The Balding Buddha

On reinstating faith in democracy...

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 07:39:00 +0000

Going by the title, reflecting on the need to reinstate faith in the minds of people regarding democratic governance policies and institutions might be a bit too far fetched considering we haven't been doomed as yet, some would say. But then, we are very much on that motion, winding down the lanes into believing that the democratic setup that we have been witness to, over the last 60 odd years has started showing signs of rupture and tear.

As I write this piece, riots have broken out in Ara, Bihar over the untimely killing of the Ranvir Sena chief. The MLA from Najafgarh has just been shot by unidentified gunmen in broad daylight. The government has simply failed to curb inflation, that which was INR 63 against a Euro is now standing at 73 in the space of 8 months. Fuel prices have shot up. The man accused in the biggest corruption scandal is out on bail and attends the upper house of Parliament, the next day. The national carrier which was once among the top 5 airlines in the world is sinking and nobody cares about it. Acute power shortages - while we complain of 2 hour outages in Chennai, some areas of New Delhi have had close to 8 hours and worse, some areas of Jammu and Kashmir have 18 hour power cuts. Mamata Banerjee's paribortan drive took a turn for its worse and ended up splurging INR 9 crore on a private club team which won a private league (the debt of West Bengal exceeds INR 190,000 crore as of today). And if all this was not enough, government tried to curb social media independence by attempting to filter online content which you and I release onto Google and Facebook, even taking them to court over exercising this issue.

And I for one, have always have had my reservations over the need to exercise my franchise over such a setup existing in the country, sometimes even going to the extent of saying that the British Raj was much more apt than what is currently on display today - drawing a lot of flak expectantly from all quarters. All the above given instances are just a minuscule into the conundrum that people are getting to be increasingly aware of and start inquiring on. Well, if you were indeed to ask me if after all this whether India was really shining as is being perceived by the west, I wouldn't agree so. Atleast not right now. People need to be reinstated with renewed faith on the system prevailing. I don't know how this will come about and I am no economist or a financial school cat to put in those hard terms on the forefront, simply for the lack of knowledge on them than anything else.

Impatience and frustration are engulfing the masses and they won't keep quiet for longer periods from now. And thus the need for reinstating faith - soft measures to stem the aftershocks of inflation and price rise, fast tracking of the judicial exercises on the 26/11 attacks, stemming corruption (with or without Jan Lokpal), delineating dangerous coalitions like the Trinamool and the DMK to name a few could all be some positives that the babus of New Delhi could try to achieve.

Although, having said that, there is one person who is "fairly positive" when it comes to the growth story of India right now - Bill Gates, who reiterates some faith on the situation in his recent interview to NDTV. Although I fail to understand how, its always good to know. Excerpts from the interview are attached alongwith this post:

By the way, Travel Trails have been updated with new photographs just to remind everyone.

Copenhagen Trails

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Sun, 20 May 2012 16:06:00 +0000

Copenhagen was amazing. And it sure reiterates the difference that people speak about when Scandinavia comes into their minds. Despite the fact that it is one of the most expensive cities in the world, locking heads with Oslo (Norway), it is every bit worth the experience. The tall sloping roofs as seen above are a highlight to counter for the snow, the city is mad about cycling (55% copenhageners commute by cycles, and that's about 800,000 people daily). More pictures and details in the subsequent posts.

Inducing Happiness: The European Way

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:24:00 +0000

It is the process by which people tend to "induce" happiness into their lives at the cost of their fellow beings and then feel good about it rather than deriving happiness by "making" it happen by means of your sincere deeds - quite the European way as I have been observing since September.

Thing is simple. A few weeks ago, I received this mail from a friend based out of Lisbon which read like this:

Hello guys.. As you know I am leaving for the States next week. You guys have been really awesome and I have no words to express my gratitude for all the support and love. I sure am gonna miss you all when I am in Boston. I was thinking that it would be good if we can all meet up one last time for a dinner. I will be very happy and fortunate to have you amidst the company of me and my friends, during the last moments of my stay in Portugal.

I propose that we meet on Saturday at around 2000 at <Restaurant Name> <Address>. The choice of the cuisine is meditteranean as most of you would prefer, includes <general menu>. And the cost per person would be around 20 euros, not more than that inclusive of drinks.

This man in the letter included the "You guys have been awesome....my gratitude..support and love", " I would be very happy and fortunate...." and then delivered the sucker punch by announcing the "cost per person...." sentence - all in the span of 5-6 lines of the same letter. And letters/mails like these come, every other week.

Well if he was so happy and fortunate and sad that he would miss all of us, he should have hosted a dinner and paid up the expenses by himself. Atleast that is what is done if you are genuinely happy back where I hail from. You invite your friends and spend a wonderful evening with them, spreading laughter and cheer and then you make it even more wonderful by being the perfect host and appreciating their decision to spend quality time with you. I would pay to do this, but then my idea of not believing in celebrations makes life a lot more easier. Why do it when you want to "induce" rather than make it happen by itself?

