My CITY OF JOY:

This city , to which I belong is a paradox to the hilt .A city of contrasts and contradictions .I need'nt say since it is very obvious that it has its fair share of conflicts too .It has this unbelieveable capacity to assault all your senses- the mass of people , the poverty , the noise , the traffic , the nauseating car horns , the obnoxious fumes of smoke , the feeling of rot and decay , the cooking on the streets, remnants of paan marks on walls, the overpowering smells that choke your lungs , the banners and slogans , the chain of typewriters on the streets, the cow on road , the dilapidated public transport system - But then it has the capacity to surprise you with wonderful moments of culture , humanity , humour and unanticipated spirit.

This latter part of Calcutta is what i treasure and its this that keeps me going .My love and respect for this global village seems to increase each day that i wake up .

I could not have belonged to any other city as well as i belong to my city of birth-My city of Joy.

WISDOM TOOTH-MANDIBULAR 3RD MOLAR & The theory of Evolution:

The month of January'09 was a troublesome month in terms of health issues , with most part of it keeping me reeling in pain due to something or the other -eye infection,arm injury and the worst of them -The " Wisdom Tooth ".I came to know about this only after some days when someone casually told me it could be your " wisdom tooth " .Till then i had thought it was some common ulcer which would be gone in a day or 2 .Now this wisdom tooth on my upper set of teeth is located at a position where it cant be located easily ( with no teeth posterior to it ) .They say it comes when you have acquired some kind of wisdom & the person is considered to have a better judgement than that of a child.I did acquire a lot of it in '08 or rather '08 forced me to know about a lot of things .Whether i would go for its extraction or not would depend on the amount of disturbance it gives me in the days to come , but one thing thing which struck me while i was going through information on it was its link with the Theory of Evolution .

Wisdom teeth are vestigial third molars. In earlier times, when tooth loss in early adulthood was common, an additional molar had the potential to fill in a gap left by the loss of another tooth. It has also been postulated that the skulls of human ancestors had larger jaws with more teeth, which were possibly used to help chew down foliage to compensate for a lack of ability to efficiently digest the cellulose that makes up a plant cell wall. As human diet changed, a smaller jaw was selected by evolution, yet the third molars, or "wisdom teeth", still commonly develop in human mouths.

Would that mean that since in the days to come the Jawlines would keep on shrinking the Wisdom Tooth would get less and less space to grow , eventually leading to a no-wisdom tooth jawline .Wish i was born a 1000 years later ! It does pain !

AGENDA : Ban on 3 wheelers running on Kerosene in Kolkata..

AUTO-BIOGRAPHY : Zameen se ASTHMA tak ,

Ghoshbabu : Arre baba , 2-stroke Auto maane , jeytate bosha matroi,je kono manusher du du baar stroke hoye jete paare !!!
" Hey man , a 2 stroke auto is that vehicle wherein any human can have 2 strokes at a time !

Ghoshbabu : Etto pollution ! Shei jonyoi to sarkar bolche , Hari bole dau tule
" So much of pollution ! That is why the government says say jesus and pull them off the roads "

Bodobabu : Tule dewaar ki darkaar , auto-te othaar aage pocket-e ekta Sorbitrate rekhe dilei holo ...!!!
" Whats the need to ban them , just before climbing onto it keep a Sorbitrate in your pocket "

From Chandni to Parkcircus , from Jadavpur to Garia , from Behala to Taratala, Autos are everywhere , they are and they would be !!

The Autohwallah is a tough man .So flouting the court ban is 2nd nature .And they would still carry on carrying 6-7 passengers on their matchbox -on - wheels.

They have to say in unison :

" Aree sahib , jaayo giye sarkar ke bolo , Aaamder gaari choto kintu dil ta na , bujhle ! "
(" Oh sir , go , go and tell the government , we have small vehicles but our hearts are not small , understood !)

bangalore airport

I never had an oppurtunity to be at the new bangalore Airport but would constantly hear from my brother Aditya about it being too far away from the city ( He is doing his engineering in Bangalore ) .It became so incessant, his bickering , that it plunged me into giving a thought as to why the decision makers chose this place as their site !

Though he has always admitted that it is far ahead of the present state-of-the-art his complain is completely to do with its location .He always says that nobody seems to know just how far it is from the heart of the city , but everybody thinks it is very far .Now he has a valid point to make when he says that due to the far-ness it becomes a subject of higher math to calculate when you should be leaving to catch the flight ( It involves the concept of space-time relativity :)) , especially keeping in mind the traffic snarl-ups bangalore is diseased with , and , it being just one of the un-control-ables .He suggests the use of lunar calendars based on some vedic system of calibration :) or maybe astrologers .

