short sojourn

I went to ISB some time back. I have been there more often than I would have ideally liked to. This happened to be my second of those trips. I had my new camera and loads of time to kill. So I took pictures.

This is the place. That's ISB - Indian School of Business. I've been wanting to study here for a while now.



Thats my humble luggage.



And they had this buffalo statue right in the main lawn. I was touched to see the love and respect for the buffalo. I thought I was the only one. A proud moment in a Haryanavi's life! The buffalo is truly so under-rated.



They have these huge fans in the main atrium, it's not even funny.



And this is the main atrium.



This too is the main atrium and the steps.



The best part was the empty bottles in the girls' hostel room.

My 'Siddharth' moment

No, I didn't meet any Siddharth. Siddharth as in Gautam Buddha before he became the Buddha. Everybody knows his story, right?

So here goes mine. I rarely travel by trains. Thrice in past 10 years or so, to be precise. And earlier when I did travel by trains, it was the rajdhani between Mumbai and Delhi and that cannot be called our quintessential train - let's just say it is nicer and cleaner.

The past 3 times, I have travelled between Hyderabad-Bangalore. Of these also, on the earlier 2 occassions, I reached the station just when the train was about to start. I was very late and I did the whole running on the platform routine and barely managed to get on the train. (Exactly the opposite of what my dad taught us all our lives).

Anyways, long story short, the last time I travelled by train was the first time I spent whole one hour on the platform waiting for a train that caters to the aam aadmi. And I happened to find a spot where the non-ac, sleeper compartment was expected. And to make the story shorter, let's just say, I saw a lot of stuff and lots of people I am not used to seeing. Old infirm couple managing on their own, husband taking such good care of his wife. Small kids crying for treats their parents couldn't afford. And so on. You get the picture.


But what made my heart cringe was this little girl travelling with her sister who was barely 4 inches taller than her and these two were all by themselves. On that station. In a crowd of hundreds of strangers. Waiting for their train possibly for an overnight journey. Hungry. Thirsty. Alone.

I was generally chatting with the girls and they shared my water and biscuits. The high point came when they saw a Ganesha idol being offloaded from the train. These little kids got so excited and ran to look at the Ganesha leaving their one tiny bag behind. And I could not hold my tears back because I was suddenly made aware that these are just children with their tiny hearts and tiny joys. Little kids loaded with so much responsibility, left alone to fend for themselves in a place which can intimidate grown-ups, when they really should be concernless and free to run and play and scream. Especially the elder one - she had to take care of the little one as well.

And THAT was my 'Siddharth' moment. I am not taking off to the forests just yet though. That would make the world a happier place and we don't want that. We want a state of moksha.

Anyways, I had to leave them when my train arrived and I'm sure they are doing well for themselves. They are strong and sensible kids. A little too sensible a little too early.

..and the tan does not go away!

Not that I'm being a girl and complaining about it. Infact, I'm in a way proud of it! I'm happy about it!

Because everytime I look at my arms, I'm reminded of all the trips, all the journeys I've made. I'm reminded of all the treks I've been on, the walks, the bike rides I've taken. All the long drives on which I kept my windows open and felt the wind in my hair. (And the tough time I had de-entangling my hair). I'm reminded of the sun burning my skin. I'm reminded of all the forests, the mountains, the rivers, the highways I've seen and all the moments I've spent with the people I love.

I have been quite a homebody all my life for various reasons at various different points in my life. And it's really since January this year that I've started travelling and exploring, something that I quite enjoy. Since then, I've done pretty well for myself averaging more than a trip a month. The tan is a testimony to that and I'm pretty happy that I've not let the tan on my arms lighten!

As they say, life is a book and if you've not travelled, you've read but one page.

If you want to suggest spf60, don't. I would rather stay indoors than re-apply every 2 hours.

A beefy story

I find it difficult to explain to people that I do not believe in Ram, Krishna, Shiv, Vishnu, Parvati and the gang. To me, they are stories. You know, like batman, james bond, ethan hunt, chacha choudhary and so on.

