Michael Jackson – An ode to a Maverick

MJ as he was fondly called is a true reminiscence of my childhood. As I grew up in the early 80’s and 90’s, the only thought of western music would always be MJ, the album thriller or his poster with BAD written on it. Be it for my generation or the previous or the one immediately after me, he was next to god (Not taking it away from the other generations). He revolutionised music from the western world. We had no Google to understand the different genres of music or torrent to download. We never grew up with trance, lounge or remixes. All said POP was the in thing and we were often reprimanded verbally from the elder members of the family for listening to them, as they were bad western influences. (Today majority of the things we do, wear or talk is western. For e.g. you are reading a blog, my blog, A blog is a western idea, the internet is a western technology, I can go on …)

Un-till the mid 90’s, till MTV came in through cable television, atleast I had no clue of what was POP, Metal, Heavy Metal was or even the other bands, singers, musician etc. MJ was my king of that world called English music. English music meant the music from the movie the ‘The Sound of Music’. No exposure at all till the King arrived. I still remember trying my best to save 30 rupees to by the BAD album. It was an era where you had to listen to MJ to be socially – the happening kid. Listening to Illayaraja or RD Burman, you were termed too Indian and not acclimatising to the western culture and you would be left out – peer pressure.

Who can forget the man who created break dance for us, I can call him “the father of Break Dance” as I saw him first doing those inordinate dance steps. Can you forget the man who caught his crotch, so often, publically, that you would be embarrassed to the hilt and that’s not all, would then shriek his lungs out holding on to them as if he was committing hara-kiri. Man!!!, he created a cult – don’t know what, but a culture that changed the world. Can we forget him doing his famous moonwalk – the smooth movement of his body backwards that stunned viewers globally and we were all in awe of something stupendous. Men and women would cry out loud at every instance of spotting him, he was god to him.

Haven’t the world copied many a dance step from him. The Indians too did it and we did not miss even this opportunity to copy and wasn’t an era where we had to copy the western side of this globe to most of what we wanted to do in life. Don’t we remember Javed Jaffrey, Anand Babu (The Tamil movie dancer, son of actor Nagesh who had returned from the USA and created ripples with his dance) and the so called ‘The dancer of Indian Cinema’ Prabhu Deva – who was slated as India’s answer to MJ and break dance. WOW what nostalgia this man’s demise has brought forth to me – my childhood.

Am not going to write the negatives or the so called scandals, because we have read this in the past and will read it again and again in the present and the future. But we got to give this man the due respect of being a genius, a maverick and creator of a genre of music and dance that is distinct to MJ, that the world revelled on it and will never let it die.

He ‘thrill(er)’ed us with his music, he ‘beat it’, he wanted the to ‘heal the world’, wanted the ‘Bad’ and ‘Dangerous’ things to end, no ‘blood anywhere not even on the Dance floor’. He did not want any ‘Smooth Criminal’ or even a ‘Stranger in Moscow’ and all he wanted was one world – ‘We are the World’.He and his music and his life will be penned in ‘Black and White’ into the books of ‘History’. Let his soul Rest in Peace. We will miss you MJ and we will “Remember the time”.

Kerala – Gods Own Country, could be true.

This blog is an attempt to link Kerala to the Dasavatharam (The ten incarnations of Maha Vishnu and not Kamal Hassan’s movie). This is not to comment on the experience am having or what Kerala truly is.

I was reading about the Dasavatharam on the net and found some literature which got me really inquisitive and hence want to share the same.(assuming what was written in the article and what am going to spell out from the article is accurate)

To begin lets look at the avatar – Parashurama – Parashurama is the sixth avatar of Vishnu and a son of Jamadagni. He received an axe after doing penance for Shiva. We know that Parasurama killed the entire clan of Kaartaveerya-arjuna, when the king initially wanted the divine cow from Jamadagni and on refusal a coup was tried to get the cow and Parashurama kills the king and the army. On which the prince kills Jamadagni and in return Parashurama ends the clan. According to one legend, the story goes on that Parashurama was struck by remorse at his wanton killings, and offered penance on a mountain top. The sea god Varuna responded, and offered him land equal to the distance he could throw his axe. Parasurama threw his axe from Gokarnam and it fell at Kanyakumari. As promised the sea gave way to land, thus giving rise to Kerala. Interesting isn’t it and is that why the state is referred to as Gods Own Country ?

