April 30, 2012
Religions and their gods receive the most support in India from science. By science, I mean the scientific institutions of the country. To be more precise, for today, the local meteorology department. They had pronounced that the summer showers of last week were done on Saturday. It hasn't stopped raining since yesterday night.
There is nothing wrong with getting predictions wrong. There is a humility and honesty associated with error and risk analysis and their addition to any scientific pronouncement especially the ones involving future events. The essential element of science is such scientific communication. Unfortunately, the gods of science here choose to speak like priests and astrologers...with absolute authority and surety.
The religious tone with which our scientists speak comes probably because that's the crowd they are up against round the clock. And lets face it, even in modern India, education is about emphatic transmission and total acceptance than about doubting and discovery.
The trouble is that, as poet Ayyappa Panicker has pointed out, it is impossible for us to rise above the quality and standard of the people that we choose to compete with and criticize.
Oh!Ah...well...ahem...hmm...indeed!
So there I was balancing an umbrella on my shoulder, a book in my hand and trying to pull out the plastic bag for milk from my track suit's pocket, in front of the Milma booth this morning. As usual, the the neatly folded three ten rupee notes also came flying out of the pocket and landed straight into the rushing muddy stream that was flowing over my feet. Before they could escape too far, I caught and placed them on the steel plate of the shop's countertop weight balance to dry.
"They said the rains would stop!" I said trying to dilute the wet money induced grumpiness on the shopkeeper's face. It worked."Who?" he asked"The weather bureau"
"What do they know?," he slapped two packets of milk on top of the glass jars that contained some sweets and snacks preceding the paleolithic age. "They can say whatever they want. But in reality everything is decided by the one who sits in the heavens. Only God can say anything about the rain."
India launched its RISAT satellite last week. The device is capable of imaging even in darkness and cloud cover. It can tumble all it wants in its orbit but the emphatic declarations of the weather beaureu continue to seal the common man's trust in god. I took the milk and left. Afterall, this is the land where gods displayed an insatiable appetite for milk a couple of decades ago.
If the underworld and mafia are the garbage human society, what should one think about the "Garbage Mafia"? That's the latest mafia operating in the city. With their genetic irresponsibility and criminal neglect, the politicians have ensured that garbage hasn't been cleared for 5 months now. This absence of the utility has hit the restaurant and catering business the hardest. Enter the 'garbage mafia'. For a hefty sum they collect the garbage from those businesses and dump it secretly in different parts of the city. City stinks. Mafia mutates.
An Islamic cleric had recently organized a Kerala tour to invoke "humanity". Around 400,000 capped, clad-in-white young men assembled at the final destination of the journey in Thiruvanthapuram this weekend. Humanity might have been invoked by the journey but Chandrasekharan Nair stadium where the rally concluded was left like a battle field. Garbage, plastic and paper all around. I am not sure if cleanliness and civic responsibility is part of "humanity". This cleric is trying to set up Asia's biggest mosque in Kerala to house a hair of Prophet Mohamed. If only environment received a fraction of the care the Prophet's hair has been given!
Film shooting in progress at Jawahar Nagar and Cafe Coffee Day since the weekend. Ever since the movie, 'Salt N Pepper', which had a crucial scene filmed in Coffee Day became a huge hit, I think some kind of superstition about the location is afoot. At this rate pretty soon, producers will throw the CCD logo before the beginning of the movie instead of the usual pictures of gods and saints who supposedly bless the venture.
In this particular sequence, there are only a couple of actors involved. They don't look like Malayalees but the director is a Malayalee, Shyamaprasad. I presume the actress is from Punjabi but that's purely a speculation based on the slender daughter-hefty mother stereotyping. For two actors and one director and cameraman, there is a crew and catering department that is at least fifty people strong. I can understand how there is a financial crisis in the industry. It is truly an industry.
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