Stray thoughts.....

Give Us This Day Our Daily Booze

2012-01-22T04:03:00.000-08:00

Saw this article by Mr Derek Almeida, in the 'Panorama' section of Navhind Times today. Very nice logic. Liked it very much. You may like it too.

Give us this day our daily booze
Published on: January 22, 2012 - 12:01

The frequent raids by the Election Commission on shops, restaurants and politicians houses to unearth liquor has taken the kick out of the polls and turned them into a tame academic affair. What’s an election without the booze? It’s like a football match without the ball.
Somebody has to protest and being a blue-blooded Goan, domicile certificate and all, I decided to write these Delhiwallas a letter to remind them how ‘ajeeb’ we are
By Derek Almeida

Dear amigo (CEC),
Your decision to raid liquor stores and politicians’ houses has left me in a quandary. I get the drift of your whole campaign. Your aim is to prevent candidates from bribing us with booze.

Nice logic. It might work in New Delhi, but down here it is quite difficult to go and vote when sober. Have you seen the choice of candidates in Goa? No one in their sober minds would vote for any of them. But after two shots of feni, trust me, we see things more clearly, even though we sometimes cannot find our election cards.

I am worried about mining, even though I am not affected by the dust and the traffic jams. So, the other day, I went to meet an MLA to question him on the issue of illegal mining and what he intended doing about it. When I threw my question at him he said, "Forget about it. There is no illegal mining."
He was either telling the truth or lying. I couldn’t tell. So I went home and poured myself a stiff ‘feni’. After three such drinks I too forgot about illegal mining and got totally immersed in my quest to find the toilet. Now do you understand why staying drunk is a way of life here?

You must have heard about the regional plan. I am concerned about that too. I am concerned about a lot of things, like turtles, the Siberian crane and the jackfruit, which by the way is disappearing from the Goan table. Forgive me for digressing, but dining tables have become so small that it is difficult to place a jackfruit without displacing the curry bowl.

Coming back to the regional plan, I had a strong argument with the minister at the secretariat on the issue. I objected to everything, from the quality of the paper on which the map was printed to the sudden disappearance of the local chapel. My house was missing too, and so was the hill. I would have given the chap a hammering, but for the fact that I was sober and a prompt reminder from my wife that I was referring to the wrong map. So you see how bad things can get when we are sober?

I immediately adjourned the meeting, found a local bar and had a shot of feni, by which time the MLA had vanished along with the map and I went home and had a good siesta. You should try the siesta sometimes. It does wonders for the liver.
That regional plan encounter was a long time ago. Then on Christmas Day you chaps announced elections, which you do without fail every five years. I don’t know how you do this, but I suspect you have an alarm in your head that goes off every five years.

Anyway, the announcement brought my MLA back to my doorstep. It’s this door-to-door thing that candidates undertake every five years. I was on my second drink when the door bell rang. I opened the door, glass in hand.
"Who are you and why are you swaying so madly?" I asked.
"Honey," my wife said, "he is not swaying, but you are."
I could swear by the Archbishop’s cassock that I was not swaying and would have produced a gyroscope to prove it, but liquor has a way of diminishing all protests.
"Have we met on Facebook?" I lisped.
"Honey, he is the MLA," my wife said.
Anyway, I kept staring at him as he launched into a monologue which was interspersed with a list of things he had accomplished in the last five years. He was doing this at top speed because he had other houses to visit. Only after I had downed the entire glass of feni was I able to stay abreast with his speech.
So you see how difficult it is to keep up with our politicians? The only way of living with them is by staying perpetually drunk. That being the case, who should pay for the drinks?

Here’s a suggestion. Since you fellows always talk about state funding for elections how about putting some aside for the booze? Democracy after all, comes with a price tag. And while you are pondering this could you keep the raids on hold?

From a Goan who mixes drinks with politics

One Stray Thought

2012-01-13T01:48:00.000-08:00

I have stopped walking, I mean walking for exercise, after I found that my knees are not what they used to be. I started swimming and after two years am realizing that my shoulders are not much better either. I do not know what to take up next.

Meanwhile, my wife, whose hands and legs are intact - she preserved them and only used her tongue for exercise all these years - has started walking after the doctors advised her to rest her tongue and use her extremities for exercise. The slopes of the hillocks near our house are being converted into residential plots and my wife uses the newly laid roads for her walk. (The roads are still there after a year and I recommend the contractor if you have any road work to be done). Some evenings when I am free, I join her and after reaching the spot, sit there on any convenient boulder observing others who come there, till my wife completes her rounds.

I went there this evening and was on my seat observing a boy and girl pair who seemed to be walking on clouds - not on roads and was repenting for never having attempted a walk on the clouds myself, when this young couple with the apple of their eye, the toddler, caught my attention. I can’t guess the child’s age. He must have just started to talk and walk. My children past that age long back and I do not remember at what age children start talking and walking. (My wife remembers these things very well and she guessed the child’s age to be a year and a half).

Anyway, this toddler was happy to tumble along with his unsteady steps, barefoot, and was going on merrily when his mother called out asking him to stop. He stopped and looked at her enquiringly as to what was wrong when she lifted him up and continued to walk carrying him. He started to squirm and tried to wiggle out. He wanted to walk. As soon as she put him down he gave a winner’s smile and started running. She ran behind him caught him and lifted him up once again and the child shouted “no, no, no” and having found no release, started crying his head off. She had no option but to put him down. As he started running once again she turned to her husband and pleaded plaintively “Do something and stop him. His legs are aching”.

The child was happy when he was on his legs. He was crying when lifted to be carried. But the mother was feeling the pain in his legs! It was very amusing.

I remember having read this definition of a sweater somewhere.

Sweater : ‘A garment which children have to wear when their parents feel cold’.

Whoever coined that must have observed a lot of parents.

Christmas time.

2011-12-25T08:19:00.000-08:00

Ganesha chathurti is supposed to be the most prominent festival in Goa. Diwali with its ‘Aakaash kandils’, ‘Diyas’ and ‘Lakshmi pooja’ in business establishments, makes its presence felt. But nothing like Christmas to fill the air with festival atmosphere. Went out for a stroll in the evening to get the Christmas feel and brought back a bit through these pictures.

My neighbour Mendonca's apartment

Ponda church

'Nativity' scene created by the local catholic youth.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Samrat vs Sunburn

2011-12-19T08:55:00.000-08:00

Samrat Sangeet Sammelan
16. 12. 2011 to 18. 12. 2011
Location : Aguiar Grounds, Tisk, Ponda , Goa.
Three sessions of classical music every day.
Vidwan Hari Kumar - Violin
Pandit Yogiraj naik - Sitar
Pandit Vijay karapurkar - Vocal
Ustaad Arshad li khan - Vocal, so on and so forth.
Entry to sammelan - Free
Arrangements - to seat five hundred
If you feel hungry - Batatawada and tea available on payment.
Average attendance noticed per session - one hundred.

Sunburn Music festival
27.12.2011 to 29.12.2011
Location : Candolim beach, Goa
Never ending session of senseless music and mindless dancing starting 9 Pm daily.
DJs - Ma faiza, Funk agenda, Jalebi cartel, Pearl , so on and so forth.
Entry to festival - Rupees Seven thousand + taxes. (Up to twenty thousands in black market.)
VVIP table - 3,43,850 (six people, three days)
Arrangements - to accommodate twenty five thousand.
To quench your never ending thirst - whisky, vodka, Wine and champagne (two bottles each- free for VVIP table)
Average attendance last year - per session- fifty thousand
Expected this year - eighty thousand.

Just an observation. I am not trying to say anything. Infact, I do not know what to say. Can you?

Pondadalli Manju - Fog In Ponda

2011-12-06T01:29:00.000-08:00

This year winter just peeped in for a few days during mid November and disappeared giving way to a very humid and cloudy weather which lasted nearly two weeks. Since the last three days there were some signs of winter returning to Goa and I eagerly awaited its return. I feel happy and relieved when the seasons arrive on time. The way we are abusing the nature, I am always worried that the natural elements may one day decide to teach us a lesson and totally desert us.

There was some fog yesterday and I saw dew drops on the leaves in the morning. The weather was not very cool but not hot either. There was some hope. Today when I opened the door early in the morning, there was dense fog and the outside felt so good that I just could not stay indoors to carry on with my exercises. As soon as it was light enough, I stepped out with the camera in hand. I was not sure that this weather would be there the next day and wanted to make the best of it when it lasted.

As I turned round the corner, I saw my neighbour’s house, which I see dozens of times every day (wishing he had painted it something more pleasant than bright yellow) looking cooler and better, its brightness subdued by the fog in spite of being in the direct focus of the bright street light.

I headed for the hill side on the out skirts expecting the usually pleasant surroundings to be even better and I was not disappointed. I walked along enjoying the tingling feel of the fog on my face and taking in the new look of the old sights stopping now and then to appreciate nature’s magic. Bushes and trees which I see day in and day out appeared to have changed themselves for the better and clouds seemed to have come down to rest on the tree tops.

If this was the feeling, I wondered, the presence of a little fog on the drab country side of Ponda brought about in a person like me, what could have been the effect of the sight of real dense fog over the bountiful nature around Madikeri on a poet like Sri Rajaratnam? No wonder Sri Rajaratnam’s poetic heart came out with ‘Madikerili Manju’ on beholding the sight of clouds hugging the earth in Madikeri. Please, have no fear. I have no intentions of trying to imitate the great man and composing ‘Pondadalli manju’ for my next post.

Sri Rajaratnam is one of my favourites and his ‘Madikerili manju’, beautifully sung by Sri. Mysore Anantaswamy is always at the tip of my tongue. Remind me about it if and when you meet me next and I can sing it for you on the spot making you wish that Sri Rajaratnam had never visited Madikeri.

I continued my walk looking here and there and caught the sight of the usually invisible spider webs decorated with minute dew drops. Poor spider, it cannot come out and enjoy the sight. But I could and I even got some pictures. The spider remained immobile at the center of its web, hungry and waiting for its pray unmindful of the excitement it had created in me. A ‘Sthitapragnya’. I mean the spider. Not me.

I walked around the place, incidentally a hill side which is being cut and converted into housing plots and was turning back after my knees made their presence felt when I caught sight of this migratory egrets which visit Goa every year. I do not know where they come from or where they are going. I only know that they like to land here for some time during mornings and evenings to rest on the trees and search for some insects on the ground. I am glad that they visit us every year but feel sorry that they will have to rest on Syntex tanks on rooftops and search for insects in the garbage bins if they decide to land here in the coming years.My camera managed to get few pictures in which one can recognize the birds and as I moved a bit closer for a better frame, one of them took wing and the next second all of them were gone.

The fog was clearing and the sun was coming up making the weather hot and taking off the magic of the fog. I could see everything clearly in the harsh sunlight and I realized that I was in the same old dirty world that we have created and not in some piece of paradise as it momentarily appeared to be and I returned home feeling like the lame boy in Bommanahalliya kindarijogi who had a glimpse of the paradise inside the mountain but had to return because the cave doors closed before he entered.

Note: Madikerili manju , meaning fog in Madikeri, is one of the poems in the collection ‘Ratnana Padagalu’ by Sri G P Rajaratnam. Sri Rajaratnam is said to have composed the poem inspired by the sight of thick fog in Madikeri, Coorg, Karnataka. It has been put into music and sung beautifully by Sri Mysore Anantaswamy.

Bommanahalliya Kindarijogi is a classic poetic work by Sri K V Puttappa. He is said to have been inspired by Browming’s ‘Pied Piper of Hamlin’ and written this poem.

Corruption wins

2011-12-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

Sri Sriramulu won the ‘Bellary rural’ assembly seat with a very wide margin. I felt very sad. I have nothing personal against Sriramulu. I feel sad because his win is the thumbs up sign for everything that is wrong with us today. Thumbs up for political and social degradation. He is a close associate of Reddy brothers. He has been indicted in mining scandals. It took a lot of effort for BJP to make a show that it is against corruption and push Sriramulu out of cabinet. But the society has hoisted him up on its shoulders. A slap in the face for people trying to cleanse the system.

This shows that in the fight between money and morals, money wins. In Bellary if Reddy brothers made thousands of crores by illegal activities, there were lakhs of other people who made between them hundreds of crores, tens of crores, crores, lakhs, thousands and hundreds etc etc depending up on their position and capabilities. All by the same illegal activities. And these lakhs of people are the voters. Unfortunately, for majority of these voters the illegal activities are the livelihood. They had to decide between anti corruption and empty stomach or pro corruption and full stomach. They decided for a full stomach.

Very unfortunate but that is how it is.

An Explanation

2011-11-27T06:38:00.000-08:00

On an impulse I wrote the last piece about Sri Pawar having been slapped and kept thinking about it afterwards. I had given my own reasons for Mr Harvinder’s actions. How can I attribute reasons for the action of a person I do not know about? I had sort of justified his slapping Mr Pawar. Was I right in doing so? The thought kept bugging me. Of course, it was my view. Only few of my friends read what I write. And none of them take me seriously. So, it was OK. But still.

In the Sunday columns of The Times Of India, I read Shobha De’s ‘The slap that shook India’. Almost same as my post. I feel easy. Right or wrong, it is nice to know that there are many who feel the same.

Mr Pawar got what was meant for all politicians.

2011-11-25T08:19:00.000-08:00

All the front pages today are carrying the news of Mr Harvinder Singh slapping the union agriculture minister Sri. Sharad pawar. Everyone whose words find space in the news columns condemned the act outwardly, probably feeling within themselves - “serves him right”.

Congress, as expected, blamed BJP for the incident. These parties can use any incident to blame each other and can talk with equal irresponsibility. I better not put a strain on my keyboard typing about their ways.

I am sure that Mr Harvinder only wanted to demonstrate his anger at the way the politicians are running, ruining rather, the country and did not have any intention of really harming Sri Pawar. He did have a dagger with him which he did not use. I am also sure that there was nothing personal in the act. He was probably angry with the present situation in the country and since it is the politicians who are running the country, he obviously (and correctly)held them responsible for everything bad. He probably wanted to slap one of the clan to demonstrate his feelings. He made an attempt on Sri Sukhram and failed. Since his teachers had taught him to try and try again to succeed, he tried again and succeeded in the second attempt.

I am not justifying slapping a people’s representative but I will be lying if I say that I have never had an urge to do the same. Three things have prevented me from doing it. 1. I do not follow up on my urges seriously. 2. I have some inhibitions (and unfortunately do not have a deranged mind which can overcome them). 3. I do not have enough guts.

The NCP in Maharashtra called for a Maharashtra bundh. Where is the connection? Why bundh in Maharashtra or anywhere else for that matter if someone slaps Pawar? Just because NCP can enforce a bundh there? These political parties act whichever way they want taking the ordinary citizen for granted. One very valid and solid reason to slap a politician.

Anna Hazare on hearing about the slapping is said to have reacted with
‘Was he slapped?’
‘Was he slapped only once?’
Though I do not attribute much to his utterances after he started uttering through his ‘topi’, I would click on ‘like’ for this one.

On hearing about the incident, Mr Pranab mukherjee is said to have exclaimed ‘where the country is going?’
We have no idea Mr Mukherjee. Really. You are the leader and we are going wherever you are taking us.

GMSLS Yatra - Clarification.

2011-11-21T08:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I made a mistake about the Lok Samruddhi Yatra. The congress’s GMSLS yatra is not over. The congress bigwigs had just travelled from one end of Goa to the other end to begin the yatra from the other end! Now they are walking around in every constituency with the congress tricolor scarves around their neck, supporters at their back, creating road blocks and being a perfect nuisance to public.

Meanwhile one bigwig opened his mouth to make it clear for stupid people like me why the GMSLS yatra is named so. Goa - because it is in Goa, Mukti Suvarna Mahotsav - as it is a tribute to the freedom fighters who laid down their lives for the freedom of Goa (which our leaders are enjoying now). Lok Samruddhi - because the yatra is a tribute to the progress and development brought about by the congress.

If you, with your one track mind is wondering if it is the Progress in the quantity of corruption and development in the number of illegal mines, it is not so. This progress and development to which the yatra is a tribute to, is in the master plan for the next 25 years which congress plans to bring into effect if elected to power in the coming elections!

King Of Good Times and Goa Mukti Suvarna Mahotsav Lok Samruddhi Yatra

2011-11-16T06:49:00.000-08:00

I had to go to Bangalore for a day to attend a family function. The travel options were,
1. To travel by bus, up and down, two nights, twelve hours each way, to be in Bangalore for twelve hours - very tiring and not worth it.
2. Travel by air, up and down, paying about ten thousand rupees - very expensive. (and the journey from B’lore air port to home - not less tiring)

I had given up the idea till my brother in law very kindly offered his frequent flier miles. If someone else is paying nothing is expensive and I was booked on Kingfisher - King of good times - up and down.

‘Kingfisher cancels fifty flights’ - front page news four days before my departure.
‘Actual cancellations were 169 flights, not fifty as claimed, Kingfisher in trouble, owes huge amount to oil companies and airports’ - three days before my departure.
‘Oil companies refuse to supply fuel and airports refuse landing permits unless the backlog is cleared. 150 pilots resign from kingfisher for non payment of salaries, more flights being cancelled.’ - two days before my departure.
‘Banks refuse to bail out Kingfisher, top management to meet bankers today’ - the day of my departure.

The proverb in kannada, ‘paapi samudra hokkaru monakaludda neeru’ - which can be translated as ‘the sinner finds no more than knee deep water even if he gets into the sea’ - explained my situation adequately. It is difficult to explain a proverb but it means, roughly, If you are not destined to get it you will not.

I was in a dilemma. To go or not to go? Something like ‘to be or not to be’. Shakespeare I think. I am not sure. I could have asked Jeeves but he is not with me. Works for someone called Wooster.

Since the tickets were non refundable we could not cancel the tickets, call off the trip and be peaceful. But what if the flight is cancelled at the last minute? Of course I could simply return home after a futile trip to the airport and I only lose taxi fare. (Cannot be as shameless as to ask my brother in law to pay for the taxi too). What if I reach Bangalore and my return flight is cancelled? Would cause quite a bit of inconvenience. Should i anticipate flight cancellation and book a seat on the bus too? Many such thoughts kept rolling around in the mind. Mind was agitated.

I was checking the Kingfisher site for flight status every hour for three days and it kept saying that the flights were as scheduled.

The flights did take off and I made my trip successfully - even got a very decent vegetable sandwich during the onward flight. Free. Nice taste - Kingfisher class. No sandwich on return flight but it was OK. It was at six in the morning, I would not have eaten one at that time anyway.

Since Kingfisher affected my life considerably for nearly a week I kept watching it. Right now the company is asking the banks to release 800 crores to tide over the crisis and the banks are reluctant. I was happy that our banks are cautious while lending money and are keeping our money safe. The overall loss to Kingfisher till date is about 8000crores. Let Vijay Mallya lose his money. He has plenty.

Today I read that the banks have a 27 percent stake in the company. If that is so, their loss is twenty seven percent of 8000 crores. More than 2000 crores of bank’s, that is MY money. Shock. One report says that the exposure of the banks could be as high as 6000 crores. So, it is WE who are losing the money. Not Mallya. He is running his airline king style with our money and losing it! His money is safe in barrels of Kingfisher beer. And the bankers whom we thought are safeguarding our money have been pouring it freely into Kingfisher. 6000 crores are gone and they are now showing their concern for 800. ‘Saabi ne hodamele gaddakke attarante’. Another proverb in kannada. This is what I understand.

If there are any economists reading this please say I am wrong. The nice vegetable sandwich is giving out a very bad aftertaste after four days.

King of good times is having a bad time.

But it is worse for us.

"G M S M L S Y"

Advani is on a rath yatra again or is it over? The ‘Jan chetana yatra’.
When BJP is running a yatra how can the congress keep quiet? The Goa congress party decided to have its own yatra.

“Goa mukti suvarna mahotsav lok samruddhi yatra”. Oh god, it is surely bigger than ‘Jan chetana yatra’. You can’t even say it in one breath. The yatra started and was over by the time I read the name fully. What did it mean any way? I could make out that it had something to do with the golden jubilee of Goa liberation - hence the ‘mukti suvarna mahotsav’. But what is ‘lok samruddhi’? As far as my knowledge goes samruddhi is ‘plenty’. Is lok samruddhi -‘plenty of people’? Or ‘plenty for the people’?

If it is plenty of people it is not good news and if it is plenty for the people what is plenty? As I see, only two things are plenty in Goa right now. One is illegal iron ore and the other is Garbage. Both not to be shouted about in a political yatra.

So what is this ‘Yatra’ about? If any big mouth politician opens his mouth I will let you know.

Kejrival And Kiran Bedi

2011-10-27T07:50:00.000-07:00

I said that I am only an observer of ANNA movement without any involvement. I try to ignore the trivia associated with it but the news papers do not allow me to remain quiet.

One important factor associated with the ANNA movement is the TEAM ANNA which I believe was founded by our media. Now the media is trying to smear the faces of the team members with muck and dismantle the team. The team is said to have contained 21 members out of which five were very visible. From that five, three are gone now and two are remaining.

Kejrival and Kiran Bedi.

If I believe the reports in the papers, Kejrival has started talking through his hat and may shortly lose whatever credibility he still has.

That leaves Kiran Bedi who I thought was straight but the media says it is not so. I would not have believed the reports if she had just kept quiet.

She is busy covering herself up with:
“I was entitled to it and it only benefited my NGO. No personal gain.”
“It was my travel agent who managed it”
“I will refund the amount” and the latest
“I did not actually handle cash” - which sounds more like Bill Clinton’s defence in his (in)famous case.

She was SP or IGP or some such thing in Goa when I arrived here nearly thirty years back. The news papers were praising every action of hers. I kept reading good things about her after she went to Delhi as Commissioner and then to Tihar as chief. I had a very good picture of her in my mind. I will have to redraw the picture. Very disappointing.

Anna again.

