What I think today

Corruption on Indian Roads

2012-01-06T16:15:00.001+05:30

All of us at some point of time have come across sights on our highways of a truck driver paying a bribe to a traffic cop. We just ignore and move on. As per Police departments own estimate Rs 27000 per month is paid by each truck in Haryana alone. In 12 months that becomes 3.25 lac INR and if we multiply this by more than 6 million plus trucks on the road that becomes around 2000 billion INR of bribe money every year. God knows who gets them and shares them. Truckers pay bribes at every stage of their operations, which starts with getting registration and fitness certificates, and for issuance and renewal of inter- state and national permits. The reason for paying bribe, while on road, include plying overloaded trucks, traffic violations, parking at no-parking places or entering no- entry zone, and in the payment of toll and other taxes like octroi, sales tax etc. Lack of proper documents or alcohol abuse by truck drivers are the other reasons for paying bribe. More than 1.5 Crore Indians are directly involved in this business. A 9 ton truck carries upto 22T of material and 15T one upto 35. The longest trailer allowed in India is 18 meters but commonly used and registerd ones in India are 22 meters. All the car companies use these illegal trailers to transport there vehichles. To break all possible rules we pay bribe. 45% inefficiency during transportation of goods is because of forced stoppages to pay these bribes. These numbers are much bigger than the 2G , commonwealth etc etc and no one is bothered. More than 1.5 lac people die on Indian roads because of these overloaded trucks. We only start shouting when one of ours is in the 1.5 lacs. We feel proud to allow our underage children to drive around. I found one of my relatives so funny as he took out his seat belt the moment crossed the city limit into the highway and his reaction was that the rule is within city limits. We want a great India but dont want to take responsibility. Lets maintain all traffic rules ourselves. Not jum the redlight, no drunk driving, no underage unlicensed driving. Lets send our children to driving school to get their driving lesson and licenses. Its road safety week. Share this with your friends. At least we will be able to shake a few guys inner consciousness. Drive safe. Someones waiting for you.

Waterlogged roads to my home

2011-09-16T21:38:00.001+05:30

waterlogged roads to my home, a photo by www.sandeepmall.com on Flickr.

Too much rains have just made life in Faridabad a mess but trying to get some pleasure out of that. Shot with my iPhone 4

Wild Emotions

2011-09-09T16:33:00.001+05:30

Wild Emotions, a photo by www.sandeepmall.com on Flickr.

Shot at Kenya,

The King

2011-08-22T18:13:00.001+05:30

The King, a photo by www.sandeepmall.com on Flickr.

At Masai Mara, Kenya

For more pics of the trip check at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.202463193148108.50429.114273415300420&type=1

Save Water

2011-06-05T19:01:00.001+05:30

Save Water, a photo by www.sandeepmall.com on Flickr.

Better to serve your guests half glass water and give more if they need- but no point them wasting water drinking few sips from the full glass you give. Save Water

Waiting for Dad to get food

2011-06-01T08:58:00.001+05:30

Waiting for Dad to get food
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

Juvenile Ashy Prinias wait eagerly for their Dad to get them some food

Rosy-Starling-against-Full-moon

2011-02-22T22:56:00.001+05:30

Rosy-Starling-against-Full-moon - PS
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

Tried my hand on photoshop to this picture of thousands of Rosy Starlings in front of full moon. Shot at Khijadia bird Sanctuary, jamnagar

The original picture is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandeep40/5390172725/in/set-72157623544691179/

BG & AG

2011-02-06T21:56:00.001+05:30

While staying with Mujaheed Bhai at Rann Riders,Dassada during last months photo tour of Gujarat had a wonderful experience. There was a picnic trip of some local school which had come at the resort. As we set out for our afternoon safari one of the girls Fatima got curious of all the heavy equipment we were carrying and enquired what we plan to do. I told her we were planning to locate and shoot McQueen s Bustard. She gave us a typical look like we were some fools spending all the money and wasting time and energy and said why don't u google and u will get the wonderful shot of the bird captured by Dhritiman. It sounded so similar to projects I see Divyansh doing for his school. It takes him less than 10 min on projects (courtesy Google) that we completed in the whole summer vacation. I differentiate the generations now as BG and AG, Before Google and After Google. In history we will not have dates in BC and AD but BG and AG. Long live Google.

One Wish and one resolution for 2011

2010-12-30T21:54:00.003+05:30

2010 was the fastest year of my life. Very eventful. Most importantly I took up photography this year. Photographing in the wild gets a person closest to God. The best way and place for meditation. The last few hours of 2010 are perfect moment to say Thanks to HIM for everything in life.

A new year usually starts with resolutions- mostly to be broken during the year ahead. My life has not been a planned one. I firmly believe in destiny and it has moved on where ever it was destined to. The hard work that has been put in the various activities is also because destiny made it happen. Even though we are not sure we will wake up alive next morning but we do plan for generations ahead. That's human psychology. We feel we are in command. Life is not going to give us surprises. We believe that the future will be nothing but past repeated again and again. So we plan. With this in mind I also made a plan. In 2011 I plan to take the first step to move out of the big city in the next 5 years. Its getting more and more impossible to cope up with the fast life of a city. A simple 8 km drive to work on the highway takes me 45 minutes. The pollution, cost, hassles, loneliness does not earn me enough. Its high time I start to Live. So I plan to take the first step to prepare for moving out of this maddening city. Have had enough of it. Extracted whatever I could and given my best.

The One hope and prey I have to make this country more civic is to have strict implementation of laws governing driving licenses. Its so unfortunate that driving license can be bought in this country for few hundred Rupees. Most of the people driving on the roads have got it without knowing any rules and sense of the driving. Nobody goes to school to learn driving. There is absolutely no awareness. Most of the guys on the wheels don't understand road signs. Driving in lane is foolishness. I had a funny experience driving with some one in Jaipur when the driver took his seat belt out as soon as we got out of the city on the highway. I asked him to buckle up but he replied back that theres no cop to give him a ticket on the highway. The law is within the city. I just could do nothing more than feel sorry for him and the system. The licensing authorities are bigger criminals than murderers. For some petty gains they have let loose hundreds of thousands of untrained drivers on the road. Hundreds die everyday in road accidents in this country. A murder in a posh colony in a city gets immediate headlines in the newspapers but who is bothered by the road accidents. I hope and prey that a general awareness in 2011 forces the cops and RTO's to be very stringent on the process of issuing licenses. A better traffic will save many times more than the cost of implementation.

Wish you all a wonderful 2011, a safe, healthy and happy year.

Sanghai Skyline at Night

2010-11-26T21:07:00.001+05:30

Sanghai Skyline at Night
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

Shanghai is the most populous city in China. As a global city, Shanghai exerts influence over commerce, finance, culture, art, fashion, research and entertainment. The city is located at the middle portion of the Chinese coast, and sits at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Thats too big a catch to handle

2010-11-08T20:13:00.001+05:30

Thats too big a catch to handle
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

Saras Cranes in Rain

2010-09-19T21:58:00.003+05:30

Saras Cranes in Rain
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

It had been raining heavily in the entire trip to Bharatpur and risking the lens and body we went on shooting some beautiful birds. Our guide saw a pair of Sarus cranes flying some Kms away and we took the rikshaw all wet , somehow protecting the kit with plastic packs and got them.

They are tallest of the flying birds, standing at a height of up to 1.8 m (5.9 ft).The Sarus Crane is easily distinguished from other cranes in the region by the overall grey colour and the contrasting red head and upper neck. They forage on marshes and shallow wetlands for roots, tubers, insects, crustaceans and small vertebrate prey.The adult Sarus Crane is very large with grey wings and body; a bare red head and part of the upper neck; a greyish crown; and a long greenish-grey pointed bill. In flight, the long neck is held straight, unlike a that of an heron, which folds it back, and the black wing tips can be seen; the crane's long pink legs trail behind them. This bird has a grey ear covert patch, an orange-red iris and a greenish-grey bill. Juveniles have a yellowish base to the bill and the brown-grey head is fully feathered.

The species is venerated in India and legend has it that the poet Valmiki cursed a hunter for killing a Sarus Crane and was then inspired to write the epic Ramayana.

This day in history

2010-08-25T20:22:00.001+05:30

19 years back on this day Sameep came in our life. It's astonishing how time flies. August 26, 1991 seems like yesterday.

Living in Purulia had its own advantage. Being a small town and our family being well known we had the privilege of reserving a room at the hospital for Sameep's arrival for almost a fortnight before his birth. Dad had got the hospital room freshly painted and all things new. A grand welcome awaited him in this world. I was too young, all of 25, when Sameep was born and was nervous of what all is gonna happen. Apart from Minoo's regular doctor Dad had called for a senior one from Bokaro, a neighboring town with better medical facility. Minoo and me were both excited about the new person to arrive in our life. She wanted a boy and I a girl. Minoo was admitted to the hospital on 25^th. When she went in the labor room, the whole family was there outside waiting for a new member in the family. Though we are a small family but long distance cousins, friends had all lined up at the hospital. I was anxiously waiting on the stairs and at 3:27 pm the nurse came to inform about Sameep's birth. Suddenly tears rolled down my eyes. It was hard to hide the emotions though I tried my best. The whole family was excited and too happy. It was after 18 years that we had an addition to the family. We were now four generations in the family, living together. My grand parents were over the moon. Sameep became my model and I took his pictures of every mood and action. I used to write about all happenings around the globe with his each event – whether annaprasan or first day at school or first diwali etc.

