FM radio comes to town

Recently I noticed one of my colleagues on the bus to work fiddling with his phone through out the journey. Being my usual naïve self, I asked him if he was facing some problems with his phone. After he managed to stop laughing he told me that he was listing to the radio. Yes. FM radio has come to Surat.

There are presently 5 channels:
Radio City 91.1
Big 92.7
My FM 94.3
Radio Mirchi 98.3
Akashvani 101.1

Personally I prefer Radio City and Radio Mirchi. My listening is mainly to and from work which is roughly 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM and 5 PM to 6:30 PM. The songs are pretty popular Hindi numbers. However, the commentary is in Gujarati. For the poor people like me, who would like to listen to the radio and don’t follow the local language, all I can say is this is your chance to pick up Gujarati. English songs seem non existent, though there was a global top twenty on Saturday night at around 9 PM.

That apart, a strange thought struck me today. While flicking through the channels, I suddenly felt like a scientist twiddling with a Geiger counter. Call me crazy, but the thought refuses to get out of my head. The similarity is striking. I didn’t know that FM radio had launched in Surat, until recently. Similarly, you never know the radiation that you are exposed to without the help of a Geiger counter.

We have hundreds of studies on the effects of a modern lifestyle on our health. Have we ever considered the number of radio waves that we are being subjected to? I mean I just realized that I am being bombarded by five more types of man made radiation on a daily basis. My miniature Geiger counter (read as cell phone) shows me 5 FM channels, and four mobile networks (Hutch / Vodafone, Idea, Cellone, Airtel) are bombarding me with their signals. The signals of Reliance are out of its range I think. So exactly how many more of these man made radiations am I being subjected to? How much can my body take? Is there any law governing them? Am I being paranoid? Is the work load getting to me? Am I being incoherent? Guess I should take that break now.

Freedom

“Parzania, the movie about the Gujarat riots has had some spectacular reviews. Unfortunately I don’t think I will get to watch it. The movie is not going to be screened in Gujarat out of “fear” of offending sentiments. What happened to the freedom of speech?”

“Duh. That died a long time ago dude. Go get a life. The mobs rule.”

“What about blood diamonds? The diamond traders here actually went on record saying that they would like to watch the movie.”

“Doesn’t make economic sense man. Don’t you see the serious lack of audience for English movies? Big ticket movies like Spiderman and Harry Potter were released with subtitles. Others were dubbed”

“(Sarcastically) Ah. So that is how they expect to have a command over the English language while cracking exams like the CAT.”

“SHUT UP. A statement like that will cost you dearly”

Silence

Guess the same thing goes for the theater owners.

Plugging for the malt march

Recently newspapers around here seem to have been plugging for relaxation of prohibition laws. The last week has seen daily articles in The Times of India (Gujarat edition) on various items related to the prohibition laws. From relaxation of prohibition in Special Economic Zones (SEZ’s) in Gujarat to whether a middle path of sale of only beer and wine is feasible. Articles from old timers to the hot blooded youth on the sale of hard drinks and the freedom of choice

Today was no different. They managed to unearth a 1975 study by the government (I wonder who supplied this to them) taking the winds out of the sales of most pro prohibition lobbies. This “detailed study” seems to have found no correlation between the poor being vulnerable to temptation and remaining poor due to alcohol.

While I am all for relaxation of the ridiculous laws, I cannot help but wonder about this daily front page occurrence. Looks like someone up there really likes Mr. Dinesh Hinduja. No. I don’t mean our numerous Gods and Goddesses. I mean someone in the Modi government pulling such a stunt in the election year.

Has it really dawned on our “enlightened” politicians that over regulation is stupid and a waste of time and resources or are there more skeletons in the cupboard? Has Mr. Hinduja managed to awaken something among the masses or does he have some good friends in The Times of India? Guess I’m an eternal cynic. Only time will tell. Till then lets all lift our glasses in toast to these new developments.

The Malt March Strikes

A reader had commented on my previous entry as to how long can Gujarat live with this hypocrisy of prohibition. As if on cue, Mr. Dinesh Hinduja, leader of THE MALT MARCH decided to prove this hypocrisy. Union textile minister Shankersinh Vaghela went on a hunger strike under full media glare to protest against the governments liberal policies towards alcohol. Unfortunately, he forgot that he is not the only old hand at manipulating the media. Mr. Hinduja walked up to him and asked him to swear on the Bagwad Gita that he had never broken Gujarat's prohibition laws under the same media glare. Caught unawares, all he could tell Mr. Hinduja was to put the book away. He later tried to explain it away saying that he has drunk in other places etc etc. All I can say is three cheers Mr. Hinduja. Let us hope I can say it many more times to him and to my friends in the days to come.

Utharayan the Kite Festival

From riding at 90 kmph to traveling at a speed of 5 kmph over a distance of 3 kms is not something that occurs everyday. But with the kite festival kicking off in full swing on Utharayan, there was no other option.

 

Utharayan or the kite festival is one of Gujarat’s most touted tourist attractions. It is celebrated on the 14^th of January every year. It basically consists of all and sundry getting on to the top of the nearest high rise and flying kites. No. It doesn’t end there. The kite fights start next with each person trying to cut off the next person’s kite string.  It gets very competitive. Cutting free the most number of kites with a single kite becomes an ego issue with people refusing to get off the rooftops even after dusk. The number of kite fights can be guessed by the fact that a week after the event, broken kites can still be found on the roadside, stuck on telephone or electric lines.

