Too many people in the park - not a healthy sight

I started going to work for few hours from this week. Recovery is slow and as per the Docs its going to take some six months for all the symptoms to get back to normal. I still have the burning sensation in my hands and left leg. The positive is I am able to walk better and have some good percent recovery in the strength in my right hand. Its painful though to carry all the sensations. No alternative, so...

Well I started going to the park for walk in the afternoon. Slowly and gradually with few days I have started to do 2Kms and feel good about it. Its usually a time when its mostly house wives who come to the park. But surprisingly in the last few days I am noticing lot of young and middle aged guys in the park at 4 in the afternoon which is unusual. Then I realized that they are mostly coming from lay offs or there companies now going to 4 or 3 day week. A bad sign. The roads also suddenly look less crowded and what usually used to take us almost 20-25 mins to come home from work now we reach in 15 mins. Clear signs of a huge slow down in economy. This really looks bad. Everything looked so good till September and suddenly by November we are talking recession in India. There seems to be no money around. I am sure there is going to be tough times for every one in months ahead. The best way to survive at this time is to sit quiet and let the storm pass. We all know good times are round the corner and have to be be patient till they come.

Another incident which has really shook the whole country has been the terror attack on Mumbai on 26/11. The horrifying events of those 60 hours will be embedded in the mind of each and every Indian. There has been tremendous display of anger and the TV channels have been propagating it hopefully for the country's benefit and not to increase there TRP's. But I believe most of the anger being displayed was directionless and will not reach us anywhere. The so called celebritiies who came on TV spelt rubbish ideas - dont pay taxes(like they are paying religiously in the first place), hand over the country to army, bombarding pakistan and so on. I believe why India is stable in this world is because we are tolerant and have a strong democracy. We need to strengthen these qualities more with rooting off corruption, education for all and stronger implementation of our laws. The war on terror can be won if we strongly fight corruption. Its not just politicians who are corrupt , the whole society has degenerated. But what most hurt me as an Indian was repeated reference of Mumbaikar fighting and Mumbaikar spirit and so on. Its not just Mumbai , its India and Indians which is hurt and wounded - whether terror strikes at Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad or jaipur. Its the Indian spirit and greatness of our culture and society that helps us fight back. In any case do we have a choice?

What I did to survive my surgery?

I came back home after my cervical disk replacement surgery. I was operated on 19th November at the Max Hospital in Delhi. This was the first time in my life when I was being operated upon. So obviously I was nervous but I had to keep myself strong to keep my family strong specially my Dad. So I had to look and move absolutely normal like nothing was happening. God was also great as suddenly my sense of humor was at its peak. I still recollect during our discussion with the Doctor - the Doctor was informing us all the possible risks involved in the surgery. he mentioned that there was one percent possibility of my voice changing. I responded immediately that may be it will become like a great singer. Obviously he didnt like my sense of humor. So it was more fun time that I was having through out. Secondly I spent quality time with the family. A day before the admission I took my whole family to the Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary for some photo shoots of migratory birds. Catch up with some of the shots at my picassa account. We went to a good fast food outlet Hungercure for dinner. The third thing I did was didnt research about the surgery on the net which usually I do for almost everything. At times extra knowledge hurts. The fourth thing I did was choose the best possible place to get the surgery done. Good after care staff and paramedics is important part of healing. The nurses, physio,dieticians all are excellently trained to take care of people in trauma. This keeps you in good mood. Another important point to believe during the whole process is that of helplessness. I had to accept the fact that I had no choice and had already delayed the surgery risking more trouble. So when no alternative left better to fight it out. And lastly the trust in God and absolute believe that I have not done anything wrong that would make God to punish me beyond this.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

QSQT - Part 1

It was autumn of 1988 when "Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak :(QSQT) was released. This was Aamir Khans first movie. His heroin was Juhi Chawla. I believe this was the biggest block buster movie of my time. This movie can be voted amongst all time ten most romantic hindi movies. Its effect on us was like "Bobby" or "Kashmir ki Kali" might have had on that generation or " Dilwale Dulhaniya le jayenge " in todays time. Every young person in love would visualise himself as Raj the heroes character or Rashmi the heroin in the movie. All the engineering students were more closely associated with this movie because of the line in the first song of the movie - "papa kehte hain" which read as "Koi engineer ka kaam karega". This was a hugely popular song and was played at all functions, marriages etc. Those times there were no discos or pubs specially in a conservative middle class town of Nagpur. Even if there were any we simply could never afford with the amount of money in our possession. And also understand and visualize that it was a very conservative society at that point of time. Talking or moving with a girl was always seen as going steady with her. It was not like today when you could bring your female friends home to your parents. There were no mobile phones . There was no long distance direct dialing. The only communication I had with my family back home was through inland letters.My Dad gave couple of surprise visits to me and I would cover them in future blogs.

The Jaycees club of Orange City had organised a Diwali fete. These fetes were one of our major entertainments. Usually the entry would be free and there would be games, food stalls and music. I went to this fete with a gujarati girl - Amita. We had known each other when I was living at my uncles place during my high school days but had lost touch. Then I came again in touch with her during the Navratri Garba festival. We did go to these Garba dances together for couple of years. The song "papa kehte hain" was being played at the fete repeatedly. We danced a lot. Suddenly I felt some similar faces staring at us. I was shocked to see my Uncle, Aunt and their whole family keenly following us through the evening. In fact Uncle was the chief guest and had inaugurated the fete. It was one of the most embarrassing moments I had. I just stammered and introduced her to all my family. I felt like I had committed a big crime and was so shameful of myself that I just ran out of that place.

Sekhar was one of the most serious guys in our gang. A typical south Indian , he used to live with his parents in laxminagar area of the town. He was totally a teetotaller and non smoker. It was August when we had our first interaction with the new students in the first year. Rashmi had joined to do her graduation in Computer Science from Allahbad. Sekhar changed suddenly on seing and meeting her. He was badly and madly in love with Rashmi. All one sided. He would provide all help to this first year student with notes and books etc. All the best stuff from our batch mates. We always had a feeling at Naik Bunglow that Rashmi was using Sekhar for these notes. Sekhar used to dream all about her - 24 hrs. And then came Qayamat se Qayamat tak. Jushi Chwala's name in the movie was also Rashmi and Mr Sekhar went ballistic. He used to think that Juhi is his Rashmi and I might not be wrong but he must have seen the movie at least 50 times. He took me to the movie at least 4-5 times and would continuously narrate each action of the filmi Rashmi as how much similar they were to his Rashmi. Naik Bunglow was his place of solace everyday when he would describe his romance everyday over tea,samosa and Desai bidi.

