Hyderabad Zoo

I couldn't recall the last time I went to a zoo, though I could recall that when I went to Anna Zoological Park in Chennai as a kid, I scaled the railings and almost jumped into the territory of a bunch of Zebras.

I have heard rumors about Hyderabad's Nehru Zoo as the largest zoo in the country and we (my wife, myself and a friend of hers) decided to go find out how good it is. We went to the zoo and found out that a safari ride is available at an additional fee of Rs.25/-. So, we thought we would check that out.

As it was located at the far side of the zoo, on the way to the safari ticketing counter, we got to watch a white tiger located right next to a mob of deers, and a herd of elephants all at a very close range. The white tiger was especially a treat to watch. The tiger could get a clear view of the mob of spotted deers and kept swimming in the waters trying to find its way past the wall that protected the deers.

At the ticket counter, we found that the safari is available not just the expense of Rs.25/- but also at about one hour of time in the queue. When we finally got into the armoured van and ventured into the woods past the iron gates, we found that the lions and tigers were kept inside a caged anyway! All that hyped up fantasies about free roaming wild animals like those in the Discovery channel came to a very disappointing end. I later heard that the animals received the treatment because somebody ventured into the safari range and got himself killed! It be sad if it was true. The animals get punished for the carelessness of the dead man and the zoo authorities!

But the Bisons and a lone bear were let roam free in the range and the curious bear with a smiling face kept following the van for quite sometime giving us a enough time to watch at a very close range! Some return-on-investment! The safari lasted about 20 minutes after which we got to see two really big turtles. This is probably the largest I have seen. Apart from that the other residents of the zoos were all the usual suspects. Jaguar, (non-white) Tiger, chimps, orangs and other kinds of monkeys, and a few wild birds.

Hyderabad seems to be able to maintain parks better than other cities I have visited, and this zoo was no exception with plenty of well maintained greenery.

Overall, the zoo is a good day's off, worth the money you spend on entry ticket (Rs. 20/-). But safari can be safely skipped. The one-and-a-half hour saved on it would be well spent on covering the rest of the zoo (We had to skip the reptile section) and enjoying the nature over a cup of coffee.

Who and What India would be?

Michiko-san, a 60 year old Japanese lady who is an avid traveler and a colleague of mine was telling about her spinster days when she first traveled to UK, then around the world in her quest to learn English by interaction and to explore places. She added "You may think that I must have been rich. But I very much belonged to middle class, but in 1960 Japan's economy was growing and Japanese people felt they can pursue and achieve anything they want"

I thought, now India is in a similar mood. It is growing and its middle-class is ambitious. Only we have more poor people to liberate from poverty, more cities to organize and more institutions to rid of corruption, more people to educate and more laws to enforce.

Just as it happened to Japan, the growth will one day slow down, or worse, come to a halt. And when that happens, even if we have the intention we may not have the excess cash. Whatever we do before then will what determine what and how India would be before we hit the ceiling of growth.

Guha on "Will India become a super power?"

Inspired by a nationalist feeling which paradoxically peaked during my life in the US and fueled further by the "India Shining" economic growth, I must admit that I, for the first time, fancied the chance that India will one day become a super power.

Time has changed since and I believe now that the chances of India being a super power in the forthcoming decades, given the ground realities in India. But I still nurture the hope that India has its chance in being a super power.

I recently ran into a booklet - as big as pocket diary - from "Outlook" magazine which addressed the question "Will India Become a Superpower" written by the noted historian Ramachandra Guha. I have respected Guha for his objectivity in his various articles in India Together and Outlook. So, I found myself compelled to read it. A few of Guha's observations and his conclusion are very interesting.

In the article he succinctly outlined the mood of the wider world and conventional wisdom about the newly formed Indian Republic. According to Guha's observation, world-watchers of 1950s believed that India would not stay united or democratic because its didn't fit the European model of society united by a common language, common religion and a common enemy. For the same reasons, the fact that India is unique in its status as a union and a democracy (however dysfunctional it is)

I have come across a school of thought, especially among the youth of 1970s that the Nehruvian socialist vision had obstructed India's progress had it been under Patel's more capitalist hands. While Guha doesn't directly address this if-else point, he observes right after independence the private sector stalwarts such as Tata and Birla asked for the state interference.

