few days ago, the kid was sitting on her potty trainer and she was constipated. She called out to her grandfather, "Grandpa, get me the bitter juice it'll help me poop better." Apparently the adults used to try to dissuade her from drinking alcoholic drinks by telling her it was a bitter juice. But the kid got over the bitter taste and now drinks from time to time.
I was shocked on a bunch of different levels. The kid had somehow linked up alcohol with a cure for constipation, which meant that at the very least she's had enough experience with alcohol and bowel her own movements! Further, the mother was telling us about this stuff like it was a joke. Now, technically it's probably not harmful for babies to sip alcohol, I don't know. But it's disturbing to hear that all the same.
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