Naik Bunglow

As we entered our third year in Engineering, we wanted to live outside the campus. Naik Bunglow came as a perfect accommodation. Naik Bunglow was owned by Sandeep's(guy in the center with blue Tees) uncle. They moved out of this place as they felt it was not an auspicious place to live. They had some deaths in the family after they moved to this place. Naik Bunglow was a huge property with garden and lawns on all sides. We were lucky to get this place to live. As a student you can just dream of these type of accomodation. And that too without any rental. So four of us moved in there - Pallav, Prashant and both the Sandeep's. Interesting fact about Sandeep and me is that not only we share the same name but date of birth and year also. So we were lucky in the way we could share expenses of birthday party. Sandeep and Prashant were local guys. Pallav was from Kota. We had three rooms and a bathroom. We set up one room as our bed room and another as our study room. The third room was our store cum kitchen etc. Technically though we were four but most of the time the whole gang used to spend time here. Our good friend - Mittal used to live a few blocks away and was President of the college students union. So he always had lot of visitors. Our place was a perfect place for all the gang to freak out as neither it was a hostel nor there were other people in the vicinity. So there were no restrictions & we had very eventful two years here. We had been host to some unimaginable events . I would like to introduce other members of our gang here - Gill, Raju, Shekhar, Phalke, Pinku, Tolani, Benerasi - who used to frequent this place regularly often staying overnight. Please note that all the characters mentioned here are not fictitious and presently well settled in their life. Any incident narrated here about them is one off that happened during college days. This blog is just a preface of the best two years of my life. I am sure you all will enjoy reading it.

ANNAKUT - Mountain of Food

Today we had Annakut celebrations at home. The whole community of friends and relatives eagerly wait for this puja at our home. Annakut is celebrated on the 1st day of Gujarati new year and also called Bestu Varsh. The day as per Hindu calender of the Vikram era is Kartik sud 1. As Hindu year comes to an end, families come together to celebrate one of the most sacred and important festivals, Diwali. Traditionally this time of the year also coincides with the completion of the harvest. Young and old join together to collect God's harvest of bountiful blessings. As an offering of gratitude to God for his blessings, the new harvest is first used to cook exquisite foods for the Lord. Since may be more than hundred years Annakut is celebrated at our home. We have almost 150 odd close friends over for Prayers and then to take prasad(meal). It is said the 56 delicacies are made but if I am not wrong almost 75 odd things are cooked and everything is home cooked. And all those who have enjoyed this delicacies over the years can vouch that all the food cooked is delicious and tasty. All the food cooked is placed before the God and a mound of cooked rice, symbolic of Mt. Govardhan, is placed in the center. Everybody then sings prayers and kirtan praying to God to accept them. This lasts for almost two hours and then this sanctified prasad(food) is eaten by all the devotees. The amount of work that goes into making all the food and then serving to everyone makes me wonder how God gives us all the energy to do this. By the end of the day every one is just plain tired like hell.

There are three different versions as to why we celebrate Annakut. The first story goes that on this day Lord Baman asked King Bali for three strides of Land and King Bali pleased Lord BamanBamanji gave him a boon that this day will be remembered as Balipratipadaa.
The second story goes that because this is when all harvesting is completed and all food grains are bought home people used to pray to Lord Indra - the God of rains for being kind to them and giving them enough rains during the monsoon because of which they had a good crop. God Krishna didn't appreciate the idea of praying to Lord Indra as he believed that this was because of men's hard work in the field and there was no need to please Lord Indra. Upset at this Lord Indra had flooded with rains Gokul to destroy it. God Krishna then lifted Mount Goverdhan on his smallest finger to protect everyone from the heavy rains. The underlying sentiment of this episode is that mundane factors such as house, wealth, mountain, trees or earth, in themselves do not have the power to protect us. Only the Lord Purushottam has the power to deliver us. Relative to His powers, that of the lesser deities pale into insignificance. Therefore it is better to accept 'sharnagati' (refuge) of the Lord Supreme and offer Him pujan. Over the ages, these sentiments have been consolidated by offering Govardhan puja. This is also known as 'Annakut', 'Anna' meaning food and 'kut', mountain.
The third story goes that this 1st day of the year represents the day of happiness and joy. Lord Ved Vyas tells King Yudhisthir 'O Yudhishthir, on this day of 'Padvo' (first day), the person who remains joyous will experience happiness throughout the year. The one who wastes it miserably, will experience misery during the year.'

What ever be the logic behind this but we in the family enjoy each moment of this and its really so heartening to see grand mom at 80 or Divyansh at 12 serving each and every guest with so much of respect and love the delicious prasad.

Well the night before we celebrated Diwali with great pomp. It was all festivities , lights and firecrackers. Minoo lead in decorating the home beautifully and she has matured so much over the years in taking care of our rich traditions that I feel proud of her. Some pictures of firecrackers and Diwali lighting and lamps can be seen at my flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandeep40/.

Shortly I will upload couple of videos on youtube and send the link for you to enjoy with us in our happy moments.

An Update

Its been quiet some time I have written anything.  This write up is just an update to what has happened over the last few weeks before I get back to regular writing.

Health has been not good. I am under regular physiotherapy. There is a general weekness and pain in the left leg and knee. The body is stiff overall. Its difficult to run and bend while playing Tennis but I am regular though I am loosing most of the time. I am proud of my partner Manish who though we loose keeps motivating me and is never upset. By the way we won last Sunday a triangular tournament, so not bad.  I am also doing a weight loss program and hope to loose the extra five kgs that I have. 

