Miscellaneous 2

Picking fruit off a tree and relishing every bite of it is such a succulent experience. Be it sweet red strawberries, juicy oranges and lemons, ripe plantains, crunchy apples, majestic mangoes or the humble guavas. People like me, whose fruit picking is generally restricted to the shelves of a super mart can’t pluck enough at the source. I salivate at the prospect of being able to savour fresh fruit in an orchard like some hungry herbivore animal greedily chomping on the greens. What follows next is the urge to immortalise this experience by capturing it with camera in every angle possible with the heavily laden tree in the foreground. I am glad that simple pleasures of life are for free.

Miscellaneous 1

After a month of good monsoon as I drive through a Ghat, what meets my eyes first are the orgasmic greens. The flora is dripping with happiness after the long dry spell. A constant drizzle keeps the wipers of my car busy as rows of water droplets gather onto the windshield like little children queuing up briefly and dispersing the very next moment. As I look around I see rivulets that have sprung almost instantaneously as water seeps through the crevices of rocks to form a steady trickle. In some places it gathers enough mass and progresses to become a water fall. I see flocks of delighted people stopping by to wet their desires. Eager limbs ache excitedly to take a dip into every possible source of water like impatient souls greedily grabbing the elixir. How starved we are of such innate urges! The soothing sound of water falling, splashing and flowing drenches my occasionally parched soul. Every other water body however tiny like a puddle, fancy like a fountain or big as the ocean is a brimming source of bliss to us.

Horn NOT okay please.

My early memory of trucks is that of Ashok Leyland and Tata. Gaudily coloured, dusty and rusty they came with intricate floral patterns ( the Lotus being most common )or with images of gods and goddesses and other motifs. Golden, silver, black and red shiny shimmering stringy decoration often hanged from various parts of the trucks body. However what was most interesting was what was written behind the trucks usually over or below the number-plate. Theses lines ranged from a word of praise for India or a common saying or some poetry or shayari or even some philosophical thought and words of wisdom. However the one that was ubiquitous with all trucks was the HORN PLEASE sign with OKAY squeezed somewhere in between. I don’t remember seeing a truck without this sign.

What prompted this truck-drive down the memory lane is a small initiative started by my Mama( as in Uncle) in Pune, to create an awareness about the unpleasantness and redundancy of honking, besides of course it adding to the noise pollution. He has designed stickers which simply say HORN NOT OKAY PLEASE, which one can stick behind the vehicle. However his purpose is not just to urge people to stick these stickers , but more importantly to convince the driver of the idea. A honking vehicle with a sticker reflecting views otherwise is a shame! In times where the function of indicators in our vehicles is yet to be discovered or is conveniently forgotten and though we use different body parts to indicate where we intend to take our vehicle, we continue to strongly believe that honking will rescue us miraculously from any and all situations on the road. In fact honking has become a favourite pastime of most drivers in our country who proudly honk at all times, even at rhythmic intervals and sometimes to keep themselves awake and occupied! Anyway, I don’t want to elaborate on the harmful effects of honking. My readers are wise. I appeal you to give it serious thought and help us in having a quieter city.

