Gujarat riots 2002

I am going to write about my experience during 2002 Gujarat Godhra riots. Me and few of my colleagues were at Ahmedabad during September 2001 to April 2002 doing some project for Gujarath State transport corporation (GSRTC).

Ahmedabad can be divided to old city and new city areas. Sabarmati river seperates old from new. We were staying at Vastrapur (Ahmedabad outskirt) and working at Kalupur (old city).

It was 28th of February, another normal day in very dry Gujarath Summer. Ahmedabad public transport was very pathetic then. AMTC(municiple transport) buses were so old and worn out, you never knew where will they breakdown. Lot of times, we had to switch buses because the earlier one just died at the middle of the road or died at the (traffic) lights. One of our local colleague (Sanjay) had a car and sometime we used to travel in his car. We (me, Sanjiv, Vipul and Navin) used to travel together as we used to stay in the same rented apartment.

GSRTC office is a old, run down government office where very majority of the folks used to just come to work and sit in the chair whole day and do nothing. Our favorite was the 'drawings guy' who used to sit just outside our office. He had a very fixed routine. Come to office by 10 AM, light an incense stick and keep it on the table, stare at the roof till 12:30. Eat lunch, come back and play carrom till 2:00 PM. Take a small nap and then again stare at roof till 4:30. He did that every day for six months and may be doing the same even now! Whole office used to sleep or play carrom during lunch break. I am not saying that everybody used to do that, majority used to follow the routine. There were some really talented guys who used to complete whole department's work.

Coming back to that fateful day, we went to eat our lunch at nearby low cost (and low quality) restaurant. We heard some news about Sabarmathi express train fire at Godhra train station. As usual we didn't give much thought about that. We were busy doing our work. There were lot of commotion outside office and we thought, may be Gujarath Government had annouced some pay commission implementation or something similar.

That day office was empty earlier than expected . And one old gentlemen suggested that we go home early as  there was some trouble in the city. We were all travelling in Sanjay's car and came across some charred buses, cars etc. We were only curious to see what was going on, totally ignorant about the dangerous conditions we were in. We reached our apartments safely (thanks to Sanjay's car). Even now I dred the thought, what would have happened if we had chosen to go by public transport.

When we reached home, as usual we turned on TV and put the news channel. Because TV was the only form of entertainment we had. We saw ghastly images of Sabarmathi Express train fire, riots every where in the state of Gujarath and even in the heart of Ahmedabad city.

We weren't too sure if we should go to work next day or not. All Hindu organization had given call for statewide bandh (strike) and conditions were explosive for communal riots to occur. We were staying in relatively safer part of city. Ahmedabad Judges bungalows were just across the road. But our PM insisted that we report to work to avoid the timesheet default or something like that. Reluctantly we agreed to go. We let him go ahead of us and came up with some phony excuse to go later. We reached local bus station and were waiting for the bus. Suddenly police patrol party and shouted at the people standing at the bus stand, we all went home (thankfully). We stayed glued to TV. Cable operators were showing only news channels. We could see smoke billowing from multiple places in the city. After a while, may be around 11:00 AM we saw smoke billowing from the hotel one block away from our apartment building. That was one of the posh hotels and miscreants had set that hotel on fire. Sanjiv and some of us went to see that burning hotel. Immediately blue uniformed RAF (Rapid Action Force) team arrived, all the crowd dispersed. I saw couple with two kids travelling on the scooter to take a look at the burning hotel. People were streaming to that location as if it was a picning spot.

We went home and watched TV for whole day. Thankfully our lunch carrier brought us lunch and dinner. We did not dare to go out of the building whole day. In the evening there were rumours that people from other community will attach our area. Vastrapur area was predominantly Hindu area then. We had one of the High court Judge stay in our society and he spoke to commissioner of police. As usual police suggested that it is a rumour and not get bothered by these things.  But ladies (aunties) did not want to take any risk, so they wanted us to stay at the building gate to provide 'protection'. Soon we had a question, what if rioters really attached our society? We were all thinking about how quickly we can run back to our apartment. Navin said he has come armed - with small knife which did not even cut onion in our apartment. We all had good laugh.
Next day was no better, we had decided that we will not be going out until the conditions improved in the city. Our PM was stuck in some of his relative's house closer to Maninagar.

We played cricket inside apartment to kill time as only thing they were showing in television of news channels. We went to local shop to see if we can get anything. All were closed but our tiffin provider lady sent our lunch, so it was another lazy day. TV reports were relentless regarding stabbings, looting, arson and general law and order situation. 

