Jailhouse rock..

Sorry for this delay folks, dint have internet access in prison so could not post. yes you read it right i said prison, i along with 5 other like minded friends climbed up a 250 ft smoke stack of a thermal power plant in kolaghat, west Bengal, and painted "SMOKING KILLS" each alphabet around 7 ft, yes it was big. we did it to save the world, we did it to communicate the threat of climate change looming large on our lives. and the result, we were slapped charges of criminal trespass in a protected area which is a non bailable offense with a maximum imprisonment of 10 years.

Friday 12th of October, we were presented in court for our heroic act of trying to save the world in a protected area, no doubt intentions were all over the newspapers but the judge needed to sleep over it to make his mind for granting bail, so we were the guests of of state government for a weekend, now as we proceeded towards the prison which is right next to the court all the gory stories that we hard heard thats happens inside a cell started running as a slide show in front of me, i wish hadn't seen chandni bar, i wish i hadn't shaved whatever stubble that i had...before entering those 25 ft walls all we wanted is few packets of cigarettes to smuggle in with us as thats the currency my friend that will save your ass in prison, and another piece of advice given by a wise man " if you drop a soap in the prison, don't bend to pick it up".

We entered the first gate and in all there were 16 under trials, may be 17 i don't remember our contact details were entered in the register and we headed for the main cell, we were 4 guys and two girls, we requested the prison guard to ensure that four of us stay together, all 16 crossed the second gate and entered a compound which had a well in front lots of trees, the walls were painted in brick red color, we walked straight for 20 ft then turned left towards our cell, there were inmates waiting at the door to welcome new under trials, "i really wish i hadn't shaved"

one by one every one entered the cell, it was a 20ft x 70 ft cell, the flooring was of cemented and the ceiling was around 25 ft high so that no one can reach out to the fan and try suicide, the gate to the cell was to left side as we entered what we saw was a small praying space which had photos idols of all Hindu gods, a little ahead was a small box which was covered with a cloth kept at a height of 4 feet, that box looked like a television but i wasn't sure, on top of the box was a FM radio receiver and below the the box was a big speaker which would have been 200 watts..

all four of us were told to sit right opposite the entrance which was a privilege because to our extreme end were two small cubicles one was for peeing and other one for shitting, every new inmate who is not a notorious gangster or loaded with cash has to start his stay from next to the toilet and then earn his way up till the gate. Why were we privileged??? well i wasn't thinking about that, all i was concerned is who is gonna be their bitch for the night, i would have paid a thousand bucks that night to sleep in the middle...

all the eyes were stuck on us as were clearly a misfit there, boyish looks except for gene who with his multiple piercings and many square inches of tattoo looked like an under trial from Thailand. In all there were 36 under trials for murder, rape, kidnapping, stealing, sodomy....one of them approached us with a Bengali news paper in hand which had photos of three of us with a story..every one knew what we were in for and it was well appreciated, with all the questions in mind we sat very close to each other and slowly went off to sleep, suddenly we were woken up by an inmate who offered us two alluminium plates, one with sabzi and other with dusty hard chapatis, but i have to tell you it wasn't that bad as shown in films, quantity of food was never a problem and quality was never a question as we dint have a choice. Every one started spreading their blankets and we were waiting for ours..when asked if we would be getting blankets too, one guy on our right said, "you can sleep here", he had spread out blanks for us on the floor. i was shit scared "why on earth will he do that?" who will be the prison bitch amongst us?? " The radio was tuned in to 107.8 power fm which played both Hindi and english songs. i had secured my place in the middle dozed of listening to bollywood songs....

when fast asleep a scream woke me up from my ass saving dream..what i saw was a man being beaten black and blue by the self appointed rulers of the cell who had earned their way to be the kings of that world. the man was being beaten because it was his third visit inside for stealing, he was being beaten cos he was told last time not to steal, not to come back, he was told to work hard and earn his living, he was told to value freedom and liberty and he had broken the rules. After the punishment what followed was explaining the rules to the new inmates..

