On reading

Four years ago, I took up Goodread's annual reading challenge and set a target of 36 books. I was quite confident that I would finish much more than 36 (three books per month). By the way, that confidence wasn’t backed by any past history (just my overconfidence). Twelve months came and went, but I completed only 5-6 books. Next year, I kept the same target; only to fail once more. Next year, target was reduced to 12 - and still fell short. Finally, this year, I decided not to set any target at all!!!

I’m not a voracious reader, but I do enjoy reading. If it’s a thrilling novel, an interesting work of fiction, or even biographies (that doesn’t try too hard to showcase the author’s command over language), I can finish it quickly. But when it comes to business, non-fiction, or self-improvement books - often written in dense, heavy language - turning the pages becomes a struggle. More often end up leaving those books half way and end up just another entry in my book shelf.

With the explosion of content in YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other numerous apps; people’s attention spans reduced considerably. Reading books, however, is not about quick consumption — it requires committed, focused, quality time. The real question is, are we still willing to invest that time and find joy in it or just run after another two minute video?

At office, we have a book club. Out of nearly 900 employees, only about 25-30 show up for monthly meetings. Organizers tried different strategies to increase participation, but without any success. This may not be the case everywhere, but I seriously doubt if many book clubs see their membership grow significantly over time.

Amazon, which started as a platform to sell books, still sells plenty of them, as do many other companies. Yet, with the rise of social media, infinite scrolling, and an ever-growing number of online creators, more people are hooked to the instant gratification of videos rather than the slow, deep world of books.

I must admit, I too consume a lot of online videos on politics, travel, technology, interviews, movies, long and short clips of different kinds. But after moving to new home recently, I thought of subscribing to a few print magazines. Electronic formats save paper and environmentally friendly; but reading a magazine end to end on web is not same as reading a printed copy. Sites  like Audiable are great too, but I often find myself forgetting the beginning by the time I reach the end. This may not be the case for everyone, but it is for me.

So, I finally subscribed to Mathrubhumi daily newspaper and its weekly magazine; also India Today, Caravan, and a couple of others. Last week, Mathrubhumi Weekly arrived with its Onam supplement, and I’ve been reading both in my free time. To my own surprise, my screen time has dropped significantly, and I now find myself turning more pages under the balcony light at midnight than staring at a mobile screen.

I don’t know if this phase will pass and I’ll drift back to binge-watching Netflix, Jio Hotstar or Amazon Prime. But for now, I’m trying to be more selective about online content and hoping to increase (or at least maintain) my current level of reading printed books and magazines.

Sajeev

The Search Dilemma: When to stop looking and just choose

Which one to select?

Throughout history, we were often concerned about not having enough choices. Options were so limited that making a decision was easy. For example, during the License Raj era (pre-reform period) in Inida, there were only a couple of car models to choose from—just like with most other consumer goods. Essentially, we weren’t burdened by an overwhelming number of choices. But globalization and global supply chains changed everything. Now, if you want to buy something—say, a washing machine— we have a lot of options - wire rage of brands, types, models, and features. Sometimes, at the same price, there might be multiple options with nearly identical specifications. The dilemma is what to pick, in a reasonable time?  

Take watching a movie, for example. During late dinners, we often put on a movie on YouTube. I try to pick a good one, so I search — a lot!!! Every time I am about select one, there is another one to its right, then another one. Then probably another seach. This goes on for so long that, Divya often complains that by the time I finally pick something, dinner might be over. I tell her, 'in a minute' and keep scrolling — by which time she might have already finished eating. And in the end, the movie I settle on is usually no better than the first one I came across. The same thing happens on Prime Video and Netflix. Since I’ve already watched most of the best-rated (Oscar winning) movies, I keep searching for one with great IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes reviews—spending an absurd amount of time just picking something to watch.

It’s not just movies. During long drives, I often need to stop for lunch/dinner but keep on skipping restaurants, thinking a better one is just ahead—only to end up at a place similar to the ones I passed. A couple of times, I’ve even reached areas with no restaurants left and had to drive all the way to the next town to find one.  