Day three was very difficult as lunch provider only sent few tiffin boxes and we just had to manage.  Also we ran out cooking gas and there was no way to get refill. Some shops had started opening though everything was in short supply. As bread was being prepared in old city area, there was absolutely shortage of bread. They were rationing milk, groceries etc.

For dinner during night, our tiffin provider could not food. We ate whatever we could find. There were couple of maggie packets but there was no way to cook that. Navin ate raw and I tried too. It was impossible to eat raw. Sanjeev or Vipul came up with idea of using water heating coil to heat water and use that hot water cook maggie. That idea became instant hit and we ate our 'most delicious meal'

On day four, we decided to go to our office as we were bored to core sitting at home watching just news channels.   Everybody was tense during travel as we did not know what to expect. By god's grace we reached office and started with daily routine.  For next couple of months (March and April), law and order situation swung everyday. One day we went to nearby eatery for lunch and suddenly lot of folks started running. We did not wanted to check and instant reaction was to run back to our project office. Later in the day we were told there were stabbings right outside that eatery.   Another day we had decided to leave office early (by 4PM) as it was Friday, somehow we managed to reach our apartment on time. Everyday first thing we did after reaching apartment was to watch local news channels. We realized that there was big riot and stabbings right at the bus stand from where we had boarded our bus one and half hour earlier. We all thanked our Lord for looking after us. 

It was someday stabbing at Kalupur or fire at Sindhi market or some other disturbance. Somehow we managed to survive and we were constantly nagging our manager/management to suspend the project so that we could return back to the safety of Mumbai. But our PM wanted us to complete the work and wind down the project after that.  I was looking forward to my marriage day on 1st May. I even had nightmares where I had reached our hometown well past 1st May.  As we had finished requirement study phase, made presentations, submitted report to client, there was no clarity on next phase we finally decided to return to Mumbai by night train. We paid double the money to rickshawala to take us to Ahmedabad railway station from our apartment. Riot had affected people from lower rung of society very badly. They were ready to do any odd job to get through the day. We had one person pestering us to polish our shoes. He cut his charge to paltry one rupee or so.  I realized that he may had a decent job prior to riots and now trying do anything to earn few bucks. After so many years, I am unable to forget the helplessness we saw in his eyes.
Based on our interaction with some of our local colleagues, there were lot of reason for the riots and scale of violence. It seems almost every year there were stone pelting during annual Jagannath rath yatra, divide between rich and poor, old and new city contributed to resentment among people. That resentment added fuel to riots and vested interested in different communities utilized the situation. It is hard to explain why only one hotel among tens of the hotels was burnt down when everything remained intact.
It was very difficult time and teaches us the lesson that we have to prepared for any difficult situations and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

2008 US Presidential Election

I have read about past US presidential elections in newspapers in India. But this is first time I am in US during the presidential elections.
First of all some background on the US political system. There are two phases in Presidential election. First is primaries and second is actual election. US politics is the contest between two political parties. Democrats and Republicans. Primaries are conducted by each party to select their Presidential candidate. People who want to contest for presidential nomination start their ground work well in advance, at least two years in advance. Process starts with formation of exploratory committee and any serious candidate starts their campaign in the state of Iowa and New Hampshire. These are two states that vote early in the primary season. And they follow two different format. Iowa's primary is caucus and New Hampshire's primary is by casting the vote (ballot). Caucus format, eligible voters assembly in local precinct and vote for their candidate of choice. If a candidate gets less than some percentage (usually 15%), then their supporters have to chose other candidate. By this way, less serious candidates are eliminated. Each candidates is alloted delegates based on the percentage of the votes (Democrats). Or in some states like Florida, winner takes all the delegates (only Republicans follow this format).
During 2008 primaries, Barack Obama won Iowa caucus. Hillary Clinton came second. She won New Hampshire primary. Among Republics Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucus. John McCain came second and Mitt Romney came third. John McCain won New Hampshire.
Since Republicans have 'winner takes all', John McCain emerged as Republican presidential candidate. Former New York mayor Rudy Guliani staked all his odds against Florida primary and didnt make it. As it happens always, all candidates support the winning candidate.
Democratic primary follows the proportionate allotment of delegates based on the percentage of votes won. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton won almost equal number of delegates. Clinton won large states like Florida, California, New York etc. Some of the best discussions happened between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during Democratic primaries. We friends used to follow the Democratic primary very closely. It used to be one of our topic during our lunch breaks. Every states primary gained importance due to tight Democratic primary race. Even Pennsylvania primary which come towards end of the primary season gained tremendous importance. Clinton won that primary. Our home state, Ohio primary was also won by Clinton.
Eventually Barack Obama nudged past Hillary Clinton and she conceded defeat. Democratic party was highly polarised. But Clinton threw her weight behind Obama and majority of her supporters (including Bill Clinton) came to Obama camp.
Actual election was not even half existing as Democratic primary. John McCain chose Alaska Governer Sarah Palin as Vice presedential candidate and Back Obama chose Joe Biden as his VP pick. Sarah Palin revived careers of many Saturday Night Live artists (notable being Tina Fey).
As everybody knows, Barack Obama won the presedential election and made history. He is first African American president America has ever seen.

