LIVING RICH

Early morning, in the gym, around a lush green park, at some quiet breakfast lounge I hear men discussing 'Market Scenario', 'Economy' and 'Assets', and I feel sad. I feel sad for them.

Can they see the morning blush in the sky anymore? Can they hear the soft chirping of birds or the clinking of crockery as they wait for their coffee to be served? Listen to the sound of a steaming hot tea being poured in a cup or smell the refreshing aroma of the morning soil? Do they have time to stop at a blooming flower on the way to their office, observe dewdrops on a leaf newly born? Do they have time to observe life? Sadly, the honest answer could be 'No'.

Money, yes it is important for life, no doubt. But sometimes I wonder, if it has stopped men from living?

Someone had rightly said, "The amount of money that's in your bank at the time of death, is the extra work you did which wasn't necessary."

Gir Forest

Gir Forest, a set on Flickr.

World Cup of India

The hangover is still there and it will be there for days to come, for months to come. After 28 long years India has lifted the Cricket World Cup. 1983, when we did it for the first time, no one expected it. In 2011 we have done it when expectations were really high. And that’s why, I feel, it was a tough task. Fulfilling expectations of 1 billion people is a big big achievement.

It was important for India to win it, more than ever before. Not only because it was the last world cup of that outstanding cricketer called Sachin Tendulkar. Yes, he deserved it more than any cricket player in the world; no doubt, but the importance of this world cup win doesn’t end there.

Things have changed drastically since 1983. A lot has happened in the last 28 years. The game itself has changed. But the country and it’s people? Yes change is what even they have gone through. 1991 was the year when India introduced new economic policies and we opened our gates for the whole world to enter. This economic change not only brought imported brands into the country but it also brought a huge change in the mindset of the people of this country. Materialism got more than it’s due and it still is at it’s peak. What followed was greed for money; greed, that has no end.

Several government officials started featuring on the front page of newspapers for all wrong reasons. Scams after scams started to unearth themselves. Not only stockbrokers and politicians but even the commissioner of police has been charged for corruption. The penetration of Internet and FaceBook kept no secrets. India earned a reputation for being one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Last few months saw a new scam finding it’s way to the surface almost every week. Every new scam was bigger than the previous one. And this was indeed disturbing. People like me, an average Indian citizen found the vent for his anger, frustration on social networking sites.

He is hurt; deeply hurt, for the nation he loves is getting robbed by people in power. And he can’t do much than being a mere spectator, a rather helpless spectator.

On Wednesday night when India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit the ball, he not only hit the ball out of the ground but with it he sent the depression of billion Indian minds out in the oblivion. When the ball landed on the other side of the rope the entire country, a giant of more than billion heads jumped with joy. When was the last time we felt such emotions. When was the last time anyone made us feel so proud to be an Indian. In one stroke from his bat he managed what thousands of religious leaders and political speakers have failed to do. He made us proud. When I read status updates written by people born in and after early 80’s, people who represent the young India, the future of the country I realize how important it was to win this cup. ‘Feel so proud to be an Indian’ seems to be the most commonly used phrase last couple of days and that’s according to me is greater an achievement than India’s ICC ranking.

I am aware, with time this emotion will phase out. It will die. Time doesn’t make anything last forever but there is no doubt that at this very moment the entire nation is feeling a sudden surge of positive feeling. And for me, that’s important, that’s important for one to carry on. That’s important for one to keep his hope intact. Vande Mataram!

KANDE POHE

I love Kande Pohe... so? what's so great about it? What an average Maharashtrian man [most of them are pretty average by birth... average height, average looks] loves besides cricket, politics, politics in cricket and wife... his own, as loving someone else's is quite taxing for his wallet, however, there is always an attempt to rise above the average in that department... is KANDE POHE. But I still can say I love Kande Pohe with a greater emphasis on 'love'. I can eat them 8 days a week, however, my official record [recorded in my notebook] is 5 days a week.