Sameep became the joy of our life. Epicenter. He took to everything very fast. In almost 8 months he was walking around. It still remains the same. Sometime it helps him, sometimes it has a negative impact. It was around the same time we were setting up the plant at Faridabad and also I was deep into Rotaract. Traveling every week. To be honest, I missed out the fun years with him. He was always hisgrand pa's favorite. I got more and more involved into my work as it needed me in its growth trajectory. I was working more than 80 hrs a week. Never understood Sameep needed me more. Somewhere welost out on each other. He got used to my absence. In between when we were relocating to Faridabad he lived with my parents for couple of years while Minoo and I were settling up our new home at Faridabad. I got more and more busy expanding my work. Time flew. Sameep learnt to live with my hardly being there around him. I was busy with my work. By the time I realized and wanted to be with him, he flew out of the nest. As always, he wanted to fly faster. Too eager to be on his own. It is his third year away from us and he is at Pune. My little love had grown up to live life his way. Taller and stronger than me. As handsome as I would have dreamt my son to be. I know he loves me more than I can even think of.

As I write these lines, in complete solitude of my hotel room at Kuopio in Finland, tears roll down naturally, just like 19 years back. Wish I was there with him on his birthday. Love you and wish you all the happiness in your life. Happy Birthday buddy.

Early morning at Archipelago

2010-08-25T12:39:00.001+05:30

Early morning at Archipelago
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

The early morning skies over Baltic sea in Archipelago, Finland. Its amazing how the sky changes its colors from the morning to night. The colors could not have been better. Simply awesome

Life is today and not tomorrow

2010-08-20T10:23:00.002+05:30

I am at this one of the bigger towns of Finland - Turku. It has a population of just 1.5 lacs. Flew in Finair for the first time and they have nice new aircraft. Had a free evening. So went for some bird watching . Went to the Ruissalo Islands and did a 3 km nature walk in the park. Saw some new species of birds not seen in our part of the country. Didnt carry my camera but binos. Wonderful moment and environment. Picked up a pizza on way to a park. Had my dinner by the stream. Setting sun and rising moon gave the sky one of the best colors I have ever seen. The moon looks quiet bigger here may be because of 7000 kms nearer to our place. Went to meet a friends wife and she had come out of breast cancer surgery. Was trying to motivate her with some gyan when she gave me the gyan of my life - Life is today and not tomorrow. Never to forget words. Leaving for an early meeting and then to a beach house for next three nights. Will go to various islands on the speed boat exploring the fauna and flora of this country. No internet and cellphone just pure nature. Carrying some Utpal Dutt DVD's, books and my camera for company. Trying to live life today. Next week is going to be tiring, hectic with all travels, meetings and training.

Every denial brings attraction

2010-08-17T21:47:00.002+05:30

I received a nice mail from my dear friend Rajesh titled." If you cant enjoy then what is life for". Basically he shares with me Osho Rajneesh' s words. I also read and hear a lot of his CD's and find them so true and practical. Todays write up reminded me of my past and present. I did my schooling at Rama Krishna Mission Vidyapith which is one of the most religious and orthodox schools in the country. It was time of long hairs and bellbottoms. The school authorities wanted us to always wear narrow bottoms and keeping long hairs was just a dream. Watching a hindi bollywood movie was a taboo. The school authorities only showed us Vande Mataram ( I might have seen it so many times that the author Bankim Chandra Chattapadhyay will find it difficult to face me in a quiz on it) or movies based on life of Rama Krishna Paramhans or other religious ones. This restriction on fashion, movies and other things "bad" had such a counter effect that all the guys would compulsorily watch movies everyday during the holidays. Those days there were no multiplexes and movies used to run for weeks. So during most of the holidays it would be one or max two movie changes and each movie was watched nth time. Similar incidences happen now with my kids and how we bring them up. But with all the exposure of todays world - I myself get confused whether going happily to a pub is better than going unhappily to a temple. Is Happiness not the desired end? Are we supposed to do all things for future happiness? Does Life wait for long? Is it all just not NOW. If I am unhappy, something is wrong with myself. If I have some hesitation and feel guilty in doing something that means somewhere some external factor is overshadowing me. Hesitation means there is contradiction. I feel, the more my wife says Icecream is bad for my cholesterol, the more I am attracted to eat it. Denial brings attraction. Every time I have my Ice cream , hesitation crops in. I am unable to enjoy my Ice Cream. Similarly there is hesitation in most of the things in life and I feel I will miss my whole life. Its high time I have to drop my hesitations. I am sure the moment I drop my hesitation ice cream will become an ordinary thing. I will understand that I can enjoy it sometimes and it should not be an obsession. Sometimes even harmful things are not that harmful Obsession is part of repression. Living in hesitation has become a bad habit and as Osho says ," If you cant enjoy, then what is Life for". Drop hesitation. Live life happily

The Angry India

2010-08-11T13:48:00.003+05:30

In few days we are going to celebrate our Independence. 64 years of Independent country. One of the worlds fastest growing economy. Tremendous wealth creation for its citizen. Some of the best entrepreneurs and corporates ( The world is least bothered if some senator calls Infosys Chop shop). Some of the world largest corporates now are headed by Indians. It will not be a surprise to see some Indian becoming head of state of the so called First world countries in the next few years.

Then why don't we have quality life? Why don't we have civic sense? Why do we believe in always breaking the law of state? Why are we sadist? Whether newspapers or television - all show ugly sad and bad news? Why don't we have happy news? We always try to sympathize and also create an atmosphere around us where people can sympathize.

Everyday we have incidences of people destroying public property. For every mundane thing happening , some buses are broken, trains set on fire etc.... Why this anger? Why the frustration? Is it because we are attached with the way things are? Or we identify with the pain and feel it ourselves? Or is it frustration of being ruled for donkeys years by Mughals, Britishers and now the politicians. What ever be the reason - we do not see and realise that its us who loose. We only hurt ourselves. I have never seen or heard anger make any positive impact on anyone. Have you? I think we feel that if we don't show anger and be dormant , the other guy will walk over . This is a myth. We should be assertive, positively assertive instead of angry. We don't see any solution by being angry. We only get un necessary victims. People get killed and public property destroyed. Our own property. The taxpayers money. Its a different story that only 4 billion of the 120 in this country pay taxes. How do we bring the change? Of the various means available and possible the simplest I believe is Media. I have been following Indian Idol on TV and was discussing with Dad last night when one of the participants danced and hug Amir Khan - how this "nobody" suddenly has become a known figure within few weeks and till this time he never even dreamt of seeing Amir Khan in person and today he was dancing with him. There are hundred such examples. Ramdevbaba and his yoga would have not gone beyond Haridwar without media. I feel if the media spreads positivity - things may change drastically. Lets not glorify the wrongs. Why does the Media not do something to help making the situation better? Trouble is it has become a compulsive complainer. If it just keeps complaining that means it is not prepared to actually do something about it.

Hey friends, lets do something to make this country a heaven that is now part of only grandma's story. Even that generation has forgotten it as a Sone ki chidiya. Lets be honest towards our country and its people. Jai Hind and Wish all a happy Independence day.

Ashy Prinia on the grills

2010-08-07T18:54:00.001+05:30

Ashy Prinia on the grills
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

The Ashy Prinia or Ashy Wren-Warbler (Prinia socialis), is a small warbler. This prinia is a resident breeder in the Indian subcontinent, western Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It is a familiar bird of urban gardens and farmland in many parts of India and its small size, distinctive colours and upright tail make it easy to identify.These 13–14 cm long warblers have short rounded wings, a longish tail usually held upright, strong legs and a short black bill. The crown is grey and the underparts rufous in most plumages. In breeding plumage, adults are ash grey above, with a black crown and cheek with no supercilium and rufescent wings. In non-breeding season there is a short and narrow white supercilium and the tail is longer.

Twilight

2010-07-21T20:03:00.001+05:30

Twilight
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

In India, the word "Sandhya" -Twilight is synonymn with prayer. If you approach an orthodox Hindu family who is praying , he will say "I am doing my Sandhya". When the sun rises , there is a great change.The whole passive existence becomes active.Sleep is broken, dreams dissappear. Everyone arises.A resurrection,.An opportunity to rise to new peaks.

And the same change happens when sun sets.Everything quiets,calms. A tranquility, a deep silence, pervades existence. In that moment we reach to depths.

Both moments are beautiful. Either go high or go deep. In both ways you transcend yourself.

The Killer looks

2010-06-30T21:35:00.001+05:30

The Killer looks
Originally uploaded by Thanks for 40K+ visits

It's the eye of the tiger, it's the cream of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin' us all in the eye of the tiger

Risin' up, straight to the top
Have the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive

Looking in ur eyes

2010-06-24T09:05:00.001+05:30

Looking in ur eyes
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

First ever shot I took of the tiger at eye level

The Misty morning

2010-06-16T17:23:00.001+05:30

The Misty morning
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

Read the unfortunate news today in TOI that the Sultanpur lake has completely dried up this season because of utter mismanagement by the concerned officials and rapidly growing Gurgaon population. The authorities though say thats a blessing in disguise as the lake will now be rid of the predator fish Magur which was eating away all small fishes resulting in the migrating birds not getting enough food and flying away. What ever, before the winter comes this place needs to be full of water.

