Me being me

Back. After a short break. Rather a hiatus. Did you guys miss me? OK fine, I know now I am stretching it too far.

I've been busy. And of course travelling. I know, I know. You are like.. so what’s new about that?

Well, I was in Singapore for 10 days and that is a refreshing change from all the places that I have been travelling over the past one year. I was attending training sessions for a week. I spent the weekends on either side in Singapore catching up with friends.

The trip was a welcome break from the routine that is my life in Mumbai.

- A barbecue by the beach where we sat by the beach (or the so- called-beach) and gazed at the quiet sea while thulping down bottles of beer and nachos with hot salsa.

- A lunch that ended with us grabbing some snacks at the end of it because conversations consumed 4 hours while we thought it was 1.

- Long walks and longer chats on life universe and everything in between along Boat Quay.

I did work too. Just in case you thought otherwise. I worked hard 6 days a week because during the day I was in the training sessions and in evenings I had to finish my own work and the India office was still working. And of course I went out and stayed out till late. On an average I slept for not more than 5-6 hours per day over the course of my stay. That of course meant that I returned with black circles and not dark circles and everyone at work concluded that I had a great trip. I concur.

What I am not mentioning here is that I have put on a couple of kilos simply because of my unrestrained and sometimes gluttonous consumptions of simple pleasures of life - Hagen Daaz, Ben & Jerry and the likes.

I landed late on Sunday night and got little sleep as I woke up at 7 am Singapore time or 4.30 India time. And since then I haven't got much sleep. A sudden travel plan had materialised while I was in Singapore and all the work that I had planned for the week had to completed in a day in Bombay. So no sleep on Monday night. Tuesday night I was in Delhi. And Wednesday early morning I drove to Karnal.

Karnal is a 120 kms drive from Delhi and around 2-4 hour drive depending on the time of the day. Karnal is named after Karna from Mahabharat. I was dreading the Delhi-Haryana summer heat but surprisingly it rained through the day. And what an awesome drive it turned out to be. The quintessential Yash Raj movie type picturesque drive. Zipping on NH 1 with fields on both sides and moist/ wet air blowing into our faces. Whoa! The fields weren't green as it is summer, they were brown, but still, it is such a satisfying sight to the sore eyes that have been subjected to Mumbai's grime and Singapore's manufactured and well crafted beauty.

I finished work and drove back another 3.5 hours reaching my guest house very late. A late dinner with a colleague which involved of course mandatory cribs about work, state of world affairs, India's win in New Zealand and my passion - politics and policies. Thus ended an eventful day.

I was up at 6 am this morning as I had to catch Shatabdi to Ludhiana. I rushed out at 6.20 and returned to guest house at 6.30 as I had forgotten the ticket at home :). Picked up the ticket and a colleague of mine en route and zipped to the station. Thank God for Delhi roads and infrastructure that we reached the station 35 kms away in 35 minutes flat. It is unimaginable in any other city in India. But there was a jam outside the station. So the last few hundred meters we dumped the car and ran in. We jumped into our compartment and in 2 minutes the train left. Phew! Whoever, says my life is uneventful.

I am writing this from the train. I have written about my train journeys on this sector earlier here. But there is one thing I have to, have to mention. No it is not how clean the train is or that I have internet connectivity thorough out the 4 hour ride. One of my colleagues cancelled out as some other work came up late last night. There was no time to cancel the ticket. When the TTE (train ticket examiner for the uninitiated) came to check our tickets, we showed him our tickets and mentioned that one passenger did not come and we wanted to cancel the ticket and hadn't had time to do so yet and hence want an attestation and we would cancel at the counter later. (This has been the standard operating procedure)

And no, he just pulled out a hand held. And punched in our ticket numbers and Wholla! my ticket was cancelled and the refund credited to my credit card. I first thought that this was some form of practical joke. Then he patiently informed me that the palm was connected wirelessly and he has in fact cancelled the ticket and the money is actually being credited to my card! Am I impressed or what! This is seriously cutting edge technology. I know no one would believe me so I got a shot of the palm and him punching my ticket details..

The Governments over the past few years (last decade or so) have been doing some stellar work. The Sarvashiksha Abhiyaan(universal education) started in 2002, today has ensured that 75% of children between the age of 6 and 14 attend primary schools. Today's Hindustan Times carries article on how in Chattisgarh the enrollment is 97.5%. In a state where 33% of the population is tribal and the only language the parents know is the local dialect, the kids are learning Hindi and English. And these educated youngsters ten years down will soon demand better life and access to amenities that the governments of the day will have to provide.