2011-10-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

Remember the epic serial Mahabharat? The story was being told by ‘Time’ and the episodes began with the words “mai samay hoon”. We were seeing Mahabharat as time saw it - without any involvement. I am seeing Anna Hazare’s anti corruption movement as time saw Mahabharat - without involvement. I form my own opinions and put them here sometimes just to get it off my chest. In my opinion Anna is OK, his close associates are getting carried away by the importance and the movement is not likely to make any difference to us. I have been reading about the movement and people involved in it, in many papers and magazines, but the editorial in today’s Navhindtimes is almost what I feel. If interested, please go to www.navhindtimes.in, click on ‘epaper’ below the title, and see the article ‘Lord anna and the presiding priests’ on page eight.

I said my feeling is that the movement is not going to make much difference. That is mainly because of my pessimistic attitude and also because of my belief that all of us are corrupt someway or the other. To fight corruption we need to fight against ourselves and there is little chance of winning when one is fighting against oneself.

The supreme court banned mining activity in Bellary, Karnataka, because of the large scale irregularities involved. Illegal mining in Goa is said to be greater than or equal to Bellary. Justice Shaw commission is going over mining in Goa with a magnifying glass and indications are that it will recommend banning mining activities till things are set right. Last week there was a huge rally in Panaji, arranged by people who are involved in mining activities. Owners, transporters, workers and people involved in associated businesses. The demand was 1. not to stop mining activities and 2. to overlook or abolish some of the rules and guidelines which hinder mining. In other words, allow illegal mining and associated corruption.

I am sure at least fifty percent of those who attended this rally also attended meetings and marches held at the height of Anna movement for Lokpal. Got what I mean?

We are not against corruption if we are the beneficiaries. So, Lokpal, strong Lokpal, weak Lokpal or no Lokpal are all the same.

I rest my case.

Just Saying Hello

2011-10-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

Nearly a month since the last post. Did not come across anything worth mentioning except that I was woken up by a patient on three successive nights at 1 am last week, demanding a painkilling injection. My crime was that I had removed a tooth (and incidentally quite a bit of the jaw bone) that was bothering him for months. (Pity the dentist or the patient?). Did not write about it as I did not want to scare people (and cut my own leg).

Was waiting for something pleasant to say hello with, when I came across this rose which had bloomed last night. So, here I am saying hello and still there. Bye till I find something interesting.

Simple Pleasures

2011-09-14T03:33:00.000-07:00

“Chinna chinna aasai”- I had liked this song from the tamil movie Roza which was a hit, had written down what I thought was the lyrics and had tried to sing the song when there were no one within hearing distance, without knowing what exactly it meant. But I had a vague idea what was being conveyed.

It was about small or simple pleasures in life.

I am lucky to be able to enjoy a few simple pleasures and one of them is the sight and smell of flowers that grow around my house.

The Parijata (night Jasmine)plant, which my wife brought from Bangalore and planted, is now a small tree and has reached our balcony.

We have managed to coax the jasmine creeper to climb up and I intend coaxing it further and making it climb on to the terrace. The creeper is in the process of crossing the balcony and these days there is always a flower or two near the balcony.

Late evenings when the Parijata blooms, the balcony is flooded with the fragrance but the solitary Jasmine works hard to make its presence felt too.

I love to stand there and enjoy the sight of these flowers and the combined fragrance.

I am not overtly religious but I do carry on the tradition of lighting a lamp and placing a few flowers on the idols and photographs of deities that we have with us. Till we shifted to this house our gods had to manage with flowers grown by the roadside or those with in arms distance from the road in my neighbour’s garden. I had no intentions of depriving the owners of their rightful share and was content with what was within my reach and so were our gods. I never resorted to using a stick or a wire hook to claim what was morally not mine. But that is another story. After we shifted here we have planted plenty of flowering plants and I get many varieties of flowers in good quantities.

I love the sight of flowers collected in the mornings for the purpose and it feels good to see the gods adorned with those flowers.

Talking of which, reminds me of DVG.

Gidadi nagutiha hu prakruti sakhanige chanda
Madadi mudidiha hu yuvakange chanda
Gudiyolu koduva hu daivabhaktage chanda
Bidigaasu hoovalage mankutimma.

Which I can roughly translate as

The nature lover likes the flower smiling on the plant
The young man loves the flower in his wife’s hair
The devout cherishes the flower adorning the lord
But the flowers only mean a few coins for the lady who sells them.

I have been able to experience and enjoy the first and the third.

As far the second, when I was a young man, I neither had flowers growing nor the sense to buy and put them in my wife’s hair and enjoy the sight. (and I keep hearing about that lapse even after twenty five years.) Now we have lots of flowers growing but I am not young and my wife does not have enough hair!

Bird Video

2011-09-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

I managed to use the ‘motion picture’ facility in our camera for the first time and succeeded in getting not just a blur but a picture in which one can differentiate between the bird and the Banana. The base of the fridge was not intended to be shot but entered the clip on its own will. This is a trial to see if I can attach the video to the post. Following is the caption, bit lengthy.

Sometime back I had written in this blog about the bird (red vented bulbul) which visited our kitchen everyday for its share of banana fruits. It used to perch on the window of the kitchen every morning and afternoon, chirping incessantly to inform us that it was time for its meal and we better move out. If we remained there, it used to fly away and return after sometime with louder chirping demanding to know what business we still had there. But it never came in when one of us were there.

All of a sudden it stopped coming and our bananas were not touched even though they were hanging in the same place and were of the same quality. The bird was being seen around the house but it never flew in for the meal. I thought that it was either fed up with the same fare every day or that it was a different bird not aware of the availability of an easy meal.

Now, after about two years, I noticed one of the fruits in the bunch partly eaten and the familiar beak marks. Then I saw the birds, two of them now, boldly flying in and out of our kitchen whenever they desired a snack, ignoring our presence. I do not know if they are a different bolder pair who heard about the bananas through the birdie grapevine or the same old Bulbul back with a bolder companion after deciding that same fare everyday is better than no fare at all.

Since they attack many fruits, I am forced to leave only one fruit hanging and take out the others. One of them flew away when I went near with the camera and the other remained to get the last beakful and flew out only after I went even closer.

Adding this after seeing the video clip on the post : Sorry for the bad video. I was expecting it to be better. Just as i saw it before uploading. It seems to have gone bad during transport. I have no idea how to make it better. Please bear.

Test Your Eyes.

2011-08-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

My wife noticed this parrot (or the parrot like bird) enjoying the guava fruit in our neighbour's compound. It was a test for my eyes (with glasses of course) as well as my hand - to hold the camera steady at full zoom. Both the organs passed. it was a test for my camera too, to get the bird at about thirty feet and it passed.

Now, test your eyes with the first picture and if you fail, look at the second just below the vertical arm of the hanging electric cable. Go back to the first picture and try to find the bird in the same place with its tail towards me. if you fail again, get an appointment with the ophthalmologist.

PS : No commission has been promised to me by any eye doctor.

At The Ramlila Maidan

2011-08-24T21:07:00.000-07:00

I am at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. There are lakhs of people. The atmosphere is charged. What excitement! What support! School and college students, Mumbai dabbawaalaas, Cine actors, traders and businessmen, advocates, doctors, senior citizen groups, you name them and they are there. There were people in fancy dress, people holding comic posters , music and dance. It was somewhat like Goa during Carnival. Only booze was missing. I got carried away. I shouted all the slogans. Even Bharat maata ki jai and Vande mataram - at the cost of inviting Imam Bukhari’s wrath and having a ‘Fatwa’ on my head. I had to display my support to Anna. But I was not sure what we were doing there. So I asked someone who had taken a break and was enjoying his free lunch.

He looked at me as if I was the ‘C’ in corruption. “We are doing something to kill the demon called corruption. Squash corruption into dust. It should not raise its head once again.”

“Which corruption?”

“Don’t you know corruption? Where do you live? Mars? Haven’t you heard of Kalmadi? Raja? Kanimozi? Hundreds and thousands of crores of rupees. Disgusting.”

“How?”

“By forcing the government to manufacture the ‘ Brahmaastra ‘ against corruption, the Jan Lokpal bill. It will kill corruption completely”

“But are you sure that you really intend eradicating corruption?”

“What do you mean? Why will we be here otherwise? We are fed up with corruption and we will surely eliminate it under Anna’s leadership “

“All types of corruption? At all levels?”

“Yes Yes and Yes”

I could feel all ‘Y’s capital, the way he said it. I should have understood the mood, enjoyed the lunch and carnival for some more time, and returned home after playing my part. But the cynic in me was fidgeting. So, I asked again.

“We are here to remove all corruption from our country. Rright? Now Let us assume that you have to get a residence certificate from the tehsildar. You have almost all the documents like your ration card, your father’s birth certificate, grand father’s death certificate, your school leaving certificate etc etc but you still have one or two missing without which you are not entitled to get your certificate. Do you want the clerk to insist that you produce them or accept a hundred or two as a token of good will and quietly type out the certificate?”

He looked at me piercingly. I continued at the cost of my head getting an entry and exit wound.

“With lot of difficulty you have purchased a small piece of land and intend starting construction of your dream house. Your plan is ready and is sent for approval. The municipal engineer has raised one hundred and twenty three objections. Would you rather erase the plan and comeback with one which sticks to rules than pay a few thousands of convenience fee to make the engineer close his eyes while he signs on your plan?”

“Hey, don’t spoil the mood by bringing up irrelevant topics when we are preparing for a long and tough fight with the government”

But I was in my pestering mood and so I continued without hearing the warning. “ You are a busy businessman and cannot keep track of all the business transactions. Some of the transactions escape your attention when you send your files to the sales tax or income tax or some other tax. But the official there somehow smells them out and pesters you for an explanation. Would you rather pay a hefty penalty than slipping a packet of grease to lubricate the palms of the official to make the file slip off?”

“Who let this fellow in here? Creating a nuisance when we are in serious fight with corruption. Kick him out of the grounds”

I was being kicked and pushed and I was trying my best to hold on to the Ramlila grounds. I was losing and I woke up.

“Why can’t you sleep on your side of the bed. You roll around like a child. Where am I expected to sleep” my wife managed to push me aside and regain her part of the bed.

Post for the day

2011-08-19T21:06:00.000-07:00

“Nine parties call for nationwide agitation.”

“Varun Gnadhi calls for stronger Lokpal bill”

“Parrikar (Goa BJP leader) promises to pass Lokayukta bill within one month -if brought to power”

Opposition parties are keen on making best use of the situation. They will turn the agitation into a political tamasha and I can see calls for state bundhs and Bharat bundh coming. People are charged and will get carried away by “action”. Road blocks, rail roko, setting fire to buses will follow. A good movement will end up as a nuisance.

Anna Hazare, in his first televised call said “Let there be no damage to private or public property. Let there not be any violence. There should not be any inconvenience to public”. But these are sensible and very tame words. We are not interested in them. Hope Anna will not repent beginning this.

Two cricket jokes on SMS I liked.

“Annaji, thanks for taking the limelight away from the India- England series” - M S Dhoni.

“I will watch 'Lagaan' today. That is the only way I can see India winning against England.”

Letter To Editor

2011-08-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

Had to write this letter to the editor to get some of the irritation caused by the photographs of our political leaders speaking at the rally in support of anti corruption movement, out of my system.

It was disgusting to see our BJP leaders taking part in the anti corruption rally at Azad Maidan. What hypocrisy! I appreciate their guts making long speeches and promises against corruption while being part of the party which is famous for providing one of the most corrupt governments Karnataka has seen.

If they are sincere to the movement, they should participate only as citizens without mentioning their party. If they are sincere to the party they should issue a disclaimer stating that they are doing their best to get as much political mileage as possible out of the popular movement, and that their words should not be taken at face value.

Dane Dane Pe Likha Hai Khanewale ka naam

2011-08-15T06:32:00.000-07:00

I planted a Chikoo (Sapodilla, Sapota) sapling in front of my house about four years back. It had a better fate than the other plants and now I can call it a small tree. Last year we got about half a dozen fruits. This year there were hundreds of buds. As they flowered and small fruits appeared I could not help hoping for a feast. The fruits grew in size and just as I put my tongue out to lick my lips in anticipation, the group of monkeys descended from nowhere and attacked the tree. They ignored our feeble attempts to shoo them off, bared their teeth, growled and intimidated us and proceeded to destroy the tree. They tore away the tender shoots, plucked the fruits, bit them and threw them down littering the ground and the ants had a good time for the next two days.

In spite of the attack quite a few young fruits remained and as they grew in size I felt that all was not lost. In my anxiety not lose more fruits to monkeys, I plucked a few which I felt were mature and kept them for ripening. They either shriveled and dried up or rotted. I left the remaining on the tree to ripen and vowed to offer half the yield to Lord Hanuman if he kept his troop away from my tree. He obliged. The young fruits were maturing and I had identified about a dozen as suitable for plucking soon but then every morning I found one or two of them hanging half eaten on the tree. I thought it to be some bird but one of my patients who saw the half eaten fruits said that it is the fruit bat’s work and advised me to pluck the remaining fruits before the bats finished them off.

This morning when I came out for my walk, I saw this fruit on one of the lower branches probably just after the bat had had its fill and left. By the time I returned from my walk the Bul Bul was flying around the fruit. When I came back with the camera the bird was not there but it was time for the wasp and fruit flies to fill their stomachs. The wasp remained on the fruit for nearly three hours. By afternoon the fruit was lying on the ground and the crow was pecking at it. I could hardly identify the fruit in the evening. It was a lump of red ants.

They say “dane dane pe likha hai khane wale ka naam” which I can translate as “Every grain bears the name of the one who gets to eat it”. My chikoo fruits have the names of monkeys, fruit bats, bul bul, wasp, fruit flies, crow and ant on them.

I plucked a few more this evening to try my luck and see if I can erase those names and put my name on them. If I fail again I will give up my claim.

After all, six species surviving on one fruit is better for this world than one species devouring hundreds.

No, the fruits are not sour. They are sweet, as honey. Really.

Kannada post.

2011-08-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

Many of my posts in this blog are based on my experiences as a dentist. My cousin Brinda suggested, insisted, forced, got fed up and gave up her efforts to make me translate them to Kannada. I kept her suggestion in mind and have acted now. Hope she does not regret her suggestion.

If you understand the language and have patience to go through the piece, please let me know whether I can translate others, whether I should stick to English or stick to dentistry just as a profession to earn my bread.

Tried to post it on my kannada blog but transliteration is not co operating. Hence this. Please bear.

Sonia's Surgery

2011-08-05T01:31:00.000-07:00

Sonia Goes abroad for surgery - hospital, ailment kept secret. Today’s front page.
Very sensible.

If our channels get a hint as to where she is or what is wrong, we will be in for an analysis of the situation which will go on for the next fifteen days.

We have already learnt enough anatomy and surgery thanks to Vajapayee’s knees, Manmohan Singh’s heart, Sachin Tendulkar’s shoulder and Amitabh Baccahn’s intestines.

We can do without dissection of more celebrity organs.

New Karnataka CM - 'Vastu' compliant.

2011-08-03T21:07:00.000-07:00

The new Chief Minister of Karnataka offered ‘puja’ and prayers to Lord Ganesh at his official residence this morning. Understandable. Later, his ‘Vastu’ consultant spoke and claimed that it was because of the alterations that he brought about in the residence of the new CM at his earlier residence in his constituency, (New CM was party president, then) that the BJP became a coalition partner in the JDS govt and then gained power on its own. He said that he had already made the BJP office in Bangalore ‘Vastu’ compliant and that the same will be done to the official residence of the new CM. He claimed that enough alterations would be done to keep BJP in power for the next 10-15 years. (Why not the next 100-150 years? - I wonder)

I had thought that the era of tertiary level of superstition ended with the exit of Yedyurappa, but no. We are in for much more. I hear through my extra sensory auditory senses that a ‘Vastu’ section is likely to be started in the Karnataka PWD and the CM’s Vastu consultant may be the Chief Vastu engineer (CVE for short) of the section. There will be all categories of ‘Vastu’ engineers like JE (Vastu), AE (Vastu), EE (Vastu) etc etc, all PWD works are to get OK from the respective 'Vastu' JE, AE, EE etc depending up on the category of work and if necessary the KRS and the Bangalore metro would be demolished and rebuilt after making the plans Vastu complinat.

The TV channels which have nothing better to do zoomed in for the ‘Puja’ and the interview of the ‘Vastu’ consultant and people who have nothing better to do watched and wrote about it.

To - Day's Papers. 30th July.

2011-07-30T10:28:00.001-07:00

To-day’s papers.

Justice Dinakaran

Yesterday I posted ‘Yevicol’ on my blog and this morning I read that justice Dinakaran has resigned from the post of Chief Justice of Sikkim. He was a close competitor to Yedyurappa in stickiness (and ‘stinkiness’- here you are Ravi!) grading.

UNVA

The US authorities have raided another university UNVA, in Washington. 90% of the students are from India and majority of them from Andhra. Something similar to Tri Valley. There was lot of shouting in the media when the students of Tri Valley were made to wear ankle bands to monitor their movement. And the media almost succeeded in making people back home feel that the university was the villain and the students - innocent.

This time the US authorities are being more cautious - the papers say. The Indian embassy has asked the US authorities not to ‘victimise’ students.

Is the Indian embassy being naïve or caring? Who is the victim? Students or the US government?

Everyone knows that the students of both these universities are not ‘victims’ but perpetrators of a fraud to hoodwink the US authorities and gain entry into the US. They were very well aware what they were upto.

They have soiled the name of the country and thanks to them all Indian students will be looked at with suspicion.

What they need is not sympathy but a kick on the butt.

YEVICOL

2011-07-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

ToDay’s news paper says that Yedyurappa has agreed to quit - at last. But he will be quitting on 31st, after another two ‘sticky’days. Since the time I started reading news papers I have come across quite a few ‘stickers’ sticking to their chairs. But this is one ‘Super sticker’.

In my profession, one thing that I hate is ‘Scaling’. What my patients call ‘cleaning’. This involves removing the ‘Calculus,’ commonly known as ‘Tartar,’ which gets deposited around the teeth near the gums. When I write the records after ‘Scaling’, I usually put the markings, + , ++ , +++ to indicate the toughness and ‘stickiness’ of Tartar. Hence forth I will write ‘Y’ to indicate something stickier than +++.

I also suggest that if the manufacturers of ‘Fevicol’ produce something better than ‘Fevicol’, they name it ‘Yevicol’ and multiply their sales.

Complaints And Compliments

2011-07-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

“Hello doctor, how are you?”
A dark, short and fat fellow wearing a blue rain coat, hailed me in front of the agriculture section of the local co operative society. His face, most of which happened to be the nose, looked vaguely familiar. I felt that knew that face but could not place it. I had been to the society to buy some organic fertiliser for the okra plants, which were part of my wife’s latest kitchen garden project.

“Still practicing in that ground floor flat near Sesa quarters?” he continued. “I am your patient doctor. See, you made this denture. Must be more than fifteen years” he grinned to reveal his front teeth, “Still very good. Fits perfectly. I have no trouble whatsoever. Nobody can make out that it is artificial. I tell your name to everyone who has some dental problem. ”

I was very happy to hear that. It is not very often that I get such compliments and I gloated. i did not know how to respond to such praise.

“Thats good to hear” I answered politely, but swelling with justifiable pride within myself. “Nice of you to have mentioned. I am not in that old place now. Shifted next to the main road behind the Honda scooter showroom. Keep my number” I recited my telephone number and went towards the sales counter.

“That is the dentist. Very good doctor” I could hear the fellow telling someone who had turned towards us on hearing the conversation.

In a practice of more than thirty years I have treated thousands of cases. Majority of them just forget the teeth and the dentist - sometimes even the fee - once the treatment is over. Those who remember the treatment done are few and those who express their happiness (assuming that they are happy with the outcome) are fewer. I do not expect my patients to overtly express their pleasure even if they are happy with the treatment. It is fine if people are just satisfied with the outcome and pay my fee without a grudge. So, when someone remembers and praises the work, it does feel very nice.

As I made my purchase and returned to my scooter I saw the fellow who had praised my dentures, stopping briefly near the gate to exchange a few words with another fellow coming in and then ride away.

I was trying to find a way of securing the bulky bag of fertiliser to the scooter without the help of a rope but my mind was still occupied with the thoughts about this good fellow . It was in stark contrast to another case which I have not been able to forget even after many years.

Barve was the milk vendor who manned the Goa dairy’s milk booth near the bus stand. I had made a set of artificial teeth for him and since I knew that he had financial difficulties, I had charged him less than half of what I usually do. He had taken the dentures and had told me that he would pay me within a week. Having not heard anything from him even after months, I had tried to remind him over the telephone. His telephone had been disconnected. I tried the milk booth. It had been taken over by a new agent. It would not have been difficult to locate his house and visit him to get my fee but I did not feel like going to his house demanding money like a loan shark. In due course I forgot about it.

About a year later, one Saturday, when I had been to the market to buy our weekly quota of vegetables, I saw Barve bargaining with the fish vendor. He tried to duck and shoot out on seeing me but I managed to reach and confront him.

“How are you Barve? How is the denture? You never came back after you took it.”

“Good that I met you here doctor. I wanted to come to your clinic. I did not have time. You see the denture you made does not fit my gums at all. It keeps falling out again and again. I can’t eat and can’t even talk. Moreover it hurts the gums and the colour of the teeth you have put does not match my other teeth at all. In fact I wanted to come to you and ask you if you can take it back. I will come there sometime. It is of no use to me whatsoever.” I was taken aback. I did not know what to say or how to respond. By the time I got back to my senses he was not there anymore. It was the first time that someone had openly expressed dissatisfaction about my work and it hit me hard. Let alone getting my fee, I was actually glad that he went away without continuing his speech on the inadequacies of my denture. Few curious heads were already turned in our direction and I hoped that they did not catch the full conversation and that none of them recognized me. Ponda is a small city and I hoped that Barve does not meet any other prospective patient.

I was just thinking about these matters and was about to kick start my scooter when I saw the person who had just come in. The one with whom the unknown good fellow who had praised me, spoke at the gate. It was my friend Nageshkar, who sells stabilizers, batteries and inverters. Nageshkar’s family is in Ponda since ages and he seems to know every single person in the city.

I called out to him “hey, Mahesh, (his first name is Mahesh) who was that fellow you were talking to near the gate? The fellow with the blue rain coat?”

