Author: Pradeep

  • An Obituary of a Tea Shop

    The management moved recently to remove all the tea shops in the ship yard where I work. The grapevine and the only reason known for the removal was to reduce the time wasted by engineers in the tea shop. This post is an obituary of one of the tea shops that was shut down.

    This happened two weeks ago. The tea shop that I used to frequent almost daily at 10.30 am was shut down. The grapevine spoke that the management had cleared all tea shops from the yard. This was a move, apparently, to reduce the time the engineers wasted here. I speak about the shop – a tin and plywood shack really – that was run by three ladies. The relationship among them was unknown. Their real names are also unknown. One lady was definitely old and the other two were definitely young – perhaps in their twenties.

    The central location of the shack meant that it attracted quite a large customer base – contractors, workers and engineers. The shop, in addition to tea also served up samosas, various farsan items, choclates, biscuits, cigarettes and tobbaco.

    The shack was a meeting place for engineers from different departments. It was also a meeting place where people at various levels – from workers to engineers and even managers spoke with each other. Enquiring about work – but also about people’s backgrounds. About their families and co-workers and their well being. Here, tea was bought, farsan was had. Many things that cannot be negotiated over email or in official settings were sorted out here. Co-workers and juniors confronted other co-workers and seniors on various things that concerned them – openly. The shack thus served a social function.

    The shack also addressed a problem. Our canteen is infrequently open and poorly stocked. The shack provided a solution by offering the aforementioned items at any hour of the working day. The quality of tea was also much better. Many people suggested, in conversations, suggested that the canteen staff be sent as trainees to the tea shack.

    I guess at some place in our minds, we knew that the shop would close down. The shop occupied a space where construction of the yard was progressing. It had to be removed for the construction to continue. It was also possibly not following many rules that such an establishment would have had to follow in a town or a city. However, this brief association with the shack proved to be a space where I met with many of my colleagues and my seniors – where we shared a cup of good tea and some idle chatter. Now, with the shop gone, we miss both. The day seems somehow incomplete and the people somewhat restless.

  • Why join a Political Party?

    For the past few days, I have been reading up on the various circumstances for joining a political party if not to participate in the political process. This might seem contradictory. The thought arose while reading the news where continuous reference was made to Party workers. Who were these party workers? How did they become workers of a party? These are people who believe in the ideology of a political party but not with the intention of running for office of an elected representative. Right now most party workers seem to not have a venue to express their own thoughts anywhere.

    The opinions of the party workers never seem to come through in any political party that is of any considerable influence. If you read party organs, they’re filled with the opinions of party leaders, who get space anyway to discuss and deliberate in the media. The main aim of the party organ should be to enable the party workers to pen down their thoughts. Then to it must not be for hero worship – which is in a sense slavery of one’s thoughts to a person. It is worse than even believing that God shall be our saviour.

    The image of the party worker as a hooligan and nothing more than a stooge who listens to the diktats of the Party or Shaka chiefs must change. The role of the party organ must change from a place to worship the Party leaders to a place where party workers can offer contrarian well-thought of views and opinions backed by data. It must also change to a venue for party leaders to communicate decisions to party workers. India will become an even more vibrant democracy with the rise of “internal party democracy”.

    Getting back to the question, Why join a political party. The only useful answer that I got was from the League of Women Voters of California website, which says thus:

    If you join a political party you can elect members to the partycentral committee which governs the party. You can help to select theparty’s candidates and you can work to elect members of the party to politicaloffices. You are not required to work for the party, to contribute moneyto the party or to vote for the party’s candidates.

    There is no document/article/journal entry written on this context written by an Indian clarifying the reasons one should consider joining any political parties. All political parties in India, excluding the Congress have prominent links on their main pages providing a venue to become a member of their party. The other parties do not explain their ideologies or reasons why you must join them – a feature practiced by business houses and non-profit societies. The Congress is even better since it does not have a way to join them. There is the Indian Youth Congress but there seem to be some sort of election to take membership in the same. There is no clarity at any rate.

