Metallica in bangalore: When the bell tolled for us!

                                

The picture worth a frame. Metallica thanking the Indian crowd after the concert. 29/10/11

In the past 5-6 years, I’ve attended almost every concert by international bands in India- from Maiden to Porcupine tree to Meshuggah. Each of those was like a dream come true. But one name on top of my band wishlist remained uncut, a band which served as the best possible introduction to my favorite genre of music. It was towards the end of high school that someone lend me an overused cassette of the black album. I was told that I will either love it to the core or hate it to the extreme. Those days, the term music band used to bring to my mind such illustrious names as 'backstreet boys', 'westlife', 'boyzone' etc. Songs with pumping beats were 'rock' to me. I didn't know that something called metal existed. I pushed that old cassette into my not so big tape recorder. The opening strains of 'Enter sandman' were heard. The next one hour was like a blur. I couldn't make any sense of it. All I knew was I felt really pumped up hearing some of the songs. Metallica, the name registered in my brain. I didn't know how big they were nor was I big enough to appreciate how good that album was.

In the next two years, I heard more music of the same genre. I discovered Priest, Maiden, Sabbath, Megadeth etc. Slayer and Pantera came in later. But Metallica remained the eternal favorite. And, after watching classic concert DVDs like the 'Monsters of Rock' in Moscow, I wanted to be one among those screaming madmen, forced against the front barricade.  In the past decade, Metallica released some albums which many felt they shouldn't have. From being a bunch of four guys who were angry at the system, they (Lars Ulrich, to be precise) flaunted their elevation to bourgeois class by cracking down on kids downloading their music. They shifted from the raw fast paced pure thrash of the 80s to the mellower mainstream tone of the late 90s. But still for those first five albums, for those evergreen riffs and for those five discs of immense expression of anger, we love them. Maybe, worship them.

It has been months of anticipation, from the day 'Metallica in India' concerts were announced. The events in Delhi on Oct 27 made us all frantic. A veil of uncertainty remained over the Bangalore concert as I got on the train from Madras. I was dying to click this concert but before long it was clear that any such dreams are best forgotten. The weekend was the coming together of many old friends in Bangalore, all united under what James Hetfield termed as the 'metallica family'. As we travelled to the concert, we could see the road from MG road to palace grounds was chockablock with traffic, and all of those vehicles had groups of people wearing black metallica tees. Strangers flashed the horns at each other.

Passing through the gates, we got a taste of how big the crowd was going to be. It was a task to locate our huge group sitting under the 'blue tree', enjoying the power of jagermeister. Familiar faces, glimpsed and forgotten at many concerts, passed by. I was getting restless to go in and tried to pull in the others. They lounged around, even as most of the crowd went inside the concert arena. At a distance, we saw a convoy of cars riding into the ground, in our direction. Three of them passed me by. The fourth one had a familiar face sitting by the side and smiling. Familiar to me, not the other way around! It was Lars Ulrich. I stood there, dazed. The next second, I could sense myself running alongwith the car flashing the horns at him. He looked straight into my eyes and flashed it back. I felt like I was caught in one of those slow motion scenes, which take an eternity to finish. Or was it my senses slowing up!? The next car had caught up with my running by then. I turned my head and there he was, my favorite Metallica man- James Hetfield. Now I was screaming incoherently, running alongwith the car and with the horns still flashing. I realised that lightning can strike the same place twice when Hetfield also did what Ulrich had done few seconds back. Somewhere, I caught a glimpse of Hammett too. The next five minutes, a few of us ran around screaming in random directions. It still didn't sink in, whether it was jagermeister's trick or whether it all actually happened.

We entered the concert arena on a high, of having seen them up close. Rain started pouring and the slush was getting heavier. We had missed two opening acts by then. The Scottish rock act Biffy clyro was playing in the rain and they were surprisingly good. By then, our group had got lost in the huge crowd and I managed to get five of us together. After Biffy Clyro, it was a wait of almost an hour for metallica to start. Old rock and metal hits were heard from the speakers as the technicians went about their job. In between, one of the band's representatives asked the crowd to step back a little from the barricade and they promptly obeyed. The spirit was building up by then. And at 10 minutes past eight, the strains of 'ecstasy of gold', that classic Ennio Morricone score from 'The good, the bad and the ugly', were heard. A staple of all metallica concerts from the 80s, the theme accompanied by scenes from the movie projected on the screen, had the crowd screaming in anticipation for the band's appearance. Then, at the crescendo, Lars popped in behind the kit and played the opening beats of the epic 'creeping death'. All hell broke loose when Hetfield, Hammett and Trujillo joined in. There was a sudden surge forward and the moshpits started.

