Day 149-2011 : Paradise On Earth - Part 4

Day 4 was to be an early start, as we had to drive from Pahalgam to Gulmarg.  After an early breakfast, we boarded our vehicle (a TATA Winger) for a 5 hour drive!  The early rising part is what Priya hated about this day.  She could not understand why would anyone want to rise as early as 6 AM on a vacation trip.  Actually, even on a normal day, 6 AM is a bit too early for her.  She obviously loves her nine winks!  However, the promise of our first view of real snow (not ice) and possible snowfall, was good enough for her to sacrifice her sleep.

Pahalgam to Gulmarg was an uneventful drive, except for the fact that we stopped for refreshments on the way, at a cricket bat manufacturing factory.  By now, refreshments for us meant Kahwah!  Kahwah is a traditional green tea recipe made in the Kashmir Valley, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other places in Central Asia.  And it is wonderful, full of various herbs and dry fruits; very refreshing! The bat factory was basically a place where logs of walnut trees were being cut into bat size logs.  These were then stacked together for further processing to be chiseled as the bats that we see cricketers playing with.  Seeing and holding a 'Mongoose' for the first time, I just could not resist buying it.  Good willow, I hope I get to use it some time soon!  Not to be left behind, Suryanksh got one for himself too.

Father & son with the new acquisition - a Mongoose!

We touched the outskirts of Srinagar, on our way from Pahalgam to Gulmarg.  Before climbing the 'ghats' of Gulmarg, we stopped at Tangmarg, to hire / buy woollens for everyone to cope with the snow on top of the mountains in Gulmarg.  After checking in to the hotel in Gulmarg and having lunch, we were off on our mission to experience the beauty of Gulmarg.  Gulmarg is, by the way, in Baramula district in Kashmir and is very close to the Line of Control (LOC) between India & Pakistan.  We had to take the Gondola ride to get to the snow-clad slopes of Gulmarg.  The Gondola ride itself was very interesting.  It is the highest cable car in the world, reaching 3950 metres.  We stopped at Kongdoori station, where the Phase 1 of the Gondola ends.  Phase 2 of the Gondola takes you to the top of the Kongdoori mountain.  It had begun to rain when we were in the Gondola.  When we reached Kongdoori, the sight in front of us was breathtakingly beautiful; well worth the early start, Priya confirmed!

As if on cue, as soon as we reached the snow-clad slopes, it started snowing, something we had hoped for when we decided to come to Kashmir.  Gulmarg offers one of the longest and highest ski slopes in Asia.  Yours truly tried his hand with the skis and so did Suryanksh.  Myself and Suryanksh had a great time playing with the snow and making yet another 'bonsai' snowman!  Priyanksh was too tired for the fun and games and hence slept off!  Priya was of course, left holding the baby, literally!

After having a great time in the snow, we had to rush to take the Gondola ride back to the base and reach our hotel in time.  By now the rain was pouring really hard and reaching the warmth of our hotel was a relief.  Now, I have to mention here, the real struggle for resources, in hill stations like Gulmarg, to run our day-to-day lives, some of which we take it for granted in the cities that we live in.  It was freezing cold in Gulmarg, the water in the pipes was just short of becoming ice and guess what, the boilers to heat the water in the hotel could not work because there was no electricity supply.  The hotel was surviving on just one generator.  Usage of water was ruled out for the kids.  Moreover, most of the other things in the hotel also did not seem to work, right from the bulbs (which they replaced) to the television (which they couldn't)!  Thankfully, we were here only for the night and the gas heaters were great!  But, hats off to the locals, who actually live in such difficult circumstances.

After a good dinner, and an impromptu birthday party (for one of the kids in the group) in the dining hall, we were lulled into deep sleep by the warmth of the gas heaters!  Another day ended, actually zipped through.  And we had only a few more to look forward to.  More about them in the next post.

Take care.

Day 142-2011 : Paradise On Earth - Part 3

Day 3 in Kashmir and we find ourselves in Pahalgam.  Pahalgam is one of the most beautiful places in Kashmir.  The scenery, when I woke up in the morning and looked out of the window of my hotel room, was amazing.  The rising sun was shining bright on the snow lying on the mountains...radiant!