The next big revolution is required is in education sector. And BJP's promise on spending 6% of India's GDP on education is a welcome step in this regard. Invest today, reap tomorrow! IMHO( In my honest opinion) there are two sectors that provide huge business potential in India in medium and long term (5+ years). Education is one. With over 40% of India's population in less than 25 age bracket till 2025, the opportunity is begging to be noticed. The other one is matrimony and allied services :). Imagine the number of weddings in the next few decades. The recent record was 36,000 in Delhi on one single day last December. I rest my case.

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I write this as I sit in the flight from Delhi to Chennai. I returned late last night from Ludhiana. My train came in at 10.45pm 15 minutes early. No one was prepared for being ahead of time that when people in the compartment realised that train had reached Delhi, a mad scramble began to collect the luggage and rush out. By the time I reached my guest house and crashed it was 12.30 am and I was at the airport at 5.30 to catch this flight. I am seriously sleep-deprived, not having slept for more than 4-5 hrs in the last 5-6 days. Add a bit of jet lag, 7 hr car drives and 8 hour train rides, I am exhausted. But there is a strange contentment on going back to Chennai. :) A friend of mine is getting married over the weekend so have host of functions to attend. I am planning to steal a trip to Mahabalipuram over the weekend. Let’s see.

After Chennai I go back to Bangalore. I am taking off the next week. Home beckons. I have some plans for the next week, but lest that it gets jinxed I am going to keep it to myself. If they materialise, I will put up and update and some photographs :) (Of course, it is related to travel!)

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I have been listening a lot to Dilli-6. Rehman has set a benchmark that reminds me of Roja. Yes I know I am mentioning this for the second time in this blog but hey its worth mentioning. Read Aadisht's understanding of Nava-Rasas in Rehman's composition esp. Dilli-6.

But this time I am going to talk about the lyrics. After having been subjected to mostly crappy and at best mediocre Bollywood and Tam lyrics in most of the last decade, the few gems that come out are ever more treasured. Dilli-6 i think is Prasoon Joshi's best so far. I am going to mention just two songs here.

'Arziyaan Saaare' is starts of by stating that everything is about surrendering completely (tere dar pe jhooka hoon, mita hoon, bana hoon) to the all powerful 'Marammad muqaddar ki kardo maula' and all knowing. 'Tumse kya maangoon main tum khood he samajh lo'. Then Prasoon subtly leads the lyrical narration from the seeking Almighty elsewhere (ek khushbu aati thi, mai bhatakta jaata tha) to making us realise that the khusbhu lies within us (mujhme hi woh khusbhu thi jisse tune milwaya). BRILLIANTO!. I particularly like the last part. Sar jhooka ke ek pal me maine kya nahi paaya. Abject humility is a virtue, whether you are a believer or not.

The other one is KalaBandar – the metaphorical beast within us. This one hits out at our facades and pretences, underlying biases and prejudices. From the first line, the song does not mince any words and asks tough questions (he kaala bandar bahar hai ya andar) and clearly calls out that it is not easy to seek an answer to this question especially when everyone is looking everywhere but within themselves. It is difficult to introspect as when we do introspect all we see is our grievances and shortcomings. (aao ham sheesha dekhein, ghayal hissa dekhen,alsi kissa dekhein).

But when we look deep within us, we will realise that the Kaala-bandar are all deep within us. Read this ..

Jaan ke bhi hain anjaan hai hum sab,

paagal hain ya nadaan hain hum sab,

jan se hain hum rang birange

hamaam mein hum sare nange!

Loosely translated as

We know this truth (it is all within us)

yet we feign ignorance

Either we are mad or we are really innocent.

While we may hide behind our differences in front of the truth we stand exposed

( That is a very terrible translation, I apologize profusely. My (in)competence stands exposed.)

And the finale summarises most of our attitudes very succinctly.

' I am happy with the bandar as long as he dont get me, he can stay even longer, it dont bother me!

bandar dont go away and bandar kaala bandar I beg you to stay)

When I fully comprehended the lyrics of this song, word by word, for the first time, I was in a state of nirvana. The intellectual incisiveness just blew me away. I am ecstatic and at the same time humbled by the brilliance.

Folks who haven't heard the songs in Gulaal should definitely listen to it. It also has some really great lyrics. It is better understood when we see it in the context of the movie.

Anyways, looking forward to a relaxed week.