Communicate your thoughts..... if one can do that effectively, it doesn't matter if I spam, get spammed, screw, get screwed ('effectiveness' being the keyword) etc. I guess some have more frequent bouts of creativity than some others, and it really doesnt get me, if I see a given blog getting updated more frequently than, say, mine. I view it as getting 'free lunches' more often than what I have to pay for, with my (limited supply of) creativity.

But what gets me is when the impotent of this world (i.e. someone who can't come up with readable posts as often as some others) accuse the potent ones of 'popularity-seeking', 'limelight-hogging' etc. This is my sincere advise to a newbie who decides to blog on Full Hyd: Be prepared to be accused of: 1. Hitting your own website a hundred times to keep your hit counters at healthy levels 2. Spamming (i.e. coming up with posts more often than what an accuser is capable of - now, don't crack up at this one). I mean..... can't a person be credited with more intelligence? I would personally value someone who decides that he/she's got that creative vein to carry through a site all by himself/herself. It took so many months for me to take the plunge, and I'm still not comfortable at it.

The Internet is all about equal-opportunity, and not every one here is vying to be published by Penguin. If someone can communicate his/her feelings even in a broken English, and if it manages to carry some weight, make sense, provoke a thought, touch a raw nerve, give a new persepective....... that's enough for me. So please newbie..... go ahead and spam. You aren't polluting anyone's mailboxes, but are only adding to your own server space on the Internet with thoughts that are precious to you (and to me, the free luncher). It is understandable that the first few attempts might look pathetic, but things are definitely gonna improve.

And to those who get offended because they can't come up with posts as often as some others - you definitely need to see that shrink :)

Final words - blog and let blog!

The faceless farmer hogs the headlines often. He starves to death....... not to uphold any cause, but out of sheer helplessness and drought brought about by lack of sufficient monsoon, failure of crop and other reasons. Poverty in scarcity!

At other times he reaps a bounty, and then finds it difficult to find buyers for his produce. Since there is surplus all around, the prices drop steeply and the income he gets turns out to be far less than what he had invested to produce it in the first place. He gets entrenched deeply in the debt trap and resorts to suicide as the only way of recovering from this predicament. Poverty in abundance!!

While this goes on, he is promised free power, free dhotis / sarees and what not, by the powers that be. He incidentally constitutes the largest electorate. So, every party competes for his vote by bribing him with all the above, and also by playing up to his sentiments. Agricultural produce will never be taxed, even if some rich farmers become filthy rich thanks to their cash crops and estates. While a subsistence farmer obviously needs all the support he can get, isn't it ridiculous that people leading 5 star lives don't get taxed even a penny? The land of tamasha (a.k.a. the great nation of India or Bharat) never ceases to amaze me.

One of the tactics to bribe him and win over his heart is to play up to the galleries and rake up river-sharing controversies. Controversies that could potentially divide the nation, that could alienate people forever by sowing the seeds of hatred. Taking a leaf from the current affairs that's going on in the neighboring region to illustrate my point, Thiru.Karunanidhi Avargal (translates to 'Karunanidhi Himself') has decided to rake up the Cauvery issue again (yawn) - his motivation? the need to portray himself as the saviour of the Tamil species, now that the Tamil makkal (i.e. public) have made him their sole custodian by awarding all the parlimentary seats to his party and his allies. The reason they did so was because Jayalalitha was too lousy and autocratic - a fact not lost on the observers, but somebody needed to occupy the moral high ground and Thiru Karunanidhi Avargal it shall be, to jump at the opportunity.

It needs two to tango, and the esteemed politicians of Karnataka will not be left far behind in this game of hatred. They will pass a resolution denying water to TN, and there will be a flood of emotions (in place of water) in both states against the other side. I was in Bangalore over the weekend and was amused to read the sentiments expressed by the respected readers of the local newspaper. "Despite the rains and tears of the Kannadigas, our reservoirs are still not sufficiently filled up and hence we cannot release water to TN" read one comment. Don't shed so much tears, dearies... not very healthy. I'm sure the Chennai papers would carry equally ridiculous comments, if not worse. I'm visiting Chennai the coming weekend and shall post an update :)

