What does one make of this?

This morning Sudha and I tried to work out how one car could be available to both of us when we needed it but try as we might it wasn't working out for us. So it was decided that I would take one of those infamous three wheeler taxis of Chennai, the auto-rickshaw to work. We actually have one of those auto-rickshaw stands in front of our house so it should have been easy for me to get one of those three wheelers but it turned out that the direction I was headed was not the direction that the two auto drivers in front of the house were prepared to go! So I trudged it to the next street where there is another one of those auto-stands and here these guys were asking for a hundred and eighty bucks for a trip that should not have cost anything more than a hundred bucks! So off I went in the direction of the bus stand thinking I'll do the trip to work by bus. As I walk along the road an auto slows down and when I tell him where I wanted to go he demanded two hundred bucks for the trip! The next auto guy who slows down surprisingly wanted only one hundred bucks so I hop in and tell him I'll gladly give him a hundred and twenty Rupees just for his charging me the correct price! He is surprised and looks at me through his rear view mirror just to make sure I was not mocking him so I told him I was just glad he did not try to rip me off and he said 'there is little place left in the world for honesty in this day and age Sir'.

The auto trundles along and as we reach Kalakshetra colony the auto-driver's mobile phone rings so he pulls over to the side and begins to talk to the caller inquiring how his wife was. He was agitated by the caller telling him his wife was having a breach baby and would need a Caesarian section and that the hospital needed him to put up another Rupees Seven Thousand before they could consider sending his wife in to the operation theater. He pleaded with the caller saying he had Rs Two thousand after having plied his auto all night just to raise some money for the hospital costs. He urged them to go ahead with the operation and promised to bring the money when he got to the hospital. He was weeping openly as he said that and he hung up on the caller. He got back into the auto and turned to me and said 'mine was a love marriage Sir, never ever have a love marriage - you will have no family support if you go against the will of your families'. He went on to say that he begged the auto owner for some money but he refused him money and instead preferred to put money into a temple hundi! He was crest fallen that friends too would not come forth at a time of need and said he was feeling suicidal. He wanted me to get off his auto so he could go and return the auto to the owner and head to the hospital with the two thousand rupees he had in hand. He even said I did not have to pay for the trip thus far.

I asked the man to calm down and said he should drive on to my office and I would give him the money he needed for the child birth. The man could not believe his ears - he turned around and touched my feet and said 'God must have sent you to get in my auto'. I was quite embarrassed by his utterances and asked him to concentrate on his driving but he went on talking, mostly to himself, of how his God took care of him. I did not have the heart to tell the man I am an atheist and did not believe in his God! I stopped at an ATM and drew some money for the man and handed it over to him at the end of the journey. I chose not to watch his facial expression when the money came into his hands - I just turned away and walked towards my office. I did not dare turn around and see what was happening with the man.

At 1330 today I got a call on my mobile from the auto driver to tell me his wife had been delivered of a baby girl and that the mother and baby were well. I wish the auto-man and his little family all the very best. I really am not sure what to make of this episode, I just hope that this whole episode was not an elaborate con and that the money was well spent.

I'm impressed

Indeed, I'm impressed with the way my niece's wedding went off in the deep south of Kerala, India. Last week Sudha, Ammu and I traveled to Trivandrum to attend Veena's wedding - Sudha and Ammu headed there a couple of days before I did so as to be able to help in the final stretch of the preparations for Veena's wedding.

Veena's mother Usha (my first cousin) had a houseful of folks from her husband's side as well as from her own Mom's side - every one of those folks had traveled from afar to be there to put their shoulder to the wheel. The youngster males were ever ready to drive to the airport or railway station to pick up arriving guests, while others set about cleaning the house, the women helped put together the food for all those in the house. It was work, work, work for everybody and come mid-night people slept wherever there was some space to rest their tired bodies and were up early the next day bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to do whatever it took to make the wedding a fun event for all to enjoy. The day before the big day was special because more people had come in from all over the world and the house was choc-a-bloc! There was this American guy Enrique Batayas, all of 27, who was there with his German girl friend Manon who he met in Australia. The two of them got swept into the marriage preparations and were simply amazed at how the family all pull together - it was the Yankee who commented how awesome it was to see four generations of people all get together for the wedding! Back in the US he says its just 'me, my Mom and maybe my dog'!!

