Fanfare of Fanatic fans

April 12th, 2006.

It was just another sleepy afternoon in the office as I checked the plop in my mobile phone. The text message sent by a friend read ‘Dr. Rajkumar is no more’. Soon news started pouring in from various sources. The incident happened at around 1350 that day and mobile phone networks were already jammed by 1430. Some of us ran out of the office early that day as disturbance was expected in some parts of the city. So while I drove back safely home except that some huge crowds had gathered near his house there were already stray incidents of violence. Mobile networks were already jammed and radio channels grieved the loss with condolence messages throughout.

By evening there were cases of vehicles being set on fire; petrol bunks burned; and glass buildings being stoned. All shops and commercial establishments were shut down. Life was basically under a stand still. Most people were under house arrest. All this for the death of a thespian who died peacefully of cardiac arrest at the ripe old age of 78 years.

The next day was even more eventful. The actor was given a State funeral and the day was declared a ‘bandh’, which meant a forced holiday for everybody. We stayed at home and watched live updates of the situation outside of frenzied mobs destroying anything destroyable in sight. 100 vehicles were set on fire; hundreds of people were injured and 8 people even died. My house being quite close to the epicenter; we witnessed some of this annihilation later in the evening.

Dr. Rajkumar was one person who was never disliked by anybody. He was a stalwart in the Kannada film industry bagging one out of every four movies ever made. His flawless character, disarming looks, staggering talent topped with genuine humility made him the poster boy of Karnataka filmdom. Being very minimally educated only up to fourth grade he spoke such chaste Kannada comparable to the caliber of a litterateur. The masses simply loved him and he became a household name.

With all due respects to the man I fail to comprehend the reactions caused by the frantic mobs in the city. It was mobocracy that ruled. The man has gone very serenely to his heavenly abode after living a fulfilling life and the entire city is held to ransom by some few thousand callow youngsters supposedly mourning. In grief there are tears and sorrow, but the reaction to the incident was arson and pelting stones. When the entire city was arm-twisted like this all we could do was glare at the TV screen and comment on the erratic behaviour. During the airing of this episode while there was some honest tears majority of the offenders did not seem to have an iota of sorrow on their faces. What was shocking was the discernable excitement in their frenzied waves to TV cameras.

These anti social elements seemed to be in the age group of 16 to 25. Most of them looked uneducated or under educated; unemployed or under employed. All of them seemed to be deriving some kind of sadistic pleasure out of destroying all that seemed obvious signs of prosperity and all those desirous ‘somethings’ that they cannot lay their hands on.

The day will pass on maybe doing pending laundry and talking about it animatedly at tea. However let us not ignore the deep-rooted socio psychological reasoning behind this. An ageing actor dying was just an alibi to all that happened. The mobs were simply venting out their pent up remorse against the so-called signs of affluence. Be it sure signs of indulgence such as Café Coffee Days, shopping malls, multiplexes or the quick revenue churners such as the Microsofts and the Infosyses – none were spared the pelting stones and the hurtling canes. The police was definitely out numbered reason being most of the forces were being deployed in the Tamil Nadu and Kerala for the upcoming elections.

Is this mob mentality just an off shoot of the current socio economic set up that we live in or the deeply embedded insecurities of that strata of the society who has tasted blood and but cannot have the meat? Is it a symptom of the skewed economic development we are witnessing? Is it a bi product of the widening income disparities?

One theory even goes on to attribute these crores of rupees loss to a political drama staged by people who have vested interests in tainting the government in power. All said and done the delinquents have nothing to lose. As usual the penny scrounging taxpayer will have to dig deeper into his pockets and insurance companies will act like shock absorbers. The anti outsourcing lobby has more reason to buttress their against doing business with such a highly ‘unstable country’.

As I watched the story being telecast on CNN with shameful eyes I wondered the next day why the bomb blasts in Jama Masjid are not condemned so vehemently.

Two days later life bounced back to normal. As I set out for work along with my mom we saw charred remains of cars, buses and gas stations and wondered where all the thousands of brutes have vanished. As the sea of traffic surged on we realized that they are just scattered droplets here and there. When they come together they are able to prove the right of might. I shuddered to think if such an unscheduled, unplanned for activity can cause such a quantum of destruction; then planned and programmed activity will wipe out the entire fragile economy.

Vessel Tour

March 22 - 26 , 2006.