Rule 1) every one will sit and pee and use plenty of water to keep it clean, one has to wash hands and feet properly.

Rule 2) every one has to wake up at 5:45 in the morning for prayers which happens to be national anthem.

Rule 3) There are timings for everything in prison which has to be strictly followed.

then every one was sent back and we got back to sleep, the lights are never turned off in the cell as some one might try to kill himself or others.

The next morning we followed the routine, 5:45 counting of all inmates, 6:15 national anthem in the compound, 7:30 tea with puffed rice, 12:00 Rice Dal sabzi, 4:00 tea 8:00 dinner, before beyond or between these hours were conversations with inmates, their stories, playing carom, chess, listening to radio...couple of hours sleep too in the afternoon.

its a different world all together in there, it has its own set of rules which shouldn't be broken, it has stories that ready made scripts for a movie. I saw the definition of friendship in prison, there was one guy who was in for 11 months as he had helped his friend elope with a minor girl and get her married. when i asked him "you knew that she was a minor, so why did you do it?? you were bound to get in trouble." he said " i did it for my friend." he said it with a smile and his head held high...

Different types of people in for different reasons, some good some bad, some holy....there is only one law that exists in there and that is of good and bad, inmates who are in for rape are treated the worst, on Saturday night a new inmate was made to strip, shag and drink his semen, his crime was that he had blinded his girlfriend by throwing acid on her face.

all the stories that we had heard of in the prison, came true in those three days in front of our eyes, but the four of us were taken extremely good care of....i ended up asking on Monday morning just before we left for court to hear our bail application. i asked Raju who was one of the head guys in our cell " you guys are making people clean toilets, fill water, you beat them, make them eat their semen...but why this ultra special treatment for us?" and what he replied was what made me even more proud, he said " we are not bad people, we beat the shit out of some inmates cos they deserve it, people get what they deserve, last time a bunch of villagers came from nandigram who were fighting to save their land, and we treated them like gods, you guys are fighting for us, for our future, why will we treat you badly??"

We were granted bail on Monday evening, before leaving that place we handed over 2 kgs of onions and chillies, cos if you are privileged in prison you will get onions and red chillies to go with every meal..

sufi istanbul....

My journey that started on the 19th of september from newdelhi-london-cambridge-manchester-vienna-slovakia, now comes to an end today in istanbul, after arriving i was cursing myself to have dropped my camera in slovakia which was not functioning anymore as i wont be able to take take picture os this beautiful city which has some sort of magic in the air, but i managed to borrow an obsolete konika 1.3 megapixel camera which allowed me to take only 28 pics and i have tried to make the most of it. The weather was awesome, beautifully pleasant and not too cold. after a half an hour ride from airport i landed in hotel galata antik which is located near taksim tunel, whithout wasting too much time in having a shower in a 5 x 5 bathroom i stepped out the breathe the magic in the air.

I was famished and my desire to eat chillies was growing stronger and stronger after having the not so spicy or not spicy at all food in europe for 11 days. no more pasta and salad, i could smell falafel, shawarma, roast lamb, mussels, chilles...but i had to wait for that for a while.

I started with 'simit' its turkish bread which is sold at every corner in istanbul, it makes a sinful combination with cheese and its quite filling must say, as i was relishing simit and cheese i almost forgot that was i searching for an address while eating or the other way round???