So to sum up, I ended up going for the dinner because he has been a wonderful man and for the sake of his happiness, I ended up spending 20 euros (1350 INR). That is the price that I burn to see a smile on his face and make sure everything is right between us. Am I happy doing this? Well, you know by now....

Dear BCCI,

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:21:00 +0000

A letter from an anguished cricket fan, seeing the state of affairs of the game and the callous attitude of the governing body...

For the sake of the future of the game in this country beyond Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, please ensure that you take a leaf out of Cricket Australia is forcing them to take off, towards other aspects of the game. When they could get rid of Ricky Ponting - arguably the greatest ever after Tendulkar and Lara, despite him scoring two centuries inclusive of a double in the recently concluded test series, you could man up to do this as well. Make no mistake when I say this - Sachin is god as far as I am concerned, but the time has come to look beyond him, to the rest of the guys in the team.

And its not that our subjects have been performing exceedingly well as well. So it should be making your job a lot more easier. The time has come to put off your selfish materialistic mindset about the game and work on motivating the average Indian to take a lot of pride from the wonderful game. As of now, I don't see myself watching the game anymore after Tendulkar is done and dusted and I hold you completely responsible for my decision. The main reason being that you have never thought of looking beyond the "fab four" when it came to marketing the game into the billions. Maybe it was due to the fact that they could single handedly drive the country into euphoria. But then, what needs to be realized is my views on watching the game post the Tendulkar era are echoed by millions of fans the world over. And if you don't step up to act on this aspect, as an ardent fan of the beautiful game I am afraid to say the future of Indian cricket looks very very bleak.

And I do not understand the reasons for your haughtiness and arrogance when it came to the abiding by the Woolf Report, your constant opposition to the ways in which ICC affairs are conducted and your persistent opposition to DRS. And it doesn't end there. Your refusal to set up an inquiry into the double whitewash and your constant bragging about winning the world cup at home turf as a compensation for the shame caused in England and Australia is shocking, to say the least. It tells me how much you care for the future of the game. And when Sahara bailed out of the mess, you went the extra mile in ensuring they got back on track. This at a time when, you had wasted no time in driving the Kochi Tuskers out of the IPL in the name of some financial irregularities. And we all know it was the money more than your concerns of a long term alliance that made you hold their asses for cover.

Sadly, the plot keeps getting thicker and thicker. I wish there was a government legislation which could force you to clip your wings and come under public scrutiny. It is the case with countries like Sri Lanka and South Africa and they seem to be showing results when more able administrators have stepped in. That said, I do hold you completely responsible for taking the game to this level, take no credit away from you. But I also hold you responsible for bringing anguish, frustration and a sense of grief into the average joe out there, who is afraid the good times are slowly getting over.

Yours Sincerely,

An-ardent-cricket-fan-who-is-afraid-for-the-future-of-the-game

People, Listen Up

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:08:00 +0000

According to the Hindu, Valentines day is not necessarily spent with the person you love, but often with the thing you can't live without. And once it is up on the print media, it becomes more so of a diktat for the masses. Apparently, men have broken up relationships citing their attachment with the dog, which certainly measured up to be more than that with the girlfriend. And many women obsess over their bags and shoes (Oh yeah!! tell me about it...)..........

Ask me and it serves right to all of us. And when I look around myself, the Europeans seem to obsess over these little things to an astronomical level. I wouldn't want to spend one whole day of my life with this woman I know for the past 3-4 months, just because she is good in bed (which is a requirement for people to spend time with the opposite sex). I know of my friends who have made elaborate plans to make sure their partners make up for them at the bed side, which is ridiculous. This being said, I am sure that if I am to ever find the love of my life, I wouldn't have to reserve all my love for her to a certain date in a year and spend it with her. I would make an effort to spend every possible minute with this person than having to be selective about it. So the whole idea of spending February 14th solely with the person you love somehow loses the plot. So all those single people like me, who are ruing over their inability to paint the town red with the person you love, take a break people.

Demystifying Porto

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:26:00 +0000

Porto (Oporto in Portuguese) is the second largest city of Portugal. Highly recommended by the Portuguese to pay a visit, I finally had the opportunity to explore the town. Quite a stark contrast from the capital city Lisbon, which is more of an international city , Porto is home to the old school Portuguese heritage. On a first glance, it gave me an impression of an abandoned city with old buildings, mostly damaged and uninhabited. And that was a very disturbing fact to digest. It seemed like people had deserted the city and gone towards Lisbon or other areas of the Iberian Peninsula or Continental Europe.

