The Rajasthan Diaries - V

The last segment of our trip was a stopover at the famous hill station/resort of Mount Abu in Rajasthan. The ride from Jodhpur to Mount Abu was uneventful, but after a prolonged stopover for dinner at a famous eatery run by the Baba Ramdev organization, we reached Mount Abu at an unearthly hour. As we went around the deserted streets of Mount Abu, we were reliving the experience of Jodhpur, where there were no hotels available. After a few stops at dirty hovels which were masquerading as hotels, we came across a nice, decent place at the foothills of Mount Abu. Luckily for us, the hotel had rooms for us, and all of us trooped in, after a long ride in the day.

Mount Abu is a scenic place set in the Aravalli ranges, where the main attraction is the cool climate and also some temples which are revered by the Jain community. In the morning, after a refreshing breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel, we made our way to the actual hill station (we were at the foothills .. so it was a long and winding road to the top of the hill). The road wound its way slowly up, and as we went up, we could see the temples on the hilltop which had made the place famous. There were a lot of monkeys all along the way, and any vehicle which would stop along the way, would have the inquisitive simians board them and not leave until the vehicle started up and picked up considerable speed. The road was desolate and deviod of human habitation, and all one could see were cars and jeeps making their way to the top, or coming back down. Our first stop was at a temple for the Goddess Durga (or one of her many incarnations, I don't exactly remember the name). The climb was long as there were innumerable steps to the temple, which was on the summit of a hillock. As for the temple, it was just a cave, where the deity was supposed to have incarnated as a rock formation ('Swayambhu' - which means being incarnate on his/her own wish/inclination). The entrance to the cave, was a narrow opening, where one had to do some amount of bending/twisting to get in/out. There were many rock formations outside the temple, where we took some photos.
The next stop was the stunning temples of Dilwara, which are famous for their marble carvings. The architecture of the temple was such that the temple itself was not visible to a person walking on the street. The temples were built in a depression in the ground. The logic behind this strange architectural design was to prevent the temple from being seen by invaders who would then proceed to loot and burn the temple down to the ground as was the trend during those days. Adherent to the Jain tradition, the temple prevents any kind of leather from being taken inside, so after depositing all our leathery articles, like belts and purses in the jeep itself, we went inside. The cool confines of the temple contain some of the most intricate marble stone design which can be made. The unfortunate part is that no photography is allowed within the temple, and therefore all the designs are only a memory. There are five temples in the complex, each one dedicated to one of the 24 Jain tirthankaras. After coming out, we made our way to the highest point in the Aravalli ranges, which housed the temple of Dattatreya. Above the temple is the summit of the hill, which provides a splendid view of the plains. We reached there, to get a stunning view of the plains around the hills. A river was visible in the distance, which had dried up. The summit had a bell, which was a sort of wishing bell. Rumour had it that if the bell was rung, then whoever was unmarried would get married in the next one year. All of us were single at that time, and all of us rang the bell, thinking about the obvious. Till date this has been proven to be false as none of us is yet to get married.
After a quick lunch, we made our way to the sunset point to watch the sun set over the Aravalli ranges. The setting sun always is a sight to behold, and watching the sun set from a high ground, with the plateau as the backdrop, was a different experience. Once the sun had set, and we had soaked in the best images of a cold winter evening on the hills, we moved out to make our way back to our hotel as we had a train to catch in the night. We alighted at Mount Abu station, and were picking up our luggage, when a group of sadhus appraoched us. One of the sadhus pointed at Shivam and wanted to "bless" him, which we watched with a lot of amusement. Shivam was very uncomfortable facing the sadhu who was making threatening gestures at him and generally causing him some grief. The sadhu left Shivam alone only after he had parted with 20 bucks, while we had a hearty laugh at Shivam's expense.
We were lucky with the train this time, and as it entered the platform on time, we got to our berths and curled in for a good night's sleep. We had a flight to catch from Delhi the next evening, and we slept peacefully, little knowing the surprise awaiting us the next day.