The wedding itself happens so fast that there is not really too much to see and because it is not over seen by a priest there is always plenty of confusion on the stage with multiple elders reeling out contradictory instructions!! Enrique put it beautifully when asked what he thought of the wedding per se - he said 'it was confusion confounded once the bride and groom got on the stage and then the paparazzi moved in and there was little to see'!! How true - most of us actually only got to see the butts of photographers and videographers!!

In the end it was a lovely simple wedding like most Nair weddings and Brijesh and Veena looked the perfect pair. I wish them all the very best in life.

Its been blogger's block for me and I hate myself for not writing my blog more regularly. Lots has been happening since I last blogged and most of it is rather negative if I may say so.

In July 2004 I went about setting up an e-group for my buddies from school so that we could all be on the same page and actively stay in touch as often as possible. This actually followed from my having done a similar thing for my University buddies some two years earlier - by July 2004 I had some 60 people connected from among those who went to my old University in the Himalayas, on the University e-group. The growth in membership in my University group was rather poor considering that we had thousands of students in the University when I was there. Nevertheless the University e-group functioned like a well oiled group and it was seen by one and all on the group as a great way of staying in touch. That is why I went about initiating a similar e-group for the old school and it shocked all of us that the school e-group could grow so large so fast - by Dec we had over 250 people on the school e-group and in a year it had hit 500+ and in another year we were at 750 and today it is over 1100 people strong! People from all over the globe, from every continent and plenty of mailings and lots of action every where. I was so proud of the growth of the school e-group that at a meeting at my old University I chided my university buddies for not growing the University group into something larger! How wrong could I have been??

Suddenly the scenario is no longer as rosy as it seemed on the school e-group because some people realized that this is a very easy way of sending out political messages and before you know it the system is so severely vitiated that no longer is it fun to read the messages going about on the school e-group. There are always folks (mostly those with very little stake in the positive functioning of the e-group) who are going to use it for nefarious purposes and its nearly impossible to rein them in without using strong arm tactics.

I'm now convinced that e-groups that are larger than a certain critical mass will always be impossible to manage because of elements that will use the system for their own purposes. So, in hind sight, the old university e-group is just perfect for its size, we have never had a negative email there and it has always been used for positive purposes unlike the school e-group! I'm beginning to think I've created a Frankenstein here in the form of the school e-group! To conclude, I guess I must say 'one lives and learns'!!!

Propitiating evil

Not so long ago I came across this blog by Jug Suraiya who happens to be a columnist of repute for the Times of India - he goes on to talk about the issue of Gods needing to be propitiated in every religion of the world. He wonders what kind of creator this God has to be if He must constantly be told of His virtues by his subjects in order for Him to feel good and favour those who propitiate him! He also goes on to say that if it is alright for mortals to 'bribe' God then it is perfectly ok for people to bribe people to get their work done faster or remove obstacles in their way!

Now, I could not agree with the blogger any more - this is something I have maintained as my thesis against the construct of God - any God who is bribe-able is an evil God and you don't go about propitiating evil! Now, it becomes clear why so many of these religious folks are capable of such evil.

Then there is the peculiar situation where only man is required to appease his God - all the other millions of life forms that 'He' is supposed to have created do not need to waste time with propitiating their God! They get by fine without the construct of God!! By that token humans too will get by just fine without the need for God and therefore religion. But then how will those thousands of people who do the work of priests and their assistants make a living? In the end its about God being 'of the priest, by the priest and for the priest'!

And then the priest goes out and makes that statement that 'my God is better than your God' and before you know it there are religious wars and communal flare ups! Can't we simply do without religion and live peacefully thereafter? Guess, I am not the first to think of it that way - Lennon with his 'Imagine' thought about it much before I did - I sure wish more people would 'Imagine' like Lennon did. Am taking the liberty of reproducing his lyrics just so the reader might ruminate on its beauty!

