Her !

I was browsing IMDB for good dramas and fumbled on this one. The villain of the movie Gladiator is leading. I read his name just before starting this post but forgot, however his performance in Gladiator can't be.

Coming to the movie. Initially the movie appeared to be very sensitive. So sensitive that I could not sit and watch the next scene before the present settles down. I made four cups of coffee for myself in first hour. Last movie for which I had similar reaction is " Finding never land ".

Anyway, the plot is the love affair of an author with his artificially intelligent operating system, which has the ability to learn. Dont assume that the computer grows to be has master. The history of science fiction make us think of Artificial intelligence in a bad way. From Terminator movie series, to I,Robot of will smith  to animated Wall-E , every science fiction movie does it, making us to believe the knowledge and ability to learn leads to hunger for power. But what if, the machine starts enjoying learning and it get hunger for more knowledge. That's the story of the movie.

వీటిని పట్టించుకోమా మనం ?

Industrialization , globalization వల్ల ఆదివాసులు తమ ఆదాయాన్ని , సంస్కృతిని కోల్పోతున్నారు కాబట్టి , అవి చాలా చెడ్డవని ఈ మధ్య ప్రచారం బాగా జరుగుతోంది. Avatar , ఉరిమి కధాంశాలు కూడా అవే . ఇప్పుడు మీడియా , మూవీస్ పెరిగి మనకి ఈ సమస్య గురించి ఎక్కువగా వినడం జరుగుతోంది అని, పరిశ్రమలలో వచ్చిన మార్పుల వల్ల పూర్వం కూడా ఇలాంటి బాధలు సమాజం లో కొందరు పడ్డారని, చాలావాటిని మనం నిర్లక్ష్యం చేసామని  నా గట్టి నమ్మకం  . ఉదాహరణకి ...

paperless office కోసం తాపత్రయ పడుతూ , మనం కాగితం పరిశ్రమని దెబ్బ కొడుతున్నాం 

ఈమెయిలు వాడకం ఎక్కువయిపోయి , పోస్టల్ డిపార్టుమెంటు ని దెబ్బ కొట్టాం 

వాహనాలు ఎక్కువగా వాడటం వల్ల , ఎడ్లబడ్ల తాయారు చేసే వారు నష్టపోతున్నారు 

మొబైల్ ఫోను  ల్యాండ్ లైన్ ని,  ల్యాండ్ లైను ఫోను టెలిగ్రాఫ్ ని, టెలిగ్రాఫ్ పావురాల్ని నాశనం చేసేసాయి , 

చైనా నుంచి వచ్చిన కాగితాన్ని బాగా వాడుతూ , దేశి పరిశ్రమ అయిన తాళపత్ర పరిశ్రమని నాశనం చేసారు మన పూర్వీకులు.

మొబైల్ ఫోన్లు ఎక్కువయ్యాక , డబ్బా రేడియోలు కొనడం మానేసారు 

బ్రాడ్బాండ్ నెట్ చవకగా రావడంతో , ఇంటర్నెట్ కేఫ్ లు మూత పడుతున్నాయి 

డిష్ టీవీ , కేబుల్ టీవీ పరిశ్రమని తోక్కిపెట్టాలని చూస్తోంది 

రెడీమేడ్ బట్టల పరిశ్రమ , సందు చివరి టైలర్ కడుపు కొట్టింది 

టూత్ బ్రుష్ ల వల్ల , వేప పుల్లలకి, బొగ్గు పొడికి  ఆదరణ తగ్గింది 

హోమియోపతి , అలోపతి హడావిడిలో మనం అయోర్వేదాన్ని , పసరు మందులని మర్చిపోయాం , అలాగే భూత వైద్యుల్ని కూడా 

