Visit to The Presidents House

Yesterday we had this great opportunity to visit the Rashtrapti Bhawan - The Presidents House.

I had sent an email to the President few days back requesting permission to allow us a visit to see this beautiful mansion with 340 rooms and 4 floors. To my pleasant surprise I received a call from Her excellencies secretariat on Saturday that our request has been accepted and so we set of to see this magnificent structure yesterday on 28th July. After going through three levels of security we reached the reception. After completing the formalities there our guide took us to see the place frm inside.

The present day Rashtrapati Bhavan was the erstwhile residence of the British Viceroy. Its architect was Edwin Landseer Lutyens. The decision to build a residence in New Delhi for the British Viceroy was taken after it was decided in the Delhi Durbar of 1911 that the capital of India would be shifted from Calcutta to Delhi in the same year. It was constructed to affirm the permanence of British rule in India. This building gave the impression, in the words of a critique, the setting of a perpetual Durbar. The building and its surroundings were supposed to be 'an empire in stone', 'exercising imperial sway' and containing in it, "the abode of a disinterested elite whose rule was imposed from above". That 'empire in stone' and the perpetual Durbar was transformed to be the permanent institution of democracy on 26th January 1950 when Dr. Rajendra Prasad became the first President of India and occupied this building to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of India. It was from that day that this building was renamed as Rashtrapati Bhavan - the President's House.

The tour starts with The Marble Hall where Statues of King George V and Queen Mary, life size and bust size oil portraits of former Viceroys and Governors General, the silver chair for the Queen, the brass replica of British Crown are displayed. On the basement of this is the Kitchen museum where cutleries and other apparatus used in the kitchen of the Viceroys and Presidents are displayed. We are then guided to the Museum where various gifts given by visiting dignitaries given to the President are displayed. Among things at display is 640 kg silver chair used by the King Emperor at Delhi Durbar of 1911-12.

From here we go to the Durbar Hall which has a 2Ton Chandelier . During the British time it was also called the Throne room as the were 2 separate thrones for the Viceroy and Vicereine which have now been replaced by a simple chair for the President,statue of Gautam Buddha belonging to Gupta period, 5 Century, A.D, benedicting from behind. Durbal Hall is used for State functions: Defence Investiture ceremony, conferring of Padma Awards, etc. This is also the place where Lord Mountbatten handed handed over the declaration of Indian Independence to Indias first Prime Minister Sri Jawaharlal Nehru. India Gate is exactly straight from here. The top dome we see from outside of this building houses the Durbal Hall.

We went to the Ashoka Hall from here. It was originally built as the State Ballroom.It has a wooden floor,a central dance space, and three vestibules. Unlike most halls and chambers in Rashtrapati Bhawan, the Ashoka Hall has a painted ceiling. The painting is in the Persian style. The main painting on the roof depicts a royal hunting expedition while those towards the corners show scenes from court life. This is where swearing in ceremonies and civilian awards are presented. Adjoining this is the State Dinning Hall, now known as Banquet Hall. It can seat 104 persons. Portraits of all former Presidents embellish its walls. An assortment of medieval arms are also on display through out the walls.
The tour ends into the famous Moghul Gardens spread over 15 acres. Comparing this one with The White House - this one is more gorgeous and large.

Sunday at the saloon

We had a family appointment at the saloon today and Minoo & Divyansh had a new hairstyle. Sharing their pics taken form my cellphone.

My first MRI

I had a MRI done for my spines today. MRI means magnetic resonance imaging. I googled to find out more on MRI and interestingly found that it was earlier called NMRI , N standing for Nuclear but as the word Nuclear sounded negative so it was removed. As the name says MRI is done by creating a powerful magnetic field as powerful as 20000 times stronger than Earths magnetic field. That’s why no metal is allowed inside the MRI room and there are numerous incidences of people getting killed because of this negligence. There is one story of the oxygen cylinder flying into the MRI machine because of the magnetic field and killing a 6 year old boy. Why was I having an MRI done?