Once, while driving from Gandikota to Bangalore, fuel level dropped well below a quarter tank. I skipped a couple of petrol pumps for no specific reason, thinking I’d fill up at the next one. But later there were less stations and then ones I found just had diesel. Some were even closed. I started getting worried, but there was still some fuel left—I could keep going a bit longer. Then we entered a forested area!!! Forget petrol pumps—there was barely anyone around!!! The road was empty, and fuel level dropped to a dangerously low point. Luckily, just as we exited the forest, I spotted a petrol pump at a Y-junction; never been so relieved to see a fuel station in my life. 

A few days ago, I faced the same struggle while picking an audiobook from Amazon’s collection. I browsed title after title, spending an unnecessary amount of time searching. That’s when I realized something had to change — I couldn’t keep wasting so much time just for looking. The real question is: when do you stop searching and just pick something?  

Yesterday, I decided to set a time limit—search for a while and then pick whatever seems good within that timeframe. So, I did just that, found an audiobook, and started listening. A lot of decisions in life is not a life-or-death questions; if the book, movie, or series turns out to be boring or bad, we can always stop and switch to another. That’s far better than endlessly searching and failing to decide.

Do you have any strategies for this? How do you decide when to stop searching and pick one?

Interestingly, mathematicians have an algorithm for this dilemma, famously known as the 'Optimal Stopping Problem' or 'The Secretary Problem'. If you’re curious, you can read more about it in "Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions" by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths.

Sajeev

Book of life - 6

Today marks the completion of the second month of this year; a good time to reflect on the progress of this year's New Year resolutions.

I often heard, one can get motivated by an inspirational story, a book, an incident etc. and get a transformative life experience. While I concur with the former; I would like to disagree with the latter. Despite the wide spread belief, perpetuated through countless biographies and movies, that one profound encounter can create a radical shift, my observations over time have led me to a different conclusion. I think if a single incident transformed everything in a person's life, then its an exception rather than a rule. People typically do not undergo a sudden transformation of their core beliefs simply because someone imparts a compelling message. There needs to be a sustained momentum. 

For e.g. I can watch a motivational movie like 'Rudy' n number of times and still persist in my established ways. I can read 'The Alchemist' cover to cover, enjoy the feel good factor for sometime, and then back to my normal ways. Even bad experience, don't bring in 360 degree transformation. Change, in my view, is not the consequence of a single impactful event but arises from sustained efforts comprising countless endeavors. The reason for this argument is tied to the New Year resolutions I took over past fourteen years. My friend Gokul often jests about my new year pledges and the struggles to hold it over coming months. Earlier, I broke many of these pledges within weeks of taking it; but I was very reluctant to agree on the same. Often I came up with wired justifications that, its not broken. 

Does New Year pledges hold intrinsic value? Can we truly improve ourselves by adhering to principles or embracing a motivational lifestyle? Certainly, but the transformative journey is seldom instantaneous, like the clock strikes midnight and new day starts. Change is a demanding process that necessitates passion, patience, and an incremental approach. Altering habits, for instance, is more effectively achieved through gradual progress, recognizing that setbacks may occur, requiring a restart, but each attempt positions us in a better place.

Reflecting on past years, I may successfully followed a couple of pledges; but rest all are broken at one point of other. However, it's crucial to emphasize that even in instances of perceived failure, New Year pledges did make some improvements in life. Therefore, my advice is to strive for a 100% adherence to your pledges, but if broken, don't be disheartened – you're still in a better place than where you began.

Sajeev

Book of Life - 5

The day came and went quickly. In the morning, there were so many things on the to-do list. By night, most of them were done. It's so rare that I was able to put a tick mark across most to-do items. However, in the night when I sat back and took stock of things, there was no sense of achievement. Was I chasing ghosts? Or was I eating the sweetest frog first instead adhering to Brian Tracy's counsel to confront the ugliest one first?

When I went through the articles about recent world events, an interesting pattern came to my attention. The first event was the climate summit (COP28) just finished in Dubai, and the second one was the cease-fire in Gaza. Regarding COP28, it was hosted by UAE, which is ironic because the summit aimed to save the world from increasing carbon emissions, and the UAE is one of the largest producers of fossil fuel. UAE's interest is aligned with the continuing use of fossil fuel. The irony didn't end there; the president of the summit also has a full-time job as the head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)!

