The Fasting Land

A few nights ago I had a dream. I had crash landed in a strange land. Everybody there was frail and bony. On enquiry I learnt that it was called "The fasting land". The king was none other than Anna Hazare. Modi was the Maha Mantri and Kiran Bedi was the Senadipathi.

It seemed the people there only leaved to fast. There were all kinds of races and betting on fasting. The more hours they would fast, the more the money they would earn. They just wanted a purpose to fast. Like, Obama would fast so that Terrorists would not attack America. Musharraf would fast so that India could give Kashmir to Pakistan. Manmohan singh would fast against everybody calling him a week PM. Raja would fast till he is cleared of all the charges in 2G. Nityananda would fast to ban all the video recordings in mobile phones and cameras. Jagan mohan would fast against everybody calling his father Y.S.R a fraud. Though it was illegal in this land everybody would just pickup a purpose for the sake of it to earn money through betting.

The king called in for a meeting to regularize fasting so that there was no misuse of the right to fast. After a lot of discussion among the core committee of the King, Mantri and Senadipathi they formed a new department called "Controller of fasting bureau". The king Anna Hazare himself headed it as he wanted to keep it under his watchful eyes. The king’s main desire was to bring a good fasting culture to fulfill required purposes.

Thus a new memorandum on fasting was released for the benefit of everybody. The controller of fasting bureau would have 4 directorates for each timeline of fast - Less than 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks and more than a month-. Each directorate had its own set of rules & regulations. Anybody who wants to fast has to first get registered with the bureau. For that they would have to fill up a form and must specify all the details of the venue, the timeline of fast, the purpose and the limit on the number of people to gather. They should also submit previous experience certificates of fasting along with bonafide ids. A demand draft for 10 rupees should be posted to the bureau. Each application will be examined for its uniqueness of the purpose, the timelines applicability and the experience. The selected person will then receive an authorization certificate entitling him to fast. During this time period the relevant directorate will monitor the progress of the fast and submit its report to the king.

Any person who would fast without getting the required authorization will have to pay a fine of 5000 rupees with a jail term not less than 21 months. First Sunday of every month will be observed as “National Fasting day”. On this day they would get all kinds of tips to fast for long hours without food and water. They would also get to know the benefits of fasting. Any person who would fast for the specified timeline would get an experience certificate and an incentive for the hours of fast. If the purpose is met for which he/she was fasting then they will be entitled to all kinds of fasting discounts and fasting rechargeable coupons.

The fasting discounts included “fast for five days, fasting for another day is free”, "Fast for 2 weeks, get a week of fasting free" etc. There were also special fasting packages like "Fast for one month , get a free trip to Switzerland" etc. The fasting rechargeable coupons could be recharged on expiry to extend the timeline of fasting. At the same time if a person breaks the fast even before the completion of specified timeline then there would be severe punishment. He might be banned from fasting for a time period or for life as decided by the directorate.

At this stage I woke up…..

Technology Begets Technology

Those were the days of my childhood. We did not have a VCP player. What we had was a Black and White 14" Dyanora TV that was just good enough to see the daily Doordarshan serials. No Cable TV still. Those who had the VCP in our locality were richest, at least in my eyes. We used to throng to their houses to catch the latest movies (at least 2 months old).My favorite used to be the Indiana jones series, Jurassic Park, Robocop etc. Their houses were like theatres for us. We just waited for the next video cassette to be brought by them. It was not just the children but also the elders who would gather. For me, all this amounted to a festive like atmosphere.

Then it was the time of cable TV. The traditional cable TV operators (unlike today’s operators) used to broadcast 2 movies every day. If one movie came in the afternoon then the other one was at night. Our Muslim neighbors had a huge magnifying glass which would make a 14" screen of a TV look like a 32" screen. It had become a sort of a ritual visiting their homes at all occasions. The cable TV had become a means of uniting people from different religions. It had helped us in making many as our family friends.

The mid 90s marked the existence of Star TV which was an instant rage. This is when we upgraded our TV to a color 20" BPL along with the Star TV connection. Our comforts of home had brought everything within our reach. The gap between people that were bridged by VCP and the traditional Cable TV was broken at once. Almost every home had upgraded to Star TV and hence the need to go elsewhere was not required. The traditional Cable TV metamorphosed into broadcasting several channels apart from the STAR TV instead of movies. Even the brick like black colored video cassettes had slimmed into spherical CDs and DVDs. The shops that rented out VCDs morphed into renting CDs and DVDs. Since then it has not changed for a while.