  • ISRO-Devas deal: Ex-ISRO chief banned from future government office

    The Indian Express carried an exclusive report today morning stating that former ISRO Chairman, Madhavan Nair; former Scientific Secretary, A Bhaskarnarayana; former Managing Director, Antrix Corporation, K R Sridharmurthi and former ISRO Satellite Center chief, K N Shankara have been penalised in connection to their role in the ISRO-Devas deal. The order signed by the Director, Department of Space states that the accused would not be able to hold any future office in the Governments of India, her states or Union territories. Further, the order also asks the accused to remit any office that they may currently hold.

    The media seems to be more taken in by the implications to Madhavan Nair than the other three accused. It seems rather too early to make a comment on this story. A reaction (NDTV) is coming in from Madhavan Nair as I write this out and I am trying to follow the news given the lack of a television set, the best I can.  He also raises many points in this news story (Real Time News).

    The ISRO-Devas matter is sub-judice and comment is not allowed on that matter. However, the way in which the Government has acted is rather on shaky ground. Given the stature of people it has acted against, I would have thought the Government would have taken more care to present a solid case. We’re still waiting for a clear statement from the Government on this issue.

    Update – 11:55 AM A glance through the archives on Google News led me to this news item from the Deccan Chronicle. This seems to have been before an “order” came out and seems like Madhavan Nair protested well before the order was made in the way the enquiry was conducted. In light of this article, the Indian Express article is not breaking news or an exclusive, just an update on the situation.

    Update – 12:20 AM The former ISRO Chairman has now hit out at the present ISRO Chairman.

  • When was the last time you went to a museum?

    Ashwin Baindur shared this on the Wikimedia India List yesterday. He requested comments. This let out a chain reaction of thoughts which led to this blog post.

    I don’t remember when it was I last went to a museum as a child. It was at a time when it was still called Prince of Wales Museum. Hence, it is certainly before the year 2000 when the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India became the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vaastu Sangrahalay. The new branding calls them, “The Museum”. I don’t recollect ever having gone to the Bhau Daji Lad Museum before last year.

    My only recollection of the Museum is going there as “picnic” from school and walking around in a single file whilst having no one to explain what the thing was other than monotonous boards that said, “Toy from the Indus Valley Civilisation” or some such. There was no context. What is so special about this toy in some time long past? Why is it kept in a museum? Why is this Museum interested in this toy? Our classes were huge. Museum staff was little to invisible. There was simply no one there to satiate our curiosity. This was before the Internet became pervasive or affordable. Even the exhibits were just kept on an old table in the room under tube lights. I am amazed that even this excited our curiosity.

    The next time I went to the Museum was when Liam Wyatt came to India for building Wikipedia’s GLAM initiative in 2011. Liam had been working with the British Museum in London to enable content from the Museum to enrich Wikipedia’s articles and photographs while at the same time leading more visitors to both the website of the British Museum as well as to the Museum itself. He was in India to meet Wikipedian community members and cultural institutions in India to see if a similar initiative could be started in India. To Wikipedia, it was clear that this would increase and improve coverage of the Indian sub-continent. To the institutions, this was something new.

    I have been part of several conversations that talk about how to improve the Museums in our country. These were private conversations. I have heard Museum professionals speak about their ideas and the changing notions of what the Museum means in the twenty first century.  These were mainly their professional view points. It did not seem to be laced with feedback from the public on what they expected from the Museum.

    Above all, the Museum is a public space. It is a public space which aims to remind us of our historical heritage, something most of us lose touch with once we pass out of high school. It is a public space that points to the mechanisms by which our culture evolved over the years. It is a public space our youth can get educated. Informally, so that they know the outline without knowing too much in depth but a starting point from which they can find out more. It is a place to discover that there is such a part in our history. If it arouses his curiosity, he can always go home and look up more information on Wikipedia.

    The cultural institutions – galleries, libraries, archives and museums – are today offline spaces where we discover new things. Things we did not know existed. It then intertwines with online spaces, where we share it on social media forums and try to learn more about from Wikipedia. Here, they learn more about books where they can learn more about. These might be found in a local library. Or perhaps in an archive?