The Rajasthan Diaries - IV

The ride from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur, our next destination was uneventful. The bus was full, and all of us had no energy left in us. We just slept through the entire journey. We were woken up by cries from the conductor, of the bus entering Jodhpur, and we just took a spot decision to get down. We got down at a desolate road junction in the city, equipped only with the knowledge of finding a hotel near some place which Avinash knew. The autos in Jodhpur are a strange combination of ancient and modern design. The auto looks like a modified bullock cart, and chugs along at its won pace irrespective of the urgency shown by the rider. We picked up some food along the way, the famous dal,bhati and churma, which I had heard was the speciality in these places and trudged around looking for a hotel which would be open at that point of time. The auto driver 'Vinoo' was giving us some expert advice on hotels in the city, but we were adamant on going to one particular place. In hindsight, it would have been better if we had listened to him, as after reaching the hotel, we found that it was way above our budget.
The next hotel which we looked at was the 'Heritage Hotel'. This was a decent hotel, and the cost also did not burn too much of a hole into our pocket. We packed off Vinoo and settled down into the beautiful room which was fit for a royal couple. The dinner which we had picked up along the way turned out to be a anti-climax. The food was too spicy, and we ended up chucking most of the food away. The night was pretty cold, and we snuggled up for a deep slumber.
The next morning was supposed to be spent sight seeing in Jodhpur. We got up and made arrangements for the taxi cab through one of Avinash's contacts. The cab turned out to be a spacious Qualis, and the driver was a nice soft spoken man called Anwar. We first made our way to the house of one of Avinash's class mates, where we were treated to a sumptous breakfast and a hot cup of tea. With a loaded stomach, we started out on a tour of the 'blue city'. If Jaipur was called the 'Pink City' due to its pink city walls, Jodhpur would certainly have been called 'the blue city'. Most of the buildings in the old part of the city were painted a dark blue in colour. Our first stop was the Jodhpur fort. The fort was atop an imposing hill, and overlooked the city majestically. We got down at the foot of the hill, where the entrance of the fort was, and made our way up into the walls of the fort. The walls of the fort bore the marks of cannon balls, and the majestic fort walls which overlooked the city had an array of cannons lined up. There were cannons of all shapes and sizes. After going around the walls, we ventured into the Jodhpur fort mueseum. The museum had a decent collection of art and artifacts from the time of the Maharajahs of Jodhpur. Our next stop was at a place called 'JaswantThana'. This was the burial place of all the kings of Jodhpur. The place was made entirely of marble, and had a memorial for every king who had ruled over Jodhpur during the past. From there, we went across to the palace of the current king of Jodhpur. The palace, is only partially open to the public, while the other half is used as a hotel. There are suites in the hotel, which are rumoured to be more than a lakh of rupees per night. It is aptly called the 'Emperor Suite'. We skipped lunch as most of us were not hungry after the heavy breakfast which we had. We made our way to a very famous Jain temple which would fall along the way to Mount Abu, our next stop.
The Jain temples of Ranakpur are very famous in the Jain community. The temples themselves are very old, constructed close to a thousand years ago. There are three temples in the complex, and we could make it to only one of the temples, as the time had already passed for entry into the other temples. A common rule in all the Jain temples is that anything which is made of leather is not allowed inside. So, we had to leave our belts and purses in the cab itself. Another common factor in all the Jain temples is the absence of any electrical lighting. Whatever lighting is available is through lamps, which gives the temple a really eerie look. We entered the temple, in time for the final aarti. We witnessed what was the auction for the post of doing the aarti for that day. The rate started at Rs.100, and went on to close at Rs.7000. The person, who wins the auction, gets the chance to do the aarti on that evening to the statue of Lord Neminath, one of the premier tirthankaras of the Jain religion.
We couldn't visit the fort of Kumbalgarh, which was a few more kilometers away from Ranakpur. We made our way towards Mount Abu, our next stop in our trip across Rajasthan.

