Monsoons!

Yesterday, I walked out of office and smelt moistness in air. It, obviously, was raining!

I was a bit intrigued – I don´t associate rains with Hyderabad. I am used to amiable weather of Mumbai over weekends and experiencing perennial hot air of Hyderabad over weekdays.

I felt happy – monsoon is a seasons i´ve always enjoyed.  I felt ecstatic over next 80 minutes as I made my way back home half hanging out from a rickshaw wading through waterlogged roads. There was this sense of freedom all around.

Today, evening has been chilly. It´s drizzling and the guard tells me that this is the way it´s going to be for next 1/2 months.  If rains are all that I have to experience, I should be working out of Mumbai for next 2 months. I´ll atleast be able to do everything from comfort of my home, knowing well that electricity would never go off. Yeah I know about gated community concept in Hyderabad- and advantages of having a generator but Mumbai has spoilt my habits. I´m used to no power cuts.

But hold on! When I started writing this post, I didn´t intend to compare Mumbai and Hyderabad. I´m just in mood to reminisce different memories I have about monsoons.

Kalboishakhi – ever heard of term? Winds make a howling noise, Dust- storms encircle you and hurl  pebbles all around. Trunks and branches of tall trees bend down towards the ground. Rains come pelting down. Lightning thunders in sky. Soon, dustry leaves and flowers of trees start looking cleaner and fresher. Mother Earth smells fresh. Storm lasts for about an hour  and brings life to a standstill. But no  one complaints- as Kalboishakhi in Bengal (and for that matter Eastern part of country) ushers in change from one season  to other. Kalboishaki is harbinger of change – it gives reassurance to soult that next seasons is on its way.

Sometimes Kalboishakhi comes in form of a hailstorm. Ice pellets shower from sky. I remember facing a hailstorm once while returning from school. Every vehicle on GT Road (equivalent to a National Highway) stopped commuting for about an hour .Visibility was near zero and the ice pellets threatened to smash windows of bus I was in. Some of us ventured out from school bus and played hide and seek with the hailstorm – trying to protect ourselves from ice pellets but also trying to catch them.

Ice is anyways something I´ve always loved.  During school days, at end of summers I used to feel bad about not being able to have 50 paise per piece Pepsi ice candies. I used to save pocket money to ensure I could have 1 Pepsi candy everyday. Do you get those candies anymore? I don´t know!

For college, I moved to Mangalore – on Western Coast. There were only 2 seasons there– it rained or it didn´t rain! When it rained, it was cold, When it didn´t rain, it was pleasant.  Once it started raining (in June), it rained until October. Once it stopped raining in October, it didn´t rain till May.  

When it rained no umbrella could save you! Winds were strong and large rain drops pelted down. Arabian sea looked beautiful but also ushered into land strong winds and dark clouds. Initially I tried using umbrellas but to no avail. They were ravaged by winds – some broke and others tore. Then, I tried using raincoats – Duckback types you find in most parts of India!   Raingods were out to prove again that I was naïve.

One day I landed up with 2 friends in Mangalore (Hampankatta area) carrying our raincoats. It started raining heavily around afternoon. We desperately looked around for a bus to get back to college. We didn´t want to be stranded on streets of Mangalore, in case roads got flooded (in hindsight I never saw Mangalore flooded in 4 years I was there). We had to wait for more than an hour to get a bus. By then, my raincoat had been ripped apart at shoulder lining by pelting raindrops.  

Finally, I found a solution.  I bought a red sweater cum raincoat. Raincoat on outside and sweater on inside. I still have this red colour sweater raincoat with me. I´ve never had to use it post 2003. But I think I still on to this fairly bulky raincoat as i´ve some memories associated with it.

