Forts I Saw

 India has so many forts, and I have seen a few impressive ones, including Fort-palaces which were like cities once. One in France was Mont St. Michael, in Northern France-Brittany- along similar lines. The ones in the U.S. were unimpressive, and small.

Jaisalmer and Jodhpur are probably among the impressive ones I remember, along with Jaipur's Amber Fort. Golconda is also nice to visit.

Others would be Sinhagad near Pune, and one in Kolhapur that I forget the name of. Bekal Fort on the West Coast of India was good too. Have seen the Agra Fort and Delhi's Red Fort and Purana Qila (ruins, mostly) also.

I only saw Solapur's fort and Gingee Fort in Tamilnadu from a distance. While passing by on road trips.

I think Milind Gunaji has written a book about Maharashtra's Forts too. Should read it some day.

Local Flavours

Every place in India has its local delights- food being a major one.

And so it is that we have a Chitale's bakarwadi in Pune, a biryani or Double (bread, also called double roti) ka meetha in Hyderabad, and a Tunde kabab in Lucknow (hopefully it's still around).

Other delights I can remember are Tirunelveli halwa, some variation of which was also available at Calicut (and a shop called Bombay Halwa in Hyderabad sold something similar too-colourful, gooey, semi-solid stuff).

Of course, Gujarat has dhoklas, and theplas, and khakras. Gujaratis are foodies, though many are vegetarian, and have a variety of snacks. Kachoris are famous eats in many parts of North India, including Indore which is my current abode.

Aamras and puri and Puranpoli are two Maharastrian ideas, whereas the Avakai mango pickle is an Andhra speciality (I am at least partly an Andhravadu, having grown up there, and have a hot tooth, the opposite of a sweet one. Mirchi bajji is therefore a favourite).

Kolkata has many culinary ideas that involve fish, but its street food, particularly rolls, are quite distinct. Goa has its sausages, and also a dish spelt Xacutti which no one knows (at least I don't) know how to pronounce. Vindaloo with some meat (usually Pork) is also quintessentially Goan.

Belagaum has its kunda, a sweet, and Maddur has a vada named after it called Maddur vada. Pune's Kayani Bakery has a well-known Shrewsbury biscuit, and Karachi bakery in Hyderabad has its fruit biscuit that are now "world-famous" at least in India.

Modify Your Life

There are lessons galore to be learnt from the Modi campaign (and others) and results.

1. Hard work pays off- not that it's going to impact us too much.
2. Good ads must be simple, understandable. It helps if you see them baar baar (again and again).
3. If you speak, you must make sense.
4. If you interview with Arnab Goswami, what were you thinking?
5. U.P. can be turned around. It's for real, not Maya (illusion).
6. Maharashtrians can think beyond "Pawarplays".
7. The minds of Rajasthan are not a desert.
8. The Bihari has faith in 'Nitis' but not necessarily Nitish.
9. Dilliwalas can do magic (jadoo) with a jhadoo- even make it disappear.
10. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (cute dimple wale nahi)- the message is the medium.

Lonar Crater - A Pictorial Tour

Here are pics worth a few thousand words- the original meteorite that caused the hole is buried deep below the water. The humans seen are Prof Ravi Gadgil in blue, self in red and spouse even redder.

Change of Perspective

How quickly perspective changes. Till May this year, Maharashtra was reeling under a drought and praying for rain. Now, many districts of the state are flooded (Nagpur-Wardha railway line was dislocated for a while), and praying for a respite from it. Legislators demanded that a 'wet drought' be declared in some. Not sure what a wet drought is, but I get a sense of what they are saying.

When things are going our way, in love, job, life, whatever, we think the world is a great place to be. The moment adversity gives us a jerk (did not say it tells us we are a jerk, please note), we get all worked up, and curse everything in sight, or out of it.

Funny beings, us humans, don't you think? But then, how else would we be able to increase our vocabulary of curse-words? So there is something in this habit of ours. All for a greater cause. A pity they don't include cuss-words in the GRE or CAT.