being cool

Ooh am a free bird
new faces,new places,
my new life knows no gauges.
drown myself in alcohol,
the social lubrication they call it
[haha!]

Im being cool,so cool
do u still take me for a fool?

borrow some smoke,hey "may I?"
alryt,they said,its ur life
pull in till u last
[Sshhh] Oh my,oh (cough)
as said by 'em sages,
its tym to turn some pages.
roll me some of that green,its tym for more
alryt,they said,its ur lyf
pull in till ur sore
[Sshhh} oh my,oh (cough)

Im being cool,so cool
do u still take me for a fool?

A year gone,what were we here for?
" Am sorry bud,u flunked ur grades "
Wat? Why only I?
there were supposed to be more
with me when i die
Where do I go now?
Where have I been?

I was just tryin' being cool,so cool
do u still take me for a fool?

{background evil laughter}

Monkeys run riot in Kukundoor

Kukundoor is a small village around forty five kilometers away from the university town of Manipal. It falls under the Karkala taluk and has a population of around ten thousand. An hour long bike ride along State Highway SH37 took us to the village that has been facing a serious problem for the past few months now.

Jeevan, a resident of Kukundoor works at the Bola Raghavendra Kamath and Sons Cashew kernel manufacturing and exporting company.But he started working at the factory only about a month ago.He previously was a farmer and earned from whatever his small tobacco farm yielded. For about the last six months a lot of farmers in villages around Karkala have faced immense losses due to invading monkeys who destroyed their crops and often also attacked them and their family members.

Statistically, according to the Karkala Assembly Constituency, Over 800 small-scale farmers have given up cultivation and two of them ended their lives due to crop loss caused by monkeys. Crops worth Rs 5 crore are said to be damaged by monkeys in Karkala alone. About 1,400 acres of fertile land have not been cultivated in the area due to fear of damage to crop from monkeys. About 1,800 farmers are living in abject poverty, unable to pay bank loans.
In some areas, children have stopped going to schools fearing attacks from monkeys. There is widespread absenteeism in cashew factories, beedi manufacturing units, areca sorting centres and even in agricultural operations. Monkeys chase the children and snatch their lunch boxes and books, sometimes after attacking the children.

Suresh, a monkey catcher, was called in from Manchi village near Udupi to tackle the issue but the number of monkeys around the region is so high that it is impossible for one person to deal with the situation now. Under the guidance of forest officials, some villagers though have devised a plan to drive the monkeys back to forests in the Western Ghats.

"If they do not go back, they will be caught and rehabilitated in the monkey park to be built in the Kudremukh National Park " says Jeevan. Kudremukh National Park is one of the largest national parks in india located in the Chikmaglur district of Karnataka. Since there was no contact information available of the Kudremukh National Park on the internet, we could not confirm whether work for the monkey park has begun there yet.

The locals believe that the main reason for these monkey invasions over the past year or so is depletion of food sources in the wild. To prevent them from entering the main farmlands, farmers like Jeevan are now planting wild fruit bearing trees on the village edges away from the farms to distract these groups of monkeys.

On our trip to Kukundoor, we did not witness an invasion as such but we saw a couple of stray monkeys on treetops around the farms. Jeevan said the rains generally kept the pack away, probably why it was a day of relief in Kukundoor.



A special thanks to my friend Veerendra Neeli of 1st year M.S.Communication, MIC for helping out with the translations that made it so much easier to communicate with the locals at Kukundoor that gave us an insight of the threat they face today.

