A year later…

Beware!!! It’s gonna be a long story!!!

It’s been exactly a year since I and S went on a journey to one of the most travelled land in India- Rajasthan. I can still feel the sticky sand that hugged our skin amidst the sand dunes of Sam, Jaisalmer. I would definitely love to go back to that land with few more destinations in my list but might want to undo some of the unusual experiences we have had during our stay there!

Ours holidays have always been ‘budget holidays’ considering the number of places that is there in our list. So “spend less on stay, food and travel as much as possible and travel to faraway places” is our policy. Of course food does have some exception as we ‘have’ to taste some of the authentic regional dishes. We could save a lot by choosing train journey instead of a flight to reach our present destination- Jaipur. Our plan was very simple- it consisted of Three J’s of Rajasthan: Jaipur- Jaisalmer – Jodhpur. Of course it would end with a short visit to Pushkar as our return journey was from Ajmer which was close to Pushkar.  

We allotted only a day to Jaipur as we had decided to visit this place again when we travel to Delhi. But all the while we knew one day was not enough to lay our eyes on such a city with so many marvelous structures in its credit. Nevertheless, we did manage to see most of the forts of Jaipur except of course the famous HawamahalL The moment we entered its premises, its doors were closed!

To travel to Jaisalmer, we again had to take a night train from Jaipur to Jaisalmer.

The first thought that hit us the moment we entered the crowded railway station of Jaipur that night was “was this station always so packed or is it so only today?” We moved in inches to reach our platform. As we reached our platform, our thoughts turned to fear looking at the gathered people ‘supposed’ to be travelling to Jaisalmer. ‘Unlucky’ as I might put it, we had only a sleeper class ticket with us for this journey and not an AC berth. This meant only one thing, the people wouldn’t even mind occupying ‘any’ seat and throwing us out from our own! The crowd did not look the type who would listen to someone if a situation I just explained arose. They were all (all of them) from rural places travelling to reach only ‘one’ destination- to attend a religious congregation. Apart from these there was one whole cadre of army men (mostly trainees) who thronged the platform within no time. Cuddling our baggage we patiently waited for the arrival of train. I and S even made plan as to how we could get into the train quickly and look for the seatsJ As the train approached and came to a halt, we pushed ourselves and got inside. There were people approaching from all directions. The only way, we thought, we could keep our seats to ourselves was to go to sleep as soon as possible. Having obtained both upper berth seats we decided to climb on and fall asleep (or pretend to do so). The immediate thought that stung my senses I climbed up was- “How am I to go to the washroom if I want to?” Because, it was not only the seats that were full but even the aisle was filled with people. I wouldn’t dare get down and walk through midst those people!

Lying there looking at the roof and the circling fan (the only source of ventilation), I couldn’t close my eyes. So many thoughts rushed in the mind. It was not just about how we got in the train or how stupid of us to have booked seats in a sleeper class rather than an AC berth. The feeling was more than that. It was almost like witnessing people from another world. Amid the popularity of Rajasthan for its heritage sites lay poverty, helplessness of people and the struggle they went through every day. Many of them (or almost all) did not have a ticket to travel. It was only a witness to their deplorable condition. The army jawans struggled to get seats and finally they decided to put themselves on ease in the aisle. They were not even provided reservations, it showed nothing but apathy.  

No longer had I closed my eyes with all these feelings than I woke up with jolt in the early hours of morning. It was because of the cry of a baby sleeping next to our seat. The baby was not even 6 months old probably, crying incessantly- as I could gather it was due to hunger. The mother lay next to her helpless along with her two more elder children. It was evident the mother did not feed her (the reason for which cannot be questioned I think) and the baby desperately sucked its thumb now and then just as an act of consoling itself. This continued for a long time until the train stopped at a station and the baby’s father bought a glass of tea. He dipped his finger in tea and dropped a few drops of it in baby’s mouth; just enough to wet the thirsty tongue of that tiny tot.

Luckily, they got down after a short while and the remaining crowd too. The whole train looked almost empty!!! Only after this, had I got down from the upper berth and sat next to a window- to see the coming of parched land of desert. It was almost 9.30 in the morning and I sat there without hunger trying to take in all that had happened the previous night. It meant only thing to me, all that people think of about Rajasthan is beautiful forts, loads of shopping, camping in desert and camel rides but this journey showed more than that. And in a way I felt good that I saw the other side of Rajasthan too.

