To be born as an Idiot

Dear Lord,
If anybody has to be born as an Idiot, let them born in the Nehru family(preferably of Sonia - Rajiv) lineage, that is the only way they can succeed.

Thanking you very much,
Yours sincerely,
Faithfully,
'Politically ever correct' Sachu Kichu.

Maximum city by Suketu Mehta

For someone who within in a span of couple of years had met Ajay lal(the cop who solved the bombay blasts'93), bit of bollywood, a cross-dressing dancer, RSS local chief, Chota Shakeel, mumbai bar dancer so on and had detailed discussions with them, Suketu Mehta writes very little in terms of his own inferences or view points. But in the few instances he does, he sounds so juvenile against the mammoth of experiences he has just had, I was glad of all the other times he didnt.

Maximum city is pretty much a transcription(obviously selective) of his interactions with several personalities of Mumbai. Quite truthful, it is almost as if you meet these people. It isnt a well written book but is rich with details that is enough to keep you engrossed. He doesnt give you his conclusions. So you still have the wee bit of uneasiness about Ajay's relatively affluent life style on a government Salary. At the same time, you know Ajay is an efficient cop. It is upto the reader to draw their conclusions or not even draw one.

At the beginning of the book,when Suketu, an NRI talks of this experience as an exercise in finding his roots, I yelled BS in my head. I have always found this roots business quite pretentitious unless one is an Alex Hailey. In any case, this is hardly Suketu's roots. It is more of sure money making exercise. Nothing wrong in it if only he had been candid enough.

But he has done work that is worth the money. While trying to befriend an RSS small unit chief, they ask him along for nature's call. It is also a way for them to check out if he is truly a hindu. Suketu is one but that just describes how fanatical these people are and how close he has gone to the edge.

He was also a close confidante of Vidhu Vinod Chopra for those couple of years. The highlight of that episode was when Vidhu, sitting in Amitabh's house after a short interaction with Big B himself asks Suketu, "Do you think he wears a wig?". That was the same question Dad had asked me few years ago after watching Kaun Banega Crorepathi. Must be a men thing, atleast my Dad has enough hair and going by his family genetics will always have, still he observed the wig. I think Amitabh wears a wig except he doesnt wear the usual goundamani or the tamil actor's generic one. He goes in detail describing the nexus between the underworld and bollywood, the underworld in lot more detail, tracks in particular few people, quite a fascinating read.

I found the whole ending with the Jain Merchant renouncing the world, too cliched.

The parts he explored in the Mumbai are present everywhere from New york to even our own Madras except there is very little chance of us, the middle classy, suburbian people realizing it. Every city has a book like this.

A job is a job is a job

"It is not work when you enjoy it so much". "My work is my passion".
"I am lucky you know i am doing something that i love, so it doesnt even feel like work. " Often peope say it. I like my work, it is not a rocket scientist job but hey, i am not one either. it works for my pea-sized brains.

But it is work. As long as it comes along with strings called salary, deadlines, promotion, career it will always be work. It is work because if I dont do it, all these knifes hanging above my head will make my life miserable. I am perfectly capable of feeling miserable even otherwise, dont need an added misery.

A real coconut

It is strange when our age Indians refer to their Parent's Generation as the hippy generation of 70s. Unless you are Protima bedi's daughter, your Parent's memory of that era would have been more likely that of trying to make a living in difficult times, emergency, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan or their regional equivalents.

***********
A month ago, during dinner at Santana Row, conversation with an acquaintance turned to share prices, the companies which we work for, rivals in our case and so on. A Phd working in the start-up of this decade mentioned how we have slipped into usual geek topics. Leaving aside the fact that table was filled with engineers half of them with master degrees and the other half had Phds(traditionally un kewl), I want to know what cool meant. were the girls in the show "The Hills", kewl? musing/questing for a boy friend constantly when most of the time there isnt one and if there is he is one hell of a psycho, using 'like' 1000 times in a conversation with cameras surrounding you and broadcasting your real life. that def. didnt look anything even remotely interesting.

I personally think being yourself is cool. But perceptions are different, quite a few people think doing certain things is cool. Those hills characters were definitely not cool. They were silly and insane. So now I just want to know what makes people cool in the popular perception sense.

Solution to worldly problems

women's liberation, world peace, poverty removal, food for all, roti kapda mak(k)aan, all diseases eradicated, no discrimination, no racism, equality.

- look guys i have said all the right things, problem solved.

***********
I have got Vijay TV now. ** Yeah, removed star plus**
They have some kind of talk show, for women by women ofcourse.
Day before yesterday, it was about whether it is essential to have a male sibling.
Yesterday the debate was about giving loans - is it good or bad. (transliteration, people, adjust madi).
Today, it is about whether a woman needs to take care of her beauty after marriage.

When I conduct the show it will be about the whether to season or not to season Sambar, Rasam.
- my vote ofcourse is no.

You are welcome to contribute your choice of topic as well. I am no sexist, so...

National geographic channel on expressways

Every single time I see the Black & white Cop car alternatively called Mama car in desi lingo, approaching an 'innocently' speeding car, I get reminded of the Tigress chasing the prey on national geographic channel. They ambush, these traffic cop cars, behind bushes, in parking lots and in all the places you cant guess and before you know there is the siren followed by a "License and registration, please"

These tickets seem to come in batches at least in south bay. I remember very well when a number of my friends got tickets within few weeks. I got lucky that time but not in the second wave.

After that there have been times when I thought if another traffic cop stops my car, I am going to hand him my keys and license and walk out. That would be better than insurance premium increase(first ticket in most states can be taken off the record by taking an exam).

What is more annoying is, once you get a ticket, while you will take all measures to keep your car within the speed limit, other cars will get annoyed with you(for sticking to the speed limit in the 3rd lane) and zip past you. Where is the mama then, is the million dollar question.

PDA for population control

" Things change when we go to india. The whole urge just goes up", She said.

I nodded wondering whether it was sight of children bringing in the whole urge or some such roundabout psychological phenomena.

" You will understand when you get married, suddenly it is all so restrictive, you cant touch, hold hands and so on amidst all the people, so ..", she explained.

When another friend pitched in the same phenomenon, I wondered if this restriction of PDA is the root of population spiralling out of control.

If TV can be introduced for population control , why not PDA.

But then just late night TV can have different consequence, one couple's PDA can be..