Some guy woke up one fine morning and decided to write a story. He wrote about a guy named Ram who was supposed to be the ideal man in the society at those times. Ram was the ideal which men in those times should strive to be - respect their parents, never go back on a promise, pack their wives off to the forest and so on. For effect, he was awesomely cool with batmobile kind of vehicles, flying buddies and super powers. This story was passed down through the ages and people were expected to be like Ram.

Fair enough...

...Till I am expected to fold my hands and pray to him. He is an ideal man (that too, not in my opinion). He is not God. I will not pray to him.

Again, this is my opinion and the same holds true for Krishna, Shiv and the gang. For that matter, the same holds true for Allah, Jesus and the others.

At this point, I would like to clarify that I believe in God. Only she has no name or form for me. She does not live in a temple and she would not hurt me if I don't suck up to her.

Coming to the point, I keep having these religious faith discussions with some hapless souls who cannot pour petrol on me and burn me because I'm their friend and they basically love me enough not to do that. (Thankyou Ram, Allah, Krishna, etc :P). One such hapless soul happens to be sho who is a religious Muslim. I keep attacking him with my usual arsenal of questions: why do you have to pray 5 times?, why can you marry more than once?, why do you starve for 8 hours everyday for 40 days?, and my favorite - why can you not drink when you can smoke?. So much so that he wants to name me 'why'. (For the record, sho does not agree with everything his religion says. Please don't kill me, sho.)

And then one day, tables turned and sho asked me - why don't you eat beef? Nice comeback, I must say. I don't eat beef because I'm a hindu. I don't know why hindus give such a special place to cow and not to any other animal. Even buffalos are perfectly nice animals, even goats or even hen. Cow is supposed to have some very special medicinal or curative qualities which nobody uses in today's date. Hell, I don't even like cow milk.

The end result of it all was that now I'm a beef eating Hindu. (I only had a couple of bites and must say it was yum!)

God, I'm sure, doesn't discriminate between her animals. If I'm going to hell, I was enlisted the day I ate my first chicken dish.

Feeling European

The sky's been overcast here for past couple of days. Cloudy and cold. Grey and gloomy. Some people love this weather that makes them wanna sleep till late and sit with a hot chai. I, on the other hand, am a sunshine person.

I love the sun even if it means higher temperatures. I do not like grey and damp days. Clothes don't dry, towels don't dry, the walls are cold, the floor is cold, everything is damp and has that weird wet smell to it.

Well, in the afternoon today, we did have the sun pop out for a few minutes. Instantly, as if on a subconscious urge, I wanted to go out for a walk and soak up the sun. And I did. Enjoying my walk and the mild sunshine, I remembered all those tales that my "friends"* from Europe tell me about how at the hint of sunshine, people dress up in their smallest clothes and come out to enjoy the sun. I never in my weirdest dream thought that I would do so one day. We are in the tropics and the sun here is not funny. And yet there I was, walking outside only to feel the sun and the warmth on my skin.

The whole incident made me feel so Europeified. I didn't dress skimpy, though, but only because no one else around me was europeified.

* The "friends" above is in quotes because though I call these people who are in Europe right now friends, I would rather see them in an eagle's claws. There they are, sitting in Europe and telling me how the place is so beautiful or how they are having so much fun or how nice the weather is. You didn't expect me to wish otherwise.

The fridge and buffalo milk

The weekend before the last one was not particularly a good one. On Friday night, 10 o'clock, a transformer blew up nearby, but not before severe voltage fluctuations that led to my refrigerator compressor getting shorted and tripping my mains. Not to mention that I was forced to go to bed at that early hour on a friday. However, I did not mind it that much because the earlier 10 days had been hectic with lots of partying, eating, drinking, travelling and suchlike.

