The Great Indian Middle class !!!

Recently, I got to witness a chat show on "CNN Ibn" on the Indian middle class. Personalities from various fields had shared their views on what they thought of the Indian middle class. I've tried to compile a few lines here based on the way I perceive the Indian Middle class:

1.They may very well earn over 30 lakhs per annum, but would still prefer to be called the "Middle class"

2.Its that class which does buy a car to showcase it's status to the rest of the society, but still doesn't use it enough on account of rising fuel prices.

3.It's the class that talks more about politics without caring to vote in elections.

4.It is a class that firmly believes in the professional education and secure income. Innovation is strictly forbidden unless someone has already been successful trying something new.

5.It is a class that boasts of American education for their sons and hunts for Nri's for their daughters.

6.It's a class that is both satisfied and desirous at the same time.

7.It's a class that still bargains for that one rupee more that the vegetable vendor may be asking for.

8.It's a class that buys a mobile phone, but still relies heavily on office phones and missed calls .

9.It's a class that's circumspect about attending parties thrown by friends owing to fear of reciprocation.

10.It s a class that prefers to booze at home,than waste money at an expensive pub.

11.It's a class that still parks it's vehicle at a friend's place, rather than paying those 5 bucks as Parking charges.

12.It's a class that cribs a lot about bad driving on the road and drives on the platforms.

13.It's a class that wishes to see the Hero and heroine get married in movies but turn red faced if their sons/daughters were to propose a love marriage.

14.It's a class that still takes more pride in their ward working in Infosys than in Microsoft.

15.It's a class that still takes more pride in their ward graduating from Stanford than from IIm's.

Nightmarish Night !!

An ordeal that's become an order of the weekends. More so on weekends, adjoining a public holiday on a friday or a Monday. An ephemeral mass exodus happens out of Bangalore as every lane leads to the railway station or the bus stand. Bangalore's infrastructural woes were back to haunt me last night and it was arguably my toughest day on the road.

I was culpable of yielding to my passion for table tennis, as I kept playing on and on, hoping to get back home quickly and head off to the Rly.station from there in a Rick. I was to be wrong. My ability to maneuver the vehicle through the roads didnt come handy as I was stranded at different places on my way back home. I finally reached home 15 minutes later than I hoped to. Least did I know then that those 15 minutes were going to be crucial.

It was 8:45 when I reached the BTM main road and I was bewildered to notice the big jam on the lane leading to the city(Rly.stn). I kinda sensed I was in for a big test. Test of patience and test of stamina too. Why stamina ? I could sense u guys smirking over this, wondering if the Rick was gonna carry me or if I was gonna carry the rick, to be worried about the stamina. The reason I said that is I've seen such jams before and I knew precisely what I had to do as you would see further down this post.

