My Diamonds

(1)

“I want those diamonds Ma ! “ I said emphatically staring at those precious marbles in market’s jewelry shop. “Did you listen what I said ma “I grew impatient with her silence. She smiled and looked at me. “We do not have money to buy them now, but I know something better”,She said “when the time comes I will show you how to get better ones”. I was not convinced. I was curious but to no avail. She did not say a word after that about those diamonds. Their shine faded off my memory sooner than I can remember now.

(2)

My father was a farmer and farming land we had produced just enough to feed our family of three. I was young when suddenly my father passed away leaving us to the fate. Life became a struggle for survival for my mother since then. She practically had no savings, no life insurance policy, fancy jewelry or relatives to support her. She worked in households cleaning and cooking, getting abused to make the ends meet. Her petty job at village “anganwadi” did not fetch enough to arrange food, shelter and education for me.

(3)

I was 16 when my mother took me to our fields which had not been ploughed for 8 years now. She took a fist full of sand in her hand, looked up and said “This will help you fulfill all your dreams, including buying those diamonds”. I was pleasantly surprised that she remembered. “What do you mean? “ I asked. She replied “You are 16 now. All grown up. Why don’t you start looking after our fields now so that we can save for future”. “This would give us some leverage and may be we will save enough for your college and marriage”, she continued after a pause.

(4)

6 months had passed; my first crop was ready in fields. Everyone was surprised at the yield. I had grown more from same size of field than others. My crops were a matter of envy for many. Whenever I looked at them, my heart felt the joy of success. Once the grain was filled and transferred to my home. I ran to kitchen where mom spent a lot of time cooking. I knew she would be there. On my way I caught a glimpse of my reflection in mirror. Sweat drops were shining like diamonds. I shouted in exclamation “Ma! I got my diamonds , and they are better than the ones in the jeweler’s shop”.

I wish if sunlight was gray...: Rise and Shine

I wish if sunlight was gray...: Rise and Shine

Rise and Shine

`Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy,
'Twere better not to know.'
Ignorance is bliss. It couldn’t be any more relevant as it is today. We Indians have lived a life under the shadow of monsters like epidemics, illiteracy, natural calamities and the list goes on. All these problems were visible when they were attacking us. We learnt to fight against them , we succeeded to some extent but we never got used to them. They did not become part of our daily life.

One parasite which we could not detect in time was corruption. When did it become part of a normal man’s life , we could not know. We were completely unaware that we were so used to a type of pollution that would cause a very specific type of cancer in the whole system that runs this country. By the time we realized it, it was already too late.

If you meet a cancer patient on the last stage of his disease, you would see the helplessness in his eyes, in his words , in his actions and worse in the actions of people who are around him. At this point only thing which keeps us attached, interested and fighting against the disease is “hope”.

India is sick with the cancer of corruption. We all know that. Carcinogens like corrupt bureaucrats, politicians, agents and lobbyists are everywhere. If you talk about medicine you would know that only way to cure cancer is to get rid of the part which is affected and stay away from carcinogens.

In a country like India where people are just so unaware, uneducated and so dependent on system, it becomes even more difficult a task to actually do something about the problem. The idea of change is so frightening that even the people who are going to get benefitted do not take the step towards reforms.

The fear that the system can not be changed , is somehow reasonable. One should realize that replacing the whole system in one step is just impossible but a step has to be taken to start reforming the system. Anna Hazare’s movement is the hope that we have, all we can do is support for a bit of the change. It won’t promise a clean system the very next day. Just like medicine works, it would start cleansing the system slowly and one day we can hope to have a corruption free society.

Any medication is useless without restraint. A continuous effort would be required from all, including Anna’s team and all the citizens of this great nation to keep the system free of corruption. It is going to be a very difficult journey but now that we have taken first step we need courage. We need “Hope” and we must have “faith”.

In multiple organ failure scenario, one needs to find out the root cause. Then the attempt to restore health is made. We have got our root cause i.e. Corruption. Let’s get rid of it and then restoration of health would be a matter of time. I am sure there are many problems in this country and I bet that all of them can be solved once the menace of corruption is tackled with.

One can not solve all the problems using one medicine. Unfortunately there is no panacea for a country’s problems. Now that we have lived with thousands of problems for hundreds of years we can live with some of them for some more years. When one problem will be resolved there will be way , there will be energy , there will be passion to head towards the other. So Ms. Arundhati Roy , when you come out of your hole and start shouting for other problems, I beg you to keep you piehole shut for a few days. We need to fight together against one problem at a time. Any distraction would be hazardous. You have your own cause ? Please wait, your turn would come. If you can not participate, then at least do not divert attention neither do you try to get any attention right now. Because, believe me, if you play with our minds right now , you would be kicked so hard that you wont find any ground. This goes for every money hungry politician across the country.

We were used to corruption, we did not know. When Thomas Gray coined this phrase
Ignorance is bliss” he did not know how relevant it would be for us. But we have lived lives completely ignorant about these blood sucking bugs in our system. Unfortunately for those bugs we are aware now. India is on the streets and time is not far before we would change this world.
Rise and Shine !!

Leftovers

Disclaimer - All persons and places in this story are purely fictitious, and any resemblance to real people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Prologue –
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There was an uncomfortable silence when I looked up and saw her gazing out of the window. She was staring at a dress which was on display in a showroom right in front of the restaurant. We had just been out of the theater after watching “Prince of Persia”, the love story of the movie had both of us thinking although not showing it on our face. We sat in our usual table in our usual Chinese restaurant. Everything was so usual – same old sluggish service, too much chilly in Chinese food, waiters busy in their own conversations and so on. Manager in his same old red shirt and black pants was trying to talk on the phone with someone. After a wait of 30 minutes waiter brought our regular order of vegetarian manchurian and noodles. Looking outside the window her face was turned a little away from me. A tress of her hair was resting on her face and red and green lights of the neighboring toy shop were flashing on her face alternately.
I did not want to disturb her but I had to. We started eating, making small talk. I knew she felt something for me. I did not realize that we were almost done eating, almost! The last piece of Manchurian was left in her plate, I had my eyes on it, she looked up and said “ I don’t feel like having it, you want some ?” I said “yeah, sure”.
Leftovers!!
She was like that last piece of Manchurian in someone else’s plate that I wanted, desperately. I knew it was love or something very close to that and I was sure that I wanted to travel the distance and reach the pinnacle of love with her. As she served the Manchurian from her plate, I was wondering if her boyfriend would be generous enough to drop her in my “plate” (read: life). I knew it would be impossible for her to leave him, years of long relationship with a promise of love, care and marriage is a difficult thing to find and she was not going to let it go for me. I knew I had nothing to offer her other than my feelings. In that state of mind all I was craving for, was some of her time and attention which she could spare from her “real” boyfriend.
All I wanted were “Leftovers”.