The Rajasthan Diaries - III

We got down at the dusty station of Jaisalmer, only to be surrounded by a horde of tour operators, who surrounded us with different offers to show Jaisalmer. After a lot of bargaining, we ultimately settled for one, at a price which was agreeable to both the parties. The package was to show us the sand dunes of the desert, at a place called Sam, 40 Kms from Jaisalmer, alongwith a night spent in the desert. We stuffed into the jeep, and set out for the first part of our desert adventure. The first stop was a pit stop, to fill our empty tummies. The cuisine in Rajasthan, consists of simple, oil free food, which is a bit on the spicy side, however that did not
make a difference to our famished selves.

We set out on the desert road, with only the afternoon sun visible in the horizon. The first detour was to a Jain temple called Anand Sagar. This was our first taste of the architecture which would be come very familiar in the coming days. It was a beautiful temple, with a lake on the side. The entire temple was made in sandstone, with exquisite carvings which we couldn't believe, were handmade. After spending some time at the temple, we set out on the desert road for the sand dunes to watch the setting sun. Along the way, our guide, Sahib Khan, who was a sort of hero worshipped by all the other guides around, mentioned that the desert road was the very same road used for the shooting of the Hindi movie "Road". We reached the camel pickup point well before sundown, and got onto camels for the last part of the journey into the desert.

A ride on a camel is not for one with a weak back. The very nature of the camel's walk makes you feel that you are riding a backfiring motorcycle, which is working in fits and starts. Once, inside the desert, we chose a small dune, which provided a good view of the setting sun, and settled down in the sand, waiting for the sun to go down. We were not alone though, this sunset point as it was called, was teeming with visitors, all of whom had come there on camels, and were waiting for the sun to go down. As we were waiting in the sand, a family of four entertainers, came up and started a Rajasthani folk song and dance performance. They had just finished and gone, that another man came up with a strange instrument, a double shehnai, which he played with comfortable ease. At that point we were pretty much fed up with all the song and dance, that another musician came, this time playing the reed. Our only unease was that he would attract any snakes in the vicinity. The instrument is widely used by snake charmers all over the country. However, the trick is not in the music as the snakes cannot hear, but in the movements that the snake charmer makes, slow and mesmerising, which has the reptiles captivated all the time. As all this was happening, the sun was slowly setting at the far horizon. On that day, we couldn't get the complete beauty of the setting sun, as there were some clouds in the way. We made our way back to the main road, on the camels again. We reached the vehicles, and were taken to a nearby resort for getting cleaned up, after all we had been on the road all along. We were welcomed at a small resort, where there were rooms to get cleaned up and change our dusty clothes. We get cleaned up, and settled down to a night of Rajasthani folk song and dance with a cup of hot tea. The songs were beautifully sung, one of us even wondered that the rendering of Ghulam Ali's ghazals were as good as the original. As the night meandered on, most of our fellow travellers retired for the night. We were left by the side of the fire, warming ourselves as the night was growing cold. It was a beautiful experience as there was silence all around, punctuated by the occasional sound of a vehicle on the road. After some time, even those sounds died out. For the first time, we experienced complete silence and darkness. There was no light anywhere, except for the moon light. The sky was crystal clear, with the stars seen in their complete glory. We took the courage to venture out into the open, but after a few steps, there was just complete darkness in front, and all around us. Added to the eerie silence, there was this strange noise which felt as if someone was approaching us. The scene was right out of one of the Ramsay Brother's Hindi horror movies, the only anti-climax was that, the fluttering noise was the flags fluttering in the wind. We retreated to the comfort of our huts, for a night of deep sleep. We promised ourselves to get up early, to watch the sunrise. The alarms which we had kept could not rouse us from our deep slumber, but we just about managed to watch the morning sun rising above the desert floor. After a frugal breakfast, we lugged our bags to the Sumo, and along with our guide Sahib Khan, set out towards Jaisalmer City.