It was 9.00 pm and still no Autorickshaw was game for a trip to the station and even if they did, it came at a heavy cost of over 150 bucks, definitely more than double the cost that I would incur otherwise. I could feel the trepidation in my legs and frantically tried to recollect if there was any friend of mine who was there in the city for the weekend and give me a ride till the station. There were a few who came to my mind, but they were all staying too far to be of too much of help. Frustration compounded and in the meantime found a Gentleman working with Wipro, for company. He was not in any hurry though,since his train was only at 10:45, 45 mins after mine. Finally, one auto conceded to take us to the station, at 1.5 times the metre cost. It was well over 10 minutes and the auto had not even gone past BTM main road, which is not even half a km from where I took the rick. Meantime I enquire the autowalah if he would take me the Blr cantonment station, where the train was gonna reach some 10 mins after it departs from the city rly stn and much to my disappointment, he doesnt agree and I stuck to my instinct and decided to carry on in the same auto, rather than get down and look for another auto to cantonment, which may again take those 25 mins that it took for me to get this Rick. In another 15 mins, we had crossed BTM and from thereon for the next 5 kms, the driver took the vehicle through unseen, hardly thronged roads and in no time I had reached the Lalbagh gate.. I take a sigh of relief , when my friend Vasu (Gentleman who travelled along) warns me of the impending danger in the form of jams some 3 kms ahead of the station. And yeah, he was right and that circle is were it's usually clogged until all trains leaving Bangalore would have left. I slip into bad mood again. 5 minutes later, we were there at that very spot and just as we expected, there were vehicles all over, all the way till the station. For the next 10 mins, the Auto crawled through the lane. I had to take a call and decided to run down the lane to the station. The station was a good 2-2.5 kms away and running was the only choice I had to catch the train. I paid what I thought would be half the cost of the journey to Vasu and bid him a bye. With a travel bag hanging on my back and the laptop on one shoulder, I setout on a mission- "Mission Majestic" and I had roughly 10 minutes to accomplish the mission. I kept running right on the main road like a Man who walks blindfolded on a highway and still does not get runover. Midway, the traffic started moving a little and I hitched a ride on a Tvs suzuki. It went for a few yards and I get down from the bike thanking that fella and start running again. Yet again, there is a clearance and I hitch a ride in one other bike and this time he takes me very close to the Majestic bus stand, not so far from the station. I effortlessly jump over a road divider that was chest high. As I get to one side of the road, one of my legs is accidentally inserted into my laptop bag's holder and I stumble over it. Even then I make a last ditch atempt at preventing my lappy from any damage, least worried about my own fall. Least deterred by the fall, I take the big stairway leading to a pedesrian bridge that connects the bus stand and station. Half way through that bridge, I run out of steam and also hope. It was already 10 pm and the train could be leaving anytime. I restrict myself to a fast walk and finally the station is visible. I alight from the bridge, standing on the other side of the station. Taking the subway could be time consuming. Hence I decide to jump over yet another road divider. This time, an even bigger one. ah, it pains as I saunter through the station gates and make enquiries about the platform to a porter, not intending to waste time looking at the display. Platform 3 he says and I sped to the overbridge to get there. From the bridge, I try to see if the train had gone. Gawddd, I dont see a train there :-(..My mind starts going haywire and just as I am about to fall dejected, I also notice a hugeeeeeeee crowd on the platform. I slowly approach one and ask "Coimbatore Express" ? "Yeah, it's expected" he says.
Gawd, the train s late and as much as I thanked god for this, I also blamed him for not letting me know of this delay. "Testing times dont last, but determined Men do" I suddenly get reminded of this thought, as I wipe off the sweat from my face to look more presentable to the girls in the station..Ah, I never change :-)

Guru - Review !!!

It was a Maniratnam movie and I was not gonna wait for the weekend to watch it. One day of less contribution at work and I was off to the Multiplex with couple of other colleagues to watch the movie. Having to wait for the show to begin, for over one and a half hours did not seem that big a pain. The excitement and anticipation of watching a new(Mani) movie was good enough to kill any frustration that I had to go through.

Despite being an ardent Mani fan, I've tried being a just judge, making a conscious attempt to avoid any gross prejudices and not just give blindly rave reviews :-)

"Idhar gaon"- Gujarat...starts the movie and from then starts an experience of 2.5 hrs that keeps the audience enraptured. Maniratnam, the taskmaster was once again in the thick of things, like in his earlier movies. The background score and the cinematography were most definitely the departments that are likely to enthrall audiences in the intial few minutes. Rajeev Menon and Rahman have been true and loyal sons to a highly respected godfather in Maniratnam. It's so unbelievable how Mani extracts the best out of the best.

The movie moves on as the Hero travels places from Gujarat to turkey as an ambitious boy and returns back as a youth after a few years of toiling in Turkey, to setup his own "bijhness". Abhishek Bachchan has been flawless and natural in his rustic accent and full marks to his commitment. It's paid him rich dividents. He marries his frnd's sister(Ash) for the huge investment that his frnd promises to make in his ambitious business plans. The couple head towards Mumbai along with the "bil in frnd". Tough time beckons the trio in Mumbai and 'Guru'(AB) is quite adept at overcoming small hiccups to setup his cloth business there. His frnd, a more naive and dumb fella, remaining a silent spectator of all this. Guru finds help from Mithun(editor of a Newspaper) to setup his store. How he grows from here, to owning the biggest company in India is the crux of the story. Meanwhile, his deceitful means to earn profit bring severe criticism from Mithun, who urges Madhavan(a reporter) to unveil Guru's true colour to the public. From buy back of shares to hoodwinking the customs from payin requisite import duty, Guru does it all and does it so smartly and effectively. Notwithstanding the severe flaking he receives from Mithun and his newspaper, Guru is unperturbed and grows to reach the pinnacle of success.

