India in transition and new business opportunities

My other blog, please have a look:

http://randomstuff4mxler.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-areas-for-business-opportunities.html

Interesting stats of class attendance

The data that I am sharing is from class attendance of 60 students in last 10 days in one of the lectures.

Roll nos         Average Absentees
1-12             0.7
13-24           0.8
25-36           1.1
37-48           1.6
49-60           2.6


As a trend you can clearly see that with increasing roll nos chances of persons being absent increase. And as an aberration you would see a sudden increase in 49-60 range. Well Guess what could be the reason for this behaviour??

It is that roll no 1-12 live on ground floor and 13-24 on first floor and so on. Well Aberration of 1.6-> 2.6 can be explained as it is 4th floor where lift does not work sometimes and it is the highest floor. Is the statistics not interesting??

Harsha Uvaach

I came across this video of Harsha Bhogle speaking at IIM Calcutta. I spent 1 hr 26 minutes and 57 seconds watching the video. Harsha was brilliant at various points. He said that there are many things that he has learnt out of life and he wished that he had known them when he was at IIM A. some of those learnings that he mentioned are:

1- Try to achieve excellence in profession that you are in. ( Money should not be primary factor, it will come automatically with excellence)
2- Talent is not determining factor for success. In fact it is Grit of a person that determines his success. Excellent people in all fields have excellent work ethics.
3- Your approach to any problem determines your solution. Approach problems differently.
4- Don't repeat mistakes in life. One would get better by doing this as we only have a limited set of mistakes that we can commit.
5- Honesty and Ethics are very important factors to determine the height of achievements of a person.
6- If you bow down, opponents loose respect for you. You gain your respect by retaliation.
7- Take Challenges in life. If you win, you are a STAR. if you loose, its OK.
8- Communicate effectively. Its vital for your success.
9- Keep Check of your Health. Its necessary.

I think these learnings are worth imbibing. You are free to disagree.

"Ananta"

Professor Bhargava can not see anything. There are small droplets of water on his specs. He is elated. He does not understand why? He feels as if he just done what he always wanted to. He has just been there where he always wanted to be. Something has grown in him which he always wanted to develop. He looks at sky and feels as if universe is welcoming him back. Where had he been? He looks around. A boy is looking at him. Professor stands up and goes near to him. Boy shouts "Papa". Professor can not recognise him. He walks away. Boy can not understand what has happened to his daddy. He shouts gain "Papa". Professor looks back. He cant remember the boy still. He thinks, "Who is this boy?".Professor asks the boy,"Who are you??" Boy is surprised. He says to himself, "Papa" and starts crying.
Its 2nd October. A big poster of Mahatma Ghandhi is looking at Both of them. Professor wants boy to calm down. He looks in to his pocket for some money so that he could buy something for the boy. He finds his purse, opnes it and he sees a picture of himself, a lady and that of the boy in his pocket. Now it is turn to be surprised. Suddently he sees a procession coming towards them with Indian flag in their hand. They are shouting "Mahatma ji ki jai ho". Professor clutches hand of boy and clears the way for that procession.

To be continued....

Nishabd-6 ( Final)

Rohan picks up the bag and opens it. There is a lot of mud inside it and also there is a green pollybag inside. He opens it, There are some photographs inside the pollybag. The photographs contain some pictures of mountains and most of them seem to be taken twice. There is a piece of paper also with something written on it. He can’t see pictures clearly and can’t read things written on paper either because of diminishing light. Old man has come closer. Jesse seems frightened. Rohan looks at old man now and asks with respect, “Baba, aap Aaabha ko jaante the kya?” Old man has tears in his eyes and says, “Chelee” and points out towards Jesse. He says nothing else. Jesse wants to ask more questions and get some definite answers but Rohan asks her not to do so. He seems to be very different today. He touches old man’s feet and pics bag up and starts moving toward Asgoli. Jesse is suprised but now she has partially understood that hills are capable of playing trics.


They soon reach Pradhan ji’s house. It has stopped raining now. There is a Rainbow starting from a distant hill and seems to be ending at Asgoli. Jesse is clearly amazed by the beauty but today she has other things to think about first. Pradhan ji opens gates and asks them to come in. He is surprised seeing bag of Aabha in Rohan’s hand and he can very well read something very different in Rohan today. He asks him about the bag and soon is aware about whole thing from Jesse’s dreams to Old man to Nishabd. He asks Rohan to open the pollybag . Rohan opens it and brings out some pictures. Every picture seems to be having two copies. Then there is a piece of paper too with something written on it. Rohan reads it to Jesse and Pradhan ji. It contains some directions for “Parvat Jagran” newspaper, the newspaper which Aabha was working for. The letter says to compare two similar looking photographs. And it mentions some big names from Almora districts saying that they were commiting a big crime.