For work, I landed up in Mumbai.- city of dreams, spirits, and incessant monsoon rains. Initially, I thought ´I am back to west coast of India. There must only be 2 seasons – it rains or it doesn´t rain. And yes! It must be raining hard here but then it must be draining out fast too- the way it did in Mangalore.´ Well! First time I faced rains in Mumbai was on 26^th July 2005. I was in office and saw those around me getting worked up. Someone said ´Harbour line´s gone down!´. Soon someone soon pitched in ´Central Line´s gone down too and we hear Western line is on verge of going down.´ I was a bit bemused.  And then they announced the office closed at 4 p.m.  I was happy as I could go home earlier. But alas, I walked for 6 hours that night and I didn´t even cover 5 kms´.

Living in Mumbai, got me used to rains. Last weekend I saw onsite of monsoons in Mumbai. The sea at Bandstand was angry – waves ravaged coast and made a hissing sound; water almost broke banks. One evening my umbrella was almost blown away by the strong winds – dejavu of Mangalore days. One day I just sat at home and saw the raindrops on window panes, the trees swaying to strong winds, and incessant monsoon traffic jams on road. I felt happy and serene but as, any true Mumbaikaar, hoped that it would be sunny on Monday morning (so that my flight would take off on time).

So I landed up in Hyderabad yesterday. After a busy day´s work I walked out of office and instantaneously realized something was different. How could I miss it? Air was hot no more. There was a drizzle and air felt crisp and fresh. I was a bit surprised! Hyderabad- heat and dust is what i´ve associated with this city till now.  I felt happy – rains always do make me feel like that. Roads yesterday were waterlogged  but deft autorickshaw guys found a way through all the mess . Rickshaw ride, getting wet in the rain,  and hot milky cup of sugar overloaded tea made my day yesterday.  I hear rains last for about 2 months in Hyderabad. I would not want so much adventure on road everyday. Probably it´s time to use work from home option more frequently.

But there´s something about monsoons I miss. Smell of freshly wet earth! Sight of rows of fresh green paddy fields!

Well I think it´s time for a trip back to Bengal. Mommy and Dadddy –here I come! Let chaa, beguni, and singhada´s make again our candle light conversations beat gloom of inevitable monsoon power cuts! J

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Sourav

Second Hand Markets!

What used things would you want to buy?

I love to buy used books. I love old rusty smell of yellowing pages. I fancy reading tidbits previous owner/s scribbled on pages; giving me a sense of how s/he felt reading it.

I´ve always found old book sellers wherever I’ve been in India.

During school days, I used to look forward to Kolkata visits – picking up books from revered and hallowed 2^nd hand book stalls in College Street and from much smaller book stalls in Gariahat market. You could buy the books, read them, and sell them back.

During stopover in Chennai while travelling to/from college, I used to pick up 5-10 books from book resellers around Chennai station. It used to be difficult negotiating with them, but I managed to get a few bargains.

In 2000s, in Mumbai I found solace in roadside book resellers in Churchgate. I don´t know why they were chased away by police soon. You don´t see book resellers anymore flanking footpaths around Churchgate station.

But then, Strand Book festival did come to my rescue. I could pick up large number of different kinds of books at dirt cheap prices. But smell of old and yellowing pages- I missed that!

Will I want to buy any used thing besides books? No, I don´t think so.

I know 2^nd hand cars are available in India, but I would want to have my own brand new car. I could probably go to Marathalli market in Bangalore or Loot shops to find clothes that have miniscule manufacturing defects. But I certainly won´t buy used clothes or even used furniture (there is an emerging online 2^nd hand furniture market in India) for that matter.

Not long back, there was a flourishing market for 2^nd hand mobile phones and computers. But with Micromax phones and crashing desktop prices, everyone seems to fancy a new set.

So, to cut a long story short, I value reading used books but don´t value/fancy buying any other used stuff. In India, this also gets reflected in nascent/non-existent 2^nd hands market for used goods.

So, you might understand my surprise when I found flourishing seconds market for almost anything and everything in South-East Asia. You see branded cars (Mercs, Toyotas, Hondas, Daewoos, Hyundai) on roads in Cambodia. Almost all of them are used cars imported from Korea and Japan. There are dedicated seconds markets in Phnom Penh – selling used shoes, clothes, furniture, bedsheets, etc.

