Wonder La

I had been to a short excursion to wonder la last tuesday. The place is quite good and the rides are even better. Altogether a very nice place if you want to enjoy an ecxiting recluse from the monotony of city life. Food is very good and economical. A whole day goes very quickly and you will only be left with sweet memories and a very sore body afterwards. 

Power cuts

Power cuts have become fairly common in Bangalore nowadays. Near my house the scheduled power cuts are at 7 am and 7 pm for an hour each time. Unscheduled power cuts are, well, unscheduled. You cant know when you can start reading something or working on the computer as there is this annoying paradox that whenever you start doing something, something enivetably goes wrong. Anyway, this had better not continue for long as my academic year begins very shortly.

Chatter and sanity

I never thought I am much of a very outgoing person. Reserved, is what someone who does not know me very well can say. I have never before been(willingly or unwillingly) an active part of unwanted banter. My opinions have changed this summer. It is very important for a person to talk to someone else very frequently. A nice little conversation when one is bored does a world of good and helps preserve one's sanity. All it does is that it does not coax you to think and reach conclusions of even small and insignificant actions of the people around you.

Reflections

Its been quite some time since i last posted a blog. Truth is, I dont know what to blog about. Life has never been so monotonous or depressing. The long awaited holidays seem to be grinning satirically and the clock seems to be making extra efforts to go slowly. Everything that can be done has an annoying air of monotony. I started to read Arthur C Clarke's Rama Series( books on science fiction... they are great.. really). Probably, lack of intelligent or sometimes unintelligent banter is taking its toll. Man was certainly meant to be a social animal. Introverts like me have a toughtime coping with it. 

Of Snobbism

I live in a very peaceful neighbourhood with very decent and friendly neighbours. Around an year ago, a couple and their daughter came to live in a recently vacated house. They were nothing like I had seen before. Nothing like, in the sense that i had never seen such snobs in my life. They are completely devoid of any social activities, interaction with the neighbours is almost nil. I dunno how many smiles have been wasted on them by all the neighbours. Is such an attitude common? I dont know. What i do know is that their PR skills are at an all time low. What does concern me is that they now have a dog. Apart from their 20ft by 20ft house it is never brought down the stairs, let alone taken for a walk. Poor beast. It will also probably turn out like them.

American Congress and Sprained knees

President Barack Obama delivered his first presedential adddress to the joint sitting of the American Congress on the 26th of February 2009. It was an interesting, daring and passionate speech from Obama. Being an Indian and watching it from an Indian perspective was an interesting experience. Interesting, not because of the many reforms which he announced but the actions and mannerisms of the congree as a whole. Throughout the speech, irrespective of whether a senator was a REpublican or a Democrat, nobody raised his or her voice and their was an approving and appreciative silence in the Capitol Hill. It was faintly amusing to watch a quiet and positive congress at work as we are used to seeing the Indian Parliament in the news for things like broken furniture, unparliamentary languages and constant adjournments. One thing which completely justifies the very formal attitude of Americans was the constant and sometimes overdone and irritating standing ovations for almost each and every policy or reform announced by the president. No wonder the Americans spend so much on health insurance. A few years of being a Senator and you are sure to have a sprained knee. But the professionalism with which the sessions was held (without the very familiar sloganeering and furniture breaking) was very appreciable. 

Bazaars of Port Blair

Port Blair is the capital of the union territory of Andaman &Nicobar islands. It is a small charming coastal city with great and helpful people. I was on holiday there three summers back and thoroughly enjoyed. it has a great combination of flora, fauna, a rich tribal culture, british ruins, the majestic central jail, the emerald sea, world class beaches etc, etc, etc. When you have all this to see, a visit to the local bazaar sounds and is very boring. Its the same bazaar with almost the same shops you find in every city. While strolling dejectedly alond the narrow lanes as my parents haggled with a bedraggled man about a few worthless trinkets, what struck me as very odd is the lack of dirt and plastic covers. Its amazing how clean Port Blair seems when you are used to the the usual muck and grime type markets. Thereafter, i kept a lookout for stray bits of plastic on the roads and found very very few. Compared with the tons of garbage found in other cities the same size, the bits of paper and plastic is a rounding error. Kudos to the people of Port Blair. We can learn a lot from them.