Old fashioned in all respects, Porto gives the impression of a city which simply refuses to bow down to change. And the same is evident even on the people of Oporto, who are proud of what their forefathers have achieved. They thrive on the Portuguese legacy, its wineries, the heritage buildings and the related aspects, thus not bowing down to the change of the outside world. This aspect would certainly be of interest to an art history graduate, but not for someone like me. Nevertheless a mysterious old school beauty which had turned into a ghost town for reasons quite obvious to us. I was disappointed, so to say. Here are a few snaps taken:

The tram - only three lines are functioning right now

Rua Alvares Cabral - we stayed here, amongst the abandoned buildings

An abandoned church building right in the heart of the town

Ponta Luiz - the bridge, on the UNESCO World Heritage site of Oporto

Rio Duoro , the river and the city of Porto on the background.

I will be adding the whole list of photographs periodically onto the "Photography" section of this blog.

First Thoughts - 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:08:00 +0000

Ola people! Hope everyone had a fantastic new years eve and a grand welcome into 2012. Happy New Year from the bottom of my heart, wish it turns out to be as special as it possibly could be. And I hope a few have already started ruing over their new year resolutions, if not broken them once or twice already. Just a real quick update on life and an extremely interesting incident which has been occupying a good enough space inside my head. Life is quite dull again since work has already kicked off. Exams on the 9th and 13th with a possible resource exam to be taken for Transport Economics and a project due on the 18th, which is evidence enough for the word "dull " being tagged along with life. It isn't really that I hate doing this, but there is really nothing else and thus life is quite predictable until the 19th. A bit of travel is also on the plans after the 19th since I have like 4 days before the next semester begins, though not sure how much of that is going to materialize. Now to the incident.

So I had a visitor on New Years eve. Nobody else was in the apartment and I opened the door when the bell rang. A Portuguese lady was standing outside - neatly dressed, posh, in her 40's if not older. The conversation started in Portuguese, but soon turned to English when she figured out that her English was way better than my Portuguese. And she told me that she was the daughter-in-law of my neighbour, a lady in her 70's. To talk more about my neighbour, she is Ana Maria, 75+ , rich with two houses in Lisbon alone, knows 6 languages including English (which is way too impressive for a European), quite a rare visitor to our place, largely peaceful and nice. She was working in the Portuguese department of transportation during her hay days, so we found a lot of things in common for a conversation to sprout up. Besides her career, she is vastly read, knows a lot about world culture and history and is very interesting to talk to, something which is very rare nowadays as far as I am concerned.

So yeah, the daughter-in-law. She is accompanied by another lady who is Ana Maria's sister, asks for Ana Maria who hasn't been in touch with them for almost 3 weeks now and they are worried. So they came by to check on her. Soon we realize she is not present at home as nobody answers the door. Realizing that she has a key to this apartment, she opens the apartment to check for her. Its all very dark inside, so she asks me if I can come in too. I say yes and we go in. This apartment is a 6 room, old school place, large with a long alley and rooms on either side. Surprisingly, there is no power inside the apartment. We try the different switches and realize the power supply has been disconnected. And that's when things start getting weird. I get a torchlight from my apartment and we go in. Its pitch dark and as soon as we reach the living room, its a scene of distress. Papers, books, flyers, clothes, unwashed plates, cutlery are all strewn around. I nearly pierce a fork onto my leg since it was lying on the ground in the dark, largely unnoticeable. And it was hard to imagine that someone lived here, amidst all the confusion that was called this apartment. The six other rooms resembled a similar picture and after seeing all this, I didn't really have the courage to check the kitchen or the rest rooms. The daughter-in-law was being way too normal throughout this time and I was inching to ask her about her reaction.

So when we came out of the ghost house, I invited them to my apartment and asked her about her reaction on seeing the apartment all messy and weird. To which she replied, "Maria used to be such a task master lady until her 60's until Miguel (her husband ) was around. After his demise, she lost all interest in life. She did not understand why she had to tidy up the place, and for whom, since no one ever visited her anymore. More so, since she didn't want them to." To see the condition of such a well learned lady, in her 70's reaching a stage where she didn't appreciate living life anymore was a hard thing to digest. She was very wealthy, but still lived the life of a gypsy. Why did she have to live life anymore if this was so meaningless for her? And that was the hard reality of life, that even a lot of money could not bring any happiness into her life. That's because the essence of life is not entirely dependent on material things, though it does play only a small role in making it better. People run so much behind material comfort that they forget to live life in between. I have a professor at Tecnico whose story is equally interesting, though that is a story for another day. Though for the sake of debate, if I ever had to encounter that stage in life that Ana Maria was going through, I would just renounce myself from this world and move away. I am sure we all have different takes on it though.

Nevertheless a strange new year realization indeed.

