The great wonderland of gas

You should see the queues lining up at Petrol Bunks in Chennai.

The bunks are going dry and the rumor mills are overflowing. But then if there is no smoke, then it is fair to assume that there is no fire. Sure does look like the country’s oil comapanies have little or no reserves for the common man. Someone said that they are rationing it by state. And giving three days quota at a time. And that the diesel demand rate in India is increasing at 30% per annum - thats doubling every three years. And that the state owned oil companies have simply no wherewithal to match that with supply. One would have called it comic, had it not been farcical, when one sees the rulers summon the oil campanies and order them to “Resume supplies”. Reminds one of the biblical reference of Sam Manekshaw to Indira Gandhi’s call to battle - “let there be light”. The financial planners havent budgeted for light - so how can there be light? What then of the eloquent and adept product of Harvard Business School, our Honorable minister of Finance, Sri PC? Of him, perhaps we should echo the words of Alice in Wonderland - “An author doesn’t necessarily understand the meaning of his own story better than anyone else.” (To which he might respond with another Alice quote “I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, Sir, because I’m not myself you see.”).

Rumors are news now. Roadside murmers have it that some big ocean liners are on the way and that they will be arriving amidst tight security tomorrow night. Roadside rumors whisper that Nero is alive and fiddling and that Reliance is exporting gas. I dont know about  that, but this I do know that many roads in Chennai are periodically dug up. The roads are dig up every few months, creating major traffic stress. This time around they were saying that these have been dug for Reliance. Cable? Or is it gas? Sure wish that there is a seperate ministry for Road Digging in the state. An Alician question comes to mind - “when you have no roads, why do you need gas?”

Coming back to the gas situation. There is talk that dealers are being incentivised to sell less. Now thats an innovative business model.

Nuke-deal deadlock. Gas crisis. Raging inflation. What is Sonia to do? Call for Elections this winter?  “Sentence first — verdict afterwards!” as had said the Queen of Hearts? Perhaps then its time that the Indian electorate looks at the Coalition-Adharma opportunists in the eye and and respond the way Alice did  - “Who cares for you?’ said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) ‘You’re nothing but a pack of cards!’ “ 

The 25th of June

All channels are talking of June 25, 1983… The day when India won the Prudential cup - the cricket world cup. And my class e-group had a lot of fun talking about “where were you on that day?”…

And then someone asked, about the same date, in a different year:

“How many of us remember June 25th 1975? And what were you doing then?”…

One of my class fellows, NR, of Kerala, guessed right, when he replied “Emergency?”

Yes, that was the day when the Indira Gandhi Government declared a state of Emergency in India.

Civil liberties were suspended, opposition leaders jailed, press freedom suspended, judicial freedom curtailed…

And heres what Joseph remembers of that day… I quote from his mail…

“emergency i wont forget !

I just about did not make it into RECT ( you lucky devils !) was in the tail-ender batch in August - not enough marks obviously !

i was visiting my school one day in July and had hung around till 7:00 pm with some pals. my close pals had all left by then to BITS, JIPMER, etc. I had applied only to RECT & a hurried one to REC Calicut. i was sh*7$ng in my pants ( damn that silly mistake from over-confidence - old problem , still with me - for maths in CBSE that knocked off 10 marks in a really simple question !!)

As i waited for a bus back it was getting dark. Then i heard this rumble of an overloaded old jeep spewing smoke trundling up the steep road as police men in helmets stood up at the back & were also packed into it. I was grinning at the sight sitting on a culvert, as it passed me. I also had this CBSE smirk for all local offices & machinery.

I guess it must have pissed off the Sub Inspector coz the jeep that passed me stopped about 20 meters away and the athletic police men in helmets & really heavy boots that went KATAK, KATAK, PACHAK, KATAK ran towards me shouting ” come here u dog!’

I was in shock as 3 of them grabbed me, bend my hand behind me and push me to the ground, pulled me up, pushed me to the jeep and shoved me in !

inside a sub inspector turned around bored and asked me what are you doing here?

F*&$ man - i had not even started shaving and the F-&^%$-R thought i was some criminal??

i cud not speak in malayalam well then as the Refinery school did not have a great malloo crowd and neither were we taught malayalam . So i spoke in english and that saved me !! The SI then had to respond in English to save his face in front of his goons. I was surprised that i was showing that i was pissed though i was scared & intimidated like hell with these KATAK KATAK KATAK boots of these cops.

