On making lists

I am the kind of person who thrives on making lists. I make grocery lists, lab-chores-to-finish lists, which-cupboard-stores-what lists (both at home and at work in case you were wondering), and so on. In fact, when we moved houses four years ago, I even listed the pros and cons of moving vs. staying on in the same apartment.

This compulsive list-making would sound weird to most people except those friends of mine who've known me for years. I've found that jotting down both sides of an argument helps me think more clearly. This way I take decisions which I rarely regret later. 

So, after a year of constant struggling I finally decided to list both the good and the unpleasant aspects of my current life in India. The non-stop 'get used to things here vs. move abroad again' arguments in my mind were becoming increasingly disruptive. The only way I could think things through rationally was by putting it all down on paper. 

When I finished writing, the items on the plus side were far outnumbered by the things that I strongly disliked about my life here. It was only after I read the entire list that I realized that the things I regularly complain about are relatively minor issues. Those two or three things listed under the plus side overwhelmingly tilted the balance.

I always knew lists are useful things.  

Heaven lake, silk route and other idle thoughts

I was browsing through my bookshelf a couple of days ago and came across an old copy of  From Heaven Lake by Vikram Seth. As I hadn't read the book in over a decade, I started re-reading it. The book describes a hitchhiking journey that Seth took through western China (Xinjiang) and Tibet to reach India in the early 1980s. At that time he was an exchange student in Nanjing University and wanted to return home one summer by traveling through a part of the silk route. In his travelogue he talks about the changing landscapes and the people he meets as he moves through deserts, grasslands, flooded river basins and the Tibetan plateau. I thoroughly enjoyed reading From Heaven Lake again.

The book then got me thinking about the silk route. Seth starts his tale in Turfan- a town in the Xinjiang (Sinkiang) province of western China. The names of other Silk Road towns like Kashgar, Khotan, Samarkand and Bukhara bring up so many colourful images to my mind. Since yesterday I have been thinking about how I can travel at least a part of this route. Covering even a small part of the route would mean going through at least three countries (China, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan to start with). Some of these regions are quite volatile politically. A quick search on the internet shows that various travel groups in China offer guided tours of the silk road. However, like Seth, I too detest the regimentation of organized trips. They also don't come cheap. Since I don't speak Chinese (like Seth does), I am quite incapable of making my own impromptu travel arrangements even if I somehow manage to land in one of these towns. I still need to figure out a way to make this trip happen. Hopefully before 2020.

Monsoon in Mumbai

Our backyard

 
It is raining steadily for almost a week now. Heavy showers sometimes alternate with barely-there drizzles. The rain never stops completely though.

Each time the downpour eases a little, water drips from the mango trees in our backyard and forms muddy puddles underneath. A squirrel family comes out of the tree hollows to look for food. Their excited chirps fill the air. A tiny green frog somehow finds its way into our balcony. It remains absolutely still for a few minutes, uncertain of its new surroundings. A group of small black ants form a trail through the living room, trying to escape their flooded homes. Gerald Durrell would have been happy living in these surroundings, I think with a smile.

The iron grills of our balcony glisten with strings of pearl-like raindrops. The smell of freshly ground garam masala from a neighbour's kitchen wafts in through the window. It brings back memories of Sunday lunches cooked by my grandmother. K has braved the rain to go out and feed a friend's cat. I flip through TV channels idly while waiting for him to come home.

Dark monsoon clouds have forced the afternoon to make way for an early evening. I don't feel like switching on the lights yet, preferring to enjoy the untimely darkness. A tree branch suddenly crashes outside with a thundering sound.

Tomorrow morning will bring flooded streets and longer traffic snarls. But, as they say, tomorrow is another day.

Towards a clutter-free lifestyle

About six months ago we moved into an apartment that is about half the size of our former home. Initially I resented the lack of storage space. Then it occurred to me that this is my chance to get rid of clutter. What started as looking for ways to make the most of the available space, has resulted in important lifestyle changes for us:

• Buying a piece of furniture only if we absolutely need it: Starting with a couple of basics, we got furniture (bought or made by the local carpenter) in several stages. I am certain that if ours hadn't been a somewhat damp ground-floor apartment, we could do with even fewer items of furniture.

• Combine multiple functions: For example, we decided that we would keep all our books, music CDs, DVDs or random stuff  picked up during travels. I realize that on one level this is clutter too, but this is something we are comfortable with :). All our stuff needed at least three bookcases, a CD rack and a display case. Instead, we got three tall and extra-deep bookshelves made with adjustable shelves. These also act as CD/DVD racks (by reducing the shelf heights) and display cases (by using the extra depth in front of the books). 

