Utopia

Life on the fast lane has never held any fascination for me. Just take a look around you - there appears to be a mad rush on all the time. Right from the the break of dawn on monday till the sun sets on friday, every single day is just a whirr and a blur. This is what my typical day looks like.

I drag myself out of bed most reluctantly in the morning with every cell in my body crying for that extra 10 minutes. I dread swtiching on the bedroom light because i know it will prick my eyes ! But a man's got to do what a man's got to do ! I finish my toilet and get ready for office with hardly anytime for preparing lunch and eating breakfast. It's the same boring routine stuff at office. So i won't even try to describe it here. Lunch time is awaited eagerly, for it lets me take a break from reality; let my hair down, if u know what i mean. The first hour after lunch is the pits.
Science has never been able to figure out why a man feels more sleepy at this time of the day than when he's about to hit the sack at night ! I suppose it never will !

Well, the day goes right downhill from there on in. One interminable wait till quitting time. When it finally comes, i usually send up a silent prayer !The 3 hours or so before going to sleep must the best part of the day. Thank God for internet ! And thank God for music. And it's the same story repeated the next day. It's one big infinite loop.

So what would i rather be doing ? Well, for starters, i'd quit my job ! I'd rise with the sun; that's something I wouldn't like to change. However I don't know if you've noticed it but i never have the urge to sleep for 'that extra 10 minutes' when there's no office ! (I didn't used to be able to sleep a minute extra during summer vacation, when in school ! )Another of God's cruel tricks on the human race ! I'd move to the country - some idyllic village with a river nearby. Live in a big house that seems to go on and on. I'd like to lose track of time. No more sunday evening and monday morning blues. A place where I can treat mondays and fridays equanimously. No more worries about promotions. No more worries about career moves. No more concerns about what the Joneses are doing. Sleep under the open skies at night looking up at the twinkling stars and passing wafting clouds.No more worries about deadlines.

Utopia?
Of course ! Man, what a question ! :-))

Power Shift towards Asia and India's challenges

The Global Leaders are dead. Long live the new Leader.The balance of power is definitely going to shift towards Asia. China is going to be a major player. India is not very far behind.
One hears of strides being made by Asian companies on the global arena. Lenovo, a Chinese company is now the proud owner of IBM's PC and laptop division. The TATA conglomerate is going global like never before. Indians like Mittal have never had it so good before.IBM has announced India/South Asia as a region. It originally had only 5 regions. This is its sixth. I believe that is ominous.So it's time for India to rock and roll, right? Hold on for a sec.
There is one thing that can (and i suspect will) impede India's growth - its infrastructure. I often think the growth that India has been showing over the past several months is built on a very weak foundation. India being such a vast country, growth has not been uniform; and I'm not just talking about the geography or the urban-rural divide here.Just to give an example, u need just one good storm in a city like Bangalore/Bombay for all communication to get snapped. Telephone lines get broken, airports get marooned and the railway network just collapses, not to mention anything about electricity. For industries like BPO where communication lines are the lifelines, this spells disaster. They lose face in front of thier clients.Bangalore came to a stop when Dr.Rajkumar died. Bundhs are commonplace in Calcutta. You can't let such things happen regularly and yet hope to continue to get MNCs to invest here.

Another example. Its common sense that broad and good roads are essential to a city. But has anybody noticed how roads are planned even in new cities that are coming up? They are narrow and as badly planned as ever. We just refuse to learn. And the drainage system ! Don't even get me started !

I often hear of 'intellectuals' comparing the growth story in India and China. They say China is streets ahead and that India is not doing things the way China does. To them, i have only one thing to say. India is a democracy unlike China. In China, the government has only to feel something for it to be made a law. No consensus is taken and concerns of citizens are given the go by. We all know what happened in Tiananmen sq.It is not like that in India. The route is circuitous and peppered with hundreds of hurdles-real and imaginary. And on top of that we have coalition governments at the center.So when u compare India and China, the effort that we need to make is hundred times more for the same results to materialise.

