El Rastro - Madrid's flea market

Something I wrote a couple of years back from my visit to Madrid's flea market.

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El Rastro - Madrid's flea market

Disappointed by the lack of unusual souvenirs in Madrid, left me to pursue one last option - El Rastro. Initially I was a bit scared of this place and wanted to avoid going here. All the books and the online travel guides said that its a haven for thieves and pickpockets. However, bundling all the courage I had, I decided to visit it without any valuables and cash hidden in an inner pocket.

This weekly market takes place on the streets, on Sunday morning. The nearest metro station is La Latina. The metro has a clear sign indicating the direction. When I walked out of the station, I tried to figure where it was. But when I turned around, there it was. The stalls had been set up and some of the owners were setting their goods.

I began from the beginning. The streets here were more lively and a completely different feel to it. Once I started looking around, I was glad I came. On both sides of this street were clothes, bags etc. A couple of stalls later I found these showpieces that were witches working on the internet. There were some with a crystal ball, one of which I immediately bought. And all for just 2 euros. What a bargain, I thought! A couple of stalls later, similar witches were there, but better quality, more variety and more expensive. They even had puppet like witches with broomsticks. I decided to skip this one for now.

There was also a stall selling copies of famous paintings from the Prado museum. The quality was not very good though. A little ahead, I even saw Indian Rajasthani Kathputlis (10 euros), Hindu God posters and even a Gay Mata (Mother Cow) poster. On my left I could see bags of all sizes. There were even TinTin bags and bags with Audrey Hepburn's photo. All for 12 euros each. There were souvenirs, Spanish fans, music CDs, DVDs, you name it and it was there.

I moved on and came across a square, where some of the stalls had second hand goods - not too interesting I thought. Some even had comics and books, all of it in Spanish though. I turned into this narrow alley, where a man was selling his items on the ground. There was a nice layout of old watches, the ones sailors used earlier. Moving on the antiques increased. There were old clocks with elaborate sculptures on it. Other things included candlesticks, old trinkets, figurines. I noticed that these streets had shops with old things in them. Quite interesting! This place was turning out to be like a treasure hunt. One never knew what one would find. At another similar stall, there was a chest of 2 drawers with the sun and the moon painted or embossed on it. It had the old wooden look in it. And it was only for 10 euros. If I could have carried it home, I would have bought it for sure. There was paper knife, where there was a stack of books made of clay. A photo frame, where the place for photos seemed to be cut out from a shelf of books. Zola's name was clearly visible on one of those. Seemed interesting, but probably difficult to carry.

I found a stall that was selling 3 magnets for 5 euros. Quite a bargain I thought and bought three from my choice. Quite touristy, as my colleague in Madrid would say! There were also old coins and stamps that could be bought. Having seen this treasure for a while, I decided to buy another one of those witches and headed in the other direction of the street. Two minutes later I was in a stall choosing a fake leather Chinese made bag. The choice was tough and in the end I managed to buy this nice looking purse which looked trendy and had a lot of pockets. Only 10 euros.

I looked around and even saw TinTin T-Shirts. At that time 10 euros for that T-shirt seemed too much. But after reaching the hotel, I regretted not buying the TinTin T-shirt or another fake bag. And that's what really summed up my experience of El Rastro - Buy it or regret it. Its a bargain!

Why am I online?

Ever since internet came to India, I have been bit by the internet bug. It started with a dial-up text account that did not have any graphics (500 hours for Rs. 500). Even though there were no pictures, text was enough to keep me engaged. Soon, graphic accounts became inexpensive and I was hooked to the pictures I could see from around the world. And then came broadband which let me surf the net online for hours without worrying about the phone bill or finishing my hourly limit...

Soon, classmates and friends started mocking me about what I did online for hours. Never mind, that they were online too for those many hours which is how they knew I had been online for that long! They felt it was rather boring and pointless to be surfing the net. I, on the other hand thought otherwise. As a kid I loved to peruse the 25 volume World Book encyclopedia we had at home. It brought the world into my room from where I could read about places, events, people, technology, science, arts all at once. It made me more aware of the world, taught me about different cultures, lives, ideologies etc.

