Cricket is dead, long live Cricket.

A disclaimer to start with. I am not and never have been a student of Cricket, so I claim no technical expertise of the game, but one does not need to know the nuisances of a language's grammar to speak it right, over a period of time one just knows if something is wrong without necessarily being able to explain the 'why' and 'what'.

There is definitely something amiss about this game of late. The benchmark of this game for centuries had been a 2 innings a side match. Where every ball was played to its merit. To me the sweetest tune was not a beautifully executed boundary but a straight bat defence of a ball aimed at the middle stump. Anyone can swing the bat and with a little luck pack the ball off the park, but it takes years of practice that comes of being dedicated to be able to defend a good ball. This attitude and skill has fallen prey to the 20:20 mindset.

The minimum score these days in a ODI seems to be in the vicinity of 350. That is at the rate of one more than the number of balls in an over. With this trend, the first casualty is the game and the second is the already brittle confidence of the bowlers. Is boundary the destination of every ball? Should our every action be directed at making more money? When should one enjoy life, if not as we live it? When should the player stop and smell the roses (or the ball) if not as he plays the game?

The mantra now is to by hook and crook get the most out of every ball and in pursuit of this goal, there are shots being played that are probably making the likes of Bradman turn in his grave. The bat swung above the head like a mace  - Helicoptor shot - more like a blind man shooting in the dark. The sweep shot*, where a right handed player reverses the grip on the bat to play it like a left handed player and probably vice versa. The scoop shot, where the batsman, all else having failed, tries to scoop the ball like lifting a fly out of his drink and chucking it behind him, except imagine a gigantic cup, a monstrous fly and a desperate cricketer. There are other shots so ridiculous that they haven't been christened yet.

If a batsman with a good footwork and a sensible repertoire of shots plays these 'unorthodox' shots it is hilarious but for a mediocre cricketer who is bent on getting the runs no matter how, all he will be left with is the theatrics of those shots which will soon cease to be funny. The end result of the game cannot justify the sacrifice made to cornerstone aspects of the game like footwork and defence.

A 20:20 match is not cricket but an entertaining show. With the 20:20 mindset being carried over to ODI's as well, they too are turning into meaningless extravagant Bollywood productions. Where will the debacle cease? What of the sanctity of the game?

*Apparently, this is not a sweep shot but its called 'switch it'.

The Hammerhead worm and comprehension of my madness

For me the very best part of childhood was being surrounded by mysteries. The ability to be surprised and the inability to comprehend many things around me just added to the magic of childhood. As a child, from hearing the crocking of the frogs to discovering a new flower held as much joy as unwrapping a gift. I still remember my reaction to hearing of the solar system for the first time. I just didn't believe my father, I didn't say it to him, but for a very long time I thought he had been joking.

As we grow, we lose the ability to be amazed and with the keeping up of the pretension of knowing everything, we stop questioning and there stops the 'discovering'. It is like a child looking at a cuckoo clock and wondering where the cuckoo goes when he is not out signing, how does the cuckoo know the time and is never ever late to sing in the new hour. But the same cuckoo clock does not challenge our imagination anymore as we grow up.

In defense of the grown ups it wouldn't be wrong to say that because we don't discover new things everyday, our ability to imagine and our fancies soon settle down. But the things that interested one as a child continue to interest later in life, I still enjoy seeing a beautiful butterfly, love the song of the cuckoo. But now it doesn't quite hold the punch as seeing a butterfly for the very first time and wondering what it is, or hearing the cuckoo for the very first time, those first time experiences were soul felt and the later one's just heart felt.

So it was with very great pleasure that I saw a worm the other day for the first time in my life. Not in some remote place (like the huge palm sized moths I saw in Aizwal) or in some other country, (like the cross shaped centipede in the forest on Tioman islands, Malaysia- I couldn't find this fellow on Google, but am sure it was a centipede) I found this worm right at my door step.

I have lived within almost the same latitude all my life, geographically speaking. And yet there is this tiny species whose existence was a total surprise to me. The 2 inch worm was like an earthworm albeit of a much darker shade but as slimy looking. What was remarkable about him though was his head. It was shaped like a fan.

Google was gracious enough to process my search for a 'fan headed worm' and give me the entire bio-data of the fellow. He was a Land Planarian or a Flatworm or a Hammerhead worm. He feeds on earthworms and the way he goes about doing it is a ready-to-use-script for a horror film. There are videos and tried & tested sure-shot methods on how to kill these worms. Even if I had googled the worm before I gave him a lift to my garden, I still couldn't have brought myself to kill him. But I did say a silent prayer for the earthworms in my garden.

Discussing the worm (in all its gory detail) is not the intention of this post. But this tête-à-tête with the worm helped me understand myself. I finally understand why I am drawn to the heights of the mountains and the oceans. (I would like to say depths of the ocean, but I have never done anything other than snorkeling and sea-walking) I understand why I have to have to have an atlas in my bedroom and I understand why I picked up birding and why I love nature so much.

I long to rediscover the thrill of being able to be confounded, astounded and astonished by new places, new colours (am thinking of a maple forest in winter and underwater corals) new lives and different ways of living.

I now know why I can't make the short journey to the book closet to pick up the atlas. I need to have it within 'tolerable distance' for me to find the joy of seeing a place on the map as I read about it or see it on TV.

I now understand why I make long journeys to watch birds in their habitat and why I get so exited as I pass by ponds. I want to see the baby Purple Moorhens waltzing between mama's legs, I want to see once more the crested kingfisher dive bomb into the water to catch its meal. I want them to be a part of my life even if it is only for a few moments, the memories linger on for ever.

Some things in my life are an addiction not because I cannot do without them but my happiness depends on them and my existence defined by them.  

Holige, Obattu, Puran Poli

I definitely don't want this blog to be turning into a food blog, but after having relished this wonderful delicacy all my life, when I finally learnt to make it, I couldn't help putting it down as a post.

It is cooked primarily in the Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Its pretty much like a sweet cousin of stuffed paratha. It is called by different names in different places, made with different fillings and of different ingredients for the outer layer, served with varied accompaniments. And the taste does not just vary with the region or ingredients, it varies from preparer to preparer with the same ingredients.

At least in Karnataka, it isn't served as a typical dessert, after a meal, rather a meal begins with this. Logically makes sense as a dessert filled with calories is something you need to hold back on, but this is such a delight and made on occasions that it makes sense to have it first, satiate your taste buds, senses and tummy and then figure out what you would like to top it up with, in the tummy ofcourse.

Holige made of lentil, also has a by-product. Holige saaru or rasa, that literally matures like wine, the older the better.

Here's for the recipe.

For the filling:

Togari bele / Toor dal - 1 cup

Jaggery (work on jaggery with a knife, till you have shavings of it) - 1 cup

Kadle bele/chana dal - less than a quarter cup

Cardamom for taste

For the outer layer:

Maida/ Refined flour - Half cup

Chiroti rave / Fine Samolina - Half cup

Oil - Less than quarter cup

A pinch of salt

Filling:

 - Wash Toor and chana dal and cook it with sufficient water so that its entirely soaked. Boil this until the dal is soft. This should take about 10 minutes.

 

 - Strain the excess water into a bowl, also squeeze off the excess water as too much moisture will make the filling soggy. Keep this precious water and a little cooked dal aside to make rasa later.

 

 - To the cooked dal, add jaggery and a bit of cardamom powder and cook it for a while longer so that the jaggery and the daal come together.

 

 - Cool this mixture and grind it into a paste. It doesn't take too long to grind, as the mixture is already soft. The filling is now ready. At this point, it can be eaten as such.

Outer layer:

If the filling is made of all things nice, the outer layer is the evil. Wheat flour can be used instead of refined flour but am not sure of how the soft filling can be worked into a covering of wheat flour dough. But for the record, it can be done.

 - Mix the refined flour and 'fine semolina' together with a pinch of salt into a dough with water. Then add in generous amount of oil, so the oil floats a little at the edges.

 - Leave it to rest for a good 1 hour.

The coming together:

It is not so much 'coming together' as it is 'coaxing together'.

