Up in the Air...my first Journey alone on an airplane

"Just two thousand?!!?" It costs me almost the same amount for an AC class train ticket to Delhi. I will go by flight I thought, not realising that it would the first time I would be traveling alone on an airplane. I traveled once before but that was when I could comfortably stretch my legs in my seat without the occupant of the seat in the front warning me not to hit his legs! This time it was different. Because, all I knew about catching a plane was that it was no train journey where you could do the 'a minute before departure' arrival and jump into the train!

All I knew was to watch a flying airplane open mouthed. On my first journey when I was a kid, my mother took all the necessary steps for a flight journey and I only remember watching through the window, the vast green, brown and black blocks below. But as I sat inside the plane for the second time in my life, I realised how beautiful and worse a flight journey can be. But one thing always drives me crazy. The fact that at six in the morning, I am in Hyderabad and by eight, I am in Kochi or Delhi. It took me sometime on both the occasions to realise that I was hundreds of kilometers away from Hyderabad by the time I was fully awake. One fact that equally scares me is that if I get used to traveling by air in future, I might find train journey strenuous! I love both modes of transport and I haven't yet traveled in a ship!

Since this is my first time on a flight alone, I was in the airport by 3:30 AM to catch a 6:05 AM plane. As the 'metal bird' carrying me accelerated, my whole body warmed. As it took off, I felt nothing. But as I saw the things I felt huge on the ground gradually become small, I realised I was high in the air. I felt I belonged to the air. 'What a take off!! Maybe everyone felt the same.' I thought and looked around only to see that half of the passengers deep asleep and the other half reading the newspaper or waiting impatiently for the coffee trolley. My neighbour was angry about the sudden and hard take off!

The sunrise was spectacular. I did not care to close the window flap to watch it. It was not like the one at Kanyakumari but it was new and nice! I started taking pictures of whatever I never saw from the top. Hills, forests, clouds, reflection of the rising sun in water bodies and airplanes! The air hostesses were performing their routines trying their best not show their bored faces, hiding them behind smiles! The pilot was detailing us about our journey, turbulences and the time of landing and announced that we were just few minutes away from Delhi and would landing soon. Wow! So fast! It felt nice. What a journey!! I guess I belong to the air!

No. It did not feel nice. It started just then and it felt like hours. Ear pain! I have never experienced pain in my ears to such extent. Then I remembered that my mother stuffed cotton in my ears last time and gave me chocolates to chew. My thoughts were again interrupted by stinging pain in my ears! This vehicle does not even have a chain to pull in emergency!! I occupied the window seat and could not even move into the aile because the two persons beside me were happily sleeping. How!!? People were still were drinking coffee happily and chatting. How!?

We descended over Delhi, my ear throbbing at its maximum. The morning Delhi was already on the move on the ground. And none among them have ear pain. I could hear nothing through my right ear and I was sure it would remain so for atleast a day. It did too. Maybe I belonged to the ground. Then we landed which I thought was the hardest thing for me that day!!
'Now, that's a smooth landing,' said my neighbour. 

Sunrise amidst the clouds

Reflection- water bodies

A Non-Stick University

The university has engrossed itself in a trendy flavour of pink for the past three days preparing for a massive event organised in it by the government of the newly formed Telangana. I was promised some fifty varieties of food unique to the state. But all I got is chicken, that too badly cleaned one. But it is not about the okay-ish food or the excellent cultural shows that I got to experience but it is about that pinkishness that the university, its walls and roads had to embrace, through posters and flags! Thanks to one of my very good friend, I realised the relevance of 'where-to-stick-the-posters!'

Its a door, not a notice board!!

After a talk about waste management, my friend, throwing her and another abandoned tea cup in the dustbin, commented on the poor state of the walls in the university. "I don't like posters to be stuck on walls." I asked, what was wrong in conveying message through a poster? A plain wall could be decorated with posters. She was not happy because,
1. Her undergraduate college had a better way to publicise posters. Apparently, they were never stuck on walls and were kept by the windows. Students later used them for rough work
2. The boards meant for sticking posters are not used properly and walls are used improperly.
3. The walls get really dirty

Looking at how every inch of the university walls are now covered with posters, I cannot agree less with her! I think there are other ways, much better ways to communicate with the "wall-media."-- Graffiti I don't think there is anything wrong in graffiti. Famous quotes should be written on walls but properly. Art students must be given a chance to put to use the stacked up colours for beautiful graffiti. They generally pass their time on flyovers. Go ahead. Fill the university walls. But keep it colourful and beautiful.  When our prime minister went to Kyoto as part of his Japan trip, a main point of discussion was Kyoto turning into a 'poster-free city.' Surprisingly but seemingly obvious, he was told that the Japanese values of cleanliness came from Buddhism. The PM then rightly pointed out that Indians might have conveniently forgotten the values of Buddhism.

