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January 31, 2004

Spare the Camel

It's Bakri-Id on Monday. Not a good time to be a goat, anywhere in the world thats inhabited by Muslims. It's the time of the year when I get plunged into depression, all that meaningless loss of life in the name of religion. Whats worse is a truck load of bleating goats get parked outside my building the night before, it makes me angry, it almost makes me cry and it also makes me want to go down and set the goats free. Now, I understand this has been going on year on year and that when you take religion seriously, it can make you seriously stupid but there's nothing I or a few thousand elsewhere can do to change this.

I woke up this morning and read in the papers about a 4 year old Camel named "Kaveri" being brought into the city to be slaughtered on Bakri-Id. Now, when I said religion makes you stupid, here's a good example..BAKRI ID, BAKRI = GOAT, Where the hell did the Camel come in? Or can you kill anything and get away with it on this day? I'm hoping advocate involved can save the camel, if he can't well, it might just set off a trend here, I'd have gladly have them back on Juhu Beach, if taking them off here is landing them in the deonar abbatoir.

Now, I'm not picking on Muslims alone here, when I said religions makes you stupid, I meant ALL religions, and only when you take things too seriously. I have no goats (pun intended) with occasional visits to the temple, casual praying etc. I say a little prayer when I pass by chicken shops anywhere. I have just as much as problem with Hindus sacrificing goats at Kali temples.

I just heard Bill Maher on Larry King Live the other day and he said something that I, and I'm sure millions out there, agree with. He said if people took all the energy they put into making "piligrimages" to holy cities and diverted them into helping one another and look to solve the world's problems, the world would be a much better place today. Maher said a lot of the worlds problems today are to do with religion, so much sadness, so much blood shed over the years, in the name of religion. Makes you wonder, we could have done well without religion. Societies in the world today, in general, have similar aspirations and rules within which we operate, it's a similar code of conduct everywhere, what does religion offer though, apart from the spiritual comfort that many long for?? Where is all the goat sacrifice, all the waste of milk and ghee, all the yagyas, really getting us?

1.25 lakh goats and 20,000 bullocks will perish in 48 hours in Mumbai. And a millions more around the country and a few million more around the world. And yet when we wake up on Tuesday, the world will be just as cruel, just as uncompromising, tough, and sad, if not worse, than it used to be. Talk about a futile exercise.


Posted by me on Saturday, January 31, 2004

January 29, 2004

Running around...

I've been running around all over Bombay the past 7 days. First I went to the "D" ward municipality office in Grant Road to get a birth certificate copy of a friend. When I was asked to do this, my initial reaction was a Oh boy! Dealing with municipality means dealing with rude, marathi speaking, bribe wanting government guys and that getting a birth certificate of someone born back in 1972, and that too an American, gotta be major pain in the ass. I was wrong. I went to the ward office and came out in about an hour n half, without biribing anyone, without having spoken a word of Marathi, and without having being spoken to rudely. Dunno if these guys have cleaned their act up or maybe this wasn't such a big thing to get but I was surprised and happy that I got the job done.

Landed up yesterday at the US Consulate in Mumbai. Went straight to the American Citizens services department, where I was asked a zillion times if I was an American Citizen. Now, getting a birth certifcate notarized should technically be an easy thing to do, I spoke to a woman on the phone, she was the most unfriendly, lost, uninformed bitch on the planet. I believe they have quite a few of those at the consulate. Anyways, the bitch on the phone wasn't of much help, told me to come over and "explain" my case. So, I'm there at the American srevices department and I hand over the origianly papers and a letter of authority which explained everything, now this woman at the counter, she was either a Parsi or a gujarati, nodds her head and says this notarization is uselss for you because it's not "accepted' in the US. Excuse me lady, Since when did the "Lady at the counter" become an expert at Vermont state legal statutes??? Here I am with a letter from a lawyer who needs a notarization and this crazy woman who I'm sure has never been to the US is confident that this is a futile exercise. I insisted on speaking with the officer present over there, he came over and read the letter, had a look at the birth certificate and said "Looks okay to me, we can do this, I have no problem", raised my right hand and took an oath (I started to think they was gonna give me US citizenship or something!!!) and that was that.

I've really had enough of old, fat ladies in skirts in Bombay, who pretend like they're authority, BEAT IT GRANDMA!!

Visit to a call center!!
I visited the Wipro Spectramind call center in Powai today, with a friend, who needed to settle somr provident fund thing of a cousinm who sued to work there. Turns out he'll get his measly 15,000 bucks of provident fund money only after six months. Why it would take so long for someone who's resigned last September, is beyond me. Anyways, so I'm looking around, checking the place out and also checking out the "Call center crowd", it was the daytime so there were less people around but they were mostly fresh grads, with cellphones in their hands. I noticed a total lack of identity, everyone looks like everyone else, dresses the same way, faking the same accent, even the range of cellphone models are limited. I couldn't help but wonder how this place must be buzzing at night time. I can't help but feel this isn't doing much good to the future of the little kiddies working their asses off for the $300 or so they get. I'm not really sure I would ever want to work in a place like this, apart from the obvious effects of staying awake all night, I've heard stories of people being trated like crap and monotony setting in so it's actually quite the opposite of what I have in mind as an ideal work place. It's the "Anti-workplace" as Jerry Seinfeld would've said!