 

 - Take a couple of square plantain leaf cut-outs, wash it and slightly warm the inner side (the side on which food is served, or the smoother side) on a tava/flat pan, so it doesn't burn later when its put on the tava with the holige. 

 - Before you start this process, chuck your calorie-consciousness out of the window as you would be continuously using oil - dipping your fingers into it (so the dough doesn't stick to your hand), smearing oil onto the leaf before working on every holige, pouring a little on the tava before you put in every holige on the tava.

 

 - Take a little of the dough with your oiled fingers, it can be worked on either the palm or directly on the leaf so as to spread it into a thin layer. No rolling pin will work, instead you can place another oil smeared leaf on top of it and press on the dough over the leaf so the dough spreads out.

 

 - Take a little of the filling, work it into a round shape, place it on the spread and pull up the edges of the spread to cover the filling entirely. Turn it over (if possible, without damaging the shape too much), pat it with a little oil, put the other leaf on top, work with your fingers over the leaf to spread it. With so much oil, the leaf, the holige, fingers all work together without sticking. The holige should be around 5 mm thick, not thicker, but if you can work it thinner, then go ahead and pat your self with those oily fingers that worked the magic.

 

 - Remove the top leaf and pick up the leaf with the spread out holige on it and place the leaf holige side facing down on an oil treated pan.

 

 - Use a dosa stick to separate the holige from the leaf.  Drip a little oil over the holige and carefully turn it over once the side on the pan has cooked. Once the other side turns brown too, take the holige off the pan. The holige is ready to be eaten.

Serve it with just ghee/clarified butter. It is also eaten with milk poured on top of it, it makes it all mushy so I don't like it with milk. A mixture of gasgase/khus-khus/ground poppy seeds, grated coconut and jaggery ground together is also eaten with holige. But to me, holige by itself is such a complete food, I think the accompaniments are really redundant.

 

Now for the rasa or holige sambar.

 

You will need:

Cooked toor dal

Water from the cooked toor dal,

Couple of big spoons of freshly grated coconut

Shallow fried and ground onion, garlic, turmeric powder, whole coriander & cumin seeds. Add in tamarind to this while grinding it.

A little Jaggery

Sambar powder

Salt

 

Put all the above ingredients together and let it boil for a good while. Hold back on the salt you add to this, as every time its boiled it turns saltier. This is quite a mystery to me.

 

Easy cooking for first time chefs

I haven't been cooking for too long, although as far as I can remember I have been venturing into the kitchen once in a while to cook up something when the fancy would catch me. But way back then, it didn't really matter how it turned out as a couple of enthusiastic souls viz my father and Sunny, my dog would eat it up, not sure if they said a prayer before eating it. And of course the cleaning up was never my concern.

 

Since then I have come a long way and now cooking is a very serious affair as two souls depend on it. But luckily, Master Chef Australia to start with and a couple of other food related programmes on Fox traveller have taken the whole food related experience to a different level for me, so much so that now cooking is a matter of great pleasure.

 

Here are a few of my favourites and they are all easy to cook. I haven't listed out the ingredients and its quantity but spices is generally about 1 table spoon. Add half a table spoon of Chilli powder and supplement this after tasting, the same goes for salt. Onions and tomatoes lend not just taste to the dish but also volume and so any No. is OK really. Oil is almost always just 2 Tsps, add some more if you wish.

 

Rasam:

Drink it by itself on a cold day or mix it with boiled rice. This, when drunk hot, is excellent for any throat ailment. 

 

Wash firm red tomatoes and put it in boiling water for 5 minutes. Once it cools down the skin can be easily removed. Grind the de-skinned tomatoes once cool. If its still difficult to peel then the tomatoes need to go back into the boiling water for a while longer.

 

Heat pan, add couple of spoons of oil, then add mustard to the hot oil, followed by asofiotida. The mustards should splutter, only then will it float on the rasam and it will splutter if the oil is hot enough. Add green chilli, ginger and garlic - all crushed together. Add the tomato paste and dilute it to preferred consistency. Add salt, rasam powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and pepper powder. Let it boil for 5 minutes. While turning off the heat, add chopped coriander leaves.

 

Rasam powder is in itself a mixture of lot of spices, shallow fried and ground. So if you are working without the rasam powder,  no worries, just add a bit more of the coriander powder, cumin powder, pepper powder and the rasam should be OK.

 

Pasta:

This is the Indianised version of Pasta, the Italian version really does not use these many different spices and thus the taste of the principal spice used comes through. This is a meal in itself, or eat it between meals.

 

Buy a packet of any pasta, there is quite a variety to choose from. Buying in an Indian market, the variety is limited though and mainly restricted to 'screw-shaped' Fusilli, 'bent tube-shaped' macaroni, 'straight-tubes-cut-diagonally-at-ends-shaped' penne, 'sea-shell-shaped' conchiglie.

Heat water in a pan/bowl and put the pasta in a colander (if  have one) (a vessel with holes) and dip it into the water as it boils and leave it for about 8-10 minutes. The pasta has to be a tad undercooked as it also cooks a little with the onion and tomato base. We Indians prefer to cook our food all the way, but the traditional pasta eaters like to cook so its shape remains intact when mixed into the base and the individual pasta remain that way. Once its cooked, the pasta needs to put into cold water to stop the further cooking, you can happily forget to do this.

Simultaneously, heat a pan, put in oil, mustard, cumin, chili-ginger-garlic crushed together. Breath in the heavenly aroma as they cook, then zap yourself out of your reverie before they burn in the pan and add in chopped onions and saute for a couple of minutes. Add tomatoes / tomato puree (prepared the same way as for rasam) and while it starts to simmer add the spices of cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, salt and a bit of sugar. Add in the cooked pasta, let it cook for a couple of minutes and its ready to eat. Add a little ketchup to balance the flavour.

Lime rice:
This is an all time favourite addition to a meal. Quick and easy to make. Eat this mixed with boiled rice.

Chop a few onions, the entire volume of this dish comes from onions, so more the rice you want to mix it into, more the onions required. Heat a pan, add oil, splutter mustard, add vertically split green chillies, for about 1 glass of rice a couple of chillies. The heat differs between chillies, regions and sizes, so err on the side of caution. After a couple of minutes, add onions and a little salt so the onions cook faster. Close the pan but keep checking and stirring it once every couple of minutes. Add in turmeric powder and salt, cook for another minute while the onion takes in the taste of salt. Turn off heat and add lime juice. Ideally add lime to rice directly and then add this paste and mix it. Taste it and add salt/lime to get the taste just right as it suits your taste buds.

Lime rice paste can be made a little differently by adding capsicum after onions. Or raw mango can be added instead of lime.

Veggies:
The perfect accompaniment with chapati/phulka/bread.

This is the same recipe for any of these vegetables - capsicum, carrot, ridge gourd, carrot, snake gourd, bottle gourd, beet root and a host of others. The cooking time for each is different so keep checking while it cooks.

Heat pan, add oil, splutter mustard and/or cumin, urad dal for crunch, ginger-garlic crushed together. After a minute, add onions and a little salt. Close the pan but keep checking and stirring it once every couple of minutes. Add the vegetable and mix well so the vegetable gets coated with oil. Let it cook till almost tender. Vegetables like gourds release water as they cook so usually there is no need to add in water to help it cook. But if required, add in water else the vegetable wouldn't cook, but burn. When almost tender, add turmeric powder, coriander powder, chili powder and salt, cook for another minute while the vegetable takes in the taste of all the spices. Peanut powder added with the spices enhances the taste of the vegetable.

Dal/Lentils:
This is a comfort food. Like the veggie eat with chapati/phulka/bread or mix it with rice.

First chose your lentil -
Toor dal/togari bele/toram parappu/pigeon peas - south Indian sambar is made of this.
Yellow split Mung dal/hesaru bele - used in the spicy pongal.
Masur dal/Pink lentils - used in North Indian dal's - a favourite of mine.
Urad dal/Split Black lentil/uddin bele - this is what goes into dosa and vada. Used in the almost all of my recipes right after mustard to give that crunch. This is a black lentil and when de-husked is white in colour.
Mung bean/herasa kalu/non-dehusked mung dal - green in colour - soak overnight, sprout it by keeping it in a wet cloth for a few hours and use it like a vegetable.