After breakfast, we headed out to a place called Chandanwari.  We did not know what to expect, but when we reached there, we realised that we are going to meet snow, point blank range for the first time.  It was a steep climb made a little dangerous by some of the snow slowly turning into ice.  And guess what, we made our first snowman here!  Now, making a snowman is not as easy a task as it sounds, especially without any gloves.  The palms of our hands started freezing after the first few scoops of the snow.  However, we finally managed to erect something that might resemble an emaciated and gaunt snowman!  Suryanksh was mighty upset (which is seen in the picture below) that we did not carry a carrot for making the snowman's nose, in spite of him telling us that repeatedly for the past one month!  Small twigs would have to do for the nose as of now!

We came down in a sledge when descending the slopes.  It is a bit scary (given that these are hand-made wooden sledges) but also an exhilarating experience.  It took us exactly a minute to slide down the slopes which we had climbed in about forty minutes.

On our way back to the hotel, we visited the Betaab Valley, christened so because the Sunny Deol - Amrita Singh starrer, Betaab, was shot on location here.  Again, more beautiful landscapes.  The locals have tried to maintain the landscape as it was in the film.

I have been asked to also describe my interactions with the local Kashmiris.  To be honest, for the first few days, I held back myself from picking their brains, just to test the waters.  Only after being comfortable of the fact that Kashmiris are not necessarily hostile to their countrymen who do not happen to be Kashmiris, did I open up.  The people were extremely friendly and helpful!  Kashmiris respect tourists, because their livelihood depends on tourists, at least for a vast majority of them.  There is acceptance of this fact peace brings prosperity.  I spoke to a shop keeper, who was very happy that the situation in the last five months has been relatively peaceful thus allowing the tourism industry to function.  Priya went to buy Rajma (imagine buying Rajma from Kashmir for taking it to Mumbai!!!!) in a grocer's shop near our hotel in Srinagar and the shopkeeper, after learning that she is a tourist from Mumbai, offered her tea and insisted that she have it!  It is a place where tourism drives a lot of things and there is no tourism for 5-6 months when it is snowing.  I was told that they lock themselves up in those 6 months in their homes and do nothing.  Hence the window to earn for their livelihood is drastically reduced.  It is ironical that in such a beautiful place, the people live a very hard and difficult life.  One or two of them though, from the younger lot, did come across as someone who considered themselves different from Indians, especially when they were negotiating for money!

After lunch and the mandatory afternoon nap that my better half has to have, we went for a visit to Aru Valley.  The drive to Aru Valley is so jaw-droppingly picturesque, I was spell-bound by the landscape.  It was a very narrow pathway and in fading light, especially while coming back, the driver of our Maruti Omni showed great driving skills!  I was impressed.

Another day had gone by.  As I was dozing off after dinner, I couldn't help but think that I had not bargained to be presented with such wonders of nature when I decided to come to Kashmir.  Little did I know that there was more to come.

Take care.

Day 137-2011 : Paradise On Earth - Part 2

Day 2 of our trip to Kashmir.  We checked out of the house boat to take our transportation for Pahalgam.  Unfortunately it was a very long wait on the banks of the Dal Lake in some very hot weather for our vehicle to arrive.  I am told it did arrive but was towed away by the J&K Police for parking besides the Dal.  After a long with it did arrive and we were off to Pahalgam.

As soon as we got out of Srinagar, the first thing that struck us was the landscape!  Amazing, picture perfect, fit for a post card etc. were the adjectives being used.  The long drive was interrupted a couple of times by barricades manned by village locals and J&K Police to check all the vehicles passing through that route.  One of those stops was very close by to an apple orchard!  Rows and rows of apple trees...but, unfortunately, no apples yet on the trees.  We also stopped half way through at Avantipora to visit the Avantiswamin Temple. It is a heritage site maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.  After another drive through picturesque fields growing mustard, glaciers carrying melted snow from the top of the mountains and beautiful snow-capped mountains framing them, we reached Pahalgam.

After lunch and a quick nap, we decided to go for a mountain trek on ponies to a place called 'Switzerland Point' known for its breathtaking beauty.  Though it was a good bright day and the sun was not expected to set before 8 PM, I knew we had started late for the trek (6PM).  We could see only people coming from the opposite direction and that confirmed my fears that we had started a bit later than normal.  After some normal pony riding, we reached a terrain where the ponies were now actually managing a steep climb with their slender legs, at a brisk pace!  It was exciting and dangerous as well, given that neither me nor Priya know anything about horse riding.  Of course we had a couple of men guiding the ponies through the steep climb, but you never know when the pony is going to decide 'enough is enough'!

