Over the hill

A musician friend is working on his next album. He asked me to try my hand at writing a song. This is my attempt. Don't laugh.

Over the hill isn’t far away,

It’s that moment we crossed on our last birthday.

Didn’t you notice in the mirror today?

Some call it silver; some call it grey.

Over the hill isn’t far away,

I hope it isn’t the past, all over again,

The past is perfect they say,

For some it isn’t that way.

Over the hill isn’t far away,

It’s that night we spent drinking away.

Burying memories that are here to stay.

Beneath my skin, like a permanent stain.

Over the hill isn’t far away,

It’s that moment we crossed on our last birthday.

Each night I silently pray,

Can I live it all over again?

Best Dayz of their Life

Kodakara, a village tucked away under some palm canpy called Kerala. A girl called DewDrops dreams about the life she lived. Those were the best days of her life. A blog worth reading. Here's are a couple of poems from her blog.


Best Dayz of My Life: Kunjunni Kavithakal: "Kunjunni Kavithakal
Vaayichchalum Valarum
Vaayichchillengilum Valarum
Vayichchal Vilayum
Vayichichiyyengil Valayum
(Achan’s favorite)

Enikkundoru Lokam
Ninakkundoru Lokam
Namukkilloru Lokam
(My favorite)"


Meanwhile in Bangalore, another girl, Soultrot, writes poem in Kannada, a language she cannot read or write but can speak. It has a quality of its own.

Here's a snippet from her poem: Ootada samaya.

Bisi bisiyaada saaru
bisi bisiyaada anna
adare mele tuppa..
tuppada jote
ondishtu nage,ondishtu maatu..

Idu maneya
ootada samaya
Appa, Amma, Anna
yellara jote maataaduva samaya.

"Ondishtu anna badse"
"Amma neeru beku.."
"Anna nin tatte li saarigintha
tuppane teltha idyello"
"oye sumne oota maade
bari harte"

Statutory Warning

Chewing pan masala can kill your brain cells too.

Headline: Why does the sun rise in the east?
Hira Pan Masala. Who cares! Have fun.

And yes, an interesting medium to use if you target taxi and rickshaw driver.

Revolution! From The New Yorker: Fact:

The New Yorker: Fact: "Fallaci’s interview with Khomeini, which appeared in the Times on October 7, 1979, soon after the Iranian revolution, was the most exhilarating example of her pugilistic approach. Fallaci had travelled to Qum to try to secure an interview with Khomeini, and she waited ten days before he received her. She had followed instructions from the new Islamist regime, and arrived at the Ayatollah’s home barefoot and wrapped in a chador. Almost immediately, she unleashed a barrage of questions about the closing of opposition newspapers, the treatment of Iran’s Kurdish minority, and the summary executions performed by the new regime. When Khomeini defended these practices, noting that some of the people killed had been brutal servants of the Shah, Fallaci demanded, “Is it right to shoot the poor prostitute or a woman who is unfaithful to her husband, or a man who loves another man?” The Ayatollah answered with a pair of remorseless metaphors. “If your finger suffers from gangrene, what do you do? Do you let the whole hand, and then the body, become filled with gangrene, or do you cut the finger off? What brings corruption to an entire country and its people must be pulled up like the weeds that infest a field of wheat.”

Fallaci continued posing indignant questions about the treatment of women in the new Islamic state. Why, she asked, did Khomeini compel women to “hide themselves, all bundled up,” when they had proved their equal stature by helping to bring about the Islamic revolution? Khomeini replied that the women who “contributed to the revolution were, and are, women with the Islamic dress”; they weren’t women like Fallaci, who “go around all uncovered, dragging behind them a tail of men.” A few minutes later, Fallaci asked a more insolent question: “How do you swim in a chador?” Khomeini snapped, “Our customs are none of your business. If you do not like Islamic dress you are not obliged to wear it. Because Islamic dress is for good and proper young women.” Fallaci saw an opening, and charged in. “That’s very kind of you, Imam. And since you said so, I’m going to take off this stupid, medieval rag right now.” She yanked off her chador."

Hartal! Strike!

Remains of the Railway strike that didn't happen in March 2006

Gujarat Asmita

The state is accumulating a whole lot of bad karma. Watch out, the silent among 5 crores Gujaratis, your inaction will kill what you should really be proud of.

