feeling more resposible

What frantic weeks. What memorable occasions. What great fun. Wouldn't even attempt at penning down the crazy busy schedules. Amongst the near and dear ones after a long time. Lot of dancing, music and paranoia.

Photographic evidence and memorabilia - Sneak Preview, Individuals & More Individuals.

Unforgettable

approaching a year in the blogosphere

As that day of the year approaches , a year has whizzed by since the first post. Chetan’s comment on it “Just go on man!!! All the best for future blogs...” is still fresh in the head. Life moves on, with a few changes nevertheless, but it sure does move on. The old adage of time and tide not waiting for anyone is so true. Technology and the web have moved on as well. Twitter's come along which have taken away a lot of micro thoughts away.

Everyone seems to be joining the twittering band-wagon. The blue birdie is flying high. I’d be rather interested on looking at a chart which classifies any post, be it twitter or facebook status, by subject types. I can largely put them into mood updates, food/meal updates, weather updates, sports updates, a few sensible ones followed by silly gaming updates (mafia wars and farmville are especially loathed). I’m following the (then) top 5 Indian twitterers . I find Vir Sanghvi, the most sensible of all. Chetan Bhagat uses it well for marketing his fresh profession and gathering public opinion on his thoughts. Shashi Tharoor adds a diplomatic multi cultural colour. Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai and likes are usually promoting TV Journalism and raising questions on current affairs. What’s really good to see is the transparency that it’s brought and a different mix of network. A few intelligent friends that I follow as well, always make sure they answer every question that the above ask. I can’t understand why Gul Panag is in this list. Discovered a little add-in to post my tweets here on the blog as well, so which hopefully will keep it alive.

The goods always are chased closely by the bads, aren’t they? I can’t figure out why people think the world would be interested in knowing when they got up or had a bath or like the tea that they just made. Cat-fights, bitching about, personal slurs and similar things are un-called for in any medium of communication. You have to be very judicious about who you follow, because otherwise you gather a lot of personalised versions of trivia - as if the new sites and magazines aren't giving you enough. The funny thing is because there are so many places where you have registered, you tend to have an intersection of common friends in your list. You can see the same message via so many different channels.

As the holidays draw closer, companies get ready to flash their holiday marketing. Red colour will over-whelm the streets. You know it when you see the red Starbucks cup with stars. Winter is slowly pushing autumn out and you see people playing with their visible breath while waiting for their bus/train.

Chilling

Pune Mumbai Weekend

Busy evenings follow busy days, busy weekends follow busy weeks. I’m sure every one feels the need of relaxation. Emotional seismograph is at its happy highs and lousy lows, during such busy times. On my way from work, to a family friends house for dinner on an auspicious day of Dhanteras, get a call from a very good friend Sanchit, inviting me for his wedding in January. Funny enough that I couldn’t make those dates because I’ve got my own, this December, but nevertheless shared many laughs of old days.

One particular trip with this particular guy and other common friends was weekend at Pune/Mumbai when I used to work in Hyderabad. I went up from Hyderabad, they’d driven down from Ahmedabad, to meet a common friend, Chinmaya, working in Pune. Timeline goes like... Saturday morning arrival at Pune... typical VVNagar type breakfast at “chai-tapri”... conceiving ideas of Radiance... Osho ashram visit in Koregaon Park... Osho chappal shopping... don’t know how those footwear brand got its popular name... lying around in a pool in some remote club resort... playing cricket, volleyball and a bit of alcohol... Chinmaya’s splash in the pool hitting the rock-bottom... drive down to Mumbai in a awesome weather via the hills of Lonavala... stopping over for a famous vada-pau at a popular joint... finally managed to reach a sea view flat to visit Sanchit’s awesome Bhai/Bhabhi... card games begin with meagre bets of a rupee each... in climax the last round was 4K!!... there was a lot of Vodka Apple + Edge flowing in the blood to realize what we were doing... Sanchit was busy making his apple flavoured vodka hookkas... all wasted to the core in the end... hit the bed and got up straight next afternoon... flight back to Hyderabad and the taxi ride back home still in hangover...

As all these nostalgic thought-waves flow through the brain, Gandhiji’s quote stares at me with his ever smiling photograph “there is more to life than increasing its speed”. Art on the London underground

Waves

let the festivities begin

This week kicked off the festive season, starting with coinciding First Navaratri Day and Eid on the same day. The colours and celebrations would carry almost all the way up to Diwali and New Year, when Kites await their turn. Its amazing how each of the festival has its own food linked to it. Naming them here would be injustice to the ones that I forget, so I better not try. Even more amazing to me is the fact that schools and colleges remain closed on each of the major festivals. So if you ask a school kid, he’d like all festivals because he gets holidays. They know more about the festival schedules than elders. What a way to push for universal brotherhood!

I wonder why different families have different pet festivals. A few of my friends would make sure they are home for Diwali, some for Kite flying, some for Holi and some for Navaratri. I think it would be the elders psyche which permeates into the behaviour of the members of the clan. If I like something, I’m sure people around me would try and make it special (well maybe not if its outrageous). Like the Bachchans’ Holi is now well known, as Big B likes it. The funnier parts when the *stars* and wannabes addresses in the plethora of TV channels and now websites - "Hi, I’m so n so and wish you a very happy XXX."

The heads of the governments for the states and the centre would address the nation on the National Channel – Doordarshan, which again is such an amazement. Austerity and simplicity of DD will remain un-matched, forever. I’ve come across a parody celebrating its 50 years here. However jokes apart, what they achieved then, at that scale, was by no means a simple task and ridiculing it, I couldn't laugh at. At the risk of sounding to protective towards the civil or nationalized services, I would consider spectacularly managed channel networks less challenging today than a single channel in those times. I’m sure DD has lot of loyalists even now. Technology enables them with better ways of managing their services, if only they could manage their content better. The debates of what the state should or shouldn't regulate or control, but that's another story.

In today’s times, with many new ways of doing things, the way people communicate will evolve with time. But things don’t abate to amaze us do they? Like the Tharoor Tweetorama, a simple funny statement creates a furore, MPs squabble on TV shows like they’ve nothing better to worry about. I’m sure there’s more to come..

:)

American Ramayana !

This is a forward which I partially liked and thought was worth sharing..

Dude!
----------------
A young second generation Indian in the US was asked by his mother to explain the significance of "Diwali" to his younger brother, this is how he went about it...

"So, like this dude had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked him. But, like, his step-mom, or something, was kind of a bitch, and she forced her husband to, like, send this cool-dude, he was Ram, to some national forest or something.... Since he was going, for like, something like more than 10 years or so.... he decided to get is wife and his bro along.... you know...so that they could all chill out together. But Dude, the forest was reeeeal scary shit... really man...they had monkeys and devil s and shit like that. But this dude, Ram, kicked with darts and bows and arrows... so it was fine. But then some bad gangsta boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his babe (Sita) and lures her away to his hood. And boy, was our man, and also his bro, Laxman, pissed... all the gods were with him... So anyways, you don't mess with gods. So, Ram, and his bro get an army of monkeys...Dude, don't ask me how they trained the damn monkeys... just go along with me, ok...

So, Ram, Lax and their monkeys whip this gangsta's ass in his own hood.... Anyways, by this time, their time's up in the forest... and anyways... it gets kinda boring, you know... no TV or malls or shit like that. So,they decided to hitch a ride back home... and when the people realize that our dude, his bro and the wife are back home.... they thought, well, you know, at least they deserve something nice... and they didn't have any bars or clubs in those days... so they couldn't take them out for a drink, so they, like, decided to smoke and stuff ... and since they also had some lamps, they lit the lamps also...so it was pretty cooool... you know with all those fireworks.... Really, they even had some local band play along with the fireworks... and you know, what, dude, that was the very first, no kidding.., that was the very first music-synchronized fireworks..... you know, like the 4th of July stuff, but just, more cooler and stuff, you know.. And, so dude, that was how, like, this festival started."

The mother fainted...

Amazing timestamp

It's been a lot of backlog that I've got to cover! It's been a busy month so far and promises to be even busier.

Just realised it's going to be an amazing date time in a few minutes and wanted to get a post in!

Aiming for 09/09/09 09:09 ;) might not hit it, but anythings worth a shot isn't it?

Cheerio

Independence Day Celebrations - Salute to Martyrs

India celebrates the 62nd Anniversary of our freedom from the British Raj. Its supposed to be a day where we feel patriotic paying homage to all the freedom fighters and visionaries. A lifetime is less to describe or even name all those who were involved, famous and infamous, known and unknown, men and women, adults and kids, national and international supporters.