We reached Switzerland Point in fading light, but it was well worth it!  Fantastic scenery and landscape, right out of Yash Raj Films movies.  After spending some time there we began our descent on the ponies.  The descent, it was turning out, was even more dangerous than the climb.  Add to that the fading light, and we had enough to worry about.  Suddenly, the pony on which Priya and Suryanksh were on, missed a step and buckled under the imbalance of its riders.  Priya and Suryanksh fell down from the pony.  Thankfully, there were no injuries but the fall did scare us all.  After this most of the steep terrain was traversed on foot by Priya and me in complete darkness.  Once we were on flat terrain, we resumed the pony ride and reached the hotel by about 8.30 PM.  

Speaking of the hotel, I thought it was a wonderful hotel for a far-flung place like Pahalgam.  It is called Paradise Inn and looks like it has been built very recently.  After the dinner, we just wanted to hit the bed after a long day!  The next day promised to bring us to the sights and sounds of some of the nearby places of tourist interest in Pahalgam.  More about them in the next post.

Take care.

Day 127-2011 : Paradise On Earth - Part 1

It has now been four days since I came back from Kashmir.  I still cannot get over the dazzling beauty of the place; I guess, I never will.

This is the story of my holiday trip to Kashmir.  Like any story, a good build-up helps.  So here goes.

It was a very late decision to take a holiday.  Myself and Priya had been mulling over where to go to, for quite some time.  One thing was certain: After 5 years of not taking any holidays, we were determined to take time off and travel to some place.  We felt confident that the kids were now big enough to take the risk!  Finally, we decided that given the time constraints and two sub-five kids, booking a domestic holiday package was the best option.  As to where to go to, we decided to start right at the top.  Kashmir!

The preparations began a week ahead of the departure date.  All the pre-trip shopping for the mandatory stuff to carry along was, to say the least, painful!  Finally, we are all set.

The itinerary was a shocker!  We learnt that we had to endure a five hour plane ride, departing at 6 AM (with 2 stops!) to get to Srinagar.  We got there on time though, after the two stops at Delhi and Jammu.  It was hot (dry heat) in Srinagar, when we landed.  Our first stop was a house boat on the famous Dal Lake.  A thirty minute drive to the Dal and a minute ride on a Shikara took us to our house boat; HB Young Light.

Now a house boat, if you have ever been to one, is an interesting place to stay.  It has an external sitting area, a common drawing room and a clutch of rooms (very similar to a hotel room) for guests to stay.  The number of rooms in a house boat depends on how big the house boat is.  The largest house boat, I was told, on the Dal was a 7-room house boat.  Ours was a 3 room one.  A comfortable contraption, it has all the amenities that a normal hotel room might have.  The fact that it is in the lake, takes some time to get used to.  One has to be very careful, especially if you have small kids, as you might actually step into the lake if you do not mind where your foot is!  Another irritant is the swarm of insects (harmless mosquitoes, we were told).  You need to cover yourself and use insect repellent creams.  One might also feel a bit claustrophobic in a house boat, but it is a great place to stay for a couple of days for city-slickers like us.

HB Young Light: The Common Room

I had been warned that the people in Kashmir might not be very welcoming.  I was happy that this was not the case.  The people are great!  The owner of the house boat, Muhammedbhai, insisted that we consider the house boat as our own home and give him a shout at any time of the day, if we need anything at all.  The owners of the house boats generally live at the back of the house boat itself.  Notwithstanding the earlier warning about Kashmiris not being hospitable, I think the people of Kashmir are realising that tourism is their lifeline.  Of course, in the evening, the owner produced multiple relatives who were selling one or the other thing.  Clothes, saffron & other herbs, handicrafts, etc.  The hard-sell was a great 'put-off' for me.  But, it was their livelihood.

The evening was spent rowing about in a Shikara all over the Dal Lake.  The Dal is one of the biggest lake that I have seen, next only to maybe, Loch Ness in the Highlands in Scotland.  Over a lakh households actually live on the lake!  The Dal has an economy and a community of its own.  It is huge!  I was amazed to see the little causeways in the lake which led to the different parts of it.  Everything is available on the lake.  Right from grocery shops, mobile photo studios (on Shikaras!) and handicraft unit to private farms on which vegetables are grown.  There are floating gardens on it too.  The Dal is infested by wild growth of weeds all over.  A huge investment has been made to continuously dredge the lake to take these weeds out which inhibit the proper functioning of this large aquatic body.  The Dal Lake really impressed me!  The views of the surrounding mountain ranges and the house boats, from a Shikara are spectacular. 