• Do without domestic help: In my opinion this is the most important factor in keeping clutter in check. It is easy to clean if there are fewer things lying around. We do dishes immediately after meals and clean the apartment once a week. I must say that the sight of a dusty floor bothers me far less than the litter I see on the streets.

• Use what we already have: We brought along our kitchen stuff when we realized that shipping these things would cost us less than buying new ones of the same quality. So we are using the same crockery/cutlery for the last 5-6 years. If we have friends over for meals, we simply ask them to bring along a few extra plates :)

• Less-stocked but well-used pantry: Our kitchen doesn't have much storage. So, everything except rice is bought in small quantities and used before it goes bad. I don't have more than two kinds of teas or lentils at any given time. This is a big change from the days when tins of provisions used to sit unopened for months. I also buy rectangular/square containers as they pack well and can be stacked.

• Simpler meals: We make one pot dishes (adding veggies to everything from lentils to meat) and cook enough to feed two people for at least two meals. This frees up time and leaves only one or two cooking pots to wash up. We also use the slow-cooker/oven more as the food can be left to cook without much attention. 

• Think before buying: If I need something, I try to use something that we already have. Packing boxes that held our stuff when we moved have become bedside tables and waste paper baskets. Used cereal/yogurt pots are stored and will become flower pots once we start gardening. There is no recycling for glass and plastic here, so I am reluctant to throw things away.

• We buy the newspaper only on Saturdays. The internet suffices for the rest of the week. The old newspapers are generally used to pack things, mop up liquids or block cracks under the doors. 

• Television: This probably is one big mind-clutterer. We didn't have a TV for about 5 months. When we got one finally, we decided to opt for a few à la carte channels. The deal is that every time we decide to add a new channel, we will get rid of one.

So, in a way our small apartment has turned out to be a boon of sorts.

Too many plastic bags

Within a month of moving to Mumbai I have collected more plastic bags than I did in my last one year in Cambridge. Almost all of these have come from my two local supermarkets. How did this happen? Well, here the shop assistants pack my groceries (why on earth do I need someone else to pack my stuff? - but that's another question.) and they do so with a very generous use of plastic bags while I am busy paying. Whenever I see this, I point out to them that they can put everything in a single big bag and, no, I don't mind carrying vegetables, pot of yogurt and washing detergent together.

Every time I go to a supermarket in Mumbai I need to enter through a metal detector (though no one pays any attention to the beeps it generates), leave my stuff at the baggage counter and (in one particular supermarket) have my handbag zip-locked until I am ready to pay. In some places I have had my paid-for groceries locked during check-out! At the till someone writes the number of bags I am taking out on the bill which then needs to be stamped as I leave the shop. This means that I can't use my backpack to carry stuff as I used to earlier. Even though I am uncomfortable with this obsession with checks and locks, these measures supposedly enhance security (?!) and prevent shop-lifting. Surely, there must be more effective ways to achieve both with the use of monitored CCTV cameras and RFID detectors? After all, these are not uniquely Indian problems.

So what am I doing about it?

• I insist they let me carry my own shopping bags. Yes, they can ziplock it in any way they choose, although it is a pain for everyone concerned.
• The bags these supermarkets give out are much stronger than the plastic bags I have seen in Sainsbury's or Tesco's. They can be reused for shopping any number of times.
• I have stopped buying bin bags and am using these bags in my bins. I don't put out trash every day and try to use the bags for a few days before discarding them. A good quality covered kitchen bin does the trick.

What else can I do?

• Insist at the till that I pack my own groceries after they have been scanned. I can pack them better in a single bag and will do a faster job.
• I use public transport or walk to the shops, so there is no question of taking the trolley (without using any shopping bag) to the car and loading it. But I can take the trolley outside the shop, load it myself in my own bags and return the plastic ones. 
• Write to the shop management suggesting the following:

1. Start heavily charging for each plastic bag they give out. We have a  thrifty mindset and will reduce/stop using plastic bags if we have to pay.
2. Replace plastic bags with good quality recyclable/cloth bags for a smaller price. Most supermarkets in UK call these "bags for life" because they replace them for free when someone brings the damaged bags back to the shop.
3. Employ electronic surveillance to prevent shoplifting, so that people are encouraged to bring their own bags.  
4. Reward shoppers when they bring their own bags/don't use plastic.

None of these ideas are original. But all of these have worked elsewhere to reduce the plastic menace and I don't see why we too, shouldn't try to implement them.