15th August is the day we all used take for granted as being born in free India. Lets make sure we don't any more. We've come a long way, still a long way to go. 62 years of democracy neighboured by a failed model of similar attempt, we face our own challenges currently internal and external. Patience and acceptance being the virtue of people anticipating change. While we see our troops parading at the red-fort and PMs speech, lets get inspired by the doers of the gigantic task of Independence and start doing, growing up from our petty issues. World now submits their acceptance of a growing superpower. A time to remember all our martyrs with the struggles before and after the freedom struggle whether be Siachen, Kargil, Longewala or 26/11 Mumbai. All we can remember and all those have been eroded from memory filled with media crazy nonsense..

Respect

musical week and random

Its been a few musical days. With lots of things happening around the world like the Massa accident and eventual Schumacher returning to Ferrari, be it for a single race. Its an event. Clinton's diplomatic heroics demonstrated with emotional scenes of the reporters re-uniting with their families after scary speculations.

August is usually a month I very much liked as a kid in school, college and even working back home. As its got many public holidays. Like the National Portal of India's August Newsletter reports :-

Raksha Bandhan: Literally meaning, 'bond of protection', Raksha Bandhan is a festival that celebrates the bond of love between sisters and brothers. On this day, sisters tie a beautifully decorated thread called a 'rakhi' around the wrists of their brothers and exchange sweets and gifts.

Janmashtami: Also known as Gokulashtami, this festival marks the birth of Lord Krishna. On this day, fasts, pujas and other rituals are conducted at temples and homes that are beautifully decorated. In Maharashtra, teams of youngsters form human pyramids to break the 'Dahi Handi', a pot of buttermilk hung at a height.

Independence Day: This National Holiday honours the anniversary of Indian Independence from British colonial rule. It is characterised by march pasts, kite flying contests and public displays of patriotism. Citizens commemorate the sacrifices made by freedom fighters and strive to take the Nation to greater heights.

Ganesh Chaturthi: This ten day festival celebrates the birth of Lord Ganesha, the God of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. During this period, large idols of Ganesha are worshipped. On the eleventh day, these statues are taken in colourful processions to be immersed in local water bodies amidst much ceremonial grandeur.

Join in the festivities by sending your near and dear ones some of the amazing e-cards available at india.gov.in.

Attended a musical evening performed by a very energetic upcoming singing sensation in the folk music genre. Kirtindan Gadhvi turns out to be closely related to a very good old friend, Anand Rudach. Socializing with families and people at that event was good. Twitter and Facebook slowly becoming the places where microblogging has begun from my end, hence the reduced frequency of posting here.

Looking forward to see Dharmeshbhai (my first cousin who's become a local star in sunderland news for his calligraphy exhibition).

Anticipation

Excerpt from the Speech given by Chetan Bhagat at Symbiosis

Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends.Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

"Don't be serious, be sincere."

Start Enjoying from moment................

globalised export of Indian spirituality

The 11-19 July days have been indescribable in words. Attended my first Ramkatha live, an introspection for me at least. Lots of seeds planted in the brain which will bloom into flowering plants whenever appropriate weather and supporting conditions arrive.

The additional comfort and pleasure comes from the fact that each day more than ten thousand seekers - young and old alike turned up to listen to the humour filled and amazingly articulated oration of Moraribapu. I wouldn't even attempt to summarize what the moral of the Ramkatha is because its not supposed to be summarized, its just beyond anyone’s ability to do so. Its expanded and convoluted meanings are supposed to be experienced rather than explained. I would point other seekers to summarized translation in English from each day from a very learned scholar Shri Naginbapa here. The notable surprise being a very few British Indians would be actually understanding the language of the oration as it was in Gujarati dialect. God bless the organizers for a very gigantic and noble cause, which millions like me benefited in person and across satellite broadcasts.

The clapping and the reciting of age-old sayings reverberating from tens of thousands beneficiaries lifted the Wembley Arena with oceanic tsunami each day. Renowned artists from back home made the occasion musical each day and sang and played straight from the heart. Notable ‘celebrities’ from different walks of the society made their presence felt e.g. David Cameron praising Indians for their law abidingness, least criminal record and close family relations. The part that most hit me from his well delivered speech was him looking up to Indian way of life as an Ideal and that’s where he wishes Britain should move towards. I hope it’s not just A rhetoric to please the audience at hand and a strong belief.

Another such experience from history pages was advanced course at Bangalore, AOL Ashram. The serenity of the place still comes to the head. I think it’s good that spiritual leaders are receptive of the 21st century needs and have evolved for it. Everyone who can make a difference, is trying to. There are young people in their entourage who assist them in modern day technology dependencies like media and internet. All the notable people would have a website with lots of information on them now, this to me as great step and building block for a better tomorrow.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so will try and put together a few pictures of the whole event in this weekend. The whole week was very busy, with a lot of patchy showers throughout the week, just walked home in the midst of one such shower, staring in amazement at the fully coloured rainbow.

Colourful

stories, stories and more stories!

Although the title sounds more like an irritated response of civilians to justifications given by their political representatives, but I do not wish to elaborate in that direction. After the assistance to a marathon cooking session for roomies, was awake early in the morning. In anticipation of what promises to be a historic Wimbledon final, there’s a bit of time to collate a few thoughts. I’ve followed a strict routine, since a few weeks now, of NOT being glued to computer screen during weekdays post work hours. This has been working well, I think. But conversely, weekends have been more or less lazy surfing.

I stumbled upon very old interest in Panchtantra fables. Wheels of time bring back old interests and hobbies. I am sure that the moral perception of my demographic generation was built by television series’ on early nineties. Ramayana & Mahabharata televised with special interest and nudging of late PM, Rajiv Gandhi was a very thoughtful step. Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle book and the legendary Sher Khan voiced by Nana Patekar. Sunday morning Chitrahaar and Disney were as much a family affair as Balaji soaps of the day.

The reason I’m so with the impacts of those TV series’ in the thinking of the generation is because those are the only way I can visualize those characters. Arun Govil was the Ram, Deepika Chikhaliya was Sita and the great Dara Singh as Hanuman. Doesn’t matter how many re-makes people make, these won’t get erased from the head. Same goes for Panchtantra short stories, Malgudi Days and the likes.

The weirdly interesting fact is after a long time when you read the story, atleast I feel you settle upon an evolved understanding of the simplicity of the intent. Like the main characters are mostly animals and they talk of *Dharma* (the moral conduct). These may be evolved folk lore passed on to generations after generations in vernacular dialects. Would suggest to go through a few of them for sure.

Childish

Murray vs Roddick

This is my first post from the office; it’s a Friday evening when most of the office is in the Wimbledon mania. Roddick and Murray are battling it out on the Wimbledon centre court turf. Roddick's just snatched the third set after a gruelling tie breaker.

Lots of cheers in and around the office as most of them stuck to their screens on BBC Live sports streaming site. The way Federer's played this tournament is just un-imaginable and shows how great he is. Not a set down throughout to the final. For Murray fans, its good if he loses the semi's today rather than being annihilated on Sunday at the final till the inevitable happens and Roger creates history with his grand-slam grabs.Will leave for home now among the ooh's and aah's. By the time I reach home, we'll know who's going down on Sunday :)

Ciao

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!!

The soothing sunshine has moved on to become scorching heat. Underground temperatures inches above the ground, hence authorities have put up signs to carry a bottle of water during day time. It's slightly odd for countries and designs which are created to use as much heat as from the atmosphere to switch sides and try and cool things down! Global warming is hitting us in un-imaginable ways.

I am reminded of floods in Rajasthan, which houses largest desert of India. News channels later reported a few people dying because they didn't know swimming. How do you expect people who've never seen so much water to know swimming? Another scene from Gods must be crazy 2, where Xi's kids fall into a tank of water, and are quite thrilled by it. APJ Abdul Kalam, our most respected President writes in his book that a school girl in Bengal asked him a very interesting question. She said every year there are many people suffering because of floods on Bengal and many other people suffer because of droughts, why not take all the water from big rivers to the desert?? Innocent but truly intriguing. River interlinking projects has had many for and against debates. China AFAIK has implemented it fir Yangtze, but it caused water borne epidemics to spread, which later deemed the interlinking as not feasible.

