Read...coz i wrote

2011 - The year that wasn't

2012-01-03T02:28:00.000-08:00

2011 is gone, its time to sit back and do the accounting of the year that has just folded. The year had gone by with mixed feelings for us (me and nidhi). If i say, its been slightly on the sad note, i wont be exaggerating. God has been both kind and rude to us in this year, blessing us on some things and being extremely harsh in a few others.

I just thought let me put it all across in here so that if i may want to remember a few things about this year, it would be just a matter of a click.

The year 2011 started on a parting note, i had to go back to USA on 1st day of the year. I had a reasonably good stay and enjoyed snow for the first time in life. When i returned i was much fitter and healthy, thanks to my friends in USA, they ensured that i exercise every day.

I came back in March and got a chance to enjoy Holi - the festival of colors, with my parents. This was first time in last 10 yrs that i was home for this day. I could have good fun with parents, relatives and some other people. Nidhi got her first shot of holi at kota and needless to say, she enjoyed it.

April is usually the month of parties as our marriage anniversary and my birthday fall in the same month. We went to Mahabalipuram - a small town near chennai on the eastern side. This trip redefined a few relationships in the family and needless to mention, made it immensely satisfying and a happy trip. Enjoyed a good vacation with Nidhi, Munnu and Ramya.

May and June saw me getting H1B and got me a little more confident about my own future and therefore a little more satisfied from life. However, there was something else too which kept me happy.

July, this month is always special as there are birthday's and marriage anniversaries of few very important people. Of all, Nidhi's birthday falls in this month and we had a good time on her birthday. We also were moving strength to strength with our life.

August was the first setback month for us. For reason which i can’t share in here, we were shattered to the core. It became extremely difficult for us to continue focus on anything. It just remains itched in our memories as the worst month of our lives. Even while we were passing through our worst phase, two people stood very strongly with us, Munnu and Ramya, became integral part of our lives.

This month also saw Baba (my grandpa) witnessing some of the silliest events in his life courtesy his sons. Sometimes i wonder, some people can be such pathetic in their sense of life and it’s just worthwhile to throw them out of your thoughts. They just cease to exist because of their nonsensical approach towards the whole thing. Anyways!!

September went by without making any impression on us, we were too hassled and bothered about what was happening in our lives. I moved on to a different work location, within Bangalore and started getting extremely busy in my work life. I was also losing my faith in everything around me, this also included the relationships. I was becoming too centric and at times was extremely rude to Nidhi. There was day where i just couldn't be man anymore and transformed into a creature that i would hate for rest of my life. Such were the crisis around us, that we were losing every good thing.

October saw me fighting out another battle, this time it was on personal front. This month also had diwali, so with a few plans i moved on with my vacations. There an important meeting at Delhi which needed me and i was on plan for that, in came the news of my grandpa being admitted to ICU. I panicked and rushed to my native to be by his side. I went and saw him in his ICU the morning i reached. He held my hand for 2 hours with extreme pain in his eyes he kept staring at me and i kept holding his hand. When he went for sleep (due to pain killers) i stepped out and called Nidhi and couldn’t control my emotions anymore, cried out loud and inconsolably. The next 15 days saw me trying to be with baba every min that i could, for somewhere in me, i knew, he is planning to take a trip to heavenly abode sometime soon.

Such was his charisma and desires, that this illness of his ensured that all his sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, every single person in the entire family comes to him. We all were with him and together during the entire 5 day festivities of diwali. This was first, and probably the last time i saw few individuals in my family, for they just lost all their importance in my life by showing their true colors. I will not mince words, i will not try to be good for according to me, they are pathetic individuals and need to be thrashed, but, its my personal view.

Baba was a man of self control which he showed us to all, in his own unique way. Diwali is a festival of 5 days for us, the festivities start by "Dhanteras", followed by "Choti diwali", "Diwali", "Annakoot" and "Bhai dooj". If there is demise in family in any of the five days, that family will not celebrate Diwali unless there is a birth of a baby boy on the very same day. Doctors had told us that baba could leave us anytime before "Dhanteras". He was on Oxygen and breathing heavy. But the man, couldn’t have left us with so much of pain for our entire life. He loved us more than anything and he couldn’t be a reason for his kids to suffer and not celebrate the festival. Such was his will power that he waited till "bhaidooj". His elder sister did a "teeka" to him and then since the entire family was around all the sisters could do the teeka to all the brothers. We all had sumptuous meal around him, sat together, had lot of fun.

When the last member of family was done with the meal and the ladies were busy cleaning up the place, he gave a unique opportunity to me. I was the first person to be around him when he heard that the festivities are over. He breathed heavy, there was absolute chaos and with immense peace in his eyes, he closed them and left us all crying around him. It was a special moment as every kid that belonged to him was present in the very same room around him and was chanting the heavenly word "Om" for him to hear it. It was auspicious site, for he left the world with his entire family around him.

The proceedings began, we made him take bath, we got new clothes for him to wear, we got a "pagdi", dressed him like a "Pandit" for his last journey. He was at peace and there was a faint smile on his face. The content of being the best man whole his life, and even during his last time. The journey saw him being carried by his sons and grandsons. Its the best last journey that most men crave for. With the chants of Shree Ram and Hari OM he was cremated. The most difficult time for the family was when we returned back home, for us for the first time felt his absence. It was painful silence!!

The whole of October and November just went by without much of focus.

December, we thought, atl east this last month would give us some breather. It actually did but only towards the end. However, i was due for another pain, this time again on the personal front. During December i lost one my maternal uncles. He was my mom's cousin, and in those terms, had very less significance like several others of his kind. But, he was different. He had a different charisma, a very different and difficult life. He is someone who has more impact on my overall personality than even some people in very close quarters. "Pramod Preetam" was an extremely famous journalist in the area that he belonged to. Someone who had a knack of picking up stories and tell them like no one else. In the era of television with 50 news channels barking to tell the Breaking news, he increased the circulation of printed paper Dainik Bhasker. Its my bad luck and fate that i couldn’t meet him during his last days. The news shattered me within and i couldn’t control but cry. I will miss him whole of my life.

The year, 2011, i believe shouldn’t have existed in my life. It was hugely taxing on personal front and the year that will most certainly remain the worst year of my life. The optimist in me could still find some happy moments, but those were short lived and were all on professional front. Hence, learned a very important thing, if you aren’t happy in your personal life, professional achievements and happiness don’t matter!!

Welcomed 2012 with a new hope and bowed head, for i am at starting line again, i need to walk leaving behind all the baggage and try and make a life again!!

Girls Vs Boys

2011-12-19T23:21:00.001-08:00

This topic has been at the back of my mind for a while now. The big question is "girls equal to boys" or are "boys equal to girls". There have been a lot of debates on this front, and a lot of people would want to join this one too. I am no authority and what you will be reading is my perspective about this whole topic. It is questionable and you may want to post your thoughts in here too, but please understand, its strictly my viewpoint.

To begin with, i want to understand this whole reason of comparison. I believe it all started with the dominance in early years. But here is where i believe things went out of context as the comparison or dominance is not the reason for if i remember it clearly, God created two separate entities with two different aims and results.

Let’s go back in history and try to relate to it. Man was "gatherer and Hunter" what it means is, he has to look out for new avenues for arranging food. This also involved hunting the animals and aiming at fruits on trees. Which necessarily meant that he had to be focused and had to aim at a particular thing/animal. That's where present generation men get the inability to look beyond the person sitting in front of you. Try a small exercise, go to coffee with your friends, spend about half an hour, then try to remember the color of sofa/chair or something which was not in the vicinity. Chances of you remembering it will be very low. Also, try this, go out with your girlfriend and try to keep talking to her while try to look at someone else, i am sure, you'd be caught and prompted coz you will not be able to disguise it.

On the contrary, girls/women were at home, and had the duty to protect the house/kids from scavengers. Which necessarily meant that they have to have a 360 degree view. That's the sole reason why your girlfriend can do all of the above without you noticing it. :)

Now, the second thought, males are typically considered extremely efficient while doing multi-tasking. So much so, that if you are good at it, you would rise very high in your ranks and very fast. While its extremely normal for women to manage and remember kitchen, kids, clothes, shopping, etc. This doesn’t mean that either is superior or inferior, its just the way it is meant to be.

The third comparison, physical strength. Man as i mentioned, was a hunter/gatherer, it was imperative for him to be strong as he didn’t knew what would attack him and from where. While women was most of the time protected and hence subsequently developed a low content of physical power. Now, i am not undermining their ability to do the work and bear kids, etc, all i am saying is that its easy for a man to push the car, change the wheels while its apparently difficult for women to do it.

If you read through above things, i have never compared the mental ability of either. There is a reason for it, for i believe that mental ability is same in both. This is the reason of having so many woman colleagues at office as these days its less of physical work and more of mental prowess that's required to complete the work. Woman are rising in their ability to compete with men but there is a limitation, they are competing "best" when its work which requires mental strength and controlled environment.

The other critical thing that i have always believed is, why is this need of comparison. Why do we want to be like other, why not retain our very reason to be. Now, by this I don’t mean women shouldn’t work, or that women are not capable (i know, i will have to be an idiot or a digvijay singh to take the debate to this nonsensical level), It’s just that some jobs, some profiles suit women better than man and that we have different responsibilities in society. The exceptions exist and will always exists, e.g. a woman working as a JCB driver for Tata motors and a Male chef with worlds best hotel. But, the core remains that we are two separate entities and should honor and respect it.

Comparison should always be within the category and not with the other category. Be a better man or a be a better woman, rather trying to be a better man over a woman or vice versa. God has made two separate entities, with separate aim and functionality, why do we want to lose the focus and compare them and loose all that can be earned.

Some people will talk about respect coming with working, or by being able to compete with men in the world. Let me correct it, your grandma, or mother were equally respected, yes a little less powerful than maybe your wife due to the monetary factor but there was no problem with respect. It’s just an outlook which money has brought in this debate.

Again, i have no problem in women working, i have no problem in men managing kitchen (i absolutely love doing it) but its this comparison that i hate, i don’t want to be compared to my wife in anything, not that either of us is superior but its just that you can’t compare one star to another star, only thing you would get is an argument and nothing beyond.

So all you people who talk about a girl being equal to a boy, try and ponder over giving better means to the girl in the path that she can excel, rather than trying to make her do the things that boy would do. Also, to parents, never make this statement to your daughter as all you are doing is undermining her very existence and downgrading her abilities.

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Story of a man as told by his grandson

2011-11-09T07:13:00.000-08:00

This is story of a man, my grandpa Sh. G. L. Sharma Sahib as told by me.....

21st August 1924, my grandfather was born in extremely poor circumstances, with a thatched roof on top and barely one meal a day. His father expired when he was all but 4yrs and his mom passed away soon too. Before she passed away she ensured that he was set onto a never ending journey of perseverance, effort and commitment towards his work. This is his story as I have known him ever since I was a kid.

Born in a very humble family Sh. G.L. Sharma (Sh. Ghansi Lal Sharma) was all set to become the first ever man to achieve the heights which was so far only read or heard. He made it all possible by his sheer ability to work hard. Though some might debate on his intelligence levels and his smartness, none doubt his ability to work non-stop like a machine.

Early days: -

Since he was born in a very poor family and a very small village, “gagchana” in “Cheepabadood” tehsil in Baran district of Rajasthan, he had no option but to rely on mercy of people to help him complete his education. Now, here is a catch, he could’ve decided not to work hard and stay in that small village, earn whatever little and cry out to destiny (finding a connect!! Most of us often happily and easily blame our destiny for not having opportunity). But he decided instead to take on the world. He first moved to another, but slightly bigger, village called Seesvaali. There the schools were till matriculation or 10th as we know it now. He completed his matriculation and was always brightest student of his class. Such was his ability to strive that he used to study till he could keep his eyes no longer open. People used to look at his window to see if the lamp is still on and anyone who said that I would study longer than him, lost to him everytime.

Job marriage and kids: -

Those days it was very rare for one to complete the education even till this level and hence jobs were easy. He took the job of a third level school teacher to feed his family. He studied hard and built a very strong foundation in grammar, both hindi and English. Such was his command that whenever his school teachers used to debate about any confusion, they used to take his word as final on the matter.

He got married to a rather humble lady, Pushpa devi Sharma from another very poor background and a very small village. She was illiterate, and had no basic education. She was from another very small village called “Setkolu”. I don’t remember her ever talking to him directly or loud. She used to address him by “Sahab”. Despite being illiterate and having no clue of what education could bring in, she complemented him well by taking complete control of his house and leaving him with what he liked the most, reading and study.

They had 7 kids,( 4 boys and 3 girls). A big family with so many kids meant that my grandpa had to work even hard to feed them all, needless to mention, he did much better than that.

Further studies: -

He never stopped at a third level teaching job, he soon found out that in order to grow more and rise higher, he needs to study further. He did his B.A.(Bachelor of Arts), M.A.(Master of Arts - English), L.L.B.(Bachelor of Law). While he was in teaching, he realized that it’s impossible with this, so he strived further. He did his B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education) and then M.Ed (Master of Education). He continued to study till all his kids were born, which necessarily meant that he studied till 1971, a whooping 47 yrs of his life.

He always dreamt big and worked very hard towards achieving his goal. He never looked at time while studying, this ensured that he could only sleep for couple of hours a day. This took toll on his health and he went down with severe fever. His efforts didn’t stopped, he decided to put more efforts, such was his perseverance that once when the fever was not going away, he decided to take bath in open. It was winters and people who know Rajasthan can tell you that it really becomes very cold during winters. He went out, sat down and took bath in open.

If you are already thinking that this is maximum that a man can do to achieve his goals, wait till I tell you more….

Career growth: -

Most of the people of his age became comfortable with a job of a teacher and continued their life. He couldn’t stay in there, so he started climbing the ladder. People who knew him tell us, never was the case when he bowed down to pressures and never was the case when he took a lesser path. He always moved with truth and nothing short. This ensured that he had to struggle twice the normal effort, but so be it!!

He became principal, Inspector of school and then went even further to become Joint Director of Education, Rajasthan. There has been no second example like him, no one could put in so much of effort!!

He continued to work even after his retirement, primarily because he had to feed a big family.

Family and relationships: -

Not all men are perfect, he wasn’t either. In his pursuit of success, he started getting extremely busy and they by the distance between him and his family kept on becoming wider. Here, I can vouch for the fact that he loved all his kids like a father would do and have always wanted best for them; just the he had his priorities well placed. Two of his kids could live up to the perseverance that he had and therefore became near best in their lives, the rest, decided to live a chilled life and ended up in shackles. The only wrong that he did was to consider them all equal and push them hard.

He had three basic and very strong values: -
1. Be polite to all
2. Get up early and do your own chores
3. Respect comes with efforts

He was polite to even 6 months old great grand niece leave apart anyone else. No one who met him could believe that despite being such a strong personality, he was extremely humble to people around him. This made him extremely popular amongst people and left such an impression that who so ever met him once, could never forget him.

For his entire life, he woke up at 5am, washed his own clothes by hand, cleaned up his room and made his bed. Yes, for a whooping 80 yrs in life!! He did it every single day. He used to wear customary white shirt and a black pant when he used to step out of house, the toe of his shoes was always shining and yes, he used to polish them every-time he wore them. He dressing sense was impeccable and he was always dressed to the occasion.

My memories of him are confined to him working, I have never in my life seen him whiling away time, or sitting idle. So much so, that I have never seen him taking a nap in afternoon. He always used to say, “early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise”, needless to mention, he followed it till this April 2011….. from 1924 to 2011, a massive discipline!!

Religious: -

I could never forget the call that he made to me when I was packing my bags to go to USA on an assignment. He said “son, never forget that you are son and grandson of a brahmin, all our lives we have been vegetarians, it would break my heart and faith if I hear anything otherwise for you. Please ensure that even if it comes to stay hungry, so be it, you would never cross the line”. I returned the call when I came back to him, and when I said, “Baba, I lived up to your expectations and followed the procedures”, I could sense a pride in his voice when he said “good boy” (his famous phrase for us).

Most people in India read either Shreemad bhagwat geeta, or Ramayana. He was regular at both and remembered them like it was imprinted in him. He always insisted on all the ceremonies to be done by the book, no shortcuts allowed, most of the time, he did them by his own hands.

My grandpa was the man who ensured that we have a better life, that we see the world, and that we could stand amongst most learned of the world and earn some respect for ourselves. Hence if today we are appreciated, it because of one man who left the comforts of life and struggled almost entire life to ensure that his sons and grandsons have something better for themselves.

Baba, we will try to keep your legacy alive, a legacy where efforts are not counted, where we don’t wait for awards, where we just work and do more work, for we always will believe in your words “There is no substitute to hard work”.

Anna-No Anna

2011-08-17T04:16:00.000-07:00

I'd never thought i would ever write anything on this matter. This particular event has taken my entire country by storm and people have not shown such fight for anything in life. But i want to ponder a little as what is happening around and how it might impact. This is my opinion and while i will be ok with your comments i dont think it will change anything in the way i have perceived this whole thing.

The Event: -
Phase 1: - Anna wants a lokpal bill
Phase 2: - Anna wants a "stronger" lokpal bill

Action: - Hordes of people are on the roads protesting for what Anna wants and demanding government to do it.

My view point: -

I seriously doubt more than 10% people actually know whats this whole Janlokpal bill is about. Which also means, we do neither know the things which are mentioned in there, nor do we know what impact it will have. However, some people have actually simplified this whole events by stating that "If lokpal bill comes country will have lesser corruption than it has presently".

This is exactly what troubles me for: -
1) I dont think corruption is due to some tool/technique/technology, its basically due to mentality of people. Hence, the inference is not going to be validated unless we stop our mentality to earn a few quick bucks. Janlokpal has a very important parameter, "Jan" and "lok", i believe both are directly related to people. Hence, unless we, as people, change, i dont think it would bring about any change with/without lokpal bill.

2) All the people participating in this lokpal bill protests are actually frustrated by rising cost of living, which i dont know who, has related to rise in corruption in the country. Now, my simple brain doesnt understand how rising corruption can actually increase costs. But looks like something is connected in here. I am only worried about rising costs so if Janlokpal bill will actually reduce costs then i am for it.

I believe here is the connection between rising costs and corruption. Now i am open for a debate on this..

"X" amount is allocated for a project, it becomes "X+Y", "Y" being the value going into the pockets of people. This "Y" actually increases the taxes on general public due to the excessive spending and delay in recovering, therefore increasing the fiscal deficit. This increase in Tax is levied directly on general public and items for their daily usage, hence the cost of products/services goes up and so the price rise is the result.

3) I am 32 yrs of age, and Anna is 79, i dont think i knew him 6 months ago. I am sure he has done lot of good for people, and he has been a freedom fighter. But i still didnt knew him 6 months ago, and suddenly he has become a household name. Janlokpal has actually done a lot of good to his image, coz i am sure by now even the world would be knowing him (by virtue of protests across the globe). My problem is that someone actually compared him to gandhi. Now while the only similarity that i draw is that former is fighting against corruption and the latter had fought against british "for the people". Beyond this small comparison i dont see anything big that brings anna closer to Gandhi. I am still with Anna in his pursuit, just that i want him to know, that while british were men of morale, he is up against "Assholes" who can turn, twist and even bring in someone by the name Godse, to kill Anna. Its not the same era, where british would at max resort to a Lathicharge and/or filling the prisons. Here these buggers can actually higher goons and get Anna killed.

4) This the last point and i am very surprised with this one, the media coverage for Anna is unprecedented, now i have no particular grudge against Media but i still manage to hate them. Reasons are: - Media is tracking Anna to the extent of which cell he has been kept in, what did he do at what hour, what did he say etc etc, but the same media has no clue on some bigger issues: -
a) Who did the bomb blasts in mumbai,
b) Why Kasab is happily eating away chicken in jail on my taxes (to top it all, i am a veggie!!!),
c) where did Sonia gandhi go and for treatment of which ailment?,
d) Rahul gandhi was caught at boston airport with 1600K USD and was detained by FBI, no news on that!!,
e) Rahul gandhi has a girl friend who is alledged to be a daughter of a mafia,
f) Sonia gandhi is having links with people who buy and sell old indian artifacts illegaly(actually her sister has a shop in Italy), etc etc.

Now after so many things, what pains me the most is that i am increasingly getting inclined towards the thought that nothing's gonna change the country. Anna, i am with you, and i would really want you to bring about the change, but some where deep in me, i have this belief that the goons are much bigger than you and that you would also be sucked into this blackhole of dirty politics and hence, we will restore the normal behaviour.

I know in my country people pay to be born, to be educated, to get a job, to get a promotion, to get a transfer, to get their pension, to get their proper medication and finally they even pay to be buried in proper place, its just normal that the paid money has to be earned too, its rampant and its at grass root level, corruption is way of being in india, one injection called Anna, isnt good enough to be cured, i guess we need a proper rehab!!

signing off!!

Males in my family

2011-05-31T01:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, after a long-ish pause, i decided to put down about the males in my family, each one of them is a legend in himself, humble, intelligent and someone to look upto. I always wondered where could someone like me, who happens to be so average in mental ability, draws inspiration to lead a decent living, and then i found out, God must be in a real good mood while creating me to have made me a part of such a family. Read through each of these profiles and you'd know the legacy that i belong to and the reason why i strive so much to become better each day.

1. Shri G. L. Sharma ji (dadaji): - Retired as a Joint director of eduction, member of AICTE technical panel, this man was born in a very small village in Baran distt in rajasthan. At the age of four he lost both his parents, had no place to go or live, decided to take the life to a different level. Started funding his own eduction when he was 10 yrs by giving tutions to kids of lesser age. Kept the flame burning till 65 (yes, he worked till this age). He wears nothing other than whites, washes his own clothes (till today, he is 87 yrs), keeps his room clean, wakes up at 5am every single day, take bath and gets ready by 6am. I am yet to come across a more disciplined person than him. A legend who rose from nowhere to the heights that are still beyond our reach, all by himself. Loves eating good food, reading (his taste is John Keats!!), and remembers every single thing of his life.

2. Shri L.N. Sharma ji (nanaji): - Retired as Head of the department, sanskrit faculty, University of Jodhpur, this man again was born to a very poor family who didnt even had money to buy him chappals leave alone books. He used to walk 30 kms bare feet with cloth tied to his legs to go to school in a near by town. Started funding his eduction by winning scholorships. Ensure that not only his eduction continues, but his brothers too get the light. Had just two pair of clothes when he was married. He reached the levels which we can only dream, he stood first in 10th board exams but since his % was less than 60 (Yes, the entire set of students who wrote board exams scored less than 60, i was amused when i heard it, then was stunned when i saw his certificates), he was not given a Gold medal, instead has a certificate from Governor with a mention. With earnings as less as 12 rupees per month (when he was a prof) he raised a family with so much values that its an achievement in itself.

** my grandpa and my nanaji are childhood buddies, they continue to draw inspiration from each others achievements.

3. Shri. P. K. Sharma (Papa): - A B. E. (Civil) graduate from MBM college of Engg, Jodhpur. He is a school in himself, i had written a seperate blog on his abilities. My idol, the person that i always want to be. You can read more about him here: - http://readcoziwrote.blogspot.com/2009/03/dads-promotion.html. One thing that most people dont know about him is that he was leader of NCC in jodhpur engg college, drove a battle tank during 71 war (NCC was used to provide supplies), had hit 50/50 with his 303 during his training days.

