It has happened to me quite a few times in quite a few places. The first time it happened was when I was 14 years old and standing in a rather violent queue for a first day first show in my native land. A boy of my age decently attired came up to me and said that he had come from the nearby town and had lost his parents and did not have the bus fare to go back. I trusted him and gave him two rupees [the cost of the cinema ticket was three rupees just to give u a sense of "relativity"]. Crooked that I was even at that age, I started thinking if I had done the right thing or if I was royally cheated [My friends took me for a fool] and I promised not to be so gullible again.
The next time it happended was in Calcutta again at a cinema ticket counter, this time I was old enough to watch adult movies. A smartly dressed gent came up to me and on the pretext of losing his wallet asked for 25 rupees. I hesitated for a moment and then give away 25 rupees [a dress circle ticket at New Empire cost only 5.75 rupees then, u get the "relativity".
The last time it happened was in New Delhi railway station one fine morning when I was catching a train to Bihar. Again well-dressed gentleman with a wife in tow came up to me and said they they too were victims of pickpockets and had lost their money and tickets to Patna. Yes once again, I forked out 300 rupees again with that nagging feeling at the back of my head "was I being taken for a ride?".
Many years passed without trouble and things started improving. In fact for six years in my small way, I started paying a pound to homeless, buskers and drunks in various nooks and crannies of London. But the deal was simple, you give money for food or beer [no busker claimed to have been cheated by a recording company and no drunk claimed to buy vitamins]. And I started thinking world had changed while I was getting older - we were moving towards more transparency and clear RoI on charities.
So when this old lady stood in front of my seat in the AC first class compartment of Rajdhani Express one evening at Mumbai Central and claimed that she wanted to go back to Azamgarh and needed six hundred rupees, I hesitated checked my head first and then my heart, the latter once again won and I parted with the money feeling rather smug having helped an elderly person reach her family.
My happiness lasted for two weeks. Exactly a fornight later under exactly the same circumstances, I found the same lady in front of me with the same story asking for exactly the same amount of money. I will not tell you what I did... But all these and many other stories came to my mind that night and I was convinced that all my life I was gullible and a victim of cheats.
Now I am a hardened man, [I have even stopped paying the beggar at Defence Colony the customary one rupee that I paid everyday for three years].
Can you blame me? I keep feeling guilty though, especially when I pass under the Andheri flyover in Mumbai or the Moolchand crossing in Delhi.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
End of the World
My seven year old daughter asked me last night before going to bed: "Dad are there going to be Earthquakes tomorrow? Are we all going to die". I explained to her that these were rumours floated by people who did not know what was happening and what were the implications of the experiments carried out by CERN. She was assured and went off to a peaceful sleep.
But I was not very reassured myself and sat up and read up about the experiment and the arguments for and against it.
Now I am of a scientific bent of my and am fully aware that from a particular perspective, we live under the threat of extinction every day what with so many zombie like asteroids, planetoids, cosmic rays, planets going around the solar system, it is most surprising that we are still around after so many billions of years. You just need to look at the surface of the moon to know what I mean.
However some fundamental questions came to my mind and I list them in no particular order:
1. While scientists were planning this mega planet blower experiment, Indians were begging to be introduced to much less harmless nuclear suppliers group and people were seriously debating if India should be allowed further nuclear tests. I found it ironic.
2. CERN are the same group of people who discovered quite accidentally the Internet while researching some aspects of nuclear physics. It's a bit like Christopher Columbus... He became a famous discoverer after having preciously failed to discover what he wanted to doscover. I mean how seriously should we take cooks who set out to make samosas and end up making rasgullas instead [delicious though they might be]?
3. Fundamentally, how would we benefit if we are able to know precisely what happened after the big bang? Will it help us in any practical way? I know where I could have used that 5.5 billion dollars more fruitfully.
4. Should not there be more information sharing and debate before some such groups start on some such experiments? I mean here people are stripping naked to save some whales from wily Japanese and here there is not even a modicum of debate over what some people think is the end of the world. Remember human cloning is banned in many countries becuase of its moral implications.
5. Finally, I trust the scientists to the extent that they are not sucidal and will start off an experiment which will kill them first. But then who knows? It was after all some very gentlemanly but nutty scientists who handed over the atomic bomb to Oppenheimer.