You could make dal with just split Mung dal or mix the first 3 dals together. In the pressure cooker, a couple of spoons of oil, splutter mustard/cumin. Then the ginger-garlic paste, finely chopped green chilly and then chopped tomatoes/puree, after this comes to a boil, add in the spices - turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt and tiny bit of chilly powder, remember there is already chillies in this. Then add in the washed dal, close the lid and cook it till a couple of whistles. Remember de-husked lentils cooks faster than whole lentils.  If you don't have a pressure cooker, just cook it over low flame as long as it takes to become tender. This is the traditional way of cooking and in most of cuisines food is still cooked like this which brings out the best taste.

Soup:
Pan-heat oil-mustard-onions-carrots-potatoes-tomato puree-once it comes to a boil-add in spices of turmeric powder, coriander-cumin powder and salt. Once tender, grind the whole thing and drink it up garnished with coriander leaves and a sprinkle of pepper powder if desired.

Bisibelebath:
This is a traditional Karnataka dish which translates to 'Hot lentil rice'. This is made of rice and Toor dal. In a cooker, add oil, splutter mustard, Cinnamon stick, caraway seeds (shahi jeera-for taste), a few pods of cloves. Add in onions and saute. After a couple of minutes, add in carrots, beans, tomatoes, capsicum and peas. Now add the spices of coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, salt and Bisibelebath powder which again is essentially all spices ground together, so in case you don't have this increase the proportion of the other spices. Put in some cashew nuts. Add in rice and dal. almost in the proportion of 5:1. In fact too many ingredients in this, if you are missing out on any, don't stress yourself too much. My mother also adds in tamarind extract (boil tamarind in water and squeeze out of its pulp) I don't. Give it 4 whistles at the least, taste it and add in any spice that's lacking. Eat this hot with finely cut tomatoes added to curd with salt.

A few tips in general:
 - Slow cooking is the best.
 - Forget the non-stick pans, they are full of chemicals, stick to the good old kadai.
 - Add lime juice only after the heat is turned off, else it turns bitter.
 - When spices, especially turmeric powder is added, ensure there is sufficient moisture in the dish, else it will burn
 - Do not use Extra virgin olive oil (EVOL) for any of the above cooking as these cooking require the oil to be heated to high levels and the EVOL smoke point (temperature at which there is chemical change and oxygen radicals are generated which can cause cancer) is very low. So where EVOL is very healthy to be eaten raw, cooking with it is not a good option. Use EVOL for adding to any cooked item to increase the taste, sheen and health quotient.









 

Children's visit to Animal shelter

On 30 July, 2013, 45 students of 4th grade of ​Calibre Academy International School, Chennai came over to the Blue Cross premises at Velachery, Chennai for a visit. Having read of the dancing bears and of other animal cruelties in their school books, the visit was arranged by the teachers to sensitise the young minds to the animals around us and the cruelties that they suffer at the hands of humans.

I took the children around the premises, who trotted along armed with their tiny note pads, pens and sanitizer bottles. They stopped at the kittens section and wondered if the kittens would grow up to become tigers. They pondered over what kind of people could abandon their beautiful dogs at the pedigree dog section. They just couldn't get enough of the lovely donkeys at the cattle section. While the donkeys and the goats let the children pet them, the turkeys and bulls came closer wondering what the commotion was all about. In the aviary section, a few of the enterprising ones tried to teach a parakeet to talk while the others stood watching the cute rabbits and guinea pigs dreaming of being allowed to cuddle them. The most fun though, they had interacting with the puppies, it was difficult to tell who was having a better time, the kids or the puppies.

 

Along with all the fun of seeing and interacting with so many animals, the day also brought home a lot of realities of the animal world. As I told them stories of how the various animals had ended up at Blue Cross, the pain was reflected in the faces of the little ones. The plight of the 'hardly able to stand' fighter cock, the lab rescued rabbits and guinea pigs, the abandoned pedigree dogs, the rescued cattle touched them, more so as they had just met all these animals.  They further understood that one should not have birds for pets, that elephants have no business in a temple, that bears and monkeys are separated from their mothers as babies and forced to learn to dance and that animals are not at human beings mercy for finding their food - All this set them thinking and asking me loads of questions.

 

As they heard that dogs on the street live there, cause its their home and how water and shade for the birds and street animals would go a long way in keeping them happy as animals too feel the same hunger, thirst and pain as the children feel, it made them think of animals as individuals with feelings. At the end of the talk, many of them wanted to adopt puppies and kittens. Whether they do adopt animals or not, they definitely adopted the reality of cruelty around them and the message of compassion.

 

 

Women in Indian society

The 'rich' Indian heritage and legacy spanning across epochs has also seen the systematic fine-tuning of women's position. The status women 'enjoy' in the Indian society today is by and large a product of certain gender and certain people maintaining that high ground that they have been accustomed to sitting at in all this time.

 

Ever been to a friend's house and seen how its always the M's of the family who keep company and converse with guests while the F's are relegated to the interiors, making periodic appearances as required to serve the food and answer a few questions perhaps.

 

That's still a 'once in a while' instance, but what about the regular practice where the M's strictly keep to the drawing room and the bed-room and the business in all other parts of the house are any way none of their concern. There is no change in the script even if the F's are employed outside of their homes. The F's are the first to wake and the last to sleep, of course this is not factoring in the late night movies and sports that the M's stay awake to catch.

 

The F's who stay at home, keeping the house, cooking, laundering, raring their young's are called housewives and like that was impolite, the turn of the century saw that word smoothened out to a home maker. But if the M's do not go out to work, they are either between jobs or retired, never anything else. Probably not so long ago, they would have been called 'unemployed' but not anymore. 

 

Many M's in the animal kingdom have to earn their right to F's. That has been taken care of in the name of culture and civilisation, which ensures that no matter what the deficiency, every M will be matched to an F. There are negative words for all adjectives but ever heard of 'immarriageable'? This goes against the laws of nature. Some M's are best left alone.   

 

The system perfected over the ages requires the young ones to be taken care of by the parents and the system provides the way out of the pain of it. Those F's that are not killed as a foetus are married 'away' with prayers that she should never return. Uprooted from her current existence, she tries everything within her means to cope as she is taught to discover divinity in the creature she is married to and is also taught that woes derived from the new divine are a product of her destiny and any murmurs of protest tarnishes the repute of her former support system to whom she is taught to carry a debt to grave and any mention of the legal option, disreputes her and she lives on with regret.

 

There are changes that have come about with time, the healthcare and hygiene technology has improved, but to what extent the improvements reach majority of the Fs is a separate discussion. Improved self-image that financial independence brings is still so fragile as to account for nothing. F's who outlive their mates, don't die on his pyre anymore but are made to feel the shame of having outlived him every day.   

 

What is saddening is not that enough is not being done to set things right, but no one realises there is something wrong with the system. The education system, the government, the teachings of the new age pundits does nothing to sensitise people on the injustice. Imprisoned as 'shakthi, the  power in temples and bound to the shackles of age old customs and traditions at homes, all F's are undoubtedly children of a lesser God.

 

  

Senseless suffering of a nameless puppy

This is the story of a Puppy, who was born less than a year ago in the car park of my apartment. He had another 4 siblings to compete with for food, space and mamma's attention amidst a 'not so friendly' human population. However, he and one his sister managed to survive the odds. He was one healthy guy, always full of joy. He jumped all over me, when he saw me, sharing a bit of his joy with me and even a 10 minute petting session wouldn't be enough to satisfy him. He just wanted more of my affection and nothing else.

 

He had soulful eyes that dreamt of nothing more than shade to sleep in and a little peaceful foraging time. Every evening, he would be out on the road with his parents and sister and the way he would sleep through the day was evidence to the many adventures that he was part of, the previous night.

