three pepper spaghetti

documentation

Life, the universe, and everything else in Bengaluru

0320 hrs in sodium lit Koramangala on the 13th day of the 6th month of the 2009th year. Life is still... Bittersweet Symphony in the background, the fluorescent lit tiny room - reminder of the hostel life at NITT. It never struck me until yesterday, that my room in this 2 bedroom house was so similar to my room back in hostel, until somebody pointed it out. Almost similar size, but of course, more luxurious, at the same time packed with stuff. The amount of things you accumulate within a year is qutie enormous. Hopefully, since I am moving out of the city, I just might be able to get rid of some of the untouched belongings. One always seem to be accumulating a lot of "things" which seem to be inevitable to daily life, but you just wouldn't have used it at all in the last one year. Everytime you clean the room, you just can't let yourself to throw those dusty old "things". At the back of your head, you will be thinking, "this might just come in handy for something on THAT day."

I suppose the title I have given to this piece does not make any sense, or have any relation to what is been written. Well, sometimes, such a step is necessary. In this world ruled by the "fine print" and the "conditions apply", one can do what they want and get away with it. I mean, how many of those enterpreneurs know what the "conditions" are any ways? And does anybody ever bother to find out? Everybody just assumes that the conditions are there, and if they say you can't do this, it means you can't do it, and just blindly accept the fact that it is the condition. Conditions apply has become such a cliche that for everything and anything you have a "conditions apply" included at the bottom, that too in fine print. You go out today to get a simple telephone connection, and then they hand over a 4 page document out to you, which is printed in a text, size of which is possibly the smallest the printer could print without smudging it, and you just browse the pages, just to be satisfied that you atleast know how many pages it was, and at the end, you agree to all the above and sign it. I mean, for all you know, airtel could be by now the owner of all the intellectual property of their 1 million customers. How do you even guarantee that you haven't by now written off all your worldy and intellectual possessions to the banks, and other capitalist organizations?

CONDITIONS APPLY - somebody should take it to court sometime, and get a clarity or ban on the extensive usage of this term by all organizations and individuals. "Congratulations, you have won one lakh rupees from every store you see on your way to work." But "CONDITIONS APPLY". End of the day, you have nothing in hand. Maybe we should all start telling the credit card companies and the financial organizations that term after we take a loan from them. If they call for re-payment, "CONDITIONS APPLY" - why can't it work both way? It has to work both ways. One has to make it work both ways.

Hmmmm.. I guess its enough of venting out the held up conditions.Now to get onto the everything else in Bengaluru. The weather has improved greatly, but still doesn't match the good old weather of the once green city. The government in this city has suicidal tendencies. They have an allergy to the age old healthy trees. Now I think the trees are committing suicide. With every rain, they try their very best to get back at the human race. For chopping the fellow brotherhood, they have decided to fall on people and/or their property and cause significant damange. Little do the people realize that it is the protest of the trees. What happened to the environmentalists when they made the once well shaded and cool CMH road into a bald dusty desert? Was it absolutely necessary to wipe out the entire road so well? Anyways, its not so far ahead that we see a ghost town being formed. Maybe the time will come when they will have to start giving saplings for every idli wada you pick up. Maybe the suicide bombers are more concerned about the environment. Atleast they are only reducing the population and cleaning up concrete garbage. Thankfully, they all spare the wildlife and the trees. The lack of trees in the city - suddenly I have a new theory related to it. This probably explains why the auto rickshaws in the city have suddenly become a lot louder than in the previous years. All this while I thought they have a hereditary grudge against the institution of silencers. But now, I think it is mostly because, there are no green matter on the roads to absorb the excess noise. These days, when people honk, its not irritating, but when an auto accelerates gradually and so slowly beside you, either you overtake it or go head to the nearest hearing impaired clinic.

We have entered into the 21st century now. But people seem to want to still live in re-creations of the paleolithic era. Everybody wants the macbook and the iphone, but when it comes to their house, they all want to build tipu sultan's palace, exactly as it is brick by brick. They want a Louis XVI sofa made to fit the new age tiny classical apartment in some far off corner of the city. When are the people of this country going to come out of the 18th century? And the answer would be "GOOD QUESTION".

0402hrs.. same day.. I think I am done with this one. Hopefully, things might change when the sun rises. THE END for the moment...