We learn from our mistakes. Concorde being an ideal example. Man wants to fly in supersonic speeds. I'm wondering whether BA would have hit such huge losses if they wouldn't have lost many million on the failed Concorde project. The thirst of the superlative doest eludes the human brain.

Any ways football continues to give me my share if perspiration and sound sleep. Williams’s sisters again reach Wimbledon final proving that it is their family championship tournament. Saw the whole TV series Chanakya, which I was very impressed with. He was the visionary teacher of Chandragupta Maurya who was the first king to unite India as a country as early as 320 BC. The series shows many interesting facets of the then society, Alexanders invasion and lots of other internal fighting’s. Many things to say regarding those, but am sleepy so...

Later

not a good year for defending champions

As summer sets in, two major setbacks for defending champions can be sited this week. First is Nadal pulling out of Wimbledon this year, starting this week, because of his injury. This diverts the media to Federer, who will now be increasingly pressurized to break the record of # of grand slams of a previous great of the game, Sampras. Murray would definitely give him a spirited fight if they clash. These games are getting so very increasingly competitive. Well, that’s why may be they’re International isn’t it.

Secondly, what a heart-break for a billion fans of Indian cricket! Defending champions, who looked rusty all throughout their title defence, were relieved of their pain by being knocked out comprehensively. And the gung-ho of the media channels throwing personal slurs at individual players. People in general and x-cricketers hired by tv-channels giving nonsensical reviews and blaming. Fans burning effigies. These are very common after a major set back for the Indian team. This forces, and quite rightly so, for international spectators like Mike Artherton to make comments like - Indian cricket fan is very immature.

Optimistically though, think of the billions of man hours saved which otherwise if they would have made it to the semis or finals would have been spent glued to the TV or websites! We've all bunked school or college or called sick or worse saw matches at offices! Productivity during interesting cricket matches takes a definite hit. Hence as the motto of life says, whatever happens, happens for good. This time it's for the world GDP!! When I write that I am torn between whether the TV ratings and the next world cup broadcasting right bids would be effected by it at all! It was interesting to know from Harsha that 90% of revenue for ICC comes out of India and that only four cricketing countries' boards are self sufficient namely - Australia, England, South Africa and India! Rest all are funded by ICC, so effectively India. Hence BCCI is A lobbying group at ICC events coz they know that if they pull out of it, largely cricket comes to a stand still.

Anyways, we have the T20 finals today and we have Pakistan playing against Srilanka. Both the teams are good, Srilanka slightly more dependable than Pakistan. But its cricket, so you never know. If Afridi and guys are fired up, they do have the potential to win this time around. Haah, what a coincidence it'll be, if last runners up for T20 & Wimbledon win this time. (Pakistan & Federer) ;)

In the fever of cricket, I got a chance to play in a tailored version of T20 called Last Man Stands! I regret to say that we were convincingly defeated by a professional looking side. We looked like school boys playing after years - well actually to be fair, it was months for most of us. Noteworthy contribution to the side was an over from me 6 4 6 6 Wd 4! Well in retrospect, it looks like contribution to the opposite side! Lot of running around! But positively sound sleep. Well, I am blessed with sound sleep through heredity anyways!

The pain that the body goes through after a gruelling day is enormous, particularly if you’ve toiled after a long time. As your muscles cramp up, you concede to the thought that the schedules for the actual players of the game are so gruelling. You literally go to the bathroom and come out and bam – there’s another world cup. Its easier for us to comment saying – thats their job and they get paid for it, but actually deep inside we know that its very difficult. We always want a Yuvraj to dive desperately for every ball that whizzes past him and we always want an Agassi to pull out a unbelievable picturesque shot between his legs. But, it surely takes hard work of a lifetime of to reach to a stage where the world audience expects something from you. But its very easy for the world audience on the other hand to expect a “lot”, hence...

Respect

sporting week - cricket football tennis

This week, Federer clinched French open and cried like a baby (as usual). FIFA player of the year switched his allegiances from Man U, who lost recently to Barcelona, to Real. Indian side was restricted by Bravo’s persistence at Lord’s in the T20’s. Many now believe its going to be tough for India to make it to the semis now. But as a adamantly wedded cricket fan – I believe in our guys.

Thanks to a close friend, attended my second Fire Side Chat organised by the IIM-A Alumni members here. The timing of the talk couldn't be better. The guest speaker was Harsha Bhogle. The topic was evolution of cricket with T20. His insight of the subject was absolutely thorough and was at his witty best. From IPL to T20 WC, from team owners to confused coaches, from Australians to South Africans, from match fixing to women’s cricket, from Virender Sehwag to Sachin’s son – myriad of topics came to light in various contexts. All in all, it was a great evening spent with very down to earth gents & ladies. These people want to promote the brand IIM, which has decent recognition back home in India, across the globe. They are involved with fabulous charities and NGOs to help girl child education – through initiatives like Pratham & its UK wing. This was covered by the Indian edition Forbes launched recently in collaboration with Network 18.

Just reading the news of IIFA Awards concluding at The Ventian Macao, as the Film industry reaches completes its international step for the 10th continuous year. Its great to witness acceptance of India, as a colourful brand of cultures. Over lunches through the week as usual, we continue to have passionate and insightful discussions regarding various things – EU elections, political turmoil in UK, Christiano’s £80m switch from Man U to Real, Cricket, Football, India and many more. One of my colleagues finds different religion “fashionable”. The colourful threads that we tie on our wrists look “cool” to him. He has this notion that all such threads are dipped in the Holy water of Ganges. Its funny how people perceive such things and interesting question is from where?

I’ve taken on the arduous task of finishing a 500 pager – Imagining India by Nandan Nilekani. Let’s see when I finish it. The T20 is coming at an interesting stage now. As the statisticians are coming into play for determining the teams to qualify in the semis. India play their crucial game against England at Lord’s tomorrow, which Paresh Rawal defines as the Mecca of Cricket in Cheeni Kum. Images of Saurav Ganguly flamboyantly swirling his t-shirt at the Lords Player’s Gallery, in the adrenaline rush of beating England come to my head. Is our current “Captain Cool” Dhoni capable of doing something like that tomorrow? I think not. The only one capable of doing such thing as we know him is...

Yuvraj

exciting week - mixed bag

It's one of the days when you are tired and wish to get to rest earlier than usual time has got other plans. Your usual commute which takes forty odd minutes streaches up to two+ hours! Transport for London screws your plans! Details in a bit.

This week had been splendid in the beginning with great sunny days. Office mates seem to pulling out their summer outfits of shorts and carrebean shirts in anticipation. A different enthusiasm flows throughout the schedule if the weather is supportive. Different styled shades are tried out to prevent the eyes from brightness and reflections. The day starts earlier than usual as light permeates through quite early. The times when you retire to bed in light are still a few days away. Light on mood, busy with work.

The cricket mania about to grip London with the warm up games of the T20 World Cup. India being the Defending Champions, would definately force me to follow the tournament to conclusion. Just defeating our arch rivals in the warm up game, comprehensively at that. Sachins famous words - 'We've now beaten them four times in a row in all our World Cup encounters' come to my mind. Remembering the time, we were in college and had to move the Tele out in the parking for all to see the match. Sachin and Sehwag smashed Rawalpindi expess above third man in consequtive overs with their distinct styles! The jam packed parking errupting with cheers on each boundary and heartburned expletives on each wicket. The victory rally with available vehicles at the time. The whole celeberations of the educational township continuing late in the night. I can imagine the jam packed stadium at the Oval today, celeberations will surely not abate till dawn tomorrow. All remains now of those days is - sweet memories! No regrets - no complains. Things could have been better, but they were best as they have been played by Time.

Coming back to tfl, we had leaving drinks of a close friend who's moving back to Mountain View. So was down at a pub on Portobello Road. Took the sloppy H&C line to Hammersmith. Then had to take the Picadilly. There were announcements of 'minor' delays on that line. I waited with grudging passengers wanting to get to Heathrow to catch their flights. Announcements advices to take the train on a platform and change from the next. Got down at next station, religeously following announcements. 5...10....15 minutes! No train, frustration mounts. In the summer moods, as bright sun was shining in my eyes in the morning, hadn't put on the usual jacket. Weather decides to test me. Temperature starts to fall. Lot of waiting! It's funny expressions on peopes faces when they are frustrated, and more so due to the fact that they can't do anything about it! Reached the station finally and now the bus tests patience. Finally after waiting for quite some time in vain, when I decide and start to walk, a bus zipps by! Aaarrgh, as temperature falls further down.

