Andha Yug by Dharamvir Bharti

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Times of India - Lead India Campaign

A few months back, when Times of India launched its Lead India initiative to find new leaders from the educated urban class, the paper used to be flooded with the Campaign, and you could not have missed it. There were nominations, there were 8 short listed candidates, there were 3 finalists and finally a winner from 8 Indian cities. I am not sure how they short listed only these 8 cities, they might have published criteria, but in my opinion it has east under represented and west over represented.
All the 8 candidates are well educated, have achievements to talk about and a will to do something difference, intent to be the change agent. And until this campaign discovered them, they were all busy doing something that demonstrates their leadership capabilities and an ability to lead. In a nut shell these are apparently the kind of people who India today needs to come forward and make a difference that is much larger than the one that they are making today.
Three weeks back, they started telecasting a series on lead India on channel Star One. In the first 2 episodes, all the 8 contestants were introduced and each one had a mentor who is a prominent personality, a leader in some way, from their respective city. Yesterday I watched the episode 3, and the newspaper campaign for this episode promised that this episode will highlight how much of India do these ‘future leaders’ of India know. I gathered that it could be a test of their knowledge about India, probably a kind of quiz, which the episode did turn out to be. But certain thoughts crossed my mind while watching the episode:
1. Why did they invite Kumarmangalam Birla and more importantly why did he agree to come, when there was hardly any use of his time? To ask some trivial questions, which of course were not coined by him, you need not get people like him. You are paying people like Anupam Kher or Javed Akhtar to do that. His time could have been better used.
2. After screening the profile of the candidates, you may find the general knowledge questions too dumb for them. To be a good leader, should you be judged on questions like ‘Who played the role of Sanjay Dutt’s wife in a certain movie?”. Come on, questions have to be relevant to the capability that you are trying to judge.
3. To know India, it seems is to know cricket and films, may be a couple of more sports, as that’s where most of the questions were centered around. I guess Star should have used some of its repository of questions from KBC and would have got some better questions.
4. By bringing Akshay Kumar, and then giving him time to promote his upcoming movie, are you not taking away all the seriousness from the whole initiative, a la other talent hunt programs where you can see the stars from ‘to-be released’ movies coming and hogging the shows, even to the extent of dictating the content of the show. And his comment ‘Do not follow us, lead us’, I am not sure if I liked it. Now all these guys may not be celebrities and well recognized faces, but do not take away their achievements by treating them like participants in amateur singing and dancing competition shows.
5. The choice of judges sure could have been better. Kiran Bedi definitely deserves to be there, she has set examples of leadership and is definitely a role model to look up to. Vikas Singh, being a journalist and a part of the TOI group is also a fair choice. But Javed Akhtar, how does he fit in the picture? What does he bring to the table other than his tremendous experience in judging reality shows, is beyond my understanding? Probably a good leader from any field could have been a better choice than him.
6. Finally, I am not sure, what is the contract between the participants and the initiative managers, but can guys not tell the organizers to raise the bar, set some quality standards for the content? I think this is where they should start making a difference, and not let the initiative managers or the channel make a mockery of them. I am sure the prize money of Rs 50 lakhs is also not too much for any of them, if they want they can raise it from anywhere even without this show. So can they please contribute in improving the quality of something, that all of them are associating their names to.
7. I sincerely hope that TOI and Star do not use it as just another competition, where this time instead of Singers and Dancers, you get a leader, and as soon as the SMSing and Voting is done, no one is bothered about the winner or what happened to him ( there have been no her till now) after that.
8. This is great initiative to un-earth hidden leaders in the society and probably giving them bigger platform than they currently have. I would love to see more such initiatives and more such people coming forward to take the lead. May be process can be more creative and innovative, not dependent on the economy of votes alone, that leads to lowering the bar to let everyone participate. I strongly feel that programs of this nature have the capacity to raise the bar not only for the organizers and participants but also for passive participants who contribute by being the audience.

As they say, my 2 paise…

Meeting Tom Alter

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Delhi Darshan – Dilli Haat

For all the seven years that I lived in NCR, I was a regular visitor to Dilli haat, like a lot of other Dilliwallahs. There are various reasons that keep you bringing back to the place. It is a kind of cultural hub with a rustic setting in the middle of the maddening crowd of country’s capital. Being a ticketed place, it is not very crowded most of the days, and is little crowded may be on weekend afternoons in winters and evenings in summers. You get to meet the artisans from various corners of the country, most of whom are national or at least state award winners for their art and craft. They are given the temporary space to showcase and sell their work to the audience in Delhi and to a lot of visitors from across the world who may be crossing Delhi. They are typically allocated the space for a period of 2 weeks, which means that every 2 weeks the place changes and you have new artisans with their new offerings. There are paintings, pottery, garments, footwear, furniture, home furnishing, curios, jewellary and lots of other items that would be sheer delight to see even if you do not buy them. Though there are some things which are pretty regular like Madhubani paintings and Kashmir shawls and dress materials, but still you would find a lot of new variations of the same things. 

To add another dimension of the culture are the food stalls from across the country, right from north east food to Rajasthani to south Indian, you would find it all. On given weekends you may find people performing street theatre or some folk art form, most of the times in extremely colorful outfits and it usually makes an interesting event to watch. Apart from that you can get henna applied on your palms, get your ear pierced and do lot of those small things that you would typically associate with India and your being an Indian. For visitors to India, this place offers a perfect slice of India, a bit of everything. I always found it a great place to pickup souvenirs and gifs, especially for my non-Indian friends. Till a few years back the prices used to be pretty reasonable as there was no middle man involved and artists were selling their products directly to you. But on the recent visit last week, I found that the prices are almost approaching what they would be outside in the market. Not sure if this is a good development or not, but it is a change for sure. 

Now what made me write this piece is that during my visit to Dilli haat last week, I found an electronic touch screen kiosk right in the middle of Dilli Haat. They had tried to create a hut kind of structure to house this touch screen, but I felt that glaring screen was an aberration to the whole environment of Dilli Haat. The whole rustiness that it exuberates, that earthy feel is generates is suddenly interrupted by an electronic gadget, whose purpose I fail to understand, as there is hardly any information that kiosk provides. From the format it appears that it should be providing information about the current cultural and entertainment events happening in the city along with the history and other tourist info about the city. But there was hardly any information available.

If someone from Delhi tourism or Dilli Haat management is reading this, I would sincerely request them to remove the kiosk and may be provide the same information in a more traditional way, by way of books about history of Delhi and India, may be some guides to help visitors plan the itinerary and may be some pamphlets about happening events which people can pick up and go. There is lot of scope of showcasing our creativity that is not high tech and is eco-friendly along with being traditional and aesthetic.

All said and done Dilli haat remains one of my most favorite places and I would keep visiting it. I wonder why other states have not started replicating this model till now. For those of you who have not visited Dilli haat, please put it on the must visit places while in India.

Explore Bangalore Series- XVIII – Swami Vivekananda Yoga University

Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhan Samsthana (SVYASA) is a university, set up with an objective to make yoga a socially relevant science. It is engaged in research on applications of yoga in health, education, management. They are working on getting yoga accepted as an adjunct system of therapeutic value by modern medical world. Some of their achievements include training of 50,000+ yoga teachers in India and abroad, establishing biggest yoga therapy home and research facility called Prasanti Kuteeram, have yoga centers in over 26 countries, treating 250000+ patients across the world besides publishing research papers and conducting workshops. 

