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Gangtok!!

The precise meaning of the name Gangtok is unclear, though it is generally held to mean 'lofty hill'. The capital of Sikkim, it is the first stop for any tourist on his way to the East. The city has roads which may seem non-motorable, but the drivers here rival the expertise and speed of Michael Schumacher. They weave in and out of the winding roads at speeds reaching 60 kmph.The people are very amicable, beautiful and speak nepali in a way that it seems like a song being sung. As we went in the monsoon season, the clouds seeped through the city and in minutes, the whole city would be enveloped in white. It would seem that mother nature is hugging it's dear child with arms wide open. There is a shopping area called the MG Marg and people wishing to buy souvenirs or any items at all throng the shops, which close up by 8 PM. The major disadvantage in Gangtok is that there are very few vegetarian restaurants and food basically is bad in them. So, we had to be content with eating everyday at Baker's Cafe, which provided palatable food items like pizzas, burgers etc.

The Scintillating East

Have you dreamt of walking in the clouds, hearing nothing other than the constant chirping of the birds, the gushing sound of a waterfall, with it's pristine crystal clear waters and then, suddenly see some ghostly shapes emerge from the white that has overwhelmed you with peace and satisfaction? Your dreams have come true. Welcome to Sikkim, the Switzerland of the East. There is an ever resplendent aura about this place that never fades off from your memory. You wonder, did the people who found kerala not know that there was a place called Sikkim? Or Im sure, this would have been God's Own Country.

The City Of Joy !!!

Or is it?? On second thoughts, Im compelled to say NO!! I am slow in realizing that. I should have realized that as soon as I got onto the railway platform. The journey from the railway station to the guest house was a very harrassing one. It was all but 12 kilometers, and we could reach the place only after an hour and a fifteen minutes. It was a hot and a sticky day, and to top that, the traffic came to a standstill every now and then. We had a tough time coping up with all the horns and the shouts of all the taxi drivers and the denizens of the city. That was the unceremonious reception we got to the well known city of Kolkata.

After a very refreshing and a much needed bath, we had lunch at Haldiram's, one of the best places in the city to have a quick lunch. Then, we set off for the world renowned Kali ghat. And shocked I was at the pathos of the place. The place where Mother Kali, with her hanging red tongue, immortalised in many picture frames in many hindu households was a place painted with another red, that of chewing and spitting paan, that is ever resplendent in most bengalis' mouths. The way the place was maintained is enough to shake anyone up. The temple has an entry and an exit, each manned by only 1 securtiy guard each. The entry has only one detector and it is faulty. You go directly into the temple and right near the goddess. There, I got the shock of my life. There were 4 or 5 pujaris out of which one of them came to us and mumbled something very much like ' Om myam nan dan janhg tum mam Om' and flung out his right hand and shamelessly, meeting my father's eye, asked for 500 rupees. My father gave him a 5 rupee note, asked him to be satisfied with that and we moved on. There are quite a few places where the moment you set your eyes upon the god, you are entranced by the beauty and the surreality of it. You do not get that feeling here. You can't call such a place religious. The guard had already smoked 2 cigarettes by the time we went out.

There are many other places of ' interest' in the city, but they turn out to be unusually boring. There is a place called Science City, which doesn't match up to your expectations. Belur Math and Dakshineshwar temple are two wonderful and peaceful places which are not to be missed and can provide solace from the maddening crowds of the city. For those with interest in museums, Victoria Memorial and the Nehru Museum are places worth going to.

For all those who look with awe at a clip with multi-coloured spectra on it, or can stare for hours together at that wonderful dress on the window, or go ' ooh! ' and ' aah! ' at the sight of rows of pairs of slippers and shoes, Kolkata is what The Vatican is to the christians and Mecca to the muslims. There are a lot of shopping districts in Kolkata to which many tourists and the locals flock to. A statutory warning to all men: The shopping districts are places where there is a danger of your pocket being picked by your wife, or girlfriend, than the local goonda . You will be stripped off your wallet in no time at all. The amount spent by your spouse will go sky rocketing to an extent where you start wondering why you married at all. It is the worst place I have seen and I was bored to death.

