Spot the difference

At the end of the day, workers divide themselves into two exclusive groups. Those who pack up their tools and head home or someplace else, and those who loiter around. Those who loiter around can further be classified as follows: 1. Those who have other business that may or my not require privacy 2. Those who are insomniacs 3. Those who crack silly and often vulgar jokes about everyone under the sun from their near and dear ones to Ob(s)ama.

This is some speedy justice...
(Photo: Riot in Urumqi, courtesy Reuters)

1984 Part IV

It's silver jubilee time...

Twenty-fve years ago, Indira Gandhi was gunned down by her Sikh bodyguards outside her house. Many Sikhs were then burnt alive in Delhi (mainly Trilokpuri), houses were destroyed and women were gang-raped and killed. I was reading a special issue of The Week on Indira Gandhi, where a guest columnist had written (fail to recall who it was) the Iron Lady was not in favour of Operation Blue Star. She was apparently misguided. I wonder...

More detailed discussion here, here and here

Some women were recently 'freed' in a police-Maoist swap. But... "Amid the high-decibel rhetoric, no one asked the basic question. Who are these women? What are they guilty of? What is the evidence of their links with the Maoists? Why were they in jail in the first place?"

Read article from Tehelka

Strange animals

Some strange facts about some animals I came across on the net... (And my witticisms.. ha ha..)

Some of them are really strange... Anyway, my GK is now better by that much.

 

Penguins can jump 6 feet in the air. (Why? What purpose does it serve them? Just fun I guess... Come on, let's jump!)

A group of Kangaroos is called a mob. (Australian mafia)

Beavers can hold their breathe for 45 minutes under water. (Good for a relaxing underwater siesta) 

A bear can run at speeds of up to 48 km/h. (I've heard this before... I think they are one of the most dangerous animals when offended)

Elephants are the only animal that can't jump. (Put one in a room with some penguins)

Polar bears are left handed. (Ya.. like they use the left paw to slap the daylights out of their prey)

A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. (But I am not going to try teasing one)

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. (New meaning for battisi in their world)

Tigers have striped skin not just striped fur. (Difference from homo sapiens: Even a naked one will not look ugly)

Woodpeckers don't get headaches from all that pecking. Their skulls have air pockets to cushion the brain. (Again, why do they do it? Why??)

The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head 360 degrees. (Good lord.. Thanks god they don't hunt humans... Scary bastards)

Butterflies' taste sensors are in their feet. They taste their food by standing on it. (Is there a song titled Wish I were a butterfly or that's just me?)

Katydids have ears in their front legs. (Ok.. but what the fuck are katydids?)

The rhinoceros beetle can lift 850 times its own weight. (Wiki it... They are huge, have horns, and are a popular pet! All of that is strange for a beetle)

The tree sloth moves at a speed of 6 feet per minute. (Origin of the word sloth)

The Chameleon's tongue is as long as its body. The Chameleon can focus its eyes seperately to watch two objects at once. (Scary shit.. Why didn't M/s Ramsay use them?)

The Kangaroo's ancestors lived on trees. Today there are eight different kinds of tree kangaroos. (Now you know why they jump around so much)

Many snakes never stop growing. That's one reason they must shed their skin. (Imagine what would happen if they didn't shed skin)

The Artic Tern flies from the North Pole to the South Pole and then back again to spend summer in each place. (I knew that!)

The black bulldog ant from Australia is the most dangerous ant in the world. It stings and bites at the same time and has killed humans. (Why are so many of these wierd creatures native to Australia?)

The Basenji is the only dog which does not bark. (You didn't know? It's actually a cat)

Armadillos, opossums and sloths spend up to 80 percent of their lives sleeping. (I am an opossum)

 

Auto raj

Moindeepa Sahu begins 'Spare the autowalla' in today's Bangalore Mirror with: "Everyone loves to hate uppity auto drivers who take us for roundabout rides and cheat us of hard earned rupees..."
Her concluding lines are: "... they work long hours at a tedious job, and they too aspire to upgrade themselves. If they cheat, can we hang them for following the example of their social superiors? If they are rude, could it be because our own prejudices make us approach them with contempt and arrogance? The next time we hail an auto, let’s remember that there are decent Honest Manjas among them..."
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With all due respect, I disagree to an extent. Her intention is right in saying we cannot generalize all of them to be crooks. She cites examples in other situations to say how we have grown to hate people at a social disadvantage.. It's just a carry forward from the caste system, she argues.
But I have grown to hate autowallas because of personal experience. We, not them, are at a social disadvantage here...