తుపాకి పరిశ్రమ  కత్తి పరిశ్రమని, బాణాల పరిశ్రమని , ఈటెల పరిశ్రమని మాయం చేసేసింది 

టీవీ , మూవీలు వచ్చాక నాటకరంగాన్ని పట్టించుకోడం బాగా తగ్గింది 

చైనా నుంచి తెచ్చుకున్న పట్టు ని , మన భారతీయ దేవుళ్ళకి కూడా తొడిగి అదే మన సాంప్రదాయం , సంస్కృతి అన్న భ్రమ లో బ్రతుకుతున్నాం
కంప్యూటర్ పిచ్చి లో పడి  Typewriters ని పట్టించోకవట్లేదు ఎవరు ..
అసలు వాహనాల ఉత్పత్తి పెంచి , ప్రజలకి నడిచే అవసరం తగ్గించి, తద్వారా చెప్పులు తక్కువుగా  అరిగేల చేసి , చెప్పులు కుట్టేవాళ్ళ కడుపు కొడుతున్నాయి Honda, Hundai, Bajaj లాంటి సంస్థలు.

రోడ్డు మీద కుక్కలని , అడివిలో పులుల్ని , పశ్చిమ కనుమలలో అంతరించుకుపోతున్న కప్పల గురించి ఆలోచించే మనం , వీటి మీద ఎందుకు మౌనం గా ఉంటున్నాం ?

 

Social Experiment on Education, observation and forgetfulness

For the last one week,  I have been doing a social experiment. And i need support to expand the scope of it.

The experiment is based on bunch of questions , which are fundamental in nature. 6 of my friends failed to answer most of the questions. All of them are from different sectors, one is a fitness trainer, one from medical field , two students and two software engineers.

Here are the questions

1. What is "Milli" in Millimeter ? ( After many trails and errors , one student gave the correct answer, rest dont know )

2. How many feet for one yard?

3. Will stars be visible on a newmoon night?

4. Number of states in India?

5. Number of days between Fullmoon night and Newmoon night?

6. Difference between "Feet" and "Square Feet " ? ( one guy said, two feet is square feet " )

If you wish to have fun, please be a volunteer for this social experiment and share funny answers you got. 

Indian foreigners in India

Yes, there are many persons who were born in India , grew up in India but are not really Indians. 

I believe every person has the duty to have minimum knowledge about his country before appreciating things about other nations. Ooh, please, don't get me confused with a religious fundamentalist who create mess on Valentine's day. Nor i believe, its the westernized cloths which inspire sexual urge leading to rape.  I am a libertarian.

My point is there are few people in this country, who learned about India through discovery channel. They don't prefer to watch Indian movies, they don't read Indian authors ( chetan bhagat is exception in some cases) , don't listen Indian music much ( I am not referring to carnatic music, Bollywood items also count as Indian music ) . They use the word "fuck" as many times as possible, just to show off how americanized they are.

They have more knowledge on American civil war than Indian independence movement. Their happiest day is not when they become parent or achieved something but when they sip Starbucks coffee.

These people, at heart truly believe that they are foreigners touring India. Its easy to identify them, they still think India is a poorest country with most beggars or snake charmers. They often go to Goa to mingle with "their people". They deliberately follow the fake American accent.  Their knowledge on politics in US soil is better than India.

I am not saying they are wrong or throw them out of country . India follows diversified cultures which were borrowed from other regions and religions. Nor i meant to say, we should abandon non-indian goods. I like jeans, electronic gadgets and tea, none of them originated here. 

We have adapted many ideals from west, which liberated our women, lower class people , labors to some extent. In the era of Globalisation, we may seek solution to the chronic issues of land from distant land. But, observing the nation through the shades of western "all the time" is annoying. Every country has its own issues. If a country is economically advanced does not mean, we have to adapt the issues it is facing to submerge our own.   

Learn on which ground your feet are, make peace with it. Stop whining because India is not USA. And if you go to foreign land stop whining about their culture. 

The Alarm !

Last year when i started morning walk, a friend of mine wanted to join me. I said OK. He asked me give him a wake up call. I tore that request apart as he can use alarm feature of his smart phone. He tried to lecture me on value of friendship and a friend in need is a friend indeed. I thought he didnt know how to set alarm.