Interesting day when friends are Skydiving for charity, enlightened EU citizens will be voting for change for better times for their representation in EU parliament! And that's it for my first post from the little genius device called iphone.

Whew!!

king of fruits!

This surely deserves a mention!

Just had the first fruit of this year's Mango season. This is the one thing that hasn't parted way since childhood, which I distinctly remember. All the memories of numerous watching late night movies and negotiating the mangoes from the stock, fruit by fruit, bit by bit. All memories rushing back.

Bliss.

as this part of the world welcomes summer

As monsoon is about to arrive in our parts of India, sun is shining at its peak here. Over this long weekend while I caught up with IPL, which I didn’t bother to follow for its second season so far. I’ve found it very interesting. Not the sport, but the way its commercialized. The closing ceremony was glittering. I wasn’t sure whether it was a tournament of a country or Olympics. Just re-iterating that cricket isn’t – just another sport – in India. President Zuma praising everyone and advertising the money the South African government made while hosting the tournament. We can tirelessly have arguments for and against such glamorized version of the game, but nothing sells like success.

As dumb audience, we are supposed to watch, what we are made to watch. We shouldn’t be thinking about the merchandizing and betting revenues generated by the people and companies who’ve invested in the game. Its supposed to be a movie, something that you don’t think too much about. IPL is all we talked about for a couple of days. Of-course the Manmohan Singh cabinet selection and North Korean nuclear test took some time as well. Visit to Nottingham Ikea is worth mentioning as well. Biggest furniture store I’ve seen so far, selling possibly all parts of the household. They’ve got the dream kitchens & bedrooms up with best possible permutations of what you can think of. Coach ride back to London from Leicester was relaxing without the traffic that was encountered going. As the long summer days come to photogenic sun-set end, all you do is..

Click

What a verdict of a billion voters!

Politics in general and Indian politics in particular intrigues me. Youth of any country I’m sure wants decisive people in the lead, who can lead a country into the developmental sunshine. That’s what I think has been delivered by the Electoral masses of India.

Loss is orphan, and success has many fathers. Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone. Smiles and grudges covered by the untiring media. People caught off-guard by blunt questions. Any major event, win or loss brings new stars to the platform and rides others into the sun-set. Many greats have won and lost.

Wishing the new government all the luck it needs to take a billion people towards sunshine. Congratulations to the winners. Sympathy for the loosers. Hoping for a much younger and dynamic leadership for the next term. India definitely deserves better, politicians.

Whats amazing is listening to all who haven't fared well. A few accept defeat with humility and some are just plain sore losers. But anyways, like the old adage says:- ring out the old - ring in the new. Lets do an Obama and say

Change is here

Money has no memory. Experience has

I received a beautiful email and felt compelled to share it.

x

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Money has no memory. Experience has. You will never know what the total cost of your education was, but for a lifetime you will recall and relive the memories of schools and colleges. Few years from now, you will forget the amount you paid to settle the hospitalization bill, but will ever cherish having saved your mother's life or the life you get to live with the just born. You won't remember the cost of your honeymoon, but to the last breath remember the experiences of the bliss of togetherness. Money has no memory. Experience has.

Good times and bad times, times of prosperity and times of poverty, times when the future looked so secure and times when you didn't know from where the tomorrow will come... life has been in one way or the other a roller-coaster ride for everyone. Beyond all that abundance and beyond all that deprivation, what remains is the memory of experiences. Sometimes the wallet was full... sometimes even the pocket was empty. There was enough and you still had reasons to frown. There wasn't enough and you still had reasons to smile. Today, you can look back with tears of gratitude for all the times you had laughed together, and also look back with a smile at all the times you cried alone. All in all, life filled you with experiences to create a history of your own self, and you alone can remember them all.

The first time you balanced yourself on your cycle without support... The first time she said 'yes' and it was two years since you proposed... The first cry... the first steps... the first word... the first kiss... all of your child... The first gift you bought for your parents and the first gift your daughter gave you... The first award... the first public appreciation... the first stage performance... And the list is endless... Experiences, with timeless memory... No denying that anything that's material cost money, but the fact remains the cost of the experience will be forgotten, but the experience never.
So, what if it's economic recession? Let it be, but let there not be a recession to the quality of your life. You can still take your parents, if not on a pilgrimage, at least to the local temple. You can still play with your children, if not on an international holiday, at least in the local park. It doesn't cost money to lie down or to take a loved one onto your lap. Nice time to train the employees, create leadership availability and be ready for the wonderful times when they arrive. Hey! Aspects like your health, knowledge development and spiritual growth are not economy dependent.

Time will pass... economy will revive... currency will soon be in current... and in all this; I don't want you to look back and realize you did nothing but stayed in gloom. Recession can make you lose out on money. Let it not make you lose out on experiences... If you are not happy with what you have, no matter how much more you have, you will still not be happy.

Make a statement with the way you live your life

ZZZ

winds of change

Let me start outright by apologizing for the inactivity on the blog, as pointed by a few people now. A bit of laziness, a bit of busy schedule and largely responsible is the reading activity resumed over the long weekend. I’m not much of a reader, but get stuck onto a few things which I find interesting, sometimes.

Read Buddha – A story of enlightenment – by Deepak Chopra over the long weekend. I found it good, would definitely suggest if any one likes tailored fiction out of real story, sprinkled with intriguing quirks from the author throughout - the reason it took long as reading is intermingled with pondering. It takes you through the hero’s journey from being the inquisitive charming young prince who is confined within the walls of his palatial gardens, to Gautam the wandering monk living out in the woods, to Buddha – the enlightened one. The journey is gripping. It made me think how ordinary legends are, before they actually become legend in folklore. Also, clearly answers the simple thoughts behind Buddhism – which is a widely accepted set of beliefs.

Sunday was a visit to a temple in years. Good to see beliefs and rituals evolving, with available flexibility and resources. Any such place is usually where senior citizens visit frequently and spend time, but its good to find youngsters there. The week was busy at work and continues to be. Lunch discussions continue to be lively and entertaining as ever. Khus - Khus – the food so nice they named it twice – was today’s take-away. One of my office mates has recently been on back2back holidays to Japan & Madrid in quick succession. Jari, being overwhelmingly in the holiday hang-over, continues to rant about the organizational abilities & cleanliness of Japan and food of Madrid. Quite rightly noticed by him, Japan being the first developed Asian culture has a totally different image in the western societies because of its culture. Activity to pursue during a holiday is so subjective, from person to person.

As a little boy, I’ve always wanted to roam around without any purpose or plan in a holiday. But our current holidays are quite different to that old wishful thinking.
This reminds me of another so called obsession of I had, of black-boards at school and of Teaching. This has withered away with time as well. When I look back today of all those ideals back then, I can clearly see how children idealize people around them. I’m sure all of us have idealized our teachers at some point. When we grow up it moves on the Professors at Uni/College, then to successful legends in respective industries. The uninterrupted winds of change blowing continuously... I think our changes are again based on demographics – which to me are summarized as background (past) + surrounding environment (people we meet daily) affects our changes in so many different ways. Our thinking changes, or to put it elegantly, evolves. Some people acknowledge that we change with every breath, and some simply don’t. So does our choices of sports stars, academicians, artists, music stars, movie stars, politicians, global leaders. There might be pattern, but things move ever so slightly if not drastically. I ponder whether we are too busy to notice the changes in ourselves?

While coming back from work today amidst my usual rounds of news catch-up and music, saw a very fashionably crafted beard on a fierce looking guy. It was pointed to the extent that he could easily cut cake with his beard. Imagine someone trying that with beard or spikes!

Funny

the bliss of un-interrupted sleep

Caught up with news and episodes of Devils Advocate show which I admire a lot, as many as 10 episodes. Indian General Elections hovering over Indian media sites, Srilankan violence, British Budget lots of things happening all around. Weekend means delightful recipes with knowledgeable and skilful friends. Feel I’ve eaten much after every meal, so much so, that if we don’t say we’ve had too much today – that’s an exception. Video chatting at home is a routine weekend activity as well. It feels so soothingly different when you can see them, thanks to Technology.