Every Dog has his Day. The moment anyone talks anything about Animal Welfare we think of it as a fanciful idea straight out of Maneka Gandhis' head. Granted that Ms Gandhi plays a pivotal role in the welfare of animals, but what most are unaware of is that India is one among (about) 65 of the 192 countries that has National Animal Protection Laws – The Prevention of Cruelties to Animals Act 1960, The Experiments on Animals (Control and Supervision) Rules, 1968, The Performing Animals Rules 1973, The Transport of Animals Rules 1978, The Experiments on Animals (Control and Supervision) Rules, 1968 and The Wild Life Protection Act 1972- to name a few. What Ms Gandhi and many other people are doing, is just trying to get the existing laws enforced. In this blog I’ll address the issue of Stray Dogs. Lata Mangeshkar sings, Zakir plays the Tabla, Pt.Ravi Shankar- the sitar and Madhuri Dixit can dance. And nobody else can do it like them. However I suspect that some of my neighbours probably expect similar stuff from my four legged friends. Many-a –times Vaidya Kaka comes all agitated to me pleading to silence the natural call of some animal or bird. He cribs and complains about a cat meowing, an owl hooting, a bird chirping, a donkey braying, a gloat bleating or a dog barking. Yesterday he came to see me (again) and after the initial exchange of pleasantries I heard the familiar bark. “You must do something about these stray dogs”. His bark was a whimper. “Last night I was coming back from work and these dogs started following me. I began to run and almost fell over a pothole. I tell you one of them almost bited me”. Just then we were joined by another neighbour Kamal bhabhi. “I know”, she said. “These stray dogs are such a nuisance. But this Maneka Gandhi has no other work to do. She is always interested in like these things only. If she is loving all animals so much then she should keep all of them in her house. Why she is causing trouble for other peoples? You must stop supporting her”, she said scornfully. “Yes Yes. If you want to do social work only, then do something else.” A little support from Kamla bhabhi, and Vaidya Kaka’s whimper was replaced by a roar. Mum came out with tea for the two angry birds, as I sat down to rattle out some facts and calm down Kaka and bhabhi. “Let’s begin by how did the dogs land up on our streets?”, I said. “Thousands of years ago we befriended the wolves. They helped us in hunting and provided us companionship. They lived on the scraps of food that we shared with them. Later we bred them. Today, however the evolved stray is nothing but a menace to us. For years together the government was poisoning them with strychnine, killing them in gas chambers or electrocuting them, yet was unable to control their population and rabies. We must understand that stray dogs live on our garbage dumps. They forage for food in the piles of garbage that gets collected on streets. A stray dogs life-span is between 4-6years unlike 12-17 years of a pet dog. Infact a simple solution to curb the stray dog population could be regular cleaning of our garbage bins thereby insuring that pests don’t thrive. Killing the dogs leads to better chances of survival for the other dogs. Hence the ABC-Animal Birth Control program was started with the help of the RSPCA ( Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelties to Animals England) in many Indian cities using the guidelines issued by WHO, where stray dogs are neutered and vaccinated and sent back to the same streets that they belong to( since they are territorial animals).Neutering the dogs also makes them far less aggressive. Also there is a provision in our law that any animal which cannot be treated for any life threatening disease or is confirmed to have rabies can be euthanized by a veterinarian. For quite a few years now NGO’s have been implementing the ABC programme in different towns and cities. However one must remember that they are largely supported by private funding and donations, with the government playing very little role. After sharing this information Kaka looked convinced. We've been unsuccessful in curbing human population then why bark at the stray dogs. Kaka, after all controlling dog population will take time. Why be so intolerant of those creatures that we share the space with?” Probably Saving the Tiger or the Rhinoceros is a more glamorous campaign to be associated with. If you have a stray dog problem in your area, get together with the people in your building and collectively contact your corporator, the sanitary or health department of your Municipal Corporation or your local SPCA. Get the dogs in your area neutered and vaccinated and make our life and the life of these lovely four-legged friends better. Common let every dog have it's day!

25th Feb 2011

Wah Ustaad Wah

I am not a person who is in absolute awe of film stars or celebs. I am not a person eager to brush my shoulders with them or pose with them for a picture. Similarly, I never find myself rushing for autographs or handshakes. But there are a couple of people, where even I make exceptions. Simply because they are I believe, ‘the God of some things’.

I was small when I first went to his concert. I could not even spell my name, forget his! And yet I was spell bound! That was when my love affair with him began. When I first got to click a picture with him- he and his wife and me on his lap, I was more than ecstatic. This was almost 30 years ago at KALYAN GAYAN SAMAJ. Today, I remember those many many mornings and evenings spent listening to him play on the numerous CD’s that I’d collected over the years. I remember collecting his photographs and posters. I remember watching Heat and Dust and Saaz like an ardent fan. Once when I had gone to All In Radio for a research project that I was doing in college, I saw his photographs on the notice board there. He looked so good in them that I was determined to get a copy. I requested the number of the photographer from the receptionist at AIR and called him up. He was quite surprised at the unusual request. He promised to make copies of the photos and I went all the way to his studio (somewhere in Kalbadevi) to collect them. Such was my admiration for this amazing phenomenon with a magical persona called – ZAKIR HUSSAIN whose fingers whisper sweet nothings to his tabla and then his tabla converses with his audience in a language that is celestial, leaving them mesmerised. There are some things that can connect you almost instantly with your spiritual side. Great Music is one of them. When Zakir plays there is divinity in the air and you feel enveloped in an aura so pure. Beauty is not just what you see and appreciate but also what you hear and feel. Zakir rhythmically drumming his fingers onto the tabla as you experience extraordinary amount of pleasure and almost drift away into a trance only to be brought back to reality by the wah wahs around! Heaven would be no different than this. Any amount of curling of the hair by amateur Tabla players is nothing but an absolutely ridiculous attempt of imitating the maestro.