Let’s now go back to the previous Avatar – Vamana – Vamana is the Fifth Avatar of Vishnu, a dwarf Brahmin. He is also known as Upendra. He defeats the Devas' (Gods') enemy Maha Bali Chakravarthi (of the demon race) into giving up all of the heavens and earth. We also know that the third step he takes from the granted wish Vamana gets, he places his feet over the head of the king thus defeating him. Vamana then took on the form of Mahavishnu. He was pleased by King Bali's determination and ability to keep his promise in the face of his spiritual master's curse and the prospect of losing all his wealth. Vishnu named the King Mahabali since he was a Mahatma (great soul). He allowed Mahabali to return to the spiritual sky to associate with Prahalada (the demoniac Hiranyashipu's pious son, also a descendant of the demon race) and other divine beings. Mahavishnu also declared that Mahabali would be able to rule the universe in the following yuga (age).

According to one legend, Bali is supposed to return every year to the land of his people, to ensure that they are prosperous. This is celebrated as the Onam festival in Kerala, where he is also called Maveli. – Wow, isn’t it – is this why the state is called Gods Own Country ?

If we reflect on this literature and believe it be accurate, then a sense of déjà vu really beckons to look at

'Kerala being Gods Own Country'.

LALGARH – Is the Indian Government a LULL GHAR

Maoists :The basic tenets of Maoism include revolutionary struggle of the vast majority of people against the exploiting classes and their state structures, termed a people war Usually involving peasants, its military strategies have involved guerrilla war tactics focused on surrounding the cities from the countryside, with a heavy emphasis on political transformation through the mass involvement of the basic people of the society.

Does this definition from the web a good enough start to identify how the Indian Government present and past have dealt with the various security issues in the country and across different states. The Indian government made up of the two houses is certainly a Lull Ghar in my opinion and in my limited knowledge have seen no pro-active measures rather only reactive actions.

Why is the government waiting for major events to take place before it acts, its always lull and waits for the storm. Be it the Maoists in Bengal, Jharkhand and other states or the Naxals in AP and nearby states. The catastrophe of the 26/11, the un-equipped Mumbai Police, who had ammunition which is not only outdated but worth placing them as artifacts in any India museum. A real shame for a country who boasts as a hub for international IT and research areas, boast of 90% of the urban youth available to take world projects, but sit like a duck waiting to be hunted when it comes to security.

Also, security regulations imposed are not consistent across the country and anyone can infiltrate the system. Pick a few airports across India apart from the major hubs and you can get away with all the rules broken. Even in the major hubs the rules for men and women are different. Women can carry deodorants and liquid in their handbag but men can’t carry any in their cabin bag though the rule does not permit anyone from carrying it, though internationally, the permissible limit is 100 ml per passenger, subject to scanning of the liquids or the gels. We want to try and use the international rule which is great, but where is the consistency. On international flights, passengers especially in the western countries are allowed to carry one cigarette lighter, whilst in India it banned, but you can get away thanks to fantastic frisking the security guards do. My last trip to the Trivandrum airport to board an international flight, I saw passengers with match boxes lighting their energy stick after the security check – amazing.

A few days back, there was an article stating the improved facilities available to the Mumbai police, like bullet proof vehicles etc., but for god’s sake where are those multi functional, state of the art ammunition. Every infiltrator who wants to cause damage has ammunition generations ahead of our police force. The government is absolutely lull about it. We budget crores of rupees for the defense, where is it spent and on what is it spent – damn it’s my tax also which goes into that budget.

I can keep penning stories upon stories on how the government is so reactive than being an action oriented responsive state unit. The government is certainly a LULL GHAR.

Cricket : Is it about the game or about the INDIAN Cricket Team

Pakistan have won the T20 Cricket World Cup. Great for a country struggling to cope up with a sport overturned because of terrorism. Who can forget the shooting of the Sri Lankan cricket team a few months back. Younis Khan in his post match interview requested nations to come to Pakistan again to play cricket, to give a chance for the youth in his country to get to the game instead of guns. A chance for the youth to play T20 instead of terrorism. Valid request isn’t it.

