The first time I bunked class

It was the year 1986, can't remember the exact month and day, but it was around the time Pope John Paul II had visited India.

The KG school I attended was a little distance from across the road, from my then apartment block (which still is the first building if you enter Panaji from the South).

Mom walked me to school as usual that day. After a while, at the time the Pope's motorcade was to pass by that road, my teachers herded all of us across the road and made us wave flags as the Pope passed by.

Since we were on my side of the road, on the ground where I'd spend my evenings, my four years old, barely trained neural network associated that it was time to go back home, so I walked straight back home, only to have may dad reach me back to school. I can only guess now that my teachers must've got into big time trouble for not having a head count done.

Yes, I did bunk class for the first time in upper kindergarten!

After that I bunked a few classes in class 10 (only those there was no point in attending).

In college, I patiently sat through well above 75% (actually 95% is more like it) of the lectures. To be honest, I hated it whenever there was any strike and I'd miss lectures taken by a few of the faculty.

In IITD, were I to have bunked, as they'd say in Hindi, "main apni aukat se aage nikal jata".

I must say thank you, Your Holiness, John Paul II !

A walk in the rain

The overcast late evening sky,

The gentle downpour steadily growing heavier,

People scurrying for cover on the crowded street,

You and I …

Walking together, shoulder to shoulder,

Feeling your long hair on my umbrella carrying hand,

Your smile like sunshine,

If this isn’t heaven, then what is?

One of the things that really annoy me...

It doesn't take a lot to annoy me, but I get really annoyed with a phrase that is in common use nowadays, everywhere I've been. The phrase is 'anyways', as against anyway. Beats me how it came into use. Whenever someone uses it while talking to me, I have to restrain myself from making my annoyance known. Thats a phrase to avoid if you want to make a good impression on me...

The Two Forums

There was, or rather is, a city called Rome, which was one of the first centers of civilization (until a certain teutonic barbarian pulled off, as I believe, the biggest deception in history, in the 3^rd century. Strange as it may sound, at least a billion people are still fooled about it. But lets leave that for a future post … ).

At the heart of Rome was the Forum – a place where temples, government buildings, the senate, … basically all the important buildings were located. The popular comic series, the adventures of Asterix the Gaul, contains references to the Forum, though its not actually portrayed.

In contemporary times, there is a city in India called Bengaluru or Bangalore, if you like, which is known the world over as the IT capital. Around half the population, including myself, are immigrants from other lands.

Recently when I’d been home in Panaji, all that my cousins were asking me was about the pubs, discotheques and malls of B’lore. The idea they all have of B’lore is that its full of these places, and that it is a ‘bold’ place where, well, anything and everything goes. One really cannot blame them for having these notions. Hailing from Goa, I understand perfectly well, what its like to have your homeland ruined and its image tarnished by tourists.

It is a fact that B’lore has a large population of ‘young’ people working in the software industry, many of whom come to B’lore and start earning, just after (engineering) college. The vast majority of us lives away from our families, and also experience freedom (out of distance?) for the first time.

It is important to note that most of the engineers who graduate from Indian schools are, well, not the most disciplined in the world. I don’t even want to talk about it. Imagine, what would happen when such people get their hands on cash and the lifestyle they can now support. Trust me, the result is chaos. I personally know people who cannot live without going to malls, the movies, amusement parks and the like on a regular (even daily) basis.

This kind of lifestyle is exemplified by one place in B’lore, quite un-aptly named ‘The Forum’. Typical weekend talk: “Lets all meet at forum at 19:00, ok?” “Cool.”

Oh sorry, its more like through SMS, “lets al mt @ 4rum @ 7, ok?” -> Send to many.