Anmol Sagar
Myriad thoughts on a million things
Smoke free partying…. Finally!
0October 2nd dawns and India is to go smoke free! Yayyee… finally!! Smoking is going to be illegal in all public spaces. Those include pubs, restaurants, stations, movie halls etc. (any place that requires more than 20 people to congregate in a closed space)
The effective implementation of this ban would enable non smokers to finally lead a normal life! Being a non smoker in a group with smokers is like suffering from some kind of handicap. When you crinkle up your nose, they look at you sympathetically (like they might be sorry that you’re missing the fun) and try and make you comfortable with a ‘I hope it’s not bothering you too much’.
It’s even worse when you’re at a pub…. With that much smoke holed up in a room, it doesn’t matter that you don’t smoke, the tar is already making its home in your lungs and you’ve lost a few years of your life. A few hours in the smoky pub and you know every inch of your clothing and hair is going to smell of the dank smoke. I have almost become unsocial and don’t feel like hanging out with friends in pubs/disc because it would take too much effort to sit in a smoky room for a few hours and feel like you’re having fun. I even tried a silent protest wherein once I sat in pub with a handkerchief tried around my face and nose… but I had to give that up due to insistent friends who couldn’t bear to be seen with someone who was looking like the Taliban.
I was there in the UK when it went smoke free last year (2nd July 07). And even with the Smokers raising hue and cry about it, a large majority heaved a relieved sigh. The government even reported that within 2 months of the ban, the sale of tobacco products had fallen 21%! In the UK, the usual pub wouldn’t be more than a few square meters big (atleast in the city I was in) and before the ban I would often just choke walking by one of open doors of the pub! Since it became smoke free, I found that I was more willing to hang out in them and really enjoy myself!
In most countries, and Wikipedia cites over 25, smoking in public places is banned. I can’t wait till it happens in India and hope that we are able to implement it. Non smokers can finally have a life and not feel like the outcasts!
Apparently Bhutan is the only country which has banned the sale of tobacco products. I don’t know why more countries don’t follow suit. I mean if it is illegal to kill yourself, then why is it ok to kill yourself (and others in the closed spaces with you) slowly?
Standing Babas!
9I’m currently reading Gregory David Robert’s ‘Shantaram’. It’s an interesting book, albeit slow and meandering, but interesting none the less. For me, having stayed in Mumbai for a bit, it is especially more interesting as it chronicles many fascinating things about Mumbai that I did not know / have never heard of. One of these being the Den of Standing Babas!
When I read the bit about them in the book, I was really intrigued! Babas or Sadhus as they are commonly known in India are religious men who renounce everything material in their search for nirvana. The book records that the standing Babas are men who have taken a vow to never sit down. They do everything standing up (sleep, eat and yes, even their number 2s! They do that in a sitting chair position, not taking the weight of their feet). They are of a belief that if they suffer enough pain in this lifetime, they would have repented for their sins and would be able to escape the mortal cycle of seven births and be one with god (as in get moksha). The book shares that there is a place in Mumbai where these babas come together, share kashmiri hash and walk around/swing to devotional music in a mesmerized smoked up haze.
Shantaram also chronicles how these babas endure crushing pain, where in the beginning their legs start to swell up (due the blood not being pumped properly) with their veins jutting out and then over time how their legs become thin sticks with only a transparent film of skin on them. A really moving picture… but I was not sure whether the den of the standing babas really existed or if they were a materialization of Robert’s fertile imagination. I didn’t think they really existed because I could not believe that humans could be capable of enduring such torment for the promise of something that might not really be there.
