A trip to Egypt - Part 2

Alexandria

07.30 En route Alexandria

After a super heavy buffet-breakfast, we reached the Hotel Reception only to be welcomed by a new guy. Again! Third guy before the start of the second day. He introduced himself as John, the Egyptologist. Egyptology, as the name implies, is the field of study of art, architecture, language and history of Ancient Egyptians. To people who are not aware, there is in fact a field of study called Indology. Sir William Jones (18th Century) who could be called as one of the earliest Indologists, founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. When the rest of the British were ruling India, Jones along with Charles Wilkins were key in stimulating the world towards learning Indian History. In fact, the Asiatic Society was instrumental in the excavations of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.

We were glad that we had a Egyptologist around. En route Alexandria, John gave a brief description of Egypt. Right from Prehistoric Egypt to Pharaohs (also called as Dynastic period) to Greco-Romans to Islam conquest to Ottoman (Turks) rule to French rule to British rule to Nasser and finally, Hosini Mubarak. He talked about the major occupations; customs and traditions; what we’ll see in Alexandria and stuff. Moments later, Niranjana and I were wondering whether we’d be able to give a similar account about India? We slept a few moments later. Probably, to escape the guilt feeling.

10.30 Alexandria City

It was raining when we reached Alexandria. The city had a ‘rainy Saidapet Jones road’ (an area in Chennai) look. As with any developing economy, Alexandria wasn’t instantly captivating. Nonetheless, it had life. For me, that’s what is important in a place. It must be vibrating with energy. I know people who discredit Calcutta for its dirty looks. But I have never seen any lively city like Calcutta. EVER! Not even, Madras. Alexandria wouldn’t fall into ‘that’ level. But, sure it had something or the other happening. In-construction structures, tram lines, huge flyovers, a grayish-brown tint, a consistent smell of something (not identifiable), wet climate. It may not look good on paper. But, trust me. You have to be there.

11.00 Catacombs of Alexandria

We weren’t allowed to bring our cameras inside. Better. No need to worry about the camera angles. Can just relax and absorb the place. Here is when we first heard about the whole mummies concept. First and foremost, the entire Egyptian civilization can be summarized in one sentence. Belief in after-life. All that they ever did in their entire life time has got to do with this belief. The monuments, temples, tomb stones, grave yards – all of them. Even in temples (like Luxor and Karnak) you would see references of the ‘sacred boat’. The boat which would take you to after-life. Guess, they were so much obsessed with their next lives that they didn’t enjoy their present lives. I asked this as a question to Omar (another Egyptologist whom you’ll meet later in the blog). Why is that we have temples and grave yards, but not palaces of kings in ancient Egypt? Visibly amused, he said that the kings lived in ordinary mud-brick houses. Just like the commoners of Egypt. It didn’t stand the test of time, but the temples and tombs they built, did. Catacombs of Alexandria was one such grave yard. Only that, it used to hold the dead bodies of commoners of Egypt. While the Kings built Pyramids and complicated structures (like Valley of Kings in West Bank), the Catacombs were built to hold several mummies. There is also an economic reason behind this. When the mummies were buried, the tomb would also be filled with precious jewels and stones, presumably to be used in after-life. Obviously, the Kings’ tombs are an extremely attractive entity for robbers. Pyramids and complicated structures were built to make this robbery difficult.

This particular Catacomb had somewhere around 200 slots. When this Catacomb was accidentally discovered in the early 20th century (after a Donkey fell into the structure), it still held mummies. All the contents were excavated. The Catacomb is cylindrical-shaped in the top and has a huge base under-ground. The cylindrical shape helped in having a spiral staircase which helped people to bring the dead bodies from the top through guided mechanism (using long rods). The base below has several slots to bury the tombs and many halls. One such hall, we were told, is where people would meet every year on their family member’s death anniversary and have fun. It also housed a hall where animals were slaughtered. What made the whole thing interesting were the engravings on the walls. We met Anubis, the Jackal God for the first time. Little did we realize that we would meet him everywhere we went. Jackal was worshipped as a God by Egyptians because the animal used to eat off the dead bodies, it seems. To appease the animal, they started worshipping him (or her?). I haven’t read ‘Immortals of Meluha’. But since a long time, I believe that the Gods, we Hindus worship now, walked on this earth as normal human beings. I had a college friend (a Christian) who used to discredit Hinduism by saying that everything we do is superstitious. How much ever I countered him, the argument was never won. The whole Jackal-God business has given a new dimension. I am waiting to meet him.

