Surreal Conversation

"I can't believe this is happening in this day and age" - have you ever heard someone say that? I guess it means that when we have progressed in so many many areas, it's difficult to fathom how some things never change. I had one such conversation today

S: I wanted to talk to you. I might have to take some time off from work

Me: Is everything ok?

S: Well, I got my daughter married to a "nice boy" last year and had a very grand wedding, as you know (I went for the wedding. It was indeed "grand"). Everything was fine for a while. And then my daughter's mother-in-law (I'm calling her MIL from here on), started abusing my daughter.

Me: What? What kind of abuse? (I was thinking does it matter?)

S: What else? Dowry, only. I gave so much and I also spent so much on the wedding. But still MIL was very rude and shouting at my daughter and said I have to give her property and whatnot.

Me: You should report her to the police.

S: What's the use? If I do, and she and her son are put in jail for 7 years, then it's my daughter who will suffer. I spoke to the lawyer who said not to do that now.

Me: Hmm.

S: I think if they have a baby everything will be solved. But MIL will not let them. She calls her son correctly at 7.30 pm when he is just come from work and keeps him on the phone. Sometimes she asks him to come to visit her late in the night, and says she has some problem. She says she will throw my daughter out if she comes between her and her son.

(long pause)

S: MIL hit her so much that my daughter had to be taken to the hospital. Whenever the son is at work, MIL beats up my daughter and makes her do demeaning things.

Me: What about the boy's father? What does he say?

S: He's just a "dummy". He just sits there - just a namesake father.

Me: I still think you should report to the police. If more people thought about the crime, maybe it wouldn't happen. When you are scared that they will take their anger out on your daughter, its difficult to see the crime taking place.

S: Anyway. My health is suffering. I wish she will get pregnant then everything will be okay. I hope she does not send my daughter home.


The conflict. Doing the right thing vs. the well-being of your daughter. I can't believe this is an actual conversation I had this morning. S is a high-grade manager, making a decent amount of money, educated. Daughter is educated (with an MBA), and married to a successful banker.

Are you shocked? Or are you saying "Yea Yea This Happens Everywhere"?

Go Chennai SuperKings!!!

The much-awaited IPL (Indian Premier League) 20-20 cricket tournament had its huge opening on April 18th. With about 60 matches spread over a 1 1/2 month period, there is no dearth of exciting cricket lined up.

The IPL is similar to the National Basketball League (NBA) in the US. Each team is owned on a franchise basis by businessmen/ celebrities. The players can be traded and bought in an auction, and they will play for their cities.

The 8 teams and their franchisees in the league are:

Chennai Super Kings - by India Cements
Delhi Daredevils - by GMR Holdings
Mumbai Indians - by Reliance
Bangalore Royal Challengers - by Vijay Mallya
Deccan Chargers - Hyderabad - by Deccan Chronicle
Rajasthan Royals - By Emerging Media Group
Kolkata Knight Riders - by Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla
Kings XI Punjab - by Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia

You can access the IPL tournament schedule here.



In a nail-biting match last night (as you can see in the picture above, the Mumbai Indians needed 8 runs in 2 balls!), Chennai Super Kings beat the Mumbai Indians in the last few balls of the match. It was nerve-racking to watch!! But we won! Go CSK!

Travel File: Bandhavghar National Park

When they say that Madhya Pradesh is the heart of India, I didn't pay attention. I hardly knew anything about Madhya Pradesh before I visited Bandhavghar National Park. We flew to Delhi and then to Jabalpur and then drove 4 hours to the Park. We stayed in a lovely hotel, Mahua Kothi, which is a joint venture between the Taj Hotels and CC Africa. The hotel is lovely and located bang in the middle of acres of forest and grassland - typical tiger country. It was my first stay inside a forest and my first safari, so I was quite excited.

Madhya Pradesh has the largest number of national parks in the country and the largest concentration of tigers. Its a beautiful country!

We left early the next morning (5 am) and saw a lovely sunrise, while keeping our eyes peeled for tigers. We saw lots and lots of langurs, deer and many varieties of birds and plant life. We never did see the tigers that first day! This sign just about summed up our experience!





