Hail Internet! Hail Bolt! Hail Mary! (Olympics in the age of social networking)

I think the 'Olympics in the age of social networks' bit has already appeared in a newspaper column. I was attempting to match it with 'Love in the times of Cholera' by Marquez. Guess somebody beat me to it already....

Yeah London 2012 is not the 1st Olympic games in the times of internet. But is surely a first for me in the sense that I am prolifically using various cyberspace platforms to catch up on the action I have missed every day. There is an official Live Olympic channel on Youtube. Not to mention the live feeds from The Guardian and BBC sports websites.  Yesterday morning I searched on Youtube and found the official video of the 100m final. I was belatedly enthralled to witness Usian Bolt majestically powering to the finish line. His challengers were simply specks of dust compared to the brilliant radiance he emanated in the track.

Since the name Bolt came up, its only proper to gush about the wonder and genius that he is. As a commentator mentioned during the 100m final, "He has transformed the world the sprinting for ever". By clocking times never seen before or even thought humanly possible, he has sent the sprinting world into a tailspin. As The Hindu headline wondered, 'Is it the yam or nuggets or merely genes??', in reference to the yam they eat regularly in Jamaica, or the chicken nuggets he snacks on or  is it just something in his blood? As I heard one commentator mentioning, before Bolt rewrote history, it was believed that tall men can't sprint, just like the shorter the better in gymnastics. But then Bolt came , he saw and he conquered; and he stood tall at 6ft 5"!!

In these Olympic times, it is impossible not to comment on India's performance in the games. Of late, India's hopes are resting on the tiny shoulders of a petite lady, Mary Kom, boxer, mother of 5 year old twins. I cant help but admire her for doing what she is doing and for being where she is now. To box at her age, juggling a  family and gruelling training schedules, she is truly a superwoman.

 I was watching an interview with Saina Nehwal, the shuttler and P.Gopichand, her coach. She won a Bronze for India in Badminton. Her coach says, neither he nor Saina has watched a movie or gone for a party or let their hair down in any way for the last 6 months. I was truly amazed at their dedication to the sport, giving up all worldly pleasures, working with a single minded dedication. It may be one of the instances when work becomes play becomes work. Everything is the same for these athletes; work, play, life.... Truly remarkable people.

A shocking face/off with Dill

True to my ignorance, I dint even know there was something called Dill till about roughly 2 years back. Then I saw it in one of the recipes and googled it. The main reason for this ignorance was that it has never been cooked in my house. In Kerala it is hardly ever seen or used in any cuisine. As far as I was concerned, it was something you would use  to garnish, just sprinkle on the top. So imagine my shock when  a palya/ upperi of dill leaves was served with some roti. It was the kind of reaction as if someone gave you a stir fry of cilantro leaves which you are supposed to use for garnish. More than that the taste was a shocker. The leaves just refused to go past my tonsils. I tried hard not to contort my face in front of them who had offered food to me so lovingly. I guess its an acquired taste. And I acquired it in a bad way!

To satisfy my curiosity, I googled Dill palya and found that it is a common part of kannada cuisine. I had not encountered it because they hardly ever serve it in hotels. It is popularly known as 'sabbsige' in kannada. Now I think I know why I can never be a foodie. My palate is so unforgiving to new flavours. Now I truly, deeply admire all those tv anchors who bite into ox tails and beatles without blinking an eyelid and even manages to give a thumbs up for it!

H4 visas and food blogs

The Hindu over the last 2 days has extensively covered  the sorry plight of H1-B visa dependants or in other words, the H4 spouses in the US. While there have been letters to the editor suggesting that the reports are exaggerated, I think it may be not too far fetched. I was led to believe this after seeing many food blogs from Indian women in the US.

I used to read enthusiastically the various exotic named dishes they made with exotic veggies not available in India. Reading the beautiful prose that some of these bloggers write, it is clear that they are really talented and imaginative women. Their cooking skills attest to the same. But at times, it was impossible to miss the loneliness that stood out in between the lines once in a while - the meagre lonely lunch menus, the energizing drinks, hot soups for snowy days looking out of the window- would be thrown in with gregarious pot luck parties, weekend family get-togethers etc etc. Food blogging is a way of reaching out for these women. This is not to suggest that all food bloggers are cooped up lonely women. But atleast for some of them struggling with their isolation, they find solace and company in the virtual world. It gives a purpose to their dreary days; every morning you get up with the anticipation of how many people have commented or liked on your post. Every day you can plan what new dish to cook, you can spend time exploring new camera angles, buying new crockery for the bright pics. It is an outlet to whet their unused creativity and talent, an attempt to make sense of their time.
 

A day at work

A day back, I was visiting Sondekoppa, a small town on the outskirts of Bangalore. As I went through the small bylanes in one of the villages, I felt like moving away from the big city that Bangalore was and coming to live in one of these small, quaint places. It is another matter that Sondekoppa natives must be dying to come and live in the comforts of Bangalore! The villages had neat lanes and small but comfortable houses. This just reminded me; in Chitradurga, the houses had a kind of foyer at its entry where fresh grain was stored; then only you entered into the living room.

I went to the high school in Sondekoppa. Unlike Bangalore schools, it had a huge play ground . Near the gate, I was taken aback to see bicycles parked, around 60-70 of them, that too the big ones. I was surprised because of late, I have seen students coming to school on the big cycles only in movies. I am not sure you can see it in Kerala, certainly not the big cycles. There everyone have moved on to Atlas cycles and BSAs and other geared ones.

