Manali: cleanliness and local cuisine

It’s been couple of years since I had been to Manali. First thing that came to my mind last time was the keenness in which shop keepers were giving away things in paper bags and not in plastic bags as you would see in many other parts of the country. The idea is en-grained well into the visitors as well as they are enjoying this way of transaction. So today, when we went out shopping in the evening, it was a pleasure to see the same practice continuing. Though we didn’t get much time to move around the town, whatever we saw looked clean, (compared to an average Indian town), there seems to a visible Governance and people’s participation. If Manali can do this, why not other towns in India?

However, what was missing was the local food. My practice of religiously tasting local food came under tremendous tension as we couldn’t find a single ‘local’ eatery even after searching in about 20 restaurants in the vicinity of bus station and market. Most of them had menu describing Punjabi, South Indian, Gujarati, Bengali and Italian cuisines. Some restaurants had menu printed out in Hebrew as well; clearly showing the pattern of visitors to the hill station. Why would I want to come to Himachal Pradesh and have a Masala Dosai? Wouldn’t I rather have my Chicken Tikka Masala elsewhere? As for an Italian pizza, this isn’t where I want to explore.

Though it was raining cats and dogs, we didn’t want to give up looking for local eatery. Finally we found David’s café, a tiny eatery on Hadimba temple road. Run by a family, they basically serve what they eat. Though we ended up eating chappathi and zubji for the evening, Sita , the proprietress of the eatery told me that she still continues to cook ‘Maahni’ and ‘Madra’. May be on the way back to Delhi, we should stop by to check her culinary skills.

When every tourist destinations look like the same, and the food taste the same, wouldn't people just stop travelling?

Dilli mein sub chaltha hein!

It’s not that every day in your life that a cab driver would ask you to drive the car while he enjoys his can of Kingfisher beer! The night before yesterday, I ended up driving a cab in the rain from Karolbagh to Delhi Cantonment. It was not just the trust the driver showed in me, but the ease in which I took charge of the car for an hour-long journey that surprised me the most. Spiced with stories of the young man who introduced himself as Amit, I drove through streets of Delhi, scared of being hit by vehicles and pedestrians and cows from all sides.

We had noticed that Amit was quite a special person when we went to Gopinath bazaar looking for a taxi that will ‘ferry us’ through the water-logged roads to Karol Bagh. When rest of the taxi drivers refused to come, Amit volunteered and ‘fixed’ 400 Rs for the return trip and while starting the cab made a statement;”can’t stand those guys who don’t take their duty seriously’. As we were busy with some discussions, we didn’t give much thought to his statements.

However with the steering wheel in hand, I had not much option than to hear out Amit. He showed me photographs of his wife, daughters, younger brother and shared with him his journey from being a martial artist, to a dancer and to being a driver. While sharing all this, he kept on giving me directions and couple of times even ‘corrected’ my driving style suggesting that I am driving like a ‘phoren’ person and probably too sophisticated for Delhi roads. Great.! All I was doing was to recheck that I was not driving on a one-way in opposite direction. Of course I was and he said, “Saab, ye Dilli hein, idhar sab chaltha hein”. Considering that there were policemen and traffic wardens present who didn't care about what we were doing, I had to believe what he told me. That, “this is Delhi and everything is alright here”.

If I had an option I would have drove around the whole night just to hear the stories and experiences of life that Amit was sharing with me. From the 18 girlfriends he had while being an instructor to them at driving schools, to the responsibility he finally took to look after his family, and his ability to speak 12 languages, ( at least he could speak smattering English, Tamil, Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu!), the stories seem to have come straight from his heart. There was no other way than to believe him, as it didn’t come across to me as a lie, or something he was trying to show to impress me. In any case I have no clue how he was trying to impress me by asking me to drive his taxi while he was enjoying his beer! How can I not mention that he was also a dancer at the Woogie Boogie?!

Once we were out of the maddening traffic, he commented that I am a ‘good driver’ ( he seems to have forgotten already how much I was struggling while he was ‘sheperding’ me through the traffic by moving inch by inch to ‘occupy’ any advantage we could get over others on the road!). The best part of the drive was when he asked me ‘How the ‘gaadi’ was?’. It was actually a good vehicle, and when I said I was enjoying driving it, he said, “99 ka hein! CNG, Mein bahuth pyar se chalatha hum!”. It was obvious that he was driving it with 'care and love'.

