Circle of life

Who won the game of the fallen doe?

The marksman or the mighty bow..

Who is sturdier?

The towering trunk of the tree

or the creeper that makes it unfree

Is the mountain impervious for the mouse?

Or is fire something water cannot douse?

The circle of life sees no loser no winner

It is the same for the saint and the sinner.

In darkness, I walk by day

In darkness, I walk by night

Neither the silvery light of the moon

Nor the vanquishing brilliance of the sun

Can clear these blurry lines of grey.

chennai deluge

The unprecedented Chennai rains have wreaked havoc on my beloved city. Here, where I am, all the way around the globe I was originally unaware of the kind of intensity of rains that have been lashing down on Chennai city for the past one month. I make usual ritualistic calls to family in Chennai every morning and I realize right now that almost everyday my mother had sounded her frustration about it. " Haiooo Thiruppiyum mazhai" is what she would say. Having lived for 26 years, I know that even small rains can nearly paralyze parts of the city. For many years, slum dwellers have put up with this chronic problem.

 I remember , I used to use the school bus to travel to and fro my T Nagar to KK Nagar  when I was in primary school. I remember being stuck on congested roads for hours together when it rained. My father would drive his scooter through the school bus route looking for us. In 2005, the Adyar and Saidapet river swelled and the catchment lakes opened leading to flooding in KK Nagar area and adjoining places. Thankfully, at that time the damage was less serious. But I remember, a friends house being infested with mice and various rodents when they got back. The rodents never left!

For the first time, the rains that impounded have made a virtual island of all parts of the city. I am seeing visuals of Sinagra chennai mainly on Facebook and am alarmed at the extent of the damage. I cannot help but wonder what went wrong. Here are some of my thoughts.

1. Global warmimg.
 Yes. Global warming is very much a cause for catastrophes like this. I have also read that tropical climates are more prone to reacting to minuscule changes to the planets ecosystem and thermosphere.  Therefore while global warming has certainly become an alarming reality for "us" chennaites who are int he tropical belt, it will soon become an imminent danger for the people outside of it. I argued with myself about how USA is able to predict its microclimate weather with such amazing accuracy, while we are not able to foresee a catastrophic torrential downpour. My elementary research leads to me understand that tropical cyclones such as the one that TN witnessed recently are prone to be unpredictable and current models are limited on accuracy. Global warming adds to this unpredictability, in general.

The solution: Global warming is a problem that transcends boundaries. As a trendsetter, we must ensure we eco-friendly community behavior.  Avoid plastic, segregate trash, recycle and reuse. Chennai being a sunny city for most part the year, we must explore the option of using solar panels and solar energy for buildings. Design buildings that are sunlight efficient and reduce dependence on electric lighting. Considering the large amount of organic waste that is generated, we could try using bio-electricity for certain purposes.


2. Unplanned development
Years of unscrupulous developmental activity have removed native flora, fauna and most importantly diminished water absorbing soil cover. I am also reading reports of  lake dredging and filling in order to make land for construction of buildings. We should put an end to this immediately. This part requires a lot of dedicated involvement by the government.  I have absolutely no faith in the government and I believe that years of mismanagement by govt officers for personal monetary gain have the left the city in the throes of floods. It is solely the responsibility of the government to ensure uniformity of development and accessibility of resources to every part of the state, so that no one area or city is marginalized. This will ensure not only even population distribution, but will also reduce impact on human and material resources when disaster strikes.

The solution: Awareness campaign on Chennai city's natural resources. Open and intensive engagement with the government authorities can only solve the problem.

3. Improper disaster preparedness/response:
One cannot stop natural calamities from occurring altogether nor can me make a zero risk zone of living for us. In the case of Chennai rains, it has taken atleast a couple of days before the Govt realized that what was happening was a large scale disaster. I have no idea what the govt was thinking. I could see very clearly that Govt authorities had taken no lessons from kashmir or Mumbai floods and have been very lethargic and complacent in dealing with this tragedy. I understand that Chennai has never been victim of large scale rains or flooding of this sort, but the situation was well calamitous enough to warrant swift action from the govt.

Many eminent Chennai personalities have shouldered the massive relief and rescue work and have done what the govt ought to have done. With them thousands of young volunteers joined hands to save the city from drowning. This is truly a model example for our wired world. Facebook and twitter were used to send SOS messages and moderate flow of relief and rescue material. The entire operation was transparent. There was very little chance of misuse of relief and rescue material and such instances were reported real-time on Facebook. This kind of community involvement is ideal for providing help to calamity-stricken people. I have only words of praise for my Chennai vasis!

As an addition, every locality should have a well established communication center and also a  food and fodder reserve. This idea is not uncommon at all. Ancient south indian temples used to maintain huge reserves of grain and fodder to help the community during a disaster. Again, in order to do this effectively a highly competent  administrative machinery in required. This to me looks like a distant dream.Chennai's governing authorities have beyond doubt demonstrated their ineptness and callousness in the management of this disaster. Only the rise of a self-governing civic society will save Chennai from throngs of  both gradual degradation and sudden decimation.

Will the fabric of Chennai stay connected and knit the way it was during the floods or will it go back to its original nonchalance?

Top 15 reminders for me!

