Tuesday, March 28, 2006

New York City

I did not know I liked large, fast, cosmopolitan American cities until I visited New York City last weekend. Went to meet up with a few hostelmates from my undergrad years and enjoyed almost every moment of the two days I spent in and around the city. The trip was planned in the thirteenth hour and, on the appointed day, I duly overslept, paining the cabman who had simply driven away by the time I came out 15 minutes late. A roommate thankfully took us(me and a friend, Krishnan) to the airport; but in Detroit I missed the connecting flight, ambling along peacefully and expecting Krishnan to hold the plane up for me. And, after spoiling the afternoon plans my friends had by landing a few hours late, I made sure there was more tearing of hairs as I got off the Metro on 33rd Street, Queens, instead of 33rd, Manhattan, where we were supposed to meet. Funny how there never can be enough logic and organization for some people who just don't get it. But it was quite some fun for me as I got to see the 'real' New York, moving around in buses and the subway, watching schoolchildren and grandmothers and people of all kinds of description and dress and nationality and what-not going their daily way, helping each other where they could. Nice to see the self-organizing behaviour that seemed somehow to create order in spite of all the chaos that promised to take over any moment. There was always some commotion, restlessness, lots of life and a fire truck to be seen every five minutes and much of this I had missed as an Indian living in a quiet, neat, backwoods town in the Midwest the last couple of years.

Anyways, the little time we had that evening, we spent in Times Square, lugging about our luggage, entering sundry shops and clicking away to glory on a camera borrowed from a friend, all typical 'Desi' activities. Dinner was at Dosa Hut, a nice place in Little India, New Jersey and off to Edison, NJ, for the night. The next day was spent in visits to Mme Tussaud's, the Rockefeller Center, Central Park and lunch at Saravana Bhavan. Also managed to squeeze in some time to lose some money in Atlantic City casinos, and eat dinner standing at a Domino's pizzadeliveria. One more day to go and that was used up in seeing Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, a botched visit to the Statue of Liberty(yes I went to NYC and didnt see the Lady with the Torch) and some random rambling. Met some friends of a friend for dinner and by the time we had walked a few blocks, it was time to get back as we all had flights to catch early Monday morning. The return back was peaceful except for the curious propeller-driven excuse of a plane that took us from Detroit to South Bend. It was a thing to behold from the ages, complete with an airhostess who refused to let people exchange seats because 'everything was computer-generated and it was critical that we sit in our appointed places'. Wish there were more like her.

It was nice to get away for a while and the loud and anonymous sights and sounds from a million people busily engaged in ignoring one another were very comforting. There was private space aplenty and enough solitude without loneliness and the possibility of drifting in and out of time every now and then. Mechanical life at its glorious freaking best, coupled with the expanse and calm reassurance of Central Park and the Hudson shoreline; bright brilliant signboards contrasting every third block with a quiet roomy museum or gallery or just a simple alley where few people walked. A city I would love to live in for a few months at least but not now - now back to work.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Juvenilia

It is a good thing we have each our own definitions of who a fool is; each man's genius is someone else's fool.

It is not necessary to assume that others judge us all the time just because they do.

God is not an infeasible hypothesis; He is just an expensive one.

Happiness and Sorrow: twin pricks destroying the mellow bubble of Life.

A lot of fun can be had on a full stomach and full pockets.

Two words, a smile, a kiss, two sighs, a few moans and an eternity of groans.

Art affords the ordinary person pleasure without the pangs and pain without the hurt.

Thomas Aquinas proved that God cannot make a man an ass.

Science for centuries has been about the removing of fleas from a dog's back.

It is not allowed to die of small-pox in this century; AIDS is OK.

The world will go berserk one person at a time.

Read this, this and this for people who inspired this post.

Friday, March 10, 2006

The Land of the Hippo

Prologue:
Two words - that is all I have for you. I am surprised I can manage even those after all that has happened. Not that I blame you but you should have known how it would hurt me. And it did hurt a lot. At least initially when I was still blind. I mean blind to the things of the world. Anyway it is all in the past now. The present is all I have. And the two words that I have for you.

The Argument:
The hippo lives in bloats. It spans a few decades and weighs a few tonnes metric. Though ponderous heavy, it runs fast on land, floating or propelling on water faster than man can. It uses blood sweat for protection against the sun and was mistaken for the horse by the Greeks. Later it was found to be kin of the pig whereas recent studies make a whale of it. Wars threaten extinction of the hippo but conservationists have found hippos that bond well with 100 year-old tortoises.

The Fable:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a Wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great Fall
And all the King's Horses
And all the King's Men
Did not look Humpty Dumpty in the eye again.

Epilogue:
I switched on the TV at the right moment. There was this piece about Jay Bennish, a Colorado high school social studies teacher. He had been discussing Bush's State of the Union address in class and had claimed that America was the most violent nation on earth. He had also likened Bush's statements to some of Adolf Hitler's. A student in the class Sean, clandestinely taped 20 minutes of what he calls 'all this rant' on his MP3 player and released it to authorities through his father. School authorities moved in swiftly and are now investigating if Bennish actually crossed the 'line' in the lecture. The incident has sparked a furious debate over academic freedom and differences between conservatives and liberals is beginning to show markedly. People claim it is just one of many incidents that have been sparked by the Bush administration's fear-and-alarm tactics post-9/11. Academics are afraid the overarching fear for security is cutting into First Amendment rights as much as it is placing curbs on the providing of any meaningful education to children. There seems to be no clear decision possible in the current scenario where terror attacks seem to have subsided but fear of more such attacks has increased beyond all reasonable proportions. I, for one, do not intend to fly just before Christmas out of JFK or OHare.

Questions:
Q. What are the two words?
Q. What is a hippo? How much does it weigh?
Q. Why and how did Humpty Dumpty climb the wall?
Q. When did Bush give the Union address? What MP3 player did Sean use to tape Bennish's lecture?