Atheists

"Some people say God died during the Partition in 1947. He may have died in 1971 during the war. Or he may have died yesterday here in Pondicherry in an orphanage. That's what some people say, Pi. When I was your age, I lived in bed, racked with polio. I asked myself every day, 'Where is God? Where is God? Where is God?' God never came. It wasn't God who saved me--it was medicine. Reason is my prophet and it tells me that as a watch stops, so we die. It's the end. If the watch doesn't work properly, it must be fixed here and now by us. One day we will take hold of the means of production and there will be justice on earth."

"This was all a bit much for me. The tone was right--loving and brave --but the details seemed bleak. I said nothing. It wasn't for fear of angering Mr. Kumar. I was more afraid that in a few words thrown out he might destroy something that I loved. What if his words had the effect of polio on me? What a terrible disease that must be if it could kill God in a man"

Life of Pi, Yann Martel

Expectation!!!

All excited about my weekend visit to Pondi, plans cancelled, lamest of lame excuses by a friend. Get invited by kids for Christmas, tied shoelaces for Kiran, Elisa and Alex.
Whole of east coast hit by tsunami. Me in Bangalore. Called up Pondi and BBSR.
Started for Sri Sri's campus, took a different turn, landed at some lake in the middle of nowhere. Birds, Blue and Quiet. Peaceful.
Trousers wet and rolled up, finally land at "Art of Living", smile at everyone extracting just one "Jai gurudev" with an affected simper.
Hard work, percentile of 99.18 and not a single call.
Disappointed?
Waiting for the positive to surface...










(Snaps taken with my phone :)

Survived

If you get my drift....: Apposition#comments: "Constricted francophile byways. The barren sea, the sodium winds of its womb, a dilapidated jetty holding on to hope. Walking within. Jaundiced bars of bonhomie - some canopied, some celestial. Apparitions, renegades, saints and the adolescent moon. Long shadows and dark skins.

Pondicherry."

Over a hundred dead.
I survived.
So did Le Cafe, and Qualite Bar.

Yellowing pages of an old book

A thousand years, you said,
as our hearts melted.
I look at the hand you held,
and the ache is hard to bear.
~Lady Heguri
(Translated from Japanese)

Is there anything wrong?

One step closer....

Was able to stand one full Kareina Kapoor song without nausiating.
Have to do it one more time, with my eyes open, and I can write to Vatican.
My application for sainthood.
~Blessed Neel

PS: The world calls her Mother, why bother for sainthood?
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/19/1066502068556.html

Old Man and The Fort

Walking through Gingi Fort we stop near a small temple in front of a huge cliff.
A stone in front of the temple has four human heads, A ram (male sheep) and a buffalo.
Klaus points at it with his umbrella to give his interpretation of it.
(Drawing parallels from account given by an early English traveler, some other place some other time)

"Every year one person was selected to be the Human sacrifice. Supposedly for the prosperity of the entire tribe. The chosen one would live the rest of the year like a king. And then on THE day, he would take a bath put on best of jewelry, climb the cliff and calmly jump. On to the stone below. Head first . Crash. Right in front of the whole tribe."

We go "Oh my god!!!" looking at the distance between the top of the cliff and the rock below.

"He is doing it for the god. For the prosperity of his people. He is happy doing it. HE IS HAPPY. One man jumps of the top of a cliff. Another one spends his retired life 5000 miles from home measuring bricks of a fort under hot sun day in day out. HAPPY. Now lets move."

Shy guy

Klaus, born in Austria, speaks mostly French and a little bit of English.
Employed by the French army, taught French in Afghanistan for 10 years.
Studies forts. Loves India.
Certifies Devi Lodge as the cleanest hotel in the country.
Thinks Hotel Everest's Kerla paratha and Chicken Curry make it the Capital for Gastronomical Excellence.
Learnt AutoCAD at the age of 60 to do his maps.
Mapped Gingi fort, knows the origin of each and every brick in the place.
Saturday 4:00 am we land in Senchi(Ginigi), Klaus is already awake, hands me keys to my Rs 50 a day room.
(I am majorly advertising for Devi Lodge, opposite Indian Oil petrol pump on Bangalore Pondicheri road.)
After a short nap we meet in his room for tea.
And then the stories start.
Narrates the whole story of Malik Ambar African slave sold in India who's the real hero of "Hindu Uprising" in the Deccan in late 16th century 50 years before Shivaji was born.
In between the story diverts to all places and times. Drawing parallels in different lands and different eras.
After 3 hours, he turns to me and says "So young man, I see that you are very shy"
Before I could say "but you never let me speak..."
he adds "Its nice being shy sometimes.... But not if you are visiting an old man with lots of stories who has not spoken for 15 days"