So, my favourite places in Calcutta sum up to this: Haldiram's, The Metro and Forum. The Metro is a great place, with central air-conditioning and all that. The trains are neat and a lot of people travel by the Metro. You reach places in 5 minutes, which by road takes you more than an hour. The thing I loved about Kolkata's girls was, they know how to dress up. Their dress sense is so good that you can't find another city with such inexplicable taste in dresses. Even though I didn't like the city much, I felt some heaviness in my heart as I was leaving the city and I still don't know why. Maybe the city is as great as they say, after all.

Of Munching and Licking...

I may hurt many people out there with this blog, but this is the least I can do for them. But I really hope that it brings about a change in some of you.

One of worst things you encounter in your daily life, other than those countless hassles and troubles, is the way an edible item is eaten. I say edible, because these days, we see lots of inedible things ( like humans!! ) being eaten. I know, you may argue that humans are also edible, eaten by the carnivores, but im talking about things eaten by humans ( which recently, have come to include humans too!! ). Before I start beating around the bush, let's get back into the crux of the matter.

So, as I was telling, one thing which irritates me and many others is the way food is eaten. The table is one place, where you can expect a cacophony of sounds to arise. I know you are thinking im mad, but the next time you sit at the table, just notice the plethora of sounds around you. Rest assured, you will hear different sounds at varying levels of pitch and frequency, leaving out the noise created by the fan, the clock and all such irrelevant things.

You are hungry and you start eating with all the voraciousness, and lo behold, a small squeaky noise, which increases with respect to time, comes from a place next to you. That guy, opposite you, will be licking and sucking his fingers and hand with such ferocity and intensity that you will lose half your appetite. You try blocking out the sounds and I assure you, it's so tough that pigs may even start flying. And the worst part is, as soon as you notice or listen to the sound, and turn your head in that direction to see the wondrous spectacle, you get a throbbing in your head and you start gnashing your teeth. However hard you may try, there is no way that you can lessen the volume. This guy, much to your horror, then cleans up his plate, just by taking whatever is there in the plate and licking his fingers to get rid of them. And im sure, by this time, you'd get the feeling to get up and leave the place.

The same guy, starts eating something crunchy. I accept that the item being cruchy, it does produce a certain amount of noise while eating, which can be minimized by just closing the mouth and eating. So, at the start , when the guy has just started eating, you get a grinding noise, a deep grinding noise, like the noise a starting giant wheel produces. You start getting a headache at this point of time. Your troubles have just started. As our hero gets adept at eating the crunchy thing, the sound is different, bigger, nastier and so on. You get the sound of a drill machine being operated, or rather, the grinding sound that comes out of a quarry. The noise is so loud, mediocre that you have this sensation that you would have been somewhere else rather than here. Of course, professionals in this field have a remix kinda thing where they mix and match licking and munching, and believe me, that's too tough to endure and you may as well go to Auschwitz.

Im not targeting anyone in particular, and this is only a humble attempt to bring some consciousness among people to eat with etiquette. You may be well dressed for a party and you may have all the affable qualities and you may mix well with people, but if you go wrong in the way you eat, it may lead to disastrous situations.

And of course, a loud belch after the whole orchestra would be an icing on the cake...

The Quintessential Man.

He was born in the throes of poverty. The state of his family when he was born was so pathetic and pitiable that the parents named their youngest son symbolic to someone bringing riches. The whole family was hard pressed for money and still, it was a family full of talent and art. Little did the parents know that their youngest son would be a child prodigy and a messiah to their troubles. Im wrong in telling parents, as the boy's father was working in some other place during most of the boy's childhood. But im doing so, as the boy had that respect and faith in his father and I don't want to question that.

The boy survived the worst droughts in money. There were times when the family had nothing to eat other than some curd in mashed rice. The boy went through all that and he went to school, holding his head high even though his stomach cringed and growled with hunger. And succeed he did. The fire in his eyes to succeed, to pull his family out of the miserable circumstances is a memory still emblazoned in people who knew him as a child. He was there in almost every event in the school. Be it extempore, elocution, debate, singing, dance, drama, games and sports, he carved out a niche for himself. And the students of his class held him with respect. Even though he was a winner, he carried himself with subtle grace and such humility that it brought warmth wherever he was.

