Rainmaker

Disclaimer: The terms from a redundant IT job are purely...intentional. Any resemblance to real life scenarios is the way the god damn world is…

Rain Rain go away...Little Johnny wants to play...
What an outright sucker Johnny was. Johnny never got down to enjoying the rain. Or maybe just maybe the rhyme was written by his parents as they did not approve of Johnny playing in the rain!

It’s that time of the year when it rains and even the dirtiest place in the world would look beautiful. This afternoon I sat at my desk performing my assigned work knowing fully well almost how impossibly inconsequential my actions were (There are times when I can prove chaos theory wrong...Trust me on this one!). I don’t think "this afternoon" would be necessary as my life has become an unremarkable iteration. As my life looped through, an exception came in the form of the rain. It was relief to stop the loop and literally try to de-bug my self!

I don’t know if it’s the rain that brings it out or just IT getting to me. I felt like I at least wanted to feature on the TATA ad immediately. The Dicor ad featuring lines was awesome. In fact the first ad featured a guy in a crowded subway saying "I've always wanted to quit on Monday morning!” Of late I just want to quit, follow your dream, and do something crazy!

The rain tends to instigate such feelings that you can do anything! Add some Pink Floyd, caffeine & nicotine to this and hell yeah your in jannat! But the rain is like a dream, it doesn’t last for ever. The dog called reality bites us...

Now I feel Johnny or whosoever wrote the rhyme was right in wanting it to go away. At least it lets you not have to go through the feeling of bliss only to give you this eternal knowledge that there’s no such thing as gravity and it’s the earth that actually sucks...

Auto-matically Politics!

This afternoon, as I traveled in an auto, I had the most amazing experience of a discussion on politics. The results of the Karnataka elections were on their way. I was just telling my uncle who was traveling with me that BJP was leading in the polls. I was just “passing” on information about elections although neither of us had even voted! As I told him that BJP had won at 60 odd locations and were leading in another 30 constituencies, the Auto driver gave me updated information that BJP had won in 71 constituencies and were expected to win 115 of them. I was a bit taken aback at how updated he was. He then went on to say that he hoped for a BJP government not just in Karnataka but also in the centre in the forthcoming general elections.

I wondered if he was just an ardent BJP supporter. As I was contemplating this, he added that he was a supporter of the JD earlier (almost as if he read my mind!). He claims that he was disgusted with the latter’s money laundering and innumerable scams connected with them.

In the first few minutes of our conversation, I got the feeling that this guy had information on Bangalore alone. He proved me wrong by telling me who had won in other places across Karnataka & even went on to name the politicians who had won & lost at various constituencies. I had not even heard of a few of these places, let alone know the name of the candidates. Of course, my educated ego did not allow me accept this.

Politics and there “efforts” at the highest level have no great impact at the grass root level as the effort has to filter through various levels of bureaucracy. But take chaos theory (No pun intended in comparison of politics & chaos), the flapping of a butterfly in the pacific causes a hurricane in the Atlantic! As per this, every one of our small actions can make a difference. Conflicting ideas eh? Absolutely! My brain seems to be sagging under the pressure as my thoughts move faster than the rate at which I’m typing this out!

Anyways, coming back to the auto driver, the reason he wanted a BJP win was because of their forward thinking. He said that “problems” in Bangalore such as sanitation, health, education, cost and not to mention the biggest of all, the traffic could be helped only by the BJP. How typical of the average Indian to believe in establishment to come up with effective solutions & implementation.

I’m not sure if the government could actually solve the problems. I strongly believe it comes down to each and every individual to change.
I would like to quote Bernard Shaw here – “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” I do not wish to elaborate on why I quote this.

Politics, cricket & religion are three things on which every one of us Indians has an opinion irrespective what effect (if any) they have on us. The auto driver proved one out of three at least true. Had the journey been any longer I’m sure he’d have proved three on three…

IUPAC name 1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6(3H,7H)-dione

IUPAC name 1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6(3H,7H)-dione, better known as caffeine. My day begins with the caffeine kick.

I’ve always wanted to pound each one of those kids that acted in the commercials for these health drinks and overly praised them by branding them as yummy and tasty. Didn’t they ever have a conscience? I recall in my childhood, when my dad always insisted on my having one of those so-called “Health Drinks”. Man, how much I hated each one of those drinks. My mom thankfully was very accommodating in my coffee habit. Thanks for that mom!