This shot was taken in February and what a heavenly atmosphere.

Storm over Ganga

2010-06-07T08:33:00.001+05:30

Storm over Ganga
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

Thats the place some 200 mtrs off my retirement home on the banks of river Ganga facing Rajaji National park and the foothills of Himalayas. Away from the hustle bustle of city life. You can see Elephants and other wild animals coming to the other side of the river bank to drink water. How do you like the place?

Save Water

2010-05-30T20:14:00.001+05:30

Save Water
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

On all my trips to the wild - dried rivers, waterbodies was a shock. Last years low rainfall had made water scare and life difficult for animals and birds. The department is trying hard to make artificial water holes and supply water through tankers.

Water shortage is also being felt in civilization. Lets all do our best to conserve and save water. A very minor but very effective way could be to take only that much water in your glass that you want to drink. Also when you offer water to your guests , offer half a glass and if required offer again but let not the water go waste. Save Water - it is more precious than any thing else.

Blue Winged leaf bird

2010-05-28T18:41:00.001+05:30

Blue Winged leaf bird
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

The Blue-winged Leafbird (Chloropsis cochinchinensis) is a species of leafbird found in forest.

The male is green-bodied with a yellow-tinged head, black face and throat. It has a blue moustachial line. The female differs in that it has a greener head and blue throat, and young birds are like the female but without the blue throat patch.
As in other leafbirds, the call of the Blue-winged Leafbird consists of a rich mixture of imitations of the calls of various other species of birds.

Kitty in the hole

2010-05-25T13:37:00.001+05:30

Kitty in the hole
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

Shot at Tadoba, it looked upset at all the tourists. The casual picnickers are a problem in Indias widlife reserve parks. Also we cant do without food for even couple of hrs inside the park. Ridiculous

Positive Attitude

2010-05-19T17:13:00.001+05:30

Positive Attitude
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

My grandfather always used to motivate and teach me to be positive in life. He always used to say under all circumstances speak positive. He used to give a religious reason for this that in Hindu religion there is a mahurat (moment during the day) called " Brahma mahurat( Gods moment)" it comes every day but no one knows when. Any wish made or any thing said at that moment happens. So if u keep on cribbing and that moment comes all those u were cribbing about happens. He would always advice to speak positive. If someone asks you "How are u? ", he would always suggest to say" Wonderful" - whatever be the circumstances. By always speaking positive you always discharge a positive energy to others which makes them happy.

The reason of sharing this is a bit selfish. I will be off to Tadoba sanctuary tomorrow to catch some good shots of a male tiger,hopefully. I already have visualized the output and think abt it positively. I just wish all my friends at facebook, flickr and twitter also wish the same for me and one of us will hit the Brahma mahurat and I get what i visualize :-)

Thanks and Have a nice week ahead :-))))

Simplicity

2010-05-18T22:49:00.001+05:30

Simplicity
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

In photography, the technique of simplicity is used to achieve the effect of singling out an item or items from their surrounding.

Simplicity is one of the underlying photographic techniques; a cluttered picture distracts the eye and takes away from the subject. A simple picture can be achieved by getting closer to the subject, which is also one of the main rules of photography.

Simplicity is one of the main components of most good photographs. The simpler the picture, the easier it is for the viewer to comprehend the subject and appreciate it. Cluttered images and backgrounds are less visually pleasing and more likely to cause the subject and lesser objects to confuse each other visually.

Golden Himalayas

2010-05-11T16:30:00.001+05:30

Golden Himalayas
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

Sunset over Mussoorie Hills. View from Gun Hill. Had an excellent three day with Minoo, Divyansh and siblings. Sameep was missed badly

T 17 at Ranthambore National Park

2010-05-03T12:43:00.001+05:30

T 17 at Ranthambore
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

Understanding Anger- Does getting angry help?

2010-04-15T16:46:00.002+05:30

I have been in some very embarrassing situations at work when heated angry words are exchanged between colleagues. A few years back I myself had gone through some difficult times when I used to get angry at smallest issues and had broken my hand trying to hit a TV and broken many a glasses in a fit of anger. I had used abusive language for my own people and family. Some counseling sessions helped me regain myself and made me more stable and confident. When I think now why I used to get angry and why I justified my anger - it feels very funny. One of the reasons I can recollect now telling my counsellor was "Anger is a natural response to someone else's behavior. I get upset because some one didn't do the think I wanted him/her to do. Secondly, I have to be angry to assert myself on others. I have to use this as a weapon". Looking back to all the incidences in my life in the past and what all the people do around me when they are angry, I just can not help myself other than laughing at this foolishness.

What changed in me that minimized my anger? The counselor increased my self awareness. I realized that anger begins with an irritation towards something or a person. As more and more attention I gave to this irritation it led to frustration and then anger and then rage. The method is simple - find the root cause of anger. When that is known there are two choices - to stop creating it or continue creating it. The choice is ours. There is no reason to justify creating anger.

Medically also it has been proved that anger has ill effect on health. Its a fact and not just a "movie thing" when they show people with having heart attacks when in rage or anger. The only way to find solution is to ask ourselves - Does anger help? What value is peace in my life? Can I forgive? Is it difficult to forgive? It has to be acknowledged and understood that we are the creator of our emotions and not any other person or thing. Few years back I had heard two phrases in one of the religious discourses that my Grand Mom was listening on TV which influenced me tremendously - Let Be and Let Go. When ever I am upset I try to remember these words. They help.

Simplicity in Life

2010-04-09T19:26:00.002+05:30

I suddenly realised today how grateful God has been on me as I rarely had to do things that always looked simple but are the most complicated. For all the services that I use I always had some body assisting me and I always got things on a platter. Today my relationship manager at Citibank was on leave and I had to call these guys on some urgent matter with regards to my credit card. What a pain it was. When I was able to connect with somebody human after pressing so many ones and twos - the lady on the other side simply ended the call because she was not able to listen to my voice properly. I was just mad and frustrated. I had once a similar experience with Make My Trip. I had a confirmed hotel booking through them and when my guests reached the designated hotel at Tirupati, they were shocked that there was no booking for them there. I just couldn't connect to any human in next 15 days at Make My Trip to complain and get the refund. Now I have a feeling that the more things we have which we feel is for our own convenience, the more headache we have. If every thing goes fine , they are wonderful but if there is a breakdown somewhere you had it.

These are very small examples but in our daily life we have made ourselves so complicated, so much ego, jealousy ... a long list. The perception that the other guy is happy because he has something more than what I have makes our live unhappy and the whole satisfaction and enjoyment of things that we have is gone. With "more" - its more complicated. Simplicity is always a winner. I believe the best electronic product today is from Apple and its just one thing - Touch. Look at the Google screen. So simple. That's why they are so successful. The best pictures we like are "Simple". But still we have a habit to complicate things. The more we want, the more complicated it gets. I never realised this because someone else was doing the hard work for me and I was enjoying the best part of it. But with few experiences now I understand how comfortable and peaceful it is to be Simple. I am sure lot of people understand it but still cant do it because Simplicity is hard. That's why its actually rare to find . Simplicity implies beauty, purity and clarity. God is Simple. Simplicity is Peace, Peace is strength. It makes mind calm and clear, easy and content. Its better not to fritter away life after details but simplify. Someone has rightly said "Nothing is more simple then greatness; indeed to be simple is to be great"

The First Encounter

2010-04-06T06:22:00.001+05:30

The first encounter
Originally uploaded by Sandeep Mall

At 40 degrees plus we had been waiting for the Kitty to give us some glimpse. Couple of Sambhar calls behind us and we see the beauty eying us from behind the tree. It came out close enough to shake hands and literally modeled for one hour exclusively for us. My first proper tiger sighting in the wild and this is what I saw. It gave all possible shots and then got down on a vertical cliff more than 100 feet below, jumped over a stream and sat down on the grass. All the time least bothered about our presence though continuously giving us the glare. For more pics check out my Flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandeep40/ or at facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2064674&id=1195613311

Green Bee Eater with the Bee

2010-03-30T16:34:00.001+05:30

Green Bee Eater with the Bee
Originally uploaded by Sandeep Mall

The Green Bee-eater, Merops orientalis, (sometimes Little Green Bee-eater) is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family.

Just as the name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and ants, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch. Before feeding, a bee-eater removes stings and breaks the exoskeleton of the prey by repeatedly hitting the insect on their perch.
A study showed that the Green Bee-eaters is capable of interpreting the behavior of other animals. They showed an ability to predict whether a predator at a particular location would be capable of spotting the nest entrance and then behaved appropriately to avoid giving away the nest location. The ability to look at a situation from another's point of view was previously believed to be possessed only by primates

Why others decide my happiness?

2010-03-27T08:59:00.003+05:30

Though this is there for donkeys years but since last few months I have been realizing how my being happy or sad or whatever feelings I am going though is controlled and dependent on others. Citing some of the recent events - I felt depressed when Divyansh didn't come up with his expected results, when my friend Rajesh quit Rotary, excited with my new Mac, some great shots with the camera etc etc. We are taught to make our happiness dependent on others - some object, thing, people,events , conditions. Now I understand the lack of real long term happiness in my life is because of dependence on others. I feel I delay my happiness till things are just right. But life is never just right and future never comes - there is only now. Sunils untimely death should be an eye opener. Life around his family and friends just took a complete turnaround the moment the doctor said he had few months to live. Just 42 with two young daughters. It was a moment of shock more than I had ever experienced. But still why don't I learn? Why I keep on postponing my happiness? And the only reason I can find out is my dependency on others for my happiness. I have seen all my happiness being dependent on acquiring something or someone, seeing the result I desired, waiting for some pain to go away before being happy. Happiness has to be my decision and not a dependency. And to do that I have to change my state of being from dependency to freedom from dependency.

