Charki's Char-rasta

This would be my first short story on this blog. Enjoy. Do put criticisms as comments. ;)

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The battle raged fiercely. The atmosphere was tense. Drops of sweat clouded his brow as he counted through the moments, all ready to signal the troops behind him to rush forward and attack the enemy at full speed. The red medals lined on his chest clinked together as he moved up and down on his toes in excitement. The seconds counted down. As soon as the counter hit zero, he made the motion of signaling his troops to his left to march forward. With bellowing sounds, men in colored tanks, on horses and on foot ran forward. But so did the troops come towards him from the front right side, rushing into his ground. In a few seconds the majority of the troops were past each other’s grounds and out of sight. A moment of rest, some time for new troops to build up on both sides. And this went on again and again with the attack of troops on both sides going on.

Picch-thu! And the battleground turned into dusty road of the Chiligudi Char-rasta, with the fascinating tanks turning into honking smog emitting cars and trucks, and the horseriders into cycles. He jumped a bit before checking where the frothing globule of spit from the passing cycle rider had landed. His brown eyes went back to the road on discovering that the boiling spit ball had landed a safe distance from him. He continued directing his troops back and forth, left and right.

Charki was a traffic policeman in the dusty town of Chiligudi. As the name tells, the town was famous for its chilli plantations. Chili plantation had been introduced there by some English traders, in late 1800s, who were looking to set up a small factory to manufacture packed chilis. The factory had now expanded and was now rumored to be held indirectly by some international pizza company for producing its chili flakes. The crossing where Charki was stationed, the Char-rasta, was a major intersection in the small town, where the two major roads crossing the town met. Thus making it the busiest junction of the town.

Charki was brawny, strongly built but with a growing belly. He still had his youth. But he had no plans. Just wanted to be a good general, marshelling his troops. Unlike his colleagues, he loved his job as a traffic policeman. He loved the idea of leading thousands of commuters to their destinations daily always imagining them as his troops. “Abey, phir kho gaya… aaja chai pee le”, called his duty mate Chandru, asking him to join him for a cup of tea. Startled Charki opened his mouth to reply only to drop another drop of red paan on his while shirt. Well, atleast he had another medal now. Cleaning it the best he could, Charki went over. Chandru was pot bellied, dark with his hair receding and always with an air of superiority, someone Charki always aspired to be. He was as corrupt as a crook but sometimes as lenient as the hindi teacher. All depended on his mood which was decided by the sweetness of the morning tea. It had to have the exact amount of sugar, dot more or a dot less and the first motorcycle rider without a helmet had to give rs, 200 to get off. Not that the tea shop owner ever got paid. He was just happy being there on the busy junction.

He arrived there just as Chandru lighted a beedi. “What’ll happen to the traffic if im here”, Charki said lightly, taking the cup. “Let the bastards die..”, he cursed, “Who asks so many people to travel everyday, can’t they take a day off, its Sunday for God’s sake. Making life hell for us in the sun…”, and he continued cursing. It was their daily routine. It was noon, so the traffic was low. Charki knew what Chandru would say when he would utter his concern, but he liked to see him curse. Gave him a strange feeling of happiness seeing Chandru curse someone else for a change.

“Why is it so hot in September.. the place is burning”, he said wiping his brows and sipping the steaming tea. “Must be the chillis”, Chakri quipped while gulping down his cup so as to go back soon. “What on earth did I do to get here..”, Chandru mumbled away, sipping his tea. As he finished his tea, Charki thoughts shifted to how he got there. As he reached his platform in the middle of the road junction and took his place, putting up his hand to stop the oncoming blue Fiat, he could almost see the black Mercedes in its place. He felt the hot, humid Chiligudi roads vanish to be replaced by the cool winds of Goa. The sounds of the honks and the frying sabzi, replaced the sounds of the waves hitting the beach, and Chandru replaced by Chandni, his duty-mate during his shift as a traffic policeman in the coastal town of Siolim in Goa. His post was right next to the beach with most of the traffic being the holiday fun loving crowd. So, work was fun, sipping coconut juice with Chandni was fun, even though he got tired of her homely talks sometimes, still it was fun to be with her.