When Buddhism offered solutions for cleanliness elsewhere in the world, why not in India, its birthplace!! Almost everybody is active on some social networking site. Posters can be posted on the sites and any communication through hard copy can be done with the help of pamphlets. Yet, there is a dire necessity of voluntary service. Service by both those who stick the posters and read them. For those who stick the posters to stick them in the prescribed areas, the notice boards and by those who read to say firmly that they only read those posters put up in the proper notice boards!
Or maybe, as a last resort use plaster to stick posters instead of gum!
As Kyoto pulls down the last two of its posters, let us pull down our first two and strive for a 'poster-free' university.

All Time 15's!!!

"If a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous" said Acharya Chanakya. I did not read a lot of books and most of the famous and important books which one must read. However, since the time has come for me to tell everyone what I read and which are my favourites, I pretend to have read a lot of books.
I had no internet for one week and a lot changed since. I now realise that sensations can spread in a very short time. The #ALSicebucketchallenge way of nominating people has spread to various crazy things. One of them, this favourite book nomination and as I, with a mask of a 'venomous snake' am putting forth my ten favourite books. I only started reading very recently and of course read only fiction and not much beyond. Anyway, I give a shot.

I do not include my favourite epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata and other similar ones related to different mythologies; Fascinating books like the Arthasastra, Indica, Lilavati and Mathematica and most importantly The Fountain Head  especially, Fundamentals of Physics by Haliday, Resnick and Walker only because I half read and half listened to these books.

Other than these, my best ten include (no order),

7. Trinetrudu, by Suryadevara Ramamohana Rao .... brilliant and inspiring two books. Narrates an inspiring story while giving live examples.

13. Kanyasulkam, by Gurajada Apparao ... for it being one of the best among the telugu literature and is very thought provoking.

9. The Harry Potter series ... of course it will be there on the list. Just one thing about this.. a must read for any body.

12. An Anthropologist among the Marxists, by Ramachandra Guha ... For telling through examples how a true patriot should be, would be and had been!! Though it is too Gandhian, well, after all it is Ramachandra Guha on the line.

4. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less and A Prisoner of Birth, by Jeffrey Archer ... What an amazing story teller. The stories show the royalty of the British and they are so neat and perfect. In these two books, the plots are very beautiful.

11. Night Without End, by Alistair Maclean ... Believe me. On a 40-42 degree hot morning, as I was travelling in a packed compartment of a train to Guntur from Hyderabad, I read this book which is based in Greenland and I literally shivered as the author never cared to drop me back in the hot, crowdy train!!

5. Salvation of a Saint, by Keigo Higashino ... What a brilliant plot. If I felt I enjoyed reading his 'Devotion of Suspect X', I enjoyed this book ten times as much. Such a simple yet brilliant plot and especially when a Physicist is the one who cracks the case, it gets more interesting!!

10. Worshipping False Gods, by Arun Shourie ... for being the only book which dared to question B.R.Ambedkar's role in the Indian independence. Though I firmly believe in the only mission Dr.Ambedkar took up, I really think there are certain priorities and the country comes first!!

6. How I taught my Grandmother to Read and Write, by Sudha Murthy ... one of the first books I read. I did not know who Sudha Murthy was back then and like this list, I did not read the book in an order and it came quite as a surprise when I came to know who her husband is. Such a great, yet simple lady!!

15. Lilavati's Daughters, by Rohini Godbole,Ramakrishna Ramaswamy ... just for one reason. For introducing to me, one of the fantastic scientists I have ever seen, Dr.Rama Govindarajan. She is full of knowledge but none of unnecessary pride!

1. The Guide, by R K Narayan ... I could write many other books of his, but all are reflected in this one masterpiece

14. Kite Runner, by Khaled Hossaini ... I have read this sheer brilliant book, for A thousand times over

3. The Shiva Triology, by Amish Tripathi Such fantastic research and very good narration in keeping par with scientific explanations

8. Why are Things the Way they Are, by G Venkataraman Just for it being a 100 and odd page book with simple explanations.

2. Rafa, My Story, by Rafael Nadal with John Carlin Purely for my love for Rafael Nadal. He however gives such a fantastic insight into his life, so much as telling about his arrangement of bottles during matches that it took me steps closer to him.

I am very sad for leaving out "The Monk who Sold its Ferrari," by Robin Sharma; "The Percy Jackson series," by Rick Riordan. That is it and I am trying to read more. Seriously!! :)

   

Namma City...Bengaluru!!