“Don’t you know him? He is Barve, who used to run the milk booth near bus stand. I do not know what he is doing now. Purchased a battery from me for his scooter and has not paid even after two years. Says that it never worked properly and he wants to return it. I Knew that rogue but still sold him the battery because sales were low. I am repenting now. I think I will have to write it off. Be careful with that fellow. If he comes to you for treatment better take your full fee in advance.“

I wish Nageshkar had given me this advice at least two decades before. It was too late now. Barve the master dodger’s compliments were as effective as complaints.

Monsoon Pictures

2011-07-03T10:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday it rained whole day and night. The sky was just starting to clear up with a few stars tentatively peeping out at half past five this morning. Everything was washed and cool and the outdoors was beckoning. There was enough light for me to differentiate between the road and the ditch. I decided to skip my exercise and go for a walk instead.

I went out carrying the camera along. I had not gone walking this rainy season. It was the same road which I see every day but how different it looked during monsoons! I can never stop wondering at the change the rains bring to my surroundings. It is a different world altogether - worth living in - not the one I am used to and the one that I live in! I say this at least once every year and put up few pictures to show what I mean. So, here I am at it again. At the cost of repetition.

The usual dusty road looks clean and the muddy sides, green.

These large leaved plants which grow in abundance hide the roadside garbage and the dirty roadside looks like a garden.

The drab hillside waiting to be cut into housing plots, like an animal waiting to be butchered, suddenly turns out to be - though temporarily- a piece of the western ghats,

And even the common place electric pole turns out to be a queen with a crown of green.

MCSRDC

2011-06-26T06:07:00.000-07:00

After completing B tech in electronics, my son has got a job in the ‘Mission Combat Systems Research and Design Center’ of one of the PSUs in Bangalore. I do not know what they do in MCSRDC. According to what I have read and heard about PSUs, irrespective of the purpose for which they are built, all that the employees of PSUs do is eat Samosas or bhaji (depending up on which day it is and supplied at subsidized rates by their canteen) and drink tea while participating in a hearty discussion on topics of individual interest or (after the advancement in the field of communications) participate in a discussion on the mobile or enjoy a cricket match or a movie on their laptops. I hear some PSUs have changed now and hope they really have. Whatever it is, the name of this center is very impressive and I imagined that it may have something to do with use of electronics in warfare. Rather, it was meant to do something about the use of electronics in warfare.

We, self and my son, were out on some errand and dropped in our friend Nageshkar’s shop. Nageshkar sells batteries, stabilisers and inverters and is rarely seen in the shop. He is always running about attending to his customers and keeps complaining about his running around. He was my neighbor and my morning walk companion. I see him less these days after I shifted my residence and switched to swimming to save what is remaining of my knees. We share similar views, he is as irritated as I am about unpalatable happenings around us, equally disgusted with politicians and is growing to be an irritated old man like me. I was glad to see him in the shop and went in for a short chat. He was reading the morning paper carrying photographs of our politicians protesting the recent hike in diesel and gas prices, waving their hands and shouting slogans, pushing push carts loaded with gas cylinders, burning effigies and in general creating nuisance and scenes on the streets with the hope of catching the ever obliging media eyes.

Having seen my son since he was a child, Nageshkar was happy to hear that he got a job, wished him well and enquired in what capacity he would be working in MCSRDC. I butted in to exhibit my ignorance and also joked “if an aircraft fires a missile and if it lands in Hyderabad instead of Islamabad, you know whose work it is!”

Nageshkar laughed and addressed my son. “Instead of Hyderabad, If you can really make a mistake and get the missile to land on our parliament while it is in session, I will put up your photograph on my wall and worship it everyday”.

Mysore - Himavatgopalaswamy Hill

2011-06-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

In my last post I said that we were away from Goa for a few days. We made a trip to Mysore and back. I had no intentions of writing a travelogue again, the one I wrote about our US trip last year being enough of travelogues for me and everyone else but I found a few pictures of our trip in the camera and the temptation to bug others with them is too much to resist. I will shorten the torture as much as possible.

After many years, all of us in our family were in a position to take a week’s holiday together and decided to go somewhere out of Goa. We kept hearing people - our friends and acquaintances - going on tours and names like Singapore, Bangkok, Mauritius, Manali, Srinagar, Jaipur and Coonoor kept popping up during conversations making us feel that, being cooped up in Ponda, we were missing all the fun. So, we had to go somewhere. After considering Udaipur,Singapore, Malaysia, Kashmir and Kannur and rejecting all of them, we decided up on the time tested Mysore which has never disappointed us. Since we do not have a direct train to Mysore from Goa, we have to take a train to Bangalore and proceed to Mysore from there. We had thought of a pleasant holiday, I mean as pleasant as four of us (all adults. Children are no more children and have their own mind and can afford to act as it directs them) with different tastes and ideas could make it together and had no intentions of passing through Bangalore which was sure to be far from pleasant. So, we decided to drive to Dharwad and take the night train to Mysore.

We started on the morning of 5th June just as the monsoon reached the Goa border, and since it was a Sunday and there were not many mining trucks on the road to fight with, managed to reach Molem, the Goa border, without damage. From Molem to Anmod is the ‘ghat section’ and the climb starts from Molem. Anmod ghat is wonderful during rains. To see it in its full splendour one has to travel by train from Margao to Londa but travelling by road is rewarding enough. The picture below is just a sample bit.

The road from Londa to Dharwad (once upon a time)was a narrow but beautifully canopied stretch of road through the forests, till the mining trucks carrying iron ore to Goa from Hospet devoured it completely. It took the government nearly fifteen years to trace it again and now it is under reconstruction. Those who are unfortunate enough to have some compelling reason to travel to Hubli - Dharwad by road, take a detour via Khanapur which traverses through a very bad patch of about twelve kilometers to join the Belgaum - Bangalore highway at Kittur, by which time they would have exhausted all the curses they have in their vocabulary. I went by that road once last year and only because I had been reciting Vishnu Sahasranama all the time, managed to come out unscathed. We heard that the road to Dharwad via Dandeli and Haliyal is good though a bit longer and had decided to try that road. It is really good. There is not much traffic on the road and both the sides are densely wooded. The road is smooth though curvy and my son, who was driving, did his best to test the stability of our car and the stretchability of our nerves. He enjoyed himself while I got an ulcer or two. We made one brief halt for lunch and another to look at the Supa dam from a view point and arrived at Dharwad by three in the afternoon.

We rested for a while at our friend Sri Dhakad’s place in Dharwad and having consumed enough fats to last us the next three years through their very tasty Rajasthani dinner, caught the night train which deposited us at Mysore the next morning.
Mysore suites all tastes in our family and we usually spend time peacefully just eating and lazing around. However this time we decided to visit our family deity ‘Srikanteshwara’ at Nanjangud and a nearby hill called the ‘Himavatgopalaswamy betta’ (‘betta’ is a hill in Kannada). The last time I visited lord Shrikanteshwara, I had to stand in a jostling queue for nearly an hour (after buying the privileged hundred rupees ticket- Lord Venkateshwara of Tirupati has taught profitable business practices to all other deities) before I came face to face with him. This time I had decided that if a similar situation prevails, I would offer my pranams from the outer precincts and turn back. Our association is long and I was sure that he would understand. It was a pleasant surprise to find the temple free of crowds and it was much more pleasant to find the surroundings clean and -very important- having a very much usable pay toilet and other facilities.

I said that I do not intend a long write up but the habit does not die easily. I will try to shorten the remaining part.

‘Himavatgopalswamy betta’, one hour from Nanjangud.

A deviation of about twelve kilometers from Gundlupet on the Mysore - Ooty highway.

The deviation bit - Horrible road, beautiful surroundings.

Buy a ticket at the forest guard posted at the base of the hill, who instructs you to be back with in an hour.

Reach the top expecting the tyres to burst anytime and once you have stopped being surprised at the tenacity of your vehicle which survived the road enjoy the exhilarating cool and misty atmosphere said to be so all through the year and hence the name “Himavatgopalaswamy’. (‘Hima’ is mist in kannada).

Splendid view as far as your eyes can take you.

Colourful temple, and a very good looking Gopalaswamy within.

The hill is in a protected forest area and one cannot stray away from the temple to explore the surroundings. One is not allowed to linger around and ‘picnic’ there. You reach the top, take a look and few photographs, offer your prayers to Lord Gopalaswamy and start back. We had heard that if you are lucky, you may see wild elephants roaming in the forest below. We halted at a view point on the way down and tried our best to locate wild elephants. We spotted them only after our driver’s experienced eyes caught them. You may see them in the photograph if your eyes are better than mine.

After a halt by the side of the road for lunch,

Returned to Mysore by three in the afternoon. A very good trip. I hear that there are many such places around Mysore and hope to visit them during our subsequent visits. please do not pray that i never make it to Mysore again.

Ah, Monsoon again!

2011-06-12T07:08:00.001-07:00

Rains are here again. I love the rains in Goa and I consider myself lucky to be in a position to say so. I have a roof over my head that does not leak and I do not have to run through foot deep water to catch a bus or ride a two wheeler in pouring rain to reach my work place. I do not have to look for a dry spot in front of a road side shop to spread a cut open cardboard carton to sleep at night. I do not have to hurriedly spread a sheet of plastic to cover the wares that I have kept for hawking on the footpath as the drops start falling from the sky. I do not know if these people can love the rains. I feel sorry for those who suffer because of rain but love the season nevertheless. I thank god for keeping me in a position to do so.

This year we left Goa just as the demarcation between pre -monsoon showers and the monsoon rains disappeared and returned two days back to find the monsoon in full swing. It had been raining for five days and the branches of the plants next to our side walk had bent over forcing one to bend at the waist to reach the door from the gate. The cement floor was getting slippery threatening to break the back if stepped up on carelessly.

There had been a backlog of cases in the clinic and I remained indoors the last two days ignoring what was happening outside. Today being my half day I could survey around the house, clean the side walk, tie up the branches of the plants (with the help of my son who, for once, appeared to be willing), remove the dry leaves which had clogged the water outlets on the roof and then sit in front of our balcony to enjoy a hot cup of tea, enjoying the cool weather, watching the pouring rain. Feels very nice.

Medium of Primary Instruction

2011-05-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

About a month back an old issue came to life once again. The issue of medium of instruction in primary schools. The Issue is not the medium instruction as such. It is the government aid given to primary schools.

In the beginning all schools which were eligible for aid got aid. Then the government decided that the mother tongue should be the medium of instruction at primary level and said that it would not give aid to English medium schools. That was about twenty years back. Schools which were teaching in English either switched to local languages (Konkani/ Marathi in Goa) or charged extra fee for English medium. This went on for nearly twenty years. This year suddenly there was a demand from a large section of the society that the government give aid to English medium schools also. There was also a section which opposed aid to English medium. Depending up on which side of the bread they saw butter, politicians took sides.

Arguments and counter arguments flew thick. Mother tongue supporters said that a child can grasp much better what is taught in mother tongue and so, teaching in MT forms a firm knowledge base and many more such things. English supporters said that our children are losing out because they are deprived of English which is absolutely necessary for future prospects and many more such things. After kicking the issue around for some time and passing it on to the ‘Center’ for views, the ruling party saw that there were more numbers behind English and announced that “after careful consideration of all aspects” it has decided to give aid to English medium schools too. The section of politicians who were against English medium - the ‘Bharatiya bhasha suraksha mandal’ decided to protest and held a ‘rasta roko’ and also called for Goa bundh on 6th june.

My view is that both the arguments are baseless. A child can learn in any language and can learn any language if taught properly at the appropriate time. My vision does not go far. But what I have seen near me makes me feel so. I learnt in Kannada medium till 7th standard and then switched to English medium. Whatever others say, I think that I am not bad either in Kannada or in English or in anything that I learnt using these languages. My sister learnt in English medium till 7th standard and learnt Kannada only later. She is better than me in both and everything else. My children’s primary education was neither in English nor in their mother tongue Kannada. They learnt in Konkani and are fine in Kannada, English and Konkani as well as whatever they learnt in those languages.

The whole thing was bugging me. The photograph of our leaders squatting on the highway blocking the traffic and the “Bundh”call, both of which I always hate, increased the irritation and I had to say something somewhere. So I wrote a letter to “Navhind Times”. I do not know if they were short of words today. They published it with a heading “Nuisance to Public”.

Nuisance to Public.

It was disgusting to see the ex chief ministers, sitting M L As, MP, and so called dignitaries and intellectuals posing proudly for the photograph while blocking the high way.
Blocking the road, (other than providing news coverage to these people), only causes hardships to citizens and nothing else. This is just a step away from acts like stone pelting, setting fire to buses and cutting railway lines and is a disgrace to any civil society.
These people who should condemn such acts are encouraging them.
It is a pity that our leaders cannot even think of better ways of protest.
Now they have called for Goa bundh on 6th June. Yet another nuisance. Where are our leaders leading us?

M S Raghunandan, Ponda

Mango Season

2011-05-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

Mango season is here again. The first few mangoes were seen in the market about a month back. ‘Mankurad,’ the most sought after variety in Goa was being sold at about hundred rupees a piece and there were people to buy it at that price! Some soul who longed for those mangoes but could not afford them, wrote in the letters to editor coloumn - ‘Mangoes beyond common man’s reach’- and suggested that the government regulate the prices! After about fifteen days the price came down to about five hundred rupees a dozen and the news papers announced “Goa’s famous Mankurad with in common man’s reach”. Five hundred rupees a dozen and that is within common man’s reach! I am way below a common man then. I should ask for a BPL (below poverty line) card from the government. After that I noticed a steady increase in the quantity of Mangoes in the market but still did not dare to ask the price.

Since last week there are hawkers selling mangoes in almost every street corner. In one corner I found a small boy (less intimidating) in front of a basket of Mangoes and hesitatingly asked for the price. It was two hundred rupees a dozen. My wife is very fond of mangoes and I had noticed her eating them with her eyes whenever we went to the market. So, I bought half a dozen mangoes.

Two days after that first half dozen the price came down to about hundred and fifty, and I purchased a dozen fruits from Sandeep naik. Sandeep is a vegetable vendor who shifts to mangoes in mango season. In a market full of sellers who try their best to attract customers, he stands like a ‘sthitapragna’ (he who accepts happiness and sorrow, ups and downs, alike and in general is not perturbed by anything) in the center of four or five baskets containing fruits of different sizes and different varieties. If enquired, he will point at the baskets saying “three hundred, two fifty and two hundred” or so. His price is fixed. No bargaining. If you bend over the basket he hands you a plastic bag and looks away. You may take half an hour to select the fruits you want. Once you have selected the fruits and put them in the bag you hold it in front of him and say how many you have picked. He will not even count them. He will nod his head, take your money and give you the change. He will not prevent you from selecting what you want even if you upturn the whole basket. Very much unlike the other sellers who shout at you and almost wring your neck if you try to displace one or two from the top and try to get at those placed at the bottom. His attitude suits me and I usually buy from him.

A dozen mangoes do not last long in our house and I had thought that if the quality of the Mangoes was good, I would go back to the market and buy another dozen. Just as I entered the house I saw two plastic bags full of mangoes placed next to the stairs. One of our neighbours, who knew that we were partial to the fruit and had been to the market before me, had found the price very reasonable, and had bought two dozens for us. A goodwill gesture for having removed his tooth free. We like Mangoes yes. But what to do with three dozens? It was nearing ten in the morning and I thought I will give it a thought after the clinic and went to attend to the first case. The first patient on my list, who owns a farm, entered carrying another bag of mangoes. Now we had nearly five dozens. As I finished the morning session and was about to close the door, a car arrived in front of our house. It was the driver of one of my friends carrying a box containing mangoes all from the trees in their huge compound and all of them ripened on the tree.

That evening, the old lady who stays next to our house slowly walked in carrying her quota. During Mango season, she sits in front of her house watching her tree, with a few stones and a stick at her disposal, waiting for the ripe mangoes to fall. She collects all the mangoes that fall from the tree and is aided by the stones and stick in keeping other contenders like the cattle, crows and the neighbourhood children away. Usually she has a heap of fruits next to her by evening. They are not dessert mangoes but the ones used for making mango curry. I had given her one guava fruit from our tree and she has free access to our hibiscus plants. The investment was bringing dividends. We could not refuse her hard earned mangoes.

I do not know in what ‘muhurat’ I purchased the first half dozen. Since then It is raining Mangoes in our house and there are heaps of Mangoes in all corners of our kitchen. Different qualities in different stages of ripening. Good ‘Mankurad’ just right to be cut and consumed are placed separately. Unripe ones are in another corner. Over ripe ones to be converted in to pulp or juice are in yet another place. The ones to be used in cooking are still in their bag. We have distributed Mangoes to whoever we could reach but still have about five dozens with us. There is a pleasant mango fragrance all over the house. In case anyone is intending visiting us these days, be prepared for Mango juice on arrival, mango pulp with rotis and mango curry with rice for lunch, and cut finest Mankurad for dessert.

Osama dead - My take

2011-05-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

Osama is dead. America got its revenge. But the Taliban, Al quaeda, JEM, LET etc etc are all very much alive and kicking. The British danced in the streets because their prince got married. Americans are dancing because their enemy is dead. Both happenings are of no consequence to the society at large. Foolish people rejoicing over these things probably because there is nothing else to rejoice over.

Major beneficiary of Osama’s death - Obama. He got something to boost his image.
Next, the TV channels. They got something to keep the viewers engaged.
Third, me. Got something to write a few lines about.

Horrible thoughts. Not befitting the situation.

2011-04-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

After the winning of world cup the next event claiming big headlines happens to be the death of Bhagavan Sri Satya Saibaba. Our TV channels and news papers have been gross in calling it ‘death’. Bhagavan did not die. He left the world in his present ‘Avatar’ to assume the next one. Only he miscalculated the time at which he intended to leave this world and left about ten years early. On reading the news, some thoughts propped up. Just putting them down as they came.

News papers and TV channels are full of Saibaba’s death. All our political leaders are offering condolences. They have to. Saibaba’s desciple’s votes count. And they are in crores. One politician raised above others. Our CM Yeddyurappa has said that he will propose ‘Bharata Ratna’ to Bhagavan. I would consider it an insult to Bhagavan. But I also heard someone has already seconded the proposal. I am sure lakhs and lakhs of devotees would be thrilled. Bhagavan getting Bharata ratna just like Mother Theresa getting saint hood. Great country. With us, gods are not above Bharata Ratna and our politicians are never above cheap gimmicks. Yeddyurappa was faster than Kiran Reddy. Reddy visited Puttaparti before yeddyurappa but missed out a good chance. Next in line for Bharata Ratna- Kashi Vishweshwara and Tirupati Venkateshwara. But they have to leave this world first. I don’t think they will.

Many members of the trust have felt that the Bhagavan died because there is a flaw in the ‘vastu’ of the hospital, Sr Satya Sai Institute of higher medical sciences.( I hope I got the name right). They blamed the Vastu and also the doctors for not allowing the Bhagavan to be shifted out. A change in Vastu would have tremendously improved Bhagavan’s health. Just as gods are not above Bharat ratna, they are not above Vastu also. Vastu is supreme. But I have to put in my doubt too. If the Bhagavan decided to leave this world, only to be born in the next avatar, who are the doctors to prevent him? I don’t blame doctors. But vastu, I can’t say anything. I have no knowledge of it.

Now, the next avatar. There are reports that the Bhagavan has said that he will come into this world again as an abandoned child and will be found on the banks of Cauvery river in Mandya district, Karnantaka. He will be called ‘Prema sai’. So, all those who intend abandoning their children in dust bins, railway compartments and street corners can take a chance by heading to Mandya. Abandon the child, they surely can. River bank is better and hopefully cleaner than dust bin, aleast in some places and so, less guilt, if they have any. But if the child turns out to be Prema Sai, imagine the fortune. Far far better than KBC. They can always claim that they are the god’s parents and left him on the bank on his own instructions. Have the claim confirmed by DNA tests.

Expect dozens of abandoned children on banks of Cauvery.

Bye. More horrible thoughts if news papers help me.

Anna Hazare - Baba Ramdev

2011-04-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

I was just feeling good reading about Anna Hazare’s hunger strike and the support that it was generating. Better times ahead for our country? Like many other arm chair agitators I signed an online declaration affirming my support too and was satisfied that I have done my bit.

This morning I read that there has been some discord in our group with Baba Ramdev making some allegations and Anna Hazare giving some explanations. Un fortunate.

From what I read in the papers Anna Hazare appears to be sound. Since Baba Ramdev urges people to stop using plastic bags and banish Pepsi and Coke, I consider him Ok too.

I do not know what happened between them.

Did Baba Ramdev feel that Anna Hazare is hijacking his ‘Anti corruption’ platform?

A Fight worth Losing

2011-04-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

Some years back I made the mistake of getting my blood examined. I repented later but the damage had been done. My blood showed cholesterol levels slightly on the higher side. I am forced to repeat the mistake every year and my blood is very consistent in showing marginally high cholesterol levels. So, one tablet every morning and an advice to cut off all unwanted eating. Tablet every morning is no trouble. Cutting off all unwanted eating is the big trouble. I usually eat more of unwanted stuff than wanted stuff. Sweets, if available, dominate the diet and I have been specifically warned to avoid fried stuff and sweets. I don’t have a sweet tooth. I have many sweet teeth. Fortunately the decay in all of them was detected in time and since I was studying in dental college then, all of them have been filled by good hands (evidently not mine!)and are functioning well even after thirty years. I do not go out and buy sweets. But if there are things lying around, it is a challenge. Craving v/s Cholesterol.

My son had been to Pune recently and when he returned brought back a consignment of rava laddoos lovingly prepared by my sister in law, liberally embedded with cashew nuts and raisins. A day later, one of my well wishers who happens to head a spiritual organization, sent half a kilo of some sort of a combination of Sohan papdi and khova in three different flavours (very tasty) along with Gudi Padva wishes. The very next day one of our family friends who had been to Bangalore returned with quarter kilo of Nandini mysorepak dripping ghee. The same evening my wife had invited some of her distant relatives who were on a visit to Goa and since she was keen to serve them home made stuff, prepared Gulab jamoons which had turned out really well.