The first stop in Jaisalmer City, was the Fort of Jaisalmer, or Sonar Qila (The Fort of Gold) as it was called. The fort is situated on the confluence of three hills, and is an imposing sight to anyone entering the city. The walls are completely made of yellow sandstone. On entering the fort, we made our way among the narrow alleys, and found ourselves at the entrance of a Jain temple within the fort. The temple was carved entirely out of yellow sandstone, and the carvings of figurines and dieties were mindboggling. It was amazing to see what a fine sculptor's hand could achieve, even with a piece of hard sandstone. After the temples, we went over to the museum in the fort which housed the memorablia of the King's dynasty. What stuck me at all these places was the complete lack of any maintainence to any of the structures. Added to the neglect, was the fact that the people who lived there, seemed to be least bothered to maintain the area around. The next stop was a set of mansions owned by the traders and merchants who had previously lived in the city of Jaisalmer. The mansion was preserved as a historical monument, a testimony of the living style of the noble men of that age. By this time, we had become slightly bored of seeing the same type of carvings on stone. Our boredom
increased when we noticed that almost every building in the city of Jaisalmer had the same type of carvings in stone, as we had seen in the fort. We were in for another surprise, as we made our way out of the mansions, to find that our driver had absconded with the vehicle. On calling up our friend, Sahib Khan, he promised to come there soon, and we were left exploring the areas around the mansions for some time. By this time, all of us were tired of seeing the same type of carvings all around, and we could not wait to get into the bus to get on with the next part of our journey. Finally, after loafing around aimlessly for some more time, and visiting another of the famous mansions(The Haveli of Salim Singh) around, where our guide told us that the shooting of the film "Sarfarosh" had taken place, with the same type of carvings, which by now we were really bored of looking at, we made our way to the bus stand, where the bus which would take us to Jodhpur was waiting for us. As the sun went down over the desert, we made our way out of the last outpost on the Western border of India, Jaisalmer.

The Rajasthan Diaries - II

Marriages are always grand affairs. It a time which calls for celebration all around. All the marriages which I had attended till date were South Indian marriages where the rituals and the preparation for the marriage is done in a very private ceremony. I had only heard of North Indian marriages and seen the marriages in the movies, but had not actually participated in one. We all went for our classmate's marriage which was being held in Jaipur. The marriage was the main reason for the trip, though the later plan to look around in Rajasthan was an offshoot of this trip. We reached the place where the 'baaraat' was supposed to start.

Our classmate, Mahesh was already astride the mare which was to take him to the marriage hall. The weather was very chilly, and I had not worn very apt clothes for the weather. In fact, me and my colleague who had accompanied us for the trip, were the only ones in the entire crowd out there, who were wearing kurtas. Everyone had turned up in coats and blazers. Anyway, the baaraat made its way through small bylanes in Jaipur, with my classmates dancing away to the impromptu tunes being played by the band which led the way. After a long walk of about 2-3 km, we finally reached the marriage hall. The bride and bridegroom took their places on the podium, and exchanged garlands, which indicated the beginning of the marriage proceedings. As usual, we went for our dinner first (after all we were a hungry lot after walking all the way), and soon it was time to leave. We had to catch a train that very night to Jaisalmer. So, there we were, standing on the stage, and posing for a group photograph, with our dear friend Mahesh Swami, who was entering into the stage of a householder (Grihasthashrama in Sanskrit).

It was only later that our friend pointed out that we had left at the wrong time. The festivities only started after 12 pm. Anyways, we reached the station to find that the train had not yet arrived. If one takes a look at the map of Rajasthan, then it can be seen that Jaisalmer is one hell of a distance from Jaipur. The train which we were to take for Jaislamer, actually starts from Delhi, and goes all the way to Jaisalmer, which is just a few hundred kilometers from the Indo-Pak border. The train actually consists of two parts, which split up in Jodhpur. One half goes to Barmer, while the other continues to Jaisalmer.