4. Shri. N. N. Dwivedi (Fufaji): - We are truly blessed to have him with us. I mean, its rare that you come across a person with so much of influencing ability, by his mere presence he can induce so much positive energy in you that you will be ready to take on the world even if you dont have limbs. No kidding, this man is the "best man" i have ever come across. He has huge amount of knowledge on Indian classical music, Bengal literature, English literature and Indian literature. He is a school in himself when it comes to learnings about life. Often i find myself at loss of words when i talk about him. He is definitely the man behind whatever little sense i have of literature and music. Really blessed to have him as a close member of my family.

5. Shri K.G.Gupta (Mamaji): - Forget about degrees and that he was responsible to bring up one entire unit of the biggest power plant in west india, forget about what he has achieved, he is single most loving father that i have ever come across. He has redifined family values for us. No matter whats the schedule, and no matter how much work pressure he is under, he would still greet us in the most loving way. He also redifined the Sister-brother relationship (he "chose" my mom to be his sister some 40 yrs ago and has ensured that none of her blood brothers stand a chance in front of him). He not only ensured that he and mamiji become the most important part of our lives, but also ensured that we connect with his kids as if we are all one. Truly blessed to have him around during my growing years. He is so expressive in his affection, that it makes everyone love him too. By the way, he is a Civil engineer from MBM engg college, Jodhpur and was with Thermal Power plant for his entire life.

6. Pankaj Khandelwal (Bhaiya): - IIT kanpur, IIM calcutta (Gold Medalist), Mckinsey... this man has achieved what every techie would like to achieve. Decided to leave his plush high paying job at Mck and started his own consulting company. Works in the agri sector and uses his brain for the good of farmers. I heard about his first speech to the farmers when he decided to take over the management of Desai fruits and vegetables, the speech left people in tears. He is one techie who has got his feet planted on the ground and achieves every single thing that he sets his eye on. A loving father, a patient brother, and a dedicate family man. Someone who continues to make us proud and show the path for last 20 yrs. If born again, if given a choice i would like to be born as him. :)

7. Piyush Khandelwal (Bhaiya): - He is one fellow who is the real"dude" despite being from a small town, Kota. He takes the bull by the horn and grooms it into his pet. Awesome attitude, sometime arrogant, but ready to rule the world all the time. I remember, even as a child he was always ambitious, and needless to mention that he is on a spree of achievements. IIT K happened first, next was Sapient, then INSEAD (Swiss) sealed it all. He is currently working as CTO of a tech company and with only sky as limit, this man has a long way to go. I wish i could have attitude like him. :)

8. Navendu Dwivedi: - It was not long ago when the world wrote him off, stating that even if this man could earn a decent living it would be God's grace. Little did they knew that in that small body and even smaller eyes, there was a fire to achieve the best. We have seen him stand whole night and run that machine by hand which was printing one paper at a time for an assignment of 3000 copies. Then the Laserprints happened for him, with his dedication, focus and efforts, he transformed Laserprints to what its today. He not only is making a good living for himself but also for his family. It will not be an exaggeration if i would mention that Laserprints, prints more than any other printing press in the entire 4 districts that surround my hometown. With the next level already in sight, he is all set to go higher in life. Someone who has redefined dedication, he is one of the strongest personalities that i have seen.

9. Rakesh Pachauri (Jiyaji): - Average life, made big, lost it all, got down with health, written off not once but atleast 4-5 times, this man is a real living "phoenix" who has the ability to rise even when the closest to him write him off. Undoubtedly the strongest personalities in all respect that i have ever seen. Everytime, world pushes him to the wall, he emerges stronger, wiser, humble, and rich. He is known his close quarters as someone who talks "hard", parties "harder", works "Hardest". Best thing about him, he is always same, whether he is struggling to meet the ends or whether he is having enough in life to even throw it on the road, he is just the same. He has been on my side for as far as i can remember. Whether its about sharing a dream or a drink, he is a person i always look upto. Rakesh jiyaji, loving di was one part, loving pupul was still ok.. but just a few days back i wrote to pupul that i want to come to delhi not for either of the two, but to spend sometime with you. That's how i place you in life.

10. The write up will not be complete without mentioning a few names which have strong influence on my life, Shri Sharad Dixit (kanwar sahib), Shri Dinesh Kaushik (Father in law), Ankit, Prasoon (munnu - there is a seperate blog on him too), Vaibhav Sharma, Ankur Suri. I have spent quality time with each one of the mentioned people. They have played a strong role in helping me making a personality that i am today.

Life's good, i am lucky and with so many people as path breakers and so much already achieved, its just normal for me to keep pushing my limits all the time. In order to stand amongst the "league of Gentlemen" mentioned above, i guess an average head like me needs to keep working hard. So much to learn, so many things to do and even more to achieve, the world is just a playground, and i know i got to be a good player to keep inheriting the knowledge that's available.

Feels great to be lucky enough to have been bron in a clan like this.

Self Appraisal and maturity to do so

2011-05-16T00:23:00.001-07:00

This might sound right out of the horse's mouth and full of sattire, but i believe this is single most important thing in current scenario. To know, your strength as they are and to be wise enough to list out your shortcomings will ensure that you remain successful in your entire duration of work life. Talking of appraisal's can leave a taste in mouth (bitter/sour/good is situational). Appraisal's are talk of the town around march-april time frames and every company does it in two ways. Self Appraisal - done by employee and then feedback - given by reporting authorities. This piece is more focussed towards the self appraisal part of it.

Increasingly Appraisal's are being seen as "weapons of career destruction" then its actual role. Appraisal's i believe are a very good way of assessing the year as it went by. Finding out what you wanted to achieve, how much did you achieve, and what should be done so that in the coming year, you end up achieving more than the previous year. The world is competitive and so its absolutely important for you to be on a continuous improvement drive.

Some individuals are wise enough to sit, understand and chalk out a plan for themselves, others (majority) are the ones who often feel disheartened, disgruntled, deffensive, depressed and disgusted after their appraisal. I often wonder, where is the gap and decided to write down my view on it.

1. Know yourself: - IT is one place which can easily be listed down as an area which employs largest group of "Average" minded people. There is nothing wrong in being average, and by no means i want to sound derogatory. But, no matter how much we argue, IT is the only place that couldve accomodated people like me with all the shortcomings that i have.

Hence, it becomes imperative for me to know myself. First of all, to understand that i am average, with lot of shortcomings. No, i dont have to be depressed with this thought, rather, it will be begining of a journey of self realisation and setting up proper expectations from myself. I believe, all of us average people need to know these three things: -

a) Whats my aim in life? (What i want to be?)
b) Whats the time frame that i have? (deadlines are extremly important?)
c) What it takes to be the person/role that i want to become? (personality traits)

Write answers to these three questions in black and white. Offcourse you can come back and make changes, but its important to write it down. Once you have done so, be honest and write down what you currently have in your personality. Once this gap analysis is done, open up your last two appraisals and see if you have missed anything. If everything is in order then it would mean that you have defined your boundaries and the target is set.

2. Talk/read about your aim: - One might aim for anything in the world, but its often important to check the possibility of achieving it. Doing a critical analysis of the aim is as important as choosing the aim itself. Now, who do you want to be your critic also is very important. You go to your friends and they pump you up with most amazing and "wasteful" energy and anything that Amitabh Bacchan can do on screen, you would dream to achieve. You go to your boss, and if in not in his senses, he might take you to the verge of suicide. Hence, selection of a mentor is so important in life. He/she can be anyone, from any field, but is best critic of you. The person should be irrational towards you, and someone who sees you from a distance and catches your ability. Now, i know its difficult to find someone like that, but trust me its most important.

You need to inteact with your mentor who does a critical analysis of your ability whenever you get time. It can be a discussion over tea, walk, breakfast table, or any where. The other most important thing is that you should be open in your discussion with the mentor and tell him/her everything that is in your mind.

3. Draw a chart: - Put up the three questions mentioned in point number 1, and post them at a place where you can see it regularly. It can by your handheld, laptop, desktop, anything. Important is to visit these on the pre-decided time frame.

The most important critic of you, is inside your head. The problem is most often its biased. The wise man are able to remove that bias from their head and hence they are able be on a continuous improvement cycle. It will be extremly important to be a wise man in life.

The other important thing is, the difference between a Asset and a liability. Its extremly important to understand the fundamental difference between these and needless to mention that be an Asset to the company. A liability does not hold a chance to negotiate for anything. Its ok if you are a liability for a short duration, but its extremly important to keep the duration short to avoid any unpleasant circumstances.

Will write more on this asset vs liability in my next write up.

To all the ladies in life

2011-04-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

Amidst all the news of Girl-boy ratio going down in the country, i decided to bring out a small paragraph about each of the women who have been related to me in close quarters and have impact on my personality. Guess, this is a direct indicator to those who think women arent good and that they are not needed.

1. Dr.(Mrs) Vimla Sharma, MA, Ph.D: My mom: - She holds three Gold medals, First rank in University in BA, First Rank in University in MA, and Governors Gold medal for over all First rank in University. I guess this is maximum that anyone can achieve and hence a huge motivational factor. A loving mother, a caring wife and a hugely intelligent person.

2. Mrs. Purnima Khandelwal (Rawat): - Bhabhi: - An MBA from T.A.Pai Management institute, is Director and Co-founder of a consulting company called InI Consulting in Bombay, undoubtedly the "Men" amongst "Men". Courageous, intelligent, hard working, hugely intelligent, a loving and caring mother, and most certainly someone to look upon.

3. Mrs. Pooja Dixit (Sharma): - Sister: - MA - English, MJMC, the first one to achieve "All round best" and "Cultural best" in the same year in a college which is about 35 yrs old. Held various positions before quiting everything for family. Extremly talented dancer, loving sister and a very caring mother. Hugely courageous and very professional in her approach.

4. Mrs Gunjan Khandelwal (Gupta): - Bhabhi: - IIT Kanpur graduate, worked in companies like Infosys and Sapient. She has been a true source of inspiration when it comes to the IT industry. A loving bhabhi, and a someone who gets along very well.

5. Mrs. Nidhi Kaushik: - Wife: - A B.E. graduate in Electronics, working with HP for last 6.5yrs. An avid dancer, thorough professional and someone who leads by example. Moved from J2ee to SAP without any hassle, shows her mental strength and capability.

6. Ms. Pupul Pachauri: - Neice: - Recent addition to this list, the lady has achieved a feat that is rare, she has been selected for an initiative by HCL where in she will be creating, maintaining and running a Social Organisation in the field of Animal Welfare. Vineet Nayar, Chethan Bhagat, the lady already has a growing list of achievers has her friends.

7. Naniji: - A mother of 7 kids and a wife of a very humble man, she ensured that all her kids are properly educated and do not lack discipline in life. She was the one who held together my Nanaji's house and took over the entire responsibility of his brothers and kids equally.

8. Dadiji: - A mother of 7 kids, a wife of an absolute disciplined man, extremly loving and caring mother, a beautiful daadi and a very strong lady. She is sketched in my memory like no one else. She is an extremly important part of my memories, most of the memories that i have either start from her, or end at her. I miss her dearly.

9. Pihu: - She is my neice, the one that i love the most, though i do not get chance to spend time with her, but guess our bond is strong. She loves me a lot and i love her a lot. She is one very pretty girl who has very strong pedigree, i am sure she is going to make me very proud.

10. Kuhu, jiya, hiya, bulbul, Nunnu: - Neices, all of them are extremly pretty and loving. They have been the center of our world for a long time now. I love you all very much and hope that i can get a chance to spend time with you all as much as i did with Pihu.

11. Sonu jiji, Babloo jiji, Sangeeta bhabhi: - Three of you have been path-breakers and really strong women in your own respect. Each of these ladies have capability to not only influence you with their charisma but also have immense ability to be a strong leader. They have ensured that their home remains a model home for everyone to see. Kids being disciplined, an extremly beautiful house, execptionally managed expectations, everything. These ladies are undoubtedly are the role models for the next generations of mothers/Wife's/sister's/aunt's who have used their hard earned degree's to shape up their houses.

12. Bhuaji: - Mention itself brings a smile to my face, she has been so loving that we are ready to go to her place at anytime, and mind you, whatever be the time, you cant leave her place without a sumptious meal. One of the most beautiful lady that i have ever seen in my life she is also extremly caring. I am so happy and blessed to have someone like her in life.

13. Mamiji: - I do not have to mention the name here either, for the simple reason that when i say mamiji, it only means that i am refering to her (believe me i would easily have 10 others!!). She is the one who has the most powerful influence on us. By her simplicity and her impeccable focus towards things, she has ensured that each of her kid becomes the biggest achiever not only in the family but trust me, in the entire city. Each of her kids have achieved what most of us just dream to achieve and people close to her know, that if her kids effort were there, there was also a pillar of strength alongside. Mamiji, i have immense respect for you, just that these days with so much distances and nonsenses around, i do not get time to be with you like i used to be when i was a kid.

14. Mummy (Mother in law): - Her reference is important, i just met her about 3 years back and one thing which struck to me was her inner strength and will power. She is one lady who can easily influence you with her capabilities. No doubt Nidhi has never been off-course in her life. I owe a lot in my life to her.

15. There are several other females who had influence on me, but my write-up would not be complete without mentioning this one name, Payal Rungta, the real woman of substance, i owe atleast 70% of my achievements in career to her. A BITS graduate, fearless, street smart, focussed, and super intelligent techie girl that i have come across. Married to love of her life, Gaurav, she is now managing her house and office with equal proficiency.

After this, there have been some more who have a strong influence on my personality, Ramya (Write up on you has to wait.. :)!! ), Devi Chakraborty, Megha Gupta, Meenakshi Rungta, Kavita Satish, Sapna Gowda, Shweta Gupta, Shubhi Singh, my other Aunts, ladies in the family, few other friends etc. I have been really blessed to have come across so many shades of women in life.

One thing is hard pressed, there is no life without Women, no happiness without them and there is no future either. Please respect every women who you come across and ensure that she gets her well deserved place. Women are important and integral part of our lives, without them, our existance is in danger. So if you have a girl child, be blessed coz you will get an opportunity of a lifetime when you do the "Kanyadaan" coz there is nothing bigger than that.

Kaisi uljhan!!

2011-03-01T11:14:00.001-08:00

Jeevan ka woh hissa,jo kabhi jiya tha,
Kahin daba tha mann ke kisi kone mein,
zindagi darti rahi, bhulane ki koshish karti rahi,
har pal, har samay isi uljhan mein kaata
kya maine hi jiya tha woh hissa?

isi koshish mein guzar gaye kuch aur saal,
kuch aur patjhad, kuch aur saawan
kuch aur sharad kuch aur jheth,
dhara aur gagan bhi upni gati se chaltey rahey,
samay to hamesha se hi saathi tha,
usi ka haath thaame, main badta gaya,
na himmat thi aur na hi himakat,
ki mud paata pukar paata un lamhon ko,
jo kabhi jeevan ka hissa they.

Jiya tha jinhe maine bharpoor,
har lamha yaad hai, accha-bura-bahut bura, sab;
woh din they sacchi jawani ke,
undino sab kuch sambhav tha,
dosti, yaari, pyar sab tha aur bas sab kuch sirf saccha tha,
bas woh din.

Ab nikla hun talashne, un bikhre palon ko,
koshish hai sametne ki,
ek baar fir utni hi ghabrahat hai,
utna hi darr,
kya pehchaan payega woh samay mujhe?
darr is baat ka bhi hai,
ki kahin pehchana hi nahin gaya to?

dil dhundhta hai fir wohi... fursat ke raat din!!!

World Cup: Some good some bad

2011-02-15T14:16:00.000-08:00

HERE, CRICKET WON! West Indies played Pakistan in a must-win match in 1987 and Courtney Walsh was bowling the last over. With one ball left, the tension was at fever pitch and non-striker Saleem Jaffar was backing up too far. Walsh could have run him out and won the game for West Indies, but this gentleman cricketer warned the batsman instead and walked back to his mark to bowl again, a gesture that saw his side losing the match but won him many fans for sporting behaviour.

THE FAMOUS FROG JUMP! In the 1992 clash between India and Pakistan, 'bad boy' Javed Miandad got a taste of his own medicine and got miffed at the constant appealing by Kiran More. Miandad started jumping up and down like a frog, imitating Kiran More's appeal. Pure comedy!

RIDICULOUS RAIN RULE: During the 1992 semifinal, South Africa needed 22 off 13 balls against England to reach the final in their very first World Cup. But after a brief rain delay, the target was reduced to a farcical 21 off one ball to end their hopes!

NOT A 'WINNING' SPEECH, THIS! After Pakistan won the trophy in 1992, captain Imran Khan only talked about his upcoming cancer hospital and didn't mention his teammates even once in his acceptance speech. It miffed quite a few in Pakistan

MISPLACED CONCERNS? During the 1996 World Cup, Australia and West Indies refused to travel to Sri Lanka citing security concerns even though the International Cricket Council (ICC) considered it a safe venue. Eventually, Sri Lanka were awarded both games on forfeit.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE, LITERALLY! It still remains a mystery why Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin chose to field in the 1996 semifinal against Sri Lanka. India had to pay a heavy price and with defeat looming large, the crowd at Eden Gardens disrupted the match. The match was later awarded to Sri Lanka because of the rioting crowd. Cricket lovers still remember the image of Vinod Kambli weeping uncontrollably on the field!

TECH TROUBLE: In the 1999 World Cup match against India, South African captain Hansie Cronje wore an ear-plug on the field to take instructions from coach Bob Woolmer. Later, the match referee asked Cronje to remove it.

CATCH IT, GIBBS! In a crucial game against South Africa in 1999, Steve Waugh hit the ball straight to Herschelle Gibbs who caught it initially but threw up the ball into the air in celebration before he had full control of it, and dropped it. It proved costly, as Waugh scored an unbeaten hundred and Australia went on to win the match.

GILLY'S WALK OF FAME: In the 2003 semifinal against Sri Lanka, Australian opener Adam Gilchrist decided to walk even though the umpire had ruled him not out, a decision that stunned many! Like Walsh, he too won over many fans for his behaviour.

THEY GOT THEIR MATHS WRONG!
In a must-win, rain-hit game against Sri Lanka in 2003, South African team management got their revised target wrong ( Mark Boucher was the on-field batsman) and thanks to the calculation blunder, the game ended in a tie, which saw South Africa crashing out of the tournament!

ARMBAND PROTESTS: In 2003, Zimbabwean players Henry Olonga and Andy Flower wore black armbands for their tournament opener while "mourning the death of democracy in Zimbabwe". Besides, England didn't travel to Zimbabwe and New Zealand didn't travel to Kenya because of security concerns.

'SHAME' WARNE! Champion leg-spinner Shane Warne was tested positive for a banned drug just hours before Australia's first match against Pakistan in 2003, leading to a one-year ban of the player.

A BIG TRAGEDY: After Pakistan suffered a shock defeat against Ireland in 2007, Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was found dead in mysterious circumstances in his hotel room in Jamaica, lying in a pool of vomit. It completely shook up the cricket world.

AND THIS TIME... Even before the 2011 edition has started, Eden Gardens is in news for the wrong reasons. The India-England match has been shifted to Bangalore thanks to the delay in construction work at the venue.

Thanks TOI and Soumitra Das

Travelogue

2011-01-03T05:55:00.000-08:00

I had rarely imagined this day would ever be a part of my life. Life has been on the move ever since I graduated out of my college. First it was cities on the western side of my country, then it became a constant travel between the different states on western, eastern and southern part of the country and since last 6 months, it has gone international.

I have stayed in two countries so far – USA and Mexico, and have had transits in two others namely, UK (LHR) and Germany (FRA). The travel seems to have returned to me with a vengeance.

By my basic nature I am true taurian, someone who isn’t bothered about too many things at one time. My basics tell me to be lazy and relaxed, which is only achievable if I remain at one place and not be on the run.

However, life has a different thought, fresh out of college, I had to be at different places coz I was in search of a job. So I shuffled between, Delhi, Bombay, Gurgaon, Noida, Kota (my native), Jaipur, etc before settling down in Bombay for a short duration. This ended when I came to Bangalore and settled there for a while.

Another opportunity was waiting for me to be taken up at Bombay and I moved there again. From the day I moved for my second stint to Bombay, I was rarely at a place. I shuffled between Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand etc. This gave me a whole different perspective of my own country and the fact that how beautiful and dangerous it is.

After I became dead tired of these constant travels across the length and breadth of the country, I decided to give myself a little rest and came back to Bangalore. Life remained seated for a long duration of 2 years. I was at ease and there wasn’t much to be bothered about. There were limited things to take care of and limited scope for things in life.

I moved again, this time to a much smaller setup in IT, and more of work. I never knew that travel is waiting for me. Project came; I took ownership and travel returned in life. India-Frankfurt-USA-Mexico-USA-Frankfurt-India-Heathrow-USA. This is the travel incurred by me in last 5 months starting Aug-10 till 1-Jan-11.

Now I do not hate travel, but I hate the tiredness it brings with it and the constant uneasiness with new people, new places, new food habits and temperatures. This adaptability is something I am yet to learn and implement in my life.

On a different note, its actually fun to be a traveler, particularly when its travel around the world. You get an opportunity to see so many new things, so many new people and such beautiful things across. I guess, thanks to being in IT that I have been able to get this in life.

I have listened to Swami Vivekannada’s speech at Parliament of Religion. He had clearly mentioned a story of a Frog from well and a frog from ocean. Guess, this travel across the world is transforming a frog of the well into a frog of the ocean, bigger, brighter and stronger perspective towards life.

Cyber coolie

2010-11-29T11:04:00.001-08:00

When I first heard this phrase, it took me by surprise, primarily because I have considered myself lucky to be in an ever “booming” industry. I might sound cynical but this is the only industry that gives “average” people a chance to dress up in whites, sit in AC-ied offices, drive cars at the age of 26 yrs, travel to different places around the globe, flash costly mobile phones and have the audacity to ask for more money every year and never talk of the “quality” of the work that they did.

Yes, I am a part of this industry for I will not be fitting anywhere else; I am pretty sure about myself that I won’t fit on a shop floor of a manufacturing industry, or even in a constant pressure accounting firm which deals in stocks. For some reason, I could never use the most popular phrase in IT industry in front of my dad who has been a civil engineer for 30 yrs now. The phrase most of you have guessed by now is “I work so hard”. I mean what are we talking about, we work hard!!! Sitting on a cushioned chair, having 3 may be 4 coffee breaks, listening to mp3s while we do something on a machine that is made to perform as per its user!! Gosh!!.

Ok, I deviated a little from the topic, coming back to what made me write this article is my recent trip to “THE USA”. Now, there is a reason why I wrote THE USA in bold, the reason is for apparently some reason (I am not sure what!!) we have such a big picture of this country where we are treated nothing more than the inhabitants from the category of Blacks or Mexicans. Now before you jump off your chair to beat me up for this racist thing, visit USA and read the looks on faces of “Americans”.

