Solo notes

Solo. Solitude. Loneliness. Alone. Dreaded words in today's world, probably more dreaded than the words cheating, villainy, slander. It is not easy to admit, to oneself, or others that one does not have company. Somehow, there is a great deal of acceptance associated with company, however inferior, and none associated with the company of oneself. A loner is a word with strong negative connotations, as is lone wolf. One who seeks company, however, is not called a sheep, but a social butterfly!
Most people who are questioned about this phenomenon would retort with the cliche"Man is a social animal". I am not sure who came up with this statement, and whether it has evolutionary/biological/anthropological arguments. I wonder what these arguments are. It seems like there are many "social animals". Sheep, for one. Cows, elephants, penguins, monkeys to name few more. All these animals stick together in packs, mostly for ensuring food and security for themeselves. So how is it a human prerogative to be a social animal?
In fact, outside of the animal functions of eating, mating, bringing up young etc., the achievements of the most intelligent species have rarely been communal. A thinking mind always strives solitude, as does one that creates. What philosophies would have been born if Thoreau, Nietschze, Sankara, Confucius and Ramanuja had not meditated on life alone? What excellence could have dazzled forth from mathematicians and musicians, writers and poets, physicists and painters, if they had spent their lives in parties! A scientist, an artist, a thinker, a gymnast or even a cook cannot reach his peak in a community setting. For every significant achievement of the human mind, there are hours of solitude required. Then, why is solitude not our fundamental nature? Is it because our fundamental nature still closely resembles animals who live in herds? Is solitude only for those who exercise their minds, and is it therefore, a higher form of evolution that has not yet become the norm?
Clearly, pursuits of the mind are not the reason why we have social hangovers.

People usually like to have new sensual experiences in groups, or at least pairs. The magnificence of natural sights, the mellifluousness of a musical concert, the savor of a gourmet dish, the fragrance of blooms, or the touch of a spring breeze...can any of these intensely personal, sensual experiences be enjoyed any better because of the presence of another? Narrating the experience to one-another could possibly give some joy. But how can words, however articulate, convey any more joy than the experience itself? Why does another person's experience provide reassurance and legitimacy of our own? If it concerns matters of the heart, then that is a different genre that i will not venture into! Most of the times, though, the society we seek (and find) is shallow, unfulfilling, trifling and uninspired. They are around us, for their mere presence, as if the value of a human being is in his skin! The protocols that we have developed, enable us to be "courteous" and "well-behaved", euphemisms for unnatural and affected. We ask questions that we dont want to, hear answers that we dont listen to, make passive-aggressive statements that show how we are somehow playing the game better and then disperse back into our own zones. Heartless attempts, full of propriety. Its almost as if we wouldnt be who we were, if not for the endorsement that groups of far less qualified indviduals gave us! Confucius aptly put it when he said "Virtue does not remain as an abandoned orphan; it must of necessity have neighbors."
I imagine a society where lives are not intertwined. Where people are not perenially under a parasol of approval or disapproval from their "designated critics". Where social acceptance does not rely on popularity indices. Where the number of invitees for one's graduation party does not determine one's image. Where gossip is not cast into million dollar industries. Where another person's foibles are less attractive than one's own. Where the culture is to savor the silence of solitude and to use it well. Where the emphasis, on a man's 80th birthday, would be the number of achievements his mind made, as opposed to the number of guests in his birthday party.

No one other than Thoreau could have come up with this ode to solitude: I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house.