Then I saw the primary school. We reached there just as the school was closing for the day. The tiny tots were rushing out in their dark blue-light blue shirts, trousers and pinafores. There was this BMTC bus waiting in front of the school gate. Once all the teachers and some of the students got in, it got going to Bangalore. Minutes later when I turned to look, the school gate was closed and locked and there was a stillness as if no one had ever been there at all.

For the first time in my life, I saw a live IEC talk for the community. The public health nurses could easily assemble 20-30 women from the villages they went to. I dint know it could be so easily done. In one place, there was this small community hall. Initially there were just around 10 women. Later the numbers started swelling and there were 50-60 women in a matter of minutes. It felt great to see the eagerness with which they were listening to the health talks by the nurses; the vigorous shaking of their heads, their shy smiles and knowing laughs, the screamings of their little kids who got bored with the proceedings. A green salad of bean sprouts with salt was passed around to all and the kids where happily munching on it along with the arrowroot biscuits. Much to my dismay, I found that my new mobile did not have a camera and I sorely missed recording all the fun for posterity.

Chitradurga fort

As part of our evaluation programme, our team was in Chitradurga. I was truly amazed at the roads which took us to Durga; such smooth wide corridors free of vehicles that vehicles can practically fly on the roads. The toll charges too are as impressive as the roads! Close to the city, we saw giant wind mills in all the surrounding hill tops and they seemed to form a ring around the city, like huge watch towers.The barren plains suddenly burst into greenery and people once we entered the town. The avenues were lined by trees like back in Bangalore. The urban dweller that I am, I felt re-assured once I saw a couple of shops of Lee, Wrangler etc.

On a free day, we visited the Chitradurga Fort. I thanked all the stars the moment my taxi stopped in front of the fort gates. A moment more and I would have thrown up from motion sickness. I couldn't enjoy it as much as I would have wanted because of the stupid Chemoreceptor trigger zone in my medulla doing things to my GI tract. Once that cleared up, the rain started and I was watching my feet so as not to slip up on the smooth slate stones lining the walkway.

 Now coming back to the Fort, the name of the fort was actually Chitra-kal-durga which roughly translates as "Picture-Stone-Fort". This came about because some of the boulders around the fort apparently resemble a rabbit or a human face or a prostrate elephant if you look at them. What most impressed me about the fort is its architecture. It has seven turns and seven gates and so it is also known as  ' Yelu suttina kote' or seven-circles-fort. The winding nature of the fort walls and its 7 curves makes it an impregnable fort, impossible to capture. There are many temples and water tanks inside it.The living quarters where made in mud and has disappeared in the monsoon rains over the centuries. Another interesting thing was the way cuts where made into huge boulders in the fort by masons. Apparently they would create small wedges with chisels. The rain water would seep in and the hard granite rock would easily be chiselled away in sheets along the cuts made previously. Truly 'Cutting edge technology'.




That's one of the turns of the fort.





A step well inside the fort

CVs, resumes,...

In the process of writing a new covering letter and updating my CV all over again, suddenly I was struck by the weariness of it all. Initially it was interesting to keep count of how many jobs I had applied to....it kept on growing 1,2,3,.....6,7,... At last count it was around 15 to 16. And I don't even remember when it was! Now I have lost count and have wearied of it all, probably its around 20- 25.

That's the advantage when you have a government job, don't have to search for a new one every few months or years. But won't it get boring after a few years? Monotony will set in but you can't afford to lose the job for the sake of your family.


Earlier I had read, one should enjoy the job, love your job, do what you love so that it is not 'work'. But finally when I found a job that I love, suddenly I find that I enjoy the holidays, I savour the double weekends. So I guess a job is a job after all, not something you want to do in your chill out time. May be even music composers who love to make music might be doing something else in their chill out time!!

Monsoons in Kerala

Looking out at the rain from the balcony, I was wondering how people carry on with their lives in the rain season over her... Here I am, sitting cooped up in the cozy confines of my apartment on a lazy sunday morning. I  tell myself I am not going anywhere till the sun comes out. I again remind myself that it might take another 2 months for that to happen.... I cannot remain cooped up all that while. So life must go on despite the downpour, the drizzle, the thunder and lightning. And it does go on as usual. Its life as usual for the people with a minor difference; you just have to keep an umbrella ready with you  at all times. When in Bangalore, sometimes it used to rain all of a sudden and I would be the only person in the whole town with an umbrella ready. The Kerala climate had taught me to keep an umbrella ready, come rain or shine. I would always have it in my bag. Bangaloreans consider it a kind of blasphemy to carry an umbrella with you. If it rains, they just walk off the rain or take shelter under the next shop till the rain peters out. But in Kerala, rains are of a different kind.... It can go on pouring for the whole day with waxing and waning in between but never stopping, you must be a fool to go out without an umbrella!

Rain is such an integral part of Kerala life that we have poetry, films, songs, dramas, stories and what not based on the rain. In my small memory itself, I can recollect 2 recent movies with the mallu name for rain "mazha" in it. There are numerous film songs based on the varied moods of the rain. Our movies are replete with rain set pieces. Romances bud out in the rain (remember the 'rain dances'), tragedies meet with a grizzly end (bleeding to death in the rain at the hands of the villain), new life begins (impoverished other giving birth on the road in the pouring rain on a pitch dark night). Even a male and female sharing an umbrella is of much consequence!! Now I even remember one old TV serial called "Oru kudayum, kunju pengalum " (One umbrella and my little sister!!)

Now I remember  walking to the school wading through knee deep water in torrential rain one day. What happened was that the temple pond which is midway on the way to school overflowed due to incessant rains in the previous night. The water from the pond had no where to go and it simply overflowed on to the road. All the people had to wade though it with their saris and pants pulled up to their knees that day....