I have not been feeling comfortable for last few weeks. I feel weak and also numbness and tingling on my left leg below the knee and left hand specially the little finger. I had consulted couple of doctors and they advised I get an MRI , X ray and some blood test before the treatment could start. So I went to the Fortis hospital for my MRI. The technician there asked me to remove metal and other things before setting me up inside the machine. It was a typical no ventilation room and I was asked to lie down on the machine. They put a blanket on me and I was asked not to move as that will disturb the imaging process. The technician also told me that there will be some clanging noise and put a head phone on my ears. As they started the machine and I was going in I felt suffocated and had to signal him to take me out and so I sat down and refused to get the MRI done. I was again convinced that this is a simple process and they started it again but I felt I will die out of suffocation. Ultimately I opened my shirt and took a deep breath and put myself in, It seems I am claustrophobic – inherited from Dad. Any way as the MRI started and the primary and gradient magnets started making all sort of noises, I lay there with my eyes closed. The sound from the machine was like a remix DJ music . Initially I felt the beats of Chaiya Chaiya and could visualize Shahrukh and Malaika dancing on the train. Then there were war like sounds and machine guns firing. I tried to visualize Sunny Deol and Sunil Shetty firing from the movie – Border. Suddenly the music changed to Sylvester Stallon walking in the ring to the beats of Eyes of a Tiger, The end was a slow down tribal beat reminding me of Chow dance from my home town tribes of Purulia. Some how this 15 minute long film show ended and like the critical acclaim for a bad movie I give it no stars. I can imagine the pain Dad went or others go through during radiation.

Monday we go to see Rashtrapati Bhawan – The Presidents house. A few days back I sent an email to Her Excellency The President of India requesting a permission to allow us to visit the Presidents house. And to my pleasant shock I got a call from the Presidents secretariat today that our permission has been granted and we are to report to gate no 37. Unfortunately they don’t allow cameras inside for us to cherish this memory. I had the good fortune of going into the White House also in March 2001, the year they closed visitors after September 11th. Bye for now as Minoo is ready with some new dishes for dinner tonite.

Living for Yourself

I was remembering Babuji (my Grand Father) today - his thoughts and lessons to me in life and had written two big paras on those but I don't know how those got deleted and just couldn't get them back and neither those emotions to write again at this time. I thought let me continue on myself at this time. I was trying to recollect when was the last time I was doing something for myself. When was the last time I pampered myself? This bought me back to the last blog I had written " Its rather difficult to indulge in something purely for myself because living in this society I seem to be wired with guilt". Its difficult to go to a late night show because the kids need us back home. It seems that anything that gives us pleasure is complete no - no because some of the other responsibilities have to be fulfilled. With growing consumerism every one wants everything and that too fast. This leaves no time for oneself. Life has become materialistic and mean. The first question that comes , 'What am I going to get out of this?'

In the last one month I have realised I need to spend some quality time for myself. Doing something that gives me creative satisfaction and pleasure. I have started Living for myself. I do things at my pace. I do Yoga to care for my health. This one month has made me mentally agile , spiritually evolved and emotionally balanced. Its helping eradicate negative thoughts entering my mind, making me more focused. Its bringing peace and happiness in my life. I strongly recommend everyone should take out some time for oneself , should pick up an activity that gives him/her pleasure. Thank God, though late, I realised this and I am sure I am not going to regret one day realising life has passed without having lived it for myself. I now have couple of hours for myself - whether writing this blog, sleeping after breakfast or reading a book at night. This hour or two gives me happiness more than anything the day can bring. Its the time I own and spend it the way I want.

A week to the peak

In a weeks time I celebrate my 43rd Birthday. 42 years of memories - some wonderful and for some I have regrets. If I divide my 42 years in two parts the first 21 has been with so many regrets - the major being not continuing with my studies. I have had more successes in the 2nd part of this span.

Talking of regrets the other day in Sunday Brunch I read about some famous personality saying he has no regrets in his life. How can that be as most of us are burdened with some guilt. We have been bought up to live in some guilt from our childhood. When we don't fall in line or adhere to what some one asks us to do - we live in the guilt of not making the person happy. We feel guilty about doing something and then guilty for not doing it. We feel guilty at being late ,for spending, for eating, for loving or for that matter having fun.

