I voted in the Indian general elections 2009. This was my first participation in an election, and I was thrilled to no end. My wife and mom too were quite happy to cast their votes. Alas, the participation in Bengaluru was only 45%.

Now I'll wait for the BBMP elections, so that we can petition someone to correct the lack of street lights in our busy street.

Today I did some reading up on advantages of vegetarianism, and came across some pretty compelling arguments. The main points that appealed to me:

1. Our small intestines are really long compared to that of other animals that eat meat, and meat is never digested in the small intestine, only fibrous food(read vegetarian food) is.
2. Our digestive juices(starting with the saliva down to the gastric juices) are apparently alkali-based, unlike that of our carnivorous friends in the animal kingdom which are acid-based. And meats require strong acid to be digested.
3. Coronary heart disease is unheard of in carnivorous animal species, whereas humans suffer a lot from it(even vegetarians do, but humans eat out of greed, not out of hunger, so that must be a common illness for all humans irrespective of their diets).

A more complete list can be found here:
http://www.celestialhealing.net/physicalveg3.htm

Being a vegetarian myself(I do consume milk products), I don't have much trouble agreeing with all this. Ethically, I feel we have only one issue: that of consumption of resources. One chicken, or one cow, consumes a lot of grains and fresh water before it can be consumed by us. I think in the interests of leaving a smaller ecological footprint, we must become vegetarians to the extent possible.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, "There is enough for everybody's need, but not enough for anybody's greed".

The Linguist.

I started fancying myself as one when I learnt the Kannada alphabet. Was so proud that I had managed to learn it against my own expectations, given that it has so many twists and turns than even Bangalore roads.

Of course, it helped that the alphabet has the same components as the Devanagari script which is used by Hindi, and I already know Hindi, having learnt it when I was younger and my mind more malleable.

But still, I had gone further than most people are willing to, and that has given me a false sense of purpose, courage and hope. This drove me to consider, just consider, targeting the venerable Chinese language. Its the language of an emergent superpower, and perhaps of the future, and its so mysteriously complex(with its simplified alphabet rumoured to have over 5000 characters), that I knew I should try it.

Of course, this has been at the back of my mind for quite a few months now, even though after my ego-trip of learning Kannada, I had stopped making significant progress in the actual speaking of the language. But something was gnawing at me, oh yeah, that was the small matter of how difficult it is to actually learn Chinese, alphabet, speaking, and all. So I run a search for "how difficult is it to learn Chinese", and this was one really educative link I ended up with. In spite of being written by an American from a European perspective, I think it would hold true for me as well:
Why Chinese is so damn hard

Its truly an eye-opener, and makes good, easy reading. And really makes we want to re-consider my desire to learn Chinese. Who knows, my ego might still get a chance to kill me.

We all have our trysts with cold calls from telemarketing companies. I've had my fill of that bull**** too. So I was overjoyed when TRAI (http://www.trai.gov.in) mandated a national do-not-call registry. I always thought this scheme was flawed since it seemed to place the onus of taking action on the telemarketers upon the mobile service provider, since there is a slight conflict of interest involved. But my service provider (Bharti Airtel) did provide me an entry in the registry soon enough, and in fact treated my subsequent complaints about violators with respect, and surprisingly, concern. I even had one follow-up call from them enquiring if the telemarketers were still bothering me.

Well, that they certainly have been doing, notably Deutsche bank, which called me 5 times, each from a different number, in the last 2 weeks. The first 4 calls went like this:
Telemarketer: Sir, Deutsche bank is offering you a lifetime free credit card blah blah blah...
Me: I have registered in the Do-Not-Call-Registry. Please tell your supervisor that I do not want you to call my number, and that I shall be recording a complaint against you with TRAI(I just used that for effect, not that it had any).

I would then note down the calling number and the time, and when I felt like it, would wade through Airtel's automated call center (where they have made it really difficult to reach an operator), and record the complaint with them.

So 2 days back I received this 5th call, and I already had a new strategy ready:

DB: Sir, would you like to go for a personal loan? There would be no paperwork, fast processing, blah blah blah...(a sub-prime crisis is blooming here, don't you think?)
Me: Yes. I want a loan for Rs. 3 lakhs(that's Rs.300,000)
DB: May I ask a few details? What's your name?
Me: Sriram Nar.....
DB: What is your monthly salary?
Me: Rs.60000
DB: You are then eligible for a loan upto Rs.5 lakhs.
Me: 3 lakhs is sufficient for me.
DB: Where do you work?
Me: Jatti motors (Patently false)
DB: What's your designation?
Me: Sales Manager (I was beginning to enjoy myself now).
DB: You need to get 2 passport-size photographs, salary slip blah blah. When can you get them, by next Saturday?
Me: I can get them tomorrow.

Then DB fixes up an appointment with me to send their "executive" to collect the documents.

Next morning I receive a call from another unknown number. I guess rightly that this was the number of the Deutsche bank harassment executive. So,
DB: Sir, are you Sriram Nar....
Me: No. Who are you?
DB: I'm from Deutsche bank, is your number xxxxxxxxx?
Me: Yes, but you got the wrong guy.
DB: Don't you work at Jatti motors?
Me: Don't know what you're talking about. Stop bothering me.

I was pretty happy by now, and happier when I got multiple calls from DB later that day, none of which I answered. At the end of the day, I deigned to answer the phone, and the appointment-maker remonstrated with me for agreeing to take the loan and then pretending to not be Sriram Nar...