Now, by half time, the art direction in the movie had also flatterred me. It deserves a big applause for having taken the audiences 50 years back with sheer brilliance.

No Mani movie goes without a famous line and to me, the one dialogue just before the interval, when AB tells Madhavan "Guru bhai kho jeetna hai tho Guru bhai bhanke, magar Gurubhai ek hee hai" was the pick of the lot.. Rahman's BG score "Gurubhai gurubhai" during such scenes cause goosebumps all over the body.

As the movie draws to an end, One can't stop wondering about Mani's immaculate ability to blend fiction with true life(Dhirubhai) with such exemplary portrayals. He's proven to the country yet again why he's so special, incomparable and unparallelled. His portrayal of a bed room romance between AB and Aishwarya Rai deserves a special mention as it had the Maniratnam stamp all over it. One can't avoid seeing glimpses of Mani's earlier movie scenes in this one.

AB in his old getup has tried to imitate Kamalhassan in "Nayagan". The scene where Ash and AB are lying down on the floor perpendicular to each other with their heads together, reminds me so much of a scene from Iruvar, where PrakashRaj and Tabu would be in similar positions.

As for the actors, AB was peerless, Ash was a major disappointment more with the way she looked than with her acting. Guys, We've got to digest the fact that ageing is very much applicable to the lovely ladies of tinseldom too :-). Mithun was good and couldnt have done any better. Madhavan does justice to his small role and plays it to perfection.

Now, to the most important section that Mani bashers would enjoy. A few glitches that I thought could have either been avoided or made better.

1.Vidya Balan's character had no significance in the movie and they could have easily done away with those portions and also the unwarranted liplock between maddy and Vidya. Commercialisation of movie must have been the only notion behind having that scene.

2.A song that follows right after the interval was out of place and didn't serve for anythin but stretch the length of the film

3.Mani with his exceptional screenplay generates a huge air of expectation for a fitting climax. I get more keen when AB satirically says "Is din khe liye bachake rakha tha" on wanting to speak during the public hearing a few hours before judgement on the cases against him, after having refused to speak on all previous private hearings. But, the climax did not sound convincing enough. It was more a brief narration of the entire film(his life) by AB to the counsel of judges, which is nothing more than stating the obvious to the audience.

The theme of the story is this: In a country where every proposal goes through a high degree of red tape bureaucracy, nepotism, bribery and poor governance, it seems all too fair if someone manages not just his own success but the successs of all his shareholders too, even if some basic guidelines are bypassed in the process.

Overall, a great picture and yet another Mani classic to watch out for !! Dont miss it.

"Ice idlis"

Murphy's law played havoc with ma breakfast today. Extremely ravenous, I rode the bike as fast as possible to get to the office cafeteria at the earliest. The earlier I reach, the more are the choices I would hav for b'fast.

But, Choices is all that I had...Despite finding parathas and pongal, I settled for our very own idlis, completely oblivious of it's hardness. It didnt take much time for me to discover that I had made a wrong choice coz, I had to break the idlis to pieces rather than slice it in order to consume. It didnt end there. I kept ruminating the first piece for minutes and had to take so much of pain to swallow it. Had never seen idlis as frozen as this ever before. The next level of hardness would have definitely resulted in eerie noises when People consume it.

I asked the guy at the counter if the idli was straight out of the refrigerator. Owing to his lack of understanding of any of the Indian languages and English, I left it at that without bothering to bother him too much with what may sound like greek and latin to him :-)

As I am typing, am just reminded of the name tat my bro gave for the idlis that he got to eat in Nellore rly stn a decade back "Beerangee idli"...Funny names, pathetic food and poor consumers !!

Black or White

It's not any review for a Michael Jackson song, but a more serious debate that I intend to discuss here :-)..