 

He had his little place in the world or so it seemed till one day he disappeared. I worried endlessly for him till someone told me the corporation van had come and picked up the dogs of the area. I knew he would be operated upon, vaccinated against rabies and brought back. A week later, sure enough he was back and I was overjoyed. But he had changed, he had gone all quiet, like he had grown overnight. The trauma of being caught,(as my husband kept reminding me that he was caught in the first place because I was friendly with him and so he didn't keep away from humans the way his parents do.) of being kept with the other howling and terrified dogs in confined space and then being operated upon, all at a tender age with no known face around for comfort, I am surprised he survived at all.

 

After about 20 days after the surgery, he had a runny nose. I was worried he was coming down with a fever. Many days I forced him to drink milk and eat at home and hoped he would recover. We were not around for a week and when we came back, he wasn't around. We looked around for him in the area and hoped he would come back. The third day after our our return, he returned too. He was very weak and could barely open his eyes, but still he had found the strength to come back to the humans who were kind to him. We took him the hospital where the doctor said he probably had distemper (preventable but not curable)and would have to be 'put down'.The Doctor explained that it was most likely that he had picked up the disease at the NGO where he had been operated upon.

 

If distemper was rampant at the place where he was operated, why wasn't he given an Anti-distemper along with the Anti-rabies? Because the corporation didn't pay for that? Because the law does not explicitly specify it to be given? Because he wasn't someone's pet and having done their job of ABC-ARV, nobody cared if he survived or died?

 

Isn't the whole purpose of Animal Birth control(ABC) and ARV (Anti-rabies vaccination) is to humanly control the number of dogs and the cases of rabies. I always thought ABC was to control the population of dogs so the existing dogs could have a better quality of life, how naive of me? or didn't they deserve that dignity in their lives? is the concept of dignity to be applied to humans alone? if so, who gave us the right to make a decision on behalf of the animals? ABC in itself is a decision that we are making of that which is of no business of ours.

 

Coming back to the puppy, he got a little better with the medication and food. We started to feel optimistic that he was not down with distemper and would eventually make a full recovery. But, 5 days later, the twitching of the head muscles started, confirming distemper. It was very distressing to watch him, the bundle of joy was reduced to a pile of twitching bones. We took care of the puppy, gave him the comforts of home-affection, peace and food. I am not sure how much he suffered, he never complained, never cried, never asked for anything, even when we forced him to stay in-doors when all he wanted was to sleep in the open. We finally let him have his way and allowed him to sleep in the open, constantly keeping an eye on him. To cut the long story short, I left him as he was sleeping in the shade of a tree in the road and 5 minutes later, he was nowhere to be seen. This was 5 days ago and he is still missing, I just hope he had a swift and peaceful death.

 

This puppy survived against all odds. Eventually, he went down as a 'number' in the corporation's 'dogs caught' register, as a dog which was sterilised over the operating table of the NGO and as another dog whose life was cut short as I watched helplessly. His life was over even as it had begun.

 

And for this one puppy whose story has been told, there are thousands out there dying of the same fate because we who make decisions for them just don't care enough. 

 

 

 

The Bangkok Impression

I just hope that the next time I go to Thailand, Madhan does not have 'TV' on his 'To buy' list, cause there are so many beautiful places to see there, I don't want to be expending my time and energy on something as mundane as buying a TV, even if the savings vis a vis Indian price is substantial at half the cost itself. And we wasted nearly one whole day, albeit not in one stretch, buying the TV, In that time I could have visited the Grand Palace and the temple within of emerald Buddha, shopped for fruits from the floating market, enjoyed the sunrise on the Chao Paraya river and found and done a few other things not on any one's 'to do list'.

 

We had 4.5 days in Bangkok and with all that 'checking out for TV's' on the agenda, we travelled to areas of Bangkok which otherwise we would not have bothered to go to. We used the sky train-BTS extensively, skipped lunch on all the days to shed the extra fat and match up to the locals... not really, but the skipping part is true enough as once out of the hotel we were not sure of finding anything vegetarian enough. Not many people speak or even understand English so we erred on the side of caution and busied ourselves with other things to keep from feeling hungry. For me, the smell of the food as we passed by eateries in the markets and road sides in the evening itself took a little getting used to. But the fruits, neatly peeled and stacked in carts were a pretty sight. Talking of fruits, the vegetation of the place is very similar to Chennai, the two cities being on the same 13 degree latitude.

 

Apart from the vegetation and latitude, there are not many other 'parallels' between the two cities. I find it incredible that a country that is 'English challenged' has taken so well to western technology and methods. The skyline is dotted with high rises, the city is as clean as its people will it to be, the mass transport system of metro and sky trains makes commuting within the city so easy, the BTS stations have been so meticulously planned that the over bridges connect directly to the malls and other places. And all this is the result of forethought at the turn of the millennium, while India with its myopic vision was just producing software engineers by the horde to the neglect of all else. The city connects well with the other places as well. And with all this, Bangkokians have not lost their love for the green, there are beautiful bougainvillea adorning the over bridges, every house and every shop in every lane off the main roads have their own garden growing in huge pots complete with a water filled pot with lotus and a thriving marine eco-system within.

Another incredible thing about Bangkok is how people just let you be. No ones going to stare at you the way foreigners are stared at in India, probably its their manners or they are just discreet about it, either ways you feel very comfortable being there. Sure cannot say the same for Indians visiting there though, with the fashion sense of the locals so very 'western'. Usage of sun glasses strangely enough is conspicuous by its absence, for that kind of a climate its absence is rather interesting. We got to see the elegant traditional Thai-wear only at the cultural show. People there are not overtly friendly but neither are they hostile. There are lot of stories about people being conned in Bangkok, I fortunately didn't have that experience and it seemed like an Indian city with sufficient precautions necessarily to be taken of the valuables just like in an Indian city

Food of the place is significantly derived from sea, rice being the staple cereal. Loads of fruits as well, some of them exotic looking like Durians, Dragon fruits, Mangosteens, Longan and Rambutans apart from the tropical fruits of Mango, Jack, Guava and Banana. This is just a list of fruits that I saw and not an exhaustive list of whats grown / available there. The green outer part of the tender coconut is entirely cut to resemble a squarish goblet without the stem. The juice of little oranges-Tangerines are freshly extracted, filled in small bottles stocked in iced glass boxes and tasted divine. The fruit is so sweet that it does not need any sugar. Raw papaya salad is a must taste there. We got the restaurant to not add the fish oil and shrimp paste and we had this amazing extra spicy and crunchy and hopefully vegetarian version of the salad.

Culturally the place is very much like India. Lots of stuff from mythology, colourful beliefs and history. The Buddhist Wats, the temples are beautiful. The temple roof with its pointed corners look lovely. And there are giants in the Thai culture who are all characters from myths, mainly Ramayana. The giants stand guard at the entrance to temples much like our dwara palakas. Though fierce looking, wearing a mask and some having fangs they stand for good and teach the valuable lesson of  the folly of judging people by external looks. The dances, the costume, the beliefs  have been influenced by India, China, Cambodia and neighbouring Southeast Asian countries. Hence Ganesha is a very popular God here. Pra Ram (Rama) from Ramakien (Ramayana) is a much loved character from whats become the national epic of the country.

Thailand also has a lot for nature lovers, Erawan national park and the drive to it was wonderful, Enough cannot be said of the beautiful Erawan falls. There are loads of places that I have parked for next visit and staying over night in the Erawan national park, visiting Kumphawapi, the red lotus lake in the northeastern part of the country, Bat safari at KhaoYai national park are a few of them.





 

Bangkok travel guide

Thailand is one such place where no matter how many days you have on hand, there would be enough to see and do.

Bangkok (BKK) likewise is a place where you need to have done your homework before you land there as hardly anyone speaks English and like I said, there is so much to do, it pays to have done some pre-reading and prioritisation. The THB 1,000 per person visa on arrival (VOA) for Indians is pretty hassle free. A list of documents required for VOA is  listed at the end of this post.

The transportation from the airport to the city is simpler than it reads on all the articles on the topic. Google the distance between your hotel and airport and accordingly decide what mode to opt for. The airport line of sky train, the taxi or the metro train.

