If you are of Indian origin, chances are that you have heard the song above, probably sung it at one point or other in your life. It was a translation done by Girija Kumar Mathur

We used to sing the English version of this song in school, the real song “We Shall Overcome”  is in English which had become the Anthem of the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

Standing at the Berlin HB station, we were singing this song, and then the reality struck(akin to the light bulb being lit). The song is probably a reflection of the prepetual state of affairs in India…it talks about overcoming the odds someday, it doesn’t mention when…not today, not tomorrow but someday.

Isn’t that the real Indian way? Infrastructure projects going on forever, to be completed someday? Lokpal Bill in process for over 30 years, will be passed someday? India will be corruption free someday…Indians will be empowered someday…

Maybe it gives us hope to not give up…but it also makes the time period abstract…

What are your views?

Its strange, life seems much more balanced, comfortable and easier here…its simply a perfect place to be. Yet, I am counting days to return, to an imperfect country where I’d start cribbing the moment I reach and start comparing it with good ol’ Geneva.

Why? Simple. Its the place I call home, its not perfect…its far from perfect but it still is home. Its the place where most memories and moments of my life have been, its the place where things can change, there is an opportunity to improve and make it perfect. There is so much to do.

Yes, i have met too many Indians living outside India and cursing it. I do not like it, I respect their decision to move out but with the same decision they forfeit their right to be critical of the place. If you cannot be a part of the journey you have no right to talk of its destination.

I know I’d go back home and crib…but its home, imperfect home.

I started reading a couple of months ago, it took me a bit more time than usual owing to work pressures and general lethargy. However, I finished it last night and have already updated http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Joy, my first real Wiki edit.

The book revolves around a slum in Calcutta called Anand Nagar, based on the real life slum known as Pilkhana. Stephen Kovalski is a Polish priest who arrives in India with an aim to embrace the sufferings of his fellow humans. In a parallel story, Hasari Lal, a peasant farmer, arrives in Calcutta with his family in search of a living as monsoons fail year after year leaving his family in abject poverty.

Kovalski evolves as Brother Stephan for the slum dwellers who fight for everyday survival, and he amongst others are a source of good deeds in a harsh and uncaring world. The story talks about the value of human life in a hellhole like Anand Nagar (City of Joy), the mishmash of culture, religion and the horrors of the slum life.

While Kovalski attempts to help his fellow beings, Hasari Lal becomes a rickshaw puller, the human horses who still ply in the streets of this city, in order to earn his daily bread.

The book describes environment in a visually stunning in horrifying way, there were moments where I wept at the torrent of human tragedy. It made it all the more difficult to ignore this because I am a resident of this unforgiving city, and I know that the book has been based on real places and real heroes. But the book is not about tragedy, it is about the human endeavor which survives in the midst of misfortune, its about those people who make the world a better place in-spite of all odds.

Strangely even after 25 years of its being published, the city seems the same wretched place as described. A must read, for peace shall arrive in the end.

‘Misfortune is great, but man is greater than misfortune.’ – Tagore

PS-There is a movie based on the book, but the story seems very different.

As the year draws to an end with plenty of you looking forward to another year of bungled resolutions, I decided to sit back and create a list of my top 10 observations of Social networking behavior.

• Top(and most Hated) Trending topic of the year: #justinbeiber

Yep, this 16 year old singer refused to leave the trending topics for over 6-8 weeks back from April to May. Much to the irritation of people like me who had never heard his music (and still refuse to do so). Thankfully twitter changed their trending topic algorithm, and we got respite from beiber fever!

• Biggest Activism achievements of Indian Tweeple: Ensuring that the world doesn’t forget My Name is Khan, Commonwealth games and Media Mafia

2010 was the year when tweets became an important source of news and gossip for the newspapers and news channels. However, tweeple took things in their own hands by relentlessly pushing for visibility of stories like the Media Mafia (or Nira Radia), CWG and MNIK.

We the tweeple, somehow, represent the intelligentsia!

• Biggest Loser of the year: Orkut

While Facebook went on to become home to 500 million users around the globe, Orkut has been already admitted to the ICU, dying a slow painful death. Our frequent gaffes at #orchutiyas who loved to send the gals a fraandship requests has just reduced the life span of Google social network.