The Sabbatical

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:44:00 +0000

The First Part

Needless to say, I loved my sabbatical from everything and everyone. Few days in a year to live for yourself is no mean thing. And considering the relief from the vagaries of the grueling fall semester, it was something I could really afford now, even if I questioned myself a hundred times on this regard. No contact with the outer world was a well sought after desire, especially after I mentioned about it here and I am glad that came about in its very own measure. And that meant staying out of social media, loved ones, friends and even the confines of my apartment. All the windows and vents for natural lighting sealed, the soul and the body were ready to go in for a cleansing and I did not wish for any kind of intrusion into it. On the quest to clean up the systems, bring out a fresh zeal for life and more importantly, a re-energized self.

The Second Part

It was half past 11 in the morning. I had woken up late , much to the chill for the sheer joy of it. I switched on the computer and all the networks got connected and I saw her online. She is 15 - a growing girl in her teens, trapped at an age where children generally find it hard confiding matters of their heart to their parents. Or as mothers say, "The age where I lost my baby and she went on to being a completely different girl." Few minutes into our conversation, I could sense that she was a tad disturbed. Like she was hiding something and wanted to shout it out to the whole world. Her little fingers were seen grasping for the right words, something extremely unusual with her. I knew I had to do it for her sake, for I was aware of it since eternity. After all, she was my little baby and for once, was really looking up to me for help without really saying it out loud. Sensing the urgency on her face, I decided to kill her misery right away. Closed my eyes for a bit, and then went ahead and told her what I had gathered of the situation and my reflections on the same. The kind of reassurance that someone needs when they are faced with decisions in life - holding them to your side, with a promise of being there forever and ever and ever. The ice-breaker that it had turned out to be, worked wonders and lit up her eyes. And that little expression of relief and reassurance on her face at the end - priceless.

The Other Side

I had got misled into doing something, which was clearly not a thing of my ilk. For once, the guilt was so profound that forgiving self and moving on was just not an option anymore. The repercussions haunt me, even as I write this piece. But I am aware that life has to go ahead and not stagnate in the memories of the past. I needed the courage to stand up to life and face it as it comes to me.

:: Spotlight ::

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:26:00 +0000

I am somehow able to remember the dreams that I experience. I am afraid I might be alone in this world when I come to say that, but I do. Not that I remember them long enough to be etched into history, but long enough to write about what I saw early into the morning today (7 am). And strangely enough, the connect well into what lies ahead in life. Not that all my dreams comply to Freud's* theory of wish fulfillment or is it influenced by events in the "day residue" but they serve as some sort of a connect to the future.So, I had a rather interesting dream today.

Time has gone ahead and I have gone grey. I am still alone, quite predictable seeing the current trend. The place that I am in, is not very well defined. But I know seeing the people around me that I am in India. The sun hasn't risen very prominently, but is nestled amongst the clouds. Its drizzling a wee bit too. The air has a fragrance of burnt/half burnt human flesh. The town has succumbed to a growing epidemic/phenomenon and very few people (mostly women and a very few men) have lived through it. And those who are alive are enclosed in a casing, transparent, which I think is made of glass.

The scene outside is grim. Women are seen wailing their hearts out at the sight of their dead partners, children amongst others. They are covered by a coating of ice, so that they can sit near their departed loved ones. Maybe it is a means of prevention of the spread of the epidemic. Some of them are doing the last rites of their loved ones, something which has never happened before in India. The graves have filled out and overflowing. And the roads are soon filling up as make shift graveyards.

It ended right there and I woke up to a start. Strange as it felt waking up to it, maybe the world is set to reach this stage 200-300 years from now. Have you, the reader experienced such notions about life ahead through the dreams you see? If yes, I would like to hear more on that.

* Sigmund Freud - Austrian Neurologist, father of modern psychoanalysis. Author of the book, "The Interpretation of Dreams". The book is highly recommended for those who haven't come across it.

The price is 35 Euros

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:15:00 +0000

Its almost 11 in the night as I leave Tecnico, for home. After a hard day - fighting deadlines, seeing UNITED lose and bow out of the Champions League, braving the cold (which is rather unusual for me, since I am from Chennai) I walk back, mind flooded with thoughts of the work pending. And of the life that I am living here.

As I descend the flight of steps, I see her standing near the parking lot on the opposite side. I slow down my pace to observe her. She is tall, well dressed and extremely beautiful for a Portuguese woman. A few cars slow down seeing her on the side of the road - some of them slow down, have a conversation with her and go away while a few others look at her and just speed up. Probably they did not like the "package". Less than 5 minutes and there were already half a dozen cars stopping by her and they go through this routine.

And just when I give up on it and start walking, comes another car. I could see two men inside, mid 30's. They have a little conversation with her. And yes, the deal is signed. She gets into the car which speeds away, out of my horizon. And I walk back home, the lady in the back of mind, and of the people who seek warmth in her in the chill of Lisbon.