Fly Past

2010-03-27T08:54:00.001+05:30

Fly Past
Originally uploaded by Sandeep Mall

The Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) is a small white heronThe adult Little Egret is 55–-65 cm long with an 88–-106 cm wingspan. It weighs 350–-550 grams. Its plumage is all white. It has long black legs with yellow feet and a slim black bill. In the breeding season, the adult has two long nape plumes and gauzy plumes on the back and breast. The bare skin between the bill and eyes becomes red or blue. Juveniles are similar to non-breeding adults but have duller legs and feet. The subspecies garzetta has yellow feet and a bare patch of grey-green skin between the bill and eyes, whereas nigripes has yellow skin between the bill and eye and blackish feet.
Little Egrets are mostly silent but make various croaking and bubbling calls at their breeding colonies and produce a harsh alarm call when disturbed.

Kingfisher

2010-02-07T23:03:00.001+05:30

Kingfisher
Originally uploaded by Sandeep Mall

Shot at Okhla Bird Sanctuary

Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die

2009-11-17T20:05:00.002+05:30

Recession forced me to cut costs and I had to relinquish luxury of driver. I always enjoy driving and also hate to have a driver who most of the time is all ears to what u r talking but had to hire one as I was not allowed to drive after my surgery for more than six months. Its been a real test of patience on the roads. The civic sense of the proud citizens of this country is horrible. People driving those million Rupee + cars regularly throw Banana peel out of their fast moving cars. Spitting on the road is birth right of all the tobacco chewing population. Driving in lane is a no no. People prefer to bribe and tip then wearing their seat belt. Sights of garbage all across the city and "sara jahan hamara" toilets is common.Cellphones ringing loudly in public transport and honking is the best music that the denizens can play. I have never been able to maintain the safe distance with the car ahead as some one will overtake from the left and get between the two cars. And unfortunately there seems to be no solution to all this in sight. We are proud citizens who get into the street, destroy public property etc etc on the question of morality, religion, caste. Seven thousand crores of public property was burnt in Punjab in a day in retaliation to a shoot out in a Gurudwara in Vienna. Why destroy the public property? Because only 3 % of the population pay for it with their taxes. And the rest think its their "Baap ka maal".

62 years ago when India became independent, the life expectancy of an Indian was well under 30. The retirement age of officers was 55. Reaching the age of 60 was a celebration in the family and those who could afford weighed in food grains and the same was distributed to the needy. Now at 60+ our large majority is below 40. With the younger population it is expected that we better our record but it looks like we are digressing. Morality is of no relevance in this fast paced life. Civic sense does not exist. The curse of memory is surely the burden of old age as the new generation can afford to be amnesiac. The young can take every thing for granted. This country no longer remembers the calendars of Bhagat Singh, Netaji or Vivekanand. Gandhiji is now referred as another name of maajboori not realising that his name was synonym with majbooti And every one talks of making India - "sone ki chidiya" again. We want this country to be world leader, a powerful nation, an economic superpower, a heaven. But unfortunately no one wants to die for it. No one wants to contribute his slightest civic sense to make it one.

I know I will be reborn....

2009-11-16T19:32:00.002+05:30

This day a year back I was admitted for my disk replacement surgery. An event that changed my complete thought process and priorities in life. It also made me realise things that I will not be able to do any more , things that I always wanted to but never had time to do. Suddenly I found out I have out grown those little little things that I never did and now that I know what I missed I cannot do them any more. Working for more than 80 hrs a week for 15 long years - the only thing that I got for me or my family was all those materialistic things which does not hold any relevance the moment priorities change. God gave me opportunity twice to understand this when my parents were detected with cancer in 2001 and 2006 but its rightly said," You yourself have to die to go to heaven". I realised this with my surgery and thought of sharing this with all. I know I will be reborn as I missed out on some of the major things and I can not do them any more. Listing them:

1. Enjoying my children grow - When Sameep and Divyansh were growing up, I never had time for them. Now that they are teenagers I just am left to cry at myself on those missed out happy moments which a father is privileged to enjoy seeing his child grow.

2. Lessons from my Grandfather - My Grandfather was my spiritual Guru. Whenever I am at crossroads I always find an answer to all my grandfather taught me. Unfortunately he is no more and I could never have enough of his views and thoughts.

3. Tennis - My Tennis abruptly came to a halt because of the surgery and as it looks like i will never be able to play again.

4. Adventure Sports - Despite my love for adventures I never did Bungee jumping and now after the surgery can never do it.

5. Beat Debjani to top my class - I was never able to come first beating Debjani in my junior school despite all my efforts.

I have dreams that I have to fulfill before it becomes late and remain dreams. I give myself five more years of active business before I start living all my passion and fulfilling my dreams. As rightly said in the lyrics of the song from the coming Amir Khan movie "Bachpan to gaya jawani bhi gayi,Ek pal toh ab humein jeene do.Give me some sunshine,Give me some rain,Give me another chance, I wanna grow up once again."

Whos bothered of the law

2009-11-08T13:06:00.001+05:30

Whos bothered of the law
Originally uploaded by Sandeep Mall

On the NH 8 , I found these three guys speeding without helmets ? God save them and people on their way

Flickr: Your Photostream

2009-10-13T11:09:00.001+05:30

Flickr: Your Photostream

Shared via AddThis

Living In Harmony

2009-08-31T22:37:00.002+05:30

August has been a typical month. A time when I am trying to re invent myself and getting all my acts together. In all this hustle bustle, I could never get into right frame to write. But then this topic of discussion we had over breakfast which motivated me to express myself. We were talking about one of Dads maternal Uncle and Aunt and how they are so different in their life, hobbies, work culture. I mean everything. They relish their holidays differently though living together. Having seen and lived with them closely, i never saw anything distinctly common and still they have been happily married for almost 60 years. I was wondering since this morning what keeps them going together but then when I look around I find most of us are in the same boat. When I say most of us - its me and people close to me and around me. Minoo and me have very few things common. As I write this blog, I don't recollect a single common taste or hobby. Her food habits are different - she loves green and lots of veggies and I like fries. She is adamant on her views and sticks by it , I prefer to let things happen. I enjoy sports and she would prefer family melodrama. I love to read and photograph , she prefers to decorate the home. In fact when I look around most of the couples I am close with, they are distinctly different and share very few common thoughts and hobbies. Yet I find them happy together. I am happy being married to Minoo. That makes me think - May its better this way. If we would have shared similar work and hobbies , we would be comparing each other. Evaluating performances. Judging our love and trust on those performances. The diversity of " We are who we are" keeps the romance going and even if we don't like it we have no choice as she is expert in half of the activities we do and I in the other half. If only there was a way to add all the shouting that's coming from Minoo as I write this - "Switch off the Light, I cant sleep with lights on" , you can make out our compatibility as I can go into sleep when she has the lights on to do some stuff or may be teach Divyansh. Love you Minoo.

Brain Drain or Brain in the Drain

2009-07-06T16:38:00.002+05:30

The Union budget was presented today in the parliament. I am not an economist nor I understand all these huge numbers. I hope the guys concerned do understand :-) . But what interested me was government spending over 2000 Crores on IIT's and NIT's. This is a wonderful news for our higher education system. Our gen next will have more opportunities to get good education. Good for them and hopefully good for the country.

What disturbs me as a tax payer whose money is being used to provide this infrastructure is what is the commitment of the beneficiaries to use this very subsidised world class education they receive here for India's benefit. A huge percentage of them usually end up taking a job outside the country and blame the system here from long distance. They would never be part of the system and work towards improving them. Its obvious if something goes which hurts their benefits they will be out on the street and shout slogans like when there was this reservation issue. I am absolutely not in favor of reservation and count the events of reservation started by Mr. V. P. Singh responsible for all the social mess we are in. But then these guys should do some should searching and seek giving back to this country. Their should be some accountability and commitment to return their gratitude for this wonderful and cheap education they get. As I understand Doctors have to compulsorily spend some months in rural country as part of their curriculum, engineers should also be made to work within this country preferably in public enterprise for say two years or so in exchange for the near free world class education they get from institutes like IIT's or IIM's etc. Or else the 3% odd direct tax paying population of this country would feel burdened and weak carrying load of all - a rich farmer, a corrupt bureaucrat, a dishonest businessman and an inefficient system.

What we have lost over the years?

