Canvas

When I looked closely
At a large un-spoilt canvas
Colors began to appear…
As moments came alive
Imaginary Lines
That appeared dispersed at first
Converged with the force of sound
Before I could even realize
Emotions had seeped through
The pores of the canvas
And a home had come to life!

Traveling by the big bird and other stories

I cannot put my finger on what it is...but something about being at an international airport makes me nervous. The ones in India...I could walk through them in my sleep and still find myself on the right flight. The sheer magnitude of the place is daunting. There are signposts each step of the way. But we still lose our way! If only we would stop watching the planes - take off and land and follow the directions instead, may be, we would not land up at wrong terminals.

I find myself at the check in desk half an hour before it could even open. Yet I'm antsy. I see a man - in his 40's, mostly bald except the few strands of thin hair running from side to side. Beads of sweat magnify his thin tresses. He reaches the counter & finds no one there and panics. He finds out that check in for the flight has shifted to Zone G. He panics more and tells me to recheck. I re-check and turn around to tell him that we need to indeed shift to Zone G but by this time I find him running with his trolley towards zone G. I find myself running behind him. The adult in me chides me for running panic struck when there are 3.5 hours to board. My irrational self pays no heed, craning my neck trying not to lose sight of man running amok with his trolley. Half bald nervous man has suddenly become my official guide.

At the check in counter I feel a sinking feeling. The same that one feels when one is stopped at the railway platform and asked for a ticket which has suddenly decided to disappear in the deepest darkest corner of one's bag. Why people don’t make bags with a small light fitting in them is a different story. I examine my options. Should I go to the firang or settle for the Indian instead. Firangs derive their sense of power from the system - they hold their rules and regulations dear to their heart. Where as an Indian man feels his sense of power at being able to bend the system and its rules beyond recognition If I am excess on my baggage allowance there is a higher possibility that the Indian would bail me out. I try not to look nervous reminding myself that like dogs, even airport officials can smell it on you. It works, I am allowed to pass without paying

Inside the flight no sooner that they have got to their seats, I see people starting the barter for seats. 'If you let me take this one...then you can have the window there at the end where my wife is sitting' Nervous half bald man looks visibly less nervous though still restless to strike a good deal for his choice of seat. The strong blower in the aircraft has sucked away his beads of sweat and the edge of his hair is starting to fan up at the sides.

At 11 p.m. I am woken up by middle aged woman in red saree and asked...would you like to have your khaana beta'...I nod and am served. I like the mummy like hostess rather than a cold white ghost speaking to me with a twang. I have a new found love in my heart for Air India.

Bombay has a shinning new arrival lounge. The marble stair-case that once adorned the entrance with water falling from the top - has disappeared. The smell however is unmissable. Gregory David Robertson has an entire para dedicated to it in his book. Very well described. I am feeling less poetic though. To me it’s just a mix of some strong, cheap phenyl and un-serviced, musty old air conditioners. The cop at the exit gate stops me and utters the word 'pauti' (Marathi for receipt). I hand over my immigration slip and walk out. I know I’m home!

Air Travel,Air India,bombay,mumbai,

Loss - Where small is big

There are some moments in our life that we never forget. Stories recalled long after these incidents happen. These are usually the - first of times…day at school, graduation. But this post is not about such times. There is something else that we remember, recall, narrate and even regret long after it has happened. There are some in my personal memory bank

The time when I was 7 – 8 and we were all going to a movie. At that time there was the excitement about taking munchies to the movie hall from home - which we had excitedly packed in a large white plastic bag. We got into an auto rickshaw…kept the bag behind the seat in the storage area and got out leaving our bag of goodies behind. Needless to say we did not enjoy the movie that day and never leave anything behind the seat in a rickshaw ever since.

Then the other time when we were going for a wedding…all dressed up and on the way to the function someone stole my father’s wallet and we returned home with the memory of the lost wallet that is narrated till today – years after the incident

When we lose things…many a times these are small things…often replaceable …could be a bus pass or a pen…not worth much – it troubles us. We try to trace our route back in the hope of finding what we’ve lost…ask people around if they have seen it…agonize over it for days…sometimes more.

But then …

We lose our best of friends….to silence…friends who part ways without knowing what went wrong

We lose our health…to chips and fries and candy and coke

We lose our time….sometimes sitting in front of the TV…at other times doing things we do not enjoy

We lose love…to a false sense of pride…or pleasure…and we lose chances to tell people who matter, how much we love them.

And do not even realize!

Bombay...meri jaan!

Of bhel puri and juhu chowpaty
To Irani ki chai…bun maska and kheema patty

From Kasa kai bara hai…kai chaal lai?
To Circuit, Maamu and Munna bhai

From the fish fry that hangs upside down at Sion koliwada
To Sri Krishna’s garama garam bata vada

Of Cusrow Baug & Freny Todiwallah
And of food delivery men…the dabbawallas

Of cuffe parade and sassoon docks
To bade miyah ke lazeez kabab

Of lazy afternoons at Leopolds and Mondegar
To firangs on causeway leching…smoking cigar

When Sandra and Robert need to meet chori chori
Would it be at Church pakadi or khotachi wadi?

Traffic signals bypassed…railway tracks we cross
We hang with our lives from the doors of the virar fast

From the pious steps of Mahalaxmi,
To the morning sight of the Haji ali

Bombay or Mumbhai whichever way you see
Thoda spicy…thoda cool…hai yeh city

*****************************************************************************

There are so many more things quintessentially bombay....feel free to add your verses.

poetry, bombay,mumbai,

Sounds of Silence

A silence screams out
Wrestling with the inner walls
In an attempt to tear those open
An attempt….but in vain

Those walls which look so tender
Trap the sound inside
For those have been sealed by the
Deafening noises from the world outside

They let the sounds from the outside….in
But none can getaway from within

Sounds that have reverberated through the ages
They all lay there buried…confined to those cages
Struggling to find a way…to escape
Perhaps in the soul…they’ll find an aide

poetry, silence,

What's so special about IKEA?