6600 Containers. 77000 BHP. 12 engine cylinders. Length Overall of 348 metres. A short description of the Cornelia Maersk.It was truly a behemoth. Roll overs, Shut outs, Cut and run, stowage, port productivity – these are some phrases that we often use to customers but seldom really understand the implications. In order to have a first hand knowledge of these sometimes overbearing phrases that we use; the company decided to let us set sail on a voyage. So we had to sail for four days and cover 3 ports of call on one of A P Moller’s owned vessels bearing the Danish flag. We embarked in Singapore and disembarked at Hong Kong and passing by Yantian port en route.

There were a slew of formalities to be completed before the vessel tour. So many different approvals to be sought, so many people had to be contacted. Since we were four of us going together this did become much easier. In spite of it being an educational trip and the vessel being a deglamourised cargo vessel it did excite us to be on the high seas for four days. Most of the excitement was muffled due to the amount of paper work that had to be done prior sailing.

When it was finally time to set sail we took a flight to Singapore or Sin city and from there sailed to Hong Kong. After 3 days of sight seeing at Singapore, we had our agent come and fetch us early in the morning and take us through the necessary formalities at the port. The process is called ‘Sign On’ and each person has to get a ‘port pass’ to pass through the port. After we were done with the formalities we walked in bag and baggage to the pier and were alongside the vessel. Just as we were imagining a dreadful trek of 25 kgs of luggage up the gangway our friendly cadet asked us to simply put away our bags in a crate and a rope with a hook at the end simply scooped it up.

It was only for a brief moment was my mind cruising along as I thought this was going to be a four day sojourn of sun and sea and having dolphins over for tea. Little did I realize that the master would have made a foolproof agenda from 730 hours up to 1800 hours. This gave us very little time to gaze into the horizon and all we ended up spotting was the ubiquitous flying fish. The captain and crew were extremely friendly and made us feel immediately at home.

On Arrival Day we were taken to the Chief Control room and handed in all the equipment needed to survive on water and on ship. Safety shoes, Boiler suits, gloves and helmets were given to all. Memories of procuring uniforms in school first came to the mind. Then we were dutifully taken all over the vessel and shown around the massive ship. Basically we were shown around the deck, the accommodation – which had 7 levels, the bridge etc. As the loading operations were just about to finish the vessel had to be steered out of Singaporean waters. Small and powerful tugboats carefully pulled the enormous ship out of the water and the pilot helped steer it out of the terminal. Its always amazing to watch a tiny little tug boat pull out an S class which is probably 100 times its size out of the water.

After we were done with the official sight seeing we did our own personal sight seeing as well. There was a little swimming pool on the deck, a games room, TV room, mini theatre, gymnasium, laundry room, library, a slop chest, reading rooms etc. The mini theatre and library were adequately stocked with the latest DVDs and books.

Day 2 began early. Four of us split into groups of 2 each and spent half a day each on the engine room and the bridge. The engine room was truly an engineering marvel and is the nerve centre of the ship. Half a day of explanation could never be enough. The bridge is the navigational control center. They are like heart and lungs of the vessel. And we boiled in the boiler suits and the ear plugs could hardly shut out much noise from the machinery.
Next day we spent with the reefer electrician climbing up and down into the dark galleys of the cargo holds which was eerie enough to even house deadly scorpions. We then learnt the nuances of safety on board. Subsequent day we reached Yantian port. The incessant rain outside dampened our outgoing spirits and we stayed put on the pier watching the human like gantry cranes moving nearly 45 containers per hour. After the port stay at Yantian Cornelia Maersk drifted along towards Hong Kong and before we knew it we were alongside Hong Kong – one of the most productive ports in the world.

As we spent the day being succulent sponges and trying to take in as much learning as we could the evenings were spent in leisure – at the gym, games room and most of all the mini theatre. We wanted to make the most of it and did manage to sacrifice some sleep to watch hordes of movies including the Trilogy of the Lord of the Rings. Sometimes we did spend have photo sessions on the forward and aft of the ship; the monkey island (the very top of the ship). It was difficult though to capture feelings that can hardly be framed – turquoise blue of the waves, spotting constellations in the sky, resisting the strong gusts of wind, cracking silly jokes with the captain and crew and being awestruck by the enormity of the sea. I will surely miss her a lot. Elegant. Powerful. Useful. Efficient. Cornelia Maersk.