Placebos and lions

Two interesting articles today.

The first is in CNN.  It talks on placebos being effective in making our day better.   The article mentions " a 2010 survey of more than 400 docs found that a whopping 56% said they'd actually prescribed placebos to their patients".  In some manner or other the placebos seem to "solve" the patient's issues and makes him/her feel better.  What is interesting is that the placebo need not be in a medicinal form.  A study was conducted on two sets of students who were hooked onto equipment that the students thought measured the quality of sleep.  In reality, the machine did not measure the sleep quality.  In the morning, the researchers told one group of students that as per the equipment measured their quality of sleep was good.  The other group was informed the opposite.  The two group of students then went through a test.  Surprisingly, the group that thought they slept well performed better.  In this case, just the words "you slept well" were good enough and qualified as a placebo.  As the article states "Placebos seem to work in large part because they are given by authority figures".  The article then goes on to detail how we can trick ourselves and take advantage of the placebo effect.  The article is available at http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/01/health/placebo-effect/index.html?hpt=hp_mid

BBC talks about the origin of the modern lions.  One fact that is noticeable is that currently there are two groups of lions.  The first is found in Eastern and Southern Africa and other group is found in Central and West Africa, and in India.  The article goes on to detail how the two groups emerged and how one of the groups reached India.  Of course, there is sadness in the fact that many species of lions have gone extinct - "Fewer than 400 Asian lions (P. leo persica) survive, living on the Kathiawar Peninsula of India".  The article is available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/26736688

The Reader

Movies set in Germany seem to be a special pleasure to watch.  I saw one recently, which reminded me of another one I had seen some years ago.  Both these movies have poignant themes and build progressively towards a gently tearful ending.   They spend a lot of time showing activities of every day life and through this the dramatic points are driven in.  While one dealt with the life under communism in the erstwhile East Germany, the other deals with the effects of the occurrences in World War II on different people.  The former is the German movie called "The Lives of Others", which I had an opportunity to see earlier and the latter "The Reader", which I watched only recently.    

Many years ago, I had the good fortune to read the book "The Chamber" by John Grisham.  In general, I do not like Grisham's books.  I find them too fluffy and have not bothered reading any of his books for the past 15 odd years.  But "The Chamber" is very different from "The Firm" or other books of Grisham's that I am aware of.  It dealt with the topic of a man awaiting his turn at the gas chamber for a racist killing he had committed 25 years earlier.  In these 25 odd years, the man and his ideologies had changed.  One could feel that he has turned into a good person and is repenting for his past.  The way this is presented and built is very beautiful and really touched my heart.  It is a fine book on why capital punishment should not be given to anyone.  Though I really do not agree with that thought process, for a brief period my feelings turned to anti-capital punishment.  That, in my view, is a big success for the author; though the book itself was not very successful is what I understand.  The movie "The Reader" is another example wherein the viewers tend to sympathize with a wrong-doer.  Like the book, this movie brings out that it is not possible to categorize people as good or bad.  The world is full of grey and not black and white.

The movie takes place in the post world war II Germany, starting off a few years after the war and going on till the turn of the century.  It starts off with a relationship developing between a mid-teen boy and a middle aged woman.  It traverses the path followed by these two characters due to effects of the lady's past actions. To me, it brought out how a set of events have different effects on different individuals and how each of them have their reasons for their actions.  The right and wrong that someone has in judging others is not the same when judging self.  For me, it also said that we should probably think from the other person's point of view before judging him/her.  It at least gives us an idea of the other person's thinking and this might hone our own judgement.

The movie has Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes in it and that is good enough for me to watch it.  The younger version of Ralph Fiennes is acted by a young German actor called David Kross and he comes across very well too.  The film is constructed leisurely and the scenes flow into each other, which makes it like a watching a poetry.

The intent of the movie comes out from the statement that comes half way through the movie.
"Societies think they operate by something called morality but they don't.  They operate by something called law.  You are not guilty by merely working at Auschwitz; 8000 people worked there.  Precisely 19 have been convicted, 6 for murder.  To prove murder you have to prove intent.  That's the law.  The question is never was it wrong but was it legal.  And not by our laws, no - by the laws at the time."

By the beach

I was born in the city of Chennai and have lived here for many years. The city has a coast line running across its eastern side and there are many beaches that line up the coast. The beaches attract truck loads of people at around the time the sun sets. There are people walking along or sitting in groups and chatting, while others frolic in the water. Many vendors sell their fares. On the whole, it adorns a festive look almost every evening. For a long time, I have heard that the beaches are crowded at sun rise too but I usually do not have much idea about what happens that early in the morning.