Again I deviated, ok; I will try to focus now. “Cyber coolie” was a phrase that I heard from a colleague on the current project, and needless to say it made an immediate connection with me. What else would you call someone who works on Computers, for 16-18 hours, has no personal life and no say in anything?

Let me break it down for further understanding, in older days when we were being ruled by British, Indians were used as slaves to do hard work like lifting blocks, and moving goods, in short “coolies”. British left us and we Indians grew and travelled to different countries and got settled in there. We started considering ourselves to be equivalent of whites/British – Rulers. We started exporting people from India to these remote destinations at the behest of good life and little money. We made them work like dogs, paid them peanuts and ensured that they do not have any say in anything. So, we transformed the whole thing into a glamorous world of coolies. “Cyber Coolies”

My worst fears and thoughts have come true with my maiden trip to USA. I was someone who was always convinced that life is better off in India, but I couldn’t gather enough points to debate, hence whenever people used to talk about USA, I used to stand defeated. Now I can definitely go back and talk about it.
There is nothing wrong with USA but what’s wrong is our perception of this country. It’s a very normal place, trust me, they are just ahead of us – Indians, maybe a little more disciplined, and definitely more focused. But not something that we can’t achieve if only we forget about what’s cooking in Khanna sahib’s home or what Mrs Sharma is wearing tonight , etc.

In short, we are cyber coolies and will remain so, unless people who are at the top by virtue of they having first mover advantage start having a bigger perspective in life then just exploiting people. We Indians are at the top of most organizations and increasingly world is recognizing us, lets break the shackles of exploiting our own people and garner some respect. Let’s behave a little more matured then “I am in USA to earn some money for home”. Let’s stop looking for 1USD=44INR, let’s stop “assuming” that I am American just because I am in America for “You can take a man out of the country, but you can never take a country out of a man”. I will and always remain an Indian, no matter where I am and what I am, and I should never forget this.

Sachin.... A legend

2010-10-16T05:38:00.000-07:00

I get really amazed looking at the world when it comes to critizing sachin and undermining his achievements. So, i have brought together some of the best quotations available on him. Whats the biggest noticeable point is that these quotes are from his contemporaries, seniors, journalists and fans all across the globe..including BBC... so here i go...
---------------

“Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the world. “
- Allan Donald

“I was bowling to Sachin and he hit me for two fours in a row. One from point and the other in between point and gully. That was the last two balls of the over and the over after that we (SA) took a wicket and during the group meeting i told Jonty (Rhodes) to be alert and i know a way to pin Sachin. And i delivered the first ball of my next over and it was a fuller length delevery outside offstump. And i shouted catch. To my astonishment the ball was hit to the cover boundary. Such was the brilliance of Sachin. His reflex time is the best i have ever seen. Its like 1/20th of a sec. To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast u wont regret if he hits you for boundaries.”
-From Allan Donald’s interview in Cricket Talk.

“On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!!”
- Peter Rebouck – Aussie Journalist

“Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what (Mahatma) Gandhiji was to politics. It’s clear discrimination.”
-NKP Salve, former Union Minister. This was when he was accused of ball tempering.

“There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others.”
-Andy Flower

“I think he will fit in whatever category of cricket that has been played.. He can play in any era and at any level. I would say he is 99.5 % perfect.”
-Vivan Richards

“Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting, they will go unnoticed, bcouz even Lord is busy watching him play”
-A banner in Sydney by the Australian fans

“Nothing bad can happen to us if we’re on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it.”
-Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a flight

“Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job.”
-Yaseer Hameed

“To Sachin, the man we all want to be”
- What Andrew Symonds wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin

“Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives”
-BBC on Sachin

“Tuzhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?”
-Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin’s catch during the India Pakistan match in the 2003 World Cup.

“Sachin is a genius. I’m a mere mortal.”
-Brian Charles Lara

“We did not lose to a team called India…we lost to a man called Sachin”
-Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)

“The more I see of him the more confused I’m getting to which is his best knock.”
-M. L. Jaisimha

“The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility -all make for a one-in-a-billion individual”
-Glenn McGrath

“I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play.”
-Anjali, Sachin’s Wife

“I HAVE SEEN GOD, HE BATS AT NO.4 FOR INDIA”
-MATHEW HAYDEN - I feel this is one of the best SACHIN QUOTE

“Even my father’s name is Sachin Tendulkar.”
-Tendulkar’s daughter, Sara, tells her class her father’s name after the teacher informs
them of a restaurant of the same name in Mumbai.

“I am fortunate that I’ve to bowl at him only in the nets!”
-ANIL KUMBLE

Question: Who do you think as most important celebrity ?
Shahrukh: There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricket were invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachhan. Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the GENIUS!!
-A quote of Shahrukh Khan from one of his interviews

“India me aap PrimeMinister ko ek Baar Katghare me khada kar sakte hain..Par Sachin Tendulkar par Ungli nahi utha Sakte..”
-Navjot Singh Sidhu

“He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also .”
-Waqar Younis

“I WILL SEE GOD WHEN I DIE BUT TILL THEN I WILL SEE SACHIN “
-Displayed on a banner at a cricket ground

Ayodhya Verdict

2010-09-29T03:12:00.000-07:00

I had never thought that i would be promoting this anytime in life, but looks like Sri Harivansh Rai Bacchan has thought of this day much earlier in life. Today we stand at a juncture where i feel uncomfortable to talk to few of my friends for the religion stands like a wall in front of us.

I have always believed in the lines "Mazhab nahin sikhata aapas main bair karna" (Religion never teaches/preaches hatred). But guess whatever be the verdict today, the religion would have sowed in the deep rooted hatred in few of the hearts which would take ages to be cleaned up.

Hence, quoting my favorite lines from Bacchan Sahab's Madhushala,

मुसलमान औ' हिन्दू है दो, एक, मगर, उनका प्याला,
एक, मगर, उनका मदिरालय, एक, मगर, उनकी हाला,
दोनों रहते एक न जब तक मस्जिद मन्दिर में जाते,
बैर बढ़ाते मस्जिद मन्दिर मेल कराती मधुशाला!

What makes USA a different place then India?

2010-08-31T11:41:00.001-07:00

This is an obvious question, and almost everyone who happens to be either an Indian or a US citizen who has been to India will have opinion. However, I would still like to present my thoughts around it. I have been here for close to a month and though I have primarily worked all this time I could still sense some difference which is apparent.

1. Attitude of “being USA”: - “It’s not a third world country it’s USA” so what even if every citizen has a burden of USD42000 on their head due to federal losses. The attitude is killing, they never think that they “can’t”, every possible thing in the world is do-able. Now if we come to sit and think of it, guess it’s the attitude that makes you take first few steps. We as Indians are too much worried about “My bad luck”, “My destiny”, etc. and our favorite quote being “I tried hard but couldn’t make it”. These statements are something that you would never hear in here. It’s simply a sense of feeling that I belong to the strongest country in the world.

2. Population: - Now do I even need to write in here, guess, yes. I agree we are over 1billion and USA is much less with much more area, but the point that I want to make is, here too they have queues, traffic jams, cluttered shopping areas, etc. What is remarkable is their respect of being “you” which is very different then being an “I”. In India, we just do not have respect for people. I have never understood this in my entire life, why we do not have patience? I have never understood why we can’t ride our bikes straight? Or why we have to take a U turn where there is no U Turn, why do we have to throw the garbage on roads?

I agree the USA has better facilities, not that they do not have problems, but they respect the stuff.

3. The non negotiable approach: - My AC was leaking and the person in the apartment below was facing a problem. Hence, we received a repair-man at 12am to mend the AC. The fellow came in opened the duct (kept saying sorry for disturbing but kept working!!) and used the adhesive to fix the problem, he kept trying until the problem was fixed which was in about 15 mins. He kept sorry to us during this whole duration. First of all in india, it’s impossible to find a repair-man at that hour (despite we having so many people and no money no one will come to work at that hour!!) and second if he will come in, it’s impossible that he would say sorry to you for disturbing.

Guys, before you jump to conclusions that I am favoring USA, let me tell you I have always admired the way these guys work. The admiration has reached a different level with my onsite visit, however, I would be hugely proud and happy if even we get to these levels in our life.

Moto, change the Attitude.
• India’s economy has grown much more then USA
• India has best brain and best workforce
• It’s Indians who are running most of the companies in here
• It’s Indians who are becoming rich by the day!!

While riches can be earned, attitude can’t be, it either has to be home grown or live without it.

Lufthansa and the trip to USA

2010-08-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

When I was very young, about 8-10 yrs of age, I heard someone talk “That uncle has just returned from foreign”. My small mind did a calculation, and decided that like India, Pakistan, USA, etc, foreign is also a country. My knowledge about geography was very poor :- ). Then some more countries got added to my world but foreign remained to be a big country where if someone goes then he returns with lots of money. This foreign dilemna got sorted much later in life. :)

Life moved on, I got introduced to Lufthansa, at first, it was the name that got my attention for being different, and then as I read more, I came to know that Lufthansa is the best carrier in the world for air passengers. I made an uncertain prayer to God that if I have to ever travel, please make me board it.

One day much later, about two months back from now, my boss called me and asked me to get ready for a USA trip. I almost ran back to my desk and search for tickets on Lufthansa. They were very costly, I suffered a heart break. I kept my patience, and kept holding on to that prayer of a kid who wanted to board a Lufthansa. Then the project dates kept delaying and uncertainty kept longing on. I kept my focus on the project asking God for all the help and energy that He can grant me with.

The dates kept changing and so were the flights, it was june and continental, july and some other carriers. Finally, things started rolling very fast and I was told to board a flight in one week’s time. I got busy with lot of work. One day, I received an email from HR manager, asking me if I am ok with a certain itinerary. Since I was busy, I said to her that anything is fine. Then in a break, I went and saw the tickets, gosh!! It was with Lufthansa. I ran 3 floors and straight into the cabin of Komala (my HR manager) to check if this is true. She looked perplexed about a 30 something man behaving like a kid, but she said, yes it is and you are going to travel with Lufthansa. I couldn’t believe that something of this sort is happening with me. I called up Nidhi and told her about it, she was excited too coz she knew about my thoughts. Then in a while when the whole excitement cooled a bit, I told komala about dream of a child that came true. She was excited too and was happy.

Though I had to focus on lot of work, I let myself bask in some glory of returning back to India in a Lufthansa. Then, the day came, when I had to actually board the flight. The plane was huge, a 71 mts jumbo jet. I couldn’t stop grinning, and kept on saying hello to everyone. I was so excited that I almost forgot to read the in-flight magazine. I had heard that economy class on long haul flights is not very comfortable, but I guess, it was due to my excitement that I didn’t find it tiring or maybe it was not the case with Lufthansa.

They served me good food, good tea, etc. I tried my hands onto some red wine too. The flight was very smooth and never shook at all. It climbed up to 38000ft and for most part of the journey remained at that level. The only turbulence we encountered was when we were descending for IAD. The touch downs and take offs were very smooth and the in-flight TV kept showing the route for us.

Exciting as it might be, I was very charged up when I landed at the IAD. Quickly went through immigration checks and was on my way to my apartment. Rest is all good, thanks to God to get me a chance to fly with my dream carrier and thanks to Komala for arranging whole of this.

Idexcel or a life changing experience

2010-08-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

It was about 11 months back when I decided to leave my most loved organization MindTree. The initial thought was to get into a better role and some more money. I used to be very frustrated in those days and kept burning my red blood cells for no reasons. This was until one fine day (read completely done bearing my frustration!!) my wife decided to help me out. The thing that was a mere hit on a website eventually turned out to be one of the better experiences in life. Hold on!! I am going to talk about that too.

So, one fine day, my lovely wifey-Nidhi, who was more bothered then me coz I was so much frustrated, decided to give my job hunting priority over her office work and used her office hours to find out a better place to work for me. What resulted was a call from a certain Mr Srinivas (he is now a very good friend!!) for a un-heard, un-seen company called E2S Corp(now called as Idexcel Inc). He wanted to know if I am interested in a bigger, better position and a new place to work for. I decided to take a shot at this; I went met few wonderful people and decided to call it quits at MT.

My first day (I still very clearly remember that day) was full of surprises for me. No formal induction, no signing of too many documents, a neatly arranged machine, a clean bottle of drinking water, a notepad and a pen was arranged for me. Felt a little good until the day progressed, for some reason I was feeling out of place. Before I could release one month had passed and it was time for collecting bigger paycheck. Worst!! It got delayed, I was nervous, I was anxious and I was very scared. But I kept it to myself. Kept saying to inner self, things are going to improve and Nidhi kept holding on to my ever increasing frustration and now depression.

The salary came, and so did peace of mind. Thereafter, there was no looking back, things started to roll. One crisis after another, long working hours, fights and fights at office start becoming a daily routine. I started wondering if that’s how the life would remain. In walked my current boss, Kannan. A man of super capability someone who comes with huge amount of patience and diligence. He started guiding me towards new learnings. I was again finding the lost focus. With him being around, I had little to worry, one of the first things that he ensured was to get our faith in the company which until then was slightly shaky.

Projects began to become a little more stable, QA started earning respect within the company and then we bagged a big project - Mexico National Id for system testing. With this project, I decided to pull myself up and try and reach to next level. I always knew that kannan was backing me up and hence that fear of failure started to become less each passing day. One thing that I realized during this whole course was that if you have some kind of a shield from fear, then you can be confident of being successful.

This project gave us a new pathway, new learning and then the biggest break for most of us. A trip to client side to USA. I would be lying if I say that the thought of going to USA wasn’t exciting, but I would also like to tell you that it was the feeling that I am going to lead a team being at US that gave me super energy to be upbeat about it.

I have always admired the way people at USA operate, they are so much more professional then us, they are so much focused towards their work and aim. This project gave me a chance to learn and see it all very closely. As I am writing this blog, I am Frankfurt airport, waiting to board my connecting flight to IAD-Washington dulles airport.

I don’t think I will ever forget what nidhi said before I departed from home. She said “one year back we were struggling to remain afloat amidst all financial/personal crisis and see today you are ready to board a flight to USA trying to get where you always wanted to be. Whole of this is changed because of Idexcel. I think we must be thankful to them”. And I said, indeed I will be and I will try to ensure that this project remains sketched to be one of the better managed projects.

Thanks Idexcel was making me reach a little closer to my dream!!.

Change and its inevitable nature

2010-05-31T01:24:00.000-07:00

For a while now, i have been hooked to things that relate to "How to manage change?". And i am sure all you people who visit my blog would've noticed this paradigm shift. As a basic personality, i hate changes to the max. Changes related to location, job, professional life, personal life, home, etc. Being a true taurian, i like to be in a comfort zone of myself. But you bet, life is a movement of "constant change".

Now though it might sound as an Oxymoron but the entire bunch of inspiring personalities would like to agree with me. Change is inevitable. Change is out there every single second. Change is happening even when you don't want it to happen, or you are not participating in its happening. A change within you, a change around you, and a change that you do not control.

How do you cope with it? How much change is cop-able? How to identify the thresholds beyond which you would start getting uncomfortable and how to control it well with in the thresholds?

I guess answers to these questions are not constant, but will vary from person to person. Each one of us need to provide an answer to ourselves in order to keep cool and keep adapting to that change.

Following steps might help: -
1) Change focus – look for the positive aspects of the world. Remember, world is as you see it.

2) Get into a continuous education program, learn coz i) there is no limit to it, ii) it is such a pleasurable thing, remember the kindergarten days!!

3) Start your day with a positive thought: - Thank Almighty for giving you a new day, open your eyes and join hands in gratitude

4) Take ownership: - Ownership helps people accept and learn from their mistakes.

5)Commitment: - Be committed to your work, even if you might not get instant success, keep walking the same path with as much confidence as you had when you started

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. - Vince Lombardi

6) Character: - Never trade off with your character. Even if you are in dire circumstances, don't leave. Even if life is pushing you hard, never quit.

7) Be positive: - There is no medicine for being negative and worst is that being negative gives you nothing!!!

And last but not the least, the Prayer!!

God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change and courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.

Change management

2010-05-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hi All,
I came across this article on CitemanHR forum. This article is by far the best one, that i have come across, on the topic of "change management". Please take out sometime and read it through. At the end, the learning would be wonderful.

Regards
Deepak
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Priti and the Stubborn frog

Priti is studying MBA in a reputed college; she is smart, beautiful and intelligent. She scores very good marks in her exams and keenly participates in extra curricular activities. All her lecturers are fond of her but she is fond of one lecturer by the name of ‘Raj’. She never misses a single class of his.

One day Raj was describing “how change is a vital & important component of organizational survival?” He used various examples to demonstrate this point. He gave example of Internet, which is constantly changing and many organizations have failed to embrace change and therefore have suffered massive consequences. AOL (American Online) is the pioneer in the field of Internet connectivity; it was the dominant player in the field of ‘Dial-up connections’. But later on it failed to upgrade itself and lost its battle as better technologies such as Broadband, Wireless came to the fore front. A similar example is that of IBM (International Business Machine); which was the dominant player in 1980s’ in the computer (Mainframe) industry. It was twice the size of Microsoft and DELL put together. But it failed to cope up with the change as semiconductor technology improved giving rise to the production of PCs. And it slowly lost its market dominance to smaller rivals such as DELL, HP & Apple.

Similarly in the 21st Century the Book retailers suffered a major set back. Companies like Borders, WaterStones etc. saw a massive decline in profit as buyers took their custom to online book retailers like Amazon.

Priti after hearing this could not digest the point. She was thinking to herself how come these large companies failed in analyzing such small things? Is it not silly? These companies hire the best brains in the industry and they are not stupid. She is running through a lot of questions and could not totally agree with the Lecturer’s point of view.

After the class she went up to ‘Raj’ and queried about it. Raj knew that this is not easy for students to understand and he is glad that someone is making an effort to understand this.

Priti: ‘Sir! I love your lectures’
Raj: ‘I am glad, thank you’
Priti: ‘However organizations failing to recognize change sound a bit silly to me?’
Raj: ‘Priti! You want to understand this’
Priti nodded in agreement
Raj: ‘You have to do a little experiment to understand this’, ‘Are you willing to do this?’
Priti: ‘Yes! Of course’
Raj: ‘Think again, before committing’
Priti: ‘Sir! I will do it’
Raj: Then listen carefully
‘Take a frog and put it in a kettle & then put the kettle on gas and turn it on slowly till it reaches a maximum. And observe what is happening?

Priti is surprised and thought that Raj is kidding. She with her raised eyebrow asked ‘Are you serious?’

I am 100% came the reply from Raj.

Priti went home that day and decided to carry out the experiment. She is afraid of frogs but ordered their maid to catch one for her. She then repeated the experiment as exactly detailed by Raj. She thought that as soon the frog is put in the kettle and put on the gas it will jump out of it.

She slowly turned the gas on and to her surprise the frog did not jump out. She thought to her may be it is not that hot and definitely the frog will jump out soon. She increased the heat slowly and yet the frog did not jump out. Every time she increased the heat, she saw some movement from frog but later it sat comfortably. When the gas was at its full might, the heat became unbearable even for Preeti to stand next to the gas. The frog finally tried to jump out of the kettle. However it was too late by that time; although it had a thick skin but it was turning pale. Preeti in a bid to save the frog switched off the gas quickly. She was feeling bad that she would have killed the frog by doing this experiment & was in fact blaming Raj for this.

The next day she went straight to Raj and described the situation. Raj laughed and laughed. Preeti on the other hand was rather shocked by Raj’s behavior. Later on Raj calmed down and explained her following:

“See Preeti this is what happens to companies as well. Imagine the frog to be a giant company, the kettle as the industry in which the company is operating and the heat as the change that is taking place. So when the heat (change) is less the frog (Company) thinks it is pretty comfortable within its industry. And with every increase in heat (change) the frog (Company) gets adjusted to the heat and remains ideally seated rather than reacting to change. And suddenly when the heat is at its peak the frog (company) realizes that it is loosing ground and tries to react by jumping but for many that is already too late.”

Preeti is looking mesmerized as Raj continued:

“Every organization over the course develops a fundamental way of thinking and acting that is called organization culture. And after a certain period this becomes the guiding principle for organization as if it is a myth and can not be changed. This stifles creativity, restricts flow of new ideas to business and makes it blind to the changes happening around. Therefore in Chinese they say if you meet someone after a gap of 3 days you must point out the changes in him/her; as we often are unaware of the changes happening to us. “

Preeti now understands the importance of change and how it is easy for companies to miss it. She does not regret doing the silly experiment but most importantly she has learned the lesson of her life “To survive you have to be aware of the change and prepare to deal with it”. May be this deals with the Darwinian principle of

‘Survival of the fittest’.
------------------

This article is written by ©Prof Raj D, MAMS (UK), ME (UK), BE (E&T); CEO & Head Trainer YouSucceed

Dont Quit

2010-05-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

Came across this poem while going through a ppt from Shiv Khera on Managing the Change.
Worth a read..

------

When things go wrong,
As they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far ;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

The Ant Philosophy

2010-05-13T02:00:00.001-07:00

Three of the best stories I came across

2010-04-26T04:34:00.000-07:00

We learn a lot through our experiences in life.
The following 3 examples of TURTLES, FROGS and THE PRETTY LADY teach us some lesson.
Enjoy reading the same and do ponder over them.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* *********
The Turtles

A turtle family decided to go on a picnic. The turtles, being naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outing. Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable place. During the second year of their journey they found a place ideal for them at last!

For about six months they cleaned the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the arrangements. Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell. He agreed to go on one condition: that no one would eat until he returned. The family consented and the little turtle left.

Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years...six years... then on the seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich. At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting, 'See! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the salt.'

[Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we do not do anything ourselves.]

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* *********
The Frogs

A farmer came into town and asked the owner of a restaurant if he could use a million frog legs. The restaurant owner was shocked and asked the man where he could get so many frog legs! The farmer replied, 'There is a pond near my house that is full of frogs - millions of them. They all croak all night long and they are about to make me crazy!' So the restaurant owner and the farmer made an agreement that the farmer would deliver frogs to the restaurant, five hundred at a time for the next several weeks.

The first week, the farmer returned to the restaurant looking rather sheepish, with two scrawny little frogs. The restaurant owner said, 'Well... where are all the frogs?' The farmer said, 'I was mistaken. There were only these two frogs in the pond. But they sure were making a lot of noise!'

[ Next time you hear somebody criticizing or making fun of you, remember, it's probably just a couple of noisy frogs. Also remember that problems always seem bigger in the dark. Have you ever laid in your bed at night worrying about things which seem almost overwhelming like a million frogs croaking? Chances are pretty good that when the morning comes, and you take a closer look, you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.]

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* *********
The Pretty Lady

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river. The big monk offered to carry her across the river on his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk. 'How can big brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?' thought the little monk. But he kept quiet... The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her. All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation. Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk. 'How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty? All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite The big monk looked surprised and said, 'I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?'