The engravings also explained the entire mummification process. The important organs like Liver and lungs were kept in separate Canopic jars. Heart was left in the body as they believed that the person would need it in his next life (more on this later). Brain would be smashed and the content would be brought out using a straw.

Enough of violence, I guess.

11. 45 Pompey’s Pillar and Roman Theatre

Pompey’s Pillar was such a boring site that we regretted entering it. It had a huge pillar built by a Roman king Pompey and a Sphinx (more on this later). The Roman theatre was equally boring. Designed like a miniature of a Colosseum, John said that it used to host dance, theatre and other activities. These monuments must have been exciting for a photographer’s eye but they lacked the history that we were actually looking for.

15.30 Alexandria Library, Maritime Museum and Montaza Palace

It started raining heavily and the time was well past 3. We decided to look at the Alexandria library from outside, as the entrance fee cost some 100 Egyptian pounds. Also, John said that there would be nothing substantial inside. Even if he had said otherwise, I don’t think we’d have gone inside. We started getting this “Enough for the day” feeling. All that changed, when we hit the Mediterranean coast where the Maritime museum is present. The place where the museum is present, earlier housed the famous ‘Lighthouse of Alexandria’. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Lighthouse got destroyed due to various natural calamities. We spent a solid one hour on the coast, just looking at stuff. Group of young kids were playing foot ball. Seeing a camera in my hand, one of them wanted himself photographed. Niranjana bought two beautiful miniatures whom we’d know as King Tut and Nefertiti, the next day (at the Egyptian museum in Cairo). There was a family of six lazing away right next to the sea. An old man with a hat, who was sitting on the rocks with his back towards us, was having an appointment with himself. He was also fishing, feeding the cats nearby. A breezy afternoon on a rainy day at the Mediterranean sea coast.

After helping ourselves with a late lunch (for which Niranjana is still angry at me), we reached the Montaza Palace late in the evening. The Palace was built in 19th century and has been since used by many Kings. Even used by Hosini Mubarak. The Palace served as a leisure court for the Kings and also hosted several Heads of states and Kings. The Kings of other countries would drop off from their Ships to land right at the Palace, it seems. It would have made an interesting visual.

19.30 Back to Hotel - En Route Cairo

I started pondering over what John told us that morning. I had asked him why would a Great Greek King patronize Egyptian customs? Why did he allow those temples to be built? Stuff which might sound silly for people from other countries/beliefs. To answer this, we need to take a step back and observe. Before this whole Islam and Christ business, people worshipped nature and forms of it. Be it the Hindus or Greeks or Egyptians. Hindus have their Gods of Creation, Prosperity and Destruction. We worshipped Sun, Rain, Fire, Water, Earth, Space and had a whole science built in it. We found a relationship with the Planets surrounding us and found a pattern in it. More than anything else, we worshipped women. Hindu Mythological characters just espoused these concepts at the end of the day. That’s why, when I go to Egypt and look at a temple of Sun God – I am not surprised. I am able to relate to their beliefs. But after Christ, the idea of worshipping a person began. Not just with Christianity and Islam, even within sects of Hinduism. That is when, the religious bigotry started. The whole power struggle began. When Mughal rulers came to India and demolished our temples, there is this Alexander who did the opposite. Why did that happen? For people living in that pre-Christ era, this would not have been surprising at all. It was because they found similarities in cultures. Alexander, the Great respected the Egyptian customs and traditions. Though Alexander conquered Egypt by force, he wanted to conquer people’s hearts. Only that should explain Alexander dressing himself as a Pharaoh and etching his own engravings in the temples of Egypt. Alexandria was found in 331 B.C and Alexander died in 323 B.C. In such a short period, he had carved such an unique place in people’s hearts. By any standards, Alexander the Great must have been a truly secular person. My respect for him has grown incredibly high.

A trip to Egypt - Part 1

Chennai and Cairo

09:50 Local Time - Chennai, India

The first casualty of married life is the Window seat. “That’d qualify as an interesting status update” I told Niranjana just as she looked out of the windows of the stationary aircraft. She never seemed to listen, more interested in looking outside. I’ve very rarely let go of my ‘rightful’ window seat. Be it the weekly bus rides to Bangalore and back, an occasional train travel or a daily share-auto ride. I’ve never let go of that prized possession. The anxiety as to what you’d probably miss by not looking outside is simply unmatchable. But yeah. It has to be done. The sacrifice HAD to be made.