If everyone would do their job as passionately as Amit ( and of course, not handover the taxi for driving to their customers) and engage their guests with real life or spicy stories like this, I guess even a crowded Delhi traffic pass like a cool breeze! My only regret of this adventure is that I couldn’t get a photograph of Amit and his car!

May be this is the local interpreter The Blue Yonder has been looking for in Delhi!

Media responsibility on palliative care

Photo:Malayalam movie actor Mammooty on his frequent visits to the palliative care clinics in Calicut

A report in today's Times of India screams 'India worst in end-of-life care'. The report rightly laments about the poor condition existing in the 'end of life care' and how India is lying at the bottom of 40 countries from which sample data has been collected. It's true that a newspaper should highlight such a sad state of affairs in a vastly growing economy like India. TOI reports, 'India doesn't just have a poor quality of life, as reflected in its poor human development index (HDI), it also has a particularly poor 'quality of death'.

However what is missing in the news report are some of the highly positive remarks in the original white paper published yesterday by Economist Intelligence Unit on issues surrounding end-of-life care. It says "Amid the lamentably poor access to palliative care across India, the southern state of Kerala stands out as a beacon of hope. While India ranks at the bottom of the Index in overall score, and performs badly on many indicators, Kerala, if measured on the same points, would buck the trend. With only 3% of India’s population, the tiny state provides two-thirds of India’s palliative care services. More over, the state has a formal palliative care policy in place (it is the only Indian state with such a policy)and its government provides funding for community-based care programmes. It was also one of the first of India’s states to relax narcotics regulations to permit use of morphine by palliative care providers. Kerala has also extended the definition of palliative care to include the long-term chronically ill and even the mentally incapacitated."

The report highlights the success story of palliative care movement in Kerala that uses holistic and unconventional approaches compared to institutionalised western approaches. What started in a dressing room of two anesthetists in Calicut Medical College is now the most unique approach to palliative care that is being replicated in countries like Bangladesh, Seychelles and even Switzerland.

While reporting on the sad state of affairs in India vigorously, Times of India could also have inspired many with the success story of palliative care movement in Kerala. With more than 250 self-funded palliative clinics and a massive volunteer base that crosses 20,000 trained volunteers who re-defined community participation in health sector, there are plenty of learning for many other Indian states.

This success story of palliative care movement has to be told mainly because the Government - Public participation (especially community involvement in fund raising and caring) is something that can be replicated in other parts of India. As Dr. Suresh Kumar, Director of Institute of Palliative Medicine says, “there are a lot of medical problems, but there are also a lot of
social, spiritual and financial issues—so anybody who has time to spare can, if properly trained, take care of these people,”.

Indians have heard enough of negative things about their country. It's time we celebrate success stories. Media has a role to play in it.

New Delhi

The first impression of Delhi more than a decade ago was the chilly January, smoggy city, unbelievable crowd on railway platforms (not to mention of those who all considered it as their literal spittoons), arrogant auto drivers, road rage of green line buses and filmy policemen. Introduction to a largely corrupt NGO sector completed the full circle of Delhi. The only positive thing other than some fantastic friends I made in Delhi looked like the small “KIT KAT’ eatery that served the best Paneer mutter masala and Bhurji in South Ex market!

This was soon after I moved from corporate to the development sector. Over the period of last ten years, occasionally I got introduced to some wonderful people ranging from politicians to bureaucrats, social entrepreneurs, activists, cultural stalwarts, writers and some page 3 personalities. From my first visit till now, Delhi has grown by couple of million people, increasingly choked roads, more stupid looking and inefficient policemen, a good metro that partially connects the city and less polluting vehicles that ply the choked roads.

Couple of weeks ago when I came to Delhi once again to launch some new initiatives, I was still weary of the city. Profusely cursing the sweltering heat, I went on praising the cool climes of Bangalore and wonderful Monsoon of Kerala. While listening to my rants on what I am doing in this City, some of my friends patiently reminded me that the easy way to handle any city is to accept it as it is and find my way around.

Two weeks in the city is bringing me closer to it and teaching me to look at the many positive sides it has. There might be a reason why 14 million people might be living in this city. Right?