I happened to visit Prasanti Kuteeram, which is located 7 kms away from the Bannerghatta National park. As you approach national park from Bangalore, road forks and if you take the left and go towards Jigni, at the Jigni chowk you can take a right and then follow the signs for Vivekananda Ashram to reach kuteeram. It is setup almost in the middle of nothing, a simple place with simple people. After you reach Kuteeram, you can go to the reception, where they will explain you the various things they do, the courses and the therapies that they offer. The most popular thing apparently is the weekly therapy programs, where people are taken in on the recommendation of the resident doctor, and they have to spend a week in the kuteeram, and have to live as per the daily routine there, which includes yoga, pranayama, meditation, prayers, satvik food, satsanga, lectures, deep relaxation techniques, devotional sessions. Some of these sessions are common for everyone and some are specific to the groups that have common problems like obesity, back ache. There are special programs for stress management and positive health.

The campus has various residential facilities from dormitories to deluxe rooms. It has a small book shop cum convenience store for daily use items that you may need during your stay in the campus. You can get books on yoga and how yoga can help cure the common ailments. There are gardens with benches right under the huge trees, where you can sit and just feel the nature around, with one off people passing by you. There is a building for resident doctors and a dining hall. The timings for the dining are fixed and you must eat during that time. You get simple vegetarian food, but it is amazingly tasty. I enjoyed eating there as part of community eating, and would recommend it to anyone visiting the campus. 

It is a very serene place to spend a day or a week at. You will get an almost perfect environment to be with yourself.

Explore Bangalore Series- XVII – Bangalore Aquarium

Bangalore Aquarium is located right in the heart of the city, next to the Cubbon Park entrance at the end of the MG Road. But not many people seem to notice the place, and even if they notice they hardly visit the place. Most of the people around me had not visited this place, though they had seen the board while crossing that crossing or while waiting at the signals all around that point. 

It is a small aquarium, with a small entrance charge of Rs 5/- for an adult. The ticket counter is a separate hut outside the aquarium. After you buy the ticket, you have to take the ramp to enter the aquarium. Building is circular in shape and the aquarium is spread on two levels. The fishes are kept in series of small aquariums that are around the circumference of the building. There are about 50 varieties of fishes that can be seen on both the levels. Most of the fishes are commonly available or commonly seen ones.

Aquariums is in bad shape to say the least, as if there is hardly any maintenance, no wonder it hardly attracts any visitors despite being in the center of the city. Quite a few aquariums were broken and hence had no fishes. The labels that displayed the names of the fishes were missing in lot of places. Many boxes had labels but no fishes and some had fishes but no labels. The place could hardly be called clean, the lighting was poor. It seems the place has not been painted for years. Not sure how often are the fishes added to the place.

One thing that fish lovers may enjoy is some 9-10 varieties of fish that is served in a small food joint outside the aquarium. Now, I being a vegetarian, can not comment on the quality of the food available, but my guess from the vibes that place gave is that it should be a good place to eat.

Though the aquarium is small, compared to famous aquariums in many cities around the world, but I think it still has the potential to be a good tourist attraction if it is maintained properly. Since Bangalore neither has a beach nor a river, this can be good place for children to learn about the aquatic life. There can be more educational material on aquatic life that can be made available to make the place more interesting. A simple thing could be instead of labels saying just the common name of the fish, it can give the more details like where do you find this fish, characteristics, scientific names etc. I sincerely hope that authorities responsible for this aquarium do something to make it more interesting and inviting.

A Receiver’s Perspective

Last few weeks, I have been working with some of my colleagues on launching a venture in the rural tourism space. While we were discussing, debating, brainstorming on the nature of the venture along with our friends and associates, there were a lot of arguments that triggered the thoughts for this post. Most frequently asked question was “How are you going to help the villagers? Some thought we might end up exploiting them while others thought we are going to do something great to by helping the villagers come out of “assumed under privilege”.

Now here is my view on this. First of all I do not assume that people who live in villages are in anyway living a lesser life than those living in big cities. They both have their own advantage areas and pain points. Second I do not believe in charities and giving anything to anyone for no value delivered. Everyone must earn their own bread and butter. A lot of people who think they have lots of money, today want to do something for the under privileged, and how, by giving away checks to charities who spend a lot of money on their own marketing and PR.

All those who feel great after giving some part of their wealth to those who are under privileged in their eyes, have they ever thought of how does it feel to receive something as charity. Just close your eyes for sometime and try to imagine someone walking up to you in a jazzier car than you have, and looking at you in pity. He pities you for having a smaller car, a smaller house and lot of other small things. While you are completely comfortable with what you have, but this person pities you because he has more than you. How would you feel receiving some money from someone who looks down upon you and thinks great of himself by giving you some money? 

I am sure most of us would not want to be in a situation where someone gives us money that we ideally do not deserve. And if we do not like it, I think we can safely assume that most other people would also not like it. Everyone has a right to lead a respectful life, and we must not take that away by assuming that they need our help. In my opinion, if you really feel like helping people, create some channels for mutual value creation, where both parties feel they are adding value and reaping benefits that they deserve. The right to live respectfully is the most fundamental right and must be respected.

Rural Zing Launches itself

Unexplored Karnataka - Chitradurga, Chandravalli & Jogimatti

This is the first trip that I did with my fellow Couchsurfers from Bangalore, of course we had a nice diversity in the group, four people and three nationalities. Chitradurga is a district in Karnataka and is about 200 kms from Bangalore on Tumkur Road. There are KSRTC buses that ply between Bangalore and Chitradutga, but if you decide to drive, it may not be a bad idea as the road is good and there is not much traffic for most of the stretch and you can enjoy driving. There are multiple Kamat restaurants and a Coffee day on the highway for food stops and of course there are some familiar dhabas as well. 

Surprisingly, both Lonely Planet and Outlook’s 52 weekend gateways from Bangalore do not talk about this destination and I seriously wonder ‘Why?”. The only place that has information about this place is Wikipedia. The place has multiple things to offer, there are Chandravalli Caves that are from the BC era and are truly ancient and give you insights into the way people thought in that era and built there hideouts and the places to capture their enemies. There are places in the caves where the saints would go down and meditate in absolute silence, there are places where kings used to hide out, and there are places where enemies were left in cells with no sound and light, making it impossible for them to escape. The stone carvings indicate both the Hindu and the Buddhist influence. The paintings have been done using the vegetable colors and those colors are still preserved. In fact the caves are so dark that you almost miss the colors on the walls and we could see some colors only through the photographs that we clicked. There is a rain water harvesting mechanism to ensure constant supply of water inside the caves. There are corridors to ensure the ventilation in the caves and you wonder at the amazing engineering that was done under huge boulders about 120 ft high, which is standing the test of time even today after couple of millenniums. 