We did stop by the Nehru Park and a couple of shops on the lake.  Also, we did a mobile photo shoot (a first for me) in a Shikara wearing traditional Kashmiri costumes, the prints of which were delivered promptly in the evening. 

Thus our first day in Kashmir ended on the Dal Lake.  I did have a good night's sleep in the house boat.  However, when you spend hours together in a Shikara, you get the gentle swaying sensation of a boat even when lying flat on your bed!  It feels like you are sleeping in a 'thottal', if you know what I mean.

Next morning, we were to drive to Pahalgam, a 5 hour drive!  The next post will be all about Pahalgam and its surrounding places. 

Till then...take care!

Day 116-2011 : A Locha Called IPL..

We definitely need Lalit Modi back!  At least the IPL does.

Just a couple of weeks ago, in the euphoria of the World Cup win, I was actually looking forward to the IPL.  A lot of friends said it is overkill; an overdose of cricket.  I somehow was actually not feeling that way and was looking forward to more cricket.  The World Cup win probably making me want more.

A fortnight into the competition and I am not so sure anymore.  With ten teams and a competition that runs for more than 1.5 months, this tournament is going to take some viewing.  And the format is convoluted too.  I just cannot understand it.  With every team playing every other day, it is beginning to get a bit confusing.  Forget about the matches, following the points table is getting to be difficult.  Add to this the player changes this season.  It took some time for me to figure out who is playing for which franchisee.  And I am not sure, I still know of all the changes.  A Gambhir playing for Kolkata, Yuvraj for Pune and Dravid for Rajasthan!  Two new teams, Pune and Kochi, which by the way, has its own identity crisis to figure out, of being a team from Kerala or Gujarat!  I am now really feeling 'cricket fatigued'.

So two new teams.  What else is new?  Cheer leaders...of a different kind!  Fully clothed cheer leaders in traditional Indian costumes are doing duty for the Pune Warriors.  I am not sure if that is going down well; with the crowds as well as the ladies themselves!  Imagine dancing in the sun fully decked up!  The SET MAX hosts have a couple of new inclusions as well, one of them actually trying to do a Mandira Bedi with noodle straps and a strategically placed 'Pallu'.

Notwithstanding all of this however, there have been a couple of great performances this season.  Paul Valthaty...(who!?!?!) has emerged as the King for the Kings XI Punjab team.  The knock he played against the Chennai Super Kings was tremendous.  No wonder Greg Chappell has been talking of the Indian bench strength.  Sachin's first T20 century was a knock to savour as well, especially because it showed that he is still learning and evolving.  Yes, he played some helicopter shots aka Dhoni with equal effect!

Though I am not inclined to follow each and every match, my favourite teams this season are the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings.  At the start of the tournament, I expected them to play the finals.  Currently, one of them is at the top of the points table and the other at the bottom.  Now that I have shifted base to Mumbai, my loyalties have now shifted to the Mumbai Indians! Of course, having a strong team helps too!  I am rooting for them to win this season.  But there are still a whole load of matches to be played before we reach the finals...we will just have to endure them.

By the way, tomorrow me and the family go away to Kashmir for a week's vacation.  Now, you know what to expect in the next post then!

Take care!

Day 113-2011 : There Is Hope!

What's he got that I ain't got!?!?!? The answer to this, these days, could well be : An 'Anna' cap!  Wearing an 'Anna Hazare' cap is the latest 'cool' thing all over the place.

The Anna Hazare Cap - Hep!

Trendy!

It has been fascinating to watch Anna Hazare and his group of crusaders orchestrate the campaign against corruption over the last few weeks.  The first time I heard about the campaign was...on Facebook, on Meera Sanyal's wall!  I had, at that moment, no idea of how big this will become.  This was 'Gandhigiri' revisited!

The core elements were the same as the original methodology.  A lone man, frail and old, using non-violence and fasting as a means to protest against the wrong-doings of all the bad men.  Anna was protesting against the political class' incestuous attempt to rig the drafting of the Lokpal Bill, which would in effect give immunity to them.  The nation exploded in spontaneous anger.  Demonstrations and protest marches and meetings were held in multiple cities across the country to support the movement.