Only one photograph that does not have a similar looking copy is that of Rohan. This photograph shows Rohan standing by the tree on which Nishabd is imprinted.


Rohan and Pradhan ji can not understand anything. But Jesse has understood what Aabha meant. She asks for a magnifying glass. Pradhan ji does not have it. But he immediately asks his servant to get it from science laboratory of Government Inter College nearby. While servant is away, Pradhan ji tells Rohan that Aabha was not his child. Rather he had found it on the steps of Doonagiri Temple. There was an old man there who had told him that the girl was daughter of hills. And that girl was going to be protector for hills. Pradhan ji did not have any child so he had brought girl with him to Asgoli. Now things are becoming even more clear to Jesse, because she has a clear Idea what she is going to find comparing the images.


Soon Magnifying glass is available to them and Jesse compares two pictures. She asks Rohan to have a look at them with Magnifying glass but he could not find any thing. Even Pradhan is not able to see anything peculiar. Now she explains that two pictures show difference in density of trees at any place. If they cleary try to count number of trees at any particular section of picture, one set of photographs had reduced number. Jesse was an environmental scientist, she had done a lot of research in this area and knew that this was one of the methods that could be used to cut trees without bringing it in to notice. She explained that in this method, Trees are marked in the way so that after cutting them the overall change is not noticable. This marking has to be done in a very large area and then before actually cutting the trees the trees are made dead using some chemicals so that there it looks that they fell due to some natural reason. After Uttaranchal had become a separate state and forest officers and conservationists had become more active, it was a smart move by person involved in the wood business to use this method to cut down trees. After effects could be very distastrous, as area which was affected was large could cause a lot of damage to ecology of whole hilly region. Chemicals those were used could effect environment of hills badly.


Aabha had found it and was going to send report to “Parvat Jagran”. Her report might not have reached news paper or it might actually have. Now Rohan had understood it, hills were playing trics with them because they wanted the cause of protection of their ecology to be carried forward. The old man knew it already and also knew that Rohan and Jesse were going to find it soon. Jesse and Rohan were choosen by hills because Rohan was connected to “Aabha” and Jesse was an environmental scientist. But some questions still remained unanswered: What happened to Aabha? Was she still alive? If not who killed her? Why did Jesse saw a little girl and a Masked man in the dream? Jesse had anyway decided to send this report to Professor Bhowmik so that they could collect more data and then findings could be brought in to attention at national stage and in big way. But what about Aabha? Soon there was a knock at the door. When Pradhan ji opened gate, they found old man outside. He remained outside only and said something in Kumauni, which only Pradhan ji and Rohan could understood. Old man went away soon with a smile on his face. He also gave some Gadmahals to Rohan to pass them on to Jesse. He saw Jesse and said “Chelee”. As old man is gone Rohan tells Jesse that old man was saying Aabha will be their next child. Jesse has tears in her eyes, she comes outside and looks at distant snow laden Himalayan peak and says,”Thank you”. Colours of Rainbow seem even more brightened now.

Nishabd-5

Jesse wakes up Rohan and tells him about her dream. She Asks him, "Rohan tell me what is Nishabd?” He does not know what to say. He looks lost. He tells Jesse that Nishabd is a poem that he had written for Aabha.

Aabha had become silent when she had heard the poem. She hugged Rohan and said nothing. It was admission of love from her. Rohan was delighted. He lifted Aabha up in his arms. They both wanted this moment to stay for them for ever. They found one way and they both wrote Nishabd on a tree nearby. Both of them used to come to tree sometimes and used to smile together seeing Nishabd preserved by the hills as expression of its blessings for their love

Jesse jerks Rohan and asks again,"Tell me, what Nishabd means?" He said,"Nishabd means wordless, uh no, it means a state of being beyond words." He then tells Jesse about the poem that he had written. They both decide to go to the place next day. Jesse can not sleep now. She makes some tea for herself. She comes out in the gallery and sees light in a hill nearby. When she looks with attention it seems an old man is dancing there with some fire burning. She calls Rohan outside, but now there is no light and he can not see anything.

Rohan and Jesse are going to Asgoli today. They will first go to Dwarahat in a bus and then they will have to move on foot from there. She is excited but he seems silent today. It is raining heavily today. They have soon reached Dwarahat and now they will start for Asgoli as soon as rain stops. She sees a little girl playing with a doll in the tea shop. She sees Jesse and comes close to her. Jesse holds her in her lap and Rohan watches it and smiles.