It is a tough fight. A 'fight to finish' and I hope i keep losing till all of them are finished.

Value Of Time

2011-04-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

“Hello Dr Raghunandan, how are you?”

I was about to step out of the State bank Of India after depositing my pension check and had my hand on the door knob when Mr Pai hailed me. I tried to play deaf and get out fast but had to give way to a lady who was trying to get in. That was enough for Mr Pai to reach me, grip my wrist and pull me away from the door. I was caught.

“Very nice to see you after a long time. How is your family? How is the practice? I hope you are getting some patients. I advised you not to take retirement. You would have been deputy director now. See, the government has approved the ‘Guaranteed career improvement scheme’ also. You would have got the scale and arrears for the last six years. Thirty eight thousand basic, mind you.”

I have been caught by Mr Pai at least a dozen times after I opted to retire from health services and start my practice and he has not missed a single opportunity to drive his opinion into my skull. He was against my opting for voluntary retirement at a time when I was the senior most dentist and was due for promotion, and he had tried his best at that time to convince me that I was being absolutely foolish.

“I hope you are not in a hurry. Come this side. I have something very interesting to tell you.” He tightened the grip on my wrist and pushed me into a corner. He took out the thick black 2003 diary he always carries in his shoulder bag. I was trapped. I resigned to my fate and braced myself up for another session with Mr Pai.

“Now listen” He started his recitation. ”I have given the heading ‘Value of time’, to this” he continued. ”If you want to know the value of a second, ask a short distance runner. If you want to know the value of a minute, ask one who has just missed his train. If you want to know the value of an hour …………………….” He went on. I had no option other than listening to him till he reached “if you want to know the value of a year…………..” I tried to tell him that I already knew all the values by heart, but he was not listening. “And did I tell you about this quotation from Gandhiji?” he opened another page, “There is enough in this world for every one’s need but not for every one’s greed”. I told him that he had already told me all these a dozen times but he brushed my defence aside. “Have I? good then, because, these are things one should listen again and again. That’s why I am putting them in my book. It will be published shortly and as soon as it is published I will give you a copy”. His book is in the process of being published for the last eight years.

Mr Pai was not always like this. He was the administrative officer in our department and retired a few years before I opted for retirement. He was always found fully immersed in the administrative affairs of the department, arrived at the office before nine in the morning and left only after six in the evening. He never kept things pending and helped everyone as much as he can. After his retirement he must have felt miserable without his office and might have had a tough time adjusting to his new life. I do not know where he got the idea of writing his book, but ever since he started collecting ‘material’ for his book, he has been a nuisance. He has been in Ponda for a very long time, knows many people and always manages to get some or the other victim to hear about his book. He lives with his family but spends most of the time alone in the spare one room apartment they own which is conveniently located next to the bar which provides him with the inspiration needed for the book. Since it is also in close vicinity of the places that i have to visit every now and then like the bank, gas depot, pharmacy and the post office etc, he manages to catch me at least once in a few months.

By experience, I knew that I would be captive for at least half an hour and looked this way and that hoping to find an escape route. I had told my wife that I would be back in fifteen minutes for lunch and that she can start preparing chapattis. She does not like to eat them cold and insists that I eat them hot too. By now her chapattis would be cold and she would be getting hot.

“Token number seventy seven, token number seventy seven “ we heard the recorded voice calling.

“That’s my token. You just wait here for a minute. I will be back fast. I have many more things to show you” Mr Pai reluctantly released the grip on my wrist and went towards the cash counter.

I felt bad about doing a vanishing act but could not help it. I dived for the door. After all it was Mr Pai himself who had taught me the value of seconds and minutes.

Want an Erection!

2011-03-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

“I had an erection four years back.”

I was taken aback by the unusual statement and did not know how to respond.

“It was in government college and I had lots of pains.”

No clue as to why he chose to confide in me and what I was expected to do.

“But afterwards no problems.”

That was good anyway and I was about to ask him why he is telling me about it, when he continued

“Now another teeths is paining and I want erection. I have pains on all the jaws.”

The tube was alight. He had tooth ache and wanted an extraction. He had an extraction four years back at dental college which was painful.

It is not uncommon for me to hear ‘Butler English’ from my patients. Most of my patients know that I understand Konkani but there are a few who cannot associate ‘Raghunandan’ with their language. They speak to me in Marathi or English. They try their best to make me understand what they have to say and make a mess of it as my Marathi is bad and their English is worse. They usually heave a sigh of relief when I say “Konkani ulayat” (speak in Konkani).

But this man was not prepared to let go of his English and switch to Konkani even after I suggested it and I can’t refuse to remove his tooth just because he sticks to his English and wants an erection and not an extraction. Specially so after he said,

“I did not bite foods for three days”

He was otherwise very humble and cooperative and I located the offending tooth and prepared to extract it. I injected the local. After that He sat quietly for a few minutes. Then he tapped his tooth with his finger, pinched his cheek and said,

“I have some sense”

I thanked god for that but assured him that he does not have any sense in his jaws, removed his tooth, collected my fee and sent him off.

PS: I swear that I did not concoct this just because I could not find any material for my post for the past three weeks.

Another Sunday.

2011-02-27T08:47:00.000-08:00

Another Sunday and it is almost over. I decided to type some words to keep the blog going. Posted the last piece on our US visit about fifteen days back, felt relieved and forgot about the blog for some time. I read one book of PGW, short stories which I had either not read or did not remember and one Conandyle. Tried a third book from V S Naipaul (award winning - a bend in the river) and gave up after some fifty pages. Tried one or two Kannada books and did not find them to my liking. Started the Bhagavadgita for the 22nd time and have reached the third chapter. I have kept the book published by ISKCON (having a colourful and easily identifiable picture of ‘geetopadesha’ on the cover) on my clinic table and it seems to have boosted my image a lot.

Attended a lecture this morning on ‘Failures in Fixed dentures’ and found out how many mistakes I make and how tolerant and forgiving my patients are to keep coming back to me.

When I returned home, Tendulkar was on 97 in the thirty seventh over or so and with out my knowledge the cricket mania engulfed me. Turned a couch potato for the next twelve overs temporarily shedding my assiduously cultivated anti cricket stance.

In the evening took my old scooter for airing. It has got a faulty light and a faulty horn. The horn suddenly comes alive on its own. Just as I was approaching three teenage girls walking back home after their tuitions the horn started blaring making them turn in unison and cast nasty glances at me.

I was thinking of going on for some more time but Zahir khan has just taken three wickets at a crucial moment ( England needing 42 runs from 24 balls) and I will be damned if I miss future action. World cup Is not going to leave anyone in peace.

Back In Goa.

2011-02-13T07:08:00.000-08:00

We had hugged, suppressed the tears, waved and were on our way to the departure gate. Just as we turned the corner there was a corridor joining the passage to the lobby and we saw all four of them waiting there for a last wave before we took off.

Both the children had been in the US since birth and our earlier interaction with them was only during their visits to India. One or two days. Our seven weeks stay with them had created a stronger bond and the whole week prior to our departure, they had been begging us to postpone our journey. I had half a mind to concede but it was not practical or possible.

As we reached the departure gate the mind turned towards the journey ahead and we were happy that the flight was on time. Once we took off from Frankfurt, we would be free in mind. I am scared of getting struck in unknown places and fortunately for us there were no delays or cancellations any where during our two month’s trip.
We got into the aircraft and I had the window seat. A good opportunity to test the new camera and I utilized it to the full as the following pictures show. The first three pictures are Detroit during takeoff and the next four are Frankfurt before landing.

Frankfurt, starting at 4500 meters.

Landed at Frankfurt as scheduled and since we knew what to expect, it was not as bad as it was during our onward journey. We knew how to use the utilities in the airport and I had even carried a plastic tumbler from the flight, for collecting water from the water fountain. The coffee and snacks stall had a friendlier vendor and a cup of coffee was really one full cup. Not a quarter as I had experienced during our onward journey. It was a better Frankfurt.

Our flight to Mumbai was overbooked and the airline was offering six hundred euros to passengers who volunteered to take a flight departing an hour later and flying via Dubai to Mumbai instead of the direct flight that we were booked on. If I had been sensible I could have earned one thousand two hundred euros on the spot. But I am not. So we struck to the flight that we had booked and arrived at Mumbai on schedule at the ungodly hour of 01.30 AM. Our luggage arrived on the belt an hour and a half later just as I had started to worry about them. They were intact and we had enough time to catch our connecting flight to Goa.

We arrived at Goa’s Dabolim Airport, at six in the morning of 21st July. We had had a very enjoyable and memorable trip and I had a great time. All that i was required to to do was relax, see new sights, get new experiences and enjoy. Everything else was taken care off. After my carefree child hood, this was the first time I had found myself in such a situation. Thanks to Vishwa and Bhanu.

It had taken a week for our biological clock to get adjusted to the new settings when we landed in the US. I was hoping that it would not be so bad on our return. It wasn’t. It was worse. It was nearly a month by the time I was back to normal.

We have a multiple entry VISA and Bhanu has urged us to visit them again extending a very strong and affectionate standing invitation. I don’t mind planning another trip but for the expense, journey discomfort and jetlag. Right now i am back and happy to be in charge of our lives again.

PS: I started writing my l experiences in the US on 28th May 2010. I enjoyed writing them but many a times I felt that it was getting to be monotonous and a pain for me and more for my friends. I did not have a clear idea (nor do I have now) what to include and what to exclude, where to focus and where to gloss over. I Typed whatever occurred to me when I was in front of the computer. If anyone read through the lot, thanks for keeping up. For those who felt compelled to give up, sorry for boring.

MGM Grand Casino.

2011-02-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

Sunday, 18th July 2010. Our flight, Detroit - Frankfurt - Mumbai - Goa was for Monday evening. One suitcase had already been packed, weighed and kept aside. There were two more, along with a kitbag and two small cases. The remaining items were spread all over the floor, cots, side table and the chest of drawers making the room look as if a cyclone had just crossed over. I was trying to sort out things and assign them to various containers. But there were restrictions. Some of the things had to go specifically into the suitcase borrowed from my wife’s brother. Some into the case borrowed from my sister, some to the small case to be carried by hand etc etc. Also, important (only my wife knew what was important) items had to be in the bottom and perishables had to be suitably packed in sarees, towels etc etc. If I do the packing and on arrival we find some toy bought for our servant maid’s daughter (one of the 'important' items) missing, god save me. So, I tried to ignore packing and was in the process of searching the Lara Ingalls book which I had to finish and return to the library before we left, when Bhanu asked me to get ready to go to the Casino.

The Casino was the last thing remaining on her ‘must show’ list and she had to finish the list. I told her that I was not interested in seeing that. I knew what a casino was. A few hundred slot machines, roulette, black gammon and what not and people smoking, drinking and gambling. She was not ready to accept it. She insisted that that it will be a worthwhile experience and said that she was sure that I will agree with her later. We were going to the MGM Grand Casino in down town Detroit. Vishwa excused himself saying that he just cannot survive in that tobacco smoke for more than two minutes.

When Bhanu decides to do something, it is done. We set out after lunch around two in the afternoon taking Uma with us as Bhanu was not very familiar with the area. As it turned out even Uma had to search around a bit and we arrived near the Casino around three in the afternoon. I was expecting it to be a large but seedy place but from the outside it looked like a five star hotel.

We found the parking lot, parked and the lift took us straight into the casino lobby. We passed the security and entered the Casino hall. I was dumbstruck. It was no seedy place but a huge posh hall as large as a football field where gambling was a very sincere and serious business. There were rows up on rows of slot machines numbering more than four thousand and almost all of them were occupied! It was not just the good for nothing, rowdy types gambling to while away time but elderly ladies, house wives, pensioners and even the handicapped in wheel chairs playing with rapt attention in the hope of turning out to be instant millionaires. They were very seriously pushing the levers and pressing buttons with all concentration. Once in a while some one won and the machine made a lot of noise and multi coloured lights lit up announcing the win to the world and tempting others to keep at it.

There was an elegant bar and in front of every high stool there was a gaming console. There was a cafeteria with consoles on tables. I did not see the toilet but Vishwa said that there are consoles in front of every toilet seat. The place runs twenty four hours and there are no clocks anywhere. I believe the idea is to make sure people lose sense of time.

We walked around the place for half an hour and tried one of the slot machines putting in a dollar. None of us knew what to do. The old lady in the next machine very kindly consented to initiate us in the art of gambling and showed the basics. We decided to gamble away two cents at a time, and pushed the buttons and pulled the levers till the machine said that our dollar is no more there.

Not satisfied with the dollar that we had contributed towards the profits of the MGM Grand, we purchased two coffees and a muffin in the attached cafeteria adding another ten, spent some more time lounging and window shopping looking at the exorbitantly priced bags, hats, caps, footwear etc etc, and returned home by evening.

Bhanu was right. Casino was a worthwhile experience.

Ann arbor

2011-02-06T07:49:00.000-08:00

It was Friday, 16th July and we were to leave Canton on Monday evening. I had no intentions of going out anywhere anymore. My wife said the same but I knew that she was hoping to dash into IKEA and Bed Bath and Beyond one last time. I suggested that we sit at home talk and pack. Bhanu agreed with me as usual but had already planned something else as usual. We were going to Ann arbor, a city which is a part of Detroit metro, roam around the down town and have dinner in an Indian restaurant. Vishwa’s sister Uma and her husband Krishnakant (KK for short) were hosting a dinner in the honour of visiting (shortly departing) dignitaries.

We drove down to Ann arbor around six in the evening. Vishwa was happy to get a convenient parking place and we started roaming the streets. Ann arbor is a university town. It houses the University of Michigan around which its activities and economy revolve. We had been there earlier but had not visited the downtown and university campus. I liked Ann arbor. It looked exactly like the ‘foreign’ scenes which I had seen in books and magazines. Most of the people seen on the streets were young, probably students.

It was very pleasant to walk along the streets lined with shops, theaters and restaurants. No one seemed to be in a hurry. Traffic was not a hassle and not much. There were people everywhere but no crowd. It was an informal and relaxed atmosphere. Our first halt was the ice cream shop.

Children selected their flavours and we sat on the chairs outside the shop under the tree and spent about half an hour. Then we moved onto the university campus. The campus was clean and green with old ivy covered buildings. University of Michigan is one of the oldest in the US. Since it is a state funded university all the facilities are open to public. We walked into the library just to have a look. The library made me wish that I were a student there.

It was around eight in the evening when we headed towards the restaurant. The streets had the typical small town feel with people sitting outside the restaurants enjoying their food and drinks and musicians playing violin and accordion in the street corners.

The restaurant was good and I do not remember what we ate. The company and conversation is what I remember. It was past eleven and children were sleepy when we came out.
An enjoyable evening, thanks to Uma and KK.

Ford Auto Museum

2011-01-29T08:20:00.000-08:00

My wife had seen the Auto museum during her previous visit to Detroit, and so, I had a fair idea as to what to expect there. But what she had remembered was not even one fourth of what was present. The museum contains hundreds of exhibits which can be loosely categorized as cars - through the ages, antique farm equipments and house hold articles, vintage aircraft, locomotives and dozens of other unique items.

Again, it was impossible to go through all the sections in detail. I took a quick round of the aircrafts and cars and it consumed about forty minutes. This picture is a vintage Bugatti taken for my son to worship.

The presidential cars attracted me because of the aura around them and I spent a little longer, looking at and reading the information on each one of them. Felt some unexplainable feeling when I was in front of the limousine in which president Kennedy was assassinated.

I distinctly remember the attendant of our school bringing the holiday notice to our class on the occasion of John F Kennedy’s death. I was in third standard. We did not know the gravity of the situation. We had ran home shouting in joy because of the unexpected holiday.

There were many exhibits in front of which I would have loved to stay longer. But it was not possible. However, I managed to take a closer look of at least a few of them.
Like, One of the earliest Harley Davidsons,

This ten seater bicycle which had been made to promote /advertise some product which I do not remember now.

The letter of appreciation written by Parker and Barrow, the bank robbers, to Henry Ford, appreciating the Stolen Ford V-8 with which they managed to outsmart the police and escape. Etc.

I was appreciating this steam engine thinking of the times when it might have run on the rails pulling people, when I glanced at the display board which said that it was some sort of farm equipment.

Just then Vishwa called to say that he is waiting outside to pick us up. That ended the visit to the ford Museum.

Greenfield Village

2011-01-26T06:31:00.000-08:00

The bus which brought us back from the Rouge Factory Tour, dropped us near the gates of the Greenfield village. Greenfield village is the largest indoor-outdoor museum complex in the US. About a hundred historic buildings, starting from the seventeenth century have been re located here and most of them are manned by people who are dressed to suit the period and place. The idea is to exhibit how Americans have been living through the centuries.

It was past twelve noon when we entered the ‘village’. We blindly started walking along one of the streets and arrived at the Wright cycle Co.

Since I had not collected the information booklet at the gate, we did not know what to expect in the village and how to go about seeing it. But we knew that we were hungry and the first thing to do was to eat something. We sat on a bench in front of the Wright Cycle co and ate the lunch we had carried. Once the stomach was full, the mind worked better and limbs followed instructions. I decided to go back to the gate and get an information booklet. After that it was easy.

It was somewhat thrilling to be present in the shop in which the Wright brothers actually worked. Similar was the feeling when we went into Thomas Alva Edison’s lab, the very first house that had electric bulbs and many such exhibits.

We had no idea about the time required to see the whole thing. It looked as if we need not one but two full days to see everything leisurely and in detail. I kicked myself for not having visited the village earlier. It was easily accessible and we could have made two or more visits. Now we had to hurry. Still we made an entry and exit into all the exhibits like the court room where Abraham Lincoln practiced,

The garage where Henry ford built his first quadricycle,

Ford family house,etc etc

Veryclose to the house was the place from where we could go on a ride in a Model T, for five dollars. The car took us on a round of the village and the driver, a young college student, earning some money during vacations, pointed out all the important exhibits. I tried to trace back the route on foot and gave up after half an hour. By then it was nearing two in the afternoon and we were yet to visit the auto museum . We reluctantly came out of Green field village and headed towards the Ford Auto museum.

Swimming Fifteen lengths.

2011-01-23T08:34:00.000-08:00

More than a year back I wrote about my efforts to improve my swimming. I had started swimming thirty years back and had remained a beginner all the thirty years. I knew just enough swimming to remain afloat for a few minutes with lot of effort. And my swimming looked like a tough struggle with some unseen creature present in water. I used to look with awe at people who moved gracefully in water as if the same unseen creature is pulling them gently on the surface of water without any effort on their part.

In the last one year I have improved a lot. I do not thrash around anymore. I swim. I have developed my own versions of free style, breast stroke and back stroke and I can keep swimming using a combination of all three. I can roll and flip and can swim many lengths without stopping for breath.

This morning I felt very light and energetic for no particular reason and went on swimming lengths and counting them. I managed to swim fifteen lengths with out break. That is three fourths of a kilometer. (It took nearly forty minutes and I have difficulty lifting my right hand now but it is a different matter.) When I came out of water I was feeling great. I looked around to see if anyone had noticed my feat. There were hardly few people in the pool. Not many are as foolish as me to get out at six on a winter morning and plunge into water. One or two learners at the shallow end were struggling for breath and were not interested in anything else. There were two life guards, one busy talking on his mobile and another huddling in a chair half asleep.

I was disappointed that nobody witnessed my achievement. I came home. My wife was in the kitchen.

You know what? I swam fifteen lengths today”
“Is it? That’s why you are late. I have been waiting for you. Forgot to keep milk in the fridge last night. It is spoilt. I haven’t had my coffee yet. See if any shop is open and get some milk.”

Very damp.

I went out. Luckily the milk booth was open. I purchased milk and returned home. My son was trying to open his eyes.

“You know what? I swam fifteen lengths today”
“Crazy. No one in his right sense would go and jump into water in this cold. Close that door. I am feeling cold.” he pulled the sheets over his head again.

My mother was awake, had had her bath and was probably half way through her “Vishnu Sahasranaama” prayer. I waited for her to finish and informed her of my feat.
“Swimming in a pool? Is it difficult? In our village people used to swim in the river. My brother used to swim across the river when it was in spate and he could even pull out cattle caught in the swirl. That is some swimming. Yesterday I told you that my blood pressure tablets were over. Did you buy them?”

I had to blow my trumpet somewhere. I have blown it here. Please bear.

Ford Rouge factory

2011-01-21T08:44:00.001-08:00

Our last week in Canton MI. We were busy purchasing things which our children had ordered. Bhanu’s credit card was wearing thin. Whatever we were buying could very well have been bought back home. Only, I would have had to pay myself. My children do not agree. They insist that it is not the glamour of ‘imported’ tag but the quality. They say that the same brand bought in India is not really same. Our suitcases appear full but weigh much less than the limit. Still lot of scope for shopping. In my opinion the only sensible purchase were the cans of shaving foam. A can of foam costs between 150 -200 rs in India and I got two for one dollar and twenty nine cents at Target.

There was still one ‘sightseeing’ pending. ‘The Henry Ford’, which includes a tour of the Rouge Factory which builds Ford trucks, Ford auto Museum and the Greenfield Village. It is located in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, almost on the way to Vishwa’s office. Since he could drop us there any day on the way to work and pick us up again on his way back, we took it easy and it remained till the last week. As it could not be put off anymore, we decided to visit Henry Ford on Thursday.

Vishwa booked the tickets online and dropped us in front of the reception at nine in the morning. The museum and the green field village are next to each other but the Rouge Factory is at a distance. They have a shuttle service between the museum and the factory. The bus was to leave in ten minutes. We arrived at the factory by half past nine.

The Rouge complex is on the banks of the Rouge river and at the height of its activity it had its own dock yard to unload iron ore, power plant, ore processing unit and the car factory - converting ore into cars in one single complex.

After the usual introductory talk and film shows showing the beginning of the factory and its journey, we went round the assembly line. It was a great experience to see the actual production, following the assembly line. There is an elevated walk way running by the side of the assembly line and there were displays at every stage which explained what exactly was happening below. The factory was building their popular model F 150 truck at the time and we could see both the humans and robots in action. The humans were almost robots. If they take half a minute off to scratch an itchy leg or back, one truck would go out without a wiper or a headlight. We spent about an hour around the production line and took the next bus back.