The second event, the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, was brokered neither by the UN (the world organization supposed to stop wars), nor the US, EU, Egypt (Rafa crossing is between Egypt and Gaza), nor Jordan (which ruled the West Bank until 1967). Instead, it was brokered by Qatar. If one follows the news from the Middle East for a while, it's clear that Qatar is everywhere. They even brokered the mediation between the Taliban and the US in Doha during the US exit from Afghanistan. Now, if you look at Qatar, its size is slightly larger than the tiny Indian state of Tripura, and it has 3-4 hundred thousand native citizens who hold the passport. That is not the point; the point is, Qatar is the 4th or 5th richest country (by per capita GDP), and they are ready to use their wealth. As we all know, wealth also brings much power and opens doors if you are ready to use it.

Sajeev

Note: 

1, ADNOC is the 12th largest oil producer by volume!!! 

2, Egypt is the only country other than Israel which shares border with Gaza. Also Egypt controlled Gaza strip from 1948 to 1967.

3. West Bank- the other bigger Palestinian territory - was ruled by Jordan till 1967. 

4, Qatar population is 2,532,104 (2023 est.) out of that Qataris are just 11.6%

Book of Life - 4

I finally finished 'Annihilation of Caste' by B.R. Ambedkar. One may or may not agree with his thoughts, but I strongly believe people should read this speech at least once.

Later, I picked up Richard Feynman's 'What Do You Care What Other People Think?'. I liked the book immediately. He started with his childhood days and how his father explained concepts to him, and how he began looking at things for what they are. There are some interesting incidents, such as finding a logical explanation for miracles mentioned by priests. On another occasion as a child, he believed in a story until the narrator admitted to spiking it to get attention. After hearing this the kid started crying. The book later goes through the courtship with his wife, their subsequent marriage, and the initial misdiagnosis of her disease. The misdiagnosis occurred because the doctors overlooked an obvious disease that explained her symptoms.

A good portion of the book is dedicated to explaining his role as a member of the presidential commission investigating the shuttle accident. It discusses how information did not move up the chain of command and how often and easily the data and opinions provided by people directly working on the machines and engineers on the ground were disregarded. There is a part where Feynman asks a group and their manager to write down the probability of shuttle accident; while engineers wrote a possible value, their manager provided an impossible probability. It's really insightful to read about how their commission worked.

Without telling you about 'Feynman's Lectures on Physics,' this is not complete. I heard about this book a long time ago when I was in senior secondary. During my first year in college, I found this book in the post-graduation section of the library. This book had a reputation for explaining physics concepts in simple, understandable terms. The problem was that the book was in English, and for someone like me who went through the vernacular medium (i.e., Malayalam) throughout school life, it was not an easy task to go through a book purely due to my interest in physics. I wish these books were translated into local languages and available in all libraries. That time, I read the first book in the series and then left it on the rack.

Sajeev

Book of Life - 3

I subscribed to Audiable sometime back. It didn't turn out the way I expected. Hearing a book read by someone else is totally different compared to self-reading. However, I kept the subscription and over a period, heard a few audio books. The last one I added to library was - 'Ambedkar's India'. It’s a collection of three works by B. R. Ambedkar. Yesterday, I started listening to the second work in that series, the famous speech from Ambedkar which was never delivered!!! - The annihilation of caste. 

The irony is caste was never annihilated; instead, politicians/religious leaders etc. from all spectra used it to accumulate wealth and power. There were many improvements, many states in India witnessed the formation of new social contracts between castes. However, this didn’t extend across the length and breadth of the country. In some cases, when previously downtrodden caste became the elite, they didn’t help the castes which are still below them in social order to come up. 

I am yet to finish the book. Some of my favorite lines are, 

"..who repeats the dogma of Mill that one country is not fit to rule another country, must admit that one class is not fit to rule another class..."

"..India, where the priest holds a sway over the common man often greater than that of the magistrate, and where everything, even such things as strikes and elections, so easily takes a religious turn and can so easily be given a religious twist.."

"Caste System is not merely a division of labour. It is also a division of labourers...in no civilized society is division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into watertight compartments. The Caste System is not merely a division of labourers which is quite different from division of labour—it is a hierarchy in which the divisions of labourers are graded one above the other. In no other country is the division of labour accompanied by this gradation of labourers..."

"..The ancestors of the present-day English fought on one side or the other in the Wars of the Roses and the Cromwellian War. But the descendants of those who fought on the one side do not bear any animosity—any grudge—against the descendents of those who fought on the other side. The feud is forgotten.." 

