What’s all this fuss about the 15th of August? I mean, it’s just another day, right? Umm, not so. Apparently, the folks over here in India would like you to believe otherwise. Now don’t misinterpret my intentions. I’m an Indian myself and I feel I’m entitled to have an opinion about the shenanigans that mark the day which is supposed to be our ‘Independence Day’.

This is the day when every man and his dog go around showing off their ‘patriotism’. Shopkeepers make hay while the sun shines, selling cheap plastic flags by the dozen. Banners with our ‘great’ political leaders come up on busy intersections, trying to take credit for freeing the country from the foreigners’ oppression. TV channels go bonkers and have so-called patriotic movies lined up for the whole day. The Prime Minister (or is it the President? I couldn’t care less.) delivers his traditional speech which only has a few lines changed from the one he delivered last year. One half of the country’s population sits glued to their TV sets, watching the parade on the watch-it-twice-a-year national broadcasting channel. So what we have here is, Indians watching Russian aircrafts on display on a Korean television, sitting on French furniture and conversing among themselves in English. Call it globalisation or call it something else. Your choice.

On a more personal level, I find it pretty amusing how people wait for I-Day to display their patriotism. I mean, if you really love your country why should you need to wait for a specific date in the calendar? It’s a bit like Valentine’s Day really, without the mushy stuff. But unlike V-Day, my inbox gets flooded with I-Day messages from enthusiastic friends who happen to have me on their messaging list. These messages range from the simple ‘Happy Independence Day’ to the for-fucks-sake-get-a-grip-son variety such as ‘our great leaders blah blah blah, mother India blah blah, love the country blah blah and more blah’. The worst are those ‘gems’ of poetry that a few people manage to unearth from some old book or an obscure site on the Web. I got your point, now would you mind laying off Shakespeare for a while? Sheesh.

Now I wouldn’t want to play spoilsport and ruin your I-Day ‘celebrations’, but really, take a look at yourselves. And then take a look around you. These are the same people who are ashamed to call themselves Indians on international forums, the same twunts who find it embarrassing to stand up when the national anthem is played (although this one is, more often than not, a matter of personal choice), the same jokers who would fly away to the US of A and never return, if given an opportunity. So why this facade? Just to blend in with the crowd? If so, then these people should get a life. Or a passport.

As for me, the 15th of August is just another day in the calendar (although it also happens to be the birthday of a very good friend). And unlike this year, it’s another holiday for the overworked and underpaid masses. At the risk of courting controversy, I’d say that Independence Day has lost its charm. There is nothing special about this day and if you feel differently, you really need to wake up and smell the coffee. Loving your country is fine and dandy, but going overboard with sentiment on a specific day of the year is truly absurd. Especially when you’ve done nowt for your beloved nation and you’re gonna do nowt for your beloved nation in the foreseeable future.

So on the 15th of August this year, I woke up when I wanted to. I ate what I wanted to eat and I did what I wanted to do. I went out and wasn’t stopped by anyone for wearing goofy clothes or for looking like a northerner in Chennai. I didn’t buy a flag and I didn’t go to watch any stupid parade. I didn’t play any patriotic songs nor am I going to. I didn’t go and send I-Day messages to all and sundry. And the best part is, I’m writing what I feel right here, without any fear of the cops dragging me away. In short, I lived the way I wanted to live (staying on the right side of the law, of course).

This is independence. And I wouldn’t want it to be any other way.

That pretty much sums up the thoughts of the majority of the Indian youth, methinks. Agree or disagree? Let me know.

Well in my case, I tend to save myself the trouble of writing something and instead, when I have some free time I fiddle with the blog’s theme. Call it stupid if you like, but that’s the way it goes for me. A lazy Saturday made even lazier by the doctor’s pills was spent in searching for a new look for my blog. At least it will remove the cobwebs, if not shoo away the spiders from my site. The 8 legged creatures will be back soon as I’ll inevitably go back to my busy life.

Speaking of life, there’s been a sort of revolution. Gone are the days when I moseyed over to the office after waking up just in time.  Now I need to wake up at least 2 hours before I’m expected at my workplace, thanks to my new abode. Yes, I’ve finally moved closer to the city and closer to civilization. And although I have joined the horde of commuters who travel… actually, they just stuff themselves into the local train and hope that merciful Lord will somehow push them out of the tin when they reach their destination. It’s a small price to pay for the convenience that you get by staying closer to the city. For one, you won’t die of hunger. Ever. There’s always some or the other eatery that’s open for a Sunday dinner.

Ah, dinner. That reminds me of the beans that I cooked (burnt would be a better word) today. Yup, yours truly is now trying his hand at cooking food. Don’t laugh or I’ll shove a spoonful into your mouth. Safe to say, I won’t be assisting Sanjeev Kapoor on his show any time in the near future. But at least I can survive for a few days even if all restaurants go on an indefinite strike.

Okay, I think that should be enough for today. After a month, I’ve finally managed to clear the cobwebs from my site and make a blog post. That should set me up for about 2 weeks of busy-ness (is that a word?). And lest I forget, I also need to write an article for The Final 3rd. Don’t want that site to become a carbon copy of mine, crying out for attention while weeping in a corner.

Raindrops Infotech

P.S. – I’m NOT getting paid for this. Honest.

We’ve got contributors from all over India, yours truly included. Check it out!

That is all.

The Final 3rd

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I hoped that I wouldn’t crib about the weather again and my prayers seem to have been answered by The Almighty. The city of Chennai (or in my case, the outskirts of Chennai) have been receiving rain showers daily since the past 3 days. I would be lying if I said that I was expecting rains here at this time of the year. One of my friends actually expressed his amazement at this natural phenomenon thus – “Bloody hell! It rains in these parts too?”. We made it a point never to curse the rain Gods ever again.