(snaps)

Chatrapati Swapnilraje Deopurkar

Visiting Shivaji's southernmost bastion

Information on Gingee Fort,Tamil Nadu,India: "The Chola Dynasty built Gingee fort. The indomitable courage and valour of its erstwhile rulers made Father Pinments,a priest to call the Gingee Fort the 'Troy of the East'. "

Datta Who?

Happened to mention Datta to a friend on his birthday...

"First time that I actually remembered his birthday....... I was not able to reach him. How frustrating!!!"

"Datta WHO?"

This is college classmate
Deolekar and Deopurkar used to get simultaneous numbers in the exams..
He owes me half of his degree certificate..

He never used to spend a penny in the college
Used to get Rs10 from home every day. His bus ticket went up from Rs4 to Rs7 during 4 years of college. One way.
Owes me half his college time travel......and bhurji pav...

He would call me "abe bhadve kahan tha" across the gymkhana with 100 people turning around to see the pimp enter and take the chair across the carrom board
Me responsible for half his defeats.... as his partner.

I was suspended for 15 days for signing his proxy attendance.
Forged prof's signature on his journals.
Dont know how he's gonna repay that.

We used to go study in his house. 8 members in a two bedroom house used to invite 2 more to stay over during study holidays.
Indebted to them for half my education

That Datta…

Now in England working for top telecom service provider in Europe majorly appalled that they are distorting rules in my office carrom tournament.

Spelt cynicism as Sinicism.
The word’s got to begin with Sin.

Kokrebellur

Me and my bike curse each other as we struggle through congested city traffic. Both of us are made for the highway. I take her out and we fly.



Pelicans look really clumsy flying from tree to tree, or trying to mend the nest. But once they fly high they are the masters of the sky. Graceful and truly majestic.



Eyes follow you all the time as you walk the streets. To see to it that you don't do anything stupid to disturb the guests. And it works.

Wildlife conservation like other values in life have to be imbibed into people's culture. No huge governed grants, no fancy NGOs. Just plain simple "we care" attitude.



The Pelicans are here. Painted storks coming soon.

Antaragni

Saw Anataragni perform on Saturday.
Heard Like Cocaine live for the first time.
Also Har saas me har dhadkan me ho tum written by Mohammad Aslam (Sunoh lyricist)
Check out the site.

Bird Watching

Will be out of network range on Sunday...
Going Bird watching...
On my Bird.....
Destination Karnataka: Places to visit III: "Kokrebellur Bird Sanctuary (20km): This small bird sanctuary attracts migrating cranes, painted storks, pelicans and other birds from Australia, Africa and Europe. The best season to watch the birds is October-March."

Antaragni to cut album

NDTV.com - Music Story: "'We've just signed up with HMV for an album to be released next month. We are also shooting a video next month and it's about a girl from Mysore. It is called Mysore se aayi,' said Dixit."

Significant Figures

Souvik said: "When a number is expressed in scientific notation, the number of significant figures is the number of digits needed to express the number to within the uncertainty of measurement."

In a major discussion over parallel and opposing personalities existing simultaneously in history on a lazy Monday morning, Vasant catches me repeatedly putting things into slots.

Good and bad.

Gandhi was good, Hitler was bad. This is good, that is bad....
Buddha, Changiz Khan, World War, American Civil War and even George Bush..... I had slots for each one of them.

The conversation could not proceed due to my obsession with putting a tag on each one of them.
And we just switched on the TV to watch Cricket.

Spent the next whole week catching myself overly simplifying things and judging them in a haste.

Wisdom I guess is your choice of significant digits.
And mistakes in judgment, just rounding off errors.

"What's your significant pick?" asks Souvik

PS: Vasant, I think would be a good judge :)