Well you know what is happening in India now!!! Descendants are fighting over things which happened centuries ago!!!

"Chaturvarnya, it seems to me that the system is neither fool-proof nor knave-proof. What is to happen if the Brahmins, Vaishyas, and Kshatriyas fail to pursue knowledge, to engage in economic enterprise, and to be efficient soldiers, which are their respective functions? Contrarywise, suppose that they discharge their functions, but flout their duty to the Shudra or to one another; what is to happen to the Shudra if the three classes refuse to support him on fair terms, or combine to keep him down? Who is to safeguard the interests of the Shudra—or for that matter, those of the Vaishya and Kshatriya—when the person who is trying to take advantage of his ignorance is the Brahmin? Who is to defend the liberty of the Shudra—and for that matter, of the Brahmin and the Vaishya—when the person who is robbing him of it is the Kshatriya?

"...although there are castes among Non-Hindus, as there are among Hindus, caste has not the same social significance for Non-Hindus as it has for Hindus. Ask a Mohammedan or a Sikh who he is. He tells you that he is a Mohammedan or a Sikh, as the case may be. He does not tell you his caste, although he has one; and you are satisfied with his answer. When he tells you that he is a Muslim, you do not proceed to ask him whether he is a Shiya or a Suni; Sheikh or Saiyad; Khatik or Pinjari. When he tells you he is a Sikh, you do not ask him whether he is Jat or Roda, Mazbi or Ramdasi. But you are not satisfied, if a person tells you that he is a Hindu. You feel bound to inquire into his caste. Why? Because so essential is caste in the case of a Hindu, that without knowing it you do not feel sure what sort of a being he is..."

Well, I am not going to quote more here. The link at the end has full text and Ambedkar’s reason on why he was not able to deliver the speech. By the way, the last paragraph reminded me of an incident which happened probably a decade ago at Baroda Railway station. I reached the station very early in the morning and had to spend some time there (to save cost, I used to travel in the night and use railway clock room to keep the luggage while visiting the city) as Palace and other tourist attractions in city will take some more time to open. 

I met a guy here. He was probably coming from Pune and going to his native town, some place bordering Delhi. He completed B.Tech from a famous government college and is now preparing for GATE exams also working for reputed Indian private company as a Chemical engineer or something. As it happened sometime back, I don’t remember all the details. Why I give this otherwise lengthy introduction is to show that he is a product of modern India. 

During the conversation, he asked my name. I told him the first name. He looked at me for some time and asked for the second name. This in fact perplexed me. Other than in government documents or to fill in some form no one ever asked my second name so far!!! I told him that too. He was confused and it looked like he wanted to clarify something but didn’t ask anything. To this day, I am not sure why he asked. My guess is, he may want to find out which caste I belong to. Anyway, my second name is not useful for that purpose. 

Sajeev

You can read Annihilation of Caste here -> Full Text

Book of Life - 2

Usually, if I like the theme, then I watch 'Cut the Clutter' program by Shekhar Gupta during breakfast. Today, while waking up, I opened YouTube and yesterday’s episode was on 'Rezang La'. I read about this battle long back, while reading an article on Major Shaitan Singh who was awarded Param Veer Chakra (PVC) for this battle. 'Rezang La' witnessed one of the fiercest last-stand by Indian army during India-China war of 1962 in western part of high Himalayas. Not getting into the details. Links are available at the end. 

Today afternoon teachers from Divya's mother's school came to visit my daughter. She slept most of the time they were here. However, when they were about to leave, she woke up to say Hi. Had a brief chat with one retired teacher in that group. She recently went to Lakshadweep, Bhutan and Russia. Her mother, who is in the 80s, was one of the energetic participants in their Lakshadweep trip!!! I like to travel, but will I be so physically fit when the 90s touch my door? I don't know. I would like to say yes; and hopefully time will prove me right. Currently I don’t want to think about any other answer. 

