Permanent Fixture: Something or someone who has been a part of a situation/ surrounding for so long that we presume them to be always there. Ex: “Everytime I arrived in the village, I would see the old man sitting under the banyan tree greeting everyone who would come and go. He was a permanent fixture in the village scene. The village greeter …”

Most of my memories of urban to semi-urban India growing up are around some people/ things that were an integral part of every town in India …

• The News Stand

One of the many fading memories of the India of old.

My first memories of the news stand are at railway stations (a place that still have a lot of magazine carts around). I would always want to buy the latest Sportstar or comic for the journey to come so that I could pretend to read while I looked at the photographs in the magazines. The other real memory are of dad sending me out with Rs. 10 in my hand to buy the latest India Today or Life! magazine from the corner news stand.

Now a fading relic in today’s digital age, the only two news stands that I can think of in modern Hyderabad are the one next to Paradise circle (which used to have 5 vendors at one time) and one on the busy streets of Abids.

Thankfully, everytime I go to my village in Kerala, I get to see this comforting sight again

• The Ice-cream wallah

Whenever you think of ice-cream vendors in India nowadays, you think of this:

But the image that remains in my mind is that of the good old Kulfi waala. The man who would come up to every building in the neighbourhood in his bajaj chetak and shout “kulfeeeee” – the call to which every young brain in every household would simultaneously flip a switch and ask their mothers for the Rs. 3 needed to buy this precious commodity that will bring eternal peace to our souls. I guess what I miss the most is the personal experience of the Kulfi and the saint who would give us the kulfi and refresh us with his smile even before the kulfi was had … Good times, good times

• Amar Chitra Katha

Culture and comics for the young Indian.

Every Indian child’s first exposure to comics and culture used to be the Amar Chitra Katha series of culture ridden comics. A perennial favourite, the stories brought us stories that only a grandmother could have otherwise told. Stories of kings and jesters, ghosts and kingdoms, of Punyakoti – the honest cow that went back to the lion as promised after saying goodbye to its children, of Chanakya the one man who shaped the thinking of kings and so many more.

One good thing is that I know that these are still being published, although I don’t know how they are doing as a business …

• Kapil Dev lifting the world cup

Enough Said!

There are so many things that come to mind when I think about it but I can write only for so long. If there is anything that comes to your mind, add on

I leave you with the quintessential Indian video: the national integration video that we used to see every day on Doordarshan:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Everyone in India (urban youth- youth as defined by political parties can be up to 40 years of a person’s life) knows that a country with around 70% of its population below the age of 30 years is governed by leaders whose numbers count among the other 30%. The people contesting do not inspire anything other than vomit and the underlings and regional politburos are nothing but a crazy mirror image of their idols – the ones with all the money and power.

In a blatant display of stupidity, more and more campaigns are being created to get the urban population to vote. Most of these claim to help wake people up (jaago re), get them to vote via the crowd mentality (lets vote, vote india) and other such “ground-breaking” ideas. Maybe what the campaigns and their drivers should think about is what the voting public wants from them and the politicians who finally profit from their traffic stopping campaigns – the right to not vote.

I do not want to vote. My vote means an exercise in freedom and I have used it this time to vote for someone who will not get voted in. What I want is not a jaago re, its a jaagte raho. A campaign or a setting in which every single politician gets a report card that shows what they did, how corrupt their officials were and how the funds that my taxes have created have been used. I want to know why a country that has the opportunity to grow globally has actually got no prescence in the world forums. I want to know why India’s foreign policy is the weakest in all the BRIC nations.

I want to know why India is still counted as the one of the worst places to do business due to its corrupt politics and red tape laden bureaucratic process.

I want to know what my money gets me. Right now, all I see is broken roads, sad infrastructure and religious extremists who put in a 1:1 dog fight with any regular Indian would stand the same chance as a regular Indian does when they stand up against them and their power play today.

—————————–

Yes, I might be blogging again after all.

The departure was one brought on by a feeling of futility which, along with laziness causes one to believe that one cannot and does not want to write; something which was closer to the truth than I would otherwise admit freely.