Personally, I have not been a big fan of the beaches though. As odd as it seemed to many, I hated walking on the sand and wetting myself in the salty water. So whenever I heard the words "let us go to the beach", I try crawling under a bed and hiding.

Three months back it dawned upon me that I have grown old. So I decided to find out what happens in the early parts of a day. As I stay close to a beach, I walk to it and by it on the pavement (keeping a good distance from the sea and water). It is an exhilarating and depressing experience. Exhilarating due to: the rising sun and the colorful sky, the birds flying overhead, the distant sound of the waves that sneak in through the blaring sounds coming out of my head set and the cool breeze. Depressing due to: so many people running and walking faster than me. Over the days I have picked up speed and now there are moments of pride when I overtake someone only to be beaten by someone much older who seems to be exerting less energy than me. The beach is a wonderful place, I accept now, as long as the sand and the water do not come anywhere close to me. The best thing about the beach are the colors of the sky and shapes floating through it. There are sting rays flying across the sky right above the birds and people.

Fade to black

I was feeling very happy that evening.  After many miserable days and nights, I was very hopeful of it happening that night.  I had waited for a long time and many a times felt it come by.  But this evening the feeling was much stronger.  I could hear the people run around in agitation.  Some of them seemed to very close working on something with urgency.  There was a lot of shouting but with every shout my happiness increased.  Oh yes!  I was ready.  I had waited for this moment for long.  My thoughts were on what happens afterwards.  Where would I go?  What would happen to me?  I had heard a lot about it but did not know what to believe and what not to.  So I waited eagerly for it to happen.  Suddenly my happiness started reducing.  I started feeling a pain.  I did not quite understand where the pain came from.  But it was there and it increased as time went by.  Soon, I lost all remembrance of the happiness.  The pain had become unbearable and it was all over me.  I wanted to shout and scream but did not know how.  I wanted to run away but did not way where my legs were.  All that I could feel was the pain.  And then the pain stopped.

The noise of the world went away.  The need for the shout subsisted.  I had felt anything for a long time but the feeling of nothing that came by was very different.  I tried to understand what was happening.  For the first time in many days, I looked around but saw nothing.  Earlier I could hear the people around me but now I heard nothing.  I used to feel pain earlier but I did not even feel that now.  And then the nothing started fading out.

Right across the road

I slept early that night.  The heavy lunch did not let me think of dinner and the time spent out in the summer sun had made me tired.  By the time I reached my room, the pain from all across my body traveled to my head and made it pain like hell.  I did not have the energy to walk from the door to my bed. I plopped on the sofa and fell asleep even before my body hit the sofa.

I am not sure what woke me up but I became aware of a terrible thirst soon after - my throat was parched; I needed some water; I needed a lot of water; water, water, water.  I groped around, my hand hit something and it fell off the table with a loud crash.  The sound brought me back to complete wakefulness and my desperation for water increased.  I attempted to get up but slipped off the sofa and fell onto the floor.  After struggling for a minute or so, I managed to get on to my feet and went searching for the lights.  When brightness came by, I looked around but did not find water around - not in the hall, not in the bedroom and not in the kitchen.  I considered drinking water straight out of the tap but I could see germs of the size of football in the water.  I checked the watch and realized that some of the shops would be open at the time.  I got out on the road and looked at the shop across the road.  There were a few vehicles on the road and I waited to cross the road.

As I waited , I heard the sound of the cars coming by from round a bend.  I waited but nothing happened.  I could hear the car's engine at some distance but did not see the head lights of the car.  I waited for some more but only heard the sound of the car.  It did not come closer.  I waited listening and looking for the head lights to show up.  I leaned against a lamp post and waited.  I am not sure how long I stood in that pose.  But I suddenly opened my eyes and realized I had dozed off for a few moments.  I looked around and found there were no vehicles around.  The shop keeper on the opposite side was beginning to close the shop.  I called out to him and started running across the road.

There was loud sound on my right; I turned to see two lights coming in at a great speed towards me.  I froze for a moment and then ...

I was turning in the air like a leaf.

My head hurt and I could feel something wet running across my face.

The smell of iron was all around.

There were people around, looking at me with horror in their eyes.

Someone was shouting "Taxi, taxi,..."

Pain, pain, pain, ...

People had lifted me and I saw an open taxi door.

I heard my scream.

"Don't worry, you are ok".