Life of a common man in Bangalore on a day of "Bharat Bandh"

27 April 2010~

Unlike most other parts of India,the IT capital of the nation refused to bow down to the nationally declared curfew today.Bangalore is the hub of multi-national company investments and a day's halt in the city would mean a global breakdown in the IT sectors.
As reports came in of considerable economic standstill from around the nation,I sat on the window seat of a BMTC public transport bus looking outside.I saw around half a dozen IT officials awaiting their regular route busses at the bus stops.I noticed a couple of students two seats ahead of me flipping through their notebooks for some last second exam preparations.Most Engineering colleges in Bangalore under the Visvesvaraya Technological University(VTU) were midway through conducting their internal examinations that end this Wednesday.A few loud horn blares grabbed my attention as the bus halted near the K.R.puram Tin Factory bus stop around 9:50am.I looked out of the window to see something which on any other day I would not spare a single thought to.TRAFFIC JAM.This is a common condition at peak hours in this bottleneck junction of the city.This road leads to the outer ring road on which from Marathalli to Belandur right upto Silk Board were located a number of IT parks housing big company offices such as Accenture,Magma,Cisco,Hewlett Packard(HP) and many others.
The 500A route bus chugged along as the conductor pushed himself around the usual daily crowd collecting tickets.I got off at my stop and noticed no remarkable change in the usual activities there either.I needed to refill currency on my Cell phone,so I walked into the mobile recharge store next to Hebbal bus stop.As I came out,I very much DID have to watchout for vehicles before crossing the road.The Esteem Mall was getting ready for usual business while I noticed the familiar looking guard sitting outside the bank ATM located inside its premises.The Columbia Asia Hospitals in the adjacent compound too from outside looked functioning as usual.As I walked the last bit of my journey till my friend's house,I saw pretty much most of the small shops getting on with their regular routine and dealing with their normal number of customers.I reached my friend's place at around 10:30am,one full hour after I had left my bus stop,which was by no means earlier than any other day owing to any lesser traffic expected on a day of bandh.
Bandh or no bandh,life must go on.Bangalore,probably due to this very attitude,has attracted so much of international business over the last decade.From the political point of view,I cannot give a statistical effect of today's bharat bandh on Bangalore.But as an ordinary citizen of this city,I can say that a national attempt at disrupting usual life has not particularly caused me any trouble in going about my planned schedule in this city today.
All shops shut,cannot buy daily items of need?Medical stores and Doctor clinics shutters down?ATM closed,cannot withdraw money from YOUR OWN accounts in case of an emergency?No Public transport?No private vehicles allowed on the streets either?Holiday declared at schools,colleges and workplaces?
If you are a kid growing up in Bangalore,you would probably never have the experience of gathering your friends on a weekday afternoon to play soccer in the middle of a usually buzzing main road junction on a "bandh"-day.Which,if you ponder upon keeping in mind the public and economic interest of the nation as a whole,is not such a bad thing.

