Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Message for the Thackerays: The Game is in the Name- Bombay Forever!

Find below a brilliant article by Sujata Anandan, one of my favourite newspaper columnists. Anandan is a brave columnist who has tremendous insight and a great understanding of Indian politics. She was the first person to point out the Shashi Tharoor scandal was a behind-the-scenes job by Sharad Pawar (who as always, got away unscathed with everything he did.)


In this article, she takes on the Thackerays or should I say the Thakres for their double standards in keeping an Anglicised version of their last name, while trying to shove the word Mumbai down our throats. This city will always be Bombay for me, a third generation Bombayite. And yes, the government officially recognises both names. Thank you Sunanda for this wonderful article.

 

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Final thoughts on Delhi

It's wonderful to be back home. The first thing I noticed when I got back here from Delhi is the cleaner quality of air and the "lightness" in the air. Bombay doesn't have anything close to a violent and cruel history the way the national capital does.

Delhi is a rough and tough city and can easily wear anyone down. I guess there's a price to pay to admire the gardens and parks and the stately and radiant beauties. Yes the metro has improved life in the city, but is even crowded at 6 am on a Sunday! Yes you can travel to any area with ease but what's the use of getting to within 3 kilometres of a place and finding it impossible to get a three-wheeler to get to the final destination?

At times, the city feels more crowded than Bombay and it's more of an energy-sapping, tired and worried crowd. Life is awesome for a VIP or someone with the right amount of $$$ and connections but the rest of the city basically falls into the peasant category. I really understand why Bombay is the ville-préférée of India. There's so much freedom here, safety and despite the rush, a mental calmness.

Delhi, no doubt, has its good points but it's more of a city for 40-somethings with a house in a nice locality and a chauffeur-driven car. It's conservative and traditional and too much of an adjustment for a fun-loving Bombayite liberal

Monday, November 22, 2010

Airtel Delhi Half-Marathon 2010: An absolute disgrace!

Procam and Airtel should be ashamed of themselves for the worst possible organisation of the Delhi Half Marathon. The marathon came in the news because some model was groped but what was more disgraceful was the way the athletes were treated. Let me recount the shameful events one by one:

1) The organisers promised a shuttle bus service from the Central Secretariat metro station to the venue and back. The bus driver didn't know the route to the venue and lost his way making all of us in the bus late. To make matters worse there were no services to the station after the run!

2) The crowd management was so poor that many of us didn't even enter the holding area before the 7:30 am scheduled start of the race.

3) The organisers said they ran out of medals that were supposed to be given to those that finished the run. Apparently there were enough medals to be given to the VIPs who were in attendance! How shameful of the organisers and the VIPs to behave like this!

4) They gave no refreshments to those who ran the 21k. They were allegedly out of snacks and water as well.

The organisers even threatened to have police lathi-charge athletes who demanded their medals! I have never seen such disgraceful behaviour towards athletes in my life. Shame on Procam and Airtel! Only such poor organisation can spoil an event where people run on the best 21 kilometres in all of India.

I dread the thought that Procam is also organising the Mumbai Marathon. I hope they treat the athletes better than they did in Delhi yesterday.

Yes I ran a great race and finished 20 minutes quicker than I did last year but the behaviour of the organisers really spoiled the fun.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Riding on the Delhi Metro

I really want to compliment E Sreedharan and the Delhi Metro team for building this wonderful metro network in this city. The metro is clean, efficient, safe and quick. Spitting attracts a Rs 200 fine (YAY!!!).
In keeping with Indian traditions, the metro now has a separate ladies wagon in order to protect the local beauties from the hordes of desperate men.

A few nights ago, as I was about to board a train from Rajiv Chowk, I noticed something really unusual. There was a security guard making people queue up and making sure that people were allowed to alight from the train first. This is India, after all, and I guess such measures are required. Who knows? The novel concept of queuing may just spread in this city of rough hooligans from Bihar and Haryana.

There is one big difference between travelling first class or even second class on the Bombay local and travelling on the Delhi metro: The stink! Bombayites taking the local trains have much better habits when it comes to hygiene. I can’t imagine what it takes to stink as much as some of these people that take the Delhi Metro.