2009-07-05T12:07:00.003+05:30

I spent the Saturday watching two 1950's movies - " Do Aur Do Char" and " Mr X in Bombay". I had no idea what these movies are about but got them as I wanted to see Kishore Kumar movies as they have rib tickling comedy. Divyansh was not amused as firstly they were old movies and secondly Black & White. Well 'Do aur Do Char" is inspired by Shakespeares "Comedy of Errors". Sanjeev Kumars " Angoor" which came many years later on the same theme should give in its credit this movie also apart from Comedy of Errors as quiet a number of scenes and dialogues have been picked from here. Mr. X in Bombay must have been Shekhar Kapoors inspiration for Mr. India - all the vanishing tricks etc etc. Its obvious the movies are not sleek, presentable and designed like those of today but they are honest and gives a ring side view of the socio economical state of the people and country at that time. How people were honest, truthful, satisfied and happy despite all the hurdles. Kishore Kumar singing on the Gateway of India with the Arabian sea or Taj Hotel as backdrop is a delight to watch. Very few people and automobiles on the road. It must have been such a non polluted world at that time.With technology movies in the last 50 years have become very sleek, well chopped and cut and presentable. But we have lost out so much in the process. Patience. The fast food culture has just wiped out this word from every ones dictionary. Instant result is in. Few weeks crash courses promises entrance to IIT's. I am confused whether getting to IIT's is priority or gaining knowledge is. Truth. We can go to any distant from truth in this competitive world. Its now such a habit worse than smoking that people speak lies where they have nothing to even gain out of it. Humble. Its a show mans world. You have to show even if you dont own. I am surprised as the sole reason to own a big car is to show off to friends and not personal joy or requirement. Fear. Cellphones & TV's have bought in our live more stress than comfort. I still recollect once while returning from Nagpur with Mom our train caught fire and almost 70-80 people died. We survived and reached home on an alternative train and in fact till the time we told dad and others at home of what we went through they were not even aware such an incident has taken place. In today's world I can imagine what Dad would have gone through with the Breaking News updating him every minute. I would also like to share yesterdays incidence. Divyansh had a football match. He plays at a ground near our home. For this match he was to go to some distant ground. When I found out he has gone with some one else and not our driver , I was upset with Minoo and when he didnt reach home when he said he would, I send our driver to fetch him. I in fact was contemplating giving him a cellphone though Minoo and myself had decided we will give him cellphone when he reaches 16 - another three years to go. Innocence. The speed at which the kids grow up in today's 24 hrs satellite world is a pity. I really wish they had even 10% of the fun we or our parents had. The whole childhood is lost in useless school projects, 24 Hrs TV channels, video games, social networks like orkut & facebook. Nature. The biggest non human casualty has been nature. Its so depressing to see all that we have done with nature over the years. What we are leaving for our next generation. Crossing Yamuna river on way to Noida from Delhi is such a painful site with just a sewerage canal left of our holy river.
I have listed some of the problems we have created in this period of transition to this modern colorful world. We have lost out on our crying and laughing more often, more openly and more sincerely.We lost out on a world where being emotional was not synonymous as being weak. When journey was as important as destination. When travel in a passenger train gave enough time and opportunity to enjoy the nature outside than today's airconditioned trains with dark glasses and curtains. Its good and advisable to see these Black and White movies in between to constantly remind us what the hell we have done for ourselves and the gen next and at least some where our conscious will not allow us to let it deteriorate that fast even if we cant stop it.

The cost of a Good Night's sleep

2009-06-30T15:22:00.002+05:30

Its 2 AM in the morning. Minoo and Divyansh are sound asleep. I abruptly woke up some time back and then onwards have not been able to sleep. Papa, Mummy and Bai ( Grand Ma) left for our home town Purulia last evening for a fortnight. Suddenly I find myself as head of the family. Every time when I have been in such situations its been hard on my sleep. I have always felt restless. I feel how difficult it is to live without guardians. At this age also I feel so protected when parents are around.

The general culture in western world is to live of your own. I have not come across any one ( except some Indian families) as of now who live with their parents or adult children. I have read in history there always has been a joint family system there also but over the years now its non existent. What could have been possible reasons for this? I think we need to know this and find a possible solution for this as this culture is also slowly and steadily coming into our country. Is it just economical compulsions? Or generation gap? Or both ? What ever it is but I feel its not the best way. Life would be more colorful and beautiful if you always have parents living with you. Of course every one in the situation have to give others the breathing space and independence to live their personal part of life. And these minor compromises are too small a cost for a good nights sleep and I pray every one is blessed to have their parents around for long.

God has been even...

2009-06-13T01:15:00.001+05:30

I write this during my train journey from Kuopio to Helsinki within Finland. Its been now almost 12 days traveling within Germany, UK, Austria and Finland. This is my second visit to Finland. Last time when I came here it was in April. It was cold at that time but this time during June the weather was excellent. Clear sky and of course 24 hrs day. I have traveled some 17 countries so far and but Finland is amongst the best places to travel and visit. Its so fresh and refreshing here. The air is clean. It must be among one of the most beautiful natural places in the world. The tall pine trees between huge lakes. Its hard to describe – you only can see and feel it. I would strongly recommend any one who loves nature to come and visit this place. But more than the nature what touches you is the people. They are honest, true and that’s why may be happy. There is no inhibition. Nothing artificial. Its all “I am what I am”. Its so natural.Its so different from India. We try to be so cautious of others that we start becoming artificial. And the biggest problem we have is we are dishonest. We flaunt what we don’t own. We believe in not paying taxes. We believe in short term gains and don’t have a broader horizon. We try to be good and not are naturally good.

But then I believe God does not give everything to everybody. There are so few people here in Finland. Its just a country of 5 million people. The roads look so empty as if there is a strike going on. The trains I traveled were never fully occupied. They don’t have enough people to sale their products. The population is decreasing and there are more old people than young. This naturally means their products become expensive and affordability goes down. So less people buy and this is a vicious cycle. For an example a metallurgical test we conduct in India for 50 Euros , our customer pays 600 Euros for the same here. It will not be long before they will land in an economical mess. I am sure the process has already started and except for very high technical capabilities things have started moving to India, China or Brazil. In India we have such a huge market that any thing and every thing is consumed. Our biggest strength is our human resource. Its high time these countries should start importing manpower from India or China. It does not make any sense by stopping or slowing immigration. I was discussing this with my customer and he said the government does not have enough jobs for present citizens so it will add to more pressure. But then there will be more unemployment if the cost of living is too high and not all can afford it. This will result in less sales and more layoffs. Its so complex. This is Gods way of not giving everything at one place. He has made his distribution very even. We inherit great strength and wisdom in India. If only we are good to what we have and truthful and honest we will be much better off. I don’t know how this will happen. Once this starts happening we will be more strong as a nation and happy citizen of this world. During my next trip to Europe I would certainly like to go to Denmark and try to find out what they do different then the world that its worlds happiest country for many years.

Why I like London?

2009-06-10T23:02:00.003+05:30

Minoo and I took a small holiday to London last week. It has been some time when we have had a holiday. It was great to be at London and we had a perfect time there. Except that the weather had been bad and rainy for four of the five days we were there. But it was fun seeing history specially for me who likes to read history. London has been always a place which I liked though both times I traveled there I was on the bad side of the weather. There are several reason why I like London. The most important of them being it teaches me to be humble. I recollect being a part of a school play on Indian independence. My parents had come with proud eyes to see their son being selected in a school play but unfortunately I was in and out of the stage before they could even know it was me. Any way i recollect the starting lines of the play " The sun never sets in Great Britain". These guys used to rule 56 countries across the globe. Now the sun does not even rise for half of the year in London with rains.Just see what is left of the great empire. A country smaller than the state of West Bengal in India. This is a great example for all to be humble. You dont know when your arrogance can get back to you. Be good to all.

Its also good to see Britains acceptance of the fact that India and Indians are good for them. We have so many Indians now in the parliament. Even the tube has signs in just not Hindi but Bengali also. Ravi Bopara is among the many Indian cricketers playing for England. You dont feel out of place or afraid to travel around UK.

I also appreciate Britain's contribution to India. They have given India amongst the best structures like our parliament, Presidents house or the beautiful Luytens Delhi. The Indian railways is what it is today because of the Britishers built it. They gave us our heroes. Mahatma Gandhi and Peace is Britain's contribution to the world. If they had not tortured India to the level they did we would never have our heroes.

Well some other reasons I like London is because we located a shop in Oxford street which sells good shirts for 3 pounds. We ate the best pan cake at a street vendor on the other side of Thames from London Eye. Language and food is never a problem here. The people are friendly and very cosmopolitan. There is so much to see here that a week is not enough. And the best part is History is properly maintained. I pity the famous structures and old buildings decaying in Kolkatta. Hope we learn a thing or two from them. Like New York I would anyday like to go there for my holidays. There can never be enough of London. If just they return the Kohinoor. It was sad to see the dazzling Indian diamond lying in a London museum.

An Indian Dinner

2009-06-10T22:35:00.002+05:30

After ten days of hectic traveling and schedule I have reached Tampere in Finland today afternoon. Tampere is one of the most beautiful towns to see and visit. I rate it high among the places I have been to. After a short nap at the hotel, I thought of exploring the place. also this was the first evening that I was alone. I decided to search for an Indian restaurant as it has been almost ten days when I last had Chapati or Roti. Also its difficult to get English menu in Europe which makes it difficult to decide on what you want to eat.