[This very old Chinese Zen story reflects the thinking of many people today. We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us and they make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes they cause us to be bitter or jealous .. But like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away.We keep on carrying the baggage of the 'pretty lady' with us. We let them keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony. Why? Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of the baggage of the 'pretty lady'. We should let go of the pretty lady immediately after crossing the river. This will immediately remove all our agonies. There is no need to be further hurt by the unpleasant event after it is over.

2009-2010

2010-03-31T00:14:00.001-07:00

A round up of 2009, I know I am a bit late on this one, but nonetheless

A recap

* what was your biggest achievement of the year?
nothing much except being able to move out of MT with much deliberations and fights

* what was the best thing you bought?
Several, a 29” TV, a double door fridge, a carved TV stand, a beautiful shoe rack, several others

* One word/phrase that you used maximum number of times
I Love you (To nidhi) :-) – this continues to be the same from last year

* what did you get really excited/enthu about?
joining a new upcoming/growing company

* Best day of your life
27th Nov, this is when munnu got married to Ramya

* where did most of your money go?
Travel, purchases of household stuff

* what did you wanted and did not get?
Car, got it in first month of 2010

* what did you wanted and get?
a little peace of mind

* what one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
money- just a little bit more

* what/who kept you sane?
walks

* which political issue stirred you the most?
Women reservation bill

* which social issue stirred you the most?
None

* quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"I'll survive, I will survive!" by Gloria Gaynor – this continues from last year

* what did you miss?
my friends, my family

* what was your favorite film of this year?
My Name is khan… khan from the epiglotis and I am not a terrorist – what innocense and super acting.

* what was the best book you read?
2 states – trust me, I was rolling all over place while reading it.

* Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
None, actully, I found out this one thing. My hatred for that one person was making me remember him and that was making me loose the peace of mind. So I gave up.. :) and stopped hating him

* what was your biggest failure?
Several, one being, had to quit my fav organisation for not being able to solve the things

* whose behavior made you depressed?
Not worth mentioning here yeah, he doesn’t even deserve a thought. Actually there are two of them, both related to my ex company.

* what did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Whatever little I could do – was able help munnu in getting married :)

* did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't remember what was my resolution in 2009 but definitely will make one and try and live up to it . :)

* what places did you visit?
Goa, Pondicherry

* One thing that you want to do differently in 2009
Become slightly more focussed

* One thing that you wish you could change
Few people in my close Relationships

* One thing that you wish had never happened
Not worth mentioning in here- How I wish, june 2009 was never there in life. I will never forget this one month.

* One thing/event/person that had significant impact on your personality
Event: - Munnu-Ramya’s wedding
Person: - My Dad(his experience helped me every single time i needed it)

This year was difficult again, personl life was being torn apart by near ones, lot of confusion and a lot of frustration from work places saw things go from bad to worse. Learnt how bad can arrogance be and worst is when the person believes that he/she is not arrogant while actually he/she is. But in the end as they say.. In our life too, like our movies, ending is always happy.. and if it is not happy, then it is not the end... picture abhi baaki hai merey dost!!!. Just searching for that happiness quotient in life. Not saying that i am not happy, instead just looking out for more happiness.

Found one great word: - "Determination" and the good that it can do.
Found one great phrase: - "Life is all that you make and God gives"
Found one biggest problem: - Pessimism : - The thoughts of not knowing where to go and what to do.

Six short stories with Morals

2010-03-25T22:53:00.000-07:00

Title: - "A dialogue between a child and a mother"

A child told the mother: “Mum you are very beautiful today.”

Replied the mother : “Why?”
The child said : “ Because you did not get angry today .”

Moral of the story:
1. It is easy to possess beauty:- do not get angry.
2. Anger is temporary madness.

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A man attended an interview for a job.
Along the corridor, he picked up a piece and threw it into a dustbin.
The interviewer passed by and saw it.
This man got the job.

Moral of the story:
Live with good habits, and you will be recognised.

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A small boy worked as an apprentice in a bicycle shop.
A man sent a bicycle for repair.
After repairing the bicycle, this boy cleaned up the bicycle and it looked like a new one.
Other apprentices laughed at him for doing redundant work.
The second day after the owner claimed the bicycle back, this boy was pinched and offered a job.

Moral of the story :
1.Go the extra mile to be successful.
2. Doing more gains more & Doing less loses more.

-------------

The owner of a farm asked his child to work everyday at the farm.
His friend said to him : “ You do not have to make your son work so hard. The crops would grow just as good.”
Owner of the farm replied: “ I am not cultivating my crops, but my child.”

Moral of the story:
1. A simple way to groom a child is to let him experience some hardships.
2. If not cut, jade would not turn into useful ware.

-------------

A shop is always brightly lit up.
Someone asked : “What brand of bulb are you using ? It is so lasting.”
The shop owner replied : “Our bulbs blew out frequently. We replaced them once a bulb blew out.”

Moral of the story:
1. It is simple to maintain brightness , change the bulbs regularly.
2. To brightening up everyday life : Endeavour to abandon unwholesome states of mind and make an effort to encourage wholesome states to grow.

-------------

Credits: -
Special mention: -M.Peer Mohamed Sardhar
http://www.citehr.com/149490-six-short-stories-moral.html

Out from self imposed Exile!!

2010-03-18T02:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, indeed it was a self imposed exile from blogging; partially due to the pain that was caused by my ex workplace (read it in the previous blog) and partially due to the work load that my new work place came up with.

This is by far the longest time that i have been away from blogging. Though a good break, gave me lot of subjects to write upon. Very soon you would see a series of articles on commercialization of cricket, prediction of winner of IPL3 - the conclusive story, or day as it goes. I am working on drafts of these three write up currently.

But for now, i will sign off by the poem that i wrote on my mummy's birthday: - Title "Maa"

Sochtey hue chala ja raha tha,
ki, Kaun hota hai sabse bada
sabse mahaan, sabse shaktishaali.
Kabhi mann ne kaha ki vishnu,dimag bola, shiv
dil ne kaha ki, swyam bhrahma se bada kaun hai
par kisi tarah shanti na mili
isi mahaul mein main chala ja raha tha
dheemi gati se, gadiyoon ke beech mein se
laga ki ho sakta hai mera sochna hi vrath ho,
ki tabhi dekha maine kuch aisa ki mujhe jawab mil gaya
durr ek bacche ko sambhale ek "Maa" aa rahi thi
Natkhat baccha kabhi kisi cheez ki zid karta
to kabhi kisi baat pe machalta,
maa usse sambhalti, puchkaarti,fatkarti
har thodi der mein bacha chahek uthta.
mujhe mera jawab mil gaya tha
laga ki woh maa hi to hai jo sabse shakti shaali hai
kaun bolta hai ki vishu-brhama hain shrithi ke racheta,
main bolta hun na hoti maa to vishnu swyam na hote,
bhrahmaji ka astitava hi nahin hota,
tabhi aaya woh khayaal jisne sabhi baaton ka nibtara kar diya

"mera jab ansh bhi na tha, tab jisne mujhe upna ansh banaya"
woh maa hi to hai

"mera jab astitva hi nahin tha, tab mujhe jisne astitva diya"
woh maa hi to hai

"jab apne angon ka dhyaan nahin tha, jisne mujhe upna ang banaya"
woh maa hi to hai

barbas hi ankhein nam hogayi aur main natmastak ho gaya.

What do you call this??

2009-10-12T06:19:00.000-07:00

1.A team member goes on leave (out of station for some urgency) and you promise him that you would update the client. You do not do so, instead you tell the blunt lie in front of the team that the fellow was here and has left office about 30 mins back as he was not feeling well. You still do not update the client side lead, who was trying to reach your team member for past 30 mins and is absolutely unaware of all this. Then you sign in into his official account and send the email to his client side lead. Doubling the confusion that though the team member did not picked up the call, he was sending in the email. Thereby creating a complete mis-understanding between your team member and his client side lead.

Worst, when this “poor” team member is being rated on this year’s performance you site the same reason and give him ratings below then what he is expecting without giving any reason. This team member then takes the matter up with the designated program director. The result is baffling; the architect of this whole episode gets “above expectation” as his appraisal ratings and also get promoted.

Ethical?

2.There are 5 module leads in an account which is being handled without a PM/DM/AM or any manager. Out of the five, four actively handle more than 1 projects in the year. They all keep the flag high, with lot of efforts. Almost all of them work on all weekends, late nights, keeping client happy/satisfied at all time. All of them get rated as “Met expectations” while the only one who did not handle any project and performed below par in almost everything that he did, gets an “Above expectations” as rating and get the promotion.

Truly unbiased attitude?

3.When a person works for 10 hours and bills for 10 hours to the client, its expected. But when a person goes on leave, you fill the timesheet for client on the day when the person was absent and since the ERP system has blocked that particular day citing the leave application, you fill in the same number of hours on a weekend in order to match the hours in invoice and bill with the client.

Truly integral?

4.You work hard, and you deliver a module that was never delivered in the history of the account in last four years to near perfection. The client is happy and is willing to offshore more of similar stuff to the team. Client not only sends emails appreciating you but also in all calls refer to your work. And you get the comments as “Need to learn more of the basic stuff”.

A true democratic process?

5.Performance for one is cited for his significantly above expectations ratings while for the other punctuality is being questioned for the similar work and similar behavior.

A true un-biased process

All these happened, people survived through this, there are people who are doing this on a regular basis.

I for some mortal reasons can not understand few thing: -

1.How can there be someone in the capacity of a Manager/lead who cannot express himself/herself in pure simple English.

2.How can there be someone who has spent close to 4 yrs in the same account working on the same application cannot identify simple one line queries.

3.How can someone be asked to pick and drop the boss/lead for a good rating

4.How can someone made to lead a team by being a passive rider on the backs of the individual team members

5.How can you call yourself an integral organization when one of the biggest accounts that you have fudges time sheets on a regular basis?

6.How can you claim to be working towards happy customer and happy people when all you do is listen and forget and not act? Or if you act you promote and pat the wrong guys.

7.How can you be arrogant if you tell the seniors all the above mentioned stuff.

Phew!! Yes I am pained, for because of few people I had to quit my fav organization. Yes I had no other way out, yes I was being bothered every single day. Yes I burns me within when I see people biased to the extent possible. Yes it hurts when I see a non performer being rated above me!!!!!

Arrogance

2009-10-10T01:14:00.000-07:00

The word is quiet popular, needless to say that most people use it to define someone else’s personality. The word comes with a negative connotation and if I have to search it in Google/ wikipedia for a definition then the word is defined in English language as “offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.” In short, the person using it, not only spoils his/her self esteem/respect but also, by virtue of his actions, make his/her surroundings suffer.

Now, if you are thinking that I am going to write a blog on this word, then I am afraid you are wrong. What I am going to write in this blog is how this word has affected me, and my personality, along with how I came to know a whole new world of usage for the word. Till now, I was always under the impression that people who are having the personality like the word itself, are to be avoided. Until, someone crowned me as arrogant. This happened with my exit interview at my ex-workplace.

Now obviously I differed in the opinions but then I realized that to a certain extent, each personality has a bit of arrogance, no matter how humble one might pretend. We are arrogant when it comes to the question about our forte. I say that we are arrogant about our forte and not “proud” because I believe there is a very thin line that divides pride and arrogance and I expect a lot of us “mortals” to tread the wrong way.

I also came across a whole new territory where this word is finding popular usage. The territory is “correcting your boss”. This again happened at my ex-workplace and I do not claim it to be omnipresent. The account that I was working for is sitting on a ticking time bomb due to real bad governance from the seniors, hence I decided to move on in life and look beyond my ex-workplace.

I was immediately taken into a room and was asked atleast 10 times as to why I am moving out rather then continuing and what can people do to retain me.

Now,

1. I do not understand why people act so defensively in here. We are not kids and we know what we are doing. So if someone decides to graduate, rather then smoothening the process why do you give a chance to him to blackmail you.

2. I get absolutely astonished in such meetings, when I was not happy and when I was there,when i was writing emails and calling meetings, none of you bothered to meet me and ask me my well being, and suddenly I am being made to look so precious for the company.

So I decided to speak my heart out every-time I was asked to meet someone on the topic. Be it my immediate bosses or people from the HR department of the company or anyone. The result though didn’t surprise me, but left a bad taste in the mouth. I was crowned arrogant with a problematic attitude, and someone who is behaving nothing short of “weird”.

Now, I decided to retrospect myself and my personality. I got confused, coz either the same people are amazing or they are amazingly foolish to have kept me there for 2 long years and continuously rated me high on my project related abilities and my personality traits.

I dug a little deeper.

In India, bosses have this super huge ego, please, not all again, but if I have to put a number to it then 90%+ will fall in this category. One has to be careful with words while pointing out their mistakes. Mince the words and send it down the throat back from where it came from in case you feel like calling your boss a buffoon (even if he or she is actually one). And still if you manage to tell your boss on this face (like the naukri adv of Hari Sadu) then you got to be mentally prepared to hear what I heard about my personality.

It did shake me up a bit, but then I at-least answered my soul; I am no more at a place where truth is termed as arrogance. People do not stand by their words; they rate people on friendship rather then the professional behavior. People get good ratings for picking and dropping their boss from the home even if one has to do a good 14 kms (close to 10 miles) extra one side. And, people who do not work on any project not only get above expectations but also get promoted.

People who know me call me careless, problem with prioritizing things, issues with memory and few other names. But none so far called me arrogant, but if I am one, then as I said I do not have a problem with it. I would just be a little careful. But if I am not, then I deserve a little better treatment then what I got. Worst, my bosses didn’t even have slightest of guts to call me and fix me up. This has actually resulted in a wrong learning which I will have to correct. End of the day a boss is a boss and he/she commands respect by mere personality. I have to unlearn every behavior trait that I picked up during last 2 yrs and learn new way coz not all bosses are buffoons, they are people to be looked upon for guidance. They do not hide behind curtains, they rather lead you from the front.

And pardon me, if I am wrong, please feel free to correct me, I am not arrogant when it comes to taking feedbacks. :)

Walk while you talk!!

2009-09-03T02:37:00.001-07:00

Off-late a lot of people walked up to me and asked me about my diet regime coz they noticed that I have reduced my weight without being appearing as stressed out. This made me think what’s happening?. This triggered a thought process which is in sync with the title of this blog.

I found out three important things: -
1. Cut down on sugar in liquid form, which means cut down on the number of tea/coffee/juice intake with sugar. I found this to be important as liquid sugar adds to weight faster then sugar in solid form (sweets etc). This has definitely helped me when I took it as a task

2. While walking, swing your arms, not like you are parading or something, but definitely till at-least a 30 degree angle from your shoulder. This burns additional calories while walking and most certainly makes your shoulders look broad. (Re-distribution of weight happens in here and most of your fat around shoulder and neck region transforms into muscles)

3. Drink water whenever you feel hungry, and if still you feel hungry then go ahead and eat. Most often we feel hungry and we just go and grab something to eat, this trigger might be due to several calculations going around in our brain. Not necessarily every time you feel hungry that your body is in need of energy.

Other then these, there are a few more things that I used as activity, start waking up early, which means, by default you would have a longer day then normal and you automatically burn more calories. Next being, cut down on pizzas, burgers, cold drinks etc remember, I never said to stop, rather I said cut down. Also, work in kitchen, it can be a simple task of getting the utensils back from a dish washer to the shelf, or cooking or anything. Important is work in kitchen.

Finally, being over weight is not such a bad thing, as most certainly there is a difference between being obese (which is a bad thing) and over weight. Ensure that you know yourself better then what people claim to.

Fat, thin, slim, size zero, etc have more to do with your metal understanding rather then your physical appearance. Eat healthy, work out in whatever way you can and chill out, do not take unnecessary tension. What you define as tension is purely your point of view, but trust me, being happy has a lot of impact on being healthy.

Happy eating and be healthy.

Green Revolution

2009-09-01T05:27:00.000-07:00

No I am in no way trying to connect to the one started long time back, and no, this isn’t related to recent price rise of food stocks. Instead I had a quiet interesting debate with Vaibhav on this one. This discussion was particularly interesting coz it used the terms that we most easily understand and use in our day to day tasks.

What happens when we over draw from banks, we pay huge interest, correct. Similarly what will happen if we all continue to with draw oxygen at pace where the drawing pace is more then the replenishing pace? The Oxygen stocks will run out and then the next generations would either carry oxygen cylinders or will simply die of suffocation.

Remedy?

Actually very simple, do a quick calculation, a few of the variables can be: -
1. How many people are there in the family
2. How many hours/min of fuel we burn (this includes car, stove etc)
3. How much electricity we consume (this can be seen from your bills)
4. Any other that you think should be

And the plan is simple, plant one tree for each of the activities/items. Which means for the ones that we have stated above we can have the trees planted and named as: -
1. Deepak-Tree (Myself)
2. Nidhi-Tree (My wife)
3. Munnu-Tree (My brother)
4. Gas Tree
5. Bike Tree
6. Electricity Tree
7. One additional Tree

This tree has to be a tree and a shrub or a bon-size plant will not help. This has to be a tree that would last for as long as you will last yourself. The plantation also need not to be in your locality, it can even be a picnic spot that you visit, actually speaking, chances of a tree surviving a picnic spot would be far more then your locality.

The best way to do it is that every time you or your friends go for a picnic, as them to carry one tree for each of the members in the group. These days the trees come in very convenient packages and do not cost much. I guess each tree would be close to 20 bucks, which actually means that each one spending even 50 bucks would get you sufficient trees in the boot of your car. Now if you consider this cost against the benefits you would be surprised to see the amount of help that it would do.

(I definitely would like to claim a copyright on this idea, coz this one is originally mine).

I am starting this, are you with me?

Interference

2009-07-16T06:12:00.000-07:00

I have never hated any word in the entire English vocabulary more then the one mentioned in the title of this blog. This by far is the most "convenient" way of derogating someone's concern about your life.

Let me elaborate, how many people in this world are truly bothered about your well being? or let me ask it in a slightly different way, how many people are there in this "materialistic" world who actually are bothered about your well being? before you jump onto answer, i want another piece of trivia to be added to it, and that is, how many people are actually there who come up to you to correct you?

And i am sure, if people are walking up to you to correct you in one way or the other, it is imperative that they would definitely be high on your advisory list too. Now, what you do when someone of this stature walks upto you? You either listen to them or you do not listen to them.

Till this level things are fine, now let me come to the real stuff that pains me the most. When someone has come to give a piece of advice, rather then listening things up if you jump on and call that person names for interfering in your life, how do you expect that person to ever hold your hand when you are falling. Now this can be true if the person who is giving an advice is a) younger to you with less exp on the topic or b) who is someone of less relevance in life.

Now if both the points are not true and you still call it an interference, will it be correct?

Yes i understand words can be a bit different then they would appear to you, but dont you think that whoever has come to correct you wont bother about wasting time and energy over choosing the right word, rather the person would focus on the message being clearly given.

Its so saddening to see that people with adamancy about they being extremly superior breed often call advice of elders/seniors/contemporaries as interference. I believe they do so coz they have no idea of what they stand to loose.

One thing is for sure, i only come across such people as frustrated, ill-equipped for any job, non-achievers, ardent self destructors and full of un-due anger. Its difficult to correct such people. Its often good to leave such people to God's mercy who in His own sweet way takes care of such people in his own sweet way by frustrating them further with self imposed destruction methodologies.

Kuch "Nagme" kuch "pal"

2009-06-08T01:01:00.000-07:00

Sometime back in my life, i found a unique way of passing out my low moments of life. I started penning down my thoughts in form of one or two liners. Here's a glimpse of my collection. In no way i claim to be a poet, these are just my expression. Please feel free to drop by and comment on them, i will be truly grateful

Regards
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
Deedar-e-yaar itna aasaan kabhie na tha-2
Jub bhi hota hai maan, ankhen band kar leta hun
-----
Pyar ko na pane ki kuch aisi saza mukarrar ki hum ne
Zinda bhi rahey aur jiye bhi nahin
-----
Tujhe kya bataun dost mohabbat kya hoti hai,
Who dil, dua, shamma hoti hai;
Ashikon se na poocho unki raat ka aalam,
unki raatein to bina sitaron ke bhi jawaan hoti hain.
-----
Uski Mohabbat Mein Dil Deewana Hogaya Hai
Yeh Apne Aap Se Begana Hogaya Hai
Kaash Koi Ja Ke Yeh Bataye Shamma Ko
Ki Uski Chahat Mein koi Parwana Hogaya Hai
-----
Hum parwano se poocho ishq ki kahani-2
shamma ke saath rehtey hain shamma pe martey hain
-----
Kuch aisa raha aalaam ki tumhari yaad aati rahi-2
bas na jaane kyun aisa hone laga ki jeene ki khwahish jaati rahi.
-----
Zindagi ki shuruat hui thi jub hum mile the unse,
fir kuch aisa hua ki bas zindagi tham gayi,
sanse to chalti rahi bas dil ki dhadkan ruk gayi......
-----
Mujhe kya pata tanhai ka aalam..maine to bas pyar kiya hai...
dil ne jub jub bhi chaha mehboob ka deedar kiya hai...
-----
Is kadar tujhe chaha ki fir kuch chah na sake,
Itna jiye terey saath ke terey bina bas jee na sake
-----
Zindagi ki kwahishen kuch kum reh gayi,
chand raatein kuch kum reh gayi,
Pyar to unko bahut kiya,
magar shayad humari aahen kuch kum reh gayi
-----
Socha tha jaisa waisa hi jivan to hai magar,
ab aur kis talash mein bechain hai nazar,
Kudrat bhi meharbaan hai dariyadillli ke sath,
Fhir bhi koi kami si hai kyun jindgi ke sath.
-----
pyar ne ye kaisa tohfa de diya humko;
gumo ne pathar bana diya humko,
teri yaadon main hi kat gayi ye umar,
par kehta raha kab ka bhula diya tumko.
-----
hasrat hai humen khud ko mitane ki...
hasrat hai humen khud ko mitane ki...
kash jeene ki khwahish yun khatum na ho gayi hoti...
-----
ab shayri se hi khushi aati hai chehron pe warana aansuon ka kya hai...
ab shayri se hi khushi aati hai chehron pe warana aansuon ka kya hai...
do pocchte hain char nikalte hain...
-----
yehi to kahani hai is bedard zindagi ki...
yehi to kahani hai is bedard zindagi ki...
hum kehte hi rahey ki hum wafai karenge
par unhe tha wishwaas ki bewafi ka aalam hai...
-----
In shabdon ko kya tarz de...
zabaan kahen ki dil ki aawaaz...
bas yehi samjh lijiye ki ab "namaste" bhi karte hain
to "aadaab" nikalta hai...
-----
dil ki kya kahen yeh to be gairat hai...
dil ki kya kahen yeh to be gairat hai;
jo dukh deta hai yeh usi pe marta hai.
-----
hum chodd chuke hain jo baazar..
hum chodd chuke hain jo baazar..
kamal to yeh hai ki reh reh ke wohi rahen humen bulati hain.. :)
kitna bhi chahen bhul jayen un himakatoon ko..
par har baar aur haseen hokar wohi saamne aa jaati hain..
-----
nafa-nuksaan hi sochte to fir baat hi kya thi...
nafa-nuksaan hi sochte to fir baat hi kya thi...
yahan to dard-e-dil ke mureed hain,
muskaan pe jaan de detey hain... :)
-----
kamal hotey hain kuch log
nazar aatey rookhe kuch log
bhara hota hai dariya-e-ishq seene mein,
nazar aatey hain sirf ek jharna kuch log
-----
yun to duniya mein haseen bahut hai
yun to ...duniya mein haseen bahut hai
khuda ne magar chand ek hi banaya hai
banaya hai bahut afreen duniya ko...magar..
yaar mera sirf ek hi banaya hai...
-----
dekho to halat-e-jahan.. ki..
humne kardi hai zindagi naam jiske,
wohi fayde ki baat karta hai...
kaisa zaalim hai saathi mera...
kaisa zaalim hai saathi mera,
main pyar ki magar woh nafa-nukasaan ki baat karta hai..
-----
dekh paatey hain unhe yeh kya kam hai...
dekh paatey hain unhe yeh kya kam hai...
Kahin hum mar hi na jayen agar jo woh mil jayen humen
-----
haq hai unhe humare dil ko dukhane ka;
Khuda ne husn-e-aftaab se nawaja hai unhe,
humara kya hai hum to sirf ek adna se sharare hain,
humara kya hai hum to sirf ek adna se sharare hain,
Jal ke bujh bhi jayen to kya farak padega unhe.
-----
kamal ki hai adayen,
kamal ki hai adayen,
sharara bhi kehti hain aur mukammal bhi...
Koi in haseenaon se hamen muafi dilaye..
Koi in… haseenaon se hamen muafi dilaye….
Muskurati bhi hain aur jaan bhi leti hain…
-----
ishq bhi kamal ki cheez hai...
dikhta aankhon mein hai yakeen magar zubaan se chahta hai..
-----
jab bhi ho dimag pareshaan aur dil hairan..
yahin hi ka raasta farishton ne bataya hai..
zindagi jeena asaan to nahin aur
nahin muh ferna pareshaniyon ka hul,
par jab ho pareshaniyaan inti kaafir ke zindagi haarne lage,
accha hota hai mann behlana
-----

A discussion of a lifetime

2009-05-20T00:06:00.000-07:00

Deepak and Vaibhav are two people from this Corporate IT world. The following discussion happened when one was made to talk the bad news to his team mates about "downsizing as there is cost cutting and budget constraints". The ideas are purely their own and any resemblance to any one is purely conicidental. Please feel free to post your comments on the discussion.

