Blogging in Hindi

Blogger (owned by Google) has now started a cute feature called transliteration - where you can simply keep typing in Romanised Hindi and automagically create Hindi blogs. गूगल के बारे मे जितना कहा जाय - कम है । अगर आप इस विषय पर और जानकारी चाहते हैं तो इस वेब site पर जाइये । सब से बड़ी बात यह है कि अब आपको spelling याद रखने कि ज़रूरत नही। अब मुझे इंतज़ार है बांग्ला transliteration facility कि - ताकि मैं अपनी मातृभाषा मे blog कर सकूं ।

अगर आप Linux इस्तेमाल करते हों और आसानी से बंगला लिखना चाहते हों तो यहाँ क्लिक करें ।

Fat Wives and a boy

Most men would not find fat women attractive. Note these guys in Mauritania as reported by the BBC. Apparently they run 'fat farms' there to fatten up girls before they are sacrificed at the altar of marriage. Men there drool after lard bunnies. Is that cruel or funny ? How about that 14 stone overweight boy Connor McCreaddie, whose doting mother keeps feeding him junk food because he won't eat fruits and veggies. Hmm, if it was upto me - it would be celery sticks for a month.

Banaras : A love story

I guess, there is a place etched in each one of our hearts - a place that truly reflects our soul. Mine is Banaras (Hindī: वाराणसी). To quote 'Elisham', it is a place to come and dream for a while. Situated on the banks of Mother Ganges - where life springs, and where you return back to - when life ends. The city to me is almost like a patient, wise old man, with stories hidden in every fold of its 3000 year old history. Sample the outstanding photo sets of Banaras in Elisham's photo blog on flickr.com. She has truly captured the way I think of this city.

বিজ্ঞান শিক্ষা

আয় তোর মুন্ডুটা দেখি, আয় দেখি 'ফুট্ স্কোপ্' দিয়ে
দেখি কত ভেজালের মেকি আছে তোর মগজের ঘিয়ে
কোন দিকে বুদ্ধিটা খোলে, কোন দিকে থেকে যায় চাপা
কতখানি ভস্ ভস্ ঘিলু, কতখানি ঠক্ঠকে ফাঁপা
মন তোর কোন দেশে থাকে, কেন তুই ভুলে যাস্ কথা
আয় দেখি কোন ফাঁক দিয়ে, মগজেতে ফুটো তোর কোথা
টোল খাওয়া ছাতা পড়া মাথা, ফাটা মত মনে হয় যেন
আয় দেখি বিশ্লেষ করে - চোপড়াও ভয় পাস কেন ?

Desi Brooms

My wife Sudakshina is always telling people that I am obsessed with cleanliness - that I ask people visiting Bradford or Southall to get me desi style brooms. Now any duffer knows that UK brooms simply don't match up. Of course in her heart of hearts she is thankful that I keep the house absolutely spotless - but recently I came across this BBC essay about the Swiss people's obsession about cleanliness. Well - compared to them, I am almost normal.

Leaving Cardiff in August 2007

It has been 2 years already ! Come August, Sudakshina and I will leave for Pasadena (in California) where I will take up a new job. She will hopefully take a course in Bio-technology. We are eagerly looking forward to life in sunny southern CA. But at the same time sad to leave a place which has been our home for 2 years !

Having a hair-cut in the UK

When I arrived here in the UK, I had no idea that hair-cutting would be such a headache. Back home in India, you went to the nearest नाई (barber) for हजामत (shave and trim). After he was through his business you paid him Rs. 30 (£0.35) and came home shampoo sachet in hand to a jolly good shower. If you were extra nice, he would even trim your nasal hair at no extra cost. In UK I was faced with the myriad choice of haircuts that went with my facial type (I have a complete round face btw) and the cheapest (dry cut) would be atleast £15 (cheaper if you can pass off as a student, which I can't anymore). It would be unthinkable in India ! But price aside, I would always chose the wrong haircut and end up 15 quid poorer and looking ugly as a mud fence . Let's face it, I am absolutely scared of going to the barber's here. So after a lot of research I found this article on the web. If you are as confused as I am - I'm sure you will find this very useful. Next time I go for a haircut (which is later today), I know what to say - business man's layered cut with a blocked nape. Hah ! I win. Although I have this creepy feeling that the barber will still have the last laugh. We'll see.

Mausi the great

'Sholay' is the best movie in the world. Period. And Mausi is the best Mausi in the world. Period. Sample this from this "curry" western cult movie. Mausi (Basanti's plump old aunt) is in conversation with Jai (Veeru's friend). Veeru wants to marry Basanti and has therefore sent his best pal Jai to talk to Mausi-ji and ask for her consent. I have not seen such skillful screenplay in Bollywood movies ever.

उस की हसरत है जिसे दिल से मिटा भी न सकुँ
ढूढंने उसको चला हुँ जिसे पा भी न सकुँ

Twenty five thousand lines later

As first year bachhas in IUCAA, we were ragged by the seniors - many of them looking pretty menacing for people who recently had bachhas of their own - should be glowing with fatherly pride you'd imagine - not these guys. One of them (later on I learnt his name, Tarun Saini) asked me to sing out a paper on Quantum Mechanics - I don't know if you have ever done that - but it is hard to do justice to a song that goes 'The wavefunction of the hydrogen atom ...'. Not lyrical enough. Someone quipped - he is like Jatush - ghazal singer.

That is how I met Jatush - shared an office and room with.

I should tell you then - the end of the story now - he died violently in Italy last week. Twenty five thousand lines of C code later. Ghazal singer. C programmer. Shy dancer. Friend. A Jatush shaped hole in the Universe.

And yet we must forget ....
Those who knew
what was going on here
must give way to
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.

In the grass which has overgrown
reasons and causes,
someone must be stretched out
blade of grass in his mouth
gazing at the clouds.

- Szymborska, 'The end and the beginning'.

25 is too young to die. May his parents find the strength to bear his loss.