As a child, he had a lot of cravings, one of them being his love for Cadbury's chocolate. He felt that pang of poverty in his heart whenever he saw his own schoolmates eating whereas he couldn't afford even a quarter of it. This is a point where many of us give up, consoling ourselves that we are not born lucky, but the sight of that chocolate further steeled his resolve to become someone and show the people the way to live. And he got that chance when he was just a kid. He was auditioned and selected for a movie, a role which had good weight in the movie. The movie was a runaway hit and he became a child artiste. He was called for many other movies now, due to his grandfather's publicity of the boy and he went on to do some more movies, when he finally stopped and listened to his inner voice. He knew he didn't want to do it and he didn't want the fame that accompanied him. As a child, he was drawn to books and books just enthralled him. The sight of a book was a happier thought to him than the sight of an ice cream. He was inspired by the orotund speeches of Swami Vivekananda, impressed by the ideologies of great thinkers like Karl Marx and lenin, and was carried away by the teachings and sayings of great gurus like Ramakrishna Paramhans and the like. He threw away his film stardom and went back to his books, after a long break.

And yet, he rose, like a phoenix arising from the ashes. He was back in his world, his playground and he was ready to assert his superiority, which he did stupendous effort and brilliance. His family had recovered a bit, but it was still too hard. He made a firm resolve and went about his work , graduating with top honours from the college. And then he decided, he would serve the country by joining the civil services. And he studied hard for it, which got him through the exam and he was called for the interview. The interview was where it didn't go as well as he expected it to, so he had to face failure. But failure was nothing new to this mature young man. He decided to give it another try, with the same disappointing result. He would reveal all this, how he felt when he didn't get through and what were the thoughts inside him to his son, a few years later, when the son is faced with a similar situation.

He was not a man to be daunted. He took up another job, and worked through it rising to positions in the company he was with. In the meantime, he married a beautiful and wonderful woman and became a proud father to a son and a daughter. He rose in the company, held various positions and became a man to be loved, feared and respected for all the reasons. He does his puja with utmost sanctity and believes in God, qualities which he passed on to his son and daughter. He is still the master at everything he takes up and he guides, friend and foe alike, along the right path. He is the person many look up to, when a decision needs to be made. He is the quintessential father and husband. He is my Father.

On his birthday, I cant think of a more fitting present than this. Appa, I hope I never let you
down in any way, and if I have done so in the past, it was because I couldn't comprehend what was being told to me. Happy birthday to you and may God bless you with a long life.

All men have their price...

... And it is approximately equal to hundred times the salary they receive. I may be wrong in my approximation, but all I know is that it is somewhere about there. All you females out there, wipe that silly grin off your face. When I meant men, I meant it in a worldly sense and men obviously includes you. So, having finished with all the formalities, let's get straight into the topic.


There is no doubt that, at any point of time in your lives, you would have seen many a monetary bartering system ( Damn, it sounds so nice and sophisticated, but what i meant was bribery!! ) at different levels of hierarchy. There is no disputing the fact that bribing takes place at the lowest levels, as low as a clerk's assistant level. And as we go up the hierarchy, the bribe increases ten-fold and you most probably lose whatever you have saved for a rainy day. I assure you, at any given time, at any place, just start up the topic of bribery and see what stories people can dole out. Almost everyone's got a say on bribery. Ok, here's what happened to me some time back.

I had just finished learning to ride on a defunct old TVS and I wanted a license and pestered my father to get me one. He, promptly, as a good old father should do, handed me some money, and asked me to go to the RTO with my cousin, who also wanted a license. Well, 15 is an age where everyone is excited by the silliest of things in the world, and I thought that having a license to ride is a 'license to kill' ( I almost did that one day, but that's another story!!) . So, on the D-day, much to the embarassment of my cousin, I was jumping all over the place with a sheepish grin on my face.

And then, we had to contact a guy, who was an agent here and we had to deal through him. This guy made us 'small fry' wait for a long time in his shed and went after the 'big fish'. After he returned, he outright told me I wont get a license here and I had to go to some other place to get it done. Anyways, my cousin had to get it done and he asked my cousin to fill up some forms. They asked him all the usual stuff about what he is, where he is from and so on. My cousin got bored of all this and he asked me to do it, which I did with a lot of enthusiasm ( He still believes that the demented kinda photo on his license was my mistake, even though i reason out with him and tell him that it was an on the spot photo!! ). So, after all the literary stuff is over, the agent takes back the papers, scrutinises them ( that's what he did, I think!! ) , tells us that everything is in order and places it neatly on a the top of a pile.

