Driving Mr. Gandhi

No this is not a plagiarist post on a Morgan Freeman's 1989 movie Driving Miss Daisy - although Bollywood's influence does make me Copy and Paste something but I will resist.

This happened last week when I was driving through New York City - driving there is akin to driving in any big city - it is a reality show of survival of the fittest having patience and endurance. New York has tons of bad drivers and they have no choice but to drive badly because if you are nice and let someone pass or too careful you will never reach anywhere.

The so called "bad" drivers are the cab drivers and sadly enough more than 75% of New York cab drivers are Desis. They have been portrayed in Movies like Aa aab Laut Chale and also portrayed in American serials like Ranjit in How I Met Your Mother.


The word Desi encompasses all the people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and it is a secular word and does not discriminate against sex, orientation, religion or color. Thus

Hindu Muslim Sikh Isaahi
Sabko Milkar Kahe
Mere Desi Bhai

(Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christian originating from these countries fall under this category).

Now coming back to the main point of this post - these drivers drive as if - colloquially speaking - "unke baap ka raasta hai" (the road belongs to their fathers). So they swerve, cut, overtake, tailgate, come close to your car and still smile the Desi Smile as if "sab chaanga hai - tussi fikar na karo yaara" (everything is fine - dont worry)

So as I told you before - as I was driving an idea struck me - well the mind is free when you eally enjoy something but more about that later.

What if this Desi Taxi Cabbie was to Drive Mr. Mahatma Gandhi across New York City. What advice would Mr. Gandhi teach/share to make the cabbie proud.
(did I not tell you bollywood is a big influence in my life - If Munnabhai got influenced by this Khadi Clad Demi God - "main kis khet ki mooli hoon" (I am not someone special not to get influenced)

So assuming what Mahatma Gandhi would have preached read ahead -

He has his Three Monkeys - See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil - based on that he probably will tell the cabbie - just keep driving - see no cars around, hear no honks and don't utter a word about it.

Or like his other quote - An eye for an eye will make the world go blind - sadda desi will take it literally - an brake for another cabbie braking will make NY go crowded - so simply keep driving.

Also our Desi cabbies are from Democratic countries so they surely will take this one literally too
"If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause."
Thus all the cabbies are tolerant towards each other and beleive in not betraying their sole cause - Drive Bad - Make People Mad - And Feel Glad.

This reminded me of another great Freedom Fighter - Bal Gangadhar Tilak who proclaimed- Swaraj is my birthright and I shall Have It - this again my Desi Cabbies have taken it literally - they will argue with you -If you have a freedom to complain and moan - then I should have my Freedom to drive like a maniac - its the democratic principle - or like the American Constitution's First Amendment that infringes on anyone right to do what he/she deems right.

I could go on and on so just a last thought to end this post as I said before my mind is free as I do enjoy driving in the city. It feels like home sweet home - just like in Aamchi Mumbai.

Thanks Mr. Gandhi for your invaluable lessons - it has helped me enjoy Driving Badly with my fellow Desis as put aptly in his own words - "Suffering cheerfully endured, ceases to be suffering and is transmuted into an ineffable joy."

Here are Gandhijis Three Monkeys - courtesy Google Image Search

Gods Inc VI

This is the sixth write up in this series called Gods Inc. To read the previous stories click on the label on the right.


Due to the dire strait in the world economy and misjudged investments by the God - the program to update us Me74's was on a hold for the past few months.

If you are new reader here - just to catch up. I am a Me74 with 23 others like me that are strewn all over the world - world in this case is EARTH INC - one of the major companies in the God's Inc Portfolio. I have been sent here to simply collect data and not analyze or think and transmit this data so that it allows for research of better machines to be produced in the future. In the past few months due to some bad investments God had to sell of Pluto and some other asteroids in order to collect money to revive Earth Inc. He along with the major corporations of Saturn LLC, Jupiter Megamachines and Mercury Mania - all three major producers of thinking machines - got a stimulus package from the Intergalactic Bank.

So finally due to this stimulus - Me74 - the program that was put on the shelf is resuscitated.

I have started to work in full swing and here is the first piece of data that I am supplying. 51 years ago - God's Inc had partnered with Plastic Metamorphosis Corp, that is situated in the outer rims of galaxy. They had meticulously planned a Highly Effective Entertainment Module called Jackson. Today being his 51st anniversary of implementation - this investment by God seems to have worked fine as many pods that meander on Earth Inc in these part of the factory premises are blaring Jackson's oratory refined sensations over and over again to pay tribute to him. Well my task as usual does not end there - I was to collect data to find out why this Mega Machine disintegrated before its time.

This was a special update that I was wired to when they revived me. The whole machine that plastic Metamorphosis designed for Jackson was working fine. They had designed so that a dark skinned machine slowly metamorphosed into a white skinned machine. They also supplied the necessary parts to change the nasal cavities, the ear lobes, the lips to make it look more realistic. Their program was immaculate baring one glitch - the time line on the program was 50 years and then after that 50 years the machine was supposed to metamorphose into dark skin thus giving it a longevity. At the time of implementation scientist from Plastic Metamorpohsis only had been able to design the first part and at that time GOD because he wanted to gain Industrial Supremacy insisted that they implement Jackson and then take the 50 odd years to research and upgrade him to last another 50 years.