The story of a Rock lover growing up in India

"Its a long way to the top,
if u wanna Rock n' Roll" _ AC/DC


I sat watching a CD I had borrowed from a friend one afternoon in the summer of 1998.In the video a man with long curly hair,a burning cigarette hanging down his lips charged across the stage while still playing the guitar that hung around somewhere near his knees.Another guy with a slightly bigger guitar but with lesser strings joined him as two beams of light followed the two around the stage.Back then,I could not distinguish between the leads,the bass or the rhythm sections on an audio track.But what I was hearing was something I had never heard before in my life.A tingle ran across my spine as I sat there watching Guns N' Roses Guitarist SLASH and bass player DUFF cast a magical spell over me that would stay intact for years to come.
Like hundreds of other rock influenced kids,I too some day wanted to play the songs like my heroes did.It was high School when I got my first guitar.And hence began my journey that no wonder took me close to my dreams,but not without introducing me to a few hard secrets of this life.
I have been around rock music enthusiasts from all age groups across India for almost seven years now.While new bands were being formed by young musicians on one hand,some of the older bands were breaking up over personal and musical differences on the other.Some bands dis-banded due to other reasons while some achieved commendable levels of both success and popularity in the underground scene.They all had the talent,passion,dedication and enthusiasm.But what was the real single most defining aspect in each of these bands' story of existence?The answer,STRUGGLE.
In India,every youngster is expected to make some sort of an academic breakthrough in his or her batch/school/family or social circles.Nobody cares if you can get the exact Lamb of God double bass on the drums or can play Megadeth guitar solos note to note.
Squeezing in jam sessions in between class hours and tution classes.Saving up on pocket money for Thermocol sheets to block out those window and door gaps to sound proof jam rooms enough as to not "disturb" the neighbours' evening soap operah.Fighting to keep the "desi idol" and "dance india" obsessed masses and event managers interested to bag in some live shows.And when all goes well to try and explain to the sound guy at the show who has no clue how to balance the guitar,drums and bass sounds.Who offcourse is trained in strictly vocal oriented sound engineering and specialises in working with tone deaf hindi movie song singing locality bahus,betis,jijajis and uncles who have been convinced by family that they are the next Mohammad Rafis and Lata Mangeshkars.
Major International Rock and Metal bands touring India was also extremely rare till about five years back.But ever since it eventually did happen,a much larger section of the masses have been grasped by the hypnotic charm of the music.Guitar legend Joe Satriani Live in Calcutta in the year 2005 was my first live concert Experience.I missed out on Roger Waters,Mark Knopfler,Deep Purple and Aerosmith since they toured Mumbai and Bangalore while I was still doing high school in Calcutta.But ever since shifting base to Bangalore in 2007,The Scorpions,Sepultura,Megadeth,Machine Head,Sattiricon,Sahg and Iron Maiden Concerts have given me that once in a lifetime opportunity to feel the feeling of being around the gods.
HardRock and Metal music has always had its share of critics.Critics who declared this music to be unnecessarily loud,a symbol of hatred,violence and everything else that qualified to be called wrong.If their verdict was to be accepted blindly by all,then a few questions cannot just be left unanswered.
how does such a large section of the world population still get their life's inspirations from this music?how does this music empower its lovers with that immensely satisfying scope to rid themselves of all stress and anger?How does this music have such an unbelievable impact on the youth who struggled to express themselves otherwise?
I had looked around at the forty thousand strong gathering around me at the IRON MAIDEN Rock in India 2009 Concert and asked myself these questions.
I never had the real answers till the curtains went up,the lights came on,a flash of lasers and then...
They rushed in from backstage with all my answers.I smiled as the show opened with the song "Aces High" in which I sang along Bruce Dickinson as out came from his mouth the words,

"...Run.Live to fly.Fly to live.Do or die.
Won't you run?live to fly,fly to live,Aces high"

Social Networking Websites...I owe you a Thanks

A chilly winter Sunday Morning,6:35AM :
"Wake Up!Go Online!Your Strawberries are close to getting Withered!"
That's what his Girlfriend was ACTUALLY telling him over the phone.Startled at first,Furious within Seconds.
"Shut the hell Up and let me Sleep!!!"
*BANG*
(The phone lay on the floor,the Battery out due to the impact the phone just had against the Bedroom Door)

FARMVILLE is a real-time farm simulation game developed by Zynga,an application that is available on the social networking website "Facebook".The game allows individuals to manage a virtual farm by planting,growing and harvesting virtual crops and trees,and raising livestock.This application became an instant hit with all age groups immediately after its release in June 2009.You plant your crops and if you do not come back to harvest them on time,you lose out on all the hard work.
Facebook,Orkut,Twitter,Hi5....Social Networking Websites have certainly changed the way one kept in touch with the social circles till about Three or Five years back.
Orkut became a craze in the Sub-Continent and the Latin Americas in particular once word spread about the website among youngsters.As the popularity increased,the "joining-only-through-invitation-by-existing-members" scheme was taken off to allow a larger inflow in number of members.Facebook in the meantime grew large among rest of the Americas,Europe,and the remaining world.
Twitter was making news for the many celebrities who had got hooked onto the website.
Be it the games,the quizzes,the Fan pages or just the privilege of daily updates of what your favourite stars been eating for breakfast,one thing is for sure.Thanks to these Social Networking web-sites,the world is much well knit today,bringing close families,friends and the big names to the Masses.
Glancing through the home-page of my profile on Facebook,I just discovered my cousin in Delhi has "had a good Tenth Boards and is headed for a trip tomorrow",my Childhood friend in London is "back home inspite of train delays and a punctured tyre" while another dear friend just posted his disapointment over Kolkata Knight Riders' loss to Punjab King's XI.
Five years back,we would not have had a clue of these small happenings in each other's lives.Yes,life CAN go on without these information,but for me,it definitely does bring a smile to my face when I read the status post on the profile of that very friend who slammed that phone against his door that chilly winter morning.