But this blog isn’t about Pakistan, but about the Indian Media. I woke up this morning and picked up the newspaper and did not find Pakistan’s victory mentioned in any form of glory that is associated with the sport called cricket (a religion of sorts in our country). There are newspapers sporting bigger pictures of Saina Nehwal than the victorious team photo of the Pakistan Cricket Team. Saina Newhal – who?, she is the latest badminton sensation in India and has won her first big tournament.

Let’s assume the Indian team had won the cup last night, wouldn’t have every newspaper, magazine, TV Channel and Websites run riot splashing photographs, articles, interviews etc. Guaranteed they would have had the front pages covered with the victory story. So why don’t we do it when another country wins it – isn’t about the sport and not about a country. Yes, I know we are in India and it’s about the national team, but the way we show double standards towards the sport vs. other countries in the sport is a clear demarcation. The IPL winners had more first page coverage, for sure the Deccan Chronicle did as it was their team.

You can argue with me stating that “The HINDU” did not carry Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination in its front page, but at that time, the paper used to carry classifieds on its front page. So the question is, is India a cricket frenzy nation or is India an Indian Cricket team frenzy nation – your judgement is as good as mine.

The Indian media has been on the forefront of a lot of irresponsibility. The 26/11 attacks were beamed live giving access to the terrorists hold up inside the hotel and building with their colleagues on the other side of the border. The focus to run programs minute on minute, even if its useless like the Shiney Ahuja case and we can write pages of lack of good stories. Is the India media getting stuck to competition rather than looking for a story that would get them the viewership – isn’t about editorial ship or is it about economics?. I don’t wont to beat the India media out, for, they certainly are in the top, if not the best, among the worlds best.

We know that country’s inviting India to play in their home country get more crowd coming in to watch cricket than their home country playing with another country, barring a few rivalries. So again isn’t about the Indian cricket team then. We certainly know the muscle power of the BCCI and how they leverage the same in the cricketing fraternity. Can’t we envisage the IPL and how there twisting the arms of the ICC to include the same in the future tours program.

So the question is – is it cricket, the Indian Cricket team or the latest sensational news which sells. We are diluting the spirit of the sport, which certainly is the bastion of all sports in India and cricket in India has far more reach than the BJP’s poll manifesto.

Weekend with my In-laws

As mentioned in my last blog, Rekha and I along with my in-laws and sis-in-law, visited a few places last weekend and was great fun and introspection.

Friday was when they arrived and I returned from work early and we headed to the Sankhamukha beach, a few Kms from my house, a beach within the city. We had fun in the water for nearly an hour. The thing that hit me there was, how much of the each had really eroded, don’t know, whether it is because of the rains and monsoon, or whether thanks to global warming the water level have risen. I clearly remember when I arrived in Trivandrum a good nine months back, we had to walk atleast 50 feet from the road to enter the water and now it’s down to about 20 feet. I also recollect that, the road near the beach was being re-constructed in September, end of the monsoon season due to the effects of the water. Will wait and watch for the reason. The hypothesis doing the rounds is that, there is a mermaid built of stone, which is about a 100 feet away from where the beach begins and it is attracting the water from the sea. Old times say the mermaid was closer to the beach, than where it is now and water had encroached near the mermaid.

Saturday, we left late in the morning, thanks to watching the India T20 game till late the previous night – and we lost as history would remind us. We headed out for Madurai type lunch and then to theTrivandrum zoo. WOW, it was a great experience. I really cant recollect the last time I went to a zoo, may be school, but really do not have an experience of a zoo in my brain. What stood out for me in the Zoo was, the big cats – the Lions, the Tigers and the Leopards. Fantastic is word I would under use to describe the experience. The roar of the tiger sends shiver down your spine, though it is caged the feel of the roar 5 feet away – cant explain, brilliant. The Tiger’s – phew!!!. Great animal, huge, atleast 8 to 9 feet, easily 300 Kgs, amazing.

Only a week ago I had read in an article in the Times of India – ‘The Speaking Tree’ (a daily routine for me to read the article online – great insights), a theory which defies Charles Darwin’s theory that we evolved from apes. Rather the articles talks about how human beings evolved from the souls of animals, like Apes, Lions, Elephants’ etc. And this is profoundly supported by modern psychoanalysis, particularly Carl Gustav Jung's school, because in the collective unconscious of man there are memories that belong to 'animalhood'.

