To all my readers

Dear all,
Its hard to maintain multiple blogs and be consistent in the blogging frequency. So I'm officially closing 'Strollinthecity' blog. However all the posts from here are now at my website -

http://coffeenirvana.in

I request all of you to please read my posts there and I promise that I'll churn up interesting tales, fiction and otherwise:)

-citygurl

A sparrow tale

(Image courtesy: www.natureforever.org)

It’s been a long drought in blogging from my side. Maybe it was due to the summer heat (the mercury level had risen to 35˚c) in Bangalore. Now that its cool after the real 'Varun' showered us with much needed rains, I am able to think of something worth writing about.

I’m one of the fortunate few who can sit in front of the computer but not in a tiny spaced cubicle in an artificially created weather. As I write now, I face the small patch, which I call my garden, in the backyard of my house watching many birds - robins, tits, crows, pigeons - chirping and cawing. Its meal time for them and the rains have brought them good harvest.

Surprisingly, I haven’t seen even one sparrow until now. Where have they gone? I remember in the eighties there was a huge rainfall with hailstorms. As kids we kept small buckets and pans to catch some of them. I recall spotting a sparrow in the small corner of the ventilator space, hiding, since it was too stormy for it to fly home.

There were many sparrows in the city in the eighties. One custom that every middle class brahminical house performed was feeding the birds before having lunch. My mother would hand me a ladle of freshly cooked rice and say, ‘Kakaku vechuttu vaa’ (give it to the crows). Once the crow had its fill, I’d always spot a sparrow nibbling on the grains. Our lunch was always after this ritual. No one has follows it today and the sparrows too have disappeared.

So it was a pleasant surprise to when I happened to click on this link which talks about conservation of house sparrows. I also learnt the reasons for the decline.

To quote from the website, “Today, we no longer find horse carriages (tanga) which were once the main mode of transport in urban areas; they have been replaced by cars. We also no longer find women sitting outside the house and cleaning grains because today, people get flour and grains in pre-cleaned and packed packets which they buy from malls where our winged friends are not able to go.”
If you have a small balcony, keep a feeder or atleast a plate of clean grains or freshly cooked rice and a bowl of clean water. Just avoid salted nuts or grains or oily food. You might get some winged guests flying in.

I intend to start the bird feeding ritual as in my younger days. I hope to see the sparrows return soon.

Lok Sabha Elections 2009

Blogging has been slow for some time. I have been doing a lot of reading rather than blogging these days. Reason - the campaigning for 2009 Lok Sabha Elections have started.

Every day, we have scores of opinions, political gimmicks, controversial speeches and even a shoe amidst the election gung ho. So to help all the equally confused people like me who are in a dilemma on whom to vote, here's the election manifesto for the two main 'national' parties and the chief regional party of Karnataka(JDS).

Congress Manifesto - 2009

BJP Manifesto - 2009

JDS Manifesto - 2009

While the Congress and BJP have almost the same kind of manifesto in terms of upliftment of rural belt, girl child, quality education, defence & security etc except on the communal issue, JDS is pro-rural, tough on private sector and deals with much more specific issues like social security to taxi & auto rickshaw srivers and pension schemes for 'senior citizen artists'.

It has some interesting terms like 'Corporate Zamindari' to describe the SEZ approach. Incidentally, all three parties are aware of climate change and promise a action plan to lessen the effects.

I dont know if this leaves you more confused than ever. Hot tips -

Look at the candidate profile, dont get bogged by religion/caste politics

See what he promises to do. MPs are supposed to help in bringing out good policies not create a good road or a bus stop or give free rice. So see if he knows what he's spouting out.

Make an informed decision. But do make a decision and go Vote.

Life is all about Reality Shows

I am one of those who do not follow 'reality' shows. Even when the infamous racism row happened in the UK's 'Celebrity Big Brother' show and was splashed across all news channels, my reaction was - 'so what? its just another Bollywood masala in a UK setting'.
So when the star villian of the show, Jade Goody died recently, the adulation across UK revealed the power of such shows. She had become famous, rather infamous, during the controversial episodes of Big Brother. She was the villain. However, her fatal illness brought her back the lost respect - like the bad mother-in-law/sister-in-law in our movies who cry for forgiveness, in the arms of the heroine, just before dying.
Notwithstanding the millions she made by cashing in on her death (signing up lucrative deals with TV networks to allow them to film her last days - for her sons' sake), she was praised by even the UK's Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, as a 'courageous woman'.

