Railway booking

Had to sit for about an hour to cancel a ticket. Jayanagar booking office had my favourite 'multiple servers single queue' model. No stress of always finding the other queue moving faster and a truly first come first served model. They have chairs to sit and you keep shifting which seemed ungainly initially, but left me thoroughly appreciative by the end of the hour. I couldnt understand the logic behind the pooh bear and mickey mouse stickers adorning the walls. Even some plain vanilla print-outs about the Indian Railway, some impressive numbers and factoids would have been better.

"No chance", was the repeated answer the booking clerk gave to a lady who started off with the 20th and kept going up to the 25th for the date of journey. It is a bit surprising that we made a muddle of something so busy and were running the risk of bankruptcy. I hope Lalu turns his attention next to the horrible Railway stations. If he fixes that, he could definitely give a run for the low cost air carriers' money.

Ryder cup

US has lost the cup again.

Near my office there is a golf course. I see a surprisingly younger crowd there sometimes in the morning or afternoon when I walk past, looking rater wistfully, I should add. Whatever happened to the middle aged men with pot bellies and bald heads?
The other unexpected sight is the group of women labourers in multi colored saris fixing the grass.

I read PG Wodehouse - Golf stories. I still laugh out loud despite reading for the umpteenth time whatever yarn the Old Sage spins.

Reading the mind

Very interesting read. At some point we would be able to replace any body part seemlessly without any degradation of service. Nothing could highlight our understanding of the working of the human body better [sans the brain of course]
I should worry more about a head injury I guess than getting 'locked in'.

So lets see what else do I need to be immortal now - I have my DNA, I need a memory download and upload and maybe the Mind-Algorithm specific to my DNA I guess.

Abuse

I was following a thread in which a man talked about the physical abuse he had experienced at school in a website related to the school. He basically outlined the kind of experience he had had with deep felt emotion and took a stand that the system that condoned this kind of behaviour still might exist and it ought to be brought to light and fixed. Seemed like a no brainer to me. Guess what? The network jumped down his throat - condescension, dismissal and the great - it made me a better man replies abound.

The intriguing aspect to his posting was that it is a military school. It is a rather ironic twist in my opinion to actually expect anything better from an establishment whose main intention is to develop and reward unquestioned loyalty, submission to superiors and aggression.

There is a beautiful dialogue in 'The seige' where Major Devereaux says "Our military is not trained to police a civilian population". Unfortunately nobody asks him why.

funeral rites

Was steeped to the neck in hindu funeral rites. I found the underlying logic in the elaborate rituals intriguing. For example, in one ritual everything is done in the reverse and it is followed diligently. If you usually go from right to left, in this you go from left to right. If you usually serve food one way, in this you do it the other way. Then there is a million little strict rules on how the 'darbai' has to be held, how it has to be swiped in the ghee so many times, how the food has to be cooked etc. Very complicated, sophisticated and intricate. It must have been embellished over the generations.

I also observed how everyone has a role to play. When the man dies, needless to say in the patriarchal society its the son who is important. But other stakeholders like the daughters, the wife's brothers, the deceased's brothers and cousins all have a role, I noticed with surprise. Its to safeguard the property no doubt, I thought cynically. And that includes the women.