If man is taken deep into hypnosis, first he enters the unconscious mind, which is just the repressed part of this life. If he is hypnotised even more deeply, then he enters into the collective unconscious, which has memories of being animals. People start screaming - in that stage they cannot speak a language. They start moaning or crying, but language is impossible; they can shout, but in an animal way. And in the collective unconscious state, if they are allowed to move or they are told to move, they move on all fours - they don't stand up. Truly revealing thoughts.

Sunday, we visited Neyyar dam, a 35 Km drive south east ofTrivandrum. We reached there to find, we had some good options to spend half a day, though initially I was told by my peers, that there existed nothing. We had an option for a boat ride for a hour and a half, which included a Lion Safari, a visit to the deer parkand a crocodile farm and all for a 140 bucks a head – worth it. We had to wait for more than a hour, as the next boat was available post lunch at 2 p.m., so we decided to have our lunch too and found a dingy restaurant run by KTDC – My suggestion, time your trip appropriately to avoid the restaurant.

The time arrived for us to board the boat and I was really jeered up to have a look at the Lions. I was told there were 2 Lions and 5 Lioness in the safari. We crossed the catchment areas and found a bus waiting for us for the safari. All of us literally ran to the bus to catch the window seats – vantage point you see, as there were others along in the safari. As we entered the park, it was reminiscent of Jurassic park the Movie – a shutter opening to allow the vehicle into the park, high fences, rules written on a board along with the literature about the park, the animals and their feed and of course a pole, where they would tie a goat for the lions to consume.

We drove a few feet and we caught a glimpse of a lion and lioness lazing away near a fence, but we could not a clear picture of them. We need drove up into the park and real feel began – a lioness sitting on a rock, 7 feet away from the bus. WOW – man it was a great experience. All it needed was one pounce and it would reached the bus, but she sat unassumingly in her environment and we clicked a few photos and proceeded. For the next few minutes we were still allowing our eyes to prey around and my heart to relax and allow the experience to settle – a free lioness 7 feet away.

We did not find any more and drove back to the first spot and by now the pair of animals we spotted initially had moved to better place for us to view them. The Lion is truly the king of the jungle, what a sight, what an animal. Trust me when he roars, the roar can be hear a few kilometres on the other side of the embankment.

We then proceeded to the deer park and crocodile farm, which was not even close to the experience of watching the lions. We headed back to Trivandrum and visited the Veli’s tourist village, where we had some snacks, caffeine certainly was the need of the hours, felt the back water and headed home.

A great experience being with the lions, especially when introspected, with the hypothesis that we could have evolved from their soul.

The Month that went By

True to the promise I made myself to Blog everyday and to carry on the Integrity conversation from my last post, am trying to capture the time that went past from ur return from Munnar to the beginning of June.

The week after we returned, it was like a hangover of the good times we had in the trip and loneliness was catching up for Rekha, simply being alone at home during the day and not doing much. We then actioned to get her parents to Trivandrum as planned earlier and her mom and brother arrived in early May. Her brother was with us for a few days and had to return to look at options for his college. The time whisked past us and she enjoyed the company of her mom, good Karnataka food and some company. Guess this is the longest period she has spent with her mom in a few years now. We visited the Padmnabha temple and local beaches for some time of home.

The majority of my time was got occupied watching the idiot box – the IPL. I miss it now for sure. The tournament itself is a great idea and the quality of cricket went up. To add onto the cricket, the season of the English Premier League and Champions league were coming to close along with the tennis as well. In a nut shell – reflecting – probably wasted some quality time, but then one of my core interests is international sort for qualms of the same.

I enjoyed my mom-in-law being here as well, again thanks to some good food and of course upskilling my Kannada. Also that Rekha was kept engaged, took a lot of my shoulders, with respect to keeping her interested in something of her choice. It’s a phase of her life where she has nothing on her table due to some strategic decisions we are working on. As of mine, its an added responsibility to ensure she does not get bored and lose her professional skills.