Counter Whore
I've become a bit of a counter whore, I've added a couple over the past week or 10 days and I think I'm gonna add maybe a couple more :) I'm getting all kinda funny referrals from goggle and I just can't get enough og them. Each counter's got it's +'s and -'s so I just decided to get as many as I can. I know the counter area on this Blog isn't the prettiest part but ohh well, it'll stay that way for some time to come.


Posted by me on Thursday, January 29, 2004

January 26, 2004

Another Sunday Goes by

Yep, another Sunday gone by just like that! It's the 26th of January now, that means January has nearly come to an end. Really, time seems to be flying too fast, makes you wish things would slow down do you could gras everything thats going around you a little better. Take some time out to understand the world and even yourself. I've come to believe that it's very important to know one's self, the better you know yourself, the better you will be to face any situation in life because you will know how you will react to certain situations. That probably doesn't make any sense but my hands ran away with my brain and thats the result!

So, Bobby is getting along just fine in England. We don't feel bad or miss him too much at all. He's been upto some pretty interesting stuff since the day he landed there, Met Swaraj Paul, The Twilight Players, hmm..come to think of it, he's meeting a lot of the famous Desi brigade in England! It's heartening to see the way he's being taken care of by his hosts, it's been a source of immense comfort for us over here.

I've been listening to Junoon's "Azaadi" album for the past few days and am absolutely loving it. Now, I wonder why I didn't buy this album 7 years ago when it was released, I remember seeing stacks of them at Rhythm House back in early 1998, in those days there were no Planet M's or any other music stores around so Rhythm House it was, at that time it went on to become India's highest selling non-filmi album. Anyways, I'm glad I bought this anyways. A lotta good memories come when I hear this.

Well, Republic Day day of India tomorrow. I Can't believe it's already 3 years since that devastating earthquake in Gujarat, it was on Republic day and w actually felt our building sway slightly on that morning. Something I will never forget. I'm not sure what there is to celebrate on Republic day, all I wish and hope for is that people think of their country on this day and contemplate how they can be better Indians.


Posted by me on Monday, January 26, 2004

January 16, 2004

Feeling somehwat better

Okay! So we heard a lot from Bobby on his first day in England. He's staying with the bestest family in the world and is being treated wayy better than he had ever imagined. Too bad I can't reveal identities over here cos the family is high profile and is looked up very frequently on the internet.

Speaking of looking up things on the net, Thanks to Subhash, who recommended the bravenet counter to me, I can now see referrals to my blog in a very easy manner, instead of installing those confusing scripts on my servers and shit. Some of the interesting searches on google that have brought people to my blog :

Mutton curry pictures
Male quarter life crisis
Bet music bideos
Paris and Nikki (Of this, I am particulartly proud!)
Gujarati Fucking couple (Of this, I am partuclarly disgusted!)
Read bengali fucking story (*Brrrrrr*)

This is so much fun! I wish I had this on earlier. I always wondered who these pople who run up the counter on my site are and what they actually came here for and now I know!

With my brother Bobby not here, I'm still keeping up the good ol walking tradition. Unexpectedly Bobby's friend Amjad, who used to be a regualr walk mate before his work interfered with his walk, called up and asked if I wanted to go for a walk and I said great! The walk was like any other walk I've been on for the past almost 4 years now. It was a bit weird with Bobby not there but not too bad. Maybe it'll be worse when I walk alone, hopefully Amjad should tag along on Sunday too and thats not too far off.

We got some pretty good news at night from Bobby, his work prospects are looking pretty good at this pointand we have our fingers crossed, knowing that he's being taken care of in the best possible manner is a big relief for my family. Everyone is back to eating and sleeping normally now and generally feeling a lot better than yesterday.

The stupid bai knocked over a vase made by mom yesterday and it's top broke off! Today she has the gall to deny that she broke it, she says it fell down when she opened the door! How fucking stupid! My mom went ballistic on her and I'm not sure the bai will show up tomorrow!

That'll be it for now. I think blogging is helping me in a therapeutic sort of way, and for that I am thankful!




Posted by me on Friday, January 16, 2004

January 14, 2004

Sad day

It's about 4PM now, we dropped off my brother at the airport last night. None of his friends accompanied us, they dropped by for a visit and left quickly. It was one of the weiredest moments of my life, joy, frustration, intense sadness, uncertainity all rolled into one. I could feel my brother was pretty tense on the inside but he kept a brave face and seemd pretty positive about the whole thing. He was even napping 15 minutes before we left for the airport!

