Daughter & father-Bond between

This has been the month of re-runs; had repeat watch of pasanga, tamil padam and abhium naanum. The last mentioned tamil film touches the bond shared between a father played by prakash raj and his daughter played by trisha. The film is simple in plot but portrays the emotions beautifully; an affectionate father (would seem over affectionate) a confident daughter who chooses her life partner on her own, marraige and eventually moving away from her father's place. This scenario is not out of place in normal indian households (of course there exists option between love and arranged marriage). This is prakash raj's second film as a possessive father (santosh subramanyam) and I have become his fan since gilli, mozhi, velli theeray etc.

The relationship between daugher and her father may be taken as granted but given the concept of settling at husband's place, the wedding day shatters the grantedness. More painful is the day when girl's parents bid her adieu at the railway platform/airport/bus-stand after leaving her at her hubby's place. And this I realised when I came to know about my fil crying after boarding the train and my wife crying for an hour later at zero hours. Again after three months, while watching this movie, tears trickled from my wife's eyes and by the time we finished teh film and went to our room, tears flowed like a river. And the unspoken and unsaid bond and affection between a father and his girl dawned on me. Given the fabric of indian household, the girls slowly move away from fathers (usually reciprocated) but affection remains and deepens.

“Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.” - Joseph Addison

Road to commonwealth-II

In order to project dilli as a world class city to the games tourist and ensure faster transportation,apart from the road beautification and landscaping scams, a thick yellow line is being drawn on the roads, earmarking that wide lane only for the commonwealth vehicles. Further, it is being mooted to impose Rs. 2000/- on the common man vehicle whcih infiltrates that games lane. As it is, under the garb of arranging the games, crores of public money has gone into drain and now a direct penalty is sought to be imposed on the common man.

Apparently, the central government has pitched in and a review committee has been formed to look into the scams and pace. However, it has been decided not to punish the scamsters and it has been promised that after the conclusion of the games, a full scale probe shall be undertaken and that punishment shall be severe and exemplary. Two months time affords enough time to arrive at peaceful division of the booty; few heads would roll as token measure and self-praise of the games will roll out. Public memory is too short and by the end of the games, everything shall be rolled under the carpet.

Road to Commonwealth-I

Just returned from troubled waters and dilli’s woeful roads; as a dilliwallah I often boast about wide and superb roads in dilli but deep down I know that these maze of roads linked politicians office and home and other power brokers. Roads elsewhere and everywhere are distant cousins of rich-roads and a repeat source of wealth and employment for these roads are repeatedly raped by different civic agencies and contractors; frequent digging and covering up never ceases to amaze me. Come rainy season, traffic comes to a standstill and in many pockets cars and buses float and then starts shifting of blame between civic agencies. The commonwealth project has added more spice to dilli roads; dilliwallas are enjoying deadly mocktail of rain water invading construction work and materials (malbaa). Come October, more traffic restrictions shall follow with blocking up of major roads in order to ensure smooth passage for dignitaries, sportsmen and politicians of course. All this to showcase beautiful dilli and improve tourism. Or all this to swallow the common wealth of we the people? Newspapers are having a gala time in reporting various scams and I am somehow aligned with mani shankar iyer’s wish of rains spoiling the great commonwealth circus. Certainly, dilli’s bid for 2019 asiad stands thwarted – silver lining behind dark clouds. However, order of apex court gagging newspapers from reporting on ensuing investigation in re: ‘scams’ is a retro step and has the effect of validating a legislation conferring immunity on these scams. The public has all the rights to be informed about the nitty-gritty’s of the scams since it is the public money, which is being frittered and pocketed.

Trip to Agra

This was my fourth trip to agra driven purely out of my selfish need to capture the taj mahal in my digi cam which exposed my mother-in-law to month long misery in the form of typhoid and knee trouble. The justification to the trip was folks at my in-laws place would enquire where they had been i.e. places seen and the taj is supposed to be the stock answer.





Certainly the month of June and rising temperature was the principal devil; clumsy innova with no back door provision and an amateur driver who refused to cross 80 kmph added to our misery. We overlooked mathura in order to reach agra early, which reason was ascribed to our sufferings later in the day. We choose to have an early breakfast at sagar ratna which proved to be a wise decision and reached akbar’s tomb around 10 am. Compared to the taj, akbar’s tomb is far more calm and serene with deers and peacocks hugging the green grass. The structure is simple and not massive compared to other moghul rulers to follow and indeed befits the greatest ruler of moghul era.





And we reached the taj just at the right time, 12 noon in sweltering heat. The camel ride was nice and so was the quick shopping to see banana silk sarees, came leather chappals and quilts. My mom and dad wisely choose to relax at the entrance of the taj. The rest of us (myself, my wife, bil, mil and fil) marched forward bravely while clicking photos. My mil decided to stay put near the shoe removal area. The moment we removed our shoes, we began hopping and dancing and raced furiously to complete the round. A quick round and we were glad to have our shoes back. More pics followed and my purpose was finished and I silently resolved never ever to visit the taj with any other relations. Wholly tired and drained, the agra fort was skipped. So agra needs to be visited again in order to capture agra fort and the view of the taj from the agra fort but next time, I can relax at the entrance of the taj. Till then, I wait like a praying mantis!




Another two-hour ride through pits and holes took us to buland darwaaza (fateh-pur-sikri) wherein for the first time we employed a guide who using my mom’s weak sentiments forced us to purchase a chadar, which was given to the local mosque. Hindi being an alien language to my in-laws, they only could stare emptily and jaws wide open; possibly when their misery would end. But abhi to picture baaki thi. My bil, however, summed up superbly on our way back. One aspect intrigued me re: use of khooni haathi by akbar in dispensation of justice. The elephant had the power (by smell) to find out bad men and used to trample them to death.

Our last stop was to be mathura but fate had other plans for us. We spent two hours at a local jyothi dhaba wherein we ended paying closed to Rs. 1000/- and another hour at railway crossing gates; the march of trains seemed endless. We further spent three hours waiting for the traffic to clear which had amassed in national highway 2. It was only around 10 pm that we hopped on to NH 2 and thus, mathura was skipped. It was close to 2 am when we reached home and thus, ended my fourth trip to agra.