Back at the Campus

Phew.. After a lot of running around, standing in long queues and shifting my stuff to a new hostel, I finally have got some time to update my blog. This week has been a up-down ride; new room, new courses, new profs, horrible food, on-off rains ( its Kerala ), a bit of fever and cold and missing home.
Don't really know when I will be posting next, since the Computer Centre ( the place from where we can surf the net ) is quite far from the hostel and me being the lazy ass that I am plus the room needs some tinkering to be done. Got lots to write but no time !!!

Last Post from Home

Alas the moment has arrived; all bags are packed, and set to go; would miss everyone very much; scary thoughts coming to mind !! Anyways, will meet up with my buddies in Chennai, my transit station. And this time around the luggage is so heavy and huge that I had to book it in the brake van of the train; though I hope it reaches Calicut without any troubles. Now the PC needs to be packed and kept in the closet; only to be opened in the next vacations !
Good-bye m' home!

Police State

Saw a gripping episode of The Practice ( Star World, 8pm WED ) yesterday, this is one of my favorite series, hard-hitting drama and good scripts; currently in its 8th and final season. The episode was about how the police tortured an injured suspect ( who allegedly had shot dead a cop ) in custody without providing him with any medical attention and got out a statement. And this was followed by various legal gimmicks to 'get the guy'. You may ask so what ? The same happens in India, where the bad guy is beaten up and made to speak 'the truth'.The point is where does this lead us to ? Doesn't anyone arrested has a right to free trial, and above all a civil right to be well-treated ? Remember that anyone undergoing a trial is assumed to be innocent unless proven otherwise by the State beyond reasonable doubt. India is rampant with the abuse of power by various state agencies, the police especially don't think of themselves any less than a king, I have personally experienced their tyrannous behavior on more than one ocassion. Otherwise why so many witnesses turn hostile in the court ? The Police should respect the power wrested upon them by no one but the people, only then can they improve their current impression and overcome the current identity crisis; where the protector is turning into the criminal.

Leaving Home, Going Down South; College Reopens

My holidays are coming to an end, and the associated sorrow of going far away from your loved ones for a long time and the excitement of new things to be seen and learnt and meeting hostel buddies who now are almost a second family, all lead to a very tense and fickle state of mind and body. Although two years of my college education are over, everytime its the same old story, cant tell how the time passes by at home; at the beginning of the vacation; the mood is jubiliant, a welcome relief from all the studies and especially the horrible mess food, three months to rejoice and gain some fat ! But three months get over within no time, and I sit now packing my stuff, wondering, with how much excitement I had packed it when I was leaving the hostel and the mood now is very much the opposite; Mom's doing the packing, Granma's guiding her and me just sitting and nodding to their various instructions; the blanket's in there, towels in the handbag, the underwear in the green polybag, the slippers in the white one, and what not; though I and they know it very well that I am gonna forget it the very next moment and call them up when I need to know where my things are ! Huge crying session coming up ahead; Saturday night, both of them sobbing, hugging, kissing. I make it a point not to cry in front of them, but a tear or two trickles down my cheek bading them good-bye. Three months is a long duration, people get used to you staying with them, the fact that you are not gonna be there permanently has no present in their psyche ! I have followed one rule throughout my life; feel the moment, live it; enjoy it in its entirety, whether you are happy or sad; feelings are God's greatest gift to us. Enjoy the moment when you are down in the dumps, screwed, lonely, sick, frustrated, almost dead and feel it, grasp the feeling and fight it out; I admit am not a fighter personality, yes I have ran away from problems, done bad things, treated others like trash but I have never shyed away of making an attempt to make things work out. Gawd, I am getting pretty philosophical here !! Just some of those moments ! Home is where the heart is and when you speak/write about home, I guess the heart speaks out !!
I'm leaving on Saturday, reaching college on Monday; so I won't be able to post this weekend and when I get to college, will have a lot of things to worry about, semester registration, payment of fees and most important, shifting my stuff to a another hostel room; I hope I will continue with my regular posts. Guess I will last post from home at Saturday.