My first memory of IKEA is - picking up the catalogue on a pavement in Bombay for 10 bucks and drooling over the pictures. That catalogue was like the Bible for students of interior design.

I never had seen or visited an IKEA store until recently and that first visit was an absolute delight. I am a very hard-to-please shopper. For me to like something – it should be of good quality and certainly follow the VFM (value for money) rule. What started out as an exploratory visit to the store has culminated in a fascination with the brand.

From the time I set foot in that store…it almost felt like Disneyland. One can spend an entire day in that large blue and yellow warehouse which doubles up as their retail outlet. Mock ups of rooms displaying actual merchandise lend a context to the purchase. They make it easy for you to imagine where and how you’d utilize what you buy. Where most furniture stores keep their display merchandise off limits …they actually encourage you to sleep on their beds…sit on their couches...the last time I was there I saw a couple sitting in one of their made-up living rooms, watching the tele. These are small details that create a feel good factor and nudge the customer a little more towards making that final purchase.

I have seen similar outlets in India…and what comes to mind is Style Spa which has to go a long way before their products can become competitive on price…and let’s not even talk about their designs.

What is their strategy then to deliver what has been referred to as ‘Scandinavian Designs at Asian Prices’?

“We start by deciding on a price. Then we hand over to our team of designers, product developers and purchasers for them to come up with the goods’ …mentions their 2006 catalogue – which according to an estimate has seen a print run of 160 million copies!

Business week has a very detailed write up on the subject.

To achieve that goal, the company's 12 full-time designers at Almhult, Sweden, along with 80 freelancers, work hand in hand with in-house production teams to identify the appropriate materials and least costly suppliers, a trial-and-error process that can take as long as three years

Innovation does not stop at product development…on their new store opening in the US; they encouraged customers to send e-post cards to acquaintances in return for a price off. Their cult status with consumers only helped their marketing effort. Some other off beat things they have done is – announce a prize of close to 4000$ for their first customer at a given outlet. Die hard IKEA fans have spent sometimes about 3 days in their warehouse, while others camp in caravans outside waiting for the grand store opening – creating the buzz and drawing more into their tribe.

And if you haven’t heard enough from me about their home furnishing, there is one more reason to visit IKEA…their restaurant. While I was reading about this brand – I came across the blog of this couple in Malaysia who asked their 2 year old daughter where she’d like to go for dinner and pat came the reply…IKEA! Maybe they would some day announce a contest to find their youngest fan…

For the more IKEA hungry readers…there is a theme blog started by fans or should i say fanatics !

IKEA, positive customer experience,

On Blogs, Indexing solutions and Metaphors

Some days back, I obsessed about finding a way of indexing / categorizing posts on the blog, without having to switch my blogging platform. Not that I did not contemplate the adulterous act of flirting with another service provider. I did…but something made me stay back…partly it was my fondness for this platform, partly the laziness of having to migrate content and in many ways it was that invincible annoying thought that ‘I would not take the easy way out and jump platforms…I shall stay here and look for alternatives’. Would you say…too much energy and thought invested into something so trivial…I would say maybe…but then it is my means to express myself. Don’t people invest time and money in pursuing photography or art…are those higher or better forms of self expression warranting that time and attention? Let’s leave that debate for another occasion.

So coming back to the point about indexing, I thought content on a blog is ‘dead’ if one does not have a way of indexing it. Whenever I would think about content on my blog that was un-indexed, I would feel like I have walked into a library that has books all jumbled up arranged in no particular order. Not a pretty picture in my mind. I tried a fitting in a couple of codes into the blogger template (not reducing the effort those guys have put in – in writing those hacks) – none of the ones I tried were fool proof. The fact that they can only index recent posts is known and acknowledged. But some did not even pick up the recent ones correctly.

I found an alternative in ‘tag clouds’ – though they don’t do the same job as what ‘categories’ do – tag clouds work like a surrogate for categories. It leaves you the hassle of pre-defining categories and I call it a hassle since I found it so difficult to ‘force-fit’ my posts into categories that the category called ‘miscellaneous / trivia / un-filed’ was burgeoning out of proportions. Tag clouds pick up key words from your posts and here again the method is not fool proof – but at least one can delete unwanted key words and add wanted ones and approximate how categories would work albeit with some effort.

There is no easy way to indexing posts. But I am beginning to wonder whether it’s all worth it after all – not that my love for my blog has become any less over time…not yet at least but am beginning to wonder whether the metaphor of a library for blogs is in itself passé.

Is the ‘watering hole’ metaphor then part of the dominant code around blogs? Don’t blogs today resemble ‘coffee houses’ of yesteryears? The coffee houses that dominated Europe in the mid 1600s functioned as information exchanges, centers for political or social debate and over time even acquired the reputation of specializing in a particular fields drawing clientele interested in particular subjects…says ‘The Economist’ when it talks about ‘Internet in a Cup’ (paid subscription required)

If blogs are emerging to acquire the character of coffee houses as they were or even modern day pubs, then the activity surrounding blogs would change. There would be a greater orientation to partake in recent conversations / posts rather than visiting a blog and reading on a topic of interest.

Depending on the metaphor you identify with, will influence whether you use it to ‘express’ or ‘exchange’ opinions and views; the frequency with which you post; the content that you post (topical v/s analytical); your response time to comments etc and depending on which of these metaphors become the dominant code around blogs will have a bearing on the features that publishing platforms in the future will be forced to offer.

I know I won’t be obsessing about indexing any more :)

blogs, blog metaphor, dominant code,