Rain has stopped. They start towards Asgoli. The sky is still dark. Jesse is awestruck with the beauty of place. Deep gorges with innumerous trees. Places where there could not have been any foot prints of civilized man. She is moving slowly slowly with Rohan, who is very silent today. After moving for half an hour village Asgoli is still not in sight. But the tree where Nishabd is imprinted is nearby. Rohan has increased his speed, Jesse is excited but little afraid also. They are entering in to woods and soon they reach the place where Nishabd is written on a tree. Jesse is trying to read it. But it is very difficult to read in diminishing light. Suddenly she sees an old man moving towards them. It is the same old man who had met her in Shivalaya at Kafda earlier. Rohan also looks at old man but his eyes stop at something else. There is a bag lying there. It is Aabha's bag. Old man is saying something but he can not hear it.

Nishabd-4

PS: If you have not read earlier parts of this story before, please first read them in earlier posts.

Jesse stops smiling and frees herself from embrace of Rohan. She shouts,"Who is Aabha? Tell me Rohan who is Aabha? Why is this name bugging me so much?" She is crying. Rohan has a blank face. He is almost sweating. He asks Jesse,"How do you know about Aabha?" Jesse is still crying,"Rohan, I have been having dream of a masked man who says Aabha to me, then I met an old man who said Aabha to me." She starts crying even more,"I am not any kind of glow, why is this name troubling me. I wanted to share joy of our first baby with you and wanted to surprise you and this name has ruined it. I hate Aabha, I hate Aabha". Rohan does not know what to say.


Rohan had met Aabha when he had gone on election duty to a town named "Asgoli" 4 years ago."Asgoli" is a small village with no electricity and is probably village at highest altitude in the whole Almora region. There were no roads which connected village to Dwarahat( the nearest town). Aabha was studying at Almora university and had come to her village for some days. Rohan had stayed at Pradhan Ji's house and there he met Aabha. Both liked each other very much. Aabha was also planning to work as reporter in "Parvat jaagran" newspaper. Rohan liked Aabha very much. Rohan wanted to marry Aabha. Rohan informed Pradhan Ji about his wish. Pradhan ji had read love in his daughter's eyes but before he could take any decision he wanted to inform Rohan about the truth related to Aabha. In between Aabha went to Almora for her last examination and also for some assignments at "Parvat Jaagran". She never came back. All sort of efforts were made but nobody could find Aabha. Months passed and slowly slowly everybody accepted the fact that Aabha was not going to come. They told themselves that she had died. Rohan made all efforts that he could to find out Aabha but it did not result in anything. Rohan also gave up hope after sometime.

Rohan has lived in hills since his childhood. He understands that hills are playing tricks. But why? what should he tell Jesse? He asks Jesse about the old man who had met Jesse. Jesse gives description of his appearance but Rohan has never seen an old man like that in Kafda village. He decides to tell Jesse about Aabha and tells her everything. Jesse asks Rohan explanation for her dreams but he does not have any. Rohan asks Jesse to come with her to the roof of their home from where they can see "temple of doonagiri" and says to Jesse that the goddess inside is queen of hills in that area and she will take care of everything. Jesse does not believe in anything like this but when Rohan insists she again imagines a church and bows her head with respect and prays to God to make everything better for both of them.

Sun has already set. Rohan says to Jesse that he would go to Shivalaya with her next day in the morning to find old man. Jesse feels little comfortable now and the fact that she has shared the news of being pregnant with Rohan makes her feel makes her relaxed. she smiles and comes near to Rohan who is cleaning the dishes. She hugs Rohan from his back and Rohan also turns back and smiles. Rohan keeps her hand on Jesse's stomach and kisses her on her cheek.

Today there is no masked man. It is a girl, a beautiful girl. No, masked man is there. He is chasing girl and girl is shouting,"Mummy,Mummy". Masked man slits girl's throat with a sword. Soon there is blood and a something falls away from girls hand. A horse comes running in the same direction. There is silence now. Same images are rolling again and again. there is nothing but silence now. A day has passed. Blood keeps dripping out of girls body. She is not even dead. She wants to say something. No she is saying something, but silence is killing all sounds. Girl also feels that she is not able to communicate through sound and she is now pointing out to the bag she has thrown. It is lying near a tree. Something is written on the tree. Some symbol in some language other than english. It is Hindi. Jesse is trying to read it: its na, chootee i kee maatra, Sha, aadha Ba, Da. It is Nishabd. It is Nishabd.

Jesse wakes up again, sweating...What does Nishabd mean??

To be continued...

Nishabd-3

PS: Nishabd and Nishabd 2 have already been posted before. Those who have not had a look at them, please read them first.