After one year, another friend asking the guy from last year to wake him early in the morning. As the discussion was happening in front of me, i asked why he has to wake him up. The reply was " It feels good , when someone wakes us up with a phone call " , my first thought was, he might have broke up with his girl and wants someone to call him early in the morning.

The question is why you need somebody to do your work when you can do it without any trouble? Initially, i concluded that its accepting weakness. But it didnt fit in for all cases to explain. Then thought of super-ego, which demands a man-Friday for chores. I had to rule it out as i knew him a bit.

Then started focusing on how someone reminding of him of the things he wish to do , makes him happy? If i want to do something, and if anyone reminds me of it, i get irritated , thats ego. But why would he be feeling good?

My next guess was "need". Its not that he needs another mans help to walk , its just that he wants a company. But why does he want a company for a simple thing like going to morning walk?

I have decided to do autopsy of the issue, in Thomas Hobbs way. According to the philosopher, all our emotions, deeds, behaviors etc etc i.e everything that makes us human come from two feelings. 1. Wanting 2. Not Wanting. This didnt help me, as he "wants" to go morning walk.

You, the reader, must be thinking that i am wasting because a friend of mine asked another to give him a call. Its not an isolated issue. I know people who needs a company to go to washrooms (including men), have tea, paying bills, shopping, watching a movie, doing chores etc etc.

Some political philosophers tried to explain why individuals formed a society. We were born in a society and we take it for granted like sun and moon. However, society is not a natural thing. Some say, we formed groups to protect our selves from chaos and some say to help each other. I dont think any normal person in the world can cause chaos by going to walk alone. And if he is not a physically challenged person, he does not help either.  I agree that a good company will make these things lively, but i could not understand how people avoid doing things because they have company.

May be, some cant stay calm for a long time without talking. And thats another thing i have not understood at yet. More on the related subject The man who talk too much !!

To be social, do we have to lose individuality and solitude ? Losing the joy of solitude for fake laughs seems silly.  Taking care of self gives confidence. It assures us we dont have to depend on someone for our needs. However, most of the people, dont even know how to pass time without a company. If they are bored, they have to call someone to chitchat.

I cant conclude this post because, i have dont have answers.

OPEN ART

Last week i went to movie screening of "Hola Venkat". A low budget Indian-in-America movie. I enjoyed it, because its dark comedy and its free.

I was leaving right after the movie but my friend bid me to sit there and listen to the producer-cum-director speech. Its a low budget movie where Travelling charges eaten up a lion share of budget. A whole bunch of actors are friends of the director and apparently they didn't pay a penny for locations and cars used in the movie.

After he explained his troubles in making the movie, the director asked us to donate any amount of money to support his work. With that, i was impressed with  the concept of movie making and distribution more than movie.

As a guy who gets bored too soon, i was already bored with mainstream cinema. Low budget movies, plays and short films become my resort for recreation as they are willing try new themes. Especially short movies and plays.

While coming home, i tried to link the art with the technology. Before technological evolution, the artist have to have money or blessings of a rich  fellow to make his art known. Imagine number of movie ideas which might be great but got rejected by the producers before YouTube. We never know how many articles, short stories , poetry and novels before blogosphere started got rejected by publishers.

One hobby which got boost from technology is photography and painting. Digital art is one way of expressing self , however most of the digital art is produced by an armature in Photoshop who think creating weirdness is modern art. The cheap cameras  gave birth to good photographers, but they are hard to find. Most of the hobby photographers are just idiots with SLR cameras just zooming and shooting shit thinking its art.

Anyway, what technology did to art is , it saved creativity from the clutches of production and publishing houses. The same goes to educational system too. Without internet how i am supposed to know the contemporary thinkers and professors of west or east.

Art of irritating people , some of my methods -2

In the last five years, i have developed new methods of annoying/irritating people.

1. Stop being humble :  "I am always right" . This simple statement annoyed almost all of my friends. I kept saying it for the fun, and now people started scrutinizing my every action. This is keeping me on the edge.