The heat waves that hit my cheeks brought me back to the present and also to mine and S’s next destination- Jaisalmer. We had decided to spend almost 4 lazy days in Jaisalmer- no rushing and no running around. We explored the place quite lazily but later the blunder that we committed was to choose ‘sleep under the stars’ option for our desert safari. Being only two of us with having left our daughter back home with my parents, we thought the experience would be quite romantic. But as we discovered it, it was more for people who hadn’t had an experience of a village life (or like the foreign tourists who accompanied us who thoroughly liked the happenings). For us, who had already seen a village life before and had seen more stars on the darkest of nights, it was not extra-ordinary. Moreover, it was scary too without any source of lighting around us with beetles being our companions (and of course we couldn’t rule out the presence of scorpions too!)

We were mesmerized to see the Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur the next day. Among all the forts that we had seen, it was the most magnificent one! It was only a day’s stay in Jodhpur and from there we decided to travel to Pushkar in a regular state transport bus. As we booked our tickets, S was happy to see flat 30% discount on my ticket. It was the case with all the ladies who travelled in state transport bus.

Pushkar was a religious place or supposed to be so. Of course, the temple here (the only temple dedicated to Lord Brahma) is sacred but not the people who reside in it. It is over- inhabited by foreigners and immensely commercialized to the extent that people coming here seeking peace for their ancestors’ soul may forget their purpose. The sudden downpour and the subsequent result because of that rain (many roads blocked from water) was a witness how such religious places can be ill used. The scene was a reminder of Uttarakhand floods. It could easily be reasoned out how such religious places could be drowned to that extent. Nature was not at fault, it was all man-made.

Drenched in rain we somehow managed to reach Ajmer to start our journey back to Hyderabad.  Few good men really helped us to reach the station on time. The unceasing rain was like an epilogue to wrap up our travel experiences of The Desert Land.

Livelihood...

This is a picture which I took randomly at my native place (Sirsi, South Canara North Canara dist. in Karnataka) when I visited there last winter.
The scene would be rather similar in almost all the houses during the winter.
These are raw Arecaunuts (also called Beetelnut) which is grown extensively in those areas.
The processing requires immense hardship which starts exactly during the biting cold month of December.
Plucking the riped nuts, peeling the skin (which goes on till mid night), boiling it in low flame throughout the night (the container which is used for boiling can be seen the photo), colouring and ultimately drying these nuts in the sun till March end.
These are the peak months of the year where everyone is busy and all their hard work pays-off.
This post is a salute to all those who undergo all these hardships including my father.

Just read an article (in The Hindu) about the genius Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan about whom a movie is being made.

Before the article starts it says "Seven cities fought for Homer dead, Through which, Homer living, begged his bread"...

It indicates to the harsh treatment some brilliant geniuses received while they were alive and honoured once they were no more.

A single night....

One more short story by Rabindranath Tagore...A single night.

I liked this ONE particular part...

"I had no doubt that it would soon become necessary for me to lay down my life for my country.

My father passed away, so I quit college and got a job as an assistant master at a school. I told myself I had found the right sort of work. My guidance and encouragement would raise each pupil to be a leader of the new India.

I started work. I found that the coming exam was much more demanding than the new India. The head master objected if I breathed a single word to the pupils outside grammar and algebra. In a couple of months my enthusiasm had faded away. I became one of those dull individualswho sits and broods when he is at home; who, when working, shoulders his plough with his head bowed, whipped from behind, meekly breaking up earth; content at night to stuff his belly with cattle -fodder; noenergy or enterprise in him at all".

A similar situation that I am facing at work. Let alone bringing a change in the student, managing the documentation of what has 'NOT' been achieved is a big job which I have been doing from past eight months!!!

It's frustrating to be surrounded by students who have been brought up people who do not know what to do with their money, by authorities who assume that their subordinates would anything for an appraisal and money.

ಅನಾವರಣ

I really like this new serial 'Anavarana' aired at ETV Kannada.
It's dialogues are good, it's story is bounded in reality and it's not about a boy-girl relationship nor about never ending saas- bahu saga.
In today's episode, one of the characters speaks about getting bored so easily with life to her grandmother and her granny reasons and figures out the possible reasons.
She says, your childhood (referring more to the present time) has not had taste of playing outdoor games, but only of computer games; has not lost games with friends and peers but with machines so on and so forth.

I was instantly reminded of the interview that I'd seen weeks back with Daniel Goleman.
He said human brains are wired to have conversations with other individuals face to face and to have a social relationship by physically being present. They are not meant for making connections virtually. Virtual world seems good for some time and later the mind yearn for face to face connections, you are left with nobody around and you become a loner.

