finally I have my own landline!!! whew... an MTNL line.... for long I have desired to have my own landline number... but with my constant moving around from houses to houses and from cities to cities i never managed to get a landline in my name.... and I am super excited about it..... so excited that someone commented that I am behaving as if I am in the 80s when getting a phone connection was a rare occurence..... welll for me it is a rare occurence... getting a phone line signifies that now I have a bill which is in my name... not in the name of the landlord....

I really feel bad for the BJP.... they have seriously dented whatever hope one had to an alternative to the Congres.... which I think is necessary in a democracy... from a party that was 1998 "shining" bright in 1990s to a party that is fighting the twilight decending on it, BJP cuts a sorry figure...

the latest exercise of stalling Parliament is the latest in their shenanigans to get attention.... I find it really sad that with such bright people in their midst, they have chosen such a destructive stand.... what is the purpose of asking for resignation of the PM and then allowing a debate? It seems like they have asked for something stupid and now cant back off....its very very telling..... of their lack of strategy....

In all this I really have some sympathy for Manmohan Singh.. say what you will, I believe in the guy... and believe that he is one person who has transformed India for you and me....  to say that we could have done without manmohan Singh is like saying that we could have done teh freedom struggle without Gandhi....

The simple fact is that I have moved into my house with nothing more than the bare essentials... by that I mean bed, cupboard, kitchen stuff... I didnt have the mind space to design and set up my house even though I always dreamt of doing that all my life.... now I am confused.... everywhere I see the modern version of houses... you know with the chic sofas, machine cut shelves, beds that are "ohh so hotel" like... and I honestly get a bit turned off by that ... I mean it would be wonderful to stay in such a home for about 3 days... and after that you probably will get confused over when to check out.... in my mind a home is meant to be with flaws... yes the furniture will all not match,, the curtains will not be spectacular... and most importantly it will have all the scars from a well lived house..... I have no idea why I feel that way.... but my home back in Kerala is exactly that way... it is very flawed.. and I like perhaps feeling that everything in life is not washed with dettol.... I dont know whether I am making myself clear....

so when I see people converting their homes into some sort of assembly line production I find it unappealing... I want to have a home... where mistakes are bound to happen... and life will revolve around it ...

ok with all this rambling one would think that there is some prospect of me getting down to decorating my house... the fact is I am not even close to doing anything....

The next frontier in technology development is not Iphone 5 or 6... it is a cupboard that can clean itself, fold the clothes and also hangs up the relevant clothes on the hangers.....

We need a new Steve Jobs...

Ahh... finally I have moved bag and baggage into my new home.... not really a home as yet but slowly building it up my way... as of now it has the basic necessitities... for now I am stretched out .... juggling work and shifting is just not easy...

Having your own home perhaps make it more special than any other move i have made... its finally your own place... your own creation... and nobody has the right to evict you from teh house (barring the bank) and you dont have to worry too much about shifting from this place after another 2 years.... its permanent... and this is where you would be building your home from now on....

do I feel relaxed? NOT at all... I still have so many things to do ... so many things to buy... so many things to get started.... and no time to do it... my mom tells me I need to take a few days off from work to do all this... and I keep telling her - i just dont have that luxury at all at the moment... if it was a different time and different circumstance I would have been able to take off... but not now ... not right now....

I am exhausted and tired... I desperately need R&R... and yet I dont get the time or space to do it...... Running from one place to another, from one engagement to another, one challenge to another..... I sure hope I can rest peacefully at the end of all this......

What a shameful end to a movement that held a lot of promise... the world watched as a Gandhian straddled the nation cutting across religion, caste and politics on one common yet simple platform of anti-corruption drive.... if there was any lingering doubt of a united India it ended with the show of support that came in for this self sacrificing obviously patriotic man from across India... Kashmir to Kanykumari everybody supported him... everybody went crazy about "Anna" and proudly sported "I am Anna" caps... not a mean feet... just when we thought there was no end to the scams that this country could produce we got a hero in the nick of time....

I myself supported the old man... and thanked God that I was an Indian... that we had consistently challenged authority in a peaceful manner... I was also an ardent supporter of the Government... I didnt believe that politicians were all bad... I trusted democracy... and to the extent the Government relented in having a 10 member panel to discuss the lokpal bill I was satisfied... the Government had been brought down to its knees and that was enough for me... I didnt want anything else... not to topple it not to bring another party in power... just getting the government to respond...

then I saw the movement trip over its own importance... they overstayed their welcome.. .people were happy to achieve a compromise... and then go back home to their lives... nobody wanted a displacement of Government... Team Anna forgot their own humble origins.. and presumed knowledge for you and me... and declared famously on TV that Anna is above Parliament... Oh come on... and combined with the constant "we are just friends" dialogue when it came to BJP when it was obvious that they were sleeping with each other (at least the parent RSS was)... Neutrality was thrown out of the window.... and you had a movement that was slowly inching towards "annhilate COngress" mode... I stepped back... I didnt want a BJP Government... I wanted this Government -only better ..... and then the final nail on the coffin was the campaign against the Congress in the various states.... shamelessly BJP tried to gain mileage out of it and gave away the elections to the smaller parties...

and now the announcement that they would join politics and form a party ..... With Kejriwal demanding that we should topple the Government.... If there was any doubt about how immature this movment was this was it... no sagacity... no compromise... no understanding... far from the mentor Gandhi they used to keep invoking before every fast.....

I am happy for the circus to end..... happy also that they have a political outlet... I fear people like Kejriwal who believe they know best.... it will be a case of Mamta Didi in Bengal - where any opposition to her is branded as communist agenda... Kejriwal will be like one of those people who will shout "you Congress" everytime anybody questions him.....

Ramadan

Ramadan was always a significant festival growing up - in Oman we had the whole society become different when the ramadan descended on us... we could not eat outside, my father had no water to drink in the hospital, we were always careful not to appear to enjoy lives.... and our schools also closed before time....in India I did not have any such exposure to this festival - not to a significant extent at least...

so it was after a long time that I ventured out to discover this muslim festival (not sure whther it is infact a festival).... and came away delighted... Mohammed Ali Road was always a far away destination which I had always heard of as bustling with activity during ramadan... I always wanted to go but didnt have the guts to... or the company.. nobody wanted to venture out to that part of the world... would it be safe? will there be women? will I be molested? I went with all these apprehensions ... and came away feeling gleeful at having discovered a little more about my city... that it is one of the most vibrant cities in the world... I mean this is the city where a christian woman could walk down the street at 12 in the night taking photos!!! and people were only too happy to oblige... with many of them asking me why I was not eating properly!!

my walk down Moh Ali Road can be summed up in 4 words - food, food, food, food.... it was all about eating ... ... the colourful jalebis, kababs, bread, soup, briyani.... I walked down feeling odd that I was not munching something... and women were combing the area like no other .... they were shopping for sandals whils straddling their 2 years old on their hips... and walking merrily around with no apparent fear.... I also got a glimse of bollywood when Imran Khan came to break his fast... there was a small chaos... and i managed to capture his face...

This is what I love about Mumbai.. even in the muck and dirt there is some magic....