Saturday, July 28, 2007

Mahabalipuram

I had seen the images since I was a kid and also remembered that they were really reall old. Later of course, I ead much more about them and finally yesterday I was able to visit Mahabalipuram and was able to see with my own eyes the work of Pallava sculptors 600-700 AD. The village of Mahabalipuram is a World Heritage Site because of these ancient monuments. It also helps that the beach extends to as far as the eye can see on both sides and the sea is really blue. It was a great day's outing rounded up with a lunch at GRT resort. For the first time in my life I felt jelous about Chennaites. Pity I could not enjoy the beach, which seemed to me to be exgtending from the outskirts of Chennai to probably the southernmost tip of India without a break. Incredible India!


Monday, July 16, 2007

Deluge in Delhi

For those who believe that good and bad are relative terms, please read on. It rained in Delhi for an hour. It was a Sunday afternoon and after a week of high humidty and temperature rains were a welcome change. But for those who had to travel and for those who have some experience of living in Mumbai! I unfortunately qualified for both the categories. The eight km journey through the city to the railway station took me forty minutes on a Sunday afternoon on Delhi roads. Both sides of the roads were flooded and traffic could move only on the inner lanes of what are usually six lane roads. The entry to the New Delhi Railway station was in knee deep water and the site was more like a third world Venice than that of the capital of an aspiring nation. The two municipal bodies of Delhi have long ago abdicated their civic responsibilities and are engaged politicking, most of the work is outsourced to contractors although there are scheduled departments and workers for all the jobs. So it has been an excellent case of outsourcing without cutting back on internal staff [a situation Americans would have loved].

For once, I felt happy that I was returning to Mumbai. I of course with the typical survival instict of a Delhiite manged to board my train on time. Others I left behind were not so lucky. My neoghbourhood in Delhi was hit by a cable fault which was temporarily repaired late at night.

As my train sped away from Delhi, I was wondering what would happen if it rained for two days in Delhi. Thankfully mother nature has been very kind to Delhi and it is unlikely that it would ever rain as hard as in Mumbai and Kolkata. This would of course, leave the municipal officers in Delhi enough time to do what they do best - petty politics.

Monday, July 02, 2007

A Museum for my Daughter

Many years back while walking the Royal Mile in Edinburgh I spotted a quaint museum called the People's Museum. In spite of the strong tradition of socialism in Scotland, Royal Mile isn't exactly the place where you would expect a People's Museum. Suffice it to say, the museum reconstructs the life of an ordinary working class scot in the 18-19 century. It captures the technological developments due to the Industrial Revolution and how that changed people's lives and lifestyles. The reconstruction is so well done that you would have to see it to believe it. In fact it is one of the best museums I have seen.
I was reminded of the museum the other day when I tried to explain to my six year old daughter about certain gadgets that I and even my much younger brothers in law have grown up with. Soon I realised that making my daughter understand the technology we grew up with would be a difficult task. Many of the things I grew up with have disappeared from use but have not yet found their way to museums... so where do we find them?
The first one was a rotary phone: where do I find one? The ones in the museum are still from the time of Mr Bell. My first phone was a serious looking black rotary phone
The second one was the steam engine: The ones in the railway museum are 19th century not the powerful ones of 1970s
The third one was the Handwound watch: where do I get one? Museums have fancy repetors and pockets watches from 19th century but not a handwound watch. I am sure HMT still makes some, but..... My first watch was handwound.
The fourth one was a black and white TV with wooden stands and shutters, where have they disappeared? The first TV I watched was a Keltron with four legs and sunmica laminated wooden shutters. Not yet found in any museum
The fifth item would definitely be the Video Casette and Video player. I grew up on a healthy dose of hindi movies on this fantastic gadget
The sixth would have to be the music cassette: I wonder where have those lovely cassettes of Kishore Kumar I collected over the years gone?
There are at least 15 more such items that can be added to the list. And I have just stuck to changes that have been brought about by pure technology and not mentioned anything which is connected to better availability of goods and better purchasing power. That list I guess would be much longer
So after this rather long conversation with my daughter, I realised I need to be happy about the "old things" that she is still sticking to and not be too unhappy and sentimental about "old things" she is discarding. And... one of the biggest piece of good news is that she still likes books and she is just getting into the habit of reading them by herself. Perhaps better still is the fact that printed children's books are still available and doing very well. Although most of the popular heros in the books and indeed the topics have changed, I was happy to discover shared loved between us for some eternal characters such as Mickey Mouse and Jataka Tales.