Seinophilia

Jerry Seinfeld is not a genius. Yet people seldom think so, when landing up in 1000s, paying $70 for an hour of his standup routine. It seems outrageous that a man in a suit, telling jokes about public restrooms and mobile phones, is priced at the same value as an entire production, with cast, crew, music, lighting, glitz and grandeur. How does he compare with the Phantom of the Opera? Has he put in as much money into putting up his show? Clearly not. Has he spent months choreographing, coordinating and reharsing? No. He's probably taken a good, hard look at all the animate and inanimate objects around him and identified their most annoying traits, in preparation for the show. And probably read the newspapers.
Whether it is a musical concert, a dance performance, shows on ice, circus acrobats, or even theater, the principal reason why people would go, is to get inspired by the talents or skills possessed and trained for, by other men and women. Stand-up comedy, due to its fragmented and quotidian nature is not inspiring. It has traditionally been a filler in variety entertainment shows, done by funny men outside of their day jobs. It comes nowhere close to an art form, or a honed skill that can wow other human beings. It is decidedly a lesser form of entertainment than theater, and a much less deep than humorous writing.

So how is Seinfeld able to justify the whopping ticket prices to his audiences?

An easy answer is that he is the title star of a stupendously successful television blockbuster. However, one wonders if Jennifer Anniston or Matt Le Blanc, both stars of a similarly successful TV show would have garnered 7000 people at $70 each for an evening. Maybe not. Seinfeld's appeal is not just that he starred in a top TV show. He has, somehow, managed to win America's trust and indulgence, enough to get them to laugh at their raisin bran bowl and their own toddlers. For some reason, it feels like Jerry really understands. Even though he may not have been the principal writer of those shows, he has earned credibility as a cerebral, insightful man. Probably some of this has to do with the fact that he is a standup comedian in the show too. In an expert stroke, he has managed to ensconce himself in the American psyche over the past 10 years, as the guy who has the right to laugh at them. One wonders if his character was intended as a mega brand imaging ploy to guarantee the rest of his standup comedy career, or that events have played out to his advantage.

His jokes, themselves, are wry, observational and have a repeat value due to their universal relatability. Whether it is mobile phones, household garbage, weather reports or his mom's paranoia, everyone in the audience can relate to his topics. There are no cultural or background references, no know-what and know-how of concepts, or anything that can make one feel left out. For instance, if one translated his jokes to a native Indian tongue, they would still be as funny, and one's parents would laugh at them. That means he his humor is beyond language and culture. That also means it is way more native than sophisticated. After his show yesterday i overheard a man on the road tell his wife "Why are you asking me to go to our son's best friend's party? Didnt you hear Seinfeld yesterday? 4 year olds dont have best friends! Put a sock on your hand, call it a puppet and that is their new best friend!".
Perhaps that is why people pay to listen to him. He teaches them when and how to laugh.

Brown Man's Burden?

I visited London recently, my first time.
I went to all the pamphlet favorites - the edifices and experiences that one has grown up reading about and dreaming up. They lived up to and sometimes surpassed all those dreams. London is one of the rare cases where the hype does not dissapoint.
But i did not set out to play "Lonely Planet" here. I wanted to share my stream of consciousness while seeing some of the city.
A stark difference between the medium-sized American city life i am used to and London, is the choice of commutation. So, as opposed to driving to any place further than the mailbox, the average Londoner prefers a brisk walk even to public transport for any given distance.

On one such short-as-per-interpretation walk that started at Piccadilly circus, i sauntered along the glitz of London's shopping and theatre enclaves toward Trafalgar Square. The vast, open space, with a flight of stairs that seemed to lead to the sky, gave Trafalgar Square a vibrant look. Lord Nelson's statue stood tall, gazing down on two strategically placed fountains whose waters have promptly been used to quench young lovers' thirst for romance. Bronzed lions guarded the periphery of the expanse.
Against the backdrop of the inky London sky, with flocks of gurgling pigeons, the Square pulsed with the sound of...freedom. Freedom. Trafalgar Square seemed to be a monument to the feeling of freedom. It symbolized spontaenity, forthrightness, openness, abandon- all that is associated with freedom. There was no sense of awe or insignificance one feels while seeing historical monuments, nor the curiosity for knowing its legend. This was, simply put, where the heart leapt.