ಕಂಗುಳು -ತುಳು ಜಾನಪದ ನೃತ್ಯ (Kangulu Tulu Folk Dance)

Kangulu is one of Tulu folk dance performed by folks belonging to lower strata of the caste structure. Dancers in Kangulu come from a close knit community of Untouchable. Kangulu dance is done during the Tulu Month of Mayi(around March) full moon day.

On the day of Kangulu dance, a group of men gather at the village temple (typically the Babbu swamy temple. Babbu swamy being the patron god of untouchables). They prepare dress using the tender coconut leaves. They remove the sturdy stick like thing from the leaf and hence it becomes easy to wrap around the hip. Also some of them wrap that coconut leaves around the shoulder. They use petromax light and torch made out of dried coconut leaves. Kangulu dance team is lead by the head of the clan (also called 'Maara'. Literal translation means Manmatha, Hindu god for Kama)

First dance is invariably at the village deity and they follow a heirarchy of the village houses ('Gutthu'). Kangulu dance consists of three parts. First part is group dance where all the Kangulu dancers dance around the coconut leaf torch or Petromax lamp. Second dance is called 'Kadigana' where one of the elderly man gets a big sturdy stick and does a jumping dance. Third dance is 'Pilli dance' (Pilli is the Tulu word for tiger). In this dance, one guys acts like tiger and other guy acts like a hunter with gun. This symbolizes the hunting ritual that was common in olden days for controlling the wild life population.

Each dance is succeded by donation. Olden days donation was only in the form of rice. Kadigana gets few anas (16 anas = 1 Indian Rupees).

Over the years the people that want to participate in Kangulu has gone down and in many villages the Kangulu tradition has stopped completely. I remember as a Elementary school kid, waiting for the Kangulu team to come to our house for dance. It was really exciting time. With the changes in the social orders and better education, this cultural has almost died. I havent heard any Kangulu dance being performed in any near by village.

Hopefully whenever I get a chance to witness one of this dance, I will be able to record this tradition so that future generation will have a glimpse of this TULU CULTURE.

Getting stuck in snow - March 2008

Living in Cleveland for couple of years, snow and snow storm is not new to me. But the snowstorm during March 7-9 2008 is memorable one for wrong reasons. I never thought it will be so cold out in snow. Snowfall and snow looks all beautiful when you are sitting in the living room with temperature controlled at 70F.

Let me comeback to my experience on that fateful day, 8th March 2008. Weathermen had predicted massive snow fall for Cleveland. 7th March night saw record snowfall. But snow ploughing crew had worked overtime to clear roadways so at least roads looked motorable. Even in the apartment block where I stayed, snow was cleared around parking lot.

I had my car's emission check expired and needed a new e-check report for licence plates renewal. Since it was Saturday and I was afraid of my engine check light coming back, I wanted to take a risk and go to e-check center to get the e-check done. In hindsight, it was the huge mistake I made.
Side notes about e-check. It is one of the Department of Motor Vehicles requirement that every vehicle undergo emission check every two years before the licence plates can be renewed. So I got dressed for the weather - scarf, gloves, headcover, overcoat etc. Took my faithful 1996 Pontiac out and started driving toward e-check center. Road had lot of snow but still motorable thanks to ODOT crew. So 4 mile drive that would normally take 10 minutes took nearly half an hour. When I reached e-check center, notice 'closed for Incliement weather' greeted me. I blamed my forgetfulness for not check the website before venturing out in the snow storm.

As the center is closed, I decided to turn back. Instead of reversing in the main road itself, I chose side road which was not ploughed. Secod mistake. I was maitainaing enough speed lest car get stuck in few feet of snow. Alas, my speed was no match for snow. Car got stuck and wont budge when I accelerated. So decided to get out and push the car out of the snow. Third mistake. My car has a feature, it will automatically lock the doors once gear is shifted from Park. As soon as I got out with engine running, my car decided to lock me out.