                                                 

Trujillo during one of his famous antics

The Hemingway inspired 'For whom the bell tolls' followed. 'Fuel' fit in with the racing mood that India was gripped in over the weekend.  Hammett launching into the solo amidst the pyrotechnics brought in goosebumps. Their own knowledge of how fans perceive their recent albums was best exemplified by James asking the crowd permission to play the song ‘Cyanide’ from the ‘Death magnetic’ album. The best moment of the day came at the end of 'The memory remains', when the crowd chanted non-stop for three minutes. The look of astonishment on Hetfield's face had to be seen to be believed. This chanting prompted him to say, "Bangalore, you are beautiful". ‘One’ was another of the much awaited songs of the night. When those intro gunshots and helicopter sounds replicating a war scene were heard, the screams were louder than for most other songs. And how they pulled it off, Oh boy!

Hetfield in full flow as the pyrotechnics go off during 'fuel'

This Metallica was surely different from the ones that we caught a glimpse of in recent times in youtube, going through their motions and looking almost bored on stage. It looked like they were truly excited in discovering so many fans in a country that they never been before.  This perhaps was the band discovering their lost form and it all looked like a throwback to their heydays in the 90s. With the exception of 'sad but true', almost every song was perfectly rendered. The tightness was best on display in 'Master of puppets'. When Hetfield went to the upper stage, raised up the mike and sang the 'master, master' chorus with the crowd, the excitement had reached a crescendo. Many (including yours truly) had tears in their eyes, having fulfilled a dream of 20 years.  And, then he gave us that evil laugh too! Could this have got any better?

 

Kirk Hammett with Trujillo in the background

‘Nothing else matters’ was another highly anticipated song and as with every other song, the whole crowd sang to it. With ‘Enter sandman’ ending in fireworks ending in fireworks lighting up the sky, the band bid the customary ‘goodbye before the encore’. With the crowd crying out for more, they were back before long with the cover song ‘Am I evil?’ The song ‘battery’ was one unexpected inclusion in the set list. ‘Seek & destroy’ provided a perfect end to the best concert that I have watched till date. The crowd of almost 50,000 clearly surpassed the previous attendance levels in international concerts in India. Lars Ulrich soon announced that they will surely be back in India soon. So, all is not lost for those of you who missed it this time.  They hung around on the stage for more than 10 minutes after they finished playing, distributing more and more plectrums and drum sticks. It looked like they just couldn’t get enough of the Indian crowd. As we walked back through the heavy slush, I mentally struck off that name from the top of my band wish list. Now, left on top is one more from the Big four, Slayer and AC/DC.

                                     

Hetfield and Trujillo

Metallica is more than just a band to many of us. It is an emotion that binds a million black tee sporting people worldwide. They gave us the first taste of metal music, when we did not know any such thing existed. Over the years, we have listened to a thousand more bands. But Metallica remained the eternal favorite. And, after watching classic concert DVDs like the 'Monsters of Rock' in Moscow, I wanted to be one among those screaming madmen, forced against the front barricade.  In the past decade, Metallica released some albums which many felt they shouldn't have. From being a bunch of four guys who were angry at the system, they flaunted their elevation to bourgeois class by cracking down on kids downloading their music. They shifted from the raw fast paced pure thrash of the 80s to the mellower mainstream tone of the 90s. But still for those first five albums, for those evergreen riffs and for those five discs of immense expression of anger, we love them. Maybe, worship them. This concert was a slap on the face for those posers who said that ‘Metallica is passé’.

                                     

Lars Ulrich

Setlist:

The Ecstasy of Gold (Ennio Morricone's theme song from 'The good, the bad and the ugly')

Creeping Death

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Fuel

Ride the Lightning

Fade to Black

Cyanide

The Memory Remains

Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

Sad But True

All Nightmare Long

One

Master of Puppets

Blackened

Nothing Else Matters

Enter Sandman

Encore:

Am I Evil? (Diamond Head cover)

Battery

Seek & Destroy

All pictures courtesy- Metallica.com

A trip to Thalankuppam

Thalankuppam is a small fishing hamlet to the north of Chennai, near Ennur high road. The place's claim to fame is that the climax of the Tamil movie 'Kaakha kaakha' was shot here. When SidK suggested this place to us, we weren't exactly jumping up with excitement. But, we were all eager to get out after many rusty unproductive weekends in Chennai. We set out from the college in the afternoon sun and traced our way along the Marina beach. The route was pretty easy as it runs parallel to the beach in most places. Nikhil, sitting behind Sidk's bike was having a stupid 'high' smile all the way through.