BKK has a reputation for traffic jams, but going from India, the traffic seems 'not that bad' except the time between signal change is too long, making the journey seem longer.The underground metro (MTS)and sky trains (BTS) makes commuting in the city very simple. Print a map of the metro and train lines and rest is a breeze. Check the fare from the map at the station, get the bill broken at the counter(meaning get change from the counter for buying tickets from the vending machine) and at the machine is a 4 step process to get the token/card. If you are using the BTS after 7PM, then make sure you have the change on you, cause there would be a lot of people buying tickets at that hour, the person doling out change would have left for the day and many machines go 'out of service' probably being out of change.

I loved the way, the sky train stations connected directly to the malls, so even without stepping onto the road you could go over the entire town. Well, almost. We had 3.5 days in Bangkok and this is what we opted to do:

1. Shopping: Please understand that if someone is telling you BKK is cheaper they just don't know enough. The Thai Baht is almost twice as strong as the Indian Rupee so everything is half as expensive in India in terms of amount in absolute terms, but convert it and its almost what it would cost in India. There is one product which is an exception and that is television. TV's are really cheap, half of what it would cost in India (after conversion of course)

Having settled the 'inexpensive myth', this is a city with endless malls and malls all over the world are so similar, it is hardly worth going into them. There are 'markets' though, like the endless roadside shops in any Indian city, where bargaining is the essence of shopping.

We chose MBK(10:00 - 22:00, National Stadium BTS) and Chatuchak weekend market (Sat and Sun 09:00 - 18:00, Mo Chit BTS, it is open on fridays as well but not sure of the time). MBK is in a building, but there is a section there which resembles the roadside markets, that's the section you should be going into. Chatuchak has its charm and its huge with all kinds of things available, just start somewhere and go around bargaining the place down.

TV buying is a different ball game, check for offers in the various markets you visit in MBK, Central world, Pahurat(the Indian market, stocks mainly Sony and customers get treated as badly as they get treated in an Indian sole owner shop). After all the looking around, found the shops in the alley of Big C to be the cheapest(opposite to central world-Ratchadamri BTS), you get the TV's here at wholesale price. Make sure you collect the yellow copy of the invoice to claim VAT refund from the airport, which is another simple process of getting the TV inspected at row 'H' of departure area of Suvarnabhumi airport (the authorities will look at it and stamp it) then after immigration, at approach to gate D, there is the VAT refund counter, just line up and get the refund in THB less THB 100 for admin charges. I could be off with the gate No's but not about the simplicity of the process.

* Effective August 26, 2013, all imports of TV's into India will be taxed at 36.05% on the value of the TV being imported including the taxes. So TV does not form part of the duty free allowances allowed for stay of more than 3 days abroad. So evaluate whether it is worth importing it now even if you were to save about 15% on Indian prices as the risks involved of the TV getting handled by so many people in airports and the fear of damage is always present.

 

2. Siam ocean world (10:00 - 21:00, Siam BTS): Not having anything of this league in India, is nice to visit this place although bits of this place resembles a zoo. The walk thorough aquarium is nice with its groupers, rays and sharks. The ticket if bought across the counter/on the website is quite expensive, I bought it on www.sightseeingbangkok.com at almost half the price. There is a glass bottom boat ride and a 5D show as well on the same ticket. The stone fishes, the huge crabs, the jelly fishes, the sea horses, the coral in one of the huge tanks were all beautiful. But nevertheless, this is a zoo.

3. Siam Niramit Cultural show (17.30 - 22:00, Thai Cultural centre MTS, 80 minute show starts at 20:00): Has replicas of Thai village houses complete with mini paddy fields, real croaking frogs and a pond with a wooden boat. The complimentary Thai crackers (roasted rice with coconut) and rice pudding (rice and coconut mixture cooked like our paddu/gunthapangnal/paniyaram) was excellent. Also get to see items used in Thai traditional puppetry, musicians playing traditional instruments and boutique painters at work. There are also pre-show dances which can be photographed. The main show cannot be photographed, don't even attempt it as many keen eyes keep watch. The show is excellent, its been awarded as the highest stage in the world by Guinness book of records, whatever that means, the stage is really nice and the show is excellent with 3 acts on Thai history, culture and beliefs. The only flip side to the show is the usage of an elephant on stage, not to mention goats and a cock. Cost wise again the show on the website is expensive. I bought it on www.Bangkok.com at half the price.

4. Cruise on Chao Paraya river (www.laynova.com): There are many companies organising cruises on the river. We took the sun-set cruise with the only company that was offering vegetarian food. It was too expensive at THB 1600 per person for just 2 hours and I don't think it was worth the money. Can do this on your own by taking a cheaper one without food perhaps or just take the boat buses that ply the river till it gets dark.

5. Temples: The closest BTS to the popular cluster of temples is National stadium, from there its a taxi drive to the temples. There are other ways and routes to getting to the temples but I found this to be the most hassle free. Else, the cheaper one would be to take a train to Saphan Taksin BTS which is close to the river boat station-central pier and take a boat bus from there (but bear in mind, depending on where you travel from, the BTS fare itself could be substantial.) Unless, you are making the BKK trip into a pilgrimage, would think getting the flavour of the Wat's (temples) by a couple of temple visits is good enough. We visited the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho (the birth place of Thai massage, the massage centres are quite popular with tourists here, I skipped it though) and Wat Arun across the river from Wat Pho, the crossing is by boat and costs just THB 3 per person. Mind the dress codes to these temples, no ankle to be seen, like in the padmanabhaswamy temple, no strapless sandals, no tight jeans, well in a word, dress conservatively, or just borrow the temple cover up dress before entering the sanctum.

6. Flower market: Less than a KM walk from Wat Pho is a beautiful flower market with loads of different variety of flowers. The fact that it wasn't on any body's 'must see' was reason enough for me to go there and I wasn't disappointed. Its a 24 hour market, with the loading/unloading busiest from 2AM to 6AM. But stroll in at any time of the day and enjoy the colours and fragrance of the place.

The things we missed/skipped:

1. Missed for want of time: Erawan museum with its 3 headed elephant statue at the entrance.

2. Missed for need of sleep: Ban Nam Pheung Floating market, the closest floating market in BKK, transacts on all days between  4AM to 7AM. Every other floating market is out of BKK.

3. Missed for want of time: Grand palace and Wat Prakeau. Grand Palace is next to Wat Pho. The entrance fees for foreigners though is steep at THB 500 per person. But I would have liked to see the emerald Buddha in Wat Prakeau.

4. Missed for lack of want: China town along Yaowarat Road.  Passed though the market and saw jewellery shops lined up on the entire stretch of the  road. Is it cheap? No idea, with no interest in gold, didn't bother looking it up.

5. Skipped: The elephant shows, Safari World, the crocodile show. Didn't go all the way to Thailand to see how differently Thai ill treat animals. The tiger temple beyond Kanchanaburi was not even considered. Hand raised and drugged show pieces of Tigers are demonic, even if monks do it in the name of taking care of orphaned animals.

We squirrelled one day out of our BKK schedule to go to Kanchanaburi and beyond. Kanchanaburi is around 130 KMs from Bangkok. We took an early morning van from just below the victory monument BTS to Kanchanaburi. The initial plan was to hire a bike there and go around, but ended up hiring a tuk-tuk to take us to Erawan falls about 65 KMS away. Erawan falls is a seven tiered falls in Erawan National Park. It was an hour long trek through some dense deciduous forest to the top level. The trek got difficult as we went higher. But it was worth all the effort as we saw the water gliding down from white limestone hill, the emerald green water pool created by the falls is beautiful and there are very few people who make it all the way up. I would have liked to spend at least a night in the beautiful forest, there is also a youth hostel in the forest, probably the next time I visit.

The drive to the national park is beautiful. We pass through a tree lined winding road with mountains keeping us company all the way through, though it is at some distance to be entirely covered in the view finder. There are quite a few stone carving centres on the way with huge abstract shaped stones on display.