I never wanted this to happen. I never thought that this place would feature on my favourites as much as my birthplace or the place I grew up in or the place I badly want to visit. Its not a tourist destination like Mussorie or Manali. Its not a better place for business than Mumbai, nor is it a piligrim center like Madura or Madurai. I don't know why but it caught my attention and imagination. I was sure I would just finish of my two month work there and leave until I set my feet on the Bengalurian soil three months ago. But the Garden city proved otherwise. Whether it is because it is a multi cultured city with non-Kannadigas more than the native Kannada speakers, or because it is green, or because it was the wonderful two months I spent for a project there, I am happy I went to the 'silicon valley' of India.

I did and do feel that Bangalore is nothing like Hyderabad. For one thing, it is very costly. Secondly, I did not find in Bangalore, as much variety of eatables and cuisine at desired rates as I did in Hyderabad. But the most important thing in complete contrast to Hyderabad is, Bangalore sleeps too early, by ten in the night. I was almost struck in one end of the city at 9:40 PM when I saw that the roads were deserted and the transport facility was minimal. And I wanted to go to the Majestic, the central railway station! However, the chief minister of Karnataka kindly allowed pubs to be open as long as one in the midnight. But in Hyderabad, you get buses even at 11:30 in the night.
The climate is nothing like Hyderabads. It is supposed to rain in the rainy season. Be cold in the winter and summers should be hot! But if the temperature does not touch 40 degrees in mid summer, it is a condemnable act!! How do we enjoy the first rain if the summer is not hot?!!?

The food is not as varied as in Hyderabad. Those people know only to add onion and tomato in almost everything. Every possible food item. I ate so much tomato that I got bored of tomatoes now. But I loved the native Thatte Idli. It is very good. One has to eat it in bangalore. The Dharwad peda and Mysore Dosa are quite famous. But Thatte Idli is to be eaten. So is Bisse bela baath. In the end, it is the native food items that are very good. And coffee. Speaking of natives, all the "natives" I met are people who migrated from Andhra Pradesh and long settled in Bangalore. This Kempegowda-built city is full of telugu people and gardens! Every one kilometer or so, you find a garden. Especially the feeling one experiences while walking along the side paths of Indiranagar and through its gardens at six in the morning is wonderful. Every road is lined with trees on either side. And there are footpaths too. And you don't find encroachment of the footpaths by the hawkers and vendors.

Though I do not belong to the field and do not appreciate it, I could do nothing but marvel at the size of population that was involved in the IT field and the separate section of the city devoted for it. But Bengaluru is not only an IT hub. I felt it is the science hub of the country too. The Indian Institute of Science and the Raman Research Institute still give me the goosebumps. They are grand. One appreciates research as soon as he steps into this wonderful institute. I used to just go and sit under that tree of C.V.Ramans at RRI. It is a beautiful institute. I need not mention the science museum or the planetarium. And Bangalore is the aerospace hub of the country. ISRO, NAL, HAL all are based in this city. So, it is wrong to call it just the IT hub of the country. Or silicon valley of India to that matter.
It is Bangalore. Bengaluru! Namma Bengaluru

True, my stay in this city was only for two months and I have seen so less of it to either say good or bad about it. But fifty days is good enough to get nostalgic about this simple, yet a five hundred year, grand old city. I did not like the food and climate here, though every 99999/100000th person does. But I did like the city.
Maybe because of Dr.Kirit Yajnik, the guide I worked with in those two months at National Aerospace laboratories, maybe it is because of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, old and newly made. Or maybe because it is due to the wonderful sense of music the city has. The art galleries I visited. The brilliant music concerts I attended. I enjoyed listening to music, be it Carnatic or western classical or rock. Maybe it is the magic of the city. It accepts everything and everybody and does not ask you where you are from!

Namma team...RCB!!

Beyond those 22 yards!!

"ABYSMAL!" is how the Hindu described Indian cricket team's performance in the test series of the England tour. I would say its the best. It is because, now is the time. Now is the time, a time when the Indian cricket team boasts of no legendary player in it, a time when all the players have collectively failed, a time when the women team of India has beaten England, a time when while cricketers are failing, the rest of the sports persons are succeeding. A time when Kabaddi (a 45 minute game, consisting of two seven player teams!) is now followed better than cricket. A time when India, for the first time has got a podium position at the International chess olympiad! Changing times, probably!

Begun with the world cup victory in 1983, cricket had provided entertainment to lakhs, inspiration to thousands, job satisfaction to hundreds and big time money for tens of people. Inspiration maybe from events like the 1998 Sharjah Coca-cola cup or the 2000 Hero cup or maybe from true greats like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, VVS Lakshman, Ganguly and Kapil Dev to name a few. Those events are past and these people are past retirement. 
Now is the time for the entire country to shift its devotion from only cricket to all sports. C'mon, India is probably the only country to have such a large number of religions. But come to sports, why be loyal to only cricket, consider it your only religion and have only one God? God doesn't retire, he keeps reincarnating doesn't he? Maybe he reincarnated in Tennis? Badminton? or maybe Discuss throw?  Ironically, the shocking and 'impossible-to-achieve-ever' by any team defeats come against the British at the time when we celebrate Independence!!

