What's With Your Middle Finger?

Today’s paper carries stacks of photos of individuals sticking up their middle finger at the world. As all of us in Mumbai (or rather India) know, this is not to be construed as an obscene gesture, it is just that people are displaying proof of their being responsible citizens and having voted in the general elections. Unlike in previous elections when the forefinger was marked, this time for some mysterious reason the middle finger has been favoured.

I too have a long dark stripe running down my middle finger which startles me every now and then when I notice it, making me think for a second that my finger has turned into a hairy spider. Mum, Dad and I went off early yesterday morning to do our duty, before the queues began to get long and unmanageable. Mother as usual had to spend the first five minutes explaining to the polling officer that she was who she was because the election ID card has transformed her from Ahalya into Alilaya. Attempts to get the name corrected have led to a lot of standing around in queues and frantic endeavours to persuade the authorities concerned that it’s all a mistake but Alilaya it remains on the card and it looks like Mum better get used to her new name.

We got our fingers inked a little before half past seven. Much to my own distress I ended up voting for a party I disliked, only to help keep out a party I hated. I guess we would have actually wanted very much to vote for the independent candidate from our constituency who was the only one who sent out any kind of leaflet containing her views on change and her agenda. None of the others bothered. Unfortunately our main agenda was to keep the faschists at bay – to do which we had to avoid splitting up the vote of the party opposing them.

As Cho Ramaswamy apparently once said, if you have to choose between voting for a murderer, a rapist and a pickpocket, well you want to vote for the pickpocket. Guess that’s what we ultimately ended up doing.

Further proof of good citizenship:

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/bigwin.aspx?url=EpaperImages\01052009\amithabhskjsjsk-large.jpg&eddate=5/1/2009&pageno=1&edition=9&prntid=91158&bxid=97&pgno=1

Birthday At Marve

Surprise! It was during our short retreat at Marve that Chandran like a magician, produced a birthday cake for us (we were already dying for something sweet and regretting not having remembered to buy anything on the way). Turned out that 8th May was his birthday so after dinner, Sharat took several shots of Chandran trying to cut the cake, which he had managed to buy in Marve itself. The shot is somewhat hazy but I guess we're recognisable.

Other than that it was mostly a peaceful two days. One of the themes which we looked at was freedom and responsibility and how the two are related. Bernd was there too - his second last day before returning to Germany.

The best thing was that it took us under an hour to get to the beach house from Bombay and although our return journey was an hour and a half that didn't seem too bad either. This means we can definitely plan more of such short trips. Though only a day and a half, you do come back refreshed to the city.

What Constitutes A Patriot

Here's a new take on violence. When Anjali Waghmare the lawyer who agreed to take up the case of Kasab (the terrorist involved in the 26/11 attack in Bombay) she was immediately threatened by a gang of Shiv Sena goons. In spite of the jolt which undid Ms. Waghmare's initial confidence, she finally agreed to take up the case. Meanwhile the lawyers of the men who indulged in violence have attempted to excuse their behaviour by explaining that they did what they did out of "love for their country". Question: is patriotism about love or underneath everything, is it really about violence?

Mumbai Fiasco

So if you're surprised at the mess that the proposed drainage work on Peddar Road has led to, I'm surprised. After discussing the intricacies of the operation on this major artery for a couple of months, all under wraps - it was hardly a few days before the work was due to begin that we even got to know about it! - the Municipality got cold feet. Barely one day into the project the BMC, due to "unexpected chaos on the streets" caused by the part of the road being blocked (Oh yeah? Unexpected?) decided to stop digging and to continue only in May when the schools are on vacation. Actually school vacs begin mid April so the reason for postponing the drainage work to May, as suggested by today's DNA, appears to be something which is not being spelled out - Lok Sabha elections, which are round the corner. We don't want the public to be inconvenienced.

The fact that the eyes, the ears, the hands, the different organs of this body are not on speaking terms with each other and that the decision was taken in a totally ill coordinated manner, only shows up the reality of Bombay. Errr sorry, Moombai. It shows up the fact that chaos is not only expected once the work gets going but that it is
a mild way of describing what we will have to face here in Bom .... errrr Mooombai for who knows how long.

The problem is there are more cars in Moombai than there is place for them to drive. As the over abundance of vehicles shows there are more people living in the city than the city can really provide for. Those people are here because the jobs are all here and damn all is being done to develop areas besides Bombay and major cities which will encourage people to stay and work where they are rather than to migrate to the shit-holes they eventually end up living in, in the city.