Some of the lines are already handling way more than capacity: a fact attributed to the fact that many were forced to use the metro during the Commonwealth Games and started seeing the merits in avoiding traffic jams. I am quite sure that increasing the frequency of the trains isn’t going to help much.

Being a public transport New York-Bombay guy, I am impressed and will continue to ride this wonderful metro in Delhi.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Paradise Lost

Goa: Sex & mafia on cocaine coast: Cover Story : India Today

I read with horror an investigative report in India Today about the state of Goa. We all love what Goa stands for: freedom, partying and fun in the sun. There is an incredible air of relaxation in that magical land of prawn curries, baroque churches and beautiful Indo-Portuguese architecture.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out though that international criminal gangs and local politicians have turned the place into a hub of drug-trafficking and prostitution. The extent to which this is happening is absolutely shocking. The presence of hippies in the state added to its aura in the immediate aftermath of the Portuguese being evicted but what is now happening is just too much. It scares me that the law enforcers of that state are hand in glove with drug smugglers.

One can only hope that the virgin coastline of the Konkan in Maharashtra doesn't fall prey to this curse.

I have always been an advocate of an India open to tourism and foreigners but I think we may just have to have a stricter border control regime. The druggies have already taken over places like Manali and Goa and the last thing we want is for India to be a magnet for the tourist-trash of the world.


Paranoia at the cinema hall

I am not a bigot by any stretch of the imagination and I think India's diversity is a great asset. The events of the last decade though have played on my psyche. 

This afternoon, I was watching a dreadful Hindi movie to get my mind off the WEF, French exams, Delhi run and all other minor irritants in my life. Just after the interval ended, two women in burkhas left the cinema hall. 

It seemed odd that they didn't go to the bathroom or to buy popcorn during the 10-minute break. I heard voices in my head saying they've planted a bomb and are making an exit. I waited for a few minutes (it seemed like an eternity) and the moment I was ready to alert security and call the police, the women came back in. That was a huge relief. 

I'd rather be safe than sorry in such situations. 

Would I have the same fear if a couple of young men went out the same way? Absolutely. Such are the times we live in. Plagued by fear of bombs and other forms of terror. 

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Bodo militants kill 23 'outsiders' in 2 days - Hindustan Times

The Hindustan Times says: Militants of the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland continued their killing spree on Tuesday, taking the number of 'outsiders' they are gunning down to 23.

Bodo militants kill 23 'outsiders' in 2 days - Hindustan Times

The terrorists pulled out Hindi-speakers and killed them in cold blood in what was an absolute act of cowardice. They didn't even spare a crippled man. I have been to Assam and other parts of the northeast of India. These states have spectacular nature, good weather and a friendly and liberal populace but almost no development. The best areas of Guwahati are dirtier than most Indian cities and while you don't see "slums" there, the poverty is visible.

Most of the problems in the northeast have been caused by the politicians but the role played by the defense and para-military shouldn't be overlooked. I remember how aggressive some army men were with locals at the ancient Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati. These people were off duty but insisted on jumping queue and even threatened local pilgrims.

If India really wants to integrate its economy with the ASEAN region, a real "healing-touch" is required in the northeast, where many feel like second-class Indian citizens. While looking east, India needs to sort out the mess that is its own east.

Mizoram: A stable region in a tumultuous neighbourhood

Just for the record there are stable areas in the northeast like Mizoram, where there is no insurgency or anti-India sentiment. The state, which has a lot of autonomy, has an adult literacy rate of around 90 percent and virtually no poverty.

This is the same state that revolted against India and drove out the Indian Army, leading the Indian Air Force to bomb the state's capital Aizawl in 1966. The point I am trying to make is that no situation is beyond repair.

Ajay in Delhi

In a few days I head to the national capital for what's becoming an annual sojourn. This time it's the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit and the Delhi 21k that takes me there. I guess I am a lot more prepared for the summit than I am for the run. A series of running injuries and health problems have thrown a spanner in my mini-marathon preparations.