Georgia Adopts “Prohibited in Russia” as Wine Advertising Slogan - NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM

“Prohibited in Russia” "On the eve of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s arrival to a summit of Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova (GUAM) leaders advertising campaign of Georgian wine started in the Ukrainian capital. Billboards with a glass of red wine saying “Try the wine of freedom,” “It contains more freedom than allowed” were placed along the highway from Borispol Airport, by which the summit guests followed. Below the slogans a seal is placed saying: “Georgian wine is prohibited in Russia”, Regnum news agency reports.

“Wisely done,” Saakashvili praised himself when he saw the banner.

He confirmed that he was grateful to Russia for the ban on Georgian wine. “Thanks a lot for advertising Georgian wine all over the world by means of boycott. We could have spent a billion dollars on advertising and not get such effect,” Saakashvili said.

Similar ads have been placed along all central streets in Kiev, and some Ukrainian TV-channels and advertising agencies decided to give their ad sites to Georgian wine-makers at reduced prices.

Georgian leader claims that similar promotion campaign would be held in Europe, particularly in Baltic states and possibly in Asian countries, Vzglyad daily newspaper reports."

peace for all based on justice and spirituality

Boston - Iran's go to World Cup with "peace for all" slogan: "Iran's slogan for the World Cup 2006 in Germany will be 'peace for all based on justice and spirituality', ISNA news agency reported Wednesday.

Iranian sports chief Ali Abadi proclaimed that the new slogan should replace the former one - 'Persian Stars' - and be brought to public attention through state television.

The call for peace upon justice and spirituality is linked with Iran's policy in the Middle East and how to settle the dilemma between Israel and Palestine.

Iran has constantly branded the Western peace initiatives such as the Road Map as not effective and called on peace based on justice as only option.

While stating South Africa as a suitable model for Palestine, Tehran says that real peace could only be feasible through participation of all Palestinians, including refugees, in a referendum to determine the political fate of the area."

Guns and slogans - Maoist totalitarianism or absolute monarchism

Guns and slogans - Nepali Times: "It’s natural for people who have achieved a breath-taking overthrow of dictatorship to be on the guard against sellout.

And that is even more understandable in this country where last time the euphoria of freedom didn’t take long to evaporate. When expectations are so high, people get impatient. And it doesn’t help when we see the same old faces up to the same old tricks.

But before we get too cynical, we have to only remind ourselves of the alternatives: Maoist totalitarianism or absolute monarchism. The seven party alliance may be slow, but they are the least of the evils. Also, if we recognise the magnitude of what the people have achieved this time compared to 1990, perhaps it will help us be a little more patient."

'Can't Hide Coffins'

Sen. Barack Obama: Bush Slogans 'Can't Hide Coffins': "Democratic Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday ridiculed the Bush administration's defense of the Iraq war, arguing that messages such as 'Plan for Victory' can't hide the '2,400 flag-draped coffins that have arrived at the Dover Air Force Base.'"

Music sharing: do not pluck music

I have a confession to make. I stole music long before Internet became widely available.

In fact I'm not alone. Growing up in the 80s in India. There was no way we could buy international music. Even if they were available, usually a year after their release, we had no money to buy them. So the only option was to hook up long antenna wires to 2-in-1s, tune into shortwave stations from around the world, record the latest songs to hit the charts and share it with friends. The race was to get the newest releases before anyone else would.

Usually the chase was better than the kill.

Thank you, BBC, ABC, VOA, Radio Finland, Radio Japan, SLBC and Radio Moscow.

I think they had a name for this short wave fixation. It was called Radio DX-ing.

Some of the more enterprising among us even took up courses in HAM radio to connect to the rest of the world. They used to network with friends across borders to source music from there.

Even if we did buy tapes, they were always in circulation. A tape full of songs was worth more than anything else in the world those days. The lucky among us who got pocket money would use the money to get music from the many bootleggers who had set up shops on Brigade Road, Bangalore's own chota Gulshan Kumars who lasted until India opened up to the rest of the world.

