Third week of June and no rain in Bangalore. We should cut some MORE trees.

Road to Future!

We are building so many roads just in and around Bangalore. We are 4 laning and 6 laning (on Hosur Road its 10 laning) everywhere. We are building ring roads to connect the ring roads. All this while the current roads are in a bad shape or some areas have no roads at all. And not surprisingly this is the case in all the cities across the country. Like a friend of mine once said soon India will be one big road! Then we could simply move to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Srilanka to live. Commuting will not be an issue at all since there will be anyway so many roads connecting the country's borders.

Coffee anyone?

Have you seen the new Nescafe ad? Its about this guy who turns off his hot neighbour by asking Will you have a cup of milk with me?

Yes the ad makes its point and works well. But I have a problem - I don't drink coffee. I can occasionally have tea. And this has been a problem since I hit the age when one cannot be friends over just chocolates and icecream.

At my first job everyone would have tea except me. For the first one week everyone in the office tried to coax me to try. Then they gave up but the taunting that I was "milk baby" never stopped. (Honestly I am not a big fan of milk either) It would get worse if we had some newcomer around tea-time. I had to explain all over that I don't drink tea and was subjected to stares of disbelief.

Then by the time I got to my second job I was ready to give tea a chance. Actually it was my only chance to make friends of my colleagues. All the tea-drinkers bonded over it (they resemble the smokers gang that way) while I was left hanging around (nothing deliberate I was assured). So I drank tea sometimes (talk about peer pressure).

Later I was quiet disgusted (with the tea and myself for bowing down to peer pressure) that I gave up tea. This wasn't helping my social life at work plus I never got to take a break from my desk. "You don't even drink tea why are you here?" I was asked by some concerned colleagues so I took the round about way. I started drinking Pepsi! Those were the days when MNCs were just beginning to pamper the "Indian middle class" so we had fountain pepsi machine installed at the canteen which pumped tons of litres a day. So here I was back in the social circle :-)

Then the whiff of breeze from far away Bodhi tree hit me. I woke up to the health hazards of aerated drinks (which my tummy reminded me on an hourly basis) and of course the whole why consume some American company's product while ignoring your own tender coconuts thing also happened (yes I was attempting to grow up in my own way). So I stayed off Pepsi too.

Now I was back to square one. But then one curious thing had happened which I had previously failed to notice. That is I was after all in the company of grown ups and had friends irrespective of my caffeine non-addiction. So I stopped worrying about it.

But journalism proved even tougher without coffee or tea consumption; especially when I had to go off to people's homes or villages to do a story. They either got very offended or got so obsessed about providing an alternative that I would feel horrible about being a non-caffeine person. So I would gulp it down. (That is when I discovered another advantage of being a grown up you can actually control your facial muscles when you are consuming something you don't like.)

Summer is the worst time for someone like me because you go somewhere for a story and they say "suda suda coffee saapudunga" (TN junta is extremely hospitable and they try their best to humour a young female journalist with a camera). It is truly a testing time. Don't believe me? Try having piping hot coffee under a tin roof at 2 in the afternoon when the temperature is 42 degrees.

In some of the villages they ask me if I want "colour" Tamil colloquial for soft drinks in recent times. Very often it will be some local replica of branded colas with god knows what in it. But if one can guzzle down the branded colas despite Sunita Narain screaming hoarse about pesticide content I can surely be courteous to my well meaning hosts (not before sending up a quick prayer that whatever happens the medicine could be found in Amma's kitchen). Occasionally I have been offered tender coconut and butter milk too which is truly god's gift to me. But the thing is these are expensive so can't expect them in places where people are earning just 20-30 rupees a day. And some of the places I've ended up in there's nothing but tea available for breakfast or lunch.

So given the circumstances I have made peace with caffeine. I have them in dire situations only.