People expect us to be humble in receiving compliments. The response to "You did great", should be "No, anybody can do that". Then we can play the stupid game of , i-am-humble-so-praise-me-more. If your response is "yes, not everyone can do it" with a smile, then it may sound like a witty remark initially, but others will start perceiving it as arrogance. The trick here is, not being humble in dialogue, but being one in actions. Do not let the body language give any cue that you are arrogant. I learned this little trick from great boxer Ali.

2. Give them their own medicine : More than half of us have identity crisis. We lie and exaggerate to get admiration. People lie about great literature they read and great things they did. Be their loud speaker and propagate how great they are what great things they did, to the point where other parties will get tired of you praising that person, question the credibility of him, which in turn, keep that person in soup. You have created an image for him, now he has to protect it or he will become a fool.This method takes a long time to get results.

3. Decoding persons :  Generalizing behavior of an individual. You need not be right in understanding his behavior. Just say something like, he did that because he thought so. Many hate being decoded. Everybody thinks he is a complex personality. Just demolish that belief. One need to have an eye for observation, to guess correctly. If your guess is wrong, its fine too, now the victim has to explain himself, which is pretty annoying. Any way, the mission is accomplished.

4. Take a moral high ground and say it. I learned this technique from religious preachers. They think they are better than rest of us, and preach us because its kind of  wise-man's-burden. Modify it and use it. Say out loud that, you are better than rest of them. When i say, i know a lot, it  implies that the victim does not know much. Its an indirect insult. Works most of the times and keeps victim in a soup. He cant refute , because it will make him a villain to argue against morals, if he didn't refute , it implies he doesn't have a clue on morals. Anyway, we win.

5. Correcting : An old trick , but still effective. Correct their grammar, spelling or childish acts like biting nails. Make them feel, they are immature and posses less knowledge. Its similar to above technique , without lecturing.

PS : These methods are not to insult, they are meant to have a light moments among friends. Do not fall in the pit of irritating others and think you won. Once you got the wrong idea that, annoyance of others is the proof to your intelligence , then you are doomed. Once people got used to your methods, they stop being annoyed. It might force you to escalate, like insulting in public. That's how you become friendless. Annoy people, but never become annoyance all the time.

That PS is example of method 4 :P

For part-1 of the series, click on it 

sceptical Patriot

If you are like me, who can remember history from school a bit, but not sure if the forward messages on India which are intended to feel proud of being Indian, like , India never invaded another country in the last ten thousand years etc etc . Then, this book is for you.

Author Sidin, busts some of the messages which get circulated on Facebook, email and on whatsapp. He dug into history and tried to bring out the truth. Well, that's just not what i liked in the book.

I admired the tone of the book in which author tried to present his views. His views are balanced, thought he busted the false pride we get from such messages, he maintained that India is great, and instead feeling pride of the actual Indian things, we thump our chests on nonsense. I admire the tone of the book in fact, if i had to write something like, i would dedicate at least one chapter to abuse idiots who forward such nonsense. However, he didn't do it.

The book is informative and covered variety of topics from Number theory to Radio technology, to greek mythology to analysis of GDP.

As the author wrote humours novels previously, and he tried put comedy in this book, Flipkart kept this book under humour section which derogatory to the topic. I wish they move it to non-fiction.

I didn't feel like i wasted money on this one, over all a good book.

Traveling Unreserved

I have little knowledge on public transportation for long distances. When it comes to Railways and Airlines, i am truly dumb. I cant even understand the words used in them.

I dont have to deal with flights, but as a middle class person, i have to with Trains. Its a whole different story when my father used to book the tickets and gets the confirmation, and i board on train, sitting and enjoying the ride, with hands out of window.

I had to attend my close friends wedding in Delhi, he informed a month and half before, but i am too lazy to book tickets then. In my defense, the waiting list was 80 then, i thought i would go for Tatkal. It didnt workout.

Uday bought  General Tickets, paid the penalty to the TC and we got into AP express sleeper coach. Got window seats and napped till Khajipet, then the struggle started.  We are the guys with no reservation. So our bums require mercy of others to land somewhere.