Anyways, will skip the boring part about meetings and work in the office. but would like to mention that for lunch i had meat balls with veg curry, bread for free. Evenings in istanbul look like a carnival on every street, its perfect blend of centuries and cultures, though quite liberal the city is very much connected to its roots and culture. The streets have the best of brands and the most gorgeous women sporting those brands walking through lanes which have musicians communicting to god in trance, as darkess shines in istanbul food and music takes over all the small bylanes with tables laid outside full of people from different parts of the world, sipping tea, beer, live music playing, and the best of food to compliment. Yesterday evening after having a lavish dinner of lamb roast, chorba (soup) pilaf with mushroom curry, went for a beer and then in a conversation about food i tickled my friends taste buds by mentioning mussels (filled with rice and spices inside and then cooked) its heavenly, we headed for a helping of mussels, what followed was desert made of chicken, yes chiken and it was yummy. i was too drunk to remember the name though.

After three full days in office followed by evenings on istiklal street i had to get out today to capture what mani ratnam tried to show in guru in a short time, i cant show mallika sherawat here but still i will try what he hasn't. it was a 5 minutes downhill walk from istiklal street to karakoy tram station three stations away is sultan-ahmet thats where the blue mosque and topkak palace and st-sophia and grand bazaar are, except for the bazaar every structure looks bloody similiar with a different name and size, the grandeaur of these monuments are hypnotizing is say, so i preferred not to enter these monuments, not that i was scared of being hypnotised but i dint want to pay 10 liras as a tourist coming from a country which will let me in to see the taj mahal for 20 bucks. hain na?? after seeing those same to same monuments and a bit of shopping from grand bazaar i stopped to eat a shawarma, picked up three raw chilles to go with it and as the chillies dissapeared one by one the firangs around were looking at me in amusement, "how on earth can some one eat chilles like that' loved the attention and picked up a couple more chilles. "eat dirt guys see what we can do, huh!"

What amused me the most is loads of people lined up at the galata bridge for fishing, everyday many of them, selling their fresh catch, its an amazing thing, people of all age groups sipping on tea, puffs of cigerettes and fresh catch for sale on the spot cant get better than this. on my walk back i spotted a lot of shops in the subway selling guns i dint approach and ask if they were real of fake but it made a good picture, and actually it would have been fake i mean for 100 liras where would you get a real gun except in bihar. with the last fort liras on me i am gonna buy some turkish

delights to take back to india, a couple of beers,

turkish sufi music and mussels for dinner again...will try something else for desert if you guys say so. me not being an ameateur blogger and started wring only 10 days ago, now that my tour is coming to an end but the jorney goes on and on and on...so will keep posting, leave your comments if you want me to keep writing, will encourage me. tata

www.picasaweb.google.com/brikesh/istanbul

slovakia, bratislava, senec...no visa

before i start i would like to clear that senec is name of a place in slovakia..

I was very excited about this three day trip to Slovakia to attend a training workshop which had an enthusiastic bunch of volunteers coming from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia..how cud i miss this training, i was all set to go and a day before wen i was supposed to leave for Vienna i was chatting with a friend of mine who studies there and she asked me a very logical question too late and lightning struck...."do i have a visa to enter Slovakia?" NO, i had a schengen visa and assumed it will work but u guessed right, no it wont work, because Slovakia comes under schengen territory from Jan 2008.

i arrived in Vienna on 16th and was supposed to leave for Slovakia on the 28th morning..tried calling up the slovak embassy and all i got was disappointment, applying for a visa was only possible from Delhi, i was dying to attend this workshop, that's why i went to Austria in the first place and now the chances of going started fading slowly.... klaudia in Slovakia was trying to recheck from the embassy if somehow....just by some loop hole in the law i cud make it. And the lady called me with a ray of hope and a clause in visa rule book of Slovak republic.

my schengen visa could be used as a transit provided to don't stay more than 5 days and i don't come back from the same route, so i had to take a train back via Hungary to Vienna and if caught in transit then i had a list of lies to be told with utter confidence with out mentioning that my intention is to stay and not just transit so what if its less than 5 days. i was worried as i dint wanted to fly back to India on a free flight on Slovak money so i called up indian embassy to recheck and some junior person gave me an encouraging assurance that "yes you can go but there might be problems if they don't fall for your answers during interrogation......well now i was sure that i was the most confused soul in Vienna at that hour.....