                

1.  Chocolate works best under any situation.
2. Your culinary skills no longer kill.
3.  Longer your morning showers, better the day.
4.  Allocate shower time to singing, dancing and thinking-things that we hardly find time for during the day.
5.  Monitor your hair for shades of grey. Be happy for wisdom is soon to set in.
6. Its ok to not keep up your gym promises. Make it up by longer walks and enjoy watching the hustle of people’s activity.  So your mind gets its dose of happiness everyday.
7.  “The world isn’t fair”. You know now that this is an irrefutable truth.
8. Many times, plan A doesn’t work… and plan B doesn’t either.
9. Money matters on money matters! Try to save and try and try...
10. Life is like a trade-in deal and there is always a catch in every deal.
11. Its not bad to be left alone. It’s your “WOW” time.
12. Your quarter-life crisis is nearly over. Enjoy the time till your mid-life crisis sets in.
13. Old buddies are not same anymore but so aren't you. So, if you don't hang out with them like you used to its fine. You can be sure, they still remember you.
14. Life is a rat race, very much. Sometimes, you don't have a choice but to deal with rats.
15. It is ok to not have everything early in life. You can keep yourself busy the rest of your life!

Vishwaroopam...

I excitedly watched Vishwaroopam, just a day after it hit the theaters in USA among a packed and equally enthusiastic audience. Of course, initially most of my excitement stemmed from the fact that I was going to watch Kamal in action in a jam-packed theatre. I don't remember that last time I did something like that.  I enjoyed watching, Kamal as a kathak dancer and I am pretty sure no other actor in the history of Indian (or even ) international cinema would have had such versatile talents. I grew up listening to Kamal sing, dance, fight and romance and I have enjoyed and admired his value as an entertainer.

While most actors/entertainers in the film industry have impassionately stuck to making films with recurrent and cliched themes, Kamal's movies have always been a refreshing out-of-box package. Right from his MMKR (which I watched almost every other day during the lonesome days of my graduate study) and his recent classic thriller, Vishwaroopam. As a young person in my early twenties, I have wondered and contemplated the banal aspects of human life, god and religion and I believe a lot of young and old people would. I was surprised to see that Kamal Hassan could blend classic humor and simplicity with profound meditative questions in Anbe Sivam. I may not agree with him on all his philosophical theories, but I appreciate him for being able to portray them in his art with utmost dexterity.

By banning his magnum opus, Vishwaroopam, simply because it has religious connotations our government and our people have not just shown their irreverence to art but have also proved to themselves to be impertinent bigots. The government by allowing such a ban to persist has yielded to imbecile instincts of bigots instead of creating an air of harmony, by reassuring the masses of the friendly nature of the movie. I read this somewhere -
                         You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself--William Ward
And I think it is time, we grew up as a people.

We cannot afford to endanger our art and our free thinking citizens simply because we have been bullied by vacuum headed bigots. It is time we realized that there are other ways to seen, heard, understood and identified by something other than caste or religion. It is time we let our intellects rule.

Kamal Hassan is not the only victim of bigotry and non-chalance. A lot of people from all classes (from peasants to acclaimed stalwarts) have had to face this war and there will be many more, if Kamal dosen't win this one! And yes, I want Kamal to win, one because he is my "favorite actor" but more so because his victory will be a heartening indication of the existence of progressive elements in our bigoted society and

 for that I will watch the movie again... and maybe again!

Blah Blah Blah....

WHILE I WAS AWAY....

Bright red roses bloomed in my little garden,

The lily pond’s song encored.

Misty mornings and peeping rays,

Starry nights and the silvery moon

Came and went by soon

    While I was away….

Crisp autumn shades colored my little garden,

So did the brilliant bed of snow.

The vivid colors of vibrant spring

and the scent of  summer monsoon

Came and went by soon,

While I was away…

Now my eyes are tired and teary,

Jaded by my lackluster abode.

But, blind they were in their youth

And my little garden….

It is the same no more

Because I was away…

Untitled-1

Its time for redemption...from the wretches of the corrupt bureacucracy that has enslaved us. Anna Hazare's has finally stirred an awakening. Suddenly, we see an otherwise non-chalant crowd pooling up against our money/power mongering politicians.
It is now becoming important for us to sustain the movement against corruption with vehemence and grit.

As usual, the Sonia Gandhi's soporific government has woken up a bit too late. In fact, her late,cliched and farce appeals to Anna Hazare, are indicative of the level of non-chalance her govt possess for the common Indian tax payer. Ever since the Congress and its allies took over, there has been a spate of scams that have potentially looted the country's exchequer. It is preposterous for anyone but Kapil sibal to assume that the 2G specturm was not a scam. Obnoxious was the way the Congress and DMK hooked up back again, after the row once the scam and Raja issue came to light.I wonder why it is not obvious to the Prime Minister , Sonia Gandhi and his cabinet of ministers that they are a part of (and actually foster) a corrupt and inefficient bureacracy.. I would be for one extremely ashamed of myself, I were associated with one. In fact, I am at this point, really am not proud but ashamed of my claim to be Indian. Apart from the Cricket WC, my nation has nothing else to call its own..

Rice at Rs1, but spiralling prices of vegetables and pulses?. Free laptops for students belonging to special sects, but are all our kids having even good elementary schools to study in? Free televsion to everyone, but are we even having the luxury of uninterrupted electricity? I am wondering exactly who cooks up all these silly freebies in their election manifesto..and exactly why?? It is somehow impossible for me to believe that certain of set of homo-sapiens( read Indian policticans?) be so devoid of something called conscience and common sense?..huh!