Final Transit

“So its been 21 months since you are left India. Don’t you miss it? Don’t you miss your family, your friends?” Someone asked him this question almost casually.

A brief pause. A straight face. A meek reply:
“No, I don’t.” he said.

He walked away grudgingly to some mall, almost as if that question ruined his mood. It was the international week, or something like that. He was pleasantly surprised to see the entire alley decorated with flags of various countries.

As he saw all these flags, his heart started beating faster…

He hurriedly scanned each and every flag. He was walking with his eyes focused on the flags above, desperately trying to find something. It was almost like a navigator looking for the North star among a hundred other stars in the sky.

And then he found it.

His eyes sparkled as if he found a treasure. His face glowed with a smile as if he was meeting his loved one.

“There it is!” some million anonymous voices screamed.

He stood there stupefied and stared at the flag for like a minute, or maybe more, that’s not important. He gulped down the saliva that accumulated in his mouth. He closed his eyes before they got too wet. He took a deep breath, and walked away.

- - -
Congratulations to everyone who celebrates freedom, culture and peace. Happy Indian Independence day, August fifteenth.

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A friend sent this link to an amazing video

Plot: A buffalo calf was captured by lions, the crocodiles tried to steal the catch, and finally, the buffaloes manage to save their kid. This reminded me of the videos ‘ek chidiya, anek chidiya’ with theme ‘unity is strength’ that Doordarshan (Indian national TV) used to broadcast when I was a kid. Awesome

glumbert.com - [tag]Battle of the Species[/tag]

Scene 1: A herd of wild buffaloes is passing. The leader is walking ahead of the herd, with his nose up in the air
Scene 2: A bunch of lions are crouching a little distance ahead, preparing to attach the herd
Scene 3: The head of the buffaloes’ herd senses that something is wrong, but continues to move ahead anyway. He is accompanied by a calf
Scene 4: ATTACK! The lions attach. Buffaloes turn back and run. The little calf cannot catch up with the speed and is promptly captured by the lions
Scene 5: This capture happens on the bank of a river and the calf slips into the river.
Scene 6: As the lions try to drag the calf out of the water, a number of crocodiles attack and try to pull the calf into the water
Scene 7: The lions somehow manage to save the calf from the crocodiles.
Scene 8: A huge herd of buffaloes is seen approaching the lions
Scene 9: The buffaloes surround the lions. The lions are trapped between the water with crocodiles one one side and a huge herd of buffaloes with sharp horns on the other
Scene 10: The buffaloes attack the lions. One of them tosses a lion up in the air with his horns. (ouch)
Scene 11: The buffaloes attack the lions one by one and chase them away
Scene 12: The calf happily returns to the herd.

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As if we didn’t hear enough of Bambaiya-angrezi (English in Mumbai flavor), the other day I heard this new phrase:

“Rick it out.”

Stumped? Let me explain. ‘Rick’ is a common urban condensed form of the word ‘Auto Rickshaw’, which by the way is the preferred and most popular mode of transport (‘taxi’) in India. In Mumbai, the super fast city especially, you may miss an appointment if you patiently speak the whole word ‘Rickshaw’. So you just say ‘Rick’ and zap to your destination. Of course the English speaking uptown crowd (whom we call ‘angrez’) might consider saying ‘Rickshaw’ a bit too Indian, hence may prefer saying ‘Rick’. Whatever is the reason!

When you call for a rick and hire it, you are ricking it out, i.e. taking an auto rickshaw on hire.

The other day:
Me: I have to go to XYZ, do you know which bus I can take?
Other person: Better rick it out rather than taking a bus

That’s all. I love the new phrase, but doubt if I’ll ever use it.

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It has started raining in Mumbai. The Meteorological department says these are pre-Monsoon showers. Ah…! The free creatures (such as me) living on mother earth are least concerned about the technical crap. I get delighted seeing the rain: it gives me very elementary joyous feeling and I feel my soul celebrating.

Joining the party from nowhere are other insects – snails, earthworms, frogs and so on. Frogs are quicker than the cocks (the ones that go cock-a-doodle-doo) and their screeching croaks start very early, most of the times disturbing my lovely dreams. I happened to go to the Bhagshala maidan for a pre-dawn stroll one day and from a long distance I could hear hundreds of frogs croaking distinctly, in unision. It was sortof scary! I hate frogs.

Ever since I was a little boy, I was always attracted to earthworms. I may not find puppies and cats ‘cute’ but I do think earthworms are (You should stop gauging me by conventional benchmarks). I remember grabbing them from everywhere – under big rocks, on old brick walls or simply while wriggling across – and collecting them. I saw the first earthworm of this season in mom’s garden and I was thrilled (so was he, i think!)

Speaking of mom’s plants, they will soon be vulnerable to attacks from the mighty snails determined to gulp down every bit of greenery. I don’t love or hate snails, but I find them rather funny, with huge shells on their backs and crawling at – should we say – ‘snail’s pace’. However, they eat a lot and shit a lot, which is messy.

Welcome little friends

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Another second away!

To make up for changes in Earth’s rotation, scientists are adding a ‘leap second’ to atomic clocks worldwide, thus delaying the start of year 2006 by a second. The atomic clocks showing coordinated universal time, which coincides with winter time in London will read 23:59:60 before moving to 00:00:00.

Leap seconds are added to compensate for slowing down of earth’s rotational speed. First leap second was added in the year 1972.

For us in India, this correction would mean longer New Years’ day. I enjoy Sundays anyway.

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