Now for some good old 'sense'. I'm not an irrigation expert, nor am I aware of what is a 'fair share' of a resource like water. But I am aware of the fact that over the years, vast expanses of land have been brought under cultivation in both the states. In fact, the increase is much more drastic in Karnataka than in TN. As a result, the thirst for water has been on the upside in both the states and especially in Karnataka. Given this, the traditional mode of irrigating lands (pumping infinite quantities of water into the farm) becomes literally a drain on the precious resource. There is only so much water as before, but several more thousands of hectares of land to irrigate, than before. Doesn't the word 'scarcity' ring out loudly from the above? Are we deaf not to hear it clearly enough? Or we would rather get carried away by emotions / sentiments and ignore cold logic? There is an urgent need to modernize our irrigation methods. Drip irrigation, rain water harvesting, ground water utilization..... the works. The experts know better. But they won't be heard. The drama enacting politician attracts better attention than some one who speaks logic.

Another question that comes up - the widespread farming activity causing (in addition to water scarcity) a food surplus, consequent bringing down of prices, filling up of FCI godowns, rats eating the rots, farmers committing suicide coz they can't command the required price to meet their debts..... who puts a stop to this vicious circle and where? I think there are way too many people who are out there farming, and who need to move up the value chain and shift to developing software or design automobiles instead (higher education, native language commerce..... suddenly all my 'unintelligent' posts seem to make sense, don't they? ;) ). Until then, we will have to make do with the politicians providing us the evening entertainment on TV screens and painfully witness more suicide/starvation stories.

What's up with people? I mean, some 20 -30 years ago, people gave much simpler names to their kids like Ramesh, Suresh, Kumar, Geetha, Sita, Rani...... and these days they somehow tend to come up with Akanksha, Ananya, Ajathashatru and other such tongue-twisters.

I was checking on the name of a kid with his parent (my ex-colleague), and pat came the reply, "Prajval". "Oh! sounds good!!!" (true lies - truth is, i haven't heard that name before). I dont have a circle of friends who have kids (I can tolerate kids, but not their parents who fuss over them no end - another pet peeve, that deserves another post), or else, I could have come up with much more examples of names that have little practical advantage. I wonder why people resort to this convention of naming their kids with an unheard of, unpronouncable name. All those who are guilty of this crime, come up with your excuse :)

The best naming story however would be this: I had a collegue by name 'Dukman'. It was not intended to be that, though. The originally intended name was 'Lukman' - a not so common Muslim name (I think). But while submitting his school application, his dad wrote his name with such an artistic handwriting that the 'L' appeared like 'D' to the school assistant accepting the application. So, he was entered as 'Dukman' in the school records and was condemned to life-long 'dukh'. He had a tough time answering the question, "May I know who's speaking?" at the other end of the phone, coz, well..... his dad had a beautiful handwriting :)

OMG, this is going to look like a diary. Never mind..... it's been a pretty hot week. I dunno if it was really hot or if my hair was to blame. I decided to go for the unkempt look, and I assure you, it's more bother than the clean, spick n span look. Started my experiment by wetting my hair completely and combing the hair backwards, and since mine normally falls forward, it wouldn't fulfill my desire. Once dry, a lot of the hair stood up, falling neither forward nor backward.

I knew it was a mess, but decided to step out of home nevertheless. Btw, I was due for a hair cut, which I decided to give a skip.This bit of information would have clarified what I meant by 'mess'. Now on to the streets..... curious onlookers, wanting to know which planet I landed from, wannabes who lapped up whatever they saw with a "wow, what a cool dude, man" reverence, golden oldies who couldn't come up with anything better than suspicious looks...... Hyderabad has a cosmopolitan crowd, I should say.

Within minutes I knew that my hair didnt assume the shape I wanted it to. So, on an impulse I went and purchased a hair dryer. It had a lot of fancy attachments and I didnt know what was what. Internet came handy too, and I googled for hairstyling tips. Then I realized that all those attachments really didnt matter, and I could have in fact gone for the cheapest model which came without all those frills. So, some blow drying later, it assumed the shape I wanted, but wouldn't stay that way.

I could have really reverted back to my old style, but decided to brave it and went to office in this get up. An entire gamut of sentiments ranging from "You look fresh" to "Bad hair day?" to "Are you planning to grow it further?" to "Not feeling well?" to "You seem liberated" were expressed by those with some courage. The silent majority just took it in their stride, like they always do and bear whatever is dished at. Diplomacy assumes new meanings in new situations, I should say.