She –
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It was not love at first sight. I don’t even remember when I saw her first! She worked in the same office. She was quiet and reserved. My attention was drawn to her only when our office womanizer went to drop her home.
I thought hell! One more girl fell in the trap.
A few days later, a friend of mine invited her to have tea with us at our regular tea shop. She was in a white and blue combination sweater and brown trousers. In the middle of the conversation, she suddenly said that she was fat! I wanted to reply with “I don’t think so”, but I didn’t. I found her lively and interesting once I got to spend some time with her. The Best thing about her was that she was open for new things. However she already had a boyfriend! And a nagging one at that, well at least for me! He incessantly kept calling her every hour, and as any single man trying to make things happen with a girl, I wondered, what they talked about.
We kept hanging out, first less then more and then almost always. I had no idea what I was getting into, was I going to get another “best friend”? At one point she suggested to be my wing woman. I looked at her and shrugged, screaming in my head “I need a woman not a wing woman”!
There was something about her which drew me towards her like a moth to a flame. She was intelligent and smart; more importantly I loved her company. Hang outs, movies and late dinners became our daily routine.
After a tiring Saturday in an amusement park we sat in a coffee shop. She suddenly looked at me and asked – “Do you believe in Open Relationships? “. I was too dumb for that question, I replied in question – “What is an open relationship?” Believe me I had no idea!
That question from her that evening got me confused, what were her intentions? I had felt warmth when she held my hand during those rides, walks and sometimes in movies. I had seen her eyes when she looked at me, there was something that I was too scared to explore or ask about. So I let it go every time but now I was caught off guard, when she spoke out in open. Open Relationship? I was not sure.
Absurdity of the idea or at least the unacceptability of the idea of having an affair along with your “real” relationship was repulsive. I know I wanted her, but this way? Again I was not sure. Every second I thought about her. I wanted to spend more time with her just to be sure.
This was the time when a small “romance like component” got added to our relationship without any mention. This was a relationship without any proposal, at least for me. I treated her like I would treat my girl friend; I depended on her like I would on my girl friend. I loved her. There was no way for me to actually find out how she felt. What was it that she wanted? It was her suggestion which brought an “Open Relationship” as an option. I did not know what to do after that.
We kept hanging out together. I did not have courage to go and ask her. I kept muttering something often but never said it out aloud. It seemed cursing myself, God and conditions was the only thing that I could do then. But I was sick of it. I knew that there was no future to this relation. I had always avoided putting my efforts into something which was going to give no results. But somehow she felt worth all the trouble. Every time I felt that she was worth it, I felt ready to take a step.
One evening after office on our way back, I held her hand. She looked at me and I asked “ Do you want that open relationship now? “. She nodded in affirmative and smiled. Yay!! Elated that I was, I wanted to jump out of the cab in happiness (But that was risky  ). I yelled at auto driver “take us to Geofrey’s“. It was time for celebration!!
The piece of Manchurian that I wanted was finally in my plate. Now she was mine, at least for a bit.
I got the “leftovers”.
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Epilogue
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We have lived happily in an extraordinary relationship which border lines an arrangement. There is same intensity that any complete relationship would have but there is something missing, I don’t know, if for good. Sometimes we get a little possessive for each other and ask about each others’ whereabouts. But then we realize that this relationship has no place for idiosyncrasies of a normal relationship. But resisting that from happening seemed impossible. It still is!

When you are in an open relationship with a girl who already has plans to get married to someone else, what is it that you are supposed to do? You cannot madly stay in love. You cannot afford to allow all your expectations to be lingering around one person who, you know, cannot fulfill them. The day will come when you would lose this relationship. So while you are enjoying every moment of it, you have to be ready to let it go when time comes.
I have “Leftovers” and I still wonder sometimes if I want more.

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Stay Away From Fear, Enjoy the Moment !

Happiness is so addictive that it makes the thought of getting the high over so scary. On the days when everything seems going towards your way and you just can’t be anything but happy, when the day gets over and you sit down pondering over the stuff that’s going on you start wondering what would happen if these days got over. After all how long can one be just happy, soon this thought makes you get goose bumps and then you start wondering a little pinch of sadness won’t be such a bad idea to have if it promises to maintain the balance of universe in terms of sadness and happiness? I want to stay happy the way I am, there is a lot that I can achieve there is a better life waiting for me that I can have but what if the life then fails to be as happy as this one is. What if this life ceases to be as happy as it is after sometime when I have lost all the opportunities to move on to a better one. Guess, we all have to take our chances, don’t we?
Is there any way we can know if moving on would be a good idea? I am not sure. What does your heart say? Whatever it says, is it reliable? As much as I want to ensure a happy life, there is no way to promise that even to ourselves. How, then, we are supposed to promise happiness to anyone else? What can be done to attain eternal happiness? Can getting spiritual be an option? Living a meaningless hedonistic life can make you an empty vessel, but is that so bad? If it is, then how bad is it? Running after meaning in your life, is it worth all the effort that it takes? What is the meaning of life? Is there any way to find that out? Don’t we all decide that for ourselves? How can we be sure that whatever we have decided for ourselves is right or does it have to be right at all?
All these questions, when they started rushing into my mind, I had no idea that I had already started on a slippery slope. This simple fear of losing the happiness I have right now, made me wonder how fragile everything is. The questions that I asked myself a few minutes ago are just a fraction of questions that you need to ask yourself in case you start falling into the spiral. All I want to say is that, this moment is so important, when you are happy. Stay away from fear, enjoy the moment.

A Toast To Life !!

Ladies and Gentlemen!! I have been with her all my life or may be more if you believe in reincarnation. Some of you have known her longer than I have; some of you have loved her more than I have. She is a sweetheart most of the times but sometimes she is really tough. She can be real PIA if you don’t take care of her. She has been quite fair to me almost always. In my journey with her I got a loving family, best of my friends, a few of my enemies, happiest of moments, saddest of days, tons of experience, a lot of smiles, some kisses and much more.
I have always been grateful to God for her even though there have been times when I just wanted to get rid of her and go away to some other world. But I know being with her has given me hope, a desire to do better and better always. She has been best of my teachers, dearest of my friends.
I was 18 when she first taught me what is a failure and more importantly how to get over it. She taught me how important it is to get up after every fall. She made me face it over and over again just to make sure that I understood the concept and believed in it.
I was 19 when she first taught me about love, those crazy moments; she made me feel that I was on top of the world. But in less than a year she gave me my first break up. Phew!! It was horrible, but with time she healed all my wounds and she repaired my broken heart like brand new. After many such incidents I think my heart has learnt to heal itself  .
With time she taught me how important it was to be friendly, to know people, to help them, to bring one smile on someone’s face. She made me realize the importance of every moment that I have got and she has given me every chance to make most of it.
When she was not so nice to me she laughed at me, she mocked me, she kicked me in the scariest of places. She has thrown me outta my way many times but every time when I was about to lose it, her helping hand reached out to me for help.
All this while she never came to me to say that I should take care of her, that was for me to realize. She never told me it was very important to have a passion to thrive, it was for me to realize. She never told me that my friends and family were important; it was for me to realize. But she always gave me a chance then one more and then one more to realize all this.
And today, Ladies and Gentlemen !! I want to thank her , for all she has done. A toast for Life. My life, I would live to make you better and worthwhile.
Friends !! Raise your glasses, a toast to life.

A time to say that despite all, we're still here.
A time to say that we will keep doing the dance of life
A time to remember those we lost
A time to give the finger to death.

To the old, long life and treasure; To the young, all health and pleasure.

Let’s drink to a good life in the years ahead.
Cheers !!

Animal love..

I remember when I was a little kid we had a cow , always tied to a rope in her mud built home which was a few feet away from our abode, we called it "Ghari" in bhojpuri, that is my native language. For almost always she remained calm , minding her own business , chewing all the things we threw in her pot , a huge bowl shaped thing, and we loved her so much specially my uncle who milked her every morning and evening and me and my sister got a glass of fresh milk ( right out of factory if you will ). But there were days when she showed a rather disturbed behavior , she kicked around for no reason , sometimes she would even kick the milk bucket leaving nothing that was not floored, not a single drop for cute little kid like me. I wondered ,as a kid, what makes this amazingly kind and sober animal so violent. Guess what ! I realize it now when I talk to my friend's girl friend. Better put in her words ( the girl friend's ) " She did this to spice up the relation, she wanted to make us realize her importance and a little turbulence in relationship ( an argument , if you will , that she was incapable of , thus resorted to mute violence ) , she thought ( probably ) would make her more desirable making us more caring and loving. "
Now you get it. :) :) Welcome to the relationship of animals! Indeed, we are no less.
The whole idea is absurd , that's the way i think , however psychologists and relationship therapists tend to not agree with me when they say that a little fight actually is an improvement on the relationship. There is no denying that make up over and over with the same person is amazingly pleasing, but, my dear friend the misery of arguments is inexplicable and it gets worse when we resort to brutalizing the whole scene by bringing up history. I am no relationship expert so whatever I say has nothing to do with "authentic" guidance or it would be bad to even consider it as a suggestion. But nevertheless it is an alternate way of thinking , a different approach towards building and understanding a relationship.
Being born and brought up in a north indian middle class family which chose to keep it's morals intact and sent me to a school which belonged a rather fundamentalist group upholding the very indian culture which we are proud of ( at least in the text ) , for me love became a selfless pursuit for the nothing but "love" itself. The stories which I read were not written by Ekta Kapoor or Sidney Sheldon, they did not have anything what we all tend to enjoy these days in literature and cinema. The stories I read had depiction of a phenomena where one person was so devoted to someone that she did not care if it was poison that she was drinking, the stories were about people who just fell in love and the faith that they had in the relationship was commendable. My point is , I read about a "love" which had no conditions in it, the feelings were there no matter what, my lover shows up or not does not matter, if I love her , I love her.
Well that is again philosophy , but you young fellow lovers , what is so wrong in pursuing something as perfect as that ? I am sure no one is perfect , but when you talk about something as sacred as "love" , if at all you consider it sacred, I beg you, start giving some respect to the feeling.
Well anyway this concept is less understandable and very difficult to describe in words. What is happening around us is very disheartening. People claiming to be in love and not trusting each other, people getting bored of relationship, people just dumping one and jumping on the other one, eagle eye pursuit for the next prey of "love" , this all is nothing but disgusting. As a believer , that the truest form of love is achievable I feel that my family cow's love for my family was actually a lot better than the relationships that we have around us now. For god sake!! we are humans we ought to do better than her.