    I have felt that an important part of the conversation is missing because we speak from our perceived notions of what Museum might look like based on a visit you made quite a few years ago. So, before you read that article above – or if you’ve already read it – do give it some time. Do go and visit the Museum in your city. You never know, it might have changed, like the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India did. Once you go through the Museum, do tweet/blog/google+/facebook  about it but also write your feedback in that neglected guest’s book kept for our suggestions in the Museum. After you do this, might be a good time to speak about how we can improve cultural spaces in our country.

  • We’re bad at communicating our cultural history

    During my visit to Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad, I noticed that there was a major thrust towards showcasing how this was a very vital part of our cultural history. There were notes everywhere, painted, pictures etc about how we aimed to create an equal and casteless society. We’re really bad at communicating this history to the large population who visit the Ashram – the young and the foreigner, especially, who have only seen a resurgent India.

    This is the picture that greets you outside the toilet block. What is written in Hindi, translates into English as, “I asked for water, not your caste.” It is a one-liner that informs one about the caste system, the untouchability and various other practices that did exist once in India and still does exist in some form or the other in India. Yet, this is not properly communicated and hence it continues to remain a problem.

    Many people just walked by this mural. Even if you did not see any other thing in the Gandhi Museum – the Ashram rules, the letters Gandhi wrote, the various sayings pasted on the walls (which one could easily read in a book!), missing this is a crime! Yet, foreigners had no way of reading the Hindi script, the kids were just scampering – more intent on getting to the toilet. Many just avoided this space because it was a toilet block. This still smells a bit, doesn’t it? How we look down upon our civil sanitation spaces? Before we wipe out corruption and other evils from Society, the first one we must wipe out is our lack of civil sanitation. The rest will be “cleaned up”automatically, in my opinion.

  • Visting all National Parks in India by 35

    National Parks in India are not as famous as they are in the United States, where there is a good National Park Service. However, this is not surprising given the fact that most national parks came into existence in the 1980s. They did not exist in the youth of our parents. They now exist and travelling pioneers are visiting these national parks and slowly word is spreading among the general public about their existence.

    As per Wikipedia, India has proposed 166 National Parks. Of these it had established only 96 by the year 2007. You see the hidden potential?

    In contrast, the US opened national parks in 1872.

    I wanted a challenge in my life that combined geography and the challenge for travel. I have enunciated it in my expectation of visiting all the National Parks in India before I turn 35. This is a strange claim for me to make – a person who has not visited a National Park which was less than 20 km away from me – the Borivali National Park. However, when I go to a National Park I would like to explore several things – interactions with villages and towns in the peripheries, the attitude of the current generation of Indian Forest Services officials, the flora and fauna of these parks and above all, enjoying the whole Park experience – knowing I am among the first few exploring these areas.

  • Going to Ahmedabad

    On Friday, 29 December, 2011, when most of the staff from my office left after half a day of work to ostensibly cast their vote in the local Panchayat elections, I asked myself how I would spend my New Year’s. For all the New Year’s till date (I’m 25 now) that I can remember, I have spent it with my family. This would be my first New Year’s alone.

    I was speaking to my boss when I shared with him my intention of visiting the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. This came out of the blue. The only rational explanation I have is that sub-conscious mind had provided me the answer for my question about where to spend New Year’s eve. Almost with whole-hearted conviction, I announced that I was spending my New Year’s at Ahmedabad at the Gandhi Ashram. This, without knowing where exactly it is, not knowing how to get there, not knowing if I will get tickets. In short, without answering any of the “practical” questions that arise when one suggests a trip.

    That night, I worked on cleartrip and got my train tickets. The next day I remembered that I had no place to stay during New Year’s. I contacted Manoj Pai, mentioned in my last blog post, and asked him if a place called Ellis Bridge would be a workable distance. Having ascertained of this fact, I also had the hotel room booked.

    It is on these facts alone that I left on the afternoon of December 31, 2011 to Ahmedabad.