Having successfully warded off the initial reactions, I ventured to go with a stubble (which matured into a beard) for the next few days. This time I seriously looked like a rebel, and folks must have wanted to know what exactly am I rebelling against. Now that I have started a phenomenon, i'm not sure if I'll meekly go back to my earlier state - but there is strong possibility I might. The heat is killing me.

Another eventful thing was how a piece of wood was stringed, slapped till my thumb ached, connections soldered, an 80W amp organized, and at the H-Hour (i.e. after powering on the amp and turning the volume to full) could only produce a feeble sound of bass. The case of a humbucker pick-up turning out to be a humbug. (I carefully avoided the g-word, to save the world from further excitement)

Teleconference meetings with bosses provide new insights each time. This time it revealed that I'm doing a thankless job, and it's my own choice. After all the adrenalin rush to post my resume on job sites, came a painful realization that I have too many things going on in this city of darkness, to just pack my bags and leave. (The humbucker and the 80W have a MAJOR role to play - OMG, I hate music)

To add insult to injury, a planned weekend visit to my lonely planet, sorry parent, had to be aborted, as the world had been enjoying summer vacations and is returning to join back schools / colleges / offices etc. in view of which, no tickets were available for the journey back and forth.

I've strived to be sober for the last few months and suddenly my helplessness took over, prompting me to go for the drink. For an evening, I was an old monk on the seventh heaven, all the while ruminating and pondering as to what to do....... tried listening to my inner voice / heart / sub-conscious / whatever..... and while drunken driving back home on a two-wheeler...... I said to myself with finality that I'll continue in my chosen path (of doing a thankless job)...... and in response, was kissed on the cheek. I raised my eyes in surprise, and was kissed again. Not once, not twice, but 5 - 6 times. It took sometime for me to realize that they were actually water droplets falling from heaven, that were rewarding my cheeks for my decision. It was the time when the clouds were in two minds on whether to rain or not, and were making trial attempts. Long after I reached home, they did make a decision of their own too and a hot week was cooled down by heavy rains, while I was fast asleep.

I hope I can strike a balance between the three P's of life - People, Profession and Passion, without taking much help from the monks at seventh heaven. They are bad for the vocal cords, bad for the wallet........ and the last and the least - bad for the health.

"Dare to straddle the world" - challenges an 'extra large' Katrina Kaif, and at her size (which is an easy 100 times the size of an average Hyderabadi), she may actually manage to do it. A few miles down, she's there again, this time challenging us with "Dare to stay alive" - I hope too many lives weren't lost while staring at her enormity (along with other unmentionable aspects) and driving carelessly. While you are getting used to this phenomenon, she comes up with "Dare to bare the truth" and with an accompanying pose which would have you believe that she might bare her cosmetic falsehood, instead of the truth. On your way, there are more things she dares you (face the competition, etc. etc.) and after a few more sightings it becomes so unbearable, you cant but feel small and helpless. For the uninitiated (i.e. people who haven't been living in Hyderabad of late), I'm referring to the mega hoardings that dot the city's landscape.

While you are still recovering from the Katrina syndrome, you are confronted by another behemoth - this time it is Yana Gupta demonstrating with her largeness, how-not-to stand while wearing a salwar kameez. Salwar kameez - an attire that would have almost become our national dress for women, but for the unsportive southies who came brandishing their saris (just like they came up with their languages, ruining the chance for Hindi to claim its glory) - well.... <sentance aborted>. Salwar kameez - a symbol of love, respect, modesty, determination, motherhood...... and see what's happening to you on the billboards of Hyderabad? (I hope and pray that the Neeru's ad doesn't hang around on the sidelines of your screen, while you're reading this)

Having taken on the 'establishment' and demolished it to smithereens, let me focus my attention on another domain. Tollywood, here I come!These days I seem to see this banner everywhere (unless something is wrong with me). An image of a young hero blissfully sleeping - what's wrong with that, you may ask. Well, the hero's head is rested on his heroine's rich rear-end. The heroine, incidentally, is also lying down and providing her generous assets to facilitate his sleep, lovingly turning her head towards us and smiling in satisfaction at the whole situation. For the guy it must feel very cushiony and comfy, I suppose (i.e. as long as everything was fine with the heroine's diet in the last few hours). If you don't live in Hyd and are rushing to close this page in disgust, hold on! We Hyderabadis are made to bear watching such sights every time we decide to step out of our houses. At another time, there was this big banner featuring four youngsters (girls n guys) all dressed in shorts (no big crime, that). Only one of them prolly didnt notice that his shorts didn't have a button / elastic / strap / string(no 'g' in the beginning) or whatever that was required to retain it in its intended place, and so it was lying at his feet, for all of Hyderabad to see.