• Most Popular tweep of the year: @shashitharoor

While I’d love to claim the title for myself, but this gentleman was the paycheck Indian newspeople for a good 3-4 months. He was closely contested by one Mr Lalit Modi, well it did cost both of them serious troubles in their jobs. As for me, I was just happy that @shashitharoor once retweeted my tweet

• Silliest Social Networking behaviour of the year: Its a tie between self like and hubby like (will explain below)

Self-Like, the event when the said user posts a message on his/her wall and then goes on to click the Like button herself. Behaviour bordering narcissistic I say!

Hubby-Like, the event when a married/committed/uncommitted/committed-but-publicly-friends users mutually like each other’s wall posts on Facebook. Furthermore, they even chat on the said wall, even if they might be living in the same room or would have been a part of the posted photograph!

• Most complex trending topic of the  year: #eyjafjallajokull

Ah well! The Icy nation shocked the world, and this time it-could-not-be-named threw the airline industry into a spin! Well, i still cannot pronounce it, had to google the spelling as well

• Most common view on my facebook feed in 2010: Relationship updates and the likes!

While the facebook feed resembles a wedding album for a good year now, its this view which is most common on facebook these days. XYZ is married – 5 likes, ABC is in a relationship – 6 likes, GHI is single – 4 likes. No matter what these people did, someone did like the change, and no it doesn’t mean that 4 people who liked the updated single guy status are chicks! No matter what you do, there are people to Like it (specially when Dislike is absent from the social network)

• Biggest Indian twitter achievement of the year: #icionicIndianAds as a trending topic

It happened on the 2nd of February, #icionicIndianAds made it to the top of the trending topics on Twitter. I don’t know how many of you were a part of this frenzy, but i remember blowing upto 3 hours of office time on this trivial pursuit. Needless to say, it was an eventful day which I throughly enjoyed, thanks @dharmeshG! (this was before indian trending topics were introduced)

• Top words on twitter profiles in 2010: photographer, journalist, actor and social media evangelist

The combination of these words my friend, is the holy grail of being popular on twitter. Chances are, that 9 of 10 people on your twitter timeline have one or more of these keywords in their profile. You ain’t a twitterati, if you ain’t got it!

With this I shall end my 2010 list of social networks in India.

If you’d like to follow me on twitter, click on @ankurmehrotra. Hope you have a great new year ahead!

ये है मुंबई शहर. सपनो का शहर. यहाँ सबको जल्दी है. खाने की जल्दी. ऑफिस जाने की जल्दी. पैसे कमाने की जल्दी. जीने की जल्दी. रोज़ यहाँ हजारो लोग आते है अपने सपनो को पूरा करने..

I arrived in Mumbai around 6 months ago, for my job required me to. I had always believed that if one could survive in Mumbai one could survive anywhere. I had been here before, but always as a visitor, an outsider just for short trips. But this time, I was meant to stay here and live the place.

Within a week of my landing here I ended up living in Dadar. Oh yeah! I was living in the townside as a Mumbaikar would say. For them anything ahead of Sion is a part of the suburb! I guess I had well avoided the most stressful activity for any newcomer, of finding a ‘decent’ place to stay, thanks to an old friend.

Like Morgan Freeman once talked of life being institutionalized my life started oscillating between the 8.41 AM Thane Fast from Dadar and the 6.27 PM CST Slow from Thane back home. Within 15 days I was the champion of the Central Line with a good awareness of surviving Western and Harbor too. I could tell you how much time in exact minutes it takes between point A to point B. I could lounge myself or squirrel through crowds to get in the trains. You could quiz me for any station sequence and I’d ace it!

In between work and trains, the endless stream of people and constant acitivity at any time of the day made it so alive…nothing like the sleepy towns I have been to. Between the extremities of lavish homes at Khar and the people living off the city streets I was amazed by the ‘in your face’ nature of life here.

Hundreds of Mani’s Dosas(What! you never been to Mani’s Cafe in Matunga?) and Filter Kapi fueled my mornings enabling me to be a corporate labor each day, with Mani never realizing how he was fueling India’s GDP through an able manager like myself!

