So many of them. Most middle-aged. There are the college-going types, and the work-at-office-and-work-at-home types, the lechs, the gum-chewing ones, the pimpled ones, the taken care of ones, and the neglected ones.
Middle-aged woman stops abruptly in front of me and warmly shakes the hand of a middle-aged guy. Could they be long-lost college mates? Unlikely. There'd have been a pause, and an exclamation. This is most like Saturday club types.
How we like to classify people as this or that type! It is our way of dealing with the unknown. Examine, classify, and file. And then keep coming back to the library. Much as it helps, this tendency of ours has been responsible for some of the worst human tragedies. Orientalism by Edward Said is a study into such tendencies.
Notes on the way to office.
10 March 2006
20 February 2006
Halfway through
Suketu Mehta is a true believer in New Journalism. Draws vivid pictures, reports
conversation verbatim, and no comments whatsoever. Not apolitical though. Strong
stands on the Rent Act, Bal Thackeray, and the daily torture of living in Bombay.
As a friend said, Suketu is one of the few Indian (or non-resident Indian) writers in
English who have successfully translated Indian colloquial into English. No mean task
that. It's something most Indian journalists fail at. Try translating what you hear on the
bus while holding on to the flavour.
Most of what Suketu writes about Bombay is, of course, true of the larger picture -- India.
But then, that's natural. How else do we know India, if not through our streets and cities?
How else do we know the world for that matter? K V Subbanna, in his essay 'My
Kannada World', says that the world for each of us is just what we encounter in our
personal lives. Most of often, when we refer to the 'whole world', we do not refer to all
the people and all the countries in the world. It's just the persons and places you know,
have heard of, have read about, or seen on TV that form 'your' world.
Hitch a ride to the Maximum City. It's a rare journey.
conversation verbatim, and no comments whatsoever. Not apolitical though. Strong
stands on the Rent Act, Bal Thackeray, and the daily torture of living in Bombay.
As a friend said, Suketu is one of the few Indian (or non-resident Indian) writers in
English who have successfully translated Indian colloquial into English. No mean task
that. It's something most Indian journalists fail at. Try translating what you hear on the
bus while holding on to the flavour.
Most of what Suketu writes about Bombay is, of course, true of the larger picture -- India.
But then, that's natural. How else do we know India, if not through our streets and cities?
How else do we know the world for that matter? K V Subbanna, in his essay 'My
Kannada World', says that the world for each of us is just what we encounter in our
personal lives. Most of often, when we refer to the 'whole world', we do not refer to all
the people and all the countries in the world. It's just the persons and places you know,
have heard of, have read about, or seen on TV that form 'your' world.
Hitch a ride to the Maximum City. It's a rare journey.
06 February 2006
Maximum City
Last summer a friend of mine was reading Maximum City by Suketu Mehta. I picked it up and flipped through. Something about Bollywood caught my eye. I sat down to read some more, and more. It is one of the few reent books that as we say in Kannada, "odisikondu hoguttade". That is, it takes you by the hand and runs at top speed.
I couldnt finish the book then: my friend was half-way through and wouldnt let go. But it has me now.
More later.
I couldnt finish the book then: my friend was half-way through and wouldnt let go. But it has me now.
More later.
21 December 2005
A classified Sunday ad
A “classified” Sunday ad
"WANTED a lady (age 35-40) to teach & train a Bengali housewife, in cosmopolitan social interactions. To helpher enhance herself confidence and interactive abilities.
Apply with non-returnable passport-size photograph & salary expected to no: Box xxx"
This is my first post from Microsoft Word's Blogger tab. br/>
"WANTED a lady (age 35-40) to teach & train a Bengali housewife, in cosmopolitan social interactions. To helpher enhance herself confidence and interactive abilities.
Apply with non-returnable passport-size photograph & salary expected to no: Box xxx"
This is my first post from Microsoft Word's Blogger tab. br/>
03 December 2005
Hoodia Gordonii
They ate it to subdue their hunger because they had nothing to eat. Today the rich eat it to get that extra pound off: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,1656900,00.html
25 November 2005
Holla anyone?
Found this site: http://hollabacknyc.blogspot.com/ on blogger homepage. Unbelievable. Have told Jasmeen (http://blanknoiseproject.blogspot.com) about it. (I have to include the URLs in the brackets because the comp I am using right now does not have a fully supported browser. So, some blogger buttons have gone missing.)
Someone recently told me that she doesnt want to have kids because she doesnt want the responsibility of bringing them up. I felt a cold shiver. Forget the shit about individial choice. I feel scared to be around people who dont want responsibility. The world wouldnt have existed if there were more like her. This is not to extoll the virtues of mohterhood, etc. It's just the statement: I dont want responsibility. There's something very cold-blooded about it.
What say?
Someone recently told me that she doesnt want to have kids because she doesnt want the responsibility of bringing them up. I felt a cold shiver. Forget the shit about individial choice. I feel scared to be around people who dont want responsibility. The world wouldnt have existed if there were more like her. This is not to extoll the virtues of mohterhood, etc. It's just the statement: I dont want responsibility. There's something very cold-blooded about it.
What say?
15 November 2005
In my inbox
Yahoo! put this in my inbox:
"Tip hari ini: Semarakkan email yang Anda kirim dengan variasi huruf, warna, dan gambar.
Surat Yahoo! - Merasa dilupakan?
Jika Anda belum menggunakannya, gunakan wizard cepat untuk mengirim email ke semua kontak Anda – beritahu mereka alamat email Yahoo! Anda yang baru. Klik di sini."