When we got in, we saw of couple of dishevelled men sleeping in our alloted berths. We woke them up, and told them that the berths were ours. They promptly got up, and started collecting their luggage. Out of curiosity, we asked them, where they were coming from. One of them replied that they were from the Border Security Force(BSF), and were coming from Manipur. The realization hit me like a thunderbolt. Here were a couple of men, who were making a trip all across the breadth of the country, with only a warrant which allows them to travel by train, no reservations, no berths, no comforts etc. and here we were, complaining at the very first instance whenever something does not go our way. The guys just picked up their luggage, and searched the compartment for another empty berth to lie down for the night again. In my heart, I felt a tremendous respect for the men from the armed services, who work day and night to make our lives safe and secure. Anyways, with these thoughts , I just rolled up in a warm blanket, and as the saying goes, 'Hit the sack ... '

The fact that we were nearing a desert, was evident from the fact that in the morning, when we got up, there was a fine layer of dust on our blankets, hair, shirts etc. Someone had forgotten to shut the door in the night, and in the morning, we had all got powdered. The train had left Jodhpur, and as Avinash commented, there were only tourists or army men, who went beyond this place. Before I continue, let me introduce the protagonists in the plot, who would accompany us on this trip, there was my old buddy from IIT days Avinash, or Mota as he is lovingly called for obvious reasons. There was Vasu, our colleague from my company, he had come with us for the trip across Rajasthan. Yogesh and me go back a long way, we first met in the IIT Kanpur campus, when we came to give interviews over there, and ultimately became classmates in IIT Delhi. He has been a good companion in all our trips when we were in Delhi, and he agreed to come this time too. The last, but not the least, was Shivam ... another of my IIT buddies, who is currently a scientist with BARC (God save the country .. no offence meant to Shivam). Once the guys had got up, we started discussing about the options for breakfast, when we felt that the train was pulling up at a station. Once the train stopped, we felt that there was some battle going on somewhere, as an entire battalion of soldiers in complete battle gear started getting into the train. On looking out of the window(our windows were closed to keep the infernal sand out of our shirts and trousers), we noticed that the train had arrived at Pokhran. Pokhran has the dubious distinction of being a nuclear bomb test site, but the station looked pretty common place. We got down, after seeing that the engine had detached from the train, and was interestingly making a trip to the back end of the train. The tea and hot pakoras in Pokhran, were a life saver. The train started off again and reached the dusty station of Jaisalmer in th e afternoon, with the majestic Jaisalmer fort in the background ....

The Rajasthan Diaries - I

Rajasthan has been a land associated with deary deserts and dry plains where human habitation is few and far in between. I had never even dreamt of going there in my entire life ... though it

was more to do with my ignorance about the beauty of the place. It is said that beauty lies in
the eyes of the beholder. As I had never ventured beyond Delhi in the Northern part of India, I
had no idea about the beauty of the place. It was therefore a God sent oppurtunity when my
classmate from our IIT days, Mahesh Kumar Swami, or Swamiji as he was affectionately called,
announced that he was entering the holy state of wedlock and all of us were cordially invited for
the same. That put a seed of an idea in our fertile young minds to plan for a trip in and around
Rajasthan. As usual, we went about it with the customary negligence which can be associated with our generation of people, who seem to believe that everything would happen at the very last moment. After some frantic phone calls to decide who was coming and who was not, ultimately the list boiled down to five enthu guys, which included our 'colleague' Vasu also (Reasons for the qoutes later). The rest of the gang decided that they could not afford to spend so much time away from the workplace and so did not decide to accompany us.

Day 1: Departure from Bangalore
Despite repeated warnings from everyone around, we managed to become late when we left for the airport to catch the 7:30 pm flight from Bangalore airport. At one point of time, stuck in the
traffic jam at the Manipal hospital junction, hope was running out fast. Luckily for us, some
political bigwig had decided to make that very day as his day of travel and therefore there was a huge line at the airport entrance, which delayed every flight that evening. I sometimes feel that
politicians should not use the same airport as the civilians as they do not realise the hardships
that they cause to the common man, well it is the common man who keeps making the same mistakes and electing the same set of oldies to parliament, more on this later. After a really boring flight on IndiGo airways, where we became bored of watching the flight attendants and playing Sudoku, we finally landed in Delhi at 11:00 pm in the night. By that time, our patience was running thin and rats were running around in our stomachs, and we came out to be greeted by our classmate Yogesh, a resident of Delhi who had arranged for the cab to take us from the airport right upto Jaipur. All of us bundled in together and sped off towards Jaipur. The national highway between Gurgaon and Jaipur was an amazing road, which put all the roads in Bangalore to shame, though it was a national highway. After some initial attempts to find some food at some shady roadside eateries, we finally managed to find a decent place to eat, in the dead of the night, 2:00 a.m I think, but we were too hungry to think about sleep. After a decent meal, and a cup of piping hot tea, it was time to hit the road again. We reached Jaipur early in the morning, and landed at the guest house where our friend Swamiji had booked our stay in Jaipur. Avinash gave the orders to sleep and get up by 8:00 a.m so that we could look around before the marriage actually began. When we got up and got ready by 8:30 a.m, we were surprised to find the rest of the fellows, happily snoring away to glory. After a lot of coaxing and cajoling followed by some unprintable epithets in the vernacular langauage, we were ready for the tour of Jaipur.