In many senses, this was 'Gandhigiri', 21st century style.  The campaign was all over the internet.  Social networking was leveraged wonderfully! The team also came up with a novel way of enlisting support, by making a missed call!  It looked like the politicos had grossly underestimated the enduring power of Satyagraha remixed with lightning speed communication.  The government finally gave in to all the demands of the protesters, the main one being the inclusion of civil society in the committee which is drafting the Jan Lokpal Bill.

The real battle, however, begins now.  The political class, which was taken aback by the spontaneity of the campaign, is slowly regrouping and trying to hit back.  Almost every day, there is a news report of an allegation of graft or other wrong-doing against the panel members from the civil society.  What the politicians fear is not just a one-off campaign.  They fear the radical ideas of the young group of Anna's supporters.  Anna is just the mascot.  The ultimate goal of this motley group of born again crusaders like Arvind Kejriwal, the Bhushans and Kiran Bedi, is 'Direct Democracy'.  A radical concept which would empower the civil society at the lowest common denominator.  What's more, it proposes the 'Right To Recall', which could be used by the voters of a given constituency if they think their representative isn't doing a good job or is corrupt.

I think some of the ideas related to the 'Direct Democracy' concept are too extreme.  They have in fact the power to destabilise civil society.  There will need to be some moderation before these could be sold to a country as vast as India.

But this is a great start!  One of the things that I firmly believed in the past was that, a revolution can never happen in a country like India.  This campaign has done enough to change that view.  Looks like a revolution is possible. 

There will be a time when the despair, desperation and frustration swelling within the consciousness of a gagged nation will result in a revolution against all that has caused it.  There is hope! 

Take care!

Day 94-2011 : The Cup of Joy!

I have always wondered as to why, when we won the Prudential World Cup in 1983, no one told me about it.  The hype and the celebrations over the win were not very apparent, at least to me.  There was one household in our locality who had drawn the pictures of some men on the front outer wall of their house, but I did not know who the men were.  No one was dancing, no one was asking me to participate in the celebrations and nobody was hysterical.

28 years down the line, I realise that it is a very different world!  Yes, India won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 yesterday and the scenes of celebrations had to be seen to be believed.  Not that I saw any of them live.  But the news channels on the television have been going on and on about the celebrations that ensued across the nation throughout last night!

India was being tagged as the favourites to win this tournament even before it began.  The No.1 status in Test Cricket, the fact that we were the hosts and the team's recent form meant that everyone was expecting this team, with a mighty batting line up and a not so strong bowling and fielding side, to win the tournament.  Yesterday, Team India delivered on that.  In spite of the pressure of the expectations of a 1.21 billion strong country, playing at home.

My view is that Team India, though very strong due to an unending stream of solid (and explosive) batsmen, was not necessarily top draw because of the bowling attack.  The bowling attack consisting of Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth, Ashwin, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan and the other part timers was not exactly a strong one.  However, this spirited group of people put on a great show on the bowling side in almost all of the matches.  They understood their limitations, bowled to their strengths and within themselves.  Zaheer and Yuvraj were the stars!  Each time Dhoni needed a wicket he called upon Zaheer...and he invariably delivered.  He has made amends for 2007, and how!

Yuvraj  is a completely different story altogether.  Criticised for his temperament, lack of focus and fitness, the 'Prince' came back from the brink!  To win the Player of the Tournament award!  It was very evident that a lot of work on the mental conditioning side has gone into this turnaround.  He was imperious with the bat and bowled with guile!  His fielding, especially in the final match, was top class!  The Prince had arrived...again!

The 'GOD' was at his usual best.  Scoring almost each time he went to the crease, he finished second best in terms of the number of runs scored by batsmen in the tournament.  He got closer to the 100th century but could not quite get there.  He however, has a World Cup medal finally!  The dream has been fulfilled.  The entire team wanted to win it for Sachin.  To me, it doesn't really matter what Sachin does with his cricketing career from now on.  He is a living legend and there will be no one like him...never ever! 