There is Chitradurga fort that is about 500 years old and is one of the largest forts I have seen, is made up in multiple layers in a snake like structure, and the stone talks about the era and the glory it has seen. It has seven enclosures and seven gates that you have to cross to reach the centre of the fort. Each door has a name and a story associated with it. There are temples spread out throughout the fort which were built by multiple rulers who ruled the place. Like with most such historical places, there are many stories of bravery and courage hidden in this fort as well, and there are places to commemorate those events and people. The layout of the fort will give you how the whole economy was once inside the fort and it would have been the central place from where a lot of action happened. There is a mythological connection with Hidimba, wife of Bheem in Mahabharata who is said to be hailing from this place. There is a temple dedicated to her father in the fort. To go around the whole of fort you would need at least half a day. I would recommend reaching the top of the fort around the evening, when you can see the sun setting against the fort walls and take some nice pictures. You will get to meet a monkey man who climbs the fort walls just like a monkey and he says he has learnt this by observing monkeys in his childhood. He takes seconds to climb the tall walls of the fort and within seconds he would be back. His aim to get into Guinness book, by making a record in wall climbing. 

There is Jogimatti forest reserve, where you have to take permission to go, but once you are inside it is nothing but absolute wilderness, you can spot some peacocks and few birds. There is a view point somewhere in the middle of the wilderness on top of a hill which gives you a spectacular view of the valley around it. If you go little early in the morning, you may not find too many people around and you get just get immersed in the quietness of the place. There are forest department guest houses inside the reserve area, where you can stay. 

And then on your way back to Bangalore, around 50 kms from Chitradurga is the Vaani Vilaas Dam, which is built with some artistic inclination, with carved stones on the walls and a covered place to sit and admire the nature around. You can take a coracle ride. There are islands that you can see from the dam and you would have a temptation to go there riding the coracle, but once you are in the water you realize that they are not so close. From top of the Dam you can see a lot of plantations and gardens all around along with a Powergrid power station. 

On your way to Chitradurga, as you approach your destination, you would see a lot of power mills all over the small hills that adorn that area. To me, this was also one of the unexpected things that I got to see in this trip, and for next two days I kept admiring the wind mills all over the places and especially from the view point in the forest reserve and from top of the fort. 

There are a few hotels where you can stay and a few restaurants where you can eat, but I guess there is scope for many more there. I was talking to our tour guide in the fort and he said they hardly get any non-Karnataka tourists and they would love to have tourists from other places as well. I suddenly realized the amount of influence the guide books can have on our choosing the destinations to travel. You would need to walk and trek a lot though as all the places need some physical stamina. I would recommend this place for anyone interested in history, nature and photography.

Another Sunday off Bangalore

Me and three of my colleagues started with a common vision a few days back and we have been trying to identify villages where we can use tourism as a vehicle to enable them and help them stay where they are and not look at cities as the only option to find sustainable living. Yesterday our search took us to Halenijgal which is a place located around 55 kms from Bangalore on Tumkur Road. We had a known contact person in the village, who helped us move around and planned the whole day for us. 

We started from Bangalore around 7:30 AM in the morning and though we thought we started early, we did have to surf through a lot of traffic to get out of Bangalore. Once we hit NH-4, it was a smooth and enjoyable drive. The village in not too far from the main road, and there was a railway crossing to be crossed. It’s a small village with about 1000 people living there. The only profession they have is agriculture. Surrounded around the cluster of houses are the fields of various crops and vegetables and interspersed with fruit trees. We had a sumptuous breakfast at our hosts place and then we moved on to see the ancient village temple. We walked along the fields which had Paddy, Raagi, various pulses planted. There were various vegetable fields like Capsicum, various varieties of beans, tomatoes, baby corns etc, there were trees if Sitaphal and tamarind. It was fun to walk in the field, in the small space between two fields and putting your face in front of the gush of water from tube well. Across the fields is a manmade tank which is used to collect rainwater. Besides the tank there is a small temple that belongs to the rain deity and villagers come and pray here when they do not get enough rains. It is said that with prayers the rain gods do oblige. 

From the water tank, we trekked to the small hill, where half way through the top there is an ancient cave temple devoted to Lord Shiva. The day being Sunday, there were quite a few devotees who were present there. There was a community kitchen, where families seemed to cook and serve food to everyone in the temple premises. We had our lunch here in the temple compound which was arranged by our hosts again, but we also got to taste the fruit salad kind of Prasad from the temple. There were very sweet requests to have food at the temple, but we were too full to give it a try. Our lunch was absolutely local, Raagi balls with Sambhar and a dessert made out of rice noodles and a concoction of milk and sugar. What was interesting was the fact that you can not eat Raagi balls like you eat other things, they have to be swallowed and not chewed, and believe me it can be quite some task to learn ‘How to eat Raagi balls?’

What is amazing is that the moment you take turn from the National Highway, you get awestruck by what you see. There is absolute greenery and suddenly you would feel as if you have been ported into another world. You may actually have doubts if this world is real or are you living some dream of yours. And reality actually hits you back once you drive back and re-mingle with Bangalore traffic. And you are back to your mechanical lifestyle…

Rising Consumer Power: Changing Dynamics

Till a couple of years back, any festival or occasion to be celebrated in apartment complexes were dependent on the contributions people made to fund the arrangements. In a typical scenario a few enthusiastic people would go door to door and try to collect funds. They would all kinds of reactions, from willing to unwilling participation, from happy to reluctant contributions and of course at times the doubt if the money will be used for the said purpose or not. Post this they would expect people to turn up for the event and participate. The success rates were usually not very great.

Switch to the current scenario, especially in the large apartment complexes with lot of money and muscle power, the businesses that serve these communities, reach out to the residents associations and are willing to fund all the festivities and celebrations. Now instead of the enthusiast people going around for the funds, they get contacted by businesses like nearby grocery stores, boutiques and other service providers. Since the whole event is funded and no one has to really contribute, our friendly enthusiasts focus on promoting the event. Availability and reach of electronic communication of course helps the promotion process. The participation levels go up and it creates a win-win situation for all those involved. 

Resident associations can not only have fun for free but actually may be making money out of the whole process by:

• Getting sponsorships for the festival arrangements

• Getting sponsorships for the prizes / lucky draws

• Letting small businesses / entrepreneurs put up stalls for the a price

• Letting local radio station conduct the games and events and also give away prizes to winners

• Let builder do a brand building exercise for his future projects by funding some small functions or parts of the large functions

Apart from the tangible gains for everyone, there are some intangible gains:

• These festivals are re-connecting people with their local communities and encouraging the spirit of neighborhood

• It is letting the children of this generation experience all our national and religious festivals. They get to know, learn and participate in the traditions and rituals. They get to dress up traditionally and eat traditional food for the festival

• Since most of the large complexes have a fair representation of the different regions, religions and nationalities, these functions become a great source of cultural exchange

• Providing platform to the small entrepreneurs to promote themselves within the community

A good beginning I guess…

River Rafting at Bheemeshwari

If you live in Bangalore, and you have an adventure streak, this is something that may interest you. Bheemeshwari is about 100 kms from Bangalore and is better known as one of the locations where you have Jungle Lodges resorts, a concept that has really picked up well in Karnataka. The place is by the river Cauvery and there are small and simple things that you can do around there, like fishing, just sitting by the river on old tree trunks, laze around in Hammocks and just listen to the music of the flow of river though it seemingly appears quiet.