Work does not take any of my energy as all is fine and smooth. Hoping we get more projects from a strategic and learning perspective. I have begun to read again and pulled out some unread books from my collection, bought a long time ago which were dusting away. I tried to dabble with the stock market and as novice I can be, lost a few bucks on day trading and sold my portfolio days before the election results, only to find they had tripled the week after. Bad luck or lack knowledge you can term it any way. On the topic of luck, I heard a great explanation of the term LUCK – ‘ the appropriate preparation syncing with an opportunity’. Simple isn’t it, you do all the preparation you to wait for the opportunity to come and for others, they feel your lucky – WOW.

As the first week of June appeared, I had my father-in-law and sis-in-law drop in for 3 days and they would then return along with my mom-in-law. The three days were good as we visited a few places (read in my next blog), had loads of fun and enjoyed their company.

That was the month that went by .....

Munnar and Thekkady the final Part

I know this blog has been a long time coming. As usual as normal and silly human being’s the excuse is lack of time. No, Actually its laziness. But as the old saying goes, ‘finish FULLY, what you began’ encourages and inspires me to write this blog. Also the fact that I promised to write as a series and not completing it is ‘Total Out Integrity’. If you were thinking, Integrity – All bullshit, trust me, Integrity is the soul of our life. Integrity is simple – ‘saying you would do something and doing it in the said time’. Easy isn’t it ?, but takes a hell a lot of effort to stick to everything you say. Being in Integrity alters your life and you would read the same in my next log on the effect of not being in Integrity.

So let me recollect the last leg of my road trip. We woke up early and head towards munnar from our resort, a twenty odd KMS drive to the hill station where we had to meet up our Chennai family friends. An incident on the way took some time of the drive and the serenity surrounding us. I had a minor accident on the way and in the steep winding ghats, I would say it is a possibility that things like this might happen. Probably it was my error of judgement on a curve or the other vehicle did not hear my honking. Whatever, it led to a negotiation situation on who was right and wrong and in a situation where the other vehicle had more a dozen boys and me with Rekha, I was the weak link. We negotiated on the amount I had to pay and headed to munnar.

We started of to a dam and ended up going to a speed boating centre. I was really scared at the method in which the boats were being driven, really mad stuff. Probably the wilder the group or more the noise, the more the rash the driver was. Anyway’s we waited for an hour for our turn and the ride was awesome. I had to shrug of my fear of water and the rashness of the driver. It truly was an exhilarating experience.

By now the accident was a thing of the distant past. Life just has a way to level things out – isn’t it.

We then went to have the famous Munnar Masala Chai – what a taste, I had two at a go. Then we drove to what would have been a wildlife sanctuary, but decided halfway to return, as the roads were acute and really bad and we were a few hours away from dusk and we had to return to the resort as well. On the way back we visited another dam, finished the basic duties and snapped a few photographs to help your memory re-capitulate them in the future and of course say – those days were great. (Actually hope that does not happen, as I love to live everyday as the best there is, though the memories will linger, am sure 20 years later life would be the best and I would not be left dwelling on the past).Also we had a great laugh with the english spelling's used -- brilliant Hinglish or total Desi style.

We shopped for few things in Munnar and returned to the resort. Chatted up, played cards, had dinner and hit the sack. The next day woke up had breakfast and decided to hit Trivandrum in one go – close to 500 Kms. Our first destination was Madurai, a 140 Km drive through the Ghats – the roads were fabulous and kudos to the Tamilnadu government for fantastic roads they have created. I had no strain driving through the Ghats, where as the drive from thekkady to Munnar was horrendous, the same I mentioned in my last post. Had proper Madurai sappadu – Madurai is the hub for great Tamil food and we headed towards Tirunelveli. Of course we did not stop to buy any halwa but refuelled the car and called nature and headed towards Nagercoil and through to Trivandrum. We reached safe, close to midnight and made some quick dinner and hit the bed. I was nearly exhausted, driving a straight 500 KMS. I have to mention this again, thanks to the Tamilnadu government, the roads from Madurai to Nagercoil were fabulous, 4 lane throughout and you would not feel the strain of making the distance, as you just need to push the pedal down. At times I was clocking a 140 KMPH on my poor alto, which withstood the journey. I thank my car, God, Time and my Wife for making this trip a memorable one.

Adios to Munnar and Thekkady.