I have no idea what that means, and why Yahoo! put it there. Strange.
Am coming back. Slowly.
"Tip hari ini: Semarakkan email yang Anda kirim dengan variasi huruf, warna, dan gambar.
Surat Yahoo! - Merasa dilupakan?
Jika Anda belum menggunakannya, gunakan wizard cepat untuk mengirim email ke semua kontak Anda – beritahu mereka alamat email Yahoo! Anda yang baru. Klik di sini."
I have no idea what that means, and why Yahoo! put it there. Strange.
Am coming back. Slowly.
28 September 2005
Really?
This http://telegraphindia.com/1050928/asp/foreign/story_5293786.asp maybe true, but not so long ago, no one cared much about the Internet either, did they?
18 September 2005
Being in Bengal
Spare me the acid, uber. I offer my apologies.
Believe me, I have missed blogging so much. It's as if I had lost my mobile phone. Somehow, my earlier job at an MNC seemed to give me more time than my present newspaper job. And I'd always thought it would be the other way round.
I completed three months in Calcutta a couple of days ago. The sights, sounds (too many, uf) and smells of the city are growing familiar. I no longer get up in the morning and expect to not sweat. I can now sit shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee, whatever to whatever, in the middle of two people in a little auto and hum along with the latest Bollywood hit playing, no, drilling into my brain, on FM radio.
But Calcutta, unlike most people outside think, has got more to it than sweat and the closeness of humanity. Yes, the heat can scare the shit out of you if you happen to drop in anytime between March to June. It made me really homesick the first few weeks. But, as humans do, I got used to it.
There are some things which you can do only in this city in India: like take a tram ride. I took my first tram from Bidhan Sarani to College Street, something that Linc used to do during his three years at college. I think trams are the best source of outdoor advertising, because they move so slowly, and are so huge that no one could possibly miss the ad. When I went back home after visiting Calcutta for the first time about three years ago, one of the images I carried back with me were the blue trams (with Bend it like Beckham promo) and the black trams (I thnk it was Men in Black).
Speaking of images, the chief minister wants to ban hand-pulled rickshaws. But what alternatives do the rickshaw pullers have? As someone said, people dont take to rickshaw-pulling out of pleasure. I had refused to get on one during my first visit here. Linc told me, "Alright, as you wish. But you wont be helping the guy (the rickshaw-puller) a bit." Lesson learnt.
Yeah, then there are the slick malls mushrooming like crazy. That's supposed to be a sign of Calcutta catching up with the other metros, I guess. Sigh. You just cant escape 'development' and 'modernisation,' you see.
But Sundays, like today, are an absolute delight. There is almost no traffic on the roads, at least till evening. The Bengali babu doesn't like to miss his siesta afer a bhaat-maangsho curry lunch. Its the best time to get out and explore the quiet by-lanes. A little rain, like the one today, makes it just right.
I know I have hardly scraped the surface of this city. There are still so many things to see, places to go to, people to meet, mishtis to eat, dreams to fulfill, and things to learn here. Here's to a long love affair!!
Believe me, I have missed blogging so much. It's as if I had lost my mobile phone. Somehow, my earlier job at an MNC seemed to give me more time than my present newspaper job. And I'd always thought it would be the other way round.
I completed three months in Calcutta a couple of days ago. The sights, sounds (too many, uf) and smells of the city are growing familiar. I no longer get up in the morning and expect to not sweat. I can now sit shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee, whatever to whatever, in the middle of two people in a little auto and hum along with the latest Bollywood hit playing, no, drilling into my brain, on FM radio.
But Calcutta, unlike most people outside think, has got more to it than sweat and the closeness of humanity. Yes, the heat can scare the shit out of you if you happen to drop in anytime between March to June. It made me really homesick the first few weeks. But, as humans do, I got used to it.
There are some things which you can do only in this city in India: like take a tram ride. I took my first tram from Bidhan Sarani to College Street, something that Linc used to do during his three years at college. I think trams are the best source of outdoor advertising, because they move so slowly, and are so huge that no one could possibly miss the ad. When I went back home after visiting Calcutta for the first time about three years ago, one of the images I carried back with me were the blue trams (with Bend it like Beckham promo) and the black trams (I thnk it was Men in Black).
Speaking of images, the chief minister wants to ban hand-pulled rickshaws. But what alternatives do the rickshaw pullers have? As someone said, people dont take to rickshaw-pulling out of pleasure. I had refused to get on one during my first visit here. Linc told me, "Alright, as you wish. But you wont be helping the guy (the rickshaw-puller) a bit." Lesson learnt.
Yeah, then there are the slick malls mushrooming like crazy. That's supposed to be a sign of Calcutta catching up with the other metros, I guess. Sigh. You just cant escape 'development' and 'modernisation,' you see.
But Sundays, like today, are an absolute delight. There is almost no traffic on the roads, at least till evening. The Bengali babu doesn't like to miss his siesta afer a bhaat-maangsho curry lunch. Its the best time to get out and explore the quiet by-lanes. A little rain, like the one today, makes it just right.
I know I have hardly scraped the surface of this city. There are still so many things to see, places to go to, people to meet, mishtis to eat, dreams to fulfill, and things to learn here. Here's to a long love affair!!
12 August 2005
Cloned
Want to visit the other sihikahi?! http://lincolnroy.blogspot.com Linc has called his blog sihikahi, too, and even refuses to use a different template. Cant even sue him for IP violation!! But he says his site is not intended to compete with mine in any way. Hmmmm....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