Coming back to my serial, one small experience grandmother shares with her is: she learns making upma from her mother. She tries it out in her mother's absence. It turns out to be good, she is happy for herself and the father who will taste it. The next time it turns out be bad, she cries. Her grand-daughter stops her saying why worry about that in this present age when you get ready made mix not just for upma but all the dishes and more over who has the time to spend on preparing a simple dish like upma.

Their conversation gets carried away to all such detailed topics of everyday life, conflicts between the past and present generation and ends for the day. Waiting for the next episode (if my daughter allows me to watch).

Divided attention

I seem to be very bad at multi-tasking.
If am talking over the phone, I can do just that and not mix it with any other work.
If am listening to music, I just concentrate on the lyrics and the music and not do anything else.
But, there are people who are so good at carrying out multiple tasks at a time.
They drive, same time listen to music plus attend a phone call.
People listen to music while they read etc etc.,
Especially people belonging to this generation are very good at this.
I do not know,though, how much of the information that they gather during this inter-changing activities is really fruitful.

Many researchers quote that this type divided attention tasks though good in some respects, but may hamper the span of attention (the amount of time that is given to focus on a subject)of an individual.
The Internet has a big role to play in bringing down the span of attention of people, with people easily and quickly jumping from one web page to the other to find loads of information.

Of course, there are many people who are good at multi- tasking and have very good span of attention too.
Ultimately what matters is the quality of information that one is gathering.

A B C D

Majority of parents think of the learning process in terms of the letters of the alphabet that their child has learnt.

Just for example.,the other day i was speaking to a neighbour at my native place whose son is almost of my daughter's age. And i casually asked if he is attending school. She said 'he doesn't in class but cries all the time' and soon she added but 'he can recite ABCD very well and can count up to 10'.
There are parents who search for schools for their children where there is stress on teaching academics rather than anything else.

What these parents not want understand is to see if their child has the readiness to read and write. A child cannot read or write just because he has started schooling. It takes a lot of mental as well as physical preparation on the part of the child to formally start writing or reading.

I was amazed at one of my acquaintance's (whose son too is slow at learning) remark on a child who had learning difficulty.
She remarked "may be her parents doesn't shout at her and don't control her so she has the problem?" Even after telling her what the problem was she was not in a position to understand it.

Initially i thought the educated parents would understand such problems better but now it doesn't hold good. Because, even if some of the parents are educated and hold good jobs their attitude towards education and the problems related to educating the children remain to be age old.

Of course there are people who very sensitive their children's feelings and take very good care but still a majority of them whose mindset needs to be changed towards learning.

Silence

This thought has crossed my mind more than once...
Is talking over cell phone so important? Be it walking on the road or driving or just waiting for someone or something, almost all the time.
Or is it just a way of letting know that this gadget has become one of the most important part of their lives?
If people don't have anybody to talk to over the phone they would rather just listen to the music. Again, it's a sign of trend or necessity i do not know.
Don't these people want to be left alone with themselves atleast for some time in a day? Can't silence and your inner self be your company?

Not these days, i guess!!!

Srinagar colony v/s Kondapur

Relocating to a place has its own pros and cons. But our relocation from Srinagar colony to Kondapur seems to be full of cons! Srinagar colony was much much cheaper in terms of cost of living, more accessible to almost all the locations, had lots of greenery, people were more sober and down to earth etc etc.,
Whereas in Kondapur everybody seems to be walking with their nose high up in air, the first sentence which they would ask to start a conversation would be "Where does your husband work?" or "Which school does your child attend?" And their expected answer would be "Microsoft, Wipro, Oracle etc., or Oakridge school, Chirec, DPS or Meridian". If they get these answers they may continue their conversation. At first i used to be very irritated but now i am accustomed to it. Here, money doesn't seem to have any value.
I miss Srinagar colony. No wonder my daughter too is missing her old school Daksha.

First rain drops

Both me and my daughter were happy to witness the first rain drops of the season especially in Hyderabad as it is terribly hot during summer.
As it rained, we both stood in the balcony, stretched our palms, caught hold of the drops and played along.
But what amused me at the same time was, not a soul was around to enjoy those refreshing drops of water.
Everyone was either indoors or were out for their work and those who were indoors came out, sneaked, collected their clothes that hung for drying and shut the door again.
Nonetheless, it was a different day for me and my girl and it gave a hope that the summer will be soon over.
But alas! how untrue that was.