As i savoured this rare sensation, an imposing statue to the south of the arena beckoned my attention. This was of Sir Henry Havelock, a stalwart general of the East India Company. The inscription on his statue lauds his efforts and bravado in restraining the Sepoy mutiny of 1857. Havelock, comandeering an army comprising the Sikh regiment, had systematically routed the Indian soldiers from Cawnpore (Kanpur) on a rampage that ended (ironically) on 15th Aug, 1857. The statue piqued a sudden surge of nationalist sentiment in me, that is typically caused by history books. Except, this time, the poignancy struck me like a bolt. Here, at London's focal point, that Dickens calls "the finest site in Europe", alongside Lord Nelson, arguably one of Britain's brightest stars, was a tribute to the man who destroyed Nana Sahib. A tribute to exploitation, plunder and savagery. To the man who is known to have said "His skin was black and did not that suffice?" when questioned about the savage execution of 54 men in 2 days in Kanpur. The statue spoke of how a "grateful country" would not forget the mercenary army's valor. Valor, shown toward a working class uprising against economic, physical and religious opression on their own soil. What Indian history textbooks call the freedom struggle. Freedom. 100 metres back, i had sensed this in my bones.

Suddenly, i felt like my ocean of freedom was choked with thick oil. I stopped to think if this was jingoism. A flood of images crossed my mind- of the wretched visions of poverty i had seen in India, of our staggering debt statistics, of the current global perception of India, of servility that now comes so naturally to us, of the brown man's burden...
I realised then that there was something stronger than nationalism, or resentment or even anger that i felt. I felt suffocated by something no one could change-history. The history that had, profoundly, definitely, permanently, effected the way i and all my future generations would feel, when at the Trafalgar Square. This was, simply put, where the heart plunged.

The article about nothing

This article does not do anything. Well, actually, it knows what it does not do. It sure does; does know, that is, what it does not. OK, that's getting loopy. Let's move on.
Oh wait, but we cant move on. You see, this article does not believe in space or time or dynamism thereof. So let's just figure out what it does not, which is all that it really does.
Should we eliminate in alphabetical order? Probably not, since that reeks of order and one thing this article definitely does not like is order or structure of any sort. (But we are just starting out, so we needn't take the not-taking-seriously too seriously.)

A-No three-letter-word -starting -with -A-and ending-with-T. Please. We cant encourage profanities. (Henceforth referred to as A**)
B- Not bombastic. No big words, buddy boy. I, whoever i am, will connect with you, whoever you are, without the crutch of language.
C- No connections. The above usage notwithstanding. There cant be a connection between two nobody-reallys.
D- No definition...i mean...ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THAT IS THE ONE THING WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN, ALRIGHT???!!
E- No emotions. (What about emoticons, you ask?). None either. That would imply that we have emotions and the whole point is that we cant be like beasts or insects or whichever unfortunate form that is supposed to have them.
No ego too. No self, so no ego. But what about the case where our non-being is threatened by earth-resident-aliens? If we defend ourselves, would we have an ego? Confusing. Nothing that cant be taught by a little training, though.
F- Nothing fancy, flouncy, florid, feathery or frilly. Basically, no F-words other than the 4 lettered ones.
G- No G**. G**! Sorry to offend yoll's sensibilities (where applicable) , but there seems to be no decent way out of this non-definition.
H- No hoity-toity high-brow hogwash. However, it is fine to be hoity-toity about not being high-browed. Hogwash? No, i can explain...
I- No I. Clever, huh? Oops...will you stop that ego massage already?
J- No joys. Although this is a subset of E, this needs to be handled separately, since presents the most danger to us. Joys, Joyce..explosive stuff.
K-No kindness. No kin, so no need. No ken. Any trace of it must be stashed away in the kennel.
L-No love. Nossir, it aint love that makes our world go flat.
M-No mentors.
N-No. Nahin. Nyet. Negative. We love "N"!
O- No order, none other.
P-No pretense. For that matter no pre-tense. That's our way of saying we dont care for the past.
No political correctness. For that matter no political and no correctness. Let's spell it out into the open-seniors, women, kids...watch out! We know our cuss words and are not afraid to say them!
Q-No quotations. Nobody's trash gets emptied in our garden...wait...trash can. (I think i am finally talking the talk!)
R-No refinement. Crass is class.
S- No self-control. We dont need none of it.
T-No theory. You A** theoreticians, you science theoreticians, you pomposities, you monstrosities, just you wait-we have a theory about you.
U- No unnecissities. (Does that mean invention, what with necessity being big momma and all that? Training will tell. I am sure we cant admit to being inventors, or any such grand title!)
V-No Victorian. Well, maybe, just her secret.
W- No wins. No whines. (Notice, did not say no wines, cant say no to everything, can you now?)
X-Nothing in Xcess. Fine, that's cheating, but X is not E-see?
Y-No you. Phew! That was easy.
Z-No zephyr. OK, so i looked for all the words from Z and this was the most pleasant one i found, so i decided that negating it would be fine by us.