Right. And now it's soon going to be time to get your forefinger dotted with a tiny spot of purple ink very soon. Which moron are you going to pick on, to boost our national and civic pride?

Roasted Aborigines Anyone?

Interesting Menus in Goa

I clean forgot that I too had some pics of our visit to Goa, on my camera! Here they are. Please note the menu above, from the restaurant called "Agonda Paradise". This too is right on the beach, and they offer some pretty interesting dishes which I would recommend, such as "Melazane Arrosta" which among other things, is made of roasted aborigines. Mum and I ordered a plate and it was good. Now you can call us cannibals.

Our sit out at Chattai

View from our hut at Chattai
The place which serves roasted aborigines

Back From The Beach

Sitting out at Chattai

Goa was restful when we visited it last week ... but hot! Verry hot. We had hoped for a cooler March but this year seemed to be somewhat warmer than most so afternoons were the time to be baked. The mornings and evenings were pleasant though and as we were by the beach most of the time we not only survived our four days there but enjoyed them.

Finally we got to stay at "Chattai" after several unsuccessful attempts to book ourselves there. That is, Peg, Vishnu and I stayed there and the rest of the party - parents and Shiv were at Menino's, five minutes away, also huts on the beach.

Chattai sadly, didn't turn out to be all that it was cranked up to be. Of course its location is the major plus point and also the restaurant right on the beach. The sit outs adjoining each hut are also extremely pleasant to hang out in but somehow the atmosphere seemed a bit weary and sad. Service, even by Goan standards was a bit too laidback. Most of the day there were chaps hanging around the restaurant with nothing to do but at the time when you wanted tea or something - like tea time - you couldn't get it because the cook had his "off". The odd job guys continued to loiter around, looking at the guests and asking if they could bring you a cold Limca or Coke - which we eventually had to settle for since everyone was too lazy to traipse off elsewhere for a cuppa at that time.

Agonda sunset
One of the best things about Chattai was the pompfret which they served for dinner. Best marinated and grilled with veggies and salad served alongside.

Other places we visited for meals were Tiger Canisha (our favourite haunt), Boom Shankar at Palolem, with its fabulous view and Fatima's which is also a pretty pleasant place to hang out in.



Boom Shankar at Palolem
Pics by Shiv

Deolali Weekend

It is already over two weeks since our little retreat in Deolali and I just haven't managed to get in a new post in all this time. Well here are some pics taken by Sharat. And shortly I will be posting the group's creative efforts on the basicindia blog as well. It was fun, it was quiet, it was a reflective weekend and hopefully more of you all will join us for the next round some time towards the end of March or early April. We are also on the lookout for some good guest houses/places to stay which offer board and lodging at reasonable rates.

Under the chikoo tree outside the house

Sharat's reflective pose





Below:
Visit to the hill at sunset time (Uma L watched it from the top)

Germany visits India

Brigitte, Saru, Shambhu and Gisela

Finally, after months of planning and email exchanges Gisela and her friend Brigitte turned up in Bombay early on the 14th morning. Gisela being Gisela was up and about shortly after I myself had got going in the morning - no sign of jet lag, no tiredness, even less need to rest than I had (I always need a small nap) and raring to go. We spent a couple of hours on the balcony catching up on news about her daughters Ebba and Tessa and her granddaughters and various other typical family things before lunch. After which she and Brigitte set out on a round of the neighbourhood.

The five days the "girls" were here have gone by in a haze. They would vanish after breakfast in the morning and return in the evening - in fact one day they weren't back till shortly before 10 at night, leaving me wondering whether I should start to worry. But before I could bite my fingernails they pranced back in, laden with shopping bags and faces beaming, all set for a tot of rum (or gin and tonic - Brigitte's favourite drink).
Chocolate mousse at Gaylords

We spent yesterday evening at "Gaylords" which I was visiting after ages, which gave me a chance to remember what a nice place it is to hang out in, and the fact that they serve pretty good food as well. The chocolate mousse was a fitting end to a riotous women's evening out during which we sent Gisela's husband Werner one of those "wish you were here" sms's. Now am considering making a trip back to the restaurant just for another mouthful of that rich and extremely sinful dessert.

Publish Post

2009 is here!

Hardly a few years ago the twenty first century seemed like a time zone out of science fiction. Well we've not only arrived but we're nine years down the line! 2009? Huh? Who the hell gobbles up all the years?!

