sunday evenings in madraspatnam

Lack of a social life has resulted in me relying on my wandering spirit to provide some interesting moments. This is especially true on sundays, when most of the shops are shut and am itching to get out.
Chennai does have a history - and more than that its a city with a sense of history about it. Ofcourse, you need to go in select pockets to find out where all that history has disappeared beneath the fumes of buses and auto-rickshaws. Chennai museum is one such place.
A visit there resulted in one of the most interesting moments of my being in Chennai so far. "Discovered" a Ravi Varma (http://www.answers.com/topic/raja-ravi-varma) collection in the Chennai museum. Ravi Varma was probably the first indian painter who utilized the european styles (full fleshed, sensuous depictions of humans, with a very renaissance look as far as lighting and color are concerned) with Indian subjects ! I have, sometimes perchance and sometimes by design, visited collections housing paintings by this genius painter in different Indian cities (in Mysore, Baroda and Indore). Surprisingly, the very first visit to a Ravi varma gallery (i think it was indore) did not strike me as unfamiliar territory. Later, several years later, actually, some netsurfing revealed the answer. Till date, many of the hindu gods and goddesses printed in calenders are direct copies of Ravi Varma paintings. He, of course, depicted subjects other than those of a religious disposition. But the religious ones, were most easily picked up for use by the masses and got meshed with collective memories!
Another wonderful moment was this sunday, spotted a dead pufferfish (I hope i got the name right, maybe its time to watch more discovery channel) on Injambakkam beach. I usually end up on this particular beach on weekend evenings - its rather less crowded (by indian standards - u can visualize about 1 person per 25 feet of beach width) . Sudden death of my camera battery ensured that i could not photograph the unusual creature - so lucasian (more than a foot long, 8 inch dia, with all those spines, and big eye sockets - could have gone straight to any star wars installment) and so dead.

Easy come, easy go

The decision of the union ministry to hike petrol prices was announced last morning.
At night, on my way back to home from office, i stopped by at the petrol pump.
The attendants were probably so used to this phenomenon - price hike followed by all motorists getting their tanks filled up.
A cars arrival must be something special in a place so full of bikes
His face lit up.
"Tank full, saar?"
Umm .. no ...
I thought, how far can 35 litres carry me anyways?
Reached into my purse - and being low on cash - got a measly Rs 200/- out.
Smile was off. 4.85 litres at the old rate.
The old rate that would never return - this is not like the stock market - it goes only up!
Hmm, so i saved Rs 10 on this purchase.
Shortly afterwards, i stopped at the lending library and picked up two comics - for a Rs 10/- rent.
Ahh .. easy come, easy go!

Puddle and Skippy go to the movies

Puddle doesnt watch many movies - though he's a big fan of 'em. Skippy believes that life can have many movie like moments - so he drags Puddle into watching a lot of them.

This weekend, GAWD willing, Puddle and Skippy should be watching Batman Begins. Skippy loves this Batman bloke for he has no supernatural powers. All of Batman's heroics are powered by his gizmoes bought with his obscene wealth. Skippy thinks this is quite achievable for anyone - if he works like a dog, he should make money.

Puddle thinks Skippy's bonkers.

Puddle will go along anyways ... he fell in love with GAWD at first sight ! GAWD may have mercy upon them and come along to watch Batman begins. GAWD, ofcourse is beautiful and revered by Puddle, Skippy and their friend LBD (Little Bull Dog) alike.

Last weekend, LBD dragged Puddle and Skippy to watch Parineeta. Throughout the movie - Puddle slept, Skippy yawned and LBD dripped bucketloads of saliva on the lovely Vidya Balan.

Direction was better than average - thinks Skippy and so was cinematography. But it was too slow for his tastes. And too many yukky songs.

Puddle thinks that cinema tickets in BigCity which is a conventional coastal town in South India are really cheap. So its nice to have fluffy seats to sleep on.
LBD went there to ogle - onscreen and offscreen.

Puddle and Skippy met LBD just a few months back - but became quick friends. Puddle and Skippy like LBD since the day he treated them at BigHotel where, for the first time, they met GAWD.

Lets see how this weekend unfolds...

Lord Vader doesnt eat crabs

Puddle sometimes goes far far away from his home. Often ending up at the swamps near the beach. There are so many flies there. Skippy likes the beach so that he can chase the bitches, dig some bones and get good exercise. This city sometimes makes puddle wonder about if he’s happier inside his home. Skippy, though, is never afraid to go out!

The contrasts that this country affords - in the way people live and percieve life.
On the 18th of May this year, the premier cinema multiplex of this city released Star Wars 3 simultaneously with the 'rest of the world'. The movie was released in digital format - apparently a first for India. Puddle desperately wanted to go, but Skippy dragged him along to meet a woman over coffee. So much for the movie.