6. Finally, please do not take such opportunities to seek the services of God. He will not be of much help, he never is.
But by God! if the experiments goes horribly wrong what a way it will be to go..... I wonder will it end with a bang or a whimper.
But I was not very reassured myself and sat up and read up about the experiment and the arguments for and against it.
Now I am of a scientific bent of my and am fully aware that from a particular perspective, we live under the threat of extinction every day what with so many zombie like asteroids, planetoids, cosmic rays, planets going around the solar system, it is most surprising that we are still around after so many billions of years. You just need to look at the surface of the moon to know what I mean.
However some fundamental questions came to my mind and I list them in no particular order:
1. While scientists were planning this mega planet blower experiment, Indians were begging to be introduced to much less harmless nuclear suppliers group and people were seriously debating if India should be allowed further nuclear tests. I found it ironic.
2. CERN are the same group of people who discovered quite accidentally the Internet while researching some aspects of nuclear physics. It's a bit like Christopher Columbus... He became a famous discoverer after having preciously failed to discover what he wanted to doscover. I mean how seriously should we take cooks who set out to make samosas and end up making rasgullas instead [delicious though they might be]?
3. Fundamentally, how would we benefit if we are able to know precisely what happened after the big bang? Will it help us in any practical way? I know where I could have used that 5.5 billion dollars more fruitfully.
4. Should not there be more information sharing and debate before some such groups start on some such experiments? I mean here people are stripping naked to save some whales from wily Japanese and here there is not even a modicum of debate over what some people think is the end of the world. Remember human cloning is banned in many countries becuase of its moral implications.
5. Finally, I trust the scientists to the extent that they are not sucidal and will start off an experiment which will kill them first. But then who knows? It was after all some very gentlemanly but nutty scientists who handed over the atomic bomb to Oppenheimer.
6. Finally, please do not take such opportunities to seek the services of God. He will not be of much help, he never is.
But by God! if the experiments goes horribly wrong what a way it will be to go..... I wonder will it end with a bang or a whimper.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Made in America: Bill Bryson
According to the author this book is about America's contribution to the English language. But that is just the sub-text. The book really is one of the best history text books for anyone [and I guess there should be many in India] who wants to know a little bit about American history.
But I am getting ahead in the story. Let me begin by two confessions: 1. I have never been the US [that is saying something in this day and age!] 2. I had very little knowledge about American history till I read this book [Again that is saying something because since High School through to PhD, I have read only history. But then a gentleman called Thomas Babington Macaulay and his Indian followers had ensured that I knew more about Tudors and Stuarts than about the Boston Tea Party]
I am not going to summarise the book here since it is one of those books which has to be read and experienced. But just inform you that next time when you are in the US and you are not the type who would carry loads of rice and dal, cook yourself the same food everyday, stick to your community, save virtually more than you earn and look for Green Card from the time of your arrival; you must read this book. It will make you immesely knowledgeable about America and allow you to talk intelligently. The book starts at the beginning even before the Pilgrims [we are told that these were by far not the first settlers and by no means the best set of people]; talks about the several bunglings of Christopher Columbus, take you thorough the formation of the Union, the constitution, the civil war, and all that is American, language, sports, business, advertising and even sex.
The size of the book is intimidating, but once you start reading it you will find it engrossing: each page is like a new discovery.
And this is NOT the book which begins with the now famous Bryson line "I come from Des Moines, someone had to!" Yet I read the whole book but could not find the answer to a question that has been in my mind for 20 years now. In any international gathering an American [US] will state her/his name and the name of the city [even if it is Des Moines and little known outside the county: "Hi I am Bill Bryson from Des Moines"] This is completely contrary to the international custom. I have never heard an Indian saying "Hi I am Subho from Katihar" not a Japanese saying "I am Sugihara from Kyoto". Rarely a Brit would announce his/her city even if s/he is from London, Nor have a met a Rene from Niece. All of us have the natural habit of declaring our place of origin/domicile in an hierarchical order. Thus if I am in Bihar with the Biharis, I would say I am from Katihar; if I am in Delhi with people from other states, I would say I am from Bihar and if I am in London with people of many nationalities, I would say I am from India and then go on to explain my state and town. This, I believe is the general rule for all except Americans.
