The Tin Soldiers

Anthropology or ethnology are not my specialist areas, but would like to share an observation. Please correct me if I am wrong.

It was one of those rarely sun-lit mornings in Manchester, a United Kingdom city, I took one of my regular buses - available in plenty – to the Oxford Road train station which would further take me to my workplace. It is usually a nice journey with lots of college students in their prime jogging and bouncing around. For office goers like me perhaps it is a regular one. To break or maybe spice this transit, for momentary population like us, there are a few morning newspapers, mostly available for free. They would run on either subsidies or sponsorships, or both. It was another regular day and I bought a rather more expensive newspaper for a change - don’t remember whether it was ‘The Guardian’ or ‘The Times’.

It was year 2006 then, and the Iraq war issue was at its peak, and requests and noises, one may also say ‘hopes’, to bring their troops back home pretty high in the whole Island nation that time. Reading gives you more clarity, and this article hidden somewhere amongst many did so, for it gave some numbers in form of statistics. That about 1K of the soldiers deputed are in Iraq. About 10K sporadically distributed for the UN all over the world, and 60K still in Germany after the world war two.

The sun's shine had brightened; unusual for that day.

A german friend, later, in my office tells me, “Yes, I have heardh so tuh, zey are stationed close to my villaze” “and now with, some time haz passe by, zey are up line to be cithizen. One of zem officer told me he juszent feelz brizish anymore afzer living for zo long in the zerman zoil."

Parallels Must Be Related

The above title is the title of a chapter in Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday (first published 1954), a continuation to the Cannery Row (1945); also pointed to as life then in the towns of ‘Monterey’ and ‘Cannery Row’ in California.

In Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, I make a parallel observation, hoping for another parallel, from this chapter 13 of this novel. I hope, the characters - ‘Doc’ and ‘Wide Ida’ are the same kinds we think of in our own perceptions. In verbatim, I re-write here:

As the dawn crept over the bay he decided to go for a very long walk, perhaps to follow the shoreline all the way around to Carmel. He arose, and since it was still dusky in the laboratory he turned on the lights to make his coffee.

Wide Ida, from the entrance of La Ida, saw his lights come on. She put an unlabeled pint bottle of brown liquor in a paper bag and crossed the street to Western Biological.

“Doc,” she said, “would you work this stuff over?”

“What is it?”

“They say it’s whisky. I just want to know if it’ll kill anybody. I got a pretty good buy. They make it up in Pine Canyon.”

“That’s against the law,” said Doc.

“Killing people is against the law too,” said Wide Ida.

Doc was torn between bootlegging and murder. He thought sadly that he was always involved in something like this-not good or bad but bad and less bad. He made a fairly quick analysis. “It’s not poison,” he said, “but it won’t build good healthy stomachs. There’s some fusel oil in it. But I guess it’s no worse than Old Tennis Shoes.”

CEPT-Tea

Ordering a chai with an archietecture faculty in a CEPT canteen window- the guru- tea-ches:

• Casual-tea: The regular tea available for students, or anyone
• Facul-tea: Special tea kept out-of-sight in a special tumbler for teachers
• Novel-tea: Goes to special cabins

Humorosity and Ahmedabad city apart, I am left with no words, except to ask if hones-tea or casual-tea have availability.

In mixed spirits

My last post would have confused many, I know, for it has. For explanation purposes, it basically is an amalgamation of two separate times and spaces i.e. places - Missisipi and Apdu Amdavad.

A man, lays on his back, on a cool polished stone surface in the city called Amdavad, a dry place, reads the classic Adventures of Huckleberry Fin , by Mark Twain, and at the same time is listening to Bob ji’s Missisipi. The song, which was available for free until now in youtube, is off its air. (Amazon sample here)

Don’t worry freedom hunters - what comes goes, and what goes comes. Cheers to the spirit.

From spirit I realize - The Gujarat State's Disazter Menagment Authority recently launched a book with the inaugural hands of India’s Respected Ex - President Mr. Abul Kalaam - a Cofee table book called – “Spirit of Gujarat – Turning …”

Hic!

Yes, you get it if you mix coffee and spirit, together.

My a-tale of two places

“Hey, Tom! Thanks, only because of you I could manage’ to fish Jim out.”

“Sure, tha’s what the childhood friends are for.”

“Do ya ‘member, we used to have a little robbers gang too then? What did we call it?”

Tom says, “Oh how kud you fur-ge’ it Huck, it never…”.

Jigar, a third friend in the room, interrupts the conversation, “hey, why don’t you buy the book from cross words… somewhere in it it does mentions it was called Tom Sawyer’s Gang”.

An old guy, with a hat, named Bob, steps in the room, looks at all three of them. They stop chatting. Bob looks at each one of them - one by one- and then smiles; says, “Well, only that we are village boys and still haven’t learn to play city games, strange games.”

“But Bob, you are the one who says, that only one thing you did wrong, was that you stayed in Missisipi for a day too long.”

Bob replies, “Huh! Life is usually elsewhere Jiggy. State of mind Jiggy.”

Teach your doggie well

Banjo is more like a child to me, and I have consciously tried to keep him as a freedom dog (which he usually abuses) and instill values in him rather than train him hardcore. You know what I mean - he will fetch your watch, purse or TV remote if you ask him to; has obsession with retrieving tennis balls, or for that matter any ball of any other type too. He is not chained usually. Nine months old, I hope he doesn’t turns out a brat.



This song above in YouTube is one of my favorite pieces, which I feel is because of the band’s genuineness in making a good song out of what they know is important. I am purty glad, the Wikipedia link is also a good place to understand the basis of the song. Greatness uncomparable, the next YouTube thing is more of a slimy but true thing. Because I have made it, just a parody, means some lyrics have to change too - just for the sake of some light hearted fun.


Author’s caution: Any attempt to seriousize this latter video is a misinterpretation, and cannot be helped.

You, who are on the road
Must have a Dog
that you can bite.
so, please bark on yourself
Because the guests
are just a goodbye.

Teach, your doggie well
Their master’s hell
will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they will pick
The one in which they will bite.
Don't you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.

And you Of tender years
Won’t know the fears
That your masters grew by
And so help them with your youth
They seek the truth
Before they can die

Teach your parents well
Their children’s hell
Will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick's
The one you’ll know by.

Don’t you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.

Watching TV and Chillen in schools

In India, known as a plural society, as a family we would sit together and watch television. The digital packages now provide around twenty or twenty-five news channels in English or Hindi; discounting the regional lingo ones. The English and Hindi ones are the ones I would understand, along with most of the billion people in the subcontinent. A fifty-fifty ratio these, if I talk of the English one on the morning of the 10th of April 2010, Anderson 360 on CNN News fabulously (here) and concernedly reported on how suicides in schools because of the increased pressures to either perform or bullying is a concern. Anderson is concerned. And this side of globe while we get concerned too, the news after a point does not makes much sense; perhaps because we can contribute nothing. To get to see something nicer now we will flick the channels. Two flicks and we find the CNN-IBN, which is an Indian and a CNN collaborative. IBN is reporting of school children tortured and beaten on wrist-slashed by the school teacher, somewhere in a remote village of the country.

While both the TV channels rightly highlight this issue while spoiling our taste from the news we see and hear, we some in the family, look at each others faces, silently, with our eyes wondering what difference does it makes – India or America, we as adults probably just need to be easy on chillen, wherever we come from – Rural remote or Urban high class.