Meanwhile, I had another misadventure with a Hindi+English-illiterate shopkeeper. I wanted a 500ml bottle of Sprite and if that wasn’t available I was willing to settle for a baby bottle of LMN. My attempts at guiding the grocer to the goods using a combination of hand gestures plus broken English bore no fruit. Finally I had to use the linked-list concept of ‘next->next->element found’ to get what I wanted. I left with a cold drink and a hot head.

Another curious incident that occurred last week was when me and my friends went out to dinner. In order to avoid any conflicts, we go Dutch as a rule. I was bored of the usual stuff, so I ordered a Paneer dish. At times like these, it’s easy to make assumptions about the price and I dismissed it as a non-issue since I considered myself to be a regular at this particular restaurant, fully acquainted with the pricing structure. Dinner was served and midway through the dining I realized that my order was beyond the capacity of my tummy. There was no way I could finish it. None of my friends were willing to lend a spoon/fork/handful since they had already filled up their tanks. Leaving the plate half-full (optimism, you see) was the only option. As I walked up to pay the bill, I was shocked to find that my ‘for-a-change’ dinner cost double of what I usually spend on a meal. I turned back and saw my (still) half-full plate being carried away by the waiter, the contents laughing and sticking out their collective tongues at me.

“Hey! Bring it back! I’m not done yet!!”, I almost shouted.

So that was the week that was. Next week has already begun and that means more trips to the coffee machine and if the weather stays pleasant, maybe I’ll get to visit the real Chennai too!

I spent the week pondering about my second tutorial regarding Firefox. I’ll probably work on it tomorrow, since I’ve got nothing lined up for Sunday. The first one is here, if you’re wondering.

Okay, since this was a pretty uneventful week I’ve got nothing more to crib about. I’ll keep myself busy on Sunday by working on that little tutorial and cursing the heat again.

Here’s hoping my next post won’t be full of whinging and whining.

“Why?”, you ask. So lemme tell you, I live in a God-forsaken place where I’d be lucky to find a restaurant open on Sundays. Saturdays are comparatively better, since most food joints in this area are open. Now this may or may not apply to Chennai ‘city’, so don’t get too wound up. However, the heat is still terrible. Apparently the Sun doesn’t do us any favours on weekends. The heat just makes me wish I could run away to the office and spend the day in the air-conditioned rooms.

So yes, we don’t have an air-conditioner in my room. In any other place, this wouldn’t be a big deal. But when I mentioned this to a friend of mine who was brought up in Chennai, she was shocked. Not having an AC in this city is equivalent to a death-wish, it seems. Still, I shall brave the weather and try to survive the 2×4=8 days of a month or two, somehow. After all, I’ll probably be posted at some place other than Chennai after training is over, right?

Right?

Right??

At the risk of schadenfreude, I must say that at least it’s better than getting cooked in the scorching May heat. The 5 minute walk from my house to the office seems like a marathon thanks to the ‘default’ Chennai weather. But like most things in life, the bad inevitably followed the good. My bed was the first one to suffer, getting drenched in rainwater leaking from a wall socket while I slept. The poor mattress is currently being kept under the intensive care of a table fan. And the mattress didn’t go for a dip alone. It took 2 of my bedsheets along, colouring them violet in the process. The worst part? I had changed the sheets right before I went to sleep that night.

For now, the weather is quite pleasant and I know it won’t last long. But anything’s better than having to suffer at the hands of the dreaded Chennai weather.

I moved to Chennai a couple of weeks ago and since then my life has become more hectic, faster and busier than ever. Priorities have changed and a lot of things have had to be reorganized. That leaves little time for posting here. Still, I’ll have something to say every now and then.

My experiences in this new city and a lot more will soon follow.

See what I did there? Inspired by Spurs (don’t worry, I’ll wash my mouth with soap afterwards) making good use of the 5-1 scoreline against Ar5ena1, I came up with this little gem of a title. Genius.

*ducks to avoid the dozen or so rotten tomatoes and eggs*

Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, allow me to present my first match review after a very, very long time. Of course, you may ask what is there to review? The scoreline of 7-1 says it all, really. Well, that is technically correct.

Still, I want to write something and a something I shall write. Yesterday was a match that was billed as one of those which could make or break our season. But after the initial hiccup when Villa equalized through John Carew, it was Chelsea all the way. Scoring 7 once in a season is noteworthy. But twice? That, my friends, requires something special. And yesterday it was special. We had Malouda terrorising the Villa right-back all game and bagging 2 goals for the second successive game. And Yuri Zhirkov too decided to join in the attack twice, earning 2 penalties for each foray into the opposition box.

Super Frank was at it again, taking his season’s tally past the 20 goal mark yet again with 4 (yes, four) goals against a hapless Villa side which came into this game as the only unbeaten team in 2010. I guess they had it coming.

Salomon Kalouless came on later and he too chipped in with a goal which must have made Martin O’Neill wish the earth would open up and swallow him. It didn’t.

So 7-1 it was in the end. Chelsea were seemingly on seventh heaven while it was a hellish nightmare for Aston Villa. After a few minutes at the top of the table, Manchester United went back to the top after beating Bolton Wanderers 4-0. And if you’re not aware, we’ll be visiting them in Manchester next week for a game that is billed as the title decider.

I’ll leave you with the comment made by a Villa fan that I happened to read on a forum today. Till then, take care and Keep The Blue Flag Flying High!

Villa Fan: Woken up this morning by my girlfriend saying ‘Get up, it is 8′. I thought, ‘Oh no, they’ve not effing scored again have they?’