Lights on the ceiling running past me.

The smell of medicines.

"Do you hear me?"

"Is it paining here?"

"... operation theater..."

The sights and sounds started fading.  The pain started receding.  Sleep started coming in.  Will I see a bright white light?  Will my brief life's activities run in front of my eyes?  Nothing happened; I only felt sleepier.

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.

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In-waste-igation

The phone starts ringing.  Someone picks it up  and starts speaking.
"Inspector Vasu here".
"Sir, dead body." says a voice at the other end.
"What? Where? How?" asks an excited Vasu.
"Gundu mama is dead sir." responds the voice.
"Who is Gundu mama?"
"My uncle sir"
"Who are you?"
"Kittu sir."
"Where is the dead body?"
"In the bedroom sir"
"Give me the address you bloody fool"

Inspector Vasu notes down the address, dons his cap and sprints to his jeep.  He passes the address to the driver and instructs him "Go there".  The driver speeds through the city streets and gets to the location within minutes.  There is a crowd gathered outside a house.  Vasu pushes his way through the crowd and enters the house asking for Kittu.  Kittu comes forward and guides the inspector to the dead Gundu mama.  As the name suggests, Gundu mama was a fat man.   His body is lying on the floor besides the bed.  The floor around his neck is splashed with blood.

"He is dead sir" comments Kittu.
Inspector Vasu stares at him but does not answer.  He walks around the body, sitting and looking at the body from different angles.  He picks up the right arm and feels for the pulse.  "He is dead no?" asks Kittu.  "Get out of here" responds Vasu.  He continues to look at the body from different angles.  People watch him through the windows and doors in the room and exchange thoughts and comments.
"Murdered"
"Brutal"
"It could have been suicide"
"No chance, murder"
"His son hated him"
"No it must have been his brother-in-law"
"I saw someone running out of the house last night"
"That inspector will have a tear in his pants"
"Unfriendly guy"
"That fellow Kittu seems fishy"

"Silence" cries out Inspector Vasu "Someone remove these people from here".  He starts looking at other objects in the room.  He takes out his hand kerchief and pick up a bottle of water from a table in the room.  He holds it against the light and stares at it intently.  He puts back the bottle and picks up a book lying on the bed.  He runs through the pages and drops it back on to the bed.  He then gets to the feet of body and attempts to determine the position of the killer.  He then goes back to the door and attempts to enact how the killer would have got into the room.  As he does this, he observes the floor for some clues.  Suddenly, he stops, bends down and picks up a cigarette butt.  He smells it and then checks it.  "Hmmmmm, triple 5" he says.  He then goes back through the draws in the room but does not find what he is looking for.  He calls back Kittu and asks "Which brand of cigarette did this man smoke?".
"He does not smoke" replies Kittu.
"Hmmmm, who visited this man yesterday"
"He was in the city yesterday.  He only came back this morning."
"Mmmmmm hmmmmm, so somebody killed him this morning."
"Who visited him this morning?"
"I don't know.  I only came in now."
"Does anyone else know?"
"The watchman said that a person wearing a green shirt accompanied mama."
"Who was he?"
"I don't know sir."
"Mmmmmm, get the watchman."

The watchman walks into the room and stares at the body.  Inspector Vasu clears his throat and asks "Tell me what happened this morning?"  He does not get any response from the watchman, who continues to stare at the body.  "Dai, what happened this morning?"  No response still; his eyes are on verge of popping out now.  Inspector Vasu taps the watchman on his should and repeats "What happened this morning?"  The watchman gives the inspector a terrified look and faints.  The inspector kicks the wall in frustration and shouts "Take this idiot out of here".