 

It goes to the extent that people have kite strings laced with glass pieces. I can just imagine the plight of the poor birds that have to fight with the kites for space. I walked instead of taking my bike when I went out that day. But that didn’t prevent me from getting cut by one of the kite strings. If while walking at 5 kmph I can get a minor cut, one can just imagine what would happen to birds or two wheeler riders. To give you the enormity of the situation, for a week before the event we had newspapers advising people to wear helmets and mufflers while riding two wheelers to prevent injuries. What the cops couldn’t manage to enforce in a year with fines, the festival managed to do in a matter of days.

 

Other than that the place comes alive with kites in various colours and styles. You get to see people making kites, kite threads, dying threads and selling them. You don’t need to go to a remote location or factory to see it. It happens on the foot paths besides the road at intervals of 500 to 800 meters.  Kites are sold in pieces or sets. The sets can consist of anywhere between 5 kites to 100 kites. The prices of kites vary from Rs 2 to Rs 1000+. While the 2 rupee kites are similar to the ones you might have made when you were in school, the more expensive ones are made fabrics in a variety of shapes. You can get a silk ‘miniature airplane’ kite for the right price. Need I say anymore?

 

As with any festival, it is also an excuse to socialize. Til ladoos, gilabies, chikki etc are some of the sweets made in huge quantities on Utharayan. These sweets are freely distributed to all friends and neighbours. If you think that people will get bored with 15 to 20 recipes of the same sweets, you haven’t experienced the Gujarathi sweet tooth yet. Gujju’s are renowned for their love for sweets. So much so that they decided that this excuse to binge on sweets and fun, for only one day in a year, was inadequate. Thus began Vassi Uthran which literally is the day following Utharayan.

 

It is pretty much a two day festival right now. But what has been done once can always be done again. I don’t think it will take long for the people here to make it another Navrathri or nine day festival of colours, fun, a little competition and lots of sweets. After all, how many of us could turn down an excuse to spice up our mundane lives?

 

Malt March

After being a NITwit four years, people regularly ask me how do people from Surathkal manage to live in a place like Surat. When asked to define what they mean the answer is usually to the effect "Emmm, u know, dry state and all."

Well, for the ignorant out there, Gujarat is the only state in India where the sale of alcohol is illegal. The reason given for this is that it is Gandhiji's home state. "So what?" you may say. Well, the government took it upon itself to impose Gandhiji's philosophy through the rule of law.

But as we all know, when you tell some one don't touch something, it exponentially increases the chances that the person will actually touch it. Bootlegging is as common here as it was in America during the Prohibition. Incidentally it is idea that is said to have fascinated Gandhi (Prohibition, my friend, not the bootlegging)

With prohibition miserably failing to attain what it set out to, many people are questioning the government's policy. One enterprising group has actually come out with the idea of a MALT MARCH. To imitate Gandhi's salt march with a difference. Will it succeed in creating a wound and rubbing salt on it? Only time will tell.

P.S. I plan to post more about this Malt March as and when I get details. So stay tuned.

Surat - Part I - Autorickshaws

OK. I know I have spent three months in Surat and no news about the place. So in an attempt to answer this, here goes the first of many posts on the topic.

People used to exorbitant rates for auto rickshaws will love this place. I used to pay 30 rupees in Bangalore to travel distances as short as a km. Here I travelled 12 kms from my residence to the railway station paying only Rs 12.How? Read on.

Running on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), these auto drivers charge you at around 3 rupees a km. It gets better. Tell him you want to travel to a place with “share” system and it goes down to Re 1 a km. It basically works that the auto driver will load “any number” of people moving in the same direction into the rickshaw. All paying at re 1 per km. Usually, they take up to 5 persons in the rick (one person sitting on either side of the driver and three at the back) it works out for the drivers too. However, if you are in a penny pinching mood you can load as many people as you are comfortable with. At one point of time 7 of us have squeezed into a rick. The cops are all too happy to look in the other direction as long as they get their cut. However, come the end of the month and then the share system drops to only three people in the rickshaw as the cops are out with their fine books.

One must be warned though. Auto drivers seldom have their eyes on the road. No. They aren’t looking at the pretty young thing making out on the side of the road with her boyfriend; (more about this in my next post) they are looking for possible customers.

City buses are specimens. In three months here I haven’t seen a single one. But my friend tells me I should be thanking my lucky stars. He had the “experience” of travelling on one. He recalled it as having spit, pan stains etc all over and worth of being preserved as a specimen of the “I don’t give a shit about anybody else” policy. His experience also included an elderly gentleman taking off his shirt to dry it on the bus window as he was sweating so much. Considering that he wasn’t born in the generation of deodorant users, none of us have had the guts to attempt a bus ride again.

With a bus system nearly non existent, the auto rickshaws are crawling all over the place. With disco lights, loud Hindi / gujarati music blaring, etc they come in all hues and colours. But you have to be on your guard. If they realize that you have no idea of the fares or the distance, instances of charging 150 rupees for a 10 to 15 km journey are aplenty. So make sure they don’t take you for a ride in ways other than you intended.