Saturday, last week, I had an opportunity of a rendezvous with him and like a child, my excitement knew no bounds. The occasion was the 12th Vasant utsav of Suresh Wadkar’s Ajeevasan Vidyalay in Santacruz. After an enthralling performance by my hero I called out to him. “Zakir Bhai, I’ve come all the way from Hamburg. Can I get a hug please.” “I am all sweaty”, he said. To which I retorted, “ I don’t mind. It’s cold out there in Hamburg”. A warm hug and a kiss later and after an exchange of some words in German, “Auf Weidersen”, said Ustad. “Tchoos”, said I.

What a wonderful moment this was. Thanks to Krupa Kaku and Kaka I’ll cherish this moment for the rest of my life!

Wedding Cards

18th January 2012


Om Gan Ganapataye Namah.

We cordially invite you to the wedding reception of our daughter..........

As I was reading this card I remembered how some years ago a friend had spoken animatedly about a wedding she’d been invited to and showed me a very expensive wedding card. It was made in silver. It was in fact a large silver sheet encased in a red and gold glass case. The inscriptions on it boasted of numerous pre-wedding ceremonies and an uber expensive venue for the wedding. Years later, we now seem to have further graduated to wedding cards with semi precious stones and Swarovski crystals. Today, the wedding card market is huge and people are more than willing to spend a bomb on the piece of paper called invitation. I just read somewhere that the 1 lakh rupee card has already hit the market.The basic purpose of the cards is inviting and informing. But over the years they've evolved. Maybe it all began with humble post-card size invites and now we have A4 size booklet-format cards. Our belief in ‘bada hai to behtar hai’ is only getting behtar.

Some cards remind me of Binaca geet mala where Amin Sayani read out names of people who had requested a song. The card has a long list of names of 'everybodies'. Chunnu, baby, munna, babu, chinu, Somu kaka, Radha kaku, Kalpesh Mama, Kaveri Mami, Rekha Atya, Soni Tai and Samar Jiju with chitu.......the list goes on. I’ve also heard that some people get offended if they fail to find their name on this ‘who’s who’ list. Such is our love to see our name in print. Then there are other cards that flaunt the poetic skill of a family member( usually the bride or groom's mother). An elaborate piece of poetry where a lot of effort has been put into getting the rhyme scheme correct, finds center place. The unwritten rule says- Never forget words of praise for this work o art. To add, there is this RSVP thing which we don't know and don't believe in. Yet as a rule we print it.

Anyway, whether minimalistic or lavish, what struck me common among all cards was the image of a god mostly Ganesha or a holy shloka or the name of the family deity from whom blessings are sought. Some even go to the extent of sticking haldi-kum-kum and rice grains on the card. However once the wedding is over, invitees like me are faced with the challenge of doing away with the wedding card. Some of us with a creative side try and re-decorate and recycle the envelope. But the invite itself is useless unless you want to pursue a ‘hatke’ hobby of collecting them. Most cards are torn and shown the trash can. It’s sad to see this expensive paper waste. It’s sadder to see our gods and goddesses lying face down in vegetable peel, pencil shavings, crushed beer cans, diapers and what not.

It’s high time we change our mindset. An invitation over the phone or an e- invite should be welcome. But for those who still insist on printed paper, I urge you to spare Ganesha and rather print the photos of the bride and the groom. At least we’ll know whose wedding we are expected to attend.

BULL FIGHTS and more

A friend mentioned bull-fights in Spain and it took me down the memory lane when I worked with the Government of India as an Animal Welfare Trainer. Having come across numerous cruelties towards animals, I had become slightly thick skinned ( read more practical than emotional) in my approach. I mean just when you think you’ve seen it all, you come across yet another act of cruelty that leaves you stunned. Who says Man has evolved? He remains a beast. At times, worse….

Once one of my trainees had asked me- what can we do to stop the brutal Bull- Fights in Spain. Most often we are aware and interested in the bigger issues rather than the ones that immediately affect us. This was a classic case. Instead of barking about stray dogs, or lamenting on the condition of animals in the Byculla Zoo, this trainee was interested in Whaling and Bull Fights. Well, nothing wrong with that. As long as you want to contribute and make a difference, it doesn’t matter what cause you choose. So, I thought for a while wondering what could we do to stop something so popular. And then I remembered a signature campaign that was done across the world in this connection. Banning Bull Fights would be possible only if the Spanish government could be persuaded to do so. And one of the ways of doing this was creating public opinion with the tourists refusing to visit this otherwise beautiful country unless they put an end to this gruesome sport.