Day 1: Jaipur
Jaipur is also called the pink city. Knowing this fact, we were eagerly looking around for
pink buildings and the lot. However, we were only later to realise that the city was pink coloured only in a certain area which is also walled on all sides. This was where the old Jaipur city of the kings and queens of yore was actually built. All the development which we saw later was built much later. Our first stop was the Albert Hall Museum. This museum was supposed to be famous for having among its artefacts an Egyptian Mummy. We however did not go in as we were not too keen on museums and history as such. Riding through the walled city, we had our first taste of local hospitality when our vehicle was hauled up by a traffic policeman as the driver and the front seat rider were not wearing the seatbelts. We went looking for a place to eat, and the only place which we found after a lot of searching was not serving any ethnic food. We were eager to eat only the ethnic food and not the same old artificial stuff which we get almost everyday without fail at our workplaces and outside our homes. Our first stop was the Amer Fort where we also had our breakfast. The local delicacy is the Kachori, which we tasted different types of, followed by a cup of hot and tasty tea.

The fort of Amer was an imposing structure, and was said to have been built a long way back
during the days of Akbar, when Raja Mansingh was the ruler of Jaipur. The ramparts of the fort
were built to withstand cannon attacks and this was also protected by an outer wall which extended over a large distance with a lot of sentry towers at regular intervals. The maharajas of Jaipur were worshippers of the Mother Goddess and the fort had a temple right at the entrance of the fort. Even today, the ceremonial ruler of the princely state of Jaipur, comes to the temple in the fort to pay his respects to the deity. The insides of the fort were a beautiful demonstration of wall paintings and stone carvings.
When veiwed from a distance, one cannot make out the intricacies of the stone carvings, but on closer inspection it can be seen that the stone is hand polished and there has been perfection in the way the entire thing has been done. We had hired the services of a local guide who explained all the structures in detail and the history behind the structures. It was an interesting experience for someone who has not visited a fort which was built in this fashion and grandeur. Around 15 km from the Amer fort is the Jaigarh fort. It is built on a hill which overlooks the Amer fort. It is famous for the huge cannon 'Jaivana' which was built, but was fired only once. It is said that the person who lit the fuse of the cannon, died when the cannon was fired due to the shock generated during the recoil. We couldn't get the time to go till there as it was becoming late for the marriage. As we made our way back from the Amer fort, one lasting image was of the Sheesh Mahal or the Hall of Mirrors which was built in the inner courtyard of the fort. It was the housing quarters of the queens of the Maharajah and the entire wall was decorated by patterns created by placing small mirrors of different shapes and sizes. This was also memorable as at that very point of time, we managed to spot a bevy of beautiful girls, who had come there on a sightseeing trip like ours. After we had refreshed our minds with the beauty of the Sheesh Mahal, and the beauties who were present there, we made our way back to the guest house to get ready for the marriage.