The internet helped me to expand my knowledge even further. It is faster, updated more regularly and endless. I can get real time news of events taking place far away, news, views, analysis. Not only that, I can read about what ordinary citizens of the world think about them. Through videos, I can see what is happening elsewhere in the world. I am hooked on to Britain's Got Talent which viewers in Britain upload on youtube for the rest of the world to see. Susan Boyle would not have been a phenomena without the net. It has also helped me keep in touch or bring back in touch with people in other countries...so I regularly chat with friends in Nigeria, Pakistan, Spain and the US. I can read reviews about books or movies that I plan to read or watch. Or StumbleUpon new sites.

Find new recipes, health facts, a new story to read, cartoons, comics, play a game, catch up with friends, research about new restaurants, book tickets, manage bank account, video chat with my nephew in the USA, gossip with office friends while working......the list is endless of what I do and can do online! I would say its brought me a step closer in becoming a global citizen...

Doctor Fish

The plant and animal kingdom is full of examples of symbiotic relations where both living organisms derive benefit from each other. For example, in school, we read that birds feed on food pieces stuck in crocodile’s teeth. This way the crocodile gets a free dental floss and the bird gets food.

Other examples include bees helping flowers to pollinate while collecting honey, clown fish living in sea anemone and protecting each other from predators, fungi on plants roots that help plants get phosphate and nitrogenous compounds in return for food supply. Humans too have a mutualistic relationship with bacteria living in their intestines that assist digestion.

A few days back I discovered a new relationship between human and fishes. No, not humans eating fish (can’t see how the fish would benefit from that!). It’s the age old fish therapy for a softer and smoother skin that originated in Turkey. So, as part of this symbiotic relation and coming closer to nature, I was urged on by my friends to dip my feet in a tank of 300 live fishes who feasted off the dead skin on my feet. True to their name, Doctor Fish got down to business quickly biting off the crusty and flaky skin. I must admit I was very scared initially, but later it felt like tiny machines working on my feet. I later found out that these species of fish are found in Turkey and are also used to cure skin diseases like psoriasis and eczema. Another unique health cure and another symbiotic relation that I liked!

Man's worst enemy Man?

A few days ago I had a quick chat with one my Pakistani friends based in UK. With so many scary reports coming out of there about how the state is on the verge of collapse, I thought I would get an update from an insider. She told me that things are not so bad in the south of the country as in the north. She also says that the people of Pakistan are moderates and do not support the harsh laws that the Taliban threaten to rule the country by. After all being a woman who wants to be treated worse than cattle - confined in homes without education or employment - deprived of one's own identity as a human being.

Of course its not the first time that a group threatens to derail humanity with its extreme views. Strife in the name of religion, caste, creed, race and colour has been embedded in our history since time immemorial. This made me wonder whether man is the only species to kill its own. A little googling showed that other species like chimps indulge in gang wars. There is even a movie from 1998 shot in Tanzania.

Some species of birds like cuckoos, wydahs too invade other species of birds by laying their own eggs in their nests. Some of the chicks even throw out the host eggs or kill host chicks. (Source)

Many species like black widow spiders, wolves etc are known to kill their own cubs or mates. Some even turn into cannibals when food is short.

In short, its not just humans who fight amongst themselves, most species do. But with the complex emotions that apparently distinguish homo sapiens from other species, one would expect them to reason that war threatens their very existence. However, this is not the case at all in the case of a few insistent on using violent means for their own benefit. This may also stem from one of the complex emotions man is capable of -- self actualization. They seek to reach their full potential and higher self by 'fighting' for the rights of their people. One wonders how they justify violence to achieve that! Perhaps we are not as evolved in terms of emotions as we might think we are.

Ultimately, mankind's worst enemy could be mankind itself.

Can Freud help?

Ever since I was little, I have had strange dreams. But the one I had a few weeks ago was so weird that I was not able to find any online resources to help me interpret this one.

I dreamt that I was in a Danny Boyle movie being visited by aliens who looked like babies (not strange considering I was remembering my 1 year old nephew that evening). They could not talk and were trying to tell us something which we could not understand. We just thought they were cute! Some events followed which I don't remember. Next thing I remember, we were on their planet which seemed to be in some kind of a warp. We entered some caves where there were tons of people (including children) as still as statues. The children were not veteran actors and some were blinking or twitching. (Never mind its just a movie and they are kids!) The baby aliens were with us too. We played around with some levers that sent a gigantic Y (that looked mysteriously cut out from a cake) towards some kind of a board and fitted there like a puzzle. Simultaneously, a brain of monstrous proportions encased in a glass case crashed. The whole planet came to a standstill including the babyish aliens accompanying us. That's when we realized that the babies were asking for our help!