However this doesn't mean that while hanging out with my friends I hold on to my bottle of Bisleri. I am very comfortable with wine, vodka and rum (no beer thank you very much) so I am doing okay even without caffeine. I wonder if this is an example of "She was meant for higher things"

Psst: I don’t like to drink coffee but love the ads and yeah I can have cold coffee like once in 3 months or so.

grrrrrrrrrr

I want to watch a movie on a weekday at 10 pm and there are no tickets
I want to eat at some decent restuarant on a weekday at 9pm and there are no tables - "you have to call and book madam"
I want to go to Kerala any time of the year and there are no tickets - "weekends madam we cannot promise you anything"
I want to return home anytime of the day and no autos agree to come - "too much traffic we won't come"
I want to get out of house at 6.30 pm there are no autos available (well they would be available if they come in the first place to return)
I want to work from home and half the day there is no power - "no load shedding" the CM's been harping.
I want a taxi to pick me up from the airport in two hours time and there are no taxis - "all are busy madam" (this at midnight on a bloody working day)
I want to get a hair cut at some half decent place and there are no appointments during the week or the weekend - "summer is always like this sorry"
The well known brand of soaps or cream I picked up last month is not available anywhere -" short supply" is the cryptic answer I get.

What the bloody hell is happening? Where have I landed?

The tyrants and the victims

I am moving to Denmark.

Why you say? There are about 4500 Danish junta fighting against the "tyranny of early risers"
The number is of course small but here I am pretty much on my own (except may be K who will surely join in)

Read the details here and here.

I have never been a morning person and have always been admonished for it. I missed all my morning classes (god forsaken time of 7am and 8am) throught out my college life. Earliest I can get anywhere without wanting to murder the whole bloody world is may be 9 (in emergencies only) otherwise its got to be 11. I am nocturnal by nature meaning I cannot sleep before 1am unless I haven't slept for 3 days straight so jumping out of bed at 6am is out of question.

I've tried very very very hard to be an early riser but after months of practising I realised I am not half as productive when I wake up early.

But I am not to be sleeping in peace especially because I am a "woman." It used to be "how can a girl sleep so late? It is not lakshana what will you do when you go to your husband's house?" Well I went to my husband's house and slept late. So now I hear "how can a woman of the house sleep so late? It brings bad luck to the house." What about when men sleeping late? Well thats bad too but it doesn't bring bad luck or anything so its alright (I've actually heard this explanation)

And I find no incentive in waking up early other than may be watch sunrise and see some interesting birds. However since I live in Bangalore, picturesque sunrises and interesting birds are not part of the package. So I go on holidays to watch sunrises and bridwatching. Although I am very biased towards sunsets and moon rises.

I don't see a point to this getting up early thing especially after marriage cos all morning I end up in the kitchen making coffee (which I don't drink) and thinking up of and making breakfast while hubby dear checks his "office emails" reads newspaper back to back and suddenly takes off saying "damn its late I'll be stuck in the traffic jam...is there anything for breakfast?"

One of the articles also says that if you are the kind who cannot get up early then choose your professional carefully. Good for me that although late I did make a career change and atleast my boss doesn't call me to ask "why are you late"

I feel obligated to repeat some of the explanations people come up for my not getting up early

"Your husband comes back home late isn't it thats why you can't get up early" (giggle)

"You must be studying for some sorta exams thats why you sleep late and can't get up early"

"Yours is a love marriage so I guess it is ok to get up late" (isn't this priceless?)

"Oh you don't have kids thats why you do this" (!!!)

They don't seem to get the point that I simply don't want to get up early in the morning on most days!!!

Here are some of the motivational onliners people have tried on me

"you can finish off all the work and then go to sleep at around 11" (!!!)

"if you leave the milk outside so late it will get spoiled"

"your husband will feel un motivated to go through the day if he has a wife who sleeps late" (again priceless)

"It is not healthy to keep odd sleeping schedule" (only sensible one and I've not heard it too often)

"Hasn't being a journalist taught you nothing?" (Wha???)

The rest of them aren't funny or interesting so I'll spare you that.

I never grudge other people who get up early (unless they insist on my company) so why grudge me?

Unless people take a cue and let me be I might be moving to Denmark.