This is major Dhyan Chand

The home ministry proposed major Dhyan Chand's name, who is considered the 'Hockey wizard' and who was applauded by Adolf Hitler at Berlin in 1936 and praised by Don Bradman as "That guy scores like runs in cricket!"  to the Prime Minister's Office to recommend the President to present the hockey legend with the Bharatratna posthumously. It feels so very sad to know what he said about Indians. "maybe the world will remember me. But I am sure India doesn't!" No more shameful act when his name was put aside for the award. Not that a Bharatratna conferred upon him after some 35 years of his death would do him any good but it would really be an inspiration to thousands(?) who are playing any sport other than cricket and is moreover more appropriate for the highest civilian award in India.

It is clear that any game other than cricket has been neglected in our country till now even though we have known about legends like Dhyan Chand, P.T.Usha, Viswanathan Anand, Vijay Amrutraj and Prakash Padukone. I hate the concept of commonwealth games. However, that we stood fifth amongst the commonwealth countries with medals in various sports is a good sign for athletics in the country. Badminton, squash, boxing, wrestling, weight lifting, discuss throw, shooting and archery. Woah, there are a lot of games which can hopefully be taken up as careers in our country! I would love to see India doing really well in football, tennis, cycling and swimming, all my favourites and unfortunately not the country's favourites! Its time we take such issues as serious as growing more trees!


"Commertialisation of sport is the democratisation of the sport" said Andrew Young. Maybe true but I am not sure if it happened in the case of cricket. How come the Indian Cricket League (ICL) was banned then? However, I feel that "Commertialisation of sport is increased publicity of the sport." But is it not applicable to every sport and not only cricket? Why do we not give ourselves a chance to show our potential beyond cricket? Beyond the 22 yard pitch? Beyond those fifteen and odd countries? Beyond imagination?

Happy Independence Day (I know!!)

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The great festival of Trees!

Vanamahotsav literally means, 'the great festival of trees.' It is celebrated at that time of the year when the farmer looks for hope in the skies; the school children look for fun, joy and the occasional holiday; the city dweller prays for his and his motor vehicle's safety lest he never knows where a pothole on the road is - the monsoon time. It was initiated by the then food and agriculture minister, Kulapati K.M.Munshi, to increase the forest cover in India. Though at a meager rate(something like 0.5%), the forest cover has been rising through the decades. India is still among the ten highly forest-rich countries. The forest cover is about 24%, higher than the suggested 19%, but less than the golden mark, 31%. But with the GDP and a significant portion of the population dependent on forests, it is in the best interests of any political party coming into power to maintain the forest cover we have.

The brave women of Garhwal, Uttarakhand

Vanamahotsav is a one week festival at the beginning of July. But since the monsoon is always late like most of the Indians and Indian trains, I, a true Indian, generally celebrate it by the last week of July. Fortunately, I was taught to plant a sapling and importantly, take care of it until it grows significantly, instead of chopping down huge trees, plant a million small plants, call the media, gain publicity, enter the Limca or Guinness records and leave those million "just-planted" to rot! I can proudly talk about the plants I took care of, and feel sad for the tree I could not save from being cut! Adieu to Amrita Devi and the women of Garhwal Himalayas in the 1970s, now, in 2014, with increased awareness about nature and deforestation and with the Chipko movement taking various shapes and forms, there is a lot more to feel happy and pleased about.

Some fifty to hundred years back, every one was taking of colonies, slavery, supremacy, war and subsequent industrialisation and probably not many talked about environmental issues, with exceptions like Mahatma Gandhi. Hence, now we are talking primarily about environment, global warming, climate change etc.(sadly, we are still talking of wars too!) Any international conference, climate change is a topic which finds itself in. Realisation I guess, or probably a necessity for survival since we are vulnerable and no longer "the fittest!"

The following pictures of barren Hyderabad in the nineteenth century by Raja Deen Dayal show what the level of awareness was back then. All the Nizams, kings and the British-generals were interested in was only hunting down hundreds of Tigers just for fun and of course posing for a picture (a luxury) with the hunted tiger. I think the world is better now than a hundred years back and really hope it gets better in the coming years.

All but rocks: Secunderabad in the late 19th century

 If Hyderabad was only a rocky place with a lot of water scarcity, we need not feel bad about urbanising it and making it relatively scarcity free.

The surroundings of Hussain Sagar are greener now

It is very much possible to preserve various natural gifts and at the same time develop. A lot of profit can be made from forests.

Hyderabad...but without those high rises!