Then what or who changed the coconut water to over-sweetened tea..? The answer lay in the most lavish house of the capital city. Three time MP from Panaji, Chilokda Rao. He could only be described as a man with double the belly and double age of Chandru, but still managing to walk on his small feet and talk like a wicked witch. A white Ambassador, always ready to ferry him anywhere he wanted. Who could have known, that choosing an extra large coconut to drink would have caused Charki to switch to tea for the rest of his life. It was Friday the 13th, of May last year, the day etched in Charki memories just too vividly. Though for entirely different reasons than that of his former crush running away from his hometown with her lover on that day. No, it was not her face which bothered him at nights. It was that of Chilokda Rao. That white Ambassador with a red beacon on top would haunt him to his death, he knew. Transforming into white elephants, ridden by red masked men on top and coming after him in his dreams. It was surprisingly hot that day. It was sweltering and it he was stationed at his usual place. His and Chandni’s lookout from where they marshaled their troops and sometimes taking breaks to sip coconut water from the nearby vendor whom Chandni always remembered to pay, unlike Chandru. That day she was not there, haven taken a leave after telling Charki. He was drinking from an extra large coconut and brooding over the loneliness in the air whenever Chandni was not there, not even thinking of the fact that she was actually married. The traffic was low and it didn’t need him to marshal it. He brought the coconut to his post at the center of the road and sat on the seat there, drinking. He didn’t notice that his walkie talkie was missing. Suddenly there was a blaring sound. It was actually a couple of second before Charki realized that there were two blaring sounds, one coming from the front and one from the left from towards the beach. He turned to find an ambulance approaching. But before he could stop the traffic from the other sides, two blaring police jeeps went by infront of him from right to left as he looked upon the approaching ambulance. He put up his hand to his right side stooping the traffic on his right. Not noticing the white Ambassador stopping on his right, he waved at the ambulance to go through swiftly. After craning his neck behind his back to see the ambulance fly away, Charki finally turned towards his right. A dark potbellied man in a dhoti and a Gandhi cap was walking towards him, a couple of people trying to stop him. Charki looked at him bemusedly as he approached him with an face dripping with anger. “Who the hell do you think you are? how dare you stop my caravan. Don’t you know who I am.” , He said his small index finger pointing towards Charki in anger. Charki smiled, this was the order of the day. Nobodys and people assuming to be somebodies often came up to him throwing tantrums. “Sir, I would request you to please go back to your car or I would have to call the police.” The man’s eyebrows arched in mammoth anger as the small man next to him tried to calm him. It was then that Charki noticed about 5 policemen standing behind him, and next to them he got the glimpse pf the red beacon. His feet froze, eyes opened in fear. “I AM CHILOKDA RAO, THREE TIMES MP FROM PANAJI, how dare you stop me and threaten me with police. It’s you who’ll go behind bars. I got late because of you, SECRETARY! I want this man behind bars. NOW!” He screamed as he stomped back to his car. The policemen rushing in his wake. A frozen Charki stood and watched as the Ambassador and 2 more police jeeps scurried away. He collapsed. He was dead, he was sure he would surely lose his beloved job now. No more coconuts, no more time with Chandni. Three times MP. How come he never saw him...

The next day he was transferred from the beaches of Goa to the dust of Chiligudi. The coconuts replaced by tea and the smell of Chandni’s hair, by Chandru’s sweat. His job was still the same; he still liked it, but missed the calm of the beach town. He was woken up by his dreams by the familiar blaring sound which now always sent a chill down his spine.