I distinctly remember a conversation with my brother just after the Mumbai floods of 2005. Back in those days, he was just placed after his MBA with one of the ‘big’ Indian banks with lot of I’s in its name. He was stuck with a few of his friends in one of their cash deposit safe sites. All of them had to skip a meal as there was no rail/road connectivity during that time from the building. Although they slept on currency notes worth millions, but that couldn’t guarantee a good sleep. None of them could sleep because of hunger. How basic needs over-ride everything else even for sane people, forget the insane ones. If the biological needs are satisfied, one can sleep easily, happily.

What a relaxing feeling if you get up when you want to get up, without any un-expected interruptions, without any phone calls of friends wanting to “just catch up”. I used to get very irritated if I had to be interrupted in sleep. Often had arguments with friends during hostel & college days, even after that! Some of it has evaporated since a near distant past. Don’t know just ageing I guess. We had lot of funny discussions regarding sleep walking over lunch one of these days at work. Interesting reads and links to sleeping habits here. Sleep, they say spiritually - is a state of meditation. Funny snoring patterns define the state of the mind as well. Different stages of sleep have different functions biologically. Its I think the last stage of sleep where the events of the day which impacted us are written down to the permanent memory. That’s why we remember photo like flashes when we think of events or dates in the past.

I’m sure all of us have had our laughs when a neighbour in the bus/train is fast asleep and almosts falls down. I’m sure I’ve been at the “being watched” end a lot of times as well. Babies look so cute while they are sleep, some grown ups too. Definitely not all, some are just plain and simple - scary. Discovery & NGC I’m sure have given us enough funny moments of animals sleeping or dozing or surprized. The particular that comes to my mind is the mommy panda chewing half asleep ruffled by its baby’s sneeze. have a look.. Whether we accept it or no - nature is preparing all living beings for their final rest – as often as everyday – irrespective of being human or otherwise. We can realize this only if we awaken from routine life's

Slumber

in the flow of google

Just to fancy how many people visit this blog, I've enabled Google Analytics here. Hope you guys dont mind. Mind-blowing

Technology!

catching up - easter trip

What a fortnight its been!

We'd been roaming around western Europe over the Easter weekend. In the need of a desparate break from monotonous life of getting up, going to work, coming back and sleeping, Easter Loong Weekend was a welcome break for all of us. Nikunj, Ravi & I set out on the Friday dawn and crossed the English channel in the First ferry of the day. Many people having similar ideas made the ferry house-full, well almost. The infinity of the ocean has intrigued me always. We all know that the streach of the English channel isn't that great and people swim across, but when you actually come face to face with it, the blue ocean grows on you. As the ferry moves swiftly across, the wind on the deck was chilling.

Around at lunch time we reached Antwerp. The diamond capital of the world. Trendy people with Palm! The detachment to Alcohol & non-veg food still continued so couldn't try it. The decision still holds - hence happy. Anyways, moving along from Diamond Capital to the "freedom" capital of the world! I'Amsterdam. Netherlands - the home of ABN, ING A couple of friends were joining us from there. I've always been blessed with people who like to Roam/Eat/Drink. Amsterdam's canal walk was good - although a bit smelly. Don't know whether that was the pot freely selling around us or the red-lights. No wonder it gravitates artistic people from around the world.

We planned to see Deltawerken dams in the morning, which prevent the Dutchland from sea-floods. But somehow the TomTom didn't support our plans, it wasn't showing us the drive we expected. We ended up in Rotterdam. Euromast was good fun. Clean sky gave us a clear view of the largest port in Europe. The drive from Rotterdam to Dortmund didn't take too long - thanks to German motorways. Germany is quite aptly the home the best car manufacturers, that I could name. Driving at close to 200 kmph we were amazed by a couple of cars zooming past us. BMWs, Audis, Mercs !! Dortmunds night was good as it had just won a football match against Koln which we were visiting the next day. Koln cathedral and avoiding motorway drives were good. Luxembourg city was very quiet for us. The stupifyingly less number of people clearly surprised us. Tomtom again surprised us by taking us to the Old city with narrow roads. Heavy dinners all around.

The next morning was very foggy. All the way right upto Brussels. Atomium & Eurotrip for friends who hadn't been there. We waited outside had lunch with an Italian girl working at Atomium. Quite enlightening, working 10 days in a month just to support herself.

We were quite early to check-in for our ferry. The trip came to an end we cribbed about the holidays ending. Pics here

The office has been busy for these days. Weekend was busy as well as laundry was staring at me since a couple of weeks. Shed some perspiration in doing the garden - destruction more than trimming.

Walking home this evening - was staring at the clear blue sky. The frequency of flights taking off,landing and passing over London leave many trail-blaizing white streaks in the sky. They left me wondering whether those lines contain some encoded message in them. Could see some patterns - try it yourself and ..

Wonder

nothing i have is mine

Nothing I have is mine,
All I have is Thine,
What credit to me,
In presenting Thine to Thee

- Sant Kabir

Please exercise your right to vote!

The time has come to fore go our cribbings about the inability of the current government! Evercise your right to vote and play your part! Unless the educated Indian mass doesn't vote, we have no right to crib. Doesn't matter which party/person you vote, but vote!

Please

evaporation of innocence

So that I don't feel guilty about posting only in the weekend, am posting this deliberately on a Monday.

Weekend was getting together with family friends and attending the early birthday celebrations of two year old princess Naiara. I spent a couple of nights at our old place with Nikunj, remembering the splendid time entertaining ourselves. Movie marathon on Friday, couple of good movies and a disaster called Tasveer! I realised I’d been away from news, so touched base with G20 proceedings and cheeky Obama flirtations with an Indian reporter, showering accolades on our Prime minister. Well deserved?

Discussions over varying range from global warming & ecological footprints to challenges in everyone’s lives whether rich or poor, successful or struggling. I’ve had many such enlightening discussions with Nidhididi, Nikunj and ever so silent Saurabh-bhaiyya. Watching Naiara play with her friends, led me to think about what amazes us so much when we look and play with kids. Why do their innocent actions amaze and entertain us so much? Their simple games are so refreshing. May be we are reminded of our own childhood. May be we become very aware of the fact that we've lost that innocence over the period of "growth" and "maturing" phase of the civil society. Is this ageing worthy at the expense of innocent happiness! Is it the same reason why our closest friends are mostly from childhood?

Has the innocence evaporated from our thoughts and actions?

Realise

the obsession for the superlative

Blogging is becoming a more or less weekend activity recently. Nevertheless, its so much of exercise for the brains as it requires some thought process and construction of plot and base etc. Or that's what I presume, because it's the reader who should be deciding that. The recent days have been smooth and sound. Things are slowly moving on, on a personal front. Living with very nice people, helps a lot. Usual days listening to good traditional manuscripts in the form of music on the way in and out of work, thinking and observing mental activity and obsessions!

Why do we always want the best? The route we take to the office should be the quickest. The advertisements always stress upon the superlatives in the articulately constructed product descriptions. The biggest space, widest range of products, largest superstore, strongest adhesive, tastiest burgers and the list goes on. We want the fastest machines. We want the best seat in the bus, train or flight. We want the best view of the sea during holidays.

We want to be the most different in the crowd. But we forget the very basic fact of nature - every one is different. Everyone is special. Again trying to generalise out of special cases, we’ve constructed statistics of measurements. Measurement of anything and everything is so important to humans. We always want to know the progress. Let’s say, if I were to ask any of my cousin their academic progress I would ask the rank in the class. Despite of knowing that academic systems of most of the countries do not test real talent, I do it - subconsciously. Many people without any formal degrees are live examples of the failure of the education system as a whole - globally.

We all know what the destination of the journey of life is, death. Its about enjoying the ride isnt it. But its still a race, and we still want to be first. This is a never ending process, recurring in many different shapes and sizes throughout our day. As very well put by one of our colleagues, even if the path is dark and you can’t see a thing, you can still run at your fastest. The only thing that tells you the direction, and that you right is -

Light

procastinating - its just human

I’ve been wanting to write something for quite some days now. Lots of things to cover starting from the last days of roaming around in India, colorful and watershed holi celebrations, travel back via Mumbai and extremely busy week on return.
Just haven’t got the time or energy to recap all this, will be trying to do this over this weekend.

Fun is about the difficulty of gathering thoughts to describe a few things from self experience. Saint Kabir’s musings, translated into simple poetry and songs get straight to the heart of all people who understand the language. Imagining the effort to create such master pieces is stupifying to us right now, but it would have just been routine for great enlightened beings like Kabir.