On Birthdays, their relevance and the common sentiment associated with them

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:10:00 +0000

I recently came across this message on one of my women friend's wall on Facebook

It read something like this:

Never thought that I would have so many surprises lined up for my birthday which I thought would be otherwise low-key. Thanks everyone for everything. I am glad you are with me, my precious!!! :)) :D.

And it somehow got me thinking on the relevance of birthdays among the two sexes and the common sentiment associated with it. Girls, as far as I know never have celebrated a "low-key birthday". Yet, the reference for a low key birthday is obvious even when they themselves know it has never ever happened to them. Guys, on the other hand stand a very good prospect of celebrating a low-key birthday. Many instances would come to my mind in substantiating my stand on this.

When you are single (either by choice or chance) or stood up in life, there is a good enough possibility of it going low key coz nobody really cares apart from yourself. On the other hand, even if you are in a "thing" (as is the trend nowadays), you might still have a girlfriend who wouldn't remember the dates (I myself had a couple of those) and would blame you (the guy) for the mishap that was called your birthday. But then, they are women so we men don't make it such a big issue and tend to forgive. Imagine if you had swapped roles and forgot your girlfriend's birthday, you can be rest assure the marching orders would be ready soon enough. :)There comes the aspect of relevance. I cant think of many men who would think of their birthdays being the most important days of their life. But on the other hand, its quite natural for women to feel so.

Coming to the common sentiment associated part, I found something amazing in this part of the world. The common sentiment associated with your birthday here is in loose terms, "something of a pure joy of growing old and having accomplished a milestone in life". This is actually the most common sentiment on a global scale, and you end up spending a fortune to let the world know that you are growing old. This is quite a contradiction to someone like me (I am always in the minority) who thinks that birthdays are just one more way of god telling you that you have one year less to the grave. Thus I never understood the whole concept of celebrating it ever since I was 18, I think. I still am unsure which of the versions is the right one, but continue to go about mine for the sake of convenience and comfort.

How do you, the reader view your birthday?

BRT Transmilenio : Bogota, Colombia

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:29:00 +0000

Bogota, the capital of Colombia is home to the pioneer of Bus Rapid Transit with the BRT Transmilenio. Handling about 1000 buses in the peak hour with real time dynamic scheduling, average speeds in the range of 28-40 kmph, a whole lot of innovative inter-modal transportation features. And that is not it. Watch the video to know how Transmilenio has changed the realms of Mass Transit in Latin America and possibly the world.

Into the Wild (2007)

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:33:00 +0000

The real life story of an American hitchhiker, Christopher John McCandless brought onto the silver screen by Sean Penn. A guy who gives up everything and everyone in life to live for self, in a land devoid of fellow human habitation.

And just when I thought this was a one-off thing - of people going off on a trail to live life in the wild, I was wrong again. This came a surprise when I read the prelude, before I got into watching the movie. And 2 hours and some well needed wisdom later, I think I have the answers for the phenomenon. This could be seen as the western adaptation of Sanyasa. Though not an alien concept to India, the movie is still an eye opener for it makes you think deep and delve into the intricacies of our existence. Indeed a very good watch. And I hear the book is equally good too, though the lack of quality time to be devoted to reading makes me take the shortcut. [4/5]

Happiness is never real, unless shared

- Christopher John McCandless

You might also want to read about these people too:

Carl McCunn (1946 – 1981) was an American wildlife photographer who became stranded in the Alaskan wilderness and eventually committed suicide when he ran out of supplies.
Everett Ruess (March 28, 1914 – 1934?) was a young artist, poet and writer who explored nature including the High Sierra, California Coast and the deserts of the American southwest, invariably alone. His fate while traveling though a remote area of Utah has been a mystery for many years.
Richard Louis "Dick" Proenneke (May 4, 1916–April 20, 2003) was a naturalist who lived alone in the high mountains of Alaska at a place called Twin Lakes. Living in a log cabin he constructed by hand, Proenneke made valuable recordings of both meteorological and natural data.

There are indeed guys with the same thought process | A reply to the young Indian woman

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 01:14:00 +0000

A couple of days back, I read this post on the Indian Homemaker's blog where a girl had written to IHM with her queries about life, something which I thought was indeed very genuine. It goes like this:

An email from a young Indian woman who has seen her parents respect each other as equal partners.
I wanted to share an incidence with you and also what it means in the future, for young Indian women (and men). However, at the outset I would like to clear out something since it features my late maternal grandmother prominently. I loved her immensely and she did too. I know I was destined to spend time with her just a month before her demise, because she genuinely wanted to meet me.
My father since childhood always stressed that girls and boys are equal, each are unique and there are no grounds for differentiation between them. That’s why I have grown up questioning the status quo.
My mother ( C ), including her are 3 sisters ( A, B, C ) and two brothers( D, E ), in order of their ages. Now my B mashi got married before my mother, and within a year she had a daughter. A year later my mother had me. And my nani cried when she heard it, because “Ek aur beti” (’0ne more girl child’). I learnt about this fact as a kid, and it hit me hard because honestly my nani loved me. When I went over to her place...........