The experience turned out to be the worst Indian food any one can get. I started with Paneer pakoda. Four small slices of refried pakodas for 7 Euros. For the main course I ordered for Chapatis with Paneer Makhani. Unfortunately I asked the waitress to make it spicy. Oh man, it had all the garam masalas that you can imagine. At times our cook at home does this when he has to vent his anger after too much of poking by Mom or Minoo. The Paneer it seems had been imported from India and five weeks by sea to Helsinki and another week to customs clearance and further to Tampere. It was so stale and hard. The less I say about the Rotis( bread). It was hard like you needed a hammer and cutter to chop it off. I hit the axe on my feet when I ordered a masala chai to round off the food. There was no tea there. Only masala. The best part of the meal was the glass of french white wine. Fortunately it was not cooked or made here. I decided to share my feelings with the cook and asked the hostess for him. He turned out to be from Pakistan. Now I understand to what level these guys can go to defame India or things Indian. The worst was yet to come. I paid 62 Euros for this meal. A meal for two at Bukhara in Sheraton Delhi would have been cheaper. It was such a wonderful experience eating the spanish meal last night at Lahti. The crust of the story never try to eat Indian food when you are travelling in these parts of the world. I wish I would have gone to the Egyptian restaurant opposite this one.

Another election to be over - Hope we learn something this time?

2009-05-11T22:34:00.002+05:30

We are at the last phase of the election and hopefully by this time next week we should be knowing our next Prime Minister. Hopefully. After six weeks and billions of money spent we still have to say hopefully. One thing is for sure we will have a Prime Minister. As no one would like to go back to election again. As all day the eminent analysts keep on saying we will have the worst cocktail and "khichadi" ever cooked. There might be some 50 plus parties sharing the 543 odd MP's with the single largest one not even having 1/5th of the MP's. Technically the party going to make the next government will have to have 50% plus one MP's. So where does the gap fill in with. The 50 odd small parties provide their Members of Parliament and why suddenly they will support the leading two major parties - for money, power and plum ministries and getting the most unethical things done. We are going to end up again with a government born out of unethical means. I am not sure if it was worth voting after all the excitement of voting first time. I hope we, the public, learn a bitter lesson this time around and choose candidates from major parties so that there is clear direction.

What are the options we can have to stop this rot? Well there were suggestions of making voting compulsory? A great idea but I am not sure how practical it is specially in a country where education is still not compulsory for all. I think the better way could be stopping post poll alliances. This will give no opportunity and bargaining power to the smaller parties who are there to be bought. We have cabinet ministers at this time who are ministers from 1989 with all three possible governments. They have only one line manifesto - be with the ruling government and make hay always. Hope the sun never shines on these guys.

If I could restart my life...

2009-04-20T14:39:00.003+05:30

Last week I had some problems in my laptop and I called my IT guy to help me out with this. He asked me to restart the computer and once I did that it was all working ok. That reminded me of one of my friends who was working in Dubai with a bank as their head of hardware and when I was there for holidays , I asked him what exactly he did in his job. He said 85% of the time he simply asked his colleagues to restart their computer and balance 15% time he would call up the hardware provider to come and resolve the problem. I have come through similar situations with my itouch, blackberry or video games. This made me to think how wonderful it would be to have a restart system in our lives. If only God had created the restart button...... what would I change and do differently.

1. Studied sincerely and gone for post grad.
2. Spent more time with my sister
3. Never would have started smoking
4. Would have given more time to kids when they were growing up
5. Would have loved and married instead of married and loved.
6. Would have spent more time with my grandfather.
7. Started Tennis very early in life.
8. Build a smaller house.

While trying to build up this list I am not getting many points to include which means I am happy and content with most of the things in life.

Talibanisation has a new Synonym

2009-04-14T09:11:00.004+05:30

The largest number of Member of Parliament in India come from Uttar Pradesh. A state with great history. A state which has given us most of our Prime Ministers. A state which has Taj Mahal , the monument of love within its boundaries. Our most sacred river Ganga flows through it. It is the state where Lord Rama and Krishna were born. It has been the karmabhumi of Buddha, Mahavir, Ashoka and Harsha. UttarPradesh has contributed numerous golden chapters to annals of Indian History. But the present status of this great state is pathetic that people fear crossing the state while travelling east in trains. The recent hate speech by Varun Gandhi is to be heard to be believed. How can a young guy educated at London school of Economics with such a decent upbringing speak what he has spoken. What has happened to our so called Indian values. Is this the only way a candidate wins votes. I thought we in India never accepted this kind of harsh words. But then worse happened a couple of days back when a candidate was found murdered and hanged at Jaunpur. Such a shame for our great democracy. Almost 25% of our last parliament had people against whom some criminal investigation is going on. The UP assembly has more than 40% of members with criminal investigation on. Charges include rape, armed robbery and murder. The political parties in India have a moral responsibility to weed out corrupt and criminals from their rank. I need a genuine choice to elect my representative. Its so unfortunate that the two main stream parties have lost out of Uttarpradesh to being single digit representation amongst 80 MP's. If such criminal activities keep on happening and people are tortured and murdered, votes cast out of fear - shortly we may have a synonym to Talibanisation - UPnasisation.

If I was Wise....

2009-04-13T22:19:00.003+05:30

I have always learnt from my father about savings and investment and he has done a wonderful justice to this through out his career. I have been doing reasonably well too. But some how the last five years I made some wrong choices. I invested in stocks, mutual funds and properties. And I am loosing in most of it. If only I was wise enough to invest in our politicians.... They have grown by almost 8-10 times since the 2004 elections. That's an average of prominent contestants who have filed nominations so far. The richest of the lot so far I believe is a MP from Andhra Pradesh at 2.99 Billion INR. Mind it these are valued not even a fraction of the market price. Rahul Gandhis assets list 6 acres farm house at Faridabad for 3 million INR. As I live in Faridabad and can say with conviction that you can not buy a single property here for even 5 million INR for a single acre. "Prime Minister in waiting" Mr Advanis assets have trebled in the last 5 years. The 541 MP's in 2004 parliament had some 900 Crores amongst themselves meaning each was worth 1.7 Crores. Now this does not include assets in families name and no cars. At the rate its going this time in announcing the assets while filing nominations I am sure by the time the Lok Sabha is constituted in May this average could well be 10 Cr or so per MP. In any case if you are not a Crorepati you cant even buy your ticket which is being rumored at 10 Crores specially in Andhra Pradesh or UP. Compare this to our countries per capita income after taking inflation into account is 26000 INR. A simple bank fixed deposit of 2004 worth of each MP would earn almost 10 times this amount. And its said THEY ARE OUR REPRESENTATIVE.

A trip to an Indian Village

2009-04-12T12:19:00.004+05:30

The last time I had been to a village was way back in 1993 when as a Rotaractor we had adopted a village called Imondih in West Bengal. The village I saw that time was full of poverty and semi clad poor people. Roads were dusty and crop was dependent on rainfall only. After 15 years I again got an opportunity to visit a village in Haryana. Though Haryana is much more developed than West Bengal but still it seems there has been substantial development in villages. The road leading to the village is concrete. So had no trouble to drive the 25 kms from my home. As it is harvesting time so most of the village was inhabited as everyone was in the fields. I had gone basically for taking some pictures as part of my hobby and seeing a big camera hanging on my neck a village lady came running to me thinking I am some government officer and was surveying things. Afterwards I could understand her anxiety as literally no one pays in the village for electricity and no officer from the department dare to enter the village to collect the bills. I cam across a yellow motorcycle with no number plate. I always used to think for whom do these auto companies make these colored bikes and cars. I found my answer here. The whole farm land was shining golden with harvesting season going on. The village temple is said to be from Lord Krishnas time with old trees all around. There were lot of peacocks and parrots. Lot of fresh air. I am glad I took this trip. Check out pics at my Flickr account.

Manifestos - God bless this country

2009-04-11T22:47:00.003+05:30

Manifestos visit us once in five years as do our politicians. I dont remember past manifestos neither does the political parties which announced them. But this time the manifestos are real stupidity and more stupidity. So we have one national party announcing rice at Rs 3.00 per kg and the opposition coming up with Rs.2.00 per kg. Unfortunately they dont have schemes to give employment and better economy so that the people can afford to buy at what ever is the market price. There is another party which promises free television and cable connection. As these are IT times so one party has promised to give computers to all at 10000 Rs with free Internet connection thrown in. The Left front in their manifesto does not speak of industrialization as its a capitalist agenda.Last time around Behenji didnt use manifesto as she didnt believe in theory but she wanted to show action in practise..Hope she could teach people the ways of her rising wealth.

But the most stupid manifesto has been released today by SP. No English classes as its against our culture. No computers as it takes away employment. I thought the maximum employment created in this country in the last decade was in the IT sector. No harvesters as it takes away job of workers in farms. No machines but all work needs to be done by hand. Machines brings unemployment. No share trading and " Shopping Mall" culture. Sounds some what like we are talking of Swat valley. I hope the voters see through the tall promises and nonsense talks otherwise only God can save this country.

The politics of Kerosene

2009-04-11T12:58:00.004+05:30

I find it so pathetic the game our politicians play on Kerosene. Kerosene in India is subsidized so that the people below poverty line can buy it within their means to run their homes. Average price for per liter of Kerosene throughout the country is around 2-3 INR a liter but it was a shock to me to find out that most of the deserving poor people buy it in black market at 5-6 times more price. Hardly 10% of Kerosene is sold at the price the Government intends to sell. So where does all this Kerosene go. Well, most of it goes to mix up with Diesel which is almost 15 times price of Kerosene. This makes the vehicles emitting more pollution. I am sure this whole scenario is very well known to each political party but nobody ever does anything about it as everyone is making money out of it except those who are supposed to benefit out of it or those who pay higher price for petrol to compensate some of the loss which arises out of sale of Kerosene in loss.