Thanks..
-----------------------------------------------

Vaibhav: i think saala business me apne jaise leaders ki kami hai ;)
they dont have any idea but cutting their arms
Deepak: hmm.. but bhai jab tak hum leaders banege bahut time nikal gaya hoga..
Vaibhav: gareebi aati hai to kya saala hum hath paon kaat lete hai
ki bhookh kam lage
Deepak: mera kal cheenu se solid waala discussion hua.. actually mein kal i was a part of the metting where i have to break the bad news to few of the team members about downsizing of the team main bhi wohi bol raha tha jo aap bol rahey ho bada hi idiotic concept hota hai.. downsizing.. abey jab woh insaan upna din ghar parivaar sab chodd ke aapke liye late nights tak kaam karta hai taaki aap profits bana sako.. tab aapko woh yaad nahin aata.. jaise hi turant musibat aayi saala sab se pehle usko nikal phenko.. might sound like leftist.. but if our top management cuts 5% on their salary and their dinners with their travel, your entire bottom line can be kept happy and i dont think it should matter to them 5% of 4 lakhs is a mere 20k.. and instead of 20 days of travels if you do 15 days and be more productive then it would actually save 1000 jobs in your company but no body bothers to do that
Vaibhav: :) mujhe jaldi hi kuch karna padega. this world needs me ;)
Deepak: na.. i dont think this world needs me in corporate dynastys rather it needs me as a minister for industries :)
Vaibhav: jo bhi ho jahan bhi, i need to do something in short :P
Deepak: and i do agree that this world needs me.. but i dont want to start something in which only top management earns.. i want the entire chain to make money while its hay and the entire chain to take a cut while its gloom
no no.. dont do anything in short.. it doesnt look good... atleast wear trousers :)
Vaibhav: liberalization ka zamana hai ;) shorts bhi chalenge
kuch karl marx type bana rahe ho kya
Deepak: hmm.. lekin mera thought to kaafi different hai yaar.. mera aim saare stake holders ke liye wealth banana hai.. naaki sirf owners ke liye.. i believe in efficiency and productivity and hence rewarding at the right time..and i truly believe employees are your best stock options..happy employees mean very happy organisation..a super reason why no one leave Tata for a jindal or mittal..and same is applicable for mittal as well
Vaibhav: wo bolte sab hai but sirf on paper :(
Deepak: i know yaar.. but i have fought for my boys in INI and was named a leftist.. :)
Vaibhav: :)ye duniya bahut selfish hai
Deepak: hmm.. main bhi hun.. but i have my limits which i found out are very very low then most people..i also want luxuries.. i also want amenities.. but then there is a limit.. but i found out that there are many in this world who have no limits..
Vaibhav: :) jo bhi bolo thats the way this world goes
Deepak: i know.. but then there is JRD tata, and ratan tata.. there is aditya birla there are also from the same world these people couldve been atleast 20 times richer had they thought of making money for themselves.. thats why you see loyalties of 20 yrs to them.. and EOD thats what matters..
Vaibhav: wo yaar apna apna nazariya hai
Deepak: when u walk out.. if people come to you and say.. boss its coz of you that i could get my kids best of education, marriage of my daughters and run my house.. thats the best appreciation
Vaibhav: haan but for some others think ki theek hai yaha mai kamau fir kisi koney me jaake kuch donate kar du
Deepak: wohi to keh raha hun yaar.. kitna kamoge.. main samjhta hun till the time you earn 1 lakh per month money is important.. after that.. its greed..
Vaibhav: yaar sabki limit alag hai apke liye 1 lakh hai kisi k liye it might b 1 crore
Deepak: tabhi to bol raha hun i am becoming a leftist.. :) communist..:)
Vaibhav: :)
Deepak: who believes in upper cap on earnings.. and bringing everyone to same cadre.. however i am slightly different also.. i only support people who are productive.. i wont believe in carrying non performers for no reason
Vaibhav: according to me it shud not b extreme left nor right
Deepak: matlab saala your bottom line earns for you and you fire them give me minimum benefits and kick their asses whenever you feel like
not acceptable
Vaibhav: thats what wo to am also saying is not the way u do business at least the organization shud b treated as family its not ki aaj meri salary cut huyi i will fire my son ki u r a overhead now
Deepak: true...
Vaibhav: waise an interesting discussion i was thinking of some gud topic to start blog
Deepak: i am posting it on my blog :)
Vaibhav: now i have one :p
cheater
Deepak: Chuck it man..
i wrote it first :) waise i am posting this whole dialogue
Vaibhav: nahi mere ideas nahi chura sakte aap
Deepak: main to original mein daalunga churane ka to question hi nahin hai
Vaibhav: haan mujhe credit dete ho to theek hai :p
Deepak: Thodi der mein dekhna

17th April 2009

2009-04-29T03:30:00.001-07:00

You must be wondering as to what is so special about this date!! that I am writing a blog on it, Yes, the day was a Friday and for most people in the world it was a regular office day with plannings of a good weekend in their minds. However, for us it was one of the most important day of life. The day was special as it was on the very same day, last year, we had tied the nuptial knot and had taken vows to be with each other for seven lives, indeed if God permits we would like to be.. Amen!!. Yes, you guessed it correct; we got married on this day in the year 2008.

Most people around us wished us and bestowed us with blessings and gifts. We were forced to go back into the memories of the day and the happenings around it. Let’s not think of all that happened along with the day, rather, I would like to share our journey in the last one year, being Man and wife :)

So, how was this one year? I would like the journey to be more of a question and answer rather being one boring essay story where it would be all happy as expected. :)

Here we go: -

What is the "catalyst" in our chemistry?
Choose anyone you like
- Me being un-organized and she being organized to the core
- Me being lazy and she being hyperactive
- Me being cricket lover and she being an ardent non-cricket person
- Me being a big zero in household cores and she being a super performer!!

What has she changed in me?
- I am surprised by the way she has made me more patient and stable in life. I have lost atleat 75% (if not more) of my impulsive behavior
- I have started dressing up more in reds, oranges, maroons rather then whites, blues and grays.
- I have registered a remarkable 100% on time arrival in office and have definitely proved more productive.
- Lots to write about... :) next question

What was the best thing we did?
- We went to goa, twice in the year, first for more of a know-goa-types trip, but the second one was absolute fun. Spent some real quality time with each other, roamed like best buddies and had loads and loads of fun.

What was the worst thing we did?
- Hmmm... now that’s really interesting, the worst thing we did/do was/is fight.

Any important events in our life in the last one year?
- Several, mostly they were negative, hence not writing them in here..

Unlike most marriages, ours was full of hiccups, rather hiccup is an understatement. Though we were neither the designers nor the guilty of all that happened but since we were at the helm of affairs somehow we couldn’t keep ourselves away from getting affected. It has taken one full year to come to terms with whatever happened. But now that we have come a long way ahead, we would like to keep marching hand in hand towards the dream that we both saw together. Dream of a happy, healthy family, a dream where we are never short of blessings from the elders, a dream where there is immense love and trust, a dream where both of us complement each other with 100% of our abilities and make the bond grow to unprecedented heights.

For all this and more, we need your blessings. We know, we have a long path to walk and we're sure it won't be easy, it won't be tender, and hence, we would not like to fall short of blessings.

Holi...

2009-03-10T00:22:00.001-07:00

Holi aayi re kanhai rang barse
suna de zara baansuri..

Suna yeh geet humne jab,
yaad aayi ghar ki tab
woh jamana bhi tha ek
jab hotey they yaar anek,
aaj hai ghar, gaadi, aur sabhi aish-o-araam
lekin kahan woh khanakti hui aawaaz,
woh shor-sharaba, woh apnapan,
lakh mana karne par bhi woh kisi ka humen rang lagana
woh chilate hue hamara unke peeche bhagna,
woh saaf mann se ek dusre ko rangna,
Woh maa ke lakh mana karne par bhi safeed kapde pehanna
kaise kaise fitur hote they,
ek din pehle poori shaam agle din ke karikram bante they
woh besan ki chukki woh gujiya
woh maa ki rasoi aur uski khushbu,
holi ke din ka woh mahaul
kahin se geet-sangeet
kahin se chilla-chot
aur ab...

ab hai charon taraf sannata
bas thodi bahut khusur fusur
"22 degree ka woh controlled" mahaul
bas keyboard ki khat-khat aur phone ki ring
saaf suthra office aur saaf suthre hum

lagta hai jaise ki woh koi aur hi tha
jo chaad kar deewaron pe dauda karta tha
shayad woh main nahin,
woh shayad koi aur hi tha
jo nange pair kadi doop mein
upne mitron ko rang lagane ko peeche bhagta tha
aur ab bas muskurate hue haath milata hai

zindagi badi ajeeb hai,
jab yeh nahin tha, jo hai,
to sochte they,
kya hoga jab hamari jeb mein rupaiye honge
hum zindagi ko aise jiyenge waise jiyenge
aur jab ki aaj hai,
to bachpan chahiye..

kahin main zyada to nahin maang raha…

Dad’s promotion

2009-03-02T05:52:00.000-08:00

Today, 2-March, 2009 couldn’t have been better. One man’s struggle finally got answered. And truly in a way that they should’ve been. All his prayers, his hard work and his dedication got heard. Today he got the most coveted designation in my city. The one that he, some times patiently, some times eagerly and some times desperately wanted. The one designation that he dreamt of for past one and a half years, the one that he saw coming to him and then just when he thought he had it, he lost it. The one that eluded him of his most awaited celebrations. Yes, my dad is finally The S.E. of P.H.E.D, kota. Yes, now he would be the supreme of the city that he has given 30 yrs of his life. Congratulations!!

Let me take you through a journey of this one man who not only has risen through the worst of patches in life, but has emerged stronger every single time he was pushed to wall. Let me introduce to you to my father, my idol and most certainly the best Man that I have ever come across in life.

I would not take you through the ones that you could guess or whatever is a fact. This would exclusively be my journey through his life. My journey, as I saw him fight through to glory.

My earliest memories are of the time when we moved in to Kota because of Mom’s job. We stayed at place called Vallabh bari, a place which holds its own sweet importance in my life. I do not remember too many things from there except that meeting him used to be quiet a task. He started getting busier from the time he arrived in Kota. He probably found the best incubator in the form of a city to grow his tactical skills and shoot up in sky.

Before we could take and account of what’s happening, we moved into PHED colony and the house no KRW 22. Life was moving too fast and we were growing up amidst all the comforts, and he continued to become busy by the day.

Some excerpts of his talks on the phone that most certainly have left huge impact on us: -
1)Pressure cum hai, valve ki do chudi khol do aur report karo. (It worked every single time-this meant that he knew what language the labor understands and how he can translate his engineering into their language-brilliant!!)

2)Gaadi main chalaunga, tu thaka hua hai, neend aa sakti hai (This happened on one of his sites where I happened to be with him. It was ghat section and he was heading a project which no body else could complete, needless to mention he completed it ahead of schedule, this statement was made to his full time driver, this shows his leadership skills and caring for his sub-ordinates)

3)Tum log mujhe roz good morning karke hi school jaoge (there was time when he used to return by 2am and we used to go to school by 6, hence one full month went by without we being able to speak with him, it was then that he devised this. This ensured that even when he is fast asleep we would share a smile with him-Indeed a loving father).

4)Beta, rishtey todna bahut asaan hota hai, nibhana bada mushkil, lekin ghar bhara ho to hi accha lagta hai (this was when family was going under tremendous turmoil, he stood strong, kept everything to himself, did not let anything fall and result is that the house still sees 30-40 people every time he wants-What a family man :-) ).

5)Woh mere pita hain, aur unke liye main kuch bhi kar sakta hun, kuch bhi. (This happened when the question were asked about his unconditional love for my grandpa-Given a chance Dad, I would like to make this statement too :-) ).

The whole life is full of these; his way of handling things is not only brilliant but learning for everyone around him. He doesn’t like favoring people, he is toughest one to be on your side, but trust me if he is, then there is nothing that can stop you from winning in life.

Coming to his recent promotion, I was surprised when I heard people talk; they wanted him to be at the chair. This surprises me, how much a person can be loved and respected at his work place. How much dedicated can a person be, how he can manage all ends.

It’s this era of IT that we are talking about work life balance, we talk about we being extremely busy, trust me, I could never use this statement in front of him. He was busy like hell, he was running all over the place, yet some how he never missed those weekend chaats with us, those weekend picnics, the day outings, the trips to mamaji’s place, the trips to baran, and those trips to jaipur, he missed nothing. He managed it all and managed them all brilliantly. Am sure, his father is proud of him being his son, his siblings are proud of they having such an elder brother, we are most definitely proud of him being our father.

Not that he only led everything to perfection; he also had his bad time, but then who doesn’t go through the lean patch. It’s actually what you do when you are pushed to the wall that determines how strong you are, and I am sure each one of us who has known him can tell you, that he is most certainly one of the strongest personalities that one would come across.

Oh God! I am getting confused, there is so much more to share and mind just isn’t stopping to think. So I stop in here about the peripherals and rather concentrate around the subject.

There is something that I would like him to read

Daddy,

While you always kept your troubles to yourself, while you only wanted us to have the best in life, while you worked hard so that we get best of our education. I want to tell you that I remember everything, I remember the day when I wanted to buy a badminton racquet and I picked up one which was the best, you didn’t thought for a while, you bought it for me. The day when I picked up best shoes for football, you got that for me too. And I most certainly remember the day at Supriya garments when I bought a dress more than you had in your pocket, you bought that for me without letting anyone know your position.

Daddy, even though I have become busy in life, even though I do not talk to you every day, and even though I am not able to spend time with you, I want to tell you that I love you and you have no idea how happy I am on this achievement of yours.

I just wish I am able to achieve what you have achieved, I want to have that masala thumbs up with you after the final results while you scold me in your style , I want to sit with you on that chair at mohan chaat center eating away those aaloo-tikki, I want to eat that ice cream at khalsas, I want live all that yet again.

But first, I want to sit with you in that white ambassador and bask in glory of being the son of most loved and respected man. I want to get in the car and feel good about myself.

Oh God!! I just can’t wait to be at Kota.

Once again, congratulations papa, may God bless you and may you achieve all that you have always dreamt off.

On behalf of munnu and Nidhi, I wanted to tell you, given a choice we would like to be with you at this hour of celebrations. May God hear us and may he bring us all together at a place which is not separated by such huge distances.

Love you.
Tunnu

2008 -> 2009

2009-01-01T22:29:00.000-08:00

A round up of 2008, the year gone by had its own impact on me and my personality. The situations that i have been made to go have definitely made me learn some stuff.

A recap

* what was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting married

* what was the best thing you bought?
Nail polish for Nidhi

* One word/phrase that you used maximum number of times
I Love you (To nidhi) :-)

* what did you get really excited/enthu about?
finally able to get Nidhi in life

* Best day of your life
17th April: - i got married on this day.

* where did most of your money go?
Travel

* what did you wanted and did not get?
Peace of mind

* what did you wanted and get?
Solidarity in personal life (yes i got it on the last day of 2008)

* what one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Peace in family

* what/who kept you sane?
Religious/spiritual songs, videos

* which political issue stirred you the most?
Nuclear deal

* which social issue stirred you the most?
Attacks on Churches

* quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"I'll survive, I will survive!" by Gloria Gaynor

* what did you miss?
My friends

* what was your favorite film of this year?
Rock on!!

* what was the best book you read?
Hitchhiker's guide to galaxy

* Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
yes i do, not worth mentioning in here.

* what was your biggest failure?
not able to get families along

* whose behavior made you depressed?
Not worth mentioning here

* what did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Went on leisure/holiday trips

* did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't remember what was my resolution in 2008 but definitely will make one and try and live up to it .

* what places did you visit?
Waynard, Goa, Pondicherry, Coorg.

* One thing that you want to do differently in 2009
Become slightly more patient

* One thing that you wish you could change
Few people in my close Relationships

* One thing that you wish had never happened
Not worth mentioning in here

* One thing/event/person that had significant impact on your personality
Thing: - Badminton racket (I started playing again after a break of 6 years)
Event: - India winning over australia (win of determination over arrogance)
Person: - My Dad(his experience helped me every single time i needed it)

A lot happened with me and people around me, life was thrown off the hook a couple of times, and had some real great moments of happiness, from joy unbound to sorrows unprecedented- saw it all, saw how things go bad for no good reason to how a human spirit can get things back.

Found one great word: - "Determination" and the good that it can do.
Found one great phrase: - "Life is all that you make and God gives"
Found one biggest problem: - Ego

Happy new year 2009!!

What goes around, goes around..

2008-12-24T00:08:00.000-08:00

The heading should remind you of the rather famous song of Justin timberlake, the super hit song that got the accolades from all in the world. Its also one of the favorites of my younger bro and he keeps listening to it. After a while of me listening it from him, decided to play it for myself and man!! its one awesome song, lyrics written straight from heart and so meaningful. I loved it, also, coz i am sure it carries a significance in life. Here's the lyrics for you: -

Hey girl, is he everything you wanted in a man
You know I gave you the world
You had me in the palm of your hand

So why your love went away
I just can’t seem to understand
Thought it was me and you babe
Me and you until the end
But I guess I was wrong

Don’t want to think about it
Don’t want to talk about it
I’m just so sick about it
Can’t believe it’s ending this way

Just so confused about it
Feeling the blues about it
I just can’t do without ya
Tell me is this fair?

Is this the way it’s really going down?
Is this how we say goodbye?
Should’ve known better when you came around
That you were gonna make me cry
It’s breaking my heart to watch you run around
‘Cause I know that you’re living a lie
That’s okay baby ’cause in time you will find…

What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around...... (4)

----------------

The song is long and i dont want to put the entire thing in here (you can find it on http://www.starmometer.com/2007/01/03/what-goes-around-justine-timberlake-mp3-lyrics/). Rather i want to add to the aura created by this song. There is another one which is by "gloria gaynor", the song was also used in Rock on!! (Purab sings it in channel V's party) "I will survive", here are the lyrics (again only a reference the complete version is at http://www.energyexpressband.com/lyrics/wedding%20lyrics%20i%20will%20survive%20gloria%20gaynor.htm)

First I was afraid, I was petrified!
Kept thinkin' I could never live without you by my side
But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong,
and I grew strong, and I learned how to get along.

So now you're back from outer space,
I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face
I should have changed that stupid lock, I should have made you leave your key
If I had known for just one second you'd be back to bother me.

CHORUS
Go on now go, walk out the door.
Just turn around now, cause you're not welcome anymore.
Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye?
You think I'd crumble? You think I'd lay down and die?
Oh no not I! I will survive!
Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive.
I've got all my life to live,
And I've got all my love to give,
I'll survive, I will survive!
Hey hey..
-----------------

And you'd think the reference of the context in here, pure simply nothing ;) just for the people who have been there in thick and thin of my life could make sense out of it. And all those people, who stood by me when i was down and out, you guys got to meet the person who made the difference. Yep! you bet, its Nidhi. my wife.....

Youre my man, my mighty king, And I'm the jewel in your crown

2008-12-03T03:03:00.000-08:00

Most people believe that when you love someone you need not to show coz love is something divine. However, I belong to a different school of thought. I believe that it is important for one to express love in as many words as one can. Though most often I and my chota (I fondly call Nidhi-My lady as "chota" or "chotu") keep saying those three magical words to each other, today, its different, today she has sent me a poem showing her love for me.

Now again, most people will say that i am over reacting to such a simple situation, but it is an important day for me coz she has surfed, selected and sent a poem to me. Now, I am sure you would understand that sending a text is much easier then sending a poem. This, also is, important as today it marks a beginning of a journey, a journey that would take me and nidhi to a new height in life. A place where we would be complimenting each other in the best possible way. A place where there would be no dearth of words to express our love for each other. Needless to say, I am happy. And needless to say, we seek all the blessings.

Here is what she had sent to me (No copyrights claimed)

You're my man, my mighty king,
And I'm the jewel in your crown,
You're the sun so hot and bright,
I'm your light-rays shining down,

You're the sky so vast and blue,
And I'm the white clouds in your chest,
I'm a river clean and pure,
Who in your ocean finds her rest,

You're the mountain huge and high,
I'm the valley green and wide,
You're the body firm and strong,
And I'm a rib bone on your side,

You're an eagle flying high,
I'm your feathers light and brown,
You're my man, my king of kings,
And I'm the jewel in your crown.

To Chota,

Indeed I am your man, and i shall be till God parts us. Indeed you are a jewel in my crown, the one that the world sees and appreciates. Indeed I am the sun and you my rays, the rays that bring the glory to me. Yes, i am all the adjectives that you have used in here and you are my reason to be one. Together we are, and together we will. Always remember a sun isn’t a sun unless the rays are there and a crown isn’t glowing unless the jewel is in it. Similarly I won’t be what I am unless I have your hand in mine, together we are "Deep-nidhi" and we shall always be.