15.30 Local time - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

A casual stroll through the transit airport stopped for a moment, when we looked at the price list of a restaurant. Quite cheap. "We could actually eat something here" I thought. Now that we got to trade in dollars for the next seven days, the prices looked really really cheap. Just when I was about to retrieve my wallet, she said "Wait". If it had been me alone, I'd have decided to buy the first thing I found interesting (and cheap). Now that I had a girl by my side, we decided to look at all the items in all the restaurants and then decide. So, after some 15 minutes of careful scrutiny - we ate some cheese croissants at a shop run by a Mallu Muslim. They are everywhere, aren't they?

17.15 Onboard - Cairo bound

At least, Riyadh was in the same continent. But, Cairo? The excitement was palpable. I quickly started making a mental check of all the continents I visited. Okay. North America. Can I include South America? I came so close, right? Right till Texas. Can I? Can I include? "No, I gave my heart, a stern reply. You DID NOT visit South America". What else? Yeah. Frankfurt. That means, Europe, too. Wait a minute. I did Bangkok. Shit. Why is Thailand in the same continent? It should have been in a new continent named 'East Asia'. "Come on, cut the thought. Stop behaving like a child" I told myself. I looked at her side. She was asleep. I drank the left over apple juice kept in her plate.

The Captain of the flight said something in Arabic over PA and a few minutes later, the aircraft started descending. I woke her up and we looked out. The first sight of the African continent. Sand. Sand. Sand. All that we could see was the brown coloured - omnipresent sand. A long, thin streak of blue-colored water ran through her. "Could this be Nile?" she asked me. May be. Nile? All the connection I had with Nile was that it dutifully gave me 1 mark when the question in my 6th Standard History paper was "Which is the longest river in the world?". And now am I, actually looking at the Nile?

17.35 Cairo Airport

A placard held by a smiling tall man welcomed us. He introduced himself as John. I later learnt that Coptic Christians constitute a minority in Egypt. He took our passports, did a quick check, returned them and asked us to proceed to the Immigration counter. The terminal was small. Irrespective of the country, the arrival terminal invariably has more smiles around. This is no exception. I looked around. Large families with a single man and many Burqa-clad women and even more children. Serious-looking Arab businessmen wearing suits. The men, irrespective of the clothing, predominantly looked serious. And the children wore really fashionable dresses. Niranjana couldn't stop gushing about the kind of dresses those little girls were wearing. She was right. Extremely fashion conscious, they were. Sad they had to move to Burqa in a few years. What kind of mental shift they have to undergo? Has somebody made a film/written a book on it yet?

18.30 On the roads of Cairo

"It's pronounced Kaai-ro and not Kei-ro" I understood. We were struck in a traffic that didn't look bad. The roads were wide. And the infrastructure around, wasn't bad at all. In fact, the image I had for Cairo was that of an African city. I imagined it to be the one I saw in 'The Last King of Scotland'. The one in 'Hotel Rwanda'. This was different. In entirety. "Why are they even protesting" I started wondering. But yeah, how stupid can I be? Delhi infrastructure and Indian economy are like Harris Jayaraj and originality. There must be something more deep than the visible infrastructure that is bothering these people. It must be more than just money. More than how the Egyptian economy is performing. Something very deep.

Meanwhile, John slightly changed the itinerary - pulling the 'Sound & Light Show at the Pyramids of Giza' from the 3rd day to the first day. "What???" Niranjana and I looked at each other. We get out of the airport and the first thing we get to see is the Pyramids? Wait. I am not ready for that. I want to feel excited. I want to, you know, dreaaaam for that. "If not today, we might have to cancel it" John had a smile on his face when he said that.

It just took 10 seconds for us to reconcile to that fact. Wow. PYRAMIDS. The emotions changed in a jiffy. Morning, we were driving past the 'about-to-be-constructed' Chennai Metro. And in the evening, we get to see the 3000 year old Pyramids. The latter has stood the test of time. The former?

Though unrelated, the question prompted me to think about Indian History as a subject. Unlike the ancient period, I do not think we need designated historians to record what's currently happening in this world. The history of the present world writes itself. It has its records in scores and scores of papers and digital repositories. The future generations do not need a Archeologist to know what was happening here 3000 years before. But yeah, maybe I am wrong too. May be, I am doing the same mistake committed by those who inhabited our country thousands of years before. They never cared to preserve what they had to build/write/discover. They made us rely only on those four Vedas. Even these Vedas did not have a physical form. It was passed from one generation to another in the form of verbal slokas. We do not have a physical proof/evidence of Ramayana, Mahabharatha even though Hindus strongly believe it actually happened. This has made 'Sanatana Dharma', a subject of ridicule by people who rely only on physical evidence. And one of those people even ruled Tamil Nadu as a CM for four terms.