Sameep has moved on in his life. He is now at Pune for his higher studies. He got admission in Symboisis college.  Living away from the comforts and security of home should make him more responsible. He is intelligent enough to undersatnd whats good and bad in life and I am sure would make good use of the exposure he is going to get over over the next 5-7 years in higher studies.  At this time he is home for Diwali break.

Priya, my secretary has left job as she is getting married and moving to a different city. She was a great help in managing my job. I still recollect when I had to go to the Licensing Authority to sign for my arms license renewal - the clerk there told her that "Madam,  Look,I have done your job without any hassle, she replied back," Its good for you, you did it otherwise you would have invited trouble for yourself". I wish her all the best in her married life.

I had an opportunity to go and visit the Taj mahal couple of weeks back when a good friend of mine was here from Finland. The last I visited Taj was in 1994 and it really a beauty. Check out some of the pics at my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandeep40/ . But the most unfortunate thing there is the Touts and all the small time sellers who just bother you so much specially when they see a foreigner , you feel embarassed and bad. Taj is the biggest tourist attraction in this country and if we can not have good management there, its a shame. 

The world is going through one of its worst financial phase. The whole system is on a weak platform. God knows, who is accountable for this but its gonna bring lot of suffering to the masses.  If I look at this as a layman I have seen in my life time a socialist country like USSR collapse and complete failure of capitalistic free market economy like USA. I think India on the middle path is strong fundamentally - we neither grow vertically nor crash. If only we had no corruption.......I recollect our late Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi once acknowledging that only 10% reaches the benificiary from what the Government spends rest is eaten away by sharks. I hate this - at least we the so called civilised educated people of this country should do what ever to stop something like this taking place if we come to know.

I think I would be regular now back to my own self. Diwali is round the corner. Its a great celebration time and on all such occassions I miss Babuji.

Remembering Parveen

It was a shocking news day before from my friend Rajesh that our class mate Praveen Kejriwal has been killed in a road mishap. The car he was driving had crashed with a bus from the opposite direction and had caught fire. Only his skeletons were left by the time fire could be extinguished. A very unfortunate incidence. He left behind his wife Sangeeta and two kids - a daughter and a son. God Bless them.

I first met Praveen in 1982 during our class Xth in school. He was in my section. He was a typical bully type boy who had more money than others in school. We went off reasonably well. After our class Xth boards we had gone together in our school trip to Kashmir, Jaipur and Agra. I still recollect various events of that trip involving Praveen. At the houseboat he tried alcohol and it was a shock for most of us at that age about someone indulging into this. I also recollect the dinner I had hosted for the four or five "modern" classmates which included him at Jaipur during that trip.

After that I went for my college to Nagpur and lost touch with him completely for 6 years. When I came back to Purulia, I met him again. His family had bought in a old British bungalow - Tower Villa. A wonderful building with huge gardens and chandeliers, carpets and antique furniture. The whole schoolmates by that time had started playing cards and his this villa was the den on every Sunday. I was never into cards but used to spend my time there on Sunday evenings - a good hideout for my smoke. I still remember he used to call the 10 of heart "nightangle" as he used to win with that card. I came a bit close to him during the time he was getting married. I accompanied him when he went for his marriage shopping and also drove him to his wedding at Asansol - some two hours drive from Purulia. We were having a great time at his wedding singing and dancing. In fact his father in law had got very upset at our constantly doing this. We had some family dinners and came to know Sangeeta - his wife closely. She and Minoo would meet up regularly. Then I got deeply into Rotaract and then moved to Faridabad. We lost in touch and might have met couple of times casually during my trips to Purulia. I recollect meeting him last time at a restaurant where I had gone for dinner at Purulia. He and Sangeeta had stepped in when I was having dinner with Rajesh.Never thought that that will be last time I will see or meet him. I pray to God to give Sangeeta and the Kids courage to face the tragedy and May Praveens soul rest in peace.

Will we ever touch them

For the last many years I had been under the impression that the biggest competition for my business comes from China but this trip has really changed my prospective. LNM is presently making products for all the top OEM companies in Mining & Construction supplying products all across the globe. Couple of year back I used to listen from my customers that we are expensive then China etc but lately nobody was saying this. Now I realise that the chinese companies have taken a massive jump are not even competing with us but have gone a step further and were competing with my customers infact. There was this huge river basin project which all my customers had bid for and I was working closely with two of them as a potential partner. This was a huge project for all these companies and obviously LNM.  Every body had jacked up their capacity with huge investments to cope up the demand. And you know what the whole project has been given to a chinese company and the millions that these bigger players had invested in the project has just been a huge loss. What do the chinese do that we dont?  Can we ever reach the levels that they have created for themselves. The Olympics have been an eyeopener for the world about what China can do. The amount of money China is spending on infrastructure is mind boggling. 45% of there GDP . No country has ever done this. It is being said that by 2025, Sanghai will have more than 50000 skycrappers ie equivalent of 10 New York cities. China is doing in decades what the west did in centuries. I believe the democratic system in India or say other countries increases the cost and delays to projects.  But then their system of government increases privilege, corruption and special interest group. This results in major failures. The recent episodes with lead in children toys or the presently going on news on contaiminated milk causing numerous deaths of children are a testimony of damages the chinese system does. But then the positives are more than the negatives.  And China is taking massive steps to cut down on these failures. Their growth rate is really gravity defying growing more than 10% for last 15 years or more which is a dream for the rest of the world.  The fastest train in China takes just over four hours for the 800 mile plus Sanghai- Beijing journey.  By 2020 they have planned to have as many airports that each citizen will be living within 60 miles of an airport. By this year China will have around 40000 miles of expressway, India does not even have 1000. If you have been to London and seen the London Eye, china is building something similar in Beijing which will be almost twice as bigger than London eye.  What are we doing? Fighting for land in Kashmir, intelligence fails to unearth the terrorist bombings which is such a casual phenomenon and topic of the kitty parties - where next? We are so much busy in our caste system and reservations that we burn public property some where every day. I have been trying to get my name in the voters list for three years but still have been unable to do so despite efforts. Wake up India. Brand India has more pluses than China in the world as a brand which can be trusted. But why there are no efforts to grow on it? I will certainly try to understand China very closely when I travel there in November end.

