Judgmental opinions

The family tree is ready. I contact some people sharing my surname on orkut, names that aren't already on the tree. I expect - a. no replies, b. enthusiastic reply, c. replies, but with suspicion, not giving full details of self and family. What I don't expect, and get are calls from some of them. They call up Dad at home and speak like long lost friends and invite themselves to Goa for a few days! So much for a family. Makes me wonder, is my family made of opportunists wanting to unload themselves on others ?

On friends (again): I speak to people around me whose catorie of friends appear larger than mine. I chose three people to speak to, on first meet first speak basis. Q: Make a list of twenty people whom you consider friends on orkut-like classification - good, very good and best friend. People no. 1 - List of twenty include ten who are working at the same place that he does. Six are family and four are people whom he knew some time back, but has not been in contact for some time. People no. 2 - List of twenty include hundred percent related to present working place - colleagues, subordinates, seniors. People no. 3 - List of twenty includes twelve connected with work - customers mainly, three relatives and five old college mates but presently working in the same business. I compare the list with my friend list - friends whom I meet or talk to so rarely, yet I do meet or talk to them. At least three are my childhood friends from Ribandar, at least two are my classmates from Ponda, at leas...

I was called for a high profile three day camp to make a presentation to students of the tenth standard. It was more of a workshop with students from all over the state selected for participation. My session was the first - after the inauguration. The topic - Protection and Preservation of Wildlife in Goa. When I reached there, the keynote address by a prominent conservationist was on. He was stressing on the need for children to "intermingle" with nature, visit all the wildlife sanctuaries in the state. My session finally began. I was to speak for one hour with one hour for questions and answers. My audience were teachers from various schools and around sixty students - equal no. of boys and girls. There was no OHP or LCD projector or Slide projector, so I had a white board with marker to help me. Casually, I asked the students to name any of the wild animals of the state. As there was a puzzled look, I rephrased my question - name any ten wild animals of the state of Goa wh...

How many friends does a man need? (Somewhat on the lines of "How much land does a man need?). A criticism by a acquaintance (have I spelt that right?) - that I don't have any friends at all. I see my work colleagues having get-togethers often, and I am the only person not invited. On the net, I check my orkut a/c and find all "friends" visit the site more often... meet more often, chat more often (on the net, oddly)... Well. I thought for some time and could think of no response. Who is there to help you in your time of need? - he prodded on. How many people can you think of who would leave everything and coming rushing to you when you need help? - he added. I could think of none. Yet... who all do I know at all? would I really need somebody to rush to me to help? would i rush to help somebody (conversely) ? Well... I thought of how many people have I spoken to in the last one month? Apart from the people I meet routinely for work? Let me list that. 1. My childhood (...

Roasted cashew nuts (the smell of them) Fresh rain on earth (the smell of it) Fresh mail (the feel of it) New books (the anticipation of reading it) SMSes and Mails (from the toothless traveller) These are a few of my favourite things.

A day in the life of a Ranger And yesterday tops it all. Was going to attend a hunting case filed in the court at Sanguem, when I got a call on the cell that two wild Indian Bison have fallen in a well in a farm. The well, about five metres deep and almost ten metres square with dense bushes all round and invisible from a distance, had about two metres deep water (we measured it later). Th etwo Indian Bisons or Gaur had merely stepped into the vegetation and fallen into the water. We got the bushes cleared and go to work. Staff from nearby ranges were summoned. You might be wondering, how does one get a Gaur out of a well. In fact two of them. They are almost a ton in weight! The best way to get them out is by digging. Digging? Yes, digging. Digging the edge of the well and dumping all the soil inside. A very tedious affair indeed. At the same time, consider that the Gaur in the well are in two metres deep water and have been keeping afloat by swimming for hours! So digging we did. The...

Got to test drive a new Tata Safari Crew Cab 4WD vehicle in the jungle. Went to sunset point and mystic points. Here's a report. Test drive on the "new" Four-wheel drive crew cab from Tata:The vehicle: Looks - Tata mobile crew cab; but it isn't a Tata mobile 207.It's their new "adventure" model crew cab in the "commercial motor vehicle" segment (they have an independent "car" segment of which Tata Safari is included).The cost: Upwards of 8 lakhsThe interiors: Very plastic Tata mobile-like. But with A/c.Plus points: Four wheel drive engaging "knob" with for 2-wheel, 4-wheel low and 4-wheel high.The test zone:High rainfall evergreen forest with dirt track upto 30 degree elevation on stretch from MSL to 600 m above MSL over 12 km length.Time taken: Roughly 3 hours to and fro.Comparison: This road had been negotiated with a Mahindra Bolero 4WD so that was a standard on which present drive is compared.The drive:The vehicle is hea...

I went to Shimoga the day before yesterday. On a jeep. Office work. Got to drive all round the district. Went to Sagar, from there to Ulvi, and Shiralkoppa. A small malgudi-isk town. Thirty km from the town is a village - Chikmaghadi. Thirty km of kutcha road with as many potholes as the moon. Through lush green fields and distant hillocks, breathing pure oxygen. Cattle on the road. Villagers stopping their work in the fields watching us pass. Chikmaghadi has around fifty mud houses cluttered together - why do villages have houses cluttered together when they have such vast expanses of space around them? Met the village Patel, who has the only concrete house in the village and a tractor in the garage. Am offered tea thick with milk and sugar in tiny steel tumblers encased in a wide mouthed short steel tumbler in typical karnataka style. Make small talk, they nodding to my hindi understanding nothing, and me nodding to their kannada understanding nothing. Local Forest Guard and Forester...

I had a visitor the day before yesterday. He stayed the night in the rest house close by. In the morning he is all excited. He is excited because he heard the frogs croaking all night! He lives in the city and apart from the traffic and the occassional dog fights, he has heard nothing else. In fact, I assure him, what you heard are three different species of frogs croaking. I sleep to that cacophony every night in the rains and curse the frogs for invading my sleep. But then when I reflected on what the visitor said, I thanked my stars for making me so lucky. The frogs assure that I can sleep without mosquito nets and mosquito repellants. I don't worry of the electricity shut downs. I can get a good nights sleep without electricty on summer nights or rainy nights. The cicadas bother me in the summer; but now I will be thankful for that too. And I am thankful for the clean air, I am thankful for the tiny honey bees that pester me round my ears in the winter, I am thankful for the bl...

The other day I killed a pig. A tiny little black and white domestic pig. It ran across the road and hit the front wheel of my bike and made my bike and me eat dust. When I opened my eyes, I saw the pig lying down beside me. Damages included the pig, a broken headlamp cover, bent fender of bike, torn jeans at the knee, torn shirt at the elbow, a few more scratches on the bike, rider and his ego. Later in the evening when I passed the same road, I thought I caught a whiff of sorpotel cooking.

I did't know posting a blog was so difficult. Words fail me when I sit to write. whew...