That was a lot of work. Darn it, at the end of it, the article turned out to be something-work!

Within or Without?

I've always found that the best kind of product, whether scientific, artistic or anything else that is cognitive, comes about when there is no audience in the creator's head. The minute one starts thinking about the recievers of the product, it will severely compromise the quality of what one creates. A probable reason for that, is that originality gets relegated to a background, in favor of populist appeal. Pandering, however altruistic, is in direct conflict with the self-satisfaction or "spirituality", or "inspiration" or whatever it is that allows you to make a connection with ether! That is why, it is quite common to see the best kind of creativity, when it is unsullied by the desire for acceptance. So, the best way to learn Bharata's natyashastras is not from the "Noopur" and "Nartaki" dance schools that are strewn from Mumbai to Milipitas. That art form 's spirit lives in Thiruvaiyyar in Tanjavur, in Rajamanikam Pillai's hutment. For he dances for himself, not for the Padma awards and the UN shows that get him a house in Delhi's VIP localities. In a strange paradox, the best outputs are those where you are most selfish. That said, i am not convinced of that thought when taken to the extreme. Like i once saw a show of a famous modern dancer, which had silence for 40 minutes on the stage, with the lights out. Needless to say, when the lights came on, there was silence again, since everyone had left! (I stayed on, curious to see what the dancer had imagined. That is a different story!)
At such times, one can argue that the point of all art is some sort of expression, so it is probably good to know how to express it, by knowing your audience. So, when Alarmel Valli started the remarkable trend of communicating in English what her mimes mean, before every piece she performed, it was communicating with her audience, not pandering to it. But there is a thin line. And transgressing it, is the difference between a truly great work and a could-have-been.
In writing, which uses the crutch of language, it is far easier to not transgress that line than in dance, music, painting or for that matter, science. So poets and writers can write purely for themselves, and then bask in the universality of the medium, that makes a reader recognize some part of his life or thoughts in the writings, and hail it as a great piece. That's what it is, isnt it? When you are able to relate some thought, feeling or experience to what you are reading/seeing/ listening, another man's indulgence becomes a work of art.

Amazing Amadeus

I saw "Amadeus" yesterday, after having heard of it forever. Since it is a 20 year old movie, I am not really going to review it now, but some portions of it astounded me, and I’d like to analyze why. The movie is an account of Mozart's life. It has 17th century Austrian noblemen and German sopranos speaking in chaste American English! In fact, cuss words, casual slang, and all that jazz (unintended!) results in a rather unconvincing rhetoric. Or that is what I thought, until I looked beyond that, and saw the reason why the film had won 8 academy awards in its time.

The movie is told as a story by one of Mozart’s contemporaries, a musician called Antonio Saileri. Salieri is shown as a Lucifer of sorts, in what proves to be one of the most interesting portrayals of the landscape of human aspirations. Although historians do not agree with the depiction of Salieri as Mozart's culprit and murderer, there is enough evidence to believe that he did thwart Mozart significantly. However, irrespective of its faithfulness to history (the writers of the play version denied any claim to authenticity) the film tells a compelling story.