Cut to saturday morning and still there is no power and ofcourse, no water. Somehow I managed my morning chai and waited patiently for power and water. I had to go out in the afternoon and a bath was mandatory. When there was no sign of water till 11, I went down to get a bucket of water from the underground tank and took a bath in icy cold water. Right then, at 11.50, water supply was back. What luck!

Eventually, when the power was back, I realized my refrigerator was not working. Now, a fridge should be dispensable and a fridge not working should not be a big deal, except that it is. A fridge not working in this part of the world means no milk. How you ask? Well well. That is an altogether different story.

Where I stay, I do not get buffalo milk. The only milk I can buy is some watery form of cow's milk, which I can't stand. I have had buffalo milk all my life. Infact, when we shifted to Powai and the milkman only used to bring cow milk, I pleaded with him and offered him extra money per litre if only he would bring buffalo milk. Here, even that doesn't work because buffalos are not even to be seen here, forget milked.

When I shifted here, I found it quite incredible that in whole of banaglore, there is no one selling buffalo milk. After months of searching, I settled for a store that sells tetra packs of milk. Not quite like the fresh/packet type but anyday better than cow milk.

Hence, I have to travel to far and wide places and stock up on milk because apparently I can't compromise on the animal in the dairy. A one-litre pack is good for 2-3 days and not having a fridge means I have to finish it in one day itself. This task is quite daunting and thus, the fridge becomes indispensable.

Add to it the fact that when and if I cook, I eat the same food for 2-3 days. Again the indispensability of the fridge is quite evident.

All this put together made me quite miserable the next couple of days. I had to live with cow milk, dine on protein shakes (because I cannot cook small portions) and run after the videocon guys to repair the fridge. Finally, after almost one week and lots of cash, they fixed the damn thing.

And I can stock up on milk again! Life's little pleasures!

Rains

It has started raining here in this part of the world where I live after a very hot summer - though less hot compared to rest of India. However, the rains in this place can be quite frustrating.

To put things in perspective, I love rains, I love monsoons. I have spent most of my life in Mumbai and an aversion to rains can make one immensely miserable in Mumbai. And if you have spoken to me for as little as 15 minutes, you would know that I love Mumbai more than anything. Thus, by this chain of reasoning, I love rains. A walk in the rain or just feeling rain on your skin is such a joy-giving expereince.

Bengalooru, is a gift as far as rains are concerned. We have downpours that don't last for more than half an hour usually. That is followed by drizzling, light breeze and lower temperatures, not to mention cleaner air. So there. I love the rains in Bengalooru as well.

What I hate and detest and even fear, however, is the traffic situation in Bengalooru after the rains. Even a 15 minute heavy downpour puts a clamp on the roads. A bad one at that.

The problem is the junctions that do not have traffic lights. Come rains and the traffic cops who man these junctions disappear and, lo and behold, we have a traffic jam. Also, because there are no lights or cops, vehicles from all directions try to force their way out, ultimately ending up in a block through which no one can move. As you can guess, this is a sure shot recipe for disaster. Now, till a frustrated citizen doesn't get down from his/her car and regulates the traffic, which btw can take a long time, there is no hope for respite.

Then to add to the woes, trees fall like nobody's business here (Well, that maybe because these guys have trees to begin with) and water logging happens super fast and people of Bengalooru do not want their vehicle tyres to touch that water. I, for one person, can never get this as I have seen people drive in swimmable water. Hell, I have done it myself. Probably once every year in Mumbai, last year in bangalore. The other option was to shut the engine, lock the car and sleep on inner ring road at 1am. There were scores of cars waiting for the water to recede. As for me, surrendering to water logged roads would have been an insult to years of training. I slept in my bed. There's nothing like it, is there now?

For this monsoon, just last week I was stuck in one of the aforementioned jams. Luckily, it was not past midnight. I could see the place where I wanted to reach, it was just a block away but I was at one of the aforementioned junctions. The level of frustration was unimaginable.

Now I'm only hoping that it doesn't rain like crazy right when I have to go home.