An uncanny resemblance

A fasting old man has caught the country’s attention; more so, of the TV channels. While the camps should have been Anna & anti-Anna, they are now conveniently termed as ‘India’ & “anti- India”. I always used to think (based on reports) that Americans are a stupid people, they sometimes elect their presidents depending on who ran a better and attractive election campaign, not based on the candidate’s merit. Presidential electinos are jsut like selling a product, the glossier the advertisement, the more the sales. Its like they just swallow whatever crap is shown on their 'TeeVee', no questions asked. Its so pathetic to see how Indian middle class has degenerated to those levels. May be, it was not degeneration after all- it was like this through out; just came out in the open now.

              Our penchant for swallowing news and views from the TV has made us not very different from the Americans. We’re just as conceited as they are. Poor chaps (the americans), so lonely at the top till now.

You simply cannot utter a word about Anna because anti-Anna is anti-India. Such a sad state of affairs. My sincere apologies to the Americans for criticizing them. It’s a classic case of spotting a speck from someone’s eye while there is a log in mine.

I guess there were indications of this rot all along. Now I recollect hearing a man from Orissa talk. He was working in IT in Bangalore. His native place was either Bolangir or Kalahandi district, or some other name which one I forgot. Whichever it was, it is infamous for drought and poverty and is always in the news. So I thought I’d show off my general knowledge and asked him if it is true that droughts and other such calamities are common there. He looked at me as if I was talking about some other god-forsaken place and flatly refused any knowledge of such a big problem. I bit my tongue and thought it better to keep further GK to myself. But the thought was jarring, how can a man from that place deny the existence of a problem that is news in national newspapers. That was one sign.

The other sign was the facebook posts which derided anybody who decided to say Anna had shades of grey and he wasn’t a saint. If FB had a dislike button, you would be buried under a barrage of them.

Subtle and Minor signs, but all the same with a huge undercurrent.

 So I guess we aren’t an enlightened polity after all. Applying a little bit of extrapolation…may be middle class is the same everywhere.

In memoriam

One of the greatest composers in Malayalam cinemas, Johnson master passed away two days ago. It was an untimely death which fills me with melancholy every time I think of it. He should have been like any other music composer. Bu the personal element was added by ‘Gandharva sangeetham’ which I used to watch regularly at dinner time when I was home. Every night he would be humming tunes on his guitar, with the contestants singing his beautiful melodies sometimes. He always came across as a frank and simple man who never tried to hide his feelings. As they always say, he will continue to live forever through his beautiful songs. A day of real loss for malayalis.

The City of Dust

Bangalore was eponymous as the "Garden city". Later it earned so many other tags, like the 'IT capital'. Obama elevated it into celebrity status still later. 'Bangalored' has evolved as a verb for outsourcing.

There are times when one feels it is apt to call it as per the title of the post. The 'dhool' kicked up at times is too much that it even impairs visibility, like fog. The levels of pollution is just too much. Personally I know people who have had worsening of asthmatic attacks after coming to the city. Sitting in an auto at times, I'm horrified to think what colour my lungs will be, after inhaling all the smoke from the traffic.

The dust is not just confined to the air. You find it everywhere...on the seats of the auto, on the seats of the metro buses. When you get into the bus and is overjoyed to find a vacant seat, within moments your joy vaporises when you find the seat caked in dust, may be even someone's shoeprints. But you have no choice but to grab that only seat, for there are another a dozen people behind you eyeing that lone seat. Initially I used to worry sick over my kurta getting dirty from all that dust on the seat..but now I have learned to console and congratulate myself that my kurtas are dark colored and will mask the dust! But all people are not such rollovers like me. One of my friends who recently moved to the city is thinking of covering herself in a burkha even though she is not a muslim. For the time being, she makes do with covering herself up with a shawl .i.e her face and head, leaving just a slit for the eyes. That terrorist like appearance of hers has spawned a  new series of jokes in the dept! She has a paranoia about all the dust in the air. She says she finds her head coated with dust and the head comb quite full of it after a bus ride.She says there is a lot of dust on her face. I cant help but wonder if that shouldn't be true in my case too. Some how it has escaped my notice. Well...guess my standards of hygiene have taken a beating.

Talking about hygiene, today I had to sit next to a lady who was smelling like hell. You have to trust me when I say this 'coz I'm someone who is relatively resistant to bad smells, even when people cover up their noses, I can usually take it in without batting my eyelids. But this time, I was floored. Her body odour almost made me nauseous that I had to turn my face the other way and sit. No, this is not about telling everyone should use deo or such stuff. About taking bath may be...but lets talk about that when we know about water availability.