The story is about the great and the trifle, the sublime and the petty, the magnificent and the pusillanimous -all in a single stroke. Salieri, born as a musical underdog, is scalded with the desire to be a musician, and worship God with his music. Mozart, with the indubitable makings of a genius, is backed by his musician father, Leopold, into a famous innings as a child prodigy. Salieri grows into a religious, devout Christian; Mozart, an uncultured, perverted boor. Salieri wears himself thin, praying for the voice of God to enter his soul. He works on his music relentlessly, until he becomes a court composer of the Emperor of Vienna. To the untrained ear, Salieri is the epitome of classical music. Salieri himself, however, is painfully aware of his music does not even compare to Mozart’s mesmeric melodies. When he meets Mozart for the first time, he expects to “see” the genius in his being. Although the movie does not dwell on it, it is interesting how a certain class and bearing is associated with the word “genius”, despite the obvious lack of correlation between ability and social adeptness. It therefore, comes as a rude shock to see an “infantile, vulgar, boastful” person possessing the genius of Mozart.

Salieri’s intense grievance, as he feels that God betrayed him, is expressed movingly. He complains bitterly, “You manifest yourself in a child of obscenity and crudity, and give me, only enough caliber to recognize your incarnation…”. The line strikes one, because of the truth it touches upon. The unhappiest people are not those who do not have any talent or caliber, in fact, they are blissfully unaware of their relative positions in the world. The unhappiest are those, who have just enough capacity and keenness to know what it means to be great, and that they can never get there.

Salieri decides to wage a battle against God, and makes it his business to crush Mozart. So Mozart makes his music, in the quest of sublimity, while Salieri does everything in his power to keep him unemployed and unrecognized. The contrast between one man’s pursuit of great things, and another man’s pursuit of petty trifles is dramatic. Salieri speaks of the astounding brilliance of Don Giovanni, and in the same breath says how he ensured that it did not play more than 5 times in Vienna. Each of those 5 times he goes to watch that historical opera, and weeps for every line that he should have composed but could not.

In one of the most moving scenes in cinema, is depicted the contrast between the sheer excellence of Mozart, as he dictates the complex interplay of notes in his requiem, and the dull, halting mediocrity of Salieri as he grapples with the speed and fury of genius. Both are moved to tears-Mozart, because of the intensity of his creative process, which is causing him physical pain and literally killing him; Salieri, due to the frustrating medley of inspiration, awe and smallness that he feels, since he is knowingly killing this manifestation of divinity.

So, who wins? In the physical sense, Salieri ensures that Mozart dies a pauper, and is buried in a pauper’s grave. However, in his life after Mozart, he watches his own music fade away from people’s minds, and dies the death of ignominy and anonymity every day. While Mozart’s music lives on, centuries later. Salieri confesses his crime to a priest, and admits that in the battle between God and him, although he destroyed God’s incarnation, he still feels God won.

The movie is a remarkable account of human fallibility in the form of Salieri, and human ascent in the form of Mozart. For the same reason, it is at once uplifting and demeaning.

Naach? Naah!

I have been a Bharatanatyam dancer for most of my life.
I take the dance form very seriously, and have spent
much sweat honing it. Some years ago, I came to a top school in the
US for
a PhD in Engineering. Ever since, I've been palpably aware of the
dreariness of technical and academic fields. In resolute
rebellion, I've been trying to hold on to my artistic and feminine
sensibilities, in the process, often coming across as an upcoming
Bollywood starlet to serious fellow PhDs.

In one such artistic endeavor, I joined an introductory
course in Modern dance, offered by the much acclaimed dance school of
my university. I have always been skeptical of the word
"Modern", when used in the context of dance. A little footnote as to
why - I once went to a Modern dance "show" that had silence and
darkness on stage for the first 45 minutes. Of course, I didn't stay
to find out what happened after that. (I recall thinking that a
similar effect was achieved by a tardy 'projector-change wala' at
Metro cinema, to not nearly as rave reviews). Since my only experience with
Modern dance had left me, let's say, a little blank, I did not know
what to expect from the class. The only other reference I had heard to
Modern dance, was by some 50-year-old respectable South Indian
gentlemen, who used it (with eyes shining) to describe Zeenat Aman's
moves in an 80s number. Clearly, that didn't count.