It was a real quiet New Years eve here, with S and me watching some show or other on TV. These days all that I watch are either Marathi soaps or Marathi reality shows. There are two of them, one a dance programme to showcase young talent, the other a programme to showcase kids singing talent. The musical show is actually pretty good, because kids as young as eight or nine take part, sounding like grown ups, managing the highs and lows, the intricacies of the melody like professionals. Nothing like when we grew up and at age eight were still singing Old Mac Donalds or something.

The biggest change in our lives is possibly Shambhu's arrival. With his loud raucous mew and his goofy face and behaviour, he has unwittingly turned an apartment into a home. Shambhu is growing up fast and at times disappears for one and a half days. Right now he's been home pretty much, following S (the love of his life), crouching under the gas stove for warmth, or huddled up on the sofa.

This is also the season for guests and the first of the lot this year will be my friend Gisela who introduced me to Germany many years ago - actually in 1987, when I visited her in Bremen and later in Leverkusen (near Cologne). It's been a long and winding road since then but essentially the same road along which I got to know and work with Samuel. Hope that those of you in Bombay will get to meet G. during the six days or so that she is with me.

The Week That Was

Some events act as clear dividing lines in our lives, almost like the markers BC and AD. The terrorist attack on Bombay on 26th November, has become one of those. You think of life "before 26/11 and you think in terms of life after 26/11. It's changed, not only for those who survived the violence at CST or at the Taj or the Oberoi hotels. And not only for the number of people who lost their friends and relatives in the attack. Life somehow seems different for a whole lot of us living in the vicinity of these places, or those of us who belong to the middle or upper classes who were mainly the target of this revengeful act. It has made us sit up and think in a way that never happened before.

The upside of it is that many individuals are all set to seriously examine what is wrong with society, and with the world we live in. Unfortunately far too many people are engaged in pointing fingers and unwilling to be part of a half way sane dialogue. A piece I recently wrote for Desicritics elicited a barrage of responses mainly from people who dont seem to want to look further than their nose. It depresses you to read them because you see how few people among the educated classes are even half way willing to own up to the fact that if the world is in a mess today it is because we too have contributed to it in our own way by agreeing to be part of a system which is destructive and self defeating.

Those who want to do more than complain and are ready to contribute their time and energy to a long term project to further environmental awareness which also involves awareness of the self) please get in touch. Some of us at Basicindia are organizing a series of sessions for friends and generally anyone interested, to voice their thoughts and feelings and come up with peaceful solutions to the current state of fear, anger and confusion which has gripped the city in recent times.

Hunterwalla

Shambhu's latest antics have left me with mixed feelings. After being labelled "dumb" and "stupid" by almost everyone, he left us quite zapped by catching a sparrow the other day. We didn't actually see it happen but found the evidence on the carpet in the form of some feathers and spots of blood. I have seen him also frequently pounce on and dismember lizards, which makes me groan because I personally find lizards not only cute but useful to have around as the bigger ones catch the cockroaches.

So on the one hand I find this bloody sport rather difficult to handle but on the other hand when I see Shambhu having such a good time I get confused. It's all in the game I suppose. The lad has now been galivanting like crazy, he is sometimes out for twelve hours in a day. Yesterday he left home at 4 in the afternoon and returned at 3 in the morning, yowling away to tell us he was back again. He is currently stretched out on the sofa, dead to the world. Guess he's had a hard day.

Goa November

What really got me gaping at the Mumbai airport as I sat waiting for the flight to Bangalore two weeks back, was this spiffy floor cleaning machine which just whizzed past me, leaving behind it a spanking clean surface. The new airport at Bombay really is quite nice I must say and pretty well organized.

Landing in Bangalore we were greeted by heavy rain which followed us most of the way to Neredu 2. Venky and George picked me up from the airport and we set off immediately, reaching Neredu 2 by late evening.

We had the meditation at Lallu and Bullu's place this time (I am still waiting for photos from Sharat) and it turned out to be also a very good place for us, especially the balcony outside their bedroom overlooking the green valley and surrounding hills.

The workshop brought us all much closer together and we had some fun times lounging around in Lallu and Bullu's courtyard, with Lallu mostly reclining in the hammock. It rained throughout though and the solar panels were not able to provide any electricity this time so we were quite dependent on the generator for lights and our music as well. The nice thing about the rains was that the weather was wonderfully cool which is something to be grateful for as October can be rather warm in that area.