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1. They take newcomers for a ride. Every time a person walks up to an auto, in 9 out of 10 cases the driver is sizing her up... Like this: "Hmm... let me see if she knows the route."
Then he goes: "Should I take a right here or go straight?"
The unknowing bakri says: "Don't you know?"
"I do madam... I was just thinking ... ok, we will go straight?"
"No.. take right..."
"Yippeee!"

2. The rule is , I think, that they can charge one-and-a-half times the meter charge after 11.30 pm. Not in Bangalore. Here, they can demand twice the charge at any time of the day. Otherwise, be ready to coff up a lumpsum amount... The problem for customers is whether to agree to dubbul meter and go knowing very well that the meter is fixed, or whether to pay 150 bucks to go from Empire on Church Street to Koramangala National Games Village...

3. I was once in an auto from Yeshwantpur to Fraser Town. In fact, a bunch of us had hired two of them. I told our auto fellow to switch on his meter... He reluctantly agreed. There were instructions from the other driver to the contrary, as was obvious throughout the way as the two kept shouting at each other for the grave sin that broke the code... Funny part was they were talking in Kannada all the while, and I could understand every word.. I guess they thought we were all Americans as we had an American among us.. At destination, the amounts the two meters showed, though they were tailing each other the whole time, obviously varied by a considerable amount. A huge argument followed, at the end of which the drivers left threatening to come back and simply put, kill us after doing things to our relatives...

4. Recently, four girls were spotted fighting with an auto driver on MG Road. He was refusing the 'stingy' but just sum they were giving him. Big scene. Traffic cop was called. He placated/warned the driver.. The girls set off on walk... The driver followed them in his vehicle, and almost knocked one down... A well-meaning bystander (me) asked him what he was up to. The answer was ancient: "Did I do it to you?"

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And that sums up the issue in my head. It's everybody's business to ensure nobody gets fleeced by these rogues. They have one of the biggest and most influential auto driver unions in the country. They make unreasonable demands from time to time. They cause the most air and sound pollution in Bangalore. Ninety out of Hundred of them have smoke coming out like a chimney. It's daylight robbery, and sometimes murder. Many of them have a criminal record too... It's no child's play..

So, Madam Sahu and other such like-minded people... While it's nice to be nice and have a heart, it's not fair in this case.
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(Photo by Nikkul sourced from http://commons.wikimedia.org)

music

Hearing familiar music after years feels good.

I got a new phone a couple of days back, thanks to which I now tune in to my college favourites on the way to office and back. It was really exciting to listen to songs I havent heard in about four years. And I began with the white album... Aaah... nostalgia

The red romantics

A captured police inspector's body was found in Jharkhand today morning. Days ago, there were reports that Maoists/Reds were demanding the release of their leader (in charge of documentation) Kobad Ghandy, and two others, for the cop's release. Kobad was captured from Delhi last week. He is considered one of their top leaders. Today, after the body was found, our home minister has gone on record saying there was no offer of any such swap.

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What surprises me, in fact fascinates me, is the background of Kobad and his wife Anuradha who died a few years ago following an ailment. The BBC writes here that "Kobad Ghandy is an unlikely revolutionary... A foreign educated urbanite, he is reputed to like joking and socialising.
But not for him the life of a middle class city professional. Instead he has remained committed to the Maoist cause with discipline and perseverance for over 30 years - with over a decade spent underground in various tribal areas, his friends say."

Ghandy is wanted in various cases, accused of being a member of a banned group, organising demonstrations and writing publicity material for the Communist Party of India (Maoist). "He spoke to the BBC in 2008, describing Indian society as semi-feudal, semi-colonial, and saying it needed to be democratised," the BBC article says.

And on Anuradha, it is reported in the Open magazine in an article titled The Rebel: "How did the daughter of a high profile lawyer of Bombay High Court, a graduate of the city’s prestigious Elphinstone college, an M.Phil in Sociology, a girl born into privilege, come to choose a life of struggle and hardship in the treacherous jungles of Bastar, a rifle by her side and a tarpaulin sheet for a bedding? The answer perhaps lies in the times she lived in. Or the kind of person she was. Or maybe a bit of both...."

The article quotes her friend Jyoti Punwani's memoirs: “The Naxalite menace, says Manmohan Singh, is the biggest threat to the country. But I remember a girl who was always laughing and who gave up a life rich in every way to change the lives of others.”
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So what prompted these two, among many others, to leave their relative luxury in favour of a strange people's cause? What prompted them to take up arms? The articles reminded me of Hazaron khwaishen aisi... The kicks these people must be deriving from living a 'just' life, with perhaps a clear conscience... I guess they are just romantic.

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Maoist-linked violence across central and eastern India has killed at least 6,000 people over the past 20 years. The rebels say they represent the rights of landless farmhands and tribal communities.