19.10 Pyramids of Giza

We hurriedly exchanged (Already ten minutes late!!) evening greetings with Sam (Another Christian!) who would be our Tour manager. John was just a 'receiving guy', we learnt. As we stepped out of the car, we realized that it was extremely cold and we didn't even have proper thermal wear. Bad planning (*pointing fingers at Niranjana). And she was already pointing fingers at me. Shivering; Gaping at the Pyramids; Listening (and not understanding) to the S&L show - All happened simultaneously. After some time, the show became really uninteresting as I wasn't able to understand anything at all. "We should have come to this show after we had gained considerable knowledge about Egyptian History" I thought. Niranjana felt otherwise. She was able to relate something. Good! Just half the money wasted.

22.00 Oasis Hotel

Samosas from Adyar Ananda Bhavan. Kothamalli Chutney. Bread Slices. Bhujia Sev. Good amount of planning helped us save some $30. Next up in the morning, its Alexandria! The city found by none other than Alexander the Great in 331 BC. By Egyptian standards in history, that’s quite recent!

Vijay in 'Nanban'

Even if you have watched the original version. Even if you hate the very sight of Vijay. 'Nanban' is definitely worth a watch. Vijay has vindicated all his fans who stood by him all these years. We all knew Vijay had consciously trended towards the less-famous commercial path after a string of flops in the likes of Vaseegara, Sachin. Both Vaseegara and Sachin were extremely feel-good films and why they failed at the box office is as mysterious as the failure of SMS. Even though producing a hit in the commercial genre is a tough thing, he became a subject of ridicule. And for that, no body other than him is to blame. He underestimated the audience, BIG TIME. His films started becoming an insult to the audience's intelligence. Only people (like me) who liked to watch Vijay on-screen were even able to watch the movie completely. Now, that number is huge in Tamil Nadu. That gave the movies a great opening and a decent run. Moderate victories made him rely more and more on this genre. And his fans started slowly deserting him. 'Suraa' is the pinnacle of all that was wrong with Vijay.

But, we - Vijay fans - still had some hope. How could a guy who gave films like Sachin, Poove Unakaga, Kushi, Priyamudan, Ghilli - lose it all? Something happened in 2010. With Kavalan, he gave a little hope. Velayutham made us sit up. And with Nanban, our Ilaya Thalabathi is back. The best thing about Vijay is that he is so casual about acting. I always liked people who didn't take themselves too seriously. Azharuddin, for instance. Viv Richards. I am talking about that 'invisible' thing you tend to 'see' in people. Be it his dancing, humour, romance - Vijay can just walk in as Vijay and do a scene with ease. You just liked watching him.

This film is a trip back to the Poove Unakaga and Kushi and Friends days. This is the Vijay we started liking on screen. Sure as glad that he is BACK!!!

Review of my reactions after "The Dirty Picture"

The film works for me primarily because of the thinking that went into making it. The depth of the character. Unlike other similar films which rely heavily on the sensuality of the protagonist, this goes deep into the mind/heart of the character ‘Silk’. The entertainment arises from there. And, not from the cleavage. If it had been from the latter, I’d have never felt the sense of sympathy when Silk kills herself in the end. Having said that, the film is not without its dull moments. In fact, there are plenty. But, the moments/scenes which lay the mind/heart of Silk bare open to the audience, have done the trick.

Time to redeem

I really don't know how to put it. Last year, during our Independence day, I had posted the following message on my facebook wall.

“I really envy the 1947 generation. At least, they had something ‘interesting’ to fight for”

Little did I know that exactly an year later, we’d be rewarded with a situation which comes pretty close to the ‘Defining moment’ of our lives. The actual Defining moment would be when the Parliament votes for the JanLokpal bill. As Chetan Bhagat was telling the other day in one of the innumerable discussions on TV, “the Government is facing a crisis of confidence here. Just like people tend to buy other forms of currencies (like Gold, Dollar, commodities etc.,) when they lose faith on the economy, people have lost faith on UPA-2 and have started identifying themselves with a movement started by Anna, Arvind, Bhushans and Kiran Bedi. “

What else do you expect?