Kabir resided in one of the holiest cities of India which was populated by many learned beings. People who had studied all the religious texts thoroughly were surprised at the simplicity of Kabir’s mystic poetry and the way it connected to the hearts of laymen. When they inquired Kabir about the possible reason of this – his reply was the following verses -

तुम कहते हो कागज लेखी |
मैं कहता निज नयन की देखी ||

(You are describing what’s written on pieces of paper while I say what I understand out of lifes daily experiences)

Kabir’s death was an irony in itself because here was a man who preached secularism and peace all his life through all his work and there were big violent fights over the question of his last rites after his death!

All the religious and spiritual texts and material try to describe simple living of human beings and the behavior patterns of human mind. But to explain a very simple thing, the output gets really jumbled & complicated.

Life’s Confusing Jigsaw

Day 11: Digging through old disks, archives & files - smiling away

Very surprisingly, I got hold of an article I wrote long ago for a competition called ‘Main Bhi Shakespeare’ back in my Wipro days. Here it is, as it has been quite a while since I posted a loooooong article. As I’m Going through my old archives, laptop drives & disks, finally something that I could share apart from the numerous smile generating moments.

Entertaining

For Me Atleast!

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23rd November 2006
Wipro (Electronic City, Tower 15, H3G ODC) Bangalore

It seemed like a regular day in office, things were progressing at their usual speed and then suddenly… the VOIP on my desk was set ablaze a call from onsite. I stared at the receiver, calculating the time difference. It was just 10:05 AM here, which meant our UK Client and Onsite team should be in their beds early in the morning. My experience in the SIT Team taught me that when VOIP rings unexpectedly at abnormal times, it usually means long working hours. It was my team lead from onsite, informing me that the project on which we both were working was cut short by a week and we were supposed to exit it by this weekend and that he would be in office a little late. It usually is like this isn’t it. Deadline - Whoever has named it – has been spot on. Exit by this weekend meant that I had to send out the Exit Report for review to him today. At the bottom of the hierarchy we always feel as if the people on the top are not logical who don’t understand that there are only 24 hours in a day and a person has a physical limit of working efficiently. Typically working in Electronic City where the
productivity is halved just because of the Hosur ‘Chaos’ Road. I had just stepped in the Office after one hour of maneuvering my bike on the Hosur Road. It would not be hyperbole to say that the very thought of traveling on the Hosur Road is tiring, leave alone traveling. Everyone I know feels the same. It was just this brief talk of about ten minutes, which pushed all my evening plans out of the window. But, an optimist by nature, I told myself that going late just meant lesser traffic. I had to analyze what all was done and what all remained to be done before we could exit this project. After half an hour of analysis and estimation, I gathered that I didn’t need to panic coz there wasn’t much left. It was manageable today and I thought it would be nice if I would be able to get home before the date changed. But Murphy’s laws play their part. Another phone call, this time it was the desk phone, flashing my teammate’s mobile number. He informed me that he wasn’t keeping well today and won’t be coming to the office. Bells rang in my head. I felt, there’s nothing called as contingency. I hated Murphy for postulating his laws. Now even my estimates were out of the window. I partially understood why there were so many people in the smoking zones of the office. Working alone just meant freedom was another optimistic thought that struck me then. Another round of estimation, made me feel hungry.

A few of my friends who joined Wipro with me a year ago, have decided that we should usually have lunch together. We have made sure that we are in the canteen at the most by 12:30 so that we avoid the huge queues inside and outside the canteen for coupons and food. We strictly make sure we are there on time, because if we fail to do so the lunch usually takes more than an hour including all the queue delays. Everyone has his/her own points in the discussions over lunch. The ones who’d have a lot of work would crib about that and the ones with no work would crib about that. So evolving over a period of time, we’d decided not to discuss work over lunch. As we’re a homogeneous mixture from all parts of India the lunch table then usually became a battlefield for the Northy’s vs. Southy’s arguments. In the earlier times, we used to tease the friends from here by guessing the quantity of ‘sambhar’ made in Bangalore every morning, or their abnormally long names or indistinguishable gender misunderstandings due to the names and so forth. We used to enjoy the unexpressible ignited behavior after that. Frequent decisions of going for a movie over the weekend are decided over lunch. Today’s topic was rather more serious about the Integrity Policy of Wipro. One of our friends team mate was chucked out of the job on Integrity Norms. Her story was really a sad case. We have this internal certification tests that employees take. This team mate of his was giving one such test in the assessment centre. After completion, the screen usually displays whether the Employee has cleared the test or not, but in her case it didn’t. So she was taking out her notepad to note the marks she’d obtained. Due to her bad luck, the invigilator stepped in precisely at the same time and noticed the activity. He took her name. This incident happened approximately two months ago and she’d got mail from her manager this week asking her to resign by this Friday due to undisclosed Integrity issue. She’d been trying to explain the case to almost every senior person she possibly can but in vain. She was trying out somewhere else now. People were enthusiastically discussing on this. Some were on her side, while some were not. I couldn’t decide. I thought it was very easy to sit back and crib about everything that’s happening around you whether it may be at work about the Employer or whether it would be the government. But it’s very difficult to even think from their perspectives. But again the optimist in me believes that whatever happens - happens for good. May be something better is in store for the unfortunate employee.

I had to hurry back to my cubicle. On the way back, as I passed the library, I thought of the time I spent there during my free pool days. during those days, we used to silently laughed at people snoring heavily during the post lunch times in the library. That time was real fun. No worries at all about delivery. No deadlines. Just read the books of your interest in the library. Wait for some event happening in the Amphitheater and participate. The situation of the hosts of the programs is really pitiable when the audience starts behaving with them. Every event and the following DJ night was thoroughly enjoyed. Although frustration built over a period of time, but a soothing sleep in the dormitory was welcome anytime. I’d discovered the differences in the food served at possibly all the canteens across the sprawling campus. I was at my tower in no time. While I unlock my machine, I usually guess the number of mails in my inbox, surprisingly never do I guess it accurately, reconfirming my decisions on not to gamble or invest in the stocks. Now it was time to take the situation head on and get through with it. We follow the process very strictly because of our client manager. He’s a guy who gives us all the freedom but expects 100% out of us
and rightly so. During my short stay onsite, I had a chance to know him better. He’s a very organized guy who gets into office at 8:30 and gets out of there at 5:30 sharp. Although I don’t know much about his personal life, but his interests in Cricket, Soccer and betting on Horse Racing are to a fanatic extent. Everyday as he’s preparing to leave for the day he would invariably tell us “Boys..!! Get out of the office ASAP!! They pay us well, but not well enough to stay here too long!!” and with thunderous laugh he would walk out.

After some serious work till six, I thought I needed a break. You can tell when it’s six without looking at the watch when you notice people around you slowly make their moves to catch their respective buses, I felt like having a cup of tea. The pantry area was short of cups. This was a usual scene in the evening as people take cups inside the ODC’s in spite of the big signs in the Pantry. I also sometimes wonder about the sheer quantity of Tea/Coffee/Milk being consumed by the software geeks in companies like ours and others. The Pantry boy after 6:30 takes a round of all the places and picks up each cup. I really pity this guy. I filled my water bottle and stood in the coffee area sipping water slowly and noticing people swiping out. It’s a nice scene. I walked and stretched around a little, also had a look at the newspaper which reported yet another Indian defeat in Cricket and usual criticism of the coach’s strategy. Again came back to the Work station. I’ve a group of people who send me useless forwards. I’ve made a rule putting mails from them in a junk folder which I check only if I’m feeling too tired and need a smile. I checked on that folder to notice an amazing number of 55 mails. The pick of them was the one which said “Software Engineers Preamble: We, the unwilling, lead by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful.” I could stop laughing out of my seat. Forwards, I thought were so refreshing at times. I got a call from my room mate telling me that the cook wasn’t coming today. I pleaded them to pack something for me, coz I would be late. This call again triggered me back to work and after lot of tiding up I was just about done at 11:00. After a lot of review and rechecking, I felt relieved while clicking on the Send button of the mail and attached Exit Report.

At last, the work for the day was done. Finally, I got up from the heated seat, stretched and slipped into my good old jacket and walked out. he calmness and serenity of the campus at night is quite intriguing. The security guard at the gate noted down my bike number, mobile number and the area where I lived. Usually while I’m driving, I tend to think that an organizational leadership is just like driving, where success would be getting to the intended place on time. The importance of an able leader can be compared to an alert driver who notices the slightest opportunities and plunges onto them reducing the distance to destination. But not today, the drive back home, after a tiring days work is always like a slowly progressing Progress Bar while downloading a big file on a low band width internet connection. A hot water
bath after reaching home was very soothing. Micro-waved the food, that my partners had thankfully bought for me watching TV. I don’t remember when I went off to sleep, but the only thing I remember was the ring of the VOIP that changed the whole course of the day.