Love

To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness.
Confused ??
SO m I and I am sure so was Woody Allen when he said that. But confusing you was not my aim , you are already confused.
Let me tell ya this , Love is something in the air and this weather is so conducive for all the love related activities. I see a lot of love birds flying around all the places. Sometimes they chose to sit at a corner
Seemingly invisible to do somethings which are prohibited in public places.
And at this time when almost everybody is falling in love I pray to god “ God!! If it’s not against any universal rule and by a girl falling in love with me is not going to invite Armageddon then can I Please with your kind permission meet that girl “. ( Please god please ).

The thing here is that the love rain is far from reality I just wonder whether I would even see the love clouds and sing Ghanan Ghanan Ghir Ghir aye badra or not.

Not that I have never fallen in love before. But all my love / affairs turned out to be stupidity and for a matter of fact almost all such relations that I have seen in my life.

So this speech is dedicated to Stupidity oops I meant to say Love.

Come on sing with me – “some love song “.

A very intelligent man said “There are two things which are found everywhere Hydrogen and Stupidity”. It made me question myself what can I tell you about stupidity that is derived from my experiences or someone else’s as per the objective of this speech. I kept thinking for couple of days then only one thing which I could think of was the “Love” which I found closest to stupidity.
So here I present some of the instances where someone very close acted stupid or better to say fell in love.

Year 1996 – Mr. X fell in love with cricket – got slapped by his mother thrice in a week and then dropped the idea of being a start spinner.

Cricket ??? Now ask me what m I talking about ? you thought I would be talking about only affairs between a boy and a girl. 

Year 1997 – Mr. X fell in love with a girl. Oh not that there was a possibility of falling in love with a boy then and just to make it clearer there wasn’t a chance even if the previous case was possible.

So the love that I was talking about – she was beautiful ( now she is a married with a kid, oho not married with a kid she is married and she has a kid ).


Mr. X belonged to a boys school background and I am sure I do not need to explain what it means . Girls were an alien concept to him and for his buddies.
He used to carry Ganga Jal in a tiny bottle to purify himself just in case he touched a girl by mistake. And one day it happened – he was passing on a book to the girl He was in love with once and his finger touched one of her fingers.
I can not tell ya what a dilemma it was for him his soul was crying to be pure again using that ganga jal but his heart skipped a beat everytime he got the feeling of doing that.
Finally his heart won in the contest and he decided to not wash his hand for 3 days.


Love – oh Love what all can you make people do.


Well that was past and somehow He ended up in an engineering college and managed to get couple of best friends who are girls.
There were girl who were friends and there was a girl friend. He got so confused . Kept wondering even though whole thing is different why do we call all of them Girl Friends. He thought it was a crazy nomenclature and decided to make a new one.
So as the theory says
“ A girl who is in love with you and vice versa is your girl friend and a girl who is your friend is your girl_friend. “

Again in Year 2004 Mr. X fell in love. Oh my God !! How many times did you have to do that to him .. He kept asking God the same question for a long long time..

So this love which lasted longest in his life taught him a lot of things.
1. A girl friend is Just like a client who has no idea of what he wants.
2. You can never understand them. Believe me closest I have got to understanding them is that they all tend to like pink color.
Here I remember a quote from famous psychoanalyst Freud – He once said
The great question... which I have not been able to answer... is, "What... does a woman want?"


So the days kept passing at their own pace and as they were progressing on the path to live happily ever after there came the day they broke up and Mr. X was alone again. Love was a past there was a deep depression. He kept sleeping and eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping and eating and then he started watching English television serials.


Mr. X fell in love again in year 2006 with those English serials and it happened which was expected. His Grades went on a slippery slope and they fell down like the stock market hit by deep depression.

Time for a song – right ? I remember this song that Mr. X kept singing all the time from the Band “Puddle of Mud” – ‘ So that was the story as you see ..learned my lesson and so did she, now its over and I am glad , I feel like fool for all what I said “.

Since then he has fallen in love many times sometimes with some movie star, some times with a book and sometimes with the girl next door.

All the times he fell for it something or the other went wrong.

So it is the time to tell ya who is Mr. X. Ladies and Gentlemen he is yours truly.
Just for the observation:


Everytime after the whole sequence of falling in love and then separating I ask this question to myself – “Was all the pain worth it ? “
And I find only one answer – “ yes it was “.

There is nothing more beautiful that can happen to you than love.

PS
- But here is a warning that Albert Einstein issued – “ You can fall in love as many times as you want but gravitation is not to be held responsible for people falling in love”.

- In all my encounters with love birds I found following features common in their relation –
1. Noone remains same after sometime. We all get to know that we have changed. Don’t we ?
2. They are all birds – they fly away after sometime.
3. Interestingly All of them fall in love at first sight.
4. Sooner or later they all realize they were not mature enough when they fell in love.
And many more.

Life

On the sea shore where a boy sat with his love, his hands around her waist and their heads taking support from each other to stay up in the air , Boy said ( thoughtfully ) we‘d go to Kanyakumari for our honeymoon. And then we would settle down in some metro city. We would name our kids Rishabh and Rishika and buy a Honda City right after our own apartment. In old days we would sit at our porch enjoying sun set with a hot cup of tea.
Girl ( with a sad expression on her face ) said that even she wanted the same and she took her head off his head or shoulder wherever it was, and resumed with a letter in her hand which was written in a neat hand writing and it read like this “ My Love!! Your plans are beauteous but I am getting married to someone else. So it is the time we depart.”

Friends!! Life is something that happens while you are busy planning it.

Funny isn’t it?
Or sad?
Please decide for yourself.

Now you are thinking that why on earth Rishi chose to write on such a serious topic like Life. Aren’t you?

That is because I could not find anything more entertaining than life in all I have seen in my life.
Life is full of fun, there are cheers,
there are tears ,
there is a friend,
there is an armed robber’s gun,
there are smiles
then there are married men’s wives
there is a mathematical miracle zero
then there are people with IQ tends to zero
we laugh, we cry,
we hold our spirits high
our loved ones smile like a bunny
and now would you say
that Life is not funny ?

Now coming to the John Lenon’s quote let me tell you a story, a story which is more or less every one’s story, it is my story, it is your story.

There was this man who was turning 30 the next day. And as the clock ran out on his 20s he wondered that not long back he was living with his friends in his college hostel room, single or probably temporarily coupled for a couple of months then single again, thinking about how the future would be, a little scared about the career yet to be made, uncertain about what he wanted to be and wanted to do with his life. And now where did a wife, 2 kids and tens of thousands of responsibilities come from?

What are you thinking? Have you been that man? For most of us answer would be – Yes.

And as that man tossed and turned in his bed the whole last night of his 20 something, he got worried that probably he would never be what he wanted to be. He would be never be the rock star with long curly hair and an electric guitar on his back. He would never have the luxury to spend his life on a beach with unlimited supply of Pina colada and his love of life.

His friends told that it happens to everyone and it would pass but he was anxious, so he rolled up his sleeves and started making a fresh Life Plan.

Ironical??? Yes it is.

He wanted to take charge of his life. But soon this feeling faded and the worries returned.
And as the worries started coming back he wondered why at the first place he wanted to have his life planned. And then the realization came along that this future plan protected him from the present or better to say kept him away from all what was boring in present and showed something nice to look forward to. But he soon realized that it kept him a prisoner of the future and he had never appreciated what he had because there was always something to be achieved. He was always running after something or the other. Worst that happened was that it kept him from appreciating spontaneity of life , the excitement that comes from not knowing what is going to happen next.