And that is India's real problem.

Vetta Kozhambu

Maamis might tell you that Aviyal or Chenai Erisheri are among the most complicated dishes to get right. That may be so. But VK ranks right up there among the top four or five.In theory its simple enough. This, in a nutshell, is what you need to do.

Take some water and put tomatoes and curry leaves into it.
Add sambar powder, puLi, and salt.Boil the hell out of it.
Once it's achieved the right PH and what scientists call the VK consistency, switch off the stove. Add coriander leaves.
Add mustard and whatchamacallit to hot oil and let the fireworks begin.
Add the mixture to VK for some more fireworks.
Add perungayam.
U're good to go.

To the untrained eye, this recipe looks innocuous enough. But the battle hardened professional would have spotted the flaw right away.How much water to add? That's the 64 million dollar question. I'm still guessing....

Oh, and yes, keep some hajmola tablets handy just in case.

Filter kapi

Some people seem to have that knack of making the perfect coffee. Not too bitter, not too sweet, not too strong, not too light either, not too much milk in it-in other words, just about right ! The sound it makes when it is transferred from tumbler to davara about a metre apart is pure music.
(If the froth that forms on the top of the davara after the above mentioned transfer is not at least 2-3 cms thick, u know u have not done it right. )
Pause to drink in the aroma, mixed with the steam, the transfer leaves behind. Now, take the first sip, feel it burn its way down your throat and savour for a second the taste it leaves behind on your tongue. Then, and only then, take the second sip. Ah ! For a good cup of strong filter kapi... I've noticed there is a a lot of difference between the coffee available in Karnataka hotels and the coffee available in TN hotels(cities like Madras and Madurai). For one, the quantity in TN is more. And then, there is a subtle difference in the flavour. I feel it is 'lighter' in TN, but more aromatic. You don't get quite as much quantity in, say, a bangalore hotel. But it is definitely more 'thicker'. I've always wondered how it would be to mix a bangalore coffee and a madurai coffee in a big tumbler and taste it !
If there's one thing i miss here in the US, its the taste of genuine filter kapi, freshly brewed.

What's wrong?

New Year violence-Girl molested. Such news reports are becoming too frequent for comfort.
The only way to prevent such things from happening is to ensure that the junta develops a healthy respect, nay fear, for the law and law keepers. That's what missing in India. Very sorely missing.Why else would the bus driver of the public transport company start his bus 10 minutes late? He knows that the travelling public has come to believe that 10 minutes late is quite all right. I mean, the poor driver is probably badly paid and let's not be too harsh on him. That kind of an attitude.The argument that Indians are bound by Dharma-a personal sense of right and wrong- and not law, is pure unadulterated bull shit. We have in our country the bastard who diverts funds meant for mid-day meal schemes. I mean how low can one get? Try to siphon off funds meant for poor innocent kids? The chap knows that he can get away with it too.That's the reason he does it right? See what I mean? We also have the doctor who thinks nothing of removing a kidney or two from the poor peasant who got admitted in the hospital for ankle pain. I mean it's just a farmer, right? Who cares? We have plenty more where he came from. We need to get our act right; and the sooner we do it, the better. I think we can safely assume that the legislators will not lift a finger. If you ask me India's only hope is the judiciary and the press. And a few committed individuals like Justice Venkatachala. And probably an NGO here and there.So can you and me do anything to stem the rot? Sure we can. If u see an injustice being done, shoot an email to your local newspaper. Doesn't matter if it doesn't get published the next day. Rest assured somebody has read your piece and it has probably set him thinking. And that person, being an editor, is all powerful in our current setup.
Our 'mature' citizens are beyond repair. U can't teach new tricks to an old dog. We need to start with our kids. Teach them in LKG that throwing bits of rubbish on the street is bad. Teach them that being punctual is hip. And of course stealing kidneys is totally uncool.We need the next generation to grow up with a totally different set of morals and values. That holds the key.
Then and only then would (as PGW would say) God would be in His heaven and all would be right with the world !