Jesse is perplexed. Old man comes close to her and says something in Kumauni which she does not understand. But old man keeps smiling. He offers her some Gadmahal( a fruit), which she refuses. Old man says, "Chellee". She understands that it means daughter. She stops and sees affection in old man's eyes. She takes the fruits. Old man puts his hands on her forehead and says, "Aabha". She is almost petrified. Tic,Tic and She shouts,"But I am not Aabha, I am not any kind of glow". Old man looks at her calmly. Jesse sees that old man did not understand what she said. She cries again, " Mai aabha nahee hoon.". Old man now smiles and his eyes have tears. Jesse drops all the fruits and asks old man with little anger,"Aabha kaun hai?", Old man points finger to her and smiles. He starts collecting all the fruits and gives them back to Jesse. Jesse refuses to take them and walks swiftly away from Old man. When she is almost 20 meters far she looks back at Shivalaya, Old man is looking at fruits and is still smiling.


Old man knows Aabha is a dream, it is a dream. He knows hills are playing tricks again


Jesse comes back home. She sees some pieces of "Gadmahal" at her door. She thinks of throwing them but as she turns to throw them, she sees Rohan coming. She stops and puts all fruits on the floor. Rohan comes and kisses her on her cheek. She hugs Rohan and Rohan feels a difference. Rohan asks, "Jesse, Kya hua?" Jesse says nothing. She says," I love you Rohan. I love you". Rohan kisses Jesse on her forehead and says,"I love you too, Kya hua? Something is with you? What?" Jesse does not say anything. She is breathing heavily but slowly slowly is relaxing. Rohan opens the door.

Jesse goes to kitchen to warm the food and Rohan freshens up. Rohan smells,"Gohad ki daal" and is happy and starts singing in Kumauni. "Radhika tyaur Mohana, Daajoo Raadhika Tyaur Mohana". Jesse loves this song and smiles to herself in kitchen. She still does not want to tell anything to Rohan. She wants to understand it herself first. She is little afraid but she feels it adventurous to keep it to herself. Rohan comes to Kitchen and asks her why she seemed so afraid outside. She says that she had just seen a snake outside.

Jesse is hiding one more thing from Rohan. Rohan will soon come to know and she would love to see her reaction. Both have their meal and then Rohan has opened television. Jesse comes outside and plans how would she tell Rohan about her other thing. She makes a small plan. She asks the lady working in the field nearby to their house for lending her a kumauni dress. Lady laughs and tells her using hand movements that Jesse will not fit in her dress as Jesse's height is almost 6-7 inch more than that of her. Jesse drops this plan and instead she makes a different plan.

Rohan has been watching TV for an hour now, suddenly he sees Jesse in his(Rohan's) Kumauni clothes. She is wearing a white kurta, a payjama and a cap that is normally worn by Kumauni man. She is looking very beautiful. Rohan is surprised but then Jesse says that she has a good news. Before Jesse says anything, Rohan is already mad with joy. He is going to be a father. He lifts Jesse in his arms and kisses her. Rohan says, "Jess, it is going to be girl and we will name her,Aabha."


(To be contininued)

Nishabd-2

PS: Please have a look at post Nishabd first. This is continuation of same story.

Jesse comes back to bed and tries to sleep. But sleep had eluded her now and she is thinking about her next day. She plans to visit the "Shivalaya", a temple, where she finds a lot of peace. She would also have to go to "Chhoi", a water source, where she would wash the clothes. She thinks about the project which she had set out for and in the course she had got greatest gift of her life, Rohan. She is now thinking again about the Maskman and the word "aaubhaa", what does it mean? She plans to ask Neeru, a student of Rohan. She could ask Rohan also but she prefers to keep it a secret as it really does not make sense to her. She thinks its a dream afterall. Only thing she wonders about is the word, "Aaubha". Where did she first hear it? Jesse keeps thinking and cuddles around Rohan, who turn towards her and she likes the warmth of hug in the chilly night. She falls asleep.
Jesse wakes up by a knock at the door. Rohan has left for School. He has made some sandwitches. She guesses that there would be some tea in the kettle also. She opens the door and its Neeru with some Maltas,fruits similar to oranges. She asks Neeru to come in. Neeru wearing red ribbon and blue Kurta and white salwaar seems to be pretty happy. She is always happy whenever she gets a chance to see "buuuutiful Jesse mam". Jesse is also happy to see her as Neeru is the only girl who understands English and is able to speak broken Engligh too. Jesse also understands Hindi but it is still not perfect. "Mam, Malta, Apne ghar se layee hoon.", "Achha, par English mein baat karo, You want to learn English or not". Jesse asks Neeru offering her tea which she always refuses, what the word "aaubha" means. Neeru says, "Oh, Aabha". She then explains to Jesse that Aabha means glow. She also exemplifies it saying, "Mam, you are very beautiful and your face has a lot of Aabha." Jesse laughs and so does Neeru. Jesse asks herself almost in monologue why a masked man with a sword would say Aaubha to her. Neeru hears it and her eyes widens. She answers, "Mam, because hills can play tricks." Jesse asks with some anger,"what trick?" Neeru smiles and says that she has to go to school. And she leaves. Jesse thinks,"crazy girl, hills and tricks". She smiles and eats sandwitch which today seems to be tastier than other days.
Jesse drops plans to go to "Chhoi". She instead would go to "Shivalaya" today. She will cook some food first. She cooks, "Gohad ki daal" and rice which are favourite of Rohan. She then opens television but could not find anything interesting. She now gets ready and is on her way to Shivalaya. Soon she crosses market of Kafda and she reaches Shivalaya. She is the lone person in Shivalaya today which happens many times as Kafda has a total population of almost 100 people only. She goes near the Shivalinga and closes her eyes. She imagine a cross in front of her and then thinks of the city church where she used to go when she was at california. But suddenly thought of maskman and sword comes to her mind and she opens her eyes. she comes out of the temple and thinks about word "Aabha". She has come out of Shivalaya and sees an old man at the gate of Shivalaya. Old man looks at her and smiles.