Edited to add (July 10, 2011):

I found out this morning that both Haiko and Big Bazaar (two supermarkets where
I normally shop) have decided to do away with free plastic bags. Big Bazaar is going to charge people for every single plastic bag they take and Haiko has introduced recyclable ones (slightly expensive though). I had met Haiko's store manager a couple of months back and requested him to put in some measures to control the plastic menace. He mentioned then that they were going to roll out recyclable bags shortly. I am happy that it has finally happened. Soon I won't be the only crazy woman there who insists on using her own bags every time :) 

Research Conferences

Like my colleagues I attend one or more conferences each year. Of these, I have a certain fondness for the eponymous 'research conferences'; ESF and Gordon being two good examples. Fewer participants (about 100-150), absence of parallel sessions and total confidentiality are what make these meetings special, somewhere between a 'school' and a conference. That they are held during peak summer at some of the most beautiful locations (such as, an old Oxford college with its summer bloom or a Spanish seaside resort) of course, helps!

The week-long conferences typically start with welcome drinks and dinner on a Sunday evening. All participants live at the venue and have meals together. Fewer participants, a residential arrangement and enough free time lead to lots of informal interactions. At the last meeting, I met a potential collaborator, got introduced to a new research area and received plenty of good advice from academics on making it into academia. All of this happened over coffee and drinks.

Compared to other conferences talks are few and given by invited experts. An invitation to speak at one of these conferences is quite prestigious. Each talk is followed by long (15-30 minutes) discussions and students get priority over senior academics when it comes to asking questions. The rest of the presentations (about 100 or so by group leaders, postdocs and students) are in the form of posters. I find this arrangement a good way to learn about new areas and meet people.

These two conferences function on a confidentiality agreement, which means no proceedings will result and no citations may be made of any of the presentations. The presentations themselves do not count as 'disclosure' before a future patent application. The idea is to encourage people to share new results freely.

While there are talks in the morning and after dinner, afternoons are kept free for hikes, bike-rides,  excursions into nearby towns or simply lazing around the beach!  I remember trying my hand at punting during such a meeting at Oxford. Talks resume after dinner, followed by poster sessions. Discussions are carried on well past midnight, usually with an open bar to go with it.

In my opinion, the informal environment of these conferences also acts as a social equalizer, even though quite a lot depends on the personality of the conference coordinator. Future coordinators are elected from the participants. Postdocs can also be coordinators of ESF conferences, while current participants of a Gordon conferences can decide by a secret ballot whether to continue that particular conference or not.

Miss Marple on TV

These days ITV keeps showing televised or film versions of Agatha Christie's novels almost every day. While David Suchet makes a good Poirot (better than Peter Ustinov), I am yet to see a satisfactory Miss Marple. I like the Miss Marple series better because I have not come across another such fictional detective. But I am almost always disappointed in the film/TV versions of the stories.

Joan Hickson, who stars in most of the episodes, doesn't look the part of a fluffy, pink, slightly dithering old lady wrapped up in shawls and scarves. Nor do any of the others who have played the role in the past. I wonder if ITV ever considered Jean Alexander, who plays Auntie Wainwright in the sitcom The Last of the Summer Wine. As Auntie Wainwright, she looks like the perfect Miss Marple.

I will reserve my judgement on Julia Mackenzie, the latest Miss Marple, until I have seen A Pocketful of Rye.

Comic on science reporting

I could not help posting this comic from the Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comics. It is too hilarious and reminds me of the science reporting I see in many Indian newspapers (and some non-Indian ones as well). Enjoy!

A Picture of Britain

This BBC TV series 'A Picture of Britain' presented by David Dimbleby is a masterpiece.Through the six-part series Dimbleby shows how the british landscape has influenced painters, poets, novelists and composers over the years. He takes us to see Wordsworth's daffodils at the lake district, the barren landscape of Haworth Moor reflecting Heathcliff's anguish in the Wuthering Heights, the cliffs of Dover that inspired Turner to paint his war-torn seascapes and the blissful flatlands of Suffolk painted by Constable.

The series combines two of my loves- landscape paintings of the impressionist era and travel. I have wanted to own the DVDs ever since I first watched the programme on TV. As the photo shows, I now have my own copy! I watched the part on the romantic north (the lake district and the Yorkshire dales) this morning. I couldn't have asked for a better start to this bank holiday weekend!