Pillion riding..

After you went past the gates of the Chennai port trust, we faced some heavy truck traffic. For about 9 kms, we could see a long line of trucks. Its dusty and a little carelessness can land you under some big wheels. We almost had a truck tipping and falling on our head, after it well into a ditch. Thankfully, when it reached halfway through the tipping, it felt its not worthwhile and went back to normalcy.

The heavy truck traffic near Chennai port trust. This line stretches for 9 Km.

All of Chennai's industries are situated in North Chennai. Right from the legendary bullet factory to Ashok Leyland, the road is chockablock with factories on either side. So, naturally one can see smoke billowing out from high walled compounds. And if you look closely on the beach sides, you can see parts of pipes running to the sea, to dump out the effluents from the factories.

Eating up the sun

Pipes(the red ones) carrying effluents from the factory to the sea

The team enjoying a short rest.

The tea shop at Thalankuppam junction took me back to the days in shanghumokhom beach in Trivandrum because of the chilly bhaji and the strong tea, which tasted exactly like what we get back home. The tea shop owner was a cool dude whose T-shirt screamed, "Sorry girls, I date only models." From the junction, it is just a matter of one kilometer before we reach the Thalankuppam pier. On the way, we saw groups of old women sitting on the ground and playing cards. Some kids were having a competition on spinning tops.

The tea shop guy and his family. Checkout his cool t-shirt.

The bikes doesn't go till the pier. We stopped at a place which looked like a small boat jetty. There were so many rusted cylinders, cans, pipes and other industrial wastes dumped in the vicinity, a picture perfect "urban decay". A short walk took us to the pier, near where the river flows silently into the sea, forming an estuary. There  were only very few people at the place, and all of them were from the locality. Some old men were sitting on the edge and fishing. 

Scenes of urban decay..

The pier was nothing like the sea bridge back home, which even in its widely concreted pathway of safety scared me sometimes. This consisted of two beams on either side running till the end. And connecting beams in between at regular intervals. Like Rahul said, 'looks like a railway line'. Only that, under the line you have waves crashing in and walking is precarious at first. 

A country boat passed under the bridge and naturally, I pointed the camera at the boat. Just then, the man in the boat, who looked like some kind of anofficial, pointed his fingers and shouted-"switch off the camera. This is a prohibited area. I'll call the police". This old sea bridge beside some industrial dump, prohibited area! This was not my first run in with moronic officials who get agitated on seeing the camera. And as always, to satisfy his ego, I said, "Sorry sir, I didn't know". After some more repetitions of "I'll call the police", he went on his way. Case of frustrated middle aged officials taking our their anger on hapless travellers and harmless photographers!

Anyway, we started walking on the thin ledge towards the end of the pier. Rahul, the 'master of cliches' that he is, started playing the song 'uyirin uyirae' from 'Kaakha Kaakha', possibly a respectful nod to that movie which was partly shot here :P . Halfway through the walk, Rahul and Nikhil abandoned the idea of reaching the end and sat down. We continued walking. The wet ledges on some places scared us. But, it was all in the mind. After sometime, we started walking casually. Inside the dilapidated structure at the end of the beach, two men were getting ready to return after the day's catch. The sunset was on the side opposite to the beach. In Chennai, we are not lucky enough to see the sun going down into the sea and since am an early riser, watching it coming up is out of the question.

A walk over the sea..

or a swim under the bridge

After sunset, it was time for some long shutter speed experiments under the bridge. Rahul got a local cigar from one of the locals. Even the non-smoker in me was attracted to the romanticism of smoking a cigar. We all had our brains blasted by it. It was getting pitch dark and the return journey started. The "master of cliches" played the title song from the latest Tamil flick 'Mankaatha', as he saw a group of guys playing cards under the street light.

Long shutter experiments under the bridge

Capitalism, Industry,Pollution...death.

The boat jetty at night

 The BJP 'Thattukada' was one of the highlights of the return trip. We are so used to seeing the faces from the Gandhi family everywhere. And so it was a surprise when I saw photos of Advani and Vajpayee in a small shop in North Chennai. I had to say that I am a BJP supporter to make the shopkeeper pose with the pictures.

The return ride was difficult, with the darkness, dust and the heavy truck traffic. When visiting North Chennai, better leave your cars behind and trip in bikes if you don't want yourself sandwiched in between two trucks. We stopped near the Burma bazaar to savour Burmese street food. We ordered more and more of 'Attho', 'Fry', 'onion filled eggs' and ofcourse, had our fill with free unlimited soup. We went back to our dens with a vow to do 'this' more often. 

