Computer in Allahabad

My first brush with computers was in Allahabad, during the first year of my graduation in the late 90s. The exposure to a giant, greasy pale yellow machine at that time seemed to be a delight.
At the agriculture university where most classes discussed lifecycle of crops, primary constituents of milk or best practices of feeding piglets, computer classes were like a picnic.
The powerful moving visuals, air-conditioned ambience and the excitement of checking your Yahoo mail in the lone desktop powered by mostly dysfunctional dial-up connection, it was fun.
Most of us never got more than a few minutes to touch the black, almost broken key boards, but it was pleasure anyways. The computer session also saw the unlikely pairing of people who were desperate to share a computer overcoming all earthly distinctness.
Like the always fighting conservative Malayali Christian boy and equally conservative Bihari Brahmin, the sophisticated chiffon clad Lucknowi girl and the rustic paan chewing Jaunpuri boy.
Years of differentiation, cultural egos and heartfelt irritation melted for a short while every Saturday at 12 P.M Indian Standard Time, when the computer classes began. The vivid memories of the computer classes come back as I discover more of my graduation tribe on the Facebook or Twitter.

Bhuvan Yadav's case against Barkha Rani

Monsoon rain is the key word today. Not only the farmers for whom it is the lifeline, but almost every individual across villages, cities, chawls, skyscrapers, schools and Parliament talk about it, after experiencing the worst monsoon in four decades, last year. They now know it for being responsible for a good harvest, lower price regime, better rural income, faster growing economy and absence of hunger. This understanding has brought it into popular culture within no time. Yesterday I was watching this creative sarcastic drama ‘Bhuvan Yadav’s case against Barkha Rani’.

The case begins with appearance of frail and visibly shaken Bhuvan Yadav, a poor farmer from some arid region in India, whose crops have failed due to the complete absence monsoon or ‘Barkha Rani’ as we call her from now onwards. Bhuvan has filed a case against ‘Barkha Rani’ for being directly responsible for crop washout and driving him and other farmers into utter poverty, indebtedness and to the verge of hunger death. Bhuvan represents the case for half of India’s population.
The judge then calls for ‘Barkha Rani’ who originally lives in the hilly Cherrapunji in the northeastern India and visits other hills, mountains and beaches whenever she feels like. She however is rarely seen in the vast stretches of arid lands passing through the length and breadth of the interiors of the country.

Now ‘Barkha Rani’ comes to the court all dressed in glitzy white saree and holding a large empty bowl. When questioned why Barkha Rani was absent last year and how it has affected not only Bhuvans of Indian villages but also Dr Manmohan of the Delhi.

Barkha Rani says she has not enough water in her bowl to fulfill the needs everywhere. To which Bhuvan’s lawyer says if she has not enough water why she disburses so much water in the Himalayas. Barkha says that’s because that’s from where water flows across the country through her first cousins like the Ganges, but faulty irrigation schemes and absence of river linking wastes all her purpose.

Barkha further said it’s her husband Badal like most extravagant men lives a high carbon footprint creating lifestyle and uses very large fuel-inefficient vehicles like Hummer which wastes a lot of the water in the process of transportation before reaching the desired destinations.

Also her cousins like Laila and Aila waste a lot of water in a pub called Cyclone every year, before Barkha could do her annual tour of the country. “I am left with very little to sprinkle in the fields of people like Bhuvan, though I really want to.” Barkha further blamed every human being for emission driven global warming which is resulting higher-than-normal temperature and parched farmlands, needing more water than ever.

The judge in the case reaslises the situation, human folly involved and feels sorry for Bhuvan and millions other who bear the brunt. He orders for rectification of all the human created errors and assurance of farm water to Bhuvans of India.
(The storyline in the drama is suitably twisted as per the writer’s imagination)
(The painting above is a reproduction of the famous Vincent Van Gogh 1889 oil painting 'Wheat Field in Rain')