Dilwalloh Ki Delhi ( rough trans. : city of people with hearts )

First of all, an important note; these posts regarding my visits to various places are not any reviews or meant to be tips for future travellers, they are just my views and impressions.
Theoretically speaking I visited Delhi three times; two times as a trasit station and the other just as a normal tourist. All Indians have some sort of awe and pride about Delhi, the national capital, the seat of power, with a history that speaks for itself, Delhi has been capital of India from pre-Mughal era.
The city, considering infrastructure, has got to be one of the best in the country, wide roads with handsome flyovers, public transportation facilities especially the Metro ( more on this later ), good air and rail connectivity, communication networks etc. But the traffic situation is quite grim, and the pollution levels despite the fact that buses and autos run on environment-friendly CNG is way too high to be comfortable; this I assume is the scene in all the big cities in India. Also the city faces acute water and power shortage.
I ( alongwith Nikhil ) was in Delhi on a Sunday and all the markets were closed, couldn't get a film roll for my camera ! Hence no snaps at the India Gate, Rashtrapati Bhavan ( the President's residence ) :-(( Had to do with camera equipped cellphone. But somehow got one at Chandni Chowk !
The India Gate sure looks fantastic, and that's what most people see it as; a beautiful structure !! It IS a monument built in the memory of the Indian soldiers in the British army who laid down their lives in the battles, people somehow seem to forget that and go on babbling about its height, width, beauty, colour and what not; of course it is a good-looking structure but we should not forget what it stands there for; the gallant efforts of all our soldiers on various occasions and their victories in adverse conditions and their sacrifices, we should respect them and do our bit for our motherland.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan which is at the other end of the Rajpath ( the famous road on which the parade takes place on Republic Day ), seemed very near when seen from India Gate, but boy it was a long walk down the Rajpath, felt very special walking on this road !! The Parliament building is just beside the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the place where our politicians ( read bloody suckers ) fight it out over stupid and unimportant issues instead of important ones.
The various ministries are all scattered in this area, came across Krishi Bhavan ( the Agriculture Ministry ); Rail Sadan ( Railway Ministry ), the most celebrated of all Indian politicians' (sic!) ministry and no I won't dignify him by mentioning his name here; and many other administrative buildings.
The Red Fort, another of many special monuments in the capital is also quite a sight; the famous Chandni Chowk and the surrouding bazaar is known to any average Hindi movie-goer !
Then the most exciting part of my visit, riding the Metro; I don't think anything but a separate post on the Metro would do justice, so wait for a Metro post.
Me and Nikhil then left for Roorkee at around 9 pm, the Delhi-Haridwar-Dehradun highway has a terrible traffic problem, we were stuck for almost 40 mins ! Finally reached home at 3 am. Eventhough the distance between Delhi and Roorkee is just 180 kms it takes any bus 5 hrs on average to cover it !!
The capital has left an indelible impression on my mind; the scorching heat, traffic, pollution, buildings, historic monuments, CNG buses, water-vending machines, metro, malls, filthy railway stations with no announcements, chaotic Chandni Chowk market, beggar at the intersection, chaat and many other things.

War of the Worlds

Three things first :
1) I am a huge Steven Spielberg fan.
2) Hate alien creatures and sci-fi movies. ( Except for Alien, Aliens and The Abyss )
3) Find the idea of The US of A saving the world totally absurd.

And one more thing, I have not read the classic book by H.G. Wells on which this movie is based.The movie starts off quite well with the captivating narrative by Morgan Freeman and the depiction of the usual American family situation, and then all hell breaks lose as the Martians who have been spying us for supposedly millions of years start the War of Worlds.
Aliens really freak me out, though I don't disagree with the hypothesis that there may be intelligence in some form somewhere in this vast universe, just the portrayal of the creatures and their offensive nature feels too far-fetched and sometimes downright disgusting.
Tom Cruise playing the protective father, tries his best to keep his family together and unaffected from the various tensions which creep up in such situations and in the end manages to get his kids unharmed to their mother ( though I wonder how she and her home remained safe when the whole world is beign trashed ).
The main star of the movie has to be Dakota Fanning, who plays the role of 10-yr old frightened and insecure daughter with exceptional glib. But her screams do go overboard on many occasions. The son ( I dont remember the actors name ) is full of anger and contempt, he wants to fight the aliens attacking them, and urges his Dad to let him go and fight the fight, and Cruise gives in to his demand and lets him go but surprisingly the kid manages to return to his mom's home before Cruise despite all the mayhem around ! Nothing much to write about acting of the rest of the cast, pretty ok. Tim Robbins in a small intense role is pretty much wasted.
The movie was publicised to have a large number of special effect scenes, but special effects can't make or break a film and we have seen it all from blood-sucking aliens to weird flying objects to disappearing/melting/evaporating/burning/and-what-not humans to hi-speed car sequences to buildings and bridges being obliterated left and right to all the possible kinds of firearms and missiles and the humongous explosions, nothing special about the special effects in this movie. After the Matrix movies nothing can satiate the FX buff, it has raised the bar too high atleast for the time being.
The greatest thing about the movie is the reason for the failure of the invaders, which I wont tell here and the fact that there is no over the top you son-of-a-bitch how dare you step foot on my land type of patriotism, no American saving it all at the end of the day, no fiery speeches by the President or some other UN dumbhead; it just chronicles the reactions of an average human being and his concerns.
Overall the movie is watchable, some scenes are superb and Spielberg didn't change much details from the book ( thats what is being said in the media ) so the script may seem a bit stupid but remember the book was written way back at the end of the nineteenth century and the author can't be blamed for the lack of understanding of latest technologies.