                                      Burmese street food...Attho,fry,stuffed eggs etcetera etcetera

The 'business' of open letters

It is the season of open letters. From Narendrabhai Modi(whose usual line of thought is that the sword is mightier than the pen) to Rajdeep Sardesai, everyone is writing an open letter. Then, there was an over-the-top open letter from a Madrasan to a Delhi boy, which resulted in this particular Madrasan girl trending on twitter and which spawned a 100 other equally over-the-top open replies. The latest open letter is by the bleeding hearts of India Inc(minus the likes of TATA and Ambanis). The letter is addressed to the govt of India. 

The letter is divided into four parts. The first three parts vaguely deals with issues related to corruption, eradicating which will supposedly make our country heaven. They talk about how the common man suffers because of corruption and also on the need to come up with reforms to fight this. There are also brave references to the corporate-politician nexus. Suggestions are made to enact a law similar to The Bribery Act, 2010 of U.K. And then there are suggestions for a proper redressal mechanism and cleansing of the judiciary. But when it comes to the last point, one will realise why India Inc(one of the biggest benefactors of corruption) is suddenly so concerned about corruption. 

The fourth point talks about 'environmental clearances which continues to delay several investment proposals and hamper economic growth'. The environmental clearances, tied up with the Forests Rights Act is a particularly touchy issue which even resulted in the 'transfer' of former environment minister Jairam Ramesh to another ministry. When he was the minister, he refused to give clearances to many projects and later had to cave in, most notably in the case of the POSCO project. It was a constant tussle between him and the 'development at any cost' advocates in the government and the PMO. It is no secret that these tussles and pressures from vested interests in the industry resulted in his job change. 

Forests and natural resources are being raped and reaped across the country over the last few years. The arrival of huge FDIs and the need for more land has resulted in indigenous communities getting uprooted and huge amount of land being given to corporates for a pittance. The 'environmetal clearances'can be an effective tool in able hands. So, it serves the corporates well if they can take the sting out of these regulations. The letter says-

"it is worthwhile considering the introduction of an on-line AUCTION process for allocation of natural resources which will provide the much needed TRANSPARENCY and prevent discretionary and irregular practices. Owing to several such impediments, fresh investments are not forthcoming at the pace required for a rapidly growing economy such as ours. Policy uncertainties and delays in approvals are forcing many large corporate entities to seek out opportunities in other geographies"

It looks more like a heartfelt appeal to the Govt to give every available land to the corporates. The first three points on corruption looks like a cloak to cover this intended request. 

Are we all writing Open letters?

Talking about open letters, we all seem to be unknowingly writing open letters. This report about google handing over a wikileaks volunteer's gmail data to US government is a shocking reminder of how our privacy is at the mercy of google. Even though google can save itself from some of the blame by pointing to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act under which they had to reveal the information, it is no excuse for not fighting it out for their clients' privacy. The google transparency report gives some disturbing figures. It is a report on the requests to google from government agencies and federal courts around the world to remove content from their services and hand over user data. The number of requests from India(1700) and the percentage of compliance(79%) tells some tale. And as expected, Switzerland, that country which is the symbol of secrecy, has made 'zero' requests. 

image courtesy-earthpm.com

Where did the funds from India go?

And so, I was reading up on the current crisis in Somalia and the entire horn of Africa, as part of an assignment to write an essay on it. There is a huge requirement for funds there and countries and organisations from world over are contributing. So, naturally I was curious to know what India did for the cause. All the figures are available at  United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)'s financial tracking site. Suffice to say, it was a huge disappointment to see India's table. We had pledged an amount of $ 8,000,000 and ended up contributing zero(as on oct 3, 2011). 

2011- Pledge of $ 8,000,000 for Horn of Africa drought and that of $ 1,000,000 for Myanmar earthquake not honoured

The site has an easily searchable archive of contributions that each country has provided during various disasters the world over in the last decade. India had failed to honour their pledges on three previous occasions in this decade-2010,2007,2005. 

2005. Pledge of $ 25,000,000 not fulfilled for earthquake in South Asia

2007-Pledge of $50,000 for Peru earthquake and that of $ 1,000,000 for Bangladesh cyclone, not honoured.

2010-Pledge of $ 5,000,000 for Chile earthquake not honoured.

