Listen Honey...Life is a stitch...and a story

Today there was gloom in the house. The Reliance webworld told us that the internet connection has been terminated but the datacard that I had to purchase remains purchased. There is no return back policy. Appa was upset because he felt that it was on his advice that I had purchased the datacard and therefore lost Rs 3000. But amma set him right:

"There is no need to worry," she told him. "Just write off the loss."

Then she turned to me and advised:

"If I were you, I would write a story, sell it to a magazine and recoup the money. Just send another book to Shishu Sahitya Samsad and you will get your Rs 3000 back."

Appa, of course, was tad bit startled. Already with a sister for a writer and a daughter as aspiring writer, he feels life is just too miserable. He tried to imagine what his life would have been if his wife too had been a writer...

The title of the blog comes from cross-stitch pattern called Listen Honey. These designs feature ladies with attitude. And as they appreciate chocolate as much as I do, you can understand why I love them so much. I first came across them in the US but never got around to purchasing these charts or doing it. It has thus far remained on my to do list. My favourite is the one where the lady says: Listen Honey...It is official...I have become my mother! It always competes with the ones that say Listen Honey... Will Work For Chocolate, and Listen Honey, I am looking for a tall dark hunk...of chocolate.

But more about the beneficial effects of chocolate in the next blog.

Ramar Sethu

I love the inanities of life. Especially when it comes at the end of a miserable day.

So somebody in the government came up with the idea of Sethu Samudram Project. The DMK government wants it badly because it feels it will go down well with the voters. The BJP opposes it because this is the point where Rama crossed over to Sri Lanka to wage war with Ravana. And the Central Government is clueless. Any way the whole matter is with the court. The Centre has now submitted before the courts that Rama himself destroyed the Sethu he built across the sea.

Oh Wow! It is almost as if they had a private audience with Rama and he told him this. (The Centre says it is written in Kambar Ramayana which would imply Kambar had a private audience with Rama. Whatever!)

In all this mesh of idiotic arguments is lost the simple fact that we would have to pay a heavy environmental cost. It is also not by any means clear that this canal would shorten the distance between Sri Lanka and India. But if our political parties became sensible where would we go for laughter?

The fall of Sonu

Sonu, who fell down the borewell, is dead.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated case. It happens with sickening regularity. There was Prince who had fallen down a borewell in Haryana. It made a big headline with all the news channels stationing their reporters at the site for minute by minute updating. But did any of us ever ask the question why was the left open for children to fall down? What were those responsible for the borewell thinking? What was the panchayat thinking? What were the parents thinking?

Heck, why borewell? What about open drains? What about open pits? What about dug up sidewalks? Does any body put a warning sign? I remember there was a case of a woman being washed down a drain because the roads were flooded and she could not see where she was stepping.

The bottom line is that we do not care. It did not happen to us, right? So what the heck? Why should we worry?

The Delhi Government in the aftermath of the Nithari case woke up. Enough to put up lovely poster boards every where loudly proclaiming: Delhi Loves its Children.

Yet there are children who beg right under that poster. They do not exist of course. Or do they?

The much touted anti-child labour law is another such thing. In one stroke we have eliminated child labour. Yet there are many within my own campus who hire children to work in their houses. Other than social boycotting I do not know what to do with them.

As a society we simply do not care. That is why Sonu happens with such regularity.

Tales From Firozsha Baagh

This was title of the book by Rohinton Mistry. I was little apprehensive and in two minds whether to issue it or not from British Council Library. I have read one of his books: A Fine Balance. It was, I found, horrible though my friend Minu liked it a lot and insisted we read it for the Book Club in Colorado. But I could not wade through it and about 3/4th of the way I completely gave up. There was never a lighter moment and the only thing that kept happening was troubles. Troubles pile upon the heroine, Dina somebody, in waves. Her husband dies within a year of marriage, her family is dysfunctional, poverty of course is a constant companion, her brother does not like her and tries to swindle her, and so on and so forth. There was not even humor to lighten up the scenario. The writing was turgid and heavy and I simply hated it.

So when I saw a collection of short stories by the same author I was in two minds. Should I or should I not.

I am glad I picked it up. The writing was much lighter and though the tone was heavy and dark throughout, it was not as bad as his novel. In fact I enjoyed almost all the stories. The 11 stories are interlinked and somewhat semi-autobiographical I suspect based on the last story. It tells the stories of the tenants of a building called Firozsha Baagh in Bombay. The setting is from post-independence to early 1970s when I think the author emigrated to Canada. The story I liked best was one called Condolences. Daulat has just lost her husband. She very much dislikes recounting the story of his last days to the people who come to pay her condolences. Her pesky neighbour, Najamai, keeps turning up at the most importune moment much to Daulat's intense irritation. It is a situation where she is helpless to say anything to Najamai though by the end of the story she has retrieved the situation.