Looking ahead, he could see an ambulance approaching. But there was another blaring sound coming from his right. He froze at his place and dared to look towards his right. There was a police jeep. But he took a sigh of relief when he couldn’t find any sign of a mighty ambassador with a red beacon behind it. He relaxed. What would an ambassador be doing in a town like Chiligudi. He smiled and let the police jeep through before stopping all the traffic to let the ambulance go first. Suddenly the doors of the black Mercedes which was just behind the police jeep opened and out came a pot bellied man with a white cap on his head. Charki froze on seeing him. He wanted to run away, he just wanted to vanish from that place. Not again! As the belly-man approached, with some police guys tottering behind him with guns, Charki looked out for Chandru. But he seemed to have vanished from his seat at the tea stall. As the man came near and looked at Charki, his face got even more contorted in rage as he recognized him. “You again! Abomination on the human race! Didn’t you learn your lesson the last time? I’ll get you arrested this time for sure”, he said spitting at the Charki’s foot. The spitball found its target and his black shoe reflected some light after days of getting the dust treatment. Charki was whimpering. He loved his job, did it well too. Never had an accident taken place on his watch. But obviously that didn’t matter to this pot bellied gentleman. A small crowd had gathered by now. The mandarin had no plans of backing out and continued to rage at his full tempo. “SHLIK! SHLIK!” Someone was clicking pictures. Chilokda Rao turned realizing that, tried to locate the photographer. But by now about 50 people had gathered and the cameraman could not be located. Realizing the delicateness of the situation the secretary tugged at Chilokda Rao, who gave one last angry stare at Charki and turned back towards his waiting black Mercedes. Charki was sure that his days as a traffic policeman were done and that black elephants would now join the white ones in his nightmares. Shaken he fell to the ground. Soon a hand was pulling him up pulling him towards the tea stall. Leaving him in a chair, Chandru pushed a glass of tea into his hands. “Thanda reh, kuch ni hoga”. But Chakri was not listening. He was lost in his world of memories. He didn’t want to give it all up.

The next day when he reached his Char-rasta there was a man waiting for him with a letter. “Charki, this is for you”, he said handing him an envelope. He knew it was his termination letter. He just couldn’t get himself to open it. He looked at the chai shop, Chandru was strolling towards him. Taking the letter from him, Chandru ripped it open, taking out the sheet of paper from within. “Holy God”, he said, “You lucky bastard he said looking at him in disbelief, you’re going back to Goa”. Charki took the letter from Chandru, and looked at it in surprise. The expression of his face changed from deep pain to that of utmost pleasure as his eyes went down the letter. He could almost smell the odors of the beach again. Maybe he’ll be on duty with Chandni again. He was on fire with happiness. He just couldn’t stop smiling. On a nearby stall, a newspaper lay spread on a table. It had the photo of Chilokda Rao and Charki from yesterday and it had the details of what had transpired.

A smiling Charki took leave. It was time to go home and marshal the troops there. The general picked up his stick and cap, hugged his comrade, and then started walking back, to the place where his home troops awaited him for direction.

The Proposal

i proposed to her and she said yes...
she took my hand and said yes...

Her one yes took all my woes away...
Her one yes took all my tears away...
Her one yes took all my pain away...
Her one yes took all my problems away...

She stood there dressed in black..
looking at me with expressionless eyes...
I tried to imagine love for me in them
i tried to get lost in them

she seemed to have the answer to all my woes
she seemed to understand me as a whole
she seemed to pull me towards her fore
she seemed the only one who could love me more

i looked at her beady eyes again,
touched her flowing black hair again,
falling in love with her more n more
tilting towards her slowly and gently

i told her i loved her...
i told her to say yes...
i told her to hug me...
i told her to rid me of all my woes...



i proposed to death... and she said yes...

Flesh Blood Bones and a Mind

Well that’s what the human body is made of. Somehow, I’ve always been interested in the evolution of human race, learning about where we came from and where are we headed has always fascinated me. From apes to today’s agile build to maybe a big supercomputer mind or whatnot. The possibilities with the upcoming new discoveries are limitless.

The human race as, other animals have been evolving steadily since their onset about 280000 years ago. The natural selection has played a very vital role in our development and has made us what we are today. From our tall and hunky ancestors we have become punier with more agility and our brain size has also shrunk. But the main question in front of us today is that are we still evolving?

The above daunting question has always aroused conflicting views. Some say that we have slowed down evolving with time. According to Darwin, individual animals best suited to their environments live longer, have more offspring, and so spread their genes through populations. This produces evolutionary changes. Large scale intermarrying and among humans has hampered this change as almost everyone’s genes are carried forward. Thus the opinion that we are heading towards an evolutionary standstill.

