radha roy

remembering John Lenon

2010-12-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

An artist, a poet, a dreamer, a conflicted man, a hero to so many, killed by a lunatic...remembering John Lenon

http://news.yahoo.com/video/entertainment-15749636/23385645

Random questions that are bothering me

2010-05-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

· Everyone is talking endlessly on their cell phones. What did we do when we did not have cell phones? Did we not talk? Were we lonelier? If we have so much to say now...how did we express ourselves then?
· Who are these people talking to at 6 AM in airports??? Who are these people? While i have to make do with watching people, or reading, hundreds of people are chatting away on the cell phones at ungodly hours! I am insanely jealous. I cant think of a single friend or even anyone in my family who will actually take my call, much less chat at 6AM!
· Why is it that people try to enter the elevator before the others have alighted? Is it just bad manners or does it come from a deep rooted fear of deprivation?
· Why would anyone ever want to marry Rahul Mahajan?
· What is the price of never being able to return home?
· Why do some parents hire kids, barely 10 years old to look after their own kids? Do they not worry about the safety of their children?
· Why do people do ‘reply all’ to welcome a new joinee on emails sent out by HR?
· Why are the young people not reading? Do they find nothing interesting to read? What have they found to do that is more interesting than reading? Are they playing more sports instead?
· Why do we have to have panel discussion on absolutely everything? Is analysing the impact of a heavy shower , with ‘experts panellists’ really necessary?
· Why do random strangers send you ‘friend requests’ on Face book? Are these really friendly people?
· Did you realise that the Common Wealth Games is such a big deal that we have now to redo the whole city?
· Why do people honk so much in Delhi? Are they not taught by their driving instructors about the usefulness of the brake?
· Why is caste still important for the national census? Will it serve any purpose?

Social networking

2010-03-30T00:55:00.000-07:00

I think am shy, am reasonably well behaved, so as not to poke my nose in other people's business...all this till I joined the social networking world! Boy! Everything changed! Well am still shy...I still don't put everything I feel up there, but I don't feel shy about sharing my pleasant stroll in the woods or my delight at a lovely lunch with, well anyone who cares to know.
Look, don't get me wrong; I am an opinionated Bengali, an argumentative Indian and a woman! I have opinions and I share them proudly, with sometimes willing and sometimes unwilling participants. But usually this is after the tea or the whisky has been served and usually in close knit groups I trust. But the world of social networking has unleashed a whole new beast in me...am now sharing my random thoughts with rank strangers. yes yes, I have shown some restraint ...as I mentioned, I talk about reasonably 'safe' topics. But still…
The serious concern is that….I have turned a voyeur. On a lean day, I go to places on the Facebook, where I am convinced I have no right to be. I have now gurgled at child births of a friend of a friend who I have never met, smiled at happy pictures of peoples parties where I have not been invited, know where strangers have traveled, stalked (isn’t it a bit like stalking) people into their cappuccinos at cafes, salivated over peoples dinners that they are cooking in their kitchens, frowned upon their freely shared opinions about, well anything… I am a SICK SICK individual.
Hey wait …am not the only one! I believe there are millions of us out there! So this can now safely be called a syndrome. Why? Is it that we were always like this? We grew up in a world of misdialed wrong numbers … I know people who made friends with such mistakes, also heard of someone who actually married a ‘wrong number’ and they are actually happily married now ( no I swear they are not friends of mine). So we were always comfortable with sharing stuff with absolute strangers. No wonder there is a campaign running on radio about ‘share your interesting experiences on dialing a wrong number’. Should we worry or should we celebrate…that we are now a sharing, voyeuristic happy lot. We live in each other’s pockets…we share others joys, we share their losses and we celebrate a coming together. Really?