Night Markets (I am still not sure why they need it) in South-East Asia is another place where you see number of second hand stalls.  Second hand markets may be an indication of limited financial resources available in a region/country.  

2^nd hand markets may also be a place for rich. Famous ´antiques ´ markets in Paris (French seem to live in glory of their past) are thronged by rich.

Cambodia is a country that is still emerging from scars of its recent past. Recycling is another aspect I found country unique in. I found a leading bag brand (Smateria) that advertises its products as being made from completely recycled waste material. I also found them a number of shops that made household goods from recycled materials.  Cambodia seems to have made a virtue of recycling.

Well! That reminds me. People from poor countries don´t necessarily feel that they are resource crunched. I picked up a conversation with my travel guide while travelling from Vientiane to Lao Talat (a village market in Laos). He was telling me about eating habits of people in Laos. I found it strange that vegetable market in a village should assemble everyday. It´s unlike ´Haats´ of India - which congregate  about once a week.  He answered ´We like to eat our food fresh. We buy our vegetables/fruits everyday. One of reasons you won´t find too many refrigerators around in Laos. We cook our food and eat the entire amount the same day. When we keep it in fridge, it remains fresh no more.´ As per UN statistics, Laos is one of poorest countries in world – who would say that? J

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Sourav

Mi blog primero en español!

Hola! Que pasa!

Bienvenido(a) a mi blog!

Hoy estoy muy feliz!  Estoy publicando mi blog primera en español. 

A lo mejor haré unos errores en la gramática en este blog. Pero no me importa!  

Después estudiando español por seis mes, por ultimo, puedo escribir unos párrafos en español.

Hoy, no escribiendo mucho.

Justo,  quiero mostrar mi progreso en este lengua.

Eso todo por hoy. Escribiré más pronto.

Gracias! :)

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Sourav

Prayers

Over a period of time I have carried a self-image that I am not very religious, though during school/college days I used to daily offer my prayers.

But this was also driven by the fact that mom always has offered pujas daily at home. Sister and I grew up expecting and looking forward to the scents of the incense sticks, the ringing of the puja bell, and the taste of ‘Kola’ (Banana) and ‘Batasha’ (a concentrated sugar sweet-cake).

But over last 6-7 years, this habit of mine started fading.

About 2 years back, I remember this period when I used to hear Akshat/Jaison/others in Danceworx saying ‘Try being in the zone. Pack your worldly worries (from school/college/work) in a bag and leave this bag outside the  class when you come in. You can pick up the bag again when you leave class.’  What they said resonated with me. I used to find it difficult to switch off from work during weekday evening classes.  So I used to be ‘there’ in dance class, but not be ‘there’.

On a certain Wednesday in 2009, I had a class at 6:15 p.m. I had had a tiring day at work – and mentally was fatigued. While walking towards class, I stopped by at the nearby St. Peter’s Church (Bandra, Hill Road)– I am still not sure why i stopped but I did. I sat inside the church for about 10 minutes with my eyes closed. I felt less heavy as minutes passed by, and more ‘with myself’. I left the church feeling more ‘zoned in’.

Over next few months, I would drop in to St. Peter’s church at times. Every time I had this sensation of becoming more ‘zoned in’ and ‘with myself’.

I have started following a routine, over last few months, on  Saturdays. Megha and I walk up to Mount Mary Church,  sit inside the church for some 5-10 minutes, and offer our prayers. We then walk up to Mother Mary’s statue opposite the church.  I again offer prayers to Mother Mary and then do a very Hindu thing – extend my hands out to the lit up candles and then touch my head with my palms. I repeat this routine 3 times.

I have started looking forward to this ‘Saturday walk/ritual’. I have been wondering ‘Why?’!

While I was growing up, I used to look forward to offering prayers as it gave me confidence that someone’s there to make things right for me.

Over last few years, I feel more with myself everytime I visit a church or temple.  I start becoming aware of sensation of my breath, beating of my heart, warmth I experience from candles, and movement of my hair thanks to the occasional breeze. 