At the same time, it has to be said that India did contribute to various other causes during the same time period. But pledging help and then failing to honour it is an entirely different matter. The question is, was this money ever released? And if so, where was it re-routed to? Or, whether it is a case of just pledging some money and then forgetting about it? I have no idea where to look for, to answer these questions. Can someone help?

Book Review: The Shiva Trilogy

The Immortals of Meluha

My only reason for picking up 'The immortals of Meluha' was the eyeball grabber of a cover. Well, it required something like that to catch my attention, simply because this was not my kind of reading. To be frank, I was taken aback a bit at first. A pot smoking Shiva uttering words like 'Dammit', came in as a surprise. Maybe, what I liked in the book was also the same- a shiva who was more of a human than a mythical God, a Shiva with all the confusions and oddities in behaviour that are characteristic of humans. And then, a whole 'nauseatingly perfect' community of people pinning all their hopes of redemption on the arrival of a blue-throated man from a foreign land. It works well, being the page turner that the book is, setting the context, fixing the geography and ethcing the characters for the next parts of the trilogy.

 The Secret of the Nagas

Secret of Nagas takes off right where the first book left off, landing you in the middle of some serious action. Amish then proceeds to redefine the true meaning of evil. A heartening thing about the trilogy till now is that the author has avoided the typical 'black & white' picturisation of good and evil, the way it was done in many of our old texts. Most of us have grown up reading the simplified versions of the epics, with the likes of Raavana and Duryodhana seen as personifications of evil. Visual adaptations of these epics also follow the same line. There is no scope for the good qualities that they possessed. And all of it remains unknown to us, until we read those alternative texts, which are not that popular.

The Shiva trilogy, though not anywhere near in stature or content when compared to those alternative texts, triumphs in not giving us any clear cut demarcations of good or evil. Just when you decide in your mind that "here comes the bad guy!", the story turns on its head revealing a completely new side of the 'bad guy'. There is goodness and God in everyone. At the same time, no one is a complete paragon of virtue. Even Shiva is not infallible. Even he is prone to uncontrolled and misdirected anger. In the first part, you are led to believe that Meluhans are the perfect race except for aberrations like the 'vikarma tradition'. Then slowly, you get to see the problems that come with such insane levels of perfection. Then you see the creativity of the unorganised Chandravanshis and you are suddenly thinking from an entirely different angle.

Shiva's is unsurprisingly the most well etched character in the book. The next one is perhaps Parvateshwar, the Meluhan general and the true follower of Lord Ram. The way he reacts to Shiva, his unquestioning devotion to Meluhan and Lord Ram's principles and then his slow transformation to seeing Shiva as his Lord, are well crafted. And to be honest, I liked Anandmayi's character more than Sati's in the second book. Have to agree that part of it is due to the oozing sexiness. I feel that except Sati, most other characters weren't expanded as much as they deserved to be.  And Bappiraj, was that a nod to the king of bling?

Though I didn’t find both of the books as worth all the hype, it did set me thinking on larger questions of history and how we see it. In an ‘arts and culture’ class in college last month, the lecturer was telling us how history is anything but the truth. To make this point clear, he gave us the simple analogy of how the things that happened in that class will get misreported to someone who didn’t attend the class, and how this will be subject to further misinterpretation as it is passed on to the next one. If such a simple thing is prone to so many errors in reporting within the span of a day, how believable are our historic texts, which are written by some random guy from another century! That realization helped me in seeing this series of twisted history through a new light. Forgot to add, the Naga cover ROCKS!

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at  BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

General reservations

"Thoongathe Thambi thoongaathe"(Don't sleep brother, don't sleep)- It was irony at its best when he sat there, opposite to me, with his eyes closed and mouth wide open and clutching his 'star singer' mobile. To add to the profoundness of the moment, this was happening in the tightly packed general compartment of the Ananthapuri express from Trivandrum to Chennai. As is my luck with getting train tickets, I end up in the general compartment atleast once in two months. The speciality of the journey this time was that I sat in the same place for 16 straight hours, without EVER getting up. I had to, because the compartment was chockablock with people and moving around was out of question. I made myself feel better by contrasting it with the nine hour day journey in the general compartment last year, with an added flavour of loose motion. That time, I ended up crowd surfing back and forth atleast 4 times in those shitting adventures. Another episode that comes to mind was when a few of us had to sit and sleep on the floor, right next to the toilets. Olfactory bliss!

