The alter ego

As I write this blog I clearly see my alter ego come alive. The murkiness and gloom that surrounds me seems to wither away as words take shape. The happiness and mirth are a little less joyous and have an undertone of sarcasm. As I write I see myself as another person, a person telling a tale. As I write, I read, in the eye of an espoused reader.

The magical fascination of the alter ego crosses the divine path of the sub-conscious to gather strength in the reality of an unreal world. As I describe,  my alter ego invites a fascination to the many subtleties that  make up the imaginary. As I read my posts I see the writer emerge to discuss philosophies and the train of thought. There are corrections made and small pauses as I think to write. The train of thought deviates only to emerge again stronger than ever.

As we all struggle to make decisions in life so does my writing, it takes many forms. The simple to the subtle, the sarcastic to humorous, many a times merging the many tastes. My alter ego evolves to find its footing and explore the exquisite beauty of writing in a known language. There are simplistic and straight-forward expressions with no hinted metaphors or sarcasm, and there are times I am talking in a cryptic language feigning an appearance I don't wish to reveal to the untrained eye.

There is a certain pleasure I derive from writing, a warm feeling if you wish. The travails of my life and thought may not be interesting or even worth chronicling to any other person. The alter ego emerges only to deviate myself from this train of thought and give way to the whimsical and contemplative writer in me.      

The alter ego is taking shape.

Food over Theater

This post is from an email I received from Ram, all credit goes to the original writer.

Our chief entertainment correspondent just sent me a message saying 3 idiots has grossed Rs.175 crores ! A movie with an investment of Rs 50 crores makes this amount in just two weeks? Fantastic, I am very happy for Amir, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who I think have worked very hard over several years and continue to take their work very seriously. Now the new controversy generated by Chetan Bhagat will help them to even further attract audience attention to their latest 'product'. But suddenly one question ( which a lot of people may find totally unrelated but I still want to raise it) that hits me is, why does urban India that spends Rs 175 crores on one film in two weeks at an average of Rs 300 per ticket, complaining so much about inflation and specially high prices of food grains? If we are so happy paying Rs 300 for a single movie-ticket, why complain so much about paying Rs 40 for a kilo of sugar?

I must make it clear that I am a firm believer in free market and open economy and I don't want to blame the entertainment industry for some of the questions that I am going to raise or the sad situation that I am going to portray in this piece. Yet I just hope to point out to the readers some of the idiosyncrasies of today's consumer-centric and market-driven economy in urban India that nobody seems to be talking about.

Fifteen years ago when I used to ride a motorbike and watch over ten movies a month, a litre of petrol for my bike used to cost Rs 17 and the movie ticket was Rs 20. Today I drive a car and watch maybe two movies a  month in multiplexes: the fuel cost has gone up about three times to about Rs 50 a litre and the movie ticket is Rs 250-Rs 300, that's over twelve times! And nobody seems to be complaining!

The middle and higher middle class of India which is now over Rs 25 crore seems to be spending on entertainment like never before which is great, I have no problem, my only issue is the same middle class wants to put pressure on the government thru media and opposition political parties to control the prices of food products, why? Do we have our priorities right? A friend of mine who works in rural areas on farmers issues asks "why do Mumbai consumers complain so much when the price of milk goes up from Rs26 to Rs28 rupees a liter, if they don't mind paying Rs 12 for a bottle of water", I have no answer. If packaged water gets sold in Mumbai for Rs 12, shouldn't milk be at least three times that price?

Another friend of mine told me an interesting story. A corporate czar based in Mumbai a couple of years ago it seems gave a presentation to his 'senior management team' about future investments. He kept showing a 'priority chart' on his presentation screen, where various sectors were shown from top priority to bottom priority. At the top of the chart was entertainment and media (not real estate!) and at the bottom was agriculture! If that was (and maybe still is) the corporate mindset in urban India, one can imagine what the future of food production will be. Are we going to replace food with movies in the future?

Today agriculture continues to be the most ignored and underestimated sector in this country. We seem to be taking food security for granted.But that may change very fast. We may see a lot of more farmers quitting farming and moving to jobs in cities.We may see a lot of agricultural land being converted to SEZs or industrial / residential land and that will lead to a major drop in food production. The government at central level has now started reacting to this trend and doing a few things to ensure that the farmer gets a better price and agriculture can become a sustainable profession but that may be too little coming too late. The science of agro-economy in India is too complex and I am neither an expert nor do I have the space and time to right now to go into all the analysis and answers to many problems the agro sector faces but one of the big problems experts tell me is the reluctance of the consumers to accept and pay a realistic price for agro produce.