But there is another view. The difference between humans and other species is their ability to collect and preserve information in places other than their minds, and ultimately their DNAs. In species information is passed down through generations through the DNAs, that’s how they evolve. But the volume of information passed down by humans increased tremendously thanks to the amount of written matter which has been used to pass down knowledge from ages and the volume of which has steadily been on the rise over the last few centuries. This knowledge is making us more aware, more knowing, more complex and a more creative being and will shape our future.

According to some major scientists we would soon enter the phase of self designed evolution, where we can change and improve our DNAs according to our choice and priority. All major flaws of the DNA can easily be ironed out, or repaired in a more biological way of saying and new discoveries can pave ways to maybe even increase our intelligence and thinking power. The future holds endless possibilities and soon the key to their evolution would be in the own hands of humans.

Loser Politics

Well, let me be clear what I mean by the above term. Loser Politics is practiced by people belonging to a group mistakenly called politicians and who seem to think that that ordinary people would support them in their misadventures down the lane of what they think to be politics. Certain creatures belonging to this group of losers had recently got the opportunity to project themselves as champions of their unknown causes. Their causes which seem to resemble sentiment of people ages ago have recently come into light due to the Telangana issue, where due to fear that a fasting man may die and bring down the state in anarchy with him, the central government agreed in principle (read, just said it to bring the guy off his fast, without even analyzing the consequences of it.) to the creation of Telangana state from the Andhra Pradesh. The announcement was met with shock and brought the nation to chaos.

Whereas an anti-telangana movement broke out in full fervor in Andhra Pradesh, protests broke out in various parts of India with demands of new smaller states. In Andhra three disillusioned youths even committed suicide, as a mark of protest against the movement, maybe hoping to be remembered as martyrs for a cause. What cause I must ask? And no one apart from their families would bear the brunt of their foolish deed. No one would even remember the names of those wasted persons. Such persons are delusioned by the local leaders, who want a meatier role in the local politics, who in turn are being led by some so called national leaders into a cause meant to bring nothing but loss to the common man, just for some political gains for a political party or more for a person.

If all this chaos was limited to Andhra region, it was understandable. But after the announcement by the Home minister about the new state to be carved out, demands arose from all parts of India for creation of new states, small big, based on language, on a tribe of people living in a place, on some ancient region under a particular king, and what not. Even the chief ministers of some states and other politicians jumped in the fray asking their respective states to be divided into smaller ones according to their choices! Citing and quoting the ‘popular sentiment’ for demands of the ‘common people’ for their hidden agenda of breaking the states into areas with a mixture of the areas of their ’stronghold’ and the areas in which they are politically weak, so they are easily able to form governments in the smaller divided state. Funny, the same chief minister didn’t take cue of the popular sentiment and stop work of installation of thousands of her statues across the state when there was a hue and cry about it.

Apart from this, regional political outfits with names like ‘Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha’ or the ‘Vidharba Mukti Morcha’ have just sprung up out of nowhere and have started demanding statehood for their respective regions. The CM of Uttar Pradesh had also proposed a Bundelkhand out of UP, and ‘Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha’ is also demanding the same. But the head of a political party was heard saying that their Bundelkhand was different from Mayawati’s Bundelkhand as they differed by a couple of districts! I mean, what the hell! Demands are high for a Gorkhaland in West Bengal, and even a Bodoland, for the tribe in the East. There is talk of splitting UP in four and even for a Coorg out of the state of Karanataka. Has politics in India fallen to such levels? Or people are also as angry at these people calling themselves politicians and common man’s saviors, as I am currently?

States are supposed to be formed for better administration of a region. They are not and should not be formed on the basis of language, religion, color or some ancient connection. The central government should recognize this and drill some sense into the goons who considering themselves to be champions of people’s causes and are disrupting the common man’s life for goals they know can’t be achieved and goals even the common people know deep down that they do not want. What they want is proper administration with normal lives.