After all, nothing is more honourable than a honourable death. Life is all about reality, I mean reality shows.

Traditional Pickles - a lost art

I remember my paati (grandmother) bringing a small earthen jar full of tasty chunky pickles. Walking from her home to her daughter's (my mom's) place just before noon, she would make sure we could taste the spicy stuff for lunch. Though lime and mango are the usual ones, I would wait for the seasonal ones like makaliberu, usually mixed with ginger. It is said that the fragrance of this plant is so strong that it attracts snakes.
Another kind of seasonal variety that I loved were paati's Nellikai Urugai - mmm.. those heavenly pickles in the typical earthen jars must have somehow inflenced my fondness for spicy food. These days we dont have time or inclination for cutting, marinating and storing the pickles. Simply pick up a bottle of Priya's or some other brand and store them in the fridge. I sometimes imagine Priya's manufacturing place having thousands of earthen jars full of makaliberu or nellikai or avakai ready to be shipped! Nostalgia does strange things to one's mind.

Once upon a time..

We lived in a rented house, built on a 30 X 40 plot, in one of the many small lanes of Subramanyanagar. It was a nondescript two bedroom house in which seven elders and three naughty children led a contented life. There was a small garden in the front that housed a parijatha tree, rose, kendasampige and a few other flowering shrubs and of course a tulsi plant.

Just yesterday, we took this lane, as there was a traffic jam on the main road. I was going in this lane in a car after a period of 20 odd years and the infrastructure is still the same. The quality of the road not changed; footpaths never existed and never will. What had changed were the houses.

Bangalore's real estate boom has made every inch of space very dear. So each owner has extended the house to the last inch available. The economy boom has helped each one of them acquire a car or a two-wheeler, which is parked on the street. What is gone is the lung space, the garden that beckoned so many immigrants to the city.

Some say that this is a common complaint by different generations that 'it was better in their times'. Some others argue that gardens and lung space will not help in the economy of the city. Yet some more are emphatic in declaring that Bangalore needs a decent 'skyline'. Agreed. But does that mean we have to become a Tokyo or Mumbai?

Atleast Mumbai has the ocean next door. I'm not even talking about traffic congestion, pollution, waste disposal or any other topics that become an issue in this rapid urbanization of cities.

I speak at an individual level. Sure, you live in a rented house, but can you not maintain a few plants? Have you ever poured water, to the tree the government had planted in front of your house, which gives some shade to your car in the summer? Can you not use cement and brick instead of glass? We both know that glass reflects more heat to the place and you'll end up either buying an AC car or put an AC in your house - so in reality there's no money saved.

Think about it. And while you are thinking, here's an old article that provides statistics to my argument. For those who prefer pictures to numbers, flip through Paul Fernandes' illustrations - ' The Morphing of Bangalore' in Aditi's book - Multiple City.

Jai Ho for the Slumdog

(Image courtesy: wikipedia)

Slumdog Millionaire has won several awards at the Oscars. Eight to be precise, which includes, Best Music, Best Director and Best Film. I can understand the Best Music award for Jai Ho is yet another gem from Rahman (the music for Roja still lingers in my mind). But Best film?
If you see the films it had competed with
Milk - which sends out a strong message from the gay community,
The curious case of Benjamin Button - a story of an old man growing younger physically but wiser with age
Frost/Nixon - a window to American politics and the Nixon era and
Reader - a movie which won the Best Actress award for Kate Winslet

every one of them has a powerful taut story. What does Slumdog have? The same 'rags to riches' story where the hero walks away with the heroine into the sunset. The actors have done a great job, but is the movie as powerful as its competition? While some say its good timing, to portray a movie that shows optimism and hope in times of recession, there are others who say its mediocre.

Whatever is the opinion, one thing is true. The movie, a simple love story, in an Indian setting, made by an Englishman, nominated for the Best Movie in an American film chamber, has won the award. Truly, cinema can't get more global than this.

p.s - While everyone's besotted with Slumdog, my heart cringed at the story of Pinki, which incidentally won the oscar for the documentary feature. Reminds me of another bizarre physical deformity story which got corrected through surgery.