Imagine what would happen to the movie “Don” ( Sharukh Khan One ) if you had already known that the Don dying in the beginning of the movie is not the real don.
Would you like to watch it after knowing that, please don’t let Priyanka Chopra influence your decision.
: )

Now for once let go your life plan, in beginning you would feel like living on the edge but soon you would start feeling lighter, less burdened. You would start appreciating things that matter.

At the end I would like to quote Maureen Kennedy
Letting go of a life plan doesn't mean you don't set goals for yourself. But now you would know it doesn't matter when you achieve those goals, or even if you do, because ultimately, life is a journey, and what matters most is that you enjoy the ride.

Great Piece by Richard Lederer

During my omni directional and purposeless web surfing ( where there is no real surfing ) I came across this essay and its awesome:

Let's face it -- English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese... One blouse, 2 blice?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a "slim chance" and a "fat chance" be the same, while a "wise man" and "wise guy" are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while "quite a lot" and "quite a few" are alike? How can the weather be "hot as hell" one day and "cold as hell" another?

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who are spring chickens or who would actually hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?

Now I know why I flunked my English. It's not my fault, the silly language doesn't quite know whether it's coming or going.

I dream of a Jin

In my attempt to write a story I wrote this:

I:
Who are you??(With irritation on face)

And what are you doing on my shoulder?

Will you please speak?

And you are so heavy?
Get off me, get off, get off….

Jin:
I am a jin and please accept my greetings aaka.
< Jin Starts dancing >

I:
Aaka?a jin???? What do you mean by that? And Why are you speaking like me?
< Jin keeps dancing>
Stop it, stop it , why are you dancing?

Jin:
Aaka I am a jin and I am here for you? And I speak like my master. But you speak like this (imitating his Master’s voice) , so I am speaking like this.
And why m I dancing??? I ‘ll tell you later.

I:
Really?? MY Jin? And you would do what I want?



Jin:
Yes Aaka. I will do all you want.

I :
Go bring my bag?

Jin :
I don’t need to go anywhere aaka. I’ll get it in a fillip or a blink of eye.
< Blinks and gets the bag>
Here is your bag.

I:
Good Good!!
Okay..what is your name ?

Jin:
What do you want my name to be aaka?

I:
I want your name to be … hmmm … hmmmm…. Chinku.

Jin:

Thank God , you are the first man who has given me a name which is not ARAB. Why do every one think that Jins are found in Arab and there names should an arab one. Thank you master. I love my Name , Chinku. It is cute, isn’t it?

I:
Hmm..
But I had always wanted a Jeanny, like the one in that serial, the Sidney Sheldon one. A beautiful and intelligent jeanny.

Jin :
But aaka, there are no Jeannies now on our planet, otherwise what do you think we are so jobless that we would come to earth? I was dancing because after coming to earth I saw females after a long time. (Shyly).

(With a sad face) I was so happy till my last wife died.

I :
Last wife??? What do you mean? How many wives did you have ??

Jin : ( Shyly)Starts counting…
21

I :
Whaaaat ?
Tweeeeenty One?

Jin:

Yes aaka about a 100 years back sex ratio on our planet was very good. And I was the best looking Jin there so I got a couple of wives extra than others.

I:
Wow..
Can you get Katrina Kaif to marry me. ( Shyly )

Jin:
What are you talking about aaka…If I could .. wouldn’t I marry her myself.


I:
Oh.. You seem to be useless, you are good only for carrying my bag.

Jin:
No aaka I am good for many things. I can cook good food for you, do your laundry in a second and I can make you fly without wings.

I:
Alright alright but without Katrina its all waste.

Jin:
Oh aaka.. Please don’t worry. We will enjoy without Katrina.

I: Ok Ok.. now tell me what brings you on earth.

Jin:
Now things are not good on my planet. The sex ratio has gone down real bad and There are no girls up there.
( and he becomes sad ).

I :
Why what happened?

Jin :
We don’t have any now, not even one girl child on our planet.

I :
Whaaat? How did this happen?

Jin:

Aaka, We were very conservative people, we hated girl child, we all wanted all boys in our family, I have 75 sons. But no daughter.
Slowly slowly the ratio went down and we dint care about it. Now there are all guys.

I:
Oh that is very sad.

Jin:
Yes it is ,

I :
Good You came to Delhi, I heard here the sex ratio is 50 50. You can learn how to be wise and love girl child also.


Jin:
Is that possible? Who would show me that?

I:
Yes why not.
Let me call someone to tell you how to be wise.

< I woke up .. >
Chinku!! Chinku!! Chinku!!!.. where are you?

Oh… yawn.. CHinku.. Chinku.. Chinku.. where are you… was I dreaming ????

Oh I was, but Friends, This dream, if it comes true, ever for us, It would be a nightmare.
We should not discriminate between the girl and boy child.
Love them, love them all.

ARK - A Random act of Kindness Everyday

Do you want to change the world?

I do. And how I started doing it let me take you through it.

I was standing at my regular tea shop a couple of days back and there was this man who was selling patties, I asked him whether he would like to have a cup of tea, He smiled and nodded. I asked the tea shop boy to serve him a cup. A cup of tea meant nothing to my pocket if you see, but it brought smile on a tired face.

All the living beings!! I want to remind you of two things which have the power to make our lives better. They have the power to change the world; they possess the power to make it a better place to live. They possess the power to change You.
Love and Kindness.

When you get love it adds a reason in your life to live for and when you become kind and compassionate you will probably add one to some one else’s life. To be kind, I do not say that go out and do something big, a random act of kindness extended towards any one would be good to start with.

Sometimes smallest gestures touch our hearts. A smile from a stranger when you are lost in the crowd, a helping hand for someone in need, a flower for someone dejected, some water for the thirsty and leftovers for someone hungry at your street corner, a piece of bread for a hungry dog, some water for the thirsty bird on your roof, is it just too much to ask for?
No It is not and we all know that, I am not asking you to be exceptional in being kind, but atleast one random act of kindness everyday.
And believe me world would start changing the moment you start doing that.
Someone has rightly said “Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.”

It is out there you have to just take one step to experience it.

A little girl stood outside a small church from which she had been turned away because 'it was too crowded'. "I can't go to Sunday School," she said to the pastor as he walked by. The pastor carried the child inside and found a place for her to sit in the back. The next time the pastor met her he said "Hattie, we are going to have a larger Sunday school room soon. When we get the money with which to erect a school building we are going to construct one large enough to get all the little children in, and we are going to begin very soon to raise the money for it."

The pastor did not see Hattie again, until he heard from her parents some two years later. Hattie had sadly died her parents called for the kind-hearted pastor, who had befriended their daughter, to handle the final arrangements. As her poor little body was being moved, a worn and crumpled purse was found. Inside were found 57 cents and a note scribbled in childish handwriting which read: "This is to help build the little church bigger so more children can go to Sunday school."

For two years she had saved for this offering of love.

A little girl who could barely understand what this world is all about knew how to be kind. And we sitting here in this room just pass by some one in need and do nothing about it. Happily.
Because we are not bothered about anything but us our family our job our kids and our future.
Open your hearts for everyone and I promise you that your heart would be filled with joy and satisfaction.
Do you know the story behind Noah’s ARK?
Some time in the history of humanity God saw that people on earth had become corrupt and there was violence and all kinds of miseries on this planet. People were not happy and they were all suffering from one thing or the other. So he decided to destroy all the life on this planet. At that time Noah was the only man who was blameless and righteous. So God called him and asked him to make an ARK and bring two of every sort of animal on it, one male and one female. After Noah created the ark he boarded it with his family, 7 pairs of clean and unclean animals and birds. (Now what is clean and unclean? kindly use Google or bible whichever is easily accessible.) And then God asked his rain to destroy all the living beings on planet earth except the ones on the ARK.
We do not have a Noah among us now, and we do not have his ARK either to save us from the destruction physical, Moral and spiritual. For us it is
“ A
Random act of
Kindness”
Friends! This is Noah’ ark for us.
A random act of kindness everyday.
And at the end one quote from Dalai lama–

if you want others to be happy practice compassion. If you want to be happy practice compassion.

Are you happy?

