Apologies to Bob Dylan's "The Times They aChangin"

We have done a Bob Dylan-ish take in this poem "Yes, the Times They Have Changed". We mean "The Times They Are aChangin" song. Hope you like it.

It goes thusly, do kindly read:

Television’s full of wars and countries breaking,
Mutilated bodies, running people, and reporters screaming,
Don’t believe newspapers or channels any more,
It’s TRPs they are after, truth is just a chore.

Yes it’s true the times they have changed,
Yesterday’s history, the future has arrived.

More here:"Yes, the Times They Have Changed".

On Reading Amitav Ghosh's "Sea of Poppies"

It's raining. We have recently finished Amitav Ghosh's "The Sea of Poppies" and had drawn close to the well-etched characters, their foibles, weaknesses, strengths, courage, etc. We think novels are a manifestation of how vulnerable we are, how inside us we are all alike. We like it when we draw close to a character in the story like Zachary Reid, his courage, his strength becomes ours too. Zachary Reid epitomizes the strength of character that he exhibits when Serang Ali tempts him to be a pirate. But that would be giving away the plot of the story, wouldn't it?

Deeti, Neel, and Jodu are other characters which came within reach, so much so that one could extend ones arms and touch them, feel one with them, and get inside their heads. The extensive bibliography provides references to the book that Amitav used for writing the book and it's nothing short of amazing the amount of research that must have gone into it.

Neel's transformation from a Raja to a convict and criminal and his serving of his cellmate shows the tender caring side of him. Though brought up in luxury as a Raja he makes the transition from luxury of the palace to that of the cooped up cell inside the slave ship without rebellion and accepts it as his destiny.

The novel works in several parallel levels, independently, and then brings all the characters together in the slave ship to reach its climatic scene, the one enacted against the backdrop of the storm.

Well done, Amitav, loved to read this!

We Go for a Walk and This Is What We See, an Incoming Storm!

A storm is coming, and as we type, it's raining a soft but steady drizzle.

Tomorrow Is Dussehra, So New Bombay Is Awash in Flowers!

Dussehra is tomorrow and the streets of New Bombay are awash with flowers

"Diwali Dusera, hath pair pasra"

The above has been a favourite saying of ours since our childhood in the suburb of Chembur. The festival season is heralded by the offering of flowers, the doing of pooja on books and business accoutrements, and the burning of Ravana, signifying the death of evil. It is also the advent of the festival season, as Navratri comes to a close and the colours and lights and merriment of Dussehra and Diwali start. We look forward to the millions of lanterns, wicker lamps, blinking lights of all hues, and the giving of sweets to friends and relations. Our neighbours bring sweets and we would have to watch out for our sugar levels.

Paul Newman Is No More

Among icons of Hollywood cinema we consider the following inevitably ineluctable and their craft ineffable. For their towering personlities, presence on screen and off it, and for their dedication to their craft in spite of setbacks. They didn't just fade away as Indian stars (except Amitabh) do, but kept on pursuing their careers and acting dreams, and at age 78 Clint Eastwood still makes moves (sorry movies!).

Paul Newman
Gene Hackman
Robert Redford
Clint Eastwood
Burt Reynolds

And, we say this with some shame, Paul Newman, the one with piercing grey eyes and a set of the mouth that we enjoyed watching, the one with the taciturn and brooding presence, and star of movies such as Towering Inferno, The Verdict, The Sting, and many others I haven't seen, IS DEAD. "Just impossible" we said when we heard the news, we thought stars DON'T DIE but they fade away like Suraiya, Kishore Kumar, Meena KUmari, Raj Kapoor, Catherine Hepburn, and the like. Their roles get shorter, their presence less commanding, and the gossip rags are rude and stop featuring their mug shots.

But Paul Newman was a favourite, a strong solid and dependable actor and here's what his friend Robert Redford writes about him in this article


"The friendship that grew out of the experience of making that film and The Sting four years later had its genesis in the fact that although there was an age difference, we both came from a tradition of theater and live TV. We were respectful of craft and focused on digging into the characters we were going to play. Both of us were fundamentally American actors, with the qualities and virtues that characterize American actors: irreverence, playing on the other's flaws for fun, one-upmanship — but always with an underlying affection. Those were also at the core of our relationship off the screen."

Inside Our Church, This Morning!

The faithfuls having holy communion

The faithfuls (of which we are one) have the Holy Communion which is a holy sacrament. Picture above shows our parish priest administering the body and blood of Christ, which we believe renews us in the faith and gives us release from our feeling of sin and guilt because we have asked for forgiveness. Christianity is a religion which believes in forgiveness of one’s sins if we forgive those who have sinned against us. We, too, forgive people who have said or done wrong things to us, because as a Christian it keeps us free from overt feeling of guilt and a pervasive consciousness of sin, which can be a heavy burden on anyone’s shoulder. We don’t miss church whenever we can, and the above picture has been taken during today’s worship.

When we hear of the atrocities in Kandhamal in Orissa (nun raped, woman raped and killed, houses looted and pillaged, churches destroyed), our heads lower in shame, is that all we could make of our freedom of religion guaranteed by the constitution. And speaking of the violence where are all the policing authorities who are supposed to bring law and order to the people, even minorities?