Training Effects and the like

The last two weeks have been eventful, with the birth of my neice, attending a training session
which may herald a change in the way I look at life at large .. and a host of other events. I had
to go to Ranipet, where my sister-in-law, was recuperating after the birth of their girl, for the
naming ceremony. The journey was too short to be eventful. Seeing the kid was a revelation. I
realized that, when a human being is at the beginning of his/her life, he/she is totally
powerless, just a weak and dependent being. It is only with time, does man assume the notions of
being powerful. Power is of different types, and coupled with the ego, it makes for a heady
combination. One must realize that, we came into this world with nothing, and will go from this
world without anything for the next life. What will be remembered will be the deeds of the
person. This realization hit me, when I saw the little one, crying out of what was probably a
stomach bug. The urge to do something in this short life is now more, and I need to get down and
explore ways and means to improve my contribution to society. One fine morning, my manager called a couple of us, and asked us to attend the Executive
development programme, which was being conducted by our company, as a part of the overall
development programme for us. At first, all of us had the usual impressions and mental blocks as
to how the training programme would be. On the contrary, the programme turned out to be one of
the most informative and useful sessions that I have attended till date. In my college days, when
there used to be a lot of programmes which used to focus on personality development, we never
used to pay any attention to the details as we were too young and inexperienced to appreciate the
same. Now, after a couple of years in the industry, all that makes a lot of sense. In a world of
shortening deadlines and improbable targets, managing time and also ensuring that the quality of
work does not go down, requires the application of some of the techniques which were suggested to
us during the training programme. I have been a die hard fan of the Indian cricket team since the days I have been playing this
wonderful gam. However, the current performance of the team puts even the die hard fan in me into
some doubt whether all this hype and hoopla is really worth it. As a keen follower of the game, I
still like to watch cricket, be it any team that is playing, but watching a team just fold up
without a semblance of a fight pains me. A solution needs to be found and at the very earliest,
otherwise, the Indian cricket team is in for a few rude shocks, once it comes back to India. The
Indian public is not known to be very forgiving when it comes to judging people by their
performance. After all, they are paying money for it.

Intelligent auto drivers, and the lessons learnt

A long time has passed since the last post. In between, an interesting incident took place, which reflected that the world is still a good place to live in. A few of us had met up in Brigade Road in the evening, for a dinner, and after the dinner, the time was pretty late in the night, when I was waiting at a bus stop waiting for a bus to take me home. A pity that Bangalore is not upto the mark in terms of public transport. Buses stop after 9:30 pm, and after that the public is left at the mercy of the autos. The rates also keep spiralling, with some guys demanding more than double the usual fare if it is too late. Anyway, there I was, vainly waiting for a bus, along with a few other strangers. After a futile wait of half an hour, I decided to hail a rick, and take the long ride home, knowing fully well that the ride was going to burn a hole in my pocket. The auto rickshaw driver, who picked me up, spoke first in English, which stuck me, as it was uncommon. Anyways, he took a seedy bylane as there were the traffic cops at the junction, and he wanted to avoid them as he was not in his uniform. I don't blame the guy, as wearing the same khaki shirt all day long would have been irritating. Anyways, we got chatting, and out of curiosity, I asked him whether he knew Tamil, and to my pleasant surprise, I found that he was a native of TamilNadu. That started an interesting conversation, which opened my eyes about the world. A common adage is 'All that glitters is not gold'. What I found in my conversation with Mr. Alagasingham (that was the auto driver's name), was that looks can be deceptive. He was working as an auto driver, to feed his family, and his aim in life was to ensure that his children do not suffer from the same problems that he faced when he was a kid. He was working late nights so that he could make some extra money to provide for his kids during the holidays, when they would be at home all the day. But this was just the tip of the iceberg. He said, that his day began with him reading the newspaper, in the morning, and not one but two. How many auto rickshaw drivers would one find, who get up in the morning and read the newspaper, and the interesting point is, he read the paper to update his general knowledge. Most of us read the newspaper, jus to know what is going on around us, and after some time forget what was written in the newspaper. Here was a guy, who had an answer to almost any question that was posed to him. All this was possible, due to his quest for continuously improving himself. He has been an inspiration to me, though the meeting was short, it was far more revealing about the human nature than hours of talk would have been. This post is a salute to all such people, who want to continously improve themselves.
The blog has been ignored for quite some time now, and I hope to be more regular with the posts. Sundays are a good oppurtunity for updating the blog, as the office does not permit too much time to be devoted to the blog.