"Train"ing ...

On the way to college yesterday , it struck me that I had not written anything about an integral part of me , the electric train. So what was next? Get my thinking cap on to create a flowery appealing blog that gets the maximum hits ? Nope. Try remembering which train I go in ? Partly yes. Give a brief and personal account of the train journey? Perfectly yes.

It is a general rule of the world that however good or bad the surroundings are, we tend to get used to it after a while. That is exactly what happened to me in the case of the electric train. 30 minutes seems a long time to stand your way to college ? Yeah. But does the train ensure you don't feel the time pass? Yeah!

In my first year of engineering , where I was still getting used to the mode of transport and the long walks into the college campus, the train journeys came as just another tiring bore. Especially with the gauge conversion work on, every other train plying would be full of people - and there would not be any place to stand other than the foot-board.

Time, as they say, changes everything. It changed the tracks from metre gauge to broad gauge - with it came about a change in my view of the electric train journey. My first year in engineering had me familiarize quite a few people who also used the train to reach college.Thankfully when the congestion decreased because of the new tracks , I found a lot more of them - most of them my classmates whom I had not tried to speak to in college.

I would describe the train as a "moving-scenery" - or even a "moving-scenery provider". The train moving itself is a beautiful sight to watch - what is even more beautiful is watching mist on a hill or a grassland, or even vehicles moving in a subway while the train chugs along. It is difficult to observe unless you are a frequent user of the train. (some days into the travel you realise that you consider seeing the surroundings itself as a fulltime job on the train)

Into my fourth year of engineering, sometimes I feel nostalgic about my previous years travelling in the train. Five years down the line I may still be doing that- but who knows if the employee in me would have the time to look around..

B(r)and Aid?

Sitting through advertisements is a big pain - especially when they do not carry anything interesting but the Brand-name and the product/logo. Considering that I watch a lot of cricket, Formula one and tennis - I have got used to the passive-ad phenomenon. Any takers as to what this phenomenon would be like ? Let me explain.

Ever felt the need to keep your eyes open but mind closed immediately after an over ends in Cricket ? Ever realised that you do not remember what ad came up just a second ago? Surely nine out of ten people must be suffering from this syndrome.

In the initial times I had no clue what this weird thingy was all about. Reading about it in the papers made me realise what exactly was this ad-passivity working up to. We have all been witness to a retail revolution ever since India opened up its economy to world players after 1990. As more and more global players fill in the market, there tends to be more advertising and "jostling-for-screen-space" among themselves. Result - a crowded ring where the consumer is the bull surrounded by thousands of tamers. Imagining a situation similar to a "Jallikattu"? It exactly is that.

Although competition tends to enliven the market , such kind of ad-passivity may lead to the creation of a consumer who does not differentiate between products , or simply saying - has a lesser cognitive faculty(was that complicated enough to be simple?).

I offer no solution to this syndrome out here - albeit I can promise that I wouldn't be in neverland the next time a BMW or a Renault speeds down my Sony TV screen !!

First Gear... (stuck!)

The picture I had posted on the inaugural writeup of this blog was taken by me on the Pondicherry-Chennai East Coast Road. And the circumstances that led me onto taking it were pretty interesting to say the least ! A picture-perfect postcard type weather for company , and a packed car travelling on dark gravel for miles at a stretch, seems like the best thing in the world to do? Exactly yes.



It was one of those weekend getaways which the average Indian yearns for- sometime with family, some sightseeing, some "never-before-seen" goodlookers of the opposite gender to see, and not the least of all - good food. Yet something chose to go wrong. Was it my mood? or the "oh-so-necessary-if-not-i'll-die" cellphone? or simply my baby cousin's diaper?



The answer was pretty simple though unexpected - the car's mudguard. Less than halfway from Pondicherry to Chennai there was a near-animal-hit to the car( thankfully the dog managed to escape) . Apparently the mudguard thought this was the apt moment to falter. Ten minutes later the car could not travel beyond the first gear without giving rise to a nerve-racking scrape with dry gravel.



And so the inevitable roadside halt came around hardly five minutes later. (Some intelligent brains in my family suggested coming back to Chennai in first gear itself - 130 km in first gear ???? ) We then set on to repairing the guard with some of our own techniques - including a plan to completely eliminate the mudguard itself. Nothing worked out as well as a rope to tie the hanging mudguard in place - going all through the bonnet and coming out near the front-grill to be tied up in an unprofessional knot.



As this idea was being executed I sat onto a nearby milestone and started thinking of what I may do to kill time until the others tie up the guard. There seemed nothing, absolutely nothing in sight to think about or capture on the camera except the road in all its glory. And so came about that picture - which had me keeping the camera on the sand and crouching to see the view (must have looked funny ) so that I get the output right.



By the time I was done with that snap, the knots were done, even better was the fact that I would not have to travel back 130Km in bullock-cart speed !



A relative quipped - "Sonny, It's time for second gear!!"

Starting Up....

Hello Everybody/Anybody/Somebody ( depending upon how popular this page turns out to be)..

Just as I think about why I have written such a weird salutation to start off this blog with , I wonder why and how I decided to write a blog - I have possibly no answer to both of them. A random thought maybe ? I guess so - that is why this is titled "Random Blurbs". What about "Itinerant" then ? As far as my knowledge of English goes , itinerant means a traveller. We all tend to be travellers , on the huge boat called life which is subject to the "*Conditions Apply" clause as most of the discount-offering adverts(and even recent movies) carry. I'm no more than a traveller who is trying to create a little oasis for himself in life's huge desert.

Being done with the introduction is such a relief I must say - it gives one the right to go ahead with whatever he wishes to write or express. (phew- pretty long sentence!) As a slow but steady hum of music catches up with me out here, I realise there are so many things to write about - so many little deeds that need mention , a multitude of beautiful flowers from which I may have to leave out a few even if i pick as many as my hands can. Maybe the world continues to become bigger in heart - despite technology shrinking it physically.