Ek cup chai ho jaye

Tea has always come about as a respite from having completed a hard piece of work, coming back from a long day, warm up on a cold day, getting the thinking hat in shape, polishing down a satisfying meal or just to sit and share a chat.

There will be hard work ahead, problems to solve and conversations to have. But there is always a cup of tea to get one along.

And like most good things, this one also comes in many avatars, my favorites being -

The hot Indian sweet milky chai- with seasonings of choice 1)Ginger 2)Cardamom 3)Cloves 4) Fennel seeds or a 4)Poupourri masala for a masala chai. Never mind that the flavour of tea is subdued a bit, its almost a delicious thing to have. Indeed when I first picked up having tea in late teens it was almost for the taste than the caffeine need that I enjoyed it.

The Indian chaiwallah (or wallih) tea stall tea - Streetside tea made on a roaring kerosene stove. Milk, tea, water all go in together nearly at the same time. The tea leaves are recycled a good few times, all to a mellowed, but charming effect.

You are never far from a chaiwallah stall in India. Setup infrastructure is small so that helps. The flavour varies from being gingery or spicy in North India to almost chocolate flavoured in the South. Either way it serves the purpose.

With 'chai' milk is about 30-50% of the cup and usually whole milk. It does cut down the 'tea' quotient a bit but goes great with the accompaniment of crisp Indian breads and buns to dip in. Over time you just get used to it and start enjoying it 'milky'.

No wonder coming out of India, most Indians struggle with the thumb sized 'semi-skimmed milks' in the office cafes. They just do not add up to simulate the 'chai'.

Put-the-kettle-on-tea - These days its more of the basic kettle tea version. Boil, pour, sugar and milk and go. Give a little more time I use a secondary kettle for richer flavour and pre-heated milk.

Indeed the popularity of tea must owe to the ability to brew a cup of tea as quickly as one can. However there is apparently a connoisseur art to it as well starting from how tea is infused by type of flavour, to how it is served and the rituals around it - as this site shows. No wonder a connoisseurs with the commercial savvy at one end and with the pockets at the other end make up a market for tea products like these here!

'Brewing' method apart, is the subject of flavours. That is a major subject by itself and the variety out there is enough for most to get to try. Notwithstanding the frequency I find it hard to sacrifice my preferred 2-3 black tea variants for the occasional exotic green tea or fruit infusion variants.

What matters is enjoying what you drink. In any of the above forms, and at most times tea is always a welcome companion. So in gratitude to all those hard working tea pluckers, streetside vendors and the tea-shops here is a toast!

Are our children better off than us?

Or in another way, is the world around our children better than the one we had?

I started to examine the question from a material perspective comparing elements of technology and infrastructure. But as I continued doing that comparing my childhood version with the modern day equivalents I realised it did not matter.

When my Dad occasionally would tell me that his pocket money was 2 annas (decimal of a pence) at the point of handing my weekly twenty rupees (30 pence) pocket money, I did not see his point. How could he compare his time 30 years ago with mine. Maybe to amuse himself but it did not matter to me.

So the case with my kids today. If I tell them that our first phone in the house came when I about 10 years old, it may register a flicker of a bemused expression before they resume Dino Pro on the smartphone, but no more. They have not seen a world without mobiles or even smartphones for that matter. All other comparisons are more or less in the same vein.

Giving up that thread of thought, I took a different one. OK, so all things kept aside, good school, great teachers, extra curricular (may be more of), sensible infrastructure to get around and about - we were even.
It does not bother me that I did not have any of this technology/infrastructure around at the time there is now.    Perhaps I could even be smug about the relative freedom from 'health and safety' and 'traffic control' regimes that have come about since .

What mattered to me then? Reflecting deeper, just 3 things really - one, coming back from school to a warm, happy home,  two, memorable family holidays, and three company of good friends.

Yes, that is all that mattered. And I managed to have all of that that without any of the modern day gadgets and aeroplanes. So by extension, given the same denominator of a happy home, family holidays and good friends, perhaps my children are still only about as well off as I was. Fancier toys and gadgets now does not really give them any edge over their Dad-as-a-child. It just seems to require some many more skills with them to keep up with the world now, when in my time it was simpler.

