auroville pondicherry india .. i wish you grow and prosper.

had written this as one of the first posts on this blog. Putting it back up as one of the last posts. 

Auroville is a little town on the bay of bengal. I first reached there in july 1997. I was wandering around the south of india during the summer break from college and was putting up in REC Trichy ( thank you again arnab ). 

The rain in delhi had been driving me crazy and i just got up and left with a vague memory from school geography lessons, that tamil nadu gets the monsoon in winter. Thats the place to go, i thought and after a joyous celebration in trichy, i was wondering where to go next. 

Then i remembered Shankar, who while teaching us architecture, also dropped little nuggets of information. Shankar had said, that for an architecture student, there are some places that one must visit, auroville, chandigarh, ahmedabad and mumbai. I inquired around, and a few trichy'ites got sober enough for a brief while to tell me how to get there. So with a copy of Amitav Ghosh's Shadowlines, a small canvas bag with a towel n swimming trunks, a pair of sunglasses and few currency notes I took the bus and landed up there. And what I saw opened my eyes. 

After a long long time, I felt the rush of excitement and stimulation of my mind. It had been so long since i was in a place that broke existing conventions, that I had almost given up my own non-conformist attitude and no longer believed there could be an alternative model to the consumerist colonial capitalist paradigm. 

Any story of my life has to start with Auroville...coz auroville gave me back hope. It removed the dark edges that were starting to encroach on my personality. I rejoiced as a child in the sunshine and in the friendship of the people there. I basked in the glorious cloudy days and splashed around merrily in the warm sea. I rode a bicycle through mud tracks and sang songs around a fire with strangers. I asked a pretty girl out to coffee and fell in love with her on a starry night on the beach. 

The defensiveness and edginess that a metropolis breeds in you, disappeared to be replaced by the sheer joy of being alive. To people who ask me, what auroville is...i offer the same reply as do the old aurovillians.... its whatever you want it to be...its a small town that is trying to live peacefully and happily...and you can only understand it if you come down there...and stay there for a few days...do not bring too much money...do not come expecting to drink beer on the beach...do not come to ogle naked white flesh ...do not come to see the sights...come if you want time with yourself...and come if you want just to be alive in a nice place....come if you are tired of anonymity.... It sounds idealistic...and my memories probably make it more so. 

Since then I have gone back countless of times....snatching a few days here and there ...just to immerse myself in the warm celebration of the human spirit that is auroville. I never saw the girl i loved again...the magic sometimes seemed faded....sometimes somethings felt racist, sometimes it felt commercialized into a yogic version of goa...but I kept going back. And yes...it wasnt auroville that had changed...it was me... it just reflected what was inside me.... 

Auroville gave me some of the best friends I made. People who trusted me and opened up like we had known each other our whole lives. I hope someday to go back there and live among the whispering palms once again. 

I hope there still would be chocolate pancakes there....there still would be pretty girls fired up with a passion in life....there would be rootless children who weep with joy at the love they found in auroville...there would be the old man doing pranayam at sunrise on the beach...there would be the happy tamil guy with his two blonde girlfriends feeding him coconuts...there would be stoned dogs hanging around the bedroom window of a italian honeymooning couple who smoked pot like it was food...and always there would be a hot meal in the solar kitchen....an old guitar lying in a corner of the guest house... and thunderstorms lashing a thatched hut under which we would sleep.

Happy Birthday Joe Hill.

Where working people gather, Joe Hill is never far. He would have been 102 today. Below is one of the songs he wrote.

a tall man

I first saw football on TV one summer in Kolkata, at my grandparents house. Something called the world cup was on. A television had just been purchased. The newspaper published a photograph of a knee, and the caption - If you see this knee, kick it. That was 1986, and that was Diego Maradona's knee. The hot summer days flew by, as I watched all the matches I could, and I fell in love with football.

With the advent of cable tv, I started to watch british football on television in the 90's while i worked in a call centre job late at night. After finishing my shift around midnight, I would get home, and would have no social life, but just the television, and it was about 8pm UK time, so I would have some amazing football to watch. I saw Thierry Henry run one night on a small 14 inch tv and I was hooked. Arsenal became my club. A new manager had joined them, from Japan, and he talked like someone from the future. This was all so fascinating. He talked and talked about stuff when they asked him stuff, and he answered in depth, with thought and intelligence. 