Everyday, we'd head off for 4 hours in the morning, having lavish picnics on the road. Return for lunch and then head out for a 4 hour drive in the evening, returning by sunset. The forest, at night, is an amazing place to be. The tables are definitely turned. A tiger has unparalleled night vision and we can't see 2 feet in front of us! It gave us chills just to walk from dinner back to our rooms.

The food, made from fresh local ingredients, was simply superb. Simple and elegant. They also offered splendid massages right in the verandah of our rooms. Each room was like a little upscale hut, with its lovely local craft and woodwork. The highlight of the day would be when you return from the drive and a bath had been drawn filled with sweet smelling petals. It was exactly what you needed after a long, bumpy drive inside the forest.

The Massage:


The Bath:


The forest is a serene place and for once, I saw no trash anywhere, and everyone was always quiet, being careful not to disturb the animals in their natural environment. One day we heard that there was a tigress who comes down to the stream to drink water between 5.15 and 5.30 every evening. We brushed away the story as another way to keep our hopes up. Especially since we hadn't seen a tiger for 1.5 days, we were starting to feel a little disappointed. So we took the chance and showed up at 5 to wait for the punctual tigress. And she did come - at exactly 5.20! And she walked right through the waiting safari jeeps. No one made a single noise - the feeling was almost spiritual to see a tiger in the wild, in its own habitat. It walked right through the waiting jeeps and clicking cameras and standing, hardly-breathing people! It barely gave us an acknowledgement. It seriously couldn't care who we were or what we were doing there. It headed straight for the tall grass and the water on the other side and lay down in the tall grass and she was gone as fast as she had appeared.

Our Beautiful Tigress:


We saw several other tigers while we were but the first one was the most memorable. We also saw lots of beautiful birds - vultures, hawks, eagles, owls, rollers, kingfishers. And lots of lovely foliage - most notably the bright green Sal trees and the lovely Mahua trees with their yellow intoxicating fruit.

Mahua Flowers


Elephant and Mahoot


Deer


The Langurs


The Kingfisher


Red Headed Vulture


Brown Fish Owl


I highly recommend Bandhavgarh and Madhya Pradesh to everyone who is remotely interested in nature. We are now addicted!

Rise of the Under Dogs Part Deux

And this time I'm talking about the Indian under-dogs - Sachin and Sehwag whom I basically thought were useless last match, showed that they were worth their place in the Indian team this time around vs. Bermuda. Superb performance by Sachin, Sehwag and Yuvraj. And of course, the fantastic 6 off the last ball from Dravid.

Sachin and Yuvraj were a sight to behold and it was a feast for the Indians who've been starved of 6s and 4s for a while now. Bermuda got badly knocked around. I do hope it was a learning experience. And I do hope they will come back and play next time.

India made a whopping 413 - the highest total in World Cup History. And though we didnt manage to get them out for less that 125, like we should have, it was still quite a beating. Onto the match vs. Sri Lanka fingers x-ed.

In other news, the Pakistan coach died suddenly of "unexplained causes, waiting the autopsy" after their defeat in the match vs. Ireland. And Inzamam has stepped down as Captain. I'm quite sad about both. Inzamam has done a lot for Pakistan cricket, and so has the coach.

The Rise of the Under Dogs

Un-friggin-believable! India lost to Bangladesh in their first game today in the World Cup! I, for one, am appalled!! I mean Bangladesh is definitely the best of under dog teams - or should I say those that aren't in the Super 8. But really, Bangladesh?? C'mon, India! I have been rooting for India to get to the Semi-finals (I still think the finals will be between South Africa and Sri Lanka), but looks like they might not make it!

I can't believe we still think of Sachin Tendulkar as a hero in this country. His performance in the past couple of years has been dismal at best. He's made it big in maybe a couple of matches and every single time, the country says "wow thank god Sachin is back in form", only to find him getting out for a single figure the next time! I'm tired of people thinking he's the saving grace! Move on, people. Sehwag, another disappointing performance. And I expected more from Dravid. What's going on, dude?