You can read about the war here -> Rezang_La and watch Shekhar Gupta's episode here -> 'Cut the Clutter' - Rezang La

Sajeev

Book of Life - 1

Fridays are often good. Day starts with the great expectation of upcoming weekends and day goes by making plans on how to spend the weekends and upcoming long holidays. In the office too people don't schedule meetings on Friday afternoons. Except for an unexpected deployment task, there was nothing scheduled for today. Most used portal on Friday (apart from work) is google maps. I usually go through the length and breadth of India in maps to see where I can plan my next trip. It’s interesting to see some overseas destinations too. However, flights are costly. So need to find a destination which can be reached via overnight train journey, overnight bus journey or up to one and half hour bike journey. Looking around my current location at Malappuram district, nothing much came up. Promising places are either already visited or not possible to reach there by early morning. This means nothing for Saturday, but something is still possible for Sunday. 

One interesting thing about this weekend is, I let all my entertainment plans expire. Amazon Prime, Netflix, Sony, Docubay etc. Disney+Hotstar is probably still there but it’s a been a while since I watched that one. Will I renew some of them, over the weekend to watch a new series? May be; maybe not. I like the not part but it can happen. 

Now looking back at maps finally I selected several places from India's seventeen states. Out of those four are from states which I never visited – UP, HP, Uttarakhand, Assam, Sikkim and Meghalaya. Looking back in history, I think I may not be able to reach even a quarter of the places in the list. However, why should we look back? life is to look forward only!!!

Sajeev

New Impressions

Its been a long time since I posted anything here. Its not that, I didn't try. I did try couple of times, but was not able to bring myself to write a complete article. I can blame it on a lot of things; from writers block to not having time because of my work. Well, deep in my heart; I know that, its not true. As someone told, its all about priorities. Probably it was not my priority to write? or I had other priorities which took more time? To console myself I can say yes. But again I know that, its not true. I did spend a mind blowing number of hours in OTT platforms like Amazon prime etc. So, I can firmly say that its not about availability of time or priorities. Anyway I am not going in to analysis-paralysis mode to find out (or manufacture!!!) the reasons. Better option may be to say, I don't know and move on.

However, this long break did help me to understand more about what I would like write about. Contrary to the existing theme of this blog; it don't have anything to do with defence, foreign policy or politics. Its not that, I am moving away from that. In fact, as per me politics continues (and should continue) to be as the most important theme in anyone's life. How we elect someone to govern us and how they are infact governing us is indeed important. I may continue to pick and choose something from here and there. Being said that, this blog is going to become more personal. Well, don't assume it is going to be a journal or diary for me. It's not. In fact, I am not a person who write either of those and there is no plan to start one. What I meant here is, this blog is going to become a colletion of my journies, my experiences and my opinion on vaious things. So looking forward to start a new chapter here.

Sajeev

Happy New Year - 2021

It is after a while I am writing something; not that I did not get time to write in the last few months. My enthusiasm to write was significantly down. What to write was another question. I thought about educational bills, farm bills, new industrial labor codes, my last Gujrat trip, the India-China standoff in the high Himalayas, and of course COVID-19. There were a lot of topics, but someway it was hard to finish anything. I started with many of them and dropped it in the middle. 

Then came the possibility of restarting everything in 2021. The attraction of new year resolutions was hard to resist. It was my habit for last 15 years to do the ritual of new year resolutions. It is not that I followed through all those resolutions; I was not. I might have implemented 70% of resolutions in two out of those 15 years; for the rest, it may be anywhere around 2-10%. I am not sad about it, at least the ritual resulted in some progress. 

I no longer think the first day of a year is some significant date in life that will change everything; it is not. It is just another date in the calendar. Of course, there may be some internal resistance for not breaking the pledges took on January 1 on January itself. 

In any case, wish a happy new year to all the readers. In case you took any new year resolutions like me, then best wishes for your success. Do not worry if it fails, life gives numerous chances to everyone to reset and restart. 

Sajeev

COVID - Appreciating a slow-moving life

For a long time, I wanted everything to move fast. While I was traveling in bus, I wanted my bus to go fast and overtake all others on the road. While having food, more than enjoying the taste, I wanted to be the first one to complete it. This may give you the wrong impression that I completed a lot of things in life. Well no; I just wanted to complete something quickly and then sit idle or binge-watch movies. It was never about taking another project!!! 