  • Gandhi Ashram

    I walked from my room at Ellis Bridge, past the Town Hall to the Gandhi Ashram. The road had a wide sidewalk on one side of the road. I walked here. I walked a little more than 4 km with just Gmaps to give directions and using the amazing tracking service to spot where I was. The roads were empty. There were very few cars.

    I reached Gandhi Ashram, visited the place where he stayed till about 1930. I saw the Sabarmati, now embanked with concrete on both the banks. It was somewhat representative of the rest of Gujarat. They have not let nature be. Rivers are dry, canals are full. But, where they have let nature take its course, the beauty is unparalleled.

    There was lots of water all over the stoned walkway that leads to the Gandhi Museum. Artificial lawns, the trees with a low wall built on their base so that people could sit. Clearly not necessary. The lawns are so clean that it does not invite one to sit there. The whole atmosphere seemed more artificial than it should have been.

    I visited the Store, purchased three books – two related to local government and one related to vegetarian diet. I have no idea when I will get around to reading these, though.

    I was here for a reason – self-introspection. I sat there and wrote for an hour – maybe two. Then, I packed up and left. The only part of the Ashram that I loved was the river proper. It looked more like a canal now but somewhere it had some part of its natural beauty left.

    I was disappointed by my self-introspection. It was not as fulfilling as I hoped and it got over rather too quickly. But, I had reached the conclusions that I wanted to and so in that respect, it was successful. Like the Ashram now, my life too is more artificial than natural. This is a thought that could have come only in that Ashram. It was the correct place to reach the conclusion. It stands up, all-in-all.

  • E-ticketing and New Age Travels

    I plan to spend New Year’s in Ahmedabad. I will have a separate post for what I did there after I return. But, preparing for the trip itself deserves a blog post. I prepared for the trip solely on phone calls with Manoj Pai, an amateur astronomer in Ahmedabad with whom I am in touch with since 2004 but have never met a single time and cleartrip.com, a site introduced to me by Kirk in December, 2010.

    The Indian Railways earlier this year introduced the concept of having electronic tickets (the official note is here). This meant that you could show tickets on your mobile phone and you did not need to carry an actual paper ticket in your hand. They claim they can save 3 lakh A4 size papers if this idea is implemented. A worthy environmental effort and I support it. I have travelled paper-less on Indian Railways.

    The problem arose when I book a ticket through a travel agent such as cleartrip. I love the formatting that cleartrip does for the ticket of Indian Railways. However, they sent me an .html attachment of the ticket and I did not have a .pdf document printer on my laptop nor did I want to buy from Adobe.

    To solve this problem, I installed CutePDF writer and Ghostscript. With their powers combined, I got a .pdf printer for my computer. The CutePDF website has pretty straight forward instructions on how to use and set it up. This solved my .pdf printing problem.

    I asked the question on Twitter on whether the email from cleartrip could be used as an e-ticket. @MumbaiCentral, @akisaxena, @girishmallya and @basrur replied and provided answers that ranged from yes to maybe. I did not get a convincing answer based on real experience. @MumbaiCentral suggested that I try this out but carry a .pdf backup – just in case. This is what I hope to do today.

  • M H Chalmers’ Walks

    This post originally appeared on http://pradx.posterous.com on December 25, 2011. Found the post using the Wayback Machine.

    While exploring the website of the Geographical Society of India – I found these gems in what is written as the history of the Geographical Society. An English gentleman, M H Chalmers, then an employee of the East Indian Railways gave three talks on what he titles as “walks”. I do not know if he means them literally or not, but these were given to the Calcutta Geographical Society back in 1934.

    They are:

    • “A Walking Tour from India to England” by M. H. Chalmers on January 13, 1934
    • “A Walking Tour through Kashmir and Middle Tibet” by M. H. Chalmers on April 9, 1934
    • “A March through the Sacred Shrines of the Himalayas” by M. H. Chalmers on 21 April 1934

    I would love to read a copy of these talks or see some of illustrated pictures that Chalmers showed off at these talks. Even more, I would love to meet others in the area around Bharuch in Gujarat who love to share such stories. Perhaps you can do something similar in your town too?