Lazy Sunday Morning and as I was scanning through the channels in quick succession, a debating show in "Vijay TV" caught my attention, where a heated argument was going on between two sets of People over which of the two colours was superior-Black or white?

Sounds like a very old argument and a never ending one too. India in particular is likely to witness such heated debates for eternity. Reason being the co existence of People from both sides in handsome numbers. Not that, you wouldn't see blacks in western countries, but any public discussion over Colour of the skin shall only be looked upon as racial discrimination and hence no such discussion is likely to take place. Whereas, in Africa the blacks so overwhelmingly outnumber the Whites that such a discussion can only turn out to be irrelevant.

There was a huge representation from the student community on either sides. The general opinion among those who spoke for white was that fair people are best looking anyday and "fair is beautiful" and the black people were disproving their hyppothesis claiming that the other side was predisposed with the thought that white was beautiful and were claiming that white should be treated as a mere colour and not looked upon as something beautiful. They were vociferously arguing in support of the face that s masked by these very colours and it s the face that matters if at all beauty is what is the deciding factor in choosing a guy/girl and more importantly the beauty of the face doesnt matter as much as the beauty of the heart. These were pretty much arguments on the expected lines.

Before I write on, It's just dawned upon me why not have my gf complete the rest of this blog with her own opinion and yeah that s precisely what I did and here's what she s got to say about it:

"Let’s forget about homosapiens and talk about non living things. Black is more sexy! I got this new cell phone of mine which is all back and got a bit of silver in it and I bet it wouldn’t look any better if it were of any other color. All these latest hi-fi electronic gadgets come out in black color, take your stereo system, laptops, ipods, cars and mp3players and so on because black is more classy and sophisticated. Its very comfy buying stuff in black color, you really don’t have to bother about it getting dirty, lets say your eating and something spills on your black cell phone, you don have to bother, wipe it and it’ll be as good as new, but if u had a white one you would see yourself cribbing . (For a neatness freak like me it does matter)

Another point of view would be that the color black is a bad omen. My mom hates me getting black stuff, be it anything. she doesn’t even like me wearing a black bindi. Sometimes when I crib about things not working out for me she blames it on the color black. Poor color, it would cry if it were a living entity. Black outfits blossom with sex appeal. Jennifer Anniston looks hot in black outfits doesn’t she? Black clothes suits all kinds of complexion, dark, fair, tan, brown any shade, they wouldn’t look bad on you. But I bet a person with a dark complexion wouldn’t want to dress in white, vice versa is very much possible and black looks awesome on people with fair complexion. But well why do people wear black when they have to attend a mourning ceremony, you don’t need to look hot then do you? I know Americans can get so dumb at times.Now don’t start smirking. We Indians aren’t getting any better. We say “FAIR IS BEAUTIFUL”, but wear white clothes when we have to mourn and widows have to put up with that damn white color all their lives or at least they had to years ago. We can have an analogy here, people worship Krishna and they consider ashtami (day when Krishna was born or something like that) as an inauspicious day, so do you actually wish that he wasn’t born at all?.

About people's complexion, Id any day check out a guy who has a nice tan or the tall, dark and handsome kind rather than white lizards (ok!!! all the fair people in the world no offense, but that’s how I refer to you guys). I have always thought that guys should look dark or rather not fair (at least Indians). A male of a darker complexion is definitely more male or masculine or whatever. I cant seem to keep count of the number of times I would have commented “OH gawd, that chap looks so much like a female…uh uh….he looks so fair”. Id probably say “Fair is beautiful, black is sexy and hot as for the female community is concerned and as for males am all eyes only for the TALL DARK AND HANDSOME category."[ Nandita das being a classic example of a black damsel. She's such a dusky seductress. Who doesnt love Nandita das? To me she's more of a seductress than a beauty] :-) "

Its not surprising that she said this given the fact that I am not fair :-)

Now her opinion has jus brought with it an intriguing question. Why are guys not as tolerant as grls r towards a not so fair guy. This has been a thought thats been lingering in my mind for quite some time now. While we do see a lotta grls falling for the "not so fair" looking guys, there isnt any vice versa for this. Guys tend to be more obsessed about color than girls. Now what's the reason for this? why aren't guys finding black attractive to the extent that girls do..I dont hav an answer for now? Comments welcome !!

