11 July 2023

I just have one question

If you ever ply the road between Mogra and Gurap, you are likely to come across a very small village called “Bhastara”. My brother and I had stopped there at a roadside tea stall before getting on the highway to Durgapur.

As the tea-stall guy was heating our tea, an ad stuck on a nearby tree caught my attention. Curious what is being sold in this distant village, I walked up to the tree and saw this.

The ad is for an astrologer. Not too surprising. My opinions on astrology aside (which are not particularly upbeat, to be sure), it is not uncommon to see a lot of astrologers / soothsayers / so-called-diviners preying on ignorant, poor people. In fact, my parents had taken me to somebody who had given me a stone to wear on my body to mend my wayward ways. What “wayward” ways, you ask? Well, apparently, my parents thought that my life had started skidding down fast since I had scored not-so-good marks in … get this … Science that year! The irony is beyond being rich.

Coming back to the ad, the line in the middle says – “Gold Medalist in Astrology”. I just have one question. Okay, two, really.

One: Who the heck is giving gold medals in astrology these days? Has it already become an Olympic sport?

Two: What is a gold medalist doing in this far flung village of Bhastara?

Well, the tea was getting cold. And we had a few folks to visit in Durgapur. I had no time to go around and ask the people nearby!!

Category: Humor, Vacations | 2 Comments on I just have one question
11 July 2023

Modernization of the “Bangali Babu”

We came to a red light and stopped. My brother, who is of the ilk that believes if your feet do not touch the starting line in a marathon race you are bound to lose it, somehow snaked his car thru the stationary cars/buses/motorcycles all the way to the front of the line. I can’t even claim that what he snaked over was legitimately a road.

But, for once, I was glad he did it. If not, I would not have seen this incredible sight.

There was – as you see in the picture – the prototypical Bengali babu of the yesteryears crossing the road. Adorned in his white “dhuti punjabi” and impeccably coiffed hair, he slowly but steadily went from one side to the other. He had a “johor coat” on to complete the Bangali babu look. This is in the middle of summer season!! It is a sweltering 95 degrees heat with humidity that will make you feel like you are swimming rather than walking on the streets.

What melted my heart was his unbounded optimism that if he just put his hand up, all traffic would stop for him. In his Moses like mind, he less crossed the road; he more parted the sea of traffic around him.

Alas! even this unimpeachable “Bangali babu”-ness has started crumbling down to the assault of modern civilization. The quintessential “jholi” has given way to a smart backpack. The half torn “chappals” have given way to smart, contemporary sports shoes!!

If yesterday and today ever were to come together, I was surely staring at it just about now!!

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25 June 2023

Somebody explain this to me

I had gone in to Starbucks for about an hour. When I come back, I see this.

Notice carefully – there is a cobweb strand connecting the side view mirror of the car to the rear bag of my motorcycle.

Here is my question – how did the spider travel near horizontally in the air? It could not have gone to the ground, crossed over and then climbed up. There was no wind to talk about either.

That is an amazing achievement. And something I cannot quite figure out how it managed to do.

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17 June 2023

From the bartender’s corner – Achar Mule (2)

After the disaster yesterday, I tried to follow the recipe with a different achar today (this time it was a chili achar). With equally disastrous results. That Instagram post was either by somebody who is a neophyte in cocktails or I am simply not getting it.

The oil makes it very uncomfortable to sip. Achar, in general, is exceedingly strong on the nose and the palate. Cocktails are best when they have gentle but firm expressions on your olfactory senses and taste buds.

I am dropping the concept of cocktails made from achar here.

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16 June 2023

The mail van roof problem – one more step forward

But no where close to the solution. You might remember the original observation and some progress to this problem from my prior posts.

This evening, I sat down in our balcony with Jay Jay and a cocktail when I noticed that there was a crew of two people in the post office yard. And in a few seconds later realized that they were painting the vans. Especially the roofs.

I got excited. Maybe finally I will crack this problem?

But there was something very incongruous about their painting. They had not covered up the windshield!! I was wondering how were they preventing the white paint from getting all over the glass?

The curiosity and the possibility that I might finally know the answer to the roof rust problem got the better of me. Put Jay Jay inside the house and walked up to those guys from a side entrance.

The two gentlemen could not have been more surprised by my question!! A very interesting conversation happened then.

First thing, I learnt is that they were not painters. They were simply cleaning the vehicles. And that was not rust – it was mold!! They see this mold in all the mail delivery vans. And they agreed that it always forms on that particular edge. But neither had any clue why.

Oh! so close!!!

As I was walking out, I saw a USPS gentleman trying to put something in another van. I walked up to him and made friends with him. He first apologized that our house looks into the USPS yard. I assured him that it gives me endless joy watching the vans and trucks come in and the workers milling around.

And then I asked him the all important question. You know what he said? He said that from the upper deck, it had noticed that pattern too but never knew why. And he had not spent much time thinking about it anyways. Then both of us stepped into one vehicle to see if we could see anything from the inside. Absolutely no clues!!

He did teach me something. He explained that these were 25 year old Grumman LLVs. And that USPS is switching over to newer vehicles by Oshkosh. Came back home and read up about it. There are fascinating facts out there about these vehicles.

But not a word on why mold grows on only one edge of them.

The endeavor continues!!

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16 June 2023

From the bartender’s corner – Achar Mule (1)

DJ sent me this recipe from an Instagram post. It basically has some Indian achar, vodka and ginger beer.

I used Bedekar’s garlic achar with mixed results. Sharmila did not like it at all. I thought it was just okay. The biggest challenge is the oil in the achar that floats to the top. The initial sips are very oily to the lips. (you can see the red oil floating in the picture)

Tomorrow, I will try with a different achar and see if that makes a difference.

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