Sacred Cows

Goodness, you have been writing!!

~By Anu. And here I thought the blog was dead... nobody was reading it anymore... My own fault of course, for leaving India and becoming uninspired so easily! But today, I logged on and found half a dozen comments waiting, some for months, neglected and unpublished... and my heart was glad! Here they are.
    My apologies to all of you for not noticing them before and please, keep writing!! I have three more days in Florida and this big old house is LONELY!! Though I did FINALLY manage to take pictures of this pair of ethereal, crimson-headed cranes that I occasionally chance upon during my morning walk...! They are amazing-- about three feet tall and very placid, except when they're trying to impress each other, and then they jump and beat their wings. On Sunday, we found them blocking the driveway to a house. Even when the lady in her 4x4 honked at them, they wouldn't give way! Cheeky.
    Also, I'm working on a short story and finding that a *flash* of inspiration is enough to get you started, but not enough to help you finish or make it readable! Your comments will keep me ticking over til Friday when I board the plane, once again, back to Blighty. Good news though, we are definitely headed back to India in February and there are many exciting new adventures on the horizon!

Back to Blighty

~By Anu. Wow! First the Kohinoor, now the Monsoon! It's been raining so much in England, Gloucester looks like a Bihari paddy field. Luckily, east London is still above water and not only my plants, but several loads of laundry have been well watered!

Meanwhile, it's been a season of setbacks... Ok, just the one. I applied to be BBC India correspondent after a successful stint in the job for three months. The interview was in the middle of June. Like all candidates, I prepared an extensive range of story ideas (investigative, cultural, political), honed my reasons for wanting the job (passion, ten years experience, did I mention passion??) and obsessed day and night for weeks about my chances of getting hired. BBC job interviews are a bit like a Papal conclave: mysterious and awe-inspiring. For a start, every interview I've ever had has been conducted by five people. I'm sure even Saddam's firing squads were smaller. After interviews, I usually plunge myself straight into making a programme, because the wait is as excruciating as having splinters slowly and lovingly eased into the pads of your fingers. I'm sure there is even a system of black and white smoke signals to indicate whether the esteemed panel have reached a consensus or not.... you just can't see it over the enormous satellite dishes atop BBC Television Centre...

Champak writes....

~By Anu:I got this email from Champak Reddy in Puducherry (Pondicherry, a former French colony, also known as the French Riviera of the East), located in southern India.

Champak describes a public hearing... sadly, he says, an all-too-typical one! Here’s a link to explain what it’s all about:

“[This is] a typical farce of government public hearings in India....and this one may result in a great environmental misadventure. So where to start from...?

- The road to the Venue of the Public Hearing was cordoned off by police. Hundreds of villagers from Tengathittu Island were coming to the public hearing and had announced a march.

- The public hearing was starting at 3:00 pm. At 3:15 it hadn't started yet, but we could sense some tension.

- We started getting calls from other friends outside that they were not being let inside the hall. The hall was not even half full. Tension grew till some of us in the crowd had to shout and to tell the speaker that several people were not being allowed in.

Siddarth writes...

"I am delighted to hear back from you, and that too as winner of the competition....I don't think your blog was nominated to IndiBloggies (http://www.indibloggies.org/) -- maybe that's something for next year?"

Anu says: "Wow-- What a great idea!! I had no idea we could be nominated for being moooo-riginal! Please, do nominate us! Will there be a red-carpet ceremony? Should I buy a dress?"