Vasu walks into the hall and sees that the watchman has come back to his senses.  He sits opposite to the watchman and repeats the question.  The watchman says "Sir" tentatively.  He then lets out series of incoherent sounds.  The inspector gets up, walks out of the house, takes in a few breathes of fresh air and walks back into the room.  He gives an inquiring look at the watchman who has regained some control on his senses.  "Sir this morning, sir came back to his house with another man.  I did not see the man leave."
"Was he wearing a green shirt?"
"Yes sir."
"How did he look?"
"He was a tall and big man.  I could not see his face.  He was bald."
"Big man mmmmm."
"Was he carrying anything?"
"He was carrying a brief case."
"Which colour?"
"Brown sir"
"Do you see it here?"
The watchman looks around the room  and says "no sir".
"Go and check the other rooms"
"SIR?" cries the watchman.
"Ok, ok.  I will take care of the room with the body"
The brief case is not found anywhere.  Inspector Vasu calls Kittu over and asks him about this man in the green shirt.  Kittu does not know who it is.  He asks the watch man to describe the man to Kittu.  Kittu thinks for a moment and says that sounds like Prakash mama.
"Who is Prakash mama?"
"Gundu mama had visited him yesterday."
"So this guy must have come back with him, right?"
"I don't know sir."
"Do you have his phone number?"
"No, but we can check Gundu mama's phone book."
The phone book has Prakash mama's number.  Kittu calls up and finds out that Prakash mama had left the previous night with Gundu mama and they did not know his current location.  Kittu asks them to call back once any information about Prakash mama is heard.  He turns to Inspector Vasu and says "Prakash mama has killed Gundu mama", who promptly asks Kittu to shut up.
"Do you have Prakash's photograph?"
"I don't know" replies Kittu.
"Can you describe him?" asks Inspector Vasu.
"Yes"
"Then come by to the station"

The next day, Inspector looks through the details of the case sipping tea.  A constable walks in and says "Prakash and Kittu are here to see you".  Inspector Vasu jumps out of his seat and shouts "Show them in."  The persons enter the room and Inspector Vasu grabs the person with Kittu, who he assumes is Prakash, and shouts "Mr.Prakash, you are under arrest for the murder of ehhhh, errrrrr, Gundu mama".
Prakash cries out "No, no, I did not kill him".
"Ha ha ha, that is what all criminals say but no one escapes the long arms of the law".
"No, no, I did not kill him."
"The law has caught up with you old man.  You are under arrest."
"No, no, I did not kill him."
Kittu jumps in "No, no, Prakash mama did not kill Gundu mama."
"What do you know? I am the inspector here and I have proof that this man Prakash killed the man."
"What proof?" demands Prakash.
"Why should I tell you?"
"Because I have the right to know."
"Sir" interject Kittu "the watchman is missing".
"What has that got to do with this case?" asks Inspector Vasu.
"Soon after you left, the watch man left with a bag and has not turned up still.  Prakash mama called home and heard about Gundu mama.  So he got in touch with me."
"Yes sir" said Prakash in agreement "Gundu was alive when I left.  Something must have happened after I left"
"Hmmm, so the watch man is missing is it?" asks Inspector Vasu.

Inspector Vasu, Prakash and Kittu reach the murder site and start questioning the people about the watchman.  No one has seen him since the previous day.  They search his small room but does not find anything of interest in the room.  "Where is the brown brief case?" asks Inspector Vasu.  "Which brown brief case?" asks Praskash.  "The one Gundu mama was carrying" says Kittu.  "Gundu did not have any brown briefcase."  responds Prakash lighting a cigarette.  "Mmmmm hmmmm" says Inspector Vasu "let us get that watchman."

Now, Inspector Vasu is in search for the watch man named Mani.  He is average height and wheatish complexion.  He also a mole one of his cheeks (some people say right cheek and others left).  He has a moustache and is not fat.  If you see anyone of this description, mail to vasu@inspectorvasu.com

This is not a love story!

Kapil had to change buses to reach his college.  Within a few weeks of joining the college he had a good idea of the bus timings.  The 20 minute wait at the link road stop was turning out to be the most tiring 20 minutes of his life.  This being the pre-mobile era, there was no possibility of looking down at that object in his palm and be oblivious of everything else around.  Kapil was not into books either and so there was no doorway to the Austinen era England or Rice-an jungles.  He ended up standing under the shade of a tree and play mind numbing games.  How many red cars passed by today?  Can I spot any Mercedes Benz today?  Will Maruti or Ambassador win today's count?  As his mind played these games, many buses passed by but he did not notice any of these.  His eyes were fixed on the cars on the road.  Kapil understood the meaning of the word boredom at that bus stop.  If he went on to become a saint, this 20 minute wait in the morning and evening could be given credit.  But fate had something else in store for him - It never let him move from the state of passivity to patience to penance.  It gave him a fine distraction instead.

One day an altercation between a bus conductor passenger got Kapil's eyes off the road.  His eyes did not fall on the exact scene of commotion but on a beautiful face near the scene.  The pair of eyes on that face were watching him intently.  She took her eyes off him when he looked at her.  Kapil continued to look at her.  After a bit, she stole a glance at him but turned her head away almost itmmediately.  She kept her eyes off him till the bus moved away.  Kapil looked at her for as long as he could.  He then wrote the bus number into his head - A glimmer of light in the dark tunnel.