The Bombay Plan of 1944, endorsed by G.D. Birla and J.R.D. Tata among others, asked both for curbs on foreign investment and for an enhanced role for the state...At the same time, Indian capitalists lacked the capital and knowhow to invest in sectors such as steel, power, roads and ports. They were thus content to focus on the manufacture and distribution of consumer goods, leaving capital goods and infrastructure to the State.

What really lead India pulled away from progress is the government under Mrs. Indira Gandhi in the late 1960s which, citing "political expediency" had failed to liberalize the Indian economy that by then had the right elements such as manufacturing infrastructure, skilled engineering and technical workforce in place.

In his conclusion he quote corrupt and degraded central government, trivialization of media as some of the seven reasons why India will not become a superpower. However, he says India should actually stop trying to be a super power which, in his own words, is a "my penis is larger than yours" way of thinking. Instead he calls for India to judge itself against its own achievements.

"We need to repair , one by one, the institutions that have safeguarded our unity in diversity, and to forge, also one by one, the institutions that can help us meet the fresh challenge of 21st century"

Writer Sujatha & principle of "Management of the Absurd"

I have been recently reading a lot of Sujatha. For the uninitiated, Sujatha is the pen name of a successful Engineer of yesteryear turned successful writer - novelist, screenwriter in various capacities including screenplay, dialogues for various successful movies including "Roja", "Mudalvan" (Nayak), "Indian" (Hindustani). His other brownie points include being a classmate of APJ Adbul Kalam and supervising the design and production of the now successful Electronic Voting Machine. More details @ Wiki

In his famous collection of essays in Tamil "Katrathum Petrathum" he discussed a book called "Management of the Absurd" by Richard Farson in which Sujatha summarized the paradoxes in leadership that shaped and changed the world. He quoted several examples from the book that made for very interesting reading! For example, the first of Abolitionists - people who voiced equality of African Americans in the US - were non-African Americans; Child-rights activists are almost universally adults; some of the most successful divorce lawyers are happily married!

Sujatha drew parallels in the Indian context. Indian National Congress was instituted by A.O. Hume, a non-Indian. Some of the most ardent pro-Tamil activists had a mother-tongue that is not Tamil.

In fact ironically enough, I think Sujatha himself fits into this paradox if you will. I started reading Sujatha's creations after his death on February 2008. I have known Sujatha before that more for his novels and back-stage involvement in the film industry than for his essays. I have read some of his novels for which he was very famous, including "En iniya iyandira", "Aryabatta" and a few others that didn't find as much mention, like "Niramatra vaanavil", "ilamayil kol" etc. To my surprise, I was disappointed with the lack of quality in all his novels, famous or otherwise. Drifting storyline turns out to be the common denominator in all his creative writings, though the famous ones did have some substance that allowed me to stick with the book till the end.

Ironically, I found his series of essays in "Katrathum Petrathum" as the best of his creations that I read so far. This book truly highlight his unique ability to discuss complex scientific concepts like "uncertainty principle" (yeah.. that wretched concept that we used to memorize in our 11th grade!) in ridiculously simple Tamil, his off the cuff wits, and most of all his well-known versatility in areas as unrelated as creative writing and science.

Trees and garbage

How much more pusillanimous we humans can get? We buy a piece of land and make a concrete out of every square inch of it. If our neighbours have a tree and it crosses over into our home, we give reasons like "Oh, the leaves of your neem tree adds up to a lot of garbage inside our compound! In addition it may grow bigger and its roots may or may not destroy the flimsy compound wall. So why don't you cut down your neem tree and we can all live in peace?". And then in an unrelated instant we all wonder why summer temperature is consistently beating 30 or 40 year records for that month.

I say, nature has been bloody kind to us. I say just roast our butts off in one go and get it over with. After all we have been asking for it. It is good for the rest of the world. At least all humans will in one burning moment realize that trees add up more to our useless and selfish life than just "garbage"

Azlan Shah cup

IPL has put T20 cricket in my living room for way too long. The current T20 world cup seems really boring no matter who plays who and close the match goes. Win or loss, I now want to see an Indian Team doing something other than play cricket and the next best thing we are good at is Hockey! I really wish they relayed Azlan Shah Cup Hockey Tournament.

Its my wife!

Sriramya (my wife) is a package of mysterious talents. She has learnt vocal carnatic music and has classical dancing. This is in part passed down from her parents. But she apparently has an eye for photography too as the picture above shows.

