The four horse men are taking a time out, they are not going to come and get us, but the Apocalypse is still on schedule. Are you ready for it? What are the essential items you should have in your survival kit? Read the next sentence uttered by the modern prophetess Naomi Klein and check the things you have.
"Me and my friends are going to be fine. We have SUVs, we have generators, we have air- conditioners, we have bottled water and we bought land in Alaska." Five out of five and you should be fine.

A ski resort sells for 90 cents. Boys are disappearing from native communities in the Arctic. Here in Anchorage we had rains in January instead of that fluffy white stuff that used to fall. Same story on the other side of the ocean. Rivers break open in the middle of winter in the high arctic. Yeah yeah yeah, you know all that(pfftt...anecdotal evidence) and you are still voting for Michael Crichton.

Every generation has its treasured doomsday predictions and blames itself for having squandered the earth beyond repair. Are we just one in a long line of generations who have been forecasting our planet's cursed ride to hell in a hand basket? Or is it for real this time?

Forget global warming, take the population. The earth is supposedly 80 years old in human years. An attack of a strain of flu virus which could take a week to clear out for a 20 year old person might prove fatal for an eighty year old(Not my concept heard it from some scientist, forgot his name.) This time the virus under the microscope is us – the humans.

The human population was 978 million in 1800. All that population explosion ever since Adam's incident with the apple or the ape-man evolution (whichever one you prefer) had only been able to produce ~1 billion people by A.D.1800. By 2000, a mere 200 years hence we multiplied almost 6 times to almost 6 billion, thanks to progress(which is not a bad thing, but the population is.) Just between earth's 79th birthday and 80th birthday, the virus count increased by 5 billion. The newer strain is more polluting, venomous and uncontrollable than the previous one. Such high counts are enough to kill anyone in a jiffy. How much longer will this 80 year old earth survive and how long is a jiffy?

While top scientists around the globe race to calculate the length of the jiffy to the nth decimal you can read some inspirational literature. Especially if you want to be one of the privileged few who will ride out in to a brand new sunrise when everyone around you is being mercilessly wiped out, thanks to their own actions. Your inspirational literature of the day is sponsored by the prophetic Naomi Klein(again.)

"We are looking at a system of climate apartheid. The waters are rising. Some people are going to be left to drown - a lot of people. But there will be people who'll be able to drive out, not everyone would die and those people will build their global green zone, where - Alaska? But this isn't a joke. The land in the Alaska is getting more expensive. And I think that is clearly the direction we are going. I'd not say human extinction. But it is going to be a genocidal logic, I suppose the survival of the fittest but more what it is about is, me and my friends are going to be fine, we have SUVs, we have generators, we have ACs,we have bottled water and we bought land in alaska....."

-Naomi Klein

In these times of tumbling real estate and unstable markets the only hope is to drive North to the Future. There is more inspirational literature about the last place on earth(if you want to survive that is) plus an old uplifting photo from my archives. Here goes,

"Alaska, come because of the scenery, stay because you're f#*king lost."
"Alaska, nobody you know lives here."
"Alaska, it's goddamn cold."

A few photos from the park next door - Woodside Park(Eastchester). Alaskan fall is predominantly yellow(I remember tko_ak mentioning that) and its slight variations. Not many flaming orange trees here.



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We met Kirmani yesterday. He was a black man. What stumped us was when he spelt out his name, K-I-R-M-A-N-I. You might ask what's the big deal about it? If you do, you are probably not from India. African Americans are known for rummaging thru' the entire set of African languages for innovative names - Kijani, Shomari, Dakarai etc, this must be just another name from that bunch, right?

Wrong. The guy although he is a black man, does not consider himself African-American, he is a West-Indian. Those people almost take it as an insult if you ever call them African-American. In their company you've to acquiesce that reggae is the rhythm of life and rap is c-rap. Then as fellow 'Indians', albeit from the extremities of sun's path, we do share a lot in common - the benevolent looting of our lands by the British monarchy, dal, coconut, spices and cricket. Cricket, that's where the name comes from, can you believe it?!!

West Indies was a mighty force to reckon with in the cricketing world in the late seventies and eighties. If India was playing West Indies it used to send shivers up our spines, but then the Prudential Cup happened(I still have the yellowed newspaper cuttings that I would almost cry over with pride. lol). Alright before I lose myself in the trail of happy tears let me come back to the guy we met. Somewhere in the West Indies, a boy was born sometime in the early eighties. His father happened to be a big fan of the game of cricket and decides to name his baby after a cricketer. The funny thing is that he didn't call his son Vivian or Gordon after the famous West Indian cricketers, nor did he fancy the name, Kapil – the illustrious Indian captain but he named his precious bundle of hope, after one of Kapil’s Devils – the Indian wicket keeper Syed Kirmani.

So people, give it away to the black Kirmani in da house. Btw will the real Kirmani please stand up, please stand up – is he still the chief selector of the Indian team?

N took this picture while driving south, from Anchorage. I was lounging in the back seat. Turnagain Arm is an arm of Cook Inlet. Cook Inlet opens out into the North Pacific.


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