I ask myself if we so strongly do not believe UPA, why did we even vote them to power for the second time.

I rewind a couple of years back and found that the situation was little different, then.

1. The world was reeling under recession. But our economy didn’t dip as expected, rather registered some growth. We had a distinguished economist as a PM and by no way, are we going to let go of him in a difficult situation like then.

2. In UPA-1, the Govt was able to bring in RTI (through much coercion by activists such as Arvind Kejriwal as I learnt later), US Nuclear Deal etc., I still remember Manmohan Singh’s speech in Parliament when he so strongly fought for the Nuclear Deal. I didn’t care whether he was right or wrong. He strongly believed in something and was articulate about it. That was enough for me to believe in him.

3. The Opposition projected Advani as a PM which didn’t strike a chord with many of us

4. Left consistently opposed the US Nuclear Deal which left us, the new generation, hate the communists. We believed that if we vote for the Left, they’d again stall the progress. That’s the exact reason we completely white-washed them in 2009.

And thus came, UPA-2 to power.

Now, the situation is completely catastrophic to say the least. We’ve got so many scams, most of them started in UPA-1. The government is arrogant. Manmohan Singh is silent. Rahul Gandhi is selective in public appearance.

Pick any guy on the street.

He is angry.

On one hand, if he gets caught in the next signal for NO reason, he has to pay 100 rupees as a bribe. And right next to the signal, there is a hoarding where Yeddy is smiling. He took it nicely, all these years. But, he can’t anymore. May be – the Government may win this round. They might not bring in our version of the Lokpal.

But I am telling you, this fight is going to last until the JanLokpal goes through.

Having said that, there is also an argument doing rounds that we, as citizens, care less about what we as individuals contribute to corruption.

-> What about the 100 rupees we pay as a bribe rather than the stipulated Rs.1300 for driving without helmet?

->What about land registration when we devalue the land so as to pay less commission/tax?

->What about downloading songs/movies illegally?

->What about encouraging piracy in almost everything intellectual. From books, CDs etc.,

->What about buying stuffs without a bill?

We, as citizens, are at an important juncture in our lives. Even if JanLokpal gets passed by the Parliament, there is still a way to bypass it and make it ineffective. Unless we promise to pay the actual fine amount; Unless we promise to demand the bill whenever we buy stuff (from tomatoes to iPods); Unless we vouch to stop piracy, this would not become a reality.

The change must come from within.

A change imposed on us is dictatorship. A change from within is Democracy.

Let’s make the word ‘Democracy’ proud.

044 - 00662 - 006638 - 00662 - 044

Water, Water, everywhere!

The next day morning was as quite as I expected to be. After dragging myself from the bed to take a reluctant bath, I went straight to the hotel lobby. And as expected, there was a huge queue standing before those two stand-alone computers. I bet, at that moment, nothing in the Hotel could be as precious as those two computers. No prizes for guesses what people were doing with them! This is, really, a Facebook generation! A casual glance at the webpage each person opens first is a striking reminder as to where the world bets its money on. I mean, look at me. Ignoring my friends who were already in the restaurant for breakfast, the first thing I did once I woke up was ‘Check Facebook’. How many likes. How many comments. No. I am not proud of that fact. At all.

The previous night, Bharath informed us to wear light as it is going to be just Water Sports today. I wore those new Tees and shorts and right when the bus moved an inch from the Hotel, the goggles found their place on my face. The amount of self-confidence one gets when he knows that a particular accessory fits him is incomparable. The bus travelled a few streets and there came the beach! The Pattaya beach! As I was mentioning the other day, the Pattaya beach plays just a few meters down the main road. Unlike our Bessie and Marina. There was a motor boat ready to take us deep into the sea. After a few snaps and some quick shopping for casual slippers, we boarded the boat, travelled some 3 kilometers (with a break in between to allow us a few snaps right at the middle of nowhere) and finally reached the platform from where Para Gliding would take place.

I had done Para-Gliding before. But, I don’t exactly remember whether I was scared or not. I don’t think I was. But, I think I had the sulking feeling in my stomach. I know things would be fine. But, still. Kumaravel who first hesitated to come, later joined us, I guess. The whole thrill of Para Gliding happens in the first 10 seconds when you’d reach the specified height and in the last 30 seconds when you’d descend from that height. Rest is just sight-seeing at the 500 ft.

