Urbs Prima, Urbs Maximus

Recently read this book by Suketu Mehta. I read it in 2 or 3 sittings. Not because it is well written, but because it is about Urbs Prima in Indus, Urbs Maximus: Bom baia, Bombay, Mumbai. Call it what you want, it shall accept you as its own.

Its funny that I lived all my life in cities and towns surrounding Bombay (Thane, Vashi, Dombivli) , studied in Bombay and yet have never read any book written about this magnificent piece of land.

The book is written in a journalistic approach and meant to give the reader a voyeur's eye view into the lives of the shiv sena, the mumbai police, gangs, socialites, bar dancers, prostitutes, film stars and directors, slum dwellers, the upper middle class. Apart from the usual artistic error of not covering the absolutely ordinary folk inhabiting the city, the book suffers from poor editing. It is as a reader on Amazon called it a 300 page book masquerading as a 500 page book.

Despite all this, the book is a rewarding read for its insight into the various movers and shakers of the city. The parts dealing with the 1992-93 riots and subsequent bomb blasts are well written and well researched. It is interesting to know how the perpetrators and victims still live close to each other and in fact conduct business with each other as if nothing has happened. For example, it was interesting to learn that 5% of Muslims voted shiv sena in 1995, just 2 years after the riots. Its like giving the sheep pen key to the wolf.

The book does a good job of giving an idea of scales. That the population of Bombay and environs is the same as that of the entire continent of Australia. That the population of Savoy, a town neighboring uiuc and housing its airport is approximately the same as the number of people in a 12 car train during peak hours. That 17500 people live every square mile. That a city so huge in its effect and destiny is controlled by people so small in stature and thinking.

The book is especially transparent and stinging about the shiv sena and its supremo, bal thackeray as well as the gangland bosses like chota shakeel and abu salem. The fact that the Srikrishna commission report , possibly India's best conducted survey on the reasons and outcomes of any communal riot CAN never get implemented due to it non judicial nature is stunning. Equally stunning is the impunity with which the gang bosses actually dictate who can and who cannot leave the country. Its funny to read that the Abu Salem gang actually refused permission to Hrithik Roshan to visit the US. And that too weeks after his dad was shot thrice by the same gang!!

The book does a decent service of capturing the fact that Mumbai is both a city of dreams and last resorts. And how in fact it can be both to the same set of people. Though the author lived in Bombay in the 70s till emigrating with his parents to NY and then again in the late 90s, he doesn't try to answer what Bombay is all about and whether there is anything common between someone living in the "town" and someone living in Mira road. He, like me, calls the vada pav the only unifying factor. It is a city of vada pav eaters.

If you has ever lived in or around this city, or have been fascinated as to how 20 million people live in such a small area, do read it. If you are looking for a travel guide, skip it and read a lonely planet guide instead.

tamils and Vikings

Patronymics. It connects Tams with Vikings. It is the naming ritual that has caused me infinite misery and my father to have research papers credited to his name in refrigeration and MEMS optical property measurement apart from his own field of organic chemistry. Ja, I am talking about kids having their father's first name as their last name. Vikings followed that system. The Danish government outlawed it for more than a century (for reasons I don't know, but I think it was the terrible confusion). It did what I am thinking of doing. Freezing the last name at some stage and passing it onwards to your kids and grandkids.

I am seriously thinking of making chandrasekharan my family name for ever. It is long enough to confer it the seriousness of a last name (am not sure if ramesh can or will have the same effect). And it has enough alphabets in it to ensure that any kid I have will win the spelling bee before spelling their own last name right.

In the case of the Danes, it screwed up their naming as most kids in the 1820s had names Jensen, Hansen or Rasmussen with the curious byproduct that many successive heads of state totally unrelated to each other have had the same last name. Makes it easy for President Bush to remember the Danish head of state.

In my case, it will prevent any kids I might have from having to explain at age 6 to any dumbass teacher/government clerk/culturally insensitive moron that they do have a father (and know him) but they won't fill the "father's name" as that name is the same as the last name.My father never used a last name. He used his first name alone with a initial J for Jayaraman. I was to do the same. But I was bullied by a nice old Catholic teacher (she was the nicest teacher I had in all other respects) to fill something in my "last name". So at age 6, I did cave in and it has caused me the misery of never having papers credited to my name but to R. Chandrasekharan. So i have decided to end the chain of misery. The only thing i transfer down to future generations is the last name and my Y chromosome.

as if i needed this

check this out
Penguin classics

initially they had a mailing fee of 3.99 USD. they realised the meaninglessness of it and its now free (-:

rain rain

its going to pour here for sometime. thanks dennis.

rain rain come again
i dont have to wash the damn car again

the onion

here is an article from the Jan 18 2001 issue of the Onion. (satirical newspaper). Read on and you shall be amazed (-:

WASHINGTON, DC—Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

Bush swore to do "everything in [his] power" to undo the damage wrought by Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.