But keeping aside the obvious hardships that are part of the general compartment, it is the place where so much happens that you don't need the book or ipod to keep yourself engaged. The first thing you've to make sure is that you are sitting in the side berth, else be prepared to be squeezed. Because that is one seat where you can be sure that another pair of asses will never come and lay claim for three inches. What happens usually in the long seats meant for three is a tussle among atleast fifteen pairs of asses(u do the arsematics). In that packed compartment, there was this lady who came with her baby. She had carried the cloth to tie a cradle. I've seen cradles in trains before too. But what was special here was how few strangers got together and tied up the cradle. What followed was a beautiful scene. The baby was in the cradle in between the berths with 9 people sitting on each side(3 on top) and all of them looking at him and smiling. The ones sitting on the ground lowered themselves to the floor for the cradle to swing through. How I wished I could click that scene! But, I couldn't reach for my camera amidst the crowd.

As it chugged into Madurai, I doubled up as the chaiwalah's assistant. The side berth and the deep sleep of the guy sitting opposite to me made sure that the job of collecting money, asking for chai/coffee preference and then passing it on to each person, fell on me. I ended up serving upwards of 20 chais that night. Added to that was the requests for mineral water, biscuit etc. All this while, the man's mobile was still playing, sentimental songs all! With one of those slow songs in my ear, with the wind crashing on my face, amidst the cacophony in the compartment, I fell asleep...

Musings on 'Ramlila square'

The India against corruption movement version 2.0 has reached a point where all that is left is a victory lap from Kiran Bedi. The fast might get over tomorrow, but the real work remains- the process of deliberations and arriving at something which is not as downright sloppy as the Govt's version or bordering on the authoritarian as the Jan Lok Pal. The purpose of this blog is something else though, a lens view of how people generally reacted to the movement and also the various other things which were very much part of the movement.

Last time around when Anna went to fast for the first time, I was also there on the first day, fasting at the Freedom Park in Bangalore. But then within two days, I started having my own doubts about the movement. So, on August 16th, when the second phase started, I decided to step back and watch from a distance. I guess the rationality that comes automatically from being one step away from both sides helps to judge the movement better.

I set out to the Chennai centre of the movement to study how the people are generally reacting to the movement. It was also a chance to know the thought process of those who are coming out to support the movement. Following are some of the scenes from in and around the protest venue. And, some general thoughts on the various facets of the movement.

The entry point resembled a wayside shop with the volunteers trying hard to woo people in. Some pretended not to see them, some just shrugged and walked away. Some had a look of contempt. Some others were ecstatic at having got an opportunity to 'fight' corruption.

I have better things to do!

No, I didn't hear you calling...I din't see you guys too :D

glass palaces are shielded ...Hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing.

this way...

Building blocks of tomorrow....or illegal construction?

The protest venue in Chennai was an under construction building.

I walked in. Various counters were setup infront of the under construction building, which was the venue for the fast. You could register yourself with the movement by sharing your mail id and phone number. Probably a commentary on the support base of this movement. I wrote in my fake details as am still being subjected to a flurry of SMSes after I signed up the last time in Bangalore.

Then there was the donation cum sales desk, with this board proclaiming "SALE!SALE!". From 'I am Anna' t-shirts and caps to bumper stickers of IAC, this counter had it all. Your one stop shop for 'revolutionary dress materials'.

The social media served as one of the fuels of this movement and so there was an active social media centre too, with 3-4 volunteers working on facebook and twitter round the clock.

The People

Our focus turned to the people sitting on the fast. We began talking to some of them.

This journalist working with a Tamil daily was even "prepared to die" for Anna.

Then there was Sivadas Yogi.

There is more to Sivadas Yogi than the long beard, the saffron outfit and the radiant smile. He is someone who walks the talk, literally. He doesn’t belong to Chennai. He came all the way from Haridwar, on foot. At 64, he prefers to push the limits rather than spend time reading a book in a reclining chair. This man began his journey on January 14th, much before the anti-corruption movement gathered steam. The walk itself was a campaign, as Yogi spread his ideas against corruption wherever he set foot. The seven months on the road has taken him to the length and breadth of the country. He says he used to walk 30 kilometres daily. When asked where he used to sleep, he smilingly said, “National Highways”. After that walk of 6000 odd kilometers, he straightaway joined the indefinite fast at LB road, Thiruvanmiyur. On the 10th day of the fast yesterday, Yogi was much weaker when compared to the first day. But the smile and the spirit were intact. Having said all that, I wonder why yogis and swamis are attracted to activism these days!

AppaIndruvel, who came alone from the other end of Chennai to protest. On the second week, all his family members came to visit him at the fast venue. Even he was visibly tired when I went back on the 11th day. And he had grown a thicker beard too.

I didn't talk to this man. I still can't decipher the meaning of this look.