Am I happy?
Am I the person I truly am or I wanted to be?
Or I am just a customized application running in a platform independent World? Trying to please everyone, feeding my family, fulfilling their basic needs, taking care of parents,
Fulfilling social obligations and minding in my own business.
Is this what I do?
Please ask yourself these questions everyday.
All the living beings on this planet!! These questions are not about finding out if you are happy. It is about showing you a mirror in which you would see what you have made of yourself. Some of you, hopefully, would realize that, yes I am happy and satisfied with the way I am spending each and everyday of my life, for others it would be, for sure, an eye opener.

I get up 5 out of 7 mornings each week get ready for office, spend my day facing challenges at work place, trying to cope up with them, then suddenly random personal life challenges which are to be taken care of immediately hit me right in face, I prioritize and I resolve, I find time to take a cup of tea with anyone who would come along, day ends with a random emotion, may be a small appreciation for my work would just make my day or a set back would screw it up completely. I reach home more or less tired, I eat and sleep. Some of you may add watching TV or listening to songs in this schedule and married ones may add a couple more things that they “Have” to do.


We spend time in criticizing others, blaming system for almost everything, procrastinating important things and a lot more which is “NOT important”, what we do not do is spend time with our own selves. How many times in a week, ok, not in a week, not in a month, but in a year do you sit with yourself, happily, thinking about yourself? How much time do you give to your family, your friends, your passion, your hobbies and yourself?

How many days do you get up in morning and as soon as you look at your face in the mirror, you say “Wow, another lovely day”.
Do you remember when the last time you felt that was?

That brings out another question:

Are you in a rut my friend?
Don’t you think in this struggle to survive you have lost yourself?

Introspection at all the steps of the life is very important to hold you on the right path. And please tell me why you can not even find time for that.
Some one has said “Had I known that I would live so long, I would have taken better care of myself.”
You want to be that guy?
If yes please go ahead and close this window. If not then here is something to help things improve.

I have already shown you the problem, this is the time for solution, not because you already do not know it, but because it is important to hear it sometimes, to get motivated to take a step towards improving the quality of life.

How important are you?

What are you thinking? Dumb question? Still answer it..

You my friend can you please tell me how important are you? Not for others, but for you ? Now answer all the questions that I asked in my speech. And answer one for me right now. How much time do you give to yourself?

Friends, this is not a personality development article, it is a reality check, it is to tell you that among all the things in your life, one thing that was most important, is the most important and will remain same, you have kept it at the lowest priority, that is, You, some of you probably wont agree with me, but for most of us it is true. We forget to take care of ourselves while taking care of almost everything.
I would like to remind you that spending time with yourself is the most important thing.
I read it some where on web -
It is very important to reflect on your past, present and future, to discover how you really feel, and most importantly, to realize that you can depend on yourself to make good choices for your life. I don’t care how old you are, teenager, twenty-something, middle-aged or a senior citizen you need time to listen to your thoughts, compare ideas, see what sounds exciting and what is just someone else’s idea for you.

Now my advice to you is “Stay alone for a while away from all the world, away from all the miseries, all the tensions and all the problems.”

I came across this amazing concept while looking for this topic. “Do Nothing “.
“Do Nothing” sometimes, Doing nothing does not necessarily mean that you have to literally do nothing, You may just walk around the house or office, doing what you think needs to be done , water the plants, look at your college pictures, watch an old video that you made with your friends, sit down close your eyes and just wander at all the places you want to go, imagine people you want to be with, enjoy Doing nothing, enjoy when someone asks “what are you doing? “ , reply with a smile and say “Nothing”.
Remember following: (from CP)
1) Pay attention to who you are and 2) take time to be alone, Try it you might just like it.

Now answer Do you recharge battery of your cell phone regularly?

Just like the battery of your cell phone – recharge yourself everyday.

Power Of Silence

Wondering what powers may the silence possess… ??

Let me show you an example first…

This is Silence…










And This is the result....








Can you see the power of silence now …?

:) ofcourse you can..

it is a pleasure talking about silence which sometimes, is, so precious that you spend thousand of your hard earned money to go out to find it. Isn’t it?

Silence, here that I am speaking of, is not exactly the silence that you would find in solitude, it is not the one that you may find in a jungle, near a river or in a church, temple or any of such monuments for that matter and neither can you find it when you are with your girl friend, girl_friends ( a term which I coined for the girls who are friends but not quite girl friend ) or your better half. They are always talking talking talking and talking and then a little more and then a little more and then when you are just too tired to take it , a lot more.

Now I would start it from the point when I realized this power. This amazing thing helped me come out of my persisting sad mood and helped me revive after a tiring week.
Friend’s it was this Saturday when I went out for movie with one of my girl_friends. She is just too talkative type even when there is nothing to talk about.
Men are normally considered to be not that talkative and I seriously can not understand what might be the fascination the better part of society have with meaningless one sided conversations.

However, coming back to the movie , when I realized this powerful silence which with every minute of the movie was filling me with energy and a new hope for life , my friend kept silent , probably not because the movie was so fantastic but because it was just too dumb.
No matter what may be the reason for her to keep silent for all the time , it was a wonderful experience , when I got out of theater I could not help but thank her for all the support she had extended for my revival.

Now coming to other aspects of silence.

There are moments in life when emotions just flow out, tears may role out on cheeks, your hands may just try to reach out to someone, your eyes may just want to stare at someone just for a few more seconds –yes you are there now, Julia Roberts is about to say that romantic most line “ I am just a girl , asking a boy , to love me” – Sob sob – at this point we just prefer to be silent if not sleeping after switching off the television. But my god , God has made women who would cry for everything on TV. And then they have emotional dialogs ready for all the situations. Just like QuickMade cold coffee.. add water and sugar and its ready .. 


At those times , gentlemen, you may just pray to god to save you from the torture.

Now the useful part...
Silence is not only helpful when you want your friend to shut up for a while. It is quite handy for the married men too.

When was the last time when you were being shouted at by your better halves???
Don’t make that face that you don’t remember …
Everybody knows the truth…

So even though I do not have any experience with W I F E from my experiences with my ex – girl friend ( not the under score one , ( shyly) , and why ex – you would get to know ) I must say that when your woman makes an angry or doubtful or thinking face , its time to shut up. While keeping your mouth shut whether you want to listen to what she is saying is up to you.
And now why my girl friend became ex – because I just could not shut up at the right time.

Now as we have discussed both the aspects when silence is desirable from women and women and women and women I would like to say one thing:

Sometimes Silence speaks more than words and then silence is more musical than any song.

Alzheimer’s: The Good, Bad and Ugly

Ever thought how would the world be if you lost ability to remember. How would it be if you forgot the first part of your sentence before you could think of the second?
I would take you to a journey from here which will both inform and intrigue you. I’ll show you what’s good and what’s bad.
Alzheimer’s, my friends, is a brain disorder or malfunction, named after a German doctor Alois Alzheimer, who first identified its symptoms and description sometime in 1906.
Here are mentioned a few things about Alzheimer’s:
Alzheimer’s is fatal:
This disease destroys brain cells causing problems with memory , behavior and thinking patterns which in turn affect life in all the possible aspects be it social life , work or personal. It is progressive and leads to death over time. It is one of the 10 biggest causes of deaths all over world.
Alzheimer’s is a type of Dementia which accounts for more than 50 percent of Dementia cases.
There are available medications for the symptoms but there is no cure for the disease. There are multiple ongoing research efforts which are trying to find methods to change the course of disease to improve the lives of millions of people suffering from dementia.
The cognitive symptoms can be treated with the medicines available which prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine which acts as an important chemical messenger for learning and memory.
The behavioral symptoms may vary from patient to patient depending on the way they feel and act. At different stages of illness patients may experience hallucinations, delusions, restlessness and physical or verbal outbursts. There are drugs available to treat physical discomfort but the behavioral symptoms can be treated by changing the environment, or by being more understanding for their mean and ornery behavior.
As we progress in our lives we face occasional memory loss that is being forgetful. But if the severe memory losses and confusions become more frequent then we should get worried that our brain might be failing. Our brain cells communicate with many others to process information, some of them tell our muscles when to move, some help in hearing, thinking and smelling. In Alzheimer’s, as in other types of dementia, increasing number of brain cells die everyday, making our brain too weak to work.