रंजिश ही सही

2008-12-01T01:01:00.000-08:00

The title might make you go down the memory lane. Trust me we would have said "Get lost, i dont want to see you again in life" more then once in life and i am sure more then once we would've heard it. Also, i am sure there would be just this someone whom you hated at some point in time in life and yet there is this time when you want that someone to come back to you. And you sit begging saying

"रंजिश ही सही दिल ही दुखाने के लिए आ
आ फिर से मुझे छोड़ के जाने के लिए आ"

Here is to you all...

रंजिश ही सही दिल ही दुखाने के लिए आ
आ फिर से मुझे छोड़ के जाने के लिए आ ।

रंजिश=enmity

पहले से मरासिम न सही फिर भी कभी तो
रस्म-ओ-रह-ए-दुनिया ही निभाने के लिए आ ।

मरासिम=agreements/relationships, रस्म-ओ-रह-ए-दुनिया=customs and traditions of the society

किस किस को बताएँगे जुदाई का सबब हम
तू मुझ से ख़फ़ा है तो ज़माने के लिए आ ।

सबब=reason, ख़फ़ा=angry

कुछ तो मेरे पिन्दार-ए-मुहब्बत का भरम रख
तू भी तो कभी मुझ को मनाने के लिए आ ।

पिन्दार=pride

एक उम्र से हूँ लज़्ज़त-ए-गिरिया से भी महरूम
ऐ राहत-ए-जाँ मुझ को रुलाने के लिए आ ।

लज़्ज़त-ए-गिरिया=taste of sadness/tears, महरूम=devoid of, राहत-ए-जाँ=peace of life

अब तक दिल-ए-ख़ुश’फ़हम को तुझ से हैं उम्मीदें
ये आख़िरी शम्में भी बुझाने के लिए आ ।

दिल-ए-ख़ुश’फ़हम=optimistic heart, शम्में=candles

That’s great poetry ! Magnificient expression of melancholy ! And Runa Laila’s silken voice just weaves magic…This was also sung by Mehdi Hasan but was immortalized by Runa Laila. I like the one sung by Mr. Mehdi Hasan sahab over the one sung by Runa laila, I dont know when and i just dont remeber where i heard this for the first time, but since that day this has been my most favorite ghazal.

For you all...

I Love you

2008-11-12T04:47:00.000-08:00

Most of us have either said this phrase or have heard it. If not from/to someone then i am sure that if u would've seen any of the bollywood flick then you would've come across this phrase. I often wonder whats so magical about this phrase? Why is that the moment one listens to these words, the entire brain stops thinking logically or why is that we become complacent once we hear this? I would like to take a dig at it in this blog.

I have often questioned the functioning of the brain and the act that's responsible for human actions. I believe that most part of our brain is logical and understands things in binary. The remaining part is the emotional part, which manipulates binary to justify the deeds. Which also means that if by some means one can capture the logical part of the brain, the emotional part will automatically gets captured.

Now coming back to what happens when brain listens these three magical words. I am sure with different people have different pitch of sound the harmonic impact can directly be ruled out. However, if we read these words as three different power shots (i cant say gun shots!!) these have just the right impact to make your brain loose the logical sense.

So, when a person says "i love you" i believe that these are the decoded messages that go in the brain...
1) I care for you
2) I want to spend rest of my life with you
3) I see a future with you
4) I want to have a family with you..etc...etc...

Now, i think that out of these if the brain interprets the statement to mean as point no 1 then i am sure it would leave all logical sense behind and would let the body loose. Which is probably why the literates define the situation as "weakening of the knees" in case of a lady.

Having said this, what happens when u switch off your logical sense off? first thing, you present yourself to be taken for a joy "ride". Now if the other fellow is only interested in "ride" then God help you. But if he/she is really interested in taking care of you, then they would do all thats possible in the world to make your life comfortable. Even if that means going to the maximum limit.

For males, i believe when they say that they love someone, it occupies atleast 50% of their memory. The 50% that i talk is of the part of their NON-oFFICE day. Males tend to be more indulgent in work (u can blame creator for that) and then after that the next most important thing is their hobby. If a male says that he loves his girl over the best thing that he wants to do then i am sure he is lying. Also, males believe that if someone has used these words with him, then by its basic understanding that someone would've taken everything that a male does as a part of their life, which i am afraid in not true in most cases.

For females, when they say i love you, they mean it, every single word, every single time. They divide their life into two parts, 1) Their love interest and 2) the rest. Obviously the first part take most of the time.

Which again brings us to a point where it becomes very clear, that despite it looking so logical "I love you" is the most complicated of the statements.I turns your day upside down, it makes you stop thinking, it makes to get dressed up, it makes you take bath(for males!!), it makes you clean your room (coz she might bump in to find your most important covers on the bed!!), it makes you learn a few good english romantic songs, it most definitely makes you a poet, it makes you talk politely, ... the list is endless.

But what i see these days is the most prolific of the statements, its getting converted into a fashion statement. People are using it more for a regular company then having to feel its actual power.

Mind commenting on the last line of this blog... sign-in..

Ego, atitude and life

2008-11-04T00:38:00.000-08:00

Another piece on the humans that belong to the better half of the world. If you have read earlier blogs, you would realise that i have most simple brain in the world which means that i am only good with linear equations in life with two variables. Where in if i make one variable as constant and equate the next with another pre-defined constant the solution can exist. Offcourse i can most happily keep changing the values of both the variable that i have chosen as constant and the constant that i am going to equate the remaining variable with. Phew!! okies with the precedence set let me take a plunge into the topic that has made me compose this piece.

Human ego, human attitude and life lets take these variables and try and study a linear relationship amongst these. Also, we would understand each one of these and the parameters that influence them before concluding the relationship and find out if there can be a healthy outcome of these most complex things in anyones life.

Human ego, i suppose the parameter that influence this particular variable is the education. Now most of you would jump on to the debate "Education imparts wisdom" hence how can it impart ego-ism. I would like to tell you about a friend of mine, Sanjay, who had given a beautiful definition for this circumstance. He says that indeed education imparts wisdom and hence makes human humble but its the completeness of the education that decides whether the person would grow to become humble or whether he would grow to become arrogant. I conclude this variable by saying that that the phrase "Education imparts wisdom" is only half articulated unless we add another one to it which says "Half knowledge makes noise". Hence human ego can most certainly be controlled and killed only when one completes the entire cycle of education.

Human attitude, this is the brightest parameter in ones life. The seniors say that its the "attitude that determines altitude" (Punch line for INI Consulting's tee's) which most certainly is true. But the point of argument in here is not what it determines, rather, its the effect when it becomes negative. A person with a negative attitude can most certainly feel insecure about almost everything, be it love, life, work, family, etc. And am sure you know how a person with a negative attitude tends to behave. He is craving for attention, crying foul over everything, and most certainly trying to get away from all that is around him.

Now combine this with Human ego and what you would come across is a combination that determines what kind of life you would have. Sure then, lets start playing the game. Let me have a person with Positive attitude towards everything that he does (a constant) and let me fix his life as "Bad". Which would definitely reflect that he has huge ego. Which means that if tries to get "right" education and shed his inhibitions he would go on to transform his life into a good one.

Lets taken another example in the similar context. Let me have a person with Positive attitude towards everything that he does (a constant)and let me fix his life as "Good". Now the picture changes because the only possibility that exists in this case is the person also has a "manageable" ego. Which means that he neither rates himself too high nor too low vis-à-vis the world. Which also means that he has the patience to listen to the world as he would give equal opportunity to the world to put forward the points. Hence if i have to sum it up then the theory of relativity becomes prominent in the sense that i would pick and chose whats best suited for me and my growth as an individual.

The combinations can be several and you can continue this debate amongst the group that you generally debate in. I believe that the outcome will be quiet an eye opener for you.

In short, i have learnt this in my life, as you proceed in you journey upwards to the corporate pinnacle you need to have a right mix of Ego and attitude. Also, you need to shed your inhibitions to grow in life.

Last three weeks and a bizarre incident in family

2008-09-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

It’s been long since I have posted anything in here. The reason being, that I was way too engrossed in a lot of things around my work, family and travel. Also, let me admit that there wasn’t a topic that was coming in my mind to write something upon. Even today I have nothing, or let me put it in this way, I am confused about what to write and where to begin.

Last three weekends have been a hell ride, almost on each weekend we (I and Nidhi) were traveling nothing less then 800 kms. First weekend saw us travel to Thirumala for darshan of Lord Venkateshwara Swami. It was long due as Nidhi had requested Him for this marriage to happen (Read my previous posts to find out the reason). Second weekend there was a ritual back home at Kota and we traveled almost entire stretch of the country to reach there for two days!!.

The third weekend: - In most bizarre of incidences, mom met with an accident just the very next day (Monday) we had returned from home. She was lucky enough to survive and get away with some bruises and a hair line fracture on her color bone. Though she also had a head injury but that proved more of a cut then of anything serious. All we could do is pray and pray hard for God had saved her big time. The place where the accident occurred was one of the busiest areas of town with Trucks and Lorries plying every minute.

Dad called us at night 9pm when the accident had happened at 2 pm. Another example of how much panic had created there. If I know dad, he appears to be cool while he looses it with in himself. So he has to fight a double fight, one with the outer world and one with himself. Reason, he loves mom more than she thinks or more than anyone of us can even claim to know. He never shows it, may be he believes man shouldn’t be emotional or something of the sorts.

I almost lost it, so did munnu. It took lot of efforts from Nidhi to calm us both down and make us think how best and fast can we do something about it. What followed was a series of phone calls to ascertain the situation back home. Needless to say, we couldn’t sleep properly.

Next day was quiet important in office, one client call was pending for long and pressure was mounting. I couldn’t hold my head steady since the time I walked in office. I had no idea as what can I do sitting about 2500 kms from home. Being eldest ideally it is my responsibility to be with dad at this hour of crisis. In came a call from Nidhi and all she said was, check tickets coz we need to travel. This marked a change of behavior in me. Generally the logical in me takes control over the emotional me and I refrain from showing my emotions (read what I wrote about dad). Nidhi helped me over come that threshold with in. I booked the tickets and we were off in a flash for Kota. Again it took a lot of effort from Nidhi to keep me cool. She kept me busy over lot of small things on the airport thereby not letting me think about the event.

We reached jaipur and were off to Kota almost immediately. Another round of struggle in bus, this time the roles shifted, I was keeping Nidhi cool as she was growing anxious. We reached Kota at 5 am and were at home by 5:20 am. Almost immediately we were with mom. Next thing we saw was that she starts to cry, enough to blow my head. Nidhi again pitched in with her thoughts.

What followed for next four days was me getting to see a new Nidhi. At one hand she continued her regular schedule of teasing (in her pursuit of keeping me cool) while on the other hand she was like another mother balancing life between cooking food for the entire house to taking stock of medicines for mom. Such was the balance that even for a single minute we never came to believe that the lady of house is on bed. Indeed wonderful!!.

Cheenu joined us the next day and then mom’s recovery got sped up. The very next day we saw a different person in Mom. Suddenly she wanted to get up from bed and go about doing her regular household work. Everyone was happy all oozing with energy and sole thing being that everyone wanted mom to be good the very moment.

Mom happens to be fine now and she is on her path of getting recovered. But before I close down on this piece I need to summarize a few things: -

1) Your parents need you, no matter where you are and how much you earn, just ensure that you are with them when they need you the most.

2) Often I have heard that Mother-in-laws and Daughter-in-laws don’t get along well, my understanding got changed this time. It has to be from both sides and slightly more from the DIL’s side.

3) When in crisis, take a deep breath before u run in for any decision, this has a particular reference and need not be discussed in here.

4) Son is important, but Daughter-in-law is more important, best if all the mothers love their daughter-in-laws.

All in all, it was bizarre but I came to know a whole new Nidhi. Best is that she has enough power to help me over come my thresholds. What I have witnessed in last one week, is a visual proof of how things can change if we really want them to.

This blog might appear a lot meaning less to you, but its only for a few to appreciate it. And yes, with this last week one person has grown in her stature for me and that’s my lovely wife… Nidhi… Thanks for coming in my life and yes I Love you chotu.. :-)

60 days of being married!!

2008-06-17T02:59:00.001-07:00

The title gives you a feel that its something that: -
1) Its about marriage and life after it
2) its about MY marriage and MY life after it.. :)

Lets go slightly back in memory, 15 August 2007 was the day when the country was colored in tri-color and celebrating the Independence day, my friend was getting married in bangalore, i had a holiday, Air deccan offered me an extremly cheap air ticket, i was coming to meet few of my friend after a break of 2 years, and a lot of things.....

Admist all this, i met a lady. Most bizzare things was the way i was dressed up, rather i should be saying messed up.. I wore an orange kurta with jeans and sandles. Now, in most parts of the world this dress, by no means, is considered to be formal. Rather it clasifies in no category. The meeting not only went fine, but i suppose for the first time in my entire life i was able to impress someone or rather confuse someone (Nidhi told me this only few days back that she could understand nothing of what i told her!!). Nonetheless....

17th April, i got married to the same lady (as mentioned above!!). Nothing was going right for all the closest people we due in for sufferings. I came over to bangalore to get the house in order, Nidhi joined me after 4 days. Our first night in bangalore was spent on floor of the common hall coz the fan in the room was not working. Second night and the third night also went in the same way. It was then we got the keys for our new house, and we actually got bed to sleep on.

May 5th, was the day when we actually moved in the house and got things in place. Nidhi cooked food for the first time that night, and i remember two of us seated at the dining table trying to feal the house around us.

Rest of the days in that week just flew by and before we could understand it was 10th may. We packed our bags and bumped into the car to head towards a place called Coorg. We were told that its a kind of a good place and that we could enjoy there. To our pleasant suprise, the place was way too good then what we had thought. We indeed had good time there in the cool and peaceful place.

The rest of the days in May went off in getting house in order, from purchasing materials to setting the maid and the newspaper and the milkman and.... there were so many and's that its almost impossible for me to list them down.

Entered June, most definitely without knocking!!... new things were getting listed, from plumbers for the bathroom to the pulses, and flour, and the vegetables... again so many and's.... admist all this... mummy came over to bangalore and we had to leave everything and set house up for her coz this time it was Nidhi's pretige at stake and by all means me and nidhi had to prove that we are good people. :)

When i woke up this morning and rubbed my eyes, i looked at the newspaper and realised....its 60th day of me being married!!! i was quiet loud while i was thinking that i am saying to myself. Time just flew, and i have done so little.... Mom smiled looked at me and said... good that you remember these things... i can see a definite change in you.. i didnt knew how to react...

Most certainly i have done nothing of the sorts that people do after their wedding, i have not gone on honeymoon, i have not spent time with my wife, i have not bought her a thing... all this after being married to the lady i love so much.

Man in me can easily find excuses, and they can be used as a protection when questions are hurled at you from outer world. But how do i answer myself on this, how can i say that i couldnt buy her a small peck admist 60X24 hours!!!!.... this is so much of a time...

I think i need to change a bit... before she starts feeling that she is been married to me for over a year in just 3 months i need to put in some excitement... i said this to myself and just when i was about to sit upright mom told me that munnu has been given a internal promotion... two events in the same day... i think i need to do something about them.. Nidhi and munnu are most certainly two people who mean a lot to me and i need to give them a suprise today... i need to tell them that i am a changed personality and that i know materials are not important but by virtue of being there they create memories. :)

I have decided to go to shopping complex to see what i can buy for two of them... i have to.. i will update this blog based on the stuff that i did tonight... :)

Marriage-II

2008-03-20T04:48:00.000-07:00

It’s less then a month to go from now, before I get married. As far as my relationship is concerned its a fair achievement After all that I and my fiancé have undergone, reaching this day can be explained like triumph of Indian team in a T20 world cup. Immensely satisfying and extremely pretty.

However, I now see myself struggling with a few aspects that i was most definitely and most dramatically used to tell to people. First being am now getting anxious each passing day. Anxious about the gelling of two families with entirely different culture and value system.

If i have to imagine and compare the difference of opinion in the two families, then the first thought that comes to my mind is one metal striking the other with splinters flying all across. The only positive that comes out of this imagination is the fact that the metals bond beyond any force's capacity to set them apart.

Anxiety is something that i have never been scared of. Neither am i worried about the chain of events that would follow for i know this world has more educated people then what were there when my it was my dad's world.

Second aspect that worries me is something called attitude. I most certainly believe that one cannot change his/her attitude. It is way of being for a person and if i ask you to change it overnight, trust me, all hell will break loose. Now think from the point of view of the lady that leaves one family with one set of back ground, culture and value system, and moves into another family with entirely different parameters for the same sets.

At one hand she would be skeptic while on the other she would be scared. According to me here's where the learning from families come into picture. Traditionally in India, all the daughters in family are made to understand about terms like "flexibility", "adapting", now if you look into the richness of the culture of India, these parameters are extremely important. Also, here it’s the mother that is of extremely vital importance. Its the mother that has all the experience in the world by virtue of she undergoing same transition some years back. All the learning’s all through her journey of being a girl to a bride then to be daughter in law and then mother makes her so rich in experience. I suppose, the role of mother becomes so crucial that she can actually control the thought process of her daughter. She holds the keys for the level of anxiety and the fear that her daughter would be having. What if mother herself is skeptic and is anxious and worst if she induces her anxiety in her daughter?

Unlike in western world, in India marriage is not amongst two individuals but it’s between two families. And very clearly, the bond is made by the daughter of one family that becomes daughter in law for another. If not for the ladies in the family am sure we men would be half buffoons even now. :) It’s often difficult to understand why only a girl has to change, why not men. Also, why is it the girl that has to leave her house and come over, why is that the girl has to transform her behavior, attitude and way of being? Now these questions are right there coz it’s visible.

Do we even talk about the transformation a man undergoes after marriage? No, the reason, we say, he gets the girl, he gets family, and he gets stability, blah blah!! Again a lot of "he gets" things. Has anyone even bothered to think about the anxiety that a man would undergo in all this process?

The biggest aspect, till now he was a part of his dad's family, he need not to make any decisions, dad would take care of it, now... its him who got to take them, stand by them and live for them. Ok, if this one sounded clichéd to you then how about this one. Till his marriage there is no woman in his life except his mom, and sis (if any), his life with them had a certain way of being with them and he would have never or seldom negotiated with them. Now in the same 100% space that he has there is another lady that steps in. The balance will shuffle until he gets it right again, but no body sees his struggle for it.

I am not saying that man does certain things and needs support, all I am saying is that it’s not only girl that undergoes a change of profile.

Coming to back to the things that I talked in here there are few clear thoughts: -
1) Anxiety is inevitable in marriage
2) Its learning of your entire up bringing that helps you get a relationship going
3) Mothers play extremely important role, it’s like a captain of a ship, if captain sinks ship sinks. They need to be strong and give courage to their daughters rather then making them anxious and skeptic.
4) A man gives in equal amount of energy in a marriage, it’s only the fact that it all gets hidden under the amount that girl gives in.

All said and done, marriage makes you stable, matured, and yes it makes you a man. I am on that path of being a man from a mere bachelor and yes with all the anxiety that I have I am maturing each passing day.

The first fight

2008-03-17T02:08:00.000-07:00

This article has been picked up in its true sense from a website and the blog doesn't claim that its been written by the author.

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Where the honeymoon ends and the relationship begins.

No matter how blissful a relationship is in the beginning there will come a time when you have your first fight and for many people it is quite traumatic. First fights are scary things. When conflict arises in a once friction free relationship it always gives way to uncertainty. But the first fight can actually be a positive thing; a defining moment in a relationship that actually makes things more solid.

In the early days of falling for each other everything is always rosy. People are on their best behavior. While still immersed in the getting-to-know you stage people tend to bend their expectations to the absolute limit of their tolerances and are more forgiving of the things that may later bother them. But once a comfort level has been reached and there is some security in the relationship that tolerance level shifts back toward an individual’s real-life base line. This is what breeds the first fight.

Once a relationship becomes more established people start acting more themselves. The best behavior honeymoon stage comes to an end, often abruptly and without warning. The first fight threshold is usually reached when one party gets near the other’s line of tolerance and that person finally feels comfortable letting their partner know that they are bothered. With the rules suddenly changed the person on the receiving end of the upset feels confused and defensive. Voila! We have the first fight.

First Fight: The End or a New Beginning?

It is true that the first fight is the end for some couples but it doesn’t have to be. While first fights are never fun they are actually essential to the evolution of a relationship. Nobody, no matter how close or how compatible they may be, agrees on absolutely everything. There will be conflict in even the best most successful relationships. What determines the quality of the relationship isn’t whether or not fights happen but how those fights are played out and resolved. Couples who listen to one another’s concerns and perspectives, who respect the other’s point of view whether they agree with it or not, and who work toward finding a compromise, are most likely to make it through the first fight stronger for the experience.

How you fight is as important, if not more important, than why you fight. Violence of any kind is never healthy and should not ever be excused. Hitting, kicking, throwing things and other physical manifestations of anger are unhealthy ways to communicate upset. They accomplish nothing and always do more harm than good. Same goes for name calling or playing the blame-game. Even if somebody is clearly in the wrong it doesn’t need to be harped on, mentioning it once or twice can lead to resolution but bringing it up over and over can only bring out defensiveness. One exception is when the person who has done wrong won’t admit and apologize, or when they keep doing the same thing over and over. In that case the issue moves beyond bringing up old issues and becomes a question of why those issues keep rising to the surface.

Surviving the First Fight

In order to survive the first fight a couple must be willing to really examine why the fight happened and both people must be ready to make a compromise. The compromise won’t always be equal, one person may have to give more, but compromise not conquest should be the ultimate goal of any conflict. When deciding who should bend there are three important things to ask as a couple; first, who if anybody was in the wrong, second, who will be hurt most by having to make a change, three if the change being asked is reasonable and possible. In the case of clear right and wrong, such as cheating or lying, the person who has done the wrong must be prepared to give up the most in repairing the damage. But rarely are fights started over issues of clear right and wrong. More often than not it is a difference of opinion or a variation in needs that causes couples to fight.

Where the issue of right or wrong is grey, which is the case 98% of the time, the question then becomes one of the degree of compromise that each person must make and that should be decided by who will feel the most harm or discomfort in meeting their partner’s needs. For example, if a girlfriend is very sensitive to friendships with ex-girlfriends the boyfriend needs to ask himself if making her uncomfortable and insecure is worth maintaining those friendships. If it is, which does happen since all relationships do not end badly, he needs to do everything he can do make his girlfriend comfortable with the friendship. He can never be secretive about what he does or says to the ex and ideally should bring the girls together. If it’s not worth damaging a relationship to maintain ties to an ex then the friendship should be put on the back burner. Regardless the primary relationship should always be put first.

