The road from #597 to #6757

I am on the brink of joining the elite company of people who take great pride in having a number associated with their name in public records! Yay!

Excuse me while I take a moment to throw humility out of the window and sniff on my vanity salts. Woosh!

There. Now, if you're bored and have loads of time to kill, you'll be able to look me up here very soon. I'm not there yet but I've gleefully jumped the gun and decided to announce this to the general populace anyway.
:D

Cheers to the girl who passed!

P.S. I was number 597 on the day I was born.

A tale of two snacks.

A few moons ago in Bangalore, an unexpected crowd of thousands of people was jostling its way into the platforms on Bangalore city railway station hoping to find a place in the few trains to Assam even as the state home minister appeared on the station loudspeaker urging these people to return to their homes in the city, trying to make them believe that they were safe. This sudden urge to flee the city was caused by continuous rumours that had been circulating in the days preceding to this sudden mass exodus which threatened people from the north-east about the safety and well being of their families and businesses in the city.

I was walking down a busy footpath next to the local park last week and I was reminded of this incident from last year as I saw the numerous momo stalls along the footpath which seemed to have cropped up overnight along this stretch that I happen to frequent. I counted and there were almost ten of these little momo stalls all run by people from the north east states. They seem to appear at about 7pm and are nowhere to be found by 9:30pm.

Among these momo stalls, I have a particular favourite when I find myself craving for vegetarian steamed momos after gym. He's the closest on my path and also the only one on the short walk after the park. This particular evening, I found him sharing a large umbrella with a Bihari golgappa/pani puri seller . It might seem silly but I found it very heart-warming when the pani puri seller helped my momo guy with some packing and finally some change to give to me. I know it's regular business for them but how often do we forget that we all need and complement each other. I believe in the importance of these little gestures which seem trivial on the surface. All this hate of each other based on the differences in our facial features, cultures, colours and religions is detrimental to nobody's well being except our own.

Maybe business is the best way to unite people and to get rid of all the baggage of prejudices we have from our ancestors about all the communities that we are not born into ourselves.

I am especially affected by the way my north eastern friends are continuously treated by people from my own region. I once watched in horror when an auto rickshaw driver in Bangalore threatened a friend of mine telling her he'd bash her face with an iron rod if she didn't pay him extra fare over the pre-paid amount that she'd been told to pay by the traffic constable on duty on M.G. road. Foreigners like her had to pay extra, she was told.

With all this on my mind, when I see people from the north east who generally keep themselves to their own groups (with good reason), feeling comfortable enough to mix with people from other regions, I feel hope for this country. I hope they continue to mix and stay together, only if it's just to sell. I love both momos and pani puri!

In the last few days I've found myself oscillating between different pieces of writing. I have an unfinished poem describing the comforts of using reason in daily life, a little scene from Independence day, a note about people from the North-east India and even a post on bindis. Where is all this writing, you may wonder.

When the mind isn't at rest, it finds no solace in completing anything that isn't immediately alleviating its worry. Without alarming any one too much, I'd like to stress that I am only a teensy bit worried and I'm doing very well. In fact, during this time I've come up with my own special concoction of green tea laced with a tiny portion of rum to keep me happy while I keep shuffling between various books that I am trying to read. The job will come when it comes, I've decided.

I felt the need to share this very brave story.

Love isn't my favorite subject to blog about but a lot of men and women need to be told that love shouldn't come in their lives with asterisks. The writer says some very important things about not involving yourself in relationships where you're asked to change, or give up other important relationships out of your life or follow rules that someone else lays down for you. It's all about how you feel you should be treated for the rest of your life. Some one once said that once you've compromised on the quality of an important relationship, you are much likelier to compromise on the quality of almost everything else in your life.

The next project

I have finally laid my hands on my grandfather's old copy of Ulysses. It has been on my mind for a while now even though I've been actively discouraged to read this book until I'm 50. Apparently, the book is so layered, rich, intellectual and generally amazing that I will only be able to truly appreciate it after I'm older. Well, as you know the best way to make someone do something is by telling them not to do it. I hope to write about it when I've finished it which might take a while seeing how thick, a tome it is. Then if it lives up to its reputation, I'll read it again at 50 and write about it again. Sounds good, I think.

P.S. In case you're wondering why there's a pretentiously positioned fountain pen on the book, I wasn't trying to make it look as if I wrote the book (as one person suggested!). I was just rather happy when I took the picture and so that's two things that make me happy. A book and a nice pen.

The pesky interviewer

I've been looking for work lately and went to an interview recently where I wasn't asked a single question on my area of expertise during the technical round which lasted less than five minutes.

It seemed they only wanted to know about my personal life which annoyed me a bit. A talk with some friends revealed that not everybody finds personal questions inappropriate, some think that they are quite pertinent. Employers seriously consider your "family status" before they give you a job, more so if you're a young woman.