Marine Drive and Nariman Point

Our weekends were sprinkled with our Foodie desires and frequent visits to the Marine Drive. That stretch of Queen’s Necklace would continue to be one of the favorite places of the city, almost an oasis of peace in bustling city. It was a part of my first evening here and I hope it shall be a part of my last evening here too.

Did I love the city? Do I want to leave it? These questions keep coming, but I feel they are irrelevant…afterall the choice has been made, my preferences do not matter. But, I do know for sure that this city allows one to dream and pursue them…it is both kind and ruthless to people….Like Sinatra once sang:

“This town is a lonely town…Not the only town like-a this town…This town is a make-you town…Or a break-you-town and bring-you-down town…This town is a quiet town…Or a riot town like this town…This town is a love-you town…and push-you-’roundtown”

I survived Bombay…and I know I can now survive anywhere.

Incidently had crossed German Bakery but just didnt get the time to stop by and grab a bite, it was the perfect western eating joint at KP. A day later, on Saturday 13 February evening, we got the news about the blast at German Bakery.

I was shocked at the news, recalling that I had wanted to visit it. But the real shock came after an hour when we got the news that 4 of my college friends’ were amongst the injured in the blast and that one of them wasn’t traceable.

What followed was an agonizing hour of waiting for any news with networks being jammed his phone was not reachable. Thankfully he was found and had escaped with minor injuries. Thankfully all of them were safe with no severe injuries, but 9 people had already lost lives there!

I for one, had never imagined this could happen to any of us. I never felt that terror could hit people I knew. Had I stayed back in pune for the weekend, I would have been a part of the meetup too!

Maybe we focused too much on the movie release that police couldn’t focus on other things which mattered.

I don’t know the answers, but it has made me realize that this is real…any of these days we could just become a statistic….a casualty. With that our dreams and hopes to make a mark on this world could just end, for no fault of ours, for reasons we cannot comprehend.

Fear wouldn’t solve it, only action would.

3D Artwork at the Kala Ghoda arts Festival

A few months ago, a friend of mine, a Xaverian (hope thats how they are known as) told me not to miss the Kala Ghoda Arts festival. I was less than enthusiastic about it, afterall Mumbai has its fair share of concerts, theatre and art events. What I didn’t realize was that no other event could blend all of this together and cook it into a delicious offering served to you within a few square miles in South Mumbai!

This is the 10th year of Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (or KGAF), it is a week long street festival where visitors can be a part everything for free! I visited the festival area on the first two days, and cannot wait to go back this weekend for more. There is so much happening there that you cannot be bored…concerts, workshops, film festival, plays, photography, street plays, heritage walks…okay thats all I remember.

Handmade accessories at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2010

There there, enough of advertising, I’d just summarize what all I did and missed too! I missed being a part of a literature workshop on getting one’s work published…well, was waitlisted for the workshop, I couldn’t go for the heritage walk, missed the plays as well!

I did go for the Heritage bus ride across South Bombay(Mumbai!) which had a dash of history, architecture, British India and of course heritage. Never knew that Nariman Point and the likes is on reclaimed land, or that VT Terminus was built over 10 years at 16 lakh bucks!

I absolutely loved the photo exhibits right next to Jehangir art gallery and Museum Gallery. �The pictures of Project Dharavi, Blind Photographers, Diti Kotecha and Shekhar Sidaye were absolutely amazing. I wish I could take pictures like that.

The festival has plenty of visual art as you move around in the Kala Ghoda area, the themes are focused on nature, water conversation and education for children. Unfortunately, I did witness extremes right there in the vicinity which took away the true essence of the messages.

I’ll just add up the pictures below, for words cannot describe the atmosphere…the colors and the creativity which flow freely during Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.

Used a bit of my camera's defect for this image

Odd one Out!

Its on till 14th Feb 2010, do visit.

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

As an Indian I am quick to write off a myriad different things about my country, �saying that it won’t work. Today I am writing off our national animal – The Tiger (not to be confused with a�certain�Tiger woods, who has been a real tiger in bed of late!).

With just 1411 of these wild beasts left alive in India (out of the only 3500 left alive around the globe), this may just be the end of the Tiger. Project Tiger was launched back in 1973 in order to conserve these animals; the numbers increased from 1827 to around 3500 in the 90s. However, the number dwindled to 1411 in the last decade.

Save Our Tigers is a campaign to raise awareness and concern about the state of the national animal. Do visit the website and make your pledge.