Of course, as parents we can keep getting better at it, from the things we wanted to fix as kids using the position of authority we have now well. But long story short, our kids world is smaller than it might seem, and there is enough we can do as parents to make it as good as we can, regardless of the level of material wealth at our disposal.

Why do I write?

Looking back on my blog of 8 years or more, I wonder what is the point. Or does it matter?

I started blogging as an experiment, and have maintained the frequency more or less as an experiment. Of putting out random ideas and thoughts out there.

Was it in the hope it will at some point, now or future connect with someone? Occasionally it does, but no, that's not why I write.
Even much of my family is not aware I write.

Maybe it is vent to free some of my, perhaps diminished creative energy that otherwise randomly fluctuates between a watercolor, bit of gardening and then an occasional blog post. There must be some point that I keeping coming back to it every now and then.

I was on a flight back from Delhi to London, where I met this well learned gentleman who was travelling to his son's award ceremony in Canada. Conversation followed on a range of subjects including politics in India, Indian history, methods of agricultural irrigation and the likes. Among the key takeaways from his experience he shared with me was that the more one wields the pen, the more influence one attains. I couldn't disagree, pursued as a wholehearted goal and with the right techniques, that is possible.

But I am not sure that could serve me as a motivation for my writing. But several months later and this Sunday afternoon I stumbled along a post by Cristian Mihai about why people write. It resonated with the generally truant, random writer within more than any reason I could find to write.

He writes well and is obviously eminent as well as his blog following shows. But in that post he summarizes to the effect that he writes because his words matter to him, and if they do to someone else that's just a bonus.

Or in a different way if our work matters to us, that is satisfaction in itself. If others find it of interest that is just a bonus. Indeed that is a much better reason to keep coming back to it.

Indian cinema coming of age

It  might sound like a cliche now, but a firm one at that one might add. Indian cinema is getting better by the year. The days of old hero-villain masala and one taste for all, are well changing closer to the more complex modern realities. New, relatively unknown faces turning up convincing performances and story-lines that keep one guessing.

Five back to back movies that I saw have reinforced that,
First, Table Number 21 - A gripping drama played about an young, familiar-as-next-door aspirational couple being led into a trap of a reality game for a very meaningful end. Who was the bad guy? It fluctuated and in the end it was a social malaise more than any individual. Fantastic movie.
Second, Special 26 - based on a real life drama and enacted to near perfection by the cast and the crew. Suspense that could not be guessed using any of the old formulas.
Third, The attacks of 26/11 - RGVs adaptation of the trauma that India withstood on 26.11.2008. Very realistically made and tense, painful to watch in the recurrence of events that was created. It was hard watching from beginning to end, but it played out the facts and serves as a chronicle for India to visit and hold.
Fourth, 'Shaitan' (devil) - a modern day setting of complex corporate lives, social ladders, rich children going astray to the point of ending up in life destroying situations.
Fifth, Jolly LLB - again another plot akin to what India has witnessed time and again, on the power-play of wealth-politics can defy justice and the fight of an amateur lawyer driven on his conscience to reverse that. Great story, great characterisation throughout, excellent fare.

Not to say that the genre of mass consumption flicks are not getting better. Quality production, cinematography, music, clever plot-lines are making them better as well.

Maybe not just yet, but a Mumbai film industry production matching a Hollywood major globally is on the horizon. I'll give it 3-5 years, but its coming.

Dr. Jagdish Chander Bhatla, 13 Mar 1944 - 24 Aug 2006

Dad would have been 69 today. How would we react seeing his family today as it had changed and grown? 7 years on...

I think he would have been proud. 4 lovely grandchildren, children settling down well and following his can't- sit-idle work ethic, doing things or trying to, falling occasionally but getting there, getting stronger, perhaps wiser. Things a parent eventually hopes to bask in the glory of after the hard years of bringing up children and sacrifices to give your family the best. Odd that he missed all of that.

How would he react to Arjun, Tanvi, Diya, Ruhi? 2 of them whom he never saw. He would love them to bits. He does. But how much they miss and what they miss, even they do not know.

Loss is funny, it takes away and then numbs you. In that numbed state you forget what you are missing, and then you occasionally realise. Does it change how you are, how you feel about life? It does, I know, Dad knows.