I was pretty upbeat all the way to the aiport and up to the departure gate, it seemed all very natural upto that point, both of us together standing side by side as we have been for the past 23 years but when I actually had to say bye it was almost a surreal moment, I said it with a slight quiver in my voice, my brother said it'll be a while before we talk in person again, a pat on the back and he was on his way. His eyes were red, I guess that happens when you've woken up from a sleep not so long ago and you're leaving your family for a far foreign land. I knew that he'll just fine and he has his family here to support him no matter what happens.

On the way back I noticed my dads eyes were red too. I couldn't believe how badly he was taking this. I've never seen him this way before, I didn't think he knew how to cry, being an ex-army man and all but I guess everyone is entitled to release tears every now and then. The drive back home was slightly painful, my mom took it way better than my dad, my dad actually drove slowly through the empty streets at 2 AM, he almost nevers does that but today he was very sad at seeing my brother leave and he even said it. This morning he said he was feeling sickeningly depressed and then in the afternoon he said he'd almost lost his apetite entirely. All this from the man whom we're supposed to get our strength from.

As for me, I tried to convince my worrying subconscious throughout the night, that this was just a phase and that I'll feel better in the morning. We were up through the night uptil 6 AM atleast when we confirmed that his flight had taken off. I think we all slept well after that. Needless to say, I didn't feel all that great in the morning, too many things had become routine with Bobby and it's when that routine is broken *THUDDD* it hits you in the face like a brick wall. I think thats how all of us are feeling at the moment.

I'm being really nice to my Dad, trying to play out the role my brother played so nicely for so long. I'm being very upbeat and positive and I think my dad is feeding off that so a virtual pat on the back for me :)

I know we'll all start feeling a lot better when he actually lands in London and calls us up, it all gets pretty exciting from there on. This has easily been the most bizzarest day for me, seeing everyone walk around misty eyed and sighing all the time doesn't help your confidence one bit. Deep down within I'm actually feeling slightly afraid, never been the one to take any responsibilities around the house, that was Bobby's job and with him not there my confidence factory isn't working at 100%. But I'm doing the best I can and I'm holding it all together for the moment, I'm hoping it stays that way from now on!


Posted by me on Wednesday, January 14, 2004

January 13, 2004

Hard to say Goodbye

It's about 1 PM right now, less than 12 hours for my brother to leave for London. Neither of us know when we'll see each other next, it's a thought thats killing my mom and myself from the inside. This is turning out to be wayy harder than I had imagined it to be. On the one hand I'm happy that he's leaving cos it's good for him but I'm sad to see him leave and it's selfish for me to want him to stay back just because we want him to.

I don't know how the trip to the airport will be, we're going to be accompanied by a lot of his friends. I'm pretty strong, atleast on the outside! I won't cry if no one else will! Maybe blogging over the next few days will make me feel better.


Posted by me on Tuesday, January 13, 2004

January 06, 2004

The Waugh is over

Today I witnessed one of the most emotional scenes you will ever find on a cricket field. To start off the result of the match, I wasn't too disspointed, I had actually predicted that India could only get the 6 wickets, I couldn't help but feel they weren't going for a win but rather a draw and thats what happened.

But even before one got time to gloat over the result of the match or how India could have possibly played better and won the match and the series, we were overwhelmed by the realisation that this IS the final time we will ever see Steve Waugh play for Australia. Another player from "Our Genereation" has called it quits and this was easily the most glorious exit one will ever see.

There was a tinge of sadness at seeing Waugh leave, he wasn't in my list of favourite cricketers until very recently, the past few years I've begun to realise and appreciate the real worth of the man. Just thought I'd list the few things I now appreciate about Steve Waugh.

Sheer grit and determination. That a person with limited ability and even low self esteem can achieve enormous things if he/she puts his/her mind to it and sticks with it. Waugh reckoned he was a very average cricketer with very average skills, whatever he achieved he achieved with sheer grit, determination and perseverance.

A curious mind. Steve Waugh made it a point to get out of his hotel in the countries he'd visit, go out and meet the people, taste the food, soak everything in, at the end of it all a person is richer for the experience.

Waugh has shown that his life is not about Ferrari cars and fancy restaurants and multi-mullion dollar endorsements but instead being humble about helping others who're not as lucky as you are is way more fulfilling.

Appreciating what one has achieved. Waugh has time and again written and talked about how lucky he felt to be in the position he is in, how millions out there would give an arm and a leg to play cricket in an international venue, it's important to every once in a while pat one's self in the back for a job well done!

Celebrating occasions. Now Steve waugh was never a man who showed many emotions on the cricket field but off the field he was passionate about celebrations and marking events and anniversaries. We tend to get too caught up in our lives to notice events and mark special occasions. Once we're over and done with our own careers, it's the memories of these very occasons that we will be left with.

Family. Steve Waugh is an absolute family man. It's almost unusual to find a sportsperson in this day and age who's so committed and devoted to his family. I've realised that family is very important and no matter what happens you can always fall back on your family!

So, thats my ode to Stephen Rodger Waugh. It's been a priviledge to witness the last 10 years of his career, I doubt we will see another man of this calibre on a cricket field ever again.

Thanks for the memories.


Posted by me on Tuesday, January 06, 2004

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