Entertained.

Day 4: i'm very busy relaxing!

Dhrafa trip was as great as any. I met a ton of people who've seen me crawl when i was little to now when I'm quarter century old. It is a very intriguing life that people live in the villages of our country. Its easy to generalize but so distinctly different in each geography. India is very aptly called "a country of countries". We attended a function at one of our farms hosted by a person who's been with our family since 3 generations now. Relationships build through ages, weathered and tested both by good & bad times, into strength and trust. Light hearted conversations regarding a lot of things in and around the world. Pre-conceived notions over-rule actual life. Simple life. Planting trees, farming crops, predicting prices and awaiting rain. Local celebrations and happenings dictate their life. Most of them don't know what credit crunch and global recession is, except the picture painted by local news-papers and that the situation is "grave". Such appreciable innocent life, impresses me by wonders.Their predictions of weather are based on factors like wind direction during special days, size-quantity-color-contours of clouds during special days, birds migrating, animals reacting differently. Immensely congruent to actual happenings. Observational skill applied to perfection. These things aren't new to us at all, just that I have a medium now to propagate.

The other thing that's strikingly different is the difference in the lives at work (i.e. at farms) & at home (in the village). The thought process, the talks and the expectations are poles apart. The different life styles and thinking of ladies who work in the field and who stay at home are subject of enormous psychological study. How demographics play a very important role in the decision making of so many people. Living impacts thinking and vice-versa. Innocence overflows from their lack of knowledge outside their world. Everyone accepts that time has changed, life has changed, people's thinking have changed. The only problem that I feel, is acceptance and agreeing to the validity of other cultures. There's no denying the fact that our culture is great, but that doesn't give us the right to look down upon any other culture. If I don't like western food or attires, I shouldn't be hating people who have a liking for the same. Swikar.

Its ironic because knowledge of things brings worries and pain. If we could wipe off all that we know from our brains, we would be living life much simply with lesser worries. Don't you feel? Discoveries & Inventions which were designed to ease life has complicated it immensely. The "Gods Must Be Crazy" initial clipping here and the narration comes to my mind right now.

Enjoying the very relaxed religious days passing by, talking to relatives over the phone, family meals over the table. Eating my favorite dishes away to weighted glory. The internet connection speed here bites me. I've mentioned this bit before, where I feel the traffic jams in Bangalore's Hosur Road were so bad, that we could compare them to slowly progressing progress bar of a large file over a slow internet connection. Bare with my weird sense of analogies.

Relaxed.

Day 1 - Home Sweet Home

After 259 days of roaming and loitering around, finally at home. Such a relief. Such a sweet feeling. Un-describable.

Left London last evening in a bit of a hurry. As usual, late packing and stuffing things into suitcases. Heathrow was at its usual best, with people overflowing everywhere. Reminded me of Love Actually movies, beginning and the end where they show many scenes wrapped into one place, where people greet and bid adieu.

Which also reminds me to mention and not completely authentic piece of trivia. Heathrow employs 80K people in whole - coming from a friend working there as well. But the figure is just amazing. Heathrow to Mumbai flight was comfortable. 8-9 degrees to 30 degrees. Touched base with the familiar atmosphere in a few minutes.

Thought of socializing with strangers as I had ample time before my next flight home. Requested a rickshaw-driver to share a cup of tea before dropping me to the domestic departure gate, which was a remote one because Reliance flights depart from the same run-way but the gate is into a naval base. Sonu (the rickshaw driver), normal charming smiling khakhi clad guy, was kind enough to take me to his favorite tea-stall. We shared a delightful cutting and interesting discussions. He was a bachelor from Gwalior, been in Mumbai since 7-8 years, supporting his nephew who studied there. Our discussions ranged extremes from Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos campaign to Philosophy of money not being everything.

He dropped me to the Kalina Gate, which was a very secluded area to my surprise. All that was there, were odd looking restaurants. As there was no waiting area, I decided to have an extended lunch at one of the nicely named restarants - "Swagat" (Welcome). As it co-incided with just the way I felt, around people who talked in local lingo. Even though its Hindi, I couldn't help but notice how different the Mumbaiyyya Hindi is. Every time you are in Mumbai, it grips you. The sheer pace at which the city works is amazing. Spending two hours at the restaurant relishing Chicken Biriyani was knowledgeable experience as well. The restaurant owner was complaining about local authorities watering the trees in the circle opposite his restaurant, only when some VIP is about to visit. I saw hoardings of the President being welcomed and guessed there had been a recent visit from her. While I was sipping away my Sprite, folks back home were worrying about me as my mobile hadn't caught the local carrier as yet.

The person who checked us in for the private flight, kindly lend me his phone to contact people back home. I was feeling uncomfortable with the amount of food that I had, hence was strolling in, caught up with a group of security guards there. One was behind a quadrand, aiming his automatic machine gun towards the gate. Three mid-forty ex-army guys discussing the current state of affairs. Its just amazing where people link their personal philosophies to things around them. Whether its just human, or the culture hardwired into all Indian brains, God only knows. Another knowledgable discussion, more or less a spectator there but participated with whatever I could. Socializing is great and I feel connected to strangers through it.

The flight from Mumbai to Jamnagar was great as well, another vegetarian snacks served aboard a 18 seater private jet made me feel special. Dad was picking me up from Jamnagar giving me his "Welcome Home Kid" smile. All in the family are at home. Lots of interesting discussions, well-wishers and relatives calling in to welcome, personal though. Amazing family dinner around the table, and plans of going to Dhrafa (my native) tomorrow. All exciting.

Jet lag not letting me sleep I believe, hence this blog.

Satisfying.

another great weekend in the memoirs

Its amazing when you look back at things that remain in your memories, its only a handful of days that you can claim to remember. Its extraordinary of what nonsense the brain remembers which is of no use, like movie songs and dialogues and trivia, but doesn’t register things that mean so much to us then. Inventions like photography help us retain such memories. The fun we had at the time of clicking those pictures, and for the camera shy people the awkwardness of facing a camera. We had an amazing break from the world, roaming around each and every beach of a tiny island called the Isle of Wight pictures here.

More later, for now counting down days to be home

4 Days

what a week!

The last few days have been very tumultuous on personal front. Lot of re-thinking, re-planning, re-structuring etc. Lot of re's basically. The previous post generated a lot of inquisitiveness about my mental sanity. :) I'm alright. Very well - in fact. Feeling freer. Feeling irresponsible. Feeling light. For me, that's the only way to live life optimistically.

London had the worst snow fall in the last 20 years. Last Monday it came to a stand-still. We made our first quite a descriptive snow-man, with biological accessories. Temperatures are still sub zero. Every morning while we literally scate our way out of the streets, it usually takes longer than before. Have moved in with a few close friends. Thankfully as I have always been, I'm again blessed with great people around with good culinary skills. Be it Vidhyanagar, Bangalore, Hyderabad or here.

Planning a trip next weekend to chill-out. Also, am looking forward to a trip home which is just round the corner as well. Am so excited, could have been better! One is bound my ones own priorities in life.

Do not feel like blabbering about personal things hence, wish to admit that a few posts henceforth might be short ones.

Just Human

What is the purpose of life?

Money? Family? Peace? Fun? Parties? Society? Fame? Prestige? Morals? Values? Job? Growth? Love? Nothing? Don’t know?

The one who knows will not tell you, and the one who tells you – doesn’t know!

Seeking Truth.

republic day and its new-found importance

With the Republic Day of the India, nearing closer, it gives me immence pleasure to quote the National Portal Of India’s words.

"58 years back, a salute of 21 guns and the unfurling of the Indian National flag by Dr. Rajendra Prasad heralded the historic birth of the Indian Republic on January 26, 1950; 894 days after our country became a dominion following withdrawal of British Rule. Since then, every year the day is celebrated with great pride and happiness all over the nation. The transition of India from a British colony to a sovereign, secular, and democratic nation was indeed historical. It was a long journey of around two decades that started with the conceptualization of the dream in 1930 to its actual realization in 1950. A look into the journey that led to the birth of Indian Republic will make our celebrations more meaningful."