Now for everything you would find pros and cons. We now know what’s bad about Alzheimer’s. I found some people talking about what good does the Alzheimer’s do and what may be termed as ugly about our reaction toward it. Let’s get them one by one.
Good First,
I was reading this article in NYTimes where a lady was talking about the mapping of Alzheimer’s symptoms with the stages of Yoga. She remembered her mother who was suffering from this disease. She talks about how she saw her mother’s brain slowly atrophying and her behavior changing from normal to satisfactory then to the worse. The good that she found out of this disease was that her mother was being more of herself now. She was living “in the moment” because there was no past to remember or no future to worry about.

Alzheimer’s is about living in the present. To exist outside of memory is to occupy the moment wholly. For instance, her mother quit smoking around the time of her diagnosis. As she explained it, when her mother would have the urge to smoke, she would forget to light up before she got her hands on the pack, and so broke a 50-year addiction. It seemed the craving no longer got stuck in her memory circuits, and so easily fell away.
In another instance, ( as in NYTimes ) Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroscientist who wrote a book detailing her experience of a stroke that temporarily wiped out the language and other functions of her left brain, describes the right-brain-left-brain dichotomy as dividing thinking about the present — in the right hemisphere — and thinking about the past and future — in the left. The left hemisphere, she says, is responsible for “that ongoing brain chatter.” The right brain, in her rendition of it, collects data through the senses “and then it explodes into this enormous collage of what this present moment looks like, what the present moment smells like and tastes like, what it feels like and what it sounds like.”
Now Comes the Ugly part:
Isn’t it time to stop romanticizing tragic conditions like Alzheimer’s and mental illness? I read it somewhere and it made me question why do we have to find good out of a disease? It is quite possible for us to decide whether to enjoy the present and “live in the present” or to worry about the past ad future. A painful degeneration of brain is no way to teach us how live in the present, how to be what we are.
(As in NYTimes)
The cessation of the fluctuations of consciousness may sometimes signal a higher, healthy state, but it can also signal dysfunction and, taken to the extreme, death. We the living need to be bothered and angered and saddened by what we see around us. We need our memories and our projections into the future in order to make progress — scientific and otherwise. From time to time we need to stop and smell the roses, to live in the moment in order to refresh ourselves for the work ahead or to learn to accept those things we must accept, but we ought to thank our lucky stars we can choose to do so, and perhaps we ought to be careful about comparing that choice to the inescapable conditions of those who are ill.
I would leave it up to you decide.

When they will start talking ...!!!

When I was a little kid my great grand ma used to tell me a story of a mouse couple that one season ate too much that they became so fat and could not fit into the mouth of the hole which served as their abode.
Then they decided to go to a man who could help them by taking out some fat from their bodies so that they become slim enough again to enter their home. They requested the cobbler, the carpenter, the king, the queen but no one agreed to help them. I still wonder how would they have told their problem to these people who did not understand their language probably. If you believe my great grand ma they told this all in the language that a man can understand as in “ O dear carpenter ! could you please help us by taking out this extra amount of fat that we have accumulated by eating a lot this season!!! “.
Crazy story for adults !! right ?? But I loved it back then.
If I ask you to imagine a day when this story would be actually possible.. no No no no .. not the too much eating and getting fat part.. but the talking to humans part.

If you believe me I read MARK LEYNER explaining in nytimes how this may come true and you may actually have a talking mouse in your home.
Now to add to your knowledge
“
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have engineered a strain of mice that possesses the human FOXP2 gene, considered by evolutionary biologists to be among several crucial components that endow people with the capacity for speech. Already, the swap of mouse FOXP2 for human FOXP2 has altered the way the mice communicate with one another (their ultrasonic whistles have become slightly lower-pitched).
“
This is not about some sign language or some training to the monkeys which enables them to play with keyboards. This thing is about a rat that’ll be able to sit with you in evening and discuss day to day activities and talk about the political situation in India or just tell old rat stories.

I would be continuing in Mark’s words from here on:
Please visit NYtimes for original article.
After millenniums of maintaining their evolutionary vow of silence, can you imagine — once the genetic gag has come off — how much these mice will have to say? The din of mouse prattle will deafen the planet. And don’t think this is going to stop with just mice. We all know how uncontainable technological innovation is.
If you think I’m just being cynical and churlish about all this, imagine that you’re walking down the street, minding your own business, and a dog looks up and says: “You didn’t complete your b.tech from VIT University, did you? Batch of ’08? You look so familiar.” Do you really want to have to have a conversation with every puggle you encounter? Isn’t it hard enough already to avoid meaningless conversations with people you don’t know?
Sure, there will be the elation of that initial “Doolittle moment.” Ah — the animals will have such wisdom to impart. I imagine that speaking will lead to writing, and writing will lead inexorably to screenplays. And who could resist a remake of “101 Dalmatians” written by actual Dalmatians? But chances are there will be the same ratio of banality to profundity as there is with people. There’ll be a lot of complaining about their minor ailments, endless talk about their own kids, grousing about their mates, etc.
There will also be fundamental philosophical implications — Heidegger’s notion that animals can’t truly experience death because they lack language will have to be completely reassessed, for example. And, perhaps of more immediate consequence, there will be serious economic repercussions, particularly for meat processors. All it will take is one talking cow on “Oprah,” chronicling the horrors of the slaughterhouse, and beef consumption worldwide will cease immediately. (Ditto, some erudite chicken on “The Charlie Rose Show.”)
Now the most nightmarish one— is the prospect of talking insects. You know that time of night when you’re lying in bed and you’re beset by unpleasant thoughts, by all manner of regrets and doubts and self-abasement? I haven’t really accomplished anything I intended to in my life. That sort of stuff? Imagine some mosquito maliciously egging you on. Or imagine that you walk into the kitchen for a midnight snack, turn the light on, and there’s an enormous water bug in the middle of the floor. As you raise your rolled-up magazine for the death blow, the bug looks up at you plaintively and says: “Dude, please. I’ve got a family. Let me go. You’ll never see me again. I swear to God.”
O.K., granted, FOXP2 is only one of the so-called “language genes,” many of which remain to be discovered. But it’s obvious to me that we’re already on the slippery slope to animal eloquence.
As punishment for giving fire to mankind, Prometheus was chained to a cliff, where an eagle gnawed at his liver every day. I can only say to the researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology that, for helping give animals the gift of gab, and creating the very real possibility of snidely murmuring mosquitoes and cockroaches able to plead for their lives, you may all deserve an even harsher fate: being chained to a cliff and talked to death by an eagle that just won’t shut up.


Over and Out 

Equality for Women and time when marketing for women turned out to be a gaffe!!!

No matter how rhapsodized is the “Equality of Women” or “Women Empowerment” in the articles written by wisest of men/women and policies made by wisest of politicians (However, ‘Politician’ is, I believe, only word in English which can not be qualified by “Wise”) the state of reasonable equality is still far, far away and an absolute equality is out of sight.
“Creating equal opportunities for women “will not happen in a fillip. Policy makers would have to sit with an open mind and think about it with equanimity. There are multiple instances such as the case of Lilly Ledbetter, an Alabama woman who lost a wage discrimination suit at the Supreme Court last year to the New Dell website for Women, Della, where it’s been visible that even though things have changed a lot still there are persisting issues with equality, issues with the “Concept of a Women”, surprisingly they are still perceived to be only Pink.
With time involvement of women in many social aspects other than cooking and home making has increased as a matter of fact US women donated more than $109 million to the presidential candidates this year which is 3 times the money that they contributed a couple of years ago. Now women are, at many places, in controlling positions, and with the rise of 21st century women, they have become an integral part of almost every activity, they are scientists, journalists, Presidents, CEOs and much more. Considering the analysis of US polls women were the ones who actually decided fate of the history changing presidential elections.
With all this don’t you think it is reasonable to demand for “Equality” a true one. I think that time has come when women can be seen in colors other than Pink as well.
Now coming to the latest sensation over Dell’s new website for Women “Della” which came across as condescending. I am not sure what DELL executives thought before launching this website when they should have targeted the smartest of tech-savvy women by telling them the good technical stuff about there products they chose to put a pink cover on the website and non tech technical tips for them. Quoting from an article from Forbes magazine:
“The question of "female-friendly" products and marketing is a complicated one. Perhaps where Dell went awry was in marketing down to women rather than passing along smart information that smart women really need--and want.”
Something did go wrong in understanding women. Isn’t it?
Now in these bad times when DELL is on the path of declaring a huge loss I do not think it is a great time to annoy there biggest consumers ( as a matter of fact women make 83% of all the consumer purchases ).
If it happened only to the DELL executives that they perceived women like that it is fine and definitely they have taken steps to make there situation better for themselves by making the website a little more informative (information about topics other than Yoga , cooking, calorie cutting and Home making) but I am afraid most of us take women as “PINK” always.
Policy makers may get the feeling of satiety by advocating equality in a press conference or in a public rally but basic social needs of a woman can not be fulfilled by words merely or girlish advertisements or products specially marketed for women. They need a voice, a real one, a representation, a sense of equality in all that we do; above all they need a new image “an equal perception of women”.