Read the full letter here.

It was a very genuine thought that had crossed the mind of the young Indian woman in the letter. Born into a family which treated her as equals (the best thing is that she fought for it, whenever she felt she had got a bad deal [*respect*] ) with a person of the opposite sex (which by the way is not very common in my part of the world), she was afraid whether she would find a guy who would treat her in the very same way, meaning sharing the same thought process as her. This reply to her, is in many ways the sentiment echoed by the average Indian man who would be very much willing to treat his woman in the same equal terms as himself, thus sharing the same thought process (I know there aren't many, but still ).

Dear woman in the letter,

First up, thanks for bringing up this dilemma of yours into the forefront. You have echoed the sentiments of a very many number of women in this country, who have probably thought of this aspect at some point in life. As someone from the opposite sex who is a believer in equality and equal opportunities, I would like to tell you that there is indeed hope for people like us.

Though I must confess that I do represent only a minority of men who would want his woman to be treated equally well as he is. But then the fact remains that if you are patient enough and have the mind to stick by what you think is right for you, there is a good possibility that you will end up finding Mr.Right. It might mean having to deal with the pesky neighbors, nosey aunts among others, who might end up branding you as being "demanding and choosy", but don't you think life is worth the wait for the right man?

Having given you the bright side, I got to tell you one more aspect of it, namely the alternate view. The predicament that we are in, you might also be well advised not to keep your hopes very high on this. And I have my own reasons for saying this. I represent the opposite sex which has been accused of not living upto the expectations of the womenfolk in all universe (the converse is also a very well debated topic, but for many different reasons mostly). I do not have any explanations in my defence as to why many of my women friends who have recently been married, ended up coming out of it because they felt that the guy they got married to, was so much different from the guy who was in love with them a couple of years before they ended up in wedlock. Reasons, which I am not really proud of.

On the being single debate and its viability, ending up being single for the rest of your life is better than being married to the wrong person. If you thought that the fear of getting married to the wrong person was just a woman thing, you might be surprised to know that you are wrong. Again it comes to being a minority but then, there are men in this country who have the same fears as you have echoed here. And some of them have succumbed to the pressures and ended up with the wrong person, only either to struggle through the ordeal without any positives or to come out of the relationship, bruised and battered, with what was a horrible past.

Lastly, I just want to say one thing. I, for one, believe that I will never end up being with someone who is not even remotely compatible with me. I am seeing someone even now (someone I know for like 8 years, been in an in and out thing for like the last 2 and the like) as I write this letter, but it remains to be seen if she will end up being a part of my life. And that's the thing about being of the same thought process (not gender equality as in your case but then, that should be a story for another day) and the fact that I will only listen to what my mind says about this and none else. So as you can see, it ain't any piece of cake, but it is definitely worth the try. Because we have only one life and its always a comforting feeling to realize when you are old, that you have lived life thus far in your own terms rather than succumbing to the pressures of the people around you. I don't know if I made things easier for you with this letter, but then you are not alone if that makes you feel any better.

Yours Sincerely,
The-minority-indian-man-who-is-a-preacher-of-equality-and-equal-opportunities.

On Administrative Procedures and Formalities

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:20:00 +0000

Its amazing how things pertaining to administration work in Portugal. Atleast when you are coming from India where the smallest of things take a week to be a reality. Today, I had an appointment at the Portuguese Ministry of Justice complex, which houses the Department of Criminal Justice (Registo Criminal). I needed to visit the Campus de Justica for obtaining a certificate which would state that I had no criminal record liable to conviction in Portugal, one of the prerequisites for a residence permit in the EU.

And as soon as I reached the justice campus, it weirdly resembled the typical IT parks that are beefing up the landscape in India. The buildings were posh, lush greenery, super awesome shades and all that you normally associate with a software park these days. And we entered the building and got into the counters in 5 minutes. The lady at the counter asked me for my visa, she entered the details to check into the database and voila, it was over!! She gave me a certificate in less than 5 minutes.

And, I fondly remembered how I went up to the Shaastri Bhavan, Madras not once, but twice for the same job and it took me 5 hours in the queue plus a further two weeks for the correspondence of the police certificate.

And far too many typos in the current article means I need to catch up with sleep. And that will follow the legendary Moshe Ben Akiwa on video conference from Boston, which should start in an hour.