View from the first guest house I stayed in

Goa was a dream as usual, and this time in Agonda we found a spectacular place by the sea, quite by accident. Sudha and I had driven down from Bangalore on the 26th with Shiv and Indira and Uma L joined us a day later. At first we all stayed in quite a nice guest house which was a five minute walk from the sea but on the third day we saw this place called "Sunset Point" which was right on the beach and it just so happened that that very day one room had got free. So Sudha and I jumped at it and within an hour, had moved our bags over and just didn't regret it. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of other people know about it so it is quite full till almost the end of March. Or so the owner says.

At sunset time

The other people staying there turned out to be a rather nice bunch. There was a French couple, bodies entirely tattooed over, a handsome Portuguese man who took the front most room by the sea, a guy who seemed to be a French Algerian and an Israeli who was surprisingly friendly, who was in the room next to Sudha's and mine, who even made us a cup of filter coffee one morning on his camping stove.


As soon as I get additional pics from Uma L and Sharat I'll post them.

"Ummery" (Humphrey) the friendly old mongrel at Sunset Point

The trials of Dassehra

Ratna and Mansi after visiting the Mahalaxmi temple

Dassehra is once again in full swing and the queues at the Mahalaxmi temple wind up the road for at least a couple of kilometres. They all stand in the heat with such an incredibly patient look on their faces, almost as if they enjoy torturing themselves. Among those waiting for a glimpse of the divine power was S’s sister, husband and three year old daughter Mansi.

Where I sit at the computer now I have to put up not only with the usual traffic roar but also with loudspeakers blaring out sangeet and bhajans. The Dassehra festivities in the hall next to where my parents live, which hold up traffic for days, is toned down I believe this year, on account of terrorist threats but it doesn’t seem to make a difference for the thousands of devotees who throng to the temple anyway.

At home S, A and I are planning to celebrate Dassehra with lunch at Swati snacks this afternoon. S has a few days off from the second job as her employer has gone on vacation, which makes it easier for her to go out in the afternoon. Swati snacks, which most people in Bombay and especially around this area are familiar with, is such a popular joint that I hope we don’t end up waiting on the pavement like we will have to, if the place is full. And after lunch there’s a movie to watch – we’ve ordered a Marathi DVD for the afternoon which has been heavily advertised on TV and which S has been dying to see.

Home Again

Lulu clowning around

We hit Indian soil early yesterday morning. It was my first morning landing, because most of Lufthansa's flights from Germany normally get here after midnight or thereabouts. So now it is a return, from plush surroundings and well fed children and adults to foggy skies and babies abandoned in trains, kids getting run over by buses and shopkeepers and normal citizens getting mugged just by the way (all in today's papers).

Still, I am happy to be back, and put it down to the aging factor. Whereas earlier it used to take me weeks to get over my misery at having to leave all the good things of life, I now find that the "good things" are actually back home. I'm happy to be eating Indian food again, happy to chat with A and S and generally to be back on my balcony after four weeks.

Here are some pics from my last few days in Prien and in Aufkirchen. Aufkirchen is a small hamlet near the airport in Munich, where my parents and I stayed a day or two before flying back. It's a real one horse town or even a half horse town because there is absolutely nothing to do there, at least around our hotel. We were forced to stay in Aufkirchen because all the hotel rooms in the city were booked on account of the Oktober Fest - a mad festival highlighting beer, crowds and drunken revelry. While we were there Walter and Anja visited us because they said it is closer to where they live, than Prien. Anja and Walter conduct workshops in self awareness and specialize in "Water rebalancing" which has to do with therapy in a swimming pool (to simulate the experience of the pre-natal months).

Claudia who
plans to help the training group in 2009

Ayse, as usual in good cheer

"Horse" Petra (because she rides and trains horses)

Walter

Anja

Morning At The Kindergarten

Two years back when I was in Prien nursing a broken leg, Felix, who was then about four, wanted me desperately to come with him to the kindergarten where he was enrolled. That time Ariela explained to him that I couldn't make it because most likely the wheel chair wouldn't go through the door. His spontaneous suggestion was, well then, why not organise a smaller wheelchair for me? Soon after that he dropped out of KG altogether and this Tuesday was the first time he had been back, in almost two years. This time too, I was able to go with him.




Yesterday morning Ariela dropped us both off there and I spent quite an interesting morning with about twenty kids who seemed to range in age from three to six years. The youngest was a little girl whose mother had dropped her off and gone back home, who spent a good twenty minutes shrieking her heart out. Felix sat there with a grim expression on his face and fingers stuck in his ears and soon the other kids followed suit.