Being Raja !!!

Do less and less work and still hope for the rest of the world to believe I am a workaholic

Take bath for fewer minutes by normal human standards and still boast of the fragrance from ma body !!

Make less and less calls to my gf and still make her believe phone calls are not parameters to measure intensity of love

Talk a lot and lot in meetings and still hope for them to believe I also work

Make the most sarcastic comments possible and still hope for the other person to believe that there is nothing wrong between us.

Sleep to glory on weekends and still hope to make my friends believe I hate wasting time in the form of sleep

Turn down my colleague's request to go out for lunch in the name of being busy, but secretly hoping to taste better food outside.

To wear each T shirt once in a while and hope that it still looks new to my colleagues every time I wear them.

Spend thousands on mobile bills and weekend movies and still hope for my parents to believe I am economical !!

To go once in a bluemoon to the gym and still claim to have reduced weight by virtue of gymming regularly

To write not so good poems and still hope for my buds to acknowledge it as exceptional :-)

To flunk CAT with consummate ease and still blame it on Juniper/work for the debacle.

To write all this crap in my blog and still hope for the readers to not get furious and pour in their comments.


Labels: Fiction [hehehe :) LOL]

End of the day !!!

Back home after a really tiring ride from office. I've grown sick and tired of having to motor through these immeasurably populated and incorrigibly congested roads in Bangalore.

My legs are aching and there is an unprecedented wish to work from home toms. May be I ll work from home toms if I dont feel any better in the morning. My roomie has already ordered for food from a small time door delivery Mess here and that saves the time wasted in going out for food and more importantly I wouldnt be exhausting myself even more by going out for food.

15kms distance between office and home is taking it's toll on me and there is a growing penchant for shifting to anywhere closer to my office. But, it doesn't seem likely, what with having got so used to this part of Bangalore and the company of friends/roomies here.Even my house owner seems to know that. As he says "I always contact Raja over any issues only coz he's been the first occupant of this house and since then lotta ppl have come and gone, but he's been there and I am sure he'll be here for a while. Only that, I get confused over who r the other guys stayin in the house" ..Not surprised that he said this..None of the first occupants of the house apart from me are still around and even those who came later on have left and I am still here as though Bangalore is where my future is. Who knows ?? May be my house owner is right? I dont see the day coming when I would have left this place for the good !!

As I am typing,the Gentleman running the Mess is here with the food. Really hungry..shall get down with devouring :-)

What we want !!

Nods her head in disapproval,
twists her hip to evade,
moves her legs to escape,
and finally, one piece of magic,
doesnt move it all,
not even her eyes,
but definitely her heart
thats a child's heart.
A heart that melts for humour
humour in toons.
Tom does what Man cant
Jerry helps in what we want

What is it that we want?

Food for thought?
no, it s food for her
my cute little niece !!

gulps it like never before
glued to the Tv she is
glued to her mouth are we

one sigh of relief !!
ah, no food on the plate :-)

Introspection !!

In a bay of loneliness,
reminiscing the past,
brooding over mistakes,
solicitous about the future.

As I gaze at those white ceilings,
reeling under influence of thoughts,
I realise solitude is a medicine
a medicine for instant peace
and eternal happiness to a wounded soul

But what it offers is not what we take
Eternal may be wat it offers
ephemeral is what we take
there is a longing,a longing for eternal solitude

but why?
why me?

May be I have an answer
An answer that remains concealed
An answer I hate
An answer I fail to accept

zealously jealous over what I am not
Fail to see the outside world
A world, jealous over me

do i get over it?
but how ?
like this !

Preamble of a different sort !!!

Relationships are as complex as a a covalent bond resulting out of umpteen complex atoms. There isn't any generic guideline that helps in People sustaining a mature and long standing
relationship, be it with a friend or with a person one is committed to.

Expectation quotient is a variable that varies from a value as low as zero to higher lakhs in case of romantic relationships. Mathematically, there would be a progressive or linear increase in
expectation quotient with a corresponding decrease in understanding quotient. Seperations and splitups happen not because the individuals involved are absolutely bad in terms of certain characteristics, but are relatively bad in the view of the other person.