As a fan, all I can say is that Arséne Wenger gave us fans something to be proud of. For the past decade, rival club supporters and then some of Arsenal's supporters, started to taunt us in earnest. On the field we were being kicked off and the referees and moneymen were bullying us. Off the field, we were bullied by those who did so, just because they could. 

I have watched and listened hungrily to the press conference of Arséne for most of his 22 yrs at this club and seen every match if not live on tv, then a recording.It became something that reminded me of those days, when I was struggling to make a career, alone in a big city, living in a crummy little room and working insane hours. Arsenal was a living presence in my life, something to look forward to, a tribe to belong to, values to adhere to and a mythology was being built. For 10 yrs a winning team strode rampant on the footballing scene and then Arsene moved on. He started to build the club itself. That was the scale of his ambition. 

I do not doubt for a minute, that Arséne deviated from those values. A lot of the magic came from his behind the scenes work, and brick by brick, a value system, style and ethos was built up. Of course there were foundations, and a glorious past, not denying that.

However, from head to toe, from the laces on the boots to the light on top of the stadium, Arséne transformed the club. He made it future ready and fully equipped for the current age. This was one of the most amazing sustained professional jobs executed by any professional. Even the Taj Mahal was built in 20 yrs.

Well Played Sir!!

My Only True Friend (OFFICIAL VIDEO) | Gregg Allman - Southern Blood

Gregg Allman, part of the Allman Brothers Band.

A legend and a musician.

Left the earth recently.

Left behind a song to remember him by.

Salut. 

Venkys, Blackburn and the Premier League - Part of the plan?

• Venkys has been somewhat of a sudden star in the Indian business horizon. A few years ago, no-one had heard of them. Then they sponsored Trinidad and Tobago in the Champions League ( the cricket version that complements the IPL ). There was some favourable media press about how they were touched by this brave team, which did not have a sponsor. The T&T team played the whole tournament with Venkys written on their chest, and all of India scratched their heads, wondering who Venkys was, coz none of their products or their logo was familiar to the average Indian.

  They are listed on the stock exchange and their total market cap looks like 70 M USD. Looking at that I wonder how they passed the fit and proper person test. The total market cap of the group is say 50M pounds, and they sell Phil Jones and Samba for more than half that amount. It sounds lopsided.

  Ask any Indian, and they would tell you that the Reddy's are not stupid. They might be the cleverest of all businessmen you would have known. They did not go into this with their eyes closed. They bought something that was not in their league, by being at the right place at the right time, and making the right noises.

  The first job was to get rid of costs. So expensive players, managers, staff etc will be let go. Relegation or promotion doesnt affect them. I am sure the underlying asset, property, stadium, brand value etc will be comfortably more than their investment, so there is no way they can make a loss.

  Relegation helps by making things even easier. All players that can get a buyer will be sold, with noises about building a team for the future. If money is invested, it will be in tangible assets, improvements to stadium, purchase of training ground etc. They invested 23M in the takeover and say another 20M in clearing debts. They have already sold players for about that amount, so that means whatever remains cost them nothing.

  Now that it costs nothing, and there's still Yakubu, Pederson etc to be sold, they seem to be sitting pretty. If the club also owns property and physical assets, that is almost like a 100% profit in 2 years.

Barca Milan ... a tale of two cities

There are 3 parts to this debate -

1. Barcelona's performance - Oscar worthy. Defence is pretty rocky, though Mascherano intercepts well. Puyol is just a few games away from a downhill slide and Valdes is a shaky GK. No forwards of note and pretty bad finishing. Xavi on the verge of decline, Fabregas still a pretender. Busquets, Alves etc do the dirty work, but have lost their cutting edge. Iniesta playing with purpose and skill while Messi seems to be getting a little predictable as defenders mostly make him go around them, and try and nick the ball. Without Messi or Iniesta this team is far below the levels they were playing at a year or two ago.

2. Milan's performance - Thiago Silva, Mark Van Bommel, Zambrotta, Gattusso and Pato missing. So probably this was the best they could do. Seedorf, Nocerino, Boateng and even Robinho showed they belonged at this level, while Abbiati was the better GK by far. Tactically weaker game in second leg, as they should have relied on booting the ball upfield, since Ibra can hold up the ball well, and also Barca take their own sweet time in bring the ball forward. Mexes was not able to cut it while Nesta and Ambrosini faded away. They should take heart from their performance, as the only field goal Barca scored was from a lucky deflection that fell at the feet of Iniesta.