27th morning klaudia called again saying that she checked with Slovak embassy and asked me to play around the transit rule, well i took the plunge i was loving that adrenalin rush, had to book myself a one way ticket as i future was not visible covered in thick fog of fear.....i boarded the the 13:28 train from sudbanohf station to bratislava....capital of slovakia. there were questions falling on my head from the sky and i dint want to think about the answers.......what will the cops ask??

"can i see your passport??" sure "you don't have a visa for slovakia?" i am just passing by, i know schengen can be used as a transit visa provided i dont stay for more than 5 days "where are you going in bratislava?" i am meeting a friend at station then going to prague then Berlin and then back to Vienna " But why are you taking an odd route?" thats none of your business ( shit, no i cant say that) what will i say..mmmmmm??? i just wanted to meet my friends....will i be able to sell it to them?? oh shit, i shouldnt think about it...taking a nap was a good idea...

my sleep was disturbed by a tap on my shoulder, i saw a tall man standing in front of me, broad shoulders sky blue shirt, navy blue trousers a cap muscular physique other 5 people in the compartment looked very relaxed expect for me, in authoritative tone he asked "can i see your ticket please?" pheww here u go see my ticket and take this smile..for free, thank you. 10 minutes later i was in bratislava, slovakian soil below my feet and no slovakian visa on my passport....

the work shop was amaaaaaaazing had loads of fun and you dont have to guess it, i came back through the same route, no cheking no questions asked except for "can i see you ticket please"

click on the link below to find out what i did in those three days...

http://picasaweb.google.com/brikesh/Slovakia

samosa in vienna

two days in vienna and all i had seen was the office the nearest station, matzleindorferplatz the connecting station sudbanohf and the airport ofcourse....yes i forgot to mention the high tech lighting in toliets, there is a laser dectector that switches on light automatically the moment you enter the loo....i was impressed. i went inside to relieve myself with book, i wanted to finish the short story that was interupted by the timely landing of flight in vienna, so i was sitting quietly engrossed in the story dying to know if mr parson will be able to buy that rare old precious furniture for dirt cheap and sudennly light goes off, and i try to look up and even before i had expressed my frustration the lights turn on again...i get back to mr parson and after 30 seconds lights go off again....thats when i realised that theres i cant even shit peacefully here and i ended up sitting there waving one hand in the air to the detector "heloooo i am still here...hang in there please" in the last 5 visits that i have made to the loo now i have made friends with the detector so i dont just wave my hands, i talk to him, discuss my problems, share potty jokes etc...it made my shitting easy and filled with light.....

finally second day evening i went out to a meeting in downtown where there was free booze and food i thot would be a good idea to try some austrian cuisine, the meeting dint make any sense to me as every one was speaking german, its sounded like they are talking with hundred safety pins stuffed in their mouth, so i kept myself busy with beer waiting for the meeting to end dinner to start, when the food was being served i saw something that reminded me of samosa, and i coud not believe myself when i actually tried one, it was a fuckin samosa man, i was eating a samosa in vienna of all places, in a gala buffet, austrians relishing samosa with wine..the taste was little bland with almost no masalas in it, i ended up asking someone what the dish is called and they refused to acknowledge that it was samosa that had taken over the tastebuds of around 55 people that evening, they said some name which after repeated attempts i could neither pronounce nor remember..

but my friends, once a samosa always a samosa, if a samosa is called matzleindorferplatz it wont change the soul of samosa...will it?? no, never, i am proud to see our samosa standing on its feet in vienna, its come a long way indeed...

beer cricket and paki supporters

After missing the three eventfull matches that took secured india a berth in the final i was feeling ashamed of myself, i missed the 6 sixes of yuvraj, i missed india beating australia, i missed india beating south africa, if my dad comes to know about this he will disown me, how cud i do this to him and to cricket and all because of this stupid hotel in which i was staying which had a 14 inch tv and it looked even more smaller i mean a nokia n72 screen would look bigger in comparison after a couple of drinks, and to add to the misery it only showed 4 channels bbc 1&2 and channel 4& 5 channel 3 was blank and so were the other channels. I had made up my mind that i have to see the final even at the cost of selling my hotel rooms mini tv, tim in office suggested that i take a bus and go to houston station and i wud surely find some pubs showing the macth on big screen.