Is there any candidate who can raise voice against this?

The Buck stops with us - Environment

2009-04-11T12:54:00.002+05:30

As a developing economy, our future depends on industrialization. However industrial development does the worst damage to environment. Though the per capita income increases with more industrialization but quality of life worsens. The environmental problems take a back stage inthe flurry of growth.

We are now one billion plus. A major part of the population migrates to cities for better opportunities. This is easier for growth and industrialization but comes with a huge cost of social and regional equilibrium. As all the growth is taking around cities, the country side becomes impoverished. Because of this the farmer Is selling off his land and the green belts around the cities are getting converted to slums. The bulging cities themselves are environmental disasters. We have neither the resource, nor the skill to stop this malady. The retreating forests and farmlands are now slums with non existent sewerages and polluted air and water. Further the small industries neither have the will nor resources nor know how to stop effluents. The vested interests of people in the government do not help the cause of regulations. Whatever regulations are there, are overshadowed and over ruled by the bribe we pay. What can we do:

1. Stop Using plastics
2. Plant Trees
3. Throw garbage in bins
4. Spread awareness
5. Follow regulations
6. Force our leaders to bring tough laws and legislation
7. Use CFL lights
8. Switch off TV or other electronics from the main switch and not just remote
9. Charge your phone or other electronics for the time needed and not the whole night
10. Save Water

There can be other things added to this list. But the most important is to create awareness about this.

The buck stops with us - Literacy

2009-04-11T11:30:00.000+05:30

While India has one of the best technically trained man power in the world , it fares awfully bad in the lower end of the system. Two third of the children who enroll in the primary schools drop out by the sixth year. Various studies have shown that public spending on primary education yields exceptionally high economic returns. Indian governments spend on education is just 3% of the GDP as compared to the Asian countries 8% plus. Surprisingly states where there is more illiteracy have worse figures than national average. But more shocking is that most of those who take basic education relapse to illiteracy. This is because reading and writing is not a pleasure but a burden. Literacy will be retained and pursued only when it helps improve the quality of life.

I believe all citizens who are fortunate to be educated should come forward to work towards eliminating illiteracy. The only way we can bring prosperity to this country is by making people functionally literate. It will be criminal if we allow the hard work and limited resources spent by the government and volunteers go waste by not enabling the learners retain the literacy obtained. It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness. So let’s Lead.

The Great Indian Tamasha - Elections

2009-04-11T11:25:00.003+05:30

The Indian Elections starts next week. It might be the only country where the General Elections are held over a month. The poll results will be counted on 16th May and we have a one month of daily dose of entertainment on television. I am sorry I used the wrong word entertainment. This time its hate & more hate. The politicians talk all crap. The media is working for their TRP's . Its just one week left for the election to start and there has been no talk of any issue and development. All the brick backing on the news channels is by hand picked few politicians of the main parties and is stage managed to increase more hate and partition.

You can very well make out the apathy of we taxpaying and peace loving voters from the fact that at the age of 42 this will be first time I will vote. Despite going to various offices to enroll my name in the voters list - every time when I went to vote - I found my name missing from the list. I am sure there would be thousands whose name are stuck off from the list. Any way now this time hopefully my name will be there and I will vote but whom do I vote for? The candidates dont visit the city area - they prefer to go to the rural area and places where there are more voters and where they can manipulate the voters using caste and false promises. I did a search on various election sites to find out who the candidates are. Looking at their history,performance in the past and activities I dont want to vote for any of these guys. So I decided I will vote for the party which synchs most with my thought process. Unfortunately its a huge vacuum there also. All parties this time are just talking division and hate. Its so unfortunate and I feel so depressed about the future of this great country. The Indian political system must be the most unaccountable one in the world to its citizen. Does any tax payer know whats happening to his hard earned money? Where does it go? What are we doing towards education, quality of life, health care, security .... ? Is there a concrete plan and follow up action. Are we supposed to sit idle and vote for these guys as voting is our dutiful right as a citizen of this country? Amir Khan reminds me this everytime I switch on the TV. I dont have a platform to vent my anguish and pain. I found expressing my views on the blog here might lessen my stress. I need to be heard. And I am sure when I say ' I ' - its not just me but many more like me who want to play a role in taking back the country to its golden heights. I would like to express some of my anguish in the next few blogs. Hopefully some one some where comes across this to lead us.

..........And the trees are green again

2009-03-15T09:08:00.004+05:30

Since last three weeks or so , I have been doing my Yoga outdoors in our house garden. Winter this time here has been short. There would be dry leaves all through the lawn on which I do Yoga. The trees around looked brownish, dirty and dead. And in these three weeks I have had the pleasure of witnessing the trees filled up with young vibrant leaves changing color and size every day. Suddenly the same trees look beautiful and green. Nature teaches us so many lessons and this experience does teach me that there is always light at the end of tunnel and Hope is the biggest motivator. It teaches me to recognize the presence of light and darkness through life. It teaches me that if I fall down, which I will many times,I should get up start over and keep going. Optimism and courage always defies the failures that come across.

In our family we have seen despair and hope so closely in the last seven years. When Mom was detected with third stage of cancer in 2001, even the doctors thought she will not see 2002. Thank God and the sheer guts of her will power, she is living completely healthy. In 2006 when Papa was detected with cancer in the mouth, I was shocked and the first reaction as usual was, Why us? But then Lance Armstrongs words echoed back that we never question God Why us when good things happen. Again with Gods grace, Papa came out of the misery wonderfully well. Then my surgery happened. Every one around us were worried as to why all this is happening to us. In fact I get worried more when papa starts questioning why us despite all his belief and faith in HIM. Nature has taught me that if HE gives us hardship, he also gives us the spirit to fight it. I strongly believe that our failures are lessons that God teaches us to brace it. Setbacks are for every one in life. For some its early and for some its late, for some its big and for some its small. Patience will always heal the wounds of these setbacks. Setbacks are not a negative crisis but a life changing moment, a moment to pause and think, another chance to rearrange life and live happily. The trees will always turn green after the winters.

Late to work

2009-02-28T12:03:00.002+05:30

I have been working 8 to 8 since the time I started work and many a times on Sunday also till I went for my surgery in mid November. Since then I go late to work and come home early.I have to go through my physio therapies and exercises. I am doing yoga and pranayam and walk. All this takes up lot of my morning despite getting up at 6 AM. After almost four months of taking this routine I have though not seen the physical advantages but am blessed with the mental peace that most of us, running after targets and goals, miss.

I now have breakfast and dinner with my family. Of all these routine, the best part of the day is my breakfast with my grand mom. Its impossible to describe her. Her compassion and care towards others is to be felt then written about. I am not a competent enough writer to pen about her. Such a marvelous lady she is. Blessed are all who have come in contact with her. Our breakfast talk veers around old days. I try to dig out from her memories of the golden days. The cows we had, the time when I was born, Her children ( my father and aunt), my grandfather, anything and everything which I can learn and know before the curse of old age cleans the memory. That 40 minutes to an hour breakfast is the best time of my day. It takes me off from the hustle bustle and fast life the new generation lives. Over hundred channels bought to them by the sat TV channels have just left them changing stations on the remote more then watching them. Individual TV sets have cropped up to cope up with individual tastes. I still recollect not just our family but the whole neighborhood used to assemble at our home every Sunday to watch the Sunday movie on our black and white Televista TV set. It was so much fun and bonhomie. I pity Sameep, Divyansh and other kids of this generation as they watch TV sitting all alone. When we travel in our car the kids continuously flicker with the many FM channels not letting you listen a complete song. We still remember Amin Sahani's Binaca Geetmala coming at 8 PM on Radio Ceylon every Wednesday. The excitement that rubbed every Indian when they got their 20 year back booked Bajaj Scooter, their first HMT watch - it's all gone. My 11 year old son already has purchased 6-7 watches. We were the only family in the neighborhood who had a refrigerator. So we had neighbors coming many times in a day to take ice or keep their milk in our refrigerator. In fact my grand mom bought a second refrigerator to service them. That’s what I meant compassion and care I wrote above. This way we were meeting our neighbors everyday.I don’t recollect meeting my neighbor these days for weeks. We were the only ones in those days who had an ambassador car. When my aunt used to come from her home to us the honk blown some miles back could be heard and we knew she is reaching. With 5 million plus vehicles in our city – u can imagine the pollution we live in. A Bata shoe was a pride possession to be worn only on special occasions – now Sameep must have bought 20 Nikes and Addidas in the last 2 years. All things ‘phoren’ is the new trend now. But the good old swadeshi things gave more peace and joy which unfortunately and sadly I could not give to my children. As Mukesh sang “ Jiyenge magar mushkura na sakenge, ki ab jindagi me mohabbat nahin hai (I will live but not smile any more, For love has gone…..). Don’t miss each moment that you can wrap up with elders in your family.. they will not be there for ever.

If only our media were sensitive......