The kids were all curious, not so much about my colour or where I was from but what had happened to my leg. To simplifiy matters I told them that I had broken it some time back. So I heard from various boys and girls how they had broken a finger or some other part of the body, one boy told me his father had burned his hand and another one said he had broken a leg that very morning but that now he was fine.





It was a treat, to see them play, sometimes led by the teacher, sometimes doing their own thing. I saw that in Germany kids are given a lot of freedom to play on their own and do what they feel like doing. One of the joint activities had to do with sculpting a snail out of dough. At this point Thomas arrived to take me to the bank where I needed to change some cheques and we left, with Felix crying and whining a bit that he wanted to come with us. Finally he agreed to stay back with the other kids on the condition that Thomas would come and fetch him soon after we were through with the bank.

Sunshine Again!

After two days of rain and cold weather, it has turned sunny again. Living here you notice how the sun lifts your spirits - unlike in Bombay where cloudy skies relieve the searing heat of the sun.

These last couple of days have been quite hectic with friends turning up, and some last minute things to do. Ruth, who took great care of me the time I broke my leg, came over on Tuesday and we borrowed Ariela's car and drove around a bit. She helped me with some essential chores, among other things, mailing a heavy packet of jaggery to Bibsi in Kempten. I had taken the stupid parcel all the way to Switzerland, knowing that Thomas would drop me at Bibsi's on the way back, then I forgot to pack it into the backpack which I took with me to Kempten.

Yesterday Sabine, who lives in Frankfurt came over for the day. Her mother has a summer house in a place not far from Prien, which she visits quite frequently. She had driven there on Tuesday and Prien being just about 20 minutes away, she decided to come and meet me.
Was great catching up with her after almost two years and we spent a bit of time recapturing the past with a lot of nostalgia. Sabine has sold the pharmacy which she used to run and now lives a happy retired life, though still very active, what with looking after her daughter's dog, her grandson, travelling, attending workshops and offering cranio sacral sessions herself, a field in which she trained some years ago.

(pic on left shows Lilly with the muffins she's baked.)



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At home meanwhile, all the kids are back in school and Felix has started going to Kindergarten again after almost a two year break. (He said it was "okay" yesterday, and that he enjoyed parts of the day and one boy was very nice to him, though he didn't know his name). (In the topmost pic you see Felix making his scary dinosaur face. Hope you're all suitably terrified). Lilly and Lulu are also back behind the desk and it is peaceful once again at home.

German Titbits

So last week Marlis took the train down from Berlin and we spent two days together in a nearby pension. Most places here offer bed and breakfast including the hotels. So here too we got a breakfast which was okay, meaning not quite as lavish as the other places but it filled our stomachs. A typical breakfast here consists for example, of coffee or tea, rolls (a little bit like our gutli in India), butter, marmelade and salami and ham or some such thing.




Marlis who had gone to the pension to deposit her bags and collect the key, came to fetch me from Ariela's place, full of apologies because she felt the place was too dingy, seedy, badly kept etc and just looked like a German version of a cheap Indian hotel room. I expected the worst so was pleasantly surprised to see that it really wasn't as bad as she made it sound. It looked quite clean, the windows looked out onto the porch, which was a nice place for breakfast, and it was big enough for the two of us.



We rented a car the next day and explored the countryide around Prien, which is very pretty. Wherever you go you are surrounded by the Bavarian part of the Alps. It is all green, rolling terrain and here and there you find hotels and restaurants. We stopped at one place which looked very exclusive and discovered that it was so exclusive they wouldn't serve us lunch because we were not staying at the hotel. But they deigned to serve us drinks so I had a beer and Marlis had a "Radler" which is a Shandy (half beer half lemonade). The only people around seemed to be elderly (maybe they were the only ones who could afford it).




M and I got deep into a conversation about the workshop we had attended at Samuel's and were somewhat startled when an elderly gentleman approached us and told us in an irritated voice that he wanted us to know he and his wife could hear every word we were speaking. Well several rude retorts came to mind but we were very polite, hastily paid up for our beer and drove down to another cafe along a river which was more congenial.




Back in Prien we continued to have good weather for a few days but the last two days it has been cold and wet. Oh well, can't complain, I think I had my share of sunshine this time and anyway now we are getting into autumn. So I guess I'll be glad to get back to the warmth!


view from an outdoor cafe in prien