Glorious Indecision » my li’l life

Journey to the end of the world……

ushakutti — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:50:22 +0000

I’ve just returned from a long eventful voyage to one end of the world* – a trip that kept me at sea for 63 days, got me some new friends and gave me the chance to experience a lot of things for the first time.

It feels like a criminal waste not to write about it. And if I did write about it, it would be worse, because I can’t write about all of it. After much deliberation, i have decided to get a typing.

I’ll be writing about the voyage in several posts – highlighting the best and worst experiences. To make things interesting, each post will focus of one of the human senses – i’ll try and describe how each sense was stimulated. So, watch this page.

* I was part of the Third Indian Expedition to the Southern (Antarctic) Ocean which sailed from Mauritius to the Antarctic Continental Shelf and then back to India between February & April, 2009.

Sea, Rain and lights in the water

ushakutti — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:57:02 +0000

If you’ve spent 10 minutes with me, you know i’m clumsy. After being embarassed about it all my life, i have finally made peace with my clumsiness. You see, i’ve found out that i’m only clumsy on land! Put me on a ship in the arabian sea, during the southwest monsoon, and apparently, i can stay up and about without feeling sick or throwing up or tripping and falling or dropping things or spilling coffee.

Yep, i’m back from my 3 day cruise which was cut short to 2, due to various reasons. Mostly, it was amazing. Here are some of the amazing things

- How rough the sea was…. to pitch and roll like that, no one can tell you how it feels..

- I did not get seasick!! I ate well, slept well and was up and about the whole time. :) Hope i don’t get sick in the future.

- The dolphins (self explanatory)

- Biolumenesence* takes your breath away. Some 20 miles off kochi, we encountered an algal bloom. Although it was night (2100 hrs), it was hard to miss the bloom, seeing as it was emitting an electric blue light of its own. The bloom was patchy – brilliant in places but dull in others…. but as it was, it took us more than 2 hours to get past it. In other words, freakin’ huge! Standin on the deck watchin the billiant blue ripples under a star lit sky, this is what i was humming:

The more you see the less you know
The less you find out as you go
I knew much more then than I do now

Neon heart day-glow eyes
A city lit by fireflies
They’re advertising in the skies
For people like us

- from City of blinding lights by U2

* The phenomenon of emission of light by living organisms.

I, Marine Biologist

ushakutti — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:20:08 +0000

Back when i was an aggressive idealist (i was in high school then), i decided to “blaze my own trail in life”. So, instead of taking up engineering, which was what was expected of me, i enrolled in college to study zoology. Five years, many many lemons and gallons of lemon juice later, I passed out of University with a Masters Degree in Marine Biology. This was last month. More lemons followed. Then, last week, I was appointed Junior Research Fellow at the Center for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE), Kochi (under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India). What this means is that I am an underpaid Indian scientist. A Marine Biologist, to be precise. I try to stop smiling about it, but fail miserably.

My work is expected to involve spending time on board a research vessel (FORV Sagar Sampada) and in laboratories, studying various living things (NOT just fish) from the ocean deapths.

I’ll admit that I’ve spent my first week of work doing absolutely nothing. I expect that to change next week, when I embark on my cruise on board Sampada. We cast off on Monday and i know i’ll probably spend a lot of time being sick, but i’m really looking forward to sailing! Yippie!!

Sipping Lemon Juice, singing One hand in my Pocket, smiling.

psychoactive addictive stimulant of choice – filter kaapi

ushakutti — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:09:00 +0000

I love coffee. I am addicted to coffee. On a normal day, i drink upwards of 5 steaming cups. But do not misunderstand me. I am not one of those people – who frequents cafes* and believes that if one goes to a cafe often enough and orders every type of coffee on the menu, one will eventually find a favourite.

Remember Joe Fox’s line from You’ve got mail?

The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don’t know what the hell they’re doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.

Being born into a tamil brahmin family in Kochi, South India, this “defining” choice was made for me at birth and I probably started drinking south indian filter kaapi at the age of 2 or 3. Thats right folks, i was hooked to a psychoactive stimulant drug at a very, very young age. It probably explain a lot……. anyway……..