Then why the need of scuffling over statehood I ask? Why do some people try to infuse their parochial patriotism into the feelings for their home state when there is no place, and no need for that. All land in a country is the same and we belong to a single nation, isn’t it? Well some ‘national’ and local leaders certainly don’t consider so. They just seize their petty chances at playing whatever role they can play in politics and get in front of a TV camera with a reporter asking stupid pre-discussed questions. Such people are total losers. They know it. They know they have no future in politics and therefore, jump onto topics they know can cause some bus-burning, or even a little rioting if they are lucky and can give them a little muscle therefore a little political mileage. Such people can be put to rest only by the people, I say.

Denounce them, drill some sense into them. But first of all you yourself need to think up and decide what’s right and what’s not. It is for the people to shun such losers and decide what’s good and what’s not for them. It all comes down to that only.

ACM ICPC 2009, in God's own Country

The International Collegiate Programming Contest organized by the Association for Computing Machinery is one of the world’s biggest coding competitions. The ACM – ICPC is a 3 layered contest, with the first level being online, the second being regional rounds held at centers across the world. In India, this year it was held at IIT Kanpur and at Amrita University in Amritapuri, Kerala. The top teams of these regional rounds get to compete in the world finals. This year, our team (Rachit Mittal, Surendra Sirvi and me) got the chance to compete at the Amritapuri site of regionals, against some of the best teams from all over Asia. Teams from countries like China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Korea had come to compete, apart from India.

It was a frenzied carnival of fun, algorithms, competition, rivalry, and culture against the backdrop of the beautiful state of Kerala, truly, God’s own country. The Amritapuri campus is situated in the beautiful Kollam district of Kerala. It’s right next to the sea and therefore enjoys the most beautiful sights that the sea and the backwaters can offer. The Amrita University had been established by Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, popularly known as Amma, and the Hugging Saint. Her ‘Math’ is located in Amritapuri on a small islet separated by the mainland by a thin strip of sea. The college is situated on the mainland. Our accommodation had been arranged in the Math only so we had to crossover whenever we wanted to go to or from the college. The place of accommodation was a 17-storied building. The roof presented an enthralling view of the mainland, crisscrossed with backwaters, which were spotted with fishing nets, and the majestic Arabian Sea, spread from left to right. On the day we went to the beach there, we were also able to spot dolphins jumping from the surface of the sea a little distance off the coast! The math is really a place to relax and enjoy the nature.

The Indian Programming scene has been pretty dynamic since the past years. Currently the top team in India, the KingsGambit from IIIT- Hyderabad has already qualified for the world finals from Kanpur. The runner up of the Kanpur regionals this year, Team CounterGambit, from the same college, had come with intent to qualify for the world finals from here. Other top Indian teams like DaretoCode and Phoenix had also come for the event, after succeeding in its online qualifying stage.

The contest started with much enthusiasm with a practice contest and a cultural program, mainly depicting the cultural heritage of Kerala along with some western dance numbers. The next day was for the main event. The five hour coding event began in the morning. All heads were bent trying to solve the ten questions which were set. As time progressed, it became quite clear that team CounterGambit would win the event as it was leading from the beginning. But team Oasis from Sogang University, South Korea turned the tables in the last half an hour, submitting two correct problems during that time and edging out CounterGambits to win the event here and also qualify for the world finals. They were cheered highly by the volunteers as they made their way out the contest arena. The award ceremony followed the event, in the evening.

The hospitality of the host college was great during our stay. They provided top notch stuff for everything, be it rooms, food or for any other help that we may needed. The enthusiasm of the volunteers (from first to fourth years) was contagious and it was them who made the trip memorable for us. The next day, after the event we went to a few beautiful places nearby, namely the Thenmala ecotourism centre which also houses an adventure zone for the adrenaline junkies. The Palaruvi waterfalls, the most beautiful in Kerala were really pleasant and refreshing sight. And where in India can you go from the seaside to deep into the mountains in just an hour! The varieties in nature were just awesome.

The best of programming teams, competition in the air and Kerala at its best. What more can a person ask for. It was a truly enriching event and would be cherished by us for a long time to come. As the train chugged out of the Kayankulam station we couldn’t help but think about what all had this short period of time with strangers had taught us.