Of late I am sensing seeds of change again. My locality used to be a hub for several CD shops. Almost every weekend I used to bring several latest movie CDs so that our family could enjoy sitting together without the nuisance of any advertisements. Now all those shops have either closed or shifted gears to some other chain of stores. Only one or two remain. Even those have either rented out half of its space to accommodate a sweet shop or on the edge of closing it. That’s clearly is a sign of extinction.

Probably the decline started with the advent of Internet and other data transferring technologies like Blue Tooth. Though used sporadically in its initial days, now Internet is slowly becoming as common as Cable connections - Even the Net cafes might be out of vogue very soon -. Almost all the latest movies can be caught in one website or the other. The competition of the various channels also has not done any good to the future of CD shops. Within weeks of release some or the other channel would broadcast a latest movie.

For better or for worse, One Technology has either given birth to a new technology or gobbled up another Technology. All we can do is only use the latest till it gets older and get used to using another till it leads to a new one. Its never good to get stuck with one Technology as thats when we as a generation will get outdated.

The Time Warp

Why do our parents think that they know everything? (They keep advising us) Why do they despise all that which may not match with their biases? (They think the previous gens were more intelligent) Or they stuck in a Time Warp?

Those were the days of landlines and Telephone booths. I still remember the time when I had to stand in a line (1.25 rupees in my hand, because thats what costed per call) in front of a booth just for a chance to speak to my friend over phone. It all has changed just in a span of 10 years with the advent of small wireless devices called cell phones. When I had bought it for the first time I thought that it might be of no use to me as I was not as social. I am sure many people would have felt the same way. Now when I look back, I know, that statement doesnt hold good anymore.

Our generation has now been sorrounded by these so called different kinds of gizmos and gadgets. We will not be able to visualize our lives otherwise. I am sure if cell phones were to be banned (Like prohibition towards drinking) today then we might even be prepared to smuggle them just to have a look at it. A cell phone has become an identity and an extension of our physical self that we might feel handicapped with out it. There was a time when I used to write, re-write on scores of papers to get my poetry right. Finally when I got it right I might have used atleast 20 papers of manuscript with numerous permutations and combinations of sentences underlined, scratched, written over and over again. Now laptops, desktops and very recently ITabs and Iphones with the facilities of MS-office have made all the editing more easier.

Now leave alone coexisting with these devices they have become our world. Our parents never had to put up with these things. So they really dont understand the state of today's generation. This has been the reason enough for our parents to always went their anger at us. When I am in my room doing something on my laptop they would just come up and yell at me not to waste time. They would rather be happy seeing me reading my text books. Now hold on!! I might just be doing the same thing in my E-Library. Why should they assume that I would be wasting my time playing only games on it? (I was infact doing the same thing) But why should they assume that instantly?

What used to be a source of knowledge at their time may not be anymore. To find a piece of information during their times would have taken a lot of (not at all worth it) effort from going to a library, searching scores of shelves, looking through various paper back editions and finally getting to what they wanted. But now you can just type it in google and you get it with the least effort. The problem with our elders is that they are still stuck in a time warp. They still can't realize the fact that the time of Rafis and Kishores are gone and the time of pritams and Rahamans are here irrespective of their liking. They should learn to respect the ideas of every generation and keep abreast with the updates. During their times the interaction with external world was minimal. That was best suited at that point of time. Today's world is made up of Facebooks and Twitters. They are so embeded into our systems that we cannot have any identity without them. If you cant understand a new thing atleast you should'nt despise it. The best thing that one can do is to keep the mind open and abserve and absorb the changes.

I hope that we can remain as broad minded as possible when we age. The next generation kids already speak the language of CDs and XBOX games. But those changes are inevitable with every surge of new generation. We just have to realize that this is the nature of ever-changing volatile world.

Telangana??? What After that??

People (innocent Osmania University students egged on by the political leaders???) are fighting for a separate Telangana state. Was the ruckus of demand for a separate state politically driven or common man driven? That is a highly debatable question. Now lets assume that the demand is very reasonable and the separate state has been formed. What after that? Does that mean all our problems will be resolved? Will every student who is fighting for this cause end up with a well paid job (both Government and private) irrespective of the required skill set? Will the omni-present corruption ( so unselfishly being fought against by Mr Anna Hazare) vanish for ever? Will the political leaders change in to sadhus and think about the well-being of the people all of a sudden? Will the dry farm lands of Telangana become well-irrigated overnight?