As always once Jackson was implemented and highly successful - GOD became lazy on his payments to Plastic - diverting his funds to more important developments like the Obama1 machine and clearing all the industrial sewage created by Bush 2. Thus Plastic to save its company still sent their agent - the Doc Man to insert the necessary supplements to revive the Jackson - but with lack of funding and disinterest from GOD - the plan was unsuccessful and thus the plug was pulled on Jackson.



You might wonder how I know all this data - usually I am supposed to only transmit. Well when I was in the storage yard waiting to be revived I met a senior analyst - Me61 - we share a drink once in a while and share data.

Since many of the interventions by God had failed for the past few months and his whole Economy was at a stand still - he devised newer modules whereby we machines could interact and collect data - one such module is called Facebook - where I was allowed to intervene for the past few months.

Before writing this I had called the data center of God's Inc. I have found out from Me61 that it is somewhere in a place called Noida in India. Seems that India and another factory next to it called China had been implemented with reproductive machines. It worked wonders whereby these machines have produced 33% of the factory workers for Earth Inc. But again due to insider trading before implementing these machines - God's Inc CEO Satan Killorama - who was responsible for this deal hid the fact from all the investors that these reproductive machines cannot be stopped.

Satan had an idea that once this big investment fails he will dethrone God and take over the control of Earth Inc. But he is laying low because he had not anticipated the big problem his one lie will lead to. Due to 33% of the weight of all the machines is on one side of the Earth Inc property - vast resources have to be sent there for their survival - all this has led to tremendous weight on one side thus changing the tilt of the Earth Inc property.

Earth Inc was designed with a 23 degrees tilt to the rotate around Furnace Sun - to give ample rest to its machines in a period of 12 hour cycles. Also infused in it were weather and seasons modules for the machines development. But due to this weight gain the tilt is now 23.5 degrees and thus has created a chaotic situation aptly called the Green Revolution - Green is the color of the extra money that Satan made by hiding the facts.

Buzzz.....damn I have been called for a special teleconference. I will have to take a leave and interact later - that is if they suddenly dont shelf us again.

YouTube Symphony

Had a hiatus for the last one and a half month. Was not really busy just irritated to think and write as it is spring time here and I have pollen allergies. So dedicated my time to catch up on sleep as I was in a sedated state most of the time. But alls well and there is lots I already did this summer. Will write about it in the coming blogs.

This post I will write about the one interesting musical performance that I attended in New York.

YouTube Symphony :
April 15th was the inaugural show for the YouTube Symphony aptly called The Internet Symphony - a Global Mash Up. This is the link to their main website.
It is my belief that the overall concept of this event is something which historians will write about when they write about the positive aspects of the internet and this period of digital revolution.
Few years back I had read a book by Thomas Friedman - The World is Flat - which basically spoke of how the entire world is a level field for work and business because of the advent of the computers. The whole process of outsourcing, working from home, multitasking etc etc.
Based on similar ideas - in the case of Youtube - they asked musicians from all over the world to post their videos playing one new piece written for the occasion by the renowned Chinese composer Tan Dun. Based on that they selected 96 musicians - from all corners of the world - from completly diverse fields - surgeons, mechanics, farmers, teachers - who played a particular instrument as a hobby. This whole group performed for over 2-1/2 hours and it was a brilliant performance comparable to musical performance by professionals.

Here are two videos of the entire show if you are interested - do see fast forwarding parts of it - there are acts where a chinese girl plays on different sizes of cars tyre rims, there is an european DJ - mashing techno with classical, there is three kids playing simultaneously on one piano the same composition.

Why I believe that this will be part of History is

- Its an event where totally unknown faces got an exposure just for their sheer talent

- Computers, Internet and specially YouTube - things that were unknown a decade back - brought about the possibility of such an event. Makes me wonder how people must have felt when Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908 that revolutionised the entire car industry.

- Symphony usually is an elite event usually with older listeners and not the kind of music that Yuppies or Dinks listen to but that boundary was shattered as the crowd attending this event was really Young.

-This probably is a beginning of a great idea that can be expanded to any creative fields.

And finally if and when I do have grand kids I can tell them - Ahem I was there then!

(Next post - A night with Zakir Hussain and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma)

Project WHY

A fellow blogger Aneri Masi introduced many of us to an interesting project - Project WHY spearheaded by Anouradha Bakshi.
"Project Why is a New Dehli (India) based non-profit organisation engaged in education support and life skill enhancement of slum children and their families..? We opened our first education center in 2000 and now, thanks to the generous support of friends and well wishers, have expanded our activities. "

The project is need of HELP. You can read the details at her blog - Project WHY needs help.

Do chip in and see what you can do.

(Am travelling - so am away from the blog. Have added an album on Facebook - let me know if you have an account there so I can add you to view it. )
Thanks

Initiative 30 on 30

One of the fellow bloggies Prashant aka Om a wonderful photographer has started an initiative to raise money for a cause using his photographic skills with some of his friends.

Here is the link to http://www.30on30.net/ - Do check it out.

Also dont forget to read rather see my last post Re session !