Life is such a temporal affair with the world but in some ways it is continuous. His legacy lives, so does he. His values sustain, so does he. He lives in his kids, grandkids, all carrying impressions and traits of him. He lives, a little differently, sitting silently on a corner table watching his family dine together and toast him on his 69th birthday.

Love you Dad! Happy Birthday!

By default

How much of your life have you lived by 'default' and how much by conscious choice? How much of your life has been doing what 'everybody' would do faced with your choices would do? Some might argue that choice is an illusion, many of the prior events leading to those choices have been or are outside your control. For the sake of the belief of being in control of destiny I would assert that isn't the case. Yes, to a large extent there are 'defaults' in our lives, good, bad, depends. But 'default' is a choice as well, usually the easier, safer, least resistance one. .

My point is about realising the freedom of choice, and about giving fair treatment to them when we have the opportunity to choose.

I often wonder how I ended up doing what I do today, which is IT architecture, a field that I enjoy, and that has taught me much of what I know, including a few odd skills that pay the bills! Not that I studied it as a discipline in school, or when computers became big took to computing like a fish to pond or something like that. The system I grew up in assessed me reasonably good in quantitative aptitude and thus more of an engineering bent one might say. My Father, a doctor, was averse to the idea of me pursuing a medical profession or civil services, we did not have law or business in the family, not wonder what I did then - Engineering! That was my 'default', leading to the next 'default' of when having the choice of any subjects to pick from having ended up in the top 0.25% of the entrance test candidates, I picked what 'everybody' said was the best, and then when came to choice to work I started in an industry where 'everybody' joined at the time, IT.  I was not alone, and there was the reassurance 'everybody' else doing what I was doing. Having entered a frame, choices opened up after, like where I would work, what sort of work I could do, within the reasonably large confines of what constitutes IT, which thankfully is diverse enough.

What stopped me from being a writer (not just random blogs), a politician, a doctor, a lawyer or business man. As I recollect my impressions of these roles at the time, its not a pretty picture I had or 'chose' to have -
Writer - a bit of a gamble, you might hit big or not struggle to pay the bills
Lawyer - too many lies, having to defend the criminals against your conscience
Politician - too corrupt, immoral
Civil service - politicised, corrupt, inefficient
Doctor - too much study, too little result at end of it

I am sure for those not in my profession would have something in their list like,
IT Engineer - socially inept nerd, confined to stare at a 11-22 inch screen for a third or more of his conscious life (which I can assure is not the case and is just a choice some engineers make).

When light shining on to the mind was coloured by the media, opinions at the dinner table, from friends, stereotypes no wonder the thoughts had acquired the colour of the choice they were going to make.There was a degree of objectivity to my choice, but there was also the overwhelmingly unfair dismissal of all the other options on the table.

There could have been another way to look at them,

Writer - creative fulfilment, chance to influence with ideas
Lawyer - opportunity to serve, to drive justice and to earn good money
Politician - to serve, to reform
Civil service - prestige, power to reform
Doctor - to care and cure, even had a few odd genes to that effect


When in the relative unknown and easy to influence, is it not easy to defend against the onslaught of opinions, to separate fact from bias. That is where the 'defaults' start shaping up and before we know have narrow ourselves down to very few choices.

Happily the good news is that, there is still a choice. The routes will be different to now than earlier, but I am sure they are there, if I want to. Maybe not a doctor still, I will be wilted and treating myself by the time I get there.

More importantly however  as a parent today I need to think what influences am I serving up consciously or subconsciously on my children and am I protecting them from influences that can constrain them. I have a 'powerful' role here and I need to ensure that my children as they grow acquire facts of choices in what they can do, an early realisation of their inner strengths, so they can decide objectively and unfettered by opinions of others.  And that when it is time for them to choose, their objectivity and knowledge stands up with conviction and helps them make an objective, fair choice. Its an experiment and if I succeed who knows, I might write a book with this post as my foreword, titled 'By default'!

Where do I start?..Choo Chuk Chuk!

It takes a degree of force to get out of a writer block. Of late it has been omnipresent, subsiding  briefly in moments when neither a laptop or a tablet is at hand to make a start. So than waiting for that divine moment of alignment, I make a start anyway. And in order to ease my block I will pick a topic that I like - Railways.

Lets take the case of British railways Vs the Indian railways Vs the Japanese railways. I have been fortunate enough to have had a good bit experience on the latter and a fair bit on the former two networks. I must admit on the whole whilst each system has its warts, on the whole I admire all the 3.

