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May 04, 2007
Auto rickshaws give you that immediate, fatalistic feel for traffic
The house came through today, a three bedroom condo in Trivandrum, in Belhaven Gardens.
Took an auto rickshaw 30Km back to the hotel room near Technopark. When I first arrived in Trivandrum, I was looking forward to the Technopark. My hopes were crushed when I found out that it was devoted to technology and business process outsourcing. Nary a synthesizer in sight.
I'm flying back to Gurgaon the week after next, then back to Singapore for a week at the end of May.
Television still acts as a cultural ambassador. It probably has the widest reach of any medium. I think about this when I flip through the hotel channels. MTV has altered itself for India and now plays music videos. Other shows are dubbed in Hindi (a good narrative would have given me a "moment of awakening" when I saw Skeletor speak in Hindi on the dubbed version of He-Man yesterday but still nothing happened). The only totally undubbed and unaltered channel is the WWF channel. Strangely, WWF is popular in the little India section of Singapore as well. Crowds of people sit in plastic chairs outside the beer joints in little India, watching WWF, drinking beer, and conversatin'. Activists might like to believe that the current administration has made a strong impact on Amercia's image in the world but I'm beginning to suspect that Vince McMahon and John Cena have had a bigger impact.
Why do hotels offer free letterhead in the room desks? It's not as if I want to convince someone that I am an employee of the hotel. Maybe the hotel staff just sits there, waiting, so they can say "ah-ha!.. you used the letterhead...you work for us now."
Hari and I have been discussing transportation. I'd like an Enfield Bullet but a motorcycle requires a license which can make things confusing from a residency standpoint so I might need to step down to a scooter. In the best of all worlds, I'd get an auto rickshaw and give it a custom paint job. It would look badass and I would not get soaked during the monsoon season. it is weird that nobody buys an auto rick unless they are running a taxi service. sure, they have very little power but they are darn handy for errands.
I have not gone hiking or been to a museum/ art gallery in months. I miss both of these things.
I'll bet that there are vampires with a sweet tooth who chase diabetics around.
I've been thinking a lot about the baby crying contest in Japan, where Sumo wrestlers pick up babies and make faces and the baby that cries the loudest wins. Given the way memory shapes itself in infants, it could be that this event becomes the first fixed memory for some of these kids. What sort of first memory is that?
I wonder whether event amnesia is a common feature among kids who are developing an active memory. I might see something (like the sumo wrestler) that could become my first permanent memory but then some part of my brain elects to "lose" that first memory, waiting for something more pleasant.
It would be fun to make iron-on placemats that I could permanently affix to my table.
Jibber Jabberin | By jb | 11:15 AM
Comments
"I have not...been to a museum/ art gallery in months."
There's an Edward Hopper exhibit currently at the MFA. I'm going with my Bank of America card in tow.
Posted by: heidi at May 4, 2007 01:21 PM
BOA... what is your credit limit? Those paintings are pretty expensive.
Posted by: jb at May 5, 2007 01:06 AM
I think, though, that your brain would only elect to lose that memory after it got another one, yeah, but I know almost nothing about cognitive development.
Posted by: linnea at May 5, 2007 08:40 AM