Suddenly, he leans forward and asks us to do so too. He told us that the license would take about 350 rupees and he could get it done immediately for us. My cousin, the ever careful guy, asks him the actual cost of the licence. This guy tells us that it's about 150 or so, but he needed to give something for the officer inside and he also needed to survive with his family and all that crap. I mean, if he doesn't take the extra money, is his family going to go to the dogs? We tell him we'll do it the hard way ( Which ironically is the right way!!) and as we walk away, he asks us for 10 rupees for a cup of tea. I mean, this is the limit. Just 10 minutes back, he tries stealing an amount ten times that.

So, we get into the building and we are shocked to see the posters " Agent system is abolished" , "Bribery is a punishable offence " etc etc etc. And beneath the posters, all these agents handle their 'transactions'. So, with everything, including the photo done, we wait for the call to the preliminary test for a learner's license. Then, I get accustomed to the Modus Operandi of these guys. If the candidate sent in is a guy whom an agent knows, he's asked to put a namaste to the officer and just point out in the direction of the door once and the officer knows that he has got an additional 100 rupees into his already fat pocket. This candidate comes out peacefully, assured that he gets his license. My cousin had a hard time inside, but Im proud to tell that he passed the test with flying colours ( note: my driving is much better than his!! ) .

So, what is the Indian government doing? Why is it recruiting such immoral people and degrade the already poverty stricken country? Are these people getting inspired by characters such as Bangaru laxman and the likes of him? What motivates all these people to commit such henious acts? Or is there so much pressure from the family that a man has to extract money from different sources? Is this the country that is 'Saare Jahaan Se Accha'? Is this the country that Gandhiji and the other freedom fighters fought for, with their sweat and blood? Are we not, the sons and daughters of this soil, raping Mother India, who is already covered with a tattered and a dust ridden cloth? When will we come out of this tunnel of ignorance and shame? When will we see the light? What are our objectives for the development of the country? When are we going to make India a force to reckon with? These are some of the many questions that we need to answer and implement upon.

Do wings signify freedom?

Yeah, that's the worst title someone can come up with... but as u go on, you will see that it's apt... I, as an IITan, miss a lot of things, but what I miss the most are good grub and better gals (not in that order!!)... So, i was kinda happy that i was goin home by flight and would get to see great gals and wonderful grub ( a common misconception!! )... So, the day before i was to leave, i was telling all the guys how wonderful it would be if a hot gal came and sat next to me... The D-day arrives and i find myself at the airport, looking around for gals... I dint have any breakfast, so asked an airport personnel if there were any restaurants inside, to which he pointed out the Taj restaurant... Needless to say, I lost my appetite immediately... With all the formalities with the security completed, I was sitting and doin you know what... And i see lots of good looking gals, but they are either off on a flight to blore or mumbai... bein the optimist, i was hopeful, but all around me i could only see older people... Still, i thought, there are airhostesses and i may be lucky... finally the boarding announcement came... The size of the alliance air plane did nothing to dampen my spirits... I step into the plane and my dreams and fantasies blew sky high... The first airhostess i met is a lady (yeah, a lady!! ) with teeth like squirrel and rouge ( i think thats wat it is called!!) all over her face.. The red lipstick she put on was slightly smeared over her teeth and she welcomed us all with a magnanimous ( supposed to read scary, demented and on....!! ) smile... I was shocked beyond all reason and wanted to get off the plane... The other 2 airhostesses were very much similar to her, except for one, who looked slightly like a chink... I saw the Taj van outside the plane and thought the grub should be great... the airhostess with the buck teeth started explaining the various safety procedures and i dint care to listen... thot it'd be much better to die... So, the plane takes off smoothly ( Thank God, atleast that went fine !! ) and i sit waiting for the grub... And there's jus one word i'd use for the grub... SHIT... I don think i even need to elaborate... So, here's the question, do wings signify freedom??