Last but not the least, was the captain.  Dhoni was in a class of his own.  He has now won all the major cricket tournaments as a captain.  The 20-20 World Cup, IPL, The Champions League, No.1 Test Ranking for India and now the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011!  We need to create some more tournaments to whet his appetite, I guess.  Evidently, he has shown great leadership skills over the last four years, since he took over as the captain of Team India in all forms of cricket!  Take a bow!

When Dhoni hit the winning runs with the six yesterday, we were shouting, jumping and hugging each other.  A spontaneous release of all the built up tension over the last few weeks while following the team.  The tournament itself was not devoid of controversies.  From the controversy on the allotment of tickets to that of match fixing allegations during the semis and the final.  I do not know if the match-fixing allegations were true...and now, I do not care.  I have realised that something which can give joy and happiness to so many people is best enjoyed at face value.  I love the feeling.  There is a spring in my step.  I am walking on air.

Enjoy the sense of achievement, India.  Enjoy the victory!

Take care.

Day 87-2011 : Back to Fiction

There was a time when I would be borrowing a novel from a circulating library in the morning, finish reading it during the day and exchange it back for another one the next day in the morning.  This was during the summer vacations in my school and college going times.  Life then was a complete joy ride without a worry in the world.

Over the years, with the daily drudgery of earning your grub and tending to the family, the reading habit was put on the back-burner.  I could never find the time nor the inclination to pick up a book to read.  Even if I did so, I would find it very hard to finish reading it!  One of the resolutions that I made at the start of this year was to improve on my reading.  I am happy to report that I have met with reasonable success with it so far.  The kick-off was with Andrew Ross Sorkin's pseudo-fictional plot on the financial turmoil at Wall Street in 2008; Too Big To Fail.  I finished reading it within a month.  What I did however realise, was that, a generous dose of fiction is what might get my reading going again.  The fast paced, the better.  Hence, once I finished this, I read fiction with a vengeance.  I came across a bunch of Agatha Christie murder mysteries / thrillers, which I think was gifted by my colleagues at ACES.  I am now done with two of those titles and thoroughly enjoyed reading them!

I remember the first book that really ignited the interest in me for reading.  It was Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel, and of course, its sequels.  Over the years he has been one of my favourite authors.  Hence, I recently read his latest novel, Only Time Will Tell. 

I read this one entirely on the flights to and back from New York.  The impression that I got after reading it was that the author is probably not at his best.  His efforts here seem very laboured.  He painstakingly tries to recreate a plot which is similar to a Kane and Abel, and in my mind, fails to do that.  The characters are not very well fleshed out at all.  Mind you, as a story it is a good read, but I have higher expectations from an author like Jeffrey Archer.

So, here I am now, back to the murder mysteries.  But this time, it is not Poirot but Miss Marple.  Three months down and I am on my fifth book now.  A couple of others are in the queue, including Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol and the more technical, Securities Operations, by Mike Simmons.

As of now, fiction seems to have done the trick!  Take care.

Day 80-2011 : Mother Nature Strikes...And How!

I haven't been able to post anything over the last couple of weeks.  I haven't been lazy; just did not get the time to pen down my thoughts, due to a number of circumstances.

The main culprit has been my travel schedule.  Looks like March is turning out to be as hectic as the previous two months on the travel front.  I have been now to Shirdi, Nashik, New York and Ahmedabad in this month.  The incident at Shirdi was of course a shocker.  By the way, we have been able to make some headway into the matter after I wrote the letter on the 9th of March.  Since then the SP of Ahmednagar District has taken interest in the matter and has promised strict action against the guilty cops at the Shirdi Police Station.  The visit to Nashik was wonderful as well.  One of my uncles, Ramesh Iyer, is a nature enthusiast, and specialises in terrariums. All of us like the place, especially the kids.  The weekend after Nashik, I had to travel to New York and then the following weekend was Ahmedabad.

This post however is not about my experiences during all of these trips.  It is about nature.  And its fury!  On Friday, I had taken the day off to prepare for my New York trip.  I was however, looking up the BB every now and then. Sometime during mid-morning, I got a note from one of my colleagues that he was on a conference call with Tokyo and the colleagues in Tokyo mentioned that they thought they were experiencing tremors. After that, there was only a flood of emails about the natural calamity striking Japan.  It has since been confirmed that all my colleagues in the firm based out of Japan are safe and there has been no loss of life.  Now, considering the scale of the disaster, this must be some sort of a miracle!  I am told this is purely because of the fact that buildings in Japan, especially in the urban areas are built to withstand very high intensity earthquakes.  This earthquake was the strongest ever recorded in the history of the country with a magnitude of 8.9 on the Richter scale.