The pesky neighbour reminded me of my mother's ex-neighbour. She would dictate every aspect of my mother's life much to our irritation. Only her removal from the building retrieved the situation for us.

Internet woes

The internet conked off once more two weeks back. It was working fine till 10 am in the morning. I went to the office and came back to find that the internet was no longer working. Since then I have been unsuccessfully calling up MTNL to get the problem fixed. Finally, I was told that I would have to call the area manager who would then authorize for the problem to be fixed. No, don't ask me what, why, etc. All I know is that for the past three days I have been calling the area manager's office persistently. I pestered them, scolded them, yelled at them, to get the problem fixed. It was finally done today. Whew!

When the internet was AWOL, we had the bright idea of switching the internet service provider. Reliance provides wireless internet service. It was supposed to reliable, fast etc. etc. So I called them up and they promptly landed up at home with the datacard which works only on Windows system.

"Not on Linux?"
"No, Ma'am. Do you have Windows?"

I have a double booting system thanks to my brother. So we fixed the stuff up and they told me to activate the card. The speed was worse than dial up and when I and my brother talked on Skype we ended up not understanding what the other was saying. I called up the Reliance service to get the problem fixed but guess what? They are as good as MTNL.
"You must have too many programs on your computer."
"But I use the laptop in my office. The office connection works fine. We have broadband service."
"You must have automatic update switched on. Why don't you download netbooster from our web site."
"I cannot open your website."
"Very well Ma'am. When you open our website, please install netbooster and check the speed. If it does not work then go to the nearest Reliance webworld and check the data card."
"Excuse me. I cannot open your website."
"Yes, Ma'am. Please install the netbooster and check the speed. If it does not work then go to the nearest Reliance webworld and check the data card."
I gave up.
It was at this point I decided to stick with MTNL. At least I know the area manager's phone number.

Nobel Prize-Medicine

This year it has been awarded to three scientists for their work on viruses-HIV and papilloma virus.

For a long time the discovery of HIV virus was point of dispute. Robert Gallo, who discovered HTLV, and Luc Montagnier who identified in AIDS patient. Luc Montagnier has won the Nobel Prize. Robert Gallo is nowhere mentioned.

This is however not the first time that this has happened. Andrew Fire and Craig Mello were awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of siRNA. The only problem is that it was discovered long time back in plants. But Fire and Mello were able to identify the mechanism, and revolutionized the entire field of genetics. For that they deserved the prize.

Or take the most famous example: Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize for solving the structure of DNA. The X-ray crystallography data, however, was produced by Rosalind Franklin. Of course she had died by the time the Nobel Prize was awarded but in their book "The Double Helix" she is lampooned by Watson, which is kind of unacceptable. The major problem was that Rosalind Franklin was unable to solve the structure. Watson and Crick were able to and that is the end of the story. In fact, at that point in time Linus Pauling was also involved in the race to solve the structure. He proposed a triple helix. Had he read Erwin Chargoff's paper, he would have realized that a triple helix was not possible.

I usually tell this to the first year students emphasizing how important it is to analyze the data.

Coming back to Nobel Prize- I think somewhere out there the HIV virus must be chuckling to itself quietly. All efforts to control it has failed for the simple reason it always has a trick up its sleeve. It is a tough virus to work with and these scientists deserve their prize. I only feel sorry for Robert Gallo because I think, honestly, he has contributed a lot to the field of retroviruses.

The Empty Marketplace

We went over to Sarojini Nagar Market yesterday. Amma wanted to buy somethings. She was in two minds- should she let me go by myself or should she come along? Finally, she chose to come with me and appa.

Sarojini Nagar Market in the best of days is jam-packed with sellers and buyers. There is hardly any space to manoeuver. You have to crawl along, sometimes pushing your way through.

Yesterday was different. There were just few shoppers. I asked the shopkeeper what happened to the crowd?

"Those days are gone, madam."

It was sad to see the empty marketplace. The markets derive their vibrancy from the people. If they are not there what is left of our marketplaces?

The bombers, whoever they are, have certainly achieved one thing: Fear. It is there in all of us as we go about our daily lives. Who knows where they will plant the next one? I hate them for that.