Then came a Punjabi family. The whole family is noisy , especially the granny. She been advising everybody on everything. She shown mercy on us and let us sit on the side upper berth. Then two old ladies from the same family had a lengthy discussion on how long they can extend the mercy on us and at what time they should ask us to leave the berth. Well, i didnt understand any of that, Uday translated it for me.

For this 24hr journey , i have bought three books with me. I was meaning to finish them off and buy few more at Delhi for return journey.

 I passed time till evening, sitting on the edges of berths and  standing at foot board,  I cant strike a conversation because i am not fluent in Hindi, , i have nothing much to do except staring at Vindhyas.

The night brought more problems. Now that reserved people are going to sleep, all unreserved ones, including Uday came to the door making it hard for me to hold my ground.

The irritated TC, become all friendly, once he removed the coat and washed his face. In broken Hindi, i asked if there is any chance of getting a berth, now the answer is a friendly NO.

There was a large aluminum box near washbasin. I was planning to sit on it and sleep. Owner of the box said, its his seat, like Sheldon of Bing Bang Theory. I was back on my feet, and contemplating if i could sleep  like horse, standing. No, our body doesnot work that way, if only we had evolved from Horses instead of Monkeys.

The box-guy, who is Telugu, gave permission to sit on it with him, as his wife got berth in the next compartment. I just began to the enjoy the cool air blowing on my face, so let Uday sit on it. I was hoping that, as a notorious nocturnal , he could pass the night, so i can sleep on the box.

But, he slept, with head on the box and legs stretched towards bathrooms. He slept !

At Bhopal, a Sardarji, boarded, who is exuberant and funny. Instead of sleeping on his reserved berth, he engaged all unreserved in a conversation. I took part in it with nods and laughs. Soon, i was part of the large group. We spent some time, eyeballing the ladies ( only beautiful and young ones) going to the toilets. Then each one of us, started telling how they ended up in this train unreserved. Just like me, most of them were having unconfirmed tatkal tickets of other trains reaching for Delhi. One fellow said, his waiting number was 2, when i showed empathy, he showed an old guy, who is trying to sleep beside another guy on the floor, and told that his number was 1. The old guy, got up and started telling me how his fate is always bad.

Once Sardarji went to sleep, we are bored. I am bored and tired and getting tired of boredom. I went to the door, closed it , sat on the floor with my back on the door and started resting. Now, my other unreserved brothers, called me and gave me a rolled-up bed which belongs to a passenger who is already snoring on his bed. The bed is huge, there is no way to unroll it and sleep. I just sat on it and slept.  When i woke up in discomfort , Uday is struggling to sleep, may be people going to Toilet are kicking him in hurry. For sometime, he sat beside me and tried to sleep, it didnt work as the door knob is prodding. He went back to his favorite position and slept again.

Somewhere around 3, Uday, woke me up and said there are berths. I gave the bed to another brother-who-could-not-get-berth and followed Uday. He is following a police. The police lead us to faraway compartment , where he thought there are berths. Then started negotiating with the people who are sitting in RAC berth. As i said before, my Hindi is weak, i was half-asleep and they are talking in local dialectic. From their voice modulation, i understood that, the police guy already sold the berth to them, now he wants it back as expecting much from us.

The talks didnt go well, then he lead us to another compartment, which is far far away. One police guy, asked me to sleep in the empty middle berth and another took Uday to another compartment.

I thought , that night will pass without me resting on a flat surface, but it finally happened. Uday visited me to tell that he got it in S1. I asked him to switch on the phone and went to sleep , ignoring the snores.

I woke up at 7 or so. Then i realized that i dont have change with me. I am sure, Uday wont be awake. After much contemplation, i have decided that me having tea is more important than he having a sleep. I got down to go to him, only to realize that he is on the upper berth. I didnt show mercy and woke him up for money so that i can have my elixir.

He slept again, and in couple of hours we reached Delhi.

Boys and Porn

Today , i stumbled upon this TEDx video by Ran Gariveli. The title is "Why i stopped watching porn". Seen a couple videos with similar title which fall under comedy category, but not this one.