On the first day of class, I was clueless, and very
conscious of it. I was fervently drawing from my self image of
a Bollywood star (starlet was others' perception, not mine) who could
just whip up mean moves with no hint of prior training.
I was surrounded by classmates, who also seemed new to Modern dance.

The instructor, Ray, was an American man in his 30s, who, going by his
convoluted warm-up stretches, was supple, but not subtle.
He gave a short speech about movement, and how it was
important to our lives. Then, it began. He said, "In today's class,
we will deal with contact improvisation." Awed silence. "For starters,
please lie on the floor and start rolling like barrels towards the
wall." Shocked disbelief.

The other students were all American, except an Indian
guy who looked like he asked a lot of questions. True to the American
spirit, they were accepting, unconditioned and ready for anything. I
was telling myself I was really liberal, and just needed a channel
and a setting to unleash it. So there we were, pretending to be
barrels, literally rolling on ourselves to get a grade.
With my torso suspended in mid-air during a roll, I heard Ray
give the killer command,
"Do not scream or shout when you come in contact with another
person's body. Let your bodies touch and go with the flow."

When my torso gravitated downwards, I was feverishly hoping to not
meet another barrel. It turned out that I did. A petite
Chinese-American girl who had closed her eyes, and was smiling, like
the Buddha on a roll! I gave a high-pitched laughter and tried to
negotiate the next move,
since she didn't look like she was going to budge anymore. Shrill laughter
again. What was wrong with this woman? Did she really enjoy having my
hand on her belly? Meanwhile, "This is the place where you don't have
to say sorry when you meet another body. Don't collide, make smooth
transitions." OK, she finally moved. In all subsequent
rolls, I decided to hang my torso and arms in mid-air, until I was
sure that this beatific barrel (BB) had moved on.


"Feel the beauty of another body and respect it."
Now the class was taking a dangerous twist.
All the rolling bodies were converging toward one wall.
So all my maneuvers to
stay out of the other person's hair (or for that matter, trunk), were
going to nought. I tried various gymnastics to keep as many body parts
up in air, but kept landing on BB, or worse,
more intense barrels. As time rolled on, (I hate that expression now)
I found myself surrounded by thirty other people on the floor near the
wall, all within an arm's distance.

"Roll on. Come on, just a little more." What! If I rolled anymore, my
face would be on BB's hair and my backside below a blonde haired,
goody-two-shoes, who was clearly out to get an "A", even if it meant
kissing someone's backside.
"Don't feel
shy. Shed your inhibitions.". It was official. This
cooler-than-ice-pack instructor was orchestrating an orgy in the name
of Modern dance. There could be no other explanation for why I was
lying on the floor, in the middle of office hours, with a blonde girl
on my right arm, a Chinese girl on my left, and my face in the hair of
someone who did not believe in shampoo.

"Roll more. Feel the beauty of the human form." I was imagining
what it would be like if someone sneezed. I looked around at the pile
of people that had formed around me, all of whom
looked purposeful and happy. I repeated to myself
that I was open-minded too. A foot landed on my neck. I had an open mind.
I could handle that. I could handle lying in live debris,
with people whose name I would never care to know, and whose personal
hygiene I dared not know about. I thought of some stern relatives'
faces if they got to see me in this position. I thought of the horror
of some venerable acquaintances in my technical doctorate world, if
they knew that the researcher they were working with, lay amidst
people-sandwiches by day. No, no, hardly an open-minded
thought. Liberal thoughts, think liberal. Researchers could be in
orgies. Relatives need to accept that.

"Don't let years of conditioning affect you. Breathe in and
out with the same rhythm as the person next to you. In some time, the
whole pile will be breathing together." All except one. I wasn't
breathing. I was hoping that would be an easy way to end it.