This morning she took bath and was all set to start cooking, when she suddenly dashed out of the kitchen and grabbed my phone as I was playing with it (when I was supposed to work). I thought she was playing my mom and was expecting a glare from her that said "You are supposed to be working now!" But she went straight into the kitchen without meeting my eyes. Not knowing if I should catch a utensil or dodge a knife that flies from kitchen, I pretended to start working keeping one eye at the kitchen. But she came out, and showed me this picture.

At first, I thought it was one of those default pictures that came along with the phone when you purchase it and said "That's good, but why are you showing it to me now?". She tightened her jaws and uttered "I TOOK IT". She lead me down to the kitchen and took a picture of a portion of the newly cleaned kitchen sink! Sure is an awesome piece of work! After all, its my wife :)

Things I hate about IPL

• For a three-and-a-half hour match, there is a one hour of pre-match discussion, interviews of players, bollywood starlets and others who you can't recognize just makes for such a boring experience before the excitement starts
• When the ball hit through the air and crosses the boundary line ts not a sixer anymore. It is a bloody "DLF maximum". If it is caught, its not a great catch, its a dumb "Carbon Kamal catch". Come on. These are great moments of cricket. Don't spoil it with such stupid aliases!
• Mandira Bedi. I am all for glamor provided there is substance. But what is this lady doing in the studios pretending to be an expert? I mean, I am ok if she is the one who is asking questions. But sitting along Arun Lal, Sidhu and Anjum Chopra discussing cricket seems to me as an insult to the intellect of cricket lovers.
• A month full of cricket, no matter how short each match is, takes the excitement out of cricket. After all, the idea behind in coming up with T20 is to reduce the boredom of the traditional one-day or test cricket. Now it appears we have just moved from boredom to overdose.

Expats for India

I had a chance to meet a number of second generation US-resident Indians over the last year. I am very much amazed by their conviction to make a positive change in the Indian society. I have spent a few years in the US and my life there - which distinctively showed the difference in quality of life between the two worlds - is the primary reason for my interest in social causes in India. So, I could clearly relate to a first generation Indian working from his adopted home, or a returnee (like me) working for India's development.

During my days in the US, I have met a few second generation Indians who either didn't feel strongly for their country of origin or at times were even embarrassed about their Indian identity. A few were involved enough to follow cricket matches and felt strongly about an Indian win or a loss. But given that a majority of the resident Indians themselves don't bother about acting for a social change, and a few even embarrassed to be Indian, there is no fairness in judging the sentiments of NRIs.

But here, I am talking about second generation Indians, who are born in the luxury of a developed nation and really need not have sentimental attachment to a country in which their parents were born and probably spent their first 20 years of life there. One of those I have talked about, has changed career path to a less paying social enterprise from a better paying business enterprise (in the US). The other one went one step ahead and chose to move to India (where there are no immediate relatives) to work on educational development. This is just to mention a few.

Honestly, I don't know how the initiatives of these people will turn out to be on the ground. Some may hit the bulls eye, while some may be totally impractical. But I am really amazed to find how they are inspired so much by the idea of a well developed community, when development is something that they are already born into.

Hats off!

Met an old friend!

I invited TR Deepa, an old friend from school, her husband and her cute son Shashank home. She had been here in Hyderabad since 2003 and me since 2005, but haven't met up till last saturday. Had food at a nearby restaurant. It was a lot of fun meeting her with her family. Her son is an active young man and am sure is going to attract a lot of girls when he grows up (if he already doesn't! :D). Such a smart looking fellow. But for some reason, I found that he is fond of Mehendi! :)

Had a lot of fun trying to recall what we used to do during school and exchanged knowledge about what Xth-friends are doing currently. Special thanks to Girija, another school-time friend of mine, who sent X-std class pictures. We went over it once again. My wife especially laughed @ how I looked then.

Meeting with old friends sure is a lot of fun. Especially when they have toddlers! Not every thing is so happy though.There is one that I still can't digest. Deepa is still taller than me! :(

The lame Australian advice

I hear from The Hindu that Australia has advised India not to fuel "hysteria" after India reacted angrily over the murder of a student of Indian origin. They have also thrown some light about how big cities work. Precisely this is what was said (as quoted from The Hindu)

“In big cities around the world we do see acts of violence from time to time; that happens in Melbourne, it happens in Mumbai, it happens in New York, it happens in London,”

I don't want to bore anybody going over the details of how many Indians are dead and for how many days this has been happening. The last thing I expect from a government that has fallen flat in protecting citizens of a foreign soil is advice and that too one as lame as "It happens". I would rather be happy with an official apology and a promise to act quickly and decisively to stop such violence.