But the worst performance I've seen so far from a super 8 team was Pakistan today vs. Ireland. On St. Patrick's Day! Woohoo Ireland! Superbly played indeed. Sent Pakistan packing by 3 wickets! That is, Pakistan is out of the world cup! This is definitely a turn-the-tables, edge-of-the-seat type world cup. Can't wait to see Ireland play the West Indies. I'm sure it'll be superb judging by Ireland's performance so far. They might even make it to the top of their group! Happy St. Pat's!

India in a different light

I have been so caught up in rediscovering India after moving back, that I have quite forgotten how India would be viewed by a non-Indian. Mark Straub, a fellow blogger, has very eloquently shown me India in a different light. The way his posts themselves have evolved over the months - initially his post was how colorful, populated and crazy India is when you first land and take a drive from the airport, to all the inner passion and drive that you find in the country. Amazing blog. Please read if you have the time.

His latest post has this link from YouTube, that again showed me a different India - and what a beautiful video it is. As Mark says

"...shows quite a different angle on this rubik's-cube-of-a-country. It's a beautiful view of the "Invisible Side of India" - a picture you only glimpse today but that you may see all around you if you visit in 10 years..."

Chennai Loyalty

Its been a year and a half since I moved back to Chennai. Having lived here for 24 years before that. Things have changed and Chennai is more cosmopolitan than it was and things are only getting better. This is as it should be.

For the first 6 months of moving back, I complained non-stop and to anyone who'd listen that I was longing to be back in the Bay Area. I missed the clean sidewalks, the empty (atleast population-less) spaces, independence, the food (especially the bagels!) and most of all the anonymity.

I was jealous of those who found happiness here in Chennai. Especially those who had lived in the US and had moved back and said they were glad they did so. I just couldn't understand it - why would you want to live here? I wished that I felt that the same way.

Things have changed drastically in the last year. I enjoy Chennai. As someone told me "in the US, it seems as if people are just trying to get through the day, the work day, and can't wait to get home. In Chennai, there's a sense of excitement, of promise. There's the longing to be more, to do more with their lives, to achieve more". I totally agree. People here want a better life for themselves and are willing to work harder and try harder to achieve it. You'll be hard-put to find someone who is complacent.

The one issue that still remains is anonymity but I'm glad now that there are people around me who give a damn about me. Who are willing to help, to lend a ear, to lend a hand. Someone I can drop my kid off with for an hour just to shop and they are excited to have her. People who I bump into in shops, in cinemas, on the road even whom I can have a conversation with inspite of having seen them only yesterday. There's a huge sense of community.

I am as surprised as anyone that I am writing this. But I've finally found peace at moving back. I do still long for those things in the US, but am happy to visit. The severe "homesickness" and aching have disappeared. I've joined those people I envied. I'm finally happy with my decision. I'm home.

Plagiarism by Yahoo! India

I have been shocked by Yahoo! India's lack of respect for proprietal information. Fellow Bloggers have been attacked by Yahoo! where the big corporation has actually lifted content off their blogs, and posted it on the portal without any credit to the source. Incredible! Especially for someone as well-known as Yahoo who doesn't need to do this!

Inji of Ginger and Mango writes:

Yahoo India launched a beta version of their Malayalam (an Indian Language) portal and what do they do to fill their pages? Lift content just straight from small web magazines and blogs without asking a word or adequately compensating for those. What a shame!

Read more about this here. And join the protest.

(Icon credit Sandeepa)

India: Fired up on Chillies!

Recently India entered the Guinness Book of Records with the World's hottest chilli, Bhut Jolokia! Apparently Bhut Jolokia means Ghost Chilli because the person who eats the chilli gives up his ghost!

Not sure why, but I feel inordinately proud! I guess it stems from watching people eat Jalapenos (apprently only 10,000 on the Scoville heat units compared to the Bhut which is 1 million plus!!) and Bird's eye yellow chillies and exclaim that it was the hottest thing in the world and nothing can top that. I would eat the same thing, and say, "there must be something hotter in India". And now I am right. And India has shown the world!











(photo taken from here)

Woohoo!