How First Fights Make Relationships Stronger

First fights define relationships. They reaffirm the couple’s commitment to one another and if they are worked through properly can make a relationship stronger. While it is always scary to fight for the first time it is important to acknowledge that fights are normal and that they eventually happen in every close relationship. Why you fight is important but it is how you fight that determines whether or not the conflict will strengthen your bond or stretch it to the limit. Break ups are not the inevitable outcome of the first fight although fearing it will lead to a break up is normal. If a first fight leads to a break up it simply means the foundation of the relationship was not very strong. For good relationships the first fight will solidify things. By wanting to work through conflict rather than run away couples show each other that they are there for a long time, not just for a good time. This realization is an important one. First fights are really just signs that your relationship is moving to a new, more intimate and more committed level. Isn’t that a good thing?

Indian hockey!! anyone listening, watching.. appreciating!!

2008-03-05T04:02:00.001-08:00

Guys, before i start writing about it read few lines in here: -
India Vs Mexico18-1 (India wins)
Rajpal Singh and Prabhjot Singh scored six and four goals respectively, including a hat-trick apiece.V Ramachandra Raghunath, doubled up and, struck four, while Shivendra Singh (2), Tushar Khandekar (1) and Sardara Singh (1)

India Vs Austria7-3 (India wins)
Dilip Tirkey (9th, 23rd minutes), Shivendra Singh (51st, 55th), Ignace Tirkey (42nd), Bharat Chhikara (53rd) and Rajpal Singh (53rd) struck telling blows.

India Vs Russia8-0 (India wins)
Prabhjot Singh, who is in tremendous form, did the star turn for the Indians, scoring three goals (19th, 29th, 65th minutes) while Dilip Tirkey (14th), Tushar Khandekar (36th), Sardara Singh (48th) and V Ramachandra Raghunath (54th) accounted for the others

Still no mention of them in any cover of any newspaper, are we doing justice to these unsung heroes. Remember our cricket team was in shades until picked up by right set of guys and followed up by frenzy crouds. I do not understand why we arent following hockey which is a quick paced game where fortunes turn at a flick or a drag.

We are beating teams fair and square for quiet sometime now and all that the team gets is a quiet ride in autorickshaw back to their home. So unlike of a country that treats cricket players like demi gods and takes out processions not to mention showering of money if they win any game.

Ok,i agree that our hockey team is not the best in world but neither is our cricket team. Apart from that, even the smallest kid in the block would know dhoni but does anyone even think about prabhjot who is leading like a hero...

pathetic state of affairs.. i dont mind calling this country a rascist country.. so what if we do not differentiate by the color of skin, we definitely do it when it comes to our national game.
for all those people who remember cricket team by heart.. please take some time off and read below the details of indian hockey team that is playing its hearts out to secure the national honor of making it to beijing olympics.

Wake up guys and support them.. they need it...

Team: - Goalkeepers: Bharat Chetri, Baljit Singh.

Defenders: Dilip Tirkey, V R Raghunath, Wiiliam Xalxo, Diwakar Ram.

Midfielders: Gurbaj Singh, Prabodh Tirkey (captain), Bimal Lakra, Sardara Singh, Ignace Tirkey, Vikram Kanth.

Forwards: Rajpal Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Shivendra Singh, Bharat Chikara, Ajeethesh Rai.

Standbys: Sreejesh (goalkeeper), Samir Baxla (defender), S V Sunil, Birendra Lakra, Roshan Minz, Cheeyanna (all forwards).

Officials: Joaquim Carvalho (chief coach), M P Singh (coach), M Ramesh Parameswsaran (assistant coach), Ganguly Prasad (trainer-SAI, Bangalore), Sreekanth Iyengar (physio), Prasanna (video analyst), Nagaraj (masseur), M M Somayya (technical director) and R K Shetty (manager).

Hypocarcy and hullabaloo!!!

2008-01-14T04:21:00.000-08:00

My posting on www.news.com.au for a reply of Mr. Thompson's posting.Find the original on http://blogs.foxsports.com.au/cricket/index.php/foxsports/comments/hypocrisy_and_hysteria/

Dear Mr.Thompson,

I see that a lot is lost and fought about the things that happened. You know the best benefitted are people are the one who have no knowledge of the game? i believe that you have some sense and knowledge of the game and i presume that you belong to australia (though its clear from your write up). Its a shame that you are not willing to look at the other side.

We, indians, have always believed that if harbajan is guilty then sack him, the question though is that is he actually guilty? between if we see the match over and over again, its quiet clear that the match went on like a crazy outburst for i could only see aussies being extremly desperate like school boys to win it. not to mentioned they celebrated as if had they lost they wouldve been hanged. For your reference i would like to state a few facts: -

1) Rashid latif (Pak) was banned for 5 (Five!!) matches when he claimed (!!!) to have taken a catch when actually he had grounded it. Judge:- Mike Proctor (Aus). Now if he is one person who is unbiased, how did Ricky pointing escaped. Am not willing to understand it?

2) Its quiet astonishing that "Monkey" is a rascist word, for i would surely like to know what you aussies call the animal thats brown, has a black face and the first specie from whole of mankind evolved from, its definitely not a kangaroo!!!. So whats next, someone calling someone else a tiger being an abuse... To us and the sensible lot monkey remains an animal, perhaps you would have a whole new definition for it.

3) Andrew symonds is out, not once, but twice and thrice, he still isnt ashamed of standing there. Leave umpires if you see yourself out of crease and the bails being off, am sure you understand it urself. So are we talking of selective honesty and claiming the world that we are partly honesty. Sir, we believed that atleast honesty is black and white.

4) Am sure CA is rich enough to have big screens on the ground, the ones that show the replays, its quiet astonishing that Ricky ponting couldnt see that he grounded the catch, not only that he also couldnt see that his mate clarke had also grounded it. And he has chivalry to go up and tell the world that he honest. Am sure he should not let his family see this match. They wont believe him after this for all the truth he has being speaking to them till now!!!

5) It a feilders right to appeal, and in all circumstances he should do so, but, excessive appeal is something thats a subjective term. Am suprised that only teams to be confronted with this are the teams other then australia. I do not believe that i have bad eyes and ears, more so, i cant believe that my brain cant understand what australia does and what the rest of the world.

6) Few years back, Mr Ricky ponting was playing against india and he was hit on his helmet by Javagal srinath, immediately srinaths reactions were to walk up to him to find out whether he is ok, to his dismay ponting greeted him with a series of invaluable comments which the whole world saw. What a team spirit and what a sportsman is leading your country.

Dear Sir, its pathetic to see the best brand ambassadors of the game stooping to such cheap levels of methods to win a game. Winning is as important as playing is, and winning is just a part of the game, problems start when you take it to heart.

Difference between a man and a child became visibly clear in the post match press conferences. While Anil handed it peacefully, ricky was crying all over the place, it was more like the tone of a 5 yr okd school boy whose caught red handed doing something that he wasnt suppose to...

In the end, am sure you guys atleast can read this piece coz i wouldnt be suprised if you cant, coz you guys dont even know that a monkey is an animal and not a Racial abuse...ridiculous debate and pathetic australian cricket team. you have done more damage to the game then hansie, atleast he was man enough to take it all in the face.

cricket a game in doldrums!!

2008-01-09T04:24:00.001-08:00

My letter to editor of indiatimes.com

Dear Sir,

All these talks, articles, etc are waste, let me tell you why
1) Count the number of bans, fines against the rest of the world and against aussies, am sure u would be suprised
2) In exactly same situations a aussie goes scott free while someone else gets banned for 5 games (Rashid latif Vs Ponting)
3) Abusive language comes naturally to aussies and they are only equipped to speak not equipped to hear. so when someone else calls them names they cry and go to big daddy
4) What happened in sydney is not mere bad umpiring. Coz bad umpiring can happen on field but not on TV-3 umpire. Would request you to please dig deeper in to this.
5) Media when treated badly by players of anyother country retaliates strongly, why it hasnt done anything when ponting's arrogance asked the reporter to get out!!
6) Same mike proctor is allowed to fine, ban players at his will while the moment its the aussies he says he believe in them, its good to do so but why? and why not in an indian?

Please save the game of cricket, i had lost it once when hansie came on screen am sure i would loose it again if these aussies are not made to understand a few basic laws of human civilization.

Cricket Lost!!

2008-01-06T23:05:00.000-08:00

1. Symonds out- not given- goes on to score a century
2. Ponting out-not given- goes on to score a half century
3. Hussey out- not given- goes on to score a century
4. Harbhajan says nothing-out- slapped a 3 match ban for calling "something" to Mr. Symonds that astonishingly no one hears except him and a few others.

Australia, the most respected team in the world cricket, ponting the most respected and highly looked upon as a captain, gilchrist one of the worlds best wicket keeper, message.... stop this stuff mates... you guys as of today stand together where Hansie stood one day...atleast he was man enough to take it on his face...

Disgusting, disrespectful, and astonishingly you still think that u have true sportsmenship... am sure u dont know the meaning of it. U want to win it win it like a man not like school boys!!.
Result: - Australia won the test match while the World of Cricket lost it big time yet again. Am sure not too much left in to be seen in forth coming games.

To me, ricky ponting, Adam gilchrist, Mathew hayden were next best "Men" after Hansie cronje. What Hansie did to world cricket in '98 with his declaration these people did it with their "astonshingly" sick performance in this test match. I think Australia is seriously afraid of loosing a match. Tell me what a weak man does when he is pushed to wall, he shouts, sledges, calls elders that u have called him names, tries to make people push u away rather doing it himself. Now think what australia did.

Trust me, it cant be a mere coincidence that all, both field umpires and a third umpire "favors" australia. I want to believe that things are not going wrong behind the scenes. I seriously want to believe. Atleast Hansie was Man enough to confess it to the world, Mr. Ponting has no clue where the ball was when he took the catch of dhoni coz he said "He thinks" he took it clean... disgusting, pathetic...am sure world cricket has witnessed one of the worst day's in its history.

Script for ekta kapoor!!!!

2008-01-03T00:48:00.000-08:00

Chalo ab aapko batate hain… month wise betey kahani poori filmy hai.. read till the end to get complete idea…

August – 15 – Deepak and Nidhi meet at Barista in Jayanagar, decide that round 1 is ok though would require few more meeting before the final word
Sept 24- Deepak relocates to Bangalore, and the meetings start between him and Nidhi
Oct 13- Nidhi goes back home to meet Deepak’s parents, things do not go well and its almost a No, while both had mann hi mann decided to get married –start of fight
November 2- Nidhi and Deepak spend time at the airport between their flights and the bond grows beyond anyones control
November 2-12 - Everything went fine and all was getting set
November 13- Nidhi’s parents come to kota, big misunderstanding created, becomes a complete No. Nidhi cries, fights, yells and tells them flat that if she has to marry it would be Deepak (Landmark statement by the lady)
November 23- Deepak meets nidhi’s parents at Jaipur airport spends about an hour with them, clarifies everything. Things start moving again
November 23-Dec 3 fights and more fights
Amidst all this nidhi’s dad travels to kota and performs teeka.
Dec 10 – Nidhi’s dad refuses to Deepak’s dad for wedding.
Dec 11 – Deepak’s dad refuses to Deepak and everyone asks Deepak and Nidhi to stop meeting hence forth
Dec 15 – Deepak’s mom makes a land mark statement “Agar main mana kar dungi na to Deepak will not meet Nidhi at all” to Nidhi’s mom. This closes all chapters.
Dec 16- Deepak makes a phone call to both parents holding Nidhi in his arms, being extremely patient and Nidhi kept on hold him tight for an hour at Corner house. Deepk pleads and pleads for both parents to calm down and re start things. They do but only to start another fight..
Dec 23- Nidhi goes to Jaipur for her Vacations till 1st
Dec 23-24 – Nidhi cries and fight profusely seeing this Nidhi’s mom calls up Deepak’s mom and deepak’s mom refuses point blank.
Nidhi continues to cry… Nidhi’s parents start forcing her to meet someone else and cut away from Deepak
Dec- 28- Nidhi locks herself up in her room and cries for whole day, time for Deepak to become SRK.
Deepak calls up kota and tells them that if they don’t get things straightened in two days he will leave country and go away not to marry ever (quiet a foolish thing to say but it worked!!)
Dec 30 – Deepak’s dad meets up with Nidhi’s dad and talk with him in a CAR…yes in a car for over an hour.. Nidhi’s dad says he is willing to give 10 lac as fd but is not willing to do anything…

Deepak’s dad tries to control the events and succeeds after a push here and a pull there.

Jan1 - Nidhi’s parents travel to Kota

Happy New year!!! Everything is fine now…but because of all the time lost in above mentioned activities the project is to be delayed by a month.. nonetheless, both the client and the host finally agree to work things out.

Itni shiddat se maine tumhen paane ki koshish ki hai, ke har zarre ne mujhe tum se milane ki saazish ki hai,

Kehtey hain ki agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho to poori kaynaat tumhen usse milane ki koshish mein lagjaati hai, aur is baat ka bhi yakeen ho gaya ki hamari filmon ki tarah hi hamari zindagi mein bhi end mein sab theek ho jaata hai, aur agar theek na ho to woh The end nahin hai doston picture abhi baaki hai..... :)

My Younger Brother....Prasoon

2007-12-05T23:03:00.000-08:00

People who know me closely also know that i can go at length talking about someone really special to me. He happens to be my younger brother. Ours a special relation for its of a friend, philosopher and guide. Am a philosopher to him and he is a guide to me... Needless to mention that i dont know since when we have grown way above the relationship of a brother and have become friends. :)

You might be astonished to see that i rate friend above a brother, yes its there in my life for self defined situations and rules. Nonetheless, there is a story that i would like to share in here.

I was quiet naughty when was young. All sorts of mischiefs used to come to me like a flash. Be it stealing mangoes from neighbourhood or get my Grandmas things and run away. You name it and i had a specialization in it. One fine day i got hold of medicines that my grandma used to take. I had always seen her take a special pill and then she used to doze off almost immediately. My kid brain used to always think as to how amazing it is... most certainly not knowing the impact, i got hold of a tablet and in a flsh swalowed it. Since i was a kid and had a small throat for a considerably big sized tablet, it got stuck in my throat.

The pill started showing its effects and i was admitted to ICU for a while and under 24 hr observation for a critical condition. When i opened my eyes something somewhere had gone wrong without my knowledge... my vocal chords had suffered a near fatal blow. Not knowing i returned my regular schedule of shouting, yelling and doing what i was good at...load of mischiefs.

Before i could realise i was finding it tough to speak, my throat used to pain and i needed extra effort to speak something hence i couldnt speak anything in a low tone...i had to be loud. People got a point, started making fun of me, used to ask me to sing and when i sang like a crow they used to laugh...called me all sorts of name. I thought it was normal and went ahead, but yes not
liking what was happening to me.

In came my bro... one fine winter morning mom returned to home with this pink baby, extremly cute and very soft. Though i do not too many memories of it but whenever i see those photographs i see myself basking into glory of being an elder brother to someone. We named him Munnu (mine is tunnu and my sis is named Cheenu...so the sequence continued).Out of nowhere he grew up with immense knowledge of music. He picked up his first instrument at the age of 4 and started learning indian classical music. He sounded like a canary. Often when he used to practice we used to sit on dinning table and listen to him. It used to be magical, i often used to thank God with my silence prayers to have sent him. For all those who made fun
of me were mesmerised by his singing.

Call it unintentional or magical his first song on stage was my all time favorite "Kabhie Kabhie merey dil mein khayal aata hai". This was just the begining. He did everything that i dreamt of doing in life, he achieved all those things where i wanted to be...be it being a fast bowler to achieve A grade in school, to be almost 6ft tall..to be having those long locks of hair...everything.

More to come when i get some time...as i have said in the begining he is one person i can go on talking about even for rest of my life.. :) i strongly believe he came in to take my pains away so that i can rejoice in life in whatever little abilities i have with me.

Marriage and the Lady..

2007-11-29T02:29:00.000-08:00

Marriage is a word of 8 alphabets but has almost whole of two lives being directly affected, while atleast a dozen being affected at the second level. If you wouldve asked me about it, about three years back, i wouldve promptly told you that being married is getting more problems in life. Actually i was scared, i was scared of being married.

My childhood was quiet a turbulent phase, where in i saw families drifting apart after the boy in the family got married. Am sure there couldve been other reasons but to my simple brain marriage became a villian. I decided not to marry ever in life. There were further impact of a broken heart sometime in my mid 20s and that just added to the firm determination about not getting married. Even till early this year, i wasnt interested in talking about my marriage.

But as they say, there is someone up there admist blue skies who wants you to be happy and takes care of you in his own special way, i was in for a fantastic meeting. Astonishingly i decided to travel to bangalore for a friends wedding, am sure i wasnt an important entity in her wedding and even if i havent come in, the marriage wouldve been as grand as it was. Nonetheless, i came down to bangalore for a day, that was independence day. And decided to meet this lady, she appeared cool by her pic, and more so i was coming in with the mindset of "Dad told me, i'll go... big deal".

We deicided to meet at Barista in Jaynagar. We met, we chatted and we walked away. Something had already gone wrong for good. I had found myself struggling to say no for her, coz she appeared near perfect image of what i had dreamt in life. For her, family was top most priority and she gave me a good shock, she appeared so un-bangalorian despite being in the city for 3 long years. I was scared again!!!

I went back to mumbai, somehow couldnt resist sending a few cranky smses to her. I got back in software, quiet a good offer and one that i had never thought about. I was all set to come back to bangalore, i was confused, i was scared and i was at loss of words. How can my life take a turn for good? was a question that was constantly nagging me.

I reached bangalore, initial smses had already being transformed into online chat, and the moment i reached in here i found myself quiet eager to meet her. We met, we again met, and then we started meeting again and again. Finding reasons that could be as silly as i going to purchse fruits from Fab mall closer to her house!!.

Nidhi, the lady, came up in my life with immense amount of maturity. She not only got my life on way back to the track but restored my faith in the institution of marriage. She became a friend first and then my love interest. She patiently used to hear my fears out, never tried to make me believe by words. But, instead she did by her acts, acts that spoke much louder then words. She took her own sweet time to get comfortable with me, infact i never came to know when she had become an inseperable part of my thoughts.

Those small things like making matar paneer and paranthas, to wishing my bro on his promotion, then those small smses or giving me a name "laddooramji". She slowly and gradually made me enter a whole new world of immense love, a world of responsibility, a world where life has a totally different meaning. And after a span of half of my lifetime, i smiled again.

I still wasnt sure, coz i had this inherent belief that god is hell bent over taking away all that i love, this lady stood tall. She cried, fought and did all thats possible to make me realise her love for me. I coulve never imagined anyone to have stood her ground for me despite all the pressures that she was getting under from her parents. Respect for her grew taller each passing day.

So readers, its a faith restored that made me compose this piece of blog. I feel lucky to have Nidhi in life, i feel happy to have her close to me. Am yet to meet her friends, am told to be the only of the people that she had met, who is not being talked about amongst her friends, another part that made me believe that someone up there wants something to happen and ensures that those happen just the way they should.

Nidhi... thanks for being there in life.. :-) am sure without u it wouldnt have even half as pretty as it is now.. :)

Educated Vs Wise

2007-10-30T04:18:00.000-07:00

I have kind of created a war with the educated lot of the world. Its a self created self destructive excercise, but it is something out of what i see, feel, and bear each passing day. I would with all the limited intellect that i posses, try to put forward my points. The issues that have made me believe that the educated lot is making this world a horrifying place to be at.

I neither understand the complexities of finance, politics nor of business,so i would not indulge in those. I would keep myself to very low lying yet quiet important facts of life. Things that we come across each day and our approach towards all these.

1) Traffic woes: - Each morning when i get up and get ready to drive to office the thing that keeps knocking my head is "what kind of traffic will i get today". My observation of about 20k kms of driving has made me realise a few things.

All, yes all traffic jam is caused by educated people. Now u can create a seperate category for these. These are educated without patience. But didnt we all have read that education makes a man humble and hence full of patience.

All those who break traffic signal are educated people. Yes, all, coz probably they think its cool to break traffic signals. I think they do so coz they think they can get away from traffic police personal. Which means that there is an inherent feeling that so long as you are caught, its ok to break the law. Again, a deviation from what we are "educated". We all told to respect the law.

2) Bribe: - Here its an absolutely educated world. Both parties involved, i mean, the giver and the taker are educated. And in most case often well read too. But how does that matter at all, right, so what if we are told about the goods and the bads in school. So what, i mean we would have read Moral science as one of the "subjects". And am sure all of us wouldve "cleared" the examination. I have often laughed at the concept itself, moral science being a subject and then an examination for the same.

3) Nepotism: - I agree this had been a subject of study for a long time. It started with people who were not educated trying to get their sons or nephews in their place so that the family continues to earn. However, in recent times this whole concept has become applicable to very well educated industry. I cant believe people at middle management struggle for words while presenting their thoughts to team. I mean, its just not possible.

There are 100s of such examples around you, and all these make me feel sad each passing day that i belong to such group. What we dont understand is its easy to be educated, but what is tough is, to get wisdom.

I seek wisdom, good lord, else i know this earth would soon be one hell of a place to be at. All educated yet all breaking rules, all creating havoc on streets, in towns, in shops. I dont think in such a situation i can live peacefully, forget living happlily.

Piracy and Education

2007-10-29T04:46:00.000-07:00

On one of those lazy weekends,i pushed myself out of bed in search of some real worthy time pass movies. My thought, as I was trying to search through a pile of cds at a library, was broken when i heard a boy asking the counter boy "Is this CD original". I could muster some thoughts and decided to rather take a lazy stroll while the statement kept banging my head for some reason.

I was wondering, how big is this pirated CD market? is it organized or unorganized? where do these people create CDs? 100 others. While walking i happen to cross one of the landmarks of Bangalore, an engineering marvel and quiet sensational "teen" hot hang out spot, called forum. My eyes for some reason was searching something in particular, and bang i saw it. A small "teenager" trying to sell pirated DVDs.

There were three "facts" that caught my mind: -
1) The small shop was set up right outside prime place of people wanting to enjoy their weekend, The Forum. It was located at such a place that anyone walking, driving, or merely standing couldn't have missed.
2) It was right next to a crossing which was manned by traffic police personal. To the astonishment, the guy who was selling the CDs/DVDs was calling for people to come and buy as if he is selling some vegetables.
3) Most of his buyers were educated lot.

Now while the first two points in here show how easy it is to handle the law in here and all those anti-piracy drives are a mere "namesake", it was the third one that made me feel sorry. The educated lot buying pirated CDs, and poor me thought education impart wisdom. So far as my understanding goes, its this educated lot that has access to TV and the programs that show the ill effects of piracy. I also hope that these people have wisdom to understand what all those mean to some. And i know a few of the pirated CD buyers who feel sorry every time a theater in their locality is brought down for a shopping complex.

What do they do... they buy pirated CDs..So next time u read STOP PIRACY buy only original, i atleast expect u to buy/rent only original CDs. For if u can read i hope you have a grown up matured mind that understands what PIRACY means...if not then read further i shall explain it as per dictionary.

"the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc."

And under law of any country, this is illegal. So if u think that only the guys who sell pirated cds are doing illegal activity, rest be assured that if you buy it, u too are a part of this illegal drive.

Cheers!!

Grow up aussies...please for heaven sake!! grow up...