So I did some research on the net on them and found that they really do exist! There is a now some info available about them on the net… I think they became some sort of celebrities after their mention in Shantaram. I found a few entries by visiting firangs on travel sites that asked about info where one could find the den of standing babas!! (One query mentions that he had read about the adventures of Shantaram and wanted to do a list of things that Robert’s had done in the book!) Their new found stardom has the ‘standing baba’; now even defined in Wikipedia. But for me the one conclusive proof that they do exist came as a you tube video by a Music channel anchor Shenaz interviewing some of these Babas. Check out the video.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojeR1fOKv_A
It’s amazing how these people, and young people at that (one baba in the video is just 35 yrs old) have given up everything in this world and are enduring a life time of incredible pain in their faith of a better afterlife. Makes you wonder….Would God rather reward humans who inflict self pain (and contribute nothing much else to the world, society, the people they live with) with nirvana and have normal people who are just trying to be good honest human beings bound in trails of earthy life before they are allowed in his realm?
Hmm… that is the eternal question of afterlife I guess. We’ll probably have to wait till someone makes the superest ever Super Computer (something like the ‘Deep Thought’ from ‘Hitchhikers Guide the Galaxy’) before we can come by the answer to ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’. Ha!
Instinctive Racism or Thought Through Typecasts?
4It’s been some time since I read Malcolm Galdwell’s ‘Blink’. At the time when I read it, I thought it was an eye opener. I especially liked his stories/ examples on how instinctively, without even knowing it, we make decisions about people, races, and things in the blink of an eye. In the book, some of his stories highlighted how black people in the US experience instinctive racism due to the type cast expectations/ views that white people have of them.
I didn’t think of the book again till a few days ago. I follow the show ‘Are you smarter than a 5th Grader’ that is currently being aired on star world (mostly because it makes me feel smart…. You have to see the Indian version to realize that the Indian level of required competence for the show is really much higher than the American) Jeez…! There I go blinking and type casting. Sorry.
So anyways, like I was saying I watch the show quite regularly and one day Alana (the one black kid that is part of the 5 member class) gave two wrong answers to consecutive questions. And of course the participant who was banking on her answer to stay in the show had to leave. It got me thinking…the show definitely has a way of fixing some answers and getting the kids get some of them wrong (it would appear very unnatural if they got everything right every time) and I started to notice which kids got how many wrong answers… and viola! For every wrong answer by a kid, Alana got more answers wrong. Was it coincidence? Was Alana not as smart as the other whit kids? Or were they making Alana get the maximum answers wrong because there is a general belief that black people are not so smart? I even started to notice that contestants tended to pick Alana early in the game, as they expected the easy questions early on.
It made me think of ‘Blink’… because I’m not sure if the producers of the show planned on doing this or instinctively every time they were decided who would get answers wrong, they think of Alana.
Hamlet: The clown prince
11I recently went to see Rajat Kapoor’s ‘Hamlet: The clown prince’ at Prithvi. The play, (in gibberish and English as the advet said) was supposedly hilarious. I went in wondering how one could possibly make whiny and serious Hamlet funny….And I came out holding my sides, for they ached from all the laughing I did for 2 hours straight!!
The play has a company of clowns presenting their version of Hamlet along with multiple doses of digressions to share their own lives and personalities. Clowns being clowns, the play is not only funny, it’s filled with contemporary influences which manage to present the classical tragedy with a modern feel.
I was a little stunned when it started…. a clown opened it with something that sounded like a frantic mix of French, English, Chinese and some alien language all at the same time! That’s Gibberish for the untrained and it does take some getting used to. I wasn’t too sure whether the gibberish was really a needed ingredient (others with me felt it added a comical hue), but I thought the play would have been as funny even in just plain English.
The play was uproariously funny to say the least… the multiple digressions by the clowns where they would totally forget that they are enacting Hamlet were entertaining and the involvement of the audience members into their dialogues was ingenious and extraordinary. The actors were really good… it would take a lot to deliver a flawless 2 hour play. A special mention for the lead actor who played the clowning and the serious parts with great aplomb (His heartfelt speech on the death of Ophelia had me almost in tears!) I personally really liked the clown who played Claudius… he was brilliant in his portrayal of the airheaded disconnected clown and a devious step father to Hamlet at the same time. His impromptu dancing and breaking into songs from Lion king really had me holding my sides. At one time, he also played Hamlet’s dead father’s ghost (who by the way is not allowed to talk… being a ghost and all) where he was trying to, through dumb sharads, explain to the clueless Hamlet what he wants him to do to avenge his death!!