Bulk of my experience in Japan was with the Tokyo metro network, one journey on the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Kyoto and a few out of town journeys to places like Kawaguchiko and Nikko.The Tokyo network is remarkable in its punctuality, size, coverage and how it burrows deep layers under layers under the city, particularly one in a seismically active region. Obviously some big time engineering challenges have been won there. The inter city network comprising of Shinkansens is fast, clinical and frequent. The metro within Tokyo is very precise on timings and the branch lines have a charm of their own. Running through pretty towns and villages alongside sea and countryside. The 2 carriage train from Tokyo to Kawaguchiko felt very similar to that train that Chihihiro boards in 'Spirited away' (a must see Japanese animation for kids).

The British railways are strikingly comparable to Japanese rail. With the difference of speeds, rolling stock and a slightly more relaxed order of punctuality the modern British railways have broadly a similar footprint. London compares to Tokyo, the intercity networks compare well to the Great Western, East Coast and West coast lines. And the branch lines or smaller town to city networks compare well to franchises like the Chiltern, Transpennine express, London Midland, Northern and Capital connect. Indeed one of the charms of the British railways are the wide array of franchises, and their respective identities, liveries, rolling stock and landscapes. Of all the journeys in the UK to date I would rate my favourite in terms of charm as the Chiltern between London Paddington and Leamington Spa, East Coast between Kings Cross and Edinburgh and  the First Great Western between Paddington and Worcester. In terms of efficiency and value for money I would rate Virgin West Coast as the best. Only slight drawback their being their narrower than normal carriages. But that was part of the engineering to have them bend along curves.

 

Left to right - Great Western HSTs @Paddington station, Cross Country Voyager @ Manchester Piccadilly and the London DLR heading into Canary Wharf- few of the many varieties in British rail.

Coming to Indian railways then. Well, nothing small about them, the width or the length, the distances or the time you spend travelling. Indeed when I was just watching YouTube video recently, I was struck by the average number of carriages on Indian trains. 20-22 were a norm. In Japan I do not remember, but in England the longest I have seen are 10-12 carriages with most being between 4-6. The time dimension seems by far more relaxed compared to the British and Japanese counterparts My earliest journeys between Chandigarh, Delhi, Bombay, Pune are dotted with names like Ekta express which took 8 hours to cover 250 Km, Frontier mail which took about 31 hours to cover 1300 KM odd between Chandigarh and Bombay, Janata express which took 38 hours between Bombay and Delhi and stopped at virtually anything that could pass for a station. Of course there were the more elite versions like the Rajdhani and the Shatabdi, that had right of way an average 110-12 Km/h speed. Not too mention they could also leave you feeling spoilt and a few kilos extra by the time you reached your destination with the in car catering. My fondest memories would be 1) my Rajdhani trip between Delhi and Bangalore - what better post honeymoon trip home with one's better half in a nice cosy 1st class coupe! 2) Bangalore to Kottayam (for Kerala backwaters) in Bangalore - Kanyakumari express and 3) Shatabdi express between Chandigarh and Delhi.

There is the hall of notoriety as well comprising 1) a trip of a five engineering students with 2 reserved tickets aboard the Delhi to Bombay August Kranti Rajdhani. Imagine no seats for a 17 hour journey outside a none too pleasant toilet! and 2) a trip of a family of 4 back from Bangalore to Delhi with only 1.5 berth. Discomfort of decades old is a sweet memory now!

Indeed any Indian of my age or older would have a smattering of railway journeys to recount and fondly remember. The opening up of aviation sector and the no frills airlines, made air travel more attractive so by comparison the following generation would have had less of thrills by rail. Poor them!

So how would I rate amongst the 3
Speed and efficiency - Japan Rail, British Rail, Indian Railways
Frequency and ease of reservation - British rail, Japan Rail, Indian rail
Charm and adventure - Indian rail, British rail, Japan rail
Surprise - Indian rail

(I am not inclined to report on cleanliness on any having recently read a few reports on forensic examination of train carriages in London, knowing how it can be in India and not remembering much of Japan rail.)

So did I exit my writer's block. Not sure, but I did end up fondly remembering a lot about my travel, trains and the people I shared them with. Time to get a good nights sleep now!