Get Together

When me and my sister were still young, we teased our mother for attending 'all' the functions at any relatives and friends. At our native place too we mocked at our relatives for their compulsion to attend any function both at their farthest and nearest relatives.
Now, I've started to realise why they would be so eager not to miss any of those gatherings.

Almost everyone of them being home makers, they would be trapped in their houses and household responsibilities 24x7. And these get togethers meant- meeting people, time to relax and only way of socialization.
Moreover, our relatives in the native regions stayed in villages which barely consisted of 5-10 houses for kms away. And attending these functions would be their only means of entertainment too. Whereas for a person residing in a city the options for entertainment can be much more. Even there people call their means of relaxation and entertainment as parties/ get together/kitty parties. The only difference being the names assigned in different set ups.

But, my relatives, being in such remote places, handling so much responsibilities and living with limited resources run much happier lives than us who have less responsibilities and more choice on resources compared to them.
We are surrounded by friends, innumerable modes of entertainment and in constant touch with people due to advanced technology yet we are lonely and depressed many a times.

The false 'depths' of Araku valley

Call it the exaggeration of the locals or the extreme advertisement of the AP tourism or the bad taste for travel of the people of A.P, Araku is indeed not a tourist destination from any angle.
We had heard a loooot about the place and the unavailability of any pacakges from APTDC and the train tickets gave us the impression that it's not the place to be 'missed'.
As per our (me n S's) internet search and the local folks it was the train journey from Vizag to Araku that's supposed to give the best view of the scenic beauty.
May be it was a sign when we didn't get the train reservation that we were headed in the wrong direction which we didn't notice.
Actually we found it was through road that we could enjoy more rather than the crowded and ever screaming people in the train (screaming as the train passes through several tunnels).
The only hotels that are situated in the Araku are managed by APTDC whose service is utterly chaotic.
The sooo called local sight seeing places are nothing but a tribal museum and a botanical garden which give the impression of nothing more than our lifestyle in the village and a park respectively.
The whole tour was so depressive and the only ocassion when I laughed that day was when a lady in the so called botanical garden was showing her husband 'the pineapple TREE':0 in actual a decorative plant with light green leaves which stood tall and haggard.
Nothing could be more dissapointing than this!
Of course, our trip to the next destination the after that was more appealing and it compensated for the previous day.

It annoys me when I have to introduce myself to someone twice.
I can understand the situation when it's a big crowd and people can hardly remember one's name and basic information.
But I meet someone personally, do the initial introduction and the other person fails to register it.
I meet the same person again in the next few days and the person asks- 'Am sorry I didn't get your name?' and 'What do you do, working?'

People seldom use camera's with film rolls these days. They get a fairly good digital camera with the same price as a film camera. Likewise, people no laonger take the pains of getting the pictures printed and arranging them in an album. They take refuge in less laborious task of copying them in a CD and watching them on their computer screen.
But there's a different kind of joy involved when the photos are flipped through an album. It gives more personal touch, makes you a part of the memory itself. The connection gets lost somewhere between the keys while watching the same pictures on a computer screen.

It's funny the way Kannada movie advertisements are posted in news papers...
After the title, they always want a caption in English...
And to describe a hero they need English words such as 'power star', 'crazy star', 'challenging star', 'hatric star' and so on...
In the end they speak of saving Kannada language.

A Rajasthani shopkeeper at Dhola ri Dhani resort, Hyderabad.

Time Pass...

It's funny how certain words and sentences are used by people- as though there is no weightage and meaning to the word....
Take for example the word 'time pass'...
The usual sentences I've heard people using this word is "Oh! you don't work (When i was not working)? Then how do you pass time at home?"
When i started working the statement was something like "It's good you are working, you can easily pass your time at work."
Now, that i have a child the statement goes like "Passing time is not a problem now as you have the baby?"
It's as though passing time is the only aim in life...
Of course i didn't have a baby just to pass time-as i believe parenting is not just about time passing...
Or, just to pass time i didn't have to increase India's population...
Nor did i have a career then because i just wanted to pass time- there are many objectives and principles in life for me to work...
And, moreover if am at home it doesn't mean that i am bored and don't have anything to do...
One can do many things sitting at home than just passing time...
It's also pathetic how people term some of our hobbies and interests (which many people like doing sitting at home)as just time pass...
It's sad how some people are cynical and critical about our interests and values of life, thank god not everybody belongs to this category.