Learning German

I am just back from a good dinner - chinese. This trip I had only three meals - twice chinese and one spanish. At Fulda its good the restaurants have good veg food which makes my meal comfortable. Today I had a great company of Stefanie and her colleaue Nicole.  I had a free morning as my meeting was in the afternoon. The meeting was good with good future prospects for LNM. My host company had arranged for a dinner in the evening with two beautiful hosts. Frank, the Operations Manager jokingly mentioned that he is sending me for dinner with two beautiful girls and gonna take pictures which he will send to Minoo if I dont give him a better price. With this wonderful dinner I would be tempted to give them good price but I always give good price to my customers as I believe I am in business as long as my customers survive.

The weather was better today. My fortune cookie after the dinner said that I will inspire others and I am sure if not my accumen as manager but my luck with good hosts will always inspire people to work hard.  Nicole is working as an apprenticeship. After her schools she goes to college once in a week and works for four days. Her work is part of her studies. She would be completing her apprenticeship this November. Its such a betterway as she is able to complete her studies working for herself. She would learn more this way than she would in college studying. All the freshers that we hire in India are so immature about work culture because they have no practical knowledge when they join.  Here in India everyone is working so hard towards going to the best college and only a few are able to go to the government funded places and rest end up paying so much of money for there higher education which is a burden on the parents. This way atleast she is able to take care of her own expenses and learning. This November after she clears her exams she will be ready to take up permanent position in the company. Srves good for everybody. Also one more thing I liked about the culture here is the outdoor activities they do with sports and travel. Both Stefanie and Nicole are widely travelled across the globe. I was seing some pics of Stefanies last holidays with her fiance to US and was nice to see that they experimented on lot of things which we Indians usually dont try to do to save money. They would prefer to stay in cheaper hotels but try things which you get an opportunity to do rarely. Like at the grandcanyon they took the one hour journey on the Cessna plane or at Hawai they took the helicopter ride. They try there hands at so many adventure sports. I learnt couple of words in German like Thank you is said as Dankeschon and sorry is said " Es tut mir leid" pronounced "S toot meer lide". Very difficult to pronounce. Sorry is always difficult to say and specially Germans dont easily say sorry.

Sorry - Samvatsari

I reached Fulda from Rottweil in a four hour train journey. The journey on ICE is wonderful. Travelling at more than 200 kms hour in wonderful comfort. Indian Railways has lot to learn. But then its pretty cheap travelling in Indian Railways as compared to the 80 Euros I paid for this trip. The countryside train journey is beautiful with big farms all around and cattle and horses gazing.

I was going through all my mails of last week on the train and came across a mail from Ritu mentioning Samvatsari on 9th. I was curious about this and was really amazed about this annual Jain community 'Sorry Telling Day'.Samvatsari is considered as the most pious day of a year and Jain people do prayer on this day to ask for the forgiveness for anything they did to hurt someone by means of thoughts, words, acts or deeds. They would ask for pardon from all the living being - human, plants, animals etc. Any word , action that might have hurt anyone. It really takes guts to say sorry and that too for no reason (thats what everyone thinks). Just imagine what state this world would be without this single word and another word close to this could be Thanks. I have seen lot of misunderstandings, my sudden wrong actions - intentional or unintentional just getting sorted out when I said sorry. We copy so much from other culture like Thanksgiving day, Valentines day, mothers day ...... archies has created a day every day but I see no effort from these marketing companies to promote this great day. I think we should try more to look into our culture which is tried and tasted over the centuries. Lets take the first step to say sorry to atleast those we know we have hurt intentionally , forget about unintentional or to other living things. And lets also remember to say Thanks.

As I watch the news in my hotel room - the world economy looks in a mess. Lehman Bros has gone bankrupt, Merrill Lynch is being taken over by Bank of America, AIG is being funded. Share markets world wide has taken a beating. Currency fluctuations is mind boggling. Dollar from 45 to 39 to 46 , Euro from 55 to 70 to 64 against the rupee in a span of one year. I dont know how do we manage this at LNM as every time I tried to hedge I am loosing.

I had a wonderful dinner at a spanish lounge here. First time I had spanish food. It tasted awsome but had lot of cheese. Well I had reason to celebrate - I won a good order for my company today.

On my shortest International trip

Here I am at a place called Rottweil in Germany after two flight and two train changes. My ultimate destination is further 30 kms away and has no train or flight connectivity but my customer is good enough to provide me with a pick up. Well you can imagine how lonely i would be in this small town south of Germany near Switzerland border.

I am on a 48 hour trip to Germany for couple of meetings. It feels great to travel light with just the laptop bag. Its been a long day getting up at 5 in the morning for the flight and reaching my hotel after 16 hrs. Since my last trip to Munich last year the Lufthansa flight is better. Food was good. Saw couple of movies. I am forgetting the name of the English movie but I am pretty sure that Aditya Chopra must have been influenced by this movie for his DDLJ or may be viceversa - the director of this movie has copied DDLJ. Punjab is replaced by Scotland in this movie. By the way Scotland seems to be a beautiful place - have to find a customer there :-). another movie I saw was Zannat - the first time I dared to see Emran Hashmi - as I had no other choice. The movie was good but how can some one make this guy a hero and how can he have fans.

After my meeting tomorrow I have another 4 hours train journey to my next destination. My internet hour is gonna finish and I have to eat my home bought food before i sleep for the day. By the way its cold here - colder than Delhi's coldest.

Tips for better life

 A wonderful forwarded mail recieved - sharing with you all.

1. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
3. Sleep for 7 hours.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Play more games.
6. Read more books than you did in 2007.
7. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
9. Dream more while you are awake.
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
11. Drink plenty of water.
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
13. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
14. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
15. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
16. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
17. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
18. Smile and laugh more.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about. Don't compare your partner with others.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
25. Forgive everyone for everything.
26.. What other people think of you is none of your business.
27. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
28. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
29. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
30. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
31. The best is yet to come.
32. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
33. Do the right thing!
34. Call your family often.
35. Your inner most is always happy. So be happy.
36. Each day give something good to others.
37. Don't over do. Keep your limits.

Do you have an idea?