I value this experience. I feel more ‘centered‘ and ‘grounded’ every time, by the time I am back home after ‘Saturday walk’.

I wonder ‘Why can’t I experience this feeling of being centered and grounded everyday?’.

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Sourav

Of Populations, Percentage Distributions, and Prosperity.

Story 1:

Vientiane, 9:30 a.m.

It was a cloudy, but hot and sultry morning when we were driving down from Vientiane to Nam Ngum Lake. Phovrong was telling me how Buddhism had got introduced in Laos.

He suddenly asked me “Sourav! Buddhism originated in your country. Are there a lot of Buddhists in your country now?”

Me: “Well! Hindus form the majority of the country – around 80%. Muslims constitute around 12 % of the country’s population. Other religions would make up the remaining 8 %. Though, I am not sure but my guess is that Buddhists would constitute at the maximum 5% of India’s population.”

Phovrong: “Oh! That’s not too high a number!”

I wonder what Phovrong would have commented if he had heard what I found out later – that Buddhishts probably constitute less than 1 % of India’s population – different estimates place the figure in the range of 0.8 % - 3.25 %.

But percentages don’t give a comprehensive picture. We would have to dig deeper.

India’s population is 1.2 billion.

10 % of that figure is 120 million – only 10 countries in the world (including India) have a population of greater than 120 million.

1 % of 1.2 billion is 12 million. 123 of the 195 countries in the world have a population lesser than 12 million.

The number of Buddhists in India is atleast around 12 million (the figure might even stand close to 38 million)!

The countries with the largest Buddhist population in the world are China, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, and Myanmar.

India supposedly has the 8^th largest Buddhist population in the world if you were to consider a conservative figure of close to 1 % (it could well be 6^th, as Buddhist populations in Cambodia and Sri Lanka are around 13-14 million), and the 5^th largest Buddhist population in the world if you were to take a figure of 3.25 %.

A similar pattern emerges when it comes to the number of Muslims in India. Muslims in India constitute around 12 % of the country’s population. In absolute numbers that accounts for around 160 million people, and makes India the country with the 3^rd largest number of Muslims in the world. Indonesia and Pakistan have the highest Muslim populations in the world (202 million and 174 million respsectively). Bangladesh is 4^th in the list with a figure of around 145 million. Strangely the only Middle Eastern or Northern African country to make it to the top 5 list is Egypt (with a Muslim population of 78 million).

But I wonder as to why do the statistics on the total number of Buddhists in the world vary so widely from study to study? Some studies estimate the total Buddhist population in the world around 300-500 million, while others estimate the figure to be around 1.2-1.6 billion. That’s a high variation!

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Story 2

Istanbul, 8. 30 am.

It was our 3^rd day in Istanbul. An icily cold and windy, but strangely sunny, morning!

We were crossing the imposing Bosphorus bridge from the European to the Asian side, on our way to Prince Island.

Neil, our Russian born guide who was emotionally attached to the Asian side of Istanbul and talked longingly of his days in New York, spoke in his heavy Russian accent about the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (the 2 monuments look imposing from the Bosphorus bridge).

It was a Saturday morning, yet there was a lot of traffic on the road.

Neil: “Istanbul is very crowded, especially the European side. Life’s too fast here!”

Me: “Really! What’s the population of Istanbul?”

Neil: “Around 15 million but frankly it is difficult to estimate as so many people come and go.”

Me: “ 15 million of the 73 million people in Turkey live in Istanbul? Around 20% of the country’s population in one city? That’s incredible!”

Neil: “Yes! Even the other large cities in Turkey are much smaller in comparison. Ankara (the capital) has the 2^nd largest population (around 4 million) while Izmir has the 3^rd largest population (around 3 million).”

Me (to myself): “Mumbai has a population of around 15 million (that’s around 1.2 % of India’s population). Hmmm! Which would be the other cities in the world, besides Istanbul, that house the majority population of their country? Which are the most populous cities in the world?”

