Wednesday, April 25, 2007

3 weeks notice

Been three weeks now since I landed and it has been an up-and-down thing till now for me back here. India, as is to be expected, is loud, crowded, polluted, hot, sweaty, unpredictable and all that, but it is also indescribably endearing and comforting. Something about habit and the ease of finding something to do I guess.

A number of journeys, by bus, train and car, and also a few by auto and on foot, and still there is much more to see, obviously. Different places have been eye-openers in different ways. Bangalore with its near ultra-modern, by Indian standards of course, cosmopolitanism, in its nerve centres and hip places, and the backwaters town look of its backstreets and alleys, has in itself been a revelation. (I have had a coffee for Rs.100 and also an entire meal for Rs.10 - go figure!)Pathetic the absence of enough English markers but pretty neat in terms of arrangement - the parks, the places to see, the simple city structure and the neatly folded Eicher maps - though the universal cry is for infrastructure. Chennai has been good too but not much in the form of exploration yet - that will come by-the-bye.

Met loads of people too, all interesting, all with a story to tell, all the time. From the suave smoothness and intellectual acumen of IIM professors to the dynamism of people closer to my age who want to be, and are already, the happening people, to the local autowallah and watchman, watching bemused as the world they hadn't heard of except in stories from beyond the seas, scarcely credible, takes shape in front of their eyes. The languages that roll smoothly from the different tongues, the accents, the tones and the stories they tell, the sweat that oozes from out of some pores and the whiff of an imported cologne from others, the simple aspirations and the grand ambitions that crowd all those busily knotted foreheads, all this and more - a hundred years, they say rightly, will not be enough.

The rest, of course, in detail, later.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Landed Gently

Spring, I guess, is never a good time to be saying goodbye..

... but still, limping, I crossed half the world and now am Home!

First impressions:

Was quite nonchalant for sometime but the heat got to me and I found layers of clothing really is not such a good idea.
Air India food is good - whoever thought of providing a good meal for the 1h20m flight from Mumbai to Chennai I wonder - but, as a friend warned earlier, is prone to turn weak stomachs.
A 6 hour train journey actually takes 6 hours even if the distance is only a couple hundred miles.
Air conditioning is not essential but then sweat is unavoidable.
There is not a big difference between Bangalore and Chennai in the night and one has to actually be at MG Road to see the land of milk and honey.
Going for the seat belt because you took the front seat in a car is typical "newly-returned" behavior.

To finish with a really unpalatable joke I came up with, sitting bored in the aircraft:

Quarantine Officer to plane passengers: Sorry people, you will have to wait 4 hours more until we are absolutely sure who caused this inconvenience.
About 200 voices: No way. This is ridiculous.
Then, after a few minutes, one brave man, bold, courageous stands up and says, "Officer, let these people go. It is not their fault - they are innocent. I farted."
The officer stunned, 2 seconds the camera pans and a few tears are seen and then another guy, "No, I farted," then another, "I farted" and so on and on until all 200 or so have used the f-word. The officer calmly says, "Alright guys, since you all did, anyway, you all will have to be quarantined so just shut up and stay where you are."
(For those who really want to know what the point is, look up Spartacus(the movie) and watch the last scene. For the others, just another one of those really meaningless jokes)

Ok then, lets see how things go. Will keep this blogspot occupied. Ciao.