2009-02-11T23:03:00.003+05:30

The 24 hr Breaking News culture has really made a mess of broadcasting and made people whom nobody knew and doesn't want to know famous. How many of us knew one Mr Muthalik before the uninterrupted broadcast by the TV Channels and all willing to take credit for the action the cops took. Rarely any one knew him and his goondas in the garb of Ram Sainiks till a fortnight ago. Muthalik was an unknown identity before his gang of goons beat up girls in a pub in Mangalore. Muthalik himself had not dreamt of so much publicity and his objective of doing what he did was successful. There are now thousands of people on various blogs(including me) , pink chadi groups on facebook making him famous every day.He is basking in his new found glory.

Who will forget more than 50hrs of direct broadcast of Prince falling in a 60 feet pit. There was two day broadcast of Kareena kissing Saif in a restaurant or Nithari or Arushi cases. The bundles of currency notes in Parliament,our respectable parliamentarians throwing mikes and all this is such a humiliation and mockery of our great democracy. There are thousands of such negative issues which should not have been on TV or newspaper. The commercial compulsions have made them forget the basic values of good journalism. The newspapers carry so much of absurd news that it becomes a challenge to start your day positively. I prefer to call it a media scandal. The coverage of these events has a controversial effect on our society and culture.

Though regulation is not the solution but the broadcasters need to be counseled and motivated to highlight positives about our country or the world. I think the good old days of Doordarshan is better when there were no Breaking News culture and News was News and not Tamasha.

Blame it on Rio

2009-01-30T14:55:00.002+05:30

We had a terrible project failure at work last week. I am not going into the details here but the ultimate result was that the products didnt reach the customer in time. We had a Corrective and Preventive meeting to discuss this. And not surprisingly the blame game was there. Every body was trying to shift the blame on the other and justify that the other guy was the reason for this debacle. I found it so funny.

But then if we look around everywhere we keep on blaming others. We blame the municipality for not keeping clean our streets but bribe to pay less house tax. We shout at them when the park looks dirty but we ourselves litter there. We shout for potholed roads but don't want to pay our taxes fully and look for ways to manipulate it. This can be a long list. We blame Pakistan for terrorism where as its our duty to keep and defend our country. We should be more bothered and concerned about this failure then whats Pakistan going to do about stopping terrorists.

Why do we try to pass the buck?

I believe its in our upbringing. I have seen hundreds of parents do it and have done the same with my kids. If the child hurts himself falling while walking or accidentally hurts himself from the corner of a table we invariably would tell the child " chinti mar gayi" or "table ko hap kar de" ( I dont know how to express this in English) etc etc. Instead of telling the child to take care in future when walking, we teach him to put the blame on the table or floor. And we do this hundreds of time during his growing up period.

As the dialogue in the movie Blame it on Rio says for an illicit relation between an middle age guy with a young girl " You can blame the night, blame the wine, blame the moon in her eyes, but when all else fails.....you would better.......Blame it on Rio." What a way to justify your wrong act?

Jai Ho - Celebrating India

2009-01-22T21:57:00.004+05:30

It was a great and proud Evening when the Oscar this year had 10 nominations for Slumdog Millionaire - a predominantly Indian movie. The best news obviously was Rahman getting triple nomination. The two music directors whose music has always made me happy and relaxed are him and RD Burman. The most played songs in my ipod are from these two folders only.

Couple of days back I read in the newspapers about Amitabh Bacchan not comfortable about poverty being shown in India for the western world. There is a huge debate going on as how only poverty and hunger attracts the western world etc. etc. Today I read that some one in Patna has filed defamation suit against the film for calling slum dwellers names in the movie. I think this is all bullshit. The fact is - the movie is so much India - based on book by an Indian Vikas Swarup, shot in India, cast is Indian and music is Indian. And though I am yet to see the movie but I am sure what ever has been shown is actual India and this movie is all about hope. Anyway I am not a critic and never like them , I prefer to enjoy the moment. I am proud of it and all of us should celebrate this moment.

Lets hope and pray that Rahman wins the Oscars when they are announced in February. In any case we have enough to be proud of at this time with his Golden Globe award - the first for an Indian.Lets all celebrate India.Jai Ho.... By the way have you visited Rahmans website - http://www.arrahman.com - wonderfully done.

I have a dream

2009-01-21T13:17:00.004+05:30

It was fascinating and exciting to watch Barrack Obama take oath as the 44th President of United states yesterday evening. It was a well organized inauguration and impressive. Impressive not because of the grandeur of the event or history being created with the first black President being sworn in but because of the hysteria, hope and belief President Obama has created - not just amongst Americans but the whole world.

When he spoke, "We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America", it must have inspired millions of Americans take that one extra step, one extra effort to reach the goal. More than 2 million people braving the freezing temperatures chanting Obama Obama was for real. It must have come naturally to the people present there as they see hope in their leader specially during these low times.

When was the last time we felt the same in India? I dont recollect a single moment in my life. Since the last thirty years that I can recollect from my memory - I dont remember any leader in this country who has created so much hope and awe. Yes, in history we have. Gandhijis Non Cooperation movement, Netajis call of " Give me blood and I will give you freedom", Indias first Prime Minister Nehruji's independence speech "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom" India's Second Prime Minister Shastrijis call of " Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan" during the 1965 war with Pakistan are some moments in Indian history which must have inspired all Indians.

Where has all that gone now? Why don't our leaders inspire us any more? There must be many reasons because of which our leadership has deteriorated over the years - castism, corruption, lack of education etc but I feel one of the major reasons could be the age of our leaders. For a country with more than 2/3rd of population below the age of 35 - the Prime Minister and President are above 75. The leader of opposition is above 75 and two members of his party are fighting for the post, in case the party comes to power are above 80. Major cabinet ministers are senior citizens. There is an age limit in almost all jobs. We start questioning Saurav Ganguly for his age despite him scoring the highest run in the year. Why dont we have the same rules for our politicians and leaders?

I am no Martin Luthar King but I also have a dream. Dream of being inspired by a dynamic leader, dream of living in a just society and corruption free country. Where people fear and abide law and don’t buy it. A place where there is no discrimination based on caste, creed and religion. A " SONE KI CHIDIYA" . Love you India.

No place for the dead

2009-01-15T23:08:00.002+05:30

I am sharing with you an Associated Press release pubished in newspapers today.

One family buried a slain son over his grandfather. Another bundled up the tiny bodies of three cousins and lowered them into the grave of long dead aunt. A man was laid to rest with his brother.

More than two weeks into the Israeli offensive that has killed over 1000 Palestinians, Gazans are struggling to find places to bury their dead. "Graza is all graveyard", said grave digger Salman Omar on Tuesday as he shovelled earth in Gaza City's crammed Sheik Radwan cemetery.

At Sheik Radwan on Tuesday mourners pulled away the slabs of concrete covering graves of long deceased relatives, pushed the bones aside and lowered in the newly dead."You have a martyr. You need an immediate solution"said Omar, 24, "You look for where your grandmother, Uncle, or mother was buried and bury them there," he said.

Even the pathways in the hilly cemetery were filled with graves.The older ones had marble slabs. The newly buried just have a tile.

Is this we want our children to inherit?

Is this what we want our children to inherit?

2009-01-14T22:48:00.004+05:30

Its been quiet some time I have been off the blog for my recovery process. Slowly and gradually I am getting back to my normal life. I had a wonderful holiday to Kolkatta few days back an it was relaxing and fun.

The world I believe is going through one of its most challenging times with economy and distress. There is so much of tension and mistrust all across the globe. Every day as we read newspapers and watch television - we see so much of innocent lives being lost to unwanted wars and terror attacks. Whether it is war and terror at Israel, India, Pakistan, Gaza, Afghanistan, Iraq, US or any country - the biggest loser is humanity. Innocent lives are being lost. It does not matter which part of the globe or religion they belong to. I think the sight of innocent dead children being carried out on Newspapers should ignite the world to fight against war and hostility. Should we merely watch it thinking we are safe in our houses and forget the terror. I dont think we are safe. Today its somebody else, tomorrow it will be us. Lets revisit our own conscious and ask ourselves, " What are we doing to bring an end to this?" I dont think we can read, forget and sit idle waiting for our turn to get killed. This has led to so much of distrust amongst nations, families, neighbors etc. The society is getting disintegrated. Is this what we want our children to inherit. I am sure all of us will agree in one voice "NO".

Too many people in the park - not a healthy sight

2008-12-06T19:55:00.004+05:30

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?

2008-11-24T21:06:00.003+05:30

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

2008-11-16T22:06:00.001+05:30

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

QSQT - Part 1

2008-11-02T19:46:00.003+05:30

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

2008-11-01T10:32:00.002+05:30

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

2008-10-29T18:06:00.005+05:30

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

2008-10-16T15:18:00.003+05:30

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

2008-09-20T08:15:00.002+05:30

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

2008-09-17T15:23:00.003+05:30

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

2008-09-17T00:22:00.002+05:30

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

2008-09-15T22:21:00.002+05:30

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

2008-09-14T22:11:00.003+05:30

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

2008-09-10T08:08:00.000+05:30

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?

2008-09-03T13:34:00.003+05:30

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

2008-09-03T08:20:00.004+05:30

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

2008-09-01T13:51:00.000+05:30

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

2008-08-30T17:21:00.007+05:30

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

2008-08-19T06:17:00.006+05:30

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.

2008-08-13T22:26:00.005+05:30

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

2008-08-09T09:06:00.003+05:30

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

2008-08-08T14:40:00.003+05:30

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

2008-08-08T08:43:00.004+05:30

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

2008-08-05T22:04:00.000+05:30

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