Coffee is at its best when served hot along with a crunchy, spicy snack or biscuits. The taste is better when the decoction is freshly brewed, very much unlike wine! The taste is the best when the coffee seeds are freshly ground and used to concoct the decoction. At traditional South Indian homes, the second process is followed. Rarely do you find homes where the seed is freshly ground on a daily basis. This is the traditional ‘Filter Kaapi”

The filter Kaapi has gone through a sea change over the years. Bru in the 90’s had launched its Instant coffee. All you need is milk and Bru and Voila! Your cup of filter coffee (read as similar to Filter Coffee) is ready. The Ad had the mom asking the son if it was Filter coffee and the son would reply “This is Bru Maa!”. This caught the eye of the instant generation. From Kaapi, Coffee has become a status symbol of sorts. It has now become extremely cool to “Catch up over a cup of coffee!”

Coffee, over the last few years has grown in popularity largely due to the mushrooming of Coffee Shops such as the Bangalore based Café Coffee Day, Barista etc. I’m not sure if the credit goes to the coffee of the concept of a coffee shop.

A recent study indicated that Bangalore was rapidly expanding and had one of the highest growth potentials for the modern Coffee Pubs. I recall CCD opening their first outlet in Brigade Road in 1996. The basic coffee shop has now grown into a facility with Internet facilities and Wi-Fi. They now offer board games at these outlets so a group of friends could catch up over a game and coffee. Innovation is the name of the game. Barista even offers a guitar to the musically inclined.

The average age group of the crowd frequenting the coffee shops is in the range 18-26 though I can definitely recall seeing a bunch of high school kids on several occasions. The coffee shops were our favorite hang out especially when we bunked college and had no idea as to what to do. We’d spend hours at these coffee outlets with a cup of coffee and at times the hookah. On an average an outing at one of these Coffee Pubs would cost you at least Rs.40 per head. Ask my parents and their generation, they would be flabbergasted at the very thought of spending that amount on a coffee. We, Gen-Next can claim that for the fun and time spent at the coffee shop the amount is worth every rupee. Despite all this, one thing you can never have at any of these modern Coffee shops is the good old by-two coffee. While in college, the canteen and the small hotel Udipi Upahar would always call for the by-two. Technically this would mean half the amount you would get in a normal cup. But in reality this would be almost a full cup of coffee. That’s the beauty of the eternal by-two!!
Cheers to a hot cup of coffee!

Little Indian...

Indian cinema has seen a paradigm shift in the last few years, especially in terms of the scope of the script, story. We have witnessed some fantastic movies like Dil Chahta hai, Rang De Basanti, Yuva, Swades, Lakshya, more recently Taare Zameen Par to name a few. Right away, you might realize this is a bit of a biased opinion as the movies are restricted to a few directors/actors. A few of these movies have been literally path breaking especially RDB which caught the imagination of the youth.

Speaking of movies, theatres come to my mind. Playing the National Anthem before the start of the movie has become a trend these days. And it doesn’t really have to be a patriotic movie, it could even be a reservoir of nonsense (like an Imraan Hashmi or the Himesh movie…ugh the very thought is disgusting!).

A friend of mine mentioned that this practice was making him very uncomfortable. I was totally taken aback on hearing this. The point made was that people in a theatre would not be in a mood to stand for the anthem. Point well taken lets say considering that a good number of couples would find the theatre a nice place to get cozy! But I was wondering, is there a “mood” necessary to respect the national anthem?

I definitely am not trying to preach here. Yet it pains me to know that people find it uncomfortable to stand for the national anthem which lasts for a few seconds. Its few chances we get to respect the country. For those (me included) who don’t really contribute to the welfare of the country (if not cause damage), this would be a chance to at least show some respect.

I for one am totally for playing the national anthem at the theatre. It’s a congregation of a large number of people, so why not play it! I will never forget the movie Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham. I was in class XII and we had gone for this movie (I still repent having spent Rs.60 for that). The movie had a segment where the Kajol’s son sings the National Anthem at a school function. The section was removed later for “political” reasons, I presume. How typical of Karan Johar to think that playing the Anthem in the movie would stir a sense of the Indian in the audience. A very commendable thought I have to say. Just that it didn’t work the way he might have expected (I can vouch for that theatre). Out of the, I’m guessing 150 people, barely 10 people stood for the Anthem. It was appalling to see that. One person stood and felt weak kneed halfway through!

Patriotism is the feeling that ones country is the greatest only because you were born in it. JFK said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!” one of my favorite quotes. As we head into the next generation that can make or break the chance of India emerging as a super power, one of the factors that will push towards this dream is the feeling of oneness, the feeling of being Indian. I fear that this is a fading phenomenon. If the Anthem cannot stir the emotion, I’m not sure what will. Only time will tell what would…