I was very surprised recently, when friends in kerala didn’t know what a coffee filter was! For, in my family, making kaapi is a day-to-day ritual**. (Especially with my grandmum who gets really offended if you walk into the house around 4 in the afternoon and dont go straight to the kitchen looking for your kaapi).

It is my personal opinion that if there is a heaven, its probably coffee brown in colour, smells like freshly roasted and ground coffee. And everyone only drinks filter kaapi, of course.

(Singing the beatles tune – Kaapi in the Sky with Murukku).

_________________________________________
* – Yes, I do visit coffee houses and cafes, but never for their coffee. (I’m sorry – not a fan of ridiculously expensive but equally ridiculously insipid coffee). I always go for the company. Never for the coffee. NEVER.

**-Recipe for Perfection:
We buy freshly roasted and ground coffee poweder (with ZERO percent chickory – i HATE chickory) and prepare decoction using a filter. The filter is usually made of stainless steel and looks like this (these are my grandmum’s):

The scientist in me is itching to explain the workings of this apparatus, so here goes:
The coffee powder (around 3 spoons full) is added to the upper perforated cup of the filter apparatus (which rests on the lower cup). The plunger is places on it gently and then boiling water is added over it. The whole setup is allowed to stand while the piping hot water percolates – slowly and solely by the action of gravity – through the coffee powder. The decoction collects in the bottom cup in about 20 minutes. The decoction is mixed with milk and sugar.
Result – Heaven in a Cup.

the breeze from my childhood

ushakutti — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:31:00 +0000

theres a breeze that blows around here. you can feel it when you stand at the beach in fortkochi, just after the sun has set. its not chilly, its not warm. its not too gentle and not too strong. for me, its just right. it brings with it the sweet smell of the sea and the faint spray of the surf. bearing the smell of salted peanuts, roasted in sand. of old and mighty manila tamarinds.

the same breeze blew here in my childhood. it makes me touch my knee, instinctively. reaching for the place i’d scraped it again. but my knee is free from scars. i dont fall down so much anymore. i get flashing images of hours, long gone, that we spent playing in the sand and surf. making beleive, making fun, making memories. memories that would never go neglected, as long as i can feel this breeze.

the breeze that blew on me this evening was that same breeze from my childhood. as long as this breeze blows, my home this shall be.

the (little) man in my life

ushakutti — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:44:00 +0000

This is a post that i’d have happily written without being asked to. But the truth is, i’m writing it on request.

The most important men in a girls life are always members of her family. I have plenty of those. But the man i’m writing about is the one man in my life that i’sn’t technically “family”. Let me tell you about him….

I was on my way back home the other day – tired & hungry. When my phone rang , i thought it might be gaya3 wanting to swap daily woes. or maybe it was new and proud aunt chips, wanting to brag about her niece’s amazing ability to sleep, burp and mewl. but it was someone else and i was already smiling before i picked up.

i’m talking about raghav. whom i’ve known all HIS life. :P the guy who’d regularly take his favourite people on overnight trips to pluto. okay…… so sometimes he took us to saturn and neptune too. the guy whos tiny hand i once jammed, simultaneously, in TWO car doors. who used to turn PINK when he cried (when he was a BABY, of course)…. and who’s face now turns pink for other reasons.

after attending his call that day, i caught up with him. and he said “why do you write about usless things like RAIN in your blog…….. you should arite about better things………..”
at this point, i asked him “will it make you feel better if i wrote about you?”
and he told me, very earnestly, that he DID want me to write him. and so, here it is.

if i think about it, raghav’s probably the reason i love babies so much. for, at the age of 5, i came to observe baby raghav closely and i learnt that babies are very easy to amuse, very easy to annoy and very very easy to fool. :P

i could go on and on about that bum, and reveal loads of compromising secrets from his life. but i wont… not for any righteous resons … but because he knows too many of MY compromising secrets :P

(Obviously) for raghav. with much love :)

Rama Navami & Vishu

ushakutti — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:40:00 +0000

The Tamil Brahmin Community of Mattancherry (in west kochi) celeberates Sree Rama Navami with much fervour every year. When i looked around for information, i learnt that these celeberations have been held in the same location for 85 years now and that Navami is celeberated with such pomp in very few places in Kerala.