So, how do I go about interpreting this dream? Wish fulfillment and an instigation of events of the day as Freud says? Certainly bizarre wishes to fulfill and no I wasn't visited by aliens or cakes or brains! Perhaps Jung's theory of dream interpretation seems more spot on when he says that dreams are reflective of a more complex and richer personal and collective conciousness. He believed that dreams may contain illuisons, unavoidable truths, fantasies, plans or even telepathic visions! Does that mean I fantasize and make plans about the unavoidable truth that I will visit an alien planet in the future?! Gosh that is some illusion!

Whether Freud was right or Jung, we might never know. Dreams have always been a subject of fascination for humans and various theories have surrounded them. For instance, dreams in the morning come true or that they are a doorway to another world.

I do not know what part of my conciousness threw up this strange chain of events. What is more likely that I have an overactive imagination that is hyperactive when I am asleep. Needless to say my dream concluded with the movie winning an oscar.

Free will or not?

The last few months have made me realize how little control we have over our lives than we think.

We can all rave about living in a democracy, exercising our right of speech and expression and the ability to lead life as we want to. But did the following have the free will to prevent or control what happened to them? Victims of the Mumbai terror attack , serial blasts in Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad or Guwahati, Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings or passengers of the hijacked planes that crashed into WTC towers on 9/11 and even the girls who were beaten up at the Mangalore pub. And why restrict to man made terror. How about those who have fallen prey to natural disasters -- the 2004 tsunami, earthquakes or even Titanic, the ship that could never sink.

The future seems to be equally bleak for 'free will'. There are fears of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, global warming has only just begun, super volcanoes threaten to plunge the world into an ice age, an asteroid might collide with earth. Apart from these there are the usual chances of accidents, plane crashes and natural phenomenon like floods and earthquakes.

So, is there no such thing as free will? Yes, there IS. Although we cannot control the above events, we can mitigate the effects of their outcomes by the choices we make. Switching to green energy, judicious use of electricity and water and planting more trees can mitigate the effects of global warming. More than this, we have the choice to be good or bad. We can choose to spread love or destruct ourselves with hate. Live and let live can go a far way in reducing the futile conflicts that men get into for superficial matters like race, religion, gender, caste, nationality etc.

Ayn Rand sums it the best:

Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be

To Tag or Not to Tag

The other day, I had a hard time tagging 25 people on Facebook for the '25 random things about me' post. Once tagged, the post requires you to write your own post and then tag 25 people in your friends' list including the person who tagged you. I must confess I had a hard time selecting the 24 people despite boasting of 160 friends.

School friends, childhood friends, college friends, friends from work, Toastmasters friends, family...they are all there. Yet, I had trouble tagging 15% of my friends list . While I personally know all 160, I did not want to share some random facts about myself with them. As I browsed through the list, I wondered how many of them can really be called friends. As per dictionary.com a friend is a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard or a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter. Going by these definitions, there hasn't really been an exchange of affection or patronage with most of my 'friends'. I haven't interacted with most of them since we added each other.

So, should I call them friends, acquaintances or associate? Does seeing photos, reading/commenting on status messages, poking, wall posts make friends? Which are your most memorable times spent with friends? Hanging out with them, pulling each other's leg, laughing your head off over a cup of coffee or Facebooking/Orkutting them? Do you remember the birthday when your buddies showed up with warm smiles on their faces and wished you with a hug or the one line ' Happy Birthday! Have a Blast!' wall post?

Facebook is a great way to extend that face-to-face interaction and be more involved in another person's life. It has also connected me to some long lost friends. But unless I make the effort to interact with them personally, I will not be able to form that long lasting bond. Which is what happened to most of those 160 friends on my list. I do know them from work, school, college or other activities but I have had different levels of interaction with them none of which are affectionate or patronizing.

In conclusion, I would say that social networking is a good way to extend that personal connection but not sustainable in itself.