I dream of protest marches..

something will happen..

The Television spectacle!

The Television channels played a big part in the movement. It almost bordered on the absurd when they went overboard with the coverage. I quit watching TV pretty long time back. From the 'always on' TV at the college canteen I gauged one fact that, in the last 2 weeks, they covered nothing else. All 5 headlines on most of these days were related to Anna and the movement. I am not exaggerating when I say that I didn't see absolutely anything else covered in these channels. This, at a time when there was so much happening, from the latest oil grab in Libya under the garb of a revolution to the unmarked graves with thousands buried, in Kashmir. And, even the coverage of the Anna movement had nothing to write home about. Shallow debates and twitter updates of celebrities talking about Anna, masquerading as news, were the order of the day. Also, the screen split into 9 or 10 panels with the debates ending up as conversations in the Tower of Babel. Times Now and Arnab Goswami best exemplified this TV fuelled revolution. Loud mouthed, partisan coverage subverted meaningful discussions on the bill. Sharad Yadav hit the bulls eye with his clever jab at Arnab today in the Parliament. Times Now was the preferred channel at most protest venues, for reasons best left unexplained.

The aimless...

what am I doing here??!!!why am I holding this??

hmm...maybe!

wired...connected....

There were many who aimlessly wandered in without knowing head or tail about the Lok pal bill. There were groups of friends who came just to have a good time, as observed by a friend who stays near the protest venue. One of these days I saw a group of guys walking on the road with the tri colour painted on their faces and crying out "Bharat Matha ki Jai". I had a sense of dejavu, of coming out of the chinnaswamy stadium last year, after India's series victory against Australia. And the stories about drunk flag waving biker gangs in Delhi as well as near Marina beach here in Chennai are quite disturbing. But not as disturbing as the sight of one of India's biggest crooks, the man with a ponytail who runs that famous management institute which urges us to think beyond IIMs, delivering a speech at RamLila maidan yesterday. Wonder why Anna and his friends give space to such dubious characters! But I dont really subscribe to the cliched criticism of the middle class who are the major strength of the movement. Atleast some of them are in it with good intentions and also with a thorough understanding of what it is all about. So, a generalised criticism of the great Indian middle class is unwarranted for.

As I was walked out through the flurry of OB vans and the chatter of reporters, I still coundn't make up my mind on how good this movement actually was. Sivadas Yogi, the man who walked from Haridwar to Chennai, perhaps signifies the signs of our times, a spurt in activism by the common man. Whether it augurs well for the strength of our democracy is a moot question. But whatever is the outcome of this anti-corruption campaign or whichever side you are on, you can’t help applauding the spirit of men like this Yogi. Feats like his transcend the ephemeral and sometimes over the top movement itself. At the same time, one cant help thinking about the naivety all around, regarding the workings of parliamentary democracy. A first lesson towards understanding this can be done by acknowledging the fact that this movement can't be compared to the revolutions named after sweet smelling flowers that played out in Tahrir square and elsewhere. Many even doesn't seem to have an idea of how lucky we are to be living in this democracy. There are status messages updated daily with ideas like "India needs someone like Hitler", "All politicians are crooks. Kill 'em all"(an idea reflected even by our news channels) etc. The focus on science and engineering in our education system seems to have affected the new generation's history and civics knowledge. Existence of thoughts like these are something that our 'civil' society as well as the 'made to look uncivil' society needs to ponder on. On a lighter note, as my friend quipped, "All this is because of that rang de basanti!" If you go through the history of this blog, you can stumble on some 'rang de basanti' fuelled posts of 'revolutionary ideas' too. Thankfully, I've no such illusions now. But even given all this, it can't be denied that some kind of movement like this was needed to wake up this government which is so drunk on power. Let's not have any illusions about corruption disappearing from tomorrow. For that, each of us needs to get our own houses in order.

As I got out of the gate, the volunteers were still pleading at people to get in and support the movement..."oru sign podungaaa(please put one sign)", so the cry went..

please get out of the bus and sign...he seems to say.

pleeeease staaap maaadam!

ok..wats going on!?

Here's a video that I compiled from the protest venue...

Changing Careers...Goodbye infosys!

Today I quit my job as design engineer at Infosys Technologies limited. Its been an association of 3 years and 8 months. I've decided to switch careers and take up journalism....