1411 tigers

2010-02-17T11:03:00.000-08:00

Only 1411 tigers left in India is sad....but what is truly disappointing is the campaign. Thousands of dollars wasted on a mass media campaign to save the tigers!
Who is killing the tigers, poachers with the active help of hungry tribals and villagers living in the fringe of the forests...they for sure are NOT reading the billboards in the cities, they probably have no electricity so are NOT watching the heart wrenching TVC, they for sure are NOT reading the outpouring of rage and concern on the internet- blogs , facebook.
Who can stop these killings, the consumers of the tiger by products ( if there is a word like that), and the administration. The largest consumer of tiger by products make it to the markets in China and south east Asia...they too are not reading or watching this magnificent campaign. And for god's sake is there any reasoning with a man who thinks his machismo can be enhanced by eating a potion made of tiger's testicles?!
Now the administration, well....our very well meaning forest officials , the ones who actually want to protect the tigers, are horribly under equipped, outdated rifles, no night vision, faulty satellite phones, I even met one who had not received his salary for the last 3 months. Its a little miracle he has not joined the poachers to keep his family from going hungry!
I heard a suggestion that this campaign is inviting 'volunteers'....to do what?! If i did volunteer today ...what will i do....talk to the hungry villagers living in the fringes of the forests and explain that actually the tigers' safety is more important than the few extra bucks he makes with the poachers...which actually keeps his family , marginally, yes just marginally afloat?
Or am i supposed to take on the poacher mafia , just on the strength of my good will?
Or am i supposed to write a blog so that no one of the intended target audience is ever going to read?
My friends, i write this for the creators of the campaign....save the money. Public opinion cannot save the tigers. Political will can, money well spent on the poor tribals and villagers living below the poverty line can, empowering the forest administration with better equipment can, vigilance at the porous borders can.
Use the money smartly please, as much as the sad , scared tiger cub pulls at our heart strings...this campaign wont save it!

The first time

2009-09-05T09:29:00.000-07:00

At 11,000 meters above sea, over a carpet of grey and white clouds, in a sky which goes that strange smokey blue after sunset, I saw the moon rise, that too a full moon. I kept staring out of the window as it darkened outside till all I could see was the moon.
I donot remember how many flights I have taken in my life time, but this is the first time I saw a full moon rise while airbourne. I kept thinking if I have ever seen something so beautiful. Well yes, I guess but each in its own way is unique, beyond compare and breathtakingly beautiful.
The first sun rise by the sea, the first sight of imposssibly tall and proud snow clad mountains, the first time I saw the sea turing into molten silver on a clear night, the first time I stood in front of Van Gog's Starry Night or the first time I saw the Taj Mahal, it took my breath away.
So many first times with the overwhelming beauty of what lay before me!
As i sat in the flight I wondered why do we adults say a lot less 'wow's than children? Is it I am 'wow' ed less? Is this the natural law of growing old? Or is it the 'first time' comes very far between now? Or is it that less and less impress us as we grow older? My 5 year old say 'wow' a lot!
Well today was rare, a first and I was impressed. Hope to be able to reach out to this picture in my head and say, thank god I was alive to see this! And to many more firsts!

Balle balle

2009-07-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

Just moved to Delhi and lo and behold what do i discover in the menu of the very respectable "southhh indian" eatry....the ......Dosa palak paneer!!!

The Gobi Manhurian, then the Chettinad Gobi Manchurian and now my friends the Dosa Palak Paneer!!!
Be still my beating heart ...it still beats for you my India and am loving it!

2009-05-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

I, who have never driven a car, know, in no uncertain terms the significance of the red, green and yellow lights at traffic signals. Even I, who is disinterested in the art of going from point A to point B, have been known to push up my nose from the book and admonish the driver for confusing the significance of the blinking lights at crossings.

All this till I read...
what the mayor of Napels had to say. ( Napels is the most chaotic city for drivers, even most Italians say so). "The green light is a green light, avanti, avanti," the mayor explained. " A red light - just a suggestion." And yellow? he was asked. "Yellow is for gaiety."

Now this IS a point of view that I do appreciate, so does EVERY Tata Indica cab driver in India, just for slightly different reasons than mine.