The war cemetery in Kanchanaburi, one of the 3 cemeteries of the II WW PoW. 15,000 PoW's of allied forces and over 100,000 civilians died building the railway line connecting Myanmar (Burma)with Siam (Thailand) in 1943 for the Japanese army. The cemetery is beautifully maintained with the graves of 5,000 commonwealth soldiers and 1,800 Dutch soldiers each marked by a head stone of black marble with name, age, battalion and one liners like- 'He died that we might live, ever remembered', 'In the sweet bye and bye we shall meet on that beautiful shore.', 'He answered his nation's call.', 'His duty, nobly and fearlessly done, greater love hath no man.' and next to each head stone, there is a shrub of a flowering plant. 11 Indian soldiers buried elsewhere in Thailand are also remembered as 'died serving their country and the cause of freedom' through a marble stone plaque at the entrance.

We spent some time on the bridge on river Kwai, made famous by the Oscar winning movie of the same name. The current bridge is a metal bridge that replaced the wooden bridge built under Japanese occupation. There are trains that operate across the bridge and go back all the way to BKK. The train runs at 10KMPH on the bridge to accommodate all the tourists monkeying around the bridge, taking photos. There are extensions all over the bridge for people to stand while the train passes by. The driver smiled at us as he passed us, I was wondering how he could watch the stupid tourists day after day and still find it amusing enough to smile.

Kanchanburi is also a good place to pick up some nice T-shirts with the 'bridge and train' prints on it for just THB 100. The 2 war museums are supposed to be very good with 'not to be missed' audio records of the survivors. We reached there with not much time to spare to the closing hour and hence skipped it and spent some time shopping and on the bridge instead.

The last day in Thailand we travelled to Pattaya, 140 KMS from BKK. We had booked a full day snorkeling trip to the far off islands, but as luck would have it, the weather 'prediction' turned out to be bad and snorkeling trip was cancelled so instead we took the boat from Bali Hai pier to the coral islands. Every island there must be a coral island, I cannot recollect the Thai names of the islands. Anyways just ask the ticket issuer for the better island and you would probably be directed to get off at the second island, this is far less crowded. You could hire a bike or a tuk-tuk to go via land to the first island. The first island and second island is just wrt the boat stoppages, else geographically it is one island. The view of the ocean from top of the island and the forest on the hill are beautiful, its worth making that journey.

The water is shades of blue and green. The water near the beach is transparent and the beach is of course of white sand. On these islands, there are loads of activities. You could hire snorkels, water bikes, banana ride or just hire the  beach chairs with the canopy and watch the tide come in. We opted to sea walk, having never done this before, I thought the height of water would be 4 feet, just enough for me to be able to walk in the water. Well, not really, but neither did I fully understand how we would be doing it.

Some law of physics was at work, not sure which one, one huge glass helmet, open at the bottom covers the face and is attached to a tube from the boat that keeps the air circulating in it as we climb down the boat's ladder into water and go down to the bottom of the ocean about 10-15 feet deep and spend a good half hour at the bottom. we feel the change in pressure as we descend and ascend. The visibility here was about 2 feet, no wonder snorkeling wasn't such a huge thing. There were just 4 species of fishes, but there were loads of them.

If it is sea and sea life you are after, skip Pattaya entirely and instead go to Hua Hin, Phi Phi, Koh Samui or one of the other less popular places, those are equally well connected to BKK, less crowded and quality of sea and sea life far more beautiful than Pattaya.

Yes, Vegetarians are going to have it tuff here. Make this a diet holiday eating just the fresh fruits sold on carts. Pineapple, mango, papaya are all peeled and stocked beautifully in the cart and drinking fresh orange juice freshly extracted and filled in mini plastic bottles and stored in an iced box and served with straw, this is unbelievably nice. The oranges are so small its surprising its so sweet that it doesn't even need sugar. Or you could instead eat burgers from KFC and Burger king. But make sure you try the less spicy version of raw papaya salad sans the fish sauce and shrimp paste. Its really good.

 

Documents to be carried for VOA in Thailand.

1. Passport with a minimum remaining validity of six months-Copy of the passport to be carried along on person at all times during the duration of stay in the country.

2. Return / onward journey air ticket for travel within the next 15 days (As VOC is only for 15 days, but if you have over-stayed, there is a counter at out-bound immigration for paying the differential fees)

3. One passport size (4 x 6 cm) photo

4. Boarding card of the flight of arrival

5. Filled-in Visa on Arrival application (A simple form with minimum details) (can download from Net) Arrival card filled in on arrival and Departure Card to be submitted while leaving the country(provided during the flight)

6. Visa on Arrival fee of THB 1,000 to be paid in Thai currency only

7. Hotel reservation in Thailand

8. Thai or other currency or debit/credit card equivalent to THB 10,000 per person or THB 20,000
per family - This wasn't checked but a printout of the bank account is a simple enough task.


 

A cup of coffee for the environment

All commercially grown crops come at a cost. Of forests which apart from being home to numerous flora and fauna are essential for the ecological well being of the region, being natural carbon sinks. So as farmers expend their farms, clear more forests to derive the benefits of growing on a large scale, it leaves many species of animals, birds and plants high and dry. It destroys the already fragile balance of nature. India being so dependent on seasonal monsoon rains, we can hardly afford to annoy the balance.

 

Given all the above facts, the one cash crop which can be environmentally inclusive is coffee. Coffee, a tropical region crop loves to grow in shade and that's exactly how it used to be grown till about 20 years ago till the human greed took over common sense and 'economies of scale' became a fad. To feed the greed and comply to the fad, more forests were cleared, sun-growing coffee variety was developed which needed chemical fertilizers to grow. Machines started to be used where earlier human labour was employed providing employment to the local populace. That's when things started to go haywire. Erratic weather, delayed and deficient monsoon, fluctuation in coffee prices, pest attacks etc.. all lead UN to band this crop as a 'disaster crop'. There were coffee crop related farmer suicides as well.

 

The solution to most of these problem lies in growing coffee the way it likes to grow. In shade. Coffee likes to grow with 2 layers of shade, a lower layer and an upper layer. The upper layer shade is provided by trees like jack fruit, silver oak, orange, rose wood, fig trees (& many more) with pruning done in the pre-blossoming period to let the required amount of sunshine through. The lower level shade is through a whole lot of spice plants like pepper, cardamom, vanilla etc. This grooms a variety of birds and animals, becomes a carbon sink in the region and requires almost no chemical fertilizers making the coffee and spices organic. Coffee grown like this imbibes the flavour of the shade trees and plants, providing variety in the taste.

 

Now for a little bit of compiled statistics, before I make an appeal and sign off the post.

India for 2011-12 was ranked 7th largest producer of coffee in the world accounting for just 4% of the world coffee production(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/India-slips-to-7th-spot-globally-in-coffee-production/articleshow/16637928.cms) behind a lot of other smaller countries. Coffee industry provides employment to more than 600,000 people in the country directly and indirectly to at least 3 times that number. As per statistics compiled by Coffee board of India 70% of the production is by farmers with small-holdings. We consume less than 1/3rd of the coffee grown and the rest is exported. (http://www.indiacoffee.org/indiacoffee.php?page=CoffeeData#area)

 

To quote the board, "Indian coffee is the most extraordinary of beverages, offering intriguing subtlety and stimulating intensity. India is the only country that grows all of its coffee under shade.(This is changing, but being a quasi government entity, it is yet to see the truth )Typically mild and not too acidic, these coffee possess an exotic full-bodied taste and a fine aroma" But Indian coffee is not very popular outside of the country and the local consumption patterns are such that it favours MNC's the likes of Nestle (Nescafe) and HUL(Bru) over the local brands.

 

I visited a departmental store today to check out my options. All I found stocked there was Nescafe, Bru, Tata and a few lesser known brands and not one of them had bothered to inform the consumer if the coffee was shade-grown and organic. So the next time you shop for coffee, prefer the local brands, if your departmental store doesn't stock it, step out and go to the local coffee powder dealer (He will roast and grind the coffee you want). And when you step into any of the coffee joints, ask them for shade-grown coffee. If they don't know what that is, let them find out and serve you that. You can make a difference with the choice you make and the questions you ask. For the joy a cup of coffee gives you, it is time you gave back something to nature which gave that coffee to you. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The love stories that aren't.