I really dont think so...The only thing that would happen according to me is that new kings will take charge and same story of cat and mouse (in this case the politicians and common man) will repeat itself over and over again till this system is completely rotten beyond any chance of resurrection. Ok fine!!! lets trust these so called babus. They tell that if Telangana is formed, Krishna waters will be with us in its entirity. If that is true then why is our state dilly-dallying this issue in front of the tribunal for all these years? Will Telangana achieve what our entire state put together has not been able to achieve for so long? I doubt it.

Forget about the natural resources. Lets consider something that is in our control. The political leaders are promising our students that everybody will be employed after the state formation. I really want to know from where will the jobs come? If only all the Government jobs were filled all this while in AP, our employment rate would not be so dismal. Even if we are made to think that everyone will be given jobs, can we safely assume that it will be done free of any bribe? Now what about private jobs? If the jobs in private sector are made compulsory for all the Telangana students then will that mean companies will recruit even if they dont have the required qualification or skillset. I doubt if any company would stay with so many restrictions in this world of liberalisation. The growing Telangana agitation along with bandhs and strikes has already caused many companies to go to other cities. Hyderabad, once competing with metro cities like Bangalore (When Chandrababu naidu was at the helm) in IT has fallen in standards so much that even tier II cities like Baroda are performing better. Will the emergence of Telangana cause even more decline has to be seen?

Many questions and less answers. Will these questions remain questions for ever?? That is another question. I only have a single and simple answer. Enough of distruction and instability. As they say it, together we stay and together we grow. Lets make it a point to put all these things behind and strive for a progressive state. For once lets forget all the differences and work for the development of this state. That would yield more results.

Father of Jan-lokpal bill

Anna Hazare,

This name was not as popular just a few months back. Now that has become a brand name even an LKG kid would know in every Indian home. Such has been his popularity (almost everybody including the media is following him) now that people are considering him as second Gandhi. If at all there was a prophecy (like sadhus and gurus who prophesy these days) that Gandhi would resurrect himself after 64 years then it has come true.

‘Con’gress has unleashed almost all its con weapons and ammunitions up its sleeve to dent the confidence of this little old aging, fasting until death, never-say-die Gandhian. Like Keanu Reeves in the English movie ‘Matrix’, he has dodged almost everything including abuses. Like an iron man he has stood firm deflecting everything through his shield of resilience.

One cannot discount the fact that if this law comes into force then almost everybody in the parliament would find themselves in Tihar. Probably this also one of the reasons why everybody wants to vilify this movement by terming that some external forces are behind this. Given a chance they might also say that Aliens from outer space are also behind this movement.

Should say, this has been one of the most defining moments of Indian politics in the recent past. Our Government so used to finding ways implementing everything (whether passing bills, getting votes, increasing prices or proving its majority) it wants to by corrupt means has all of a sudden been jerked from its inertia. It just cannot digest that even an ordinary Indian could challenge its supremacy. The Omni-powerful and Omni-present Government has been too reluctant to accept the fact that it is not all that powerful or present in each and every common man’s heart. The once oblivious R K Laxman’s common man is not all that oblivious or anonymous any more. When the need arises the common man will raise to assert that he has the true power in Democracy. This is the real truth. And Anna is that face of a common man.

Why is Anna getting so much of support? The reasons for this are many. If on one hand his pristine character (with no political overtones and selfish desires) being the reason then on the other is the recent incessant waves of corruption (2G, CWG etc.). All these things not withstanding for years the common man has been coming face-to-face with corruption in every phase of life from getting a license for a two wheeler to getting a ration card. If one says only these are the avenues of corruption then that’s a mistake. Corruption is in everything and in all forms from constantly withering roads with the slightest drop of rain, overflowing drainages, incomplete projects pertaining to roads and rivers etc. Every small misuse of the public money that goes unnoticed and effecting the quality of our lives is a cause of corruption. This is also reason enough for India as a nation will ever be a developing (not developed) country. Every time the television is switched on or one sees the front page of a newspaper only scams meet the eye. Our country can be called a developed country at least in one aspect. That would be in range of scams. If the first scam cheated the common man in lakhs then now that’s gone up to Crores.

Now all this is about to change. If it has to start this way then let it be. Let us all be a part of this Movement and cease this moment to be a part of history which is in the making every passing second, minute, hour and day. Hopefully this will just signal the beginning of something new and better tomorrow. Let’s give a better future to our future generations.