I love Delhi. It is one of the world's greatest cities. I love the ancient monuments, the delicious street food, the greenery, the open spaces, Lutyens' Delhi, India Gate, tandoori cuisine, the nice November weather, the stately and radiant beauties and the historical aura.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

I was lucky enough to find this book at a bookshop at Kuala Lumpur's Low Cost Carrier Terminus. Before reading this book, I had never heard of this great journalist/writer and I was definitely missing something.

"A Fortune-Teller Told Me" is a well-written and passionate travelogue that shows the Asian Tigers in 1993, while they were in the process of dismantling their past and speeding towards westernization. Tiziani's views on core oriental values is something I can completely relate to. The author loved the cultures of Indo-China and all the countries that form ASEAN and this book is a travelogue of his overland journeys from these countries to Europe via Russia. You can feel how countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand were in 1993. I, for one, am glad that Vietnam is nothing like what he described (with horror) in the book. But I would have loved to see the Malaysia of yesteryear that he writes about romantically. 

Terzani knew the Chinese people well and at times I think he is overly harsh on them in this book. I was also a bit disappointed with how little coverage his Trans-Siberian journey gets in the book. Of course there are a couple of factors that need to be kept in mind: For starters, Russia looked a lot like a failed state in 1993 and the author made the mistake of just passing through the cities via train without getting off, unlike I did during my epic-journey ten years later in a more stable version of the country. 

The author has witnessed and covered three significant historic moments of the kind that every journalist dreams of . He was in the USSR when it collapsed, he saw the fall of Saigon in 1975 and the Khmer Rouge's takeover of Cambodia. I am sure his Goodbye Mr Lenin is also a great book.

Terzani had a longing to live in India, a country he believed at that time to not be following the western-style modernisation that East Asia was undertaking. I hope he was happy in India when he lived here. He died 3 years ago and I am really sorry that I won't be able to meet him in this life. The man has already become one of my idols.

The calm of a holiday

I can't believe that I am still in Andheri. The roads are empty. It is possible to get into a bus and it takes 5 minutes to get to the station. This city needs more holiday weekends. The ease with which I could get a bus reminded me of the good old days (before the work on the metro started) when I could rush to the station and back.

Happy Diwali and Samvat 2067!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Journalism in India has gone to the dogs

The hype on television and the papers over Barack Obama's visit to India is nauseating to put it mildly. I personally respect and admire Obama but this is just too much.

The Indian media has exposed itself globally as a  farce. It all started with a very poorly sourced report by PTI that the U.S. was spending $200 million a day on Obama's trip. Despite the fact that there is no way that such a figure can be backed up, the Indian TV channels and newspapers have jumped on the bandwagon citing that figure in all reports. Sigh.

The latest rubbish report came from NDTV that 32 U.S. warships were heading to the Bombay harbour to protect Obama. The sad part is that people believe this kind of non-sense. I, for one, am glad that I stopped almost all the English-language news channels in India. I can't do without the papers, especially the wonderful Sunday editions.

32

Woah. It looks like I am moving slowly into the mid-30s. It was a wonderful birthday yesterday. Low-key but nice and pleasant and I got a dose of November Rain.

I guess what I can really aim for is to look the way I did in 2006. In these conditions it won't be easy but I can do it  :)

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Another Bangalorean schmuck

Picture this: A beautiful and sunny November afternoon in Colaba. 4 European friends of mine, working in Bangalore, were in Bombay for a short holiday. We were having a wonderful lunch at a place with a good view of the harbour.

These gentlemen do not like Bangalore and asked me why I left the city that I fondly call the Big Urinal (Bigga LOO ru). I told them it wasn't so much the corrupt landlords, the cheating rickshaw-wallahs, the lack of real entertainment or the blind aping of American culture. It was the "wonderful" people of that city that made vow to never set foot there again.

And guess what? One lone ranger sitting next to us, claimed he was from the great garden city of Bangalore and that it was heaven. He said the foreigners and IT people made it hell. In a slightly threatening and aggressive tone, he said he didn't like hearing negative things about the place. My friends and I heard out the poor soul and let him go. What's really ironic is the fact that the man proved me right with his diatribe. Instead of minding his own business, he wanted to get into a fight with 1 Bombayite and 4 Europeans.. Very smart, I must say, considering the fact that his Kannada Rakshana Vedike goons were 900 kilometres away.