There was a Hindi novel written by Devki Nandan Katri named Chandrakanta which was like an Indian version of Twilight albeit with a lot more complicated storyline. This initially starts off as a beautiful love story and then, at least the TV series got so distanced from the original theme that I was completely lost and entangled in its plot.

 

Now Sanjay Leela Bhansali is producing a TV series based on a Gujarati novel written by Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi from 1887 to 1902 and set in the 19th century India, titled Saraswatichandra. The novel starts off as a 'will be' love story and then as the poetically inclined have it, disaster strikes and the story turns on its head, suffice to know the lead male abandons everything including his love and wanders around aimlessly (mainly due to his step mom's schemes), and the lead lady marries another and when they evetually meet love blossoms again but she discovers that she has been widowed and being of the 19th century she forces him to marry her sister instead.

 

The result of having sat through all those episodes of Chandrakanta was just anguish Sunday after Sunday (how can 2 people who almost never meet continue to be in love?), mercifully the series was pulled off air due to the author's grandson accusing the team for not doing justice to the novel, exaggerating a lot and misrepresenting certain concepts (Directors doing a a script based direction should stick to the script and not let their fancies take wing even if the copyright laws are not applicable as it was in this case with the copyright expiry in 1964) and eventual financial loses. (what gave them the idea that they would get away with so much digression from the original theme of the love story that it promised to be at the beginning? or probably they just didn't get the TRP's rigged enough).

 

If I am reading this right, the viewers of Saraswatichandra will be going down exactly the same road as the viewers of Chandrakanta did. Am not predicting copyright violations, financial losses or rigged TRP's. I respect Sanjay Leela Bhansali's work too much for wishing those on him. But if anyone is watching Saraswatichandra for the love story that it promises to be, steel your will and run from it, because this story is another one of those doomed one's. If you don't believe me, do your own reading and pay attention next time Mr Bhansali's on screen and tells you that this is Saraswatichandra's love story and mark the words 'Adhuri daastan'. The serial is being shot a 100+ years after it was written so its possible that there is a happy ending to the melodrama but really is it worth sitting through all the pain over 2 years (at the very least) to see 2 episodes of togetherness of the lead pair at the very end? And also bear in mind that this comes from the same camp as Devdas, 1942-a love story, Hum dil de chuke sanam, Guzaarish, to just name a few. If you still want to know what the story is all about watch the 1960's Nutan starrer movie of the same name and be done with it in 3 hours.(Btw, this movie has the distinction of being the last B&W movie from the Bollywood stable) 

 

It's funny how I was paying tribute to Pride & Prejudice yesterday in another post for the simple, uncomplicated love story that it is and today I read the story and am opining on Saraswatichandra which is a complicated love story that will never be.

 

The 200th year appraisal of Pride & Prejudice

There are books which are based in 1700's by current day authors, where I suppose a lot of research goes into the lifestyle and historical events of that period. But at the end of the day, it is a plot woven in another period adorned by fictional characters who are at best fictional. If today, I were to go to a new place, decide to build a place of worship, the problems I would face would be so different from what one faced in another era. Am not saying that because the circumstances are so different, I would enjoy the story less, all I am saying is I will not live the story enough.

Contrast that with a story that was written 200 years ago. How much can I relate to the characters, events or story line? It will probably be more like reading a lesson in history and English put together.

If there is one author who has managed to beat these 'realistic or otherwise' criteria that I have stated here in order to enjoy a book, its Jane Austen. And if there is one book which still captures my complete attention, even if it is the nth time that I am reading the book, its Pride and Prejudice (P&P).

There is a bit of Elizebeth Bennet (Lizzy) in all of us, a bit of her prejudices, her stubbornness, her audacity, her impertinence and her disdain for others opinion.

Am sure there is a more than a bit of Mr Darcy (Mr D) in all the men around. Listing out his characteristics would read like a repeat of Lizzy's with just the addition of misplaced pride in his standing in the society, in today's context read peers.

But the beauty of P&P is, its characters could be friends, family, the person next door, or the one at work who just caught our fancy.

I lived through the anguish of Mr D who struggles with himself for the entire length of the book, initially trying to comprehend whats happening to him as he despite himself is so besotted by Lizzy, then tries to reconcile himself to the difference in their situation in life, and further grieves his way though his follies for the one he loves. Whereas Lizzy for better part of the story remains blissfully unaware of what Mr D is going through. So what a fascinating read it would be if the story were to be written from Mr D's view. Suffering, anguish, mortification, agony and pain. That's probably how it would read.

P&P published in 1813 is 200 years old in 2013 and yet it plays out like a chapter in life. Everything in P&P works out like a bollywood plot where every action is directed towards a happy ending. This is probably the only book where Jane hand held her characters to happiness. By the time, just a year later when Mansfield park was published, Jane had herself gone through a difficult love relationship that did not materialise into anything concrete and all the 'lightness' and brightness' that she thought P&P was about had gone out of the world and she took it out of her stories. She destroys characters in a span of a sentence and lets the story free fall because she believed that was how life pans out with its evils and sufferings. And that's what makes P&P that much more beautiful. There is no reason why life has to be cruel, wasn't the suffering that the characters of P&P go through not suffering enough? Lizzy could have married Wickham, and Mr D, Caroline Bingley and that would have been the end of the story or rather the beginning of another. Yes, life does have its more than fair share of Wickhams but Mr Ds don't necessarily turn out to be Wickhams overnight and if life throws lemons at you, you can always make lemonade.

Thar desert trek Feb 2013

Although Jaisalmer is in the Thar desert, it doesn't feel like a desert. My first experience of the desert was the Sam sand dunes about 40 kms from Jaisalmer. Was there for the camel races, dances and singing that was part of the concluding day fare of the Jaisalmer desert festival. Apart from the dances and the other drama that unfolded that day which was part of another post, the only bit I would like to reiterate is the beautiful moon rise on the dunes. It was beyond beautiful. The moon was the size of a car tyre and effect of the light it cast on everything was sublime.

 

Salty water, a flat expanse of land with shrubs growing intermittently, cool moon lit nights, hot days, beautiful camels, charming sand dunes, lovely forest with bee-eaters, purple sun birds and cacti with gorgeous red flowers, dunes that looked so right that it beckoned you to photograph its every angle, the beautiful black dung beetles running around the dunes (they belong to the insect family called cleoptera) (found beautiful photos of lovely beetles while looking up these beetles online http://www.fotopedia.com/wiki/Beetle) leaving behind a pretty trail on the sand. And huge cream coloured Egyptian vultures with yellow heads and black on the wing edges. They looked so graceful on the wings and so majestic on land. The desert was all these and more.

 

The 8 km odd camel ride was not half as scary as I had worked myself up to believe. For the record the camel sits down thrice. The forelegs half fold at knees first, then the hind legs go down completely and the forelegs fold down completely. One is not to hold the body stiff while the camel sits or get up. The owner kept instructing 'come front, go back', I just held my breath all the time and it was OK, anyways I never understood if the owner was instructing me or the camel.

 

Watching the camels drink water at the water holes was a very satisfying feeling. Villages on the way to someplace in the middle of the desert and the villagers had no hassles sharing the one commodity that was gold there-water, I couldn't help but wonder at the generosity of those people, the magnanimity that lets them have a kind word for the traveller and water for a thirsty beast. We cannot match that kind of generosity ever.

 

The trek post the camel ride when the limbs had completely gone to sleep was good to get the circulation going again. Walking on asphalted road, we passed by more camels (rather the camels passed by us), sheep resting and huddled together under tree shades, wind getting to raise cylinders of dust mercifully far away. After having preserved our water, we got a surprise refill mid way of earthy coloured water, was so good in the heat. so despite dire warnings of the doctor went ahead and filled the bottles. Then leaving the road, we walked through what looked like tilled fields, there was provision for filling water in small indents made on the ground for deers and wild animals, again an act of kindness in the face of deficit which is difficult for us to replicate even in abundance.