Railway Terminus: Please do not cross tracks

Paul Theraux in his classic travel book, 'The Great Railway Bazaar' mentions a 'Sprocket Manufacturer' he met on the Mumbai Rajdhani Express and expressed his surprise at the strangest professions Indian claim to have.

In a country filled with illiterates and dirt-cheap labour, many people end up doing the wierdest things.

- Gold prospectors who sift through the drain that runs through Bangalore's City Market and Mumbai's Mithi river.

- Lift operators, coffee machine operators, typists sitting outside offices and photostat machine operators.

- Down south, in Kerala, there's a 'Kili' or 'Bird' in every 'private' bus, helping the conductor ring the bell.

- And then there are the men with WLL and mobile phones strapped to bicycles riding up and down highways serving as mobile telephone booths.

The list is endless.Many of the occupations, dreadful.

For a couple of men at Goregaon station, Mumbai, the day starts by scrubbing clean a bloodstained stretcher they use to pick up people who fall off crowded trains or are run over by trains.

They are part of an army that picks up anonymous young men (mostly), lying with their skulls cracked open, blood oozing from unseen wounds, lying on their backs with blank stares on station platforms from Virar to Churchgate, CST to Ambernath.

The lucky ones are kept away from the public eye at a morgue that's specially built for them at Dadar station.

In a city where a power hungry politicians like Pramod Mahajan are elevated to godly status, nearly 3,000 people who die on the Mumbai Suburban network, each year, will have their pockets searched for their names. The lucky ones will be identified.

It's not that Mumbaikars don't do anything about this. Every evening a group of youngsters patiently walk around Bandra station with placards in their hands urging people not to cross tracks. Very few listen.

Someone even sued the Indian Railways to improve its safety standards, to no effect.

Each time I walk past a dead commuter, I wish that they make Laloo Prasad, our Railway Minister, do what those two men in Goregaon do each morning. Probably, he will do something to improve the conditions Mumbai's lifeline had to offer for its citizens

India has become the account keeper, a nation of clerks to the world

The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : India has become a nation of clerks to the world, says Joshi: "The former Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi has regretted that 'India has become the account keeper, a nation of clerks to the world, while China is the workshop of the world, a tragic reversal for a country that boasts of the most ancient civilisation, where every aspect of modern, Western science can find its seed.'"


What cheek? Considering that politicians like him give scant respect to educating our illiterate masses.

New Jersey: We're not so good with slogans

exNew Jersey: We're not so good with slogans: "TRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey has jettisoned ''Come See For Yourself,'' its second attempt at a state slogan in less than a year. It was the product of a statewide contest set up last fall, after the governor rejected a consultant's offering: ''We'll Win You Over.''

State tourism officials said legal issues led them to scrap the latest slogan, explaining that West Virginia and other states previously used ''Come See For Yourself.''"

Restart your engines

Indiana revs up new state slogan: "Visitors to the state will no longer be invited to “Enjoy Indiana,” the state’s brand name slogan for the past eight years, but instead will be enticed to “Restart your engines.”
The change has been in the works for the past nine months, following research by the Indiana Office of Tourism Development (IOTD) to identify a new brand for the state’s tourism industry. Last week the announcement came making the switch official.
IOTD Public Relations Manager Angela Hurley explained that “Enjoy Indiana” had lost its punch in drawing visitors, and changing it is a way to boost commerce and the number of visitors coming to Indiana.
“‘Enjoy Indiana’ conveyed a message of warmth, friendliness and welcoming to visitors, but not so much excitement and adventure. It was still high in recognition among consumers in 2002, but in 2005, it had significantly lost equity in comparison to the state slogans around us,” said Hurley.
Hurley said surrounding state slogans identified the essence of their own attraction to visitors, for example Michigan’s “Great Lakes, Great Times” and Kentucky’s “Unbridled Spirit.”
Information on the www.IN.gov Web site notes, “the slogan (Enjoy Indiana) positions the state as a quiet, somewhat boring destination. If Indiana wants to convince people that its tourism product is more exciting, fun and unique, it would make sense to update this slogan.”
Hurley said the new slogan capitalizes on Indiana’s racing history but with a double entendre thrown in.
“This new brand — Restart Your engines — will not only capitalize on what the state is already known for but will encourage visitors to come rejuvenate, relax and reenergize,” she said."