My returns to blogging are as hopeless as a pro wrestlers attempt to retire and live a peaceful life so lets see where this goes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is one of the best speeches I have seen in the Indian Parliament. For those who think that the parliament is full of dispassionate morons … You are right … just not always

1. I am un-interesting.
2. Everything that I want to blog about, I forget.
3. I am losing my memory
4. I am being choosy about what I write.
5. I am losing my memory … did I already write that?

What scares you more: the concept of a strange, glob-like monster that might eat you up or the fact that there is a human someone who can destroy everyone and everything you love and not even blink an eye?

What is it that makes the thought of such normal activity that scares us more than the unknown? What is it about these random acts of violence (often planned and well executed) that send shivers down the spine when things like the ghost of an elder nether world creature hell bent to eat humanity just becomes another 1970s japanese horror flick?

I think it is the possibility of what you can become as a human that makes us scared of these “abnormal” people and deeds. I think it is the reality that you and I could have been the one doing these things that scares us more  …

What do you think?

This event was brought to my notice today thanks to the new wordpress dashboard (which rocks, btw!). This set a chain of events in motion which included me wondering what the hell a tag is and how one responds to a tag, since my only understanding of a tag stems from my days as an avid wrestling fan when I was in school (for those who don’t know – getting tagged in wrestling is a way for one big, ugly muscled man to get his partner ugly, huge guy into the ring to beat on the poor unfortunate soul who tends to be their opponent. This was a source of constant delight to me – I know. I am weird). Therefore, after a few minutes of recollecting such greats as the  Road Warriors, the Steiner Brothers, the Minnesota Wrecking crew, etc.  and a few minutes of disbelief at the amount of time I used to spend on that, I decided to find out how to respond to the same.

SO … here goes the result (for potential employers/ management school board members, this is not a comprehensive depiction of my personality – the actual meaning not the Indian one ):

Last movie seen in a Cinema hall?

Ironman – Doesn’t live up to the hype. The robotics and effects are out of the world though!

What book are you reading?

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake and Tsun Szu was a Sissy by Stanley Bing.

Favourite board game(s)?

Battleship! and Monopoly

Favourite magazine?

Not sure if I have one.

Favourite smells?

The smell of home brewed coffee and the smell of fuel.

Favourite sound?

Bass Guitar solo in E minor

Worst feeling in the world?

The feeling you get when your mind suddenly reboots and you can’t think or hear anymore.

What Is The First Thing You Think Of When You Wake?

Sleep.

Favorite fast food place?

Not a big fast food person but Nude in Dublin was amazing (even though it is not fast food ).

Future child’s name?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!

Finish this statement. “If I Had A Lot Of Money I’d…”

Travel to all the places on my list, buy a lot more books, make a lot more money, hmmm … that reminds me …

Do you drive fast?

You mean there is another way?

Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?

…

Storms – cool or scary?

Cool, although I have heard that the temperature actually rises when there is one.

Do you eat the stems on Broccoli?

Oh yeah!

If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?

No hair questions please!

Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in?

New Delhi, Bangalore, Allahabad, Mhow/ Indore, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Palakkad, Cochin, Trivandrum, Darjeeling, Dublin, Galway.

Favourite sports to watch?

Football, F-1, Cricket, MMA!, Tennis

One nice thing about the person who sent this to you -

Bharath: Damn cool guy. Has probably done more things that I have thought of.

What’s under your bed?

Nothing. My bed touches the floor.

Would you like to be born as yourself again?

Of course! and if u could sign my petition …

Morning person or night owl?

Night Owl (work makes me get up early)

Over easy or sunny side up?

Scrambled!

Favourite place to relax?

Between my bed and the window preferably with a nice breeze coming in.

Favourite pie?

Apple!

Favourite ice-cream flavour?

Hmmm … Chocolate and Strawberry mixed.

You pass this tag to -

Chaitanya, Anubhav and Priya.

Of all the people you tagged this too, who’ll respond first?

Whoever reads the blog first, I guess.

How do you judge people?