As I think every country is great it its own respects, I do not wish to rant about India's greatness, neither about where the Indian leaders went wrong or anything, nor do I consider myself able enough to comment on anything on this subject. But I firmly believe that the people who got us independence were much more able than us. The decisions that they took in their time, considering their situation would have been best for the time. Hindsight is a very powerful tool and “if” a very misleading and confusing word. But the literary and analytical minds give too much importance to it. I remember seeing an India Today edition which talked at length of how things would have turned out with a lot of imaginary ifs. Its good fun to think about ifs, like if I were to be a millionaire and live in the virtual world and cruise on our imaginary Ferraris, but when it crashes into the hard wall of reality. Not a good feeling I bet. :)

The old adage of “The grass is always green on the other side” is always so true for us (humans). We don’t like what we have, we always want what we don’t have. When we have it, we want something else! We behave like a kid who is playing with a toy. You bring another toy in front of it, he wants that desperately. You show him something else, he wants that. We must realize that life’s not about running around in circles for material things.

Coming back to initial discussion about India, no body in the world denies that we have terrific Potential. As studied in the Physics in school, we need a little push to convert the potential energy into kinetic energy. That for India, has to be the youth, the talent. A small stone rolling down a mountain becomes a huge snowball. Here's an equation that struck my mind with immense impact today

IT + IT = IT (Indian Talent + Information Technology = India’s Tomorrow)
Source: www.narendramodi.in
A few of my friends would be flabbergasted by the source. :O)

Another trivia from the National portal: With 395 Articles and eight Schedules, the Indian Constitution is the largest written constitution in the world.

Happy Republic Day to the people who realize what being republic means. Thats mean, so wishing Happy Republic Day to everyone. Lets pray for the well-being and good health of our respected Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Homesick.

the power of doubt & imagination

Double shots of caffeine intake force me out of the bed rather early in the morning. A BBC program that I saw last night was aggressive enough to stay in my mind over night. It was titled - Science & Islam. There were a lot of thought provoking ideas in the program, one about how Science was and is driven my Money and Business. The presenter was passionately and strategically driving home his hypothesis that ancient Islamic astronomers and scientists doubted Ptolemy’s geo-centric theory long before Copernicus. Also that Copernicus used a lot of statistical data, which was collected over the life-times of many such scientists. Leaving alone the story of how these data in ancient Arabic texts travelled through the trade route of Venice to the western World, there are two things that amaze me here.

Firstly, the passion of the ancient astronomers of finding out the truth about the inter-related motion of the celestial bodies and trying to derive mathematical models to prove their respective theories. There was one who calculated the exact length of a year by studying the shadows casted by the sun, of an instrument, collecting data over 40 years. His result was within two minute precision of the modern day Gaussian year which is 365 days 6 hours 9 min 56 seconds . The additional hours are accounted for by an extra day every four years which we know as Leap year. The passion for accuracy goes to the extent of giving out a leap second every other year, like this one that just went by. And all this calculations in dates ranging as early as 2nd century AD, which is the amazing bit.

Secondly, what grows on me is the question about true purpose of education and knowledge. Researchers dedicating their whole lives to find out mysteries of nature, need a lot more than just doubt and knowledge. Which I'm sure is passion or thirst. May it be for truth or anything else. The way to satisfy this thirst may be life-time research based on their education & knowledge. Education is defined in Wikipedia as the learning of knowledge, information and skills during the course of life. This can be interpreted in various ways based on who’s interpreting it, which is true for any written literature. Thus stressing the importance of assimilation of ideas in the written form which becomes much more challenging when trying to assimilate imaginary ideas! Education injects the passion of learning and imagination. Ancient scientists didn’t have a common medium or even language to communicate, but shared the imagination. I used to find it really funny while learning geometry and chemistry in school, where we had to imagine a point in space or bonds between atoms which were unseen. I see them now, although imaginary. I guess learning never ends in life(s), whether one or many, real or imaginary.

Imagination, the power of thought!

Enlightened Movie Experiences

Have you ever been into a movie hall with very irritating neighbours surrounding you? I’ve been multiple times. The recent two terrible cinema hall experiences, not to confuse with movie experiences were Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Slumdog Millionaire.

In the previous one, there were what seemed to me like two gossiping housewives of Indian software type people (like us). I thought all they did was reading articles for various websites and building public perception. Their seating arrangement was like one geek, his wife, other geeks wife and the other geek. Nikunj & I were right in front of the two (phenomenally blessed with gossiping knowledge of the world) ladies. The movie begins, so does their fairly loud commentary. A whole wide world of topics come up in their discussions ranging from Shahrukh Khan’s tailor, his relationship with Aditya Chopra & Co. to new comer Anushka Sharma’s dance teacher. Vinay Pathak’s introducing scene prods one the geek to ask whether Ranveer Shourie was also in the movie, as if both of them signed any movie only if both were offered roles. That leads the enlightened discussion to Konkana Sen Sharma & Ranveer’s marriage!! At one point in time we felt like asking them to close their encyclopaedic discovery channel about Indian cinema, but behavioural limitations prevailed.

The other such experience was when we went for Slumdog Millionaire. The movie shows grim realities of Indian slums from where an un-educated kid goes on to win a “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” show with his unmistaken fluent English with amazing accent which I never understood where he imbibed from in the movie. Like any other movie that we see, we have many discussions about the pros and cons of the movie. I thought the direction of the movie was very good. Overall the movie was average, Nikunj thinks it was over-rated.at Golden Globes. But for me the fun part was the people behind me, this time two youngsters also having some volume control problem in their sound-boxes. They were thinking aloud, throughout the movie. They tried answering, unsuccessfully of-course, all the possible answers that they can. At one point I felt they expected Anil Kapoor to come out and award them a few prizes. But alas! To their despair and ours too, it didn’t happen and they went on for the entire movie. They had a comment on every angle of the movie. “That’s exactly how it is!”, “Have you seen Dharavi”, “They make kids beg like this only” “What will happen to India where people live like this!!” went on and on. None of the gentlemen looked or sounded like they grasped anything about what was tried to be represented by the movie. Commenting is the easiest thing that any one can do without feeling guilt.

I’m sure all of you would have been disturbed in the hall by a loud cell phone ring, where the receiver receives the call, tries to explain the caller about him being in a movie, which movie, how is it, a bit of the story and then realization dawns and asks to call them back. By the time the call ends, you’ve lost track of the movie plot or missed a hilarious scene. All I have to say to these fantabulous knowledgeable people is – “excuse me sir/madam, there are other people wanting to watch a movie here too! Who have paid for THE MOVIE and not your additional commentaries”.

Well, in hindsight I think if entertainment is the only reason that you go for a movie, it shouldn’t matter whether you get it from the performances of the people in the movie or out of it. :)

Entertainment

a few one liners that i like

The last few days have been of loneliness amidst crowds, of silence to deep thinking and spiritual talks & reading. A few things to mention at the risk of sounding too philosophical, more or less a few one-liners which have made a lasting impact on my empty brains.

These are not a comprehensive list but at least some things to think over

It’s better to add life to years instead of adding years to life.

“Who wants a cynic who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing?”.
– Oscar Wilde

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind!”
– Mahatma Gandhi

When everything is said and done, more is said than done

It doesn’t end, until it ends. You don’t win, until you win

Co-incidentally, read an interesting article last night in Metro regard January 5 known to lawyers as D-Day and the top date for break-ups & divorces. Socrates said – “The hottest love has the coldest ends”.

Another interesting article which i found very funny was on Rumpology (the art of reading buttocks). People are innovative. A round bottom indicatesthe person is open, happy and optimistic in life. However, a flat bottom suggests the person is rather vain and is negative and sad. Don't know whether i would fancy getting my rear read? How about you?

Enjoy Maadi.

in the mood of spirituality

Another day where early retirement to bed left me awake very early in the morning. Early morning is a fantastic time where peaceful and constructive thoughts arise in the mind. Swami Vivekananda, who is considered as a “Dhyana Sidhdha” or an adept in meditation, says the mind is like a lake. The bottom of the lake is the soul or you. Every thought is like a stone in the lake creating many ripples. Unless the lake is calm, you don't see the you in you.

We use knowledge as a shield to give excuses. And hence we oscillate between blaming others and blaming ourselves during the course of life. There is no reason for any blame, no matter how grave the situation is. Nobody is at fault. Only the nature plays its game changing situations.

Although we consider ourselves as rational human beings, are we being humans? Why is every major decision in life so emotional and sentimental?

Enough food for thought.