Brook field Zoo

2011-01-17T08:58:00.000-08:00

Bindu’s house was next to a pond in one of the Chicago suburbs the name of which has escaped my memory. The path around the pond itself was good enough for my morning walk but I could explore farther without fear of losing my way as Bindu’s father Shamanna, who is my cousine, was also there visiting his daughter and I had his company for morning walk. It was his second visit to Chicago and he knew the place well. When we returned after an hour’s walk, the sun was rising and the Canada geese near the pond were getting ready for the day.

Our day’s plans were the Brookfield Zoo, Balaji temple (more for lunch, than for worship)and back to Canton MI. We reached the zoo around ten in the morning. The Brookfield Zoo, located in and named after the Chicago suburb of Brookfield is spread over an area of about 216 acres. It houses about 2300 animals belonging to 450 different species. They are generally categorized according to the ecosystem they live in viz ‘the swamp’, ‘fragile desert’, ‘rain forest’, ‘living coast,’ etc. I like to watch the animals. I remember that as children, our trips to Mysore, which were quite frequent, were never complete without a visit to the Jayachamarajendra Zoo there. I could have easily spent a day in Brookfield but we only had a few hours at our disposal. I got to see many animals which I had never seen earlier, the grizzly bear, poison frog, bald eagle, colobus monkey (reminding me of ‘catch me a colobus’ - Gerald Durrell), okapi, dwarf crocodile, to name a few. I liked the enclosure of the polar bear from which one could climb down and see the bear in water through the glass wall of the tank. I found it to be a very graceful swimmer and spent a considerable time watching it swim.

The Brookfield zoo was the first place to start a dolphin show in the US and it was a pleasure watching Dolphins in their huge tank moving like bullets. They covered a distance of forty to fifty feet in seconds. I saw the otters, whales and various fishes but dolphins seemed to be the fastest.

The zoo has cafeterias and rest areas spread over its 216 acres, and most of the people seemed to have come to spend the whole day. They moved around leisurely enjoying the sights, eating and resting.

We spent about four hours in the zoo and were off to the Balaji temple . There was a huge crowd of devotees who had come to worship the canteen just like us and we had to wait in a long queue for our turn. Having filled our stomachs with pongal, vada , dosai, curds rice and mango lassi we turned home wards. I was afraid that Vishwa may nod off on the wheel after the heavy lunch and tried to keep him in conversation. I woke up when we were nearing Detroit. We were at home by eight in the evening.

Business at the R T O office.

2011-01-14T08:58:00.000-08:00

Before I go over to the Brookfield zoo, Chicago, I will take a break to make a short trip (many not very short trips as it turned out ultimately) to the Office of the Assistant Director, Transport, popularly known as the RTO office.

My driving licence expired on the 7th of January and had to be renewed. It was not something very difficult. Three forms, two photographs and a medical certificate. All the concerned officials were helpful and treated me courteously. White hair on the head has its uses. But I had changed my residence since the last renewal and it made things a bit difficult. I found myself standing in an awful lot of lines before I was done. The normal procedure is something like this.

1st line - To meet the inspector who checks the old licence and okays renewal.
2nd - Forms counter to obtain the required forms
3rd - In front of the inspector again to show the filled forms and get his initials.
4th - In front of the cash counter to pay the fees
5th - In front of the clerk to submit forms
6th - In front of head clerk to get his approval
7th - In front of the ‘smart card’ counter to get the renewal instructions entered in the ‘smart card’
And you are done.

In case you have had the misfortune of having changed your address, date of birth or parents between the previous renewal and the present, repeat stage 1-5 before proceeding to 6.

I had changed my residence.

Clerk at stage 5 : Make another application for change of address and attach a copy of the ration card.
Me : I will make an application but my ration card too has my old address
Clerk : Then attach a copy of your voter card
Me : My voter card also has the old address

The clerk scratched his head with his pen and I was expecting him to say “in that case go back and stay at your old address if you want your licence renewed” but he did not think of it. He simply closed his eyes and probably waited for divine help.

“Make an affidavit with the notary” the fellow standing behind me tried to be helpful. I can understand his feelings. He wanted me out of the line at the earliest and had no intentions waiting for the divinity to help the clerk.

“I have my telephone bill and water bill. Both carry the new address” I volunteered. I did not want the clerk to catch on to the affidavit business or the divinity to come up with something worse.
Clerk : (opened his eyes and for once divinity appeared to be in my favour) OK. Attach the originals of both and submit.
I called my son and asked him to bring the bills to the RTO office. (He was at home and willing to help. divinity in my favour second time) I attached them and submitted the application before the clerk changed his mind.

I got a smart ‘smart card’ eventually with a picture looking somewhat like me in place of my dog eared old licence booklet which only had a black smudge of fungus in place of my photograph.

Changing the address is common. But don’t ask me how one can get to change the date of birth or parents. One can. The man standing in front of me in one of the lines had come for insertion of new date of birth! It is not every day that people come changing birth dates. The clerk did not know if he has to ask the man to get into his mother’s womb once again and come back with proof of a second birth. Also, he was not sure if a fee was to be collected and how much? The situation called for someone more powerful than divinity.

He asked the man to meet the assistant director.

I did not come across anyone trying to change a parent but am sure that it is not something unheard off.

Navy Pier - Chicago

2011-01-12T06:47:00.000-08:00

The navy pier is about a kilometer long and about a century old. I believe it was constructed not just for the purpose of docking ships and training sailors but also to provide a social gathering point for the citizens of Chicago. Now it is predominantly a gathering point and one of the major tourist attractions.

The sightseeing cruises and water taxis operate from the pier. The pier has other attractions like restaurants, theaters, stages for performances and things like merry go round, giant wheels, space ships etc etc which we usually see in fairs and entertainment parks. It is a sort of permanent fair. Presence of people attracts more people. And one can get a good view of the Chicago skyline from the pier.

We went up and down the pier once and had enough of it. By then it was our lunch time and we were hungry. We ordered a sandwich each and having consumed it, decided to go over to the Shedd aquarium.

We could see the aquarium building, which is also on the lake shore, at a distance but were not keen to walk over in the hot sun. We could have hired a bicycle for three dollars an hour, taken a water taxi (the availability of which we did not know then), or waited for a bus. None of them were convenient and so, we took a taxi to the aquarium paying more for waiting at the traffic lights than moving on the road and reached the place in twenty minutes.

The first and only aquarium that I had seen, which could stand up to the title, was the Taraporewala aquarium in Mumbai containing about hundred species of fish. Having only seen the aquariums in Lalbagh and Cubbon park Bangalore, which were not much better than shops selling glass tanks and ornamental fish, I was very much impressed by that. The Shedd aquarium contains about one thousand five hundred species which are very well categorized and displayed. It took about two hours for a hurried round of the display and by four we were seated for the dolphin show. I had seen the performing dolphins only on the TV and the live show was great. There are groups which say that it is cruel to keep these beautiful creatures which swim several hundred miles in their natural habitat, in a concrete tank swimming in circles. The same is said about keeping animals in a zoo. But I read equally strong arguments in support of maintaining and breeding animals in captivity. My knowledge is not enough to decide which is right. As far as my visit to the aquarium is concerned, I say that I loved the aquarium and the show.

We came out of the aquarium around five in the evening and the weather was very pleasant. It was an enjoyable walk along the shore between the garden and the lake. Hundreds of boats and yachts were on the lake and it seemed that the occupants were having a good time.

We had to use a covered road bridge with a walk way cum cycle path to reach the parking lot and it was a feat to walk on the side path without colliding with the hundreds of zooming cyclists who also used the path. We managed to come out in single piece, retrieved the car from the parking lot and proceeded to my niece Bindu’s house for the night.

Chicago IL

2011-01-09T08:26:00.001-08:00

It is appropriate to say that I visited the Shedd aquarium and the Brookfield zoo rather than saying that I visited Chicago. Because, that is all the Chicago I saw other than my niece Bindu’s house where we stayed overnight.

We returned from the tour of Mackinaw city and surroundings on the evening of 5th of July, Monday. Our return journey to India was booked for the evening of 19th July Monday, exactly two weeks later. The last week end was meant for preparations. One week end remained and Bhanu had planned a visit to Chicago during that time, 10thand 11th July.

As we sat around to finalise the plans for the Chicago trip, my wife said that she was fed up of travelling with a kitchen in her luggage and she would rather stay at home. She said that she had seen enough of America and is feeling that she has been inside a car all her life.Full stop. Chicago is not very far from Detroit and Bhanu had been there many times. She decided to stay back with her sister. Children were fed up of our company day in and day out. They were happy to be in the company of their TV, net and play stations and they opted out of the trip. Bhanu suggested that me and Vishwa visit Chicago during the week end without encumbrances, allowing them, the sisters, to shop peacefully without encumbrances. The last part of the sentence was masked as in the case of “Ashwatthama hatah kunjarah” and was not actually heard. So, that was it.

I did not want to miss the chance of seeing another city and moreover I was very keen to visit the Zoo which was recommended by my brother and also the Aquarium. Vishwa had not seen the Brookefield zoo either and was equally enthusiastic about it. We planned to leave on Saturday morning and be back by Sunday evening. Chicago is about four hours by road, four hundred and fifty kilometers.

We planned to leave Detroit by eight on Saturday morning and we left at quarter past eight. We travelled for three hours nonstop and had covered more than three fourths of the distance when we stopped for gas. During our other trips we stopped every now and then as someone felt hungry, someone had to use the rest room or someone needed to stretch the limbs and this was the first time I experienced real freeway travel.
We entered Chicago around twelve noon and headed towards the navy pier, a beautiful drive by the side of the picturesque lake.

We reached the place in another twenty minutes, found a public parking lot nearby, parked and walked to the pier.

Vallabh my tailor

2010-12-30T07:21:00.000-08:00

I will continue with my account of our US trip, which I am sure is turning out to be a torture to all my friends, in the New Year. One good thing is that not much is left of it. From the time we returned from Mackinaw and surroundings to the time of our departure from the US was only fifteen days. One fourth of the total duration. Bearable. So, New Year has to be happy.

The picture here is a part of my torso, covered in my working cloth, the white coat.
Call it lab coat, apron or whatever. Notice the pockets? Designed and created by my tailor Vallabh. I was not annoyed when I saw it. Just amused. I knew how it happened. He stitched one pocket and went out to down a peg. He came back and stitched the other. The result is before you.

Vallabh is a shy, soft spoken and good natured fellow. Most of his speech involves just bobbing his head up and down. Positive reply, negative reply or anything. He occupies the small space available below the staircase leading to the first floor offices of an advocate, architect and a dentist in a small building next to the entrance of the vegetable market. He has two sewing machines and sometimes one assistant. His thirst is his only fault. He has to go out every hour or two to keep up the alcohol level in his blood. But it does not change his behavior. He is always affable.

I liked him and his shop. I feel intimidated by big, fancy establishments. I am comfortable with Vallabh. Moreover, I can just peep in either on my way in or out of the market and enquire about the progress. If he is in, he will give his shy, apologetic smile and say that it will be ready in the evening. If he is not in, he is out for a drop of his favorite. Sometimes I meet him coming from the waterhole wiping his mouth. He will smile and say he just went to buy vegetables. He stitched a couple of shirts and trousers for me. Not very good, not bad either.

Since I shifted to this place, where I just have to climb down the stairs to reach my clinic, the wear and tear of my clothes has reduced a lot and they last quite long. Most of the time I wear the white coat and I get it made long so that what I wear below does not matter much. If I shift to dhoti and an ‘angavastram’ for the time I am out of the clinic, I do not have to bother about clothes any more.

As far as the coat is concerned, only my patients see me in this attire and they are usually not interested in anything else other than relief from their tooth ache.

I can very well continue with Vallabh’s creations.

Tahquamenon falls and Paradise village

2010-12-22T09:12:00.001-08:00

There is nothing very great about the Tahquamenon falls. There is a water fall with considerable quantity of water flowing through. There is lot of vegetation and greenery all around. Arrangements have been made to go very next to the falls and enjoy the scene. One may spend some good time trekking along the forest paths if so inclined. So on and so forth.

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the falls was that it very much resembled the ‘Vrishbhaavati’ river of Bengaluru. I do not think many residents of Bangalore know about this river. If you travel from Mysore to Bangalore by road, after you cross the RVCE campus, you will see a great water fall of black sewage water to your right. Before you see the fall, you will have smelt it. That is what is now the ‘Vrishabhavati’ river, a tributary of river ‘Arkavati’ is. That water fall is black and this Tahquamenon fall is brown. Please remember that I am talking only of the similarity in appearance. Nothing else.

The water is not dirty. The tannins leaching from the cedar trees give this colour to the water while the river flows through the cedar swamps.
The falls is just about fifteen minutes drive from the Paradise village and we checked in at the “Best value Inn’.

The July 4th celebrations were to end with a firework display in a field about a mile from the village. We had our dinner and reached there just before ten at night. There was a considerable crowd and people were still in the celebration mood. They had come prepared with blankets and pillows to put on the ground and enjoy the spectacle in the sky. The display lasted about half an hour and was really enjoyable.

Next morning I went on my early morning walk on the only street of Paradise village. It was very calm and quiet.

By half past ten in the morning of 5th July, we joined the traffic returning to the city trudge once again after enjoying the open country.

We reached Canton MI by evening and with that trip our US visit was almost coming to an end.

Munising and Pictured Rocks

2010-12-19T09:03:00.001-08:00

Munising was a very small place. I could easily take the length and breadth of the city on my morning walk. While starting,I just decided to go in the direction opposite to the one from which we had entered the city and within five minutes I had reached the main street which led to the pier.

It was fourth of July and people were getting ready for the celebrations. A fair had been arranged on the ground next to the pier and the number of campers and tents on the ground, and the boats tied to the pier indicated that it was to be well attended.

But very early in the morning, before six, most of them were still asleep and the pier was empty. The atmosphere was very calm and pleasing. The occupants of this sail boat, an old couple, probably did not intend spending the day amongst the crowd and noise and so started moving out deeper into the lake just as the sun appeared in the sky.

As I stood looking at the slowly moving sail boat, the sun broke out of the clouds, making everything bright.

I spent some more time roaming around the small garden next to the pier and returned through another street lined with neat houses. There was no chance of losing my way here even if I wanted to.

We had stayed overnight at Munising as we intended taking the ‘Pictured rocks’ ferry tour in the morning. We had tickets for the Ten’o clock trip and we arrived at the pier ten minutes before that. The ferry left exactly at ten just as the flag was being hoisted and the cannon being fired in the veteran’s memorial park.

The stars and stripes flying on the bow fluttered in the breeze and my patriotic T shirt matched the flag. I had not noticed it till one of our co passengers pointed it out.

‘Pictured rocks’ are the sandstone cliffs bordering Lake Superior which have been naturally sculpted into arches, caves and formations. The minerals in the rocks have added colours to the formations thus bringing the name pictured rocks.

The tour took little more than two hours and we were back on the pier little after twelve in the afternoon. We took a round of the fair, bought some sandwiches to add to our ‘ready to cook’ stuff and had lunch in the shade sitting on the grass. By half past two we were ready to leave. We intended halting for the night at Paradise, after visiting the Tahquamenon falls.

'Plastic free Ponda' and Raghunandan

2010-12-18T02:20:00.000-08:00

One of the common sights that I come across every morning when I go on my walk is the ‘pav wala’ on his bicycle. On hearing his bell, people used to come out of their houses with money in hand, pay him, receive their requirement in their hands and go back. If they intended buying large quantities, they carried a container in their hands. No plastic bags. These days I notice that the fellow puts his ware, just two or three pieces even, in a plastic bag and hands it over. No one refuses the bag.It bothers me. I feel that there is no need for a plastic bag to take two or three ‘pavs’ (small loaves of bread) from the door step to the kitchen. I am against unnecessary use of plastic bags.

I was aghast seeing the misuse or abuse of plastic bags in the US. Almost every commodity sold in the store comes well packed, mostly in plastic. If a dozen pieces are bought, every two or three of them, which are taken out of the cart for billing, are placed in separate plastic bags thus using about half a dozen bags. Two or three of these bags are in turn put in bigger bags. They go back into the cart, which goes up to the car and are transferred to the boot. They are not carried by hand at all. Why are they placed in the ‘carry bag’?

I see that the plastic bags are the major component of garbage and they spread themselves everywhere, assisted by stray dogs, cattle and wind. Apart from being environmental hazards, they make a very ugly sight and I don’t like it. Not that anybody should care for my likes and dislikes. These days even if one buys a switch or a bulb in an electric shop, it is put in a plastic bag. Every item is wrapped in plastic. At a construction site I saw that the stone tiles which were being laid on the external wall were individually wrapped in plastic sheets. We are learning from the west. All unwanted stuff.

Nobody carries a cloth bag to the market any more. Almost every vendor selling vegetables and fruits puts his wares in a plastic bag and hands it over. It is very handy and cheap. Very convenient. But it irritates me. I never accept a plastic bag and always remember to carry my own bag with me. I keep voicing my views in front of anyone who cares to listen.

Wednesday is my weekly holiday. I went out on some usual errands. My wife called when I was in the bank. She wanted me to buy coriander and curry leaves from the market. i had not taken my bag. But a bunch of coriander and curry leaves is no trouble. On my way back I went into the vegetable market. I met Mr. Raikar who was on his way out, carrying a plastic bag containing onions and tomatoes. He knows me well. He was my neighbor. I had once pulled the reluctant Mr. Raikar to the ‘Plastic free Ponda’ campaign organized by the local college, in which I had a part to play. He had picked up discarded plastic bags from the streets along with us for a few minutes before excusing himself. I held him up, pointed to the plastic bag and spoke about the issue in my mind with quite a bit of feeling. He told me that he had not planned to come to the market. I told him that he should always keep a bag in his scooter box. He said that he had some urgent work and left in a hurry.

I went into the market. I purchased coriander and curry leaves. I found a good looking papaya and bought it too. I refused the offer of plastic bag from the hawker and carried everything in my hands. As I was walking out, the lady with a basket of apples hailed me. I once extracted a tooth for her painlessly and have earned her goodwill. She usually gives me good stuff. Apples looked fresh and good. She said that she was selling apples at eighty rupees a kilo but was offering me the same at sixty rupees. I purchased a kilo of apples. I had to pick them up. Now I was in a fix. I was already holding the papaya, coriander and curry leaves in my hands. How will I carry the apples? I decided to go to my scooter, transfer the stuff in my hands to the box and return for apples. But the scooter was a few hundred meters away. Still I decided to make an extra trip and was about to tell her to keep the apples aside when she took out a plastic bag, put the apples in it and held it in front of my face. It was very tempting.

I accepted the bag, pulled the cap low over my face to avoid recognition and was rushing out when I saw Mr. Raikar at the entrance. He had not left but was coming in again. May be he forgot something. I just could not afford to be caught with the plastic bag in my hands. I ducked into the lane selling fish, ran through it refusing very good offers of prawns, crabs and kingfish and came out of the back entrance. I stealthily walked a kilometer around the market yard to reach my scooter and rushed home.

Soo Locks

2010-12-15T04:02:00.000-08:00

I thoroughly enjoyed the very humorous account of boating along the Thames by the three men and their dog, Montmorency, in the book “Three men in a boat” by Jerome K Jerome, and the word ‘Lock’ appeared many times in the course of the story. I had to open the dictionary to know what a lock is and could imagine one, but I never thought that I would be able to see a functioning lock. In fact I was under the wrong impression that they were extinct. So, I was very happy and excited when Bhanu said that we will be visiting ‘Soo Locks’, a real lock very much in use, on our way to Munising from Mackinaw city.

We reached there around five in the evening. The office informed us that a ship is expected to arrive in the lock within the next fifteen minutes and we ran to the viewer’s gallery to get a vantage point. The Soo locks facilitate movement of ships and other vessels between Lake Superior, which is at a higher level, and the other great lakes. The locks bypass the rapids of St Mary river where the river falls about seven meters from the level of Lake Superior.

Within minutes after reaching there we could see the ship ‘Stewart J Cort’ gliding into the ‘Poe lock’.

It stood there waiting to be raised and as I looked with my mouth open, rose slowly and steadily as water was pumped into the lock. It may not be anything great, but it fascinated me. Having reached the required level, it glided out. The process might have taken about twenty minutes and I stood totally absorbed in it.

Within the next few minutes the ferry of the ‘Soo lock tours’ arrived in the ‘Mac Arthur lock’ and moved on.

We came out of the locks, went around the small museum that was there, got in and out of many shops selling trinkets and souvenirs, sat on the roadside bench for a while enjoying the pleasant evening sun and a cup of coffee and were soon on our way to Munising. It was a little more than two hours drive and we arrived at the Day’s inn just as it was getting dark.

Mackinaw Island

2010-12-11T08:17:00.001-08:00

It was an exhilarating half an hour ferry ride to Mackinaw Island. As we approached the jetty, I could make out the details of the island, the light house being the most prominent.

Mackinaw Island is about ten square miles in area. The usual trimmings of a popular tourist place are all there, important amongst them being the booth which hires out the bicycles and the place where the tickets for the carriage ride are sold. Motor vehicles are not allowed on the island barring snowmobiles during winter and eighty percent of the island is preserved as a national park. The resident population is about five hundred and the island has between ten to fifteen thousand visitors a day.

Bhanu and Latha decided to burden a horse at twenty five dollars per head and the rest of us opted to ride around the island on a rented pedal bike at three dollars for two hours.

The carriage ride begins near the grand hotel.

The route goes up hills along a very pleasant and picturesque route. The carriage halts now and then at places of interest. If you are keen to spend more time at a spot, you may do so and continue your ride in the next carriage. Like the sightseeing buses. My wife had the camera, took a few pictures and has now forgotten what they were. The pictures anyway are here. One is the view of the main land from the island, another one is some museum or cemetery and yet another is an arch through which people peep.