Whenever there is price rise, it becomes a political issue and government steps in to ensure prices don't go up beyond a point (and the farmer remains poor). Obviously the solutions are not easy and the chain of traders and middlemen make things even more complicated. But some mindset change is surely needed to ensure we either set our priorities right to solve the problem to atleast some extent or pay a heavy price in the future. The last thing we want to see is farmers quitting agriculture to become junior artistes in Bollywood!

The Beach

There is a quite turpitude as I move my foot towards the beach. It is not because I am harping on some mischief or some other vague notion of self-indulgence. The waves touch my feet and run back leaving wet sand piled up in the webbings. A surreal feeling, and enhanced sense of pleasure is only bettered by the rushing sound of the sea. I would give away many moments to relive one of these.

The beaches across India are treasured, a place of divine natural beauty and the calm sea. The sand is soft and very fine with a quality comparable to a 1957 chateau. The remarkable serenity in the beach puts my mind at ease and gives me a definite answer. The waves are crashing on the shore day on day, throughout the year, incessantly. The sea tells me come back again and I shall still be here hitting the shore gently and pulling away.

The beauty of floating in the beach submerged in water letting the waves carry you, not bothering to do anything but read and eat. I take some time out to play for a while and get back to the sea. As the sea envelops me I am myself again. The searing sun does not hurt me anymore, the salt and sand make for a heady mix.

A blissful lunch and I spread myself under the shade of a coconut tree listening to nothing but the wind. A few hours go by and I am still under the coconut tree, the azure sky taunting me, I close my eyes again. As the evening comes a small campfire and a violin makes the cold wind warm and romantic. The serenading songs are enough to tickle my wanderlust, out with the torches in hopes of catching the nightfall in the rocks above. In a few moments darkness envelops the sea and turns her hostile. The lighthouse far out throws a beam for the boats and ships. I move in for a game of carrom and some scrumptious dinner. The reggae music in the background can only life the spirits and transcend heaven and earth.

This account of "paradise" only brings back memories and nostalgia.

Growing Up

On growing up, in many ways we only grow old and never grow up. There are times of clarity and transcending thoughts which makes me realize the time I have spent. The magical moments are lost on the mirth and generally remind me of the good times. My first fight, the first time I rode my bicycle, my first crush. Among the things I cherish are these memories, they come back to haunt you and tell you of the days you have left behind. The people you have left behind in this arduous journey of life.

As I have grown up I have become more independent, more responsible and more mature. at least the convention warrants it. The joys of my childhood are not lost on me and many of my friends can vouch for this. Growing up for me has meant being more like a kid, I am more possessive, I hate losing more than ever, I crib and play pranks and still enjoy the general innocence people bring with them. In essence I am more a kid now than I was when I was a kid.

The iota of independence and freedom growing up brings is the a breeze of fresh air, and I am using the term breeze because it lasts only so long. The sense of pseudo independence fast withers away to bring the gloom of financial planning and careful career considerations. A multitude of things to deal with, a first taste of office politics, tax that bites your wallets and almost certainly an annoying boss. These are some of the many firsts I would rather not have experienced. At least not till I had grey hair or no hair and traveled the world extensively.

Among all the agony and pain growing up brings I can only remember this famous quote " growing old is inevitable but growing up is optional". Hear Hear

Organized clutter

The moment you step into my room you will see a lot of things strewn across. The main ingredients are unwashed laundry and parchments of lesser significance. A few books I am currently coursing through, a bunch of CDs and storage devices. As the new year marched in I thought of cleaning it up and getting organized, lest  the potential visitors be put to shame over the shabby living conditions of a well to do software engineer.

As I rummaged through my CDs to put together I happened to chance on a collection og Dylan songs. The urge to listen to some Dylan was of course irresistible and I decided to put off my spring cleaning for a while. A few minutes later I picked up my first Freud lying perilously on the edge ready to tumble down at the slightest touch.

The magic of procrastination got the better of me and I totally forgot about cleaning up my desk. The laundry had been thankfully picked by mum for washing. My maid even makes a point of not touching anything in room when she comes into clean. After a while mum picked up most of the stuff on my desk and put them away in drawers. I am guessing she was fed up of the eyesore my room had grown into, she generally dislikes my maintenance and upkeep policies.

Well I had stepped out for a while to cater to my wandering mind and the long holidays. After coming back from a stroll looking at my room I figured out I had a lesson in cleanliness coming my way. Well there was only one problem now, I didn't know where everything was put away. It might have been a good fifteen minutes before I found my Ipod stacked away in my drawer. The book I was currently reading was at the bottom of the pile and I still haven't found the Floyd disc. The lesson in all this, clean your room before you mum does, it takes 15 minutes anyways. I figure it is much better than losing things among the organized clutter.