Kapil was very happy to get back to the bus stop the next evening.  He was no longer interested in the Marutis and Ambassadors on road.  All he cared for was the bus and the girl.  The bus of interest came by 10 minutes later and the girl was seated in the same location as the previous day.  Kapil did not take his eyes off her but she did not turn her head towards him.  The bus moved on leaving a disappointed Kapil . The disappointment continued for the next few days.  He waited for the bus, the bus came by, he stared at the girl, she did not look at him, the conductor blows the whistle and the bus disappears into the traffic bustle with Kapil's eyes on its disappearing form.  This went on for a few days and Kapil's interest on the bus and its beautiful passenger went down.  The intensity of his stare had gone down from "Oh! What a girl" to "mmmmm hmmmmm".

Around that time Kapil visited his friend Govind, where Kapil overheard Govind's sister, Paavani's phone conversation.  He heard her say "O! the link road stop is it?", "How long has this been going?", "How does the guy look?", "Did you talk to him?", "Noooooo, go ahead and talk", "How boring!".  The door opened and Govind's voice was heard.

The next time, he saw the girl his stare was back to the "Oh! What a girl" intensity.  He stared at her hard but the girl did not look in his direction.  The burning question in Kapil's mind was "Was Paavani talking to this girl?  Were they talking about me?".  The question continued to haunt him for the next few days as he did not see any reaction from her.  In desperation, he started visiting Govind's home and start small talks with Paavani.  But he never really got the guts to ask Paavani about the girl on the bus.  So small talks remained small talks and the girl in that bus remained that girl in the bus.

One day, Kapil decided to move away from the under-the-tree location.  He watched the bus as it came by but on this day the girl was looking intently at the location where he used to stand.  She looked around and then her eyes returned to the location under the tree.  Kapil walked to towards the tree, looking at the girl with a smile on his lips.  When he reached there, the girl noticed him and jerked her head off in another direction.  She then slowly turned he head round and smiled at him.  "It's time of the season for loving" was going on in Kapil's head.  The bus moved away with the two looking at each other.  The next few days continued to be smile at each other days.

Kapil now wanted to take the relationship to the next level - He had to talk to her.  The next day, he got into her bus.  The girl saw him walk towards the bus and her smile disappeared.  He took a ticket to the last stop of that bus and walked towards the girl's seat.  She was busily looking at a book in her hand.  He stood by the seat but did not perceive any reaction from the girl.  He stood there for some time and attempted clearing his throat, singing a tune, whistling another tune, force a cough, force another cough, force a sneeze, sing another song,... At this point, the lady sitting next to the girl glared at Kapil and asked him, in quite an unfriendly manner, to keep quiet and move on.  The girl did not look up or react to either of this.  Kapil kept looking at her and moved towards the driver.  He continued to look at her but she kept her eyes on the book and the lady continued to glare at him.  Finally, Kapil got tired of the scene and got down from the bus.

That evening, he visited Govind's place where a heated argument was taking place between Govind and Paavani.  The topic was about Paavani's friend smiling at a guy in a bus stop and the guy following her into the bus.
"If she smiled, he will follow her.  What did she expect?" said Govind.
"Why should he follow her?  She was only being polite." was the response.
"It does not mean that she was being polite.  It means she likes him."
"No, it does not.  She hardly knows him.  So how can she like him?"
"Then why did she smile at him."
"She sees him everyday and so she decided to be polite and smile."
"She sees a lot of people every day.  Does she smile at all of them?"
"He smiled at her first and she only returned the smile."
"Anyway, what happened after that?  Did he talk to her?"
"No, a good lady sitting next to her chased the creep off."

By this time, Kapil was sweating profusely and was looking at a way to run out of the house.  Govind turned to Kapil, at the moment, and asked "Hey, you change buses and the link road stop isn't it?"  "Well, hmmm, ya sometimes."  "Have you seen this guy standing under a tree and smiling at girls passing by?"  "Hmmmm, no.  I don't know.  Hey, I got to leave".

The next day, Kapil went to the NSS office in his college and enrolled for the evening traffic duty - one and half hours of controlling traffic before reaching the link road stop.  He did not see that girl again till many years later.  It was on the day of Govind's sister wedding.
"Congratulations Paavani" she said.
"Hi Geeta, so glad you could make it" replied Paavani.  She then introduced Geeta to her husband "This is Geeta, my good friend from school."
"Congratulations Kapil.  You look familiar.  Have we met before?"