After I'd given my brief introduction, this interviewer asked me about my "family status". It caught me off guard and my thoughts instantly turned to my parents and I had just opened my mouth to talk about them, when all the buzzing in my nervous brain suddenly turned to pin drop silence as I realized that this was a question about my marital status. This was followed by "what about your plans in the next two years" and I immediately thought he wanted to know if I was going to change my "family status" soon.

I'm not sure that the marital status of a prospective employee says anything about his/her capabilities even though people insist that here in India, it gives an idea about whether the person would be willing to sacrifice all their days and nights to their job. Another part is that, if you're a single woman, the assumption is that you are going to marry soon and quit your job to parcel yourself off to wherever your spouse would want to take you. Sigh. Stereotypes. I think no one, neither man nor woman should have to reveal their 'status'.

What do HR managers think of this? Do such questions really add any value to their assessments of candidates? Personally, I feel that not only is it quite rude but also useless and unreliable information which nobody really has any way of checking out. So, people are just trying to satisfy some kind of voyeuristic urge in themselves which they have rationalized in their minds as professional curiosity?

P.S. This is off topic but I must confess to being rather derisory about Facebook's relationship statuses. I try not to paint everyone with the same brush but there are too many people who take them far too seriously and these days there seems to be real peer pressure to have 'something' on your relationship status. I've actually been told that if one were to update their facebook to 'Single', it means they are 'soliciting' for romantic attention. Ugh. It's complicated. Shakespeare would have done better to say, the world is a market place..

Dear World,

Whatever!

Smirks & disdain,
Miss Bingley

Chandrakanta

Nothing breaks your illusions about the greatness of old literature as much as actually reading it. I finished Chandrakanta today and am left with a mixture of feelings at the end of it. I read the original hindi version authored by Devakinandan Khatri. I have spent a great deal of my time growing up, surrounded by all the Chandrakanta books and watching the television adaptation so I was delighted to actually get down to reading it after all these years.

I must give a brief description of the storyline and some of the main hindi terms in the book for the rest of this post to make sense. This is essentially a love story of the Princess Chandrakanta and her lover, Prince Birendra Singh. At the start of the novel, we are introduced to the two lovers who belong to two feuding royal families of different states which makes the path of love difficult for them. This equation soon changes and Prince Birendra is lovingly welcomed at her father's palace when Chandrakanta is kidnapped by a third king, Shivdutt at the behest of Kroor Singh, a courtier at Chandrakanta's palace, who is also besotted with her. The most interesting characters of the story are the 'aiyyars'. Aiyyars are warriors and spies for the royal families with some very special skills of disguise, astrology and even a bit of magic which all comes in handy when the aiyyars are trying to make or break a 'tilism' for their side. The tilism is a kind of magical maze or trap which has both advantageous and harmful things concealed in it. There are a handful of aiyyars on each side with the number scale tipping in favour of Shivdutt. However, the best of the aiyyars, Tej Singh is on Prince Birendra's side and is also his best friend. The aiyyars also have a separate honour code among themselves different from that of regular warriors, they don't kill any of their own brethren. So, while King Shivdutt's aiyyar's will use every last ounce of their skill and intelligence to outwit their enemy aiyyars, they won't kill them.

Commit this to memory people, aiyyars = special warriors; tilism = magical maze or trap

Now I can get to my own thoughts on the book.

The good things first: I think Chandrakanta narrowly passes the Bechdel test for fiction, so we have two women (tick), who talk to each other (tick), about things other than a man (tick). If you've seen my earlier entries on my feminism, you'll understand why I'm quite delighted by this and why it's important to me. Now, our two women in question, Chandrakanta, the princess herself and her waiting maid, friend,confidante and aiyyar, Chapala, are as thick as thieves. Granted, that they spend a great deal of time mooning over the love of the prince Birendra Singh but imagine how happy I was when the two are kidnapped by Shivdutt's aiyyars and manage to escape into the forest all by themselves and actually pause in between expressions of love to discuss survival in the jungle and other important life-saving issues.

I also did a mental somersault when I realized that there are both male and female aiyyars. Chapala is the best aiyyar on Chandrakanta's side and is even training other women to become aiyyars. Isn't that awesome? The women are just as wily, deceptive and ruthless as the men and also take part in taking the story forward, sometimes having entire plans revolve around them.

The characters engage in all kinds of intricate plots to kidnap, steal, implicate, frame, elope and of course trap each other when the time comes. It gets interesting when Chandrakanta is trapped in a tilism and the aiyyars on both sides engage in a final tussle to win her for their own prince and king even as prince Birendra's love for Chandrakanta is being tested through a separate honey trap. In those days it wasn't infidelity if it was the King or Prince engaging in polygamy. I don't mind it in this book very much cause there's no arguing with the times gone.