The bicycle route goes round the island, a distance of about nine miles, all along the water’s edge. It is a narrow path having facilities for rest here and there. There are thousands of riders. The bicycles are comfortable to ride.
I had an enjoyable ride but my knees disagree with me. We lunched at one of the restaurants on the main street, took the return ferry and were back on the mainland by two in the afternoon. We could not afford to spend more time in Mackinaw. We had to visit Soo Locks before proceeding to Munisingh for the night halt.

Mackinaw city

2010-12-09T07:08:00.000-08:00

Mackinaw islands, Pictured rocks and Tahquamenon falls were the places we intended visiting during the July 4th weekend. This was our first trip to places where there were no Indian restaurants or relatives to feed us and so, my wife had arranged extra stocks of homemade, ready to eat/easy to cook preparations. We had a huge pile of luggage most of which consisted of food boxes, jars and ice boxes and we had to remove one of the seats in the minivan to accommodate all the stuff.

We had planned to start from Canton MI on the morning of July 2nd, and were expecting to reach Mackinaw city by afternoon. But it was nearly ten when our supply of ‘chapaatis’, the most important item in the survival kit, arrived and we were delayed. Since it was not a very long drive to Mackinaw, we took it easy, stopping where ever we found the surroundings pleasant.

The freeway 75 was not really free that day. It looked as though the whole of Michigan was headed north. It was full of vehicles towing/ carrying mobile homes, boats and bikes. People were getting ready to enjoy the 4th July week end, around the great lakes in the north.

It was evening when we checked into the ‘Best value inn’, a comfortable place at the entrance of the city.

After transferring our supplies from the ice box into the refrigerator and freshening up, we headed to the lake front. We spent some time on the pier enjoying the beautiful view of the lake and the gentle breeze. We could see the Island across the strait at a distance. The catamaran returning from the island with its white plume made a good picture.

Mackinaw ‘city’ is actually a village with a permanent resident population of about 850 people, boasting an elementary school and a high school. It is a very popular tourist destination in the state of Michigan. The city mostly consists of hotels, shops, eateries and establishments related to the tourist trade and almost all of them face the lake. It is a neat, compact and very relaxed place with hardly any traffic on the roads. We moved along the main street for some time and I sat on a road side bench, while Bhanu and my wife went window shopping and the children and Vishwa went to buy the ferry tickets for the next morning’s visit to the island.

Groups of people, mostly families moved around leisurely, stopping now and then to look at the lake pointing out at things, getting in and out of shops, chatting and laughing. Children were flying kites in the park across the street. There were a considerable number of senior citizens on motorized wheel chairs and they moved around where ever their fancy took them as there was not much traffic or crowd anywhere. I just sat looking at all this and enjoying the atmosphere. It was very pleasant.
We decided to have dinner at the Italian restaurant Nonna lisa’s a pleasant place which offered ‘authentic’ wood fired Pizzas.

Bhanu managed to charm the waitress and coax the cook to prepare Pizza and Pasta to suit our palates and the result was excellent. I had never tasted ‘Pasta’ and had eaten ‘Pizza’ only in the chains like ‘Dominos’ and ‘Pizza Hut’. They were not bad but ‘Nonna lisa’a’ was way above all that I had tasted till then. I enjoyed the dinner thoroughly and had to request Vishwa to bring the van around to the door. It took only a minute or two to reach the hotel but I was half asleep by then and do not remember if I walked into the hotel or someone carried me in.

My Camera and The hard earned money.

2010-12-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

We had just reached the outskirts of Panaji on our way back home last Sunday, when I felt something amiss. After cracking my head for a minute, I realised that the camera, which was in my hand all evening was not there anymore. I distinctly remembered having the camera in my hand when I got into the car near the children’s park. I forced my son to stop the car (he was not ready. Said that I had left the camera somewhere and there is no point in searching inside the car) and searched. Seats, below the seats, behind the seats, glove compartment, boot, everywhere. No camera. Then I remembered that we had stopped for a minute in front of a shop to buy some snacks. Did I take the camera with me when I went into the shop and left it there? We had to check. I forced my son to turn back. (again, he was not ready. Said that even if I had left it in the shop somebody would have carried it away). I went into the shop and made enquiries. The shop keeper was sympathetic. But sorry, he did not notice any camera.
Had I kept it next to me on the seat and did it fall out when I got out of the car near the shop? We knew that even if it had, we will not be getting it back. How can a camera remain unnoticed lying on a busy road in a tourist center? Still, you don’t lose anything by searching. But where to search? Me and my wife started near the place where we had parked our car. We bent down and started looking below the parked cars. As we started our search, we felt that someone was trying to get our attention and looking up saw the shopkeeper of a shop on the other side of the road beckoning us. We went there.

“Are you searching for something?”
“Yes. My camera is missing and I thought I might have dropped it here.”
“Wait. Is this your camera?”
He produced my camera from the shelf which was under his cash counter.

We were astonished.

“Someone noticed this camera lying on the street here and brought it to me. They thought who ever had lost it may come back looking for it and requested me to hand it over.”

We just could not believe it. All is not lost in this world. There are still people who would like to do the right thing. We thanked him and the unknown person who had found it, profusely, and returned to the car. I said that i had purchased it with hard earned money, and it is no surprise that we got it back. My wife said that whoever found it must have been brought up by good parents. She also said that we should make it a point to patronize the shop whenever we had an opportunity. After we were done with such talk, I opened the cover and took the camera out.
It looked intact. I switched it on. A dull glow came on the screen with a large black patch at the center. The shutter did not open up. None of the controls worked. The lens appeared to have been pushed inside and cracked. It must have been run over by a vehicle. May be our own. We felt very bad.

I said that it was our bad luck. Still, I was happy to get it back though ruined. I would have felt much worse if we had lost it.

My wife said, “who ever found it saw that it is damaged and that is why they handed it over to that shop fellow. Who will give away a good camera found on the street? I wouldn’t “. She turned towards me. “And it shows how hard you are working”.

Laura Ingalls and The Canton Library.

2010-12-01T05:46:00.000-08:00

Little house in the big woods.
Little house on the prairie
Farmer boy
On the banks of plum creek
By the shores of silver lake
The Long winter
Little town on the prairie
These happy golden years
The first four years

The endearing ‘little house’ books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I found the Kannada translation of “Farmer boy” (Raitara huduga), in the City Central Library, Bangalore, thirty six years back. I chanced up on the book when I was searching for something for the day’s consumption. During the four month period between my admission to BDS and beginning of the classes (Sept 73 - Jan 74), I went to the library almost every morning to borrow books and read them through the day. I started reading “Raitara Huduga”, standing in the narrow passage between the shelves oblivious to the fact that I was obstructing others (there weren’t many anyway). Then I went up to the reference section with the book and sat there. I came out of the library in the afternoon after finishing the book, carrying two more of the series.

The simple narration and enchanting description of the life of a pioneer farmer family in search of their ideal farm, and the delightful illustrations captivated me and I finished the books (all except the last two – all Kannada translations) in three or four days and read them slowly once again. I can’t analyse and say why I like them, but I do. A lot. I have read each one of them at least half a dozen times or more since then and will happily reach for those books once more. About twenty years later my sister found and bought the full set in English and I got to read the originals along with the last two books which I was longing to read. These books form part of my reserve reading along with James Herriot’s “All things bright and beautiful” etc, PG Wode house and DVG’s “Smriti Chitragalu”, which I can pick up anytime and be sure that I will have an enjoyable time.

I intended writing about the Canton Public Library which I visited sometime after returning from Pittsburgh and before starting on our next trip to Mackinaw city. The moment I thought about the library I remembered “A little house traveller” which I saw there. Having enjoyed the ‘little house’ series and having known that it was not fiction, I was eager to know about Laura’s later years. The last book, ’The first four years’ ends with Laura Ingalls setting up her house with Almanzo Wilder. “A Little house Traveller”, which I was very happy to find in the Canton library, fulfilled the desire through reproduction of her letters, news paper articles and her daughter’s writings and as a bonus, also contained photographs of real Laura, Almanzo (‘farmer boy’ and Laura’s husband), their children, farm, the little town De Smet, etc etc and I loved every bit of it. So, the best thing about the library was that I found ‘A little house traveller’ there and when I started writing about it, Laura Ingalls got priority over the Library.

I Liked the library. It is spacious, comfortable and has all the facilities one can ask for. Like any good library. If one enjoys reading, the library tries its best to help you enjoy. It has books and magazines of many foreign languages including Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi etc etc. There are audio books, CDs, computer terminals and what not. You can borrow the books or CDs and drop them in the ‘drive in’ window after you are done.

Amongst the many sections of the library is the “No Disturbance” section where one could sit reading the whole day without being disturbed in anyway. It is sound proof and no external noise enters there. No one moves about unnecessarily. The other section I liked was the ‘friends of the books’ section, which stored used books (used, not dog eared) where one could pick up any number of books and ‘donate’ fifty cents per book. There were no one to check anything. You just picked the books up and put the money in a box meant for the purpose.

I thought that I will have plenty of free time and was intending to visit the library many more times during my stay in Canton MI. It was just about fifteen minutes bicycle ride from home. Since I was not a resident of Canton, I could not be a member, but the librarian made a note in their system that M S Raghunandan would be borrowing books using Reshma Haritsa's (Bhanu’s - her official name is Reshma) membership card and said that I am welcome to use all the facilities during my stay in Canton.

I thought that I would finish the ‘Little house traveller’ in few days and exchange it for Gorur Ramaswamy iyengar’s ‘Garudagambada daasayya’. But something or the other came up every day and I finished ALHT just a day before our return to India. I did not visit the library again. I wish I had made better use of the library during my short stay there.

coucal

2010-11-27T09:26:00.000-08:00

My wife gave me three options for breakfast this morning.

Toast the bread leftover from last night’s dinner and eat.

Eat the dosas made from the dough left over from yesterday’s breakfast.

Boil a cup of tasteless oats and eat.

I stood in the balcony contemplating the options when my eyes caught a flash of colour on the compound. The coucal had caught a plump, fresh and juicy caterpillar and was preparing to enjoy its breakfast.

Lucky coucal. No leftovers. Always fresh food.

Pittsburgh and Back home

2010-11-23T08:38:00.000-08:00

There were no plans for the morning of 27th June except for driving around Washington DC for an hour, looking at things ( from inside the car) which we could not visit - like the Washington monument , Lincoln memorial , Arlington war memorial and so on before proceeding to Pittsburgh.
We drove in front of the Washington Monument, Lincoln memorial and another building which I do not recognize now and then we were supposed to cross the Potomac river and go over to Arlington.

At that point Vishwa took one wrong turn somewhere and his GPS, which had grudgingly borne his abuses (he repeatedly shouted at it to shut up – when he knew his route) and was waiting for a chance for revenge, took the opportunity to confuse him further. It guided him into a dead end and instructed him to turn left and drive into the river. Luckily for us, he decided to dump it and switch over to his map and two hours later we emerged from the maze of unknown streets and were on the freeway (I 68, if I remember right) leaving Washington DC about thirty miles behind us and heading towards Pittsburgh.
We had lost quite a lot of time and patience and almost all of us were hungry and irritable. Luckily we had packed rice, yoghurt and pickles and had picked up some sandwiches from a Subway outlet sometime during the aimless drive, out of which we lunched at the next rest area and it helped in reducing the hunger and irritability in the group. By evening we reached Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh had been included in the tour for two reasons. Practical and Spiritual. It is almost midpoint between Washington DC and Canton MI and has a good Indian restaurant called Udipi café and so, is convenient for a stopover. It has the famous Balaji temple which is expected to attend to the Spiritual needs, but because of its even more famous canteen, it ends up serving the gastronomical needs (better than the Udipi Café) rather than spiritual. The Pongal, Puliyogare and Curds rice, served and sold as ‘Prasadam’ have a greater pull than Lord Balaji.

We checked into the Comfort Suites, Pittsburg , went over to Udupi café for dinner and then called it a day.

I went out for a walk as usual the next morning. I walked along the road in front of the hotel for about two kilometers. There were some intersections on the way and I had to use the button for "walk signal" to cross the road. It felt nice to press the button and see the zooming flow of cars stop respectfully at a distance, providing me a clear passage to cross over.

I got carried away with the power to stop traffic and crossed the road whenever I found a pole with the button, even if there was no need. I returned after walking for an hour (and probably the Pittsburgh motorists heaved a sigh of relief) and just as I reached the hotel, was tempted to stop the traffic one last time to go to the other side of the road, and come back. It was right in front of the hotel. I crossed the road and when I wanted to get back, found that the pole on the other side had no button but only a large hole in its place. I was stuck on the other side of the road with no chance of crossing back. I had to walk more than a kilometer on that side of the road to find a pole with the button and cross back. Served me right for being a nuisance to Pittsburg traffic.

Since it was the last day of the trip and there was nothing to do except visiting the temple (and collecting enough Pongal and Puliyogare to last for two days) and so, the rest of the party took it easy. We reached the temple around eleven in the morning,

We obtained the blessings of Lord Balaji, filled our stomachs and all other available containers with ‘Prasadam’ and were on our way home by one in the afternoon. We drove back leisurely stopping here and there on the way and reached Canton Mi in the evening, bringing to end a much anticipated trip.

Bombay Club and White house

2010-11-18T09:19:00.000-08:00

The meeting in the hotel room, which began as soon as we returned from the museum, had a one point agenda. Planning for the dinner. After a good lunch and a refreshing nap, people in the hotel room were in much better moods, and participated wholeheartedly in the process of selection of an Indian restaurant for dinner.
Bhanu knew some place which she had visited during her previous visit to Washington, but they had shifted. She was trying to find the new location and Vishwa was searching the net. Children, who are usually lukewarm about Indian food, also participated eagerly. I was casually leafing through one of the information booklets that were in the suite and found the ‘Bombay Club Restaurant’ in the restaurants section. Vishwa took it up for further research and gave his approval. Some more discussion took place and the hammer fell for Bombay Club for dinner.

We had a little time before setting out for dinner and decided to take a stroll around the Capitol Hill and see the National botanical garden, which was not far from the hotel. I was expecting a fabulous garden with lots of trees, shade, fountains and flowers. But the garden that we entered was nowhere near my expectations. It was neither large nor had any trees or shade. It is not easy for a garden to impress a person who has spent half his child hood in Lalbagh, Bangalore, but this place was not even trying. Still, having entered in, we spent some time there and headed for the Bombay club restaurant.

Capitol south and Farragut west were on the same metro line and we reached the Farragut west station in less than half an hour. It took some time to find the Connecticut Avenue, on which the Bombay club was located. After arriving at the spot we learnt that prior reservations were required and a table would be available for us in an hour. So, to spend time, we decided to stroll down the street and just as we took a turn at the end, found that we were in Lafayette square, right opposite the White House.

A visit to the white house was not on our agenda for the evening but the hunger for Indian food took us to the abode of the American president. I was expecting a huge crowd and visibly tight security in front of White house and was surprised to see not more than a dozen tourists. Also, there was only one secret service vehicle in front of the building and two or three officers keeping watch. I could walk right up to the fence and take a picture of the white house. It looked very unassuming and simple.

We were back at the restaurant in an hour, but it took another half an hour by the time a table was free.

Luckily, once the order was placed, the food arrived in reasonable time and it did taste very good. For once we had ordered sensibly and we were all pleasantly full when we walked out. It was dark and cool and we languidly walked back to the station and arrived at the hotel half asleep.

Smithsonian Museums (little bit about)

2010-11-15T09:01:00.000-08:00

Washington DC was hot on that summer afternoon, 26th of June 2010 and after a heavy lunch no one was prepared to think of anything beyond the walls of the comfortable suite of the Hotel Capitol Hill Suites. However, I was keen to go and see a bit more of Washington DC and particularly the Smithsonian museums and Vishwa was willing to accompany me. But we had to rush through and be back by evening. The metro guide showed that we had to take just one train – blue line- from the Capitol South station which was about five minutes walk from the hotel and that it should not take more than ten minutes to reach the Smithsonian station, very close to the natural history museum.

I enjoyed travelling by the Metro service in Washington DC. The stations were not crowded, the directions and instructions were very clear, trains were frequent and comfortable. Vishwa actually had parked the car in one of the stations soon after our arrival in Washington DC and we had decided to move around by train.

The Natural History museum, as expected was very interesting and enlightening but I had to see what would require a full day, in one hour.

We rushed through the NH museum and hurried towards the Museum of Aerospace. We had to change trains at LE plaza, travel fifteen minutes by another train and then walk a considerable distance to reach the Aerospace museum but it was worth every bit of the effort. I was very happy to see the plane built by the Wright brothers, the vintage planes and the world war machines. Again, it would require a full day to do justice to the exhibition.

Had I got enough time I really would have spent a full day there but we were already delayed. Still, I managed to go through all the sections before coming out reluctantly and catching the train back to the hotel.

The US Capitol

2010-11-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

To enter the Capitol, You stand in a line for security check and get in to the visitor center if you are not considered a security threat. Upon entering the center, you are given a hand band which should be on your body till you leave the Capitol,and a time slot at which you may see a documentary about the Capitol in the attached theater if you so wish.

Later you stand in another line to be made part of a group of about twenty and assigned to an official for a conducted tour of the capitol. They give you a pair of ear phones which you stick into your ears and follow the leader looking at things which he points out and hearing what he says. I have difficulty comprehending the American accent. Fortunately our leader was speaking slowly and had an accent which I could understand and he did give a good commentary. He talked about the senate, the congress, the house of representatives etc etc, (which is not very clear to me even now) showed us the doors leading to both the houses, explained the tradition, history and architecture of the Capitol building, mentioned the importance/ significance of the various paintings, statues etc etc (all of which I heard keenly but have almost forgotten) finished the tour and collected the earphones back.

Next on the agenda was the Library of congress which was across the street but approachable through an underground passage from the Capitol. On the way to the Library was the cafeteria. Apart from a good spread of the usual American stuff it provides preparations from one other country every day. On the day we visited the capitol, it was Indian food. I had made a note of the menu but have misplaced it somewhere. Palak paneer was one of the items, if I remember right. I did not taste anything as It was not meal time and even if it were, I would not have been hungry after seeing the prices.

The library of the congress is supposed to be the largest library in the world in terms of shelf space and number of books. It is open to anyone who can prove his/her credentials and necessity. The ornamental part of it is open to visitors and we spent about an hour there. I remember seeing the original copy of the American constitution and sitting on a bench to rest while others went around looking at whatever interested them.

We spent about an hour there and were out by lunch time. One of the fellow visitors offered to take a picture of the group with the Capitol building in the back ground and then we walked back to the hotel.

During the time we spent in the Capitol, they must have moved our hotel closer to the building. With Vishwa now leading the group,it took exactly ten minutes to reach the hotel against forty when i lead the party in the morning during the onward journey. My wife decided to cook up something for lunch using the ingredients that we had been lugging around but had never used till then, while self and Bhanu went in search of yoghurt.(plain, gelatin free - substituting for curd). After enquiring in half a dozen stores and restaurants around the hotel, we did locate it in a grocery shop and by the time we returned with the trophy, my wife had performed a miracle using the hotel microwave and we sat down for a lunch of chapattis, curry, salad, rice and yoghurt.

Capitol Hill Historic District

2010-11-10T06:45:00.000-08:00

I made an early morning reconnaissance sortie around Hotel Capitol Hill Suites after taking note of the fact that it was right opposite the church and making sure that I did not stray far from the location.

It was a very quiet area with quaint houses lining both sides of the street. They were built on a raised platform with a few steps going up from the small garden, which was separated from the pavement by metal grills. The whole neighbourhood looked cosy and comfortable.

I moved a few blocks up and down in all directions looking at these houses. There were news paper bundles on the steps and some houses had grocery bags in front of the doors. Parked cars occupied both sides of the street. So, people were living there but I did not see a soul during my forty five minutes of wandering except for two or three joggers and their dogs.

After sometime I noticed that every house had an identical metal plaque in front and on close inspection found that the area was the Capitol Hill Historic District and the houses were more than hundred and fifty years old! They were probably protected and being preserved for posterity.

Vishwa had said that the Capitol is within walking distance from the hotel and I saw that one of the streets ended in a barricade and guessed that it should be leading to the Capitol.

The day did not start before ten in the morning for the rest of our party and so, Vishwa left early to get the entry passes to the Capitol, instructing others to get ready fast and be in front of the Capitol latest by ten. He tried to give me directions to the place but since I had already seen the area I nodded my head without actually hearing what he said. I managed to get the rest of the group out by half past nine and lead them towards the barricaded road. On reaching the barricade we made enquiries and found that it was not the entry point and we should have gone in the opposite direction. I pretended that I did not hear what my wife was saying and was relieved when we had the first glimpse of the Capitol building after fifteen minutes.

Another ten minutes walk on that summer morning and we were in front of the Capitol, though not as fresh and enthusiastic as we were, when we started.

Statue Of Liberty And Ellis Island.

2010-11-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

I had not expected such a big crowd waiting to board the ferry and was surprised to see long lines in front of all the ticket counters. Somehow I had felt that you just bought a ticket, walked into a waiting ferry and went to the statue of liberty. While Vishwa stood in the queue and others rested on the bench, I just moved around taking in all the activity.

The bulk, some of the US citizens acquire, intrigue me a lot and I find that my eyes keep wandering in their direction again and again. Not that we do not have praiseworthy sizes back home. But they cannot match the size and numbers. And I really stare at them with awe when I find them in front of a huge tub of ice cream or a large pizza. Here was a good one. It was not decent to focus on this gentleman (and definitely not safe if he did not like it) and hence, I focused on our group, sitting on the bench and waited for him to walk into the frame.

We joined the end of the queue to board the ferry and I felt that we will be there for at least two hours. I don’t like long queues and personally feel that it is not worth standing in a line for hours for anything, unless it is something that you can’t do without. But the tickets had been bought and there was no choice. Fortunately the ferry was a large one and accommodated a lot of people and so we did not have to wait in the queue for long.

We boarded the ferry and just as it left the jetty, it provided a panoramic view of the southern tip of Manhattan.

In about ten minutes, we were near the statue of liberty.

We were satisfied with whatever we saw from the ferry and decided not to disembark for a closer look but to proceed to the next stop, the Ellis Island. Ellis Island on New York harbour was where millions of immigrants stepped out of their ships and sought entry into the US and a better future.

