We live in weird times. While on one hand there so much हल्ला about ex-beauty queen Aishwarya's marriage, there are others who have achieved much greater things, yet have received little publicity. Here is a link to Miss India 1979 Swarup Sampath's doctoral degree award for her research on dyslexic children. She received her degree a few weeks ago.

Most of my school time friends, having been brought up in Bangalore, often remark that the city has changed. It has, and in more than one way. One is the proliferation of eunuchs in Bangalore. Also called Hijras, Chakkas, Ombods, they are to be seen everyway nowadays, even places like Brigade Road. Their prescence has been acknowledged by history and mythology. Shikandi was a eunuch, as were most of the imperial guards in the fabled Forbidden City. But let me start from the begining.My odd tryst with the 'third sex' started with Friday's episode of Colgate MaxFresh अन्ताक्षरी - हर अक्षर पे खेलागा इंडिया (too लॉन्ग अ नामे). As usual the episode begun with Anu Kapoor singing a song, only this time he was accompanied by 5 eunuch's. The song (predictably) was चुनर घोटे में from Mehmood's कुवारा बाप. The eunuch's played their part well - gaudy clothes, incesstant clapping and yelling, all the standard quirks of their kind. This was followed later in the show by another of their anthem's - तय्यब अली प्यार का दुश्मन हाय हाय! If this episode was it, it wouldn't merit a blog post - there was more. On Saturday I decided to watch 'Meet the Robinson's' at Inox. Shitanshu came along - no he is not a eunuch. When walking down Brigade Road, we met a pack of them. Oddly, they were not troubling anyone. They seemed to be on a shopping spree (had lots of bags from one of the Levi's stores of Brigade Road). They were having a nice time, one hungry look towards an innocent male, and he near-faints. I tell this by personal experience.When I came across somemore of their ilk on Sunday it got really errie. Thankfully they behaved like their stereotype - called me Raja, manhandled me, extorted 10 bucks... normal ones would have freaked me out! जाते जाते they blessed me a happy married life, complete with a fertile wife and a zillion kids. Muhahahahahaha, my scheme of world-domination is gonna come true!

Its taken me over 9 months to write a new entry! I had almost abandoned it, but then I got a message from someone empathizing with my dislike of b-schools (look at the post below for why)! Well, I have moved on, and the junta here has shown other facets of the personality! Without going into greater details I would simply say that I am prone to making hasty judgements. Sometimes they are incorrect.One year done, another to go. I am interning in HP Bangalore right now. It feels great to be in Bangalore for a period longer than 10 days. For all the poor roads and horrendous traffic, Lalbagh and April showers are things that no other megacity in India can match.My parents went to a ज्योत्शी (astrologer) yesterday. I wasn't pleased by this abject display of lack of trust in the family seer (me!). But its ok, I guess. Astology is afterall somewhat scientific, unlike the foundationless musings of seer (to find out the difference between the too, let me know). वेद पंडित शंमुखानंद (VPS) made predictions for the my father, mother and sister (I made my parents promise that they wouldn't show him my जन्मपत्र). He had some interesting things to say. First he said that my father, sister and I have all had a 'साड्डे-साती ' (a period of time when Saturn is in particularly foul mood and decides to leave you in a similar one) running since 2000. I jumped at this: they showed him my chart! Father then went into a monologue about how he has my best interests at heart, blah blah. Whatever. As can be deduced from its name 'साड्डे-साती' lasts for 7 1/2 years, which means till later this year. That means... we're gonna be wealthy soon! Time for the hurrays, eh? Father certainly thinks so. VPS also said that within six months of the dawn of the non- साड्डे-साती (poorly put, sorry!) period, we would have a house of our own, millions of rupees in wealth and what not! Then things became interesting. VPS told my father that any property he buys, he should register mom as the owner. Mom was listening :) She can't stop gloating ever since, and if my grandad wasn't a jyotshi himself, my dad would have had some choicy words for the entire ilk! VPS went on to say that four years from now, both my sister and I would be married. My sis wasn't amused (see is barely 18 right now). My dad was surprised too, he always planned to send her packing at a much later date. He (according to my mom) was immediately enveloped with the bharatiya baap's greatest fear - dear beti is gonna elope! VPS assured him that this wouldn't happen and that both of us will have arranged marriages. Whether he saw this in the charts or whether my father's hysterics made him chuck his professional ethics aside, we would probably never know. Anyway, it was my mom's turn to display her set of insecurities - VPS assured her that her bahu would maintain cordial relations for I will always remain with them in a joint family (I can't see the relation, Ekta Kapoor's soaps show how 'joint' is not the same as 'cordial'!). Mom then asked if I would ever work abroad. VPS said yes, for atleast 3 years. Dad was shocked - beta to gaya haat se. He made my mother promise not tell me the same ('he will get ideas'). Nevertheless, much to my mom's consternation, he told the same himself. He then told me that I had an opportunity to prove that my grandpa was the only good panditji ever - not go abroad and prove VPS a fraud. I (quite cheekily) said that I wouldn't do that, for an attack on him would be an attack on ज्योतिष itself. Placing my hand on my heart, I said that I couldn't do this to ancient Indian heritage! Besides, who are we to challenge God's idea of pre-determination? Dad nearly slapped me! VPS also said that after a few years of work for a company, I would start my own 'business'. Now that is strange. Why would I leave the comfort and security of a regular job? That would be very out of character of me. He also said that the business would be an imort/export of computer stuff (wonder which new planet suddenly appeared in the 50s to enable astrologers to assign this new business to clients) and that I would then become filthy rich (hehehe). He ended it all by saying that we would have good times ahead. Frankly, that sounds more like a signing off statement than a prediction! Mom probably had a dream where I refused to return from America and Dad had one where my sis eloped for the 10th time or something - stupid astrologer!