I notice how frequently I keep making some silly spelling mistakes when I write. Though I know and understand those and have been told about this but some how when I am writing in my flow I repeat the same mistake again? I might have written at least 100 times THERE instead of THEIR in my blogs. And it never strikes me when I write. I have written Dissappoint instead of disappoint. There are many such errors which if I have to write again am going to do. Similar mistakes we do in our day to day activity. It seems that the brain works in a set manner.

Does any one have an idea what this disease(i am not sure if this is a disease) is called? What could be the way to get out of this?

Social Approval or Self Approval

Sangeet is coming today for couple of days. Its our Rakhi tomorrow. Our community - Maheshwari- celebrates Rakhi on Purnima( Full moon) around 20 days after the others do. I don't know why but I have seen this since my first Rakhi and as a school kid it always looked funny when I used to reach school with all the Rakhis tied to my wrist. A few years back I had a great Rakhi at Washington when Sangeet and Rachana both were there. We decided that we will do this every year celebrating together. But unfortunately it has not happened in all the years after that. Lucky for me this year Sangeet is coming. And I really appreciate her efforts to come to Faridabad. I am excited and happy. I am sure Sangeet will be more than that. I look forward to seeing her today evening.

Talking of Sangeet - Sumant & Sangeet as of now have delayed having kids. All my relatives like when we meet - enquire if Sangeet has any kids and when I reply in negative - they look disappointed. I also used to be disappointed with their decision. But when I look at it in a different prospective I some how feel why the hell am I or the people we know feel disappointed at their decision. Its their choice if they want to have kids or they don't want. Why do we live thinking what others are going to feel. Specially on issues so personal. I now feel, there is nothing wrong in their opting to delay parenthood if they don't feel ready for it yet.I see lot of disappointed parents in today's world. May be because they don't know how to be a good parent. There is always a chance of failure in any activity we do but this one is irreversible. You have no choice but to live with it even if it brings lot of stress. Parents sacrifice so much for there kids. Their habits, lifestyle, money, emotions, friends, hobbies , it can be a long list and in most cases they don't accept anything in return. That's what parents think but may be there are internal expectations. Specially in India. How many of them the children fulfil. I know I have not fulfilled much of what my parents expected or planned about me. I don't even give 10 minutes of my time to read a book to my grand mom. I know my Dad feels hurt when I don't do these small things. I make them more unhappy than happy. When I see Minoo devoting so much of her time to teach Divyansh I feel unhappy about it. I know 50% of the time she goes to walk with me is just to please me but her mind is on Divyansh's studies. If I look at all the arguments we had in our family it has some where originated because of the kids. Then why do I have kids. Just because every married couple has one. Or its because my Grand parents or parents or the society expected me to have one. Or did I have kids because they will take care of me when I get old. Absolutely not at least this one. I neither expect nor look forward to them to take care of me when I grow old or sick. It feels so sickening when I see people around suffering because the children are fighting over family properties. They care a damn about parents - who gave there all - time, youth, hobbies, money and what not. Is it worth taking a risk. This is no business. You can recoup from losses. You can divorce if you are unhappy in a marriage. What can you do in situations like this? Just be unhappy.
I feel every couple should evaluate their capabilities to raise a child and the day they feel they are capable to upbring and grow with the child they should have one. This is not a popularity contest, at the end of the day what matters is are you happy and not creating undue pressure in you life?

Materialism and Spirituality

At our home we have some extremes in both Materialism and spirituality. The kids are too materialistic wanting to own everything they see on the net and my Grand Mom is spiritual to the max. And we co exist. Is it possible that Materialism and Spirituality can co exist? Yes, depending on what you mean of spirituality. For me Spirituality is humanity. I learned this from my Grand Father. This means - apart from looking after your family, you should look after others who are not as fortunate as you are. I have never forgotten one statement my grandfather used to say - "Jo deta hai woh pata hai" ( in English - "One who gives , always gets" - I am not sure if I translated it exactly from Hindi). He was never very religious. He always used to say , "Help others even if at the cost of some sacrifice , that's why we are in this world".

His words and lessons are a challenge to me. I have always believed in the Supreme being, the one who guides us. HE has bought us in this world and HE will take us away. Only Karma is what we can do. As Babuji ( that's what we called him) I am also not very religious. I rarely go to temples though I do my prayers - may be for a minute in the morning and before I go to bed. I also don't believe in organised religion. I don't expect my kids to follow the religion I follow. It will never bother me if they choose not to be religious. I believe religion is man made. I don't need religion to be good. I try to do in my humble way what ever good I can do for the people through money, time or counselling. I am not sure if you guys have heard about the "two percent club" located at Denver where all the members are committed to donate minimum 2 % of there revenue every year in the form of cash or kind. That's a wonderful commitment towards the needy. I am sure all these guys who do this charity like materialistic things also. I believe there is no harm in trying things "so called materialistic". To follow spirituality I believe I don't have to be away from materialism and vice versa. The best path is the middle one - away from both the extremes. I firmly believe materialism and spirituality can go together hand in hand. You don't have to leave worldly pleasure and go in search of spirituality. What I see of the Pope - he leaves in opulence - so much Gold, pearls, velvet etc. Yet he is so spiritual. Connected to the Almighty.
This is what Babuji believed in. I remember Babuji telling me one day to make a Guru for myself - some one who will show me the path in my life- I told him when I have you as my Grandfather, I don't need to go to a Guru. All his words and acts were that of wisdom. Babuji always said that Ego is the root of materialism. If Ego is put on hold , the spirit has more space to move around.You can clearly hear your spirit when the Ego is not making noise and is kept silent in one corner. Hope I can follow his this advice.

I know I will be very successful in my life and career if I am able to follow some of his ways and style. Miss u Babuji.

The Last Fortnight

Its been quiet some time I have been off the Blogosphere. The last 15 days had been hectic and busy. Lot of things happened keeping me busy and not writing here. Olympics was taking lot of time. Vijendra Singh & Sushil Kumar added two more medals to India's tally and for the first time in Olympic History India won more than one medal. We were ranked 50th in the medals tally. Our next door neighbor is Rajeev Godara who has been three times India light heavy weight (81 Kgs) champion in Boxing. He is room partner of Vijendra Singh and also his practise partner. He was home over last weekend and I felt sad to hear from him that he was quitting boxing and was taking a two year classes to become professional coach and migrate to Australia. The reason - because of all the politics in sports bodies he was not allowed to participate in international events and all the hard work he has put over the last 10-15 years is all wasted and he sounded so frustrated. Its so unfortunate. With all sports bodies in India being presided by the politicians, who have never ever played the game - the three medals India won is a great achievement of these gutsy sportsman.