Guangzhou, China: "Winning the future" with BRT

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:44:00 +0000

In the first in a series of many-to-come reviews on Sustainable Transport, here is the story of Guangzhou, China. Guangzhou - for those who don't know or haven't yet heard of it, is the main city in the fastest growing economy, in the fastest growing province of the fastest growing country in this world for the last 30 years.And much of its success is due to its rapid strides in the field of sustainable urban transportation. So much so, that Guangzhou is the winner of the Sustainable Transport Award of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) for the year 2011.

The video below shares the success story of the Guangzhou Bus Rapid Transit project, one of the largest bus rapid transit systems in Asia. It also explains why the Guangzhou BRT is where it stands right now, at the top of the world in an effort towards sustainable transport and "winning the future". India and also the many other developing countries, who are pinning on the Bus Rapid Transit for an answer towards sustainable transport needs to study the Guangzhou model in detail.

The Santhosh Pandit Effect

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:39:00 +0000

If you thought that I meant to put in a kind of a comparative analysis to the very well known Raman effect, I believe I caught you wrong fair and square.

Santhosh Pandit, for those who don't know of him as yet, is the man who brought the malayalam cinema industry to the cleaners recently, when his movie 'Krishnanum Radhayum' , an absolute shit of a movie got a rousing opening at the cinemas and was declared a super hit at the box office. It was a movie made of a shoe string budget of INR 5 lakhs with a 105 strong cast. Santhosh himself handled 18 departments in the making of his movie including story, screenplay, dialogues, direction, production and cinematography. The most stunning aspect of this man however, was his brilliant marketing strategy which I think could be a subject for the management students and gurus to ponder upon. Under this strategy, he played some sort of a reverse psychology on the malayali audience. In order to do this, he released an album which largely included the songs from the movie and it got viral on YouTube in no time.

It got viral not because it was too good to be one, but that it was nothing short of being called a pathetic attempt to make a song. I mean, there was no striking aspect, but a sheer sense of pain and anguish for the viewer on seeing his gimmicks on display. So much so that those videos brought about a sharp negative response from the viewers as was evident from the comments on the video thread, which I am unable to share with you primarily for this being a family place. More and more people got to watch his clips on YouTube just to have a good laugh and fill up the existing and ever-so-active comment thread with rather ornamental expletives. But then, his marketing strategy was realized since he had achieved his target of generating traffic onto his albums on YouTube. Interestingly enough, he is the second most searched keyword on Google after 'Facebook' (Google Trends, November 1 2011), an obvious consequence of the impact that he created.

And then at the right moment, he clawed onto the malayali audience like how the tiger does to its prey, when he announced that his movie was awaiting release and that it would hit the theatres anytime soon. The already enraged audience wanted to see how much worse his movie would fare, since everyone was aware of the man and his capabilities by now. And thus spake, the story of this man who released his movie and people barged into the theatres just to come out with more and more ornamental expletives. But then, he had achieved what I personally thought was next to impossible. And that was to make the otherwise choosy and miserly malayali to spend his 50 bucks on a movie which has to go down as one of the worst ever attempts to make a movie in the history of all cinema and transform it onto one which opened to full houses and collected almost 10 times the production cost within the opening week.

And it doesn't end there. Today, he is all over the news - openly challenging all the movie makers to replicate his success model, which he is sure will not be achievable - primarily because of the financial aspects prevailing into making a "normal" movie. And thus Malayalam cinema, which was until not-so-long-ago, one of the best industries of cinema in India in terms of good subjects, good performers and refreshing themes is being dictated by a man who probably has to go down as one among the worst in its very history. Personally as one of the greatest admirers of the movies that are made in this part of the world, its sad to see what kind of movies get released into the theatres these days. On a positive note for Santhosh Pandit, he could only be looked upon as a warning for the impending state of affairs for malayalam cinema, if things are not put to order soon enough.

The 400th tenet...

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:28:00 +0000

No better way to ~~celebrate~~ commemorate number 400 than an ode to myself. From being the very naive, innocent kid who got into the world of blogging by mistake in 2007 (thanks to Meenakshi Madhavan and her story) to being the Balding Buddha by the end of the year 2011 makes for nothing short of phenomenal journey, I should say. I have none to say gratitude to, but god and myself. When the going has been tough, I have always been alone, fighting. And when things have been well, you know what happens.

But then, I got no plans to celebrate. Coz I ain't stopping any soon and I feel celebrations are a way to stop and look back. And in reality, there is no time to look back for if you do, you lose track of whats ahead and get stuck in the present.

Cheers!!!!

One Year on, Still No Government

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:52:00 +0000

A country with no form of governance isn't something impossible as I realized yesterday. Apologies if this news comes as being a thing of the past, but Belgium entered into a record of sorts after being government-less since June 2010. After a series of political disagreements, it was decided that there wouldn't be any form of governance at the national level. No important decisions are made, all of the administration had been handed over to regional or municipal administrators long ago itself.