The times of Shaktimaan and Scooby Doo...

“Shaktimaaaaan…. Shaktimaaaaan…. Shaktimaaaaaaan…. “.

I was going to start another CS clan when the familiar sounding tune came floating into the room. For a second I was dumbfounded. Then someone came shouting that the episodes of the popular Indian superhero series had been released on DC. Whoosh… Switching off the clan, I downloaded the episode in an instant. As the familiar Shaktimaan song started playing, all the faded images of it, which were lying somewhere at the back of my mind came rushing back. And along came many things. The emotions, the feelings we nurtured for the superhero 10 years ago…, it all came back. The memories of childhood came flooding to my mind in instants and I found myself engulfed by them, smiling as I remembered old incidents and characters whom we have watched growing up. Who, in some way or the other have contributed in making our character what it is today.

I still remember how on Saturdays we would rush back from school to be home on time to watch the Indian superhero in action. Missing a single episode was out of question, be it exams or anything. It’s the same story of the whole generation of Indian kids who have watched the series growing up. His costume was a rage. And even the lecture he gave on good habits after each episode went down well with the kids. He was their idol, their superman.

Along with Shaktimaan, we hold the same nostalgia for other stuff that came on TV during that time. Be it Scooby Doo, the favorite Great Dane, or Captain Planet the environment savior. Personally, I owe my environment freakiness to him. J

It’s the sweet nostalgia of those leisurely times that surrounded me as I watched episode 1 of the superhero saga. And somewhere inside I felt a heaviness, knowing that those times are long gone and won’t be back.

Thoughts on Environment - 1

Global warming… Ozone hole… Rising temperatures… Rising sea levels… the banter about all this and more is getting louder and slowly, as these things which are a result of our narrow minded development policies across the globe is set to get louder in the coming days as the nations across the globe have started to recognize the powers of the demon they have created through the past decades. The statements of President Barack Obama about the necessity of the changes needed in policies and the new reforms to be introduce the much needed changes in the general American lifestyle, and also the remarks of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the recent Indian Science Congress about the environment problems of India signify the same.

I have always been attracted to the nature since I was a kid. I was always affected by the plight of what saw around me, be it the cutting of a tree of the ill treatment of a poor animal. But I could not build up the courage to act decisively in these matters. But I thought I’ll do what I love… writing. So I’m here trying to pen down(maybe that expression will stick around for sometime) the recent thought turmoil of my mind for you.

There’s a myth among the middle classes that if u want to do something for the environment, consume less, keep a car for a longer period of time, use lesser plastics etc. But seeing it economically if we consume less, demand for it will decrease and production will therefore go down, resulting in downsizing of companies and the loss of job of thousands...So, consuming less will not solve our problem. What we need is a complete system overhaul. But I’ll come to that later.

Let’s take up the topic of Recycling. Recycling is the biggest guilt management activity we do in our lives. It’s a way we see as putting down some of our guilt of using plastics all the time, of using a car with high emissions, of using air conditioners all the time and so on… People sometimes take the wrong approach to recycling. Recycling is fine, but sometimes it goes over the top. See this one, recycling 10% of a city’s waste plastic use more energy that producing a whole new bunch of them. We try doing small recycling at our home too, that’s really nice but it contributes almost nothing towards the entire system. So, is recycling benefitting at all? Well, the answer is still yes, but not very much. The current phrase about recycling is really down cycling. We are just peddling the same things back into the system when the amount being produced is the same and keeps on increasing.

We need more concrete and group efforts by the people to make things better. Like if a manufacturer launches a new product it should be asked to him how the product will be disposed off. New technologies keep propping up, but they survive only if the people support them. If we support the products which indeed are eco friendly then things would get better. The IT boom took place in India in the 1990s. Today, we see computers everywhere. But have we ever thought what happens to our computer when we discard it after 2-3 years of usage. The life of a PC is extremely small, and new technologies are coming up by the day. The waste, referred to as the ‘E-waste’ has been massive and is increasing as old technologies which remain of no use pile up. Currently there is no other alternative to it other than reuse and recycle it.

Continued in the post below............