We celebrated the Janmashtami with great pomp on 24th. Minoo decorated the Jhula wonderully and beautifully. Grandmom and Mother made wonderful sweets as prashad. The gulabjamun reminded me of Champu who had gone back to Purulia this year and he used to relish them. We had wonderful Bhajan time in the evening and lot of people sang. It was good to see my dear friend Madhu and his 13 year old son Naman singing so well. We have more than 150 visitors coming to take a darshan of our Laluji - the kid form of Lord Krishna.

26th August we celebrated Sameeps Birthday. Its more or less now a family ritual to cook "Badam ka Halwa" - a delicacy I like so much but now has been asked to keep away from by the doctor. Sameep spent the whole day out celebrating with friends and came late in the evening back home to cut the birthday cake cooked by Minoo. I dont know why but todays teenagers love to be away from home more. I am sure with maturity he will have a different thought.

Professionally at LNM we aquired a forging company which was strategic to our scheme of things.This bought good speed and energy to my own work but unfortunately the deal fell through. I believe God didnt want this to happen. May be Destiny has something better and bigger for me. I had written in one of my earlier blogs also - WHat ever happens , happens for good.

I had visited a specialist this Tuesday for my numbness on my left hand and legs. I went through a Nerve Conduction Study and Needle EMG Examination.The doctor has prescribed some medicines and if good improvement is not seen he will take me through another MRI - this time of my neck.I have to see him again this coming tuesday and I fear I have to go through this MRI. The thought of an MRI makes me nervous and fearful.

Another interesting thing that happened over the last week has been 'Sai Baba's Roti" . My cousins wife Parul gave Minoo half a Roti(bread) to be poured with some tea, sugar and water and kept in a steel box covered with a red cloth. The box was to be opened after a week. Minoo forgot about it and after a day more she opened it today and WoW - there was one and half Roti instead of the one that was locked in there. A great miracle. And there were three women who had already booked there half Roti from the one and half now Minoo had. I tried to google about this and there were so many discussions going on this on the net. A detailed search landed me the reason and information about this. This is also called The Manhurian Mushroom or Kombucha.This is a type of fungi and cure for many diseases. The links are interesting to read and give you an insight to this. Unfortunately how in our country this has been given a religious story and how people are being made a fool.

To my roots

The last weekend was a long weekend here starting with the Indian Independence day on 15th. We decided to have a weekend break to our ancestral homes at Deshnoke and Bikaner. We left for Jaipur on way to Deshnoke on 14th August afternoon after the kids were back from school. The drive is max 5 hrs to cover the 300 kms but it took us 10 hrs and we reached past midnight at Jaipur. There was a huge traffic jam because of consistent and heavy rains. Next day we did another 5 hrs drive to reach Deshnoke - place famous for Karni mata temple. Deshnoke is also the place where my Great Great Grand Father lived before migrating to Purulia. We still own the plot of land where his hut is still there. The kids - 6 generations away from him got some pictures taken in front of that hut. My Grandmother was also with us and she told that she had spent 10 days here after her marriage in this hut some more than 60 years back. We plan to build a two room apartment in this piece of land now.

Our kuldevi or family God is Sri Karni Mata. Her temple is at Deshnoke. My everyday prayers are to her. I had not been able to visit this temple and town for last 8 years and so had planed this trip with the kids and Minoo. Goddess Karni has amazing faith following and you can see thousands of rate , called kabas, in the temple. These kabas are said to be descendants of Goddess Karni. Its so surprising that despite they moving around freely, there has never been a case of plague in this town. There are more than hundred thousand foreign tourist coming every year to this temple to see this miracle apart from millions of Indians. If you click on the link above you can see more details about this temple.

Well, I am not sure why my Great Great Grandfather Sri Thakurdas Mall, shifted out of Deshnoke but the best guess could be because of economic reasons. As this is in the Thar desert and source of daily earnings might have been limited so he must have moved out of this place. There is a very interesting story behind his move. Once his cousin who was working in Calcutta came to Deshnoke with a Dhaka silk Dhoti , Thakurdasji wanted it but his cousin joked and made fun saying that if he wants to wear this he must work hard and earn himself one. This Thakurdasji took as a challenge and travelled all the way from west India to eastern India using all various means like train, bullock cart and camel cart. That's how he moved out to Purulia.

We spent the day at Deshnoke. We had dinner at the home of one Mr. Anand Sharma. His father was cook to our family - my Great Grandfather and Grandfather. We visited a newly set up hospital which was inaugurated in the morning by Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Papa had humbly given some contribution to build the hospital. I am sure this shows his attachment to this place and a way of saying Thanks to the town and its people. Next day we were at Bikaner, 30 kms from this Deshnoke. We had a Haveli in this town which is listed in a recently published book on Indian Havelis. Unfortunately we had to sell it off to some unauthorised occupants who had taken over the property as we never lived here. I took the kids to see Junagadh palace, the kings fort. Wonderful Rajasthan architecture and heritage. Minoo went out for shopping - something women never give a miss.

We had a long drive back on Sunday - around 10 hrs plus to come home. The trip was a very hectic one but very refreshing - connecting me to my roots. For the last few years we have been trying to trace our ancestry. We have been able to find out details of at least last 14 generations. We are building a family website to save all this information for future generation. Its such a proud heritage that you would like to share with all.

Happy Birthday India.

Tears rolled down my eyes when the Indian flag went up and our national anthem was played at the Olympics couple of days back. Abhinav Bindra had won the Gold Medal for India after 28 years and of course its the first individual Gold by an Indian. India last had won the Gold in 1980 in hockey and at that time I was a student of class VIII and in my hostel wardens room had heard the commentary live on his radio.