I still remember our 11th class excursion trip to the Nelliyampati forest range in Palakkad district of Kerala. Nelliyampati is a wonderful area to get lost for days. There time moves slowly, nature sings in your ears while pure white cotton clouds massage you. Here one can forget everything about the outside world and just be with yourself. Unfortunately, when I went there, my only objective was to finish all viewpoints and come back first. At that time, it looked like a great achievement. Now, after another decade and a half, when I look back it was one of the stupidest things I did. I wish someone told me those words at that time. I continued the same practice in my numerous journeys across India - always sprinting.

Now stuck at home in this COVID time, I got enough time for reflection. Did I achieve something by sprinting? Honestly, I can't say yes. Slowly that realization is coming to me, life is not sprinting its marathon. Many people told the same sentence before; but unless and until one experiences the same, live through that; it is difficult to understand its true meaning. 

To understand and enjoying the real beauty of a place or to feel the taste of food, one needs to invest time in it. Here you need to spend a currency called time. It is better to do a couple of things right rather than just completing a dozen items. Now I am not jumping from place to place, and trying not to finishing food in seconds, or reading books just to reach my yearly pledge. It is better to take a step back and enjoy it.

Sajeev.

Summer Rains

When sounds started coming from outside, I turned my head back from the tv screen and looked towards the glass door. It was raining outside; clam bright blue skies gave way to darker angry clouds and noises. Soon that vast empty space was filled with little drops of water, followed by a train of the same. I slowly walked towards the door; opened it; and walked to the balcony to embrace the cool wind. After a while, I opened the doors on the other side and took the stairs to reach outside; to see the full fury of summer rain. On my right corner and dead three was standing tall without any leaves. A couple of white-colored birds kissed and said goodbye to that tree.

 At a distance, on the backside, migrant workers shed were drenched by rain; heavy winds hit hardly on its rood made of silver-colored metal sheets. Water filled with mud formed two small streams on both sides of those sheds. A sad sight to see. Building work was supposed to be started sometime back, but COVID outbreak hold it back and laborers were stuck in those tiny metal sheds. I walked towards the other side, there were 4 - 5 pairs of young parents, standing with their kids and talking to each other in Hindi. They let their kids walk a bit to the rain. By this time, rain almost finished her dance; she ran back and hid behind clouds. Those tiny little angels were so happy to hit with the nectar of life above. Two different sights of life... 

Sajeev

Break from Movies and Covid-19 lockout

Buddhist Tibetan Prayer Flag (My Thunderbird's) - I got this while opening old boxes.

It’s almost two weeks now; staying at home without going anywhere outside. Previously, all these kinds of occasions arise due to accidents and broken bones. This time, fortunately(?) its different – COVID-19 lockout. Don’t know how much longer it will last. Nowadays spending free time watching Amazon Prime, Netflix and YouTube. Weekdays are filled with tasks from office.

Today I did something different. A break from watching movies. Cleaned up my study room. There were a couple of carton boxes filled with hundreds of A4 print outs and hand-written notes. Some of them are more than a decade old. A huge chunk of those notes is about subjects that I tried to study in between and dropped. But I kept all those, assuming someday it will be of use. But no, I didn’t even open or read those notes for at least the past three years. So, I threw all those out and cleared the space. At least I did something different today, rather than spending all the time watching movies.

If you are stuck at home due to lockout, try to do one thing differently in every day.

Sajeev 

Fried Ice Cream and Momos

Full... Starting...

Close to where I am currently staying, there is a hotel with an interesting item in its menu – ‘Fried Ice Cream’. For some days I was trying to taste this one. After all, who don’t want to taste fried ice cream? Till know either I forgot to buy it when I am close to that restaurant or reached there after 7 ‘o’ clock. This item is available in between 4pm – 7pm only.

Fortunately, I remembered it today and went there at 6.30pm and ordered one. I tried to pull Rakesh too; however, he was not in a mood to wake up after playing a cricket match in the morning. I ordered and within ten minutes it reached my table. Hmm…it was brown in colour and looked more like a bigger egg with chocolate cream sprayed over it. Numerous yellow and green coloured tutty fruity squares where there in the plate.

Half way down

I think they just took a sphere of vanilla ice cream, immersed in liquid gram flour. Then…. Fried it a bit. I missed to ask how they prepared it. If it was hot then this would have been tastier.