I asked him - what did i do? why are you doing this to me? i just went to my school!

He asked what school ? I explained. Then he said -’ look its Emergency- do u understand? dont hang around here on the roads after 6:00. OK? Now go home !!’

They then almost chucked me out of the jeep and puttered on as the guys standing at the back glared at me & i back !

So - how will i forget the Emergency , 1975 and RECT & you F-&^#@-S ?!!

KATAK, PACHAK, KATAK, PACHAK

enna?

NR

**

So, where were you on June 25th?

Maniacal Mankind

Every morning welcomes us with a choice of terrible news… Last couple of days it has been the terrible blast at Jaipur, and the tragic earthquake at China…

And today, I happened to come across a small news item on BBC that said - “Wildlife Populations Plummeting “. (Click here for the news)…

Heres a quick summary…

The “Living Planet Index”, is a database that is compiled by Zoological Society of London in partnership with WWF. And heres what their data reveals…

- Pupulation of marine species in the world has gone down by 28% in just 10 years, between 1995 and 2005

- Populations of ocean birds have fallen by 30% since the mid 1990s

- Land-based populations have dropped by 25%

The news item says “Humans are wiping out about 1% of all other species every year, and one of the “great extinction episodes” in the Earth’s history is under way”…

Can you believe that?

And then add to this, the other plunders being committed by man - the destruction of forest areas, river waters, and natural resources of earth…

If this is the civilization ushered in by the modern world, then it is time that we put mankind in the dock…

Or better still…Stop the world, and push mankind off…  

Stuff the world seeks…

I was having a look at the Google Zeitgeist for March 2008…A window into what people are googling for in different parts of the world….Interesting insights into a world where borders matter…

Heres some samples….

Afghanistan is pretty straightforward…They are looking for stuff on Afghanistan, Kabul, katrina kaif…

Australia seems to think in pairs…two word searches…Duran Duran, Maori Tattoos, John Mayer, John Lennon, Eva Green…

Canada seems pretty random…with folks seeking info on stuff like Curly Hair, Hotel, Pluto, Smoke…what are they looking for?

French are more real, looking for stuff on local politicians, actresses, holiday resorts….

India is a predictable mix of politics, actors, and a heavy dose of educational institutions…Exam results, admissions etc seem to dominate the needs of the online seeker…

The Irish seem to have more patience, and are keying in long search items - like St Patricks Festival, Spiderwick Chronicles, venessa ann hudgens….

Italy seems to be quick and neat…Stuff like Festa della donna (womens day), dieta (diet) and aborto (abortion)…No long stuff there…

New Zealanders seem to be like the Irish…willing to type in long search items…like pokemon diamond, vodafone new zealand…

Singapore seems to be geeky with people looking for stuff on Cash convertor, Time Convertor,  six sigma, and fonts…

UAE has a few surprises…With search items like NASA, Philipine News and Krishna appearing in the top 10…

Google lists this stuff every month…One category for ‘Zeitgeist by Country’ for all countries tracked, and a seperate one for ‘U.S. Zeitgeist’…Ho Hum…

 

Why Woodlands Drive in was special…

One of my friends, Sowmya Simhan, who founded and runs an NGO that deals with Disability issues, wrote to me about the restaurant.

Physically challenged, she drives around in a specially designed scooter, and is more active than most people.

Sowmya had this to say about the ‘old reliable’.

I give her mail below.

***

dear kamesh,

actually i am very sad today. You know why. because
of the closure of woodlands drive in. You know it was
such a wonderful place. I have been going there for
the past 20 yrs because they used to serve in our
vehicle. I used to sit in my scooter and eat. Even
when you had to go inside there was no steps etc. so
it made things very easy for me.prices were also very
cheap. no parking problem. i cld go there all alone
also.you can be as long as you pl. it was so very
wonderful. we can never get something like this again
in chennai. its a great loss to the glory of chennai.
all that i hope now is that these polituicians dont
mess it up by making it another concrete jungle.

sowmya

****

Sowmya runs an organization called Sukriti Social Foundation.