Imagine there's no Heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one

A most enjoyable trip up into the hills

It was yet another enjoyable trip up to Ketti valley for the Executive Committee meeting of the Old Georgian Association that was held at my friend Colin O'Connor's new home overlooking the old school - the view of the old school from almost every room in Colin's house is spectacular and is something I would give an arm and a leg for!



We had 30 OGs and their spouses in attendance and the deliberations took place on the top terrace (there are two of them!) of Colin's beautiful home. I am sure there will be plenty of pictures of the Executive Committee meeting online soon enough. The cold surprised me who always thought I knew the weather in Ketti better than I knew the weather in Chennai! It was biting cold that evening and I even overheard somebody say he had trouble taking a pee because he couldn't find his member! The bon homie between old school buddies was to die for - we had a great time getting together and lots of very useful discussions were had on the sidelines too because there were quite a few Board members in attendance.

Congratulations to Colin and Geeta for selecting such a lovely place for a retirement abode - can only say I will always envy you for the great views you have of my favorite valley. Attached are a few pictures of the flora of Ketti Valley which is another thing that draws me to this beautiful valley. By the way, quite a few folks have asked me what the common name of those ubiquitous yellow paper flowers found all over the upper Nilgiris is - it is Bracteantha bracteata - it obviously presents in more than just the yellow form, its available in white, pink, bronze and even cream colours - a picture of the white specimen may be found below.

Witness to some of Nature's bounty!

Yesterday I had the good fortune to watch an interesting little aside in Nature.
Two parrots, presumably a male and female, were exploring a largish opening in a Raintree here in Chennai - the two had either laid their eggs in the tree-hole or were planning to. They suddenly discovered the presence of a red crested woodpecker nearby and decided it had no business to be anywhere near their abode in the tree so one of the parrots attacked the beautifully colored woodpecker who immediately took flight and went further up into the Raintree. Then it began to descend along the main tree trunk, very quietly, very stealthily by kind of rappelling down (only there was no rope!) the tree trunk much like a mountaineer would descend down a vertical face - it had splayed its legs to lower its centre of gravity and the parrots were blissfully unaware of the woodpeckers approach! They were up in the tree, looking out for a flying object while the woodpecker was at the door of their nest!! Ofcourse, they went for the woodpecker when they finally discovered that he was planning to enter their tree hole! Check out the sequence of pics below! It was fascinating to behold!

Lt. Cdr. Rahul Nair

Sometimes one needs to sit down and try and understand the way of the world - it was not even a month ago that we had the pleasure of the company of Lachu (Lakshmi), Rahul and their extremely cute son Rohaan at Ammu's engagement in Kochi, they had come all the way from Goa. Rahul was a Lt. Commander in the Indian Navy and we were all very proud of the fact that he flew for the Sagar Pawan team - the Indian Navy's aerobatic team - only two navies in the world have their own aerobatic team and the Indian Navy was one of them. At noon today we got news that Rahul was no more, he and his skipper Commander SK Maurya had crashed while performing an aerobatic maneuver in Hyderabad for the Indian Aviation Expo - he was only 33.

Somehow, life just doesn't seem to be fair - how do you tell a three year old kid that his doting father is no more and that he will never see him again? Lachu, Sudha's niece, was married for just five years and lived an enviably happy and contented life - Ammu was a great fan of her Lachu chechi and Rahulchettan - when they were based in Mumbai Ammu would spend extended weekends at their home babysitting little Rohaan. It is amazing how close Ammu got to the three of them over a couple of years.

I wonder too what makes people choose these risky vocations - is it bravado or is it just one of those needs to prove that you are up to any challenge? I ask because I spent a while on a submarine a few days ago - when you get into one of those behemoths you cannot but be amazed at how cramped and confined the space inside is and how many valves, gauges, pipes and instruments have been crammed into that confined space. When you have to spend long days in one of those boats below the sea with almost half the normal oxygen levels and completely inadequate sleeping arrangements it really must appear that only crazy folks will opt for such a vocation! One can only hope that Ashwin and his ilk who opt for such a life below sea level enjoy what they do and at the end of the day feel they have lived up to the standards they set for themselves.

I hope Rahul too feels this way and wish that life, at least in the future, will be fairer to his lovely wife and child.