Bus no 73 took me to huston station where i got down at ucl college and after roaming around for fifteen minutes and asking people frantically where on earth can i see the match please please...try to understand its india playing pakistan in a world cup final, these encounters are made in heaven and like haileys comet only once in your life time would you see this phenomena happening, but to my surprise in a country which gave birth to this game (i dunno who the father is, may be cricket is a bastard) i cud not find a single soul to help me with finding a venue to see the game, why does england even bother to play cricket when people just dont care???

i walked past spearmint rhino which was exactly on my opposite side and heard a roar, to my left was a pub, "court" and there was a big screen and there were some sardarjis and cricket. i got myself a pint of guniess beer said hi to all the sardars and got on with the match....first floor of the court was filled with paki supporters and ground floor with indian, every indian wicket was cheered with whistles above and every boundry scored by us was cheered by louder screams, there was too much tension flowing, it was a feeling as if india loses that match then i would be captured and made a prisoner of war for the rest of my life and asked to break shahbad marble stones smuggled in to pakistan from india, there was only one door to get out of the pub, there were some paki supporters standing right next to the door so if pakistan loses the they will leave immedietely but if india lost...i and other sardarjees will have to pass through that door with eyes looking at our heads down....no i dint want that to happen...

6 runs scored of 2nd ball in last over and i gulped down my beer and stood next to the door in a get set go position waiting for the whistle...and then the catch....i dont know how loud was my scream cos there were more drunk sardarjees in their, i got a free beer from a surd who was on cloud nine, and i like a gentleman was shaking hands with every pakistani supporter leaving the pub saying "good match man, wel played, win or lose it was a good match" bang came the reply from one guy, "yeah good match, had we won it still would have been a good match"....

this is one match i will remember forever....

where are the people

after a 9:35 min flight from delhi to heathrow i arrived as fresh as a lettuce right out of the farm, jetlagged?? what is it, i have had 16 hour journey on a bus bumping its way to glory and my knees folded up to my chin, either i am too tall for an indian or whoever designs theese buses are just jealous of my height. so slept on the plane and slept well for 6 hours. after an hour at the immigration counter i had to find my way to the underground metro which is called tube in london, finding my wasn't difficult as i can read better than i can write, it was a 76 minutes journey on the piccadilly line the changing to victoria line and finally making my way through tunnels and stairs and escalators i was under the open sky in london, islington and the first thought that came to mind was......beautiful (thats what you thought, dint u??) but no the first thing i said was "bhenchod saare log gaye kahan??" coming from delhi and bombay when you get of the airport and try to breathe there will be hundreds who will walk over you, but here in islingtonempty streets stood gazing at me, my be they were welcoming me or may be saying "what the fuck are you staring at dude?? just get on with hunting the address you r gonna have a tough time" and i did.

The 7th person in 5 minutes i approached told me that i was supposed to go left, god bless his soul he looked like an asian and turned to be a bangladeshi. what???? yea...so i was right he was an asian what u guys thinkin about, a walk for 10 minutes more and i asked a lady who was busy pursuing her dog to poop who looked like suffering from constipation or may be the freezing weather made things difficult, for the dog i mean but she dint knew. then i spotted a bakery selling burgers and rolls for 2 pounds n it looked like a place where hungry souls in office might be paying a regular visit and i was right again...so 9 people on the road in 20 minutes at 10:30 in the morning in northeast london.................phew.

what will happen if islington station becomes andheri station????