Here is what I found. The 5 most populous cities in the world are:

1) Shanghai – 17.83 million, (around 1.3 % of China’s population)

2) Karachi – 13 million (around 7 % of Pakistan’s population)

3) Istanbul – 12.95 million,

4) Delhi – 12.57 million

5) Mumbai – 12.48 million

Other big cities in the list include:

• Seoul (10.57 million; 21.6% of South Korea’s population) ;
• Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam (around 7 million each – 16% of Vietnam’s population).
• Bangkok (7 million; 10.45% of Thailand’s population) ;
• Moscow (11.55 million; 8 % of Russia’s poluation) ;
• Tokyo (8.88 million; 6.94 % of Japan’s population);
• Dhaka (7 million; 4.26% of Bangladesh’s population);
• Jakarta (9.59 million; 4% of Indonesia’s population);

The above numbers don’t consider the surrounding areas of these cities where a significant number of the mobile labour population of these cities stay. The percentages would go up even significantly for some of these cities if were to consider these numbers , viz- Tokyo, Mumbai, London, etc.

What does it mean when large percentage of a country’s population lives in or around one or a few major cities? Does it bode well for the country or is it a sign of unbalanced development?

I don’t have an answer as of now!

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It was our last day in Istanbul. Doruk said “Everyone in Istanbul wants to have a car. A recent study has found that there are 15 million cars in Istanbul. A car for every person literally!”

Me (to myself): “I have no idea about any such comparison study across the world. But I can vouch for one thing. The traffic snarls around Taksim Square (central Istanbul) or Bosphorus bridge during office hours don’t seem worse than the snarls on the Mumbai roads during office hours. You stay stuck in traffic and you listen to FM! J”

Story 3

Bangkok, 6: 00 p.m.

It was the evening of the last day of our trip to Thailand. Deepak was driving us back from Sukhumvit (Central Bangkok) to Suvarnabhumi airport.

Yes, you heard that right – the name is Deepak. Deepak’s originally from Mumbai. He has lived in the South East Asian region since the early 1980s – around 8 years in China, 2-3 years in Vietnam, and over 20 years in Bangkok. He was telling us interesting snippets about Thailand, Thai people and their way of life.

Deepak: “Thailand is a large country. It has around 67 million people.”

Me (to myself): “67 million, that’s large?”

Deepak noticed the expression on my face and said “Being from India you might feel that 67 million is not a large population but not many countries in the world, certainly not most countries in South East Asia, have that large a population.”

Deepak was right!

Which are the 2 most populous countries in the world? China and India, obviously! Everyone knows it!

Which are the other most populous countries in the world? What are their populations ? Does any other country have a population of close to 1 billion?

The 3^rd to 7^th most populous countries in the world are:

• 3^rd - USA - 311 million people
• 4^th – Indonesia - 238 million people
• 5^th – Brazil – 195 million people
• 6^th – Pakistan – 176 million people
• 7^th – Bangladesh – 164 million people

Thailand is the 19^th while Turkey is the 18^th most populous country in the world.

Notice the “yawning” difference in population between the 2^nd and 3^rd most populous countries in the world.

What is also interesting is that there are only 11 countries in the world with a population of greater than 100 million.

Do you see the domination of the Asian continent in the population list?

Would we see a similar pattern in terms of contribution to world’s GDP?

Take a look at the table below.

	Percentage of World’s Population	Percentage of World’s GDP (nominal)*
Asia	60 %	30.66%**
Europe	11.5 %	32.42%
Africa	14 %	1.93%
North America	8 %	26.49%+
South America	6 %	7.32%***
Oceania	0.5 %	1.17%

*The size of the world economy is around 62 trillion US dollars.

** China, Japan, India, and South Korea contribute to around 74 % of Asia’s GDP. The remaining approx. 40+ countries in Asia contribute to the remaining 26%.

*** Brazil contributes to around 46% of South America’s GDP. The remaining 18 countries collectively contribute the remaining 54%.

⁺USA contributes to around 89 % of North America’s and 24% of world’s GDP. The next largest contributors to the world economy are China (9.5% of world’s GDP) and Japan (9% of world’s GDP).