In Min, the author explained, or lets say presented his treatise on how a simple thing like porn affects us in return how it changes the society.

Porn , bunch of videos or photographs , which gives us enough material to boost the imagination so that we can masturbate, have been a deciding factor how we treat sex. In the words of the speaker, sex is not just penetration. Its kind of twists the minds of teenagers , for who porn is always available , to think that, in sex, there is no role for hands. Where is the romance? Could they tell the difference between sex and love-making?

Another issue, the speaker pointed out is something i never thought of. That, porn is nothing but video graphed prostitution. Something to think over.

Another TED video discussing the same subject,

Me? teaching ?

I never actually believed i could teach someone. Or i would agree to a situation like that.

However, my Boss, asked me to teach basics of computers to kids from weavers family, so that they might develop designing skills with the help of IT.

I agreed without second thought , as he would ask me to sit in the office and  do the deskjob if i dont go out on some work.

Went to Chowtuppal, a small town,  to test my abilities as a teacher, in which , i think , i have failed like congress party failed in 2014 General elections.

Kids studying from 7th class to Degree first year sat before me with poker faces, except a girl who is too eager and boy he got convinced that i have nothing new to teach him. When i asked, how many of them didnt know computers at all, some of them raised their hands, and these same kids, started playing classic solitaire when i was writing on board.

I tried to explain the difference between hardware and software first, because thats the class my teacher taught me. Then i forgot what he taught me next. I dont know where to go after that, even Google could not help me in that regard the previous night.

From my personal experience as a student with English as third language, i planned to make them understand the meanings of simple words like path, properties, rename , save, settings, etc etc. However, the audience didnt expect a English class.

I was struck for moment, kids are struck too, they wanted to play and paint but i am stopping them. Its like the silence before war. Its no more teacher-student, its more like performer- audience. Well, though i am officially their computer "teacher" , i cant punish them not listening to me. Without raising interest in their little heads  , they would treat computers just like maths. Thats the opposite of  purpose of the classes.

I taught them how to change wallpapers and screensavers. Then how to save a file to desktop , then asked them show their creativity on MS paint and left.

I might have to take another class in couple of days, need suggestions to improve my skills in teaching. 

Foot ball league

I am not actually a sports person, never took them seriously, and I am not ashamed to announce that, so far, I have not seen a cricket match from toss to trophy.

However, I liked the concept of T20 and IPL. I liked them because, local players, who could not sustain melee in the Ranji trophy, able to play at international level, bypassing the politics.

Today, Sachin Tendulkar announced that he wants to change the sports fabric of India. Thats one refreshing thing. I am sick of people around me talking only of cricket, noticing lengthy articles on newspapers. Badminton penetrated a bit, but thats not sufficient.

IPL style hockey trophy with funky team names failed to grab our attention. Now its football, lets see if it could the change the fabric of sports as Sachin thought.

Sneeze, Arrangement and Sugery - Plays by Anton Chekov

Watched three short plays by Anton Chekov back to back today.

I dont who Chekov was, but i really liked them. 

"The Arrangement" focuses on how a father wants his son to grow up, become a man. Unfortunately, he links it with having sex. So he takes his son to a brothel. The innocent young boy, was confused, excited and scared at the same time. After paying the prostitute, father decides , not to kill his innocence so early. A 15 min play. We went late, and missed first five minutes.

"The Sneeze". Story of a clerk who is interested in the theater. He goes to a theater with his wife, and buys first class tickets. When the show is about to start, he realizes the minister, under whose department he works came to the show and sitting beside him. He got excited , invades the privacy of the minister to get to know him, which he believes who help him in the career. When everybody is deeply involved in the cinema, the clerk sneezes so hard that, he dampens the Minister's hair. Minister was cool about it, but the clerk would not let it go. He drags apologizing to a point which annoys Mrs. Minister. Minister tries to change the topic and starts small talk, but the clerk continues to apologize.