Particularly alarming is the way the states of India are turning into theocratic states that sponsor violence against minorities. It happened in Gujarat under Narendra Modi, and now it is happening in Orissa, ruled by Naveen Patnaik, who has the support of BJP. It happened again in Karnataka which reported incidents of violence against Christians, which is again a BJP ruled state under Yeddyurappa.

The verdict is all clear as daylight for everyone to see, i.e., that the BJP-ruled states are encouraging atrocities against minorities and not restraining elements within their party who are out to foment trouble and deny minorities their right to freedom of religion.

Three states are guilty of this crime against humanity and the verdict is clear enough. There is no doubt about which party is guilty of inciting trouble. Why isn’t the moderate centrist central government led by the UPA acting against them? Manmohan Singh says “Orissa Tarred India [sic] Image,” but, forget the bad language, will he ever do something? Even that outburst came because the French Prime Minister pulled him up recently.

Religious extremism and terrorism are linked, yes, they are. One begets the other. A sense of insecurity prevails in us; we are constantly on the lookout for terrorist attacks at railway stations, for we are dependent on it for commuting. And when going to church we are again beset by fears, which we weren’t earlier.

Why Are Our Malls So Loud!

As we have said before, we find malls relaxing, so we wander around, have a snack and walk out again when we get the time, and these days we don't buy much, as an expensive trouser we bought at a so-called "sale" bled colour, shrank, and made us look uncouth and uncool when we wore it. So, it's finito to shopping for us, but we still hang around Raghuleela mall, because we worked close to this shopping extravaganza, and we stare at its atrium, and we stare some more at the clothes and wonder what we would look like in them, and then we walk out, away from these meretricious things.

Makes us wonder why our malls are so loud, the one above even had a disc jockey playing earsplitting music, so we couldn't talk to the sales men, couldn't browse in peace, couldn't meet with the inner self as we perambulated around this mall by the rail that Raghuleela actually is.

Money-loving Dhansukhbhai approves of what we do, we guess. He says malls are for foolish people, he prefers his Cambridge shirts and trousers, cheap, a spot loud, even though it might be. Bless him.

I keep a close watch on people in malls, I know I would be least conspicuous as we observed them and here's what we think. People who buy in malls are people from out of town, you know the small town types who come to Bombay with wads of money tucked in their mundus and dhotis? Yes, they are. We saw a couple of "achayans" from Kerala and immediately guessed who they might be: rich rubber plantations owners and cashew and pepper traders, out to a wedding of someone in the family in Bombay having enough time to gallivant and even more money to spend. And they wore crisp mundus and starched shirts, and their women looked like they walked straight out of the Jayanti Janata Express or the Netravati Express, as the case may be.

"Aiiyo, achayo, enthundu vishesham," before they could smile broadly and say these words, we exit, and make a beeline for the exits.

Google Faces the Heat from Microsoft!

Seems Goggle Page Rank, the undisputed ranking of the effectiveness of a website bestowed by Google will have a tough competitior in Microsoft's recently launched BrowseRank. Says Michael Lowry in this article:

"Microsoft recently unveiled the details of BrowseRank, its new browsing algorithm meant to compete with and eventually outperform Google and its PageRank. Instead of measuring the links to and from a specific page, BrowseRank calculates how often users visit the site and for how long. Microsoft feels this will give Internet users, and not web developers, more control over page relevancy, thus leading to a freer, more democratic Internet.

"Search, like many things in life, is all about Rank. And right now Microsoft is a distant third, a dark and unfamiliar place for a company so used to dominating the computer industry. Indeed, Microsoft is struggling to remain relevant in the search world, peering over the shoulder of Yahoo while trying to catch a glimpse of the real superstar. Of course, I am talking about Google, the undisputed Internet Search King. As of June 2008, Google accounted for a whopping 70% of all U.S. searches, which is up 6% from June 2007. Yahoo came in a distant second with a 20% share, while MSN had just five and a half percent and barely held off Ask(dot)com for third place."

Vandals Have Struck, Ye Gods, and How!

It's the height of vandalism, it's the height of defiance of rules of civil living. Go anywhere in Bombay and you see tons of spit on all walls, on every corner, in every waste basket, in every laboriously painted and maintained wall. This is a disease our society suffers from, spitting all the time. The roads are full of spit and we dread to step on them.

We dread even to look at all the spit and the spitters. But the language and this piece of vandalism caught our eye and we captured it on our cellphone camera. The spit is aimed right at the mouth of the drawn face. With what precision! Amazing!

Anthonybhai is back from his vacation in Goa and what he says is, "Why can't the gormint provide proper spittoons for people to spit men, then, at least this ugliness on all our buildings can be avoided. Make sense, men? People should be taught to take care of the city's walls, after all, men, do you spit on the walls of your own house?"

The Scene Inside the Train This Morning, All You Can See Are Hands and Bodies!

We clicked this twisting ourselves, raising our hand above the grind of flesh, so you know how hard it is commuting in Bombay. Moving or stretching hands and feet are prohibited as bodies are thickly packed, a few movements can irritiate the person stand next to us. So we had to be careful. All you can see are hands, hands, hands everywhere. There's a mass exodus when the train comes to Kurla, because that's where the hoi polloi get down for the sweat shops of Andheri and Bandra-Kurla.