Whitewater is formed in a rapid, when a river's gradient drops enough to form a bubbly, or aerated and unstable current; the frothy water appears white. Rapids or the entire river are graded according to an International grading system in six categories, from I to VI, I being the easiest and the safest and VI being the toughest and most dangerous, almost suicidal. Raft is a specially crafted boat like equipment which floats on the water. As rafters you are supposed to sit on the periphery of the raft with a paddle each in your hand. It has multiple channels which are designed in a modular way and builds redundancy in case of any part of raft going bad. A rafting instructor is with you who gives you commands to paddle forward or backward or not to paddle according to where you are in the river, where the and how big the rapid is and of course how confident you are in handling yourself in case the raft topples. 

The rapids in Cauvery at Bheemeshwari are of grade 2 or so, so it can be a good warm up ground for doing rafting in other places like Rishikesh, where you get rapids of higher grades. The rafting instructors are friendly and they make an effort to make you feel comfortable while they also push you to get over your fears. Like my instructor made me jump into the water while holding the rope by the side of the raft and just float in water. I was scared to do that as I do not know swimming, but once I was in water it felt so simple to simply float with the raft. And it of course took the fear of water out of me to certain extent. 

It takes about 3 hours to reach Bheemeshwari from Bangalore and the 8 km rafting trip takes about 2 hours or so. If you plan properly you can pack in a small trek in the jungle around the river and spot some elephants and dears, and you can see some birds. Trek is pretty light. You get to eat at the jungle lodges eating place, some plain and simple food and some tea with biscuits in the evening. All in all you can have a well spent day and can come back home physically tired but mentally refreshed.

Explore Bangalore Series- XVI – Monsoon Masti 07

Courtesy a friend, who is a part of dance school, I got to see this dance show named ‘Monsoon Masti – 07’, at Shepherd Auditorium. It was basically a platform to showcase the students of a dance school or company and a shameless promotion of two individuals who run the school. Performers were primarily kids, especially toddlers who were sent on the stage in crowds, wearing very cute costumes and expressions. There were a few performances by the adults as well, a salsa, a Belly dance and a professional group from the school. There are a lot of questions that came to mind as I sat through the performances, and I just putting them here:

1. Is it fair to put 2-4 year old kids on the stage and expect them to perform? There are a few kids who enjoyed themselves, but pressure was visible on the most faces, as they tried to follow the instructor who was doing the steps so that kids can imitate him.

2. It is good to give exposure to kids on a stage, it sure gives them confidence, but is it necessary for every kid to be perform when they are not enjoying it and when they are not prepared for it?

3. Is there any other dance form beyond ‘Film Dancing’?

4. There were 3-4 songs which were repeated throughout the evening, and these are the same songs that you hear every hour on the radio. Is this the only exposure that kids today are getting to music? What about all the music that we have around the country and the world?

5. The steps of each of the songs were copied from the original film songs. Every group that performed on the same song repeated the same steps. And this was annoyingly followed by applause for so called choreographers of the performance. Is there something called ‘Creativity’? 

6. Since this was a ticketed show, should these guys be paying a royalty to original composers and choreographers of these songs?

7. In my opinion the dance school was in a hurry to put up a show, so they put anyone who is in school or is associated with school up there. The immaturity in performances was so much that each of the judges found of the judges found it difficult to say anything positive, and had to say that there is a long way to go. What was the objective of such a show? To showcase the people who are spending that their kids have put up a performance and their money is not wasted. May be that is why every performance had far too many kids for stage to handle.

8. Can you call someone choreographer when all they are doing is imitating steps from popular media?

9. Should parents’ aspirations be forced on kids, while their heart lies somewhere else?

10. Is bad performance better than no performance?

Just some passing random thoughts that crossed my mind while I was sitting there, am not sure if there are any answers to these questions or if there are any right or wrong answers. And I may not have the full perspective and I am neither a teacher nor a parent, but I sure was a kid once and I kind o remember my feelings from those days.

Chak De India – thoughts that follow

Courtesy my small vacation I managed to see this film first day first show, so had the advantage of viewing the movie without having read any reviews or hearing any feedbacks. I chose to watch this film, as a European guest of mine wanted to see a Hindi movie, and I thought this might not require too much translation. I felt nostalgic while watching the movie, it reminded me of my sports days, when I used to get instructions to be on the field at 5 AM, and the camps that we used to attend and live in similar situations as shown in the film.

The film portrays today’s India very well. It not only shows what our attitude towards sports and especially towards women in sports but it mirrors a lot of divides that co-exist in the society. It talks about gender biases that exist across the sections of the society, be it parents, be it coaches, be it the partners, and be it the people whose job is to actually promote the women sports. It showcases the class divide, regional divide, urban-rural divide, senior-junior divide that exists and what happens when the people from different categories have to come together and perform or deliver as a team. This is in addition to the age old mindsets that they need to fight within their own minds. What it highlights most is the lack of ‘team work or team spirit’ that is grossly missing in our education system. We are trained to be individual performers, where we have to fight against everyone around us. It never taught us that ‘battles can be won together too’. We are trained to hold on to our positions as we think only in terms of ‘me’ rather than ‘we’; we find it difficult to see the big picture. 

Though reviews are reading a lot of messages in the movie, my biggest message is our need to work as teams rather than individuals and our ability to think big and ask ‘If anyone in the world can do it, why not me / us?’

The film is well made, with each character perfectly etched out. Each character highlights an issue that plagues the sports world and defines our attitude towards teamwork in general. All the girls look genuinely from where the character belongs to. It is said that lot of them did not know the acting skills, but I could not see the lack of it. Shahrukh is brilliant and he is just one in the team of 18 people, and never even once there is an attempt to overshadow any of the other characters. Without any popular Hindi film formulas, this film keeps you gripped for the whole three hour duration. A must watch.

Mirza Ghalib – A biographical Scenario by Gulzar

This review has been moved to: Mirza Ghalib – A biographical Scenario by Gulzar

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Explore Bangalore Series- XV – Food

1. Ten Eleven, BEL Road – Good Continental Food, cosy ambience

2. La Casa, Off Sarjapur Road – Great ambience, okie dokie food. One of those ‘ I serve all cuisines’ restaurants

3. Kaati Zone, Koramangala – Perfect place for a light lunch / snack. The food will not make you feel heavy. 

4. Desmond’s, Koramangala – Decent Food, Decent Ambience. They serve both Indian and continental, I tried the later and it was good. I am told this of those few places in Bangalore that is open after 11 as well. 

5. Roomali with a View, 100 Ft Road, Indiranagar – Good North Indian Food, good ambience, excellent service and service attitude that is rare in Bangalore. Location is also good, easy to locate. I tried Daal Bhati Choorma, and it was GOOD

6. Via Milano, 80 Ft Road, Koramangala – A new addition to Bangalore’s list of Italian restaurant. Quite authentic Italian food with an Italian chef. The location is good if you can get hold of the corner seat overlooking the Koramangala traffic. 

7. Café Fresco at Hatwork’s Boulevard, Cunninghan Road – The Boulevard seems good, but Café was a disappointment. Food was bad and service was also equally bad. Avoid.

8. Civet at ITPL, WhiteField – Food is decent, ambience is very good. A good place if you want to have a quite dinner.

9. Samarkand at Infantry Road – Probably the best place to have a good meal in the heart of the city. The portions are huge, so be careful when you order. 

10. Herbs & Spice, Off 100 Ft Road, Indira Nagar – A boutique Italian restaurant with a limited menu but good food, specially the Pizzas.