But then, there was more to come!  The earthquake triggered of a Tsunami which hit the coastal areas of North-Eastern Japan with a vengeance.  Some of the pictures on television were horrendous and heart wrenching.  The sheer size of the Tsunami waves was literally washing away anything that came in its path.  Houses, cars, planes, ships and everything else was washed away through fields and villages.  Just watching it made me shiver, I cannot even begin to imagine what people in Japan must be going through.  The calamity is also a setback to Japan's attempts to come out of a recessionary economic phase.  Some might argue that the resultant reconstruction activity would boost the economy.  There is, however, no proof of it from past such events. 

The twin disasters have also opened up possibility of another monumental disaster occurring.  The overheating and the resultant fires at the nuclear power plants in Japan is a huge worry across the globe.  People are fearing another Chernobyl like calamity.  There are reports of traces of radiation being found in nearby areas of the power plants.  This has, of course, triggered another debate around the usage of nuclear energy, which I am sure, is likely to continue for a while in the foreseeable future.

While all of this is happening, my thoughts go out to the thousands of people who have lost their lives, those who have lost their near and dear ones and those who have lost their livelihoods.  We should do all we can to help the Japan and its people at this critical juncture. 

Mother Nature provides.  But just like your real mother, sometimes Mother Nature pulls out all the stops to remind you who's the boss!

Take care.

Day 68-2011 : Letter to DGP, Maharashtra (Abridged)

To,

The Director General of Police
Maharashtra.

Dear Sir,

I wish you to bring to your notice an incident that happened on Saturday, March 5, 2011 at Shirdi. I and my family members, names and ages attached, had travelled to Shirdi for Darshan on that day.

During the visit jewellery from my aunt’s purse was stolen. The jewellery was kept in a yellow pouch, in the purse carried by my aunt. The list of items stolen and their approximate value are attached herewith.

Following is the sequence of events:

1. We reached Shirdi and joined the queue for Darshan at 13.00 IST.
2. We reached the Sai Samadhi at the end of the queue at approximately 14.15 IST.
3. All of us came out and went to the donation office opposite the exit from the Sai Samadhi.
4. We realised that the jewellery has been stolen at the donation office at approximately 14.20 IST.
5. We immediately lodged a complaint with the temple Security Office.
6. When asked to review the footage from the CCTV cameras, the temple security office control room advised that we should lodge an FIR at the Shirdi police station, only after which we could see the CCTV footage.
7. We went to the Shirdi police station at approximately 16.30 IST to lodge the FIR.

On reaching the Shirdi police station, my aunt was first of all rebuked by the constables on duty for carrying the jewellery to the temple. When asked to lodge a FIR, we were told that ours is not the only such case that has happened; 10 such cases of theft are reported on a daily basis. When we still persisted on registering the FIR, we were told that nothing would come of it and it would be a futile exercise. Moreover, the authorities at the police station did not want to register a FIR because we were outsiders (from Mumbai) and they assumed that we would not come back to follow up on the case or when summoned. When this did not work, the officials on duty started threatening us by saying that we were asking for trouble and if we do not turn up when summoned for a follow up on the case, even warrants could be issued against us! We were also told that the FIR will not be lodged till the Police Inspector of the Shirdi Police Station comes back to the police station from his rounds, for which the ETA was not known. This was another delaying tactic used by the officials in the hope that we would abandon the thought of registering a police complaint. All along, the officials on duty were rude to my aunt, who is a senior citizen, and the rest of us. There was no empathy for the fact that a 68 year old lady had lost her jewellery and she would be mentally distressed due to this.

I would like to escalate this matter to you in your position as the head of the state’s police force. Instead of helping people in distress, the police force is being rude to them and do not have the sensitivity to deal with such cases. If the police force of the state behaves like this, I ask you, what is the recourse for the common man?

I request you to please intervene in this matter and help us find the stolen items of jewellery. I would also like to request you to please look into the matter of the misconduct of the police officials on duty at Shirdi Police Station on that day and take the appropriate action against them.

I hope to get a favourable and swift response from you.

Thanking you,

Yours Truly.

CC: The Superintendant of Police, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra

CC: Shri R. R. Patil, The Home Minister, Maharashtra