Elections 2009, Yet another Pig Fight

Elections 2009, Yet another Pig Fight
I remember this old Hindi / Urdu saying:
बर्बाद गुलिस्तां करने को बस एक ही उल्लू काफी था
अब अंजामे गुलिस्तां क्या होगा जब हर डाल पे उल्लू बैठा है

What makes a human different from an animal? You must be thinking what a dumb question to ask. Aren’t you?
No matter how dumb, but to put my point I need to explain it.

Except the “Opposable thumb” Brain development was a crucial differentiator between Humans and Animals, and when we talk about brain development the concept of morality and ideology comes in to play with the whole “Being Civilized” effect on the lives of Humans.
We all would admit that no matter how rebellious one may be, he follows a set of ideologies and at the same time we all tend to make or “take as it is” the definition of morality for ourselves which makes us a little judgmental or opinionated about the things happening around us.

So pretty much the evolution, development and extinction of a civilization is dependent on the kind of organization system, morality, ideology and strategy they adopt over time.
Many civilizations reached at apex of the sophistication and development and then disappeared, why? I am not a historian so can’t comment on it with authority but I am pretty sure that it must have happened because of their choices of the above mentioned virtues.

Indians are amongst the oldest civilizations on this planet, we have survived wars, natural calamities and many more problems. Today we are a fast developing country with a promising future amidst more problems than we have seen ever in the past such as financial crisis, corruption, bad governance, poverty , illiteracy etc. etc. .

One of the biggest problems that I see here is the shape that politics has taken over the years after independence. Politics is dirty almost everywhere it exists, but it is more unfortunate when it is in this bad shape in a developing country like India where politicians have such a variety of options to choose from to play on such as cast system and religion.

Bad things are also not the worst always, such as politics keeps on going under the table and in the most powerful streets of Union of India when we stay busy in our day to day lives ignoring small events such as murder of non corrupt officials, scams in several government run policies, politicians playing with emotions of a family that lost their son in a bomb blast etc. etc.

Then there are times when bad things become the worst. Example: Politics at the time of Elections. 

Being an Indian I am used to the events when we realize that India is going to dogs and there is no hope for the future of the Country, and I simply ignore them just because I am too busy to do anything about it, I am happy with my friends, family, job and the girl whom I am in love with (even though she does not know it yet  ).
This is pretty much the case with everyone in this country. But sometimes I feel so bad about the things around and there is no better way than writing about what I feel. So this blog is on the account of the Political Scenario of India when it is going for another pig fight, oops, Elections.
DISCLAIMER: All the views that I express here, are in no way, an insult to the constitution of India, I have full faith in it, I just hate the politics or better to say the politicians.
Now
Why I compared this event with a pig fight? Because this is pretty much the same, when I explain the Phenomenon of A pig fight in the mud, I would leave it up to you to imagine the same situation when two politicians fight. (This is in no way a comparison of a politician to a pig; I respect them as humans, just not their actions. This is in no way an insult to Pigs either , My apologies if they feel disgusted by this comparison).
Mulayza Farmaiye..

Pigs stay in the mud or water , why ? , because they can not cool themselves merely by panting nor by sweating, so water or mud is a safe heaven for them, and they prefer mud because it protects them from the radiations.
Analogy : Water : May be clean poltics
Mud : Dirty Politics
Radiations : Actions which Judiciary of Union of India will take against an ordinary Indian.

When two pigs confront each other they make postures and wipe off the foam from their mouth to the other pig. Then they hit the other with their head until one runs away in search of more mud to cover his wounds.

Analogy : Do I need to give this ? I would leave it up to you.


Now lets come out of this combination of simile and metaphor and discuss something real. India was a country of Congressmen at the time of Independence, people with other ideologies either did not exist or were too less in number to fight congress. Then slowly ambitions of others who could not either agree to congress ideologies or could not get a seat in congress (considering most of them opportunistic) formed other parties, some with a set of ideologies and some without them just to enjoy the flavor of power with too less or none at all intentions of working for anything towards a better India.

After some time there were three main sections of the political scenario in India, Congress, BJP and the left front. Over time congress ran out of ideologies and carried out their work with I do not know what. As it is said now that BJP and left are only two sections which still have some sort of ideology that they follow which Left has already started giving up because of their anti- BJP strategy.
I do not understand what kind of men leave the principle by the virtue of which they tend to exist, just to stand against a section which they can not agree with. And this is not the case with only Left ( which I admired at some point of time , not because of their ideologies , but because of the fact they adhered to them ) , it is same with every regional party. Regional parties were formed basically with no clear motive except the power that they will hold in their hands by holding a few seats in a particular cast or religion dominated region. And Irony is that these small parties which somehow manage to reach to a 2 digit number of seats dream of being in not only in the cabinet ministry but also of having a PM of their own.

Alliance of parties ,with other smaller ones which merely represent a few districts in the whole country , to form the government is unfortunate. When a party which represents about 30 -40 percent of the population forms a government and have allies from other states, we have already seen how difficult it becomes for them to run the government. (Considering an alliance of 18-25 parties with one having more than 50 percent stake). But when we start imagining a government with 50 or so such parties, can we even imagine the organization that will be there in the government, it will be under utter chaos.

It is difficult to satisfy everyone, so the stability of the third front government is already questionable. As a matter of fact it is sure that no party is going to get a majority so a coalition government is inevitable but as an Indian I wish that a this coalition stays united for 5 years and is formed by parties which share same philosophy , I do not care what , but they work if not for good of the country then not for the bad either.

Jai Hind Jai Bharat

Real India in Books and Movies ?!!!!! Not sure ...

India , Such a beautiful country !! Winter , summer and spring all come and go leaving all of us amazed at the extremes which exist here ,
then there are times when the nature can not get better , cool breeze , mellow sun , a farmer ploughing his field , birds chirping , country women
involved with their house hold work , kids playing with Grand pas and Grannys , Industriaists working hard for better brand name, professionals wroking hard
to acheive better results , Showing our military strength in 26th January parade , scientists representing India in outer space , Indian men and women making
a significant proportion of intellectual/rich society , Indian writer getting a Booker and a movie about India getting an Oscar .

Can it get any better ?

I was reading Times Of India " deep Focus " a few days back when I stumbled on an article Real Bharat , Reel India. This article was about the evolution of Indian Film Industry and media since independence.

In 1947 , Father Of the Nation Mr. Mohan Das Karam chand Gandhi said that the real India lives in villages. After the success of Slum Dog Millionaire and The White Tiger , most of us have started thinking that real India never went away , it was still there during our journey from a newly independent nation to a developing country.
As the article says thanking Arvind Adiga , Simon Beaufoy and Dany Boyle that with this new book and this amazing movie real India is back in focus , I could not stop myself from disagreeing to the fact that the picturization and description of the India in these two instances of amazing art ,is a presentation of Real India, i would say it is merely a view point rather than the true picture of the Real India at present.
I would like to quote Mr . Narendra Jadhav , vice chancellore of Pune University and author of the Dalit family story "Outcaste : A memoir". He said "I don't think Adiga and Boyle have shown the real India. There is a silent revolution happening in India, with millions of people who have lived on the margins for centuries, now experiencing positive changes in their life. Adiga's The White Tiger and Slumdog Millionaire show the bad side of this change. That's also a reality but it's not the real India."


I agree that the India living in the slums and the India of the driver turned entreprenure of The White Tiger is a bitter truth . But it is not the complete picture.