It Happened in India by Kishore Biyani

This review has been moved to : It Happened in India by Kishore Biyani

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Explore Bangalore Series- XIV – Weavers in bylanes of Yelahanka

I am on vacation for 3 weeks, and this time is giving me time and space to go to places within Bangalore, that I could not otherwise visit. I am able to meet some amazing people doing some amazing work. I came to know that there are Chiffon weavers in Yelahanka and one day this week I just marched towards that other corner of the city. A friend helped me with the directions and beyond a point she said, you have to ask and reach out. So once I reached the old Yelahanka town, I had to park the car and walk through lanes and lanes and ask some 10-12 people before I could hear the sound of weaving machines and I peeped into one of the doors. Interestingly not many people in the neighborhood knew about this place or may be I was not able to communicate properly due to the obvious language barrier.

Following the sound of the machine, as I approached the door and tried to open it quietly, a lady and gentleman working there took their eyes off the threads they were holding and looked at me with a question in their eyes. I smiled and said I want to see the weaving and they asked me to come in. There was a curtain cloth being woven and a Silk Sari being woven. I observed them for sometime, but my limitation with the local language did not allow to me ask many questions. They told me there are many such small units spread across that area. I walked a bit and then I heard lot of rhythmic movements of many such machines and I realized they were coming from a narrow lane. I walked into that lane, and everywhere around it looked as if I have entered someone’s house and I was not wrong. Two gentlemen came out and thankfully they could speak and understand Hindi, and I told them that I want to see chiffon weaving. They took me around and explained me the process. I was not aware of the fact that most of the raw material that comes to these units for weaving is sourced from China, as Srinivas explained me that the local material is costlier than the Chinese one. All the units in that area are owned by one family and they produce thousands of Saris every month along with the fine materials like crepe, chiffon and various types of silks. 

After this he asked me what would you like to buy and I said ‘Nothing’, and I could see a bit of disappointment on his face, so I called up my neighbors and my mother to ask if they would like something. Needless to say they wanted everything and I did end up buying a chiffon sari and some Crepe material. It was quite an experience in itself to search the weavers and see the small weaving units.

Himachal Hyms -I

Last month after ages, I had a chance visit Himachal Pradesh for a whirlwind trip. Having grown up in Chandigarh, trips to Shimla and Kasauli were aplenty. During my student says, there were multiple trips I would have made to timber trail trekking down to the river, spending the day there. And then every time while walking up a resolve that I would never come again, but returning there at least once every semester. It was a default place for all fresher and farewell parties. Then there used to be driving trips to Kasauli or Parwanoo.

Traveling the same roads after more than a decade was nostalgic, but this time the road I took, took me to a not so well known district of Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh, and more specifically to a small town of Saraha. It is about two to two and a half hour drive from Chandigarh, depending on the traffic that you encounter on the Pinjore stretch. There is a national highway being built connecting Pinjore to Nahan and after this I guess this road and the surrounding areas may not be same. I am not sure how the development would take place, and how the Himachal government would make efforts to preserve the immense natural beauty of that place. There are small hillocks, where you can sit on an edge overlooking a valley and see the distant cities of Chandigarh and Panchkula. The air is absolutely fresh, and there are fruit laden trees along the whole stretch. You can stop anywhere if the road allows, and pluck fresh fruits and eat. The taste is something you would cherish for a long time. You can go to the town and speak to the residents and you would be amazed at their hospitality, when they have no clue who you are. I think the best way to know a place to go and have a chat with the locals and get to see life from their perspective and try and live that moment as if it were them and not you. Anyway, before I could get any further soaked in the Himachal beauty, it was time to drive back to Chandigarh.

If you ever happen to drive across this road, you must stop by one of the edgy hills and have tea from a roadside tea stall, letting the wind pass through your hair and fragrance of wilderness enter you. You would have a time of your lifetime. Do not look for a resort or a fancy property there to welcome or feed you though.

Explore Bangalore Series- XIII – IITM 2007

IITM - India International Travel Mart, has organized a 3 day travel and tourism fair at Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore. I had been to another travel and tourism fair about 2 years back, though I am not sure if that was also organized by IITM or not. 

Two years back, I really enjoyed spending half a day there. Kashmir was the theme state and there was a proper arrangement to showcase the culture of Kashmir, its folk dances and Ghazal singing talent. There were stalls by most of the state tourism departments and the officers at the stalls were doing their best to promote their state as a tourist destination. In fact this was the first time I saw government officers actually showing a very corporate like behavior. I had a chance to speak at length to one of the ITDC directors and he shared a lot of ideas for potential entrepreneurs in travel space.

This year the fair is at a much smaller scale, crowded by the resorts and tour operators from Kerala. There were very few states participating. Gujarat being the theme state, had its folk dancers presenting the folk art, but in a very limited space, almost limiting their movements. The state tourism departments were missing and those that were present also were represented only by their recently joined local staff, who could do little more than provide you the printed material. ITDC was conspicuously missing and KSTDC was also present only as a tour operating company.

The changes in the presentation of stalls were worth noting though. Karnataka, Andhra and Gujarat had magnificent stalls, with make believe replicas of their famous monuments and the representative architecture. The colors were almost true to life. There was a wide usage of technology to showcase the destinations, LCD screens were just ubiquitous. There were online portals promoting themselves for partnerships and willing to sell anything that you may have to offer in the travel and tourism space. The displays were showcasing local grandeur in an absolutely global fashion. There were a few countries, exotic ones like Egypt and Greece and the regular ones like Thailand, Malaysia et al, but nothing particularly new about them, except that you realize that you are the world market today and everyone is looking at your credit card for business.

Times are getting interesting for us….

Need Ka Nirmaan Fir by Harivansh Rai Bachchan

This review has been moved to: Need Ka Nirmaan Fir by Harivansh Rai Bachchan

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Innovation Management

Cross linking an article of mine that got published in CSI newsletter on Institutionalizing Innovation in knowledge economy:

Ideas Lead growth

See the Ideas Lead section if you do not get to see it in the first go. Do share your views on the same.

Short Travels – Rail Vs Air

The thought for this post triggered when I was at Pune, Bangalore and Delhi airports in quick succession and the mad rush there made me think, what can be the possible quick win solution for reducing this mad rush, and make flying a little less painful. And I found my answer in Delhi Chandigarh trip by Shatabdi express and the current positive changes in our railway system. There is a need to promote trains, specially the fast point to point trains like Shatabdi series of trains to replace the short flights in sectors like Delhi- Chandigarh, Delhi-Jaipur, Mumbai-Pune, Bangalore-Chennai, Bangalore-Mangalore etc. If the small flight traffic can be transitioned to trains, it would ease out the airports and we will loose less carbon credits. Here is a small analysis of train vs air travel on short routes.

Time:

Let us take Delhi Chandigarh sector. The time taken by Shatabdi Express from New Delhi Railway Station to Chandigarh station is 3 hours and 20 minutes. The time taken by the flight is approximately 1 hour. Now add to this the pre-boarding time which is expected to be 90 minutes, top it up with the luggage waiting time on arrival which is usually on an average about 30 minutes till you walk out of the arrival lounge. If you land on larger airports like Delhi, your reaching the luggage belt can itself take 30 minutes or so. Net time on flight is thus 3-4 hours, if the flight takes off on time and there is no ATC congestion on destination airport. So eventually there is no time that a flight saves you.