Mr Bryson does not mention why is this so. And I have not yet been able to develop a theory around it. If you have any theories please share them with me, else, I guess I would have to make that long overdue journey to the land of Mark Twain.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
That Time of the Year
It is that time of the year when the place in north east Bihar where I grew up is in the news for the right reason. But even the right reason is not very right and certainly not bright. At this time of the year, that region is in the news not because some MLA killing his rival, or one caste killing a dozen of another in an evening of macho sports not even that of a minister caught with his pants down, no train accidents either. It is that time of the year when my favourite part of the world for the last half a century [I have lived through 40 of those years] has a divine and devastating visitation in the form of floods surrounded or enclosed as it is by three riviers which are either very large or very wily or both: the Ganga, Kosi and the Mananda. the last two rushing to merge in the Ganga to the south.
For those who are usually upset at what is no more than waterlogging in our cities like Mumbai and now increasingly Delhi would note that this area is visited by floods [not water logging] every year for half a century.
Imagine a situation where there is almost clear sky but water rising inside your house or fields in dealthly silence. The scariest part is that you will not know how high the water will rise. Every year it is high enough for a quater of the population of this area [what used to to be the old Purnea district now divided into many others] seeking shelter along with their worldly possessions on sundry embankments or railway line[if these are spared] and surviving anywhere between 10 to 15 days each year on dry chidwa and gur thrown at them from helicopters by a "sympathetic government". Before they went back to their villages to salvage whatever they could. In some areas the rains, flood and the water logging seamlessly merges with the bitter winter [but that is another story]
This is the environment which gives rise to heartwarming stories like the one in which a poisonsous snake and a man spents three nights in perfect harmony on a tree-top just above the water level each too respectful of the other's situation.
This year though, the situation is slightly different: No do not worry I am not going to make you feel happy by saying that the situation is better [situations never get better in my part of the world]. In point of fact, the situation is far far worse than one can imagine. The most wily river of all, Kosi has this year decided to change its course. It has made a breach of 3 miles which is growing at the rate of 200 metres a day and carving out a new course towards the Ganga 100 kms downsrtream. There is a fair possibility that some of the districts in the upper reaches on the boarder with Nepal will cease to exist after the new route of intercourse between Kosi and Ganga is completed and some of the districts further south will be irreparably damaged.
The best part of the story is that very few will ever know of this and yet fewer will act on it. After all who cares about Bihar anyways!
For those who are usually upset at what is no more than waterlogging in our cities like Mumbai and now increasingly Delhi would note that this area is visited by floods [not water logging] every year for half a century.
Imagine a situation where there is almost clear sky but water rising inside your house or fields in dealthly silence. The scariest part is that you will not know how high the water will rise. Every year it is high enough for a quater of the population of this area [what used to to be the old Purnea district now divided into many others] seeking shelter along with their worldly possessions on sundry embankments or railway line[if these are spared] and surviving anywhere between 10 to 15 days each year on dry chidwa and gur thrown at them from helicopters by a "sympathetic government". Before they went back to their villages to salvage whatever they could. In some areas the rains, flood and the water logging seamlessly merges with the bitter winter [but that is another story]
This is the environment which gives rise to heartwarming stories like the one in which a poisonsous snake and a man spents three nights in perfect harmony on a tree-top just above the water level each too respectful of the other's situation.
This year though, the situation is slightly different: No do not worry I am not going to make you feel happy by saying that the situation is better [situations never get better in my part of the world]. In point of fact, the situation is far far worse than one can imagine. The most wily river of all, Kosi has this year decided to change its course. It has made a breach of 3 miles which is growing at the rate of 200 metres a day and carving out a new course towards the Ganga 100 kms downsrtream. There is a fair possibility that some of the districts in the upper reaches on the boarder with Nepal will cease to exist after the new route of intercourse between Kosi and Ganga is completed and some of the districts further south will be irreparably damaged.
The best part of the story is that very few will ever know of this and yet fewer will act on it. After all who cares about Bihar anyways!
[The accompanying picture taken by an overseas visitor and used without permission]
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