At this age and after heading a successful enterprise for 15 years, I find myself bound by several "do's & don'ts ", to confirm to the image of a good son, father, husband, friend etc. I call this "disease to please". When you have this most of your decisions are based on what others would think of you so as not to disappoint or upset them. Even if in the process you are suffocated and stifled with no breathing space for yourself. Having lived half of my life I want to be myself and not just a good son, father, husband and friend. I want to be me - good or bad.

I am pretty sure its not just me but almost all of us in this situation - being controlled by others in what we think and do.

I might be trying to do the same where I can influence - may be my wife and sons. When I analyse my act with them I realise I am trying to take control of their lives - control through guilt. This way I hide my inadequacies. Feeling Guilty or making some one guilty is a mental torture. When coolly I think back on some incidences I realise how I let the ridiculous episode to make me suffer of guilt.

With my experience of 42 years I feel as long as I know my limits and my actions are not hurting anyone I should go by what I think is right. As long as I am following the broad laws of morality and law of the land rest of what I do is my choice and I should not feel guilty of making someone unhappy with my decisions. Vice Versa my actions shoud not make the others guilty of there life.

Dont forget to wish me on 23rd. By the way I plan to loose 5 kgs in the next three months as part of my first resolution in the 43rd year. I have already started doing Yoga.

Mobile Blogging

Well I cam across this feauture where you can use blog with your mobile phone. So just taking a trial run of that.

More Pics of 13th July

Visit the link for more pics at Surajkund

http://picasaweb.google.com/sss26888/SurajKund?authkey=60OqKxBh4TQ

Surajkund - a perfect way to end the weekend

We started the day exploring for books at Crosswords at Select City walk, Saket. The Shopping Mall is huge and not to my liking as it will be difficult to shop here. But would be a good place to hang out and have some good time. I think that's what most people in Malls go to do.

From the shopping Mall we went to Surajkund. This place is famous for the Crafts Fair that takes place every year from 1st to 15th Feb. Just 20 Kms from home, its so funny that we had never been here. Such a wonderful place to spend your holiday and we always had been to going to far off places or even worst - the Malls.

Contrary to the popular belief, it is not a lake but a man-made reservoir. The name in Hindi means 'Reservoir of the Sun'. The Rajput King Surajpal built it in the pre-Sultanate days. The tentative date of its construction is believed to be around 10th century. The Tomaras were the first people to revitalize Delhi. Surajkund is the place where the Tomar Rajput settled before building the Lal Kot, the second city of Delhi

Surajkund got its name after a famous sun temple, which is said to stand here once. But some historians also claim that it was named after the King himself. The tank is on a semi-circular pattern and has steps that lead to the water. It is not a 'dead' reservoir; the rains still keep it pretty full of water. But apart from the monsoons, the place remains dry. Feroze Shah Tughlaq repaired its embankments in the fourteenth century. It is said that he was a lunatic and once took the work of repairing all the existing monuments in the then Delhi.

This place has been declared a national heritage monument. Couple of weeks back there was a write up on newspaper that encouraged me to come here.By the way this place is now famous for the hit movie Rang de basanti's shooting here when Amirkhan as DJ meets his girlfriend Sue along with his gang of friends on the rockcuts. The kids did pose from various movies at this place from Dil chahta hai to Bachana Ai hasino to Titanic. Minoo and myself posed like Sanjeev Kumar and Wahida Rehman types. I will post the link to Picassa album in some time for you guys to check out the pics which will show how much fun we had.

The sunsetting on the hills is also quiet picturesque. This place is full of monkeys. They even posed for us and gave us some amazing shots. The only thing bad was the high humidity. I think I will again go to this place sometime in winter and capture some great shots. For those of you who live nearby and have never been there dont miss out, you will like it.

When More is not enough

Tomorrow is going to be my big shopping day - as I will be exploring some books for my library as I have no unread books. As I was searching some books online, I came across a book by Dr PeterWhybrow, " American Mania: When more is not enough" Whybrow states that we have a nation of “bigger houses but smaller families; more conveniences but less time; wider freeways but narrower viewpoints; taller buildings but shorter tempers; more knowledge but less judgment.”
I am sure lot of you might have read and understood this, but are we doing anything on this? for ourselves, our family, friends. I think we spend more time at work, computer, phones then with friends, family and our community. Its like ragging oneself? With the increase in size of our houses, plasma TV, car etc our happiness, our satisfaction with life, our sense of meaning is decreasing.