I was just changing channels on the TV at home and suddenly came across the Mens 10Mtr air rifles final on. Abhinav Bindra was in the second position after 7 rounds. I felt he was in a great position to get India a medal so called every one at home to see the moment. After 9th round he was tied with Hakkinen at the top. I just told to everyone he is going to shoot a 10.8 and he did that. I shouted out of joy seeing the moment of India's first individual glory in Olympics in 116 years and after 2 billion births in this116 years. I was suddenly proud of my country. The last 3 days have almost 3-4 pages dedicated to Abhinav and I believe now every body in this country knows each small thing about him - how his father has built for him a private shooting range and a 2000 million INR hotel he is going to get as a gift from his father etc. etc. Suddenly there are new columnist born in newspapers - his class 3 schoolmate, his high school principal, his sponsors, his sister. Every body had known from when he was born that this guy had talent from his birth. Suddenly Abhinav on his return to India tonite will find new friends and relatives.

Any way, I am proud of him like any other Indian for giving me that precious moment in my life when I saw my country flag go up in a sports event. Other wise the politicians and leaders had made our golden land into a drama stage - a drama no one wants to watch but are forced to act. My friend Rajesh's father had an appointment at the Apollo hospital today but they had to come back midway as one political party had jammed all roads in the country protesting some religious decisions. I heard in the news few people died as there ambulance could not reach the hospital because of these blockades. Billions of public property is burnt and damaged by these political parties - bought from tax payers money - unfortunately only 3% of our people pay taxes. The media also adds fire to these political dramas. If our media is proactive these things will not be spreading. What ever positive we hear and see in India is just because of individual brilliance of people of this country. We are amongst the most intelligent community in this world and if we get a support from the Government India's growth can be something which no economist can even predict.

There is so much of apathy from these govt. officials in every thing they do. No clean air, no pure drinking water, nothing moves without the wheels of money, absurd misuse of power, no basic infrastructure, cast ism - I mean it can be such a huge list that you at times feel punished living here. And no solution in sight. Its such a mess. Life remains nasty for far too many Indians. India is in the bottom third of the human development index.Poverty and illiteracy is still a major problem. Bribery is rampart. Corruption is in every sphere of life. Economic growth has not touched majority of the population. The human cost for this is rising farmer suicides.

But its not all that is bad. Our democracy is something for which we all Indians should be proud of.Its election machinery, given the scale and complexity of the task, is the best in the world.Using purchasing-power parity, India is now the world's fourth-largest economy. The economy is expected to grow by 8 percent annually and account for more than 12 percent of world's economic growth in the next 15 years. India will jump from 24th to the 10th biggest trading nation in the world. Unlike China's foreign investment fueled growth, Indias growth is self generated. There are more MNC's India produce then chinese or other developing countries. Its Indians like Mittals or Tatas who dream and make it happen when they take over bigger entitities then they are to make India proud.

When I see Phelps Michael going up the podium for his 5th Gold , 11 golds in Olympics as of now and expected to win three more in this Olympics, I don't know what emotion does each American go through. But whats so special about these American or Chinese sportsmen that we don't have. I am sure talent is not missing in this country , its the system which is rotten.

2 days from now we celebrate the 61st Independence day. I am not sure this is what the freedom fighters dreamt when they fought for our independence. I am also not sure do we want our children to live in this country as it is. I know for sure that all these politicians who play with our sentiments - there children don't live in this country.

Every birthday brings new hope and new possibilities. India today is the youngest country in the world. I am confident the young generation will slowly takeover and rebuild this great country.History shows India has always picked itself up and kept going. I am sure it will be same now. Happy 61st Birthday India, I love you.
(Some inputs and data in this blog has been sourced from an article by Mr. Ramesh Thakur in www.chowk.com)

Beijing 2008

Hey if you missed out on the spectacular opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 go to this youtube link http://www.youtube.com/beijing2008. To keep yourself updated on whats happening at Beijing go the official website http://en.beijing2008.cn/.

08/08/08

5 Hrs from the Beijing 2008 will start. Any Olympics is special but this one has the world watching it closely and eagerly as it takes place in China.

As the world turns its gaze to Beijing for Friday's opening ceremony of the Olympic Games - set to begin on 8/8/08 at 8:08 p.m. - a record throng of 9,000 Chinese couples also will be lining up to get married. It's no coincidence that the world's athletes will be marching into the Olympic stadium at the same time that history's biggest bridal registry becomes the great wall of wedding china.

It's all about the power of 8.

The number is viewed as so "auspicious" among many Asian cultures, and has become so entwined in native superstitions, that Friday's collision of those figure-8/8/8s is expected to reverberate all the way from Shanghai to Silicon Valley.

Among the qualities that made 8/8/08 so attractive to Chinese Olympic officials is the numeral's perfect symmetry: it's the only number that can be sliced in half, horizontally or vertically, with each half mirroring the other.

I do believe this as a lucky date. 20 years back on 8/8/88, I was inducted into Rotaract - the youth wing of Rotary. My days in Rotaract were a wonderful training ground for me to prepare for my life ahead. I learnt to work and live in community. Rotaract helped me develop myself professionally while doing community service. I recollect our trip to our adopted village Ramnagar near Purulia every weekend for adult education, free health checkup camp, tree plantation, polio vaccination etc. We used to go from house to house to collect unused medicines and toys and then distribute it. As the chairman of the Rotaract District Conference in 1992 "Sampark" - we hosted more than 500 visiting Rotaractors from all across Bengal, Nepal & Andaman. In 1993 I was elected as District Rotaract Representative of RI Dist 3290 (now 3291) for the year 1994-95. My trainings took me to Kathmandu and Agra. At Agra I was also declared as the best DRR of South East Asia. I went as a trainer for new DRR's at Mysore. As a DRR I travelled to more than 70 clubs from interior Nepal to Sunderbans to Calcutta. I interacted with people from different societies, culture and have done some of the most proactive community service. As the period I was in Rotaract had more highs than lows I count the date 8/8/88 as very lucky and I am sure August 08 will bring lot of luck to me.