I can... I have, eaten it in various avtaars, once even without the onion in it. Who says there has to be Kanda in kande pohe? The recent version I had was in Barista at Shivaji Park. Yes, you read it right... a Cafe is serving them. Cappuccino with Kande Pohe, and Mr Pawar had a problem with Sonia's Italian roots, huh! However, the conspiracy theory [we love conspiracy theories] is very clear. They the outsiders, are trying their level best to make the average Marathi manoos, the son of the soil, the ever suppressed and at times depressed specie of mankind, hate his own staple diet. And do I fear, with the able help of capsicum in it, a strong possibility of the cafe's success in the near future? Well... time, as always, is the best to answer this.

Eating any Marathi cuisine by default is a difficult task. There is always a high level of risk involved. Unless you are eating it at home and the maker is in a particularly good mood. It is difficult not because the recipe is complex in nature but it is the very nature of us Maharashtrians that makes things complex.

Try eating Kande Pohe at Aswaad or Prakash or any local eatery around Bombay... oops Mumbai.

To begin with, you'll be treated as a guest. The unwanted one, the one who lands at your doorstep when you are about to step out for a movie. If there is a table available, mostly it is never available, not only because the place is in a great demand but purely because the owner never bothered to put additional tables or re arrange the space in the last 66 years of it's proud existence, because he believes that the family planning commission has done phenomenally well and therefore is convinced that the population of the city is frozen to the same number when his grand father opened the restaurant 66 years back.

So... we were trying to get a table for you, if you are the lucky one you'll get one after waiting for 4 minutes 22 seconds. A table which you will have to, without an exception, share with a total stranger. Walk into any Marathi restaurant, this will never change. I have tried to eat my favourite dish with coughing, sneezing and even burping companions... and if you are sitting next to a wash basin then along with the untimely refreshing sprinkle you may hear the clearing of a human throat and if luck has it against you, even nose. The blowing sound can tell you a lot about that person, but that requires a separate blog.

Once you are settled, do not take it for granted that you'll be served your beloved kande pohe. As most of the time there are things written on the menu card to fill up the space on the card, while printing we always go with the most economic A4 size. So while we have a few things written in there, we may not be serving them all through the day, if you want it, the key is to be there on the right day, at the right time. Every moment counts.

I guess, now you know what I meant by a risk involved. If you could manage to get a table, attention from the super busy waiter and survive all the sound effects you can still love what's served in a dish that's most suitable for a 7 year old to eat from. This is an example of putting the customer before anything, even the profits. With an extra small plate and a quantity to match the size of the plate, there is a great concern shown about the health of the eater. Less you eat the better it is for your health and the health of your bank balance, both. And if you ask for another round of the same, you may get a very polite 'it's over' as an answer. But that 'it's over' has, 'do you want to finish everything by yourself or you care if others get to eat it too' not so beautifully hidden in it. Subtlety, was never our strength anyway. I have even witnessed a great example of prompt service when I was presented the bill while I was still eating my food. Nowhere in the world you'll be served with such sense of urgency. Whoever said we are a bunch of lazy people don't really understand us and we don't care about such people. It's our 'carefree' attitude that has got us so far, so where is the need to change it? Just the way there is no need to change the furniture in the restaurant. We ignore the 'rest' bit from the word restaurant, cause we strongly believe, home [your own] is where you rest and you can't be resting while eating for sure. Again a great emphasis on detail and human behaviour.

Now do you think the Baristas of the world can ever match this level of customer service with their Capsicum infested Kande Pohe? So what if they give you your space, your table and chair and a great ambiance to enjoy your food? serve you with a smile and don't present your bill unless asked for it? We are determined not to budge, not to give away our own culture and ways of treating our customers which has become our culture. WE WILL NOT CHANGE! And tomorrow, in some distant future, if we really feel threatened, we will do what we do the best... get onto the streets. Till then enjoy your Kande Pohe, while I need to really blow my nose hard. Bye.