Second-hand bookshops

I grew up in Kolkata which boasts of an entire street full of second-hand bookshops. I don't think there is another city in the world with something close to Boipara. Wikipedia calls it the largest second-hand book market in the world. It is hardly surprising then that I developed a taste for old and used books. I strongly feel that the kind of second-hand bookshops a city has speaks volumes about the city's character.

I discovered the Select Bookshop off Brigade Road after I went to live in Bangalore. A modest-sized house was converted entirely into a shop. Here books were stacked from floor to ceiling in every room with hardly any moving space between them. The oldest books had their covers torn off and no visible titles. I had a lot of fun in picking up one of those and trying to guess what it was about. My most prized buy from Select is a special edition of R. K. Narayan's The Emerald Route, illustrated by R.K. Laxman.

One couldn't ever fool Mr. Murthy, the owner, when it came to the price of the book though. I must say he was pretty generous with students and sometimes would even throw a book in for free if we couldn't afford it. A trip to Select on a Saturday morning almost always ended with coffee and scrambled eggs on toast at the Indian Coffee House on M.G. Road.

Then I moved to Paris and the bouquinistes on the bank of the Seine immediately reminded me of Boipara. As I spoke and read very little French, I could only buy old copies of Tintin comics from them. Pretty soon I discovered shops in Paris where one could find used English books. Shakespeare and Company near Quai St. Michel sold both old and new books. During most weekends in summer I used to take the RER B from the Cité Universitaire to St. Michel-Notre Dame, pop in to Shakespeare to buy a book, and then spend the rest of the morning reading on the banks of the Seine.

I can't remember where I first heard about Tea and Tattered Pages. The name caught my fancy, and one Sunday after lunch I set off for rue Mayet- an otherwise non-descript residential area of Paris. This bookshop also doubles as an English teashop. But what I loved the most about this place is that it had lines of poetry randomly displayed on the bookshelves.

On my way home from work I sometimes saw a serious-looking (i.e. bespectacled and bearded) young bookseller outside the main gate of the Cité universitaire. He would put his books down on the steps outside the gate and then simply start reading one of them. He rarely made any effort to sell his books. I bought my copy of Le Petit Prince from him. I never found out whether he was just an impoverished student trying to make some money by selling off his old books or a regular bookseller.

I have moved yet again- to Cambridge this time. There are quite a few old bookshops here, probably as an outcome of the large student population in the town. The travel writing section of the Oxfam bookshop on Sidney Street is one of the best I have seen until now. The other Oxfam shop near the Magdalen bridge also has a small but good collection of books. Galloway and Porter, although not a second-hand bookshop, always offers good discounts on new books. But amongst all the bookshops I have been to in Cambridge- and I have been to almost all of these- the Amnesty bookshop on Mill Road has the largest selection of both fiction and non-fiction works. And most importantly, you end up supporting Amnesty International everytime you buy a book from them.

Internet radio

Yesterday, thanks to a colleague, I discovered the last.fm website. I love the 'radio' feature that allows me to listen to a similar genre of music when I type in the name of a singer (or, song). Since then, I have listened to a lot of flamenco, rumba and country music.

And, does anyone else love BBC radio's 'Alan Titchmarsh with Melodies for You'?

To vote (absentee) or not

I voted in my first UK and Euro elections last week. As a citizen of a commonwealth country and a UK resident, I have the right to vote in UK elections.

Sadly though, I could not vote in the Indian parliamentary elections last month. Not even by postal ballot. India does not allow absentee voting except for defence personnel or citizens who are abroad as employees of the Government of India. Wikipedia has more details on the subject.

There are ethical, constitutional and logistical arguments for both sides of the question. While I understand why it might not make sense to allow non-resident Indians to vote in local elections (living abroad, I may not be aware of the local issues), I am not convinced that the same set of arguments hold when it comes to parliamentary elections. Wherever I may live currently, I am still a citizen of India and carry an Indian passport.

I have already had lengthy discussions about this with my friends. I have also been trying to follow on the web what people think about this. I found this blog post and the subsequent comments quite interesting. Some fellow bloggers at Voters Without Borders have even started an online campaign to try and earn electoral rights for non-resident Indian citizens.

Is the number of Indian citizens abroad not that large enough to matter electorally to any political party in India?

Hi there!

I have been regularly reading blogs (mostly science-y types and a few general ones) for quite a while now and got inspired by the ones I follow to start my own blog finally. I am a science researcher. But my work is not going to be the primary focus of this blog. This is a place where I share my thoughts about other things in life.

Let me start by sharing a photo. This is a tree outside our living room window. After a dismal and grey winter, it feels like spring is finally here.