I was in Spain not long ago, and was pleasantly surprised that the district that we were in (the region of Catalonia) had banned this bloody sport. Finally there was a beginning. However it takes a lot of effort to make these kind of changes happen. Animals among other things are a source of entertainment. Whether it’s the Rooster fights in India where equipped with sharp blades on their legs one Rooster kills the other, or in circuses where the king of the jungle meekly sits on a stool, or the mighty elephant plays football or a lovely exotic parrot dances to some Bollywood song, even a lion enjoying his afternoon siesta in a cage is expected to wake up and do monkey tricks for the visitors. I’d rather see these creatures in the wild. I’d prefer the posh ladies with their lovely trimmed hats and the immaculately dressed men run at the Derby than the horses themselves. I'd encourage a parent to buy an X-box than a pet which may become a victim of gross negligence. I think it’s high time we stop feeling amused and entertained at the expense of animals, who are forced to be a means of our entertainment.

When you are on the brink of boredom, you want to do something interesting to keep yourself occupied. It may be something that you’ve wanted to do for a long time. Maybe pursue a hobby or try out something entirely new, creative and engaging. With the evolution of mankind, the things that he does to keep him entertained have evolved too. I need not highlight here the various things that we do or could do to keep ourselves creatively or mechanically occupied. Our options today are unlimited, ranging from constructive and responsible ones to more pervert and sadistic ones.

What we choose to do is entirely up to us.

10 Jan 2012

Udhagmandalam.

I had been to this lovely place-hill station as we all like to call all cooler places situated on hills-from Matheran to Shimla, and now even Karjat, as a child. And now after almost 25 years I visited it again.

Ooty- The queen of Nilgiris as they call her is undoubtedly blessed with natural beauty just like many many other places in the rest of India. The tea plantations reminded me of my vacations in Munnar and Coorg- Another two lovely places. The drive to these tea plantations took me down the memory lane to Beatenberg, Interlaken which I had not so long ago.- winding roads, a light drizzle, some mist, and nature in abundance. I remember us driving down every day from Beatenberg in the hills to the Interlaken town. And now it felt like I was having my own ‘Switzerland moment’ right here in India. However my excitement almost ended here. Besides some of the breathtaking views, the lovely toy train that goes from Ooty to Conoor I was totally disappointed with the rest. The roads were bad, the so called places of touristic attraction were anything but that. All of them were dusty and dirty, any structures anywhere were in a dilapidated condition, old and rusty. The honeymooners and all others were littering about shamelessly oblivious to the fact that that the very reason that has brought them this lovely place would be destroyed by their carelessness.

What did impress me was the ban on plastic bags which was strictly followed by all shopkeepers, even the vegetable vendors. Unlike in Mumbai where for every 2 rupees worth of curry leaves, the educated –liberated woman too continues to ask for a plastic bag!- as if it is her birth right. Or the ego of the man with a fat wallet is terribly bruised when he is told that he’ll have to shell out 5 rupees for a bag. He immediately stops fidgeting with his phone, scratches his chest in an attempt to show the gold that he’s wearing, slams his fist on the cash counter, raises his voice, first abuses and then orders the cashier to give him the plastic bag and charge him whatever! Such is our love for the carry bags!

Anyway, a little away from Ooty is Pykara. And the lake here is clean and beautiful I much enjoyed the boatride here. Another unforgettable experience was spotting a tiger in the Madhumalai Tiger Reserve. Besides the Tiger, we also spotted a few other animals and birds including the wild Indian dog, Dhole and the wild fowl. Here again what was frustrating was the amount of noise the mini bus that we were in – the official carrier of tourists visiting the park, made. It could give anyone a headache. To add there were mobile phones ringing. We actually had to order people to switch off their phones and also shut up! It was quite surprising that amidst all of this we did actually spot the Royal Bengal. Poor soul he must’ve grown used to our lack of ‘Safari- etiquettes’.

Anyway I felt quite ashamed at the plight of the Queen of Nilgiris. I wish our people understood that the cleanliness about ‘phoren’ that they so admire would no longer be a dream for India if……