Monday, October 31, 2005

went to mohammed ali road after reading in the newspapers about the roadside hospitallity of rotis, tandoori chiken, mutton - - -
reached there by nine pm. is this what is meant by the term ' sea of humanity'?-women in black burkhas, men in flawlwss white and white skull caps- hundreds and hundreds of them; people like us who came to be part of this wonderful celebration of 'breaking the fast' ; rows and rows of stalls selling suits, dresses,chappals, belts, accessories, shades, hosiery-you name it! hundreds haggling, buying , moving on to the next stall- as tho they had the whole day before them- and it was well past nine!
And of course there was this aroma of roti and tandoori cooking. we waited for seats. tables were put out perpendicular on the both sides of the road with only pedestriams and two wheelers moving up and down thru the space in between. our turn came. we ordered roti, mutton cury and tandoori chicken( forgot all resolve to avoid chicken in the wake of the hype about the bird flu). Soon we were joined by a family- as soon as they took their seats, they spread on the table the newspapers they had brought along with them. they gave us a few sheets and suggested we too take this precaution against the not too clean tables. soon food came-never have i eaten such delicious preparations!
we do a lot of eating out- but this was a unique experience. looking back, i realise it's the ambience, that atmosphere charged with the feeling of camaraderie, goodwill that made it so different.
Life can be so beautiful if we can keep things at a very simple level and keep it free from the caste- creed- nationality notions and all the complexities they involve.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

oh when will it suffuce?

The blasts in Delhi. Terrible. That irish poet's lines keep resonating in my mind.
Too much of sacrifice will make a stone of the heart
Oh when will it suffice?
yes, when will all this hate get spent ? it took more than two centuries for that to happen in Ireland. isnt that too long a period ? feel numb with depression. cant go on.

all about Mahatma, modi and hitler

a lot of excitement about the supreme court's decision on cow-bull-buffalo slaughtering. narendra modi's response was sensational! he triumphantly recalled that Mahatma Gandhi too recommended banning of cow slaughter. Pity, a few years back he didnt recall what the great man had to say about human slaughter....
talking about the Mahatma, went to mani bhavan last week - surely the residence (occasional tho) of the father of the nation for seventeen years deserves a better deal than that!!!!
went around the shabby rooms and saw the exhibits. saw the letter Gandhiji wrote to hitler pleading with him not to start a war! wonder if hitler ever saw that letter- wonder how he reacted.
gandhi and hitler - the two people that dominated the imagination of the last century! does anyone know what they thought of each other?

random thoughts

a term has come to an end- suddenly my hands a re full- with time to spare- cant remember all those things i promised myself i'd do when i get time-
went to the beautician and chopped my hair- i look weird - how do i face the world? i did- no one seemed to notice- except the person i wished wouldnt notice. 'how do i look?' 'great' with a pained look.
decided to knock off a few kilos-walked for an hour almost after a long time- came back and looked into the mirror - looked as if i'd shed one nth od a gram somewhere-decided to keep up the good work i began- just then came dewali goodies from my good neighbour- how did they know that crunchy cadburys was my favourite - not everyday that one gets a lavish helping of it- tommorrow is another day -shalll walk an extra half hour.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Strange feeling

I teach- i belong to the old world- but the new never ceases to fascinate me- dont want to be left behind-so here i go bloggin-
can someone tell me about bloging-i mean in what way you find it exciting? any dangers i should watch out for?
ok-why did i decide to become a blogger? well, i write -a lot- a couple of my articles saw the light of the day-the rest must have landed in the editors' trash bins - but like all aspiring scribes i think i talk sense ----

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

criminally enlightened!

Mr. Tharu, your journey from a caste ignorant human being to an intensely caste conscious (and apologetically so!)Syrian Christian is hardly an edifying narrative. Tragic that the ultimate outcome of academic research is the perpetuation of another discourse in the name of progressive politics.
During your ‘criminally ignorant’ days, didn’t you have friends who were dalits but to whom you attached no such label? How do you serve the cause better by imposing caste meanings retrospectively on your past interactions with them or by being born again with an identity constructed consciously in terms of the counter narrative which has been doing the rounds centres of learning for some time now?
Believe me, the patronizing condescension keeps popping up throughout the piece.
Kochuthresiamma PJ