A distinct Indian flavour manifests itself in the descriptions, leaving me wistful, of the dry countryside, the hidden caverns, the daily durbars, the palaces and the local customs etc.

Now, the not so good part, this book was first published in the late 1880s. Though this is a work of fantasy, the social and political realities of the time are reflected in it through the author's treatment of his Muslim and hindu characters. Note, that there are no important muslim characters in the story but they are collectively mentioned a great deal in the book. We have the hindu Kings and Princes plotting to have their muslim courtiers slowly ousted from their court and responsibilities or have their entire lot serve as a sacrificial lamb at the front deliberately in a losing battle. Then, the muslim groups are lobbying to have the King removed in a coup and install someone more amenable to their own interests in his stead.The timing is interesting to note, cause this novel was published well after the uprising of 1857 which was supposed to be a mutiny in which hindus and muslims protested together against British rule. I realize this is off-topic but I wonder if the author was affected by this in his writing, my history books suggested that it was after the mutiny of 1857 that the British, started to sow the seeds of discontent through their 'divide and rule' policies for hindus and muslims.

I would recommend reading Chandrakanta if you like to read titles based on the distinctions they hold, this one is supposed to be the earliest work of prose in modern hindi. It is a pretty decent work of fantasy, the love story sometimes got on my nerves but I loved the aiyyars, all of them. The author mostly reveals all of his mysteries upfront so there won't be any edge of the seat moments but it still manages to be sufficiently engaging. I say, that you forget all your LOTR, Peter Jackson, Artemis Fowl, Game of Thrones and all of the other modern english works of fantasy if you want to enjoy this. And absolutely do not compare.

A last word to those who watched the show on TV, the actual story is nothing like the TV adaptation which I can say quite unabashedly, was atrocious. It's all pretty straight forward, two people who love each other are persecuted and fight against their circumstances to live happily ever after. There are no 'vish kanyas' (doesn't merit an explanation) like they showed on TV, thank god. The good are staunchly honourable in the context of those times and the bad are wholly bad.

The book is in the public domain now so you can go read it for no other reason than it's free. I can see why this was wildly popular a hundred years ago. It still has its old world charm but I would understand if it made readers in this age impatient cause we love the flash, bangs and large machines so much from modern fantasies.

An idea ahead of its time

The title is needlessly aggrandizing the fact that I find myself looking for employment again and it looks like the world is not ready for a 25 year old CPA who wants to spend her time auditing it.

Ever since I realized that I have more than two readers in this world, I've been wanting to have some conversations. I don't often get new readers but my statcounter says that I do get lots of returning visits from my existing ones. How nice of you all. Now, be good people and let me know you're here by leaving a comment occasionally.

"The right to drive your own life"

An amazing TED talk by Manal-al-Sharif, an activist fighting for the right to drive for women in Saudi Arabia. She asks a very pertinent question, "Who do you think is harder to fight, oppressive governments or oppressive societies?"

http://www.gotstared.at/blog/personal/saudi-woman-decided-to-drive/

There are no demons as indomitable and as relentless as the ones of the mind.

Here's an excerpt from a beloved fairytale, "How a woodpecker chopped a Spruce-tree". This is from the book, Tales of the Amber sea: Fairy Tales Of The Peoples Of Estonia, Latvia And Lithuania by Irina Zheleznova and Anatoly Belyukin.

"A woodpecker once flew up to a spruce-tree, lighted on its very top, and, rocking back and forth, sang:

"I will chop this spruce-tree down,
Make a cudgel of its crown,
Wave it once and at a blow
Every beast I see lay low! ""

The lines above are the opening lines of the story. The animals of the jungle who hear the woodpecker's threat are frightened and run helter-skelter spreading the news far and wide and calling a counsel to prevent the spruce tree from falling. Soon, it is decided that the animals will hold on to the tree at the sides and thus prevent it from falling. They collect around the tree and start pushing and pulling which makes the tree shake and finally snap in two. The animals are in awe of the woodpecker's strength as he claims his victory in having chopped down the spruce tree.

So relevant in real life too, isn't it?

http://www.fairy-tales.parnas.info/en/lithunian/woodpecker.html

The just-joker

What is a fail-safe way to get away with making sexist, racist gibes at someone?

End your sentences with 'just joking' in conversation or with one of these in written communication " :p, :), :D, ;) ". Everything will be forgiven and if it isn't, you can just pin the blame on your victim by cracking another 'joke' on their inability to take your witticisms sportingly. You will come out smelling of roses (stinking, dead, plastic ones, I hope) after this.

Dil garden garden ho gaya!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcF9ICgLqi4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=eDdI7GhZSQA&feature=endscreen