Its good; but not good enough for 60 INR they are charging. Anyway, I appreciate the person who came up with this fried ice cream concept.  Will try to taste it from a different restaurant

After that, I went outside to have some pazham pori, mulaku bajji, veg cutlet, ada, aaloo bonda etc. However, the crowd in front of that store was too big; hence I moved towards a nearby momo shop and had a good plate of spicy Paneer Momos. Nice snacks for a Sunday afternoon.

Sajeev

Paneer Momo with chatney

Sweet Tamarind

Yesterday, I was standing at a juice centre after ordering ‘Orange Lime’. Accidently my eyes fell on a small packet (250g) of sweet tamarind. Out of curiosity I searched for MRP and it was 120 INR. Wow!!! 120 INR for a 250g packet of sweet tamarind!!! My memories quickly went back to childhood; there was a big sweet tamarind tree in our back yard, close to road. In its season, there used to be huge number of sweet tamarinds on it. We, and all those who walked close to tree threw stones at it and had sweet tamarinds. Fast forward to 2016 and I am seeing the same thing for 120 INR.

“Orange Lime”. I woke up from my dream and had orange lime.

Sajeev

New Year Resolutions

Do resolutions actually work? I don’t know; I believe it depends on the people who took it. On this January 1, I asked many people about their resolutions. Most of them had one or more; for some Jan 1 was like any other day.

I thought of taking a lot of resolutions on that day. But, after thinking about last years’ experience I refrained from taking any new ones. It was not that I didn’t follow any of my last year resolutions. In fact, compared to previous years I broke less resolutions last year :)

I believe it’s better to think about a day on that morning and do justice to whatever decisions we take. It’s not that we shouldn’t have any long term goals. However, it’s not necessary that we need to take it on new year day. It’s all about when we are ready to commit for an idea and to follow it through…

For all those who took resolutions, I hope that it didn’t break on the next day. For those who didn’t take resolutions you can have some whenever you are ready…

Sajeev.

Fort Kochi and Surroundings

Cranes of ICTT in the background

Close to noon I reached Aluva railway Station; wasn't it earlier than expected? Well it is. Heavy rain started Just after boarding a bus to Ernakulum. People would have enjoyed the rain, if the entire stretch of road was not dug open for constructing Kochi metro.

Maneka Boat Jetty

After jumping over so many pot holes we I finally reached CUSAT bus stop; from there took an auto to university hostel to meet Jithu. By the way I forgot to introduce Jithu; he was my roommate and currently pursuing an MSc from CUSAT after taking a sabbatical from NAL.

I am looking outside - U can see the jetty behind

Hostel was in a holiday mood. Room was full of magazines, meteorology related books and magazines. After having a brief breakfast from university campus, we went for sightseeing tour.

Port's Skyline

As I already mentioned about Kochi and her habits in one of my earlier articles, let’s see some other face of Kochi here.

Jithu in the boat

Our first destination was Kerala high court, from there a brief walk to nearby boat jetty. I didn’t plan this journey, as I went to Kochi for another purpose. There weren’t many services available from High Court jetty. So we boarded another bus to Menaka Boat Jetty. This is one of the major service points in Kochi’s costal navigation system. We took first boat going to Vypin.

Oil tanker transferring the commodity to mainland depots

And…. Finally we were in water. There were hardly 10-15 people in the boat. We slowly left the mainland and head towards Vypin. A couple of ships were anchored at a distance. A localite on the ship explained as the route for incoming and outgoing foreign and domestic ships. We finally reached Wellingdon Jetty.

Docked ship

Wellingdon Island

Named after Lord Wellington, erstwhile Governor of Madras, this island was created by dumping the soil dredged out during the deepening of Vembanad Lake to build new Kochi port back in 1936. Home to Cochin Port Trust and Southern Naval Command this is an important island and a poster boy of Kochi.

Water Jet going outside

We left the jetty and went further ahead. An oil tanker was anchored some 200 metres ahead. A long oil pipeline was busy in transferring the oil to mainland.

Office of Cochin Port Trust

Vypin

Finally we reached Vypin. I heard first about Vypin through new paper reports.  Whenever there was some hooch or spurious liquor tragedy (mainly due to mixing of both ethyl and methyl alcohol) reporters frequently give some space to mention the disaster happened on that Onam day (in 1982 drinking spurious liquor killed 77 people, blinded 63 and crippled another 15). Unfortunately that was not the last liquor tragedy in Kerala; however banning hooch in early 2000s really improved the things.