It is a challenge for anyone to present Hamlet in it’s entirely in 2 hours and this play did cut around some of the interlacing stories, but that did not make the story less complete in any way. The play ignored the whole Prince Fortinbras angle as also the betrayal of Rosencratz and Guildenstern… but it added a lot more through the stories of the clowns and their relationships with each other.
All in all, I was amazed at the creativity and the skill of the cast and the crew of the play and felt that the standing ovation they got at the end was really too little an appreciation! Hats off to the team and to Rajat Kapoor (who by the way was there at the venue sporting an arty look with a long unruly beard) for a great show!
Living like an Earl – the Harewood Experience!
0Through this post I want to share my wonderful Harewood experience with all of you. Harewood is pronounced ‘Haar’- ‘Wood’ and not ‘Hare’-‘ wood’…just letting you know and setting your expectation that this is not a post about a bunny and his life in the jungle (!), but one about my visit to the Harewood Estates in Leeds, UK. J
Summer in the UK is by far the one of the most beautiful things in the world. The beautiful British country side is indescribably stunning in all its sunny & green grandeur. So when I was there one summer, a few friends and I decided to visit the Harewood Estates in Leeds. A short bus ride (route 46) from the main coach stand, Harewood is a very close to Leeds City. We landed up in front of the large ancient stone & iron gates early one July morning.
Walking though the lovely shaded walkway, looking at the manicured gardens, we were delighted that it such a beautiful summer day. The sky was clear and a heavenly blue that I’ve only seen in the UK, and we would have walked the 1.2 kilometers to the castle happily, if it had not been for the kind old gentleman who showed up with a small motorized buggy. It would have been something if they had had the old style carriages for these rides around the estates….complete with horses with flowing manes and coachmen!
Ok, this would be a good time for a small history lesson. Harewood Estates was built by Earl Edwin Lascelles between 1759 and 1771. Being related to the royal family does not apparently guarantee wealth and thus this family made their fortune (and thus this beautiful castle) by taking our sugar and selling it elsewhere (!). It has been inherited down the long line of descendant of the Lascelles family. The Sixth Earl was also a cousin to the Queen Mary, who by the way also spent her last dying days here. And I think the current descendant is the Earl of York and related to Queen Elizabeth II. The running history lesson that they give during the tours is sometimes difficult to keep up with and I hope I managed to get most of the history right. Anyways, since I was never really good at history or with the memory, you probably should not depend on these details. The historically inclined may please visit www.harewood.org for more details.
So back to the 21st Century and the historic (J) day we were there
The castle per say is a small part of the estate. It stands in the middle of widespread and manicured gardens. On the outside, it’s not really that much to look at. It holds a close resemblance to the Buckingham palace and the boxy look seems to have been the trend among royalty in England. It’s probably a good thing that the façade outside is so deceptive, because when you step in, you are completely overwhelmed with the beauty and magnificence of the interiors.
The entrance hall has, besides a few chairs near the walls, only one other occupant. This is a giant sculpture of some nude man-monster type thing called Adam. It stands over 8 feet tall and is actually quite ugly. Makes you wonder why they wasted all the efforts on the beautifully hand painted ceiling when they wanted everyone only to look at the monstrous naked man right in the center of the room. After we pretend ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ on artistic talent of some guy Jacob who made the monster and snickered on some not shareable in a public forum kind of jokes on the obvious flaws of the anatomy of the giant, we were happy to escape to the first of the many Libraries of the castle.