There are two ways to liberate oneself from the worry of splitups:

1.Either to reach the threshold of understanding before getting serious over a relationship

2.To learn to lessen expectations after getting into a relationship.

While the former looks more applicable to Men, the latter though applicable to Women, is probably not being practised by Women to the extent that it should be. One of my friends among girls recently had a squabble with me over a minor expectation that she had from me which resulted in a lotta yelling and finally a strained friendship. Now, no point in brooding over it when all the damage has been already done. It's not without reason that there is a thought "It's better to be careful than be sorry".

Media Mockery !!

Cairo says "Nayantara is such a beautiful place to be in". This was a phrase in the Bangalore times edition of Times of India couple of days back. Any one to whom it makes sense deserves to be crowned the oaf of the Millenium. Now, Where exactly does Times of India stand in comparison to other Indian News Papers?Now, this in my opinion is an irrelevant comparison as Times of India has proven to be more of a tabloid than a NewsPaper. Hence, the comparison should ideally be with a Playboy or a cosmo.But,here again they fall horribly short of meeting the expectations of the kind of audience that these Magazines have. For a front page in the Supplementary to have as gross a mistake as the one mentioned above talks volumes of the subliminal standards that Times of India has set.
How often would you have seen an Aishwarya Rai or a Super Model or a Sania Mirza on the front page?What are these People doing on the front page? They should either be part of Page 3 or pages related to their specific fields. Carlos Moya was featured a couple of days back with an Afghan Model. Poor Moya despite being as talented as he is, finds himself on the front page, courtesy an Afghan beauty.By having a damsel in the front page, is Times of India hoping to lure People into buying their Papers. Does that mean they are fine with their Audience treating their paper as something other than a Newspaper. It beats the purpose of running a NewsPaper then. If Money bethe sole intention behind running a Newspaper, they may as well choose some other profitable business to invest their money in lieu of depraving the pristinity of India Print media.
One glance through any Times of India edition and you save the money spent on Playboy stuff. For long,I ve cribbed about the kind of Newspapers that get published in Tamil. They are either politically biased or are run for a larger section of Masses who are more interested in gossips than news. Now, thats precisely what a "kumudham" magazine does in tamil nadu, then why run a NewsPaper ?
Bangalore showed me that even English Newspapers can stand as dirty what with Times of India being a few notches ahead in publishing Masala stories. More agonizing is that they can make celebrities out of ordinary talents to a degree that the talent gets saturated in it's grooming stages. Sania Mirza standing out as the biggest disappointment of the decade after all the hype and hoopla that she received in her initial years. Now, Times of India even went to the extent of having sania edit their front page as a Guest editor. They made a serious mockery of such an esteemed position by having a least deserving person do that job. Shame on them. The golden days of Indian print media shall return only when they cease to exist.

Male Mobile !!

Ever really wondered why the Hutch Network often follows you but seldom reaches you late in the evenings. I just figured out what could possibly be the reason behind this. Now this is no Rocket science but just keen observation from a curious onlooker.

How may times would you have spotted the girl on the road holding a phone on one hand as soon she alights from the office shuttle as she walks back home..

Now that simply isnt something thats an unique trait among a few girls but a characteristic that you would get to see with most of those girls who've got the other guy.

There are 2 ways of looking at this phenomenon. For this, We need to consider two different cases. One being Girls who stay away from parents and the other being Girls who stay with them.

Let's take the former first. Now girls unlike guys seek a lot of privacy and hate intrusion. Their tolerance to friends poking their nose into personal affairs is much lower than that of
guys. Hence, in an attempt to avoid such babbles from their roomies, they make full utilization of the time that is taken to walk back home. Now ,the reason that they dont talk while in the shuttle is anyone's guess. The noise on the road just doesnt allow them to. The roads connecting their houses to main roads hence becomes an obvious choice.

Now, in the latter case, there's nothing much to elaborate. For Ppl who keep their relationships clandestine from their buds, exposing it to parents is a far cry..

Disclaimer: Girls who dont exhibit this characteristic may take serious exception to this. This is precisely the reason, I've mentioned Most girls and not all !!!