He has his constant Hows ? Whys ? .I did find some answers to it , if i may suggest so ( though i would say they are generic suggestions and would not be logical always , do not try being cynics :) ) :

1. REAL ESTATE : The farther the airport away from the city the more the connecting land between the city and the airport .Now people in the know-how of the scheme of things could buy the land in advance at dirt cheap rates and then rake in the moolah later on .Simply said " The farther the airport -> the more the connecting land -> the more the prospective real estate -> the more the money to be made by insiders ( no brownie points for guessing who the insiders could be ! :) )

2. CARBON-FOOTPRINT: Now each flight that takes off from any airport of any city does leave a carbon footprint that depends directly on the (A) sheer number of flights and (B) their duration .
(A) Farther the airport -> More the avoidance in people towards flying
(B) Farther the airport -> Shorter the flight duration between airports

Now an interesting point to be made is , ( though might be comical to you ) assume airports start being so far from the city that they are almost mid-way the flight route , what we could do is then start sharing an airport for 2 cities .Similarly other cities could follow suit and eventually we land up with something very interesting and that is 1 Airport for the whole of the country , thus obviating forever the need to fly and thereby creating carbon-footprints ( though the Pachauris could lecture the whole world on it , travelling on planes , resulting hence in creating more of it :) ) .

ULTIMATE MOTION CONTROL IN AIR !!

INCOMPLETE :


genre:poignant , metric : uniform



In the solitude , germinates this cathartic mind of mine

Here everything looks so just incomplete ;

Almost whispering ,kissing & toying in the void ..

But the valiant efforts all go in vain .




There is this incessant fight within elements

The flow of the waters want to breakthrough to the gravel ;

The tall palms amost droop to their destruction ..

To absorb the juices that help them grow .




The fast moving symbols of urbanisation

Want to break into this sanctum sanctorium ;

The vast skyscrapers & its inhabitants peep their blood out ..

But cometh what , they fail to sense anything animate .




And I .....

Want to plunge into the waters

Against the flow of water and against gravity

To kiss that goldfish ..

That has eluded me and failed to sway in the air ...


How so incomplete ?!

Paryushan-festival of forgiveness :

The days that just went by rekindled in me the desire to truly respect the religion i was born with and people who are interested in knowing what jainism has to offer can read this post .
1.It acknowledges the self as atman .It is based on self-realistion ( atmadarshan)
2. It professes Vitraag-detachment as the key to moksha.It amounts to complete renunciation of all possesions and aversions.
3. The basic principles on which it stands are - ahimsa( non-violence),aparigrah(non-possesion),anekant(nonabsolutism).These are the primordial principles.
4. The path to moksha are the 3 jewels( ratna-traya) - right conduct,faith and knowledge.
5. Jinas have elucidated Daslakshan dharma ( 10 nobel virtues ) of the soul-forgiveness,humility,sincerity,purity,truthfulness,self-restraint,charity,celibacy,penance and non-possesion.
6.Paryushan-the festival of forgiveness ,reflection,meditation,adoration and self-purgation is celebrated from the 5th day of the bright fortnight of bhadrapad till anant chaturdashi for 10 days with fervour and devotion.Devotees absorb themselves in praying,studying scriptures,eulogising,attending sermons of sadhus( vyaakhyaana),fasting for days together(apavaas) and exercising severe austerity for spiritual enlightment.

"SANDALWOOD PERFUMES EVEN THE AXE WHICH HEWS IT DOWN, ITS PERFUME WAFTS ALL AROUND WHEN IT IS ITSELF BURNING-THAT IS FORGIVENESS "

Educational dream

I had this dream the other day : I am taking a class in what hardly seems to be a school .Under the plastic canopied shed , rain water gettin in through all pores and kids -tattered,bruised,dirty ,grimy , Oh god the shed is brimming with kids !!

Unsure of how to start - overwhelmed with emotions - i get this rare oppurtunity to feel the kids one by one - I play with their dishevelled hair .The " navo chokro " is soon taken over by this " good uncle " - all beaming and confident .I take the class with panache and end it with a resounding goodbye they had to offer .

They had a promise to make :

" WE WOULD WAIT FOR YOU THE NEXT WEEK " :)