When Sauce was a Tomato once upon a time

There was a scream in the kitchen. Expecting some kind of a mishap I ran over. My wife was in a state of shock standing like a statue. I doubted if some sage had converted her into a stone for not adhering to her husband. As Lord Rama stepped on a stone, Ahalya had a second life. Similarly I thought I too should do something like that. Well! I was not so lucky. The reason for the scream was she had forgotten to watch her daily serial and a good 15 minutes already had gone by. She almost high jumped over me to the hall, the place of existence of our beloved idiot box.

1002301th part (not sure about the number of years of its running) of the daily super mega serial of “Kyunki Sauce bhi kabhi Tomato thi” had already started. She breathed a sigh of relief as yesterday’s part was still being shown. Should say this was 15 times slower than the super slow motion of a cricket ball touching the bat. I am amazed at her punctiliousness in covering every part twice (Today’s night part is repeated tomorrow morning) as if there was some kind of exam next day and she had to be the topper by any means. And believe me she is so irritated if she misses even a single dialog or a scene. Nobody is supposed to do any cross talk at that hour.

I am not sure why people are so mad about such serials. I find it very brain damaging, annoying and quite silly. It is even more when I just come home from office and want to relax by watching some nice English movie in our recently bought 32” LCD flatron Sony TV. And I am snubbed every time I request for the remote. Being the broad minded that I think I am I always have to succumb to her requests. I then normally divert my attention to other activities like reading a book or newspaper just to forget the pain of not able to watch the TV. But occasionally I just happen to catch some of the parts.

I just cannot stand the same clichéd characters walking in and out every time you see. Rich joint families (that is so outdated), all the characters clad in such grand costumes and artistic jewelry that a middle class woman would never ever be able to wear even with a savings of life time, innocent looking “bahus” with loads of pancake on their faces, glycerin pouring through their cheeks every minute like a Niagara fall, supercilious “sasu maas” looking down on everybody including their no good side-kick husbands , villainous sister-in-laws showing the “Bahus” in bad light just for the sake of it. The list can go on. In the name of God can somebody please shut these things down?

Anyways now the serial had started. In a marriage scene there was some high emotional drama going on. All the ladies were sobbing because their distant cousin sister, third daughter of their step mother’s daughter whose father had divorced her to marry another (Confused??? Me too, I am not sure if that kind of relation really exists), who was getting married would be leaving them after marriage and their husbands were consoling them. Thinking that this was a third marriage in their family I told my wife that I saw a similar scene a month back. With eyes glued on TV, with watery eyes, almost breaking down unable to bear the emotional scene, she told me that this was the same marriage and was still going on.

I almost fell of my seat!!!!

The beautiful Hills of Papikondalu & Badrachalam

Looks like the mansoons are finally here feeding the thirsty earth - left high and dry because of hot and humid summer- with rain water. It's great how the weather changes so quickly as if there was some kind of an alarm set- that June has come so must the rain. The first day first show also had me booked by drenching me completely on my way to the last day in Office. Yes that's right, incidentally this is my last day I would ever enter- if I don't join it again- that campus of beautiful beetle shaped red building resembling some old british fort sorrounded by rocky green landscape. While leaving I had a drop or two flowing through my eyes getting lost in the rain.

Me and my wife have planned for a getaway for the next two days. As a part of it we are going to Badrachalam and papikondalu tour through AP Tourism. Strange as it may be that the last day of summer and first day of monsoon has been chosen as a getaway when it had to be the other way round. Immediately after this tour we are going to chennai and from there to Tirupati. So that's a lot of travelling till next weekend.

At 5'o clock in the morning we reached Badrachalam in khamam dist. Haritha hotel is a building with pent house style rooms with good greenery sorrounding it. After fresh up at around 6:30 in the morning we left To the famous Ram leela temple on the banks of river Godavari.

While getting down the bus the recitation of sundarakanda soothingly reached our ears. Every year Sita Ramula kalyanam is conducted here and is visited by thousands of people. It is called as Ayodhya of Andhra Pradesh and considered one of the holiest places. But as with all the holy places this too has been choking under incessant pressure of dealing with huge public. As you can see dirt and lot of waste strewn everywhere on the walk ways with house flies making merry on them emanating an unbearable smell. It didnt seem any body cleaned it over a period of time. The shrine was atop of a small hill and invited us with 80 odd steps with beggars on either side of each step as if they were the guardians of the temple.

As we ascended step by step so did the sounds of beggars of all ages begging (amma ayya.....) for thier share of coins too ascended to unbearable decibal levels. Two of them even managed to have a tangle and fought over a coin as to whose it was that was thrown at them. The begging at its best I probably have ever seen. The main mandapam where the statues of lord Rama and Sita are kept is made of sculpted black stone. As we reached the main abode, the chantings of the peaple ( jai Sri Ram) around me rose to a crescendo and it subsided after the statues were visible. After breakfast we left to paranasala about 35 km away.