...DEBANOOJ DAS is "accidentally in love"

An unusual Encounter

Bangalore April 2 (Around 2:45pm)
"Duto K.R.PURAM'er ticket,koto?"(Two tickets to K.R.Puram,How Much?).One of the two young boys asked the Bus Driver as I looked on with a slight smile.This is Bangalore,and the language the boy spoke to the Bus Driver in was Bengali with a raw suburban accent on it.The driver understood the K.R.Puram part but the number portion was the confusion factor for the man with more than just one responsibility on his shoulders.Driving that huge BMTC bus through crowded streets on a hot Friday afternoon simultaneously collecting money from the passengers,controlling the over-crammed vehicle;hence understandably agitated at the commotion.
"Erudu...Erudu ticket kuri" ("Two...Give two Tickets").I stepped forward to tell the bus driver.The Ticket issue solved,the two Lads came sat next to me."hum howrah jana chahte hai,kaise jaaye?" ("We want to go to Howrah,How do we?"),one of them asked in broken hindi.An ear-to-ear smile spread across the two rather worried faces when I replied,"Bengali?Me too."
Both looked relieved at that statement for some reason.Clad in dirtied clothes and carrying nothing more than a handfull of cash,I was curious about the question they had asked me.As we spoke,I learnt that these were two boys from a small village in Murshidabaad region of West bengal.One was called Qadir,the other was Sulemaan.They wrote their Madhyamik(Class X State board exam) papers this year and wanted to utilise the two month vacation that followed to earn some money for their families.Apparently promised "easy Accounting/Register work" in Bangalore for a month,they were brought into the city 5 days ago by some man called Ramesh Mondol.But soon they realised they had been conned into rigorous on-field labour work at a construction site in North-Bangalore by the men who brought them here.Cheated and dazed by the enormous city buildings and the impossible-to-interpret local language for a first timer in the state,the two had decided to flee back.They left all their baggages and with the help of some broken hindi,and little hand signals and sign language discovered that a train for howrah left Bangalore via K.R.Puram railway station every night at Eight in the evening.At my confirmation of the fact that there really was a train like that,the two looked like they just won a quarter share of the Ambanis' bank balance.But the very thought of actually fleeing to get back home safe away from the alien land probably felt much bigger to them right now.
"Please take us to the station,we are scared to talk to the people,we do not understand a word".
Hundreds of youngsters from poor families across the country are brought in daily to these big growing cities in need of cheap labour with similar fake job promises.Some accept life that way,some turn to flee.Some return lucky while some age and die trying.
I agreed and got off two stops before the one I originally wanted to go to so as to get the two to the station and do the ticket transaction for them making use of the little knowledge that I had of the local Kannada language.I wondered why I was even doing this.As I handed them the ticket and showed them the platform where the Yesvantpur-Howrah Express would depart from in another hour and a half,Qadir held my hand and followed it up with a question I least expected."Allah tomake laakh dua debe.Tumi musalman nah?amaader shahajjo korle?" ("Allah shall bless you a million blessings.You a muslim right,since u helped us so much?).Cofused and unsure of wat to say,I smiled stupidly and said,"Nope" as I turned back to leave a platform which tonight at Eight hundreds of young Qadirs and Sulemaans would crowd,irrespective of caste,creed,religion or place of origin,cramming into a train that would take them lucky few back home.