26/11 and 2012

A little late in the day I suppose, as we just observed... or celebrated?... one year of 26/11 and the movie is already a classic in today's 'next-is-what?' age. But I prefer to be a bit old fashioned in rather hopelessly stubborn ways. Therefore for me, both are still current topics, as hot as the winter in Bombay.

Is there a link between the two? ... both are about a disaster. One natural and another is fast becoming our nature. But beyond that, I feel, both underline a fact, a ruthless naked truth about life, it's biggest tragedy or it's ultimate blessing. The truth that everything comes with an expiry date including this very planet we live in.

2012, will it mark the end of man's super natural ego? his misery, his quest for happiness, his ever growing greed? Will it end his urge to destroy everything that's created by the GOD or man himself? I don't know. What we can assume however, is that it'll take a catastrophe to stop man on his path to self destruction on which he is rapidly progressing... or is he regressing?

Terrorism is a creation of man just as religion is. How intertwined they both are? you can't separate one from another. If there is no religion there is no terrorism and vice versa. Both threaten and survive and feed on each other.

We have no time in our hands, literally. This life this very life that we so beautifully plan for ourselves has no plan for itself. We don't plan our entry neither do we plan our exit. Those people who went out dining to The Taj and Trident on the eve of 26/11/08 had plans till they were brutally interrupted by AK-47s. In the movie 2012, an old Jazz singer who is nurturing a grudge for years against his son finally calls upon him but the sinking world denies him to speak two simple words "I'm sorry". Why do we take so long to say that many a times? A lifetime goes by but we dare to utter those simple words. How difficult it is, how difficult to 'let go'? When the reality is, there is absolutely nothing we can hold on to. 2012 for me was a different experience, beyond it's visual extravaganza, beyond it's breathtaking special effects, it was a learning, far deeper and far greater than what you see on the surface.

What the movie and the tragedy of 26/11 tell us is to live in NOW. Now is the time you have, now is the time to say sorry, to love, to celebrate life. If you have a dream, realize it now. Live every moment of this wonderful life as your last moment for it might turn out to be one. Everything comes with an expiry date.

POVERTY and US

Today, when I walked through the gate of my building, I heard a faint voice calling me out 'saheb!'... now that's unheard of, my ears are not used to anyone calling me by that adjective... saheb? No no it can't be me, so I ignored it for a few seconds but shortly I realised there was no one else but me around there and the person calling me 'saheb' was our old watchman. Yes, he is a watchman of our building, one old fashioned watchman with a bad uniform on him. He is no security guard as they are called these days. But why is he calling me? I have never spoken to him unless one of those very rare occasions when I came back home post 12 in the midnight and I had to call out for him to open the gate.... that's the end of my conversation with him. "Saheb vees rupaye miltil?".... Can I borrow 20 rupees? He broke the suspense. 20 rupees? My initial reaction was 'what for? what do you get in 20 rupees these days?' 'NO!' I said. My reaction wasn't really a well thought through one, it was a knee jerk reaction at best. There was something that made me so damn uncomfortable at that moment, I literally ran up to my flat.

When I reached home, I felt a terrible sense of discomfort, what was I so uncomfortable about? For saying no to that man? may be, I shouldn't have said no to him. But he is the same man I gave 200 rupees without him even asking for it during Diwali. So why did I say no to 20 rupees? The very next moment I decided to undo my action. I went down. He wasn't expecting me, I thought. 'Take this'... I gave him 20 rupees. "I'll return it tomorrow" he said. Why? Please don't embarrass me further... "no need, it's okay" I said and rushed out of the gate.

What must be his reason to ask for mere 20 rupees? Deep down I started feeling the pain... but the pain wasn't mine, it was his. What a 50 year old man must be feeling when he asks for 20 rupees from a stranger like me. Now I have nothing to do with what he wants to do with that money or whether he asked for 20 rupees from other 10 people or not, the question I had in my mind was about the pride. Everyone has it except the politicians may be... so what about his? What kind of a situation prompts a person like him.. who has a job... to ask for such a small amount? It depressed me more when I started thinking about him.