The Indian side need to take some lessons too. I remember the time when a British teenager was killed in Goa and our self-loathing mentality was so well exploited by the famously careless Indian private media by putting her mother in the spotlight for such a long time. I would say that the one off death of a foreign national in India can be a better case to be dropped in the "It happens" category and move on for more nationally important stories.

Five point 2009

A friend of mine had summed up story in 2009 in just five lines! I liked that. So I thought I will draw inspiration (a better word than copying!) out of his work

1. Awesome wedding at Srirangam
2. Relaxing malaysian Honeymoon
3. Boring return to bachelorhood (for practical purposes)
4. Sustained work on education!
5. Bad job with blogging!

Obituary: YSR

It has been sometime since I have blogged in this site. But now is a good time to restart the discussion OverTea. After about a day's mystery finally we know that CM of Andhra Pradesh YSR has died in the chopper crash.

After he had taken over from Chandrababu Naidu as CM, a visionary credited to have ushered in an IT revolution in Hyderabad, YSR had done well not to root out the best of reforms the former CM brought in.

For example, the Velugu project to eliminate poverty renamed a Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) in YSR regime did very well to imrprove the rural poor's quality of life. The same example also points that he seems to have learnt from ostensible mistakes of Naidu too. Often Naidu election debacle after 9 years of rule was attributed to his "one-sided focus on the cities" and ignoring the poor. While the claim is arguable, YSR seems to have maintained the urban-rural development balance well. His own initiatives like Arogyashree (health care) and Indiramma housing programme seems to have been received well by the public.

In my own personal experience during my last 5 years of residence in Hyderabad, I find the municipality of Hyderabad as less corrupt and more proactive than any other municipalities I have found. So, all said and done, as a CM YSR did well, and Andhra Pradesh and the country at large is at a minor loss at his untimely death. May his soul rest in peace and hope his replacement is at least as good as he was.

Before the mottai

Now this one is before the tonsure!

Her first, my second

Shradda, my neice her first tonsure today on account nd her first birthday here at Kumbakonam. About two years ago, we came to the same place to do the same thing for shashank! I held the child during the tonsure on both the occasions. So its the second time for me! :)

HOUSE!

Its a house. At least tree to be. Now this is where my nephew's first birthday is going to be celebrated! Now its a function hall!

Kumbakonam!

Back to the place it all began! Kumbakonam! Its my native!

Life of late...

I have been blogging for ThinkChange-India for a while now and my role in NGOpost has changed from that of contributing to more of monitoring and quality maintainance. I don't know if I blame only this, but for some reason or the other, I have been forced to betray my own personal blogs.

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One of the most worrying developments after wedding is developments in my stomach! No am not pregrent! :0) But I have put on about 5Kg, thanks to all the relatives who invited home the new couple for a feast. Now, I feel like a model - constantly uncomfortable and worried about body shape that is. I have started biking, doing surya namaskaram and finding opportunities to walk! Lets see if they make any difference at all!

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The last week of July was harrwing to say the least. My passport was up for renewal and I had an official visit to the US scheduled during the last week. I caught the potential problem early enough and applied for the renewal through the "expedited" scheme (locally called "tatkal"). But the passport despatch was lethargic. There was a small clarification required for which the intimation was typed 3 days after the supposed despatch date, posted 2 days later and reached my about a week within my travel date. By then I had paid a visit to the passport office twice and sorted out the issue. But that didn't help. There was unexplained delay, with no tell-tale signs of a need to for bribe. Finally I got the passport - the unknown reason for delay resovled for unknown reason - exactly a day after my scheduled date of travel. - Jai hind!

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Six-months after wedding, life is slowly settling down with Sriramya (my wife) finally getting an internal transfer to Hyderabad. But the current rented apartment - though judged by my friends as better than normal for the rent I pay - sucks big time! Today's rain brought a lot of water seeping right through the walls in the hallway. If it seeps through the wall within my apartment, it is well worth considering a resettlement, no matter how horrible the transition!

Together forever!

Finally one snap wher both of up look normal

Sleep july 25!

The sight of sun setting is one of the few things that make travel by train memorable!