You can see their website at http://www.sukriti.org/

And you can know more about Sowmya at:

http://www.sukriti.org/about/people

Time was when men were…

This post is from Dan Balan, free thinker, author, classmate, a Chicagoan… One of the few who feels and touches time…He wrote this piece as a mail to his classmates - a bunch of us, who, among other stuff, have seen a lot of movies together…

***Dan’s mail below***

Dear Classmates,

Charlton Heston, one of the greatest Hollywood actors, has died. He acted in epic movies like Ben-Hur, Ten Commandments, The Agony and the ecstasy, and many others. He played historical roles as Moses, El Cid, John the Baptist, Judas Benhur, Julius caesar( which I enacted in high school myself for which I won the best actor in 10th std.).

He symbolized Hollywood in an era of larger-than-life movies. These movies were more than simply celluloid; they conveyed an american ethos, virtuous, righteous, and one that seemed even right. The world saw America through Hollywood movies. Hollywood became synonymous with America and vice-versa. It was an explicit era of good triumphing evil; righteousness restored and the wrong punished.

Heston was in the company of Montgomery Clift, Robert Mitchum( Ryan’s daughter ), Clark Gable, John wayne and many immortal Hollywood names. BenHur won eleven Oscars. The only other movie in recent times to win a bumper crop was the Titanic.

The movies made then had historical plots, elaborate settings, extensive cast, and enchan ting scenes. Who could forget the chariot races in Benhur, or the parting of the Red Sea in Ten Commandments… It was the era of the magnum opus in Hollywood when Heston reigned.

Contemporaneously, the movies produced in India then were also historicals. NT Rama Rao, Sivaji, MGR and others played roles from chronicles of history. That era is over now, perhaps never to return.

Charlton Heston was from Chicago, attended Northwestern University where he studied acting and speech.

He cut his chops in Chicago theatre, where he played biblical roles. At 6′ 2″, he was imposing with a handsome face, vulnerable, heroic, tender, and rugged all at once— he had no difficulty cracking Hollywood .

In later years Heston was the frontend for NRA–the national Rifle association, the lobbying group that advocates right to bear arms. He also worked for Screen Actors Guild tirelessly.

Three years ago, President Bush awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor. It’s the equivalent of Bharat Ratna in India.

Another page in history has turned…. the world moves on…

-bd

The Odyssey Man

Arthur C Clarke is no more.

He is one of those that one would have liked to have met and talked to. I wish I had scuba dived into outerspace and traveled in time with Arthur C Clarke (somehow, i always think of him as ‘Arthur C Clarke’ rather than ‘Arthur Clarke’. The ‘C’ adds music and magic to the name. Suggests ’seeing’, As also one who loved the ’sea, and scuba diving). He did ‘fore-see’ the coming of communication satellites docked in geostationary orbit…For which reason, the geostationary orbit has been designated as Clarke’s Orbit…

Writing to my college alumni egroup, I mentioned that though I have read some of sci-fi: Arthur Clark,HG Wells, Isaac Asimov, and that other ‘not-that-easily-catagorizable’ genius, Kurt Vonnegut, I havent read enough…and i wish I had read more of Arthur C Clarke’s works.

And my classmate Dan Balan, a writer himself,  now settled in Chicago, wrote back:

“Arthur Clarke was a generation ahead of his time. He was one of the foremost Western visionaries who also understood Eastern way of thinking. He’s a must read. He once said ” Genius is indistinguishable from Magic”.
 
 While Issac Asimov understood scientific principles as a chemist, he was not a thinker in the classical sense. He was an engaging writer nonetheless. Vonnegut was in a completely different genre.
 
 America has lost some of its premier writers in the last few years.  Mario Puzo, Art Buchwald, Joseph Heller et al. They were the doyens and definers of timeless writing that birthed a cultural movement; one of thinking outside normal confines of disciplines and dailyness; one of blending humor to covertly challenge institutions and entrenchment.
 
 Sadly, we are now living in an age of dumbing down. Literary sharpness has been blunted by populist trash, politically correct toothless prose, and a decline in intellectual rigor. There’s a damn swirling Browninan motion that’s culturally bloodying…”

**

Gotta go now. My HAL computer beckons.