Click here for a write up in THE HINDU, from a few years ago, about the celeberations

Thats nine days of unchivrithi, bhajanai and kacheris – a music lover’s treat.
[What i look forward to, however, is the yummy morsel of prasaadam we recieve after the nightly deeparadanai - chundal, chakkara pongal, kesari, avil ...... and so forth. oh, and of course sadhi on navami and the day after - anjeneyolsavam.]

Navami this year falls on 14th April, which is also the day people all over kerala celeberate as Vishu. Both grand celeberations, which you cant exactly miss out on, if you live where i do.

So, in the time that i’m supposed to be preparing for my final semster exams, i spend my time at the Navami Celeberations or blogging about said celeberations. Oh, well……

HAPPY VISHU, EVERYONE!

It’s a hard life……

ushakutti — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:21:00 +0000

If you’re reading this, theres a 50% chance that you are a software engineer or a management blah-blah.

If you are neither, i love you, i just want you to know that. Also, if you are neither – theres a 100% chance that you know a software engineer or a management blah-blah. This means that you have on more than one occasion sat at a table and nodded along to a conversation invloving the “policies of XYZ Bank”, “Priority Accounts” and of course how they’re aaalll screwing you for your money. All the while you’re wondering what these “policies” and “accounts” are.

It’s terribly sad to watch an IT guy sit with you, his pocket full of cash, and crib about his job. Theres two reasons for that:
1. The IT guy is a nice guy. He deserves to have his pocket full AND be happy with his job.
2. He doesn’t deserve to crib about anything. Coz the truth is, he probably wouldn’t survive a single week if he were, say, a scientist.

The thing about being a scientist is, your have no money and therefore no “Priority Account”. You can sleep sound at night knowing that no one is screwing you for your money. The other thing about being a scientist is, under the right circumstances, you can play around with a lot of cutting edge equipment. LITERALLY, play around with it. You learn to laugh, wait patiently and most importantly make the most of what you have.

On a public holiday, when theres no place in a 2 Kilometer radius that serves (affordable) lunch, someone with a “Priority Account” will order a meal from someplace – causing a minor dent in their aforementioned account. A scientist, meanwhile, has already planned for a rainy day such as this. He whips out his bag of rice, cooks it on nothing more than an electric coil on a lab work-bench and orders curry out. What he ends up with is a delicious feast of adee-pidicha choru, sambar, meen-currie, kakka-fry, thairu and achar – all shared over fits of laughter with friends.

Which meal do you prefer?

This one is for scientists and soldiers.

When it rains, it pours……

ushakutti — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:28:00 +0000

Temperatures have been rising around here for a while. No surprises……
But boy was I in for one on friday morning. I woke up on the first of Meena maasam (considered the hottest month of the year) to an unbridled downpour. Felt like it was june already.

Anyway, I rushed over to campus, since we were hosting a National Seminar that day. took this snap in a hurry, on my way in.

Didn’t turn out so badly…….. :)

I remember, the place pretty much looked like this the first time I walked into those gates. that was almost two years ago. I wasn’t sure what exactly I was doing with my life back then. I still don’t have a clue, mind you. But at least life’s fun now. And when people ask me “what i’m doing with my life” i’ve learnt to bullshit my way through the conversation and then deftly change the topic.

Half baked entries and vicious cycles

ushakutti — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:58:00 +0000

Haven’t posted anything for a while. this is not for the lack of topics or ideas. but the lack of motivation and energy to develop them into interesting blog entries. And so, i have 3 half-done entries lying in my “drafts” folder. hey, theres three of them….. at least they wont be lonely.. (?)…

anyway, what’s on my mind at the moment is this:
WHY IS IT that you suddenly fall in love with things, places and people when you realize that you’ll soon part from them?
It’s such a depressing cycle……… it takes forever for you to warm up to something. and by the time you do, it gets taken away from you. that space gets filled by something else…….. and again, you take forever to warm up to it.
i hate this cycle. HATE IT!

not everyone goes through this cycle, i suppose… maybe its just me?

those other people who are all warmed up from the get-go – how happy they must be…. how lucky they are……i hope they know…

currently listening to Mukesh. (KAHIN DOOR from the movie ANAND)