Lets disuss the movie first.
Indian film industry has seen many trends and its not that these slums are shown for the first time , many a number of times we have seen our Hero , singing , dancing , playing role of an ideal son , a friend or a lover in these slums , where he grows up to fight with the bad of the society. But the picturization was never so real as we have seen in the Slum Dog Mllionaire. Based on the page-turning novel Q & A by diplomat Vikas Swarup , This movie is one of the commendable efforts by any western director , and as I have seen the movie I can say with confidence that Danny Boyle has done a great job.
As Shashi Tharoor said in his artile Vikas Swarup's novel is about an orphan boy called Ram Mohammed Thomas who is about to win a TV quiz show based on Kaun Banega Crorepati and is arrested on suspicion of having got that far by cheating. He's rescued by a female lawyer who gets him to tell his life story and explain how he, an uneducated slum kid, knew the answers to such difficult questions. Ram then tells a number of stories, each of which explains how he knew what he happened to know. Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy has changed pretty much all of Swarup's stories, introduced a romantic element and even re-baptised the hero (who is now Jamal Malik). But he has retained the novel's structure and premise, and Danny Boyle has brought its spirit alive in a way that i believe even Swarup would appreciate.
And It is amazing to know that the movie is filmed in the slums of Dharavi with small hand held cameras, so the on screen life in slums is pretty much same as the real lives there. I an sure Danny and Simon would have touched India to get to know it to some extent , but even though they managed to know it fairly well in this particular field , this is not all of India , and for sure not the complete real India . As said in some article that I read , this part of the society is like a gangreen affected leg of mother India that we have , i am not sure if forgotten , chose to, ignore , would be a bad word to say , rather it got neglected for so many socio - political reasons that an ordinary Indian like me is not aware of , what our policy makers are doing about it , I am not sure though.
Real India at the time of Independence was a new born baby on the globe which was already sucked up by many foreigners, so had a lot of poverty , misery and disorganization . And ofcourse droughts and floods took over it one by one many times . That time almost whole of India lived in villages and with beginning of Industrialization they started moving to urbanisation. Slums might have presented the real India more accurately at that time but I cant be sure about that either .
At present Real India ,I believe, constitutes of people who have grown up to be sucessful in various aspects of life and retained the essence of Indian Culture. Real India now is a mixture of scenes of successful professionals , Industrialists , scientists ,writers , farmers etc etc . and "Slum" is just a photograph in the whole album.
Now coming to the India shown by Arvind Adiga's Booker Prize winner "The white Tiger" . I think this is an even narower represntation of India than that of Danny BOyle's creation. This picture of real India is merely a way as an illiterate driver sees it. I shall not get into the reveiew of the book here that I would be discussing some other time . But if you have read the book you would realize that the driver has not tried to bring out the good of the society rather the whole emphasis is on the bad from his father dying in the government hospital to the bribe to the minister's sidekick and other election related events.
So saying that The White Tiger shows real India , if not absurd , is not the complete truth.
Drawing a conclusion from all this :
I can say that a good work of art of any type a movie or a book does get a reward , and sure they got Oscar and Booker. And somehow their presentation of India is also a realty , but thats not a complete picture. I find it analogous with the situation where when you go to see your probable " to be bride" for the first time and only her hand is shown to you to decide whether you want to get married to her or not. Thats as incomplete and irrational as the depiction of Real India in these two fine creations.
I would close with a few lines from a poem by former president of India Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam
"See there the Earth shining in glory
how come it got its light?"
A sweet and soft reply comes:
"It is not the mere light,
It is the light of knowledge,
It is the light of service,
It is the light of peace."

The big question.. Poverty ? Beggars?

Imagine a day when there is no one who is going to sleep without feeding his family ?Can you?

Let me help you in visualising that, a family living under a huge fly over dirty as hell ,begging and crying ,
little kids playing in dirt ,some of them sleeping so carelesely at a place where you might not even feel like spitting.
Now lets paint a bigger picture :
India is a country with a population over one billion and more than 50 percent of it living right above or below poverty
line in, better known as its shortform BPL. If you do not understand what is "BPL" - let me explain - This line is an imaginary line just like Line of Control between two countries. And beleive me BPL is exactly as disturbed as LOC.

Please catch the sarcasm in the following paragraph :

Our government identifies people living below this imaginary line all over country through a high class
and higly sophisticated method which has exactly no tolerance for errors, and then they tag them as BPL. There are many benefits and schemes for
these people. They get medical and other facilities for free, and food also , they are to get almost 700 gm of
sugar perhead from the local government low cost shop for a very meagre amount , that also they can hardly make.
God !! these poor people are difficult.
This saturday afternoon , while i was still in my blanket pretending that I was fast asleep because i was too lazy to
get out, I realized a huge difference between a middle class society and a better one .And this realization came along with a question.

That is : What actually happened to the high and comaparatively higher middle class in the process of evolution that
they lost all the compassion and kindness or why are they so scared of being compassaionate.

The difference that I am talking about is the one that a family, in a lower middle class or a higher middle
class of a relatively smaller city , always has a small pot full of wheat floor for a poor man knocking ,
shouting , singing or playing some musical instrument in worst possible way on your door while on the other hand same
is not the case with any family in a better society , atleast i have never seen that. Ah!! Poor men in a small place are
luckier than poor of a better place. Atleast someone is enjyoing smaller cities , not that people dont enjoy them ,
they are not enjoyable for people who live there ,though it is for people who visit them once in a while when they
try to get out of their busy lives.

Ok , So coming back to the topic , why did this happen?? how come they lost all the kindness which apparently is a very important human emotion . I am sure people living in Better cities and taller buildings
have enough food in their houses that they can feed a poor everyday as I have seen them feeding their dogs better than
most of the people in my village feed their kids.

So what is it that is suppressing their ability to feel what poor feel and give back a little to the society if not to
make it a better place to live in but aleast for a more selfish motive " PUNYA ", a sacred phenomenon in Hindu Society that
guarantees heaven after death. I am sure there are such concepts in other religions too, pardon me for my ignorance
about other religions I am still trying to understand my own religion so never got a chance to look outside.

So again coming back to topic ,what happened to those people with Maruti 800 to Luxury Cars ,( can you beleieve there
are places where Maruti 800 is considered to be luxurious as they can not afford a better one ), and from Nokia 1100
to Iphone in their hands , with Koutons to Gucci or Armani covering their paunchy figures , why cant they let one rupee
from their wallet go to a poor person , when they can pay thousands to a corrupt givernment official or give thousands as donation to a stupid scoiety which only blabbers about the welfare of human being and then spends that money in its own welfare by improving the qulaity of services of its club .

I found answer after a lot of thinking that I did before going to sleep lastnight and found that there
are some people who in this hautch-pautch life style , have lost their compassion and concern for other human beings ,
worst of them have lost concern about their families too.

But obviously everyone is not like them there are people who are kind and compassionate and wish to do something about
poor.
But they dont, for many reasons some them are :

1. They have read somewhere that they should not promote beggers on roads.
Fair enough . Oe should never give another man a rupee just because he is a begger and pleading for a coin or two.

But my friend why dint you read the other part of the line where it is said that " make them able to earn their livelihood.
"
Because for sure the one rupee that you give is not enough to feed them. I know what are you thinking now ,
how can I do something like that , I am a person of little means but I can always look for people who are with
help of others trying to do something good , why not go and help them. Please do not think that it is impossible
for one person, with a small job where he has to work whole day and then take care of his family and other earthly
human affairs, to do anything in this regard. Atleast do your bit , dont worry about others. These little bits add
together and someday they will make difference to atleast two lives. One that you changed and the other is simply yours.

2. Now there are bad people also around who try to take advantage of the good man inside you , robbers , fake and forced
beggers ( I find it funny that being begger is also some kind of a job and there are "Owners" of big " Begging firms"
who force people to be begger ( rather than apponting them :) ) and then they pay them on a monthly basis with food and
all.
Somehow I have turned into being an optimist and I can see a positive point in all this also , i.e. atleast they are not
going around pick pocketing and kiling people , but another question , is begging better than mugging someone???

I am not sure , how confused am I?


There are many points that I can keep adding here but the thing is when on the one hand we have poor who beg everyday
to earn enough to eat everyday some of them genuinely poor and some fabricated and just too lazy to go out and work on
the other hand we have selfish who do not consider giving back anything to society. I need to get going now my friends
are waiting , we are going for LUCK BY CHANCE, I would finish with one line please do not be any of them neither the
first kind nor the other.

Ciao