Peripheral time spent on traveling within the city to reach a airport or a railway station depends on where you are located in the city, but more often than not railway stations are situated in the center of the city and airports on the outskirts, so on an average people would spend more time commuting to airports than to railway stations.

Statistical records would probably point that delays in Shatabdi trains are far less than delays in flights these days due to congestion at most airports.

Cost:

A lowest cost one-way economy air ticket with all taxes and charges thrown in will cost you around Rs 2000/- and a full fare can cost you up to Rs 5000/-. A Shatabdi ticket is roughly Rs 500/- and is about Rs 650/- if you book it ‘Tatkal’, making it cost anywhere from 10-25% of the air ticket.. Not to forget that the morning cup of tea and snacks at railway station cost you much less at railway station than at the airport.

Since the average city distance to airport is greater, the cost of local transport would also be more. There are public transports available to every railway station in most of the cities, but there is hardly any public transport to airports, so you end up taking taxis and not only spend more but also add to the city pollution.

Convenience and Comfort:

The seats in Shatabdi are much more comfortable than any aircraft; they are broader and have a lot of leg space. The food is comparable to the airlines that provide food, though the presentation of food is definitely better with airlines. But then only a couple of airlines these days offer you food, and on small flights they have just enough time to give you a quick snack rather than a full meal. At times even before you can eat they would come back to pick up the trays.

You do not have to shut down your laptops / CD players or any other gadgets in the train. There is one power plug every three seats in Shatabdi, airlines are yet to provide that. With about 3 hours at your disposal you can watch a complete Hindi movie without loosing your battery and without having to switching on / off your gadgets. You are not expected to tie a seat belt, straighten up your seat for the person at your back to be able to eat. You can walk around the train at leisure and not feel cramped. The aerial view is missing for sure but you can see the changing landscape of the country and read all the ads on the walls along the railway track.

You do not have to stand in multiple queues before you can see the aircraft, you do not have to get your luggage scanned, you do not have to open it up and be embarrassed about the contents or the way you pack, just get on board and be ready to move. You can get a coolie at reasonable rates to help you with the luggage at railways but you have to carry your own luggage all the time at the crowded airports. Remember the plight of passengers traveling with infants and small kids going through the whole check in process, multiple security checks and finally making the infant cope with taking off and landing hassles. It is much more convenient for patients, disabled people to travel by train than by air.

To top it all you are being less cruel to the environment by traveling by train.

I would strongly recommend a train journey to air travel anytime for short distances. Probably railways can do a focused campaign highlighting these benefits…Lalu ji are you listening?

Pune Potpourri – I

I was in Pune for a few days last week after ages. I feel nostalgic even at the mention of Pune. Pune was my first window to the world outside North India, which is where I had spent most of my life till then, This is the first time I was living in a place where I did not understand even a single word of local language, but could understand it almost 100% by the end of my 6 month stint there. This is where I worked first, made some best friends for life, learnt my first lessons of corporate and software world, earned my first stipend (money). I still remember my last day of that 6 month stint when I did not want to leave Pune and go back. I had so much fun that I can confidently call it probably one of the best periods of my life. Last week again, Pune gave me some wonderful experiences, sharing some of them:

Gliding: Gliding Center in Pune belongs to Civil aviation department, Government of India and is located in the east of Pune in Hadapsar. Their website tells that Gliding has been in Pune for more than 80 years now. Being a government outfit, it is highly subsidized, you can have a 5-7 minute joy ride for less Rs 200/- . General public can go and have joy rides on Sundays except on national holidays and in monsoons. This center trains aspiring pilots and gives them license to fly after training. I had the opportunity to listen to the experiences of a friend who is learning gliding there and see a young lady take her first solo flight. It is fun to see a machine fly with literally no fuel and flying in sync with the nature around it. Need not say that the view from the top is awesome…

Autos: Every city that you would have visited would have given some horror stories to tell, so here is mine from this trip to Pune. I take an Auto to go to office from outside my hotel and the guy asks 200 Rs for a distance of less than 10 km and I refuse to go. I spot another auto and he agrees to go for 100 Rs. Just as we move 100 meters, this auto is stopped by the previous auto guy and he holds the driver by his collar and tells me ‘Madam if you want to go, you have to take my auto and pay 200 Rs otherwise you can’t go’. His expression for the guy he is holding is ‘I will see him after I am done with you’. I tell him ‘You can’t do this, I will call the police’. He said ‘Do what you want to do’. I go back to my hotel and tell them to call the police, they refuse. I call ‘100’ from my cell, it keeps ringing and no one picks up the phone, no wonder auto guy was so confident. 

Shankar Math: A math for a saint that lived in that area, where Cigarettes are offered to the saint along with other usual offerings. A first for me, I am not sure if this is done anywhere else

Osho Ashram: You have to see it to believe it, it is amazing space with meditative structures and nature, and people doing what they feel like doing. The book store almost makes you want to own it all. I like the fact that they call it a ‘meditation resort’ and not call it an Ashram and break the expectations that people come here with. There is a tour of the resort twice a day, you can avoid it, but for the fact that this is your only way to enter the place and see it. They show you a video for 30 minutes and then take you for a 10 minute silence walk, it is kind of good as they do not explain or sell you anything, and let you absorb whatever you can.

Eateries: My favorite place to eat in Pune will always be Nanu Parantha, I literally survived on this place during my first stint. This time I could go to Café Good luck, a cult coffee shop in Deccan, which all my Pune friends keep talking about. I guess every old city has one such cult coffee shop where so called ‘intelligentsia’ used to meet over cups and cups of coffee and talk and talk. Something like Koshy’s in Bangalore. 

Apart from this I ate at La Pizzeria and found it has been bought over by Little Italy, so I have completed eating at Little Italy in Pune too after Bangalore, Bombay and Hyderabad. Food was good as usual. 

Arthur’s theme is another place that a lot of people recommended, but I guess I would again classify it as something that had been around for sometime and hence popular. Liked the earthy ambience it adorned. Food was ok, may be I did not order the right things.

Like always, I would head to Pune anytime I get a chance.

Rude Food by Vir Sanghvi

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Explore Bangalore Series- XII – Food - MTR

Every city has some signature places that define the character of that city. Sometimes they are the parts of the city that have seen the history of the city, sometimes it’s a monument that gives city its identity, sometimes it’s the people who are the defining point of a city and sometimes it is a eating joint that speaks about the culinary delights of that city like MTR in Bangalore.

Mavalli Tiffin Room or MTR as it is popularly known is the signature eating joint for Bangalore, specially its original restaurant near Lal Bagh. There is only one meal that you get there, which is served in a traditional way in a steel plate and silver glass, in a typical south Indian style. The cuisine is very local i.e very Bangalore, not sure if I can call it Karnataka or south Indian in general. I am told one of the dishes, Bisi Bele Bhath was actually invented at MTR and went on to become a popular breakfast snack across the city and state. Anyone who has been there would tell you about the queue that you have to face at MTR. You have to buy your meal coupons and token number at the ground floor and then move on the waiting room in first floor. In the waiting room you can see old photographs when MTR was the know caterer of the region. Waiting room is simple, similar to the old railway waiting rooms with wooden benches and a ceiling fan. From the waiting room you can see the dining halls with very south Indian granite top tables and plastic chairs. I has reached just in time to be in the first batch to eat, so my wait time was around 15-20 minutes only, but if you do not reach before the restaurant opening time, you must budget for up to 1-2 hours of waiting time. 