Called the state library, it was a sitting room with a beautiful view of the estate gardens and the various fountains. Books on books adorned the walls. Every little space clamoured for attention. Beautiful Paintings, stunning tapestries, ornate wallpapers, sculptures, intricate frescos on walls and ceilings, rich wood work, little nick nacks that warrant a closer inspection….there just wasn’t enough time to stop and appreciate everything!
Made by the famous Chip and Dale (who were by the way were brothers renowned for their artistry with furniture), the furniture really is worth a special mention. Exquisitely carved, it made me imagine little squirrels carving away with their teeth and creating these pieces of art.
The castle has some 3 libraries (such a pity that they don’t let people near the numerous books… it would have been interesting to see what people read in those times) and 4 dining rooms (named yellow, cinnamon – to go with the colour of the wall paper of the room and state and family to describe the use they probably got put to), 4 large bedrooms ( including one dedicated to Queen Mary and her large wardrobe!), multiple small ones, a few sitting rooms, a huge gallery, a music room, ante rooms in addition to random rooms called the china room, the portrait room and others that I can’t remember.
There was even a special room (I can’t remember what it was called, but we thought it could be referred to as the ‘Adult’ room) that had a bunch of nude paintings. It was like the people back then just saw too much cloth on all the people around them ( you have to look at the amount of cloth that went into a lady’s gown to really know) that they just did not like their art wearing any! Sculptures and paintings were all preferred nude. It is intriguing, don’t you think?
The rooms used by the family were on the first floor and the ground floor (which was really more like a basement) is referred to as the ‘below stairs’ and in this section the kitchens, scullery, staff and help quarters were there.
Interestingly, for all the beauty and opulence of the castle, the below stairs is so starkly plain and depressing, it surprising you. Plain white washed walls and hard cement block floors fill the space and there is little thought given to natural lighting. I could just imagine the cold foggy winter mornings where the maids had to heat the large tubs of water for the mistress of the house and haul it up through the water chute into the nearly modern washrooms upstairs. The kitchen is a large space and one can see the myriad utensils that were used to cooking in those times. We had an interesting time trying to figure some of them out and what they could possibly used for. One can see some of the uniforms that the scullery maids, cooks, help used to wear and even try them and take pictures!
One of the weirdest things I saw were the service corridors leading from the below stairs to each of the rooms upstairs! It was like a network of tunnels, about a 2.5 meters in width and lead to each of the rooms upstairs. The tunnel entrance to the rooms was hidden behind a tapestry or some item of furniture and one can go through the rooms without knowing that there is a tunnel entrance right behind the bed/ the sofa. Apparently, the royalty did not like to see their servants. Even in those days there was a sophisticated system of bells through which one could pull a cord in a room and at a switchboard kind of room down stairs a small bell would ring that would show from which room the command has come from and one of the servants would be dispatched through the tunnel to attend to the summons. The servants would be expected to enter through their tunnel, do their work and be gone! It made me feel sick… to think of the dark dunky tunnels and the servants scurrying like mice through them, at the bid and command of the people upstairs. Jeez… rich people could be real mean back then.
After the dingy below stairs we were happy to step back into bright sunny morning and see the gardens around the castle.
The estate also boasts of a rich bird garden with a wide array of exotic birds, such as the colourful parrot, Chilean flamingoes, ostriches, penguins and peacocks. We had an interesting time walking through the delightful garden and feeding the birds.
All in all, our harewood trip was wonderful and one I would recommend for all to experience.
Cheers!!
Living for today vs. building for tomorrow
0I’ve always wondered about this whole human life experience. We are born, have a few carefree years of childhood, a few anxious years of teenage, many stressful years of working and many blissful/cantankerous (depends on one is happily married or not) years of married/ single life and then we’re done. Heavenly gates are hopefully there to welcome us back to the realm. And in during this whole journey we go through this myriad emotions and experiences that hopefully make it all worth the effort.