A month of resignations- Will miss Duane

July has been a month of resignations. Apart from three supervisory positions getting vacant at LNM, couple of my buyers in one of my customers plant in Pune also quit to move on. I had mentioned about one of them in my blog in June. But the biggest surprise was Duane with whom I have been working since last more than 10 years. Today is Duanes last day at work and to put it bluntly we worked wonderful as a team and Duane will be missed.
I have travelled with Duane 1000's of miles on road across US visiting our customers. Duane has always been caring enough to take care of me during my US trips, to locate vegetarian restaurant and ensure I dont feel out of place in a different country. Couple of months back we had a more than 2000 miles trip across 9 US states and Canada in 5 days. I have detailed that trip in My May blogs of all 5 days. We share a very friendly relation and his family is more like an Indian family with lot more values than what we perceive about Americans. I have had couple of opportunities meeting Michelle, his wife and last summer when Minoo and I were on holidays to US we had a wonderful dinner at Olive Gardens. I have still pasted on my pin up board in office a small note Duane had given me with a food hamper when I had hit the road with RLD few years back.
Duane likes to adventure and runs marathon also. He cherishes his Boilermaker marathon run with his son and daughter as he always shared pics of this. Though I have never got an opportunity till now to meet Megan and Kyle, his daughter and son, but as much as I have heard about them from Duane , I am sure Duane and Michelle had been great parents to them. Though Duane had been to India couple of times but it was in his previous jobs and not after getting associated with LNM. He was scheduled to come last winter but his passport had expired and may be I will get an opportunity to host him here if he happens to travel to India in his new assignment or on a holidays. His daughter Megan is getting married this month I believe and it will be a great moment in Duanes life.
One thing I would like to mention about Duane here is how organised he was. He could pull out any communication we had in a minute even if that happened 10 years back. I used to make fun of his dependency on the system.
Good bye Duane, Its a surprise and shock at LNM though no one has met you but have always heard about you. We will miss you here. You have been quiet an impact at LNM and will leave a gap here. I wont have any shortage of memory and you will be remembered for being so supportive and dedicated.Most of all I will remember you for a great person to work with. I and my Team at LNM wish you all the best in your life and I am sure we will be in regular contact. Enjoy yourself.

Lucky to Have friends - My first call

Since last more than 10 years the first call I am making every day is to 9811….49 to wake up Rajesh Agarwal for our game of Tennis. He used to be my partner earlier now plays against me.

I met Rajesh for the first time some time in 1996. We had been allotted shed no 222 for our plant and Rajesh owned 220 with his partner Aman. To find out about the locality, me and Papa went to his office where he had set up a CNC job shop with two CNC machines. I still recollect that scene exactly and his blue Maruti parked outside. Once we shifted to 222 we started meeting regularly. After some time we decided to have lunch together and since then we have been having lunch together everyday since last 10 years when ever we are at work . I am pretty sure the maximum time I have spent my day time and maximum calls I have made in the last 10 years is with him. And same must be the case with him also.

Rajesh and I share some common hobbies. Both of us like to read and play tennis. Because of this we have developed a great understanding amongst each other. We do have a daily discussion on stocks though we are not into it much. Cricket season sees us cursing the Indian team(they loose so often). Politically we are inclined differently so we have our arguments on that. Another thing we have common is patience, I believe, though he has tons more than me. What I like about him? There are many. As I mentioned above first is his patience. Secondly his habit to make a “To do” list even for trivial things. If you visit his office you will notice some sheets of rough scrap papers on which he will scribble his To Do list. In fact he is so systematic that I tease him as Mr. System. When he took a 4 week long vacation to USA couple of years back – the amount of planning he did can help any tourist to plan a trip to US.Once though I have seen his system fail also. Last year we were in Germany and while traveling on city bus at Munich he forgot his digicam in the bus. More than the loss of camera he lost out on the pictures he had taken during the trip. Another virtue that he has is he is a very satisfied guy. Always happy. Never bothered about something that he does not have. He is very organized and he will preserve the envelop also along with the letter. Couple of things I would like him to do – reduce some fat and quit smoking. I am sure he also wants to do this but has not been motivated enough to do this and he will do it pretty soon.

I keep on boosting I am lucky to have some of the best people God created as my friends and I will never be lonely in my life with these great friends. God bless them

Lucky to have friends - My 24 hr helpline

Some time in 1993 Papa informed me about a new Chartered accountant who will take care of our books of accounts and asked me to meet him when I visited Faridabad next time. I went to his office in Sector - 7 , a small one. I was impressed meeting him. Madhu Ladha came from a very small village near Jaipur in Rajasthan. Many years later I went to see his village Bhesalana and its real praise worthy to see some one coming out from that village and reaching where he is today. We developed a immediate rapport amongst each other. Madhu used to live bang opposite our small apartment at 2060/7D along with his wife Neelu. Minoo joined me in 1995 at Faridabad and Madhu and Neelu became almost our local gaurdian as my parents used to live in Purulia at that time. Sometime in 1995, if I remember right 13th Nov, they were blessed with their first son Naman. Neelu was seriously ill at that time and i still recollect driving to South ex in Delhi to bring blood from a blood bank driving 35 odd kms in 20 minutes. 28th June 1996 - It was Madhu & Neelus marriage anniversary and we had gone to celebrate the same. Minoo was three months pregnant at that time and at night she started bleeding. I didnt know any doctor in faridabad at that time and was so confused what to do at 2 AM at night. Madhu was my only acquaintance and I called him and we rushed Minoo to the hospital. Since then Madhu has been my 24hr helpline on anything and everything. He has been by my side at all times whether happy whether sad. When mom was detected with cancer and I was travelling in USA ,the first person Dad called up was Madhu. Same when Dad got detected for Cancer the first one I called for support was Madhu. Madhu has become more of a part of our family. I am lucky to have a friend like him and I am proud of him.

Madhu came to do his Chartered Accountancy in Faridabad from his village with few bare essentials. In the last 15 years he has established himself amongst the most prominent CA’s in Faridabad. He was elected as the President of Faridabad Chapter of Chartered Accountants last year. He is part of all major social and charitable organizations in the town. I am always amazed at the way he can manage his time and be part of all this. His energy levels are superb. I am continuously learning from him and thank God to have him as my friend.