Haridwar

'Devbhoomi Uttranchal' ( Land of Gods ) say signs everywhere; on buses, streets and highways and quite apt it is for the temples of utmost importance to the Hindu religion are located in this state. The first major stop in the holy pilgrimage of the Dhams is Haridwar, which can be roughly translated as 'Door of Gods', is just about 28 kms from Roorkee and it was thronged with people enroute to Kedarnath and Badrinath, these holy shrines are out of reach of humans in the winter and their gates ( called 'pats' ) open in May after the snow melts and the area becomes accessible.
Haridwar is cramped with temples, ashrams, shops and hotels; and the banks of river Ganga are full of pilgrims eager to wash off all their sins in the holy river. Though I consider myself quite religious I am not much excited in visiting all the temples or 'washing-off' my sins, I did take a plunge in the river just coz it was fun, the water was cold and fresh from the melting snow and the flow was rather fast.
Nikhil being the over-confident adventurer tried his luck at swimming ( can barely float and he calls himself a good swimmer ) and was carried off into the turbulent flow, his Mom started shouting his name and me without any second thoughts rushed towards him ( I am no swimmer ) but the flow was very fast and I too was swept off !! But then thankfully he reached the shore by somehow stroking his hands and pedalling his legs; I was very afraid and thought this is it I am gonna get drowned ( the artificial 'ghat' created for bathing is not very deep just about 5 fts, but the pace of the flow can carry you off into the main course of the river ) but fortunately his brother grabbed my hands before it was too late and I was safe !
After being in the water one feels very hungry and Haridwar is full of places where get a variety of foodstuffs at cheap rates. After having a quick snack we set off to a temple ( Manasa Devi ) atop a hill, the trekking was quite fun especially in the hot afternoon with sweat dripping off the forehead ! It felt great once we got to the temple, which like most temples in India was crowded by faithful pilgrims.
After a tiring day we returned home.

The Journey Up North

My friend Nikhil had been constantly requesting me to visit him at Roorkee and even I was fancying a good vacation for a long time and so it was decided, I was to stay at Roorkee for about a week and visit the places nearby. And thus begins the story. I won't be chronicling everything I saw or felt, that info is available in plenty of travel guides, this is not one.The train journey from Jalna ( a small town, was visiting my sister ) to New Delhi took exactly 26 hrs, the weather was very hot, I was regretting why I didn't opt for AC, anyways the train surprinsingly was running on time!The one thing I noticed when I woke up in the morning somewhere near Jhansi and this persisted all the way to Roorkee, were the filthy ads on the walls of houses and factories surrounding the railway tracks of so-called doctors ( read quacks ) treating various sexual ailments from impotence to erectile dysfunction and God knows what, now nothing wrong in advertising, but the ads were second-rate and really gross, you just can't look out the window ( anyways nothing in the proximity of tracks qualifies as viewable stuff, all slums and sewers )The train reached New Delhi on time at 2pm and it was scorching hot, also I was irritated by the fact that no announcement was being made regarding my next train, had a hard time to know which platform will it leave from! The train was one of those new Jan-Shatabdis, New Delhi-Dehradun, but the Shatabdi tag doesnt convey that the train is just plain vanilla, painted in a fancy colour, was running almost an hour late when I reached Roorkee; 7pm.Finally after the hot and horrid journey I reached my destination and my friend quite uncharacteristically of him did show up on the station to pick me up. The small town of Roorkee is well known for the oldest engineering college in India, now converted into an IIT; it also is headquarters of the Central Building Reasearch Institute, Nikhil's Dad's employer, I was to stay at his home in the CBRI campus, which was beautiful, lush green and quiet.
More about the places I visited in the subsequent posts.