I like the disregard for the attempt at standardisation, the complete disregard for fitting into rules created by someone I donot even know( must be by the same guys who discovered censorship) and was certainly not consulted with before implementation!

I like that mayor, I must invite him for a drink on a 'dry day' in India...and discuss his take on that!

too much ketchup

2009-03-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

There is a thing like too much ketchup!

I saw a movie called DevD ( good movie, not brilliant) he used music as ketchup.
My 5 year old eats all 'alien' food with ketchup ( including sushi, yes, yes i know i should be embarrassed)
When BJP has to distance themselves from the Varun Gandhi ( ugh) they use rhetoric ketchup.
Karan Johar ( my faaaaaavourite, deep sigh) uses glitz as ketchup to often make a very relevant point.
Times of India ( its just a tabloid passing itself off a news paper) gives ketchup covered news updates in bullet points for even the most complex news.

But how long can you hide the taste of the distasteful with the common ketchup?
Its irritating and frankly humiliating to my intelligence AND taste.
I don't eat my dimsum with ketchup, nor do i like news with ketchup on it, I like movies who gives it to me straight ( The Eastern Promises being one)!

Its just too much ketchup.

Just lay off the ketchup...get on with it, if you have it in you....bring it on, there are still some people who can take it with the wasabi and they DONOT NEED ketchup!

chettinad gobi manchurian

2009-02-05T08:14:00.000-08:00

I found the Chettinad Gobi Manchurian in my nearby hole in the wall chettinad restaurant.
I laughed when I saw it.
Then I realised that this is what defines India...we have NO respect for rules...we give a damn about what is right. We created the Gobi Manchurian...then it was not enough....south of Vindhyas we need our curry patta so chettinad Gobi Manchurian!

The Chettinad Gobi Manchurian describes my India-
its innovative
Its entrepreneurial
Its has no respect for other's rules (even if its only culinary)
It is deeply rooted in the local (no cookie cutter approach can get you anywhere in India)
It’s about only you!

Where else in the world do you see this embracing of the variety and the stamp of your own self in that milieu?

why we must vote

2009-01-30T00:19:00.000-08:00

What happened in Mumbai affects me as some one who has loved and hated mumbai over the years and me as an Indian.

Me...i lost some of my friends....but then i have lost some of them to drugs, stress and bad relationships...atleast i was not embarassed at these prayer meetings. There was a hope that they did something heroic for atleast a nano second before they took the bullet...atleast some i know would have atleast said F#*K you! Ofcourse i lost two of my favourite restaurants in the country to fire...but hey, i will live!

Me Indian...i felt humiliation! I have voted every time since i was 18...i have stood everytime for my national anthem...since i can remember. I felt humiliation...that a country so large that we can send stuff to moon, cannot protect our own. Or atleast not as fast as we should. It takes 9 hours for special forces to get into the act....while our poorly equipped police force takes bullets on their necks!

Someone remind me much does the Haj and Khubmh mela subsidies cost?! And these are more important than protecting our own lives?

I will still vote and i do hope you do too....if not for someone you believe in then atleast to tell all that you dont believe in anyone. By not turning up...all you say is that 'i dont care' ! That is exactly what got us here in the first place!

The home minister didnot care enough to send in the army within an hour...some demi god did not care that the NSG took 9 hours to get to the scene...Manmohan Singh did not care to lose the dead pan ...his speech writer did not care to reassure me/ us....Mr Patil in Maharashtra did not think twice through before saying this is a 'small incident'...Mr Desmukh did not care to think if its ok to take a film director along...the list goes on.

We need to turn up and vote and then we need to demand to know whats going on. When was the last time you let your maid get away with a lunch served 2 hours late....your driver bashing the car and saying it is a 'small incident' ?

We , I as Indians need to demand accountability and need to take a little time out of another beer, another match , yet another box office hit to do this.Use the RTI...it on the net to demand accountability...or use the media( they seem to be more than willing).

After feeling humiliation and anger i attended prayer meetings and got the process of transferring my Voters Id card to the city i live in now going...far from enough...please tell me you did more!