The immigration center on the island was in operation from 1892 to 1954. The buildings were abandoned after that and were restored and converted into a museum in 1990.

The immigration museum has various sections which house historic records, photographs and artifacts related to the immigrants as well as statistics and other information about them like their geographical distribution, ethnic distribution, present situation etc etc.

It takes a full day or two to see all the sections in detail and they are really interesting and worth spending the time there. But we had just an hour or two and we rushed through the exhibition and were out before five in the evening. We caught a ferry back and walked to the world trade center station licking the ice cream cones that we bought from the ice cream van,

pausing now and then to look at the evening life around broad way

We reached Plainsboro by half past six, had an early dinner, and were ready to leave. It took some time for Vishwa to coax his camera to auto click and take a picture of the full group but he managed it after a few unsuccessful attempts.

We were on the freeway by seven in the evening and after passing through Philadelphia and Baltimore, were in front of Hotel Capitol Hill Suites, Washington DC by midnight of 25th June 2010.

We checked into the room and I could keep my eyes open just long enough to see the makeshift arrangements being made for Bhanu’s birthday celebrations and witness her cutting a pear placed in front of a bowl of chocolates, instead of a cake.

Battery Park

2010-10-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

It was around one in the afternoon when we reached Battery Park. Lunch time. I ate a trail mix bar, dry fruits and a banana. My wife had brought some stuff packed from home. Children found a Sub Way outlet nearby, thought that they were very hungry and bought foot long sandwiches.They ate about three inches of the foot long sandwiches and Bhanu and Vishwa had to finish the remaining.

Battery Park was full of activity. There were hawkers, entertainers, vagabonds, homeless, loiterers etc etc. There were also a large number of tourists on their way to the statue of Liberty.

There was a group of street entertainers, performing Gymnastics and dancing to the tune of music from their tape recorder.

A fellow had painted himself in silver and sat like a statue. Nothing moved him but a quarter or a dollar put in his box. If you made an offering, he would tip his cap and also pose with you for a picture if you so wished. Reminded me of the silver painted Gandhi who stood on a pedestal at the Congress Exhibition in Bangalore.

This gentleman stood next to the queue waiting to board the ferry and played a tune from the country of every visitor who passed in front of him. He hit the sides of the steel drum with something like a drumstick and produced the tunes. He played “mera joota hai japani” for us and got a dollar.

And there were many willing visitors ready to part with a dollar or two for getting their pictures taken with these people dressed like the Statue of Liberty.

We could have spent some time there but since we had planned to return to Plainsboro and proceed to Washington DC after visiting the statue and Ellis island, we hurried towards the ticket counter, to get the tickets for the ferry.

New York - contd.

2010-10-22T09:41:00.001-07:00

We started walking slowly along Broadway, towards Battery park. I had never thought that I would be walking in New York one day – that being a place we only read and hear about - and it was hard to believe that I was actually there. The names and landmarks were familiar and I moved at my own pace keenly looking at everything around and reading all the sign boards and name plates.

I envied the dentist who could boast of a clinic on Broadway.

And was amused with the millionaires who bargained.

Of all the places that I had been in the US, Broadway seemed to be the closest to our shopping streets with its pushcarts – where Bhanu bought a of milkshake – and ‘shoe polish’ on foot paths.

We passed the wall street and the ‘Bull’

and soon afterwards, reached Battery park .

New York

2010-10-18T22:45:00.000-07:00

To avoid the hassles of driving and parking in New York, we had planned to leave the van at Nanda’s place in Plainsboro, go over to New York by train, see whatever we can, return by evening and proceed to Washington DC.

We did have intentions of starting early but when Nanda dropped us at the Princeton junction station, it was nearing 10 AM on 25th June 2010. We bought return tickets,

and were on our way in another ten minutes. I could find a seat next to the window and tried to absorb as much of the scenes as possible in my brain and in the camera’s memory card.

By quarter past eleven we were in the Newark Penn station.

Vishwa the leader, was the only person who had a fair idea where we were and how we should proceed. But he was not very confident too. He consulted instruction boards, automated information kiosks, his cell phone and a few humans who looked approachable and managed to get the required information and tickets. We had to take a metro red line train to reach the World Trade Center station.

It did not take long to reach WTC and we were there in fifteen or twenty minutes. This is the group minus Vishwa the photographer, just before emerging out of the WTC station.

We had to Head towards Broadway, walk through to Battery park and catch the ferry to reach the statue of Liberty.We came into the open, in front of the place where the WTC stood and where the New World Trade Center is being built and looked this way, that way trying to find the correct direction

and after a few minute’s walk, were glad to note that we were headed in the right direction.

Plainsboro - Princeton

2010-10-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

When we started from Detroit, our plan was to visit New York in the evening, an hour by train, after checking in and having lunch at Nanda’s house on the afternoon of 24th . Post lunch, when the matter was put to vote, the unanimous verdict was to lounge on the comfortable sofas in Nanda’s living room and if she had no objection, remain lounging there forever!

Nanda had to find a way of getting us out and back on our legs before we claimed ownership of her living room and she suggested that having travelled all the way to New jersey, we at least see the famous Princeton university, which was close by. She said that it was just minute’s drive, and offered to drive us. She described the beauty of the campus, gave a short talk on its history, mentioned names like Albert Einstein, named the movies that have been shot there, said that there was a very good ice cream shop and to her credit, managed to evict us from her living room and herd us back into the car. No wonder that she is a success in her business venture!
The university was really a very short drive from her house, and the approach road gave a hint of what we could expect.

The historic campus was equally appealing and very pleasant in the late evening.

We strolled around the campus for about an hour, walked up and down the neat streets taking in the atmosphere,

and returned home ready again to gorge on stuffed parathas (paneer and broccoli) and ice cream.

To New jersey

2010-10-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

We left Dubois at 10 am on 24th of June 2010, and were expecting to reach my niece Nanda’s house in Plainsboro NJ, by lunch time. Vishwa kept a steady 75 miles per hour daringly exceeding the speed limit of Ohio by 20 miles and we cruised through the undulating green landscape of Ohio, enjoying the sight of large fields and farmhouses.

Many of the properties had their own pond or a small lake and on a rock by the side of a pond I noticed (with a bit of envy) a gentleman sitting still, with a line thrown in. Looked like an ideal life, at least from a distance. There were many places where I wanted to get down from the car and spend some time looking around but that was not possible. The freeways are meant for speeding along, not stopping here and there and looking around. I had to be satisfied with capturing the scene on the camera. That was proving difficult too. Just as I had the scene on the camera screen and was about to press the button, a car passed us or Vishwa overtook a truck. I got plenty of half trucks, cars and sometimes half a truck and a car.

We Stopped at almost all the rest areas, the space around which looked like gardens, ideal for a picnic.

By afternoon we were in the hilly regions of Pennsylvania, the freeway weaving through the slopes.

After Passing in and out of many tunnels with bright interiors,

we reached Allentown by two in the afternoon, exactly two hours behind schedule.

Latha and Bhanu who were not satisfied with the food they had brought (and the weight they had gained), ate some ice cream, and children nibbled on onion rings and apple pie. I took a bite of pie, found that it did not come anyway near the taste that I had imagined and drank a glass of water, reserving the space in my stomach for Nanda’s lunch. Vishwa’s GPS guided him perfectly and we arrived in front of Nanda’s house by three thirty in the afternoon, ready for a late lunch.

Dubois - Holiday Inn Express

2010-10-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

As I have mentioned earlier I am one of the unfortunate ones who can’t sleep well into the afternoon or stay in bed after waking up. I got up before six in the morning. There was not much room in the suite to move around without hitting things in the semi darkness, waking up the fortunate ones who were asleep and bear their curses/abuses and as a result I was in the reception lounge of the Holiday Inn Express by 6 am. The complimentary breakfast buffet was ready but it was too early for breakfast. There were some comfortable sofas in the lounge and also few copies of USA Today and I spent about half an hour going through the newspaper. Then I went out of the hotel for a walk. Dubois must be a convenient place for a night halt. There were plenty of cars and trucks parked around the gas station in front of the hotel.

Even the hotel parking space was full. I went out onto the freeway hoping to walk some distance and look around. But there was some road work going on and part of the road was barricaded. The vehicles were whizzing past in the remaining space. Since I did not have any intention of getting a firsthand experience of a US hospital or a morgue, I turned back and spent my time looking at the cars parked in front of the hotel. There were cars from many states and I found one interesting feature in the registration plates. Every registration plate had some interesting or important feature of the particular state, mentioned on the number plates. Camera was in my pocket and so here are some examples.

While I was involved in this activity, I saw one or two car owners glancing suspiciously at me and I decided to get back to the room before someone called the police. Dhruva was ready for breakfast and we went into the breakfast room. There was a good breakfast spread – cinnamon rolls, muffins, white and wheat bread, bananas, boiled eggs, omlette, scrambled eggs, sausages, raisin bran, Cheerios, butter and jam, tea, coffee, milk and juice. By the time we finished breakfast and went back to the room, others were stirring in the bed. While they got ready, I occupied myself making a note of everything that I saw since the time we left home and that explains the full list of breakfast items. By nine thirty everyone had had their bath and breakfast and we were ready to proceed. We loaded the car, Vishwa filled gas and we left Dubois by 10 AM.

On the Freeway.

2010-10-02T01:29:00.001-07:00

We were to go south on I 75 and then get into I 80 east. Vishwa had driven on these roads many times and knew his way very well. Still, the GPS was on and the map was on the dashboard. This GPS is a very useful gadget. It guides you perfectly well when you know where you are going but It confuses you further when you are lost! Once it guided Vishwa into a dead end and was urging him to turn left where there was no road but only a river. Luckily for us, he ditched his GPS, relied on his map and his faculties and all of us are still alive.

The GPS said that we were on I 75, I tried the map and confirmed that we really were. I wanted to search I 80 and find out when we would be getting into it. I was seeing plenty of numbers on the map and while searching for our route, got some information about the numbering. The odd numbered ones run north south and the even numbers run east west. When there are three digits, the one beginning with an odd number ends in a city while the one beginning with an even number goes around it etc etc. Some addition to my collection of information which I may never use.

The road was good. Vishwa’s driving was smooth. He kept a steady 80 miles, just five miles above the limit but still had his antenna up for police cars. The surroundings were wonderful. The lonely farmhouses amidst large green fields were a lovely sight and I never got tired of looking at them. I do not know the negative points of those houses, but I envied those who were living there.

After driving for about two hours we stopped at a ‘rest area’. With many flags flying in the front, it looked like a consulate.

It housed the toilets, coffee bars, food and ice cream out lets, public telephones, tourist information centers and a large lounge. The travelling public have it good in the US. But the travelling dogs have it better. They have their own exercise area!

Another two hours and it was dinner time. The Mc Donald and Burger king signs were visible from miles away and we drove towards them.

We had carried our food but the children being more American, wanted Mc Donald to serve their dinner. The weather was cool, the surroundings were very clean and the seating in front of the outlet overlooking the freeway was ideal.

Most of us were sleepy when we resumed the journey but fortunately Vishwa remained awake and by eleven at night, we arrived in front of Holiday Inn Express Suites, Dubois, located right next to the interstate 80.

Leaving for Newyork, Washington DC.

2010-09-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

Bhanu had planned a long trip between 23rd and 28th June to New York, Washington and Pittsburgh. I was eager to experience the long distance driving on the freeway and was looking forward to visiting places about which I had only heard all these years. Vishwa had booked hotel accommodation everywhere except in New Jersey where we were planning to invade my niece Nanda’s house. My wife was worried as to how she would survive eating in Mc Donalds, Subway, or some such place for nearly six days and was planning to carry as much food stuff as possible for her consumption. Her food habits are very traditional and she knew what was in store for her as she had visited the US before.

We started procuring things and preparing for the trip. During our visit to Costco, the whole sale store, we bought a box of ‘Trail mix’ bars - a mixture of dry fruits, grains and nuts. This had been tasted and approved by my wife, Latha, as ‘edible’ and was included in the list of food stuff to be carried. Eventually she took to it so much that she carried a box of the bars to India on our return. I prepared my own mix using nuts and dry fruits which turned out to be even more popular.

We were scheduled to leave Canton MI on the evening of 23rd June, stopover for the night at a place called Dubois and continue to New jersey the next day. Latha was busy the whole morning, preparing her ‘survival kit’ which contained a sort of Onion curry which ( ‘gojju’ in kannada) could be consumed with Rotis or with cooked rice and which does not need refrigeration. This was to be the backbone of her food kit for the next week. Bhanu had ordered a few dozen rotis which were expected to arrive by evening. Apart from this, Latha prepared a dry mixture of roasted semolina, spices, curry leaves and few other ingredients which I do not know. It produced a filling snack (uppittu) on mixing with water and cooking in a microwave oven, in minutes. Vishwa had ensured that all the hotel rooms that he had booked, contained an attached kitchenette with a fridge and microwave oven. Latha also packed the rice cooker, rice and two tubs of ‘DANNON’ yoghurt (Natural – plain - gelatin free – fat free - almost same as the ‘curd’ we are used to) and was more or less sure that she would return alive after the trip.

Bhanu and Vishwa had to attend the office, come home and pack for the trip. We were ready by the time they arrived from work and I used the available time to clear the minivan of empty water and juice bottles, empty chip pouches, pizza boxes, Dharini’s soccer gloves and socks, Dhruva’s school shoes and base ball, assorted packages of our purchases which had remained in the van, jackets which had been used during the Niagara trip etc etc. We loaded the van with our luggage, found (surprise) that it could still accommodate all of us, got in and were off, only to return once to fetch Dharini’s mobile phone and again to search and collect the charger for the GPS. In spite of all these we were on the freeway by 5PM, only an hour behind schedule.

Meijer

2010-09-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

Meijer is a Michigan based departmental store, rather a ‘hypermarket store’ which means it is a combination of a grocery store and a departmental store. It also has its stores in few other states like Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

I walked slowly around all the sections and it was the same as any other departmental store. The ice cream section had lot many varieties and looked very tempting.

Then I reached the vegetables and fruit section and the pineapple cutting caught my eyes. I had seen these cut pineapples kept for sale in other stores too but had no idea how it was done. I got to see that here. They just chop off the two ends, keep the fruit vertically below this machine and press it. There are two concentric blades. One goes around the core separating it from the rest of the fruit and the other goes in below the rough skin and takes it out in a thick section along with the thorns. The procedure wastes a lot of fruit but takes only seconds to prepare the fruit for sale.

One may say that there is nothing great in cutting a pineapple. True. But I liked the machine. You see, I love pineapple. When they are sweet of course. But to know whether they are sweet or sour, I need to cut them and cutting them is a pain. I manage to remove the skin and cut them to eatable pieces but the thorns remain and removing them individually is a very tiresome task. This machine did the work so easily. If it could be dismantled and carried in a suitcase, may be, I would have made enquiries and purchased one. I am sure it would have been worth it.

I stood watching it for some time and went near the cash counters. I wanted to take a picture of the counters numbering more than thirty but as I directed my camera at them, one of the staff members informed me that I am not allowed to take photographs inside the store. So I slipped the camera into my pocket retaining the pictures already taken and quietly walked out of the store.

IKEA Store

2010-09-20T02:58:00.000-07:00

IKEA, according to their website is a furniture store. The store has a wide range of furniture very attractively displayed in their ‘actual use’ positions. The size of the store, display and price attracts people and once you enter you will surely find, if not the furniture, one of the thousands of accessories without which you can’t do and you never come out empty handed. It is a very huge store spread on two floors. The first floor contains more than half a dozen samples each, of fully set kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms and bedrooms.

The furniture, accessories and everything else is attractive but what impressed me was the placement of measuring tapes (made of paper), pencils and notepads everywhere within easy reach.

Whenever we go shopping for a ‘consumer durable’ viz a refriegerator, washing machine, cupboard, bookshelf or some such thing, we visit half a dozen shops, discuss and quarrel about the quality, price and utility of different makes and models, decide about a particular piece and when we are about to finalise the sale, get a doubt whether it will fit in the place meant for it at home or not. We tell the salesman that we need to measure the thing and ask him for a measuring tape. In most of the cases the shop never has a tape. I use my fingers, palm or forearm to measure the thing and make a guess but will always have to make another visit with my measuring tape. So, I was very much impressed with the provision of paper tapes, pencils and note pads all over the furniture section.

The store also has a food division which sells, cookies, chocolates, juices, coffee powder etc etc and a fast food restaurant. I ate a cone of frozen yoghurt which was very smooth and tasted better than any ice cream. And I could eat it without guilt, it being ‘yoghurt’! Unfortunately I never got to go there again and eat another cone. I did eat frozen yoghurt elsewhere but that did not taste as good.

When we set out of the house that evening, we planned to visit IKEA as well as Meijer, a departmental store located close by and after two hours in IKEA we had covered about half of it.

By then it was nearing 9PM and announcements were being made that the store would close at nine and asking patrons to hurry up with their purchases and so we hurried through the remaining part and returned home planning another visit to see the store in detail at leisure.

"May I use your pen please?"

2010-09-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

“May I use your pen please?” I have come across this request any number of times in the bank, post office and railway reservation counters. Sometimes, even “please” and “May I” are eliminated. Just “Pen” and a finger pointing at the pen in my pocket. As a sort of right. We understand that. I have asked for the pen from strangers too. We don’t think twice before requesting some small favour from others, even absolute strangers.

“Doctor, looks like you are going to the market. Please bring me a kilo of Potatos” My neighbour's wife spots the shopping bag and shouts from their balcony.

I have asked for such favours from my neighbours too.

“Is your next seat vacant? Here, put this there” a stranger hands over his hand kerchief through the window of the bus, while a crowd jostles near the door. Accepted form of reservation. We usually oblige.

“Are you travelling up to Hubli? Please take care of my mother. She is alone” a stranger hands over his old mother’s responsibility to you in the railway station.

“Will you take care of my luggage for a minute? I will be right back" the man runs to buy a cup of coffee with out waiting for your answer. We don’t say no.

“Will you fill this form for me?” an illiterate person hands over the money order form in the post office. He will not even consider the possibility that you may not oblige.

These are accepted as a matter of fact. But this morning’s request by a stranger was quite unusual.

I had gone for a walk as usual. I reached the outskirts of our small city. There was a herd of buffalos in front of me, well spread out and completely occupying the road, moving in their own pace enjoying the morning weather. A man was walking along making odd noises and shouting “hai, hai” trying to keep them to one side of the road. When he shouted, the buffalos obeyed and moved to the edge of the road.

Their destination must have been further ahead at some distance. The man did not intend going with them all the way. He probably had other business. He was expecting them to remember his order, maintain lane discipline and walk to their destination in single file. But as soon as he turned back, the buffalos spread out on the road and he had to come back shouting and force them to a side. This happened a few times. The man could neither walk with them all the way nor just leave them to themselves and go away. At this moment he spotted me.

“You are walking the same way aren’t you? Keep shouting ‘hai, hai’ as you walk and they will remain to a side” he shouted instructions to me, turned and walked away.

Canton Fair

2010-09-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

We returned from Colorado on 19th June, Saturday, late at night. We missed the Canton Fair which was scheduled for the week end to be held at Heritage Park, Canton MI. I believe it is held every summer and is an occasion for all the families to have a good time. There will be games, entertainment, food stalls etc etc, usual for any fair/festival. Bhanu wanted us to experience the atmosphere and felt bad that we had to miss it. Hoping that some activities may still be lingering on the next day, it being a Sunday, we headed for the Heritage Park soon after breakfast on 20th morning. The only thing that had lingered on in the vast field was this truck which was last to leave and half loaded.

We took a walk around the park and met these Mallard Ducks which were happy to have their park for themselves once again.

We wanted our pictures taken in front of the pond with the ducks but after the fair they were fed up of human company and wanted to be as far from us as possible.

We returned home for lunch and planned to do some window shopping at IKEA and Meijer in the evening.

IITs and Medicine

2010-09-11T05:28:00.000-07:00

“Recognizing the long standing demand by many IITs and recommendations by various committees, the IIT Council on Friday gave its consent to the institutes to start courses in Medicine”

TOI dated 11.10.10

I can’t understand why IITs need to start medicine courses. They have already been spoilt enough. My respect and regards towards IITs down a few notches.

“However, the health Ministry is NOT in favour of IITs starting medicine courses. Instead it has suggested that they should consider starting Phd programmes involving collaboration between engineering and medical science”

Since when did the ministry turn so sensible? Account of respect and regards towards the ministry opened.

Dentist and the Electrician

2010-09-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

“Food gets stuck between these teeth doctor. It causes lot of irritation. I sometimes feel little pain.” Mrs. D’silva pointed at her lower grinders.

I examined the area. The space between her grinders contained day before’s chicken fibres, yesterday’s fish bone and today’s dal decorated with bits of coriander and mustard. The gum started bleeding the moment I put my probe there. The teeth looked alright. Probably a periodontal pocket, ‘bad gums’ to put it in simple language. I explained the condition and possible treatment. I suggested some medicines and called her after a week for treatment.

She was back after four days

“I feel little better but these teeth appear to be sensitive. I have a very uncomfortable sensation when I take anything hot or cold.”

I looked around the teeth again. I found a grinder worn out on one side - we call it an ‘abrasion’ - probably due to wrong brushing. Since the hard enamel covering had worn out and the sensitive tooth part was exposed, it might have been bothering her. Along with her pockets this was complicating the matter. I advised her to use a desensitizing paste also and let me know the result.

She returned after another week.

“I am using the paste doctor. Sometimes I feel Ok. But sometimes even tap water causes lot of discomfort and it actually starts paining. I could not sleep last night for a few hours after brushing my teeth”

I told her that I will check the tooth with an X-ray. The X -ray showed a classical cavity on the side of one of her grinders, hidden below the gums and going deep up to the nerves. THAT was the cause of all her troubles.

I almost kicked myself for not looking for a cavity in the first visit itself. That is the first thing I should have checked. The symptoms did suggest a cavity and a bad one at that.

I started the ‘Root canal treatment’ and everything was fine. There were no more complaints.