Approching Vypin Island

Heavy rain slowed us, but who don’t want to enjoy monsoon rain in Kerala? We walked towards the bus stop and boarded a bus going to Bolgatty Palace.

Raining. @ Vypin boat jetty

On the way at one side you can see ICTT at Vallarpadam.

ICTT Vallarpadam

ICTT was Kerala’s dream project. Like many other projects it took decades to build, and finally when it opened road and rail connectivity remained a block. Being said that, Vedanturuthy Railway Bridge connecting Vallarpadam and mainland is India’s lengthiest railway bridge. On that rainy day, that freight only bridge with her beautiful curves looked beautiful.

Heavy rain continues

Bolgatty Palace

Built by Dutch, this is one of the oldest Dutch Palaces built outside their own country. Former seat of Dutch Commander, this Palace was handed over to British in 1909.  Currently this palace is a heritage hotel managed by KTDC.

Wow

As the palace was converted to hotel there was hardly anything to see there. We walked towards a nearby jetty and boarded a bus to Marine Drive.

You can see India's lengthiest railway bridge on the background 

Form there another bus to Menaka and then to our final destination Mattanchery. Once again on the waters… From here we can see the big cranes of ICTT. Honestly speaking I expected more, but it was only some 4-6 big cranes and associated machineries (with a very big parking space for container Lorries).

After a while we reached Fort Kochi.

Fort Kochi

Lorries approaching ICTT 

We spend a lot of time in the lake by roaming here and there using government run boats. By the way, if you are coming to Kochi and would like to enjoy the waters (and not looking forward for adventure sports then try government run boats).

Me standing in front of lake

It is believed that Kochi rose in to prominence after the fall of Mussaris Port of Kodungallur in 1341AD. Later the area currently known as Fort Kochi was granted to Portuguese by Raja of Kochi in return for their help in war against Samootitri of Kochi. Portuguese built Fort Immanuel there. The word ‘Fort’ came from this fort (this fort was later destroyed by Dutch). After 160 years of Portuguese rule this areas was captured by Dutch in 1683. Dutch were the overload of Kochi for 112 years. Foreign rule didn’t end there… Kochi was conquered by Hyder Ali in 1760s and then by his Son Tipu. With the fall of Tipu Kochi came under British Rule.  In 1814 this area was attached to Madras presidency.

Standing opposite to Marine Drive

By time we reached Fort Kochi it was almost evening. From there we walked through the streets – which was almost empty – and reached Mattanchery. I had similar feeling when I walked some years back on a night in Palayam Market. How come both of these traditional market shutting down their operations before evening? I don’t know.

Marine Drive

Around 7.15 in the night we reached Jewish Synagogue.

Constructed on 1567 this Synagogue is the oldest active synagogue in Commonwealth Nations. Original synagogue was built in Kodungallur when Jewish community had high profile mercantile role in the area. When community moved to Kochi, they built new Synagogue there. First synagogue built by Jews was later destroyed by Portuguese.

Entering into a boat

By the time we reached there, synagogue was already closed. We spend some more time on that deserted road and want back to Mattanchery jetty, boarded last bus to Menaka Jetty. It was really an interesting trip on that night, lights from the ships, marine drive, beacon lights etc created a magic of lights in the night sky.

Sajeev

Beautiful Sky

Beautiful Sky - Another view

ICTT

Market

Jewish Synagogue

I am standing in front of Synagogue

City skyline at night

Me and Jithu in a boat - return trip

Ships @ night

Lulu Hypermarket @ Edapally junction, with its excellent!!! road

Spirit of Wipro Bangalore Run

After a long time I ran for long distance - 5k. With little practice and long habit of sitting in chair, I didn't expect to finish it easily. It indeed a take a bit of struggle to complete 5k. Even for tea, I don't walk long. Probably the only instances I walk some distance in a day is to catch bus from home and to reach home from bus stop. Indeed, a long run organized by Wipro provided an opportunity to run 5k, which otherwise I may not do anytime soon.

Some pictures from the run,

Before starting

Announcements?

Here comes the band

Some are on the way, others are already one the way back

Age is not a limit

Crowd waving in tune with music

Sidharth Mahadevan with Sukriti Kakar and Prakriti Kakar

Sajeev.