Finally, "OK. Now roll back." Now that it had ended, I
would go and tell each person outside this room about how beautiful
the concept of contact imp... "but while rolling back,
you must stay connected
to one more person, who will be your partner. You and your partner
should never lose contact throughout the rolling, but no holding
hands, alright?" Alright?! This man was a pervert!

I was already on my "roll back", as I had charged with the speed of a
road roller as soon as he had said the words. I desperately tried to
look for a partner while rolling, fearing that I may land up with
someone I simply could not keep in touch with. The net result was
frenetic rolling, that made me look like an electric
eel, stuck on to a road roller. Finally, BB came to my rescue,
and smilingly put a leg and an arm across my stomach. I couldn't
believe that I was actually thankful it was her,
instead of a foreign body. And so we went around the room;
me, making jerky, jumpy and inhibited movements, and she acting like
it was most natural to flail herself on me. At one point, she got
adventurous and climbed on to me. I said a silent prayer. She
sinuously and quickly moved back to the floor after seeing me pray. "I
glanced around the room to see what
the curious looking Indian guy was unto. He looked like he'd lucked
out, with the blonde goody-two-more-than-shoes as his partner. I could
tell that he had found answers to a lot of his questions.

At one point, BB asked me to get on top of her. Too tired from strategizing,
I hopped on. Except, she was a pint
sized creature, and I can't say the same thing about myself. As i
consciously balanced myself on her, she
said, with the same spirit as a Hallmark Santa Claus, "Don't worry
about me. I have a footballer boyfriend who I piggyback all the time."
That did it. I had had enough already without being compared to a
piggybacking football jock. I flopped down with as much dignity as I
could muster.

"Hope this experience made you guys feel like a changed person. Hope
you felt a certain connection with
people with whom even language is normally a barrier." I walked out
of class a changed person alright. Loving evolution for creating
language. Tossing open-mindedness along with my chewing gum into the
trash. Trying not to judge Modern dance. Actually, judging it and
giving it an all-time low rank. Cursing myself for not keeping perfume
sachets in my pockets. Wondering if the Indian guy and the blondie had
hit it off. Running toward embracing the beautiful regimen and the
fascinating detail that an engineering PhD life
offered.