The figures in the table above perhaps explain why wherever I travel I see a lot of tourists from Western Europe, USA, and Japan.

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Sourav

Of widely spoken languages, Bengali, linguistic diversity, and hope for a more integrated world

A few weeks back a friend and I were exchanging notes on our recent travels. He asked "Do you know which are the most widely spoken languages in the world?".  He added "You would be surprised to find out the answer. Even i could not believe it when an American ex-colleague told me about this".

I pondered.   Languages spoken by majority citizens in most populous countries of the world should figure in the list – Mandarin and Hindi should be in. National languages of countries which have ruled different parts of the world for significant period of time should also figure in the list – Spanish, English, and Portuguese (to a lesser extent) should also be in. Arabic should be in too.

I wikied for the information.  This is what i found (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers):

• ·         Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, English, and Portuguese do figure in the list.

• ·         But so do Bengali and Punjabi! :)

I was surprised!

Bengali is the 6^th most spoken language in the world but has only around 181 million native speakers (people from West Bengal and Bangladesh).

I thought  "Is the world so diverse linguistically?"

I found that the number of languages in the world spoken by more than 100 million people is around 10. People who speak these languages number to around 2.9 billion – that is around 42 % of world's population (6.93 billion).The composition of the remaining 58% is where the linguistic diversity shows.

It seems there are around 6000 living languages in the world. This data by itself may not reveal too much as we would have to look for languages in active use by large enough groups.

It seems around 48% of these 6000 languages are spoken by more than 10,000 people – that's close to 3000 languages which are spoken by a significant number of people.

That's a mind boggling number when you consider there are only 195 countries in the world!

If we were to use diversity in language as a representation of diversity in world views, the present world citizens are doing a good job of bringing the world closer together.

But I am left with a question at the end – "What aids this 'across cultures' integration?". I am not sure of the answer. A first thought which comes to mind is something i had read in an article written by  P. Chidambaram (the current Home Minister of India). He had said that economic development is the common tide which lifts all boats and brings them closer together.

 

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Sourav

 

Of traditional scripts and transitions to Latin script

I remember reading in a Lonely Planet guide for Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia that once you travel to these countries it becomes obvious why this region is called Indo-China. It had added that the physical boundary between Laos and Cambodia on one side and Vietnam on the other acts almost like a social boundary between India and China. Traditionally there has been a lot of Indian influence in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, and Chinese influence in Vietnam.

The first signs of this influence are seen in the scripts of these countries.

Take a look at the script of Lao, Cambodia ,and Thailand – they are derived from the Pali script. The first time I landed in Thailand and saw the signboards, I thought I was reading a South Indian language.

Now take a look at the traditional Vietnamese script (Chu-nom script ). Do you see the Chinese influence?

But wait. I am getting carried away. I recently traveled from Phnom Penh (Cambodia) to Vientiane (Laos) by Vietnam Airlines. When I picked up the in-flight magazine, I realized that Vietnamese in the magazine was written in the Latin script. I was initially taken back. My Japanese co-passenger helped clear my confusion. The Vietnamese have abandoned their traditional script and adopted the Latin script. I found this interesting.

I remember picking up an “about Malaysia” booklet in the Changi airport last year. I was intrigued by the fact that Malaysian in the booklet was written in the Latin script. My friends in Singapore told me that Malaysia had supposedly adopted the Latin script to come closer to the world community.

Turkey has moved on the same path, albeit earlier. Back in the 1920s they moved away from Arabic script to the Latin script.

Indonesia seems to have adopted the Latin script too. They speak the Bahasa language, but use the Latin script for writing.

What do other countries, where English is not necessarily widely spoken, do to come closer to the world community?

China is an economic powerhouse and you need to know Mandarin to work there (probably except in Hongkong). Brazil is a growing economy and Portuguese is the official language there - I hear even at work Portuguese is widely used.

Different countries seem to have approached “coming closer to the world community” differently.

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Sourav