 

At the camp site, we first had to face up to the elements of nature, the wind blew high and loaded with dust pulling at the tent edges, we all huddled like the sheep in the tents trying to secure the edges of the tent, it soon passed and it was calm albeit after the storm. This is where we were up close to the vultures. The evening brought a few drops of rain and the rainbow followed suit, though the clouds quickly took over the sky, it was beautiful to see a rainbow in a desert. Evening was spent on the dunes and with the dung beetles, the sunset was mesmerising as usual (if there was just a camel there, the silhouettes of the camel would have been beautiful) the moon rise was lovely as usual. The subsequent walk in the moon light back to the camp site from the dunes was awesome.

 

The morning had us enthralled by the aura on the horizon before the sunrise. We were dropped at a village school in a goods carrier, by the end of the journey all of us were coated with a layer of sand. Spent some time with the school children, not sure if we entertained the children or they entertained us, either ways the school authorities let us. Another 4 km hike from there passing through the graves of the villagers with carved head stones and then the forest with the birds and cacti that I wrote earlier about brought us to the abandoned village of Khaba. The village was entirely deserted about 250 years ago in fear of incurring the local ruler's wrath over a village girl that the ruler had taken fancy to. Most of the houses were roofless but I wouldn't call it a ghost town, it now stands as a tribute to the brave hearts who to protect one girl abandoned everything that they held dear to them. The legend has it that there are 80+ such villages which were vacated overnight.

 

Our time in the desert was timed out too in the village as we boarded a bus to be taken back to civilization away from the shade of kindness and kinship in the midst of the endless sand back to the city where the modern version of the local ruler rule over. 

 

 

Desert festival Jaisalmer-2013

A quientessential small town with big ambitions. No matter which street you took, the sonar quila, built on the Trikuta hill is a central point in Jaisalmer. The fort was built by Rajput ruler Rao Jaisal in 1156 using yellow sandstone.

Foreign nationals and Indian tourists alike thronged the place for the 3 day desert festival (Feb 23-25, 2013) in Jaisalmer.  The schedule of the festival held promise of some fun events and a few that required a fair bit of coaxing of the conscience to sit through. The festival started with the shoba yatra from the fort gates, there were beautifully attired musicians playing on their trumpets and drums, ladies in their 'bridal' best costumes holding the sacred kalas on their heads, BSF jawans dressed to match the local royals on their equally colourfully dressed camels and all of them surrounded by enthusiastic tourists clicking away their cameras and posing for the memories of being there.

 

The festivities resumed at the Shahid Poonam Singh stadium post the procession. Starting with a dance by the kalbeliyas (the nomadic snake charmer community) and a song of 'padaro maro desh'(welcome to my land) the competitions began. There was the best safa(turban) tying competition for the locals and foreigners. Tying the 9 yard cloth in 2 minutes time was definitely a challenge. There was the best moustache competition which entertained the crowd, followed by the Mr & Ms Desert. For the crowd it was just entertainment but there was pride associated to winning the competitions for the locals.

 

After lunch we went around the many 'havelis' passing through narrow streets where many houses front facade was decorated like the havelis. One of the havelis-Nathmal haveli built by a team of 2 brother builders, where the brothers built one side each and decorated it independent of the other sans any consultation, was supposed to be different and we all stood looking up at the building trying to find the differences, this reminded me of Voldy's people waiting outside the invisible to them, 12, Grimmauld place, London, waiting for Harry Potter to make an appearance.

 

Then we visited the Gadisar lake (renovated by Maharawal Gadsi in the 14th century) with huge cat fishes that the local boatman told us were the reason the lake was dirty and they were thinking of ways to get rid of them but as it is under protection by Maneka Gandhi and a ruling by court they are having a free rein. The boatman was such a know-it-all it was completely on deaf ears that I tried to reason with him. God save the cat fishes with people like them. The ducks and the pigeons though he liked and I can assume are going to be safe. This lake once upon some kings time was the only source of drinking water and ironically today is fed by the Indira Gandhi canal.

 

As the sun downed and the evening chill began to set in, an early dinner and we were back at the Shahid Poonam Singh stadium for the cultural activities. There was a crowd of almost 3,000 people part of the completely free fare of dance, music and shopping on the sidelines of the performances.

 

The evening like the next 2 evenings saw many teams of Rajasthani artists from various cities of Jodhpur, Badmer, Jaipur and more entertain the locals and the tourists. Many of the women dancers were men dressed up as women which was not too surprising given the mood the crowd got into as the evening progressed and given the fact that here it is believed that sona (gold) and lugayee(wife) are to be kept at home.

 

The next day was the BSF Tattoo show, where BSF jawans got the camels to do all kinds of stunts. What initially started off as the best dressed camel soon gave way to camels forming all kinds of formations to the tunes of a band playing on camel back.

 

Then the jawans showed off what all could be done on camel back, standing, hanging to the hump, bum on hump riding, newspaper reading, a jawan dressed as a lady carrying pots on 'her' head standing on the camel, there was even a clown riding on a camel who changed the tyre of his 'car'. The entire platoon of jawans made the camels to lie down to exercise on the 'horizontal' camels.

 

A camel named Shahrukh Khan was made to dance like a trotting horse and made to bow his head to the presiding deity of the chief guest. It was downright painful to watch this.

 

Then the much talked of Polo match took place between the BSF jawans and locals astride on their camels. Even the trained players had trouble maneuvering the huge animal and the long polo stick and making connection with the ball. The camels being pulled up short every now and then, must have been wondering what the stupid humans were upto. There was also a BSF band that played with everyday articles available in the border areas where they would play and sing to entertain themselves and keep spirits high. The band was very good, but left me wondering if this was the 'sound' created along the border, why didn't soldiers from across the border come over for the performance?

Making most of the time between the morning session and the evening session of cultural programmes, we went to the fort. A short uphill walk through 4 gateways and shops selling beautiful bed spreads of various colours and embroideries, brought us to the palace that is now converted to a museum exhibiting armoury, furniture etc and being a muti-storied structure accorded a beautiful view of the market below, the temples and other buildings housing the 5000 strong inhabitants of the fort as well as the fort walls and the view of Jaisalmer town below. The Jain temple located across the bend was quite and beautiful. There were many cannons all over the hill and each point affords a strategic view of the town below.

The next day, the place of action shifted to Sam sand dunes, 40 kms away in the heart of the desert. The camel race took place on a levelled ground spread over 1.5 km in length. The camels seated by the end of the field were visibly jumpy as they sensed the impending run-craze and the flogging. While people gathered around the race area, the riders having picked their racing order 'number', walked their camels to the start line a km away. There were 5 rounds where the top 3 in each went into the finals. The camels were repeatedly beaten by cane forcing the camels to run faster to outperform the others. It was sad to watch such majestic animals being forced to run for benefit and pride of the owner and entertainment of the crowd. What did the camel get in return? Jaggery, ghee, methi as the camel riders claimed, or probably not even that? The camel would have been happier roaming the desert and eating what nature offered him, which would be plenty more than what he would ever get under human 'protection'.

The camel race done, there were races for men and women as well which was followed by cultural programmes on the sand dunes across the road. It was a full moon night and the huge moon rose on the sand dunes coating everything a subtle white colour before the bright lights of the stage was put on which ruined the magic of the evening. The evening's performances were almost a repeat of the last 2 days dances and songs except for a musical event played by a huge group of musicians playing local instruments which produced some beautiful music. Frankly, the dances were not something I would go to watch in my own city, having watched it once was good enough but the crowd especially the inebirated crowd in the sam dunes couldn't get enough of it and they were pretty much the same people who booed and cut-short Zia Fariduddin Dagar, the 80 year old padma shri awardee singing songs in praise of Ganesh and Durga in Jaisalmer.

The 3 day desert festival ended at around 10PM with a lot of fire works. Wonder how many local animals and birds in this desert were disturbed and jolted by the light and sound. Again a matter of how indifferent humans are to creatures around them. Did the organisers stop to assess the implications of their action on creatures whose place and peace they chose to use? Did the organisers undertake a clean-up after the event? Did the organisers follow the guidelines of the Wildlife Act while having the camel race and parade around? I hope they have cause this event apart from showcasing the area's culture, provided tourism revenue and entertained thousands of people. But it is also a fact that of late in our attempt at fun we have lost our moorings and have come a long way from our ties to nature.