My water pump stopped working all of a sudden. I called the electrician who fortunately is very prompt and helpful. He came, tested some of the things around the pump and said that the pump needs oiling and servicing as the rotor shaft is not moving freely. “May be the bearings have rusted due to humid weather, sir.” He detached the pump and took it with him. He brought it back after two days, fixed it in place and switched it on. It remained silent.

He opened the cover once again, tested this and that, checked the capacitor with his meter and said “I think the capacitor is gone. We may have to replace the capacitor”. He detached the capacitor, took it with him and bought a new one from the market. (That is the good thing about him. He does things himself. Does not ask me to go and buy things.) He connected the new capacitor and confidently switched the pump on. It refused to run.

“I will have to check the connections.” He opened the junction box and pulled some wires to see which were the ones connecting the pump. As he pulled, about a meter long piece of wire came out of the box with a burnt and cut end. He held it up triumphantly “Look at this sir, this is the trouble. There has been a short and the wire is cut. How can the pump work?” He replaced it with a new wire and the pump started functioning perfectly.

I was about to ask him why the hell did he not check the connections first. Was it not the first thing he should have done?

Just as I opened my mouth I remembered Mrs. D’silva. What would have been my answer had she asked “Doctor, why did you not look for the cavity first. Is it not the most common cause of such trouble in teeth?”

I held back my comments, thanked the electrician, paid him and sent him.

Sometimes it just happens so. Be it a dentist or anyone else.

Last day in Colorado.

2010-09-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

19th June 2010, Saturday. Our return flight to Detroit MI from Denver CO was in the evening at 6.30. We planned to spend a morning leisurely and leave for Denver airport in the afternoon by 3.30 PM. We had had a very pleasant stay. After wishing Datta and Rama on the day of their wedding, We had not seen Rama again. Madhur,we had met once when Datta had brought him along to Goa more than ten years back. He was a young boy then. We were almost strangers to both of them and we were not sure if they would be comfortable with us staying with them. My apprehension evaporated the moment I met them. If Datta’s company was cake, the presence of his wife and son was the icing. They saw to it that we felt welcome and comfortable.

On the morning of 19th we just went around Colorado Springs and visited a few parks in the city. One of the parks (I do not remember the name) was a sort of forest within the city and had warnings and instructions displayed at the entrance regarding dealing with ‘urban wild life’.

But the only wild things that were there were the pet dogs, the owners of which, ignored the instructions completely and set them free to run around and jump on strangers much to Datta’s annoyance. They were keen to be our friends but we could not read their mind and were busy attempting to protect ourselves.

Datta’s patience was evaporating fast and we decided to leave before he started jumping on the owners of the dogs that jumped on us. We spent some peaceful time in a much better and pleasant place called the Fox Run Park and returned home for lunch.

Datta dropped us at the airport exactly at five in the evening, accompanied by Rama and Madhur who had come to see us off. After the check in and security clearance we still had about half an hour for boarding and decided to relax in the comfortable lounge in front of the gate 42, our departure gate, with a cup of coffee. After experiencing the Cappuccino, Café latte, Expresso, Caffé mocha, Caffe Americano etc etc, we had found that only Caffe latte came close to the coffee that we were used to but we had not been able to get it hot. They poured cold cream into the cup of hot coffee and it made the coffee just warm when served.

For the first time in the US, I managed to get the right combination of coffee, cream and sugar and got it heated again in the microwave at the ‘Caribou Coffee’ outlet in Denver Airport and we sat in front of gate 42, which was almost empty, awaiting the boarding call, chatting and enjoying our coffee. It was nearing six and our flight was at half past six. I was surprised at the absence of activity near the gate and casually looked at the display board in front of the gate. It read ‘Cinicinnati 20.00’ !

I was confused. Gate 42 should have displayed ‘Detroit 18.30’. The Frontier airline counter in front of the gate was empty. I knew something was amiss, handed my cup to my wife and ran to Gate 44 where there was an airline staffer. I told the lady that my ticket to Detroit showed gate 42 but the gate indicates Cincinnati. She saw the ticket, took out a pen, put a big circle around ‘Gate D 32’ which was prominently mentioned on the ticket and told me that I better hurry. 32 was nearly half a mile away. We dumped the coffee cups containing the right type of coffee into the trash bins and ran to 32. It read, ‘Boston 18.30’!

Luckily the counter was functioning but the lady was busy with another passenger. The two minutes wait felt like an hour. “Detroit?” she checked on her computer. “It is changed to 36”. Fortunately 36 was just about a hundred meters away. After reaching 36 and reading “Detroit 18.30, Boarding,” I relaxed and took a deep breath. I confirmed again that that was the gate and it was the flight we were booked for and we joined the queue. As I looked out of the window next to the gate, I could see one of the pilots wiping the windscreen before taking off.

As the plane began moving I wondered how I got Gate 42 fixed in my mind and what would have been our plight had we missed the flight? I was so sure that I had not felt it necessary to check the departure time and gate on the ticket.

It was sad that we had to discard our coffee but it would have been sadder if he had missed the flight.

Mexican food and Royal Gorge

2010-08-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

Datta had to press hard on the brakes while driving down from Pikes Peak and he did so with confidence as he had got the brakes serviced the previous night. Half way down there is a check post where one of the traffic wardens checks the brakes placing a thermometer over the wheels to see if the brake drums/discs are heated. He placed the thermometer and said “well, the temperature is Ok, but I can smell something. Stop for fifteen minutes and allow the brakes to cool”. We got an unscheduled halt and I got some time to move around the enchanting place.

By the time we reached the out skirts of Colorado Springs it was half past two and we were near a Mexican restaurant where we decided to halt for lunch. It was the first time I was trying ‘authentic’ Mexican food.

We went in, were shown a table, and menu cards, rather books were supplied. I looked at the menu and found words like Tacos, Burittos, Enchiladas, Chalupa, Bocados etc etc. I had no idea what they were and the explanations against the names showed that all of them contained tortillos with some kind of beef or chicken. After searching for fifteen minutes I found one which said “chicken, steak OR vegetables stuffed in Tortillos and served with rice and baked beans.” We asked the waitress if that can be prepared only with vegetables and she went in to enquire with the kitchen. She came back after five minutes and said “yes” but added that the rice is cooked in chicken broth. So, we ordered the dish minus chicken, beef and rice. There wasn’t much left other than the tortilla. It took some time for the dishes to arrive and since I was hungry, I started eating tortilla chips with ‘salsa sauce’ which tasted quite good, and had half filled my stomach.

The dish did look attractive but the tortillo was somewhat tough and the vegetables had been cut in large size and the whole thing was covered with sour cream or some such thing which made it very slippery. I had to maintain etiquette and so, could not hold the thing in both the hands and bite into it. It was customary to use forks and it required considerable effort to tear the tortillas and cut the half cooked vegetables to proper size without spreading them all over the table. I fought with the stuff and consumed most of it.

We left the restaurant around four in the evening and drove to Royal Gorge, a deep gorge about thousand feet deep and ten miles long, created by the Arkansas river. Located near the Canon City, Colorado, its main attractions are the cable car ride one thousand feet above the river, and the walk/ drive over the cable supported bridge made of wooden planks. We rode across the gorge in the cable car, walked over the bridge, enjoyed the view from the bridge and returned home after a dinner of Pizza at the California Pizza kitchen.

looking at the river from the bridge

Rama, Latha, Datta, Madhur on the bridge.

Common Wealth Games

2010-08-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

The mismanagement and corruption, for which the common wealth games has become famous for, evoked as sickening a feeling as did the IPL. Mr Chetan Bhagat’s well written article in the TOI dt 29th Aug, ‘Please don’t cheer the 2010 loot fest’ reflects my own feelings. I hope we can do that.

Pikes Peak

2010-08-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

Pikes peak, at 14,115 feet is one of the 54 such ‘fourteeners’ present in the state of Colorado. It is about thirty seven miles from the Colorado Springs city, half of which is the climb on to the peak, quite steep. The trip should take about an hour by car but invariably it takes longer as the nature forces you to get down every now and then, look around and wish that you could remain there. The combination of blue sky and clear blue water, the green lower ranges and the snow capped higher ranges is irresistible.

I believe that the temperature at the top hovers around four degrees Celsius even during summer and the snow continues to cap the top of the range. White streaks of snow amongst the green algae covered ‘pink’ granite, called ‘pikes peak granite’ is another wonderful sight.

Melted snow flows down as streams and forms pleasant lakes in the depressions. A breath taking sight from the heights. The winding and climbing road provides different views as you climb, each one better than the other.

We reached the peak, got out of the van and moved around for a while, shivering in the cold.

once the mandatory round of the gift shop was done with, it was time to leave.

Manitou Springs, Village

2010-08-28T00:19:00.001-07:00

On the way back from ‘Garden of Gods’ we stopped for a while at the Manitou springs village which happens to be a small, neat, city of about five thousand population located on the out skirts of Colorado Springs at the foot of the mountain range.

Picturesque surroundings, one main road minus much traffic, small shops, cosy restaurants and small houses with the hills looming behind them make the city inviting and force you to stay for a while.

We had a very pleasant time enjoying the ‘Voted best’ ice cream sitting on the benches conveniently placed on the side path

and reluctantly got into the van. Datta was a bit uneasy about some noise in the braking system of the van and had decided to get it checked before we left for ‘Pikes Peak’ more than 14000 feet high, next morning.

Manitou dwellings and Garden of Gods

2010-08-27T10:19:00.001-07:00

The web site of Manitou cliff dwellings, Colorado, says that you have enough over there to keep yourself busy for a whole day. May be. If you are doing some research on American Indians. They are said to be the authentic dwellings in which the American Indians lived and are supposed to be 700 years old. They are built within a sort of dugout in the sandstone mountain side under an overhang which protects them from extremes of weather. They have been maintained well, there is enough information about them and they are worth a visit if you are anywhere close by.

We walked through them, went around the small museum and after an hour were on our way to ‘garden of gods’.

Garden of gods is a public park maintained by the Colorado springs administration and contains a number of sandstone and lime stone rock formations. Most of the formations are named according to what they can be imagined to look like. For example, the ‘kissing camels’. Look for them at top left.

The park contains plenty of tracks for walking, hiking, cycling and horseback riding. Some of the rock formations are steep and invite rock climbers. Suitable for an evening if you have good company as we did.

After walking for a while and climbing the rocks which were within our reach and posing there,

We turned back.

2010-08-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

Large family, happy family. As long as they manage to keep away from the wheels of our scooters and car.

Datta and Colorado

2010-08-26T03:15:00.001-07:00

“Good morning ladies and gentleman. On behalf of the captain and crew of the Frontier flight to Denver, I welcome you on board. We are now ready to take off and if Denver was NOT on your travel plans, it IS now!” the announcement from the jovial flight purser brought a wave of laughter inside the plane and set the mood for our trip to Colorado.

He continued with announcements like “just in case your flight turns out to be a cruise, the life jackets are under your seat” and “Our crew will be coming with the garbage bags one last time. In case you need to discard anything please do. I express our inability to accept ex spouses.”

There is a time difference of two hours between Detroit - Michigan and Denver - Colorado and so, having left Detroit at 6.30 AM and flying three hours, we landed at Denver at half past seven local time on the morning of 17th June.

About to land at Denver

My friend Dattatreya and his son Madhur were at the airport and Datta took charge of us. The trip to Colorado was one I was very much looking forward to, not so much because of the well known natural beauty of the state, but because of the presence of Datta. I have nothing against Colorado’s natural beauty. I only want to convey that had Datta not been there, we would not have visited Colorado even if it was twice as beautiful.

When I first met Datta, I was in second standard and he was in fifth. Both of us were residing in Shantinagar, Bangalore and attended the same school in Wilson Gardens, about four kilometers away. We walked to school together everyday. If I remember right, from the day we first met, there is not a single day that we have not seen each other till the time Datta joined DRDO in New Delhi after his Phd, and I left Bangalore to join the health services in Goa. Excepting of course the time he was in the IIT and IISc hostels. He was equally friendly with my brother and we spent hours and hours cycling, walking and chatting. I cherish every moment of his company. After a year with the DRDO, he went to the US on a research fellowship and subsequently settled in the University of Texas as a faculty member and recently he had shifted to Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was the first of my acquaintances to have settled in the US and I was looking forward to meeting him there all these years.

We had our breakfast in Datta’s van and went around the city of Denver. We visited the Capitol building

and after driving around the city for a while, Datta headed towards the mountains. He wanted us to have a glimpse of the beautiful slopes of the Rocky mountain range

and was also eager to show us some wild buffalos which inhabit the mountains. He is a meticulous planner, but this time he had forgotten to convey his eagerness to the buffalos and they did not show up. Datta was disappointed but the mountain ranges minus buffalos were still very beautiful and after driving along the slopes for about an hour we headed home.

Colorado springs is about seventy miles from Denver. Datta’s wife Rama was awaiting us with the lunch ready and we were ready for lunch. A visit to the nearby Manitou cliff dwellings, and Garden of gods had been planned for the evening but we had time for a small nap (for which I have got addicted after getting the ‘retired’ tag) before we started on our sight seeing.

Civic Sense

2010-08-23T03:19:00.000-07:00

One of the many things that had impressed me during my visit to the US was the facility of ‘restrooms’ or toilets. Any establishment, big or small has an attached toilet which is clean and well maintained. The urinals are usually self flushing and if not, people who use them invariably flush them after use. Those located in large offices or malls are actually ‘posh’. I found one such 'public restroom’ in the Renaissance Center building in Detroit downtown, which houses the head office of General Motors and since it was empty at the time, even took a picture of it. When I said that I took photographs of anything and everything I was not exaggerating.

Toilets in our country, when compared to what they were twenty or thirty years back, have improved a lot. Those who have used them in our bus stands and railway stations over the years know what I mean. While the administration or the managements seems to be putting efforts to better things, I feel, we, the users, are yet to develop the civic sense which would further improve the situation.

I was in the passport office at Panaji last week. I needed to use the urinal and was happy to find a toilet on the premises. I was happier to see that it had been washed, did not smell and that the taps had running water. I was about to come out of the toilet after use, when I remembered that I always used to flush them during my visit to the US. I felt ashamed that I forgot about it as soon as I landed in my country. Our ex president Sri Abdul Kalam, in one of his articles has highlighted this tendency of ours and has requested everyone to be as good a citizen in our country as we usually are while we are in a foreign country.

I went back and noticed that it was a manual flush pan and seemed to have a working apparatus and running water. My civic sense woke up. I thought of Mr. Kalam and decided that I would do whatever little I can, to improve things in my country and pressed the flush knob.

Water sprayed out of the knob splashing my face, clothes, ceiling and everything else except the pan.

I walked out of the toilet wiping my face and shaking out water droplets from my shirt, admonishing my civic sense to remain shut up in future.

Between Niagara and Colorado

2010-08-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

One of the first things that I pocketed after entering Bhanu’s house in Canton MI was the digital camera. We had a somewhat bulky and battered camera with a broken battery compartment back home and I had not carried it with me. I had no intention of taking chances with the security in unknown airports carrying something from which batteries and wires were sticking out even though my name was not Khan. I had heard enough from my wife for not carrying a camera on our ‘once in a life time trip’ and was very glad to find this one lying unclaimed.

Vishwa had just then bought a new Canon which had many more megapixels, two additional lenses and whatnot, and hence did not notice that his old camera had a new owner. Since everything that I saw was new and different, and since the camera had the capacity to store thousands of images I went on clicking pictures of anything and everything – streets, houses, shops, post boxes, cars, garbage, garbage trucks, sign boards - in short, everything that did not object to my clicking, and in fifteen days, had more than six hundred images.

The camera had plenty of space and it did not have any objection to store the pictures. But even if I wanted to see or use one or two of them I had to connect the camera to the computer, wait till all the pictures were loaded and select what I wanted. The computer took its own time and it was a pain to sit waiting for the pictures to appear. Then I remembered the ‘Picasa’ software on which I could store all the pictures and use them as and when I wanted but I did not know how to shift the pictures from the camera to ‘Picasa’. After trying many times and failing, I caught my nephew Sheshera in Pune on the phone one day and with his guidance, managed to load all the pictures to ‘Picasa’. This 'Picasa' gave rise to other troubles but it is another story.

We had three free days between our return from Niagara and our trip to Colorado. One day was spent with ‘Picasa’.

The next day I learnt to use the battery operated plant trimmer. I do not know what it is called. It has a long shaft on which there are many blade like things and one end of the shaft has a motor and a handle. When switched on, the blades vibrate and cut anything that they come in contact with. Looks like a sword with an unusually heavy and bulky handle. I managed to trim some plants around the house without trimming my fingers and limbs.

The third day was spent in following up with the cleaning of the pool. the pool, which had been closed for winter had been opened and was being made fit for use. The fellow who had come to replace the filter pump and check the water quality had suggested manual vacuuming of the pool floor and I had volunteered to do it. I had thought that it would be easy. It would have been. If both the ends of the hose were well secured and I knew where and how the floor was. The water was not clear, and I could not see the floor. I was expecting it to be flat but it felt like a bowl. I had to stand by the side of the pool and push the vacuuming brush back and forth using the long handle, keeping it in close contact with the floor. I wanted it to go in a certain direction assuming that the floor was flat and it kept going in all other directions because the floor was curved. it confused me. With this confusion and with the pipe getting detached every now and then, it took a whole day to clean about ten percent of the pool. I left the remaining of the cleaning to the small ‘Polaris’ cleaner which moved on its own around the pool floor and went in to pack. We were to leave by the early morning flight next day, 17th of June, to Denver, Colorado.

Niagara Continued and finished.

2010-08-12T09:46:00.001-07:00

The Embassy suites hotel provided complimentary breakfast to its guests and it was an impressive display. The entrance to the dining hall was lined by uniformed hosts who were there to welcome every guest, and more importantly to confirm that the guests possessed a breakfast voucher and to ensure that they paid a decent tip while leaving.

The wall facing the falls was glass, giving a very good view and the tables were set on different levels so that every table had a view of the falls. One of the hosts or waiters or stewards or whoever they were (all of them wore suits and looked like owners) led us to a table, offered to get beverages and directed us to help ourselves from the breakfast counters. The breakfast buffet included boiled eggs, scrambled eggs and omelette, chicken, bacon and steak, waffles and maple syrup, bagels, muffins, tarts, scones, cake, three varieties of bread, three varieties of cereals, milk, fruits, butter, jelly, cheese, tea, coffee and juice. I went around the counters looking keenly into the trays (there were many things I was seeing for the first time) as if going through the exhibits in a museum and ended up with toast, jelly, fruits and a cup cake. There were many who had huge piles on their trays and had huge bodies to accommodate all that.

By the time all of us had had our breakfast and were ready to check out of the hotel it was ten in the morning and in another ten minutes we were in front of the falls. The weather was still cloudy but it wasn’t raining and the mist had cleared. We had only seen the illuminated water fall the previous night and now we had a panoramic view of the Niagara in full splendor and it was wonderful. The walk way was full of excited tourists walking to and fro looking at the falls from various positions and trying to accommodate the falls as well as their companions in the tiny auto focus cameras.

I would have loved to just stand there looking at the falls and move up and down the walk way as long as my legs permitted but we had to take part in the obligatory activities connected with the falls viz a ride on the ‘Maid of the mist’, visiting the theater for ‘Fury of the falls’ show and undertake ‘Journey behind the falls’. Out of these I knew what a ride on the ‘maid of the mist’ involved. You get on to the ferry boat which takes you right in front of the falls and go for a very close look of the falls, covering yourself with disposable rain coats. But I had no idea what the other things were.

Maid of the mist goes close to the falls.

“Fury of the falls” was a sort of simulated film show where you were supposed to feel how it would be if you were thrown down the falls in a barrel. I found it somewhat childish and could not enjoy it. The floor heaved and shuddered now and then and water was sprayed on us by sprinklers to give a realistic effect which I could not appreciate. Not worth the cost or wait.

“Journey behind the falls” was better. You go through a man made tunnel about hundred and fifty meters long which opens right behind the falls but all you can see is a cloud of mist through a door like opening behind the falls in the rocks.

As it turned out, to me, even the ‘Maid of the mist’ which otherwise was enjoyable could not provide the visual feast that was expected. The mist collected on my glasses even as I kept wiping it, barring vision and if I took the glasses out, my vision was blurred anyway. All said and done the best thing to do at Niagara is to spend as much time as possible walking along the walk way, enjoying the view of the falls.

By late afternoon it started raining again and we were tired. We took the shuttle to the public parking lot which was in fact like a garden. It had a very nice spread of green and flowering plants all around the parking bays. We got into the frame around this beautiful tree to provide a contrast. If I get to visit Niagara once again in my lifetime, I would stand /walk in front of the falls as long as my legs allow me and spend the rest of the time in the parking lot.

Right now, it was time for us to leave. The thickening clouds and the mist were blocking the falls and the intensity of rain was increasing. I looked out as we passed by the side of the falls and could see only a cloud of mist and a wet and empty walk way.

Priority In Urgency

2010-08-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

I was to continue with the Niagara when this “urgent matter” came up.

Sri Shanbhag entered the clinic around 8 PM as usual, the closing time. “I am extremely sorry I am late doctor. But you see this job is like that. And without this job, I can’t pay your fees.” A logic which I just could not reject.

“I want you to do something about this lower grinder. The cavity has been there for a long time but a part of the tooth broke yesterday and has left a sharp margin. It hurts my tongue. I can’t talk or eat. It is urgent”
I agreed.

“Equally important is this upper tooth. It gives me pain every now and then. I have lot of engagements in the office for the next fifteen days. I can’t afford to remain absent. If it gets worse I will be in big trouble. You have to do something for it.”
I had to say that I will see that too.

“And these front teeth, you see I am wearing a denture. It has developed a crack. We have a delegation coming from South Africa next week. I have to make a presentation. I cannot think what would happen if this breaks. Please do something about it.”

Everything was urgent but it was impossible to attend to all of them on the spot. So I said,
“See Mr. Shanbhag, I understand the situation. But I can’t do everything at once. Tell me what is most urgent”

“To tell you the truth doctor, what is most urgent right now is that I have to use your toilet.”

He ran.