On the sunday before that weekend, puddle and Skippy were at a beach about 16 miles from that theatre. As puddle watched, a fisherman dug into the sand with his hands, and pulled out something white and very alive! It was a small sand dwelling crab. He repeated this activity 10 times (and later, more) while puddle watched. Turned out that each of these 50 gram animals would constitute dinner! (these are too small to be sold commercially) And he even offered puddle a few, as a gift. Puddle cant eat crabs – he politely declined. Skippy doesn’t like the taste of them crabs. Anyways, he continued to watch. These fisher folk were the ones worst hit by the Tsunami of Dec 26, 2004 that destroyed so much of India's south east coastline. Now, rehabilitated, they are finding their feet. Puddle thought - “And he still offered me a gift, so selflessly.” The fisherman's sense of self-sufficiency moved him.

Later that evening, in the newspapers, puddle read that youngsters in this city were disappointed that 'darth vader' masks are not available in India and so there's no point living here!Life becomes more amusing and simultaneously, baffling at times, as we move along ....

the dilemma

Sometimes puddlefrog hides in his puddle and out jumps skippy the dog.

Like puddle, Skippy is also happy - but he's also a workaholic and basically, uh, a dog! So Skippy has a dog's life. He works hard - and likes to find bitches in heat. That is skippy's problem - there are no bitches in his life, and owing to his saner than normal lifestyle - he meets fewer than he would like to.

Skippy was born during the later years of puddlefrog's existence in school - or rather, skippy was created when puddlefrog realized that the school puddle was getting crowded, water was scarcer and cute female frogs - none! Puddle went to a boys' school :) But skippy could go where puddlefrog couldn't ! He could party ! He could go out at night far far away from the puddle - his legs were long, his tail bent (like his thinking) and his bark - fierce.

None of these however helped skippy solve puddle's problem. So skippy and puddle live in a happy coexistence. Today, skippy comes out mostly over the weekends - and sometimes when the workpuddle turns ugly !!

Skippy can bark, skippy can jump high, skippy can find cute little bitches for his entertainment - skippy can chase you away!

Go skippy, Go !

frog feels small ...

This morning was a rude jolt for puddle frog about the fraigility of his world. For the last several days - work and after work recreation had kept him so engrossed that it didnt matter where frog was, geographically. He was always online, after all !! Hitting office by 8:45 or so...and reach home only by 9:00 or later. Weekends would be spent sleeping and getting out in the eve to go to a beach or some Aircon fancy puddle place. Geography was history .. atleast temporarily.

This morning - was a little late - about 8:55 i was 250 meters from tidel park (the swank statement that this city could compete in terms of work environment with any other place - escalators inside, gates that opened at the sight of little plastic cards, glass and steel, cool, comfortable - so unlike the utter chaos that prevails outside this work puddle....).

Suddenly, a few angry looking policemen stopped his small car. For a moment, he feared having his first brush with the law of late. But frog is small, frog is cute -thought the frog. Dont hurt frog- please !! Then, frog saw that all the cars were stopping. whew ... So no cars this way today, eh? he mused... No, all other vehicles were made to wait too! Well, a few gentle enquiries in english made to the police yielded nothing.

So he waited, and so did the Big Car next to his, and the bike to the left and the bullock cart next to the Big Car. And the hundreds in buses, sweating to their underpants - gazing outside, waiting for that momentary respite from the breeze that would blow only when the bus moves, waited ! Pretty soon, it was a swarm of vehicles -oil, gas, human and animal powered stretching well over a kilometer, all waiting in the sickly heat of chennai and amongst them, pedestrians - trying to elbow their way inbetween the vehicles. They all waited - We all waited ...

Sound of horns, shouts from the people ... and a silent gaze from the police.

Asked the guy on a bike waiting next to him. 'The CM has to pass through.' Ahh .. first among equals. Well, frog, (like boxer in animal farm) sighed and waited -resolved to get to work.

Funny thing was not the three quarters of an hour that several hundreds of people had to wait. Funny thing was, her highness the CM had passed from the junction after everyone had waited a mere 10 minutes. and yet, her minions would not let anyone else pass! (that man driving his bullock cart might be the terrorist for all you know, that IT engineer in the company bus must be a saboteur! -their vigil was strict, their gaze piercing)

The sum total loss that people had to bear, so that the CM could pass through was far outweighed by the utter humiliation that everyone feels at such moments - moments created by protocol, moments stretched by overzealous law enforcers. Moments that make you feel really small -- smaller than you should feel as a human. It was humiliating even for frog !
Anyways, frog took it with a chucle! welcom back to the real world, to my beloved country. Its vice like grip is too strong anyways.

"I Love you, I'll kill you" - goes the Enigma number ...