Clerk could not sleep that night. He gets anxious about the sneezing incident and tells his wife that he is going to apologize the minister at his office one more time. Not minding suggesting from his wife, he goes to the office. The Minister, could not recall clerk. Clerk narrates whole sneezing incident and tells him how sorry he really was. Minister asks him to go easy on what happened and sends him away.

Now Clerk is tension free. But he is furious. He concludes that the minister was responsible for losing mind over such a trivial matter. He wants to question the minister why he tormented him. He goes to the ministers office again, asks him why. The Minister gets annoyed for getting disturbed over such a silly matter and gets angry. Terrified by the anger of Minister, while trying to talk to him, he sneezes on Ministers face. The Minister shouts and warn the clerk to not to show his face ever.

Poor clerk, reaches home frustrated than ever, and dies.


"The Surgery " . A comical play where a yet-to-get-degree intern pulls the tooth of a priest complains of toothache.

Of all the three, i liked " The Sneeze" . 

Art of Intervewing bureaucrats.

Finally, at last, after years of waiting, i landed up in a job which involves traveling and talking to people. I joined in a NGO which works on Right to Information Act.

My job involves, going to remote districts and conducting a sample survey on selected offices regarding implementation of RTI Act. The job description might sound boring, but for a guy like me, its fun.

Its not a public survey, where i can move to next idle person who wants to talk. I have list of a specific officers to talk.  I had to interview, panchayat secretaries , superintendents at MPDO office and MROs.

I am not a journalist, which gives them publicity, i am not from Information Commission who will threten them to pour red ink on their service books. I am just from a NGO which will submit the report to govt. I dont have a carrot or a stick to make them talk to me out of their "busy" schedule.   




I have decided to be the "ear" who listen to them, a shoulder for them to cry and promise that i would become the hand which will wipe their tears. And it worked.

Village secretaries are usually docile and talk a lot. Superintendents friendly and offer hot beverages. And MROs, once started, hard to stop. And my tactic to make them give an interview to me , is to let them indulge in self-pitying, of course, most of them already in it and they just need an ear, and some must be pushed.

First and most important task is to show my face to them. I tried call to request an interview with them but, they would say they are busy with municipal election and ask me to come after ten days, in a tone we shoo the salesmen selling Tupperware. 

1. Dont walk to the face of the interviewee. They are bureaucrats, and that too head of the respective offices, they should be approached through subordinates. Though i can read MRO is sitting in his chair, with a big name plate on the wall behind him, i would ask some one, if he is available. Lower staff respond well to words like "Delhi", "Indian Institute of " , " Administration " . ( My NGO got the project from Indian Institute of public administration, Delhi). A man from Delhi, will be treated like a man from Moon. Now, he would take me to game.

2. Patience and Manners. Locals, barge in to the room and start talking not minding if the officer is on phone or counting letters in paper before him. But, man from Delhi , is well mannered and well educated. Dont sit, no leaning on the wall, no checking mobile.

3. After introduction , and purpose of arrival and purpose of the survey, i listed out few problems of them and pity them to show them the path of self-pitying. This technique is rarely used and not need mostly, as they are ready to burst out. However, it worked great with  hard-core bureaucrats who wish to be look busy. Sadly, it took me some time to realize this technique.

4. Pay attention, and scribe something on the paper if the officer tells something in the tone of a philosopher, though its not related to the survey.

5. When he wish to upgrade my status from an interviewer to some NGO, to guest, i never denied it. I drank every tea or coffee which is offered to me.

6. Ask open ended questions, though in questionnaire its a closed ended one. Let them open up and talk.

7. Indulging in small talk in between the interview is actually a good practice.

Its fun to observe, the body language of officers. More the rank, more the ego is what i guessed, but i was wrong in many cases.

Eternal sunshine of the sptoless mind.

The love story of a shy guy and exotic and impulsive girl. They fell in love, they fight, the girl went to get her memory of him erased from her mind. When the guy came to know about it, he went to the same clinic to get her memories erased from his head.

