Prarambh

What a first week it has been in the land of the Nawabs. Haven’t spent much time in the city, been on campus mostly since I landed here. First things first, the city, right from getting out at the station gives the impression of chaos, and the traffic at best represents Brownian movement. It was so nice to finally reach the campus after what can only be described as a nightmarish journey.

The campus, bless the lord, is a sea of tranquility, and the atmosphere can be best described as “warm indifference”, since although the people are very nice and warm, there is a subtle air of indifference, one that alludes to the fact that it wouldn’t matter to the pacific around if a certain individual existed here or not.. The campus is impressive in terms of facilities, and comes as a much welcome dollop of green amidst the vast tracts of farmlands on the gangetic plains.

The induction module by the institute was quite disappointing, a sequence of long lectures, mostly soporific: the good part was the hall was air conditioned. The induction module by our seniors was meant to prepare us mostly towards getting rid of our stage fear, and handling stress with dignity. Although our senior batch had their intentions in the right place, the repeated use of the phrase “This is not a joke” actually made it a joke! Learnt a few survival skills, primary one being sleep management.

Come Friday evening, we decided to make a dash to the city, and there is just one term I have for it: A jungleraj. The sports bar that we went to had the sign outside “Arms and ammunitions not allowed”, and was manned by security guards carrying automatic weapons. The restaurant next door, a “family” place by their own confession, had a bouncer, who wore a bullet proof vest. Something I have never seen before, or associated with our country.

Another prominent feature across the state, right in the center of the busiest intersection of the city, Hazratganj, is a statue of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. I do not think I need to offer any explanations for this one.

Now coming to my favorite pet peeve, the weather. On the hot and dry days, the campus is under the spell of Loo, and everything we can lay our hands on is literally roasted. The concrete buildings get so hot, they radiate heat for most part of the night, and make any iota of comfortable sleep impossible. The last three days were a little humid, and that made us sweat endlessly, without letup.. Finally, the rain gods, kind and benevolent as they are, blessed us with the first showers of the season, and well, knowing me, I took a walk in the rain along the “ring road”. It was blissful.

Formal registration happened yesterday, and the institute gave us the books for the first term, weighing around half a quintal!! Good luck to me, more later..

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So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish - II

It is my last night in town. I was at the alumni-fresher meet of my would-be alma mater, and that’s when it hit me. I will indeed be leaving behind all my friends, my beloved city and everything, to start a new life, in a far away hamlet, located off the city of nabobs. I made new friends, was given a new nick-name, which I fear will stick with me for the rest of my life.

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B’lore has been exceptionally kind to me, and on my last evening, it blessed me with precious rain. How much I will miss this, I cannot explain.

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The last few days have been kind of crazy, with me running helter-skelter to complete some formalities, or to finish a chore. I also ended up doing things that I have not done ever, but always wanted to do. A walk in Lalbagh under an overcast sky was prominent in the list.

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I hope to finish my packing, and go cheer my friends, who are running the Sunfeast 10K tomorrow. Lord bless their souls.

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Au revoir, les enfants...

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So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Not so long ago, I had a tryst with a not very discreet feline character. It was a not so cold wintry morning, with a light drizzle making it ever more pleasant. I was rather tense, I always am before a date, and this one involved a rather long brunch. It went rather ok, although I thought I goofed up bad a couple of instances. Eventually, we parted, and I hoped I would hear more from her. It turns out, I did hear from her, and after two more dates, I am finally moving in.

Am going to move out of 'home' to 'helL'. The revelation itself came as a shocker, I was much rather expecting to do a local shift in b'lore, from Basvangudi to Bannerghata road, but alas, that was not to be.. Here I am, suddenly, with just about 5 weeks more in this city, where I have lived all my adulthood. This beautiful city, it has been exceptionally kind to me, has given me everything. A lot of what I am, it is because of this city, that I can proudly call namma bengaluru.

It will be hard to move out, to leave behind an amazing gang of friends, those long Sunday barbecues, the complete homely neighborhoods, the peace and quiet of lalbagh, and bustle of gandhibazar, the evenings at tavern, the singing of the koels, those bike rides at night, the pandemonium of parrots flying over emgee, the fun sessions at mr lahiri's house, lunch at queens', essentially everything.. It was an amazing ride all through, and although I am guilty of leaving all this behind in hope of a more interesting one, b'lore, you will always remain special.

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The problem with religion

A nine year old girl in Brazil is allegedly raped by her step-father, and gets pregnant, carrying twins. Doctors say that because of her tender age, and the twins inside her womb, her life is in danger, so she goes in for an abortion. The church responds to this by excommunicating her, and all those who helped her get the abortion done-her mother, the doctors involved. The step-father is not ex-communicated.

Now, I am a secular person, and not against any particular religion, but any doctrine, which ignores basic facts about rape, that too of a child by a family member, and then her right to life, and responds by ostracizing her at a time when she needs the support of the society, I cease to have any respect for the people who run that doctrine.

To me, what was shocking was not just the response of the local archbishop, but also the defense of his actions by the Vatican. Where has all the sense and sensibility gone? This represents a fundamental problem with religion altogether, which is following the text of its Gods by the letter, not in spirit. In a case like the one above, the church takes no action against the step-father but goes to great lengths to defend the life of the unborn twins, when it has no respect for the life of the nine year old.

The idea of religion, and the concept of having a few men dressed in robes of a revered color having the ultimate say in the interpretation of the religious texts needs reform. And this reform will not come by a mass social movement, it will be a silent revolution, taking place in the minds of free men and women, when every individual will choose for himself and herself, whether he would rather follow his conscience, and do what seems ‘right’ or listen to someone (mis)interpret the gospels of the messiahs. The color of the robes, and the actual preachings of the texts concerned is not important, what is important is that the underlying message of humanity is not lost: we must follow the basic principles of morality, and our actions must be determined with what seems right or wrong to our inner-voice. The independence from organized religion and moving towards an enlightened individual will eventually bring in universal harmony. Motivation for one’s action should be morality; religion, at least the way it is supposed to be, is a platform for moral actions, and this may not be needed in an enlightened world, in my opinion.

I am sure the day this happens, I will see unicorns grazing in my backyard, and people flying around on broomsticks.

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