Chikungunya III, Camorra, etc.

It's a new frikkin' year in our capricious, inaccurate calendar and I was hoping that I'd be full of vigour to embark on a new series of rants. But, it doesn't look very promising right now, sitting in my lungi in Japan, trying to think up something, with the outside temperature touching -19° C. My brain has gone cold, I'm afraid. The good thing is, in a couple of weeks I'll be in GOC capital (my hometown) for a short visit, which I hope would go a long way in recharging my batteries.

In the meantime, let me try to build up a rant based on a few news items that caught my attention recently. It is related to Italy. I don't clearly remember when I first heard of Italy or what it was. Probably something in history class, like most people. Then, somewhere in between you learn about Rome, the Roman Empire, Vesuvius and Pompeii, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Venice (not Alappuzha - the so-called Venice of East in GOC. Just because there are a few foul-smelling canals running through your town, you don't call it Venice). Then you also learn about Fiat, because that was one of the only two brands of cars you knew as a child (one also shouldn't forget Vespa and Lambretta scooters). But later on you read about Ferrari, Lamborghini and then about the mafia and see the Godfather movie and that kind of describes your idea of Italy.

My interest in Italy grew after I came to Japan, where I first had some close-to-authentic Italian food. I have also gained a few Italian friends here (one as recently as a couple of months ago in a department store kids play area).

Someone had written recently that Italy is the only first world country still debating the meaning of the red light in a signal. It reminded me of my Italian friend's visit to Hokkaido some time ago. We were meeting at an onsen spa about an hour's drive from here. I had reached there early and was waiting for him. He called up when he entered the main street of the spa town and I told him I was walking up the same street. And suddenly, this car coming down the street from the opposite side takes a screeching u-turn in front of me and lo - Don Ciccio (how my son calls him), was standing there beaming. That was very impressive and very much reminiscent of driving in India. But, is just not done in Japan. All the Japanese who saw that would have gone "Oh those gaijins!"

Anyway, one of the news items I was referring to was about a place called Castiglione Di Cervia. Guess what? People here were stricken down by a mysterious illness, later identified as --------"CHIKUNGUNYA." Yes, good ol' chikungunia. And, where did it come from? You're right. From Kerala, from GOC!!! Some guy got it from Kerala while there on vacation. Well, there's globalization for you. What surprises me is why this news has not affected the tourism industry? People, especially Europeans still come there. Beats me.

Another news item that caught my eye was the one about garbage piling up in Naples because of issues with the garbage disposal controlled by the local mafia known as the camorra. Now, that's a new funky Italian word - Camorra. Sounds nice, but stinks really bad, it seems, in Naples. Again, the situation reminded me of our towns and cities, though there is no cool word like camorra to go with it. In our case, the government itself is the camorra.

Talking of Fiat earlier reminded me of Ambassador car (also, my son saying "Ambassador mitai na kuruma" when he saw one of those retro-style Japanese mini-cars earlier today when we were driving to an onsen, technically inside Kitami, but about 20 minutes away by car). Those of you who have driven an Amby (with the gear shift below the steering wheel) would probably recognize this. The third gear is unique to each vehicle. You may be an experienced driver but when you drive an Amby for the first time, you'll find it difficult to get the gear into third in the first try. It will go grahhhh, gruhhh, etc. as you continuously hit the first gear or just some blind gear alley. And you go back to second gear because the car had slowed down by now. This is a built-in anti-burglary feature of every Ambassador. I wonder why they never patented it. (tip: intelligent people give a pass to the third gear and go straight to the fourth from second gear. Oh, do I miss the Ambassador?)