Honestly I don’t know whether my blogging about tigers could make a difference; for its just a form of opinionated inaction”

As the train draws to a halt, a swarm of screaming people glides in…hurting unsuspecting individuals standing at the door, for they thought that the crowd would allow them to get down first. Its terrifying at times, people can get seriously hurt.

Having lived most of my days in not-so-cluttered environs, I fail to understand why would people risk their lives to reach to their�workplaces in time. Is work that important? Probably, India’s Got Talent could pick a few gymnasts from the mumbai local horde!

Okay, having scared the reader enough of the local train crowd, i’d bring back today evening’s incident which made me feel different about the same people who seem so mad each morning.

On my return journey tonite, the train stopped at Vikhroli…a blind man was trying to find his way on the platform…almost bumping at the pillars or the seats. Every now and then a passerby would guide him…and save him from hurting himself. Every few seconds i felt that he might hurt himself…but someone always was around to help him out…While my train started moving on, a passerby just�held this man’s walking stick and guided him all the way out.

These are the same people I am afraid of each morning in the train; and now I respect them each day too.
Someone was absolutely correct when he wrote:
Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahan. Zara hat ke zara bach ke. Ye hai bombay meri jaan

The Plan: Travel Uttarakhand (or Uttaranchal) in its tourist peak season for 6 days and 5 nights by spending no more than US$ 150

The Travelers: Me and a buddy of mine

How did we do it? Read on this 2 part post on how we did it and what all did we see.

It all began when my buddy told me of his visit to India after a long gap of over 2 years. My mind was racing for a small trip in early June where the two of us…me freshly out of Grad school and he a PhD scholar could manage it all within a small tight budget without neglecting basic comforts.

The plan was to visit places like Nainital (yeah you have to because its so popular!), Kausani (because its secluded and enthralling), Ranikhet (I still wonder why!), Almora (deserves more respect than it gets) and Binsar (could we?). �Now with the objective places decided we had two options..either to visit Nainital first and book those quick and fast tours to visit all these or do things at our own pace. We chose the latter.

We started from Lucknow to Lal Kuan in Nainital Express, from Lal Kuan we decided to goto Almora because that was a much more central location to other places like Ranikhet and Kausani. From Lal Kuan we went to the Haldwani bus station, which allowed us to board a KMOU (Kumaon Motor Owners Union) bus to Almora at INR 78.

At Almora we were greeted we stayed at Hotel Shikhar which provided us with a room at INR 500 a night. The first evening at Almora greeted us with rains which restricted our movement to only Naina Devi temple there. However, we did walk around the Mall road and also discovered an excellent cafe in the streets of Lal Bazaar.

Next morning the rains were back after a few hours of Sun, but this time we decided not to stay within the confines of our room. So we ventured out and decided to visit Jageshwar Temples. Now the first problem propped up, there was only one KMOU bus to Jageshwar at 12 noon and the other option was to pay upto INR 800 bucks at book a taxi to this place around 35 kilometers from Almora. We instead opted for a bus to Pitohragarh and get down at Atula which is around 3 kilometers from Jageshwar. What happened next was a true local bus trip with little place to stand or even breathe.�

At Atula the rain Gods decided to greet us with lighter drizzle and plenty of icy breeze…we trekked to Jageshwar temples on foot and enjoyed the mystic beauty of the Pine forest around us. The Jageshwar temples are of both historical and religious significance, a trip to Almora is deemed incomplete if you don’t visit them.

We returned to Almora through a regular Jeep, the last of one the day at around 3.15 pm. One key learning in Kumaon was that most of the public transport between points across towns would stop by the time it shall be 5 pm.

Next morning we visited Ranikhet, that was pretty easy to do by passenger Jeeps from Almora which drop you at Ranikhet within 2 hours at around INR 50 per person.

Ranikhet was much of a disappointment though. However, we did enjoy a trek of almost 12 kilometers to Jhula Devi temple and Chaubattia. On our return to Almora, the clear weather helped us to see the snow capped mountain himalayan mountain range including Nanda Devi peak from the naked eye.

Must visit places around Almora and Ranikhet: Chaubattia, Jageshwar, Naina Devi Temple, Kalika Temple

Check out for the second part of the series…