The fresh breeze of river Godavari touched our faces even as the scourching sun was beating down on our heads. With Godavari in background Parnasala looked like a small movie set out of Bapu's Sita Ramula kalyanam with various kinds of shops leading up to a temple tempting the passers by with their own specialities. There is a piece of history attached to this place though. Rama, Sita and Lakshmana were here during their last three years of 14 years vanavasam. All this has been symbolically represented here with statues of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana along with their hut and Ravana abducting her. Also there is one rock on which it seems as per the folklore Sita had dried up her 40 feet saree after her bath. The marks of that saree are visible even today. It is called as ' Nara chira guruthulu'.

But one thing that stuck me is the extent of commercialization that's taking it's toll on these historical places. It clearly shows that we donot have any kind of respect and care for our own history. We as tourists just come round to have good time and take photos and forget about it after we leave. These places exist only as memories in our photo album. Those people cash in on the place popularity and set up their livlihood in these places thriving on it. But ultimately it's the place that is taking the beating with none caring for it's wellbeing. Those people thriving on it not just earn out of it but also make it dirty and filthy. In that process the rivers and ponds around are so polluted that you would shriek at the idea that Gods even bathed once here. It is hard to get any kind of devotion looking at these things.

Post lunch we took a 2 hour (75 km) drive to Pochavaram. Sandwiched between huge hills and Godavari river is Pochavaram a tribal village. From here we boarded the steamer to Papikondalu in Kollur. There was no signal in my phone here on. The guide anounced the start of the steamer. It slowly moved as if a tiger hidding in woods slowly moving to catch it's prey to give it a surprise. But our steamer never really gained speed as the level of water was pretty low. Using the depth meter it slowly traversed through the calm surface of the water cautiously wherever the depth was deep enough.

We reached the shore of Papikondalu just before sun set. Tea and Pakodas were served. Our night stay was at one of those 40 bamboo huts on the shore. Luckily we got a separate hut to stay. As the sun set the green hills turned darker like shadows of giant ghosts waiting to gobble. There was silence around except for few occasional gigles of tamilians gathered before thier hut. Should say this was one of the most unique experiences I have had until now. Huge hills on one side, Godavari on the other, no phone signals, no thinking about the world two days after. Laying down lazily on the soft sand beside our hut, looking at the crescent like moon in the dark blue sky perforated with stars, should be there to be experienced. Didnot know when I slept. Only gotup when my wife coerced me to at around 5 in the morning. We had a bath before anybody else and just walked around the shore in the pre- sun rise time. The beach of Kollur with our tourism steamer anchored, the freshness of the breeze over the still water of Godavari, our huts in hues of blue and yellow, people in it still lazily shifting in their sleep, all in all made an enticing experience. We had a chance to capture this ever so enthralling nature in our cameras.

At 8:00 after filling our stomach with some idlis, chutney and upma it was the time for some jungle walk. An halfanhour walk through the path criss-crossing the forest, Kollur tribal village and then through the hills of trees sided by the snake like canal of stream took us to this place. We enjoyed the stream for the rest of two hours diving, swimming and floating and taking snaps.

Post lunch we were all set to leave and sitting in our steamer. Suddenly we came to know that our neighbour's wife went missing. Aged about 80 yrs of age it was hard to see where would she go in the smeltering heat of the sun. It's tough to walk even 100 mts on those hot sands as you might be drained of your energy. May be she had fallen down and lost her consciousness. We had to search for about an hour but with out much success. Somebody from other boat gave information that she had left in another boat. So we hoped to see her at Pochavaram atleast.

On the way back we stopped at Parentapalli. Here we visited Ramakrishna ashram and Shiva temple. A huge neam tree with steps adjacent to it invited us. There were many toys made of bamboo on sale by the locals there. But I could not find even a single cool drink or water as I was really thirsty. It was only in other boat's canteen that I could find one cool water bottle.

Back in Pochampalli we came to our bus and also found our Neighbour's wife seated comfortably. She had her side of story to tell. She had boarded a different boat out of confusion. And they dropped her to Pochampalli all the way. But anyways her husband breathed a sye of relief having found her. It's been 60 years since they have been together and this was not the way they were supposed to part. As my heart also felt comfortable our bus left back to Bhadrachalam from where we will heading back to the pavilion- Hyderabad.