Just chill (till the next episode)

(On a sidenote before we begin, I've been dying to use that line as the heading for a post for about six months now.)

 

After the Mumbai blasts, it's not a stretch to say that security in the entire country got ramped up. You couldn't enter a mall or a theatre or a big office without stepping through a metal detector and getting felt up (frisked) by some security guard. (By the way, I think it's extremely primitive that they resort to frisking instead of using a hand-held metal detector. As someone asked, what if the guy frisking me is gay? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having a male person frisk me?)

Now, a few months after the blasts, security has clearly dropped off. On the way to my office, they used to check the badges of the people who worked in the building, and all other visitors were forced to park outside and call a person in the office to confirm that they were expected. Two days ago when I went to the office as guest, I just had to sign in a guest book and could walk up to the office. No one to check if I was who I said I was, or if I was expected. Similarly, in lots of malls all over the city, the security checks and friskings as you enter have become much more casual.

It'll keep dropping till there is another event and then people will get hysterical all over again and ramp it up. I suppose it's just human nature.

A primer on state of Indian Politics - Part 2, a few articles.

Guys,

In my second email I'd like to show a few articles. You'll notice they're all from the same newspaper. That's because that's the only Indian newspaper I read :) But even otherwise, everyone will admit that The Hindu is one of the very few non-sensational newspapers in the country. They lean very so slightly to the socially conservative side but are fairly secular and even-handed in their analysis.

However, these articles aren't really point-of-view articles as much as they are informative. So the leaning shouldn't be an issue.

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : The great Indian election
This is a rather dry facts and figures of the election. Very informative however and should be a good read to get the bigger picture.

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : The third as an alternative
This is a very good piece on the strengths and weaknesses of the Third Front as a viable opposition to the UPA and the NDA. The biggest point to take away from here is that should the election be close, the Big Two could easily lure members from the Third Front because they were previous partners.

The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : Ambition and power play in the time of elections
This is an excellent piece on the details of the coalition politics and the dispositions of the Big Two toward these politics. It does a good job of detailing the tough situation that all these parties are facing and how their stubbornness or other attitudes might cost them a chance to form the government.

In addition there was another piece on the complexities of this election brought about by the rise of the regional and caste-based political parties. About how these parties make the voice of the smaller groups heard, more of then than not they end up being too narrow in their scope and vision, and push their agenda for their group at the expense of the nation. That was the best piece of the lot but damn it all, I can't find it.

Hope this gives you guys some good reference points. My third email will be me writing about some of the horrible electoral practices that are gaining strengths. This will be the main email since I hope to get the discussion I initially wanted to get going through that email.

Kalyan

An efficient solution?

I was wondering what to do with my vehicle after my move out of Pune. A stupid rule in this country states that you need to register your vehicle in whatever state you're driving it in. So, for my scooter that cost me Rs. 38,000 to buy, it'll cost me Rs. 8000 to register in whatever state I take it to. And that affects my options when it comes to selling the scooter. I was talking about all this with a colleague here and she was rather disappointed that I was considering selling my scooter. I explained that it would cost me too much to keep it.

Then she gave me a rather interesting solution - don't register the vehicle in the new state. Well, I said, I'll get pulled over by cops who'll see my license plate. OK, she replied, pay them off, Rs. 100 each time. Even if you get pulled over 10 times in the remaining 4 months or so, you are out only Rs. 800, only a tenth of what you'd pay for registration.

Wow. That short conversation gave me a valuable insight into a lot of interesting topics and in particular about the way people in this country think and act. And I am willing to bet anything that this type of thinking isn't restricted only to this country.

Goodbye to Pune

The big news that I've delayed posting about is that I'm leaving Pune. I've quit my job and have just vacated my apartment. The official story is that I ran out of things to blog about in Pune. So I quit my job. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. (Well not really, but the real story isn't exactly interesting, so forget it.) That's the reason why most of my recent posts have been about events in Hyderabad. I will continue to post to the same blog about the next city I go to work in.

Meanwhile, goodbye dirty city. I wish I could have seen you 30 years ago, when you must have been really beautiful.

Goodbye coconut water vendor. You always knew exactly what type of coconuts I liked.
Goodbye Andhra guy who ran a restaurant here. You were fun to talk to, and your food had great bang for buck, but it wasn't that good.
Goodbye the other restaurant here. You were way too expensive.
And goodbye third restaurant, closest to my house. You were a great ultracheap alternative for food.
Goodbye barber. You gave the best scalp massage a homophobe could ever appreciate.
Goodbye chaat shop kid. You made as good a chaat as I ate in Pune, and sorry but that's not really a compliment.
Goodbye apartment. I really wish we could have grown old together, but it wasn't meant to be.
Goodbye landlord. You were as honest as a businessman could be expected to be and a nicer human being. I hope my next landlord is atleast as good as you.
Goodbye colleagues. In a short time I'm glad I got close enough that when I came to the office to see a few of you, every one else atleast dropped by to say "Hi" and as a result caused me to stay at the office a couple more hours than I had planned to. You're all smart people and I was glad to have worked with you, but you're all better friends and I am happier to have made your acquaintance.