3. Referee's performance - As a neutral, his decision to award the 2nd penalty, spoilt the contest which was setup for a nervy tiki-taka vs italian defending stage. It would have been fun to watch, and wish he had made them retake the corner and maybe showed a few cards. Calling Robinho for handball was a cringeworthy moment, and exposed his bias clearly. Either he had lost patience with Milan, or was just giving everything the Barca protestors wanted...but for a 10-20 minute spell, he just lost it. Ruined a good match, after 3 halves of great football, which had left the match excitingly poised. UEFA should be answerable for their choice of referee for such a occasion.

a brand new day

These days am getting very interested in Brands and how a brand is built. Its a fascinating subject, and seems to have replaced religion as a community identifier among todays urban youth. Are Apple stores the new temples, and the new product launches with queues outside the new piligrimages. Something is happening here, and you dont know what it is ....do you ....mr jones / samsung / blackberry / microsoft / google ? Just being a popular brand is no longer enough.....you need to be loved with a sufi like intensity it seems. As the Brand Consulting firm Industree says on its blog -

Just like new product slogans or campaigns are referred to Legal before being finalised, corporate communication and marketing/sales activities might benefit from a layer of brand advisory which functions independently of pressures, and is staffed by competent experts with exposure to multiple brands and the science of brand building..

read the rest here

if "You Gotta Curse Someboy"

if you gotta curse somebody....if you gotta rant...this is how you do it -

bobdylanstyle-

the last paragraph is amazingly blunt -

"And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead."

Full lyrics -

Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly.

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain.

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion'
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud.

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins.

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do.

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead.

dotcom entrepreneurs from roorkee....about time

this website ...is a nice idea...just like facebook allows you to stay in touch with your friends without having to jhelo them face to face... now you can do the same with your neighbours....

interesting that 25 yr old from roorkee are showing up in the young entrepreneur brigade..... the winds of change managed to sweep away some of the cobwebs in the laidback old alma mater it seems...or is this the exception that proves the rule...

Familiar College Blues

Nice stuff on the IT BHU page on facebook....would be familiar to most ex hostelers...

You know you went to ITBHU in the '90s when:
1. Mochu was the biggest food brand you knew
2. Munna Maharaj was the best chef
3. You ate aloos till you resembled one
4. Lankating was your favorite sport
5. Girls were the beings that did not resemble men (in an obvious manner) and were few and far in between
6. All your afternoons were spent at corners, Limbdi, Rajputana etc.
7. Grass was not green
8. Bhoot stories abound esp around DG and Morvi hostel
9. Everyone south of Vindhyas was a Makku
10. You had a nickname you don?t want to remember
11. Maggus were half the class population
12. Tattas were not round objects
13. Everything was arbit
14. Mandir was for drinking shakes and generally lounging
15. Jawani series movies were hot and had some decent following
16. Mastram was your fav author
17. GRE was the ticket to success and GRE scores were your achievement
18. Endless nights spent on discussing useless things
19. Career was a something you got with a job (usually with Infosys)
20. Topo was your strategy for passing sems and tests
21. At least 100 males had a crush on 1 female
22. Ayn Rand was your philosophy teacher
23. La Be La was your favorite Chinese restaurant (& for some their fav dating place)
24. Talli till death was your favorite pastime
25. PLD was a nice to have title

nice coffee architecture

http://gizmodo.com/5361661/mcdonalds-lamp-post-makes-me-doubt-my-mental-sanity-even-more

nice article about auroville

http://business.in.com/article/work-in-progress/commerce-in-a-cocoon/3722/1

how dare he have a sense of humor

?Absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows,? Mr Tharoor had replied to a question on whether he would travel ?cattle class? to Kerala the next time.

Mr. Tharoor is a minister in the Union Cabinet and an author of best selling books.

Humor and politics, can they mix ?

metro-politan

 

the heart of new gurgaon...metropolitan mall with a metro station in front.

playground images

 

playing by the side of the road...making mudcakes...

view in the rear view

 

best way to ride a scooter when you are small

view from window in gurgaon

 

bet no one would believe that one day sleepy old gurgawa would have a view from the window like this.

strange designs for sinks

http://weburbanist.com/2009/09/13/15-more-spectacular-sinks-strange-wash-basin-designs/

Street Pics - Connaught Place, Delhi

 

 

 

 

mumbai buildings going hep

amazing new shapes in poor old mumbai.... read here