Here's my last day letter...:)

This might probably rank as the last day mail with the longest planning period. Those close to me know that I been writing this over and over in my mind for the past 3 years. I am one among those lakhs of 'accidental engineers' found all over India. After school, the automatic choice for everyone around was to write the engineering entrance. As a youth with no specific aim, the best option was to do what everyone was doing. Our society's logic seems to be this-If you don't want to become a doctor, then ofcourse you should be an engineer. I waded through engineering even after realising half way that am not made for this. After the four year holiday, there was no need to think 'what next?'. The campus selections make our job easy. I joined in with a bunch of friends at the mammoth Infosys campus in mysore. A four month long vacation called 'training' followed. From watching the Ind-Aus test series(after bunking classes) in the AC hostel rooms to making use of every facility provided, we had the time of our lives.

The day I landed up in Bangalore to start working, I realised I don't belong here. Yes, the friends were there here too. But somehow, the idea of sitting inside a cubicle and taking your anger out on the hapless keyboard was not my idea of 'work'. During those first weeks here, I remember one of my team leaders asking me, "Hey, Did you actually study engineering!?". One of my usual designing blunders forced him to ask that. Around that time, the recession set in and all the companies started using that as an excuse to terrorise employees. New policies were implemented everyday. And, so we had the working hours policy(9.25 hours of your day eaten up!), leave policies and even policies to control your movement through the gates. It was the time of pink slips too and one of my close friends(who is much better off right now) also got one. During that period, I hated this place more than anything. But we did devise ways to get around some policies. Like how some of us even shifted our morning rituals to the office restroom to clock up the requisite 9.25 hours. And then the long rides in the night to swipe out to make up the quarterly average. And the post meal brainstorming sessions near the pool side. Then there was the tea time, which is still the time I look foward to the most on each day(I can see 3-4 knowing smiles now!). Which sums up why the dialogue my superiors used the most was, "You are never found at your seat!"Now, dont get the impression that I was a complete slacker. I've done my share of slogging. But 'IRacial discrimination' meant that I remained a consistent performer with 2 consecutive CRR 3s.

Inspite of all this, inspite of never really fitting in, I was slowly getting used to the place. In that classic movie Shawshank redemption, the character Red played by Morgan Freeman talks of getting institutionalised- "These walls are kind of funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, so you depend on them. That's institutionalised. They send you here for life, that's exactly what they take. The part that counts, anyways." Each day that thought killed me. I couldn't imagine myself working here even the next week, forget next year! Each sunday evening, we all went into the great depression, thinking of the bluish monday waiting for us. Its not a coincidence that I wanted a monday to be my last day here. Yeah, I really wanted to smile on a monday morning! And so, to prevent getting institutionalised, I decided to follow my passions-writing and clicking. It was during the second year of engineering that I realised that I wanted to be a journalist. But, then it was too late(rather, too early, thinking from the 'now'). So, I went in with the flow and spent the last 6 years doing something which I really didn't like. Concerts and constant travel kept me sane! And, then I decided to take charge. So, after tests and interviews, I landed up admission at 2 places- Asian College of Journalism, Chennai and Xaviers, Mumbai. I'll be becoming a Chennaiite next week.

It was never easy throwing this away and taking up something which the society didn't approve of. The 'engineering/medicine syndrome' is so deep rooted that I got looks of contempt whenever I mentioned my new career plan to someone. Convincing my parents was the first part. It helps a lot when you've friends who are able to convince your parents, something which yourself failed to do. Then comes the relatives and 'concerned' neighbours. "Journalism??Are you crazy?", "But, you are too old for that now", "This is utter foolishness"- These are some of the reactions that I heard. There was no one around who saw the positives. At those times, I remember what one of my friends constantly used to say, "One life, man!". So, I decided to give it a try rather than cry over not having tried somewhere down the line. I might stumble, but I won't repent not having tried.

What really lighted up my stay in this company was 2 things- Infyblogs and SLRBB. As a regular blogger, when I stumbled upon infyblogs during training, I felt truely happy. And that's where I got some of my best friends here. It was also that platform which helped me hone my writing skills. Its a sad thing that infyblogs is now almost dead with the departure of some of its leading lights. I just hope that some of the new talents on view will take it back to the heights that it achieved 2 years back. Coming to SLRBB, this was THE place where I learned almost everything related to photography. I came to infy armed with an archaic film camera and a mobile camera. Vivek taught me the basics and introduced me to SLRBB. Its the skills acquired at this place which helped me in my freelancing career. Its an irony that infyblogs and SLRBB did play a big part in me charting out a new career path.

Having said all that, the last 3.8 years were truely a roller coaster ride. And, if given a chance to rewrite my history of this period, I would just take a photocopy. I am not mentioning any names because there are too many of them...:) So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish! Meet you at some crossroad...