The average Hyderabadi male has to deal with two different views of womanhood. One - a few tens of feet above the ground dominated by the daring and baring woman, who'll stop at nothing to get what she wants (including him). She doesn't care for respect, approval, modesty, values or even your safety on the road. And the other view - of the woman firmly rooted to the ground - responsible, caring, hard-working and respectable, who is probably not as attractive as the former, but pretty nevertheless, coz she's real and not a fake.

Rare situations in life - let's talk about them. Say, like having a power cut while you are watching TV or typing something on your computer; having an unfinished list of 'to do' items at the end of a day; going late to work; typing out a post for your blog when you have more pressing things to attend to; getting stuck in a traffic jam; not paying your cellphone bill before due date; having a disagreement with someone...........(cut short your laundry list, sucker!!!) Now i'm sure you are going back to the beginning of this post, to make sure if you read the phrase 'rare situations'.

Like all other situations mentioned above, disagreements are indeed a common occurance and i'd be surprised if you didn't have one in the last few days (or hours, if you are in the same league as me). I thrive on disagreements - I disagree with the weather, with food, with TV programming, with newspaper content, with medications prescribed by docs, with fake ambiences in certain restaurants, with 'feel good factors' / India shining (shoes?), with Hollywood / Bollywood / Tollywood / other 'woods' if any, with rules & regulations, with law & order :D, with IT-BPO-centric vision of future for this country....... (enough!!!!!!!) and last but not the least, with fellow human beings. Not a day passes without my disagreeing.

Just like anything else in this world (beauty, intelligence, yada yada yada) disagreements also have their levels. Some are so insignificant you dont even realize them, whereas there are some which prompt you to question life and its purpose. As my luck would have it, the disagreements I get into from time to time are more of the latter kind. I've lost friends, lovers, spouses (the plural there is a bit of an exaggeration :)), employers (good riddens), landlords, tenants, neighbors.......... that must be quite a lot of people, if you keep a count. Do I enjoy disagreements? I dunno, maybe I do :) And do I regret the outcome? I definitely do. This is to all those people I lost: "Come back to me. I never wanted you to leave me in the first place. I just thought you were lousy and felt that you could do better ;)" Well, it so happens, they don't read my blogs :)

Back to urgent work..........

Having made up my mind to start blogging, I realize that it's like feeding a hungry elephant. You just have to keep posting, even though you have nothing to write home about. Aaaaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhh!!!!!!! I should have known better.

For instance, I should have known that my life is so boring, and that the posts would also naturally reflect that mood. I should have known that entertaining people is not exactly my fort

Abu Ghraib - the Iraqi prison where the civilized world showed us what civilization is. CNN website's link to the photo gallery warns: "This report includes graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised." I did exercise my (in)discretion and the content was indeed 'porno'graphic.

Basic questions that run amok in my mind - who are these imperialists, and what are they doing in a country that's not theirs, violating all norms of decency, let alone human rights? Why should the world come to their support when their forces are shot and their bodies are dragged on the streets - they had no business to be there in the first place. What human rights record of the past have these 'saviours of humanity' set right? Where are the WMDs??????? Why is there still a coalition (Spain, Australia, UK) that supports these imperial forces? Are we (i.e. India) an implicit member of that coalition? Isnt every silent voice an implicit member? Would we have explicitly participated as a coalition member, had this not been an 'election year'? Wouldnt that have been a shame to the 200 or so years of our own freedom struggle?

Looking ahead, I wish the US is pushed into a corner (by the rest of the world or by the Americans themselves) and is forced to beat a retreat like they did in Vietnam, letting the Iraqis themselves to decide on their future. And...... thumbs down to the U S of A!!!!