Underwater sea walk was next. I think I was the one who decided to go even if others wouldn’t join me. I, really, really, wanted to feel that. Slowly, one by one, the entire group became big time enthusiastic about the whole thing. I was, too. But, it was all short-lived. The moment they made me wear those heavy oxygen masks, I once again felt nervous. I am not able to interpret my character. What kind of person I am? Till I get it, I am desperate for it. And once I have it, I start building fears around it. Now that I had an audience of fourteen friends and a few fellow travelers, there was no turning back. I prayed to my stars and started climbing down the rails which would lead to the underwater sea bed. The moment my entire body came under water, I freaked out. I just didn’t know how to breath. I came up, learned from the guide as to how to exactly breath and went back once again. It was, surely, one of the best experience I’d like to cherish. If I were a school kid, I’d have written about what all I saw under water. Now that I am old enough to raise a school kid, all I noticed was who held whose hands. 

We went to the actual Pattaya beach next and spent some 2 hours there. Which obviously wasn’t enough for us. I couldn’t help but remember how the Infy gang of ours spent an entire day, I repeat – Entire Day, at Arambhol beach in Goa. ‘Bliss’ got a new meaning that day. That’s ok. This is Pattaya, right? After a Water scooter ride, we boarded the motor boat and travelled back to the city. As per our earlier strategy decision, myself and Meyyo treated ourselves with the traditional Thai Oil Massage. But we must confess that it was way below expectations. May be, we had raised the bar after the last night’s Thai massage.

The sunset happened sooner than we expected and before I could realize, it was night. We had some light dinner at the famous Hardrock café and I became real uncomfortable when JagD started taking pictures of a kissing couple. The fact that I don’t know him that well made me write about it here rather than tell him directly, then. The dinner was fine but the waiters were excellent. The attitude they had while serving us made me think that they own this place, which I am sure, they didn’t. And again, a few snaps later and an half-filled stomach, we started roaming around the neon-lit streets of Pattaya. I guess we roamed around too much that at one point, we became big time bored of that. We found ourselves a Pizza hut and settled there.

The time being 11 in the night, people slumbered. No one would have even guessed that this sleepy bunch would spend the next 4 hours right on the streets of Pattaya, with full excitement!

All because of the age old game ‘Truth or Dare’!

Lloyds Road.

“Ennathu blogger-a… appa twitter-la facebook-la thappa ezhuthuteengana naanga enna panrathu?” (“You are a blogger?! What if you tarnish our image in Twitter and Facebook?”) the security standing at the gate literally pushed us out of the ADMK Office.

For a person who looks like the one who got imported from Vilathikulam day before yesterday, his knowledge on social networking sites simply stunned me.

Well, that’s what you can expect from Jayalalithaa who seems to have a better hold on the TN youth than Kalaignar (who thinks ‘Ilaignan’ is a contemporary script) and Vijayakanth (who claims that ‘Viruthagiri’ is a political thriller). My interest in visiting the ADMK Office on the day after the results were announced also stems from my belief that ADMK functionaries are generally less violent and less inebriated than their DMK counterparts. I would have never sworn to have taken a girl with me to the DMK Office.

Simply put, “It’s just not safe”.

After a few not-so-interesting photographs of the people around, the banners kept, the MGR statue and the ADMK souvenirs, we started getting restless and decided to barge in the security gate of the Office, posing as independent press. And that’s when the security person asked us some ID and we goofed the whole thing up. Standing outside the gate, hoping that we might be let in after a few minutes, we saw regular flow of Scorpios and Sumo Grandes each letting out approximately three white dhotis per vehicle. One of the three was always welcomed by a bouquet given by a random person who virtually comes out of nowhere.

“I didn’t see him, a second back” I thought to myself.

The second person is an assistant to the one who is given the bouquet and that person gives that bouquet to the third assistant who neatly disposes it off… hmm… where? Damn! I didn’t notice that.

The Madras heat prompted a gulp of Slice and Water and by then, we had lost steam. Realizing that nothing is exactly happening in this place, except for ‘people looking at people’ and ‘people looking at police’ and ‘police looking at people’ and ‘people looking at the ADMK Office’, we decided to let go off our desire to spend any more time at this place. As we left past the Lloyds road and steered our way to the Sathiamoorthy bhavan, I saw exactly 7 people at the Office.

And, next day – I read in a paper that there was a ‘Koshti Poosal’ (In-party fighting) at the Congress Office.

Within 7 people?