Most of us, in our lives, are focused onto doing things that will make our tomorrow better, safer, richer, happier. We work, spend the majority of our lives in closed spaces trying to make enough money to buy the things we think will make us happy today and to save for the things we will need in the future. It just feels like this endless cycle of want, save, buy and then want something more expensive/better, save more, buy more… and on and on.
There is never any satisfaction with the way things are. It is a fundamental human need to forever strive for more. That really is why the human race has reached the pinnacle it has today ( I mean pinnacle in evolutionary and technological sense, not a moral or philosophical sense)… so this endless want for more is a good thing right? Then why does this very thing make the average human experience seem so futile? If we had the ability to live for today, then each day would be rich, full and not a day spent in doing things in preparation for a hopefully better tomorrow.
Organized Human Resources Community
0Most organized streams of occupation have one thing in common. They have a singular body that controls, augments, approves, and accredits all aspects of the occupation and its practitioners. Some examples would be the Chartered Accountants of India, Bar associations for Lawyers, the Indian Medical Association for Doctors etc.
This kind of setup allows for the control of the body of knowledge and practices because of which people have a common expectation of the outcomes of the occupation.
As an HR professional, I often wonder about the way HR is viewed by other professionals and their varied expectations from HR. People expect HR to do a variety of things, which may or may not be the core requirement or outcome of HR practitioners. From admin issues of transport, Ac/s, Canteens to complex issues of retention, leadership development, HR is expected to resolve/support employees and the management end to end.
Though none of the work we do as HR is less/menial in any way, the essence/brand of HR does get diluted in the myriad ways in which people expect HR to contribute. While overall employee engagement and retention are key outcomes for HR practitioners, at what level they need to act and contribute is very vague. For example, even resolving someone’s issue with their A/c can be clubbed under an umbrella of employee engagement!
There are multiple networks and HR groups/associations that are there today. They are helpful and do serve the purpose of knowledge sharing and networking across the industry. But none of these are viewed as an authority in the area of defining the content and context of the occupation.
Having a recognized authority that identifies and determines the outcomes of HR practitioners can not only help build clarity in the industry, it will help HR folks focus on the things that are important. As a central authority it could help build/certify content for the occupation, have common level of competence expectation from the practitioners and create clarity on the outcomes. Only when we are seen as making a difference, will we get viewed as the business partners we all aim to be.
Wedding vows: upgrades required!
21366 days
by Anmol
in Random Thoughts
I have fond memories of my wedding. It was the usual big fat Indian wedding… a different function every day for the run up to the main event, a few thousand wedding guests, all the bollywood type dance and music, a few hundred ceremonies, all the pampering, shopping and tons and tons of feet touching and gift taking. I had fun! J
The only thing I thought could have been more meaningful was the wedding ceremony itself. I’m not sure if it was do with the undertrained priest that we had, or it is something to do with the ways wedding vows are made in the Marwari weddings. I mean this was the single most important bond I was going to be making in my life and the ancient wedding vows I was making ranged from a promise not to go to the jungle alone to having my to be husband promise me that he will not go dig a well without me!! Jeez… someone from the apex body of the religion should really look into it upgrading the wedding vows/ceremony!
I mean, don’t get me wrong. I am a fairly religious person. I do believe in god, heaven, hell and all the things in between. I would not want to in anyway want to ridicule religion and I do know that there are mantras to read, gods to be pleased, but would it be too much to update the vows/the way the ceremony is held so that it can mean something to our generation today?
Take the Christian weddings for example. They have a simple ceremony and hey, personal wedding vows! One to one, special promises to each other, which they share in front of their near and dear ones. I think that is really great. If there was one best practice that the Indian wedding could borrow from other weddings, I would vote this as one! We already have the engagement and exchange of rings as a wide spread practice in India now, even though it has no roots in the Hindu religion/wedding history, so why can’t we have some upgrade/personalization of the wedding vows too? What say?