Though still there is a huge population which is fighting for its basic requirements but lot of us have access to excess. When my teenage son Sameep tells me about his friends moving in BMW's or Merc's or the expensive meals they indulge in and lot more I feel so much sorry for him and his generation as this is leading to insatiable desires. The more we acquire, the more we have, the more we want, the more we eat thus the more we work, the more we stress and the more depressed we become. Do we really want a life of stress, anxiety and loneliness? i think we should take time for ourselves, for the people we love and for the society we live in. We should slow down as and when required. We should turnoff the cellphone and refrain from checking our emails. We should very often have a leisurely dinner with our family. We have to take time to savor sweetness of life.

I have been working for more than 85 hours a week for last 5-6 years and have gone through all the stress and may be the only thing I have gained out of this is some more money and more than required comfort but missed out on the important milestones which now as I grow old remember and regret.

Life at 40 +

In couple of weeks i will complete 42 years of my life. I have often heard the word Mid life Crisis. Its the most challenging time for men as at this time they are at the peak of there career and yet harbor a sharp awareness that the end is near. Its the time when you are in charge and also know that in some years you have to let go. I was very happy the year I became 40 as it was widely said that "40 is the new 30" or "Life begins at 40" etc.

But I am disappointed with my last two years after 40 is not the new 30 but faster way of going to 50. I have suddenly gained weight , got some flab around my waist , lot of grey hairs. I have suddenly started to look at life very safely, no risk. The agression is missing. I want to play safe. I know if I fail now I dont have enough time to see the next good cycle in my life time.

Looking back at my last 42 years - 1. I have more hairs than I thought I will have. 2. I feel older than I should 3. I am proud of my taste of things - I have never seen a single episode of Balaji Telefilms serials 4. When my father was 40 , I was 19. When I was 40 Sameep was 15 - makes me feel younger.5 I have far few friends then I had when I was 20 or 30. In fact I have now just three people who are my friends - only one from each decade of my life 10-20, 20-30 and 30-40. 6.I am far closer to my family then I thought I would be.7. Despite being told that taste bud changes over the years, I dont think I will ever like mushrooms, broccoli, or brinjal in my life.8.I will always regret for not continuing further in my studies.

When I talk to my friends or aquaintances of my age group I find there are so many wishes left unfilled despite there affordability. Some one is troubled that he will die a one women man, some ruin the fact that they didnt make the best of the education that was available to them or about missing the early years of there childs growing up.

I feel I still have enough time to make up what ever I missed out. I had a good one hour discussion with Minoo today to make a list of things we should do in the life ahead. We plan to make it in a spreadsheet , things we would like to do or see in the next 20 years. These are dreams that we have , not being worried how we are going to achieve them or even will we be able to achieve all of them. I dont care if what ever I write is achievable or not but I want to make a plan and then share with those who are interested so that makes me more accountable towards fulfilment of our dreams.

I LOVE NEW YORK

This afternoon after my return from work I was sitting idle and changing TV channels. One of the channels was showing the movie "Jaaneman" starring Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan and Priety Zinta. The movie is shot completely in NY and that reminded me of my last years holidays to New York. I remember my first trip to NY on 15th June 2001. I had gone to the World Trade Center, never imagining that this twin towers will not be around in my next trip. That was a very short one weekend trip to NY in between my business visits and some how I didnt like the city. It looked crowded, dirty and people were honking , something you dont see in US. Somhow over the years that I kept on visitng NY I started liking the place and infact loving it. Its happening, its vibrant, its real cosmopolitan and its colorful. I was at NY for almost 9 days during my last trip. As this was Minoo's first trip to NY so we visited some of the tourist places in NY like the Statue of Liberty , Times Square etc. But the real fun was our trip to the eateries, clubs, pubs or restaurants. As Sangeet Sumant were there at that time so we had a wonderful guide in Sangeet who knew all these wonderful places. The Michilada at Cafe Havana was the perfect start to our NY food festival. We had different cuisines like Japanese, Mexican, Italian, lebanese, Chinese, Cuban etc during the trip. Try out the roof top bar on the 20th floor at 230 on 5th Avenue with a view of the Empire state building on its north. Shopping - NY's the best place. For discounts - I prefered the outlet malls and its worth going that far away when you plan to buy a lot. You get lost at the worlds biggest store - MACY's. A walk on the 5th avenue from the Central park (59th street) to the 34th street with honey roasted peanuts is a wonderful experience. On both sides are lined the biggest brands in the world and exclusively designed windows. Rockefeller Center is a stopover for photo sessions in between. A walk on the board walk in New Jersey by the side of River Hudson is a treat. The view from Hoboken, place said to be the birth place of American Baseball, of the Manhatan is gorgeous. This can be along list of adjectives and revisiting NY as and when opportunity comes is part of my Bucket List. Never miss one if you get.