Once you are on the table, all excited after a long wait, first thing that you get is a honey lemon juice flavored with mint in a silver glass. It is an amazing drink, apparently adds to your appetite. Post which starts the series of dishes that keep coming to your plate. By the time you get the main dish of Rice and Sambhar, in all probability you would already be full. I was forewarned by my friends not to eat too much in the beginning and that helped me to at least taste everything that was served. In all there were around 20 servings which include the concluding Ice-cream and Paan. As you finish you meal, the only thing that you may want to do is ‘go home and have a satisfied sleep’.

Now what I find interesting is that there had been no attempt to modernize this place, it exists the way it would have been created decades ago. It actually dates back to 1924. You can say that they have not moved with the time, but then is it necessary that everything changes? Should not some places remain the way they are, eluding the old world charm. Another observation that I had was that the people serving you food, really served with a smile and actually insisted that you eat more, something that I have usually missed in Bangalore. 

A must go place for anyone who lives in or visits Bangalore.

Ragging – A perspective

This time of the year, when sessions start in most of the colleges around the country, it has become a media ritual to have discussions around ragging. Every morning you open the newspaper, you read opinions of students - both junior and senior, few teachers and parents, and invariably a principal. Most of them try and make it out as a criminal activity, and we have been having court judgments around ragging for years now.

When I look back at my college days, specially the initial days, freshers used to undergo ragging for good 4-6 weeks followed by a Fresher’s party and then move on with the regular college stuff. During my days and in my university, ragging used to be at times funny, at times embarrassing, at times revenge taking exercise and at times a bit humiliating. The ragging in hostel used to be tough to face than the one in campus with mixed crowd. Today when I look back at those days after more than a decade, some of my best friends today are the people who either ragged me or were ragged by me. The barriers that were broken down by doing those silly things, created a bond that would probably last forever. I am not sure if without those barriers going down, we would have been such good friends. And when I became senior, I guess college would have been very boring without those ragging days, when we curiously waited outside the building to welcome the freshers while you could see fear on their faces. It was also a mechanism to induct juniors into the college culture and help them come out of the school boy/ girl mode and step into the first adult world they have to face. It helps them come out of their comfort zones, their parents shadows as this is the time when they start establishing their identity. Not to mention passing down of fun things like the special college lingo, pseudo names of professors to ensure that they live on forever. 

I was reading some statistics on ragging complaints, and it says that in India about 60 complaints are filed every year and around 80% of these are complaints about physical abuse and some sexual abuse. While there is no way you can take your eyes off these complaints, but just compare it to total number of colleges in India and no. of freshers every year who go through some kind of ragging. Somehow I feel most freshers undergo ragging, which is most of the times helpful to them in the long run, helps them connect with the peers for the first time in their adult lives. Today with so much of information and knowledge of law, if freshers look at ragging little more positively and seniors ensure that they do not cross the lines of dignity, ragging can be the most memorable part of your student days both as a senior and as a junior. 

I could find a lot of anti-ragging articles, websites like noragging.com and stopragging.org. Most of the people have classifies ragging as a criminal offence and what freshers go through as trauma, which impacts their psychological well being. My argument is that all through our student lives, every time we face examinations, we go through a mental trauma, fear, and the result of examination can have impact on all parts of our personality either positive or negative, so have we stopped giving exams and started protesting against them. In fact in our kind of education system, where there is so much emphasis on bookish knowledge, and there is hardly any focus on building a personality that is ready to face the world, activities or rituals like ragging at least help you shed some of your inhibitions, and open up to people around you and build some of your first bonds outside your family and family influenced relationships. 

There is not much data available about ragging in women, it seems the harsh ragging is more prevalent amongst men and specially in men’s hostel. So my view, being a woman is bound to be skewed. Interestingly, ragging as a phenomenon goes back to 8th century, and has its origin in Greek culture and sporting communities, and is now practiced globally in education institutes.

The Sufi Mystery by Idries Shah

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Indian Post

After ages, disgruntled by the services provided by the courier companies, I thought of sending an important paper to my parents in Noida using our ‘Indian Post’. The process was simple, I reached my area post office one fine morning, and since it was still quite early the post office was literally empty. I asked for the Speed Post counter, and I was pointed to a counter being managed by a lady wearing a nice crisp summery sari. I walked up to the counter and gave her the envelope, she said told me the amount and then printed an acknowledgement slip with an EMS number, a time stamp and few other details like who has sent it and who should receive it. I asked her the expected time of delivery and she said within 2 days. I thanked her and proceeded thinking the work is done.

The post did not get delivered for next 4 days and I panicked, I was not sure what to do? Is it just the delay or would they have lost my letter. Can they trace the letter if it is lost? I was not sure what is the difference between speed post and registered post, later one I had an impression that it cannot be lost. I wanted to know if the Speed post is also registered as they charge more for it. While all these questions were kicking in my mind, I did a Google on Indian Post and it lead me to a working website, seemed quite updated. Right in the main menu it said ‘Speedpost Tracking’. I quickly took out the EMS receipt and fed in the no. there into the tracking query form. In a second or so it came with the details saying that the post has been delivered 2 days back. Now I was sure ‘ I have lost it’. My parents were already telling me ‘What made you send it by post, you could have couriered it’.

The website kept me intrigued, so I just clicked some links around and read a bit about the all the services they offer, the mission, vision, right to information etc. There was a place to lodge the complaint where I duly registered my complaint, but with no hope of redressal. And then I landed up on a page that gave me phone nos. and e-mail Ids of Speedpost managers at all the post offices that offer this service. I quickly wrote a mail to Speedpost managers in both Bangalore and Noida. They answered immediately saying the post has been delivered two days back. I wrote back saying that it has not been delivered, and they said they will check and get back to me. That evening the post was delivered to my parents and I received a mail stating the same. The post master also wrote that he has spoken to Mr. Goyal ( my father) and he has confirmed that he has received the post. I was relieved and I wrote a thank you note to both the managers appreciating their fast response. I checked with my father and he said he received the letter at about 8 PM, which is definitely way beyond the regular post office timings.

Best part of the story came a day later when I got a call from Noida Speedpost manager to apologize for the delay and asking me for feedback on the service. This came as a total surprise to me and I am sure he could read a smile along with some awe in my voice. After all we are not used to this level of customer service. And this customer service was definitely better than the all the ‘Call Center’ enabled services where the person handling your call has no clue of what they are talking about and can only read what the system displays in front of them. Here the people involved knew their business, and they did not ask me ten thousand questions before answering ‘ We will get back to you’, ‘ Have a nice day’.

To summarize, there was a delay in the overall service as they were supposed to deliver the letter within 2-3 days, but at the same time the customer service was amazing. Now it could be because that I logged a complaint where it was traceable and transparency helps. May be mine was one of the few complaints that they received through their website. But I am optimistic, may be finally our postal department is waking up to the new world and is ready to take on its competition head on. With the kind of reach they have, they can be a tough competition for the rest of the industry.

Do check out Indian Post website , stamps gallery and some interesting worldwide postal links .