And that's not the best part. The Belgian economy improved in this period than in the same period previous year. The Unemployment rate is at 8.5%, lesser than the European Union average of 9.4%. And that's just the start of the many things that hit the green without a stable government. Brilliant, isn't it?

Don't believe me? Read these:

Belgium: 450 Days after Election, still No Government | Huffington Post
2010-2011 Belgian Government Formation | Wikipedia
Belgium: One year on, Still No Government | CNBC

Anyway, for a country which is as big as Kerala, all this might work out well. I didn't mean to generalize when I put this up, you know. Even though we have a shit of a government ruling over us.

Sole to Soul - A Spectacle of Kathak

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:30:00 +0000

I was fortunate to be one among the rasikas (spectators/audience) of Sole to Soul, a spectacle of the Indian classical dance form Kathak performed by Lajja Sambhavnath and her disciples at the Museu de Oreiente yesterday evening. Kathak, as you all might know is a Northern Indian classical dance form which conveys a lot of stories through the form of dance. It is derived from the Sanskrit word Katha meaning story.

The rasikas for yesterdays show were largely a group of partisan Europeans who seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the performances on stage. Paulo Sousa was on the sitar while Raimund Engelhart was on the tabla.

If you are on Facebook,this is the link to the video. Enjoy.

The Weatherman Kronicles

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:49:00 +0000

I am just amazed at how the climatic patterns shift in the span of a few days here. The day I arrived here, September 3rd, the sun set at 2047 local time, which was a first in my life. And the mornings were adequately warm in the late 20's and early 30's (which is quite warm enough to get people to complain in this part of the world). And in a couple of weeks, it slowly dipped enough to feel good again before it rose into the mid 30's for the hottest days in the year making people say, "What we are seeing now should have been August and not October!!!"

1930, September 14 2011. Venue of the Benfica - Man U match.

And just a week after that, there came the first rains and the temperatures dipped a further 10 degrees in the span of 36 hours and people were beginning to take out their thermal wears. It hovers around 18-19 in the morning to drop down to 11-12 by night, largely cloudy and windy. Late sunrises have become a part of life compared to Madras where the latest the sun would rise was at 0615.

Late sunrises. 0730, Mid October. View from my window.

View from my balcony at 1430, the first rains.

And today was a new personal record when the sun set at 1738 and it was pitch dark by 1755.

City of God (2011)

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 23:16:00 +0000

Mafia and Kochi have an instant connect with the average malayali. And so is the life of the migrant tamizhan in Kerala. And when you have a colossal movie of the same name set in Rio de Janeiro, you just got to get your act together. And City of God doesn't disappoint you. Prithviraj is a serious contender for being numer uno and he proves it yet again. Notwithstanding the raw theme, I love almost everything about this movie - even the villain. Cocktail, Chaappa Kurish and this one down, the newly found experimental mode of movie making in malayalam cinema is on the rise.

Now Playing:

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:19:00 +0000

Outcast Vocals 2 and Neha Nair (performing in the video clips below) work like magic for me. Just when I know things are not going the right way, I play this clip and by the end of the 8 minutes of the song, I know I am back to being my usual self. Her forte is in improvising the old malayalam and tamil classics to suit the listeners of the modern day. Its light and breezy with minimal orchestra.And when you have an electrifying voice backing up the song, the power of her music becomes indeed amazing. So much so that after my recommendation, my marathi friend got head over heels for her music and is a proud devotee! :P Now that I have effectively managed to sell you her brand of music, enjoy the clips. :)

The all new Facebook Block feature

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 07:24:00 +0000

The all new Facebook block feature has taken it to a very literal level. You block someone on Facebook after you unfriend them and then you realize that you are not even left with the traces of them on your feed. The access to their profile is blocked, their comments on a common thread don't appear on your feed and ~~you cannot reverse the blocking action~~ (well you could if you were a pussy ofcourse). Awesome!

In other news, the winter is taking its effect in this part of the world with low to very low intensity intermittent rains. And I am slowly getting into the comforts of my fur coated winter wears now.

On the M.Tech Vs MS debate

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil Menon) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:20:00 +0000

Its almost 2 months in Lisbon and life has undergone a shift of sorts in this time frame. The course work is getting more demanding by the day and it requires much of my focus on a more regular basis. The old days of sailing through the coursework (during the bachelors) is a thing of the past. Though I must admit I am liking the way the academics go about in this part of the globe. Rot learning, as was prevalent in India no longer exists. And there is a distinct relationship between theoretical study and its application in the real space.

Sure it demands more work but I think this works well if you are the kind who detests unreasonable and irrelevant intake of information, much of which becomes useless for the best part of your life ahead. What you get with a master is more of an optimized , no-nonsense holistic approach towards learning. I am not trying to look down on the Indian system of Post graduate education, but I feel this is what works best for me.