I stood out in freezing cold with few inches of snowfall per hour. Fortunately my blackberry didnot disappoint me, she was fully charged and with strong signal. At least I took one good decision, I did not take my T-Mobile cell. Definately it would have starved for signal (like we had the issue while travelling to Wheeling, WV. That details on some other day). I did not want to alarm my family at home. But my first call did exactly that. I knew there was a spare key at home. But somebody had to get that to me. It was little difficult for me to ask anybody to get the key in such bad weather. But then my wife suggested to contact our good friend Jivendhar. As a good friend, he immediately agreed to get the spare key to me.
Time was slowly slipping away. It was almost an hour I am standing in the freezing cold. But one very heartening observation, there were numerous motorists who stopped to inquire about the condition. Some of them even offered to push out the car from snow, but I needed key to get in the car. So I thanked them and declined.

Something else was happening with Jivendhar, apparently his side of the car park at our apartment was not cleared of snow. So his car got stuck couple of times and it took him quite sometime to get out his car from that mess. My wife kept calling and at one point I even asked her not call. She was sounding so alarmed that it started affecting me. Jivendhar's trouble did not end there. Instead of the normal shortest route, he misunderstood the location and took incorrect route. When he called to check, he realised the gaffe, and took right road. By this time I had already completed 2 hours in snow. At that time one kind gentleman who owns a auto body shop near e-check center stopped and inquired about the problem.

I had explained the problem to so many people that I had no problem repeating the same to him. He offered to take me to his auto body shop and I agreed as I was shivering with cold. He offered me coffee and I am eternally thankful to his generosity to a perfect stranger. That was the best coffee I had ever tasted.

Another half an hour, Jivendhar finally arrived. It took him over an hour to drive the distance that would have taken less than twenty minute in fair weather condition. Once he reached the e-check center, things went very smoothly. I got into the car using spare key and first thing I did was pull one of the windows down so that even if my old faithful decides to lock the door, I can still get in. My hands were feeling numb, so Jivendhar got my old faithful out of her misery. Finally she stood on hard surface of the road. It was another 45 min before we finally reached home. I am ever thankful to our friend Jivendhar for helping out on that fateful day.

Leasons learnt,
play safe with weather.
There is always another day to complete routine chores.
Have good friend who can help you during difficult times.
And this world still has good people who would not mind helping a perfect stranger.

My attempts at Translation

One evening I was sitting and just browsing the internet for "free" ebooks of classical English novel. I found few sites that have various books. Having read few times earlier, I was particularly interested in "A Tale Of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens

Then it struck me that I can get many books from local library. This country (US) has wonderful public library system. One just need to have an ID to get library card. I searched my local library website and couldn't find that book. Then searched local library network and found few copies in the nearby library. I requested the book to be delivered to local library.

I wanted to start translating "A tale of two cities" to Kannada as an effort to keep up with my Kannada knowledge. One evening I received an email stating that book is available for pick up. Though it was muggy and cold, I at once drove to local library. I was bubbling with the urge to start translating this book right away. Alas, I had requested wrong book. The book was a critical examination of Charles Dickens work. I wanted the real novel, not some edited stuff.

This time I delegated the work of getting that novel to my wife. She did a good job of getting that book in few days. And she did a good thing, I got a book in large print (Did she think I have grown old. We have a standing joke, when do you know you have grown old? When you start reading large print books ;-)

With all earnest enthusiasm, I started reading the first page with pen and paper in hand.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness....so goes the first line. I could translate that to Kannada. First stumbling block was 'it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity' . Honestly I didnt know what this epoch meant. Next thing was to google this word and found that its something related with period.
Kannada is a rich language (like any other living language) and has numerous words for period.
Yuga, shake, manwanthara etc. I chose shake.

By this time, I was losing interest. That was close of the day, folks.

After few days, I again got that urge. This time I thought may be I should try translating to Tulu as that is my mother tongue and there aren't many books written in that language. While translating few lines, I figured that my hold on Tulu is even worse than Kannada.

So my maiden attempt has only produced 4 lines of Kannada and 2 lines of Tulu ;-) In this era of internet and community based activity, I am trying to search if there is any community that is devoted to translate vintage English classics to Kannada or Tulu. Initial searches aren't encouraging. But still searching...

First posting

Everyday I am hearing about bolgs in news, media etc. So I thought to take a shot at it. And this is the start of journey..