2007-10-16T05:02:00.000-07:00

lot of learned people will tell that u need to be mentally strong to be a good cricketer, that u not be perturbed by a comment or two, and that any assault on you is sure sign that you are doing good. I would like to have a different opinion. Tell me why is it only Australia that despite being the world champion for most number of times resorts under the rug of words when it comes to get a batsman out...we are talking about a team that has giant like Lee, symonds, ponting, gilchrist, hayden.

Or is it that these are giants coz they disrupt the concentration of opponents by a war of words. Then, if its later, how different is aussie cricket then a school level game. or let me dwell a little deeper, how different is an aussie cricketor then a kid who needs something, upon not handed over willingly he starts crying and throwing tantrums. Grow up ponting and side, u really need to prove the world that u are are bunch of men, and not mere school boys who cry, shout and sledge for being hit on one ball.

Cricket is game of character, its high time that these people start realizing it. Already cricket is loosing its charm after being dragged into a controversy of match fixing and nature, dont de grade it by behaving like school boys and acting kiddish..I dont understand the need of use of the "F" word, coz in my opinion you would still need to bowl the batsman out, yeah i agree it would be different if ICC can allow someone being called out just by calling names to him...:-)

Freedom of Media…a boon or a curse

2007-08-30T03:27:00.000-07:00

India is a free country, there are fundamental rights given to each individual and am sure we all are aware of them. A few years back, media used to be controlled by government and anything going into public used to have a confirmation from government body. Out came the reforms and media proved the world that its now in matured state and can handle things on its own. Hence, the term “Freedom of media” not only came into existence but also practiced.

All of a sudden channels emerged out with all sorts of names and correspondents. The thing that made me compose this piece of blog is something to do with the harassment that the media is doing in the name of news.

Its sometime now, since I got to get a fair view of things that are happening around me. These days almost all channels are sowing “breaking news” through out the day. If I ask you to think for a while about when you first saw the term “breaking news” on your television sets, am sure you would remember 9/11. But whats happening in todays day to day thing is that almost any happening around is shown as breaking news. Be it someone getting bashed up in hospital or a person being dragged on the road by police, or a CM not being recognized by his subordinates.

This not only sounds ridiculous but also gets the term “Breaking news” de-valued. Above all of this is a bigger issue of what to show and what not to show. When I return from office and switch on TV I get baffled by seeing someone riding a motorcycle while eating his food on it. I mean how can this be news, this is a stunt which should be shown separately. Again, when a husband leaves his wife and kids, its not the responsibility of media to get the punishment but rather it’s the duty of the judiciary. The only thing that media does in these cases is: -
They try to buy public sentiments for the deceased
They try to get a “biased” view on the topic and
Often the correspondents are seen talking almost the same thing over and over again.

I am a staunch believer of the fact that freedom should only be given to someone who is capable enough of handling it the right way. In a slightly different tone it would mean that freedom should be given to people who have maturity to handle it.

We all remember our fundamental rights but I don’t think even one of us remembers our fundamental duties. We always have believed in freedom of speech but what we forget is essentially the thing that our speech should not be derogatory or offensive.

Nonetheless, I was happy when I got all the private channels for I thought I would get a fair view of public sentiments over what the government shows on DD. But if I now have to look back upon, I think I was happy in the days of DD news. At least I didn’t had to see things as ridiculous as they show now.

About me....

2007-08-29T03:44:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, quiet some time back, I was born some where in India and no it isn’t important to know where I hail from to read this piece of blog. Nonetheless, Hi, am Deepak, Dee-Fuck, Dee-pok, Uncle D or Deepak Sir as called by several people around me. It not only ensures my faith in diversity of human mind but also enforces my thoughts of amazing ability of human brains. Am about 28 yrs of age and by I can actually boast of knowledge about 20 plus cities and about 5 different careers?

Now if I tell you that am a confused personality who has no idea about what he wants to do in life, u won’t be surprised. I have no idea why I did engineering and more so no clue why I picked up Instrumentation as my subject of study. Then tried making a career in Software development, testing, consulting, market research and sales. Not to mention failed in almost everything I did, for I never waited to reach at a level in anything.

Out of all the above mentioned fields i stayed longest with testing. Testing got me most out of life, it gave me pleasure, satisfaction, and a slight amount of fame. I loved the job for if I happen to relate any other field of work to testing, the first and last thing that comes to my mind is “fishing”. Am sure all those who enjoy beer, boat ride and sites of sea would also agree with me on this, that fishing is most certainly the best thing to do. So why not testing, it pays you well enough, it is certainly pleasurable and above all, it gets you known amongst developers, though in almost all cases its bad name that you earn in here.

Nevertheless, I have had lot of fun, came across some real amazing creations of god. Few stuck together while the most, left me alone. Met a few who took me on the face value and are still bearing with me. While the most people came up with an excuse to leave me and go. Few came with most astonishing reasons to leave me while it was simple reasons for a lot of others.

The journey so far sets a standard for forth coming things. Now, its quiet clear for me that am not an entrepreneur, am not a visionary. Am a simple human being, like most of us, and will try and make my life as simple as possible. If this means that I should be associated with a big name with average designation, I should vouch for the same.

This section with keep on growing as I continue to live and continue to err in life. Till then….

Sanjay Convicted

2007-08-01T06:02:00.001-07:00

Guys and gals of this immortal country, sanjay has been convicted, he shouldve been so, i mean he is found guilty in the arms possesion case and if the sentence is of miin of 5 yrs, and he has got 6 yrs, thats a fair trial.But, i was listening yesterday, that the Don himself, our lord Mr. Abu Salem had come to his place to hand him the arms to be kept at his place. Now lets go back a little, 93 was the time when Bollywood was ruled by D Company, and no one had the courage to say no to them. Imagine, sanjay dutt, poor guy, could he had said no to the lord himself. Am sure had Abu salem gone to Mr. Bacchan, we would be hearing the same for Mr. Bacchan.

But yeah. Sanjay is guilty, and he should be convicted, for he being a mortal follwed what abu salem-the lord told him to do, he shouldve gone to police, shouldve gone to amazingly pure politicians for support. And am sure for one thing, he wouldve been dead long time ago. So he should be convicted for being selfish to save his life, he should be convicted for being a mere mortal.

Sanjay, am sure, u would atleast be happy dude, u still alive, so what i will have to wait for 6 years to see u again on the canvas...i shall wait...

Coming back to life

2007-07-28T00:54:00.000-07:00

Am sure all music lovers have at one point in time or the other wouldve come across this song. A wonderful creation or as we used to say it, "An anthem". Amazing lyrics and am putting them down in here. And for all those who havent heard Pink flyod so far, write to me with your address and i shall get you your copy. No charges, all out of love for the amazing music created by these people....

Lyrics: -
Where were you when I was burned and broken
While the days slipped by from my window watching
Where were you when I was hurt and I was helpless
Because the things you say and the things you do surround me
While you were hanging yourself on someone elses words
Dying to believe in what you heard
I was staring straight into the shining sun

Lost in thought and lost in time
While the seeds of live and the seeds of change were planted

Outside the rain fell dark and slow
While I pondered on this dangerous but
I took a heavenly ride through one silence
I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life

I took a heavenly ride trough our silence
I knew the waiting had begin
And headed straight... into the shining sun

------------------------------------------
AWESOME isnt it...!!!

Love life and good bye

2007-07-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

The topic might sound a little sentimental and a little emotional but as i write this piece of blog in here, to me that all are connected. Few days, back life was amazingly pretty, i was in love, i was aiming to get on top of the world all for her. At that point in time, there was nothing that couldve stopped me from reaching the top. Blistering with tremendous energy and ozing with confidence that was never before seen, i came to mumbai.

Before i start about what happened next, let me just go back a little in those most amazing moments of my life. She was cute, people called me her "Balcony love", for we had balconys facing each other. From proposition to good morning kisses everything happened right there. She used to wake me up, i used to see her as the first thing in morning. All beautiful, we walked together, played together, ate together. Life wasnt preetier then this.

She is an MBA and so she understood the importance of the studies, i kept saying no to any such thing. For i was a techie and was quiet happy with the things, i had decent money, a car, and a good lifestyle. But as all of other guys i was adamant not to get into anymore studies. She continued trying and i continued denying.

Cut to present, since i had taken up for not to be an MBA, she sold the idea of my elder brother to me. It was a consulting organisation that was being planned. I got a call from my brother and he told me that if am willing i can join him. I told this to her, my fear was that i would have leave bangalore, she convinced me that nothing would change and i can go ahead and realise my dream.

I packed my stuff and left bangalore-Good bye 01. Came to mumbai and lost all touch with all friends-Good bye 02. She and i broke for some astonishing reasons- Good bye 03. I lost my life and life styles- Good bye 04. Finally i decided to leave the company, the venture of my dreams- Good bye-05.

Love, life and good byes have amazing relationship, became clear only after this adventure in life.

A Flight with IC

2007-06-14T02:09:00.000-07:00

The work can’t get weirder, more astonishing that it is already by now. Office politics, back stabbing and above all passing the buck is reaching a level from where the whole world becomes visible. Amidst all this, and much more, I was due to travel to Chennai for an official reason.

Chennai as an amazing importance in my life. Not that I was born in here, nor that its of any historical/mythological significance but for some real personal reasons I feel at home in here. Believe me, I do understand tamil, I don’t know from where I got so much of courage to learn a language as distinguished as tamil. And so, it goes natural that I do not want to miss any chance to visit the city.

It was a fine morning, another one of those, oh-let-me-sleep types, where in I pushed myself to board an IC flight to Chennai. Now, IC has a peculiarity that despite the comfortable cushions and smooth lift you are not allowed to sleep. My first “cool” nap was broken by a lady that most certainly had an overdose of a face pack. With a broad smile she offered me a tray with four, yes four, candies. It would have been a real hunger-struck-eat-it-all to have taken them all, I out of my shyness could only take one. Time for another nap!!

Just as I was dreaming about the life after I would have a lot of money, I was woken up by another one of those Oh-God-i-missed-being-miss-india-coz-am-fat!! Lady. She had another set of junk to be gulped down my throat. I did as told!!! Time for another nap!!!

This time I could sleep for a while before I heard the captain speak “All stations alert for landing”. Often, I'm made to think, why pilots are made to speak certain things. “Close and arm all doors”, is one of the first statement that we all hear instead of “Welcome on board”. Every time I hear it I feel as if I am being kidnapped. Next is “All stations alert for a take off!!” which stations is the pilot talking about, Railway stations don’t make sense in here, Radio stations- why do they need to be alert, you want to take off, take it., or police stations-ha ha ha, what makes you think they would even listen what’s being said inside an aircraft while they don’t bother about what being said across their table., etc. You bet these people are most professional of all, as they talk only that much, that they are paid for. They are paid to fly, and they just fly, yeah speaking is necessary to tell passengers that you are not sleeping in the cockpit so just ensure that you speak just about the quantity that is required to gain the faith of the travelers that they are in safe hands.

Nonetheless, the flight took off, and landed at Chennai, all by God’s grace was fine. Here I would like to mention one more habit widely seen-and-hated-but-I-do types. The moment the aircraft lands and does a ceremonial run towards the parking lot, people start getting up from their chairs and start taking out their luggage from the top shelves. I do not blame them for this habit, as its only now that we Indians have started traveling in an “airbus” as often as we were traveling in a bus some time back. Now if you try to build up a differentiation logically between an airbus and a bus then am sure u would come down saying this, “The only difference between the two is of the word Air”. So as typical of us, when the bus reaches its destination we have to rush to pick up our luggage from the top rack and jump off. I slept for another 15 mins!!!

The time that I hate the most had come, I had to get off one more airbus, I hate it because of several reasons: - 1) The phones are switched off, so no one can bother you, 2) You are served by ladies unlike in real life where u are only “asked” by men, 3) You get to feel a zero gravity for free. Etc!!

The journey of life is pretty interesting; it gets you so many experiences that one can narrate anything and make people smile from it. Keep writing, am sure you guys are also traveling, and am sure you would also be having good-bad-ugly experiences, the need is to keep penning it down.

Cheers!!!

(The author is working as a Project Manager at INI Consulting P. Ltd., Mumbai)

Which is more difficult??

2007-06-11T05:47:00.000-07:00

I was sitting with a friend of mine and sipping through the piping hot tea made by one of the family members and glancing through the most scintillating and fascinating product of modern times "Television". Often i had wondered how could this small piece can make you such a dull human being that you even forget that you have to complete a lot of stuff.

Nonetheless, i was watching Amitabh bachchan on the opening ceremony of IIFA awards 2007 at the Yorkshire county in UK. And a thought passed by my mind, that thought is the reason for this blog. The thought was "Which is more difficult, the process to attain perfection or to continue carry that perfection for as long as you can".

Now, almost immediately we(my friend and i) stopped talking and went in a deep thought, as if to find an answer of almost anything lies in deep thoughts!!!. but yeah almost after a day, i could ponder a little deep and see if i can compare tangible things. And my friend and i found it out. We compared, process of quality checks with the continuous production of A-class quality product.

Now we since we were two and even, we drew lines with each one being on one side. We need more thoughts on the matter. Please throw in...........

(The author and his friend-Vishwajeet are both working as Project Managers with INI Consulting P Ltd, Mumbai)

A Road

2007-05-27T07:44:00.001-07:00

Ask a group to put its point of view on the above mentioned word and 95% shall jump off their chair to tell you that the state of affairs of this country’s governance is extremely poor. Now often I am made a part of this kind of communication, though I play a role of a mere listener, as my brain is a small piece of flesh that doesn’t reacts to issues relating to something as complex as quality of governance, but every time am exposed to such predicament I resort to sublime thoughts about the state of affairs of negativity in people.

How a mere road could be related to the government being a bunch of non performers? Ok let’s try and make it a little more complex. How could a mere road be related to the state of affairs of the country’s tax money being flushed down the drain? Now as u can see, when I tried making things a little complex I floundered.

For the ease of brains which can’t withstand complexities, let’s start by defining “Road”. A Road, technically, is an identifiable route, way or path between two or more places. Roads are typically smoothed, paved, or otherwise prepared to allow easy travel; though they need not be, and historically many roads were simply recognizable routes without any formal construction or maintenance. In urban areas roads may pass through a city or village and be named as streets, serving a dual function as urban space easement and route. Economics and society depend heavily on efficient roads.

Now if you have a re-look at the definition you would find that “historically” roads were “simply recognizable routes”. This means that roads were constructed to facilitate the movement of men, material and machines. Its actually a “dry” piece of land cleaned from all smooth covers of grass, being colored in a depressing color of “black” rather then being a green colored patch (had it not been a road!!). While we often relate the road to the state of affairs in government. Actually, we all need to understand, its not the Road that is bad, its material that its constructed with, which was a bad quality material.

If it’s on me then according to my understanding of the subject, in more then one ways I relate “A Road” to “Way of being alive”. To me a road is the best depiction of ones doings and happenings in life. Let me elaborate on my thought, quiet similar to road all of have a “free way” of living for a time, and then we hit may be a “curve” or two before getting into a “single” lane from a “multi directional lane”. Often we all come across “breakers” or barriers (as we call them!!) in life, and just before the final halt in front of the house we all feel delighted.

As you go through the above paragraph am sure you would like to sit back and relate to it. I agree that state of a road often tells you the way of governance but, “A Road” tells you much more than that, and often we, by virtue of our single directional negativity, forget to try and learn things out of a piece of land that chose to be facilitator in our life over being dressed up in the most beautiful way.

(The Author is working as a Project Manager in INI Consulting P. Ltd, Mumbai)

Team Dynamics

2007-05-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

Team: - As per the definition, it’s a group of people who aspire to successfully complete an assigned task. Obviously, a team comprises of people with varied backgrounds and hence by virtue of their basic difference in nature, they tend to act or react on each other based upon their inter-personal interactions. In broader terms it’s this action and/or reaction on each other that is defined as “Team Dynamics”. Now, I being an optimist by nature can write at length about the good aspects of team dynamics and what every one involved learns out of this, but here I shall only deal with the negative aspects of the so called Team Dynamics.

I happen to be a part of two distinct teams. I call them distinct as one of them is a set of highly educated and matured individuals while another one is a set of technicians who barely have completed their basic education. And hence there exists a considerable difference in the level of complexity at which these dynamics operate. Also, in one of the teams I am taken in as a member/partner in thought process, while the same myself happens to be a leader of the other. So, I am a part of two separate scenarios and hence have the privilege to be a part of two separate kinds of dynamics.

First, let me tell you about the team that comprises of highly educated and matured individuals. As far as my understanding goes, the level that includes people with high education backgrounds, team dynamics have key element as “Power” (Here money may or may not be important- This is a hypothesis and holds no claim.). I say this particular statement for my understanding says that in the set of highly educated people, everyone is equally experienced in the work arena. Everyone is earning more or less the same “figure” salary. Everyone has more or less same “amount” of work. Everyone has more or less same “comforts” of life. Now if you have a close look at the words that are mentioned in double quotes, you would agree with me that its these that makes a person aspire for more. But despite all these parameters being same team dynamics still do come into picture. For educated people are often found to have key interest as the “Leadership”. I don’t blame people for this, for it’s got to do something with the history.

History tells us that in almost all the cases, it’s the leader that gets the medal for the victory while the war is primarily fought by the soldiers. It’s the leader that is most charming, most dynamic and obviously most intelligent of the people around. Now, most of us presume that intelligence is a by product of perseverance and effort, and since I am educated, intelligence is something that I obviously have. And then, the result is that each one of us presumes that I happen to be the best one for the post of leader. Hence, we try to work “Hard” towards that achievement.

Most often that not, creating your way up to the corporate hierarchy, in the most honest way is quiet demanding and requires a lot of patience. Easy way is to “prove” that I am the best “frog” amongst all the frogs. Now I compare people to frogs for a self defined situation. I have always seen frogs hopping with other frogs to prove that they can hop more length. Often all they end up is in a pool of mud, nevertheless.

So, what do I do in such a situation? I start doing two things, one I create an “aura” around me by spending more time with my boss. By keeping him pleased at all cost!!! And by making him believe that I can get him the best of all the worlds. At the same time, I keep telling him in the most humble way that the team considers him nothing more then a buffoon and then slip in a few names who happen to be my neared competitors.

Also, if I am decent enough then I shall wait for the “right time”. By virtue of Jack Welch’s feedback system, every company has now decided to have a feedback (they call it 360 degree!! Something, I am often left to wonder what would happen if it’s only a 180 degree or may be a meager 90 degree…nonetheless….). In this feedback system it’s essentially grading on some scale, it can be a scale of 5 or 10 based on the convenience of the capacity of the brains of the final score keeper. Here everyone sends grading for the piers and hence can decide on “valuation” of them. So, what do I do if I want to prove that am the best amongst all, I simply de-grade others in terms of the grades? Often people who collect the grades and make the final assessment forget to check the trends in a sheet.

Things are totally different when the same term “Team Dynamics” is to be defined and explained for less educated people or the technicians in our case. Here no form of feedback works except for a monetary loss I am yet to find a more saddening factor for them. Am also sure the GEs and HPs of the world have not believed that Team Dynamics can exist at this level for am yet to come across some work done for these technicians and their problems. I guess people aren’t interested in knowing what goes in the minds of the people below a certain level. This can be a reason as am yet to come across a fat technician and a slim and fit manager. Now you might be wondering from where this concept of a fat technician being compared to a slim manager. Our managers are presumed to be best brains and hence are a pampered lot; there by being fat is something that is inevitable. While our technicians are kept on a whip, poor guy can’t be fat for with every stroke the whip keeps taking fat off him.

Nevertheless coming back to the dynamics factor. In case of technicians or people with lesser amount of education, as per my understanding, the sole motivation factor is money that comes in their pocket. My experiences have given me enough samples on which I can place my theories. They have a few simple definitions, e.g. Team Lead according to them is someone who is most experienced “and” earns maximum in the team. Here “cash” determines the dynamics. Amount of cash determines complexity of the dynamics, more cash most certainly makes things more complex. My project makes me work in areas where regular interaction with the hi-tech banks is not possible, so we carry for a day or two along. The person who has the cash (other then me!!) is default taken to be the “leader”. And based on the personal chemistry, the dynamics to prove that he is gambling with company’s money begins.

Also, one more findings with the team of technicians is that the dynamics are only important when the work is not happening and team is idle. So long as work is happening they aren’t bothered about anything.

Now, if you go through the above debate, its quiet clear that people with lesser amount of education are easy to handle then people with decent amount of education. We tend to “believe” that education imparts wisdom. I agree that it does impart wisdom but at the same time it also does impart selfishness, hunger for power and greed to be on top. People in corporate world are rather funny; they call this greed, selfishness and hunger for power as “Competitiveness”. And my small brain refuses to understand, but do I make any difference? I don’t think so, for me people who are poor and believe that work is the only source of their bread, are way too comfortable to work with and are the people who impart you indefinite peace of mind.

(The Author is working as a Project Manager in INI Consulting P. Ltd, Mumbai)

What say ya!!!

2007-04-28T23:40:00.000-07:00

they say "whatever happens..happens for our own good"

i say

"..God only makes happy endings.. so if it isnt happy then it isnt the end.."

Any connection between these two statements??
______________________________________

ur views!!

Stop-or-i-will-call-the-police

2007-04-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

Suppose... in life someone puts you to above question how will u react!! i was put into this situation sometime back when a "special self" told me not to visit her profile on orkut, not to sms her, not to wish her on her birthday...and a lot of "Not tooos"

I wondered what can i do in such a situation? The possibilities: -
1) Ok...do that..- Arrogant self
2) No please dont i beg u...-Sissy self
3) argh!!..even i shall call the police-Angry self
4) hmmm-I dont get bothered by what u said self
5)....

But the important point here is..can u actually stop someone from wishing you on your birthday? or sending u a good morning sms that has nothing but true wish/prayer for your day being good..or the best thing...can u stop someone from visiting your profile on orkut..??

I agree that when u hate someone badly then just at the sight of his/her name gets u out of your mind, but then seldom u can do anything about a few things. Am sure police would also be made to wonder under which law to bring the person.

any views.. for i am petrified horrified by that above statement. for i am way too scared of police... ;-)

Define success!!

2007-04-28T06:08:00.000-07:00

Often i wonder, how to define "success"?
Is it 1 st rank in class, but then i wonder if all would have decided to come first in class then am sure it wouldnt be considered of any importance, just coz anyone and everyone could get it. But doesnt that mean the coming second is equally important. If thats so, then coming first is no important and hence cant be termed successful...

Or... passing an exam...now the same holds true in this case as well, for if no body flunked passing wouldnt be important...

Hence i wonder if i ever can associate being a winner with being successful? for according to me a loser is equal to a winner and hence if a winner is successful then a loser also is...but this is a huge contradication to what we follow....

Till now whenever i have heard "He/She is a successful person" it often relates to that person having either of these..1) Money...huge amount.. 2) Good position at work place...3) Achiever by being first amongst all...4) Big name..

But then i wonder..whether a looser can ever be a successful person...if not.. then how am i..
I never came first in class...infact never passed 3 exams in a row...idont have money...and i have lost almost everything that i thought of having... but people still call me successful.. how??