Saturday 21 October 2017

Random thoughts 22102017

Travelling on a train in North India after many , many days. I always find train journeys to be very interesting and educative . Observing people , places, languages, food and habits always leave an impression.

But with time, we have grown just that bit softer and while travelling with family , try to make them comfortable. So as I travel in the comfort of airconditioned environment of a Shatabdi train to Dehradun, I find half the charm of my wooly headed romance of train travel missing. But well , considering the heat and dust of the rough landscape outside , I don't miss it too.

One thing that immediately strikes to mind , off hand is that the sound and noise about cleanliness drive is a sheer nonsense on ground . If the places along the railway tracks around the NCR can remain so unclean , then what is happening elsewhere is better left to imagination. Secondly , it is high time that humankind especially Indians come out with a solution to the scourge of plastics. Some sort of organic or inorganic process , perhaps some enzyme or some recycled mode of disposal is just necessary now, otherwise we are doomed.

Plastic , which helps to make our lives comfortable , is also our biggest enemy.  All around , the ground is littered with plastic and why shouldn't it be . In the last 16 hours, the two of us have used and discarded six plastic bottles , four plastic cups , sundry wrappers and packets. A burden that I am leaving behind for future generations . I realise this but am I bothered about it ? I don't really know.

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Travelling on a train in North India after many , many days. I always find train journeys to be very interesting and educative . Observing people , places, languages, food and habits always leave an impression.

But with time, we have grown just that bit softer and while travelling with family , try to make them comfortable. So as I travel in the comfort of airconditioned environment of a Shatabdi train to Dehradun, I find half the charm of my wooly headed romance of train travel missing. But well , considering the heat and dust of the rough landscape outside , I don't miss it too.

One thing that immediately strikes to mind , off hand is that the sound and noise about cleanliness drive is a sheer nonsense on ground . If the places along the railway tracks around the NCR can remain so unclean , then what is happening elsewhere is better left to imagination. Secondly , it is high time that humankind especially Indians come out with a solution to the scourge of plastics. Some sort of organic or inorganic process , perhaps some enzyme or some recycled mode of disposal is just necessary now, otherwise we are doomed.

Plastic , which helps to make our lives comfortable , is also our biggest enemy.  All around , the ground is littered with plastic and why shouldn't it be . In the last 16 hours, the two of us have used and discarded six plastic bottles , four plastic cups , sundry wrappers and packets. A burden that I am leaving behind for future generations . I realise this but am I bothered about it ? I don't really know.

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Had a somewhat new experience yesterday which highlighted the great changes that have taken place in our lives over the last few decades. Reaching Delhi,  we proceeded to our hotel Ginger, Rail Yatri Niwas , previously booked. I had chosen this hotel primarily because of its vicinity to the station as we had to board a train next day, quite early in the morning.

We reached the hotel around 8.30 p.m. At the reception, I produced my reservation slip and was asked to produce an identification card. I submitted my Aadhar card. But to my surprise the reception clerk wanted some I-card for my wife too. This had never happened before .


Calling out my wife , seated on a sofa , across the hall , I joked - "give me your I-card , perhaps they don't think you're my wife."  My wife came up to the counter and passed on her ITax Card to the receptionist. What happened next  is the reason for writing this post.

The receptionist refused to acknowledge the IT card as proof of identity as it did not carry any address .  My wife did not carry her aadhar card , driving license , bank passbook or passport as suggested by him. Moreover , she got annoyed and raised her voice. I could see that her feminist tendencies raising the hackles. Moreover , since the last few years , she thinks that being a lawyer's mother she can tackle any rules and regulations in her stride and take legal action on anybody who comes across her way . But the receptionist remained adamant and I must say he retained his cool and remained polite , a novelty considering it was Delhi and a Rail service.

I am myself a short tempered person but realised that the matter was not heading anywhere with the stonewalling by the receptionist taking refuge behind some rules which we were perhaps not aware. And you can't really do anything against a polite official ( a lesson learnt).  It was already getting late and we wanted to snatch a couple of hours for a short Delhi tour. So I asked the guy if some scanned copy would do . He agreed to this idea as a concession. 

Next job was to contact our son at home , get him open his mother's cupboard , rumage through her bag get her passport out , take photos and send it to me , via Whatsapp message. All this took five minutes or so . And we were handed over the room keys in another five minutes, me relieved but my wife furious.

Later , we joked about the whole thing and wondered what the world was coming to. Two adults , well past their prime can't live together in a hotel room without showing proof of their residence. Moreover , we are a bit tentative as not sure what will happen if at some places they refuse to accept the scanned copies and demand that the original be produced. What do we do then , live on the footpath ?

But some lessons were well learnt from the episode.

1. Aadhar card is omnipotent . Now  our whole lives have been taken over by it.

2. Life has really changed over the last few decades. Nobody asked me anything when I took my young wife to hotels earlier but now don't want to allow my old wife with me unless she proves it .

3. Technology has really eased matters a lot and solutions can be had of problems quickly.

4. It is better to carry a scanned copy of identity card on the smart phone . But what happens if it falls into the hands of others is a concern.


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