Brush with Kolkata – Jorasanko Thakurbadi

I had a small halt in Kolkata, and a friend who stays next to Jorasanko Thakurbadi, which was the residence of Rabindra Nath Tagore, played the guide and took me around the huge house. A part of this now houses a university named after Gurudev and a part is dedicated as Museum depicting his life and times and is known as Rabindra Bharti Museum I could spend couple of hours there and had a good insight into his life, lot of which is not popularly known.
Everyone who has studies Indian history, would know that Tagore came from the family of Zamindars or landlords. This particular house belonged to the large Tagore joint family. This is the house where Tagore was born, spent a large part of his life and breathed his last. Apparently he wanted to die in Shanti-niketan, the university that he had set up few hundred kms away from Kolkata, but he was brought back to this house during his last days as the required treatment was not available in Shanti-niketan.
There are quite a few things that you catch your eye in the house. The house is obviously huge and you can see it was meant to house the large family and its support staff. There is a dedicated delivery room where all kids of the house used to take birth. There is a middle courtyard which it like a small auditorium, with stairs for the audience to sit and a small stage for the performers. This is my interpretation after watching that space, there was no one there to explain this. The room where Tagore lived and died has been preserved in the same way as he used to use it and you are not allowed to touch anything or take pictures. There are blown up pictures from the various stages of his life. There are portraits of all the prominent members of the family and an extended family tree. There is Rabindra Sangeet playing melodiously as you walk around.
But the most amazing part of this place is the paintings by Tagore, which are amazing. There are also some of the notebooks in which he used to write. My friend explained that he would write and then blacken out the words that he wanted to discard, and lot of times that would emerge out as a painting. You get snippets of the mind of the painter and a few glimpses into the Bengal of those times. There is a huge gallery depicting the Japanese art. Tagore visited Japan a lot of times and there were lots of Japanese artists who came to India and stayed in Tagore’s house for years together and painted there. This fact made me think of most of the successful leaders of that time, and they were all probably the first generation of global citizens, and that gave their thought process a broader horizon than rest of the public. Even when I was reading a book recently by Satyajit Ray, I found that apart from his talent, his exposure to global trends in his trade and his global connections also had a big hand in his success. Using the corporate world language, these people were enabled to use the ‘ best practices’ from around the world.
Now what you would not really appreciate is all the filth and dirt that surrounds the house. You have to cross several drain like lanes to reach the house. When I was coming out, it reminded me of my visit to ‘Stratford upon Avon’, which is Shakespeare’s village and the way they have preserved it. They even have a Tagore statue inside his house. The way they maintain the whole town and make all the information available to the visitors is amazing. I wonder why we can not even keep the places of heritage value, at least clean, so that they are at least not repulsive for the visitors.
Biplob, thanks for being my guide to the Thakurbari, without you taking me around, it would not have made as much sense to me.

Sikkim: Small but Beautiful

Sikkim is a unique state, it shares its borders with Bhutan, Nepal, China and almost shares it with Bangladesh. It is surrounded by foreign land on all its sides. ‘Small but beautiful’ is the tagline of Sikkim tourism, and quite apt too. It is a small state and is doing pretty well with its tourism. As you roam around the place you can see so many initiatives that are geared to make the place attractive to the visitors. The roads are narrow as it is Himalayan state but they are clean. Shared taxis are a popular mode of travel between neighboring cities and the administration ensures that the taxis, though private, follow all the rules, stop at designated places only. In fact different types of taxis have different places where they can halt ensuring that there is no cluttering on the roads and roads are not blocked at any time for the rest of the traffic. I have not seen this being followed to the T in many other places in India.

Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim is city which adorns one side of a mountain, overseeing a valley and always looking at the Kanchenjunga peak. You can see the snow capped Kanchenjunga from almost all the places in Gangtok. The tourist circuit in Gangtok includes Enchey Monastery, Handicrafts Museum, a Chortem, Institute of Tibetology, Flower show and the famous Rumtek Monastery. You can cover all these in less than a day. Everything except Rumtek is in the city and quite close to each other. Institute of Tibetology has a small museum which depicts the evolution of Buddhism in the region. It showcases various Thanka paintings and things used in the Buddhist rituals, including Kapali, a bowl made out of human skull. There is a small library also where you can buy the publications of the institute at very nominal prices. On the first floor of the institute, there was a photo exhibition about Namgyal dynasty, which ruled Sikkim till about 1975. Apart from the family and political photographs of the Namgyals what enchants you is the paintings on the walls of this hall. These were old paintings, covering all the walls of the hall, depicting the Buddha in a few of them and the royal and not so royal lifestyles in the others, done in very earthy yet bright colors which have not faded over the years. I would recommend anyone interested in art to visit this room as and when you get a chance to visit Gangtok. 

Rumtek is the most important and well known landmark in Sikkim, and one of the most important places for the Buddhists as it is the seat of Karmapas. At this point in time, after the demise of 16th Karmapa, there is a controversy regarding who is the 17th Karmapa as there are 2 persons claiming stake for the same. And due to this controversy and the political issues associated with it, there is huge amount of security around this monastery. The unique feature of Rumtek is its ‘Fluorescent / Parrot Green’ color on all windows and doors and just about everywhere. The difference in monasteries in Bhutan and Sikkim is the number of people, the monasteries in Bhutan hardly have any people, all you could see was few young and old Lamas, but in Sikkim you see security guards, Lamas, people, people and more people. To cater to all these people there are shops all around serving the Tibetan tea and lemon tea along with Momos and other small eats. There is a Shri Karma Nalanda institute where the students study. There is also a golden stupa where the 16th Karmapa’s relics are. It’s a small serene place where a Lama was praying and there was a kind of peace which was different from the rest of the monastery. 

There is must do one day trip to Tsomgo or Chhangu lake and Baba Mandir. As far as I could gather the only way to travel there is to use the shared taxis, which take a permit to enter the area every morning and then pick up the various tourists, take them around and bring them back by end of the day. Unfortunately due to heavy snow, I could not go to Baba Mandir, which is supposed to be a temple dedicated to an army man who died in that area while rescuing some other people. There is a mythical story around how he directed people to his own dead body by appearing in their dreams. People there believe that he protects the China border and takes care of the people there. Its quite an interesting story. Baba mandir is located close to Nathula Pass which is the gateway for Indo China trade. About 17 kms before Nathula pass and 12,400 ft above see level is Tsomgo lake, which was frozen when I visited in mid March. This was the first time I had ever seen a frozen lake, so it was quite an experience for me. You can go around the lake riding on Yaks, who walk effortlessly on snow. You can climb the snow laden hill around lake and play with the snow. It is hilarious when you see people loosing their balance and slipping on snow, and it feels quite on the contrary when you slip and shout, and believe me almost everyone slips and falls. There is a small restaurant on top and after all the snow a hot cup of tea and hot momos look like heaven. There are small curio shops around the lake where you can buy small gifts, but there was nothing that I found was particularly different or local, and of course prices were indicative of the developed tourism culture in Sikkim. There are a few waterfalls here and there where you can stop by and take a relaxed look at the breathtaking view of mountains and valleys around. 

Sikkim offers many kind of tourists circuits like trekking, bird watching, photography etc, what I visited is the popular circuit and is confined to east Sikkim. Look forward to doing North Sikkim sometime.