"Nishabd"

Jesse has been dreaming a masked man, a sword and a horse since last week. Today also she got up shivering as masked man came closer and said, "aabha". What does "aaubbhaa" mean? Why is she dreaming the same dream again and again.

Rohan, her husband is sleeping beside her. They had an argument last night over Jesse giving contracaptive pills to their maid Gita. Jesse thought she had done a noble act while Rohan had said that it was dangerous for both of them if Gita's husband Santosh got to know about the pills.

Jesse left the bedroom and came to kitchen. There was no electricity in the house and that made Jesse guess that it must have been 3 am as that was the time for routine electricity cut in small hilly town of Kafda nearby Ranikhet. It was January and it was freezing cold. But Jesse wanted to come outside in the gallery. But she dropped the idea as some nights ago they had found a tiger resting outside the gate that opened at Gallery. She sat in a chair outside kitchen and put her feet on stool nearby. she then lit a candle and in the candle light she stared at her "Payal" peeping out of the green socks. What a beautiful Indian ornament she thought, she always had a dream of wearing such a thing regularly in California where she spent most of her childhood and college days.

She had come to Ranikhet two years ago on a reasearch project related to effect of non organised construction on ecology of Shaivalik series of Himalaya. It was a team of 5 people Mark, professor Bhowmik, Cristie, Jonathan and herself. Professor Bhowmik belonged to department of environmental studies of University of Shillong. Mark had contacted Mr. Bhowmik from University of California showing their interest in ecology of Shaivalik series and then after some exchanges they had decided to come down to Ranikhet as ecology of this region of Himalaya was changing continuosly after Uttaranchal had become a separate state and a lot of development projects were started by new Uttaranchal government with out much care for the environment of this beautiful Himalayan region.

She first met Rohan when their team went to visit a small school in a village called Kumalta. Children of school and even teachers had never seen a foreigner in person. And everybody seeemed to behave in very absurd manner except Rohan. He greeted the team well. Children could not stop giggling seeing the white men and some of them even had started shouting in unison,"Chimpoo", which Jesse now understands means monkey. Rohan was also a teacher of Mathematics at school and used to take some classes in social science also. He was a very handsome person and an unusual 6 feet hight for persons belonging to hilly region. He wore spectacles consisting photochromatic lenses. He took the team to a temple nearby and gave them information about villages nearby and the water sources for each village and some details about kind of animals that villagers used to have. When Rohan met Jesse, he pronounced his name, "Rohan Kafadwaal", at which Jesse couldnt stop laughing. What a funny name she said. At this Rohan smiled and explained that his name was so because he belonged to a village named "Kafda" and people at hills of Uttaranchal have a tradition of having their surnames rooted in the names of places where they live. Jesse was impressed by the manner he spoke. She noticed the well built body of this young man and also couldnt help silently appreciating a little curl on the upper lip of this young man when he smiled. Jesse now went to bedroom silently watching Rohan sleeping with a little smile on his face. Jesse couldnt help but smiled.


PS: I am planning to complete this story in many posts as I myself want to think over what should happen next, though I have some broad outline in mind. I dont know how many such small posts will complete the story but I expect comments on the parts read so far or on the direction that you anticipate for the story.

