A morning walk in Manjeri, Kerala.

Air was still and the weather was cool in Manjeri when I took off for a walk at around 6:00 today morning. As I was about to turn towards bypass road from Pandikkad road, very enthusiastic and excited pack of stray dogs emerged and started advancing towards me. The leader of the pack, a muscular powerhouse on the move, returned my gaze as if to sarcastically scrutinising me. My survival tactic involved confidently crossing the road and joining a few terrified looking bystanders. As the pack passed us by, one of the bystanders whispered to my ear, 'you are lucky to be alive.' And he nodded in a solemn air of someone who has experience in survival techniques. 

So with the energy and spirit lifted and to get the circulation going I resumed walking. The by-pass road that connects Pandikkad road to Nilambur road is a short stretch dedicated for parking buses on both sides. I don’t quite understand why they are permitted to do this since nothing more obviously ruins the road. While cleaning the buses they leave the litter on the road. The by-pass should really be called Manjeri Bin Storage Areas since nearly every bus owner has removed any trace of attractiveness from the green on both sides of the road.

A view from bye-pass road.
As you trudge on to the bypass road that runs from Nilambur road toKozhikode Road and to the bypass that joins Kozhikode Road to Malappuram Road, you feel like stepping into a national geographic page. The scene on either of the road were untended and rather wild overgrown shrubs, and I was all the more agreeable for that.  Anonymous-looking unpaved roads disappearing into bushes, small but prosperous-looking houses hiding behind discarded wild trees.

The untended wild on the side of the road

The further I walked, the more isolated things felt. At one point it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen anybody for about half an hour, couldn’t hear traffic, had no idea where I would be when I next saw civilisation. It was nature at its best. People have never had a more beautiful place to be lost.

As clean and green as we get.

As I made it to Kacheripadi and discovered that Manjeri is slowly waking up. I could hear the hustle and bustle of the town. As I opened the gate of our house I checked my Google fit app to learn that I covered 6.2 km in 74 min. When I closed the gate silencing the noise outside, I could hear a bird singing. Perfect!

Beautiful view which is invisible to loacalites

One Big Family, we are.

Excerpts from "A Short History Of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson.

IF YOUR TWO parents hadn't bonded just when they did—possibly to the second, possibly to the nanosecond—you wouldn't be here. And if their parents hadn't bonded in a precisely timely manner, you wouldn't be here either. And if their parents hadn't done likewise, and their parents before them, and so on, obviously and indefinitely, you wouldn't be here.

Push backwards through time and these ancestral debts begin to add up. Go back just eight generations to about the time that Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born, and already there are over 250 people on whose timely couplings your existence depends. Continue further, to the time of Shakespeare and the Mayflower Pilgrims, and you have no fewer than 16,384 ancestors earnestly exchanging genetic material in a way that would, eventually and miraculously, result in you.

At twenty generations ago, the number of people procreating on your behalf has risen to 1,048,576. Five generations before that, and there are no fewer than 33,554,432 men and women on whose devoted couplings your existence depends. By thirty generations ago, your total number of forebears—remember, these aren't cousins and aunts and other incidental relatives, but only parents and parents of parents in a line leading ineluctably to you—is over one billion (1,073,741,824, to be precise). If you go back sixty-four generations, to the time of the Romans, the number of people on whose cooperative efforts your eventual existence depends has risen to approximately 1,000,000,000,000,000,000, which is several thousand times the total number of people who have ever lived.

Clearly something has gone wrong with our math here. 

The answer, it may interest you to learn, is that your line is not pure. You couldn't be here without a little incest—actually quite a lot of incest—albeit at a genetically discreet remove. With so many millions of ancestors in your background, there will have been many occasions when a relative from your mother's side of the family procreated with some distant cousin from your father's side of the ledger. In fact, if you are in a partnership now with someone from your own race and country, the chances are excellent that you are at some level related. Indeed, if you look around you on a bus or in a park or café or any crowded place, most of the people you see are very probably relatives. When someone boasts to you that he is descended from Shakespear's family or the great Julius Ceasar, you should answer at once: "Me, too!" In the most literal and fundamental sense we are all family.

Demonetisation was a disaster

Modi was a true leader in his own way as he, as the Prime Minister, showed that a true democracy can be sustained as a system of governance only if it also is a way of life. I was impressed by his extempore speeches, his vision and his style of working. So, I wholeheartedly welcomed and supported the demonetisation move as it was well intended to bring the black money back because I was under the notion that 'all cash is black money and black money is in cash'. And also PM pointed out that this would be a direct attack on the counterfeit notes circulating across the border. This would also loosen the grip of corruption in our country. 

The whole nation was shocked. Media went crazy. Parliament stalled.  I was shocked and confused that how this is going to play out and was consciously and defiantly withdrawing my attention from the frenzied cacophony in media. Things began to settle down after a couple of days. I have realised that the morning hours in the queue is my share of "short pain" for a "long gain". I couldn't take my eyes off the flurry of the intellectual, economic and political debate all over media that followed this bold move which brought up many facts and figures. I still supported the move, because my trust with Modi government was total.

As we have reached the 50th day of demonetisation, almost 94% of the old notes have returned to the banks, proving that the notion "all cash is black money and black money is in cash" was completely wrong. This was a huge blow to my belief and for the government of India. The very purpose of demonetisation has been defeated. Also I became I aware that the "short pain" is not going to end soon. There was no need for the government to make people go through this "short pain". PM could have done this with more planning and precision. My trust in the currency has been shattered. My trust in the government had shattered. 

It was good to see the patience and well-behaved forbearance of the crowd in ATMs/banks, unlike the thunderous clamour in our parliament. I see exasperation more than the sadness in the crowd. As we share the pain, our trust in each other is way more than we trust in our government. Government should not take the Indians for granted for anything.