Proposal

The Tsunami disaster caused by the earthquake on Dec 26th this year, has been reported to have taken a toll of 60,000 lives. Among these, it is estimated that India alone has lost more than 10,000 of its people to these killer winds. The death tolls are steadily increasing in India, and the actual numbers of lost lives cannot be obtained, since some parts of the affected regions are inaccessible. It is feared that the toll in India alone may reach 20,000. Several thousands are missing. More than 1.5 million Indians have been displaced by this disaster. This is the biggest natural calamity that has faced independent India. The devastation is comparable to that of a nuclear holocaust with several thousand atomic bombs and the United Nations has called the damage "unprecedented".
The affected regions in India are the coastal states of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Although it is too early to assess the acutal damages of this disaster, the infrastructure losses themselves amount to Rs 20 billion in these states. The amount of money required to provide relief and rehabilitation to the affected areas is estimated at $ 500 million. Moreover, there are fatal threats to life in these affected areas, since people are now living in conditions of debris, impure drinking water and poor sanitation conditions, that can cause diseases and epidemics. Medical aid and hospital facilities are estimated to cost more than $ 200 million in these states. India, a developing nation, has to contend with this major setback to its progress, whose damages can cost billions of dollars.
The Indian government is providing relief in the form of medical and food supplies, relief camps and hospitals for the victims of the disaster. The debris clearance and the identification and detection of dead bodies is also being taken care of. Communication efforts with the inaccesible Nicobar islands and relief measures for these regions is also being organized. The government has also promised a remuneration of Rs 1,00,000 for the bereaved families and has promised to build pukka houses for the fishermen whose huts were washed away into the sea.
Although the Indian government is mobilizing all efforts and resources into the relief and rehabilitation for the tragedy, the magnitude of the episode is too large for any single government to effectively counter. As a complement to the Indian government's efforts, Association for India's Development (AID), a non-profit, charity-based, social organization would like to extend its services and volunteers. AID was found in 1991, and has been supporting and initiating efforts in various areas of development such as education, livelihoods, natural resources, health, women's empowerment and social justice in India.AID, Inc. is registered with the US Federal Government as a non-profit charitable corporation under the category 501(C)(3). Its federal Tax-ID is 04-3652609.
AID has about 500 dedicated volunteers working in 36 chapters in the US and 4 chapters in India. It has supported 365 developmental projects so far and has over a 100 ongoing projects in 18 states of India. For more details, please visit :
http://www.aidindia.org/index.php
Gujarat numbers
The Chennai chapter of AID is in Tamilnadu, the most devastated Indian state in this disaster. Our volunteers in this branch have swung into action and are trying to collect resources and organize efforts towards disaster management. They have formed a working coalition with some other local social organizations like TNSF, Pondicherry Science Forum, DYFI, Vidyarambam etc.
They are currently directing the relief efforts towards the five most affected areas in the state of Tamilnadu- Chennai, Cuddalore, Pondicherry, Nagapattinam and Kanyakumari. Since the need of teh hour is to provide immediate relief to the disaster victims, they have organized themselves informally into three task groups:
-Collection and Information Group: This group receives donations in cash and kind, issues receipts, maintains transaction records, provides updates to the AID-US chapters and computes budgetary requirements of the project on a daily basis.
-Resource Allocation and Disbursement Group: This group gets the requirements from the field volunteers, allocates the available resources to the target areas and disburses the collected donations to these areas.
-Field Group: This group involves the grassroots volunteers, who are present at the sites of destruction. They recieve the relief materials and distribute them, and offer their services at the sites. They are also involved in talking to victims and recording the requirements on an hourly basis.
The AID volunteers are carrying trucks full of relief materials and travelling to the target locations, where a relief coordination effort has been planned with the local social organizations. The volunteers plan to stay there for a week to 10 days, and assess and plan the long term rehabilitation efforts after the initial relief is dealt with.
The objectives of the AID Tsunami mission are :
1. To complement the efforts of the Indian government, and provide relief in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Kanyakumari districts of Tamilnadu. The relief operations in these regions are not adequate and effective.
2. To identify under assisted areas and provide blankets, clothes and other relief materials in these areas, over and above the basics provided by the government.
3. To provide manpower and services in the form of field workers, volunteers etc.
4. To organize other social organizations and provide a co-ordinated, consolidated effort to complement the government's relief efforts, as opposed to fragmented, disorganized attempts.

In order to accomplish the objectives of the AID Tsunami mission, we propose to attack the problem by a three-pronged approach:

1. Immediate relief measures: Provision of food, clothing, blankets, medicines, temporary shelter and health camps for medical epidemics and emergencies.
2. Medium term rehabilitation and relief measures: Constuction of pukka huts or houses for the displaced victims, sustained medical aid and hospital facilities for the handicapped or injured
3. Long term infrastructural measures: Alternate livelihood for the dead fishermen's families, provision of livelihood support mechanisms like boats, fishing nets, life jackets etc for those who have suffered a loss of property, building hospitals and schools that have been razed due to the Tsunami disaster.

The budget estimates of the immediate relief alone are at $

The Tsunami calamity has brought about devastation and death of a staggering scale. It is probably one of the worst natural disasters in recent times. In India, the poorest people have been affected. People who do not have savings or insurance. People who are now left without families, homes or a livelihood. It will be very long before these people can recover from this tragedy, if at all, in this lifetime.

The realization of the above approach requires financial aid and generous donations from organizations and individuals all over the world. The UN has called for one of the world's largest relief efforts, spanning all countries and organizations toward a unified corpus devoted to assisting the Tsunami victims. As an important organization with many international employees, some of whom are from the affected countries, we request you to contribute toward this cause. Let us focus all our efforts and try to rebuild the world together.