More challenges and more fun

I am very impressed by Shane Warne's stints in IPL so far. He has been a tremendous leader, mentor. He brought success to Rajasthan Royals last year and this year also despite loss of some players like Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir, Royals are doing OK. What impresses me the most is the way in which he has mentored a young player Kamran Khan. He picked him from nowhere and chiseled him to become a wonderful performer in IPL. Despite a lot of cultural and lingual difference he is able to communicate well with Kamran Khan. Kamran does not understand English much and Warne does not understand Hindi, yet their association has been amazing. You must notice the body language of Kamran Khan and Warne when Warne goes to him and advises him. He puts both his hands on Kamram's cheeks and then tells him to do what he wants him to do. Other than that he has also holded team Rajasthan Royals well together and team is performing well with in the limit of the talent they have.

If you see Warne on field, you would surely notice a lot of intensity in him. His body language shows it clearly. He looks like Maximus of Gladiator. Where does he get motivation from? One may say it comes from the magnanimity of the wealth that IPL throws on individual players. I partially agree with it. But I think only money can not generate the magnitude of intensity that Warne has. There is something else in my opinion and that something is his desire to take up a challenge and then to become successful in achieving the goal. He took a poorly rated team in IPL last year, took up responsibility of both coach and captain. He set up a supporting staff for himself and chalked out good plans and then worked hard, worked very hard. And finally there he is, playing as the captain of the team defending IPL in South Africa this season.

It is something similar to entrepreneurship where one takes up a challenge then works hard and success follows. I have personally felt that the best came out of me when I had taken sole responsibility of achieving a very difficult goal on my shoulders. The amount of satisfaction I got once I had achieved the goal was amazing. And it was real fun to take up the challenge. And I think I became better person in the process.

I think one simple approach to live a fulfilling life can be, take up challenges. Make plans to achieve success. Work with perfection to achieve those goals. If you achieve them, it is amazing and if you do not, try to learn from the experience. Make better plans next time and execute them even better. But another thing that I would point out here is that in the process you will also have fun. The tougher challenge you take, the adventurous your journey can be to achieve it and higher would be the amount of fun that you have. And this is probably what motivates Warne in the IPL.

"परिधि"

किलकारी लेते शिशु की मुस्कान की कहाँ परिधि है,
विद्यालय जाते बालक की आशाओं की कहाँ परिधि है,
प्रथम वेतन से मिलने वाले उल्लास की कहाँ परिधि है,
विवाह रचाते नवयुगल के उत्साह की कहाँ परिधि है

पर यदि हम ये जीवन देखें तो दिखती हर ओर फिर क्यों परिधि है,
सीमित मुस्कान है, सीमित आशाएं है, उत्साह की भी कहीं परिधि है,
कुछ कहते यही सत्य है, पर शायद यहीं असत्य की परिधि है,
सीमित करते हुए स्वयं को, मनु वंशज की यही परिधि है,

क्या निकले थे जो चन्द्र भ्रमण को वो मानव नहीं यक्ष थे,
यदि मानव थे तो क्या किसी विचित्र कला में दक्ष थे,
नहीं, पर हाँ उनकी कल्पना की कहीं कोई परिधि ना थी,
सोचो अन्यथा चन्द्र भ्रमण की कहीं कोई संभावना थी?

हे मनु वंशज तुम भी, सीमित स्वयं को मत करो,
कल्पना करो, और लक्ष्य तक पहुचे बिना मत रुको,
स्वप्न देखो महात्वकान्क्छी, और उन्हें सच कर दिखाओ,
सकल विश्व के लिए एक नया उदाहरण बन दिखाओ.

My tryst with Gita

I have always been told by many people that Gita contains a wonderful philosophy which can help an individual in leading a more fulfilling life. Many people have given their interpretations of Gita. Many business schools, administrative service training academies and mentoring institutes have Gita in their curriculum. I used to ask myself what is so wonderful about it. Some days ago I had a chance to watch a video of Mahabharata (The one which was broad casted on Door Darshan) on Youtube. This video contained the part in which Arjuna shuns his Gandiva (His bow) saying that he can not kill his own relatives and Lord Krishna talks to him and conversation is the source of Gita. My interpretations for everything in that episode can not be put here in a post. I would therefore rather discuss things that he mentions about Karma Yoga in that episode. My personal opinion is that the learning can really be very helpful in today’s world. Everybody is free to agree or disagree.

My Interpretation:

There can be 4 states of any individual:

1- He does not have a goal in his life and is not working therefore: He is dead almost.
2- He does not have a goal and is still working: He should think why?
3- He has a goal and is not working: What is he waiting for? Better start now.