Is poverty such a difficult thing to wipe out? I guess not. Then why do some have so much that they don't even know how much they have and some have none? Karma theory is the easiest way out of such tricky questions. It's their Karma. End of story. What about our Karma then? Are we doing some great deeds by ignoring poverty? Many a times I see a long queue outside a temple... especially Siddhivinayak on Tuesday. Everyone wants to be rich and famous. Nothing wrong with it but no one knows what will make them that. The SiddhiVinayak Trust which is run by some politicians is super rich for sure. During Ganpati festival crores of rupees get transacted in a small lane in Lalbaug alone, crores are spent on meaningless movies every year... how many movies in bollywood really do business? 8,9 maximum in a year? what about the rest of them? Around 300 movies per year are commercially flop, but then the same guys are making them all over again... who finances such filth and how can they finance it? Don't these super rich financiers have no business sense? Disgusting it is... but the truth is they are turning black into white by showing that as a loss. Strange but true. And what about elections which even after spending crores of public money produce no results? Every other scam you hear about is a few thousands... sometime even a few lakhs ... crores of rupees...so much money is flowing around and here I have someone asking for 20 rupees? How cruel is that? How bloody unfair?

I decided not to think that he'll use it for some wrong purpose [ again who am I to judge that anyway? ] but may be he needed it to buy a medicine for himself and that very moment my 20 rupees felt much more valuable than those crores which can't even buy a simple joy to anyone. When I returned back, he wasn't around, 'may be he has gone to get that medicine', I told myself.

VOTE please.

Finally... the state of Maharashtra has a government. What a shame! This entire process has just exposed the sorry state of politics. And the saddest part is, the common man can do nothing... absolutely nothing!
I grieve, I cry and I hate myself for being just a mere spectator. I hate my helplessness.
In the recent times few advertisers and media houses started this drive of telling people to VOTE. And there are millions of people... who claim to be educated... who believe that putting that blemish on a finger is a solution for all the problems. We have been playing this game of voting for quite sometime now....more than 60 years. I feel sorry for my father's generation. What they witnessed as young boys on the 15th of August 1947 was magical. They grew up as young men in possibly the most optimistic period in the recent history of this country... 1950's. They had a leader with a world vision. But merely in a decade all their hopes crashed with his death. Nehru's death was the death of politics based on values and what started soon thereafter was politics of numbers, caste, religion and bribes. My father's and many of his friends whole lifetime went by hoping ... woh subaha kabhi toh ayegi... that morning star will rise one day... it never did.
Can voting alone be the solution? It's ridiculous to think it is.
What we need at the moment is a revolution of thought. A change in the way we think or are made to think about politics.
In a democratic system the most important thing is knowledge. And education is a path to reach that destination. Gopal Ganesh Agarkar was absolutely correct when he pronounced that 'we must educate the people of the country first and then fight for freedom'. Today, we are paying the price for ignoring that great man. In a country where majority of people are uneducated or called educated because they can merely write their names... democracy is bound to be a joke. It is bound to go in the hands of people who emerge from the sea of this deprived humanity. We are being ruled by people who can't even speak in their own mother tongue. They are the leaders and these are the voters, the so called VOTE BANK. You and I don't even account for 10% of that bank.Votes are up for grabs. You can buy them off the shelf, easily. Give your vote bank a reason, money, threaten their existence or create a threat in their minds and your job is done. You really think they want our votes? Really? Think again.
What we have to do is make sure we educate or help educate at least one deprived person. It could be anybody... your maid servant's or your driver's son or daughter. Make sure they get education in a decent school not a municipal school and in a language spoken worldwide. English is the language. This one donation you must make towards building the future of this country or else even after 100 years few educated will be voting an uneducated to power. Democracy will be be dead by then.