Manic Monday

One more crazy day in the markets. The pretty anchors in Biz News channels have brought out their grimmest masks to wear. Subprime crisis (whoever heard of it an year ago), seems to be rumbling into an avalanche. And markets all over are diving lower. Gosh whats up?

Reminds me of a fella who had a pretty rough time in life. He was never the type to consult any astrologers. But this phase of life was pretty rough, and he thought that he’d seen the last of it. And so he wanted to check if he had just been through saadey-saathi, that seven and a half year cycle of saturn. For the first time in his life he consulted the almanac, and he found…..that the cycle had just commenced. What he had experienced was perhaps an acclamatizer!

Anyway, all the pundits are out on this one. “What do you advise the retail investor? Sell and cut losses?” asked a pretty anchor to a prettier analyst “Well..unless you are in distress and need cash, I would advise not to sell. Hold on. Take a holiday. Dont even look at the market news. Come back after six months. Things would have improved. I wouldnt even advise buying now. For we expect that the bottom has not been reached. There will be more fall. So for now, just switch of the TV and go play bridge or learn breathing exercises…Dont come anywhere near the market”, was the approx reply I heard.

So folks…just as India Inc started to flex its muscles, the nerves and bones seem to be crumbling. And the ‘nerves and bones’ systems have a command centre. And thats not the brain, for no one seems to know where the brain is. The command centre is the spine. Which happens to be the American market. And it seems kind of broke, or on the way there. Because there is an imbalance, it appears, between the ‘yen’ and the ‘yank’.

Nero hasnt stopped fiddling though. Election smiles in US and India…And China prepares to light the Olympic torch….

So folks…how do you see it going? desh ka kya hoga? duniya ka kya hoga?

A great human

Baba Amte (बाबा आमटे) has passed on.

He was a true Bharat Ratna. A man who became a Gandhian, and was given the title “Abhayasadhak” (The fearless aspirant) by the Mahatma. A man and family who have done so much for leprosy afflicted humans, and for poverty ridden tribals. And continue to do so. A man who,  in his eighties, shifted to the banks of Narmada, to join the “Narmada Bachao Andolan” (Save Narmada movement). A man so fearless that he once permitted bacilli from a leprosy patient to be injected into him as a part of an experiment.  A man, whom the world could not but help acknowledge, and confer numerous awards, all of which he utilized not for his person, but for his cause.

He died on Feb 9, 2008, in Anandvan, one of the Ashrams he created. An Ashram that now houses around 5000 residents - leprosy afflicted and other disadvantaged people.

Nobel Peace prize is poorer, for it was not conferred on him.  

They dont make them like him any more.

The great bird that climbed

There are some people whose names remain etched in the minds of all mankind. Prominent among those are some great adventurer-explorers, who capture the imagination of all people, spread a wave of joy across the globe by their incredible feats. Who can forget Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin? And who can forget Tenzing Norkay and Edmund Hillary?

Today Sir Edmund Hillary is no more.

He, more than many others, was symbolic of the world-citizen - a man who belonged to the whole world, rather than any one country. The Tibetan and Sherpa name of Everest is Chomolungma, which means “Mother Goddess of the World”. Edmund was her child, and from whatever bits and pieces that one has read of him from time to time, one did get the feeling that here was one ‘humane’ person, a model man. Here was a person who not only scaled the Everest, but also set up schools, hospitals, bridges, water-supplies, airstrips and such for the people in Himalayas. Here was a person who enjoyed challenging life, with the tools of honest toil. Lamenting about the ‘Everest Changes’ (See here), Sir Edmund said mountaineering was a challenge between the mountain and the mountaineer and accused some people of paying their way to the summit. “Having people pay $65,000 and then be led up the mountain by a couple of experienced guides, I personally think, is far less attractive. It isn’t really mountaineering at all,” he said.

While he is best known for the ascent of Everest, his ‘ocean to sky’ expedition in India, captured my ‘heartshare’ even more. In this expedition, he went by speed boat from the mouth of river Ganga, in the bay of Bengal, back along the river, right through the heart of India, up the mountains, and onto Badrinath, near the source of the river…A breathtaking expedition. A Theerth-Yatra, a pilgrimage…

A Kiwi is a flightless bird. But it sure can climb. Keep climbing, Sir Edmund…The great Yatra has no stops…