The Burden of being Good/The burden of everyone's expectation

We all must have grown up being told to be good to all. We all try also. May be at our young age we keep the vindictive attitude towards some one for something they did wrong to us but now at this middle age I am trying to be good to every one and every thing. But there are times when I feel suffocated at being Good. I feel may be I am not doing Good to myself being always good to others. The environment around me is now such that I feel I am a role model for lot of people may be in my family, relatives or even my team at work. I dont want to be one. The weight is too heavy to carry and my own Bucket List is taking a beating. How do I balance the role of a good father, son, husband and Boss with my own desires?
If you recollect Peter Parker in Spiderman ,Spidey is ruining Peters life - he's failing school, cant hold down a job and has alienated his good friends. Wearing the spider suit is too exhilarating. Being Good is also an addiction. But is it worth? And if you think the way I am then why do we carry this burden on our kids.
In todays competitive world we put so much of burden. If I feel the pressure with not much expected out of me I can feel how much it goes on the achievers. As parents we put so much pressure by punishing a child for doing poorly or rewarding him for doing well. I believe we should emphasize on learning for the sake of learning and not grades. We should let the kids find there passion. We are so stereo type in being parent. Similar is with the rest of the people we are associated with. Our expectations is so high from our close ones that we actually miss the big picture and fun. I might get upset if I dont get my cup of tea in time and that fear in my wife has so much pressure on her that the fun of having tea together is gone. It becomes stereotype life. Monotonous. Same routine, no thrill and fun. If everyone looks into his/her past, they would agree that they would have missed out of so much fun in there life as a child or teenager - like running away from classes to see movie, climbing trees in neighbors house to steal some guavas, to play in the sun and dust, to go for a date, to try out alcohol or hitting some classmate for no reason etc.......- if they had listened to all that there parents expected them of.
As Sumant once told to Sangeet, ' Set the expectation level' and you will be happy and so will be all. I agree with him. We should have minimum expectation and I think we will have more fun.

Our English classes

Today I took my second English class for the first batch of my colleagues in LNM. And I am enjoying it and happy to share my knowledge with people.

It all started last week when I received an email fromone of my colleague and the language used was not English that we know. I thought I need to help her out and so this idea came to teach English to my colleagues. Sangeet was also an inspiration to me on this as she said she is also doing it in her office. So I got Rohini to put a notice in the office that theres an English class going to start for interested people and if anyone interested please register. I decided to start with a batch of seven people for seven weeks with three classes every week. I didnt want to make this just an English class but also talk of values and ethics and make this batch a role model for others to learn and follow.
It was decided that there will be a Rs 10.00 fee for each class, which means each student pays Rs 210.00 for the duration of the course. But if they are absent from a class they have double penalties and also if some one does not do there home work the fine is Rs 50.00. Rohini has been given the responsibility to collect the fees. I will match with an equivalent contribition from my side to make it a decent pool. After the course is complete we will go to the old age home here and spend this money in entertaining them for an evening like taking them out for a movie or dinner etc. The other thing we are trying to do is take one pledge in each class for the betterment of ourselves in particluar and the society in general. So at the end of 21 classes we will have 21 small little pledges of things we do in our day to day life which will help us to be better human and citizen. In the first two classes we have taken a pledge to read a Sloka from Gita every night with some one from the family alongside. Or it can be a prayer before you sleep. The second pledge we took is to brush our teeth every night before going to bed as usually people do it just in the morning. I am really thankful to my team who have shown keen interest in doing all this and helping me share what I am better in wrt them and vice versa I am also learning lot of things from them in which they are expert in.