While technician erasing each memory , we get to watch that memory. While her memories getting wiped out , the guy decides that her memories are important so wanted to cancel the process. But as he is unconscious ,so, he could not do much. So he tried to hide her in memories where she was not there before, making it hard for technician to finish what he had started.

Meanwhile, the pissed off receptionist, who understood that she was once in relationship with the old doctor and then got her mind erased of his memories, resigns her job, took all the records with her and sends them to the clients.

The guy and the girl, met each other in a train again , treats each others as strangers and they went out.  After receiving their records they realize that they were in a relationship, and wanted to continue it.

Jim Karrey and Kate Winslet. Those were the keyword for me to go for the movie. For a change, i have seen a movie where Jim Karrey wont act like " The Mask" Jim Karrey. I never knew Jim Karrey is such a fine actor for romantic comedies and Kate Winslet excelled as a girl who changes the hair color to match with her dress.

My first Rastharocko

I received invitation from a friend to participate in RastaRocko. I was in lets-try-new mood, so went.

The Rastarocko is to protest against the locking down of a Temple in my friend's colony by the Municipal authority. The Rally was already started when i reached their colony. I parked my bike and participated in it. I was still not decided  to participate in the road-blockage. 

The percentage of people according to age and gender is intriguing. The rally is headed by youth. Not even ten members and most of them are known to me. I was  surprised to notice the low participation of youth from that colony. Its a big colony and i have seen the youth power in Ganesh Pandal. I bowed to the father of my friend in respect and joined youth.

A large gang of ladies followed behind , with banners depicting the temple behind bars. I agree, a group of middle aged aunties should not be called a gang, but they are more active and looked more ferocious than the youth ahead of them, and middle aged men following them. 

I let the rally move ahead of me to join the Uncles behind the train. They are slow, sloppy but shouting the right slogans. Like the youth , they are not much in number. Its like kids are running faster, mothers are behind them shouting and fathers slowly walking behind knowing how the whole story going to end.  However, the choice of slogans shows their distorted aim and how they want to get focus on them but not on the actual issue. The whole protest is for a temple of  Lord Venkateswara, and the slogans were " Jai Sri Ram" and " Bharat mata ki jai" . 

Few priests with pigtails and a well groomed local politician were waiting for us at the cross roads.Soon , everybody started settling down on the road. Its Nagarjuna Sagar Highway which we are trying to block. Its a four lane road, with bunch of  always-half-asleep traffic police controlling it.

Initially i was hesitant to sit on the road to block, that too for cause of a temple. But then i thought, i might not get another opportunity to sit on road with my friends.  Its not that bad, road is relatively comfortable to sit except i cant lean back with support of elbows. Sun is not too harsh on us, i was hoping that the police will bring us tea.

The gathering grew as many BJP members joined it. Slogans are unrelated and just RSS stuff.  The well groomed local leader , like father of a bride, over excited but wants to maintain cool demeanor, tried to prove his leadership qualities by giving new slogans. That attempt backfired, they are long and not catchy. The new guys from BJP continued their standard slogans which are largely unrelated to the temple issue. Everybody is waiting for the media to shoot them and police to arrest them.

Sat there till legs got numb. When i woke up walked few steps, the numbness and fun are gone. The traffic jam beginning to build up. I felt guilty a little, for blocking the traffic for a temple. Why could not God help devotees construct temples. Why cant Lord Venkateswara appear in the dream of that municipal officer like Lord Rama did in the case of Sri Ramadasu.

When i returned after tea-break, the traffic jam expanded beyond  horizon. It was frustrating and irritating. My friend tells me that four college students, in car, struck in the traffic and they have to go to an exam. They are just behind the gang of ladies holding banners. I could not do much except offering sympathies. I walked further tried to guide few vehicles to take a detour to escape the jam. Some listened , some didnt. Soon, police from nearest police station came.. The local leader is nowhere to be seen now. The talks were successful , everybody agreed to get up from the road and let the traffic flow. Jam was cleared in less than 3 minutes.

Everybody congratulated everybody for making it a huge success and left.