4- He has a goal and is working for it: (Most of us fall in this category and teachings from Gita about KarmaYoga are most relevant for persons in this category.) There can be two ways how an individual who comes in this category approaches his goals:

a) He works very hard to achieve a goal. He cares a lot about the goal. The goal become so important to him that achieving it or not achieving it becomes center of his thought process. He does not want to imagine a situation in which he fails to achieve a goal.
He becomes obsessed with success, he fears failure. He always works to avoid failure. He stops enjoying his work in the process and sometimes hates it also. If seen carefully it is not that he doesn’t like to work or the work, it’s that he doesn’t like to work with a constant fear of failure. He doesn’t like a sword hanging over him always.
It is a thing that is going to continue life long. When does he stop and live peacefully then? Where is his share of happiness then?

Gita recommends other way:

b) He works hard towards the goal but he is almost indifferent to achieving it or not. (I know it’s a difficult thing to believe, I mean if we are indifferent to a goal why would we work hard at all. But it is possible. I know some people who do it like this continuously and I have seen them happy even after tremendous work pressures, possibly this is one of the reasons why Gita is philosophy of life for many successful and happy individuals). An individual works hard because he wants perfection in the work that he is doing and that is his motivation. He improves by the virtue of his work not by the virtue of things he achieves.


As an individual grows in life, he is going to do things with higher and higher stakes for all. If he continues to care too much about his goals, when is he going to be happy? So to me what Gita says makes sense: Work with perfection and Become Indifferent to goals. Rise above them.
The things those I have put here in this post are just a part of my over all interpretations. The things in Gita are said in even bigger context. Though, I am skeptic about some of them and would like to find more about them.

Please have a look.

"I am an Indian, I love India." But why should I? What is so lovable about it? It is a poor country. 22% of its population goes hungry to sleep. 35% of its population does not know how to read and write. It is rated 128 in Human development index below than most of the poorest nations of the world. It might have had a wonderful culture but today it looks culturally confused. It might have had "Unity in diversity", but some past incidents raise serious doubts about my statement. Its not the safest place of the world to be in, at least some of the recent terror attacks bolster this opinion. Then what is good about it? I think it is a wonderful place to be born in and moreover we are damn lucky that we have a birth date that is 1947+. We are a free country. We do not work under anybody's rule. We are not Sudan. We are not Iraq. We are not Pakistan. We live under our rule. I might not have had the best of the education available in the world, I might not have had best of the living conditions of the world but I have been allowed a chance to fight to become what I am today. No unfair condition has been imposed upon me that could have stopped me from fighting to become a better individual.
Was it possible under British rule? Did they not rape Indian women at their own will? Did they not plunder our villages and were they not responsible for disasters like Bengal Famine? Why is everything different today? Are British people inherently so bad that they did it to us? No, Let me make this fact very clear that they did it to us because we were slaves. Because we did not have any say in the course of the things. So what is different today? Why do our rulers not come and torture us at their will? Why are we not shot today in public meetings mercilessly as it was done in Jalian Walan Bagh. It is only because we have right to elect our leaders. It is only because we are a democratic country. It is only because we employ our rulers to rule us.
But How many of us use this right? How many of us do actually go and choose our own leaders? How many of us do actually have a say in deciding who is going to drive our country? I am happy that many of us use this right and go to vote. But are rest who do not vote still not slaves? Are they still not under somebody else's rule? Are they not giving a chance to somebody else to decide their lives? Are they not insulting all those Indian people who fought very hard for our freedom which we don’t understand the value of? Are they not making a mockery of all those Indians who died as the consequences of British rule? Are they not ignoring the fact that India was divided and remains divided as the cost of our freedom? Do they really understand that we are not Sudan because we are a functioning democracy and we have right to vote.
Decide yourself who you are? Are you a responsible citizen of India or an irresponsible slave who has very little control on his life? Choice is your. I can only give a suggestion and my suggestion is: PLEASE VOTE. DONT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY.

Cover of Time magazine depicting India's Partition

Click on the image to see it more clearly.

Think, why only this image!!! You will have interesting thoughts.

Valentine Day Special

This poem I had written at College for Kavi Sammelan, I thought I can mention it here on our very own "HAPPY VALENTINE DAY"

Mile Dwivedi jee kal parson, Bole bhaiya Kavya Sandhya karvaanee hai,
Kuchh roj baad hee eliminations hain, koi Bumper kavita likhkar laanee hai,

Humne kaha dwivedi jee, Kavita to kavi kee baanee hai,
Vaise hee aatankavaad ka jor prachanda hai, kyon Bum(Bomb) par kavita likhvaanee hai,

Dwivedi jee bole vaah, Baat to tumharee badee pyaaree hai
par shabdon ko jara sambhaalna, Allahabad mein mahaul thoda bharee hai,

PremDivas( Valentine day) kee poorva sandhya par, Humne kavita ka sriganesha karne kee thaanee
Bhai proposal accepted to romantic, nahee to tragic kavita to hai hee ban jaanee,