During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

"You better believe we're going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration," said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in military spending. "Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having a military?"

On the economic side, Bush vowed to bring back economic stagnationby implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession, which would necessitate a tax hike, which would lead to a drop in consumer spending, which would lead to layoffs, which would deepen the recession even further.

Wall Street responded strongly to the Bush speech, with the Dow Jones industrial fluctuating wildly before closing at an 18-month low. The NASDAQ composite index, rattled by a gloomy outlook for tech stocks in 2001, also fell sharply, losing 4.4 percent of its total value between 3 p.m. and the closing bell.

Asked for comment about the cooling technology sector, Bush said: "That's hardly my area of expertise."

Turning to the subject of the environment, Bush said he will do whatever it takes to undo the tremendous damage not done by the Clinton Administration to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He assured citizens that he will follow through on his campaign promise to open the 1.5 million acre refuge's coastal plain to oil drilling. As a sign of his commitment to bringing about a change in the environment, he pointed to his choice of Gale Norton for Secretary of the Interior. Norton, Bush noted, has "extensive experience" fighting environmental causes, working as a lobbyist for lead-paint manufacturers and as an attorney for loggers and miners, in addition to suing the EPA to overturn clean-air standards.

Bush had equally high praise for Attorney General nominee John Ashcroft, whom he praised as "a tireless champion in the battle to protect a woman's right to give birth."

"Soon, with John Ashcroft's help, we will move out of the Dark Ages and into a more enlightened time when a woman will be free to think long and hard before trying to fight her way past throngs of protesters blocking her entrance to an abortion clinic," Bush said. "We as a nation can look forward to lots and lots of babies."

Continued Bush: "John Ashcroft will be invaluable in healing the terrible wedge President Clinton drove between church and state."

The speech was met with overwhelming approval from Republican leaders.

"Finally, the horrific misrule of the Democrats has been brought to a close," House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert (R-IL) told reporters. "Under Bush, we can all look forward to military aggression, deregulation of dangerous, greedy industries, and the defunding of vital domestic social-service programs upon which millions depend. Mercifully, we can now say goodbye to the awful nightmare that was Clinton's America."

"For years, I tirelessly preached the message that Clinton must be stopped," conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh said. "And yet, in 1996, the American public failed to heed my urgent warnings, re-electing Clinton despite the fact that the nation was prosperous and at peace under his regime. But now, thank God, that's all done with. Once again, we will enjoy mounting debt, jingoism, nuclear paranoia, mass deficit, and a massive military build-up."

An overwhelming 49.9 percent of Americans responded enthusiastically to the Bush speech.

"After eight years of relatively sane fiscal policy under the Democrats, we have reached a point where, just a few weeks ago, President Clinton said that the national debt could be paid off by as early as 2012," Rahway, NJ, machinist and father of three Bud Crandall said. "That's not the kind of world I want my children to grow up in."

"You have no idea what it's like to be black and enfranchised," said Marlon Hastings, one of thousands of Miami-Dade County residents whose votes were not counted in the 2000 presidential election. "George W. Bush understands the pain of enfranchisement, and ever since Election Day, he has fought tirelessly to make sure it never happens to my people again."

Bush concluded his speech on a note of healing and redemption.

"We as a people must stand united, banding together to tear this nation in two," Bush said. "Much work lies ahead of us: The gap between the rich and the poor may be wide, be there's much more widening left to do. We must squander our nation's hard-won budget surplus on tax breaks for the wealthiest 15 percent. And, on the foreign front, we must find an enemy and defeat it."

"The insanity is over," Bush said. "After a long, dark night of peace and stability, the sun is finally rising again over America. We look forward to a bright new dawn not seen since the glory days of my dad."

watch this space

I started a new hobby. taking pics. not ordinary digital snaps, but pics with filters attached to the camera.
I start off with an IR filter. This hoya R-72 filter cuts out light below 700nm. Thus the pic is majorly due to near IR reflecting off various objects. Note that this is not the same as thermal imaging. Digital camera CCDs are nowhere near that sensitive. The effect is eerie with green foliage appearing as an almost fluorescent white while other objects appearing in various shades of darkness. The awesome thing is that the air around us does not absorb much in the IR, so these snaps appear clearer than ordinary pics. Anyways...here goes

 IR pics

that sinking feeling

i rarely watch the news in the morning. i should have stuck to that pattern today. but my roommate whose sister lives in the UK was glued to the tv set. got that same sinking feeling of watching a trainwreck unfold in front of your eyes. sorry london.