"What do you expect, the Comedian's dead"

After watching "Watchmen" in Hyderabad, I was going home in an autorickshaw. We were driving by Lumbini park and there was a horde of reporters with cameras over there. It looked like they were waiting for some politician or someone big to show up. The auto driver remarked, "That crowd over there, do you think there was another bomb blast or threat?" and burst out laughing. I couldn't help laughing either. Lumbini park, in case you didn't know, was the location of one of the three bomb blasts that rocked Hyderabad a couple of years ago. It was bizzare that both of us were laughing about a scenario that was entirely possible and not really funny. But then again, that's Indians. I mentioned this a while ago that Indian humor is very broad. It's un-PC and it takes on every topic under the sky. If you watch Indian movies, you'll find jokes about politics and politicians, about AIDS and cancer, about death and dying, about debilitating diseases, physical handicaps, mental retardation, poverty, religion (and by that I mean all religions, Islam, Christianity and most of all Hinduism) everything. No topic is really taboo. So with that in mind, I hope you'll excuse the bizzare laughter.

The title connection here of course is the character of the Comedian. Without spoiling anything, the Comedian is an ironically named character in the Watchmen universe who finds humour in the dark nature of the world around him. And when the book starts, with his killing, another character remarks that there are fewer laughs in the world because "the Comedian's dead".

My own "Deewar" moment

(Deewar as in "Lambe race ka ghoda" scene rather than "Mere pass maa hain" scene.)

As I was walking around the MG road area in Pune, I heard a small voice behind me say, "Hello sir, can I polish your shoes?" I was surprised because I heard that line in English. I turned around and it was a kid of about 10 years with a small packet who repeated, "Can I polish your shoes sir? Very good polish." Very much amused but also in a hurry to finish some errands I told the boy that I didn't need it. After all, I was wearing some super cheap slippers that would probably die in a few months and at any rate would get dirty immediately after any polish. I kept walking and thought I lost the kid but as I crossing the road I heard the voice again, "Please sir, very good polish, only Rs. 2." (Rs.2? What the hell does he hope to accomplish with Rs. 2? How many people does he need to ask to get enough of them to agree to get a polish to raise enough money to eat a single meal???) "I'm sorry I just don't have the time to get my slippers polished. Here, let me just give you Rs. 5." Immediately the kid pulled himself back, "Sorry sir, I am not begging."

That kind of old-fashioned dignity and pride in oneself captured my attention and I said, "OK, let's go." He asked me to sit on a small bench and he proceeded to take my slippers and apply polish on them. I commented on his good English and he thanked me. He said he was from Rajasthan and not a lot of people get their shoes polished like I did (I suppose he was commenting on me being nice? I dunno.) He then asked me why people don't ask him to polish their shoes more. I tried to explain that people in this part of the city are probably very rich and don't bother with polish, they just throw them away if they don't look good anymore. Then I asked him why he was in Pune, so far away from Rajasthan, instead of going to, say, Delhi. Apparently he came here with his mom and kid siblings.

As this was going on, I was a bit on my guard. A Rs. 2 shoe polish was ridiculously cheap and the kid looked too innocent to be real. But nothing much happened. No hidden thugs jumping out to grab my wallet, or even pick it. No elaborate con. Just a simple shoeshine.

As the polish was going on, I had already decided to pay the kid much more than the Rs. 2 he had asked for. But then the kid started talking about how someone told him that he reason he couldn't get customers was because he didn't have a shoeshine box. I asked him how much one cost and he said Rs. 180. And as he was finishing up the polishing, he asked me to help him out with the box. Giving him the Rs. 180 wasn't a big deal for me. But somehow I got the nagging feeling that the entire innocent kid routine was the con to get the Rs. 180 out of me and that just killed the good samaritan in me. I gave him the Rs. 20 I had originally planned on giving him and walked away.

Happy Ugadi

A happy new year to all my Telugu brethren. First full-fledged Ugadi festival at home in ages. (There was one two years ago but being as it was in the middle of about three huge family events, it was way too busy to enjoy.) Had the usual Ugadi Pachadi (a salad of sorts) which come out really good. The belief is that whatever flavor dominates your Ugadi pachadi, that symbolizes the type of year you're going to have. People "cheat" by overdoing the sweet part of the pachadi anyway. Regardless, mine was sweet this year and I'm hoping that translates to all the new things coming my way. Like a new job and a new city.