Ab to Dil ka internet GOOGLE search par laga pada tha
Dasiyon baar college ke chakkar par bhee NO RESULT FOUND ka board laga tha

Kuchh din to fir hum bhaiya khoye khoye rahte the
Ghanton tak UPTRON(a place beside MNNIT) par, Jaisingh kee kursee par baithe rahte the

Fir Socha kyon naa kuchh nayee takneek apnaayee jaaye,
Bhai, Hi-Tech ka jamaana haim ORKUT par jugat lagayee jaaye,

To lage haath humne bhee, invitation accept kar hee daala,
Par haath laga kya khaak, Bhaiya Dwivedi jee ne barbaad kar daala,

Ghanto tak surfing karne par bhee, 17 kee friend list mein 17 hee ladke the
Socha chalo kuchh tips milengee, par is field mein saare kadke the

Par Vah din tha kuchh khaas, pooree huyee jab meree aas,
Mere mailbox mein bhee ek ladkee ka mail aaya,
Bhaiya Fir to humne bhee 2-3 mail kar hee daale,
Reply nahee mila to bhee apna, ghar ka, saare phone no de daale,

Man hee man hum khush ho gaye, Bhaiya ab to hum bhee flirt karenge,
Bahut din huye doosron ko dekh, Ab apbne bhee din firenge,
Chatting ke ab session honge, naye naye sensation honge,
Phone par raat to dheere dheere baat hogee, kuchh dinon mein mulaakaat hogee

Usee din raaste mein Dwivedi jee mile, bole bhaiya kavita ka kya hua,
Humne kahan Dwivedi jee, Aapne to humaaree jindagee kee kavita bana dee,
Dwivedi jee achraj se, hairaan se Humein dekhte rah gaye,
Soch rahe the shayad vo yah, ye mohit bhai abhee kya kah gaye,

Par kuchh din baad ek mitra humaare muskaate huye humaare pas aaye,
Bole bhaiya kuchh badal rahe ho, kuchh to hua hai,
Humne unhein bade garva se apnee PremGatha sunayee, to Muskaye, aur fir muskaaye,
Fir saath humaare apne computer par, Humein hamaare saare love letter dikhaye

Bole bhaiya, Hum to yoon hee majaak kar rahe the, Aapka aur apna time paas kar rahe the
Vaise humne jo ladkee ka naam rakha tha, vo bahut hee pyaara tha
Sach batao meree kasam, kya usee naam se aapko maara tha

Mai kya karta bechaara, Uskee baat par muskura raha tha
par maathe ka paseena dil kee vyatha bataa raha tha

Agle din Dwivedi jee, Humein Raaste mein Yoon hee mil gaye,
Humse Bole Bhaiya Mohit, Kavita ke kya haalchaal hain
Humne Dwivedi jee ko ghoora, kaha Dwivedi jee kavita ko barbaad kar diya aapne,
Ab Hum Chaahe local cinema haal mein Mithun kee picture dekhne jaayenge, par hum aapkee kavya sandhya mein kabhee nahee aayenge,

Hum aapkee kavya sandhya mein kabhee nahee aayenge

GPRS and Special theory of relativity

While "special theory of relativity" may provide one many wild thoughts, I just happened to think about an interesting thing. We all know GPRS. GPRS is done through a packet switched communication over circuit switched networks. As circuit switched networks are inefficient, GPRS technology uses blank time slots where circuit swithched network is not being utilised. And hence more bandwidth is available to one to communicate.
I just happened to think, if someday even if we dont make a time machine ( but some how we partially make it ie. we are able to bring time dimension also in to our realms of communication) then in GPRS communication we could also use slots those are free in nights even if we wanted to communicate in day. We could use time slots of future. Then world might be fighting over these furture time slots as it fights over oil today ( Think USA and India have a Indo-US time slot division deal, By which Indian companies can buy time slots of US, there are discussions in world economic forum where IBSA is against G8 countries because these countries have very high rates for their communication time slots, or UN peace summit has communication time slots in its agenda). Imagine the amount of bandwidth one can achieve that way.
Well, Bandwidth itself is a wonderful term. It comes essentially from frequency domain representation of a signal( which if you see is in time domain only (controversial thought though, some communication engineers will not agree)), so this future usage of Badwidth will add another dimension to the Bandwidth as we say it today.
Let me explain it a bit, let us say I send 2 images to my friend, one goes in current time and one goes in future time, but even if the image will come in future time, My friend sees it now and says "Dude you look great". (It seems crazy, and that is what is).
Imagine, the speeds that we will be able to achieve, Imagine the amount of data that we could send in minutes, imagine other impacts of same thing, Hackers if peep into your system, they will devastate you in seconds. People will do many wonderful things if time machines become possible, but I am free to have my own thoughts. :-D