Me: Have you heard of the Do-Not-Call-Registry?
DB: No
Me: (I was stunned here, but managed to continue). My number is in that registry, do you are supposed to desist from calling me. Got it?
DB: Sorry sir...

I did finally have my fun at their expense, and I'm already planning for a more elaborate round-trip for the next "executive" that wants to stuff a personal loan or a credit card down my throat. And I'm totally not sorry for it.

Any telemarketers reading this post, this is not personal, so please don't get offended. Get a better job. Good luck.

You may need "Anjal" fonts to view this post.

ரொம்ப நாள் கழிச்சு இன்னொரு போஸ்ட்.

இந்த முறை என்னோட favourite topic - நம்மோட language diversity. ஸ்டார் விஜய் TV-யில் "நீயா? நானா?" நிகழ்ச்சி: "தமிழர்கள் Vs. பிற மொழியினர்கள்" என்ற தலைப்பு.

இந்தியாவோட ஒவ்வொரு ஊர்லயும் எவ்வளவு வேற்றுமை இருக்குங்கறது கொஞ்சம் மலைப்பான விஷயம்தான். தமிழ்நாட்டிலேயே கண்டிப்பா பத்துல அஞ்சு பேரோட parallel தாய் மொழி தெலுங்கு, கன்னடம், மலையாளம், சௌராஷ்டிரம் இந்த மாதிரி எதாவது ஒண்ணாத்தான் இருக்கும்(என் குறுகிய அநுபவத்தில்). ஆனால் இவர்களுக்குத் தாங்கள் தமிழரென்றுதான் அடையாளம் காட்டிக்கொள்ளத் தோன்றும்.

The reciprocity exists in other states too. This only shows the futility of defining our identities through language, religion etc.

இதில் ஸ்வாரஸ்யமான, ஆனால் அதேசமயம் சிந்திக்க வேண்டிய விஷயம், தமிழர்கள் அவர்களைப் ப்ற்றி என்ன நினைக்கிறார்களென்று மற்ற மொழியினரிடம் கேட்ட போதுதான். மலையாளத்துக்காரர் சொன்னார், "எங்களை முதுகில் குத்துபவர்கள் என்று கூறுவதுதான் ரொம்ப hurting-ஆக இருக்கிறது" என்று.

Not going into the merits of that accusation, I too would be hurt if "my kind" were stereotyped with that kind of damaging character.

The Suzuki Swift is a good car for Indian roads. Having purchased it in July '06, I was eager to take a long drive in it. But my fear of Indian highways(being deathtraps between dawn and dusk), and beloved Raji's admonitions kept me from the expedition. But as they say, the ocean cannot be dammed. Meaning, I set off on a trip to Chennai, with Raji and Amma in tow, during the Christmas weekend of Dec '06. As a salve to our fears, all driving was planned in daylight's benign presence. And what fun it was! A 362 k.m. drive was accomplished in about 4 hours, not including rest stops. There were hardly any other vehicles on the road, both during onward and return journeys. Only local people from the numerous small(and sometimes nameless) towns that dot the way. In some cases, those locals had the unfortunate compulsion to use the wrong side of the road, which I admit did throw us off gear more than once. Especially Raji, who did take to driving a 30 km stretch(and sent the needle scurrying past the 100 kmph mark, I must say). And the speed fiend who drove the remaining part crossed 140 kmph on a number of occasions.

The great road trip has finally arrived in India, my friends! Only, I feel that night driving is still for the brave-of-heart, since I was able to sample some of it on the return journey, where the Hosur-Bangalore leg gave some close scares.

There's a very nice video floating around that shows how traffic "self-regulation" happens on Indian roads. Just search for "traffic india video" on youtube or google.

And yes, the Swift, powered by a(perhaps 3-valve) 1300 c.c Petrol engine, gave us approx 17 kmpl of efficiency. Pretty good, aint it? That's about 37.6 miles/gallon, folks!

Populism has hit the airwaves in TamilNadu: Karunanidhi(a leading politician in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu) is promising a TV to every family that doesn't have one if he's elected to power! That's supposedly 5.7 million TV sets that are going to be given away by the government. I'll not even mention the other poll promises he's made, like rice at Rs.2/kg. Of course, to be fair, I haven't read Jayalalitha's(the incumbent Chief Minister of the state) promises yet, and they're likely to be at least half as bad.

To rehash information known to all Tamilians, the Karunanidhi family/party(which are indistinguishable presently) owns the most popular TV channel in Tamil Nadu, Sun TV. So this move of his might seem a clever, if crude, attempt to be populist as well as ensure that he can brainwash illiterate and poor people thru his TV in the future as well.

But I think that might be "mis-underestimating"(a Bush-ism to the uninitiated) the ability of people, however low they might be on the socio-economic ladder. Since many of them are illiterate, they would hardly get to read newspapers. So TV would be an ideal way for them to learn more about the world - a world which has currently left them behind with little to hope for, and this might increase aspiration levels amongst them! This will boomerang upon Karunanidhi himself(if he sticks around another 5 years) in the future, where he will really have to face an electorate much more in the know than ever before.

Again, media makes opinions and brainwashes people, even in(or especially in) the US, like we saw before the present occupation of Iraq, but that has been gone into in some depth by better commentators than I.