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The monsoon is expected a week earlier this year. The newspapers and the tv channels did cover that. What they have not covered is why delhi has started getting rains during summer. I came to delhi in 2007, summers. The summer then was the real deal, hot, with ‘loo‘ blowing in the daytime. Riding a bike, I could feel my beard twirling in the hot wind. Then 2008 came, and the summers were different. It would get hot, for 4-5 days, then we would get a shower. That cooled the area down for 2-3 days. And so it went in circles. It is the same this year. And when I searched, I found out that the Tehri dam was finished and got operational in 2007. Co-incidence? I think not.

Of course the only data I have is the time the dam became operational and the time the summers stopped in Delhi. Another thing is nobody likes summers. So whenever it rains, I see a lot of headlines in papers which go as, ‘..relief from the heat..’ and pictures of people looking happy getting wet. If the situation was the opposite, of summer getting hotter, people would have definitely asked, why is it happening. But that’s just human psychology, nobody thinks of reasons when the going is good, only when things turn bad, do they ask, ‘why? why is it happening to me?’

And this is not an idea which originated in my mind. I have travelled a lot in this area, from Dehradun, Mussoorie, to Rishikesh and Haridwar. And the local people, the farmers etc, point these rains to the Tehri dam. Of all the people, the farmer sure knows when the weather chages. Because though he needs rains, if the timing of the rains is wrong his crop may well get spoilt. And from a very top level view, it does make sense. If a very big water source just appears in an area, and gets heated up, it sure will evaporate and create a lot of local humidity. And that may cause rain. And it is a documented fact elsewhere in the world, like here in china’s three gorges dam. Now I am just using common sense here. If any one who reads this has any specific information about anything related, I would like to know. We may all know about global warming, and its consequences, but we should first know about the local climate changes. And whether these local climate changes, are due to our own actions.

I have been working the language semantics of the pika language. Pika is spoken by the pikachu creatures in the world of pokemon. It is amazing how the pikachu can get by with only two words, ‘pika’ and ‘pikachu’. A path with amazingly difficult hurdles lie ahead. Wish me luck folks.

She’s not saasu maa (mother in law) yet. But it is close enough, or what else would you call a guy’s girlfriend’s mom? I have been observing how media’s portrayal of Indian sexuality is changing with time. I had written about the indian maid before. Now it is the turn of the saas (mother in law) and the saali (sister in law), in the Vjazz mobile and the Wildstone deodorant ad .

The point to be noticed here is that the ‘jija-sali‘ thing has been popular in Indian culture for quite some time. Sali aadhi gharwali or sister in law is half wife, has been used a zillion times, even in films. But this is one of the few times where the highlight is on the sexual nature of the relation. And I wouldn’t be surprised if this the first case of portraying sexual interest between mother in law and the guy, in Indian media. The key points to notice here are:

• aunty’s husband is away on a tour, and she’s so lonely
• with the guy’s antics aunty is surely enamored
• when aunty’s daughter finds them in such a situation, she gets nervous…Is it because of guilt?

Maybe a post on eroding traditional values is in order.

I could only catch glimpses of ‘No country for old men‘, fighting for the remote in between the IPL cricket matches. From what I saw, I was deeply intrigued by the Coen brothers. So the next logical step was to download their first movie, ‘Blood Simple’.

The movie begins with scenes of desolation, and a guy commenting on the scheme of things. He finishes of by saying,

‘..But what I know about is Texas. And down here, you’re on your own.’

And this line neatly sums up one layer of the film. With all the bloodletting that we see, we never see the hand of law anywhere. And as I said this movie has several layers. The top layer points to the idea that breakups are not easy and when they occur, they usually make people do idiotic things. Things which if they had reconsidered they would not have done. And the second layer is that every character stands up for their own self when it comes to survival. There is no, ’somebody save me’ in this movie.

The plot is interesting enough that you would get tired of trying to predict and failing. Another remarkable facet is the editing. The cuts are phenomenal, and more so the cuts which are integral to the narrative. Like the scene when the detective goes for the kill and stands by the window. Also the background music which in its absence doesn’t let you miss it, and with its presence makes the scenes richer. If you are thrill seeking, drama loving, you have to watch it. And I will get on with other Coen brother films.

Discovering a musician I really like is a day well spent.